The Red Rose That Has Green Thorns

**Warning for content that might be a little more mature than this story's PG-13 rating!**

I snapped out of whatever daze it was I’d fallen into and shuddered violently before bolting towards the dorm’s exit. Behind me, I heard Scorpius scrambling to his feet to follow me. He gained on me as I sped to the stairs in my need to get to my younger cousin. And unused room halfway up the Astronomy tower…I just had to get to her!

“Rose!” Scorpius caught my wrist as I reached the next landing down on the staircase, and it was then that I realized the desperate, salty tears dripping down my cheeks. I was shocked - so far, no other vision had had this effect on me. Scorpius had already seen the accursed tears, and asked, “Rose, what is it? What’s wrong?!” while brushing a few of the droplets from my tearstained cheeks.

“Lily!” I chocked softly. “Cornered…small room…he’s going to…!” I couldn’t bring myself to tell Scorpius what I assumed Lily’s captor was going to do. I couldn’t say I thought he was going to rape my younger cousin. “I - I just have to get there!” I forcefully wrenched my arm away from Scorpius and ran.

I couldn’t let a bastard like him do that to my cousin.

I managed to lose Scorpius somewhere along the way, but I couldn’t find time to care. I had seconds left and I’d finally reached the dreaded door. In a burst of the infamous Weasley temper, I blasted the door off its hinges with a strong impediment jinx and cast another at him non-verbally.

My temper peaked when I saw Lily, pale and trembling with a tear-streaked face.

“Go, Lily.” I commanded firmly, as calm as could be and leaving no room for argument. She didn’t need to be told twice, and she ran. I let her by as I warily watched her attacker stumble (painfully, to my pleasure) to his feet.

“You blood-traitor bitch,” Alexander Boyd, the Slytherin sixth year prefect, spat at me.

“Just so long as you know,” I said coldly. “Oh, by the way, it’s half-blood, blood-traitor bitch to you. And don’t you EVER touch my cousin again.”

There was more venom in my voice than even my parents or any family would have thought possible from me.

“What do you think you can to about it if I do?” was Boyd’s smug reply as he advanced towards me slowly (and yes, still painfully, I noted).

“You don’t want to know,” I snapped back, flicking my wand and sending him sailing into the wall - (painfully) hard. I felt rather sadistic at the pleasure I got from his pain.

“You bitch!” he roared again, then growled something I didn’t understand but knew instinctively that it was some sort of spell. I didn’t have enough time to react before the ropes sprang tightly around my body and I crashed heavily to the floor. Smirking maliciously, Boyd repaired the door and locked it with quietly muttered spells.

“You let her get away,” he stated in the midst of his ministrations, “so you can just be her replacement. After all,” his eyes raked over my body as his latest spell rearranged my bindings, “you’re not that bad yourself.”

I went bright red with embarrassment and fury. “You slimy little git!” I cried indignantly. “What, your Slytherin whores not giving you enough, so you think you can just get it through force?!”

“Ha, ha,” he laughed sarcastically. “I don’t think I can get it by force, Weasley. I know.”

With another flick of his wand, the only ropes that remained were binding my wrists and my ankles, both secured so I stretched out to my full length - secured by the heavy wooden desk legs that were looped through. My wand rolled away across the floor, out of my grasp and beyond my reach.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” I spat angrily, wriggling.

“What I’d intended to do before I was so rudely interrupted by you,” Boyd sneered. “Now, you’ve got to be quiet.”

His solution was a quick silencing charm. I was cursing him, using every foul word I knew, but these went unheard.

“Ah, that’s the perfect touch for such an outspoken woman,” he said gleefully and, to my horror, he was soon straddling my waist. “Let’s have some fun before we get down to business, eh, Rosie?”

I wiggled, and his hand strayed behind where he straddled my waist to find my thigh. His hand quickly moved upwards, underneath the skirt. I twitched, grimacing, and tried to free myself in vain. His fingers were toying with the hem of my undergarments when I shuddered furiously and tried to knock him off by bucking my hips, silently screaming, “GEROFF ME!”

“Oh, not yet, not yet,” Boyd teased my bucking motion, even though he knew it was anything but eagerness. “That comes later. Remember, we’ve got to get the fun done first.”

As he said this, his hands both moved to the buttons on my blouse. I wriggled and squirmed as much as I could, but he wasn’t fazed in the least by this.

I’d always known that when it comes to chests, men are completely fascinated. That didn’t make it any better when he sat and stared down at them, a glint in his eyes that made my gut wrench horribly. Then I saw his hand twitch, and he smirked at me and said, “You know, these would look so much better if you didn’t cover them up with so many layers.”

I gasped inaudibly as his hand reached inside my bra, and I wriggled more fiercely than before. His hand was ice-cold, and it was touching one of the warmest parts of the female anatomy - at least, as far as I considered - so it was downright freezing. His stroking and straying fingertips disgusted me, but I couldn’t distract him with wiggling. I actually thought it might be better to stop, as the movement seemed to make him more hungry for my chest…I cursed the upper female body vehemently.

Just as his fingers strayed to the clasp of my bra, his face so close I could feel his lips grazing the soft flesh just above the bra line, the door burst open with a furiously bellowed, “STUPEFY!”

The force of the spell sent him completely off of me and against the far wall…which was a good twelve feet away. With two quick flicks of his wand, my saviour sliced the ropes, and with another flick he made my buttons begin to redo themselves. I sat up as quickly as I could, staring at Boyd and rubbing my wrists. My saviour dropped to his knees in front of me and put his hands firmly on my shoulders, giving a light squeeze and gently shake.

“Rose! Are - are you all right? D-did he--”

“I’m fine, Scorpius,” I answered him, even though my voice was shaking - not just my voice, actually, my whole body.

He wasn’t the only person in the room. Albus and Lily hadn’t been far behind, and if the looks on their faces indicated the truth, they had the exact same intentions as Scorpius had had in mind. Al rushed to my side, and Scorpius moved to the opposite side, both to help me up since I was trembling so much. Lily stood fretting in the doorway.

“That fucking bastard!”

To my surprise, this still did not come from either of my cousins, but from Scorpius. I was even more surprised that Al had not spoken at all, and that while Scorpius was livid, Al seemed calm and collected, though I saw the anger in his eyes.

“Lily ran straight to me,” Al finally managed to speak up, “and Scorp was with me, asking me if I’d seen you. And then, when Lily came running to tell us, we all ran right back here.”

“You guys are great, y’know that?” I smiled at them, taking a few tentative steps, and looking at Boyd.

“What are we going to do about HIM?” Al’s words were venomous as he gestured to Alexander Boyd, but his face was still calm and expressionless.

“I say,” Scorpius spat, “that we take away all of his prefect duties, tell the Professors, and thus ruin he rest of his last two years at Hogwarts!”

I walked towards Lily and I could tell we shared at least some of the same thoughts.

“Just a sec,” I told the boys, dragging Lily a little farther away so we could speak in private. We conversed in whispered voices for a few moments, then turned towards the fuming Scorpius and scarily calm Albus. I took a breath and started, “We…we don’t think that it would be the best course of action to do as you think we should, Scorpius. Before you protest--” they’d both opened their mouths slightly angrily to speak, “--let me tell you why.”

“If you must,” Al relented, and Scorpius just nodded with his jaw locked.

“If we take away all of his privileges and his prefect badge, it may only provoke him more. But, although the course of action Lily and I want to take would allow him to keep those privileges and the prefect badge, this alternative is what we think the best course of action is.”

“It’s all Rose’s idea,” Lily interceded quickly, before I could start again. “I just happen to agree completely.”

“So, this alternative would be…?” Al prompted me.

“I was getting there!” I retorted.

“Then tell us.” Scorpius tried to be calm, but his voice cracked and betrayed him.

“Magical surveillance,” Lily and I said simultaneously. Lily then motioned for me to continue.

“Like, charms that would alert us as to when he has these sort of violent feelings or actions towards an unwilling girl. Don’t ask me if the charm exists, either - I know for a fact it does. It’s sometimes used in the U.S. Military because, in the past, they’ve had problems with one to two thirds of their women being raped by other officers and not telling because they’d practically be demoted to be moved out of their rapist’s ranks. So we look up the exact charm, because I don’t remember it exactly, and then we apply it - we can notify Professor Malin and the headmaster, but then ask to keep it between them and us so we can try this new form of discipline...or probation, if you will. That’s our job as Head Boy and Girl, isn’t it?” this last sentence I directed at Scorpius.

He seemed to have sobered a little while listening. “I suppose we could give that idea a try.”

“Then tomorrow at breakfast we’ll talk it over with Professors Malin and Collins and if it passes their scrutiny then we shall send him a notice of his probation - as it’s only fair he knows someone is casting a spell on him - and that’s that. Also, I think I need some rest before we go for rounds, Scorpius, I’ll take Lily with me to the dorm…and I suppose Al will want to come, too, so let’s just go.” I propelled Lily along ahead of me.

“The Head dorm?” Lily asked in awe. “Is it like all the others? Or is it really like the rumors?”

“Ah, half and half…but better,” I said with a laugh, working on getting my composure back.

I waited until Lily dozed off in my bed before I stumbled back down the stairs and into the common room where Al and Scorpius were playing Wizard’s Chess. They both looked up at me as I slumped onto the couch on the two cushions that were unoccupied by Scorpius.

“You okay, Rosie?” Al asked gently.

“Just exhausted,” I replied with a yawn. “Can’t even think straight right now.”

I could barely understand myself as I curled into a ball and fell into a light slumber.