A Rose by Any Other Name

Rosie tossed in her bed. There was a knock at the door.

“Go away!” she yelled. They knocked again. She looked over at her clock. “It’s 6:00 in the morning! What could you possibly—oh my god!” she quickly got out of bed and threw on her robes. There was a third knock at the door.

“Hold on! I’m coming!” she ran to the door and opened it quickly. Draco was standing there.

“What happened? Class starts like now.”

“I’m so sorry. I could have sworn I set my alarm last night.”

“Apparently you didn’t.” he grabbed her arm and started pulling her down the stairs.

“Wait a minute!” she commanded as they reached the Common Room door. Draco stopped, but had an impatient look on his face. “You aren’t mad at me are you?”

“What—mad? No. I’m not mad. We’re just late. What would make you think I was mad at you?”

“For one thing: what ever happened to ‘Good Morning, Rosie’?”

“Oh, well…good morning, Rosie.” He wrapped his arms around her waist. She put hers up on his shoulders.

“Morning.” He kissed her softly.

“Happy?”

“Very.”

“Okay, well, let’s go…now.”

“Right. We have to get to class.” They ran out of the Common Room and down too many hallways to count. Soon they arrived at the dungeons. They walked in just as Professor Snape was closing the door.

“Ah, Miss Nash, Mr. Malfoy. How nice of you to join us.”

“Sorry, we’re a little late.” Rosie said sitting down by Draco. “It’s kinda been a rough morn—”

“I would love to hear what seems to be very exciting story of your morning, but that would have to involve me actually caring, Miss Nash. And as it is so incredibly obvious, I really don’t care.”

“Right.”

As their class drug on, they had realized this years Advanced Potions was so much harder than last year. Also Professor Snape was a lot stricter. Measurements had to be exact to the hundredth. It was insane. Finally the bell rang.

“How does he expect us to do everything so precise? He is so crazy. I don’t think I’m going to be able to take this class next year if he keeps adding all these crazy procedures.” Rosie said, after she and Draco walked out of the dungeons.

“Rosie, could you please calm down. You will pass, I will pass. I will help you pass if that’s what you want. You will be taking Advanced classes next year. If I have to kill someone so you could, I’d kill.”

“I don’t need you to kill anyone. I do, however need you to help me focus. I have this weird feeling. Like something bad is going to happen, or already has.”

“What happened?”

“I don’t know. I just feel like something’s not how it should be. Last night I had a dream that I was standing at a grave and all it had on it was NASH. It was a little freaky. I know it’s not Cody, he’s here and nothing bad could happen to him here. Mom and Dad haven’t done anything extraordinary since Jason and Dylan joined you know what. And the boys are stupid but they wouldn’t do anything stupid.”

“Rosie, I’m sure everything is just fine. Nothing bad happened to anyone in your family. Everyone is safe. I promise you.”

“I don’t think you should be promising what you don’t know for sure.”

“Okay, so if something’s wrong with your family, I won’t kiss you for a full 24 hours. Deal?”

“I suppose.”

“Great. Now I have to go to Transfiguration which is that way.” He pointed behind him. “Are you going to be able to get yourself to History of Magic without anything bad happening to YOU?”

“I think so. But if I run into Cammie I can’t say someone won’t get hurt.”

“Cammie can’t do anything to you.”

“I didn’t mean she’d hurt me. I might hurt her for looking at you like she did yesterday.”

“You’re so cute when you’re jealous.”

“Just remember my cuteness when you see Cammie later.”

“All right.” He turned to walk away, Rosie did the same. “Oh, wait.” He said. Rosie stopped in her tracks. Draco walked back to her. “I almost forgot. I told you I’d give you this.” He was holding out a notebook.

“Oh yeah, this is the notebook you were talking about last night, right?”

“Yeah. If you need to talk to me just open it and write the message. If I don’t write back in 30 seconds, something’s wrong.”

“What a drama queen. I’ll see you at lunch.” She said. She leaned in to kiss him quickly before turning to go to her next class.

*

“Professor Flitwick?” Rosie rolled her eyes. Exactly how many times is Granger going to try to correct the teacher?

“Yes, Miss. Granger?” she asked her question. Rosie wasn’t paying attention to anything. She was looking around the room. She felt like everyone was staring at her. Or at least one person was. She had History of Magic with Ben. She knew it would be a bad idea to turn around and see if he was there. She took a deep breath and turned her upper body to face the rear of the classroom.

Ben was there. But so was a dark blue mark around his left eye. The only person that came to her mind was Draco. What had he done now?

She took out the notebook he’d given him just before, and made sure it wasn’t going to make any sound when she got a message back.

What did you do? She wrote. She tapped her fingers as she was waiting for a reply.

What did I do? I don’t’ remember doing anything. She scoffed. How could he not know?

You know what I mean. Draco, you said you weren’t going to hurt him.

Hurt who?

You know who I’m talking about.

Well, could you give me a clue here?

Sure, who has dark brown hair and eyes and tried to rape me the other day?

He didn’t rape you. Rosie could feel the fierceness in the words he wrote.

Whatever.

What happened to Ben?

Like you don’t know.

I don’t. Could you tell me?

He has a HUGE black eye. I thought you had done it.

When could I have? I was with you all night last night and this morning. I couldn’t have passed him in the hall on my way to Transfiguration. He doesn’t have morning classes. He comes from the CR.

What about last night after I left?

I wrote the letter to you and then we were talking. As soon as we were done I went to sleep, or tried to anyway.

And you had absolutely nothing to do with this?

Nope.

Who else knows?

Cammie, Ben, obviously, Blaise—

You told Blaise!?

Blaise is practically another one of your brothers. I think he has a right to know. Does anyone else know?

Cody, but he wouldn’t do that.

Are you sure?

Well, yeah. I mean…maybe. I don’t know. He’s never been the protective one. Why would he start now?

Something this serious. I would want to beat someone up if he hurt my sister.

You wanna beat him up for hurting me.

Good point.

I’ll talk to Cody later, I guess.

Bell’s gonna ring.

Write back next period.

Will do.

The bell rang, just as Draco said it would. Rosie looked behind her and saw that Ben was packing up his things.

“Ben, can we talk?” he looked up. She tried not to look at his eye, but at his face, which contorted up into a grimace.

“I…uh…don’t think that’s best.”

“Right. I’m sorry. I didn’t—”

“It’s not your fault.” And he walked out. Rosie grabbed her book bag and headed for Transfiguration.

What happened? Who did that to him? He said he was so sorry, and it actually sounded like he wanted to move past all this. Rosie thought. She got to her class and took a seat closest to the door.

She took out the notebook and placed it on top of her desk. The late bell rang and Professor McGonagall began speaking. She was on her third sentence when she got a message.

Hey, love. Are you okay?

Yeah, I’m fine. Ben looks horrible.

Did you see Cody yet?

No, you?

No. Are you sure you’re okay?

I feel like it’s all my fault. If it was Cody, I don’t think I should have told him.

You did the right thing.

But I didn’t want anybody else to get hurt! I don’t like that somebody else got hurt. If anyone was supposed to get hurt it would have been me alone.

Please don’t say that.

But it’s true.

No, it’s not. I want you to stop right now. I want you to completely forget about Ben and Cody and everyone else.

I can’t. It’s my entire fault. If I had never gone with him that morning, it all never would have happened. He never would have assaulted me, I never would have told Cody, and if Cody really did punch him, Ben would never have gotten hurt.

You also never would’ve been going out with me.

Yes, I would have. He didn’t respond. Draco… Still no response. Rosie sighed. I’m sorry, it was stupid. If you don’t write back, I’ll take it, not write back and see you at lunch. But I’m really sorry. I really do like you, Draco, but sometimes you just have to let me…let what I need to let out, let out. It’s confusing I know. I don’t like it when people get hurt for what I do or what happens to me. And once again, I’m really, really sorry.

He didn’t answer her. Rosie always made everything so much worse.

*

Rosie walked into the Great Hall. She saw Draco sitting at the Slytherin table by himself. Then she saw Cody. He was walking to the Slytherin table with a few books in his hands. He saw Rosie and went the other way.

“Cody!” she shouted. He stopped in his tracks. She jogged up to him. “What did you do?”

“I’m guessing you saw Ben.”

“I’m guessing you did that to him.”

“Rosie, just let me explain…”

“Cody, how could you?”

“He practically raped you.”

“But he didn’t.”

“But he could have.”

“That doesn’t matter. He apologized long before I told you what he did. It was all Cammie and he knew that. He apologized, and he sounded very sincere about it. He was actually sorry.”

“I don’t care. He hurt you, Rose. Do you not get that?”

“I do get it! It’s you who doesn’t get it. He didn’t hurt you, he hurt me.”

“I was trying to—”

“You were trying to what? Protect me? You can’t protect me by punching Ben.”

“I’m sorry. He was there. He was right there and I…I lost it. I’m sorry.”

“I’m not the one you should be saying sorry to.”

“I am not going to say sorry to Ben.”

“Then I guess I’m going to get the bigger room.” Rosie shifted her wait to one foot and folded her arms across her chest.

“Nobody’s decided who’s getting that room.”

“I just did.” Cody looked at her as if she were the devil.

“Fine, I’ll go find him now.” He walked towards the big doors and through them. Rosie looked again at Draco. She sat down. It was on the opposite side of the table and far enough away from Draco. She took out the notebook.

Did you get my last message? She looked at him. He was rustling in his book bag, and pulled out his notebook. Before he opened it he looked up at Rosie. He opened and read it. He grabbed a quill.

Yes, I did.

Do you believe me? She looked up at him, but his eyes stayed glued to the notebook.

Yeah, I do.

I’m really sorry. You know how I don’t think before I say something.

Yeah, I do.

I’m really, really sorry.

I know you are.

It wasn’t just me either.

What do you mean?

You were kinda overreacting.

Was I?

Yeah, what I was saying, it wasn’t tied to you at all. I was mostly worried about what was going on with Ben and Cody.

I guess, I’m sorry, too.

We’ve been going out for less than 24 hours and we’ve already had our first fight.

And our first make-up. Meet me in my room.

Be there. Rosie watched him as he got up from the table stuffing the notebook back into his book bag. He looked at her, winked and hurried out of the Great Hall. As soon as he was out the door, she got up and walked to the common room.

Thankfully, no one was there to notice her going up the stairs to the boys’ dorm. She ran up the stairs and to the familiar room she knew as Draco’s. She reached for the handle, but it was opened before she got there. She was basically attacked by Draco, who had pulled her in forcefully.

She looked at him. He put a stray hair behind her ear and placed that hand on the back of her neck. He pulled her face up to his and kissed her with as much force and passion as he could muster. She, of course kissed him back. Draco guided her hands up to his neck where Rosie tightly wound them. His moved to her waist. He pulled her so she was as close to him as possible.

She didn’t fight. She kissed him a last time and pulled her face away.

“Draco, I—”

“I know. You’re sorry. And I am, too. I knew that’s not what you meant, but…I don’t know. It just really ticked me off that you actually felt sorry for Ben.”

“I do. I really do.”

“That’s what I don’t understand. How could you after all that he’s done to you?”

“I don’t know. It’s confusing. I loved him, Draco, and because of that, he’s part of my life forever. Just like you’ll always be. Either as a friend, or…more than a friend.”

“That is what I love about you. You are the craziest, most beautiful, forgiving person I know.” She smiled.

“You are acting a lot different than I thought you would. I thought you would rip my head off. I’m right here defending my ex who tried to rape me, and you’re doing nothing.”

“Because I can’t. I don’t like to see you hurt. If I…go crazy, yell, scream…it will hurt you, and make you feel bad. I really don’t want to do that. Especially because of all that’s happened to you in the past few days. Somehow I feel like the blame is on me.”

“How so?”

“If I had actually gone with you to breakfast that morning, you wouldn’t have left with him. I would have talked you out of it.”

“Draco, stop. I have one theory: Everything happens for a reason. This was meant to happen. Like you said: if it hadn’t happened, who knows what I’d be doing right now. But I certainly wouldn’t be here, in your arms.”

“I believe you. Everything does happen for a reason. Just like you and me. We were supposed to happen.”

“I know. I don’t know why, but I’m sure we have time to figure it out.”

“I’m sure we do.” He pulled her face back to his and kissed her again