Stealing the Sword

While Rose was chatting with Sally, the rest of her friends, sans Harry, returned to Gryffindor Tower. Unlike most Quidditch matches Gryffindor won, there was no post-match celebration. No one felt like it was worth celebrating.

"This is mad," Neville said. "What do we do now?"

"I don't think the Patronus Charm is enough, even if we do learn it," Ginny said.

"Professor Dumbledore used it to stop the Dementors," Neville reminded her. "He was amazing."

"That's Professor Dumbledore," Hermione said. "He's had a lot of practice."

"Everyone's alright now," Sally-Anne said. "We should get some rest."

"That's your answer to everything," Ron said.

"Right," Sally-Anne said. "I guess it is."

"It's not a bad idea," Hermione said.

"Is Rose still talking to Professor Dumbledore?" Neville asked.

"I'll check," Hermione said.

<Rose, where are you? Eom.>

<Be there soon. Eom.>

"She says she's just finishing up," Hermione said.

"I'm back," Rose said, popping into the common room. "What'd I miss?"

Rose looked around, waiting for an answer that never came.

"What's wrong with you lot?" she asked.

"Seeing that many Dementors all at once," Ginny said. "Just… What's the point of fighting them? We can't fight that many."

"That's just the Dementors talking," Sally-Anne said. "We'll all feel fine later."

"You sure?" Ron muttered.

"Positive." Sally-Anne turned to Rose. "Right, Rose?"

Rose didn't reply, but stared vacantly at her hand.

"Rose?"

"Hm?" Rose snapped to attention. "Sure."

Not her too, Sally-Anne thought.

"What did Professor Dumbledore say?" Neville asked. "He must have a plan."

Rose was thankful for her high Bluff modifier, because without it, she never would've been able to say what she said next convincingly.

"He said he's taking care of it," Rose said. "Me too."

Neville smiled. He was glad that he could still count on Rose and Professor Dumbledore to make things right, even when everything had gone so wrong.

"It's late," Sally-Anne said. "We really should get some rest."

Without waiting for her friends, Sally-Anne stood up and started up the stairs to her room. She was exhausted, and wanted nothing more than to collapse in her soft, warm bed.

After the others had all left, Neville turned to Rose.

"Rose, I… I want to ask you something."

"Neville, whatever it is, it's gonna have to wait," Rose said. "I need to think for a moment."

"Oh," Neville said. "Okay."

Neville slowly trudged up the stairs to his room. He fought to hold back tears, although he didn't know why. He had finally mustered the courage to ask Rose to teach him how to fight, but it was too late. She didn't have time for him anymore.

Rose watched Neville leave, then looked around the common room. No one was around, and nothing was tripping her blindsight, not even Crookshanks or Scabbers.

Rose pulled off her glove and stared at the rune on her hand. If she hadn't known better, she'd have thought it was just a drawing. It seemed so ordinary for something that contained the power to read her thoughts.

<I need to find out how that works,> she told Reflectesalon. <It shouldn't be able to do that.> She replaced her glove, then collapsed on the couch.

<Do you have a plan?> Reflectesalon asked.

<Do I look like Sk'lar? Of course, I haven't!>

<Sally wants the Cup, so we find it and give it to him so this can all be over.>

<If I go out, I leave my friends unprotected. I don't want to risk something happening to them while I'm gone.>

<Then your friends must be defended.>

<Alright, so I'll teach them to defend themselves.>

<Why not ask Professor Dumbledore to keep an eye on them?>

<He won't help us!>

<Then what about one of the other professors?>

<I don't need their help! They've done nothing to stop the Dementors!>

<Professor Lupin–>

<No!>

Rose sat in silence until she was certain Reflectesalon wasn't about to interrupt her thoughts, then ran through her friends and their skill sets.

Hermione was clever, and could craft a spell to save her, even if she didn't have her wand. She just needed to work on her reflexes and ability to think under pressure.

Sally-Anne was getting better with the Shield Rune, but she could still use some basic training. Ginny was the same, but with fire instead of a Shield Rune.

Ron was good with strategy and summoning. If he could move his friends and enemies around the battlefield half as well as Sk'lar, Ron would be fine.

Harry didn't have much at the moment beyond his reflexes, but he had the makings of a sniper. His invisibility cloak, prowess in the air, and eye for detail all fit this perfectly.

Luna liked to draw, and her mum was an expert in runes. Rose didn't know much about runes other what she'd learned in class, but if there were more runes like the Shield Rune, then there had to be something there.

What about Neville? He wasn't good with any sort of magic, but he had used a longsword as a ranged weapon while taking serious penalties. He really seemed to like Herbology, which might lend itself well to support physical combat.

That meant most of her friends were set except for Luna and Neville. It sounded like runes took a lot of preparation, so Luna would need something to quickly carve runes into any material.

Rose flipped through her notebook for the name of a specific item. A set of marvelous pigments could create permanent items out of two-dimensional drawings, even if the permanent object wasn't three-dimensional, such as a crack or carving in a wall. Rose just had to create a bunch of them for Luna to use, and something to increase Luna's drawing ability. That way, she would be able to draw objects quickly, rather than taking 10 minutes to draw a single rune in a wall.

Neville was also easy. It would just be a matter of crafting him a sword.

<Not quite,> Reflectesalon pathed. <We don't know what kind of sword the Sword of Gryffindor is. Without knowing that, you will just be guessing.>

<Right. Alright, so we need to find it and get it.>

Rose thought about that. She couldn't just use discern location to find it, since she'd never held it. She had seen it when cutting off the Basilisk's head to show to Fudge, but Professor McGonagall confiscated it before Rose had a chance to loot it off the body.

After a quick locate object spell, she found that it resided in Professor Dumbledore's office.

"Easy," Rose muttered.

Rose used dimension door and appeared inside Professor Dumbledore's office. Fawkes shrieked the moment she appeared.

"It's alright, Fawkes," Rose said. "I'm not breaking anything this time."

Rose ignored Fawkes's distress and turned to the part of the room where she'd sensed the sword.

Instead of the sword mounted on the wall, as Rose had hoped to find it, there was a cabinet full of drawers.

"That's not helping," she said.

She tried one of them and found that it was locked. A few seconds later, she found that they were all locked.

<Blindsight!>

Rose sensed someone approaching and returned to Gryffindor Tower before she was caught. When she arrived, she found something she wasn't expecting.

"She's gone!" Fred whispered.

Fred and George ran into the common room and spread a piece of parchment out on the floor.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," Fred said, holding his wand to the parchment.

As with every other time he'd used it, words appeared on the parchment.

Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs

Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers

are proud to present

THE MARAUDER'S MAP

The words faded and a map formed, decorated with hundreds of dots.

"Alright, so–" Fred started.

"What is it?" George asked.

He followed Fred's gaze to the spot on the map labeled "Gryffindor Common Room", and saw three dots: Two labeled "Fred and George Weasley", and one labeled "Rose Peta-Lorrum".

They spun around and found Rose behind them.

"Don't let me stop you," she said. "Please, continue." She walked around the map and sat down. "So this is your super secret map. Is this how you found me the other day?"

"You can't tell anyone we've got this," Fred said. "Not even Lee knows about it."

"Who?" Rose asked.

"Lee Jordan, our best friend," George said.

"Not ringing any bells," Rose replied. "You sure they exist?"

"He's the announcer at the Quidditch matches!" George exclaimed.

"There's an announcer at the Quidditch match?!"

"Matches," Fred corrected. "Remember, there are six matches every year?"

Rose frowned, then slowly shook her head. "That doesn't sound right. I only remember one match against Slytherin."

The boys found themselves at a loss for words.

"If it's so important," Rose said, "then I'll make you a deal: you help me once, and I won't tell anyone."

The boys exchanged glances.

"Help you how?" George asked.

"I'm stealing the Sword of Gryffindor from Professor Dumbledore," Rose replied.

"Why?" George asked.

"Because it's kethé, and I want it, and it'll be fun to take it."

"You're talking about stealing something," Fred said. "We eavesdrop, play pranks, make Percykins yell at us, but we don't steal."

"Well, there was that one time," George said.

"Sure, but that wasn't horrible."

"We gave it back."

"Exactly. We're pranksters, not criminals."

"Oh good, then I can burn the map," Rose said. "You don't need it, after all. You're both just pranksters."

Fred and George exchanged looks again. Neither wanted to give up the map, but getting caught stealing could actually get them expelled.

"What do you need?" Fred asked.

"I need you to tell me when Dumbledore's out of his office," Rose said. "When and how often."

"He's been there a lot this year," George said. "Fred?"

"He always leaves for the Quidditch matches and for meals."

"He also holds Alchemy seminars, but that's too far off," Rose said. "When's the next of your 'Quidditch matches'?"

"End of the month is the match between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw," George said.

"That's too far off," Rose said.

"If you know where it is, just pop in and take it like you always do," George said.

"It's not that easy this time," Rose said. "It's in a cabinet with 20 drawers. They're all locked, so I'll have to go through them all. I can't just go when he's asleep, otherwise Fawkes will start screeching and wake him up."

The boys looked at one another, then at Rose.

"We'll need time to think about it."

"You've got until after lunch," Rose replied. She looked around on the map, then pointed to a corridor on the seventh floor. "Meet me there after lunch if you agree to help." She pointed to McGonagall's office. "If not, I'll send Hermione there to talk to McGonagall. She won't believe me, but she'll believe Hermione."

With that, Rose stood up and left the common room.

The Twins arrived on the seventh floor just after lunch, as per Rose's orders.

They found Rose pacing back and forth along the corridor.

"What are–" George began, but stopped when he saw a door forming on the wall.

"What?" they both asked.

"Come along, boys," she said, opening the door that appeared.

Inside they found a miniature version of the Gryffindor common room, except all the gold was replaced with black, and the lion pillows had roses on them instead of lions.

"Welcome to the Room of Requirement!" Rose exclaimed. "Walk past the entrance three times, repeating the thought 'I need something', and whatever you ask for will appear. For instance, this was created from the request 'I need somewhere to talk'."

The boys looked around the room, marveling at the wonder about which they had never known.

"This isn't on the map, Fred," George muttered.

"I know," Fred said. "They must never have found it."

"Who's they?"

"The Marauders," George replied. "The ones who made the map."

"Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs," Fred said.

"I no longer care," Rose said. "When does the Old Man leave his office for more than an hour?"

"Meals, I suppose," George said.

Rose tilted her head and stared at the ceiling.

The boys took turns glancing at the door. Neither was comfortable being there with Rose when she was acting the way she was.

"Good," Rose said. "I'm skipping dinner tonight. Warn me if he leaves early."

"How?" Fred asked.

"I'll tell you later."

"What's this all about?" George asked. "Why do you need us for this?"

Rose sighed.

"I've got a plan to remove the Dementors, but first I need the Sword of Gryffindor."

"Why?"

"Not telling," Rose said. "This is getting out of hand. I give my friends a few months tops until they start shouting at one another. No one even wants to go to Hogsmeade because we heard there were Dementors at the gate.

"Tell me about it," Fred muttered.

"The Dementors searched our carriage the first trip this year," George said. "Worst Hogsmeade trip ever."

"We were miserable the rest of the time," Fred said. "It's as if no one realizes that it's still bad even after the Dementors are gone."

"I'll fix it," Rose said. "I can fix anything. I just need some help with this one."

The trio remained silent for a few minutes. Each of them had Dementors on the mind, but none of them wanted to talk about it.

Rose glanced over at the open map, and noticed a dot on the move.

"Hermione?" Rose asked, looking at her dot quickly leaving the library. "Something's wrong!"

"Looks like Alicia's on it," Fred said idly, seeing Alicia Spinnet's dot running after Hermione's.

"Doesn't matter," Rose said, standing up. "So am I."

Rose vanished, leaving the boys alone in the Room of Requirement.

Rose appeared in a corridor not too far from the library, and picked up Hermione on her blindsight.

Hermione was on the ground, her legs drawn to her chest. Her hair covered her, but Rose knew the sounds of crying when she heard them.

"Hermione, it's me," Rose said softly.

"Rose?" Hermione asked. "How?"

"The same way you found me a month ago," Rose replied, sitting down next to her best friend.

Rose put her arm around Hermione and pulled her close.

"It's alright," Rose said softly as Hermione continued to cry.

"Hermione!"

Rose looked up and saw Alicia running towards them.

"Peta-Lorrum?" she asked. "How did–?"

"Not important," Rose replied. "What happened?"

"That b–" Alicia began, but stopped herself when she remembered there were two children with her. "Gamp happened."

"What'd she do?" Rose asked in a low voice.

"Granger's being brilliant, just like always, and Gamp can't comprehend that someone that's not in Ravenclaw is better than her at something. She flat out accused Granger of cheating, then said that Professor Vector probably wrote most of the stuff Granger published. After we stood up for her, Gamp goes on to say that all of Granger's friends must only like her because she helps them cheat, since… erm…"

"'Since no one would like a girl who looks like that!'" Hermione sobbed.

Someone tripped Rose's blindsight, and Serendipity was in her hand and aimed before Rose saw who it was.

"I come in peace," Cedric said, raising his hands. "I promise."

Rose pulled her goggles over her eyes to verify that it was in fact Cedric, then lowered Serendipity.

"Hermione, it's alright," Cedric said, crouching in front of Hermione. "We know you aren't cheating, and we are your friends."

Hermione didn't say anything at first. Her sobbing eased up, then she said, "It's not that." She picked up her head. "It's that people have always teased me about my hair or my teeth. I… It made me feel like such a freak when I was a kid."

"It's alright, Brain," Rose said. "Everyone's having a tough time this year."

"Hogsmeade trips are the worst," Alicia muttered, sitting down beside Hermione.

"Less and less people are going because they don't want to pass through the gates," Cedric said. "It used to be fun."

"I remember feeling like a grownup for the first time when I went," Alicia said. After a moment, she quickly added, "Don't tell anyone I said that."

"A lot of people feel like that," Cedric said. "It's a chance to go out and explore a town without teachers telling you what to do."

"I haven't gone," Hermione mumbled.

"What?!" Alicia exclaimed. "Why not?"

"Dementors," Rose growled.

"I can't stand to go past them," Hermione mumbled. "They went near us last month during Care for Magical Creatures, and Professor Hagrid dismissed class there and then to get us away from them."

"You should've been on the Pitch yesterday," Alicia said. "Every little mistake I made suddenly felt awful, like Wood was gonna kick me off the team, and the whole house was gonna hate me for it."

"Dad said people at the Ministry are starting to question Fudge's decision to send them," Cedric said. "He said even Mr. Malfoy isn't siding with Fudge anymore."

Rose opened her mouth to insult Professor Dumbledore, but Reflectesalon caught her.

<He's made one mistake thus far, Rose. That doesn't mean you should insult him. Stealing the Sword of Gryffindor from him will be enough.>

"How'd your meeting with Professor Dumbledore go, Rose?" Hermione asked, realizing that she hadn't received an actual answer from the girl.

"It could've gone better," Rose said.

"When'd you see Professor Dumbledore?" Cedric asked.

"Yesterday after the match," Rose replied. "I wanted to… voice my concerns about the Dementors."

"And he let you into his office for that?" Alicia asked.

"No," Rose said.

"She probably just dim doored inside like she always does," Hermione said.

"Not exactly."

In spite of everything, Hermione had the familiar feeling of a parent with a troublesome child.

"What'd you do?"

"Before I say anything, I was having a really bad day."

"You smashed the gargoyle, didn't you?" Hermione asked.

"And tore the door off the wall," Rose said quietly.

"What?!" Cedric and Alicia exclaimed.

"How did you get away with that?" Alicia asked.

"I didn't, he just hasn't punished me yet," Rose said. "I'm sure he will after the whole Dementor issue is sorted. I'm difficult to punish since detention, extra work, and deducting points don't work on me."

"Seriously?" Cedric asked.

"I don't sleep, so it's not like they're taking away from my 'me' time with detentions, and extra work gives me something to do in the eight hours during which I'm otherwise bored."

"What about house points?" Alicia asked, concerned that one of her housemates was apathetic about winning the House Cup.

"Even if I cared about an arbitrary prize at the end of the year, Professor Dumbledore will just give me enough points for fixing the year's problems to make up for whatever I lose."

With her free hand, Rose patted herself on the head.

"Did you just pat yourself on the head?" Alicia asked.

"She does that when she uses 'big' words," Hermione explained. "It's a long story."

"What about Gamp?" Alicia asked. "What do we do about her?"

Rose raised her hand.

"Erm… Peta-Lorrum?" Alicia said.

"Set her on fire!" Rose exclaimed, her set-something-on-fire grin lighting up her face.

"That's awful!" Cedric exclaimed.

"Why does she look so happy?" Alicia asked.

"No, Rose," Hermione said.

"But Hermione! I wanna set her on fire!"

"If we hurt her, we're no better than she is," Cedric said.

Rose's grin was replaced by a pout.

"Bad as Carolina," she grumbled.

"She can't go to Professor Vector with a claim like that," Cedric said. "No way she believes Rebecca. Rebecca can't handle the fact that Professor Vector likes you better than her, so she's trying to cut you down so she doesn't have to deal with you."

"Fine, so we go tell Professor Vector what happened ourselves," Alicia said. "Gamp will be out of the class by tomorrow."

Cedric shook his head. "That still won't fix the problem, it'll just make her angry at us too. She's just afraid that Hermione's going to make her look bad."

"She's afraid of me, so she wants me to be afraid of her," Hermione said.

"The only way to conquer it is to not be afraid," Rose said.

Alicia and Cedric both stared at Rose, and both saw something completely unexpected. She wasn't her normal, hyperactive self for a moment. Instead, she was relaxed, with a small smile on her face.

"You told me that not long after I met you," Hermione said. "Except that time it was Malfoy making me feel like this. What happened to me?"

"When those Dementors reached the Pitch yesterday, you must've felt that again," Cedric said. "Rebecca just brought it back up to the surface."

"I guess so," Hermione said. "Everything's been so awful lately."

"Don't worry, Hermione," Rose said. "I'll fix it. I can fix anything!"

"Why do you have to fix, Peta-Lorrum?" Alicia asked.

"I learned a long time ago that if you want something fixed, you've gotta do it yourself, because no one's going to do it for you."

"That doesn't mean you've got to do it alone," Cedric said. "If there's anything I can do to help either of you girls, just let me know."

An idea began to form in Rose's mind. She couldn't get Professor Dumbledore out of his office for long, but he left for meals, and he didn't immediately return.

"I've got an idea," Rose said. "Professor Dumbledore isn't always at lunch, but he's always at dinner. After dinner is over, can you delay him?"

"Why do you need Professor Dumbledore delayed?" Cedric asked.

"I can't explain," Rose said. "You've got to trust me. Any time you can get me will help."

Cedric considered it for a moment. He didn't know Rose well, but he thought he knew Hermione well. Hermione was a good person, and Rose was her best friend.

"Will it get rid of the Dementors?" he asked.

"It's step one of… four in getting rid of the Dementors. Maybe five."

"Alright, I'll see what I can do," Cedric said.

"Thank you," Rose said.

"Ask him questions about Alchemy," Hermione suggested. "He likes those."

"I guess I'll go re-read some Alchemy texts," Cedric said. "Hermione, are you feeling better?"

Hermione looked at Rose, then Cedric, then Alicia. They were all there to help her. She hardly knew Cedric or Alicia, but they were somehow her friends.

"I am now," she said. "Thank you, everyone." She wiped the tears away from her eyes one more time. "I'll be okay now."

Rose beamed, then hugged Hermione.

"I love you too, Rose," Hermione said, patting her friend's arms. "You can stop now."

"I've got to get going," Alicia said. "Angie wants to get a head start on our Transfiguration homework."

"Thanks, Alicia," Hermione said.

"No problem, Granger."

She started to walk off, then turned back.

"Granger, if your hair's really bothering you, Angie's pretty good with hair."

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind."

Cedric stood up, then offered Hermione his hand. She took it, allowing Rose and Cedric to help her to her feet.

"I'm glad you're alright, Hermione," Cedric said, hugging her for just a moment.

In that moment, she felt completely at ease, as if all of her problems were over. Cedric and Rose would stop Malfoy, Gamp, and even the Dementors from harming her.

"I'm going to get started on research," Cedric said. "See you girls later."

"See you," Hermione said, her face turning slightly pink.

"Bye!" Rose called.

Hermione looked over at her friend, and saw a huge grin on her face. Rose was also bouncing on her heels.

"What's that look?" Hermione asked.

"Nothing," Rose said. She stopped bouncing for a moment.

"Did you mean what you said to Cedric?" Hermione asked.

"Step one is stealing the Sword of Gryffindor from Professor Dumbledore's office," Rose said.

"What?!"

"Step two is training you lot to defend yourselves, and Neville needs the sword for that. Step three is leaving the castle to find something that will drop the ward, but I can't leave you lot undefended. Step four is having my family tell me how to fix this, and step five is fixing it."

Hermione took a moment to process everything her friend said.

"Alright," Hermione said. "What can I do to help?"

"Go with Cedric, help him brush up on Alchemy," Rose said. "You don't mind spending a lot of time alone with him seeing how amazing you are, do you?"

"What?" Hermione asked. "Wait, you don't think… I mean, I don't… What?!"

"Wow, you are just like Sk'lar," Rose said, laughing. "His brain stops working the second I say the words 'love' and 'Carolina' in the same sentence."

"I'm not in love with Cedric!" hissed Hermione.

"Yes you are," Rose replied, still laughing.

"Do you have to do that?" Hermione asked.

Rose tilted her head, apparently thinking about the answer for nearly a minute.

"Yeah," she said finally, nodding her head.

Hermione sighed and rubbed her forehead.

"I hate you sometimes," Hermione said.

"But I'm so adorable!" Rose exclaimed, beaming.

Without dignifying Rose, Hermione ran to catch up with Cedric.

After Rose used telepathic bond on the Twins, she dim doored to Professor Dumbledore's after they gave her the all clear.

With a new wand of knock, Rose systematically went through each drawer in the cabinet. Her efforts were impeded by the various chests within each drawer.

"Who does this?!" Rose shouted after the sixth chest. "Why?!"

She opened chest after chest, many of which contained drawers or small cabinets inside them.

<Dinner's almost finished,> George informed her when she was on the 13th drawer. <You finished yet?>

<Getting there!> Rose replied. <Only seven of these gromphun things left!>

She opened another drawer, then another chest, then another three drawers.

"No," she said. "No, and no."

She shoved the chest back inside the drawer, then opened the next one.

<Dumbledore's leaving! Looks like Hermione's going to catch him.>

Downstairs, Cedric and Hermione intercepted Professor Dumbledore on his way out of the Great Hall.

"Professor Dumbledore!" Cedric exclaimed.

"Mr. Diggory, Ms. Granger, how may I help you?"

"We were working on Arithmancy in the library, and got on the topic of Alchemy," Hermione said.

"That's an interesting transition," Professor Dumbledore said.

"I asked her about the Philosopher's Stone," Cedric said.

<Rose, whatever you're doing, finish up,> Hermione told her.

<Working on it!> Rose replied after replacing the chest. "Is it really gonna be the last one?! How am I that unlucky?!"

She pulled out another two, but still no sword.

<You're out of time,> Hermione told her. <He's on his way up.>

Rose pulled out another drawer, waved the wand, then threw it across the room.

"Of course it's out of charges!" she hissed, pulling Serendipity and power surging her. "Come on!"

Rose heard the sound of the gargoyle moving.

"Two more," Rose said when that one turned up nothing. "Come on! Knock!"

She slid the drawer open to reveal the Sword of Gryffindor.

"Finally!" she exclaimed.

"Discern Location – Sword of Gryffindor."

Rose wasn't taking any chances on this being a fake, so she verified that not only did the spell succeed, but that it's location was in her hand after putting the case back in the drawer.

Rose quickly returned everything to the way it was, then stashed the Sword of Gryffindor in her picnic basket as the door opened. She dim doored to the Room of Requirement, then got to work on the next part of her plan.

Albus stroked Fawkes to calm him down, then looked around his office. That was the second time Fawkes had done that in as many days, both times while Albus wasn't in his office. That implied someone was snooping around, but who?

A search of his office turned up a wand. It didn't do anything when Albus tried to use it, and he didn't see any runes on it as he would any other wand. That likely meant it belonged to one person in particular.

"Rose."

Wednesday morning, she grabbed Neville on his way to breakfast and hauled him aside into an empty classroom.

"Neville, there was something you were trying to ask me Saturday night, and I blew you off," Rose said. "I'm sorry. What did you want to ask?"

"I… I want to learn how to fight!"

Rose grinned, then reached into her picnic basket.

"Timid Toad, you'll be brave yet," Rose said, handing him a pair of black and green gloves. "These are for you. They're called gloves of the master strategist. They let you store a single item in them, although there's already one there, and let you use true strike once per day."

"What's true strike?" Neville asked.

"It gives you +20 to hit," Rose replied.

"Does that mean… erm… hit something else? Like punching it?"

"Put the gloves on, then imagine they're giving you something," Rose said.

Neville did as he was told. The second he imagined something coming out of the gloves, a sword materialized before him.

"Ah!" Neville shouted, dropping the sword on the floor.

"This is what you're gonna learn to use," Rose said, picking the sword up and handing it back to him. "You were amazing with it, Neville. Not even Shadow could've done what you did when she first started out."

Neville didn't always keep up with Rose, but he knew Shadow was her best friend from back home. Shadow was amazing at everything, according to Rose.

"I… Thanks, Rose."

"Keep up the good work, Toad," Rose said. "Keep looking up plants, too. You never know when one of those will come in handy."

"Erm… Rose," Neville said. "There's…" Neville took a deep breath. "There's one I think you'll like."

"Go for it!" Rose replied.

"I read about this plant that was just discovered," he said. "There was this island that used to be infested with basilisks, but now they're clearing them out. There are a lot of plants that were allowed to grow wild, and a bunch of them have properties they've never seen before. Like this one that secretes oil that dragons can't stand the smell of. They actually run away from it." He blushed. "I… I thought you'd like that, since you don't like dragons."

Rose smiled, then hugged Neville.

"Thanks, Toad."