102 The Frogs and The Roses

Hermione jumped when the doorbell rang, nearly losing her book. She flipped back through to find her place (not that it mattered; she'd memorized the book), while her mum answered the door.

"Oh. Oh my," she heard. "Hermione! You've got company!"

Hermione looked up from her book. She couldn't think of anyone that was allowed to come and used the door. Nor someone that would illicit such a reaction from her mum.

When her visitor walked into view, Hermione discovered why her mum sounded shocked.

It was Rose — there was no mistaking that hair — but she was distinctly different from the last time Hermione had seen her.

"You… grew."

Rose was at least a foot taller than she'd been when Hermione had seen her last. Even her face looked different.

Her mum followed Rose into the living room, then nodded to her dad.

"We'll be upstairs if you girls need us," her mum said.

Rose smiled politely at Hermione's parents as they slipped off to go upstairs, leaving the two of them alone.

"Why'd you change?" Hermione asked.

"You don't need a little kid right now," Rose said. "You just need a friend."

"I had a great one, but she's been off trying to impress her girlfriend."

Rose frowned and furled her brow.

"What?"

"Isn't that why you've been working so hard on the third task? To impress Sylvia? Or can I call her Shadow?"

Rose smiled softly. "Sylvia's not Shadow. She… it calls itself Slytherin."

She went on to explain who Sylvia was. She told Hermione about the entity that called itself Slytherin. How it'd taken over Luna's mind to get Rose's attention. That it'd sent the dragon after them to test Rose. That it'd been the one that had stopped Rose from talking to her family the previous year.

"It wants me to find these things called 'Horcruxes'," Rose finished. "It says it wants to destroy Voldemort." She held up a locket around her neck. "This was the last one we needed. It said the real Salazar Slytherin had always meant to give it to one of his children, to his daughter Rosalind. I think Slytherin sees me as a replacement for her."

"It tried to kill us, and you brought it as your date to the ball?"

"That was the price of this one. I… There was someone else I'd have rather asked, but I didn't want people to think she was like me. So Slytherin offered to pretend to be my date, using some sort of perception magic so no one would remember 'her'. In exchange, I tracked down the locket over the winter holiday."

Hermione took a moment to take it all in, and to give Rose a break. Then she pointed out the flaw in Rose's plan.

"I hate to tell you, but I can remember her."

"Mind blank stopped it from working on you, just like occlumency stopped it from working on Professor Dumbledore."

Hermione nodded, then beckoned Rose to join her on the couch.

"Why didn't you just tell me about her in the first place?"

"Slytherin told me that it doesn't hurt anyone because it wants to remain hidden. If people knew about it, it wouldn't have any reason to leave them alone."

"If I go back, won't it just kill me for knowing about it?"

"Professor Dumbledore knows, but it keeps him alive. I think it's trying to earn my trust."

"Why you? What makes you so special?"

Rose raised an eyebrow, something Hermione wasn't sure she'd ever done.

"You know what I mean. Why not convince a member of staff, or just another student?"

Rose held up the locket again. "In order to get this, I had to open a hidden chamber on a beach. Then cross a lake full of… inferi, then at the center of the lake was a basin full of this stuff Slytherin called 'emerald potion'. If you drink it, it causes fatigue and thirst. If you try drinking from the lake, you disturb the inferi, and they attack you. There was no way to get through the potion, at the bottom of which lay the locket, without drinking it. The basin was immune to magic, but not to mountain hammer. So I broke it and dumped it."

Hermione let out a small chuckle, but regained her composure quickly.

"As amusing as you are, that doesn't answer my question."

"Slytherin needed someone that could easily recover each Horcrux. I had to break into Gringotts for one of them, after I'd broken into Azkaban to find out that it was in Gringotts, after I'd infiltrated the Ministry, although that was probably the easiest of the bunch. Another one was hidden in a rundown old house filled with traps that anyone from this world would've set off."

Hermione nodded. Rose hadn't said why she needed the Horcruxes, but whatever it was, to go through the trouble it'd gone, they must've been important to Slytherin. Still, that left her with another question.

"Then why bother making the tasks perfect? What's the point? If you wanted to have something to do, you'd have just made one of us something. This can't be about having fun. That's not why you forgot to tell my parents about Professor Lupin, or didn't take the six seconds it takes to cast wish to cover the first task."

"That one wasn't that simple."

"Really? You couldn't have just dismantled it, or just said 'I wish it were sealed'?"

"I tried that, and the spell created 25,000 gold worth of adamantine to seal it. Do you know how much adamantine that is?"

"Why would I?"

"Twenty cubic feet. It was nothing. So I just tossed a permanent image on it, and that was it. That took six seconds."

"And nearly got Ron killed," Hermione growled.

"What nearly got him killed was you not letting me heal him."

"'I can fix him!' you said. I know how you 'fix' NPCs."

"No, I said I could heal him, and he's not an NPC. He's my friend."

"Since when?"

"Since always, but I knew he wasn't an NPC when he nearly gave his life for you last year. Twice."

Hermione thought of Ron standing over her, protecting her from danger. He'd been willing to lay down his own life for her, even after she'd refused to speak to him for five months. The thought of him made her cry.

"I miss him," she said.

"He misses you, too. He's shut himself away in the library. Princess says it's because he's trying to impress you with his marks."

Hermione laughed in spite of herself.

"Is he alright?"

"Princess has been checking on him for me. I…"

"Thank you for looking after him for me. He might be an insensitive moron, but he's my insensitive moron." She smiled at Rose and wiped away some tears. "Just like you might be a mad girl, but you're my mad girl."

Rose looked away, and Hermione swore she saw her blush.

"That all still doesn't answer my question. Why work so hard on the tasks? I know you take pride in your work, but this has been an obsession."

Rose looked down and spoke softly.

"Because I wanted to impress you. I didn't want you to hate me."

"I don't hate you."

Rose shook her head. "Not… not yet."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"When I broke the time turner, I was in some weird mixture of timelines. I saw a future you, and… and she hated me. She said I'd done something to her, something that I'd always do, because it was who I was." Rose looked up at her, and Hermione saw the impossible tears in her eyes. "I can't stand losing you."

Hermione had a lot of questions, but she started with an easy one. "How are you crying?"

"Disguise self lets me create an illusion around me. They're not real."

Hermione sat in silence for a moment before asking her next question. Before she could, Rose spoke again.

"I might never go home. I might've already lost my family." Rose shook her head, trying to speak, but it wasn't for a few moments that she did. "I can't lose you."

Hermione saw the fear in Rose's eyes. It was something Hermione herself had grown accustomed to feeling. The fear that she'd never see the people she loved again.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"How'd you move on after Valignatiejir?"

What little optimism might've returned to her faded away to nothing.

"I haven't. It's still there, in the back of my head. His laugh." Rose shuddered and drew her legs in. "Those eyes."

Rose shook and held her legs tightly. Hermione could hear her shaking in her breathing.

"It'll all be a part of me forever."

Hermione's heart sank.

"I can still hear that man's voice. I see the fires when I close my eyes."

Rose took Hermione's hand in hers. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you."

"Then be here now. We can face our demons together."

In spite of the pain both of them remembered, they smiled at one another.

"I'd like nothing more, Brain."

Three weeks later, the girls appeared outside Hogwarts. Hermione stared up at the castle as it towered over her. She squeezed Rose's hand.

"You've been doing fine," Rose said. "We went to Hogsmeade every day this week to prepare, remember?"

As she'd practiced, Hermione directed her thoughts back to the past week. Thinking of her outings (which Rose insisted on calling "dates") with Rose gave her comfort and put her mind at ease.

"If we keep holding hands, people might talk," Hermione said.

"So?"

Hermione rolled her eyes and took her hand away.

Rose gave a huff.

"Fine, then I'll go spend time with Sylvia instead."

"Rose, please don't joke about leaving me on my own."

"I won't anymore."

Hermione looked up at the gates of Hogwarts again and sighed.

"Here goes nothing."

Together, they walked inside the castle. It felt foreign to her after so much time at home, but what little familiarity she found in it brought her comfort.

"I've missed it here."

"Where do you want to go first?"

"The library," Hermione replied without giving it another thought.

Rose smiled slyly. "Do you want me to leave you alone with Cohort?"

Hermione blushed, but didn't say anything.

"To the library!" Rose exclaimed, then took Hermione's hand again and led her to the library. When they arrived, Intelligencer flew out of Rose's basket and perched on Hermione's shoulder.

"Hey, Int," she said, patting the homunculus on the head. "I missed you."

"Just to warn you, he'll probably say something stupid when he sees you."

"I know. I'm counting on it."

Hermione walked into the library, then turned back to Rose.

"Ron hasn't been in there the entire time I've been gone, has he?"

"I think he leaves for class."

"But you don't go to class, so how would you know?"

Rose just shrugged.

Hermione rolled her eyes and laughed.

"I'll see you soon, then."

Hermione turned and walked into the library. She didn't know exactly where she was going, but some quick directions from Rose got her on her way. Before long, she found him.

Ron sat in a chair, reading, with a stack of three books sitting beside him.

"Ron."

He looked up and stared at her before responding. His mouth hung open as if to say something, but he only found one word.

"Hermione."

She smiled at him. A thousand lines went through her head, but none of them seemed good enough to say after having not seen him in months.

"Your… erm… your hair clip's in," he said.

"Yeah." She touched it as if to reassure herself that it was still in her hair. "I thought… Do you like it?"

"Erm… I guess."

She blushed and tried not to laugh at him.

"What are you doing in here?"

"You know, studying."

"I'm glad you're finally taking your coursework seriously."

"It's not that hard when you get the hang of it."

She stifled another laugh then glanced at the book he was reading.

"World War II? Is that what you're studying in Muggle Studies?"

"No, I already studied for my exams. We're learning about it next year."

"Oh." Hermione couldn't think of anything else to say. She caught herself before rambling on about everything she knew about World War II. It'd just sound stupid when she said it, and he'd learn all about it anyway.

"What… what have you been doing?" Ron asked.

"Same as you. Reading a lot." Hermione took a few steps forward. "Not much else to do."

"Yeah."

Hermione tried to think of something else to say. Anything would be better than standing around awkwardly. After getting nothing helpful, she gave up and just said what was on her mind.

"Would you do something for me? Please?"

Ron frowned. "What?"

"I need you to stand up."

"What for?"

"Because I haven't seen you in months, and I thought I would never see you again, and if there's one thing I've wanted more than to come back here, it's to hear you say something stupid again. So get out of that gromphun chair, Ronald Weasley, so I can give you a hug, because I've missed you, stupid!"

By the time she'd finished, Hermione was in tears. Ron put his book down, and Hermione hauled him to his feet and threw her arms around him.

"I… erm… I guess I missed you a bit, too."

Hermione laughed, but refused to let go of Ron. She'd had to wait months, but seeing him somehow made everything worth it.

After a few days, everyone began to grow accustomed to seeing Hermione again. She sat and talked with them as much as she could, even attended Transfiguration class with them on one occasion (although remained forbidden from using magic). Neville didn't know who was happier to see her: Ron, Rose, Ginny, or Professor Vector.

As happy as he was to see Hermione again, his mind stayed focused on the third task.

All afternoon on the 24th of June, carriages arrived carrying families and loved ones. His gran arrived, Luna's dad, Hermione's parents, Remus and Sirius, even Sally-Anne's parents were there.

"They're letting you stay?" Ginny asked Hermione when her parents arrived.

"That depends on how things go," Hermione's mum said. "But for now, yes."

Neville saw Hermione's dad eyeing Hermione and Ron, who were holding hands.

"Is he treating you right?" he asked.

"Rose wouldn't let me live if I didn't," Ron replied.

"She'd let you live," Hermione said. "Just not comfortably."

Neville glanced over at Sally-Anne's parents, who were talking with Sally-Anne, Alex, and Professor McGonagall. Not far from them were Sirius, Remus, Alavel, and Harry. Harry caught his eye, and mouthed "good luck".

As people began moving towards the Quidditch pitch, Ginny caught up with him.

"Good luck, Toad."

"Thanks, Firecracker."

She turned to leave, but then turned back.

"Sorry I've been so… mean this year."

"It was my fault," Neville said. "I should've told you about everything earlier."

She smiled at him again before catching up with the rest of her clan.

On his way to the pitch, Rose intercepted him and brought him to where he was sure the players changed. Instead of going inside, she led him out of the way, where it was hard to hear the crowd.

"In my world, people like me are called ajraesthyr, or 'lover of women'. It means I'm attracted to girls, not boys."

Neville's heart stopped for just a moment. His face flushed, but he pushed it aside.

"I didn't tell you before because I loved the way you looked at me. No one's ever looked at me like that. But it doesn't matter now. I shouldn't have led you on. I'm sorry."

Neville collected his thoughts. It hurt knowing that Rose couldn't return his feelings, but at the same time, he felt relieved.

"I forgive you, Rose. And thanks for telling me now, and not sooner. If you had told me before the Nightmare Scenario, it would've crushed me. I thought… I thought you'd wanted to get rid of me before that."

Rose smiled at him, lifting his spirits again. He smiled back at her, but kept in mind that she didn't feel the same way he did. Even then, he didn't feel sad.

"Every day, I wanted to help everyone, but I didn't know what to do. I was afraid to talk to Brain, because I thought I'd just screw everything up. Professor Dumbledore told me I had to find ways to help you without spending too much time with you. I can't explain to Moon that I am helping her."

Neville thought back to his talks with Luna. He'd found himself talking with her more over the past few weeks, just to hear her eternal optimism.

"That pendant you made for her is nice."

Rose shrugged. "I should've been there for all of you."

"Had you been there all this time, I'd never have learned to fend for myself."

"You all look at me like I'm a hero, but I'm not. I'm just a girl. In my world, you've got to be the strongest, otherwise someone stronger will come in and take it all away. Once people know who you are, they keep coming after you to beat you. There's no peace. All I wanted to do was craft, but I couldn't. Not without people… dragons… coming to take it away."

Neville often found himself wondering about Rose's world. Most often it was "Why does she have to go back?", but at that moment, he just felt sorry for her. He had a hard enough time coping with the extra attention from the tournament, but he couldn't imagine being world-famous.

"Maybe you could just stay here," he blurted.

He blushed and tensed, awaiting Rose's response.

"That didn't come out right."

"I've thought about it. I still miss my family, but I guess I can just talk to them."

They stood in awkward silence for a minute. Part of him criticized himself for saying something stupid, but the rest of him reminded himself that Rose hadn't been bothered. Even if she didn't like him back, life was a lot less scary with her around.

Even the frogs and the roses will catch its disease.

"You remember that prophecy? The one Professor Trelawney said last year?"

"I've thought about it every day since you were chosen."

"Any idea what it means?"

Rose shook her head, but pulled out her notebook. "It doesn't really matter."

"Why not?"

"Two months before I was attacked, an Oracle told me this:"

Red like Roses

Black as the Skies

The poor child's blood spills

as her innocence dies.

She looked up at Neville.

"Prophecies tell you nothing. They could be warning you about the most important event in your life, and you'd never know it. They could also be warning you that it's gonna be cold and you should remember your cloak. That one told me that I was going to be attacked, but not when, where, or how." She closed her notebook. "I don't know what that prophecy means, but it involves both of us, so whatever it is, we'll face it together."

He smiled at her, hoping that his smile warmed her like hers did him.

"Together."

She smiled at him, making every moment of the Triwizard Tournament worth it.

"Another part of the prophecy was 'Straight through a scar that cannot be undone'. I broke Pettigrew's Time Turner, this device that lets you bend time and be in two places at once. I ended up in this weird mixture of times, and… and I saw Valignatiejir."

Neville remembered clearly the image of a dragon standing over Rose. The only time in his life he'd seen her afraid, and all he wanted to do was go back and stab the thing in the throat.

"I'm sorry. If I could've been there, I'd—"

"You were. Another you, one from a few years in the future, I think. When I lost it, you brought me back. Then we fought him together. That's how I knew you were going to be okay, even when I was scared too."

Overwhelmed by joy, Neville laughed, but quickly covered his mouth. Even then, Rose didn't stop smiling at him.

"You could never let me down, Toad. Deep down, you're a good person. I know you lost your parents, but—"

"They're not dead, they're just empty."

Rose's smile faded away.

"What happened to them?"

"They were tortured by a woman called Bellatrix Lestrange. She tortured them and… now they can't do anything. They're just there. They're not dead… but the doctors say they might recover one day."

He tried to smile and convince Rose that he was alright, but she didn't buy it.

"You know better, don't you?"

"When I was a boy, I used to think they'd start talking any day. I'd always be so quiet so I'd hear them. I used to… sorry, I'll stop."

"It's fine. What was it?"

"Sure? It's pretty stupid."

"One of the worst insults in Dwarven is mosgrim, which literally means 'beardless'. It's like saying someone's gutless, but I didn't know that at first. I thought there was something wrong with me, because I didn't have a beard… so I found a bunch of grass and stuck it on my face."

Neville pressed his lips together to stop from laughing, but Rose started laughing anyway.

"Really?"

"I can still remember the look on Mr. Grund's face when I walked into his shop like that. He was so confused, then burst out laughing. Called me 'Grassbeard' from that day on!"

Neville and Rose laughed together for a long time. As afraid as he was of the maze inside the pitch, it felt amazing to laugh. Like all his troubles just faded away.

"When I was a kid, I used to pretend to give speech lessons, so I'd be ready to help my parents learn to talk again."

Their laughter died down. Neville felt like he should've been crying, but no tears fell down his face.

"When you're a kid, you learn that people die. But my parents aren't dead. They're empty. I couldn't understand why other kids could talk to their parents and I couldn't. They couldn't explain what Lestrange did. How could they? How do you explain to a child that some woman hurt his parents so badly that they'll never notice him? Or hug him? Or talk to him? What do you do?"

"Last year I tracked down Hufflepuff's Cup," Rose said out of nowhere.

"I think you mentioned it. What for?"

"That's not important now. What's important is who had it."

"Who?"

"Bellatrix Lestrange. Old Voldie asked her to keep it safe, and I took it from her. I saw her in Azkaban, and I told her if he came back, 'Her Lord' would never forgive her."

"Why'd you say that?"

"Because before that, I'd learned everything about his followers. I knew about your parents, Toad, and Ref had to stop me from snapping her neck because of it. Instead, I ruined her life, like she ruined yours. If Voldie ever comes back, he'll find that she lost the item he entrusted to her to someone she believes to be a Muggle-born."

"You did that… for me?"

"I can't love you the way you love me, but that doesn't mean I don't admire you. Even last year, you held together when all of us broke down. Before that, you charged in and stabbed a basilisk in the eye. In that broken time, you stood up to me, reminded me what's right and what's wrong. Now, you're holding your head high, even though you've struggled so much."

After everything he'd been through, Rose's words made him feel strong one more time. What was better was that he knew he didn't need them. Thanks to her, he had his own strength.

"Would it be weird if I hugged you?" he asked.

Rose spread her arms wide. "I never say 'no' to a hug."

For a few minutes, they stood there together, their arms around one another. It was a lot easier to hug her when she wasn't a foot shorter than he was. In those moments, Neville knew he would be okay. No matter what happened, he had the strength to face it all.

"Time to go," Rose said and withdrew her arms.

Neville nodded to her and stepped away.

"Before I go, take this." Rose pulled a small black gem out of her basket. "In the event something goes wrong, this will return you to Gryffindor Tower. Don't use it unless you end up outside the grounds."

Neville took the gem and put it in his belt.

"Good luck."

She vanished from sight, leaving rose petals in her wake.

He returned to the changing rooms, where the other three sat waiting.

"Right on time," Cedric said. "Good luck out there."

"You too," Neville said. "All of you, good luck."

Viktor grinned and shook his hand. Although with the force behind it, he might've been trying to pull off Neville's arm.

Fleur gave him little more than a suspicious glare.

"And now, it's time for our champions!" Bagman called from outside.

Together, they walked out of the room and into the pitch. A roar of applause greeted them as the crowd rose to its feet. Neville smiled and waved along with the other three. He was sure they were all as focused as he was, but it didn't hurt to enjoy the moment.

The Triwizard Cup stood in the middle of the Pitch. It shone blue light in an aura around it, but none of them saw a maze, just an empty pitch. What they did see was Professor Dumbledore next to a red button that was bigger than Dumbledore himself. As they walked to a clearly marked boundary, he pushed the button, and the whole pitch began to shake.

Solid black blocks erupted from the ground and flew into the air. One by one, the blocks collided with one another, then began to shift around. They encircled the trophy, blocking it from view. Entire groups of blocks shifted at once as more joined to form a larger block. The way the blocks moved with one another reminded Neville of something. Neville couldn't tell exactly how big they were, but he guessed they were exactly five feet by five feet by five feet, since that was how everything seemed to break down in Rose's world.

The large block rose into the air as more blocks joined it. As they did, Neville realized why they seemed familiar. He'd seen the same motion hundreds of times since his first year at Hogwarts. Staring at a peculiar girl playing with a toy her best friend had gotten her for Christmas.

It was a puzzle box. The final task, the grand maze, was a giant puzzle box.