A Midnight Stroll

The next morning, everything continued as normal, or at least, as normal as everything got when one was friends with Rose.

When the mail came, an owl dropped a parcel in front of Luna, who was once again seated at the Gryffindor table.

"What's that?" asked Sally-Anne.

"This month's issue of the Quibbler," replied Luna, carefully opening the parcel. From the parcel she produced not one, but two copies of the journal.

"Here you are, Rose," she said, handing one copy to Rose.

Rose grinned as she took the booklet from Luna. "Thank you, Luna!"

"You got a copy of the Quibbler?" asked Ron, a hint of contempt in his voice.

"Of course," Rose replied, still grinning broadly. "It's a special edition."

"There are special editions of the Quibbler?" Ron asked, his contempt for the "news source" now apparent in his voice.

"Not really, but it's the first edition Daddy published one of my articles in," replied Luna. "So Rose asked if she could have one too. Daddy said he'd be happy to send an extra copy for Rose."

"Congratulations, Luna!" exclaimed Sally-Anne.

"That's pretty impressive," Hermione added. "Most students never see their work published."

"It's only the Quib– Ah!" exclaimed Ron as he was jabbed in the side by Sally-Anne. "Good job, I guess."

"Harry, isn't that–" Sally-Anne began, then noticed that the black-haired boy was spacing out again. He was doing that more and more, and Sally-Anne had no idea why. She was starting to worry about her friend.

"Harry, is everything alright?"

Harry jumped and turned towards the rest of the group. "Yeah… fine!"

"You don't look– AH!" Hermione yelped as Rose jabbed her hair clip.

"Success!" Rose exclaimed.

"ROSE!" shouted Hermione. "I told you not to do that!"

Hermione's birthday was a few weeks ago, and to celebrate, Rose had wished her a happy birthday and tried to touch her hair clip. Hermione, knowing that whatever it was Rose was about to do to it would give her a headache, not to mention the possibility of being caught cheating, had evaded Rose's touch ever since.

Thus began Rose's attempts at getting at Hermione's hair clip in an effort to improve it. It was only an improvement from +2 to +4, but Hermione refused to listen to Rose's assurances that it wouldn't be as bad as the improvement from +2 to +10. Truth be told, Rose wasn't sure if she had the XP to spare to improve it straight to +10, so she decided on improving it in increments of two every year on Hermione's birthday.

"It's only +2! It'll be fine!"

"That's not the point!" exclaimed Hermione. "I told you not to!"

"But it clears away wrackspurts," Luna added. "It will help you in class."

"Rose, Luna, Hermione's already said she doesn't want to," Sally-Anne said.

"Then why doesn't she just take off the hair clip?" asked Ron through a mouthful of food. After swallowing, he added, "Problem solved."

Hermione had considered that possibility, but her head just felt strange when she took it off. Like some sort of fog set in around her mind and she couldn't think clearly. It was frustrating, and she hated that she was addicted to the hair clip.

"Professor Vector knows about it, right?" Sally-Anne asked. "If she thought there was a problem, then she would've said something."

"She doesn't know about it," Hermione said. "It's cheating!"

"Professor Dumbledore knows about it," Rose said. "He knows about everything that goes on inside the school."

"How can you be so sure?" asked Sally-Anne, still watching Harry. What was distracting him so much? Why wouldn't he tell her? Sally-Anne thought they were becoming good friends, but now he was shutting her out for no reason. Had she done something to upset him? She thought about asking Ron, Harry's other closest friend, about it. Maybe he knew something she didn't.

Rose didn't respond.

"Rose?" asked Sally-Anne. Not her too. Rose spacing out wasn't uncommon, but not usually in the middle of a conversation.

"The point of school is to prepare us for the real world, right?" asked Rose after a minute.

"I guess," replied Hermione.

"Well, you're always going to have that hair clip in the real world," finished Rose. "So it makes sense to use it in a simulation of what is to come."

"That doesn't sound like you at all," Sally-Anne said, furling her brow. Sally-Anne wasn't sure what a "simulation" was, but turning to Hermione, Sally-Anne concluded that it must be an actual word, as her sane friend was nodding her understanding.

"Tell your brother 'thanks'," Hermione replied.

"He says 'you're welcome'," Rose replied, beaming.

"What just happened?" Ron asked.

"Rose asked her brother to help her convince Hermione that it was alright to wear the hair clip of intelligence," Luna replied.

"You can tell because Rose never uses big words," Hermione said. "Like 'simulation', for instance, which is a sort of imitation, like a play. Sk'lar, her brother, uses big words all the time."

"But he's still very good at explaining things," Luna added.

Ron looked from Hermione to Luna. How did those two understand Rose so well? Oh well. Ron didn't care that much, so long as someone could translate Rose for him.

Ron walked to the Transfigurations classroom, still convinced that there was a trap waiting for him. Friday during lunch, Percy had sprung an invitation from Professor McGonagall on him. Ron dreaded to think why he was being summoned to the Transfigurations Professor's office. He knew it was bad, whatever it was.

"Professor McGonagall?" asked Ron as he reached the Transfigurations Professor's office.

"Mr. Weasley," Professor McGonagall said. "Please, come in."

"Am I in trouble?" Ron asked.

Ron was so transfixed on the intimidating Transfigurations Professor that he didn't notice the chessboard set up in front of her.

"Should you be?" asked Professor McGonagall.

Ron was afraid to answer that question. He couldn't think of a reason why he would be in trouble, but he wasn't trying that hard. Was this about the bracelet Rose had given him? It couldn't be against the rules to use it. Could it? Was that why Hermione was always so uptight about using Rose's creations?

"I don't think so," Ron replied, noticing the chessboard in front of Professor McGonagall for the first time. "Is… Is that why you wanted to see me? A rematch?"

"No one has succeeded in besting me in years," Professor McGonagall replied. "I wanted to see how good you are in a normal match."

"Okay," Ron replied slowly, still not convinced that this wasn't some sort of trick. Even if he had beaten her statues in chess, why would Professor McGonagall want to see him of all people?

"I see growing up with your brothers has made it difficult to trust anything at face value," Professor McGonagall said. "Let me assure you that this is just a friendly match. There are no grades at stake, and I won't treat you any differently if you win or lose."

Ron nervously took a seat in front of Professor McGonagall. Black was towards him, just as it had been in the live chess match.

Truth be told, he had been nervous during that match. He was worried that he'd get one of his friends hurt. Even if Harry had been the safest piece on the board, he didn't mind Hermione or Sally-Anne, and he'd hate to get them hurt.

Ron was confident in little that he did, a result of the little positive reinforcement he received from his family, but he had complete confidence in his ability to play chess. He wasn't as confident as Rose or Hermione, or even Sally-Anne, but he had been certain that night that he'd be able to keep his friends safe.

Ron had been scared when he had seen that the only winning move was to sacrifice himself, but better him than someone useful like Rose, even though in the end it had been Rose that sacrificed herself. Despite not having to get lobbed across the board, Ron wasn't sure he was happy with that outcome. He didn't want to be some kid in need of saving, he wanted to be the hero.

They began to play the game. Ron was still cautious, not certain whether he was about to get punished from out of nowhere.

"If I may ask, where did you learn to play?" asked Professor McGonagall.

"Charlie taught me," replied Ron. "I used to play with him and Dad, until Charlie left and Dad started working more. Now I usually just play Harry or Hermione."

"Not Perks or Peta-Lorrum?"

Ron shook his head. "Sally-Anne isn't very good, and Rose always gets bored and wanders off."

"So I've noticed," replied Professor McGonagall. "So you were entirely responsible for your group making it through that match last term?"

"Hermione helped a little, and Rose moved the pieces for us."

"You were all rather vague about that," Professor McGonagall said. "How exactly did Peta-Lorrum move the pieces?"

Ron shrugged. "Don't know. She used a spell that put the piece in a bubble, then moved the bubble."

"Like coryn angyan?"

"I guess. I don't remember the name she used, but it looked similar, except the bubble didn't just float up like coryn angyan."

Minerva blinked. How had a second-year heard of coryn angyan? The floating orb charm was part of the fourth-year charms curriculum.

Minerva filed that information away in her head for later. If she started to ask the young Weasley too many personal questions, he might become suspicious. Keeping the topic on another person improved her chances of success.

"She also made a giant fist to take out the queen after she switched places with me," added Ron.

Minerva narrowed her eyes. "How do you mean 'switched places'?"

"I mean I was in one place one second, then the next I was where Rose was and she was where I was." He moved another of his pieces on the board. "Check."

Minerva idly moved one of her pieces to block the boy's attack. "How'd she do that?"

"Wish I knew, it was a cool spell," Ron replied. "I've been through all of my family's old textbooks, but I couldn't find anything that sounded like it. The closest I could find was trosi füg, but that's based on the Summoning Charm. I just appeared, sort of like a portkey."

Septima had told Minerva that the Arithmancy Professor had heard from Granger that Ronald Weasley liked to read. Minerva wasn't sure about this, since before Christmas, he was modeling his work ethic after that of Fred and George Weasley. No, Minerva was certain that she was missing something vital, some piece of information that explained why the young Weasley had suddenly changed.

That was when Minerva saw it. The missing piece of information was right in front of her.

As her opponent reached across the board to take her last castle, she saw the bracelet on his wrist. It was red and gold, and, other than being finely made, not all that important. Minerva might have seen it before but simply dismissed it.

What made it important now was another piece of information Minerva had received from Septima: Granger had received a bracelet from Peta-Lorrum that allowed her to instantly read any book she touched.

Minerva had known the Weasley family for a long time, having worked alongside them in the Great Wizarding War over a decade ago. She knew that Arthur Weasley held the belief that men should act a certain way, and that those beliefs had been picked up by most of his boys. Therefore, there was no reason why one of them would be wearing a bracelet unless it served some other purpose than just being stylish.

Peta-Lorrum had made at least two of her friends bracelets. Had she made them for all of them? Were Potter and Perks just better at keeping their heads down? She didn't know how well Perks would do with it, but Potter certainly would've learned to keep his head down living with those… people for so long.

To date, Peta-Lorrum had made her own wand; at least two bracelets that allowed the wearer to instantly read a book; hats that allowed the Twins to disguise themselves however they wanted, including as other people; a pendant that allowed a person to mark and track anyone or anything (Which Minerva had used to mark her wand, Albus, and Severus, just for good measure); and a pendant that made Severus more intimidating (because that was necessary). To top it all off, those were merely the items about which Minerva knew. What else could the girl make? Was that why Albus insisted on keeping her in Hogwarts? Did he just want to see the extent of her abilities?

After she finished her match with the red-head, which she won, the two of them collected the pieces and returned them to the board.

"I can see why no one's beaten you in a while," Ron said. "You're brilliant!"

"You did remarkably, Mr. Weasley," Professor McGonagall replied. "I look forward to our next match."

As the young Weasley exited her office, Minerva began to write down everything she had seen Peta-Lorrum make, including her wand and robes. She wasn't sure what purpose it would serve, but she was certain that it would help her in the long run.

The next two weeks passed by, and Hermione was beginning to get nervous. Saturday was Hallowe'en, and she was worried that something was going to go wrong. Hermione hoped it would be a pleasant surprise, not another mountain troll attack.

"I'm bored," Rose said Friday night.

"There's plenty to do," Hermione said without taking her eyes off the book she was reading to kill time until morning. "You could study."

"Boring."

"Why don't you craft something?"

"I don't know what to make," Rose said, flipping through her notebook. "Well, I'm thinking of making a set of meta casting gauntlets, but that's very resource intensive."

"What are those?" Hermione asked.

"Standard pair of casting gloves, but at sunrise, the wearer selects two metamagic feats, one for each glove. Twice per day per glove, the user can apply the chosen metamagic feat to any spell without change in casting time or effective spell level. It's powerful magic, so I had to make sure to limit them somehow, otherwise the magic would destroy the material, so they also take a month to attune to the user."

"What's metamagic?"

"It's like modifying spells," Rose said. "Me, I'm a fan of Persist Spell. That makes any spell last for 24 hours, so long as it's a personal or fixed range spell. I've got loads of persistent spells on me all the time."

"I think you've mentioned that," Hermione said. "What other metamagic is there?"

"Chain Spell, Reach Spell, Sculpt Spell, Twin Spell, Maximize Spell…"

"I think I understand what each of those do," Hermione said. "Chain Spell chains a spell to another target, Reach Spell… I'm not sure, actually. Does it make it go farther?"

"No, that's what Enlarge Spell does," Rose said. "Reach Spell turns a touch range spell into a ranged touch spell with a range of 30 feet."

"Okay, then Sculpt Spell changes the shape of a spell?"

"Yeah, it's one of Sk'lar's favorites," Rose said. "Especially when combined with Mastery of Shaping, which is one of the tricks he learned as an Archmage."

"What's the difference?"

"Sculpt Spell only allows the caster to pick from a select few shapes," Rose replied. "Cubes are one of them, and I think another is a cone? I don't know. Mastery of Shaping allows the caster to select holes in the spell's area, leaving safe zones for spells like freezing fog. Combine the two, and you can move the holes to a different part of the spell's area."

"That sounds useful," Hermione replied, hardly paying any attention to Rose.

"Yup."

Rose realized she wasn't going to get much conversation out of Hermione.

"Well, I'm bored again. I think I'll go for a walk!"

"Where?" Hermione asked. "In the castle?"

"Sure!"

"Alright," Hermione said, returning to her book. "Have fun."

Hermione didn't want Rose to get caught and cost them points, but she had long stopped believing that Rose would get caught. Even the prefects suspected that the pale girl was out past curfew, but they couldn't prove it. Not to mention, most of them didn't want to prove it.

"I plan on it!"

Rose's stroll through the castle lasted until well after midnight. She simply wandered the castle, finding a few new secret passageways that hadn't been there last year. Around two o'clock, she began to hear a voice.

"Must do as the Master says. Always as the Master says."

"That's new," she muttered. "That's not the stones."

Rose picked up her pace as the voice got farther away from her. She wanted to find out its source, hoping that it would help her learn more about what had happened a few weeks ago.

After a few turns, she could no longer hear the voice and admitted defeat. Her luck improved when she took in her surroundings and noticed something else odd.

A sizable swarm of spiders was scurrying out a window. They moved uniformly, creating a small black mass of eight-legged creatures.

"That's also new," Rose said. "Where are you going?"

"To Aragog," answered the entire swarm of spiders.

"What's an 'Aragog'?" she asked.

"Aragog will protect us."

"Protect you from what?"

"The Predator. It threatens all of us. We must run away."

Rose watched as the spiders scurried out of the castle, then made up her mind. Without further thinking or planning, Rose jumped out of the castle wall, blinking through it into the cold night air. She landed softly on her feet thanks to her cloak, then awaited the spiders. Once they reached the ground, she followed them straight into the Forbidden Forest.

As she wandered deeper into the woods, Rose began to notice that there were creatures positioning themselves behind her. She kept attention on her blindsight, making sure that nothing got the drop on her. Rose also noticed that something was moving in the trees above her.

After a minute of walking, she realized what they were: spiders. Spiders of varying size surrounded her, not to mention their webs that could serve as a bed for the girl. Then Rose began to wonder how comfortable that would be. She decided that she'd have to try it sometime.

<Monstrous spiders,> she pathed to Reflectesalon. <Nothing we haven't seen before, right, Ref?>

<We don't know that they're the same as in our world, Rose.>

<Good point. Keep an eye out and make sure we don't die!>

<I always do.>

As Rose reached the end of the spiders' journey, she found a gargantuan monstrous spider. It sat in a web about the size of Rose's room, its eight eyes fixated on Rose as she approached it.

"Who are you that enters my lair?" hissed the spider.

"Salutations!" exclaimed Rose. "My name's Rose Peta-Lorrum." She curtsied. "You must be Aragog."

"I am. Why have you come here?"

"I followed the little spiders here," Rose said. "What's 'The Predator'?"

"A creature that has laid dormant within Hogwarts for 50 years," hissed Aragog. "My children run to me for safety."

Rose looked around at the surrounding spiders.

"You, Aragog, have been busy. There is a point at which you need to stop procreating. It's okay to just say 'no'."

"You mock me?!"

"I mock everyone," Rose replied. "Well, almost everyone, but mostly just people who bore me. What's the Predator?"

"Why should I tell you?"

"Because if you do, I can kill it."

"Nothing can kill the Predator."

"You know, someone once claimed that I couldn't kill him," Rose said, noticing that the spiders were beginning to inch towards her. "He said this just before I cut off his head."

"You are a student."

"Yeah, I am," Rose replied, grinning. She looked around and saw that she was now completely surrounded by spiders. "And yet you've got a small army here to make me feel uncomfortable."

"Oh no," replied Aragog with what sounded like glee. "My children are hungry, and you humans taste much better than any of the creatures in the forest."

"Oh, okay," Rose replied. She narrowed her eyes. "Not unicorns, though, right?"

"Only the most vile creatures would kill a unicorn," replied Aragog.

"Oh good," Rose said. "You seem nice, so I'd hate to have to kill you."

"You think you can kill–"

"Of course," Rose said, unphased by the carnivorous spiders closing in on her. She grinned. "But I'll give you a fair warning: I can kill your children too if they try to eat me."

"You are a mere child!" scoffed Aragog.

"I'm not a mere child," Rose replied, smirking. She crouched down, readying herself for combat.

"I'm Rose Peta-Lorrum."

Crimson Thorn appeared in her hand.

"I'm the Crimson Artificer of Arcrel."

With a series of clicks, and a SHINK!, Crimson Thorn unfolded.

"And I'm the best there is."

The spiders began to swarm around her, moving in for what they believed to be an easy kill. Spider after spider moved around her, but Rose began to move.

She hopped over the first one, swinging Crimson Thorn in an arc with her. She cut into the first one, slicing it clean in half, then cleaved into the one behind it as the others began to realize that this might not have been such a good life choice.

Rose planted her foot in the ground as she landed and swung her weapon around, killing two more spiders with ease. Her blindsight was going crazy, alerting her of every single spider's movement in a 60-foot radius centered on her.

"My children!" hissed Aragog with what Rose assumed was fury. "You will die for this!"

"You first," Rose shot back.

Pulling her hood over her head (because it made her look cool), she cast reverse gravity. Every spider flew 10 feet into the air, and Rose took to the skies after them, Crimson Thorn in tow.

Rose reached the spiders, cutting into three of them as they attempted to regain their bearings. More spiders came after her, but they too found that the entire area around her was under the effects of reverse gravity. Rose pulled her arm back, and hurled Crimson Thorn at another spider, cutting clean through the creature.

In any other circumstances, Rose would've just used Dark Meteor or her new ring, which she had dubbed the Ring of Life's Flame, but she had been in this situation before. Rose knew that if she used fire in the Forest, then the Forbidden Forest would be no more. No Forbidden Forest meant no unicorns in the Forbidden Forest, and that thought made Rose sad. Not to mention, if Carolina found out that she had burned down a forest, then Rose would never hear the end of it, and Sk'lar's girlfriend could be terrifying when she was angry.

Rose spun around as she flew towards another cluster of spiders. Crimson Thorn flew back to Rose's hand, and she carved open another group of spiders.

By now, black goo was covering Rose, as were various spider legs. The sight of some child covered in the limbs of his children enraged Aragog. Unfortunately, he himself was much too old to join in the combat, but he had fit children who should be able to handle this abomination with ease.

Five huge spiders began to descend upon the Artificer. Rose estimated that they were a good 12 feet in length, with each of their limbs a good 14 feet. She grinned.

The funny thing was that if Rose had been any normal student, Aragog would've been right. Rose wouldn't have stood a chance, considering that huge monstrous spiders were CR 5, and the students were probably all between levels one and five. Unfortunately for Aragog, Rose wasn't a normal student.

Rose flew up and cut through another one, somehow managing not to kill it. Rose swung again, cutting the spider in two.

<Hmm. Ref, I think we're going to need backup.>

<I'm not sure that Sir Uxmiirik is awake at this hour,> Reflectesalon replied.

<He's got a ring of sustenance,> replied Rose. <He's awake.>

As Rose killed another one with the last of her attacks, she pathed Bowie.

<Sir Scaley!> she exclaimed. <I require your assistance! Eom.>

<Do you need me to sing you a lullaby to help you fall asleep?> asked Bowie. <Eom.>

<Nah, I need you to sing a glorious song of victory to help me put spiders to sleep.>

<Sounds good,> Bowie replied.

Bowie was a Bard, which gave him the ability to empower anyone who could perceive him, and Rose could perceive him just fine through their telepathic network.

Rose laughed as she felt the familiar feeling of inspire courage. It was as if she could take on the world, and song of hope assured her that she'd win.

She swung Crimson Thorn around, striking one of the spiders beside her. An explosion of sonic energy erupted from the point of impact, and the spider was ripped apart, covering Rose with even more gore than she had already accumulated.

Rose spun around and took down one more of the huge monstrous spiders, leaving her with just one. It attempted to flee, but Rose hurled Crimson Thorn at it, using the second of three daily uses of that ability. The spider exploded as the two-bladed sword returned to Rose.

"So Aragog," Rose said to the gargantuan monstrous spider, "still think you can kill me?"

Aragog assessed the child floating in the air. She had reversed the gravity in front of him, was somehow able to speak their language, expertly wielded a two-bladed sword that appeared out of nowhere, and could fly. Not to mention that her weapon had started exploding with some sort of sound-based energy.

The girl was like nothing Aragog had seen before. Was it possible that she could kill the Predator that had nearly killed him 50 years ago? The Predator, the creature from whom Hagrid had protected him?

"Let my children live, and I will tell you what I know about the Predator."

"Sounds like a plan," Rose replied, folding up Crimson Thorn and returning him to her glove.

<Thanks, Scales. I think they're surrendering, but stay on standby just in case.>

<Can do. Remember, inspiration lasts for a minute.>

<Thanks.>

Rose floated back down to the ground, where her reverse gravity spell had since worn off.

"I was brought to the castle 50 years ago by Rubeus Hagrid," began Aragog. "There was a boy there that accused Hagrid of setting me on the students. Riddle, his name was. Hagrid never gave his first name. Hagrid protected me that day. The day he was expelled."

As Aragog spoke, Rose recorded everything Aragog said.

"A student had just died. A girl, Hagrid said. It was the Predator, but Riddle claimed it was me. He claimed that Hagrid had ordered me to kill the girl."

"That certainly doesn't sound like Mr. Hagrid," agreed Rose.

"The Predator had already tried to kill me," Aragog continued. "I could hear it moving in the walls. It attacked me, but Hagrid's presence frightened it away."

"What is the Predator?" asked Rose. "I'm all for character development, which is rather interesting considering that I didn't think Mr. Hagrid was important to the story, but if this thing's moving through the school again, then my friends are in danger."

"We dare not speak its name," hissed Aragog.

"Really?" asked Rose, now annoyed. "All of that, and you won't tell me its name? Or even its species?! What is with the people in this world? The Humans won't say 'Voldemort', you won't name the Predator. What's next?!"

"Have you never felt fear?"

Rose paused for a moment. She had. All of her friends called a certain dragon "The Abomination" because the mere mention of its name used to bring Rose nightmares. Remembering its name still brought back nightmares, and she didn't sleep anymore.

"Alright, that's fair," Rose replied, calming down. "I guess I can understand that. Is there anything else you know?"

"If you see it, you will die."

"Noted," Rose said, writing it down in her notebook. She turned to leave, then something occurred to her.

Carolina would be devastated if she saw this.

It shouldn't have mattered to Rose. She was perfectly happy butchering creatures if it served her purpose. But then she realized something else, the reason that it was bothering her: Her parents would be devastated. That struck a nerve. Even after her parents had died, she had tried to make them proud as best she could. Rose had discovered that following the example set by Sk'lar, Uncle Oz, and Carolina was the best way to accomplish that.

She had murdered Aragog's children, and now she felt bad about it. Unlike anyone else on this plane, Rose could fix it.

Rose took out Serendipity and power surged her.

"You can't tell anyone that I can do this," Rose said to Aragog. "If you do, I'll kill you next time."

Rose made absolutely certain that no Humans were around, then she turned to the bodies of Aragog's children. She had killed 16 of them in total before Aragog had wised up.

She pointed Serendipity at the first dead spider.

"I wish it were alive," whispered Rose in Dwarven.

The spider's legs regrew, and the creature climbed to its feet.

"How…" Aragog began, but even the ancient Acromantula didn't have the words for it. That wasn't possible! No one could bring back the dead!

"As I said, I'm no mere child," Rose replied.

A few minutes, and 135 XP later, Rose had restored all the spiders she had killed. After she finished, Rose turned to Aragog and curtsied.

"Thank you, Aragog," Rose said. "I'll see you around."

"Leave here, Rose Peta-Lorrum."

Rose skipped away through the forest, the rising sun shining light on her path.

The portrait swung open, and Hermione heard the voice of Rose.

"The castle seems so much bigger when you run out of dim doors."

"It's called 'walking', Rose," Hermione replied, still reading her book. "How was your…"

Hermione's voice trailed off when she saw her friend. Rose was covered in black goo and bits of… Were those spider legs?!

"Fun," Rose replied, seemingly ignorant to the mess covering her.

"Please tell me you didn't walk through the halls looking like that," Hermione groaned.

Rose looked down at herself.

"Is that why everyone keeps looking at me funny?"

Hermione stared at Rose in disbelief, then shook her head and sighed.

"Like I said, I already used my dim door for the day."

"Couldn't you have just used prestidigitation, which you've claimed to get as much as you want?"

Rose paused for a moment, then replied, "Yeah."

"You forgot you could do that, didn't you?"

"Maybe."

Hermione sighed. "Rose, stop going on walks."

"Then something exciting needs to hurry up and happen already!" Rose exclaimed. "I'm bored!"