Summer Comes to an End

The rest of the day was uneventful. It was almost relaxing for Hermione and Harry, who were both enjoying the feeling of being normal for an afternoon.

When they got back to the Burrow, Mrs. Weasley insisted that the Perks and Granger families stay for dinner. Dan, being a proficient cook, offered to help prepare the food. Molly was happy for the help, and Ginny was happy not to have to help her mum prepare the food. It wasn't that Ginny was the only other female in the house, but rather that she was the youngest, and was therefore usually left alone while her brothers escaped. This meant that Ginny often ended up helping her mum in the kitchen.

"One day, you'll thank me," her mum said. "Men love a woman who knows how to cook."

That was her mum's reason why she should enjoy it, but Ginny didn't care what men did or didn't love. She was eleven! The only boy in whom she had any interest was Harry, and he didn't know she existed, and she was pretty sure that cooking wasn't going to fix that.

She had learned from Hermione and Sally-Anne that Harry loved Quidditch, so she was going to practice so she could impress him. If only Ron had been more willing to share, she would've already known about it months ago, and she could've been practicing at home!

Ginny raced outside to join her brothers, where they promptly crushed her dreams by telling her that she couldn't play with them.

"We've already got two teams of two," Ron said. "It would be uneven if you joined. Besides, we haven't got enough brooms."

Ginny began to protest, but was cut off by a new voice.

"Well, then, it's a good thing I brought my spare."

They all looked over to see none other than Cedric Diggory walking towards them, a pair of brooms slung over his back.

"I saw you lot out here the other day, but didn't get a chance to come by," he said. "You mind if I join? That way, Ginny could play too."

"What are you doing here, Cedric?" Hermione asked.

"I live around here," Cedric said, motioning behind him. "I come by now and then to play Quidditch with the guys."

"I guess you can join," Ron said, a little annoyed that he had to let his baby sister play with them.

"Why don't Harry and I play on a team with Ginny?" Cedric suggested. "I think our skill will be more than enough to make up for Ginny's lack of experience." He turned to Harry, and held out his hand. "Speaking of which, I'm not sure we've been properly introduced. Cedric Diggory."

"Harry Potter," Harry replied, shaking Cedric's hand.

"Your skill?" asked Sally-Anne.

"Cedric's the Hufflepuff reserve Seeker," Hermione explained. "That means he still practices with the team, and replaces the Seeker if necessary."

"This is our Seeker's last year," Cedric said, grinning. "With any luck, I'll be meeting you, Harry, out on the Pitch next year!" He walked over and introduced himself to Sally-Anne, whom he had not met either, then turned to Hermione. "Hey, Hermione. How's your summer been?"

"Interesting," Hermione said. Laughing, she added, "A little more than I'd like, actually."

"Rose hasn't been giving you trouble, has she?"

"Me?" Rose gasped in shock. "Trouble? Never!"

Sally-Anne snickered and Hermione rolled her eyes.

So, Ginny and the boys played Quidditch while Sally-Anne, Hermione, and Rose sat on the sidelines and paid little attention to the match.

Hermione and Sally-Anne talked about the events of earlier that day. Hermione tried to explain why she thought Gilderoy Lockhart was so great, and Sally-Anne failed to understand.

Unseen by the other girls, Rose had wandered off into the field, because she had noticed the girl with pale blonde hair again.

The girl was wandering around with no clear direction, her head turned toward the sky.

For what is she searching? Rose wondered. Let's go find out!

Rose left her friends to their games and chatting and skipped over to the new girl.

"Salutations!" Rose greeted the girl, joining her in looking up at the sky. "For what are you looking?"

"Dapperblimps," the girl said. "They swoop down out of the sky, but usually only occupy the air around lakes. I thought I saw one earlier, so I came outside to look for it."

Rose recorded this in her notebook, then asked, "What do they look like?"

"Like large puffer fish with wings," the girl replied.

Rose also wrote this down, then turned her gaze back to the sky. "Is that why they usually hang out around lakes?"

"I think so," the girl said. Rose noticed that her voice was serene, almost dream-like. It reminded her of Bowie's friend Veshraolea from back home.

"My name's Rose," Rose said. "Rose Peta-Lorrum."

"Luna Lovegood."

"Luna Lovegood," Rose repeated. She grinned. "Kethé! There's an island on De'rok called 'Luna'." Her grin turned into a frown. "Well, until it was burned down by dragons."

"That's unfortunate," Luna replied. "Were there wrackspurts involved?"

"I'm not sure," Rose said, tilting her head while still looking at the sky. "What's a wrackspurt?"

"It crawls inside your head and makes your brain go fuzzy. Many horrible catastrophes are caused by wrackspurts, since they like to crawl into people with a lot of power."

"Oh. There might have been wrackspurts involved, then. I'm sure the Phantom's brain was fuzzy when he sent those dragons to kill my friends."

"Dad taught me a charm to remove them," Luna said. "Just in case I come across them."

"That sounds useful," Rose said. "I know several people who could do to have a less fuzzy head. Normally, I just solve it with divine enlightenment or owl's insight."

"What are those?"

"Divine enlightenment gives a +10 enhancement bonus to Intelligence, and owl's insight gives a +10 insight bonus to Wisdom."

"Those sound useful, too," Luna replied. "Where did you learn those?"

"My big brother invented divine enlightenment, and I picked up owl's insight from the Guardians of the Green. Druids always know the best spells."

"Mum liked inventing spells."

Rose paused for a moment as Reflectesalon relayed some information to her, then exclaimed, "Kethé!"

"What does that mean?"

"It's Draconic for 'shiny'! What's your–"

"Rose!"

Rose glanced over her shoulder towards the Burrow to see Hermione running over to her and Luna.

"Salutations, Hermione!" Rose greeted her friend. "This is my new friend Luna!"

"Hello," Luna said, finally taking her eyes off the sky. "I don't think I see the dapperblimp."

"That's alright," Rose replied cheerfully. "Maybe we'll find it tomorrow!"

"What's a dapperblimp?" asked Hermione.

"They look like puffer fish with wings and swoop down out of the sky, usually around lakes," Rose said.

Hermione looked from her pale friend, to her pale friend, and back. Dapperblimp was new on her, and she had the worst feeling that the other girl was the one that coined it.

Please don't let there be another one.

"Anyway, it's time for dinner, and even though you don't eat, we'd appreciate your company."

So we can keep an eye on you and you don't go causing trouble.

"Okay!" Rose replied, turning to Luna. "I'll see you later, Luna!"

"Farewell, Rose," Luna replied.

"Who was that?" Hermione asked.

"Luna," Rose replied. "My new friend."

"You mentioned that. Is she from around here?"

"Probably. She talks with Sister Weasley sometimes. I like her."

"Ginny or Luna?"

"Luna. She didn't ask what 'wisdom' or '+10' meant, and I'm getting tired of answering stupid questions all the time."

A year ago, Hermione would've tried arguing. Now she knew it was a waste of time explaining to Rose that those weren't stupid questions around there.

"I'm glad you're making friends," Hermione said.

"Me too!"

As they reached the Burrow, the boys and Ginny were still playing Quidditch. Seeing that Ginny appeared to be gaining proficiency at Quidditch, Rose made a note of this, then put away her notebook.

"Look out!"

Someone (Ron) had missed the Quaffle, which left it heading straight for Hermione.

Rose thought fast and shoved Hermione out of the way, putting herself in the path of the ball instead of her friend. Instead of moving out of the way herself, Rose simply watched as the Quaffle approached her, unconcerned about the high velocity projectile moving toward her.

FWOOSH!

The wind around Rose suddenly picked up and hurled the Quaffle to the ground, leaving Rose and Hermione both completely unharmed. Rose watched as the Quaffle ricocheted off the ground, then grinned.

"That's how that works!" she exclaimed. "Kethé!"

"What just happened?" Ginny asked as she and the others reached the ground.

"Stormrage," Rose replied. "Sets up a permanent wind wall around me, making me completely immune to thrown weapons and projectile ranged attacks."

Cedric bent down and helped Hermione up off the ground. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm okay," she said. "I've been hit by worse, I guess."

"So no matter what," Ron said, "you can't be hurt by something thrown at you?"

"Yup!"

"What about a bullet?" Sally-Anne asked.

"What's a bullet?"

"A piece of lead fired out of a gun at high velocity," Hermione explained. "Guns are dangerous because a bullet could easily kill a normal person."

Rose shrugged. "I don't know. It sounds like a projectile to me, so it shouldn't be able to breach it."

"You're immune to bullets," Hermione commented. "Why am I not surprised?"

Rose just beamed.

After dinner, the girls returned to Ginny's room to collect their belongings. While going through her own things, Ginny found something she didn't recognize.

"Hermione, is this yours?" Ginny asked, holding up a black book.

"No, why?" Hermione asked, taking the book from her. She rifled through it, but the entire book was blank.

"I found it in my cauldron," Ginny replied. "But I don't remember putting it there."

"Maybe someone wanted to give you a gift," Sally-Anne suggested.

"Rose, can you find out who put it in?" Hermione asked. She figured it was a long shot, but Rose had tons of tricks up her sleeves. Hermione figured she might as well ask, since, as per usual, the crimson-haired girl was paying no attention to what was going on around her, and instead staring at Ron's pet rat that had entered the room.

Rose turned to look at the book, then, without saying a word, grabbed it out of Ginny's hands.

"Oi!" she exclaimed. "That's mine!"

Rose ignored her, and, after a brief glance at the fleeing rat, began turning the book over in her hands, staring at it intently.

"What's she doing?" Ginny asked.

"Not sure," Hermione replied. "Probably another one of her tricks."

After about a minute, Rose said, "Human."

"What?" asked Sally-Anne.

After another 60 seconds, all of which Hermione counted out, Rose added, "Male."

"Is that who put the book in my cauldron?" asked Ginny.

Slowly, Hermione replied, "It sounds like that's what she's doing, but I'm not sure."

How was she doing that? Sally-Anne had seen Rose perform some extraordinary feats, but this one was new on her. Was she determining information about the book's previous owner? Was she getting all of this just by looking at the book?

"Twelve years old."

Ginny gasped. She knew it! She knew that Harry had put that book in her cauldron! He was being nice to her, but was probably just too shy to admit it! It was a dream come true! Harry Potter had given her a gift!

"It was Harry!" she blurted out.

"Why do you think it was him?" Sally-Anne asked a little more defencively than she had intended. "What if it was Ron?"

"Ron never does anything nice for me," Ginny shot back. "It had to have been Harry!"

Ginny was so excited that she didn't hear Rose mutter "Neutral evil."

"What was that?" Hermione asked.

Rose didn't reply.

"Rose what did you just say?" Hermione asked. "I'm almost certain I heard the word 'evil'."

For another minute, Rose didn't say anything, but Ginny took up the time with excited chatter.

"Gained it when it was given to him, lost it when he dumped it in Ginny's cauldron."

Rose finally looked up at them and handed Ginny the book. Ginny hastily grabbed it from Rose, squealing with excitement.

"Rose, did you just do?" Sally-Anne asked her.

Rose held up her hands. "One component of my gloves is a set of gloves of object reading. I just read the psychic impressions from the book left there by its previous owner." She began to count off on her fingers. "In order, I listed race, gender, age, alignment, and how they gained and lost the book."

"What's alignment?" Hermione asked.

"The alignment chart," Rose explained. "It goes in two dimensions, with one axis being the good/evil axis, and the other is the lawful/chaotic axis. I'm chaotic good, which means I do what I like, but usually have good intentions."

"Sounds about right," Hermione said. "What did you say the old owner's alignment was?"

"Neutral evil," Rose said. "But I also said 12-year-old male, so that's a little redundant."

"Do you know what Harry's alignment is?" Sally-Anne asked.

"He doesn't care about the rules, but doesn't actively try to break them, so I'd say he's neutral on the lawful/chaotic axis. He ran in to face Professor Quirrell not because it was the right thing to do, but because he wanted to save himself, which suggests a degree of self-centeredness. However, he did come back to help Professors Snape and McGonagall, and myself, which suggests a good heart, so I'd peg him as neutral, maybe neutral evil, assuming you lot actually fall into the categories."

"What about me?" Hermione asked. The idea of these alignments had sparked her interest, if nothing else, because she wanted to know how she'd rate.

"You're definitely lawful," Rose said. "You actively try to follow the rules, and have a decent degree of discipline, especially for a 12-year-old, so definitely lawful. I'm not sure where you fall exactly on the good/evil axis, but I would guess lawful neutral."

Rose turned to Sally-Anne. "Sally-Anne, you're easy to evaluate. You're neutral good, since you don't tend to follow the rules as much as Hermione, but you've selflessly risked your life on more than one occasion for your friends."

"Oh," Hermione said. "I guess I was hoping that I'd be… well, good."

"It's alright!" Rose exclaimed. "There's plenty of time for character development! Besides, I'm not positive on any of those assessments. It's all really vague, so you've just got to guess most of the time."

"Then what's the point?" Hermione asked.

"Some spells are impossible to cast without the right mindset," Rose explained. "So they force you to think differently than you might otherwise. The alignment systems were developed in an effort to determine how people would fare."

"This seems awfully well thought out for you," Sally-Anne said. "No offence."

"None taken," Rose replied, beaming. "Ref gave me a lot of the information, and Carolina explained most of it to me once. Most of my information regarding habits of people come from her!"

Ginny was paying no attention to any of this. Instead, she had already started writing in her new diary that Harry had given her.

The rest of the summer went by without any trouble. Rose animated the duct tape golem, which not only stayed intact, to her delight, but caused no trouble for anyone, to Hermione's delight.

"Don't worry, Ducky will behave itself," Rose said as she and Hermione were leaving for school.

"Rose, it's 'duct tape', not 'duck tape'," Hermione said.

"So I can't call it 'Ducky'?"

"You can, I guess," Hermione said. "Can't you come up with a better name than 'Ducky'? You've got Reflectesalon, Intelligencer, Serendipity; Why not something better?"

"But I like ducks."

"Of course you do," Hermione sighed.

"How about Anatidae?" asked Mrs. Hermione's Mum. "It's the family ducks belong to."

"We could call it 'Ana' for short," Mr. Hermione's Dad added.

"Okay!" Rose exclaimed. "Good idea!"

As they approached the platform, Hermione hugged both of her parents.

"Stay safe, Sweetheart," her dad said.

"Let us know if there are any problems," her mum added.

"I'm sure things will go better this year," Hermione said. "Gilderoy Lockhart's going to be the Defence Professor, so there shouldn't be anything to worry about."

Rose turned around and curtsied to Hermione's parents.

"Thank you very much for your hospitality."

"You're welcome, Rose," Mrs. Hermione's Mum said.

"Take care of Hermione for us," Mr. Hermione's Dad said.

"I will!" Rose exclaimed, saluting. "You can count on me!"

As the two of them watched the girls go, Dan said, "I might actually miss her."

"Which one?" Emma asked.

"Both."

"Don't worry," Emma said. "They'll look out for one another, and I'm sure we'll be just fine with that golem Rose left us."

Hermione made the mistake of letting Rose pick where they sat on the train, so they ended up in the last compartment. Sally-Anne joined them shortly, then Luna and Neville, the latter of whom sat in the compartment across the way from them.

Ginny showed up a few minutes before the train began to start, looking like she had run the whole way there.

"Are you alright?" Sally-Anne asked.

"I forgot something, so we had to go back," Ginny panted.

"Where are your brother and Harry?" Hermione asked.

"They were right behind me," Ginny replied, taking a seat beside Neville. "I'm not sure what happened to them."

Hermione began to worry. They were going to miss the train if they didn't hurry up.

A few minutes later, the train began with a lurch, and there was still no sign of the boys.

"They're missing the train!" gasped Sally-Anne.

"Where are they?" asked Hermione.

Rose held her finger to her face and muttered something Hermione didn't understand. She was sure she picked out the words "Ronald Weasley", but that was all she caught.

"They're still at the barrier," Rose said. "I can get them here no problem."

"Rose, wait!" Hermione exclaimed. "They're probably surrounded by hundreds of people. If they suddenly vanish, people might notice."

"People never seem to notice when people vanish through the brick column that hides the entrance to Platform 9¾," Luna said.

"Hermione," Rose said, grinning at Luna, "is there something special about the barrier that prevents other people from noticing it?"

"I think I felt a high concentration of wrackspurts around the barrier, so that might be why."

"Let me think," Hermione said. "Maybe, but I can't–"

"Ayeth Thrana."

Hermione felt a familiar rush of information as Rose used divine enlightenment on her. She was suddenly able to remember every piece of information about the platform, including the enchantments on the entrance. She could also remember the exact time at which she had awoken every day that summer, what she had eaten, and how annoying Rose had been.

"Platform 9¾ is protected by a barrier that appears to Muggles as a simple brick column. However, when a user of magic runs at the pillar, they are able to access the platform from which the Hogwarts Express will take students to the school. This portal is protected by a ward that causes other people to disregard it, paying no mind to any people near it, and please warn me before you do that."

"That was amazing!" Ginny exclaimed.

Rose grinned, then expended a third charge on Serendipity for the spell sending.

<Cohort, you've got ten rounds to get yourself and Harry back to the platform entrance.>

"Hold up," Ron said, stopping partway through the station.

"What is it?" Harry asked.

"It's Rose," Ron said. "She says to go back to the platform entrance."

Any other day, Ron would have questioned why he had just heard Rose's voice in his head, but this wasn't any other day. The barrier had just sealed itself shut, locking him and Harry out of the platform. Ron didn't even think it could do that. More importantly, why had it done that?

"But the entrance doesn't work," Harry said. "We've got to find another way to get to school."

"But then why tell us to get back?" Ron asked.

They couldn't get through the portal, although neither boy knew why. But then why would Rose ask them to go back? Wait, she didn't say to try to get through it; she just said get to it.

"Come on," Ron said, grabbing a hold of his best friend. "We've got to get back. I think I know what she's going to do."

"What?"

"I think she's going to pull us through the portal," Ron said, pushing his way through the crowd. What was a round, again? He vaguely remembered that it was some strange unit of time from Roseland, but didn't know what it meant.

Why did he have to keep doing the thinking? He didn't mind the logic, but remembering random facts was supposed to be Hermione's job. Why did they keep getting separated from the rest of the group? What was it Rose always said? Don't split the party? Ron was beginning to understand why.

Nearly a minute later, they arrived back at the portal.

"Now what?" asked Harry.

"I don't–" Ron began.

The next thing the boys knew, they were on the Hogwarts express, in the middle of the aisle.

"What?!" Ron asked. "Did you just apparate us?"

"Teleport," Rose said. "Same basic thing."

"I thought you were just gonna pull us through or something," Ron said.

"I did!"

"I think he meant physically pull him through, Rose," Hermione said.

Neville and Ginny both stared at the group in amazement.

"Is this normal for her?" Neville asked. "I know she says weird stuff, but that's… What'd she do?"

"If I had to take a guess," Hermione said, "she located Harry and Ron, sent a message to them to tell them to get back to the platform, then teleported them on board."

"Makes sense to me," Luna said.

Hermione began to grow worried. Since when did anything Rose do make sense to her to the point where she could explain it to other people? Had spending the summer with her friend really taken that much of a toll on her? Was she finally beginning to crack?

Hermione's impending panic attack was subdued when she realized that divine enlightenment was still active on her.

Unlike last year, they were not escorted by Hagrid when they reached Hogwarts, but instead they were led by Professor McGonagall to a bunch of carriages. Hermione had been wondering how the entire school had reached the Great Hall before them, so an alternate route would make sense, as would not being delayed by Professor McGonagall explaining the rules to them.

Ron, already knowing most of the workings of Hogwarts from his five older brothers, had no such questions, but what he didn't know was what was pulling the carriages.

"Hermione, what are those?" Ron asked pointing at the unknown creatures.

They almost looked like horses, except without skin or fur. It wasn't like a horse skeleton, but almost like a hairless, sickly horse with bat wings.

"That's a good question," she replied.

Ron turned to his brothers. "Fred, George?"

"What do you mean?" asked George.

"The carriages pull themselves," said Fred.

"I'm looking at some rather compelling evidence that says otherwise," Hermione said.

Fred and George exchanged glances, then looked at the carriages. Nope, there was certainly nothing there.

"They're called Thestrals," Rose said, skipping cheerfully up to one of them. She began to stroke its neck, which the Thestral appeared to enjoy.

"How do you know?" Sally-Anne asked, looking nervously at the creatures.

"The visibility mechanics of the Thestrals interested me," she said, patting the creature's snout. "They're only visible to people who've seen death, but all the books about them don't explain what that means. The most descriptive any reference gets is that a person must have witnessed death, and 'fully accepted, understood and internalized the concept'."

"Uh huh," Ron said, still cautiously surveying the Thestrals.

"What I found most interesting was that no one seems to know how to categorize 'death'," Rose continued. "Obviously, it must be more significant than killing a mosquito or NPC, since everybody kills those."

Hermione opened her mouth to protest, but reminded herself that there was still no point. Rose hadn't killed any NPCs recently, so Hermione chose to focus on that instead of chastising Rose for killing NPCs in general.

"Rose, if I might interrupt," Sally-Anne said. "Why don't we get in one of the carriages before they all leave?"

So the six of them crammed into a carriage, with Rose sitting between Hermione and Sally-Anne on one side, and Ron, Neville, and Harry on the other.

"Sorry," Neville said as the carriage started to move.

"What?" Harry asked, glad that Rose was still good at drawing attention away from him. He was already getting tired of Ginny acting nervous around him, which she had been doing all summer. It had grown old fast, since it just served to remind him that he was different from everyone else, even here. Why couldn't he have been a normal boy with a normal life?

"All of you can see them, so you must have seen someone die," he said.

"Nah, it was just Quirrell," Rose said.

"What about you?" Sally-Anne asked.

"My grandfather," Neville said. "He died a few years back."

"I'm sorry," Sally-Anne said.

The carriages pulled them into the castle, and they all went to the Great Hall for the sorting. While everyone sat and watched the Sorting take place, Rose recorded everyone's name and into which house they were sorted.

She wasn't surprised when Ginny was sorted into Gryffindor, but was a little disappointed when Luna was sorted into Ravenclaw. Her disappointment turned into worry when she realized that Luna had been sorted into Ravenclaw. Rose had specifically asked not to be sorted into Ravenclaw because it was the house of smart people, and smart people had a tendency to feel threatened by other smart people. In Rose's experience, said smart people would lash out when threatened.

Rose clenched her fist as the thought passed through her head. She had never questioned why Alice was so nice to her. The pink-haired girl was kind, and Rose had needed a friend at the time, so she just left it at that, but now Rose began to realize that it had probably made her sister angry to see people harassing Rose about her parents being dead.

Like Rose had been, Alice was an orphan. Her parents had died not out exploring, not trying to fight back, but minding their own business. They had died right in their own home during an attack on their town. Alice had learned to fight out on her own, since it was all she could do to survive. She began stealing food, since she had nothing else.

One day, Rose's future big sister had stolen from the right person: Professor Ozerl. He had caught her, but instead of turning her over to the authorities, he gave her more food and a warm bed, because Uncle Oz was amazing like that. From that point on, Oz had looked out for Alice, pointing her in the direction of an order of Abjurant Champions with whom Alice had trained.

Rose smiled, making a note to contact her family that evening when she got the chance.

On their way out of the Great Hall, Rose broke off from the main group.

"I'll catch up with you later," she called back to her friends. "I've got something I need to grab first!"

Rose ran off down the hallway, heading straight for the Room of Requirement. It occurred to her that she should start walking in circles first to confuse anyone following her. After all, she didn't want people knowing about the Room.

She paced back and forth in front of where she knew the door to be, and after the third time, it appeared.

Rose ran inside and hugged Inar. She had missed her little minion that summer, plus he had something for her.

Inar handed Rose her ring of greater sustenance, which had an additional quality to it.

"A ring of fire command," Rose said, slipping the ring onto her finger. "Burning hands at will, flame strike twice a week. It's gonna be great!"

Sure, it would now take a week for the ring to re-attune to her, so she would continue to require a full eight hours of rest, but at least she didn't need to eat. It was part of the reason that the ring had remained untouched until now. Until a few months ago, Rose would have needed to eat and sleep without it, but with veil of undeath covering that, a ring of sustenance was actually redundant. The only benefit it now provided was requiring less rest than she'd need otherwise.

Rose held out her hand, aiming it at a conveniently empty wall, and activated the ring. A burst of flame shot out of her outstretched hand, creating a cone of fire. After the flames faded, a scorch mark was left behind on the wall, marking the place where the flames had once been.

Rose looked at her gloved hand and began to laugh. She laughed for a solid six minutes before returning to her room for the night.