A Normal Year

Sally-Anne didn't look up from her hand once on her way to the Great Hall.

Professor Babbling had shown her how to use the Shield Rune, and the two spent the rest of the time practicing until Sally-Anne was able to conjure the shield. Dinner had already started by the time they'd finished.

When she reached the Great Hall, she spotted three of her friends eating dinner. Rose was nowhere to be found.

"Hello, everyone," Sally-Anne said as she sat down. "How was your afternoon?"

"We found Luna," Ron said.

"What happened?" asked Sally-Anne.

"We found her and she was getting picked on by four Ravenclaws," Harry said. "That's how it started, then…"

"It ended with them running away shouting 'We love you, Luna'," Ron said, grinning.

"They mocked Luna about her mum," Hermione said, "and that set off Rose, who decided to throw them up on the ceiling and threaten to set them on fire."

"Where is Rose?" asked Sally-Anne.

"Don't know," Harry said.

"She stayed to talk with Luna," Hermione said. "Luna supposedly has to eat, so I'm sure they'll be back soon."

Sally-Anne collected some food for herself, having worked up an appetite practicing with the shield rune for so long. When she had gotten it, it had been just barely. Professor Babbling worked her hard, but assured her that it would be worth it in the end. It took a lot of discipline to master the shield rune, and the Ancient Runes Professor insisted that Sally-Anne was well on her way, and most people didn't get it for at least a few days.

"Sally-Anne, what's that on your hand?" asked Harry, once again reaping the benefits of enhanced senses provided by his glasses.

"What's what?" Sally-Anne asked, turning her left palm away from her friend.

Professor Babbling had told her that she hadn't been strictly following the rules when she printed the rune on the second-year's hand, so keeping it to themselves was the best idea for the moment.

"It looked like you wrote something on your hand," Harry said.

Ron and Hermione both glanced over at the dirty-blonde, but neither saw what Harry was seeing.

"It's nothing," Sally-Anne said quickly. "Just… just some notes I was taking. I didn't think to bring a notebook with me, so I had to write it down on my hand."

"Alright," Harry said.

"Why were you trying to hide it?" Hermione asked.

"It's just… er… I thought it was a little silly that I had to take notes," Sally-Anne said. "I wasn't expecting to learn anything, I thought she just wanted to talk about the dimensional prison again."

Why was lying coming so easily to her? She hated lying to her friends, but it was so easy. Was it the ribbon Rose gave her? It made it easier to talk to people, but did it make it easier for her to lie to them too? That would be awful! Sally-Anne didn't want to lie to people, especially her friends.

"Alright," Hermione said. "You're not… embarrassed by that, are you?"

"A little," Sally-Anne replied. "I didn't think I'd need to take notes, and then I was upset that I didn't have a notebook, and I don't like writing on my hand."

"You didn't have a notebook?!"

The four Gryffindors jumped as they realized that Rose had appeared next to them at the table.

"Rose, where did you come from?!" exclaimed Ron.

"Salutations!" Rose exclaimed.

Luna sat beside her, holding one of Rose's mugs in her hands.

"Hello," Luna said between sips of what was probably hot cocoa.

"Is she allowed to be here?" asked Ron.

"Rose or Luna?" asked Harry.

"The Ravenclaw," Ron said with a hint of contempt.

Sally-Anne had realized that the red-head took the house competition quite seriously, so to him it was like having the Wicked Witch of the West having tea with Glinda the Good Witch of the North.

"Am I breaking the rules?" gasped Rose. "Oh no! I'll just go turn myself into the authorities right now. I would never want to be in trouble!"

"Sarcasm noted," Hermione said. "I don't think there's anything against sitting at a different table, it just doesn't usually happen."

Hermione noticed that Ron was still staring at Luna suspiciously. She kicked him under the table.

"Ow!" whined Ron. "What was that for?!"

"Stop staring at Luna like she's going to blow up the table!" shouted Hermione. "She's not Rose!"

Rose turned to Luna. "I don't know to what they're referring, as I have never blown up a table."

"I think Hogwarts has got a wrackspurts infestation at the moment, so that might be why she's confused," Luna said in her usual, calm voice.

"Is she calling us mad?" Ron whispered.

Saturday morning, Rose and Hermione pretended not to notice Fred and George sneaking out before curfew was over.

It's not as if they'll listen if I tell them not to, Hermione told herself before returning to her book.

Since neither Rose nor Hermione needed much sleep, they had started spending time quietly in the common room.

The sun was just peeking out over the horizon, which Hermione was beginning to suspect changed every day. Not just the horizon, but the actual time itself. Some days the sun would rise earlier than it had the previous morning, rather than later, like it should be doing at that time of year.

"Where is it?!"

Rose and Hermione looked over to see Ginny coming down the stairs, frantically talking to herself.

"Where's what?" Hermione asked, looking up from her book.

"Where is it?!" Ginny exclaimed again, looking through the bookshelves.

"Are you going to tell us, or is Ref?" asked Rose.

"Who's Ref?" asked Ginny, not so much as sparing them a glance.

"Her imaginary friend that can read peoples' minds," Hermione replied, returning to her book.

Ginny abruptly stopped what she was doing and stared at Rose in disbelief, who smiled and nodded to reassure the red-head that her imaginary friend could in fact read peoples' minds.

Hermione was all for helping the young girl. It had to be tough on her, growing up with however many brothers she had, two of which were Fred and George. If Ron's inferiority complex was that bad, who knew how bad Ginny's must be.

Hermione began to count off Weasleys in her head while Ginny continued searching the common room for something.

Percy, Ron, George, Fred, Ginny, Hermione thought. Which one taught Ron chess? Charlie, right? Then there was one more. What was it? Bill! He's the oldest, I think. Wait, isn't their father's name Arthur? Doesn't that mean that it goes Arthur, Bill, Charlie? That sounds like the start of a maths problem!

"Hermione!"

Hermione snapped out of her musings and looked up at Ginny.

"Have you seen my diary?" Ginny asked again.

"The one you found in your cauldron?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah!" Ginny said. "I had it last night when I went to bed, and now it's gone."

"Only one of the girls could've taken it," Hermione said. "Boys can't get up the stairs to the girls' rooms."

"Really?" asked Ginny.

"Yeah, didn't your prefect mention that?" asked Hermione.

"No," Ginny snapped. "Look, can you help me or not?"

Hermione turned to Rose, who had her head tilted to the side as she stared up at the ceiling.

"Rose, can you find it?"

Rose summoned her wand to her hand and whispered something Hermione didn't understand.

"What did she say?" Ginny asked.

Rose lowered her wand and began to skip out of the common room.

"We'd better follow her," Hermione said, giving up on finishing her book.

She could let Ginny go with Rose, but it seemed mean to leave a first-year alone with the crimson-haired girl.

Hermione realized that she had done the same thing with Luna a week ago, but dismissed it on the grounds that Luna was already similar enough to Rose that no further damage could be done. It was for this reason that Hermione had been keeping a closer eye on the young Ravenclaw, watching for anything that seemed out of the ordinary.

Anyone could see that there was something different about Luna, which had already resulted in her getting picked on by a group of her own housemates. Hermione could understand different; she was different, after all. What she couldn't understand was the first-year's unique ability to understand Rose.

Between Hermione and Sally-Anne, the girls had a vast knowledge of fiction and non-fiction, and neither girl recognized most of the terms that Rose used. Even Professor Dumbledore didn't understand her sometimes, but Luna did. Luna understood Rose all the time. Five times in the past week the pair had started off on a conversation that made no sense to anyone but them. That couldn't be a coincidence.

Given all of this, Hermione had arrived at her current theory: Luna was from Rose's world.

"Hermione, you're lost in thought again," Rose said.

"I'm sorry," Hermione said. "What were you saying?"

Hermione looked up and found what the problem was. The three girls had found their way to a wall. Not just any wall, but a wall in the middle of a corridor.

"What are we doing?!" fumed Ginny, losing patience.

"This wall wasn't here yesterday," Rose said, looking the wall up and down. "And your diary should be behind it."

Hermione looked around the corridor, taking in her surroundings for the first time.

"Rose, are we–"

"Near the Room, yes," Rose said, pressing her ear to the wall. She knocked on it a few times, then asked, "Who put you here?"

"Is she talking to the wall?" Ginny snapped.

"Looks like it," Hermione said. "She does that."

"Really?!" shouted Ginny.

"Ginny, relax," Hermione lectured.

"No! This isn't funny! If you're not going to help, then I'll just find it on my own!"

Ginny stormed off back in the direction of Gryffindor Tower.

Hermione watched the youngest Weasley leave, then turned to Rose just in time to see the crimson-haired girl lick the wall.

"Rose, why are you licking the wall?" Hermione sighed.

"Yup, tastes like a wall," Rose said. "Best way to tell if a wall is really a wall is to taste test it."

Hermione eyed her friend. "I'm not sure that's right."

"Of course it is!" Rose said, beaming. "Alice told me that!"

"Of course she did," sighed Hermione. "Rose, your sister's weird."

"Nah, she's normal. It's everyone else that's weird!"

Hermione stared at her friend for a few more moments, then turned to the wall. "So this wall just popped up?"

"Looks like it," Rose replied. She held her finger to her face, and whispered something that sounded identical to her incantation from earlier. "It's moved."

"The diary?" asked Hermione.

"No, the wall," Rose said, her face neutral.

"Rose."

"The diary isn't behind the wall anymore," Rose said. "It's… in Ravenclaw Tower, I think."

"You know we're technically not supposed to be out of our common room," Hermione said. "I don't think it's a good idea to go much further. Actually, I'm surprised we haven't gotten caught yet."

"I'm surprised that you willingly risked getting in trouble," Rose said, grinning. "I'm so proud of you!"

"I figured it might be a little much for Ginny to be left alone with you," Hermione said.

"I am pretty great," Rose replied. "It can be a little overwhelming for new people."

"Yeah, sure," Hermione said, not all that comfortable breaking a rule. "Can we please get back to Gryffindor Tower now?"

"Fine," Rose said. "We can investigate later."

As they returned to Gryffindor Tower, Hermione remembered that she'd seen Fred and George running out of the common room.

"Do you think Fred and George took it?" Hermione asked.

"Possibly," Rose replied. "I'll ask them."

Rose broke off from her group on the way to breakfast to intercept the Weasley Twins. After they refused to cooperate, Rose stuck them on the ceiling, which convinced them that it was better to agree with her.

"We haven't got it," Fred said.

"We passed it off to one of the Ravenclaws when we realized that Ginny was on to us."

"How'd you get it in the first place?" Rose asked.

"Used our brooms," George said, grinning. "Thanks for that."

"You should be so proud of yourself for stealing from an 11-year-old," Rose said, aiming her wand at them.

"Alright, we'll get it back to her! Can we get down now?"

Rose snapped her fingers, and the boys fell to the floor.

"See that you do," Rose said before skipping to the Great Hall.

Luna joined them at meals now and then, and when she didn't, Rose sat with her at the Ravenclaw table, much to the distaste of the rest of Ravenclaw House.

Unlike the Ravenclaws, Rose had a blast. She picked up various bits of information about the Ravenclaws by sitting with them. Penelope Clearwater was a nice girl and her relationship with Percy Weasley was progressing well. In fact, they had sent each other letters almost weekly over the summer holiday, explaining why people hardly saw her boyfriend all summer. Rebecca Gamp was growing jealous of Hermione over the Gryffindor's aptitude for Arithmancy. Cho Chang, the Ravenclaw reserve Seeker, was excited that their current Seeker was graduating at the end of the year.

There was one question on the minds of all of the Ravenclaws: Why was Rose Peta-Lorrum sitting at their table?!

There was a clearing of about five feet around Rose and Luna when the girls sat at the Ravenclaw table. Both girls were happy with the space, since neither particularly liked the other Ravenclaws, and Reflectesalon could still read all of their minds, so Rose was even more happy.

Ginny was still freaking out about her diary being missing, although it turned up a few days later.

September slowly turned into October, and Rose continued to have a bad feeling. Making this worse were the several times at night when she swore she heard someone whispering her name in the halls. Her blindsight wasn't tripped by anything, and she could see perfectly through darkness, so she knew no one was there.

It wasn't that Rose was scared. She had seen horrors that none of the students could endure without going mad. Fortunately, Rose was still a shining example of sanity, just as she had always been. So it didn't scare her to hear voices, it annoyed her. She wanted to know from whom the voices originated.

One day in Transfigurations, she was attempting to piece all of this together in her mind when she heard someone calling her name again.

Looking around the room, it was undeniable that anyone had whispered her name.

"Rose."

If no one had whispered her name, then what was that?

"ROSE!"

Rose jumped as the voice suddenly got louder.

"Ms. Peta-Lorrum, are you alright?" Minerva asked, a little startled by the girl's sudden movement.

"I'm okay," Rose said. "Just startled myself."

"ROSE!"

Rose looked around again, but there was nothing there.

"ROSE! ROSE! ROSE!"

More voices joined the first, and she began to wince as they screeched her name. This wasn't the same as last year when the castle had begun to shout, but it was working its way there.

"Professor McGonagall?" Rose asked after a minute.

"Yes, Ms. Peta-Lorrum?"

"Am I still supposed to tell you when I start hearing voices?"

Minerva held back a sigh.

So much for her behaving like a normal girl.

"Yes. Are you hearing them now?"

As if in answer to her question, the crimson-haired second-year winced.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'," Minerva replied, turning to the portrait of Matron Tressa.

"Inform Poppy that Ms. Peta-Lorrum will be there shortly," Minerva said. "If she isn't there in ten minutes–"

"Three rounds."

Minerva turned to the girl. She was beginning to tremble, her reaction nearly mirroring that of the previous year.

"I'm sorry?"

"I should be there in three rounds," she replied, shakily producing her wand. "One to power surge Serendipity, one to cast deafness on myself, and a third to dim door to the Hospital Wing."

Minerva turned back to Matron Tressa. "If Ms. Peta-Lorrum isn't there when you get there, tell Poppy to run."

"Yes, Ma'am," the woman in the portrait replied, vanishing from the canvas.

All Rose had to do to keep herself calm was to focus. It wasn't like last year where she might get some information out of it, but instead it was just white noise. Shadow had reminded her last year that using deafness removed any potential for gathering information, but that wasn't here this time.

Rose closed her eyes and attempted to block out the noise. She could still hear her breathing and forced herself to focus solely on that.

"Deafness."

All at once, the sound cut out around her. She could no longer hear anything at all, but could hear Reflectesalon's voice in her head. It was calm, smooth, and soft. Compared to the screaming voices of the castle, Reflectesalon's voice felt like a soft, woolen blanket on a cold winter's night.

<Ms. Peta-Lorrum, are you alright?>

"I'm okay," Rose said. "I can't hear them anymore, but I also can't hear you, so I'm going to go to the Hospital Wing now."

<What do you mean 'You can't hear me?'> Reflectesalon relayed to her.

"I'll explain later," Rose said, excusing herself from her chair and walking to the classroom entrance.

"Stop!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed, startling many of the students. A second after she gave the order, Rose stopped walking.

"I'm not allowing you to walk out of this room without an escort, Ms. Peta-Lorrum!"

"Fair enough," Rose replied, glancing over her shoulder.

True to her word, Rose didn't walk out of the room. Instead, she burst into a thin cloud of rose petals, each of which vanished from sight as it touched the stone floor.

Shortly after Matron Tressa's portrait began raving about another incident in the Transfigurations classroom, Rose Peta-Lorrum showed up at the Hospital Wing.

"Ms. Peta-Lorrum, are you hearing voices again?" Poppy asked.

At first, the girl didn't react to Poppy. She continued to stare into space, as if she hadn't even heard her.

After a few seconds, the girl turned her head towards Poppy and replied, "Not at the moment, but I can't hear anything at the moment."

"Why don't you sit down in one of the beds and explain what happened."

"Okay," the girl of questionable health replied after another short delay. She sat down on one of the beds, bouncing on it for a few seconds as she always did.

"I began to hear voices in the middle of class today, but they were calling my name this time. It's actually been happening a lot lately, but never this loud."

"Are you hearing voices a lot?" asked Poppy.

That wasn't a good sign. One or two isolated incidents could easily be dismissed, as the Headmaster had taken a liking to the strange girl, but frequently was too much to ignore. Albus's personal feelings aside, they had to think about the students. If this girl was losing her mind, then Poppy wanted to transfer her to St. Mungo's. She was sure they'd be happy that she was sending them someone other than Neville Longbottom, if she had to send them anyone at all.

"Every now and then I'll hear someone calling my name at night," Rose said, specifically leaving out the bits about her not being in her room at the time. "But today was a lot worse. It was a lot like last year, but the voices just kept shouting my name. I don't know why yet, but I deafened myself before it got worse."

Poppy took in all of this information, staring at the girl in disbelief. It had to be some childish trick. That was the only plausible explanation for her acting this way.

"If you're deaf, how are you responding to me?"

Once again after a few second delay, the girl replied, "I can't hear you, but Ref can. He's relaying all of your words to me right now."

"Is that why it's taking you so long to reply?"

"Yup!"

Poppy eyed the girl again, then turned to another portrait in the Hospital Wing.

"Fetch Albus. Tell him it's an emergency."

"Yes, Ma'am," the elderly man in the painting replied.

Poppy wasn't sure what to believe anymore. If it had been any other student, she would've written it off as some sort of prank. She didn't really see the point to it, other than getting out of class, but that was enough for most students. If that had been the intention, then why go to the Hospital Wing? Minerva had foolishly left the girl alone to bring herself to the Hospital Wing, although how the girl had managed to get there almost as quickly as Matron Tressa was beyond Poppy. The lack of an escort had given the girl the opportunity to roam the castle freely instead of being in class, but she had dutifully gone to the Hospital Wing, which implied that something really was wrong with her.

Strangely enough, that was the part that made sense to Poppy. What didn't make sense was how the girl was reacting. The girl wasn't reacting at all like she had the previous year during a similar incident. She seemed content as she sat in her chosen bed. If the girl was deaf, how was she reacting to Poppy's words? If one of the girl's "imaginary friends" really could hear her, then how was it communicating the words back to the girl?

"What seems to be the trouble, Poppy?"

Rose and Madame Pomfrey turned to see Professor Dumbledore entering the Hospital Wing.

"Ah, Ms. Peta-Lorrum," the Headmaster said. "Is everything alright?"

After a few moments, she replied, "Castle's talking again."

That was unexpected. When Albus saw the second-year in the Hospital Wing, he simply assumed that she had begun using some other strange spell that was scaring her teachers.

Last year when Rose had heard the castle screaming at her, Albus had sensed the castle shifting uncomfortably at the same time, but he hadn't felt anything this time. That didn't bode well for the young girl from another world. In fact, that implied that she was simply going mad.

Albus tried not to assume anything about Rose Peta-Lorrum. He had met some strange creatures that resembled humans but weren't, so he was trying not to operate under the assumption that Rose was entirely human herself, despite claiming to be. Failing that, it was possible that her humans were different from their humans.

"If it's alright, I'd like to talk with Ms. Peta-Lorrum alone," Albus said to the mediwitch.

Poppy took one last look at both of them before retiring to her office for the foreseeable future.

Albus sat down on the bed next to the crimson-haired second-year.

"Rose, does this often happen in your world?" he asked.

After a few moments, Rose held up her finger, then muttered something under her breath.

"If the castle can speak, it might be able to listen," Rose said. "And to answer your question: Not usually. There are all sorts of spells for telepathic communication, or pathing, but I'm not sure what this is."

"Why are you taking so long to respond?"

"I'm currently deaf," she replied. "Ref can hear you, so he's–"

"Functioning as your ears because he can't understand the castle," Albus finished. "You did the same thing last year. What exactly is Ref?"

"He's called an 'item familiar'," Rose said. "He used to be my mum's, but she passed him onto me before she died. The bond I formed with him caused him to become intelligent, and as I grew, he grew with me. Now he can detect magic, although we discovered not your kind of magic, see and hear, and read minds. We also communicate with one another telepathically."

"Interesting," Albus said, genuinely interested by the girl's story. He was also pleased to know that even after everything he had experienced, he still had much left to learn, and Albus liked learning.

"He also gives me bonuses to XP and skills."

"That's clever, using his abilities like that," Dumbledore said.

"Thank you," Rose said, beaming. "I learned from the best!"

"From whom did you learn?"

"A lot of my tricks I learned from my uncle or my brother." She smiled. "You'd like Uncle Oz. In fact, you remind me a lot of him. He's got this aura of omniscience about him too."

"Ah, that's why you called me 'Oz' last spring," Dumbledore said. "I didn't understand that at the time, and believed it to be a reference to a Muggle film, which didn't make sense."

"What's a 'film'?"

"Precisely why I didn't think it made sense for you to reference The Wizard of Oz."

"Nah, Uncle Oz isn't a Wizard! He's an Artificer like me! Sk'lar's a Wizard!"

"I take it wizards are different in your world?"

"Completely," Rose replied. "They don't typically use wands, but they do need to study a spellbook every morning. They've got a much more limited number of castings per day than what you lot have got, which I think is unlimited."

"So long as we don't tire, we can keep casting as much as necessary."

"Sk'lar needs to memorize his spells every morning. They're far more complicated than in this world."

"Once again, interesting, but I think we need to get back to the issue at hand."

"Hold on," Rose said. She readied an action to cast deafness if she heard so much as a peep, then dismissed deafness.

The calm silence was a relief to Rose.

"All gone," she said. "And I can hear again."

<Thanks, Ref.>

<I'm happy to be of assistance, Rose.>

"I'm glad you are alright, but I'm not sure that it was the castle you heard."

Rose cocked her head. "Why not?"

"Because last year both the house-elves and I were able to feel something amiss at the same time that you heard the castle," Professor Dumbledore explained. "But neither of us felt anything this time."

"What about on Hallowe'en?" asked Rose. "I heard something going on then, too."

"That's the other problem," Dumbledore said. "We didn't feel anything then either, but I assume what you heard was the castle complaining about whatever it was you killed and destroyed."

"The abomination of nature?"

"The dragon, yes."

Rose scowled, but Professor Dumbledore ignored her distaste.

"So you're saying what I heard on Hallowe'en was a reaction to that thing?"

"I believe so," Professor Dumbledore replied. "If that is the case, then it's possible that something else is moving around in the castle right now."

"You don't think it's another dragon, do you?" Rose asked, ignoring the bad taste in her mouth left by the word "dragon".

"I would hope not," Professor Dumbledore said. "But Rose, I will be honest with you. If nothing shows up, then I cannot vouch for you. I will have no proof that the voices you heard were anything other than imaginary."

Rose nodded.

"And I don't mean to scare you, but many of the staff members are asking for you to be removed."

"Not Professor Snape, though. He and I are best friends!"

Albus nearly laughed. Severus had registered almost as many complaints about Rose last year that the entire student body had registered about Severus.

"I'm not going to point any fingers," Albus said, keeping himself collected. "I just want you to understand how delicate the situation already is."

"I show up from nowhere, just so happen to be in Harry Potter's class, pull off magic that no one has ever seen here before, and have random psychotic episodes," Rose said, reciting something Carolina had mentioned to her. "Carolina pointed out how bad I must seem. She's a lot better with people than… everyone."

"Then you aren't surprised that the staff must want you removed?"

"Not at all," Rose said. "According to Carolina, it would be strange if they didn't want me removed, and Uncle Oz agreed with her, so it must be true!"

"I'm glad you understand," Albus said, rising from his spot on the bed. "Thank you for informing Professor McGonagall immediately."

"You're welcome!"

"I'm sure you'll want to tell your friends about this, so I'll let you talk with them."

Rose tilted her head in confusion.

"Your friends have mentioned that you have conversations with your 'imaginary friends' from time to time," Albus informed the confused "child". "Not directly to me, but they expressed concern about it to Ms. Nertlyn, who informed Professor McGonagall, who informed me."

"Oh," Rose said.

"I figured that must be you talking to your friends back home, most likely through… what did you call it? 'Pathing'?"

"Yup!" Rose exclaimed cheerfully. "Telepathic network that links us across planes! On the same plane, we get the status of all the members! It's kethé!"

"I see," Albus said. Was it possible for anyone on their "plane" to speak with her friends back in her world? Albus filed it away in his mind desk for a later date. He did have the desire to speak with her "imaginary friends", as he figured the experience would be quite interesting.

"Until the next time, Rose," he said. "Hopefully, we'll next bump into each other under better circumstances."

"Or may we meet on the same side in combat!" Rose exclaimed, beaming.

This time, it was Albus's turn to be confused, but he quickly dismissed it. He had no idea what Rose's world was like, so for all he knew, combat was the only way to survive. Maybe her world was in a constant state of warfare. Her parents were dead, so maybe orphans weren't uncommon.