Chapter 16: Winter is Upon Us
Poppy Pomfrey was having a good day. It was Saturday afternoon, and the entire Hospital Wing was empty. That meant that all throughout the castle, each and every student was in good health. Not one single student had a cold, or was ill, or injured, or having a mental breakdown of some sort. Not only did this mean that Poppy got some peace and quiet, it meant that she had done her job well, and she took pride in knowing that.
At least, that was the case, right up until she saw Alex Nertlyn escorting Rose Peta-Lorrum into the Hospital Wing.
Not again, she thought to herself. If the girl was having yet another mental episode, then Poppy was going to urge Albus to transfer the girl to St. Mongo's immediately. She knew that the Headmaster liked the girl, for whatever strange, Albusy reason, but the young Gryffindor needed help.
"Good afternoon, Madame Pomfrey," Alex greeted her politely. "I'm sorry to bother you, but a sizable portion of Gryffindor House and I are all concerned about Rose's well-being."
"Is she having another–" Poppy stopped when she noticed the crimson-haired girl's face. It was far more pale than normal. Sure, the girl was a little on the pale side normally, but today her face looked sickly.
"Are you alright?" Poppy asked.
"Nineteen."
"Pardon?"
"You are the nineteenth person to ask me that today," the girl replied, sounding slightly irritable.
"Really?" Alex asked.
Rose began to count on her fingers. "Ronald, Hermione, Harry, Sally-Anne, Neville, Percy, Alex, Professor McGonagall, Professor Dumbledore, Professor Sprout, Professor Vector." She sighed, then muttered, "Last time I go to the Teachers' Table." Continuing, she said, "Fred, George, Hannah, Susan, Maxwell, Justin, and Ellie."
Noticing the looks on either of her companions' faces, Rose added, "We ran into Hufflepuffs on the way here."
"You are rather pale, Dear," Poppy said.
"And you weren't yesterday," added the prefect.
"I don't know why everyone's worrying," Rose said. "I'm telling you, I'm fine."
"Rose, please at least let Madame Pomfrey look you over," Alex said. "Just to be safe."
"Fine," Rose huffed, and hopped up on one of the beds. She grinned a little as she bounced on it.
"I'll need you to hold still for a moment, Dear," Poppy said. She waved her wand over the young Gryffindor, muttering a few charms as she did. A basic suite of analysis charms should be enough for whatever was causing the girl to be that pale.
As she received the results from her charms, Poppy stared at the girl. That didn't make any sense. Poppy checked the girl's blood pressure, but according to her results, she didn't have a blood pressure level. According to her charms, the first-year was so pale because… no, that couldn't be possible.
Her heart wasn't beating.
Rose Peta-Lorrum's heart wasn't beating.
Keep it together, Poppy. It's probably just some sort of trick. It wouldn't be the first strange thing this girl has done.
It was possible to fool the analysis charms that Poppy was using, although it seemed inconceivable that a first-year could do it, but to be safe, Poppy went for the old fashioned approach. She placed her middle and fore fingers against the girl's neck, but sure enough, there was no heartbeat. On top of that, the girl's skin was colder than normal, and Poppy was fairly certain that she hadn't seen the girl take a breath since sitting down.
"Are you finished yet?" Rose asked. "Your hand is kinda cold."
How can you even tell? Poppy thought, removing her fingers from Rose's neck.
"I can still feel temperature differences just fine," Rose explained. "I'm not immune to temperature effects. That would be ridiculous."
Yeah, that would be ridiculous, thought Alex.
Did she just read my mind? thought Poppy.
"Normally, I don't mind explaining everything," Rose said, "but today, I'm tired of explaining everything to everyone, so I'm just gonna let you ponder that one for yourself. In the meantime, can I go? Please?"
Poppy stared at the girl, and remembered what Albus had told her a few days ago.
If she does anything abnormal, please notify me at once.
Her heart's not beating, she thought. How's that for abnormal, Albus?
"Please finish your internal dialog soon," Rose sighed irritably. "I'm bored!"
Poppy ran into her office, and threw open a desk drawer. She grabbed a mirror from it, then stuck her head outside. There were a few ideas that she had as to why the girl was like this. Top of the list: Vampire.
She looked through the mirror, but could see the girl just fine. She had a reflection, which probably meant not a vampire. Poppy returned to where the girl was sitting.
"You may leave," Poppy said, before thinking anything else. This girl was starting to unnerve her.
The… Thing beamed at her, and happily skipped off out of the Hospital Wing.
"Madame Pomfrey?" Alex asked. "What is it?"
"That girl hasn't got a heartbeat," Poppy said shakily. "If you'll excuse me, Dear, I need to go find the Headmaster."
"Okay," Alex said.
No heartbeat? thought Alex as she left the Hospital Wing. That's weird even for Rose.
"Albus, I know why Rose Peta-Lorrum is so pale," Poppy said once she reached Albus's office.
"Why is that, Poppy?" asked Albus.
He was a little concerned about the Mediwitch. She had arrived in his office looking like she had just seen a ghost, or rather something they didn't see every day.
"Her heart's not beating. She's got no blood pressure either."
"That is a little troubling," he replied. "There aren't many explanations for that."
Had it been any other student, Albus would have had the student quarantined immediately, and mobilized the staff and house-elves on a vampire or necromancer hunt, but this was Rose Peta-Lorrum, to whom strange events just happened.
"I can see her reflection just fine, so she isn't a vampire."
"That's promising," Albus said, folding his hands in front of him. "Thank you for informing me, Poppy."
Poppy stared at him for a moment.
"Is that it?" she asked. "Just–"
"For now, yes," Albus replied. "As you said, she's not a vampire, and she's far too intelligent to be an inferius. There are several, less likely causes for her condition, but I believe the simplest explanation here is that she has used another of her unique spells. Given that the girl has lived on her own for some time, it wouldn't surprise me if her accidental magic caused her to develop more bizarre spells."
Even though Albus himself didn't believe that, he had learned how to sell ideas properly in order to calm down his friends. It was a sufficient explanation for Poppy, who left his office not a minute later.
As Poppy exited his office, Albus wondered if there were an easier way of communicating with the first-year. He didn't like conferences via Patronus, but he also didn't want to be calling the girl into his office every five minutes when she decided to scare half the staff and students.
"I'm fine!" the girl had told him earlier when her friends had dragged her to the Teachers' Table during breakfast. "It's just veil of undeath!"
Assuming that veil of undeath was some sort of spell, it probably made the girl appear to be undead. He wasn't sure what the point of that was, unless it also gave her some traits of undead. Undead were immune to a variety of spells, so perhaps that was the reason for her using it. With no blood flow, the now-pale young girl was probably immune to most toxins, at the very least.
Interesting.
Thursday rolled around, and people had slowly begun to stop asking Rose why she was so pale. She was particularly excited about today, because today was Flight Class. And she was prepared.
"Up!"
The broom floated up to her as her unseen servant obediently placed it in her hand.
<Thank you, Smithy.>
<Of course, Ma'am.>
She wasn't sure what the logic behind allowing it to communicate with her was, but all Smithy ever said was "Yes, Ma'am." or "Of course, Ma'am." Rose made a mental note to ask Sk'lar about it later. It could be interesting.
"Good to see you finally got it, Peta-Lorrum!" Madame Hooch barked at her.
Rolanda Hooch didn't understand this girl. Ignoring the standing "Report to me if she does something strange" order from Albus, Peta-Lorrum was a fairly normal girl. Not only that, but she was competent at flying. Sure, the crimson-haired girl didn't seem to care much for it, but she was decent enough at it. Despite this, she could never get her broom into her hand.
What did concern her was the maniacal laughter that was now being emitted from the girl.
"Settle down, Peta-Lorrum, it's not that funny!"
There was another aspect of the girl that Rolanda found troubling: Why was she so pale?
November quickly changed into December. Rose found little of interest to her, apart from Sally-Anne's Birthday on the 23rd of November. She did begin to notice something that she categorized as "weird".
"What's that?" she asked Hermione one morning.
"What's what?"
"That," Rose replied, pointing out the window. "That white stuff falling from the sky."
Hermione looked out, and saw snow falling down. It was early December, so it was to be expected. It was certainly cold enough.
"You mean snow?" Hermione asked.
"Oh! It is snow," Rose said. "What's it doing here?"
Hermione blinked. This was a new one on her. Where had Rose lived that it didn't snow?
"Erm," she said. "Falling?"
"Obviously, but why here?" Rose asked. "We're not– Oh! Does it fall everywhere on this plane?"
"What do you mean 'plane'?" asked Hermione. "As in, 'plane of existence'?"
Hermione had once read a book about Multiverse Theory, but only remembered the phrase 'plane of existence' from it, and little else. It was something about other dimensions or planes. Is that what Rose meant? Was she from another dimension? How was that even possible? If that were possible with magic, why weren't there other people like Rose? Or were there, and it was like Muggles and aliens (allegedly), and they were just kept a secret?
"Hermione."
Hermione snapped out of her mental analysis and looked at Rose. The pale girl was looking at the young Gryffindor expectantly.
"You in there?"
"Yeah," she said quickly. "Er, sorry, what were you saying?"
"I was trying to explain The Great Wheel and Cosmology, but I think you were spacing out."
"Sorry," Hermione said again. Her mind was whirling with new information. It couldn't be possible; no way was Rose from another universe. She knew Rose was a little tweaked in the head, so it was probably just some part of Rose's made-up life.
"Hold on," Rose said, producing her wand. "I can fix it."
She lightly tapped Hermione on the forehead with the red-brown wand and muttered something about a fox.
Hermione felt different, but it was difficult to describe exactly how she felt different. Looking around their room, she noticed that everything seemed to sit better with her. It wasn't that she could notice more details about the room, but she did better retaining what details she did notice. She began to feel dizzy.
"Rose, what did you do?"
"What's 274 times 45?"
"12,330." Hermione's eyes widened. How had she just done that so quickly?
Rose simply grinned. "Oh good, that does work. Which means that you lot do have actual Intelligence scores. I wasn't really sure at first, but I am starting to notice differences in the way things work. I don't think that you lot have got Will Saves, or everyone's Will Save is unbelievably low."
"Why's that?"
"Detect Thoughts allows a Will Save, but no one except for Professors Dumbledore, Snape, and Quirrell have managed to make it. Considering that it's only a DC 15, I'd expect more primary casters to save against it."
"Two questions: First, what's a 'DC', and second, how is that scaled?"
"DC means 'Difficulty Class', and the average starting adventurer can make an 11 with little difficulty. For a primary caster, such as a Wizard or Cleric, they should be able to make a 15 about half the time. The higher level ones should be making that almost all the time."
"Oh," Hermione replied. That actually made a lot of sense. It wasn't normal, but it was understandable. "Where do you come from that you have to ask about snow?"
"It only ever snows on Thedo Minor and the Frost Tundra nearby," Rose explained. "So actually, snow is looked at negatively, especially due to the Somber Snow."
"What's Somber Snow?"
Rose and Hermione looked over to see Sally-Anne waking up.
"It's snow that feels colder to happy people."
Sally-Anne and Hermione exchanged glances.
"Why?" Hermione asked.
"Story goes," Rose began, "the island of Thedo Minor housed a castle of solid adamantine. The queen that made it was one of the most powerful Wizards ever to live. She lived there with her brother and his husband. One day, they got into a huge fight. No one knows what started the fight. Most people think the queen was sleeping with one of them, probably the husband, but some people say her brother." Rose caught the uneasy looks on her friends' faces. "Before you ask, that's not normal. Anyway, the queen lost her temper and turned both men into glass. When she realized what she had done, she cried for days. The island turned cold from her heartbreak, and the Somber Snow was created."
"Winter's a happy time here," Sally-Anne said slowly. "There's snowmen, and sledding, and Christmas!"
"What's a 'Christmas'?" asked Rose.
"It's a holiday celebrated at the end of December," Hermione explained. "People get together, decorate a tree, and give each other presents."
"Wait, I've got to give everyone something?"
"Usually only friends and family," Sally-Anne said.
"Do I have to?"
"You don't have to, but it's recommended," Hermione said.
"Crab apples," Rose muttered. Sighing, she added, "Alright, I'll get started on crafting."
Something else that apparently accompanied "winter" was the end of the term. With the end of the term came people returning home.
"You're leaving?!" Rose exclaimed. "But we were having so much fun!"
"I'm not leaving forever, Rose," Hermione said, laughing. "Just for a few weeks."
"Oh." Rose turned to Sally-Anne. "Does that mean that you're not going away forever either?"
"Same as Hermione," Sally-Anne replied. "We'll see you in a few weeks, Rose."
"Okay," Rose said, grinning. She pulled out a small box from her picnic basket. The girls had explained to their crimson-haired friend that the presents were supposed to be wrapped in wrapping paper. So Rose had wrapped them in red paper with roses on it.
"Here you go, Hermione," Rose said, handing her a small box. "Happy… Snowy Time!"
"It's called 'Christmas', Rose."
"Oh. Okay!" She reached into her basket, produced a second box, wrapped identically to the first, and handed it to Sally-Anne. "Happy Christmas!"
"Thank you," Sally-Anne said, taking the box.
The ride back wasn't so bad. Sally-Anne and Hermione sat together in one of the compartments, although they didn't say much. Both girls sat and quietly stared out the window.
Hermione thought that her parents were never going to let go of her again when she arrived at the platform. They hugged her so tightly that it started to become uncomfortable.
"Mum! Dad! Can't breathe!" she gasped.
Not too far from her, Sally-Anne was receiving an equally warm welcome.
"It's good to have you home," her dad said, giving her a big hug.
"I'm glad to be home, too," Sally-Anne said. "Although, I will miss the excitement of Hogwarts."
"Even brave heroes need a break every now and then," her dad said.
Sally-Anne's dad had been like this as long as she could remember. The man was always enthusiastic, so much so that her mum was often the one to scold her. Her parents had perfected the "Good cop, Bad cop" routine. It helped Sally-Anne realize when she was in deep trouble, since her parents would switch roles.
To Sally-Anne's delight, today wasn't one of those days. They weren't upset that she had gotten into trouble, but instead welcomed her home with dinner, and cake and a film afterwards.
Rose wasn't sure if there were rules as to when you were allowed to wake up on Christmas morning, but considering that she didn't sleep, she assumed that she would be alright to open presents at dawn.
Rose reached over and began to open her present from Hermione. Inside was a small cube. It had variously coloured faces, and each face was divided into nine sections. Accompanying it was a note from Hermione.
Rose,
This is called a 'Rubik's Cube'. It's like a sort of puzzle box. You scramble up the faces of it, and then try to move them around to get all the colors matched up again. You mentioned that you liked puzzle boxes, so I thought you'd enjoy this one.
Your Friend,
Hermione
Rose stared wide-eyed at the box. It was a puzzle box! Puzzles boxes were in constant competition with books for the title of "Rose's Favorite Activity".
<Rose, you still have another present,> Reflectesalon reminded her before she got too carried away with the cube.
<Thanks, Ref,> she pathed, reaching over and picked up the box from Sally-Anne. Unwrapping it, she found a book inside, along with a note.
Rose,
I know you like to read, and I've always enjoyed fairy tales, so I thought you might like this book.
Happy Christmas,
Sally-Anne
Rose looked at the title: The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales. Now Rose was conflicted. She had a new puzzle box to work on, a new book to read, and only two hands. Normally, she would've just grown more hands and done both, but after having to answer the question "Why are you so pale?" so many times, Rose figured it would be a bad idea to give people another question to ask incessantly.
Then she got an idea.
<Smithy, hold my book.>
<Right away, Ma'am.>
For the rest of the morning, Rose played with her new puzzle while reading the book Smithy held up for her.
Wilfred and Sarah Perks awoke Christmas morning to find their daughter sitting at the foot of their bed, reading. This was normal for Sally-Anne; their daughter loved fairy tales, and they had a standing agreement that a new book of fairy tales would be on her nightstand if she let them sleep in. Thus, she was reading her new book at the foot of their bed, which served to distract her long enough for them to get sleep.
Sally-Anne opened her presents one by one when they got to the tree. She received another book from Hermione, and a ribbon from Rose. Along with the ribbon, Rose had written her a note.
Sally-Anne,
The ribbon is a Ribbon of Persuasion. When you wear it, you will find it easier to talk to people and get them to do what you want. You seem to have trouble talking to people, so I thought you might like it.
Your Friend,
Rose
After she washed up, her mum helped her tie it into her hair. The emerald color of the ribbon complemented the yellow of her hair.
"That looks good on you, Sally-Anne," her mum said.
"Thanks," Sally-Anne said. "Wouldn't you say that even if it didn't?"
"Yes, but it wouldn't sound sincere," her mum replied.
Sally-Anne looked at herself in the mirror. She wasn't exactly a girly girl, but she did like being complemented, and there was something about the ribbon that she liked. Sally-Anne couldn't put her finger on it, but it was nice to see everything falling into place.
Having no such deal as the Perks family had, Hermione awoke her parents shortly after sunrise that morning. Even being 12, and somehow being the responsible one of her group, she was still a kid, and still enjoyed Christmas morning.
She ran to the tree and patiently waited for her parents to join her. The rule was that they took turns opening presents. Hermione knew that the rule was made so she didn't tear through her presents in seconds. Something about Christmas always made her excited, and, so her parents said, when she was a little girl, she'd rip through her presents before they got to the tree.
Hermione opened Rose's present first, ensuring that if it ended up being problematic, she could at least handle it quickly.
Inside the small box were a ring and a hair clip. Accompanying Rose's present was a note, and, she thought, knowing Rose, that it would probably be a good idea to read it before progressing.
Dear Hermione,
The ring is called a ring of sustenance. It will attune to you after being worn for a week. After that, you won't need to eat or drink (Although you can if you want), and you will only need two hours of sleep. This way, you have to really work hard to overdo it.
I'll let you figure out what the hair clip does.
Your Best Friend on the Whole Plane,
Rose
Hermione still wasn't sure exactly what Rose meant by "The Whole Plane", but she slipped on the ring immediately. She was a little more hesitant to try the hair clip, but she figured that Rose wouldn't give her something dangerous. At least, Hermione hoped she wouldn't.
Hermione fastened the clip to her hair, but didn't feel any different. Not immediately, anyway. As the day progressed, Hermione figured out the clip's purpose: it was making her smarter. Her memory had improved slightly, and she was finding that she could think a little faster. It wasn't the same as when Rose had used that spell on her a few weeks ago, but it was certainly an improvement. She was also finding that so long as she wore the hair clip, the bracelet made her head hurt a little less. Hermione deduced that she could handle the rush of information more easily with the enhanced intellect.
"So that's how she handles it so well," Hermione muttered to herself.
As the Twins surveyed their presents, they noticed one for each of them that hadn't been there the previous night. Both of them were identically wrapped, and by the looks of them, the person had never wrapped a present in their life.
The wrapping paper gave away the giver; it was red wrapping paper with roses on it.
They exchanged glances.
"Do we risk it?" asked George.
"Not without taking the proper precautions," Fred replied.
The boys used their wands to unwrap the boxes from a distance. After nothing exploded or attacked them, the Twins cautiously approached them.
Inside the boxes, they each found a brown fedora. Confused, they picked up the note (which had been split into two halves and divided between the two boxes) and read it.
George and Fred,
These are called hats of disguise. Once you don one, you will be able to alter your appearance at will. There are limitations to it, the big one being that it's an illusion. Otherwise, you must always be wearing a headpiece (not necessarily a hat), and must be within one foot of your original appearance.
Enjoy,
Rose
P.S. Every good trap maker knows to make the trap affect both the area of the trap, and 10 feet back. Remember that next time you try stepping back to unwrap something I give you.
The boys each donned their respective hats and grinned at one another. They knew exactly how to test these.
Harry and Ron descended the stairs to the Gryffindor Common Room, and found Percy sitting on one of the couches. To their astonishment, Percy was being harassed by… himself. Two of himself, to be precise.
"Stop that this instant!" Percy One shouted.
"Yeah, stop it!" Percy Two shouted at Percy Three.
"You stop it!" Percy Three responded.
"What?" Ron asked.
Harry squinted. He had awoken to find his glasses missing. Since he didn't own a spare set, he was nearly blind for the time being.
"I see you boys are enjoying yourselves," Rose said, materializing at the foot of the stairwell to the girls' rooms. Harry's eyesight being what it was, she could've been there before, and Harry just hadn't been able to see her.
"What's going on?" Ron asked her.
"They're just enjoying the presents I made them," Rose replied. She handed boxes to Ron and Harry. "Happy Christmas!"
"Rose, have you seen my glasses?" Harry asked her, taking the box he was handed.
"Right!" Rose exclaimed. She handed Harry his glasses. "I modified them for you."
"What?" asked Harry, putting on his glasses. As he did, he discovered what Rose meant. Everything around him was more significant. He could see further than he could before, and he was pretty sure that his hearing had improved.
"Thanks," he said, still astounded. "How did you do that?"
"Magic!" she exclaimed.
Behind her, Percy Two and Three waved their hands in a wide arc.
"Oooh!" Percy Two said.
"Aaah!" Percy Three added.
"You did this?!" roared Percy One to Rose.
"Don't worry," Rose said. "I took proper precautions."
Minerva was a little concerned by the presence of a box wrapped in red paper on her nightstand, but she opened it anyway. The rose pattern covering it indicated that it was most likely from Peta-Lorrum, but she wasn't really sure why the first-year was giving her a present. She didn't even bother asking how Peta-Lorrum had gotten into her apartment, because she didn't want to know.
Inside the box was a gold pendant bearing a design of an eye. Along with the pendant was a note.
Dear Professor McGonagall,
I want to start off by apologizing for giving the Weasley Twins each a hat of disguise. These hats will allow them to take on the form of anyone they choose. It won't be obvious to anyone else who they are, but this pendant will allow you to identify them. Upon each of them is a mark I placed myself while they were asleep. This mark is invisible to anyone except for the wearer of this pendant. This way, you will be able to identify them no matter what they look like.
Further, while you wear the pendant, you may place an identical mark on anyone or anything else once per day. The marks will never fade.
Happy Snowy Time,
Rose Peta-Lorrum
Minerva wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but at the very least, it was a nice pendant. She slipped it on over her neck, but realized that Peta-Lorrum hadn't explained how to use it. She picked up a quill from her desk, and held it in her hand.
How does this pendant work?
As she thought that, a small eye was inscribed upon the quill. It seemed to float upon the quill, not exactly on it, but not exactly above it either.
Interesting, thought Minerva. I might finally be able to keep track of people around here.
Harry opened the small box he had received from Rose, and found a white ring with clouds etched into it inside.
Rose grinned.
"It's a ring of feather falling," she explained. "Next time you almost fall off of your broom, that ring will prevent you from taking any falling damage."
Harry stared at Rose while trying to comprehend her. He normally would have asked Hermione or Sally-Anne for a Rose-to-English translation, but since neither girl was there to ask, he had to work it out for himself.
"Does… does that mean I can fall off my broom and not get hurt?"
"Yup!"
"From any height?"
"Any height greater than five feet!"
Harry looked down at the ring, then slipped it on his finger.
"Thanks, Rose," he said.
"No problem, Harry!"
He looked down at the ground. "I'm sorry I didn't get you anything."
"Don't worry about it!" she replied cheerfully. "I like making things! I'm an Artificer; It's what I do!"
Ron quickly opened his present from Rose, and found a bracelet inside.
He held it up, looking at it with confusion.
"It's just like the one Hermione's got," Rose explained. "Touch a book to read it. Command word's 'Derp'."
"'Derp'?"
"'Derp'," Rose confirmed.
Ron's eyes grew wide, and he ran over to one of the bookshelves in the Common Room.
Rose turned to Harry, and began to count down.
"Six… five," she whispered, indicating the number on her fingers. "Four… three… two… one…" She pointed at Ron, who began to clutch his head.
"What the–"
"You'll get used to it," Rose replied. "It's what happens when an entire book of information rushes into your head all at once." Turning to Harry, she asked, "Get anything else good?"
"Yeah," he replied. "I got an invisibility cloak."
"Interesting," Rose replied. "Invisibility, greater invisibility, or superior invisibility?"
"Erm… I don't know."
"Let's find out," Rose replied, climbing to her feet. "Have you got it on you?"
"It's up in my room," Harry replied. "I'll go grab it."
"I'll go with you," Ron said, eager to try out the bracelet on more books.
To their surprise, when the boys reached their room, Rose was waiting for them.
"What?" Ron asked. He struggled for words, but his head still hurt a little from the bracelet. "What?!" Since no other words would reach his head, he uttered a third "What?!"
"That's not important right now," Rose said, smiling. "Where's the cloak?"
"Right here," Harry said, pulling a silvery green cloak from his bed. He wrapped it around him, but nothing seemed to happen.
Rose pulled her goggles onto her forehead, and realized that he had in fact disappeared.
"Oh good," she muttered. Replacing her goggles, she said, "Alright, now what attack spells do you know?"
"Er… I think I can do a disarming charm," Harry said as Ron groaned from another bracelet-induced headache.
I can hear him, so not superior invisibility, reasoned Rose.
Serendipity appeared in Rose's hand. "That should do for now. Try disarming me."
Harry raised his wand, which was harder to do with the cloak wrapped around him.
"Expelliarmus!"
Rose's wand was knocked out of her hand and flew backward. Even after doing this, Harry remained invisible.
"Use activated item of invisibility, possibly greater invisibility," Rose said, picking up Serendipity. "Now that I think about it, a use activated item of greater invisibility is pointless, since invisibility would persist even after an attack with a continuous item like that."
"Huh?" asked Harry, removing the cloak.
"Your cloak is kethé," Rose replied.
"That's… shiny?"
"Yup!" Rose turned to Ronald. "Ronald, if you overdo it, you're going to end up in the Hospital Wing with a splitting headache that will make you think your head's on fire."
The foolish Gryffindor was lying on his bed, holding his hands over his head.
"How does Hermione deal with this?" he moaned.
"Same way I do: She's had practice."
Just as unnerved as his coworker had been was Severus Snape. He had considered throwing the red box into the fire, but was reluctant to do so due to the possibility that it would explode when he did so.
From the other side of his room, he carefully unwrapped and opened the box. He levitated its contents out of it, revealing a black, diamond-shaped pendant with a black chain, and a note.
Severus levitated the note over to himself, and began to read it.
Dear Professor Snape,
You know how you really like striking fear into the hearts of students? Well, this pendant will make them even more afraid of you then they already were!
Your Friend,
Rose Peta-Lorrum
"We're not friends, Peta-Lorrum," he growled to himself. He looked at the pendant that now floated in front of him. He couldn't trust Peta-Lorrum; that was for sure. While Severus didn't have any reason not to trust her, he was of the opinion that one should distrust everyone until given reason to do otherwise.
Peta-Lorrum insisted on grinding his nerves by attempting to be "nice" to him. Knowing Gryffindors, it was probably just some sort of trick she was trying to play on him.
Severus returned the pendant to the box, where he decided it would remain until it could be properly tested.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
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