Outsider and Slytherin
Tired of Harry’s brooding, which had only gotten even worse, if possible, after the Dementor incident, Rose decided to try to get Harry out of his stupor. She knocked on his door and called hesitantly, “Harry? Can I come in?”
After no response, Rose let herself in. She found Harry lying on his bed facing away from the door brooding.
“How are you, Harry? Do you want to go for a walk to get your mind off everything?”
There was still no response from Harry.
Rose sighed, “I know you’re feeling terrible-“
Harry flipped around to glare at her and say angrily, “You don’t know anything! You’re not the one who may be facing expulsion! You’re not the one whose friends aren’t telling you anything! You’re not the one who watched Cedric be murdered! You weren’t there when Voldemort rose! In fact, it’s you Slytherins who are the reason for everything bad! People like you are the reason that people are dying! Slytherins are the cause of all of this!”
Rose stumbled back like she had been slapped. Her sudden movement caused Harry to notice her pained face and tore Harry out of his mood. “Rose,” Harry began hesitantly.
Rose pulled herself together to adopt a cold image. “Excuse me for caring. You know, if you wanted me to leave you alone, you could’ve simply said so.” Rose left the room without a backward glance.
With a guilty face, Harry merely watched her leave, caught in his thoughts.
Rose left the house thinking, I can’t believe that I decided not to spend the summer with Astoria or Luna so that I could stay with Harry to make sure he’s doing okay. I’m obviously not any help to him, and I’m only putting myself in an injurious situation. This is why I try not to care for Harry because when I do, it’s always so painful.
Rose didn’t return to the house until later. The first thing that she noticed when she walked up to the house was that the car was gone. The second thing that she noticed was that there were sounds coming from inside the house. As she crept closer, she could tell that much of the sounds were voices, voices that were definitely not the Dursleys and too many for it to just be Harry. Rose drew her wand and kept it at the ready.
Rose looked at the door in front of her. It was unlocked and wasn’t closed all the way. She deduced that the people were most likely wizards from the lack of damage to the door and probably trying to not cause much disturbance. The voices were too loud to be stealthy, but Rose wasn’t about to jump to the conclusion that these intruders were Harry’s friends.
Rose didn’t enter the house through the door because any competent evil-doer would have a person or spell watching the door to see if anyone was coming into the house. And since they were probably expecting her to return to the house soon, she really didn’t want to be the one with the disadvantage. Thus, she crept around to the side of the house and crawled through the laundry room window into the house.
Rose cautiously followed the voices towards the kitchen. Before she could peak in, however, a person walked out of the room right into her. Rose reacted by grabbing the person with one hand over their mouth, knocking the wand out of his hand, and pointing her wand at his neck. Examining her captive, Rose saw that he was an older man, who clearly wasn’t expecting any conflict in the house since he was easy to subdue.
Rose whispered in the shaking man’s ear, “You are going to tell me exactly what you people are doing in this house. You are not going to make any loud noises once I release my hold on your mouth or you’ll be sorry. Understand?”
The shaking man nodded earnestly, obviously scared.
Before she could do anything, however, another figure leapt through the doorway, wand pointed at her.
“Who are you, and what are you doing here?” growled the scarred newcomer.
“Mad-Eye Moody?” Rose asked while not letting up on her grip on the shaking man.
Others walked into the hallway. Among them, Rose recognized Professor Lupin and her brother.
Harry lowered his guard when he saw her. “Professor Moody, that’s Rose. Rose, let Mr. Diggle go. They are going to take us to a safe house.”
Rose replied, “I’m not going anywhere until I get some proof that all of you are who you say you are. I’m not a dumb Gryffindor.”
Rose saw the bristling from her insult from several of the people in the hallway, including Professor Lupin and Harry. She released her hold on “Mr. Diggle” and calmly explained her actions, “I now know that several of you are Gryffindors from your reactions to my insult. Since such a large number of Gryffindors are most likely not Death Eaters all set on capturing me or Harry and I don’t know anything about you that only I would know and vice versa, I’m going to trust you. However, to make sure you’re Harry and not an imposter, will you tell me what you said to me this morning?”
Harry turned red at her question, “Rose, you know it’s me.”
Rose, with a gleam of mischief in her eye, shook her head. “That is definitely not what Harry said to me this morning.”
“Rose,” Harry growled, annoyed.
“Closer,” taunted Rose.
Harry sighed in exasperation. Aware of his audience, Harry answered quickly, “I said that you didn’t know anything. I insulted Slytherins and said that people like you are the reason that people are being murdered.”
Rose smirked at the looks that the others were giving Harry, smug that others were seeing how he treats her and how he is not the Golden Boy that they think he is.
“So,” Rose said, deliberately looking around at everyone, “what’s the game plan?”
Moody answered with a growl, “We are taking you and Harry to a safe house.”
Rose faked surprise, “Wow, I’m actually included in the plans this time and not left to fend for myself.” She gave a shrug and then added, “Well, there has to be a first time for everything, I guess.”
No one had a reply to that.
“I better get my stuff together then. Excuse me,” Rose said as she walked past them to the pantry in the hallway and went into it. She grabbed the books that were underneath her cot and put them into her almost-packed trunk. She then walked out of the pantry, dragging her trunk behind her.
After she closed the pantry door, Rose turned to everyone looking at her. She questioned them, “What are you all staring at? Haven’t you ever seen a witch and her trunk before?”
Lupin responded, “Why were your things in that pantry?”
Rose raised an eyebrow, “Are we playing the question game now?”
Lupin looked annoyed now, much to Rose’s glee. “No,” he simply stated.
“You’re not very good at this game, are you? Did you know that I’m the winner of this game?”
Lupin threw his hands up in the air in defeat, as Rose dragged her trunk into the kitchen with a smirk.
“Are you done fooling around now?” Moody sternly asked everyone.
Rose made a show of looking around at everyone and asked, “Did any of you know that Moody was playing also?”
Moody gave Rose a glare, “Are you done?”
Rose tilted her head at him and replied, “Are you done?”
Moody gave her a small smile and said, “You repeated what I said. You lost.”
Rose was shocked by his answer and examined him in a new light.
In her silence, Moody beckoned Harry over to him, “Come here, boy. I need to Disillusion you.”
“You need to what?” Harry asked nervously but still moved closer to Moody. Rose rolled her eyes at the Gryffindor act.
“Disillusionment Charm,” said Moody, raising his wand. “Lupin says you’ve got an Invisibility Cloak, but it won’t stay on while we’re flying; this’ll disguise you better. Here you go-”
Moody tapped Harry hard on the top of the head. Rose watched as Harry became a human chameleon starting from the point where Moody tapped.
“Nice one, Mad-Eye,” Tonks commented appreciatively.
Moody then beckoned Rose over to him. Rose eyed him apprehensively as Moody applied the Disillusionment Charm to her.
“Come on,” Moody ordered as he unlocked the back door with his wand. Everyone followed Moody outside.
“Clear night,” grunted Moody, his magical eye scanning the sky. “Could’ve done with a bit more cloud cover. Right, you,” he barked at Harry and Rose, “we’re going to be flying in close formation. Tonks’ll be right in front of you, keep close on her tail. Lupin’ll be covering you from below. I’m going to be behind you. The rest’ll be circling us. We don’t break ranks for anything, got me? If one of us is killed -”
“Is that likely?” Harry questioned nervously, but Moody kept talking.
“- the others keep flying, don’t stop, don’t break ranks. If they take out all of us and you survive, Harry, the rear guard are standing by to take over; keep flying east and they’ll join you.”
“Stop being so cheerful, Mad-Eye, he’ll think we’re not taking this seriously,” said Tonks as she strapped Harry’s trunk and Hedwig’s cage into a harness hanging from her broom. Lupin was doing the same with Rose’s trunk but to his broom.
“I’m just telling them the plan,” growled Moody. “Our job’s to deliver him safely to headquarters and if we die in the attempt-”
“No one’s going to die,” said Shacklebolt in his deep, calming voice.
Rose raised her hand and patiently asked, “One question. How am I supposed to follow since I don’t have a broom?”
“I guess you’ll have to ride with someone,” Lupin said sheepishly.
Harry offered, “You can ride with me.”
“No thanks. I’d rather ride with a fellow Slytherin.” Rose subtly but meaningfully met Moody’s eyes.
“But there are none here,” Harry pointed out, and the others nodded. Except Moody.
“I’ll take the girl,” Moody growled. “Everyone, get ready! Mount your brooms, that’s the first signal!”
Inside Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, as the other Order members walked into the kitchen and Harry made his way upstairs, Moody took a hold of Rose’s arm to keep her there.
Moody addressed Mrs. Weasley, “Molly, I have to talk to Evans for a moment. I’ll be in right after.”
Mrs. Weasley sent them a questioning look but replied, “Okay. I’ll tell the others.”
Once Mrs. Weasley closed the door, Moody spun on Rose. He forcibly questioned, “How did you find out that I was a Slytherin?”
Rose pulled her arm out of his grasp and crossed her arms. She answered calmly, “You’re primary traits are of a Slytherin or Gryffindor. You didn’t bristle when I insulted Gryffindors, but that doesn’t prove anything. What really clued me into you being a Slytherin was you knowing the rules of the questioning game that Slytherins commonly follow. Most people play by the rules that only not saying a question makes you lose and don’t include a repeat as a way to lose. The only people that I know that include repeating as a loss are Slytherins. Then, you pretty much confirmed being a Slytherin by answering my challenge by having me ride with you and not denying it. Finally, you confirmed it right now when you asked me, and I quote, ‘How did you find out that I was a Slytherin?’”
Moody studied the girl in front of him for a minute. He finally grudgingly admitted, “You would make a good Auror with how you entered into the situation at your house and with your good observations and deductions. You would also make a troublesome enemy. I hope it doesn’t come to that.”
“I hope it doesn’t come to that either; I would hate to have you as an enemy. And being an Auror is more up my brother’s alley than mine. I don’t know what I’m going to do with my life yet,” Rose admitted truthfully.
Moody looked her over again and said gruffly, “Well, if you want to be an Auror, I’ll come out of retirement to train you because anyone else wouldn’t know how to use your potential. Just don’t break any big laws before then.”
Rose felt her throat get choked up at his kind words that showed care for her. “Thank you,” she managed to get out.
Moody nodded, and then he walked into the kitchen and left her alone in a strange house.