Rose Dursley: The Girl Who Lived

11. Going to Explore

Rose was woken up the next morning by the sunlight coming through the window. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and rolled out of bed.

It was Saturday morning, so there were no lessons to go to. This also meant that Rose didn't have to wear her uniform, she was free to pick her own clothes.

Rose didn't really like wearing skirts. She felt a lot more comfortable wearing jeans or joggers. Her mum was always trying to get her to wear dresses, which she hated. And then Hogwarts had a strict uniform code that meant she was forced to wear a skirt all week. It was the thing she disliked the most about school.

The thing that Rose liked the most about the weekend, was that it was the time when she could be herself. She could relax and wear whatever she wanted.

Rose pulled off the t-shirt she had been wearing in bed and went to her dresser to get some clean clothes. She put on some knickers, then she put on a pair of black jeans and her DM boots. For her top, she picked out a plaid shirt. The shirt had belonged to her big brother, but when he had grown out of it, Rose had swiped it. Finally, she put her hair up in a messy bun, and put on a black wool beanie hat.

When Rose went downstairs, she saw Ron waiting on one of the sofas in the common room. He was quietly reading through a copy of the Daily Prophet.

"Good morning," Rose said, as she sat down beside him.

"Morning," said Ron. "Do you want to go explore, or did you want breakfast first?"

"I need a coffee this morning," said Rose. "Let's go for breakfast first."

They got up and started to walk down to the Great Hall.

"Why do you need a coffee so much this morning," said Ron. "Did you not sleep well?"

"No, I... umm... had a bad dream," said Rose.

"What was it about?" Ron asked. "Maybe we could asked Trelawney to interpret it."

"Oh, no. That, umm, won't be necessary," said Rose. "Anyway, you know what she's like, she will probably just say it some kind of premonition of impending doom."

Ron laughed. "Yeah, true. Everything is a sign of impending Doom."

When they reached the Great Hall, they both sat at the Gryffindor table to get their breakfast. Rose had a cup of black coffee and some buttered toast. Ron had sausages and beans on toast.

Once they had finished eating, Ron and Rose left the Great Hall and walked outside.

As they got closer to the Quidditch pitch, they could see that the stands had been taken down. In the place of the pitch, there were loads of hedges that had been planted.

"Cool," said Ron. "I wonder what they are building?"

"Dunno," said Rose. "Looks like there's a pattern in the hedges though."

They were still looking, when a voice called out from behind them. "You boys, what are you doing here?"

Ron and Rose turned around to see Professor Snape coming towards them with an angry look on his face. When he realised that it was Rose, the anger vanished, and he slowed down how quickly he was walking. Snape's face changed to awkward embarrassment when he realised he had just called Rose a boy.

Snape blushed and shifted awkwardly. "Ah, Miss Dursley. I'm sorry, I, err, didn't recognise you," he said. "I just wanted to tell you that this area is restricted, you need to leave."

"Oh, err, that's okay, Sir," said Rose. "We were just leaving."

"Yes, good. Just, err, get moving or I'll give you detention," said Snape. "And don't tell anyone what you saw."

Rose and Ron quickly turned around and walked back towards the castle before Snape had a chance to regain his composure. As soon as they got out of earshot, Ron burst out laughing.

"That was hilarious," he said. "I've never seen Snape look so uncomfortable."

"Yeah, I feel kind of bad for him," said Rose.

"You would say that, you are such a teacher's pet for Snape," said Ron.

Rose scowled at him. "I'm not," she said. "He just seems to like me for some reason. It's nothing I've done."

"Okay, whatever," said Ron. "Anyway, what should we do now?"

"I dunno," said Rose. "I guess we could go see Hagrid?"

"Yeah, come on then," said Ron.

They kept walked around the side of the castle, and on towards Hagrid's hut. As they got close, they saw Hagrid coming out the door carrying a large sack.

"Hey, Hagrid," Rose called out.

Hagrid stopped and turned to wave at them. "Hello you two," he said.

"What are you up to?" Rose asked.

"Oh nothing much," said Hagrid. "Just taking some extra food over for the dragons."

"Dragons?" said Ron.

"Ah, yes. I wasn't supposed to tell you that," said Hagrid. "It was supposed to be a secret."

Rose grinned. "Well now we know, can we come and see them?" she asked.

"Hmmm, well I guess so," said Hagrid. "Though I'm surprised that Charlie didn't tell you about them already."

"My brother Charlie, you mean?"  asked Ron. "I thought he was still in Romania."

"Ah, okay. So I guess he is better at keeping secrets than me," said Hagrid. "Oh well, come on then."

Hagrid then lead Rose and Ron into the forbidden forest. He kept taking them ever deeper into the forest. They walked between the trees until it started to grow so dark it was hard to see where they were going. After they had walked a bit further, they started to hear some noises coming from deeper into the forest.

They kept walking further until they came to a large clearing with a wooden fence built around it. Around the side of the fence there was a large gate with a few people standing nearby. As they got closer, Ron recognised one of them as his older brother, Charlie.

"Hello again, Hagrid," said Charlie. "Hey, sprog. What are you doing here?"

Ron blushed and got annoyed. "Just came to see the dragons," he said.

"And who's this you brought with you? Your girlfriend?" said Charlie, with a grin.

"Err, no. It's Rose. She's my friend," said Ron, awkwardly.

Charlie laughed. "If she's just your friend, then why are you so embarrassed?" he said.

"Just shut up. We're leaving," said Ron.

Ron turned angrily and started to stomp back towards the castle. Rose quickly said goodbye to Hagrid, then she turned to run after Ron.

"Hey, wait up," Rose said. "It's okay, I've got an older brother too. I know what they are like."

Ron stopped and sighed. "Yeah, but he doesn't have to be such a git," he said.

Rose laughed. "That's just what older brothers are like," she said.

"Yeah, I guess you are right," said Ron. "Come on, let's go back to the castle."

And so they walked back through the forbidden forest. They headed back into the castle and through to the Gryffindor common room.