The Devil You Know | Wizarding World

chapter thirteen | resistance all around

As Rosie walked inside King's Cross Station after the new year to go back to Hogwarts, she was determined to make the rest of the term a good one, despite the way things had been going thanks to Professor Umbridge. She held her head up high as she got on the platform and boarded the train when she walked by other students, wanting to keep a positive attitude for everyone, even if they didn't know her, and for herself as well. For a moment, Rosie truly believed things would look up when she got back into the school routine.

However, that hopeful feeling didn't last long when the latest story of a mass breakout in Azkaban occurred a couple of weeks after she got back.

It was all students could talk about throughout the corridors and during meals. There had been theories as to who had done it, most of whom agreed that Sirius Black had something to do with it due to the fact that one of the escapees was his cousin: Bellatrix Lestrange, a well-known Death Eater (a name that Neville winced at whenever he heard it). To make matters worse, she knew her dad would be a part of the case to find her and the other Death Eaters that got out, and the last thing she wanted was for something to happen to him.

But the more Rosie thought about the Death Eaters, the more she thought about Adam and the Thomson twins. She wondered if Adam was still serious about leaving that lifestyle. As for Greer and Gavin, there was a part of her that wanted them to do the same, but she knew the chances of the twins making the same choice was unlikely. But if they did, would that mean Adam could change his mind about breaking up with Greer?

Which, of course, the breakup was something he hadn't done yet.

Rosie hated to admit that she was growing impatient over it, waiting for either Adam to announce it like a breath of relief or for a heartbroken Greer to confide in Rosie over the ordeal (though she didn't think she could prepare so much for how Greer would react to being dumped). But still, she anticipated it to happen very soon, taking each day at a time, hoping that if Adam knew what was best for him and Greer, then he'd just go ahead and get it over with.

Except it was hard doing anything simple when it came to Greer Thomson, which was probably what was stopping him from breaking up with her, and that was concerning for Rosie.

If only the situation wasn't so damn complicated.

Maybe it was a bad idea, but on a chilly day in January, Rosie decided to talk to Adam about the subject of their walk on Christmas Eve. Not only was she curious about what was going on between him and Greer, along with his plans to leave his family, but also paranoid over the fact that she told him the one thing she promised to keep to herself. She couldn't risk Harry, Ron, Hermione, or any member of Dumbledore's Army finding out that she spilled their secret to one of her friends, one that was a Slytherin, which only made her feel even more guilty that she told someone about it in the first place. But then again, she just had to get it off her mind, and she trusted Adam enough to confess it. She just hoped she didn't make a mistake doing so, for she didn't want to regret telling him should it bite her in the arse later on.

After finishing up her lunch, Rosie spotted Adam at the Slytherin table with a few boys before quickly leaving the Great Hall, leaning against the wall across from the tall double doors. She felt anxious as she waited for him to walk out, trying to come up with the words to bring up such a touchy subject, though nothing seemed to sound right in her head.

You're overthinking this, she thought. Just ask him outright and get it over with.

Rosie waited another few minutes, finally seeing Adam's familiar face as he was coming out of the Great Hall, bidding goodbye to the same group of boys from before, turning on his heel for the stairs.