Time Travel? Really!

Seeing is believing... unfortunately

Disclaimer: Not mine.

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The inhabitants of the train compartment were looking rather concerned for the small blonde girl sat in the corner. She was looking blankly out the window and didn't seem to be focusing on anything at all, instead ignoring the passing countryside as she retreated into herself. The other students were all worried about her; all morning she'd been like this even though not a week before she'd been bouncing around excitedly about going home.

Blaise, Hermione and Rose's Hufflepuff friends were troubled about their friend and their quiet discussions amongst themselves couldn't come up with any reasons for her mood. The friends knew that she had a new family that she loved dearly, as she usually got an incredibly sweet smile on her face when she spoke about her 'dads' and some of the things they had done together. They'd thought that she'd been excited to spend Christmas with them and couldn't figure out why she suddenly wasn't. (Then again, suspecting that she'd just had Voldemort killed wasn't even in the vicinity of their suspicions.)

Hermione and Blaise at least had some ideas as to why their friend was in a strange mood – even if they were completely wrong – and the two of them were even more observant than Rose had given them credit for. Blaise was fast becoming one of Rose's best friends and Hermione was her roommate, and without any other girls around in their dormitory she had noticed more things about Rose than she had in her previous life. (Not that Rose had realised this with her single-minded focus on sorting out all the crap from her past life.)

The two of them had questioned Rose subtly in the past few months as they noticed that she was actually quite reserved for all that she laughed and joked, and she never offered any substantial personal information about herself. It was public knowledge about her birth parents, and they knew about her godfather being released from his unlawful incarceration before the school year started, so they figured that maybe he was one of her dads, but that was about it.

Rose Potter was more Slytherin than most of the students in the House itself in how she presented herself. She gave no information that could be used against her, she was a genius in their school work, and had excellent control over her magic.

They also knew that she hated her muggle relatives.

Whenever the conversation got onto the topic, it was quickly diverted and everyone else distracted with something else. The look in her eyes displayed deeply-buried pain and anger, as well as a touch of sadness.

What cinched it for the two observant children was how she once subconsciously rubbed her arm when she spoke about her uncle. Blaise was a from a connected pure-blood family who had seen a few abusive adults with children before (as unfortunately some families had some rather disturbing views on what constituted 'discipline'), and Hermione had once encountered an abused boy at her primary school.

They figured that her muggle relatives had been abusive towards her and she now had no idea how to react to a family event that was going to be completely normal. They had no idea how far the abuse had gone, but their thoughts were eerily similar in their plans to destroy Rose Potter's muggle relatives.

Nobody hurt their friend and got away with it.

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The only other children to have any idea of the girl's thoughts were Susan and Neville who actually knew who her adopted parents were. They weren't stupid though, and Amelia and Augusta had briefed the two on how that knowledge could be dangerous for Rose at school so they were to keep quiet. It didn't feel like a burden at all though, primarily because the girl in question was their friend. They were also very much aware of the dangers of family members being targeted, as they themselves personally felt the absence of their parents on a daily basis. Neville's parents may be technically alive, but he felt like an orphan sometimes just like Susan.