The Hufflepuff Princess

Chapter 50: Dementors on The Train

Rose awoke fully rested for once, no shouting, no laugh, just silence. Rose filled her lungs with the cool air and a large smile crossed her face. She raced to her clothes she laid out and placed them on quickly. She tucked away everything in her bag and trunk one last time as she looked around the room, a knock sounded from a sweet voice. "Rose dear? Are you up?" Rose turned and opened the door to see Molly Weasley and greeted her, "Yes, good morning!"

"It's nice to have a morning person for once." Rose helped Molly bring down her trunk, and they sat at the table. Molly was peppering her with small questions, "What's your favorite color?" Rose smiled as she said, "Pale green, it's always so relaxing." Molly smiled as she chatted, soon Alice, Ginny, Hermione, and a few others came down for breakfast. Cedric joined a while later with a large yawn and dressed properly. The girls listened as Molly spoke about brewing a love potion when she was at Hogwarts. The group giggled as Alice muttered to Rose, "You don't need one." Soon the group was fed and everyone stood up ready to leave. Cedric, Alice and Rose were in the third car with Arthur and Molly Weasley. Arthur talked Cedric's ear off at first, asking about his father and how he was doing in school. However he soon turned to Rose, "I must ask you, your parents are muggles correct?" Rose felt her laughter bubble up as Molly weasley sighed. Rose had just finished explaining a Telephone and started on the post when they made it to Kings Cross. Rose, Alice and Cedric split away from the normal group, after thanking Mr. And Mrs. Weasley. Rose was the last to go through the wall between Platform nine and three Quarters. Alice and Cedric asked her if she was okay with them finding their other friends, Rose was okay as she watched them leave. She handed her trunk to someone and let Merlin out, "Ready to fly?" Merlin Oohed to her before they shared a sweet moment, his beak touched her head, "See you at Hogwarts. Fly safe okay?" Merlin nodded as he flew with the other owls in the sky, his now empty cage handed off. Rose had just turned when she bumped into a man.

"I'm so sorry!" Rose finally caught a look at the man, he was in shabby robes, skinny, and looked extremely tired. Rose felt awful when the man seemed to totter a bit. She looked at him before saying, "Are you alright?" The man looked at her and had a hoarse voice as he nodded, "Yes. So sorry." Rose paused before reaching in her bag, "Here. Before you refuse-" she said rather quickly as the man seemed to want to refuse, "I have another in my bag. I think chocolate can help anyone to be honest. So please, take it." She held out a chocolate bar she bought from Diagon Alley, the man looked shocked before his eyes softened. He nodded, "Thank you… really." Rose smiled at him, "Of course, excuse me, I need to find my friends." She bid him farewell before racing to the train. She searched for her normal compartment, Alice was already sitting in her usual spot. Cedric was beaming, and another familiar friend was sitting in his spot. Rose turned to the familiar nervous boy. "Hello Neville!!" Upon hearing her voice he beamed towards her with a smile, "Hello! How was your summer? Alice and Cedric were just telling me about your adventures together." Rose giggled as she gingerly sat down, "Oh it was wonderful! I brought back some things for you!" She opened her bag and pulled out a book, as well as some candy. She handed out what looked to be round cookies that had a stamp in it. Some were stars, some were hearts, others had a flower or a triangle. The others looked confused as Neville, who was pink, accepted the book and the treat. Rose giggled seeing their reaction, "This is called Dalgona. Halmonee taught me how to make it this summer." Cedric accepted the treat with little hesitation, while Alice seemed unsure. Rose smiled as she set the rest back in the plastic container, "They are only 2 ingredients. Sugar and baking soda. We used cookie cutters to stamp the shapes on it." Alice didn't accept one, "I'll try it some time later. I want to save room for something off the trolly." Cedric was the first to try it, the sound of the rain lightly hitting the windows of the train a relaxing ambiance. He licked the candy first, before his eyes widened, "This is actually rather tasty." Neville took this as an opportunity to try it as well, his own eyes lighting up, "It's wonderful. It's kinda like caramel. But light." Rose smiled brightly as she nodded, the group were talking for a while before Cedric stood up, "I need to go, prefects have to meet in some sort of car. I'll see you later." Rose and Alice wished him well as he exited, Neville left to go find someone while Alice and Rose were now munching on trolly sweets. Alice giggling about the chocolate frogs Rose had purchased like always. The rain soon began to hammer on the glass, Alice and Rose began to talk to remove the silence.

"What do you look forward to in Hogsmeed?" Rose asked as she looked up from a bertie botts bean that tasted a lot like apples. Alice seemed to think before she smiled, "Honeydukes. My mum and Dad always told me about the sweets. They have all kinds of sweets, Sugar quills, sherbert balls, and delicious chocolate balls full of clotted cream." Alice looked like she was going to drool, "Also large lollipops, Ice mice- The mints that made you squeak that I sent that one time." Rose nodded smiling as she listened attentively to her, "After that, I think I would be interested in Madam Pudfoot's tea shop. A couple of older girls told me it's a wonderful place for a date." Rose looked as if she was not as interested in that as she spoke about the fancy space, soon she ran out of something to say before Alice asked, "What do you want to do when we get the-" The train jerked to a stop suddenly, they never realized it slowed down. Rose groaned as she sat up from the floor, she had been reaching for something from Alice's side when it stopped. Alice rubbed her head, "What was that for? We can't be there yet." Rose stood up moving to the door, "I dunno, maybe there was something in the tracks?" The wind and rain howled loudly against the window, and Rose felt something sink in her stomach. She grabbed the door handle and shut it tightly, locking it and pulling down the blinds. Alice whispered, "A-Are you okay?" Rose nodded but just before she replied the lights suddenly cut off, Alice squealed in fear before they both fell. Alice tried to get up to grab her but in doing so Rose slipped on the spilled jelly beans. Alice landed back in the chair as Rose struggled to stand up, her ankle had a dull twinge of pain. Alice whimpered, "W-what's happening?" Rose could only manage to huff as she sat up. Rose wished Cedric was back, fear coursing through her. Rose felt the temperature start to drop around them, goosebumps started to appear on her arms as she heard Alice shiver. Rose heard a click from their door as it seemed to magically unlock. The chill became worse as she could just barely make out the fog of her breath hanging in the air. Alice made a strangled cry from her throat as the door slowly opened with a ghastly hand. It was long, and the fingers looked spindly. Rose tried to scoot away as the creature fully opened it. The cold began to freeze as she shivered, the hand looked as if it drowned. Rose heard Alice gasp as the horrible hooded creature approached her. It made a strange gasping noise as Alice only managed a huff, Rose ignored her ankle's throbbing as she swiftly stood up. She placed herself between Alice and the creature even though her heart hammered and her mind cried to go back on the floor.

"W-What do you want?" Her voice stammered as she looked at the terrifying creature which floated horribly. Her body felt more cold the longer it was there, she heard Alice's weak, "R-Rose no." Rose gritted her teeth as she managed louder, "What are y-You? Why are you b-both… bothering…" The cold sunk under her skin, the creature moved closer to her as she heard a gasping noise from the creature. She couldn't move, she couldn't think. The chill was burning, freezing her heart as she saw white in her mind, the creature reached to her as her vision began to blur. She heard echoes of laughter, yellow eyes. She barely could feel herself leaning as the eyes and laughs turned to screaming. Her body felt frozen and on fire at the same time as warmth touched her shoulder. She released a gasp as a bang echoed in her mind and fear seized her before white overtook her and faded to black, child sobs weak in her mind.