AN: We have reached 20! Thank you all for sticking with this fic and with me! Here's to another 20!

automaton14: You are very welcome! I enjoy interacting with my readers a lot, so yeah :o) and we'll, Harry's ability always came from him being a Horcrux and Rose is not one, so… *shrugs*

Roostertheking: absolutely, Parseltongue is not something you can just shrug off after seeing it and it seems to have magical properties considering its nature and the fact that Slytherin had used it to seal entrances and so on. However, for the victims, it's just a language. For them, the others' reactions are way over the top – understandably so.

alix33: Oh, absolutely, but to her Ron had still been her first and best friend. So, when she has to measure someone against someone, it'll usually end up being Ronald, no matter how bad of a yardstick he is in reality.

ssj3gohan007: I absolutely love how invested you appear to be, with all your theories for every chapter :D keep them coming. I can't say anything about them being right or wrong, though, so: no comment :o)

To say that she didn't envy Harry in the slightest these days – and when she said these days she meant ever – was an understatement. Despite most of the Hufflepuff's valiant efforts to show Harry their support and despite them scolding Puffs who still were giving him the side-eye, most of the student body – led by the Slytherins – were treating Harry as if he was the carrier of a deadly disease.

Sure, being a parselmouth was rare. She could not even list a handful of people who had that ability and those she could name were spread throughout history: Slytherin, Voldemort and her very own brother, who had only gained the ability thanks to a series of unlikely circumstances she didn't even fully understand. Add to that the unfavourable reputation being a parselmouth carried, then, yes, one would suffer the general public's scrutiny.

But still, whenever she spoke with Harry these days, she could feel it wearing on him, which was understandable of course. She wished she could have somehow prevented this, but it was what it was and they simply had to deal with this to the best of their abilities.

"Lockhart has been a huge pain in the arse since all of this, Rosie," Harry told her with a sigh when they were sitting outside by the lake, enjoying the spring weather in mid-April. The temperature was still crisp, but the sun was shining, the flowers blooming and, with a comfortable jumper, it was a great day to spend outside.

Rose looked at Harry, her head cocked to the side and her eyes squinted in suspicion. "What do you mean?"

Harry sighed, rubbing his face while making sure not to smudge his glasses. "He's...he's trying to make me look like something special. Every chance he gets he makes sure to tell people that I'm special because I can talk to snakes. Bloody nutter should just leave me alone…"

Rose agreed with her twin there. Lockhart, that nutter, should really just leave Harry alone. "Make sure to avoid him whenever you can, Harry. I don't want to sound paranoid, but I don't trust him. Remember when we snuck out? When we found him searching for something?"

Worrying his lips, Harry nodded. He glanced at her from the corner of his eyes. "Can I tell my friends about it?"

Her eyes widened immediately and she vehemently shook her head. "No! No, Harry. Don't drag anybody into this if you can avoid it. Who knows what might happen?" She already had suffered the consequences of dragging others into her messes once before and she certainly wouldn't make the same mistakes when she had this privilege, which her second chance at life most certainly was. "If anyone were to get hurt because of it...I wouldn't want that on my conscience, Harry, and I doubt that you do."

Harry nodded immediately. "Yeah, you are right. It's just hard not to share all this stuff with Ron, Hermione, Neville or Ginny." He snickered a bit, making Rose curious. "After that whole parseltongue-thing, first thing Hermione did was to run into the library and borrow seven books which mentioned anything at all about it."

Now it was Rose's turn to giggle. "I can imagine." She then sighed, looking around. It really was a beautiful day. The sun itself felt warm, but the Scottish winds kept the temperatures cool. Many students were outside, just chatting and laughing and it looked all so very peaceful. Just a bit more than a month and it would be time for everyone to head back home to their families. That was something she, too, had now. She had family right here at Hogwarts, with her – real family, in blood and genes. But, she also had family outside of Hogwarts at Grimmauld place, waiting for them to come back home. It was a good life they had, both she and Harry. The whole Lockhart thing did cast a shadow over it though. A major annoyance.

Still, they'd get past it, she was sure of it. Then, they'd have a great summer with their friends. This time, along with her fellow Hufflepuffs, she wanted to invite Hermione, Ginny, Luna, Lavender and Parvati too and make a huge day with them if possible. To top it all off, since Sirius was out of Azkaban and exonerated, there'd be no reason for Dementors at Hogwarts for their third year.

Rose scooted closer to Harry on the grass and they leaned against each other.

She just had to stay positive.

"Do any of you guys know how many points Cedric has so far?" Rose asked her friends in the common room. The rest of the girls and she were sitting around a small round table on chairs and couches. Most of the girls just shrugged and shook their heads, so she turned in desperation to Sally-Anne. "Come on, Sally-Anne, you usually know stuff."

"That's her nice way of saying that you are a huge gossip," Megan added with a snicker, earning herself a cushion to the face, courtesy of Sally-Anne.

Sally-Anne glared playfully at Megan. "Shut up! I'm collecting important knowledge!" She then turned her attention to Rose. "All I know is that they are pretty confident, but I don't have the numbers. Some girls from your boyfriend's –" "Oy! He's not!" "– class talked about it the other day in the loo."

Rose, still red-faced from Sally-Anne's offhanded boyfriend-comment, furrowed her brow at the girl. "Why didn't you say anything then?"

"Because it wasn't useful information, sweetie," Sally-Anne said. "What good would it do to you if you knew that a couple of girls from Cedric's year are confident that he'll win?"

Rose nodded at that. Sally-Anne wasn't wrong. Those girls could have just been confident because it was Cedric they were talking about – the super-popular bloke almost every girl fancied. "Guess I'll have to ask him directly," Rose mused. She then leaned back against the sofa, slipped her feet out of her sandals and tucked them under her bum. As a boy, she would have found it unbearably uncomfortable to sit this way. Now, as a girl, it was her favourite way to sit. Things certainly had changed.

"Guess you do," Megan teased with a grin, nudging her with her elbows. "You are getting awfully chummy with Mr Diggory."

"Bugger off," Rose said, rolling her eyes. "We've exchanged like, what? Ten sentences? That's hardly chummy."

"That's ten sentences more than most of the school's other girls," Hannah said, causing the rest to giggle.

Rose looked at the girls, a bit annoyed at the ridiculousness. "You can all bugger off!"

Megan leaned against her. "We are just teasing, silly!"

Rose huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. Most of the time she felt like she was twelve herself, forgetting her own mind's and memory's age, but sometimes – like this time – she missed just being a fifteen-year-old boy chatting about quidditch with his fifteen-year-old friends.

At least Susan was not joining in on this whole thing. At least she was as mature as her.

Sally-Anne cocked a brow at her, then shook her head. "Laugh a little, Rose. Why are you even so bothered by it?"

Rose sighed and deflated visibly. "Sorry…" This was all so stupid. Her friends weren't even at fault. They were all just having fun and this time it was at her expense. "I didn't mean to be a killjoy." She shouldn't have lashed out like that.

"What's the matter then?" Susan asked, looking genuinely concerned, but that was Susan for you, always worrying about others.

"Just...a bit of everything, I guess." Rose shrugged. It probably wasn't even a lie; not really anyway.

"Hormones, I bet," Lily said.

"Puberty sucks," Megan added with a groan.

Yeah, hormones. It was an easy out for her – easy to just blame it on the hormones wreaking havoc in her pubescent body's brain.

"What're you guys talking about?" Roger asked when he and the rest of the boys joined them.

"Puberty and my hormones," Rose answered in as deadpan a way as she could manage.

Wayne hadn't even sat down yet when he turned around and left to find a separate table for himself and the other boys. "Yup, I'm out."

He quickly was joined by the other four who had intended to join the girls-table and Rose couldn't help but laugh loudly. That was such a typical boy thing to do. She had been there, after all, and she had most certainly done that. Girls talking about their developing bodies were scary.

Now she was one of those scary girls.

"Why'd you chase them away like that?" Sally-Anne asked, giggling while watching Roger, Ernie and the others.

"Why not?" Rose asked in return, still giggling herself.

Scaring boys away with talks about a girl's puberty and hormones was definitely better than having to endure the teasing about her and potential boyfriends, no matter their names.

The next day, she still had no idea how many points Cedric had collected so far. She needed to know because she desperately wanted to play that match. She needed to make up for that loss against Gryffindor.

So, during breakfast, she scoped out the Hufflepuff table, hoping to catch sight of her rival for that seeker-spot. She couldn't sit still in her chair, always looking up and down the long table and, after still not seeing him anywhere, her eyes darted to the Great Hall's entrance the badgers were using for breakfast. And then, when there was still no sight of him, she repeated the whole process.

Rose exhaled noisily through her nose. "Where the bloody hell is he? Does he want to starve?"

"Who are you even talking about?" Roger asked her, a brow raised. "Besides, the Great Hall is still half empty. We got here not even ten minutes ago."

"I'm looking for Cedric," Rose said, still on the lookout for him. "I'm going to ask him how many points he has already."

"You are really taking this seriously," Ernie said, giving her an appraising look. "Didn't peg you for someone this competitive."

Rose waved him off. "I'm not really competitive, but I really want to play this match. It bothers me a lot that I lost against Gryffindor."

Megan cocked her head to the side. "You were unlucky though."

"Which makes it worse, because I had a real chance…" Rose trailed off and quickly got up from her seat upon seeing her target enter the Great Hall. "There he is! About time!"

"Go get him, tiger," Megan said with a wink, making her groan inwardly.

She got up from her seat to intercept Cedric. Walking towards him with purpose, it didn't take long for Rose to gain Cedric's attention and, when she did, he gave her a curious smile.

"Morning, Rose. What's up?"

"Hey, Cedric. Can we talk for a moment?" she asked him with a wide smile.

He looked startled. "Umm, sure, but I'm really starving…"

"No problem, we can talk while you eat," Rose said and grabbed the sleeve of his uniform, dragging him towards a few empty chairs a few rows away from her friends. She really didn't need their undivided attention, which she surely would have earned had she dragged Cedric towards there. Instead, she just had to bear the smiles and smirks of Cedric's friends. She could deal with those. After all, once her chat with Cedric was done, their ways would part once more and she'd barely ever see him and the other fourth-years outside of the common room.

As soon as they were seated – Cedric and she next to each other and his friends across from them – she turned to look at him, tuning out the chatter of the others. "How many points do you have so far?" Rose asked without much preamble.

"Oh wow, all that before just to ask about his points?" one of the other fourth years said. "Sheesh."

"Excuse me?" Rose looked at the bloke and made hand-motions between Cedric and herself, indicating that they were talking and she'd rather not be interrupted. The bloke held up his hands in surrender, so Rose returned her attention to Cedric. "So, your points?"

Cedric, while stuffing his face with sausage, turned to look at her. She raised a brow at him, waiting for him to swallow his mouthful.

Once he could finally speak, he gave her an apologetic look. "Sorry. As I said, I was starving." He cleared his throat. "Anyway, my points...currently, I'm standing at ninety-seven points earned after a bit over a month." He looked mighty proud of himself while she felt her stomach clench.

"Ninety-seven?" She bit her bottom lip. "You are ahead by five."

Cedric nodded, but he didn't look elated or anything else of that sort. He took it rather stoically. Rose wasn't sure if she could have stopped herself from at least looking very smug, had she been in his place. Then again, this was the Cedric the whole school knew and loved. He won with grace and lost with grace. Gloating just was not his style. Gloating was more like Draco's style. And her own style apparently, if her own thoughts were any indication. She couldn't remember being that way when she used to be Harry.

"Nothing lost and nothing won yet, then," he said.

"Yep. Alright then, I'll leave you to your breakfast," Rose said, about to get up, but Cedric stopped her with a hand on her arm.

"I meant to ask a while ago how your brother is holding up. You know, with everything going on…" He shrugged. "I don't know him, but I know you, so, I figured I should ask if everything is okay or if he needs anything."

She couldn't help but smile as she sat down again. Good old Cedric. "I won't lie and say it's been easy for Harry, but the worst is behind him, at least."

Cedric sighed, leaning back into his chair after finishing his breakfast. "I think it's a bit harsh of people to go and point fingers like that, you know? First, Harry didn't hurt anyone or insult anyone and secondly, being able to speak that language – no matter its reputation – is not something he had any control over."

"It's ignorance," Gabriel Truman, one of the prefects who escorted her year to the common room when they were still firsties, threw in, a few chairs down, next to Cedric. "We basically all grew up knowing nothing about parseltongue, aside from Salazar Slytherin being the last known person who had been able to speak it and that Slytherin didn't want muggle-borns at Hogwarts. And those weird fun facts Lockhart told us during D.A.D.A., if you know what I mean."

"It's mostly that snotty Malfoy-brat who keeps riling people up, though," one of the fourth years said. "I've seen him spout nonsense whenever your brother's near him, Potter."

"What kind of nonsense?" Rose asked, feeling her blood pressure rise already.

The bloke shrugged. "You know, things like 'watch out, m-words, Slytherin's heir is coming to get you, he'll sic snakes at you', yadda yadda." He then chuckled. "McGonagall saw him say the m-word and took a hundred points from him. That was fun."

She wanted to kick that blonde, slimy little turd in his bollocks, but, for now, she had to keep her cool. "Anyway, I'll leave you to it," Rose said, this time no one stopping her from getting up." She looked at Cedric, giving him a mock-punch on his shoulder. This time she reached it comfortably without having to stretch. She was glad, considering how tall Cedric already was for his age. "Thank you for not being one of those who think that my brother is evil now."

He chuckled in return, giving her a half-smile. "Don't worry about it. And my offer stands – if you guys need anything, just ask."

"I'll keep that in mind. See ya," she said with a wave.

Cedric really was one of a kind. Such a nice bloke.