Roses Are Red [open]

[Cassie St. James]

Cassie hummed a little tune to herself as she sat outside in the grass, breathing in the fresh air. She could smell the grass and the water from the lake nearby, and, obviously, she could smell the rose that her brother Nathan had sent her. She held it carefully in her fingers, avoiding pricking her fingers on the thorns, and held it's silk-like petals up to her nose, breathing in the alluring scent in deep, relaxed breaths. She smiled gently, silently thanking her brother for sending her this gift. Her brother knew how much she loved roses, so she was grateful when in the thick of stress at school, she was able to receive this rose, letting her know her brother loved her... and that he was still alive.

In this huge mess of a war between the Order and the Death Eaters, her brother was on the more dangerous side; with the Order. Last she heard from him, he was somewhere in Costa Rica, but that was two weeks ago. He'd probably moved on, and was on the run again. Cassie knew how big of a risk he took every time he sent things to her (things that were mostly roses) and that at any moment, she could be brought in for questioning on her brother's whereabouts, or if she was affiliated with the order, and they'd probably also ask where the rest of the order was hiding. But of course she had no idea. Her brother simply sent her the roses, and a little note with a hand-drawn heart, to let her know he's alive and that he loves her.

Cassie sighed, suddenly missing her brother. He would know what to do about the drama at school. Hell, he'd probably fix it. Ever since her third year, when she'd gone to a party and they'd played spin the bottle extreme, and she'd had to go into a room and not just make out with the guy, but do the dirty deed with him. That was the extreme part of it. And Cassie was too scared to actually do it, so she'd let the guy go ahead and just tell people they did it. But then it'd spread around the school and suddenly after story after story, she had supposedly slept with every guy at that party. People got a tiny bit of a reality check after awhile though, and decreased the number of guys that she'd supposedly slept with to about five.

What no one thought to do in all of this, was to ask her about it. They heard it from other people and that was enough for them. But now everyone thought that she just had soo much experience... when the truth was that she was still a virgin. And she planned to stay that way, until she found the right guy. But since no one would believe her anyway after the story build-up, she saw it was no use trying to convince anyone that she still held her innocence very closely. If she had Nathan there with her, he would most likely gather everyone in one place, and scream at them that she was a virgin, and that if anyone questioned it they could come to him and he'd prove them wrong with his fist. She knew this, because that was the kind of guy her brother was. And thinking about this, only made Cassie miss him more.

[Hermione Granger]

She probably shouldn't have come back to this place. It wasn't smart but she had too, she walked from the castle, from her old dorm and walked about the grounds that she remembered so well. She was tempted to go to The Black Lake and sit on that large rock she was known for sitting on but she had to remember that she wasn't Hermione Granger....she was Mia James. Everything about her was the same, her eyes were now a deep emerald green color, her freckles were basically gone, her body was a bit more slender than usual because being on the run caused her to lose a bit of weight but she was healthy. Stronger, smarter, but she darkened her hair, she dyed chocolate brown to match her eyes at first but after her first meeting with Draco Malfoy and how easily he recognized her and how badly he scolded her, she took his suggestion and changed it to an ebony black, just a bit darker and richer than Harry's and if she could fool herself, surely she could fool others.

She walked through the Forbidden Forest, nothing in here could scare her, her six years of coming in here, she basically knew everything about it, she had seen unicorns, centuars, she didn't see the Acromantulas wit Ron and Harry, she saw giants. So much has happened and all of it was stored in her mind, she inhaled the scent of this place, she stopped in a small clearing and leaned against a tree taking it all in, thinking of everything. The only reason she came back was because they were running... she Harry and Ron were trying to escape from Snatchers and she was caught only because she jumped in front of the spell that was aimed at Harry and they caught her. She managed to escape but she was seperated from her boys so she apparated back to Hogwarts where she knew she'd be safe but not as Hermione Granger, Harry Potter's mudblood but as 7th year Gryffindor student Mia James who is like Hermione Granger.

After a moment of just... standing there the new Hermione Granger walked from the Forbidden Forest and made her way down to the Black Lake, she had seen someone there, another student, she hadn't really talked to anyone other than Draco in the last two days, she tried to keep to herself even after being slightly bothered by Amycus and Alecto Carrow for being new, and for being muggle born. She sat on the large rock she always sat on and looked at the girl, she had seen her in the Gryffindor common room this morning so she was in the same house as her... she just didn't know who she was really. She took a deep breath and looked to her "Hello... you're in my house aren't you? Gryffindor? I'm Mia, I just transferred here." it wasn't true but it had to work.