CHAPTER SIX
❝isolation❞

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  THE AIR WAS CRISP AROUND HER, CHILLING HER BONES AS HER HANDS SLIPPED INSIDE HER POCKETS FOR PROTECTION. Rosalie, the loner, walked around Hogsmeade as others passed around her. No one else was alone, all the students with their friends giggling to themselves as they went from store to store, and the adults had a partner alongside them that they initiated conversation with.

        Rosalie, though, was alone as she had no one to talk to. She was the loner, the isolated girl who kept to herself and never created friendships with anyone. She had, a long time ago, when she was much younger and more innocent. She had believed that she could have friends, and then going home for Christmas changed everything.

        She had been so excited to tell her father about her two friends. He wasn't so terrible yet, so gone into his drinking that he was just madness and anger, there were moments where he was a dad and he loved her. Where he would apologize for his actions and promise to make everything better, repenting for love.

        And Rosalie had been so young and hopeful, believing that there was hope for him and thinking that he would be happy she was coming into herself at Hogwarts. He even made dinner that night and they sat together, Rosalie with a large smile on her face. She told him everything about the castle and her classes, growing in joy as she ventured onto the topic of friendship.

        Throughout the whole time he had been so kind, so interested in her academics, yet when she mentioned Dean and Seamus, he changed. He grew cold and furious again, looking at her with such vile glares.

        "Why are you such a gourmande, Rosie? You have everything handed to you and yet you take more? Why do you wish to hurt more people like your friends?" he spat out the last word, "What will they think when they know the truth about you? How you did nothing as you watched your mother die? Will they stay then?"

        No, she had not wanted to be such a greedy girl like he had called her. She wanted to be so selfless, so pure, and she had to let go of her friends. They would not want her anyway when they learned that. Who would stay with someone like that?

        Now, she laughed at the grave of her father. She was so selfish, she was such a gourmande and she loved it. She would take everything and leave him nothing, leave not a single thing for anyone else. She would be in the spotlight, she would have the attention, she would have her glory. Wondrous glory that would be all hers and no one would even know his name.

        Yes, she was a greedy girl and she wore that title with pride.

        But the greedy girl walked alone, she had not gotten any new friends since Dean and Seamus, although Luna was nice enough – close enough to a friend. What she and Draco had was just a partnership and nothing more. Once this was over and they had been given new tasks, they would forget each other and move forward. They were not friends; Draco did not want to be her friend. He had plenty enough already and she was associated with this darkness he clearly hated.

        Finding nothing else for her in Hogsmeade, she began to walk back, going behind Harry Potter and his friends when she heard a scream. Looking forward, a girl screamed and was elevated into the air from a charm of sorts. The trio before her rushed forward but Rosalie stayed frozen.

        "I warned her! I warned her not to touch it!" the girl's friend screeched in her defense.

        Rosalie then began to walk forward, looking and seeing a package on the ground. Going towards it, she saw a necklace with a great opal in the middle. She crouched down to get a better look at it, not daring to touch it after the words of the girl. There was a shimmer in it, as if it was smug that it claimed another victim, and Rosalie leaned back in surprise.

        Shock about the shimmer but also because she remembered this. She knew this necklace, she recognized it because...because Draco had it. Rosalie stood up and looked at where Hagrid was trying to help the levitating girl and then glanced at her friend. How had they gotten this, where was it going?

        Dread filled her then. This was Draco's, and if it were his...was he trying to get it to Dumbledore? She couldn't rule out the possibility, so she fled from the scene and walked quickly back to the castle knowing where exactly Draco would be or where he would soon be led.

°°°

        It had been an hour of waiting in the Room of Requirement, looking around at the jewels but also trying to fix the broken Vanishing Cabinet as she continued glancing at the door to see when he arrived. But finally, after too long of a time, the doors opened and Rosalie straightened herself out to glare at the oncoming figure.

        "What the hell did you do?" she asked once Draco came into sight. He froze when he saw her with her wand out, burning holes into him.

        After a moment where she did not raise her wand or do anything more threatening, he relaxed himself and walked forward. "Working on the other part of our mission, as we're supposed to."

        Rosalie scoffed, "A girl is hurt because of that necklace you gave her. What did you tell her? That it's a gift for Dumbledore or something and just hope that she didn't get curious and touch it but give it to him with no problem?"

        Draco's jaw clenched. "I didn't give it to her directly. I placed a worker at the Three Broomsticks under the Imperius Curse and then she gave it to Katie and placed her under the curse too. It was supposed to go to Filch who would send it to Dumbledore."

        "That's a stupid plan," she scoffed, "There are so many things that could go wrong. I'm not surprised that Katie ended up as she has."

        The Malfoy boy looked at her in anger, coming close to her. "Well what else was I supposed to you? You aren't coming up with anything for us to do and we can't just keep doing nothing, now can we? I have to go back to that mansion and report to him and I can't come up empty handed!"

        "And we won't," Rosalie snapped at him, "We have to be careful and precise. There's no room for failure in this."

        "I know. Believe me, I know better than you that we can't fail because that would mean my parents will die," Draco told her through gritted teeth.

        Part of her felt guilty for snapping at him, for yelling at him, but a larger part argued that they needed everything to go perfectly and his rash decisions were going make them fail and that would kill them.

        So, Rosalie leaned in close, "Then stop fucking everything up and go according to plan. That's the only way we'll all get out of this alive."

        Draco looked away from her, gaze fixed on the Vanishing Cabinet as his anger churned. "You don't even care, do you? I mean, of course you don't. Failure means death for me but for you? What do you lose? Approval from him? From Voldemort?"

        Rosalie scoffed. He knew nothing about what was on the line for her. Failure meant that trust would be broken, failure meant that her mission was over and she was a goner. "You don't know anything."

        "Oh, yeah? Well I know that you had a choice. I know that you came waltzing into my house a year ago and somehow convinced Voldemort to give you that mark. You chose this, you wanted this. But me? I never had that choice; it was either be marked or die. To watch my family die. That was hardly a choice."

        Rosalie pursed her lips but didn't say anything. What could she say? She did choose this; she wanted the benefits of what Dumbledore offered her. She could have glory, that wondrous beauty, for this low price. She could endure this, all she had to do was succeed.

        Whereas Draco didn't have this choice at all. He had been dealt some bad cards and now he was forced into this but she had chosen it. She had selected this to be her future, to be the path she was taking.

        "I do care," Rosalie told him, "I do. I understand, but we have to be smart about this or we're all going to die and I don't want that to happen."

        Draco laughed at her, shaking his head before looking back at her. "Why are you even doing this? Why – Why did you become a Death Eater?"

        She couldn't tell him, obviously. She could spill the greatest secret she had, could not betray Dumbledore and her cause because it could end her. He could use this against her and betray her; she couldn't tell him.

        "Because I want glory," she told him, "Because I want power and I was offered that."

        They were not lies; she had been offered this, these were her wants. She wanted to be able to stand over her father's grave again and spit on it, knowing that her name would be on the lips of everyone whereas no one even remembered his. He was just a drunkard but she would be a queen.

        "Of course," Draco muttered, stepping away from her, "You know, for someone who wants that, you're doing a pretty shit job of getting it. The longer you take to get this done, the less impressed he'll be. The longer it'll take you to rise through the ranks."

        He left her after that and she just stared at where he once stood. He was right with that, but he had gotten it wrong where she was depriving her glory from her. She took a seat on one of the chairs they had pulled out, looking around at all the forgotten treasures.

        All of these lost valuables that people stopped looking for, all the abandoned jewels and coins that would never see the light of day again. She could steal it all, take it back and sell everything. It would make her wealthy if not glorious, though power always followed the rich...

        But it was too late to change. She was already on her path and there was no going back, there was no other way but through. So she kept working on the Vanishing Cabinet alone.