Tainted Roses

When all the world's gone, will it only be us?

It was the first day of Hogwarts for Rose Weasley and she would finally be able to join her older cousins at the notorious school. As she waved both her parents good bye at King's Cross, Rose, with her luggage in hand, boarded the Hogwarts Express. She looked around expectantly for her cousins, but she didn't know which compartment they would be in. However, she quickly found an empty compartment for herself and placed her luggage beside her in the train.

With a sigh, Rose relaxed into her seat. She was finally going to Hogwarts. Standing up, she moved her luggage to the left of her so she could sit beside the window and look outside at the rolling countryside as the journey went on. However, the moment she stood up, the train started with a small jerk. Rose quickly sat down, though she almost banged her head on the overhead compartment. Holding onto to the edge of her seat, though, she was sure that she had her balance back again. Well, who didn't when they were sitting?

Looking up, Rose saw that someone had opened the door during her clumsy seat changing. It was a boy who looked to be around her age. He gave a wide smirk at her, apparently amused by her fumblings. "Mind if I join you?" he asked.

"Uh, sure," Rose said reluctantly. She didn't want her first meeting with someone to be like this. Rose had hoped that she would at least last until she got to Hogwarts before anyone saw how clumsy she was. Rose then took to looking out the window like she had planned, not wanting to talk to the newcomer.

He also looked out the window, sitting across from Rose, but he glanced at her every so often. Rose could tell he was, but she refused to glance back. "First time?" he asked.

Rose looked up at him and was surprised to see he was staring right at her. "Um, yeah. What about you?" Well, if he was going to start the conversation, Rose couldn't very well be rude to him.

"Nope. Second."

"Ah." Rose looked out the window again, not knowing what else to say to the boy. But then, a question dawned on her and she turned back to him. "So... What house are you in?"

"Slytherin." He smirked.

Well that goes any new friendship, Rose thought. "Mmm," was all she managed to be able to say, though, and Rose again turned towards the window. They were going at a steady pace now and London was probably far away by now.

"Houses before names. Tsk tsk," he said, shaking his head. He was probably smiling, but Rose wasn't going to satisfy her curiosity by looking at him. "I'm Tristan, by the way... If you were going to ask."

Rose resisted the urge to roll her eyes and looked up at him again. He was smiling. "Rose," she said with a sigh.

"Such a lovely name. Well, I'm glad to meet you, Rose." Tristan flashed her another smile before looking out the window once more.

Rose joined him in their watch of the countryside. She just wanted to get to Hogwarts. Rose didn't want to sit in a compartment in the Hogwarts Express with some Slytherin. She knew that she was already getting sucked into the house grudges of Hogwarts that have lasted for centuries, but she didn't care. So what if she was a cliché? After all the things she had heard ever since she was little from her father and her cousins, how could she refuse but conform? But then again, they said that Slytherins were nasty and deserved to be hated from their actions, but all Rose could be annoyed about when it came to Tristan was his smile. Why did he smile so much?

Not before long, the compartment door opened again. It was someone coming around with treats, but of course, Rose didn't have any money for that. She did have a few sickles in her pocket, but she knew better than to spend them on sweets. However, Tristan soon reached into his pocket to get out some sickles for the lady. She handed him a chocolate frog. "Thank you dear," she said before departing again.

"Didn't you want something?" Tristan asked. He still had the chocolate frog in his hand, still wrapped in its package.

"No, I'm fine," Rose lied. Now that she saw the chocolate frog, she did quite want one, but it was too late anyway. The lady was gone.

"If you say so," Tristan said. Then, he put the chocolate frog in the bag beside him.

"Aren't you going to eat that?"

"Not in front of you." He chuckled as if the answer was obvious.

"Oh."

No matter what Rose did, she kept being wrong about this boy. He clearly couldn't be all that bad. All he did was smile and be polite to her. Could Rose really be so quick to judge him?

Just then, though, the compartment door opened once more. Couldn't Rose ever get some peace and quiet?

"Hey, Tristan!" a boy exclaimed.

"Hey, Tommy." Tristan sighed a little, but the new boy didn't seem to notice. He was too excited.

"Where have you been? We've been looking all over for you."

"I figured you had better company or you would have found me before now." It sounded like Tristan was making something up, but Rose couldn't be sure. He probably just couldn't find them or didn't want to move once the train had started to move.

"Well, here you are. What are you doing with her?" Tommy asked with a disgusted glance in Rose's direction. He clearly recognized the trademark 'Weasley hair' Rose had. It didn't help that it was also wavy, either. It was hard to miss.

"What does it matter?" Tristan asked.

Tommy narrowed his eyes lightly at Tristan. "I don't know what's up with you after the summer, but let's get out of here. Dante and Brent are waiting a few compartments down."

"Okay." Tristan sighed slightly as he stood up and picked up his bag. The sigh was covered by him getting up off the seat, so Rose couldn't tell if he wanted to leave or not. "See you later." Tristan said to Rose as he left the compartment. Rose couldn't help but wonder if she had actually seen him wink at her as he closed the door behind him or if it was a trick of the light.