Outwardly, Rose was as she always was; she made sure of it. With everything going on, no way was she going to have her family worrying about her of all things. Inside, however, things were different. She couldn’t sleep. Every time she lay down, she could hear Lily’s screams. Every night, she found herself wondering which of the girls that slept in that very room, in beds only a few feet from hers, might torture or kill her and her family. The answer she got to every night was the same: all of them.
So, every night, she’d lie awake clutching her wand in one hand and a knife in the other, until she was sure the other girls were asleep. Then, she’d sneak out. She crept from the dungeons all the way to the room of requirement, and for the rest of the night, she’d train. The thought of being caught unprepared again killed her. She stuffed her wand into her robes, and most of the time, wouldn’t let herself use it. It was wandless magic that was important to her, unspoken or otherwise. She hated how powerless she felt without the piece of wood, so she wouldn’t rest until that feeling left her.
All she had to answer to for the first few nights was her own frustration. When she heard the door opening behind her, something snapped. She wasn’t sure if her heartbeat raced or stopped completely. She twirled around, eyes wide over dark bags, and snatched her wand from her robes quick as the serpent she was. “Expelliarmus!” the witch hissed into the darkness, gaze following the jet of red light.
