Closed The Final Petal Falls

[Rose Holland]

Rose felt anxious and sad as she waited on a bench in Brightstone Village. Watching all the Hogwarts students walk through the village made her miss Hogwarts more than she already did, and she wished she could join them on their way back to the castle. But that wasn't the only reason Rose was sad. She was waiting for Kauri, as it was time to end things with him. The two of them had barely had any contact since Hogwarts had started up again, and their last talk during the break had been awkward at best. It had started the moment Rose had pulled a prank at Hogwarts with her friends, but she thought privately that it had probably started before that point already. She had tried her best to hide her troublemaker side from Kauri while they were dating, instinctively knowing he would react badly. But she now realized that if you were dating someone, you shouldn't have to hide any side of you. They should like you how you are. Rose sat on the bench and waited for Kauri to arrive, her hand fidgeting idly with her scarf. She hoped he would come soon, she wanted to go home and hide in her room after this talk.

 

[Kauri Morales-Tipene]

Kauri knew he should be excited about today. Anyone sensible would be excited. He hadn't seen his girlfriend since school had started up again, and he was finally going to get to spend time with her today. That was the kind of thing people were excited about. But every time Kauri thought about seeing Rose again, his mind wandered back to the last time he had seen her, in the holidays. It had been painfully uncomfortable, both of them dancing around the wall that had sprung up between them. If today was a repeat of that... it was hard to be excited. But Kauri knew that he should be, so he pushed all those negative feelings down, down, as far as he could, and plastered a bright smile on his face at the sight of his girlfriend. This was a happy occasion, and he shouldn't be dwelling on negative thoughts. It only made things worse. "Hey!" Kauri said cheerfully, leaning down to kiss Rose on the cheek. "How have you been?" He realised too late that maybe the first thing he should have said was 'I missed you', but something about even thinking it felt disingenuous. Kauri hadn't missed Rose the way he had expected to, and maybe that was a problem not to think about as well.

 

[Rose Holland]

The first thing Rose noticed about Kauri as he approached, was that he still looked very handsome. It would have helped this all a bit if he'd not looked so nice today. Rose noticed the smile on his face, but also saw there was something off about it. He didn't look at her the way he used to. She let him kiss her on the cheek, and then got to her feet. "Hi... I've been alright. Let's walk for a bit, okay?" She said, turning her face away from him. She knew this wasn't how she was supposed to greet her boyfriend after not seeing him for weeks, but she couldn't keep up the pretense. With her hands in her pockets, she walked with him through the street for a while. After a moment, she spoke up. "This isn't working, and I think you know it too." She said, turning her head to look at him. "We haven't written each other, and you're not at ease around me, I can tell." She said, trying her best not to sound accusatory. "You haven't been since the end of the last school year."

 

[Kauri Morales-Tipene]

There was no pretending around how different Rose seemed as Kauri greeted her, and it was a struggle not to let his smile slip as she got up. He nodded though, walking with her, looking around at the shops. Kauri was about to make a comment about seeing what Honeyduke's had to offer when Rose spoke again, freezing the ice in his veins. Kauri felt the smile dripping off his face, pain overtaking it at last as he looked at his girlfriend. He opened his mouth to protest, to laugh it off about how everything was fine, but finally Kauri wasn't able to lie to himself any longer. "I... I mean, I just can't understand what you did!" He burst out at last, body tense. "Like, you were a Prefect! We're supposed to take rules seriously! Someone could have gotten hurt, or... accidentally stepped on one of the frogs or something! It was horrible, and you don't seem to care! I... I thought you were a person who would care about that kind of thing!" All of the horrible thoughts Kauri had been trying not to think came bubbling out of him all at once, and he couldn't bring himself to look at Rose when he was done, staring ahead vacantly instead.

 

[Rose Holland]

Rose wasn't sure if she felt relief or annoyance when Kauri finally broke his silence on the subject that had been between them for months now. She listened to his outburst, frowning a little. She let him finish, then turned to him. "Why did you wait to say something until I brought it up? It's been months now, Kauri. If I did something that bothered you so much, why didn't you tell me?" That part annoyed her more than his reason for being upset, though she didn't like that either. "It was just a harmless prank, Kauri. Stop acting like we murdered someone." She said then, sighing. "It was frogspawn soap, none of the frogs were real... it was just a prank item you can buy here in Brightstone. How exactly could people have gotten hurt? I don't mind the rules, but sometimes it's okay to break them for a bit of fun. We just wanted a nice exit from Hogwarts." She played with her scarf and looked down. "I don't like that you're acting like I've turned into a criminal or something."

 

[Kauri Morales-Tipene]

Kauri's face twisted painfully as he considered Rose's question. "Well, it's not the kind of thing that's easy to bring up! Like, really, I should have taken house points from you at the time! I just... didn't want to have that conversation. Like, I'm your boyfriend, I shouldn't have to tell you when you've done something bad!" He exclaimed, finally letting himself really feel just how hurt he was over this. His frustration only grew when Rose kept defending her actions. "Someone could have slipped over and hurt themselves!" He said firmly. "I can't believe you think this is just harmless! Even if they weren't real frogs, you're.... you were a prefect, you have a responsibility to be a good example! What if kids this year think it's fine to do the same thing, or even something worse, just because they saw a prefect do it! Rules and responsibilities are important, I can't believe you would just blow this off!"

 

[Rose Holland]

Rose frowns. "It should be easy to bring up, because it's not that big a deal. It was just a prank, and you're the one blowing it out of proportion." She told him angrily, her frustration rising to the surface. "You're not acting like my boyfriend, you're acting like a professor telling off a student. It was just some fun! And I'm not even a student anymore." She looked away from him, trying to get her own feelings under control. "Are you saying I wasn't a good example because I knew when it was time to have a bit of fun? When the rules weren't always the most important? It was my last week at Hogwarts, we weren't harming anyone. You need to stop acting like I did something terrible." She said, still not looking at him. "Nobody saw us do it, but even if they did... don't you think it's important to teach kids they need to let off some steam sometimes? To not always blindly follow rules, but push the boundaries a little?" She paused. "I suppose you don't." She added, answering the question for him. "You've always followed the rules. Don't you ever get bored?" She asked him, glancing at him. There was a part of her still that was desperate for him to understand her, just a little. But she knew deep down that it wasn't going to happen.