Rose had, as she did every month, gotten a gift from her mother in the mail. When it was dropped on the table, she quickly picked it up and excused herself from the group she had been talking with. Well, she was doing more listening than talking, but they had seemed fine with it.

She quickly walked out of the hall, and once she could no longer clearly hear the loud voices of the students, she broke into a sprint, making sure to keep the package in her arms safe.

When she finally got to her dorm in Gryffindor tower, she cast the Engorgio charm on the small box, allowing it to grow to full size.

Before opening the box, he read the letter her mother had sent to her with it.

Rose,

Stay safe next week. I know you always promise to, but as a mother I need to make sure you remember.

~ Mom

P.S. I sent you something extra this time.

Excited to see the something extra, Rose quickly opened the box. There were seven bottles nicely wrapped in cloth and a box of orange chocolates. They were her favorite muggle food, and her mother would sometimes go out and buy it for her as a treat.

Remembering the bottles, she grabbed one and unwrapped it, folding up the cloth to send it back to her mother after she was done with them. Downing the potion in one gulp, she grabbed a chocolate and bit into it to counter the terrible taste.

She then closed the box and placed it in her trunk underneath the clothes that were stored in there.

Every day after that she drank one of the bottles in the box and ate a chocolate to counter the taste. She tried to focus on classes, but the closer it got to the end of the week, the more difficult it became.

On the fourth day, she spoke to The Doctor in class. Just casual conversation, but he seemed nervous. Was he like her? Did he know about her?

She tried to push those thoughts out of her mind as the week went on, but on the last day of the week, they persisted. Whenever she would look over at him in the dining hall, he would be whispering to Jack, the Slytherin transfer, about something she could never hear.

Of course, she was just being paranoid. She had nothing to worry about.

It was Wednesday, and Rose had just downed her last potion and chocolate. As she sat in class, restless and unable to concentrate, she noticed Jack writing something in his journal. There were no notes to take down, so what could he be writing.

At that moment the teacher must have also noticed, because she stalked over, picked it up from his table, and began to read quietly. Now all attention was on him.

"Mr. Harkness, what, may I ask, are you planning to do at 8:00 tomorrow?" She asked, a severe look on her face.

"I was planning to meet with Doc- I mean, John, tomorrow at 8:00 before class to work on the essay for charms class. I haven't quite finished it, and it's due tomorrow. I was just writing myself a reminder." He informed her, a sly grin on his face that screamed trouble, but the teacher seemed to have no problem with his excuse as she walked back up to the front of the class and continued her demonstration.

The moment she turned away, he went back to writing in his book, stopping every once in a while and just staring at his page. It was almost as if he was messaging someone through his paper.

Suddenly, as if just noticing someone staring, his head shot up and h stared at her for a moment before she looked away. It was none of her business what they were doing, and she would rather be left alone than stared at and asked questions, so she let him be.

---

That night she barely got any sleep, and she was glad it was a mostly free day for her classes. She had requested to have her free periods spread out throughout the week, but most of them had gotten lumped into Thursday.

Though it seemed impossible, her body felt even more restless today, and she just needed to be moving. When other students asked her what was wrong, she just snapped at them, and most of them, since she was a girl, assumed it was that time of month.

Jack and The Doctor had seemed more calm today, so she assumed they had just been anxious about something else, but compared to her, everyone probably seemed calm.

As the day went on her skin began to feel tighter and tighter. She felt like she needed to stretch, but no matter how much she did, nothing helped. It was finally almost time, and she couldn't help but run to the forbidden forest to get relief.

And as the moon rose, she felt herself begin to change. She could feel her skin stretch and relax, her bones popping out of place, only to pop back into another spot. It was familiar, and barely even hurt now that she had been doing it for so long.

She finally relaxed and shook herself off before hearing a rustling in the bushes, and catching two scents she knew all too well.

-

Word Count: 906

Rose: *snaps at some dude*

Dude: Ah, that time of month, huh?

Rose: I mean, you're not wrong...