AUTHOR'S NOTE:- The summary box isn't big enough for my full summary, which was actually one of my shortest. Here is my summary for this fic:-
Being friends with the Marauders is one thing, but falling out with them is something entirely different. Renee Olivia Sadie Eden[aka Rose was best friends with the Marauders. So when Lily Evans plans a revenge, she's the one to help. But things are slowly changing, and Rose's illness is taking over. A storm's brewing...
I apologise for the awful spacing.
Disclaimer: Anyone/thing you recognise, I don't own. Everything else, I do. Apart from the poem. That's Dr Suess'. :)
So, sorry if this seems isn't seamless, but more will be explained in the next chappie. :) This plot bunny has been around for a looong time, so I thought I'd eventually get around to writing it up. And here it is!:)
P.S. This first chapter was written a year or so ago. My writing style has improved since then, I promise. This promise is mostly to me, for having to go through and edit out all of the horrendous spelling mistakes. (:
The common room was virtually empty, with the fire almost dead, nothing was keeping many of the Gryffindor students up in the freezing temperatures the Common Room drops to after the fire burns out. The few sixth and seventh years that were up were crowding as close to the fire as they possibly could, and even they weren't great in numbers. So it was the perfect night to work, for four adventurous third years. Huddled to next to a window, they were pouring over several books and essays, each combating the chill from the open window in their own way.
Sirius Black was sat nonchalantly on a pouffe, wearing his thinnest robes, his curtain of hair covering his face. James Potter was lying across another pouffe, shivering vigorously, and Peter Pettigrew was wearing thick robes, curled up into a ball and whimpering. The fourth, and last, third year was sat on the window sill, her head stuck out of the window, gazing across the grounds to a moving figure. As she watched, it waved a large branch menacingly, before freezing.
It may have looked like it had frozen from the cold, but her sharp eyes picked out two small figures, hurrying into its shadows. Sitting back, satisfied, she took hold of the handle and started tugging it, trying in vain to shut the window. Her three friends ignored her, and Sirius only looked up when a sixth year swore at them to 'shut the -censored- window', to which he swivelled round and replied 'Peace man'. The sixth year looked, in all honesty, like he was going to come over and start shouting, so he pulled himself up onto the window ledge and dragged it shut.
The girl glared at him, before swinging down, her shoulder-length mouse-brown hair flying out behind her. It was only when she was seated, a blanket around her shoulders, that James spoke.
'Is he in then Rose?' he enquired calmly, flicking a pen lid at the chubbier boy shivering next to him.
'Yeah,' she sighed, her khaki-coloured eyes gleaming in the half-light. 'And don't call me Rose!' she added as an after-thought.
'Oh, sorry Miss Renee Olivia Sadie Eden,' he snorted. Peter joined in with his nervous little laugh, but spluttered to a stop a few seconds later when she threw an ink-filled quill at him.
'That's really not nice!' sighed Sirius, retrieving the quill and scrawling a couple of words onto a spare sheet of parchment with it.
'For gods sake Sirius!' she exclaimed, seizing the parchment from him. 'It took me all of yesterday's lunch to copy that out and you've just gone and played Hangman all over the back!' It seemed that the spare sheet of parchment was, in fact, valuable research.
'You can rewrite it,' he pouted, holding his hand out for the parchment to be given to him.
'No Sirius, I can't! You may be the cleverest wizard in the year, but-' she stopped at a snort from James. 'Oh alright, one of the cleverest wizards in the year, but so far, who's done all the work? How the hell are we supposed to do this for Remus if you won't even put in the effort. Peter's done more work than you have, and that's saying something, considering he's been writing sonnets the whole time!' She threw the parchment at him and ran up the stairs to the girl's dormitory, leaving Sirius, Peter and James alone.
They stared at each other blankly.
'I thought you said that it was just a phase she was going through?' James groaned slowly.
'I didn't say that, it was Remus,' retaliated Sirius hotly.
'Well lets face it Sirius, she's been acting weirdly ever since second year! I mean, how long are these hormones going to have her like this for?! And besides, she can't have PMS every day!' Sirius opened his mouth to retaliate, when Peter cleared his throat.
'Stop it you two! This isn't going to help!' he hissed.
'And what is, your poetry?' snapped Sirius.
'Well why not?' he asked. This simple question was enough to knock the wind out of both his and James' sails. They both shared a long suffering sigh.
'Go on then Pete,' sighed James, adjusting his position so as to hear better.
Peter obediently got to his feet and pulled out a piece of parchment.
'This is one I've just finished.' He cleared his throat again. The sixth years by the now dead fire, growled at the noise they were making.
'Title?' whispered Sirius.
'Hmm?'
'What's it called Peter?'
'I'd Like To Say I'm Sorry.' The other two boys listened carefully as Peter began to read out his latest poem in a soft, melodic voice.
'So you say she just ran out of the room? Without any provocations?'
'Yes Moony, haven't you been listening?'
'Don't call me Moony!' Remus hissed, moving back to allow a gaggle of Hufflepuff Fifth years pass him on the stairs. They, apart from Rose, were on their way to breakfast the next morning, and Remus was struggling to get his head around the concept of this latest of outbursts.
'Why not? Just because we're not Animagus yet doesn't mean you can't have a nickname!' hissed Sirius back, smiling to a fellow third year, this time from Ravenclaw as she passed them along the corridor.
'I just don't get why she would snap without a provocation,' murmured Remus as they turned the corner towards the Grand Staircase.
'Well she didn't,' admitted James. 'She snapped because Sirius wrote on the back of a page of research on Animagi she'd written out.'
'Hi!' he added, to a group of fourth year Gryffindor girls. They looked at each other, before raising their eyebrows, but one winked. James was perfectly happy with this, and tuned back into the conversation.
'Why don't you talk to her Moony, she always listens to you,' suggested Peter as he pushed open the doors to the Great Hall, and immediately apologised to the first year he'd accidentally knocked down.
'You will be!' she hissed, hurrying along to the Slytherin table, casting back filthy looks.
Remus sighed
'Alright. But I doubt she'll listen. I've run out of creative ways to get her to talk.'
'Well that's where Peter comes in,' beamed James, clapping him on the back as they made their way towards their spot at the table. 'He'll come with you and give her this poem. Once she's read it, she'll be all feminine and upset, and then you two can talk her around!' He gave them encouraging grins as they slowly headed off to where Rose was sitting, a few metres away from her normal seat.
'Although why we always have to apologise I don't know,' Sirius muttered darkly, as he watched Remus slide into the seat next to her.
'Well to be fair she did work pretty hard on that parchment. It's just your bad luck that that was the sheet she'd just finished. You know how protective she is of the new ones, especially with more information on them.' he announced, helping himself to a bowl of cereal.
'Umm. I suppose,' Sirius muttered, taking a rasher of bacon and dumping it onto his plate.
'Toast?' James asked cheerfully, proffering the platter.
'Please,' Sirius said, never taking his eyes off of Remus, Peter and Rose, who was listening to Peter read off a sheet of parchment.
'What's his poem like?' Sirius asked, realising that he hadn't heard it.
'I have no idea. He's making it up as he goes along. You know how much better his poetry is when it's spur of the moment,' replied James cheerfully, liberally buttering his toast. 'What was that Rawlings? The bacon?' Sirius sighed as James handed his fellow housemate the bacon, and went on eating. Rose was watching him now, and when he met her eye, she smiled nervously. At an encouraging look from Remus, he mouthed 'Sorry', although it surprised him how much he begrudged doing it. She mouthed it back and he nodded, going back to eating, wondering why this 'phase' was lasting so long.
It had started in second year, when she'd thrown a book at James, after he'd made a rather sexist comment about girls, and had continued up to this very day. It happened every fortnight or so, and was very tedious. She never really blew up though, and they'd always just accepted it as her way to vent her frustrations as being the only female in the group.
'What's first?' James asked, oblivious to the thoughts rushing through his best friends head.
'Double Herbology with the Ravenclaws.'
'Ugh. And then?'
'I don't know, look at your own timetable,' sighed Sirius, getting up.
'I know we have Potions last,' announced a female voice behind them. They both whirled around, expecting to see Rose, but she was chatting happily to Peter, no doubt about poetry. Remus was nodding along fervently. Definitely poetry.
'Excellent!' beamed James. Sirius raised his eyebrows.
'Excellent?' he asked, at the same time as the female, a petite red-head.
'Snivellus,' James stated, by way of reply. Lily Evans rolled her eyes, and pushed a book into her bag, before rejoining her friends and walking off to her next lesson, leaving Sirius and James with their heads together, plotting excitedly.
'You coming?' asked a voice behind them. They both jumped. Sirius was first to recover.
'Why Remus, what a deep voice you have!' he mock-announced.
'All the better to scare you with,' he replied in a growly voice far too deep for his slim throat.
'Where are Rose and Peter?' James asked, leading the way out into the Entrance Hall.'
'They went ahead. They were talking about some new type of poetry. Peter was getting her to explain it. It's some Muggle sort. Highly confusing. Hikoies, or something.'
'Wow. Remus I-have-no-idea-what-your-middle-name-is Lupin, a type of poetry you don't know. You shock me!' gasped Sirius, jumping over a flowerbed and onto the dirt track leading to the green houses.