Remus Lupin didn't know what he was doing. What he did know, was that Rose had gotten him into an elite pack of only the best werewolves, and he didn't know exactly how. He did know, however, that this was the pack that Fenrir Greyback wished he was a part of.
"So, Remus! We're going to have to make a few changes, but I reckon you'll do just fine!" the alpha werewolf of all werewolves said with a large grin.
Remus frowned nervously, "What changes are those?"
"Easy, really. You need to embrace your wolf. It'll make transforming easier, you'll age slower, and it's just generally good for your health."
Remus frowned, "It's not that easy."
"Yes, it is," Delco insisted. "Listen, talk to your wolf. He'll help you. You'll be amazed at how similar he is to yourself."
As the bigger man walked away, Remus called after him, "Why am I here?"
Delco slowly turned around, "Well, simple really. It's because you're close to Rose."
"If you think you can use me to get to Rose-" Remus said hotly.
Delco, however, easily interrupted, "Not at all. I just think that we need to keep a closer eye on the girl."
"Why? What is she doing to draw this attention to herself?!"
Delco sighed, "You don't feel it, do you?"
"Feel what?!"
"Protective. Like you would die for her. Like you didn't know that something was missing out of your world until she came along, and now that she's here you can't ever let her disappear or get hurt. When I met Rose I immediately wanted to do everything she asked me to do, I immediately wanted to bow down before her and swear my fealty to her. She's a little beacon of light, she calls to my wolf with everything she is. She's-"
"Addictive," a new voice said from next to Remus.
Cian, the king of the Vampires was standing there, a little condescending grin on his face, "She's like the sweetest smell in the world, she's like every member of your family combined. She's everything you want in life and more."
"But how?" Remus groaned in defeat. "She's just a girl!"
"A very powerful girl," the other two chorused.
"There also may be the fact of a prophecy," Cian offered.
"No, Harry's the one who has a prophecy," Remus immediately argued.
"Her twin has one too? How impressive," Cian muttered.
"Tell me about this prophecy," Remus demanded.
"Only after you accept your wolf," Delco said with a decisive nod, and then he and Cian walked away, knowing they had given him enough incentive.
Remus sat on his surprisingly comfortable bed and groaned quietly. He wasn't sure how long he had been asleep for, but he had been asleep for awhile. It had taken longer than he had anticipated contacting his inner wolf, but with the help of Faith Kelley he had finally embraced his previous burden.
Blonde, shaggy hair almost fully covered her lean, worried face. She had shuttered amber eyes that were set well within their sockets. Several moles are spread charmingly on her neck and scars litter her body, although miraculously leaving her face intact. Faith was a beautiful woman, and many people adored her even though her heavy german accent made her slightly hard to understand.
Remember, Remus, I'm a Kappa, you're a Sigma. This will all come naturally once you embrace your wolf, but letting him know where he sits will be very important to him.
Mate. The wolf inside his head insisted as he looked at the woman who was still asleep on the bed.
Not until she's marked. Remus acknowledged, causing the wolf to growl in annoyance.
Kappa? His wolf questioned Faith's place in the pack.
Kappa. The meaning of the word suddenly rushed into Remus's brain. Kappa were slightly higher than the average pack member. There was a maximum of four in a pack. Kappas usually do most of the scouting and border patrols, though they often aid in taking care of the older children, those who could be away from their parents. Sometimes their duties to the pack kept them away for weeks at a time.
"You'fe voken up?" Faith asked in a tired voice as she rubbed her eyes.
"I have," Remus said with a smile.
"You haffe accebded your volf?"
"I have," Remus's smile got slightly more shy.
"Ja! Zat is kood! Alpha vill be fery haby!"
Remus blushed, "Well, actually… I have a question for you."
Faith immediately looked on edge, "You haffe ein gueszion for me?"
"Yes. What exactly do you feel for me? Because my wolf is saying-"
"Mate. You are mein mate."
Remus relaxed, "We would have to mark each other."
"Of courze. Ve do zat on the full moon. Ach! You knev zat, didn't you?"
"Yes, I knew that. But if you'll excuse me, Kappa Faith, I need to talk to the Alpha."
"Nein. It is early, you should lay here vith me for avile longer."
Remus smiled and leaned down to gently kiss the woman's cheek, "I'm sorry, I have to speak to him. It's about my adopted cub."
"The flover, correct? Roze?"
"Yes, Rose. I'll be back soon."
Faith nodded her head and settled back down to relax on the bed as Remus walked to where he knew the Alpha would be waiting for him. He could sense everyone in the pack around him, and as he came up to Delco he couldn't help grinning but to grin. He was talking to his Alpha!
"Alpha," Remus said with a bow of his head. "I'm ready to know what you know about Rose."
"It's about time you figured out how to accept your wolf," Delco said with a grin as Cian practically materialized next to him. "We have a lot to tell you about the little Alpha."
Remus stepped into the house he hadn't seen months. He heard a thundering of feet as Sirius, Harry, and Rose all stampeded to get to him. Somehow Rose managed to beat Sirius and she was being held in his arms seconds before Harry and Sirius attached themselves to him.
"Be careful guys, I'll almost think you missed me," Remus said with a laugh.
Suddenly both Rose and Sirius shot back, "You smell different!" they both said.
Remus frowned, "Yes, I suppose I would. I imagine you're picking up on the more wolfy smell?"
Sirius nodded while Rose shook her head, "You smell like you've been hanging around a female!"
Remus sighed. So much for keeping that a momentary secret, "Let me get into the house, then I'll tell you all about it."
Rose nodded, "You will tell us the truth."
Remus's heart clenched, and all thoughts of lying left his mind, "Yeah, I will."
Finally shutting the door, Remus muttered to himself as everyone else went to the living room, "Little Alpha indeed."
"Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday Harry and Rose! Happy birthday to you!"
"Happy Birthday today, may you eat, laugh and play. May these flames be your worries as you blow them away."
"Happy Birthday to You! Happy Birthday to You! You look like a monkey, and you smell like one too!"
"Very Happy Birthday, what more can I say? I'm shocked you're still kicking when you party this way!"
The general cacophony of voices at Rose and Harry Potter's birthday party made it very difficult to figure out exactly who sang what lyrics, but both Rose and Harry thought they knew who sang about them looking and smelling like monkeys.
"Blow out the candles already!" a voice in the back yelled to general laughter as Rose and Harry blew out their birthday candles.
"What'd you wish for?!" the Weasley twins, Rose's boyfriends, and best friends, immediately asked.
"As if I'm going to tell you," Rose said with a laugh.
"Yeah, I don't think you two need to know," Harry said, although his eyes strayed over to where Hermione Granger, his crush, and best friend, stood.
"Well, everyone dig in!" Rose said with a smile as Mrs. Weasley started cutting the cakes.
General laughter followed and Rose happily sat on Fred's lap with her feet in George's lap.
"Soooo," Fred said with a smirk, "what'd you wish for?"
"I'll tell you when it happens," Rose said with a wink.
"If you tell us now I'll give you a bite of my cake," George offered, waving the forkful of cake in front of Rose.
"Or you could give it to me anyways? I mean, it's my birthday, isn't it?"
George sighed, knowing he could never deny Rose, and held the fork up to her watching in fascination as she quickly stole the cake from the fork.
"Mmm, you have some frosting on your lip, Spitfire," Fred said, gently wiping the frosting off with his thumb and then licking it off of his thumb.
Rose blushed slightly, "It's not my fault that bite was giant!"
George rolled his eyes as Fred spoke, "If you have issues with the size of that bite I'm sure you'll have bigger problems in the future."
Rose gasped and immediately went pink, "Fred!"
Fred shrugged, and George smirked, "It's true."
Rose groaned and cuddled closer into Fred's chest, his cake having been long finished, "As punishment, Fred, I'm going to stay right here and you're going to feed me!"
Fred rolled his eyes, "Hardly a punishment."
"Well, you wouldn't know yet, would you?"
Fred raised an eyebrow and picked up Rose's fork giving her a bite of her own cake. What he hadn't been expecting was her to make 'bedroom eyes' and to quietly moan. The combination immediately made her sitting on his lap more uncomfortable, and he knew he couldn't do anything about it because people were surrounding them.
"That's unfair, you little witch!" Fred ground out.
George snickered, "Oi, Fred, give the girl what she wants! She wants cake, and you're supposed to be feeding her!"
After a few more bites of cake both of the twins were in a right tizzy. They were looking flustered, and they were intensely focused on Rose's face as Fred fed her the cake. Once the cake was gone the twins were almost disappointed.
"There's no more cake," George pointlessly pointed out.
"You're right," Rose said, deftly taking the fork from Fred and licking it clean.
The twins groaned.
"Hey guys, what's going on?" Bill Weasley asked as he walked over. Bill was a tall, thin, handsome man, and had red hair like the rest of the Weasley family. He wore it long and in a ponytail, and he had an earring with a fang dangling from it. He wore clothes that would not be out of place at a rock concert, and he was wearing his well loved dragon hide boots.
"Go away Bill!" Fred and George groaned while Rose laughed.
"Ahhh, that good?" Bill asked with a smirk.
"We don't know, you interrupted it!" Fred and George said again.
Rose laughed and moved to get off of Fred, but found him holding her to him, "Nope, you're not moving."
"Ahh, so it was good."
Rose smirked, "I don't know, I was rather fond of it."
"You know, it's almost present time," Bill said. "I actually had a question for the little lady."
"She's hardly a lady, Bill," Fred said with a glare at Rose.
"I'll have you know I'm perfectly ladylike! And even if I weren't, you wouldn't have me any other way!"
The twins sighed, "We know."
"Anyways," Rose said, turning her attention back to Bill, "what is it you wanted to ask me?"
"Well… You see, I have a special gift. I thought you might appreciate it but I didn't know if you'd want to wear even more jewelry."
Rose knew Bill was right to question that. On an everyday basis she wore her necklace that proudly said Padfoots Girl on a silver heart charm, her charm bracelet, and her mother's lily ring. She used to wear a snake bracelet that matched a watch that Draco wore, but his words still rang in her head. I'm going to keep you safe no matter what, Rose, that's what's going on. Rose hummed thoughtfully and looked at Bill.
"Well, what type of jewelry?"
"It can be earings. Or I could make it into a bracelet. Or another ring. Really it could be whatever you want it to be."
Rose hummed thoughtfully, "Well, let's go with earrings, I need to get my ears pierced soon anyways."
"Why? Need to be like you're awesome older brother Bill?" Bill asked with a dashing smile.
"As if. I'm already better than my awesome older brother Bill."
Fred, George, and Bill laughed, "Well, I'll slip my present into your pile then."
At that moment, Mrs. Weasley's voice pierced the general din that was the backyard of the Abode, "Present time!"
Rose hummed happily as she made her way to the designated area of wrapping paper destruction. It had been decided that Rose wasn't allowed to slowly open her presents this year, she had to tear into everything.
Rose, knowing that her brother was looking at this like a race, immediately started tearing gifts open left and right, not looking at notes or the presents themselves yet. As soon as everything was unwrapped she announced herself the winner and went back to all of the gifts.
Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had gotten her a thick and warm blanket, Ginny had gotten her hair ties and bobby-pins, Charlie had gotten her a dragon scale from an Antipodean Opaleye, Remus, Sirius, and Victoria had each gotten her a book for the Lord of The Rings series, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had gotten her a book for her chocolate frog card collection, Fred and George had made her tons of their own products (partially for her use and partially to get them away from their mother), and Bill's present was positively spectacular.
Rose opened the little jewelry box and saw two small earrings that had a blue stone that gave off a magical glow. She looked up at him, her curiosity blazing in her eyes.
"Well, you know, there's something every Curse Breaker needs, which is to be able to speak and understand tons of different languages. These little earrings will make it so you understand all languages you come across, and make it so you can speak them too."
Rose's eyes were gigantic, "So you're saying as soon as I get my ears pierced I'm never taking these off ever?"
Everyone laughed, "Yeah, that might be the case. Maybe you'll end up getting your ears pierced multiple times?"
Rose's eyes lit up and she turned to Sirius, who shrugged much to Mrs. Weasley's annoyance, "It's your body kid, do what you want with it."
Rose's smirk was positively wicked and everyone groaned, "Oh, Sirius, what have you done?"
"Tattoos are not an option," Remus said.
Rose glared at him. They were in a muggle tattoo parlor so she could get her ears pierced. As soon as her first holes were done they were going to heal her ears and take her to another tattoo parlor to get her second holes done.
"Look, I'm just saying that if I got a phoenix tattoo-"
"That Lily would turn in her grave and Molly would kill me? That is a possibility."
"We could blame it on Sirius?" Rose asked hopefully.
"Do that on Sirius's time, not mine."
Rose groaned but happily handed the earrings Bill had given to her to the man who would be piercing her ears.
"This'll sting," the man said knowingly.
"I'm fine with that. I can't wait to do this, though!"
The man laughed and got her to sit still as he found the perfect spots in her ears.
The bell signaling the opening of the door jingled, but Rose didn't turn to look. She almost did, however when she heard a voice speaking to Remus.
"Hello, Remus! Is zat Roze?" the heavily accented female voice asked.
She was distracted from Remus's answer by a sudden pain in her right ear. She blinked and shook her head slightly, getting used to the weight of her new addition. The second earring was the same and Rose smiled brilliantly at the man after they were done.
"Thank you very much! How much do I owe you?"
She quickly handed the man the money she owed him and hurried back to Remus and a pretty blonde woman.
"Rose," Remus said with a wide grin as he ushered them out of the shop and into the street where they wouldn't be questioned. "This is my mate, Faith."
"It is nice to meet you, Roze. Remus underestimaded your peauty, it is fery dizarming."
Rose blushed lightly as Remus discreetly healed her ears, "He's hardly said a word about yours. All he does if we ask what you look like is sigh and go all mushy."
The two females laughed at Remus's embarrassed expression.
"Well, we need to make another stop, so let's be on our way!" and with that, Remus grabbed their arms and apparated them to their next tattoo parlor.
"Hello, how may I help you?" asked the woman behind the counter.
"I'd like to get my ears pierced please! I got them pierced six months back, and I just need to do it again!"
The woman laughed in understanding, "Of course! Come on, let's get you set up. Do you have a pair already or do you need to choose one?"
Rose smiled shyly, "I have a pair already."
The woman held her hand out for the pair, and Rose shyly handed them over. Sirius had taken the twins shopping for a pair of earrings for her, and they settled on a pair of small rose quartz studs.
"They're very pretty," the woman acknowledged as she pulled Rose into the back room to get her set up.
"Thank you! They're a gift from my dad and boyfriend."
The woman hummed in agreement, before she inspected Rose's other earrings, "I'll need you to take those off. They're rather enchanting, though, don't you think?"
Rose paused as she started taking her earrings off, "Really? I thought they were rather muggle."
The woman laughed, "Thought so. So how long ago did you really get those done?"
"Maybe five minutes."
"That's the way to do it."
They were silent until Rose's ears were pierced for the second time and Rose put in her old pair of earrings, "How much do I owe you?"
The woman shook her head, "I know who you are, you don't owe me a thing?"
"If you don't let me pay I'll mysteriously leave five-hundred pounds here."
The woman sighed, "Fine. Six pounds."
Rose happily paid and told the woman to have a good day before skipping over to Remus and Faith, "Well, I'm ready when you are!"
Rose woke with a yelp. She lay flat on her back, breathing hard as though she had been running. She had awoken from a vivid dream with her hands pressed against her face. The old scar on her forehead, which was shaped like a bolt of lightning, was burning beneath her fingers as though someone has just pressed a white-hot wire on her skin.
She sat up, one hand still on her scar, the other searching for the two-way mirror Fred and George had given her the summer before. She paused as she looked at the mirror, and then set it down again.
Rose ran her fingers over the scar again. It was still painful. She turned on the lamp beside her, scrambled out of bed, crossed the room, opened her wardrobe, and peered into the mirror on the inside of the door. A short girl of fourteen looked back at her, her hazel eyes puzzled under her red hair. She examined the lightning-bolt scar of his reflection more closely. It looked normal, but it was still stinging.
Rose tried to recall what she had been dreaming about before she had awoken. It had seemed so real…. There had been one person she knew and one she didn't…. She concentrated hard, frowning, trying to remember….
The dim picture of a darkened room came to her…. There had been a snake on a hearth rug…a cold, high voice… the voice of Lord Voldemort. Rose felt as though an ice cube had just slipped down into her stomach at the very thought….
She closed her eyes tightly and tried to remember what Voldemort had looked like, but it was impossible…. All Rose knew was that at the moment when Voldemort's chair had swung around, and she, Rose, had seen what was sitting in it, she had felt a spasm of horror, which had awoken her… or had that been the pain in her scar?
And who had the old man been? For there had definitely been an old man; Rose had watched him fall to the ground. It was all becoming confused. Rose put her face into her hands, locking out her bedroom, trying to hold on to the picture of that dimly lit room, but it was like trying to keep water in her cupped hands; the details were now trickling away as fast as she tried to hold on to them…. Voldemort and someone else had been talking about someone they had killed, though Rose could not remember the name…. And they had been plotting to kill someone else… Harry!
Rose took her face out of her hands and immediately walked into her twin brother's room, not bothering to ask for entrance or to even knock. She found her brother staring at her from his wardrobe, where is mirror was in plain sight.
"Bad dream?" she whispered as she slipped the door shut.
"You could say that," Harry muttered as he walked over to his bed. "You?"
"You could say I had a bad dream too."
Harry sighed, and they both went restlessly to his bed and sat down on it, running their fingers over each others scars. They both knew that it wasn't the pain that bothered them, but the reason behind the pain. The last time their scars had hurt it had been because Voldemort had been close by…. But Voldemort couldn't be here, now…. The idea of Voldemort lurking in Cokeworth was absurd, impossible….
They curled up on the bed with each other, taking comfort in the other one's presence.
"Have you told the twins yet?" Harry asked.
"No. Have you told Sirius yet?"
"No."
"What would they say if we told them our scars were hurting?"
Rose and Harry knew exactly what they would say. Fred would make a joke, George would get instantly worried. Sirius would go to Dumbledore, and Remus would try to puzzle it out.
"Perhaps we should write a letter to Dumbledore?" Harry asked nervously.
"And say what? Dear Professor Dumbledore, Sorry to bother you, but our scars hurt this morning. Yours sincerely, Harry and Rose Potter."
Once voiced the idea sounded extremely stupid.
They were quiet again, and Rose was on the cusp of falling asleep when Harry spoke, "I'll tell Sirius in the morning. He can figure out what to do."
Rose groaned in order to agree and curled closer to her twin, both of them swiftly falling asleep.
