"So this is your parents place? You inherited it?"

"Yes," said Sirius bitterly.

Rose remembered how much Sirius had hated this place, and how he had ran away from home when he was still in Hogwarts. It must be horrible for him to be back here again. She placed a hand on his arm and smiled comfortingly.

The house was quiet, but as they descended the stairs into the kitchen, Rose became aware of the lively chatter and clicking of silverware. She approached the door way nervously.

"Come on," said Sirius encouragingly and she followed him into the kitchen.

The kitchen was large and old fashioned, with a long wooden tabled stretched across it which was already covered with food, around which a large number of people were enjoying their lunch, most of whom seemed to have the same flaming red hair. Rose assumed these must be Molly Weasley's children. A number of people seemed to have noticed Rose enter the room and were staring at her. She couldn't help but feel uncomfortable.

"Sirius!" a teenaged boy with messy, jet black hair jumped up from his seat and came running forward towards Sirius, talking excitedly. Rose turned to look at him, and when he turned to face her too, and she saw his face, she felt like the world had stopped and that her legs might give way.

She closed her eyes. You're seeing things, she told herself, James Potter is dead.

She opened her eyes again, but the boy was still standing there, watching her curiously, his face pink, his green eyes fixed on hers. Wait, she thought, green eyes? Lily's eyes!

"Harry?" she exclaimed, so suddenly that the James Potter look-alike actually jumped.

"Er, yeh, that's me," he said, awkwardly.

Rose turned quickly to Sirius for confirmation, her excitement mounting with each second.

"Is it really him, Sirius?" she asked, her eyes wide.

"Yep," said Sirius, grinning broadly. "It's like looking at James, isn't it?"

"Except his eyes," Rose started, turning back to look at him. "He has –"

"My mothers eyes," said Harry. "Yeh, I've been told."

"But you don't know who I am, do you, Harry?" she asked.

"No," he said politely.

Rose put forward a hand, which Harry took.

"I'm Rose Wilson, Harry. I was friends with your parents at Hogwarts, and afterwards. Lily and I were best friends, in fact."

"Really?" he asked, his eyes lighting up excitedly. "Best friends?"

"The very best," she said, smiling sadly.

"Why haven't I met you before, then?"

"You have, you just wouldn't remember it, you were only a baby," she replied. She knew she was not answering the question, but she was not ready to discuss the real reason why she had never visited him. "You know you gave me such a fright when I first saw you, I thought I was looking at the young James Potter… thought I was going mad…"

Sirius laughed, "I know what you mean. The resemblance is uncanny. But anyway, you two can catch up later, I need to introduce you to everyone else first, Rose."

Rose paused for a moment, and then quickly remembered that they had just entered a kitchen filled with people who were all watching her curiously. One of the boys with red hair was staring shamelessly.

"Right," said Sirius, loudly enough for everyone to hear, "This a good friend of mine, Rose Wilson. We were in the same class at Hogwarts. She was on the Order last time too."

Good friend… the words ran in Roses ears. It had been many, many years since she had anyone who she could call a friend – let alone a good friend. She had colleagues, students, neighbours and family. But not friends.

Sirius pushed her forward, and started introducing everyone at the table while she shook hands with them.

"This is Ginny Weasley, Molly's youngest, these two here are Fred and George, or George and Fred, I can never tell the difference –"

Rose shook hands with the identical twins.

"Honestly, Sirius, can't you tell I'm Fred? Everyone knows I'm the handsome one," said one of them.

"You're identical," replied Sirius, raising an eyebrow.

"We are?" both twins , looking shocked. They made a big act of looking at each other and started in surprise.

"Wow! He's right!" they both cried.

Rose laughed.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, even if I won't be able to tell you apart."

"Never mind them, Rose, dear," said an exasperated Molly from near the stove, "They're just trouble, that's what they are."

Fred and George pretended to look hurt while Sirius continued to introduce others.

"This is Hermione Granger, a friend of Harry's from Hogwarts. And here's Ron, he's also a friend of Harry's, and another Weasley –"

Ron, the boy who had been staring shamelessly earlier, shook her hand, turning bright red as he did. His friend – Hermione – tutted impatiently at him.

" – and here we have these two young women, they are working for the order too, this is Faylinn Goodwill, she's an trainee researcher at St Mungo's –"

"Pleased to meet you," said Faylinn, shaking her hand enthusiastically and smiling broadly.

"It's my pleasure," replied Rose, wondering why she seemed so excited.

" – and last but not least, my younger cousin, Tonks. She's an auror."

"Wotcher, Rose," she said, pushing a lock of her brightly pink hair behind her ear.

"I like your hair," said Rose. She was surprised so see such a vibrant young woman working as an auror. When she thought of aurors, she usually imagined serious and humorous older people, like Mad Eye Moody.

"Thanks. You're not from around here, then, are you?" asked Tonks, as Rose and Sirius sat down across her and Faylinn.

"Of course she isn't. That's an Australian accent," commented Faylinn. "Right, Rose?"

"Yes, I'm Australian," she replied. But before she could elaborate, Molly interrupted.

"Rose, dear, here –" she pilled a few sandwiches onto Roses plate, " – do eat up, won't you, you look very tired."

"Yes, I am. I haven't slept in almost twenty hours. Thank you, Molly," said Rose, smiling politely. She recognised that Molly was clearly the mothering type and the only way to prevent herself from being smothered by her excessive fussing was to simply do as she was told.

Tonks and Faylinn became involved in discussion with Hermione, leaving Rose and Sirius alone together. Rose watched him silently as she ate for a moment. She still could not believe that Sirius Black was sitting right besides her, reclining casually – it really was like a dream. After fourteen years, she finally had back a part of her old life – from the best six years of her life.

"What are you staring at?" asked Sirius after he finished his first sandwich.

Completely unabashed, Rose replied.

"You. I'm sorry – I guess I'm still finding it hard to believe that I really am sitting here next to you as a friend after all these years."

"I know the feeling," said Sirius. "So anyway, I think we have some catching up to do! Tell me about what you've been doing these last fourteen years?"

"Me? Nothing special, I suppose," Rose said, sighing at how true those words were. Nothing special, it epitomised her life for the last fourteen years, "After the war, I moved back to Australia. After what happened, I had nothing to keep me here. It was difficult at first - my mental health was not in a good place those first few years. I tried to move on. I got a small job for a while, nothing to big, just to help me get back on track with things. Then the school opened and I was offered a position as DADA teacher. I've been working there since."

"What about, you know?" said Sirius cautiously.

"What?" asked Rose apprehensively.

"Do you have a man?" asked Sirius bluntly.

"No," Rose said, keeping her tone casual. "No man."

"No man?"

It was not Sirius who asked, but Tonks. Hermione seemed to have moved away and Tonks and Faylinn had returned their attention to Sirius and Rose.

"No," Rose said, careful to make it sounds like she did not care, like it meant nothing to her. She showed nothing of the loneliness she kept bottled up inside.

For some reason, both Faylinn and Tonks seemed surprised by this news.

"Well, that's no good!" exclaimed Sirius. "When's the last time you've had a boyfriend then?"

Rose suddenly felt very awkward; she did not mind discussing this with Sirius, though she was not sure she was willing to discuss this in front of two women she had just meet - it was a very personal topic. She did not know how she could escape this one though.

"I don't know, it must have been, what? Fourteen years, four months and seventeen days?" said Rose, smirking at the three astonished faces before her. "Well, something like that, not like in counting…"

"You're kidding, Rose," exclaimed Sirius, looking dumb-struck. "I mean, I know you were depressed and all, given one thing or another –"

His stress on the word 'another' told Rose very clearly that he was referring to her broken relationship with the other one. She was grateful he did not mention it directly though, given the present company.

" – but I mean, come on, you'd think a person would get over it after all those years? You really never dated?"

"I never said I didn't date, Sirius. You asked about a boyfriend."

"So you did date, then?" asked Faylinn curiously.

"I dated, yes, a number of times. The first date was six years after the first war. It was a disaster. It couldn't be clearer that the man was after only one thing. There was no second date. Then the next date, well it turns out he was only trying to prove to his friends that he could have me wound around his fingers. I figured it out quick enough though, and hour into the date it was over, I left him at the restaurant with three broken fingers."

"Good for you!" said Tonks indignantly. "The number of times my dates have asked if I could change my appearance for them – I'm a Metamorphmagus, see," she added upon seeing Rose's confused expression.

"It's ridiculous, isn't it?" said Rose, glad to finally meet someone who could relate to her. "I just can't tell who are the sincere ones, the ones who can actually see past a pretty face and show interest in me for who I am, not only for what I look like."

"But you can't let that be a reason for you to give up!" pressed Tonks.

"That's right," added Faylinn fervently, "I mean, I'm hardly one to talk, I'm not exactly chasing men away with a broom, but, like, there must be some way you can know who the sincere ones are?"

"It wasn't that, was it, Rose?" asked Sirius knowingly. "It was something else."

Rose sighed. This conversation was getting to dangerous, too fast.

"No, you're right Sirius, it wasn't that. At first, I guess I just did not have my heart in it. My… past experiences, I guess you could say, meant that I wasn't interesting in meeting anyone, and I didn't have any hope of actually finding anyone… I only dated a few times here and there because it was what my parents wanted. Well, anyway, one day, a few years ago now, this guy asks me out. He seemed decent. I had meet him a few times through work, so I thought I might as well give it a shot."

Rose paused, sighing regretfully.

"What happened?" asked Sirius.

"He took me to a muggle restaurant. It was actually a nice date, and the first one that ended without disaster."

"But that's good!" said Tonks.

"Yeh, that's what I thought too. Until I went to work the next morning and realised that people were talking about me. I asked a colleague about it. It turned out my date was and was married with two young kids!"

"You're kidding!"

"Merlin's Beard!"

"Not many people would believe that I had no idea he was married, and being a small community word spread fast. Well, I gave up after that."

"That's horrible," said Faylinn sympathetically. "Absolutely horrible… what a prat."

"Agreed!" said Tonk. "But, still, I mean, you can't let a shallow git like that make you give up on love!"

Rose laughed derisively.

"I don't believe in love," she replied indifferently.

Sirius shook his head while Tonks and Faylinn looked dumbfounded. Rose laughed at their reactions.

"How can you not believe in love?" Faylinn asked loudly. Perhaps a little too loudly.

"What's this?" said Molly, as she took a seat to Rose's right. "Who doesn't believe in love?"

"Rose," said Faylinn.

Rose groaned inwardly. This was definitely not the direction she had wanted to take the discussion.

"I see," she said, studying her shrewdly. "That can only mean one thing. You've been hurt before, haven't you?"

"Is it that obvious?" asked Rose, grimacing slightly.

"When you've seem as much of life as I have, you know about these things. There's only one reason people give up on love – and that's because they were hurt by someone they loved – not that they will admit to loving them, will they?"

"No, they won't," agreed Rose softly.

"But of course love is real, isn't it, Molly?" said Tonks emphatically. "You and Arthur are in love, aren't you?"

"Yes, of course, we are," said Molly fondly. "FRED – what are you doing to that owl?"

Molly jumped up from her seat and went to deal with her sons, leaving an awkward silence behind. Rose fiddled uncomfortably with her cup of water. Tonks looked like she was going to continue pressing the issue.

Stifling a yawn, Rose stood up. In her excitement of having Sirius back, she had said too much already.

"Going somewhere?" asked Sirius.

"I'm exhausted. I need some sleep before the meeting tonight. Oh, and you still need to bring me up to speed about the Order and Voldemort and all that. Will you wake me up half an hour or so before the meeting, to explain everything?"

"Of course," he replied.

"Thanks, and it was a pleasure meeting you both," she added to Faylinn and Tonks.

Rose walked across the room towards the door way, thinking that perhaps, she might even be able to make friends here. Faylinn was rather young, but Tonks was at least old enough that she might be able to relate to her. And there was Molly, who was a lot older, but lovely all the same. And of course, there was Harry!

Rose was so consumed in her thoughts that she did not even notice the man who was entering the kitchen, just as she was leaving it, and so they collided rather forcefully. She managed to keep her balance by grabbing the door frame, but the man fell backwards on to the floor.

"I'm so sorry!" she said, offering her hand, "Are you okay?"

"Fine – I'm fine," he said. His voice was slightly hoarse, and oddly familiar.

The man accepted her hand and as she helped him up, she saw that he had light brown hair, which had covered his face during the fall, and his robes were a little worn for wear.

"Thank you," he said, as he straightened up, his hair fell away from his face, his hand still in hers. "I'm sorry I –"

He stopped dead half way through the sentence, frozen, his eyes opened wide in shock as they locked on hers. Such familiar eyes, thought Rose. In fact, everything about him seemed familiar…

And then it hit her. She felt her legs failing her; every emotion she had been repressing for years rose swiftly to the surface. Hurt, confusion, anger.

And she knew from his expression that he recognised her too.

"Erm," she heard Molly step forward, and said, rather unnecessarily. "Rose, dear, this is Remus Lupin. I trust you know him from –"

"You," said Rose simply, quietly, her voice shaking in rage and suppressed emotion. She felt her body flaring up, and before she could stop, or control it, her palms erupted in flames.

She heard him cry in pain and withdraw his hand, as the tears forming in her eye. She pushed him out of the way and ran all the way to her bedroom, all thoughts of sleep forgotten.