May 1978

"Last week of our seventh year at Hogwarts," James said with a sentimental sigh.

"Who would have thought it would come so soon?" Sirius pondered as he, James, Remus, Peter, Lily, and Rosalee laid on the grass near the lake, soaking up the sun.

Peter deadpanned, "With you two around, I was beginning to think that the end would never come."

Remus and Lily laughed, and Rosalee grinned and shook her head at the insulted looks on James and Sirius's faces. Peter snickered as James cried dramatically, "How could you say such things, Wormtail? You've wounded me so!"

"Yeah," Sirius added. "Absolutely cut us to the quick, that did."

Remus shook his head. "What are you guys going to do after graduation?"

"Marry the love of my life," James said, kissing Lily's hand as she giggled. Sirius, Remus, and Peter made kissing noises at them as Rosalee laughed. James waved them off with an annoyed grunt.

Lily said more seriously, "I'd like to get a job at St. Mungos. I think I'd like to be a healer."

As Peter slowly twirled his wand, bubbles floated into the air and drifted across the group of seventh years as he said cheerfully, "I think you'd make a great healer, Lily. Maybe you could work with kids; they'd really like you."

Lily smiled, reaching up and popping one of the bubbles. "Maybe," she said.

"Well, I'm going to get a motorcycle, like the Muggles have," Sirius said excitedly. "I'm going to enchant the crap out of it and make it fly."

"Oh, I'll do that too," James said.

"Must you?" Lily moaned, making the others laugh.

As the laughter quieted, Peter declared, "I'm going to join the Order of the Phoenix."

Rosalee felt Remus's hand around hers tighten. James snickered, "Peter, we're all joining the Order after graduation."

Remus glanced over at Rosalee, and she looked away, focusing all her energy on a large cloud in the sky. As she decided that the cloud looked sort of like a hippogriff, Remus asked, "Rose, are you going to join?"

Rosalee could feel everyone's attention on her, and her heart raced as she tried not to squirm with anxiety. "I, umm, I don't know."

James and Sirius both bolted upright to stare at her. "What does that mean?" Sirius demanded.

Rosalee squeezed Remus's hand, and he sat up too, looking down at her, worry creasing his brow. "I just don't think I'm a fighter," Rosalee said, the excuse feeling pathetic on her tongue.

James chuckled. "Rosalee, you can't fool us. You're the best fighter in our year."

Rosalee shook her head. "Being the best and being the most practiced are very different things."

Sirius insisted, "Either way, you're bloody brilliant at it. You'd be fantastic. You could even make it as an auror; there's no way the Ministry wouldn't want you in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."

Rosalee snorted. "Right, the Ministry," she sneered.

"What's wrong with the Ministry?" Lily asked.

Remus said quickly, "She doesn't approve of the way the Ministry handles Magical creatures like house elves and werewolves."

There was a moment of silence, as the significance of his words hit the others, and Rosalee breathed a sigh of relief, squeezing Remus's hand again in thanks. Since she'd told him the truth about her past, he was constantly stepping in like that to help her keep her secret. He'd made the whole situation considerably easier for her, and she couldn't be more grateful. Finally, Sirius pressed, "Well, you could still join the Order with us."

"Yeah, we need you," Peter encouraged as he sat up, no longer drawing bubbles in the air.

Letting go of Remus's hand, Rosalee got up from the ground and stood, brushing grass off her clothes as best she could. "I just don't think I'm cut out for war anymore. I'm sorry." Rosalee hurried off toward the castle, ready to hide away in the Room of Requirement again. She heard footsteps behind her and snapped as she turned around, "Remus, I don't —" She broke off suddenly, surprised to find that it was Peter following her instead of Remus.

"Sorry," Peter said sheepishly. "I just…"

"Sorry," Rosalee said quickly. "I just thought Remus was…"

"Oh, it's ok," Peter said. After a moment of awkward silence, Peter continued, "Actually, I wanted to let you know that it's ok if you don't join the Order with us." Rosalee raised an eyebrow at him, so he continued. "Trust me; I get where you're coming from. War is seriously scary stuff, but fighting in it is even scarier. I nearly decided to stay away, too. After seeing all that stuff in the Daily Prophet, I seriously thought about running away, picking another country, and just starting over without the threat of You-Know-Who hanging over me. But then I thought about how the war managed to reach you in France and Romania, and I thought about all the other kids who are struggling like you did just to learn magic and survive in the Wizarding World. Kids like us. I know that being part of the Order won't be easy, and it'll be the scariest thing we've ever done, but I have to fight so that the kids like us will stand a chance."

Rosalee let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "That's very noble of you, Peter," she said softly.

Peter turned slightly red. "Thanks," he muttered. "I know you've been closer to this war than any of us, so I'm sure joining the Order and fighting will probably be hardest for you, but we'd love it if you did."

Rosalee stared at her shoes as she rocked back on her heels. "I don't know if I've got it in me anymore," she mumbled. "I never wanted to be a warrior."

Peter asked, "Well, what do you want to be?"

Rosalee smiled a little, not looking up. "Well, honestly, I always sort of wanted to be a veterinarian."

Peter exclaimed, "That'd be amazing! Magical creatures need that too, after all. Well, you could still do that, and fight for the Order, if you wanted."

Rosalee bit her lip, then said, "I'll think about it." Peter nodded then started to walk away. "And, Peter?" He paused, looking back at her curiously. "Thank you." Peter nodded again, leaving Rosalee alone.

Rosalee sat in Dumbledore's Army's training room in a simple wooden chair. She wasn't particularly comfortable, but that was ok. She didn't want to be comfortable just then. A Death Eater dummy suddenly popped up in a dark corner of the room, and Rosalee instantly threw a Blasting Curse at it, destroying it. Another dummy appeared a few short meters to her right, and she turned her wand on it, knocking it over with a Stunning Spell. The door to the room behind her opened, and Rosalee jumped from her seat, spinning around and easily flicking a purple streak of light in the direction of the door without thinking. A Shield Charm deflected most of the damage of the spell, but Remus flew backward from the force of it, nearly falling into the hall. Rosalee gasped as Remus groaned. "Bloody hell, Rose," he moaned. "What the hell was that?"

Rosalee rushed over to him and helped him up, the door shutting of its own accord as she did so. "Merlin, I'm so sorry," Rosalee rushed. "I didn't mean to…"

"What are you doing in here, growing more paranoid by the second?" Remus snapped, rubbing his left shoulder as though it were sore, which it likely was.

"Well, I was training," Rosalee muttered, her cheeks and eyes burning. "It's not as easy to do as it used to be with the DA. I thought the room had popped up another dummy; I never meant to…"

Remus brushed her off. "It's all right. I get it, and I've had worse."

"I'm just glad you blocked it," Rosalee sighed. "A friend of mine got hit by that curse once; she spent weeks taking ten different potions a day just to fix the damage. I don't think I could've forgiven myself if I'd…"

"Forget it, darling," Remus said firmly. "I'm fine." Rosalee sighed as he pulled her in for a hug. "Still thinking about joining the Order?" he asked.

"Yeah," Rosalee said softly. "I was trying to see if I was still skilled enough to fight for real. Hard to say against dummy targets, though."

"You can," Remus said, leaving no room for questions. "You can fight, and you can do anything else you set your mind to do. I'm quite certain of that." Rosalee nodded against his chest. "Including becoming a veterinarian." Rosalee looked up at him, surprised. "Peter told me," he said with a smile. "He seemed to find it amusing that you want to be a vet since you happen to be dating a werewolf."

Rosalee snickered. "Well, it is rather fitting, don't you think?" she teased.

"I suppose," Remus grinned. "What does Dumbledore think you should do?"

Rosalee frowned, disentangling herself from Remus's arms as she took a few steps away. "Dumbledore thinks it'd be best if I became an auror on top of joining the Order."

"You're capable of it," Remus said gently.

"Well, of course, I could," Rosalee laughed, but it felt cold, humorless. "I'm capable of a lot of things. That spell I threw at you, for example. Awful, dark magic. Serious internal damage to the victim. Twists up your organs, makes them bleed, pokes holes. I essentially learned it from a Death Eater; I saw him use it, then researched it until I could replicate it to use against any Death Eaters that came after me."

"You've also used healing spells on me before after full moons," Remus reminded her. "You're capable of great lightness, too."

"Yeah." Rosalee nodded. "But I know I can't mentally keep up with being both an Auror and part of the Order."

"You don't have to," Remus said, taking a step toward her. He offered her his hand, but he let it drop when she didn't move.

Rosalee wiped away a stray tear from her cheek. "I'll join the Order," she whispered. "But war is all I know how to do, and I just don't know if I can keep doing nothing else."

"So do something else, too," Remus said softly.

Rosalee shook her head. "What are you going to do?"

Remus shrugged. "Dumbledore offered me a job here as Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, but I couldn't take it."

Rosalee frowned. "You were the best teacher I ever had, though," she said, taking a step back as memories flooded her mind. "Your students loved you. We were all so upset when you quit; why not take the job?"

Remus stared hard at her, searching her face for something as he answered, "A couple of reasons, really. I was hoping to get a more steady job than just one year, for one thing. But more importantly, I couldn't do that to you."

Rosalee breathed a sarcastic laugh. "Do what to me?"

"Confuse you like that," Remus said heatedly. "You knew me as your professor, and now, I'm the man you love, who loves you, who wants to take care of you and provide for you. You still have trouble calling me by my first name, sometimes. If I took that job, everything would get too blurry for you."

"I could handle it," Rosalee insisted. "You loved that job, and you were damn good at it. I'm sure that you could make it through more than one year. Forget that damn jinx. You want the job, so just take it."

Remus shook his head. "Rose, I don't want the job," he argued. "It's just a job. I care more about you and your mental health."

"My mental health won't be affected just because you become a teacher again," Rosalee snapped.

Remus snorted. "See? That's exactly what I mean; you're already getting mixed up. I've never been a teacher, remember?" Rosalee glared at him as he crossed the empty space between them and took her hand, placing it on his chest. "Feel that?" His heart beating against his chest was soft and rhythmic under her fingers. "I'm right here in front of you. I'm eighteen years old, and I've never been a teacher, so I can't become one again." There was an obnoxious, high-pitched ringing in Rosalee's ears that muffled Remus's voice slightly. "This is why I'll never take that job," Remus said more gently. "I love you, Rosie. I can't do something like that knowing it will push your mind to the brink of sanity, and I won't. Aberforth is still offering me a job tending bar for him; I'm going to take it."

As Remus pushed a strand of brown hair behind her ear, the ringing started to fade, and Rosalee sighed. She nodded, accepting the reality in front of her. "Ok," she mumbled.

June 1978

The cold air made Rosalee shiver. She couldn't remember how long it'd been since she'd been properly warm — a week, maybe two — but a fire was too much of a risk. Her defensive charms weren't the best, so it was too easy for the smoke to be spotted. She walked slowly through the forest, the frost on the ground making dead leaves crunch more than usual beneath her boots. Her blonde hair fell in front of her eyes, and as she pushed it away, a long, slow howl made her tremble with fear. A figure appeared out of the darkness, then another and another, until she found herself facing a dozen Snatchers. Rosalee turned to run, but she only found herself face to snout with a fully changed werewolf. Yellow eyes glared at her. Drool dripping from bared fangs, it lunged at her, taking her down in one leap. She shrieked as she wrestled with the werewolf, its claws scratching her skin as she did her best to hold it off by the nose and throat. The wolf growled as drool made her lose her grip, and it rushed forward, its teeth sinking deep into her throat as she screamed…

"Rosie, darling, please, wake up." Remus's pleading floated into Rosalee's conscious mind. Her eyes snapped open, and she bolted upright, knocking her head into Remus's with a crack. Rosalee moaned and rubbed at the sore spot on the top of her head as Remus covered his nose. "Are you ok?" he asked, his voice muffled by his hand.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she groaned. "What happened?"

"You were whining in your sleep again," Remus said as he took his hand away from his nose, examining it for signs of a nosebleed. "I was just trying to wake you up from your nightmare."

"Thank you," Rosalee mumbled, her face heating and looking down at the red comforter in her lap.

"It was the werewolf dream again, wasn't it?" Remus asked softly.

Rosalee nodded. "I'm sorry," she croaked, her throat achingly dry. "I don't mean to; I can't control it. I swear, I'm not afraid of you…"

"I know, I know," Remus said in the voice of a man who's had the same conversation hundreds of times. "I understand; I don't blame you. Come on. We might as well get up now. It's graduation day." Rosalee nodded as her stomach developed all new knots at the thought of leaving Hogwarts for the last time.

The graduation ceremony passed quickly; the photography session with the parents did not. Rosalee was a little surprised when Remus's parents insisted that she pose for photos, both by herself and with Remus, but was completely blindsided when James's parents and Peter's mother both pleaded for her to take photos with their boys. When it was finally over, everyone started to the Hog's Head, where apparently Aberforth had invited the graduates and their families to come for discounted food and alcohol. Rosalee started to follow James, but Remus caught her hand and pulled her to a stop. "Hey, wait," he said quietly. She turned back to him, one eyebrow raised. "Let's hang back a minute, yeah?"

Rosalee frowned in confusion, then shrugged. "Sure, Moony, whatever you want."

A mischievous glint sparked in Remus's green eyes, and he chuckled, shaking his head. "I love it when you say that," he teased. "Sadly, now's not the time for that."

Rosalee laughed. "Oh, what a pity," she teased right back. He led her away from the more crowded section of the school grounds where families were talking with and taking photos of their graduating children, where the noise mostly faded into the background. "Where are we going?" she asked curiously.

Remus smiled at her as they stopped. "Oh, just over here, a little further away from all that," he said simply.

Rosalee watched Remus as he fidgeted nervously. "What are you up to?" she asked, a suspicious smile on her own face.

Remus laughed nervously, pacing slightly, rubbing the back of his neck. "James thought I should have done this a lot sooner, all things considered," he said quickly. "But my parents thought that I should wait until we graduated, especially with the way certain things turned out. Make sure that we were gonna survive it and all that. But now that we've graduated, I don't think I could wait anymore without bursting."

Rosalee couldn't help but laugh. "What are you talking about?"

Wearing a Cheshire cat grin, Remus walked back over to Rosalee, taking both hands in his. "I'm talking about this," he said excitedly. He got down on one knee and pulled a small box out of his pocket. Rosalee gasped, pulling a hand free to cover her mouth to hide her mouth falling open. "It's not much," Remus said, opening the box to reveal a pear-shaped diamond set in a silver ring. "It was my mother's engagement ring. I know some people might think I'm rushing into this a little bit, but I know you better than I know myself. I want to be with you for the rest of my life, Rosie. What do you say? Will you marry me?"

Rosalee couldn't move, could barely breathe. Her hands started shaking slightly, and her mind was spinning with memories of her professor in love with, married to, a pink-haired auror. Rosalee stuttered, "I-I-I…"

Remus squeezed her hand reassuringly. He whispered gently, "Darling, look at me. I'm right here. I'm just Remus, and I love you. Marry me?"

His voice brought her crashing back down to earth, bringing with it memories of dates to Hogsmeade, snowball fights, and bedroom romps. She remembered the reality in front of her and the way he loved her. Most of all, she remembered the way she loved him. She smiled again, nodding. "Yes. Yes, Remus, I'll marry you."

Remus, smiling more widely than ever, launched to his feet. He threw his arms around her and kissed her hard. Rosalee melted into him, taking his face gently in her hands, a happy little sigh escaping her as his tongue met hers. When they finally separated for air, Remus laughed softly and placed the ring on her finger. It was a little tight, but it was nearly a perfect fit. "I love you," he whispered, brushing her hair back from her face.

"I love you too," Rosalee said happily before planting another light kiss on his lips.

Remus was practically bouncing with excitement. "Let's join everyone at the Hog's Head."

"Sounds good." Rosalee smiled as he led her down the path to Hogsmeade through the forest. They were almost out the other side when Rosalee felt chills running down her spine. Her skin prickled as the feeling of someone watching them overwhelmed her. "Remus, something's wrong. I don't know what exactly, but something…"

It all happened in a flash. Several popping sounds alerted the couple to the apparation of several Death Eaters that now surrounded them, wands aimed at them. Remus and Rosalee had their wands out in seconds, and Rosalee threw the first Blasting Curse, which hit one of the Death Eaters with a surprisingly satisfying explosion. All hell broke loose, with curses flying all over the place. Remus shouted, "Rose, run!"

Rosalee stood her ground as she blocked a Stunning Spell from hitting Remus in the back before throwing one of her own back at the source, knocking another one down. "Not without you," she insisted.

The Cruciatus Curse caught Remus in the chest before either Gryffindor could stop it. Rosalee turned, flinging a Killing Curse at his attacker, but she missed. The spell hit a tree, which exploded into flames, as she felt arms grabbing her from behind. She kicked and screamed as she was lifted off her feet, then a rough voice growled in her ear, "Oh, shut up, Dumbledore, and maybe we'll let your precious little halfblood live."

Rosalee attempted to wave her wand, but it was ripped from her hand and tossed on the ground next to where Remus writhed on the ground in agony. "What the hell do you want?" Rosalee demanded.

Another Death Eater approached her, and his mask muffled his voice. "We want nothing, but the Dark Lord would like a word with you. You're coming with us." Rosalee felt a wand tip on the back of her head, and then the world went dark.

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