Rather than feeling reassured by what she had read, Rosie felt more anxious than ever. She pulled out the parchment that she had been using to take notes about Harry's situation and added a few sentences about possessions and spirit detection methods. She also included a reminder to speak to Luna, who had a surprising amount of knowledge related to runes.
She gave a brief glance over the rituals that removed possessing spirits. Many of them involved runes, or at least the use of patterns of power, as well as complex potions. Weak spirits could be removed with a simple spell, an a potion. Some of the rituals required specific locations, such as ley lines and nodes. One ritual involved transfiguring the witch or wizard into a special type of tree which repelled certain magical creature spirits. But before she could find the right ritual, she had to discover whether Harry actually was possessed, and if he was, what kind of spirit was possessing him.
Before long, the library was closing, and Rosie followed the group of students out into the corridor. Many of them were Ravenclaws looking disgruntled because they had clearly lost track of time while studying. She waited for about an hour before finding an isolated corridor. There, she draped the invisibility cloak over herself before returning to the library. There were still students milling around the hallways - it was still an hour until curfew. Rosie's palms were sweating with nervousness. She had hadn't really broken any school rules until now, aside from sneaking into the Gryffindor common room. But the Gryffindor common room had been lively and casual compared to the silence of the library. Moreover, she was a Ravenclaw - the library was almost seen as a sacred place.
Steeling herself, she entered the library and wound her way around the book aisles until she reached the restricted section. She had been warned by Harry that some of the books could be physically or magically dangerous, and potentially noisy. However, considering that she had Harry had grown up reading far too many books related to the dark arts, this was no surprise to her. She had the Black library to thank for that.
She examined the shelves, trying to find the books she needed. However, there were so many interesting books that it was difficult to keep herself focused. She remembered how she had first thought that the assortment of books in the Ravenclaw Nest were impressive, but the selection here was even better. Forcing herself back to the task at hand, she finally found a couple of books that were related to possessions. Not daring to take them out of the library, she huddled herself into a corner. She used the lumos charm under the invisibility cloak, setting the books on her lap. One of the books was fairly thin, and the other one was squat and wide. She started with the thin book, which was completely hand-written in a cramped script.
This particular book was solely focused on the topic of possessions, and it was a dark read. It included various instructions and practices on how one could temporarily leave one's body and inhabit another person's body. There was a section detailing multiple methods for subduing another witch's or wizard's spirit to ensure that one remained dominant. However, there were also multiple warnings about how one had to keep their original body safe, because it was vulnerable when the spirit was gone. She flipped through the sections, and finally found some information on dispelling possessing spirits. The book claimed that most of the methods were highly effective, but did not clarify whether they were for light or dark spirits. She assumed, based on the rest of the book, that the rituals were devoted towards removing dark spirits.
All the suggestions that were listed involved the use of blood magic, and one or two even made use of soul magic. Growing up in a dark house, surrounded with dark artefacts meant that Primrose and Harry were no strangers to blood magic. As long as the spirit expulsion process didn't involve killing or torturing someone, she would remain open to the possibilities. The rituals claimed to be very safe for the possessed witch or wizard, which made Rosie more inclined to consider them. She took note of one or two that looked promising, writing down the name and page number on her parchment.
The second book was written in a very archaic language. Though Rosie was able to read it, it was a slow and challenging read. It was too much information to sift through, and she wanted to return to the Ravenclaw Nest before curfew. So, she put her out light, and returned the books to their place. Once she was out of the library, she removed the invisibility cloak. She narrowly managed to avoid Peeves when she heard the sound of him blowing a raspberry around a corner, which meant she had to take a detour. However, the detour was preferable to dealing with the chaotic poltergeist. For all she knew, he could be armed with an arsenal of dung bombs, and she no desire to be hit by one. Consider how sensitive Romulus seemed to be to smells, he would never forgive her if she was careless enough to be hit. Back at the nest, she noticed that Romulus was still sitting at the same spot. She gave him a quick smile before climbing up to her dorm room.
Rosie set her alarm to wake her up half an hour earlier than usual. She was determined to find Harry. Since she knew that he didn't have afternoon classes on Thursdays, she hoped that they could give Sirius a call on the mirror. While the black outs in their link were not precisely predictable, they did seem to happen more often in the afternoons and evenings than in the mornings. She would much prefer to speak to her 'Harry,' however, she resolved that even if their link was blacked out, she would still talk to him. With these thought in mind, she soon fell asleep.
The following morning, Rosie quickly made her way down to the library. Just as Hermione had explained, she and Harry were sitting at a table, working on their assignments. Rosie knew that this Harry was 'her' Harry, but she could not really seem to sense his mood. He was focused on his homework with a deep intensity, and the most she could feel was a thrum of satisfaction. Feeling a mix of excitement and nervousness, she walked over to the table.
"Good morning Harry, Hi Hermione," she said. "Can I sit here?" She didn't know why she felt compelled to ask. In the past, she would have just made herself comfortable.
"Hi Rosie, of course!" Hermione said with a bright and cheerful smile.
"Go ahead," Harry said at the same time.
Rosie sat in the seat next to Harry before she spoke. "Hermione told me you had changed your schedule."
"Yeah, she told me about your conversation. I should have told you. I'm sorry Rosie," Harry's expression was sheepish, but for some reason, it didn't seem to reach his eyes. From the emotional link, she could tell that Harry wasn't exactly happy to see her. He wasn't unhappy either - he was just guarded, and unusually distant. It seemed extremely strange - why would Harry be on his guard around her?
Rosie forced herself to maintain a calm expression. "It's alright. I was actually thinking of giving Sirius a call this afternoon. Do you want to meet at our usual spot? He's been asking for you the last couple of weeks." She knew it was a bit manipulative, but if Harry was still Harry, he wouldn't say no to a direct request to speak to Sirius.
"Oh. Alright. Does three-ish work?"
Rosie nodded and smiled. "Three is fine." She could see Harry casting impatient glances at his assignments, so she said goodbye to Hermione and Harry, and made her way to the Great Hall for breakfast.
Rosie's first class of the day was Potions. She had continued working on her own ever since Romulus had left. Although she and Romulus rarely ever engaged in verbal conversations, Potions was one topic that Romulus seemed to enjoy discussing. He wouldn't necessarily go into elaborate detail, like most other people might when it came to their interests, but there was always a spark of passion in his eyes whenever she asked him about his projects. His projects were also far more interesting than the first year curriculum.
She had once asked Romulus why Professor Snape had been willing to let him work on projects independently. She knew that he favoured his Slytherins, and they often had the benefit of extra tutoring, or bonus projects, but it was rare for him to mentor or help students in other Houses. Romulus didn't particularly seem concerned, nor did he even have an answer. But sometimes, Rosie thought that if Snape could see Romulus's passion for potions as clearly as she could, it was understandable that the unapproachable professor would be willing to take Romulus under his wing.
It also seemed to Rosie that Professor Snape had been nicer to her recently. Of course, he had always been distantly polite before, but ever since the day she had been attacked, something seemed to have changed. She couldn't exactly put her finger on what it was. Perhaps 'nicer' wasn't the correct term and it would have been more accurate to say that he was less harsh. Professor Snape's behaviour did cause Rosie to give more thought to the man himself. It wasn't so much that she enjoyed thinking about the Professor. Rather, she just wanted to think about something other than Harry for a while.
Rosie knew that Sirius and her father had a strong antipathy towards Professor Snape. She had heard the rather cruel epithet of "Snivellus" throughout most of her childhood (particularly when Sirius wanted to describe a 'funny' story from his school days). But as she considered Sirius's stories, he had never mentioned whether or not Professor Snape had mean nicknames for the Marauders. In fact, if she thought about it, a lot of the stories involved two or more of the Marauders attacking Professor Snape, seemingly while he was alone.
Whenever Sirius told stories of his time at Hogwarts, he always did so in such a humourous way, or with a nostalgic warmth. As a result, whenever he had described the Marauder's encounters with Professor Snape, Rosie always got the impression that it had just been light-hearted fun. However, if she were to start imagining the situation from Professor Snape's perspective, it might have looked completely different.
She thought about Snape's harsh actions towards Harry - particularly last year. Both Harry and Rosie had often heard that Harry bore a strong resemblance to James. Could it have been that Professor Snape believed that Harry and James had kindred temperaments, just because they were related? She frowned, as she realized that her thoughts caused her to miss Professor's Snape's lecture about the potion they would be brewing. She looked up at the blackboard, reading the ingredient list and instructions, and went to the cupboard to gather the necessary materials.
Once she was back at her neatly organized workstation, she started to prepare the ingredients, and was once again contemplating Professor Snape's past. The Professor alway struck her as being highly intelligent - in fact, she could describe all of Hogwarts' professor's that way. She couldn't imagine that someone as sharp-witted at the Professor would be unable to differentiate between Harry and James. However, one thing Rosie failed to account for was the sheer depth of hatred that Snape had felt towards James Potter. If she could have peered into his heart at that very moment, it would have shocked her to know that he kept the flames of animosity burning for so many years.
"The potion calls for six Billywig Stings, not seven, Miss Potter," Professor Snape said, startling her from her thoughts. She looked at the sting that she had been holding in her hand, and then set it down, her face colouring in embarrassment from making such an elementary mistake. It was odd, hearing a correction from Professor Snape without that mocking drawl in his voice.
"Thank you for correcting me," Rosie said softly, peering up at the Professor. If he had not done so, her potion would have completely failed, and she probably wouldn't have even known why.
"Please set whatever's distracting your thoughts aside, and focus on your potions when you're brewing," Professor Snape said before he continued forwards, examining the other students' work.
Rosie was glad Professor Snape was walking away because the heat in her cheeks had only intensified. She couldn't believe that she had been about to flub the potion, while thinking of the Professor. It was so embarrassing. Forcing herself back to the present, she kept her mind on brewing her potion correctly for the rest of the class. Her potion turned out nearly perfect, but she couldn't help but think that she didn't deserve her results.
The following class was Defence, which Rosie spent reading up on possessions at the back of the class. Professor Lockhart had long learned that it was best to not call on the students who sat at the back, such as Romulus, Rosie and Luna. They tended to ask him questions that he couldn't answer, or point out the logical inconsistencies in his stories. The students at the front of the class however - ah, they were true gems, who knew how to give him the attention that he knew he deserved.
After lunch was Herbology, and Rosie ended up having an interesting discussion with Mathilda and Luthais about cursed objects. Mathilda and Luthais had both grown up in Dark households, and there were always objects of power that could potentially cause a great deal of harm. They had gotten onto the tangent because Professor Sprout had mentioned that oils from the seeds of the plant that they were handling often resulted in hallucinations that left witches and wizards thinking they had been cursed.
Luthais confessed that as a child, he had somehow gotten hold of a scepter that the house elves had taken out of the display case to clean. The cursed item absorbed his life energy, but in exchange, it gave him immense power. Of course, in order for the scepter to work, he needed to feel extremely destructive emotions, and in particular, bloodlust. Seeing as he had only been five years old at the time, his strongest rages usually only occurred when he wasn't permitted to have dessert before dinner. Luthais did admit that when his parents found him playing with the scepter, they felt as though their hearts would stop from the terror of the situation.
"I can only imagine what their faces must have looked like," Mathilda said with amusement.
"Knowing my godfather, he probably would have laughed if that had happened to me," Rosie added with amusement.
Finally, classes were done for the day. Rather than taking a shower, she used a cleaning charm on her dirt-covered robes. It wasn't a first year charm, but most children who grew up in magical households knew it well. It was a good way to try and cover up the messes that were made to avoid getting into trouble - assuming the child was able to steal their parent's wand, of course.
Rosie headed up to the stairs leading to the Owlery where she typically met Harry. She was looking forward to the call that they would make to Sirius. Sirius always seemed happier to be speaking to both of them. However, she wasn't quite as eager to speak to Harry. On one hand, she desperately wanted to get things out in the open, but on the other hand, it was painful to feel like her brother no longer cared for her as much as he once did. And if it did turn out that he was possessed, that made it even worse. She would basically be dealing with something far out of her depth. She found herself wondering if she could just tell the teachers about it. It was their job to help students, wasn't it?
It wasn't long before Harry arrived, who was waving Nearly Headless Nick off. Rosie smiled, but it was a tremulous, nervous smile.
"He's certainly likes you a lot," Rosie commented hesitantly.
"Hm. Yeah," Harry replied. Rosie pursed her lips. She could feel irritation and impatience radiating from her link with Harry, which made it difficult to be around him. Nonetheless, she forced herself to stand her ground.
"Harry, I need to talk about something important," Rosie said to him in parseltongue.
"What is it?" Harry asked. His expression was neutral, but the impatience still remained.
"I've noticed that you've changed a lot," Rosie began.
"Well, people change. It's part of growing up," Harry responded.
"You said you had been falling asleep during the day. Do you ever fall asleep and then wake up somewhere else?"
"What does that have to do with anything?" Harry asked. The impatience she felt from him had shifted to a sense of unease.
"I just want to know. Have you?"
"I don't know. Maybe, just once."
"What about dreams? Do you have dreams that you're someone else?" Rosie continued.
"What's with these questions?" Harry huffed in annoyance. "Are we going to call Sirius or not?"
Though Rosie knew Harry was feeling irritated with her, his words still stung. "You act like you don't even want to be around me anymore. Why are you avoiding me?"
"Have you ever considered that it's weird knowing that someone else feels what you feel?" Harry hissed, though he was no longer speaking in parseltongue. "Don't you think that a person might want to have privacy, rather than knowing that they're got someone who can just pluck the emotions from their mind?" Harry's eyes flashed with undisguised ire. Rosie found herself completely taken aback. Harry had never spoken to her like this before.
"I - well - Harry - it's always helped you before," Rosie said weakly.
"Yeah, and it doesn't help me anymore. I'm sure you've noticed that I'm not having nightmares these days. I just want to have my own life, without having someone emotionally monitoring me."
"I'm not - I don't meant to make you feel like you're being monitored. I'm sorry Harry. I just - miss how things used to be." Rosie could hear her voice breaking as she spoke.
Harry huffed testily. "You need to grow up. I mean, think about it, Rosie. What would happen if I had a girlfriend or something? Would you just creep around, getting all excited whenever I snogged her? Would you want to know how it felt every time I wanted to have a wank? Or do you already know?"
Rosie was shocked to the core by the crudeness of Harry's language, as well as the way he seemed to be determined to slice her apart with the sharpness of his words. Somehow, he had made her feel incredibly dirty - the link they shared had always seemed special, but now it took on a terrible, sinister cast. And this wasn't even Harry when the link was blacked out. This was 'her' Harry. Only, she didn't feel like she knew this Harry at all. She could feel tears stinging her eyes.
"I would never - how could you think I'd do something like that?" Rosie searched Harry's emerald green eyes, but they were completely unsympathetic. He was looking at her as though she were some beetle that deserved to be crushed. From the link, she could feel his disgust and contempt. Never in her life had she thought that he'd direct such negative feelings towards her. She felt that she had somehow been yanked out of the world she knew, and placed in a completely different reality.
"Are you so sure you wouldn't? I mean come on Rosie, you got sorted into Ravenclaw. I'm sure you'd tell yourself that it was all for intellectual purposes," Harry sneered.
"No!" Rosie exclaimed. "No. I wouldn't! Harry, you're not yourself!"
Harry huffed. "You think you know me so well, all because of some creepy link that we have? Don't fool yourself."
"Harry! Listen to me. I think you're possessed. And I know that you're cursed."
"Ha! Is that what it's come down to? You can't even accept me for who am I am, so you claim it's a possession or a curse?" Harry shook his head angrily. "I don't have to deal with this." He turned around, and stormed off, and leaving Rosie standing behind in shocked bewilderment.
"Harry!" She cried out, but he was already gone. Rosie was too distressed to even think of calling Sirius. She felt dazed, as though unable to believe what had just happened. Though she had been aware that talking to Harry might have been potentially difficult, the experience was far worse than she had imagined. She had never felt so alienated from her brother before.
Rosie did not know how long she spent, rooted on the spot, but eventually she forced herself to move. She had no desire to return to the Ravenclaw Nest - her emotions were far too raw, and she wanted to be alone to sort out her situation. Instead, she made her way up to the Come and Go Room. She couldn't recall what she requested from the room, but when she opened the door, she found herself in the parlour of Grimmauld place. Making her way over to the familiar sofa, she sat down, pulling her legs against her chest so that she was in a tight ball. It was as though she wanted to physically make herself as small as she felt. It was a while before she realized that silent tears were streaming down her eyes.
Eventually, the emotional shock began to wear off. Rosie felt increasingly convinced that Harry was somehow possessed. She desperately wanted to believe that the person she had just talked to wasn't the real Harry. She couldn't forget that the books she had read mentioned that drastic shifts in personality were a common symptom of possessions.
With a ragged sigh, Rosie uncurled herself from her balled up position and stretched her aching limbs. She grabbed her bookbag, and pulled out her notes on Harry, forcing herself to write down the experience she just had. Her hands trembled slightly, as she recorded how she had told Harry he was cursed and possibly possessed, and he had just brushed it off. She couldn't bring herself to write some of the cruder things he had said to her, but made note of his uncharacteristic behaviour and language.
She looked over the notes she had written so far, and glanced at the list of steps she had intended to take. Rosie had made an earlier note that she wanted to try and convince Harry to speak to Madam Pomfrey, but she couldn't imagine that happening anymore. She had spoken to Hermione, who had noticed Harry had changed, but seemed to believe it was positive. It might be a good idea to speak to Neville as well. Neville was a childhood friend, so it was possible that he would be more alert to inconsistencies in Harry's behaviour than Hermione was.
Also on the list of things to do was to learn about possession detection methods. The book she had been reading about in the library had listed various methods for detecting types of possessions. However, since she had planned to visit the restricted section that day, she didn't end up checking out the original book that she had found. She frowned at her lack of foresight, and wished she had the book in hand. To her surprise, it suddenly appeared before her.
A weak laugh escaped from her lips. She still felt emotionally raw, but the surprise of getting what she wanted made her feel a slight bit better. Making herself comfortable, she flipped through the book until she found the section detailing the methods of identifying possession and types of possessing spirits. Tentatively, she decided against any methods that made use of potions. She couldn't imagine convincing Harry to drink random potions, and most potions were so strong tasting that it was unlikely that it could be hidden in Harry's food or drinks.
Charms and spells were a possibility. The Gryffindors and Slytherins were still extremely cautious around one another, and occasionally, hexes and jinxes still flew between them. If she were to use a possession detecting spell on Harry, he might just assume that someone was trying to jinx him, and would brush it off. As she read about runic detection methods, she decided that runes were a valid method as well. There were some runes that could be placed in a corridor, and as people walked past the runic inscription, it would light up if certain types of possessing spirits were detected.
The book also listed various divination methods, but it also explained that such methods could yield ambiguous or confusing results. Since she didn't want to rely on tea leaves to tell her about Harry's state of well-being, she decided against making use of divination.
Certain that the most important first step would be confirming whether or not Harry was actually possessed, she looked over her options. In the end, she decided on a runic circle. From what she could tell, the runic circle was drawn on the floor, but if it was done correctly, it would be invisible to all except the one who created the circle. The circle detected whether more than one spirit was inhabiting a body, and if that were the case, the circle would give off a purplish glow. The only trouble was that the runic pattern was complicated, and slightly beyond her grasp. She would need Luna's help in order to learn how to create the pattern. As she glanced around the parlour, it occurred to her that she could bring Luna here. They could practice creating the runic circle on the floor of the Come and Go room, and when she was able to master the circle, she could craft it herself, and place it in the portrait in front of the Gryffindor common room. As Rosie plotted and planned, her tension eventually began to melt away. Though Harry's actions had been hurtful, she still wanted to do everything she possibly could to help him.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Romulus was glad to have chosen to come to Hogwarts. He had had doubts in the beginning, but those concerns eventually faded. His life had fallen into a comfortable and interesting routine. He found that he enjoyed the quiet homework sessions with Primrose in the Ravenclaw Nest. In part, it was because he liked Primrose's company, but it was also because he felt safer when he could keep an eye on her. It was surprisingly nice to have a friend, and after the Christmas that they had spent together, the friendship felt more solid. The incident with the third year girls only heightened his feelings of protectiveness. It was also nice to have someone interested in listening to him as he talked about the potions work that he was doing with Professor Snape. He felt deeply grateful that the Professor had agreed to allow him to work at an advanced pace. While he did not often concern himself with social details, Romulus was certainly very aware that Professor Snape rarely ever mentored students outside of Slytherin.
One of the first things that Primrose had asked him when they had met was his reasons for coming to Hogwarts. In truth, it had been Remus who had pushed the idea. Though Remus never pressured him to make the decision, Romulus knew how Remus felt about this school. For Remus, it was the place where he found his best friends, and it gave him a sense of belonging. It was also a place where he could pursue his intellectual interests, and expand his knowledge about magic. It was evident to Romulus that Remus was hoping his adopted son would have the same positive experiences.
The first few months had done little to dispel Romulus's doubts. Unlike Remus, Romulus didn't feel a strong urge for friendship and belonging. Despite having wolfish tendencies, Romulus was never particularly driven to find a pack. He had often assumed that he was simply a lone wolf, and was content to live that way. When he had first met Primrose, his solitary instincts were still very strong, but over time, he came to see her as one of his pack. He enjoyed her presence, and in an unexplainable way, he felt that she could understand him. And then, there were his odd feelings over Christmas break as well as the mix of rage and fear he felt when Rosie was hurt. The intensity of his emotions had caught him off guard. He didn't like thinking about it - it made him feel vulnerable, so he pushed the thoughts aside.
What was just as surprising was that being here at Hogwarts had allowed Romulus to truly immerse himself in the study of potions. Prior to coming to Hogwarts, Romulus has thought that his own experimental methods, combined with what he had read in books would be enough. He would have been perfectly happy to remain home schooled and self-taught. And yet, somehow, Professor Snape had added a new dimension and depth to his understanding of the topic. Romulus had found potions interesting before, but somehow, his time here at Hogwarts had deepened that interest into a strong passion.
Romulus came to see that many of his previous self-taught methods were crude or over-simplistic. It was rather like trying to create a detailed painting by using a paint-roller. Professor Snape had shown him many of the subtleties that he had not been aware of before. While Romulus's technique had always been careful and exact, Professor Snape was able to show him new techniques that Romulus would not have considered. Romulus had previously prided himself on his creativity in brewing, but compared to Professor Snape, he was no more than a neophyte with so much yet to learn.
More than that, here at Hogwarts, Romulus had access to far more potions ingredients than he ever had at home. He remembered how his heart had leapt when he first saw Professor Snape's cupboard of potions ingredients in the classroom. When Professor Snape later revealed his personal store, Romulus's had burned with excited anticipation. Fortunately, Romulus had enough self-control to maintain a calm and dignified air. The Professor did not suffer fools lightly, and Romulus would have never forgiven himself if he had acted foolishly before the talented Potions Master. Though Romulus did not often give much thought to Professor Snape's personal life, he did sometimes wonder if Professor Snape was adopted. He remembered that the Professor had softened his attitude towards Romulus when Romulus admitted that Remus had adopted him. Romulus supposed that whether to not Professor Snape was adopted did not really matter that much. As long as the Professor was willing to keep teaching him for whatever reason, he was happy.
In many ways, Romulus felt that being at Hogwarts had changed him. True, he was still as reticent as ever, and was disinclined to open himself up further to the other students, but Romulus thought he had come a long way. It would have been nice if his school life could have just remained stable. Well, maybe he would have preferred it if Primrose weren't being stalked by crazy third years, but aside from that, his life had fallen into an interesting and comfortable pattern. So when it suddenly changed in early February, he was less than pleased. And of course, the source of the problem seemed to be Primrose, who had a remarkable talent for finding trouble.
Initially, he noticed that she was spending less time in the Ravenclaw Nest studying with him, and seemed to be going somewhere with her friend Luna. He tried to brush it off, but he felt her absence as though it were a tangible thing. Still, he couldn't bring himself to chase her down - she had her own life to live. At least that was how his solitary mind framed the situation. He knew from her expression that whatever it was, it was important to her, so it wasn't as though she had spontaneously decided that school work didn't matter. It was just that she was involved in something that mattered more than essays and homework. A tiny voice asked, 'but what about me? What about our friendship?' He pretended not to hear it.
During Romulus's and Primrose's regular training sessions on Friday and Sunday, Romulus started to notice Luna's scent in the corridor. He guessed that Primrose had brought the other girl to the Come and Go room to do whatever it was that Primrose was doing. The combat and defensive training sessions were always highly enjoyable to him, and as he considered the past few months, he felt that both he and Primrose had improved a great deal. He liked that it was something that the two of them shared. Naturally, he was a better fighter than Primrose, and was almost equally strong at both offensive and defensive spells. However, Primrose was another story altogether.
Primrose was actually quite good at casting offensive spells. Perhaps due to her upbringing, she had a very vast repertoire of jinxes, hexes and even curses. Some of her spells would probably be considered dark magic, but since they were being cast on golems, it did not seem to matter. He just hoped that she would never have the need to cast such spells on any witches or wizards. Primrose also had surprisingly good reflexes. He had wondered about it at first, and eventually found out that it was the result of having to live with a godfather who had a penchant for pranks.
Unfortunately, Primrose's weakness seemed to be defensive magic. For her, it was so reflexive to simply dodge, that she often failed to cast her shields fast enough. Rather casting shields automatically, she would end up pausing to think, and those lost seconds translated into being a major weakness. It seemed easy enough for her to dodge and cast offensive spells. Thus, it was strange that her ability did not translate to defensive ones. With a slight frown, Romulus decided he would have to change the focus of their training to strengthen Primrose's defences. It would certainly be more useful at school, where offensive magic was much more heavily penalized than defensive magic.
While Romulus would have been willing to brush off Primrose's increasing absences from the Ravenclaw Nest during the day, it was a different matter entirely when she started leaving the tower at night. Due to Romulus's erratic sleeping hours, he spent a great deal of his waking hours in the common room. He especially liked it at night, when most or all of the other students were asleep, and he felt like he had the entire circular space to himself. Though he wouldn't have minded it Primrose were there. Her presence was as peaceful as solitude.
It was around the second week of February, when Romulus was reading at his chair in the Nest, and the last of the stragglers had gone up to the dorms to sleep. He was looking forward to reading his rather interesting book, and he was comfortable situated in his chair by one of the arching windows. As he turned the page of his book, he suddenly caught Primrose's scent. Initially, he thought he imagined it. He often found himself aware of her scent in the Ravenclaw Nest, even when she was absent. However, the rain-like scent was stronger than usual. He looked towards the stairs that led up to the girls' dormitories, but there was no one there. Yet his friend's scent was unmistakable, and his nose had never deceived him. He could smell her moving towards the exit of the common room, and his eyes narrowed in suspicion and concern.
What was going on? Did Primrose somehow learn to cast the disillusionment charm? It was a very difficult charm to cast, and while Primrose was extremely talented at charms, he would have been surprised if she actually happened to know that particular charm. It was much too advanced for a first year. The temptation was strong to call out to her, and get her attention. Or could it be that she had noticed him and just decided to ignore him? The idea was rather depressing. If he knew friendship would cause him this kind of emotional discomfort, he might have opted to avoid it altogether.
Romulus never saw himself as the sort of person who got in the middle of things - he preferred to be a silent witness. He didn't want for his presence to be known, and if someone were to offer him a thousand galleons to be famous, he would be tempted to turn down the gold. But when it came to Primrose, he found that he wanted to be more involved. Maybe not with everything - that seemed unrealistic. But yet, if he were honest, it was tempting to let himself be drawn in, to actually care about someone's life other than his own and Remus's. The feelings put him at war with himself.
The book he was currently reading was particularly interesting. It was actually a historical memoir of a very notorious Potions Master who had developed many unconventional ways of brewing potions. He had even invented his own potion tools, some for preparing ingredients, and others related to the brewing itself, such as distillations, purifications and extractions. Many thought that the man was mad, but others were convinced of his brilliance. But he knew he wouldn't be able to concentrate on it, now that Primrose had stolen into his consciousness.
The common room door had opened and then closed behind her, and Romulus quickly stood up. He didn't relish the idea of finding trouble. However, he knew that if he tried to ignore what his nose had told him, he would be a restless and antsy mess for the rest of the night. He had to make sure that she was safe - that was what packmates did, right? He set down the memoir, and left the common room, following Primrose's scent down the tower and into the dark hallways of the school.
For some reason, Primrose seemed to be heading towards Gryffindor Tower. With whatever she had done to make herself invisible, she was lucky that she was able to avoid being caught. Romulus kept catching the scent of the prefects who were patrolling the halls, and it made his stomach lurch everytime Primrose seemed to be heading straight towards one of them. Whatever she was up to that night, it turned out to be uneventful. She spent a few minutes by the exit of the Gryffindor tower, and then returned back to the Ravenclaw Nest without incident.
Once they were safely back in Ravenclaw tower, Romulus wondered if he should broach the topic with Primrose. But it would be pretty odd to admit that he had been following her during the nights. It bothered him that he could not discern what she was doing, and as a result, he found himself following her more often than not. He followed her on two more night-time bouts of wandering, but then he decided that the might as well follow her during the day as well - usually only when she wandered off without Luna. He wasn't really able to learn very much from what she had been doing at night.
He began to notice that she seemed to be following her brother, which in normal circumstances would have been strange, but when Romulus considered how on edge Harry Potter made him feel, it seemed to make sense. Harry had taken to carrying his feathered serpent with him everywhere he went. Romulus knew that most people were unaware of this - the creature stayed under his robes all the time, well hidden from all observers. Romulus remembered the distinct scent of the creature when he had saw it over Christmas, and he knew what it meant to smell that scent which was all over Harry.
It was obviously some sort of magical creature - a normal snake wouldn't have been able to keep itself so well hidden for so long. Beyond that, Romulus could feel the creature's magic, just as he felt the occasional spikes in Harry's magic, that made his hairs stand on end. The feathered serpent was quite possibly intelligent too, but there was no way for Romulus to tell. And despite being a very small little thing, Romulus could also sense the danger that radiated from the animal. If a situation ever arose where he had to fight Harry, he would make sure to do so from a distance. There was no way he would ever want to get into biting range of that little feathered serpent.
Though he kept watch on Primrose's wanderings, he still felt as though there was something he was missing. After all, he wasn't able to accompany her at all hours of the day. And while he spent a lot of time in her presence tailing her, it wasn't the same as actually being with her. Following Primrose as she followed her brother around the school was frustrating and unfruitful. It wasn't even a week before he decided it was probably best to just ask Primrose what she was up to. That was probably what a normal wizard would have done anyway.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
"Why are you following your brother."
Rosie looked up at Romulus in surprise. The pair of them were sitting at one of the Ravenclaw tables in the Nest, forcing themselves to finish their Defence essay about the uses of the smokescreen spell (or as Professor Lockhart described it "I'd like twelve inches of parchment on all the ways I made use of the Fumos charm to infiltrate highly secretive places. Why, I even used to to sneak into a Veela roost once! Of course, once the smoke cleared, they were utterly charmed, and told me I shouldn't have used smoke to obscure my magnificent smile!")
Rosie wasn't used to Romulus asking her questions. That in itself would have surprised her. But the question itself struck at the heart of all her worries, and as such, she could only gape at Romulus. Romulus had set down his quill and was staring at her expectantly.
"I -" she started, and glanced away towards one of the windows. She had no idea where to even begin with Romulus's question. When it came to Harry, she had more questions than answers. "I have some suspicions about him."
Rosie peeked back at Romulus, and the look he gave her seemed to say: 'that's not a good enough answer.' Rosie sighed. Where should she even begin? And how much should she tell Romulus?
"Harry seems to have changed a lot since the school term began. He has brushed me off, saying that change is just a part of life, but I think it's more than that. The thing is -" Rosie scanned Romulus's face to gauge his reaction, but as usual, his expression was impassive. "Well, I have this - erm - empathic link with Harry. I can feel what he feels."
Ordinarily, her empathic link made her feel happy, as though she had a deep connection with her brother, but after the last conversation she had with him, it felt somehow tainted. Whether she sensed Harry, or whether she only sensed the deep blackness, she was left with a feeling of aversion and estrangement.
"Go on," Romulus said softly. Rosie had a tendency to mask many of her emotions - it was a trait that many purebloods taught their children, and it was seen as a mark of refinement. However, Rosie did not have the same degree of emotional coolness as Romulus had, and he was able to see that she felt distressed.
Encouraged by Romulus's accepting tone, Rosie continued. Her eyes seemed distant, as she spoke. "If Harry's changes were normal it wouldn't really bother me, I think." Romulus wondered what she meant by 'normal,' but instead of interrupting, he let her continue speaking. "But since last September, I've been feeling this strange blackness in the link." Rosie peered towards Romulus. "That's not normal, by the way. Usually, I just feel his emotions. Or if he's sleeping, then I don't feel anything. The blackness feels like - hm - it feels somehow tangible, if that makes sense."
Rosie seemed to be starting to ramble, but Romulus didn't mind. She was clearly verbalizing her rather disorganized thoughts, rather than taking the time to consider what she would say. "Well, I started doing some research. And I stumbled on something by accident. It was when I started my lessons with Madam Pomfrey, actually. She had me practicing the basic diagnosis spell. Well, I decided to try it on Harry, and I actually saw the blackness! Before that, I could only feel it, so I didn't know what it meant.
"I knew that black meant something in a diagnosis charm - oh, I guess I should mention that the basic diagnosis charm uses colours and shapes to identify problems. Well, I looked it up, and it turns out that black indicates a - a curse." Rosie bit her lower lip, and furrowed her brow. Before she continued, her eyes shot back at Romulus. "Don't tell this to anyone! I don't entirely know what it means yet, but it would probably be all over the newspapers if people knew the Boy Who Lived was cursed." Rosie scowled as she imagined the situation. Romulus silently thought that he didn't exactly talk to anyone, other than Primrose or Remus. Who would he even tell?
"Anyway, apparently even Professor Dumbledore knows that Harry is cursed. Isn't that weird?" Rosie asked. "I mean, I know he was close to my parents - especially during the last war. But - then why didn't tell Harry about it? I don't even know if Sirius knows."
Rosie sighed. She was getting a bit off track. "Well - where was I? Hm - I started reading about curses, and I've been - well, I - I think Harry might be possessed. But I'm not sure! To be honest, that's what I'm trying to figure out. And to make it even more confusing, I spoke to Harry's friends - actually, I just spoke to Neville yesterday - and neither of them think anything's wrong with Harry. It makes me feel like I don't know what to believe. Anyway, I've looked up a bunch of spells and rituals to detect possessions. There's potions too, but I don't know how I can get Harry to drink a potion, so I scrapped that idea."
"Potions?" Romulus asked. He was interested in what Rosie had to say before, but he was even more interested now. "May I see the recipes?"
"The book is in the library. Though - did you know that you can ask for books in the Come and Go room?"
Romulus was aware that the Come and Go room fulfilled requests, but he had never actually attempted asking it for books. He filed away that piece of information for later. "You don't have to make your brother drink potions. There are spells that allow you to send potions into someone's stomach directly. It's how healers they give potions to patients who are unconscious and cannot be woken with rennervate."
"Really? Wow, I need to ask Madam Pomfrey about that. But - wait - if you could spell potions into someone's stomach, couldn't you also do that with poisons?" The idea of someone using a charm to put something in her stomach suddenly made her feel queasy.
"Not with healing magic. The spells were created with very specific safeguards, and can only work if you have a strong intent to help a person. The spells also have safeguards against accidentally poisoning someone. But - there are dark magic spells that can bypass that," Romulus explained.
Rosie nodded as she considered the information. "Hm - if that's the case, then potions might be a viable option for discovering what might be possessing Harry. Well - if he is possessed. Luna is teaching me how to create the runic circle that detects if more than one spirit inhabits a body. She has a really extensive understanding of Runes. It's really amazing!"
Romulus nodded. He was looking away from her, and Rosie could tell that he was lost in his own thoughts. He was probably thinking about potions. She didn't think that Romulus would want to involve himself in anything related to Harry, but her conversation with him had opened up new avenues. Discovering that it was possible to send potions direction into a person's stomach meant that she now had more options available to her. The knowledge gave Rosie a small spark of optimism, and increased her determination to solve the problem on her hands.
The day after her conversation with Romulus was a Thursday that Rosie realized she had neglected to call Sirius for over a week. The previous week, her conversation with Harry had been so deeply upsetting that she had not been in the frame of mind to have speak to her godfather. Though she was still unhappy about Harry, she did want to speak to Sirius. She hoped he wouldn't be too upset that she forgot to call him. Sirius may have been rather irresponsible and with a devil-may-care attitude, but he also loved Harry and Rosie deeply, and he enjoyed staying connected with his godchildren.
Rather than wandering off to the spot where she and Harry usually called Sirius, she went up to her dorm room and called him from her bed. Almost immediately, his face appeared on the rectangular mirror.
"Pup!" He exclaimed. "Is everything alright?"
"I'm sorry I didn't call you last week! It's been a bit crazy."
"What happened?"
"Well - it's hard to explain." In fact, she couldn't bring herself to share her suspicious with Sirius. She was afraid of finding out how he would react. Would he doubt her? Or would he become so worried that he'd drop everything and come straight to Hogwarts?
"Harry's busy again?" Sirius asked, noticing the blue and bronze background.
Rosie nodded and gave Sirius a weak smile. "Yeah. He's - pretty popular these days."
Sirius grinned. "Sounds like he's got more of Prongs in him than just his looks!"
"Or maybe he takes after you. After all, you were pretty popular yourself, back in Hogwarts." Her words felt a bit hollow, but Sirius had a pretty big ego and it was amusing to tease him about it.
"Well - no sense in denying it." Sirius gave her a cocky smile, and when Rosie smiled in return, it was with genuine amusement and warmth. "What about you pup? How have you been?"
"I've been learning a lot of interesting things." She didn't want to discuss her anxieties, and it seemed like a neutral enough response.
Sirius sighed. "Ravenclaws. You're no fun."
Rosie laughed. "You just don't appreciate the charms of the library."
"Of course not! We never let us back in after we - uh -"
"Set fire to those books?" Rosie grinned and shook her head. "I can't believe I have a godfather who desecrates books."
Sirius shrugged, but there was a proud gleam in his eyes. "Oh! There was something I wanted to tell you!" Sirius had a wide and eager smile. Obviously, it was good news.
"What?"
"Moony and I are partners now! He agreed to work with me on my Marauders projects!"
"What? Really? He never told me about this, and we write each other every week!" Rosie exclaimed.
"That's because he just agreed. I've been on his case since - well Christmas. He was pretty stubborn - he kept saying he didn't want any sort of charity. How is it charity to offer someone work? It's not like I was offering him galleons for nothing." Sirius huffed. "Anyway, I showed him my workshop, and all the projects that I had to set aside because I couldn't seem to get them quite right. Moony was always better at charms than I was. I think seeing all my work convinced him that I actually needed the help." A mischievous gleam appeared in Sirius's eyes. Rosie could see that he was already mentally planning all the trouble he could cause with all his new projects. Especially once it came time to test them. When she returned home for the holidays, she would have to make sure to be extra vigilant.
"That's really exciting, Padfoot! When does he start?"
"He'll be coming by later today. He's been coming by here a lot." Sirius's expression was suddenly warm. "I'm - well, I'm really glad you wrote him, pup. I'm really glad we had a chance to reconnect."
Rosie felt a glow radiating from her chest. "I'm glad too." They spent the rest of the conversation talking about trivialities. Sirius promised to send her some of his projects once they were ready for testing. Rosie kept trying to convince him that she didn't have the heart to prank other students. Of course, Sirius would hear none of it. After she had asked him for the Crupcake back in December, he was convinced that she was a true Marauder. In the end, it was easier to simply relent. Perhaps some of the prototypes could come in handy. After all, this was Hogwarts. Anything could happen.
It had initially felt strange for Rosie to be following Harry around under the invisibility cloak. Admittedly, it had also felt strange to be sneaking out after curfew, and even if she wasn't caught, she felt mildly guilty about it. She wasn't even doing anything bad at night - just scouting out the area around the entrance to the Gryffindor Tower so that she could decide how she wanted to eventually lay out the runic circle once she fully grasped its creation.
As for following her brother, Rosie had felt the need to spend more time observing Harry in order to see if she could detect any changes in him. She also hoped to discover what he was up to (assuming he was up to something). The Harry she had encountered during the black out in their link had been so unsettling that she had avoided him, but now, she felt like that avoidance had been a mistake. She should have been paying more attention to him instead. If she had paid more attention, then perhaps she would have solved the problem by how. However, there was no sense regretting the past. She was determined to get to the root of whatever it was that was affecting Harry.
Like a true Ravenclaw, she saw herself not as an adventurer or spy, but as a researcher, making observations in the field. She took note of who he spoke to, and where he went. But while Harry did speak to a great deal of people, he never actually seemed to do anything that was overtly suspicious. What Rosie had failed to account for was that the feathered serpent Sephtis had caught scent of her, and warned Harry whenever she was near. If she had realized that, she would have chosen a different method to learn what Harry was doing.
However, her efforts weren't entirely wasted. She gained a sense of Harry's habits and schedule. If she ever needed to cast a spell at him, she knew alcoves that she could hide in. If she opted to use a runic framework, she was aware of the places that he frequented often. Nonetheless, following Harry around was a tiresome ordeal. Whether their link was blacked out or not, Harry generally seemed pretty ordinary, aside from his new found sociability, which made it seem like everyone wanted to talk to him.
A/N: I think I've got a few more chapters before I reached the point where I got tired of this story