"Sirius, what's in this?" Rose asked, holding up a large, heavy bottle she had found in the cupboard over the sink.
Sunset was approaching and, as usual, Rose and Sirius were sitting in the kitchen, absolutely bored senseless. Sirius looked up groggily at the bottle Rose held up to show him.
"Mmm, I think that's one of Mad-eyes, isn't it? The one he lost a few weeks ago, maybe. Don't ask me how it got up there."
"A few weeks?" Rose frowned as she opened the bottle. "This better not have rotting Pumpkin juice in it or I'll – oh!"
"What?" asked Sirius, sitting up straighter in his chair.
"It's – it's polyjuice potion!" she exclaimed in wonder, as a idea formulated rapidly in her mind.
"Oh," said Sirius dully, and he sank back in to his chair.
"Oh? Is that all you can manage?" Rose said, rolling her eyes. She put the bottle down carefully. "Wait here, I'll be back in a second!"
"Where are you –" he called after her. "Oh, forget it."
Rose hurried up to her room, her excitement mounting with every step she took. She quickly found what she was looking for and raced back down the stairs.
"Here," she said excitedly, putting her photo album down on the table and hurriedly flicking through the pages.
"What on earth are you doing?" asked Sirius, looking back and forth between her and the album with an incredulous look on his face.
Rose did not reply, instead she let out an excited gasp.
"I found it!"
"What? A lump of hair? Why the hell do you –" Sirius paused, a look of realisation spreading across his face. "Oh, wait a minute. No. You're not serious, are you?"
"About what?" she replied, putting on her best innocent face as she carefully pulled a single strand of hair free from the clump.
"You're going to use the polyjuice potion, aren't you?" he asked in disbelief.
"Of course not."
"Then why are you –"
"You're going to use it!"
"I'm going to use it?" he repeated slowly. "Why on earth would I do that?"
Rose, with the single strand of hair now firmly between her fingers, walked towards the bottle of polyjuice potion and carried to the table where Sirius was sitting.
"Because I'm bored and you're bored and this is the only way you can leave Grimmauld Place with no one suspecting a thing?" Rose suggested cunningly.
"I – you want – are you saying -" Sirius struggled to form words, until finally he paused, and a wide, excited smile reminiscent of his younger days spread across his face. "You're a genius. Oh, dear God, you are a cunning, evil, rebellious GENIUS!"
"Knew you'd see things my way. 'm thinking, me, you, Hogsmeade. This hair is my cousins, by the way. Oh, I need to disguise myself too. I'm still meant to be a secret."
Rose frowned, not having anticipated this problem, but Sirius brushed it off.
"That's nothing to worry about. There's still the left over hair and tan potion –"
"I'm not taking that! It's old."
"Well, what can you do then?" he replied.
"I'll have a little bit of the potion. I think there's just enough for the two of us," she replied.
She carefully divided the potion into two flasks before pulling out a hair each from her album.
"Another cousin of ours?" asked Sirius.
"Yep, she's not a veela, so that's good. I won't be drawing too much attention to myself."
She added the hair to her flask, and the other hair to Sirius'. Hers immediately turned the reddish-brown colour of dried blood, while Sirius' turned a dull orange-brown.
"No offence Rose, but your cousins don't look so tasty," muttered Sirius, wrinkling his nose. "Well, this is it. We aren't missing anything, are we?"
"Professor Dumbledore said he will be gone until tomorrow morning, right?"
"Yes, that man is such a party animal."
"Sirius!" Rose said reproachfully, but the edges of her lips twitched. "Well, I guess that's it! Let's drink."
They lifted up the bottles and drank simultaneously, both shuddering at the awful taste of the potion. Then, the effects started to kick in, and a few painful moments later, they emerged as –
"Adrian and Lucy Loveridge," Rose stated, after she conjured a mirror to observe her new appearance. "Brother and sister, on holiday from the land down under – if anyone asks."
"This is bizarre…" muttered Sirius as he looked at his reflection in the mirror. "I'm blonde… and I have freckles. Ew, so do you… It's a little obvious these cousins isn't from the veela side. So, Hogsmeade okay for you?"
"Of course."
"Perfect. Right then – let's go!"
And so, moment later, they apparated into the main street of Hogsmeade.
"Wow," said Sirius, taking a good look around. "FRESH AIR! I feel so alive."
He inhaled deeply, and Rose could not help but laugh at the look of wonder on his face.
"It all looks so different with human eyes. It's amazing how different it all looks through the eyes of a dog."
"I'll bet. So, where do you want to go first?" Rose asked.
"Three Broomsticks, of course!" he replied and he shot forward, forcing Rose to hurry along after him.
The bar was rather full, though fortunately, not with students, but with Hogsmeade residents.
"Hello," said Sirius to Madam Rosemetra. "Two butterbeers please."
He added an extra – and rather unnecessary – wink. Rose knew it had been a long time since he'd done that.
Once Sirius had paid, he carried the two drinks for them towards the back of the bar and set them down at a table for two. Rose took a seat across him.
"You don't know how good this feels... being away from that place. Being around people and not having them scream in horror at the sight of you."
"I can imagine. I felt the same when I was disguised as Anabelle, you know, no one perving at me or trying to hit on me. It was great."
Sirius looked around the bar curiously.
"Do you remember the first time you came here?" he asked, turning to look back at her.
"What?" she replied, taken-aback by the randomness of the question.
"I remember it so clearly. It was only a few days after Remus refused to go out with you, right? And he felt so bad that he invited you to go with us anyway."
"Yes," she replied slowly, not sure where he was taking his.
"But then Mary blew up your cup, didn't she? And Remus got all defensive and rushed you up to the hospital wing… he tried to act like he didn't like you. Needless to say, that didn't work."
He looked at her meaningfully and she felt herself shiver slightly. Was he hinting at something?
"I – whatever. That was in the past. Twenty years ago. It's not important anymore. Anyway, we only have about an hour and a bit left. Let's not waste it talking about rubbish we could easily talk about at your place."
"You're right," he replied suddenly.
He gulped down his butterbeer and jumped up from his seat.
"What're you –" Rose began in surprise.
"Just finish your drink, come on, we don't want to waste the whole hour sitting in here, do we?" he said.
"Fine, just give me a minute."
She drank her drink as quickly as she could while Sirius cheered her along.
"One more gulp, just one more, one more – it's finished!" he cried, oblivious to the stares of a number of people around him.
He grabbed her hand and pulled her outside with him.
"Sirius, relax!" she cried, half laughing half trying to sound exasperated.
"I haven't been out for God knows how long – and you ask me to relax? Look, Zonkos! Maybe I can get something for Harry."
Close to an hour later, after Sirius had dragged Rose into what seemed like all the stores Hogsmeade had to offer, he suggested that they visit the Shreiking Shack, "for old time's sake".
"I don't know what the point is," Rose said as they sat down on the grass surrounding the Shack. "It's not like you ever really saw it from the outside, it was mainly from the inside."
Sirius snorted.
"Yeh, right. Isn't this where you and Remus used to always come when you wanted some time alone on Hogsmeade trips?"
Rose turned to face him, her hands on her hips.
"You weren't meant to know that! How'd you find out?"
"Oh, come on, you don't think James and I would miss the chance to see where you two got off to? The number of times we followed you under James' cloak… mind you, you almost made us sick, the amount of snogging you guys got up to up here."
Rose blushed furiously – apparently her cousin's body was not as good as controlling a blush as she was.
"Well no one told you to stalk us, you pervert! We wouldn't have needed a room if you didn't abuse that cloak."
"Ah, well that isn't the point," Sirius, casually brushing the matter away.
"Well, what's the point, then?"
He looked at her seriously.
"The point is that you and Remus used to come up here, to be alone, and occasionally snog the living daylight out of each other."
"And you're mentioning this why?" Rose asked incredulously.
"Because, I know you still want it. You wish you could drag him up here when ever you felt like being alone with him, and snog him to death, don't you?"
Rose felt herself paling considerably.
"Oh, shut up, Sirius. Remus is my friend, that's it!"
"Sure. He's your friend. That's pretty obvious, but you want him to more than that, right?" he pressed on.
"Oh, you are so lucky right now that my cousin isn't part veela or I'd be flaring up all over the place," she threatened.
"Rose – come on, don't be so –"
"No, Sirius, you listen to me," she cut him off, her voice trembling. Damn it, she thought to herself, her cousin really ought to learn some more bodily control. "I don't want anything to do with him in that way. How can you think I would? After what he did to me? How could you think I'd allow myself to hurt be like that – again?"
Sirius considered her gravely, all hints of a smile wiped of his face.
"That's it, then, is it? You're scared - scared of how he might hurt you, if you let yourself care for him again?"
Rose nodded weakly, the fight leaving her, unable to stop the tears from springing to her eyes.
"But it's too late, Sirius, too late. I'm – I'm already falling. But I don't want to, I really don't."
He wrapped an arm around her comfortingly as she cried in to his shoulder.
"Don't – don't tell him, Sirius, okay? Please? I – I couldn't stand if he – if he –"
"I won't tell him a thing," he reassured her. "But I want you to promise me something."
She pulled away from him, having control her tears.
"What's that?"
"Will you at least consider it? Consider giving him a second chance? There's just so much room for you to fill in each others live, to make each other happy again. Just consider it, okay?"
Rose knew it was hopeless, but the way he asked was so sincere that she couldn't help but agree.
"Okay, Sirius, I'll consider it, but I can't promise you any miracles."
"You just do what you can. Time will tell if it's good enough."