I know it's been a few days- i'm really sorry. The people who own our house sent a text about three weeks ago telling us they're selling it, so we're having to search for somewhere to move to within a matter of months, which is easier said than done when you live in the middle of the English countryside.
In my defence, i'm currently posting this at past midnight for you though.
I'll try to have the next one up sooner. xx
Neville spent most of the next few weeks scowling. While the adults tended to argue about Rosalie an awful lot, they had a remarkable tendency to forget she was in the room and simply yell at each other in front of her, not noticing when she would hurry out. She spent most of her time in tears or giggling hysterically, which Snape thought might be due to the after effects of the link. Neville took to conspiring with Luna and Susan- who had broken up with Harry in disgust at his treatment of his sister- to keep Rose away from the numerous people who now inhabited the academy.
He had never been so disgusted with the people in his life before.
Harry wasn't much help. He felt so guilty that he hadn't seen what had happened to Rose that he avoided her completely, sitting morosely by himself anytime he wasn't in a lesson.
"'Arry?" Fleur tilted her head as she came across him in the canteen. "What ees wrong?"
"A shorter answer would be what isn't wrong."
She smiled sympathetically, coming to sit beside him. "What 'appened to Rose was not your fault."
"Isn't it? She's my sister, Fleur, and I never saw that anything was wrong."
"She did not want you to see. 'Arry, I know Rose. She adores you. She would not 'ave wanted you to believe zat zere was a problem." she placed her hand on his wrist, squeezing lightly. He sighed, turning his hand over to interlace their fingers.
"But there was a problem. She could have died."
"It was 'er choice. And eef you spoke to 'er instead of avoiding her, she would tell you ze same. You are 'urting 'er more now by not talking to 'er."
He bit his lip. "I don't know what to say to her." he admitted. Fleur rolled her eyes.
"She ees your sister! Eet will not matter what you say, only zat you 'ave said eet."
He nodded slowly, and gave her a small smile. "Thank you Fleur."
She grinned at him, leaning over to kiss his cheek and he remembered how much prettier she looked when she wasn't scowling or being disdainful. "Talk to 'er, 'Arry."
She stood gracefully and he watched her walk away, hips swaying and-
STOP!
She's your cousin! He told himself fiercely, shaking his head to clear those thoughts.
But she isn't really… whispered a small voice in his head. He scowled, angry at himself. She was as good as! He argued. He'd grown up with her, and Gabrielle! Merlin, Gabbi sometimes called him her big brother! Thinking of Fleur like that was completely inappropriate!
Even if they weren't technically related…
Rose lay curled on her mother's bed, nestled against her as she read from a book and her mother dozed.
"Rose?" Emmeline murmured suddenly. The girl jumped slightly, lifting her head to look at her mother curiously. "I don't want you to link your magic with mine again. No matter what happens. Do you understand me?"
"But Maman-!"
"No Rosalie." she cupped her face gently. "You are more important to me than anything else. If I die, then so be it. But I will not have you at risk as well."
Rose let out a quiet sob. "And what will happen to us, if you do die?" she challenged. "What will happen to me?"
"You will live." Emmeline said fiercely. "And that is far more important than me. You will not link with me, do you understand? I want you to promise."
"Maman..."
"Promise me, Rosalie. Give me your word."
There was a long pause. "I promise." Rose managed to choke out. She buried her head in the crook of Emmeline's neck as her mother pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
"I love you, Rosalie. I know I haven't always been the best mother, but-"
"Yes you were!" Rose interrupted fiercely. "You are a wonderful mother."
"No, I wasn't baby." Emmeline rested her cheek on her head. "I worked to much, was far too strict sometimes and got caught up with Harry to the detriment of you."
"And if you hadn't, he might not have survived this far." Rose raised her head to look her. "Maman, you raised two children by yourself in a world which is not always kind to unmarried mothers. You gave Harry and I the best childhood while making sure we were prepared for the future. And you never put anything else before us. You might not have been perfect, but you were pretty damn close."
"I agree."
They both looked up to see a nervous Harry in the doorway. He glanced anxiously at Rose, expecting to see condemnation in her eyes but instead she smiled brightly at him, blinking away tears and holding out her hand for him to take.
Emmeline was crying freely now, holding Rose so tightly her knuckles were white. Harry crossed over to take Rose's hand, unsurprised when she used it to tug him on the bed next to her, twisting so that she was on her side and he could just about squeeze on.
"Rosie..." Harry whispered. "...I'm sorry."
"You have nothing to be sorry for."
She tilted her head so that she could smile at him, squeezing his hand gently and the three laid peacefully together, cramped and uncomfortable but content.
"You realise that the purpose of being in the hospital wing is to rest?" snipped a voice from behind them.
"I am resting." Emmeline replied without opening her eyes. "I'm laying down, aren't I?"
Harry snorted in laughter while Snape simply sighed. "All the same, kindly ask your spawn to vacate the bed. I need to to run my tests."
The pair rolled off and Emmeline shifted into a seated position. "Are these going to make any difference?" she asked wearily. "You still don't know what's wrong me."
"That is why I am conducting tests." he answered dryly. She sighed, but nodded for him to continue. Harry and Rose watched in silence as the man waved his wand in complication motions, lips moving silently.
"Tell me again what happened when you were injured." Snape demanded as he worked. Emmeline exhaled loudly.
"I've already told you I don't know!"
"Go through it anyway."
Emmeline grit her teeth, but complied. "I got a message through to report to the office at the French ministry. I went, but no one seemed to know why I had received it so I went to my office to see if I had any messages before I went to ask my boss. I remember entering my office and putting my bag on my desk, and then nothing. Everything went black. The next memory I have is of being in the hospital when you woke me up."
Harry was frowning. "You know… that sounds a bit like what happened to Susan and me."
Snape's gaze snapped to him. "What are you talking about?"
"During the second task." Harry explained. "Susan and I both remember receiving messages from an unknown origin saying we had to go outside of our dormitories at once. We both remember leaving them, but then nothing until we woke up in that classroom. It's… it's just similar."
"Yes it is." Snape murmured, staring at him piercingly.
"I don't wish to cause alarm..." Rosalie began uncertainly. "But it's happened to me too."
"What?" Emmeline looked at her fearfully. "When?"
"Just after Sirius came to live with us." she bit her lip. "I received a message at school to go home immediately. I remember going in that direction and entering the park, and then nothing. I woke up at home with Missy hovering over me- i'd sent a patronus to Sirius asking if he was alright, but when he realised Missy hadn't sent the message either he came to meet me and eventually found me collapsed in the park."
"Why didn't you tell me?!" Harry demanded.
"It slipped my mind! I thought I just had low blood sugar or something!" she protested, and glanced at Snape. "Do you think they're connected?"
"I do not know, Miss Vance." he admitted. "But it seems unlikely that they are not."
"But why did I have such a different reaction if they are?" Emmeline questioned. "I was in a coma for four years. The children all woke up after a few hours."
He pressed his lips together. "Maybe because they are children- their physiology is different."
"Professor, Harry is taller and more muscular than some adults." Rose pointed out sceptically. "How different could it be?"
The man sighed. "I do not know." he repeated. And that caused silence to fall over the group as the implications hit them.
Rose was sat tucked into a corner of the canteen at dinner, talking quietly with Neville, Susan and Luna when she noticed the rest of the hall falling silent. Looking around in confusion, she followed the line of gazed to the tabby patronus hovering in the centre of the room, just in front of Amelia Bones.
"Death eaters attacking Hogwarts. Wards holding- prepare for evacuees." Her aunt's voice came out, loud enough for everyone in the hall to hear and there was a single second of stillness.
And then, almost as one, movement erupted from everyone corner of the hall.
The adults and oldest magic users hurried to the unwarded area, transfiguring their clothes into more suitable ones along the way. Rose rushed along with them, gripping her wand tightly as she slipped into the circle around a portkey, meeting Harry's eyes as she did so. He looked grimly at her.
"This is it." He whispered. She nodded. There was a pause, before she threw herself into his arms, careful not to release the rope.
"I love you, brother-mine." She whispered. He held her tightly, murmuring fiercely:
"Je t'aime aussi, ma petite soeur."
"Leaving in ten seconds!" called Sirius. He smiled at them both reassuringly, but it didn't reach his eyes. Rose knew that behind them, the few infants and babies were being ushered into a dormitory alongside a pregnant witch, all wearing emergency portkeys while the other children and non-magicals would be clearing the hall, stacking the tables and chairs away and creating a larger hospital wing. The injured would be portkeyed into the area she was standing in, and some of the children too young to fight but old enough to want to help would use gurneys to rush them into the hall, where the mother of one of the muggleborns who was a doctor would assess the severity of the injury.
Meanwhile, the children left at Hogwarts would be evacuated- Rose was in charge of this. Alongside Hannah Abbott and Susan, they would lead the children down the secret passages, helped by the Marauders Map until they were outside the wards, where they'd be portkeyed in small groups to the academy.
It was a good system, Rosalie reassured herself as she prepared for the portkey to activate. They'd rehearsed it multiple times, just in case. Her free hand crept out, gripping Harry's tightly.
"Rosie-" he began but she shook her head.
"It doesn't matter." She smiled at him, gripping his hand tighter as Sirius activated their portkey and they spun away in a blur.
Her heart was beating loudly in her chest as they landed clumsily on the floor of the Chamber of Secrets. Another group would be landing in the shrieking shack, she knew, and another in Honeydukes' cellar.
Silently, they broke off, Harry hissing to open the entrance of the chamber, which- on further inspection several months before- had been revealed to have a narrow set of steps that acted as a ladder. They climbed up without a word, and Rosalie drew to the side alongside the group that would be helping with the evacuation, forcing herself not to glance worriedly after her brother.
"Alright, there's a group in the Hufflepuff common room- Hannah and Susan, they're yours. There's another small group near them in a bathroom- Ernie and Megan, could you get them? You have a clear path along the corridor with the statue of the witch and broomstick for maybe ten minutes." The four rushed off, and Rosalie continued to scrutinise the map, directing pairs to retrieve the small groups of students scattered around the massive school. When they returned, the pair would be sent out to the next group, and the students directed down the ladder where there were more people waiting to usher them through the chamber towards where the portkey waited.
Beyond the castle walls, Rose could hear shouts and yells and at one point Daphne Greengrass, who was ensuring her younger sister actually left, informed her that a small group of deatheaters had overcome the wards and were in the castle. Rose bent her head over the map, frowning.
"I don't know who is who." She muttered. "I'm liable to send someone straight towards them at this rate."
"Here." Daphne took over, pointing out who was a student and who wasn't. Together, the girls managed to clear a large portion of the castle, working in tandem until suddenly, Daphne froze.
"Uh oh…"
"What is it?"
The Slytherin was deathly pale. "Those are deatheaters." She pointed at the group growing larger by the second, emerging seemingly from nowhere on the map.
"How are they in the castle?" breathed Susan from where she'd just ushered a first year into the chamber.
"We have another problem- the others don't know they're here. They think the wards are holding." Daphne pointed out.
"Merde." Muttered Rose. She bit her lip.
"What do we do?" questioned Hannah nervously.
Rosalie pressed her lips together. "You carry on getting students out of here. Daphne take over my role."
"What about you?" Susan demanded.
"Using magical means to warn them is too risky- the only way is to do it in person." Rose pointed out. "If I'm quick, I can make it to the great hall before the deatheaters do."
She took off running, struggling to keep the route in her mind. Left, then right, she reminded herself as she skidded around a corner.
Her heart stopped when someone grabbed her from behind.
"MMPH-!" she struggled in their grip, but more hands drew her back into an alcove.
"Ooh, isn't this a pretty one?" a woman cooed. Rose wriggled, attempting to break free but hands pressed her against the wall, one over her mouth and more pinning her limbs and hips.
"I don't recognise this one." Another voice murmured. "Who is she? Mudblood?"
Rose cursed herself mentally even as she fought to get free. Because in her rush to warn the others about the group entering the castle, she'd forgotten about the few who had already got in.
"Draco? Who is she?" demanded the woman. Rose's eyes snapped over to a frightened looking blond boy.
"I… I'm not sure." He stuttered. "I don't know her."
"Well you must! There are a handful of students left in the school! How can you not know her?" another man snapped.
"Unless she isn't a student." The other man mused. He reached out the hand not holding down her harm and trailed it down her face, smirking when she recoiled as much as she could. "Who are you, pretty?"
"She isn't wearing robes… do the professors have kids?"
"She's old enough to be a student."
"Maybe she's younger than she looks."
All of a sudden, almost imperceptibly, the hand on her mouth released its pressure ever so slightly and Rose took the opportunity to bite down as hard as she could.
The man howled, jumping back and cradling his hand as Rose stopped holding up her own weight. Not expecting the sudden heaviness, the hands pining her allowed her to drop and without hesitating Rose pushed herself off the wall and into their legs, sending them tumbling into each other while she rolled out of the way as quickly as she could, shoving herself to her feet and taking off down the corridor.
Behind her, shouts and shrieks echoed but she didn't stop, jumping the banisters to land at the bottom of the 'u' shaped staircase, landing with bended legs to absorb the impact. She rushed down the next corridor, sighing in relief as she saw the doors of the hall in front of her. She burst inside, attracting the attention of the few people standing close to it. She darted through, sighing in relief when she saw her aunt and brother standing at the teacher's table.
"Maman, Harry, tante Minerva!" she rushed to them, not heeding the strange looks she got from others. "The death eaters found another way into ze castle- there are dozens of zem now."
Minerva paled. "Are all the students out?"
"Almost. There are some left that we either can't get to or won't come."
"There were always going to be a couple." She said grimly. She glanced at the other people around the table. "This is it."
Harry withdrew his gun from the small of his back, quickly checking the ammo before glancing at Rose. "You should go back to the chamber- portkey away."
"Do you really think I could return to France and twiddle my thumbs while waiting for news?" she checked her own gun, sliding it into her waistband for easy access.
"You don't like to kill."
"I don't like losing my family, more." She said firmly. "I'm staying. Besides, we've always been better fighting together."
He grinned. "That's true."
"You two find Nagini- we'll deal with the deatheaters." Sirius gripped their shoulders, smiling weakly at them. The remaining few in the room had their wands in their hands, facing the large doors which weren't thick enough to block out the noise outside. "Leave by the teacher's entrance." He ordered, joining the group by the doors. Minerva kissed both of them, cupping their faces for a moment before she went to stand by him, leaving Emmeline with the children.
"You realise, of course, that if I had my way you would both be back at the academy?"
They both smiled weakly. "We know." Harry hugged her tightly.
"We'll do our best to come back." Rosalie promised. Emmeline reached out and clutched both of them tightly, none willing to let go of the others for the longest moments.
"Emmeline!" Sirius called. She kissed the children.
"I love you both." she whispered, swallowing back tears.
"We love you too."
Dumbledore was looking at them, an unreadable expression on his face but Harry ignored him as he caught Rose's wrist and begun to draw her from the hall, casting one last glance at their terrified mother.
They ran through the halls, automatically stepping so that they made as little noise as possible. Harry knew the way better than she had and darted down hidden passages, getting them back to the bathroom Rose had left earlier in a fraction of the time.
"Daphne…"
"You're okay!" the Slytherin breathed in relief. "I saw you heading straight towards them but I didn't know how to warn you! Bellatrix Lestrange and Fenrir Greyback… I thought you were dead!"
"What's this?" Harry asked sharply but Rose waved him off.
"Does the map show animals?"
Daphne shook her head. "No- people and animagus's only. Otherwise it would be packed with names."
"Merde." Muttered Rose.
Harry set his jaw. "Then we'll have to do it the old fashioned way. Daphne, get everyone you can out and then leave yourself."
"I will. Be careful, both of you!"
They nodded and took off.
By now, the fighting had well and truly begun, shouts and crashes filling the air. In the grounds outside, Voldemort's army had arrived, giants and werewolves clashing with witches and wizards shooting out curses.
"Full moon." Rosalie noted quietly.
"I doubt that's coincidence." Harry glanced at her. "Ready?"
"Absolument."
They raced down into the thick of the fighting and the world became a blur of curses and spells. Years of training propelled Rose and Harry into fighting together, neither needing words to know what the other intended.
Rose shot two wizards bearing down on a frightened looking brunette in Hogwarts robes, rushing forward to yank her to her feet. "Second floor girl's bathroom." She instructed, thrusting her towards the stairs as she dodged a killing curse aimed her way by a brown haired man. She shot at him without a thought, turning away before he'd even hit the ground in time to see another wizard raise his wand towards Harry as he fought someone else, turned in the other direction.
"Harry!" she launched a throwing knife at the deatheater; it landed in his heart with a sickening thud and squelch. He looked surprised, glancing down to see the handle protruding from his chest before he looked back up at Rose, opening his mouth to say something. Instead, he choked on the blood that spattered out.
Trembling but with a forced calm, Rose walked forward to pull the knife out, ignoring the swell of blood that soaked his robes as she wiped the knife on his sleeve. Harry was looking at her.
"Est-tu bien?"
"Oui."
And they launched into action again, pressed back to back as they fired at the oncoming masked figures, ducking and weaving around each other as easily as if they were performing a choreographed dance, each step deliberate and graceful. They made their way out of the doors and into the open air, the night sky lit with the light of spells fired one after another.
"Do you see it?"
"Non, but then I have not seen Voldemort either!" Rose shouted back, dancing out of the path of a stupefy.
"Neville, watch out!" Harry yelled suddenly, shoving the boy to the ground to avoid a killing curse aimed at his back. Bellatrix Lestrange cackled.
"The ickle Longbottom boy! Tell me, how are your parents doing?" she shrieked with laughter, sending a fresh barrage of spells towards the three.
"A lot better than you will be in a minute!" he shouted, retuning fire while Harry shielded them. Rose circled around to behind the witch, waiting until she was sufficiently distracted before running and kicking her wand out of her hand while barrelling into her; the brunette crashed to the ground with Rose on top of her.
"What kind of witch doesn't use her wand?" she snarled, reaching out and dragging Rose up towards her by the hair.
Rose smiled sweetly. "The kind who likes to win." And she rammed the heel of her hand into her windpipe.
Bellatrix choked, hands flying to her throat as Rosalie gracefully rose to her feet. "Neville?" she said, her soft voice strangely out-of-place in the midst of the battle. "Do you want to finish her, or shall I?"
The boy walked forward slowly, eyes fixed on the witch as she writhed, wand held loosely by his side. "I… I think I need to."
She inclined her head, stepping away and retrieving her own wand from where it had fallen in the struggle.
"By the way, I think I saw the snake heading around the castle towards the back." He hadn't removed his eyes from Bellatrix.
"Thank you."
She and Harry hurried away, both ignoring the flash of light and muttered curse that resonated from behind them.