The days and weeks following the death of Rose's parents were difficult ones, not only for her, but for those around her, who tried to figure out how best to help her cope with not only the loss of her parents, but also the events of their funeral and her subsequent departure from her family home. When Rose had returned to Hogwarts with Snape following the funeral, he had taken her directly to his office and left her there, at her request, while he went to give a report to the Headmaster and Professor McGonagall about what had happened. On his way to the Headmaster's office, Snape stopped to fill in Savin on the basics of what was going on. The previous evening the potions master had already told the boy Rose's bad news, but had advised him that running up to the Hospital Wing to see her that night would probably not be helpful, so he had not yet seen Rose. Upon hearing the further developments, Savin immediately went to stay with her in Snape's office, while the professor continued upwards through the castle in search of his colleagues. As Rose and Savin sat waiting for news, Savin trying his best to comfort his friend and maybe cheer her up a little, another, more serious meeting was going on several floors above, as the professors tried to sort out what Rose's future would look like. Despite their best attempts, the issue was not solved that evening, nor would it come to a final conclusion for many months. In the short term, life went on. Rose returned to classes and to the Gryffindor dormitories, without too many comments on her short absence from both, though she and Savin continued to spend most of their time away from the crowds.

For winter break Rose stayed at Hogwarts, with no family or home to go back to (the little house where she had grown up had already been sold, John preferring to move in with his grandparents). Savin, not wanting her to be alone, informed his parents that he had too much studying to do and couldn't possibly make it home for the break. They, as usual, didn't ask too many questions and let him get away with it. In some ways, Savin confided to Rose, they were probably relieved. The Silthers always hosted a ball for Christmas which Savin hated attending, and this way they wouldn't have to argue about whether to make him go. There were few other students staying in that year, and all were from either Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, so Rose and Savin were generally free to do whatever they wanted on their own. They spent much of the break in the library, or practicing spells in an empty classroom. Snape even allowed them use of the potions classroom for some closely supervised experimental brewing, after which he somehow found himself inviting them to tea in his quarters.

Soon the rest of the students returned and the year continued. As summer drew nearer it became clear that decisions had to be made about Rose's future, most immediately where she would be spending the summer months. She had no family to go to and no friends who she could stay with (Savin apologized for not being able to offer, but all were in agreement that even if by some miracle he managed to convince his parents to let her stay with them, the manor of an old-school pureblood lord and lady was not the best place for a muggleborn orphan). Rose, like not a few children before and after her, asked if maybe she could just stay at Hogwarts for the break, but was informed that this was not an option. After quite a lot of deliberation, it was a somewhat odd idea which was ultimately decided upon as a temporary fix: Rose would stay with Professor Snape for the summer. While it may have seemed like a strange suggestion, there was a certain logic to it. Rose had no interest in staying with whatever random family they might be able to find; if there were school-aged children they would by definition be people she didn't really like or get along with, and if there were no children then she might as well stay with a random adult that she knew. The Headmaster refused to let her stay at Hogwarts, which would have been her first choice, but staying with a professor was closer to that. Of the available professors, most either lived at the castle year round or were old enough that staying with them would be fairly strange (and most of the professors rather enjoyed their few months away from the students besides). But Snape and Rose got along well, he had an empty house to go back to for the summer, and there weren't any obvious better options, so he agreed to continue to be responsible for her during the summer (after all, it wasn't as though he had any other big plans that he would have to cancel).

So it was decided, and on the day when the rest of the students boarded the Hogwarts express to return home, Rose instead apparated with Snape to Spinner's End. The summer passed fairly uneventfully, though there was a certain period of adjustment for both Rose and Professor Snape. He was used to spending the summers catching up on potions journals, working on research that he had no time for during the school year, and generally enjoying the lack of responsibilities. Rose too was used to quiet summers; with her parents at work and no friends nearby, she found ways to amuse herself, generally involving some form of reading material. Considering this, it should not have been terribly difficult for the two of them to spend the summer together, with each doing their own thing and mostly ignoring the other. However, as two antisocial people trying to overcompensate, as well as two individuals thrown into what would have to be a somewhat awkward situation of forced togetherness, both Rose and Snape spent the first few days of their time together trying to figure out what the "normal" way to be acting was.

Thankfully for all involved, they quickly determined that they were both happiest when they didn't try to force themselves to do things that neither of them were interested in anyway, and they mostly defaulted to working on their own projects in companionable silence. This was not to say that they didn't do anything together. Rose had been delighted to discover that Snape enjoyed cooking (though in hindsight, she probably shouldn't have been so surprised, it was a natural hobby for a potioneer), something that she had always been interested in but had never had much chance to explore. After the first week or so, it became standard practice for the two of them to work together to cook dinner each night, with meals ranging from simple to ridiculously elaborate depending on their moods. To his surprise, Snape found that he enjoyed having Rose around, whether they were directly working together, discussing something one of them had read, or simply existing in the same place. She wasn't an overly bubbly child (and thank heavens for that), but Snape loved watching the way her eyes lit up when she figured something out, or seeing her shy smile turn into laughter when she found something sufficiently funny. She, in her turn, was enjoying life at Spinner's End. The house was very different from the one where she had grown up, and Snape was certainly nothing like her parents, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing, and she was learning plenty of new things of both the mundane and magical varieties.

Though no one was necessarily expecting the experiment of having Rose live with Professor Snape for the summer to fail, it was a bit of a surprise just how well it went. Not that many people were aware of what was going on at all. The Headmaster, of course, had been instrumental in arranging the whole thing, and several of the other professors (first and foremost Professor McGonagall) had been involved in earlier brainstorming sessions and were aware of the final decision, but things had been kept fairly quiet. The only student who knew where Rose was for the summer was Savin, who was thrilled with the plan. He claimed it was because he knew that Rose and the professor were a good match and he thought Rose would enjoy spending more time with him, though she suspected the real reason was because it meant they might be able to see each other over the summer, which they did. Not often, since Savin's parents still had no idea that they were friends, and because Rose's living situation was not meant to be public knowledge in the wizarding world anyway, but Snape helped them meet up a few times in Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade, wizarding places that both were now able to get to over the summer. The summer passed quickly, and before too long preparations were being made for the new school year, as well as plans for Professor Snape to formally adopt Rose, which he did just days before the beginning of her fourth year at Hogwarts.