Rose Among The Thorns: The Third Evans Sister
By Jedi Blu, Lady at Large
DIS CLAIM TO FAME: Found in Chapter One of this story.
NOTICE: This story was written mostly before OotP came out. I'll be tweaking it here and there, and have posted it so that it occurs mostly in Harry's 5th year. The goal of this story, however, is to focus on young Severus Snape and Rose Evans. Thank you for your time.
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CHAPTER TWO: First Day Back
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She glanced around her bedroom gloomily, then hurried to draw the drapes closed over the single window. She breathed a sigh of relief when the sun was gone from her sight. It was really rather amusing, her strange aversion, even she was tempted to laugh at it sometimes. She had just spent the last two hours walking in it, but to have it intrude into her room...that was too much.
Flopping into her four-poster bed, Rose Evans stared up at her ceiling, determined to get at least an hour of rest before she had to begin her first class. Had she been told years ago, the day she graduated from Hogwarts, that she would come back as a teacher of that particular subject, she would have hexed the teller into the next century. To go back on the oaths she had sworn...that was pure stupidity. Yet she had gone back on them, each and every one, because she now knew exactly where she should have been all along.
"I was stupid," she confessed to the shadows, "to follow him so blindly. But he was the only one that noticed...." She sighed. "I never wanted to think he was just trying to get back at James and Lily."
Rose was not at all like her sisters, even though she had secretly idolized Lily for most of her young life. She was in their shadows. Why was it so special that she have magic if Lily had it? It was almost expected. She wasn't unique by being a Muggle like Petunia either. She wasn't outspoken, creative, or unspeakably pretty like either of her sisters. Yes, even Petunia had been pretty before she learned to turn her nose up at everyone.
Slowly, she came to her feet and walked out the door, down the long corridors she had not seen in seventeen years. Not since graduation. But she remembered where everything was, and she had been assured the DADA classroom was right where it had been when she had left. She allowed herself to become lost in memories even as she tried to keep her feet enough to get to the right corridor. There was one of the secret passageways Lily and James had met often in, there was the stairway that lead to the Gryffindor Tower, and there was the statue that would lead to her old House Dormitory...Slytherin.
Yes, she had been in Slytherin, the timeless house enemies of her sister's precious Gryffindors. That had been a shock to Lily and her friends, and had made Rose an outcast among her peers as well.
There was the corridor that contained her classroom, she hurried down it, now brushing away the old memories like cobwebs and clutter. She would have time for that later.
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Whatever he had been expecting, the woman in front of him was not it. She had her back to the class, paging through a spell book, hadn't even turned around yet, and Harry was nervously beginning to wonder what she was doing. Seeing the back of her head, which only consisted of very dark red hair and a black witch's hat, wasn't very telling about her character. The fifth year Gryffindors and Slytherins were together again, this time for Professor Evans' class, and they were her first class of the day.
"Way to break in a new teacher," Ron had muttered with a smirk.
The class was still whispering about her when she finally turned around, her eyes connecting immediately with the front row of Gryffindors...and Harry Potter.
A shock went through the boy as he was met with eyes that matched his exactly: shape, color, and a haunted look that Ron told him he sometimes wore. The room silenced, and Harry found himself wondering, 'How did she get my eyes? Mum's eyes?' And something clicked. Evans.... 'I don't have any living relatives...outside of Dursleys....'
Rose herself had to regain her composure quickly, and did well; she only had to blink to be able to move on to looking over her other students. She had not expected to see him so soon, she hadn't paid close enough attention to her roles...but there was her nephew, as plain as day, staring at her with Lily's--'and my'--eyes. But otherwise, he looked exactly as James had. It was as if she were confronting him again, as he posed her that terrible question on the eve of what should have been a joyous occasion...'Why do you want to hurt Lily so badly? She's your sister, for Merlin's sake!' But she hadn't wanted to hurt Lily...she only wanted--
Interrupting herself by clearing her throat, Rose began to call roll. Everyone was present, including Lucious Malfoy's little brat, who had smiled rather suggestively at her as she glanced at him. 'So, the little prat thinks he knows who I am, eh? Best not to disappoint him.'
The day's lesson began, and by the end of it Gryffindor had won five points, Slytherin ten, and everyone was unsure what to make of her. For some reason, the Slytherins respected her enough to cause no trouble the first day, and the Gryffindors were trying incredibly hard to figure her out. She knew the following lessons would be much less peaceful, however, and so ushered them out the door and on to their next classes by merely pointing towards the exit.
She didn't think he would come to the front before he walked out, as his friends hesitated in the doorway. "Professor Evans?" he began.
Rose looked up from her desk and into his eyes for the second time that day and her insides froze. She was terrified of him, and the look in her eyes plainly showed it. "Yes, Potter?" she asked, voice a whispery hiss.
"I-I was just wondering...I mean, you seem to...you look an awful lot like..." His struggle was evident, he didn't want to say it, there was pain in his eyes—he must've thought he'd been lied to again...Dumbledore had told her to expect that. It seemed as if there was still a lot the young boy didn't know about his own place in the wizarding world.
"You have ten minutes to get to your next class, Mister Potter; I suggest if you have something to say it wait until you have more time. The past has a way of taking time to be re-lived." She handed him a piece of folded parchment. "Be on your way, I will see you when I see you."
Confused and uncertain, he took the parchment and hurried out of the classroom, his friends quickly pulling him out into the corridor to probably question him about the encounter.
When Harry opened the note she had handed him it read, in oddly sharp writing for a woman, "Harry Potter, Meet me in the Headmaster's Office half an hour after dinner, arrangements have been made. The password is 'Jello Warts.' Professor Rose Evans."
The poor boy found it difficult to concentrate for the rest of the day.
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Rose rested her eyes in the teachers lounge, massaging her temples, glad to have found the place deserted. She seemed to be the only teacher without a third-hour class.
Or so she thought, until the door swung open and in came a smiling Charlie Weasley. "Rough day?" he asked as she stared blearily at him. "First days usually are, though I expected you to be a bit more stalwart from what I've heard of you." He winked at her, then turned to the tea that was always kept on a snack-laden table by the hearth.
She smirked at him. "And what have you heard, Mister Weasley?"
"Charlie, please, we are peers now." He had become a first year only a few years after she had graduated, and so her infamy had reached his ears over the years. She knew him, of course, because everyone knew the Weasley family. "I have heard that you are good at what you do, no matter what that is, and that you had a certain affinity for one of the alumni of Hogwarts...who now teaches here, I believe." He grinned brightly at her, not fazed in the slightest as she scowled darkly at him.
"My, my...blunt, aren't we?" she hissed, glaring at him.
He shrugged. "Minding my own business never got me far in life, but sticking my nose where it doesn't belong...makes everything much more interesting. Besides, you look like you could use a friend, or at least a sympathetic ear." She opened her mouth to protest, but he didn't give her time to draw breath. "You may not want it now, but you'll want it later. I can tell about these things, ask my mum. Now, I had better be getting back, I just stopped in during the passing period." With that he was out of the room again.
Not two seconds later the door swung open, she had closed her eyes again, and so she only snapped out, "Forget something, nosey-little-git?"
"Hardly," came the cool, silky reply of someone she most certainly did not want to talk to at the moment. She knew she should've gone to her own room to rest.
Severus Snape had changed little in the past decade and a half, she really had not expected him to. He had grown paler, he was thinner than she expected him to be, his eyes more haunted...like hers. "I have never considered myself nosey," he continued, slowly coming forward, "though I confess now would be a good time to develop such a character trait."
"I would rather you didn't," she responded, scooting over on the sofa to allow him a seat next to her. She thought she should have been afraid of him, or at least shrink away from him, but she could do none of it. "But you deserve a few answers, I suppose."
He shook his head. "I deserve nothing from you, least of all answers." He sat down next to her, carefully keeping his coal-black eyes locked to her emerald-green orbs. "I just wish I would've known you were alive."
"No one knew except Dumbledore, Severus, and it was best kept that way. I've been in the Ever-Glades, staying out of sight, biding my time. I seem to be some sort of secret weapon, a pawn on Dumbledore's side of the chessboard. I understand the same goes for you."
Slowly he nodded, then looked away from her at last. "A pawn. That is what we have reduced ourselves to, you know. Small pieces, hopefully to bring about something grand, while not letting the other side of the board know where our next move will be. Does...Does He know you're alive?"
"I don't think I've ever heard you stutter before," she whispered, looking at him carefully. "I assume He does, I do still bare the Mark."
He looked surprised, a rarity for him. "Doesn't the pain of not answering bother you?"
Her answer was a clear, sad one. "I've suffered pain the last sixteen years that perhaps only you can imagine," she answered with a grim smile, "I can suffer a little more. I barely notice it now." She took off her pointed hat and cast it to the floor, revealing her dark auburn hair pulled back into a tight bun...a few wisps escaped to curl at the nape of her neck; she had always hated those hats. "He'll see me again eventually, when I think I'm ready. Surely not everyone has resurfaced yet?"
"You're right, several are still building up the courage to come and pay their respects again," he muttered sourly. "Unfortunately, I am not one of them.
A long silence followed, broken only by the crackling of the fire in the hearth. At last Severus let his eyes wander back to her. "It is good to see you again, Rose," he whispered. He raised a hand, almost as if he would touch her—she flinched, his hand dropped back to his side and he came quickly to his feet. "Perhaps someday we can talk of the past, until then...." He let the sentence hang, stole one last glance at her, and then turned and strode out of the room abruptly.
The door shut behind him, and she pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them...and she cried.
Severus leaned against the door for a moment, closing his eyes tight, and only moved when his infamous sneer was in place, and he could go looking for a Hufflepuff to take points from.
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To My Readers:
Nestle: I'm not sure if brilliant is the right word for it—but it is a little more original than all the Lily-based fics, right? Thank you for the compliments. I'm not quite a 'good' enough writer yet, but I'm certainly working on it. Isn't that nearly everyone's goal—to be a better writer? Sorry—English major. :-)
Baby Chaos: Glad you like the plot so far. It has a few more twists and turns to take. Hope you hang on for the ride! Does Harry recognize his mother's sister? Not exactly.
Genny: I know what you mean about spelling errors/grammatical mistakes. If I start reading a story that looks promising, and the grammar is all messed up, I usually never finish it. It's too irritating to try and discover what it is the writer is actually SAYING when everything's so garbled—a good Beta-Reader solves that problem, and numerous trips through Spell Check. If only more of FF.N's patrons would invest in such things! They are, after all, usually free. Sorry for that rant. Ahem. Harry will soon discover who Rose really is—but I'm afraid to say I don't go into much depth about his emotions. As I've said before, this is a story for Severus. Hope you fix your cookie problem soon. I love cookies. Chocolate chip, anyone?
WolfGurl18: Wolves...noble creatures, don't you think? I'll update as often as I re-write a chapter—hope that works for you!
Elayne Sedai: Went and checked out your bio. You have most interesting tastes—especially in the "Couples" department. Can't say I agree with all of those, but you're right—they make for interesting reading. I have too many problems working with REALLY well developed characters (Ron, Harry, Hermione), because I keep trying to make them go out of character. Not good. So instead I invent my own character (Rose) and go the road less-traveled—developing a villain. Hope you enjoy your read!
Thank you all! Again, please inform me of any mistakes/errors on my part. R&R! And SAVE THE DRAGONS!
-JB-