Rose Among the Thorns: The Third Evans Sister
By Jedi Blu, Lady at Large
Standard Disclaimer Found In Previous Chapters
Italics are thoughts, emphasized words, or letters.
WARNING: This chapter, like the previous chapter, is just moving the story along. I get back to the plot in the next chapter. So chill your bones and don't give me one of those 'this is pointless' reviews. All will be made clear in time, fanlings.
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CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO: Time Stands Still for no Wizard
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Rose was keeping watch while Severus rested in the limbs of the ancient oak they had commandeered for the night, and she was glad it was not overcast. The full moon gave her enough light to keep her eye on Black's pit, and nothing of much interest had happened yet.
She sighed, twirling her wand between her fingers, glancing at her sleeping friend now and again. Severus Snape certainly wasn't the most handsome boy, but she still found herself strongly attracted to him. Tall, thin, with that crooked nose, black eyes, pale face, and greasy hair...no, he wasn't exactly a young man many girls dreamed of. But he was intelligent, he was secretive, and there was something in those bottomless eyes of his that made her wish she could discover his secret desires and make them real.
What had happened earlier, however, frightened her. While her body had enjoyed the touching, caressing, the pressure, her mind had been berating her for enjoying something that shouldn't have happened. She was too young, it was improper, her father would kill Severus, her mother would kill her.... The list went on.
Still.... While she had known it was wrong, it had felt very right.
Rose shuddered and turned her full attention back to the pit, chewing on her bottom lip nervously. What they were doing was wrong, too, but in reality it was much less worse than what Sirius Black had attempted to do to Severus the year previous. They weren't going to hurt him; Sirius was perfectly safe at the bottom of that pit.
It was past midnight when Severus stirred and took his turn at watch, allowing Rose to rest her head against his shoulder. She was afraid she'd roll out of the protecting limbs of the tree, so he kept his arm around her.
Unfortunately for the two scheming Slytherins, nothing of interest would happen that night. The only creatures who roamed anywhere near the pit were no werewolves, and were fairly uninterested in him. There was a grand total of one centaur, two unicorns, a spider the size of a cat, a fox, two owls, and one very large, very impressive young stag. The stag took the most interest in Black, stopping and staring down into the pit for a long while. That was most strange. Black noticed the stag's attention as well, and although Severus heard him speak to the animal he couldn't make out what was said. The stag wandered off after that, though, casting a curious glance into the trees where Rose and Severus were concealed.
Odd.
Morning came, with Rose and Severus both awake to be disappointed by the light of dawn. Sirius Black wasted no time in shouting from the pit, "Will you let me out now?!"
Grumbling about the idiocy of the Gryffindor and the ineptness of werewolves to be around when wanted, Severus climbed down from their tree perch and glared into the pit where Sirius was sitting. He was sorely tempted to hex the Gryffindor, and even raised his wand to do so as a sneer formed upon his face, when—
"Capture and release, Severus," Rose reminded him, coming to stand behind him. "We can't keep him here forever and our chance is gone. His friends will miss him and come looking for him."
Severus nodded but said nothing, tucking his wand away. "This place is supposed to have at least a few werewolves in it. Unless they're territorial, which no one has proved conclusively, we should've at least heard one of them last night. But if theyare territorial that means that Lupin has this area staked out and who knows where he was last night....." Severus gave up his puzzling and sighed. "Throw him the rope."
Rose went to the base of the tree, where they had left a coiled rope, and threw it to Sirius after tying one end to a smaller tree near the pit. As soon as that was done, the two Slytherins began to make their way back to Hogwarts. They weren't too worried about Black following them; they knew he knew his way around the forest. Severus also still had his wand, and intended to give it to a house-elf later. The elf could return it to Gryffindor Tower.
By the time Sirius had climbed out, sore from his night sleeping on cold, hard ground, the two Slytherins were gone and all he could do was let out a stream of curse words as he stalked back towards the school.
He hated them both.
Rose felt nothing about that night, however, except relief. She told herself it was because Sirius Black hadn't been hurt, but she had to wonder....
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Time had slipped by, and the disappointment of using Sirius Black as werewolf bait had ebbed somewhat. Severus was preparing for his N.E.W.T.'s as if his very life depended upon it. Which, to an extent, it did.
Rose was doing the same in preparation for her O.W.L.'s, growing paler and thinner as she would occasionally forget to come to meals. The two were quite a pair, hunched over books in the library, determined frowns on their faces.
The Gryffindor bunch, Lily, Potter, Black, Pettigrew, and Lupin were just as steadily working, but they still managed to have some fun, slipping away through secret passages, playing pranks on hapless Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, and generally acting no older than first years. Lily even lightened up some as they dragged her along on some of their adventures, and several times she was whisked into a secret passage by James to share in tender, wonderful kisses and words.
Black hadn't forgotten what the Slytherins had done to him and the others (minus Lily), were just as offended and angered by it. They hexed Severus every chance they got, whether they were passing him in the hall or during a class they shared with him. There were less open attacks, though, which would bring the attention of other students and the teachers. They were avoiding that, as they all needed good reports this year to get into their chosen career paths.
So Severus didn't tell anyone, except Rose when he occasionally needed a hand in removing the jinx. Such as the time they sealed his lips shut, or made him temporarily deaf, gave him a stuttering curse, and turned his skin purple. Rose joined Severus easily in the small-scale war, though they never attacked her (Pettigrew tried the one time, botched the job terribly, and Rose had gotten him back with an acne curse so powerful that no amount of boober-tubor puss would rid him of it for three weeks).
Lily Evans was blissfully unaware of it all, at James's command to keep her that way.
When they had the time, Rose and Severus would curl up on a cushion together in the Requirement Room, quizzing each other for their tests. They kissed often, becoming more and more addicted to one another as some would a favorite drug. Severus enjoyed the attention and the moments spent with her made him feel as if he were important, and he mattered to someone who really didn't need him but stayed with him anyway. He didn't want to lose that, so he did not attempt anything like what had almost happened in the Forbidden Forest.
Rose, for her part, wondered if she was in love with Severus. Certainly she cared for him a great deal, and he was the best friend she had ever had. She cherished their time together, knowing soon that he would leave Hogwarts. She didn't know where that would put their relationship, or if they'd ever even see each other again. She wasn't kidding herself; she knew Severus was a mostly selfish individual who put himself first and foremost.
But he had his moments of gentleness. There were times when she'd catch him staring at her, and he would offer her half a smile when she caught him. There were times when he'd interrupt himself, half-way through a sentence, to push one of her distracting, errant curls back into place. And when he held her in his arms, on his lap, as they studied he would sometimes trace the curves of her ear or run a finger lightly up and down her arm, giving her goose bumps.
Yes. Severus Snape had his moments.
Lily and James were growing closer as well. You never seemed to see one without the other, joined hand-in-hand and oblivious to the rest of the world when they were together. And James did not hesitate to tell Lily on one cool spring evening, while walking around the edge of the lake, that he was in love with her. Lily had responded with a kiss that left James walking on air all the way up until his N.E.W.T.'s. He passed them all, of course, with flying colors.
Black passed with a flourish, Lupin made marks high enough that his papers were requested to be used as examples to the next year's students; Lily Evans made all of her instructors proud, and Pettigrew barely scraped by.
Severus Snape did very well, especially in the subject of potions thanks to his experiments and work in the apothecary. Rose felt confident about her O.W.L.'s, and in the end did better at those than Lily had two years previous.
Hogwarts turned out many bright students that year, in the midst of the War.
Lord Voldemort left everyone in fear, trembling in their homes at night, praying that he would not choose to attack them next. There were many deaths, murders, attributed to him. Things were horrible, times were terrifying. People rarely ventured from their homes anymore. There was talk of shutting down the school, but so long as Albus Dumbledore was the Headmaster he refused to allow that to happen.
Death Eaters roamed the streets of the magical world freely, their black hearts and murderous ways ruthless and evil.
This was the world that the former students of Hogwarts stepped into, a world which frightened many.
Albus Dumbledore approached Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, and even Peter the day before they were to leave on the train. He asked them for their help, along with several students from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff who were graduating. He asked them for their secrecy. He took them to his office and laid out a miraculous plan before them, one which he hoped would spell the end of Tom M. Riddle's reign of evil.
Some agreed, some declined, but the Gryffindor students were not divided by the subject. They joined the Order of the Phoenix, a secret society pledged to rid the world of Dark Wizards. Then they would step into their careers.
Rose rode the train away from Hogwarts, pressed closely to Severus's side. They hadn't talked about what would happen at the end of school, they hadn't spoken of their separation. Nor did they ever.
As Rose stood, hugging him tightly to her on the train platform in London, she whispered, "I'll write you this summer."
He nodded, and then bent to kiss her, offering no promise in return. When he released her, he slipped silently away into the crowds of students, families, and others.
Lily had found her sister standing where Severus had left her, unshed tears in her eyes. The older Evans put an arm around her baby sister, regretting their distance towards each other. "Maybe you can invite him over some time this summer," Lily suggested with a kind smile.
Rose shook her head and sighed. "As if he'd come." She pulled herself away from Lily, stiffly. "And what about your plans with James?"
Lily shrugged, blushing. "He wants to talk to Dad and Mum first...but...um."
Rose rolled her eyes. "Out with it, Lily."
"He's proposed," Lily whispered, her eyes shining with happiness and awe. "And I said yes."
"Aren't you a bit young?" Rose asked, keeping a weather-eye out for their parents or Petunia to pick them up.
"I'm of age in the wizarding world," Lily said quickly, smiling. "And I've thought out all the arguments against marrying him, but there's no use. I love him, Rose."
There was a distance between the sisters after that. And it didn't help that, three days into the summer, before James could procure their blessing, the accident happened.
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Rose was the maid of honor at Lily's wedding, and Sirius was best man of course. So while they may have loathed each other, and a few wedding guests commented on their frosty behavior, the wedding was a beautiful one. Even Petunia admitted to that, despite all the magicked decorations and strange costumes of those around her.
She was to be married after her seventeenth birthday, to her long-time boyfriend Vernon Dursley. Despite their age difference, and despite her youth, they were determined to go through with it. Lily would no longer be the legal guardian at that point, so she did what she could to talk Petunia out of it without causing further distance between them.
Petunia and Rose lived in the home of their parents, alone, during the first few weeks of Lily's marriage. Petunia would be wed the same day Rose would be bound back for Hogwarts, so Rose could not attend.
Without Lily in the house to keep the two sisters peaceful, they had all manner of arguments and disagreements. By the time Rose left for school she didn't much care whether she ever saw Petunia again.
Lily saw her off at the train station, with a look in her eyes that was a mixture of worry and regret. When she returned home that evening to be with James, she confessed to him that she had lost the friendship she had once had with her younger sister. He held her close and did what he could to kiss her fears away.
Rose sat in the train compartment she had occupied with Severus in previous years, alone now except for Oberon in his cage. She was hurting inside, feeling as if she had lost everyone she cared for. She had only heard from Severus once during the summer, after writing him three long letters and needing him badly. Lily and Petunia were both married, and her parents were gone forever.
The next two years at Hogwarts looked bleak and empty.
She penned a letter to Severus on the way to school, pouring out many of her feelings onto paper. She wondered, briefly, if he even cared about her anymore. Perhaps once she was out of sight she was out of mind as well.
"Severus,
The next two years of school loom before me like a storm waiting to burst...."
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Severus Snape was, at the moment Rose took pen to paper, laying in bed in his small, dingy flat in Knockturn Alley. His bed was actually little more than a cot, and his room was cramped and cheap. Sometimes the roof leaked if he forgot to repair the holes before a storm. At the moment, rain was the farthest thing from his mind.
His left forearm throbbed with fresh, hot, burning pain. But his mind wasn't necessarily on that, either.
He was thinking on his bank account, mentally going over the funds, smiling to himself. He could afford much better than what he currently had, but her preferred to save the money for something special. It was easy for him to live as he was, there was no reason to spend money he didn't need to. He could be frugal.
It was with a slow grace, like a cat rising from slumber, that he came out of the cot and went to stand next to the window. He pulled from his bedside table a silver pocket watch to check the time. He would need to be at work soon, he would need to get a quick start on several specialty potions at the order of one T. Marvelo.
He smiled to himself, absently rubbing at the fire in his arm.
For years Severus Snape had tried to prove himself to the world at large, and it seemed as if no one had noticed. No one, that is, until his Lord took stock of his talents. Yes, the Dark Lord was pleased with Severus Snape. And that pleasure would mean great and terrible things to come.
I think I've given up individual reviews. My life is just to busy to do that right now. I apologize for any disappointment this may cause. But I'll tell you this—ask me a question and I'll be happy to answer it for you!
SNEAK PREVIEW: The next chapter, which is a bit of light-hearted fluff, is The Proposal, Retold. I think everyone will enjoy that one, even though it's going to take me a bit to get it to you. Chapter Thirty-Four is titled 'Mawwiage, Mawwiage Is What Bwings Us Togever...Today', and it should be fun considering you will be permitted to observe the first day of marriage the Snapes enjoy. Er…sort of. And Chapter Thirty-Five is Sisterly Advice, so called because Mrs. Lily Potter has an interesting talk with Mrs. Rose Snape. See you all soon! (I hope!)
To my Reviewers: Many thanks to Evil Duckie of the Black Lagoon (twice), StrawberryBunny (twice), Moriann (twice…yup, still in denial), Loraliant Angelisa Snape/LSU Golden Girl (twice…everyone eventually gets over their head), Illume (twice), nabenabe (THANK YOU!!!! TWICE!!!), TeenageZombie, Lydia (if you ask me, Severus snogging any girl is kinky, but your comment about his experience is thankfully noted), and Rinny Z (you still scare me, but I love your reviews! You make me smile.).
Rae Roberts: For reals on the plot thing. I do believe we're out of danger of that now, our stories should be going in completely different directions…I mean, you've got Remus in Louisiana. (Y'all not reading her story…what ARE you waiting for?! It's dang good!) As always I'm grateful for your reviews, you must let me know if any of your new pet-peeves exist in my writing. I will tell you one, thing, though…I'm beginning to believe ANYone can get published these days. ;-) See you later!
See y'all next chapter! (Hopefully it'll be out in less than a week this time…darn school and work!)
-JB-