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.

NOTE: I have recently joined something that is taking a great deal of my creative writing time. It's called NaNoWriMo. The web-site is NaNoWriMo "Dot" org. You may want to check it out, if you're interested in writing. It's a challenge given to all writers the world over to write a novel (50,000 or more words) in the month of November. Check it out!

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CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT: A Death Eater At Home

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Rose wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand, backing away from the boiling cauldron at the same moment. The deep purple of the brew was an indication that things were going well, but the young woman wished things had been easier.

As she trudged up the steps to her kitchen she untied apron strings and drew off the dragon-hide gloves she wore. She muttered to herself, hanging the apron on a peg, "...simmer for one week, then stir counter-clockwise three times before adding the hemlock...."

It was July, and a warm one at that. She had been married to Severus for four months and had been helping him with his special 'projects' for only a slightly less period of time.

She was still muttering to herself about that particularly complex potion when the back door flew open with a bang and in stormed her husband.

He stormed everywhere these days.

"Lucious Malfoy, while brilliant, is also one of the most spoiled, arrogant, bullying bastards I have ever had the chance to meet," he snarled, sitting abruptly at their small table.

Rose glanced up from where she had been chopping celery sticks to dip in peanut butter, ready to reply with some soothing remark or another, when she caught sight of her husband's face.

His right eye was swollen and beginning to blacken, his bottom lip was split and scabbed, and he looked an absolute mess.

Her jaw dropped.

Severus was too busy glaring at the table top to notice her expression and continued spitting out vile phrases about Malfoy, particularly about the man's parentage and what his mother must've done to curse herself with such a son.

Finally he noticed his wife's lack of response. "Well?" he asked, bringing his eyes up to hers. "Haven't you anything to say? You usually do."

"What happened to you?" Rose got out at last, coming to him with a damp cloth to dab at his lip and clean up the cut there. She slid into the chair next to his, focusing on cleaning him up, a worried frown on her face.

Severus's hands came up and took her wrist, pulling it away from him. His eyes met hers, swallowing emerald green into the black depths of a dark well. "Lucious Malfoy happened to me, along with his ape-men, Crabbe and Goyle."

"What one earth did you do to them to deserve this?" Rose dropped her hand to his arm, keeping her eyes on his. "Is this why the Dark Lord summoned you?"

"No," Severus answered, folding his arms across his chest and frowning the way a petulant boy might after being caught fighting at school. "The Dark Lord imparted information to us tonight and after he and several others left us, Malfoy and I got into a conversation that ended in curses and fists being exchanged."

"But Lucious Malfoy needs your potions as much as any Death Eater does, I can't imagine why he'd pick a fight with you," Rose added, shaking her head. "Do you want some ice for that eye?"

"I'm fine," he grumbled, sinking down in his chair.

Rose raised her eyebrows. "I don't understand, Severus. Why Malfoy?"

"He asked about you," Severus managed to growl out at last. "Asked why you didn't come to meetings. He implied a few things I didn't like."

"Sounds like a Death Eater," Rose remarked, rubbing the arm which bore her tattoo. She had agreed to join the group Severus had bound himself to but only after hearing the words Tom Riddle, Lord Voldemort, offered her about his goals and vision. She had been dismayed, later, to find out about all the dissentions in the group of men and women who wanted to take control of the wizarding world. They fought often amongst themselves, much as they had when she had known some of them in Slytherin.

Bellatrix Black Lestrange had become a striking beauty since their third year. She had also married and joined the Death Eaters, and upon seeing Rose (who had helped her a great deal with Transfiguration) at a meeting took her aside and promised to help her 'fit in.'

Rose later remarked to her husband that, so long as she became a witch with a capitol 'B,' she'd fit in just fine.

"You can't afford to get on Malfoy's bad side, Severus," Rose said at last, reaching up to stroke her husband's cheek. "He's in the Inner Circle, and that's where you need to get to. Let him say whatever he wants about me. They're only words, after all."

"Only words?" he asked, glowering darkly at her. "They are accusations, Rose. They could get you in trouble."

"What could he be saying that's so important?" she asked, her impatience slowly beginning to sour her tone. She had enough to worry about without her husband acting like a child, getting into petty fights with those they could not afford to anger.

Severus shrugged and ran a hand through his lank, greasy hair. "Potter. He tried to tie Dumbledore and Potter's little squad of heroes to you. He said you were leaking information to your sister. There's no evidence anyone's a spy, but there's always a suspicion about it among the Death Eaters. He also implied your relations with some members of our army are...less than appropriate."

"So he's calling me a slut and a spy," Rose summed up for him, rolling her eyes. "I'm not either one so let's just not worry about it."

"If he talks too much, though, and they need a scapegoat for anything that goes wrong with a plan of the Dark Lord's...he could bring you up, Rose. There could be trouble." Severus shuddered and pulled his wife from her chair into his lap, wrapping a protective arm about her waist. "They can't take you from me."

Although this touched the part of her heart that still believed in love and happily ever afters, Rose hastily put those feelings away knowing that Severus wasn't being romantic; he was being possessive. Those were two very different things for him to be.

"And they won't. I'll come to the next few meetings with Bella and clear these things up." Rose moved out of her husband's lap and headed towards the cellar. "Could you come and look at this with me? I'm not certain the Dark Lord's brew is coming out right."

Severus sighed and came to his feet, following her down into their lab.

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Rose came to take Severus's arm as they strolled out of Knockturn and into Diagon Alley, having finished some business with the apothecary Severus had once worked for. Now they were shopping for the more common-place items they needed, walking along in the light of day rather than in the shadows of the darker aspect of London wizardry.

It was late August and so there was a slightly crisp feeling in the air, warning of the cold to come, and an occasional errant breeze would startle wizards and witches alike into reaching up to steady their hats.

There was also a multitude of Hogwarts scholars roaming about, with parents and without, trying to get everything necessary on their lists. It appeared as if Albus Dumbledore had talked the Ministry into opening the school back up, which was a relief to most of the magical world. Life without Hogwarts was, according to some, no life at all.

Rose was swept away in happy memory as she walked down the street on her husband's arm. Preparing to enter Hogwarts for her first year had been wonderful for her, and exciting, though she had been loathe to admit it the first time. Playing second-fiddle to Lily had never been easy.

Severus caught her wistful smile from the corner of his eye and glanced down at her, arching one black brow in question. "What is it?"

"Just remembering my first year of school," she answered, giving his arm a firm squeeze. It was rare they could be candid with each other lately, there was much on both their minds. "It was an exciting period in my life."

He chuckled. "It was only eight years ago, yet you talk like some of the matronly witches do."

"Sometimes I feel as old as they must," Rose returned, her thoughts briefly turning inward. "Being in a war and everything would do that to someone though, don't you think?"

"Certainly," he agreed, giving her a curious stare before returning to his perusal of a shop window. "Think we should get a pet?"

Rose blinked and realized where they were standing, the Magical Menagerie. "What? Oberon not enough for you?" she asked, raising her eyebrows questioningly.

He shrugged and walked on, saying quietly, "Just never had a pet before."

It was at moments like those that Rose wondered what his childhood had truly been like. She had a few details, she knew he had been far from happy, but coming from a home with two sisters and loving parents had given her a great childhood she was not always willing to take seriously. Most of the time she took it for granted that she had been given all the wonderful things her parents could afford, including gerbils, pet goldfish, a canary (whom she had set free after watching a documentary in her second year of Muggle school about birds needing to fly south for the winter), and Petunia had even had a cat once. Mister Fluffkins had, however, managed to get out of the yard one day and never came back to his broken-hearted, over-enthusiastic young mistress.

"They're not all they're cracked up to be," Rose said with a shrug. "Maybe a dog, though. I've never had one of those."

"And risk getting fleas everywhere?" Severus shook his head. "No. A pet can wait."

A sudden pain took both Rose and Severus by surprise and their steps faltered. "Did you...?" Rose checked.

"Yes," Severus answered.

Their leisure day in London was over; their Dark Lord called.

It took only a few moments for them to find an unobserved alley, then apparate away.

The meeting was short and to the point. There was to be a raid that night on a wizarding orphanage, they were going to go stir things up and pick up anyone willing to join their following. Then there was the added words from Voldemort, the words that Rose dreaded hearing and had to clench her jaw whenever they were said.

"And if anyone gets in your way, do whatever is necessary to get them out of it again. Permanently, if possible."

They were dispersing when Bellatrix Lestrange approached Rose, smiling her beautiful smile. She, like all the Blacks, looked as if she had been born to be a queen. Walking along behind her was a younger man, someone who should still be in Hogwarts perhaps. "Rose, pet, look who I have found! This is Regulas Black, my cousin."

"Ah, I remember," Rose replied, smiling as she held a hand out to him. "You graduate next year, correct?"

Regulas nodded, taking her hand with a smile. "A pleasure to see you again, Mrs. Snape—as I understand you are to be congratulated."

"Thank you," she responded, taking in the look of the boy. He looked exactly as his brother did with one exception--there was no passion for life in his eyes. His eyes were cold, they appeared almost dead. "You have joined the Dark Lord's cause then?"

"Of course. It is the only way to bring the Muggle world and ours back into one. His vision is astonishing, and much more practical than legalizing hunting muggles." He chuckled.

Bella rolled her eyes dramatically. "He's speaking of one of my more eccentric relatives. The Black family has a long history of doing what we could to make certain the purebloods are where they should be." She smiled beautifully, the cold glint in her eyes as well. "On top of the world."

"Really." Rose smiled, though it did not reach her eyes. "Where does that leave someone like me, Bella?"

Regulas raised his eyebrows and smirked. "Oh, I had forgotten. You're muggle-born, aren't you? And yet housed in Slytherin. That gives you some advantage, I'm sure," he purred, the charm of his family gracing him equally well.

"Her talents are indispensable," Bella told her cousin with a cocky tilt of her head. "She's saved many of our lives with her potion brewing and healing knowledge. You would do well to remember that, Regulas."

Severus then slipped to her side after having a quiet conversation with Lucious Malfoy. "Ready?" he asked Rose softly, not even deigning to acknowledge the cousins.

"Yes." Rose offered a parting smile to the other witch and wizard, then followed her husband away a bit. They had met in a large, abandoned slaughterhouse, meat hooks still hung all about the ceiling and walls. "I see you and Malfoy patched things up," Rose noted quietly.

"In a fashion," he responded, his dark expression not changing. "Though he cautioned me to keep an eye on you. Malfoy doesn't think you're completely trustworthy." Now he shot her his typical smirk, the one that passed for a teasing smile with him. "I silently agreed with him."

"Brute," she chided, flashing him a grin before apparating away.

Severus followed swiftly behind her, she had only taken one or two steps down the dirt path that led up to their cottage. He fell into step beside her, his thoughts now turned to more serious matters. "You haven't seen your sisters lately, have you?"

"No, Severus," she answered, rolling her eyes. "Don't you think I would have told you?"

He shrugged. "Just wondering." She didn't pick up on his strange tone of voice.

"Dinner?"

"Not really hungry."

"Neither am I."

Neither of them ever was after a meeting with the Dark Lord. Such meetings somehow took away their appetites.

Things really aren't looking very happy, are they?

SNEAK PREVIEW: Chapter 39, June 1980, finds the Snapes beginning to struggle with their marriage and we get a tiny peek of a proudly expecting Lily Potter. Chapter 40…Snape fans won't like it. I'll just give you the title. Pretty self-explanatory: The Failure of Severus Snape. Didn't think you'd want to know…the future looks so grim…but chapter 41 is Rose's Decision. All good things come to an end, I'm afraid….

To My Esteemed Reviewers!: Thanks go to Rinny Z, Loraliant Angelisa Snape, dnd4ever, kiss-of-cuteness, emikae, Illume, ???, Lydia, and Evil Duckie of the Blacklagoon.

See y'all next week!

-JB-