Chapter 3

Being deeply loved by someone
gives you strength,
while loving someone deeply
gives you courage.

- Lao Tzu

Despite the strangeness of their arrangement, Rose and Stefan quickly fell into a comfortable life together. She had—after much insistence and probably a little help from Damien—convinced Stefan to take the master bedroom while she took the guest. She didn't have any immediate use for the larger bed after all. As both rooms were similarly extravagant, the room wasn't much of a downgrade anyways. Rose had initially worried that their parents or Draco would notice the separate living arrangements, but after one visit to see the place, neither of their families had been in a hurry to come back—too many muggles. Living so close to Sam's dad's home also had its perks. Since Ava had moved in with them after graduating until she and Sam could save up enough money to afford a place of their own, she was a frequent dinner guest and tonight was no exception.

"'The vivacious redhead has broken more than a few hearts in her time at Hogwarts, our sources have informed us. But it seems that the debonair heiress's wild heart was finally captured by Stefan Dolohov—a longtime bachelor whom our avid readers were despairing of ever tying the knot himself,'" Sam read aloud at the dinner table laughing heartily at Skeeter's portrayal of Rose as a sensual heartbreaking ice queen.

Rose did her best to look dignified and speared another meatball with her fork. She didn't really mind the way she'd been depicted by Skeeter—it made her feel powerful and sexy. And the picture that accompanied the article portraying their first kiss with Stefan romantically dipping her made them look truly in love.

"You mustn't worry about the press dear," Alex told her tapping long lime green nails against his water glass. "We have some atrocious people who write for muggle newspapers too, you should see what's been written about me—that I'm married to a recluse and a fashion disaster. Not necessarily false, but rather rude of them to put into print."

Ebo glanced over at Alex in good-natured exasperation from where he sat, spooning food into Kwesi's mouth. This seemed to be a losing battle as Rose was sure there was at least as much food dribbling down Kwesi's chin and onto his bib as Ebo had put in his mouth to begin with.

"I wonder who their sources were," Sam continued teasingly. "If she'd asked me about you, her article would be all about an awkward nerd who's oblivious to men."

"That's not very nice Sam," Ava cautioned her girlfriend, glancing at Rose to make sure she hadn't taken Sam's remark personally. Rose gave her a reassuring smile to show that this was okay and that she didn't mind the ribbing. After all, to their knowledge, she'd never actually dated anyone in her time at Hogwarts. She wasn't sure what she'd had with either Remus or Severus really counted as dating, but still.

"I'm not completely oblivious to men," Rose replied casually.

"Well, not anymore," Sam grinned, and Rose's face went quite pink at this statement. None of her friends knew that her marriage with Stefan was a sham.

"Samira," Ebo chided as he managed to entice Kwesi into taking a bite of food. "I think I see why Rose has never come to visit us before now."

"Don't believe the innocent act she's putting on Dad, she has a wicked tongue on her too," Sam grumped, and Rose grinned at her friend.

"Rose wasn't always completely oblivious to men," Ava said into her wine glass and four pairs of eyes stared at her causing the woman to blush and fall silent.

"Well, go on," Sam encouraged curiously.

"It's too late for silence now," Alex agreed, leaning towards her interestedly—obviously as invested in the drama as his daughter was. Ava locked eyes with Rose who waved for her to continue.

"Well, didn't Professor Snape catch you in a broom closet with a boy during our sixth year?" Ava said, flushing brightly.

"Wait—wait—wait, how did I not know about this!?" Sam exclaimed, looking between the two women in obvious outrage.

"You were in detention during that particular party," Rose informed her.

"That sounds like our daughter," Ebo mumbled with a sigh.

"Who was it?" Sam pressed, ignoring her dad.

"Liam Burke," Rose admitted after a long moment, not at all surprised at the look of disgust Sam gave her.

"That slimeball? Disgusting. That's not an experience, that's a punishment."

"Oh, was he ugly, this boy?" Alex asked curiously. Ava, Sam, and Rose all exchanged glances knowing that Sam's dislike of him had nothing to do with his looks and everything to do with his embodiment as the epitome of everything prejudiced and muggle-hating.

"Yes," the three of them said simultaneously, not wanting to explain this to Alex.

"I was very drunk," Rose elaborated. She had been drunk. But at the time, the seventh-year boy had seemed quite enticing to her—an heir to one of the sacred twenty-eight pureblood families in Britain. It had taken her too long to realize he was only interested in her for sex and would never pursue her seriously because of her half-blood status.

"Been there, done that, dear," Alex said, waving a manicured hand in the air dismissively. Ebo glanced at him with raised eyebrows, and Alex gave him a smug smile and patted his hand. "Don't act like you haven't."

Rose was sure Ebo was blushing, but it was well-hidden beneath his dark complexion.

"Whatever happened to him anyways," Sam asked.

"I believe he's abroad; he does a lot of work collecting items for his Uncle's shop," Rose shrugged. She hadn't kept up with him since he graduated.

"More importantly, how did Snape react when he caught you two," she grinned.

"He was not impressed," Rose said simply. In truth, his drastic overreaction to the situation had been the moment she'd first begun to seriously consider that Snape was attracted to her and had started to pursue him. Grasping around for a change of subject, Rose asked the first thing that came to mind. "How are things at the ministry?"

"Busy," Sam intoned tiredly. "With the Quidditch World Cup coming up in a month, I'm going to be doing a lot of overtime."

"But you're enjoying it?"

"So far. Bagman's a laugh—much more fun to work for than some of the other department heads. Unfortunately, we're working closely with the Department of International Magical Cooperation and Barty Crouch has zero sense of humor. He and Weasley should be announcing their engagement any time now."

"Percy Weasley?" Rose asked curiously.

"Yep. I've seen more of him in the last month than I did in seven years at Hogwarts and, let me tell you, it's not an improvement," Sam grumbled. "I don't know how you could stand being around him so much as Head Girl."

"He's not so bad," Rose shrugged. She had mostly perfected the act of tuning Percy Weasley out whenever he began telling her about how the prefects needed better discipline or how too many students were shirking the dress code. She did, however, have a grudging respect for anyone capable of earning twelve N.E.W.T.s and admired his tenacity and ambition.

"Ava's apprenticeship at St. Mungo's has been much more exciting," Sam prompted the quiet brunette, and Rose turned expectant eyes on her.

"It's been fun. I'm helping tend the greenhouses and brewing basic potions for the healers—nothing too difficult," Ava said with a smile.

"She's underselling herself," Sam said, squeezing Ava's hand. "She told me that just the other day Damocles Belby complimented her on her Blood-Replenishing Potion."

"The Damocles Belby," Rose said with surprise. "The creator of the Wolfsbane potion?"

"He's one of the potion's masters there," Ava answered.

"That's awesome," Rose told her sincerely, and Ava allowed herself a proud grin in response.

"How are things at Angevin's labs?" Ava inquired politely.

"Right now I'm mostly working in the Just Like Magic clinic doing transfigurations for clients. It's not hard, but I am getting a lot of practice with human transfiguration. Damien is also putting together some kind of bid for us to work on some special event this year—it's very hush hush, he said he doesn't want to get our hopes up. I guess they bid on doing the transfiguration work for the Quidditch World Cup too but lost out to a larger company." Rose answered.

"When do you get to start working on lycanthropy research?" Ava asked curiously—she'd been the only one of their friend group to really read Rose's article in Transfiguration Today. Sam had skimmed it to be nice, and Mariko was pretending it didn't exist.

"Well first I have to put together a proposal for the stages of research, what resources I think I'll need, and how I'm planning to allocate funding. That's taking most of my time. But another apprentice who's been with Damien for a few years now has mentioned an interest in partnering with me on it. Their background is alchemy and muggle science, so we should make a good team." Rose had been afraid that, like teaching had been with Snape, her interest in lycanthropy would wane now that Lupin was gone. Fortunately, this wasn't the case.

"I think it's wonderful that you're interested in researching lycanthropy," Ebo told her, flicking his wand at their empty dishes to begin clearing the table. "Even among healers there's a lot of prejudice around werewolves. Mind you, monsters like Fenrir Greyback, and his followers aren't helping. They've been getting more active again too. We've seen quite a few attacks recently at St. Mungo's."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Rose said automatically, a shiver running down her spine at the mention of Greyback.

"I don't understand why wizards dislike werewolves so much," Alex said, looking into space dreamily. "They're so romantic."

"What?" Rose asked in surprise at this reaction from the man. "Do muggles know about werewolves?"

"Not really," Sam said, rolling her eyes at her dad. "I told you Baba, werewolves are nothing like the ones in your romance novels."

"Still," Alex pouted. "It's just awful how they treated that Professor of yours just because he's a werewolf. It's not like he can help it."

Rose stared fixedly at the table, feeling both Sam and Ava's eyes on her.

"And the things they said about him in that article—not that I'm saying anything against your father, dear, I'm sure he's just worried about his children."

"There was an article?" Rose asked suddenly, looking up so fast she was afraid she'd given herself whiplash. Sam and Ava exchanged guilty glances, obviously they'd known about it and hadn't said anything. Reluctantly, Sam flipped a few pages past the picture of her and Stefan kissing at the altar and offered her the paper. Rose snatched it out of her hand and began skimming the article titled: "Monster Loose at Hogwarts".

"…Many parents are questioning what right Albus Dumbledore had to hire a man he knew to be a werewolf in the first place.

"Lucius Malfoy, previous Governor and father of two children at the school, said, 'This is exactly the kind of irresponsible behavior that caused me to resign my post as Governor at the end of last year. I just couldn't stand by and watch Dumbledore continue his reckless debasing of an institution once so highly regarded across the globe.'

"Mr. Malfoy went on to say that he was scared for the safety of his son, Draco, who was attacked in the fall of last year by a wild hippogriff, and his daughter, Rose, who was asked to work closely with Professor Lupin during the schoolyear. 'My own daughter was badly overworked this past year in her role as 'teacher's assistant' to make up for his laziness and poor work ethic. She was completely distraught to discover the man she'd had to be in such close contact with was a werewolf. It is a miracle she was not attacked. This lack of judgement on the Headmaster's part is not an exception to the rule but a continued pattern of arrogance and conceit.'

"In addition to Mr. Malfoy's concerns around Albus Dumbledore, many witches and wizards believe that the incident at the beginning of June was the inevitable outcome of the kind of negligent and criminal behavior the wizarding world has come to expect from these types of creatures. It is no wonder that they have long fallen under the 'beast' rather than the 'being' division at the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.

"Senior Undersecretary to the Minister for Magic, Dolores Umbridge, has said that she will introduce stricter anti-werewolf legislation at the next meeting of the Wizengamot in order to keep such events from happening again. One of the many changes the legislation will introduce, should it pass, will require that the employment of any werewolves be made public by employers to their customers…."

Rose felt nauseous as she set the paper down, unable to read any more of the article. She'd had no idea her father had spoken to the press about Remus. What had Remus thought of her when he'd read those words? Did he think she'd agreed with what her father had said? Surely not. Surely, he knew better.

"I, um, I have to go," Rose said quickly. "I'm not feeling well."

She fled the flat, deciding to take the stairs rather than the elevator in the hopes of burning off some of her anxiety. She wanted to write him a letter, wanted to tell him that she loved him and would never feel that way about him. 'Maybe to be extra convincing you can attach the photo of yourself kissing Stefan,' she thought bitterly to herself as she walked out onto the street and began hurrying towards home. She brushed away tears that began to trickle down her face at this thought. No, it was best not to try to contact him. She would, on the other hand, be sending a letter of apology to Professor Dumbledore—for whatever that would mean.

Heading up the stairs to her own flat, Rose wondered briefly if she ought to write a letter to Harry as well. They hadn't had any contact in the weeks since the summer holiday began, and based on his conversation with Sirius in June, it was possible he was being mistreated by the muggles he lived with. The cowardly part of herself shrank back at this idea. For two years Harry had been a thorn in her side at Hogwarts, a reminder that she was not entirely the person she claimed to be. She'd wanted nothing more than to be rid of him and now she finally had the chance. They needn't have any more contact now. But was that still what she wanted?

Pushing open the door to the flat, Rose's face lit up bright red at the sight of Stefan and Damien tangled together on the couch, locked in a passionate kiss.

"I am so sorry," she exclaimed, shielding her eyes while they disentangled from each other and Damien pulled his hand out of the waistband of Stefan's pants.

"We thought you were going to be out longer," he muttered grumpily. Stefan, however, seemed to sense that something was wrong and after catching his breath, stood from the couch, walked over, and pulled her hand from her face.

"What is it, Rose? You look like you've been crying."

"It's nothing," she said, staring at the ground. Stefan put his fingers beneath her chin and tilted her head up, looking at her seriously.

"You saw the article?" He asked. Rose nodded mutely. Of course Stefan had seen it too.

"That Rita Skeeter is awful," Damien said from the couch. "You should see some of the things she's written about me. Try not to take her seriously."

Rose realized that Damien must have thought she was upset about the article Skeeter had written about the wedding. Stefan obviously hadn't told him about Remus. She was grateful for this as her experience with couples—namely Ava and Sam—was that they told each other everything. It was nice to know that Stefan took seriously his role as her confidant just as she had taken her role as his.

"Can you give us a minute, love," Stefan said over his shoulder to Damien. He shrugged, tried not to look irritated, and disappeared into the master bedroom. Leading Rose over to the kitchen island, he helped her sit on one of the barstools, and sat next to her, his hand never leaving her own.

"Stefan, will you oppose the legislation that Umbridge is going to propose to the Wizengamot," Rose asked suddenly, her grip tightening on his own. He clearly hadn't expected this and swallowed uncomfortably.

"Rose… Dolores Umbridge is not someone to make an enemy of lightly," he said gently, and she looked down at her feet, tears springing to her eyes again. She'd thought that maybe she could do at least this much for Remus Lupin. "Even if I publicly opposed her, it's well known that Fudge will be backing her proposal. She has a clear majority. I believe Madam Bones will be leading the dissent, and I usually vote with her, but it will probably pass regardless."

"I understand," Rose nodded tiredly, releasing his hand to wipe away more tears.

"But… I can promise to do my best to get it tied up with technicalities and committees for as long as possible," he said with a small smile. "My background with Ancient Runes and Wizarding Law typically situates me with a great deal of authority during the review process."

"You'd do that for me?" She asked, and he leaned forward and kissed her lightly on the forehead.

"After what you've done for me, how could I not," he smiled at her, and Rose felt a great surge of affection for the man. She wrapped him in a tight embrace, burying her head in his shoulder. Stefan patted her gently on the back before disentangling himself from her arms. "There are some letters that came for you by the way."

Rose looked in surprise at the four envelopes that sat in the middle of the island—one was attached to a small package. Scooping them up she headed for her room, giving Stefan one more tired smile before she disappeared inside. Falling onto her bed, Rose opened the envelope attached to the package first.

'Mum asked me to send you this wedding gift. –Congrats, Ron Weasley'

Rose stared at the note in surprise. She'd never once spoken to Mrs. Weasley. Ron must have told her how she'd helped them in the spring. Or maybe it was because she had worked closely with Percy at Hogwarts. Slowly, she opened the package to find a small glass heart about the size of her palm with what looked like golden sand inside. Rose had never actually seen a Love-Glass before but had heard of them. The sand inside was supposed to swirl faster and even glow depending on the intensity of love being felt in a room at the time. She was surprised by the thoughtful gift and set it down on her nightstand. She smiled when the sand inside began to swirl in a lazy circle.

Leaning back against her pillow, Rose opened the next envelope, and read over it quickly.

'Dear Rose, Thank you for all the help you gave us this year. I wanted to offer my congratulations on your marriage. I've read about Stefan Dolohov, and he seems like a good man. I hope you both find happiness together. —Love, Hermione'

Rose set the letter down on her stomach, touched that Hermione had sent such a heartfelt congratulations. Moving onto the next one, she continued reading.

'Rose, congratulations on the wedding. You looked really nice. – Sincerely, Harry. p.s. I'm sorry your dad said those things about Lupin.'

Even though the note was short, Rose felt a smile spread across her face at the awkward congratulations of a thirteen-year-old boy. She wasn't sure Draco could have done much better had he been expected to express his congratulations through the letter; he'd barely done as well in person. Not only that, but Harry had known, even without her saying so, that she'd had nothing to do with the article on Remus Lupin.

Finally, Rose opened the most battered of the four letters, her heart jumping into her throat while she read it.

'Dearest Rose, I'm sorry that our time together was so short, but I am glad I was able to meet the woman you have become. I saw the picture of your wedding in the Daily Prophet, and you looked just like your mother on her wedding day. I wish she and James could have been there to see how beautiful you were. I wish I could have been there too. Even though we've been separated once more, know that I am still your family, and that I will always be there for you. All my love, Sirius.'

Rose clutched the four letters to her chest and closed her eyes, basking in the softly light of the Love-Glass that glowed beside her.