A/N:
Hello again dear readers!
The content for this chapter was supposed to be quite heavy and sad, but with everything going on right now I couldn't bring myself to write that. So I've tried to be a bit more upbeat.
Once again, I humbly hope you enjoy.
After McGonagall had dropped her bombshell, Rose just sort of froze. She remembered Remus (wonderful, sweet Remus) escorting Lily out of McGonagall's office, and then blurting something out herself before fleeing the suddenly oppressive atmosphere. It wasn't exactly as if they hadn't been expecting something like this for a while, they unfortunately had, but it all seemed so terribly unfair. They were all finally happy for Merlin's sake! She was getting along with Lily again, Remus and Peter were settling into their skins, James was still pining hopelessly after Lily, and her relationship with Sirius was reaching better and better heights with every passing day. It didn't help that she felt terrible for feeling that way, but she couldn't help it. She felt selfish and horrible and terribly confused, and sort of numbly, distantly sad.
Hiding away in her dormitory was not a good way of coping with the situation, but Rose frankly couldn't summon up enough energy to care. Sirius and James had both been sweet and considerate, and Remus had been practical to a fault, but she didn't want to deal with the realities yet. So, here she was, sitting on Lily's bed, clutching a pillow to her chest and trying not to be too touched that Marlene had immediately put on some Elton John on a low volume instead of keeping the Banshees blaring at ear-splitting volumes. Lily, after emerging suspiciously red-eyed only five minutes ago from the bathroom, was keeping herself busy, sorting through her things to pack for the funeral while Snowflake purred for attention. Rose hadn't yet broken the news to her (as she had already done with the Marauders) that she wasn't intending to go home at all. If she was honest, this was entirely because she didn't want to relive the same argument that she had already had with Remus, James and even Sirius. Which also conveniently explained why Rose was hiding away up here in the first place. It was frankly about as suspicious as the Marauders acting innocent after a particularly ingenious prank.
"You didn't think you could actually hide from us, did you?" James asked, leaning casually against the wall.
"Really, Rosie" Remus tutted in mock disappointment. "I thought you knew us better than that."
"How in Merlin's name did you three get up here?!" Alice shrieked, Mary diving behind her curtains. Sirius turned to favour her with an all too familiar smirk.
"Skills."
"Exceptions are made, when exceptions need to be" Remus added, purposely vague and enigmatic.
"They're not going to tell you, the lunatics" Rose huffed, glaring at the three of them. "You can save whatever you came up here to say, I'm not going."
"Of course you're not" Sirius agreed blithely, completely ignoring her. The nerve of that utterly gorgeous bastard. "McKinnon, McGonagall wants to see you in her office." Marlene nodded once, managed a smile for Lily, and then swiftly exited the dormitory. Nobody in their right mind - other than a Marauder - would keep McGonagall waiting. Rose let out a breath, hoping that this would be the end of it. Naturally, her luck wasn't that good.
"Hold on" Lily spoke up, looking from Rose to Sirius and back again. "Not going where?"
"Don't tell us you lot are trying to get her to go to Hogsmeade now of all times?!" Alice glared, hands coming to rest on her hips. Hestia backed her up with a scowl even fiercer than Lily's usual 'no, Potter' glare.
"Remus John Lupin, I expected better of you" Emmeline glowered, expression as severe as any McGonagall could summon.
"As if they would" Lily huffed, turning to Rose. Her emerald eyes were nearly snapping, Rose hadn't seen Lily this angry since the aftermath of the Defence OWL. "They mean that she's not coming to Grandpa's funeral."
"Forgive me if I'm wrong" Rose snapped, deciding it was easier to deal with her sister than the trio of stubborn Marauders standing in her dormitory. "But I think that the decision is mine to make."
Lily laughed bitterly, a touch of sarcasm in her voice too. "Not in this lifetime." Rose frowned at her twin, trying to find words to sum up the offense and grudging pride she had in Lily standing up to her (Lily had given up on doing that some time in third year when she understood that she would never out stubborn Rose).
"Lil-"
"You're not abandoning me to deal with Tuney, Walrus, and the rest of our family alone!"
"Take James!" In true form, James spluttered - torn between agreeing because he would literally die for Lily, and going along with Lily to get in her good books.
"Oh please" Lily scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Of course Potter, Black, and Remus are coming. As if Dumbledore would let you out of the castle without them." Rose struggled for words, Lily cheerfully bulldozing over her. "You're coming. Or you can write to Dad and tell him you're not." Rose dropped onto the floor, pulling her knees up to her chin.
"I hate this" she whispered, not certain anyone could hear.
"I know" Lily agreed, dropping beside her with a whisper of long red hair.
"Grandpa wasn't supposed to die yet" Rose managed, voice thick.
"I know" Lily said again, melodious voice as choked as Rose's.
"It is a bit rubbish, isn't it?" James offered, coming to sit on Rose's right. Lily glanced at him and managed a water chuckle.
"God you sound like Grandpa" Lily half-laughed. "Lord only knows why he liked you."
"Haven't the foggiest myself" James assured her, the pair not even noticing when Rose scooched away from them.
"If you lot are going to Cokeworth, have you packed yet?"
"What do you take us for?" Sirius asked, playfully offended. "Of course we haven't."
"What are you waiting for then?" Rose huffed, hands on her hips. "A royal invitation? Get on with it!" Sirius winked at her, grinned, and dipped into a low formal bow.
"As my lady commands."
After lunch, Rose and Lily made their way quietly to Dumbledore's office. They had intended to leave quietly, and not burden any of their friends with having to skip school and attend a funeral for a man they had barely known (although had all liked very much). Lily didn't like feeling that she was imposing on anyone, and Rose felt that she had already inconvenienced the Marauders too much in the last few months. Regardless, they had both felt very proud at evading the nosy gits that were Rose's fellow Marauders, and entered Dumbledore's office after the wise headmaster had told them to enter. Lily, typically, looked around eagerly, while Rose honed in on the chairs in front of Dumbledore's desk. Naturally, James and Sirius reclined in them like they were their own personal thrones, while Remiss and Marlene chatted quietly about whatever exactly it was that they had in common - probably Benjy Fenwick or their obsessive love of the Tutshill Tornadoes. Rose marched right over and glared furiously. "You gits!"
"Rose!" Lily gasped, shocked. "Not in front of the Headmaster!" Dumbledore chuckled, feigning absorption in a book. James and Sirius had the nerve to not even look guilty. Neither for that matter did Remus, Marlene, or even Peter. In fact, Peter was looking at her like she was being particularly slow.
"We're the Marauders, Astra" he told her calmly. "We stick together. Especially at really rubbish times like this."
"Hear, hear!" Marlene agreed, examining her nails as if daring someone to question why she was coming with them.
"Professor" Lily began, with the air of someone grasping at straws. "Surely they can't all afford to miss school?"
"Miss McKinnon is as advanced in her classes as you are, Miss Evans" Dumbledore replied evenly, his eyes barely sparkling in empathy with them. "And the Marauders have always been a package deal. Where one goes, so must the others follow." His electric gaze flickered to them, a smile quirking his lips. "As for missing school, I'm not entirely sure what our professors can teach them that they cannot teach themselves with the right incentivisation."
James glanced at Sirius and inclined his head, mirth dancing in his eyes. "Accurate."
"Don't go giving away all our secrets, Dumbles" Sirius drawled, shaking his head to get his hair to settle back into place. Dumbledore smiled enigmatically.
"You have my word that I shan't, if you'll only grab this chamberpot." It was already glowing blue as he spoke. Never before had Rose ever seen people so eager to touch such yellowed porcelain before. She made a mental note to disinfect her hands thoroughly as she snagged a forefinger around the rim. Then, with the familiar navel-jerk sensation, the five Marauders, Lily and Marlene disappeared from Hogwarts.
Utterly inappropriately, Rose found herself giggling as they stared up at the ceiling of the Evans living room. A quick glance of her peripherals confirmed that she wasn't alone in celebrating the ridiculousness of that mode of transportation. "How wonderful" Petunia's snide voice announced, rising to a yell. "Mum! Dad! The Freaks are here!"
"Petunia Marigold Evans, apologise to your sisters!" Jim yelled back, his voice echoing in from the kitchen. Petunia scoffed loudly, then 'accidentally' stepped on both Rose and Lily as she exited the living room.
"Sorry about that" Jim sighed, frowning at his eldest daughter's back. "It's been a bit difficult here since- well, you understand."
"Yeah" Lily agreed, managing a tremulous smile for their father. "Mum upstairs?" Jim nodded, and Lily fairly shot from the room, Marlene following somewhat awkwardly. While it was Jim that the Marauders were closest too, ironically it was Violet that took to Lily's friends the most. Violet especially adored Alice and Marlene who had visited as often as the Marauders had. Rose found the strength from somewhere to stand up and cross the room to her father, the Marauders in pursuit.
"I've missed you, Daddy" Rose murmured, stepping into her father's warm embrace.
"Anything we can do to help, Jim, just let us know" James announced, useless in such situations unless he could do something to help. Jim squeezed Rose tightly once more then turned a tired smile on the others.
"Well" he began, contemplative. "We've got Violet's sister, brother-in-law, and their kids coming tomorrow for the funeral on Monday, so if you could do your thing and somehow make Rose's room big enough to accommodate all you Hogwarts types, then you'd save me having to get Vernon to agree to kip in a tent outside."
"All of us, in Rosie's room?" Remus blinked in shock. His eyes flickered between Rose and Sirius, something telling in his pale green gaze. "The propriety?"
"Please" Jim chuckled, eyes dancing with humour. "Lily cannot stand half you boys, Marlene last I heard fancied your mate Benjy, and I'm certain that Sirius adores Rose far too much to do anything in a room full of you lot." Jim grinned at their stunned faces. "Now, if you can't do anything about the room, just say so-"
"Piece of cake" James dismissed waving his hand. "Ten seconds at worst."
"The hard thing will be not destroying Rose's room when we're all in there together" Peter muttered, flashing a smile at the idea.
"I have confidence in you" Jim smirked, revealing exactly where Rose had gotten her Marauderishness from. "Rose, go see your mother. Sirius, come help me in the garage. I want to hear all about... Hogwarts."
"Yes sir!" Sirius smirked, snapping an awful salute and marching outside in Jim's wake.
"Remind me again what you see in him?" James smirked, leading the procession upstairs. Rose made a show of thinking it over.
"Honestly, Jamie, it's either because he's really gorgeous, incredibly smart, fantastically loyal, or unbelievably good at-"
"Okay, don't need to know that!" James interrupted, turning bright red and walking into the door jamb. He cursed as he shook his foot out, hopping like a berk. Rose rolled her eyes, slapping his arm with no little force.
"Oi! Mind out of the gutter, Potter!" Rose tutted, shaking her head even as she felt heat prickle across her cheeks. "I was going to say kissing!"
"So nothing happened that night you two snuck out to the Black Lake?" James teased, forgetting that he wasn't comfortable with this line of questioning.
"James Harold Fleamont Prongs Potter!" Rose flamed as red as her hair. Redder even. Then her voice changed, low and seductive. "Are you asking?" James choked on his own spit.
"No!" Remus yelped, answering for him. "He's not, Rosie. He's really, really not."
"Pity" Rose replied in the same tone as before. She winked and sauntered away towards her mother's room, leaving James spluttering behind her. Merlin, she had needed that - especially to face this.
Several hours later, Rose slumped against the cool wood of the kitchen table. Her eyes were rimmed red, her head pounded, and her hands shook as she clutched possessively at her mug of tea. The past few hours with her mother had been a trip through memory lane, alternating laughing and stopping herself from crying at memories and stories of Grandpa Arthur, and now she felt wrung out like a greasy old dishcloth. Sirius came into the kitchen, wiping his hands on the aforementioned greasy rag, and dropped a thoughtless kiss to the top of her head. "I love you" he said easily, hunting through the cupboard for a biscuit to go with his cuppa.
"I look like something dragged out of the Black Lake" Rose protested, flushing at Sirius' suggestive look. "Oh, I didn't mean it like that" she groaned, gulping down a mouthful of fortifying Tetley. "And hush, they're already suspicious."
"They've a right to be" Sirius shrugged, supremely unconcerned. "But regardless, you'll never look anything but beautiful to me, Rosebud."
"I look awful" she objected, running a hand through her knotted hair. "I feel awful."
Sirius placed his hand on her forehead, as if feeling for a fever, and pressed a kiss to her temple. "It's really shit right now, sweetheart, but you'll get through it."
"I don't want to have to get through it, Siri" Rose cried, frustrated at the continued prickling behind her eyes. "I don't want it to have to be like this at all!"
"Oh love" Sirius hushed, pulling her into his arms. "I know. I know." Rose had stopped herself from crying all day, not wanting to force her mum or sister to have to be the strong one for her. After all, she'd survived the cruciatus curse. But here, now, safe in Sirius' arms, she knew that she wouldn't be judged for not being as strong as she had pretended. All it took was one ragged breath in, and she was sobbing into his collar. Sirius wrapped one arm protectively around her waist, his free hand carding soothingly through her hair. He didn't say anything more, but nothing else needed to be said. Sirius was there for her, as he always intended to be - she needed no more than that.
Tomorrow her horrid relations would be coming, and Petunia would undoubtedly be sourer than ever, but that didn't matter right then. The only thing that mattered was being held safely in Sirius' arms, knowing that Lily was upstairs marshalling the others to sort their rooms out properly, and that they could take whatever tomorrow threw at them together. What she wasn't aware of, was that Jim was standing in the kitchen doorway, eyes filled with a mixture of nostalgic love and pride, a sad smile on his face as he nodded approvingly at Sirius. Sirius nodded back, something solemn passing between them as Rose cried, oblivious to the pain waiting for them all down the line.
Thank you for reading!
Stay safe and well.
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