So… here's the lowkey Roseney Hogwarts AU I've been sitting on for four years lol. Started rereading VA/Bloodlines recently and the roseney hit me like a train. Figured I'd try and finish a few files I still have. This is more groundwork, but they def get together later in this timeline (idk if there will be any more, though. This one was mostly finished and I forget where a lot of these were going)
5th Year
"So, let me get this straight," Rose smirked, "you've never been felt up?" When she said it like that-sprawled on the seat, hair tossed over her shoulder-she made it sound so casual. So easy. Shades of foliage shot past in the window, casting her in a green light.
"It's all or nothing with us Gryffindor girls." Sydney shrugged.
Wasn't that the truth. Rose was in a stable state of flirtation with multiple bachelors, while Sydney remained a lone maiden. Lissa had, just a few minutes before, admitted to having had sex with her ambiguous Hufflepuff boyfriend, Aaron. Meanwhile, fourth year Jill could hardly speak to her friends without becoming painfully shy, let alone a boy.
They made a very ragtag group of opposites.
"What about Ian?" Rose asked. "He practically grovels every time you walk past."
"Ian..." Sydney paused. "Ian doesn't interest me. Besides, he still hasn't gotten over the fact that I'm not Ravenclaw." It was only just something she herself had moved past. She didn't need a relationship with someone who would only try and undermine her newfound confidence.
"What about the other one?" Lissa asked. "Broody."
"Brandon," Rose corrected.
"Brayden. His name is Brayden." Sydney said. The train jolted. "We broke up, remember?"
"But you never did anything?" Rose clarified. "I know, I know, you would have told us immediately if you had…"
Sydney shrugged and admitted reluctantly. "We kissed."
"It was disappointing, though." Lissa supplied what Sydney was hesitant to say. "It was less than what you thought it would be."
No one said it, but they all knew she was talking about Aaron. Instead, Rose leaned her head back against the window and sighed. "You two are so, very sad."
"I don't think the problem was with them, if you know what I mean." Jill finally spoke.
Sydney smiled and Rose gave a laugh. "True," she said. "Aaron is as plain as parchment, and you can almost smell the boring coming off of Brandon."
"Brayden." Sydney tiredly corrected.
"Aaron's not that bad." Lissa said at the same time.
"Really, though, we're getting off track." Rose turned her attention back to Sydney. "So, you two kissed, but... nothing else?"
"Nada." Sydney confirmed.
"We are heading into our fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and I feel it might just be the most eventful one yet." Rose made sure the train car door was closed, then leaned forward, grinning wickedly. "What kind of friend would I be if I let you go in unprepared?"
Sydney blinked. "I... don't understand."
"This year I will make it my personal mission to help you find a boy that isn't a drab, dull, shell of a Ravenclaw." Rose promised. "Which means it is also my duty to prepare you, for when it comes time for you to get it on with your new candy."
"Candy?" Lissa choked-half on spit, half on her own laughter.
"Prepare me..." Sydney raised an eyebrow. "Do I want to know?"
"You will." Rose's eyes sparkled. "When I'm done with you, you will be great, Sydney Sage."
-0-
Sydney hadn't been sure when the road to greatness was supposed to start, as the topic had quickly changed after Rose's ominous vow, but she hadn't thought it would be so soon.
"Didn't you hear?" Rose asked as Christian gave Sydney a 'what the hell?' kind of look. "Sydney's in the game again."
"Game...?"
"Rose is going to make me a seductress." Sydney explained wearily.
"A what?" Christian fumbled with his fork.
Around them, the great hall bustled, the newly sorted first years having been accepted enthusiastically by the various tables. Christian usually tuned out of the sorting ceremony, as did Sydney, as their own sortings had been…less than ideal. Gryffindor had silently shunned Christian and Sydney had been too lost in her own confusion and despair to remember much. They'd both defied expectations that day—for the better, Sydney saw now, although with Rose looking at her with that glint in her eyes it was hard to keep reminding herself of that.
"Se-duct-ress." Rose elongated the word.
"Are you trying not to laugh?" Sydney accused after a moment of silence.
Christian's mouth was pursed, his shoulders shaking, and his eyes were closed. When he finally got himself under control, he said, "Well, I didn't see that one coming, but all the luck to you."
Sydney felt a bit insulted. "Why would I need luck?"
"Yes, I get the feeling she has quite a reserve of natural talent." A familiar face lowered itself into the conversation, hovering over Sydney's shoulder.
"Adrian," Rose sounded amused. "Shouldn't you be over at your own table?"
"Ah, but the view from over here is so much more enjoyable." Adrian explained. "Sage is planning to channel her inner temptress, is she? Sounds interesting."
"Well, it was Rose's plan, so you can make fun of her if you feel the urge." Sydney said. She wasn't quite sure if his remark had been sarcasm, but the part of her that hounded about her self-image stung nonetheless.
"I wasn't going to make fun of anyone. I think it's a brilliant idea." Adrian looked around surreptitiously-which didn't really work on him-and swung a leg over the bench, now perpendicular to Sydney.
"You would." Rose rolled her eyes.
"Very intelligent, good sense of humor, and a great figure while remaining cute as a button. I'm rather disappointed I didn't think of it myself." Adrian began eating grapes off of Sydney's plate. She tried not to flush at his assessment. "Never fear, Sage, I will take you under my wing. Together, Rose and I-"
"This was my idea," Rose interrupted. "You can't just butt in like this!"
"We should partner up," Adrian was saying. "We can share."
Sydney sighed, trying unsuccessfully to clamp down on the redness she just knew was making a new home in her face. She focused her attention outward, doing her best to ignore her friends in their mission to embarrass her.
The Professors sat up at their table, engaging in conversations that went unheard by the students. A rowdy patch of Gryffindors were playing with their food, led by Mason. A group of ghosts that had noticed the Hufflepuff at the wrong table muttered amongst themselves, wondering if that was even allowed. Lissa and Christian mostly stared at each other, chiming in when they remembered they were still part of a group.
Sydney's eyes caught on her younger sister, Zoe. She was the only one of the Sage girls to have made it into Slytherin, something their father never forgot. Consequently, none of his daughters forgot it, either. Sydney had felt the growing distance between them keenly these past years. What was worse than feeling it was knowing there was little she could do to bridge it. No matter how she reached out, more and more often, it was their father Sydney heard when Zoe spoke.
She didn't need to find a boyfriend, she needed to win over her little sister.
"I am a man," Adrian brought Sydney back to the conversation. His voice made it sound as if he were giving some great, political speech. "I am a man and I know manly things. I could provide the kind of insider information Sydney needs to be the best singing siren she can be."
"Singing siren?" Rose made a face. "If you're going to use words like that you might as well walk away now."
"You guys," Sydney interrupted. "I think, before debating who would teach me, we should evaluate whether or not there is anyone at Hogwarts worth seducing."
"Sure there is," Adrian motioned at himself.
Sydney rose an eyebrow, "You...?"
"Well, I'm taken, so you wouldn't be seducing me." Adrian clarified. "I was just mentioning that I am well worth the effort spent."
"You're taken? As in dating someone?" Christian made a face. "It's not Avery again, is it?"
"No, no, it is Ms. Hathaway who has stolen my heart." Adrian shot a grin at Rose, who rolled her eyes. "How about Castile?"
"Eddie?" Sydney shook her head, dismissing the thought. "He's like a brother."
"Trey Juarez," Rose suggested. "He's cute, and you get along well enough."
"Also brotherly, also no."
Up came more suggestions from around the table, and Sydney shot them all down just as fast.
"Syd, I'm pretty sure you've rejected half of Hogwarts by now." Christian said.
"Now, now, it's important she be picky. We wouldn't want her regretting her choice halfway through the process. Besides," Adrian eyed her with a small smile, "maybe we're focusing on the wrong half. What about Julia?"
"What?" Rose perked up and Sydney's eyebrows shot up in tandum. "No."
Rose sighed a half hour later, as they were dismissed to their dorms. "You, Miss Sage, are incredibly hard to shop for."
-0-
Eddie made his home next to Sydney, and immediately turned to face her. The library was silent, and in her little nook, at her homely table, she'd almost found peace. Almost.
"Just say it," Sydney sighed, interrupting his study of her.
"Rose told me-"
"Never mind. Don't say it. I am so tired of everyone saying it." Sydney snapped, and was surprised at the outburst afterwards. A second later came the realization that what she had said was completely true.
"I'm so sick of everyone giving me advice, and criticizing me, and the little smirks I get. It's been three days and I'm already wishing for winter break." Sydney smacked the table, taking her frustration out on the wood. "I could do it if I wanted to, but I don't want to. It was Rose's idea and, yes, I'd like to have a relationship, but I have absolutely zero interest in...just..."
"Is that how you really feel?" The question was asked, but Eddie's lips hadn't moved.
"What?"
"Behind you," Eddie nodded, and Sydney turned, seeing a stunned Adrian at the end of the table.
"Yes." Sydney said. "That's how I feel."
Adrian came forward, sitting across from Eddie and her. "Why didn't you just say so?"
Sydney shrugged, and a familiar heat swept up into her cheeks. "You would all make fun of me, and I don't like giving up." Sydney sighed angrily, and spoke again before Adrian could reply. "Except it's not giving up. Getting a boy to like me wasn't my goal, it was everybody else's. And everyone thinks it's so fun to help the girl who's so clueless, who couldn't do it herself."
"I don't think that." Adrian said finally, unable to meet her eyes. "It... I can see..."
"Yeah," Sydney was still angry, the ranting hadn't helped anything. "Do you have any idea how embarrassing this whole thing is? The girls went through my wardrobe the other night, and teased me about that, too. They said they couldn't tell the difference between my clothes and the uniform. I know they didn't mean it to be mean but... It's coming from all directions now, and how come it is that everything I do is wrong? Am I that undesirable that I have to change everything about me to be interesting?"
"No," Adrian finally lifted his gaze, looking appalled. "Sage, that's not, that wasn't, no! Tell her, Castile!"
Eddie hesitated, looking lost, then shrugged. "I like you the way you are. You're cute and funny, you're the mama bear of the tower. That's just what you do, and...that's Sydney."
Sydney was finally calming down, and after a few deep breaths, she nodded. "It's ok." She faltered, then admitted, "Some of the things people said...they sounded so much like my father. The past three days have felt like home."
Something dawned on Adrian's face, and he took Sydney's hand in his own. "I know exactly what you mean, Sage. I'm sorry."
Sydney studied him and thought, yes, he does know what I mean. She wondered what kind of things he heard in that disapproving tone. Surely, something about his behavior. Adrian had a tendency to act out, and he rarely regretted it afterward. Maybe his father chided him about his future. It was no secret that Adrian had no idea what he wanted to do with his life. There was really no area he excelled at (at least, not one that could be considered a career).
The painful scraping of a chair jerked Sydney out of her thoughts, and Eddie began to back away. "I thought I'd give you two a moment alone."
Sydney realized that she'd probably been staring at Adrian for several minutes now, and that he'd been staring back. Both of them lost in thought. Next, she realized they were still holding hands over the table.
"Oh, no, I interrupted you." Adrian let go and stood. "Please, continue with whatever you were doing." He gave one last salute, and left the library.
Eddie shifted and smiled sheepishly. "I don't suppose now is the time to mention this, but I wasn't going to say anything about...whatever that was. I was just going to tell you that Zoe was looking for you."
"Really," Sydney perked up. "Do you know where she is?"
"Last I heard, she was holed up in the Slytherin dorm."
-0-
Sydney worked ceaselessly, exertion reddening her face as thoroughly as the embarrassment.
"I can't believe I did that." She muttered, berating herself. "I can't believe that just happened."
"I can't believe it either." Marcus sidled up to her on all fours. "Sydney Sage, you mutinous thing, you."
Sydney rolled her eyes. "Don't even start."
"Picking a fight with Slytherin's head girl?" Marcus clucked his tongue. "The audacity. The horror. I feel like I never really knew-"
"She started it," Sydney grumbled, turning away from him.
Making her way over to the bucket, she wrung out her wash rag and collected more suds, nodding at the one other student over the bucket. "I'm Sydney," she introduced herself.
"I'm Duncan," the other boy said shyly before returning to his task.
"But a fire spell? I didn't know they taught 5th years things like that these days," Marcus remarked, continuing the conversation Sydney had tried to leave behind. " Back when I was a 5th year-"
"Be quiet." Duncan furiously hissed. He, himself, was working as quickly and quietly as humanly possible. "You'll draw attention to yourself."
"This is detention, not prison," Sydney reminded him.
"Is there really a difference?" Marcus wondered. "This is Sheridan's territory, after all."
Sheridan shushed them, and that answered that.
In a low voice, Marcus dared to comment, "For a Professor of The History and Morals of Magical Creatures, she-"
Sheridan stood from her desk, the scraping of her chair interrupting his point. "Mr. Finch, if I have to silence you one more time, you will regret it." Her tone left no room for argument, and her stare left no room for rebellion. She reminded Sydney of her father, and that made Sydney squirm until Sheridan finally looked away.
They didn't talk after that, but it was only a matter of time before Sydney approached Duncan, who was scrubbing away in a corner.
"What did you do to land yourself here?" Sydney wondered under her breath, keeping one eye on her task and the other on the professor.
"Don't talk," Duncan warned her.
"It's just that-"
"You've never had Sherridan," Duncan interrupted her, "so you don't know what it's like. But I am warning you now: you are already on her bad side just by being here. Don't make it worse for both of us. Serve your time and serve it modestly."
Sydney wanted to say more, but Duncan made it clear there would be no further contact. She gave up, and she and did nothing as Marcus made his way slowly back to her.
"I'd heard bad things, but I didn't think she inspired so much fear," Sydney's words were barely even a whisper.
"She's...special." Marcus informed her. "Her incredibly biased lessons often morph into fanatic ramblings about the evils of death eaters. I took her class as a fourth year. It was hell."
Sydney raised an eyebrow. "How does she still have a job?"
Marcus shrugged, "No idea."
"Do you know how long she's going to keep us here?" Sydney wondered.
"Until we're repentant." Marcus shrugged. "It depends on her mood. Honestly, we're pretty lucky she's not lecturing us while we work. She might still give us homework, though, so make sure to look extra submissive."
Sydney did just that, keeping her head down and cleaning until her arms burned. Duncan made no attempts at conversation, and eventually Marcus stopped quipping. It allowed too much time for introspection, which was of course the point of detention. She kept replaying the scene in her head.
She'd gone down to the Slytherin dorm hallway, standing outside and asking for her sister. Zoe had looked so distraught, so troubled. Sydney had pressed and pried, but no matter how much pressure she applied, Zoe wouldn't tell her what was wrong.
That was when Alicia, Slytherin's Head Girl, had strode onto the scene. Blonde hair swishing, plastic jewelry tapping, a slight smile which gave her a devilish cast. The smile had faded upon seeing Sydney.
"Why is she here?" Alicia demanded, and Zoe had been unable to stammer a coherent answer.
Sydney had told Alicia to back off, Alicia had told Sydney to sod off, and things had gone downhill from there. When Sydney had grabbed Zoe's arm, to pull her away to somewhere more peaceful, Alicia had grabbed the other arm and said, "We have unfinished business."
"Don't touch my sister."
It hadn't been long before the words turned to physical pushes, and then into charms. A ring of students surrounded the fight, cheering them on, and their shouts had drawn a professor from his office.
And now Sydney was on her hands and knees, having been pegged as the aggressor in the fight.
"We all think you won," came a voice from nearby. Sydney jumped and realized that, while she'd been lost in thought, Rose-Rose-had snuck up next to her. She was scrubbing the floor, same as her, and looking very intent about it, too. "Of course, that might not matter to you."
"What are you doing here!" Sydney demanded, her voice not rising above a whisper.
"I'm going to break you out," Rose said, flashing a brilliant smile.
"What!?"
Rose sidled closer, "In a couple of minutes, we're going to cause a distraction. Sheridan will go running, and so will we-in the opposite direction."
"That's a terrible plan," Marcus, who'd overheard, told them. "It's the oldest one in the book. She'll see right through it."
"Especially," Duncan added furiously, with an anxious glance at the front of the room, "because we're talking about it right under her nose."
"Literally," Rose agreed. "But don't worry, we've thought this through. You can come with us," she extended an invitation to Marcus and Duncan.
"I'd like to keep my head on my shoulders, thanks." Duncan declined.
"What sort of distraction?" Marcus asked.
"You'll see," She replied, smirking.
They waited. It began to rain.
Sydney stretched out her shoulder muscles, flexing them and working out the stiffness. "Where's that distraction?" she wondered.
Rose, who had, in fact, been cleaning the entire time, looked troubled. "I dunno, Adrian said he'd take care of it."
"Brilliant." Duncan breathed. "He's a real thinker, that one."
"Hey," Rose protested. "I'll have you know he's escaped detention dozens of times."
"Who are you?" Sheridan had finally taken notice of Rose, and she looked rightly furious. "Should you be here?"
Rose began to answer, but paused. Realization flooded her face, the expression she shot Sydney was positively martyred. "I am the distraction."
"What was that?" Sheridan demanded.
"Run!" Rose yelled.
"We literally live here—"
"Don't look back!"
-0-
"Boarding school," Sydney repeated herself that night, and Rose looked down at her from the top bunk of the bed next to hers. Lissa, tucked in on the bottom, looked tired.
"Well, none of you ran," Rose huffed.
"We all live here. Where were we supposed to run?"
"At least Marcus put some effort into it." Rose said, "But you and Duncan? You looked like someone had cast a confusion spell."
"I wasn't going to leave you."
"I suppose that was nice of you," Rose said after a moment. "But seriously, next time I tell you to run, run."
"And what happened to Adrian."
"Our distraction got distracted," Rose rolled her eyes.
Sydney snorted quietly into the darkness. "Well, you said at the beginning of the year you were going to make it an exciting one."
"Still haven't gotten you a beau."
"Friends like you? I don't need one." Sydney said.
-0-
"Aurors," Rose said one day near the end of term as they lay, just the two of them, on the hill by the lake.
"Hm?" Sydney didn't open her eyes.
"I've been thinking about things. Planning for the future." Rose said, "And… I asked Christian and he said you guys had talked about being Auror partners, and I didn't even know you wanted to be one. I just assumed you were going to get a desk job like Lissa wants, or activism, or something."
"It's not a set thing…" Sydney shrugged.
"But it kind of is. I mean, I can see it, now. Especially after that fight with Alicia—you were kickass. You're going to be an amazing Auror, Syd."
The sun warmed Sydney's face, bringing a blush to her cheeks. "Thanks."
"Turns out you didn't need me to push you into something exciting. You do that all yourself." Rose said. "A bit quieter than I'd like, but still."
Sydney smiled. Then, something occurred to her. "Why were you talking to Christian?"
"Oh. I thought we could be partners. But, now that I know you two are already planning—"
"We could be a group of three." Sydney cut in.
"What?"
"I've been thinking about it for a while. I'm surprised Christian didn't mention it, because he agreed. We'd make a good team. The three of us."
Sydney opened her eyes and looked over just in time to see Rose grin.
"Hell yeah we would."