A/N: Thank you as always goes to my Beta and to my readers I hope you enjoy this. Just as a side note the Italic sections are either dreams or thoughts. They should be easy to decipher between which is which lol. Enjoy and I'll chat with you at the bottom!
Chapter 6 - The Lion is an Angel
The room was dim and cold, as if death resided inside. The lit fire place should have emanated warmth, but it did not. Rose's attention was drawn to a beautiful woman kneeling at the foot of a chair.
"My Lord, he is nothing to me, nothing. Why would I care for a half-breed?" The woman asked. Her voice wavered slightly, though the man did not seem to notice it. Rose moved closer towards the woman and in doing so realized that she was looking down onto an older version of herself.
"I would not know why, but I cannot deny that it concerns me. You are meant to be loyal to me and to me alone. You are MY wife; your disloyalty to me will be costly for him. No, I won't kill him but after I'm through with him he'll wish that he was dead." A high raspy voice echoed from the large seat. Rose watched as an alabaster hand snaked out and pushed the curls from her older self's face. Rose's older self still did not cry but she could see the pain in her eyes and knew that her older self was clearly in love with this other man, rather than the man that she kneeled for.
"Very well my Lord, I'm sure whatever you have in mind will be suffice." The older Rose said and her shoulders crumpled slightly. The man in the chair got to his feet and Rose let out a silent scream. He was terrifying. He looked like a cross between a man and a snake, with irises that were blood red and rather than round they were slits like a cat. His nose was non-existent, except for two small slits where there should have been a nose and when he smiled his teeth were pointed and sharp. His lips curled up in a vicious sneer as his hand reached out to help up his wife. When the older Rose was on her feet he pulled her into his arms and crushed his lips to hers. "Do not forget that you belong to me. You may not wear my mark but you wear my ring. You belong to me Rosemarie and only to me." He shoved her away and the older Rose fell to the floor, lying in a broken heap. Her silent tears finally falling down her cheeks.
Rose's screams filled the girl's sixth year dormitory waking up the three other girls that also had been sleeping in the room. The redhead, the girl that Rose had seen James flirting with before, was the first to get out of bed and she was the first to start trying to wake up Rose as she slept in the bed on the left to Rose. It wasn't long until Mary and Alice were crowding the small area around Rose's bed as well; all three girls trying to wake up the sleeping new girl.
Rose woke with a start and physically flinched away from the hands touching her. It wasn't until she felt the concerned thoughts filling the other girls' heads that she realized that she wasn't in any danger.
"Hey, are you okay?" Lily asked. Rose looked at her for a moment before she gave a slight nod of her head.
"Sorry for waking you, it was just a bad dream." Rose replied her voice hoarse from the screams that had escaped her in her sleep. Rose looked to the other two girls and then down at her lap. "Thank you for your concern,"
"It's alright," Lily and Alice said together and the two girls broke down in a burst of giggles. Rose took a quick glance to the clock on her bedside table and saw that it was half past five.
"Well I'm going to go back to bed," Mary said as she made her way back to bed, Lily and Alice followed her example and it wasn't too long until the other girls were asleep. It was ten to six when Rose got up and changed from her pyjamas to a clean tracksuit as she couldn't get back to sleep. It would help if she went for a run. She'd be able to clear her head and get the images of her older-self kissing that evil man out of her mind.
Rose didn't know where she was running to, she didn't really care either. Her destination was pointless as she ran from tree to tree and then she saw the lake and her legs instantly pulled her towards it. The sun was just rising in the horizon and it looked beautiful as it tinged the clouds pink and orange and as it turned the black waters to blue. It was a few moments later that she realized that she wasn't alone when another person's thoughts entered into her unprotected mind. Rose looked around her but couldn't see anyone in her direct line of sight and decided to follow the incoherent thoughts instead.
It was as Rose came around the corner of the boat house that she saw him, his feet dipped into the water watching the sunrise as she had been. His black hair fell to his shoulders and his black eyes couldn't see her as he focused on a point just past nowhere. He was beautiful in a dark and broken kind of way and Rose felt truly sorry for this guy that seemed to have been bearing the weight of James' torment for Merlin knows how long.
"You know it's not polite to stare," Severus sneered sensing someone watching him but he couldn't be bothered to deal with anyone right now not even the most unintelligible Gryffindor. He had just had a nightmare of his worse memory, but more horrid and twisted as he had witnessed Lily snogging his tormentor.
"I'm sorry," Rose replied she could hear the sincerity in her words and the boy must have too because he turned around to face her.
"Oh," Severus said being almost as inarticulate as Black. "I didn't realize it was you. Rose right?" Severus asked when he could finally form a more articulate response.
Rose smiled softly as she came and sat down next to the boy. "Yea, I'm Rose. I'm sorry that James was being an idiot last night, he had no right to do that to you." Rose said tucking her legs underneath her as she leaned back on her arms.
"It's alright; you'd think I'd be used to it after five years." Severus replied in a sigh, his eyes watching Rose as she watched him.
"Still, he had no right Severus, and as long as I am here I won't condone his behaviour. At least we get to meet under better circumstances this time." Rose replied smiling softly as her eyes turned to the sunset and her attention turned inward towards the nightmare she had only had not too long ago. Severus watched Rose as her eyes glazed over as she seemed to watch the sun. After a few minutes when she still hadn't moved, he touched her bare arm trying to capture her attention again. He was sucked into the dream that he had never had, he watched everything until it was over and when his mind had returned to him his eyes were swarming with shock over what had just happened and concern for the girl sitting next to him.
Rose met Severus's eyes and saw the look in them. She knew that he had just witnessed her dream without her intending for him to see. She sat up quickly and looked down into her lap. Severus's hand curled under her chin and lifted her head so that she could meet his eyes again.
"What was that Rose?" Severus asked. Rose met his eyes and he could see her fear in them. Was she afraid of him, or of what he had just seen?
"It was a nightmare that I had last night. Severus you can't… you can't tell anyone what you saw or what I'm about to tell you. Promise?" Rose asked softly hoping that she could trust the boy sitting next to her. Severus watched her eyes for a moment as they started to tear up with her fear still evident in them.
"I promise, but you need to tell me what happened." Severus replied his other hand coming up to push her dark hair behind her ear.
"I'm not everything that I appear to be. I… I can read people's minds, Severus. If I have contact with someone it makes the connection between my mind and their mind stronger. I can send messages or I can read their mind completely rather than just hearing the thoughts passing through their mind and if I know someone's mind well enough and their close enough I can connect to their mind without having to touch them." Rose said trying to explain to him what just happened knowing that she couldn't get out of telling him. She met his eyes again and this time Severus could see nothing in her eyes. "I hadn't intended to run into anyone this morning. I was just going for a run to clear my head and then I could feel a presence coming from here. I didn't know who it was and your thoughts weren't clear to me so I came to see who it was and then I saw you and I just wanted to apologize again for last night and talk to you. I never intended for any of this to happen, Severus." Rose said her eyes closing again as a tear rolled down her cheek. Severus felt a jolt of energy pass through him as she said his name; he loved how it rolled off of her tongue.
"I've got to go, I'll see you later?" Rose asked standing to her feet when Severus's hand had fallen away from her face. He stood up with her and his eyes never left her face as he gave her a quick nod. Rose gave a small smile before she walked away refusing to look back at him. She hadn't intended for Severus to find out this early. She knew that the truth would inevitably get out, how she was a freak, how she could
"control" someone's mind – though, truthfully, that was the one thing that she couldn't do – but she hadn't intended for anyone to find out this soon. Hell, it was her first day here. She had expected the rumours to have at least started up after Christmas not on her bloody first day, but Rose couldn't bring herself to be concerned. She felt as if she could trust Severus with her secret.
Rose walked in to a full common room, with the Marauders, Lily, Mary and Alice using up the chairs in front of the dead fire place. Lily was, again, the first to notice her and she squealed as she came rushing over and hugging Rose. Rose almost tumbled over with the red head clinging on to her but quickly righted herself before she could fall over. She could hear James' laughter and she gave a small chuckle as well; He could always make her laugh no matter the situation.
"See I told you she was fine Lily-petal. I told you that she had just gone for a run to clear her head. I told you that she always does this and did you listen to me? Noo!" James said his laughter still evident in his voice.
"I'm fine Lily, really. You can let me go now," Rose said trying to pry the girl off of her. Lily finally let go of Rose after a moment and Rose noticed that the girl's cheeks were marred red.
"I'm going to go upstairs and clean up, meet you at breakfast?" Rose said to no-one in particular and was surprised when she received a lot of "yea, sure" 's from the group.
It didn't take long for Rose to strip off her sweaty tracksuit, use a Mundi Corpus and put on her brand new uniform. Rose had gotten a few extra white shirts and skirts and a ton of socks as well, while she had been in Diagon Alley, as she knew it would be useful.
When Rose came down dressed for her first day at Hogwarts she wasn't surprised to find that everyone had already gone down, except for Remus who had his back towards the girls' dorm.
"This is a pleasant surprise Remus," Rose murmured when she was standing beside the boy. Remus looked up at Rose and he gave her a lopsided smile. Rose thought it was sweet but she made sure that her mental walls were firmly in place before she put a hand on his shoulder.
"Come on let's get breakfast before Peter eats it all," Rose teased sending Remus a flirty wink before walking over to the door. They walk down to the great hall in easy conversation, mostly Remus asking Rose more questions about her old school and about her childhood with James.
"So what's the story behind old Maraudy Fort?" Remus asked a twinkle deep in his eyes as Rose's black gloved hand rested upon the arm that he held her on.
"You still remember me saying that?" Rose teased before continuing, "I don't know where James got the name from but his dad and my dad made us a tree house down in the park. There weren't many kids on our street so a lot of the time we had the tree house and the park for ourselves. James dubbed the tree house Maraudy Fort and it's been standing for more than a decade now." Rose smiled sadly as the memory of her father building the tree house for her and showing Mr Potter how to use a hammer and explaining what its purpose was came back to her. Remus watched her as her eyes danced with sadness and he felt sorry for the girl. He wished he knew what was wrong so that he could do something to help her. Rose continued after a moment, "James got the idea of the Marauders from the name of Maraudy Fort. He used to tell me that he'd get a small group of close friends and they'd be the Marauders together and that they would plague the halls of Hogwarts with the most incredible pranks ever. He used to say that I'd date one of the Marauders and I'd be the first Marauder's wife." Rose gave a soft laugh at the still ridicules idea. "Well its half true isn't it. James got his small group of friends and you were all dubbed Marauders by one of the original founders of Maraudy's." Rose gave Remus a soft smile as they stepped off of the last staircase. They weren't far from the great hall now and Remus found himself wishing that the other half of James's plans had come true for him and Rose.
They entered into the bustling great hall and made their way over to where their friends were sitting. Rose couldn't believe her luck. If it hadn't been for her friendship with James as kids she wouldn't have any friends now, well - except for Severus that is.
Rose sat down in between Sirius and Remus across from Peter, Lily and James. She fell into an easy conversation with the group as they ate pancakes, sausages, bacon and toast. They also had pumpkin juice to wash it all down. She watched James constantly flirting with Lily and she knew that he had not only fallen in love but that he had found the "one".
Professor McGonagall walked down the right hand side of her houses table handing out timetables. Rose looked up to her head of house when she stopped at her side. "Good Morning Professor," Rose said after she had dabbed away the residue of the juice from her lips.
"Good Morning, Miss Ashmore. Here is your time table," Professor McGonagall replied as she handed the girl her timetable. She handed the rest of the group their timetables and Rose looked down at hers. She supposedly had Defence against the Dark Arts first thing this morning with the Slytherin's.
"Oh God, DADA first thing this morning with the bloody Slytherin's!" Sirius groaned and the three other Marauders' groaned along with him.
"Is that bad?" Rose asked her confusion clear to the rest of the group.
"Yea. Truth is, that group spits out more dark wizards than the other three houses. It all started with Salazar Slytherin the founder of their house." Lily said her green eyes gleaming with hurt.
"Yea the worst is Snape or as we like to call him, Snivellus," Peter piped in his mouth still filled with food.
"Wasn't that that guy from last night?" Rose said trying to feign innocence. Remus gave her a questioning look.
"Yea that was the one James was going to teach a lesson to last night." Peter said again after swallowing his food this time. Remus continued to look at Rose trying to figure out the girl sitting next to him, why did it matter so much that the other's had been picking on Snape? Yea, admittedly it wasn't right for James to bully him so much but why did it matter to her so much?
"I'm going to go to class. Catch up with you guys later?" Rose asked getting up from where she was sitting. She grabbed her satchel bag and her new timetable and exited from the great hall as quickly as she possibly could. When she had rounded a corner Rose closed her eyes and tried to get her emotions under control. She couldn't afford to get angry. It wouldn't do well if any of them found out her other "freak" ability. She had gotten angry a lot at W.I.C.C.A whenever she thought of her mother or a guy was trying to make a move on her and a lot of those times – if not all – she had lost control and bad things happened when she lost control.
Severus couldn't help but watch the new girl who had filled his every conscious thought since the night before when she had rescued him. She was beautiful on the outside and her strange ability only added to her character, the one he was still uncovering. He couldn't help but notice her early flight and the angry red marks that surrounded her eyes. Severus got up to follow her and he could feel his feet slapping against the ground as he made his own early exit from the great hall.
Rose was struggling to get her emotions under control but she couldn't stop thinking about what James had been about to do last night nor about the snide, cruel remarks that the Marauders made about Slytherin's, and Severus in particular. She couldn't understand how they could be so cruel toward other human beings. Rose could still feel the anger burning through her veins when a hand touched her shoulder and turned her around. Rose closed her eyes instantly revelling in the familiar presence.
"Rose, are you okay?" The soft baritone of Severus' voice asked, concern fluttering inside of him.
"I'm fine Severus. It was just something that those idiots said. I don't understand how they can be so cruel." Rose said her eyes still closed, she could feel her pulse slowing down and her anger vanishing as Severus's concern flooded over her. Rose finally opened her eyes after a moment and was surprised at how close Severus was standing next to her.
"Why are you being so nice to me? After what you found out this morning I thought you would avoid me." Rose whispered, she could feel her eyes watering as she searched Severus's eyes. For what, she didn't know.
"Last night, after you were sorted and went to Potter's side, I thought I'd never be close to you - never get to know you - and then you go and save me and I couldn't get you out of my head. I hardly know you Rose, but I wouldn't abandon you. Not when you clearly need a friend as much as I do." Severus replied and Rose could feel her tears flowing down her cheeks. After a few moments Rose's tears stopped falling.
"So what class do you have now?" Rose asked trying to break the tension. Severus gave a slight chuckle before telling her the answer that she already knew. His smile seemed strained as if it was uncommon for him to be smiling and with James constantly bullying him it was. Rose couldn't help but smile back at him.
"So will you walk me to class then Sev?" Rose asked, her smile causing the smile on Severus's face to reach his eyes.
"Of course Rose," Severus replied. He didn't offer her an arm or a hand, but it didn't matter. They made their way up to the classroom in silence and they separated when Rose saw her group of friends waiting for her outside of the classroom.
"Why were you with Snape?" Remus asked when Rose had reached his side. He knew the rest of the group was listening but he was watching her eyes, watching for any signs of her dishonesty.
"Because she's his new saviour; she's filled Lily's post since last night," Sirius spat out, showing his dislike of the girl's behaviour with the slimy git.
"Wait what happened last night?" Remus asked, he saw Sirius opened his mouth but Rose cut in.
"James decided that he was going to bully Severus," Rose said feeling the strain in her own voice. Silence fell over the group as they waited for their new teacher. Rose could already feel the strain of the first day and the strain of her heroics the night before. She could feel someone's eyes on her and she looked up to find that it was Severus. His eyes said it all – so much so that Rose didn't need her telepathic powers to know what he was trying to say – What's their problem? Rose didn't know what her new friends' problem with Severus was. All she knew was that it was going to be a long day.
A/N: Okay so the title is lyrics from a song, if you can guess the song (and of course you need to leave a review with your guess) you will get an extra little bit to the preview, if you review you get a preview so win win for everyone even if you don't guess the song or who it's by. The song is on the playlist for this novel and by the end of the novel you should have every song on the playlist! Can't wait to hear your thoughts on this and I will have the next chapter to you soon!