Using the prompt 'don't wait up for me'

Chapter Twenty-Two

At three o'clock the following afternoon, there was a knock at the door. Rose, who had been taking advantage of the food she had bought, felt her heart begin to beat a little faster. Who could that be? Maddy, perhaps?

Or maybe it was the Auror who was currently standing – hidden – out the front. Or maybe it was Harry, come to finally convince her to go home.

Whoever it was, Rose didn't move. She wasn't going to let them in.

"Rose!"

Rose's heart beat increased even more.

"Rose! It's me."

Setting her previous thoughts aside, Rose got up from her chair and made for the front door. "What are you doing here?" she demanded, half angry, half happy to see her brother standing before her.

"I came to see you." Hugo's tone was blank, emotionless. She couldn't work out if he was angry with her for leaving or relieved that she was okay. Hugo never gave away too much emotion. The only time she had seen it had been when they were here last time and he had discovered their parents' birthday present for him.

"How did you get here?" She didn't want to do it (and if it had been anyone else, she wouldn't have) but she let her brother in. It was Hugo, after all. She had promised to stand by him no matter what.

Hugo shrugged, edging his way further into the house. Just his standing there brought back many memories Rose didn't want. She remembered her dad standing there, waiting impatiently for them to drag their trunks downstairs so he could take them to the station on time. Her brother looked very much like him in that moment, and she didn't want that.

"I caught the bus," he said plainly.

"A bus? As in the Knight Bus? Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny were okay with this?" Rose closed the door. The Auror would have seen Hugo by now.

Hugo looked away. "Well, I didn't really tell them I was leaving. And, no, not the Knight Bus. Just a normal, Muggle bus."

Rose wasn't sure why she was so angry at those words. Many things made her angry lately. It didn't always make sense to her. "Go back, Hugo."

"No. We're in this together, remember? I'm not leaving unless you do."

"I can't believe you caught a bus for five hours by yourself," she snapped. What if something had happened to him? She couldn't deal with losing her parents and her brother. That would just be too much for her.

"Well, you did," Hugo argued.

"That was different. That was the Knight Bus."

"You still left me... but I'm not here to argue with you, Rosie. Everyone's really worried about you. I came to get you to come home."

Rose's temper rose even further. "I am home!" she snapped. "Or have you forgotten that four months ago, you lived here, too?"

"Well, back to Grimmauld Place then," Hugo countered. "Where I am."

"No one said you had to live there," Rose said, turning away from her brother's pleading face. She walked back into the kitchen, knowing full well that he was following her. Hugo eyed all the food with suspicion.

"You're planning on staying for a while, then?" he questioned.

Rose nodded. "At least here, I don't have anyone looking over my shoulder all the time, waiting for me to do something stupid."

"Like getting on the Knight Bus and coming to the place Mum and Dad were killed?"

Rose had no reply for that, and she returned to what she had been doing before her brother had arrived.

"Mum and Dad would hate this, Rose," Hugo continued, despite everything. "They'd want us to stay together."

"Well, you can stay here," Rose said viciously.

"You just told me to go home."

"Because Mum and Dad wouldn't want you catching a bus from London to Huddersfield by yourself."

"I'm not leaving until you come back with me," Hugo argued stubbornly. "That's final."

"Well, you'll be here for some time."

A silence filled the room after that. Neither Rose, nor Hugo, spoke to one another for a very long time. Rose ate her lunch silently, while Hugo watched her. Why did he have to be so mature? Why couldn't he act like a normal thirteen year old boy who just wanted his sister back? Everyone said Rose was the smart one in the family, but sometimes she thought no one – including himself – gave her brother enough credit. He may not have done as well in his classes as Rose, but he was smarter than most when it came to other things.

"Why do you always have to do this?" Hugo asked after a while.

"Do what?" Rose replied, though she knew full well what he was talking about. Why did she always have to overreact to everything?

"Run away, throw a tantrum, get angry with everyone?"

"I'm not angry with you," Rose said. "I'm angry at the person who killed them. And I'm angry with them for letting it happen. After everything they survived when they were... eighteen, some stupid woman breaks into our house and kills them. It's stupid. It's as if they wanted to leave us. They could have fought, but they didn't."

It wasn't until Rose spoke the words that she realised how stupid it sounded. All the anger she had been keeping inside her for a week now came out in a long, irritated sentence that didn't even make sense. Harry said there was proof they had tried to fight. They just weren't good enough.

"Well... they found her."

The words hung in the air as Rose processed what Hugo had just said. They found her? The woman who killed them?

"W-when?" she asked.

"Two days ago."

And then Rose's anger returned. Two days and no one had told her. Her parents' murderer was finally in Ministry custody and no one had even bothered to come to get her until now. Had they all really just forgotten about her?

"So, it's all over then, I suppose," she said, leaning against her chair. Relief mixed with fury. She was caught. She'd be punished. Her parents would be avenged.

Hugo looked up at her with a pained expression. "No," he said.

"What?"

"They let her go."

"What?"

Rose was on her feet, her Weasley-temper getting the better of her. "They let her go?" What sick joke were the Ministry playing on them? They catch her, but then they let her go again. How many other people were going to die before they could send her to Azkaban?

"Well, they had no proof yet. Everyone knows she did it, but they need to prove it."

"How are they supposed to do that?"

Hugo shrugged. "At least she's being watched now."

"Until she Apparates somewhere."

"They've got a trace on her. She can't get away. But that's another reason you need to come home, Rose. She knows this place. She's probably going to come here and... you just need to come back." Hugo's voice was pleading. He was scared. "I met her," he then continued, answering her unasked question. "Uncle Harry took me to see her. She's cruel and horrible and she hates all of us. And now she knows what I look like, too. Aunt Ginny was furious with Uncle Harry when I told her what happened. But the point is, while she's out, she can get to us."

"Just like she did to Mum and Dad."

Hugo nodded. "They're worried, Rose."

"So, how come they never came to get me, then?"

"Because you wouldn't let Uncle Harry in when he tried. We all know you and we knew you wouldn't listen to us, but I thought if you knew they had caught her –"

"– and let her go –"

" – it might convince you to come back. You're my sister and I love you and it sucks without you."

Rose was silent as she studied her brother. Was that begging she heard in his voice? Did he really want her home? He seemed to be the only one.

"I'll think about it," she said eventually.

"And I'll stay until you make a decision. We're in this together."

Rose didn't bother arguing. After all, Hugo was as stubborn as she was sometimes. They got that from their parents. "Well, you know where your room is. Make yourself comfortable. You may be here for a few days."

But as the night wore on and Rose spent more and more time with her brother, she got to thinking. Hugo had met this woman. He had seen what she looked like, heard what she sounded like and he seemed okay. What would happen if Rose met her, too? Would she be as calm as her brother was?

No.

"I also spoke to Dad."

"What?"

Hugo joined her in the living room just as the clock rolled over to ten o'clock. He was dressed in pyjamas and looked like he had gotten specifically out of bed to tell her that.

"I spoke to Dad," Hugo repeated. "Well, his portrait."

"Oh." And to think she had actually gotten her hopes up. "And what did he say?"

Hugo shrugged, seeming unfazed by this. "That he loved us."

Rose sunk back into the couch, also shrugging. "It was just his portrait," she said. "What does it know?"

"It still felt like talking to him, though. And Mum has one too. I never saw that one, though. You know, if you want to talk to them... it feels good."

Rose looked away, pretending she didn't care about that. She stood up. "Well, goodnight, Hu," she said. "See you in the morning." Without another word, she made her way up the stairs, leaving Hugo where he was. She'd missed out on so much in her week away. Hugo had seen so much.

It didn't seem fair.

Her night was restless. She didn't sleep well at all. She dreamed of her parents' murderer. She dreamed of her parents. She wasn't sure how much sleep she got that night, but she knew it wasn't much.

The next morning, she was woken by Hugo knocking on her door. "Have you come to a decision?" he asked, sticking his head around the corner. Rose could guess she looked a sight, still in bed, with covers pulled up to her chin and her hair flying in all directions.

Rose sighed, giving a short nod. She had thought about it all night – she had lost sleep over it. She had to go back. "I have no choice," she said.

"You do," Hugo answered.

"No. I want you to be safe, Hugo, and you said you won't go back until I do. So I guess I have no choice." She had done little in her life to make her parents proud, she realised. The least she could do for them now was to do the right thing by her little brother. It would make them happy, wherever they were.

"There's a bus from the main part of town in two hours," Hugo said to her. "We can try and get that one. Or, otherwise, one leaves tonight."

Rose got slowly out of bed, yawning in the process. "We'll be ready by then," she promised. "There's no point worrying Uncle Harry even further. We'll have to tell the Auror guarding us he's no longer needed, too."

Hugo's face lit up at her words. "Thanks," he said.

Rose shrugged. What else could she do? Their safety was at risk. Hugo's safety. She wasn't going to let anything happen to him, even if she didn't care what happened to herself.

This probably isn't my favourite chapter I've ever written for this, but nevertheless important. I hope you liked it, too, and your reviews would be greatly appreciated! Thanks to Joey for beta-ing (and even without me bugging her this time :))