September 29, 2026

She couldn't stop thinking of Canwood. And her contract. And her bracelet. . . her hand. . . her fingers. It was just a loop in her head. Around and around it went. One bad thing after another. Something that could be applied to her life, in retrospect. She always got kicked down.

But then she always got back up.

It was without a doubt one of the worst things Scorpius could have told her. She thought she was finally getting the hang of 'bounty hunting,' but she was further than she thought.

Rose was now sitting at the kitchen table back at her flat. She couldn't quite remember how she got there. She remembered walking away from Scorpius.

"What are you talking about?" Rose had blurted out.

"You're looking for Canwood, but he's not here. He's been gone for two weeks," Scorpius told her. He looked confused by her reaction. What did he expect, that she would jump for joy? That she would be ecstatic that what she had been doing the past two weeks was essentially worthless? That her next few months were entirely focused on the finding of a man that wasn't even in London!?

"How do you know that? Maybe he made everyone think he was going but then didn't actually go." She was fishing here! For anything! They both were still in the alley behind The Cricket on your Hearth. Why did it have to be Scorpius of all people who held the information she needed?

"No, he's gone. He went with three other members of Snakebitten. It was a trip that was planned months ago." Rose could have almost burst out crying right then and there. Scorpius must have realized that or just decided to add in freely, "he'll be back in about two weeks, on October 16. He's got a big meeting with the Snakebitten leader, a man called Gradford that day."

Two weeks! That was too much time when the clock was ticking down month by month, week by week, day by day, and hour by hour. It was almost October and she was practically back where she started at in the beginning of September.

It was nearing six o' clock at night. Rose was sure she hadn't moved from her position for a few hours. She had remained sitting, tense, but breathing in low deep breaths. She could almost say she was in a sort of meditation, but her body wasn't relaxed enough, and neither was her brain. She was trying so hard not to think of everything, but it was all that came up. On an even worse note, her bracelet was now tight enough that she could barely pull it over her thumb.

"Do you know where in Poland he is?"

Scorpius looked apologetic as he stood with his hands in his pockets, watching her as she tried to avoid a meltdown. Of all people to see her break down, Scorpius would not be one of them. She didn't like showing weaknesses. She could hold it in.

"No. . . from what I heard, it was just Poland. I have to stay in England so it wasn't imperative I found out the town name."

She was starting to experience shock, or something like it. She felt as if she were in a plastic bubble, the world turning hazy and unfocused. She nodded at Scorpius – or maybe she imagined that part before she started walking away.

She just needed to be alone to process and decide what to do. She could recall someone talking to her – most likely Scorpius – but she didn't reply back, too focused on the spot over the horizon as she was moving.

Now she found herself alone at her flat. She was sure she didn't walk the whole distance from the restaurant. She couldn't exactly remember it though. She was sure Scorpius had something to do with it as he was the last one she had 'seen' and his latest tendency seemed to be getting her back to her flat in one piece.

Being alone for a few hours had helped her mind calm down more. The world was more focused. She continued to push through the haziness to keep her mind sane. The voices Greg and Marta were jibber jabbering away in her head but Rose was sick of it. She was tired of having an internal monologue and wasn't listening to what they were saying. Her head was getting sore.

Without warning she suddenly stood up, breaking the continuous thought loop. After splashing her face with water to get out of her reverie, she walked to her room, turned out the lights, shut the door, and curled up on the bed. She fell into a restless sleep.

Rose dreamed. She was a butterfly, flitting back and forth in irregular patterns. She was flying over the ocean, an expanse of blue lay before her and behind her. She didn't know which direction land was; she had forgotten where she came from. Her wings were getting tired and she was going lower and lower. When she eventually touched the water she was transported to a rocky terrain. She was herself, but she had no clothes on. She tripped on the ground, the ground veering closer and closer. A pair of black eyes appeared on the rock right before she hit her head. She felt she knew those eyes from somewhere. There was a ringing in the background. She could hear angry voices speak, softly and then loudly; the voices were arguing. The voices faded a little as the ground turned green and grassy under her.

Rose started tossing and turning. She half woke up and could still hear angry voices, only they were louder than in her dream. She shut her eyes again, getting pulled back into dreamland.

She didn't get far in, only scavenging in the wild with her pet tiger when a phone ringing jolted her out of the dream again. Only a few seconds later – to her, but more realistically about half an hour later there was a knocking on the door. Her mind only fully registered it when the two people who barreled into her room jumped on her bed. She awoke with a start. She wasn't surrounded by grassy fields, fresh air, and sun any longer. She was surrounded by orange sheets, a blue pillowcase, and darkness.

"Rose! Wakey wakey!"

"Yeah, why are you sleeping? It's only like eight at night!"

Oh, she felt so groggy. She had been sleeping on her stomach and there were two heavy weights on her legs. She rubbed her eyes and tried to open them, turning her head around to see her two cousins, Lily and Roxanne, who were sitting on her bed and lightly bouncing up and down. No, correction, they were on her legs, they were the heavy weights.

"What – what are you two doing here?"

"You mean we can't come see out sleepy cousin whenever we want. I'm so hurt," said Roxanne. She was wearing her Quidditch jumper of the Falmouth Falcons and stretchy black trousers. "You have major bed head right now. Lily came to fix your hair, make it less hurricaneish."

It was funny that Roxanne would comment on hair, because with her tightly wound black curls she usually had crazier hair than Rose on most days.

"Actually," Lily said, shushing Roxanne, "I have news I came to share when everyone is together. So come to the table. Rox even brought banana bread!"

"Baked it myself this morning! It's the first time I didn't set off the fire alarm too," she said proudly.

Rose smiled at Roxanne and then half lifted her torso off the bed to stretch. "I won't be able to get up until you two get off my legs."

She propped her head up and watched as Roxanne rolled herself off the bed backwards, flipping her legs over her head and landing on her feet. Lily was wearing a light flowery blue dress so she pushed herself off normally. She commented, "if you didn't have such a small bed we could have sat elsewhere other than your legs. Your feet totally stick off the end. That's got to be annoying."

Lily and Roxanne were almost the shortest in the family, the only person smaller was Dominique. They had probably never had the problem of short beds and feet getting cold by sticking out.

Rose sat up and stretched her legs out in front of her. "I haven't noticed so far and I really don't mind. I can sleep anywhere."

"Lucky. I have to have at least five pillows and a super soft bed!" said Roxanne as she went skipping from the room. Lily followed her, flicking on the light with an evil grin as she left the room.

Rose shut her eyes again. The light was so bright.

She felt better. Well, perhaps that was a bit of an understatement. But she knew she couldn't go to Poland. It would be like looking for a bobby pin in a haystack and she would get nowhere in two weeks. She could, however, stay in London and try to find more information. Perhaps where Canwood lived, or more information about the gang and where they operated.

She smoothed out her well-worn trousers and stretched again, this time heading to the kitchen to where everyone was: Lily, Molly, Roxanne, Lucy, and now her. Dominique and Victoire were nowhere to be seen though. Everyone was chatting freely and Molly was at the stove cooking something that smelt amazingly like chocolate. Roxanne was digging through the cupboards.

Lucy nodded at Rose as she walked in. "Now we just need Dominique. Where the hell is she?"

"And Vicsters, when's she showing up?" asked Roxanne with a mouth full of crackers.

"Tory couldn't make it. It's her and Teddy's monthly date night. Apparently their sitter is busy most of the time and it's hard to find someone else that doesn't run screaming from the kids." Lily told them all. "It's just Dominique we're waiting for. She's not at work, is she? I hope she got my message."

Molly brought a wine bottle to the table and started filling up all the glasses.

"I'm sure she saw your message. I sent a note up to the roof like twenty minutes ago. Lucy can you go up and check if she can come down? I walked by the potions lab at Mungos before I left but she wasn't there, so I'm assuming she's up top."

Lucy sighed and rolled her head towards Rose. "Rose you're standing. Go check."

"Lucy you're so lazzyyy," commented Roxanne as she pulled on a particular springy piece of black hair that was dangling in front of her eyes. "At least some things will never change!"

"Please Rose!" begged Lucy. "I'm already sitting and I had to work all day. The boy in spell damages vomited over me, some idiot parent gave their child that Bogles Brilliant Bogies candy and the kid was blowing out bogies the size of watermelon. . . "

Lily scrunched her nose up. "Too much information! Ew, go Rose before she mentions some other disgusting thing that happened at work."

Rose sighed. "Alright, alright."

She went to the roof, where, to her surprise a big gust of cold wind blew in her face as soon as she poked her head out the top.

So that's another reason why Lucy didn't want to go, thought Rose.

She raced the wind to the potion shack and ducked inside.

"Dominique? Dom?" she called out. It was very warm inside. This was Rose's first time in the wooden shack and so everything was new to her. There were so many containers with different ingredients on shelves and everything looked a little disorganized, surprisingly. There was some half cut up rat tails lying on the counter, a powdered green leafy looking thing that was dumped and half spread out, and some spilt liquid dripping on the floor. She walked forwards looking around her.

"Dom?" she called again. Perhaps she wasn't here? Rose walked forwards to where she could see some white steam coming from a cauldron on the workbench. There was a spoon sticking out of it and a cup, a knife, and a few open containers of supplies around it. Rose put her hand beside the cauldron. It was warm. Dominique had to be here if she was monitoring a potion.

There was a door to the left of her and she slowly pushed open the door to the small greenhouse. She found Dominique lying on the floor.

"Uh, what are you doing. . .?" Rose asked. Dominique had dirt smudged on one of her cheeks from the floor, her lips looked like they were covered with a white powder, and her bangs were slicked to the side with sweat.

Dominique wasn't moving, but Rose could hear her breathing. Was she sleeping?

After jostling her around and pushing her shoulder. Dominique's eyes opened finally. She had no pupils.

Rose jumped back a moment in surprise, scared for a moment of the look of her eyes. "Dom what you doing!" said Rose. She felt a little worried, what was with her eyes?

After blinking for probably five minutes straight with a vacant expression on her face, the black pupils finally came back and Dominique grinned at Rose, leaving it there without saying anything. She still stared straight ahead.

"Dom! Are you okay?" There was no response, verbal or physical from Dominique.

Hesitating, because this was her cousin – but something not right was going on – Rose slapped Dominique. Not hard, but just enough that the grin was taken off of Dom's face and she groaned, closing her eyes and finally showing movement. She brought her hands to her face and started pinching her cheeks. She finally seemed to notice Rose kneeling beside her and sat up straight.

"I was sleeping. I had a weird dream. Nothing funny is going on," Dominqiue said really quickly. She sounded defensive. "What are you doing up here?"

"Roxanne and Lily are here. Lily has some big news and we're all waiting for you in the kitchen. Are you okay? That was very – "

Dominique pushed Rose away and got up and ran to her workroom before Rose could finish speaking. Rose followed slowly.

"Give warning next time," said Dominique angrily. She was pushing her cauldron inside a cupboard and locking it with her wand, closing containers, and putting away the cup and knife. "This is a PRIVATE place and it's dangerous for inexperienced people. You almost freaking failed potions at Hogwarts. You shouldn't be up here at all."

"Well Molly said she sent up a note some time ago. . . but I'm sorry. . . I – we're all waiting for you and nobody wanted to come – "

"Whatever." Dominique turned to leave and holding open the door, she locked it behind Rose. "I have to shower. Cover for me." Dominique then hesitated and added, "don't mention what just happened. I'm sorry I snapped at you. I don't like falling asleep up here. . . in the middle of brewing."

Dominique turned to Rose and looked at her steadily. Rose fidgeted under her gaze. "Yeah, okay. I won't say anything."

Why did Rose have a feeling that Dominique was hiding something from everyone?

Just like you are? said Marta. Everyone has their secrets. It's not your job to go scout them out.

She knew that. But still. She paused halfway across the roof, feeling a weird urge to go back into the lab, but then she ignored it, probably because it was locked by Dominique herself and she should respect Dom's space.

She made her way back to the flat and joined her cousins at the table. They asked why Dominique had run to the loo as soon as she entered and true to her word, Rose covered for her. When Dominique emerged from the shower a little bit later, her mood had drastically improved. In fact, when compared to how she was fifteen minutes ago, she seemed like a completely different person.

Lily stood up.

"Alright!" she said, swirling her wine glass around in her hand and beaming at everyone. "I have an announcement."

"Spill it already, you've been hinting at it for hours!" Roxanne exclaimed.

Looking around at everyone, Lily said, "I'm engaged! Julien proposed today!"

Dominique's eyes widened and there was a moment of silence as everyone stood staring. Then Roxanne and Molly squealed, Lucy muttered, "no freakin' way," and Rose clapped her hands to her face in surprise.

"Congratulations!" she and Lucy both chimed in at the same time. Similar felicitations were echoed around the room. Lily's naturally rosy cheeks tinged red at the praise everyone was saying. She held herself proudly as everyone gave her a hug.

"Well, how'd he do it!" asked Dominique.

"Yeah, spill!" chimed in Molly excitedly.

Lily grinned and sipped her wine. "It was one of the most random ways for him to have done it, but incredibly cute! We had this day marked on the calendar for the past few weeks for a get together and Julien wouldn't listen to my suggestions for anything and said he had a surprise planned. So this afternoon the surprise was tandem biking around the park and then a picnic on the grass. He packed this gorgeous meal in a basket – all home cooked. Then – well it was so cheesy but so adorable – he gave me a cupcake and in the middle was my ring." Lily held out her hand to show the ring. It was a diamond rose formed on a plain silver band. It was simple but it was lovely.

"Lucky you didn't eat the ring," commented Lucy.

"He said he was terribly worried I would swallow it. But I don't know. I almost want to say I was expecting it. . . the way he was acting and he just seemed jittery the whole picnic and made this huge deal about planning it and cooking the food. I kind of was waiting for something big."

"He would ruin the moment. Julien has never really had any huge confidence with that sort of thing."

"No, it wasn't ruined!" Lily exclaimed to Dom. "It was incredibly sweet. And it was totally him."

Molly was smiling and was gazing at Lily in rapt attention. Molly was a romantic at heart. Rose knew she was waiting for the day she got married and started a family.

Lily though, Lily was a down to earth girl and Rose knew she would be happy with Julien. Rose could only briefly remember Julien from Hogwarts. He was a boy who had been completely smitten with Lily, but was one of those guys who was too shy to ever ask her out. He did find the nerve a few months after their graduation when he inadvertently went to the hair salon where she worked and asked her then.

"God you make me feel old. I'm 25 and I haven't even thought about marriage and all that. It was the same with Tory and now she's got four flippin' kids. Everyone's getting old around me!" said Roxanne. "But you Lily, you're so young still, only 19! Are you sure you want to marry Julien? I mean you have your whole life ahead of you still."

Lily was twirling her ring around her finger as she answered Roxanne. "I know I am. I honestly love him. So much. I can't even imagine being with or seeing anyone else. He's a keeper for me. Really."

Roxanne raised her glass. "Cheers then little cousin. I look forward to little. . . oh what's his last name again?"

"It was Pellerin, wasn't it?" asked Rose. When Lily nodded, Rose was pretty impressed with herself. "I can't believe I remember that, that was quite some time ago."

"Ooh. Right," said Roxanne. "Well I look forward to little Pellerin-Potters running around in the future! Nana and Grandad will be happy, that's for sure! You're parents too."

Lily blushed. "I don't think we're going to have kids right away. I mean I still think I'm really young in that aspect, I don't want to have a family quite yet. What I gathered you all here for, and what I really wanted to really ask you all though, is if you would all be my bridesmaids?"

There was more squealing.

"Of course we will!" Molly spoke for them all.

"You better not be a bridezilla," Dominique stated plainly.

Lucy and Roxanne burst out laughing. "Lily will not be a bridezilla!" Lucy said. "Out of all of us, the one most likely will be you!"

Dominique started vehemently denying it, but Roxanne cut her off.

"It will be you! No question! Out of everyone here you will be just downright horrible Dom. Lily will be very easy going and chill about it," said Roxanne and then finished her drink. "Actually, Molly will be fairly down to earth too when she eventually gets married. And if Lucy and Rose and I get married sometime in the future, it will be even better because none of us really care about the little details and all that stuff."

Rose grinned. "I feel like you, Rox, might be a bridezilla too. Though I think you hide it very well. Definitely not as much as Dom, but still a small one for sure."

Roxanne scoffed. "Oh, no way."

"Oh really," said Lucy smartly. "I remember Fred talking about those purple zebra spotted dress robes he found in the attic that he said he was going to wear to your wedding."

"What! He's not wearing them to my wedding! Are you kidding me? If you two are so easy going then he can wear them to yours!"

Rose and Lucy both looked at each other and shrugged. "It doesn't matter. Sure," said Rose. She honestly could care less if everyone came dressed in colourful animal print. She did draw the line at nude though, she didn't want to see naked family members at all.

Lily laughed. "That backfired on you!"

"When are you planning on having the wedding?" asked Dominique.

"I don't know actually. I mean he just asked today. We're meeting with my parents and his parents tomorrow to tell them the news. I just had to tell you guys beforehand. But. . . I've always fancied a winter wedding. It's kind of unique. I just don't like the cold that much. It'll be a spring wedding otherwise. I'm going to talk it out with Julien later."

Rose froze, a cold feeling creeping up on the happiness she felt for Lily. She might not even be around for the wedding. She felt her heart give a pang. It was a horrible feeling. She didn't want to dwell on that thought and pushed everything away for the moment. This was Lily's happy moment. Not a mope fest for her.

Dominique drained the remainder of the wine in her glass and checked the bottle on the table. "We need more wine! White or Red?"

"White," said Lucy at the same time Molly said, "red."

"Well, I'll just get both and we'll have ourselves a lovely Tuesday evening."

And it was. They polished off both bottles and ate Roxanne's banana bread and the few other appetizers that Molly set out while talking about the upcoming nuptials. Lorcan was brought up because he was seeing Molly right now, and everyone wanted to know how Rose's lunch with Scorpius went. They discussed venue options, bridesmaid dress colours, caterers, and reminisced of old times. In fact, it was a very fine Tuesday evening up until the phone rang.

The sound pierced through the air and everyone slowly stopped talking to listen to the ringing. Almost everyone was more than a little tipsy except Lucy because she was never a big drinker.

Roxanne hiccupped loudly as Dominique said, "the phone's ringing? Who the heckle is calling us?"

Molly and Lucy were looking at each other with an indiscernible look. Lucy had her eyes narrowed at Molly as Molly slowly got up and answered the phone.

"Hello?"

Everyone stayed quiet, listening in.

"If this is my mum, we aren't home," whispered Lily. "Shhh everyone. . ."

But that was the end of the phone conversation for Molly didn't say anything else. She hung up the phone and sat back down at the table.

"Who was that? Wrong number?" asked Roxanne.

Molly looked nervously at Lucy.

"Oh. . . just nobody important. Where were we again?"

Nobody said anything. Lucy started tapping her fingers on the table, very quickly.

"Don't Lucy," Molly said quietly.

Lucy kept her fingers tapping; she looked around at everyone, deliberating.

"This is ridiculous."

"It's not important right now," Molly replied back with a severe look that Lucy just brushed off.

The phone then started ringing again. Lucy's fingers didn't stop moving.

"I can go –" Rose started off but was cut off by a yell of "NO!" from Molly who jumped up and unplugged the phone from the wall without answering.

Lily and Dominique were looking curiously at Molly who was still looking intently at Lucy as she sat down.

"Lucy. . . " Molly warned.

"No. You know what? This is stupid. You want to know who just called?" she asked everyone at the table. " – and who calls every damn night multiple times?"

"Oh snap," muttered Roxanne. "Twin fight!"

"Lucy don't you dare say anything! We talked about this. Just don't bring it up!" cried out Molly with a glare to Roxanne.

"Why?" she replied angrily. "Why shouldn't I? You were so forthcoming before, so I'll ask again. Why shouldn't I?"

"Just. . . because. Don't do it, it won't help anything." It was a weak argument and Molly knew it.

Lucy ignored Molly. "That's no answer." Lucy turned to Rose. "Rose. Do you want to know who keeps calling our flat and saying weird things, breathing heavily or talking in different voices over the phone?"

They were asking her? She didn't want to get involved! "Uh, I don't know? It doesn't really matter I guess. . . " Molly gave her a frantic look. Rose was never really at the flat so it hadn't annoyed her as much as Lucy was apparently annoyed now. She mostly ignored the phone now since her encounter with Daphne. The few times she did answer, it was a wrong number because no one ever said anything on the other end of the line. . . She didn't really think much of it or let it worry her.

"Well you should care." Lucy was looking intently at her. "Because it's your pshyco ex, Danny. He's an idiot if he thinks we can't tell who it is. He's using your old cell phone and there's caller ID on the telephone answering machine. He's the one who keeps 'prank calling' or whatever the freaking hell it is that he's doing."

Fuck.

Rose felt numb, literally numb. There were only so many emotions she could deal with in one day.

That bastard, said Greg. Finally we'll give him what he deserves.

It's probably a mistake, don't get irrational. Just check to make sure, advised Marta.

Rose's stood up abruptly. "You have caller ID? Where is it?"

"Oh snappity snap. . ." Roxanne said quietly. "Someone's in trouble. I'm pretty sure I've never met this guy. What's he like?"

Rose didn't hear Dominique's reply as Molly lead her to the answering machine and showed her how to work it. Rose was angry, but calm. She just needed to see proof. . . she could feel her ears burning with heat. She was brewing on the inside, slowly but surely.

Rose flicked through the caller ID a few times. Sure enough she recognized the number instantly and it cropped up numerous times the longer she was looking.

"Molly, your handbag has an undetectable extension charm on it, right? Do you think I could borrow it?"

"Yes. . . " Molly said slowly. "We can go to the muggle phone company tomorrow and get the number blocked. Or even better we can disconnect the number since it's your phone. Okay? Rose?"

She was already putting on her sandals and a coat to combat the wind. She grabbed Molly's handbag on the shelf. Rose could hear her cousins talking quietly in the kitchen still and was trying to be extra quiet so they didn't hear her trying to leave. "I'll be back. Don't follow me. Don't tell anyone where I went, don't come and – "

"Oh please," Lucy interrupted. She came to stand in the doorway, leaning with one arm against the doorframe, looking at Rose. "We know where you're going. Obviously."

Lily poked her head up underneath Lucy's arm. "Yeah. And you don't look very healthy right now."

"Face as red as a beat." Roxanne came to join them. "But whether that's because of the wine or your ex, it's hard to tell. You need backup."

Roxanne and Lucy started moving forwards to grab their coats.

Shit. She didn't want them to come with her. "No. No. And no." Rose waved her arms at them. "This is something I need to do alone. I've left things hanging and I need to face him on my own."

"We're here to help," said Molly in a small voice. "That's what family is for. We help each other through the bad things."

Rose could just hear the double innuendo in Molly's voice. As much as she loved all her cousins, who were more like sisters really, she didn't want any of them to come; she needed to face this by herself. She needed to stop running from everything. In addition, Rose was. . . embarrassed about him. She didn't want any of her cousins to see Danny and how he was right now. Mentally he had lost himself. He was a complete mess. It was not a good place for them. It would be easier to deal with everything by herself.

"Just give me half an hour. That's all I need and if I'm not back by then then you can come and see what's happening. Not now. This is between Danny and I, it's just – hard to explain. Please though."

She had her hand on the doorknob, ready to run out if they insisted on coming.

You can't keep denying people who just want to help you. They all care about you, Marta said.

Greg responded quickly. She can deny them if she knows it won't be pretty. She doesn't want anyone to get hurt. You're in the right, love, he told her.

"Clock's starting now," Dominique stated. "Go."

Rose raced out of the flat.

"Does anyone even know where the house is she's going to?" asked Lily as she was putting her auburn hair into a ponytail. "I've never been there."

"Err. . . " They all looked at each other in surprise, hoping someone would say something.

"Lucy you've been there! Don't tell me we just let her race off to someplace and we don't even know where it is!" Molly exclaimed.

She gaped at everyone. "Only one time! And it was last year. I remember the general area where it was. . . but not the house. My memory isn't that great."

There was another big pause as everyone stood standing in the entrance like lumps on a log.

"Oh bloody hell. . . !"