A/N:
Featuring some Marauder bonding and girl talk. Enjoy!
A gentle wind danced through the leaves of the trees in the Forbidden Forest, the sun's rays bouncing off the surface of the Black Lake. Rose stood by the bank, enjoying the rare solitude. There was nowhere she felt safer or more at home than when she was with the Marauders, but her nightmare had left her unsettled, and her friends oddly on edge. They knew more about the coming danger than anyone else, yet Rose could see that it was affecting Sirius more than the others.
Outwardly, they were starting to put it behind them, planning the great Halloween Prank of 1976, contemplating new ways to torment their utterly useless new Defence Against The Dark Arts Professor (Aldrich E. Grimhorn), and putting on the Marauder masks that they hid behind from the rest of the school. Inside, however, Rose felt her friends' concern emanating off them in the moments where they were alone together.
Footsteps crunched on the crisp grass behind her, too light and too gentle to be any of her fellow Marauders. Rose didn't know if she was happy or sad about that. The solitude was nice, but so was their company.
Familiar notes of lily and sunshine (or so James once insisted so memorably when he was drunk) tickled her nose. "Hi Lils."
"You look happier, Rosie," Lily smiled gently, looking so beautiful and kind it hurt.
"I-" Rose began, only to break off.
She bent down to pick up a twig from the ground. Idly, she spun it in her fingers and applied just enough pressure to have it snap and crumble into dust. Lily leant on the trunk of the tree, watching Rose calmly.
"It was just a nightmare, Lily. I was just a little unsettled by it, but not anymore. James said that I was being foolish for letting the incident get under my skin." Rose kicked at the ground, shrugging her shoulders. "And now I'm better."
It was just a dream. An awful, horrible dream. One that she couldn't get out of her head.
"Uh-huh," Lily agreed, looking amused. "Marlene's calling a Girl's Night. She's got Black to agree to smuggle in some liquor - which I think he only agreed to because she said it was for you or something, I don't know."
Rose bit back a laugh, Marlene McKinnon really was a force to be reckoned with. "And we poor helpless mortals don't stand a chance against her will?"
Lily laughed (a sound James had described as the perfect tinkling of clear crystal chimes - to which Sirius had called him a lovestruck berk and smacked him upside the head) and held out her hand. Rose grinned at her sister and took the offered hand, her heart feeling lighter at the rare show of sisterly affection. What made the moment better was the sight of Sirius and James leaning 'casually' against the castle walls.
Lily narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the sight of the ringleader Marauders, James holding his hands up in innocence.
"Since you and McKinnon have claimed our Rosebud for your shameless night in," Sirius recited, smirking in that wicked way of his. "We - Mr Prongs and my good self - have no choice but to-"
"Oh, for the love of Merlin," Lily groaned. "Five minutes, then she's in the dorm."
"Deal," Sirius agreed, smiling dashingly.
Lily threw her arms up in disgust, muttering unpleasantries under her breath about the Marauders.
"I heard that!" James called after her, clearly unable to resist a parting jab.
Sirius smirked at Rose's raised eyebrow, James grinning unrepentantly. Rose couldn't help but laugh along with them, finally seeing the dark shadows fall from over their eyes.
"If you would come with us, Lady Astra?" James invited, sweeping his hand grandly towards the entrance to the castle.
Sirius gallantly offered her his arm, for once ignoring the crowds of girls giggling at the sight of him, and led the way inside.
Remus was waiting by the Fat Lady's Portrait, head buried in what Rose knew was a well-read copy of Hairy Snout, Human Heart, and was muttering to himself every now and then.
"Moony, for Merlin's sake, don't be so boring," Sirius called, his eye roll audible.
"I have to have a few minutes peace, Padfoot," Remus informed him seriously. "Godric knows that my peace will be a thing of the past as soon as Rosie departs to join the Girls."
"I was already getting booze, Moony," Sirius smirked, completely failing to look innocent. "Was I supposed to not get enough for a lock-in?"
Rose laughed at a memory from the last time the dorm had been in booze mode.
"You will look after Benjy and Pete, won't you, Siri?" Rose asked hopefully, an earnest look in her violet eyes. "They are, after all, a couple of lightweights."
"For you, my dear Rosebud, I shall make that pledge," Sirius informed her seriously, even adding a bow on to the end.
James snorted and muttered something under his breath. Sirius sent a quick, harmless tickling spell, James promptly laughing like a maniac in between glares at a completely unrepentant Sirius.
The grey eyed Marauder raised his eyebrows and shrugged, as if he was saying 'what can you do?'. The Fat Lady's Portrait swung open, nearly hitting Remus in the face (James's quidditch reflexes preventing that from happening), and an apologetic Emmeline popped her head out.
"Lily says five minutes are up, sorry Rosie."
"And you can tell Lily that-"
"She'll be right up," Sirius cut in diplomatically. They climbed through the portrait hole, the three present male Marauders escorting her to the entrance to the Girls Dormitories.
"See you in the morning, Rosie," Remus sighed, climbing the boys stairs like a man marching to his execution.
James laughed and dipped into an exaggerated bow, running off after Remus while yelling out his own good night.
Sirius looked briefly despairing of the duo, but smiled warmly anyway. "Unsubtle bastards, the both of them," he muttered, shaking his immaculate hair out of his face. "Until tomorrow, my dear Rosebud."
Rose smiled and returned his fleeting hug. "Nighty-night Siri."
.
.
As soon as Rose stepped into her dorm, Mary and Hestia grabbed her arms, pulled her in and slammed the door shut behind her. Marlene smirked, tossed her newly died black hair over her shoulder, and walked on high heels (Rose had no idea how she tolerated wearing them) over to the record player. Rose didn't want to nitpick, but it was in fact her record player that they always used (and she knew for a fact that Marlene had one of her own).
True to the unusual taste of the pureblood witch, Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Side A began to fill the room, Marlene's arms raising into the air with happiness. Emmeline beat the rush and had already changed into her pyjamas, and was lying on her front facing the clear space in the middle of the dorm, her feet swinging in the air. Dorcas spun around near the bathroom door, a bottle of firewhiskey in her hand and a blissful smile on her face. Lily looked at Rose, both of their eyes sparkling at the sight of Hestia and Mary doing the Charleston near Marlene.
Rose grinned widely, grabbing the first clothes she came to and ducking into the bathroom to change and get a few last moments of sanity. She emerged in a soft white formal shirt that had in no way shape or form once been one of Sirius' (it had) and a pair of short sleep pants, and was immediately assaulted with butterbeer, chocoballs and yet more Elton John.
Lily, by this time, was dancing madly with Marlene, her cat Snowflake curled up on top of the nearest windowsill out of harms way. Alice came in, blinked once and immediately jumped in with Emmeline's crazy robot dance moves. Dorcas laughed brightly, swinging Rose into the madness with her. And this was only stage one (dancing), there were still two whole stages after that (girl talk - cute boys, crushes, that sort of thing - and makeovers - where Marlene really shone) followed by whatever else they wanted to do.
Eventually (and not a moment too soon), they got tired of the genius of Elton John and Mary bounced over to the record player with compilation Wrock album 'Let It Wrock'. The rocking baseline reminded Rose of Sirius' favourite pre-punk songs (before he discovered The Sex Pistols and their unique ability to really annoy his puritanical parents). Rose downed the rest of her butterbeer, tossed the bottle into the bin, and laughed out loud. Hestia and Dorcas spun next to her, all the girls throwing their arms about in complete mayhem, singing at the tops of their voices and not caring a jot.
.
Some time later, after the sky had darkened and the waning moon had crept higher in the night sky, the crazy dancing/acting carefree and young part of the night was over. Rose sat on the bottom of Marlene's bed, all the girls clustered over Marlene and Dorcas' beds (with the exception of Emmeline who was stretched over her own bed, slightly tipsy).
"Are you ever going to put poor Benjy out of his misery?" Lily asked out of nowhere, blowing gently on the undercoat of nail polish Marlene was carefully applying.
"Are you ever going to put Potter out of his misery?" Marlene retorted without missing a beat.
Lily gave Marlene her best unimpressed glare. "I don't fancy Potter, and I certainly don't flirt with Black every five minutes."
"I don't fancy Benjy," Marlene said, but nobody in the school believed that. Rose scoffed and scooped out more clotted cream from her chocoball. "What was that scoff for, Rose?"
"Did I make a noise?" Rose asked innocently, widening her eyes in the way that made uninitiated professors let her off without detentions.
"Your Marauder tricks don't work on us," Alice pointed out, her voice louder than strictly necessary.
"What Alice said," Emmeline agreed with a long giggle.
Rose grinned at the pair and shook her long hair out of her face. "If I made a noise, and this is in no way, shape or form an admission, than I would have been expressing the depths of the disbelief I have in your statement, Marlene."
"And in English?" Hestia teased, Lily looking rather please d that the conversation had moved away from her and James.
"I thought she was full of it," Rose obliged, Marlene dropping her jaw in surprise.
"I do not fancy Benjy."
"Yes, you do," Rose informed her. "And it's really not fair on him that you keep flirting with Sirius whenever he's around. Benjy's a sweet bloke, a little too earnest for my liking, but kind and helpful."
Marlene narrowed her midnight blue eyes at her, the orbs sparkling with something that wasn't anger but wasn't unlike suspicion. "You're just saying that because you fancy Black."
Lily promptly choked on her liquorice wand, Mary kindly clapping her on the back.
Rose blinked for a moment and shrugged in what she hoped was nonchalant unconcern. "I don't think that there's a woman in this Castle over the age of fourteen that doesn't fancy Sirius Black," Rose said honestly. "I mean, even objectively, he's - well, I don't think fit really describes it. He's easily the best-looking bloke in the castle. And then there's his hair-"
His really, really great hair.
"His sense of humour," Dorcas added cheerily.
"His eyes," Rose continued, remembering some girls twittering about it. And he did have beautiful eyes. She personally thought all of him was absolutely perfect, but she was not going to admit that to her gossipy roommates. It'd be around the castle by morning. And that would be awkward.
"You have a point," Lily admitted, tilting her head thoughtfully. "But isn't he a bit shallow? Him and Potter-"
"Both know how good-looking they are, and aren't afraid to capitalise on that," Alice spoke up. "Not like Frank. Frank's wonderful and kind-"
"And you're going to marry him someday," Hestia rolled her eyes. They'd heard that a lot - almost as much as they'd heard Lily's Reasons James Potter Is An Arrogant Toerag rant.
"Do you think he's going to ask?" Alice asked dreamily.
Rose bit back a groan - this was why she preferred to spent 99.99% of her time with the Marauders. The last time a bloke tried to ask her out, he'd run off with one elephant ear (courtesy of Peter), bright green popping pimples full of pus (James Potter all over), bright pink hair right down to his toes (from an annoyed Full Moon antsy Remus), and an invisible boot kicking him in the behind quite forcibly (thanks to Sirius). To be fair, Rose hadn't wanted to go out with that pompous prat Lockhart, but the word had spread (much to her fellow Marauders happiness) and that had been that. Rose leaned back and let the girl talk wash over her, and fell asleep before she could stop herself.