Marauders & Marauderettes- Complete

21. He Escaped

Rose stared out the window of her room, a lit cigarette in her hand. Her hair was messy and open, dark circles under her wet eyes, her lips patched with red. Of course it was all lie, she thought. Hope was never her mother. Her mother was buried under the ground. And she never knew. Her father was rotting in Azkaban. And she never knew. Hatred bubbled inside Rose. She took a long drape and leaned back on the sill, closing her eyes. She hated Hope. For keeping it from her all these years. Hope thought that her 15th Birthday was the perfect time to tell her and Roxanne about their parentage. But she was so wrong. Rose had lost it. She couldn't control it, and she burst. With magic, Crystal magic. Her secret was out. And so was Roxanne's. Roxanne definitely took the news better than Rose and Remus though. Remus never thought the pain would be this bad. The fact that Rose and Roxanne weren't his sisters felt like a punch in the gut. Over and over again.

Rose sighed. First Robert kissed her, out of the blue, one day in the library, and the next day his long- forgotten girlfriend, Victoria Chang came to visit. Rose had never felt worse. At first, Remus was angry that Robert nailed his sister, but he accepted it. However, when Victoria showed up, Remus and Robert had a physical fight which even James and Sirius could not stop. They fought, and since then, the two best mates weren't speaking to each other. True, Sirius and James, who had now known Rose for 5 years and thought of her as their sister, were on her side. And so Robert stayed away from the Marauders and Marauderettes. But everyone was too busy with Robert and the others. No one cared about Rose. She had spent her best teen years crushing on Robert. She even admitted her crush to the girls, for which she got mercilessly teased. No one cared at all.

At least that's what Rose thought. She didn't know Remus was actually sick with worry. For everyone in Hogwarts now knew that Rose Zeller was depressed. It was shocking news, really. The perfect student. The bright girl who always knew the answer to the teacher's questions. She wasn't the sweet helpful girl anymore. She was snappy, rude and self- absorbed. Remus hated to see his sister like that. Well, not sister.

Roxanne was better. She accepted it, everything. Roxanne didn't mope over the life she didn't have. She was happy with the one she had. Roxanne had been able to let go of her past. Way more easily that poor Rose. Lily, Sylvia, Roxanne, Remus, Sirius and James had all desperately tried to talk to Rose, pleaded her that she go back to her old, lovely self, but Rose shut everyone out. The betrayal was too much for her. And the heart- break too.

Rose went downstairs, to sneak a bottle or two out of the kitchen cabinet. She completely ignored Roxanne and Remus and went to the kitchen. Hope was wiping the counter with a cloth. She jumped at the sight of Rose and guilt bubbled in her stomach.

'Ros- Rose dear- i- are you- hung- hungry?' she stammered.

Rose merely rolled her eyes and went to the fridge and took out a bottle of butterbeer, and went up to her room without another word, knocking over a plate of biscuits deliberately on her way.

Rose walked- rather strutted, her head high, through the empty corridor, her books in her hand. She passed a young first year, who smiled at her. To his surprise, Rose glared at him rudely and went on. Her bag couldn't hold the weight of her books though, and it ripped, all its contents stumbling down. Swearing loudly, Rose bent down to pick it up, annoyed.

She heard footsteps, and a shadow fell over. She looked up at the dirty shoes and saw a thin man, with untidy hair in extremely patched rags. He smiled at her.

'You have your mother's eyes,' he said softly.

'DAD?' Rose exclaimed, stepping back. Rose knew what he had done. How had killed his own wife for giving him 'dirty- blooded' daughters.

'you're supposed to be in Azkaban,' she said, trembling.

'I escaped,' he said, carelessly.

'Why have you come here?' asked Rose, backing away, but he only came closer.

'I need your jewels,' he said simply. All the fear present inside Rose evaporated and was replaced with anger. He wanted the jewelry Rose had inherited from her mother. He didn't care about her. Or Roxanne. He was still a demented man. She took her wand out, but Pierre was too quick. One swish and her wand flew to the other side. Rose didn't pause, however, the anger surging through her veins. Fiery flames shot out of her hands and began to creep up him, but Pierre once again simply waved his wand and diminished the flames.

Rose and Pierre fought, but Pierre was always one step ahead. Finally, Rose had no more life left in her, all her energy drained. She collapsed on the floor on her knees, exhausted. Pierre edged towards her, his wand in his hand raised,

'Aveda Kedavr-'

'EXPELLIARMUS!' and Pierre's wand fell out of his hand this time. Rose looked up in shock, and saw Robert standing there, his arm stretched out, a look of fear on his face.

Embarrassed, Pierre screamed something, something that made Rose scream, take the life out her, his wand, picked up and pointing at Robert,

'Crucio.'

Robert yelled and fell to the floor, withering in pain, his face a ghostly white. The screams issuing from him made Rose's blood turn cold.

'NO STOP DON'T- PLEASE DON'T STOP,' she cried, if possible even louder and tried to crawl towards her wand using the last bit of energy she had left in her. Pierre took no notice of her, and continued to torture Robert, inhumane satisfaction on his face.

'Please,' Rose was sobbing now, her voice cracking,' please don't hurt him; I'll do anything- ANYTHING. JUST STOP I'LL GIVE YOU WHAT YOU JUST DON'T HURT HIM- please...'

Brisk footsteps were heard and Pierre, for the first time looked scared. Into view came none other than Professor Dumbledore, his electric blue eyes blazing. For one brief second, Rose herself wanted to run away from the wrath issuing out of Dumbledore.

It seemed as if everything was in slow motion. Pierre looked around confused, Dumbledore was glaring at Pierre, Robert screams had subsided and he lay still on the floor, and Rose was looking between the two men, scared.

All she could think about was Robert, how it was her fault he was in this condition, she inevitably thought of their kiss in the libr-

And then suddenly she heard Pierre say,

'OBLIVIATE!'

And a jet of white light hit her and she blacked out.

Rose woke up, yet again in a white room and when she opened her eyes, she revived quite a shock. S many people were crowded around her bed, the Marauders, Marauderettes, the Professors and Hope and Lyall.

Rose rubbed her eyes, embarrassed, because she was in her night gown.

A girl with dark hair was holding her hand.

'Rose?' Roxanne asked tentatively.

'Are you ok?' asked Remus, who was closest to her on her left.

All Rose said was,

'Who are you people? And where am I?'