Aunt Rose

41.

If anything, Rose tries her best. She doesn't have much to do when she isn't working and can't go to Diagon alley, so she spends most of her time at home with Harry.

And when he's enrolled into his first year of primary school, she has even less to do.

Rose brews potions out of boredom, making sure to keep them out of reach of Harry. She reads and she rides her broom outside but her life is dull trying to follow Dumbledore's instructions.

Harry knows his aunt is magical. He sees when she uses her wand to move things. And Rose has to have a talk with him when his teacher calls to say that Harry has been telling people his aunt is a witch.

She explains that the children in Harry's class don't understand Rose and that he can't tell them about her. It's difficult to get him to understand this concept at first but eventually, he stops telling people about it.

There is a period of grieving for Rose when Harry is 8. She reads about the Hollyhead harpies, how they won their tournament.

She wanted so badly to be on that team, to become a professional quidditch player. But she can't. Not with Harry, not when she has to protect him, keep him safe.

Even her healer's course, she hasn't used it except for his bumps and bruises. Rose can't even work. She feels like nothing more than a caregiver and it's hard.

But it's pushed away. Because Harry is all that matters now.

And Rose is a very loving mother figure to the boy. She holds him when he cries, listens when he needs to talk, and cooks all of his favourite meals.

There is something her course is good for.

Rose is one of the first people to know when a treatment for lycanthropy is developed. One of her friends from her course in Rome tells her they've developed a treatment called Wolfsbane.

It isn't a cure but it lessens the symptoms of lycanthropy and lets the werewolf keep their mind when they transform. They have to take it every day for a week leading up to the full moon.

Remus.

Rose immediately learns how to make it. And it's desperately tricky. But she manages it because it's Remus. She figures out the correct measurements and swirls.

And when she has figured it out, she starts sending it to her absent friend. She sends Apollo to give it to Remus, whenever he is.

Rose sends him a dose every month. She knows he receives it when Apollo returns with chocolate on one of his deliveries.

***

As Harry gets older, the more he starts to look like James. It's very hard for Rose to come to terms with that fact. She's seeing him become his father, one of her own best friends. But he isn't James, she can't treat him like he is.

Each year on the anniversary of their death, Rose takes Harry to visit his parents grave. She's never hidden the truth from him, that they died fighting a very evil man.

As he gets older, Harry realizes what it means, their graves. And he opens up to them in his own way. He looks through the photo albums more, wanting to see his parents.