The Bug Collector | marauders

Summer of 74'

That was the first of many owls that summer. Most of which were from the Marauders.

James would write often, and often he would ask about Lily and Rose would refuse to answer his questions. She would tell Lily each time and the girls would have a laugh.

Remus didn't write much, but would send letters the muggle way, he always seemed to use the most interesting stamps. Rose had begun to keep them, she had also begun to notice something, some of his letters were written neatly while others seem to grow progressively ragged. It wasn't enough to cause alarm but the inconsistency with his handwriting puzzled her.

Then their was the situation with Peter and Sirius.

Sirius' mother had undoubtedly told him he couldn't write her. Or Remus for that matter. Maybe even James, but one person he could contact was Peter, and he made the most of that. Peter's owls always seemed to arrive at night so Rose would sit up waiting for them, leaving the window open would make the room chilly so she would set up shop under her covers, staying up to read or write while waiting.

The way it would work is, Peter would send a letter with two different sections, the top was his own, the bottom was Sirius' and more often than not he also sent a response to what Sirius had written as well since he would have to read it in order to get it to her. Sometimes Rose could swear he seemed annoyed by them but he still helped anyway. A good friend.

Rose could only assume he also did this for the other two boys as well and felt a tad bad for Peter for having to be Sirius' messenger, especially when her birthday gift came.

Despite it being Summer, July 31st was rainy. Rose didn't mind it, she liked the soft darkness that feel upon the house on a rainy day. The smell of it too, she swore rain had a smell to her.

She awoke to Lily jumping into bed beside her.

"Happy Thirteenth Birthday, Rosie!" Lily yelled and gave her sister a tight hug before crawling under the covers with her.

"You've already got a few owls, and one came with a box, looks like it's from Peter." Lily said happily.

"I didn't know I'd mentioned when my birthday was, must have at some point I guess". Rose yawned before nuzzling up to her sister. Lily always smelled good. Like honeysuckle and tea. Rose was sure she probably smelled like grass and ash in comparison, especially after a day working in the greenhouses with professor Sprout. Sprout was of incense but after they had burned out they would smolder and a smokey smell would linger in the room, while Rose found it familiar and comforting it was probably rather unpleasant to others, or so Rose thought.

"You said I got a box?"

"Yeah. From Peter Pettigrew".

"More likely it's actually from Sirius Black."

Lily raised an eyebrow at that.

"We'll now I have to know what's in it." Lily said and she removed herself from her sister's side to bring her the box. By the time she returned Rose had sat up and put her glasses on, Lily sat back down and handed her the gift.

The box was long and black, even the packaging seemed to be of rather high quality.

Rose opened it and sure enough there was a letter with Sirius' name sitting atop of the gift itself.

"It's a wand."

"A wand?! Really?"

"Yeah." Rose said a bit confused as she took it out of the box to get a better look.

It's a dark green wand, ivy leaves carved into it, the vines engraved into the wood looked like snakes climbing a tree. It was wonderfully crafted.

She opened the letter and read it aloud so Lily could hear.

"Managed to sneak away from you long enough during our last few Hogsmeade trips to get this, saw a 5th year doing magic with two wands and thought you might like to hon your skills more." She stopped for a moment before reading the rest to herself.

Not that there's anything wrong with your wand! It fits you for sure, but now I can help you get even better. Plus there's no rule saying we CAN'T duel-wield wands like gunslingers! Anyway, Happy Birthday, Thorns.

See you soon,
Sirius O. Black

Under that in Peter's handwriting was a small notation.

He sent these too...I can only assume they're not for me.

That's when Rose noticed them, she sat the letter down to dump out the rest of the envelope's contents out on her bed.

Rose petals. They looked like they had only just been picked from the rose, probably because of some charm to keep them fresh.

How pretentious.

How wonderful.

How Sirius.