June 30th 1974
These days time flew by so fast.
So fast.
Muffled giggles echoed through the Slytherin girl's dorms. The girl's fourth roommate was already in bed for the night and Rose herself was lying down fiddling with her wandlight out of boredom and anticipation for the journey home in the morning. The giggles were coming from inside the closed curtains of Stephone's bed where her and Ode had been for the last half hour, joking and telling stories from the school year. Rose simply didn't feel up to joining them, plus three could be a crowd on their rather small beds.
Instead she watched the candlelight dancing around her little corner of their dorms thinking of Regulus doing the same across the common room in the boys dorms.
She felt a little jealous of Stephone and Ode, her and Ode still made time for one another, studying nearly everyday under a tree near the lake, but Rose could feel her friend growing closer to their roommate and despite knowing she was doing the same thing it felt...well it was an odd type of feeling. The kind you know you shouldn't feel but do anyway.
Her mind wandered back to Regulus as she sat her wand down and pulled her blankets close. She had not lost a friend in him, she had just lost time. She thought back to New Years Eve, talking with him until they both drifted off to sleep, comfortable enjoy to stay there together. Safe.
That may never happen again. They hadn't talked since then, they hadn't even looked at one another.
As Rose closed her eyes and tried to picture him from that night she found herself wishing she had Stephone's camera once more. To have captured the moment she wrapped her pinkie around his would have also captured a moment he might have felt at home.
Something he could not continue to feel.
Once everything was taken care of at school and it was time to board the Hogwarts Express Rose had already made the choice to sit by herself on the way home. Craving the alone time before joining her family again for the first time since the start of the school year. She was excited to go back to her own room and hoped being away for so long this time around would in turn make summer more enjoyable.
She gazed out the window, watching fields of green zoom by as she lost herself to daydreams, brought out a journal to edit some botanical illustrations of magical plants she had been working on, and reread the poem Ode had written for her nearly a near ago.
Much had already changed, and would continue to change, but in her last moments of solitude before the train stopped at Platform 9 3/4 Rose had accepted those changes.
——
Days later Rose was sitting on her bed reading Poems and Fragments by Sappho when the first owl came.
Sappho was and Ancient Greek poet from the island of Lesbos. She often wrote of the woes of love and Rose found it fascinating.
Then the owl perched on her bedpost so she closed her book and grabbed the letter.
"Thank you, miss." She said to the owl as she opened a letter from Ode.
It contained a Polaroid picture of the girl and her sister, making silly faces with green hair and green hands. Smiles big and bright.
"Thinking of you!" Was written at the bottom with a heart next to it in green ink.
Rose smiled and placed the photo in her book for safe keeping. The letter attached was a lengthy explanation of how the girl's first week of summer had gone and upon finishing it Rose brought out some parchment to send back an equally detailed account of the days.
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.