Mostly the Spring of 75'
In the days following her conversation with Remus, Rose had addressed all the boys and asked if there were anymore secrets she might need to know about. In response Peter began to speak just for Sirius to quickly cover his mouth.
"I know you're excited, Pete, but one at at time, and with the group's approval." He said.
"Right." James said in agreement.
"We'll start with the map?" Remus asked and the others seemed to agree.
They described this map to Rose, pulling out piles of parchment of all shapes and sizes.
"The leftovers from your screw up with Lily turned out to be useful after all, Thorns." Sirius said with a smirk as they all took their seats in the floor, arranged in a half circle with Rose seated on the opposite side. She saw the charmed flower on the side table beside Remus' bed, it was dangerously close to being in full bloom.
They began explaining the general idea of their map, one that was animated and accurate to where everyone and everything in or around Hogwarts was. This is where Rose's help could come in, she had easier access to certain areas than the boys did, and much like them usually enjoyed an adventure outside of the castle as well.
James spoke up and explained that Rose should map some areas out then return the filled parchment back to them so it could be added to the others.
"Alright, James. I'll need the cloak though, I'm not doing this alone and you lot will be busy soon." She said glancing back over to the flower.
"Who are you going to bring?" Sirius asked.
"James, I'd like to use my "no questions asked" policy." Rose said ignoring the question.
The "no questions asked" policy was what it sounded like, you could barrow one of the groups magical items(the sword with rubies in the hilt, the invisibility cloak, or the soon to be magic map) without having to answer questions about it twice a term, Sirius had used his two up on the sword an alarming amount of times, but almost everyone used the ounces of secrecy on the invisibly cloak.
Sirius grumbled but respected the sanctity of the policy and asked no further questions.
—
Which left Rose where she was currently. Hours after agreeing to the venture she waited as the sun went down and her roommates feel asleep before slipping the cloak over herself and leaving the girl's dorms.
She had two places in mind to go, one was close and one was only a chance, so she took the close option, however her second choice was tempting.
Far before they had completed the polyjuice potion prank, while the boys were scrambling to see who would snatch one of Snape's hair's first Rose had met someone she still hadn't mentioned to the marauders yet.
Xenophilius Lovegood.
He was in the same year as the marauders and Lily. The boy seemed the polar opposite to their own nemesis, Severus Snape.
He had long platinum blonde hair, he shared Rose's interests in herbolgy and entomology, and he had a face with a permanent smile plastered to it.
Perhaps that was just due to his overuse of the muggle plant Rose had smoked with Sirius at the Gryffindor quidditch-loss party.
Usually her visits to the greenhouses went uninterrupted by anyone other than professor Sprout or Sirius, but at the moment Sirius was coming by less often and with exam season fast approaching Sprout's longer visits stopped. Even so Rose could swear she felt a presence nearby at times, thought she saw wisps of white hair from time to time.
At that point Rose almost believed the greenhouses were housing a ghost.
Then she saw him, or erm— stepped on him.
"Ow!" Said the silver haired boy laid out in the floor as Rose's foot came in contact with his side. Luckily she took careful steps in the dark room and quickly removed it.
"So you're not a ghost!" She exclaimed
"Excuse me?" The boy lying in the floor with a few crystals wrapped in wire hanging from a leather necklace said.
"I've been seeing you around, I just didn't know you were a person, I thought I was being haunted by a rather earthy-smelling ghost."
At that the boy laughed and motioned for Rose to join him, she did cautiously as he conjured up a large leaf and held it up to the moonlight, it's veins showed then and he began talking about different leaves, Rose listened intently to the stranger's herbology lesson, and their conversation continued. Rose learned Xeno was a Ravenclaw, and that he had a crush on a girl named Pandora from Rose's year who was also a Ravenclaw.
After that meeting Rose would bump into him occasionally and say hello, or they would coexist in the greenhouses while he smoked and she worked, they wouldn't say a lot, but sometimes he would help Rose with her attempts to grow an undying-tree for the Slytherin common room and the moon phase-flower charm. More often than not though, she would be there first, working and he would arrive only to transfigure a plant of some sort into a record player and lie on the cold floor listening to it, occasionally making a comment about Pandora, a girl Rose hadn't met but enjoyed hearing about from her strange yet eccentric acquaintance.
This is why Rose considered walking to the greenhouses in hopes the blonde haired boy would be there, she hadn't seen him in a while but didn't mind. He wasn't a fixture in her life, more of a passerby.
This notion motivated her to make her way to the Slytherin boys dorms, there she very carefully snuck into the closed curtains of Regulus' bed before first casting a silencing charm and summoning her wand light which woke the boy.
Rose's initial move was to panic and hold the wand to the boys throat, that got her a tired blink from the black-haired boy before he spoke.
"Do you always wake your friends with a wand to their throat?" He said with little energy behind it.
"No, uh— that's new." She said dropping the wand but leaving the end glowing. It was the only light within the enclosure of the dark green silk curtains, the color from the sheets bounced back and just barely hit the tip of Rose's nose giving it a cool-toned green hue, her eyes seemed to darken in the light, they usually showed a light green tone, but here they looked like two emeralds set into stone carved so finely it appeared soft to the touch.
"I want your help with something." She said quickly, anxious to begin her adventure.
"Fine." He agreed with a stretch from under the covers.
"You never question me."
"You don't usually disappoint. Now, go so I can get ready for whatever you're plotting."
With that Rose exited the space and waited in the common room under the invisibly cloak, when Regulus' met her there she lead him to a passageway that would take them outside, but bypass a good bit of the dark forest.
When they finally made it outside the moon was full in the sky, Rose hopped things were going well for Remus as they ventured past the shack the boy spent his full moons in. Once far enough away from it to feel safer again Rose would occasionally start up into a sprint and Regulus would follow suit, she'd hide behind trees or pick blooming flowers along the way. Regulus was a less cheerful companion than his brother or Xeno might have been but it was nice to see him when she could so his complaints during their travels didn't wound her too much.
Along the way they talked about different things, Rose learned that his middle name was Arcturus and she really liked that name.
She enjoyed his first name too, she'd seen in a muggle baby naming book once that and it meant little king, Rose felt that was fitting for him.
That is when they saw beams of light coming from the mouth of a cave.
Inside the cave was green moss that seemed to glow subtly in the darkness, it grew along the walls in patches. There was also a plethora of colorful mushrooms, crystals of different textures budding from rock formations, and the faraway sounds of falling water that let them know there could be waterfalls nearby.
Rose took out her parchment and started taking notes and making sketches of the journey they taken to get to this point before further down Reg pointed out the source of the water sounds.
Rose sat down her parchment and placed her father's coat over it to keep it dry while she walked closer to the waterfall to investigate.
Within the water more gems shimmered under her reflection, including one gem that was a brilliant blue and took a very similar shape of a heart despite being uncut. Rose bent down to pick it up, the cold water of the small underground stream that connected to the waterfalls flowed over her hand and sent a shiver down her spine.
"What's that for?"
"A uh— friend likes a girl, I think maybe he can make something out of it and give it to her."
Regulus stepped up beside her, standing in the cold water, he placed his hand gently under hers to hold the jewel. He also shivered at the contact.
"Cold." Is all he said as water from her hand dripped onto his, he allowed his hand to stay there touching her for another moment before pulling it away.
"We should keep exploring, we'll have to turn back soon." He said and she agreed with a nod before speaking
"Will you help me with some notes and such? I want a detailed account of the caves and any passageways we might stumble upon."
"Of course." He said and walked over to her jacket, picking it up then handing it to Rose and grabbing the parchment to add his own notes of their findings in the underground cave.
—
The afternoon of the following day Rose was sleepy but still able to make it to the Gryffindor boys dorms before heading to her own for the rest of the day. The marauders were all arranged similarly to when they had given her the assignment to map up some more of the grounds, except now Rose was seated on the edge of Moony's bed, her legs dangling off the side next him seated on the floor.
"So let's see your findings, Thorns" Sirius said with a smile, she handed him a stack of papers, the first few had rather boring details like parts of the girl's dorms they may not have been to and other things such as that, but the rest were all accounts of the cave system they had found that went all the way to underneath the dungeons.
As he looked through it he seemed to experience various emotions, at first Rose could see the look of intrigue on his face, then it had turned to a scowl, he sat the papers down and looked Rose in the eyes darkly.
"Rosie- a word?" He said in too sweet of a tone to be paired with the look on his face. He picked up the invisibility cloak that was in a bundle on the other side of Remus' bed and threw it over his shoulder before sitting down next to her and draping it over her shoulders as well.
"No questions asked." He said towards James.
"That's your last one!" Said Peter exasperatedly.
"I know." He said as he slide completely under the cloak, covering Rose as well.
The last thing the boys could hear was Sirius cast a silencing charm over them.
"That was my brothers handwriting." He said with a stoic look on his face. Fun, carefree Sirius had been replaced by the heir to house Black in that moment.
"I should have thought about that. I should have kept those to myself." She said.
"You used the cloak to take my brother on some adventure?"
"You're not supposed to ask any questions about it." Rose said sternly.
"And you're not supposed to be friends with my brother." He said matching her tone.
"Do you realize the trouble you could get him in?" He continued.
"It's none of your business." Rose said, and regretted.
"It is one hundred percent my business, Rose." He said raising his voice.
This was a side of Sirius she had not seen in a long while.
She supposed it was probably best she doesn't forget it's there.
Rose tried explaining that she was careful, and took extra care not to get caught, but Sirius wouldn't hear it. Rose figured then that perhaps he had a point.
"Did you tell him what the notes were for?" He said more like am accusation than a normal question.
"Of course not!" Rose said.
"Good. Leave him out of our schemes or we'll leave you out of them." He said as he began to take off the cloak, Rose grabbed his hand to stop him.
"No. You don't just get to say something like that and then leave. I understand you're upset, I'll be more careful I promise".
Sirius still seemed unhappy with that answer. Rose suspected he would be dissatisfied with anything she said at the moment, so she sighed in defeat.
"I'll go. I need to go give something to a friend anyway." She said and he lifted the cloak wordlessly.
She slipped out, saying a quick "see you in the morning" to the other boys before leaving out the portrait hole that worked as an entrance to the Gryffindor common room. She would hear the questions pour out of James as she walked away, no doubt Sirius had come out of the cloak.
They wouldn't be answered though.
Thanks to the "no questions asked" policy.