Rosie was stroking the cat's- she refused to name the beast when she had no intention of keeping it- back. Its fur wasn't soft by any means but for some reason the action was soothing. Rosie only stopped when she heard a tapping against her bedroom window.
She was still at home, though she would return to Hogwarts the next day by floo.
The cat stood up and leapt off of Rosie's bed at the sound. Unable to continue her task, Rosie's gaze wandered over to her window where there was yet another owl pecking to get in. Since Lily's death, there had been many owls that came to Rosie's window. There were owls wishing Rosie and her family well, there were owls with curse postcards that Rosie had just barely warned Petunia and Vernon away from, and there were hate letters.
The day of Lily and James' funeral, Rosie apparently told off a popular reporter for the Daily Prophet. Honestly, Rosie didn't know what was so impressive about the annoying woman, but apparently many people read her articles.
This had been made abundantly clear when the day after Rosie had denied Rita Skeeter entrance to her sister's funeral, a hateful column featuring Rosie appeared in Rita's portion of the Daily Prophet. It had gone on and on about how Rosie was "a horrible little girl" and how Rosie's parents should "try to reign their little beast in".
From what Rosie had been told, she didn't actually read the article herself, Rita had gone on for several paragraphs about how she had been terribly offended to be denied access to the event, and how Rosie had been very unwelcoming and had gone so far as to threaten her. In that respect, Rita had not been lying.
Rosie wasn't exactly proud of how she treated Rita. If Rosie had had it her way, she wouldn't have allowed her magic to run away from her like that. If it hadn't been during a Hogwarts term, Rosie could have gotten expelled for underage magic. Though Rosie wasn't proud of what she had done, she had to admit that it had been effective. Rita hadn't shown her face around the house yet, hoping for a picture of the boy who lived and his infamous scar.
Back to the matter at hand, Rosie had half a mind to allow the owl to keep pecking at her window until it gave up and left, either depositing the letter it held in its beak on her doorstep to throw away, or taking the letter with it. However the cat had taken to playing with the thing through the window and now that it had been acknowledged, Rosie knew it would never leave. Rosie sighed, rose from her bed, and padded over to her window to let the owl in.
The bird was a little thing, one that hardly looked strong enough to be carrying even the letter it had in its beak. Rosie takes the letter it offers and lets the owl rest on her windowsill, with an owl treat she had leftover from Hera. Somewhere in another room in the house, Rosie can hear Harry cooing at one thing or another and it makes her smile.
Rose
Rosie knew instantly who the letter was from, just by how her name was written on the front. It was the same way her name had been written last year. The same way all her potions assignments had been marked.
Rosie looked back over at the owl that had carried Professor Slughorn's letter and decided he must had hired an owl out, because there was no way a man like Horace Slughorn would settle for something so small normally.
She opened the letter without ceremony.
Dearest Rosie. May I begin this letter by telling you how sorry I am for the recent loss of your sister and brother in law. I am sure you can still feel the sting of their absence and I would like to offer my assistance in any way I can.
I remember the first time I met your sister. She, much like you, was a brilliant little which but you wouldn't have known it the way she came into my classroom on the first day of her first year. She could hardly let go of Severus, who was her fondest companion for many years. Of course she grew into her powers, much like you did.
Her light, which shown on the world every day, will be sincerely missed.
Now I would like to move to my second reason for writing, as a response to the letter you sent to me earlier in the year. I didn't read the letter until quite recently, which I can apologize for later, so I do apologize for not getting back to you sooner.
I didn't know at the time if my retirement that my place would be taken by Severus, the same Severus who I mentioned earlier. It seems I do know your new potions professor. Quite personally in fact as he was a member of my house, and a member of my very own Slug club He is, as such, very competent.
Severus was in your sister's year, and up until the end of their fifth year they were nearly inseparable. I have to this day never seen such a strong inter-house relationship. Severus was always very talented in potions, among other things, so you have nothing to worry about there. I would even go so far as to say he may be better than I ever was concerning the subject. That boy always was rather brilliant in the way he mixed the ingredients.
If you were looking for more personal information, Severus was a slytherin, and often hung out with both Lucius Malfoy, and your very own Regulus. Severus graduated just a year before you started Hogwarts and until then he and Regulus were as thick as thieves. I lost track of him after he left Hogwarts but I admit I am relieved that he didn't turn out to be a Death Eater, like some of his friends did.
Please write me again, as I so do enjoy to know my students still think about me. Alas, I fear I must let you go now as I'm sure you have plenty of important things to do.
Best wishes, Horace Slughorn.
Rosie read the letter twice, skipping over Professor Slughorn's pleasantries, to make sure she had all if her information right. So according to Slughorn, Professor Snape was competent. Rosie had been in his class for the last month so she knew that. Furthermore, he knew Lily. That might also explain Rosie catching the young professor staring at her. She looked quite a bit like Petunia but she had her other sister's eyes.
Rosie sighed, set Professor Slughorn's letter aside, and returned to her bed where she continued to pet her late sister's cat.
*******
Rosie could feel the looks when she returned back to school, and she couldn't bring herself to care. The only difference now was that people cared, because it was her sister that died. Lily was the mother of the boy who lived and her son, the boy who lived now lived with his aunts.
Rosie didn't blink until she was safely tucked away inside her dorm room, being enveloped in a hug from Penny.
"Oh my Merlin I was so worried about you!" Penny yelped as she buried her face into Rosie's blonde curls. "I heard about the death and then that horrible woman wrote that horrible piece about you in the Daily Prophet! I wanted to march down there and strangle her with her quil!"
Rosie's face went red. Her eyes welled up. Then she laughed.
*******
"So remember when you told me you wanted to get a pet kneazle?" Rosie asked, setting herself beside Penny on her bed. Penny nodded.
"Well..." Rosie reached down into her bag and pulled out a puff of fur. Or more accurately the puff of angry fur that had traveled all the way from Petunia's house to the Ravenclaw dorms while stuffed in a bag. The beast, which had never actually been good-tempered, was literally spitting in it's fury. Rosie held the animal away from her body, and very carefully.
"This is a cat, well at least part cat. When my sister died Vernon and I went to pack her things away for Harry to sort through when he's a little older. This is the creature that greeted us. I've gone around to a few shops in Diagon Alley," Rosie neglected to mention the fact that she had also visited Knockturn Alley for more information, "And the consensus seems to be that yes, this is a cat. However he, er she- It is also part kneazle. Such a pairing is extremely rare and I had several offers to purchase. Only I thought that the beast had already been through enough and what it really needed was a nice home to grow old in. Now comes my offer. If you want him, he's-"
Rosie was cut off as Penny flung herself forward, wrapping Rosie in a hug so tight she was reminded of their herbology lesson on Devil's Snare last year. Rosie was having quite a bit of trouble breathing, and was going to mention as such, when Penny finally let her go.
"Yes, yes, yes!" Penny chanted, jerking a now very disgruntled half kneazle out of Rosie's arms and cuddling it to her chest. "Of course I'll give little Francis a home!"
Rosie snorted quietly, trying to hide her grin behind her hand. The kneazle, Francis, seemed to sense the truth and fixed Rosie with an evil glare.
"I can get him a sweater, and we can go on walks, and-" Rosie grinned, full on, and remembered why, exactly, Penny was her friend. No one else could make Rosie smile the way Penny could.