"I went to see Professor Mcgonagall this morning and dropped Muggle Studies," Hermione announced on the train.
"But you got a 320 on the exam!" Ron said.
"I know, but another year like this one would drive me mad!" Hermione sighed.
"I still can't believe you didn't tell us about the time turner," Rose said slightly grumpy. The time turner would've been helpful on days she wanted to sleep in.
"I had promised to not tell anyone...oh, cheer up, Harry!" Hermione exclaimed, changing subjects when she saw how gloomy her friend looked.
"I'm okay. Just thinking about the holidays," Harry announced.
"Yeah, me too. You have to come stay with us. I can use the fellytone-" Ron started.
"Telephone," Hermione sighed, but was ignored by Ron.
"It's the Quidditch World Cup. Dad can probably get tickets and you can come. You too Lyn, er-Rose and Hermione," Ron offered.
"Yeah, that sounds nice," Rose said. She hoped she could see her dad at least a few times during the summer, but it probably wouldn't be possible so the World Cup would be a welcome distraction.
"Yeah ... I bet the Dursleys'd be pleased to let me come ... especially after what I did to Aunt Marge..." Harry said. Rose snorted and Harry turned to her and raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"I just still can't believe you blew your aunt up!" Rose said.
"I can't believe you got kidnapped by your suspected mass murderer father and then didn't tell us, and then got scratched by a werewolf that also happened to be your godfather!" Harry responded. Rose stared at him in shock for a few seconds as the carriage in the train went silent, everyone shocked at how blunt Harry had been.
"Oh, my God. I'm so sorry, that was too soon-" Harry started to apologize but was cut off when Rose started to laugh. Soon the carriage was filled with laughter.
"That was a good one Harry. Touché," Rose said after she finally stopped laughing.
"I thought you were going to murder me," Harry said.
"Of course not! Who would I use as a pillow then?" Rose asked as she laid her head on his shoulder. Harry just let out a quiet chuckle and started playing exploding snap with Ron. Rose fell asleep, cuddled next to her best friend and listening to her other best friends argue like always. She woke up when she felt a slight push on her shoulder.
"This better be a good reason to wake me up or we're going to have problems," Rose grumbled, unintentionally cuddling closer into Harry, not noticing his red face. Neither noticed the look that Ron and Hermione shared at their interaction.
"Oh, grow up. We're almost there anyways. Your dad sent you a letter," Hermione said jokingly. Rose sat up quickly and grabbed the letter from the tiny owl. She quickly tore it open and read, a small smile filling her face.
"What does it say?" Ron asked.
"See you soon," Rose replied.
"That's it? He wrote me a whole letter, gave Ron an owl and gave me permission to go into Hogsmeade," Harry said shocked. Rose just shrugged her shoulders.
"He knows that's all I need to be happy," Rose said with another shrug. A knock on the window made everyone turn. "Ced!"
"Hey Lyn. Mind if we talk?" Cedric asked. Rose shook her head no and told her friends that she would see them on the platform. She followed Cedric into an empty compartment and plopped down on the seat next to him, placing her feet in his lap.
"I feel like we haven't talked in forever!" Rose exclaimed.
"That's cause we haven't. You were too busy with the golden trio," Cedric said with a smirk.
"That's not true. I had some other stuff on my plate. By the way, I go by Rose now."
"Rose? Why?" Cedric questioned.
"Umm... just cause," Rose said, not knowing if she had permission to tell anyone the true reason.
"Sure...." Cedric said, a questioning look on his face. "So, are you coming back to Hogwarts next year?"
"I assume so. Moony hasn't said anything different," Rose said with a shrug. She couldn't think of any reason not to go back but she hadn't had a chance to talk to Remus or her father yet.
"That's good. So, what classes -Oh, my God, what happened to your arm?" Cedric exclaimed, realizing that her arm was heavily bandaged. He tried not to listen to gossip so he hadn't heard about what had happened more than a whisper here and there. Rose looked down at her arm, kind of forgetting that it was hurt.
"Oh, right. I kinda got scratched by a werewolf," Rose admitted. He stared at her for a second with his mouth open.
"Like, a werewolf that's also your godfather and my ex-teacher?" Cedric said. Rose just nodded.
"Crazy. Are you still living with him?" The boy asked, his voice non-judgemental as he realized that the werewolf was not her true godfather when she got scratched.
"Of course. He's actually going to pick me up but he decided to wait until later to not being too much attention onto us," Rose explained. The pair fell into comfortable conversation after that, Rose not telling her biggest secret despite the fact that Cedric had finally revealed who he liked- Cho Chang, a Ravenclaw a year below him. She had been asking who he liked for weeks but never got a response. Her chest felt heavy as she hugged him goodbye as the train pulled into the station and she went to find her friends. They all crossed over onto the muggle side where Hermione quickly left, her parents looking a little skeptical by all the Wizarding students filling the station.
"Bye, Rose! See you next year!" Hermione said, giving Rose a tight hug. Rose said her goodbyes and then was immediately grabbed.
"Rose, my mom wants to meet you!" Ron said, pulling the short girl and causing her to stumble.
"Ron Weasley! We do not pull our friends like that!" A red haired women yelled, causing Ron to pull his hand away and blush as others on the platform laughed, including his siblings. Harry, who was standing with the Weasleys, rolled his eyes at his friends.
"It's no problem, Mrs. Weasley. It's my fault," Rose assured the woman.
"Oh, please. Call me Molly! I'm awfully sorry about Ron's actions this year. I do hope you don't hold any grudges towards us," Mrs. Weasley said, referring to the fight Rose and Ron had that led to her getting kidnapped.
"Of course not! Everything turned out perfectly in the end," Rose said. Before the mother could respond to ask what she meant, Fred and George started to fight each other over the last chocolate frog.
"Boys! Stop it this instant!" Mrs. Weasley yelled. "I'm so sorry to leave so suddenly but I must before these boys become any more rowdy."
"Oh, no pro-" Rose started to say but the woman had already apparated away, surprisingly will all of her kids, surprisingly not shocking any muggles. Rose stood there in shock at the sudden departure.
"You get used to it," Harry said, referring to the large family.
"I wasn't expecting that," Rose admitted.
"Who's picking you up?" Harry asked.
"Moony. He decided to wait a little longer so to not cause any problems."
"Makes sense. There's my uncle over there," Harry said, pointing over to a man that was so large Rose was surprised his clothes fit him.
"He looks...nice," Rose said hesitantly. Harry let out a snort next to her.
"You don't have to lie."
"Good. He looks like a walrus," Rose said plainly. Harry nodded and noticed that the man had noticed him standing there and was angrily motioning at the boy.
"Well, he sees me. I have to go. See you next year and make sure to keep me updated," Harry said. Rose nodded before wrapping him in a hug that he quickly returned. A clearing of the throat interrupted them. Rose stepped away to see her godfather.
"Moony!" She exclaimed, quickly giving him a hug. The werewolf hugged her back and nodded at Harry, who quickly walked to his uncle with red cheeks.
"How have you been?" Remus asked, remembering to ask her about Harry when they got home.
"Miserable without you," Rose joked.
"Oh, I'm sure. Now, let's go, there's a certain black dog waiting for you at home and if we take any longer he might just come here himself," Remus said, purposefully saying it as if it was no big deal.
"Really! Why didn't you start with that! Let's go!" Rose yelled, tugging on Remus' sleeve. He chuckled and the pair walked over to an area with no muggles before apparating home. Apparation was still a little new to Rose so she stood there for a second, leaning over and trying not to vomit.
"You good?" Remus asked with a small chuckle. Rose nodded before shooting up quickly.
"Let's go!" She yelled, running into the house. "Dad?!"
"Rosie!" Sirius yelled as he ran down the steps from where he was hiding in the house. He thought it was pointless to hide as the nearest neighbor was 10 miles away, but he did it anyways as Remus was graciously providing him a home with his daughter, although Dumbledore had also helped. Sirius quickly wrapped his arms around his daughter, swinging her small body in a circle as her giggles filled the room. Rose noticed that he looked much healthier. His hair had been cut and was now shoulder length and he had filled out a little more, no longer just skin and bones.
"Hi! Did you miss me?" Rose said as her dad put her down, still holding her elbow as she swayed from being spun so much. Remus walked past the pair into the kitchen, feeling a little left out and jealous.
"No, not at all," Sirius said sarcastically, wrapping his arms around his daughter once more as she let out a giggle.
"How long have you been here?" Rose asked as they walked into the kitchen. Remus handed her a glass of lemonade with a wink and handed her dad a glass of what she believed to be Firewhiskey, taking a glass for himself as well.
"After that night I just kinda went around, sleeping in the forests and living primarily as a dog. Eventually, Dumbledore caught up to me, telling me everything that happened. He agreed to give the ministry false information and put some protective spells around here for the summer so I could live with you," Sirius explained.
"The whole summer!" Rose gasped, her face brightening even further. Sirius nodded and the girl squealed, turning to look at her godfather. "Moony, this is going to be the best summer ever!"
"I bet it will be at first but trust me, your dad is a nuisance," Remus said, taking a sip of his fire whiskey and staring Sirius in the eyes, a smirk on his lips. The curly haired man gasped and placed a hand over his heart.
"That's preposterous! I'm never a nuisance!" Sirius responded. Remus just raised an eyebrow at the man who huffed and turned towards his daughter. "Do you think I'm a nuisance?"
"I mean... I've never really gotten to live with you so...I don't know," The girl replied truthfully. The room went silent and the faces of both men fell.
"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to make it sad, I was just being honest! Blame Moony, he raised me! Oh! That probably wasn't the best thing to say!" Rose rambled, her cheeks turning redder by the second.
"As you can see, Sirius, Rose has your trait of not thinking before she speaks," Remus said with a smirk, reading her body language and trying to get some of the attention off of her. Sirius watched the interaction sadly, realizing that he had missed so much.
"I see that," Sirius said with a tightness in his throat. He quickly shot back the rest of his Firewhiskey. Remus quickly cleared his throat.
"So, Rose, you seem to be pretty close to Harry," Remus said, causing Sirius to perk up.
"She better not be close to any boy. Not until you're 100. I don't care who the boy is," Sirius growled. Rose somehow turned even redder and shrunk info the kitchen chair she was sitting in.
"He's just a friend, that's all," She reassured the men, shooting her smirking godfather a glare.
"Good. You're technically god siblings anyways," Sirius points out, trying to give his daughter reasons to never date, although he knew she would.
"I mean, technically they share no blood so there's no problem," Moony points out. Rose lets out a groan and lets her head hit the table. "Fine, we'll leave you alone about Harry. How's Cedric, by the way?"
"Moony, you're the worst," Rose groaned as her father started rambling about boys and protecting his daughter. It took over an hour before they were able to calm him down. The trio all worked together to cook supper and then watched a muggle movie on the small television Remus had bought for Rose's 11th birthday. Rose laid in between the two men with her head on her dad's lap and her feet pressed against her godfather's lap, trying to get some heat into her constantly cold feet since Remus was always extra warm.
"Ok, it's time for you to go to sleep," Remus said as Rose yawned for the 10th time in 5 minutes. She let out a whine.
"I don't wanna," She whined, using her puppy dog eyes.
"I don't care. It's almost 11 at night and you're obviously tired. Go to bed," Moony said, using his special voice that he always used when she refused to go to bed, which was often.
"You're so mean," Rose muttered, slowly standing up and glaring at the tall man. Sirius started to tell her it was ok to stay up, hating how sad she looked but Remus spoke up before he could.
"Bed. Now," Was all Remus had to say before the girl huffed and gave both men a kiss on the cheek before stomping up the steps into her room and slamming the door. Remus simply changed the channel on the TV as if nothing had happened.
"How'd you do that?" Sirius asked, amazement coating his voice.
"Do what?" Remus asked, his voice full of confusion.
"Still send her to bed when she whined like that. She used puppy dog eyes!" Sirius said, his eyes wide.
"You just have to be stern. Going to bed at a decent time is healthy for her and she was tired," Remus said with a shrug of his shoulders. He turned back to the TV to watch his favorite programme when he heard sniffles. He saw Sirius with tears running down his face and quickly shut off the TV and hugged his friend.
"I missed so much! I don't know how she behaves, her favorite drinks, how to raise her, anything!" Sirius sobbed.
"You'll learn. We'll both help you," Remus reassured his friend.
"I'll never get to raise her. You were the one to do that! You'll always be more of a dad to her than I will!" Sirius sobbed. Remus quickly put a silencing spell on the room, knowing that Rose didn't need to hear her father like this. Sirius let out an even louder sob as he realizes what Moony was doing and that he didn't think of it first.
"You can still raise her! You can teach her about boys, school, lots of things! And you are her dad, not me," Remus said, rubbing the sobbing man's back.
"I'm a wanted prison escapee. We'll never be a family, especially since I let Marlene get tortured!"
"Hey! Marlene wasn't your fault! Don't ever think that it was! And Dumbledore will help us clear your name. Eventually, you'll be a free man, mark my words," Remus said, a strength in his voice. Sirius nodded and after about 5 minutes straightened up and wiped his face.
"Thanks Moony. I don't know what came over me," Sirius said, his voice still shaking.
"Anytime. Also, is this a bad time to tell you that Rose wants to meet her mum?"