Study Date | James Potter

Chapter 22 - "I Can Help"

Rose stood at the edge of the group of Prefects as the train began to move. She couldn't be seen willingly spending time with James, Lily or Remus, and Regulus hadn't even looked her way when he'd entered the carriage, so she was alone. The younger Black stood almost directly opposite her, beside Rosier, who had visibly blanched at the sight of James wearing the Head Boy badge. At least that had been one good thing so far in the day.

Lily and James had instantly and easily taken lead of the Prefects, both old and new. For once, her boyfriend's uniform was impeccable, although his hair still wasn't tamed. (Not that he'd tried to, but Euphemia had.) In truth, Rose wasn't paying much attention to her sister's words, instead daydreaming about ruining the perfect knot of James's tie.

She heard her name and startled slightly, but it was only Lily saying that she was to be paired with James for their patrols. Outwardly, she scowled, and saw a similar look of annoyance cross his face, but once they were out of the Prefects' Carriage and there was nobody around, she tugged him into an empty compartment with a grin. He shut the door and closed the blinds behind him, before Rose used his tie to tug him down to her level and press her lips against his.

"Finally," she muttered, when they pulled apart. "I do love your parents but they seem to have some supernatural sense as to when anything at all is happening between us. Do you know if they put some kind of Magical tracker in you at birth?"

James laughed, and leaned down to kiss her again. "Well they can't interrupt us at Hogwarts at least."

"True. We have to be careful though. If anybody finds out-"

"-we will be, don't worry. We'll use the Map and my cloak. We won't get caught."

Over the holidays, the Marauders had taken the decision to tell Lily and Rose about the map they had created, thoroughly impressing both with their spellwork and dedication to exploring the castle.

Rose nodded. "The Map and the cloak." She let out a breath. "Sorry, I'm just nervous."

"Don't be." James looked into her eyes. "Everything's going to be ok. We have the Heads' rooms now, and excuses if we're caught together in the corridors. All we have to do is pretend to hate each other in public."

She laughed. "Speaking of, we should probably get back out there." She fixed his tie and then they exited the compartment wearing matching expressions of annoyance.

"...and you can't take points yet Evans, we're not at school," James said. Rose simply sneered at him. Thankfully their performance was to an empty corridor, or mostly empty - Rose thought she had caught a glimpse of black hair from the corner of her eye, but when she turned there was nobody there. Empty then... she hoped.

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When she had finished with her Prefect duties on the train, Rose found Tina sitting alone and reading her Potions textbook.

"Already studying? Really?" She asked, standing in the doorway.

"Rose! There you are. So now you're a prefect, does it mean you're not going to help me with that new prank I thought of?" Her friend smirked and Rose copied.

"Of course I'm not." Rose closed the door behind her and sank into the space opposite Tina, sitting with her back to the window and her legs up on the seat. "I'm going to be patrolling near the kitchens that night, but if somebody happened to slip by me..."

Tina grinned. "I knew it. What about Matthew and Regulus? I've barely heard anything from either of them." Her expression morphed to one of worry.

"I'm not sure. I ran into Rosier, Rookwood and Dolohov in Diagon Alley, and they said something about Regulus not being so sympathetic this year. I don't know if it was just a front during the holidays or if they've really got to him," Rose said. "He's the other Slytherin Prefect now too - Lestrange had it taken off him - but earlier in the Prefects' Carriage he just ignored me. And from Matthew there's been almost nothing."