Her Single Rose (Remus Lupin)

Seventy-Eight

"What happened?"

"Who did this to you?"

"When did this happen?"

"Why didn't you come back sooner?"

"Are you ok, now?"

"You're not going back, right-"

"Boys. Give her a moment." Mrs. Potter spoke, cutting off James and Sirius.

Poor girl, getting stabbed, what did her parents do?

Aries was sat in the living room on the couch in between James and Sirius while Mrs. Potter sat on a separate armchair and Mr. Potter paced.

Aries had been absentmindedly tracing her finger over the clothed and healing gash while she thought carefully over her words.

"I had just finished packing and gave Regulus and father a letter, when I had come downstairs. All I wanted was to protect Regulus, though I believe my help wasn't necessary. Mother and I had gotten into a fight like always, but this time it was different, this time it wasn't in a bedroom or living room where I could only bruise in result. This time it was in the dining room, where I quite literally was thrown on a table." Aries relived the memory as she spoke about it.

"I remember not wanting to move, thinking that if I did I would only hurt myself worse and cause more damage than already done. So I didn't. And with my mother leaving the room carelessly I thought I would eventually...bleed to death...but I believe it was my house elf that brought me here was it not?" She asked, looking at James as she questioned him.

How did she know?

"Her name is Ellie. She was my house elf. A great friend and, as we all saw, a very smart elf." Aries explained.

"You said you were packing? Hadn't you just gotten home?" Mrs. Potter asked after getting over the shock of a young girl being throw onto a table.

"I was packing because I no longer had a home. I think Sirius has mentioned quite a few times that 12 Grimmauld Place is no home. And there is no argument there. Regulus was the only child that didn't get physically abused. That was only because I made sure of it after...after Sirius left. Since recently I realized that Sirius had the right idea all along, I made sure that this break I would leave. Though this way of leaving wasn't intentional. I'm just glad I won't be going back." Aries explained. Her words brought a relived expression to her twins face.

"Why didn't you leave any sooner? You couldn't sense the physical harm from your parents before?" Mr. Potter asked only hearing a gasp from his wife.

"Fleamont!" Mrs. Potter glared at him.

Aries only shook her head at that, "it's alright, I understand the confusion, a few close friends have been asking me the same thing for weeks now. I did see the physical danger and harm that my mother had inflicted on me. My father never laid a hand on me, only my mother. The only reasons I stayed were because of my brother and my father.

Regulus isn't the most intelligent, so with the years we spent together I had to teach him how to never question our parents authority and to just obey. It was safe and only something he needed until one day..." Aries paused, unsure how to phrase her words, "the other reason was my father. Though he was never the best at parenting, he still showed his care in other ways. Laughing at jokes, smiling at my designs, approving my work, and even on rare attempts, very very good days, he would give me healing tools and ointments. Gifts he knew I would keep and not fake a smile." Aries kept a straight face as she spoke, though only Sirius could see the emotion behind her eyes.