Forever and a Day ~ James Potter

The Sacred Twenty-Eight

Chapter Seventeen

Wednesday 24th December 1975 ~ 15:37 ~ waning moon

Only twenty-four hours had passed since Rosie had returned home, and it was now Christmas Eve. Every excruciatingly long hour, Rosie felt worse and worse as boredom coursed through her veins, and judgement seemed to run through the very pipes of the house.

She had tried to spend as much time as possible either reading in her bedroom or walking about the grounds of the house. That morning, she and her brothers had held a miniature Quidditch match, which was the most fun any of them seemed to have had together in a long while, but it was quickly finished by one of the House Elves shrieking about ruining the lawn.

Rosie was leaning over the wooden gate that lead into the orchard at the back of the Manor with a letter in her hands that Sirius had lent her. Since third year, she had managed to find ways to correspond with her friends over the holidays, although she had to instruct the owls to fly to her bedroom window for everyone but Sirius Black. Since her family approved of Sirius, Rosie felt free to read his letters as she walked about the garden or through the house; in fact, she even went out of her way to show her family that she frequently corresponded with Black.

But every time she did this, James's words echoed in her head, You are not the type of person to give up... to settle... just because it's easier...

She always felt guilty after remembering it and then sloped back up to her bedroom to write to him - though she never sent any of the letters. She had also managed to send and receive a couple of books from Remus, although her Grandmere had questioned her the other day on where she had gotten a copy of 'The Picture of Dorian Grey', and she had made the excuse that she had bought it in Hogsmeade.

She was just finishing skimming over Sirius's letter when Alex came jogging up behind her, so she turned around and leant with her back on the fence. "What?"

"Mum says she wants to speak to us all," Alex panted, trying to look put together as he ran a hand over his thick hair – which he had apparently gotten cut short on the last Hogsmeade trip.

Rosie groaned, tucking away the letter and wandering towards the French doors that lead into the breakfast room with her brother in tow. She tucked the letter onto one of the bookshelves in the library as she walked through it and eventually arrived in the drawing room, where the rest of her family were sitting waiting.

"Did someone die?" she asked dryly, sitting in the spare seat beside Charles.

"Roisín," her mother hissed, glaring at her.

Rosie let out a hollow breath as she looked awkwardly around the room, waiting for the arguing to start – this is what normally happened when both sides of the family were in the same room as each other. It usually ended up with the Artois' winning since it was they who occupied more of the Manor and not the Suvorovs.

Then, Ruslan stood up, running a hand through his hair, which he had strangely left un-greased today.

"Thank you all for taking a break from your busy days. I assure you, my wife and I thank you for your time," he smiled like a true businessman as he wrapped an arm around Amelie's waist. Rosie leant back and resisted the urge to roll her eyes. 'My wife', as if the room was filled with hundreds of clients and not his closest family. "We have been selected by the Sacred Twenty-Eight families of England to host the annual Christmas ball tonight-" Rosie let out a small groan, already feeling drained from even the mention of the 'sacred ones', "-and we have a big announcement to make at dinner," Ruslan smiled.

Charles, Alex and Rosie all looked at each other in confusion before looking back towards the adults.

"Two big announcements, actually," Amelie corrected, looking towards her parents before speaking to them, "One of which you know of, and one of which you do not."