The Bug Collector | marauders

Welcome Back

Second year

Rose entered the Hogwarts Express as excited as ever. Searching with her eyes, she spotted familiar dark hair and practically ran over to who it belonged to.

"Reg!"

"Hello."

His eyes did not meet hers. They looked back out the window at two stern figures watching him. They were well-dressed, both looked strikingly similar to the boy standing before her and his brother. Their expressions unmoving.

As she got a good look at their faces Rose recalled something from two years before, the first time she ever saw Regulus. At the time not knowing who he was. She has been crying, not sobbing but a few tears had trailed down her cheeks and her nose was red. She had watched Lily walk onto the Hogwarts express and that's when she saw him standing about a meter away. He was there for the same reason as she was, saying goodbye to his older sibling. He looked on stone faced in comparison, standing like a statue in front of his parents as he watched his brother board the train for the first time. His parents had not changed much since then. They looked as unloving as Rose had remembered them. Regulus' voice brought her out of the memory.

"Rose, I cannot be your friend anymore."

What?

He didn't try to soften the blow or slowly introduce the topic, he got straight to the point.

"What do you mean you— why?"

"My family. My friends. Unfortunate reality."

As Rose took another look between the stern faces outside and Regulus' he looked almost like that little boy from her memory again.

"Well are you sure—"

"Please...just leave me alone, Evans."

And he walked away, to join Evan Rosier and Barty Crouch Jr. who Rose was sure had become her replacements over the summer(and did not remember them being the nicest lads). She had expected not to hear from Regulus over the summer, but did not expect this from their first meeting after.

Unsure of what exactly to do; Rose wanted answers and so she went where she thought she might find them. The trolly car that held the marauders.

"Hello James, sorry to be a bother but I simply must barrow Sirius, it'll only be a minute." She said to the curly haired boy with glasses as he was kind of their ring leader.

"Barrow me? Am I a quill?"

"I need to talk to you, about Reggie."

"As if I'd help you or Regulus. Bugger off."

"Please."

"Why?"

"Just because?"

"Not a chance"

"Stop being a prick, mate. Just go." Remus said without looking up from what he was reading.

"Thank you, Remus." Rose was grateful for his interjection.

"Fine. But this doesn't mean you can bring me into your Slytherin drama whenever you feel like it."

Sirius stood, a bit taller than Rose remembered him, and broader too. He was just a year older than her but it felt as if summer had changed him more than it changed Rose.

She took him to a relatively empty cart so they could as least talk in solitude, and now it was Rose's turn to get straight to the point.

"Your parents told Regulus I can't be his friend?"