The Bug Collector | marauders

The Sword of Gryffindor

Lily had accepted Rose's apology. Although begrudgingly.

And from there Rose had gotten through Halloween well enough and Christmas was fast approaching.

Her parchments to Lily were not the only amends Rose had made; however, and after their talk, She and Sirius had been making up for lost time, spending loads of it complaining about their rather similar circumstances and going on little adventures together. Like the other night.

Rose had been waiting in the Slytherin common room for Sirius to knock, each marauder had their own for times like this and his was three knocks in quick succession. Very hard to miss and yet Rose was sure she hadn't heard it despite it being time.

"Psst"

Rose looked around the room. Nothing.

"Thorns."

Sirius.

With a flash of black hair and white teeth he lifted James' invisibility cloak off himself before tossing it over the two of them. 

"You lot don't have a Christmas tree in here? How boring." Sirius whispered.

"Black, what are you doing?!"

Rose whispered yelled as they walked towards the exit.

"You really thought you could tell me the password and I wouldn't use it?"

Rose huffed at him and whispered

"Just get us to wherever we're going."

And he did. They made their way out of the castle and into the forest before removing the cloak. Sirius had it in his mind to do a prank without the other boys, and thus it would be for them. An early Christmas present of sorts, but he wouldn't do it completely alone so he had enlisted Rose's help. The plan was as follows; attract a (hopefully) harmless magical creature into the school by morning, he had done a little research on how to do it and so there they were with a bag of herbs(all grown, dried, and tied into little bundles by Rose) and the hopes of stumbling upon a unicorn.

"Incendio"

Sirius casted a flame charm onto one of the bundles to spread the smell quicker. A decent amount of smoke pouring out of the herbs as they walked through the darkness. The forest was very much alive, sounds of animals rustling and twigs crackling following them through the night.

"Lumos"

Rose whispered taking out her throned wand.

The light helped, but not enough. It casted shadows where before there was only darkness.

"It's dark, Sirius I'm scared." Rose admitted with a shiver to her voice.

"Just look up at the stars, Love. You'll be fine."

Sirius had taken to calling everyone Love, or darling, or some other name like those. Rose couldn't quite tell if it was genuine or a joke of some sort.

"No. I'm scared. I want to go back inside."

A howl in the distance solidified this choice.

"Sirius!"

"Okay okay, we'll go, but you owe me another adventure since you've spoiled this one."

A few days later he was back, but not alone. As Rose waited in the common room she heard a faint, single knock. Peter's. She traded her robes for her father's jacket and a coat overtop and tightened her scarf before leaving the dorms to disappear into the darkness.  

Sirius had seemingly told Peter of the first failed attempt at doing something for the lads because Peter had come up with the very original idea of just getting the boys something instead. This led to the trio squeezing through passageways and swatting at cobwebs looking for any of Hogwarts' storage rooms where magical items might be hiding.

"Lily's a little upset I'm not coming home for Christmas but mum already said I could stay here, I'll have explored the whole castle by the time you boys get back."

"I'm going on holiday during Christmas" Peter said

"What about you, mate?" He asked Sirius

"I wish I was going somewhere else or I could stay here. I'll be home. Hopefully won't have to leave my room more than absolutely needed."

"Maybe try to visit James?" Rose suggested

"Not a chance they'll let me visit Potter. Could maybe visit Peter. If he was even going to be home."

"Sorry, Mate" Pete said as they finally came upon an open space filled with dusty items.

Through the wandlight Rose spotted a glimmer. She walked over to inspect it further and was shocked by what she found, a beautiful short sword, seemingly silver with rubies embedded in the hilt.

"Lads, I found a bloody sword!"

"No way!"

"Let me see!"

In a sudden burst of confidence Rose brushed away the dust and dirt and flipped the hilt around in her hand till it fit comfortably, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

As the two boys stepped closer Rose took a defensive stance, pointing it at Peter and laughing when he jumped backwards and knocked Sirius back causing him to shoot back with words.

"Watch where you point that thing. You're not exactly a skilled swordsman."

"Oh am I not?"

Rose said with a smile as she twirled the sword between her fingers, almost dropping it.

"No. You're not."

He almost sounded like Regulus.

"What do you think it's doing here?" Rose asked.

"Probably a replica of some sword for history of magic." Peter responded.

"Replica or not it's bloody cool!" Rose gave the sword a swing.

"James and Moony are gonna love it!" She continued.

Something about it seemed to worry Sirius.

"We'll see. Now come on Ser Evans we've got what we came for."

"Lead the way Mister Black."

Those same passageways from earlier seemed to shrink on the way back, or maybe it was that the sword took up some of the room. Either way Peter worried aloud often on the way and each time Sirius would retort with a "Shut up Pettigrew!" and Rose would stifle laughter.

When they returned Peter had chosen to go to bed, Rose had made a quick stop to skillfully wrap the sword and hide it in her things while waiting for the right moment to give it to the boys then greeted Sirius under the invisibility cloak once more. The relative quickness of their journey meant that the night was still young and Sirius seemed to know just where to go. He lead Rose to a different passage, this one leading all the way into Hogsmeade village. Or more specifically into the Three Broomsticks cellar.  

"It's time you had a butterbeer. A gift from yours truly. Call it a belated apology of my own."

"Are we going to steal them?!" Rose asked worriedly.

"No Rosie, we're going to buy them. What do you take me for?" He asked as he lead her up the wooden stairs to the actual establishment, getting more than a few odd looks, probably from the time of night and how very short they both were to be purchasing two pints of butterbeer and setting up shop at one of the tables in the back.

"I'd like a chance to reintroduce myself, doll."

Sirius extended a hand to her and this time she took it. Not shaking it but inclosing their fingers together before dropping it.

"Sirius Black."

"Thorns."

Their drinks arrived, clinching together as they were placed on the table.

"To the adventures or Thorns and Sirius Black." Sirius said before taking a sip of what smelled sweet and maybe just a smidge cinnamon-y.

A bit of the whipped cream from his butterbeer had stuck to his lip which made Rose smile.

"To the adventures of Thorns and Sirius Black."