The Bug Collector | marauders

Changes

Rose entered the Hogwarts Express with Lily, and when she spotted James Potter's curly hair her eyes lit up and her sister breathed a heavy sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Go on, have your fun."

"Thanks, Lil." Rose said giving her sister a quick hug before practically running over to James and Sirius.

"James!" She yelled and immediately wrapped him in a hug that he tightened. He wobbled a bit at the sudden exchange though he was still standing. He reached up to fix his glasses.

He was taller.

All the marauders were taller that year, all expect Sirius.

The hug ended and James sat down, Rose squeezed in between him and Sirius, there was an empty seat on the other side of the cart but that space was saved for Peter and Remus. Rose poked Sirius in the side, and in a joyous tone asked

"So, where's your second wand hm, Sirius? If we're going to learn to be duel-welders together I should see it."

"Wasting no time on greetings I see." He said in response.

His voice was different.

A hint of poshness left from his upbringing was still there, but his voice almost reminded her of Remus' now, though harsher than Remus'.

"I said hello to James....in a way. Now, wand I wanna see it."

James knew of Sirius' birthday gift to her, he had been the first one she wrote to about it actually, and Sirius probably told him beforehand as well, he seemed to tell James absolutely everything.

That would change.

"If you were paying attention, you would have noticed it already."

He said while removing the wand from his hair, it had been holding a bun together so upon removal his hair fell to his shoulders gracefully. The wand itself was thin and angular, a dark black wood with geometric carvings along it. This wand seemed much more like him compared to the one he had been using. That one was just as dark but seemed to have his family's taste, something Sirius didn't care for.   

Just as Rose was about to open her mouth to praise it, a light smell of cigarette smoke wafted over them. Then Remus took his seat and Peter followed from behind.

"Sorry for the wait mates, this one was walking slow. Didn't want to leave him." Remus said while putting a muggle lighter in his pocket. 

Whereas James had grown taller, Remus grew TALL, and even Peter seemed overall larger than he had been the year before. Peter's voice kept a chipper sound to it were's Remus' was anything but.

As everyone settled in for the long ride Rose examined each one of them, James had a few spots of acne across his cheeks, the pinkness adding an extra youthful look to his appearance. Almost like a permanent flush.
Peter's hair was more of a dirty blonde now, and Sirius...Sirius' face seemed to have lost all the softness of childhood, his jawline was more defined than it was the previous school year, his face had a hardness to it that resembled what Rose had seem of his father from the window of the Hogwarts Express, but that hardness did not make it's way to his eyes. Sirius' eyes sparkled with life.

The changes in the boys were not completely unexpected, they were in their fourth year now, all at least fourteen.

Rose wondered how much she had changed, her hair was messier, curlier, and tad longer. She wasn't currently wearing her glasses, and her father's coat fit a bit snugger than it did the year before, but those changes all seemed to pale in comparison to what the summer had done to her friends.

Rose looked around the train to try and wave at Ode or maybe even get a peek of Regulus but saw neither, at a point she traded spots with James in order to look out the window, the necklace Lily had given her seemed to glow in the sunbeams that came in through the glass, heating her skin and giving a cozy feeling to the space. 

Upon arrival to the castle Rose parted from the marauders and made her way to the Slytherin table for the sorting ceremony.

Occasionally when a new Slytherin was announced, some of Regulus' friends would get rather loud, and each time Rose could see an annoyed glint in Regulus' eyes begin to grow. Near the end of the ceremony the boys named Barty and Evan had been exceptionally loud, at that Regulus simply put down the book he had been reading(utterly ignoring everything around him to the best of his ability) and sent a look at the boys. A long, silent look that made Rose feel queasy. The table was quieter for the rest of the ceremony and following feast. 

That was new too. There was no denying that Regulus' cousin Bellatrix had become a death eater when she graduated Hogwarts, but that alone could not be enough to inspire the sort of morbid respect...almost obedience...the boys Regulus followed seem to have for him. Rose wanted to know more.

When the feast had finished, but before leaving the Great Hall Rose told Ode(who's hair was back to normal so the green must have been a summer thing) that she would be down to their dorms in a bit and walked over to the Gryffindor table, waving happily at Lily before being pulled into a tight side hug from James who then waved just as excitedly to Lily.

Lily's response was scoffing and turning to talk to her friend Marlene.

Yet another difference in third year was how affectionate everyone was, including herself.

James and Rose were the first to begin showing larger amounts of platonic affection.

Sirius was next,

then Moony,

and Peter never really did.