The Bug Collector | marauders

The Allegory of The Cave

Mostly the Spring of 75'

In the days following her conversation with Remus, Rose had addressed all the boys and asked if there were anymore secrets she might need to know about. In response Peter began to speak just for Sirius to quickly cover his mouth.

"I know you're excited, Pete, but one at at time, and with the group's approval." He said.

"Right." James said in agreement.

"We'll start with the map?" Remus asked and the others seemed to agree.

They described this map to Rose, pulling out piles of parchment of all shapes and sizes.

"The leftovers from your screw up with Lily turned out to be useful after all, Thorns." Sirius said with a smirk as they all took their seats in the floor, arranged in a half circle with Rose seated on the opposite side. She saw the charmed flower on the side table beside Remus' bed, it was dangerously close to being in full bloom.

They began explaining the general idea of their map, one that was animated and accurate to where everyone and everything in or around Hogwarts was. This is where Rose's help could come in, she had easier access to certain areas than the boys did, and much like them usually enjoyed an adventure outside of the castle as well.

James spoke up and explained that Rose should map some areas out then return the filled parchment back to them so it could be added to the others.

"Alright, James. I'll need the cloak though, I'm not doing this alone and you lot will be busy soon." She said glancing back over to the flower.

"Who are you going to bring?" Sirius asked.

"James, I'd like to use my "no questions asked" policy." Rose said ignoring the question.

The "no questions asked" policy was what it sounded like, you could barrow one of the groups magical items(the sword with rubies in the hilt, the invisibility cloak, or the soon to be magic map) without having to answer questions about it twice a term, Sirius had used his two up on the sword an alarming amount of times, but almost everyone used the ounces of secrecy on the invisibly cloak.

Sirius grumbled but respected the sanctity of the policy and asked no further questions.

—

Which left Rose where she was currently. Hours after agreeing to the venture she waited as the sun went down and her roommates feel asleep before slipping the cloak over herself and leaving the girl's dorms.

She had two places in mind to go, one was close and one was only a chance, so she took the close option, however her second choice was tempting.

Far before they had completed the polyjuice potion prank, while the boys were scrambling to see who would snatch one of Snape's hair's first Rose had met someone she still hadn't mentioned to the marauders yet.

Xenophilius Lovegood.

He was in the same year as the marauders and Lily. The boy seemed the polar opposite to their own nemesis, Severus Snape.

He had long platinum blonde hair, he shared Rose's interests in herbolgy and entomology, and he had a face with a permanent smile plastered to it.

Perhaps that was just due to his overuse of the muggle plant Rose had smoked with Sirius at the Gryffindor quidditch-loss party.

Usually her visits to the greenhouses went uninterrupted by anyone other than professor Sprout or Sirius, but at the moment Sirius was coming by less often and with exam season fast approaching Sprout's longer visits stopped. Even so Rose could swear she felt a presence nearby at times, thought she saw wisps of white hair from time to time.