The Bug Collector | marauders

On The Way Home

June 30th 1975

Gryffindor utterly destroyed Ravenclaw.

Maybe James' arrogance was warranted when it came to his quidditch skills. 

Rose had considered sitting with Lovegood at the game but figured it was already blasphemous enough that she occasionally cheered for Slytherin, let alone Ravenclaw. Thus, she did what she should've and sat next to the marauders(with Lily down a few seats) and joined in with the many cheers for James Potter.

At one point during the game a rather large Hufflepuff approached the group, the boy was extraordinarily tall not to mention broad. He already had a decent bit of facial hair, must have been at least a sixth year. His long wavy hair was the color of Peter's and tied into a bun being held together by two wands.

He nudged Sirius before speaking, his voice was not nearly as intimidating as the boy it belonged to, it was deep but had a joyful sound to it.

"I've seen you and the lass practicing dueling with two wands, if you get enough we'll have to duel sometime." He said and patted Sirius on the back, his yellow tie hanging undone around his neck as he moved past them.

"I'll consider it." Sirius said with tad of sharpness.

"Alright little, lad" the older boy responded over his shoulder before joining his friends, they seemed to be a rowdy bunch for Hufflepuffs.

They didn't see anymore of the Hufflepuff duel-wielder that year. The rest of the term was full of studying and school work, at least it was for Rose.

As the school year rounded off, Rose was once again packing her things to head home for the summer. There were notably less polaroids in the dorm this year, but many more plants. Rose had given each roommate(even the blood purist) one of her attempted moon phase flowers from before the charm was perfected, one of them opened and closed often, one seemed to at least attempt following the moon phases, and the other two didn't do anything at all as they had been from her very first attempts.

While packing Rose took extra care to neatly fold Regulus' jumper and tuck it underneath the rest of her things before sitting back down on her bed and opening her journal. It was usually one of the last things to go as she would more often than not write on the train ride.

She flipped through the pages, reading over some of her favorite moments from this year.

There was all the pranks she had pulled with the marauders, all the detentions she had narrowly avoided, and her first official trips to Hogsmeade village!

During her first trip she had planned to stick with her roommates, Ode and Stephone walked arm is arm next to her and even though her green scarf wrapped around her face she could smell the scent of their perfumes mixing.

Stephone always smelled sharp and clean, with a woody scent, while Ode smelled sweet and fresh, like a bundle of picked berries placed on a basket of clean laundry. The smell brought a nostalgic comfort to Rose, during the summer of their first year. Ode must have sprayed that same perfume onto the letters she sent because the smell reminded Rose heavily of them.

Rose's original plan was to stick with her roommates, that plan changed when Rose was poked from, which caused a yell from Rose and then Ode as Sirius removed the cloak from himself and a laughing James.

"Ladies" he said playfully.

"You've come to kidnap my friend again?" Ode said with a tone teetering on sass.

"That we have." James spoke up.

"We must apologize, you see we've decided we must treat our friend here to the best first trip to Hogsmeade ever." He continued.

"I've already been to The Three Broomsticks, James." Rose said with a quiet giggle.

"Yes! But never with your parents permission! That opens up new possibilities!" He said excitedly

"Alright" she agreed with a shake of the head.

"We'll see you back at ours then?" Ode said moving a tad closer to Stephone, it must have been colder standing still.

"Yeah of course! I'll show you anything cool I get!" Rose replied with a smile

With that she parted ways with her roommates, and James lead the way. He'd seemingly planned out a "what Rose might want to do" list for them.

That day had been wonderful.

    —

Rose closed her journal and slipped it into her bag before sharing a three way goodbye hug with the two roommates she didn't basically despise before heading out and making her way to board the Hogwarts Express.

That's when a tall boy with dark curly hair and big round glasses started waving madly at her.

"Rosebud!" He yelled.

"That nickname is putrid, Potter." She grumbled as she caught up to him.

"You like Lily flower." James argued

"That's because it's for Lily." She said interlacing their arms friendlily. As they boarded the train together. The other marauders were definitely already on board as Rose had taken longer than planned to arrive. Even so she knew one of them would be waiting outside for her.

That was the thing about those boys, they would never leave one another behind.

Not ever.

"Took you long enough." Remus said after Rose and James made their way to him. Remus sat between Sirius and Peter which was a new seating arrangement.

A full moon had just passed so Rose dismissed the agitation she heard in Remus' voice, he'd get like that after a moon, and right before one he'd be hyperaware, and just as moody.

"You're gonna leave me all alone with James?" Rose complained playfully as they sat in the empty seat adjacent from the other boys. 

"Hey! One day Lily might join us." James said hopefully taking his place beside her.

Rose leaned her back against the cool window, throwing her legs over into James' lap.

"Not a chance." She said with conviction.