The Bug Collector | marauders

Ferns

Rose's days started the same way, breakfast with the Marauders. She'd sit in between James a Sirius(a little closer to Sirius), and sometimes Lily would join them. Rose especially loved those mornings.

Lily and James were Head Boy and Head Girl this year, despite that the pranks still occurred.

Each day in between classes Rose would find herself on the lookout for some practical joke, and more often than not Lily would find herself in a similar situation. Keeping watch while the boys did one thing or another. After only being back a few days they had already filled an entire classrooms with frogs(which Lily later collected and set free). Yes, running around the castle with the boys was exhilarating, but Rose often found herself looking forward to something else entirely, one of her last classes of the day, after Transfiguration. 

Care of Magical Creatures.

"Reg?" She whispered to the boy sitting to her left.

"Yes, Rose?" He whispered back, not taking his eyes off his notes, a curl falling into his face.

"You know what I think you would be if you were an animagus?" She asked.

"What might I be, Love?"

Rose couldn't speak for a moment, she knew it was just a greeting, but hearing it from him— well it felt different.

"Rose? What would I be?" He whispered again.

"Oh. Right. A uh, like a little cat, the black and white ones with the little tuxedo coats, you'd be a real menace I think."

He didn't look up, his eyes remained on the notes he was taking, but he smiled to himself.

"You are a menace already." He mumbled, she shoved him slightly.

"Take that back, I'm a wonder." She whispered at him.

"And I'm trying to learn about magical creatures right now. Meet me in your greenhouse later?" He asked, glancing over at her for a brief moment.

"I'll be there already so yeah, sure." She said, turning her attention to her class work once more, a small smile on her face.

—

Moonlight shined through the greenhouse, incense smoke snaked through the air, and small water droplets glistened upon the ferns that lined the wall. Rose held a small mister in her hands, giving each plant a bit of attention as she heard a knock at the door.

"Come in." She called out, sitting the glass mister gently on one of the work tables.

She half expected it was Professor Sprout checking in on her when the scent of cannabis wafted in as the door opened. She turned around and saw, not the quirky professor she was so fond of, but Regulus(who she'd been expecting). He'd ditched his robes for an untucked white shirt, his sleeves were rolled up so a bit of his dark mark showed, and if you looked very closely at his stomach as he moved you could see the little black "R" she'd tattooed on him. It wasn't the usual look he had in the slightest.

Somewhat puffy, red eyes looked back at her.

"Sorry it took so long, I got caught up with Barty." He said with a small laugh, shutting the door behind him and fiddling with the ferns she'd just watered.

"I see." She said, she'd never expected Regulus to drink or do anything else of the sort, perhaps that was a silly idea to have of him.

"So, you still take care of these bastards?" He asked, touching each flower or herb as he walked by it, he walked with an air of curiosity.

"I wouldn't call the plants bastards, but yeah I take care of them." Rose responded with a little chuckle, meanwhile he'd moved on from messing with the plants to playing with the smoke coming from the incense burner, slapping his hand through it and following it thoughout the greenhouse.

Eventually he bent down, looking at something on the stone floor.

She leaned down next to him, curious as to what took his attention, she found a small beetle. He sat down next to it.

He whispered a charm of some sort and a small puddle appeared next to the seemingly dying insect, he looked up at her.

"Sugar water for the little guy." He said, crouched over by a small green beetle with a shiny shell, and a broken leg. Taking care of the small injured creature he'd noticed.

This is a Death Eater.

Regulus stood then, and looked directly at Rose.

"Would you- would you like to come to my dorm?" He asked.

So many uncertainties passed through her mind when he asked that question that she almost forgot to answer.

"Yeah. Of course." She eventually said, and he looked at her with a goofy smile.

"You're going to travel in my pocket."

"Oh my— fine." She answered.

—

Upon entering his dorm room Regulus sat the little orange snake on his bed gently and addressed it.

"As you can see, my roommates are gone for the moment, but they'll come back so you'll have to be rather quiet." He explained.

A small hiss.

"So here's the general idea of what I would like to do, um, can you I don't know, nod or hiss or something to let me know how you feel about it?" He asked

Another hiss.

"Okay, as I was saying, they are gone now, but they will come back so I figured you can turn back to normal soon. I'll close the bed curtains and when my roommates come back you'll turn into a snake again and we'll get you out of here- how does that sound?" He asked, sounding very unsure, a pink hue coming to his cheeks.

She changed back before answering.

"And what exactly are we going to do?" She asked, leaning back comfortably on his bed.

He joined her on the bed, but sat at the very edge, closing the curtains.

"Do you remember when I slept over at yours when Sirius— Well, I was hoping maybe you could stay here for some of the night, just like that again. Nothing else." He explained nervously.

"Are you asking if I want to cuddle with you?" She asked.

"Yes, that's essentially what I was trying to ask." He admitted.

"I'm going to say no for now, but hear me out." She began, sitting up straight again.

"I'm assuming you smoked not long before you came to see me, so not tonight. Tomorrow though, come get me, and we can do that, maybe during free period, alright?" She continued.

"Yeah, that's alright." He said, smiling.

"But, for tonight I can curl up as a snake, and sleep on one of your pillows if you want, I mean I'll still be here." She said, rather jokingly.

"Would you really do that?" He asked, in an almost innocent tone, a sweet look on his face.

"Yeah. I can do that." She said, before doing just that.