I Solemnly Swear

Chapter 41: Another Shoe Drops

Violet knocked gently on the doorframe, poking her head around the door to smile at her daughters. It was a pattern she had repeated countless times in seventeen years, and one Rose hoped that she would repeat countless times more in the years to come - even after she had inevitably moved out to live in the perfect little flat James had created for them. "Lily-flower, Rose-petal" Violet called, Marlene reluctantly turning the music off. "Thank you, Marlene dear."

"Hi, Mum" Rose smiled, reluctantly saying farewell to the fun final night party they'd just been getting back into.

"Are you busy?" Violet wondered, and really it should have been obvious that they weren't. Not all that busy anyway.

Lily bounced off the bed, frowning in concern. "Why? What is it, Mum?"

"Nothing, sweetheart" Violet began softly, glancing away. "Your father wants a word before you go in the morning."

"Please tell me James and Sirius didn't blow up the garage or anything valuable while in there" Rose groaned, thinking of no other reason why her father might want to have a conversation with her before they left. It wasn't the kind of thing that Jim usually did before they went back to school.

"Of course they didn't" Violet dismissed, actually waving her hand at them. "They've been wonderfully well behaved and excellent company for your father." She smiled, but there was something off about it. "He just wants to see you both before you leave again." The emerald eyes Lily had inherited flickered over them. "You're growing up so fast, we hardly see you at all. Even less of you Rosie." Rose opened her mouth, defence upon her lips, but Violet flapped her hand at her again. "It wasn't a criticism, sweetie, just a fact. You've got your life laid out before you, you have to go and live it. Those Marauders of yours keep you busy anyway, if not out of trouble. You're happy, that's all your father and I want for you."

"Is he in the den?" Lily asked, cutting through the tension that was building.

"Oh no" Violet smiled again. "Remus is in the den. I swear, he growled at James when he teased him through the door."

"Don't mind Remmy when he's like that" Rose shrugged, decidedly avoiding the whole lycanthropy situation. "He gets territorial and irritated when James interrupts his reading time." She gained brightly. "You should see him during exam season, the crossest boy in school, that's what Remus turns into then."

Lily raised her eyebrow at Rose, clearly not buying something she'd just said, but refocused the conversation. "If Dad wants to see us, where is he?"

"Your father is in the kitchen" Violet sighed, worrying at her bottom lip in a way Rose recognised in herself. Something in the back of Rose's mind whispered that she didn't like this, but really what choice did she have in the matter? Her dad wanted to see her and Lily, it wasn't as if she wanted to refuse. Marlene and Alice smiled encouragingly as they departed for Lily's room and what was either going to be an early night, or a time for them to pursue their separate interests until Lily came back and they could interrogate her. Rose caught Lily's concerned frown and shrugged in confusion. The Marauder network of spying portraits didn't extend as far as the Evans house, much as Rose currently fervently wished it did. She was as out of the loop on this one as Lily, and she didn't care for the feeling overmuch.

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Jim was pacing in the kitchen, and it was a scene from out of the past. Rose couldn't remember how many times she had seen the exact same thing - Jim pacing back and forth, rubbing his hands together, occasionally tapping at his chin, crossing his arms, and generally muttering to himself - during her childhood. It was what Jim had used to do when he was in the middle of a hard case, preparing for his closing arguments, trying to find just the right words, the right emphasis and combination to sway the judge or the jury to his side, to his argument. The sight now was something of a jarring shock.