The Bug Collector | marauders

Enter Ghost

Later that night, Rose found herself alone in her bedroom once again. The only sounds were, the flap of curtains against on open window, Rose humming the tune of her current comfort song to herself, and a muffled dripping sound.

Drip

Drip

She'd been sat there at the edge of her bed squinting at letters she'd pinned onto the walls over the years. Any letter from Sirius or James was obvious even a room away, their signatures were always big and boisterous at the bottom of the page.

Sirius O. Black

One letter tacked on the wall close to Rose's desk read.

A letter Regulus had touched, commented on.

You all have the brother I once had. You, James, Peter, the werewolf.

Their solemn voice rang through her memory. She could almost see them dragging their finger across their brother's signature.

Rose stood, and made her way to the letter. Placing a hand to the long dried ink and reading its contents for the first time in a long time.

Managed to sneak away from you long enough during our last Hogsmeade trip to get you this, saw a 5th year doing magic with two wands and thought you might like to hon your skills more. Not that there's anything wrong with your wand! It fits you for sure, but now I can help you get even better. Plus there's no rule saying we CAN'T duel-wield wands like gunslingers! Anyway, Happy Birthday, Thorns.

See you soon,
Sirius O. Black

The letter had accompanied birthday presents, a wand, dried Rose petals, and a few annotations from Peter since at the time Sirius was unable to write her directly.

Rose stared ahead at the wall of papers, sighing as she did so.

"I'm sorry I fucked everything up, Sirius. I'm sorry that while your brother was out dying I was sleeping. I'm sorry I didn't take care of them good enough. I'm just sorry." She said aloud, as if the man could hear her apology from wherever it was he was dealing with his own grief.

Rose couldn't imagine Sirius mourning.

She had seen it, and yet still couldn't quite believe Sirius could ever stop smiling.

She took hold of the parchment, and ripped it off the wall. Curling her hands around it, and effectively crushing the letter.

It felt freeing, and as one letter fell to the floor another was torn off the wall. Then, another, and another, until she was ripping letter after letter off the wall.

Lost in a sea of papers, Rose was too distracted to notice her mum entering through the doorway.

"What are you doing with all this mess, Rosie?" She asked with a sleep laden voice.

Rose jumped at the sudden noise, turning swiftly to face her mother.

"Sorry! I'm gonna clean it up." Rose admitted, dropping a few pages to the floor as she lowered her eyes.

"Why're you on edge, love?" Her mum asked with a concerned furrowing of the brows.

Rose's gaze did not falter, but the girl's feet shifted awkwardly.

"Every time I start to feel better, I feel bad again." She said, it wasn't an answer to her mother's question, but it was all she could offer.

Her mum made her way to her daughter's side, grasping her arm gently, inciting the girl to finally look up at her.