Flora And Fawna [HARRY POTTER]

31

Three weeks before Christmas break, Rosie gets a letter. From Walburga.

Apparently between Lily's funeral and then, Orion had caught a case of the sniffles and had passed. In her letter, Walburga didn't seem horribly shaken up but Rosie knew she had to be. Over the summer, Rosie had had no choice but to learn a few things about Walburga. One of those things being that she loved her husband.

In the letter, Walburga assured Rosie that a mudblood like her had no business returning home for the funeral, that she shouldn't even be missing anymore school anyway so Walburga was having it during the week. Rosie wanted to argue, if for nothing more than to ensure Walburga didn't kill anyone, but she resisted. Instead she read about what a grand affair the funeral if Orion Black was, and how he will be dearly missed.

Strangers that Rosie doubted had ever met the man were going on for pages about how one time when they were still just a daydream, Orion had scoffed at their parents and it was one of their fondest memories.

Despite Rosie knowing that Walburga probably did need a someone to be there for her, and as the only family Walburga had left had either been sent to prison or burned off the family tree- sometimes both- Rosie stayed home and simply watched the spectacle unfold in the newspapers. The last Black woman reportedly handled the entire event with all the grace and poised expected of a woman of her stature. Good for her.

*******

"Rose Evans?" a familiar voice asked from behind Rosie, drawing her attention away from the herbology textbook she had been reading. Rosie glanced up to see Arabella Borgin standing over the table she was at. Rosie glanced around the empty library to see if maybe, Arabella had the wrong person.

"Yes?" Rosie asked the pretty slytherin. It took her a couple of minutes before she could figure out any reason the sixth year would want to associate herself with  a third year like Rosie. The book. "Do you have a copy then?"

Arabella didn't say a word, just reached into the bag she had hanging around her shoulder and pulled out a wrapped parcel. She handed it to Rosie.

"My father had quite a bit of trouble coming across this, because they were discontinued so quickly after they were first printed. This one has some sort of spell on it that my father can't distinguish but we've both paged through it and it seems safe enough. We're going to take money off for the unidentified spell. The final price is sixty-three galleons."

A lot of money, but if the book was what Rosie expected it to be then she would be happy to treat herself a little. The book would prove to be invaluable. So Rosie just nodded.

"I don't carry that kind of money with me to the library but if you want to meet me in the owlery later today, then I'd be only too happy to give you your money. You can keep the book until then if you'd like." Arabela waved Rosie off.

"I trust you, little Ravenclaw. You hung with Regulus so at least in my book, you're good for a few galleons."

Then Arabella was gone, leaving a cloud of sweet scented air in her wake. Rosie went back to reading.

*******

Rosie arrived on the steps of Number Twelve Grimmauld on December twenty-fifth at precisely five in the afternoon. Walburga had written to Rosie again shortly after her husband's funeral to tell her when the annual Christmas party would be. Rosie had planned accordingly.

The family Christmas party, meaning the one with Mrs. Figg, Petunia, Vernon, Dudley, Harry, Sebastian and Penny was planned the next day, and they would exchange presents then.

Rosie hadn't come alone to Number twelve though, because she knew how much Petunia struggled at taking care of both her son, and Harry. Petunia had just become comfortable caring for her own son, and even then sometimes Rosie would get owls at school from Petunia, frantically asking what to do in certain situations. So Rosie and Penny had fashioned Harry a suitably formal baby suit and Harry had tagged along. Rosie had no idea how well that would go over with the other guests, as they were all likely followers of the Dark Lord, but she didn't really see any other options.