Dear Edson Clan ━━

What's good?

For me, what's good is my friends, and the castle. I love being back here. It's so beautiful and wild and amazing, filled with magic. I'll be sure to bring you guys back with something. Actually, no, I won't. You know why? Because you'll finally hide.

It's dangerous. You might die. I can't lose you. And you can hide, guys. It's not that hard. I think. Just please go. I'll even update you on our super cool professor if you leave the house. She's actually so intimidating, I'm paying attention in class for once! So, please. Just hide.

So, for the love of God, don't be brave like a Gryffindor and just be sensible for once.

Also, do you remember Sirius Black? Who am I kidding, of course you do. I shit-talked bashed him all summer, and I have no regrets.

Anyways, about this doxie pest. He actually makes my blood boil, and we're now partnered for a stupid project. That's worth basically half our grade. I think. Or at least a lot of it. Either way, it's important. And he's not known for doing work.

The help part is: How can I stop myself from murdering him? I would do a favour to the whole school, but I wouldn't want to go to jail. There are Dementors, and apparently they suck our soul out. And your happiness. Because it's magic.

Please help before I combust. I need to live to commentate for Quidditch. Actually, it's better if you hide. Don't help me. Go into hiding. Please. I'm literally begging at this point.

Listen to me,

Rosalie

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

Quidditch tryouts are in the arse-crack of dawn. Naturally, Acacia drags Rosalie out to watch, claiming that all her friends need to be converted to Quidditch. Rosalie is already knee-deep in Quidditch, so why the hell does she have to be here? She doesn't even have her own broom.

So why on earth is she here, at dawn, on a Sunday?

When she asks that now, Acacia grins and says: "This is where the magic happens, Ros. Not just at your commentator stand."

Drake, who also woke up abnormally early this morning to watch the tryouts, rolls his eyes at her response. Rosalie sticks her tongue out at Acacia, before sweeping her bangs, grumbling to herself as she shoulders her bookbag. The sun is barely out, and clumps of Hufflepuffs gather around with brooms. Pandora, the prefect from the other day, arrives — with another boy who Rosalie remembers from her DADA class, Aaron Diggory — her blonde hair now perfectly straight.

"Hello, hello!" Acacia's voice booms over Rosalie's muffled groaning from being up this early. She's more of a night person. "Welcome to the Hufflepuff's Quidditch Team tryouts! I'm Acacia, this year's Captain, and a Keeper — which you all should've been briefed on. Anyway, I need you all to get into groups of positions that you're going to try out for: Chasers there, Beaters there, Seekers there ..."

Drake scoffs, crossing his arms. Rosalie doesn't even know why he's here.

Oh, wait. He could be spying for the Slytherins!

Rosalie's eyes find Drake's unfocused ones. Yeah, right. He doesn't give a shit about the Slytherin team, as he's not even on it, anyway.

So, why would he — oh.

Rosalie stifles a giggle. Drake raises an eyebrow at her, the oblivious twat.

"Everyone's trying out this year?" Rosalie asks, leaning towards Acacia's ear as she tries to repress her smile. "Even the people who are already on the team?"

"Frank and Amos did it differently," Acacia admits. "But I have to give the others a chance. Who knows what talent can show up this year?"

"That's true," Rosalie admits. "You're going to be a great captain."

Acacia grins as the last of the Hufflepuffs slowly make their ways into three separate clumps. "Thanks, Ros — hey, you! If you poke that broom at Diggory again —"

The boy with the offending broomstick grins as he heads to a separate group. "All in good fun, darling. But I'll stop. I don't want to anger someone as pretty as you."

Acacia flushes, flipping him off. Rosalie spies Drake glaring at them as Aaron shakes his head, now in another clump.

"You'll flirt with anything that has a heartbeat, won't you?" Aaron asks, sounding like a disappointed parent.

The boy shrugs. "Optional."

Aaron nods, before gaping. "Wait — what the hell do you mean by that —"

"Oh-kay!" Acacia says loudly, attracting the attention of everyone, even Drake. "Diggory, Patil, Rosier, Evergreen, Daviss, Ramirez — five laps around the Quidditch Pitch with your brooms. After that, I'll fly up there with Quaffles and we can practise shooting goals. Holt, Daniels, Love — follow them with three and I'll release the snitch. Black, Jain, Raine, Wood — run a lap around the Pitch, drink some water, and practise with the weights I left you."

Rosalie stays on the ground, watching intently as the round of Chasers and Seekers zoom across the field, Acacia rummaging through a box and pulling out a shiny, barely-seeable object that was probably a snitch.

Yeah, no shit, Rosalie's brain inputs.

Acacia lets it fly into the air, and then mounts her own broom.

"Beaters!" she booms, who look tired from the long-arse lap they were just forced to run. "Mount your brooms and grab your bats. Ros, do you mind releasing the Bludgers? Be careful — Love, please don't fall of your broom!"

Rosalie nods, carefully pulling out the thrumming Bludgers. "Got it, here goes nothing ..."

She lets them fly as Acacia and the last group fly off into the air, the Bludgers following them. Drake glares at the sky.

God, Rosalie doesn't know how they play such a dangerous sport. She'd like to live, thank you very much.

Nevertheless, it's still entertaining to watch, even if the person called Love dominates the other two Seekers, zooming towards the Snitch as the others lag behind. Acacia is blocking almost every goal from the practising Chasers, but Pandora Rosier manages to score on her multiple times.

Jain (Damini, Rosalie's mind supplies) is hitting the Bludgers away like it's nothing, although one slams into the Seeker, Love, who crashes to the ground. Thankfully, her landing is soft. Mostly.

Rosalie runs to the poor girl, offering her hand. "God, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," the brown-eyed girl says, looking almost starstruck as she grips Rosalie's hand tightly. "Wow, uh — I'm Ashley Love, what's your name? Are you free this weekend?"

Rosalie blinks as Ashley dusts herself off. "Rosalie Edson? And wait — what —"

"Love, please stop flirting!" Acacia shouts, and Ashley startles. "Do you want the Seeker position or not? Get your arse back into the field!"

"I just got hit by a bludger!" Ashley insists, grabbing her broom. "Can't I talk to a pretty girl for five minutes?"

Rosalie gapes. Acacia catches a Quaffle that a Chaser throws, without even looking at it. "You are trying out, not trying to get a date —"

"Fine, I'm coming!" Ashley grumbles, mounting her broom and taking off.

Rosalie could only stare. Someone thinks she's pretty? Rosalie knows she's at least average, even if her friends like to call her gorgeous. She doesn't hate her face, because adorned with the perfect makeup and the perfect dress, Rosalie knows that she's gorgeous. But that's only on her confident days, when the lights are dark and no one gives a shit.

God, she can't wait to shove that in Sirius's face. He thinks no one flirts with her? He's so wrong. Well, he's always wrong, but now she has evidence to debunk another one of his incorrect statements. He also thinks he's priceless, which is wrong — like it usually is when it comes to him.

Take that, Sirius. Take that.

Rosalie hums as she swings her bookbag, watching as the Chasers slowly fly down.

"Ros, come here!" Acacia exclaims, huffing and puffing as sweat trails down her forehead.

Rosalie frowns. She knows jackshit about Quidditch. She can't even help Acacia.

"Okay, so I'm thinking: Jain and Raine — the guy who basically hit the Bludgers like ping pong balls — for the Beaters. And Wood," Acacia says, "Rosier, and Diggory for the Chasers. And then Love for the Seeker."

Rosalie nods vigorously, despite the fact that she only knows surface-level Quidditch. "Sure — yeah, sounds great. They were all — great."

Acacia nods, grinning at Rosalie. "Thanks, Ros. You're the best."

"Right," Rosalie says, nodding, even though she literally did nothing. "Of course."

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

Shoving her wand back in her boot, Rosalie blows out a breath as she settles into her chair, tapping her foot. Black told her to meet him in the back of the library to work on their project; she just hopes that he actually followed through, for once.

She sighs, leaning her head back as she fiddles with her fingers. Maybe she was too harsh on him. Maybe she should — ew — apologise. He's a dick, but maybe she was one too, especially after all he went through — but maybe he deserved it her ire. Did he?

Rosalie glances at the clock to the left of her, on a dark green wall. It's ten past six, and Sirius is late, unsurprisingly.

Standing up, Rosalie brushes off her uniform. Forget it. She's going to do this goddamned project herself, even if she has to pull an all-nighter.

As she runs a hand through her dark hair, Rosalie wanders around the library, running her hands through spines of books. She'll find one, somehow, and then take notes on it — God, it sounds daunting thinking about it.

"Edson?" a deep voice asks.

Rosalie's immediate reaction is to groan, before realising that, well, Black's actually here, to the right of her. And, on top of that, he's thumbing through different books, too.

Remember the vision, she tells herself. Be nice. Somewhat.

"There you are."

"Are you seriously working?" Rosalie asks, genuinely surprised.

Sirius scoffs. "No. It's just Sirius, but apparently you don't know people's names, love."

Rosalie's eye twitches. "Well, just Sirius, I've been waiting for over ten minutes."

Shit. She can't even last for a second.

"Oh, yes, what a tragedy," Sirius says drily, a smirk on his face. "Ten minutes of your precious time, gone."

With a scowl, Rosalie avoids Sirius's face and his stupid little smirk. God, she hates that irritating little shit.

Calm down. He's been through shit. Calm —

"I'm definitely going to insult you when commentating, you know," she says, just to egg him on. "It's going to be glorious."

How on earth is this being calm? Rosalie's brain screams at her. You're literally insulting the poor boy. Well, not really poor. He's rich, isn't he?

Sirius rolls his eyes. "There's nothing to insult."

"You're right," Rosalie murmurs. "I've already been through it all. I need to come up with more creative ones ..."

Sirius snorts. "Good luck with that. I doubt you can find anything to insult about me."

"Plenty, actually, but I don't want to waste my time talking about something that I already know of," Rosalie says, ignoring her burning hatred for the annoyed boy next to her. "Instead, I've decided to look for books without you. It'll be easier without your idiotic presence in my way."

"That's exactly why I'm staying away from you, love," he retorts, practically rolling his eyes.

"Keep rolling your eyes, Black," Rosalie murmurs, trying to focus as she sees the word "Seer" again. "Maybe you'll find a brain."

She almost groans. Shut up, Rosalie!

Sirius lets out a low whistle, rolling his eyes at the hushing from a few second years. "Someone peed in your pumpkin juice today."

Rosalie grimaces, halting her search. "What the actual hell, Black?"

"It's just an observation," Sirius drawls, leaning on the shelf with his right shoulder. "Or perhaps, love, someone dropped you on the head as a baby. That could explain your lack of, well, everything. Including your looks. You're not looking too great, Edson. Unlike me."

Well, she's not going to be nice anymore. As if she started out nice.

"You look so horrible that I wish to obliviate myself at the sight of your face," Rosalie grumbles irritatedly, going back to her search. "If the spell wasn't so damaging, I'd have done it a while ago."

"I doubt that, love," Sirius says arrogantly, his expression knowing as he stares at her.

Rosalie narrows her eyes. Damn it, he's right. Sirius Black is extremely hot, handsome, elegant, beautiful, or whatever — you name it, he is it. It's his horrible, absolute nails-on-a-chalkboard personality that ruins him, and in Rosalie's fine opinion, makes him ugly.

"Then you're just an egotistical little weirdo," Rosalie finally mutters, finding the right book, thank God. "Your personality is as fun as watching paint dry."

Sirius gasps. "Hey —"

"Oh, look," Rosalie says flatly. "I found a book that can help us. Ha ha. How wonderful."

Sirius blinks. "You are absolutely horrible at act —"

"We must study, now," Rosalie continues robotically, grabbing Sirius's arm and dragging him as hard as possible, hoping that it hurts. "There is no time to waste."

She pushes him to a seat, taking the one to his left, before placing the book she found at the table: A Guide to Seers by some random-arse old wizard. As she removes her quill, ink, and parchment, Sirius stares boredly at the textbook.

"This book is a sack of shit," he states bluntly.

"I think it's wonderful," Rosalie says spitefully, reading the first few pages, even though she agrees with him. "The author is incredibly knowledgeable."

Sirius scoffs. "The author sounds pompous as hell."

"You'd get along well, then," Rosalie grumbles, without missing a beat. "Perhaps I should reach out to the author and set up a meeting."

"You wound me, Edson," he says drily.

"That's assuming you have a heart," she says coolly, scribbling notes. "Oh, look. These are some Latin roots for spells — is he trying to make a Seer, or something? I doubt that's how it works ..."

"Is there a spell to make slime?" Sirius asks, leaning back on his chair lazily. "That could be —"

"Absolutely not," Rosalie snaps, cutting him off. "I've had enough of your stupid slime. Get creative. I can tell when it's you or Lupin coming up with the pranks."

He gapes at her. "Mo — Remus is totally inno —"

"Shhh!" Pince exclaims from in front of them.

"Don't you dare lie, Black," Rosalie says, rolling her dark eyes. "Lupin's just better at not getting caught. I can tell that your more creative pranks are planned by him. It's obvious."

Sirius is silent for a few seconds. "You're not as dumb as I thought you were, Edson."

Rosalie scoffs. "That's because you're an idiot."

"Is that your only insult, love?" he asks mirthfully.

"That's the only word that can describe you —"

"Now, you're just being rude."

"This is your last warning!" Pince snaps at the duo, but they ignore her.

"Rather be rude than a total dumbfu —"

"I thought you were both, Edson," Sirius says, laughing at her flushed face. "I have multiple negative words that fit perfectly with you: idiot, stupid, rude, bitchy —"

"You absolute arse —" Rosalie hisses, packing up her quill and parchment. It's useless to work with him. "Thanks to you, I've stopped taking notes! This stupid project is hopeless ..."

Sirius raises an eyebrow. "I didn't think you'd realise."

Rosalie smacks him with the book, and he loudly yelps.

"You two," Madam Pince screeches, "out! I'm tired of you disturbing my library —"

Rosalie and Sirius glance at each other, before Rosalie grabs the book and makes a mad dash out of the library. Well, she guesses that she's banned forever. Or maybe for a week, considering that Pince never remembers who she is.

"You imbeciles!" Pince screams as Sirius follows, snickering.

"Shit — I can't run," Rosalie pants, her legs moving like snails as she races out of the library and throughout the winding halls outside.

"Sucks for you, then," Sirius mutters from beside her, not even breaking a sweat.

They reach outside the castle, eventually, Rosalie leaning back and breathing.

She glances at Sirius, and it's like all the frustration melts out of her. Covering her mouth, she tries to muffle her giggles, only for Sirius to burst out cackling.

Now, she's laughing too, clutching her stomach. Grabbing onto him for a while, she cackles and cackles, sounding like a stereotypical witch.

"You sound like a —" Sirius begins.

"— muggle witch, I know," Rosalie finishes, not actually wanting to off him for once. "My dad says that all the time."

"Your dad is a wise man," Sirius says drily.

Rosalie snickers, thinking about the numerous nights of karaoke that both Rosalie and Thomas "ruined" for the rest of their family with their amazing singing.

"Indeed, he is."

They both stare at each other, almost awkward. Rosalie realises that her hands are still gripping his shoulders, so she removes them, shifting on her feet.

"Well, uh —"

"Should we —"

"Sirius!" The said boy yelps as James Potter lazily throws an arm around him. "There you are. I've been looking for you."

"He's been screaming your names in the halls," a dry voice chimes in.

Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew join them, the latter looking extremely horrified at James's apparent antics.

"You missed me that much?" Sirius sniffles dramatically. "I missed you too, Jamesie; I've been stuck with this one —"

Rosalie scowls, crossing her arms. "Oh, screw you."

"— all day," Sirius continues. "And it's been —"

"It was barely twenty minutes, Black," Rosalie says flatly. "And I was the one suffering. You did no work, we have no plan, and you got us kicked out of the library —"

Sirius gapes at her. "You got us kicked out! You hurt me!"

"You were being a motherfu —"

"Okay," Remus interjects. "Please don't fight. Again."

Rosalie flushes at the memory. At the time, she felt tough as nails, but now she feels like throwing herself off the Astronomy Tower. Or pushing Black off of it.

Either one works.

"Anyways," James says, "I was helping Lily with her coat —"

"The poor girl looked so mad," Peter snickers quietly. "You need to stop making a fool out of yourself, Pr — James."

Rosalie frowns. The constant slip-ups have her curious, but the logical part of her really doesn't want to know. It's probably prank related, or something just as stupid.

"She loves me, Peter," James says arrogantly. "She just ... doesn't know it yet." He grins a little, patting (well, practically smacking) Sirius as the five of them walk. Rosalie is squeezed between James and Peter, Sirius on James's left and Remus on Sirius's left. "In fact, she called me pretty today."

Remus blinks. "She called you 'pretty annoying', James."

"Same thing." James shrugs, unbothered. "She still called me pretty."

Peter coughs. "Delusional."

Rosalie almost chokes on her spit.

"I'm sure she likes you, James," Sirius says, ruffling his friend's hair. "She's just playing hard to get."

"Or maybe she's not actually interested, considering you're doing all these favours to get into her pants," Rosalie says, scoffing.

Is she saying this just to spite Sirius? Obviously. But her point still stands.

The four of them stare at her.

"She's right," Remus says finally. "You should stop bothering her, James."

"The only logical one," Rosalie mutters.

Remus gives her a smile, and Rosalie grins back. He's her favourite in that group, out of the four of them. At least he's not crass like Sirius, pigheaded like James, or without a filter like Peter — but Peter isn't too bad, either.

"Well, what do you suggest he does, then?" Sirius sneers. "Considering that you've never dated anyone before, love, what can you say?"

"Sirius," Remus starts.

"It's alright, Lupin," Rosalie says, narrowing her eyes at Sirius, before taking a deep breath and turning to James. "If you want to form a genuine connection with her, then rather than doing what you think she'll like, Potter, find out what she does like. Read her favourite book to see how it is. Have a genuine conversation with her rather than pestering her by trying to carry her non-existent coat. Let me ask you a question, then — are you prepared to just be her friend if she doesn't like you like that?"

Sirius opens his mouth, but Remus elbows him in the stomach, swearing at the grey-eyed boy quietly.

James, who looks like he's in deep thought, removes his arm from Sirius's shoulder as Peter takes out a packet of crisps from his bookbag, munching on them.

"Yes," James says finally, all his arrogance vanishing. "All I want to do is be around her. And talk to her."

Rosalie nods. "Then start by being her friend first. Who knows, Potter? Maybe she'll fall for you, or maybe you'll realise that you're not meant to be."

James nods seriously. "Would you consider helping me with that?"

A crisp falls out of Peter's mouth.

"I don't have the time," Rosalie says, surprisingly calm. "Plus, I already helped you, Potter. It should be fine —"

"I'll let you annoy Sirius constantly." James, noticing Rosalie's unconvinced look as Sirius loudly protests next to them, continues. "And I'll ... pay for a life's worth of butterbeer."

"What?" Sirius asks, blinking. "She literally has no experience, though."

Rosalie's eyes glint. "Deal. Remember, I can promise friendship, but I can't change her feelings."

"That's fine with me," James says, shooting Rosalie a conceited grin. "She'll fall in love with me anyway, especially with your help."

"Okay ..." Rosalie mutters. "We need to work on your arrogance, first."

James laughs loudly, throwing an arm around Rosalie as he ignores Sirius's loud ranting about how James is being tricked, or something. "You're my new best friend, now."

"Hear that, Black?" Rosalie asks, grinning. Maybe James isn't that bad. "You're being replaced."

Sirius scoffs. "You can never replace me, love. I'm priceless."

Next to Rosalie, Remus and Peter wheeze with laughter.

"You keep telling yourself that," Rosalie says sagely. "But who's the one helping James with Lily, hmm?"

Sirius scowls and says nothing.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

graphic credit etherealnights on quotev