Rings

"Harry did what to his aunt?!" Rosalie blurted coughing down the cereal she'd just been eating. She sat, a day before her third year at Hogwarts began, on a barstool at the Dyer Residence. Her mother, Rayna Dyer, was casually using magic to clean dirty dishes in the sink, a levitating sponge scrubbing a plate.

It has been two years since Rosalie began her school days at Hogwarts, two years since she met the most remarkable people in her life.

Ron, whom she met before school started and whose family has spent almost every holiday together is undoubtedly her best friend.

Hermionie, a girl Rosalie didn't necessarily like in the beginning but later claimed as her sister is still one of the only people she could ever need.

And of course, Harry Potter, the awkward chosen one, he was the best and worse thing to happen to Rosalie, who of course would never admit that.

Together the four of them have reopened the Chamber of Secrets, made headlines, recovered the sorcerer's stone, and everyone at Hogwarts knows each of their names.

"Well, apparently his aunt had upset him and she just," she made a motion of a balloon expanding with her hands before turning around and pouring a cup of cold-brew coffee. "Honestly, I cannot believe the four of you have gotten into this much trouble in just three years." Rayna chuckled before leaning back against her granite countertop her knuckles slightly turning white gripping the stone.

"Reminds me of some kids I used to know..." she trailed off looking solemnly at the tile.

Rosalie giggled before swinging off the stool and landing cooly on the floor her nearly-black hair flowing behind her. Quickly setting her bowl into the sink Rosalie ran upstairs to finish packing for her return to Hogwarts. Chuckling to herself at the image of Harry's aunt bobbing around in the sky she quickly folded her clothes, many of which had the symbol of 'Gryffindor' sewn onto the front.

Various expensive dresses, skirts, tights, and sweaters fit into the trunk along with makeup, winter clothes, shoes, and other personal belongings.

Zazzles sat across the room watching his owner intently as she neatly packed while talking to herself and crossing items off an imaginary list.

Her trunk looked as new as it did every year, matte black with shiny gold details and large wording on both the front and back reading 'R. DYER.'

Hearing her mother call her name Rosalie quickly grabbed her wallet from a side table pouring out the bills of muggle money and replacing it with bronze Knuts, silver Sickles, and golden Galleons.

Picking up her trunk and matching backpack purse Rosalie set off. Taking one last look at her tidy bedroom with its open windows and pale walls she flicked off the light switch next to her door.

"C'mon Zazz," Rosalie snapped her fingers and Zazzles grumbled in his bed before unwillingly trudging across the room to his favorite person delighted to travel with her once again.

༻☀︎︎☽

"AH! Look, the party's here!" Molly immediately gasped as soon as the Dyer women walked through the door of the Leaky Cauldron. The two of them stood out in the slightly run-down place with their gold jewelry and neat hair but they paid it no mind.

The ginger woman waddled over to Rayna and gave her a motherly hug before turning toward Rosalie and doing the same.

"Nice to see you, Mrs. Weasly." Rosalie smiled up at her before handing her a bag she had been holding behind her back. The woman took the gift appreciatively nodding at the young witch.

All of the Weaslys took their turns welcoming the two, Fred and George took the liberty of stealing her scarf saying they could pawn it on the black market for a dozen galleons. That was until only three particular figures were left standing to greet her.

Hermione collided so hard with Rosalie that she almost tipped over onto the squeaky hardwood. They squealed together happily smiling as they rocked back and forth into a hug.

"I cannot believe you!" Hermione pulled away before swatting Rosalie on the forehead. "You know you don't have a twenty-five-word limit on letters right?!"

Rosalie let out a quiet 'ow' before sheepishly rubbing the back of her neck. "Well, yeah-"

"Oh, Hermione, give her a bloody break." A familiar ginger said from behind Hermione before wrapping Rosalie in a hug of his own. He chuckled at the fact that he, again, had grown so much taller than her.

"Heya, Ron." she acknowledged her glossy lips again pursed into a smile.

With Ron letting go of her Rosalie turned towards the famous Harry Potter. He was undoubtedly the closest person to her from Hogwarts. Years of late-night common room meetings, childish secrets, and saving each other's (mainly Harry's) arses will do that to people.

Looking down at the ground Harry thought it was only acceptable to apologize, "Look, I'm sorry about never writing a letter but-"

He was cut off when a pair of arms wrapped around his neck encasing him in a hug, "Harry," She laughed against his chest and he swore a lump formed in his throat, "I knew you weren't going to be able to write me." She was one of the only ones who was understanding about his situation at the Dursleys, upset even, about it.

Harry looked down at her with admiration in his chest and with a smile he then wrapped his own arms around her back.

"I'm glad you got mine, though." She pulled away and Harry couldn't help but feel a tinge of disappointment before his confusion set in.

Eyebrows knit together he began to question her, "Wait- how'd you-?"

She openly laughed while Hermione and Ron began to crowd around the duo. "I told Dee to peck anyone besides you that tried to take any of the letters." She motioned towards a spectacled owl, Dee, that was perched on a wooden railing beside Headwig. "And she didn't come home with any blood on her beak." she finished, proud of her accomplishment.

Harry couldn't help but smile over at her in admiration, the way she was so effortless in anything she did. "Thanks," he shut his eyes, "Practically the only thing that kept me sane."

She winked at him and smiled warmly before nudging him in the arm with her elbow, "Anything."

༻☀︎︎☽

Rosalie let out a loud groan of disappointment before roughly flopping flat on her stomach on Harry's bed at the Leaky Cauldron.

In her hands, she held a deck of almost twenty black, white, red, and yellow cards. Harry, who sat on the floor in his pajamas, was trying his hardest not to burst into laughter his face a bright pink.

They'd been playing this muggle card game for over an hour and Rosalie was beyond frustrated because she hadn't won against Harry, not once.

"This is actual hell." She mumbled, her face lodged into the crevice of his pillow.

"No, it's Uno." Harry laughed, he could only beat Rosalie at one thing and that was muggle games so at any chance he got he introduced her to a new one.

Tonight's torture was a game Harry called Uno that the Dursleys played, although according to him it was much more enjoyable playing it with her. What he didn't tell her though was that the game was supposed to be played with more than four people, not two.

Rosalie sat up in Harry's bed her hair wrapped up in two braids. She was wearing silky black and white matching pajamas and black slippers. She crossed her arms looking in the other direction than where Harry sat, "I refuse to look at you."

The boy scoffed and rolled his eyes while dusting off his backside as he stood up, "Oh, come on, Rae, that win was bloody hilarious, you've still got twenty cards." It was her turn to scoff as he addressed her by her middle name or, in other means, his nickname for her. She turned around to face him only to realize he was smirking triumphantly at her.

"You still call me that?" She smiled gazing back up at him.

"Never stopped, I did in every letter I wrote to you that I never got to send." He looked back at her solemnly staring into her hazel eyes.

She seemed perplexed, "You wrote me-" but she was cut off by hushed harsh whispers from down the stairs. She and Harry shared a look before the two of them slowly crept toward the door.

Leaning her ear against the frame Rosalie shook her head at him indicating that she still couldn't hear what the voices were saying.

And of course, being Harry and Rosalie they couldn't let one curiosity go unexplored. Nodding their heads at each other Rosalie opened the door and they both, side by side, snuck out of the room.

Together the two of them made their way to the stairs where they could faintly hear the three voices. They could recognize them being the hushed tones of Molly Weasley, Arthur Weasley, and Rayna Dyer.

They locked eyes and Harry's breath hitched when Rosalie leaned against him to get a better idea of what the three adults were saying.

"Why would we not tell them both?"

Immediately the two recognized the voice as a harsh whisper of frustration from Mr. Weasley. "You two and Fudge are treating them like children, they're thirteen!"

"The truth isn't necessary, it would terrify them both!" Molly replied raising her voice slightly. Rosalie and Harry leaned closer to each other as they put the pieces together that they were in fact the topic of this conversation.

"Do you want them attending Hogwarts with that worry hanging over their heads? Of course not!"

Rayna was suspiciously quiet in this situation as if she had nothing to say but that couldn't get further from the truth. She stood next to the other two adults while caressing her forearm with shaky hands.

She wished to tell her daughter the full truth, she really did, but her anxiety caught up with her and she closed her lips again.

"Of course, I don't want them miserable, Molly, I want them to be on guard. You know what they're like, always running off together looking for trouble! Hell, they've been in the forbidden forest at least twice!"

Rosalie couldn't help but crack a smile at the memories of the two of them but Harry remained serious, staring at the floor trying to grasp every word they were saying.

"But they cannot do that this year, at all! If Harry hadn't been picked up by the night bus he would've been dead before midnight!" The boy in question shuddered beside Rosalie and she interlocked their fingers, taking his sweaty hand in hers. He squeezed her hard and she rubbed her thumb along his knuckles comfortingly.

Rayna finally used her voice, "I don't understand what my daughter has to do with this, she has no connection to Sirius Black."

Arthur lashed back, "No connection?! He's her bloody-"

Rayna gasped immediately stopping Arthur in his thought, "Maybe, but he has no way of knowing that!"

Rosalie tugged Harry's hand and she looked towards him again mouthing 'What?' silently indicating her confusion. Never in her life had her mother even mentioned the name Sirius Black, in fact, she hardly mentioned the Black family at all. Harry looked back at her with an equally confused expression.

Mr. Weasley again argued back at the two women, "He's a madman, Rayna, he broke out of Azkaban for Merlin's sake! And it doesn't take a genius to put two and two together!" bewildered at the two of them he again defended his opinion, "It's been a month and no one has seen hide nor hair of Black, I don't care what Fudge keeps telling the daily prophet, we're no closer to catching Black than inventing self-spelling wands."

Harry and Rosalie were so close now that she could feel his breath on the back of her neck causing her hair to stand on edge and face to flush but Harry was too busy eavesdropping to notice their proximity.

It was Molly's turn to speak again, "And they will be perfectly safe at Hogwarts!"

"We're not even sure Rosalie's one of his targets," Rayna mumbled under her breath.

"Rayna be serious," Arthur responded, "If he's caught wind that she's at Hogwarts he might as well take her out with Harry." That sentence took Rayna aback and she slightly stepped away from the Weasleys gripping the crest of a table for support.

"Not to mention she and Harry are practically attached at the hip, and that just makes everything easier for him!"

"Are we even sure he's after Har-" There was a hard bang which Rosalie envisioned was from Arthur slamming his fist on one of the tables in frustration.

"Molly! How many times will I have to repeat myself, Fudge may want to keep this quiet but I know he went to Azkaban the night Black escaped. Guards have been saying he's been talking in his sleep for weeks now saying 'he's at Hogwarts... I know they're at Hogwarts...' He's deranged and if you ask me he wants Harry dead"

Rosalie could feel Harry start to shake beside her so she squeezed his hand again and he immediately squeezed hers back three times harder, "Black lost everything the night Harry defeated You-Know-Who, he thinks killing him could bring him back and with his connection to Rosalie he very well could be thinking to take out two birds with one stone." It was Rosalie's turn to shudder.

"You do what you think is right Arthur, but I'm not telling my daughter everything, it would completely alter everything she knows about her life. Not to mention Dumbledore is still at Hogwarts and he's aught to know all of this."

"Of course, Dumbledore knows, there's Azkaban guards stationed at every entrance to Hogwarts. Sure he wasn't happy about the compromise but he agreed nevertheless."

"Why would he not be happy about it, They're there to catch Black after all..."

"No one is fond of the Azkaban guards, Molly, but when dealing with a Wizard-like Black precautions are necessary."

"Well if they save the kids-"

"Then I will not utter another word about them." Mr. Weasley concluded to the two women.

There was a second of silence before there was the rattling of chairs and Rayna spoke softly, "We outta head for bed, it's late."

The two teens gazed at each other with a 'we'll talk about this later' look before begrudgingly pulling away from eachother and heading off to their individual rooms.