Black's suspicions

Rose wasn't sure whether she could get a part-time job at school as an assistant to the school healer.

Compared with a newly enrolled first-year who could barely tell even simple potion ingredients apart, Madam Pomfrey might prefer to get an older student to lighten her workload.

"Was there something else?" Madam Pomfrey stopped and looked at her patiently.

"Er-" Rose decided to give it a try after all. "Excuse me, do you need any help? I mean-" Her face gradually turned red under Madam Pomfrey's understanding gaze.

"Oh, child, I understand. I mean, you might have to ask Dumbledore about that." Madam Pomfrey considerately pretended not to notice Rose's look of relief and winked at her.

"But Madam Pince's place might suit you better than mine. Working here requires a solid foundation in Potions, so it isn't suitable for a new student."

Just as Rose had feared, Madam Pomfrey had politely turned her down.

Even so, Rose still planned to follow her suggestion and try her luck at the library.

"Thank you, Madam Pomfrey," Rose said cheerfully.

"You're welcome. Tell Potter for me that he's been in there for nearly fifteen minutes, and the Slytherin boy's friend too. You should all be going." With that, Madam Pomfrey hurried off to her office.

"You shouldn't have joined in with them!" Lily's left hand was held firmly in Rose's, but she had turned her head the other way, presenting Rose with her round, dazzlingly red head.

"Of course, you're right." Rose squeezed her hand in agreement. "I just thought Black's choice of words was brilliant-" She clamped her mouth shut when she met Lily's green eyes, which were still sparking with anger.

The conflict between Lily Evans, Snape, and the Marauders had already shown itself on the train from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters in the original story. Even before they were sorted into rival houses, and even without the differences in allegiance that could not be ignored a few years later, the root of it was that they had different goals and values.

"Potter and his friends are just a bunch of bastards who bully people weaker than them!" Lily said loudly.

"Hey—I can hear you, Evans!" Potter was walking three meters to Rose's left as the three of them made their way from the second floor to the Great Hall.

Rose saw Lily glare fiercely at Potter, her expression lively and her green eyes shining.

"I won't stop you from spending time with other friends, Rose," Lily said worriedly. "But what if those bastards bully you too?"

"I thought it was because of Snape," Rose said in surprise. "They bullied him, and I didn't take your side."

"If I'd been the one they bullied that day, would you still have thought Black's comparison was brilliant?" Lily stopped and looked at her seriously.

"Of course not—I'd have given him a good beating." Rose stared at her blankly.

"Then that settles it. Severus has barely spoken three sentences to you, and Potter is in the same house as you. I wouldn't be angry with you for not helping Severus," Lily said with a wave of her hand. "That wouldn't be fair to you, Rose."

"Lily-" Rose's chest swelled, yet it also felt as though she had swallowed several unripe, sour oranges, filling her nose and throat with a sharp ache.

She threw her arms around Lily and buried her head in her soft red hair, which seemed to smell of sunshine, feeling Lily's damp, warm palm patting her back again and again.

Rose felt as though that hand had passed through her flesh and bones to soothe her heart directly.

The first lesson on Friday morning was Professor Slughorn's Potions Class.

After some time living on a regular schedule, Rose could now get up briskly before Lily called her a third time, spend ten minutes getting ready, and then race to the Great Hall, full of energy and ravenously hungry.

A hearty breakfast was Rose's greatest motivation for getting up. At the thought of an entire long table laden with sweet, cool, refreshing orange juice and egg bread toasted crisp and golden, her appetite was so good she felt she could even have a spoonful of baked beans!

After she swallowed her last bite of potato and picked up her glass to drain her orange juice in one gulp, she saw Marlene sitting across from her, chin propped on one hand, smiling at her with her eyes curved into crescents.

"Do I have crumbs on my face?" Rose asked uncertainly, wiping the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand.

"No, you don't. Your face is as smooth as if you'd used a beauty charm," Marlene teased her cheerfully.

Rose looked at her in confusion.

"I really do love watching you eat, dear. It gives me quite an appetite too," Marlene said. "And you look much healthier now than you did at the start of term."

Rose stared at her empty glass, wondering whether to have another half glass of Pumpkin Juice. Hearing Marlene's words, she shrugged and said helplessly, "I can't help it. At the home, all I could have every morning was a bowl of baked beans. Now I feel a little sick whenever I see them."

She decided to have another glass after all.

Marlene gave her a skeptical look, while Mary giggled nonstop at the two of them.

"Girls, I think we should go. Professor Slughorn always starts class two minutes early," Lily urged, glancing up at the large clock on the wall.

So they hurried downstairs again, through the dark, maze-like corridors, and arrived at the large Potions classroom.

More than half the students were already seated. Snape sat at the table closest to the professor, surrounded by a circle of Slytherins.

Rose and Mary stood at the classroom door, looking at Lily with helpless sympathy.

"Slytherins are our classmates too," Lily said. She walked briskly straight across the classroom and sat in the empty seat beside Snape, then turned and winked at them.

Mary chose the seats most of the Gryffindors had chosen, near the back of the classroom.

Once Rose had put her Potions textbook on the desk, she turned and began examining the transparent glass container nearest her, which held a preserved animal specimen.

"Monkey tree frog."

Rose looked up and saw Black sitting in the row in front of her, his head tilted back slightly and his arms folded across his chest. His posture looked so elegant that he seemed less like he was looking at an animal specimen than inspecting one of his family's valuable collectibles.

"I know. Professor Slughorn labeled it."

"Of course you know. There's no one more worth sucking up to than that fat-bellied professor, is there? I bet he's happy to tell you anything," Black said sarcastically in his silky, elegant voice.

"The Sorting Hat must be going senile. You should have gone to Slytherin. Gryffindor would never have a despicable tattletale."

Rose resisted the urge to hit him, took a deep breath, and sat up straight. With a serious expression, she said, "Sirius Black, not everyone is interested in your little tricks. All I can tell you is that I didn't tell Professor Slughorn about the utterly childish things you and Potter did!"

Black narrowed his eyes and stared at her without blinking.

It suddenly occurred to Rose that Black's expression at that very moment might be exactly like that of his obstinately traditional, ill-tempered mother.

This was Sirius Black. Rose suddenly connected the boy in front of her, whose face still looked very young and who was only half a head taller than she was, with the filthy man in the original story who had endured so much for his godson and traveled over mountains and rivers just to see him.

At that thought, the angry flame in Rose's heart felt as though a bucket of lukewarm water had been dumped over it, putting out the fire and leaving her mood damp and rumpled.

Rose didn't notice that her own expression had changed several times. She was now looking at Black with a complicated expression.

Black spun around as though he had seen a ghost. He felt sure his eyes had deceived him, because he had actually seen sympathy in Claude's eyes.

"Mate, are you cold?" Potter asked in surprise. "You seemed to shiver just now."

"You can wear my scarf." Peter Pettigrew eagerly offered him his scarf.

"No need," Black declined.

Peter looked as though he wanted to insist, but Professor Slughorn interrupted him, announcing the start of class.