Sugar & Spice

*Rosie's Point of View

"Get out of my face, Red," Those were the first words I spoke on the first official day of the school term, the day all the students were due to come back to the castle.

"Not until you put a leash on your dog, Black," She spat, following me around the dorm as I gathered my school things together and brushed my teeth.

I spat out my mouthful of toothpaste and whirled around with my toothbrush still in hand.

"One," I said, brandishing my toothbrush for emphasis. "Don't you dare call Black a dog -" I paused for a split second, marvelling at the very fact that I was sticking up for him once more, before I carried on. "Two: he doesn't need a leash, because he's fine just the way he is, and three - you need to get the fuck out of my face, Evans. You're really starting to piss me off." I said, turning my back to her as I tried to continue getting ready.

I'd had it with her. She'd come storming up the stairs that morning at 7:53am, raging about something to do with Black. I'd distinctly caught the words 'idiot', 'hooligan', 'arsehole', 'conceited' and 'no shame' before I'd tuned her out. I mean, it wasn't as if I wasn't aware that Black probably was all those things, but her constant hounding was starting to get to me; I really wished I could find her 'mute' button.

I made a mental note to ask him what on earth he'd done which was so terrible...and then to thank him for it. Red needed some excitement in her life.

But also shout at him. Because now I had to listen to her incessant blathering.

"Who does he think he is, anyways? He seems to have some idea in his head that he rules th -"

"Shut. Up. Just shut up! I'm so sick of your bitching! I don't know what's wrong with you, but if you don't stop doing this - this -" I said, my voice raising in earnest as I waved my hands around, encompassing the two of us. "Then I will seriously go to McGonagall and ask her to move you, and if that fails, then I'll move, okay?" I said, quietly at the end.

Truth was, I actually felt genuinely sorry for her. It seemed to me that she wasn't quite capable of having normal conversation with anybody. I knew because I'd watched her painfully short communications with fellow classmates. They never seemed to go any further than "Get the fuck away from me, Potter," or at best, "Do you have a spare piece of parchment I could borrow?'

We stared at each other for a few moments before I carried on getting dressed to go downstairs.

The ten more minutes it took me to get ready were painfully awkward; Evans sat on her bed with a book I was sure she wasn't reading and I rushed around, applying makeup and searching for clothes among the jumbled heap at the bottom of my wardrobe.

Just as I reached the door, on my way out I looked back and caught her eye.

I gave her a tiny, almost non-existent smile and then left before she could say or do anything else. I hoped she'd seen it though - I knew we could get along if we tried.

I shook my head to myself as I made my way downstairs.

"Tammie! God, could you possibly have taken any longer to get ready?" He asked in exasperation as he stood up from the armchair he'd been sprawled in. I grinned wickedly in response, making to turn around and head back up the stairs.

"Oh! Well, now you mention it, I think I just forgot my -"

"Oh, no! No, no, no, no, no - breakfast time, Tammie," He laughed and said, as if to a child, leading me towards the portrait hole for breakfast as I cackled.

As we made our way down the empty corridor I watched him while he was looking the other way and smiled, managing to forget all about my argument with Red, if only for a few moments.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"James!" I shouted delightedly through the gloom of Hogsmeade station. Remus, Peter and James turned around at the sound of my voice; Remus and James cracked identical grins at the sight of Black and I standing huddled in our cloaks, eagerly awaiting their arrival.

Remus greeted me with a hug as James and Black shared a 'manly embrace', clapping each other on the backs before I too received a hug from James, although thankfully he left out the back-slapping.

I grinned; it was uncanny how in the space of just a month or two I'd been inducted into the infamous 'Marauder family'. Remus and James now almost felt like my brothers, and I was surprised to find that I'd missed them, though it had only been just under a week.

Peter and I exchanged polite smiles before our little group turned and ran to the first empty carriage we could find, anxious to get out of the dark foggy cold.

"So what the fuck -?" James started as soon as the carriage left for the castle, but Black and I shushed him, knowing that he was going to ask about our mysterious disappearance during the Christmas holidays.

"We should talk about this in the common room - or our dorm - we could put an Imperturbable Charm on the door," Black said quietly, looking out the window as if there might be somebody hanging just outside the window, listening to our every word.

James, Remus and Peter looked disturbed at his words and we all fell quiet, each lost in our own thoughts until we got to the castle.

We all grabbed something quick from the house table and wrapped them in napkins so we could steal them up to Gryffindor Tower more easily.

"So," Remus said, as soon as we were all sat on his bed (this being - by popular vote - the most comfortable place to sit in their dorm).

So Black and I told them the whole story, starting from the moment we stepped foot in the House of Black until last night when we were attacked by Malfoy in the corridor.

When we got to the part where Lestrange and Nott showed up at my house Remus hissed in anger, surprising me slightly; I'd never seen him become remotely angry before.

"No! Are they back at Hogwarts?" I shook my head, my gaze flicking between the other boys.

"No, I was looking - they didn't come in on the train at least," I said, looking down at my knotted fingers and thinking.

James was silent until the end of our story; he chose to look out of the window or sometimes watch Black and I as we spoke.

"Wow, I never thought it could ever get this bad," James said thoughtfully, staring out the window at the soft snowfall. "I mean, I always knew that there were loads of wizards out there who had this whole prejudice thing going on, but I never thought anybody would ever want to take it this far. I mean, when does it stop? When all the muggles are dead...?" He said, pulling a face while still looking out the window.

I sighed; it was so unusual for James to be disturbed - to be anything other his happy, mischievous self.

"We should start a group ourselves," I said thoughtfully to myself, drawing curious looks from the others. "Well, think about it," I said reasonably. "How far has this thing got to get out of control before somebody does something? I think the next time something funny happens we should go to Dumbledore."

Black nodded slowly, eyes locked with mine, and then held his fist out in the middle of our little circle.

"It's a deal," He said. Remus, Black, James and I pounded our fists together. We looked as one to Peter, who seemingly hadn't been paying attention. He started and then flashed us a quick grin, then pounded our fists as well.

Was it just me, or did he suddenly look extremely uncomfortable?

The moment passed and soon we were chatting; we talked about anything other than the heavy matter we'd been discussing just a few moments previously. Before we even knew it, it was the early hours of the morning and I'd nodded off on Black's shoulder. After the third time I'd drifted into half-awareness, I finally decided it was time for me to go off to bed and stood up.

"Night, guys," I said, stifling a yawn. "I think I'm going to head up to bed."

Just as I was leaving I remembered something.

"Hey, Black!" I called lazily, not moving from the door. He looked up questioningly.

"What happened to our date?" I asked, suddenly grinning widely at him. His eyebrows shot up and his mouth fell open slightly; I noticed Remus and James hid identical smirks behind their hands. Then Black realised I was referring to our scheduled tutoring session and his cheeks flushed pink, widening my grin as he struggled to find something to say.

"Well, we – I mean, we can always – tomorrow –"

"Relax, Black. We'll just have to do it tomorrow after school," I smirked and bade the other laughing boys goodnight once more.

I left their dorm to choruses of 'Night!' and made my way downstairs, still grinning widely. When I reached the bottom of the boys' staircase I felt eyes on the back of my head and instinctively looked around. I frowned as I caught the evil looks of five 5th year girls.

My eyebrows raised then; I'd never even spoken to any of them before.

Okay… I thought, before turning around and heading up the stairs to my dorm.

Just before I disappeared up the stairs, I ducked my head down and peeked their way. I winced.

They were still glaring daggers at me.

I dimly wondered what their problem was as I trudged up the stairs to my dorm, but all thoughts of glaring girls were driven from my head when I pushed the door open.

"What the…?" I breathed as I stepped inside.

The room was a tip; clothes and books were thrown everywhere, one of the wardrobes had been knocked over and one of the poles on my bed had been broken.

"Red? Nadia?" I called. I heard a soft whimpering sound in the direction of the bathroom, and cautiously made my way over, my heart pounding.

"Oh Red," I whispered sadly when I saw her curled up in the shower booth, staring at the wall. Without saying anything else, I went and sat next to her, putting my arm around her, not caring in the slightest that we'd never seen eye to eye. For some reason that seemed insignificant.

Fifteen minutes later, I was thinking of asking her exactly what was wrong when she finally spoke.

"He did it again," She murmured sadly, looking down at her hands, which had, thankfully, stopped shaking.

"Who?" I asked.

"Severus," She sighed the name. My brow furrowed.

"You're friends with Snape?"

"Yes. No – god, I don't even know anymore!" She cried, throwing her hands in the air suddenly and startling me. "He's being such an arsehole! He barged in here, demanding what my relationship was with Potter, and then he was rambling something about 'he can't get out'. 'What's Potter got that I haven't?', he asked me. I was trying to calm him down, but I guess he lost it," She sighed again, shaking her head.

"So, Snape – Severus Snape – um, fancies you?" I asked tentatively, trying to keep up. She nodded and I took a deep breath, trying not to raise my eyebrows. Damn… I decided to change the subject.

"Where are the others, by the way? Shouldn't they have seen this?"

"No, they're all staying at Georgina's place. Apparently they're coming back early tomorrow morning." She gently removed my arm and stood up. "Thanks Rosie, but I think I'll go to bed," She said, her voice sounding much stronger than before, though still quiet. I nodded, standing up too.

As I got into my bed, quickly repairing the broken column, I thought over my day, beginning with an argument and ending with a half-destroyed bed and dormitory.

Not the best I've ever had, I thought to myself.

Somehow I was sure that neither of us had gotten much sleep by the time we had to get up the next morning for classes.