Winter's Rose ▫️T. Lupin

▫️ Twenty-Two

"Tell me more about her."

Teddy looked up from the book he had been reading, his eyebrows furrowed as he located the figure of his grandmother standing beside the window of the kitchen and looking outside in the garden. He could hear Thomas and Bill disagreeing over something trivial in the living room and he had noticed Rose get out in the garden a while ago before he had started reading his book in the company of his grandmother while she made cookies in the kitchen. It was the first time she had asked him about her in the last few days they had lived together in the house.

"What do you want to know?"

Andromeda didn't look away. "Anything you'd want to share."

Teddy slowly put his book on the table as he leant back in his chair. "She loves tea, I'm pretty sure she could survive with tea alone. She doesn't like sweets. Her favourite place in Hogsmeade is Madam Puddifoot's because of the tea. She's a Gryffindor. Her best friend used to be the Head Girl and that's how I got to know her, before the start of this year I didn't even know her name."

"What happened to her friendship with the Head Girl?"

"I'm not so sure about it myself," he admitted with a small sigh. "After her grandmother died her friends kept their distance somewhat and when her mother died a few weeks ago they did the same and I think she's kind of annoyed with them now. So I don't know how her relationship with Beatrice is, we haven't talked about it."

She nodded slowly. "Tell more about her."

"At first I thought she was selfish and mean but that's obviously not true, we just didn't start on a good note. She gets startled easily and she's a bit clumsy."

Andromeda turned to face him with a small smile. "Clumsy, you say? She hasn't knocked anything down yet, though."

"It's more along the lines of tripping over her own feet type of clumsiness."

With a small chuckle, she turned back to the window. "What else can you tell me about her?"

"She asked me to tutor her in Potions after her grandma's loss. And she's the one who bought me the scarf I showed you." She hummed in response and finally, Teddy brought himself to ask a question of his own. "Why the sudden interest?"

"She's a curious girl," she murmured, her eyes never leaving the window. "She spends lots of time in my garden, especially near the winter roses. Do you think it's because of her grandma's belief that she's like the flowers?"

Teddy slowly left his seat and came to stand beside her, using his height to his advantage to look outside the window over his grandmother, only to see Rose crouched down in front of the winter roses, running a delicate finger down the petals. "Well, her name is Rose and she was born in February."

"That's not why she said that, Teddy," she chuckled as she looked up at him with raised eyebrows. "It's because of her endurance. Winter roses can survive the winter and still bloom, and your friend has gotten through so much, losing her own family like that, but she still smiles and laughs."

Teddy shrugged as he turned to his grandmother. "I think she's brave."

Andromeda smirked slightly as she glanced at the window. "You tell her that, Teddy, and you might have more of a chance with her."

His eyes instantly widened. "What?"

"She's coming."

And without another word, Andromeda headed to the oven to busy herself with some cookies just as he heard the front door open. He heard her greet Thomas and Bill and a while later, she appeared in the kitchen.