With all of this, you could've fooled me

The sun was shining, the people were out and about, and one Rose Granger-Weasley couldn't be happier about it. It had been raining almost non-stop the past couple of days and it had totally ruined any and all plans that Rose had made, regardless of who they were with. She liked rainy days and all, but it was getting just a tad ridiculous in her opinion. She could only take so much of staying inside and watching television or going direction to and from work in the cold rain.

Gloom and doom just weren't her style and she hated when Mother Nature decided that that was how she felt that day. Of course, if Mother Nature was doing something like that it was probably because people made her angry or sad in some way. Thinking of Mother Nature as though she were a real human was kind of weird, but Rose thought she deserved that respect. Real person or not, she was important and even if she was crazy for it, the twenty-three year old would always consider her at least somewhat of a real person.

In all seriousness though, Rose had been thinking about her family a lot recently. With her moving out and her job, she hadn't gotten much of a chance to see any of them. She knew her mother and father were fine, they were a part of the Golden Trio after all. Maybe she shouldn't think of it like that, since even the invincible Harry Potter could be beaten. ..Maybe that was something she shouldn't think about either, it always made her upset to think about her Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny. She didn't have many memories of either of them anymore, mostly of Harry, but every time she saw the mixture of sadness and happiness in her parents' eyes when they thought about him it filled her with strange emotions that usually ended up in her cringing from the pain caused by her chest tightening.

The person she worried about, though, was her brother. She and Hugo might not be as close as siblings could be, but that didn't mean that Rose didn't care about him at all. He was her brother after all and she could never abandon him, no matter what the situation. She wished she could have been closer to him than she was, but she felt like now it would be almost impossible with both of their busy schedules. Rose let out a sigh, brushing her hair out of her eyes and turned into Flourish and Blotts. She'd almost forgotten that she'd come to Diagon Alley with a purpose with all the thoughts floating in her head. She'd wanted to get a book that had decently come out, that she had been waiting for and dying to read.

She hoped it would already be there and once she was in the shop, she immediately went to the New Arrivals section to find the book in question.

(OOC: I'm sorry. I'm resigned, now, to the fact that my first Hugo post in ages will be dreadful. Lol)

The sound of glass shattering eviscerated the peace that had engulfed Knockturn Alley as the clock tower tolled in the arrival of lunchtime. Witches and wizards of all ages had shuffled off of the cobbled streets and into the cafes and pubs that were potted around the ‘dark magic’ quarter of wizarding London. The usual, somewhat suspect types continued to haunt the shadows and alleyways but Knockturn Alley seemed at rest; a rest that was entirely done away with as soon as two wizards plunged out through the window of Borgin and Burke’s, sending glass raining down over them and drawing faces into the windows of the other establishments on the street.

A feral grin lit up the freckled features of Hugo Weasley as he rolled over and locked his legs around the middle of the much larger man. He screwed up his fingers and threw out his arm, giving a grunt of satisfaction when he felt the cartilage in the man’s nose split under his knuckles. Planting his feet on the floor, Hugo fisted the front of the man’s robes in his hands and pulled them both to a standing position. The grin only widened as the grip was returned and with force that Hugo, in truth, wasn’t expecting, he found himself shoved up against the shop window opposite, the window panes splitting a little under the impact.

A wand poked into the man’s jugular and both men froze, turning to look at the third man who had entered the situation. Marcus Riley cocked his head to the side, an amused smirk curling at his lips as he observed the bloodied man and his scuffed and ruffled friend. He chuckled, a low sound in the base of his throat, and pointed his wand at the arms wrists, binding them together with a spell. Hugo dropped down to his feet, realising with a start that he’d been dangling by his robes, and laughed despite himself before whirling around and clapping the man once more across the face with his fist. This time, he didn’t bite back and sank to the floor with a grunt.

“I think you’re in the completely wrong department, mate,” Riley chuckled, pocketing his wand and gesturing for his group of young Aurors to come down into the alleyway and collect their mark.

“I’d be had up for punching him,” Hugo pointed out, spitting out a glob of blood into the gutter.

“You’d be had up for getting hit,” Riley corrected tartly, grabbing hold of the front of Hugo’s robes. With a few spells, Hugo looked presentable again. Auror first aid. It was one hell of a thing. “I’d get a Healer to have a look. Just to make sure.”

“Like hell,” Hugo shook his head, wiping the cuff of his robe across his lips. “Thanks though, mate.”

Riley lifted an eyebrow. “Oh so I’m your mate now, am I?”

Hugo grinned. “Well, I should think so after all the favours I’ve done for you.”

“Why are you so willing to do it?” Riley quipped, pushing Hugo’s shoulder playfully. “If you ever want to transfer, let me know, alright? Now get out of here. I’ll clean up the mess.”

With a nod from the redhead, the two men parted ways, one back into the depths of Knockturn Alley and the other out into the sunshine of Diagon Alley. Hugo tucked his hands into the pockets of his robes and strode gallantly down the street, weaving expertly between the people who were thronging by. He didn’t know quite where he was going but he felt a spring in his step that came from the sense of a job well done. Sort of. He knew that he probably shouldn’t have gotten involved but there was something about the thrill of the chase that made Hugo begin to consider that, yeah, he probably was in the wrong department at the Ministry.

On the way back through the town, he decided to pop into Flourish and Blott’s. He needed to pick up a few books so that he could finish off the series he had been reading. When he opened the door and heard the bell ring above it, though, the last person he had honestly expect to see was his sister. Hugo stopped on the rug and let the door shut behind him. Surprise brightened his face and he stepped up behind her, a smirk on his face.

“I recommend this one,” he reached around her and drew a book off of the shelf. “It’s pretty good. I think you’ll like it, Rosie.”

[OOC: Nah, it's good lol]

She'd come in for one book, that was it. At least, that had been the plan anyways, but being the person she was, Rose couldn't help herself to looking at the other books that were in the shop, which resulted in her losing herself in the stories that she found the most interesting. Her range in books was almost amazing, reading any and everything she could get her hands on. That had to be a trait of her mother's.

A laugh escaped the ex-Ravenclaw's lips as she lifted a book with a colorful cover and opened it to read what it could be about. She scrunched her nose up at what she was reading and replaced the book back where she had found it, not every one could be a winner. It was unusual for Rose to do that to a book, so if it did happen then the book was probably rather bad, or uninteresting.

Rose nearly jumped out of her skin when a hand reached out in front of her, pulling a book off the shelf. The familiar voice prompted her to turn around and a smile tugged at the tips of her lips as she looked at her younger brother. She took the book from him and looked it over. "Oh really? I'll have to get it then," she answered, the smile still on her lips and she placed the book Hugo had picked out on top of the one she had already been holding.

It was just a little coincidental that she would run into her brother when she had just been thinking of him. Probably a little ironic too, if she really thought about it.

"How've you been, Hugo?" Rose inquired softly, one hand resting on the books she held close to her body while the other rested lightly on her stomach while her books were on her forearm. She'd never been happier that she didn't have to rush out on someone in a middle of a conversation because she had used up all the time she had for a break, promising that she'd talk to them another time. That was something she didn't want to do to Hugo because, in all honesty, she wasn't sure when the next time she would be able to see and talk to her brother was.

They were both always off somewhere else, considering they had their own lives to live and they never really seemed to sync up the times they'd go visit their parents, if Hugo ever really did anymore. So she had to make the most of the time she had with him now, hopefully nothing would ruin it.

That was a loaded question if he ever did hear one.

Hugo looked around, finding himself unable to meet his sister’s gaze, scared that if he met her eye then she would see right through him. He worried that if she stared at him long enough, the magic Riley had cast would unravel and the long-standing scars that had written lines into his freckled face would finally come out for the gruesome episodes in his past that they were.

It had been one of those Sundays. The Sunday just gone. Hugo had trawled down into Wiltshire and picked at dinner with Ignatius’ parents. His younger sister was finishing off Hogwarts. His father had gotten a promotion at the Ministry. His mother had finally finished her novel. And they’d talked of Iggy. They’d talked of him, speculated what he would have done had he been there, sat next to Hugo, where he should have been.

That night, Hugo was thrown of a Muggle pub for fighting. Not for the first time, when he finally crawled under the sheets of his bed, he cried himself to sleep. He’d done so every night since. Last night had been the exception, however, because he’d opted for one and a half Dreamless Sleep potions. It had the required mollifying effect.

And Rose would know. He was sure of it. The boy in him wanted to run home and bury his head in his father’s chest and hide in the man’s arms until the world was a distant memory, the hurt only a bad dream. He knew, though, that, as a man, he’d have to lift his head above the parapet again – and when that happened, it would hurt. So he couldn’t hide. He also couldn’t lie.

“Terrible,” he waxed with a cynical smirk, leaning against the bookshelf. “How have you been? Saving lives, I hope. I have too. Sort of.” Although he’d condemned a lot more to the murky waters of death than he’d saved from them. He’d also deleted a lot of memories and he wasn’t sure that counted as saving lives. Mind you, he was quite sure that the last set of Muggles whose memories he’d modified would not have been able to go on unless he had removed all memory of their son who had had the misfortune of running afoul of a werewolf during the Full Moon. So, in a way, he was saving lives. Sort of.

“Spoken to mum recently, at all?” He asked genially. “I probably need to show my face around her office a little bit more, don’t I?”