Once Upon a Fairytale
Rose had always loved fairytales as a child. Not just the wizard's children stories, but the muggle ones too. It was one of the few particularly girly things about her, seeing as how she wasn't much into hair or clothes. Whenever she ate an apple, she would pretend that she was Snow White. Sleeping Beauty was always her favorite, though, because she had Rose in her name.
Like most girls, she focused on the princesses, the prince charmings, and the happily ever afters.
Like most girls, she forgot about the curse.
Until that fateful day.
That day, back when it was tolerable to be around her brother (in other words, before Hogwarts), she and Hugo had been playing hide and seek in their back yard. She ran as fast as her legs would carry her, looking for the perfect place to hide.
Their house was near the woods. Rose thought of finding a tree to hide behind.
Rose didn't see the woman until too late. "Be careful of strangers" was something her parents constantly said. Having parents so well known in the wizarding world and so publicly against the dark arts, she and her brother could be targets for people who wanted to get to their parents. Suddenly, Rose tripped over a leg and fell to the ground. Her knees and hands were scraped where they had met the ground, but Rose was too scared to notice the pain.
She had tripped over one of the most hideous women she'd ever seen. The woman's hands were gnarled, a large mole was on her nose, and she had what appeared to be a permanent scowl on her face. The scowl remained, even when she attempted to smile at Rose.
"My my, what do we have here?" the woman asked. Her voice was high pitched, and if Rose could move, she would have put her hands over her ears to spare herself the awful sound.
"You're staring at me."
"S-sorry," Rose stuttered, and yet she still couldn't bring herself to look away.
The woman looked deep into Rose's eyes. "No man will ever love you," she said, before vanishing.
Later, Rose would forget not ever learning the woman's name so that she could track her down, but for now she was trying to get away as soon as she could.
She was just outside her home when she came across her brother. "I found you!" Hugo said triumphantly. Then he frowned, "You have a booboo on your leg." It was as if his words had brought the pain back, but she didn't have the energy to cry. They went inside, and she saw her father, who immediately helped her put a paste on her leg that made the wound disappear.
"That's my brave girl," Rose's father said, kissing her forehead. Apparently the woman's words hadn't referred to family. Rose wasn't aware of how scared she'd been about her father hating her until that moment. It was then that she started crying.
The scratch might have healed, but inside she was wounded. It was a wound that wouldn't heal for many years.
Over time, Rose managed to get used to her curse, or at least not show how much it still hurt. She'd never told anyone about it. It was if by the act of telling, it would make the curse more real.
At first, it hurt every time a boy rejected her. It seemed that it wasn't just love that she wouldn't ever recieve from a male, but acceptance as well. But then, acceptance could lead to a friendship of sorts, and that was a type of love as well.
Most of the time, she read and studied. It distracted her, for the most part. Her mother's daughter, most people said.
But Rose had to wonder. Would she have been such a bookworm had things turned out differently.
"Move, Weasley," a snide voice ordered her, "you're blocking my view, and I want something nice to look at."
Rose sighed, recognizing the voice only too well. Scorpius Malfoy was the worst of the boys in the school. He seemed to go out of his way to aggravate her. She was leaning against the door to her next class one day in her seventh year, early as usual. At the sound of Malfoy's voice, though, she turned around.
"No," she said simply. He simply glowered at her, but didn't move.
Malfoy never backed down from a fight when it came to her.
But then, when it came to him, she never backed down either.
Eventually the class started, leaving an end to their now silent battle.
For now, at least.
Then one day, she saved him.
It seemed to her that Hagrid's lessons seemed to grow crazier throughout the years.
This time, it was dragons, supposedly tamed ones, though how one went about taming a dragon, Rose wasn't sure. In this case, it didn't seem to be true. Just as one was about to blow fire at Malfoy, she pushed him to the ground. For a second they stared at each other before she awkwardly got up. Her actions had been unintentional. But then, with so many heroes in her family, what was she to expect? Spontinaity was in her blood.
The end of the class couldn't come soon enough.
Since it was the first day in a while that was actually nice, she, like most people, had decided to spend her free time outside. Still, where she was had been isolated.
At least, until he came.
"I hope you don't expect me to be grateful to you for that stunt you pulled today in class," was his unmistakeable drawl.
"I don't expect you to ever be grateful to anyone but yourself," Rose replied honestly. In her opinion, no one had a bigger ego in the world. And considering she knew quite a few famous people, that was saying a lot.
Somehow, they managed to engage themselves in a staring contest. "Your eyes are very blue," Rose said without meaning to. She didn't have time to correct herself, for suddenly, his lips were on her own.
Rose had grown up hearing tales of her parents' love hate relationship. But what they had never even compared to this. At least they had been friends.
He was kissing her, she was kissing him back.
And worse, they were both enjoying it.
Who would've guessed that he would be the one to end it all, Rose thought in a daze. Certainly not her.
"I thought you couldn't stand me," Rose said when they broke apart.
"No, I really can't," Scorpius (for now, it seemed rather silly of her to call him by his last name) agreed. Before she could say anything in response to that, he kissed her again.
It was then that she remembered the cure that ended all the curses in fairytales.
Love's true kiss would break the spell.