Dazed and Confused
Author Note: Am I Joanne Kathleen Rowling? Nope. It's not mine, then. This story came to me after deciding to take up a NextGen idea put forward by a reviewer. Thanks to Brin Hearts Harry for putting the idea in my brain and making me go forward with this Albus/Rose story.
"See you Rosie." Fourteen-year-old Albus Severus Potter stepped forward and hugged his cousin. Rose Weasley smiled - Albus was always so affectionate. Neither of them knew - well, six people (Harry, Ginny, Albus, Ron, Hermione and Rose) didn't know - that a blue-haired Metamorphagus was smirking and snickering silently.
"Bye Albus. See you on the train." Rose grinned. The Weasleys walked out, Harry and Ginny giving them a wave as the two redheads and brunette Apparated. The Potters walked out of the hallway. Teddy walked over to Albus - a grin on his face.
"Well, well, well." he laughed. Albus raised an eyebrow - what was Teddy getting at?
"Come on, Al. Don't ignore my point." Teddy said. Albus looked blank - he was confused. Teddy sighed - when was that boy going to wake up and smell the coffee?
"Al, the other members of the family may be a trifle blind in noticing it, but I know."
"Know what?" Albus asked. Teddy's hair changed to a clear vibrant medium pink.
"That you like Rose, silly." he laughed, a booming laugh that came from his chest.
"Wha- me liking Rose- what, as in like like, as in more than a cousin?" Albus asked.
"Bingo." Teddy said. The Metamorph swore that a faint blush adorned Al's cheeks.
"Teddy, you're crazy. I don't like Rose in that way. Besides, even if I did like her-"
"Do you?" Teddy asked, wanting Al's full honesty. Nothing changed in his looks.
"I-I-I don't know Ted. Hell, she's so sweet and beautiful, but she's my cousin too!" This exclamation sent Albus into heavy breathing afterwards. Teddy looked thoughtful. Time to dish out some helpful godbrotherly advice to the stricken boy.
"Look Al. I'm not really good on the advice thing, but I try. And the thing I can think of that might help you might not seem clear, but it's the best thing that comes to mind."
"Anything, Teddy. I feel so dazed and confused about this." Albus replied.
"Just listen to what your heart tells you. Secret passions never go away." Teddy said. Albus thought about it. Teddy could be on to something - but it still confused him.
"Alright. On the train I'll corner Rose and talk about my feelings." he smiled. Teddy beamed. He'd seen for years how Al had been closer to Rose than any of the others.
"Splendid! Albus and Rose sitting in a tree!" Teddy sung, his eyes shining.
"Keep your voice down!" Albus implored - his parents both had good hearing. He loved Rose, he really did, moreso than in a cousin way, and he had to gather the courage to confess his feelings deep inside him. But he'd do it one way or another.
"Good luck Al." Teddy grinned as he went to say goodbye to Harry and Ginny.
"I'm going to kill that sneaky son-of-a-werewolf." Albus growled later. His parents laughed. Well, Harry laughed. Ginny was split between curiousity and amusement.
"And why is that?" Ginny asked. Albus stiffened and thought about what to tell her.
"If all goes well, you'll find out at Christmas." he replied. Sept 1st dawned bright.
"Ready for another year at Hogwarts Albie?" Rose laughed, elbowing him fiercely.
"You know it Rosey-Rose." he chuckled, a light in his emerald-green eyes.
"Urrrgggh! Enough with the pet names you two! Christ!" James exclaimed. Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione burst out laughing. Albus gave Rose a mock glare.
"Oh what? Because I'm already in my school robes?!" she exclaimed. Lily snorted - the youngest Potter was starting her second year, and didn't plan on taking after Rose. After the hubbub of boarding the train and family goodbyes, the students boarded the train. Albus was giving Lily a look. Lily responded with a raised eyebrow.
"What?" she asked. Albus smirked - he was going to enjoy teasing her with this.
"Off to find darling Lysander?" he asked, positively beaming - he found this amusing.
"Don't make me hex you, Al. Lysander and I are friends." Lily replied. Albus laughed.
"Pur-leeeeeease. You're smitten with him." the green-eyed boy said.
"Awwww. Little Lily's growing up." Rose crooned, ruffling Lily's hair. The smaller redhead pouted, and walked to her compartment, leaving Albus and Rose giggling. As they sat down in their compartment, the two cousins resumed conversation.
"So... Lily's smitten with Lysander, hmm? I thought they were pals." Rose said.
"Lil puts up that guise, but you should see the light in her eyes when she looks at him. It's a classic example of someone feeling deeper for their best friend. Actually-" Albus was interrupted by a knock on the door and the entrance of a seventh-year.
"Oh Allllbussss?" Dominique sang. Albus growled. Dom spelt T-R-O-U-B-L-E.
"G'away." the black-haired boy mumbled menacingly. Dominique tapped her foot.
"Albus Severus Po-" but the strawberry-blonde was stopped by Rose's piercing look.
"Just what is going on?" she asked. Dom wiggled her eyebrows. Albus led her away.
"So...?" he asked once he and Dominique were in the corridor. The senior laughed.
"Teddy told me, Al. So? You like Rose, huh? Interesting. Some might say sneaky-"
"Dom, stop it. I genuinely love Rose, and none of your Veela tricks, OK?" Albus queried. As the Head Girl thought about it, the two spotted a streak of dark-blonde - the middle Potter guessed the mystery girl hadn't heard a thing of these whispers.
"Alright, alright kiddo. Good luck!" Dom beamed, hugging Al. Albus walked back into his compartment. Rose beamed at him. Al felt something flutter lightly inside him.
"So actually what, Al?" she asked, her brown eyes twinkling a fair bit. "Actually?" Albus asked. Rose rolled her eyes - he was just completely clueless.
"You said 'it's a classic example of someone feeling deeper for their best friend actually', and then Dom walked in." Rose said. Albus clicked what she meant.
"Actually Rose, I wanted to talk to you about something incredibly serious. It's just-"
"Hey you two." James' voice rang through the compartment as he poked his head in.
"James, Cynthia, I was just about to discuss something with Rose." Albus said, registering that he'd seen Cynthia's dark-blonde streaks in the corridor earlier.
"Oh. In that case we'll leave. We just wanted to check on you." Cynthia replied.
"We're doing fine." Rose smiled - James had really found a good catch in the blonde.
"Oh Rose! Giving poor Cynth the cold treatment! Reminds me of-" but James halted.
"James, I think we've heard that story from our parents, not to mention Aunt Luna." Trust Albus to play the nostalgia card Rose thought. James and Cynthia walked off.
"Right, Al. Spit it out before we're stalled again." Rose laughed. Albus swallowed.
"Rosie, what Lily's feeling for Lysander... it's cliché, but we've all been told that it's typical to feel more-than-friendly towards a close friend sometimes." he proclaimed.
"Hmm... using my detective skills-" Rose paused to laugh "-I'm guessing you feel romantically inclined towards a female friend right now?" the redhead pondered.
"Yes... I do." Albus stuttered back - he didn't know whether to keep her in the dark.
"Right... do you love Annie?" Rose asked. Albus snorted - Annie was great, but no.
"Annie? Rose, don't get me wrong, she's lovely, but Neville would just plain kill me." Rose considered her cousin's reply - Neville would give a fair warning to anyone who tried to get close to his daughter. That didn't change the fact that Annie Longbottom was a positive soul and very friendly. She had inherited Hannah's bubbliness.
"Hmmm... " but Rose's thought train was stopped by a Hufflepuff coming in.
"Hey you two!" Annie Longbottom exclaimed. Albus groaned - this was getting silly.
"Speak of the devil." he muttered. Annie's face had a quizzical look from Al's quip.
"What do you mean 'speak of the devil'?" she asked. Rose smiled rather sneakily.
"We were just talking about you." the redhead said. Annie flopped down on the seats, her pigtails bouncing a bit as she sat down. Rose could sense Albus' urgency.
"Tell you what Anne, why don't you check where the lunch trolley is while Al and I talk, hmmm? You can mingle with us straight after, OK?" the redhead asked.
"OK!" Annie said, sprinting out of the compartment. Albus sighed sarcastically.
"What are we going to do with her?" he asked, laughing. Rose laughed with him.
"I just don't know. Anyway... are you crushing on Katherine Macmillan?" she asked. Albus shook his head - he got on with Katherine well, but he didn't really see the brunette Ravenclaw in that way. Rose was really starting to run of options here.
"You said it's one of your female friends, Al. But I can't think who you'd see in-"
"Maybe it's my closest female friend." Albus said, blushing like a complete maniac.
"Merlin... oh Albus!" Rose exclaimed - she was truly shocked out of her mind.
"Yes, Rosie. It's you. Merlin, you have no idea how much I love you." Albus said. Rose was in happy tears. Next thing he knew, Albus was strangled in a fierce hug.
"Albus, I love you too. Sometime last year I started to feel more-than-cousinly love for you." Rose squeaked. Albus patted her on the back, also kissing her head.
"The lunch trolley isn't here yet." Annie's voice jerked the cousins out of their hug.
"Annie!" Albus shrieked. Annie laughed, her aqua eyes alight with fierce humour.
"You know you can't turn into a flowering shrub to keep away from me." she said.
"Touché, Miss Longbottom." Albus laughed - he got the Hufflepuff's joke instantly.
"You can have a guess at who I passed on the way back." Annie asserted, smirking.
"James and Cynthia getting up to no good?" Rose wondered. Annie shook her head.
"Nope!" she said, popping the 'p'. "As it happens, I saw Lily getting rather friendly with a certain Lysander Scamander." she finished. Al grinned a very evil grin indeed.
"I knew it!" he proclaimed, punching the air. Rose laughed very heartily.
"Lily always used to tell me her and Lysander would end up incredibly close at the hip because it was in their blood." she chuckled - Lily had been a right dreamer back then. Albus half-groaned - honestly, Lysander had rubbed off on Lily way too much.
"Actually, now I come to think about it, Lil made sense with that, Rose. The common myth is that my mum decided on Lily's middle name when my dad decided on her first name. Truth be told, it was the other way around. And Luna named Ly 'Lysander Harry' in return. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Lily invited Lysander to a festive ball." When Albus finished, Rose realised what he meant by the festive ball invitation.
"Aunt Ginny is sooo going to slaughter you for that." she said. Albus looked passive.
"Wh- come on Rose. We all know that it was a 'just friends' Christmas date." he said.
"What are you two talking about?" Annie asked. Albus smiled at her mischievously.
"My dad inviting Luna to Slughorn's party at Christmas '96." he said. Annie grinned.
"Ginny gets paranoid easily, doesn't she?" the bubbly girl asked. Albus and Rose nodded. Rose yawned. Albus sighed, a smile on his face - he knew instantly.
"Rosie, if you want to go to sleep, just tell me." he smiled. Rose stretched her joints.
"Th-thank you Al-Albie." Rose yawned, resting her head on his shoulder and closing her eyes. Annie giggled. Albus looked at her. Annie glanced at him, and then at Rose, and smirked, raising her eyebrows knowingly. Albus dismissively shook his head, careful not to knock Rose. He could see Annie mouth 'liar'. Dom turned up in a half-hour, smirking at Al - she knew he'd admit it to Rose, and it'd change their bond.
"Look at Rose resting on you Al. Aww, all lovey-dovey." she laughed. Annie snorted.
"You knew?" she asked the Head Girl. Dominique nodded, throwing her hair back.
"Yep. Teddy told me." she said. Albus growled. Dom and Annie left snickering loudly.
Some time later, the platinum-blonde head of one Scorpius Malfoy poked through.
"Hello Albus." he said. Albus registered the newcomer - the first two years at Hogwarts had been solidly frosty between them - Al saw Scorpius as stuck-up and evil. But in third-year he had started to change, and they'd have conversations every once in a while. Back to reality, Al sensed that Rose had nudged him in her sleep.
"Look Scorpius, Rose is deep in dreamland, and I'd like to get forty winks myself."
"OK. I'll see you in the carriages." Scorpius said, walking away. Rose mumbled something. Albus heard her clearly. Unless he was very much mistaken, she'd said 'I love Albie Potter with all my heart'. As for Al, his own heart soared as he lifted her off of him to lay her down. He changed into his robes (Rose was snoring her head off, so it didn't matter), then sat down on the opposite seats and drifted off to sleep.
"Albus, wake up..." a female voice said. Albus creaked one eye open. Rose was beaming at him with a tray of food in her hands. He moved, his body jerking awake.
"Katherine brought us some food off the trolley." Rose said, pausing to bite into a Chocolate Cauldron. Albus hugged Rose, his brain swimming with her new feelings.
"Albie, if you're going to hug someone, hug Katherine for the food." Rose laughed.
"OK, I will. Oh by the way, you snore your head off." the black-haired boy stated. This earned him a prompt slap from his cousin. He fake-screamed in fake agony.
"Albus, don't exaggerate, my love." Rose smirked. Albus blushed at that sentence.
"You've been falling for me hard, haven't you?" the redhead pondered, smiling.
"Honestly? Yes, my darling Rosie." Albus stuttered. Rose beamed very radiantly.
"But now I'm thinking of a plan." Albus said, smiling maniacally - Rose was scared.
"And what is - knowing you - rather diabolical plan, may I ask?" she asked.
"Torturing Annie and Dom, that's what. They need to be taught a fierce lesson. I'm not kidding. They guessed about my feelings. Well, Teddy blabbed to Dom-"
"That git!" Rose hissed. Albus laughed - wow, sweet Rose had a wild side.
"-and Annie started guessing about a deeper connection when you dropped off on my shoulder. She looked at me, then raised her eyebrows when she saw you sleeping." Al finished. Rose was suddenly struck by something though.
"How did Teddy know?" she wondered. Albus' face suddenly flushed.
"He's quite perceptive, as you know, and I guess the look in my eyes when I hugged you the other day gave it away. I swear I'm going to kill him at Christmas."
"So... are we together?" Rose asked, her eyes positively shining with happiness.
"Sure. But let's take it slow - you know how fast news spreads in Hogwarts."
"Oh, Albus. I love you." Rose exclaimed, smothering him in kisses. "And you're right. Let's keep our relationship low-key. I'm guessing it might get tricky in gossip circles."
"Merlin forbid if it hits ears before we're ready. But love knows no bounds. Who the hell cares if we're cousins?" Albus asked, a rhetorical question clear in his voice.
"I sure the hell don't!" Rose grinned. Al laughed, leaning on Rose to steady himself. The train started to slow down. The happy pair collected their lugagge. Rose had to restrain Albus from hexing Annie when the cousins bumped into Annie and Scorpius in the carriages. At Al's actions, Scorpius looked utterly and downright befuddled.
"Albus, why do you want to hex Annie's brains out? I thought you two were close."
"Scorpius, I assure you we are, but right now Anita Hannah Longbottom is walking to her death sentence." Albus hissed - Annie put up her hands defensively. Rose also sent the blonde a glare. But tensions calmed in the carriage as the students prepared for another year. Albus and Rose were sure it would be somewhat crazy.
AN: I don't care what people say, it's like Albus said, who cares if they're cousins? Love knows no bounds. I decided to put some Lily/Lysander hints in because they're my favourite NextGen ship next to Ralbus. As for the OCs in this story, I've tried to make Annie Longbottom a fair bit more like Hannah Abbott than like Neville. And some of you are probably wondering about James' OC girlfriend Cynthia. Cynthia has cannon parents, but I'll keep them 'hidden', per se, until Chapter 3, with a big hint at the end of Chapter 2. There is a super-subtle hint towards who her mother is if you squint very carefully. See if you can guess if you look hard. Review, please?