Disclaimer: The ideas are mine, the characters are not.
AN: This was written for the 4th challenge of the House Cup Competition at HPFC, unfortunatelly I couldn't get any of the other challenges in time.
Prompt: Hugo Weasley
I would like to thank wvvampire, for Beta-reading this very carefully and at warp speed.
Natural Developments
"If you're not in Gryffindor we'll disinherit you."
It seemed like a joke when my father told us that, all those years ago, before I could even start Hogwarts. I laughed. Lily laughed. We'd be in Gryffindor for sure, so we didn't understand Albus' fears. I had been given my first red and gold t-shirt before I could walk; father had been training me to be Gryffindor's keeper, like he had been, ever since I was old enough to pilot a broomstick. Pretty much all of Lily's hair barrettes had lions on them. All of our cousins had somehow ended up in Gryffindor. But Lily didn't. And neither did I.
I can still remember the look in father's eyes when he saw my Slytherin badge the summer after first year.
"You have to understand your father had plans for you, ever since you were a baby" Mother tried to explain.
"It's not like it is my fault!"
"He knows it, Hugo." Uncle Harry messed up my hair, the way he always did when he was trying to comfort me for something "He just needs some time to get used to the idea, that's all. I was almost a Slytherin myself. Have I ever told you that story?"
He had, and it didn't make anything better. Almost being a Slytherin changed nothing. Actually being one changed everything.
But it was okay. I'd be alright as long as I had Lily by my side. She was my very very best friend, since forever. We were together more than we were apart. I took her along on my first flight, before I even knew how to properly propel a Broomstick. Uncle Harry had given one to me on my birthday, he said he'd give one to Lily too when her birthday arrived, but I told her I didn't want to fly if she was not with me. We fell over a mud puddle a few metres away from the point we had lifted off. We laughed, throwing mud at one another till both our mothers found us, exasperated, and yelled at Uncle Harry for giving such an irresponsible gift while he and my dad had a laugh.
The night after the sorting ceremony, we remained awake all night; talking, wondering what people at home would think of us, what our elder siblings would think of us. Lily was so worried about James reaction. They always said he looked more like Uncle Fred than any of the other youngsters in the family, something I never quite understood, anyway.
"At least we are together," she said, and I remember her head resting on my lap.
"I don't care about anything else, Lil," I told her. "I wouldn't want to be in Gryffindor if you were not there with me."
"Do you really mean that, Hugo?"
"Of course I do. I love you Lily."
"I love you too."
For the longest time, all we had was each other. Maybe it was because we both came from a long lineage of blood traitors, maybe it was because we stay together all of the time, but others wouldn't approach us. My mom was always talking about all of the houses being the same and of old songs the sorting hat used to sing. Whatever they say, the rivalry was real, and coming from a family that didn't care about the purity of their blood being a Slytherin was an occupational hazard.
We had all of our classes together, and we joined Slytherin's Quidditch team that year, the only first years to do so since Uncle Harry had been a seeker for Gryffindor over twenty years before. We won the Quidditch cup, but no one back home cheered for it as much as they cheered when Gryffindor won the house cup. Again, it didn't matter; Lily and I would beat any of the others in Quidditch any day of the week.
In time, I embraced the fact that I was different from other Weasleys. During the summer after my second year, I redecorated my room. Lily, like everyone else, was extremely curious as to what was I being so enigmatic about for over a weak, until I finally called her to see it. She smiled when she saw all the Slytherin banners on my walls. I put permanent sticking charms on them. Those were O.W.L. level charms, but I had to make sure no one would undo my work once I was off to school.
In addition to those banners, there were fragments of my favorite song lyrics, and next to the door, a huge world map, with colored pins, marking the places I'd like to visit. Over the bedside table was a picture of the both of us with the Quidditch cup.
I loved that smile on her face when she saw it.
Later, during our third year, we made our first visit to Hogsmeade together, and many more after that, for Lily discovered a map from Uncle Harry that allowed us to get off the school unnoticed whenever we wanted! We got into the Shrieking Shack, the haunted house of the village, and we tried virtually all of the sweets they had at Honeydukes. I bought her sugar hearts whenever we went there, sweets made out of strawberries planted on the giant's mountains, which smelled different for each person. She'd never tell me what it smelled like for her, no matter how often I asked.
Soon, rumors spread that we were together. "They're dating," people would say in the common room. And many would look at us with prohibitory eyes. Both Lily and I were red-haired, about the same height, and had the same eye color. Some people assumed we were siblings, it would be a scandal if we were together.
"Lily, I understand if you don't want to walk with me anymore."
"What? What are you saying?"
"You heard Scorpius talking the other day after Quidditch practice; he's leading people to believe you're my, my-"
"..."
"My girlfriend, you know..." I knew myself well enough to know my ears must be red as a pepper.
"That's absurd! We're friends,and that's all."
"I know, right? But I thought you would be upset, and I mean, if you want to spend less time together, I'd understand, just until people stop talking..."
"No, Hugo, never, I don't care what people say. Do you?"
"No not at all."
"We're just friends. If they can't figure that out, it's their problem!"
"Yeah," I agreed, and for some reason I was not quite happy. It had something to do with the way Lily had said 'it's absurd', I think...
I should have seen what was coming right there.
I hated that Valentine's Day, when she said she wouldn't be able to go to Hogsmeade with me because that Ravenclaw boy had asked her on a date.
"Do you fancy him?"
"I guess so..."
"..."
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Like I don't know you, Hugo Weasley, you're making that face."
"This is the only face I have!"
"Hugo!"
"Okay, it's just that... Well, I read a lot of those muggle romance novels, you know..."
"I do. I imagine what our Slytherin colleagues would think of it if they were to spot you reading such literature."
"Well, anyway, I was under the impression that when you like someone, for real I mean, you just know it."
"How?"
"Well, there this signs you know? The world stops spinning, you feel butterflies flying inside of your stomach, and the sounds everywhere else seem to dim to a silence so absolute that it makes you believe that you and that one person are the only ones left in the whole wide world. And as long as you're together, that's okay."
"..."
"..."
"You're making that up!" Lily laughed out loud.
"I am not!"
"Yes you are!"
"Believe what you will..."
"Oh, I felt none of those things for him... But maybe I don't know, maybe you're not really aware of all those feelings if you've never experienced them before."
"Maybe so..."
"Maybe I'll figure that out if he kissed me."
"You'll have to tell me how that goes."
I was so upset that I didn't leave for Hogsmeade that day. My cousin called me to go with him, once he had heard about Lily's escort (somehow, news travel faster than light at Hogwarts), but I just wanted to sit by myself playing wizard's chess against a set of pieces enchanted to make their own moves. But I was worried when Lily didn't come back with the others, I looked for her everywhere that night, until I found her hiding in the Shrieking Shack, crying.
I have never felt anything like what I did when I saw her there. I felt so protective of her, and it hurt, as if I could feel her pain, which was strange because I didn't know what she was crying about. So I hugged my cousin until she calmed down enough to tell me that her date didn't care about her at all. In the end, he had a bet against his friends, that he'd be able to take a picture of himself kissing Slytherin's seeker.
"He didn't deserve you Lil!"
"I thought he cared about me, but I should have known."
"What should you have know?"
"Don't you know who he is, Hugo? He could have all the girls in the school, he's so smart and so handsome, it was foolishness of me to think that such a boy would ever want anything like that with me!"
"Lily, don't you say that. You're the most beautiful girl in school."
"You don't have to say that."
"I didn't say because I had to, I meant it," I assured her, blushing. "I'll go after this guy; I'll take that picture from him!"
"We didn't kiss. Once I saw the camera, I found out what he was planning. I wouldn't kiss him after that."
Was I a bad person for feeling a certain relief listening to that? I never knew. I took her back to the school, and the next day I had a fight with that Ravenclaw idiot. I spend the night in sickbay after the fight, but I would have done it for Lily even if I had to spend a week drinking Professor Longbottom's plant-based healing juices.
She was my cousin after all; it was only natural that I should defend her. Was it not?
None of that made me ready for that day during our fourth year, when I asked her to come with me to the Yule Ball, and she said yes.
"As friends, I mean," I said quickly.
"Sure Hugo."
Blimey, she was beautiful. Lily wore a beautiful silver dress that fitted her elegant silhouette incredibly and her red hair in an elegant bun. She took my breath away.
"Lily, you look beautiful!"
"Then it's lucky for me I have such an elegant gentleman to escort me."
The scarf folded into my pocket was also silver, to match her dress and I had something for her in my pocket, but it was not the time to give it to her just yet. I offered her my arm; she placed her hand over it, and allowed me to lead her across the room.
The walls had been covered in sparking white frost, and there were hundreds of garlands decorated with ice pendants. Not that it mattered. I could barely take my eyes of the girl holding my arm walking with me. Many people were eating, some others were dancing, but Lily had never been fond of such crowds.
"Maybe we could take a walk outside and then come back?"
"As you wish." I would have granted anything she had requested of me.
We walked out of the Great Hall, fortunately before James or Albus were able to see us. Or Rose. She could mean when she wanted, that sister of mine. But they were all distracted by their dates, and Lily and I were free.
"Look, there are ice pendants over the rose bushes, as well..."
"Lily, I- I have something for you."
That's when I pulled the little box out of my pocket. There was a silver necklace inside, with a discreet pendant shaped as a snake. It was a delicate figure. I had written Uncle George requesting advice on those matters, I said I had a date for the ball, but I didn't know what to do. For some reason I didn't tell him it was Lily. I had spent hours, searching for the proper gift over Hogsmeade, and later I used some spells to make it special... I stuttered when she asked me to help her wear it.
"I thought... I thought you might like it."
"It's beautiful. I wish I had something for you."
"Well, you could... dance with me."
"Out here?"
I nodded.
"I don't really know how."
"All you require is a strong partner." I told her, and placed one of my hands on her wrist and another on her hand.
I moved slowly, looking her in the eyes. Before when she said the idea of us being together was absurd, I didn't realize why it bothered me. When she had a date with another guy, I didn't realize what I felt was jealousy. When I spent every minute of every day scratching her name on pieces of parchment, thinking about her smile, I didn't quite know what it meant.
But now, holding Lily in my arms, feeling the sweetness of her movements, the lightness of her scent, I knew something I should have realized ages ago. I was in love with her.
Was it so unexpected that I would eventually fall for her?
After all she was beautiful, she had been with me every moment that mattered. And I felt all of the signs, I felt vulnerable to her! One smile on her part would take me to the skies; one argument with her would throw me onto darkness until once again she wanted to smile at me.
Those were the wrong feelings, feelings which could not be happening.
She was my cousin. We had grown up together, we knew each other's deepest secrets and yet... I couldn't help but loving her. It felt so natural and yet so wrong! She would never want me; she would never have me...
It was not without fear that I leaned to kiss her.