"Arthur?" I said, barley in a wisper.
"Hey ikle sissykins. Did you miss me?" He replyed in his deep voice.
I ran at him and threw my arms around his neck giving him a bone crunching hug. He returned the hug with an equal ammount of force and lifted me off the ground, spinnig me around like he did when I was young.
"Did you think I would be able to stay away to long?" He inquired as he set me back down.
I leaned on him for support, for I had become incredibly dizzy.
"No," I replied smugly.
I moved my arms from around his neck to on his soulders and gave him a good look over. Well, he was a wonder. How he could be so buff when both Weasly and Potter bloodlines were known for such skinny people? The world may never know. His copper hair shined in the fading sunlight and his deep blue eyes glowed with joy. His slightly tanned skin and highlighted hair meant that he had been spending a fair amount of time in the sun, not surprising for being in Romania taking lessons from Uncle Charlie.
If you looked at the Potters at a whole, you would think that Arthur had been an adopted son, but if you looked close enough, you could see the tell tale signs: eyes like his mother's, additude like his dad's, and the famous Weasley blush.
He put his reddening skills to use when I stood on my tip-toes and whispered "How many girls there were attacking you?" I paused, than added: "Dragons count."
He let out a chuckle as his face went back to it's normal sun-kissed color.
Arthur grinned mischeviusly and relpied. "Three," he said triumphantly.
I tryed to stifle a giggle, but it escaped before I could stop it.
Arthur's smile widened. "Oh I'll give you somthing to giggle about!"
Then he tickled me till I couldn't breath.
They were both poised and ready to strike. I gasped for air and manged to let out a mangled scream, my throught burned. They snapped there heads simltaniously to see what made the pitifull noise and I heard a great intake of breath as they saw me.
"YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT YOU FILTHY BEAST!!" Arthur screamed in a frenzy.
Seth took a step tward me and I tryed to reach out a hand to him, but I was to broken to move. It hurt to breath the quick, shallow breaths that my lungs were allowing me.
"STAY AWAY FROM HER DOG!!" Arthur's voice cracked as he stood, unable to move.
"Kill me now. I don't deserve to live after what I did to her." Seth turned away from me to face Arthur. "Just don't do it now, she's in enough pain.
"And even more without you" I managed to say in a strangled whisper.
Seth whipped around to face me again, his eyes wide in shock at what I just said, how I could still want him after what he had done..
"Don't speak love, it must hurt you," Seth finnaly managed to breath as he collapsed onto the ground and started to shake.
When Arthur was finnaly able to move, he shot twards me. He looked me over with agonized eyes, tryng to find the least painful way to pick me up. After about ten seconds, he scooped me up as gently as he could. I felt a sharp pain, and everything went black.
I shot up as I woke from my nightmare, panting and sweating. I steadied my breathing I looked over at the clock. It read 12:37pm. I was 37 minutes late!
Not even bothering with shoes I silently dashed from my room and downstairs to the side door. I yanked the door open and pushed the screen door away, closing the door quickly and barley stifling the screen door's slam. I turned around and saw Seth sitting on the grass, cross legged with his back to me. When I saw him I instantly calmed. I slowly stepped twards him, determined not to let him know I was there. When I was right behind him, I carefully lowered to my knees and kissed him on his right cheek.
He turned mid-kiss and switched it to lips, taking me by the waist and pulling me into his lap.
"I was worried you wern't coming," Seth said as we broke apart.
"No, just a bad dream." I looked at my toes and determined that I needed to poish them tomorrow.
Seth sensed that I didn't want to talk about it and changed the subject.
"So what do you want to do tonight?" He asked lightly.
I looked up at him and thought. Then it hit me.
"I want to take you somewhere," I determined. "To my grove, were I think."
Seth's eyes widened in surprise.
"Are you sure? Because you don't have to take me there if you don't want to. I understand if it's private."
I searched for a sign of dissapointment in his gray eyes when he commented on it being private. I looked, but all I found was complete honesty. I beamed at him for being so sweet.
"Yes, I'm sure. But first let me get a jacket."
He looked at me, a bit puzzled.
"I'll get you one to."
I opened the doors and stepped inside. I grabbed my hoodie and his sweater. The sweater had the logo of some strange muggle "college", but he liked it so I didn't care. As I backed out of the doors and carefully closed them, Seth came from behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist.
"What's with all the secrecy?" he whispered in a way that sent tingles down my spine.
I turned around, trapped in his arms. I pressed the sweater against his chest and simply said:
"Carry this, you'll thank me later."
I detached his arms from me, keeping hold of one hand, and led him down the worn stone path. The stones were nice against my bare feet as I realized then that my peds were probably going to shrivle up and fall off beacuse of the cold, but I didn't care.
When we came to the willow canopy, I let go of Seth's hand and pulled on my hoodie.
"You might want to put that on now." I jestured to his sweater clutched in his other hand.
"Right," he said, yanking it on and tousling his light brown hair.
After he had pulled the sweater over his head, I brushed back the willow branches. A breath of cool air surged out of the grove. I gestured for him to come with my finger as I dissapeared behind the curtian of branches. A second later, Seth entered and both of us gasped in unison at what we saw.
The pond was like a dream. There was a breeze playing in the wind that gently cooled us as we gaped in awe. The moon reflected off the incredibly still water, making it glow silver. Everything in the grove was glowing. The moon shone off the plants and the silver fish, the birds sleeping peacefully in their nests, and you could even see the faint glitter of the sleek crickets in the grass.
I looked around the grove, marvling at how it looked. Once I had finnished oggling, I turned to look at Seth, and let out a small giggle. If he was anymore open mouthed, his jaw would be touching the ground.
When he heard me giggle, he snapped back into reality. I walked past him, right up to the shore. I could hear the earth press down under his weight, leaving as he started twards me in. I plopped down on the soft grass and he sat next to me. I shivered a tiny bit, for my feet were freezing. He dragged me from the ground to his lap and just sat there, looking out over the water. I started tracing his jaw, thinking about how we were together and that was all that mattered.
All of a sudden, his head snapped back twards me. He started kissing my cheek, than whispered in my ear those simple yet heart melting words.
"Thank you Rose."
When I woke up that morning, I was sad. The pack of werewolves had to go tonight so as not to, well, phase infront of us.
Mum always said they were going back to visit their familys. She didn't have to lie, I knew what they were. I probably would have figured it out since my father was such a terrible fibber.
"Well... urm you see... they go..." father had stammered when I asked her were they were going, before Seth had told me were.
"There going to see there relitives. They all come from the witching familys you see, so they always have to return home on the full moon. That's why they are such night oriented people," my mum had said, saving my dad from complete and utter humiliation with her well rehersed explaination.
Mum and dad were outside on the porch, waving Remus and Frank off. As Trace went through the front door, I stood on my tip-toes and kissed Seth goodbye.
"Be safe you promise?" I asked gingerly and smiled when he nodded. "Oh, and try to avoid sharp plants this time."
Seth chuckled as I traced his scab. He squeezed my hand as he departed from the living room door. I followed them out and waved as the pack started to trudge off to beyond the apparation barriers protecting the house.
When we went back inside, father went and settled into his favorite chair with a copy of this morning's Daily Prophet. I went into the kitchen to help my mother with the dishes, but she turned my offer away simply saying "Arthur's not up yet."
She winked at me and I grinned wickedly.
An hour later, Arthur's room was covered in goose feathers and we were both on the floor in hysterics. Everytime I tried to gasp a breath inbetween laughter, I would suck a feather into my mouth and just laugh even harder as it tickled my throat.The laughter abruptly ceased as our mother stood in the doorway, scowling at the mess we had made.
"You had best clean this up soon," she said softly, a trace of amusement in her voice. "I'm glad to see that you are having fun while Arthur is here, but I have.. some news."Mum seemed at a bit of a loss of how to phrase what she was about to say. "Before school starts back up, the family's coming to visit." She had a look of frustration as she said this, meaning there were going to be lots of people in the Potter cottage.
"Who all is coming?" I asked. I immediatly regreted the question.
The next week went by in a blur as the resedents of the Potter cottage hastily prepared for the arrival of lots of family. Rooms were being added and the house was becoming a maze. If you were in a quiet hallway by yourself, your could speak and your echo would bounce around the house.
I was to share my room with Natalie Malfoy, Mellisa Weasley, Anna Longbottom, and Racheal Weasley. Arthur was sharing a room with Gregory Longbottom, Hogo Weasley, and Kindel Weasley. Mum and dad had given there room to Gran and Gramp, and the rest of the needed accomidations were magically attached to the house.
When the "big day" finnaly rolled around, the first ones to arrive were Neville and Cho. Gregory and Anna looked around timmedly, not knowing what they were supposed to do in this strange house.
I walked up to Anna and gave her a huge grin, she smiled timedly back. Anna was a nice looking girl, slightly wavey brown hair to below her shoulder baldes. She had peircing blue eyes like her mother, an incredibly stunning feature on her rather plain face. A few light freckles decorated her nose, they were cute in that fairy sort of way.
"Welcome to the Potter cottage!" I said cheerily and began to show her around the house.