Chapter 4: The Corruption of the Virginal Thoughts
It had been almost a week and Weasley hadn't returned. The days in the Potter cottage went by fast and fun. I rarely admitted it, but having a brother and a sister seemed really fun. Albus, James and I kept going into the city nearby, we had to walk as Godric's Hollow was a muggle village, and seeing three boys riding broomsticks was sure to cause havoc. In the afternoons we would climb on top of the hill looking towards the big buildings and discussing how were they build. Sometimes, we would go to the pubs, one time Albus's dad took us with him into a special Auror meeting. Rose's dad was there too, but he simply ignored me the whole time. I could see were Rose's apathy came from. The meeting consisted of a bunch of drunk Aurors telling stories about work and the war. My father never took into drinking this heavily, and seeing Albus's dad laugh and drink with his mates I realised something: My father didn't have any friends.
And as sad as that was, being in the Potter cottage was ten times better than spending summer reading alone in my room in the Manor. On the first sunday I spent in the Potter cottage we had a friendly Quidditch game on their back yard. Albus's dad played too, and James, Lily and I had the advantage until Albus's mum decided to play. We were crushed and because of it she made us all our favorite dishes for dinner. That never happens in the Manor.
The truth is I was happy. My happiness only being irrevocably depleted by the Rose incident. I didn't dare mention anything to Albus, but I was itching to see her, to at least apologize (even though I suspected she was not going to accept my apology as easy as I wanted her to) for all those things I said to her last time. I was jealous, finding it completely irresistible to get her back for that day in Diagon Alley. If she was okay with me dying she could go fuck herself for all I cared. That's why I said that about the Ravenclaw boy, she got pissed, and then ran away after mentioning they had not been together for months now.
How could I have been so clueless? I had seen the signs and yet it had not clicked in my mind. She had become lonely and taciturn for the past couple months, Hogwarts must had been a nightmare with that tosser right in her own house. I was itching too to know what had happened between them. Had she broken up with him? Had him? Had he cheated on her? By her reaction I could tell she still loved him, those tears made clear her broken heart, and yet she had denied it.
I was constantly looking for her in the window, in the street, even in the conversations I had with the Potters. Every time her name got dragged into the conversation my ears prickled and burnt. If anybody in that cottage had known, I would have been discovered in a heartbeat. And Weasley had not come back to the house at all since that day.
One Saturday morning Albus handed me a really old book. Its cover was red and it was leather bound. In golden some runes, as the ones in the wooden box, decorated the cover and it was so old that the pages were falling loose. I stared at it for a couple of seconds, and then Albus said:
"It was Aunt Hermione´s. She gave it to me last year because I told her I was interested in ancient runes as a possible post-Hogwarts career." he took the book back from me, and then flicked to a certain page.
"I was reading it last night. I figured the book and the wooden box were as old as each other and I could find the runes here. It turns out I was wrong. The only rune I could find was this one." he pointed with his finger to a very small rune in the left corner of the yellowing page.
"What does it mean?" I asked, examining the rune as closely as possible.
"I have no idea." Albus said, shrugging his shoulders.
"Then we are no closer to finding the truth. Thanks, Al, you are as helpful as ever." I said, rolling my eyes.
"At least I'm doing something."
"I haven't made up my mind if I want to know anything about this fucking wand. It scares me, you know? What if it is some weird dark magic shit? The Malfoys are not exactly good wizards."
"It wouldn't kill you to know about it. I mean, we can always stash it away and pretend it never happened." Albus said, taking the wooden box from my trunk.
"Fine, but if I get killed I'll make sure you die with me, mate." As I said those words a big grey owl crashed into Albus's window.
We both stood up from Albus's bed and ran to the window to get a better look. Albus's dad was in the backyard, picking the owl from the grass.
"What happened, dad?" Albus shouted from his window.
"It's Pig, he has been confused for a few weeks now. Old age is getting to him. I don't know why Ron keeps sending him." Albus's dad said. He returned to the inside of the house.
"I haven't heard anything from Rose in days. Did something happened the last time she was here?" Albus asked suddenly.
"Something like what?" I feigned innocence.
"I don't know. I just find it odd. She used to come here all the bloody time before, and the other day, it was like the old times when we would spend all day together. And then she was gone. She didn't even say goodbye."
Albus was my best friend in the world, but I couldn't just say that I was in love with Rose and I had made her leave with what I said about the Ravenclaw boy. Hell, Albus didn't even know that Rose had had a boyfriend. It was a piece of information that I kept to myself. Would he forgive me for being in love with his favorite cousin?
"Who knows. Rose is weird, she probably was feeling all high and mighty to be in our presence." I said nonchalantly.
"I hope you are right."
When we came down for breakfast, there was a note in the kitchen table and Albus's mum was preparing a cake. She hummed happily as she baked and cooked the eggs and bacon. James was there already wolfing down his plate.
We sat down opposite him, and as Albus´s mum kept serving food to us, she said we were going to the Weasleys' for dinner.
"Which Weasleys exactly?" James asked.
"With our neighbors, James." she clarified, making a disgust face as she saw James's mouth full with bacon.
Why the Weasleys decided so suddenly they wanted us over for dinner? Beats me. I was certain it wasn't Rose's idea, and I sure bet it wasn't her father's, and yet I couldn't suppress the feeling things were going to be alright from now on. Stupid little infatuated me, there was no way in hell Rose was going to forgive me that easily.
At 7 that night we went over to the Wasley's cottage with a bunch of food, and butterflies exploding every five seconds inside my stomach. The night was cool and relaxed and Albus's parents kept chatting and laughing as we made our way there. James pushed Lily over a hedge in a nearby house, and now he was running around us for his life as Lily was chasing after him.
"They know I'm still here, right?" I asked Albus whispering.
"Yeah, dad reminded Aunt Hermione, but she seemed to be ok with that. Don't worry Scorp, you are part of my family, they are going to be ok with it. Plus that thing between my dad and your dad and everybody happened a shitload of years ago. Don't sweat it." Albus responded in a cheerful tone.
But his positive prediction was dead wrong. As soon as Rose's dad opened the door, he snarled at my direction. He embraced Albus's parents, and then his nephews and nice, ignoring me completely. He showed us to the foyer, were Rose's mum greeted us in a cheerful tone. She was a pretty witch, no doubt where Rose got her looks from, unruly brown hair, piercing eyes, and a short but elegant stance. She greeted me too, not as warm and enthusiastic as with the rest of her family though. Rose came down the stairs a couple minutes later. She seemed her usual self, saying hi to everyone. And then the adults went to the kitchen to continue their conversation and Lily and Hugo went away somewhere. James and Albus drew out the Wizard Chess Rose's dad had in the living room, and embarked themselves in the game.
Rose seemed to be paying attention to it, but had a bored expression on her face. I bet she felt she was too smart to be in this kind of situation. I just stood there, in the middle of the living room, awkwardly taking in my surroundings. A lot of baby pictures on the wall, some wedding photos, a couple family pictures of the whole clan in a big mismatched house.
"Oi, come with me." Rose bumped my shoulder with hers and went away to the back of the house. I followed her with my face towards the floor. I didn't dare to look up as I knew the hopefulness and embarrassment were visible.
"If you wanted to be alone with me you didn't have to make such a fancy dinner party." I said, smirking.
"Don't flatter yourself, Malfoy. The only reason you are here is because my mum and dad had a huge fight because of you. And mum got her way and tricked my father into this stupid dinner to get to know you better." she said, not glancing back at me.
She stood in front of a white door with a big "R" in deep purple hanging on it. Her room, I presumed. The hopefulness grew on my face. Maybe things were going alright after all.
"If you try something funny, I'll scream." she warned, and then opened the door to her room. It was simpler and cleaner than what I had imagined. She had a four poster bed with a blueish duvet. She had wooden floors and a rocking chair by the chimney. There was a big bookshelf by one of the walls and the books were threatening to collapse as there were way too many stuffed in it.
"What is it? You're going to offer yourself to me?" I teased.
"In your dreams!" she snorted, but then laughed.
"Then what is it, Weasley? I don't think we would be here if this wasn't important or private, so just spit it out."
"Fine!" she spatted. He face suddenly blushed and her eyes darted to her shoes. Cute.
"It's kind of embarrassing asking you this." She sat down on the bed. And after some moments of silence I did the same.
"How did you know about me and Kevin?" she finally asked.
"I saw you and that git kiss in an empty classroom near the dungeons." I said mechanically.
"Oh." she seemed concerned. "Did you tell Albus about it?"
"Yeah, we always talk about you. Our world revolves around your persona." I said. It felt kind of awful to know she was only interested in bringing me here to ask me about that shithead.
"I'm being serious here. Please don't ever tell him, nor any of my cousins for that matter." she said, her face contracted.
"Why don't you want them to know?"
"It's personal, Malfoy. Would you want your family to know who you've been snogging?" I hadn't noticed until that point that she was really close to me, her shoulder was almost touching mine.
"I don't care. I bet they know I've been kissing girls all over the place. I bet they even think I've been fucking in the corners at Hogwarts." I said, smirking at her.
"Well, that's… we didn't-just don't…" stammering, she turned her face away from me.
"You didn't what, Weasley?" my hand went to cup her face, and turning her towards me I could see she was blushing.
"I didn't-not with him…"
"You are a virgin?" I asked, hoping for the affirmative, getting a little embarrassed as well.
She stood up from the bed immediately, her face and upper shoulders turning a shade of red that wasn't even possible.
"It's none of your business! And what if I am? It's not as if I have to answer to you. And for your information, I am not interested in that, ok? I have no desire whatsoever! I need to study and get full marks in my NEWTs and-" I cut her off on the middle of her sentence. I grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the bed, pinning her to the mattress.
"Don't you want this? To be touched like this?" my fingers ran the length of her arm. "Don't you want to feel pleasure from the bottom of your belly? Or your toes curl in anticipation?" my hand went up to caress her face. Her deep blue eyes were looking hungrily at me, wide opened and expectant.
"What would you do if I kiss you right now?" I finally asked.
"I would scream my lungs out." she said. We stared at each other for some seconds and then she sat up in bed, pushing me slightly away.
"Don't get funny ideas, Malfoy. You are not as hateful as I thought you were, but I don't like you that way." she stood up and facing me she said: "And I don't think you like me that way either. You're just messing with my head."
"You caught me, baby." I said. "I won't tell Albus about the git."
"His name is Kevin. Stop calling him the git"
"Oh, I can stop calling him that, does the shithead sounds better? Or what about the asshole?" I smirked. She scolded.
"If you rather find insults to call my exboyfriend, be my guest. I don't really care." she crossed her arms, looking displeased.
"Don't make me laugh, you still love him, Rose. I can tell. Your face lights up, whenever you talk about him."
"That's not the case, Malfoy. I liked what we had, but that's that! I don't love him anymore, I love-" she snapped her mouth shut and turned on her heel to leave the room.
"Oi, wait a second, you dufus. You love who exactly?" I stood up, grabbing her arm and preventing her from leaving the room.
"Let go of me, Malfoy." she struggled to get her arm back, and I struggled to keep it under my grip. She started hitting me softly on the chest and in a moment's notice I had her pinned against the door.
"You are in love with someone then." I said, my voice low and threatening.
"What do you care?" she said frowning. "If I'm in love with someone what's it to you?"
"Oh, I don't care. I just thought teasing you was going to be fun."
"Think again, Malfoy, because I'm not telling!" she stuck out her tongue, and fighting the impulse to take it into my mouth I let her go.
"We should get back, it would be suspicious if we linger here." I said, opening the door of her room.
"Oi, I wondered where have you ran off to." Albus was on the other side of the door, his hand up ready to knock.
"We had a few things to discuss. About the wand and shit. We didn't want James to hear." Rose said, in her sweet little voice.
"Oh, you told her about the rune?" Albus asked, his eyes sparkling.
"I was about to," I said, turning to Rose. "Albus found out one of the runes of the wooden box in a book your mum gave him."
"And what does it mean?" Rose said.
"I have no fucking idea." Albus said. "We were hoping you could ask Aunt Hermione."
"Oh, no. I never ask about school stuff. It will certainly be suspicious."
"Then how are we supposed to find out?" I asked. The truth was I was getting a little restless with this subject. I wasn't even sure I wanted to find out, and yet I always seemed to be getting back on track to finding the truth.
"Albus should ask. He said he wanted to pursue runes as a career. My mum would be so delighted one of her nephews wants to go her way, she won't even ask why." she walked past Albus, towards the living room we were before. Albus and I followed.
"Fine, I'll do it. But I'll just say that I'm prone to panic!" Albus whispered to us.
"Don't worry, it's my mum. It's fine."
"Where exactly have you been?" a voice suddenly roared from behind us. I spun around so fast I almost lost my balance. Rose's dad was towering over me.
"Dad, we were all in my bedroom. I was showing Albus some stuff." Rose interjected.
"I know the likes of you, and I know well how teenage boys can be. Albus, you better take care of your cousin, all right? I don't want any Malfoy boy pouncing himself over my daughter." Rose's dad said, his expression dead serious.
"That's not the case, sir. I have a girlfriend, and any relative of Albus is like my own family." I said, suddenly sounding really solemn. I even surprised myself with the seriousness of my voice.
"No, boy. You could never aim to be part of this family. And you better stick to your girlfriend if you don't want to be cursed into oblivion." He said.
"RONALD WEASLEY! What do you think you are doing. Don't harrass our guest!" Rose's mum said, strutting from the kitchen to where we stood.
"Sorry, dear. Won't happen again." mumbled Rose's father, and then dragged his daughter into the dining room where all the rest of the party were already sitting down.
I sat down in the large dining table between Albus and Rose. She seemed a little uncomfortable as her dad was sitting right across from her. Dinner went by with small talk and occasional laughter from the rest. We were halfway into the main course (shepherd's pie and mashed potatoes) when Rose leaned slightly my way.
"I didn't know you had a girlfriend." she whispered.
"Jealous?" I said, lifting one of my brows.
"I would rather date the giant squid than you. What do you think?" she stuck her tongue again at me.
"Careful, Weasley. One of this days I'm going to bite that little tongue of yours if you keep sticking it out." I warned.
"You wouldn't!" she said, in a rather loud voice.
"What's going on?" Rose's mum asked.
"Nothing. We were just talking about…" Rose's voice trailed off.
"About?" her dad prompted.
"About runes. I was thinking of asking you, Aunt Hermione. But Scor wanted to ask you about it as well and Rose didn't think he would actually dare." Albus interjected.
"Runes?" Rose's mum asked, a dreamy tone in her voice.
"Yeah. It's this rune we find in one of Albus's books, and we were curious about it." I said, trying to save my neck.
"Well, show it to me." Rose's mum said.
Albus handed her aunt a piece of parchment into which he had drawn the rune beforehand. Rose's mum examined it with glee and then her face turned with concerned and frowning she lifted her eyes from the parchment.
"Where did you get this?" she asked. Oh shit.
