Chapter 10

To have all Weasleys spend the Christmas night at the Burrow was not possible, therefor Charlie, Percy's family and Teddy and Victoire had arrived during the day for the festivities. James, Hugo and Al had shared Ron's old room, Louis (Bill's and Fleur's youngest) and Fred (George's and Angelina's son) had shared the twins room. Percy's old room had been occupied by George and Angelina, Bill and Fleur had stayed in Bill's old room and Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione had stayed in the newly built guesthouse in the yard. The preparations for the dinner had been hectic and Rose had gladly helped with everything from setting plates to stirring sauce. She had chatted merrily with her cousins and lost a game of wizarding chess to her father. The bad conscious she had felt earlier that morning had slowly melted away and she had enjoyed spending the time with her family. Everyone had seemed in an uncommonly good mood and even Louis and James who usually despised each other had been polite with one another. There was only one thing that had made Rose uneasy: Lily had opened a gift from her boyfriend that had made Harry grumble something under his breath but one look from his wife had put a polite smile to his face. He had even managed to admire the necklace Jasper had sent and admitted that Jasper seemed like a nice guy whom he would like to meet. Lily had squealed at her father and hugged him for a long time and everyone else had gone back to opening their presents. Suddenly Dominique had asked whether Rose had someone or not. Luckily almost no one had heard the question but Hermione had and with her mothers eyes upon her Rose had answered Dominique that; no, she did not have a boyfriend. That was not a lie she thought to herself but as she had turned to pick up a gift wrapped in blue paper with silver stars upon she had seen Lily give her an intense look and a mischievous smile. After that Rose had not been able to shake off the fact that Lily suspected something and it was not a comfort to know that whatever Lily thought the truth was worse, way worse.

Later that same evening Rose had sneaked up to the room she shared with Lily to get a moment of solitude. It was a clear night and the stars were glistening outside the window. The sound of laugher made its way into the room from downstairs and the heat from all the people made the air humid. She opened the window and felt the cold and sharp winter air sweep into the room. A noise from some where in the yard made Rose tense for a split moment but then she relaxed again, she had never been afraid of the dark, on the opposite; darkness made her feel protected. A moment later the noise showed to come from Teddy and Victoire which had obviously escaped for a moment alone as well. As Rose stood there and hugged herself to fend off the bitingly cold air, a moving shadow appeared on the night sky. With narrowed eyes she tried to make out the shape which seemed to come closer. It took Rose some time to realized that it was an owl and that it was aiming for the window were she stood, consequently, when she finally saw that she barley had time to move out of the way before the owl flew in and landed on the bed. It was a big barn owl which carried a long package, Rose would have guessed it was a broomstick by the size and shape but she could not imagine who should have sent it, all the distant relatives that could not be here had already sent there gifts. It could of course be a late delivery from the shop... Her chain of thought were broken by a low hooting from the owl. It looked at her with its heart shaped face tilted to the side.

"Oh, I'm sorry, you won't have to carry that anymore." While whispering soothingly to the owl she untied the burden. The owl waited patiently and when she was done she petted it under the chin. When the owl leaned in to her touch and made a purring sound Rose chuckled and offered her left hand for the owl to climb on to. With the owl on her shoulder she picked up the package and checked the label, it simply read: Rose Weasley.

"For me?" her voice was sceptical but she unwrapped the paper carefully. Just as the shape had foretold it held a broomstick. Rose stared at it for a moment, she recognised this broomstick but that just made it all even stranger. Tied to the handle was a note, it was a small note written in brown ink.

I got a new one for Christmas and I thought you could need one to practice on.

SM

The initials told her she had not been wrong; it was from Scorpius. She stared at the broomstick again, even though she knew very little about brooms she knew this was an expensive broom and she knew she should not keep such a gift, especially not when it came from someone that should sooner be called her enemy than her friend. Plus, perhaps it wasn't a gift at all. After all it made no sense that he should send her a gift. The memory of their hot embrace made Rose blush but those kisses had not meant anything and raw attraction would rarely get Scorpius Malfoy to send her a Christmas present. The note said nothing about the broom being a gift, as she thought about it he probably intended to let her borrow the broom for a while. Finally she decided to keep it but she wrote a quick note that she was glad that he lent it to her and after attaching the note to the owl's leg she sent the owl home to its owner. Allowing herself to linger by the window with the broom in her hand a small smile crept to her face but the feeling of something cold slowly crushing her heart made it a sad smile. No matter how hard she tried to convince herself that she did not care for him somewhere inside her she knew she did. It would have to pass away, to fall in love with him of all people was senseless and stupid, it was against all logic and reason and Rose Weasley was not an irrational person. Still her greatest stupidity lay not in the fact that she had fallen for someone her family hated and whose family hated her, her greatest stupidity was that she had allowed herself to fall for him.

Running steps suddenly appeared in the staircase and Rose quickly hid the broom in her magically enlarged bag. Too late she realized that the note still lay on the bed and just as she snatched it from the bed to hide Lily burst in to the room. She panted slightly and had her mouth open to say something but she broke of at the look of Rose. It took her less than the blinking of an eye to register the scene and make her own conclusions.

"Who is it?"

"Lily there is no one." Lily just arched an eyebrow and that was enough to tell Rose that she was still a lousy liar despite her success less than a week earlier.

"Rosie, come on. What other reason could there possibly be for you to ask me to lie to your friends for you and now you look like you're ready to die defending that piece of parchment. And you were out way after curfew that night when… …you know" The last part made Lily blush but she regained and gave Rose yet another piercing look.

I could always beg to her nice side…

"Lily its complicated, and there really is nothing interesting to know." Rose gave her red haired cousin a pleading look, Lily seemed to contemplate with herself.

"You're my cousin and Lily if you keep quiet I will return the favour." Rose smiled sweetly and gave Lily a hard look. Apparently Lily's kind side did not feel like listening this time but a mild threat always worked miracles on her. Lily's beautiful eyes widened of indication for a moment and then she flashed her greatest smile.

"Deal" Rose nodded back, this was at least a temporary solution, however Rose knew her cousin well enough to be aware that Lily strongly resemblance a pit bull when it came to never letting go. Therefore she had to act fast, before the next semester started she would have to have come back to her senses.

"We're playing charades down there and you're in my team. We have Dominique, Fred and Lucy on our team to but without you we don't have any chance to win." Lily said this as she walked down again and the last part was shouted over her shoulder. An outburst of indicated voices from "Lily's team" and laughs from the others could be heard. Rose drew a deep breath and hurried down after Lily, with a big smile in place.

Let the charade begin.