A/N: Wow guys. Firstly, I'm sorry it's been a while. School has got crazy again preparing for AS level exams in the summer, and I've spent my entire Spring hol studying. I think I started writing this chapter about a month ago, maybe two, but have made myself stay away and not be distracted. However, I failed last night - I needed the distraction.
I've had a really bad few days. On saturday afternoon, my cat was hit by a taxi. The driver ran to our house and my mum yelled me from downstairs, and I ran outside and the driver was crying on our front lawn, and he pointed to the driveway two doors down and I ran over and my cat Tiff was lying there on her side, twitching, her eyes really wide. By that point I was already crying and I picked her up and carried her back into my house and held her in my arms and cried as she slipped away. I think her neck must've been broken because her head was just flopping. When my mum finally made me put her down, we tucked her up in her bed, and I was left covered in her blood. It has absolutely devastated me, she was more than just some pet, she was like my companion. Sleeping that first night without her curled up on my bed was really difficult.
Hence the need for a distraction. So the last few nights I've stayed up writing in bed, and managed to finish off this chapter. It's really long I know, the longest chapter I've ever written I think, but I couldn't bring myself to end it, or split it in two. I think it works well how it is, and it makes up for the long break between updates. Plus I have no idea when I'm going to be able to update again - soon I hope, but my workload is massive right now. I'm too ambitious, I've set my sights so high, and now I've got to put in the work to achieve what I need to get where I want to be. I must be mad, I think.
But hey. The word count on this chapter is going to be padded out a lot by my long A/N, so just to clarify, it was on 4012 words before I started rambling!
Anyway. I hope you all had a lovely Easter - if you celebrate it - and if not, I hope you've had a great few weeks and beginning to Spring. In England, it doesn't feel like spring yet. It's been snowing on and off, and it's pouring with rain right now. Lovely.
Enjoy the chapter.
Chapter Twelve
Hey Rose!
Hope your half term is going well. I'm so glad we weren't set any homework for the holiday! Have you done anything cool, or just been relaxing?
If you're not busy, maybe we could meet up or something?
Jake x
Rose read Jake's email with a smile on her face. It was weird – lovely, but weird – to have someone from school send her a message. A friend. She'd gotten close to Jake over the last few weeks at school.
Hi Jake,
My half term is going great thank you, yours? Me too! It's nice not to be thinking about school for a little while.
My brother is home from boarding school for the week, so I've been spending time with him, as well as visiting some other relatives. Apart from that, yes, relaxing! What about you?
I'd love to, but what with my brother home this week, I'd rather spend as much time with him as I can before he goes back to school! Maybe we could do something the first week back to school?
Rose began to type a reply, filling in the usual story that her brother went to some boarding school. She then backspaced and changed her last two sentences.
I'd love to, but what with my brother home this week, I can't be out for ages. Maybe we could do something just for a few hours?
Nice to hear from you.
Rose
Rose finished her message and clicked send. To her surprise, her laptop pinged to notify her of a new email within minutes, before she'd even left her bedroom. She dropped the book she'd picked up and returned to the laptop.
Hey,
Mine's been good thanks, just a little boring. Dad's had me helping him again with this project he's been working on. Weird stuff, honestly.
That sounds really nice! I didn't know you had a brother, how old is he? I completely understand, maybe you could come to mine for two hours or something? I could show you my computers. How's tomorrow for you?
Jake x
Rose smiled.
Hey,
Poor you! At least it's quality time with your dad though. My brother is thirteen, and he's called Hugo. :)
Tomorrow sounds great. 2pm okay?
Rose
She hit send.
You're lucky, I don't have any siblings. It's just me and my dad!
2pm is great. Meet in town by the train station, and I'll walk you to my house. That okay with you?
Jake x
Rose read the email that she again received within minutes.
That's great. See you then!
Rose set out the next day a little before one fifteen, ignoring her bike and walking into town instead. She timed it well, and her journey took her just over forty minutes; walking down the country lanes until they became larger roads, and eventually houses began to appear and then shops. Finally she arrived at the train station, and found Jake sitting waiting on a green bench.
"Hey there!" Jake stood up the moment he saw her, a big smile on his face. Rose smiled back, walking towards him and giving him a shy little wave. Jake had his hands deep in his pockets, and his grey hoody was flecked with spots of rain.
"Good timing." He gestured to the big clock on the side of the train station building behind them. It was one minute to two.
"Yeah, that worked out quite well actually."
"How far did you have to walk?" Jake asked. He fell into step next to Rose, and she followed him across a road and down a street.
"Um, probably a couple of miles, I'm not sure. About forty minutes." Rose said, eyes on the rain drenched pavement as they walked.
"Forty minutes! Wow, where do you live?!" Jake turned his head to look at her. They turned down another street.
"Just outside of town. A little place just past Hobb's farm. You probably won't know it."
"No no, I know it!"
"You do?"
"Yeah! I used to horse ride - don't laugh - but we used to ride through the fields adjacent to yours. That place is lovely, and you have loads of land. You're really lucky."
"Well, it's home." Rose shrugged and half smiled. "I wouldn't laugh. Why did you stop riding then?"
"Mum had a horse at the stables when I was younger, and she enrolled me in the riding school every sunday from the age of six. But Mum died when I was ten; Dad sold the horse as he couldn't look after it himself, what with work and everything, and I just didn't want to continue riding after that. It just didn't feel right."
"Oh, I'm so sorry." Rose looked across at him.
"Mm. It's okay. It was a long time ago now." Jake said, brushing it off with well-practiced nonchalance.
"What happened?"
"It was cancer."
"Oh, that's awful."
"It was. But hey, shit happens. This is my road." He changed the subject, and lead her down another street.
"Guess which one's mine." he suggested, standing still and watching Rose expectantly.
"Oh… um…" she looked around at the small Victorian terrace houses with little front gardens and low brick walls. One had a red door and a bike leant up against the wall, partially hidden by a sparse hedge.
"That one." She pointed.
"How?!"
"Your bike's outside." She laughed at his surprised expression.
"Oh yeah. Damn." he laughed too, and pushed open the gate. "Come on then."
Meanwhile at the Potters', Scorpius and Albus were eating lunch out in the grounds.
"Are these edible?" Scorpius asked, nudging one of the hundreds of shiny apples that had fallen from the orchard trees.
"Yeah. Just make sure you get a fresh one and it's fine." Albus shrugged. Scorpius stood up and jumped to grab the lowest branch he could, pulling it down to head height, and plucking the biggest apple from the branch. He let it go and the branch shook as it pinged back into position, causing a few leaves to begin a spiral descent. He sat back down in the long grass and took a bite.
Albus watched him expectantly. Scorpius's mouth contorted.
"Ew, I thought you said these were edible?" He spat out his mouthful in the grass and chucked the rest of the apple as far as he could. Albus smirked.
"Yeah it's edible. After you've cooked it. It's a cooking apple, for crumbles and pies and stuff." He explained, enjoying Scorpius's look of disgust. Scorp scowled and returned to his sandwiches, thoughtfully prepared and boxed and left with a note on the kitchen table by Albus's mother.
Gone to Diagon Alley with Lily for a few things. Be back in about two hours probably. Here's lunch, since I won't be there to make it. Take it outside and enjoy the weather! Love mum x
They did as they were told and grabbed the food and headed out to the orchard. Ginny's comment about the weather must've been a joke - the sky was grey, the air was cool, and it was beginning to drizzle with rain. Scorpius looked up at the tree above him, it's sparse leaves not much protection from the coming rain.
"Are we seeing Rose again today?" He asked, taking a bite of a soft ham sandwich.
"I don't know, possibly this evening if she's not still busy. She's with a friend of hers today." Albus shrugged.
"A friend?"
"Don't sound so surprised, my cousin does have friends." Albus snorted.
"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that."
"I know, I'm kidding. It actually is a surprise to be honest, she's never really had any proper friends; not from her muggle school. She's just gone along with it all. But she's made friends with a guy called Jake, and they're meeting up today to hang out."
Scorpius went from feeling sorry for Rose, to feeling intensely jealous of this boy she was with.
"Oh really?" He said evenly.
"Yeah. I haven't met the guy, but Rose seems to like him. It's nice that he's invited her to his house today." Albus said, watching Scorpius carefully out of the corner of his eye. "She said she'd only be a few hours though, so we'll probably see her later on."
"That's good." Scorpius nodded, regarding his sandwich with apparent interest. Albus said nothing and neither did he.
"I'm home!" Jake yelled once they were inside, dropping his keys on a side table in the narrow hallway, and kicking off his trainers. Rose copied, leaving her brown boots parked neatly against the wall.
"I'm in the study." Came the reply from up the staircase.
"Can I get you anything to eat?" Jake offered, walking past the stairs and through a door. Rose followed, taking in the house.
"I ate before I left thanks." she replied.
"A drink then?" Jake pulled two glasses from a cupboard.
"Okay then, yes please." Rose nodded, standing to one side and looking around his kitchen. She caught sight of a family photo pinned to the fridge door as Jake opened it and produced a carton of orange juice. The photograph showed a much younger Jake, and who she assumed to be his parents. Jake's mother had been a beautiful woman with a soft smile and long wavy hair, the same shade of chestnut brown as her son's. His father was already greying in the photo, his dark hair streaked with white and his round face ruddy. Little Jake smiled widely, his bottom two teeth missing. They looked like a normal happy family.
Jake paused with the carton in hand, watching Rose studying his photo.
"She was beautiful, wasn't she. My mother." He said.
"She was. Lovely." Rose smiled and looked away from the photo, taking the glass of orange juice Jake held out to her.
"Hello, hello. You must be Rose." Jake's father stepped into the kitchen, holding three empty mugs which he deposited in the sink. Rose immediately noticed how much thinner he was than in the photo.
"Hello." Rose smiled.
"Pleased to meet you Rose, I've heard a lot about you." Jake's father grabbed her hand and shook it vigorously. Rose flushed. "I'm Vincent. You can call me Vince, or Vinny. Or… Dad?" Vince glanced at his son and waggled his eyebrows. Jake's eyes nearly popped out of his head, and Rose flushed further.
"Dad!" He spluttered. "She's just my friend."
"What can I say? My son bringing home pretty girls eh... Sorry, sorry." he stopped himself and chuckled, putting a friendly and somewhat apologetic hand on Rose's shoulder. Vince was certainly a jovial man, and Rose could tell that he enjoyed winding up his son.
"Right. Well I'll leave you youngsters to it, I'm just grabbing another coffee then I'm back to work." Vince said, busying himself with filling the kettle. Despite his lean physique, his presence filled the room.
"That's that project I mentioned." Jake explained, sipping his orange juice.
"Oh yes." Rose nodded.
"What've you told her?" Vince asked.
"Not a lot actually, just that I'd been helping a little bit." Jake shrugged.
"Well then. I'm an investigator of sorts." He said grandly, throwing Rose a grin over his shoulder.
"An investigator?" Rose replied with polite interest.
"Indeed. My colleagues and I have been investigating one of the world's best kept secrets for four or five years now." He said mysteriously, pouring hot water into his mug. The smell of coffee filled the kitchen.
"I'm sure you've seen magic shows, right? Magicians with wands and white rabbits in hats." Vince said after a long silence and a sip of his coffee.
"Yes." Rose lied. She knew what he was talking about, but she'd never actually been to a magic show. Why would she need to...
"Well of course we know all that's rubbish, just for children. But imagine that magic did exist. For real. Just, it's kept secret from the world, only known by the magicians themselves." He said, his voice lowering to an excited whisper. Rose had begun to feel an awful feeling in the pit of her stomach.
"Enough of the dramatics Dad, why don't you just show her?" Jake rolled his eyes, nodding his head up towards the ceiling.
"You want to see?" Jake's Dad asked her.
"I'd love to." Rose forced a smile in reply. She needed to see. She needed to know what he knew... Could he possibly be onto something?
Jake gave her an almost apologetic but thankful smile as they followed his father out of the kitchen and up the stairs.
The upstairs hallway was dark; all the doors shut and no window to light it. In the gloom, Rose could make out waist height wooden panelling and olive green walls. Jake pushed open a door, letting light spill into the hallway in a large triangular beam across the floorboards. Inside was a small bedroom with a little bed, the room taken up mostly by a big desk holding two computer monitors and Jake's laptop. Jake hadn't forgotten his promise to show her his computers.
"I'll show you after." Jake stood back and let Rose go ahead after his father into his study just next to Jake's bedroom, whispering close to her ear as she passed.
Jake stepped in and shut the study door behind them. The study was huge - it must have been the master bedroom of the little terrace house. On one wall were deep floor to ceiling shelves stacked with books, files, wads of paper, plastic boxes and pots of stationery. In front of the window ran a long desk almost like a kitchen counter, from the shelves at one end of the room to the opposite wall. This desk held a computer, various papers, bookmarked books, and piles of photographs. By the computer there was one single framed photo of Jake, Vince and his late wife.
Rose turned and looked behind her. On the wall opposite the desk and window were three large notice boards, like the ones that lined the corridors and classroom walls at school. Rose walked over to get a closer look at the mass of papers and photos pinned up.
There were countless prints of stills from CCTV or camera footage, of people - witches and wizards - with wands poking out of bags or pockets, or broomsticks poorly disguised under cloaks. Some of the papers gave detailed eye-witness accounts; some descriptions. Rose moved to the next board, her eye catching what was pinned in the centre. It was a pixelated photograph, but she recognised what it was all the same. It was a photo of the Hogwarts emblem on somebody's trunk.
Rose's stomach flipped over, and she could taste bile in her throat.
Arranged around that photo were a scattering of more accounts, and various scrawled handwritten notes.
"Hogwarts. School for magic children." Vince stepped up next to her. Immediately the strong aroma of coffee became sickening.
"How do you know all these things?" Rose asked, feigning wonder.
"We do our research, we talk to people, we observe, we trawl the Internet. You'd be surprised what you can find when you look hard enough. 'Hogwarts' first aroused our suspicion when one of my colleagues began to notice a number of children with old-fashioned trunks showing this logo, while waiting for his train to work in London. We investigated, and have found no trace of a school anywhere in the UK, let alone in London, with that logo, name, or motto. We've tried all sorts of other organisations too - camps, shops, universities... This logo comes up nowhere."
"Wow... How strange." Rose said.
"Indeed. So what do you think?" He gestured widely to the room. Rose followed his sweeping arm, taking in all the books and files and papers... He must have tons of information. Rose's stomach flipped.
"It's... A little hard to believe if I'm honest. But you certainly have a lot of information! What are you planning on doing with all this...?" Rose asked, hoping she sounded convincing.
"Good question young lady. And I don't blame you for being a little skeptical! It's crazy, I know."
"When Dad's got enough evidence, they're going to expose it all to the public." Jake cut in from where he stood in shadow in the corner of the room, leaning on the desk.
"Not the authorities though, otherwise there'd be a coverup. I'm pretty sure they'll have people high up in our society. You never know what they might do if they know we're onto them." Vince raised his eyebrows.
"You talk about 'them' like they're enemies." Rose said abruptly. Surprise only flashed across Vince's face for a second.
"Well who knows. If they were enemies, they'd have done something by now, they wouldn't be living in secret like this. But then we don't know what kind of power they have in our society, over us. And we can only guess at what threat they could potentially pose." Vince said seriously.
"We don't know the extent of their...powers." Jake added.
"I guess you're right." Rose said. her voice was still skeptical, but inside her stomach was twisting in knots and her heart was thumping.
"It's a lot to take in, I know." Vince shrugged, sensing her discomfort. "But hey, I don't think anyone in the country has a job as interesting as mine, eh."
"It's not a job if you don't get paid for it." Jake muttered.
"Hm. Well. I'll get my reward for all this work someday." He frowned.
"Do you mind if I use your bathroom?" Rose asked politely.
"Of course, little lady. Just down the hall." Vince said, smiling a grin that bared yellow teeth.
"Thanks." She gave Jake a little smile as she passed him on her way out of the study. Finding her way to the bathroom, she locked the door behind her and sat down on the closed toilet seat.
The bathroom was a lot brighter than the study and it helped clear her head. She had to do something about this, it was too serious. Jake's dad was most definitely onto something. Rose had no idea what the Ministry had in place to prevent situations like this, but whatever it was, it wasn't good enough. She needed to talk to her father. Ron worked in the Ministry. He'd know what to do.
Rose took a deep breath and flushed the toilet to keep up pretences, washed her hands, and pinched her cheeks in the mirror to give her a bit of colour. She was white as a sheet.
"I can show you my computers now if you like? Dad's going to get back to work now." Jake was loitering outside his bedroom door waiting for her.
"Sure. That would be great." Rose smiled, following him into his bedroom, silently wishing that she could run from the house and all the way home.
"He's really into his work… It all sounds a bit unlikely to me - I mean magic? Nah. But he believes it. Since mum died, it's what he focusses all his time on, so I'm not going to ruin that for him. He needs his work." Jake spoke in a low voice after he'd shut the bedroom door behind them, pulling an extra chair over to his desk and gesturing for Rose to sit down next to him.
"It's his way of coping." Rose murmured.
"Yeah, exactly." Jake nodded, pressing a button to switch on the computer, and opening his laptop up. A couple of wires ran out of the side of the laptop and joined a mass of cables at the back of the desk. The laptop screen came to life, and moments later, the two computer monitors lit up simultaneously. Rose listened as Jake began to tell her a bit about his setup.
"So this cable here runs into the back of these screens, and works by duplicating my laptop screen up here on the left, and extending it across into this screen on the right…"
The rain had kicked up a notch from drizzle, and Scorpius was beginning to get wet.
"Inside?" Albus suggested.
"I think so." Scorp snorted, grabbing his box of sandwiches and running with Albus back up to the house.
"Should've brought the brooms." Albus gasped, steadying himself on the wall of the house while Scorpius opened the door.
"Nah, need to get fit." He replied hoarsely, his chest heaving. They stumbled inside, dumped the boxes on the kitchen table, and slumped onto the sofa. Despite running, they were both soaked. Scorpius kicked off his wet shoes and wiped a hand across his forehead, flicking off the moisture. His usually white-blonde hair was a dirty mousey colour from the rain.
"Hey Scorp." Albus said, his breath returning to normal.
"Yeah?"
"You like her, don't you."
Albus looked over at his best friend.
"Who?"
Albus rolled his eyes.
"You know who I'm talking about. Rose."
"Course, she's really nice." He bluffed, looking away out of the window. Albus continued to stare at him, until his eyes returned to meet his.
"You like her." Albus emphasised. Scorpius opened and closed his mouth a few times, no words coming out.
"Is it that obvious?" He said eventually.
Albus raised his eyebrows. He knew it.
"Look, I'm cool with it and everything but, Rose isn't just any old girl from school. And I'm don't just mean she's my cousin and one of my closest friends, and I don't mean because she's a Squib either. Rose is different from other girls… she's a lot more than them."
"Al, Al, you don't even need to tell me this. I can see all of that, don't you think I can see it? She's special. I know that." Scorp ran his fingers through his damp hair, scrunching them up and knotting them at the back of his head, feeling cool water drip and run down the back of his neck.
"Okay. Well good. I just don't want her treated like another notch on your bedpost."
Albus surprised Scorpius with his crude turn of phrase.
"No way Albus, no way. It's not like that. I…" he sighed. "I don't know. I've only just met her." Scorpius trailed off. Albus looked at him.
"I just really like her okay." Scorpius said, putting a hand over his face. Albus began to laugh.
"What?" Scorp peeped out from behind his hand.
"I can't take you anywhere, can I. You and the ladies huh... I'm serious though." Albus stopped laughing abruptly. "If you're going to go for it - which I'm sure you will, you always do - then I must warn you. Fuck it up and you won't just have her father to answer to."
"Aaalllbussss." Scorpius whined, frowning. "Please don't get all scary family mafia on me." He covered his face with his hands again.
"You can talk, Malfoy." Albus sneered, chucking a pillow at him.
"Oi, watch it, Potter." He chucked it right back. Albus caught it and threw it down on the sofa next to him.
"One more thing though Al... Do you think she likes me?"
A/N: Be kind and leave me a review, I do miss reviews when I don't update in a while! I haven't edited it since last night, so I hope it's okay.
Fingers crossed I'll be back soon - now off to do some biology revision.
xx
