Author's note: I'm back!!..:). I have no idea how I managed to come out with this chapter. Truth is, my present living situation is pretty bad. Plus they don't allow us to use our laptops. grunts. But I couldn't keep you waiting for too long, could I ?:D. So heres the new chapter. Hope you like it.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Scorpius was known among his friends as the king of procrastination. He usually disregarded the sun's wake up call and tucked in even deeper, when his friends tried to wake him up. Most of the time he barely managed to escape detention, getting away with a few rough reproaches from his professors. If there was anything he was consistently good at, it was turning up late for his classes.
But today the Malfoy heir, who would usually be so deep in sleep during the wee morning hours that it would take a Cruciatus curse to wake him up, was already wide awake at half past five and carefully grooming himself in front of the mirror.
Scorpius tackled his coagulated hair with a brush and managed to ruffle it up so as to make it look insouciantly elegant. He was wearing a white shirt which he had been given to wear by the servants. He chose to do away with the tights that came along with it, since it made him look ludicrous. He instead cleaned up his own pants using the Scourgify spell,(he had borrowed Roslyn's wand for this) and decided to wear it along with the 17th century garb. In the end, he managed to look like one of those fashion conflated male models who used to walk down the ramps of the Wizarding modeling shows.
The sun was barely out and he could hear Roslyn's father giving out instructions to their servants. He chose not to waste another second before scrambling downstairs to meet the girl who had deprived him of his peace. One of his biggest problems nowadays was to find some time alone with Roslyn, but the Weasley brat kept interfering and joining in whenever they were alone. Roslyn didn't seem to mind and actually seemed to enjoy her presence unlike Scorpius who kept wishing Voldemort would come back from the dead and kill her himself.
Which was why he decided to wake up early before the Weasley and get some time alone with Roslyn who woke up quite early everyday to take care of their cattle and run the errands of the house.
Scorpius tumbled down the stairs at a very high speed, making sure he didn't make a lot of noise. He managed to elude Mr Lancelot who was seated in his study and deeply engaged in his book. Scorpius twisted the knob and stepped out the front door.
The sun was starting to rise. The lake and the nearby greenery waking up lazily, reflecting the crimson of the sunlight . The smell of the morning air stimulated Scorpius's senses and he felt at peace. He went over to the back side hoping to meet Roslyn, imagining a perfectly romantic setting to try and woo her.
He walked towards the grounds crushing the foliage on the way, whose noises drowned the chirping of the birds. The morning cold was chilly and Scorpius covered himself with his arms, reprimanding himself for not having worn that overcoat. He kept walking, searching the grounds for Roslyn but instead finding a group of chickens which were pecking away on the disseminated grains on the floor.
Finally at a distance he saw her. She had her back turned to him and was busy feeding the ducklings that were swimming around in the lake. Scorpius adjusted his hair, ruffling it a bit more and opened up the front button of his shirt. Slowly, he walked over to the young witch and opened his mouth to speak. She had a white cloth covering her head which protected her supple ears from the cold.
"Good morning Ros..."
"You got the first three syllables right," said Rose as she turned around from the lake.
"What are you doing this early in the morning?" asked a shocked Scorpius.
"I, unlike you, usually wake up at this time of the hour." replied Rose. "Looking for your sweetheart?" she added, as she saw Scorpius looking around the ground.
Scorpius who had been scanning the field with his eyes, turned his attention back to Rose.
"What?" he asked, having missed Rose's query.
"Why are you up this early?" asked Rose, despite knowing the answer.
"I...This is when I usually get up,", he mumbled.
"Yeah if your dorm is under attack," remarked Rose under her breath.
"What did you say?" shot Scorpius getting annoyed at having to argue with the Weasley when he could have been spending some quality time with Roslyn.
"Then how come you were always late in class," asked Rose.
"What is this? An interrogation?" he barked, trying to sound angry so that he could escape this argument and go find Roslyn.
He walked off in the other direction grunting as Rose stood behind feeling offended.
"Git," she said as she saw the Malfoy stomp off in the opposite direction.
After breakfast Mr Lancelot called both Rose and Scorpius into his study to discuss a really important issue. Both of them had turned hostile after the morning's incident and sat as far as they could from each other, and waited for Mr. Lancelot to speak.
"My dear children. I have arranged a meeting with the Headmaster of Hogwarts. He has agreed to grant us a visit so as to meet the two of you in person and discuss the issue at hand. He is expected to arrive this afternoon by portkey," he said warmly.
"Sir. Has the Headmaster figured out a solution to our problem?" asked Rose earnestly.
"I have relayed your situation to him. And he has promised that he shall talk about it when he arrives this morning. Do not fester yourself my child. He is a very intelligent and erudite wizard. Let us keep faith," he replied.
Rose nodded weakly, with a wisp of fear in her smile and sincerely hoped that the Headmaster would find a means for their safe return. She turned to Scorpius hoping to see his reaction and saw him stare shamelessly at the window where Roslyn was wandering around the garden.
"Sir. Do you mind if I take a look at your book collection," asked Rose kindly, being disgusted by Scorpius and his mannerisms.
"Why. Be my guest, Miss Weasley. You are welcome to use it at your leisure," he replied affectionately.
Once Mr Lancelot took leave and walked out of the room, Rose turned her attention back to Scorpius.
"Are you still hungry Malfoy?" asked Rose.
"What?" asked Scorpius, not paying attention to a word Rose was saying.
"If you're hungry there's plenty of food in the kitchen. You don't have to catch flies with your mouth wide open," jibed Rose but eliciting no response from Scorpius inturn.
Rose, angry at being ignored, scowled and stood up and walked over to the large bookcase that was towering the room and perused the vast collection of books that Mr Lancelot owned.
She scanned the different titles on the shelf until her eyes paused at a few words etched on the side of one of them.
Dark wizards and their conquests.
A history of the most dangerous wizards in the sixteenth century.
Rose, curious as to what it contained took the book from the shelf, sat down and started reading through its pages.
Scorpius who was busy straining his eyes at the brown haired witch, was suddenly distracted by the tome in Rose's hand.
"What is that?" he asked, curiously.
Rose although having heard him, chose to ignore the young blonde's question.
"What. Are you deaf now?" remarked Scorpius when he got no answer from the red head.
"Oh I am sorry. I thought I was imagining you speaking. Especially since you seemed to have lost the ability to speak up until earlier,"
"What is it that you're reading?" asked Scorpius as he got up.
Rose raised her book from her lap to show him the front cover.
"Do you mind if I have a look?" asked Scorpius.
"Yes I do. As you can see I'm reading it," she replied, even though she was planning on putting it back on the shelf to take another one.
"Fine," he grumbled and went to look through the rest of the books.
Scorpius went through the various titles himself till his eyes finally stopped at a book in particular.
The enigmatic world of dreams.
A comprehensive manual on a wizards interpretation of the nightly visuals.
Scorpius, despite having read through every dream interpretation book in his school library, felt compelled to lay his hands on this one as well. Something about this book seemed right and he wondered whether he would get any answers from it. And not every book outside of Hogwarts would have been preserved till the 21st century.
He took the tome in his hands and sat down to read it. He went through its contents one by one.
Finally after searching around a few titles, he got to the page he wanted.
Recurring dreams and their meaning.
Scorpius quickly rushed through its pages until he reached a dream matching his own.
He bent down and read thought the author's words.
Have you had a recurring dream that has either of the following in it?
1) A rose in its physical state in either of its colors.
2)The fragrance of a rose emanating through the dream.
3)A color which instantly brought your mind to think of roses.
Scorpius paused for a moment and tried and recalled his dream more clearly. Yes there was the color red and it did remind him of red roses while in the dream. There was also the fragrance present and he could still smell its wafts as though he had just woken up. But he was sure he hadn't seen any rose per se in its physical state.
He quickly ploughed through the rest of the words to see what all of this meant.
If you have dreamed of the third mentioned, you have reason to rejoice, for you shall be falling in love very soon. If you saw the specific color of red, your love is bound to last till your last breath. A bond so powerful, not even death could separate the two of you. Even the color of black, which muggles have falsely interpreted as the omen of death, portends a less strong but equally passionate romance in your near future.
Scorpius sighed with relief and felt his heart swell with affection. Of course, it all made sense when put together.
He decided to see what the smell of roses meant as well.
If however you have dreamt of the second mentioned, you may have reason to fear. The smell of roses despite being pleasant and alluring unfortunately foreshadows death, most specifically of one's lover.
"No!" shouted Scorpius.
Rose jerked her head up in surprise and said,
"Malfoy. Could you make your disagreements with the author a little less vocal," she shot.
Upon seeing Scorpius's scoured face, she asked,
"You okay Malfoy?"
But before he replied, Mr Lancelot came back into his study to bid them goodbye, before leaving for his apothecary.
Scorpius rushed outwards to catch up with the old man, his face slightly pale and his voice hollow.
"Sir. Is this book accurate?" he asked while panting.
Mr Lancelot took the book from his hands and remarked,
"Ofcourse it is my child. How can it not be. Written by one of the most celebrated seers of all time, Alexandra Baxert,"
Scorpius gulped harshly at his words wondering what to make of this disconcerting piece of news.
"But Sir. One of our most senior professors used to say that Divination and its related branches are an imprecise form of magic,"
Mr Lancelot looked as though he had been affronted.
"Certainly not my boy. They are merely postulations made by the misled and misinformed. Alexandra is a gifted seer of great prowess, she has foreseen and foretold a number of catastrophes accurately,"
"But yes dream interpretation is a rather vague field. It becomes quite difficult to assign a unified meaning to a dream. But of all the scholars who have tried their hand at it, the most reliable has to be that of Alexandra's . This book is considered to be somewhat of a standard in dream interpretation. But even she makes mistakes. After all despite belonging to Divination, it is rather disparate from the latter,"
Scorpius, still stiff from all the tension managed to deliver a wisp of a smile so as to not seem strange. The last thing he wanted was to let a man know that his daughter was in danger.
After Mr Lancelot walked away from him, Scorpius returned to his room at once. A few minutes of restless walking back and foth and he settled down on his cot, rubbing his hands together, trying to calm himself down. Didn't Professor McGonagall say this was a field that was not to be trusted?
He looked out the window into the stretched out lake and saw Roslyn standing beside it, sheltered safe under its austerity. Scorpius shook off the disconcerting thoughts and reprimanded himself for being so silly.
They're nothing but dreams, he said to himself.
"Sign one of deteriorating mental condition. Talking to one's self," said a voice from the hallway, outside the door.
Scorpius jerked around, his jaws tightening at the sight of the red head.
"Don't you know anything about respecting other people's privacy?" he shouted.
"Yes I do. And it doesn't include bothering people who are stupid enough to talk to themselves while keeping their door open," replied Rose.
"What do you want anyway?" barked Scorpius.
"Hey watch the tone Malfoy. I saw you looking slightly shaken downstairs and I thought I'd see if you were alright. But it seems I could expect more civility from the pigs down in the shed," she shot back and turned around to leave.
"Wait," he shouted, just as she was about to leave the room.
"If I tell you something, will you promise to keep it to yourself?" he asked nervously.
"No. I am gonna write about it to all my friends in the 16th century," she replied sardonically.
Scorpius shook his head as though to snap Rose out of her folliness and try and get her to understand the seriousness of the issue.
"Weasley. This is important. You need to swear you won't tell anyone. Especially Roslyn or her father," he spoke frantically.
"Yeah like I've made plenty of acquaintances beside them," she joked.
Scorpius ignored her jibes and went on,
"I've been having these weird dreams these past few months. They are the same each and everytime. I read this book to see what it meant and it says that Roslyn is going to die!"
Rose couldn't hold it in any longer. She burst out laughing clutching her tummy to palliate the pain caused by the tumultuous laughs.
Scorpius's face swelled up and his jaws tightened.
Rose started to tone her laugh down in stages upon seeing Scorpius's raged expression.
"You can't possibly be serious," she said incredulously.
"Do I look like I am joking," asked Scorpius his face still tight from the anger.
Rose started to sense from the tightly stretched contours of his face that he wasn't joking. She looked at the book in his hand and gestured for it.
Scorpius concurred and passed it to her, hoping she would take him seriously this time.
"Wow! Alexandra Baxert. She is considered one of the greatest seers of the 16th century second only to Cassandra Trewlaney. I've never seen this one in our library before. I've read Omens and their false interpretations and Divination: the secrets revealed. This one must be one of those that got lost along the way and never made it to the Hogwarts library," she said jauntily.
Rose in all her excitement looked at Scorpius. But Scorpius's vitriolic stare made her smile vanish.
"Uhm. Sorry. You were saying?"
"I've been having these recurring dreams for the last one month. I read through its explanation in this book and it says..its says Roslyn is going to die,"
"You've been seeing Roslyn in your dreams these past few months, even before you reached here?" she asked, a slight variation in her voice, which Scorpius missed.
"What happens in your dream?" she asked skeptically.
Scorpius began describing his dream intricately, right down to every detail.
Rose paid attention to Scorpius as he spoke. She noted how passionate he sounded every time he mentioned the brown haired witch. And despite finding the whole thing overtly ludicrous, she couldn't help feel disturbed by the loving caress in his voice as he spoke. For some reason her stomach felt a knot unravel as she heard him be so affectionate about Roslyn. But Rose was soon snapped out of her musings.
"You saw Prof Trewlaney?" she interrupted.
Scorpius who was clearly more interested in talking about Roslyn replied,
"Yeah well its not a big deal. Coz its what happens next that.."
"Not a big deal Malfoy?" Did you leave behind your brains when you time traveled. Don't you remember what I told you earlier? A prophecy was made referring to you and Bernaby Lancelot by Professor Trewlaney. And you still think all of this is a coincidence?"
Scorpius looking a bit confused at first took only mere moments to comprehend the big picture. It finally struck him from whom Roslyn would face danger if all this were true.
The two young wizards stood rooted at their spots, their minds walking hand in hand, looking at each other in fear.
Meanwhile a pair of eyes unknowingly wandered into the room. Roslyn watched from afar, a trickle of jealously shadowed under her green pupils, misinterpreting Rose's presence in Scorpius's room for a deeper affection.
Author's note: So, what did you think. Was it good, okay or so horrible that you couldn't even contemplate leaving a review. If its either of the first two please do leave a comments as to what you thought of the chapter. More drama coming up in future chapters.:D