I tapped my quill on my sheet of parchment. I had started my potions essay about an hour ago but I still had written nothing but the title and my name. Dominique was the cause of this. She sat across from me at my usual table in the Library feet propped up on the desk complaining about Victoire's Christmas wedding.
"I mean come on, Rosie." Dominique ranted shifting in her seat. "On Christmas! It'll be too cold to wear any nice dresses! It will probably be red and green puff balls that are not from this century. We'll all look like overstuffed Christmas crackers."
"Dominique," I said trying not to sound bored of the whole conversation. "The wedding is not on Christmas, it's two days after it."
Dominique blew a piece of hair that had escaped her ponytail out of her face in response to this. "You know what I mean, it's the Christmas break. Anyway, the wedding will probably get called off…"
I nodded and wrapped my school robes tighter around me. Today the Library was cold, in fact, the whole school was cold, a chilly breeze that came from nowhere had wafted itself inside the school. Dominique was only here ranting to me because no one else would put up with it. James, Fred, Lily and Hugo won't even pretend they are listening they just shut her down (as hard as that is). Molly and Albus, the answers are obvious.
Me, Dominique knows that I'll listen or at least pretend to. She unloads all her opinions on the wedding onto me.
I seriously thought she would've shut up by now. This was not how I pictured my Saturday morning going.
Victoire so far has been keeping me and everyone else in the family up to date on how the wedding planning is going through owls (lots and lots of owls) nearly every second day.
They either go one of two ways,
1st type of letter,
"Dear Rosie,
I hope you're having a brilliant time at Hogwarts. I can't wait for the wedding and I know you can't either. Teddy has been so nice he bought me these pretty flowers the other day because he said they perked up when I passed them. It was so cute!
The wedding planning is going more lovely than I expected. Teddy and all the family are being absolutely marvellous. For the place mats at our table red or gold? What do you think?
Write back,
Lot's of Love,
Victoire"
Second type of letter,
"To, Rose,
Oh, my merlin! Don't panic, everything is fine, hopefully. I don't think I'll get this done in time for Christmas. Teddy is being way too relaxed about the wedding. I mean sometimes I just want to rip his head off every time he says, "Calm down, love." Dad isn't helping either everywhere I turn there he is trying to talk me out of the wedding.
And today, it was so embarrassing. I went with mom to try on wedding dresses and my usual size did not fit! It was mortifying the sales lady kept giving me this look I swear to merlin I was about to explode. She asked if I was expecting! I gave her something to expect.
Then mom and I went for lunch. Mom ordered me a salad before I could even open my mouth. I haven't been speaking with her since.
Maybe I should call it all off. What do you think?
Victoire"
Every time I received one of these letters I opened it ready for an emotional rollercoaster. Abby and Jane somehow like them, it was like an addicting drama to them.
'Someone, please, save me!' I said internally my eyes rolling to the sky as she began ranting about another aspect of the wedding.
Just then shiny blonde hair came into sight in between the shelves. I squinted my eyes, it couldn't be. I was almost clinging to the edge of the table trying to get a proper view. It could be.
"Rose?!" Dominique said aggravated suggesting that wasn't the first time she had said my name.
"Huh?" I said catching myself as I nearly slipped from my grip on the table in fright.
Dominique raised an eyebrow at me expectantly.
"I have to get another book." I blurted out seizing the opportunity I stood up.
Dominique opened her mouth to respond.
"Stay there!" I added as Madam Pince made a big show of shushing me, I held up my hands in surrender as I walked muttering an apology (like it improved anything).
I went to the bookshelf before the bookshelf where I saw Malfoy. I peered through the small gap in between the dusty books. I stopped, Malfoy shiny hair it stood out like a sparkling diamond next to all the rotting hardbacks and their yellowing crinkled pages. I was 100% certain it was him now, no one else in the school had hair like him.
I quickly trotted around to the other side to see Malfoy standing back craning his neck upwards examining the titles of the books (he looked rather lost). He was biting his lip turning his usually pink bottom lip white.
"Malfoy!" I hissed at him barely able to hear myself speak.
Malfoy clearly didn't hear me or was ignoring me so I hurried beside him and gave him a particularly painful poke in the arm with my index finger.
Malfoy exclaimed grabbing his arm. Madam Pince's desk creaked followed by an annoying 'Be quiet!'.
Malfoy turned to me giving me a rueful look.
"Only you, Weasley." He hissed rubbing his arm frowning at me.
"I called you, Malfoy." I hissed back defensively.
"I didn't hear you," Malfoy muttered pointedly. "Next time try calling me louder instead of clawing me."
"It was a poke."
"When was the last time you cut your nails?"
I counted in my head, "A week or so ago."
"Cut your nails!" Malfoy hissed staring down at his 'injured' arm.
"Don't be such a wimp."
"Weasley," Malfoy raised an eyebrow. "Let's be real here if this was you, you'd be in tears by now."
To be honest he was probably right or maybe not. Probably not but, anyway, I changed the subject.
"What brings you to the Library?" I whispered.
"Weasley, can we take this outside? You spit when you whisper."
"Fine," I said grudgingly trying to frown my embarrassment down.
I crossed my arms and slipped out the Library door with Malfoy. I glanced back to get a glimpse of Dominique fixated on her nails.
Hey, it's me so an unrealistic amount of time browsing the Library shelves is understandable, right?
"What brings you to the Library?" I repeated when the door to the Library shut. I shivered hugging my arms tighter to my chest, it was colder out in the corridor. The mostly stone hallway held no heat.
"Boredom and homework," he replied. "You?"
"Homework and Dominique." I said irritation coming into my voice at 'Dominique'. Malfoy smirked at the change in tone.
"I won't ask but I have a feeling that you're going to blurt it out anyway."
"Two words," I said sighing. "Victoire's wedding."
Malfoy rolled his eyes, "Yawn."
"Not just yawn," I said making an exaggerated expression with my hands. "Bore, annoy, hate, repetitive, irritating-"
"I'll stop you there," Malfoy said looking amused.
"And that is why I am presently with you," I concluded. "You offered the perfect opportunity to escape for about 5 minutes."
"Escape? Some cousin you are." Malfoy commented.
"I'm a witch, not a grindylow there is only so much complaining and ranting I can take. I can't even do my homework. All I wanted was a peaceful morning doing homework."
"Why would you want that? Of all the things in the world?" Malfoy asked.
I let out another annoyed sighed, "You chose this too."
Malfoy laughed, "More like Transfiguration forced me here."
"Is it that 20-inch essay he gave the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs?" I said rubbing my head remembering a headache it had caused me a couple of days ago. Thank, Merlin for headache potions!
"The one about the principle behind Transfig?" He said.
"Yes," I said. "He just giving it to us to spite us I know it. He hates third years."
"He hates everyone," Malfoy said. "And is the crusher of weekend fun."
"Wait…" I said suddenly remembering something. "Aren't the Slytherin quidditch practises on Sunday?"
"And nearly every other day of the week." Malfoy provided.
"But you're always at practise on a Sunday at this time why are you here?" I asked. "I thought Albus wouldn't allow you to miss it."
"Who is to say I'm not there right now?" Malfoy said with a shrug. "Please don't phrase it like that, you make me sound like Albus' pet."
I chuckled, "You're right here in front of me." I gave him a playful shove on the shoulder to show that he indeed was there.
Malfoy playfully shoved me back, "Yaxley said he'll consider making me the backup keeper since our keepers are dropping like flies if I clean some of the team's quidditch supplies."
I frowned. "Haven't they heard of a little something call a cleaning charm. Don't tell me you did it. That doesn't sound the Malfoy I lov-"
I cut myself off abruptly. I blinked a couple times to clear my head and the heat that had washed over my cheeks. I wanted to force the words back into my stupid mouth. I knew he had heard them which makes it worse. Saying that alone would be embarrassing enough.
My mind went blank, I wished Malfoy would say something.
"It doesn't sound like something you would do," I said finally finding my voice and the English language again. But the voice that came out of my mouth didn't sound like mine, it sounded nervous, shy and high (higher than usual).
Malfoy's eyes darted back to me from the window he had been focusing intensely on.
He cleared his throat,
"I saw a way out of sticking around the quidditch pitch. I told Yaxley I had left my wand in my dorm."
"He believed that?" I asked sounding surer of myself.
Malfoy smiled to himself. "Yeah, he's thick at the best of times. So he laughed and said I could clean it all by hand. I told him it would take a few hours and here we are."
"And what happens when Yaxley finds out you didn't touch the supplies?"
"Nothing, Weasley, cause I'm not stupid enough to leave my wand in my dorm. I did a couple of cleaning charms and decided homework was better than sitting and watching drills."
"Very Slytherin of you, Malfoy." I glanced back at the door to the Library suddenly remembering Dom. "I better go back to comforting Dom."
"That's such a shame, any chance you have that Transfiguration essay on you?"
"No, Malfoy," I said waving my hand and moving towards the Library. "You cannot copy my work."
"Are you sure, Weasley?" Malfoy followed.
"Yes, Malfoy."
And in we went. Surprisingly no one took any notice to the two of us re-entering together. I went back to Dominique who was making a piece of parchment, she had shaped like a bird, fly around her head. I sat back down in my seat across from her and picked up my quill again.
"What happened to your book?"
"What?"
"That book you wanted to get."
Merlin, I'm an idiot I should've just grabbed a random book on the way back through the shelves. Dom wouldn't have notice that it wasn't Potions.
"I flipped through it and it didn't have what I wanted."
"You were gone way too long just to be getting a book."
My face involuntarily sizzled red as Malfoy came into my mind. His face was frozen in my mind. If Dom was Legilimens I would be deader than… the dead?
"Oh, Rosie, you didn't?" Dominique said softly dropping her wand and letting the paper bird fall on our desk.
I didn't trust myself to open my mouth so I just blink dumbfoundedly while Malfoy's name played over in my head in a loop, Malfoy, Malfoy, Malfoy!
"You bitch witch," Dom said quietly enough for Madam Pince not to hear leaning across the table.
OH, MERLIN, HOW DOES SHE KNOW?!
"You were snogging a boy just now, weren't you?"
OH, MERLIN, NOT THAT!
First, I felt relief and then I felt even more embarrassed than before making the relief seem like nothing.
Dom grinned, "It's written all over your face. Your hot flushes and dishevelled hair screams 'Rose Weasley had an epic snog'.
This really could not get any worse.
"Dom," I hissed meeting her across the table. "This is not a hot flush." I pointed to my face. "This is me feeling hot in my winter cloak in this stuffy library. And secondly, my hair ALWAYS looks like this! This points to normal Rose Weasley, not 'I had an epic snog' Rose Weasley!"
Yeah, things just got worse. I didn't shout this actually I stage whispered loud enough for everyone to heard.
"SHHHHH!" Madam Pince could be heard not far away at her desk. Malfoy slid out from the shelf he had been browsing at with a smirk across his face. And a group of Hufflepuffs laughed and were shushed by Madam Pince.
I buried my head in my arms and welcomed the dark. Maybe if I stayed like this it would all vanish.
Dom giggling patted my head, "Oh, I got to go and tell everyone about this!"
And with that, she ran out of the Library Madam Pince yelled after her.
I moaned into my arms. Why?
When I finally had my face temperature under control (forget about the hair that's never going to be under control) someone else had taken Dom's spot across the table.
"Malfoy?" I whispered to Malfoy when I met his familiar silver-grey eyes.
"Hello again to you too, Weasley," Malfoy said flipping open his book. "Your cousin is hilarious."
"She is, isn't she?" I said sarcastically.
"But your wrong about your hair. It's not always dishevelled. You just don't realise it." Malfoy said. Then his eyes returned to his book.
My eyes stayed on Malfoy's blonde hair that had fallen over his forehead and shone in the sunlight coming through the window. His eyes were glued to the pages of his library book but they weren't moving.
I knew that Malfoy had meant what he said in a nice way from the tone of his voice plus I think I've heard enough of his insults to know the difference.
"Thanks, Malfoy," I muttered shifting in my seat and wrapping one of my curls (knots might be a more appropriate word) around my finger.
I knew that he had heard me because once I said it his eyes started moving across the page again.
I picked up my quill again that I had dropped during Dom's comments and started on my essay. My mind was finally at peace. Every sentence or so I would glance up and look at Malfoy (I'm probably paranoid or something). Sometimes I met his eyes instead of the top of his head. We'd have a short conversation and then returned to our work.
I worked through all my homework in that couple of hours. Once I was done I felt a sharp pang of hunger in my stomach.
"What time is it?" I asked Malfoy as a Gryffindor passed our table and gave us a weird look (not the first one). All the times I had walked with Malfoy back from Divination had made me grow used to it. Malfoy didn't seem to care and I forgot about them because being with him was starting to become normal (weird…).
Malfoy checked the time on his watch that was on his wrist.
"1:30."
"Oh, no we're going to miss lunch!" I complained gathering my stuff back into my bag ignoring Madam Pince's 'Be quiet!'s
"What are the Slytherins going to say about you not cleaning their things?"
"I'll think of something."
"You fighting a troll in a cage perhaps?"
A smile spread across Malfoy's face, "Maybe I'll fight a bunch of quills this time."
We had made it to the Great Hall just in time. I ran over to Abby, Jane and the beautiful food.
"Where were you, Rose?" Jane asked while I filled my plate with sandwiches.
"Library," I answered in between bites.
"You missed it," Jane said a smile spreading across her face. "Eric's best friend just asked Abby to Hogsmeade on Valentines day."
"I bitch slapped him," Abby said bluntly. "And I told him I'll think about it."
"Lovely," I said. "All these Valentine Hogsmeade invites are starting to get creepy. No boy plans ahead, a week ahead maybe, but not several months."
"It's cute," Jane said. "Eric said I was as bright and as beautiful as the constellation Cassiopeia. Isn't that sweet? He knows how much I love Astronomy."
Abby replied, "Jane, he shuffled over to you whispered that in your ear and shuffled away looking all smug. It was embarrassing for everyone."
"Uhhh." I snorted. "I hope one of his friends doesn't come after me."
"They all hate you, Rose, ever since you beat him at Wizard's chess and gloated about it for three weeks," Jane said. "I don't think they'll be running to you."
"It was not three weeks."
"Yeah," Abby agreed. "It was at least four."
I was about to protest when Jane said,
"You guys, don't start. Now that Rose is here we can all work on our Arithmancy homework together."
Abby groaned loudly, "My life is over!"
I had forgotten about the Arithmancy homework. As interesting as it is Arithmancy takes four hours to do and that's on a good day. At least I got everything else done with Malfoy.
Jane stood up, "Let's work in the Library. There's no way all the information we need is in the textbook."
"I think I get why people say the Library is my second dorm." I said piling a few sandwiches in my hand and following Jane.
