A few days into the holidays and I had successfully avoided all trips to the Potter house like a pro. I retreated to the study to work with mom whenever dad tried to asked me if I wanted to come. But that didn't stop dad from questioning me about the sudden change. Even though I wasn't bffs with Albus since before first year I never avoided the Potter house like it was the plague.
Dad wasn't at all like mom when it came to finding out what was on my mind. Mom would draw me off to the side to a quiet space with open ears. Dad, however, lacked sensitivity and subtlety when it came to this sort of thing. Not that he saw anything wrong with it.
So I wasn't as surprised as I should've been when he suddenly asked at breakfast,
"Is Albus being a p…" he made the p sound for what I knew was the start of prat. He could definitely not call Albus a prat in front of mom. He thought for a second. I could see the gears turning in his brain as he tried to think of a better word.
"Peaceful," Mom suggested glancing up from the Daily Prophet.
It was the first morning she had actually eaten breakfast with us instead of just serving it and heading off to her study to nibble on some toast or take the floo somewhere. I had gotten up early to talk her into it. Which was a struggle, both the getting up and the talking her into sitting down at the table.
"Right, that. Is he?" He asked. "Because Harry can probably sort it if he's not."
"Dad," I said dropping my knife and fork, cutting to the chase. I had already thought of the perfect excuse and had it at the ready, "I've grown out of going with you and Hugo to the Potter house."
Hugo cut in, "Lily was looking for you last time with a massive book. She wants to discuss 'wedding' with you."
"Don't tell me you're avoiding Lily as well as Albus. I mean avoiding Albus is understandable, but Lily." Dad said shaking his head and digging his fork into some pudding.
Mom cleared her throat loudly.
I replied, "I'm not avoiding anyone. Albus and I... we drifted." Very, very far apart.
"I will be over there in five seconds if it's what it's like with Hugo-"
"Dad." Hugo interrupted abruptly suddenly going red in the face. He had stopped digging ravenously into his food, his knife and fork were frozen in mid-air.
This was enough to make me ask with real concern,
"What's wrong, Hugo? Are you okay?"
Hugo ignored me completely and stuffed a hunk of bacon into his mouth. He added to dad with a stuffed mouth,
"Weren't you going to take me to the shop today?"
Dad looked taken back by the question, "Yeah, sure." He replied getting his certainty back. "When Rose is in the robes shop."
Oh, why not Flourish and Blotts? The (dreaded) time had come, the dress fittings for the wedding. I hadn't seen Victoire since I had returned but judging by the letters I had gotten from her the words that came to mind were frantic, overly joyful and stressed out. That combination meant INSANE TO THE MAX.
Hey, maybe her insane would match my insane. I was still getting way too excited waiting for Scorpius' letters and even more excited when reading one. We exchanged a letter every day sometimes two. I never wrote that much to one person. Andrew was getting quite the workout and even had his own space on top of my wardrobe with a bowl of water and one of Pumpkin's old chewed up squeaky toys. Which he refused to play with.
Our letters got funnier by the letter. At times it was the same nonsense we wrote on the Divination parchment. My desk drawer had a pile of letters in it from Scorpius. I guarded his letters like they were my life. They were my life because Merlin knows if anyone found them it would be the end of it.
"What about you, 'Mione?" Dad asked. "Are you coming with us?"
"For the umpteenth time, Ron, no." Mom said flicking to the next page in her newspaper. "I have work to do, Rose doesn't need her mother tagging along after her. And I'm too old for dress shopping."
But not too old to command an office, do the minster's job half the time, and cast a good hex or jinx when needed.
Mom managed to get out of it with the combined excuses of her pretend old age and work. This took several attempts through letters but eventually she got Victoire and Aunt Fleur off her back. I, on the other hand, had to go and no amount of complaining could get me out of it.
"You're not old," Dad said. "You could come with me and Hugo and try out the new shipment."
I let out a groan of longing and dad gave me a look of sympathy.
"Rose, don't do that, it's extremely rude." Mom scolded me, she then glanced at the clock on the wall. "You're going to meet Victoire in a half an hour, Rose, hurry up and get dressed."
I glanced down at my cat pyjamas. They were so warm and fluffy. I was the only one at the table still in their pyjamas and happily comfortable. I wished I could wear them all day. I finished my plate of food at a rapid pace and headed up the stairs to get dressed.
After a failed attempt at putting on a top that looked my size and a clumsy attempt at getting out of that same top, I had put together my final outfit. The same clothes I wore yesterday.
I picked up Scorpius' scarf that was hanging on the end of my bed. I had completely abandoned my real Ravenclaw scarf, his scarf was somehow softer and warmer than my own. I couldn't help myself, I pressed my nose against the wool taking in a deep breath. I could still smell him. I didn't need the scarf to remember it. Since I sniffed the Love Potion the scent (or something like it?) had imprinted itself at the front of my mind. I didn't think scents could be remembered like that.
I nearly jumped out of my skin when mom's voice broke the silence. She was yelling up the stairs for me to come down. I quickly wrapped Scorpius' scarf around my neck, clearing my head of the thoughts.
I hurried down the stairs swinging my cloak over my shoulders as I went. Hugo had already flooed to Diagon Alley. Dad stood waiting for me, tucking into another slice of toast.
"Have fun, Rose." Mom said hopefully. "Laugh along with everyone else and you'll be fine."
"Yeah," I said with the same hopefulness trying not to picture various scenarios at the dress shop that most likely only I would find funny.
I stepped into the fireplace while mom plucked a piece of toast out of dad's unsuspecting hands prompting him to head over to the fireplace and hold out a bowl of floo powder for me to take.
"DIAGON ALLEY!" I yelled. My voice echoed up the chimney as I dropped the floo powder at my feet.
Then the living room and my parents disappeared. I was engulfed by the beautiful sensation of hot ashes blowing into my mouth, nose, ears, eyes and hair. This lasted a few seconds but it always felt longer. Then it ended when I was suddenly greeted with the sounds of voices and glasses clinking at the Leaky Cauldron. I twirled out of the fireplace tumbling into Hugo. I was covered in ashes but I had not fallen on the floor so it was a successful trip through the floo network.
Hugo pushed me away from him, "Bloody hell, Rose, watch what you're doing! You're so embarrassing."
He crossed his arms and gave me a frown. I stuck out my tongue at him which he didn't return with his own foul gesture. Instead, he stepped further away from me.
Confused I asked, "What spat in your breakfast?"
Hugo wrapped his cloak tighter around him.
"What happened to jolly old Hugo?" I asked shaking the ash from my clothes. It showered onto the rug in front of the fireplace.
Then something felt wrong, eerily wrong. I grabbed my hair and cursed, really loud.
I had forgotten to tie up my hair or even bring a hair tie. I probably looked like a red headed Bellatrix Lestrange.
"Little girl, where did you learn language like that?" an old man sitting at a table next to the fireplace tutted at me.
Hugo lightened up at this. He laughed and replied sounding like the old Hugo, "She has just turned seven and wants to use big words."
The old man nodded with understanding. He returned to his butterbeer and book before I could retort to any of this.
"I have grown," I said out loud to nobody in particular.
"Yeah, two inches," Hugo replied.
"I only look seven because I'm standing next to the walking Eiffel Tower." I looked at my brother who clearly took after my dad in the height department and was growing an inch a night.
That's when dad emerged from the fireplace. He stepped through it with surprising grace.
"Let's go." He said dusting off his shoulders of the ash that had formed.
We headed out the back of the pub and outside to a cramped space with a rubbish bin that was covered in snow. With a few skilful taps of dad's wand on the bricks, the bricks parted to reveal another world behind the wall. One that was more colourful and familiar than the quiet dark pub.
"I'll go find the party," I said, dad wasn't the type to walk me everywhere. "See you in a couple of days." I joked.
"Meet us at the shop afterwards," Dad said giving my head a pat. I frowned at the reminder of the night troll I probably looked like.
Hugo jogged down the street moving in between the masses of witches and wizards Christmas shopping. Dad headed after him at a slower pace but still covering a lot of ground with his long legs.
I turned to the window of not the nearest shop. It wasn't an accident that I was staring at my reflection in the shop window of Flourish and Blotts.
'Merlin.' Was all I could think. The curls (if you could even call them that) were like giant noodles sticking out of my head. I tried to flatten the mess down with my hand and create a decent straight parting in my hair, which took ambition, I should be in Slytherin for that. Maybe Victoire could work her magic on my hair.
When I looked like… normal crazy haired Rose Weasley I was found by Lily. Her dark straight red hair was a shock to see in the reflection of the window.
"There you are!" she chirped excitedly. "Everyone's wondering where you are and it isn't exactly making Vicky happy but we'll deal with that. I knew exactly where to find you."
In her storm of words, she was already dragging me away from Flourish and Blotts. She told me what I had missed. The start of a group pep talk that Victoire, for some reason, had to give. I was met by what felt like a dozen disapproving looks when we arrived. Well, the heavy looks were just given by Aunt Fleur, Aunt Audrey, Molly and the stressful side of Victoire.
"About time, Rosie!" Dominique said with an exasperated sigh. "Have you totally finished snogging that boy in the alleyway or will you have to leave us to finish?!"
Trust Dominique to say that loud enough for the whole of Diagon Alley to hear. Maybe not the whole of Diagon Alley since dad wasn't rushing towards us with the Aurors at his side, wand pointed at the ready.
I wanted to crawl into an alleyway right then. Not to snog any boys but to lay down in a pile of snow and die. Why did she have to yell that for anyone to hear? Suddenly her hollering up and down the school corridors didn't seem so bad.
Most of the group laughed including some of Victoire's Ravenclaw giggly friends that I hadn't seen since first year.
I blushed and muttered, "Sorry." In the direction of the bride and the other disapproving relatives.
"Quiet, Dominique." Grandma Molly scowled pointing her finger warningly at her suggesting that wasn't the first delightful comment from Dom.
Aunt Fleur hissed something along the same lines to her in French (I think).
"I told you she would be at Flourish and Blotts," Lily announced to the whole group looking proud of her intuition.
Dominique, not at all discouraged, took this as bait for the next joke, "Oh, Rosie, snogging boys amongst the books again!"
Lily frowned at not getting recognition, "She was outside the shop."
I nudged Lily in the ribs to tell her to shut up. I could see exactly where Dom could take this.
"Outside the bookshop! Getting adventurous, Rosie-"
"Stop!" Victoire demanded raising both her hands and hanging her head like a bull ready to charge.
"This isn't on the schedule!" Molly cut in holding up a long sheet of parchment as proof. She waved it in front of nearly everyone's face.
An orderly silence fell over the group while I fanned myself hurriedly with my hand trying to cool down despite the cold. Victoire took a deep intake of breath raising her shoulders and shrugging them back down again.
"Where in Gryffindor's name was she hiding that?" Dominique asked suddenly.
I laughed because that list did appear out of nowhere but no one else did. So much for mom's advice, I hadn't even been there for five seconds and I was starting to think I was seconds away from being told to go home. I quickly covered it with a loud cough that turned out to be unconvincing. Everyone apart from a happy looking Dom was glaring at me.
Victoire did her relaxing exercise again, this time, she was followed by Aunt Fleur who was looking quite flustered in her fur robes.
Molly in her prefect's voice lifted her watch and informed everyone, "It's 11:03. We will now go into Twilfitt and Tattings, do the fittings for the bridesmaids and the rest of the wedding guests. And if all goes to plan." She paused and gave us all a hard stare that said it could only all go to plan. "We shall have lunch in Puffin's teashop."
Then the boredom started. Victoire led us into the shop where we all stood in awkward silence while she made small talk with the sales assistant.
"I wish I could wear that." Lily pointed at a nearby mannequin draped in a dazzling mesh material with a cleavage line that left nothing (zero) to the imagination.
I shifted from foot to foot trying to stop my feet from hurting from all the standing around. Lily had joined me at the back of the group when she wasn't allowed in on the conversation between the sales assistant and Victoire.
"What even is that?" I asked genuinely confused about what category of clothing it fell under. Underwear is less revealing than whatever was on that mannequin.
Lily gave me an odd look, "It was on the cover of Witch Weekly last week."
Lily opened her heavy binder that was tucked into her oversized pink handbag to show me. She, with great strength, turned 75% of the pages at once making the same thumping sound as when I accidently dropped my hardback 747 paged History of Magic book on the floor. She flicked through the back to a section called 'Miscellaneous'.
"See." She pointed when she had finally found the right page. It was a pretty girl on the cover of Witch Weekly staring into a crystal ball wearing the see-through sheet as a dress.
"Let me tell you from my limited Divination experience she's doing it all wrong. You're definitely not supposed to thrust your chest at it and look down at it from that angle."
"Divination is not the point." Lily sighed irritably at me. "What the model is showing is confidence, the dress is giving her confidence- you would understand this and more if you remembered to look over the binder with me."
"I'm sorry, Lily. I was busy. I'll look over it with you now if you want."
I was busy writing letters to Scorpius and waiting to receive his.
Lily was happy with that answer. She grinned and hugged the binder closer to her chest. She then led me away from the group to a seating area across the massive shop where we were joined by Grandma Molly who was quickly losing all fondness for dress shopping.
"At my age, you wouldn't think they would expect me to stand around. My feet are on fire. I don't understand why we couldn't have just gone to Madam Malkins. This place is far too posh and expensive." She said sinking back into the pillows and pulling her knitting out of her purse. "Hold the wool, Rosie."
Since I was the closest to her she wrapped the green wool around my hands.
"Who's jumper are you making?" I asked nodding to the half finish Weasley jumper on her lap. The first letter of the name wasn't visible.
"I hope it's not mine." Lily inputted. "Everyone says that green looks good on redheads but I can't stand the colour. It makes me look like a slime ball. Gran, you did do mine with the flower pockets?" Lily asked hopefully.
"It's for Albus and you will have to wait and see, Lily." Grandma Molly replied before glancing at Lily's binder. "You're not still carrying that thing around."
Lily thumbed proudly through the pages, "It has everything to do with the wedding in it."
"Did you get rid of the 'hot boys' section?"
Lily frowned, "Rose and I need to be ready in case hot guys show up to the wedding." Then she turned excitedly to me. "Teddy has a bunch of quidditch friends who play internationally all over the world. And quidditch players are always buff and hot."
"Lily," Grandma Molly said shortly. "You are much too young for any quidditch players that Teddy invites to the wedding."
Lily muttered to me, "Nothing a few Kissing Concoctions won't solve."
Grandma Molly heard this and said, "Only bad things can come from those types of potions. Don't be foolish, only accept a boy's love, anything else he has to offer or wants to offer is hormonal. Hold up the wool higher, Rose, it's getting tangled."
I lifted my hands higher and said to Lily, "I have no interest in any of that."
"Good." Grandma Molly said. "See, Lily, that's why Rose gets such high grades."
"I live in the Library, Grandma, that's why." I replied before Lily could answer.
"And I live in the rest of the castle," Lily said before looking straight ahead and frowning. "Oh, uh."
"What?" Grandma Molly and I said at the same time looking up from the green wool.
Aunt Fleur was coming towards us swishing her long blonde hair as she walked. She looked just about as stressed out as Victoire had and not at all friendly. I could see why Aunt Fleur was annoying Victoire.
"Will you please stand with ze rest of ze group." Aunt Fleur said when she was standing right in front of us, her hand on her hip. "We are trying to get through zis as quickly as possible."
Grandma Molly and Aunt Fleur aren't best friends forever. For the sake of everyone, they try to be sickeningly polite to one another. It wasn't a good week for their strained relationship. Especially when it's a war over who plans what, who makes which decisions and who needs to back off.
"Lily, Rose, go join the rest of the girls." Grandma Molly said with a plastic smile taking the wool from around my hands. "I'll be with you in a minute."
Did I want to watch a possible shootout between Aunt Fleur and Grandma Molly? Yes!
But did I want to risk Grandma Molly's temper falling on me? No!
A half an hour later I was standing next to Lily watching various relatives getting fitted and applauded. When Dominique came out of the dressing room wearing the bridesmaid's dress that we would be forced to wear I let out a silent sigh of dread. While Lily next to me gave me a pat on the back and calmly said,
"I can make this work."
'How?' I asked myself. The whole dress was one big puff. The top was love heart shaped and the dress stopped just below the knee. It was frilled all over with something that looked like dainty tissue paper.
I wasn't sure what everybody else thought they saw but there was a big ooooh and then an exchange of smiles and compliments to Victoire who was looking very closely at the dress. Victoire, after telling Dominique to stand up straight a dozen times, pointed out everything she thought was at fault with the dress. Like a stitch that looked too wide in the centre, not that you could see it with all the frills.
Lily and I were back enough from the group to make comments to each other.
"She looks like a Christmas cracker," I stated still not seeing how Lily, the self-proclaimed miracle worker, could make that green and red fusion of Christmas work.
"Well, it is a Christmas wedding." Lily half-heartedly tried to make the whole situation better.
"I thought you hated green."
"The dress is more red than green."
"And what colour hair do we have?"
"I really think Victoire should have consulted me on this."
I suddenly felt the rack of clothes behind me move. I whipped around and saw nothing but robes of every kind of blue on the hangers. Probably, the violent green and red upsetting my mind.
Lily paid no attention. She was listing ways she could improve the dresses and was flipping through her binder for backup.
I stood with my arms crossed still wary of the mysteriously moving clothes. Dominique stood on a circular platform in the centre of the fitting area and tapped her foot impatiently as the seamstress witch used her wand to make the proper adjustments to the dress.
"Rose." A low hiss came from the rack of clothes and a shuffle came from the robes on it.
That voice I knew straight away. I turned instantly to inspect behind me, where it had come from. My heart jumped in my chest.
"Scorpius?" I whispered so low that it was barely audible.
I pushed aside some of the clothes hanging on the rack an inch pretending to be browsing and there he was. I blinked in case it was a hallucination from the stuffy air and bright colours of the shop. My eyes connected with his bright silver ones and I grinned like a maniac.
"What are you doing here?" I whispered glancing behind me checking that no one had spotted me chatting to the clothes rack.
"Come around here." He whispered back reaching across to me and tugging the sleeve of my cloak. Before I reach back to tease him, in the same way, he slid the robes back to the way they were.
Everyone was still gushing over the dress when I turned around the second time. Lily had moved front and centre. She was walking in a slow circle examining the dress. Dominique was complaining about it being itchy. It was as if the dress fitting didn't involve me at all, no one needed me or was paying attention to me. So without a moment's more hesitation I quickly moved around to the other side of the clothes rack keeping my head down.
"Scorpius," I said his name again, it slipped out. He was folded over in a crouching position behind the rack so not to be seen.
Then I fell silent, dumbstruck. It was the first time I tried to write back to him all over again.
Despite the conversations we had not too long ago writing stuff in letters to each other was somehow more personal than actual spoken words. All the words on the parchment had to be precise and no tone of voice came into play. As I blankly stared at him waiting for him to say something, I somehow felt closer to him and what was going on in his head.
"Rosie, I thought you'd be all over me by now." He said with a laugh.
I smiled at this, "Scorpie, I'm waiting for you to lead."
Author's Note: Thank you for all the support! All the reviews, follows and favs are really inspiring! I appreciate them all. More Scorose to come!
