THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

There is no logic to love.

Forbidden or not,
you don't need a reason to love someone.


CHAPTER ONE
January, Part One

Christmas break was over, and the new year began with the usual chaotic rush back to Hogwarts on the crowded Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. Bobbing heads and waving hands of the students aboard the Hogwarts Express dotted the train windows, bidding farewell to their teary families left behind at King's Cross station.

Every compartment was full, so Rose Weasley had to share with her cousin, James Sirius Potter and his merry gang consisting of a fellow Gryffindor, Miyu Kisaragi, and two Ravenclaws, Tobey Rider and Raven Taylor. (She had lost sight of her brother Hugo, and cousins Albus and Lily, but she knew they could take care of themselves.) The quintet played a few rounds of Exploding Snap; soon Rose got bored after Miyu had won four times in a row. She was pretty sure he had cheated, but she had no proof.

James was hungry; he suggested they should take a break and munch on some snacks. Tobey was quick to start a heated debate with Raven over the flavors in Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans—or rather, a one-sided rambling from Tobey, while Miyu ate all the chocolate frogs. None of the enchanted frogs could escape from the Japanese boy's clutches, with the cards featuring famous witches and wizards piling up at an alarming rate next to him.

…Guess he didn't cheat after all. Just someone with very deft fingers.

James, however, had his head tilted to the side, a faraway look on his face as he stared out of the window, a half-eaten bar of chocolate in one hand. Rose had never seen this side of her normally rowdy cousin before. Was he really this handsome? He did have the good features from both of his celebrity parents, and the shadows cast by the setting sun only made the angular jawline more alluring. Her eyes then traveled up to the slightly parted lips, with a small chocolate stain at the corner of his mouth.

"…Rose?"

She was jolted out of her thoughts when the sound of her name finally reached her ears. She could feel heat creeping up her neck to her cheeks, realizing that James was staring at her.

"You okay? Your face is all red."

Rose turned away from James' concerned look. "I'm fine, thank you."

This isn't fair. Rose hated the carefree, insensitive James who used the misery of others for personal entertainment, but she hated this unexpected tenderness even more.

The James before her now felt like a complete stranger. Not the annoying git she knew, but a young man who could take a maiden's heart away with those gentle, caring eyes.

She froze when James stuffed his chocolate bar into her gaping mouth. "Here. You look like you need it more than I do."

…Was this what they call an indirect kiss?

That's stupid. Rose shook her head firmly and took a bite out of the chocolate bar. Nothing could possibly happen between them.

James was her cousin, for Merlin's sake.