THE BUTTERFLY FALLOUT
No matter how much they long for each other,
no matter how much they want to be together…
It's a line that can never be crossed,
a love that can never be realized.
CHAPTER ONE
March
The biting, cold wind was easing out, making way for spring to come. A season that brought joy to Earth and the students who welcomed the warmth—except for one person.
To Rose Weasley, it felt like saying goodbye to the fluffy but fleeting memories of those quiet winter nights she had been spending with a certain someone. A name she could never tell a soul… A bond she could only keep to herself.
It's all wrong.
The battle between her mind and heart was tearing her sanity apart, yet she couldn't resist the elation of seeing him in secret, the nature of their relationship that went unnoticed to the eyes of their peers and families. It was a world that existed only for the two of them, surrounded by the snowflakes eddying around the pair.
Stop. This isn't right.
She fiddled with the scarf around her neck idly as she followed her cousin, Albus Potter, and his friend Scorpius Malfoy, to Hagrid's Hut for Care of Magical Creatures class. She paid no attention to the boys' conversation, her finger tracing the sewn initials hidden under the muffler. She still hadn't returned the scarf back to him, and she had no plans to give it back, either.
"…Rose. Hey Rosie, are you listening?"
She was jolted out of her own thoughts when Albus suddenly had his hands around her shoulders in a vice-like grip. She winced at the pain.
"Sorry." Albus relaxed and backed away from her. "But yeah, you've been acting really weird lately. This isn't like you—where's the serious, confident Rose I know?" He continued to stare at her, his eyes narrowing. "I also saw you walking off with my brother a few nights ago."
Rose froze. She couldn't even blink to break the eye contact. She kept her lips tightly shut and swallowed—she felt as if her wildly beating heart would come out of her mouth if she didn't. She simply shrugged at Albus in response.
"It's strange that you're unusually close with James," Albus went on. "I thought you hated him." Even Scorpius had his eyebrows raised as he watched the rising tension between his two classmates.
"And I do," Rose snapped. "Besides, it's none of your business who I'm with."
She was about to storm off, but Albus grabbed onto her wrist and stopped her.
"I saw you holding hands with him."
Rose spun around, her face inches away from Albus', with a glare so fierce that made her cousin step back quickly, shocked. "I don't care what you've seen, and I don't care about what you think. You know that we're cousins and nothing can ever happen between us. Just leave me alone."
"Um," Scorpius tried to put himself between the squabbling cousins, shuffling uncomfortably when their attention was diverted to him. "I don't know what exactly is going on, but maybe you two need a timeout?"
She could hear Albus complaining, "What the hell is wrong with her?" as she left the two boys behind, marching towards the hut on her own.
