Do you believe in love at first sight?

Chapter 7

Cassandra Moon was a complete fruitcake.

She'd banged on the wrong door interrupting the poor muggles opposite from their dinner, then charged straight into Scorpius flat in a lairy cloak and bobble hat.

"Hi!" Cassie tried to extract her hand from the tangle of cloaks and robes, "Cassandra Moon, call me Cassie, everybody does." She started looking around the flat making the strangest noises he'd ever heard, humming to herself, this girl was off her nut. She also seemed to be under the impression that Scorpius had agreed to let her the room, he had another person coming over later to look, and wanted to keep his options open before letting this nutter into his house.

"You have a Gorgeous flat, ooooh and a garden," she poked her head round the door of - what she referred to as 'HER' - room and tutted. "This won't do, it so boring, am I allowed to paint it?"

"I guess so…" Scorpius was caught off guard by this question, he felt he need to state that the agency told him another person was coming to look round later and it wasn't definite the room was hers, but couldn't find the words.

She gazed, wide-eyed, around the room. She was pretty, he supposed, short and pixie-like with a dark crop of hair. Her clothes were an odd mixture though, like they weren't her clothes. She wore, what looked like a pair of old jeans cut into a mini skirt, stripy tights, big furry boots and a sparkly top with bits stuck all over it. To Scorpius it looked like someone had covered her in a permanent sticking charm and rolled her through a haberdashery.

"When can I move in?"


"Afternoon!" A voluptuous lady trilled opening the door.

"Hi," Rose smiled slightly worried, "Rose Weasley, I'm here to see the flat?"

"Of course you are, Lovely to meet you Rose, I'm Cilla." she swooped down and planted a kiss on either cheek. "and you are?" she gave Hermione, who was dithering behind her daughter, a querying smile.

"Ahh, this is my mum, Hermione."

"Oh, hello Mum!" Cilla swooped again at Hermione. "Come on in! Excuse the mess, had a late one last night…"

Rose glanced around, besides the mess of dishes and lipsticked wine glasses that littered every surface, it was quite pleasant. Spacious, airy living room, high ceilings and French doors leading to a little patio.

"…and this is your room! Tadaa!" Cilla ushered the Weasleys into the spare bedroom, it was bright, and small, with a big window that overlooked the garden. A large furry cat was drinking from the pond.

"Do you have a cat?"

"No," Replied Rose, "Just an Owl, that is alright?"

"Oh yes! It's just Magnus hates Cats."

"Is Magnus your boyfriend?"

"Ha, you could say that, it's slim pickin's at the moment on the man front. No Magnus is my cat." At that moment, Magnus the cat trotted in through the cat flap, and began licking his groin with gusto. "He's very intelligent, part kneezle."

"I can see that."


Cassie had moved in seven days ago.

And over those seven days Scorpius' neat little flat had been filled with, what he would call shit, but he supposed one mans trash was the other woman treasure.

Cassie also brought with her vast amounts of equally nutty clothing, an array of bobble hats, loud woolley tights, jumpers with holes in, and a selections of unbelievably ugly cloaks and shoes.

Tonight, Cassie had insisted on cooking him a meal. As he walked through his front door, a pungent aroma of spices hit his nostrils, inducing his senses.

"What are you making?"

"Curry. I hope you like hot and spicy, I can't stand it when people add cream in their curries, you should have it fiery or not at all." Cassie was didn't look round, she continued stirring the huge pot that bubbled. "It's ready!" She flicked her wand at the pot causing it to soar through the air and land with a thud on the table.

"It smells good. Really good."

"I know! Dig in." Cassie shoveled large amounts of amber stew on the rice piled up on her plate. Scorpius couldn't believe someone so teeny could eat so much, she tore a naan in two, dipped it into the sauce and began staring at Scorpius with her big dreamy eyes – it made him shift awkwardly in his seat. The curry was extremely spicy, so spicy, that Scorpius expected he would be enjoying some seriously impressive bowel movements that night.

"You've got a very negative aura Mr Malfoy." Still dipping her now soggy naan in the curry sauce, "What's the dealio?"

Scorpius didn't believe in all that 'aura' rubbish. Within the hour of Cassie moving in last week, she had declared that she felt a negative aura around him and would endeavor to find out the cause and banish it from him.

Cassie had grown up traveling around the world with her herbologist parents, they had moved from one wizarding commune to another, and her beliefs and reasoning were based mainly on the unseen. Divination – a subject Scorpius had absolutely no interest in, because it was a highly inaccurate branch of magic, but mainly he just thought it was a load of bollocks. He did however give in, he let her read his tealeaves, and examine his palms for clues, just to shut her up!

"I bought you a present!" she said brightly, setting her fork down and going to her room.

"You didn't need to do that…" Scorpius started feebly, he could hear her banging around her room, probably having to pole vault over the mass of shit she had piled up in there.

Cassie bounced out back into the room, "Look, a crystal ball!"

"Right." Was all Scorpius could muster.

"Oh shhh, just focus on the ball, keeping your mind clear." said Cassie plonking herself down opposite him and examining the glassy sphere. Scorpius was pretty sure the only image she'd be getting would be her own reflection, but he went with it, not wanting to offend his new friend.

"Love!" she cried suddenly.

"What?"

"Love, what's happened in your love life recently? Have you had your heart broken?"

"No, well, there was Cee. But I ended it."

"Why?"

"I dunno, because it wasn't working out." Scorpius was starting to feel uncomfortable, he did not like someone trying to disipher his insecurities with women. It didn't make him feel any better when he heard her mumble something under her breath that sounded like 'fucking men, completely useless.'

"I'm not useless! Things happen, I couldn't see it going anywhere I guess, and what's the point in dragging someone else along if I'm going to be miserable." Of course Scorpius completely understood where she was coming from, fucking men were fucking useless, but he honestly didn't know why he had ended it with Cee. Probably a whim.

"Well, you should have opened up a little bit, you do seem to come across quite mysterious."

Scorpius felt a flush of pleasure he's always wanted to come across as mysterious.

"Really, me? Mysterious."

"Yes, you. Very enigmatic, quite fancied you at first, all wrapped up in angst, with your pale face, strong jaw and sexy hair. I guess that speaks for itself, I can't resist a complete fuckwit. But then I thought to myself, 'Cass, he's just another fucked up bloke.' You may look all dangerous and mysterious, you know, a bit of a challenge but you're not. Your just a regular nice guy who has a problem with commitment."

"Right." Stuttered Scorpius, "And you got all that from a Crystal ball?"

"No, that was woman's intutition." Cass answer simply, "Anyway moving on, so before Cee, who was it?"

"There was Marie, it was just about the sex with her. Then…Laila, that only lasted a few weeks. Morgan, few months, Jess…turned out she like girls more than boys so not completely my fault, but it did knock my confidence a bit, turning a women gay. Then, Finally, Gertie – she went off to America with some Wizard she met in a bar one night, haven't heard from her since."

"What about at School?"

"I didn't go. Not to Hogwarts, I was home schooled…"

"So your first sexual experience was with a girl named Gertrude – Oh dear that's too tragic for words. No wonder you're fucked up."

"What? No, Gertie was my first relationship but my first sexual experience was when I was nineteen. I was the Quidditch world cup, she was in the tent next door, we lost our virginities together."

"Ohhh, a first love, what was she called?"

"She wasn't a first love, just a girl, Rose Weasley."

"Rose Weasley! You lost your virginity to Rose Weasley!"

"You know her!"

"Oh come on! Daughter of two of the golden trio!" Cassie exclaimed. "What happened?"

"Cass! I asked you yesterday if you'd heard of the weird sister's - biggest band of all time - and said you hadn't, you didn't like 'popular culture' but Rose Weasley you've heard of?" Scorpius exclaimed exasperated.

"Of course. Her families a pretty big deal, you'd have to be completely mad not to know about her family. Anyway go on."

"We met, had two amazing days together, then just like that she left by moonlight. All I got was a sodden, unreadable letter, all I could make out is 'I'm so humiliated.'" He glanced up to see Cassie staring unblinkingly at him, completely agog.

"What do you think happened to her?" Cass' whispered gently.

"She obviously deeply regretted what she'd done, and felt she just need to get away. Haven't heard from her since."

"Didn't you try to contact her?"

"Nah, at first I wanted too, but I figured that she was so embarrassed she couldn't talk to me. Why make it worse by dragging it out." Scorpius let out a low sigh, "I guess it just wasn't meant to be."

"That's terrible. No wonder you're such a mess!"

"Oh cheers for that, really nice of you to say so." Scorpius replied sarcastically.

"You know what I mean. This Rose has left in limbo and now you can't move on, so you move from woman to woman with it never really being able to live up to those two amazing days you had when you were nineteen. So you give up, and move on, waiting for that same feeling you had when you Rose." Her eyes sparkled with understanding.

"Limbo? Cass it was a years ago, yes it hurt a bit but like I said it wasn't meant to be." Cassie was really starting to freak him out, how the hell can she get all that from what he told her, a lot of what she'd said was true too, although he would never admit it to her.


"Magnus has gone missing!"

Rose stepped out of the fireplace brushing the soot off her clothes.

"What?"

"Magnus has gone missing! He didn't come home last night!" Cilla cried again clutching dramatically at her large heaving chest.

"Don't panic, he's a cat, he's probably fallen asleep under a bush somewhere." Rosie soothed, Cilla started banging a fork against an open tin of cat food making kissy noises.

"Magnus, Magnus, Magnus, come back to Mummy. Mummys worried, come home." Cilla started calling out. Rosie rolled her eyes, she did not share the same fondness for Magnus, to Cilla Magnus was on par with the Gods. To Rosie, he was just a cat and not as intelligent as Cilla insisted, all Rose had ever seen him do was eat, sleep and lick his genitals.

"He'll come back when he's hungry, they always do, don't worry." Rose poured herself a cup of coffee she had been at work all morning, and was dying to curl up in bed and fall asleep. Rose had been working at the library for a few weeks, and quite liked it. She got to spend her day sitting behind a desk reading, very occasionally someone would ask for assistance and she'd trot off to find a book, or suggest another one. It wasn't very challenging but it was comfortable, which was just what Rosie need at the moment.

"I think you need a man Rosie darling." Cilla exclaimed examining her over a mug of fruity tea.

"I'm just fine thank you. I had a man, look where that got me. Scotland!"

"Oh Rosie! Don't be so gloomy, move on, I wouldn't let one bad experience put me off it for life! I have the perfect guy for you."

"No thanks."

"Ahh go on, he works at the ministry…He's good looking, stable job, and his own house."

"I don't care, I don't want a man, I'm sick of sodding men!"

"Your life I suppose…" Cilla conceded and dropped the subject.