Chapter 8: Deep and dark
Scorpious sighed, falling on the ground. What a stupid idea! He shouldn't have followed this group of crazy people into the Forbidden Forest. It was sheer madness. He was a prefect, for Merlin's sake! He'd sure be disentitled when Professor McGonall discovered this. Or even worse – he could be expelled! He'd be the shame of all the family – both his families! They'd think he was unworthy of being a Malofy. They'd expell him too! He'd be homeless and school-less. What would he do? Fuck, he was hopeless! Better to just stay in the forest forever. For sure he could live there, right? Lots of animals lived there. He could build a house or something. He was still a wizard. And he had his wand. Sure, the forest was dangerous, but he was convinced that facing his father and his grandfather was way more dangerous.
He was musing on these thoughts when he caught a movement on his right. Slowly turning his head, he saw this small black dot moving. He was trying to figure out what it was, when he realized it was becoming bigger. And bigger. And then he saw legs, and pincers, and eyes. He sat there, looking at the giant spider approaching him, unable to move. His breathing got caught in his throat and his heart was racing, but yet he couldn't move. He knew he should run or hide or cast a spell against it, but it felt like he had been the victim of a Petrificus Totalus spell; his limbs refused to respond, his mind was shooting in a thousand different directions and he was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to think of a spell even if he could move. And, damn, that was one fast spider.
The blue flash of light knocked down the spider, that turned upside down and stopped moving. Scorpius released a breath he hadn't known he was holding, but still didn't move. Footsteps approached him and she sat next to him. He knew it was her, of course. Who else would be wandering in the forest right now? And the other two wouldn't have been so silent about it. Albus would probably have screamed and run, tagging him along or asking what they'd do. Sue would screamed the spell very loudly, making sure he understood that she had just saved his life. But she just sat next to him, which made him feel grateful. As much as he was relieved she had indeed pretty much saved his life, he was also ashamed of himself for not doing anything. He wasn't a kid anymore; he was wizard and he had a wand. If he had to die, the least he could do was die fighting, right? Instead, he had become paralyzed in his panic. Well, that surely explained why he wasn't a Gryffindor! But she was... And she'd surely proven that right now. Finally able to move, he slowly turned his head, and what he saw surprised him. She was sitting next to him, her head resting on her arms, which were crossed over her knees, her bright red hair hiding her pretty face. She was shaking and he heard this small noise and realized she was crying.
"What? What's wrong?"
She didn't answer him, shaking her head instead.
"Er... Thank you. You just saved my life. That was very brave, what you just did."
She looked at him now, her face flushed, the tip of her nose red and her beautiful brown eyes filled with tears, some of which had let a trail over the freckles.
"That was... a giant... spider!"
"Hm... Yes? I – I saw it."
"It was... It was..." She sobbed, hiding her face again. Scorpious looked at her, puzzled. First she knocked down the thing and after that she was afraid. Girls were, indeed, very strange.
"It's... Well, it's dead now, isn't it? You can stop crying."
The way she stared at him next made him wish he hadn't said that.
"THAT WAS A GIANT SPIDER! I'm afraid of giants! AND SPIDERS! And when I say afraid, I mean really, really, reeeeeeeeeeeeeally afraid, like phobia-like! Do you realize that giant spiders are, like, my worst nightmare? EVER? My dad told me a story about how he'd once faced one of those, and that it was supposed to make me feel better, 'cause dad's afraid of spiders too, but he had lived his worst fear and survived it, so I could too and I was brave too and would surely be in Gryffindor, but ever since he told me that I've been terrified of the mere thought of ever seeing a giant spider and I had nightmares – horrible, horrible nightmares, when I would literally wake up screaming – about them and I thought I was the worst Gryffindor ever, 'cause I'm really really afraid of them – and not just of giants or spiders, of many things! And now... now... THAT WAS A GIANT SPIDER! A REAL one! Right IN FRONT of me! I could have died! You could have died! I could have missed the spell. It could not have been strong enough – Oh, Merlin! It wouldn't be strong enough, then the spider would be mad at us and would kill us faster. And more painfully. Or eat us alive!" She had stood up while talking to him and paced around, and now she was staring down at him, her eyes wide with fear. "Can't you see?"
"Hmm... sure. Yeah". Scorpious had absolutely no idea what she had been talking about, but decided that playing along was the best course of action. He had tried to pay attention, really, but the girl talked so much, so fast, it was nearly impossible! Besides, he had gotten distracted by how amazingly beautiful and sexy she looked when she was shouting like that, her face red, her eyes wide, her hair trashing around her – it was really hard to pay attention to the words.
She eyed him suspiciously. "You have no idea about what I just said, do you?"
Fuck. Busted. "I...er... of course I do! You were talking about... spiders... Giant spiders! And, hum... nightmares."
She grinned at him and he was now sure the world had stopped moving. "I guess that's pretty close, so you're off the hook."
Off the hook? Was she crazy? He was hooked, totally hooked, absolutely hooked, completely hooked, couldn't be more hooked if he tried to. He gave her a side smile and stood up.
"I'm glad you found me. Not only for, you know..." He gestured towards where the spider still lay "but because I was starting to feel really lonely and sad, and... well, me. And when you're around I feel less like me. And that's a good thing."
Rose stared at him, confused by his words and a little dizzy by the fact that he was now standing very close to her. She stared into his greyish-blue eyes, that seemed darker because of the lack of enough light (or was it something else?). He took a step closer to her and she gulped down.
"No... no problem. Any time!" She smiled, feeling foolish. He was close enough for her to make her wonder if he would kiss her – but no, of course he wouldn't! Would he? He took another step closer to her and she sighed and licked her lips, anticipating the kiss. Not that he would reallykiss her. Of course not. It was just a natural involuntary reaction. He lifted his hand to touch her hair and Rose closed her eyes, unable to stop herself from wishing – oh, and how much she wished! - that he would, actually, kiss her. And then he did. She felt his lips softly press against hers and opened her eyes. He had his closed and was putting his other arm around her waist, pulling her nearer. She closed her eyes again and encircled his neck with her arms, sighing deeply. She opened her mouth to let him explore it with her tongue, her own doing the same with his, wrestling around each other and sending tingles across her spine and a warm feeling to her lower parts. The kiss was sweet and intense at the same time, and not at all rushed. She felt like melting against his body.
Scorpius couldn't really explain what had happened. He could barely understand it. He just knew it had been too much. Her beautiful face, her sexy body, her gorgeous hair flowing around her, her smile, the heat emanating from her body – it had all been too much for him to resist. Next thing he knew he was kissing her, fingers entwined in her hair. He felt slightly afraid that he'd disappoint her (for he had never kissed anyone before) or that she'd turn him down (for all her family hated him and surely she felt the same), but it was too late to stop and, frankly, he didn't want to. She felt too damn good pressed against him, her mouth warm and inviting.
They broke apart slowly, panting, silly grins etched on their faces. His face was red and she thought he looked adorable. She giggled and he thought she was incredible.
A noise to the side made both turn their heads.
"What the... I thought you had killed it!"
"I couldn't kill it! It's just a beast, it doesn't know what it's doing. I could never kill it! I just knocked it down."
"Well, do it again!"
She raised her wand and shoot the spell directly between the spider's eyes. He sighed in relief.
"Argh! I'm pathetic! I just got saved by a girl... again!"
She laughed and he smiled at her. "Sue's right, you know. You truly are perfect."
Author's not: I'm back, yey! I can't believe it! I actually thought I'd never finish this story! But I'm back now and I intend to finish it, don't worry. Did you like this chapter? I thought I'd have the girl saving the boy in distress this time. :) Hope you enjoyed. Send me reviews, please.
