Unexpected Things

KeysCanHurt: Here it is, your Keyness :P MWAHAHAHAH! My brother figured it out before you did =)) We shall see if Scor joins Voldy's reincarnation ;) LOL, I'm still looking forward to Draco's reaction too :)) THANKYA :D The Gryffindor Seeker... see if you can guess :P

Guess Who: Yes he is weird. Yeah, Al should learn it, unlike Harry, who never bothered xD Yesh, ferret babies are cute. Remember when Oreo gave birth? Lalang. I felt the way Lily did xD Yes. You were right :P :P

heartshaped-sunglasses: Yay! I'm glad I'm still able to surprise xD LOL, nice :P

crazy-wee-cat: Yay! xD Thankies :D Hmm... I doubt the grandparents are pleased xD

MalfoyMaiden: HURRAY! 7) We shall see the accuracy of Trel's predictions ;) 8) Right :P 9) I found out who Guess Who was :P Hahahah, we'll see :)) 10) You can't blame her for being confused =)) Quoting sir isidro: History doesn't repeat itself. WE repeat history ;) 11) Yesh, Dirky's weird :)) 12) HURRAY! =)) I'm so glad it was unexpected =)) HURRAH!!! Whatever ya wanna gimme :P

yellow 14: Oh? I worried it was too obvious xD Yes, the ferret's perspective was different, and that made it kinda fun, heheh. He's forever the assuming one and Hermione's forever the observant one ;)

I'm stressed/hurried-ish xD. If I missed any typos, sorry :(

Chapter Thirteen

Take Leaps, Take Risks

"Uncle Dudley had a daughter?" Lily sounded confused.

"I think he did…" James said. "Yeah… I remember now. He had a little baby daughter Lily's age."

"And Marigold is a first year. Lily's age." Al nodded.

"Wait… so if… if she's his daughter." Rose thought about it. "Then… then it wasn't Uncle Dudley that was bitten by the werewolf!" Even if Rose wasn't directly related to him, she ended up taking to calling him Uncle Dudley like her cousins did. "It was his daughter! That must be why Aunt Ginny said Uncle Dudley looked worried! Because his daughter was attacked by a werewolf!"

"Exactly!" Al agreed with her.

In the week that followed, they tried to talk to Marigold Dursley, but she avoided them pretty much as well as Scorpius did. They might as well get on with life, focus on school and the friends that they did still have.

Scorpius.

Rose did not want to think about him.

Why was he such a crazy fool to do that? Why did he walk away from the best friends he had in school? Rose just… couldn't believe it.

They were friends. Friends stayed true to each other.

Scorpius… it was almost like he betrayed them by just walking out on them and refusing to listen to them. Even if Rose still felt hostility towards Jacqui, she felt the connection between them. Scorpius abandoned both of them… didn't he?

After finishing her homework, Rose headed for Hagrid's cabin. Even if she was both hurt and angry with Scorpius, she had a promise to keep to Lily. Rose said she would help take care of Cookie's babies. Help Lily, Rose shall.

Not that she knew what to do… Rose still hadn't gotten around to looking for ferret books. Although she doubted anything useful could be found in the Hogwarts library.

On the way there, Rose heard a splash. Maybe the Giant Squid was wandering the surface of the water.

"Rosie!" It was Raph. He jogged over to her.

"Hi, Raph."

"How are you?"

Rose avoided his green eyes. "Better." It was true… she wasn't as depressed as she usually was…

"Great!" Raph grinned. "Hey, y'know what? That Durmstrang guy from Slytherin, he's swimming!"

"Swimming?" Rose repeated what she heard. But did she really hear properly? It was highly unlikely. Seriously, who would be swimming at this time of the year? Summer was over, and the sun didn't shine as often anymore. The rainy season would be coming soon too.

"Swimming." Raph nodded, confirming her unspoken questions. "He's crazy! Look, if ye don't believe me, I'll take you to the lake and show you. People're already startin' to gather 'round, to see what the hell he's doin'."

She could check on the ferret babies later. "Alright, show me." Rose doubted anyone would be mad enough to go swimming in the lake. She had to see this with her own eyes.

Raph led her there.

He was right, there were about six people watching the water. And, sure enough, there was someone swimming there.

"Is he mad?"

"Probably." Raph watched the boy. What was his name again?

Dirk Kron.

"I do admire his crazy courage though. It's not very Slytherin."

"Anyvun going to join me?" Dirk swam towards them. "The vater is fine!"

"Yer a madman, Kron." Raphael shook his head.

"Isn't it cold?" A Slytherin asked. Rose remembered that Al said his name was Mars Flint.

Dirk shrugged. "Vater is varmer here than in Durmstrang." He looked at the watchers. "Is no one brave enough to jump in?" he taunted.

"Brave? It's reckless!" Mars growled.

"Yellowbellied cads."

"Who ye callin' cad?" Oh, great. Raph was taking Kron's bait. Rose often wondered why Raph was in Hufflepuff, he was more of a Slytherin or Gryffindor.

"You. Vot vill you do about it, cad?"

"Cad." Raph muttered. "I'll show him."

"Raph, don't!"

"Why not?" Raph pulled off his robes, then a shirt he wore underneath.

"Y-" Raph… wasn't fat. Rose blinked, moving her eyes away from his chest and to his face. "You'll catch a cold!" Catch a cold? That was all she could come up with? Pathetic. Raph was the person who would risk catching a cold.

Raph laughed. "I'll risk it." She knew it.

He dived into the lake.

"You're both crazy!" Rose couldn't believe she was watching two crazy boys having a swim in a lake in the middle of September.

"They're hot."

"Dominique?" Rose stared at her older cousin. "What're you doing here?"

"Checking on options." Dominique answered. "This is my last year, I should enjoy it. After school, I promised myself I'll be a good girl. Rosie, do you know what year they are?"

"They're third year."

Dominique frowned. "Darn. Too young… boys always like younger girls. Do you know if they have any older brothers?"

Rose rolled her eyes. "None, Dominique." How could Dominique be eyeing the boys at a time like this? She should be trying to get them out of the water! Well… Rose had to admit she liked Raphael's chest. Dirk Kron also had an extremely appealing appearance. As much as Scorpius and Al didn't like him, Rose and Lily agreed that he was handsome.

Rose stopped. What was she thinking?

She was thinking about how Raphael and Dirk looked.

They looked really good.

Until now, Rose wasn't used to this.

"Join us, Rosie!"

"I'm leaving, Raphael Jake McCartney." Rose turned around, but she felt him grip the hem of her robes. She faced him. "You're wetting my robe."

"Come on, Rose Hermione Weasley! You know you want to jump in!"

"No, I don't." Rose wanted to get as far away from here as possible. This was unfamiliar ground. This was unrehearsed and not researched. She did not read anything about jumping into a gigantic lake with a Giant Squid in it when a relatively good looking boy urges one to do so.

She knew nothing about this.

It scared her.

"Are ye a Gryffindor or not? Brave these waters, Weasley!"

"I will n-" Her retort turned into a scream as he yanked her into the water by her robe. Rose fell in with a loud and ungraceful splash. The water was freezing! "COLD! COLD!"

She moved her limbs around wildly.

Then she heard Raph's laughter.

That arrogant, demented jerk! "McCartney, I am going to kill you!" she kicked the water, swimming towards him. It wasn't easy, her soaked clothing was weighing her down.

"I bet y'can't catch me, Weasley!"

"Come over here right now, so I can throttle you!"

"Throttle? Why strangle when y'got drowning as an option?"

"DIE!" she yelled at him, wishing that just her words would have an effect.

It didn't.

"Oh, c'mon, Rosie. Calm down!" He moved towards her slowly, cautiously. Since when did the fool use caution? He would dive into a freezing lake with no problem. Only when a furious girl wants to murder him does he use caution? Weirdo.

Rose stuck her tongue out at him. It was immature. But she didn't know what else to do. This really was alien ground to her. She didn't know what to do. It was irritatingly hard to think properly.

"There… nice an' calm." Rose didn't know how it happened, but he somehow managed to gently pull her into his arms. Rose swallowed. This was even more alien. She felt lost and scared.

What to do?

What to say?

What to think?

"Yer shiverin', Rosie. Fear or cold?"

"Both," she mumbled, not wanting Dirk Kron or the audience to hear. Kron was paddling around, entertaining the crowd. Al and the twins noted that he didn't mingle that much. Rose found that observation hard to believe. Kron was enjoying the attention.

"Hey. What're ye scared of?" Raph's voice was soft too. Thank God for that. This was too embarrassing! Why did this have to happen? Why did there have to be a growing crowd right there?

Rose wanted to crawl under her blankets and hide there for a year. "T-this is… unfamiliar."

"Yer scared o' what y'dont know?"

Fear of the unknown. Yes, that's what she had. "I'll make a fool of myself and… blunder if I don't know what I'm doing."

"But that's how you learn, Rosie! You'll make more progress when you try out fields other'n what y'know. Sometimes, you should take risks." The idea still scared her. Rose had a hard time accepting and understanding things that weren't in books. Emotions and… things like this weren't things she researched on.

But she had to admit that maybe she could benefit from trying out another field. The field outside intellect and logic- emotions.

"Like leaping into a lake?" Rose raised her eyebrow at him.

Raph laughed, and she felt the vibration of his chest when he did. "I guess y'can count this."

This? This was more than just jumping into a lake. This was letting a boy who wasn't cousin, brother or… er… Scorpius into her personal bubble. This was crawling out of her shell, her safe place of logic and fact, into the more uncertain, alien world of emotion.

"I'm freezin'. Let's get the hell out o' the water."

"Finally. Don't forget that I'm still going to hex the crap out of you for dragging me into this freezing water."

"Y'can't deny that you had a bit of fun!"

"Fine… I did have some fun…" she had to admit that.

"Lovebirds, vill you be staying there all night?"

"Shut up, Kron! Y'got us in here in the first place!"

Al and Rose are so innocent when they check people out xD "shapely" is Al's description of Jacqui, "not fat" is Rose's description of Raph