Chapter Two: Unexpected Meetings; Locked Meanings
The smell was horrible, but it was worth it. This was what Scorpius had to tell himself over and over again as he squatted behind the dumpster in the alley across from the back entrance to Flourish & Blotts. "Just relax," he muttered to himself, as he watched something that disturbingly looked like bubotuber puss drip down the side of the dumpster two inches from his face, "It's Harriet L. Felixa! All of this will just seem like nothing when you look back holding your autographed copy of..."
Then it hit him. How exactly was he going to get her to sign the copy of the new novel? He had been so excited by the letter and the prospect of meeting her in person, that he had not thought about what he would do once he had leapt from behind the wretched dumpster to reveal himself to his idol. In fact, now that he thought about it...if someone jumped from behind a pile of rubbish in a dark alley at him, he would probably hex their bottom around backwards.
But what should he do instead? He wanted the book so badly, but he didn't want to embarrass himself in front of his favourite author...Well he definitely had to get out from behind the dumpster to avoid frightening the woman. He walked out from his putrid place of hiding and found himself face to face with the last person he wanted to see, Rose Weasley.
Male and Female cries of fright filled the air. The cries of fright changed into those of pain mingling with meowling as Rose stumbled back in incredulity, tripping over a nearby stray cat, landing flat on her back.
"You!" bellowed Scorpius, covering his moment of weakness with layers of fury and contempt, "What are you doing here? Are you stalking me or something?"
"Of course only you would think of something like that!" snapped Rose, as she struggled back to her feet, "Are you seriously so full of yourself that you think everyone has a crush on you? I work here for your information. Why are you skulking around in a dark alley at 8:30 in the morning!"
"Well for your information Miss Weasley I have a perfectly good reason to be here." said Scorpius haughtily. But on the inside, Scorpius was anything but haughty at the moment. What would he tell the girl? He had to admit that his actions would seem highly suspicious...unless she remembered what he had told her on the train in the their first year...he had to distract her! He had to think fast...
"I...was looking for my cat!" said Scorpius picking up the stray that Rose had tripped on. It wriggled in his arms, biting and scratching him. It was obviously not the kind of cat that enjoyed being held.
"Well it would seem you treat your pets as well as you treat your classmates," remarked Rose dryly as the cat squirmed uncomfortably in Scorpius' arms, "Hard to believe it's still alive, it looks ancient." said Rose. The cat hissed at Rose, leapt from Scorpius' arms and there were a few moments of silence as both of them watched it run the length of the alley and slink around a corner. Scorpius looked at his watch, it read 8:35. They must have made so much noise that Harriet L. Felixa had not wanted to–
"Aren't you going to go after you cat!" demanded Rose, interrupting Scorpius' train of thought.
"Oh...Right." said Scorpius, and he ran the same way the cat had and disappeared around the corner.
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As soon as Scorpius had left her field of vision, Rose ran over to the back entrance of Flourish & Blotts. She fumbled with her keys, found the right one, unlocked then threw open the door. There, just inside the door, was the new Harriet L. Felixa Romance Novel.
A loud, long, string of very unladylike curses echoed through the morning air. That wretched big-headed git of a Slytherin had made her miss what she had been waiting for all summer! What had he really been doing there? Slytherins are usually quite excellent liars...he must have been really worried about her finding out why he was really there to be so thrown off his game...
A memory began to tickle the back of Rose's conscience...for some reason she thought of her first time on the Hogwart's train...but it was blurry. For some reason, her mind was telling her that the reason why Scorpius was in that alley was from that day...but a mental wall stopped her from recalling any details from the train ride. Her brain had never failed her yet, so Rose resolved to look for a book dealing with mental blocks on her lunch break later that day.
She would do whatever was necessary in order to make Malfoy pay. Before now, he was just another Slytherin to her. It was slightly annoying to her that he got grades as excellent as hers, but on the whole, she just tried to ignore his presence within the school. A little voice at the back of her head told her that she was being childish, but she didn't care. At the moment, Rose Weasley did not want to behave like an adult. Scorpius depriving her from meeting her idol had opened the Pandora's box of emotions that had been kept at bay for six years.
If the information buried within her subconscious was the key to causing Scorpius Malfoy to fall from his high horse, then Rose would channel her new raw feelings of anger into unearthing their secrets.
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As Rose Weasley explored the uncharted waters of her subconscious, Scorpius was running as fast as he could as far away as he could while frantically replaying every word that was said in the alleyway. Was she on to him? Was there anything she had said that had indicated she remembered, or had she forgotten what Scorpius had told her on the train six years ago?
Scorpius, reaching the Leaky Cauldron, stopped to take a few breaths. He suddenly flushed with pride. There was no way that he would have been able to sprint from the Flourish & Blotts to where he was standing at this time last year. This past June, Scorpius had noticed that he had been petting his dog Oberon a bit too hard, so he resolved to find a new way to vent all his tension that stemmed from living with his father.
The solution had been to do laps in the Malfoy family's swimming pool. The last time Scorpius had swam in the pool had been when he was ten years old. This was due to the lurid tile replica of the Malfoy family crest that rested upon the bottom of the deep end. Scorpius had gotten over his aversion to the pool for–what he had convinced himself to be–the greater good.
The results of his physical exertion had been positive. Scorpius became calmer, and for the first time in his life, did not want to strangle something every minute of the day. But as a group of girls giggled as they walked past him, Scorpius noticed another unexpected and rather annoying result that he had not anticipated...muscles. Doing laps in the pool every day had given him a swimmer's body, which was to say, muscles that were well proportioned and well defined. Scorpius looked down, and saw that his t-shirt, which had fit loosely around his biceps and pecs earlier that summer, was now quite snug.
Resolving not to leave his house without a sweater from now on, Scorpius strolled into the leaky cauldron to have a real breakfast. Being 9 o'clock, the pub was quite full with older witches having a spot of tea before their morning shopping...
"Bollocks!" exclaimed Scorpius loudly, making the closest elderly witch spill tea down her front as the witch next to her clucked her tongue in disapproval to the language. He had totally forgotten about the shopping he had to do! He needed to buy his textbooks...but that meant going back to Flourish & Blotts...that meant seeing her again.
Thinking over his plate of pancakes for several minutes, Scorpius resolved that he would go for a walk in muggle London and return to the bookstore at around noon. Maybe by that time Rose Weasley would be on her lunch break or perhaps the store would be so packed that she would somehow miss him...Oh well. It was worth a try.
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It was 12:15, and instead of eating lunch in the back room of the store as she usually did, Rose was sitting at a table flipping through books. She sighed as she put down Absolute Answers for Quirky Questions; it was the fourth book she had flipped through so far, and it was the fourth book with absolutely nothing. Like I mean who in their right mind would want to know the best way to make their back hair grow into patterns?
She looked dubiously at Teenage Witches and their Dire Dilemmas; it was the last book in her pile, so she hoped it had some sort of answer to her problem. She looked at the table of contents: Chapter one, Period Panics!...no...Chapter two, Boyfriend blunders...definitely not...Chapter three, Teenage witch selective amnesia disorder...finally! Something that looks promising!
Teenage witch selective amnesia disorder
A disorder that has affected young women for centuries. The first recorded case being in the 1500s, this disorder still affects women from ages 11-25 to this day. You must be asking yourself, what exactly is TWSAD? When women begin to reach maturity, many emotions begin to rush through their head. Everything feels better or worse than it actually is. Reaching physical changes in their bodies as well as awakening their magical power, magical women– witches–feel these emotions much stronger than muggle women. Reaching these highs and lows, maturing witches may become overwhelmed by these feelings. When a particularly strong feeling occurs, young women resort to TWSAD. This means, that parts of their memory are almost permanently stored away under lock and key. Instead of dealing with the emotion through normal means, a witch's mind will selectively erase all memories attached with the strong feeling.
You must be asking yourself, why doesn't this happen to men? It's simple really, men deal with emotional blows in different ways. It is much easier for a male brain to process things of this nature. Aren't they all born with selective amnesia when it comes to chores anyways?
I kid, you really must be asking yourself, what if I think that I have TWSAD? How can I get my lost memories back? It's simple! All you need to do is come to terms with what happened!
Chapter four...
Rose stared blankly at the page. It's simple? SIMPLE? This is so STUPID! Just come to terms with what happened? How can you come to terms with something you don't even bloody remember? Rose, who had always relied on books for filling her brain with knowledge, was truly scandalized.
"EASY! EASY GRANDMOTHER'S BOTTOM!" screamed Rose as she slammed the book down on the desk while turning around. There, standing with arms full of textbooks and an open mouth, was Scorpius Malfoy.
"And I always thought you were such a soft, well spoken girl" said Scorpius with a smirk.
"You!" exclaimed Rose, walking towards him, finger pointing at his chest, "I will remember! I will not let this beat me! You mark my words!" and she walked through the door that separated the storefront and the back of the store.
A/N: arrrrgh that took me so long to write...I've been packing all week...I'm soooo sorry. sigh hopefully I'll be able to spit out the next one soon. Probably not...just be patient, and feel sorry for tenchi who's starting her first year of university next week :S
PS thanks so much for all the reviews! It makes me feel so good...having not written in a while and all... they just make me want to write forever:D
