Blood Ties
Part 15
Rating, summary and such are same as before.
Note 1: Thx Joahn for beta-reading the story and of course all your wonderful reviews!
Note 2: An ugly drawing of Rose (a new character you can find in this update) by me (be afraid... be very afraid...) during a boring lecture could be found in my homepage (PS: Just go to my profile, there's a link to my homepage)
Stretching a little, Willow stood and put the book she had been reading back on the shelf before leaving the library. She had not noticed the time until she heard a growl from her stomach. "Can't believe I've been here all day." She whispered to herself as she made her way down the quiet corridor towards her room.
Walking slowly, the redhead stopped at a huge black door which was supposed to be her great-grandfather's office. She had stayed in the mansion for couple of days and so far she had only visited the family library (where she had spent most of her time), the dining hall and of course, the bedroom she now occupied. Curiously, the redhead pushed the door open, and peeked inside.
The office was huge but lacked any windows. Same as other rooms the house, the lights lit up automatically when the redhead stepped in. A huge wooden desk was placed at one end, surrounded by bookshelves. On the other end was a red leather couch that was facing a matching wooden coffee table in between the couch and the fireplace. Right behind the desk was a huge portrait of a redhead man around mid-fifties holding a red rose in one hand and a huge sword in the other, looking ahead. The portrait figure turned and nodded at the redhead when she stepped inside, before resuming his pervious position.
Walking closer, Willow examined the books on the shelves. Most of them were books about wizarding world history, events and laws, but to the redhead's surprise, she also found couple of books that were clearly from the muggle world - mostly poetry and history books.
Turning towards the office desk, Willow sat on the office chair that once belonged to her great-grandfather, and found herself staring at a worn leather bond book lying on top of it. "The Rosenberg Family." She read out the golden title printed on it. "Ha." The redhead blinked, and opened the book.
On the first page was a family tree, but the letters were way too small for Willow to even read. Shaking her head a little, she reached out to turn over the page, when her finger touched one of the words. The redhead squealed when the page suddenly zoomed in and displayed the part of family tree the redhead had just touched in a much larger font size. She blinked for a second, before touching the same part again. This time, the page zoomed out, and returned to its original size.
"Wow. It's just like using Windows. I wonder if the design was based on it." The redhead quickly moved her fingers along on the page like using a mouse on the computer, zooming in and out on the different parts of the family tree. Suddenly getting an idea, the redhead double tapped on one of the names, and quickly, the pages turned itself towards a separate page of the book, showing the name she had just tapped along with a small portrait and a short introduction under it. "Cool!" The redhead grinned, tapping the opened page, and as quickly as before it turned itself back to the first page where the family tree was.
Harry and Ron made their way towards the exit of the Great Hall. Hermione had been under Harry's silent and Ron's not-so-silent treatment ever since Professor McGonagall had taken away the Firebolt earlier. It didn't help when Xander pointed out the fact that he doubted the escaped prisoner would have enough money to buy the Firebolt just to put a hex on it and send it to Harry, which led to the revealing of Xander being Draco Malfoy's cousin.
Xander was so angry when he heard his friends reveal, accusing Hermione that she should have never put her nose to where she didn't belong and stormed out of the Hall. Buffy had quickly followed, leaving Hermione to face her two other equally angry friends alone. Finally having enough, the dirty blond witch left without another word.
"I can't believe Hermione would tell Professor McGonagall!" Ron said angrily as he walked towards the dormitory with Harry. "No. Wait. I can believe it. Xander's right. She always sticks her nose into other people's business. Who knows what'll be left after the Professor finishes striping down the Firebolt?"
"That's enough, Ron." Harry said tiredly, massaging the bridge on his nose.
"What? I'm just telling the truth." Ron frowned. "Do you think Xander will be okay?"
"I hope so." Harry sighed, wondering how things could go so wrong this Christmas.
Willow spent her next half an hour clicking on different names on the family tree, but frowned when she found not all the names had their own separate page like the first one. As far as Willow had worked out, all of those who were married into the family did not have their separate page, as were some of Rosenbergs including her mother and grandfather. Another thing that had troubled Willow a bit was the tree had shown 'Voldemort' as her father instead of 'Tom Riddle', her father's real name.
Scratching her head a little, the redhead closed the book and turned towards the portrait behind her. She had recognized the face as Theophrastus Rosenberg III from the family tree - the grandfather of her mother and great-grandfather of Willow. Standing up, the redhead took in the details of the portrait, when she noticed something. "That's odd." The redhead frowned at the over-realistic thorns on the rose in the portrait. It was not that noticeable if you were looking from behind the desk, but it looked almost real when you stood right in front of the portrait. The redhead reached out, touching it softly, when she felt a stink. Pulling back her hand, she found a drop of blood on her figure tip. "Remember..." She whispered, remembering the dream she had the night she slept in the Great Hall couple months ago.
Suddenly a huge growl echoed in the room. Willow's head shot up, and found the portrait of her great-grandfather had disappeared, revealing a long dark passage behind it. The redhead blinked, rubbing her eyes couple of times to make sure that she wasn't dreaming. "To pick a rose you cannot avoid the thorns... it's all about the blood." Willow recalled the words Zuerst had said earlier. Closing her eyes, Willow took a deep breath and put her resolve face on, before stepping into the passage.
"How could you Buffy!" Xander shouted at his friend as the blond witch caught up with him on the corridor near the Gryffindor common room. "How could you do this to me! We are supposed to be friends!"
"Hermione found it accidentally." Buffy reasoned. "We thought it would be better-"
"Better to just lie to me!"
"Would you even listen?"
"Well, I would if you just told me!"
"Look at yourself Xander! Every time we talked about it you went all crazy on us! And you wonder why we didn't tell you in the first place?" Buffy took a deep breath to calm herself. "Xander, we just didn't want to upset you more. We all know it is a sensitive topic to you-"
Xander sighed. "I know."
"Huh?"
"I know I'm related to Malfoy. Remember Aunt Andromeda?" Buffy nodded. "Aunt Andromeda is Mrs. Malfoy's sister. Mum said she was being cut off from the rest of the family because she married a muggle-born."
"Oh."
"And don't get me wrong. I may be a bit related the blonde wonder, we're not cousins. My father was disowned when he told his parents about my mum."
Buffy scratched her head a little. "The Blacks really don't like muggles, do they?"
"Yeah..." Xander trailed off, staring at the window facing the entrance of the castle. "Hey, isn't that your mum?"
"Huh?" Buffy narrowed her eyes. There was a bit of distance between where they were standing and the entrance of the castle, but she was quite certain that it was her mother and her step father. The two adults exchanged words, before quickly marching into the castle. The young witch couldn't help but feeling worried with she saw the distress on her mother's face.
Willow stepped into the passage and looked around, but the weak light coming from the entrance was not enough to let her see anything. Suddenly, another loud growl echoed from behind. The redhead spun, just in time to see a huge stone wall slide in and close up the entrance. "NO!" She shouted, banging her fist on the cold wall.
"Hello." Willow spun towards the sudden voice and took a step forward. Immediately, the passage was filled with soft lights. She narrowed her eyes at the light on the other end of the passage, and slowly made her way towards it.
When the redhead reached the end of the passage, she was surprised to find herself standing inside a circular altar. Portraits hanging on the surrounding walls, and Willow recognized all their faces from the family book she had read earlier. A giant rose was now standing at the other side of the altar, and the redhead couldn't help but giggle when she got a clear look at it: the rose got short arms and small hands and small feet, goldfish eyes that were almost as huge as its' 'flowery' torso matching the friendly smile plastered on its' face - something that was definitely pulled out from some cartoons.
The rose took a step forward and bowed at Willow. "My name is Rose."
"Hi." Willow swallowed another giggle threatened to come and greeted back. "Willow. My name, I mean. Willow Slytherin."
"I know." Rose answered. "You're also the potential heir of the Rosenberg family."
"Potential... heir?"
"How long has it been?" Rose ignored the confused look on Willow's face and continued. "Eighty? No. Ninety." She nodded. "It has been ninety-one years since a potential heir has taken the test." She shook her head. "I blame your coward grandfather for that."
"Hey!" Willow protested. "You don't know him! Well, I don't know him either but still, hey!"
Rose laughed. "You're funny. Now, let's get down to business, shall we?"
"Business? What business? I just want to get out of here. I mean, no offence, you're being all cute and flowery but I just want to go back, get something to eat and get some sleep. Maybe tomorrow, okay?" Willow nodded at herself and turned around, only to find the passage she came from had already disappeared. "What the-"
"You're not leaving, Miss Willow." Willow turned back, watching as Rose slowly moved towards her. "Not until we're done here." The redhead swallowed as the friendly smile on Rose's face disappeared and quickly replaced by a dangerous smirk.