"Stop staring at the Gryffindors. They're beneath us." Melody muttered, her voice coming out in a hiss as Rosalia blatantly ignored her, continued to gaze longingly at the back of Fred Weasley's head from where they stood in the crowd waiting for the contestants of the TriWizard Tournament to be revealed.
"What in the name of purple Merlin is he doing?" Rosalia mumbled with worry, look on her face concerned as she watched Fred and George link arms, step up and sip some odd and glowing concoction. There was a loud pop and a thick plume of smoke surrounded the twins who were thrown out of the circle.
Fred happened to land next to the Slytherin from the train after their little experiment failed. He looked up at her, she looked at him, for some reason or another, through her slight laughter, she looked worried. He sprang up and she shook her head, looking around. Then she leaned in and whispered, " I do say, Weasley.. You'd make a most handsome old man. For a Gryffindor.."
He raised a brow at her, muttered to himself, "She's barmy, that's all." before whispering back, "If I didn't know better, Rosalia, I'd almost swear you were concerned just now.." with a mischevious smirk on his face as he added, "Careful.. Wouldn't want the little princess getting ran out of Slytherin and disowned by the parents, would we?"
Rosalia masked a hurt look and stiffening her shoulders, she said stiffly "Not all of us are the same. Apparently, however, you Gryffindor boys are actually 90 percent gits." as she let her eyes dart around the other students, trying not to focus on him.
"That hurt." Fred teased mercilessly as Rosalia fixed her eyes on him and then sighing, she turned to walk away, upset with how their conversation went. They always seemed to go this way, it didn't matter how nice she actually tried being to him.
He seemed to think that just because she was in Slytherin, she was pure evil or something, just like the rest of her housemates.
She hadn't actually wanted to be in Slytherin.. But both of her parents were when they were students at Hogwarts.. And it was a family legacy. Had she not made Slytherin, she shuddered to think what she might have had to go through at home, the disappointed looks on her parents faces.
Looks that as of late didn't really bother her very much. No matter what she did, it'd never be good enough for her mother, so she didn't bother trying to appease the woman over half of the time. In a few years, she'd be on her own, as far away from the madness as she could possibly get.
But until then, starting this year, she was going to live her life the way she wanted to, damn the consequences. And if she did everything she planned to?
There would most certainly be consequences.
An arm slid around her waist and she rolled her eyes as she looked over and saw a friend of Viktor Krum's standing there, his arm around her. He flashed her a grin, she shoved his arm down, turned on her heel and slunk to the back of the crowd, then out of the room, stopping to gape in shock as the goblet spit out the name of the champion for Hogwarts..
Harry Potter.
She laughed to herself a little and muttered to herself, "Like that'll really happen. Dumbledore will not allow it, I wouldn't think." before sauntering out of the room and into the mostly deserted hallway.
She just needed to walk, to think about things, to figure out some way to make Fred see she was not like other Slytherins. So far, she wasn't having any luck with this. Nothing short of a miracle was going to make him open his eyes, she feared.
Down the hallway, she spotted a brief flash of red hair, disappearing around a corner, heard deep male laughter. "They must have slipped out too, to go and reverse their potion." she muttered to herself as she continued walking, turned down the same hallway she'd seen the twins go down.
She'd passed a closet or something, with the door cracked, and she let out a small yelp as she felt a hand shoot out, grab her wrist, pulling her back into the room. She looked up into the eyes of George Weasley who studied her a moment, quietly.
"What?"
"This game you're playing with my brother stops. I don't know what you're after, or if you're just bored, but you're not pulling him into your mess, whatever it is." George said as she laughed and paced a few steps in front of him, her fingers tangling gracefully in her long thick hair as she stopped abruptly and said in a small voice, "It's not a game, George."
"The hell it isn't.." George started as he looked at her intently. She sighed and said casually, "Look.. If I could stop this.. Whatever you think it is, I would."
"The hell you can't." George stated simply as Rosalia shook her head and said calmly, "Kind of hard to turn off my feelings for him, and I really don't want to try." while studying him intently, her hand on her hip, foot tapping against the stone floor impatiently.
"The only thing you're feeling, Rosalia.. Is bored." George said as Rosalia laughed and then shook her head. "You don't know me, George. But since you see my house colors, you know how my friends are, you automatically put me in with the rest of them. I'm not like them."
"Could have fooled me.. Your snobby little friends always around you, the way you and my brother tear into each other all the time.. Now you're staring at him and giving him looks and slipping candies into his hands on the train.. That sounds like some kind of game."
"If I were going to play games, George.. I'd play them with someone in my own house. Not with a boy who openly hates me and uses every single chance he's gotten over the years to tear me down.. And get joy from it." Rosalia said quietly as she started to the door. "We're done here, right?"
"As long as you leave my brother alone. I'm not going to have you and your stupid little rich friends making some sort of joke out of him with all this." George said casually as she stiffened her shoulders, sighed in defeat and turned the handle on the door, walking out into the hallway.
Swearing in her native tongue, she paced the empty corridor, debating why she was even trying at this point.. Every single time she did try, someone, whether it be her friends or his, had something to say about it. Or it blew up in her face, and they fought.
She smacked into a firm chest and looked up, grumbling to herself in Italian as she realized that apparently now, she was going to have another little sparring session verbally with Fred.
Instead, he held out her rosary, dropped it into her hands and walked away. She looked at it, then at his retreating back, and then back at the rosary in her hand.
She'd lost it at the end of term last year, because she hadn't known the clasp had broken, and it'd fallen off during a class or somewhere on the grounds, she wasn't entirely sure.
How on Earth did he have the thing? And how long had he had it?
She paced a few moments, tongue trailing slowly over her full lower lip, then sighing, she took off at a run, catching up to him on the next hallway.
She tapped his shoulder and then asked, "Where'd you find that?"
Fred studied her a moment and then said "Found it in the Great Hall, just now." he lied as he looked at her and then said "Remembered seeing it round your neck.."
"Mhmm.." she said as she studied him a few moments, confused by his doing this now. Obviously, he was as confused as her because he shrugged and said "I didn't take the bloody thing. I might do a lot of things, but I didn't steal it. If that's what you're assuming." impatiently.
Truth be told, he wasn't even sure why he was returning it, or why he was unable to get the infuriating Slytherin girl off his mind lately.
And that stunt with the candy on the train this afternoon, or the way she looked at him in worry moments ago, when their spell backfired and the result sent him sprawling, landing almost at her feet.
"If I thought it was stolen, Fred.. I'd have raised an unholy amount of hell about it. If I thought you stole it, don't you think I'd have confronted you by now?" Rosalia asked calmly, a stiffness to her voice as her eyes darted around the hallway. She edged closer and then said quietly, "What the hell were you thinking anyway, putting your names into the goblet? The tournament is deadly."
"Why do you care.. Slytherin?" Fred asked, leaning in a little, meeting her eyes and holding her gaze, his tone commanding as he waited on her to answer.
"Maybe I don't.. Weasley. I have a name." Rosalia muttered as she found herself getting lost in his eyes, biting her lower lip. They were standing closer now, she could feel the warmth of his breath on her skin when he breathed, she could smell the cologne he wore.
She straightened his tie and said with a scowl, "It was annoying me."
"And your odd little games annoy me." Fred said in a calm and quiet tone as he continued staring at her. She looked at him, for a brief moment, he clearly saw the hurt in her eyes. It confused him.
She was just playing games with him, right?
She had to be. Or she was bored with the boys she usually associated with.
"You think you have me all figured out, don't you.." Rosalia mused aloud as she leaned even closer, gave a hurt smile and shook her head as she said "But you literally have no idea just how wrong you and your twin, your judgemental friends really are about me."
She turned to walk away, he grabbed her wrist carefully, stopping her.
"The hat put you into Slytherin for a reason. The hat doesn't make mistakes, princess. Think about it." Fred said with a slight frown as he studied her eyes, searching for a reaction either way. She bit her lower lip and muttered something then said "Fine, Fred. Have it your way. This is all just a game. Maybe I like a challenge."
As she walked off, he managed a slightly confused smirk as he said calmly, "Likes a challenge, eh? Well, if she can play her games, then she's just challenged the master." before walking off himself, confused by the whole contradiction that was Rosalia.
A contradiction that he was determined to find an answer to somehow. Somehow, he was going to prove she was just doing this out of boredom, or to make a fool out of him.. And maybe he'd beat her to it.
Down the hall, Rosalia ducked into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, sniffling as she slunk into a stall. "So sick of it. Maybe I should just stop chasing him. All I'm doing is making a damn idiot of myself. It's pathetic, really. I fall in love with the one boy who's off limits and also hates me.. Why am I exhausting myself to change that?"
She heard Myrtle sniffling and she said quietly, "Go away."
"Is this about Weasley again, I wonder?" Myrtle mused as she swooped down and lingered at the top of the stall, watching the girl with curiousity gleaming in her bleary and tear filled eyes.
"Now why would I tell you that?" Rosalia snapped as Myrtle cried a little then said "It is." sending Rosalia to seek out a quieter spot to fall apart in.
Which she did, down the hallway in a forgotten closet. In the dark. Once she'd let it all out, she walked out, joined her so called friends in their commons room, keeping her distance as usual, while lounging in front of the fire, reading a magazine she'd bought with her from home.