LEGILIMENCY – Chapter Two
Riddles.
"You think I'm thick, don't you?" her cousin asked furiously, his arms crossed against his chest. Rose looked up and down the empty corridor, hugging herself in a futile attempt to get warm after James had demanded she come down from her common room. "I know you're smart, Rosie, so I know you know that I've noticed. You've just avoided it for months but I can't do that anymore," he continued quickly, his stance becoming more and more demanding by the second.
Rose dropped her arms as she used one of her hands to tuck her falling strands of red hair behind her ears. For the smallest of seconds, she thought of playing dumb. However, that would attempt would be futile because she knew James Potter knew her better than anyone else. "Jamie, I know, alright?" she snapped back, trying to keep her anger under control. She heard a scuffle at the end of the corridor and tried to lower her voice, thanking Merlin that she was a prefect and technically couldn't be told off for being out of bed this late. James, on the other hand was a different story. After looking around nervously for a few seconds, she lowered her voice. "You don't have to worry, I promise."
James scoffed at that promise which made Rose roll her eyes. Out of all her cousins and siblings, she always felt the closest to James. Whatever the reason, she was always prepared for James' immaturity. He was a lot like her father in that way. Breathing out heavily, the ginger shook her head. "Look, I'm going to sleep, alright? I'm done with this conversation because we shouldn't even be having it. Do you know why that is, James? Because there's nothing to worry about. I have not and never will end up snogging Malfoy!" she hissed as she looked at James with an incredulous look, like the idea was one of the most absurd things she had ever heard. Despite the fact that her cousin thought she was lying, she was telling the absolute truth, because the idea of snogging Scorpius was the most absurd thing she had ever heard. She found him intriguing and that's all it will ever be.
James reacted in the way she thought he would. As always, James didn't really have a care in the world, so having a shouting match in the middle of the night didn't faze him in the slightest. After raising his voice, ranting on and on about nonsense that Rose faded out, he finally spoke to her in the way he usually did – sincere and genuine. "Look, Rose. I don't give a shite who you're snogging, as long as they're a good bloke. It's not even about his last name because to be honest, I don't give a fuck. It's about who he is, and love, I promise you he's no good. But just stop treating me like I'm a dumb twat because I see the way you look at him when you think I'm not. Just – he's no good. Trust me."
Instantly, with that last statement, Rose sighed and gave up. She had a feeling that James knew more than he was letting on, but if he asked her to trust him, then she'd figured out of all the years the two had been best friends and even more importantly family, she owed him that. "Fine," she said, trying to smile at him before she shoved him in the shoulder playfully. Not waiting for him to wish her a goodnight, she turned around on her heel, walking back towards her common room realizing she was in no mood to answer whatever riddle was waiting for her.
It had been a few days since her and James' confrontation, and she was still so utterly confused. There had been two times she had spoken to the blonde Slytherin who was the topic of her argument. The first, was at that point, and continues to be the most confusing and overwhelming experiences of her life.
It was around about four months ago, when the anniversary of the Wizarding War had come around. Every year, for the Weasley and Potter clan the time signified a hell of a lot of annoying questions about their parents. Rosie was in no means a mean girl, but after six years at Hogwarts, and even before her schooling, the girl was sick of answering questions. She was so sick of feeling gawking eyes on her back when they recognized her red hair. So, one day, after a lot of rude questions, Rose had broken down in a fit of confusion and frustration after feeling so utterly drained.
But, if Rose was being honest with herself, that wasn't what was getting to her. It was mostly just the fact that in the scheme of things, the girl had a hell of a lot to live up to, especially with the amount of family she had. So, living up to her parents? Maybe, possible. But, trying to live up to all her cousins? Considering how amazing and talented some of them were, then maybe not.
The Ravenclaw had wound up in the deserted library late that night. And, among the tired eyes, she felt a pair of green ones fall on her. Looking up, the red head discovered that they eyes belonged to Scorpius, who's gaze didn't falter for the slightest of seconds. Confused, eventually she snapped at 'what are you looking at glare?' And, with that the boy was up and sitting across the table from her.
There had been a lot of things that had made her uncomfortable that night, but out of all of them, the worst feeling was the fact that Scorpius was able to read her like an open book. Strangely, while that was as difficult a task as finding buried treasure for everyone else, the boy did it with such ease that it actually just angered her more.
The boy just started off with his usual snarky comment. Something about sitting alone, if she recalled properly. But, after a few moments, the boy fell silent and Rose couldn't help but try to read him the way he had read her. But, as she had come to a conclusion, the boy had stood up, and opened his mouth to shock her. Never, ever, had she expected the Slytherin to say something, well, so deep and vulnerable.
"You lot prance around and everyone falls at your feet. Yes, you do know what it's like to not be able to go anywhere without being gawked at, but you don't know what it's like to have the whole world hate your family as much as your dad hates mine. Yeah, you've got a lot to live up to, but I've got everyone around me waiting impatiently for me to fuck up like my dad," he moved closer, his usual amused tone of voice morphing into something much more emotionless and hollow. "Ever get that feeling that you don't really exist at all? Like, you're there but not really and everything is happening around you in a blur? Well, welcome to my fucking amazing life."
And, with that, the boy had known what she was so angry about, without her even saying a word. And, even more than that, he had been able to make her feel bad about it, because according to him, he had it much worse. But, that wasn't the thing that stumped her that night. It was the way he spoke so desperately yet calm at the same time. The way that he confused her by telling her something she never asked to know, or even deserved to.
And, that was it. The moment Rose knew she had to figure him out. He was like the riddles she had to work out to enter her common room every single day. Except, there was one big difference: figuring them out didn't make her want to throw away everything she had just to get an answer.
The second time, however, was a completely different story.
"Oi, buttercup!" Rose was snapped out of her thoughts to see James breaking away from his seventh year friends to approach the Ravenclaw table in his red and gold Quidditch robes. Rose sighed out quickly, already feeling drained from whatever problem James had with her now.
As the dark haired boy sat down next to her, however, Rose was pleasantly surprised. "About the other night.." the boy faded off, looking towards the Slytherin table. Rose swallowed the lump in her throat, and was almost too scared to follow his line of direction. After what had happened, she hadn't dared to look up at the blonde Slytherin. "Well," he continued, "I was obviously wrong." He concluded, which caused Rose to instantly look up at him. James Potter never admitted he was wrong.
Following his eyeline desperately, her brown eyes settled on Scorpius, and the girl he was snogging. The sixth year pulled a face and shivered. Did they really have to do that right here? "Ain't that just classy?" James mused. Rose let out a tired laugh and nodded her head. "The classiest," Rose replied.
She felt James try to read her, to see if there was any hurt in her eyes but Rose wasn't letting on anything. And, with that reaction, James was pleased enough to say he'd speak to her later, and stalked off towards his friends as if he was walking on sunshine.
"Wait!" Rose called out to him quickly. She got up, and quickened her pace towards his group of friends. Pulling him away to speak to him quietly, she gave him a questioning look. "Just tell me one thing, Jamie. Why on earth did you.. I mean, how did you-" she started, unable to finish because the seventh year cut her off. "Easy. Because you look at each other the way I look at Juliet," he replied, his eyes drifting towards the blonde girl standing amongst his friends. And, with that, without even letting her reply, he walked off, already making his friends laugh loudly and slightly annoyingly. Rolling her eyes, she shook her head at James' stupidity.
A/N: So, randomly I felt the need to write, so I decided to continue this story. However, I don't even know if it's any good and I feel like it's definitely not my best piece of writing, so please tell me what you think and if it's even worth continuing! Hope you enjoy! x
