Chapter 3...In Which an irate Rose grounds her little brother (Into dust) and decides that maybe I'm not so bad.

(1st September, 2027)

"Drinks!" Rose called, as she walked down the garden path towards us, balancing a large tray over her head with her wand. I sat up and accepted the ice-cold pumpkin juice she offered me. She set a second glass down beside Al who grunted his thanks then flopped down onto my lap, laying the tray down beside us. I wrapped my free arm around her middle and kissed the top of her head.

"Any chance of something to eat Rosie-Pose?" Al heaved himself up into a sitting position and grinned at his cousin. She pretended to wrap him over the head with her knuckles, chuckling.

"Greedy!" She laughed her belly laugh, then grabbed the bowl she had brought out with her and passed it to Al. He rooted through it until he pulled out a hunk of gingerbread which he shoved into his mouth.

She shook her head and rolled her eyes. "That's right Al, don't have any fruit or anything, just go and rot your teeth."

"Au-ny Erm-i-nee orries oo muc. My teefr fine!"

Rose shot him a disgusted look and leant back against me.

"So," She said, ignoring her cousin, "Where have we got to. You know," She added, on seeing my confused face, "With your journals."

"Oh." I said.

(Midsummer's Eve, 2020)

Today I ran into Rose, drenched, again. I honestly believe she thinks I'm doing it on purpose now, I mean - this must be the third time now and as she seems just as accident prone as usual, I'm guessing it won't be the last time either. And of course, it probably doesn't help that her robes do this...thing when they get wet.

But I'm not going to think about that now or it'll be even harder to talk in front of her than it already is.

If I hadn't seen Hugo push Rose into the Black Lake I would have been inclined to believe that it had just been her clumsiness. Again. After all, it wasn't the first time that I'd seen Rose be distracted by something and imprudently lean just that little too far over.

Rose came up, coughing and sputtering, to the sound of laughter. She smiled good-naturedly and swam towards the bank where she heaved herself out of the water.

"Hugo?" She called, advancing on her little brother who looked very white under his thick covering of freckles.

"H-H-hello, Rosie." Hugo squeaked. Even though Hugo was only twelve he was taller than Rose by a couple of inches. Still, now he seemed shorter as he cowered before her, practically shaking as she looked (Read glowered) at him.

"Erm, Rose?" My voice wavered. Damn those robes, I thought furiously. Talking in front of Rose had always been hard enough without that distraction.

I cleared my throat and tried again. "Um, Rose?"

She didn't look away from her brother as she made a non-committal sound. I assumed it meant I was to continue and I did so.

"Don't do anything drastic will you? I mean, if you kill Hugo won't it go on your permanent record? It'll get dragged up at job interviews and stuff..." I trailed off and shrugged, hoping that she hadn't changed targets.

She tore her eyes away from Hugo (who appeared to be trying to make himself a smaller target as possible) and glanced at me. I tried not to wince as she swept her gaze over me, repeating the words 'Don't look down, Don't look down, don't look down' over and over inside my head like a mantra.

Rose stared at me for a moment then smiled.

"You're right of course, it would complicate future job prospects wouldn't it?" She shot me a smiled and I felt heat flush my cheeks. "Besides, " She carried on, oblivious to my blushes, "I wasn't going to kill him. Just ground him."

Hugo perked up somewhat at that. Rose saw his expression and repeated: "Ground him. Into dust."

Hugo gulped.

The small crowd that had been watching the exchange with interest looked at each other.

"We could ground him into dust." I conceded, "Or we could just chuck him the lake.

Rose beamed at me.

"That's a fantastic idea. Come on, I'll grab his feet.

.0.

And that is how I saved Hugo from being grounded (into dust) but that definitely wasn't the best part. The best part was afterwards, when Hugo was towelling himself off, face now scarlet, and me and Rose (thankfully - or unfortunately, depending on your viewpoint- de-soggified) were heading back up towards the castle.

"You're not so bad you know," She said, conversationally, reaching forwards to push open the large, wooden doors. We walked inside together then started up the staircase. She didn't say anything else, just walked beside me smiling slightly.

I maintained an equally carefree expression but inside I felt like I was doing the conga.

Rose thought I wasn't too bad.