Author's Note:
Thank you once more to Unseenlibrarian, who beta'd this chapter for us all and offered me some insight. I've made a few changes since, so any mistakes are mine.
Please be sure you throw UL some serious lurf in your reviews, as she's doing this for the love of the fandom - for you and me. She deserves mountains of chocolate for her efforts!
CHAPTER ELEVEN: SURVIVOR OF MEMORY
Wednesday, July 9th, 2031 (night)
Across the expanse of a quiet, empty Muggle road, Rose could see a pretty white house with blue trim standing in a large lot on the corner, its lawn vast and green with life. In the full moonlight, she could discern the white picket fence that surrounded it and the well-groomed shrubberies and rosebushes therein. It appeared to be a very nice, little home – charming in size, well maintained by its owner. If the outside was anything to go by, she was guessing that its inside was most likely neat, clean, and warm.
As she crept closer, she noted that there was no light coming through the windows to pierce the indigo veil of night, nor smoke rising from the chimney stack to indicate a presence within. The little house was dark and still.
When she reached the walk before the gate latch, she stopped, a queer sense of foreboding gripping at her chest. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end and goose bumps travelled the length of her arms. Her instincts warned her not to take one step closer.
A smudge appeared on the white front door – a dark patch that looked like… a handprint. It gleamed wetly in the glimmering, silvery light of the moon. For some unfathomable reason, her heart began racing. She clenched her shaking hands tightly, the nails biting into the flesh of her palm.
This was all wrong. This wasn't the real world. She was dreaming again, wasn't she?
A warm body pressed in behind her and comforting arms came around her middle. She knew the person's identity before she could see him, or even hear him speak. There was something very distinctive about Scorpius Malfoy's heat.
His nose pressed into the curve of her neck and he scented her on a deep inhale. "I'm here, baby. Don't be afraid."
"I don't like your dream this time," she whispered, afraid of disturbing the hushed and lifeless environment around them, unsure what monsters might slink from the shadows at the sound of nearby prey. "Take us out of here, Scor. Please!"
He let out a breath and it blew cold against her nape, making her shiver. "I can't. This is something you have to see."
She shook her head and tried to step back, but he held her firm and locked her in place with the solid line of his body. "I don't want to," she stated. Panic caused a heavy, tight pressure in her chest that threatened to choke her breath. "It doesn't feel right. Please, can't you just change the scene into a beach, or… or… your bedroom? Anywhere, but here!"
"Rose, listen to me," he murmured. His tone was gentle, but firm; it reached out to her and captured her undivided attention. "This is your dream this time. This house," he pointed ahead of them, and she looked down the long line of his muscular arm, focusing on the front door, with its grotesque, bloody handprint so clearly visible now, "it's your subconscious representation of your mind. You come here sometimes when I visit you. It's a night terror that you live over and over again." He dropped his arm, wrapping it back around her waist, pulling her in tighter. "The fear you're feeling right now, baby, it's because you're facing the dark things that haunt you, but don't be scared. The Veela and I are here with you. We'll go in together and explain everything to you so this nightmare will stop once and for all, and your house can go back to being happy."
"Did you force me to come here?" she grit between clenched teeth, her terror levels rising as the moonlight above began to dim.
The body behind her shifted, and the Veela's white wings flared outward to either side of her, curling in and around to shelter her. "I did, mate, because this is hurting you. We need to fix this – all three of us together."
His feathers were softer than Occamy plumes. They bent forward and caressed her bare arms with a silken brush that caused things in Rose's core to tighten and enflame against her will. In automatic reaction, her nipples hardened under the Muggle sleeveless top she was wearing, and a dull ache set into the hardened tips of her breasts. Without a bra on, the sensation of the cotton shirt rasping across her flesh was electric. Instant, blazing desire set her heart to pounding. Between her denim-clad thighs, moisture leaked, dampening her satiny knickers. Blood throbbed through her swelling clit and made the muscles of her pussy spasm. She shuddered with surprised yearning. It was suddenly too hot to be dressed in skin-tight jeans, and Scorpius was pressed in too close…
Behind her, her mate sniffed the air, and a dark, masculine growl of feral need left his throat as he caught the perfume of her arousal in his nose. Bending his head, his mouth met the curve of her neck and he bit down with blunted teeth, his grip meant to hold her in place, not mark her. His hand slid over her lower belly and between her legs to cup her sex, pressing upwards with the heel of his palm. The hard length of his jeans-covered cock rode the crack of her backside at that same moment, and pressed into the sway of her spine with a slow thrust.
Rose whimpered, her hips rocking back against him in response without conscious thought.
Rowena's Bane, how was it this man and his beast could make her react this way? They hadn't even given her the First Mark, and yet her sexual and emotional response to them both had been growing incrementally by the day. It seemed impossible to fight, too, as these feelings crept into the corners of her heart and mind, slowly taking her over.
Was she actually starting to love Scorpius and his Veela, or was this part of the magic of Veela mating? Was his ability to conjure and control lust somehow influencing how she felt for them, or were these her own feelings? Honestly, she just didn't know. Rose had thought she loved Corwin before Scor had come back into her life, but that love had been trumped – no, stolen from her by the mating. Her feelings for Cor were now all but nullified; thinking of him made her sad, not warm with longing, as it once had.
God, it was her mother's situation all over again, wasn't it? Hermione Weasley had stopped loving Ron Weasley once Draco Malfoy had reappeared in her life. That loss had devastated her father for a long time. Sure, now they both seemed accepting, but Rose recalled a time when that hadn't been the case, and there had been lingering, resentful silences between her parents that had been palpable to the sensitive teenager she'd been.
Now, though, her dad was happily married to Susan, and her mum genuinely seemed content in her mating. In fact, Rose couldn't remember a time her mother had ever smiled so much.
Or maybe her mother's reaction was nothing more than lust overriding her common sense. The Veela had said his powers were meant to enflame, not ensnare, but it seemed to her that they did both. In the restaurant on the night of their date, that poor woman with the business card had clearly demonstrated that fact. How awful to have your will stolen from you by a false chemical reaction...
...or by the whim of a dream.
"Wait!" she gasped, struggling to regain control of her responses. She pushed against his hand, trying to pry it from between her thighs.
Something was wrong with this whole scenario. For some unfathomable reason her restraint seemed thinner and harder to hold on to than usual. It was this place - had to be. What had Scor said? This was the realm of her subconscious mind? So, did that mean that her discipline was nullified and all of her emotions heightened in such a place? That certainly seemed to be the case.
She gripped the hand that had moved to fondle her heavy, aching breast. "Please, stop!"
Behind her, Malfoy froze. He took several deep breaths, as if trying to calm his instincts, and removed his roaming hands, settling on her waist instead. "You're right. We're not here for this," he replied, his voice that weird conflux of both Scor's and the Veela's. His wings brushed aside, allowing her freedom from their cage, if she wished. "We promised we'd free you from this nightmare, and we will."
He dropped his hold on her, stepping back.
With the temptation gone, Rose's will returned… and with it came the chill of fear again. "I don't want to go in there," she admitted, feeling her courage hanging by a thread.
"We'll be with you," Scorpius and his Veela promised.
She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, pulling it away from her neck. "You're sure we have to?"
The heavy weight of her partner's hand landed on her shoulder, lending its strength and comfort. "Yes."
"Why?"
He stepped up to her side, dropping his hand from her shoulder. "Because we did this to you, Rose. We unintentionally caused this bad dream to take up residence in your mind years ago. It's been festering in your head ever since, growing and spreading as time passed." He turned that silver-mercury gaze on her, and there was the pang of guilt etched into every line of his handsome face. He practically bled regret. "We need to free you from this pain."
She wondered if this had anything to do with what Eleri told her earlier today about her sexual liaison with Scor in seventh year. Was the answer to the gap in her memory from that night right here, before her now? Was that the big, nasty secret?
His hand reached for hers, held between them, waiting for her to take it. She paused and glanced back at the front door, the wet stamp of a bloody hand illuminated against the startling white backdrop. Did she want to know the truth? What if it was worse than what she'd learned from El? What had Scorpius done to her, exactly?
She took a deep breath and let it out nice and slow. There was only one way to find out, wasn't there? Gryffindor she may not have been, but she was the daughter of two of the most famous lions in history. Her mother and father had never backed down in the presence of evil, and if they could do it, so could she. She was going to face down her greatest fear tonight, whatever it was. She was going to beat it to a bloody pulp and put it in its proper place, and then this nightmare would go away forever.
Shaking in her boots, she reached for her partner's hand, gripping it tight. Together, they entered the property through the gate, walked up the lined path to the front door, and entered her haunted self.
X~~~~~X
The inside of the house was a disaster. It looked like fire had ravaged it. Melted furniture, peeled wallpaper, and scorched carpet weren't half the damage. There was also a rather large hole directly in front of them, where a staircase leading to a second floor had once stood. Now, it was a pile of kindling, fallen through the gaping breach.
Well, the metaphors were certainly poetic.
"I'm a mess," she sighed, attempting to ignore the stench of charred wood. "Aren't I?"
Scor squeezed her hand. "You've been trapped for a long time behind some very powerful and destructive fears and anger, Rose."
Shoring up her courage again, she dared to ask the one question that she knew would bring the mountain down around them, so to speak. "Does this have to do with us having sex back in school?"
He jolted in surprise, and Rose could feel the hot weight of his stare upon her. She kept her eyes glued to the black abyss in the middle of the room, hoping nothing came creeping out of there to get them. Who knew what weirdness existed in the dark vaults of her mind.
"You remember?" he asked with some measure of astonishment.
"No, but Eleri told me," she admitted. "I went to see her today. She was… really torn up over you ending your ten-year relationship with her. She loves you, you know. She always has."
Scorpius' Veela growled, and when he spoke, it was only him this time. The deep bass of his voice vibrated through her. "I won't feel guilty for that. You're my mate, Rose. I can't love her, too. There's only room for you in here." With his unoccupied hand, he tapped the spot over his heart.
"Yet, you slept with her anyway."
Another low rumble escaped his throat. "I didn't." He paused, seeming to struggle with his words. When he spoke again, Scorpius was back, sharing their mouth. "Even so, that's the past. It won't happen again. Eleri will come to understand. We're sorry for the pain we've caused her, but we can't undo what's done. All we can do is hope she'll forgive us someday."
Suddenly, his situation with Eleri seemed much too close for Rose's comfort, as it reminded her of her own with Corwin. Her growing love for him, which had been so intense just a few weeks ago, was fading away. She could feel the loss of it in her chest. It wasn't painful, it didn't ache, but it did sadden her, because she knew in the end that she was going to leave Cor as broken-hearted as Eleri had been left… and there was nothing she could do to change that fact. She wasn't sure she'd even want to now, given how her feelings for Scorpius and his Veela had changed over the past few days.
Steadily, by leaps and bounds, the magic of the Veela mating was taking her over. Instinctually, she knew it was only a matter of time before she gave in and accepted it. It seemed there didn't have to be any marking for it to happen either; it only required a mutual desire to mate each other.
And boy, was it mutual desire! Just remembering what they'd done last night, how he'd gone down on her... her insides clenched, causing another spill of hot juices to saturate her knicks.
Scorpius' aroused growl rumbled loudly and with dominant intent again. In a quick move, he turned them both so that she was pressed into the singed jamb of the door. He came in behind her, his big body tight against hers. She could feel his enormous erection, stiff and desperate, lying in the cleft of her bum. His lips hovered over her ear. "We smell your lust, Rose. You're tempting us. Do you want to be fully mated tonight?"
She shivered at the primal, male growl in his voice. "It's this world," she tried to argue, her fingernails digging into the wood as his hands covered hers and his cock slid up and down against her. "Feelings and emotions are stronger here, I think. They're… they're…"
"Wilder," he provided, nipping a path down her neck. "Harder to control."
She nodded. "Please, we have to stop. Otherwise… Oh!" She gasped as his fangs scraped across her pulse point. He didn't break skin, didn't mark, but it was clear from his trembling body what he wanted. Her breath grew heavier as sensation sizzled up and down her spine. "Don't! Please, don't," she frantically whispered, trying to rein in her blooming need. "Not like this. Not here."
Between one breath and the next, the Veela froze. His throat convulsed in a swallow against the curve of her shoulder, and his breathing flowed in hot, ragged pants over her exposed skin. Rose stood on the edge with him, her knees quaking and her mind equally as torn by indecision.
Thankfully, her Veela mate proved stronger than she'd suspected, as his mouth pulled away a moment later. Stepping back, his movements were careful, precise to assure their parts didn't rub together when they shouldn't. His wings remained tucked back to prevent provocative caresses as well.
When he had withdrawn a good distance, Rose was able to curb her body's yearning enough to think again. She pressed her forehead to the cool wood and let out a shuddering sigh. They needed to get out of here fast, as this place was dangerous to their relationship. "Show me what we came here for," she demanded in a voice huskier than intended. "Let's just… get this over with."
"It's this way," he directed, pointing around the hole to a hallway just beyond it, seeming to be in complete control of his faculties once again. He held his hand out for her to take. "The floor's weak in places. I'll guide you."
Mustering her discipline, she wiped her palms on her jeans and took his fingers.
They proceeded towards the back corridor with careful step, he in front, leading the way. Twice, she heard the wood give an ominous creak and paused, shifting her weight around to avoid danger. Malfoy kept a solid hold of her the whole time, and strangely, she felt it was safe to trust him to protect her. Odd, since she'd previously been frightened of giving him as much as an inch over her in any manner.
Things had definitely changed between them over the last few days. Putting her finger on when exactly that had occurred, though, was difficult. Had it been that dream they'd shared in the tent, when he'd taken their physical relationship up a notch, or had it been because of the secrets she'd learned from Eleri regarding this boy-turned-man? Certainly, finding out that she'd once given him her virginity had been a shock. She'd always believed she'd accidentally taken that away with her own fingers during an experimental moment when she was eighteen.
They came to the lone door at the end of the hall and paused.
"You'll see something in here that's… disturbing," her companion warned.
"Well, 'forewarned is forearmed, and knowledge is power'," she quoted one of Rowena Ravenclaw's favourite sayings. "So, spit it out, Scor."
His grin was very white in the dim hall. "I forgot how swotty you can be sometimes," he said, chuckling.
She swiped him on the arm.
He flinched and laughed again. "And violent."
She raised one auburn eyebrow at him. "Shall I show you how violent I can really get now that I'm older and more experienced?"
He waggled his eyebrows at her. "Anytime, baby. You bring the whips and chains, and I'll bring the strawberries and chocolate." He made a sensual licking motion with his tongue, as if he were mimicking lapping between her lower lips.
Rose couldn't stop the burst of laughter that erupted from her belly. "Seriously, get a leash on your lust while we're here, will you? You're driving me spare."
He gave an overly dramatic, suffering sigh and stepped back until he was pressed against the opposite wall, his wings folded behind him to act as a cushion. "Hey, I'm not the one with the naughty subconscious."
The way he lounged should be illegal, she thought. His whole body was well-defined muscle, without an inch of fat, and the bulge in his jeans… Merlin, Morgana, and Circe, the man was pure sex, a living, breathing deity of amour. "Yes, well, I'm sure everyone's subconscious contains some sexual components that are somewhat… compulsory," she commented. "But we all have a higher rationality that tempers it. We're not animals."
He stared at her across the few feet between them, his silver gaze eerily bright in the shadowy passageway. "But some of us aren't entirely human, either, baby. Our compulsions run more towards the beast than the man."
Was he being funny or serious? Rose couldn't tell. One thing was for certain, though: she wasn't going to let him use his cursed lineage as an excuse for their first time. "Which explains rutting me against a wall in the dungeons when we were seventeen and both too uninhibited by alcohol, I suppose?" she dared to ask.
He seemed to consider how best to reply, finally settling on a shrug, refusing to rise to the bait. "We were both hot for each other. You begged for it."
Her good mood instantly evaporated, to be replaced with ire at his nonchalant, arrogant attitude. "I was drunk, Scor."
He smirked. "Not that far gone, baby. You had most of your faculties – at least, enough reasoning to know better."
Had she? Why couldn't she remember? She rubbed at her temple. "Did you Obliviate that night's memory from me? I can't recall any of it after arriving at the party, socializing for a bit, and drinking some of Marcus' bootleg Firewhisky."
His big body shifted, and his gaze dropped to the floor between them. "If you want answers, we're going to have to go through the door together."
"Why?" she asked again, not liking his dodge. "Why can't you just answer the question?"
He pushed off from the wall and stepped towards her, taking her hand. His fingers gently caressed hers. "Look, the two halves of you have to meet. Only then I can act to end this." He brought her hand up to his mouth and kissed the centre of her palm. "Baby, just trust us. Open the door, walk through, and we'll be able to close this chapter of our lives once and for all."
"Will you… come in with me?" she asked. Whatever was waiting for her on the other side of the closed door, she didn't want to face it alone if she didn't have to. Her Ravenclaw core was brave, but that only went so far when facing down your worst nightmare.
"I'll always be at your side, Rose."
Swallowing her fear, she turned to the closed door and reached for the knob. A sense of wrongness about what lay beyond the closed portal tickled the back of her skull, growing incrementally with every inch closer she came to opening it. Still, she pressed on until her fingers grasped the metal handle. It was cold to the touch.
Her breath was visible before her, as the temperature suddenly plummeted around them. She shivered from the chill. Scor was right there behind her, hands rubbing up and down her arms to provide warmth. "Turn the knob, go in," he directed her with a quick kiss to the top of her head. "You can do this."
With a twist and a click, the door was opened. She pushed on through.
X~~~~~X
Rose noticed two things the moment she crossed the threshold: First, the wildness in her emotions was significantly dampened, making her feel much more in control and "normal". Second, someone was crying, loudly. Drawn to the sound, she turned her head and spied the distressed person, lying in the middle of the bare floor, sobbing.
No, wait, that wasn't just some random stranger. It was...her. Rose recognized the plaited, crimson braid as her own from the back, and paused in the doorway for a moment, surprised by the sight.
The 'other Rose' was curled up in a fetal position, so she couldn't see her face, but there was no mistaking that this was a younger version of herself from her school days. Further, this was where the fire had begun that had devastated the rest of the house, she realized from the flaring burn patterns around the body. This was the source of the destruction.
She hurried towards the school-aged version of herself, heedless of the creaking of floorboards under her feet. Bending over, she reached out to touch her younger-self's shoulder. "Are you injured?" she asked.
Her fingers touched down on the light woollen jumper of her old Hogwarts uniform and her doppelganger abruptly stopped crying, going so silent that Rose could hear her own heart pounding in her ears. She knelt down next to this physical manifestation of her pain and tried to get it to turn and face her. The flesh under her hand felt solid.
"He hurt me," the teenaged Rose sobbed. "He hurt me so much. Why does he always hurt me?"
Behind her, she heard a regretful groan escape Scor's lips.
"Why won't he save me?"
A wave of sorrow rolled over Rose's emotions. "Why do you need him to?" she asked her younger self. "Can't you save yourself?"
Her clone unfolded and sat up. From the side, Rose noted that the trail of tears down her cheeks continued to flow, despite her 'other's' lack of sound. Her eyelids were closed tight, but the lashes were beaded with moisture. The glasses she'd worn during that time period of her life were absent.
"Not for this," the young witch replied.
She did a roving check of her status then. Although her hair was back in a braid, it was messy, strands randomly pulled out and sticking up. Her uniform was untidy; the shirttails were un-tucked, the top button was missing, and the tie was unknotted around the collar, its ends trailing down over her breasts. Her skirt was up around her hips… and there was blood smeared between her thighs.
"Scorpius, please don't leave me here!" her school-aged clone pleaded, reaching into the air, as if she could feel him nearby. "It's so dark. I'm scared!"
Her lids opened, and Rose recoiled. The girl had no eyes, just dark holes where the organs should have been.
"Oh, my God," she gasped. "What did you do?"
In a blink, Scorpius was there, kneeling beside her. He took the other girl's hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it. When he spoke, he addressed the Rose of the present, however, not the one from the past. "We're sorry it took us this long to come for you, baby. But we're here now." He and his Veela together reached out and lifted her wrist, bringing the two women's hands into contact, with his clasped around them. "It's time to end this." His Veela's wings stretched out and curved around, creating a soft barrier around the three of them, shutting out the ugliness of this nightmarish world. "Before we act, however, we want to explain some things. First, you should know that we never meant to hurt you, Rose, and we're so sorry that we did. Even though you wanted us that night back in seventh year, you had such regret after. You were crying and you were in pain."
The shadows around him shifted, making his eyes shine like a cat's at night. His hair grew longer, and his wings whiter. Rose recognized the signals now; the Veela was in full possession of the body again. "Your suffering called to me, mate. I awoke early to try to fix the damage and to protect you, but I was too weak, and my Obliviation spell wasn't strong enough. Bits of that night's events remained behind." He looked around at the devastated room, his gaze ending on the dream version of her younger self. "This was the result."
He shifted back between one blink and the next, the shadows lessening around him, his hair not quite as shaggy, the black tips of his wings returning. Scorpius melded with his Veela once more. "We caused this growing fear and anger by stealing a piece of your life away. It manifests as this nightmare that torments you."
"Is that why it's been so hard for me to trust you?" she asked, trying to puzzle it out with him. "Why I always feel so angry when I look at you. Sometimes I want to scratch your eyes out or yell at you for no reason."
He nodded. "It's obvious that you resent what we did to you, and you resent that we've made you wait all these years to have things explained to you, as we promised we would. You also resent us being with other women when we could have come for you instead."
She held up a hand. "Wait, I don't understand. You actually promised to someday give my memories back to me when you took them? So, why didn't you just do that once you reappeared?"
He sighed. "Because we'd hoped that, in time, the nightmare would go away on its own - especially once you let us mate you. Your stubbornness in that endeavour, however, has proven to be... formidable."
Rose bit her bottom lip, feeling that a disturbing answer. She physically withdrew from him, pulling away. "You would have continued to deceive me, you mean. You never would have told me what happened that night if Eleri hadn't said anything."
Fervently, he shook his head. "We decided before coming here to tell you everything tonight. You were suffering because of this," he waved his hand to indicate the dream around them, "and we knew this mating couldn't happen so long as a lie was between us. We were torn in two by what we had done as well."
For an instant, the wings faded out, and Scorpius alone faced her. "The Veela and I... we've been at odds since the night of my twenty-fifth birthday, when he woke up again. He's been angry with me for how casually I treated our first time and how I hurt you because of my thoughtlessness." He slowly reached out to touch her chin, forcing her to lift her eyes to his. "It's no excuse, but I was a stupid, horny kid and so in love with you, and the alcohol dropped all my inhibitions that night. I wasn't considerate to the fact that you'd never done it before, or that you weren't on any type of protection. All I could think about was finally telling you how I felt about you, and having you as I'd fantasized for years." His cheeks were pink with his mortification. "I wasn't gentle, and I caused you to bleed pretty badly. When I finally saw what I'd done, I froze. I didn't know what to do to fix it. The Veela... he had to step in to save us both. He healed you, cast a contraceptive charm on you, and took your memories to protect us all from this fallout. But like he said, that last part had unintended consequences. The very thing he worried would happen - that our one time together would taint our future - came true anyway."
Rose frowned. "Was it seriously that horrible? I mean the sex didn't suck that bad, did it?"
The Veela regained control of Scorpius' body again; the transformation happened in the blink of an eye. He reached out and brushed his knuckles against her cheek. "You both enjoyed it very much while it was happening. But... you never once cried in school, babe - no matter how brutal the fight between you and my boy-o got. I'd watched through his eyes and I'd listened through his ears. I knew you'd fallen down stairs twice, cracked almost every bone in Quidditch, and even once had your potions cauldron blow up in your face. None of that had ever hurt you as much as your regret that night did. It killed me to see your tears."
Something tightened in Rose's chest as she came to a startling revelation. "You said it hurt when a Veela woke-up early. You said it was like choking on fire and blood - pure agony." She pointedly stared him in the eye. "You felt that, didn't you? That's how you knew how to describe it to me."
He dropped his eyes to her lap.
Reaching up, she stroked over his cheek. Like a great cat, he leaned into the touch and rubbed against her palm.
"You suffered for me."
He turned his head and kissed her fingertips. "And you suffered because of us." He sighed. "'Sides, it's not like I laid the foundations of trust when I first appeared, either. I was so angry that you were with someone else after waiting so long to be with you - Scorpius' own wanking cousin, no less - and that you seemed so against our mating. I threatened to take your choices from you because I was desperate and scared. I know I frightened you, babe."
It was quiet between them for a bit, as they both ordered their thoughts.
"Is... is that all?" she asked. "I mean, there isn't anything else you're hiding from me, right?"
The Veela gave her a sad smile. "Nothing else. Promise."
"Then, will you show me that night now?" she asked.
"Will you save me, finally?" her younger self asked a beat later.
Scorpius and his Veela merged one more time into a single being. His wide wings flared around the three of them, creating a cocoon of safety, and he reached for their hands, linking them once more. "We'll share our memories with you, so you can finally know what happened, and stop being tormented over what was lost. Just... please forgive us for what you'll see," he beseeched.
With that, he leaned forward and kissed the school-aged Rose Weasley on the forehead. A flush of warmth ran through the adult Rose, and she felt her younger self's hand melt into hers, as if they were becoming one.
And then, they were.
X~~~~~X
Heart pounding under her ribs, Rose jolted upright in bed with a small cry, and stared with wide-eyed terror into the darkness of her room. Even as she registered that there was no danger about, a small sob escaped her lips. Her trembling fingers covered her mouth to stifle the sound, and tears flooded her eyes.
Scor's memories of what had happened that night in seventh year between them melded with her own, completing the picture and putting an end to her nightmare. Instead of bringing closure, however, they stirred confusion.
Merlin, she'd really done it, hadn't she? She'd seriously given Scorpius Malfoy her virginity back when she'd been in school. He'd been her first, and there was absolutely no doubt that she'd been more than willing for that to happen, alcohol or no alcohol. Cripes, she'd been all over him, moaning and begging for him to give it to her!
Jesus, he'd told her he loved her at the moment he'd come, too! Eleri had said Scor had always felt that way about her, but hearing it from a third party wasn't the same as hearing it directly from the horse's mouth. He really had loved her - ugly glasses, viperish tongue, coltish legs and all.
And the Veela... Founders, how much it must have hurt him to come forward and save them both from their foolishness!
The truth was a hammer blow between her eyes: they'd both been stupid with each other from the very start of their acquaintance - always picking at each other, always hurting each other in an effort to keep each other at arm's length. All they'd accomplished with such viciousness was to draw them magnetically back together over and over again each time one of them opened their mouth - and to cause the hurt to grow.
And she'd been the one to start it all. If only she hadn't slammed the door on his hand on the train their first year... If only she'd said one kind word to him that day instead of letting her family's prejudice taint their relationship... If only she'd recognized sooner that the feelings of disgust she'd harboured and nurtured were really a cover for her attraction to him, her jealousy of the other girls in his life, and her cowardice at not being able to admit that secretly she'd wanted him.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered into the night, wishing he could hear.
"Sorry for what?"
Goose bumps broke out all over her skin, and she froze like a deer in wandlight.
Oh God, Scorpius was here!
"How... how did you get past my wards?" she asked, pulling the covers up a bit to hide the thin tank that she'd worn to bed.
He stepped into a patch of moonlight coming in through the lone window in her flat's bedroom, and was illuminated in the soft, silvery light. Her breath caught in her throat. The feathers of his white wings were like finely spun silk in the glow, and the ethereal, graceful appendages moved as a natural part of him as he turned slightly to keep them from bumping into her dresser. And his hair... Rowena's Blessing, but his hair shimmered a pearl and champagne gloss! The mercury of his eyes gleamed like stars through the curtain of shadow drawn about his face.
"Nothing can keep me from you, my mate," the Veela stated, his boast delivered with an assurance that bordered on arrogance. "Nothing."
He stepped closer, peering down at her from the end of her bed. Gods, he had no shirt on! Every inch of his firm, well-defined torso was showing. And he was wearing really tight jeans that were stretched by the raging bulge under them. Clearly, he was very aroused.
She'd had that once - all of it, even the part hidden behind the denim. And now she had memories of how it felt to be held in those arms, too, as well as to be stroked by those fingers, to be driven nearly insane by that mouth, and to be so completely filled by his...
"Why are you here?" she demanded in a hushed whisper.
He didn't answer right away, merely stared into her soul with hungry, predatory intent across the distance. Rose felt her throat constrict in partial fear, partial anticipation. She'd never been so aware of a man in her life than she was just then, and it made her acutely conscious of her state of near-undress.
Both of them hovered on the edge of a decision that she could feel in the depths of her bones would irrevocably change their relationship. The moment was super-charged, super-heated, and the tension coiled in her belly, fairly crackling the air as sexual awareness passed between them.
"What were you sorry for, Rose?" he asked, that deep voice of his reaching out to caress her with invisible hands.
She shivered, and pulled the covers up to just under her chin. "F-for how horrible I was as a child to Scorpius. I never even gave him a chance that first year, and after that, it was just... just natural for us to keep hating each other. It's all my fault for starting the fighting." She dropped her eyes to the coverlet, ashamed. "If I hadn't, we might have been friends... and more."
The Veela cocked his head to the side in that queer bird-like fashion. He seemed to turn his attention inward, and she wondered if he was speaking to Scorpius about what she'd just confessed.
"None of us are innocent in what happened," he admitted. "But that's the past. As Scorpius said, we can't undo what's done." He let his hands come up and slide down his frame, ghosting over every inch of his torso in a slow, tantalizing glide, stopping at the button of his jeans. "It's the future I'm more interested in anyway. Aren't you?"
Rose was fixated on his fingers, which froze over the clasp at his lower belly and hovered there, seeming to wait for her decision. The bulge under them was huge, but she was betting he wasn't even fully erect, hampered as he was by the fabric of his clothing. The thought had her blushing to the roots of her hair, and causing her body to tighten with growing sexual hunger. The thin knickers she'd worn to bed were already damp from the dream; she could feel them growing more so as the wet heat of her pussy spilled onto the soft, cotton fabric.
She licked her lips, feeling them suddenly very dry. "Please stop using your Veela magic on me."
"I'm not." His sultry voice rasped across her senses as he unsnapped the button. "Your desire for me is all your own." He took a deep breath, and his powerful chest expanded. "I smell it. It calls to me. And all I can think about is spreading your legs, tasting you for real, filling you with this." He lowered the zip, and pushed his jeans off. He was wearing nothing underneath. The hard, heavy length of him was suddenly before her, the broad crest flushed with blood, the foreskin pulled back tight.
Oh God, he was huge! Bigger than any man she'd seen. Had that really been inside her once? No wonder she'd bled so much her first time. He must have split her in two!
"I won't hurt you," he promised, stroking over it once, twice. Pre-come beaded at the tip, glistening. Her throat tightened with the desire to taste it. "I'll go slow."
Rose raised her eyes to his, a flash of terror running through her as she realized what this all meant. "I'm not ready for a baby, yet."
The Veela seemed a bit disappointed at that. "Then we'll cast a charm to prevent it."
"But the Third Mark-" she tried to argue.
"I won't mark you until you're ready," he promised her. "We can just do this tonight."
Her heart skipped a beat. He was willing to compromise? Really?
"Yes, really," he said with a chuckle, moving up along the side of the bed. "I can see your doubt clear across your face, mate." He crawled onto the mattress and up over her body. She laid back the closer he got to her face, until her head hit the pillow. Kneeling above her, his wings expanded wider than the bed, blocking most of the moon's light behind him. His huge cock hung between them, the heavy weight of it straining for her. "I won't give you any of the marks. In return, you give me all of you. Don't hold back." He reached for the covers that she'd white-knuckled up by her throat and slowly pulled them down. "Teach me how to make love to you, my mate."
Her breath coming in heavy pants now, Rose shivered as the cooler air hit her skin. "What about Scorpius?"
"He's already been with you once. It's my turn now," he murmured, stroking over the covered curve of her breast as he continued stripping her of the shield her summer bedding provided. "It's just you and me tonight."
The blankets were lowered to her thighs and dropped.
Rose's hands fell to her sides, and her nails dug into the bed sheet under her, seeking an anchor to the real world. "This isn't the dream world, right? We're really doing this?" she asked. Merlin help her if this was all just a fantasy, because she wasn't sure she wouldn't be a bit resentful come morning, if that were the case. "You'll go slow?"
The Veela pressed a warm hand to the centre of her belly, and a moment later, a pink light bathed her abdomen as the Contraceptive Charm was cast. It tingled through her womb, settling in, assuring she was protected.
"No dream," he promised, leaning his head closer to hers. He licked his lips, angling for her mouth. "I'll be as gentle as you need. I've waited too long for this to rush and ruin it," he whispered. "I've waited too long for you, my beautiful Rose."
When his lips met hers, Rose whimpered in defeat. She'd tried to maintain her independence the best she could given the restraints against her, but the moment she tasted chocolate and strawberries dance across her tongue, she knew she was utterly lost.
Reaching for him, feathering through his soft, platinum hair, she pulled her lover down on top of her, and gave herself to her Veela mate.
TO BE CONTINUED...