| Puffskein
Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Canada
Posts: 2,438
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Chapter 15
The Return
The train picked us up at King’s Cross Station January 3rd. I didn’t see Harry when I got on the train, which made things a bit easier for the moment because I had to talk to him about what we could do about us. I got a compartment with Aurelia and we talked, ate, and read for half of the train ride.
“I’m going to change,” I said suddenly, putting my book down. I got up and grabbed my robes from beside me and left the compartment before Aurelia could say a thing. I shut the door behind me and started to head down the corridors, passing the various compartment doors. A couple of them were half open, but I didn’t really pay attention, I just found it odd.
“Hey, Rosa!”
I looked over my shoulder and stopped, noticing the corridor was empty, leaving me alone with Harry.
“Hey.”
He came up to me and pulled me into a hug. I didn’t realize how much I needed a hug until now; I wrapped my arms around him tightly and held onto him until he pulled away.
“How were the holidays for you?”
“Interesting...” I responded, reflecting on the Christmas dinner I had at the Malfoys’. “How about you? Better, I hope.”
“It can’t have been that bad,” he said lightly, giving me an encouraging smile I didn’t really deserve. “And my holidays went rather well. I spent the entire time at The Burrow.”
I raised an eyebrow; he stayed with... gophers?
“Ron’s place by Ottery St. Catchpole.”
“Ah.” I nodded.
“You stayed with your mum?”
“Yeah, except I did have a dinner with her ‘friends’.”
“Oh yeah, you wrote about that before going, but I didn’t hear about what happened.”
“What do you mean? Nothing bad happened.”
“I never said anything bad happened.” He looked at me with mild suspicion in his green eyes.
He finally caught me in a lie. It only took him 4 months to catch one. A small one at that.
“It’s a long story, I can tell you later. It ended with getting Draco grounded by his mother, though.”
Harry’s expression brightened. “You did that? Really?”
“Yep,” I responded, smiling back. “I’m the greatest.”
“That you are.” He bent his head down to kiss me.
I wrapped my arms more around his neck and kissed him back. Yes, I was the greatest... but I still had to work out a story that didn’t involve the words ‘impending marriage’, ‘fiancée’, or ‘diamond ring’.
When I heard a compartment door slide open, I pulled away from Harry and out of his arms. “I need to change.” I held up the robes I was still gripping in my right hand.
“Right.”
“I’ll see you later.” I turned around and started to walk away, heading for the loo. After using it and changing, I exited and found the trolley witch going to every compartment, selling the sweets. I bought a chocolate frog, a crackling cookie and a bagful of gummy skrewts. I made it back to my compartment with my handful of candy and opened the door.
“Skrewts?” I asked, holding the back out.
Aurelia cringed away, but realized I meant the candies and did end up taking a few from my baggy and eating them before they could singe her with their tail. I sat down on the seat across from her and ate the skrewts before going on to my crackling cookie. I broke it and it made an explosion noise and small fireworks. When the smoke cleared, I took out the little roll of paper and read the little ‘fortune’.
Change is happening in your life, so go with the flow!
I scoffed and crumpled up the paper, throwing the tiny ball onto the ground. I then ate the cookie. As I was opened my chocolate frog, the compartment door slid open. Aurelia and I looked towards the sliding door; when I realized it was just Goyle, I turned my attention back to the chocolate frog container I was struggling to open.
“Hey. Can I sit here?”
“Sure,” Aurelia responded, readjusting how she was sitting so she could fit another person next to her. Goyle took that seat and, within moments, were cuddled together as any couple would. It made me want to gag.
I threw the chocolate frog container onto the ground, frustrated.
“Do you want a chocolate frog?” I asked, looking at Goyle.
“Sure,” he responded.
I picked it up and tossed it to him. He managed to catch it with one hand and open it in seconds. I scowled.
“Malfoy’s looking for you,” Goyle said as he looked at the card inside the container top.
“When is he not?” I snapped, scowling and turning away.
“He said it was very important.”
“He considers ‘where is my hair gel?’ very important – be more specific,” I responded pointedly.
“He mentioned Christmas.”
“Dear Merlin,” I breathed. I figured he would have something to say about that, be it to my face or to everyone else.
“What happened exactly?” Goyle asked, mid-chew on the chocolate frog. I waited for him to swallow before responding.
“He was being rude. He forced himself onto me. He tried to take my wand.”
I just found my story for Harry!
“Well, according to him...” Goyle took a bite into his chocolate frog and continued, sputtering the occasional piece of chocolate as he spoke. “You took forever in the bathroom and he had to use it. You started calling him an arrogant prick and threw books at him. To protect himself and anything breakable in the room he tried to take your wand and when his mother came around, you managed to convince her he forced himself onto you and you were defending yourself, resulting in the most boring holidays away from Hogwarts ever.”
I laughed scathingly. “So like him to twist a story like that.”
Aurelia rolled her eyes.
“What?” I demanded, narrowing my eyes on her.
“It’s just amazing, really, how everything is always his fault to you, but when you ask him it’s entirely your fault. You’re two of a kind.”
“Never compare me and Draco,” I growled.
“Well it’s true. ‘he forced himself on me’, ‘she threw books at me’. Where is ‘he forced himself onto me because I threw books’? Are you ever at fault?”
“It wasn’t because of the books!” I snapped. I looked away, towards the door, and mumbled, “I don’t know why.”
“What?”
I ignored Aurelia and grabbed my book and continued reading. She gave up and turned her attention to Goyle once he finished devouring the chocolate frog, alternating between talking and kissing. I grew too irritated of them acting so happy that I got up and left with my book. I stepped out into the hall and to one side so it looked like I had somewhere to go, but I really had no idea where to go. I could join Harry and suffer in the company of the Weasley and Granger girl, I could scope out Draco for what would turn into another fight...
I didn’t have much of an idea as to where she was, so I started to go further down the train, opening every compartment and asking if anyone knew where Daphne Greengrass was. It took 3 tries to get a response that turned out to be right. I followed Millicent’s instructions to the compartment door before the door leading to the next cabin of the Express. I slid it open.
“Can I join?” I asked, poking my head in.
The first person I saw sitting next to Daphne was her boyfriend, Shane Wilkes. I scanned the rest of the compartment and was horror-struck, despite managing to completely cover it up, when I saw Draco and Crabbe sitting across from them.
“Sure.” Daphne smiled at me.
I avoided Draco’s eyes as I slid the compartment door further open and shut it behind me. I took the seat on the other side of Daphne. Crossing my legs to get more comfortable, I opened my book again and continued reading. I went through one chapter without being bothered by that feeling of someone watching me.
“Problem, Draco?” I asked. I licked the tip of my finger and flipped a page.
“No.”
“You should have your eyes checked out.”
“Why?” he sounded legitimately baffled. I never thought I’d live to... hear the day.
“Because they seem to be glued to one spot.” I looked up at him, smiling mockingly.
“Ha, ha.” He responded, his tone just as sarcastic as my smile looked. Even when I met his eyes he still didn’t look away. “How were the rest of your holidays? Did you get to go out?” he spat the last two words.
I smirked. “I spent 4 days in France as a matter of fact. Did you do anything... whacky?”
“Oh, you know,” was all he responded.
“Well I don’t.” Daphne looked up from her hand, which was entwined and playing with Shane’s. “What did you do?”
Draco turned to her with a smirk and responded, “Not much, really. I did visit a few friends of my family’s, but after Christmas...” he turned to glare at me.
“I didn’t do a thing.”
“Well there isn’t a lot to do on holidays,” Daphne pointed out.
“But you had the option to go out of the house and mail with people,” Draco snapped irritably. Daphne’s eyebrows scrunched together, surprised at the sudden change in tone. He turned his eyes to me, glaring. “I was in solitary confinement until today thanks to you.”
“Me?” I exclaimed innocently. “What did I do to you to cause you such emotional trauma?”
His eyes became colder, more mocking.
“It grows fuzzy after ‘that’s no way to treat your...’”
“Ah, that,” I cut in before he could say that dreadful word. “If you expect me to apologize... well, you must really live in your own little world.”
I saw the tendons in his hands flex and twitch beneath his skin as his they curled into fists.
“Ok...” Daphne chuckled warily and turned her attention back to Shane.
I turned my attention back to my book. As I flipped the page again a minute later, while still reading I said, “You probably should change into robes, Draco.”
“Come on, Crabbe, we should change,” he said, his calm voice shaking rather angrily. He got up and yanked his robes from the shelf above. He stormed out, Crabbe following in his wake with his robes in his hands, slamming the compartment door behind him so much it shuttered.
“What’s his problem?” Daphne sighed as his stomping footsteps.
“When does he not have a problem?” I responded simply, the flip of my page making a rustling noise.
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Last edited by MalfoyzBeloved; 09-28-2010 at 10:16 PM.
Reason: deleting un-story-related comment
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