A/N Hello! I am going to try and make Mondays my upload day, but as you saw last week it's not that easy to remember... I'll try my best
The party was in fuller swing than Rose remembered it being in when she left just over one hour ago. Perhaps more people had arrived, or more like it, people had had more to drink. Rose looked around for her cousin, and quickly spotting him talking to some old man beside the dance floor. She quickly strode over to him- not caring who the man he was talking to was- she needed to talk to him.
"I'm terribly sorry Sir" a smile was plastered over Rose's face as she rested an arm on Albus' shoulder and nodded kindly to the old man she had just rudely- and she knew it was rude- interrupted, "but I am going to have to be awfully rude and say that I need to talk to Albus for a while, is that alright?" Rose flashed a kinder smile than the fake one she had plastered over her face.
"Of course" the old man nodded "We were just finishing up" Rose flashed the kind smile once again to the old man, and led Albus away, out of the white party tent and over to the low swing she had been sitting on earlier, of course it was deserted, it was much colder outside the tent now it was much later, but it didn't matter to Rose. She turned to Albus, who had a stern frown sitting unkindly on his face.
"Where on earth have you been Rose? We were looking all over for you!" Albus snapped, sounds like Mum Rose though, and then quickly dismissed the thought, she was talking to Albus now, no need to act so harsh- Malfoy's gone.
"Well you didn't look very hard, Lily walked straight past me!" Rose laughed, flicking her red hair over her shoulder "Besides, I had some vermin to be rid of"
"Oh Merlin, you bumped into Scorpius didn't you?" Albus raised a hand to his forehead, rubbing his glabella "I knew this would happen, I should have said so sooner, or I should have told Mum not to invite him- oh I couldn't do that could I?" Albus shook his head and returned his eyes to Rose's "Rose he's fine, I had my training with him, he's changed, he wants what's best for the world, the same as I do, Rose tell me you didn't kill him?"
"Of course not!" Rose laughed "What makes you think I would do such a thing?"
"Well the way you said it..." Albus mumbled under Rose's explanation
"No, Albus, I told him to leave, and he did. He doesn't deserve to be here, I don't want him here- and I don't doubt many other people do either" Rose crossed her arms "He needed to leave, he was doing my head in"
"You spoke to him?" Albus asked
"Well, he came and found me, when you got dragged away after we went and got food" Rose sighed "I didn't know he was here until then, and to be honest I would have preferred to keep it that way, but oh well, he's gone now and he's not going to annoy me again. How you treat and talk to him at your work is up to you and him, but I never want to see him again, he should have known that three years ago"
"He told me you know" Albus said, quietly. He wanted Rose to hear it, but he didn't particularly want to say it.
"He told you what?" Rose asked sternly and in surprise, her face dropping, they hardly ever kept things from each other, and the only thing Rose could think of was her meeting with him at Christmas. No she shook her head, but she looked almost motionless he wouldn't have said that, would he? And of course there was the being friends with him thing. And the dating him thing.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Albus asked, he sounded almost hurt, but Rose shook her head, she still had no idea what he was talking about "he said you had the look of love in your eyes"
"What on earth are you talking about Albus?" Rose demanded, a stern look dominating her face.
"You met up with him at Christmas" Albus said quietly.
"I didn't meet up with him. I saw him in Flourish and Blotts, and that's all" Rose tightened her crossed arms, as if that would do anything much.
"No, you went for coffee with him, you met up with him!" Albus was almost laughing "Why didn't you tell me Rose? I thought we told each other everything!"
"We do!" Rose breathed, her voice had gone from stern to upset, she didn't want to have this sort of conversation with him, he was her best friend as well as her cousin, and she didn't want to argue with him "I just... I didn't want to tell you that because, well I didn't want to remember it. I forgot it as soon as it happened, or I tried to. You didn't need to know Al, I didn't go for coffee with him, and it wasn't like that"
"Well what happened then?" Now it was Albus' turn to be the stern one, this wasn't like them, they had never used stern voices towards each other before now, and they were starting to sound like they were the others' parents
"It was a week before Christmas, and I was in Diagon Alley, I can't quite remember what for now, but I was. I was freezing so I went into Flourish and Blotts. I didn't recognise him, it had been three years since I had seen him, he's changed a lot, and I guess by the way he acted so had I. We talked for about a minute, and then I left, because I felt weird. He followed me out and then caught me when I slipped on the ice. He offered to buy me a drink- I was freezing and I still didn't know who he was, but he seemed nice enough, so I accepted. He brought me a drink and we sat in the cafe in more or less silence. After we had finished our drinks, he mentioned that he didn't even know my name, and I his. I introduced myself and I saw his face drop for merely a second, before he introduced himself. Of course he seemed happier to see me than I him, and I left. I was ashamed with myself with not noticing it was him, but he had just changed so much. I forgot it as soon as possible, and I didn't tell anyone" Rose explained. She sighed and looked back to the party tent, but she didn't move.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Albus asked calmly. Rose suddenly got angry, why did she have to explain herself to him? But she didn't yell, she took a deep breath before speaking again.
"I didn't tell anyone. I didn't want to remember it, I forgot it as soon as I could. I didn't say anything because I didn't want to remember it, and by the time I had forgotten it, I had obviously forgotten to tell you too" Rose sighed "I wanted him out of my life the very second we left Hogwarts, and it had stayed that way for three years. I was optimistic I would never see him, so I convinced myself that I wouldn't. Perhaps that is why I didn't realise it was him, that and the changing thing. But I hate him so much, and he should stay away from me"
"Why do you hate him so much?" Albus asked, realising, for the first time, he was never given any real reason as to why she hated him. She just always had done. Perhaps it was the constant arguments, the frequent duels, but there had to be something that started them, a reason that the two argued endlessly, a meaning behind it all.
"You hate him too, or you used to" Rose looked to the floor, and didn't raise her head once.
"Only because you did. He couldn't have changed that much in three years, he had to have been somewhat decent during our time at Hogwarts, I understand the first couple of years, your father- and his- did that to you. But you matured, came to your senses, your parents' hate for each other could not be the reason for your constant bickering and duelling. Rose, please, why do you hate him so much?" Albus pleaded, there was hurt in voice and Rose couldn't stand it any more. She had hidden it from him for seven years. She raised her head and looked him dead in the eye before she spoke.
"Because I loved him"
A/N Aha, I'm feeling pretty evil. Terribly sorry! You're going to have to wait a week until the next one though! ;)
Anyyywaaaay! This chapter is about a thousand more words than the last one, and I'm not exaggerating, so you should be somewhat happy, but I'll let you off because of the cliffhanger, again, sorry (not sorry- I see why authors do this now, it is a lot of fun!) Please vote and comment, and I'll see you next week!
-Elise x
Also, since I have now posted all the covers that were sent in for the competition (WELL DONE AND THAT YOU TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED) I thought I would share with you the cover that I made. When I posted the competition I thought that I wasn't going to get any entries, so I made my own cover- which you can see attached. I was so surprised that FOUR people chose to send in the covers that they made for me, and they are all so wonderful! Thank you so so much!