Recap: Rose just found out that Hugo was gay
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Hugo continued to stare at me, unmoving. I could barely even see him breathing.
"Hugo?" I asked worriedly, waving my hand in front of his eyes.
He blinked rapidly a few times and then seemed to see me again.
"Hugo?" I repeated.
After a few moments, he demanded, "How did you find out?"
"I...I just guessed..."
Seeming not to believe me, he muttered, "I knew Scorpius would tell you-"
"-Tell me what? He's barely spoken to me since you two had your little 'guy talk'," I said, butting in.
Sighing, Hugo met my eyes. "What I'm about to tell you, you can't tell anyone."
I nodded, feeling intrigued.
"You're right," he said slowly, "I am gay - or at least I think I am."
Instantly, a million questions sprang to mind. How long had he known? Did he have his eye on anyone? Or had he already been in a relationship? Who else knew?
Knowing from my expression that I was about to launch into an interrogation, Hugo swiftly continued talking; answering the questions he guessed I was going to ask.
"I wouldn't know really because I haven't had a relationship with a guy yet...but I've never really been attracted to girls. James tried to set me up with Jenny once, but I just couldn't talk to her," he explained.
"That could just be nerves," I murmured, thinking about how Scorpius had previously shown his affection for me. Everyone was different - while he had used tricks and pranks, Teddy had used friendship on Victoire.
He shook his head insistently. "No, I looked at her and she was just a girl. She wasn't beautiful to me. She wasn't special and I saw her as a person, nothing more. There wasn't anything that drew me to her. But...I don't know how to explain it...when I look at a guy, I don't know, I just feel more me. Does that make sense?"
"I guess..."
"I can't explain it right," he angrily exclaimed, standing up and kicking at the post of his bed.
"You don't have to. You don't have to explain a single part of yourself, Hugh, it's who you are," I said gently, taking his hand and pulling him back down onto his bed.
His fingers squeezed mine and he gave me a wry grin.
"Anyway, when Scorpius went after me the other night...he said that he'd heard some rumors and it kind of all just came out. I'd never told anyone, and it was killing me - trying to hide who I was and pretending to be someone else. I should have guessed that you'd be supportive - after all, nobody wants to accept you and Scorpius, just like no-one will accept me after they find out," he told me glumly.
"You don't know that," I mumbled, pulling him into a hug. I stared at the wall, trying to find something else to say. I was way out of my depth. Everyone knew that although I was kind, I wasn't really that supportive. If you wanted support, you went to Victoire or Lily. They were the advice givers in the family. "And I'll always stand by you; I'm your sister, dummy."
"Great," he muttered sarcastically. "Now I feel awful about almost outing you and Scorpius to Mum and Dad."
"I wouldn't worry about it. Mum knows," I tried to say.
"I was just jealous-"
"-Of me?"
He nodded. "You've got to understand. I was miserable. I've never had anyone fancy me-"
"-That's not true," I objected. "What about Nancy Redmond? She's loved you since you were four."
"Be serious. Nobody has ever expressed any interest in me and I was lonely. And then I saw you and everywhere you went, you were happy - practically buzzing - and it was because of him. And I wanted that. I wanted someone who could make me feel that way, I still do."
I breathed a sigh of relief. My brother didn't fancy my boyfriend. For a moment, I'd been horrified that that was what he was going to say. Anyone could understand why he'd been so horrid for the past two months. While Roxanne was perpetually in a relationship, the rest of us usually relied on each other for company.
"Well, we can fix that," I hesitantly replied, unsure how he would react. "I can be match-maker!"
"Merlin, no! There is no way I'm coming out! James and Fred won't stop mocking me. They're always going on about me never having had a girlfriend. You have to promise you won't tell anyone!"
"My lips are sealed."
"How do I know that Dominique won't get it out of you?" he asked, eyebrows raised. I was sure that somehow he knew of Dom's interrogation techniques. Perhaps her hitting us with pillows was louder than we thought. Or maybe the boys did just listen at the door.
"What do you want me to do? Swear the Unbreakable Vow?" I joked.
For a moment, it looked like he was considering it seriously.
"No, I'll just take your word for it."
"Look, I promise I won't tell anyone. I know what it's like to have a secret," I said pointedly.
He nodded.
"Thanks for being the best big sister," Hugh mumbled, turning pink and looking embarrassed to be caught saying such a thing.
Rolling my eyes, I brought him into another hug.
"No problem. Just remember I do occasionally shut up talking long enough to listen, yeah?"
He laughed.
"I'm sure it must be silent in the Common Room without you!"
Elbowing him, I stood up and walked to the door.
"Coming down? I think Fred was going to try to hit Filch with a dungbomb-"
"-Again?"
I nodded. He'd managed it at least once every year as Filch patrolled along the corridors on late nights.
"Nah. I think I'll just sit and read-"
"-The rest of us are playing poker...with the exploding snap cards and sherbet lemons, of course..."
"I'm there!"
Laughing, Hugo and I left his dorm only to find the entire Common Room watching the portrait hole with baited breath.
"Fred already gone?" I asked James.
He nodded, not tearing his eyes from the back of the Fat Lady's portrait. Suddenly it swung open and Fred tore through the room, wheezing and sweaty, his face blotchy and red.
"And the record is unbroken!" James declared, grabbing Fred's wrist and pulling it up into the air. "Fred Weasley has now, Ladies and Gents, managed to hit Filch with a dungbomb ten times and not get caught! What an achievement!"
"Close one, that one," Fred panted as the second year boys crowded around him, obviously impressed and seeking tips.
"Alright, everyone, back to the poker game!" James called.
He, Al, Fred and Louis all sat down immediately. Dom wasn't slow to join them, but Lily and Roxie looked doubtfully at the piles of cards.
"No pulling out," James told them, picking up his cards and grinning ecstatically.
Clearly he knew nothing about poker faces.
Lily and Roxie, playing as a team, smirked at one another and sat down as Hugh and I joined them. A few of the First Years looked on in fascination - too young to understand the rules and play. But some of the older ones had either already played or were waiting for the next game to start.
Fred began, taking a handful of sherbet lemons and placing them as his bet in the center of our circle.
I picked up my own pile of cards and surveyed the black and red cards. A few moments later, I picked out four sherbet lemons and placed them in the center.
Around the circle, play passed until there were more than twenty four sherbets in the center of our circle.
Just before Fred could lay down his cards one of them exploded. He swore and exclaimed, "And I had two kings, as well!"
James snickered and laid down his cards before anything could happen to them. "Three of a kind," he told us, obviously pleased with himself.
Dom grumbled as laid down her single pair.
Lily and Dom were surprised as Roxie threw down their straight.
"Take that brother!" Lily said to James.
"Hugh?" I asked.
He put down his two jacks and two fours quietly, leaving Al and Louis to put their hands down. Neither of them though could beat Lily or Roxanne.
"Well, what have you got Rose?" James asked, already scooting the pile of sweets towards Lily and Roxie.
"Oh, just a four of a kind," I answered nonchalantly.
"What?" Lily demanded.
"No!" Roxanne half-shouted.
"Rose wins," James announced, pushing the sweets across the floor to me.
"Looks like she got all her mum's genes then," Fred hissed to James.
"Yeah, now we know why Hugo's so useless with the girls - he's stuck with Uncle Ron's genes," James replied with a snort.
"Oi!" Hugo shouted angrily, standing over them.
"What are you going to do? Drown us in your tears?" Fred quipped, nudging James as they both fell about laughing.
Hugo stormed upstairs again.
"Well done," Lily muttered, looking darkly at my two insensitive cousins.
"Yeah, I just spent half an hour talking him round and you guys set him off again. Why can't you just leave him alone?"
They shrugged.
Done speaking and scowling, I too stormed off, heading to my own dormitory. Dom and Lucy followed (though where Lucy had ever been sitting, I didn't know. Of course, she and Molly hadn't played poker with us - Uncle Percy would kill them if he ever found out about it) with the rest of the girls behind them, and then Al and Louis drawing up the rear.
"Merlin, James and Fred are such idiots," Roxie muttered, as she and Lily decided to join the rest of us in my dorm. Unfortunately Al and Louis were forced to stand in the doorway to be able to talk with us.
"Hugh has been a bit touchy this week though, don't you think?" Dom asked.
Molly nodded while I tried to appear busy.
"Hey, Rose, weren't you talking to him earlier?"
"Yeah..."
It was barely an hour since I'd promised not to tell anyone that Hugo was gay and I was already being tested.
"So?" Dom asked.
"So what?"
She looked incredulously at Roxie, who stared back at her, looking just as surprised at my apparent lack of comprehension.
"What did you talk about?" she prompted.
"Oh, just...stuff," I replied, opening my bag and taking out the books inside it.
"Stuff?" Al echoed. "Merlin's pants, you're as bad as Hugo himself!"
"Don't forget about Scorpius too," Roxie added.
"It was just, you know, about Mother's Day."
"Right-," Lily said, though it was obvious she didn't believe me.
"Well, I think we'd better get to bed," I told them.
Al agreed and they disappeared, leaving just me and Lucy with a sleeping Tracy.
When I woke the next morning with the sun streaming through the window, I had a brief moment of panic. I couldn't breathe. Try as I might, my nose was too blocked. Realization soon dawned on me though, and I groaned, cursing Scorpius for giving me his cold.
I hated having colds, so there and then, I decided I couldn't be bothered to get up for lessons and just returned to sleep, only to be shaken awake twenty minutes later by Dom.
"Rose, you've got Arithmancy in fifteen minutes!"
"So?" I asked, yawning and trying to keep my eyes open long enough to gain a clear picture of her.
"Now I know there's definitely something wrong, you love Arithmancy," she muttered, more to herself than to me.
Huffing, I rolled over and declared, "I'm not going to lessons 'cause I've got a cold."
"Right...I'll let Professor Vector know then," she mumbled, leaving as I drifted back off.
When I next woke up, my stomach was rumbling. Hungry, I could only think about the food I had missed at breakfast. Pastries, cereal, toast, muffins, bacon, sausage, tea and coffee, pumpkin juice and everything else the house elves cooked up.
My stomach grumbled another complaint as someone said, "Looks like I arrived just in time," scaring the life out of me. In a second my wand was in my hand, pointing towards the door and I was shouting Expelliarmus, purely on reflex.
"Hey, it's only me," Scorpius protested, bending over to pick up the bag he had been forced to drop when my spell had hit him.
"Sorry. Instinct."
He nodded and dived onto the bed, crushing my feet.
"Ow, get up, ow, ouch, move," I told him as he rolled and shifted around, until he'd pretty much squashed all of me.
Finally, he was lying beside me, lounging back against my pillows with his hands tucked behind his head.
"Morning, Rose," he said brightly.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, unable to cope with any and all enthusiasm.
"Coming to see my beautiful girlfriend, of course. A little birdie told me she wasn't feeling well-"
"-Dom," I cursed.
-"So I've brought some supplies."
"Not wasabi peas! I don't care how much you pay me, I'm not eating them," I told him stubbornly.
Rolling his eyes, he replied, "I'm not going to make you eat wasabi peas. Of course, it might help if you did..."
I shot him a glare.
"...I had them and look how well I am..." he muttered, trailing off as he caught sight of my 'not amused' facial expression. Clearing his throat, he continued, "So anyway, I've got soup and chocolate and ice cream, and some cold medicine."
Cheering up slightly, I sat up straight and placed a kiss on his cheek.
"Whoa watch it I just got over a cold!" He laughed and opened the canister of soup he'd pulled from his bag.
"Drink up and then I'll give you the medicine," he instructed.
I took it from him and sniffed at it, smiling with relief as I realized it was just tomato soup. I don't know how Scorpius knew that it was my favorite, but I was grateful he did.
Once the soup was gone, Scorpius handed me a bottle so old that its label had long ago fallen off. Trusting him more, I poured some into a spoon without hesitation and swallowed it down, grimacing slightly at its rubbery texture.
"And now that you've done the horrible part, you get the treat," Scorpius told me gleefully, breaking out the tub of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream and a spoon.
"Chocolate Fudge Brownie. Nice Choice."
He grinned and handed me the spoon, offering me the tub.
"I could really do with a movie right about now," I sighed.
Scorpius held up a finger and pulled from his bag what looked like a Muggle iPod though it had clearly been tampered with.
I looked at him in confusion.
"I bought it from someone who fixed it to run on magic so it still works in Hogwarts," he explained.
"Please tell me it wasn't my grandfather."
"No, it wasn't Mr Weasley," he laughed, using his finger to scroll down the screen. "So what do you fancy...... Avengers, Immortals, Despicable Me, Mall cop, The Fockers, Ted, Frozen or Tangled?"
"Those are your films?" I asked, smirking.
"Well...I edited out the ones I didn't think you'd want to see..."
"Right, so you actually have more films?"
"Yeah, the rest is all manly films," he assured me.
"Manly films like..."
"Don't question it, rose" be said
"-Right, I get the picture. You don't have that many girly films," I interrupted, stopping him from listing a whole lot of films I would probably never watch.
"So what do you want to watch?"
"Frozen?" I suggested, lying back down.
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A/N: So there you have it. Hugo's secret is out...well, kind of.