"I only ever thought that there were two kinds of loves: the kind that you would kill for, and the kind that you would die for. But you, my darling, you were the kind of love that I would live for." -o.j.k
------------------> "WHAT ARE HORCRUXES?" Rose asked after breakfast the next morning as she looked up from Draco's old fifth-year transfiguration book that she had been reading.
Marvolo paused from where he was signing important documents. "What?"
"Horcruxes," Rose repeated. "Nagini let it slip that the two of us were something called Horcruxes. Is it like a species or something? Perhaps a type of disease?"
Marvolo stayed silent.
"I know you won't lie to me." Rose continued. "I mean, you withhold information or give me half-facts, but I don't think that you have ever lied to me. Please don't start now."
"You'll see me differently," Marvolo admitted. "Your definition of me will surely change."
Rose shrugged. "I don't have a definition of you in my mind, Marvolo. I believe we are defined by nothing. After all, a definition excludes the possibility of change. Now, what does a Horcrux mean exactly? I checked in a few books, but I have had no luck so far and I am too lazy to check the rest. Sometimes, it is better to go directly to the source."
She was right in a way. He wouldn't lie to her about her being a Horcrux. It was better for her to find out about that from him sooner than by someone else (Dumbledore) later.
"Are you sure you want to know about this?" He asked her once again to confirm.
Rose rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't be asking you if I didn't want to."
"Fair enough," Marvolo accepted. "Bluntly speaking, a Horcrux is a way to secure immortality."
Rose raised an eyebrow at that statement, but her eyes were glittering with curiosity- Not the kind of curiosity that he had had when he initially stumbled upon that word, but a genuine curiosity, like one gets when they receive a present and wants to know what's inside.
"Oh," Rose said casually. "How so?"
Marvolo smirked. "Murder."
Rose's eyes widened at his answer. "Murder?"
"Murder," Marvolo repeated. "To create a Horcrux, a wizard first had to deliberately commit murder. This act, said to be the 'most supreme act of evil', would result in the murderer metaphysically damaging their own soul. A wizard who wished to create a Horcrux would then use that damage to their advantage by casting which would rip the damaged portion of the soul and encase it in an object. If the maker was later killed, he or she would continue to exist in a non-corporeal form, although there were methods of regaining a physical body."
"A Horcrux," Marvolo continued in his 'professor' voice. "A Horcrux is the word used for an object in which a person has concealed part of their soul... Well, you split your soul, you see, and hide part of it in an object outside the body. Then, even if one's body is attacked or destroyed, one cannot die, for part of the soul remains earthbound and undamaged."
Rose stared at him with eyes wide and horror in her eyes.
"What if-" Rose stated quietly, clearing her voice. "What if you destroy the vessel containing the soul?"
"Then the person who created the Horcrux will no longer be immortal," Marvolo said simply.
Rose continued to look at him with widened eyes.
"How- How old were you when you made your Horcrux?" Rose asked lowly.
It was obvious that she needn't have asked him if he had made any Horcrux.
"Sixteen." He replied with a smirk. "I was sixteen when I made my first."
Rose's breathing quickened and she had to close her eyes to calm herself down.
"You must have still been in school then." She said slowly.
Marvolo nodded. "I was."
Rose continued staring at him with frowned eyebrows. "You said 'first'."
"I did," Marvolo replied. "Surely you didn't think that I would not have made back-ups to secure my immortality?"
Rose stayed quiet before asking in a small voice. "I am your Horcrux, aren't I? Nagini is another." She repeated the words that Nagini had told her.
Marvolo smiled widely, but this was the first time that Rose felt slightly afraid of it. "Yes."
"So if the people -the others, your enemies- find out that I am your Horcrux, are they going to kill me?" Rose asked softly.
"They can try," Marvolo smirked. "But no, they will not kill you."
"Because they have morals?"
"Because I won't let them." Marvolo corrected. "The great light leader believes in the concept of 'The Greater Good'. If he realises that you are a Horcrux, then he will probably try every single way in which my soul could be removed from you without harming you. Then, once he exhausts all options, he will probably find a way in which you would be minutely harmed, but the Horcrux would be removed."
Rose stayed silent.
"I told you that you would be afraid of me," Marvolo said.
"I-I'm not afraid," Rose said. It was a semi truth. "It's not every day you find out that you have the soul of an evil dark lord."
"Evil? Rose, you flatter me." Marvolo said dryly. "What are you going to do now?"
Rose gave him a weary smile. "It's not like I can do anything about it, can I? I respect your choices -no matter how I personally feel about it- and besides," Rose smirked now. "Now, I can do whatever I want with the confidence that you wouldn't kill me or hurt me."
"Oh joy."
Rose smiled blindingly. "I know, I'm brilliant. Don't worry Marvolo, this little detail doesn't change my opinion on you. I still think of you like a teddy bear. A murderous, slightly scary teddy bear, but a teddy bear nevertheless."
"I am so glad you think so highly of me," Marvolo said sarcastically.
"But you know," Rose mused, twirling a strand of blonde hair. "You are not as evil as people say you are."
"No." Marvolo agreed. "I am much, much worse."
"Not to me, you aren't." Rose smiled. "I'll go and play with Snuffles now. I'll see you at dinner?"
Marvolo nodded.
Rose lightly kissed his cheek before leaving.
Women, Marvolo thought as he got back to his paperwork. He could never understand them.
------> 0o0 <------
"Did he tell you?" Nagini asked as she watched Rose play catch with a dragon.
Rose nodded as she cooed at Snuffles' 'ultimate cuteness'.
"He will protect you," Nagini said. "You are his Horcrux, Rose, whether you like it or not. You are a part of him. He will not let anybody hurt you."
Rose nodded once again as she threw a beach ball that she had put an unbreakable charm on high in the air and watched as Snuffles excitedly flew to get it.
"I know, Nagini. I never doubted that." Rose replied.
"Has your opinion of him changed?" Nagini asked.
Rose shook her head. "No. In fact, my opinion of him has been solidified."
"How so?" Nagini questioned.
Rose shrugged before a soft smile overtook her face. "We are soul mates."
"I know that- you and I do have his soul, you know."
Rose shook her head with a giggle. "Not in the literal sense, Nagini. But I will admit that it is a brilliant pun. What I mean to say is that we are destined to be together."
Nagini looked at Rose weirdly. "I don't think that is what it means..."
Rose shrugged. "You make your interpretation, and I'll make mine."
"You are horribly naive."
"Maybe." Rose shrugged as she threw the ball up once again. "But I am honoured to be guarding his soul."
------> 0o0 <------
"You are taking all of this pretty well," Nagini said pointedly, soon after dinner, in Rose's room. "Most people would have reacted differently."
"I'm not most people, Nagini," Rose stated. "My morals are extremely questionable, but the difference between me and everybody else is that I- I like him. Like, 'like him' like him." Rose confessed quietly.
"Rose, sweetie," Nagini began. "Your morals may be extremely questionable, but that does not change the fact that he is the Dark Lord. He has killed many people before, and he will continue to do so. And you-you're Rose, a bundle of smiles with a touch of insanity. But nobody blames you for the latter, it is after all, hereditary from what I have seen in the Blacks."
"I know that, Nagini," Rose said, a determined and slightly mad glint in her eyes. "I- I love him, Nagini. We are soul mates- destined, fated to be together. I'm insane, I'm delusional and yes, I am horribly naive for thinking so. But Nagini, I really, really like him and that is all I know. And I accept him, Nagini. I wouldn't change a thing about him. I fell in love -stupidly in love, again very questionable mind and morals- but I fell for him, Nagini. I fell for his mass-murdering, sociopathic, stubborn, crazy, ambitious, lovely, determined, possessive, perfect, perfect self.
"And I- I won't have him without the darkness that lies within him, for it is a part of him. And I won't let him have me without the madness that makes me; because if our demons cannot dance, then neither can we." Rose finished with a small smile before biting her lips slightly, a nervous habit.
'Oh Rose.' Nagini thought sadly as she looked at the blonde beauty smiling softly. 'I know you love him, and I also know that he loves you back, no matter how much he denies it. The only difference being is that you have not only realised it but have also accepted it. He loves you despite the burden of Atlas resting on your shoulders and you love him despite death clinging to his lips and blood drying at its corners. What a pair you both make!' Nagini thought.
'I need you to teach him how to love. He believes he is incapable of such an emotion. I need you to make him understand otherwise. You both need each other, for better or for worse. As you said, you are both soul mates. And I will make sure you get together- even if I have to force and lock you both in a room together in order to do so.' Nagini mused in her mind. 'But how? Oh yes. That will work quite well, I believe. Playing with your goodness never gets you anywhere. We need to play with your flaws... I'm sorry Rose, Master; but I will make sure you both be happy- truly happy. I will make sure that you accept your love for each other.' Nagini -if snakes could do so- smirked deviously.
DISCLAIMER: Information about the Horcruxes are copy-pasted from Harry Potter Wiki; and the second last thought that Nagini has (he loves you despite... drying at its corners) is based on a poem that I read somewhere, there was no poet mentioned.
Also, Rose's speech about (I won't have him... neither are we) is a wonderful poem by Nikita Gill with the pronouns and a few words changed.