From Rose Weasley with Love

Chapter One- Of Holidays and Announcements

"Could we have your attention, please?"

It was Christmas dinner. Victoire Weasley stood up looking eager, her auburn hair floating over her head, her eyes dancing merrily around the over-crowded room, her skin complexion glittering limpid against the dark curtains that enfolded so lovingly the windows, her aristocratic cheekbones sprinkled with dusty-like freckles-

I hated Victoire Weasley. One word. In fact, I hated her with more burning passion than anyone else in my family (and by family I also mean my rather retarded brother and the brats James and Albus Potter; you get the picture.) And as hard as it may be for you to believe, the first thing that I did when I turned seventeen was hex a moustache onto that tacky billboard of Victoire that hovered over poor, unsuspicious London. All right, that was not the very first thing that I did when I turned seventeen, since I was not in London that day, but when I did go to London (which happened to be two days ago actually), that was the only way to celebrate the most important day of my life. A very constructive one, let me tell you.

So where was I? Ah, yes, I was telling you about the incredibly hot pest, otherwise known as Victoire, that was now staring boldly at the dining room and everything in it included. Needless to say, she had everyone's attention focused on her (as always.)

"Teddy and I would like to make an announcement - a very important one if you may..." she trailed off, and nodded over to her boyfriend, who stood silently up.

If you think that hating Victoire was already bad enough, then hatred would be an understatement as far as her relationship with Teddy Lupin was concerned. Mere words would not suffice to describe my feelings about them being a couple, for I had the permanent impression that the redheaded beauty had him under the Imperius Curse. He did whatever she wanted him to do, ordered him to do. He was always at her beck and call. Honestly, she treated him worse than my father could have possibly treated Kreacher, had it not been for my mother's generosity (or madness if you prefer.)

And it was literally and figuratively driving me crazy.

"Are you getting married?" a voice from the crowd spoke.

It was Fleur Delacour-Weasley's. And at the time I was not sure whether it was her voice or ludicrous French accent that brought me back from my trance.

I lifted my eyes and looked over to Victoire. Her jaw had dropped to the floor and her eyes were currently threatening to explode in her head like a nuclear bomb.

"Mum!" she yelled.

"What, ma cherie?"

"What the heck..." Victoire groaned, and then stopped.

Teddy was looking at her half-stern, half-amused.

For the first time in my life, I fervently hoped that Fleur was wrong (for her own sake.)

"What deed I do?"

Victoire turned to face her, and it was as if a thunder had rumbled in the distance.

"What deed you do?" she cried, hands on her hips, mimicking her mother's accent. "You just spoiled the surprise, ruined the best day of my life!"

"Well, you wouldn't call eet a surprise, ma pouce, would you?"

"And you wouldn't call your excuses ridiculous, would you?"

I saw Hugo smiling derisively next to me.

"So, are you getting married?" he asked.

Victoire glared at him.

"Aren't you?" he asked again, and then, I kicked him hard in the ribs, causing him to choke on his wine drink.

It was euphoric. Satisfying in the very least. After all, where else would I get the chance to torment my brother and get away with it? I am telling you, if I had not known Victoire so well, I would have began taking to her.

"How many times should I tell you to stop doing this, for Merlin's sake? Would you ever listen to me?" my cousin fired up again.

"Je suis désolée mais ce n'est pas de ma faute !"

But Victoire was determined to ignore her relentless French monologue.

"Well, yes," she finally announced. "Teddy and I are getting married. Mille mercis, Maman!"

Hugo stood immediately up. "Here's to Teddy and Victoire Lupin."

He raised his glass. And this time I restrained myself from kicking him (and it took all of my will power, trust me.)

In the next few minutes, there was a riot of colours and noises as Grandma Weasley hurried to enwrap Victoire into an asphyxiating hug (God, I secretly wished that she would break all of Victoire's cute, brittle bones!), Uncle Bill congratulated Teddy and his daughter on the announcement, Fleur began giving the short speech again, James and Albus slipped a couple of Puking Pastilles into Luis's glass (Did I mention how much I loved the Potter clan?), who was currently congratulating his sister on her imminent wedding, Lily...well, Lily was the usual head-up-in-the-clouds Lily and pretty much everyone seized the delicious opportunity to drink many more glasses of wine and butterbeer.

Oh, and I was just me; loathing and hating everything, and feeling the sudden urge to drink Luis's glass of wine in one sip (Yes, the one with the Puking Pastilles. Honestly, anything would do right now, anything!)

When I turned my gaze to the happy couple and the crowd that surrounded them, salutations still echoed around the room. Victoire glowed with vicarious gratification (what's the use in having your mother give away your wedding announcement, anyway?) and Teddy...

I sighed. Partly, because I did feel a twinge of guilt about hiding in a sunless corner and doing nothing to share their happiness, and partly, because the reason I had opted for the sitting-on-the-fence reaction did not stem from my hatred towards Victoire but from my feelings for Teddy. Naturally, I had a crush on him. And do not look at me like that; it is not like this is a big revelation. The entire female population of my family had a crush on him! And who could blame them?

Teddy was like the poor, orphan boy from those badly dubbed Mexican soap operas that Lily used to watch when she was younger. The character with the tragic background that would win your heart over immediately, the hero with the soft voice that seemed to remind you of the lullaby your mother would sing to you when you were merely three feet tall. The boy with the magical smile that could make you trust him so easily and simply. The boy who was polite and charming and kind and brave and funny and...

Oh, God, was it really that bad? I smacked my forehead. If only Teddy was indeed a soap opera character, a stranger who once walked past me in a street...No, Teddy was a member of my family; he was Harry Potter's godson, Victoire's boyfriend. Because of all those liaisons he was close to Dominique and Luis, who in turn spent most of their time playing several games with Lucy and Lily. And since the L's were best friends with Molly and Roxanne, Teddy was attached at the heap with them. It was a never-ending nightmare, a badly set-up domino that crumbled to the floor piece by piece, and its ruins engulfed me and dragged me into that lethargy maze...And then, I woke up, just a lonely, distant figure who blushed and bit her tongue every time Teddy appeared on the horizon.

"Oh, dear, that is wonderful! Have you called the day yet?" Grandma Molly inquired.

I glanced at her and saw that tears were threatening to spill out of the corners of her eyes.

"Not yet..." Teddy replied hesitantly, and looked over to Victoire. "At first, we decided to do it on Easter, when everyone is here for the Holidays...

"You are kidding me!" Fleur gasped and then, she added a few considerably less polite words under her breath.

Honestly, it was amazing how the woman could not bring herself to apologise to her daughter in proper English, and yet, when it came to cursing, she forgot all about her accent problem.

Victoire raised one eyebrow questioningly. "What?"

"We don't have time for ze preparations! C'est impossible!"

Yes, French were always valid when arguing.

"Fleur, it's not our wedding, it's theirs, and since they're both adults..." Bill cut in.

Fleur nevertheless seemed ready to argue back, but then Ginny and Harry walked over to the group of desperate parents, teary grandmothers and bewildered couples.

Ginny kissed her niece lightly on the cheek. "Congratulations! We're so happy for you!"

All right, that was it! I had enough of that! All I wanted was some peace and quiet and I was determined to get it. If only I could crawl my way upstairs unnoticed and unseen...

I stood noiselessly up and decided to seize the opportunity that danced in front of my eyes. I ran quickly upstairs and reached my bedroom. The door was gaping open. All I needed now was a little luck. I poked my head in. Great, Lily was not in there and neither was Lucy.

I let out a moan and threw myself on the heap of clothes that formed my bed. And then, I realised that I could not have been more wrong. My luck was still downstairs, keeping company to my demented relatives, and I had just fallen on top of a ginger, hairy monster. All right, perhaps it was not a monster, but at the time, it did seem like one, with its claws hovering menacingly over my stomach and its ruthless yellow eyes piercing my skin-

I let out a scream and fell off the bed. Crookshanks passed over my head and nestled its fat tail among Lily's magazines, scratching absentmindedly the wooden floor as he did so. Yes, that was Crookshanks, my mother's ancient cat, still alive and generally annoying. No wonder though. It spent most of its worthless time in Vic's arms. Stupidity was contagious after all.

I took a look around the room. It was full to the brim with Lucy's and Lily's stuff -exactly, their stuff, not mine.

I sighed. Lucy was Percy Weasley's daughter (that nerdy, pain in the arse Percy, remember?) If truth were told, she was easy to handle at first. However, when the younger child of the Potter couple arrived, the situation became a little more complicated...For one, Lily was the rowdy, adventurous type of person, while Lucy being Percival's true daughter, was calm and easily manipulated. And before you start thinking that I am exaggerating, let me tell you that Lily managed to do what the Death Eaters never had the chance to: she burned down the Burrow.

So, now, I guess that it is relatively easy for you to understand where the story goes. Lily and Lucy became best friends, while I was left alone, brushing off the dust that Lily's magazines gathered.

"Rose!" Lily cried from the doorway. "Please, tell me you're not doing this right now!"

What? She could hear my thoughts?

"Ehm..." I muttered desperately while trying to think of a plausible explanation.

"Listen, Lily..."

"Listen to what, Rose? Everyone's celebrating Victoire's announcement, and you're here?"

So she had not been eavesdropping on my private thoughts... Of course not, don't be stupid, Rose!

I turned my gaze to Lily, and saw her brushing her hair and smearing her lips with a thick layer of shiny lip-gloss. Typical Lily.

"Come on, you don't want to be late!" she snapped impatiently.

"No, of course I don't," I muttered again through gritted teeth and yet, I followed her, stomping hard on the steps like a four-year old infant who had just been grounded.

Suddenly, I stopped. "You know what? I think I'll to go to bed early tonight, so tell them I'm happy..."

"What? Why? Aren't you going to congratulate Teddy and Victoire on their wedding?"

"No, I'm not. But don't worry, I'll tell them myself tomorrow morning."

Lily rolled her eyes. "If only you were not such a wet blanket, Rose."

And that was the final straw. I could stand the Weasleys, but what I could not possibly stand was being so plainly accused of being a wet blanket!

So I put on my best fake smile, as though it was 4:20 am after some wild night at the town, not Christmas night with family. After all, there were so many of us Weasleys that whenever we had a party, we really had a party. What I mean to say is that normally a little get-together turned into the craziest graduation party, since most of us ended up minced, and therefore, we had ninety drunken fools sloshing about one house; that was our idea of fun.

At least, that is what I found when I came back downstairs. Hermione and Ginny were laughing in a corner, while their husbands were trying to bribe Albus, so that he would give them more wine without letting their wives know. Fred and Luis were running like inmates who had just escaped from Azakaban around the house, Lucy and Molly were playing Find the Wizard (well, if you haven't heard of that game before, don't worry because neither have I), Grandpa Arthur was tinkering with his wireless, Hugo was trying to climb on a lamp, and James had obviously decided to obliterate any sign indicating that this family could have once been a normal one. Oh, and there was Dominique, who was talking to Charlie, but she looked bored to death, anyway.

Okay, so maybe I was making my finally seem a little more uncivilised and unrefined than it actually was. Perhaps Lily was right, perhaps I was indeed a wet blanket no matter how hard I tried not to be one, and perhaps my family was the greatest family in the world and I was just the odd one out...

"Gurdyroots decoction?"

I looked up and saw James smilining at me, his small sharp teeth glimmering impishly--

So, now, if you ever have a boy in your family whose name starts in 'J' and ends in 'Ames', bear in mind that you should never accept anything coming from his nasty, cunning hands, or you may end up drinking what could be Puking Pastilles dissolved into Beetlejuice.

"You're joking right?" I glared at him.

He shrugged. "It was worth a try, wasn't it?"

And he left me standing there, while he ran off to find another victim.

I marched over to the living room, forcing my way through all the mess that piled up before this sadistic illusion.

"Oh, Rose!"

Hermione-Granger Weasley walked over to me. Naturally, the woman was my mother, the brightest witch of her age, and a few other things that I did not remember at the time.

"I sent Lily to find you," she breathed.

"Oh, zere she is!"

Fleur appeared from a corner. She stood next to me and stroked gently my hair.

The unexpected sign of fondness sent chills down my spine.

"What about baby blue?" she announced.

Hermione furrowed her eyebrows. "Not bad, not bad..."

I was ready to ask what the problem was, when Ginny crossed the living room to where we stood.

"Oh, you found her. So, have you given lime green any thought?" she inquired.

Was that a competition concerning all possibly exotic colours that derived from blue?

"Could you enlighten me, please?" I asked a little louder than I had intended.

They stopped abruptly.

"We're talking about the bridesmaid dresses!" Fleur announced apparently frustrated.

"The what?"

"The bridesmaid dresses," Hermione repeated.

"Yes, I've heard that, mum!"

"Well, then, as you probably realise she wants you to be her bridesmaid," Ginny explained.

"What? Why is she doing this to me?"

No sooner than I had blurted the words, did I realise what I had just said. I did not mean to be rude or ungrateful, but Victoire and I had never been close. Why would she want to torture me now?

"Because you're her cousin! She's chosen you, Dominique, Lily and her best friends Samantha and Gabrielle!" Fleur snapped apparently frustrated.

"What about Molly?"

"What about her?"

"She is her cousin too!"

"Yes, but Victoire thinks she is closer to you than her!"

"But I'm not close to her!"

The three of them exchanged awkward looks.

"Look, Rose," Hermione tried hesitantly, "why don't you just compromise with the idea? I mean, even if you feel that you're not as close to Victoire as someone else is, that's still an excellent chance to make up for all those years of mutual coldness."

'Honestly, that was not the opportune time to be eloquent, mum,' I thought. Where did she muster up all that courage?

"To be honest..." I managed.

However, my thoughts dissolved quickly in the oppressive atmosphere, as three pairs of eyes shot daggers at me.

"I...I am so happy and honoured to hear this!"

Several minutes went by before I realised that it was my own voice that had reverberated around the room. My head felt suddenly dizzy, as their sighs of relief raced to my ears.

"So, what about lime green, then?" Ginny insisted.

"Yes, that would definitely work." I replied nonchalantly. Who said that I was a wet blanket, anyway?

"Oh, and it would work so well with your hair and Dom's and Lily's."

Of course our hair mattered, since we three had red hair. Not the same red though. Dominique's hair was a light, pale colour that had mixed well with her Veela blonde part. On the other hand, Lily's hair was adorned with myriad, vibrant reflections of red that made her irresistible to every boy back at school. And mine was a rusty red (serves me right for being such a wet blanket, doesn't it?) Apparently, my mother's genes were not so weak after all.

I made a failed attempt to smile. "I'm sure it will!"

The situation had become unbelievably complicated. Ten minutes ago, I was lying on my bed, lamenting my inglorious crush on the groom, and next thing I knew, I was Victoire's bridesmaid. What had I done to deserve such fate?

All of a sudden, I heard a loud bang. I turned round and saw Ron laughing maniacally on top of Hugo. They were both thrown onto the hard floor, while a liquid that bore a suspicious resemblance to the crap James had previously offered me, flowed near them.

"Get off me!" Ron was squeaking.

"You get off me! You fell on top of me!" Hugo screamed angrily.

Hermione hurried away to her husband's side. "What happened here?" she asked, an austere look already forming on her face.

If I were dad, I would pretend to be dead.

"Nothing!" Ron squealed. He tried to stand up, but tripped on Hugo's legs, who let out a painfully screeching noise.

"Ronald Bilius Weasley, are you drunk?" Hermione roared (and Hermione never roared. Look what this wedding announcement has done to poor, decent people!)

"It was not a prank, no, it was not!"

I sniggered inwardly. Great, he was drunk and deaf.

"Okay, it's time to go to bed!" Ginny tried to handle the situation. "It's late! Quick, everyone upstairs!" She nodded pointedly to Ron and commanded, "Both adult and underage wizards!"

If you want my honest opinion, Ginny was quite hard on my dad. Ron was after all, a mature and responsible boy (sorry, I meant man), who knew perfectly well how to take care of himself. I could not see what the problem was...

"Does anyone want a cup of Gurdyroots decoction?"

Thick silence enveloped the room as everyone dragged their feet upstairs (except James, of course, who was currently complaining about not being given the proper amount of attention. Really, who would actually believe in his farse of Gurdyroots decoction?)

"Save a cup for me, okay?"

I turned round and saw Lily whispering to James's ear. Okay, so now the possibility of me being a Seer was officially off the list.

My gaze rested on Lily as she swiftly followed her mother upstairs. And then out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dominique crawling to the bathroom, her left hand clutching her stomach.

I quickly followed her. Everyone else was too busy escaping the room. The only exception was Grandma Molly and my mother, who was helping her wash the dishes.

So I was right; I was the only one who had seen Dominique seething in agony.

I found her toppled over the toilet bowl. Tears had escaped the corners of her eyes and her skin looked sickly, gray. I took a tissue and wiped the drops of sweat off her face.

She looked instantly up but did not turn away. "Oh..." she whispered weakly.

"What?"

"Nothing."

I let minutes go by and her throw up like three more times.

"Had a cup of Gurdyroots decoction, ha?"

A feeble chuckle escaped his lips. She threw up again.

"How do you feel?" I asked after a couple of minutes.

"Better. I think..." she only managed to form the words.

I grinned at the thought that was swirling inside my head.

"What?"

"A weird little family, aren't we?"

She looked at me suspiciously but laughed nonetheless

When I woke up the next morning, I headed to the kitchen. My stomach had already started complaining and I did not wish to lose any precious time wishing good morning to the others. Who would want to talk the Weasleys and the Potters, after last night's celebration, anyway?

I arrived at the kitchen. Mum, Dad, Ginny, Harry, Molly, Dominique and Charlie were already there as well as Charlie who sat near Albus. And right next to Albus sat Devil himself: Scorpius Malfoy.

Oh, shit.