The Malfoy Project

𝙽𝚊𝚛𝚌𝚒𝚜𝚜𝚊 #𝟸 - 𝙰𝚕𝚕 𝚘𝚏 𝙵𝚊𝚒𝚛 𝚅𝚎𝚛𝚘𝚗𝚊

     ✼¹

     I was in love.

     Like the rose was poison and I was Juliet Capulet. I drank from it, overdosed on it like elf wine².

     When you find yourself in the syrupy snares of elf wine, there's a pink mist that rises in your body. Your head spins and you could throw yourself off a cliff with the knowledge that the wind will carry you.

     But unlike in Romeo and Juliet, it didn't happen all at once. See, that's what the younger ones never get. It didn't just burst out of the shadows and strike me across the face.

     It was slow, creeping up like moss up the castle walls. I hadn't even realised it was a moving, living thing until one day I woke up to find my neck wrapped in its tendrils. That's what it was like falling in love with Bas.

     I was in love.

     Truly, deeply, irrevocably.

     At first, I was more amused than captivated. Bas wasn't the first one to proclaim his undying love for me - whatever that meant to fifteen-year-olds, anyway - and his rose was just another frivolous gift I had no use for.

     Yet, it found a permanent place on my bed stand, where it remained for the rest of my days at Hogwarts. I found an old milk bottle to stick it in, and when it wilted, I pressed it in between the pages of my favourite book.

     It was different from the parcels and presents of previous suitors. There was just something about the velveteen petals and fat, thorny stalk. It was genuine, real, perishable. If I didn't take good care of it, it would die.

     My mother would have chided me for being silly enough to let a rose win over my affections. Bella would have ripped its petals apart. The only person I had dared show it to was Ronnie. She took one look at it, pulled me aside, and asked, "Which brother gave it to you?"

     She only let go of my arm when I told her it was Sebastian. "Good," she muttered, almost to herself. "Good."

     "Why?" I asked, but she only shook her head and gave a small laugh. "Nothing," she said. "I guess it's time my baby sister takes off from the nest. Make sure he takes care of you or I'll hex him all the way back to that ugly Manor." 

     "But I'm not going anywhere," I protest earnestly. Something changed in Ronnie's face then. "Cissy," she said, sinking down onto my bed. "Being in love is the most wonderful and dangerous thing. It consumes you; eats you from the inside while keeping you alive by breathing comfort down your throat. It will call you to places you don't want to go, and you go anyway."

     Ronnie was being dramatic; she had always been a helpless romantic. "Don't be daft, Ronnie," I said. "I'm never leaving you, and if I were ever insane enough to, it certainly wouldn't be for Bas, or any boy, for that matter!"

     I hadn't thought Ronnie's eyes could grow any darker in shade, but they did that night, just for a moment. Then she wiped it over with the biggest, most reassuring smile she could manage. "Alright, I'm not going to smother you," she said. "You're fifteen, you've got a good head on your shoulders. I trust you won't do anything I wouldn't."

     She brushed my hair as she always did before bed and as she tucked me in, said: "Cissy, you remember what I said about the stars and their names, right?"

     "How could I? You never let me forget."

     "You'd know them all, right? Even if... even if one day my star were to fade out as well?"