Bloody Rose

Chapter 17

-The Next Day-

I awoke the next day to the sound of Leah's shrill laughter. I quickly looked at the time and saw that it was almost 3 in the afternoon! Oh thank goodness it's a weekend. I wonder if Teddy is looking for me. Maybe he wants to take me to the place he was talking about yesterday. I quickly got up and opened my bed curtains.

"Oh look who's finally awake. If it isn't Miss Sleeping Beauty herself. I was actually getting kind of worried." Leah said.

"Shut up Leah." I shot back.

"What did you just say to me?"

"I SAID SHUT UP AND I ACTUALLY MEAN IT. JUST LEAVE ME ALONE FOR ONCE, OK!?"

"Ok, ok, so Sleeping Beauty now has some anger issues. I would punish you but I think your father has done enough of that."

I rolled my eyes and went to the bathroom to get ready. Once I was ready I left the common room and went to the only place I thought Teddy might be besides the Hufflepuff common room. The library. Sure enough when I entered the library I spotted Teddy's purple hair and ran over.

"There you are! I was getting worried that your father took you again. Is everything ok?" he asked.

"Yeah everything's fine I just overslept." I replied.

"Oh good. You needed sleep."

"I'm feeling better. Can we get to your spot now?" I asked.

"Yes, I suppose we can. Just give me a second though."

"Ok!" I said as a smile spread across my face. Teddy dashed out of the library and returned about 20 minutes later with a picnic basket. I ran over to him and he led me outside and into the Forbidden Forest. I looked at him, concerned.

"Don't worry I'm not going to turn into a werewolf or put you in danger," he said.

"Oh ok." I said skeptically. We made our way to a small empty clearing. Teddy looked around and pulled out an apple.

"Is there supposed to be something here?" I asked.

"Well there is something here. I just forgot not everyone can see them. They're called Thestrals. Only people who have seen someone die can see them." he said looking down sadly.

"Oh" I said remembering the stories of how he pushed a girl off the tallest Hogwarts tower. Something took the apple and began eating it as Teddy strapped the picnic basket to some invisible horse.

"You ready?" he asked and at that moment I realized we were going to ride the invisible beasts.

"Um.. I don't know about this." I said.

"Don't worry. You can ride with me and hold on to me."

"Ok..."

He held out his hand. I took it unsure of what I was about to do. He let me feel the Thestral before helping me onto it. After I was on he hopped on and the Thestral began galloping. Before I knew it we were flying! We flew above the trees of the forest as I clung to Teddy. The air rushing past me, the beautiful mountains ahead of us, a golden glow cast upon the school. For a while I forgot about all of my problems and just clutched Teddy, never wanting this moment to end. Teddy lifted his hands in the air and yelled.

"ISN'T THIS AMAZING!?"

"YES! I LOVE YOU SOO MUCH TEDDY!" I yelled back.

"I LOVE YOU TOO ROSE"

Eventually he told something to the Thestral and we began to descend. I looked down expecting to see Hogwarts but instead I saw large mountains. We landed on a small green clearing on top of one of the mountains. Teddy helped me off the Thestral and grabbed the picnic basket. He took out a blanket and some food and I sat down.

"Wow, you really didn't have to do all this for me."

"It isn't for you, it's for us. I wanted a moment that was ours and that we could never forget." he said as he poured two glasses of champagne. I took one gladly and said,

"To us!" holding up my glass and touching it to his.

"To us!" he repeated before taking a sip of his own champagne.

"I don't want to keep secrets from each other anymore." I said.

"I agree."

"Well is there anything that you haven't told me that I should know?"

"Well, yes. I suppose it's time you learn what really happened to that girl I was dating. So I was dating this girl last year. Her name was Emmy. She was pretty and nice but nothing too special. She was different than any girl I had ever dated and I thought it was a good sign but turns out it wasn't. I took her up to the Astronomy Tower. When we got there she seemed distant and uninterested. I saw a note fall out of her pocket and picked it up. She begged me not to read it but I read it anyway. It was a love letter from Cedric. Turns out she was cheating on me with him. I got really mad because I thought she was the one. We were perfect together (or so I thought). I accidentally turned into a werewolf. She was terrified. I was fueled with anger. She went to the edge to get away from me. She kept screaming I hate you and other mean things. She was terribly frightened and shaking. She hated herself for cheating on me and Cedric and jumped off the ledge where she fell to her death. It was her decision. I didn't push her. She jumped. She was pretty messed up and later Cedric and I discovered notes in her room about us. We kept the notes because we didn't want her parents or Dumbledore to see them."

"What did the notes say?"

"Well they were detailed accounts of what she did with both of us. There was also one notebook where it was her arguing with herself about being a bad person. I guess she was a little crazy."

"Oh"

"Yeah.... Well, do you have anything to tell me?"

"Ummm well..... I don't know who my mom is and I wanna figure that out."

"Ok! I promise by the end of the year we'll know who your mom is."

"Thank you Teddy!"

"Well, is there anything else?"

"My father abuses me. He's done it almost my whole life. It started out as what he called "discipline" and he would hit me if I wasn't doing something right. But now it's gotten so much worse and sometimes I think he's just going to kill me."

"Oh."

"Yeah..."

"Well I'll always protect you as much as I can."

I gave Teddy a loving smile.

"The sun's setting, we should probably go back." Teddy says. A few minutes later everything is packed up and we're ready to leave.

"Thank you Teddy. For all of this. The flight. The conversation. The food. All of it." As I said that I grabbed Teddy and hugged him then kissed him.

~Authors Note~

If you actually make it this far thank you. I hope you enjoyed this story. Me and two of my amazing friends wrote it together. It took a few months to write and we really put our heart into it. If you want to see a sequel to this let me know in the comments.