Chapter Twenty-four: Owl Correspondence

Travis Bletchley always thought it was odd how he could have fallen so hard for a Weasley of all people. He knew what insanity it took, for a Slytherin especially, to admit to having a crush on such a girl, and then to have her reject him, constantly, publically, scoffing, rolling her eyes, turning red in embarrassment if Scorpius was watching. To have her avoid him, refuse to talk to him, go on and fancy his best friend instead… well it was enough to discourage any young man of common sense. But Travis supposed it was a good thing he didn’t seem to have common sense. If he did, he would have given up long ago and he certainly wouldn’t have been scared out of his wits by an owl attacking his cereal bowl in the morning, a letter for him pinched in the bird’s talons.

Travis lowered his spoon in shock, staring blinkingly at the familiar owl, the one he had watched hopefully for the entirety of his second year in Hogwarts. He knew that owl. And now here that owl was, staring at him with one eye raised or so it seemed. As far as Travis was concerned he could be hallucinating the entire thing because one enormous fact stood out glaringly obvious to him: that this owl could not possibly belong to Rose Weasley. Sure, he had asked to write her and she’d even agreed, but never had he thought that she would write him. The idea was almost paralyzing.

Still, he could not help the hopeful smile that crept across his lips as he reached for the letter, taking it carefully in his hands, the feminine handwriting confirming his suspicions. The owl loudly ruffled its feathers as if to sigh aloud, urging him to pluck up some courage and read the damn thing.

Travis grinned sheepishly at the owl. “Sorry,” he chuckled under his breath. “Rather a big deal this, you know? Alright, I know, I’m a bloody pillock. Just let me die from shame without an audience, would you?” Once again, the owl seemed to actually roll its eyes and it was all Travis could do not to laugh aloud. “Right then, get you. I’ve got a letter to read,” he declared smugly, moving as if to shoo the great bird away but the owl screeched and flapping its wings once more, refusing to leave. Travis blinked once, a sudden idea he’d not considered occuring to him. “S-she wants me to write back?” he asked.

Next thing he knew, Travis was ducking a whirlwind of feathers, as if the owl had tried to slap him across the face. He turned red, aware of just how much a fool he must look: one letter from the girl of his dreams and he was asking a bloody bird what to do next. And he was supposed to be a Slytherin. Pathetic.

Berating himself, Travis finally slit open the envelope, taking Rose’s letter out and barely processing the meaning of the words, only the fact that they were there, scrawled across the page, proof that she’d actually written him. “Snap out of it, damn it,” he cursed to himself, finally blinking and starting from the top.

His eyebrows knit together, surprised by what Rose had written him about. He couldn’t help chuckling softly to himself by the end, shaking his head, completely unsurprised by the girl who’d caught his fancy for so long. It was bizarre and somehow just like her. It wasn’t quite a date. That much was certain, he grinned, but it was something. He quickly got up, grabbed a small piece of parchment and wrote a single line of agreement, attaching it to the owl’s leg. He didn’t even wait for the owl to fly out the window before he headed back upstairs to change and get ready to leave.

Sitting on the table, one would almost imagine the letter giggling from the absurdity of it all. There it was, proudly laid out for all to see, the first evidence of a correspondance between Rose Weasley and Travis Bletchley.

Travis,

Please don’t take this the wrong way… oh but you really should give me a chance to finish. I know that didn’t sound right. I’m just… Just please finish reading and don’t get too upset as I really do need your help.

I’m sort of needing you to come pick me up, on a date if you could help convince my parents that that’s what it is. Though it’s not or at least it doesn’t have to be. What I mean to say is I’m as close to being under house arrest as you can imagine and there’s sort of a crisis situation going on that I really do need to take care of. I would explain everything to you now except it’s a letter and I just… can’t. If this letter is absolutely horrible of me, I’m really very sorry because I don’t mean for it to be. I just… I could really use your help.

Oh Merlin, I sound like an idiot.You can disregard all of that if you like but I’m sending it anyway.

Rose

*

Across the expanse of Britain, Rose lay on her bed, breathing a great sigh that blew the hair right out of her face. She stared morosely up at the ceiling, her arms spread out on either side of her, offering herself up to what would be her fate: lying around uselessly at home while her best friend and cousin went off and ruined her life, and all without Rose attempting to say a single word of wisdom to stop her. Some Ravenclaw she was. Ooh and sending that bloody embarrasing letter to Travis too! Rose squeezed her eyes tightly shut, cursing herself. But of course, she couldn’t simply fail on her own, she had to announce it to Travis and humiliate herself in the process, and she was just starting to like him too! And now he’d go on thinking she was a manipulative whining brat. With a small scream, she thrashed on her bed in frustration, finally bringing her arm over her eyes and sighing bitterly. Curse her.

When the doorbell rang and echoed thoughout the house but a moment later, Rose immediately moved her arm, her eyes darting up and side to side, hardly daring to breathe much less believe that…

Just then her owl rushed in the window, flapping its wings as it settled on her bed, but before Rose gave it a chance to breathe, she snatched the small piece of parchement from her pet’s leg, unfurling it to see a quickly scrawled— be there in five minutes.

Another doorbell and this time Rose could hear her mother’s footsteps coming towards the door, her question carrying back into the kitchen. “Hugo, is that a friend of yours? Merlin, he seems too tall to be a fifth year, doesn’t he?”

Rose shot up from bed, her heart pounding as she rushed to the staircase landing. Sure enough, her mother was standing at the door, a tall boy on the stoop across from her, his eyes drifting briefly up, his lips twitching upon seeing Rose, though her face was surely as red as his.

“Hey there,” he finally got out, nearly stammering. “Er, ready to go?”

“Yeah,” Rose sighed, unable to keep from smiling back down at him, hardly registering her mother’s confused look between them.

“Rose, is this a friend of yours?” she asked questioningly.

“Well, y-”

“Actually hoping for something more than that,” he cut in, his Slytherin instincts taking over. It helped of course that it was true.

Hermione Weasley’s eyebrows rose in amazement, turning back around to question her daughter, but Rose had already come to stand just behind her, her purse already over her shoulder and ready to go. “Yeah, Mum, I actually forgot to mention that, erm, Travis had just agreed… I mean, decided to ask me out today,” she said in one rush, Travis nodding behind her mother.

“He asked you today?” Hermione asked surprised.

“Yes,” Travis answered, Rose stumbling to agree with him, nodded her head emphatically.

“This morning,” she said.

Hermione looked back and forth between the two at a loss for words, finally turning back to her daughter with an almost hurt expression on her face. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Rose caught herself just in time to keep from telling the truth, that she wasn’t sure he was going to be coming until just a minute ago, and her eyes reeled, desperately coming up with words out of nowhere. “I, erm, I guess I-I was just too excited to say anything,” she lied rather breathlessly.

Unable to help it, Travis allowed himself a small grin, shaking himself just in time to step in and save Rose from further interrogation. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Weasley. I just wanted to ask Rose out for awhile now and I’d planned it better than this, but I just found out my family’s leaving to visit relatives tomorrow and I didn’t want to lose the chance to take Rose out. I promised her on the train back to write her… so I did.”

“Oh… well that was very sweet of you, Travis…” Hermione trailed off, the wheels of her mind turning as she tried to process how a boy she was more than certain her daughter had disliked had come to call on her daughter at nine in the morning. She glanced over at Rose who smiled weakly, trying to silently encourage her mother to take a step back and let them go before she could ask anymore questions.

Hermione faltered, at a loss for words. Shaking her head to herself, she finally stepped back, waving them off in spite of herself. “Well, have fun then, you two,” she said, still staring rather uncomprehendingly.

“Thanks, mum,” Rose breathed out in a rush, grabbed Travis’ arm and pulled him after her. She left her mother standing in the doorway staring after them. Hermione finally shrugged her shoulders, closed the door behind them and headed back into the house.

*

Rose sighed in relief, leaning heavily against Travis, her cheek brushing against his shoulder blade. He was chuckling to himself and turned to stare down at her, unable to stop laughing. “So I asked you out, did I?” he grinned.

“Oh stop it. I know and I’m sorry,” Rose groaned, burying her face further, suddenly freezing when she realized how close they were. She stiffened before taking a step back, her face immediately coloring. For once, Travis didn’t blush but held her gaze as much as she wanted him to look somewhere, anywhere else.

“Erm, we should probably go,” she said quietly.

“Well it would certainly help if you told me where we were going, wouldn’t it?” he smirked.

For a moment, he reminded her of Scorpius, and Rose had to shake the thought away. It made sense; they were both Slytherins after all and had been roommates for seven years. But it didn’t matter, she reminded herself. Scorpius was obviously an idiot anyway. Was it really a bad thing to go on a pseudo-date with someone who had all of Scorpius’ same characteristics? Sure, Travis could be a bit of an idiot at times, but he wasn’t nearly as impulsive or unthinking as Scorpius… He wouldn’t toy with her, would he?

Rose stared down at her shoes, unsure how to escape the questions surrounding her, none of which answered Travis’ question. What had he been asking? What were they doing?

She blinked in sudden surprise. His face was suddenly level with hers’, his head cocked to the side and his eyes looking at her with concern. “I know it’s not a date, Rose,” he murmured. “What do you need to do?” he asked kindly.

Rose could only stare at him for a moment, any thought of needing to compare him to Scorpius fleeing from her mind at once. She took a deep breath, finally feeling calm, and started to tell him everything.

Travis listened in silence, only his eyes widened as Rose explained the exact circumstances of Lily’s intent to run away and all the things she’d never said to stop her that had plagued Rose endlessly since the train ride back. Once, Travis tried to say something, but Rose’s frantic words cut him off, not even realizing it. Her eyes were flitting back and forth in obvious agitation, and she was fretting with her hands. She finally paused for breath, but before Travis could speak, she went off again, cursing herself for not having done something earlier.

“And goodness knows that if I had just confronted her weeks ago, well, but not in the way I actually did confront her, that’s not any good…” she trailed off dismally, sucking in a great breath and ranting further. “I just know I could have stopped this even before it started if I had just said something!” she said exasperatingly, even stamping her foot for emphasis.

Travis felt his lips twitch in spite of himself and reached out to catch her shoulder. Rose froze at his touch, suddenly snapped out of her ranting. She stared up at him, seemingly just then catching on to how long she’d been talking. “Sorry,” she murmured, quickly looking down again.

“Its fine,” he assured her, eventually and almost reluctantly lowering his hand. “Where does your cousin live?” he asked.

“It’s not far from Diagon Alley in London,” she breathed, absently playing with her fingers again.

Travis nodded. “Well that settles it then.” Suddenly, he took a step away from Rose. Her head snapped up at once, worried that he was leaving her. It made sense of course. She had only asked him to come over long enough to give her a reason for leaving the house. She could get to Lily’s on her own and really he didn’t have any part in this, but the thought of him leaving so soon made her sad and she didn’t know why.

Sure enough, the next thing she knew, Travis had thrown his wand hand out into the street, summoning the violet Knight Bus which arrived with a crack and a slamming of the brakes. He was really leaving her, going back home. She hadn’t even noticed at first, she’d been talking so much and now that she thought about it, he’d hardly said a word. He must have taken her letter the wrong way afterall, she thought, cursing herself for having ever written it. She was so stupid!

His voice caught up to her then and Rose had to shake herself. She looked up to see that Travis was standing on the bus’ first step, holding the doors open. “You coming or not?” he asked, looking at her strangely.

“Wh- t-to Lily’s house?” she finally managed to ask.

Travis rolled his eyes. “No, the bloody Queen’s house. Yes, Lily’s. What were you just ranting about a second ago then? Come on! Let’s go before she gets any ideas of leaving sooner than later.”

“Right,” she nodded, taking a dazed step forward and then finally hurrying to catch up with him, Travis still holding the door open for her when she climbed the bus’ steps. Travis deftly paid the driver and then led Rose towards the back of the bus where they both plopped down into a set of chintz arm chairs. A moment later the bus took off down the road. There was an alarming CRACK, and the next second, they were rolling through the countryside on their way to Lily’s.

Rose glanced up at Travis sitting next to her, a distant look in his eyes. “Thank you for coming with me,” she said quietly.

He blushed, but nodded anyway and cleared his throat. “Don’t worry. We’ll manage to talk her out of it, Rose. She has to listen to you, right?” he grinned.

Rose wasn’t as sure but she nodded once, her throat closing up, already nervous for what they were doing: attempting to sabotage Lily’s plans before she could act on them. Unable to help herself, Rose started wringing her hands once more.

Travis saw and quietly reached for her hands in her lap, lightly closing his much larger hand over both of hers, calming her nervous movements. They sat like that in silence for the rest of the trip, neither looking at each other but both hyperaware of their hands still touching, neither having pulled away.

*

With a small scream of frustration, Lily threw nearly all the contents of her sock drawer on the floor and aimed a good kick at her bedroom door. Her hands reached straight up to her face, fully intent on ripping out her own hair.

“Lily?” her mother’s voice called from down the stairs. “Dear, what are you doing up there?”

Cursing her own stupidity for not being quieter, Lily gave a weary sigh. “Nothing, Mum, just packing my things.”

“Packing?” Ginny asked, looking up the stairs in confusion.

Lily slapped her hand to her forehead, correcting herself. “Un-packing, Mum! I meant un-packing!”

“Right then…” Ginny wrapped her scarf around her neck before heading out, wondering at the queer feeling at the back of her mind. She pursed her lips but just couldn’t get the niggling feeling sorted. Shrugging, she situated her purse and called back up the steps. “I’m heading out for some shopping, dear. Your father and I are going to Ron and Hermione’s tonight for dinner, and I need to get a few things. You’ll be alright on your own?”

This time Lily actually opened her door, peering over the landing to fix her mother with an annoyed expression. “Merlin’s trousers! I’m sixteen, Mother! Of course I can handle a few hours alone!” she snipped.

Ginny seemed to deflate for a moment but quickly shrugged it off with a small smile. “Just wanted to check with you, dear. You’ve been acting so out of sorts since you came home.”

At this, Lily’s cheeks turned red, her fingers playing nervously with her hair. “Oh, um… well, how do you mean, Mum?”

Ginny tried to put her finger on it but simply couldn’t, shrugging in defeat. “I must be overreacting,” she decided, looking up at her daughter with a fond smile. “Sorry dear. Don’t know what’s got in to me lately. I know you can handle yourself. I just… I just nothing, I suppose.”

As her mother turned to walk out the door and Disapparate, Lily felt the beginnings of guilt start to settle in the pit of her stomach. Before she could catch herself, she called out, “I love you, Mum!” to her mother’s back.

Ginny turned around, a hint of amusement in her eyes. “See what I said? You have been acting strange.”

Lily didn’t know what to say and could only look sheepish, but her mother quickly said she loved her too and was out the front door.

Lily’s small shoulders slumped when the door shut, feeling suddenly awful for what she was doing. She was just wondering if she ought to rethink this packing or at the very least put it off till tomorrow, when the front door was pushed open once more. Lily’s head snapped up, thinking her mother had forgotten something but instead saw two people she was very much not expecting to see standing there, both looking worriedly up at her.

“Hey Lily,” Travis waved good-naturedly though with a bit of awkwardness.

Lily stared at him in shock and then to the girl beside him. “Rose… What are you doing here?”

Author notes:

Hey everyone,

I know it's been just over a year since I last updated this story. I just want to assure you all that it finally is completed, at least on my personal computer. Everything left is simply a matter of editing and submitting it to the archives. Sorry for such a long wait. Thanks for staying with the story thus far!

-Rose