Under The Mistletoe (Chaennie)

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

She ought to pull away. She ought to get the required kiss over with and be on her way without looking back. Roseanne knew that. Sitting there with Jennie, peering out the window at the gathering dark, she knew she ought to turn her back on her and never look at Jennie or speak to her again.

Jennie bore the brand of a traitor. She wore the badge of monster. She was destined to become a killer. Jennie Kim was a Death Eater and she ought to be trying to kill her, as per the beliefs being circulated by Voldemort and his followers.

Yet Roseanne stayed. In part it was because she was holding out the hope that one of her friends would come looking for her and so free her from beneath the mistletoe and her obligation to snog Jennie. There was another part of her that was simply enthralled. This Christmas season had been an unusual one and she knew that this night would be the deep, dying breath of the world as she knew it. Not because of Jennie.

Because the world was about to be pitched in chaos. Already things were bad, but she knew there was worse to come. There was something about simply sitting there in the stillness of the library next to a person who would soon be her enemy upon the battlefield that felt right. She wondered if Jennie sensed it to. The latter didn't say anything else as she sat there next to Roseanne, simply allowing her to trace her fingertips over the smooth skin surrounding the Dark Mark on her arm.

Roseanne didn't say anything either. She'd been tracing Jennie's skin for hours, drawing nonsensical patterns over it and simply sitting there with her. She didn't know what to make of the entire experience, all she could think about was that this was the last time she would ever be the person she was now. That this final day of the year would be the final day she was likely to ever spend in the company of an enemy without fear.

"Can I ask you something?" Jennie asked after the late afternoon sunlight was gone and it grew too dark to effectively see much of the snow that was falling.

"I suppose," Roseanne murmured. She was still touching her skin and she marvelled at how smooth and warm Jennie's flesh felt beneath her own cold fingers. Somewhere in the distance of the castle, a clock chimed out the hour, indicating that it was already eleven at night. Roseanne wondered when it had gotten so late and why none of her friends had come looking for her.

"Why are you sitting here with me?" Jennie questioned softly. "It's not as though you don't have better places to be and more agreeable people to spend your time with. So why are you still sitting here in the dark with someone like me?"

"Maybe I'm just putting off having to snog you?" Roseanne told Jennie without looking at her. "Or maybe I like the silence."

"Maybe you don't know," Jennie muttered.

"No, I know why," Roseanne told the Slytherin. "I'm sitting here next to you because it's oddly easy to be in your company when you're not spouting some kind of bigotry or picking fights with my friends."

"I don't start every fight with them," Jennie argued and Roseanne felt a smile pull at the corners of her mouth, knowing she couldn't really deny that. "But it doesn't explain why you would want to be in my company at all."

Roseanne's smile widened at that.

"I'm burning this day into my memory," she told Jennie. "I'm spending the evening in your company, rather than that of my friends because in the not so distant future you and I will be on opposing sides of the battlefield. You're a Death Eater and I'm an Order member. You're a pureblood and I'm a muggleborn. You're on Voldemort's side and I'm not. Sometime in the next year or two, you and I will meet across the battlefield, probably hardened by a life of war. We'll be even more tainted by the loss of friends and loved ones; burning with anger and a need for revenge over the turns the war will take and how that will effect both of us on a personal level."