Hey guys! Just thought I would update you again. Sorry if this is too short for you, but since you all asked for another update, here it is! Let me know what you think, and if you don't like it, please be helpful in telling me so. Thanks!
Josie's Memory -
Ron finally took a moment and stopped walking further down the dark, sandy beach. With his hands stuffed in his pockets and an empty _expression on his face, he turned around and looked back from where he just came from.
In the distance there were lights dotting an area of the beach; a tell-tale sign of a party just now getting underway. Nothing was going to change his mind about what he was feeling just now; not the enticing feeling of wanting to join the party, or even the sloshing waves beside him. The water pranced around his ankles, but the feelings of guilt, embarrassment, and anger filled his insides to a never-ending degree.
Slowly, he turned back around and sat himself gently on a large, flat rock to think, relax, and hopefully get himself under control before walking the great distance back to join the party.
Ron now knew the truth about Josie. And knowing wasn't looking up to be a great thing right now. With how closely tied she is with the Malfoys made his stomach churn uncomfortably.
After thinking about it for a minute, he came to one obvious conclusion. 'I shouldn't be bloody mad about this!' he said quietly to himself. The one thing that got to him the most was the 'M' word: Malfoy. For a while now, Draco has been decent toward everyone but Harry. Still, the thought made him squirm in his pockets and he was angry. She lied to him. True, he hasn't come to know her all that well, but the body language and signals said enough. They wanted to go in the same direction, together.
The misty breeze kissed his skin and danced along each exposed freckle, creating bumps all over his ivory skin. The wind was beginning to pick up quite a bit, leaving Ron no choice, but to start walking back, and fast.
The rock wall beside him and the open body of water, trapped in all noises. Deciding he better go faster than he already was, he picked up his knees and began sprinting. Water and sandy mud splashed up on his shins with each powerful stride, making him quite dirty. A thought comforted him about this. As he continued his lightning-fast run down the shore, he reached into his pocket, searching for his wand. It wasn't there. He reached into his other pocket for it. It wasn't there, along with something else that had been in his pocket all day long. His heart dropped a few inches in his chest, and his running slowed. Finally he was back where he was before he took off, right in the very spot he had left Josie. Guilt overtook him yet again. He truly felt bad for the things he had said to her, and he knew she would be mad at him for quite some time.
Ron's feet sifted through the sand as he began to walk, the tiny grains sticking to his still wet skin. With how his bottom half looked, he wished he had his wand. With his head down and mind drowning out the noises from the luau in front of him, he nearly missed a familiar voice calling out to him. A few moments went by before he noticed it, but he eventually looked up.
Hermione was running from the blazing bonfire at full speed, and in his direction. She slowed her pace when she caught Ron's attention. "Where were you," she asked, nearly out of breath.
Ron turned up one corner of his mouth in a sly smile, something Hermione caught onto almost instantly.
"Needed time to think, did you," she asked with raised eyebrows and an accusatory voice.
Ron eyed her funny for a moment, then realized she knew what he did. "Out with it, Hermione. What do you know?"
Hermione folded her arms and glared at him. "I think you know very well what I know, Ronald Weasley. But that isn't important--"
"Isn't important? She's a bloody Malfoy!" Ron's voice caught a few people's attention, making him anxious.
"Actually she's a Black, but that's not important right now. What's important is you've got a very upset girl. She thought you would understand. She really likes you Ron, she told us. But she was afraid you'd reject her."
"Well aren't you one to talk," Ron accused.
Hermione stepped cautiously closer to him, starting at him skeptically. "What on this green earth does that mean?"
Ron grinned evilly at her for a moment. "Oh nothing really. Just that we all hold back on something sometime."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"No? Well let me remind you!" Ron gently turned Hermione by her shoulders until she was looking at the same thing he was.
In their direct field of vision, stood Harry. He was talking to Josie about something that appeared to be important. A few silent moments went by as they looked on. Just then, Harry turned and looked in Hermione's and Ron's direction, giving both of them a sincere smile. Without even realizing it, Hermione was smiling back, quite cheekily.
Then Ron spoke up. "How long are you going to hold out on him, Hermione? I guess the more important question is how long are you going to hold back from each other?" Ron backed away, leaving Hermione to stir in her own confused thoughts, and walked off up the sandy walk way to join the party.
Hermione was still staring adoringly at Harry, but he was talking with Ron now. Her mind wandered in and out of various things before she realized Ron had left her side and Harry was starting toward her. Uncontrollably her face flushed and was replaced with a hot sensation in her cheeks.
Hermione looked Harry directly in his jade eyes as he stood in front of her, smiling sweetly. She felt the blood rise once again, and felt that familiar feeling of floating on a cloud with how he was staring.
For a while, the two of them stood there smiling at each other, taking in the site before them.
Meanwhile, Ron scampered around the party, finding his way around as best he could. One glimmer from across the fire caught his eye. Josie was talking with some other guy across the way, and appeared to be enjoying herself completely. They laughed and talked for what seemed like forever in Ron's mind. He was fixed on watching someone he had feelings for, flirting and having a good time with someone else. The anger suddenly washed away, like the waves of the ocean, and was replaced by guilt. For the first time in the last little space of time, he honestly felt bad for how he had treated Josie. But the rational part of him sprung out and he simply found no excuse as to why she would be hanging around with someone else.
In a mixed fit of guilt and confusion, he stalked off across from her, purposely putting himself in her field of vision.
As Josie stood there talking to this perfect stranger standing in front of her, she saw a flash of red dance in her eyes, then quickly disappeared. Her head bobbed around the stranger, for any clue as to what she had seen. Then she locked her eyes on him.
Ron was making his way to a table to have a seat. Yet again, he needed time to think. A waiter, dressed in the traditional Hawaiian party-wear, came around taking orders for drinks. Ron ordered his, not even really realizing what it was he ordered, and continued to drown himself in his thoughts. A few long moments later, someone had a seat at the table across from him. It was Josie.
"What are you doing sitting here all by yourself," she asked in a dull tone.
Ron leaned back in his chair in a casual way to look at her. "I felt like sitting. What are you doing?"
Josie settled herself in her chair and moved closer to the table. "I just thought I would check up and see if you're still mad." Her demeanor was relaxed and unthreatening.
He looked at her further and tried not to react in the way he felt like reacting. "Why couldn't you just tell me you were a Malfoy in the first place? I'm only mad because you waited until now to tell me."
"Yeah well I'm not all that proud about it myself. And technically I'm a Black."
Josie took the opportunity to gaze around the restaurant a bit during the awkward silence. Waiters bustled about, taking orders, and delivering. Her gaze was fixed on a small family of four, eating peacefully at their table. A little boy about the age of six was carelessly handling his glass of water, and within a matter of seconds, it came crashing to the ground with a loud break. Water and glass scattered everywhere very quickly, but in Josie's eyes and mind, she saw the situation play out in slow motion, bringing back an awful memory from her childhood.
***Flashback***
"Josie, you should be careful. Father won't like you tampering around in the kitchen like this," a young voice whispered to her as she crawled onto the counter tops in their spacious kitchen.
"Oh go away! What do you care anyway? Of course he won't like what I'm doing! But I don't really care since he'll find some way to punish me no matter what," she spat to the blond boy standing on the marbled kitchen floor below her.
He rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "If you insist," he said coolly.
Josie reached into the cupboard and pulled out a glass for some water for herself. None of the house-elves were anywhere in sight, so she had to take things into her own hands. Carefully, she climbed down, with the help of her somewhat-caring half brother. She filled the glass with some ice, followed by some water, and began drinking it. Moments later, sounds of screaming, slamming doors, and other harsh noises filled the halls of the house.
An elegant, blonde woman stomped into the kitchen, fuming mad.
Josie continued to sip on her water, reluctantly, wondering what the fight was about this time. Just as she thought it, the other half of the parent-ship came storming in, just as mad. Josie removed her glass from her mouth, fully coming to grips that this was something more serious than anything ever before.
Narcissa Malfoy scurried behind Josie, to hold her daughter close to her. Tears were in her eyes, but she looked at her husband with such anger and hatred no one had ever seen before. "She's not going anywhere," she said threateningly.
Draco stood on the sidelines, wondering just what it was they were talking about. He could see Josie was scared, and she didn't even know why she was. Lucius took a step forward, looking into his wife's eyes with a defiant expression.
"We can't have your daughter and my son going to the same school! How would it look if they knew they were only half brother and sister? This is for the benefit of our entire family. She goes to Durmstrang this fall, and that's the final decision."
Josie felt weak in her knees, the most weak she had ever felt throughout her progressing eleven years of life. The expression on Draco's face was even worse. He was just as scared as she was, but felt more anger in his nerves than her.
She jumped from her mother's grasp and looked up into Lucius's cold eyes. "Durmstrang? That's years away from here! I'm not going and you can't make me!"
Lucius knelt down on his knees and looked at her. For being eleven years old, she sure had an incredible amount of courage and grace in her, much like her mother. "You're going whether you like it or not. Besides, you'll be able to come home for Christmas and summer holiday," he said in a dark tone.
Josie looked at her half brother standing on the other side of their mother. "I want to go to school with Draco," she sobbed.
Lucius didn't have any intention on backing down. He stood up, turned his back, and stalked out of the room without one glance over his shoulder.
Josie looked at Draco again. "I don't want to go away," she sobbed some more.
For as long as they could remember, Draco and Josie had been best friends and now she was going somewhere far away to go to school. It didn't take long for her anger to to build up before she unleashed it. In one smooth stroke, Josie brought her glass up and thrust it to the ground, glass and water spreading all over the precious marble floor.
She never forgot that day. Their first day of school was only a month away, and this news totally wrecked her. She spent as much time as she could with Draco before leaving once and for all.
Then Christmas came around. Draco and Josie both went home to their family, but he wasn't the same. He was bitter and angry, with many qualities his own father possessed. From then on, Josie blamed his change on Lucius splitting them up to go to school. Things were never the same after that. The two fought all the time, and it never let up, not even now, in their twenties.
***end flashback***
Lucius isn't my father and I refused to go by the Malfoy name. Besides, it's not like I was around there every day anyway."
Ron began to get into what she was saying a bit, feeling the curiosity rise in his gut. "Josie, I'm sorry I threw a fit a little bit ago."
She cracked a small smile in his direction. "It's alright. I would probably be mad too if someone I cared about lied to me."
He smiled back, wondering just what she meant, and finally felt comfortable knowing the truth.