“She’d understand. She always does, she always did, she always will.”
 

“Well,” I muttered, “James always did say you two would make beautiful children.”

“Isn’t she, like, ninety years old?” Rose hissed at me, and I almost laughed. “Why is she still alive?!”
 

I immediately knew what it was.
 
 

And, just when we turned a corner, we were attacked.
 

She held no room for arguments. There were words I wanted to tell her, words I wanted to scream into her face and shake her shoulders until she got it.

But I didn’t even get a chance to try.
 

“She has a name!” Dom exclaimed suddenly, “Her name is Rose. Lucy, its fine that you use pronouns, but Scorpius, grow up.”
 

“In thirteen days,” I answered quickly.

“We’ve got time.” She said musingly, pacing back and forth in front of the twenty guys that we don’t know well, but are in the Order thoughtfully.

“Time for what?” James asked nervously.

“We’re having an aggression make-over,” I told him.
 

Truthfully, I think I scared them, just a little bit.
 

But of course, being us, and this family, and this war, there was no ‘sitting nicely and doing each other’s nails’ kind of evening, in which people relaxed and stayed calm and talked and all that other stuff you only see on WizenTV.
 

“My daughter,” She said distantly, “Is growing up with her mother in prison, her father fighting a war. If she turns out normal, it will be a miracle.”
 

I just hoped that Dom and Lucy would be able to distinguish my code for what it was and not what I was sure the Ministry would think it was.
 

The explosion that came after shook the ground for miles.
 
 
 

 Prepare yourself for cliches all around.