For the Battlefield Wars.
Required Character: Rose Weasley
Secondary Character: Hermione Granger
1 (word) Dead
2 (word) Ripper
4 (emotion) Grief
5 (quote) "You can't do it unless you imagine it." - George Lucas
12. (emotion) Adoration
14 (poem) I have loved flowers that fade by Robert Bridges(unable to incorporate)
15 (restriction) Narrative: No word: Said
Word Count: 2425
Family
Rose shivered as she bolted inside out of the cold after her mother. "Mum," she whined, "I don't see why you are so upset. I wasn't hurt. Scorp and Al raised the shield charm just in time."
Hermione spun around and bore down on her daughter, "I don't care that it was stopped before it happened, Rose! If you had gone through that door, you could have di-" She choked up and wrapped her daughter in her arms, shaking.
Rose hugged her mum, bewildered. "But I'm not dead, Mum. I'm fine. The Professor even got the Headmistress to change my schedule and add additional magical restrictions to him so that Teddy can't be anywhere near me." She hung her head. "I... Mum, I'm worried about Al. Uncle Harry knows he's a Slytherin. He won't hurt him right, Mum?" Rose twisted her hands together nervously. "Uncle won't do anything to Al for being a Slytherin, right?"
Hermione sighed as they heard the floo go off. "I'm not sure. Go greet Draco and Scorpius, and I'll send a letter to Harry."
Rose frowned then drug her feet to go welcome her professor and other best friend, "Scorpius! Uncle Draco!"
Draco arched an eyebrow at the eleven year old. "How are you feeling, Rose? You look ill." His wand dropped into his hand to cast a diagnostic spell over the girl.
Rose shook her head emphatically and responded, "No, Uncle. I'm the picture of perfect health!" She chewed on her bottom lip before bursting out, "I'm worried about Al. I haven't heard from him all break. I wish he had stayed at the castle or come home with us instead of going back with Teddy."
Draco looked at the girl, lips pursed. "We'll find a way to get him he-" He cut off at a knock on the front door. "Are you expecting any others today, Rosie?"
Rose shook her head. "Not that I'm aware of. Mum was going to write to Uncle Harry to see what he's doing to-" she cut off when the front door opened.
"Hermione?" A loud thud was heard. "Hermione, it's Ginny. I brought Albus."
Rose's eyes widened and she bolted for the entryway before the Draco in the room had moved. "Aunt Ginny? A-ALBUS!"
Rose's shriek brought Draco and Hermione tearing into the entryway. Hermione immediately put Ginny at wand point as Draco cast diagnostic charms over the bruised and battered boy. "What the hell happened to my nephew, Ginevra?" Hermione hissed through clenched teeth.
Ginny shook her head, and dropped her wand. "I swear, I had no idea. I stunned Harry and left as fast as I could with him. I was afraid magical transport would hurt him further. Please, you have to help him. Harry is...he's not right anymore and I fear for Albus' safety more than my own."
"Bloody hell, woman. Had you gotten home any later, he would have died! Why didn't you take him to St. Mungo's?" Draco snapped as he cast the necessary spells and charms to clear Albus of infection and set his bones properly.
"He would have gone there first! Harry doesn't know that I was keeping Albus updated on the state of the divorce proceedings. Hermione, I didn't know he would take Albus being a Slytherin so bad. I thought Teddy had already told him about it, but that little bastard waited until Albus was defenseless to tell him. Harry must have lost it right after I left to go get dinner for us. I know that Harry received letters about Teddy attacking Rose and Scorpius throughout the first term. I didn't know that it was this bad."
Albus coughed, and jerked forward. "Mum!" He reached for Ginny.
Ginny dropped to her knees and hugged her son. "I'm so sorry, sweetheart. I didn't know he would be so bad. He isn't usually that violent..." she trailed off when she felt Albus stiffen in her arms.
"What do you mean 'usually', Mum? Does he hurt you?" Al's voice was even and soft.
Draco cast a critical eye over the harried looking redhead in front of him. "Mrs. Potter-"
"Don't call me that," Ginny whispered. "I'm divorcing him."
"You can't do it unless you imagine it," Hermione interjected.
"Well, I can," Ginny quipped. "I had been planning it for months. I left the papers on his kitchen table. Mum and Dad don't know. Ron doesn't know either." She looked up at Hermione, "George knows. He helped heal me while Albus was at school. I don't think-" she winced as Albus pushed out of her arms.
"Rose, Albus, please go in the living room. We'll be there momentarily," Hermione ordered.
"Yes, Mum," Rose responded. She took Al's hand and led him into the living room where Scorpius had been pacing back and forth.
"Merlin, Al. You look like a victim of Jack the Ripper!" Scorpius gasped, his legs giving out as he stared at his best friends. He collapsed in a heap as his eyes filled with tears. "You should have stayed with us! Why did you go home?"
Albus knelt by the shaken Malfoy heir. "I wanted to see Mum. I knew she'd get the holiday off from the Kestrels. They aren't scheduled to play until after the New Year." He gathered Scorpius into his arms, rocking him back and forth. "I'm not as bad off as I look, you know."
Rose sat behind the boys and leaned into them, keeping her eyes on the doorway, and her hand on her wand.
Hermione and Draco shuffled in, holding Ginny a few moments later. "Rose, I trust you to watch over the boys until we return."
"No," Rose retorted. "We are going with you!"
"You can't come with us! It's not safe," Hermione argued.
Rose stared down her mother and hissed out, "You can't leave three untrained children in a house that the perpetrator of an act of violence knows of. We are going, whether you want us to or not."
Draco shook his head at Hermione before she could respond. "Fine. We're going through to the Hogwarts infirmary. You three go first. We'll be there right after you."
Rose glared at her mum before grabbing the boys' hands, pulling them to the fireplace and using the floo to take the trio to the Hogwarts infirmary. "Madame Pomfrey! Al's mum, my mum and Scorp's dad are about to come through. Al's been hurt and so's his Mum!"
Madame Pomfrey's eyes grew big before she set about getting two stations set up to do full scans and healing for the injured parties.
"Poppy," Hermione coughed as she and Draco stumbled out of the floo lugging an unconscious Ginny between them.
"What happened?" Madame Pomfrey's skilled eyes took in the weak form suspended between her colleagues and immediately, she set about getting things ready for a long-term admittance for her patient. "Mr. Potter, please sit on the other bed and I will get to you as soon as I make your mother comfortable."
Albus sat heavily on the other bed and watched horror stricken. The 3D scan the matron rendered over Ginny's body showed years of abuse and poorly healed scars. "Mum," he whispered as he tried to run to her.
"No, Al," Scorpius grabbed his arm and Rose wrapped her arms around him from behind. "Just watch her. Madame Pomfrey is the best Healer in the world." Rose's eyes and voice with filled with admiration and adoration for the healer.
"Mum, Madame Pomfrey can fix Aunt Ginny, right?" Rose questioned.
Hermione's expression was tight and she was examining the 3D scan with a critical eye. "That one, and this one are from quidditch. This, this, and this are from the war. These others...they shouldn't be here. How long has he been hurting you, Gin?"
Ginny arched of the bed and gave a soundless scream as Madame Pomfrey administered a potion to her. As she writhed, a whirling black mass rose from her body and attempted to launch at the children huddled on the second bed.
"NO!" Hermione and Draco both screamed, sending wild magic at the black mass, incinerating it, as Madame Pomfrey cast a blanket shield charm over the living occupants of the room.
"What the bloody hell was that?!" Albus yelled. "Did he do that to my mum? What was it?!"
Madame Pomfrey grabbed the irate boy and made him sit so she could run his tests.
Hermione and Draco looked at each other. Draco shuddered then whispered, "Looks like we have our new flying instructor. Ginny and Albus can come live with me. You and Rose, as well. With our combined magics, we can keep even the Savior of the Wizarding World out of the Manor... If you are ok with staying there that is." Draco looked over at the gobsmacked brunette.
"He cursed her with dark magic. Dark magic that tried to eat her soul like a Dementor steals it with the Kiss. Nothing scares me as much as that does, Draco." She shifted her attention to the trio, "Rose, Albus, Scorpius. Would you be alright if we lived together?"
Albus stood up silently once Madame Pomfrey completed her scans and left for her office. He walked over to his mother as she opened her eyes and coughed. "Mum, I'm sorry I couldn't protect you..."
"Oh, honey, it's not your fault." Ginny put her hand under Albus' chin to make him look at her. "Your father... he had a bad time of it after the war... he and your uncle... they didn't really know what to do after the war. Malfoy here, he had the right idea. He came back to redo his seventh year with Hermione and me. We came to a tentative truce of sorts. Did you know that we all shared a dorm? We protected Malfoy from the fallout. No one wanted to be on the bad side of a Weasley and the Hermione Granger."
"Is it true?" Rose asked, stepping up to Al's side, Scorpius on her other side.
Draco nodded and Hermione sighed. "Rose, sweetheart, there are many things we didn't tell you growing up. Mostly because we tried to be what the Wizarding World wanted us to be. Friends with an ex-Dea... with an Ex-Death Eater wasn't what they wanted. We kept our truce a secret when we went out with Ron and Harry. The coerced the other students into keeping their mouths shut about it too. Rose," Hermione took Rose's hands and knelt in front of her. "You are the one that matters most to me. If you don't want to live with Draco and Scorpius, that's fine. I'll get Minerva to help me cast stronger wards on the house. I'll even get the Fidelius charm added if that's what it takes."
Rose shook her head. "We should go to Uncle Draco's. We'll be safe there."
Scorpius stepped up and wrapped an arm around Rose's shoulders. "Grandfather and Grandmother have been waiting to meet you all. They like hearing about you when I write to them."
Hermione and Ginny looked startled.
"What are the looks for. I spoke to them about you when I was still a student as well. They understand that Potter and Weasley were...not the most accommodating after the war. They never really believed that we were so good at acting that we were actually spies for Dumbledore. They want to meet you, this time as friends."
Hermione nodded and Ginny smiled.
"I think we should finally reconcile the Malfoy-Weasley rift," Ginny softly stated. "A Malfoy-Weasley-Granger alliance. We should see where this takes us."
Rose looked at her mother, "I want my name changed. No offense to Aunt Ginny, But I don't want to be a Weasley anymore."
Albus shrugged helplessly, "I'm in the same boat as Rose, but a bit worse... I don't want to be a Potter or a Weasley."
Ginny laughed softly as she sat up and hugged her son. "It's a good thing you aren't really a Potter then isn't it?" She waved her hand over Albus dissolving the longstanding charm from him. "You are actually... a Malfoy."
Draco looked at the now strawberry blonde, blue eyed boy in awe. "How... we only..."
Ginny shrugged. Harry married me practically the second I graduated. You wanted to study to be a potions master and I knew that you had an arranged marriage. I didn't want to ruin it for you. You needed Astoria."
Draco shrugged. "I don't regret Astoria- I got Scorpius from her. I do regret not knowing Al was my child. Especially considering how I met him for the first time before the term started."
Al grinned. "You mean when you asked me 'What about your father? Won't he be upset that you want to go with me?'" He laughed, "I think my father was okay with it."
Scorpius hadn't taken his eyes off the boy that looked so much like him. "Merlin, we could almost be twins."
Al looked over his shoulder and grinned at his brother, "Should I change my whole name? Something so I could still be called Al, but not...Albus?"
Scorpius looked at Ginny, then shifted his gaze to Draco, before finally settling back on Al. "Alistair Leon Malfoy."
Hermione looked as Scorpius thoughtfully, "How would you change Rose?"
Rose blinked and tilted her head. "My name?"
"Too easy, Rosalinda May Granger. Of course, eventually, she'll be a Malfoy too." Scorpius winked at the startled girl at his side.
Draco laughed, and Hermione groaned. "Draco, your son is trying to claim my daughter."
Draco smirked. "What can I say. He knows what he wants." He turned amused eyes on his son, "No smooth talking Rose until you are at least fifteen."
"Thirty!" Hermione interjected.
Rose snorted, then collapsed into giggles taking her best friends down with her. "To the new Golden Trio and the Next Generation Silver Trio!"
"Silver?" Hermione asked, smirking.
"Obviously. We're Slytherins! We are either Silver or Emerald. Oooh. Emerald. We are, henceforth, the Emerald Trio," Rose declared pompously.
The adults shook their heads and started discussing the new living arrangements... to include wards reminiscent of the wards on the House staircases.
The trio of eleven year olds crawled into the bed that had been set out for Al's examination and went to sleep in a puppy pile. They had all the time in the world to make plans to get even. For now, they just wanted to sleep off the excitement. So they did.