Hi. I'm Scorpius Malfoy and I'm unofficially officially Rose Weasley's handler.

How did I come into this situation? How is a great, proud Malfoy reducing himself in this manner?

Well that's just it. I've distanced myself from my father and the rest of the Malfoy clan. My closest friends know that I haven't gone home since fourth year and I haven't had any contact with my father (though I do send my mum notes now and then to let her know I'm alive). It's been hard living without the Malfoy money and to be honest, I've been pretty close to caving in and going back home. It's the Malfoy pride- no, the Scorpius pride, that gets in the way and thankfully stops me from going back on the smartest decision of my life.

Unfortunately, leaving the family means that I never really have any money and seeing as St. Mungo's Healer Academy is brutally expensive, I jumped when I saw a sign for free room and board for Healers in training. Little did I know that it meant that I'd have to spend all my free time (and not so free time) managing Rose Weasley (the brilliant daughter of two war heroes).

"Managing?" you may ask, "What does that mean?" You didn't honestly think that the image that the Weasley/Potter clan had in the press was just naturally produced, do you? The press is brutal and the clean images that the children have in the press is due to the work of Ted Lupin and grunts like me. They meet once every two weeks to discuss the "state of their image" as if they're discussing war plans. This means carefully orchestrated, strategic trips to Flourish & Botts so the press can get a couple snaps of Rose being "studious" and trips with pre-approved friends to Diagon Alley so the people can know Rose is "friendly" and "social."

HA.

Living with her as her handler has made me realize a few things about Rose Weasley and ALL the wrong ideas the public has about her.

To think, it was only a couple months ago when I was under the Weasley/Potter spell and actually believed the crap they show to the press.

A couple months ago:

I came upon an ad offering free room and board for Healers in training and even though my gut told me there must be some sort of trick, one look at my Gringotts account (oh the lack of zeroes! It just makes my heart ache) made me decide to check it out anyways.

I knocked on the door, "Hello? Is anyone home? I'm answering the ad about the free room and board? For Healers? In the Daily Prophet?" I leaned into the door and it swung open. I cautiously walked in, wand extended (never hurts to be careful), and came upon Rose, Hugo, Ted, Albus, Victoire and little Lily Luna Potter sitting in the living room staring at me.

"Er… I must be in the wrong place. Sorry- I'll go." I said as I started to leave. The Weasley and Potter clan could be a little intimidating to say the least (I'm sure you know the story about that one guy that Rose dated sixth year. Last I heard, he decided to move to Bulgaria to finish out his schooling at Drumstrang).

"No wait," stated Ted as he strode over to close the door behind me. "You're at the right place. We're the ones offering free room and board."

"Er… what?" I was boggled. Why would they be offering free room and board? I realized my face looked idiotic with my mouth gaping open and quickly replaced it with a look of calm interest.

"That was very nice, what you did there. Maybe you can teach Rose how to do that," piped in Victoire. "Merlin knows she needs to learn how to control her emotions."

"What? I'm perfectly capable of controlling my emotions," claimed Rose while at the same time Albus said, "Hold on a second, nothing is determined yet. We don't even know if we want him."

"Well he passed our initial charms and spells to actually come into the flat, so we know he must be somewhat trustworthy," piped in Lily.

"Albus, he was in your year at Hogwarts. What was he like?" asked Victoire. "Wasn't he in your house? Et toi, Lily. You're in their house too. Do you remember anything?"

"Victoire. I was in their year too, or did you forget?" asked Rose, with a slightly peeved expression on her face.

"You're oblivious," said Victoire with a wave and flitter of her hand.

Rose steamed silently in the corner.

I just stood there, my expression of polite interest solid on my face while internally I was trying to process everything. Was I expected to live here with all of them? Well, Lily was still in school so she'd be gone, but I didn't know if I could handle this family. And charms? Did they say I passed their charms? Did they have some bloody personality revealing charms on the building? What a paranoid bunch.

"I don't know much… He was pretty quiet and didn't really make much of a blip on the social radar in Hogwarts," said Albus, "Pretty much your standard Ravenclaw. Spent more time in the library than in the common room."

"Didn't make much of a blip on the social rader!" I thought internally. My calm face threatened to slip.

I don't want to brag, but even if I "spent more time in the library than in the common room" I had my fair share of admirers. Even if I did reject the Malfoy family, I had their characteristic good looks. The nearly-white blonde hair, the sharp nose, a decent height… I'm not saying I was the most popular guy at Hogwarts, but I was observant enough to notice that females noticed me.

"I think we can trust him," said Lily, "I have a good feeling about him."

There was a lull in the room after she spoke.

That was a surprise. I don't remember ever interacting with Lily Potter at Hogwarts, except for the occasional time when Ravenclaws were gathered outside trying to figure out a particular riddle to enter the common room.

"Well, I think we can answer any questions with this," proclaimed Ted as he flourished a small bottle. I'd almost forgotten he was there. "As long as he doesn't mind." Ted finished, as he looked at me.

All the eyes in the room looked straight at me- it was more than slightly unnerving. My expression of polite interest was harder and harder to keep.

"What's in the bottle?" I asked.

"Veritiserum," answered Ted coolly.

"And why would I subject myself to that?" I responded, equally coolly.

"Alright Scorpius. I'm going to be completely honest with you. The free room comes with… certain responsibilities. Rose here wanted to live apart from the family this year and we caved. Besides… Rose becoming more independent… It shows her maturing. It'll look good in the press. They can stop moaning on and on about how we're too closed off of a family. The only thing is that she needs a… er… helper of sorts. Someone to keep her on her schedule. She's going to St. Mungo's Healer Academy, same as you, so it should be relatively easy."

"You want me to be her nanny?" I replied, puzzled.

"It's a bit more complicated than that," replied Ted. "Have you ever noticed that we have certain images in the press? And that we rarely have any scandals?"

"I guess," I replied, unsure. "You're the sophisticated one," I said as I pointed to Victoire, "you're the wise one," I pointed to Albus, "you're sweetheart," I pointed to Lily, "you're the charmer," I pointed to Hugo, "you're the brilliant one," I pointed to Rose, "and you're… " I trailed off as I looked at Ted.

"I fly under the radar," interuppted Ted. "Anyways, those titles didn't come without a fair bit of planning on our part. We each organize a couple of casual things to do in public every month amongst other things to ensure that our images are kept up to standard. Being the children of war heroes means that we're constantly scrutinized by the press. It's tiring work and we'd prefer not to give the press any chance to write malicious articles.

"You talk as if you were all celebrities," I pointed out.

"We ARE celebrities, if you haven't noticed. In the Hogwarts bubble, the Headmistress ensures that we're left well enough alone, but we're constantly followed around in public. On a slow news day, we'll have a couple of reporters waiting outside the Burrow to see what the latest update is on our parents and the rest of the family," said Hugo who had been silent up till now.

"So we need someone who we can trust. Someone who won't go blabbing all our secrets to the press and someone responsible enough to keep Rose on her schedule," said Ted.

"And why can't she just keep up with her schedule herself?" I asked.

"Believe me, I've tried to convince them that I won't ruin the Weasley name if I live by myself. I'm only going along with this now because we've had this argument a million times," answered Rose.

"We just need to make sure that we can trust you," said Victoire, looking at me.

They stared at me. Someone should tell them that their collective stares were more intimidating than the thought of another dark wizard rising. Honestly, thoughts of that poor guy in Durmstrang were circling around my head. There were rumors that that kid had left Hogwarts not fully… a man anymore, if you get what I mean.

I munched on the idea. If I had ANY money for a flat, even a puny, damp, flat, my pride would have forced me to leave, but seeing as how I had 10 galleons to my name…

"Fine. I'll submit to the potion, but I want you to swear to me that you'll only ask me questions relating to my trustworthiness. No delving into my history." I said as I stared into Ted's eyes. I was a fairly good judge of character and I made a quick decision that Ted Lupin was someone who would keep his word.

"I swear," said Ted as he uncorked the small bottle.

And here we are now. Rose and I have gotten into a comfortable pattern. I now know most of her habits and quirks and uncovered the truth about Rose Weasley.

Studious?

HA!

Organized?

DOUBLE HA!

But we'll have to tackle the misconceptions one by one.