Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or anything.
The air was hot and humid but there showed no signs of rain, no cloud in the sky. London was busy as per the usual. Rain or shine, snow or heat London was always busy and full of life. People going to work, people going on their lunch hour. Parents taking their kids out to enjoy the weather, parents for inf their kids to go outside and play away from their video games.
The sound of cars honking and kids playing and laughing could be heard from even the penthouse suit of her building. This is where her parents lived. Her dad was an Auror and worked at the Ministry of Magic with her mom who worked in Magical Law Enforcement, she helps protect people too. Just not in the way her dad does. Her dad is tall, muscly soldier; that's what her mom and grand mother call him. Her mom is a beautiful woman with lovely curly locks of brown hair. Both of her parents fought in the Second Wizarding War, they were famous.
That's how they managed to get their apartment. Even though her dad came from a while know. Family they'd always been rather poor. Not poor as in always without money but poor as in would rather have family and love instead of things. Her room alone was as big as the shared dorm rooms at Hogwarts. Don't misunderstand, it wasn't a mansion in the slightest. It was just very roomy. Where as most of the apartment building would divide into four apartment houses their house was the whole top floor, and she got the whole eastern corner room. Her little brother had the room opposite on the western wall and her parents bedroom was right in between both facing the south. The guest bedroom, kitchen and living rooms where on the north side, the elevator sat in the middle of the whole floor.
She loved her room. Her and her friends painted it a bright coral color last winter before school started again. Most of the light in the room came from three large windows on each side of the corner, the windows lead to the large balcony that wrapped around the whole floor. Her queen sized bed was pushed up against the corner of the room he conceded ink by from the windows and half in shadow from the wall it was directly across from a television set. A large closet sat on the remaining wall. This was not a typically English apartment. But nothing about her family or their life was typical so she was content with her life.
Well she was almost content. There was still the matter of her boyfriend to discuss.
She met him on a Sunday. Her parents where meeting him on a Tuesday almost six years later. Her dad warned her not to fall in love with a pure blood, but true to their stereotype teenage girls rarely do as their told as they almost always make it an intent to do the opposite.
She was out on her balcony in the early morning heat. A large mug of tea in her hands she was sitting on the lounge chair soaking in the morning sun. She was wearing a pastel purple button down long sleeved shirt and a pair of pure white shorts with a tan braided belt. She took a long sip of her tea closing her eyes and stretching out her pale short legs. Her toes were perfectly painted, clear polish with large gold foil pressed on, her big toe had a fancy design in maroon over the gold.
Next to her lounge chair was a small white coffee table, the edge next to the chair was covered in brown circle coffee and tea cup stains, on the other side was a small stack of books. Her favorite past time was pretending she was somewhere else, if only for a few hours. She'd traveled to a deserted island in Lord of the Flies, to Middle Earth with The Hobbit, to New York with Catcher in the Rye. This was a quality her mother had given her, a passion for reading any and everything.
She pulled a piece of bright red hair out of her eyes and tried to stuff it into the top part of her messy bun, unsuccessfully. Her hair was always a mess. It was too thick to do anything with and too wavy to let hang naturally so it was almost always up in a messy bun. Her dark blue eyes squinted as she looked up into the morning light. It was almost time, he'd be there within the hour.
He was her first serious relationship and she'd done everything in her power to keep it hidden from her parents who her boyfriend was. It was going to be a pleasant surprise for her father, if it didn't give him a heart attack first.
"Hey Rose, are you going to be out here until he gets here?" a tall freckled boy was leaning against the gate that divided the balcony of the kitchen and his sisters.
"I'm trying to tan Hugo. He'll get here when he gets here." She replied keeping her eyes up to the sky. Her voice was calm but her heart was not.
"Have you met his parents yet?" Hugo asked pushing open the gate and crossing over to sit on the lounger with his sister.
"Yes." She paused her face going more pale if that where possible. "For his birthday his parents took him and a handful of his friends out for lunch. His father knew who I was almost instantly. The read hair and freckles have always been a dead giveaway for our family. Anyways he didn't say much to me. Spent most of his time talking to Scorpius and his best mate."
"Well what did he say to you?" Hugo slid closer blocking the sun from Rose's eyes.
"First he introduced himself," Rose placed her tea on one of the brown stains, sat up and stuck out her hand to Hugo, which he shook. " 'Hello. I don't think we've met before. I'm Draco Malfoy, Scorpius' father.' And before I could even open my mouth he went on. 'You must be Miss Rose Weasley. Scorpius didn't tell me he had the honor of associating with - you.' It was almost as if he was being sarcastic when he spoke, but I couldn't figure out what part he was being sarcastic about."
"That was it?"
"That was it." Rose said with a hint of sadness. "I'm not even sure he understood that I'm -"
"Associating with his son during every Hogsmeade weekend, study hall, and after breakfast before class?" Hugo smirked.
"HUGO! I do no such thing!" Rose and Hugo glared each other down but both broke down laughing. There was no denying that their relationship had been strained over the past few months. But there were sometimes when the planets were aligned and the heavens opened wide that the two siblings managed to share a moment. "Thanks for helping me keep this secret from Mom and Dad, Hugo. It really means a lot to me."
"That what I do sis. Though I must admit I think Mom may already know." His face began to glow slightly red.
Rose started to panic, "Wait what why do you think that?!"
"Because Mom knows everything, Uncle Harry and Dad both told me so. I've seen her try and lean on your door to see if she can hear you talking on the phone and sometimes when you're not looking I see her glancing at your mail trying to scan it for names or something."
"She's been doing that since I started dating in my fourth year. What was that boy's name again? The tall Ravenclaw. Corey Wester-something right?"
"Westerfield." Hugo had a talent at remembering names, and a talent for eavesdropping so as to learn them in the first place.
"Yes. Him. Well I guess it doesn't matter if Mom knows yet or not because he should be here any minute now." The siblings shared a worried look. "Do you think Mom and Dad will be ... okay with it?" a worried look grew over Rose's face.
"They take some convincing but you know Dad is just a big teddy bear at the end of the day and Mom tries to not let emotion beat out logic and reason, so you have that one your side." Hugo tried to be comforting.
Rose gave a small smile and swung her legs to the other side of the lounge chair, slipping her feet in to a pair of sandals. "Lets go see if Mom and Dad are ready. We don't need them trotting around in their knickers and bunny slippers when he arrives."
Hugo and Rose walked to the opposite gate that belonged to their parents balcony. The closer they got to their room the more they could hear their parents conversation and it wasn't much different from the one Rose and Hugo had been having moments ago. "Mom always likes to keep her door wide open on warm days like this," Hugo mentioned. Rose dug into her shorts pocket and pulled out an Extendable Ear, one of the best things her Uncles had ever created. Rose had Hugo the listen side and reached out her arm and stuck the ear on the glass paneling of her parents windows. The two of them walked back a little to avoid being seen; they both huddled around the ear tight, trying to hide it just in case.
"Sweetheart don't worry," their dad's warm voice filled the space between them. "Whats the worse that could happen?"
"It turns out to be Bellatrix Lestrange's long lost son and he's only dating her to infiltrate our family and get revenge for his mothers death?!" Their mom spoke very fast and very deliberate, as if everything she said was, without a shadow of a doubt, correct. It sent a haunting feeling up Rose's spine, her mom was getting close.
"Bellatrix Lestrange never had any children Hermione! Don't let fear of things going back to how things were then change you. There's not going to be a war. There's definitely not going to be a war over our daughter." Rude, Rose thought, I'm pretty enough to have a war started over me.
"Ron, thats actually really intuitive of you."
"Yea well I've been known to manage a smart word or two. I've managed more and more the longer I'm married to you." A clamor of sounds and then a bunch of laughing erupted from the Extendable Ear. Rose whispered, "They're kissing now." Hugo made a face as if he was going to be sick.
Ron stepped out on to the balcony, holding Hermione in his arms. They were still kissing and laughing. Ron set Hermione down on her feet both of them pushed up against the railing of the balcony. "He'll be here soon," Hermione looked up into the sky like Rose had done. "How is he getting here again?"
"Rose said he'd find the building and meet her at the doorman," Ron said uncomfortably. He loved that he was able to live in an amazing apartment with his amazing family. But coming from a family of seven siblings where everything was a hand me down and garden chores were an important part of keeping the family going, having a doorman felt like overkill, a silly luxury. "How is she going to know he's here? He can't very well send an owl up through the building."
"You know that expensive piece of metal and glass we got Rose and Hugo for Christmas last year? It's called a cellphone Ronald. It allows other people to talk to each other from anywhere in the world and get an answer within seconds."
"Then way does it always take her an hour to answer me when I send her a text based thing."
"Because your her father and her friends are by far more interesting." Hermione joked and kissed his nose.
"Sassy." Ron kissed her back. Hugo made a sick noise causing both of his parents to turn their head around at them. The pair of them still holding the Extendable Ear, with the end still stuck to the window.
"Rose Weasley!" Hermione shouted.
"What have we told you two about snooping around?" Ron joined in.
"Don't get caught?" Hugo offered.
"Sassy" Ron joked. "You two are more and more like your Uncle Harry and I everyday."
"Hey! I was on those adventures too!" Hermione snapped. Suddenly the lecture turned into a fight between their parents. They start bickering in hushed voices so as to not involve the kids.
Rose pulled her self and Hugo up, seeing as how distracted her parents were now thought it best to leave.
"Hold it right there young lady."
Rose opened her mouth to protest when her phone started to go off, the ringer was a group cheer of 'Go Go Gryffindor' coming from her pocket. Her parents both smiled to each other, Hugo grimaced seeing their smiles. "Well I'd love to stay and learn a lesson about not spying on people from the two master spies. Really I would but I have a prior commitment I must address," Rose sauntered back into her side of the balcony and into her room, closing the glass door shut. She looked down at her phone.
Rosie: Pennington Ave. Building 43 The penthouse. I'll meet you at the doorman.
Scorpi: Here.
Scorpi: Your doorman is intimidating. Please hurry.
Rose's fingers tapped across the glass screen writing out a reply. As she tapped the final button on the screen a smile grew across her face. No matter the stress and the worry she was only seconds away from being with her best friend, the boy who inspired her to try her hardest in school, the boy who knew hardly anything about the world she lived in but she was so excited to be able to introduce him to it all. "Oh my God! I'm so excited!" Rose gave a little happy dance and bolted out her door and jumped in the elevator, it was always there when she needed it. Magical enchantment, Rose thought, or private elevator, everyone always seemed to use the other elevators for the building and this was the only one to go all the way to the top.
The top where she lived with her imperfectly perfect family. She couldn't wait to have Scorpius in her perfect life, officially.