Stealing Cinderella – Chuck Wicks
A/N - Yet another oneshot, I know, I know...This one is kind of sweet though, rather than my usual sad ones :P Enjoy
Scorpius knocked on the door of the house, and stuck his hands in his pockets, waiting nervously for Rose's dad to open the door. He looked around him as he waited, taking in the ivy that grew up around the door and windows, the slightly unkempt grass and the hedge that looked like a textbook picture of a gnome habitat. He heard heavy footsteps approaching the door from the other side, and it would have been ominous if Ron hadn't looked so disgruntled when he opened it and saw Rose's boyfriend. Scorpius grimaced slightly as Ron poked him into the living room with a gnarled finger.
"I'll just get Rose for you then" he grumbled, and he walked heavily up the stairs, muttering mutinously about his daughter's choice in men. Scorpius was left alone in the room. He looked around curiously, taking it all in. This was the first time he had picked Rose up for a date from her house, even though they'd been going out for two years now, so he'd never seen inside it before. It was a strange mix of Muggle and Wizard artefacts: coffee tables covered in Quidditch magazines and muggle newspapers, a fellyvision (they had learned about these in Muggle Studies last year, so Scorpius knew that it was just like a photograph, but with sound. He was quite proud of that bit of knowledge, even if he couldn't work out why the muggles wanted them to be so big.) that had a potted Alihotsy on top of it. But most fascinating were the walls: not one piece of them was visible, because pictures of the family, both real and muggle, covered them corner to corner.
Rose was in almost all of them. There was one entire wall covered in photos from before she was born, filled with her parents and their friends, but other than that Rose was everywhere: in one she was spinning around in a blue dress, her brown hair tangling in the gossamer wings she wore on her back. He peered closer at the caption below it: 'Rose and Hugo play the Fountain of Fair Fortune'. Oh yes, Hugo was in the background…also wearing a blue dress. Scorpius snorted with laughter as he imagined the burly fifteen year old's reaction if he mentioned this at school…on second thoughts, maybe not. He was the only male member of the family that accepted Scorpius' relationship with Rose, best to keep on his good side. So Scorpius moved on to the next photo. In this one Rose was on a broomstick, leaning forward with an expression of intense concentration on her face. This was from last year, when Ravenclaw had won the Quidditch cup: Rose was a Chaser on the team. The next one was Rose and her mum at a party at a rickety house in the country, surrounded by redheaded girls that he recognised as more Weasleys. The one next to it was Rose with her best friend, Anna Wood, when they were little, throwing pillows at each other in this very room, when the walls were only half covered. Scorpius' eyes were drawn to the largest picture on the wall then, one of Rose herself. She was looking away from the camera, at something behind it, laughing and smiling as if her face might break from happiness. With a jolt Scorpius recognised the place – it was taken last year, in the garden of Shell Cottage, where there was a party to celebrate Teddy Lupin's engagement to Victoire. He was Rose's date. He had just asked Rose to dance with him, bowing extravagantly and making a fool of himself, and she had laughed at him, before standing and joining him with her blue eyes shining. That was the night he told her he loved her.
"She looks beautiful there" a voice said from the doorway, startling him "just like her mother"
"Yeah, she's quite a woman" Scorpius tore his eyes away from the picture and met Ron's, who's expression suddenly looked confused, and then incredibly sad.
"Yeah, I suppose she is" he sighed deeply "She'll be down in a minute. Something about fixing her hair." He slouched into the kitchen, looking defeated, but Scorpius followed him.
"Mr Weasley, could I have a quick word before we leave?" he stumbled over the words slightly in a rush. Ron turned and saw the excited light shining in the man's eyes, and a shadow swept over his face. He knew what was coming.
"Go on then, ask." He sighed again, not looking forward to the implications of the conversation.
"Well sir" Scorpius took a deep breath "I love your daughter, more than anything. And I just wanted to…to ask your blessing, before I ask her to marry me. She's quite old fashioned, you know, so…" He trailed off hopefully.
"Well I reckon that would be alright by me" Ron said slowly, as if the words pained him slightly "I think you'd look after her better than most. But if you don't, you'll answer to me, understand?" Scorpius nodded, and was about to thank Ron when another voice came from the living room.
"Scorpius? I thought we were leaving now?" Rose came through the archway to the kitchen, and Scorpius' breath caught in his throat when he saw her. She was stunning: her crazy brown hair was tamed into slick curls that flowed over her shoulders, and her creamy dress made her pale skin glow and her blue eyes shine, although that could also be attributed to the sight of the man she was in love with.
"Yeah" he croaked out, before clearing his throat "I mean, yeah. Let's go, we don't want to miss it, right?"
They headed for the door and down the garden path in their thick cloaks, smiling at each other. Rose blushed a little when Scorpius pulled her close with one arm, his other hand tapping the little velvet box in his pocket, which concealed a ring with one piercing sapphire set in a pair of clasped hands. Ron stood at the door with his wife and watched them leave, and he realised that his daughter had grown up, and he couldn't work out when.