Disclaimer: I do not own the world of Harry Potter. It belongs solely to J. K. Rowling. I am making no profit off of this story except for the enjoyment of writing it.
A/N: This is my first fan fiction, so I'm sort of iffy about it. Please review!
Our Fathers' Legacy
Chapter One: In Passing They Judge
"Perhaps we have been misguided into taking too much responsibility from our children, leaving them too little room for discovery."~Helen Hays
The Weasley family had arrived at King's Cross Station only minutes before the Potter's. Ron, leading the way while pushing his daughter's trolley, grinned as he felt the stares of the other wizarding families around them. His wife, Hermione, being more of a modest person, nodded simply to the few she knew from her work at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Holding her hands on both sides were their two children, Rose, red hair slightly more curly than her mother's was at her age, and Hugo, whose similarly red hair took more after his father's, tending to droop in his face and over his deceivingly innocent brown eyes…
Rose stumbled as she tried to keep up with her parents and brother. She had yet to hit her growth spurt that her mum insisted was going to come in time, and felt somewhat mortified that she was shorter than her nine year old brother. However, she made up for that fact by her mature appearance and dignified speech. She had, as her dad boasted, inherited her mum's brains.
The experience with the barrier to the train station had left her a little shaken, seeing as she had expected to run into a wall and embarrass herself in front of the whole Muggle-filled station. If there was anything besides the hair that she had inherited from her dad, it was the famous Weasley temper. If she had run into a plain old wall because her dad had played a prank on her, he wouldn't be laughing when she started putting him in his place in front of his wife, son, and dozens of Muggles. Thinking back, she found that she had actually wanted the argument to happen. They were really quite fun.
"C'mon, kids!" her dad boomed loudly, for all the world to hear. "Let's find your Aunt and Uncle."
"And Lily!" Hugo squeaked in his excited voice. She was pretty sure by now that he practiced those in his room just to entertain people, because they always got a laugh whenever he changed it.
"And James and Albus," she added. Her brother had a crush on their cousin, Lily Luna, since he was five. She thought it was disgusting, but her mum and dad and Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny all laughed it off. They were related, for Merlin's sake!
"Yeah, yeah, them too," her dad said dismissively.
They finally stopped walking when they reached the side of the platform and her dad handed her her trunk. He took Hestia, her female barn owl, and went to place her next to the other animals to be loaded. She had gotten Hestia for her eleventh birthday to celebrate receiving her acceptance letter to Hogwarts and, in her mum's case, to 'write to us every week-no! At least twice a week, more if you feel like it. You understand, Rosie?' She had sobbed then and went on and on and on about how big her baby girl was getting and that soon she'll leave her and all she'll have is Rose's dad and how he's barely home anyway…and so on.
And now they waited as her dad came back and watched out for any sign of their red-and-black-haired Aunt, Uncle, and cousins. Her dad seemed the most excited, though Hugo didn't look too far behind, and her mum looked like a strange mixture of overly happy and terribly sad. She swore she had just seen her wiping away a tear and grinning at the same time. And herself, well, she felt like she would rather go jump in the Black Lake with the giant squid than be here right now.
All she knew for certain was that if she was sorted into any House other than Gryffindor, she'd faint. Her dad had told her over and over, jokingly, her mum said, that if she wasn't, he'd disinherit her. And even though she knew her dad was a kidder, she couldn't shake off the feeling of what would happen if she did end up in Ravenclaw, or Hufflepuff, or…oh, Merlin, Slytherin. She knew that if she was sorted into that House she would be disowned before she was even able to owl her dad to tell him the news.
Her mum would no doubt accept it and act as if it was a great honor to be in any House, even if it wasn't the honorable Gryffindor House, home of the brave. But she shuddered to think what the rest of her family would say.
She admitted being sorted into Ravenclaw wouldn't be horrible. In fact, it would be interesting to be around people of equal intelligence. And Hufflepuff couldn't be too bad…
Before she could sort through any more of her nervous thoughts, she heard a voice break through the vapor. "I think that's them, Al," her Aunt Ginny's voice said.
Beaming at each other, herself, her mum, dad, and Hugo, stepped through the smoke to the welcome sight of our relatives.
"Hi," Al, the middle cousin, greeted shyly, even though they saw him almost three hundred days out of a year.
"Hey, Al," Rose said back, beaming at him. She had always had the best relationship with Al out of her three cousins, even though she loved them all the same. They just saw more eye-to-eye, she supposed, being the same age and all.
She heard her uncle and dad begin to talk proudly about driving their Muggle cars as she leaped forward to pull Al into a huge hug. Thankfully it took its usual effect and soothed at least some of her nerves. It probably also helped that he appeared as anxious as she was.
"Nervous, Al?" she asked as she hugged little Lily who, although being her brother's age, was, mercifully, shorter than her. She stepped back from Lily to see Hugo hugging Al in a not-so manly way and Al's embarrassed face and giggled.
He laughed awkwardly and started trying to detach himself from Hugo. "Uh…ow! Hugo, not so tight! Oh, uh…yeah, I guess I am. I mean…Hugo!...Aren't you?" He grunted when Hugo finally let go and launched himself at a shrieking Lily.
She suddenly felt the urge to snort at the absurd question. "No, Al. I'm not a complete bundle of nerves waiting to be disinherited because I didn't make it into Gryffindor," she stated sarcastically.
He looked at her with wide eyes, then blushed. "Oh, right. 'Course you're not…"
She sighed. Sometimes her cousin wasn't the quickest to catch on. "Al! Of course I'm nervous! How could I not be?"
His blush only deepened when he realized his mistake. "Sorry," he muttered, looking around the platform instead of at her eyes. She sighed again and stood at his side, putting a comforting arm around his shoulders.
"You know it doesn't matter to your family whether you're in Gryffindor or not, Al. They love you all the same. Besides," she added with false cheeriness, "you're so brave, how could they not place you in Gryffindor?"
He smiled lightly as he watched Lily and Hugo having a similar, but more animated debate. "Yeah, thanks, Rosie," he said with a flat tone, but she knew hearing the words come from her helped him, just as his words had helped her a hundred times over. But she knew from experience that even a million times wouldn't be enough.
They came back to the present when they heard her dad say, "If you're not in Gryffindor, we'll disinherit you…but no pressure."
She imagined they probably looked like a mirror images, her and her cousin, as they both paled considerably at the words. Rose dropped her arm from his shoulders and listened to her mum screech at her dad for saying such terrible things.
Her dad, however, paid no mind as he suddenly bumped Uncle Harry with his elbow and pointed across the platform. "Look who it is," he muttered in obvious dislike. They all followed his outstretched hand to the other side of the platform. Situated there, a pale man with the lightest blond hair Rose had ever seen and wearing very formal black and gray clothes stood with his arm around a beautiful woman. She recognized her, and after a moment remembered seeing her on the front cover of Witch Weekly-plenty of times, actually. She was a very beautiful, famous woman who Rose knew now to be Astoria Malfoy, previously of the Greengrass family. She wore a lovely red dress that could have fit in at a formal banquet, but looked extremely casual on her. It complemented her wavy gold air that literally shined, even in the small, smoky platform.
In front of them, with his back her family, stood a boy who could be around her age. He appeared to have his father's hair, as far as she could tell from looking at the back of his head. He also wore somewhat formal wear and seemed to be even taller than her cousin James, who had hit his growth spurt earlier than most boys his age.
The boy's father looked up then, along with his smiling wife, and caught Rose's uncle's eye. His eyes seemed to widen and he looked a little shocked, and, though she could guess, she wondered why he would have such a reaction. His cheeks even appeared to darken as he gave a small, almost jerky nod.
His son, noticing the nod, turned around, following his parents' gaze. He also looked surprised to see us, but quickly exchanged the look for an emotionless mask. Rose was taken aback by the suddenness of it, and found herself staring into his cold grey eyes-that looked right back into hers. She blushed deeply and looked away, only to peek up again to take in his angular face. It could have been called almost pointy, but for the softness that surrounded the other areas. She could tell he got his unnatural beauty from his mother. Sadly, he seemed to pick up his father's personality, and, passing the moment, he straightened his back, looked Rose once more in the eyes in that unsettling way, and turned his full attention back to his parents.
Rose blinked. Of course she had heard all about the infamous Malfoy family from her father. He even made her and her brother's bedtime stories featuring Lucius Malfoy as the star Death Eater occasionally. He had warned them, especially Rose, that the whole family was good for nothing, Dark followers. And, silently, she agreed with him, because she knew that her mum was against prejudiced things like that. She knew that every story he told them was true, and had no idea how the former Death Eater family had gotten off with little more than a few smacks to the back of their hands with a ruler. Thinking this, a disgusted scowl appeared on her face.
"So that's little Scorpius," her dad said. "Make sure you beat him at every test, Rosie."
Rose nodded. There was no way in hell she was letting the son of a Death Eater, even a former one, best her at anything.
"Er, Rose?" she heard Al whisper beside her as her mum began reprimanding her dad again. "Are you okay? You're face has gone all screwy, like you've eaten a bad Lemon Drop."
Blushing, she immediately dropped her scowl. Laughing uncomfortably, she said, "Uh, no, I'm alright, Al. Sorry to worry you."
Al squinted at Rose, like he does when he knows someone's lying, but fortunately shrugged and dropped it. "Right."
Rose shot one more glance at the Malfoy family, glaring in particular at the boy, Scorpius, before looking back to the rest of her family. She watched in amusement as James came running up and eagerly recalled seeing 'our Teddy' snogging 'our Victoire.' Then her mum, Lily, and Aunt Ginny started cooing and saying how wonderful it would be if they got married. Rose snorted. There was no way in hell Teddy was going to get married at nineteen. Especially since everyone knew he and Victoire only had an on-again, off-again relationship. Who knew what would happen, now that Victoire was still in her seventh year and Teddy was looking for a job.
Grinning, Uncle Harry checked the watch that had belonged to Grandma Weasley's deceased brother, Fabian Prewett. "It's almost eleven, kids. You should be boarding soon."
"Give Neville our love!" Aunt Ginny told James, kissing him on the head before he could break away.
Rose grimaced. There was a downside to having an awfully big, social family.
James bickered with his mum for a few moments before kicking Al brotherly and saying, in his annoying, immature way, "Watch out for the thestrals, Al." He winked and laughed as Al yelled back at him in a panic. He let his mum get in one more kiss before getting on the filling train.
Laughing also, Rose grabbed Hugo in a final, breath-stealing hug, gave another to her dad and Lily, and kissed her mum on the cheek. "See you at Christmas!" she yelled as she too jumped onto the train, waving good-bye to Aunt Ginny and to Uncle Harry, who Rose could now see was kneeling before a frozen Al.
Sighing for what she was pretty sure was the tenth time today, Rose turned her back and prayed that her uncle could talk some sense into her cousin-though she knew she was no better.
Rose soon discovered that finding a compartment on the Hogwarts Express that was either empty or had at least some people she knew in it was exceedingly hard. First of all, she had to lug a twenty pound trunk behind her while trying not to trip over her own feet. Second, she had to avoid bumping into all of the tall seventh years who seemed to find it amusing to roam an overflowing train before others had settled down. And third, she was sweating like a pig.
She knew she should have left her Chudley Canons hoodie in her trunk, but no! Her dad had to insist that she show her team colors in support of their waning season. In all honesty, and though Rose would never admit it to her dad, she was more of a Puddlemere United fan anyway.
Thankfully, finally, she came across a compartment that was emptier than all the rest. Not completely empty, sadly, but she was always told to work with what she could get.
So she slid the door open with some difficulty, and greeted the person inside.
"Hi…um, I'm Rose Weasley. I was wondering if I could sit here, since everywhere else seems kind of full?"
The compartment's occupant, a boy, Rose noticed, turned his head from looking out the window and peered at her. She, in turn, studied him.
He was of average height-still taller than herself-and was a little on the heavy side. He had saggy blonde-brown hair, and dark blue eyes that almost resembled a shade of purple. His expression was curious, but not uninviting.
"Hi," he said softly. Rose guessed he was shy. "I'm Julius. Julius Greengrass." He smiled at her and at that moment, she decided I liked him.
Rose beamed back at him. "Hi, Julius. It's good to meet you."
His eyes widened cutely. "Oh, uh…" he stuttered, "y-you too…"
"Rose."
Now he grinned. "You too, Rose. And no, I don't mind if you sit here. In fact, do you need help with your trunk?"
Before she could reply, he was already lifting her trunk up onto the shelf above the seat. She noticed that there were actually two trunks there instead of one, but decided not to ask. She smiled and thanked him, sitting in the seat across from the one he had fallen back onto, and pulled off her large hoodie.
"So. Is this your first year here?" she asked him, putting the hoodie to the side and combing her fingers through her knotted bright red curls.
He blushed. "Ah, no." He laughed lightly. "It's actually my third year going here. I just look sort of small for my age."
Now it was her turn to blush. Despite his size, she could only imagine what her overprotective cousins would say if they even saw her talking to an older boy. "Merlin, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to sound rude or anything-"
Julius smiled reassuringly. "No problem, I get it a lot."
They sat in silence for a while, not exactly awkward, but not particularly relaxed either. Rose looked out the compartment window, hoping to catch a glimpse of her family among the horde of parents. Eventually, she saw the telltale red hair of her aunt and dad and slid open the window. Checking her new watch quickly and seeing that the time was 11:49, she hurriedly, trying not to wonder what Julius would think of her after, stuck her upper body out the window and hollered, "Mum! Dad! Uncle Harry! Aunt Ginny! Lily! Hugo!" in quick succession.
Rose was delighted to see that their eyes immediately found her, and they began waving back. She laughed when she saw her dad pick up Hugo and Uncle Harry pick up Lily and hoisted them onto their shoulders. When she saw their little, slightly toothless grins, she laughed even louder and waved again.
Suddenly, she heard the train's horn blow and yelled before it started moving, "I'll miss you!"
She continued waving for as long as she could when the train pulled into motion until voice behind her said, "You may want to get back in now." She did what was suggested, a little breathless, and found a grinning Julius looking back at her.
"I know you now," he said excitedly. "You're related to Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger! And the Harry Potter! I don't know how I didn't put it together before!"
Rose blushed-Merlin, again? "Well, yeah, I guess I am…Well! I know that you're related to Astoria Malfoy in some way…" And then it finally processed through her mind and she wanted to groan. Julius was related to a Malfoy. It didn't matter if he was directly related or not, he was, in some way, shape, or form, related to a Malfoy.
Suddenly panicked, Rose said shakily, "L-look, I have to go find my f-family now, so I guess I'll see you…later…" She stood hastily from her seat and reached upward, grabbing unsuccessfully for her trunk.
Julius, frowning, walked up, and easily pulled it down. "Right, okay. Here's your trunk and all…" He trailed off and a guilty feeling began to fill her stomach, but she pushed it back down as quickly as it had come up. She knew her dad would kill her if he knew she was talking to someone related to his childhood enemy.
"Right, okay," she parroted. "Thanks." Grabbing her trunk from his hands, she dashed from the compartment as quickly as she could.
Heaving a sigh of relief, Rose started searching the aisles for anyone she knew, but found them eerily deserted. Noise, however, erupted loudly from every compartment or so where the students were being especially rowdy. She felt nosy peering into them, but if she wanted to find her family, she would have to live with it.
She was on the verge of giving up and sitting on her trunk in the corridor when she heard fast, inelegant footsteps behind her, practically running. Spinning around and hoping for a friendly face-she found exactly the opposite.
"Late for something, Malfoy?" Rose spat maliciously.
The blonde boy in question raised his eyebrow, making him look just as pompous as her dad said his father was-and still is. "Not particularly, Weasley," he returned curtly, his hands pulling unconsciously at his fancy shirt. She wanted to laugh at his action, but held it in check. Apparently he's as obsessed with his appearance as his father was, too, she thought.
When he didn't immediately move, she stepped back so that she was pushing against one of the aisle walls and gestured to the way he had been heading and the way she had come. "Well," she said rudely, "are you going or not?"
His eyes widened slightly, and she could have sworn she had seen a blush. Ha, that's right. A Weasley just upped you within the first minute of our first conversation, Malfoy. How d'you like them apples? "Uh, right, I guess I will then." He took a hesitant step forward, eyeing her as though he thought she was going to trip him on the first chance she got-which she dearly wanted to do. It was then that she noticed he had a slight limp.
He seemed to think about something, then paused completely, turning his body to look her in the eye, one foot still in front of the other, now obviously favoring his right leg. "Are you going to sit out here the whole train ride?"
"Well I certainly wouldn't sit with you, if that's what you're insinuating!"
He shook his head, looking amused, and she suddenly wondered what those arrogant, sparkling grey eyes-wait, what? Sparkling? Get it together, Weasley!-would look like when his head was on a pike-ah, much better. Well, maybe that was too barbaric, but it was just a thought.
"No," he said, "I was just wondering why you would be sitting in the corridor when you're entire clan is just a compartment down."
Now, as her cheeks burned with both anger and embarrassment and she stuttered for a response, he looked like he wanted to laugh. Smiling, he waved mockingly and walked-limped, rather-away without saying another word. She had the urge to rip out her wand and hit him with a Bat-Bogey hex that Aunt Ginny had taught her, but calmed herself before she managed to bag a detention on the first day of school. She would never live that down.
Groaning, she stretched her overworked arm muscles and dragged her trunk behind her once again, stepping up to the compartment Malfoy had pointed out. Pulling the door open, she at once recognized her…unique…family.
The compartment was already packed, as she could see from her spot in the doorway. Although six people could easily be seated in one, James had decided to stretch out his feet on the seat, thus taking up two and a half spots instead of one. Squished between his brother's feet and the wall, an uncomfortable-but more chipper than she had seen on the platform-Al sat. He grinned weakly when he saw Rose, which she returned with a bit more enthusiasm.
On the other side of the compartment sat, terribly squished together, her oldest cousin-older than her by six years-Victoire, and her sister, the almost-fifteen year old Dominique-who was almost sitting in her lap. Beside Dominique was her brother, Louis, who was entering his third year at Hogwarts. Rose wondered if he knew Julius…
Next to Louis was Molly. They were talking quietly but ardently with each other, not really paying attention to the others around them. Molly and Louis were particularly close because they were in the same year, and the same house.
And finally, talking animatedly to James about some prank they were going to pull on Professor Zabini, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and Head of the Slytherin House, was Fred. Fred and James, being the same age, had been fellow pranksters all last year.
Raising her eyebrows, Rose kicked Fred's outstretched legs out of her way and said, gesturing to her trunk, "A little help here?" When no one moved, she kicked Fred again, looking pointedly at him and not caring if she was interrupting his and James' mastermind plan.
He glared at her. "Watch it, Rosie, your feet are pointy!" he whined and stuck out his tongue. She smirked and, while he was putting her trunk on the rungs above, stole his seat.
James and Albus snickered-until Fred went over and sat on James' legs. Then Al burst out laughing and James gave a very loud, undignified yelp. "Fred! Get off my damn legs!"
Victoire swatted at him "Language," she tutted, and then they all had to snicker because they knew how much of a sailor's mouth Vicky had.
Rose grinned at Al across from her, leaned forward, and asked, "Are you alright now?"
Al smiled back at her. "Peachy keen," he reassured.
"Well," Fred exclaimed loudly, still perched painfully atop James' legs, "You're a pretty nervous peach if you ask me! And I've seen a ton of peaches!" Fred was a little…eccentric, at times.
"Shut up, Fred," Rose snapped. "Like you weren't nervous in your first year."
"I wasn't! I was the essence of cool, the king of calmness, the dictator of-"
"-nerves?" Dominique offered darkly. She was always a bit moody nowadays. They were pretty sure she was going through a goth-stage. "You looked like Satan would rise up from Hell to personally sort you into Slytherin."
They all paused, staring at her. "Well, not exactly Satan…"Fred said, breaking the silence, "but I did think I was going to have to battle a beast like an Acromantula or something…Not that that would be hard for me, anyway! I could kill a hundred of those things in one go!"
"Don't tell Hagrid that," Al said warningly. "You know how much he loves those creepy blighters." We all shuddered, thinking back to how her dad and Uncle Harry had barely escaped from the huge arachnids in the Forbidden Forest.
"Besides," Molly said, joining the conversation for the first time, "you don't even know the spell to use against them."
"Wha-" Fred stuttered. "Sure I do! It's that one with the two words, relatively latin…"
"It's arania exime, Fred," Rose volunteered.
Fred whined, "Rose! I was just gonna say that.
"Yeah, right, Fred," Louis said, standing up to help James get Fred off of his legs.
James put in, "You fell asleep in DADA every day last year, how would you possibly know?"
Resigned, Fred pushed at Louis and mumbled, "I could have.
Rose, holding in a laugh, turned back to Al and reached over to take his hand. "You sure you're okay?"
Al gave a playful groan. "Yes, Merlin! I'm fine, alright? I just…needed to get over some doubts back there."
Rose smiled at him. "If you say so…"
"…Thanks, Rosie."
"No problem, Al."
"Aaaaaww! So cute!" Fred exclaimed, finally climbing off James' legs-to James and Louis' relief-to pull us both into a hug.
Pushing him off, Rose moved to the other side of the compartment and pushed her older Potter cousin's feet aside so that she could sit next to Al. Winking at him, she said, "Oh, Freddie? Do you think you could get a book out of my trunk for me? It should be near the top, it's the new Hogwarts, A History."
Grimacing, Fred did what his cousin wanted of him. "Sod off, Rose. You're almost as much of a downer as Domi these days."
Dominique hit him with her shoe. In the head.
"Ow! What was that for?"
"Shut up, Fred," they chorused.
Snickering, Rose turned when Al poked her in the side. "Hey, Rose?"
"Hmm?"
"Where's your Canons hoodie?"
