Ron Weasley was home alone again.
He was used to it, of course, with two kids at Hogwarts and a wife who works ridiculously long hours, but he was never quite comfortable being alone. He was sure it had something to do with being a Weasley; he had never been alone growing up, and he supposed he had never learned to like it after that. He sat on the sofa in front of the fire, trying to decide whether he should just listen to the Quidditch game on the wireless by himself or pop over to any one of his siblings' houses to join them.
He hadn't yet come up with an answer before his 17-year-old daughter came barreling out of the fireplace.
"Rosie! What's the matter? Is everything all right?" Ron jumped, wand in hand faster than he could get the words out of his mouth. Auror instincts never leave you, after all.
"I am not talking to you," she spat at her father as she stormed up the stairs.
"But why are you here? How did you get here?" He called up the stairs, glancing back and forth between where Rose had gone and where she had come from. "What the bloody hell is going on?" He bellowed, more to himself than anyone else.
"Sorry Ron, I couldn't stop her," Ron turned back toward the fire to see Neville Longbottom's face staring back at him. "She's really upset. I think- well, I think she's ditched her boyfriend. She stormed into my office, yelling about lies and secrets. I tried to calm her down, but she seemed mad at me too." Neville trailed off, waiting for Ron to respond.
"She's not physically hurt, though? None of them are? Hugo, and their cousins?" Ron knew it was a stupid question, but old habits die hard. When he was at Hogwarts, unexpected communication was always a bad thing.
"Everyone's fine, as far as I know. She's just angry, I think. I tried to stop her, Ron, but she stormed into my office, grabbed my floo powder and just tossed it into the fire..."
"It's all right, Neville," Ron said, raking his hands through his hair. "I'll try to talk to her, I guess. Of all the nights for Hermione to be stuck at the office..." Neville chuckled, and Ron glared at him. "Just let Minerva know that she's gone, but I've got her? I'll owl her when I know more."
"I will. Floo me in the morning, let me know if she's all right?" Ron's gaze softened. It was a good thing Neville was a professor at Hogwarts. Ron always felt better knowing he would watch over his children, nieces, and nephews.
"Of course. I'll let you know as soon as I get to my office."
"Thanks, Ron. Good luck." Neville added, as he disappeared.
I'm going to need it, Ron thought, as he made his way up the stairs.
He knocked hesitantly on the door to his daughter's room.
"Rosie, love, can I come in?" He tried to be as gentle as possible. It wasn't that he was afraid of his daughter, really, but when she was angry she reminded him so much of her mother that... well, he was afraid of his daughter, really.
"Go away!" She shouted, and she sounded as if she had been crying.
On one hand, Ron hoped that she had ditched the boy she was dating. On the other hand, if it made her upset enough to come home, maybe it wasn't a good thing.
"Rose, you can't just barge into Professor Longbottom's office and floo home without expecting me to ask questions."
"Professor Longbottom deserved it. I'm mad at him, too."
"Yeah, he mentioned that," Ron answered. "Care to tell me why?"
Ron jumped back as the door in front of him flew open.
"This," she snarled, shoving a book into his face, "is why!" Ron read the title of the book quickly, as his daughter continued to rant.
The Dark Side: The Rise and Fall of You-Know-Who's Closest Companions by Rita bloody Skeeter. Shite.
"You told me that you and Scorpius's father were old school rivals, and that he was a snarky git. Like it was nothing! Like he was just some kid you didn't get along with! I thought you were just being overprotective! You didn't tell me that... that..." she threw the book on the ground and began to cry.
"Shhh... it's ok Rosie, come here, let's sit down." He led his sobbing daughter to her bed wishing yet again that Hermione could have just come home early tonight. "Rosie, who gave you this book?"
"I.. got.. it.. from... the... library.." She gasped, "after Jack Smith said... he said..."
"Rosie, please, relax." His daughter shuddered, and he rubbed a hand up and down her back. "What did Jack say?"
"Well, he keeps trying to get me to go to Hogsmeade with him, even though me and Scorpius have... had been me and Scorpius since before Christmas." She shuddered yet again before continuing, "He.. he said that if... if I would get off with a Malfoy after everything his family had done to my parents then I was a disloyal slag, and he didn't want to be with me anyway. And Scorpius... well, he seemed really upset, and he was ignoring my questions, and I had no idea what Jack was going on about so I went to the library, and I found that bloody book." She was still breathing heavily, "Why didn't you tell me, dad?"
"Because it doesn't matter-" Ron started.
"Like hell, it doesn't!" she spat, standing and pacing the way Ginny always did when she was angry. Ron briefly hoped that his sister hadn't taught Rose how to perform a Bat-Bogey Hex. "Do you know what they've done? What am I saying, of course you do. YOU WERE THERE! You're Ronald bloody Weasley, decorated war hero. You fought his family, Dad!"
"His family, Rosie, not him-"
"What's the difference?"
"It makes all the difference-"
"The scar on Mum's neck," Rosie glared at him the same way her mother did when she was about to ask a question she already knew the answer to, "How did she get it?"
"During the war, you know that."
"Not when, I know when. How? How did she get it? Who gave it to her? Where was she?"
Ron didn't answer her. Ron and Hermione had kept most of the specific details of their involvement in The Second Wizarding War from their children. They knew that their parents and families and friends had fought and many of them had died. They knew the version of events the history books presented, but Ron and his wife had agreed that the darkest days of Harry's mission were best kept between the three of them.
"I know, Dad. The book... it says... it says that it happened in his house. That his grandmum's sisternearly... nearly killed her." He looked up at his daughter. Her eyes shone with tears.
"Those were dark days, Rosie." He choked, hoping he could manage to not cry in front of his little girl. "We didn't tell you everything because some things are difficult to talk about."
Rose was sitting next to him again, but he refused to look at her until he blinked a few more times.
"You should have told me, Dad. Scorpius... he knew. That's why he got upset, when Jack said... said that to me. He knew, and he didn't tell me either. How could Scorpius even look at me, let alone..." she paused, a Weasley blush creeping up her cheeks, "...let alone date me, knowing. Knowing what they've done." Ron pushed one fatherly instinct aside and tried very hard not to think about what exactly Scorpius Malfoy had done besides look at his daughter as he focused on the more important issue at hand.
"What they've done, Rosie. He didn't do it. They did. We can't be held accountable for the sins of our fathers. Think about it- when people assume that you want to be an Auror just because you're my daughter, or that you're going to pull pranks on them because George is your Uncle, or that you must be a good Quidditch player like your Aunt Ginny, how does that make you feel?"
"Angry," Rose mumbled.
"See?"
"It's not the same though, dad. His family is evil. They killed people just for... just for being muggle-born, like Mum. There's a picture of this statue in the book, that was in the Ministry-"
"I've seen it," Ron stopped his daughter, "in person. Please don't elaborate."
"But you see what I mean? What if... what if he's like them? He is a Slytherin..."
"Rose, we raised you better than that-"
"But they all were, weren't they? All of those Death Eaters-"
"No, they weren't. The one who let Jamie, Al, and Lil's grandparents die was a Gryffindor, just like the friends he betrayed. Isn't that in your book?" Ron bit his tongue, hating the harsh tone he had taken with his daughter.
"I dunno," she said softly. "I only read the bits about the Malfoys."
"Did the book say that when... when we were taken to Malfoy Manor, that Scorpius's father hesitated when his aunt asked him to identify us so they could turn us in, even though he knew who we were? Did it say that, after your Uncle Harry saved Draco's life, that Narcissa Malfoy saved Uncle Harry's?" Rose didn't answer him. "Rosie, I'm not going to tell you that the Malfoys haven't done horrible, awful things to people I love... but it's not as simple as you're making it sound."
The sat in silence for a few minutes. Rose flopped backward, laying flat across the bed, feet still on the floor. Her dad joined her, and they stared at the mural on her ceiling together. Luna Scamander had painted the ceilings in each of Ron and Hermione's and Harry and Ginny's children's bedrooms. Rose's looked just like the beach at Shell Cottage, with all of her cousins splashing in the water.
"Neville said you ditched Scorpius." Ron said, quietly.
"I... I had to. It just didn't make sense for us to be together after I knew."
"What does that mean?"
"He's a Malfoy, and I'm a Weasley. We just... we just didn't seem to fit together, after everything. And I guess I just figured... well, he probably knows everything in that bloody book, he probably agrees with it, and he probably would rather be with some pure-blood dimbo-"
"Do you realize how many 'probablies' were in that sentence, love? Did you... well, did you even try to talk to him about it?" I must be mad, Ron thought. Am I actually trying to convince my daughter to give her Malfoy ex-boyfriend a second chance?
"What would be the point? How could he possibly want me? What must his parents think? Dad, it just doesn't make sense. There are obviously better matches for the both of us... he should probably just date the Zabini girl like his dad wanted him to, and there are a few muggle-born boys in my year that I could take up with, and..."
He couldn't help it. Ron started laughing.
"It's not funny, Dad!" Rose was sitting up now, arms crossed, glaring at her father just like her mother used to.
"I'm sorry, Rosie, I can't help it... you know, you are your mother's daughter... but you remind me so much of myself sometimes." This didn't seem to appease Rose. "Did your book say anything about what Uncle Harry, Mum, and I were doing that year?"
"No, but I know a little. I mean, I know that you didn't go to Hogwarts with Aunt Ginny and Professor Longbottom. You've told me that you spent that year hunting for tools to help you destroy Tom Riddle."
"Right... well, we were in hiding, mostly. And we were searching for things, things that we didn't understand. We were operating on Albus Dumbledore's orders, but he had been killed, and we barely knew what we were doing..." Ron trailed off as his daughter stared him, expectantly. She was curious, he knew, because he was about to tell her a story she had never heard before and she loved new information almost as much as her mother did. "Rosie," he continued, "this isn't really something I'm proud of, or that I like to talk about-"
"A secret, dad. I got it." She was grinning, much like she did when she was little and he would share things with her that made her different than the dozens of other Weasleys.
"Right. A secret. Well anyway... I had gotten myself splinched, apparating away from some baddies and I was in bad shape, and we were out in the wilderness and your mum and Uncle Harry spent a lot of time foraging and researching while I was stuck recovering in the tent. You see, Mum and I were just friends at this point, mostly because I was a daft boy," Rose giggled, and it was Ron's turn to glare. "Do you want to hear the story or not?"
"I'm sorry, go on," Rose answered, trying not to smile.
"Anyway, there was a lot of dark magic about, and it got into my head a bit. More than a bit. I managed to convince myself that your mum and Uncle Harry were off having some kind of affair and they were trying to get rid of me, and that I couldn't go home because Grandmum didn't want me around anymore either. I should have known it wasn't true, but everyone had always told me that it made sense for them to be together because they were best friends and she was a genius and he was a hero and they would be a perfect golden couple."
"Dad, that's ridiculous-"
"But it didn't make sense, Rosie. I mean, I figured that we just didn't fit together, and she probably knew that I was crazy about her and she probably didn't say anything because she didn't fancy me back, and she probably would have loved Harry more since everyone else did, and..."
"Okay, okay, I get it. No more probablies. So what did you do?" Ron swallowed, hoping his daughter would not hate him for what he said next.
"I left."
"You what?"
"I left. The dark magic got the best of me, and all I could think about was the two of them together while I sat around helplessly hoping that my family members were all right- family members I was sure didn't care about me anymore, mind you- and I hit rock bottom and I stormed out. I was your age, Rosie, and I was off in the middle of nowhere fighting a war that I didn't think I was going to survive. I was 17 and I was scared, and I was weak, and I left my best friends. To this day, it's my biggest regret."
Rose didn't answer him. He swallowed the lump in his throat and he blinked several times before he continued.
"But as soon as I figured out how- which is a different story for a different day- I went back, and I faced that fear, quite literally actually... and I overcame it, and we were one step closer to winning. It didn't make sense, Rose... we were three kids who shouldn't have been off on our own fighting a powerful dark wizard, and we certainly shouldn't have been able to accomplish what we did, and maybe your mum and I shouldn't have ended up together, if you thought logically about it... but that's how it all worked out, because we chose to make it happen. Rosie, it's our choices that matter. Who we choose to be. Not what should happen, not what makes sense, not what our family members have done before us... certainly not our last names. If this is what you choose- to ditch him, because you really don't think you can get past what members of his family have done to members of yours- that's all right. But if it's not... if you're doing it because you think that your mum and I want you to, or his parents want you to, or because of something you read in a book... well, I just think that you know better than that."
"He must be furious with me." Rosie said, softly.
"So was your mother, when I first came back. She nearly beat the stuffing out of me. Uncle Harry actually had to cast a shield charm to keep her at bay." Ron smiled at the memory.
"I... I said some nasty things."
"I have too, Rosie. I have a feeling though, based on what you've told me about Scorpius, that he'll be willing to listen to an apology."
"I'll tell him it's all Jack Smith's fault. Bloody instigator." Rose grinned, and Ron did too.
"How about this- you tell Jack Smith to keep his nose out of other people's business, unless he fancies being on the wrong end of a Weasley woman's Bat-Bogey Hex. And if he seems confused at all, you tell him to ask his dear father what it feels like."
"Oh Dad, don't tell me-" Ron cut her off.
"Let's just say your Aunt Ginny and ol' Zacharias didn't really get along when we were at Hogwarts... mostly because he was a cowardly tosspot and Ginny just doesn't stand for that kind of nonsense." Rose giggled, and Ron reminded himself to complain about Zacharias Smith more often.
"You and Mum..." Rose started, "you weren't, well, you and Mum till after The Battle of Hogwarts, right?" Rose asked. She and her father had resumed their positions reclining on her bed to stare at the ceiling.
"Yeah... kind of during, really. You see, your mother just couldn't resist me anymore and threw herself at me right in the middle of a war. Harry nearly had to drag her off me. Crazy woman, she is. Must be where you get it from."
"Why do I have a feeling that Mum is going to tell me a completely different version of that story?"
"No idea, Rosie. That's exactly how it happened. Honest." They both laughed.
"Aunt Ginny says that the two of you have fought like an old married couple since you were eleven."
"Yeah, I s'pose that's true. We met on the train. I was hanging out with Uncle Harry eating sweets, and she was being bloody insufferable as usual..."
"Oi," Rose answered, hitting him in the shoulder, "don't talk about my mum like that!" Ron laughed and feigned to be gravely injured as his daughter continued. "Al says that Scor and I are like that too... that everyone else knows we've been dating since we met but we've only just realized it."
"It kind of sounded like that, from the letters you've sent home." Ron sighed, resigning himself to the fact that this Scorpius Malfoy character was not going anywhere anytime soon.
"If... if I manage to get him to take me back, d'you think I can bring him 'round for dinner? I'd really like you and Mum to get to know him. I think... no, I know he's different than the rest of them, and I just want you to see it for yourselves."
"Of course, Rosie. During the Easter hols, maybe."
"Yeah, I'd like that." She yawned, and Ron glanced at his watch. It had gotten late. "Is it all right if I stay here tonight? I promise I'll go back well before my first class starts." Rose asked, and he forgot for a moment that she was a grown woman now, not a little girl.
"Of course. I've spoken with Neville about it, and I will owl Headmistress McGonagall in the morning. You will be apologizing to Professor Longbottom when you go back tomorrow, and serving whatever detention he gives you. You have no reason to be cross with him."
"I know, I know... I just thought, after all the time I spent with him, he probably should have told me too."
Ron took a deep breath, and made a promise that he hoped he'd be able to keep.
"Rose, in the future, if you have questions... about the past... I want you to ask me, or your mum, or Aunt Ginny or Uncle Harry... or Professor Longbottom," Ron added, knowing he could trust Neville. "I know you're not a little girl anymore, and I promise that we will try to be truthful with you. I just need you to understand... the reason we fought... the reason that your Uncle Fred and Teddy's parents and everyone else gave their lives, was so people wouldn't be judged by anything other than who they choose to be. We fought so that people would respect Grandmum and Grandad Granger, and so your mother could head a department at the Ministry of Magic. And most of all, we fought so that we didn't have to be afraid to be ourselves. Your mother and I keep things from you and from Hugo because we don't want you to make decisions based on our experiences, good or bad. We gave up a lot so that you wouldn't have to- so that you could live your own lives. You understand that, don't you?"
"Yes, I think so. I'm really sorry, Dad."
"It's all right. Just get some sleep. I'll tell your mother that you weren't feeling well and that Neville let you come home for the night."
"I love you, Dad" Rose said, hugging him fiercely.
"I love you too, Rosie." As he walked to her doorway he stopped, and added. "Now please, don't make me regret convincing you to give that boy another chance. No shenanigans, you hear me?"
Rose rolled her eyes, and he couldn't help but think she really was her mother's daughter.
"Yes, Dad." She said with a smile before kicking him out of her room
As Ron closed his daughter's door quietly, he was surprised to find his wife in the hallway outside her room. He was even more surprised when she threw her arms around him, and he could feel her tears through his thin t-shirt.
"How long have you been home?" He asked, trying not to cry himself.
"Long enough to know that you are the best father that our little girl could ever ask for." His heart swelled, and he bent his head to kiss her deeply. As they turned and walked down the stairs to the living room together, he couldn't help but ask her:
"Where were you two hours ago when your insane daughter came crashing through the living room by way of Neville's fireplace?"
"Oh, so when she's insane, she's my daughter?"
"Of course she is! Didn't you hear how this whole thing started? She just had to go to the library and get herself a bloody book. Does that sound like something my daughter would do?"
"I think you established when she started talking in 'probablies' that she was your daughter."
"Oh... so you heard that bit, then." Ron said, and his ears turned scarlet, even after all they had been through together.
"You don't give yourself enough credit, Ron. You know that wasn't just dark magic hanging around, it was a piece of an evil soul that you were wearing around your neck-"
"I know, but I wasn't going to share that bit with her. D'ya think she thinks less of me? Should I not have told her that I left you?" His worry faded when she smiled at him, tears still in her eyes.
"Of course she doesn't. You do realize that you just told your daughter you approved of her relationship with Scorpius Malfoy, don't you? After she confronted you about... well, a lot of things that we'd all rather not be confronted about. I don't think I have ever been so proud of you in my entire life, and I'm sure Rosie feels the same way." Ron nodded, not sure of how else to respond.
"She's going to be all right," he said, finally. She's brilliant, just like you."
"And her heart's just as big as yours," his wife answered.
"Yeah. We should floo Harry and Ginny in the morning. Tell them to answer her questions, if she asks them anything. I've already told Neville I'll contact him. I'd rather she hear it from us than keep reading that wretched woman's nonsense."
"I'm going to owl Madam Pince in the morning to scold her for even shelving it."
"I'm sorry that she read about that night." Ron said quietly, and he knew he didn't need to elaborate. The few times they spoke about what had happened in Malfoy Manor, 'that night' was the only way they had described it.
"It's my fault. I should have told her myself. I know she's not a little girl anymore, but sometimes I just can't bring myself to tell her about the awful things we've been through."
"Just think though, at her age we were going through awful things. I'm glad reading about them is the worst thing that's happened to her."
"When did you get so wise?" Hermione asked.
"When you decided to work late and leave me home with your raving lunatic of a daughter," Ron answered. Hermione elbowed him sharply in the side.
"Oi woman, what was that for?"
"You'll have to excuse me," his wife said with a grin, "I am just being... what was it? Oh right: 'bloody insufferable, as usual'." Hermione tried to glare at him, but it wasn't long until they both dissolved into laughter as the fire died down.
Yes, Ron thought, Malfoy or no Malfoy- Rose was going to be all right. They all were.