A/N: This is written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition Round 3. The prompt for me, as keeper, was 'Write about your OTP having an argument.' I wrote a short one shot about Ron and Hermione. Enjoy!

Team: Tutshill Tornados

Position: Keeper

A Tale of Roses

Hermione was reading one of her favorite muggle books: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. She liked it because there were so many different elements to it. Love, terror, happiness. They all coincided with each other to make a beautiful story about an old man and his daughter.

Daughters. Hermione's daughter, Rose, came to her mind. She was smart, outgoing, beautiful. And now she was dating Scorpius Malfoy. Hermione had known for a few days after Rose had written her a letter, confessing her relationship with Scorpius. Hermione had written back with her support.

While Hermione was all for Rose's new relationship, she knew that Ron would go ballistic when he found out. Not that she planned on telling him. She figured that Hugo would write them sometime with the news as soon as he found out. Of course, Hermione hadn't expected him to write for at least another week; however, the same day she read A Tale of Two Cities for the fourth time, Hugo sent his letter.

"Have you heard?" Ron came bustling into his and Hermione's bedroom and all but threw a piece of parchment onto Hermione's lap. She had been reading peacefully up to this point but now sighed and picked up the letter.

After scanning it quickly, and recognizing the story, Hermione placed it on the bedside table. "I've heard, Ron."

"I can't believe she would-"

"She would what, Ron?" said Hermione a bit defensively. She didn't think there was anything wrong with her daughter dating the son of someone she wasn't particularly fond of.

"Be with – with that boy!"

Hermione raised an eyebrow. There was no doubt in her mind that Rose's actions had shocked her husband to the core. After a moment of watching Ron pace furiously across the room, she said, "She's allowed to date whoever she wants, isn't she? We can't hold prejudices against someone for their family name, Ron."

"Yes, we can. And we will," said Ron. He had stopped pacing now and stood facing out the window towards the countryside.

Hermione stood from the chair she had previously been sitting in and said, "No, we won't. Scorpius could be completely different from his father. And from what I've heard, Malfoy is different now, too."

"How could you defend him when his father called you a…"

"A mudblood?" finished Hermione. "It's just a name, Ron. It doesn't have to mean anything."

"B-but-" spluttered Ron. Hermione held up a hand to stop him.

"Rose is her own person; even if we told her not to date him, she would. There's nothing we can do about it."

"Why are you so supportive of this?" demanded Ron after a moment of silence. His eyes narrowed suspiciously at his wife and Hermione got the feeling he knew that she had known about Rose's relationship before Hugo sent the letter.

Better to just come clean now, she thought. Hermione wasn't the kind of person to keep secrets or lie unless necessary. He already knows about the dating, what's the harm if he knew Rose told me? None.

"Rose wrote to me a couple days ago. She told me about Scorpius and how nice he is," admitted Hermione. Ron raised his eyebrows and stopped pacing. Hermione realized she hadn't noticed he was pacing until just barely.

"Stop pacing, Ron," said Hermione. "It's not that big of a deal."

"Why won't she tell me things like this?" Ron asked to no one in particular.

"Because you react like it's the end of the world, which it isn't. Plus, I'm her mother. She always tells me things like this."

Ron became very quiet very suddenly. He wouldn't even look at Hermione and she took at as a assign that he was done. Hermione reached out to him and patted his back firmly. She said, "Rose still loves you; she always will. You're her father and no one can replace you. I love you, too."

"I know. I love you both, but why him? He's nothing like us; his family-"

"Enough, with the Malfoys, Ron. Someone's going to think you're in love with them or something, at this rate."

Ron made a disgusted face at Hermione and she gave him a quick smile to show she was joking. His face let up and he reached for her hand to hold.

"Sorry, I just can't imagine my – our – Rosie dating someone whose family isn't anything like us. I want her to be happy, but I also want her to make good decisions. And I don't know that that's going to happen with him around."

"You can say his name, Ron. It isn't a taboo."

Ron shot Hermione a playful glare. "Malfoy just isn't the kind of guy I would have thought she'd be into."

"Scorpius," said Hermione, emphasizing his first name, "apparently is. And I invited him over for a couple days during Christmas break."

"What?" Ron's shocked voice nearly shouted. "You invited him over to our house? But-"

"It'll give us an opportunity to get to know him better; Rose seemed pretty serious about him when she talked to me," Hermione said, trying to calm Ron down. "Plus it's only for a couple of days. Not very long at all."

Ron grunted and mumbled something about it indeed being a very long time but otherwise kept his mouth shut.

That evening, Hermione got Ron to write to Rose about her dating Scorpius. He wasn't one to write down his feelings very often, but he managed to send the message that he loved her and supported any decision she made. Hermione could just imagine Rose's surprised face when she read the letter the next morning.

Hermione's mind fluttered back to A Tale of Two Cities, where Lucie Manette married her love with her father's blessing even though he had inadvertently caused so much of his pain. Hermione smiled at the thought of Rose marrying her true love. Hermione had, after all.