"Things have got worse."
Ron sat down opposite Harry in the Leaky Cauldron, proffering a drink. He looked like he needed it. His friend had turned up at the shop at the start of his lunch break, insisting he needed to speak to him.
"I couldn't tell you in front of Ginny or Hermione," Harry continued. "They'd have to be all noble about it."
Ron had a terrible feeling he knew which words were about to come out of Harry's mouth next. Instead of speaking however, Harry handed over a piece of parchment.
Ron began to read, skipping over the niceties until he got to the crux of it.
"Bloody hell."
"I know."
Both men stared at the parchment for a moment, taking sips from their pints.
"What are you going to do about it?"
"What can I do about it?"
They returned to their drinks, and their silence.
Their glasses were half empty before they resumed their conversation.
"I guess you're regretting saving his life now?" Ron joked weakly.
Harry gave a hollow laugh. "I might do yet."
A worried look crossed his face and he went to speak, before reigning the thought back in.
"What is it?"
"Nothing."
Ron wasn't to be so easily stopped, however. Auror training had made him a powerful interrogator. Eventually his stare wore Harry down.
"You don't think Malfoy will persuade Scorpius to treat Albus badly, just because he's my son? Pretend to be his friend, then screw him over somehow?"
Ron stared at the amber liquid in his glass, choosing his words carefully. "He's been quiet for years. If he was out for revenge, surely he would have done something by now? He's civil to us when he sees us around, he's disassociated himself with the old crowd; maybe the rumours are true and he really is a changed man? Besides, he could never have anticipated this, that Albus would have..." He stopped abruptly. What had Hermione said? Don't bring attention to it.
Harry swallowed the rest of his pint. "We're the reason his father ended up in Azkaban. He must hate me. We ruined his family, we –"
"You saved his life. You made sure that Narcissa got her pardon," Ron said forcefully. Desperately he tried to think about what his wife would say at this moment. Something eloquent that included the words unity, equality and coercion, probably. What she wouldn't do was launch into a tirade about what an arse Malfoy was, what atrocities his family had caused...
"Another drink?"
"I think we need it."
...
"Let's say they stay friends..." Harry began, four pints in, when he was much more willing to share the thoughts that plagued him. "What happens when they find out what happened in the war? Because they will, sooner or later. What happens when Albus finds out that his best friend's grandfather almost got his mother killed? Or even when he finds out how much we hated each other? How on earth is he going to cope with that?"
Ron pulled himself from his darkest thoughts; those screams within Malfoy Manor that still gave him occasional nightmares. He tried to put himself in Harry's shoes for a moment, thinking what it would be like if Rosie had told him she had made friends with that boy. He shuddered.
"Then you tell him that times have changed. That they were dark times and things have changed a lot since then. That you worked bloody hard to make the world a better place, that we all did. That day after day people have to deal with the consequences of that war...but that in the years that followed we found peace and we have all learnt to live together."
Ron could feel himself turning green with the sentiment. They were Hermione's words, Percy's maybe, but definitely not his. He could never completely forgive them, the other side, for what they had done. How he would love to be left in a room with Malfoy, to be able to scream at him, to punch him, to break him, to punish him for what his side had done to Hermione, to his mother, to Fred.
Harry gave a hollow laugh. "You believe that less than I do. Isn't it all a lie, Ron? I can't forgive him, not completely. Or at least I can't forgive his family. The family that tortured and killed so many people we knew..."
Ron swallowed hard, desperately trying to say something purposeful. He thought of the small blonde boy he had seen standing on the platform two days earlier; a boy who looked so much like his father. No, not completely like his father. There had been a moment as the train was pulling away when he had broken eye contact with Rosie, just for a second or two, and he had seen the boy again. He stood out, because he was one of the only ones not waving. Rosie's face had been a picture, nervous yes, but so full of excitement, ecstatic to finally be on her way to a place she knew so much about. Scorpius hadn't shared that look. The boy had looked dejected, disappointed. Ron found himself wondering what Malfoy had said to him before he got on the train, whether he had bothered to stay and wave him off.
"Albus isn't exactly like you, so there's nothing to say Scorpius will be just like Malfoy either. I guess we can't blame the kid for what his father is like. Think about Sirius, or Andromeda...they came from families steeped in Dark Magic and they turned out okay. I reckon Albus is a pretty good judge of character. Maybe young Scorpius is alright after all?"
Harry looked at Ron curiously. "Sometimes you sound exactly like Hermione. It's slightly disconcerting."
Ron shrugged, feeling rather pleased with himself. If only his wife were here to witness this. Surely she would be impressed that he was being so compassionate. Who had the emotional range of a teaspoon now?
"Besides, if Scorpius or Malfoy do something you don't like, you've got plenty of witches and wizards at your disposal to do something about it!" Ron's eyes twinkled. "Surely your job must come with some perks?"
Harry gave a small smile. "Fair point." He took another sip of his drink. "You know one thing that is making me feel slightly better about this? Picturing the look on Malfoy's face when Scorpius tells him Albus is his new best friend."
Despite their underlying concerns, it took quite a while for both men to stop laughing.
