(A/N: I intended for this chapter to be the one where Rose and Scorpius discusses all the Weasleys, so I could sort of present my idea of the whole Weasley clan. Unfortunately, Rose and Scorpius had other plans...)
Rose was just settling into her favorite armchair near the fire when somebody knocked on her door. Three sharp raps. Her heartbeat immediately quickened. There was only one person who knocked like that, and she was glad to see him, even when he was interrupting what should have been some alone-time with her favorite novel.
"I still think this is a bad idea," Scorpius Malfoy informed her as soon as she opened the door.
What a surprise. "Oh, hello, Scorpius!" Rose exclaimed in a fake-cheery voice, ignoring his first comment. Not even married yet, and it's already unnecessary to say hello, even after three days of not seeing each other. "I'm just so delighted to see you here this afternoon! And with such lovely, heartwarming words of greeting too!"
Stepping into the apartment, Scorpius looked at his fiancée quizzically. Then a smirk widened suddenly across his face, and, grabbing Rose by the waist, he pulled her face up close to his and proceeded to kiss her so thoroughly she could scarcely breathe.
"Hello, love," he whispered in her ear as he drew back.
"Hi," she responded, her voice still ragged as she tried to catch her breath. Her hair was unruly, her cheeks red, a slightly dazed, lazy smile stretched across her face. I get to come home to this every day, Scorpius realized with a jolt of pleasure.
As suddenly as he had grabbed her, Scorpius let go. "That heartwarming enough for you?" he teased his fiancée with a grin.
"Shut up," she retorted, scowling. She was still a little too light-headed to think of anything better to respond with.
Scorpius had the patience to wait until both of them were sitting on the sofa before he reverted back to his old topic. "I still think this is a completely horrible idea," he reminded Rose.
She snorted. "Honestly, Scorpius, these are my parents you're going to meet, not monsters. I'm sure nothing that horrible will happen."
"Wrong!" Scorpius firmly countered. "For two reasons." He held up his fingers to illustrate. "One – your father used to be a very scary Auror, and your mother is Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Together, they can kill me. Easily. Two – it's not just your parents, is it? It's your whole entire family! Which consists of even more scary people!"
He was getting quite agitated; Rose looked at him in concern. "Well – yes, but – "
"Weasley, I am outnumbered here," Scorpius interrupted her. "I don't even know most of them, and I bet I'm going to say something wrong, do something that upsets them." He looked at Rose, frustration written all over his face. "As if they need more reason to hate me," he added bitterly.
"Stop it, Scorpius," Rose told him sternly. "You're psyching yourself out. Remember at Hogwarts when you told me to stop psyching myself out before Quidditch matches? Maybe you should take your own advice now."
"Yes, well, that was for a bloody stupid Quidditch match, not for having dinner with a mob of people who hate my guts!" Scorpius told her irritably.
She ignored him. "You'll be fine. You're the king of schmoozing up to people," she reminded him, her eyes twinkling mischievously.
Scorpius rolled his eyes. "You need to know people before you schmooze up to them, Rose. Which, incidentally, is not what I do. I merely… exude my natural charisma."
"You exude something all right, but I'm not sure it's called charisma," Rose told him mock-scornfully.
"You already used that one in seventh year, you know," Scorpius grinned at her.
"I remember," Rose smiled at him.
And for a moment there was silence as both of them reminisced.
"By the way," Rose finally shook off her reverie. "As for not knowing most of my family, I can help you out with that, you know."
Scorpius raised an eyebrow, which Rose took to mean Go on. It had taken some time, but Rose had ceased to wonder at how expressive a raised eyebrow could be – at least on Scorpius Malfoy's face.
"Well, I'll just teach you all about them. Like a class. It'll be fun!" Rose looked at Scorpius happily, eyes shining. "And that way, you'll know what to talk about, what to avoid, etc."
His fiancée had had strange ideas before, Scorpius acknowledged, but this had to win the prize for most absurd. "A class on Weasleys…" Malfoy chuckled to himself. "You know, Rosie, I could make so many jokes out of what my father would say to such an idea, I'm not even going to start. It's too much of a temptation."
"Right, then. I'm taking that as a yes," Rose cheerily informed him. "Let's get started!"
Scorpius looked up at her in alarm. "Start now?" Memorizing a family tree hadn't exactly been his plan of choice for the afternoon. But he was smart enough to realize from Rose's excited face that resistance was futile.
"Yes! Here, we can use the wall as a board!" And Rose levitated a big floral print out of the way to reveal a broad expanse of cream-colored walls. Muttering under her breath, she waved her wand back and forth across the wall, and when she finally stepped away, there was a beautiful family tree, complete with little portraits and dates of birth and death.
Scorpius stared at the image for a moment. It was very pretty, all gold and silver. It was also big. Just from a glance, he could tell there were more than twenty people all there.
"You're kidding me!" he exclaimed aloud, and Rose turned towards him with a questioning glance. "All these people are going to be there? Weasley, this isn't a family, this is a crowd. A crowd of – of – murderous red-haired villagers who want to kill the Beast! Which, in this scenario, is me!"
Rose put her hands on her hips. "First of all, we're not all red-haired. Only most of us. And second, you really need to stop being so dramatic. Maybe I shouldn't have introduced you to Muggle TV…"
"Seriously, Rose," Scorpius turned a pleading face towards her. "Are all these people going to be at the dinner?"
Rose bit her lip. "Well…" she stalled nervously. "Actually, Lysander and his family are also going to be there."
"What?" Scorpius stared. Lysander Scamander was one of his closest friends, ever since they had both been sorted into Ravenclaw. A lot of the interaction between Scorpius and Rose at Hogwarts had happened because Lysander was both his friend and a close family friend of the Weasleys. Which raised the question - would he side with the Weasleys, or help Scorpius escape?
"Well, his brother Lorcan's engaged to Molly, see?" Rose explained. "Plus, Aunt Luna's a good friend of my parents. They fought together, you know."
"Oh," Scorpius nodded. He had met Lysander's mother, and rather liked her quirky personality. At least there might be one person there on his side. "Anyone else I should know about?" he asked, only half-serious.
It was a bit of a shock when Rose nodded immediately, saying "Yes. Uncle Neville and Aunt Hannah."
Scorpius shook his head immediately. "All right, now you've got to be joking." But Rose shook her head again, looking apprehensive. "Uncle Neville?" Scorpius asked incredulously. He quickly scanned the family tree on the wall, but didn't see a Neville anywhere. "Who's he?"
Trying to keep her voice casual, Rose replied, "He's Professor Longbottom to you. He isn't related to us. But he's a good friend of my parents too."
Scorpius expelled the air out of his lungs in a long whooshing groan and buried his face in his hands. Professor Longbottom had been the one teacher at Hogwarts who never quite warmed up to him. Although he had never harassed Scorpius or treated him unfairly, he had also never congratulated Scorpius on doing well or shown much approval for him. He had been the one to give Scorpius his first and only 'Poor' on an essay, something Scorpius had never quite made peace with.
Rose looked at her fiancé's face worriedly. He was taking this much harder than she had originally thought. "Why are you so upset by this?" she asked softly.
"Because, Rose," Scorpius said irritably. "This is your family. The only people in the world who can stop us from getting married, and, as it so happens, every single one of them all hate me already! Even though they don't even know me. And there's really nothing much I can do to change it, because what they hate is my name!"
Rose tried to interrupt, but Scorpius cut her off. "Don't tell me your family's not prejudiced, because it's not like Weasleys have ever been overly fond of Malfoys. They've hated each other for at least three generations!" Seeing Rose indignantly open her mouth, Malfoy hurriedly added, "I'm not saying my family's guiltless in this – they're both at fault, it's a stupid rivalry, etc. But it's still – it just – it just kills me to think that all that's keeping us apart is a bloody stupid last name!"
In the long silence after his words, Scorpius began to regret his outburst. It was so…melodramatic, not to mention clichéd. Not a very Malfoyish thing to do. Malfoys prided themselves on their composure.
"All right," Rose finally spoke, her voice a little hoarse. She wasn't used to seeing Scorpius this worked up, and even less used to hearing him openly admit to caring so much about what happened to them.
Scorpius looked up quickly. "All right, what?" he asked suspiciously.
"All right, we won't let stupid last names keep us apart," Rose told him mildly. "If, and only if, our families don't agree to let us get married, I will elope with you and we will get married anyway"
There was another long silence. Then –
"You're joking," Scorpius said flatly.
"Am not!" Rose immediately cried, annoyed.
"You've lost your marbles then. You have no idea what you're saying," Scorpius said, sagely shaking his head.
"The hell I don't!" Rose snorted, affronted. "I said I'd marry you no matter what our parents think, and that's what I'm going to do! I'm not joking, and I'm perfectly sane, thank you very much!"
The expression on Scorpius's face was changing. Rose watched a glint come into his eye with growing trepidation.
"Really," he said at last, his tone suspiciously mild.
"I said it, didn't I?" Rose snapped, feeling flustered all of a sudden.
"You just agreed to marry me. No matter what," Scorpius clarified.
"Y – Yes. Well, only if our families object. Well, only if our families object too much," Rose stammered, correcting herself twice, and feeling like a fool. She could feel a blush creeping up her neck.
Scorpius snorted. "In other words, we're definitely eloping. Which means…" That all-too-familiar smirk was growing across his face, and Rose wasn't surprised to find herself suddenly pulled into his lap. "There's really no need to waste time learning any family trees." Rose made a sound of protest and tried to wriggle away, but he tightened his arms around her body. "Personally, I can think of much better things to do with my time, can't you?" he whispered teasingly in her ear.
His lips pressed against the cool white skin of her jaw, just under her ear, and made a burning trail of kisses back to her lips. Rose knew with the rational part of her mind that she should protest, she should stop, but it felt so good to relax into him like this, to just focus on feeling, that it was quite a while before she could find the willpower to pull away.
"Oh, come on!" Scorpius groaned, as he felt Rose's lips leave his. It had been three days since he last got to do this, and wasn't this much more fun than learning some stupid family tree?
Apparently, Rose disagreed on this point. Even though her breath was still coming in unsteady gasps, even though her lips were still slightly pouted, her eyes were determined. "The deal's off unless you actually try to make this work."
"Great," Scorpius muttered, although he wasn't at all surprised. Rose was nothing if not pig-headed when she had her mind set on something.
"Oh, come on, it won't be that bad," Rose pleaded. "I promise I'll make it worth your while." A mischievous smile curled up the corners of her mouth.
That look was enough to set Scorpius's heart pounding. His resolve wavered, and finally, with a sigh, he admitted defeat. "You know, Weasley, I'm not sure this is what it means to 'keep your friends close, and your enemies closer'."
Rose correctly interpreted this as a yes, and with a last quick kiss of thanks, she got up and detangled herself from his reluctant arms.
"Where should we start?" she asked brightly.
"With your father," Scorpius replied promptly, correctly assuming Ron Weasley to be the prime adversary.
"No, no, I think we should start from the top," Rose replied vaguely, before tapping her wand quickly against a picture. It grew to reveal a picture of a thin wizard with hair that was more silver than red, and a little bald patch in the middle of his head. The caption underneath read: Arthur Weasley, 1950 - .
"This," Rose cheerily announced, "is my grandfather."
Scorpius looked more carefully at the picture. Yes, he could see the man had the same blue eyes as Rose.
"He used to be in the Ministry. Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office. He retired three years ago, though, now he just sort of spends the day tinkering with all his Muggle junk in the garage." Rose chuckled. "He loves Muggles, you know. Thinks they're fascinating, the way they get along without magic."
"So I've heard," Scorpius replied drily, and wisely refrained from mentioning the other descriptions of Arthur Weasley he'd heard from home.
"Yeah, Granddad's a dear. He's really very easygoing, you know. We – we shouldn't have too much trouble convincing him to agree." The last bit was more lie than truth – Rose hadn't mentioned the choice words Arthur Weasley used on occasion (when his wife wasn't around to shush him for using such language before children) to express his opinion of the Malfoys.
But Scorpius knew the truth without being told – after all, he had often heard his own grandfather's opinions of the Weasleys. And yet, he did not attempt to contradict Rose; he only nodded mutely, his jaw oddly set.
Rose tapped another picture on the wall, and up rose the face of Molly Prewett, 1949 -.
"This is Grandmum," Rose smiled. "She's amazing. And so's her food, wait till you taste it. She's always trying to stuff more food down our throats, says we're all too skinny, even Louis." Scorpius had already met Louis Weasley, a rather plump blond cousin four years younger than Rose, who still managed to be considered good-looking due to his fair hair and blue eyes that made girls coo and call him a perfect cherub.
"This is the Molly Weasley who killed Bellatrix Lestrange, am I right?" Scorpius asked apprehensively.
"You'd never know it from the way she spoils us grandkids, but yes. Dad sometimes complains about how nice Grandmum is to us, he says she was a perfect dragon with her own kids. She always says there's a difference between kids and grandkids, says it's her duty as a grandmother to spoil us a bit." Lost in affectionate memories, Rose took a while to spot the consternation on Scorpius's face.
"What?" she asked at last, bemused.
"Bellatrix Lestrange… was my great-aunt." Scorpius said slowly. He looked up at Rose with a heavy heart, and noted the dismay in her eyes.
"Oh," was all Rose could think to say. "I… I didn't know that."
Scorpius nodded. "My grandmother's sister. Bellatrix Lestrange née Black. Loyal servant to the Dark Lord. Died fighting for him."
"Maybe… maybe we shouldn't mention her. To either of our families."
"Yeah," Scorpius quietly nodded. Then he looked up at Rose a grin suddenly unfurling. "When Christmas Eve dinner's done, it's my turn to teach you my family tree. Obviously, you know much less about mine than I do about yours."
Rose opened her mouth automatically to deny this, but found that she couldn't. It was true; Scorpius knew much more about her family, having had the advantage of going to school with most of them. Rose, on the other hand, knew only the bare basics about the Malfoys. And she only had two weeks left to learn about them. She blanched. She hated going into tests unprepared.
Scorpius noticed her pale face and immediately stood. Wrapping his arms around Rose, he murmured soothingly in her ear, "It's all right. We'll be fine. We'll get through this."
Much to Scorpius's surprise, instead of pulling away, Rose tucked herself closer to him. In a low voice, she finally admitted, "I'm so worried, Scorp. I think they'll hate me."
"I won't let them," Scorpius promised automatically – and a little rashly.
"Really?" Rose whispered into his shoulder.
"Would I lie to you?" Scorpius asked, his tone one of dignified hurt.
Rose chuckled weakly. "Yes. But I don't think I'd mind in this situation."
Scorpius sighed. "Good." He took in a deep breath, and took in the scent of Rose's hair. The first time he'd smelled her hair, he'd expected a stereotypically flowery smell, but instead, Rose's hair just smelled…clean. And a bit spicy. Strangely like cinnamon. It had become one of his favorite smells.
"Scorp?"
Rose's voice interrupted Scorpius's musings.
"Hmm?"
"I was thinking…would it be all right if we continued this family tree lesson tomorrow? Only... I can think of a few better things we could be doing at the moment…"
"Thank Merlin!" was all Scorpius said fervently. And then he was too busy kissing her to say anything else.
(A/N: Yeah, as you can see, Rose and Scorpius kept getting distracted...anyway, sorry about the long wait between posting, I went on vacation in the middle, so I didn't have as much time to write. But anyway, it's here at last, and I hope you enjoyed it! :D)
