Chapter 2: The Quidditch Match

Rose's POV

Two teams of seven players. Three chasers, two beaters, one keeper, and one seeker. After much deliberation, we finally chose seekers (not allowing Harry to be seeker was common – we realized quickly he would just end the game too fast). Out of those who wanted to play seeker, it was a very interesting bunch.

Scorpius Malfoy actually volunteered. Which was odd, not only because he was usually too shy around the Potters to say anything, but also because I, Rose (and pretty much everyone else) had never seen him play a game of Quidditch at all. My dad ultimately decided to let him and Albus as Seekers, which Harry agreed with wholeheartedly.

They ended up drawing sticks, and the teams were: Chasers me, Roxanne, my dad Ron, Beaters Harry, James, Keeper Fred, and Seeker Albus. The next team was Chasers Lily, Aunt Ginny, and Teddy, Beaters Uncle Fred and Louis (who had arrived just in time with the rest of Bill's offspring), Keeper Hugo and Seeker Scorpius.

We were all surprised about Seeker Scorpius, and Al had been known to be a fantastic seeker (father's gene's, of course.) Dominique and Victoire chose to stay out, as well as their dad and aunt Hermione.

I would give a play-by-play of the game, but I was knocked out almost immediately by my dear cousin Louis. Not that he did it on purpose, of course. I woke up around dinner time, laying on the couch with an ice pack on my temple. A tentative looking Albus and a smirking Scorpius were standing over me.

"You okay, Rosie?" Al asked sweetly.

"Yeah, Rosie Posie, you okay?" Malfoy mocked.

I grumbled and tried to roll over, failing miserably as I fell with a thump onto the dusty Burrow floor. "Shut up with the ridiculous nickname and tell me who bloody won the Quidditch game, already. And bring me some food!" I shouted the last part rather grumpily.

Albus and Malfoy gave each other an amused look, finally turning to help me off the floor.

"You know she's okay when she wants food." Albus snickered. He continued, "It was actually our team in the lead for a while…" Albus looked a little upset for a moment, giving a moody glance at Malfoy. "Then Scorpius surprised us all by catching the snitch."

I stared at Malfoy as he smirked down at me. "That's right Weasley, soak it in."

"But Malfoy…" I said. "Why didn't you try out for the team?" I asked sincerely.

This clearly took Malfoy back, as he was undoubtedly expecting some smart insult from me.

"Well because, Weasel, I didn't want to be on the team with a bunch of filthy gingers!"

Albus and I burst into laughter, which hurt my abs considerably.

Malfoy just scowled at us, his face turning pink with embarrassment.

And why were we laughing? Malfoy had obviously forgotten that his hair was still an unsightly shade of ginger before making another "Gingers are the scum of the earth" crack.

"I wouldn't want to be on the team with you either, Malfoy!" I finally said, wiping a tear from my eye.

Finally around 7 o clock, Grandma Molly called everyone for dinner. The table, which was normally huge, had been enlarged by magic to fit the enormous family. I immediately stood up when she called us, which cause Malfoy to do something very strange indeed. He looked extremely alarmed and gently grabbed my shoulders to set me back on the couch.

"Rose, you can't get up and walk around. You just got knocked out, for Merlin's sake!" he said, and if I wasn't mistaken, he had actually sounded concerned.

I looked at Albus to stand up for me, but he was nodding in agreement. "Scorp is right. I'll get some food for you, Rose. You're staying in here."

"But I want to eat dinner with everyone! It's a tradition! The big family table—all of the Weasley and Potters here together! Albus!" My whining seemed to be effective, because Al seemed as though he was deliberating.

"Wait here, you two." Scorpius said suddenly. He walked into the kitchen.

"What's he doing?" I asked Al impatiently.

A moment later, Scorpius was back with several plates of food. He handed one to me and Al. Followed by him were all my uncles, aunts, and cousins. They were going to sit in the sitting room to have dinner with me!

"Good idea, Scorpius!" Uncle Harry said, patting Malfoy on the back. Malfoy looked quite stricken to be touched by Harry, but he smiled regardless, as a small pink tinge spread to his cheeks once again. Malfoy, blushing? Wasn't he just full of surprises today?

The whole time, my mouth was open. Who knew Malfoy could reach into his frozen heart and do something sweet for another non-cold human being? And for me, of all people! Why, he hated me!

"Better start shoving biscuits into that insolent mouth, Weasley, or else you wont be able to gain your usual 100 pounds by the time school starts." Malfoy snapped at me.

Ah, there was the Scorpius Malfoy we all knew and hated.

In truth, I did eat a lot of biscuits. What could I say, I'm my father's daughter. There was also roast, potatoes, casseroles, salads, beans, and oh, the desserts! I got a second plate of desserts, deciding to altogether ignore Malfoy's snickers and "fat" comments. I knew I wasn't fat, but most importantly, I had long since stopped caring about what Malfoy thought about me. The only thing was…I suddenly realized he much have thought or cared about me slightly more than I gave him credit for. Which was disconcerting, to say the least.

After dinner, all the cousins crowded into the backyard once again to play "gnome golf" (a game James created a couple summers ago) and just relax by the pool.

"Just because he's an anamorph doesn't mean he necessarily practices transfiguration more than the averge wizard." I was saying to Al and Scorpius.

Al replied, "But genetically he must have some advantage over the rest of us, since its in his DNA to change his face magically whenever he wants to!"

"His mother could change her appearance whenever she wanted to, I've only really seen Teddy change his inadvertently."

"Oh c'mon rose, you've got to be kidding me. Haven't you seen him chance his face into a spider when Uncle Ron's around?"

"He can do that?!" I shrieked, watching a blue-haired Teddy Lupin cannon ball into the pool.

"Yes, Weasley, he can also change into a prettier, more accomplished version of yourself." Malfoy drawled lazily from my other side. "I hear its not that difficult anyway."

I snorted quite unattractively. "Talk to me when you've changed your hair back to normal, Malfoy, because I simply cannot take you seriously right now as the love child of Ron Weasley and Draco Malfoy."

For the third time that day, a scowl came onto Malfoy's face and the rose tinge spread onto his pale skin. Wait, did I just use the word "rose" to describe something about Malfoy? Snap out of it, Rose.

Sticking his nose in the air. Malfoy calmly sauntered away from me to the edge of the pool, where he got Teddy's attention and started speaking with him. In no time at all, Teddy was out of the pool to de-gingerify Malfoy with his wand.

"I win the argument!" Albus said joyously from beside me. "Teddy Lupin is better at Transfiguration than you, he just turned Malfoy's hair blonde again!"

I rolled my eyes as hard as I possibly could, and pretended to nonchalantly yawn as I stood up. "The immaturity of my companions is starting to bore me," I said loudly once Malfoy walked back over. "I'm going to get a book, otherwise I might resort to turning other parts of Malfoy unsavory colors."

I left Al snickering and Scorpius quickly taking off his shirt to swim. I turned around like lightening to avoid this sight.

"What's the matter, Weasley? Afraid of seeing my glorious figure exposed?" Malfoy called to me once he saw me turn around.

"On the contrary, Malfoy." I drawled in a perfect imitation of his pompous voice. "I didn't want to get blinded by your pale, scrawny chest." With a flick of my hair, I went into the mudroom.

I was almost into the sitting room when I heard a heated conversation between Uncle Harry, Aunt Ginny, and my mom and dad.

"—only wish they didn't act like me and Malfoy did at that age." I heard Uncle Harry saying

"You know its all play, Harry. Nothing like you and Draco in all honesty." Ginny replied.

"I'm quite proud of Rosie. I told her not to get close to the git, and she's done exactly that."

"Ron, even you know those old stupid prejudices are gone. Why, it was only last week we had tea with Draco. I actually saw him smile." My mom said, lightly chiding dad.

"Oh please Hermione!" dad said hotly, "You're the one who was tortured in their bloody manor!"

"Yes, by Bellatrix Lestrange, who died!" mum replied. "Draco has seen the stupidity of his ways, and was under quite an amount of stress from his father while at Hogwarts—his father, who's completely estranged him now he's working at the ministry for our division. And I reckon Scorpius is a sharp young lad, he's at the top of all his classes just like Rose!"

Why on earth were my parents arguing about Scorpius Malfoy? I knew Uncle Harry liked him quite well, after all, he was his son's best mate, and I think Harry even saw a little of himself in the Malfoy.

Uncle harry spoke then. "Ron, didn't you see Scorpius help Rose off the field today? He got ice for her and a blanket and waited at Molly hand and foot when she was helping Rose. In fact, it's only when Rose is conscious that Malfoy is a bit of a flaming git towards her." Harry laughed suddenly.

"One would almost think…" mum started to say, and then stopped herself.

"Don't you dare say anything like it, Hermione!" my dad piped up, sounding constricted.

"I'm just saying that he's a teenage boy, and Rose is very pretty and very smart, it wouldn't be impossible if their harmless childhood banter developed into a sort of romantic tension—"

Feeling quite choked myself at my mother's declaration, I gasped for air, and then realizing I had made a noise, I slapped my hand on my mouth. When my hand went up to cup my mouth, I carelessly knocked Hugo's broom over…which knocked down Roxanne's, and Louis'…and on and on.

My dad came running into the mud room. "Rosie!" he said. "Clumsy bug!"

I blushed vividly. "Sorry dad!"

"No matter," mum said brusquely, magically replacing the brooms back into their original stances.

"Er, how long had you been in the mud room, Rosie?" dad asked tentatively.

I looked around like a drowning beetle. "Oh, just ran in a second ago! Al was chasing me and I just slipped!"

The adults all left to take their positions in the sitting room once again, and I hurriedly ran past a knitting grandma Weasley to find my book upstairs.