A/N: Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Chanukah everyone! It means a lot if you review!
Chapter 2
"Rosie, Rosie! Wake up, it's Christmas!"
"Come on, let's go open presents!"
"Ugh! Good…morning?"
"Yep, Rosie, Christmas morning!"
"Get up!" Seven year old Molly and four year old Lucy pounced onto Rose's bed in her room at the Burrow.
"Girls, do you know what time it is?"
Lucy said, very proudly, "I looked at the clock when we woke up, and we came straight to you. It said five, three, two!"
Rose's eyes bugged out of her head. "You mean five thirty-two?"
"Uh-huh!"
"In the morning?"
"Yes!" Molly answered. "So can we go open presents now?"
"Tell you what," Rose told her, lifting the two sisters onto her lap. "Let's wait until some more people wake up, okay?" Lucy nodded. "Nana Molly and I have this really cool idea for Christmas this year. We wanted to tell everyone at breakfast, but maybe I should tell you now?"
"Yes, yes, tell us, Rosie!" the two girls shrieked.
"Alright, shhh, you have to quiet down if you want me to tell you." Their squealing stopped instantly.
Molly whispered, "We'll be extra special quiet."
"Good. Maybe we can go sit in the kitchen? And then I can tell you all of the cool things were going to do for Christmas."
Lucy ran for the door. "Molly, Rose! Hurry, I wanna know!"
"Okay, but remember, you have to be quiet. Let's go."
They tromped down the stairs, not exactly as quietly as Rose might've hoped. Once the three girls had sat down at the table and Rose had poured a glass of milk for each of them, it was time to tell her younger cousins about her Christmas surprise. "Well, first of all," she said, "you have to promise not to tell anyone, okay? It's a secret until Nana Molly and I tell everyone."
Scorpius jumped off the last stair and onto the kitchen floor. "What's a secret?"
"Scorp!" Molly and Lucy cried while they ran to him. "What are you doing down here? Rose says it's really early in the morning."
"Well, I heard three loud girls running down the staircase, thought I'd come investigate."
Rose blushed. "Sorry. I tried to keep them from being too loud."
"No worries, I used to wake up this early on Christmas morning when I was their age. Now," he said with a smirk and a glint in his eye, "what is this secret of yours, Rose?"
"Come sit down if you want to hear! Molly, Lucy, you too!"
"Coming." Rose crossed her arms and tapped her foot while she waited for Scorpius and the girls to come.
When he finally sat down, she began to explain. "For starters, I was supposed to tell everyone this on the train yesterday, but Scorpius and I were a bit…busy," she told her cousins.
Lucy asked, "Busy doing what?"
"Oh," Scorpius answered. He was obviously lying, but Lucy was so trusting at her young age she was eager to believe anything. "we just had all of those prefect duties, so we didn't have much time to talk to everyone else."
Rose held in a laugh. It had definitely been worth it to save an extra carriage on the Hogwarts Express for themselves. So what if their so-called "duties" had been more along the lines of cuddling in the cold weather? It hadn't hurt anybody, and now she would just tell everyone her news later.
"Anyway, Scorp and I were really busy on the train, so I didn't get to tell anyone about this fun game we're all going to play together during Christmas holiday."
"Ooh, I like playing games."
"I know you do, Molly. Ready to find out what it is?" She nodded. "This year in Muggle Studies, we've learned about religious ceremonies of muggles. There was one I really liked the idea of the most. It's called the twelve days of Christmas. We only went into basic details in class, so I didn't know too much about it, but I did some reading in the library, and I thought to myself 'why can't we have twelve days of Christmas?'"
"I don't get it Rosie. So we get tons of presents every day for twelve days? That's the best idea ever!" Molly and Lucy exclaimed.
"Yeah, Rose, what's your thinking here?"
"Well, Scorpius, I was just getting to that. You see, I was thinking, what if we spread out Christmas over the course of twelve days? So, instead of getting all of our presents today, we get one today, one tomorrow, one the next day, and so on, for twelve days. Get it?"
"Hmm," Scorp thought. "I like the idea. Do you think your mum and dad and everyone else will go along with it?"
"You seem to forget Nana Molly's on my side."
"Ah, how could I forget? In that case, I guess we're having twelve days of Christmas." He pulled Rose out of her seat, spun her around, and planted a big kiss of her lips. "You, my dear, are brilliant."
"Don't sell yourself short! You helped me come up with the idea!" she said, wrapping her arms around her boyfriend.
"Did I?"
"Yeah. You kept talking about how you wished you could experience something the way muggles do, and I just thought that this would be a good way to do it."
"Like I said, you're brilliant," he told her lovingly and gave her another kiss.
Lucy gagged. "Ewww, that's gross!" Molly lightly punched her on the arm
She told her sister, "I think when you get big like they are, it's not gross anymore."
"Oh," Lucy whispered back. "I didn't know that."
"But why can't we just do Christmas like normal, Nana?" Louis asked.
Rose, along with her friends, cousins, aunts and uncles, mum and dad, and grandparents, sat in the middle of the living room. A lot of the girls in the room loved the idea of twelve days of Christmas. "I'm sure it must have been soooo romantic in the old days," Lily had said. The boys, however, were still skeptical.
"Because your cousin Rose had a great idea of how we could have Christmas like muggles used to, and I would enjoy learning. So, we are ALL having twelve days of Christmas. It's perfect, because twelve days ends on January fifth. Then you go back to school on January sixth, and have the weekend to relax and have fun with your friends before going back to classes."
Charlie asked, "Mum, are you sure this makes sense?"
"I'm sure. So, today Grandad Weasley and I are giving everyone our gifts." Nana Molly stood up "Arthur left his under the tree. I'll go get mine, I left them in my room."
Before she could get out of the room, Aunt Audrey said, "Molly, would you like me to come help you? We've got a lot of people this year."
"Sure, dear, I'd appreciate it."
"Mum, I'll come too," Aunt Ginny offered.
Nana Molly smiled. "Yes, alright, let's go then. Everyone else can open their presents from Grandad while we're gone."
James, Al, Lily, Rose, Hugo, Molly, Lucy, Fred, Dom, Roxie, and Louis all raced to the Christmas tree and started calling out everyone's names as they found people's presents.
"Victoire, here's yours and Teddy's."
"Lily, this one has your name."
"No, Lucy, that's your name. See? It's spelled different than Lily's."
"Yeah, I have Uncle George and Aunt Angelina's over here."
"Well, pass it over."
Arthur watched contentedly from his armchair as his grandchildren found their Christmas presents. But, he realized, not everyone had received their gift. "Scorpius? Daisy? And you two, Alina and, Pammie, was it? Why don't you go get your presents?" They stared at him, dumbfounded. "Oh, you didn't think I'd forgotten about you lot, did you? Go on, find the ones with your names on them!"
"Thank you, Mr. Weasley, that's very kind of you," Pammie replied respectfully.
The four of them ran over to meet their friends in the mess of bodies surrounding the tree. Finally, each person had their present in front of them. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiip! Everyone turned to stare at where the noise had come from. Lily whispered in her friend's ear, "Daisy, we all wait to open them at the same time."
"Oops! I'm so sorry, I forgot!"
"No worries, dear," Arthur consoled her. "Well, what are you waiting for?" He was addressing all of the people in the room now. "Open your presents!"
The sound of ripping gift wrap filled the room for a few minutes. Then, "An egg beater?", "A computer mouse?", "Batteries?"
"Dad, what's with all of the muggle gadgets?" Uncle Bill asked.
Arthur sighed. "Your mum is making me clean out all of my muggle items from the storage room. But, I know how much you all love them, so each of you gets a piece of my collection!"
"Great."
"Scorpius," Rose asked. "What did you get? I got a toaster."
"Umm, I think it's a television remote control." They laughed.
For a few more moments the whole group simply talked and had a good time, until Nana Molly, Aunt Audrey, and Aunt Ginny returned with all of the infamous Weasley sweaters.
Molly sat down in her easy chair and started calling out names as she passed out the knitted sweaters. "Let's see what we've got here. Okay, we have Hermione, Fleur, Arthur, Lucy, James, Alina, Rose, George…" It took almost ten minutes for Molly to hand out all her handmade gifts. "And last we have Scorpius, Ginny, and myself." She gave out the last of the sweaters and pulled on her own.
"Oh, you all look so precious!" she exclaimed. Next, Molly noticed her grandchildren squirming in their seats. "You all want to go off and do your own thing now, don't you?" A murmur of agreement came from around the room. "Fine then, go on. Christmas dinner is at six. Scorpius, will that give you and Rose enough time to… get where you are going?"
"Uh, yes Mrs. Weasley, thank you so much, that's plenty of time, my father's ball doesn't start until half past seven, and we could just floo over a few minutes before," he stammered back.
"Excellent. Now, run along."
"Of course. I'll see you later." Rose grabbed his hand and pulled him upstairs. "Whoa! Rose, what's up?"
She gave him an excited look as she said, "You, me, Madame Malkin's at Diagon Alley, now."
"Huh?"
Rose checked her watch. "We have eight hours until Christmas dinner, nine and a half until your parents' ball. I need to go to Diagon Alley and get a gown, and I'd really like it if you could come with me.."
"Okay, well how are we going to get there? I don't think Madame Malkin has had a floo installed yet, even after all these years," Scorpius told her.
She only smirked in return. "Scorp, you turned seventeen in October. You can apparate now. Oh, don't give me that look. I know your dad taught you how over the summer."
Scorp laughed. "I'm impressed. I always say it, you should have been a Slytherin." He smiled cheekily at Rose. "Well, if I can apparate, let's go! You don't mind side-along apparition, do you?" She shook her head. "Excellent, grab my arm. Ready? One, two three!"
"Whoa!" Rose stumbled as she and Scorpius landed in Diagon Alley outside Florean Fortescue's. His grandson had reopened the shop after the war using the old name, and no one was happier than Uncle Harry, who had apparently spent a lot of time eating Florean's famous ice cream the summer before his third year.
Scorpius threw out his arms to catch her, then pulled her in close to him. "Got you," he grinned. Rose wriggled out of his grasp, giving both of them a chance to take a good look around. "It's so…empty," Scorp mused.
"It's brilliant. I don't think I've ever seen this place so quiet, and I came to visit Uncle George at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes for dinner on the twentieth Battle of Hogwarts remembrance day!"
"That's Christmas for you, I suppose."
"Yeah. Come on, let's go inside, it's freezing out here." They walked down the street a bit, past all of the familiar stores from their childhood. Finally, the couple stopped in front of the Madame Malkin's small dress shop tucked between a place that claimed to have the thickest bottoms on their cauldrons and a fairly large under-17 bar that sold non-alcoholic drinks, including butterbeer. Of course, if you knew the right guy, there was always a way to get some firewhiskey as well.
Scorp sighed. "Do you remember getting our school robes here, first year?"
"Six years ago. Godric, we're getting old!" Rose joked. She pushed open the doors, which made a tinkling sound as she dragged Scorpius inside.
"Merry Christmas, how may I help you?" a short woman with a walking cane asked them.
"I need a gown for a ball tonight. Do you have anything in," she looked over at Scorp, who seemed very out of place among all of the over-the-top ballgowns. "emerald green?" He nodded. Good. Draco and Astoria liked green. Excellent information to know. Or maybe just anything Slytherin?
"Yes, dear, emerald. When did you say you needed it again?" the old woman asked.
"Erm, tonight?" Rose squeaked.
Madame Malkin coughed. "Oh, my! We better hurry up!" The dresses in the room were mainly arranged by color, so Rose helped pull over the few racks filled with green dresses.
"Good, now what size are you, honey?"
Turning back to Scorpius, she wimpered, "I'm a ten. I'm trying to lose weight, everyone's skinnier than I am. But right now…." She trailed off, not quite knowing what to say.
Meanwhile, Scorp had made his way over to the dress racks. He lifted one up, obviously surprised at the weight of what he was holding. Every bit of the slinky cocktail dress was covered in bright green and silver sequins. Even when he lifted it up as high as possible over his head, six inches of the dress were left sliding on the ground. Scorpius thought it looked like something Pansy Zabini would like. "How do you wear stuff like this? It must weigh fifteen pounds!"
"Precisely why I don't wear stuff like that. Here, this one's much better." Rose held up a different option from the rack that Madame Malkin had brought over. "Much simpler, much lighter, much more…me."
Madame Malkin interrupted them. "Do you want to try this one?"
"Yes, please," Rose said, and followed the hunched-over witch to the dressing rooms at the back of the store. As she buttoned up the back of the ballgown, it felt only the slightest bit tight, but Rose was so nervous she had the feeling she wouldn't be eating too much tonight anyway. Pushing aside the flimsy curtain, she stepped into the much brighter light of the main room.
"Well," she started tentatively, "how do I look?"
Scorpius's jaw dropped. His gaze washed over everything about his girlfriend. The short sleeves of the dress that cupped Rose's shoulders perfectly, the small twisted knot in the middle of her chest, the full skirt billowing out from her waist, or the cascading swirls decorating it from around mid-calf to the floor. Then Rose turned around so her back faced him. The tiny buttons running from her neck to lower back made the dress just that much more flirtatious. "I—I –I…"
"Oh Merlin, is it that bad?"
"What, no! Rose, you are the most beautiful person I have ever had the privilege to lay eyes upon."
"Aww! You really mean that? Because I could try on a few more dresses –"
"No! This is the one. Trust me."
"Alright, then. Madame Malkin?"
A crash came from the storeroom. "One moment! Are you getting the gown?"
"Yes, this is the one!"
Eventually the old witch hobbled out, brushing dust off of herself and she walked to the counter. "The dress costs seven galleons, with alterations."
"What alterations?" Scorp asked. "We need the dress in just a few hours."
Rose giggled. Sure, she could be a tomboy sometimes, but it was still amusing to see how oblivious all of the boys she was friends with acted. "There's a charm, a really advanced one, that makes the gown fit exactly to your form. I'm not up to that level yet, so I need to pay extra."
"Oh, okay, I guess." He didn't sound too reassured. Rose counted out the galleons, then gave Madame Malkin an extra one to add pockets so she wouldn't have to worry about carrying a bag that night.
"All right, dear, all done. I assume you won't be taking the dress with you?"
"Nope. Can you floo it over to the Burrow, Weasley residence, please?"
"I can get it there in an hour. Good day to you both, and merry Christmas!" she called as Rose and Scorpius left the shop and stepped out into Diagon Alley again.
"So," Scorpius began. "We have around six and a half hours before we need to be at the Burrow for dinner." He started walking along the rows of shops, not really headed anywhere.
"Yeah…."
"We have Diagon Alley to ourselves."
"Yeah…."
"Ready to check out every single store our parents won't let us into?"
"Only you, Scor, only you."
"I'll take that as a yes. Come on!"
Rose took a deep breath. She knew she shouldn't go down there. Even her parents didn't want to go. But there was something so exciting about what lurked down the steps to Knockturn Alley. The dark shops, the evil merchandise, and just the unknown. Still, she couldn't do it. "Scorp, I can't do this. I just can't go down there."
"You sure? It could be pretty interesting. My dad brought me down there once when I was younger. I think he was trying to sell some of Grandfather's old things."
"He won't be there tonight, will he? Your grandfather, I mean."
"Merlin, I hope not. I think I hate him more than your mum does."
"Wait, what do you mean about my mum?"
"My dad. He, erm, told me what happened at the Manor during the war. You know, with my Aunt Bellatrix," he answered, quiet and ashamed.
"Oh. Uh, maybe we should go home now. Nana Molly could always use more help, since she's cooking dinner for thirty seven people. Also, I'm sure all of the girls are going to ambush me. You know, try to do my hair and makeup for the ball."
"Thirty seven? I thought there were thirty of us."
Rose grinned. "You forgot yourself, sweetie," she said sarcastically. "Neville and Hannah are coming too, and Luna and Rolf are bringing Lorcan and Lysander. Molly and Lucy are thrilled, they are such good friends with the boys."
"Wow. As if your family isn't huge as it is!"
"Oh, you know you love us all!" Rose shouted. "Come on, let's go." She grabbed his arm, and a moment later they stumbled into the living room at the Burrow with a pop!
"Rose!" Lily shouted as she ran in with Dom, Roxie, Alina, Pammie, and Daisy.
"Madame Malkin came through the floo with your gown a minute ago. We waited until you got home to look at it, though." Dom explained. They looked at her expectantly.
"Go on," Scorpius told her. "You looked amazing in it. Show them!"
"Alright," Rose agreed shyly. She turned to her cousins and friends. "Come on, let's go upstairs." The squealing girls followed her to her room.
"Girls, I think we're done."
"Why thank you, Roxie," Rose said. "I'm glad it took six of you three hours to figure out how to make my hair and makeup look good."
"Well, we would have spent more time finding you the perfect look, but since you insisted on helping Nana Molly cook dinner. That cut down our time by almost two hours before we could pull you away!"
Rose stood up to look in the mirror. Her fiery hair had been loosely curled with rollers and now a large barrette clipped above her ear held it all back from her face. While Roxie, Daisy, and Lily worked on her hair, Dom, Alina, and Pammie had tried all kinds of different makeup combinations. The final decision had consisted of light makeup, but colors that perfectly accented Rose's eyes and the emerald dress.
"Girls!" Fleur called up the tall staircase. "Ze dinner ees ready!"
"Coming!" Dom told her mother. She ran down the stairs, Rose and the other five girls following. They scampered into the living room, which had once again been magically enlarged so everyone could fit. Each of the adults had already taken a seat and were waiting for their kids.
From the kitchen came Nana Molly's screech. "Rose! Dom! Roxie! Come help me and your Aunt Ginny bring out all of the food!"
"Coming, Nana!" Rose called back. As she carried out her mum's famous muggle pumpkin bread to the long table, she couldn't help but hope Christmas dinner wouldn't turn out the way it did last year. Rose shuddered. If she ever saw Uncle Bill and Uncle Charlie dancing like that again…. Well, she didn't want to think of the emotional scarring she might have afterward.
Finally, the Scammanders and Longbottoms arrived at the Burrow and the entire Weasley family, along with their friends, waited with baited breath for Molly's two words: "Tuck in!"
Surprisingly, the feast went rather well, Rose thought. Sure, there were a few minor mishaps; Nana was nagging Uncle Bill about his long hair again; Ron and Ginny got into yet another debate over whether the Chudley Cannons or Holyhead Harpies were a better team, with Alina jumping in about how Puddlemore United was undefeatable with her dad playing keeper; Hermione, on the other hand, had been totally clueless about Quidditch and instead only asked, "Oh, yes. Alina, how are Oliver and Katie doing nowadays?"; and there was always someone, usually Fred or James, who tried to break into Arthur's firewhiskey. Apparently now that James was seventeen and legal, Al felt the need to do it in his brother's place. "Never a dull moment," Aunt Angelina had laughed.
Yes, everything was going to be fine, none of her cousins were going to mention her relationship with Scorpius, and no one was going to get angry. "So, Scorpius," George started in between bites of the pie Hannah Longbottom had made. "Why are you bringing Rose as your date to this ball tonight? It's not as if you're together or something!" he laughed. "You hate each other!" Okay, everything was so. Not. Fine.
But Scorpius, suave as always, laughed along with George. "You wouldn't believe it, but we actually don't anymore." He glanced at Rose. "Hate each other, I mean. I guess you could say we came to an understanding last year when Hugo and Louis locked us in the Shrieking Shack."
Teddy interrupted, "Scorpius, you know there's nothing –"
"Yes, Teddy, I know nothing is in there anymore, but we still couldn't get out. Point is, I would say Rose is my best friend now." Al coughed. "Second best friend." Fred glared at him. "Best friend who's a girl." Dom crossed her arms. "Best friend who's a girl," he repeated, staring back at the three of them. "At least."
"Really," Victoire asked. "You are bringing your best friend –"
"Best friend who's a girl," Al reminded her.
"Like I said, Al, his best friend." She turned back to Scorpius. "So, you are bringing your best friend as your date to this huge ball your parents are having, one that all of their friends and relatives will be at?"
He gulped. "Yes, exactly. Perfectly normal." Victoire shared a knowing glance with Teddy. "Well we should really be going," Scor said as he stood up from the table and checked his watch. "It's almost ten after seven and Rose still needs to get her dress on."
"Don't think you can sit down here while I get dressed," she told him. "I want to see you in some nice dress robes, not muggle jeans. This is a nice event." Everyone chuckled at Rose's way of taking charge.
"It's my parents' event."
"All the more reason to look nice. Now, come on. Up the stairs."
He turned back to the table. "I'll see you all tomorrow, then, for our second day of Christmas," he mentioned and followed Rose up the many flights of stairs to her bedroom. "So, this is your last chance. We really don't have to go to the ball if you don't want to."
Rose brushed her hand past his. "Scorpius, read my lips: We. Are. Going. To. The. Ball."
"You're sure?"
"Come on, your parents aren't the pureblood supremacists they used to be. I'll be fine." She ushered him out of the room. "Now go get on your dress robes. I'll meet you by the floo in, say, fifteen minutes?"
"Last chance. We absolutely, positively don't have to go."
Turning once again from her wardrobe, Rose questioned, "Scopius? Is there something you aren't telling me? What's so bad about us going to Malfoy Manor for the night?"
He sighed. "Nothing! Nothing at all, I just… err, don't want you to be uncomfortable, that's all. It's nothing, let's just go. I'll see you in a few minutes," he finished, and ran off without a second glance.