"I apologise for my father." Said Scorpius, as soon as they were outside. Rose gaped.

"Your father? I'm sorry about my father. He's not normally -"

"He's just very formal, he didn't mean - "

They stopped, and smiled at each other. Rose was relieved to see Scorpius' face thaw.

"Let's go get ice creams." She said, feeling more cheerful.

"Rose?" asked Scorpius, as they walked.

"Yes?"

"Could we – could we go to muggle London, one day?"

Rose looked at her friend's face. Unusually, for him, there was a slight flush along his cheekbones. She realised that, as far as he was concerned, he was asking a lot from her.

Rose wondered what his father would think of his desire to explore a muggle city. As far as she knew, he'd been allowed to keep the books, but she also knew that he'd never been able to buy his own. Maybe it was something his own father simply didn't know how to do, a world he didn't have access to. It had probably never occurred to Draco that Scorpius would want more books. Rose knew it had cost Scorpius a lot to admit, even as subtly as he had, that this was something his father couldn't give him.

Wizarding fiction was nowhere near as broad as muggle fiction, Rose knew, and the books that did exist didn't often cover fantasy or science fiction. There were myths and legends, and there were books about wizards losing their powers for whatever reason, but there were very few about worlds where magic worked differently, or where technology was fantastic and advanced. It was simply not a subject that many wizards wrote about.

"Of course we can." She replied, vowing to make it happen somehow. Her muggle grandparents would be fine with her bringing a friend to stay with them, she thought, although they might raise eyebrows about it being a male friend. The main problem would be persuading her parents, but she was sure they'd come around.

Scorpius and Rose got so caught up in debating the works of Philip K. Dick that they were almost ten minutes late getting back to the Hogs Head. Draco Malfoy was waiting outside, and, as he drew into sight, Scorpius stopped running. He flattened his hair, and smoothed out his clothing.

"Father." He said, in greeting. Draco nodded, and stepped forward, placing an arm around his son, guiding him away.

"Good day, Miss Weasley." He said, as they passed.

Rose hurried into the Hogs Head, to find her dad sitting at the same table they'd left him at, with rather more empty glasses in front of him than before.

"Rose Perdita Weasley," her father said. "I think we need to have a talk with your mother."

Rose gulped.