Things Will Never Be The Same
"James really took advantage of his new found freedom of being seventeen, didn't he?" Ron asked hopefully to a silent car. No one had said a word since leaving Grimmauld Place and it made him feel uncomfortable. They seemed to know something that he didn't.
Hugo had a smirk on his face which made Ron suspicious of what he was up to, Scorpius kept glancing at him as if Ron would murder him in his sleep and Rose just looked plain sad. Something had gone down at James's birthday party and it seemed as if he was the only one who didn't know what that was.
Even Hemione seemed to be lost in thought. She nodded at him, letting him know she had heard and then returned to her subtle glancing at Rose.
"Alright!" Ron exclaimed, becoming increasingly frustrated with not knowing anything. "What happened today? What aren't you telling me?"
No one said anything. No one even acknowledged he had spoken. He was grateful Harry and Ginny didn't live that far away by car. Hermione would probably tell him when they got home.
It didn't stop the one hour trip from feeling like two, though. Ron fiddled with the car's radio, trying to get the stupid Muggle invention to work. Hermione became frustrated with him and fixed it herself, settling on some wordless music.
Her look told Ron not to try and change it.
It was dark by the time they got home. As soon as they pulled into the driveway, Rose climbed out of the car and let herself into the house. Scorpius followed her sulkily. Ron had to stop himself from pulling the young Malfoy aside and asking him what he had done. If one thing had gotten through to him these past few days, it was to not make Rose angrier than she already was. That would only put more distance between them and he didn't want that.
"What happened?" he asked Hermione as soon as the kids had disappeared.
She sighed. "What makes you think I know?" she asked.
"Because you know everything," he told her. "What happened?"
Hermione shook her head. "You don't want to know," she said. "You really don't."
That didn't make Ron feel any better. Every possible scenario was going through his head. Grimmauld Place was a big house. Anything could have happened.
"What did Scorpius do?" He asked the question he had wanted to ask since leaving Harry and Ginny's. Ever since lunch, Rose had been avoiding Scorpius. It was what he had been worried about. There was no such thing as a decent Malfoy.
"Scorpius didn't do anything that Rose didn't ask him to do," Hermione replied. "Let's leave it at that." And she did.
Ron made for the stairs, fuming. Hermione's hint had been enough. First he'd have words with Scorpius and then he'd talk to Rose. Sixteen. She was only sixteen. She may have considered herself a teenager, but to him, she was still a baby. He just wanted the old Rose back; the one before Scorpius. He missed her.
"Don't go near them!" Hermione's voice called from the living room.
Ron ignored her, making his way up the stairs. This time, he didn't care what she thought. This was something she would never understand. It wasn't the fact that it was Scorpius, it was the fact that Rose was his daughter. It wouldn't matter if she was with Scorpius Malfoy or any other boy.
The fact that she was his daughter was all that mattered. No boy was good enough for her.
Thankfully when he found the two of them, they were in no form of embrace, but they didn't look upset with each other, either. They were smiling. Scorpius was making her smile; he was making her laugh – something Ron had been unable to achieve for some years now.
It made him feel sad. What had happened to his little girl?
She's growing up. Hermione's voice echoed in his head. That realisation left a heavy feeling in his heart. Didn't he want Rosie to be happy? And Scorpius made her happy. He should have been glad. But he wasn't and that was never going to change.
Rose stopped mid sentence when she saw him standing there. Her eyes bore into him, fury returning to her face. "We're busy," she said coldly.
"I want to talk to Scorpius."
Scorpius visibly paled, his eyes focusing on anything but him. It gave Ron some kind of satisfaction to know that Rose's boyfriend was afraid of him.
"Why?" Rose demanded.
"Rosie... please?" Ron asked gently. He wasn't going to get angry with her; that tactic hadn't worked.
Rose was about to argue again, but Scorpius placed a hand on her arm. "It's okay," he said. Ron noticed he didn't look too happy about it. If it was possible, he went even whiter.
Rose huffed, but got up from her bed and left the room – but not without one last cold stare at Ron. "Why am I being kicked out of my room?"But she left before he had the chance to answer.
When she was gone, Scorpius got to his feet and faced Ron. "Er... yes?" he asked, sounding nervous.
Good, Ron thought. He had to stop himself from grinning. "So I heard a story," he started, instead. "About something that happened at the birthday party."
Scorpius shifted uncomfortably. "Nothing happened," he said. "We were – er – interrupted before it could."
Ron clenched his fists. He didn't care whether it happened or not, the point was, it would have happened if they hadn't been interrupted. "Not even in your – or our – house!" Ron replied furiously.
"It was Rose's idea," Scorpius replied bluntly.
His sudden lack of fear in that statement angered Ron even more. "As much as I would love to, I can't stop you from being with her, Scorpius – " it was the first time he had called him by his name. It felt rather strange, " – but the moment you do anything to her – anything at all – you will have me to deal with. And that means if you are the cause of a single tear, I'll be sending you straight home. Got it?"
"Rose has cried a lot since I've been here and I don't think I'm the one who's caused that."
Ron's temper rose. He gritted his teeth, trying his best to keep his emotions at bay. He didn't like being talked to like that. Especially by a kid – no, a Malfoy.
Scorpius seemed to notice. "Listen," he said quickly, clearly not wanting to start a fight. "Ever since I've known her, she's always spoken about you like you are the greatest person on this earth. She won't admit it, but everything she is doing is to get your attention. Maybe you're too angry at my existence to notice, but she misses you. She just wants things to go back to the way they were. Everyone can see it. I thought coming here was going to be the best time of my life – because believe it or not, I actually do care about Rose – but the truth is, it's been awful. She's miserable, because for some reason, she thinks you hate her. She thinks you've given up on her, or something. I know you won't listen to me, but please just let her know you don't hate her. Because I hate seeing her upset. I love her."
By the time Scorpius finished his little speech, Ron was fuming. Hearing him say he loved Rose was something he wasn't prepared for. Scorpius didn't love Rose. He may have cared about her, but he didn't love her. He couldn't love her as much as Ron loved her. It wasn't possible.
"Just don't hurt her," was his only response. He had nothing else to say.
"I could say the same to you." Scorpius seemed to have lost any fear he might have felt at the beginning of this conversation. His eyes burnt into him; warning him.
Ron didn't say anything. He left the room, slightly confused as to what had just happened. He hadn't said half the things he had wanted to say, yet he didn't find them necessary anymore.
He knew he couldn't change Rose's mind, but he had been half hoping he would be able to change Scorpius's. He now realised that wasn't going to happen either. The pair of them had an infatuation with each other; one he didn't have any control over.
Rose met him half way down the hall. "What happened?" she asked. Ron noticed some of the venom from her voice had disappeared. She seemed slightly... worried if anything. Did she actually believe he would hurt Scorpius? Did she honestly think he would do something like that?
"We just talked," he told her.
"About?"
"Stuff. It's between us."
Rose shrugged, returning to her indifferent manner. "He'll tell me anyway."
Ron had no doubt that was true. They told each other everything. "Well... that's his choice. But I'd like to talk to you as well, Rosie. We haven't spoken in so long."
Her expression softened again. "What would you like to talk about?" she asked. It seemed she too was desperate to talk. Was there something she wanted to tell him but she wasn't sure how to? They were practically identical in that way; sometimes they were unable to express their feelings like they wanted to.
Ron wanted desperately to tell her she meant the world to him – he'd do anything for her – but he knew she wouldn't believe it. Not after everything that had happened.
"Anything you want to talk about." Ron had had plans to talk to her about what had happened at James' birthday, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He just wanted to spend time with her; he wanted them to talk like they used to. "Er... how's school going?" That didn't feel right at all. They should have been talking about more serious things – things that meant something to both of them.
Rose shrugged. "It's fine. At least now I know I can do the subjects I chose."
"I never got a chance to congratulate you properly for your exams. They were excellent. I'm really proud of you."
Rose nodded. "Thanks." She glanced past him, toward her room. "I'll just go and see Scorpius. Make sure he's okay. He's rather afraid of you, you know." She gave a hint of a smile.
Ron grinned. "I don't think he's that afraid," he told her.
"No, he really is." She made for her room.
"It was good talking to you, Rosie," Ron called after her.
If she responded, he didn't hear it.
Well, it's better than nothing, he thought hopefully. At least she didn't yell at him this time. It was a start.
Thanks again for all the favourites, alerts and reviews. It's good to know people are enjoying this. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and thanks once again to Pam for beta-ing it. She has opened my eyes to many different things.
