Disclaimer: I own none of the Harry Potter characters
A/N: Long chapter with fluff. Enjoy it before things get messed up :)
IX
Rose Weasley
It was a lot better, actually. She had not expected to feel so relieved, so freed, after talking to Malfoy. It was a cathartic experience, sitting there on the dusty floor of the Hogwarts Express, pouring out all that she had bottled up for the past fifteen years of her life.
There was a comfortable silence in cart. She stared into a familiar set of electric blue eyes.
The silence was disrupted once the two heard a fumbling in the background. The storage cart was opened as two dark figures groped their way to the corner.
"Great," she heard Malfoy whisper under his breath. She was thinking the same thing. Watch a shag session for the next hour until the Hogwarts Express returned to Kings' Cross, or reveal their identities and start a whole new spur of rumours.
Malfoy began to pull himself up, revealing himself from behind the circle of suitcases. "No," she hissed, pulling his arm down.
"Scared, Rose Weasley?" he smirked. His smirk died down when he saw the emotion in her eyes.
Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy
They were a creamy, light brown, her eyes, like the hot chocolate his mother made him during Christmastime. They shone of vulnerability but a warmness. Pools of creamy hot chocolate that desired to be drunk before the steam settled. A light brown of more hot milk than chocolate, just the way Scorpius preferred it.
"Hey," he muttered softly, "I won't let them say a thing." And with that he pulled her arm up. He turned and faced the couple who were unashamedly trying to get it on in the corner.
"Ahem," his voice was steely cold.
"Who is that?" There was rustling as the couple attempted to pull their clothes. Scorpius rolled his eyes. Shameless teenagers, with no amount of pride to them. This almost made cupboard shagging seem dignified.
"You don't need to know. Can I get out before you two continue your mating ritual?" Scorpius pulled Rose behind his back, camouflaging her body to his dark suit.
"Got something there too, mate?" came the voice from the corner.
Scorpius remained silent at that jibe. He opened the door, motioned for Rose to leave first and turned back to the couple who resumed their activities.
"At least I'm not slytherin' my best friend's girlfriend's pants, Nott." He shut the storage cart door with a clang.
Several Slytherins in the closest compartments looked out, seeing the sight of Rose Weasley, with her flashing red hair behind her back, and a muscular blonde figure behind her clad in black. She looked like the heroine, and he could only look like the antagonist.
There were whispers, and he could see her head slowly begin to drop down to her shoes.
He grabbed her hand, not in the way couples interlaced their fingers, but her firm hand. "Don't look down, just walk ahead, Weasley."
And so they went back to Albus' compartment, Rose pulling Malfoy behind her.
"Wait, Weasley. I think it's time you owe me a chocolate frog."
One hour later…
Rose exited the Hogwarts Express right behind Albus and in front of Scorpius. Her parents were near the head of the train, expecting Hugo and her younger cousins. Scorpius coughed behind her.
"I will take my departure now, Rose Weasley," Malfoy locked eyes with her and headed towards his parents, who were equally clad in black. There was a man behind Draco Malfoy, holding a silver cane, with piercing eyes that rivaled Scorpius' stare.
He was no longer looking at her, but nodded at his parents. Before she could respond, she was swept into a hug, where Scorpius conveniently moved Rose to his side.
He heard her gasp into his arms and witnessed a gleam of surprise in his father's eyes. Lucius' face remained stone cold. Perhaps he didn't know who his grandson was embracing.
He turned his gaze towards her and her slim frame. "Have a good summer, Malfoy."
"I thought we were on a first name basis now, Weasley."
The Burrow | August 25th
She heard a sharp knock on the door. Rose groaned and checked her clock. It was only 9 o'clock and she barely got any sleep the day before, since Albus wanted to stay up for her birthday. Rose Weasley was born on the stroke of midnight of August 25th, 2006, and she couldn't really care less.
"Rose, dear!" she heard her mother's chirp from the family room. She groaned as she struggled to remove herself from the sheets.
"What is it, mum? I only got nine hours and it's summer…" Rose stopped midsentence as she realized who had appeared in the family room. It was the familiar face of Scorpius Malfoy.
"Why are you in my house, Malfoy?" There was an edge of hostility in her voice.
"What happened to the 'Have a good summer, Malfoy.' Weasley? Change of heart?" he mimicked her voice when they left the platform. There was laughter in his eyes.
"Why don't you two have a friendly chat. I'll get dear Scorpius here something to eat," Hermione scuttled off towards the kitchen, sensing tension between the two. She sighed and began to prepare pancakes. She wondered of Scorpius had ever eaten a Muggle-made breakfast, but after all, he didn't really seem like his father much. From afar, they had the similar muscular build and the hair, but Scorpius' platinum color was intertwined with a dark blonde. His eyes were also electrifyingly blue, not steely grey. And his voice was the same cadence, his mouth a slight smirk, but his words came out gently and politely.
"Answer me. What are you doing here?" Rose demanded, as she leaned up to look Scorpius in the eye.
Scorpius seemed amused. He actually was. It wasn't every day you get to see a Rose Weasley in her Snitch printed pajamas, with a hair in a bun so sloppy it would make his mother go mental. "I…have been commanded to take…leave from the Malfoy Manor," he spoke after awhile.
"Leave? And that means you go straight to Rose Weasley's house?" she scoffed.
"No, Rose," Scorpius' eyes turned serious. "Your Uncle told me to come here. I came to Albus' first."
"Wait, why?"
"Grandfather isn't necessarily pleased with the way I've been raised. He dropped by in June to check up on father's progress with work and happened upon…some Muggle things. He came back in August to celebrate my mum's birthday with the rest of the family…and...just a little misunderstanding occurred between us."
"Misunderstanding?"
"Rose, he wants me to be one of them. One of those Pureblood loving fools, who do nothing but prance around at aristocratic events and play at nepotism in the Ministry."
"Merlin, Malfoy, you're only 16."
"My father was 16 when he tried to kill the late Dumbledore."
An awkward silence pursued them. "I guess, you're welcome to stay here… It's not much, but it's home," Rose gestured to the walls, lined with paintings and portraits of the family.
Scorpius took it all in and glanced at the family portraits. There were so many of them, and they all smiled and reached out to him in their own way. It was unlike the Malfoy and Black portraits, cold and sneering. "Is that you, Rose?" he pointed to a picture of a young girl with flying red hair, frozen in a Muggle snapshot, chasing a baby Albus across the yard on a broomstick.
"Well, you see why Al doesn't fly now, right?" Rose giggled and began to point to another portrait when they were greeted by a bang and a crash.
Rose's dad had Apparated onto the coffee table where Hermione had put orange juice for Scorpius. "Blimey, Hermione! I told you not to move things around the hous—" He stopped midsentence and his eyes connected with Scorpius.
For a minute, it seemed like Ron was in disbelief. He shook his head once and glanced up again at a smiling Rose with Scorpius' nose a good three inches from her forehead, pointing to a family portrait.
"Rose…what is he…" Ron began to point at Scorpius. His finger began to shake.
At this moment, Hermione rushed in and began to pull Ron to the kitchen. "Long story, Ron, but first we have breakfast!"
"Don't stop me, 'Mione! Isn't that Malfoy's spawn of a son?" He muttered. Hermione mumbled a response and Ron was immediately on Scorpius, dragging him to the kitchen.
He was followed by a string of curses, surprisingly, from Hermione was Rose stood there in shock. "Ronald, stop! STOP!" Her mother tried to heave Ron off of Scorpius, who was apparently finding the scene very amusing until Ron reached into one of the kitchen drawers and wielded a thick butcher's knife.
Rose flew to her mother's side. "Dad, please stop! You haven't even heard his side of the story!"
Ron growled. "I don't need to hear this bastard's side of the story! When a boy is home next to my daughter, it means that you've defiled her!"
Scorpius gave a nervous laugh at the butcher's knife in Ron's hand. "Sir, I really do think you're overanalyzing this situation…"
Hermione took this opportunity to disarm Ron of the knife and his wand. "Now Ronald Billius Weasley, if you can't have a proper conversation with this young man, I suggest you leave this house until you can figure out how to do so!" She had her hands on her hips, one holding a butcher's knife and one holding two wands. To Scorpius, she truly looked menacing.
Ron glared at Scorpius. "I'd like to have a proper conversation with you, Malfoy. Outside." Hermione motioned for Rose to follow them in case Ron would start attacking Scorpius with his bare fists.
They stood outside the Burrow as Scorpius explained his situation. Ron's eyes narrowed. "Are you sure Harry told you to come here and not to his house?"
"He said it would displease my grandfather further." Ron began to laugh a humourless laugh. "Do you think your grandfather would be any more displeased to know you're living in a Weasley's house?"
"Well, sir, I thought I'd take advice from one of the Ministry's leading Aurors."
Ron seemed satisfied with this answer. He leaned in closer to Scorpius, so that their eyes met. "I don't know how different you are from your father, but know this. One finger on Rosie and you're a dead man."
Scorpius' mouth lifted in a tiny smirk that briefly resembled Draco's. Ron wanted to smash the git's face, but realized his only daughter was watching. "Sir, I don't doubt your intents."
Scorpius spent the next two days at the Burrow, until Al came by with Harry to pick him up. There was apparently an investigation of Lucius Malfoy's actions in the past six months, which was probably why he had come back to Malfoy Manor. It had something to do with the House Elf Corporation. The night before he left, Scorpius laid in the Burrow's Quidditch field, looking at the stars. There was no other house for miles, and it almost seemed like he was back at home. He didn't want to admit it, but he missed his mother terribly.
"Looking for yourself up there, Scorpio?" came Rose's voice from behind him. He didn't move or respond. He felt her hair on his shoulder as she laid down. The tip of her head touched his only slightly, but her long red hair caressed his neck. Caressed? He must be feeling so poetic tonight. Must be the stars.
She moved and her hair tickled his ear and neck. He began to snigger. "What's so funny, Malfoy?"
He continued to laugh as she wiggled around, demanding an answer. "Rose…your hair is tickling me," he managed to blurt out, as he tossed her hair back at her face.
Rose laughed and tossed it back on his face, enveloping it. She attempted to continue to tickle his neck as he sought to wiggle away from her.
Outside the guest bedroom window, Al began to smirk such a large smirk that Scorpius would have been proud. They're in like, he thought. It was as cute as it was disgusting. He pulled down the blinds. Guess he should give them a little privacy.
To be continued…
