Chapter 10:
A few weeks had passed and Rose was finally settled back in at Hogwarts. Her classes did feel more challenging this year, but she was able to keep up with them. For once, she wanted to prove to everyone that she was smarter than she let on. She seemed to become more focused on her assignments and the thoughts of who her birth father seemed to drift from her mind.
It was late one evening in the common room and Rose was sitting at a table finishing up one of her assignments, wanting to be able to relax this upcoming weekend. She hadn't had the time to do her usual sneaking into the Slytherin common room to spend time with Scorpius; the assignments seemed to take over any free time that she had.
Rose let out a sleepy yawn and glanced over at the clock hanging on a nearby wall. It was nearly midnight and she needed to get some sleep before her class tomorrow morning. Her weary eyes stared down at the parchment in front of her as she read through her essay once more. It was a dreadful Herbology assignment where she had to write and compare a few different types of plants. It was a long assignment for her to do considering that Herbology was her least favorite class.
Why did Professor Longbottom give this awful assignment? She thought, after finishing reading it. Her old attitude towards school seemed to take over and she figured it was good enough and there was no point working anymore on it.
Rose began packing up her things, determined to be fast asleep within five minutes. She began dumping things into her backpack, not really carrying how jumbled it would be in the morning. She kept thinking about her warm bed awaiting her and a night filled with dreams, which motivated her to tidy up faster. She grabbed her bad copies of parchment and walked over to the fire to get rid of the rubbish, but soon footsteps were soon heard coming down the staircase and Rose peered at the staircase wondering who on Earth it could possibly be.
The tall, lean figure leaned against the wall and peered down at her. Rose stood up straight and stared back at him, wondering what on Earth he possibly wanted. She cleared her throat and swung her backpack over her shoulder, still planning on being in bed in five minutes.
"What do you want, Andrew?" said Rose, wondering what he was doing up at this hour. She had been avoiding him for a while now, considering their last conversation they had the first day of classes. She knew how much he liked her and for some reason the feeling of wanting a hook-up seemed to drift from her mind, when she began focusing on other things.
"You have been avoiding me ever since I told you how I felt about what we have," He said, stepping down to the floor and walking over to Rose. His hands were buried deep in his pockets, as he peered down at the ground. "I know you have feelings for me, Rose, so stop holding them back."
Rose shook her head, not wanting to deal with this at midnight. She had classes tomorrow and needed to get some sleep or else she would most likely fall asleep in all of her classes. "I don't know what you are talking about," She said, trying to walk past him.
Andrew was too quick for her and stepped in front of her halting her from leaving. Their faces were nearly inches apart and he stared into her crystal blue eyes. "You do know what I am talking about, Rose."
"I told you to give me a year to think about it. It is not possible to be with you this year," She whispered, feeling slightly guilty at the hurt look in his deep brown eyes.
Without any warning, Andrew pulled Rose's lips to his. The warm touch of Andrew's lips sent warm sensations throughout Rose's body. She couldn't help, but snog him back, until something in her mind told her to stop. Rose pulled away from her lover and immediately ran past him up to her room.
No I can't possibly like him. He is a friend of James. She kept repeating to herself in her head, trying to forget the way his lips felt on hers.
She quietly closed the door to her room shut and sunk to the ground trying to take it all in. The kiss felt different to her, then any other kiss they had shared together. Placing her head in her hands, she took deep breaths trying to not get emotional over this.
A few of her roommates were snoring in a soft rhythm. After moments of calming herself down, Rose started to become drowsy again. It was well past midnight and the only thing she wanted was some sleep. She quietly slipped into her nightgown and crawled into bed, not bothering to wash up. The thoughts of the recent events seemed to drift far from her mind as she dozed off into a deep sleep.
Scorpius Malfoy awoke the next morning, startled, from the dream he had been having. It was the never-ending reoccurring dream that managed to sneak into his thoughts every other night, which would cause him to wake up with a panic. There is no way this is even true. He thought to himself, as his heart beat began to settle down to his usual resting point.
He climbed out of his four-poster bed and merely glanced at his roommates, who were all still sound asleep with no sign of waking up anytime soon. It was shortly past seven and classes were going to begin in less than two hours. Scorpius was dreading going to Care of Magical Creatures today. That class just never seemed to appeal to him, but all of the girls or girly guys loved it because they thought that the creatures were all so "cute".
When it came to Care of Magical Creatures, it was Scorpius's downfall. He was a rather good student and made excellent marks, except for in this particular class. Apart from not being appealing, he just never seemed motivated to even try understanding. His father seemed to understand Scorpius's bitterness towards the class, considering he had nearly broken his arm from an incident in his third year, meanwhile his mother couldn't help but emphasize how important that class was to her so he should be working hard to impress the professor.
Scorpius finished getting ready for the day and swung his bag over his shoulder, to head down to the Great Hall. The only thing he knew he could look forward to was spending time with Rose and possibly diving more into his father's past. He was beginning to wonder if Rose had forgotten all about it considering he hadn't had nearly any time to spend with her outside of class.
"Scorp!" shouted Thomas, once he had entered the common room. Scorpius looked over at the tall figure, wondering what on earth he would possibly want. He waved him over and Scorpius, casually walked over not knowing what to expect.
"What do you need Thomas? I have stuff to do," said Scorpius impatiently.
Thomas cleared his throat. "I saw Rose and that Andrew fellow the other day," said Thomas, with fear in his voice. It was almost as if he was nervous to tell everything to the young Malfoy.
"Blimey, Thomas, is that all you have to say? Andrew is James's mate, which Rose has to deal with constantly because of James taunting her. Is that all the rubbish you needed to tell me?"
Thomas shook his head. "They were together," He whispered.
"Speak up," snapped Scorpius, not sure if he heard what Thomas said properly. Why would Rose be with Andrew out of all people? She despised him and would always go on long rants about how awful James and him were to each other. Also, why would Rose keep a secret from him?
"I told you—"
"Scorp!" said Rose, walking into the Slytherin common room. She ripped off her Gryffindor tie and stuffed it in her backpack, smiling brightly at her best friend.
"Now if you would excuse me," said Scorpius, brushing past Thomas and walking up to his best friend. He was surprised to see her in the common room since it had nearly been weeks since she had paid a surprise visit.
When he approached his best friend, she held up his father's journal and let out a devious grin. "Grab some breakfast and get through many more entries?"
Scorpius nodded and soon enough the two best friends were leaving the Slytherin common room eager to uncover who this mysterious Renee girl was.
"Astoria, I have told you multiple times I do not want another child," said Draco Malfoy bitterly pacing across the room. This was the same argument that was going on for months and he was growing weary of it. It didn't matter how many times Astoria asked, he wouldn't change his mind.
Astoria crossed her arms across her chest and looked down at the ground, disappointed that her husband wouldn't change his mind.
"Why are you so desperate for another child? We have a son, something that you and I wanted when we first decided to start a family. Why do we need any more?"
"I want a daughter," said Astoria, biting her lip and still gazing at the ground. "I want to be able to experience motherhood all over again. It has been fifteen years, Draco, I want another."
Draco shook his head and grabbed some floo powder from the container about the fireplace. "I need to go to work now. I will be home around my usual time, so make sure the house elves have something nice prepared."
Within seconds, Draco Malfoy had disappeared from the manor.
Astoria sighed and wiped away the forming tears in her eyes. She rubbed her stomach, wanting more than anything to have the feeling of a child in her again. It was a feeling that no one could quite understand unless you had mothered a child before. She longed to have a daughter that she could spoil in silky and ruffled dresses. Now it seemed like that would be a little far out of reach.
She loved Draco dearly, but lately had been wondering what brought her into this marriage in the first place. The end of the war with Voldemort had caused both her family and the Malfoy family to nearly lose all of their money. In order to establish financial balance, her father and Lucius had arranged a marriage between her and Draco. Before she knew it, she was engaged before she started her seventh and final year, while Draco started on his career.
She grew to love Draco, but it did take quite a rather long time before she felt like she won his heart. It was always as if something else was on his mind when he wrote her letters and visited her at Hogwarts. Although, on their wedding day he finally told her that he loved her. From that point on, they began their marriage filled with love and happiness. Soon enough, she was pregnant with Scorpius.
Astoria thought back to those first few years of her marriage and how happy they both were. These past few years it felt as if they were both drifting apart and she wanted more than anything to save her marriage. She thought that if they had another child they could fix their marriage and go back to those happy moments together.
"Only if we could," she muttered to herself, before climbing the staircase to finish getting ready for the day.
"Hermione," said a young witch, with sound of her heels clicking the floor as she strolled into Mrs. Weasley's office. "I just got a note saying that someone from the department of foreign affairs will be dropping off the files you needed for your case."
Hermione looked up from her papers in front of her and smiled at her assistant, Clarissa. "Excellent, thank you. Please notify me when they have arrived."
"Yes of course. You should expect them any time now." Clarissa gave a smile to Hermione, before leaving the office. She had been working as Hermione's assistant for over two years now in the law enforcement department at the Ministry and loved every part of her job. The people she was constantly surrounded by could cheer her up, make her laugh, and make her smile. Hermione was a big influence in this considering she had been going through a lot in the past year with her father passing away and then shortly her mother.
Clarissa sat down at her desk and skimmed over the calendar of the different things that were coming up. She knew that Hermione had eagerly been working on a case with multiple wizards. There had seem to be some sort of foreign violence between a group of British and Italian wizards that needed to be resolved.
She heard footsteps and raised her head to see a tall, blond male that looked exceptionally good for his age. He held onto a thick stack of files, which she knew were for Hermione.
"Delivering to Mrs. Weasley?" She said.
The man nodded and Clarissa beckoned him to follow her back to Hermione's office.
"Hermione, the papers have arrived," said Clarissa, announcing the presence of the tall blond.
Hermione stood up from her desk to greet whoever was coming to the door and froze when she saw Draco Malfoy standing in the doorway with his usual smirk spread across his face, holding up the files.
Of course they send him in the department. She thought, not wanting to talk to him at all.
"You could have a nicer look across your face, Granger," said Draco. "I know how important these files are for your case, so the least you could do is show some common courtesy since I went all this way to deliver them to you."
Hermione rolled her eyes and held out her hand waiting for the files. "I appreciate it, Malfoy. Were you able to contact the Italian minister by chance?"
"No, they haven't returned any of our owls. We are sending someone over there tomorrow in hopes of getting the information we need." He handed the files to her and tried making eye contact with her, but she refused to meet his eyes.
Hermione didn't say anything and just shook her head and walked over to her desk to sit down, while Draco leaned in the doorway, with his usual smirk spread across his face. Hermione gazed at him curiously, not knowing why he bothered to stay here. What did he possibly want from her?
"You know, Granger, out of all of the years I have known you, you haven't improved your manners at all. I suppose you really don't grow out of old habits."
Hermione looked up at him glaring, finally meeting his eyes. "Mr. Malfoy, I think you are well aware that I am now Mrs. Weasley. There is no need to refer to me as Granger anymore."
Draco shook his head and walked into the office, taking the seat that was in front of her desk. He unbuttoned the top button in his suit coat, attempting to get comfortable. In truth, he hated being anywhere near her. It just stirred up memories from the past at Hogwarts and after the war. Regardless, he showed no look of hatred and cleared his throat. "Alright then, Weasley."
"Malfoy, why are you even here?" snapped Hermione.
"Is there anything wrong with wanting to visit one of my former classmates?" stated Draco innocently, but Hermione didn't buy it. Draco's expression soon turned into his usual smirk. "You know why I'm here."
"The answer is still no," said Hermione, opening up the files and glancing through them, hoping that Draco would soon leave.
"You realize you can't stop me," said Draco, "I don't need your permission to do anything and I can find a way around it."
Author's Note: Thank you for taking the time to read it! Please write a review, I would love to hear feedback. I will be uploading weekly this summer, so stay tuned! :)