Chapter 9

Rose waited until the next day when it would not seem so unusual or sudden to approach her mother and step father.

But could she do it? Could she actually lie to the famous Healer Doctor Granger? The woman who helped take down Lord Voldemort when she was just a kid? And the man who had that same monster living in his house when he was the same age?

She had the benefit of knowing they would not be expecting her to flat out lie to them. Right? She told Draco there is nothing she would not have done to protect her family, and her grandfather was part of her family. How could she just sit back knowing they were just going to kill him.

Oh she knew he probably deserved it. Heck, he did deserve it. He did some pretty bad things. But he was trying to change. He hadn't done any of those things recently. He was a good grandfather. He went to muggle places with her. They even rode buses and went to movies and he would never have done any of those things before. She was sure of it. And he did those things with her. And she was a half blood.

And it wasn't to make him look good. Because no one knew they did those things together. It didn't make any news papers. No societal gossip rags screamed "Former Death Eater takes Half Blood Grand Daughter to see Titanic for Third Time Manages to Stay Awake!". Those were not the sort of things someone got awards for. Though undoubtedly he probably thought he deserved at least a Merlin First Class. If the way he sighed through the second half and murmured there was absolutely enough room on the debris for both of them was any indication.

She decided Draco was the best to go to. Doing her homework at his feet she suddenly looked up as if she had a sudden inspiration.

"Draco… I… I need you to take me to Grandfather and Grandmother Malfoy's old manor!"

He raised an eyebrow "You hardly need me for that Rosie, the wards recognize you better than me at this point I dare say." He smirked at her.

Blushing she said "Not all of them… I need to go to the attics."

"We had that talk when you were twelve Rose and we caught you and Scorpius up there, you are not allowed in the attics." He did not mention they had all assumed she and Scorpius had nipped up to the attics for a bit of snogging, it had turned out not to be true, still… there were some dark and dangerous things in the attics, no place for children to play.

"I know, but I remember seeing some of Bellatrix' things up there, journals and such… if she wrote down some of her curses as she invented them…" Rose let her thought trail off.

"Then the original may still be up there! I don't know why I never thought of that!" Draco looked excited.

"Because you are not the daughter of the brightest witch of her age?" Rose smirked at him.

"Now I see why your mother says that being compared to me is not a compliment" he laughed. "But I will go look, you are staying here."

"Please let me go, Draco" Rose pleaded "I know where I saw them and it will go much faster. I will stay right beside you and I won't touch anything you say I am not allowed to."

"You really should have been sorted in to Slytherin with Al and Scorpius you manipulative little witch." He ruffled her hair fondly.

"Is that a yes?" she looked at him hopefully.

"That is a "touch the barest tip of your tiniest finger to the smallest dust bunny and I will have you scrubbing chamber pots without magic faster than you can say Helga Hufflepuff" Rose Weasley." He warned.

Rose agreed willingly, happy that her stepfather was allowing her to go, but also feeling guilty that she was deceiving him. Draco had been really awesome with both her and Hugo. And even though he and her Dad bickered sometimes mostly they got a long.

But what choice did she have? She couldn't just sit back and let them kill her grandfather. Or worse, mess up his mind. And she knew he would rather be dead than have his mind wiped clean. Even by his own son.

It wasn't fair. Oh, it was probably fair to Lucius, she knew that. She wasn't that naïve or foolish. Nor had she been lying when she said she read the trial transcripts. Her grandfather and that mad woman, along with a bunch of other death eaters had attacked her Mum and Dad and Uncle Harry and their friends in the Department of Mysteries on a madman's orders all for a stupid prophecy. Like, ever heard of a pensieve arsehole? Seriously, kidnapping Trewlaney, pulling her memories and sticking them in a pensieve would have been a lot less trouble. Were all of these evil fuckers so over the top dramatic? No wonder they lost. They spent all of their time in stupid elaborate plans instead of taking over the world.

She meant it wasn't fair to her. Aside from Scorpius, Lucius was the only member of her family she felt like really understood her. No judgments. Grandma Narcissa loved her too, she did spend an awful lot of time with her. But Narcissa wanted to mold her in to a societal wife. And she wasn't blind as to why. Everyone thought she did not fully understand yet her own mind or feelings. She did. She knew from a very young girl that the way she felt about Scorpius was just… different… from how she felt about Hugo or her cousins. Even James and Albus, and they weren't even blood related. Or not closely blood related. They had done the family tree and they were sort of blood related but it took some serious maths to determine how.

But it wasn't like they were running off to get married any time soon. They had talked about it. They wanted to grow up first. Date other people, but no sex. That was a if rule for both of them. A bit of snogging was OK. But sex was a deal breaker. If either felt they were going to have sex with someone else it was OK, but it meant the two of them would not happen. They would just be brother and sister after that.

She thought about all of this on the way to Malfoy Manor. She admitted to a bit of morbid fascination with the place. So much history had happened here. Bad history yes, and it still frightened her, but history never the less. She sure wouldn't want to come here alone, but with Draco or her grandfather to hold her hand if she got frightened, she was OK.

Like now, a large peacock ran at them screaming and she gave a little squeal and grabbed Draco's hand. He looked down at her in amusement. "Are you sure you want to do this Rosie?"

'I'm not scared, it just startled me." She said in a squeak.

"mmhmmm." He smirked down at her.

"I am 13 years old, Draco Malfoy. I am not scared of pigeons with delusions of grandeur." She let go of his arm and marched off towards the manor.

He laughed at how much she reminded him of her mother in that moment.

Once inside they had to sit through tea with his mother where she grilled Rose on school activities, her extracurricular involvement and managed to wheedle her in to promising to assist with the next charity ball. It wasn't until she managed to gain her promise that Rose realized this also meant shopping for a new ball gown. The most detested activity in Roses opinion. Narcissa merely smiled in to her teacup as Rose groaned. While Rose may have made a good Slytherin, Narcissa actually had been one. Draco shook his head "Evil mother, just evil."

"Why Draco, I can't imagine what you could mean." Narcissa had always wanted a daughter and she made the most of rose, willing or not. Looking over at rose Draco knew it was largely unwilling.

"Stop slouching, Rose. It is unbecoming." Chided Lucius. He may love his granddaughter but he knew which side his cauldron was lit on.

Glaring at her traitorous grandfather Rose sat up straight and grabbed another biscuit from the tray before looking at Draco, "Don't we have anywhere else to be?"

"Manners Rose." He smirked "Or you will be going to cotillion next."

She glared at him.

"Oh very well, we do have a mission. Mother, Rose wanted to look through the attic for some old books to use in a school project. May we?" he asked smoothly.

Narcissa frowned "Draco, dear, some of the things up there may not be suitable for school projects…"

"Don't worry mother, we won't be using Great-Grandmother Black's knickers in a quilt or anything, just some of the old diaries for dates and such" Draco winced as his mother smacked him on the knee with her wand.

"Very well, just don't touch anything dangerous, and mind your porky mouth." She said wiping her wand off as though it had been offended by being used in such a low brow activity. For all he knew it had been.

Escaping before he was clobbered again, they fled to the attic.

Giving it a good half hour, as though it took her some time to remember where they had been playing Rose finally "found" some old diaries, surprisingly enough they actually were some of Bellatrix' old things, she had not been fibbing about that she and Scorpius really had been told off for playing about in those old dusty tomes and such. Slipping the paper Lucius had given her into one of the books she called out "Found it!"

Telling her not to touch anything and rushing over Draco carefully took the book from her. Hugging her tightly Draco said proudly, you did it Rosie, I really think this is it! I think you saved your Mum and the baby!

Rose blushed, but it was with guilt not pride. She did hate lying to him. She told herself the ends justified the means, but she was having trouble believing it. She hadn't even been able to tell Scorpius what she had done. She knew he would understand. He always did, but then he would be just as guilty as she was.

No, if this all blew up, it would just be her and Lucius taking the blame.

But hopefully it did not all blow up.