Victoria Blackwater indeed proved to be quite, as her mother put it, eccentric. She was a big woman with an even bigger personality.
"So Rose, I hear you're the first of the Weasely clan to be sorted into a house other than Gryffindor," Ms. Blackwater, who was sitting across from the young witch, commented.
"Well, Molly was the first to not be in Gryffindor, but I am the only Hufflepuff," Rose replied. Despite knowing that she shouldn't, Rose felt a little uneasy around the woman that her mother thought would serve to be a good mentor for her daughter. Ms. Blackwater had many qualities that intrigued Rose, but from the looks on her cousins' faces, she knew they did not accept this stranger.
"I was sorted into Ravenclaw," Molly stated proudly.
"Ah, my late husband was a Ravenclaw. Very bright bunch. Pretty arrogant as well," Ms. Blackwater laughed. A mixture of shock and hurt appeared on Molly's face. "I was a loyal and amiable Hufflepuff like yourself," the eccentric witch addressed Rose with a smile.
"And rude," Molly whispered louder than intended.
Ignoring Molly's remark, Ms. Blackwater continued. "Your mother also told me that you aspire to work in the field of magical creatures. Is that right?"
"Yes, Mrs. Blackwater," Rose nodded.
"Oh, please. Mrs. Blackwater is my mother. Call me Victoria," she corrected.
"I'm sorry, your mother? Didn't you say you had been married?" Lily asked, puzzled.
"Yes. I was. But even when Victor was alive, I detested the name Figs. There's no dignity in a name like that! So I kept my own!" Victoria exclaimed.
"Oh," was all Lily could say in response. She was obviously taken aback by Victoria's brashness.
"There's a Madame Blackwater at Hogwarts. She's the nurse," Hugo piped in.
"That's Sylvia, my brother's wife," Victoria responded. Her voice indicated that she was less than thrilled by the mention of her sister-in-law. Rose decided it was best not to ask why she wasn't spending her Christmas with them.
"So, Rose, I'm assuming your mother told you about my profession and intended that I talk to you about it," Victoria stated. "At least, I'm hoping that's the only reason I was put at the kiddie table."
Unfortunately, Victoria wasn't completely off color about the statement. It seemed that Rose's mother had made sure to seat all the older couples at one table, and put the teenagers and twenty-somethings, save for Victoria and Uncle Charlie, at the other.
"Now, it's not entirely kids," Charlie, who was sitting right next to Victoria, defended. "Unless, you mean 'kid-at-heart,' then I fit right in."
"Ah, that explains it!" she exclaimed. "Anyways, Rose, what would you like to know from me?"
"Oh, I'm not sure," Rose started. She was taken off guard by the question. She also felt awkward having a conversation centered on herself at a table with 7 other people. "Um, I guess, what should I start doing to prepare for life after graduation?"
"Well, depends what aspect you're interested in? There are many different directions you could go in. There's the Ministry side of it, which I'm involved in," Victoria began.
"Or there's the research side of it. That's mainly what I do in Romania," Charlie added.
"Research in Romania?" Victoria turned to Charlie.
"Yes, I've been studying dragons for the past 20 years," Charlie stated proudly.
"Well all be," Victoria smiled. She nervously brushed her hair back behind her cheek as she gazed up into his eyes. "I've always found dragons to be very sexy."
An awkward silence fell over the table. No one was quite sure what to say next.
Lily turned to Rose and quietly whispered, "Ew, she has to be at least half his age."
Albus who had overheard his sister's remark choked on the water he had just taken a sip from. Another moment passed with Albus' coughing as the only sound at the table.
Victoria and Charlie continued to do nothing but gaze into each other's eyes.
"So," Molly began, clearing her throat. "Albus, do you have any plans for what you want to do after graduation?"
"Oh yeah," Albus jumped at the opportunity to drive the table discussion back to some sort of normalcy, despite the fact that his eyes were still watering. "I really love Potions. I'd love to work at St. Mungo's or the like discovering new concoctions to cure people."
"You know, my boyfriend Alexander works at St. Mungo's apothecary, I'll make sure to introduce you to him this summer," Molly replied.
"That'd be fantastic!" Albus exclaimed before breaking into another coughing fit.
The only other sound at the table was now the hushed chatter between Victoria and Charlie.
"What have you been up to in America Lucy?" Rose asked quickly referring to the fact that after having a difficult first year at Hogwarts, her cousin Lucy transferred to her American mother's alma mater and was now a 6th year at Proctor's School for Witches.
"You know, I've really gotten into Divination. It's like so much bigger over in America then it is here," Lucy replied. It seemed that she had also adopted an American accent.
"If I didn't know any better, I would like think that like you weren't even like British," James mocked his cousin.
"Oh, shut up," Lucy snapped. "All you do is freaking chase balls for a living."
"That's right. And I get paid ridiculous amounts of money to do it," James smiled slyly. He had recently become Seeker for the Hollyhead Harpies, and made sure everyone knew about his paycheck.
The rest of the night ran more smoothly. Rose exchanged contact information with Victoria, who was otherwise distracted by Uncle Charlie for the reminder of the night. Despite the odd events during the night, Rose always enjoyed her family's large gatherings and this Christmas was no exception.
"Well, it looks like Charlie's back in the game," Rose's father declared after everyone had left. "Would never take him to be into the loony bird type though."
Hermione gave him a warning look. "Victoria is a perfectly…interesting person."
"No, I agree with da. She's fucking nuts," Hugo added.
"Hey, watch your language!" Ron chided.
"I'm just disappointed she was too distracted to talk to you more, Rose," Hermione commented.
"It's fine, mum, really. We exchanged information so if I have any questions I can just send her an owl," Rose reassured.
"Alright, well I'm glad something came out of," Hermione concluded.
Rose helped her mother and father clean up before heading back up the stairs. It wasn't until she opened the door to her room and saw her bed that she remembered what was hiding under it.
Rose dashed over and slid the package out. She stared at it for a moment. What would happen when she opened it? Was it really from him? Part of her dreaded it was and the other part of her knew she'd be disappointed if it wasn't. 'Only one way to find out.'
She took a deep breath and then slowly began to unwrap the plain brown paper engulfing the box. When she lifted the lid her heart fluttered. It was the dress that she had tried on in La Elegant Enchantresses. There was also a small rectangular piece of white card stock sitting on top of it. On it there was a finely detailed sketch of a rose with a few words scrawled in elegant cursive:
For my Rose
~S.M.
His Rose. It was possessive. His. Like he owned her. Yet there was still something romantic about the whole thing. Even she couldn't deny that.
Rose could feel tears coming to her eyes. She was so overwhelmed with it all that she didn't hear her mother open the door.
"Rose, I just wanted to thank you-" Hermione stopped when she saw her daughter on the ground crying. "What's the matter, Rose?" she asked in a quiet but alarmed voice as she kneeled down next to her daughter.
She looked at the box in front of Rose, saw the initials on the handwritten note, and began to piece together the reason for her daughter's tears. She pulled her daughter into an embrace. Rose cried into her mother's shoulder.
"I'm sorry, Mum. I'm so sorry," Rose repeated through sobs.
"There, there. It's alright," Hermione cooed, even though she wasn't entirely sure what her daughter was apologizing for.
Hermione held on to her daughter for a little while longer, until Rose finally calmed down enough to look her mother in the eye.
"Now, tell Mum what's the matter," Hermione began. "I promise I won't judge."
Rose took a deep breath and then everything poured out of her like a gutter during a torrential downpour. Every event, every thought, every feeling that transpired since the night Scorpius decided to start an actual dialogue between him and Rose. She told her mother about reveling in Scorpius' close proximately, about throwing herself down the stairs as a twisted (and in retrospect, incredibly stupid) form of revenge, about his mixed signals and her equally mixed reactions, about how she was terrified of how the rest of the family would react if they ever found out, and most importantly about how badly he her hurt the last time they spoke.
The whole time Hermione listened and nodded in understanding until she was certain her daughter had finished.
"Well, if ever there was a tale of two star-crossed lovers," Hermione smiled. "Just don't end up like Juliet. You're much to smart for that."
"Mother this isn't funny!" Rose cried, turning away from her. "And…" she paused, "I never said I was in love with him."
"I'm sorry, darling," Hermione apologized, placing her hand on her daughter's cheek and gently turning it towards her once more. "When you get to be my age you'll understand how things that seem so big and scary now, aren't as melodramatic as you make them out to be."
"Mum, you're not helping," Rose sighed, tears still silently streaming down her face.
"Well, I'm not pleased with you for lying about the whole staircase incident; however, I don't hold anything against you for having feelings towards someone. No matter what last name he may have."
Rose nodded.
"Look, I understand this is all scary and confusing now, I do. But one thing you can be sure of is that Scorpius is probably just as confused as you are. It seems Malfoy men aren't very good when it comes to emotions"
Rose looked at her mother skeptically.
I'll let you in on a little secret." Hermione sighed and leaned back up against the nightstand. "Remember how I mentioned that Draco, Scorpius' father, retreated to America for a five years after the war was over?"
"Yes, but what does that have to do with anything."
Hermione ignored her daughter's impatience. "Well, each year during those five years I would receive an extravagant gift from an anonymous sender on my birthday and at Christmas time. Mostly it was jewelry, but one time I received a very rare manuscript written in the rune language –must've cost thousands of galleons.
"Although it was a different owl carrying the packages every time, I had my suspicions as to who was sending them. Sure enough on my birthday, six years after the Battle of Hogwarts, Draco came to my office at the Ministry just as I was getting off from work. He asked me if he could take me out for a drink and I obliged.
"There he explained that he was the one who had sent me all the gifts. He said that he knew they could never make up for the way he treated me in school, for the cowardice he showed when he was under the influence of his father and, subsequently, Voldemort.
"He told me that although he had an awful way of showing it, deep down he had always loved me. He claimed he had been so brainwashed into believing that anything less than pure blood was dirty blood, that when he realized his feelings for me he panicked. In that panic he retaliated against me, even though he knew none of it was my fault. Then finally, he apologized."
"W-what did you do?" Rose asked. Her tears had stopped while she listened to her mother's story.
"I accepted his apology," Hermione stated.
"You what?" Rose asked amazed. "After everything he put you and dad through?"
"Yes," she replied. "Rose, one of the most important lessons you can learn is about forgiveness. Do it too often, and you will be disrespected and trampled on. Do it seldom or not at all, and you harbor all that anger inside of you; you end up hurting yourself more than the person who caused the pain in the first place. Remember that."
Rose nodded. She knew in her mind that what her mother said was logical. Her heart was still having some trouble juggling with the idea. "Then what happened?" she pressed.
Hermione sighed. "I told him that it took a lot of bravery to do what he just did. I said that I was proud of him, something I don't think he had ever really heard anyone say to him before. You should have seen how his face lit up. He asked me if I would see him again, if he could have a second chance with me. I told him I was flattered, but sorry, I was already accounted for. I held up my hand to show him my engagement ring." Hermione looked down at her hand and traced the diamond ring that still resided on her finger right below her wedding band.
Rose smiled at the thought of her father proposing to her mother. She could just imagine what they looked like when they were young and in love. How beautiful it was that they still had so much love for each other after all these years.
"From what I could tell he was pretty heart broken after that, but two years later he married Astoria and Scorpius was born not long after that. He moved on eventually. I'm happy that he did. Draco and I haven't talked ever since, but we still give each other a nod of acknowledgement when we cross paths at the Ministry." Hermione concluded her story with a smile.
"Wow." It was Rose's turn to sigh. "So, did you ever have feelings for Mr. Malfoy?" Rose let the question sit on her lips for a while before she gave voice to it.
"It might have crossed my mind during those first few years after the war. But I knew I could never love Draco, at least not the way I love your father. We go too far back, you're father and I. He was one of my best friends first and we grew to love each other more deeply as the years went on. To me that's the best kind of love. Passion's fantastic and fun, but it comes and goes. At the end of the day, you need to be able to work and grow together, to understand one another, to trust each other. Passion and partnership, that's the recipe for true love."
"Wow, mum," Rose let out the breath she didn't realize she had been holding. "That's deep."
Hermione laughed and then turned to her daughter. "If Scorpius is anything like his father, which I get the sense the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree in this case, the hurtful quips are just a defense mechanism against his own confusion. Nothing my Rose can't handle," Hermione smiled as she rubbed her daughters back. "You're still young yet. Don't worry about Scorpius too much. Just follow your intuition. You're bright enough that it won't lead you astray."
"But what about dad? He hates Scorpius. He hates all of the Malfoys"
"Your father is a passionate man. He can be fierier than his hair sometimes," Hermione chuckled. "But, he loves you immensely, as do I, and will support you in everything you do. He just wants what's best for you. Even if he needs some convincing on what exactly that is."
Rose took a deep breath. "Thanks Mum." She hugged her mother. "I really appreciate it."
"What are mothers for?" Hermione beamed at her daughter. "Now, let's see how you look in this dress!"