Chapter 10- Confrontations
"Oh my…" Ruby began in complete horror but the scene was interrupted by the arrival of her Aunt Hermione looking like she had ran the entire way from the apparition point.
"Ruby have you seen…?" She began before noticing the paper that Scorpius was still holding up. Healer Kyle came out of his office.
"Hello, Mrs Weasley, how can….oh dear!" He finished as Scorpius angled the paper so he could see it.
"I…I can't believe it…" Ruby began but again she was interrupted, this time by Mr Malfoy.
"Good, you're here Scorpius, is this true?" He asked, looking at his son and then across at where Ruby was frozen at her desk.
"Of course not, father." He replied.
"Ruby?" Aunt Hermione asked and Ruby looked up at her in shock.
"No! We just went out that night, that was it!"
"And the bed incident?" She pressed, but Scorpius replied.
"Oh for Merlin's sake it was just a poor choice of words on my part!" He said, blushing.
"What?" His father asked.
"Ruby had to do a spell that drains your power, I brought her back here…" he indicated to the bed in the corner of the office "…then Harry Potter came in and I got a bit star-struck!"
"What did you say?" His father asked.
"That he'd just left me in bed. Honestly Mr Malfoy it was just a bad choice of words, and I don't even know if Henry found out about it, he was just annoyed about the night out." Ruby answered rubbing her head; she could feel a migraine coming on. The door opened again and this time her father walked in.
"Oh my god, dad! It's not true!" She yelled.
"I must say, I see them together a lot and I highly doubt anything has been going on, apart from anything after Miss Weasley's experience in first year I doubt she would want a situation like this. And every trainee supervisor in this hospital advises their students to go out together after a bad shift, get some perspective." Kyle said calmly.
"See!" Ruby yelled, pointing at her supervisor.
"Right, I'll head to the papers, demand a retraction." Aunt Hermione said, making her way to the door.
"I'm coming with you Granger, I take my family's privacy seriously!"
"Weasley." Her aunt corrected automatically. Mr Malfoy nodded and they left the room quickly, Scorpius walked over to Ruby.
"You need to sort you that bloody boyfriend of yours, Weasley." He said, with an ugly expression on his face, she hated the renewed use of her surname but she knew he was angry.
"Hey! Stay out of this!" Her father spat, moving towards him.
"No, he's right dad. I'll talk to him now, sorry Scorpius." Scorpius nodded and left the room.
"Well, you better go now Miss Weasley, I expect the papers will be here soon. I'll move you to the night shift tomorrow."
"Yes sir, and I'm sorry."
"Don't apologise dear, I had the same thing with Penny when she started dating the Minister, these things blow over. Off you go." Ruby nodded and walked with her father, who shook Kyle's hand and thanked him for his understanding, to the apparition point.
"Do you want me to come to Henry's with you?" He asked.
"No, dad, I'll be fine. I'll see you at home, can you try and let everyone know it's not true?"
"Your mother has already done the letters, she's just waiting for me to confirm before she sends them. Don't be too long, the pie's in the oven."
Ruby nodded and disapparated.
She arrived in Henry's parents back garden, and knocked on the back door loudly. It was opened by Mrs Chang, as always she looked stunning.
"You've got some nerve." She said coldly.
"Hello, Mrs Chang. Is he here?" She replied, trying to keep her temper in check.
"He's heartbroken."
"If he's well enough to talk to the papers he's well enough to talk to me." Ruby replied, raising an eyebrow.
"I'll see if he wants to see you." She disappeared, shutting the door in Ruby's face. She opened the door again and Ruby knew what the answer would be.
"No, he's too upset."
"Sorry, Mrs Chang but I really need to talk to him." She said before ducking under Mrs Chang's arm and running up to Henry's bedroom. Mrs Chang shouted after her but she ignored her and pushed open his bedroom door.
Henry was lying on his bed, reading a Playwizard, and looking perfectly fine. He did not have a hint of tears on his flawless face. Ruby shut the door behind her and locked it with a charm her god-mother had showed her.
"We need to talk," Ruby said, firmly. Henry sat up and tried to hide the magazine under his pillow.
"I have nothing to say to you." He said, standing up, she could hear Mrs Chang yelling at her from the other side of the door.
"Well I've got plenty to say to you so you better listen." She said, leaning back against the door and wondering where to start.
"You broke my heart…" Henry began but Ruby cut across him.
"I broke your ego Henry! I broke your brilliant plan to marry a Weasley, and a Potter, oh you thought you'd got quite the deal with me didn't you?"
"How dare…"
"YOU JUST WANTED TO BE IN THE FUCKING PAPERS! YOU TIPPED THEM OFF WHENEVER WE WENT OUT!"
"Ridiculous," Henry muttered but Ruby was pleased to see that he had flushed slightly.
"HOW DARE YOU PROPOSE TO ME IN FRONT OF EVERYONE? DO YOU KNOW ME AT ALL? HOW COULD YOU MAKE SUCH A SCENE WITH MY MOTHER PRESENT!"
"I'm sure if you'd said yes…"
"THAT MAKES NO BLOODY DIFFERENCE AND YOU KNOW IT DOESN'T! YOU JUST WANTED ATTENTION! AND THEN YOU GO TO THE PAPERS AND TELL THEM I'VE BEEN SLEEPING WITH MALFOY!"
"Oh, I see, that's why you came…!"
"IT'S A LIE AND YOU FUCKING KNOW IT! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?"
"He fancies you!"
"NO HE DOESN'T, AND EVEN IF HE DOES THAT DOESN'T MEAN I LIKE HIM, IT DOESN'T MEAN I'M SLEEPING WITH HIM!"
The door behind Ruby flew open and she was astounded to see James standing there, in his Auror robes, looking deeply uncomfortable.
"James, what the…"
"There she is, arrest her! Breaking and entering!" Shrieked Mrs Chang and Ruby looked at her in complete shock.
"I didn't break in!"
"I didn't give you permission to enter; you are trespassing and verbally assaulting my son!"
"Are you serious?" Ruby asked, looking between Mrs Chang and Henry.
"Look Ruby, just go home." James said quietly.
"No, I want you to arrest her!"
"I'm an Auror mam, this is not a dark wizard situation."
"What are you doing here then?" Ruby asked.
"I asked him to come," Henry said and Ruby looked at her cousin, completely blind-sided.
"You're…you're on his side?" She breathed, feeling completely betrayed.
"No Rubes, no! I just came to tell him to back off, I saw the paper…"
"Some mate you are." Henry muttered.
"She's my cousin mate, and you know she isn't fucking Malfoy, and you were tipping off the papers." James said, looking over at Henry.
"You knew he was tipping…?" Ruby began, horrified.
"Oh, no Ruby! Only today, mom found out and told me, it's been going on for months, they've been bloody paying him!"
"They paid you?" Ruby yelled, turning on Henry.
"Arrest her, I tell you, she is trespassing!" Mrs Chang shrieked again but James turned to her, looking serious.
"Mrs Chang, if you report this then I'll tell everyone that Henry was being paid to give information on Ruby."
"They wouldn't print that!" Mrs Chang laughed.
"I think you'll find they would, not the prophet but the Quibbler, and I think my Aunt Hermione would be very interested to know about the arrangement." Ruby was quite impressed by James's offer. The Quibbler was a well-regarded paper now, and Aunt Hermione was very impressive in the court room.
"Just get out, both of you, you're both dead to me." Henry said darkly and James scoffed.
"Get over yourself Henry, we can both do better than you, come on Rubes." James led Ruby from the room and they apparated back to Wales in silence.
James took Ruby's hand and led her into the cottage and made her sit at the kitchen table as he explained to her family what had happened. At some point in the explanation Ruby felt her mother hold her hand and squeeze it. That was all it took for Ruby to dissolve into tears and lean into her mother to be held like a child who had grazed it's knee. If only it were that simple.
After James had finished, he disappeared and the family of four sit down to eat. Although Ruby was touched that her father had prepared her favourite meal she didn't eat much of it and she noticed that her mother didn't either, her dad clearly noticed too.
"Come on, eat, both of you." He said, looking at his wife particularly hard, she nodded and started to eat more but still did not finish her plate.
They were just starting the waffles when Aunt Hermione arrived and sat down next to Teddy.
"Well, they're going to print a retraction. They wanted to put it in the gossip column but I said that as the original article had been on the front page they were legally obligated to put it there. I doubt it will be big but it will definitely be there."
"Thanks, Aunt Hermione," Ruby said quietly.
"Don't mention it, Malfoy was actually quite useful, they're still well-connected and he was very angry."
"I can't believe Henry was paid to…"
"Don't think about it Rubes, you're well shot of him." Teddy said and she smiled sadly.
The following morning Ruby came downstairs for breakfast and found her mother sitting at the kitchen table staring into the middle distance.
"Morning mom, why aren't you at work?" She asked, giving her a kiss on the cheek as she passed and then going to the kettle to make tea.
"I've got the day off, how are you? Did you sleep?"
"I'm fine, not too much but I'm on the night shift so I'll have a nap later. Do you want to do something today then?"
"Sorry, Ruby, I can't." Her mother said, avoiding her daughters gaze and looking uncomfortable. Ruby made the tea and then sat down opposite her mother.
"Mom, are you okay?"
"Course I am."
"What are you doing today then?"
"Just going to see an old friend." Ruby felt her heart fill with fear; her mother picked up the tea and took a sip before noticing the alarm on her daughter's face.
"Ruby? Are you alright?"
"Mom, if I ask you something do you promise you'll tell me the truth."
"Yes, unless it's about work of course."
"Are you going to see Vernon Dursley?" Her mother's face filled with complete shock and her wide eyes looked into Ruby's face.
"What? How did…?" She stammered and Ruby gasped.
"Mom, please, don't go to see him!" She said, holding her mother's hand.
"How did you know? I haven't told anyone!" Her mother whispered and Ruby bit her lip slightly in worry.
"I…I saw that Aunt Petunia had a letter from the muggle prison."
"She never mentioned anything to me."
"I don't think she opened it. Anyway I asked Granddad and he looked into it for me. I know he's dying." She remembered what he had said about the strain it put on her relationship with Aunt Minnie and her mother and decided to try and keep her name out of it, if she could.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"We weren't sure if we should, we wanted to see what kind of place you were in but then you…you got a bit foggy, I guess because you'd got a letter too."
"You should have told me Ruby, this isn't for you to worry about."
"Of course it is, you're my mom, you can't go and see him. Please mom."
"I'm sorry you got dragged into this Ruby but…you have to understand, this is something I have to do."
"No, mom. It's not, no good can come of this!"
A sound of apparition reached the kitchen and her mother looked at the front door in apparent confusion. After a few seconds the door flew open and Uncle Harry walked in, wearing his Auror robes and looking livid.
"Shit!" Her mother said, closing her eyes. The twin bond had clearly betrayed her.
"Eliza, there is no fucking way you are going there! Ruby, get your father!" Ruby didn't even think to disagree, it was the first time she had seen her Uncle in fully fledged Angry-Head-Auror mode and he was scary.
She stood up quickly, ignoring her mother's request to stay seated and went to the fireplace, she didn't want to apparate before she'd completed her first cup of tea so she picked up the Floo powder and threw it onto the fire.
"Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes, Diagon Alley!" She cried, it was possible that her father wasn't there but as the main shop they would have more of an idea where he was. She landed smoothly and saw her Uncle Ron at the desk, with a confused expression on his face.
"Uncle Ron, is dad here?" She asked, making him jump.
"Christ Ruby, scared the…"
"Is dad here?!" She yelled. Her Uncle started at the normally fairly mild-mannered Ruby yelling at him.
"Yeah, I'll grab him." He dashed out of the office and returned seconds later with her father.
"Ruby?" He asked.
"Dad, you've got to come home, now." She said, stepping back into the Floo.
"Why? Is it Henry….?"
"It's mom, she's going to visit Vernon Dursley in prison, Bryn Y Felin!" Ruby yelled, disappearing before she could see the look of horror on her father's freckled face.
A/N So what did you think about the confrontation with Henry? Any predictions about what Fred's going to say to Eliza? Feedback always welcome!
Next chapter; Ruby confesses about the letter to her father, and Ruby tries to score some brownie points with Scorpius, and gets a surprise from him as well.
Thanks to mozie for beta-ing!
fantasyluver714- Good guess!
witchprincess33- Thanks, you'll probably be pleased to know that we won't be seeing Henry for a while!
xXMizz Alec VolturiXx- Thanks!
LUG-14- Lol, we won't see him for a while!