Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. This was just written for fun.

Character(s): Rose Weasley, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley

Word Count: 687 | 10,445

As soon as Rose ran from the dinner table, it registered that she wasn't in her own house. She could not run and hide in her bedroom, because the room that she was staying in was also Dominique's room and Roxanne's room as well. However, the lack of privacy didn't stop her as she slammed the door behind herself and curled up on her bed.

She breathed, for a moment. She could hear people talking downstairs, but there was no guarantee that they were talking about her. Every few seconds, she could have sworn that she heard words like 'she' or 'believe' or 'did you?' but that could have been her imagination. There was no way for her to know for sure, unless she decided to leave the sanctuary of the shared room.

She knew that she should have waited to say something - should have verified their relationship status with Scorpius and vowed to share the information together, instead of shouting it over the dinner table. Scorpius didn't seem like he cared about bottling it up inside - he was probably attending the Malfoy's annual Christmas gala without a care in the world, and he certainly wouldn't have shouted during dinner at his relatives either.

A few seconds later, there was a knock at the door.

"Rose, are you alright?" her mum asked.

She shook her head against the door, even though her mum couldn't see her reaction. "No," she muttered. She'd kept her relationship with Scorpius a secret for so long, and now that it was out in the open, she just felt like vomiting. Not just because Dominique and James didn't know when to keep their mouths shut, but because she knew that her dad was not going to take it well. The relationship between him and Scorpius's father had not historically been a positive one. Neither had the relationship between her grandfather and his grandfather. There was too much bad-blood and it made her feel more like Juliet than she wanted to, especially since she didn't even know if she liked Scorpius enough to consider him her boyfriend.

"Can you open the door at least? You don't have to come back down to dinner if you don't want to."

Going back down to dinner seemed like a bad idea, but so did staying in her room. Her family would have questions, and if they didn't, they'd just be watching her again, waiting for some kind of reaction, a replay of the outburst that she'd had at the table moments before.

"I'm sorry, but I just want to stay here right now," she muttered, leaning back as she took a deep breath in an attempt to steady her nerves.

"Tell her that she has to open the door right now," she heard her dad's stern voice from behind the door. "Rose!"

"Ronald, you're being ridiculous."

"Hermione, have you forgotten what Malfoy's like?"

"You do realize that it's been nearly thirty years since the war, right?"

Rose sucked in a breath as she listened to her parents bicker outside the door. She stood up and opened the door as her father was in the middle of explaining that yes, he did know how long it had been since the war, but that didn't matter, before the two of them noticed that she was there.

"I don't want you to fight," she muttered, taking another deep breath as she continued. "And I'm sorry that I shouted at dinner."

"I still don't want you to see that Malfoy kid," her dad protested.

"Look, he's not his dad," Rose replied before she realized what she was saying. "And he's not bad, really. He's a Prefect, and he gets good grades in his classes. He's Co-Captain of his house Quidditch team and everyone thinks he'll be Head Boy next year." She took a deep breath as she glanced between her parents, adding:

"I think I'm ready to go back down to dinner now."

As soon as Rose started to head down the stairs, Ron couldn't help but smile, despite himself.

"I always hoped she'd take after you, Mione."