A/N: okay so I knew it would be a while before I was able to update again, but didn't think it would take this long, so sorry! I won't reel off my list of excuses this time haha. Enjoy the chapter, see you at the bottom :)
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The Muggle cab came to a halt in the middle of a tree-lined, wide pavemented road. Astoria leaned over and paid the driver, who put on his hazard lights and got out, leaving the taxi idling in the middle of the road. He opened the door and held out his hand to help her out, who thanked him politely. He then popped the boot and carried Scorpius's trunk to the pavement, giving Astoria a dashing smile and a wink.
Scorpius quickly realised with some amusement that this bloke was trying to be flirty. His mother was in her mid-thirties, and was still as beautiful as she had been in her early twenties. He however, was definitely pushing forty-five, overweight, and balding. Gotta give the man some credit for trying though, Scorpius chuckled, watching him climb back into his cab, throwing longing glances in his mother's direction. He had no chance.
Astoria didn't give the man another look, and was already walking to the large, wrought iron gate set in white rendered walls topped with matching iron railings. Behind this imposing facade was an equally imposing house. Scorpius wondered how much money she had had to remove from her and his father's shared Gringotts vault, and have converted to muggle money... this was clearly one of the more expensive neighbourhoods in London.
The front door was painted black and glossy, with shiny silver door knocker and large round knob. It was framed by two tall pillars and a triangular white overhang; like a little porch. The walls were rendered white up to the first floor, where ornate black iron railings ran the length of the house, in front of the huge white sash windows. Scorpius wondered if it was a shallow balcony of some sort. Above that, the house was a pale yellow brick, stretching up another floor to a grey slate roof, with two small single dormer windows, hinting at another floor. There were two chimneys to either side of the house, one of which was gently smoking.
All in all, it was just like his mother had described it.
Vaguely Scorpius realised the sound of the taxi engine had long since disappeared. He followed his mother through the gate, trunk in hand, and up the short path. To either side of the path was a narrow row of flowerbeds containing only snowdrops, and beyond that, a perfectly manicured, almost impossibly lush, green lawn. They reached the front door. The three stone steps leading up to it were littered with terracotta pots of various sizes, filled only with rich brown compost.
"I've put some bulbs in there, hopefully when spring comes we'll get some flowers through." Astoria commented, pulling a key from her pocket and unlocking the large door, that was at least two feet taller than her, with a big rectangular pane of frosted glass, with the number '36' in the middle.
She pushed the door open, with a little effort.
Scorpius followed her inside, wiping his feet on a large coir mat, and leaving his trunk by the door. The floorboards were almost golden, a rich antique pine that stretched out to the staircase and beyond. Looking up, Scorpius took in the rest of the hallway. The staircase was central, stretching up to the first floor, with balustrade stretching a few feet in either direction, giving a teasing hint at what the upstairs was like. Down here, there were four doors in sight.
"Isn't it wonderful? Let me show you around." Astoria said, trying to gauge her son's reaction, and contain her own excitement. She already loved this house. It was worth every penny.
They took the first door to their left, and Astoria stood back and motioned for Scorpius to go inside. He found himself inside a room that was clearly the dining room. To the right were two tall windows framed by long dusky blue drapes. They had deep window seats with pale cream and blue cushions. Scorpius imagined it was a perfect spot to sit with a book, or a cup of tea.
The opposite wall held a large oak dresser displaying expensive looking blue and white china and a full bowl of fruit sat in front of it. In the centre of the room was a large wooden table with a lacy white runner down the middle, and simple brass candelabra.
"As you can see, I've managed to get this room up to scratch already. Found a wonderful muggle shop selling antique furniture, which is where I picked up this lovely dresser..." Astoria gave a running commentary as Scorpius padded softly around the room in his socks. He returned to the door, and Astoria brought him to the next room.
"You'll like this one." She smiled, "The kitchen. Didn't need anything doing to it when I moved in, it's perfect just as it is."
This door was already open, and Scorpius stepped straight into the large, high-ceilinged kitchen. Unlike the dining room, the accent colours in this room seemed to be very pale pink and green. The counter ran in an L shape around one half of the room, with white cupboard doors above and below. In the centre was an island, with a rack of pots and pans above. There was a large moss-green range cooker, and a big white ceramic sink, and - Scorpius grinned, realising why his mother knew he would love the kitchen - a huge silver double doored American fridge-freezer. He walked over and pulled open the door, to find it jam-packed with food.
"Even has an ice-dispenser. Clever these muggles." Astoria commented, walking over to the large window over the kitchen sink and drawing open the pink and cream floral curtains which were oddly closed during the day.
"Here's the best bit." She said excitedly, beckoning for Scorpius to come over. She couldn't wait for him to see this. Scorpius looked up as the curtains opened, and saw the expanse of green grass and blue sky outside. The very large expanse of grass... His mouth dropped open.
"How on earth...?"
"Magic. Told you I would." Astoria said happily. Scorpius stared out at the - well, you couldn't call it a garden, it was a huge field - in wonder. It stretched right back to a line of tall pine trees, in front or which was a large hut, almost like a little house, which was almost surely a glorified shed of sorts. The best bit however, was the two sets of three goalposts that rose into the sky at either end of the field... It was a Quidditch pitch.
"I was thinking, we should get a pool out there too. Or a hot-tub or something. In the summer when the weather is nice." Astoria said. Scorpius grinned and put an arm round his mum's shoulder.
"Thank you... For doing all this. It's wonderful."
"Don't thank me until you've seen the rest of the house... It's not all perfect yet." She said, and Scorpius laughed as he followed her through a door into the lounge…
"Finally, this up here is all yours..." Astoria said, bringing the grand tour almost to an end. They climbed the staircase - this one smaller and less grand than the main staircase on the floor below - and reached the very top floor of the house.
"So up here are two bedrooms and a bathroom. The larger bedroom is yours, and it's very big, it's the door at the end of the hall. It takes up half of the whole floor, and stretches from the front to the back of the house. But first I'll show you the bathroom..." Astoria pushed open the door, revealing a large bathroom with a huge corner tub. There was a set of fluffy cream towels folded on the corner of the bath with the letter S embroidered on them. Scorpius smiled.
"And spare bedroom..." She moved to the next door and pushed it open, revealing a big room, with white wooden panelling to waist height and a pale blue and white striped wallpaper above. In the centre was a large white double bed, with a white crochet blanket thrown over it.
It was already decorated like that, so I just bought stuff that matched. But you can change it if you want." She shrugged, "Your room is already big, but you could put a sofa in here and get one of those muggle televisions or game console thingies. I've been getting quite into the whole muggle thing... As you can probably tell." Astoria laughed, promptly moving on to the final door.
"Go ahead, take a look." She smiled.
Scorpius pushed open the door and stepped into his new bedroom. Like the spare room, it was panelled to waist height, but the wood in here was not painted, but stained a pale golden brown, like the floorboards throughout the house. Above, the walls were cream, and the ceiling was white, with two simple golden chandeliers hanging down. The end of the room that was the front of the house had a sloping ceiling with a small dormer window, that had a view of the road, the top of the tree on the pavement outside, and the London skyline stretched out in the distance between the branches. Set into the alcove was a small window seat, not unlike the one downstairs. Scorpius couldn't help but be very pleased. He ran a hand along the smooth wooden ledge appreciatively.
"I didn't get any cushions yet, as I thought you'd want to sort all that yourself, when you get decorating." Astoria explained. Scorpius nodded, moving to examine the rest of the room. To the right of the door, there was a wall of tall narrow wooden doors will small golden knobs, hiding a range of rails and shelves for his clothes. Surprisingly there were already a few items hanging up or folded neatly, which he quickly realised were the clothes he'd left at Malfoy Manor.
He reached the other end of the room, where a large double bed sat, it's headboard just below the window, rare golden winter sunlight pouring in through the glass. Even without it, the house had a feeling of warmth about it.
He stole one last look out at the Quidditch pitch garden, before letting himself fall backwards onto the bed, his arms spread out. Astoria laughed, happy to see her son happy. He hadn't been happy at Malfoy Manor... She could see that now. Well, maybe she could before, but didn't want to admit it to herself. She pulled out her wand and summoned Scorpius's trunk up the two flights of stairs. When it arrived at the door she took hold of it and pulled it into the room.
"Il'l leave you to get settled and make a start on lunch, okay? There are a few more bits of yours in boxes, I just pushed them under the bed out of the way."
"Thanks mum." Scorpius sat up. "You picked a lovely house, honestly it's great."
Astoria lingered at the doorway for a moment. "You're welcome. It's about time eh." She said, and disappeared before he could wonder what she meant.
"One more game, come on." Hugo insisted. He sat cross legged on a large round cushion on the floor opposite Rose, a small table with a chess board on it between them. Rose regarded him across the rim of her hot chocolate mug with amusement, her eyes sparkling. She'd just thrashed him a fourth time at chess, and yet he still begged for more.
"Another one? Can you take the embarrassment of losing once again? The shame?"
"I have a strategy now. I let you win the last one… I was watching your technique. I'll win this time, you watch." Hugo insisted, the smile on his face hinting at the fact he was lying through his teeth and had no idea how he would avoid losing this time.
"Hm… Okay. One more game then." Rose gave in, and reset the chess pieces. One of these days, Hugo was going to shock everyone and actually win a game of chess… Unfortunately, despite Ron's coaching, he'd not yet managed to get the hang of it. He kept trying though.
"I'm home!" Ron called, stepping through the front door. Rose jumped up, discarding the pawn in her hand which fell on its side on the board.
"Sorry Hugo - later, okay." She said leaving to hurry after her father.
"Hi Dad. Good day?" Rose said, taking his coat from his hands and hanging it up. Ron raised an eyebrow. He didn't usually get a welcome home like this. Not that he was complaining.
"One of the more boring days in the office today, actually. Too quiet. How was yours and Hugo's day?"
"We played chess... I beat him. Every time." Rose smiled, but she was wringing her hands in front of her chest… nervously?
"What's up, Rosie?" Ron asked quietly, tilting his head to one side.
"I need to talk to you… about this, Ministry stuff. And Jake." She frowned, though she was glad her Dad was to the point about things.
"Okay. Go to my office, and I'll meet you there. I'll just go say hello to your mother." Ron said, watching Rose walk away carefully.
"Hello, I'm home, just got one quick thing to sort out though. I'll be in my office." Ron poked his head round the kitchen door. Hermione looked up from the book she was reading, leant against the kitchen worktop while pots and pans on the stove bubbled, wooden spoons stirring themselves slowly.
"Okay, dear." Hermione smiled. "Dinner in ten."
"I'll be there. Smells great." Ron winked and disappeared.
He opened the door and stepped inside his study, to find Rose had lit his desk lamp, shut the curtains on the already pitch-black evening sky, and made herself comfortable in her favourite chair.
"Ten minutes till dinner. Spill. I'm starving." He said, settling down in his own chair. Rose smiled, like he knew she would.
"Okay. Right. Well, here it is." Rose said, taking a breath, before launching into a garbled speech. "This thing - whatever it is I'm doing - it's spying, isn't it. I know it's for a good cause but it feels wrong, and it feels worse everyday, and the more time I spend at Jake's house, the more I feel I'm doing them a massive wrong. I really like Jake, and his father, and I enjoy spending time with them, but knowing that I'm collecting information to give to people they believe are their enemies - obviously we're not, but you know what I mean - it just feels bad. I mean, I'm supposed to be seeing him tomorrow after school, but part of me really doesn't want to. Not because of him, but 'cause of all this, I just..." Rose stopped for breath, let out a huff of a sigh and said finally, "I'm sorry."
"Weeeeell." Ron clasped his hands across his belly and leant right back in his chair. After a few moments he said, "You are more like your mother than I realised."
The corner of Rose's mouth lifted almost imperceptibly. "Dad, I just don't want to do it anymore… I can't."
"I can tell. And you know, I think you're right. I don't want you doing it either, but for slightly different reasons. I tried to talk to Billius about it before, but he was very keen that you helped him. Rose, you have been a massive help to the Ministry, you've done a really amazing thing. But I understand that Jake is your friend, and it doesn't feel right, I do understand."
Rose nodded silently.
"I will talk to Billius as soon as I can. Just hang in there for now okay."
She opened her mouth to protest.
"Just until I've talked him round… 'cause he will take some talking round, I'm sure. He's a stubborn man. He'll have to sort it out himself some other way from here though. Surely they've got enough information by now…"
"Okay." Rose nodded. "Thanks Dad."
"It's alright. Now… did I smell chicken?" He cracked a smile.
A/N: I'm so glad Scorps got his mummy back :) and their house sounds awesome right?! I based it off a few different places I've been to or seen on tv. Probably went a bit overboard describing it, but Astoria has tried so hard to set them up a new family home, to try and heal the pain of what they've been through, I wanted to show her happy but nervous excitement as she showed Scorp what she'd done for him, for them... i thought it was sweet how proud she is, and hopeful that he likes it! :) as for Rose, she's finally putting her foot down, she's really had enough. her conscience is winning over, despite finally feeling like she's doing something that makes her even a tiny bit important in the wizarding world... she's a good person at heart, and it's bothering her a lot. we'll see how it goes from there...!
i'm honestly not sure when I'll update again. Hopefully it'll be soon. Probably won't. Sorry! Fingers crossed though eh.
Let me know what you thought of the chapter in a review, thank you :)
-Daisy x
