AGHHHH! I am not worthy!
I'm also suuuuuppppeeeerrrr sorry. Like really I am. But here's a chapter just in time for a belated Christmas/ Boxing Day present! (Well, it's in time where I am... Sorry Southern Hemisphere)
Special Christmassy (or Wintery for those who aren't keen on Xmas) Thank you's to:
Kaykay10ac ~Glad you liked it to begin with, if you're still reading... (which you obviously are if you're reading this but whatever) tell me what you think now!
Lupin~ Hello there again. Glad you liked it, and patience my dear one... Maybe I will, maybe I wont! :P
Lupin.2~ I AM SORRRYYYYYYY! i'm massively flattered that you like it that much and also so sorry it's taken me so long to update!
Plucie~ Glad you were glad! And pshhh, who needs statics?! GoF was the way better choice, I applaud you!
BUT anyway guys... Hope you enjoy this and your holidays!
Cookie xx
Chapter 26- Can We Go? Can We, Can We, Can We?!
"Roxanne! You'd better shut that dragon up or so help me I will find a way to burn it"
"Wha-" Roxanne woke to a pillow hitting her from Dom's side of the room.
"That tapping! Get your annoying dragon to shut up!"
"It's not him, Iri is here with me" she mumbled back, reaching to the bedside table that held a small pillow with Iridis curled up on. She felt his scales and he nuzzled her hand.
"Then what is that noise?" Dom asked sitting up. She looked around the room; Ginger had abandoned them in favour of Ted and Vic next door, not wanting to be cooped up with the dragon all day, so it wasn't him. She noted the sound to her left was coming from above her. She looked up and noticed a stunning hawk owl tapping at them from the roof window.
Dom groaned and stood up, opening the skylight to allow the bird to swoop in. It made a beeline for Rox and landed on her head, surprisingly gentle with her hair but obviously still not ideal, Dom laughed.
"Ugh, hey Freckles." She rolled over and untied the letter from its leg, giving the bird a rub on the head, it turned and left them just as quickly as it had come in.
"Freckles? I might have to rethink that boy's suitability for my baby cousin. I can't have you with a guy who names his owl Freckles."
"He got her when he was six Dom, and please stop with all of that. I know you haven't met Logan yet but I am dating him you know"
"I'll stop when I get to meet him" she compromised. "If I approve of course"
Rox rolled her eyes, tearing tore off the seal featuring the Malfoy family insignia:
Roxanne,
Guess what? I'm going to be a big brother!
Turns out the reason both my parents were in Milan and the reason we're not going away, is because my mum's pregnant. I'm not sure she's told anyone else yet so keep it to yourself; and Dom I guess (Hi Dom) but yeah, I had to tell someone. I'm still kind of in shock…
So anyway, mum's pregnancy meant she sent off the invites later than planned this year but I asked her and she said the ones to all of your family definitely arrived yesterday but she hasn't had a rejection yet. Which means no one has replied so far...
Is that down to you? Have you asked anyone yet?
In other words, are you all still coming?
If it's too difficult don't worry about it, but it would be great to see you there.
See you soon (maybe) and take care.
Scorpius x
P.S: When I asked about the invites mum pestered me for a list of names of all my friends so she could send out personal ones to you all, it'll probably be waiting for you downstairs. She's efficient like that.
Roxanne finished reading the letter and passed it to Dom. He knew her well, and she watched Dom's face as she smiled when she got to the comment about her reading it.
"I know you don't want to hear this, but I still think he's in to you"
"Whatever, Dom. But seriously, we need to think about asking and soon, before they can call 'short notice' without thinking about it."
"First we need to actually think about why it's not been mentioned before. And why our family; epitome of forgiveness and forward-thinking, have never attended even once. Let's be logical here, Roxy"
"You so should have been a Ravenclaw"
"You know, the hat did offer it. I just wasn't brave enough to be alone back then. Ironic, huh? You're the only non-Gryffindor but probably the bravest little 11 year old of us all"
"I wasn't brave, just a bit different apparently" she laughed.
"Different is good, Roxy"
"Yeah, yeah so they tell me. Let's get back to this Ball then shall we?"
~
"I don't want to bring it up, Mum's probably still a bit miffed about me not telling her about Logan…"
"But you're the only one with an invite Roxy" Hugo pointed out.
"Er, not quite" Albus piped up, taking an envelope out of his pocket and putting it in the middle of their circle on top of Roxanne's invite.
"Why did you get one?" James asked annoyed his baby brother had been invited to a party he hadn't- even if it was with the snakes.
"Because, my girlfriend asked me to go. She sent me her companion invite"
"Hmph. I still don't know who this girl is, Albus. Why won't you introduce her to us?"
"Yeah, Al. We're your family. We should have met her by now!"
"Well, some of you have"
"Who?" James asked, becoming more and more outraged at being left out.
"Rox, Luce and Hugo"
"Why them?"
"They're not going to judge her and blab to anyone"
"Why would I blab? Merlin, you're acting like she's a Malfoy or something"
"Hey!"
"Oh, sorry Roxy, I forgot you were friends with the mini ferret." Rox rolled her eyes at her cousin, not bothering to argue with him again, "Anyway, Albus who is she, and why won't you tell me?" James asked Al.
"If I haven't told you yet, why would I now?"
"Because now, I can do this" James snatched the invite from the centre of the circle. Albus lunged across it but James pushed him away and held the invite above his head.
He began to read it, "Dear Companion of Miss Violet Parkinson"
"A Parkinson, Albus you've got to be kidding me!?"
"This is exactly why I didn't tell you James, you arse!"
"Okay, boys now that it's all out, can you just sit back down?"
Albus took his place back in their circle, he held a corner of the invite in his hand from where he had tried to take it from James. Lucy held her hand out to James, he huffed and gave her the larger part of the invite. She took Albus' piece and repaired the parchment, placing it carefully back in the circle.
"Thanks, Luce" she smiled back at Albus.
"James, you really need to get over this. Albus is dating a Parkinson, so what? He's having sex with her not her mother"
Albus cleared his throat uncomfortably, the girls in the circle giggled, Fred gave Al a cheeky wink, James folded his arms and narrowed his eyes first at Dom, then at his brother.
Finally, he huffed in defeat. "I swear to Merlin Al, she'd better be hot"
Molly, from her spot next to him, hit him over the back of the head.
"Ow, Mol!"
"Don't be such a pig, James"
"Let's actually start this plan then shall we?" Hugo asked, redirecting their 'meeting' back on track.
"Okay Huey, what do we do?"
"First off, who actually would go?"
They all raised their hands. Hugo shrugged. "That makes things simpler then"
He continued, "Okay, so any ideas on who's been most against it thus far and why?"
"Other than James you mean?" Albus glared at his brother.
"I'm never against a party" he shrugged, unashamed of his little prejudice.
"No but remember, this is Malfoy Manor, are you sure you want to go?"
"Ugh, Al. I just don't think you should date a Parkinson, you can be friends or whatever."
"Okay, can we just ignore James and his backwards opinions till he sees sense?" Rox asked.
This was taking way longer than it should. Soon enough Rose and Lily would be back from shopping and then it would get worse. They needed a plan now, while they somewhat agreed.
"Okay, Al. So if you bring it up at dinner, and the rest of us help you out?" Hugo suggested.
"Not good enough. We have to get it so they end up looking like the bad ones by refusing." Dom added, shaking her head.
"Okay, so James is being an arse about Vi and they'll jump to Al's defence about not making judgements based on the war-" Hugo revised.
"Then we bring it up and ask why not?" Lucy continued.
"If they refuse, they just go back on what they've said to James" Rox finished.
"Perfect." Dom smiled.
"They can't know we've planned this either, or they'll call us out on manipulating them" Molly commented.
"So we get Vic or Ted to ask about Al's love life?"
"That way it's not connected to us, but we can push the conversation in that direction"
"Brilliant. And if we put Ted or Vic on the other side of the table, they have to shout and they'll listen to it, the nosey buggers"
"Do we need to have a seating plan?" Lucy laughed.
"That's actually a great idea, Luce. Divide and conquer. We break up the adults and they'll feel less confident if they're not in a big cluster. They lose the whole collective authority feeling"
"Okay so, who's next to who?" Fred asked, following their ideas, though he'd much rather have them just tell him the plan when it was all sorted. This meeting stuff was wasting some perfectly good flying time.
"James, sit near Hermione and your mum, you could sit in between but considering you're the bad guy here I'd go for the other side of Aunt 'Mione"
"Fred with James, maybe next to Ginny"
"Rox with Uncle Charlie and Harry, between them if possible"
"Uncle Ron needs to be close to Ginny but far from Nana. I reckon they're the biggest objectors but Harry, Ginny and Hermione will be all for it"
"Put Vic and Ted next to Nana to soften her up"
"Will Luna or Katie be round tonight?"
"Nope"
"Okay good. Ron across from Aunty Fleur. Uncle Bill can be near Uncle Charlie?" Rox suggested and Dom nodded.
"Who's left?"
"My parents" Molly commented.
"I don't think there'll be many problems with your mum. Do you?"
Both her and Lucy shook their heads, "Just Dad, he'll do whatever Nana wants"
"Keep them away from each other then. Anyone else?"
"Other cousins"
"Lily, Rose and Louis"
"Where is Louis?" Fred asked.
"He was supposed to be back way earlier but has loads of orders so had to stay at work. He says he'll be here tonight though"
"Okay, Dom you can sit with Louis and fill him in quickly or something. If he pipes up it would be good. He's one of the favourites at the moment"
"Put Rose near Auntie Angie and Lily by Uncle George. If I haven't mentioned your name sit wherever you want"
"So we've completely mucked up the table?"
"Yup."
"How do we pass that off as random?"
"We need a fight" Dom smiled.
"Oh yeah. Grams always makes us move seats if we fight"
"It needs to seem real" Molly mused.
"I'll do it" Dom offered first.
"Dom, no. You're meant to be training to be an Auror, Uncle Harry won't be happy." Rox told her.
"Besides, who would you fight with? We need it to be between people close in age" Lucy added.
"Lily and I?" Rox offered.
"No, Roxy. You've already argued, there's no reason for that to happen."
"You want real?" James asked with a smirk.
"James, stop being such an arrogant shit" Albus told him from across the circle, looking serious.
"Ah, brotherly love" James responded and they grinned at each other.
"Oh, this couldn't be better actually, we might not even need Vic and Teddy. Hm, okay… So, a fight before dinner. Seating adjustment. All the adults will want to know what the fight is about. James acts all dickish and prejudiced. Adults defend Al, tell James off for backwards views. We leave it a bit, James hangs his head in shame for a while. Then, Roxy you're going to be asked about what was in that envelope this morning. You tell us about the ball. We ask. They're all stuck in a corner with no way out." Dominique brushed her hands together as if dusting them off.
"Sounds simple" Roxanne laughed nervously. Now, all of that needed to work, and they needed to make it work. No pressure.~
"Game of Quidditch before we have to fight then, little brother?" James stood above Al, holding his hand out to him.
"I still haven't forgotten you are an actual dick you know"
"Al, you've known I'm a dick before I knew I was. I can manage you being a little annoyed at me"
Al huffed a little, but took his brother's hand. He used it to pull James to the floor as he stood. "I'm less annoyed now"
"Can't wait to fight later" James grumbled from the floor.
"You and me both Jamesie" Al told him as he held out a hand, he helped James up and they walked off towards the Garden, following the rest of the Brood who'd opted for a bit of Quidditch before dinner.~
"TEN MINUTES!" Victoire shouted from the back doorway. It was the daily ten minute dinner warning, it would give them enough time to come in, wash their hands and quickly change if they needed to. Tonight, it would give Albus and James enough time to 'fight'.
The cousins and siblings in on the plan that were out playing Quidditch all landed within a few seconds of each other.
Albus pulled out his wand and quickly shot a spell at his brother. James' trousers immediately went down his legs and landed at his feet. The Brood laughed as James hastily pulled them up.
He turned on Al, "You're gonna pay for that, Al!" James laughed.
He quickly shot a spell at him but Al dodged it, shooting a stinging spell at him in the process.
"And who's going to make me pay?" Al laughed back.
James cried out as the spell connected with his leg and he couldn't help but crumple to the ground.
"Oh good, they're getting muddy" Fred laughed from the side-line, standing with the others watching the fight. The brothers fought often, and the family were watching for the point when one of them would lose their patience and the fight would become real. They all knew it would happen at some point. It was just a question of who it would happen to first.
James got up off the ground. Grabbing his wand he stood and fired a jinx at his younger brother. James laughed as Albus was pushed backwards into a puddle of mud by his Flipendo. "Maybe you won't be so quick to want to fight me now!"
James shot out a second jinx, which then hit him, repelled by Albus' Protego. Boils started to sprout from his face and the group sniggered.
"Oof, hit by your own spell. That's gotta hurt!"
Albus clambered up, sending a jinx of his own at James which compromised his vision. He walked closer, laughing. "James, when will you admit I'm better at duelling?"
James shot out a spell but it missed as he couldn't see his target. He stood still, then.
"Do you give up?" he addressed James who just pocketed his wand, still effectively blind.
Albus removed the spell and did the same. He smiled at James and James glared.
"Dom, does this look like we've been fighting enough?"
One of James' boils popped. He growled.
Dom laughed, "Yeah, only it would be better if they actually caught you fighting…"
"Okay so we wait till one of them comes out to bring us in and carry on?"
"Yup" she grinned.
James took out his wand back out and removed the spell, getting rid of the boils. Albus smirked at him.
"You actually did shoot yourself in the face there Jamesie. You clearly need to be more ready. Any time you want me to teach you just know that I'm here"
He pulled his wand back out and twirled it around his fingers.
James disarmed him, and Accio'd the wand to himself.
"Oi!"
"Anytime, you want me to teach you how to keep a hold of your wand, just know that I'm here"
Albus laughed, "Oh, James. You've forgotten that your little brother isn't actually very little anymore. I don't need my wand to beat you in a fight"
James laughed back, he gave both their wands to Fred.
"Now, Albus. Are you sure?"
"Oh yeah."
"Don't go running to mum when I-"
Albus lunged forward and knocked him to the floor, sitting on him to hold him down; Albus punched James in the face. James quickly rolled and returned the favour; soon the boys were rolling in the mud, hitting each other at every chance they got. It had reached that moment when the fight had gone from a bit of a brotherly challenge to a matter of pride. Also known to the family as a serious fight.
Dom shook her head; these boys knew nothing about combat. She'd have knocked them both out by now, their form was terrible, but whatever, they needed to keep fighting till someone came and found them anyway.
The moment she had the thought, one of the bodies she was watching hit another was pulled away quickly by an invisible tug. She turned to see her Aunt Ginny pointing her wand at her son's pushing them apart. ~
Albus felt the sharp jaunt of his Mothers' spell throw him and his brother apart. He stood and she glared at them, deadly silent. He cringed inwardly, his ears were ringing already from a punch James had thrown, and he didn't doubt that it would get worse. His mum turned away from them and strode back to the house, flinging the door open and slamming it shut.
They knew to follow her, and she knew they would. Albus took a deep breath; he looked at James who nodded back, a faint smirk playing on his mouth. Al spat out some blood and followed James who'd begun to walk towards the house. They'd been caught, and while that had been the plan, something told Al, this would not be good. ~
The kitchen was filled with warmth, the smell of good food, and silence as the children entered the room from the back garden. The adults were standing, behind their chairs, waiting for James or Albus to speak. Ginny stood at the front of the group, her arms folded. Roxanne looked at their faces, none of them looked particularly angry; her Uncle Ron looked at the food, already laid out on the table. Roxanne understood now, they had all been about to sit but because of the way Ginny must have re-entered the kitchen, it meant they'd need to wait.
"You know the rules, spread out" Ginny said simply, barely looking at her two boys.
They looked confused; they'd been expecting a good dressing down from her before they got to eat.
"You mean you're not even going to-"
Roxanne elbowed James in the side. As far as the plan went, they could readjust, the most important thing right now was the 'seating plan' and they were getting that wish.
The family shuffled around, obeying Grandma Molly's rules of a total rejig of the dining arrangement following any misbehaviour. At home, Ginny would ban the boys from food but Molly thought that too harsh, Weasley boys needed to be fed, punishment could wait. Plus, she'd gotten softer in her old age.
Roxanne took her assigned seat, and looked around, from what she could remember everyone was where they had agreed to sit, well, where Dom had strategically placed them.
Her Uncle Charlie ruffled her hair as he sat next to her, "Hey Kid, how's the Parva?"
"Iri is great, thanks again by the way."
"No trouble kiddo. You've got to bring him down to see me later today"
"Will do"
Their conversation ceased as Molly walked into the kitchen, the Weasley Matriarch had been down to the garage to fetch her husband and sighed when she noticed the family out of order. Within seconds she'd scanned the faces of the children and identified the culprits.
Albus and James looked down as they always did when Molly looked to them disappointedly, their mum scared them, but their Grandma? They hated upsetting her.
"You're both going to tell your mother and I all about this boys, but let's not hold up dinner, everyone else looks starving"
And with that, accompanied by her disapproving tone, Molly sat down and waved her wand over the table, raising the invisible barriers she'd taught nobody to break and allowing the family to finally dig in.
After the first ten or so minutes, everyone had sufficiently passed dishes around and managed to get bits of everything, and more than a bit of what they liked. The clattering of forks was accompanied by small sections of general chatter, where the new seats meant family members had a catch up with people they hadn't caught up with in a while.
Roxanne was in the middle of a conversation with Uncle Harry about her progress with her OWLs and the use of the dangerous textbook when Ginny huffed audibly.
Harry looked up, "What's wrong love?"
"I'm sorry, I can't wait any more"
"James, Al- what was it this time?"
"Mum, we really don't have to get into this now-"
Rox's brows crinkled, maybe James was realising how asshole-ish his comments on Violet made him sound. Oh well, Ginny would find out, it was too late.
"Yes we do James. Albus, what did your brother say?"
"Just something James-like about my girlfriend, I'm sorry, I got angry and hit him first"
Ginny forward a little to look at him, "Since when have you had a girlfriend?"
"Last January" he mumbled, that was news to Rox, she'd assumed they were a new couple.
Next to her, Harry leaned forward to look at his son, "Why didn't you tell us?"
"I was afraid people would react badly-"
"Like James did you mean?"
"Yeah exactly"
"So, who is she son. You know we don't judge in this household" Harry asked Al, shooting a firm look at James. Harry hated that his son displayed a bit of prejudice.
"Her name's Violet, Parkinson"
Ron coughed a little and the table looked to him as Hermione pointed her wand at his throat and silently stopped his choking. Ginny glared at her brother.
He held his hands up, "Sorry, went down the wrong way". He nodded gratefully at his wife.
The table turned back to either Albus or James.
And then to Harry, "James. We've discussed this before. We do not judge people based on their names. You know that, quite frankly I'm disappointed. Your mother and I raised you better than that. Albus, I understand why you got angry, but you do need to learn not to let things people say affect you so much, okay?"
"Yes Dad" Albus replied.
"Sorry Dad" James followed. "Sorry Mum, sorry Al" he sounded sincere. More so than usual.
Harry sighed, "Just don't let me hear anything like this again, okay?"
James nodded and a momentary silence fell over the table, then Ron continued to eat and everyone else followed suit. The individual pockets of chatter filling back up.
Roxanne resumed her conversation with Harry on the Potions book and OWLs and they eventually got on to the topic of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team.
He asked about her last match so she told him about her latest trip to see Madame Pomfrey.
"I'm proud that you stayed in that bed until the other seeker got up"
"Yeah, well he would have done the same thing for me. And you would have done it too Uncle Harry"
"Hm, I suppose, not many other people would though would they?"
"I reckon there are a few round this table that would, the rest are just too competitive to stay put. My Captain, he wouldn't have either."
Harry chuckled, "Luna's son?"
"Yeah, Lysander. Lorcan might stay though, it depends on how much he liked the other player I guess"
"And the rest of your team?"
"Liv would stay for sure, Callie not so much, our new chaser would definitely come back, I think he's a little scared of Ly, and Scorpius, he would definitely stay put"
"You're quite close with him aren't you?"
"Yeah, we're good friends."
"And him being a Malfoy-"
"Means nothing to me" Rox shrugged.
"Why not? I'm just trying to understand where James gets it from"
"Well, I guess it's different for James. You were much more involved with Scor's dad than my parents were. Also, I've grown up seeing you tell him off for being prejudiced. Everyone before him listened to what you guys all said, so I guess he never had that."
"Hm. Do you think he'll stop? Or –"
"I think he just needs to get to know someone first. If he met say, Scor he'd realise he's actually a really nice guy then I think he'll get it into his head that names don't mean anything"
Harry smiled, "Shame he won't go near enough to get to chat"
"Well, actually Uncle Harry, he might…"
"Go on"
"I got an invite today, from Mrs Malfoy"
She took the envelope out from her pocket and passed it to him, Harry held it on his lap and read the parchment.
He looked up at Roxanne, "I know we all get invited every year Uncle Harry"
"Why have you never been?"
Roxanne knew she was straying from the plan. She was having a chat with her uncle and she knew she may alienate him if she pushed him too much. She wasn't asking the question openly like Dom had suggested and so it was only Harry's reaction she was getting now. It was risky, but Rox thought it could work.
"Roxanne, you have to understand-"
"That even though you all want us to be accepting and non-judgemental, you aren't?"
Rox didn't know where that came from, it was too rude and too harsh, "I'm sorry" she muttered quickly. She had probably messed it up for sure now.
"No, it's okay. You have to understand though, that that property doesn't have the best associations for many of us"
Roxanne glanced up at her Aunt Hermione and hung her head.
"But you are right Roxanne. We made the decision not to go a long time ago, and we've kept to it without discussion ever since. How can I expect my son to be forward-thinking if I don't show him I am? Do you want to go to this Roxanne?"
She nodded.
"Do you think your cousins will?"
Again she nodded.
"Okay then, I think it's time we all had a talk."
Harry clanged his fork against his glass and cleared his throat.
Everyone stopped talking and looked over. Dom looked at Rox and raised her brow, Rox smiled sheepishly back.
"I've just been talking to Roxanne, and she showed me this." He levitated her invite in the air, letting it float around the table.
"It's an invite to the Malfoy New Year's Ball"
"Harry-" Ron began, almost growling.
Hermione spoke to him from across the table, "Let him speak Ronald"
"What many of you may not know, is that we, as a family, get one of these every year and have been doing for years before some of you were born"
Roxanne looked around at some faces. The adults of course all knew, as did the people who were in on the plan- Rox had told them, but they looked a little shocked all the same.
"Now, I just told James I was disappointed in him for being prejudiced, and I'd like to apologise. Because by refusing these invites every year, we all have been too"
"I propose we go this year. We put the past behind us and let go of old grudges, and we show our children how we should behave" The question was spoken to everyone but clearly directed at the adults in the room.
"Technically, I'm related to them, I'd like to go" Ted spoke.
"Me too" Vic spoke, smiling at Teddy from either side of their Grandma.
"I do too." Louis followed. He shrugged, "It would be good for business"
"I don't think we should go" Ron announced. "And you all know very well why"
"Ron…"
"No, Hermione. I won't have it. You are not going back there just because Harry wants to act all high and mighty and show everyone how good he is at forgiveness"
"Ronald, don't speak for me like that. You don't get to tell me where I can and can't go. "
Ginny turned to Hermione, "and do you want to go?"
"I'm not sure yet. But I think anyone who wants to should."
"I'll go if Hermione wants to, but if the kids want to go, they should be able to" Ginny decided.
"What do you think, mum?" Ginny asked.
"No I won't. That woman-"
"She wasn't even a Malfoy mum. And she's gone, you know that better than any of us"
"That doesn't change what she did there" Molly looked to Hermione. "I'm with Ronald"
"I'm with mum" Percy announced.
"'Mione said she thinks people should go if they want to. Stop using what happened to her as an excuse. It affected her, and if she can get over it, you should be able to too. One of the reasons we didn't go the first time is because of what happened there, we were supporting 'Mione. If she is okay with it now, then so am I." Angelina told the table.
"Thank you Angie" Hermione answered.
"I'm with the wife on this one" George grinned.
"I'm with your wife on this too" Charlie winked at George.
"I won't go, this New Year is a full moon, drinking doesn't seem like such a good idea. But don't let that stop anyone"
"I weel stay wiz my 'usband. But I theenk zat zee children should go, if zey want to"
"I've always thought this family was very forgiving." Audrey made a pointed look at her husband, "I don't see why we should stop now"
"Dominque?"
"Do I count as an adult now?"
"Yes Dom" Harry chuckled.
"Well, I've met the Malfoy kid, and he's not at all what I expected. He's a great guy, and I may not have known Draco when you guys did, but I don't think Scorpius would be so nice if his parents weren't" She shrugged, "I'd go"
"Arthur?"
"I'm sorry Harry, I get what you're saying but if Molly won't go, neither will I"
"Wait" Molly sighed, "I've listened to you all, but I want to hear from Hermione again. Love, do you really think we should go?"
"I've always felt guilty for being the reason no one has gone. I'm glad it's been discussed. I want to go. I'm not promising I'll be able to stay there, but I do want to go. I have no problems with Draco or his wife. They're not Lucius or Bellatrix. There's no reason for me to fear a place when the people that tortured me there are all long dead. Remember, 'Fear of a name-
"Only increases fear of the thing itself.." Ginny, Harry and Ron joined in with her.
"Exactly. I guess that goes for places too. So, I'm going, and if Ronald wants to come and support me then he can, if he doesn't then that's his choice"
Molly smiled, "You are so brave dear. But promise me Hermione, if it gets too much for you, you won't stay"
"I promise Molly"
Molly smiled a watery smile at her and Ron grunted when nudged.
"Fine" ~
A/N:
Again a massive apology for the lateness but hope your happiness from the update overruled the anger!
Tell me what you all thought! And my next update will definitely be sooner than this one was!
Have a lovely holiday dear readers, and keep telling me what you think!
Lots of Love, Hugs and Wintery Kisses,
Cookie xx
P.S: Just another little apology for SPAG mistakes, I do sometimes notice them after I post but I just don't have the time to go back over them all and write new chapters. So you're going to have to put up with them for a little while longer (well you've put up with me this long!). If you notice any glaring ones that seriously confuse you give me a little point in the right direction and I'll change it asap.
:)xx