A/N: An especially big shout out for MaryLouise1996 as she has been amazing and has been giving me hope to continue this story with her lovely reviews! Also thanks to JustMeMarissa for reviewing as well! Keep up the reviews guys, but don't let those two do all the work! – Rxx
In the Previous Chapter…
"Your son has been a very caring boy, Draco. You should be very proud of him" McGonagall said, taking one of Rose's hands in her own.
Draco took Rose's other hand and replied "I am. I know he'll be fine, he always is. Who is looking after Rose whilst Scorpius is unconscious?"
"Neville, but I think that Rose would quite enjoy sitting with you at the staff table for dinner tonight" McGonagall suggested quietly, hoping that Rose wouldn't hear, but she did.
"I get to sit with Mr Malfoy for dinner? And Uncle Nev too? And at the teacher's table? That's so cool!" she squealed. Both McGonagall and Draco laughed at this and continued to walk Rose to the Great Hall.
"Good evening" announced McGonagall. "I am pleased to introduce you all to Mr Draco Malfoy, who is currently sat next to Professor Longbottom and Rose Weasley. He will be staying at Hogwarts until Scorpius has recovered. Talking of Scorpius, your Head Boy has been severely injured and the five boys that started the fight have been suspended for 2 weeks. Scorpius will recover, but we are unsure as to how long his recovery will take. You may now leave." She said. The students solemnly stood and left the hall. The teachers also left, with the exception of Professors Longbottom, McGonagall and Parkinson.
"Pansy, I never knew you took to teaching!" said Draco, surprised.
"Potions, Draco. Always did like Snape, so took his place a few years after the war. Had to earn some sort of respect somehow didn't I?" she smiled, "It's nice to see you again, Draco. Keep in touch" she said before leaving the hall.
"I better get Rose to bed" said Longbottom. Rose was currently half asleep in his arms. She'd had a busy and stressful day for a small child. "Draco, you may as well come with us, you're accommodation is the guest room down the hall from my quarters" Neville said. Draco said a quick farewell to McGonagall before following Neville up to his quarters on the 5th floor.
"Here are your quarters for few days, I guess" said Neville, stopping outside a door, "my quarters are just along the corridor so if you want to say hi to Rose or pop round for a cup of tea or something, feel free" he mumbled before taking Rose to the next door along the corridor.
Neville had been shocked when he first found out what his quarters were like. He had access to a large bedroom, a living area, kitchen, bathroom and a small private office. He had furnished his Hogwarts home with thousands upon thousands of photos from his childhood up to the most recent ones to date. He had a large collection from his own Hogwarts days, several from the year that he spent travelling and the rest were a mixture of photos with friends and colleagues.
The only thing that was now different in his room was the small child-sized bed next to his own. The little bed had its own pink patchwork duvet and teddy bear and was the perfect size for Rose. Neville tucked Rose into her temporary bed before heading into the kitchen to make himself a cuppa. It had been a long day with Rose being de-aged, Scorpius being hurt and the appearance of Draco Malfoy, so Neville was pleased that he had an excuse to sit down and read through one of the books he had received for his birthday; '1001 Herbs and How to Grow Them', a Muggle book from Harry.
Neville had just reached Herb 7 when he heard Rose crying from his bedroom. He found her sat upright and sobbing. He picked her up and cuddled her before asking "What's wrong, sweetie?"
"I didn't recognise where I was" Rose sniffed before wiping her eyes with her sleeve. "Is Scorp'us okay yet?"
"Not quite yet, hun, but we can go and check on him tomorrow, okay?" said Neville before setting Rose down and conjuring up a stack of puzzles. "I need to get on with some work, Rosie, so can I leave you to do some puzzles for me?" he asked.
"Yeah, Uncle Nev, but I'll be finished soon enough" smiled Rose confidently, sure that the puzzles would be easy.
Neville left Rose sitting on the floor humming to herself happily as she emptied the first box of pieces onto the carpet, and started to plan his lessons for the next day.
"Uncle Nev? Are you awake? Can we go see Scorp'us?" whispered Rose in Neville's ear the next morning.
"Waaaah! Oh, sorry Rosie, didn't expect you to be up this early" yawned Neville, casting a quick tempus charm to see that it was 5:21am. "It's the middle of the night Rose, so we can't go see him for another few hours yet" he tried to explain, stifling another yawn.
"But I want to go and see if he's okay now" Rose whined, tugging at Neville's duvet.
"I'll make you a deal, Rosie" said Neville, "If you go back to sleep for now, I promise I will take you to see Scorpius just before breakfast, okay?" he said.
"M'kay, Uncle Nev" Rose said, yawning herself, "I guess I am a bit tired still" she said before sliding off of Neville's bed and climbing back into her own.
"Nighty Night Uncle Nev" mumbled Rose, drifting back to sleep.
"Sleep tight, Rosie" mumbled Neville back, before once again falling asleep.
Just as he had promised a few hours earlier, Neville took Rose up to the Hospital Wing to check on Scorpius. Rose seemed to subconsciously drift to his side as they entered, taking his much larger hand in hers.
Neville stood for a while and watched as Rose started to talk to Scorpius about everything, about how she felt, how she wanted him back and how her Uncle Nev was looking after her. Neville smiled as he watched the child head girl babble on to Scorpius, and eventually had to drag her away from his side to get breakfast, with Rose only cooperating after he promised to let her back later.
Draco, much to his distaste, had also been woken in the early hours of the morning. Not by a little girl, but by Peeves, who thought it would be very entertaining to drop a water bomb onto Draco's head whilst he was sleeping. After yelling a few choice words at the poltergeist, Draco had been unable to get back to sleep as he started worrying about Scorpius.
Scorpius hadn't exactly looked the best that day, and despite Madam Patil confirming that Scorpius would wake within the week, Draco's doubts had gotten the better of him and he had not been able to sleep another wink for the rest of the night.
Very disgruntled about his lack of sleep, Draco drifted towards the Great Hall at breakfast with the rest of the school. He sat down rather unenthusiastically next to Neville, who was trying to persuade Rose to sit down and eat something instead of staring grumpily at her family in the far corner of the hall. Draco, although tired, took sympathy on Neville, who wasn't doing a very good job at persuading Rose, and leaned across to greet her.
"Morning, Rose!" he said as cheerfully as he could manage, "Do you wanna come sit with me this morning?" he smiled before leaning back and patting his lap. Rose's eyes lit up at the prospect of sitting with Scorpius' father and turned straight to Neville.
"Can I, Uncle Nev? Can I got and sit with Draco?" she asked excitedly.
"Only if you promise to eat something"
With that, Rose climbed across the Head of Gryffindor's lap and sat down in Draco's. McGonagall (who was sat on the other side of Neville and had witnessed his failed attempts to get the little girl to eat) raised her eyebrow slightly when she looked over to see Rose's new cushion, but didn't question it, as moments later, Draco and Rose were both chatting away whilst digging into breakfast.
After they had finished eating, Draco offered to take Rose out of Neville's hands for the day. Neville was slightly hesitant, but eventually agreed when he saw Rose's almost decidedly permanent grip on the older Malfoy's hand. He was even more hesitant when Draco asked if he could take Rose out to Hogsmeade for the day, but again agreed, as he didn't think it was fair to keep the small girl cooped up inside the castle for days at a time.
Draco walked Rose to Hogsmeade, talking to her the entire time about this that and the other. He talked about how he and Scorpius and his wife lived in a big manor in the countryside, and how Scorpius could fly on a broomstick and how he was really excited to get Head Boy.
Much sooner than they realised, the pair had arrived at Hogsmeade. Draco made the very bad mistake of showing Rose Honeyduke's first. Rose stood in awe as she took in the vibrant colours and all of the different sweets that lay in front of her. She ran from shelf to shelf, keen to take everything in.
"You can pick some sweets out to take back up to the school if you like" Draco said, walking up to Rose when she temporarily stopped by a stack of chocolate frogs.
Rose's eyes lit up at the prospect of more sweets, and began carefully picking up little bits of almost everything. The pile of sweets in Draco's arms slowly grew and grew, filled with chocolate frogs, Bertie Bott's, acid lollipops, liquorice wands, sugar mice and quite a few other sweet treats.
About an hour later, Draco removed Rose from Honeyduke's, in an attempt to stop Rose from buying out the place, and took her into the Three Broomsticks to get her a drink and give her a break from sweet munching. Draco was rather happy to be spending time with Rose, even if she was only small and the child of his old nemesis.
The rest of the day seemed to pass by in a blur. Draco took Rose into more shops like The Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes Franchise (formerly Zonko's Joke Shop), a small toy shop and Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop. He also took her up to see the Shrieking Shack, which Rose was very confused by ("Why's it called the Shrieking Shack if it doesn't shriek and it's a house, not a shack. Surely it should be called 'Another Old House'?")
Rose slipped her hand into Draco's as they walked back up to Hogwarts before asking quietly "Can we go see Scorp'us?"Draco was quite surprised that Rose was this attached to his son, but let it drop, as it was obvious how much Rose cared for Scorpius by how much she wanted to check up on him.
"But you went and saw him this morning. He won't be much different now than he was before breakfast" Draco attempted to explain.
"But he might be awake! He's only asleep, and people wake up from sleep all of the time!" Rose moaned.
"He's probably still asleep, Rose."
"But we won't know if we don't go and check!" Rose rebutted, and at this Draco couldn't see the point arguing any further.
"Fine…5 minutes, okay?" he sighed before leading Rose up the castle steps and up to the Hospital Wing.