Chapter 7
A/N: I know, I'm a horrible person for leaving the last chapter where I did, but here's the next one! It hasn't even been a whole week since the last one, so I'm hoping all is forgiven, or at least forgotten?
Anyway, thanks to all the lovely people who reviewed and to thestarlitrose and irianaceleste for betaing!
~Frosty
"Are you going to say something?" she asked quietly when she grew tired of waiting for his answer. The huge Manor had an almost oppressive silence to it. Rose couldn't bear such complete silence for long; it went against her very being.
Weasley homes were not silent. If they were, something was usually horribly wrong. She just wasn't comfortable when there wasn't shouting and possibly the sound of an explosion somewhere in the background.
"You miss me?" he repeated, sounding incredulous. "You're the one who went and snogged me, fell in a lake, fled, and then turned around to snog that Scamander like you were trying to forget the previous kiss. I didn't think you were one of those girls who are so free with their affections."
Anger and embarrassment flooded her cheeks with warmth. "'Free with my affections?'You're one to talk! At least I didn't snog some anonymous brunette bimbo before going to snog my best mate," she countered. "And I didn't go on to hate said best mate, going so far as to turn her own cousin against her, leaving her with a desolate few months before her Christmas break."
She had to fight against her voice to keep it from cracking as she remembered those lonely few months. Despite her efforts, she had a sinking feeling that Scorpius could see right through her. Maybe she was a little hard on him... Still, it felt good to rant at him, even if he still hated her. Somewhere in there was her friend Scorpius, and Rose liked to think he was properly contrite after her speech.
His icy look softened slightly at the genuine pain in her voice.
"Look, we were both gits. How about I go back to my bimbo and you go back to your... Scamander. We'll remove the snogging of our best mates from the equation and we'll try to go back to what we were... before," Scorpius suggested. He didn't look entirely pleased with the suggestion, but Rose assumed it was because he didn't really like Lysander.
Rose pursed her lips, irritated that it had been so easy. Why couldn't they have done this months ago and saved her the suffering? Probably the slight resentment on her part that he would take such shameless advantage of her and then freeze her out for it had held her back. But he was Scorpius, and though occasionally selfish, he wasn't mean. She wasn't willing to lose a friendship that was so important to her over one little mistake in which they'd both been participants.
As her silence continued, he started to pull up his walls, taking her reticence as a negative answer and shutting her out.
Her eyes narrowed; she couldn't have that. She launched herself at him, winding her arms around his middle and pressing the side of her face against his chest. Squeezing just a little too tight, she smiled against his shirt; she'd missed him so much.
For a brief moment, he stiffened in surprise, but he quickly recovered and wound his arms around her as well.
"I missed you too," he said into her hair. She didn't even need to say it; her actions spoke for themselves.
They stood that way much longer than was customary for a simple hug between friends, but neither one wanted to let go. Scorpius eventually pulled away, gently extracting himself from her tight hold.
Before he could notice them, Rose swiped at the tears that had developed in her eyes. She had a feeling that Scorpius noticed anyway, but he was polite enough not to say anything.
"I'll save you a seat on the train back to school," she said. It was what she should have said to him back at the train station but he wouldn't have welcomed the offer back then.
Scorpius smiled at her. That genuine smile of his that lit up his face and what felt like the entire room. Rose mirrored the expression and basked in the glow of happiness. It was a relief to be friends with him again – even if they couldn't be anything more.
"Can you stay or were you just here to hug and run?" the blond asked, a mocking tilt to his lips.
"Well my parents don't know I'm here, they think I'm in my room with Albus..." She winced when his face fell before he could hide his reaction. "But I can stay for a little while."
Screw Albus, he could cover for her for an hour or so. He deserved it for sending her to Malfoy Manor mostly unsuspecting and entirely unprepared. Just because it had ended up working out for the best didn't mean she wasn't going to strangle him when she got back. What if Scorpius had yelled at her to get out of his house and then left her stranded on that hugely long, hedge-lined road out front? It was unlikely, but it was a possibility.
"Would you like a tour?" he offered.
She'd been curious about her friend's house for years, so it figured that the one chance she got at seeing the place would be when her parents didn't know where she was. There was some time before her parents would work themselves up to a frantic state over her disappearance, longer if Albus did a good job of covering for her, but she didn't want to push her luck with an extended absence.
"Can you show me the whole house in under an hour? I don't want to make my parents worry too much."
He glanced around what they could see of the entranceway. The Manor was huge, three floors and countless rooms. "There's no way I can show you everything in less than sixty minutes. But I can show you the most important room."
Without waiting to see if she was following, he started off towards the stairs. Rose trailed after him, rushing to keep up with his longer stride. It wasn't fair that his legs were long enough to skip steps, but she had to bounce up every one. She was doing twice the work just to go half his speed!
When he glanced back and saw that he was falling behind, he grabbed her hand and pulled her along with him. Rose held on tight, letting him tow her. He wasn't usually one for hand-holding, but he seemed to have lost himself in his enthusiasm about sharing his house. Rose would take what she could get.
They came to a stop in front of a large set of double doors.
"Where are we?" Rose asked. The doors were fancier than the rest that they'd passed, which was saying something in a Manor of gilt and marble. By no stretch were her parents in need of money, but if she had to guess, Rose would say one room of the Manor cost as much as her entire house.
"You'll see." He dropped her hand in order to use both of his to push open the heavy wood.
She crushed a pang at the loss of contact and focused her attention on what he was showing her. Catching sight of what was on the other side, Rose grinned. It was a library. A very impressive library.
"Why would you ever want to leave if you have this at home waiting for you?" she wondered, rushing past him and into the large room of books. In her hurry, she missed the fond smile he directed her way.
"Because some of us need human communication on top of the books we read," he answered, following her into the room. Scorpius took one of the comfortable lounging chairs by the fire to watch as she flitted from shelf to shelf, occasionally pulling a book off and examining it in that reverent way she had.
He folded his hands and slouched slightly, making himself comfortable. A niggling suspicion was telling him that she wasn't going to want to see much else in the Manor after visiting the library.
Somewhere in the Manor a clock chimed the hour, jolting Rose out of her book-induced trance. She turned to Scorpius, who was still lounging by the fire. "How long have I been here?"
"Around forty-five minutes," he said, smirking when she paled.
"I have to go," she said, dancing from foot to foot. "Can I use your Floo?"
He raised a pair of pale eyebrows. "You don't have your wand with you?"
He knew she'd already passed her Apparation test, having had to listen to her constant panicking near the starting of the year as she'd tried to study everything she could. He'd been the first one to congratulate her – after he'd finished laughing at her bewilderment that no part of the test had been written after all the studying she'd done.
Rose tried not to blush. "No, I didn't exactly take a... conventional method of transportation here. I don't have my wand."
"You came to Malfoy Manor, alone and without your wand?"
"Your family isn't as scary as you seem to think," she said in her own defence. She had a feeling 'Albus tricked me' wasn't going to go over well.
Scorpius glanced towards the back of the library, where the books on Dark magic were shelved. Rose hadn't ventured in that area, he'd made sure of that. She was perfectly safe with him there, but there was a reason he'd never had his mixed-blood friends over to the Manor. It wasn't a safe place for anyone who wasn't Pureblood – and even then it was still dicey on occasion.
Picturing the huge rage her dad was probably working on, Rose didn't have time to wait while Scorpius scolded her for carelessness. "So I need to use the Floo. Please?"
He sighed. "The fireplace in my father's study is the closest that's hooked up to the network. Come with me."
They exited the library and moved down long hallways, twisting and turning until Rose was thoroughly lost. No wonder all the Malfoys managed to stay in shape, they had to hike just to go from one room to another. It also explained Scorpius' knack for navigating the castle so effortlessly, even in first year. He'd been finding his way through his labyrinth of a home since before he could walk.
The door was cracked open when they arrived at Mr. Malfoy's study.
"Say your goodbyes in the hall, I want to have a word with her before she leaves," a voice called from inside the room.
Scorpius shot an irritated glance at the door, but it melted when he saw that Rose was giving him a knowing grin. She knew he didn't trust his father not to say something embarrassing and wanted to be there to supervise their interactions. Mr. Malfoy probably knew this too and was just trying to annoy his son.
"I'll see you on the train," she said.
He nodded, glancing warily towards his father's study. Mr. Malfoy must have seen the expression because he called, "I'm not going to hurt her Scorpius, send her in, and don't hover outside the door."
Reaching out, Rose gave Scorpius' hand a reassuring squeeze before slipping through the door and closing it behind her with a quiet snick. She was a little nervous about facing Mr. Malfoy alone, but after reconciling with Scorpius, not much was going to be able to bring her down from her happy mood.
"Astoria's going to be really upset that she missed meeting you just to go shopping," Mr. Malfoy said, fondly running a hand down the side of a picture frame on his desk. Rose couldn't see what the frame contained, but she assumed it was a picture of his wife.
Lots of people seemed to think the Malfoys were in a cold, loveless marriage, but Rose could tell that Mr. Malfoy loved his wife very much.
"Thank you for letting me talk to him," she said politely, not sure what it was that Mr. Malfoy wanted.
He waved off her thanks. "I'm the one who should be thanking you. If you hadn't shown up, I'm sure he would have continued to be completely miserable and ruined everyone's holiday."
Rose had trouble believing that Scorpius had been so bothered by the loss of their friendship – though she supposed that just because he wasn't showing that he was troubled by something didn't mean it wasn't tearing him to pieces on the inside. It was just hard to picture him torn up about anything because he was usually so composed.
She watched as Mr. Malfoy fished around in his desk.
When he found what he'd been looking for and offered it to her, she was confused. It was just a normal little square of parchment that was completely blank. His desk was littered with bits of parchment, what was so special about that one?
Her question was answered when she touched the parchment. Across the creamy surface, gold writing grew, scrolling across the paper as if she was watching an invisible pen write it. The paper was inviting her to the annual Malfoy Christmas ball.
Surprised, she glanced up into the amused gaze of Mr. Malfoy. "You'll be the first Weasley ever invited to this particular event. It's good for two people, so bring that boyfriend of yours Scorpius is so fond of."
Rose was pretty sure Scorpius hated her boyfriend, so she didn't know what it was that Mr. Malfoy was playing at, but she couldn't see a reason not to attend. Her mum would probably be happy that she was getting out of the house. The worried looks her mum had been shooting her way for the entire holiday hadn't gone unnoticed by Rose.
"Thank you," she said with a genuine smile. She'd get to see Scorpius again before they went back to school. Even better, she'd get to see Scorpius all dressed up, something there was rarely an occasion for at school. Images of Scorpius looking dashing in his dress robes trotted through her head.
Rose had to mentally edit in that Slytherin brunette on his arm to stop the mental slideshow and focus on the Malfoy in front of her. It was impolite of her to space off like she had.
Mr. Malfoy darted his grey eyes over the fireplace and nodded his head in that direction. "Floo powder's over there."
That was an obvious dismissal if she'd ever heard one. It seemed he was done with her.
Rose grabbed a handful of Floo powder, threw it in the fire, and called out her address.
"How'd it go?" Albus demanded the moment she stumbled into her living room.
There were no angry parents waiting to subject her to an inquisition about her whereabouts or scold her for running off without properly notifying them as to when she planned on getting back. Luckily, Albus was alone. He must have come up with a reasonable explanation for her parents. Rose wasn't going to question it.
"We're speaking again," she said with a smile. "And Mr. Malfoy invited Lysander and me to the annual Malfoy Christmas ball."
Albus looked confused. "Lysander was invited as well?"
Shrugging, Rose produced the invitation and showed it to her cousin. "Apparently."
She left it with him and walked into the kitchen to write a letter to Lysander, asking him if he was available to join her at the ball.
"Lily, there's no way I can leave the house in this, dad would kill me!" Rose said, standing with her back to the mirror and grimacing. She was wearing a deep green dress that, paired with her blood red lipstick and coppery-auburn hair, made her feel like the embodiment of Christmas spirit. From the front, her halter dress was relatively modest - if closer cut than most of her clothes - but when she turned around, almost her entire back was bared.
"Shush. Just don't turn around where he can see you and you should be fine," Lily insisted. She was only half paying attention to her cousin's protests; most of her attention was focused on making Rose's unruly curls conform into a messy bun. The curls were more stubborn than Lily had thought they would be - which meant they were running out of time before they had to go. With one last vicious twist to the unruly locks, Lily managed to get the bun properly settled where it should be instead of tilted and off to the left as it had been resting before.
"Finished," the younger girl declared proudly, stepping back to admire her work. She was a hairstyling genius! Personally, Lily thought she deserved an award for taming that beast on top of her cousin's head. Scorpius better appreciate the effort.
Glad she was done with the hair-pulling stage of the preparation, Rose sighed in relief. However, it was short-lived relief. Her blue eyes moved towards the shoes Lily insisted she wear. They were sitting on the bed, looking relatively harmless, but Rose wasn't fooled. She knew they were a death-trap, just biding their time until they could kill her.
"Just put them on or I'll hex you. There's no way I'm putting all this work into making you look good just so you can ruin it by wearing sneakers with that outfit!" Lily threatened, having seen the direction of her cousin's gaze.
Sighing, Rose strapped the evil things to her feet. She had to admit, they did finish off her outfit rather nicely, but they were also starting to hurt her feet and she hadn't even stood yet.
Lily made sure to stand behind her as Rose descended the stairs. They didn't want to risk her dad catching sight of her back before Rose had a chance to grab Lysander to Apparate them both to Malfoy Manor.
Poor Lysander was waiting in the kitchen with Rose's family. He was wearing fancy dress robes that would look nice next to Rose's dress. His skin, however, was paler than usual and ruined the effect. People were supposed to look confident when dressed their best. This pallor wasn't his fault though, Rose assumed it was because her dad had an arm around the boy's shoulders and looked like he was trying to squeeze the life out of him before her mum noticed and put a stop to it.
Instead of the relief Rose expected to see on her boyfriend's face when he caught sight of her, he was merely blank. She didn't look that different, maybe he'd been Confunded?
"Are you ready to go?" she asked, hoping to snap him out of the mysterious trance and get going before her dad caught a look at the back of her dress – or lack thereof. Lily was hovering behind her, but there was only so much she could shield without looking ridiculous.
"Pictures!" Hermione said, jumping up from her seat and brandishing a camera like it was a wand and her daughter was a criminal trying to escape.
Internally, Rose sighed. Just what she needed, photographic evidence of her dress for her dad to fume over for years. Ron was a very out of sight out of mind type person, but a picture would be the perfect way for him to remember her dress for years to come.
Lysander came and stood beside Rose, putting his arm awkwardly around her shoulders at Hermione's insistence. All the while, Ron was glaring daggers at the boy, daring him to lower his arm just one centimetre because he was just dying to Avada him.
In her efforts to shield her back from the view of both the camera and her dad, Rose leant a little too close to Lysander, making her dad scowl even worse. She couldn't help but wonder if everyone's family was so insane or if she was alone in her crazy family.
"Five's enough mum!" Rose gritted out between teeth that were tightly clenched behind her fake smile. The sixth flash went off and she'd had enough. She was seeing spots in front of her vision and was clenching her teeth so hard that her jaw was starting to ache. What a lovely way to start the evening.
Turning on the spot while Lysander still had an arm around her shoulders and without her dad seeing her back was a challenge, but she managed it – at least, she thought she did. Rose and Lysander certainly ended up at the right place, but she wouldn't know if her dad had caught sight of her back until she got home.
"You're dad's never been that scary before," Lysander said when they'd regained their bearings.
"You weren't dating me before," she comforted, pulling out from under his arm and taking his hand instead.
Together, they turned around to face the intimidating metal gates that Rose had faced only days ago. She presented it with the invitation Mr. Malfoy had given her and it allowed them entry, creaking open with an almost ominous sound. Malfoy Manor really wasn't the most festive place to hold a holiday ball, while beautiful; it gave off a cold feeling that just wasn't conducive to Christmas spirit.
"Rose," Lysander whispered in a worried voice as they walked up the gravel drive. "Don't be alarmed, but it appears you've splinched most of the back off your dress."
Alarmed, she twisted to see her back, but it was just as before. "No I haven't," she sighed. She was going to have to have some words with Lily, she felt practically naked and Lysander's comment wasn't helping the situation.
