"You know, Scorpius would love to see you."

"You told him that you knew?" Rose glared at her brother who was helping her put christmas ornaments onto her tree. Orion was snoring softly on the couch behind her.

"I thought you told him!"

"He probably assumed that you knew. I'm sure he'll talk to Al about it as well." the flying Santa suddenly flew into the tree and Rose had to cast a charm to get him out. "I'm going to contact him after Christmas."

"You know what would be a great Christmas present?"

"For you or for me?"

"For mum and dad." Rose shook her head.

"I don't want to hear it Hugo." she gazed towards her sleeping son, "If you're talking about telling them they have a grandchild, I will. Just after everyone stops making such a big fuss out of all of this."

"A big fuss?!" Hugo yelled unbelieving. Orion stirred in his sleep and Rose shushed her brother, "a big fuss?" he whispered. "I can't believe you! Of course we're making a fuss. You kept a person, and yourself, out of our lives for three years."

"Yes. I made a mistake and I'm sick of hearing it!" she whispered back angrily.

"Oh, I'm sorry, but everyone has every right." he glared at her. "We still don't even know why you left. I don't think Al even knows, and from what it seems like, he's been in on this entire thing!"

"No, that's not what everyone's been telling me at every turn. You don't need to tell me what to do with my life, believe it or not I'm not an idiot." Rose continued sarcastically, they both continued to shove ornaments onto the tree.

"I'm sorry Rose, but of all the genius' in the world, I thought you'd be the one to see the sense behind their reactions. Who have you told?"

"Al knew, Victoire found out, you. That's basically it."

"Oh-" Hugo stared at Orion as he put the last ornament onto the tree. He sat down in the armchair and drank some tea. Rose began putting the storage box away. She piled them up in a pile.

"I'll put them in the cupboard under the stairs." picking Orion's head up and placing it in her lap as she sat down on the couch. "He's growing up."

"Yeah, he is. Soon he's going to start asking about his family," Hugo sighed, "He's surrounded by children with different kinds of families all day. Soon he'll be questioning his own. I thought you might have told Scorpius about his own son."

"You didn't tell him, did you?" Rose suddenly stood up, nearly dropping the box she had been carrying, "I swear Hugo…"

"I didn't say anything, calm your shit." Rose glared at the swear, "You know, Rose, I never thought I'd be the smart one in the family."

"Oh shut up 一" Rose shoved pushed his feet off the sofa as she sat down. She took a good luck at her brother, who was staring out the window at the falling snow. When Rose had moved away, her brother had seemed like a child, trying and failing to keep up with life. His hair had been longer, his face plumper, he'd still been wearing the clothes that their mother had bought him, despite being a few years out of Hogwarts.

"What?" Hugo asked bluntly when he noticed her staring.

"You're old," he gave her a confused look, "Which means I'm old, which means we're all screwed."

"What?" Hugo repeated, still confused.

"I mean look at you! When I left you looked like you hadn't gotten a haircut since Hogwarts, and you still had baby fat. My brother has abs, like, you must work out and stuff! Who even has time for that? And like, you actually wear clothes that fits you now, like, and it's not even crappy clothes. Where the heck did you get that blazer, it's good quality shit!"

"Um…" Hugo just stared at Rose like she had grown a second head.

"OH just stop. I always seemed psychotic to you anyways."

"I think you underestimate how much you've changed." Rose rolled her eyes, as if to say, 'as if'. "Really… Rosie you're not just my sister anymore, you're someone's MOTHER. You're literally responsible for someone else's life, you're their world. That's some crazy shit right there."

"I'm a shit mother."

"What?! Where the heck is this coming from!" Hugo suddenly jolted upright, so that he could face her more straight on. "Rose I've seen you with your kid for like, a few weeks now, and you're, like, anything but a shit mother. That kid worships you."

"I've kept my son from his father." Rose said glumly, "I've kept him from his entire family, I've ruined his life." Hugo began to panic as tears streamed down Rose's face. He let out a big breath, noticed Orion still sleeping on the couch and grabbed Rose by the arm, pulling her off the couch and to a seat in her kitchen.

"Oh Shit." muttered Hugo once he had sat down.

"Well that doesn't HELP!" Rose cried out, her tears coming down faster as she began to sob.

"I'm not the right person to be dealing with this! I was never the person to DEAL with this! You had friends and cousins and husbands to deal with this," Hugo was about ready to lose his mind. "I'm not prepared for this."

"Screw it, you're my brother, this is your job."

"What the heck do you want me to say?" Hugo was panicking looking around the room as though the answer to his problem might be written somewhere on the wall. Rose continued to sob, "Oh, ummm, ok. Uhhhh, well you screwed up a bit Rosie." This only made her sob harder, and Hugo awkwardly patted her on the back.

"Well?"

"I'm sorry."

"Why does everyone keep telling, m-me that they're sorry?" Rose struggled out between sobs.

"There's no easy way to say this Rosie, but I'm afraid you're in for quite some shit."

"Shit." Hugo just continued to pat Rose on the back.

The following day Rose, with Scorpius on her mind, Rose distractedly attended a Department-wide meeting to go over their progress and work for the month. She couldn't help but think about her son who was currently spending his holiday at home with the nanny.

Frustrated with herself and the lack of work she had managed to complete, Rose announced that the entire department would have the following day, the day before Christmas Eve, as a paid day off. She vowed to everyone that following the holidays, she would make sure all the finer details of the Department.

That afternoon, everyone left the office in a happy mood. Beatrice and the other men and women in the Department of Mysteries were all finished with their work by two in the afternoon and Rose closed up the Department and put the appropriate charms and seals on the entrances and exits for safety.

Having secured everything with plenty of time before she was supposed to be home, Rose decided to buy some groceries at the market at Diagon Alley. Counting on the hour, and the bustle of the holidays, Rose hoped she wouldn't run into any family members.

Half an hour later, Rose was shopping for dirigible plums for a tart, when someone tapped her on the shoulder.

"Rose! I haven't seen you in ages!" it was one of her dorm mates from Hogwarts, "Scorpius didn't tell me you were back!"

"Uh yes, I'm back." she forced a shy smile at Heather Droopley. There was a reason Rose hadn't seen Heather for ages and it wasn't because she'd been away. Rose had avoided Heather ever since they had left Hogwarts, having more than a few nasty encounters with Heather.

"Scorpius didn't tell me at dinner last night." Heather began chatting about the weather and the holidays. Rose nodded along feigning interest.

"Sorry did you say dinner?"

'Yeah, we should all go out for dinner sometime. Bring anyone you'd like. I'm sure Scorpius would love to meet up with you again!"

"Sure." Rose muttered, her mind elsewhere.

"Dirigible plums."

"Hm?"

"You're making the dirigible plum tart like he likes it, aren't you? I can never seem to get it right you know." Heather reaches rudely over Rose to grab some dirigible plums and drops them in her grocery basket.

"I'd almost forgotten just how much he liked it." Rose mutters as she moves out of the way. She quickly turns towards the cash counter, needing to get away from Heather.

"Well, I'll see you around Rose." Heather giggled as she walked away.

"Goodbye Heather."

Rose over-analyzed her conversation with Heather as she put the groceries into their refrigerator. She regretted not going slightly glamoured in order to avoid being recognized. Her hopes that, due to the hour of the day, she'd be less likely to bump into someone she knew, had been crushed, and she'd been lucky enough to meet someone she found annoying. Someone who seemed to be spending lots of time with Scorpius.

As she finished putting everything away, Mrs. Bakalov brought Orion home.

"'E 'vas a very good boy today." She confirmed to Rose as she helped Orion take his coat off. Orion nodded to his mother and happily told her about his day, showing off the star-shaped sticker he'd received.

Rose sent Orion to wash his hands and Mrs. Bakalov told Rose about what they had done during the day. "'Vant me to cook ?" Rose shook her head gratefully.

"That's alright Mrs. Bakalov. I've got it from here until the end of the holidays." Mrs. Bakalov nodded along, "You have free time now. Thank you so much, you've been such a help these last few weeks." She handed Mrs. Bakalov an envelope.

"Miss Rose. You call me anytime. Anyting you need." Rose smiled, "Yeah?" And Rose confirmed it thankfully. That night as she and Orion had dinner, she thanked god she hadn't brought him with her to Diagon Alley.

A few days later it was Christmas Eve. In the morning they baked cookies together for Father Christmas and, as evening approached, Rose prepared a small meal for the two of them, including Orion's favourite dirigible plum tart.

"Mummy?" Orion asked her as she served the food onto their dining table. "Where's everyone else?"

"Who else?" Rose asked confused. She hadn't invited anyone for dinner, and she didn't recall being invited anywhere, much less telling Orion about it.

"Uncle Al and 'U-go and Car'er."

"Carter is all the way back in New York and so are Sahara and Annie."

"While Al and Hugo are with the rest of the family." Orion almost dropped his fork and made a shocked expression, Rose gave her toddler an odd look. "What's wrong?"

"Family?"

"You are acting very mature. Yes, family."

"Mummy, will you tell me 'bout 'em?"

"Sure, I'll tell you all about them, if you finish up your dinner and get in your pajamas very quickly."

Later that night as the stars came out and snow began to fall, Rose tended to a fire in the living room and brought out some very old photo albums. When Orion came down fully dressed in his pajamas with a fuzzy night robe on, she pulled him into her lap on the couch and began describing all the different members of her family.

She pulled out all her oldest photo albums, with all the pictures her older cousins loved to take as kids. And as she explained, as simply as she could, who everyone was and what they meant to her, Orion slowly began to ask more and more questions about the family.

With the amount of questions Orion was asking her, Rose was worried she'd never get him to bed. Fortunately enough, Orion eventually tired and she carried him upstairs to his bed and tucked him in.

"Merry Christmas Orion." she said as she kissed him on the forehead.

A/N:

So... I don't really know why I posted this. I hadn't planned on it, I don't really like what I've written. I'm kind of considering rewriting the story, but idk if there's still even interest in this story, plus school is about to start, and I don't know. I have a ton of content written for much later on in the story, but I really don't know how to get to that point... (I might just post all these random one-shots? Who knows?)

Also, for those of you who did not like Scorpius' interaction with Rose, don't worry that's not the end of it! I have always imagined Rose and Scorpius as a couple who loved to bicker, so the fact that there wasn't any argument from either side there was supposed to point out just how awkward it was? and how shocking of an experience it was for them both? If I continue there's already a few more scenes I've written that will sum up how both of them really feels about the whole "missing for three years" thing. Idk... I REALLY need to figure this all out a lot more before I jump back into writing it. Let me know what you think and whether or not I should continue.