Breathe in for luck, breathe in so deep

This air is blessed, you share with me

This night is wild, so calm and dull

These hearts they race from self-control

Your legs are smooth as they graze mine

We're doing fine, we're doing nothing at all

-Hands Down; Dashboard Confessional

CHAPTER 12

DRACO MALFOY

My son. My son in love with a Weasley. It should not have been possible. It wasn't possible. I refused to believe it. As long as I didn't speak about it, it wasn't true. But as soon as I looked at my son all I could think of was his infatuation with the Weasley girl. So I ended up not speaking to him at all. It started as avoiding him, and then it just went into ignoring his presence completely. He didn't seem to mind too much actually. He seemed to find it rather amusing. I made a mental note to myself to wipe the smirk off the face that resembled mine so. Astoria was trying to make me speak to Scorpius, but she didn't seem to grasp how I felt about the situation. I loathed the Weasleys, and I had for years. For my son to be in love with them, it was like he was betraying me and everything I'd taught him about them. I knew the Weasley girl was pretty, but it angered me that my son would think he was in love with a girl based on her looks alone. And I knew he had because she was a Weasley; she had no personality. They never did.

"Draco. You have to talk to him. He's your son, Draco."

"I'm perfectly aware of who he is, Astoria." My words were harsh as they left my mouth. I felt guilty as I heard my tone, but the feeling quickly vanished.

"Then prove it." She sounded so much like Severus I almost expected to look up to see the cold black eyes I used to come to at Hogwarts. But Astoria didn't understand. How could she? She didn't know the Weasleys like I did. The Weasleys were sad, pathetic and a disgrace to the wizarding name. Ronald Weasley was no exception. In fact he proved it. He thought that just because his best friend defeated the Dark Lord that made him special too. It didn't. As far as I was concerned, Ronald Weasley was still the arrogant pig I'd known him to be for years. Potter, at least, had decency. Potter did not go out drinking and then wear dark glasses outside the next morning to hide the dark circles under his eyes. Potter did not cover up the bruises on his wife's perfect cheeks to make out that he was a decent human being. No one else might've noticed the redness Hermione Weasley often wore around her eyes that obviously meant she'd been crying, but I had. I noticed the way her voice was sometimes croaky after what was evidently nights of shouting. I noticed the way her lips sometimes curled slightly when someone addressed her as "Ms. Weasley". I noticed the way the sparkle in her eyes dimmed when she was with her husband. No one noticed it. No one but me.

Not that she knew I noticed this. For all intents and purposes she'd forgotten I existed. Which I was fine with. But I couldn't help but wonder what she saw in Weasley. He had the mental capacity of a twelve year old boy. His emotional maturity hadn't grown since he was eight. Yet still she married him. She married the man who stopped talking to her because of a rat. She married the man who walked out on her and Potter when they were hunting to destroy the Dark Lord. She married the man who stopped speaking to Potter because he was thrown into the Triwizard Tournament. He abandons his best friends in their times of need, and she married him. She took his last name and made it her own. She wore his ring around her finger. She loved him. And for what? For him to destroy her.

XXXXX

RON WEASLEY

My daughter dating a Malfoy. It sickened me. If she thought she was off the hook with this she was dead wrong. No child of mine would ever be associated with a Malfoy. They were disgusting, slimy creatures not worth any part of anything. Harry was trying to reason with me as we sat at the table.

"Ron, mate, you're blowing this way out of proportion." He said, shaking his head. Hermione was silent.

"No I'm not, Harry! She's practically going out with… him!" I snarled. Harry smacked his hand to his forehead.

"How many times have I got to tell you? Draco isn't like that anymore! He's shaken off all his Death Eater ways and he's built a good life around that. He's probably raised Scorpius against Lucius. And you know how it came out about them! It wasn't Draco's choice the entire time."

"I still don't believe that bullshit."

"Ron, they used Veritaserum."

"He probably found a way to slip past the effects… slimy git." I grumbled, making Harry bury his face in his hands.

"Ron. Let me ask you one thing. Even if you did try and force Rose to stop seeing Scorpius–"

"Which she will." I interrupted.

"How the hell are you going to stop them?" Harry continued as if I hadn't spoken.

"Rose wouldn't disobey me."

"Hate to burst your bubble, mate, but in case you haven't noticed, Rose is sixteen years old. You remember our sixth year?" Hermione let out a snort of disgust as she thought of our sixth year at Hogwarts, and I could tell she was thinking about Lavender Brown.

"What's your point?"

"My point is: we did anything we wanted when we were sixteen. In fact, we did anything we wanted when we were eleven. Do you remember in fifth year when your mum didn't want us creating 'Dumbledore's Army'? Do you remember in second year when we flew your dad's car to Hogwarts? Do you remember in third year when we went back in time? First year: We went to find the philosopher's stone. Second year: we went into the chamber of secrets. Third year: we rescued Sirius from a tower on a hippogriff. Fourth year: Triwizard Tournament. Fifth year: Umbridge. Sixth year: the book. Seventh year: we didn't go. We have always done what we wanted, or what we felt we needed to, regardless of what rules we were breaking. Rose isn't going to be different."

What he said made sense. I know it did. But that didn't mean I was going to listen to him. Rose was my daughter, and she would do what I told her to. Just because Harry was married to my sister didn't mean he had input over his niece's upbringing.

"Dad?" I looked up and expected to see Rose. Instead I saw Lily, and I fully took in how much she'd grown in the past few months, and not just in height. She looked mentally stronger, and her face glowed. Her hair had grown longer over the months, and now it cascaded down her back in waves of the same jet black that her father had. Something had changed in her, and something told me she was just about to tell us what had happened.

"Lily!" Harry smiled at his daughter, his eyes gleaming at the girl who looked like a perfect cross between him and Ginny. "Do you need something, sweetheart?"

"Dad, I'm not a kid anymore…" She grumbled at her childhood nickname, but her eyes told us that she really loved being her father's little girl. "But yeah. I do. Sort of."

"What is it?"

"Okay, so you know how Rose is with Scorpius? Well, sort of with him. They're not actually together but whatever…" She rambled on about Rose and the Malfoy boy for another minute or two, while I tried to tune out anything that mentioned the boy who'd violated my daughter by even being in the same room as her. "Anyway, I'm dating Adrian Zabini. Bye!" And she ran out the room.

Hermione, Harry, and I sat dumbfounded for a moment, and then Harry started to laugh. He laughed and laughed and Hermione and I got more freaked out by the second. But Harry wouldn't stop laughing.

"You know, it's funny," He said between chuckles, "that I'm laughing, because I don't find this remotely funny." He wiped tears from his eyes and continued to snigger, causing Hermione to lean away from him slightly.

"Harry…" She asked gently, "Are you okay?" His laughter died down and he was able to answer.

"You know what? I actually am. I met with Blaise the other week and he seemed like he'd truly reformed. I'm sure Adrian is a nice boy."

"Harry, you know he's a sixth year?" I asked.

"Yes, of course, I'm not retarded."

"And Lily is a fourth year?"

"Yes, Ron. I know how old my daughter is." That was when I lost it.

"How are you okay with this? Malfoy and Zabini were– are bullying bastards! Not to mention this Adrian boy is two years older than Lily! How does this not bother you?"

"Because, Ron, I will not forbid my children to love."

"It isn't love it's… a crush. It's infatuation. It's fascination. It is not love!"

"Ron, you have to understand this. To me, it doesn't matter who my children date. As long as they are cared for. You forget that sometimes people fall in love with someone they shouldn't. I don't want my children growing up thinking I won't approve of their life decisions. I am here to advise them. To guide them. I am not here to set out a path for them that they have to follow."

"That's a load of bullshit, Harry. You can't possibly think that."

"Snape loved my mother. He wasn't supposed to. But he did."

"And he was a greasy-haired slug who hated you!"

"He died to save me. He spent his life protecting me."

"Oh save me the theatrics."

"Fine, Ron. Believe what you want. But Rose is going to date Scorpius no matter what you say." Harry stood up and walked out of the room, and I knew his thoughts were not of me, not of his daughter, but of his mother. Hermione left shortly after, leaving me with my thoughts. I thought of my childhood. I thought of all three of us doing whatever the hell we wanted while we were at school. I thought of George and – with a pang – Fred, creating mischief and doing what they loved regardless of who told them not to. The more I thought about it, the more I realised I didn't want my children missing out on their life by sticking to a plan someone else had set out for them. I wanted them to live. I wanted them to love. I wanted them to enjoy themselves.

As for Rose and Scorpius, I was not over it. But I was okay with it. For now.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

well i had to have the parents' POV at some point, didn't i?

I know most of you won't like that I made out that Ron was an abusive husband (unless you ship Dramione, in which case you'll probably love it). I will remind you that that is just Draco's perception. It might turn out differently.

Anyway, sorry I haven't updated for ages, I've had the biggest writer's block ever-.- But I wanted to do this chapter. So here you go: the chapter.

and yea, i know lily is meant to have red hair but i didn't want it the same as Rose's so i made it black like harry's, sorry;)

but yea, i hope you like the chapter:)

thanks guys!

beccasophX