Chapter Thirteen-Lucius and Narcissa, Part 1
July 8, 2023 dawned bright and early. Well, at least it did for some. For others, such as Rose Weasley, it dawned dark and insanely early, as Victoire was expecting her bridal party to arrive at Shell Cottage at just about the crack of dawn. Rose consoled herself in her sleep-deprived misery, however. Tomorrow, the wedding would be over and done with. Tomorrow, she could sleep. Tomorrow would be good.
After a groggy start, the morning actually progressed quite nicely, once Rose stopped to think about it. And it was all thanks to Victoire's meticulous planning. Everything for the ceremony and the reception had been set up the previous day, and while Fleur was busy styling her oldest daughter's hair, Bill was directing the arrangement of the newly arrived flowers with a handy diagram that Victoire had drawn up. Louis had spent the night at the Potter's and was getting ready there now, while Victoire's bridesmaids were getting ready in the spare room that had once belonged to her and Dominique.
In short, things were going off without a hitch, so far. Rose valued her sanity immensely, so she was going to do whatever she could to ensure things stayed that way.
Meanwhile, in London, Scorpius was just sitting down to have breakfast with his parents. He was excited to finally be seeing Rose again today, but there was also a feeling of trepidation in his stomach. Yes, he realized that it was about time that his parents met his girlfriend, but he still wasn't looking forward to it. Parents could be so embarrassing. Plus, he would be meeting her parents for the first time as her boyfriend. Altogether, it was shaping up to be a very nerve-wracking day. If Scorpius thought things were bad, though, it was about to get worse.
"Cutting it a bit close, aren't you?" Draco questioned, looking over the top of his paper as his son slid into a seat at the kitchen table.
"It's only just ten o'clock," Scorpius said, reaching for a bagel. "The wedding isn't until one."
"Don't touch that," Astoria slapped the back of Scorpius' hand before he could touch any of the food. "That's for your grandparents."
"My…grandparents?" Scorpius questioned a bit slowly, having not fully woken up yet. "Why do we have food for them?"
"Mother and Father should be here any minute," Draco replied, hidden behind his newspaper once more. "It would probably be for the best if you were dressed before then."
Scorpius, beyond confused at this point, merely stared at his father with a clueless expression on his face. "Er…what are you two talking about?"
"Your grandparents are coming over," Astoria stated, her nerves getting the best of her as she meticulously folded and refolded a single napkin on the kitchen table for what Scorpius was sure was not the first time that morning. It wasn't that Astoria didn't like her in-laws; they had eventually turned out to be rather…nice people, in fact. But that didn't change the fact that they were her husband's parents and their traditional beliefs were never going to completely go away. So, to put it nicely, they were never going to see Astoria as quite the perfect match for their only son, not that there was anything they could do about it after more than two decades.
"…why?" Scorpius questioned slowly.
"They're coming to the wedding with us, of course," Draco said from behind his paper, "Though why it is seemingly impossible for them to go directly there from their own home I have no idea. And really, Scorpius, you should be getting dressed. You know how your grandmother gets about being late for anything."
With a resigned sigh and one last, longing look towards the mouth-watering spread of breakfast food on the table, Scorpius stood back up and made his way dejectedly back to his room.
"Hurry up!" Astoria called after him. "You can eat once they get here!"
As Scorpius quickly pulled his dress robes on he couldn't help but ponder how in Merlin's name he had missed the tiny detail that his grandparents would also be attending the wedding. Rose certainly hadn't told him about it but, then again, perhaps she didn't know either. Although he would have thought that Victoire, overly thorough as she was, would have at least mentioned it to her cousin. It was too late to wonder or worry about any of that now, though, because there was a much more pressing thing Scorpius would need to worry about for the next few hours.
How were his grandparents going to react to meeting Rose?
Scorpius was almost completely positive that Draco had already told them all about Scorpius' girlfriend. However, he had yet to hear Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy's opinions on the matter. And they were sure to have some sort of opinion about it all; some very strong, very not good opinions, if Scorpius was going to be completely honest with himself about everything. In fact, he felt like he should be exceptionally worried about how the day's events were going to play out because he hadn't yet talked to his grandparents about this.
So, in short, Scorpius was definitely no longer worried about meeting Mr. and Mrs. Weasley or about his parents meeting Rose. Whose brilliant idea had it been to invite his grandparents to this wedding anyway?
With a feeling a of dread in the pit of his stomach, Scorpius made his way back to the kitchen after getting dressed, dragging his feet the whole way. The feeling intensified when he paused at the closed door and heard voices behind it. Scorpius was a Malfoy though. So he shook the feeling off and, with a rather weak resolve, placed his hand on the door knob and turned it.
"Scorpius!" Narcissa greeted her only grandson with delight as the blonde teenager stepped into the room. She indicated the only open seat left at the round table, which was between herself and Astoria. "Come sit next to me, dear."
"Hello grandmother, grandfather," Scorpius said dutifully, taking the offered seat. Lucius nodded at the boy as he took a sip of tea, while Narcissa threw her arms around him.
"How was your year, dear?" Narcissa asked once she had released Scorpius. "Did anything exciting happen? I haven't heard a single word from you since Christmas."
She frowned slightly at him while making the last remark.
"Sorry, grandmother," Scorpius said quickly. "Things got a bit hectic. But school was good. We nearly won the Quidditch Cup this year; it was a close match, but Gryffindor won. I think we'll do better next year, though, now that James Potter and Fred Weasley have finished school."
Narcissa smiled widened suddenly when Scorpius had finished talking.
"Your father wrote to us a few weeks ago, Scorpius," She began, and Scorpius internally groaned. He had a feeling he knew where she was going with this. "And he said that you have a new girlfriend."
"Yes," Scorpius said shortly. "Yes I do."
"Rose Weasley?" Narcissa continued her wide grin still in place. Scorpius was of the firm belief that she looked much too happy about this news.
"Yes, that's her," Scorpius answered. He was already dreading what he had to say next, but there would be no way to avoid it. "I'll introduce you later, at the wedding. She's going to be a bridesmaid."
"A what?" Lucius spoke for the first time since Scorpius had entered the room.
"It's an American thing," Scorpius said with a shrug, "I think. Rose explained it all, but I'm not really an expert on weddings to begin with."
"How very…modern," Lucius said slowly. Scorpius couldn't quite interpret his grandfather's tone.
"Well, we should be going, don't you think, mother?" Draco suddenly broke into the conversation, glancing pointedly at his watch.
"Of course, Draco, dear," Narcissa replied, though she made no move to stand. Rather, she turned to her husband. "Lucius, I believe I left my cloak in the other room. Could you go get it for me?"
"I can do it," Astoria offered swiftly.
"Nonsense," Narcissa shot her down immediately. She looked pointedly at her husband. "Lucius?"
Without a word, Lucius pushed his chair back and made his way out of the kitchen to the living room where he and his wife had entered the apartment through the floo connection in the fireplace there. As soon as her husband left the room, Narcissa turned to Scorpius.
"Don't mind your grandfather, Scorpius, darling," Narcissa said quickly. So apparently Scorpius hadn't been the only one to notice Lucius' uncharacteristic silence. "He still hasn't gotten over learning about you and Rose. Though I honestly have no idea how he didn't see it coming; you've been talking about the girl for years. I've been waiting for the two of you to get together for ages."
Scorpius' eyes widened in surprise, but he could say nothing in reply as, just at that moment, Lucius re-entered the room empty-handed.
"I couldn't find it," He informed his wife.
"Oh, that's right, I didn't bring a cloak," Narcissa said, and Scorpius couldn't help but admire his grandmother's acting. "I thought about it, to protect my robes from the soot, but it is July, after all, not at all the kind of weather one wears a cloak in; how completely thoughtless of me. Of course, I suppose it's to be expected. I am getting a bit on in years. Not that any of you need to be spreading that around, mind you."
Draco merely rolled his eyes at his mother's antics as he stood up. "We'll just be going to the apparition point, now."
Less than ten minutes later found all five Malfoys standing on the beach just beyond Shell Cottage, waiting in the queue to be seated by some of Victoire's French cousins.
"Cissy!" A voice suddenly cried from behind them.
Andromeda was suddenly upon them, hugging first her younger sister and then her brother-in-law (the second one being far more awkward than the first). She then turned to the younger Malfoys.
"Draco, how lovely to see you again," Another hug, this one for Draco. "And Astoria, what a lovely shade of blue. And Scorpius! You must have grown a foot since I last saw you. Oh, but I'm so glad you all came," She paused for a brief moment, glancing at the long line of people still before them. "You all can just come with me; Victoire's too busy at the moment to notice a few people straying from the line. You'll all be sitting with me, anyway."
Andromeda kept up a steady stream of conversation as she led the Malfoys to the front row of chairs. Indeed she and her sister only ceased speaking when Teddy appeared at the front of the crowd, followed closely by a line of people, all of whom but one were his adopted cousins (plus his soon-to-be brother-in-law). Scorpius vaguely recognized Teddy's best friend from their Hogwarts days, though he couldn't quite remember what his name was anymore. Once they were all in place, music began playing from an unidentified source, and Victoire's bridal party began making their way down the aisle.
Lily came first and, through the crowd of people and across the aisle, Scorpius could just make out Mr. and Mrs. Potter positively beaming at their daughter. She caught sight of Scorpius in the front row as she approached and winked at him before taking her place. He didn't have long to ponder this, however, because the next person to appear was Rose.
To say that his breath was taken away would be the greatest understatement in the history of understatements, or so Scorpius couldn't help but think in that moment he first caught sight of Rose. His girlfriend was bloody gorgeous. And, as such, Scorpius would one day maybe admit that he couldn't quite recall the wedding ceremony that followed, as his gaze was stuck on Rose just about the entire time.
Indeed, it was only when his grandmother leaned around his grandfather and his parents and spoke to them that he even noticed that the ceremony had ended.
"Sorry, what?" Scorpius shook his head a bit to get him out of his daze, finally tearing his eyes away from Rose. "I didn't quite catch that, grandmother."
Narcissa smirked knowingly at her grandson. "I said: now that the ceremony is over, don't you think it's about time you introduced me to this girlfriend of yours?"
a/n-Only one chapter left for real this time. I think. Review!