Chapter four

Five years earlier

"Scorpius, why do you have to be such a killjoy? Come with us." Victoire demanded of the young man who was seated on the stairs, shaking his head.

"It's a family gathering…"

"Yes, so get off your butt and go upstairs to make yourself presentable, understood?" Ted chimed in from the kitchen doorway where he was standing with Isabelle in his arms.

"It'll be awkward if I…" Scorpius tried once again, but like last time no one wanted to listen to what he had to say.

"It will not be awkward, you are coming with us –no, you will not celebrate Christmas by yourself- and that's final." Victoire finished off with a pointed stare at him and Scorpius had a hard time not to squirm under her hard gaze. With a defeated sigh he walked upstairs, making sure to show that he was not happy about this arrangement.

He wondered what they could be thinking, bringing him to the Weasley family's Christmas celebration. For Merlin's sake, he was a Malfoy, and they were forcing him to spend the evening at the Burrow… In his head he could picture it, how they all were going to stare at him and talk in hushed voices.

Some time later he had given in to his faith and was now standing outside a house which would surely crash down over his head at any second. He could hear all the happy voices and some not so happy shouts from various persons.

Scorpius's inner panic grew as Teddy's hand came closer to the door to knock, but on the outside he held a practised expression of boredom or indifference. In his head he began to figure out a way to escape, but his planning was abruptly stopped when the door flung opened and showed to beaming women. He'd recognise the first one anywhere as she rushed to his side to pull him inside.

"You came!" Rose exclaimed while hugging his arm, ignoring the tense look on his face. "Grandma, this is Scorpius." The other woman in the door smiled warmly up at him, and he felt a little more relaxed.

"Good evening, mrs. Wealsey." He held out his hand towards her and she actually pulled him in for a light hug. She chuckled at his face which held an unmistaken surprise. A part of him reminded her of Harry, this boy was as good as an orphan really.

"Let's get you all inside, it's freezing –oh, there're my other darlings... and Teddy, no I'm only joking… Isabelle, you have grown…"

"Come on." Rose pulled at him and he blindly followed her inside where he was met by the dreaded sight of a room full of Weasleys. He recognised some of their faces, waved half-heartedly back at Hugo who had looked up from a game of chess with one of Rose's uncles, Scorpius assumed. Some of the people looked friendlier than others; none however beat out Ron's cold stare when he noticed who his daughter was towing behind her.

Suddenly Rose came to a halt when someone walked up to them and faced Scorpius with a expression of authority. He looked at Rose in the corner of his eye, and could clearly see her fighting a smile. The man cleared his throat and held out his hand for Scorpius to shake, and he had a feeling of shaking hands with the Minister of Magic.

"You must be Scorpius Malfoy, I'm Percy Weasley, Rose's uncle. I hope you will have a good time here tonight and that my younger brother won't scare you away." Percy turned a stern gaze at Ron who glared back before turning to leave the room.

"Dad wouldn't dare to do anything." Rose had to jump out of the way when two girls came running, one of them chasing the other. Scorpius' arm was around her shoulders to steady her in a heart beat.

"Lucy, give me my broom" Came the shrill cry from the chasing girl, and Percy let out a frustrated excuse before calling out for them.

"Molly, Lucy, if you value any of your presents this year and want to have them later, I suggest you stop that, right now!"

"So that was uncle Percy, he works at the ministry." Rose looped her arm in Scorpius and yet again began to walk around the room to introduce him.

The actual dinning was something Scorpius couldn't have imagined, but he couldn't deny how comfortable it was with chaos all around him. People snatching food from each other and mrs. Weasley breaking of the beginning of an actual food fight, when James Potter began to argue with Albus, who mrs. Weasley later helped to get rid of the large stain of gravy on his shirt.

Rose could feel the warm sense of contentment as she sat there with her family and Scorpius beside her. She could see that most of her threats towards here relatives had been unnecessary, they had gladly let him in and she couldn't help but smile at the animated conversation about quidditch between Scorpius, Harry, James, Hugo and Charlie.

"The Cannons doesn't have a chance against the Falcons, everyone knows that."

"Uncle Charlie, a lot has happened the last twenty years."

"No, he's right; the Cannons wouldn't know a snitch even if it flew up their noses."

"The Falcons can't even find a decent keeper." It all continued in that manner and Rose couldn't enjoy it more, even if she wasn't that informed about all the statistics of the past fifty years, something they all seemed very keen on sharing with each other.

She caught onto the angry look her father tried to give his best friend, who seemed to ignore Ron completely. Ron yelped out quietly when he felt someone kick him hard in the shin, and he immediately knew who had done it when he noticed the murderous look his daughter sent him from her spot next to Malfoy. For a moment he thought about how much she looked like Hermione, but then he remembered his traitorous so-called best friend and decided that he should give them all the cold shoulder for a while.

A gentle nudge in his side made Scorpius look down and lock eyes with Rose, who looked uncharacteristically shy. He leant his head down and smiled slightly.

"What?"

"Ehm… I was wondering… if you wanted to get your gift… in private." A blush was beginning to show and he could hear her mumble angrily to herself about it.

"Sure, yours is in my cloak." Rose stood up slowly, pulling him with her. No one took any notice of them leaving the room, since several of the others had already moved into the living room to get good seats before the presents were to be opened.

He found his cloak and brought out a small box. For a moment he hesitantly looked it over with his back towards her, what if she didn't like it… And he had been worried about everyone's reaction to him being here, the thought of Rose hadn't even crossed his mind. That he had her present in his cloak was because it hadn't left his pocket since he left Hogwarts for the holiday break.

Finally he turned around and saw her fumbling with a gift of her own. She smiled uncertainly up at him, before holding it out for him. Chuckling slightly he took it and handed over the small box to her.

"Open them together?" The familiar smirk was back on his face and she nodded while she let out a laugh.

Scorpius couldn't help the smile which appeared on his face when he removed the gift-wrap, it was a book, but not just any book. Anything and everything about the best sport there is the title stated and beneath it was a golden snitch. He looked at Rose who hadn't opened hers yet, but was now looking proud of herself, for making him look like that.

"There's a page in the book, the last one I think… you should see it." He gave her a quizzical look but obliged her and turned to the last page. In bold letters it was stated at the top, Future hotshots, and the page were meant to write on your own. Movements caught his eye and he saw a picture of himself on his broom, and beside it, in Rose's handwriting, was Scorpius 7th year against Ravenclaw.

Rose let out a surprised gasp when she was suddenly enveloped in Scorpius's arms. She could feel his head rest on the top of hers, and snuggled a little closer.

"You can open yours now." She nudged him playfully before pulling away and began to open the box. "I know it's not much, but…"

"It's beautiful." She said simply while admiringly picking the crystal rose out of the box, and as soon as she touched it began to glow in a faint red colour and it when from being cold as ice to soothing warmth. "What is it?" She held it up closer to her eyes, trying to figure out what could do this.

"Enchanted ice, it will stay like that forever and glows when it feels someone's touch."

"Thank you." She hugged him while still holding the rose in her hand and he buried his face in her hair.

"You're welcome, but you know… nothing beats that book you gave me…" A smirk curled her lips as she pulled away slightly from him.

"Oh, really." She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him.

"Not close…" He leant in for another one as her arms moved around his neck to bring him closer, but they were suddenly interrupted by an annoyed sigh.

"By Merlin's light blue onesie, why does this always happen to me!" James threw his arms up in the air before stalking back into the living room, mumbling about people who should try to keep their hands to themselves when he was around.

"I'm afraid to ask what that was about…" Scorpius rested his cheek on Rose's head while she leant against him.

"He's always the one who walks in on people, says it's his curse."