CHAPTER 2

THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC

When Rose woke up the next morning, she got up as quickly as she could and left her room and made it down one flight of stairs before she saw Al, James, Hugo, Lily, and Scorpius sitting along the banister at the top of the staircase down to the ground floor, Hugo holding the cord of what turned out to be an Extendable Ear. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"They're talking about what to do with me," Scorpius whispered. "Lower your voice, they think we're in James's room." Rose sat down next to Al and listened to the conversation at the kitchen table.

"Ron, he doesn't have anywhere else to go!" Gran said, and Rose heard her dad sigh.

"We can't let him stay here, Mum," he said.

"Why not?"

"We don't have room for him."

"He could share with Al, I don't think he'd mind," Aunt Ginny said.

"How do we know that he didn't just run away?" her dad said. "We'd get in trouble for keeping him here."

"Well, if it pissed off the Malfoys…" Uncle Harry said quietly.

"Harry! I'm the head of Magical Law Enforcement, I can't get arrested," Rose's mother said.

"Why would he lie? If he was going to run away, why hadn't he done it before?" Victoire interjected. There was a short silence at this.

"There could be all kinds of reasons," Rose's dad said.

"Why don't you ask him?" Teddy asked. "I mean, you're all talking about him, but you're not talking to him at all."

"He's 13," Rose's dad said.

"So? He's got a brain, hasn't he?" Teddy asked, sounding progressively more annoyed. "If you all don't want him here, you have to put him somewhere. You can't just send him back to the Malfoys."

"Why not?" Rose's dad muttered.

"Ronald, please," Rose's mum sighed. "I don't like them any more than you, but Scorpius hasn't done anything to you."

After a moment, Rose's dad spoke. "Fine. Where could he go?"

"Vic, maybe your parents?" Teddy asked.

"No, Min really can't stand him," Victoire sighed.

"Okay, well… how about Luna?" Rose's mum suggested.

"That'll probably work. We should call her," Rose's dad said.

"Should we get the kids to come down?" Aunt Ginny asked. Hugo began pulling the Ear up quickly at this and Rose dashed to the end of the hall with the others. They managed to reach the general area of James's room by the time they heard Uncle Harry's voice calling them downstairs.

"We think it would be better for everyone if you could stay with our friend Luna Scamander, Scorpius," Rose's mother said. "She'll come over to pick you up sometime tomorrow."

"Okay," Scorpius said, shrugging. "Anywhere's better than there," he added under his breath as Rose's mum turned to the kitchen table to pick up two envelopes.

"Lily, Hugo, these came for you," she said, smiling, and Hugo snatched his letter out of her hands. He ripped it open and read eagerly despite knowing what it said, and looked at their mother excitedly.

"When are we going to Diagon Alley?" he asked eagerly.

Rose's mother looked at the other adults. "Should we go today?" she asked. Rose's dad shrugged and Uncle Harry nodded.

"Yeah, that'd be a good idea. Scorpius needs supplies too and I don't want to put Luna to the trouble, her boys aren't in school yet."

"You're right. Mum, Ginny, are you and Victoire still going to London today? You could go with us," Rose's dad said.

"All right, then, let's go," Uncle Harry said.

"Harry, can you fit Molly and Victoire in your car? Ours is a bit small, and we're driving Scorpius," Hermione said, and Harry nodded.

"Yeah, I think so," he said, as they walked out the door, and Rose waited for Scorpius to catch up to her.

"Hey," she said.

"Hi."

"You don't have to go back," Rose said. "That's good, right?""Yeah," he said, smiling a little, but as they got into the back seat, he said, "My letter must've gotten sent to the manor, I don't know what to buy."

"You can just look off mine," Rose offered, and she handed it to him to read while her parents started the car. Her dad was driving—he'd taken the test again to please her mum, despite the confusion of the instructor.

"Ready, everyone?" her mum asked. They nodded and as Rose's dad pulled out of the driveway, her mum turned around to face them. "We're going to have to make a stop at my office," she said. "I just need to get some things to work on later since I'm taking the day off."

"What your mother means is that she's a workaholic," her dad said.

"I'm the head of a government department, Ron," her mum said. "I'm taking the day off, I just need to keep everything in order."

"Okay," he said, smirking.

Her mother rolled her eyes and continued. "We'll be in and out, it'll be quick. So, Scorpius, do you have your supply list?"

He looked up. "Well, no, but I'm taking the same classes as Rose so I can just get the same things as her."

"All right then," Rose's mum said, and turned back around. After a minute, Scorpius looked up in confusion from the list.

"Hey, Weasley, how do you need 11 textbooks?"

"What?" Rose asked, a little nervous, and looked over his shoulder. "No I don't."

"Yeah, you do," he insisted, pointing at her books list. "See? Under electives, you have four. Unfogging the Future, Home Life and Social Habits of British Muggles, and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, right? But then there's this here, Spellman's Syllabary, and I thought you dropped Ancient Runes."

Rose's mother turned around and gave Rose a look and Rose shrugged. "Er, I did. Must be a misprint. I'll ask about it at school."

Scorpius shrugged too. "Weird."

"Yeah." The car pulled to a stop when they reached Westminster and they parked across the street from the familiar phone booth.

"Everyone out," Rose's mother said, and as they exited the car and Scorpius and Hugo crossed the street, she whispered to Rose, "I'll get you the Runes book on my own, okay?"

Rose nodded and they followed the others across the street, where they saw they had already gone down. Rose and her mother stepped in and the booth slowly lowered itself down to the ground floor of the Ministry of Magic. Rose always felt a little awed when she entered the place, with the large fountains and fireplaces and all the professional people bustling past her. Scorpius looked a little bewildered by the mass of people, and she got the feeling that he'd never been there before. "All right everyone, my office is this way," Rose's mum said, and they weaved through the crowd on their way to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement on the other side of the fountain. As they walked Rose heard her parents talking.

"Why are there so many people? I thought you said it was a slow day today."

"I thought it was. It was supposed to be. I wonder what's going on."

"Hermione…" her dad said, looking pointedly at an even more concentrated smaller crowd nearby the great fountain, and they all looked to find Uncle Percy surrounded by reporters and flashing cameras. "What's he got himself into?" her dad asked under his breath as they pushed closer.

"Mr. Weasley, what can you tell us about the rumors that the Auror office has discovered illicit activities in foreign regions with ties to You-Know-Who?" one reporter asked.

"Let's get closer," Rose whispered to Scorpius, and they pushed through the crowd until they were near the front.

"Well, the doings of the Auror office are confidential as a necessary security measure," Uncle Percy explained, which spawned another wave of reporters desperately trying to be heard. "I can assure you, though, we have no evidence to suggest any more You-Know-Who sympathizers exist than did previously."

"He's such a bloody politician, of course there is," a voice muttered from behind them, and Rose turned around to see Lucy staring angrily past the reporters at her father.

"Hi, Lucy," Rose said.

"Hey, Rose. Oh, and hi, Malfoy. What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I'm not a Malfoy anymore," he said shortly. Lucy looked at Rose, seeming a little surprised and very impressed.

"That's… good."

"Mr. Weasley, what do you have to say about the rumors making accusations against certain high-ranking officials such as Lucius Malfoy?" Rita Skeeter burst out, and Uncle Percy looked around nervously.

"I can actually turn that question over to Mr. Malfoy himself. Lucius?" Rose quickly looked at Scorpius nervously as his grandfather stepped into the lights and reporters started yelling questions at him. Lucius looked around and his eyes fixed on a spot uncomfortably close to Rose. She turned to look at Scorpius making glaring eye contact with Lucius and turned back towards the Malfoy patriarch, crossing her arms and staring as well. His eyes flickered to her and he shook his head ever so slightly, before turning away again and addressing the reporters.

"Rose! We're going!" her mother called from further back in the crowd, and she turned to leave. She noticed that Scorpius was still rooted to the same spot, staring at Lucius, and pulled his arm a little to get him to move.

"Bye, Lucy," she said quickly, and tugged Scorpius away from the scene. He turned to her as they walked.

"I guess that settles it, then," he sighed as they reached her parents.

"You're okay, right?" Rose checked as they entered the elevator.

"I'm fine, Weasley," he said, staring at the ground. Hugo looked over at Rose and glanced questioningly at Scorpius. Rose shook her head a little and he turned away again.

"Hermione," a man said as soon as the elevator doors opened. "Thank Merlin. Here's the paperwork for the trial tomorrow, you'll be here, 8 o'clock?"

"Yes, John, I'll be here," she said. "Has the psychiatrist from St. Mungo's made a statement yet?"

"No, but they're willing to testify," John told her, and they walked over to her desk, talking over the file John had been holding.

"What trial?" Rose asked curiously. "Who's going on trial?"

Her dad hesitated. "A former Death Eater…well, sort of. His only really provable offense was the Battle of Hogwarts, but you know, bit important, that one. There's been some new evidence saying that he wasn't under the Imperius Curse like he said before. I know the guy who made the arrest, actually."

"Can you tell us who it was?" Hugo asked eagerly. Her dad hesitated again before shrugging.

"Everyone will know tomorrow anyway. It was a man named Goyle. He was in my year at school, quite dull but still a git," he muttered. Rose and Scorpius shared a look. Poor Devon. Everyone had known that his father hadn't been perfect during the war, but this was solid proof that he was a Death Eater. That couldn't be good.

"So, Scorpius, you've got money, haven't you?" her dad asked. "For the books?"

"If you don't, I have some extra…" Rose began, but her dad shook his head at her.

"Rosie, he's the heir to a massive fortune. He's got money."

"Right now I do," Scorpius said quietly. "I'll have to move it to another vault, though, before…"

"What?" Rose asked.

"…Before they remember to cut me off," he muttered.

"We'll go to Gringotts first," Rose said quietly, not really knowing what to say to that. Her mother thankfully returned at that point and led the way to the elevator.

"Diagon Alley," she said, and they were out of the Ministry as quickly as possible. Rose wasn't exactly disappointed to leave this time.