Hi guys! This is the longest chapter I've written, and I really enjoyed writing it. I hope you like it too.
Once Rose had pulled herself together after Al had left, and had recovered from the tears that consumed her, the first thing she wanted to do was tell Molly. But Molly wasn't here, so Lily was her second choice. Lily, however, was playing Quidditch, completely oblivious to the anarchy that Al had caused, and the knife edge that the family's Christmas was now balancing on. She had an impossible choice: ruin Christmas for her family, or ruin her relationship with Scorpius. Ruin or ruin. Destroy or destroy. If only she could explain to Scorpius what was happening, then he wouldn't be hurt-
That was it. Al wouldn't know if she scrawled Scorpius a note quickly. Then she could pretend she'd gone for the stop-writing-to-him option. What would happen when school started again and Al realised that Rose wouldn't treat Scorpius like a 'little shit', she didn't know, but the present was her main priority for the moment.
Rose grabbed a piece of parchment and a quill, tearing the parchment that had got caught on something.
Scorpius,
I'm being blackmailed.
Don't expect any more letters from me this holiday and don't reply
I'll explain when I see you
Love Rose
"Sven!" She whispered urgently, running over to his cage and grabbing his foot. Hastily she tied the scrap of paper to it and carried him to the window. "Take this to Scorpius Malfoy at Malfoy Manor. and whatever you do, don't get caught. Especially at our end." She almost pushed Sven out of the window in haste.
Once he was out of sight Rose collapsed on the bed, a combination of relief and stress flooding through her in the split second before she heard footsteps on the stairs and Al burst back in.
"Was that Sven I just saw leaving?" He asked, already knowing the answer.
"No." She said, but too quickly.
"Well, you've clearly made your decision." Al said calmly. "A lot quicker than I expected, actually. Christmas dinner it is."
He turned to leave. Rose was about to shout after him, and plead with him, but her dignity prevented her. She had nothing to be ashamed of, and she knew it. So she wouldn't beg him.
For Rose, the end of the Quidditch game was marked by Lily's footsteps on the stairs running up to their room.
"We won!" She exclaimed as she burst into the room, rosy cheeked and sweaty. "We left them clinging to their broomsticks in terror- well, not quite; they did give us a good fight at first, but we showed them; we beat them 250- 120; so maybe it would have been difficult if they'd caught the Snitch- James would have had to work harder on scoring, but with me as Seeker there was no chance of that, I got that Snitch at the first possible opportunity; the first possible time- Teddy was an easy match." Finally she noticed Rose was yet to even look at her. "Well aren't you going to congratulate me? What's up with you? Why wouldn't you play, anyway?"
"Al's going to tell them, Lils." Rose told her cousin, still staring at the ceiling.
Lily sighed and sat down, taking off her cloak. "Tell who what?" Lily had come down from her winning high significantly- now she feigned confusion whilst suspecting the truth.
"He's going to tell the family, on Christmas Day, no less, that me and Scorpius are friends and have been corresponding."
"Oh." Lily replied. "Well, that's not too bad- they needed to know anyway, and at least you won't have to tell them yourself."
Rose turned her head towards her cousin and rolled her eyes "Lily, seriously?"
"You've said it yourself, your friendship with Scorpius is no big deal!"
"That doesn't mean I want everyone else to know-"
"And you already told your family, right?"
"Yes, but that's 3 people!" Rose sat up. "There'll be... I don't even know how many will be here on Christmas day-"
"So? You've told the people closest to you- everyone else's opinion should mean less to you; they should be less of a big deal!"
"You make it sound so easy-"
"It is easy! They have no reason to have an adverse reaction!" Lily lied.
"Lils, you know as well as I do that being friends with a Malfoy is a death sentence as a Weasley!" Rose jumped to her feet as her suppressed anger finally took over. "Let alone having feelings for one! Yes, it's unfair, it's ridiculous that I'm scared of the situation I'm in, but that's just how it is! Now what in the name of Merlin do I do?"
"And Al's definitely going to tell everyone?" Lily asked by way of answer.
"He says so." Rose sat on the bed again.
"And you definitely don't want him to?"
Rose spluttered. "Absolutely not."
"Then you have two choices. One, you persuade him otherwise-"
"There's more chance of a Hungarian Horntail wanting to play fetch." Rose muttered.
Lily ignored her. "Or two, get in there first." She grinned wickedly.
"Sorry, what?"
"Get in there first! Tell the family before Al does!" Rose's face showed her utter horror.
"You're sure there are no other options?"
"Can you think of any?"
"Not really."
"Then no." Rose made a noise that sounded like a dying centaur as she buried her face in her pillow. "So whatcha gonna do?" Lily asked in a voice designed to make Rose laugh, and it would have worked any other day, but now she really wasn't in the mood.
"I don't know!" Rose yelled, but still had her face under the pillow, so it came out as a muffled 'I dobe no!'
"I'll let you think on it." Lily said cheerfully, as she left Rose to her thoughts and went downstairs to join in on the festivities.
The next few days were a blur of food, tinsel, laughter and family. Rose hated every minute. Roxy moved in with Rose and Lily for a few days, which was quite awkward until the arrival of Percy, Audrey and Lucy at which point the girls had to give up their bedroom to Percy and Audrey, so moved downstairs with the others. When Bill and Fleur dropped Victoire, Dominique and Louis off on Christmas Eve ("Vee are so sorry zat vee cannot stay, but my family are expecting darleeng Bill and I for Chreestmas. But zee children will adore spending Chreestmas with you!") the house had reached maximum capacity.
Rose still hadn't decided what to do about Al, every time she saw him around the house she would look at him pleadingly, but he would completely ignore her and turn away. By the time the kids had set up camp on the ground floor of the Burrow on Christmas Eve by moving all furniture aside and using a variety of charms and some of their grandfather's Muggle air mattresses for camping and sleeping bags, Rose had reached about the lowest she thought she could.
"Sometimes I think I'm too old for this 'massive sleepover' thing," Victoire laughed as she entered the room in a pyjamas and dressing gown. There were shouts of indignation and mocks threats thrown at her as she climbed under a duvet with Teddy, who promptly started a make-out session with his girlfriend, despite the jeers from her cousins. As she pulled away, Vicky giggled "And then I realise I'm plenty young enough." There was a chorus of groans from the Weasley- Potter clan, with some burying their faces in their pillows in embarrassment. It was like seeing your parents kiss.
"Look, if you two are going to make out all night or whatever, you probably should get a room of your own." James told them.
"Oi!" Teddy laughed throwing a pillow at the dark haired young man. Fortunately for James, it missed, but hit a rather angry Lily.
"Hey!" She exclaimed, stealing Lucy's pillow and throwing it at Teddy, and her own at James. Predictably, this result in a huge pillow when Vicky was hit instead of her boyfriend, and Lucy got angry because she'd had part of her bedding stolen. There were pillows flying around the open-plan living room within seconds, laughter and shouts ringing throughout the house. There were a few shouts from the parents upstairs telling them to be quiet, but no one took any notice, and after a while they gave up trying to quieten the kids down.
Well, most of the kids. Rose didn't need quietening.
She was sat in a corner, curled up against the wall under her duvet, wondering how Scorpius had reacted to her letter. Sven had returned with no letter as she had requested but with a feather tied to his foot. The feather was black with a slight grey tinge- clearly not Sven's so Rose assumed it must belong to Scorpius' owl, Corvus, and that Scorpius had sent it as a sign that he'd received Rose's letter. Rose admired his initiative- she knew what he was trying to say, but it wouldn't mean anything to anyone else at the Burrow. She grinned to herself. It's crazy how much I'm willing to sacrifice for him, Rose thought, sadly. Then a thought struck her. But what if I don't have to sacrifice anything? What if I try and keep it all? Allowing Al to tell everyone is a death sentence- he'll exaggerate everything- but I can't stop him unless I do what Lily suggested and tell everyone myself. Why not? I have nothing to lose, and I don't have anything to be embarrassed about! And once I've nothing to hide it'll make everything a lot easier. She told herself. She didn't believe most of it, but pretending she did was the next best thing.
So, with this vaguely comforting thought in mind, Rose drifted off to sleep, ignoring the others who stayed awake for hours fighting and chatting and laughing and joking.
"IT'S CHRISTMAS!" Was the elongated cry that woke Rose on Christmas morning. It was Fred, of course, leaping over his sleepy cousins as he jumped round the room shouting. Lily joined him almost instantly, starting a chant of "It's Christmas, it's Christmas, can you believe it's Christmas?"
"Come on, wake up sleepy heads!" Fred shouted, prodding Roxy with his foot to prove a point.
"Go back to sleep, you son of a Bludger," Roxanne muttered, and Rose heard Lucy and Dominique grunt in agreement. "What time is it?"
"Time to rise and shine, that's what time!" Fred exclaimed, resorting to shaking people.
"I don't know what he's on, but I want some," James mumbled, sitting up and rubbing his eyes as Fred and Lily shook Louis awake.
"I'm up, I'm up," The Ravenclaw boy muttered, hoping they would release him.
"Fred, Lily, calm down, you're acting like little kids!" Lucy snapped as she sat up.
"Oooh!" Lily mocked, ignoring her cousin as she continued her 'It's Christmas' chant.
"Oh, lighten up Luce!" Fred exclaimed, pulling her into a bone crushing hug for several seconds, despite Lucy's expression. "After all, it's..."
"CHRISTMAS!" Lucy shouted, as she and Fred fell about laughing.
Just then George entered the living room, his arm around Angelina. They were both in their dressing gowns. "Did someone say Christmas?" He asked, grinning.
"Merry Christmas, Uncle George!" Lily squealed. "Merry Christmas Aunty Angelina!"
"Yeah, Merry Christmas, parents," Roxy mumbled sarcastically from under her duvet.
"Oh dear, I think we have a grinch." George laughed. "Never mind, I'm sure she'll cheer up as the day goes on. Mum's got a hundred and one Christmas things planned, so I don't see how anyone can go to bed tonight without feeling festive!"
Rose could see exactly how.
"And be nice and helpful today!" Angelina added. "Your grandma's put a lot of work into everything, but she's not as young as she was, so make everything as easy for her as possible."
"Why don't you start by getting up and moving all this bedding out of the way," George suggested.
"Awh, Dad, come on! You can do that with magic, but we're not allowed to use it out of Hogwarts!"
"I'm sure Teddy and the girls will help you- wait, where are Teddy and Victoire?"
There was a moment of over dramatic glancing around, especially from Fred who used this for an opportunity to act like he was in a pantomime. "Gee, I wonder..." He sighed, only pretending to hide a smile. "Looks like they took your advice seriously, James."
There was a guffaw from the cousins as they remembered James' comment the night before.
"Well I'm not going to find them!" George laughed. "We'll have to wait for them to return."
"And let an opportunity like this pass us by?" Fred asked his father in mock horror. "Dad, I'm disappointed in you!" Fred darted past his parents and scurried up the stairs. Rose hoped he was just going to get dressed rather than try and burst in on Teddy and Victoire, wherever they may be and whatever they might be doing.
Angelina shook her head in despair of her son. "Anyway, come on kids, up at at 'em!"
Groaning, the remaining cousins shook off their sleepiness and stood up, beginning the long job of making the downstairs an adequate space for a family Christmas Day.
By 1 o clock the family were all seated around the humongous dining table that barely fitted inside the Burrow, but with a few magical extensions by Arthur Weasley, it was as good as anything else. Victoire and Teddy had been located by Fred- they were sat on the stairs together with no evidence of anything to gossip about, although everyone suspected otherwise. The table was heaving with the food that Molly had been preparing all day, although she had recruited her children to help out with a lot of it, and most of their spouses had assisted more than once, not to mention some of their children, especially Rose, Lily and even James.
Rose couldn't help but smile as she look around table; on one side of her she had Lily, and James on the other as well as the rest of her family around the table too. The room was nice and warm, filled with the aroma of cinnamon, and decorations dressed every wall, surface, ornament and ceiling. The table groaned with the weight of the plates of trimmings that had already been laid out by Ron and George, (who had bore the brunt of Molly Weasley's stress today) and everyone was just waiting for Molly to bring in the turkey. There was a buzz of chatter around the table, interrupted every now and then by laughter or the sound of a cracker, followed by groans due to the appalling joke inside. The table crawled with the cracker gifts, which obviously were enchanted to move, being from wizard crackers. Mini Godric Gryffindor's shouted 'Expecto Patronum!' as they ran around the table, chased by Dementors in Santa hats.
"You sure you're okay in there, Mum?" Ron shouted into the kitchen.
"Of course- I'm just coming!" Was the reply. As promised, Mrs Weasley entered the dining area, preceded by a humongous turkey, big enough to feed all of Hogwarts, let alone the Weasley's. Molly held her wand at neck height, pointing it at the plate which carried the turkey, as she steered it to hover above the space cleared for the massive centrepiece. With a clunk the turkey landed on the table, the weight knocking over a couple of glasses on its landing.
"Whoa." Teddy breathed, "You've done it again, Aunt Molly."
Mrs Weasley smiled slightly sadly, looking every bit her age, but Rose pretended not to notice. "Merry Christmas everyone." She said. "Help yourselves."
A cheer erupted and a couple of party poppers exploded as everyone chanted: "Merry Christmas, Weasley's!" before diving into the food. A babble of noise broke out again, as plates were passed around, drinks topped up, jokes swapped, food doled out, kisses exchanged whilst outside snow began to fall.
Rose glanced around. Lily sat on her right, laughing as she talked to Lucy, who had managed to let her hair down a little today- literally. She looked surprisingly pretty with her long, straight auburn hair swinging down her back, a piece held back with a sprig of holly.
Next to Lucy was Louis, who was impossible to dislike, and was pulling a cracker with Al as they laughed at Roxy, who almost jumped out of her skin at the noise. She pushed Al gently, and resumed her conversation with Dominique- it seemed to require a lot of gasping and exclamations of "Merlin!" and "No- he didn't!" and "You said that?!" and "Professor Binns is still teaching?" Rose shook her head, smiling a little.
Next to Dominique was her sister, Vicky, who was feeding Teddy a piece on turkey as he held her other hand under the table. The two of them were very cute, if not more than a little cringe-worthy, but George, who was sat next to Teddy, seemed to find it more funny than anything. Rose watched as George tried to enchant Teddy's food to run around the plate when Victoire tried to stab it with her fork. It was amusing for the onlookers, but not for the young couple.
Angelina was oblivious to her husband's antics as she was in deep conversation with Ginny about Quidditch. Whilst Ginny had been successful in playing Quidditch professionally, Angelina hadn't, and looked a little wistful as Ginny spoke of her career and how she was missing it now she was too old.
On Ginny's other side, Harry sat, as always. The two of them probably had one of the strongest relationships of anyone Rose knew, and she admired them. Having said that, Harry was taking a lot more notice of his best friend than his wife- Ron and Harry laughed and joked amid stuffing their faces with food.
Ron sat with Hermione of, course, who looked at her husband's appalling table manners distastefully as she ate her food elegantly. She was deep in conversation with Percy and Audrey- from what Rose could hear they were talking about the Ministry and Percy's work there. Hermione got on with Percy and Audrey far better than most, as they shared a common belief in hard work, a good education and politeness. Although the difference was that Percy rarely got a friendship past polite small talk with people, where as Hermione was far more open and warm hearted: she made a good friend. Plus, she made better conversation.
To avoid being dragged into a political conversation, Fred kept himself amused by annoying James with some Weasley's Wizard Wheezes products he had hidden under the table. Fred had discovered that by giving the Helga Hufflepuff from James' cracker some Love Potion, she wouldn't leave James' plate alone. The miniature founder insisted on wandering through his gravy and leaving tiny footprints on the tablecloth as she hugged the carcass if the cracker she has fallen out of. James tried moving the cracker, hoping Helga would move with it, but instead she set her sights on James himself, and clambered onto his knee then up and sat in his hair, where she lay, face down like a star fish for the rest of the meal.
Rose smiled slightly. Could she really say something to ruin this meal? Sneaking a glance at Al, she wondered if he had the heart to either.
As the atmosphere calmed down when the main course was cleared, and replaced by a huge Christmas pudding, Rose knew she would have to say something soon. People had stopped conversing with just those around them, and instead the whole table was having a talk. The subject at the moment was the Inter-House Challenge. How convenient.
"So Al, Rose, Lucy, how are you finding it?" George asked.
"It's good, actually," Rose burst in before either of the others could say anything. "We have a good group- don't we, Luce?"
"Well, we do alright," Her cousin smiled. "Me and you are a good team, and Thomas is actually quite useful. As for Scorpius Malfoy, I never thought I say this, but we couldn't have won that first task without him."
Rose felt a bit of minor relief- having someone else praise him first would make her next statement have less of an impact. "Yeah, he's actually a really nice guy- not at all like he used to be." By this point she has everyone's attention. They all looked at Rose in shock.
"What do you mean Rose? He's an idiot!" Fred exclaimed angrily.
"Hey!" James said to his cousin. "Lay off her." Rose smiled at James gratefully. He grinned back at her. She wasn't sure what had changed to make him acknowledge her, but this was the time for it.
"Yeah, he's an alright guy." Rose continued. "He gets pretty bored over the holidays, having no siblings and arguably the worst Dad in the world, so we've been owling each other."
Rose felt 19 pairs of eyes swivel and land on her as she waited for the barrage of questions and shock to hit her.
Four places away Al sat in shock.
So there you have it- Chapter 34. I hope that ending was worthy of a mini-cliffy because the last thing I want to do is put an undeserved cliff hanger in my writing, but I had to end it here or it would have gone on forever. Anyway, please drop a review if you can because that would make my day!