Scorpius awoke to the sound of birds. At first he thought his nature alarm had malfunctioned, but then he realised that the birds weren't singing. They were hooting. He got out of bed carefully to avoid waking Rose and grabbed the tin of owl treats off the dresser. He opened the French doors to the terrace.
A chorus of Whoos and hoo-hoo-hoos greeted him. Owls perched on the barbeque grill, the loungers and the table and chairs. Most were the small brown owls used for city deliveries. Two he recognised by sight: Errol, Rose's parents' elderly grey owl, and his grandfather's snowy owl Maleficus.
He retrieved messages from the smaller owls so they could return to the Owl Post Office. Errol hopped onto the table next to the growing mound of parchment.
"Sorry, old man. Family first," Scorpius said. He held out his arm. Maleficus swooped down from the top of the barbeque, digging talons into his new perch. Scorpius retrieved the message case. Maleficus flapped his wings to jump onto the table and turned his glare on Errol. The grey owl puffed out his feathers. "And Muggles say dogs resemble their owners," Scorpius murmured. He tossed the owls a few treats to end the avian standoff.
Inside his grandfather's message case was a parchment note and a folded piece of newspaper. Scorpius unrolled the parchment.
I remembered your habit of purchasing the Sunday Prophet from the newsstand in Diagon Alley and thought you'd like to see this sooner rather than later. No need to reply and thank me. I'm sure you have loads of correspondence to get through.
Scorpius gave Maleficus another treat to send him on his way. The newspaper clipping was from the front page of the Lifestyle section, which consisted of a large photo with a small caption: Scorpius Malfoy and Rose Weasley party at hotspot Lumos Duo with friends.
The photograph was worth bumping whatever story the paper had originally intended to publish. Rose looked beautiful; a Persephone led by Hades and his sneering minions into the underworld.
Scorpius placed the owl treat tin in front of Errol. "All these are yours if you pretend no one was home and take the message back to Rose's father."
Errol gave an exclamatory hoot.
"Told you to wait all day, I suppose." Scorpius reluctantly touched the clamps that held the leather case to the owl's leg and then opened the top to reach the message inside. The tiny slip of parchment boded ill. He would have preferred a long-winded rant to vent fatherly wrath. Instead, he got:
Burrow. Noon.
"Blink once if the invitation's for lunch, twice if it's for a wizards' duel," Scorpius told Errol. The owl stared unblinkingly. Scorpius refastened the case to Errol's leg and said, "Two can play the suspense game. No reply." He gathered up the dozen messages and carried them inside.
Rose was sitting up in bed, stretching her arms toward the ceiling. She said, "I dreamt that we snuck up to the owlery at Hogwarts."
"The owls came to us," Scorpius dumped the tubes of parchment onto the middle of the bed and then handed her the news clipping. "We're amazingly photogenic."
She smiled wryly. "And these are notes of congratulations?"
"Well, they can't all say 'keep my sister/cousin/niece, etc. away from your evil Slytherin friends'." Scorpius sat on the bed and unrolled a parchment. "On second thought," he said, passing the note from Teddy Lupin.
Rose pushed sleep-tousled hair out of her face and scanned the words. "He misspelled 'supremacists'."
Lupin's penmanship was rubbish too. Scorpius picked up another note. "You do the honours this time."
"Ugh," she said, reading the message. "Orna calls you Scorpy."
"Not without getting a hex." Scorpius cast a spell to vanish the offending note and unrolled another parchment after tossing one to Rose. "Let's slog through these as quickly as possible. We're expected at the Burrow in an hour."
"We are?"
"Errol brought the invitation." Scorpius skimmed one message, untied the ribbon around another and asked as he read, "Do Dominique and Victoire always revert to French when they're upset?"
"Oui." Rose held up a parchment. "At least Aunt Fleur complimented my dress before she advised me to be choosier about my companions. Who wrote the invitation, my mum or my dad?"
"Dad." Scorpius picked up a roll of parchment tied with a stalk of dried blue lavender. "Someone thinks we need calming." He broke the stalk and read the note. "Your Aunt Luna is making lavender bath salts to help us deal with stress." Rose was giving him a narrow-eyed, you're hiding something look. He snatched up another message. "Albus wants to know why he wasn't invited to our Slytherin/Gryffindor party."
Rose said, "I'll tell him Knights of Walpurgis and Auror trainees don't mix. Do you still have Dad's letter?"
"Yes." He read another note. "Roxanne wants us to come over for dinner next week to meet her friends." And make new ones, presumably. Roxanne was as subtle as her father, George. Scorpius used an Explico charm to unroll the remaining the parchments. "The rest are thank-you notes for the party." Marianne conveyed Edgar's appreciation and Terry Boot expressed how delighted he and Barry were with the mention of their club in the Daily Prophet. Scorpius cast an Evanesco charm to clear the bed.
Rose held out her hand. "I want to read what my dad wrote."
"You won't like it." He took the note out of his pocket and handed it over.
She read the message and then crumpled the parchment into a ball and threw it across the room. "That's not an invitation, that's an order! Who does he think he is? We won't go," she said. "He has to learn to respect my choices."
"I agree."
Her sceptical expression quickly transformed into understanding. "You expected this."
"It's necessary." He reached for her hand and lifted it to his lips. "I'll have you to protect me."
.
They took the motorbike to Devon. Instead of driving through the neighbours' orchard and paddock to the back garden, Scorpius landed in the "empty" field that served as the Weasleys' front lawn. The air shimmered, and then the Burrow appeared in all its lopsided glory. He parked off to the side.
"No grand entrance?" Rose asked.
"We may need a fast getaway."
Rose climbed off the bike. "I'll protect you, remember?" She took his hand as they strolled through the long grass at the side of the house.
Scorpius said, "I'd prefer a few more human shields. Too bad the L's are at Hogwarts." Lily Potter, Lucy Weasley, and Lysander Scamander were the friendliest members of the Weasley clan. Not that Albus Potter was unfriendly, but it was more of a truce. One he might consider broken.
"Oh, Merlin," Rose breathed. She squeezed Scorpius' hand.
He saw the empty garden and cursed. No picnic tables laden with food, no family members milling about—no attempt to pretend he wasn't there to be interrogated.
The back door of the Burrow opened and Rose's father stepped out. He looked at Scorpius and said, "What's she doing here?"
.
A/N: Guess who put off writing and then got spiked in the face in a competitive volleyball game and had to take a "brain rest" for a week and stay off the computer? Clue: it's the same person who can't write worth dragon dung using a pen and pad even without a concussion and is only now getting around to posting a chapter. Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last one: alix33, drcjsnider, duckgirl07, fynnsmom, jullee, Needle In A Haystack, peacock33, scribbleeexx and yiota146.