Fic ~ Tattoo
Title: Tattoo
Word Count: apx. 2100
Characters/Pairings: Rose Weasley, Ginny Potter, background Rose/Scorpius
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: JKR owns, no profit, etc., etc., etc.
Summary: Even with the stress of her wedding and the families Rose still manages to assert her independence.
Rose Weasley stormed out of the Burrow, giving the back door an extremely satisfying slam as she did so. She had long outgrown her juvenile fits of temper, but any adult can be pushed to the extreme if enough pressure is exerted.
Especially a twenty-four year old woman the day before her wedding.
Rose stormed across the backyard and down the wooded path, heading for what the entire family called the Quidditch Glade. She didn’t stop to grab a broom out of the shed, though, because she didn’t intend to stay there long. The Glade was one of the few places in the immediate vicinity of the Burrow that didn’t have Anti-Apparation charms around it. And she needed to Apparate. Fast. To anywhere but where she was.
It was a sign of just how angry she was that she ignored the most important “D” - Destination. It was only as she felt the compression squeezing her lungs that her mind focused on the one person that could help her. When she could breath again she opened her eyes to see that she stood in the backyard of Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny’s home. She marched to the door and after briskly knocking she pushed it open enough to stick her head inside and look around the cheery, sunlit kitchen.
“Aunt Ginny?” she called out.
“In the office,” a voice responded, sounding a distance away.
Rose entered the house and made her way to Ginny Potter’s sanctuary. It was the one room in the house that she kept strictly to herself; husband and children were vehemently discouraged from entering. Rose was reluctant to breach that herself, but if her aunt hadn’t of wanted her she would hardly have called her in, right?
Still, Rose hesitated on the threshold of the room. It wasn’t until Ginny laid her quill down and looked up that Rose took a tentative step into the room.
Ginny grinned at the look on her niece’s face. “Your mum or mine?” she asked.
“What?”
Ginny stood and moved around the desk, taking Rose’s arm as she walked from the room. “Come on. You look like you could use a cup of tea. Or something stronger.”
Rose silently agreed and followed her aunt back down the stairs to the kitchen. Ginny made a move towards the tea kettle, but then with a small smile reached into on of the lower cabinets and pulled out a bottle of Goldie’s Liquid Curse and two shot glasses. She plunked everything down on the butcher block table and sat on one of the stools. When she had poured two shots of the acid green liquor she waved Rose to a seat.
“So,” Ginny said after Rose had down her first shot and recovered from her coughing fit. “How bad was it?”
Rose laughed. “Bad enough when it was just Mum and Grandmum. But then Sam's grandmother showed up as well, and. . .” She shrugged and poured herself another shot.
“Narcissa? At the Burrow?” Ginny couldn’t keep the surprise out of her voice. She knew that Narcissa Malfoy and Scorpius’ mother Astoria had been heavily involved in the wedding plans, but both women had always insisted that discussions take place anywhere but the Weasley family home.
And Molly and Narcissa had argued over everything. It was all perfectly polite, of course, in that distinctive manner of two women who despise each other. From Rose’s gown to what the bridesmaids would wear, from the color of the tablecloths and what flowers to use in the bouquets and centerpieces - everything. But the worst arguments had occurred over where to hold the wedding - at the Burrow or Malfoy Manor. That “discussion” had gone on for weeks, until Rose lost her temper and said there wouldn’t be wedding at all if the two of them didn’t stop fighting like two dogs over the last bone on earth.
The wedding itself was to be held Oceanside at Bill and Fleur’s house, a compromise that Rose had come up with and Scorpius had heartily endorsed. Neither grandmother was too happy about it.
Rose nodded in response to Ginny’s question and drank another shot. She had to wipe her streaming eyes before she could speak. “Yes, Narcissa actually came to the Burrow. She wanted to make sure I had my ‘something blue’ before the ceremony tomorrow.”
“Sounds reasonable,” Ginny said, absently spinning the bottle of Liquid Curse on the table. “What went wrong?”
Rose pulled an elegant jeweler’s box from a pocket in her robes. “She had to show everyone what the ‘something blue’ is.” And she opened the box to reveal a dazzling parure of sapphires that gleamed against the creamy satin lining of the box.
Ginny sucked in her breath and reached out a hand to take the box from her niece. She was no stranger to jewelry, but the truly magnificent pieces she owned were few and locked up in the Potter family vault at Gringotts. This. . . What she was looking at now was in a whole class by itself. And with Rose’s pale skin, auburn hair and blue eyes they would look absolutely stunning.
She clapped the lid on the box closed and laid it down on the table. “So, can I assume that since you didn’t mention that the somethings old, borrowed and blue were one in the same that these -“ She briefly rested a hand on the jeweler’s box. “- were bought specifically for you to wear for the wedding?”
Rose snorted and poured fresh shots for the both of them. “Yes. Apparently it’s a Malfoy family tradition. A generations-old family tradition.” She rolled her eyes and drank her shot. “I didn’t realize that obscenely flaunting your wealth could be considered a family tradition.”
“Is that what you think Narcissa was doing?”
Rose rolled her eyes again. “Why else would she make a point of bringing that to the Burrow?” She closed her eyes and learned back against her chair. “Aunt Ginny, you know that I love Sam, but sometimes I just want to take the rest of his family and. . .” Her voice trailed off and her eyes opened. “You know, I can’t think of anything to do to them that’s bad enough to truly vent my feelings.”
Ginny laughed before downing her second shot. “You know something though, Rose. You might be taking this the wrong way.”
“How many different ways are there to take it? It’s a reminder that the Malfoys have a lot of money and have had it for generations. The Weasleys are total upstarts in the money department, mostly thanks to those distasteful Wheezes.”
It was clear from the way Rose said the word distasteful that she was quoting someone; most likely her soon-to-be father-in-law. And while Ginny agreed with her that despite mellowing with age Draco Malfoy was still one of the world’s greatest gits she had never gotten the feeling that money was that important to Narcissa. Family is what was important to her. Of course, she thought to herself, if Lucius were still alive then Rose’s first instinct would be spot on. The late Malfoy patriarch never once missed an opportunity to show off the family wealth as if that, in and of itself, made him a person of consequence.
“I just think that maybe you should look at this from a different perspective,” Ginny said, pouring herself another shot but deliberately leaving Rose’s glass empty (The younger woman was a shot ahead of her, after all.). “Stop thinking about how much the jewels probably cost and instead focus on how it’s a Malfoy family tradition. Maybe it’s the best way that Narcissa knows of to welcome you into the family. She’s not exactly the demonstrative type, so hugs and kisses and home-cooked meals aren’t likely to happen.”
Rose giggled at the thought of the elegant Narcissa red-faced and sweating after spending hours in the kitchen. “When you put it that way I suppose you’re right,” she said, reaching out and sliding the jeweler’s box closer and flipping it open. She grinned. “And these will look fabulous on me.”
Ginny laughed. “I knew that thought would have occurred to you.” She swallowed her third drink. “So, I know that Auntie Muriel’s tiara is your ‘something old’.” She shuddered as she remembered her own wedding. “Just be thankful that Auntie Muriel is no longer with us as part of the tiara’s package deal.”
Rose laughed. “I know. Mum has told me horror stories about how she behaved at your wedding and at Mum and Dad’s. But Grandma Molly insisted. I guess that tiara is the great Weasley family tradition, even though it comes from the Prewett side of the family.”
“What about ‘something borrowed’?” Ginny asked, starting to pour another two drinks and then thinking better of it as her head started to spin independent of the rest of her body.
Rose’s face took on a dreamy expression. “That would be Grandma Elaine’s veil. Wait until you see it tomorrow, Aunt Ginny! It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen! The lace was hand-made by Mum’s grandmother.”
Ginny grinned. “I have seen that veil, because Hermione wore it when she and Ron got married. And I agree, it is gorgeous.” She got to her feet and, with a flick of her wand, started a pot of coffee brewing. She had a feeling that the both of them might need it.
“You haven’t asked me about ‘something new’,” Rose said when her back was turned. Her voice held a mischievous note and when Ginny turned back around the younger woman’s smile matched her voice.
“That’s because I was taking care of that, so I already know what it is,” Ginny replied. “But I can see that you’re about to burst with the need to tell me something, so spill it.”
“I hope you didn’t get too involved, Aunt Ginny, because I took care of that myself two days ago.” She got to her feet, somewhat unsteadily, and began to unfasten her robe. Underneath she wore a plain silk blouse and black pinstripe trousers. She turned her back and Ginny could tell she was unbuttoning the blouse. Then the silky material slid off of Rose’s shoulders, revealing her pale blue bra and. . .
Ginny had to move closer to see what was revealed on the skin covering Rose’s left shoulder blade. At first glance it looked like a random arrangement of large dots, but as she watched the dots changed shape and began to twinkle like stars, changing color as Rose fidgeted under her aunt’s scrutiny.
“Where did you get this?” Ginny asked, reaching out a hand and brushing it across the stars, almost expecting them to wipe off.
“In Muggle London,” Rose replied, looking over her shoulder. “It’s a place that Uncle George told me about. I didn’t want to go to the tattoo shop off of Diagon Alley because they would have recognized me.”
“If this is a Muggle tattoo how do the stars twinkle and change color?”
“Uncle George charmed it, and performed a Sealing Spell so that the magic will never run out. And he gave me a magical salve so it would heal faster. Pretty awesome, isn’t it?”
Although she recognized the younger woman’s need to express her own personality as a mother Ginny was somewhat aghast. She couldn’t even begin to imagine how Hermione and Molly would react to what they would view as disfigurement. At least the tattoo was on Rose’s back, were it was unlikely to be seen unless. . .
Ginny’s mouth dropped open. “Rose, your wedding gown is strapless! When you walk down that aisle tomorrow everyone will see this!”
“I know. But I don’t really care. I’m my own person and this is something I did for myself and for the man I love.”
“Does Sam know about this?”
“Not yet, but he will,” Rose replied, her voice sounding proud. “This is mostly for him. I thought it would be tacky to have his name tattooed on me, so I chose this instead.”
Ginny looked puzzled. “What does it have to do with him?”
“Don’t you recognize it?”
Ginny looked closer and dug into the recesses of her mind for the three-quarters forgotten lessons in astronomy at Hogwarts. It took her a minute, but when she made the connection she no longer felt a measure of horror at what her niece had done, but proud of the visible declaration of love that Rose now carried in her skin.
The tattoo was of the constellation Scorpius.
Goldie's Liquid Curse comes from Arabella and Zsenya's classic fic After The End. I hope they don't mind that I borrowed it. :D
Word Count: apx. 2100
Characters/Pairings: Rose Weasley, Ginny Potter, background Rose/Scorpius
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: JKR owns, no profit, etc., etc., etc.
Summary: Even with the stress of her wedding and the families Rose still manages to assert her independence.
Rose Weasley stormed out of the Burrow, giving the back door an extremely satisfying slam as she did so. She had long outgrown her juvenile fits of temper, but any adult can be pushed to the extreme if enough pressure is exerted.
Especially a twenty-four year old woman the day before her wedding.
Rose stormed across the backyard and down the wooded path, heading for what the entire family called the Quidditch Glade. She didn’t stop to grab a broom out of the shed, though, because she didn’t intend to stay there long. The Glade was one of the few places in the immediate vicinity of the Burrow that didn’t have Anti-Apparation charms around it. And she needed to Apparate. Fast. To anywhere but where she was.
It was a sign of just how angry she was that she ignored the most important “D” - Destination. It was only as she felt the compression squeezing her lungs that her mind focused on the one person that could help her. When she could breath again she opened her eyes to see that she stood in the backyard of Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny’s home. She marched to the door and after briskly knocking she pushed it open enough to stick her head inside and look around the cheery, sunlit kitchen.
“Aunt Ginny?” she called out.
“In the office,” a voice responded, sounding a distance away.
Rose entered the house and made her way to Ginny Potter’s sanctuary. It was the one room in the house that she kept strictly to herself; husband and children were vehemently discouraged from entering. Rose was reluctant to breach that herself, but if her aunt hadn’t of wanted her she would hardly have called her in, right?
Still, Rose hesitated on the threshold of the room. It wasn’t until Ginny laid her quill down and looked up that Rose took a tentative step into the room.
Ginny grinned at the look on her niece’s face. “Your mum or mine?” she asked.
“What?”
Ginny stood and moved around the desk, taking Rose’s arm as she walked from the room. “Come on. You look like you could use a cup of tea. Or something stronger.”
Rose silently agreed and followed her aunt back down the stairs to the kitchen. Ginny made a move towards the tea kettle, but then with a small smile reached into on of the lower cabinets and pulled out a bottle of Goldie’s Liquid Curse and two shot glasses. She plunked everything down on the butcher block table and sat on one of the stools. When she had poured two shots of the acid green liquor she waved Rose to a seat.
“So,” Ginny said after Rose had down her first shot and recovered from her coughing fit. “How bad was it?”
Rose laughed. “Bad enough when it was just Mum and Grandmum. But then Sam's grandmother showed up as well, and. . .” She shrugged and poured herself another shot.
“Narcissa? At the Burrow?” Ginny couldn’t keep the surprise out of her voice. She knew that Narcissa Malfoy and Scorpius’ mother Astoria had been heavily involved in the wedding plans, but both women had always insisted that discussions take place anywhere but the Weasley family home.
And Molly and Narcissa had argued over everything. It was all perfectly polite, of course, in that distinctive manner of two women who despise each other. From Rose’s gown to what the bridesmaids would wear, from the color of the tablecloths and what flowers to use in the bouquets and centerpieces - everything. But the worst arguments had occurred over where to hold the wedding - at the Burrow or Malfoy Manor. That “discussion” had gone on for weeks, until Rose lost her temper and said there wouldn’t be wedding at all if the two of them didn’t stop fighting like two dogs over the last bone on earth.
The wedding itself was to be held Oceanside at Bill and Fleur’s house, a compromise that Rose had come up with and Scorpius had heartily endorsed. Neither grandmother was too happy about it.
Rose nodded in response to Ginny’s question and drank another shot. She had to wipe her streaming eyes before she could speak. “Yes, Narcissa actually came to the Burrow. She wanted to make sure I had my ‘something blue’ before the ceremony tomorrow.”
“Sounds reasonable,” Ginny said, absently spinning the bottle of Liquid Curse on the table. “What went wrong?”
Rose pulled an elegant jeweler’s box from a pocket in her robes. “She had to show everyone what the ‘something blue’ is.” And she opened the box to reveal a dazzling parure of sapphires that gleamed against the creamy satin lining of the box.
Ginny sucked in her breath and reached out a hand to take the box from her niece. She was no stranger to jewelry, but the truly magnificent pieces she owned were few and locked up in the Potter family vault at Gringotts. This. . . What she was looking at now was in a whole class by itself. And with Rose’s pale skin, auburn hair and blue eyes they would look absolutely stunning.
She clapped the lid on the box closed and laid it down on the table. “So, can I assume that since you didn’t mention that the somethings old, borrowed and blue were one in the same that these -“ She briefly rested a hand on the jeweler’s box. “- were bought specifically for you to wear for the wedding?”
Rose snorted and poured fresh shots for the both of them. “Yes. Apparently it’s a Malfoy family tradition. A generations-old family tradition.” She rolled her eyes and drank her shot. “I didn’t realize that obscenely flaunting your wealth could be considered a family tradition.”
“Is that what you think Narcissa was doing?”
Rose rolled her eyes again. “Why else would she make a point of bringing that to the Burrow?” She closed her eyes and learned back against her chair. “Aunt Ginny, you know that I love Sam, but sometimes I just want to take the rest of his family and. . .” Her voice trailed off and her eyes opened. “You know, I can’t think of anything to do to them that’s bad enough to truly vent my feelings.”
Ginny laughed before downing her second shot. “You know something though, Rose. You might be taking this the wrong way.”
“How many different ways are there to take it? It’s a reminder that the Malfoys have a lot of money and have had it for generations. The Weasleys are total upstarts in the money department, mostly thanks to those distasteful Wheezes.”
It was clear from the way Rose said the word distasteful that she was quoting someone; most likely her soon-to-be father-in-law. And while Ginny agreed with her that despite mellowing with age Draco Malfoy was still one of the world’s greatest gits she had never gotten the feeling that money was that important to Narcissa. Family is what was important to her. Of course, she thought to herself, if Lucius were still alive then Rose’s first instinct would be spot on. The late Malfoy patriarch never once missed an opportunity to show off the family wealth as if that, in and of itself, made him a person of consequence.
“I just think that maybe you should look at this from a different perspective,” Ginny said, pouring herself another shot but deliberately leaving Rose’s glass empty (The younger woman was a shot ahead of her, after all.). “Stop thinking about how much the jewels probably cost and instead focus on how it’s a Malfoy family tradition. Maybe it’s the best way that Narcissa knows of to welcome you into the family. She’s not exactly the demonstrative type, so hugs and kisses and home-cooked meals aren’t likely to happen.”
Rose giggled at the thought of the elegant Narcissa red-faced and sweating after spending hours in the kitchen. “When you put it that way I suppose you’re right,” she said, reaching out and sliding the jeweler’s box closer and flipping it open. She grinned. “And these will look fabulous on me.”
Ginny laughed. “I knew that thought would have occurred to you.” She swallowed her third drink. “So, I know that Auntie Muriel’s tiara is your ‘something old’.” She shuddered as she remembered her own wedding. “Just be thankful that Auntie Muriel is no longer with us as part of the tiara’s package deal.”
Rose laughed. “I know. Mum has told me horror stories about how she behaved at your wedding and at Mum and Dad’s. But Grandma Molly insisted. I guess that tiara is the great Weasley family tradition, even though it comes from the Prewett side of the family.”
“What about ‘something borrowed’?” Ginny asked, starting to pour another two drinks and then thinking better of it as her head started to spin independent of the rest of her body.
Rose’s face took on a dreamy expression. “That would be Grandma Elaine’s veil. Wait until you see it tomorrow, Aunt Ginny! It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen! The lace was hand-made by Mum’s grandmother.”
Ginny grinned. “I have seen that veil, because Hermione wore it when she and Ron got married. And I agree, it is gorgeous.” She got to her feet and, with a flick of her wand, started a pot of coffee brewing. She had a feeling that the both of them might need it.
“You haven’t asked me about ‘something new’,” Rose said when her back was turned. Her voice held a mischievous note and when Ginny turned back around the younger woman’s smile matched her voice.
“That’s because I was taking care of that, so I already know what it is,” Ginny replied. “But I can see that you’re about to burst with the need to tell me something, so spill it.”
“I hope you didn’t get too involved, Aunt Ginny, because I took care of that myself two days ago.” She got to her feet, somewhat unsteadily, and began to unfasten her robe. Underneath she wore a plain silk blouse and black pinstripe trousers. She turned her back and Ginny could tell she was unbuttoning the blouse. Then the silky material slid off of Rose’s shoulders, revealing her pale blue bra and. . .
Ginny had to move closer to see what was revealed on the skin covering Rose’s left shoulder blade. At first glance it looked like a random arrangement of large dots, but as she watched the dots changed shape and began to twinkle like stars, changing color as Rose fidgeted under her aunt’s scrutiny.
“Where did you get this?” Ginny asked, reaching out a hand and brushing it across the stars, almost expecting them to wipe off.
“In Muggle London,” Rose replied, looking over her shoulder. “It’s a place that Uncle George told me about. I didn’t want to go to the tattoo shop off of Diagon Alley because they would have recognized me.”
“If this is a Muggle tattoo how do the stars twinkle and change color?”
“Uncle George charmed it, and performed a Sealing Spell so that the magic will never run out. And he gave me a magical salve so it would heal faster. Pretty awesome, isn’t it?”
Although she recognized the younger woman’s need to express her own personality as a mother Ginny was somewhat aghast. She couldn’t even begin to imagine how Hermione and Molly would react to what they would view as disfigurement. At least the tattoo was on Rose’s back, were it was unlikely to be seen unless. . .
Ginny’s mouth dropped open. “Rose, your wedding gown is strapless! When you walk down that aisle tomorrow everyone will see this!”
“I know. But I don’t really care. I’m my own person and this is something I did for myself and for the man I love.”
“Does Sam know about this?”
“Not yet, but he will,” Rose replied, her voice sounding proud. “This is mostly for him. I thought it would be tacky to have his name tattooed on me, so I chose this instead.”
Ginny looked puzzled. “What does it have to do with him?”
“Don’t you recognize it?”
Ginny looked closer and dug into the recesses of her mind for the three-quarters forgotten lessons in astronomy at Hogwarts. It took her a minute, but when she made the connection she no longer felt a measure of horror at what her niece had done, but proud of the visible declaration of love that Rose now carried in her skin.
The tattoo was of the constellation Scorpius.
Goldie's Liquid Curse comes from Arabella and Zsenya's classic fic After The End. I hope they don't mind that I borrowed it. :D