The Transformation of Ducklings 4/? (HP)
TITLE: The Transformation of Ducklings 4/?
RATING: PG-13
SUMMARY: Rose Weasley-Granger and Scorpius Malfoy aren't about to let decades of enmity between their fathers get in the way of their friendship. As two shy, awkward teenagers wrestling with the onset of first love, they've got enough obstacles to overcome.
NOTE: Thanks, as ever, to katieay, for her lightning-quick beta reflexes, and for letting me borrow Will Scamander, even if he originally belongs to me. ;-D Thanks as well to all of you for reading and reviewing. I'm terrible at replying, but I cherish every comment I get.
DISCLAIMER: J.K. Rowling owns the Harry Potter universe and everything it encompasses. This is a work of fan fiction, and thus derives no profit or material benefit therefrom.
PART THREE
"--and Will's mum, she has all these jars in her office, of all different sizes, and--oh, boy!--they all have dead things floating around in them, like Grindylows and Doxies and Red Caps, and the Pogrebin, its eyes were still open and I know it was watching me as I walked around looking at everything, I could feel it, and Mrs. Scamander, she says she and Mr. Scamander and Will are going to New Zealand next week to look for Flibbertigibbets and Fumbling Foofnagels--no, that's not it--Humping Schlumphers--er--oh bollocks, I forgot what they were called--"
"Language, Hugo," Mum said sharply just as Dad suggested, "Blibbering Humdingers?"
"Yeah, that's it!" Hugo exclaimed, completely ignoring Mum. "Anyway, Mrs. Scamander said I could go with them, if it's okay with you." His wide-eyed, puppylike gaze switched back and forth between Mum and Dad. "Please?"
"I don't know," Mum said. "New Zealand is rather far, and I'm not confident Mrs. Scamander is up to--"
"Let the boy go, Hermione," Dad said. "He hasn't even been home from school for a week and he's climbing the walls with boredom. Imagine how much worse it'd be if he got left behind while his best mate went off on safari."
"But Lu--"
"It'll be fine. Rolf's a responsible bloke, he'll make sure the lads don't get into too much trouble."
Rose thought Hugo's expression became even more pitifully imploring as he turned back to Mum. "Please?"
Mum sighed, shaking her head. "When do you leave?"
Hugo exploded out of his chair to embrace his mother. "Thankyouthankyouthankyou," he cried over and over, hugging her so tightly her face turned red. "I'll owl Will right now and get all the deets." Before anyone could stop him, he thundered upstairs to his bedroom, leaving his dirty dishes on the table.
Mum rolled her eyes. "Why do I get the feeling I've just been bamboozled?" She glanced around the table at the two remaining occupants. Dad had finished his supper and was now methodically twisting his napkin into various configurations. Rose, lacking much of an appetite tonight, had been pushing her asparagus back and forth across her plate, then arranging the spears into various shapes. Right now she found herself looking at the letter "M."
"You two have been rather quiet tonight," Mum said. "Did something happen at the shop?"
Rose hastily jumbled the asparagus spears together, hiding any evidence of where her thoughts had been for the past few hours. For his part, Dad cleared his throat and said, "I met Grazia Malfoy today."
"Really?" Mum said in a tone of voice Rose recognized all too well. "She came to the shop?"
"Mm-hm," Dad said.
Rose looked up from her plate to see Mum watching her. "Was she alone?"
"No. She was... she had that boy with her."
"'That boy'?" Mum asked, a phrase that had also caught Rose's attention. "You mean Scorpius?" Dad nodded. "But not Draco?"
"No, thank Merlin."
Mum leaned forward, resting her chin in her upturned palm, and addressed Rose. "Aren't you glad I took you with me when I went to their house yesterday?"
"I s'pose," Rose said, shrugging her shoulders. She stubbornly avoided Mum's gaze, unable and unwilling to endure her "see-I-told-you-so" look.
"So what did you make of her?" Mum asked Dad.
He leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. "Dunno, to be honest. She's a piece of work, that's for certain. I'm sure she's a handful. She's probably got Draco completely cowed."
"Oh, absolutely. He was such a mummy's boy, though, that I can't imagine him being truly comfortable with taking the dominant role in any relationship. I think he likes being under a woman's thumb."
Rose smothered a giggle at the look on her father's face. "Yeah, sure," he said, clearly unwilling to encourage her further down that line of thought. "Anyway, she seemed pleasant enough. Very outgoing. She told me her family has been manufacturing glassware for centuries."
"Did she offer any information about how she and Draco met?"
"No," he said, "and I didn't ask. She did say that he started his business exporting what her family made throughout Europe, eventually taking on other manufacturers. Apparently now he handles exports all over the world."
"That explains how they can live in such style. His parents lost everything after the war."
Dad chuckled. "Ironic, isn't it? Draco Malfoy, a self-made man."
"You don't like him very much, do you Dad?" Rose said. "Scorpius' dad, I mean."
He reached up a hand to scratch his cheek. "No, I don't, sweetheart. Your Mum and I--and Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny--were at school the same time as he was. He... wasn't a nice person."
"We learned about what happened during the war in History of Magic a couple of years ago," Rose said. "I know Mr. Malfoy's dad was Lord Voldemort's biggest supporter, and that they captured you and Mum and Uncle Harry, and that Mr. Malfoy tried to kill the Hogwarts headmaster because Lord Voldemort told him to, and--" She paused when she saw her parents exchange a look. "Anyway, I'm sure you both did things you weren't proud of back then, too."
"Er--" Dad said.
"Well, you see--" Mum started.
"My point is, you're not the same people now that you were back then, are you? I mean, that was what, twenty-five years ago? It's ancient history."
"Hey now, be careful who you call ancient." She could tell from the tone of Dad's voice he was only teasing.
"She has a point, though, Ron," Mum said. "It's not fair to judge who Draco Malfoy is today based on things he did when he was sixteen. If you can grow up, so can he."
He grimaced at the jab. "Oh, I agree. Still, though, he is a Malfoy, and I wouldn't trust one of that lot as far as I can throw them. He's never let go of that "pureblood is best" mentality he grew up with."
"Scorpius doesn't think that way at all," Rose said.
"Think what way?" Mum wanted to know.
"That purebloods are superior to everyone else."
"How do you know? Have you heard him actually say so, in those terms?" Dad asked.
"No. But I can tell about him. I just--" She picked up her fork and made the tines 'walk' across her plate. "I don't know what I'm trying to say, except that I can tell from the way he treats people that he doesn't care about stuff like who's a pureblood and who's a Muggleborn."
"Well, maybe," Dad said, doubt evident in his voice. "I haven't spoken to him enough to be convinced. With grandparents like he's got, he had to have been indoctrinated to some degree. He'll show his true colors sooner or later."
There was the sound of a door being slammed upstairs, then Hugo's heavy footsteps could be heard running downstairs. "I was just finishing up my note to Will when an owl came for Rosie," he said breathlessly, thrusting a heavy grey envelope at her. "Bet it's from your boyfriend."
"Shut it," she snapped, as she studied the embossed initial on the envelope flap. She was fairly certain she recognized the handwriting on the front; the sender's address, from a posh area of London, as good as confirmed it. "May I be excused please?" she asked. Mum waved her away and Rose, after she'd slipped the envelope inside her pocket, gathered up her dishes and took them into the kitchen.
After filling up the sink with hot soapy water and putting her dishes in to soak, Rose pulled herself up on the counter and took the envelope out of her pocket. Leaning back against the cabinets, she turned it over in her hands, examining it from all angles. Presuming the handwriting was indeed Scorpius'--it was clearly a masculine hand, and she didn't care to entertain the idea that the owl came from his father--why would he be writing her? What did he have to say that was so important it couldn't wait until their next accidental encounter? Ignoring the fluttery feeling in her stomach, she picked up her wand to break the seal on the envelope, then drew the letter out.
Dear Rose, it began, and the fluttering increased in intensity at the sight of the word "dear" in such close proximity to her name.
Mother asked me to convey to you her appreciation and regard for your father's shop. She is very impressed with his success and hopes business continues to go well for your family. For my part, I would like to thank you for your generous gift of the Headless Hat. I have demonstrated it to several of our servants this evening to great effect. I hope someday I am in a position to return your kindness.
I am writing to you most of all to extend an invitation for you to dine with me and my mother at our home two days from now, on Friday the 6th at 7 p.m. My father will be out of the country on business, so it will just be the three of us (Rose wondered if he'd been tempted to add, "and you needn't worry about him harassing you."). Please respond by owl as soon as possible so my mother can make the necessary arrangements for your travel here.
Yours,
Scorpius Malfoy
A little further down the page, in handwriting that was less painstakingly neat, as though he'd scribbled it down in a burst of bravado, Scorpius had added--
P.S. I really hope you can come, Rose. S.H.M.
"Who's the letter from, Rose?" Mum asked, entering the kitchen behind Hugo, whose arms were loaded down with dirty dishes.
"Yeah, who's it from?" Hugo said as he tipped the dishes into the sink. "Is it your boyfriend?"
"Shut up, Hugo!" Rose snapped, swatting at his head with the envelope. "I've been invited to dinner at the Malfoys," she said to Mum.
"Malfoy?" Hugo exclaimed. "Not that weird Ravenclaw Prefect? He's your boyfriend?"
"He's not weird!" Rose said, pushing herself off the countertop. "Nor is he my boyfriend."
He scurried around the kitchen table to put distance between them. "You want him to be though, don't you? I've seen the way you're always hanging around him in the library, making moony eyes." He batted his eyelashes and clasped his hands together over his heart. "Oh, Scorpy-poo, you're so clever, will you help me with my homework?" he said in a mocking, singsong voice. "Congratulations on winning the dueling tournament, Score. Could you show me how you did that spell?"
Hugo paused in his jeering to grimace. "You haven't been snogging him, have you? Eurgh!" He stuck his finger in his mouth and made a retching sound. "You'd be better off snogging the Giant Squid."
"Shut UP!" Rose cried, her face burning, as she grabbed her wand and chased him around the table.
"What the bloody hell is going on in here?" Dad yelled.
"Scorpius Malfoy is a total ponce, and probably a poofter too," Hugo shot back at Rose, dodging as a jinx she'd hurled at him whizzed past his head. "Even his own Housemates dislike him. He just hides in the library and never talks to anyone unless he's taking away points. The only person who doesn't think he's weird is you." Another jinx hit him dead-on and he fell to the floor, twitching and foaming at the mouth.
"That's enough," Mum said, snatching Rose's wand out of her hand while Dad reversed the spell on Hugo and helped him to his feet. "Both of you are acting like three-year-olds tonight. Ron, will you take Hugo outside, please, and talk to him about how to treat his sister?"
"Hey, no fair! I wasn't doing anything!" he protested as Dad dragged him away by his collar. "I was just taking the piss!"
"Make him be quiet, Mum," Rose cried, wiping hot tears from her eyes and jerking her finger at Hugo's retreating back. "Make him take back what he said."
Mum took hold of Rose's arms. "Why does it matter to you what Hugo thinks of Scorpius?"
"B-Because he's not weird, or a ponce, or a poofter. Just because he keeps to himself doesn't make him a bad person."
"I still don't see why it should matter so much to you."
"It just does, okay?" she said, stamping her foot for emphasis. "He's my friend, and I don't like it when mouthy little gits say bad things about my friends."
"Uh-huh." Mum reached up to wipe away some of Rose's tears. "You're rather worked up over a friend, don't you think? Is there any possibility your brother understands the situation better than you do?"
"HA! That dumb-arse pillock? He can't even tell the difference between Rictusempra and Riddikulus."
"Rose Muriel Weasley, you are not too old for a Mouth-Washing Hex." Rose jerked herself free and turned her back on her mum to sulk. "Now what is this about an invitation from Scorpius?" Mum asked in a gentler voice.
Rose picked up the now-crumpled letter from the counter and shoved it at her mother. "He's asked me to have dinner with him and his mum this Friday."
"Just the two of them? Not his father too?"
She shook her head. "Scorpius said he'll be out of the country on business." She turned back around to face her mum. "Can I go?"
Mum read the letter carefully, smiling when she got to the end. "Scorpius seems like a very nice young man. He's been brought up very well."
"He is, Mum. Hugo's got it all wrong about him--he's not like that at all."
Mum sat down in a nearby chair and looked up at Rose. "Then what is he like?"
"He..." Rose gnawed on her thumbnail as she tried to gather her thoughts. "He's so clever, Mum, it's incredible. And it's not like he has to work at it, like I do--it just comes naturally to him, like breathing."
"You don't have to work at being clever, Rose."
"Yeah, Mum, I do, if I want to seem anywhere close as clever as he is."
Mum gave a knowing smile. "Do you see yourself as competing with him?"
"I do, but not in a bad way, y'know?"
"I think I do. It's why you weren't upset when you didn't get the Dumbledore Bursary."
"Kind of. I really wasn't all that interested in getting it in the first place. I felt bad for Dad, because I know he was really keen on me winning."
"He just wants you to succeed."
"I know."
"So tell me more about Scorpius. What did Hugo mean about a dueling tournament?"
Rose felt her heart beat a little faster. "See, Scorpius is president of the dueling club at Hogwarts. He's just amazing with a wand. This year they won an international tournament after he defeated the Beauxbatons champion in fifteen seconds." Mum's eyebrows went up. "I've told him he should talk to Uncle Harry about becoming an Auror when he's finished at Hogwarts. I even said I'd talk to Uncle Harry for him if he didn't want to, because I think he'd make a brilliant Auror."
Mum tilted her head to one side. "Why wouldn't he want to talk to Harry?"
"Well, that's the thing." She took a chair and turned it around so she could sit in it and face her mother. "Hugo was right about something else: Scorpius does keep to himself a lot. He always has. But, he has good reason to." She paused to take a breath and summon up her courage. "Our first year at Hogwarts, he got picked on. A lot. I heard he got sent to the infirmary at least once a week, covered in hex burns and sometimes worse. And it wasn't just students from one particular House; even Ravenclaws joined in a couple of times."
"That's terrible," Mum said, and Rose felt confident that she really meant it. "Was it for any particular reason?"
Rose's shoulders slumped. "I gathered from what I heard that it was mostly because he's a Malfoy."
"Oh."
"Yeah, I didn't really understand what that meant until we learned about the war."
"Is that when you started to look at him differently? After you heard about his family's involvement in the war?"
She wrinkled her nose. "No, not really. I mean, I never looked at him the same way everyone else did to begin with. Fifth year just happened to be when I started to get to know him better, since we were both Prefects. Before then I thought he was a bit of a toffee-nosed swot, and then when I got to know him a little better I realized that he's just really, really shy." She looked down at her hands. "Reckon it isn't easy to make friends when everyone hates you for something you have no control over."
"I suppose not." She leaned forward and rested her hand on Rose's. "I get the feeling there's something more about the way Scorpius was picked on that you haven't told me."
Still staring at her hands, Rose sighed. "There is. Y'see, things had been pretty quiet for a couple of months until just before Easter, when a group of Gryffindors ganged up on him. They followed him coming out of the library late one night and cornered him. He could have been very seriously hurt, maybe even permanently."
"I gather he wasn't."
A smile spread slowly across Rose's face. "They got a few jinxes in, but he managed to out-maneuver all of them, and he did it without leaving a single mark. Then, when he went to the infirmary for treatment, he refused to identify who'd attacked him. He wouldn't even say what House they were in."
"If that's the case, how do you know so much about what happened?" Mum asked, her eyes narrowed.
Rose looked directly at her. "Because James was the ringleader."
She sat back, her mouth pursed in an unhappy frown. "That explains why he might be reluctant to speak to Harry about becoming an Auror."
"Right," Rose said, nodding. "James had been involved in all the attacks by Gryffindors on Scorpius, and some of the others as well. He even tried to get Al in on it, but Al didn't want to have anything to do with it."
"What happened after Scorpius managed to turn the tables?"
"They left him alone after that. For one thing, I think they were shocked that a first-year could beat a half-dozen older students by himself, but also some of them were impressed by the way he refused to give them up, despite everything."
"James too?"
"James still has a go at Scorpius every chance he gets, but he makes sure to stop right before wands come out, or does it when there's a professor nearby." She drew a breath. "At least he'll be able to enjoy his seventh year in peace, now that James is done with school."
Mum smiled tensely. "I suppose so." She handed Scorpius' letter back. "So you really want to go to dinner at the Malfoys'? Understand, you'd be on your own."
Rose sat up. "Oh, yes, Mum, I--"
"Absolutely not." Rose looked over her shoulder to see her dad standing there, his hand gripping the doorknob so tightly he could yank it out with one sharp tug, his face menacingly dark. "You'll go to that house over my dead body."
"Dad!"
"Why can't she go, Ron? Draco's not going to be there, if--"
"That's not it. She's not to go there alone."
"But the invitation is just for her. It would be presumptuous to ask if one of us could accompany her. And besides, she's almost seventeen."
"I don't care how old she is, she's still not going."
Rose felt tears well up in her eyes. "Why are you being so unfair, Dad?" she asked, her voice trembling.
His expression seemed to soften a little when he looked at her. "I'm just trying to look out for what's best for you, Rosie," he said. "I couldn't bear it if you got hurt."
"Honestly, Ron, I don't understand what's got into you. We've both met Scorpius and his mother, why isn't that enough to convince you it's safe to let Rose have dinner with them?"
"It just isn't, Hermione, and that's all I have to say about it right now. As far as I'm concerned, the matter is closed. She's not to go there, and that's my final word."
Mum pulled her close as Rose burst into tears again. "Do you object to Scorpius coming here?"
"What?" he asked.
"What?" Rose asked with a sniffle, pulling back.
"What if Rose were to invite Scorpius here? Would that be acceptable?"
His brow furrowed. "Well... I dunno... I reckon... it can't be--"
"I'll take that as a yes, then," Mum said with determination. She cupped Rose's damp cheeks in her hands and studied her, her warm brown eyes filled with love. "Send Scorpius an owl with your regrets that you are unable to accept his invitation, but ask if he'd like to come here this weekend. Let's say Sunday afternoon, so Dad and I will both be here to keep an eye on things." She looked over Rose's head at Dad. "I trust that suits?"
"What do I say, though?" Rose asked. "I mean, what reason do I give for inviting him here?"
Mum smiled. "You're a very bright girl, Rose. I know you'll come up with a good reason. Now go on, before it gets too late in the evening and all the owls have gone hunting."
Rose wiped the side of her hand beneath her nose. "Thanks, Mum," she said, giving her a watery smile. "You're the best." She got up and, averting her gaze from her dad, ran upstairs, already composing a draft of her letter to Scorpius in her head.
PART FIVE
RATING: PG-13
SUMMARY: Rose Weasley-Granger and Scorpius Malfoy aren't about to let decades of enmity between their fathers get in the way of their friendship. As two shy, awkward teenagers wrestling with the onset of first love, they've got enough obstacles to overcome.
NOTE: Thanks, as ever, to katieay, for her lightning-quick beta reflexes, and for letting me borrow Will Scamander, even if he originally belongs to me. ;-D Thanks as well to all of you for reading and reviewing. I'm terrible at replying, but I cherish every comment I get.
DISCLAIMER: J.K. Rowling owns the Harry Potter universe and everything it encompasses. This is a work of fan fiction, and thus derives no profit or material benefit therefrom.
PART THREE
"--and Will's mum, she has all these jars in her office, of all different sizes, and--oh, boy!--they all have dead things floating around in them, like Grindylows and Doxies and Red Caps, and the Pogrebin, its eyes were still open and I know it was watching me as I walked around looking at everything, I could feel it, and Mrs. Scamander, she says she and Mr. Scamander and Will are going to New Zealand next week to look for Flibbertigibbets and Fumbling Foofnagels--no, that's not it--Humping Schlumphers--er--oh bollocks, I forgot what they were called--"
"Language, Hugo," Mum said sharply just as Dad suggested, "Blibbering Humdingers?"
"Yeah, that's it!" Hugo exclaimed, completely ignoring Mum. "Anyway, Mrs. Scamander said I could go with them, if it's okay with you." His wide-eyed, puppylike gaze switched back and forth between Mum and Dad. "Please?"
"I don't know," Mum said. "New Zealand is rather far, and I'm not confident Mrs. Scamander is up to--"
"Let the boy go, Hermione," Dad said. "He hasn't even been home from school for a week and he's climbing the walls with boredom. Imagine how much worse it'd be if he got left behind while his best mate went off on safari."
"But Lu--"
"It'll be fine. Rolf's a responsible bloke, he'll make sure the lads don't get into too much trouble."
Rose thought Hugo's expression became even more pitifully imploring as he turned back to Mum. "Please?"
Mum sighed, shaking her head. "When do you leave?"
Hugo exploded out of his chair to embrace his mother. "Thankyouthankyouthankyou," he cried over and over, hugging her so tightly her face turned red. "I'll owl Will right now and get all the deets." Before anyone could stop him, he thundered upstairs to his bedroom, leaving his dirty dishes on the table.
Mum rolled her eyes. "Why do I get the feeling I've just been bamboozled?" She glanced around the table at the two remaining occupants. Dad had finished his supper and was now methodically twisting his napkin into various configurations. Rose, lacking much of an appetite tonight, had been pushing her asparagus back and forth across her plate, then arranging the spears into various shapes. Right now she found herself looking at the letter "M."
"You two have been rather quiet tonight," Mum said. "Did something happen at the shop?"
Rose hastily jumbled the asparagus spears together, hiding any evidence of where her thoughts had been for the past few hours. For his part, Dad cleared his throat and said, "I met Grazia Malfoy today."
"Really?" Mum said in a tone of voice Rose recognized all too well. "She came to the shop?"
"Mm-hm," Dad said.
Rose looked up from her plate to see Mum watching her. "Was she alone?"
"No. She was... she had that boy with her."
"'That boy'?" Mum asked, a phrase that had also caught Rose's attention. "You mean Scorpius?" Dad nodded. "But not Draco?"
"No, thank Merlin."
Mum leaned forward, resting her chin in her upturned palm, and addressed Rose. "Aren't you glad I took you with me when I went to their house yesterday?"
"I s'pose," Rose said, shrugging her shoulders. She stubbornly avoided Mum's gaze, unable and unwilling to endure her "see-I-told-you-so" look.
"So what did you make of her?" Mum asked Dad.
He leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. "Dunno, to be honest. She's a piece of work, that's for certain. I'm sure she's a handful. She's probably got Draco completely cowed."
"Oh, absolutely. He was such a mummy's boy, though, that I can't imagine him being truly comfortable with taking the dominant role in any relationship. I think he likes being under a woman's thumb."
Rose smothered a giggle at the look on her father's face. "Yeah, sure," he said, clearly unwilling to encourage her further down that line of thought. "Anyway, she seemed pleasant enough. Very outgoing. She told me her family has been manufacturing glassware for centuries."
"Did she offer any information about how she and Draco met?"
"No," he said, "and I didn't ask. She did say that he started his business exporting what her family made throughout Europe, eventually taking on other manufacturers. Apparently now he handles exports all over the world."
"That explains how they can live in such style. His parents lost everything after the war."
Dad chuckled. "Ironic, isn't it? Draco Malfoy, a self-made man."
"You don't like him very much, do you Dad?" Rose said. "Scorpius' dad, I mean."
He reached up a hand to scratch his cheek. "No, I don't, sweetheart. Your Mum and I--and Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny--were at school the same time as he was. He... wasn't a nice person."
"We learned about what happened during the war in History of Magic a couple of years ago," Rose said. "I know Mr. Malfoy's dad was Lord Voldemort's biggest supporter, and that they captured you and Mum and Uncle Harry, and that Mr. Malfoy tried to kill the Hogwarts headmaster because Lord Voldemort told him to, and--" She paused when she saw her parents exchange a look. "Anyway, I'm sure you both did things you weren't proud of back then, too."
"Er--" Dad said.
"Well, you see--" Mum started.
"My point is, you're not the same people now that you were back then, are you? I mean, that was what, twenty-five years ago? It's ancient history."
"Hey now, be careful who you call ancient." She could tell from the tone of Dad's voice he was only teasing.
"She has a point, though, Ron," Mum said. "It's not fair to judge who Draco Malfoy is today based on things he did when he was sixteen. If you can grow up, so can he."
He grimaced at the jab. "Oh, I agree. Still, though, he is a Malfoy, and I wouldn't trust one of that lot as far as I can throw them. He's never let go of that "pureblood is best" mentality he grew up with."
"Scorpius doesn't think that way at all," Rose said.
"Think what way?" Mum wanted to know.
"That purebloods are superior to everyone else."
"How do you know? Have you heard him actually say so, in those terms?" Dad asked.
"No. But I can tell about him. I just--" She picked up her fork and made the tines 'walk' across her plate. "I don't know what I'm trying to say, except that I can tell from the way he treats people that he doesn't care about stuff like who's a pureblood and who's a Muggleborn."
"Well, maybe," Dad said, doubt evident in his voice. "I haven't spoken to him enough to be convinced. With grandparents like he's got, he had to have been indoctrinated to some degree. He'll show his true colors sooner or later."
There was the sound of a door being slammed upstairs, then Hugo's heavy footsteps could be heard running downstairs. "I was just finishing up my note to Will when an owl came for Rosie," he said breathlessly, thrusting a heavy grey envelope at her. "Bet it's from your boyfriend."
"Shut it," she snapped, as she studied the embossed initial on the envelope flap. She was fairly certain she recognized the handwriting on the front; the sender's address, from a posh area of London, as good as confirmed it. "May I be excused please?" she asked. Mum waved her away and Rose, after she'd slipped the envelope inside her pocket, gathered up her dishes and took them into the kitchen.
After filling up the sink with hot soapy water and putting her dishes in to soak, Rose pulled herself up on the counter and took the envelope out of her pocket. Leaning back against the cabinets, she turned it over in her hands, examining it from all angles. Presuming the handwriting was indeed Scorpius'--it was clearly a masculine hand, and she didn't care to entertain the idea that the owl came from his father--why would he be writing her? What did he have to say that was so important it couldn't wait until their next accidental encounter? Ignoring the fluttery feeling in her stomach, she picked up her wand to break the seal on the envelope, then drew the letter out.
Dear Rose, it began, and the fluttering increased in intensity at the sight of the word "dear" in such close proximity to her name.
Mother asked me to convey to you her appreciation and regard for your father's shop. She is very impressed with his success and hopes business continues to go well for your family. For my part, I would like to thank you for your generous gift of the Headless Hat. I have demonstrated it to several of our servants this evening to great effect. I hope someday I am in a position to return your kindness.
I am writing to you most of all to extend an invitation for you to dine with me and my mother at our home two days from now, on Friday the 6th at 7 p.m. My father will be out of the country on business, so it will just be the three of us (Rose wondered if he'd been tempted to add, "and you needn't worry about him harassing you."). Please respond by owl as soon as possible so my mother can make the necessary arrangements for your travel here.
Yours,
Scorpius Malfoy
A little further down the page, in handwriting that was less painstakingly neat, as though he'd scribbled it down in a burst of bravado, Scorpius had added--
P.S. I really hope you can come, Rose. S.H.M.
"Who's the letter from, Rose?" Mum asked, entering the kitchen behind Hugo, whose arms were loaded down with dirty dishes.
"Yeah, who's it from?" Hugo said as he tipped the dishes into the sink. "Is it your boyfriend?"
"Shut up, Hugo!" Rose snapped, swatting at his head with the envelope. "I've been invited to dinner at the Malfoys," she said to Mum.
"Malfoy?" Hugo exclaimed. "Not that weird Ravenclaw Prefect? He's your boyfriend?"
"He's not weird!" Rose said, pushing herself off the countertop. "Nor is he my boyfriend."
He scurried around the kitchen table to put distance between them. "You want him to be though, don't you? I've seen the way you're always hanging around him in the library, making moony eyes." He batted his eyelashes and clasped his hands together over his heart. "Oh, Scorpy-poo, you're so clever, will you help me with my homework?" he said in a mocking, singsong voice. "Congratulations on winning the dueling tournament, Score. Could you show me how you did that spell?"
Hugo paused in his jeering to grimace. "You haven't been snogging him, have you? Eurgh!" He stuck his finger in his mouth and made a retching sound. "You'd be better off snogging the Giant Squid."
"Shut UP!" Rose cried, her face burning, as she grabbed her wand and chased him around the table.
"What the bloody hell is going on in here?" Dad yelled.
"Scorpius Malfoy is a total ponce, and probably a poofter too," Hugo shot back at Rose, dodging as a jinx she'd hurled at him whizzed past his head. "Even his own Housemates dislike him. He just hides in the library and never talks to anyone unless he's taking away points. The only person who doesn't think he's weird is you." Another jinx hit him dead-on and he fell to the floor, twitching and foaming at the mouth.
"That's enough," Mum said, snatching Rose's wand out of her hand while Dad reversed the spell on Hugo and helped him to his feet. "Both of you are acting like three-year-olds tonight. Ron, will you take Hugo outside, please, and talk to him about how to treat his sister?"
"Hey, no fair! I wasn't doing anything!" he protested as Dad dragged him away by his collar. "I was just taking the piss!"
"Make him be quiet, Mum," Rose cried, wiping hot tears from her eyes and jerking her finger at Hugo's retreating back. "Make him take back what he said."
Mum took hold of Rose's arms. "Why does it matter to you what Hugo thinks of Scorpius?"
"B-Because he's not weird, or a ponce, or a poofter. Just because he keeps to himself doesn't make him a bad person."
"I still don't see why it should matter so much to you."
"It just does, okay?" she said, stamping her foot for emphasis. "He's my friend, and I don't like it when mouthy little gits say bad things about my friends."
"Uh-huh." Mum reached up to wipe away some of Rose's tears. "You're rather worked up over a friend, don't you think? Is there any possibility your brother understands the situation better than you do?"
"HA! That dumb-arse pillock? He can't even tell the difference between Rictusempra and Riddikulus."
"Rose Muriel Weasley, you are not too old for a Mouth-Washing Hex." Rose jerked herself free and turned her back on her mum to sulk. "Now what is this about an invitation from Scorpius?" Mum asked in a gentler voice.
Rose picked up the now-crumpled letter from the counter and shoved it at her mother. "He's asked me to have dinner with him and his mum this Friday."
"Just the two of them? Not his father too?"
She shook her head. "Scorpius said he'll be out of the country on business." She turned back around to face her mum. "Can I go?"
Mum read the letter carefully, smiling when she got to the end. "Scorpius seems like a very nice young man. He's been brought up very well."
"He is, Mum. Hugo's got it all wrong about him--he's not like that at all."
Mum sat down in a nearby chair and looked up at Rose. "Then what is he like?"
"He..." Rose gnawed on her thumbnail as she tried to gather her thoughts. "He's so clever, Mum, it's incredible. And it's not like he has to work at it, like I do--it just comes naturally to him, like breathing."
"You don't have to work at being clever, Rose."
"Yeah, Mum, I do, if I want to seem anywhere close as clever as he is."
Mum gave a knowing smile. "Do you see yourself as competing with him?"
"I do, but not in a bad way, y'know?"
"I think I do. It's why you weren't upset when you didn't get the Dumbledore Bursary."
"Kind of. I really wasn't all that interested in getting it in the first place. I felt bad for Dad, because I know he was really keen on me winning."
"He just wants you to succeed."
"I know."
"So tell me more about Scorpius. What did Hugo mean about a dueling tournament?"
Rose felt her heart beat a little faster. "See, Scorpius is president of the dueling club at Hogwarts. He's just amazing with a wand. This year they won an international tournament after he defeated the Beauxbatons champion in fifteen seconds." Mum's eyebrows went up. "I've told him he should talk to Uncle Harry about becoming an Auror when he's finished at Hogwarts. I even said I'd talk to Uncle Harry for him if he didn't want to, because I think he'd make a brilliant Auror."
Mum tilted her head to one side. "Why wouldn't he want to talk to Harry?"
"Well, that's the thing." She took a chair and turned it around so she could sit in it and face her mother. "Hugo was right about something else: Scorpius does keep to himself a lot. He always has. But, he has good reason to." She paused to take a breath and summon up her courage. "Our first year at Hogwarts, he got picked on. A lot. I heard he got sent to the infirmary at least once a week, covered in hex burns and sometimes worse. And it wasn't just students from one particular House; even Ravenclaws joined in a couple of times."
"That's terrible," Mum said, and Rose felt confident that she really meant it. "Was it for any particular reason?"
Rose's shoulders slumped. "I gathered from what I heard that it was mostly because he's a Malfoy."
"Oh."
"Yeah, I didn't really understand what that meant until we learned about the war."
"Is that when you started to look at him differently? After you heard about his family's involvement in the war?"
She wrinkled her nose. "No, not really. I mean, I never looked at him the same way everyone else did to begin with. Fifth year just happened to be when I started to get to know him better, since we were both Prefects. Before then I thought he was a bit of a toffee-nosed swot, and then when I got to know him a little better I realized that he's just really, really shy." She looked down at her hands. "Reckon it isn't easy to make friends when everyone hates you for something you have no control over."
"I suppose not." She leaned forward and rested her hand on Rose's. "I get the feeling there's something more about the way Scorpius was picked on that you haven't told me."
Still staring at her hands, Rose sighed. "There is. Y'see, things had been pretty quiet for a couple of months until just before Easter, when a group of Gryffindors ganged up on him. They followed him coming out of the library late one night and cornered him. He could have been very seriously hurt, maybe even permanently."
"I gather he wasn't."
A smile spread slowly across Rose's face. "They got a few jinxes in, but he managed to out-maneuver all of them, and he did it without leaving a single mark. Then, when he went to the infirmary for treatment, he refused to identify who'd attacked him. He wouldn't even say what House they were in."
"If that's the case, how do you know so much about what happened?" Mum asked, her eyes narrowed.
Rose looked directly at her. "Because James was the ringleader."
She sat back, her mouth pursed in an unhappy frown. "That explains why he might be reluctant to speak to Harry about becoming an Auror."
"Right," Rose said, nodding. "James had been involved in all the attacks by Gryffindors on Scorpius, and some of the others as well. He even tried to get Al in on it, but Al didn't want to have anything to do with it."
"What happened after Scorpius managed to turn the tables?"
"They left him alone after that. For one thing, I think they were shocked that a first-year could beat a half-dozen older students by himself, but also some of them were impressed by the way he refused to give them up, despite everything."
"James too?"
"James still has a go at Scorpius every chance he gets, but he makes sure to stop right before wands come out, or does it when there's a professor nearby." She drew a breath. "At least he'll be able to enjoy his seventh year in peace, now that James is done with school."
Mum smiled tensely. "I suppose so." She handed Scorpius' letter back. "So you really want to go to dinner at the Malfoys'? Understand, you'd be on your own."
Rose sat up. "Oh, yes, Mum, I--"
"Absolutely not." Rose looked over her shoulder to see her dad standing there, his hand gripping the doorknob so tightly he could yank it out with one sharp tug, his face menacingly dark. "You'll go to that house over my dead body."
"Dad!"
"Why can't she go, Ron? Draco's not going to be there, if--"
"That's not it. She's not to go there alone."
"But the invitation is just for her. It would be presumptuous to ask if one of us could accompany her. And besides, she's almost seventeen."
"I don't care how old she is, she's still not going."
Rose felt tears well up in her eyes. "Why are you being so unfair, Dad?" she asked, her voice trembling.
His expression seemed to soften a little when he looked at her. "I'm just trying to look out for what's best for you, Rosie," he said. "I couldn't bear it if you got hurt."
"Honestly, Ron, I don't understand what's got into you. We've both met Scorpius and his mother, why isn't that enough to convince you it's safe to let Rose have dinner with them?"
"It just isn't, Hermione, and that's all I have to say about it right now. As far as I'm concerned, the matter is closed. She's not to go there, and that's my final word."
Mum pulled her close as Rose burst into tears again. "Do you object to Scorpius coming here?"
"What?" he asked.
"What?" Rose asked with a sniffle, pulling back.
"What if Rose were to invite Scorpius here? Would that be acceptable?"
His brow furrowed. "Well... I dunno... I reckon... it can't be--"
"I'll take that as a yes, then," Mum said with determination. She cupped Rose's damp cheeks in her hands and studied her, her warm brown eyes filled with love. "Send Scorpius an owl with your regrets that you are unable to accept his invitation, but ask if he'd like to come here this weekend. Let's say Sunday afternoon, so Dad and I will both be here to keep an eye on things." She looked over Rose's head at Dad. "I trust that suits?"
"What do I say, though?" Rose asked. "I mean, what reason do I give for inviting him here?"
Mum smiled. "You're a very bright girl, Rose. I know you'll come up with a good reason. Now go on, before it gets too late in the evening and all the owls have gone hunting."
Rose wiped the side of her hand beneath her nose. "Thanks, Mum," she said, giving her a watery smile. "You're the best." She got up and, averting her gaze from her dad, ran upstairs, already composing a draft of her letter to Scorpius in her head.
PART FIVE