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Three Years Later
Rose basked in the mid-morning sunlight as she walked to class. This, she thought, was the life. She had just started her senior year at Yale University. Honestly, she didn’t think she would make it this far. But college life suited her. Suddenly she heard a voice call out behind her.
“Hey, England, wait up!” A tall boy with sandy blonde hair ran to catch up with her. When he reached her side he was slightly out of breath. “Where are you going so fast?”
“I was on my way to Advanced Sociological Theories, want to come with?” The boy made a disgusted face.
“Hell no, that name even sounds hard.”
Rose laughed. She had chosen to study sociology while she was at Yale. She still wasn’t exactly sure what it was, and people kept telling her that there was really no way to get a job with a sociology degree, but she found the classes interesting and she knew she would eventually end up with a job in the wizarding world anyway.
“Drew, what do you take?”
“The Business of Sports, Sports Marketing…”
“O right, with the leg-ball, and bucket-ball”
“It’s football and basketball. Do they really have no sports in England?”
“Not like that they don’t.”
“My goal is to get you to a football game before we graduate. I think you’d like it. Have you ever been to a professional sporting event…ever?”
Rose smiled as she recalled the Chuddly Cannons games her Dad use to bring her to. They were always interesting experiences, seeing as the Cannons never won, and the fans dealt with this by getting more and more intoxicated.
“For your information yes I have, quite a few actually,” Rose spotted someone standing on the steps of the large building in front of her and Drew. She gave the figure an excited wave. As they approached the building, the figure came over and wrapped Rose in a tight embrace and kissed her on the lips.
“Geez, there are other people here you know,” Drew joked. Rose punched him playfully on the shoulder and the other boy slapped him on the back of the head. “C’mon Kenny, that one hurt.”
“Stop being such a baby,” Kenny shot back, “Don’t you have class right now?” he asked Drew.
“Wait, what time is it?”
Rose looked at her watch, “Eleven – thirty”
“Damn it” Drew ran across the quad, obviously trying not to be late for his class.
Kenny laughed at his friend and turned back to Rose. “Where were we?” He leaned down and kissed her again, this time even deeper. After a minute she pulled away.
“I have to get to class too,” she said with a pout.
“I’ll walk you then,” he smiled. As they walked hand in hand across the quad, Rose thought she heard something in the nearby bushes. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw something white in the green, but when she looked back there was nothing there. Must have been some sort of animal or something, she thought. However, she couldn’t quite shake the feeling that something had been watching her.
“So have you heard from your Dad?” Kenny’s question made Rose forget about her paranoid feelings.
“Yeah, I said I would try and make it home for Christmas. He was still whining about me not coming home over the summer.” Rose had spent the summer in New York City with Kenny. They had both gotten internships there, he at a big advertising agency and she at an elementary school. Because of this, she had not gone home at all. She hadn’t seen her family since last Christmas, and she really did miss them. Well, she missed her Dad and her brother, and most of her aunts and uncles and cousins. Rose’s relationship with her mother had never been the same after she left for Yale. They spoke, but only in formalities and about things that didn’t really matter. Rose knew this disappointed her Dad, but she didn’t know what to do, it was her mother’s problem.
“Hey I was thinking,” Kenny wasn’t looking at Rose anymore, “Since you’re coming to Boston with me for Thanksgiving…”
“We don’t have Thanksgiving at home. I’d have no where to go.”
“Right, but since you are coming with me, and you’ve met my family before. Maybe I could come with you at Christmas,” he looked at her expecting her to be ecstatic at his wonderful idea. Instead she stopped dead in her tracks.
“Come with me? Like to England?” Rose’s mind was now going a million miles a minute.
Kenny looked at her in amusement. “Well that’s where you go right? I mean the accent kind of gives it away…”
“But my family is there…” a feeling of terror was falling over her. This could not be happening.
“Yeah, that’s kind of the point,” Kenny laughed, but then when he saw the look of horror on Rose’s face he got concerned. “You don’t want me to meet your family?”
Kenny looked hurt. She didn’t know what to do. She loved Kenny, she really did, and she had met his family before. They were a nice group of Muggles. But he couldn’t seriously want to meet the Weasleys could he? Well, that just could not happen. For one, her family was out of their minds. And two, just a small issue, Kenny had NO IDEA she was a witch. Meeting her giant, magical family might give it away.
Rose hurriedly looked at her watch. “Crap, I’m going to be late. Can we talk about this later?” She gave Kenny a peck on the cheek and hurried away from him.
Rose couldn’t concentrate all day. All that flashed through her mind was visions of red hair and wands and Kenny running from the Burrow in fear. She had never really considered telling anyone here she was a witch. She figured the only Muggle she would ever tell would be the man she married, if he turned out to be a Muggle that is. She was happy with Kenny, but she had no idea if she wanted to marry
him. They hadn’t been together that long. What had it been, a year maybe? Not long at all. And now he wanted to meet her huge, crazy, redheaded, magical family. He wouldn’t survive a day with the Weaselys. Her Dad and her brother would probably try to scare him to death, not to mention all those male cousins who tended to be rather overprotective of her. And then there was the slight issue of her and her family being minor celebrities. She was still the daughter of the Minister of Magic, not to mention the fact that both her parents and her uncle were in every History of Magic book published in the last thirty years. Just as she was pondering the fact that she really didn’t know what went down all those years ago somebody nudged her on the shoulder.
“Rose, earth to Rose,” she looked up to see Liz, her best friend and roommate, standing over her, “class is over. Did you listen to anything we were talking about?”
“What? Wait, what class are we in?”
Liz just shook her head. “Are you ok? This zoning out thing is really unlike you.”
“Yeah, I’ve just had an interesting morning.”
“Ooo do tell,” Liz was always ready for some good gossip. As they walked from the classroom, Rose recounted what had gone on between her and Kenny earlier.
“He wants to meet my family,” Rose looked to her friend for some sympathy.
“You are so lucky. Drew won’t even come near me when I’m on the phone with my parents,”
“No, no, I’m not lucky. He can’t meet my family.”
“Why not?”
“Well…um…” the phrase ‘giant band of wizards’ came to mind, but she couldn’t tell Liz that, “my family is…different…”
“Everybody thinks their family is weird.”
“I assure you, my family is nothing like everybody else’s family. I mean he’d meet my Dad and my brother who would probably curse him to next week,”
“Ok I get it, they all have dirty mouths and you don’t want sweet Kenny around that,”
“What?”
“You said your Dad and brother would curse him to next week. Are they really that bad?”
“Right, curse, like swear, that is definitely what I meant,” Rose inwardly scolded herself for letting that one slip, “And I have like a million cousins. All of which he would have to meet,” and all of whom are wizards, she added to herself, “And then there’s my mother. Sweet Lord he can not meet my mother…”
“Rose!” Liz stepped in front of her to stop her from walking away, “Chill out for a second. Do you love Kenny?”
“Yes, but…”
“Have you met his family?”
“Yes, but…”
“Does he seem genuinely interested in meeting these people?”
“Yes, but…”
“No, no buts, he’s a great guy Rose. Your family will love him. And he loves you, a lot,
like it’s disgusting, some eccentric family members aren’t going to drive him away.” Rose disagreed with this statement. Her family could most definitely drive him away. But it seemed like there was no other option. She was going to have to tell him, and if he didn’t dump her right there, maybe he could survive the Weasleys…maybe.
As they walked toward their building, they noticed Kenny sitting by himself on a bench. Liz looked at Rose poignantly.
“What, I have to talk to him now?” Rose sounded uncertain.
“Yes, you have to talk to him now,” Liz looked at Rose like she was an idiot, “If you don’t do it now, you know you’ll talk yourself out of it.”
“Crap, why do you always have to be right?” Liz smiled knowingly and walked away. Rose sighed and started over toward where Kenny was sitting.
“Hi,” she said softly as she sat down next to him.
“Hi,” he replied not looking at her.
As they sat there in silence, Rose was overcome with the same feeling of being watched that she had that morning. She looked over her shoulder, but didn’t see anything. She decided it was just her body telling her she didn’t want to have this conversation.
“I’m sorry about this morning. You kind of caught me off guard,” she put her book bag on the bench next to her, knowing her wand was in easy reach if she needed it. This feeling wasn’t going away.
“You really don’t want me to meet your family?” he looked even more hurt than he had that morning. Rose heard a faint pop behind her.
“Did you hear that?” she asked as she looked around.
“Don’t try and change the subject Rose,” now Kenny was starting to look upset.
“No, I really heard something. It sounded like…like…” it sounded like someone had apparated behind them, but Kenny didn’t know about all that, yet.
“If you don’t want me to go home with you, just tell me,”
Rose reached into her bag and wrapped her fingers around her wand, better safe than sorry, she thought. Suddenly, she heard a stick break behind her. She ripped her wand out of her bag and spun around holding it out in front of her.
Rose found herself face to face with a familiar blonde headed man, one she hadn’t seen in over three years.
“Malfoy?”
“It’s been a while Weasley,” Scorpius Malfoy smirked over his pointed wand.
“What in the name of Merlin are you doing here?”
“So it’s true then. Rose Weasley went Muggle on us,” Malfoy’s voice was dripping with disgust.
“Hey! What the hell is going on?” Rose had forgotten Kenny was there. ‘This really can’t look good’ she thought to herself.
Malfoy turned his gaze, and his wand, on Kenny. “How cute. You even got yourself one.”
Rose kept her wand pointed squarely at Malfoy’s chest.
“Rose, who is this asshole?” Ok, Rose thought, he is really not helping.
“Kenny, maybe you should go. I’ll meet up with you later,” she hoped he would take the hint and get himself somewhere safe.
“Yeah, Kenny, we have some business to attend to. Why don’t you just run along,” Kenny went to pounce on Malfoy, but Rose grabbed his arm just in time.
She looked him in the eye. “Please, just go back to your room. I can handle this myself,” he saw her pleading with him in her eyes. What was she going to do, poke him to death with that stick?
Kenny wanted to pummel that jerk into the ground, but Rose was looking at him so fiercely that he decided to do what she said. “You better watch your back buddy,” he shot at Malfoy.
“Yeah, ok,” Malfoy shot back, “Why don’t you watch while I curse you into the ground,”
“Don’t even think about it Malfoy. Unless you want to be cursed yourself,” Malfoy just laughed at her, “I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again, and this time I don’t have anyone here to give me detention.” Kenny looked at Rose again, this time in confusion. He had no idea what they were talking about. Rose just gave him that same pleading look. He nodded and walked away, keeping his eye on Malfoy.
“What do you want Malfoy?”
“I can’t come and visit an old friend,”
“We have never been friends,”
“I seem to remember getting rather friendly that night after Potter’s Quidditch victory party,” Malfoy sneered at Rose.
“Did you really come all the way across an ocean to remind me of the biggest drunken mistake of my life?” she sneered right back at him.
Malfoy laughed. “No, like I told your little boyfriend, I have a business proposition for you.”
“Like I would ever work with you,”
“We have formed a little coalition back home. We would be highly honored if you would join us,”
“Who’s we? You and your nut job of a father? Some of those idiot Slytherin friends of yours?”
“We’ve heard Weasley,” Malfoy continued, ignoring that last statement, “that you have a strong desire to not be a Weasley.”
“I never said that,”
“Of course you didn’t. But, if one was looking to gain notoriety on one’s own, separate from one’s name or parents,” he emphasized the word ‘parents’ so much he almost spit on her, “we could certainly help one with that.”
Rose’s arm was beginning to shake, she still had her wand pointed at Malfoy and she had to admit she was a little out of practice. She narrowed her eyes at him.
“What is it this ‘coalition’ does Malfoy? Do you all have marks and everything?”
“We are not Death Eaters. Just simply aiming to gain attention that we have earned and not received. Sound familiar?”
“Believe me, my problem was not too little attention,”
“Fine, but you’re a talented witch…Rose…” it sounded almost painful for Malfoy to call her by her first name, “you could go far with the opportunities we could give you. Your mother is just holding you back.”
“Don’t you dare talk about my mother,” Rose took a step towards him and he took an instinctive step back.
“She is the reason you’re here, isn’t she? Or did I just miss the part where you identified so strongly with Muggles,”
“My problems with my mother are just that, my problems, and nothing, absolutely nothing would make me ever work with you, or your ‘coalition’.”
“Suit yourself. But be assured Weasley, you will be sorry you turned me down. You will be very sorry.” With that he turned on the spot and Disapperated. Rose lowered her wand and slumped back down on the bench, quite unnerved by what just went on.
Rose basked in the mid-morning sunlight as she walked to class. This, she thought, was the life. She had just started her senior year at Yale University. Honestly, she didn’t think she would make it this far. But college life suited her. Suddenly she heard a voice call out behind her.
“Hey, England, wait up!” A tall boy with sandy blonde hair ran to catch up with her. When he reached her side he was slightly out of breath. “Where are you going so fast?”
“I was on my way to Advanced Sociological Theories, want to come with?” The boy made a disgusted face.
“Hell no, that name even sounds hard.”
Rose laughed. She had chosen to study sociology while she was at Yale. She still wasn’t exactly sure what it was, and people kept telling her that there was really no way to get a job with a sociology degree, but she found the classes interesting and she knew she would eventually end up with a job in the wizarding world anyway.
“Drew, what do you take?”
“The Business of Sports, Sports Marketing…”
“O right, with the leg-ball, and bucket-ball”
“It’s football and basketball. Do they really have no sports in England?”
“Not like that they don’t.”
“My goal is to get you to a football game before we graduate. I think you’d like it. Have you ever been to a professional sporting event…ever?”
Rose smiled as she recalled the Chuddly Cannons games her Dad use to bring her to. They were always interesting experiences, seeing as the Cannons never won, and the fans dealt with this by getting more and more intoxicated.
“For your information yes I have, quite a few actually,” Rose spotted someone standing on the steps of the large building in front of her and Drew. She gave the figure an excited wave. As they approached the building, the figure came over and wrapped Rose in a tight embrace and kissed her on the lips.
“Geez, there are other people here you know,” Drew joked. Rose punched him playfully on the shoulder and the other boy slapped him on the back of the head. “C’mon Kenny, that one hurt.”
“Stop being such a baby,” Kenny shot back, “Don’t you have class right now?” he asked Drew.
“Wait, what time is it?”
Rose looked at her watch, “Eleven – thirty”
“Damn it” Drew ran across the quad, obviously trying not to be late for his class.
Kenny laughed at his friend and turned back to Rose. “Where were we?” He leaned down and kissed her again, this time even deeper. After a minute she pulled away.
“I have to get to class too,” she said with a pout.
“I’ll walk you then,” he smiled. As they walked hand in hand across the quad, Rose thought she heard something in the nearby bushes. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw something white in the green, but when she looked back there was nothing there. Must have been some sort of animal or something, she thought. However, she couldn’t quite shake the feeling that something had been watching her.
“So have you heard from your Dad?” Kenny’s question made Rose forget about her paranoid feelings.
“Yeah, I said I would try and make it home for Christmas. He was still whining about me not coming home over the summer.” Rose had spent the summer in New York City with Kenny. They had both gotten internships there, he at a big advertising agency and she at an elementary school. Because of this, she had not gone home at all. She hadn’t seen her family since last Christmas, and she really did miss them. Well, she missed her Dad and her brother, and most of her aunts and uncles and cousins. Rose’s relationship with her mother had never been the same after she left for Yale. They spoke, but only in formalities and about things that didn’t really matter. Rose knew this disappointed her Dad, but she didn’t know what to do, it was her mother’s problem.
“Hey I was thinking,” Kenny wasn’t looking at Rose anymore, “Since you’re coming to Boston with me for Thanksgiving…”
“We don’t have Thanksgiving at home. I’d have no where to go.”
“Right, but since you are coming with me, and you’ve met my family before. Maybe I could come with you at Christmas,” he looked at her expecting her to be ecstatic at his wonderful idea. Instead she stopped dead in her tracks.
“Come with me? Like to England?” Rose’s mind was now going a million miles a minute.
Kenny looked at her in amusement. “Well that’s where you go right? I mean the accent kind of gives it away…”
“But my family is there…” a feeling of terror was falling over her. This could not be happening.
“Yeah, that’s kind of the point,” Kenny laughed, but then when he saw the look of horror on Rose’s face he got concerned. “You don’t want me to meet your family?”
Kenny looked hurt. She didn’t know what to do. She loved Kenny, she really did, and she had met his family before. They were a nice group of Muggles. But he couldn’t seriously want to meet the Weasleys could he? Well, that just could not happen. For one, her family was out of their minds. And two, just a small issue, Kenny had NO IDEA she was a witch. Meeting her giant, magical family might give it away.
Rose hurriedly looked at her watch. “Crap, I’m going to be late. Can we talk about this later?” She gave Kenny a peck on the cheek and hurried away from him.
Rose couldn’t concentrate all day. All that flashed through her mind was visions of red hair and wands and Kenny running from the Burrow in fear. She had never really considered telling anyone here she was a witch. She figured the only Muggle she would ever tell would be the man she married, if he turned out to be a Muggle that is. She was happy with Kenny, but she had no idea if she wanted to marry
him. They hadn’t been together that long. What had it been, a year maybe? Not long at all. And now he wanted to meet her huge, crazy, redheaded, magical family. He wouldn’t survive a day with the Weaselys. Her Dad and her brother would probably try to scare him to death, not to mention all those male cousins who tended to be rather overprotective of her. And then there was the slight issue of her and her family being minor celebrities. She was still the daughter of the Minister of Magic, not to mention the fact that both her parents and her uncle were in every History of Magic book published in the last thirty years. Just as she was pondering the fact that she really didn’t know what went down all those years ago somebody nudged her on the shoulder.
“Rose, earth to Rose,” she looked up to see Liz, her best friend and roommate, standing over her, “class is over. Did you listen to anything we were talking about?”
“What? Wait, what class are we in?”
Liz just shook her head. “Are you ok? This zoning out thing is really unlike you.”
“Yeah, I’ve just had an interesting morning.”
“Ooo do tell,” Liz was always ready for some good gossip. As they walked from the classroom, Rose recounted what had gone on between her and Kenny earlier.
“He wants to meet my family,” Rose looked to her friend for some sympathy.
“You are so lucky. Drew won’t even come near me when I’m on the phone with my parents,”
“No, no, I’m not lucky. He can’t meet my family.”
“Why not?”
“Well…um…” the phrase ‘giant band of wizards’ came to mind, but she couldn’t tell Liz that, “my family is…different…”
“Everybody thinks their family is weird.”
“I assure you, my family is nothing like everybody else’s family. I mean he’d meet my Dad and my brother who would probably curse him to next week,”
“Ok I get it, they all have dirty mouths and you don’t want sweet Kenny around that,”
“What?”
“You said your Dad and brother would curse him to next week. Are they really that bad?”
“Right, curse, like swear, that is definitely what I meant,” Rose inwardly scolded herself for letting that one slip, “And I have like a million cousins. All of which he would have to meet,” and all of whom are wizards, she added to herself, “And then there’s my mother. Sweet Lord he can not meet my mother…”
“Rose!” Liz stepped in front of her to stop her from walking away, “Chill out for a second. Do you love Kenny?”
“Yes, but…”
“Have you met his family?”
“Yes, but…”
“Does he seem genuinely interested in meeting these people?”
“Yes, but…”
“No, no buts, he’s a great guy Rose. Your family will love him. And he loves you, a lot,
like it’s disgusting, some eccentric family members aren’t going to drive him away.” Rose disagreed with this statement. Her family could most definitely drive him away. But it seemed like there was no other option. She was going to have to tell him, and if he didn’t dump her right there, maybe he could survive the Weasleys…maybe.
As they walked toward their building, they noticed Kenny sitting by himself on a bench. Liz looked at Rose poignantly.
“What, I have to talk to him now?” Rose sounded uncertain.
“Yes, you have to talk to him now,” Liz looked at Rose like she was an idiot, “If you don’t do it now, you know you’ll talk yourself out of it.”
“Crap, why do you always have to be right?” Liz smiled knowingly and walked away. Rose sighed and started over toward where Kenny was sitting.
“Hi,” she said softly as she sat down next to him.
“Hi,” he replied not looking at her.
As they sat there in silence, Rose was overcome with the same feeling of being watched that she had that morning. She looked over her shoulder, but didn’t see anything. She decided it was just her body telling her she didn’t want to have this conversation.
“I’m sorry about this morning. You kind of caught me off guard,” she put her book bag on the bench next to her, knowing her wand was in easy reach if she needed it. This feeling wasn’t going away.
“You really don’t want me to meet your family?” he looked even more hurt than he had that morning. Rose heard a faint pop behind her.
“Did you hear that?” she asked as she looked around.
“Don’t try and change the subject Rose,” now Kenny was starting to look upset.
“No, I really heard something. It sounded like…like…” it sounded like someone had apparated behind them, but Kenny didn’t know about all that, yet.
“If you don’t want me to go home with you, just tell me,”
Rose reached into her bag and wrapped her fingers around her wand, better safe than sorry, she thought. Suddenly, she heard a stick break behind her. She ripped her wand out of her bag and spun around holding it out in front of her.
Rose found herself face to face with a familiar blonde headed man, one she hadn’t seen in over three years.
“Malfoy?”
“It’s been a while Weasley,” Scorpius Malfoy smirked over his pointed wand.
“What in the name of Merlin are you doing here?”
“So it’s true then. Rose Weasley went Muggle on us,” Malfoy’s voice was dripping with disgust.
“Hey! What the hell is going on?” Rose had forgotten Kenny was there. ‘This really can’t look good’ she thought to herself.
Malfoy turned his gaze, and his wand, on Kenny. “How cute. You even got yourself one.”
Rose kept her wand pointed squarely at Malfoy’s chest.
“Rose, who is this asshole?” Ok, Rose thought, he is really not helping.
“Kenny, maybe you should go. I’ll meet up with you later,” she hoped he would take the hint and get himself somewhere safe.
“Yeah, Kenny, we have some business to attend to. Why don’t you just run along,” Kenny went to pounce on Malfoy, but Rose grabbed his arm just in time.
She looked him in the eye. “Please, just go back to your room. I can handle this myself,” he saw her pleading with him in her eyes. What was she going to do, poke him to death with that stick?
Kenny wanted to pummel that jerk into the ground, but Rose was looking at him so fiercely that he decided to do what she said. “You better watch your back buddy,” he shot at Malfoy.
“Yeah, ok,” Malfoy shot back, “Why don’t you watch while I curse you into the ground,”
“Don’t even think about it Malfoy. Unless you want to be cursed yourself,” Malfoy just laughed at her, “I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again, and this time I don’t have anyone here to give me detention.” Kenny looked at Rose again, this time in confusion. He had no idea what they were talking about. Rose just gave him that same pleading look. He nodded and walked away, keeping his eye on Malfoy.
“What do you want Malfoy?”
“I can’t come and visit an old friend,”
“We have never been friends,”
“I seem to remember getting rather friendly that night after Potter’s Quidditch victory party,” Malfoy sneered at Rose.
“Did you really come all the way across an ocean to remind me of the biggest drunken mistake of my life?” she sneered right back at him.
Malfoy laughed. “No, like I told your little boyfriend, I have a business proposition for you.”
“Like I would ever work with you,”
“We have formed a little coalition back home. We would be highly honored if you would join us,”
“Who’s we? You and your nut job of a father? Some of those idiot Slytherin friends of yours?”
“We’ve heard Weasley,” Malfoy continued, ignoring that last statement, “that you have a strong desire to not be a Weasley.”
“I never said that,”
“Of course you didn’t. But, if one was looking to gain notoriety on one’s own, separate from one’s name or parents,” he emphasized the word ‘parents’ so much he almost spit on her, “we could certainly help one with that.”
Rose’s arm was beginning to shake, she still had her wand pointed at Malfoy and she had to admit she was a little out of practice. She narrowed her eyes at him.
“What is it this ‘coalition’ does Malfoy? Do you all have marks and everything?”
“We are not Death Eaters. Just simply aiming to gain attention that we have earned and not received. Sound familiar?”
“Believe me, my problem was not too little attention,”
“Fine, but you’re a talented witch…Rose…” it sounded almost painful for Malfoy to call her by her first name, “you could go far with the opportunities we could give you. Your mother is just holding you back.”
“Don’t you dare talk about my mother,” Rose took a step towards him and he took an instinctive step back.
“She is the reason you’re here, isn’t she? Or did I just miss the part where you identified so strongly with Muggles,”
“My problems with my mother are just that, my problems, and nothing, absolutely nothing would make me ever work with you, or your ‘coalition’.”
“Suit yourself. But be assured Weasley, you will be sorry you turned me down. You will be very sorry.” With that he turned on the spot and Disapperated. Rose lowered her wand and slumped back down on the bench, quite unnerved by what just went on.
