Snowflakes in a Storm - [Scorose]

Chapter 7: An Ally

I was not looking forward to Christmas Dinner. I didn't want to face Rose because I know that what she had said was right; if my mother wasn't at the ministry, she wouldn't have died and even with her being there, there was no predicting what these attackers were going to do to my family, if anything. Malfoys weren't a threat to them, for all I knew, Malfoys could be their allies... or their leaders; that thought worried him more than anything. But my father seemed so concerned in his letter about it all... didn't he? Sitting on my bed, I pulled the letter out of my trouser pocket and re-read it.

'You know that as a family we don't have the best reputation. This has made our lives very difficult lately.'

What was that supposed to mean? Had these wizards been trying to recruit my father? Had they been trying to recruit my mother? Had they succeeded and now, without any knowledge of it, had I become an enemy of the wizarding world?

I tried to shake these thoughts from my mind but I couldn't. Ever since I was woken up that morning my life had just been a mess of thoughts, feelings and confusion that I didn't know how to understand them. I didn't see any point in trying to comprehend most of my thoughts after a while; it wouldn't help worrying. My mother was dead, there were attacks on the ministry and I know I had hurt Rose's feelings.

Yes, I understand that Rose being on that list is unusual, since when do I care about her feelings? But she helped me and she stuck by me when I needed a shoulder to cry on, and believe it or not I appreciated it. I recognised something in her that I hadn't before. She is a nice person; but by putting up a smug, cruel front to her all these years I had never given her a reason to be even the slightest bit nice to me, but she'd given me a chance and it was the least I could do to do the same in return.

Notices had been sent to all the students about what time Christmas Dinner would be happening. It was at 4pm, which was 10 minutes ago. After a morning that seemed to drag on forever, the afternoon had come and gone like it was nothing and now I'd lost track of time by losing track of my thoughts.

Getting dressed up nicely in the sweater that my mother had sent my for Christmas and brushing my hair back into a slightly less casual but not too formal style to get my bangs out of my face, I hurried to the Great Hall and was greeted by every student that had stayed behind and every teacher, settling down to eat and pop their Christmas crackers.

"Mr Malfoy, how nice of you to join us at last." Professor Flitwick said as I came and sat down at the table; not far away from the group but far enough that it would excuse me not talking to anyone throughout the meal. I sat observing everyone from afar as they popped their Christmas crackers, causing explosions and fireworks and awful cracker jokes like "What do you call two wizards that live together? Broom-mates." It made me cringe. Not because it was a bad joke, which it was, but because I wished I could have been at home with my family instead... or my father at least.

Suddenly my thoughts were cut short when Professor Faraway took a seat opposite me after everyone had settled down at were chatting to one another. "We received a letter from your father earlier, Scorpius." He said and I felt a churning in my stomach. "I'm so incredibly sorry for your loss, and at Christmas too, you must be hurting. I'm very sorry about the comment I made earlier as well about you and Miss Weasley." He said and for some reason this made me feel sad. "It was incredibly inappropriate and if I'd have known what was going on I would never have said anything."

"It's okay Professor." I said as I turned to look over at Rose who was sitting with her brother and a Hufflepuff girl. She didn't look very merry and I couldn't help but feel like it was my fault. "These things happen." I said as I turned back to him. "I feel like being back at home would probably make everything a thousand times worse than it is already." I admitted. "But Rose was nice to me earlier... she consoled me." I explained. "That's why we were talking to each other, Professor." I added.

"Do you want me to leave you to your thoughts?" He asked me and I nodded and with that he stood up and went back to his original seat. I had said everything I needed to.

After a couple of hours of watching everyone sitting and laughing and enjoying their Christmas, I finished my meal and stood up and left the Great Hall, though I didn't want to go back to the common room – I had spent too much time there lately, so I walked to the courtyard and sat on a wall, pondering over my thoughts.

"I'm sorry..." I heard from behind me and I turned to see Rose fumbling to sit beside me.

"You have no reason to be." I told her truthfully.

"Yes I do. You're in a fragile state; I never should have said the things I did. You know I didn't mean it when I said that your family would join those attackers, didn't you?"

"I've been thinking about it a lot..." I admitted. "I've been thinking that maybe it's not that absurd to believe. It wouldn't be the first time my family has betrayed the wizarding world... My father even said that the reputation that the Malfoy's have has made their lives difficult lately. What if they've been trying to recruit my father? What if without even knowing, I'm an ally to these murderers?"

"Scorpius you may be an arse, but you're not their ally. You're a great wizard and you know that what they're doing is wrong, whoever they are."

"Yes but what if-"

"If your father has for some ridiculous reason agreed to work alongside these people then do you really think he'd feel at all bad about your mother? And even if he was one of them, that doesn't mean that you are." She said. I didn't reply, I just sort of sat there.

"You know... you're not really that bad." I told her after a long silence.

"I know." She said in a jokingly smug voice and I rolled my eyes, smiling at her and taking her hand in my own, squeezing it.

I saw her blush and I let go, feeling as if I'd embarrassed her or made her feel awkward but she took my hand when I pulled away and we just sat there for a little while together, my thumb repeating the action she had done earlier by stroking her skin lightly.

"Thank you for being here for me today. I know that listening to me cry then arguing with me probably wasn't your first choice of activity for your Christmas." I said after a few minutes of comfortable silence.

"You're right, it wasn't..." She said. "But I'm glad I could be here for you. It's nice to be able to talk to Scorpius... and not argue with Malfoy, you know?"

"Yeah, I know." I said, putting my arm around her and pulling her close to me, hugging her. "I really like this Rose..." I felt her arms travel around my waist and hug me back. "It's been nice to not be alone through this so again, thank you."

"It's fine."

We sat like that for a few minutes before we heard a cough behind us and, startled, we turned around to see Rose's little brother, Hugo, standing behind us, staring at us with a confused look on his face.