what our fathers never had ( ✓ )

chapter seven

Scorpius Malfoy walked hand-in-hand with Rose Granger-Weasley around Hogsmeade Saturday morning with a heavy sense of dread in his bones. They stopped at various shops around the village, and after allowing Rose to visit with her uncle George for some time, the two found themselves sitting beneath the shade of an old oak tree up on a hill near the Shrieking Shack.

He thought of how Albus had heard the stories about that shack, and he'd also heard the truth. He knew of his grandfather's best friend Remus being a werewolf. He'd heard Albus tell his father's stories of both their fathers' time at Hogwarts, and so being in front of the shack made him feel oddly calm - reminiscent even. In fact, everything about Hogsmeade reminded Scorpius of Albus. Everything always seemed to link to him in some way or another.

Rose sat beside Scorpius, sniffing a flower she'd bought from a cart in the village's centre. It was beautiful and very red. It looked as though it had been picked that morning, though the boy knew its beauty would not last long. Over time, everything withers and dies. In the present, however, the presence of the rose, both the flower and the person, felt suffocating.

Like thorns on a flower, Rose seemed attached to Scorpius more and more as of recent. He hated it, though he was too scared to do anything about it. Years ago, he'd been in love with the thought of Rose Granger-Weasley actually agreeing to a date with him, but now that it was happening, it was horrible.

During the time in which the two had been dating, Scorpius had had his interests elsewhere. In the beginning, Rose knew nothing of the journal the blond had found in his father's library, and so her feelings were genuine. Weeks later, when Scorpius wasn't able to continue the lie any longer, he believed that Rose would be understanding and would accept Scorpius' dilemma, but in fact, the opposite had happened.

Much like her father, Rose Granger-Weasley had never thought highly of the Malfoys, and now that one was dependent on her to keep his secret, she was drunk on the idea of being in control. She made the boy bend to her every will.

It had been a mutual agreement at first, no pay. Rose had another boy stalking her, and in order for him to back off, Scorpius had agreed to act as her boyfriend in exchange that she never tell a soul what he was going through. However, once the aforementioned boy had lost interest in Rose, the redheaded girl used her manipulative ways to ensure that Scorpius remained wrapped around her finger.

She began to blackmail him, though she was true to her word no matter how much she wanted to tell her father that her feelings for him were not genuine and that he should stop looking at her as if she were a disappointment. Ronald Weasley had never been thrilled with the knowledge that his only daughter chose to waste her time on a Malfoy. If this deal were to go south, she figured her father would be proud of her for finally showing that family who's boss.

Months had passed and Scorpius was still trapped. As long as he refused to come clean about what he'd read and the feelings that had sparked from it, he was trapped under Rose's command. And so, he decided, that if he ever did come clean to Albus, and things went horribly between them, he would never tell another person the tormenting thoughts in his mind again.

"Awfully quiet today, aren't you Scorpius?" Rose asked, twisting her flower between her thumb and forefinger, leaving the blond to wonder if the thorns even affected the wretched bitch.

"Why am I with you right now?" He rolled his eyes, putting distance between himself and the redhead. "Nobody's around, so there's no need to act."

"But acting is quite fun, especially when the role you're playing is entirely different than the role you're feeling." The young witch smirked.

"This role was never even meant to happen!" Scorpius exclaimed angrily. "I'm so tired of it."

"Then do something about it."

Scorpius' anger rolled away as quickly as it had come, and instead was replaced with fear, and denial.

"No, I couldn't. I can't. With the journal, I was never meant to see that, but I did. I read it, and-"

"And you saw that your father loved Harry Potter, and now you love his son." Rose finished, a knowing glint in her eyes.

"My father didn't love Harry Potter, Rose. He admired him, yes, but he didn't love him. The only person my father's ever loved was my mother, but she was too fragile for life itself, and so she left him too. Just like everyone else. Everyone always leaves us, hurts us. I refuse to be hurt again." Scorpius explained, a hard look falling over his face.

"Okay, fine. Your father didn't love my uncle, but you love Albus. Love and admiration are two very different things, yes, but they have similar enchantments that ignite the fire within each other." Rose claimed disinterestedly, going so far as to picking at the dirt under her nails.

"What I feel for Albus is entirely none of your business, Weasley." Scorpius snapped.

"Actually, Malfoy, it's entirely my business. Incase you forgot, it's me that is the barrier between him knowing or not knowing. And believe me, with how often you infuriate me, I'd love to spill your secret, but still a Weasley is a person of their word, and I will not let myself stoop to such a low, Slytherin-esque level." Rose stood, preparing to walk away, and Scorpius stood after her, planting his feet into the ground as he yelled:

"Fuck you, Rose!"

The witch smirked and turned, a playful look in her horrible, twisted eyes. She placed her hand on her hip, and pursued her lips, drawing out the moment while Scorpius contemplated if he'd just messed absolutely everything up.

"Now," she chirped. "Why ever would I want to do that?"