FIC: Remnants; Chapter Twelve
Title: Remnants
Characters: Andromeda, Teddy, Scorpius, Rose, Malfoys, Weasleys
Rating: PG
Length: 1836
Summary: The epilogue gave us hints of Teddy/Victoire and Rose/Scorpius. This is the development of those relationships through the eyes of Andromeda.
Chapter Twelve: Rose
Realistically, though, neither Ron nor Lucius were at all okay with it. Lucius was much too set in his ways to be alright with his grandson’s relationship with a Weasley, and Ron was much too protective of his daughter to ever be fine with her being anywhere near the Malfoys. Yet, after the “discussion” in my living room, they both became quite skilled at pretending to be fine with it.
Frankly, I didn’t care how any of them truly felt about it so long as Rose and Scorpius were happy. I knew that Lucius had only pretended to be fine with it so that Scorpius wouldn’t hate him, and I know that Ron’s behavior had nothing to do with liking Scorpius-he loved Rose far too much to make her unhappy about her boyfriend.
I suspected that Hermione wasn’t overly thrilled by it all, but she never would have said anything to Rose about it unless asked. Hermione believed in letting her daughter form her own thoughts and opinions, a parenting philosophy that I greatly respected.
Molly and Arthur, well, they were still highly displeased; I suspected that nothing I could do or say would diminish the animosity which had been built up over the previous six or so decades. They made an effort to get to know Scorpius, but I knew they were having trouble separating him from his family.
Nevertheless, time went on, and Rose and Scorpius happily continued on with their relationship. Their families learned to deal with it; in fact, I was fairly sure that the Weasleys had grown rather grudgingly fond of Scorpius as the years progressed; he did have Teddy and Victoire’s endorsements (not to mention mine), after all.
I don’t know how the Malfoys felt about Rose; the whole torturing incident made her rather uncomfortable around them. Astoria once mentioned to me that she thought that Rose was a “lovely girl,” Draco merely smiled rather agreeably as she told me this. That’s all I really got from the two of them about that particular subject.
Things continued to progress, until one day in their early twenties, Rose and Scorpius announced their engagement. This was met with a decidedly mixed response.
The grandparents involved put on a highly transparent show of acceptance and pleasure at the idea. I had no doubt that they were already plotting various ways to stake their claims on the guest list and the possible children that would be produced by the union.
Ron, Hermione, Draco, and Astoria put on a much better show of acceptance than their parents (or in-laws as the case may be), but I could tell that they too were already plotting against each other in terms of the grandchildren.
Nobody openly discussed this particular issue until Molly bought it up while I was paying her a visit.
“They had better not be difficult about the children,” Molly said rather suddenly as she peeled a potato. I had the distinct impression that she had been waiting to bring this up with me for quite a time.
“It may be a good idea to allow Ron, Hermione, Draco, and Astoria to figure out how to deal with the grandchildren issue before you start plotting face-offs with Narcissa over it.”
“I’m not plotting anything Andromeda, I’m just thinking ahead.”
“Do you really have such little faith in my intelligence, Molly? I know that you’re just looking for an excuse to have a fight with her.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said in an overly casual tone as she turned her back on me and returned to the potatoes.
Apparently our conversation was over.
Lucius responded in the same general manner as Molly had, except he made no attempt to be at all casual or sly about it.
“So, Scorpius is engaged to that Weasley girl. I suppose you’re the one I can thank for this,” Lucius sneered at me over tea and biscuits.
“If you mean that I’m the person you should thank for assisting your grandson in securing the woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with, then, yes, I suppose you should be thanking me, and Teddy too, we can’t forget Teddy.”
Narcissa said nothing and took a long sip of tea.
“So, this Rose, you say that she’s a nice girl?” she asked me rather sharply after finishing her-extraordinarily long-sip of tea.
“She’s a lovely girl; very well spoken and intelligent. Scorpius is lucky to have her.”
“I’d say that she’s lucky to have Scorpius,” Narcissa snapped.
I raised my eyebrows and said nothing. A lengthy silence ensued before Lucius spoke up again.
“I dread to think of what my mother would say about all of this.”
“Your mother was a nasty bitch who dealt with the reality of her sad, loveless existence by making everyone around her miserable. She was nearly as bad as Rabastan’s mum.”
“Fine. I dread to think of what your parents would think.”
“They’d be horrified. Obviously. People have been thrown out of our family for marrying a Weasley.”
Narcissa looked mildly surprised by this.
“Who has been thrown out of our family for marrying a Weasley?”
“Cedrella Black.”
“Who?” she responded with a blank stare.
“Cedrella Black was thrown out in the 1930’s after she married Septimus Weasley.”
“I’ve never heard of her in my life.”
“Well, our family didn’t exactly make a point of educating us about people who had been disowned over the years.”
“How did you find out then?”
“Uncle Alphard told me about her. She was our grandfather’s cousin, I think. But she’s not the point of this. The point is that, yes, our parents would have been disgusted, but that era, and their way of thinking is considered to be very archaic and old-fashioned nowadays, so I suggest that the two of you learn to deal with it and get over the girl’s surname.”
Neither of them said anything.
The next stage of Weasley/Malfoy drama asserted itself a couple of weeks after my discussion with Lucius and Narcissa. I had found myself, once again, sitting in Molly Weasley’s kitchen, and I was getting ready to leave when the subject of the guest list came up.
“I have to go spar with the Malfoys over their guest list,” I sighed as I stood up to leave.
“I won’t have any of their Death Eater sympathizing French relatives at my granddaughter’s wedding,” Molly snarled dangerously.
“Don’t worry, Molly, I’ll see to it that they’re not invited.”
“Yes, see to it that you do,” said Molly rather unkindly.
“No. I don’t want them there,” said Scorpius about an hour after I had left the Burrow.
“We have to invite them Scorpius, it’s polite.”
“I don’t care. I don’t want them at my wedding.”
“But they’re your family.”
“They’re a load of cowardly purebloods that ran away to France at the first signs of trouble,” he snorted. Lucius looked gravely insulted.
“You do realize that you just insulted my cousins, your grandmother’s aunt, and all of their families, don’t you?”
"Yeah. I just insulted a couple of Rosiers, one or two obscure Malfoys, and that Lestrange woman. Big deal.”
“I hate that she’s still alive,” I interjected. It was true; the fact that Bella’s mother-in-law was still alive never failed to irritate me.
Lucius ignored me and kept his eyes on his grandson.
"Yes you did insult them. You just insulted your own family.”
“They’re not my family; they’re your family. I barely even know them. If they come they’ll be nasty to Rose, and I really don’t feel like inviting a load of Voldemort sympathizers to a wedding that Harry Potter will be attending.”
“Oh, so you’re embarrassed of us,” accused Lucius.
“Dad, talk to him,” Scorpius begged.
“Erm, Dad, perhaps it wouldn’t be such a good idea to invite them all. After all, they would be rather nasty about the bride, and her family is paying for the wedding, after all,” said Draco in reasonable sort of voice (the Weasleys had had offered to finance the wedding; they claimed that it was because it was traditional for the bride’s family to pay, but we all knew that they knew that their offer would give them the upper hand in certain matters, like the guest list, for example).
“Which is ironic if you take into account that we have more money,” Lucius sneered. Narcissa nodded in agreement.
“Don’t insult my fiancés grandparents. It sets a bad precedent.”
“Oh, so now they’re you fiancé’s grandparents. Are you going to make a habit of kissing up to the Weasleys?”
Scorpius flushed unpleasantly.
“I thoroughly intend to get along well with my future in-laws, grandfather. I’m not going to invite the mother of the man who is said to have been one of the Death Eaters who killed Mrs. Weasley’s brothers to my wedding,” said Scorpius in reference to Evan Rosier’s suspected role in the deaths of Gideon and Fabian, “and I’m not going to invite the mother-in-law of the woman who tortured my future mother-in-law to my wedding.”
Judging by the expressions on Draco’s, Narcissa’s, and Lucius’ faces, Scorpius had hit below the belt with that last remark. I was under the impression that the Malfoys had a sort of unspoken agreement not to mention what had happened to Hermione during the war; Scorpius had obviously broken the rule.
“I am not happy about this Scorpius,” Lucius said, rather nastily, to Scorpius.
“Well you don’t have to be happy about it; it’s not your wedding. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get to work,” and with that, Scorpius left.
Lucius shot me a positively venomous glare, and stormed out of the room. I chuckled, and promptly left.
Molly was quite pleased when I informed her that none of the French “relatives” had made it onto the guest list.
The rest of the planning went relatively well; the grandparents managed to avoid each other and further conflicts so I didn’t have to deal with that, and the parents no longer seemed to dislike each other that much. They weren’t destined to become bosom buddies any time soon, but they could be in the same room without hurling insults at each other.
The ceremony went surprisingly smoothly. I could tell that Ron had a bit of trouble with the part in which he had to “give” Rose away (so to speak), and Scorpius’ side of the family looked mildly uncomfortable, and the Weasley side occasionally forgot not to sneer at the groom’s side. However, the ceremony and the reception passed without anyone being hexed or punched out over the wedding cake, so in my book it was a monumental success.
As the reception was winding down, I found my way to Lucius and Narcissa’s table; the two of them looked distinctly awkward amongst the multitude of Weasleys.
I smiled at the two of them and raised my wine glass in a toast.
“Toujours pur,” I said.