"The Straight and Narrow" - A Gift for birdseyeview

[a_smrw_gift]

Title: The Straight & Narrow
Author: lunalovepotter
Gift For: birdseyeview
Summary: Rose never imagined that she would have to choose between her family and the love of her life.
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: explicit m/f sex 
Word Count: 4121
Author's Note: I tried to make more of your prompts fit, birdseyeview, but I hope you enjoy this nonetheless. Thanks to my great beta. :)  


Rose Weasley sat in her favorite corner of the library, at a small table by the window with a clear view of the grounds presently blanketed with a thick covering of snow. The sky was thick with clouds, signaling another flurry was imminent. Her table was shielded on two sides by bookshelves to provide her with the privacy she required in order to study. Open in front of her was the Advanced Muggle Studies book over which she had been poring for the last two hours while taking detailed notes. A four-page report was due next week, and she was already falling behind. But she couldn't concentrate. While normally she was quite adept at blocking out the residual noise of her schoolmates - a skill she'd inherited from her mother - lately her defenses were down. This was because for what had to be the first time in her life, she was in love. The only down side to it was she couldn't tell anyone.

Rose tucked a lock of curly shoulder-length auburn hair behind her ear. There were a lot of things about Scorpius Malfoy that surprised her, not the least of which was the fact that she was completely besotted with him after a relatively short three months of secretly dating. Rose didn't fall for boys very easily. It wasn't that she didn't like boys, but rather because she didn't much see the point of dating them. The process was tedious, placing entirely too much pressure on each party to impress the other. It was a showcase; and while at school, in which everything was a popularity contest, it defeated the objective of getting to know someone for who they really were. So Rose focused instead on her studies, to prepare for the real world. She would meet someone eventually, so up until the start of her seventh year it didn't fuss her too much.

But Scorpius broke down all of her defenses. While the tall, lanky boy was a dead-ringer for his father with pale blond hair and chiseled features, and had his mother's deep blue eyes, Scorpius was nothing like his aristocratic parents, Draco and Asteria, both of whom held high-ranking positions at the Ministry of Magic. He didn't care about money. He didn't put on airs. He genuinely enjoyed talking about subjects like politics, books, and the arts. He believed in equal rights for all forms of magical beings. Meanwhile his mother was piloting a measure that would require all registered werewolves be classified as violent offenders, thereby decreasing their chances of obtaining employment except in the most dangerous or undesired professions. Rose's mum was Asteria's staunchest opponent; they'd been at odds over the issue for weeks.

Rose's parents worked for the Ministry of Magic, as well. Her mum was Senior Magistrate in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and her dad was a decorated Auror. But they were far from aristocratic. All their lives, Rose and her brother Hugo (as well as their cousins) had learned to ignore the Malfoys, particularly their ostentatious lifestyle. While dad barely concealed his disgust, mum practiced polite acceptance, which she passed on to Rose and her younger brother, Hugo. Although the younger Weasley was beginning to show signs of his father's intolerance, which Rose found troubling.

Someone withdrew a book from a shelf behind her. Already distracted, Rose set down her quill and sighed impatiently. At this rate she would never finish.  Then she felt a whisper of warm breath on her neck, while two slender hands took hold of her upper arms. She caught the scent of musky cologne that she recognized immediately.

"Leave the studying and let's go have some fun," Scorpius Malfoy murmured close to her ear. A shiver ran up Rose's spine.

"Did anyone see you come over here?" she asked, even as her mouth twitched. Without looking at him she closed the textbook, capped the inkbottle, and put away her notes.

"What difference does it make, we'll be coming out for the world - and our parents - to see soon enough." Scorpius leaned over her. He kissed her cheek while softly tucking the same lock of hair behind her ear that Rose had done just a minute earlier.

"Of course, but there's no need to rock the boat now." Rose leaned back, resting her head against his stomach. She looked up into his eyes, and felt immediately content.

Scorpius smiled, his porcelain skin flooding with a healthy pink hue. "Have I mentioned how happy you make me, Rose Weasley?" he asked. He bent to kiss her forehead.

At the touch of his lips, Rose felt a pool of warmth in her belly. "You make me happy, too, Scorpius Malfoy. Now where are we going?"

"Since it's snowing I thought we'd meet in our other favorite place."

"Wicked." Rose grinned. The promise of being alone with him made her shiver with excitement.

"All right, meet me at the tapestry on the seventh floor in ten minutes?"

"Ten minutes," she echoed, and then she felt the air move as he disappeared. Scorpius always moved so quickly, it startled her. With him went that sense of completeness that Rose was never fully aware of until after he was gone. She felt anxious, her heart fluttering as she stowed the supplies in her schoolbag. She was so happy, yet worry constantly poked at her. What she wanted was for people to accept that she and Scorpius were together. But mostly she wanted the animosity between their families to end. The loathing her dad felt toward Draco Malfoy ran deep - on more than one occasion he had expressed regret that he, mum, and Uncle Harry had saved Draco's life in the war. Even Mum had long since given up trying to convince him to let it go.

Rose wasn't naive enough to believe that dad's concern for her happiness would cause him to suddenly release those feelings about the Malfoys; in fact, his reaction to learning of her relationship with Scorpius so concerned Rose at times that she thought about calling off the 'coming out' over the Christmas holiday altogether, and simply waiting until she graduated.

Not to mention the fact that Scorpius' father was sure to be livid at the prospect of his pureblood son being linked to a half-blood with a muggle-born mother, and a Weasley no less. Draco Malfoy had been nothing but civil to Rose in the handful of times they'd had the occasion to meet, but she was always able to catch the condescending glint in his eyes when he greeted her. He didn't speak his mind only because he owed a life debt to her dad. Yes, it was certain to be a messy scene once it all came out in the open. If she wasn't so completely in love Rose might have stopped it. But she'd come too far to back away now.

She slung the schoolbag over her right shoulder. She was in love with Scorpius, and he was in love with her. That was what really mattered. With a wavering smile she strode out of the library to meet him.

Their usual indoor meeting place was the Room of Requirement. It was the one and only place within the castle walls where they could have the privacy they needed. Rose heard all the stories from her parents and Uncle Harry about how it had served as a training center for Dumbledore's Army; it had also served as the site of her parents' questionably timed first kiss. So in Rose's mind it was fitting that she'd given herself to Scorpius for the first time one month ago in that same room. From the moment their bodies joined Rose knew he was the only one she would ever be with.

When he caught sight of her, Scorpius dislodged his lean frame from the wall, his eyes lighting up. His Slytherin robes hung open on his shoulders, and the tails of his white oxford hung out under the hem of his v-neck jumper. The silver and green tie was hanging loose at his throat, the top two buttons of his shirt open to expose the slender white column of his throat. He was absolutely beautiful. Rose focused completely on his impossibly handsome face, which drew her toward him like a magnet. She didn't realize how much she wanted to be with him until she saw the way he looked at her after they had been apart. It didn't matter if it had been for five days, or five minutes. He always made her feel as though she was the loveliest witch on earth.

Rose dropped her schoolbag, leaping into his arms almost before he was ready to receive her.

He stumbled back a half step before righting himself with his arms curled underneath her bum. Rose locked her ankles around his waist. She bent her face into his neck, inhaling the intoxicating scent of him while she combed her fingers through his silken white-blond hair. She kissed him at the juncture of his neck and shoulder. His skin was always so soft.

"I can't wait until we can do this out in the open. Then I will ravish you right here up against this wall," Scorpius breathed, his hands sliding up her back. "My Rosie..."

She giggled, rolling her hips against the pronounced bulge in his trousers. "My Scorpio," she echoed, knowing he hated the pet name she'd adopted for him. True to form he sighed imperceptibly, but then he kissed her neck.

"Come on, then. Let's get inside," he said.

The moment the door closed behind them, Scorpius cupped Rose's face in his hands, delicately trailing his fingers along her cheekbones as his eyes skimmed over her face. There was no sense of urgency, no rush in the way he caressed her jaw and fondled her chin, tilting her head up. It was as though he was memorizing her features, committing them to memory. They had all the time in the world. It made Rose ache to watch him; she only hoped that day would come.

"I love you," he said.

"I love you," Rose answered confidently. She leaned into him, cupping his bottom with her right hand while fitting her crotch comfortably against his erection.

"No matter what happens after we tell our families, we'll be together." His hands were on her waist, and then he cupped his palms against her thighs, sliding them under her skirt. He glided his fingertips across the pulsing mound between her legs. When he touched her clit, Rose bucked her hips, crying out at the tingling waves of heat rushing through her lower body. Every time he touched her was like the first time all over again. Her body came alive.

"No matter what," she said. Without taking her eyes off him she unfastened his belt, pulling down the zip of his trousers. She curled her slender wrist into the opening, cupping his erection through his shorts. Scorpius' hips contracted. His groin tightened, and his erection swelled impressively in her hand.

"Rose..." his voice was tinged with want. He thumbed her slit aggressively through her knickers. She nudged his hand, whimpering. So he pulled down her knickers, thrusting the first two fingers of his right hand into her. Rose squealed, her body tightening around his hand. Scorpius aligned his body with hers, pinning her to the wall just with the weight of his chest. He brought his right leg up, hitching his knee on her waist. He dug deeper with his hand, thrusting in and out of her while she bucked her hips, moaning, her head thrown back. Her hair fell wildly into her face. Prickly waves of intense heat pooled in her belly, fanning out through her entire body.

"Oh blimey, Scorpi-OH!" Rose screamed as his other hand cupped her breast, kneading it through her jumper. It wasn't going to take much more to send her over the edge, and when she did she wanted his cock inside her. Her fingers contracted around his length, pulling it out of his shorts. She cradled the hard, velvety shaft in her hand and guided it toward her opening as Scorpius' fingers continued to pump into her. Her heart was racing, and her breath came in gasps.

"You. Want you...." she forced the words from her throat, her dark brown eyes locking with his deep blue eyes. Scorpius' mouth twitched. Then his lips parted and he bent to kiss her neck, gliding his tongue along the column of her throat. She moaned, arching her back but refused to let go of his erection. "You."

He looked at her and smiled. Then he nicked her lower lip between his teeth, tugging gently while he simultaneously withdrew his fingers. Her hands stayed on his cock until he was sheathed inside her almost completely. She traced her hands up his back, catching the fabric of his robe with her nails. Scorpius grunted. A lock of silvery blond hair fell over his eye. Clenching his jaw he thrust forward purposefully, knocking the breath out of her. He yanked up her jumper, sliding his hand between the openings in her blouse to fondle her breasts. He pinched and rolled the hard nipples through the stretchy satin fabric of her bra.

"So beautiful," he murmured, peppering her throat with kisses.

"Yes...oh sweet Merlin...yes..." she moaned. Her body was on fire. Scorpius' lower body jerked erratically for a moment before he stilled. Rose grabbed his shoulders, holding him close until he burst free inside her, screaming her name with his voice bouncing off the walls.

Scorpius held her close as she rode out the waves of her orgasm. Trembling, Rose dropped her head into his shoulder. She clung to him, pulling away the confines of his robes to touch the certainty of his warm body beneath the jumper. She would hold onto him as long as she had to. He nudged her cheek and then he caught her mouth in a long, deep kiss that seemed to last for hours.

"Let's never leave," she said, when their mouths parted momentarily to catch their breaths. Even though it was irrational, part of her didn't see any reason why they shouldn't just stay there in that room and forget the rest of the world even existed.

He smiled faintly, and for a fleeting moment it even looked as though he might agree with her. He moved the hair off her cheeks and kissed her. "Soon we'll have the whole world to explore," he promised. "We'll leave Hogwarts, go wherever we want, and do whatever we want."

"That sounds brilliant." Rose leafed her fingers through his hair, lifting it off his forehead. The determined look in his eyes thrilled her, sending chills down her spine. They would be together forever. She was sure of it.

* * *

They decided to tell their parents separately, but simultaneously - the chosen time was two days after Christmas, once the family festivities had settled down. After dinner, when Hugo had gone upstairs to his room, Rose sat down with her parents to talk to them.

No sooner had the first syllable of Scorpius' name left Rose's lips, her dad's face begin to redden. While in contrast her mum's face went ashen. She put her hand on his wrist to calm him, but it didn't appear to be working as dad's hands clenched into fists. His jaw clenched.

"He's not at all like his father. If you got to know him a little bit, you'd see that he's really lovely-"

"No. Absolutely not!" Ron Weasley declared in a burst of anger. "Anyone but him. No!"

"Ron, calm down. At least listen to her," Hermione Granger-Weasley replied. She shot a worried look at Rose, who was trembling under her father's fierce gaze. Rose felt sick; there was an acidic burning in her throat. She knew that it wouldn't be easy to convince her father that Scorpius was the one. She would have make him realize it, no matter how long it took and no matter how much it hurt.

"Dad, it's all right. We're in love."

"No, you're not." Her father's voice was wooden, which she found even more frightening than when he yelled.

"Yes, we are!" she shot back. She'd never talked back to him so vehemently before, but she couldn't help it. He had to understand. She wasn't going to back down.

"No you're not, because no daughter of mine could ever love a Malfoy," her father spat.

"He's a foul git, and that's all he will ever be." He stood up, pushing back his chair so roughly that it toppled over with a loud clatter. The table shook, rattling the plates left from that evening's dinner.

Rose felt as though she'd been stabbed. She was so shocked that she couldn't speak. He may as well have disowned her.

Her mother looked aghast. She jumped to her feet, wildly grabbing her father's arm. "Ron! How could you say something like that to her? Take it back, now!"  
"You're telling me that you approve of this?" he said, rounding on her.

Mum dropped her arm but stood her ground. "No, I'm not saying that. What I am saying is that I don't think your acting like a buffoon will help anything. It had to be very difficult for Rose to come to us with this, given everything that's happened - "

"I don't care, Hermione."

"Ron - "

"No," he said flatly.

From across the table Rose watched with a rising sense of futility while her parents bickered. She felt such a rush of love toward her mum for standing up for her, because she knew it had to be hard to push dad on this. Even though her mum wasn't happy about the news, the mere fact that she was able to put it aside and just be a mum meant everything.

Rose shot a pleading look at her mum with tears in her eyes. "Mum please, try and make him understand."

Her father directed the full force of his dark eyes on her. "Oh I understand. I understand enough to know that you're never going to see him again, Rosie. Not as long as there's a scrap of breath left in my body."

"Daddy, please!" She hadn't called him daddy since she was eleven.

Her father flinched imperceptibly, but otherwise his expression didn't change. "No. You're never going anywhere around him again. Even if it means we have to take you out of Hogwarts early, and put you on home study."

Rose's body went cold. "You wouldn't do that. You couldn't," she said, looking at her mother for help. "Mum?"

"No, we're not doing that," her mother interjected.

"Hermione, you and I both know Rose doesn't even need to be there. She's smarter than the whole lot of them."

"Ron, that doesn't matter. We're not pulling her out of school so close to the end of her last term, or taking her away from her friends."

"Well she's bloody well not going back there; not if Scorpius Malfoy is going to be anywhere near her."

Rose got to her feet. Her knees were so weak that she had to hold onto the edge of the table. Her head was light, and she felt disconnected from her body as though she was watching herself from outside. "Doesn't it matter what I want? Doesn't the fact that I love him, and that I want to spend my life with him count for anything? Dad, I know how you feel about the Malfoys. My feelings for Scorpius don't excuse all the foul things that his father's done. I love him, not his father. I'm happy. Don't you want me to be happy?"

Her mum withdrew from where she stood, and went to Rose. The sight of her mum's open arms was like a beacon. Rose went to her immediately, burying her face in her shoulder. Her mother smelled of ink, parchment, and leather. It was more comforting than any soap or perfume. Her mum stroked her hair, and kissed the top of her head. Even though she knew everything was far from all right, Rose felt safe.

After an extended silence, her father cleared his throat. "No. Not if you being happy depends on being with a Malfoy."

"Ron!" Her mum sounded scandalized.

Her father's words were a dagger to Rose's heart. It took all the strength she had to pull out of her mum's arms and face her father with her hands clenched into fists at her sides. Her heart pounded so quickly that she could barely hear her own voice over the pulsing in her ears. "Well if I can't be with him I'd rather be dead!" Without looking at her mother's horrified face, Rose turned on her heel and stormed upstairs to her room.

Once there she locked the door and went to her desk, where she pulled out her writing utensils and scratched out a note on a piece of parchment. She was so agitated that she had trouble holding on to the quill; it kept slipping out of her fingers, and her penmanship was barely legible. Tears blotched the ink. Finally after blocking out line after line, she managed to write:

"S - We need to meet. It's urgent. I hope you're all right. I love you. - R."

Rose released her gray-spotted owl, Penelope, from her cage, fastening the scroll to her leg with trembling fingers. "Be careful, Penny," she whispered. Penelope nicked Rose's knuckle affectionately. Rose stroked the owl for a moment before sending her off into the cold night.

She stood at the window for what seemed like hours, but when she looked at the clock it told her she'd been there barely more than five minutes. Through the floor she heard her parents' voices. Their voices were raised enough for Rose to know they were arguing, but she couldn't hear what they were saying. The only word she understood clearly was "No", which her dad repeated frequently and emphatically.

Penelope returned twenty minutes later with Scorpius' response. "R - I'm all right. Things didn't go well but that's to be expected. Pack a bag and meet me at the Leaky Cauldron as soon as you can. I'll get us a room for the night. We have to leave. There's no other way. I love you. - S.   PS: Send your answer back with Penny. I'll be waiting for you."

We have to leave. Rose read that line several times before she could tear her eyes away from the note. She sank onto the edge of her bed, knees wobbling. Her hands shook so much that she couldn't hold on to the note and it fluttered to the floor by her feet. Penny perched on the bedpost to preen her damp, snowy feathers.

She loved Scorpius, and she wouldn't be able to live without him. He was like the air she needed to breathe. But she never expected she would have to choose between him and her family. Downstairs she could hear dishes clanking as her mum prepared them for washing, which meant the arguing was over, at least for now. She hadn't heard dad come upstairs so he was probably off flying, which he always did to clear his head. Perhaps he went to Uncle Harry's to ask him to the pub for a pint. Rose felt a pang of longing in her chest. If she did this, she might never see her family again.

She glanced at the door, and then at the open window. Scorpius was waiting for her right that very moment at the Leaky Cauldron with his entire life packed into an overnight bag. There's no other way.

But there had to be another way, Rose fretted. She couldn't possibly choose. The only ones she loved more than Scorpius were her family. She would convince him to stay. They just needed a little more time. Making a decision like this too hastily would only do more harm than good. Satisfied with her decision, she picked up the note, went to her desk and scrawled out her reply: "S - I'm coming. We'll talk more. I love you. - R". She sent Penny off with the note, watching for a few moments until long after she could no longer see her treasured pet. The walls of her room closed around her like a warm blanket, calming her, and making her feel safe.

Everything would be all right. It had to be. Turning away from the window, Rose went to the closet to pack her overnight bag.