The Red Rose That Has Green Thorns

It was as we sat down to our early lunch that I realized, for the first time, that the time frame of my earliest vision on what I feared was about to happen had been a bit off. This was later than I had felt it would happen, but now I had this certainty that whatever it was would come to pass in the next few hours, if it was meant to be. And another thing I realized, which caused my bite of potatoes to halt in midair, was that in my earliest vision, Hagrid had been the one to carry the prone form – me – but in the more recent ones, it seemed to be Scorpius. It was just more proof that the future was a volatile, ever-changing thing.

I didn’t want a burden like that, like carrying my limp form, placed upon my boyfriend. I couldn’t imagine what it would do to a person to have to carry the girl he had feelings for in his arms, fatally wounded, and have to face her parents when he got to them.

“Rose?”

I blinked, looking up at the face across from me, which happened to be Astoria Malfoy.

“Yes?” I asked, cursing myself for getting so distracted at a time like this.

“Are you quite all right?” she reached across and placed her hand over mine. “You seem awfully distracted and upset about something.”

I forced myself to let out what sounded like a nervous chuckle and said to the beautiful blonde woman, “It’s nothing! I was just thinking about the task that’s coming up and wondering how we’re going to get through it all. It’s so different from the last two! Although Scorp and I did pretty much start the second task away from each other. It’s going to be different.”

“I’m sure you’ll do fine,” Astoria assured me.

“Thanks, Mrs. Malfoy,” I smiled at her.

She turned to say something to her mother-in-law, Narcissa, as someone nudged me from the left and I turned to look at Scorpius, raising my eyebrow inquisitively.

“What was that about?”

“I got lost in thought and your mum thought there was something wrong,” I explained sheepishly. He gave me one of his calculating stares as I continued, “I guess my nerves are getting to me now. My stomach is a little unsettled.”

It wasn’t a lie. I was feeling kind of sick to my stomach, the roiling and pitching making me wonder if I’d be able to keep my food down for very long once we actually headed out to the scene of the task. I knew that it would be much harder when we headed out there because of the sense of impending doom, but I would have to put on my brave face.

Scorpius, too smart for his own good, put his arm around me and pulled me closer, tucking his head against mine and whispering into my hair close to my ear, “You can tell me what’s really on your mind after this is all over.”

I laughed a little shakily, not forced at all, and nodded to him.

I couldn’t tell him that I wasn’t sure if I’d make it through. Scenes from my visions kept flitting through my mind, each more vivid than the last, and I was beginning to really worry that this may be the last. Despite all of that, I couldn’t simply give it all up now that we were so close. Scorpius and I were leading the tournament, with the other two teams right on our tails. I wouldn’t let him down right now. I was afraid of what was coming, sure, but I also wholeheartedly embraced the idea that the future could change based on whatever decisions someone made.

He placed a satisfied kiss in my hair and I leaned against him for comfort. He didn’t move his arm, choosing to utilize his ambidextrous quality to eat with his left hand. Mum, who was sitting beside me, smiled at me with a wink and I just grinned back at her. Dad on her other side was pointedly ignoring the contact between my boyfriend and I. I had a feeling that he was grudgingly coming to terms with the fact that he couldn’t stop me from dating Scorpius if I had my heart set on it. I was just as pigheaded as he was – one of the useful Weasley traits I had inherited. Although sometimes it could be annoying to others around me, especially when another pigheaded person and I held opposing views and were trying to prove the other wrong.

“Rosie,” James said to me, sitting across from Dad, “what time is the task starting, again?”

“Well, if you’d be patient, I’m sure Professor Collins would tell everyone,” I said teasingly, but then I took pity on my older cousin and told him, “but they want the champions to head down at about eleven-thirty because the task starts at noon. Right now, it’s…” I looked down at my watch, “…eleven-fifteen. So we have fifteen more minutes before we have to be down there.”

“Which means you should probably leave in the next few minutes then, doesn’t it?” Teddy asked from between James and Astoria, and Scorpius nodded, Draco dropping a hand on his son’s shoulder from the opposite side.

“We’ll probably walk down with the others,” I said, glancing at Scorpius for confirmation.

“Yeah,” he agreed, “So whenever they start to get up is probably when we ought to do the same.”

“Or you could start heading there and they’d follow,” Mum suggested, not surprisingly. She was very strict about being punctual.

“Mum, we’ve got time,” I told her soothingly, leaning out of Scorpius’s embrace to hang childishly on her arm. “Did you want me out of your hair so soon? I’m hurt!” I feigned heartache by dramatically clutching my heart. Teddy and James rolled their eyes at me and Mum just sighed. Astoria, across from me, covered her mouth with a hand to hide her grin.

“You know that isn’t it, Rose,” Mum told me.

While all this was happening, I noticed that Scorpius had been having a quiet discussion with his father, but I didn’t pay it much heed, choosing to focus on my family for the time being. I believed in changing futures, but I also wanted to make sure that the last memories made with my family were good ones just in case.

I felt a hand fall on my right shoulder and pulled my attention away from talking briefly with Teddy to look at the owner of the offending appendage. Dad was standing behind me, looking almost as if something was bothering him.

“Did you need something, Dad?”

“Come and talk to me for a few minutes, okay, Rosie?” he asked, holding out his hand to me. I took his hand and let him help me to my feet, the two of us walking just outside the doors of the Great Hall. In fact, we were in the same little niche that Scorpius and I had been in when he’d kissed me for the first time. Of course, that was a rather odd thing to think when I was about to have a conversation with my dad, so I shook it out of my head and turned my attention back to my father.

“You wanted to talk, Daddy?” I asked, calling him by the childish name that I only called him when we were alone. It made me feel closer to my father, in a way.

My father stayed silent, looking down at the ground with his hands in his pockets. I could tell he was fishing around for how to begin the conversation, so I didn’t press him any farther but imitated his stance, waiting. I understood my father enough to know that sometimes he needed a moment to get his thoughts in order, and I was willing to give him that time.

Finally, he sighed and held his arms out for a hug, offering me a little half-grin. Smiling back at him, I stepped up and returned the embrace. I felt like a little girl again, once more enveloped in the comfort and warmth of my father’s arms. He placed his chin on the top of my head and took a breath.

“Rosie, he means a lot to you, doesn’t he?”

I didn’t need to ask who he was talking about.

“Yes.”

Ronald Weasley took another breath, as if steadying himself for anything. “And it means a lot to you that the Malfoys and I get along, doesn’t it?”

“That would be nice, yes,” I offered with a little chuckle. I felt his chest rumble in return. Dad then pushed me back, holding me at arm’s length and searching my face for anything he didn’t like.

“You know I’d do anything for you, Rosie,” Dad said, then sighed once more. “But most of all, I want you to be happy. And if Malfoy is what makes you happy, then I’ve got nothing against him. He’s a decent kid, and I heard from Harry who had it from Albus that he’d like to be an Auror, so he can’t be all bad.”

I snorted at this and he offered me a more mischievous grin, rather than the halfhearted one he’d offered earlier.

“I get it, Dad,” I said grinningly, stepping back in to hug him. “You don’t have to worry about me.”

“If that’s settled, then,” Dad once more pulled back, looking at me closely again.

“What?”

“The Third Task,” he said simply, and I knew what was running through his mind now. He started in, “It’s going to be dangerous. It’s not too late to tell them you don’t think you can handle it, Rosie.”

“I’m not going to do that to everyone,” I retorted, feigning indignation. “Besides, I’m a Weasley, Dad. I’ve got stubbornness issues. You know I won’t give up once I’ve got my mind set on something. And I can’t just give up on Scorpius, not when we’re so close. We’ve been waiting all year for this.”

Dad sighed.

“I was expecting that,” he admitted grudgingly, “but that doesn’t mean I like it any better.”

“You should!” I said, shoving his shoulder a little. When he looked at me inquisitively, I grinned widely and said, “You should like it better because it means I’m not a quitter!”

I actually got my father to laugh at that, and with a hand on my shoulder, he began to steer me back into the Great Hall.

“Just remember, Rose,” he said, not calling me by the pet name that he and the rest of the family usually did, “stay safe.”

I wondered if it was just me, though, or whether Dad was more edgy than he should have been when Scorpius and I got up and headed down toward the Champions’ Tent with the other four champions about five minutes later. I saw Mum put a hand on his arm and whisper something to him, but he just shook his head and looked up, perhaps sensing me watching him. He raised a hand, and I waved back.

My fears were coming back now.

Something definitely wasn’t right.