A/N: Hellooo, everybody! This is my first time writing Scorose, so do please let me know your thoughts. I wanted to take a more serious approach to the idea of Rose and Scorpius as a couple and explore some of the very real concerns their parents (especially Ron and Hermione) would have had. Special thanks to vancabreuniter for betaing this even though it's not one of her ships. And if anyone has any good Rose/Scorpius avatars to recommend, please let me know.

FYI, progress continues on my Camp NaNo piece, AKA the Eighth Year Fic, and I hope to have enough of the plot outlined/written to begin posting by the end of the year. I know, I know, that's two months later than I hoped for, but "the best laid plans of mice and men" etc. etc. If you're interested, a synopsis and excerpts are posted on the Camp NaNoWriMo website (link on my profile). Anyway, enjoy!

Dear Rose,

I've thought a lot about what you said on the train about not being ashamed of our relationship, and I've decided you're right—we should tell our parents. I'm inviting you, Hugo, and your mum and dad to have dinner with me and my parents at Malfoy Manor two weeks from tomorrow. I haven't actually spoken to Mum and Dad yet, but I did check with Misty, and both their schedules are clear.

Love,

Scorpius

P.S. I miss you already.

Rose Weasley read the letter from her boyfriend twice, then rushed down the stairs to where her parents were relaxing in the sitting room. It was her first night home after her sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and her brother Hugo, also a student there, had gone home with friends.

"Mum, Dad, I need to talk to you."

"What is it, Rosie?" Dad looked up from his newspaper immediately. Mum, probably finishing a paragraph, took a moment longer to set down her book.

"We've been invited to dinner at Malfoy Manor."

Dad gaped. Mum was speechless.

"Scorpius and I have been dating, and he's invited us all to have dinner and meet his parents."

"I'm sorry," Dad said with forced calm. "I thought you said you've been dating Malfoy."

Rose nodded, bracing herself for the explosion. Her father hated the Malfoys and never had a good word to say about any of them.

"No," he said flatly, tossing the newspaper aside. "I forbid it."

"I'm not asking your permission. I'm telling you about something that's already happened. Scorpius and I have been together for six months."

"Six months? Six months? You've been lying to me and your mother since Christmas?"

"Not lying," Rose said quickly. Her father gave her a pointed look, and she dropped her gaze.

"You have no business associating with a Malfoy. I can't help the fact that you're both in the same house, but I can keep him out of mine—and you out of his."

"You can not!" Rose stood up. "I'm seventeen years old, and I can go wherever I please!"

"The hell you can!" Dad exclaimed, standing up and towering over her. "You are never entering that house!"

Rose stomped her foot. "I am too! Scorpius has invited me, and I'm going, I don't care what you say! I know his dad was a jerk to you and Mum, but that was a long time ago, and that wasn't Scorpius. Mum will come with me, won't you, Mum?" Rose turned, and it was only then that she noticed her mother was stock-still and white-faced with one hand to the base of her throat. "Mum?"

But Mum didn't look at her, she looked at Dad. A pleading, desperate look that Rose didn't know how to interpret. Dad swore, viciously and fluently, and still, Mum didn't say a word. Rose's stomach began to churn. Something strange was going on, something that she didn't understand. Mum always scolded Dad when he used bad language, especially in front of her or Hugo, and that had been filthy.

"If this is about his family being Slytherins, don't you think it's time to give up the house rivalry?"

Dad glared at her, a harsh look she rarely saw. "This has nothing to do with house rivalry, Rose. I am not taking your mother back to Malfoy Manor and that's final."

Back to Malfoy Manor? What did that mean? "I just want you to give Scorpius a chance, and you're being stupid!" Rose cried. "My parents, the great war heroes, are nothing but foolish, bigoted cowards who are afraid of a house!"

"Rose!" Mum had found her voice at last, but Rose wasn't listening. Before either of her parents could stop her, she ran out of the house and turned on the spot.

Rose stood on the hill overlooking the Burrow and tried to calm down. She had Disapparated to the first place she thought of, but she didn't want to drag her grandparents into this. Dad was being completely unreasonable. It was just dinner! She was trying to do the right thing, to tell the truth and avoid having to sneak around all summer, and he was acting like she was going out with a Death Eater or something. She took a deep breath. And why wouldn't Mum stick up for her? Not that she and her mother never argued, but it was usually about stupid stuff; wearing her mittens or straightening her wardrobe or not doodling in her school books. Rose stared down at the crooked house and thought. Uncle Harry would take her side; her godfather let her get away with anything. Aunt Ginny said he'd been wrapped around Rose's little finger since the first time Mum put her in his arms when she was just a few minutes old. Uncle Harry would understand that she was being responsible by introducing her parents to Scorpius and meeting his parents herself.

Landing roughly just outside the garden fence (she was new to Apparating), Rose opened the gate, walked up the path, and knocked briskly on the Potters' front door.

"Rose!" Aunt Ginny stepped aside. "The kids are out back."

"Actually, I came to see Uncle Harry."

"He's in the study, love, go on back."

Rose smiled her thanks and knocked on a second door.

"Come in! Hello, Rose." Uncle Harry set down the scroll he was reading and came around his desk to greet her, then frowned. "Do your parents know you're here?"

Rose scowled. Uncle Harry let her get away with pretty much anything, but he always found out about it. It came with being an Auror.

"No," she said sullenly, crossing her arms and dropping into a chair without hugging him.

"It's your first night home. Fighting already?"

"Dad's being stupid."

"Mmm. And you just walked out?"

"I can Disapparate now. I have my license."

"I stand corrected," Uncle Harry said, amused, and Rose threw him a dark look. "Let me Floo them, let them know you're safe, and we can talk about it."

Rose kept her back turned while Uncle Harry made the Floo-call.

"Your mum looked pretty shook up. What happened?"

"They won't go to Malfoy Manor with me."

"I beg your pardon?" Uncle Harry had stopped dead, hands on the desk, halfway lowered into his chair.

The churning in Rose's stomach resumed. "To have dinner with Scorpius and his parents."

"You're dating Scorpius Malfoy?"

"Yes. And I don't see why that's such a big deal. Just because all of you didn't get along doesn't mean that Scorpius and I don't!"

"Oh, Rose." Uncle Harry sighed and sank the rest of the way into his chair. "What have your parents told you about the Malfoys?"

"Just that Mr. Malfoy was a git who hated you and made fun of Dad because he was poor and Mum because she was smart. And he was a Slytherin, so of course Mum and Dad hated him." Her parents and Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny and essentially all of her extended family were Gryffindors, although she and Scorpius had been Sorted into Ravenclaw. "And he was into the Dark Arts."

"Rose, Draco Malfoy was a Death Eater."

"You mean Lucius."

"No, I mean Draco. Well, yes, Lucius too, but Draco took the Dark Mark when he was sixteen, the summer before our sixth year. You've heard the story of how we broke into the Department of Mysteries?"

Rose nodded.

"Lucius Malfoy, Draco's father, was arrested with the other Death Eaters and sent to Azkaban. Draco took his place."

"But—but—"

"And he didn't make fun of your mother because she was smart; it was because she was Muggle-born. He first called her the M-word in second year. Hermione and I didn't even know what it meant."

The churning in her stomach was a full-blown ache. No wonder Dad had freaked out. "I didn't know that," she whispered.

"And Lucius was responsible for something terrible that happened to your aunt Ginny her very first year at Hogwarts."

"With the Chamber of Secrets?"

He looked surprised. "They told you about that?"

Rose shook her head. "Al did. He thought I knew."

Uncle Harry's mouth tightened, and she made a mental note to warn Al. Apparently he was not supposed to have told.

"Lucius Malfoy slipped Ginny the diary that she wrote in that contained the dark magic that opened the Chamber."

Rose bit her lip. She was in bigger trouble than she had thought.

"What did your dad say when you asked to go to Malfoy Manor?"

She summarized the argument for him, including her mother's uncharacteristic silence, her dad's vehemence, and her own accusations.

"You said what?" Uncle Harry said, leaning forward.

"I said they were cowards," Rose repeated defiantly. "For not—" She broke off when she noticed the muscle ticking in his jaw. She had seen Uncle Harry's temper before, but never directed at her.

"Cowards? Cowards? Do you have any idea— Turn around."

Shifting nervously, she heard the cabinet door open and close and then something heavy set on the desk.

"Do you know what this is?"

Rose turned back around and saw a shallow stone basin with runes carved around the edge. She tipped her head, trying to read them.

"Rose?"

"It's a Pensieve."

"Have you ever used one?"

She shook her head. "But I've—"

"Read about them," Uncle Harry said sarcastically, putting the tip of his wand to his temple, closing his eyes, and drawing out a long, silvery strand. It twisted and shimmered before dropping into the Pensieve with a flick of his wand.

"After you," he said, indicating the basin. "You'll know what to do, since you've read all about them."

The sharp edge to his voice made Rose uneasy.

"Where are we going?"

"To Malfoy Manor."