A/N: This is a horrendously late birthday present for Ashleigh/Fire The Canon. :) I hope you enjoy it, Ash, and I hope you had a lovely birthday, even though it was nearly two months ago...

Also written for the Importance of a Father Challenge on HPFC.

Not for the first time, Ron Weasley wished that he could turn back the clocks.

He reflected as he stood in front of his daughter's bedroom door, swallowing hard. Since becoming an adult, he felt like he was much better at thinking about what to say before he said it, but today he had messed up. Seriously messed up.

Deciding that there was no point in delaying this any further, he reached out and knocked on the door of Rose's childhood bedroom, strongly reminded of her difficult teenage years.

There was no response. "Rosie? It's me."

Still nothing. She was obviously still angry. (Not that he was expecting her to have forgiven him in half an hour.) There was no way she would tell him to come in, so Ron took a deep breath, opened the door and entered the room uninvited.

"Dad!" Rose said indignantly. She was lying on the bed on top of the sheets, facing the wall, and her voice sounded thick; it was clear that she'd been crying. "Go away. I don't want to talk to you right now."

"Look, I'm sorry. But we do need to talk about this."

Turning around so that she was facing her father properly, Rose sighed. "Fine. I suppose I'm not fourteen any more. I can be mature about this, even if you can't."

The gibe hurt, but Ron ignored it. "You sure?" he asked, relieved.

"Yes. Let's get it over with."

"I just don't understand why you didn't tell me," Ron said, making sure to make his disappointment and sadness clear in his voice despite not being angry any more.

Rose scowled at her father, fiddling compulsively with her shiny new engagement ring. "Really? You really have no idea?" she said sceptically. "I remember how you reacted when you found out that Scorpius and I were going out. You hate him. Now we're getting married, so I was fully expecting you to kick off again - which is understandable, since you did."

Ron shook his head sadly. "Listen, please. I really am sorry. That," he said, gesturing into the corridor where he'd had a go at his daughter before she retreated into her room in tears, "wasn't because you're marrying Scorpius. I'm not that much of a git. Not always, anyway," he amended at Rose's glare, and she failed to hide a little chuckle.

"What was it, then?"

"I'd be the same if you'd got engaged to any other guy and gone for three months without telling me. I always wanted to be the first to know when my little girl was getting married," Ron admitted. "I didn't want to hear it from some random colleague of mine. I take it you've told your mum?"

Rose couldn't seem to look him in the eye. "Yes, but please don't be angry with her. She was very reluctant not to tell you. She's asked me when I'm going to let you know every day since I told her; she'll be relieved that she doesn't have to keep it a secret any more."

"Well, lucky her," Ron muttered. He was more upset than he could say that Rose had trusted Hermione and pretty much everyone in the family with the news and not him. "Bloody hell. We've always been close. I knew that you and Scorpius were dating, and I was okay with it. Why didn't you think I'd be happy for you?"

"Look, Dad, I'm sorry," Rose said quietly, for the first time. Ron looked up sharply; she wasn't often one for apologies. "I was just scared, you know? I wish I had told you. But once I hadn't told you right away, I couldn't, because I felt so guilty that I hadn't told you in the first place, if that makes sense. I was waiting for the right moment, but that moment never came."

"It's all right, Rosie," Ron sighed. He paused for a moment, carefully considering his next words; he'd never fully got over his hesitancy to talk about his feelings. "I don't hate Scorpius. I thought you knew that."

"No, I didn't. I can't read your mind!"

Ron rolled his eyes at his daughter's fiery temper (maybe slightly hypocritically, as she definitely got it from his side of the family). "I hated his father, not him. But all that stuff's in the past. I've got to know Scor now, and he's nice enough." In truth, Ron thought Scorpius was much more than nice enough; he was a great kid, but Ron couldn't admit that to Rose. Not just yet, anyway. "If he makes you happy, that's good enough for me."

Finally, she smiled. "Thanks. And he does. He's... pretty amazing," she said, blushing bright red, her eyes fixed on a spot on the carpet.

"Rose? Just..." He fully expected to get shouted at for this, but he needed to put his mind at rest. "As long as you're sure."

"Of course I'm sure!"

"No, but really." He had to say this, because to him, this twenty-year-old Rose was still the same as fourteen-year-old Rose, and fourteen-year-old Rose was the same as the newborn baby he'd held in his arms all those years ago and sworn to protect, no matter what. "You're so young - "

"Harry and Ginny were younger than me when they got married."

"Yes, but that's different," Ron argued, even though he wasn't really sure how. Rose gave him a disbelieving look, and he was reminded that actually, he was just as overprotective a brother to Ginny as he was a father to Rose. "Okay, maybe it's not all that different, but just... make sure you think about it. He'll understand if you say no."

"I love him, though," Rose said, confused. "Isn't that all that matters?"

"Well, your mum said no to me the first time I proposed to her." Ron hadn't told either of his children this before, and he was sort of nervous for Rose's reaction.

"What, really?" Rose looked momentarily stunned. "What happened?"

"Nothing bad. We talked about it; she told me she wasn't ready, and that made me realise that really, I wasn't ready either," Ron admitted. "I was only nineteen at the time. And then I asked her again a few years later - bloody nervous, I was; I could hardly get the words out - and she said yes, so here we are."

Rose had descended into silence (an unusual occurrence) and had taken to fiddling with the ring once again. "I have thought about it," she said slowly, "and I think I'm ready. But sometimes I have these doubts, and I'm not sure."

"Just talk to Scorpius about it. It'll help," he promised. "And I'm proud of you, whatever you decide."

"Thanks, Dad," Rose said, wiping her eyes and sniffing.

"Come down for some lunch?"

She nodded. "Just need to clean myself up a bit first. You go on ahead. You can start without me."

"No, it's fine. Don't take too long, okay? To be honest, your mum will insist on waiting for you, and I'm starving."

Rose snorted, but she couldn't help smiling. "Fine. I'll see you in a minute."

"Wait - Rosie? One more thing," Ron said, a thought suddenly occurring to him. He braced himself. "You're not pregnant, are you?"

"Dad! No!"

"Sorry," he said hastily, relieved. "I just had to check."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Even if I was, I wouldn't just marry Scor because of it. I'm marrying him because I love him and I want to spend the rest of my life with him. You can't just make assumptions like that!" she protested, sounding very like her mother.

"Sorry, sorry! But you know we'd support you if you were."

"Well I'm not, so go on. Get out of here," she said, sounding exasperated, but it was obvious that she wasn't really angry with him. She'd never been a good actress.

Smiling fondly, Ron left the room. He always missed his kids when they were gone, and he was glad that he'd patched things up with Rose. Once they got past all that weird emotional stuff, they were joking with each other just like normal.

He wanted to kick himself for feeling so bloody sentimental, though. He couldn't believe that she was getting married. Despite the fact that Rose had moved out two years ago, and was at Hogwarts more often than not before that, it still felt like she was his little girl, and she was young to get married.

She'd be fine, though. She'd got herself into some messy situations over the years, especially as a teenager, but it did look like those days were behind her. It also looked like she was in safe hands with Scorpius, despite Ron's issues with his family. Lucius Malfoy was as much as a toerag as he was thirty years ago, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with his grandson - or even Draco, these days. As Rose pointed out, Harry and Ginny had got married at eighteen and nineteen, and from what he could tell, they were as happy as ever.

Maybe it was time to trust his daughter. Maybe it was finally time to let go.