Final chapter here. Disclaimers go here, so does my ownership of Marius Borgin. I upped the rating, too.

Enjoy.

Three

The Hand of Glory turns out to have absorbed too much and is shielding itself from more charms. Marius says so in a letter he sends week later, a few days after Scorpius got his Hogwarts letter. His father finally comes with him to the shop the morning after getting the letter. However, with the last encounter with Rose Weasley, Scorpius does not know how he will behave when they walk into the shop and see Weasley there. His father is, after all, on civil but less than friendly terms with the Weasleys.

His father looks at him curiously as they walked along the alley, "What are you so nervous about?"

"I'm not," he says, mostly to convince himself.

His father puts his hand on Scorpius' shoulder and bends towards his head, "If I correctly recall why we're here, you're not introducing a girlfriend to me, Scorpius. We're just retrieving my Hand of Glory."

Unsurprisingly, Scorpius blushes at the statement and eyes his smirking father. He holds back his words, thinking that they will only worsen the situation. Either way, since his father is the one who insinuated it, and if he is serious, it might actually hold some truth. Scorpius has learned to accept that Draco Malfoy knows about his son's sentiments before anyone else.

Also, he's barely had any other thing in his mind but Rose Weasley for days already so there's that.

They enter Borgin & Burkes to see Weasley coming out of Marius' office with a small heavy-looking pouch. She immediately calls Marius from inside and then approaches Scorpius and his father.

"Good morning, Malfoy," says Weasley, who immediately realizes her mistake, "and Mr Malfoy." She grins sheepishly and uncertainly extends her hand to the older Malfoy. "Rose Weasley, sir. I work here as Mr Borgin's assistant."

To Scorpius's surprise, his father gives a brief smile and shakes Weasley's hand. "Good to meet you, Miss Weasley. Is Marius busy?"

"No, sir, he's just preparing the, uh, artefact. He says you still have to perform a few things on it. The restoration isn't complete yet and he wouldn't let me do it."

"I'm not surprised. This isn't among the usual repairs Marius does but he's the only person I trust with these things."

At that moment Marius comes out of his office. "Mr Malfoy, I see you've met my assistant. We have some things you still have to address on the Hand. It already stole a few hours off of my time allotted for my dissertation and I still need you to do something."

"I'm sorry about that," says Scorpius' father. "I won't say you didn't have to because I know items like this get worse when put aside. Do we start now?"

"Yes, we do. Rose, can you keep Scorpius busy for a while? I'll have to close the shop, too, so you'd have to take him somewhere else."

Scorpius can see the smirk already forming on his father's face. Marius is indifferent, probably because he knows Weasley will agree. Scorpius already knows he likes Marius' proposition; he just isn't sure he will like whatever will follow from his father.

"We could start getting materials for school," says Weasley. "We could, right?" She turns to him with a little uncertainty.

"I suppose so," Scorpius says then turns to his father. "I'll see you later, Pa."

There are only a few people in the alley, most of them too busy with their own businesses that they do not notice two teenagers walk out of Borgin and Burkes. Only now does it come to Scorpius that walking around in Knockturn Alley is the safest thing for Weasley to do. She notices his silence and looks at him questioningly.

"Is it safe for you to walk around Knockturn Alley alone?" he asks. "Aren't the people here, well, a bit hostile to those not… well, you get my point."

"I go to the shop pretty early in the morning when there are barely any people outside, and after work, I just pull my hood up, which is actually the usual fashion for people here in this alley, I noticed," she says. "And I'm not alone now; I'm with you. They know you, don't they?"

He shrugs. "They know Marius, of course. They know Pa. I assume they know me by association."

"You look so much like your father, one look at you and they know."

"Well," Scorpius says just when Weasley takes his arm. He lets her drag him out of Knockturn Alley and into a less densely packed area of Diagon Alley where the only shop they could benefit from sells quills and parchment. They squeeze through the people gathered in the entrance and go straight to the aisles.

They have a few rolls of parchment on their hands when they find themselves alone in an aisle holding high-quality quills. He rakes through the quills and selects one identical to the quill he managed to break a month ago, and then sees Weasley looking at him pensively.

"What is it?"

"I've thought about what you said last week," Weasley says as she walks a bit closer to Scorpius. "About why you don't like the people in school, I've been thinking of why we behave like that and I do understand why you would hate it."

Despite the silence that follows, Scorpius thinks what she said has more to follow. "I'm sensing a 'but' here."

"But," she grins as he raises his eyebrows in anticipation of what she will say next. "You know that Borgin & Burkes has turned into a nostalgia shop for the old Wizarding families, right?"

"Yes, but what does it have to do with it, exactly?" he asks as Weasley inspects a handsome eagle feather quill.

"Do you know how people could think that there is a way better period in the past, where standards are higher, or the creativity is flowing, or it's really just a better time to live in?"

He nods, remembering certain high-society pureblood families his father hates to socialise with and only does so when Grandmother Cissy asks hard enough.

"It's probably some version of it that made Borgin & Burkes what it is now. Some of the old families still secretly wish for the days when the way of living is what they think of as proper and refined, and they think this era is in a very liberal, almost vulgar state."

"Yeah, I see what you mean."

Weasley puts down the quill. "I think it's the opposite thing for our generation. With people telling us that this is the world that the Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore's Army fought for and that things are better than they used to be. There is no era that we could think of as having higher standards and values, not without being argued out of a room by other people. We can't look up to any other period, and when we find flaws in it, we feel like we are the only people who could set them right."

Scorpius thinks that only Rose Weasley could give him a rebuttal and not annoy him. "I don't know," he says. "I think it's still in the vein of giving ourselves more importance than we deserve. It's no excuse for us to run around with hero complexes."

"I'm not saying it's not assuming or anything. I just think there's a reason for it," said Weasley. "Some of us really are just basking in the glory of being this generation, but maybe some are sincere. I admit it is quite obnoxious to think we're heroes when we really haven't done much, but if it's not we who will work on what we see is wrong, who will? And I'm not saying this necessarily requires a grand revolution, though, so you may have me on that boat."

He thinks, yes, please, I will have you on my boat if you let me. And then winces at what he just thought of. He shakes his head to get rid of those thoughts and just says, "If you put it that way, maybe I will reconsider my opinion on the Hogwarts student body. No guarantees, though."

Weasley giggles at that and picks up the quill she was inspecting a while earlier. He just follows her to the counter quietly, not sure of what they can still talk about when they have just finished with the subject they started a week ago.

When they exit the shop, he realizes that he just poured himself out (and chattered about his father) to someone he was not friendly with until two weeks ago. And despite the fact that she gave him some of her own thoughts, he does not know much about her as much as she already knows about him.

They are walking among busy students and parents when Scorpius thinks of taking a chance and asking Weasley about her. "You know, you found out a lot about me the past few weeks and I don't know half as much about you."

"What do you mean?" she says. "You want to know more about me, is that it?" A smile makes its way to her face and Scorpius thinks she knows exactly what he is implying.

"Hey, I poured out some of my deepest thoughts to you, Weasley," he says. "It's only fair." He isn't completely serious, but maybe Rose will consider sharing a semi-private thought to him and he certainly doesn't mind that.

"Well, what am I going to tell you?" she turns to look at him, but he just shrugs and doesn't answer. "Fine, how about –how did your career counselling in fifth year go? What did you say you want to do? Because when Neville asked me I just completely went blank."

Scorpius raised an eyebrow. "I thought this is about you now but since you asked, I said I'll just write somewhere. It doesn't have to be in the Prophet, I'm just going to write. I don't even know about what."

"Well, at least you have an idea. I thought I'll come up with an answer before seventh year but that didn't happen. I still don't know what I want to do."

This is something he definitely never expected. Rose Weasley, the smartest in their year (perhaps apart from him), does not have an idea what to do after Hogwarts. "I'm sure you'll do fine anywhere."

"That's what Neville said. I'll do fine as a Ministry official. Or a Healer, or a teacher, or an Auror. Said I could do a lot of things for the 'betterment of the wizard community'," she sighed heavily. "I don't exactly mind doing that. I'm just not –they're probably expecting me to launch a revolutionary whatnot and I'm not sure if that's what I have to do to contribute to society." She laughs a bit bitterly.

"So you tried out working for Marius?" Scorpius is not completely sure where she is heading. "Or you just tried out any job?"

"No, that's not it. You might not expect it, but Mr Borgin pays really well." She shows him the inside of her coin bag and the proof of Marius' surprisingly generous pay. "I'm going to use this money and some of my savings to do something after graduation, before the businesses and agencies start taking applicants. Find out what I really want to do."

"A journey of self-discovery, Rose Weasley sets out for an adventure to find her heart's desire. Very dramatic, I must say. Maybe you should just look for a Mirror of Erised," he smiles at the small pout forming on her lips.

Rose makes a face at him. "You make me sound like one of those pseudo-philosophical nuts. But maybe, yeah. Years with all these inspiring war heroes and I still don't know what to do. Maybe what I need is a change of scenery. Go somewhere else. Or go on the road and meet all sorts of people." She seems to think about what she said for a while and runs her hand in her hair. "Merlin, that is unnecessarily dramatic."

"I told you," he says. "But it also sounds like a plan."

She smiles. "Yeah. It does. That way I wouldn't fall into that category with the hero complex you so disdain, Malfoy. I rather like being with you. I'm glad I talked to you about this." The last bits, of course, make Scorpius mentally celebrate. With all that Weasley shared, Scorpius thinks he got a good bargain for pouring out his sentiments to her for the past two weeks.

They stop by a few more shops on the way to the Leaky Cauldron, buying the materials and books they need. Weasley goes into a Quidditch supplies shop and just looks at the goods, saying that she does not have to play in the team to appreciate the things in there. It is surprising that in just three encounters, he finds out that he does not hate everyone in school, that he can pour out his thoughts to someone not his father, and that he can have a lengthy conversation and spend hours with someone his age happily.

He berates himself for not making any effort to talk to the one person he thinks is decent in school before. Maybe then, he wouldn't be some misanthropic prick. Then again, two weeks ago, Scorpius never felt the need to question his attitude towards people his age, but Weasley can see the good both in their generation and in people like his father. It's people like her that make him doubt his disdain for his generation.

Actually, scratch that. It's Rose Weasley that makes him doubt his disdain for his generation.

Scorpius sees the group of redheads plus one or two black-haired blokes near the passageway to the Leaky Cauldron and turns to Weasley. "There's my family. I think I should go to them now," she says.

"Weasley," he supposes he should tell her before school starts, or he might have no chance at all, "you know that as of now, you're the only person my age that I actually like spending time with, right?" He watches her face in hopes that she does not misinterpret it one way or another.

As usual, she smiles at him instead. "I was thinking it in the last week. I'm glad I'm right." She looks to where her family is gathered and checks if they have noticed the pair of them yet. They haven't. "I wish I'm also right in thinking that you consider us friends now."

His breath hitches for a fraction of a second and he contemplates telling her that there might be something more, at least on his part. "Of course, we are." He doesn't want to jump into a pool when he's not yet sure of his footing on the bank.

What could he say; he's no Gryffindor.

"That's great!" she says. "I mean, well… They say that the pressure of the N.E.W.T.s are enough to push students to madness one term in, and even if I still don't know what I want to do, it would probably be wise to do well in the N.E.W.T.s and have some form of fallback. So, yeah, if you need someone to keep you sane, maybe when your journal isn't enough for you anymore or something, I'll be there. And maybe you could keep me sane, too."

The thought of actually spending time with Rose this year and not just trying to understand people by himself excites him and Scorpius tries to keep himself from smiling too widely. He is not sure if he succeeds. "What about your friends, though? Won't they mind?"

"I don't think Albus will. Most of my family might think you're a git but Al just thinks you're terribly antisocial. My other friends will be off with their boyfriends anyway while also managing to bug me to grab one myself." She colours and looks away from him. "I think I should be going now. I'll see you on the train, yeah?"

"Of course," he says. He'll definitely see her. In fact, Scorpius thinks he will actually be looking for her.

For a few seconds, they just stood on the street grinning at each other. "Alright. Yeah. So, bye for now, Scorpius."

"I'll see you, Rose." He is waiting for her to walk to where her many cousins are when she turns around. Scorpius is surprised when she kisses him on the cheek. She pulls away in mere seconds, still smiling, and only then does she approach her family.

Now there's a Gryffindor through and through.

Of course, Scorpius just stands where he is, slightly shocked. He only comes back to his senses when he sees Rose turn around wave him goodbye. He waves back at her, grinning, and she goes back to talking to her cousin who is in Slytherin with him –Albus Potter, he corrects himself. Although it might take a while before he gets used to it.

He feels a hard pat on his shoulder and sees his father looking smug. "I can't believe I'm actually not outraged that you're friends with a Weasley. Although that's what happens when the only other friends you have are me, your Ma and maybe Marius."

Scorpius rolls his eyes and tries to steer the conversation away from Rose. "How is the Hand, Pa?"

"It took a number of complicated rejuvenating spells on it to get it back to how it originally was," his father says. "Marius still needed me to cast a number of spells on it before the job's done. Enough of that; can't afford to talk about it here. So, have you gotten everything you need?"

"I just need your help in choosing between some materials, just a couple, and I'm done."

His father urges him to start moving. "Alright, let's take a look at them, then. I promised your mother we will be home before or shortly after she is." He puts an arm around Scorpius' shoulders and guides him through the crowd.

A man suddenly bumps into his father and shoots them a venomous look. Draco Malfoy picks a cigarette from the case in his breast pocket and lights it slowly with the charmed Zippo lighter his wife gave him twenty years ago. The man who bumped into them walks away irritated.

"Why do you do that again?" The way his father can make lighting cigarettes seem so dramatic never fails to amuse Scorpius.

His father laughs, "It irks them to see that the one and only Draco Malfoy participates in such a Muggle and filthy habit. It shatters every image they have of me in their heads, although I don't really want you to do this." He gestures to the cigarette between his fingers and puts it back between his lips.

"It's amazing how you deal with that sort of thing after all these years," Scorpius says as they start walking again.

"I have you, your mother, and a job that lets me insult people," his father says after blowing out some smoke. "It's quite like how you hate everybody your age and all of a sudden the Weasley girl comes and restores your faith in humanity. Things aren't perfect, but they're more than what you ever asked for."

Scorpius puts aside the fact that his father once again brought up the whole Rose Weasley situation and instead marvels at his father's words. Rose restored his faith in his generation, but without his father, Scorpius didn't think it would even be possible.

By the time they reach the cauldron shop, the cigarette has already been crushed under his father's boot and forgotten somewhere on the cobblestone street.

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