Dragon Heartstrings

The sun was still low in the sky when Rose landed, rather roughly, only twenty metres from her designated apparition destination. She looked around, rather pleased with herself for only overshooting by a few metres, when she took a step on an uneven patch of grass and stumbled backwards. She put her hands out behind to brace herself, and landed on her ass, in an upright position. 

Rose exhaled, she took a moment to look out across Clodgy point. From here she could see Porthmeor Beach, almost empty except for a handful of brave swimmers out in the early morning. Tired from her journey, she lay back on the grass and closed her eyes. It had been a hot summer in Cornwall, and the grass was bone dry. England would get a hot summer, Rose thought, when I’m spending it in Romania. 

Apparating directly from Romania was an unwise decision, as she was advised by nearly every family member who had a say in the matter, and as she had only passed her apparition test the previous month, Rose had to agree. 

The journey involved a combination of portkeys and apparating to various, secluded areas, leaving Rose exhausted, and a little nauseous. She had taken a portkey from the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary and Training Centre to the Wachau Valley in Vienna, from there she apparated to Heidelerg, aparrating again to Bruges in Belgium. In Bruges, she took a portkey to Northampton, as the fear of undershooting and landing somewhere across the English Channel didn’t seem like the best idea. Finally she apparated to her final destination, Clodgy Point. 

She sat up and pulled out her watch, gifted to her by her grandparents on her 17th birthday, back in April. It read 5:27 a.m., most of the Weasley household would still be sleeping. Rose smiled to herself, her return was going to be a surprise, she was supposed to return tomorrow at lunchtime, but her uncle Charlie and herself had agreed to make an early appearance. Charlie had cancelled his journey last week however, when one of the elder dragons had become ill. The other trainees had told her this dragon was one of Charlie’s favourites, having been one of the first dragons Charlie had helped take care of. He wanted to be with her in her last days, Rose was inclined to beg to stay too, but they both agreed that Molly Weasley would take the bad news of her son not visiting, much better if her beloved granddaughter was there to soften the blow. He had thankfully written ahead during the week, saving Rose from the task of breaking the news. 

Rose had been looking forward to arriving with Charlie; she got on well with her uncle, as well as his longtime partner Zachariah, a fellow dragonologist in Romania. Charlie was very relaxed and immediately brought a sense of calm to the chaotic citations that can arise in Weasley-Potter households. Also, the fact that his visits are irregular, a lot of the attention would have been on him, quizzing him on his work, his mysterious love life, and on whether he’ll ever return home (asked by Molly Weasley). Returning alone means all the attention will be on her, along with the questions about every aspect of her life since she last saw them. 

Rose had kept in contact with her family over the almost three months she was away. Each of them had written at least one letter, suspiciously well timed so that there was never a week she did not receive a new letter. She had kept in regular correspondence with her parents, her best friends Al, Sandy, Roxanne and Frankie, and her favourite Aunt Ginny. One would think that they had heard all the news Rose had to tell, however she knew she would be proven wrong. 

She stood up and made to walk towards the fields in which her childhood home was situated. It was set atop the cliff looking out over Clodgy point and beyond. Due to the protective measures her parents had in place, she could only apparate a certain distance to their house, but Rose didn’t mind the walk. 

Cornwall has always been her favourite place to live. Her parents treated this house as their ‘real’ home, being close to Devon where her grandparents resided, and near her father’s eldest brother’s family. A few years after Ron and Hermione built their house, Ginny and Harry moved down, preferring the seaside town, and the quiet fields to the busy streets of London. Her aunt and uncle still kept their London townhouse, and they shared it between Rose’s parents to have a base for their commute to London. 

Growing up she had spent a lot of time in the London house, as well as staying in different family members' houses, but she really did feel most at home in Cornwall. 

She hoisted her backpack higher as she made her way up the steep, windy path, she surprised herself at how she wasn’t breaking a sweat. The weeks training with dragons had made her fitter. After about ten minutes the ground began to even out, and she rounded a corner and smiled. Ten metres in front of her stood a large cobblestone house, with bay windows and ivy streaking up and across the front face of the house. A bright red door stood out, with a shiny gold handle in the middle. If she kept walking right, beyond the hedges that lined the perimeter of this garden, she’d find a similar cobblestone house, where her aunt and uncle and cousins lived. Rose noticed a glow in the front window, meaning the lights in the kitchen beyond were turned on. She started towards the front door, up the garden path, she breathed in deeply as she passed the roses her father had planted for her in the flowerbeds. The sun was almost up now and she was confident there was at least one family member having an early breakfast in the kitchen. She stopped short in front of the door, hand raised to knock. She hesitated, pulled her watch from her pocket, 6:03 a.m. While her mother tended to be an early riser, she knew Hugo and her father were not. She was beginning to regret her decision to arrive so early when she heard muffled voices. She strained her ears. There was definitely a conversation happening in the kitchen, a loud one, maybe more than two people she thought. No, Rose frowned, she just heard overlapping voices, so four people, unless everyone is talking over each other, which Rose had to admit could be likely. Somewhere a tinny Celestina Warbeck record was playing. She heard laughter, and decided if there was music playing and laughing in the kitchen, then surely whoever is sleeping wouldn’t be too bothered by a knock at the front door. She rapped the handle five times, and took a step back. She heard the conversation quieten, and the sound of chairs moving against the floor.  

A moment later the door unlocked and opened to reveal her father, wearing faded tartan pyjama bottoms, a new season Chudley Cannons hoodie and slippers shaped to look like golden snitches which Harry had given him for Christmas last year. First he looked shocked, but quickly began beaming and pulled Rose in for a hug. 

‘I - I -, well, I-’ he stuttered.

‘I don’t know why you're so shocked Dad, I’m only a day early’ Rose replied, grinning ear to ear.

He hugged her again, ‘Missed you Flower’ he said, using the nickname reserved for use by only him and her grandfather. 

‘Ron? Who is it?’ she heard her mother call, followed by Ginny calling ‘Is it the boys?’. 

Ron grinned back at Rose as he ushered her into the hall, closing the door behind her. Her dad walked ahead of her, and pushed open the kitchen door, waving his arms to reveal Rose to the occupants at the kitchen table. She heard cheers and was immediately swept into a hug from her mum, Ginny, who was holding Crookshanks, stood up and handed the cat to Ron who handed it to Harry who set it on the table.

‘Harry no!’ her mum said. 

Rose laughed as her mum let go of her to pick up Crookshanks and hand her back to Ron. Rose looked around at the kitchen. Harry, her brother Hugo, and her grandmothers Molly and Imelda were sitting around the table, holding bright pieces of paper and string, they were all smiling at her and now getting up to join the queue for a welcome hug. She noticed several icing bowls in front of where Ginny and her mum were sitting. 

‘What have I interrupted?’ Rose asked coyly. 

‘Your own surprise party preparations’ Harry replied as he put an arm around her shoulder. ‘Ooops’ Rose laughed as she was enveloped in a joint hug by her two grandmothers. 

‘We had to get up early so the decorations were sorted, we’re baking the cake so we set your mum and Ginny on the icing’ Molly said. 

‘I insisted we do it the non-magic way, otherwise it would be no fun!’ whispered Imelda.

‘Did they feed you?’ Molly said hurriedly.

At last she got to Hugo, he had changed his long strawberry blonde locks to a buzzed sides and spiky on top hairstyle. 

‘What is -’ she stared.

‘Don’t, I’ve heard enough from mum’ Hugo replied.

‘It’s lovely’ Rose said, hiding a smile.

‘No it’s not’ Hugo laughed.

‘I’m making tea!’ Molly said loudly over the chatter. 

Rose smiled, she had loved her adventures in Romania, but she really had missed home. 

                                                                *

The family spent the morning drinking tea, catching up on the summer and eating breakfast made by Hermione (overseen by Ron and Hugo as Rose’s mum had a tendency to burn almost everything). Rose noticed that the conversation was focussed mainly on how Charlie was, and how glad they were to have her home. Every time the conversation veered towards her tales of dragons, someone steered it off in another direction. Rose pretended not to notice, she didn’t want to make things awkward on her first day back. At ten past nine Rose started to have difficulty hiding her yawns. 

‘You should go up to bed darling’ her mother said endearingly.

‘I’m fine!’ Rose insisted, although she rubbed her eyes and stifled another yawn.

‘The lads won’t be up for another hour or two, and Lily is at the Longbottoms' till tomorrow’ Harry said, holding his third cup of coffee of the morning.

‘But we still have so much to discuss,’ Rose protested. ‘Like who is coming to this surprise party?’

‘That’s why it is called a surprise,’ Imelda winked at Rose.

Rose pulled a face, ‘Fine, I’ll go up to bed for a while, but call me when the lads get here’.

‘Al and them will fill you in on the guest list anyway later, we got them to help with the invitations’ Harry put in.

‘Okay that’s good, alrig-, wait did you say them? I thought Lily wasn’t here?’

‘She’s not’ Harry said looking confused.

Rose saw Ginny give Harry a pointed look. 

‘So who is “them”?’ Rose asked him, hoping her guess was wrong.

‘Them?’ Harry said evasively. 

‘Harry’ Rose glared at him. 

‘James and Al’ Harry said quickly.

Rose raised her eyebrows, ‘And?’

‘...Scorpius’ Harry finished looking away.

Hermione and Ron shared a look.

Rose groaned. ‘I’m surprised you’re okay with that,’ she said to her parents.

Ron replied as he put his arm around Hermione’s waist, ‘look I never liked his father, but I can’t hold that against the kid, and it’s not like we’re asking the Malfoy family to tea’.

‘Rosie I know you don’t get on with hi-’ her mum started.

‘Get on?’ interrupted Rose.

Ron butted in ‘now I'm not saying they should be best friends’. 

‘He’s rude and annoying and h-’ Rose began.

‘He beats you in every subject?’ Hugo asked, smirking.

Rose glared at him, ‘he does not beat me in every subject’. She huffed, and added ‘we usually come joint first actually, but that’s irrelevant’.

‘You know, boys often have only one reason to pick on pretty girls’ Molly spoke up, smiling.

‘Nope, not true, and it’s no excuse anyway’, Rose replied, though she couldn’t help but give her Gran a small smile back. 

Rose and Scorpius had never really gotten on. Ever since Albus had become friends with Scorpius, after the sorting ceremony in first year, Rose and Scorpius had been at odds. While at first they tried to get on, constantly competing for the best grades, going against each other in quidditch, and sometimes even fighting for Al’s attention, any hopes of a friendship forming were quickly dashed. Since then, Rose has sat through six years of teasing and insults about anything from her hair to her exam results to her choice of quidditch team to support. Naturally, Rose gives as good as she gets, and the dislike the two have for one another is widely known throughout the school. There were times when Rose began to think maybe they could be friends, but then the fighting and the competitions and the little comments would begin again. As she got older she had gotten tired of it, and what used to be funny had grown into an actual dislike for the boy. 

Ginny stood up and put her arm around her, she started to lead her away, ‘come on hun, why don’t you go to bed and we’ll wake you up when everyone’s here’.

Rose tried to argue but the idea of bed sounded very nice actually, and was doing a good job of bringing her mind away from her cousin’s friend. She was so tired and finally having her own pillow and being able to hear the waves from her room seemed like a great idea. She let Ginny lead her upstairs. 

‘You know you look very different Rosie’ Ginny said in a low voice.

‘Do I?’ asked Rose lazily, she had gotten the idea of sleep into her head now and not much was going to distract her.

‘Your hair is so much brighter, and you’ve got a great tan’ Ginny said kindly. 

They entered Rose’s room and looked at the mirror hanging on the wardrobe. Rose rubbed her eyes and inspected herself properly. There were very few mirrors hanging around the camp at the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary and Training Centre, and she was usually quite busy anyway so rarely had time to look at her appearance. Looking back at her in the mirror was a different girl from the one who had left here in early June. Ginny was right, her hair was different, where it used to be a dark frizzy mass of red hair, it had more defined curls, and her hair had been bleached a shade lighter, no doubt from the sun, so that it now shone a more vibrant fiery red. It had grown too, now reaching the bottom of her ribs. She had a bronzed glow from spending all day in the sun, and freckles sprinkled across her nose. Her muscles had toned up, Rose had always been slim, from playing on the quidditch team, swimming in the sea, and being an active person, but her muscles in her arms and legs had become more defined, and her face more angular. 

‘You’re right, I do look different,’ Rose said dazily, as Ginny helped her into the bed. 

‘Mmm, Scorpius won’t know what hit him,’ Ginny said, smirking. 

Rose had just closed her eyes, but they shot open at her Aunt's implication. 

‘What do you mean?’ she quizzed. 

Ginny stood with her hand on the door handle, making to leave. She turned to Rose. 

‘The dynamic between you and Scorpius is very similar to one I would have witnessed when I was your age, that’s all,’ Ginny said with a small smile. 

‘Who?’ Rose asked, confused. 

‘Sleep well Rose’ Ginny said, still smiling, as she made her way out the door. 

Rose opened her mouth to argue but Ginny interrupted her.

‘You know it’s not just your hair or your tan that have changed Rosie, you seem happier, you’re glowing differently. You really enjoyed your summer didn’t you?’

‘I really did, I know they’re all a bit apprehensive about dragons and me being away and all that but I’m telling you, it’s what I’m meant to do’

Ginny looked at her, ‘they’ll come around’, she closed the door, leaving Rose alone in her room, the sunlight streaming through the gaps in the drawn curtains. 

Rose barely had time to process what her Aunt had said, when she felt the exhaustion from the morning take over her. She lay her head back on her pillow, and fell into a deep sleep, dreaming of dragons, her favourite beaches in St. Ives, and a pair of light, grey eyes. 

                                                                         *