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“Psssst, Rosie!”
Rose Granger-Weasley’s eyes snap open at the sound of her stepbrother’s voice. She blinks a few times to let her eyes adjust to the low light and turns her head to the door where she can see the vague outline of Scorpius.
“Scorp?” She asks, her voice thick with sleep. She just barely covers the yawn trickling out of her mouth and squints over at the slightly older boy. She can just make out his white-blond hair, standing out ethereally even in the dark.
Rose hears the sound of his feet shuffling along her floor until her covers are ripped off of her and a hand is pulling on her hand, “C’mon, Rose.”
“Where are we going?” she asks, stumbling out of her bed at Scorpius’ insistent pulling. She just knows her red curls are matted to one side of her face.
Scorpius lets go of her hand only for a few seconds before he comes back and drops to his knees, “C’mon, Rosie, put your slippers on.”
Rose rests a hand on his shoulders as he helps her slip on her fluffy slippers. He stands and grabs her hand again, pulling her out into the hallway with a finger pressed against his lips and a very quiet, “Shh!”
They tiptoe, together, down the hallway when Rose hears a voice. It doesn’t sound like her mother’s voice, though, nor does it sound like her stepfather’s voice.
The voice is crooning and passionate, unlike most of the music - muggle or magic - that she usually hears. But, as they tiptoe closer to the noise, she recognizes it as coming from one of her mother’s records. She hasn’t heard this record in a long time.
“My love is growing stronger as you become a habit to me.”
Scorpius moves to a crouch just outside of a door that leads to an empty and unfurnished room. The light is spilling into the hallway and Rose knows this must be where the music is coming from. He tugs her closer and she kneels down and peeks her head around the doorframe.
There, in the middle of the room, are her mother and her stepfather wrapped in an embrace and dancing. Her mother is in her nightshirt and her stepfather in his pajamas and they’re slowly moving around the room in each other's arms. Rose’s stepfather has his forehead pressed against her mother’s and his lips are moving as if he’s whispering to her.
It had taken a little while, but Rose can now admit they make a striking sight: short and dark against tall and light. Some of the kids in her class try to tease her and Scorpius by saying it’s even good against evil, but she knows that’s not true, not anymore at least.
Scorpius clutches her arm as they watch their parents and they both eventually slide onto their backsides, “What do you think they’re doing?”
Rose's eyes are glued to the grin on her mother’s face. She’s happy and it makes Rose happy, in turn. She never realized how unhappy her mother had been until they’d moved in with her stepfather and stepbrother and she’d actually smiled. For no reason, even. She smiled just because she could.
She couldn’t think of the last time her parents smiled at each other. Sure, her mother smiled at her, and her dad did too, but they never smiled at each other. Instead of dancing with each other, her parents danced around each other, avoiding the other for as long as they could.
“They’re dancing, Scorp,” she whispers back, a hint of a smile now on her lips.
She can see Scorpius roll his eyes out of the corner of her eye, “I know that, I mean why?”
Her eyes trace over her stepfather then and she sees the exact same grin on his face. Rose doesn’t know much about Scorpius’ mother, other than that she’d passed away when Scorpius was small. When she’d first met her stepfather, he’d been rigid and a little bit awkward. Her mum swore, though, that he loved her and that he wanted to love Rose too.
It was strange at first and the other kids at school talked. But, over time, she’s grown to like her stepfather and appreciate him in a different way from her own father. It wasn’t difficult, knowing and seeing how happy he made her mum.
“No idea,” she mumbles, leaning into her stepbrother.
Scorpius rests an arm around her shoulders and sighs. Her stepbrother is perhaps the best part of their families merging. Both only children, they were thrilled to get a sibling out of the whole ordeal. In some ways, Scorpius was her opposite but they decided that first night in their brand new house that they would be in it together.
Their parents had each other, and so they’d have each other. It was only fair, they couldn’t have her mum and his dad ganging up on them. It was only logical to form some sort of alliance. Now, though, she thinks of Scorpius as her brother, not just an alliance-mate or friend. They’re siblings.
She thinks they’ve only been sitting there, just outside of the door and leaning against each other, for a few minutes and Rose can hear that the song is on repeat. She nudges Scorpius to take another peek inside.
“Still dancing,” he whispers, shifting his shoulder so she can rest her head on him. He leans his head on top of hers then and she closes her eyes.
In some ways, Rose thinks her and Scorpius are so close because they’re not actually siblings. They’ve had to become close of their own volition and had to choose to be as close as brothers and sisters are. She had been worried when they were sorted into different houses at Hogwarts but it had been all for naught.
“And just what do you two think you’re doing out here?”
Rose’s eyes snap open once again and she lifts her head quickly, thankful that Scorpius has already done the same. She shies away, just a little bit, because it’s not her mother but her stepfather standing in the doorway. He doesn’t look angry though, a little disheveled maybe, but there’s a small smirk on his lips as he looks down at the two of them.
Scorpius grabs her hand, “Well, we were just… Dad, I mean… we just, we heard-”
Her stepfather chuckles and runs a hand through his hair before he pats them both on the head and gestures for them to stand up, “C’mon, up you both go.”
As they both stand up she sees her mum’s head poke around the corner and Rose knows that neither of them are in trouble by the smile on her mother’s face. Her mother slips out of the doorway and moves in close to her stepfather, leaning into his shoulder.
“I thought I heard some footsteps out here,” her mother winks at them both and smooths a hand over her nightshirt, “Well, as long as you’re both awake you should come on in and join us.”
Rose’s brows raise in confusion when her mother holds out her hand to Scorpius and pulls him into the empty room. She’s nervous when her stepfather does the same towards her, a soft smile on his face.
Rose likes her stepfather well enough. He’s always been kind to her and treated her like his own child, but he still intimidates her - just a little bit. He’s so different from her own father with such a different personality: her dad is goofy and loud while her stepfather is quiet and contemplative.
“What do you say Rosie?” He asks, leaning down a little bit.
She gives him her best smile and takes his proffered hand, letting him lead her into the room. To her surprise, her mother is hugging Scorpius close to her and swaying with him to the music. Scorpius is taller than she is and comes up to her mother’s shoulders already but when she turns to look at her stepfather, she hardly comes up to his chest.
She yelps when he leans down and picks her up, hugging her close to his chest, and begins to sway. He grasps her small hand in his large one and keeps her supported with his other arm under her legs and she giggled as he takes her around the room.
“Who knew you were such a good dancer, Rosie?” Her stepfather asks and Rose pulls her head away from his shoulder to roll her eyes at him through a grin.
She sort of feels like a baby instead of an 11-year-old who’s on her holiday break from school with the way that her stepfather has her cuddled up to his chest, but she doesn’t mind. He’s gentle in how he holds her and he dances closer to where her mother is still swaying with Scorpius.
“Why are we dancing in the middle of the night?” She finally asks, her curiosity getting the better of her.
She lifts her head again to look at both her mother and her stepfather who, she notices, share a smile between them. Her mother hugs Scorpius tight to her, one hand musing his hair, “We wanted to take advantage of the room before we fill it with furniture.”
Scorpius picks his head up then and looks at them, confusion on his face, “What’s the room going to be?”
Her stepfather moves closer to her mum and Scorpius, and wraps his free arm around them both. He pulls them close and Rose feels her mother’s hand come up to rest against her back, rubbing against the soft material of her own nightshirt.
Her stepfather clears his throat, “Well, it’s going to become a nursery.”
Rose directs her gaze to Scorpius who stares at her with as much surprise in his own eyes. A nursery? But then that would mean…
“You’re going to have a baby?” Scorpius asks incredulously before she can ask the question herself.
She catches her mother’s eyes as she nods, that same grin on her face that she’d seen earlier that night, “ We’re going to have a baby, they’ll be all of ours.”
“They’re going to need you both. They’re going to need their brother and sister,” her stepfather adds in, his voice close to her ear.
She wiggles - like she used to when she was little - and her stepfather sets her down on the ground. Scorpius pulls back from her mum to look at both of their parents, the look in his eyes unreadable. Should she be happy? When she was younger, before she had Scorpius, she’d always wanted a sibling. She had one now, though. Did she need another?
“It’s alright to be unsure,” her mother says, her grin a little softer now at their reactions. “But they’re going to love you unconditionally. Both of you.”
When she rushes forward to wrap her arms around her mum’s torso and her face into her mum’s chest, she’s surprised when she feels Scorpius’s arm wrap around her and the tall presence of her stepfather encircling them all.
The next time she wakes in the middle of the night, she hears the faint noise of music playing on her own. She softly rolls out of her bed and slips on her slippers before she pads out of her room and into the hall. This time, it’s her waking up Scorpius.
He blinks at her sleepily when she pushes at his arm and she presses a finger to her lips to indicate that he should be quiet, “C’mon, Scorp.”
Scorpius yawns and throws his arm over his eyes with a groan. Rose huffs, “Hurry up or I’m going to yank your covers down.”
She’s hesitant to do so, but she will if it’s necessary. Their healthy witches and wizards talk during the school year had significantly scared her away from any potential bodily function her brother might have in the middle of the night, and she certainly doesn't want to see anything by accident.
So, she turns around when he stumbles out of bed and lets him do whatever he has to do before he sinks into his slippers and follows her out of his room and down the hall. They tiptoe, just like they did the first time, and crouch by the doorway. Once again, there’s light spilling into the hallway and the sound of a crooning Otis Redding coming from the room.
She peeks first, but she knows Scorpius has no patience and isn’t surprised when his chin rests on top of her head as he looks into the room, too. It’s just as she expected: her mother and stepfather are swaying with each other, her stepfather’s arms wrapped around her mother’s shoulders. And in her mother’s arms is her new sister.
Rose and Scorpius had missed her birth by only two weeks, in their last two weeks of the school year at Hogwarts. Their parents had named her Aster - floral to match Rose and celestial to match Scorpius - and thus far, Rose thinks she’s a loud, screeching, chubby, pink bundle only happy and quiet in one of her parents’ arms.
She’s the perfect mix of Malfoy and Granger, with shiny grey eyes and curly golden hair. Rose and Scorpius both tried, but Aster was too reliant on their parents and not willing to part from them. So be it, they’d both said to each other, they had each other anyways.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen her so quiet,” Scorpius whispers from beside her. Rose nods along in agreement, she’s surprised to see her eyes are closed where she’s squished between both of her parents.
She watches as her mother looks up at her stepfather with a tired smile on her face and she whispers the words of the song to him. The song is ingrained in Rose’s mind now, having heard it so many times on repeat.
“I’ve been loving you, a little too long. I don’t want to stop now.”
Rose pulls away from the door and leans back against the wall, her eyes closing. Scorpius grips her hand - so reminiscent of that night months ago - and lets out a deep sigh, “I know we’re supposed to like her but… she doesn’t do anything.”
“Except for cry,” Rose mumbles in exasperation.
Scorpius nudges her with his knee until she opens her eyes and looks at him, “We have each other though.”
Rose squeezes his hand and gives him a smile because it’s true, they do have each other.
“You know she’s only a baby, right?”
Rose flips around with wide eyes at the sight of her stepfather standing in the doorway. He has faded dark circles ringed around his eyes and he looks tired. Even so, the smile on his face is genuine and he gestures with his head for them to stand up.
“C’mon, you two. I should have known, this song must be a beacon to you both,” he says, nudging them inside the nursery.
Rose immediately walks towards her mother who’s cradling Aster in her arms. If her stepfather looks tired, her mother looks exhausted. But here she is, still swaying with the baby without complaint. Her mum stretches one arm out and pulls Rose into her side, hugging her to her body and close to Aster.
“Rosie has loved this song since before she was born,” her mother says softly, her fingers rubbing her shoulder through her nightshirt. “I used to put this record on at night when I couldn’t get comfortable and I swear, my love, you’d dance in my belly.”
She blushes at the anecdote and buries her face into her mother’s curls, “Mum…”
“It’s true!” she says, her exclamation little more than a whisper as she checks to make sure that Aster is still sleeping. “And you too, Scorp. The first time your father left you with me, I couldn’t get you to stop crying. So I put the record on and what do you know? I had two slumbering toddlers.”
Rose can see Scorpius’ face flush and his father rubs a hand affectionately through his hair. They both move closer and Scorpius looks down on their baby sister with a look of contemplation.
“I suppose that means Aster likes it too,” he says.
Her stepfather runs a finger down Aster’s cheek, all of them letting out a giggle when she wiggles at the feeling, “She does, just like her brother and sister.”
Rose can’t help but smile at that. So far, she hasn't seen anything that tells her they might be similar. It’s uncommon enough to have a younger sibling that’s nearly 12 years younger but she and Scorpius don’t even spend a majority of their time at home. It’s been a worry of hers, that they won’t be able to spend enough time with Aster for her to really feel like their sister. Moments like this help though.
“It will get better with her, you know,” her stepfather says to both her and Scorpius. “Babies are a bit boring and spend most of their time with their mums and dads. But she’ll grow, faster than you expect, and she’ll toddle around after you both.”
“You just have to be a bit patient,” her mother adds. “She loves you though, so much.”
Rose sighs at that and shrugs her shoulders, “How can she love us? She doesn’t even know us.”
She watches as her mother runs her fingers softly over Aster’s golden hair and taps her nose with her index finger. Her stepfather nudges Scorpius closer until he can wrap an arm around her mother to pull them into a tight circle.
“We tell her about the both of you, we have for months now, even before she was born,” her stepfather mutters. “She loves you both unconditionally. You’ll see.”
Aster sniffles in her sleep and cuddles her face closer to her mother.
She meets Scorpius in the hallway this time. It’s been years since she heard the crooning and piano in the middle of the night, but it wakes her up just as it did all those years ago. She rolls out of her bed and tugs on her dressing gown, slipping her feet into her slippers, before she tiptoes out into the hallway.
Just as she pokes her head out, the familiar blond head of her brother appears from his doorway, too. His hair is a mess, pressed against his head at odd angles, and his eyes are cloudy in their sleepiness.
Rose shuffles forward as he does the same except he’s considerably less dressed. She rolls her eyes and pushes against his bare chest, “Go put something on!”
Scorpius scoffs, “Why? It’s just you.”
“Exactly, no need to show off.”
He waves his hand and turns back into his room, “Fine, fine. Don’t get your knickers in a twist.”
Rose sighs and crosses her arms, leaning against the wall beside her door as she waits for Scorpius to put his dressing gown on. It shouldn’t be surprising, after all, Scorpius has spent the entirety of their schooling being chased after by girls and enjoying it.
“Better, Princess?” He asks, holding his arms out, presenting himself as he walks out of his room.
She huffs and pushes up off the wall, “Don’t call me that.”
They walk down the hallway as they have every other time, but this time the music isn’t coming from what used to be the nursery. Rose can hear it playing from downstairs, probably in their sitting room where the record player sits. This time though, they have someone else to gather before they peek in on their parents.
Scorpius quietly and carefully pushes open the door to Aster’s room and Rose has to stamp down on the laugh at the position their sister is sleeping in. Her face is pressed into her pillow but her knees are tucked under her, backside in the air, with her covers pushed down to the end of the bed.
“How can she sleep like that?” Scorpius whispers, looking back at her.
Rose shrugs her shoulders, “At least she sleeps now.”
Scorpius shudders and nods his head in agreement. There had been a good few years there where Aster had refused to sleep through the night, crawling into anyone’s bed she could get into and screaming bloody murder when her parents had erected wards around her bed.
Rose steps closer to the bed and sits down on the edge, running her hand up and down her sister’s back, “Attie? C’mon, wake up.”
Aster’s eyes flick open and she pushes up onto her knees, staring at both her brother and sister. She rubs her eyes with her fists and yawns, her mouth open wide. Scorpius leans down then and picks her up, holding her up against his chest as she wraps her legs around him.
“Where we goin’?” She asks, her words jumbled together.
Scorpius hums and rubs his hand over her back as Rose takes the lead and heads out the door, back into the hallway, “We’re going downstairs to see Mummy and Daddy, but you have to be very quiet, alright?”
Rose looks back at her brother and sister and smiles when Aster, eyes open wide, nods her head and whispers back, “I can be quiet!”
She smiles and leads her brother down the stairs, tiptoeing as best they can until they reach the ground floor. She can see the light flickering from their sitting room, just down the hall and they walk as quietly as they can until they’re just beside the doorway.
Scorpius holds his finger up to his lips and whispers, “Shh, Attie.”
Aster mimics her brother, holding her own finger up to her lips as she looks on. Rose peeks her head into the doorway and smiles when she sees her parents tangled in each other’s arms, swaying in the centre of the room.
Scorpius’ pointy chin ends up resting on top of her head, once again, but she can only smile at the feeling. He’s holding Aster next to her and her sister’s cheek is pressed against her own as they watch their parents.
“Are they dancin’?” Aster whispers.
Scorpius pulls back and moves along the wall until he can slide down and Rose does the same. They sit next to each other, just like they’ve done before, but this time with Aster sitting in Scorpius' lap. He reaches out for her hand and grips it in his.
“Well, we were dancing, before we heard a troop of children stomp their way down the stairs.”
Aster shrieks as her father appears next to them, her mother tucked up into his side with a beaming smile on her face. Rose snickers and pushes up off the floor, her hand still clutched in her brother's, “We didn’t stomp! And you can’t possibly tell me you’re surprised.”
Her mother shakes her head, “Of course not, we knew you’d come down.”
Her father - maybe not her dad, but just as worthy of the title - moves forward to take Aster from her brother’s arms. He hugs her close to him and presses a kiss to her golden curl-covered head before holding his arm out again, this time to her.
“C’mon, I want to dance with my girls,” he says, pulling Rose into the sitting room. To her surprise, the furniture has been moved so there’s more room to dance.
Rose turns back as they walk and watches as her mother pulls Scorpius into a hug. She tugs his face down to her own and pats his cheek, “And I’d like to dance with my boy.”
She moves in close to her father and her sister, leaning into his chest, and rests one hand on her sister’s back. Aster is tucked in close to her father, her face pressed into his neck. He sways them, moving softly to the familiar voice of Otis Redding.
“I love you with all my heart, and I can’t stop now.”
Scorpius and their mother are also swaying to the music, their heights flipped as her mother is the one to only reach his shoulder now. Rose closes her eyes in the embrace and sucks in a deep breath.
“Why are we dancin’, Daddy?” Aster asks quietly, her fingers playing with the buttons on his pajama shirt.
“We’ve always danced with you, Attie,” Rose answers instead, smiling at her sister.
Scorpius looks over at them, locking eyes with Rose as he grins, “Even before you were born.”
Aster hums and leans her head back down to her father’s shoulder. Rose looks up at her father and grins at the look in his eyes as he squeezes her a bit tighter. He shuffles them over to where her brother and her mum are dancing and brings them into a tight circle.
“I like this song,” Aster whispers.
Rose giggles from her spot in the circle and closes her eyes, content being wrapped up in her family, “It was never a question, Attie. You were meant to love this song. Just like the rest of us."