Rose Weasley and The Unfortunate Son of a Lunatic

Home for the Holidays

   "Max?" Rose asked one breakfast. "You one time said that you had a brother, accidentally I think, but I had forgotten to ask about him."

"You didn't forget," Max sighed rolling his eyes. "I believe you had read over my shoulder when I mentioned him to dad, and I had told you to leave it alone."

"What's he like? Is he close to your age?" She had decided that if Max was going to be so distant and not share with her, that it was up to her to find answers on her own. She knew plenty of other people who were ashamed of their home life or their family, but none of them were as closed about the subject as Max was. The most Rose knew about his past was from what he had let slip in first meeting her. She had a feeling that whatever the big secret was, it had affected him strongly. Something big had happened, she knew, and it wasn't just his mom walking out on them. Whatever it was, she vowed to herself, that she'd find out even if he didn't want to divulge. Was she nosey? Sure, but she was offended that he didn't trust her.

"Rosie, I know what you're trying to do," he said. "And I'm warning you not to."

"But he is close to your age?" she ignored him.

"We're not far apart, no," he said irritable and through clenched teeth.

"Will I get to meet him next year?"

"No, I don't think you're ever gonna see him," he said.

"Why not? Isn't he coming to Hogwarts?"

"I don't know."

His answer struck her as odd. "Why not? Shouldn't you know?"

"Nope."

"Oh, is he Baily's kid? You mentioned Baily once."

"Baily is not related to me, and I haven't seen my brother since I was seven."

"I thought you said Baily was with your dad."

"Dating my dad."

"What happened to your brother?"

"Will you give it a rest!" he huffed. "It is evident that I don't want to share, why don't you just respect that and leave me be? Honestly!"

That was how most of their conversations ended when she brought it up. But she had gained a good amount of information this time around. Max had a brother close to his age that he hadn't seen in four years, and Baily was his dad's girlfriend. Meaning that Mr. Everard was over his wife and looking again. Well, that presents struggles on Max in itself.





"Max!" she sung a few days before most of the school were to be heading home for the Holidays.

"Oooh," Max cringed. "That's how you say my name when you want something."

"No, it's not."

"Yes, it is."

"No, it isn't because I don't want anything. Here," Rose handed Max a small piece of paper. "I don't know where Yozenberg is, but if you find that it's not far from the Potter's place, you could stop by around Christmas, that's where we'll be for the week if you're free to visit."

Max stared at the address. "But you did want to give me this note, so you did want something, and I was right." He looked back up. "You just wanted me to have this so I'd know where to send your Christmas gift didn't you?" he asked.

"You didn't get me anything!" she asked suddenly.

"Course I did," he shrugged.

"No!" she gasped. "But you told me not to get you anything because you weren't getting me anything and you didn't want to feel like a jerk! But you did, you horrible person!" she hit him in the arm with, Magical Places and How to Enter.

"Chill out chick!" he said taking the book from her. "I just didn't want anything."

"Well too bad," she huffed taking the book back from him. "I got you something anyway."

"Wait, then why are you so upset at me?" he asked bemusedly.

"Because if I hadn't ignored you and didn't get you anything, then I would have been the jerk." She tucked the book under her arm and stormed off, but not before hearing Max mumbled something that sounded like, "Women," as he rubbed his arm.



"Are you two packed?" Rose asked Al and Scorpius the day before the Holidays.

"I am, Scor's not."

"Well you better get to it, for every hour you procrastinate, you'll forget to pack one thing," said Rose.

"You made that up," Al said raising his eyebrows.

"Yeah but Hugo always buys it."

"What's wrong with you?" Scor said peering at Max who was scratching words into the table. "You seem to be the only one who is- glum today."

"I'm not looking forward to the Holidays," he said truthfully.

"Why not!" Rose exclaimed. "It's the most wonderful time of the year!" she sang.

"What about it is so special for you guys?"

Al opened his mouth, but Rose cut across not noticing.

"You get to see family! And friends, you all come together to laugh and talk. You wrap presents and get to see everyone's faces when they open them." She was now leaning on her elbow staring starry-eyed at the snow falling from the enchanted ceiling. "You spend all day baking and playing in the snow, ice skating and picking out the biggest, prettiest tree. You tell stories and drink hot chocolate, string popcorn, and carol. We shake our presents to try'n figure out what it is, we sing by the piano, which nobody knows how to play I might add. Then on Christmas Eve night, we all have dinner then we listen to the Christmas story. Then we all bundle up in blankets and watch the fairies glowing outside like Christmas lights, then we all try, and fail, to get to sleep that night all anticipating the morning's events."

There was a small pause.

"You guys have a piano but can't play it?" Max asked.

"And I suppose you can?"

"Yes actually, I've had lessons since I was four."

"You've never told me that!" said Rose.

"I don't enjoy it too much."

"Is there anything else we should know about you?" asked Scorpius.

"Yup."

"Tell us one!" said Al.

Max looked hesitant for a moment. "I can play the flute," he said quickly looking down.

Rose decided to spare him Al and Scor's near outburst of laughter.

"What don't you like about your Holiday?"

"Well," he started. "the week leading up to Christmas is full of boring Christmas formals where I'm forced to wear a suit and either stay in the kids' room with the other children, so the adults aren't disturbed, or I am forced to play piano for them. Then we eat ethnic cuisine on Christmas Eve because none of us know how to cook and only foreign restaurants are open at that time. Then we hand each other something around lunch on Christmas day.""Ethnic cuisine?" Scorpius repeated amused."That's what dad insist on us calling it," Max replied. "Thinks it makes us sound classy."

"Your Christmas sounds depressing," said Al after a moment.

"I know what you mean about boring Christmas formals, though," said Scorpius. "Just hang by the food table and the night may not be a total waste."


The next morning Rose hurried down the stairs with a small bag of clothes and set them in a vast pile of luggage near the oak front doors. She rushed into the great hall to find her friends already seated at the Gryffindor table. Rose and Max no longer sat by the Slytherins in fear that the Salazar's would try'n poison their food.

"Merry Christmas!" she sang as she skipped over and jumped between Max and Scorpius.

"Merry Christmas to you too," said Fred from a couple of spots away.

The post arrived with hundreds of owls swooping in. The students, who were all too used to this, held their hands over their favorite dish or beverage to protect it from falling feathers. Very few items arrived that day, Rose assumed that it was because parents were seeing their kids later in the day and felt it unnecessary to talk now.

A gray envelope fell in front of Max who flipped it backward halfheartedly to see the address.

"Oh," he grunted throwing it behind him.

"Max?" Rose blinked. "You didn't even open it," she took it from the stone floor and was surprised to find that it was rather heavy. "It's heavy." She stated aloud. "Who's it from?"

"My grandad."

"You mean the one that you hated?"

"No, the other one. I don't like either of my grandparents."

Rose tore it open without asking and poured ten Galleons into her palm. "Max, this is a lot of money," she said staring at the bright gold.

"I don't want it," he said not looking up. "You can have it if you want."

"I don't want it!" she said. "It's yours."

"Scorpius? Al? Nobody? Okay." He took the money from her hand and without warning threw the coins onto the ground between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff table which clanged loudly against the stone floor. "FREE MONEY!" he bellowed, then turned back toward his bagel without watching to the crowd of students attack the pile as though they were animals.

Rose and the rest of them stood on their bench with open mouths to see what had just happened.

"What'd you do that for!" Al exclaimed.

"I don't want his money, and you guys weren't taking it. He thinks he can send me money and everything'll be alright."

"What thing?" Rose tried.

"Everything," said Max warningly.


Everyone who wasn't staying at Hogwarts over Christmas was happy to find that they only had to walk to the horseless carriages waiting for them at the iron gates rather than all the way to Hogsmeade station. The slush from the walkway was very squashy, and everyone kept slipping and sliding around. Luckily, their luggage had already been brought out they supposed given that it was no longer in the castle.

One girl, who hadn't brought her luggage down in time for it to be magically moved, was having to get help from James and Fred to move her entire trunk across the grounds. They reluctantly heaved it onto one of the carriages. While Scor, Rose, and Max climbed into one.

"Al, come on," Rose encouraged.

He was standing at the front of the carriages peering at the space where a horse should be. Both Max and Rose knew that Al wasn't staring at an empty space, but at an invisible thestral. Thestrals were skeletal like, leathery black Pegasus'. They were rumored to be bad luck only because one can only see them if that person had witnessed a death that has affected them.

"I hope I'll never have to see one," said Al.

"Leave it alone," said Rose pulling him aboard.

The carriage kicked back and started bumpily down the road past the two stone bores that flagged the gates. The ride wasn't long at all, much shorter than their boat ride across the lake in first year. The scarlet steam engine was waiting for them at the platform, puffing smoke and whistling merrily. Al and Scor wasted no time in running on board and saving their seats. Rose and Max had fallen behind and were soon in a throng.

"MAXY!" came a loud shout.

Max looked at her with his eyebrows raised.

"It wasn't me," she assured him.

"MAXY! MAX!" they both turned to see Danielle Daniels beckoning him toward her.

Max groaned and started in her direction with Rose close by his side.

"I would like to speak to you in private!" she yelled.

Max looked at Rose pleadingly, but she only smiled and hopped onto the engine, thinking that whatever words would be exchanged in her absence would be funnier anyway. She watched through one of the windows in the train corridor as Danielle gave him a brightly wrapped package, then whispered something in his ear. She couldn't see anymore due to the large crowd pushing her onward. She joined Scor and Al in the last compartment and propped her feet by Scor.

"If you're gonna do that," said Scorpius with a sideways glance at her shoes. "then you really should take your boots off, they're all muddy anyway."

"Where's Max?" Al asked.

"Talking to Danielle," she smiled.

"Ohhh, when'll he be-? Never mind," said Al. Max had just come through the compartment door slowly holding the yellow and silver package.

"What's- oh!" the train had just given a huge lurch and started onward. "That was fast." She looked out of the window to see an empty platform sliding by her.

"What's in the box?" Scorpius asked.

"Dunno," Max shrugged. "I was told not to open it until Christmas."

"And you're gonna wait?"

"No," Max snorted tearing the paper off. He stopped before opening the box itself. "If I don't come back alive, I would like to say that, Scorpius gets my telescope and-"

"Oh just open it," Rose, grinned.
Max pulled something fuzzy and multicolored from the package.

"How lovely!" Scorpius laughed. "Oh, it really brings out your eye colors!" He wrapped the scarf around Max's neck, and he and Al sat back with mock admiring faces at the effect.

"Shut up," said Max as he tore it off. It was yellow and pink striped with purple tassels. "There's more." He groaned.

The others leaned in excitedly. Max pulled a box of chocolates from the gift, a keychain with an animated shooting star for Astronomy and a card. The card looked to be handwritten, and he opened it cautiously. As soon as the paper folds had separated, the card flung open, and a thick purple fog engulfed them all, and he dropped the note which was still producing smoke. They all crouched while feeling around for where it had fallen. The smoke was thinning a bit, and they found that it was because Fred, Roxanne, and the rest of the Flock had opened the compartment door. They all coughed at the doorway as well.

"What kind of spell went wrong to cause this?" Fred said. "It was you wasn't it, Al?"

"I don't think so," said Roxy picking up the card which had half slid under the now open door. She wiped a few sizzling beads off the paper and which fell to the ground, spit one last puff of smoke, and dissolved.

"Puff Pellets," said Roxy examining the powder between her fingers. "from my joke shop."
What do you mean your joke shop?" asked Fred crossly. "We all know that the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes is going to me."
"Not again, guys," Fritz rolled his eyes.
"It was used wrongly, though," Roxanne continued about the puff pellets. "They're only supposed to be put in liquids like a punch or perhaps a handful in a cup of water on the porch to coat the doorstep in fog. But not used by themselves or else, well, this'll happen."

"Who is this from?" Fritz asked trying to peer at the name on the card.

Ortho took it from Roxy's hand. "To Maddox Everard," he read aloud in a higher girl's voice, grinning.

"No!" Max tried snatching the note. "Please, don't read that!"

"I know that we don't talk often, but I wanted to say that I think you're really cute," Ortho snorted. Max was becoming red in the face, but couldn't get through the Flock, Ortho being in the back anyway. "and I think that we should hang out sometime. I hope you like my gift. I bought it because they were your favorite colors. -Merry Christmas, Danny. D"

Max had his face covered.

"You know, covering your face won't make you disappear," said Cian who had just joined the crowd. "What's his deal?" Ortho handed her the card which she read. "Awe," she cooed. "Why are you so embarrassed? I thought you two were friends."

"No!" Max exclaimed.

"But I always see her with you."

"You always see her following me!"

"Awe, you have an admirer," she cooed again.

"A stalker!" he corrected angrily.

"Well, when you say it like that it doesn't sound so cute."

Max stood up and closed the door as the Flock laughed, still holding the card. They finally left, and Max sat red faced.

"I didn't know pink, yellow, and purple were your favorite colors," said Scorpius.

"They're not."

"You shouldn't be so upset," said Al. "I didn't get any gifts from admirers."

"That's not true," Scor corrected.

"Ah, yup, you're right. Parkinson gave me a biting teacup. She must have thought I was idiotic. Be careful when opening gifts this year, all of you. If it's from an unknown address, then don't open it! A Gryffindor I think, sent Relctory a box of Woodland Pixies. Destroyed the common room, they did."


The ride was a lot longer than they had remembered it being. They all mostly enjoyed it, though. They performed spells and hexes, knowing that they weren't permitted to use their wands at home. Al had engorged a Bertie Botts Every Flavor Bean thinking that it was cherry, it ended up being an earthworm. So instead, Rose had a few cauldron cakes float in the air while the jelly bean rolled across the compartment floor. Because of the cold outside, Max had lit a blue flame fire in midair so they all could warm up by it. They watched the compartment across from them have a similar idea and try desperately to put out the fire that had engulfed their curtains. Max was enjoying the ride back much more than the ride there.

"Yeah, I was in the compartment with Oliver, Owen, Oscar, and Olivia."

"The quadruplets?"

"The quince."

"Oh right, one of them's a-"

"-Squib. They're friendly enough but can be rather overbearing."

"I don't see you guys talk much in the common room."

"Well no, we talked, well, they talked a lot in the compartment, but if that friendship isn't watered, it'll die."

"It'll die!" Al exclaimed.

"What?"

"My Umple shrub!"

"Your-?"

"My Umple shrub! From the first Herbology lesson. Neville called me back and gave me a seed and made me swear not to tell anyone where I got it, so, uh, shhh. I've been taking care of it, it's coming along really well, isn't it Scor?"

"Yeah, real nice."

"But I forgot to bring it, and I didn't leave instructions for Quin! It'll die!"

"Will you calm down," Rose rolled her eyes. "Just write to Neville when we get home and ask if he'll water it."

"It can't be watered! It has to-"

"Whatever need be done with it, he is the Herbology teacher, and I'm sure he'll be well up to the task."


As they were entering London – well, she assumed given the sudden change from mountain to large buildings – Al had fallen asleep on her lap, and Scor on her shoulder. Max was half asleep on the bench opposite.

"Max?" she whispered.

"Hm?"

"Tell me about Baily."

"Not now, not today," he groaned without opening his eyes.

"She seems nice, how old is she?"

"Old enough to be my sister," he whispered.

"Oh, how old is your dad?"

"Forty-seven, I think."

"Then, why is he dating someone young enough to be your sister?"

"Because she's attractive. She's dating dad because he's not poor."

"Do you like her?"

"I'm just waiting."

"For what?"

"For her to leave just like all the rest of them."

"What? So does she not like you?"

"She doesn't know me. Pretends I don't exist. Except around dad where she squeezes my cheek, which is sometimes worse."

"How long have they been dating?"

"Four months."

"Why doesn't she like you...? Max?"

He had fallen asleep. Rose knew that he wouldn't have told her so much unless he was really tired and not all there.

Rose had to wake Al and Scor really just to help her wake Max. They had difficulty getting off the train because of the crowd.

"Max!" Scorpius called. "You forgot this!" He threw Danielle's scarf around Max's neck, and Rose was sure that Max hadn't forgotten about it.

"YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSE TO OPEN THAT UNTIL CHRISTMAS!" They heard Danielle call from quite a distance away. She was grinning broadly, apparently very pleased to see him wearing it. As soon as she was out of sight, Max ripped it off and swung it at Scor who was laughing.

The thick layer of steam that the train was producing made it difficult to find her family. She and Max made their way through the crowd, and Al had somehow been separated. She pushed and shoved only to hit a smaller boy.

"Sorry," she mumbled then noticed that the boy was holding her around the waist. "Hugo!" she exclaimed hugging him. He led her, and Max to Rose's parents, and there they were, almost all of them smiling at her. She jumped into her dad's arms almost in tears. She hadn't realized how much she had missed them until seeing them all here. She hugged her mom, Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny, Uncle George and Aunt Angelina, Uncle Bill and Aunt Flur, and greeted Uncle Percy and Aunt Audrey. She was greeted by Lily, Hugo, Lucy, and Louis.

"This is Max," said Rose finally backing away.

"So this is him?" asked Hermione shaking his hand.

"So you're the boy who was caught out of bed after hours with Rose?" asked her dad half sternly.

"Er, yes sir," said Max with a sideways glance at Rose. "Um, delivering a letter."

"I've heard you've been a great help to Rosie in Astronomy."

"Least I can do since all her help with Transfiguration," he replied.

Ron smiled at him for the first time, and the entire family began shaking his hand which took a really long time.

As soon as all the greeting were dispersed, the family turned to welcome Al back.

"So?" said Rose rocking back and forth on her heels. "Where's your dad?" She was eager to get a glimpse of his family.

"They'll be late," he shrugged.

"That's alright; I'll wait."

"No!" he exclaimed suddenly which made Rose stop rocking. "I don't want to hold you up."

"Really, it's alr-" but she stopped talking when Max hugged her and muttered, "Merry Christmas," before walking away at a brisk pace.

She was taken aback for a moment. First, because Max had just hugged her and he was not a very touchy guy. Second, because she blinked and he was gone.

She spotted him about ten yards away and watched him confusedly through the mist as a young woman with a tight pencil skirt, short blonde hair, and bright red lips came to stand in front of him. It is hard to make out her face exactly because of the thick cloud of smoke that was issuing from her mouth and pipe. Rose watched the woman; she could only assume Baily, turn to look behind her, then pinch Max's cheek. A tall man joined them; he had a hat on which made distinguishing his face impossible. Rose guessed that this man was his dad.

"Come on, Rosie," she heard her mom say and felt a soft hand take hers. "It's time to go sweetheart. I have a casserole cooking." She was steered away but looked back in time to see Max pull away from the woman's dragon nails; then the steam became too thick to see anything else.


"Where's Scor?" Rose asked Al who was walking next to her.

"Left," Al replied. "Gone home."

"Without saying goodbye?"

"Well, he waved, but couldn't make it over before his dad steered him out."

"You met Draco?" she asked curiously.

"Well I said hi," Al replied. "but he kind of just nodded to me and left. His wife smiled, though."