I'm Dead

Ron's Outburst

"Actually, it is!" Ron shouted, raising his voice at her for the first time, making her flinch and step back slightly. Harry glared at him, and Ron sighed. "I'm sorry, Hermione. It's just – you need to know what's going on."

"Then tell us what's going on, you git!" Ginny cried impatiently. Ron looked offended for a fraction of a second, before he remembered what he'd been so angry about before.

"These two!" he announced, turning round to glare at Rose and Scorpius again. "These two are what's going on! They're – they're – doing – bad things –"

"Planning to prank someone?" Ginny prompted.

"Planning to rob Gringotts?" Fred joked.

"Doing each other?" James snickered. Lily squeaked and Hugo, Al and Ron looked violently sick, while pink tinged Scorpius' cheeks and Rose's red face rivalled Ron's.

"That's enough from you," Ginny said sharply. James' jaw fell open. He'd just been basically told to shut up by his fourteen-year-old mother! That wasn't something you heard everyday.

"THEY'RE DATING!" Ron suddenly shrieked, causing everyone to jump half a foot in the air. "They're going out! As in, boyfriend and girlfriend!"

"Well, yes, that's the general idea," Fred nodded.

"And with the 'boyfriend and girlfriend' part usually comes snogging," George put in nonchalantly.

"Don't make it worse!" Ron howled at his brothers, truly at the end of his tether now.

"Is he telling the truth?" Ginny asked, glancing from Rose to Scorpius. Rose nodded reluctantly, inching closer still to Scorpius.

"And you lot knew?" Harry turned to James, Lily, Hugo and Al. They nodded sheepishly.

"We didn't want you lot to know, because we didn't really need the stress. And, well, I don't think Rose and Scorpius fancy going deaf," Albus answered.

"And seeing Ron's reaction, I don't blame you," Hermione muttered darkly. She put a hesitant hand on the redhead's arm. "Ron, maybe you should calm down. Hear them out." Rose sent her mother a grateful smile.

"Hermione!" Ron cried disbelievingly. "Don't you care about what ferret junior is doing to Rose? To – to – our daughter? He could be planning something right now to break her heart and ruin our whole family!" Rose and Scorpius' jaws dropped, outraged. Hermione blushed profusely at the 'our daughter' – she supposed she wasn't going to get over that – but now wasn't really the time for it.

"Ron," Harry said warningly, not liking where this was going on. He knew the hurtful things that could slip out of Ron's mouth when he got carried away in his anger.

His best friend didn't hear him, or if he did, he ignored him. "Who knows what he's up to? Who knows what his motives are?" He was rounding on Scorpius now, and Rose tried to act as a shield between her boyfriend and her father, but Scorpius wouldn't let her, standing as tall as he could as Ron worked himself up more and more.

"Ronald, really, I think you're being slightly overdramatic," Hermione said crossly, irritated now. Couldn't he see that he was upsetting Rose and Scorpius?

"I'm not being overdramatic! HIS FAMILY ARE DEATH EATERS! WHO'S TO SAY HE'S NOT GOING THE SAME WAY?"

"No," Ginny breathed, as the room fell silent. Her brother couldn't have just said that. Even he wasn't that stupid. Was he?

Rose was the first to find her voice. "You can't be serious," she whispered, staring at Ron like she didn't even know him. "You can't be serious."

Fred and George caught James' eye, who had to clamp his mouth tight shut.