Amortentia (a Scorose Fanfiction)

Chapter Twenty-Six

          Rose looked away from her reflection in the mirror at the sound of a knock on her door. 

        "Come in!" She called.

        Rose's mother poked her head around her daughter's bedroom door.  A bright smile blossomed on her otherwise weathered face.  Hermione Granger-Weasley had aged in the years following the Second Wizarding War. 

        Rose often studied her mother's familiar face, wondering how she must have looked before the effects of the war took its toll.  Although Hermione's hair still curled around her face in the same frizzy mess that Rose, herself, had inherited, the strands lacked a sense of life.  Her eyes crinkled at the corners whenever she smiled or laughed, but there was deep darkness within them that unsettled Rose even in the happiest of moments.  Her mother often wore long sleeves, never wishing to lay her eyes on the scars that her arm bore. 

        Mudblood.

        Rose could remember so clearly the first time she had seen her mother's scar.  The horror that rushed over her, sending her blood cold and her heart to stone.  She could never begin to imagine what Hermione had seen during those dark days.  The death, the deception, the destruction...  She wondered how she slept at night, wondered if she ever thought back to those days and wished she never had. 

        As much as Rose knew her mother still held the burden of many deaths on her shoulders, Hermione rarely let it show.  Rose's mother was one of the strongest women she knew.  Her mother, the brightest witch of her generation.  She loved her all the more for it. 

        "Nearly ready?" Hermione asked, taking a seat on the edge of Rose's bed. 

        Rose smiled, pinning a section of hair to the side of her head, away from her face.  "Nearly," she said. 

        Hermione smiled fondly at her daughter, watching Rose fuss over her appearance in the mirror.  "And you're sure this is not a date?"

        Rose cast her mother a glance in the mirror.  "It's not a date, mum," she said, lying through her teeth.  "I'm just meeting up with some friends, is all."

        Her mother nodded, though it was clear she did not believe her.  "Anyone I know, perhaps?"

        "No, I don't think so," Rose said casually. 

        "Am I allowed to know names?" Hermione teased. 

        Rose froze.  She had not been expecting that.  The only people she was actually meeting with were Scorpius and Charlie!  And of course she couldn't tell her mother that! 

        "Oh, uh," Rose stuttered.  "My friend Charlie is going.  And, uh..."

        "Charlie?" Her mother questioned.  "What's his last name?  Perhaps I know his parents from the Ministry?"

        Rose swallowed the lump on her throat.  "Chester," she mumbled, knowing full well that her mother would recognise the Slytherin surname.  Rose, at least, could be happy that she was focusing on him for the moment.  It gave her time to brainstorm classmates who could be accompanying them.

        Hermione, if at all phased by the mention of a Chester, nodded thoughtfully.  "Is this a new friendship?  You've never mentioned him before."

        "Relatively new, yes," she replied, licking her lips tentatively.  "We've been spending time together since we got paired together for a Potions assignment.  He thought it would be nice if we met up over Christmas—"