The shouts could still be heard downstairs and she tried to ignore the back and forth of  Fred and Amelia. She couldn’t believe they were fighting in front of everyone downstairs. Although she wished they wouldn’t come in here, she was already starting to form a headache that would soon turn into a migraine.

Hermione lay on her bed, staring up at the ceiling, and was not prepared in the slightest when the door banged open. Her husband and daughter strode into the room, both of them mimicking the other’s anger. Hermione slowly pulled herself into a sitting position, bracing herself of the upcoming argument. Amelia stopped at the foot of the bed and crossed her arms.

‘I’m 18 years old!’ Amelia yelled, glaring at Hermione for an odd reason.

It wasn’t like Hermione had been the one to drag her away from Scorpius. In fact, she had been the one who suggested going to Draco and sorting everything out. She had been on Amelia’s side all along. Why was she glaring at her then? Obviously, Amelia was too used to blaming her mother for everything. Hermione sighed and looked at Fred who also had his arms crossed over his chest. Now she understood where Amelia got her anger from.

‘Yes, I know I had you 18 years ago. I remember giving birth to you,’ Hermione stated, a little haughtily.

‘Then why do you treat me like I’m 8?’ Amelia glared, ‘I should never have come here for Christmas! All you’ve done is try to ruin what I have with Scorpius!’

‘Yes, Amelia, I persuaded your father to go to Draco’s house to see if he was accepting his son’s choice to marry our daughter. And I only did that because I’m trying to ruin your relationship with him,’ Hermione said sarcastically, moving her bushy hair out of her face.

Amelia paused, not used to her mother being so sarcastic with her. She frowned, her face falling into a slightly shocked expression, and turned her eyes towards Fred instead. Fred glanced briefly at Hermione too and then shook his head, looking at Amelia.

‘Why are you acting like that?’ Amelia asked, in a whisper, ‘why can’t you just stand by me?’

‘I have been standing by you!’ Hermione fought to keep her voice level but it was a hard job. She hated being the one that her daughter blamed. She never blamed Fred and this time, Fred was actually to blame.

‘I’ll have nothing to do with this wedding,’ Fred stated and held up a finger when Amelia was about to object, ‘marry him and ruin your life. You know where I’ll be when you come to your senses.’

‘I love him, Dad,’ Amelia frowned, ‘didn’t you love Mum? Wasn’t everyone against that because Uncle Ron loved Mum too?’

‘That’s entirely different, Amelia,’ Fred said angrily, ‘Malfoy’s kind of people killed my brother! How could you even think of forgiving them for that?!’

‘I didn’t know Uncle George!’ Amelia yelled again, hitting her hands on the bed in front of her, ‘and Scorpius didn’t personally kill him! Neither did his father! Scorpius isn’t a scapegoat!’

‘You didn’t know him but I did! No one can ever be forgiven for his murder and I won’t be associated with you, Amelia, if you marry him,’ Fred stated, heading to the door.

Amelia opened her mouth to talk back but her voice caught in her throat. Her father hardly ever argued with her and now he had basically shunned her from his life. A sob escaped her throat and she sat down onto the bed with a flop, burying her face in her hands as she cried. Hermione bit her lip, her heart fluctuating at the sound of her crying. She moved closer and rubbed her back.

‘It’ll be fine, sweetheart,’ Hermione told her in a soothing voice, ‘he’s just angry.’

James, who had been lurking about in the hall and overhearing their argument, came into the room and went over to Amelia, wrapping his arms around her. Amelia did the same and cried into his shoulder, feeling her heart squeeze as she pictured her father leaving her life forever just because she wanted to marry the man she loved.

Hermione frowned and stood up, letting James take care of her since she knew she could trust him. She left the room and stomped down the corridor, passing Dominique and Louis who were by the stairs.

‘Where’s Fred?’ Hermione asked, hating the fact that everyone had practically witnessed the argument and drama in her family. She knew Mr Weasley would have a lot to say about this since he never really appreciated Amelia since apparently she was an illegitimate child.

‘I think he’s outside,’ Dominique said quietly and quickly moved aside to let her Aunt storm down the stairs.

Hermione tugged on her boots and left the Burrow, looking around at the white snow that surrounded her. She saw the tree a little away from her and then saw Fred’s figure leaning against it with his head buried in his hands. Hermione stalked over to him, feeling the fire rage in her stomach.

‘How dare you!’ Hermione shouted, ‘she’s your daughter!’

‘She’s going against our will! We didn’t raise her to marry death eaters, Mia!’ Fred yelled back, turning to her and Hermione could see the anger in his eyes.

She stopped a little away from him and crossed her arms over her chest, shivering a little as the snow fell onto her shirt and head, ‘don’t act like the sort of parent who has their kid on lock down. She’s not our slave. She can make her own choices, Fred.’

‘She’ll regret it,’ Fred muttered, shaking his head as he looked back at the house, ‘and I can’t see her life turning bad. I gave her everything that she could ever want! I gave her all my love, Hermione.’

‘And now, you need to do just that. You need to stand by her!’ Hermione stated, closing her eyes briefly, ‘act like her father. How can we get through this wedding without her father?’

‘Well, I guess there will be no wedding then,’ Fred frowned, ‘just like I want it.’

Hermione stared at him, wondering how he could be so selfish. She felt the fire in her stomach cascade up, her cheeks turning red in anger as she shouted, ‘Fred!’

‘Hermione,’ Fred frowned, ‘don’t start an argument. Haven’t we argued enough?’

‘I can’t believe you won’t stand by your daughter! You say you love her but obviously you don’t love her enough. She needs you right now,’ Hermione glared at him, ‘and she’s blaming me, as she always does, and I am not to be blamed!’

‘Fine, tell her she can put all the blame on me but I will not have anything to do with her if she turns into a Malfoy,’ Fred stated, turning his head to look away from her.

‘That isn’t what I’m trying to say,’ Hermione groaned, moving closer to her and turning his face so that he was looking at her, ‘if you don’t support our daughter through this... we’ll have problems, Fred.’

‘We already have problems between us, Hermione,’ Fred muttered, pushing her hand away from him, ‘I saw the way you blush when Malfoy talked to you. When are we going to talk about that?’

Hermione paused and then narrowed her eyes at him, ‘he loves his son. He’s a good father. Even though he wasn’t around much last year, he was always there for Scorpius whenever he needed him; you saw how he offered to pay for the wedding.’

‘So... you like him because he’s a good father? Did you forget everything we went through with him? How he took away our business, our home?’ Fred frowned.

‘He did that for Scorpius and yes, it was horrible, but he had to! He was in desperate need of money and, Fred, sometimes forgiveness is the way to go,’ Hermione told him, ‘for Amelia. Amelia wants this, she loves Scorpius. Can’t you at least try?’

‘No,’ Fred stated, moving away from her, ‘I can’t and I won’t.’

Hermione frowned at him as he closed his eyes, ‘you better not disapparate away from-’

Her sentence was cut short when Fred disapparated, leaving her with a resounding crack sound.

---

Amelia had been crying on her cousin’s shoulder for a long time. How long? She had no idea. But it felt good to just let her tears fall free and not have to keep a facade up so people would think she was strong. Right now, she felt as weak as ever since her father had basically disowned her. She was nothing without Fred. He was her rock and had been throughout her whole life, especially when Amelia had been fighting with Hermione over many different things that seemed so long ago and very unimportant now.

Amelia clutched James’ hoody, her face buried in his chest as she left a wet patch on the front of his hoody. James, being the best cousin she could ever ask for, was rubbing her back and trying to soothe her. When Amelia thought she could produce no more tears, she pulled back and looked up at her best friend.

‘James...’ Amelia whispered, practically putting all of her weight on him.

James held her up, ‘it’s fine. I was wondering when you were going to start crying. It’s such an Amelia thing to do.’

‘Is not,’ Amelia sniffled, ‘I never cry.’

‘Mhm,’ James rolled his eyes, ‘do you even know who you’re talking to? I spent much of my time consoling you in Hogwarts because you got upset about what people said about you.’

‘People are horrible,’ Amelia muttered, closing her eyes and leaning her head on his shoulder, ‘he’s gone, James... I’ve let him down.’

‘Your dad loves you,’ James stated, looking down at her, ‘what he said... it was out of pure anger, Amelia. You know he’d never walk out of your life like that.’

Amelia sniffed against him and kept her eyes closed, thinking that Fred did seem pretty angry at her. Would they ever be able to get past this? Would Fred ever be happy with the idea of Scorpius and Amelia being in love?

‘Maybe... you should wait,’ James said quietly, closing his eyes as Amelia looked up at him with a frown, ‘don’t look at me like that. You know it was all very sudden and... you could wait.’

‘I don’t want to wait. I want to start my family, James. Just because you’ve never been in love... you don’t understand what it feels like,’ Amelia pulled away from him, pushing him slightly. She turned her back to him and wiped away her tears.

‘Is he really worth it? Or do you not love your dad more? I’m not saying to reject Malfoy... I’m just saying, wait,’ James groaned.

Amelia shook her head and watched Hermione come back into the room. Her mother went to get the suitcase and started to pack the clothes, practically throwing them in there in a very un-Hermione sort of way.  

‘Pack your stuff, Amelia. Time to go home,’ Hermione frowned.

‘Aunt Hermione, can’t you stay?’ James frowned, ‘I haven’t seen Amelia in ages.’

‘What do you mean, home?’ Amelia frowned at her mother, ‘I still live with Scorpius and I’m going to go to him.’

‘And leave your father? Did I really bring you up to be this stubborn and selfish? Not to mention, idiotic,’ Hermione stood up straight and looked at Amelia, ‘go then. Go and choose that boy over your own family even if it breaks all of us apart.’

‘I didn’t mean to create a rift in our family,’ Amelia used air quotes for the word and then stomped out of the room.

James sighed and followed her into the room that she was sharing with Scorpius. Scorpius had fled pretty much when Amelia told him to leave when Fred was shouting. Amelia grabbed the two suitcases and started to throw her and Scorpius’ clothes into them the same way Hermione had, a frown set on her face.

‘Please don’t leave,’ James sighed, grabbing her hand, ‘it’s been so long since I’ve seen you.’

‘I have to go, James,’ Amelia muttered, getting out of his grip to grab the very few things she had unpacked since she got here, ‘I have things to take care of.’

‘What? You don’t have time for me?’ James asked her, crossing his arms over his chest.

‘Oh, James, I promise we’ll get to hang out. Just... give me a bit of space, okay?’ Amelia muttered and zipped up the suitcases, ‘I have to check on Scorpius. See you later?’

‘Mhm,’ James muttered, not looking too hopeful about seeing her later.

Amelia looked at him and sighed before closing her eyes and disapparating straight into the apartment that she shared with Scorpius. When she opened her eyes, she didn’t expect to see Draco standing there. What was even more surprising was that blood was dripping from his swollen lip onto her formerly spotless carpet.