"That weasely wanker!"

The barn owl decided that it wasn't about to receive any titbits and made a swoop for the window, cuffing the overloud redhead with a wing as he went.

Scorpius smirked at his fiancée across the breakfast table, his chest tightening almost as much at the sight of her in a pair of men's striped flannel pyjamas, with her hair a copper corona of Medusa curls, swearing like a docker, as when she dressed in the most elegant formal wear at a charity fundraiser. "What's your father done now, dear heart?" The overblown endearment was their private parody of the social circles where Scorpius had been raised and their false camaraderie, parody because in their case the words were true. He pushed his chair back and patted his thigh. "Come on."

Rose's scowl did its best to remain, but those Slytherin smirks had a long history of going straight to her heart, and she'd been climbing onto a Slytherin lap to tell her problems for as long as she cared to remember.

"That man is not my father."

Scorpius lifted a titian lock and pressed it to his lips. "I hate to tell you, but unless your mum had a quick fling with your Uncle Charlie, genetics would tend to suggest otherwise."

Rose's upper lip curled back as if she were a dog on the verge of attack. "I wish she had. At least then I wouldn't have to put up with this tosser whenever Grandma Molly reminds him he has four kids, not two. Well, as far as I'm concerned Ronald Weasley is about as much my father as— as— a turkey baster full of giz."

Scorpius snorted. That was his Rose. Most people thought she was prim and proper, but those closest to her (and only those closest to her) got to see she was more than Hermione Granger's perfect daughter.

Her father's neglect had left scars, despite the love that Severus and her mother had lavished on her. Unfortunately, his increasingly sporadic contact often left worse ones. Rose and Scorpius had known since they were thirteen years old that they were meant to be together. That summer they had sworn the same blood vow Severus and Hermione shared. They'd been sixteen before she'd told Ron Weasley they were dating, all because of some remark he'd made the one and only time he had bothered to go to King's Cross to see her off on the Hogwarts Express. In her more melancholy moods, when she'd had a little too much wine, Rose had expressed the opinion that his sole reason for going that day had been to take that moment away from Severus. When Weasley had remembered Rose's birthdays, the presents had either been cheap and obviously chosen by his latest 'lady friend', or, after he had been invited to leave the Aurory, they had given the impression that he'd scooped things off the shelves of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes at random.

"That's not true. If it were, he couldn't hurt you the way he does." Scorpius pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "Now tell me what he's done. You're as bad as your mum when it comes to getting to the point sometimes."

"He's only offered to pay for the wedding, lock, stock and barrel!" Rose complained.

"Ah!"

"Provided we change the wording on the invitations from 'Hermione Granger and Severus Snape invite so-and-so to the wedding of Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy' to 'Mr and Mrs Ronald Weasley invite so-and-so to the wedding of their daughter, Rose, and Scorpius Malfoy'. And he wants to give me away. He says it's not right Severus doing it when he's blood kin. Git! As far as I'm concerned, he gave me away when I was four years old and he shacked up with Lav Lav."

"I'll kill Al, best man or not. I told him to keep his mouth shut."

"It's not his fault. You know what Grandma Molly is like. You haven't heard the best bit..."

"The Manor?" Scorpius asked archly.

"He says The Burrow's been good enough for all the Weasleys so far, but if that's not good enough for a Malfoy, then we can be married from his place or Uncle George's. He's — quote — not so hard up that he needs to take charity from the likes of Lucius Malfoy — unquote."

Scorpius gave a snort of laughter.

"It's not funny!" Rose responded. "It took us an age to persuade Severus to let Lucy-Lou make that much of a contribution, and as soon as we get those two to stop butting egos, Won Won sticks his oar in."

"But it is funny."

"Scorpius, have you ever actually worked out how much this wedding is costing Mum and Sev? I know they can afford it, even if Won Won hasn't got the brains to work out that Severus makes a fortune on patents and he doesn't drink it away, or buy flashy clothes and some stupidly huge house — it's not the same if you inherit one and even Lucy doesn't have a swimming pool — or spend it all on cheap floozies. Now the wanker's offered, I can't just assume that Mum and Sev will feel the same about paying for everything. Merlin knows he left Mum well and truly in the lurch when he walked out. He owes her that money."

"You're such an idiot, Rosie. Give me the letter." Scorpius stood up slowly enough to eject Rose from his lap without tipping her on the floor. He took the letter in one hand and her hand in the other, leading her through to their living room. He stopped in front of the fireplace, and tossed in a handful of Floo powder from a convenient pot. "The study at Rose Cottage, Upper Flagley," he said. Then he took Rose's hand again, and they both knelt on the hearth and leaned forward into the flames.

"Severus, are you there?"

"Of course I am, you dunderhead, but if you think I'm crawling around on my knees at my age, you've got another thing coming. Get on with it. You didn't Floo at seven in the morning for no reason."

Scorpius rolled his eyes at a wool-draped pair of legs. "Rose got a letter from her biological father this morning. It seems he takes issue with some of the ideas we had for the wedding, and he's said he's willing to pay for everything if we do it all to suit him and Molly."

"Well, I hope she told the worthless wanker where to go," Severus replied. "I've seen her mother's wedding photographs, and no daughter of mine is going to go through any wedding that tasteless Weasley harridan has a hand in."

"I told her it was nothing to worry about, but she seemed to think you might you might let Weasley give her away if it meant the chance to get some of the money he should have given to Hermione over the years."

Suddenly Scorpius and Rose found themselves looking into Severus's face. "Move back," he barked before clambering through the green flames and out the other side.

"Rose Freda Weasley, I may not have been able to marry your mother because she and Weasley were married under a permanent magical binding, and I may not have been able to adopt you officially because that dolt would not give his consent, but if you think that any amount of money would be enough to make me forfeit the right to walk you down the aisle on your wedding day, you're a bigger dunce than Gertrude Goyle." He lifted his left hand palm upward showing the whitened scar there. "Your mother's blood runs in my veins and in yours, and, as far as I'm concerned, that makes you and Hugo just as much my children as Sevvie and Toby, whatever your last name."

"Of course," Scorpius interjected, wafting Ron's letter by the tiniest corner as if he couldn't bear to touch it more than was necessary, "if Weasley has all that money to spare, it might come in handy when we want to buy a bigger place..."

Severus grinned, not a friendly grin, but one that was feral and dangerous. "Why don't I take that? I'm sure my lawyers can come up with some backdated child support charges or something, since we have Mr Weasley's written word that he suddenly appears to have discovered some liquid assets."

"Since your lawyer is also the Malfoy family lawyer, I had no doubts on the subject."

Severus wrapped his arms around his daughter, drawing her into one of the same familiar hugs she had known since she was six. He nodded to Scorpius, who inclined his head in a similar gesture of respect. "Take care of her. I shall take care of this, if I can convince Hermione not to crumple it up into a ball and push it down Weasley's throat, that is. Don't forget dinner tomorrow." Then, in a flash of green, he was gone again.

"You two are a pair of bad men."

"No," Scorpius answered, scooping her into his arms and carrying her in the direction of the bedroom, the better to take her mind off her sire. "We're a pair of resourceful men, who love our women and get just a little bit vindictive when someone hurts them."