Chapter Twenty-seven: Negotiations

“Sit down, Miss Weasley.”

Rose sat, her eyes flitting nervously as Draco Malfoy took a seat across from her, kicking his feet onto his desk, his fingers steepled, hands resting on his chest. Somehow, Rose imagined this was not the business tycoon’s usual way of carrying himself and wondered again at how much she must have angered him with her outburst in the hospital wing all those weeks ago.

“Mr. Malfoy, if I can start by saying how sorry…”

“I said sit; I did not direct you to speak, Rose.”

Rose flushed as if it were her own father berating her, though Merlin knew her dad had never made her feel this rotten.

“But… but about the hospital wing…”

“Rose.”

She abruptly cut herself off, simply meeting the older man’s cold, grey gaze.

“I can only assume,” he began. “That Travis only brought you here and that he has nothing else to do with what you actually want to discuss with me. The fact you even mention the incident in the hospital wing is proof enough that this impromptu meeting is about those persons present, of which Travis Bletchley was not. Am I correct?”

“Yes,” she admitted, unable to say anything more.

Draco resettled himself; his feet finally back on the floor. He was leaning across his desk now, finally meeting her eyes. “Truthfully, Miss Weasley, I am sorry for my son’s behavior that day. I was embarrassed by him and he was punished severely.”

“It’s nothing,” Rose waved him off, her voice trembling slightly. “Scorpius and I are fine. Lily and I made up too, so… maybe everything with that is settled now and…”

“Hardly.”

“Pardon?” she asked quietly.

“I said it’s hardly settled or you would not be here now. Would you?” he asked pointedly.

Rose shifted in her seat under his knowing stare. “No,” she admitted in defeat.

Draco Malfoy nodded almost imperceptibly, steepling his fingers back together and not saying a word.

Rose waited for a beat before she clenched her hands at her sides, finally gaining the courage to address him. After all, she only had thirty minutes, thirty minutes to beg for this man’s help and she had already wasted several fidgeting in awkwardness.

“Mr. Malfoy, I am here about Lily… and Scorpius technically.” Draco didn’t speak so Rose continued. “Sir, from what I understand, Scorpius is travelling the continent over the summer hols, and that he’s leaving early tomorrow?”

“Yes.”

“Well,” Rose swallowed and suddenly started speaking very quickly, trying to get it all out in a single rush, she was so uncomfortable. “Well Scorpius invited Lily to join him and she is, but the problem is she’s going for longer than his original trip was planned for, and I’m pretty sure the two of them aren’t intending to come back soon, certainly not in time for Lily to go back to Hogwarts in September, and she is only just out of her fifth year and it’s going to be a huge mistake and Travis and I went to speak with her just this morning but she won’t listen to me and even though I’ve done everything I can to fix everything that happened between the three of us this semester, I’m afraid I didn’t do enough because Lily is still not listening to me and she’s blaming all of this on her mum which is again all my fault because I’m the one who told about her mum and you in the first place,” she gasped for breath at the end, looking worriedly to the older man across from her. “Could you please help me?”

Draco’s grey eyes narrowed, his expression cold. “What about your aunt and myself?” he asked quietly, though he’d already heard the whole thing once before in the hospital wing.

Rose was surprised he wasn’t ranting about his own son’s involvement in all of this, but she supposed her telling Ginny’s secret and causing all these problems likely angered him a good deal more.

“Just… everything…” she shrugged helplessly.

Draco leaned back in his chair, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “Why don’t you enlighten me further?”

Rose flushed, glancing down at her shoes. “It all started with me letting it slip that Lily’s mum still… still loved you.”

Draco didn’t move. To Rose, it looked as if he didn’t even breathe or blink, only staring coldly back at her.

“That’s, that’s when all the problems started, because of me. Lily was morbidly curious, Scorpius a little less… but…”

“What does this have to do with their juvenile trip to the continent?” Draco asked tiredly.

“Well, um, they both, Lily and y-your son… are convinced you’re having an affair…”

Draco chuckled humorlessly and Rose stiffened, the sound raising the fine hairs on the back of her neck.

Draco leaned back in his office chair, blearily rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands, as if he were more tired than Rose could possibly imagine.

“M-Mr. Malfoy? You aren’t, are you? Cheating with Aunt Ginny?”

Draco continued to lean back in his chair, staring unseeingly up at the ceiling. “When I knew her, she was just Ginny.”

Rose felt her heart rise in hope. “Then you’re not, not seeing her.”

Draco raised an eyebrow at the seventeen year old girl, “You’re rather sure, aren’t you? What gave it away?”

“The past tense,” Rose admitted. “You said when you knew her, as if you don’t know her anymore.”

“Isn’t that the truth…” Draco trailed off, a frown line appearing between his eyebrows, staring off into the corner of the office. “Now I know more…” he murmured to himself, thinking back on all the revelations he’d had of why Ginny had left him all those twenty-six years ago.

Rose lightly cleared her throat, interrupting his musings. “Do you think, sir, that you could convince Lily of that? That you’re not having an affair? Scorpius’ convinced her that both your marriage and her mum’s are about to fall apart and now they want to run away from it before it happens. Please, sir, I only have less than twenty-four hours before my cousin makes a huge mistake and I just can’t let her do this. You have to help me.”

“Why?” Draco asked listlessly, still lost in thought, squinting against the light from the window.

“B-because… to help Ginny.” Rose answered simply. If she had expected Draco Malfoy to brighten at that, to sit up in realization and determination to help, she was wrong.

Draco Malfoy only sat there, musing to himself. “My son wants to leave. He’s an adult now and Merlin knows I did the same at his age. I can’t stop him.”

“Yes, but Lily… she’s not even sixteen yet and…”

“And she’s not my responsibility,” Draco finished, finally turning to meet Rose’s shocked face.

“But… but she’s Ginny’s daughter.”

Draco simply stared ahead and Rose could’ve sworn she saw a shadow of something like hurt pass behind his eyes. But it was gone just as quickly.

“I’m sorry, Miss Weasley, but children have to make their own mistakes.”

“Like you and Aunt Ginny.”

Draco bristled at the word ‘aunt’, unconsciously correcting Rose. “Ginny,” he growled, “just Ginny.”

Rose narrowed her eyes, becoming suddenly frustrated with the older man. “Are you really going to let her daughter run away as if it doesn’t concern you at all?”

“Does it?” Draco asked sarcastically. “And why’s that?”

“For the same reason you can only refer to her the way you used to. ‘Just Ginny’,” she mocked.

“What was that supposed to mean?” Draco snapped at her.

“You still love her. You’re still in love with her. Did you think we didn’t know she came here the day after the hospital wing?” Rose snapped, standing up from her chair and glaring down at the older man, who looked ready to strangle her. “She came here and the two of you were in here for hours!”

“So everyone thinks we had an affair? Is that it?” Draco growled.

“No, I know she didn’t,” Rose said, utterly convinced of it, lowering her voice now. “But I bet she messed you up for days…”

Draco stiffened, staring at Rose in hatred. “You ought to hold your tongue, girl.”

“Help me convince Lily to stay.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because I will have nothing more to do with that family!” Draco roared, standing up and slamming his hand down on the table, glaring at Rose, who was taken aback by his response.

“Why not?” she asked softly.

“As if I would admit anything to the one girl who started this mess,” he said scathingly.

Rose took a step back. “You’re being a coward,” she said coldly, “and a child.”

“You ruined us!” Draco shouted, his face turning red in anger. “You devastated your aunt!”

“I KNOW THAT!” Rose shouted back just as furiously.

“Then WHY are you HERE?”

“To keep her family from falling apart anymore!” Rose screamed. Draco stopped shouting, Rose now breathing heavily. “You keep saying that you want nothing to do with it, but I know you don’t want her hurt anymore. You still love her. And I know she still loves you. Could you please do just this one thing to help her?”

Rose waited, unable to tell if Draco was considering what she was saying or not.

He finally sat down in his chair with a weary sigh and Rose could tell he was close to agreeing. She sat down across from him, right on the edge of her seat. “Mr. Malfoy, you must owe her something… There must be something you could tell yourself so that you’d agree to this.”

Draco sighed deeply, finally meeting Rose’s gaze. “This problem just keeps getting more and more out of hand. Should I do this, I’d likely just see you here in another month, trying to solve something else of this mess.”

“I won’t. Please, Mr. Malfoy. Just convince Lily that nothing happened with you and her mum and all this will just go away. There won’t be any more problems. I swear.”

Draco considered her. Finally he stood up and moved to the office door. Rose stared after him for a beat, quickly coming to her senses and getting up, following him out into the waiting room. “Please, if you’ll just please do this one thing…” she pleaded after him.

But Draco was ignoring her, holding out an expectant hand to his secretary. Amber quickly placed the open appointment log in his hand. Draco addressed Rose without looking up from the book. “Is your cousin home now?”

“Y-yes.”

“Her parents?”

“I-I don’t know… They weren’t when we left her…”

Draco lowered the appointment log in frustration, fixing Rose with an irritated look. “I’m not about to step foot in that house if there’s the slightest chance either of her parents will be there.”

“Well, um, oh, my parents they’re having Uncle Harry and A-,” she caught herself, “I mean, Ginny, they’re having them over to dinner tonight at six. James will be working at the joke shop… and Albus… I’ll get rid of Albus,” she promised.

“You can guarantee all that?” Draco asked.

Rose paused but finally nodded. “Yes.”

“And I’ll help her,” Travis spoke up from where he was standing, hands in his pockets.

“Then I’ll be there at six. Be there to let me in. I’ll not be scaring the living daylights out of a teenage girl because of a lack of communication.”

Rose nodded. “Okay. Mr. Malfoy, thank you…”

Draco nodded his chin, glancing back at his appointment book and addressing Amber. “Cancel my dinner with the undersecretary. Find a time to reschedule before the end of the week.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And Rose?”

“Yes?”

“This is the last time you are permitted to speak of anything we discussed in my office. I will talk to your cousin, but this is a closed issue afterwards. Understand?”

Draco’s cold grey eyes met Rose’s. She swallowed, seeing that familiar shadow of hurt pass over his eyes again. “I understand,” she said.

He nodded once, and gestured to the lift doors, unceremoniously kicking them out. Rose found herself nearly tripping over her own feet to rejoin Travis, the two of them already pushing the button for the lift.

“Good to see you, Mr. Malfoy,” Travis said with an awkward wave.

“Do not patronize me, Travis,” Draco drawled, turning back to his office once more, still addressing Travis over his shoulder. “You’re quite lucky you aren’t looking for employment here.”

Travis turned red in embarrassment but was spared from answering when the lift arrived. Rose and Travis got on, catching one last glimpse of Draco Malfoy’s back before the two lift doors shut.

Travis let out a sigh, his shoulders slumping. “Damn, I hadn’t planned on job searching anywhere else…”

“You’re not serious?” Rose asked in utter bewilderment.

“You’re right, I’m not,” he grinned. “Still, it would have looked good on a résumé.”

Rose shook her head to herself, finally breathing deeply now that she was out of that office. “Well, at least that’s done. Getting Albus out of the house should be the easiest task of the whole day.”

“Now that’s the cheerful attitude we’ve been looking for,” Travis laughed, the two of them grateful to be leaving the imposing building behind. Rose thought back to the shadow in Draco’s eyes all during their tense conversation and she wondered at the pain he must still be holding onto. She wondered what his conversation with Lily would look like and how much more awful it would be than the thirty minutes she’d spent in his office.

When they stepped out of the building and onto the street, Travis summoned the Knight Bus and they boarded once more for their last trip of the day. The sky ahead was already changing color with the beginnings of the sunset.