Delicate - eng version

Becoming Parents

Dom looks shocked. Actually, Dom looks frightened and shocked. Actually, she looks frightened, shocked and confused at the state of the dormitory, and more importantly, the state of the person sitting in the middle of it tearing up pictures – me.

It's not that I have a very large amount of pictures of him. I have around ten. Well, I had around ten, but now I've torn them all up and the remains are strewn across the floor. And I've poured three bottles of pumpkin juice over them, just to make sure they're destroyed.

"Eh..." Dom starts, "What...why...what..."

"My child has no father," I hiss and tear up the last picture, one that was just taken yesterday of me and him. It was a stupid picture anyway. I looked fat in it. I know I am fat, but still, I don't exactly want photographic proof of it.

"What...why...what...b-but why?"

Dom sits down on the floor beside me and pries the teddy bear Scorpius got for me out of my hands before there's a serious massacre.

"Rose, what the hell is going on?" she asks.

"He believed his Dad over me!" I cry, "He believed his bloody father over me!"

"You've lost me," says Dom blankly.

"Alright..." I fume, "Okay...so Malfoy lost his job today and so, being the genius he is, asked his father for money..."

"You asked your father for money?" I spat, "As in Draco Malfoy?"

"How many fathers do I have?" he replied sardonically.

"How could you ask your father for money, Scorpius? I...I could have asked my parents! You could have gotten another job. I could get a job! James could become a male prostitute! There are a thousand different things we could have done to get money! Robbing Gringotts sounds more appealing than going to your father –"

"Your parents are doing enough," he cut me off, "Mr and Mrs Potter have given you money, the baby is going to be living with your parents – I want my family to contribute something too."

"Your family," I scoffed, "I've had quite enough of your bloody family!"

He looked at me darkly. I've never seen him give a look so dirty to anyone in my whole life.

"What does that mean?" he asked defensively.

"It means –"

"Why is your family's money worth more than mine? Why is your family so much better, eh?" he spat.

"My family weren't Death Eaters!" I snapped, but instantly regretted it. I knew I shouldn't have brought that up. Digging up the past, especially where our families are concerned, is never a good idea.

"And it all comes out," he said in a low voice, "You think you're better than me. You think your family's better than mine." He looked so disgusted with me, I started to feel sick.

"Your dear old father tried to bribe me to have an abortion, did you know that?"
He looked at me intensely. No expression appeared across his face as he contemplated what I'd just told him.

"You're lying," he decided after a few minutes.

"What?" I cried, "You think I'm lying? Why the hell would I lie about this?!"

"Because you're determined to hate my family!" he shouted, pacing around his dormitory. We had retreated to his dormitory to discuss this issue, but I could still hear the Slytherin victory party going on below us. "You've been raised to think that my family is evil, that my dad is a wanker –"