Chapter Text
September 2014-
A pat.
A heartless and less enthusiastic pat against his shoulder was all that he received on the biggest day of his life.
Barely a smile, barely a hug, or love was shown towards him before he was due to depart for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Scorpius kept his eyes glued to his smart shoes beneath him. Today was supposed to be filled with excitement and joy, a new chapter. A fresh start.
One that he had hoped would allow him to see that his father cared for him in some certain way. Well, of course he cared; he just couldn't show it that well these days.
Or rather in the last several months as a matter of fact.
Scorpius's stomach clenched with jealousy as he watched the other parents around the platform of 9¾ hug their children goodbye. Not a single eye was dry on this warm September morning. Not a single sniffle was quiet. It was just full of love, parents sad to see their firstborns or only children go, but that wasn't on the cards for Scorpius this morning.
He barely got a word out of his father these days.
"Send me your owl later," his father said. "Let me know what house you were placed into."
Scorpius nodded, raising his head to meet the matching grey eyes of his own. "I will, father."
"Good." That was it. Nothing more.
"A-are," Scorpius cleared his throat, wringing his hands together. "Are you...are you going to see my mother's grave later?"
"Yes."
Scorpius nodded slowly. "Tell mother that I love her and miss her." He smiled thinly.
"She knows, but I will tell her."
Scorpius's smile faded when it wasn't returned. Coming to his rescue was the woman, whom he loved all so dearly and more so as of late.
His grandmother, Narcissa Malfoy, gracefully sunk down to his level. Blonde, soft hair up in a styled bun and grey dress robes, splaying around her feet. She placed her dainty hands against his fresh robes and brushed the invisible lint off with a perky but almost timid smile at once across her baby pink lips.
"You'll do great, my little dove," she tapped his chin with one slim finger. "Hogwarts will be amazing to you; I just know it."
"I know Nana," Scorpius shakily exhaled. "You've told me hundreds of times before."
Narcissa smiled. "Have you got all of your books?"
"Yes."
"Your wand?"
"In my pocket," he tapped his robe pocket twice.
"Your owl?" She asked even though Cleats was right next to him on his trunk in his cage.
Scorpius waved a small sarcastic hand at his eagle owl resting on his perch.
"Just double checking." Narcissa leaned in and brushed her nose against his. "Don't make him work too hard. Owls need their rest occasionally." She said with a motherly look of warning.
"I won't," he sighed with a small roll of his eyes. "I'll be with my friends; I won't owl you every single day like I want to."
"Good boy," Narcissa pulled him to her, wrapping her slim arms around his body. She squeezed until he couldn't breathe properly. "Don't worry about your father. Give him time, and he will come around, I promise." She whispered against his cheek.
Scorpius peaked up at him through the stray blonde hairs of Narcissa's head in his eyes over her shoulder and found his father staring down the platform over their heads, with a faraway expression and almost an empty look in his grey eyes. His long fingers twisted the Malfoy signet ring around his right fourth finger, absentmindedly barely breathing.
He seemed as though he was stuck in a sort of trance. Eyes moving only a small fraction, back and forth following whatever he was focused on, further down the platform with his lips pressed together in a grim line.
It was a look of longing, painful longing, and almost as though he wanted to bolt it and run as soon as possible.
Scorpius wanted to turn around to take a look at whatever it was that had gotten his father so interested in his daydream, but the tight grip that his grandmother had on him suggested that he was going to miss it entirely.
"Oh, I just want to hold you and not ever let you go," Narcissa squeezed him tighter.
"Um--..n--nana?" Scorpius coughed when his lungs suddenly became restricted.
"Mm?"
"I...I—I can't breathe." He forced a choked laugh, and she immediately let him go, leaning back to face him with tears streaming her cheeks. Her and her bloody emotions.
Which he couldn't deny, was amazing to at least see someone growing emotional about his departure. At least somebody was upset to see him go, on this side of the family.
"I'm sorry, darling," Narcissa sniffed, batting her tears away. "I'm just going to miss you so much, that's all. Whom am I going to sit and read with every day? Or feed the peacocks with? Or...worry frantically when you get on that dodgy broom and whiz around the manor?"
Scorpius scoffed at her. "It's not dodgy. You're just scared that I'm going to break my neck. Dad taught me everything that I know—how to be safe on my broom and when to fly or not to fly in the weather conditions." He joked as she let out a watery laugh. "Plus, you won't be all alone. You'll still have dad with you."
Narcissa smiled softly, eyes sparkling with unshared tears. "That is true, my dove." She pressed a sweet kiss to the tip of his sharp nose and pulled back as he rubbed his nose when it tickled. "Right, Draco?"
Scorpius slid his eyes to his father, who still wasn't paying any attention to the conversation at hand. Instead, keeping his locked gaze further down the busy platform at something.
When he didn't answer, Narcissa turned her head over her shoulder to look up at him. "Draco?" She repeated it a little more firmly.
He blinked, snapping out of his trance, and looked down at his mother. "What?"
Narcissa held back a groan of annoyance. "I said, isn't that right?" Draco just blinks stupidly at her. "You weren't listening, were you?"
"Um," Draco hesitated, looking around the platform once again, craning his head from left to right, and a small frown appeared on his face. With a tick of his jaw and a great sigh of disappointment, he looked back down at his family. "No. No, I wasn't; what were you saying?"
Scorpius looked behind him over his shoulder to try and work out what it was that had gotten him so worked up. But all he could see was a clamouring crowd of parents and students of all ages waving goodbye or boarding the Hogwarts Express.
"Never mind, Draco," Narcissa sighed deeply and turned back to face Scorpius. "You'd better go and find your seat. You'll be off in a moment."
Scorpius flung his arms around her, going in for one last hug, and she held on to him just as tightly. With an awkward handshake to Draco and a wave goodbye, Scorpius was on the train ready for his first year at Hogwarts, hoping that this would be the distraction that he needed to stop grieving his beloved mother, who had passed without getting to see him go.
A fresh start and new adventures await him.
~♡~
Dear Father and Nana,
I'm officially placed into Slytherin. It's not as dower as you both told me, from your experiences here in the snake pit. Everyone is so warm and welcoming.
The boys are here with me too; I know I'm going to be fine here, and Headmistress McGonagall is so kind, warm, and good-hearted.
Professor Slughorn is my head of house, and he's so funny and chirpy.
The feast is incredible; I might gain a few pounds by Christmas, but that's a good thing, right?
Auntie Daphne owled me as well; she sends her love to you both and hopes to see us all at Christmas with baby Alexandre.
I miss you both, and I love you.
Give mother a kiss from me when you visit her; don't forget her jasmine flowers either. You know they were her favourites.
Yours,
Scorpius.
Later the next morning at breakfast, Scorpius received two letters at the Slytherin table from Narcissa's tawny owl and placed two letters on the centre of the table in front of him. With a flap and takeoff, she was gone.
Dear Scorpius,
I'm so thrilled for you to be placed in Slytherin. Despite my experiences and your father's and grandfather's time in Slytherin, I know that you shall enjoy it to your heart's content.
Professor Slughorn I'm sure will guide you and help you with whatever you need; all you need to do is ask for his assistance.
I gave your mother a kiss goodnight for you, and I didn't forget her jasmine flowers. They're currently in a golden vase, in the centre with the sun beaming down on them. I've also added a small, magically crafted glass ornament of your mother holding you on the day that you were born.
The blossom tree is starting to grow, and I know in the spring it will be every bit as beautiful as she was.
I miss her just as much as you do. Just know that she's never gone; she's in your heart.
Stay safe, stay warm, and be good.
Lots of love,
Nana.
Scorpius smiled with a small quiver of his lip as he placed her letter down and picked up the next one with shaky fingers, wondering how this was going to be. His father wasn't cold-hearted or didn't care for him; it was just since his mother had passed that their relationship had sort of fleeted. Slowly thinned out until meals were awkward, barely a word said between them. He didn't really see him around the manor much these days. Draco was too busy keeping to himself in his office, out of the way doing Merlin knows what since he didn't go to work like he had originally planned.
He wasn't sure if it was temporary or a permanent thing, but all he knew deep inside of himself was that he missed the man that he once knew. But he understood, as much as he possibly could understand, that grief affected people in different ways.
But there was only so much that Scorpius could cope with when his own father was shutting him out.
They used to be so close, inseparable, and there was barely a day where he wouldn't be smiling.
Now that version of him was gone, leaving him an empty shell with the lights on, but nobody was ever home for the last several months.
Even Narcissa could barely get a word out of him these days.
At least Scorpius knew now that it wasn't anything in particular that he had done wrong for Draco to turn cold since the moment Astoria had taken her last breath.
He was just grieving.
And that was okay.
After staring at the Malfoy stamped crest in wax against the envelope for a very, very long time, he finally reached out and took it in his hands. Peeled the wax off and took out a piece of parchment with Draco's handwriting on it in neat penmanship.
Dear Scorpius,
I half expected you to tell me that you had ended up in Ravenclaw. Given how much of your mother that you have in you, it certainly came as a surprise to see Slytherin written on my letter.
I'm very proud of you.
I know that your mother is too.
I'm sorry that I've been distant and closed up as of late. I'll get better; I will be better for you.
I promise. Just give me time, Scorp.
Yours,
Father.
Scorpius read it about six times before he placed it face down on the table with a blank expression across his sharp features.
He hadn't missed it.
The one thing that he always said was that he loved him. Every single day without fail, he never missed the three syllables.
But in writing, in that letter he hadn't said it.
Draco hadn't returned it.
Whether he was overthinking that too deeply or was just being anxious, he wasn't entirely sure, but at that moment, despite how kind that letter had been and made his heart flutter, those were the only three words that he wanted to see, and they weren't there. No matter how hard he tried to force it into the black ink, they weren't there in black and white.
That night, Scorpius curled up in his bed, clutching a photograph of his mother close to his chest in his new dorm room, and cried himself to sleep, cursing the blood curse that had stolen her away from him and killed his father's personality on the same date.
28th February 2014 was officially the most dreadful day that he knew he was going to loathe for the rest of his life.
The day that his mother had passed away peacefully in her sleep, with him curled up into her side and holding her hand the whole time so that she wouldn't go alone to her peaceful place.
~♡~
2 weeks later-
Scorpius sat in the library in the far corner, flipping through a book of muggle studies. It was one of his favourite classes here, with potions coming in second. Astoria had always been against the Pureblood loathing to muggles and muggleborns, teaching him their ways in the world.
How different they lived their lives with the technology that they used that wasn't available to them in the Wizarding world. He missed the trips that the three of them would take to muggle London once a month and spend the day as normal muggles.
Going on horse rides, riding the tubes, eating food that came from carts on the streets. Dancing together in the busy city streets of musicians, making their money by busking with their guitars or singing.
Going to the Christmas winter wonderlands each year and experiencing the freedom, food, fun, and joy that they didn't do in the Wizarding world.
Father had warmed up to muggle life after a few weeks of getting into it. He was interested in learning new things, kicking his Pureblood beliefs to the curb, and just being free and having fun.
They did it together as a family—or rather, they used to.
"Can I join you?"
Scorpius jolted at the sudden female voice and looked up to find a girl in Gryffindor robes with curly red hair. Blue eyes, honey skin, and freckles across her button nose.
"Uh, sure." Scorpius offered his seat opposite her, and she smiled, pulled her seat back, and slanted herself opposite him. "Rose, isn't it? Rose Weasley?"
"It is," she nodded. "Pleasure to meet you," Rose held her hand out, and Scorpius took it, shaking it once. "Scorpius, right?"
"Yes, Malfoy. Scorpius Malfoy."
"Hmm," Rose hummed with a small grin. "That wasn't hard to guess, considering the hair and the fresh robes. Not to mention the snake badge." She slid her eyes to the badge, resting on the left-hand side of his robes, but kept the smile on her face.
Scorpius huffed a laugh. "Was that an insult?" he joked.
"Oh, of course not!" Rose waved him off. "I have two best friends in Slytherin. No big deal."
"Fair enough," Scorpius closed his book with a snap and pushed it to the side. "May I ask what it is that made you want to sit with me? I don't believe that we've ever spoken before."
"Well," Rose tucked her hair behind each ear. "I've been watching you and—please don't think of me as being creepy—but I've noticed that since we've arrived, you don't seem so thrilled to be here. I was just making sure that you were doing okay. Settling in, things like that."
Scorpius's smile instantly faltered. "Did you not see the Daily Prophet back in February?"
Rose shook her head, her fiery curls bouncing with her. "No, we tend to stay away from Rita Skeeter if we can help it. Especially after what my mother's been through." Her smile immediately faded with his, as though she were sharing a similar sense of pain.
"Well," Scorpius started placing his palm on the side of his face. "My mother died, back in February." Rose inhaled sharply. "A blood curse ran through her family. She had been sick for a while, but got worse the older I got. We tried to keep it private, but whatever happens in the Malfoy or Greengrass family is world-wide news."
"Oh, I'm so sorry," Rose said with an apologetic tone. "Is... is that why you seem so closed in and less interested in Hogwarts?"
"No," Scorpius shook his head. "No, I'm excited to be here; truly, I am." He paused for a second with a tight swallow. "It's my father; our relationship is in a bit of a rocky shape at the moment. He's not quite been the same since she passed. Sometimes I feel as though he resents me. "
"I'm sure he doesn't."
"No, I know." Scorpius nodded once. "It just feels like it sometimes."
Rose slumped back into her seat, casting her eyes down to her flat palms against the table. "I understand why you think that." She said it with an airy whisper. "I lost my father too, a month after your mother. My relationship with my mother has sort of...what's the word that I'm looking for?" She looked around in thought.
"Depleted?"
Rose nodded once. "Yes, I suppose that's the word for it." She exhaled softly. "But not in a bad way. She's just... struggling to come to terms with it. They had been friends for years and always by each other's sides. It hit her hard; it hit all of us hard. But I know that she loves me still, and she does; she still hugs and kisses me whenever I need it."
"Wait, your name is Weasley, right?" Scorpius furrowed his brows as Rose nodded. "As in Ron Weasley? Harry Potter and Hermione Granger's best friend? A part of the Golden Trio?"
"That's correct. He's my father, and my mother is Hermione."
"Yes, no I remember seeing a cutout of their marriage in my father's office once a long time ago," Scorpius shifted in his seat, missing Rose's confused frown. "Forgive me for being rude, but I'm sorry to hear about your father. I read it in the newspaper about his accident during an Auror raid. I can't imagine how awful that must've been for you all."
"We kind of prepared for it," Rose said quietly. "Auror work can be dangerous, thrilling, and fun all at once, but it does come with dangers and losses. It wasn't easy, and my mother didn't come out of her room or eat for a week after it happened. My Uncle Harry stayed with us the whole time to try and get her out of her room."
"And someone just had to be there when it happened to give Skeeter the news, I'm guessing?"
Rose rolled her jaw. "Yes. Exactly that." She scoffed with disgust.
"Of course," Scorpius muttered. "You can't do anything in private without someone reporting to her."
Rose just nodded once, a comfortable though strange silence falling around them. After a while, she finally silently cried in front of him and wiped her tears away. "I miss him. Very much."
"I understand," Scorpius reached his hand out, and she took it both, understanding the acceptance of the loss of a parent. "I miss my mother too."
"Look at that," Rose choked on a watery laugh. "We've been talking for only ten minutes, barely know each other, and already have something in common."
"I suppose," Scorpius chuckled softly. "All my friends still have both parents. I think that you're the first that only has one. I thought I was alone."
"Well, if you'd like, then we can be friends? Talk and get to know one another better. Talk about our parents; how does that sound?"
"I'd like that." Scorpius smiled, squeezing her hand, then let go, dragging it back across the table to place in front of him.
"Rose?!" A familiar voice called out.
"I'm over here!" She called behind her.
Scorpius furrowed his brows just as his two best and closest friends, Albus and TJ Nott-Potter twins, came around the corner.
"Ah, there you are!" TJ sighed in relief and walked up to her. "Been looking everywhere for--oh hey Scorp!"
"TJ," Scorpius dipped his head in a curt nod. "Albus."
"You three know each other?" Rose asked, flicking her eyes between all three Slytherins.
"We've known Scorpius since we were little," Albus Harry Potter's double said with a laugh. "Plus we're in Slytherin Rose. We were going to know him regardless."
Rose gave them a questioning look.
"How do you two know Rose? I've never heard you mention her. Yet you both seem to know her so well." Scorpius asked them, more confused as they both kissed her cheek in greeting in a brotherly fashion as TJ nicked the apple peeking from her bag and crunched into it.
TJ pulled a face, as though he was uncomfortable answering the question. "I don't know. Both of our fathers said to keep quiet about both of you, to each other and your parents." He shrugged with a Theodore Nott-like sniff.
"Why?" Scorpius narrowed his eyes with Rose.
"Why are you asking me?" TJ scoffed. "I have no idea. They're adults; they don't tell us anything. We just got threatened with a hex to our arses if we told Rose that we spend time with you."
"And you with Rose," Albus finished for him. "Though I'm not quite sure what they wanted us to do about us coming here." He laughed with a shake of his head. "Surely they both knew that we were going to run into... well, this situation." He gestured to all four of them around the table.
Harry and Theodore Nott had married two years after the war and gone through a surrogacy magical pregnancy, mixing both of their DNA for the surrogacy mother to combine both of their genes. Instead of expecting one baby, they had been blessed with twins instead. Albus was the spitting image of Harry, with the messy jet black hair and green eyes, while TJ (which was short for Theo Junior) resembled Theodore perfectly.
The only thing that he claimed from Harry was his awful eye sight and needed to wear glasses, green eyes, and his seeker skills. The rest of him was pure chaotic Theodore Nott. Annoying and a right pain at times, but the bestest friends he could ever ask for.
They were both a month younger than Scorpius himself, and they had been close for years since Theodore and Draco were best friends for years. Just like they were.
"And Harry knew Rose's mom and dad obviously," TJ said through a large crunch of his apple. "So...we knew both of you. We just weren't allowed to tell you for some strange reason." He said with a roll of his eyes.
"Parents," Albus shook his head and spotted them both glaring at them. "Hey, look," he held his hands up in surrender. "Don't blame us; they made us promise to not say a word about it. I don't know why, so stop looking at us like that."
Rose grumbled, standing, and grabbed her bag, slinging it on her shoulder. "Whatever. What did you both want anyway?"
"Quidditch tryouts," TJ said, chucking the apple core into the bin behind him without looking. "You said that you wanted to try out. So..are you coming?"
Rose nodded, turning to Scorpius with the smile returning. "Are you trying out?"
"Um, I'm not sure yet."
"Come on, Scorp!" Albus flung his arm around his shoulders. "You're a pro at Quidditch. Your father taught you all the best moves; come and try out with us to take your mind off things."
"Maybe some other time," he shrugged him off. "I'd rather just sit here for a while longer if that's okay."
"Are you sure?" Albus replied suddenly in concern.
Scorpius just nodded with a grim smile.
"Oh, all right." Albus sighed. "But don't shut yourself out, Scorp. It's not good for you."
"I'm fine; go on, go. I'll see you at dinner."
"All right," the twins waved goodbye and left him and Rose alone once more in the far depths of the library.
"Bit odd, isn't it? Don't you think?" Rose said after a few moments.
"What's that?"
"How... Uncle Harry and Uncle Theo didn't want them two to tell us that they were friends with both of us for years and neither of us had a clue?"
Scorpius leaned back in his chair, grabbed his quill, and twirled it around his fingers. "Is a bit. Any thoughts on why?"
Rose shrugged, making her move to leave. "Perhaps it's because my mother and your father are enemies and have never seen eye to eye. I suppose maybe they did it to...make it less awkward between them and be friends with both." She suggested.
"I guess, but what does that matter? Harry and my father aren't exactly best friends. They're more civil than anything and barely tolerate one another. Besides, both of our names would've been in the papers when we were born."
"Or," Rose cocked her head to the side, thinking about it hard. "Maybe our parents don't know that Harry has been going between both, because Theo's friends with your father and Harry's friends with my mother. But Theo's also my mother's best friend. Perhaps they just didn't want conflict and didn't want to fall out with anyone."
"This is hurting my head, trying to understand this." Scorpius laughed, massaging his temples.
"Yes," Rose laughed with him. "Mine too. Well, how about this?" She held her hand out in an offer of a handshake, and he took it. "We meet here tomorrow at the same time and talk about your father, my mother. Your mother and my father, and try to see what could be so bad for the twins to be friends separately with us? Yes?"
"That sounds good to me," Scorpius said as he shook her hand. "It was lovely to meet you, Rose." He let go of her hand and placed his own back on the book, ready to open it up once again.
"You too, Scorpius; see you tomorrow." She said with a warm smile and wave as she departed from the library and left him alone once again.
Scorpius sat back in his chair and smiled to himself, grateful that for once he wasn't fully alone in what it meant to grieve a parent, while the others closed in on themselves. It meant that after all this time, it was completely normal for a parent to lose their husband or wife and often couldn't show love to their child without doing it on purpose during the aftermath.
He wasn't as alone as he had thought.
The very small notion of it sewed that broken piece of his heart back together, although very small and bleak from the thousands of shards his heart was in since his mother had died.
Scorpius was certain that his heart wouldn't be fully healed until his relationship with his father was mended and Draco had moved on to find love once again.
Hopefully, anyway.