"We're really doing this aren't we?" Harry asked, his voice filled with dread and reluctance.
"We have to Harry," Ginny replied "our daughter has her sights set on the last boy in her school we can ever let her be with, of the ones she'd consider anyway."
"This is going to be so awkward," Harry sighed "why couldn't he and Rose have just worked it out?"
"Sadly most boys don't end up with the first girl they ever date seriously," Ginny said, allowing herself a small smile.
Harry returned it and wrapped an arm around his wife's waist "poor sods."
"We just have to trust that she'll absorb the information and not tell anyone," Ginny commented "it's not like we have a choice here."
"No, no we don't" Harry agreed.
Making their way down from their bedroom, the pair found their only daughter sitting at the kitchen table reading a letter she'd just gotten. From the smile on her face and the way her green eyes were practically shining, Harry could guess who it was from. He grimaced internally, knowing full well that he was about to hurt his baby girl.
"Lily your mother and I need to talk to you," Harry said, sitting down.
The house was otherwise empty and would be for the rest of the day, so they knew that they wouldn't be disturbed.
"Please tell me this isn't about Scorpius," Lily pleaded.
"Its about Scorpius," Ginny replied.
Lily's eyes immediately darkened and she moved to leave.
"I've already told you if you're not going to tell me why I shouldn't then I'm going to go out with him," Lily hissed defiantly "this is ridiculous! You two never said a word when he dated Rose."
"Lily sit down," Harry commanded, his voice quiet but his tone final.
Lily paused, clearly considering storming out regardless, but quickly decided against it.
"Could you just explain it do me?" she asked, her voice suddenly tired.
"Look, to explain why we're so against this, we need to explain how we felt about the Malfoys right after the war." Ginny began "You remember what I told you about my second year at Hogwarts?"
"What Scorpius' grandfather did to you was horrible," Lily replied "but I thought you got past your problems with them."
"We did," Harry replied "eventually. Lucius we never got on with right up to the day he died, but Draco did mellow out a lot after Scorpius was born. In the years between the end of the war and that birth though, he really went back to being the same arrogant pain he'd been all through school."
"He quickly found himself with some allies in the Ministry, not the Minister himself mind you, but still important figures." Ginny continued.
"He started pushing for legislation which would have impeded the efforts of the reformers and ultimately started behaving like a young Lucius." Harry said.
"What does any of this have to do with Scorpius?" Lily asked "he's nothing like that. He's sweet and kind and he's not at all full of himself. He's nothing like anything I've ever heard of how his father acted in school. For Merlin's sake, he barely looks like Mr. Malfoy."
Harry and Ginny shared an conspiratory look for a moment before continuing.
"Again, our issue isn't with Scorpius or his family," Ginny said "in truth, he's a fine young man and we were rooting for him and Rose."
"Wait, you want him with Rose instead of me?" Lily glared "is it his age? He's only two years older than me!"
"Just listen and I swear this will make sense," Harry pleaded "some years after the war, a few months after James was born, your mother and I attended a ministry function where we ran into Astoria."
"It turned out that her and Draco had been having problems," Ginny said "Tori always was a bit of a rebel and the amount of time, effort and money Draco was putting into stopping the people trying to reform our society was getting to her."
"The fact that he was wasting money on ultimately futile efforts wasn't helping him with her either," Harry continued "he never gained Lucius' political skills."
"That event coincided with the passing of legislation which worked to aid the werewolf community," Ginny said "we were there to celebrate and Draco had avoided it because he was angry that his efforts to stop it had failed. It turned out eleven year old Astoria had developed a bit of a crush on her first DADA professor, Teddy's father and that schoolgirl crush had lead to a bit of an obsession with Lycanthropy."
"She was furious with Draco for trying to stop a government effort to aid the wolves, an effort which later on lead to the development of the refined Wolfsbane Potion which manages to prevent their transformation all together," Harry said.
"So when we ran into her, she was angry with her husband and happy with us for stopping him," Ginny explained "we got talking to her and became quite close. Increasingly so as the night wore on."
At this Lily watched in confusion as her parents stopped talking, shared another weird look and both tried to say what they clearly didn't want to.
"Why are you two being so weird about this?" she asked "I mean I thought it was strange to begin with, but you look like you're about to confess to murder or something."
Harry buried his face in his hands a minute before he continued.
"I'm just going to say it. You can't date Scorpius because he's your brother."
"My..." Lily stopped and laughed.
Harry and Ginny both watched their daughter with shock and confusion.
"Okay did Uncle George put you up to this?" Lily asked, her eyes wet with tears of laughter "I know I'm laughing but this really isn't funny."
"It's not a joke," Ginny insisted "your father is Scorpius' father too."
"Stop," Lily snapped, her humor quickly leaving her "this is ridiculous. Stop saying he's my brother!"
"He is," Harry said "why do you think he's dark haired?"
"His mother's dark haired!" Lily exclaimed "just tell me the real reason!"
"We are honey," Ginny sighed.
"You..." Lily just sat there and stared for a moment before her eyes darkened with anger "you cheated on Mum!"
She screamed at her father, her face showing her clear betrayal.
"No he didn't," Ginny said firmly "we were both with her."
Lily blanched.
"At that party one thing lead to another," Ginny tried to explain "James was with your grandparents and it was the first major outing I'd had since he was born. I was still feeling a little self-conscious about my figure and I'd always been kind of curious about women and Astoria seemed so interested..."
"For the love of Merlin stop talking," Lily begged.
"Might be a good idea Gin," Harry said quietly.
"Wait, James was born two years before Scorpius," Lily pointed out, before it dawned on her "oh for fucks sake!"
"Language Lily!" Ginny said automatically, without thinking.
"You wanna talk about my language!" Lily exclaimed "you two had a threeway affair with a married bloody woman and oh God I don't need this imagery!"
"Look Lily for obvious reasons we really never wanted to have this conversation with you or your brothers," Harry said.
"When did the affair end?" Lily asked "it did end right?"
"Yes," Ginny replied "it ended right after Scorpius was born. Astoria wanted a baby and Draco was keen to wait, plus I don't think he was particularly able. When Scorpius was born it was immediately obvious to us who had fathered him."
"Thankfully he didn't inherit my eyes," Harry sighed "with dark hair and blue eyes, plus his rounder face, he looked a lot like Astoria. He has my nose and cheek bones, but Draco's never noticed."
"How could you just abandon your own child?" Lily asked.
"I didn't," Harry insisted "Astoria didn't want to tell anyone for multiple reasons, the first several being the scandal which would follow him all his life, but beyond that Draco changed after he was born."
"We assume his memories of what his father's political machinations led to for him as a child finally meant something after he had a son of his own." Ginny guessed "He retired out of that kind of work and became more of a family man."
"I still don't see how you two could interfere in someone else's marriage," Lily demanded.
"Their marriage was arranged," Harry answered "there was a contract between their families. Draco would have ended up with Tori's older sister if she hadn't run off with a Muggleborn boy."
"Really Tori didn't get the kind of husband she wanted until after Scorpius was born," Ginny said "the two have a good, even loving relationship now."
"Built on a lie," Lily scowled "so this is why you wanted him with Rose?"
"Well for one thing, it was literally the only way Hermione, Ron and I could ever have our kids end up together," Harry replied "but it would also mean that we'd never have to have this conversation with our grandkids. That and they did make a cute couple."
Lily just sighed and deflated, resting her head in her hands.
"Just to be clear you don't have any other sons around somewhere that I could end up interested in?"
"No," Harry said "I only have four children."
"I won't tell anyone," Lily mumbled "Merlin knows I don't ever want to think about this conversation again. What will I tell my darling brother though?"
"What exactly has happened between you two?" Ginny asked.
"We've just exchanged letters, lots of letters, but just that," Lily replied.
Ginny smiled for the first time since the conversation started "I had a similar thing with an older boy before my fifth year too. He's promised to bring you to Hogsmeade I take it?"
"Yeah," Lily replied.
"See Harry, things haven't changed that much since we were in school." Ginny said "I'd suggest you just tell him that though she has said she's okay with it, you'd still feel too weird dating your cousin's ex."
"Okay," Lily groaned, getting up to walk to her room "I'll get right on writing the letter."
"She sounds miserable," Harry muttered after Lily was out of earshot.
"She's strong," Ginny replied "she'll get past it. Trust me, her feelings have been strengthened by her defiance of us. We should have just led with this instead of trying to skirt around it."
"I hoped to convince her not to date him without this," Harry said "you were right though."
"Telling a teenager not to date someone is a surefire way to convince them that person is the love of their life." Ginny said "she'll see that this was nothing soon enough. I'm just glad we nipped it in the bud."
Harry's face greened a little "lets not even go there. I'll write Tori and let her know the crisis is averted. Our daughter may never look at us the same way again, but at least we don't have to worry about little incest babies."
"This is your fault you know," Ginny teased.
Harry could hear the humor in her voice but couldn't help replying with "technically perhaps, but if memory serves, the night we made Scorpius your appetite was every bit as ravenous."
Ginny laughed "what can I say, being pregnant always made me horny. But no, by your fault, I mean your genes. First Rose, now Lily? The boy's definitely a Potter."
Harry chuckled "we've always liked our pale redheads."
Author's Note: trying to get back into writing and constructive criticism would thus be appreciated.