Author's Note/Disclaimer: Don't own it.

This was written for the Fic Exchange at xoxLewrahxox's Bella forum. I imagined it as a dramatic monologue, with Draco in the center of a dark stage and a spotlight on him.

Hello, Draco here. We haven't been properly introduced yet, what with your mother, grandmothers, great aunt, aunt, cousins, and ...other assorted relatives monopolizing your time. But they've all finally gone to sleep, and I've managed to sneak out without waking anyone. I hope.

So... here goes then.

Scorpius, I am your father.

Interesting. That didn't sound nearly as awkward as it did in my head. Not that I find being your father at all awkward - quite the opposite - but... have you ever noticed how the things you avoid thinking about the most during the day always come crowding into your head at night? And there they stay, buzzing and swirling, driving you with mad with worry until you finally give in and allow them a voice?

Well, I guess not. But that is why I am here.

I have to confess up front that before I got the news, I never saw myself as a father. I've never been a particularly good human being in my own right, and I've also never been very successful at anything that I've attempted. Quidditch, school, business, evildoing, treachery... You name it, I've been mediocre at it. I didn't really have a good role model in the business to look up to either. Crabbe and Goyle are, thankfully, not procreating. And as for my own father? He once thought throwing coins at me would be an effective way to make me stop crying.

So, to be responsible for a whole, brand new human being? The prospect was terrifying.

But once I heard that I was actually going to be a father, I found myself getting excited about it. I started daydreaming about the things we'd do, the things you'd accomplish... I even made a long and beautiful list, see? You'd be on the House team your first year, and you'd win the Quidditch Cup for Slytherin every year after that! You'd be an absolute business prodigy, ready to take over for your mother as soon as you were of age. You were going to earn at least fifteen OWLs and be Head Boy, Witch Weekly's Most Eligible Bachelor Under Twenty, Minister of Magic...

And then, I saw you for the first time in all your gloriousness, from your pink toes to your bright blue eyes to your yellow hair. And... I realized how rubbish my list had been all along. Those were my own hopes and dreams, not yours... and much as I wish you could be a new version of me with a clean slate... that just isn't true. You are your own person, a Malfoy to be sure, but still your own person.

So this is what I have to say, what's been keeping me up tonight.

Choose your own path, regardless of other's expectations. Make mistakes, but stay away from anything named Parkinson. Don't let your grandmother spoil you rotten. Remember that not all Gryffindors are evil, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Live. Love. Be happy.

Good night, my son.