Written for Round 3 of the Quidditch League Forum. Team: Kenmare Kestrels. Position: Beater 2 Reserve. No prompts used.
Title: Transfiguring Teacups.
The Hint.
...
At the start of his first year at Hogwarts, Scorpius Malfoy climbs up into the Hogwarts train that he has only seen pictures of through old, dusty books. His father whispers something to him that he doesn't, for the life of him, understand. He starts to question him, but a Prefect whisks him away to find a seat while his father just looks at him, frowning and points discreetly at another student. That confuses him even more.
He wants to ask, why?
But they are too far away for him to ask anymore. So the Prefect ends up finding him a bustling compartment and he settles uncomfortably in the seat. The loud cheerful laughter grates on his ears. Scorpius bemoans the fact that he'll have to live through this for seven more years.
One of the younger boys makes eye contact with him and gives him a small smile which he returns nervously. Maybe he could make some friends?
Then... he realizes. This is the Potter's compartment. The Potters. He knows them. The only family that his father doesn't complain about and Scorpius has read the history books enough to know why.
He tries to huddle in the corner and hope the sounds of laughter will drown him in the train seat before they hex him.
The Glance.
...
The Sorting goes alright, he supposes. It might had been loyalty to the smile he was given or the faint warmth of friendship he had felt in the train compartment, but when Albus Potter comes over to Slytherin shaking like new-born fawn in fear, Scorpius sidles over to him and offers a quick congratulation.
He takes a deep breath and maybe makes a quick offer to be his friend as well. His father would never approve of making a future ally in such a childish fashion.
But Scorpius doesn't want allies. He wants friends.
Which is why, he is pleasantly surprised when Albus says yes.
He feels very giddy as he sips his pumpkin juice and his eyes catch the sight of a red tie with matching bushy bright red hair.
Scorpius remembers what his father told him before he left. It puzzles him, but the easiest way to make sure it would never happen was to either avoid her forever or be really nice to her.
This feeling... He wants to be friends with her.
Really nice it is then.
"Hey, Albus, who's that girl?"
Albus looks up from trying to drown himself in some rustic soup and his expression changes from miserable to cheerful in an instant. "That's Rose. Rose Weasley. She's my cousin." He gives him a curious stare, "Didn't you hear her get Sorted?"
"I must've missed it." Scorpius doesn't tell him that it's in the Malfoy genes to always ignore the Weasley name. That would be dumb to antagonize new friend. And Malfoys aren't dumb.
The First Try.
...
Scorpius starts being nice.
For someone who prefers to hide in the shadows and watch others interact, it was a hard thing to do. He pushes back his shoulders and bravely strides up to Rose Weasley and asks her if she needs help carrying her schoolbag. The schoolbag that looks like it's about to burst apart at the seams.
She stares at him like he is an idiot and he wilts beneath her gaze.
Rose Weasley leaves him outside Potions Class with a frozen face. Albus stares bemusing after his cousin,"What did you do to her?"
Scorpius huffs,"I didn't do anything." He tried being nice. He tries to do the most un-Slytherin thing possible and-
"Maybe try flowers?"
He stops.
Flowers?
The Reveal.
...
It's all Albus's fault that Scorpius Malfoy is out after curfew practicing Transfiguring teacups into flowers. Bright pink flowers. Bright fluffy pink flowers.
Scorpius wants to hide in shame.
He manages to hide from the Prefect night-rounds and place the assortment of pink fluffy flowers in front of the Gryffindor common room with a note 'Rose Weasley, be my friend?' and starts his long lonely walk back to his common room.
The portraits whisper amongst each other while he walks.
"- mature than his father -"
" -his father never got that girl either, did he-"
Scorpius stops his slow walk up the stairway. What did they say? About his father? He keeps his head down and slowly keeps walking. The conversation seems to be coming from two portraits at the end of the hallway. Scorpius gets down on the floor and crawls forward so he is hidden by the shadows of the night. No portrait or Prefect can see him from a cursery look down the hall.
" - Draco. That young boy who used to prance around? Remember when he used to bully that muggle student. -"
"- Ah. Granger, was it?-"
" - That boy was the definition of a prat -"
"- Attention, that's what I say it was. I would wager my frame that he had a crush on that girl -"
" - your frame?!-"
"- That boy would've been a whole lot better if he had just accepted those feelings. -"
" -pride. didn't she punch the snot out of him -"
" - of course. No love happens without pride -"
" -You don't even know is he liked her. Seems to me he hated her."
" - HAH. Says the one who says she and the Weasley were meant to be."
" - OI! You said you would never bring that up!"
The voices start to bicker as they move down the hallway, over his hiding place and gliding down in the other portrait frames.
Scorpius is left hiding on the floor alone.
So that's what his father meant. The truth comes out.
The Friendship..?
...
The next day, there are whispers of shattered teacups in front of the Gryffindor common room.
Well, that was bloody marvelous.
The spell didn't even last overnight and Scorpius's face burns because he thought he had mastered it perfectly. His gaze falls over every table until they land on... Rose Weasley pouring over her notes in the library. He stalks forward and decides to wait until she finishes. Just because he was trying to be nice didn't mean he had to be a rude prat too.
... like his father.
It takes her a few moments to finish the page and when she does, Rose takes a green bookmark and places it carefully between the pages.
Scorpius shifts uncomfortably.
Rose closes the book slowly and places it to the side on the growing pile to her left.
Scorpious bites his lip.
Then she reaches to her right and picks up another book. She opens it with obvious care and takes out a red bookmark and begins to read again.
...
What was wrong with this girl.
"Um... excuse me."
Rose Weasley looks up with a challenge in her eyes.
Before his nerves fail him, he blurts out, "Please teach me how to Transfigure teacups into fluffy pink flowers!"
Oh.
...That had sounded better in his head.
Her face settles into slight surprise, "Is that all?"
"...yes?"
She nods, "I can do it. As long as you help me with Potions."
Scorpious stares and nods. He can do that. Yes, of course, he can do that.
Rose looks pointly at the chair across from her, "We can start now if you like."
He tries to hide a wide grin as he sits down. Rose Weasley was talking to him. Now, all he had to do is treat her nice and maybe, just maybe, he'll be safe and they can be friends.
...Or Not.
...
"Do you want to be frien-"
"No."
"..."
The Final.
...
Malfoys don't stop until they get what they want and Scorpius Malfoy wants Rose Weasley to be his friend. Eleven year old determination and a fear of the ominous words his father had spoken to him are what keeps him determined to keep offering that sign of friendship. That keeps getting denied. Without hesitation.
The promise of turning teacups into pink fluffy flowers was also quite encouraging.
But lately...the gossip amongst the portraits makes him both pleased and embarrased.
"- do you think that Malfoy boy has the crush on that Rosie?"
" -Ah! young love!"
"- Pfft, they are meant to be friends in my book."
"- the boy has more of a chance than his father, that's for sure."
He wonders why his father was cruel to her mother.
He wonders if his father feared her.
Or maybe he had liked her?
But it didn't matter what the truth was or whether if what he had discovered from the gossiping portraits was true.
He felt the strong determination in him rise again.
He was going to prove that Weasleys and Malfoys could be friends. Afterall, Albus was his friend, he mused to himself, and Albus was part Weasley.
...
Whether it was true that his father had liked her or not... it didn't matter.
Because he liked her.
...
The Warning
...
"Scorpius, do you see that girl? Don't piss that girl off. Her mother has a damn painful right hook."
"...What?"