Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, the Next Generation, or any of the characters mentioned in Deathly Hallows or any other works by J.K. Rowling.
It was a Malfoy family tradition, Scorpius supposed. Hurting what they wanted. His great-grandfather had done it, his grandfather, his father, and now him.
His great-grandfather's first love was a girl named Molly Prewett. She had been beautiful, or so Grandfather had said - Scorpius had never met her, but according to the Daily Prophet, she had died his third year, right before school started. The entire year the Weasley/Potter kids had been borderline-depressed - and Abraxas had been madly in love. Unfortunately, he - like the rest of the Malfoys apparently - had done nothing but torture the poor girl throughout school, and she had picked Arthur Weasley over him.
Lucius hadn't been much better. He had fallen for the charms of muggle-born Lily Evans as a second year, joining the ranks of Snape and Potter. Unfortunately, her blood-status meant that he had no business doing so and he was forced by his pride to treat her as he would any other mudblood - like the filthy being she was. He had almost killed her once, in the line of duty. And then she had married James Potter right after her graduation.
Then it had been his father's turn. His father told Scorpius the story all the time. He had loved Hermione Granger ever since his third year. Nobody had ever stood up to him before, let alone having the sheer gall to punch him. But by this point, his father knew what the penalty would be should he even mention his attraction to the muggleborn witch, and so he had tormented her as much as he had before then. And then he had had to watch as she married his worse enemy - Ronald Weasley.
So now it was Scorpius' turn. Rose Weasley, however, was not forbidden to him due to her blood status. After the war his father had given up on such beliefs. No, she was forbidden because she was a Weasley, still his father's least favorite family, as well as his grandfather's; she was his father's first love's daughter; and she was the niece of Harry freaking Potter. She was about as forbidden as it got. Besides, she was downright bloody annoying when they got paired up - often, as they were top of the class - for Potions.
So now, in his seventh year, as he watched the girl of his dreams kiss her longtime-boyfriend, Lysander Scamander, he realized that he had done the same thing as his predecessors. He had tormented and hurt - over and over again - the thing that he wanted.
Scorpius shoved his hands into his pockets and turned. Oh, well. Maybe he could somehow save whatever son that he had in a few years from making the same mistake over again. He just hoped that the object of his son's affections wasn't part of the Weasley, Potter, or Scamander families.
