The Sisters of Scorpius Malfoy

Chapter One

Scorpius found an empty compartment on the Hogwarts Express a challenge as many of the compartments were full of Weasley cousins. He put his suitcase up on the top area made for such things.

He did not have two buff comrades like his father said he had when he was a kid. No, Scorpius was not too popular in his House. He had inadvertently jinxed the Slytherin Seeker while practicing a spell for Charms class. The Seeker had been unable to play and they had to enlist Zericka Callimichael, who, although pretty, wasn't exactly good at spotting the snitch.

Not to mention that he had set the streamers on fire once at a party held when Slytherin had won a Quidditch match, which was not the one where Zericka Callimichael had to fill in as Seeker.

No, Scorpius didn't really make friends easily. Not to mention that he was chained to two people who pretty much controlled every aspect of his life.

These two people weren't his parents, Draco and Astoria. They exerted their parental authority as they felt fit, yes, but they never went overboard. The two people Scorpius was tied to, bound hand and foot to obey no matter what, were his sisters, Charydbis and Scylla.

That morning, his mother had served porridge with peach flavoring, saying, "Scylla told me you wanted this for breakfast. Since I won't be seeing you for months, I thought I'd serve what you desired."

And Scorpius had to eat it as his two sisters snickered and got to eat blueberry pancakes and celery sticks.

Scorpius didn't care for the celery, which Scylla knew just as well as she knew that he hated porridge. So she offered him one of her celery sticks and said, "Go ahead. You can have it."

"I'm full from the porridge," Scorpius had said, pushing his chair back and standing up.

"Scorpius, your sweet sister has offered you her celery," his mother said. "The least you could do is accept."

He took the celery stick and chomped down on it. It filled his mouth with a terrible taste. Scylla pinched him on the cheek, saying, "Good boy. I knew you'd accept, dearest brother."

Now, as he had expected they would, his sisters entered the compartment. Charbydis bopped him on the head with her suitcase, then Scylla did the same. She then whacked him on the neck seven times with her umbrella.

"What'd you guys do that for?" he asked.

"We felt like it," Charybdis said.

They put their suitcases on the place up above for doing such things, and then sat on either side of Scorpius.

"How is our wittle brudder doing?" Scylla asked, pinching him on both cheeks at the same time.

"Excited for the new school year?" Charybdis asked.

"I suppose."

"You get to go to Hogsmeade this year," Scylla said. "Legally."

Charybdis and Scylla had snuck Scorpius into Hogsmeade with an invisibility cloak. It was one of those faulty ones that got holes in it and fell apart soon after. They only took him to the Three Broomsticks, though. And made him chug down quite a bit of fire whiskey, which they should not have been old enough to buy themselves. Charybdis' boyfriend—who was seventeen last year—paid for the fire whiskey, and they pushed it under his cloak. Scorpius spent quite some time in the infirmary after ever Hogsmeade weekend. Madam Pomfrey scolded him for underage drinking, but she did not report him. As she said, "If I reported every student who drank before their time, half the school would be in detention. I prefer that students earn their detention than get it by someone prattling about their wayward ways."

"This time we're taking you to Honeydukes," Charybdis said.

"And making you eat so much sugar that you'll burst," Scylla said.

"It's what any thirteen-year-old boy would dream of," said Charybdis. "No limit on how much sugar he can consume…"

"Because for our precious brother, we will deny nothing," Scylla said.

Except my freedom, Scorpius thought.

"Well, did you talk to her?" Scylla asked.

His sisters had sent him looking for Lily Potter. He was supposed to introduce himself to her, make a good first impression.

"She…didn't seem interested in me," he said. Which was true. Because he had made some idiotic joke about a monkey.

She was with her cousin Hugo, sharing a compartment. They looked cozy together, like two cousins should. And then Scorpius barged in and said, "Hey, I've got a joke for you."

"I don't talk to strangers," Lily said.

"I won't be a stranger after I introduce myself."

"Don't bother. I know who you are. You're Draco Malfoy's boy. My Dad hated your father while they were in school."

"Yes, they didn't like each other two much. But please let me tell you my joke."

She let him tell it. And it was terrible. And about a monkey. Once he realized he couldn't make Lily laugh, he rushed out of there.

"You've got to do better with the second impression," Charybdis said. "We'll plan it out for you."

"Yes, your sisters have got your back," Scylla said, slapping him hard on the place she had just named.

Later, they were gathered in the Great Hall, Scorpius squished between his two sisters. The Sorting was taking place.

"Panama, Gordon!" called the Deputy Headmaster, Professor Acklehort.

A boy with sandy hair took a seat and the hat proclaimed "GRYFFINDOR!"

"Potter, Lily!"

"There's the girl you're going to marry," Charydbis whispered, as Lily put on the Sorting Hat.

Scorpius looked over at the redhead, who was shaking as she placed the hat on her head. He knew what his father had commanded, but it made him a little queasy.

"You must win the affections of the Potter girl," his father had said. "No matter how difficult it may seem."

"What if I don't want to?"

"I'm sure you'll like her well enough. She's of decent enough stock, even if she has great-grandparents who were Muggles."

"But we might not get along."

"Scorpius, listen to me. An alliance between me and my old rival must be formed. It must. Everything I stand for today depends on it."

"You aren't pushing Charybdis or Scylla to go after James or Albus."

"Slytherin girls marry Gryffindor boys? That is out of the question."

"But you want me, a Slytherin boy, to date a Gryffindor girl."

"That's different; that's quite acceptable. Besides, you don't know that she will be in Gryffindor."

"Dad, when was the last time a Potter wasn't in Gryffindor?"

"I don't keep track of the Houses the Potter family members are put in," his father had said.

Now Lily was being Sorted. Here was the moment when the hat would shout, "GRYFFINDOR!" and Scorpius would have to live up to his father's double standard.

Then the hat shouted the word the word Scorpius least expected it to exclaim when it was Sorting Lily, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

The entire room went quiet. Scorpius was sure they were thinking the same thing as him. Harry's daughter? In Hufflepuff?

Then the whispers started as Lily made her way towards the Hufflepuff table. She looked like she was going to break down in tears. She gave her brother at the Gryffindor table a hopeful glance, but he turned his head.

She sat down at the table and Scorpius watched her. He didn't feel like marrying a Hufflepuff. Actually, at this time, he didn't want to think of marriage at all. But when you are thirteen and someone says, "That's the girl you're going to marry," what can you say to them? Especially when the person who says it is someone who controls every aspect of your life…

As Scorpius watched Lily, who did not look up for a moment as the rest of the Sorting went on, he thought that she looked like someone who could use a confidant. Someone to talk to about her troubles. But she was probably still recovering from his terrible monkey joke…

When "Weasley, Hugo!" was called, Lily looked up as if hoping her cousin would join her in Hufflepuff. But when the hat said, "GRYFFINDOR!" she became downcast again.

Then the feast began. Charybdis loaded Scorpius' plate with all the foods he didn't like: meatloaf, asparagus, rice pilaf, scalloped potatoes, and eggplant.

He had to eat every disgusting bite. It made him sick, but he just couldn't argue with his sisters. They had him by chain and ball, and so his diet was controlled by them too.

"Drink your pumpkin juice," Scylla commanded.

Scorpius hated pumpkin juice. He brought the cup close to his lips and took a sip. He wanted to spit it out.

"No, not like that. Gulp it down."

Scylla held the glass above Scorpius' lips, her arm on his neck as she titled his head back. The pumpkin juice fell into his mouth in a rush and then entered his gullet. Scylla let go of him as he started choking. And then he vomited, bits of it ending up in Charybdis' hair.

She glared at him. "Just for that, you're sleeping under my mattress tonight," she whispered. Then she pointed her wand at her hair to make the vomit vanish.

Scorpius would be stifled under there. He tried to come up with an argument for not being put there, but he couldn't think of one. Except, "Your roommates won't like it if they find you've brought a boy into the room," he said.

"Please. They know that you belong to us: me and Scylla, that is. They won't have a problem with you being under my mattress."

He was not allowed to have dessert. They kept slapping his hand when he reached for treacle or pudding.

Charybdis breathed in Scorpius' face. "No halitosis, huh?"

"I wouldn't quite say that," he said.

She slammed him into the wall. "That's for the rude comment."

"You wouldn't done the same had I said something kind."

"Maybe I would have, maybe I wouldn't."

Charybdis lifted her mattress and put it against the wall, She then picked up her brother and set him down there. "Oh gee, what am I forgetting? Ah yes, Petrificus Totalus!"

Scorpius went immobile. Then Charybdis slapped him hard on both sides of the face twice. After that, she threw down the mattress and jumped on, making Scorpius feel like he was being crushed. Which was silly because his sister didn't weigh more than 125 pounds.

Of course, it you added the weightage of the mattress…

And then Charybdis shifted around above so that every one of Scorpius' muscles felt like they were being strained. He wouldn't have pleasant dreams tonight, he expected.

When he finally drifted off, after listening to Charybdis' breathing and Mary-Anne Lou's snoring for quite some time (Mary-Ann Lou was the incompetent girl who slept in the bed across from Charybdis), he dreamt that he was at the Three Broomsticks, and Lily Potterwas sitting in a booth not too far away. His glass of butterbeer started speaking. "Go join her." It had Charybdis' voice.

Scorpius moved toward her but was hit with a paddle. He was suddenly in the ocean and Mary-Ann Lou was riding in a boat, hitting him with oars. The waves started to come crashing over him. He sank beneath the ocean.

He woke up to find it still night. Charybdis was still breathing steadily, as she always did when sleeping. He knew that well enough, since he had to spend quite a bit of time under her mattress. Pretty much any time he made her angry, which was often. He tried to be an obedient brother, knowing that Charybdis and Scylla owned him, more or less. But he couldn't meet their expectations all the time. And so sometimes, he wound up here, under Charydis' mattress, listening to her breathing. Perhaps he would always be tied to her and Scylla. That's what he got for being the youngest Malfoy sibling. If he had a younger sibling, he'd probably make their life hell too.

Lily Potter sort of appealed to him because she was the youngest of three siblings, and both of her older siblings were the same gender, which was different from her gender. Scorpius bet that Albus and James kicked Lily around and beat her, like his sisters did. That was the main reason he was willing to follow through with his father's wishes that he try to woo Lily. Not because his father said so, or Charybdis and Scylla said so, but that Lily could commiserate with him, and he could commiserate with her. They could even exchange youngest sibling stories. The stories would be bitter and everything, but they would delight in each other's company because they shared this horror.

It would be so splendid. Only one problem. Lily hated Scorpius' guts.