Summary: [AU] You simply don't kill the pet owl of the man who slaughtered Voldemort and dozens of Death Eaters. Too bad Scorpius Malfoy wasn't warned.

[A/N: This was inspired by a thread on Reddit. The idea was to write a story where Harry Potter defeated Voldemort in a very 'bloody' way, and is all around a fearsome person (like John Wick). Scorpius Malfoy kills his owl, and Draco just shrugs and says "can't help you with that problem, son.

This is crack, and I obviously took some liberties with canon.]

07/15/2029, 3:45 p.m.

For Draco Malfoy, it started with a Floo call.

"Longbottom, what can I do for you?" Draco asked, looking at Neville's face in the flames. He didn't really care for the man, but in a way, it was important to keep people like him close. Draco had given up the location of the Dark Lord, which had given Potter the opportunity to kill Voldemort, but people tended to forget that not so little detail.

But then, again, Draco could forgive some people because for their faulty memory. All that they remembered was the blood and destruction. He still kept the uncensored edition of the Prophet, with the picture of what he personally called the 'Dark Lord and Death Eater massacre day' - which wasn't, actually, referred to as such by the masses since people remembered exactly who was the slaughtered party that day.

But all in all, things were going well. He had rebuilt his life in France, married a pretty and proper witch and had two children - which by pureblood standards was more than most could have. His son, Scorpius, had left France to live in England. Lyra, his younger daughter, was still finishing her studies at Beaubaxtons.

"Listen, Malfoy. You need to keep an eye on your son. Luna Lovegood - she's not really one to talk much, mind you - complained that your son has been bullying her into accepting a job that she is not inclined to."

Scorpius was… difficult. Draco supposed that he and Astoria had pampered the boy a little too much - what with him being their firstborn, a symbol of renewal for the Malfoy family and whatnot. But the boy had grown up completely alienated and, to be honest, insufferable. Well, at least they had Lyra, a brilliant young witch that showed potential in some branches of magic, but especially spell creation. All they could hope was for Scorpius to not shame the family name, and anything else would be a plus.

Had they raised Scorpius and Lyra so different from each other? Draco thought not.

Some people theorized that dark magic could affect children. Maybe that's what was wrong with Scorpius. Draco had, after all, lived in the same house as The Dark Lord and many of his followers for some time, and his son had been born only two years after the end of the war.

But that wasn't important now. Lovegood had always been a bit eccentric, and he wouldn't put it past her to refuse a job because of her oddities.

"Scorpius can pay Lovegood more than she would ever dream of receiving. I think it would be in her best interest to accept that. And what is it that she does, anyway?"

"Luna works on magical jewelry restoration."

Which meant that Scorpius had probably spent a lot of money on some ring or bracelet. Maybe he was thinking about marrying someone, hence the jewelry. Draco just hoped that his son had enough brains to choose a proper witch. For all Draco knew, he might marry a Weasley. Maybe the right witch could even put the boy back on track.

"I will talk to Luna Lovegood tomorrow, and to Scorpius. We'll sort it out."

"Fine."

Draco Malfoy didn't know how wrong he was.

07/16/2029, 2:03 p.m.

Luna Lovegood had been unrelenting. She had said that she would not work on the damned ring that Scorpius had bought.

Draco had expected some esoteric excuse for her behavior. Maybe she would tell him that an invisible force told her not to do it - and really, how could he argue with something like that?

But the woman had been all business and seriousness, no nonsense. Still, he wanted to know why she refused restoring the ring, since it did not make sense.

Her reply felt like being hit with a blood freezing curse.

"Because that ring belongs to Harry Potter. It's something he found that belonged to his parents, and was probably used as their engagement ring. Honestly, I can't believe that he would let go of that ring. Your son probably stole it."

Draco had enough sense to say goodbye to Lovegood and close the Floo connection before blasting a plant and its vase. The sound caused Milly, the house-elf, to appear in front of him. The creature was smart enough to simply clean the mess without asking questions.

He needed to talk to his son, and to Potter, possibly. But first he needed the whole story from Scorpius.

07/16/2029, 2:07 p.m.

"... and then I took the ring off his hand and left."

"Do you understand what you did, boy?!" Draco Malfoy shouted.

Scorpius frowned, and then smiled. Draco wanted to curse that smile off of his face.

"Do you have any idea of who you robbed?"

"Oh. That's what this is about then? It's alright, Father. The man was a nobody."

"A nobody."

"Yeah."

Sighing, Draco tried to reign in his anger and worry.

"You robbed Harry Potter's ring."

Scorpius frowned.

"Then that man had stolen from Harry Potter?" he asked. "Do you think that I could gain something from getting it back?"

In those moments Draco wondered if there was some exceptional slowness somewhere in his or Astoria's bloodlines.

"The man whose house you invaded, the man whom you cursed and the man who you robbed was Harry Potter."

His son made a face - a face that when he was a child meant crying. Thank Merlin that did not happen now.

"I will ask again, Scorpius. Is that all that happened? Did you by any chance offend muggleborns, curse a Weasley, or anything like that while you were there?"

Draco still remembered what had happened to Pansy, who had laughed after knowing of Granger's torture and death at the hands of Death Eaters. And he still remembered what had happened to a rogue Death Eater who had locked the Weasleys inside their own house and then burned everything down.

Scorpius took some time to answer, and Draco knew that the blasted boy had done something else.

"Er… I mean, Harry Potter can't be that powerful if I managed to invade his house, right? I mean, I am not in danger."

Draco couldn't stop himself. He laughed. The delusions of the boy!

"Potter was drunk, and you caught him by surprise. It won't happen again. Your best hope is to return the ring and beg for forgiveness," Draco paused and looked at his son's face. It seemed that Scorpius still didn't understand what he'd done. "Don't you remember the stories about the rogue Death Eaters that Potter hunted down?"

Sure, maybe the story about Uncle Lestrange's death wasn't ideal for children. And maybe Draco had made many mistakes with Scorpius, but that was what firstborns were for - they were experimental, and carried the name of the family.

"Merlin, Scorpius! Are you blind? Didn't you see the scar? A lightning bolt - enormous and ugly on his forehead!"

"It was dark."

That was enough for Draco. He couldn't bear one more minute of this conversation.

"Owl him the ring and the apology - send me the letter before, though. Then leave England and pray that he won't care that much about a ring. I mean, it's Potter, he always cared more about people than about possessions."

There was hope. At least Scorpius hadn't done anything permanent.

"I… You told me to owl him, and that reminded me that I also killed his owl. But it was just the owl, it's not like I killed his mother or anything…"

"You killed Harry Potter's owl," Draco repeated.

Scorpius said nothing.

"Well, boy, then I wash my hands. Find yourself someone who is willing to cast a Fidelius - I am not. And do not come home - if you do, I'll tell the house-elves to throw you out before you can blink.

The boy looked at him as if Draco had turned into a hippogriff.

"You are dead, Scorpius," he added, fearing that his son might not get the message.

"But… Father…"

He closed the Floo connection and stood up, pacing. Despite having said that he wouldn't help, he would, well, try to. Even his father would have helped, and Draco liked to think that he was more attentive than Lucius ever could be. And Astoria knew when he lied - and he would have to say that at least he'd tried.

Scorpius had killed the owl. The same one that had been given to him by that oaf half giant that Potter, for some reason, was so fond of. In the only post war interview that Potter gave, he mentioned how important that owl was. It had been sickening to read such sentimental babbling - apparently the animal was the only 'friend' the man had, after the Weasleys' and Granger's death. An owl for a friend, for Merlin's sake! Maybe Potter thought he could talk to the animal or something like that.

Draco doubted that his efforts would be enough, but he still sat and wrote a letter. If anything, to make it clear that he would not put himself between Potter and Scorpius.

He thanked Merlin that it wasn't his best child who had done that. But then again, Lyra would have never been that stupid. They just needed to find a way for Lyra to carry on the family name - France was less traditional than England, so maybe it could work in the end.

07/17/2029, 12:07 p.m.

Malfoy, I am keeping the owl that brought me this letter. Your family owns me an owl, so that's fair. You don't need to reply to this letter, but send the owl. It's beautiful. I want to know its name.

What your son did is not excused. Tell him that he doesn't need to return me the ring. I will do it myself. On Halloween.

I will see if you truly keep out of this. It's best that you do.