All the quotes are from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

"Elizabeth's spirit's soon rising to playfulness again, she wanted Mr. Darcy to account for his having ever fallen in love with her.

'How could you begin?' said she.
'I can comprehend your going on charmingly, when you had once made a beginning; but what could set you off in the first place?'

'I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that Ihadbegun."

XXXX

The letter arrived on the third day of the summer holidays, wrapped around an invitation covered in purple butterflies. The whole Malfoy family were sitting in the newly decorated breakfast room of their South-Kensington town house, they were not talking, and instead each member was happily engrossed in their own reading matter. However the purple butterflies made Astoria Malfoy snort and pass it to her husband, who was presently glaring at the Daily Prophet.

'Teddy's wedding?' he said and groaned, before going back to the business page, 'already?'

'It's on the 28th of August. Goodness me, they want Lyra to be a flower girl,' Astoria said, sipping her earl grey and peering at the letter.

'What does a Flower girl do?' Lyra Malfoy, who had taking advantage of her mother's temporary distraction to take another helping of hot chocolate, was small for a girl who was almost seven and had the family look of never having been exposed to sunlight however he translucent skin was flushed with interest, her grey eyes bright.

'Hold flowers,' her father's voice drawled from behind the newspaper, 'be irritated by Weaslys,'

'Draco,' he mother said warningly, still peering at the letter, 'pas devant les enfants,'

'It's not too late to stay in France another week you know, Blaise basically offered the villa to us for the whole summer,' he said sipping coffee mutinously, 'then we'd have the perfect excuse to miss the wedding,'

'Do I get to wear a pretty dress?' Lyra asked, her white blond curls bouncing as she spread an obscene amount of honey on her muffin.

'I suppose so darling-' Astoria turned to her husband, 'I can't possibly take all that time off work, besides we promised your Aunt Andromeda and it would be nice for Lyra to be part of her cousin's wedding,'

'What colour will my dress be?' Lyra asked.

'I don't know you'll have to see what that girl Teddy's marrying decides, what's her name again?'

'Victoire Weasly,' said the fourth inhabitant of breakfast, who was only a blond top of head behind a large book entitled' Horrible Hexes, astound your friends and terrify your enemies'.

'Bloody stupid name if you ask me,' Draco said, without irony, putting his paper down.

His wife gave him a withering look and then turned to the figure behind Horrible Hexes

'Scorpius, must you read that at the breakfast table?' she snapped, 'it's so uncivilized,'

'It's educational,' Scorpius's drawl came from behind the book, sounding exactly like his father, 'besides it might be useful, the wedding might get really interesting, with any luck,'

His father chuckled and then cast a guilty look at his wife, 'I must go,' he said.

'So I can be a flower girl?' Lyra asked.

Her parents exchanged several glances glances until finally her father said-'We'll see,' and kissing her on her blond curls and his wife on the cheek, swept out.

'Mummy?'

'We'll see Lyra,' Astoria said.

XXXX

The next day Scorpius's head hurt. In fact his whole body hurt which made him wonder what exactly had happened the night before and how 'a few quiet pints mate,' had turned into allowing his best friend Jack to drag him halfway across London.

'Oh so you've emerged, I've been on the flo to Fleur Weasly for half the morning, silly woman, I thought she'd never stop talking about colour schemes,' his mother said as he shuffled into the kitchen, she was gathering up some papers and flicking on lipstick with her wand,

'Colour schemes?' he groaned

'For your sister's dress, for Teddy's wedding, Scorpius are you not listening?'

'I'm just down here for coffee,' Scorpius yawned looking hopefully around for the housekeeper.

'Elena's gone shopping, you've missed breakfast so you'll have to make your own,' Astoria said briskly, checking her elegant profile in the kitchen cabinet, 'are you hung-over?' she narrowed her eyes.

'A little,' Scorpius lied, which was completely useless where his mother was concerned.

'Scorpius really,' she snapped.

'Don't be so dramatic mother, I'm eighteen in September,' he said with a yawn,

Astoria swung her designer bag over her arm, 'well I'm glad you've decided you're so grown up because you're in charge of Lyra this week,'

'What?' Scorpius abandoned his tustle with the filter papers, 'Where's her au pair?'

'Aurelie had a family crisis,' Astoria sighed, 'and she has gone home, she's going to meet us in France,'

'That's in almost three weeks, you cannot seriously expect me to babysit for that long,' he said with a scowl, 'you know I have my independent study module on Defence against the Dark Arts to complete, I can hardly have a six year old around while I modify curses can I?'

'Of course Elena can watch her some of the time, and I shall be taking some time off work,' his mother said

Scorpius looked incredulous at this, Astoria was the chief editor of the style section of Witches Weekly, she never took time off work.

'Anyway I'm running late for an extremely important meeting, Lyra's dress fitting schedule is on my desk,'

'Lyra has a dress fitting schedule? So she is going to be in Teddy's wedding?'

'Yes that was what Fleur was on the phone about, she needs to be at Godric's Hollow for two today,'

'Godric's Hollow!' Scorpius groaned, 'why are they having it there?'

'Because the Potter's live in a mansion,' Astoria said with just a hint of acidity, 'which their using for the wedding, so all the fittings are going to be there and you shall just have to show some manners for your sister's sake,'

Scorpius scowled, he could not think of a worse way of spending an afternoon than having to be civil to James Potter and his gang of Gryffindor wankers, plus if they got wind of-

'They don't know about Lyra, do they?' he said shortly.

'There is nothing to know,' Astoria said in a final tone and swept towards the fireplace.

On the top floor of the house Scorpius found that his little sister was sitting on the floor of her nursery wearing her nightdress and a pair of purple fairy wings. She was engrossed in a complicated game involving all of her dolls. Scorpius went and flopped on her small white bed, lying on his back with a groan.

She giggled and came and peered at him with large grey eyes.

'You look awful,' she said jumping up and down.

'Ssshh, brat, I'm indisposed,' he said, he pulled her down onto the bed next to him, 'don't make any sudden movements,'

'Father said at breakfast that you were drunk last night,' she said

'Slander,' he groaned, he waved a hand and the dolls all formed a neat line. Lyra giggled, she looked at her brother with uncomplicated adoration.

'He said you were going to take me to my dress fitting and then Mummy said I had to make sure you behaved yourself,'

'Lyra, you need to put some clothes on,' he said, 'quietly, please,'

'Muggle clothes or Witch clothes?' she asked.

'Muggle,' he said, 'and then we're going to get some coffee and meet so incredibly irritating people,'

'Ok, can I wear my fairy wings?'

XXXX

"I certainly have not the talent which some people possess,' said Darcy, "of conversing easily with those I have never seen before. I cannot catch their tone of conversation, or appear interested in their concerns, as I often see done."

An hour later, showered and having drunk two espressos and feeling mildly more human Scorpius and Lyra made their way up the road from where they had aparated-

'Why don't you want to come here? It's so pretty!' Lyra exclaimed. The sun was high and the whole of the village of Godric's Hollow was enveloped in heat haze. Scorpius had already had to drag her away from feeding a horse and attempting to make a daisy chain. She was now skipping alongside him in the yellow spotty dress she'd insisted on wearing, fairy wings bobbing up and down.

'Oh, well there's this guy, called James Potter and he has an exceptionally inane possy of ginger cousins who used to like provoking me into cursing them-well they used to, but it's alright- I haven't actually cursed anyone in ages,' he added quickly, 'and hopefully he'll have fucked off somewhere,'

'Cursing people is wrong,' Lyra said, kicking a stone.

'Very wrong, besides if I'm going to be head boy than I need an unblemished record,' he took her hand and led her across the road.

'Well,' Lyra said, 'if the other girls at school are mean to me I tell them my big brother is a wizard and will turn them into toads,'

'Lyra, you shouldn't say things like that to muggles,'

'They don't believe me,' she said, 'Miss Barns says I had an overactive imagination,'

'Are they actually mean to you?' Scorpius asked frowning, 'because if they are I really shall turn them into toads and worse,'

'Sometimes, but it's alright, I rise above it,'

'It's because you're different,' Scorpius said with a sigh, 'but it's alright, different is under-rated when you see what most people are like,'

He knocked on the door of the largest house in the village. There was a clatter down the stairs and a girl opened it. Lyra noted she did have red hair but it was dark red and she didn't have any freckles and she was very pretty. She was wearing a puffy lilac dress and a disgruntled expression.

'Oh, it's you,' she said with a scowl, 'don't you dare say a word,'

Scorpius raised an eyebrow.

'Or do that,' she added, 'I mean it Malfoy, no comments on the dress,'

'What do you mean Potter? It's a nice look, you should wear it more often,' Scorpius deadpanned, 'I'm sure the rest of the Slytherin Quidditch team would find it charming,'

She took out her wand.

'You can't,' Scorpius said with a smirk, 'you're only about twelve aren't you?'

'Fifteen and I'll tell James you put shrinking solution in his boxers,'

'You'll never be able to prove it,' Scorpius said, 'besides if I fail to be made head boy than you won't take my place as Slytherin Quidditch captain and then you won't get to be insufferable all year,'

Lyra decided this was not behaving 'I like your dress,' she said shyly.

'Oh,' the girl said and smiled suddenly as if realising she was there , 'thank you- you must be Lyra? I'm Lily, I like your fairy wings, would you like a drink of lemonade? Aunt Fleur and Vicky and Dom are upstairs having a crisis over sash lengths,' she rolled her eyes.

'Yes please that would be lovely,' Lyra said

Lily laughed as they followed her through the hallway and into the kitchen, 'you're so sweet, are you sure you're really Malfoy's sister?'

'Mummy said I had to make sure he behaved,' Lyra said, gazing around with interest at the wall which was covered in pictures and newspaper clippings. At home her mother didn't like any pictures on the walls expect a few things that Grandma Narcissa had given to them when she'd moved to the downstairs flat in Malfoy Manor, although Astoria had thought most of them were too gloomy. There were a few pictures of her and Scorpius in silver frames on the mantelpiece but nothing like the Potter's kitchen. There were red haired people everywhere, waving, laughing, flying broomsticks and eating vast family meals in matching hats.

'I've got hundreds of cousins, and two incredibly annoyed older brother's,' Lily said following her eyes before presenting Lyra with a glass of lemonade and a slice of chocolate cake, 'which of course you must know all about,'

'We only have Teddy and he's not actually our cousin,' Lyra said, 'this cake is really nice- Scorp try it!'

'Where is your charming brother anyway?' Scorpius asked sipping his own lemonade suspiciously. He took a bite of the cake which was actually rather delicious.

'He's gone backpacking with Freddie and Roxy and Louis in Peru to celebrate finishing school, he'll be back for the wedding, mores the pity,'

'Oh well with any luck they'll all get lost in the amazon, or get eaten by cannibals,' Scorpius said, the four Weasly-Potter's in the year above him had been the undisputed kings and queens of the school for years and a thorn in his side.

Lily laughed, 'Mum's at work and Al is doing work experience with Dad so you're safe,'

'Because Albus Potter is truly terrifying? I suppose the thought of him becoming an Auror is, how will we sleep safety in our beds?' Scorpius snapped, feeling the very undignified emotion of jealously rise up in his throat.

Lily opened her mouth to say something which was probably even ruder but was interrupted by a figure clattering downstairs-

'Lil, Auntie Fleur wants you, she needs you to try on another dress' said a girl around Lyra's age with a red pony tail and a lot of freckles and was in a green dress. Lily sighed.

'This is my cousin Lucy Weasly, she's also a flower girl,' she said, 'alright we'd better all go,'

Scorpius knelt down and put his hands on his little sister's shoulders 'I can't come upstairs with you because it's all girls,' he said in a low voice, 'but Lily will look after you, she's nice,' he added, making sure Lily didn't hear this detail.

Lyra nodded, she was watching Lucy with interest, Scorpius supposed she hadn't really met many magical children her age. But she took Lily's hand and followed her upstairs.

The Potter's garden, Scorpius had to admit, was nice. Nicer than his parents one in London which was landscaped to within an inch of its life but rather small. It had a long lawn and a smattering of apple trees, with a summerhouse. Under the largest tree and lying on a blanket was a mass of red curls poking out from a large leather bound book.

'Oh, shit,' he said under his breath but it was too late, she looked up and rearranged herself, crossing her legs and pulling down her sundress.

'What are you doing here?' he said abruptly.

'Hello Scorpius,' she said, putting her book down, 'I'm staying with Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny. Mum and Dad went to America- Mum's lecturing and Dad went along for the holiday and Hugo went to stay with Uncle Fred because he's working at the shop this summer, so I'm here,'

'Oh,' Scorpius said, which was probably the least intelligent thing he had ever said.

'Are you having a nice summer?' she asked evenly. Scorpius felt flummoxed, as he always did with Rose Weasly.

'Yeah, I mean I could do without this,' he said, gesturing around, 'my sister was whisked upstairs to look at some kind of satin,'

'I'm afraid they might be a while,' she said gently, 'it's nice out here though, why don't you sit down?'

She smiled again and opened her book. Scorpius sat down next to her and opened Hideous Hexes and they sat in silence as she read while he pretended to read and watched her.

'Why is your cousin so sickeningly nice?' he remembered asking Lily after James had punched him for being calling her 'little miss perfect' in fourth year and Rose had come up to him afterwards,

'It's alright,' she said offering him a tissue to stem a bit of the blood, her blue eyes wide in her round face, he realised he'd never really spoken to her alone before, 'they're just protective, I knew you were joking,'

'Rose is just nice,' Lily had said with a shrug, 'it's weird I know,'

He had watched Rose Weasly since then with confusion. She looked like a Potter-Weasly, in fact she was the most freckled of the lot, she was always surrounded by them in a noisy ginger group and she was in Gryffindor and generally, irritatingly, perfect. Doted on by professors, looked up to by other students, the kind of girl who had never broken a single school rule, who never said anything rude or cursed people in corridors, who kept neat notes and put her hand up for every question and would almost certainly be head girl. He had tried various sarcastic comments about this but Rose had mainly just blinked at him and continued to be pleasant towards him, even when they were made potions partners and enjoyed several interesting discussions on the merits of simmering. Last term when he'd fallen off his broom and broken five bones and missed almost a week of school she'd even come up to him in prefect meeting.

'They're my notes, for the week, I know you wouldn't want to miss anything' she said, handing them to him and he had wanted to curse her into oblivion. Did she not realise they were meant to be Acedemic and Social rivals and generally snark at each-other? But Rose simply refused to abide by usual rules of Potter/Weasly- Malfoy discourse which meant now he had to attempt to be polite to her.

'So what's your book about?' he asked finally.

'Oh it's a muggle book- it's called Wuthering Heights, I'm reading it for school,'

'You don't still do muggle studies? Merlin's balls Weasly isn't NEWT muggle studies for total idiots?'

'I like it, the literature, and it's extra,' she said, 'they said I could do self-study,'

'But why? It's not like you need it to be an Auror or anything,'

'I don't want to be an Auror,' Rose said very firmly, 'that's why I told Uncle Harry I didn't want to go with him and Al,'

'Isn't that like sacrilege in your family?' Scorpius asked.

'No, as long as you either get very high up in the ministry or play professional Quidditch,' she played with a stray daisy, looking troubled, 'Mum thinks I ought to be a healer- because I'm good in a crisis, but I hate the sight of blood,'

'Well you can't fly for shit,' he said shortly, 'but I suppose you could do the other things, I mean you could do whatever you want can't you?' he was aware he sounded a bit bitter but he couldn't help it. Rose didn't seem to pick on his tone however,

'How about you? Any plans for after school?'

'Well total world domination obviously,' he said, lying back in the grass, 'and making shitloads of money,'

'You took muggle studies didn't you?' Rose asked thoughtfully, 'for OWLs,'

'Yeah, just to be perverse,' he looked up to see Lyra was waving at him at the end of the garden and gesturing to her dress, 'I'd better go,' he said

XXX

'It's going to be silver with real fairy wings sewn into the over-lay,' Lyra said dreamily the next day at breakfast, 'and their making it just for me, Dominique has the same colour because she has blond hair like mine but-'

'That sound's lovely darling, drink your milk,' her mother said, flipping through Vouge.

'Lily said that I'm lucky because their making her and Lucy wear lilac and she hates lilac, she wanted green but her cousin Victoire whose marrying Teddy said green and silver made her think of Slytherin, and Lily said there wasn't anything wrong with that because Slytherin are obviously the best house anyway,' Lyra said.

'Well obviously, and who is Lily?' Astoria asked.

'Potter,' Scorpius said from behind Six hundred and sixty six curses, domestic and dangerous. He had finished Hideous Hexes and slept of his hangover and was looking forward to a day spent refining a few of the more choice ones.

'She's the Slytherin seeker and she's really cool, she told me Scorpius taught her how to do a Bat-Bogey Hex so it's almost impossible to reverse and she's going to ask him to enchant Victoire's bouquet so it shrivels up as she walks down the aisle,'

'Well I hope you are not intending to do any enchanting Scorpius,' Astoria said, 'and I hope you behaved yourself,'

'I was charm itself,' Scorpius said sipping his coffee, 'I merely sat in the garden and read,'

'Well that's good because I was wondering if you wouldn't mind taking Lyra again on Friday? I really have so much to do before we go away,'

'Fine,' he said, 'I suppose,'

XXX

"And to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading."

'You're back,' Rose said with a smile, she was sitting on a bench this time and had a cup of tea next to her and her knees drawn up to her chest. She was wearing a blue sundress and smelt of soap.

'Yeah, apparently it takes a long time to make a flower girl dress,' he rolled his eyes and sat down next to her, 'how come you're not a bridesmaid anyway?'

'Oh, well it's more Lily's thing than mine, I mean she complains about it but I think she quite likes it,' Rose said

'Lily Potter likes attention,' Scorpius said, 'and she's hardly going to turn down the opportunity to thrust her tits at half the boys in school,'

'Well it's hard for her, being in Slytherin and her brothers and cousins are a little-'

'Wankerish?' he offered.

'Over-protective,' Rose said with a smile, 'it's a male trait in my family, and anyway you're probably protective of your little sister?'

'Yes,' Scorpius said sharply 'of course I am, why wouldn't I be?'

'See- so not so different,' she took a sip of tea.

'Hmmm- so what are you reading today?'

'Well Wuthering Heights was a little gloomy, but this one is better, it's called Pride and Prejudice,'

'Pride and Prejudice? What's it about?'

'There's this man and he's in love with this woman but he's too proud to admit it,'

'How come?' Scorpius asked,

'Oh well his family is a lot richer and older than hers,'

'He sounds like an idiot,' Scorpius said, Rose looked at him and her mouth twitched a little. He could have almost sworn she was laughing at him before she settled back into her serene mask.

'Well she's got a lot of prejudice against him because he's so rude to her, but he's not really rude, just not sure how to say the right things to her,' she said, 'you can borrow it when I'm done if you want,'

'Malfoy's don't read Muggle book's, we get disowned if we do,'

'You listen to Muggle music,' Rose said evenly.

'What? How do you know that?' he stared at her.

'You're always talking to Jack Bright about the Clash in Potions, he thinks a band called the Smiths are better and you think he's an idiot,'

'You listen to our conversations!' Scorpius said incredulously.

'Well not on purpose,' Rose said, 'but I do sit next to you, it's alright,' she added, 'I notice more things than other people, I'm more of an observer than a doer, I mean people don't notice me much so-'

'Of course people notice you,' Scorpius frowned,

Rose looked up at the sky, which was cloudless 'no,' she said gently, 'they notice my family,' she went back to her book.

'Oh,' he said, staring at her thoughtfully.

XXX

'Teddy!' Lyra flung her arms around their cousin who has just opened the door to Godric's Hollow a few days later.

'Hello princess? How's it going?' he said, grinning at her and changing his hair to the same blond as hers which made her giggle.

'Scorpius is looking after me and he and his friend Jack took me to a muggle restaurant called Macdonalds for lunch and I got a free toy. Have you seen my dress?' she demanded,

'I've seen all the dresses, except for Vicky's of course,' he said, 'how are you Scorp?'

'Fine. Shouldn't you be off saving the world at three o clock on a Thursday afternoon?' Teddy was still wearing his Auror robes.

'I'm afraid Vicky's mother thinks that place-name holders are far more important so I took the afternoon off, how is your project going?'

'What project?' Scorpius asked, 'how do you know about that?'

His cousin clapped a hand on his shoulder, 'there's no need to look quite so suspicious, I ran into your Dad the other day at the ministry and he said you were spending most of the summer in your bedroom cursing things,'

'I'm modifying curses, to make them less easy to counter-act,' Scorpius said reluctantly, 'it's legal, I checked,'

'That's interesting, and impressive,' Teddy said, 'any particular reason?'

'Just for the sake of it really,' Scorpius shrugged,

'Well if you discover anything interesting let me know,' Teddy said with a grin, 'and I'll show them at work, they might even offer you a job if it's really good,'

'Yeah like Malfoy would ever want to be an Auror,' Lily scoffed, bounding down the stairs. Unloyally Lyra beamed at her.

'I don't suppose you've heard whether you've been made head boy yet have you?' she demanded of Scorpius.

'No, because I'm not a Seer,' Scorpius drawled, 'I imagine the letters will come soon,'

Lily sighed, 'Well I suppose they're bound to give it to you, you are pretty much the smartest wizard in school even if you are an idiot, anyway I cannot wait to see James's face when I become Slytherin captain,' she said, taking Lyra's hand and leading her upstairs.

Scorpius scowled as Teddy laughed, 'alright,' he said, 'I suppose I'd better go and finish my list before Vicky's mother comes after me, what are you going to do? I don't suppose you want to come with me and keep me company? I'll buy you a drink after,'

Under normal circumstances Scorpius would have said yes but he found himself shaking his head, 'I'd better stay, for Lyra,' he said,

'Alright mate,' said Teddy, who was about the most easy going person you could meet when he wasn't in Auror mode.

'Thanks, for asking he to be in your wedding,' he added as they walked down the garden to where Teddy could aparate.

'Vicky was so relieved to have someone without red hair!' Teddy said, 'and she's the only bridesmaid who is actually related to me,' he waved and Scorpius turned to see a familiar red haired mass of curls sitting on the lawn.

'How's the book?' he asked settling down next to her once Teddy had gone, 'are they still being proud and prejudiced?'

'They're getting better,' Rose said, her arms were bare today and the sun had made her shoulders break out in even more freckles, 'although I got chatting to Teddy so I stopped reading for a bit,'

'Teddy is chatty,' Scorpius said, 'it's hard to believe we're related,'

'I like him,' Rose said, which was hardly a revelation as she seemed to like everyone.

'He's pretty much the only family I have, Malfoy's aren't very proliferate, unlike-'

'Unlike Weasly's who breed like rabbits?' Rose grinned, 'although actually in my family there's only Hugo and me, I think Mum drew the line at two because she wanted to concentrate on her career,'

'Mine is the same,' Scorpius said, 'I'm pretty sure Lyra wasn't planned, I had started at Hogwarts when she was born,'

'She obviously worships you,' Rose said

'Well who wouldn't,' he said, 'actually I think I was a bit of a prick before she was born, and she changed a lot of things,' he stopped, aware he was intruding on forbidden territory and that Rose was watching him with interest.

'Do you have cousins on your Mum's side of the family?' she asked.

'No my grandparents are dead, and we don't see them really see her sister anyway, they didn't approve of her marrying my father, after the war and all that shit,' he didn't know why he was telling her this but it was all slipping out and her head was at a sympathetic tilt.

'That must have been hard for her,' she said gently.

He shrugged, 'She doesn't really talk about it but it wouldn't have stopped her, no one tells my mother what to think, I think I'm more like her than Dad in a way,'

'I'm more like my mother,' Rose said, 'although sometimes I don't feel much like either of them, '

'It must be really tough yeah, having parents who are on chocolate frog cards,' Scorpius said sarcastically.

'Well it is, just as I'm sure it might be sometimes tough being you,' Rose said, 'not that I would ever make assumptions about people like that,'

Frowning, Scorpius went back to his book.

XXX

"You were disgusted with the women who were always speaking and looking, and thinking for your approbation alone. I roused, and interested you, because I was so unlike them."

'So you just sit and read books with her?' Jack Bright said to Scorpius that evening, they were playing pool in the pub down the road from Scorpius's house.

'Yeah, it's quite- nice,' Scorpius mumbled, he waved his hand over the balls and one of them drifted towards him a little, 'I mean she doesn't feel the need to talk all the time so you can concentrate,'

'Oy mate, no magic,' Jack said, sipping his pint, 'So how many times have you done this now?

'Well today was the third,'

Jack smirked 'I knew it,' he said

'Knew what?'

'You were always watching her in lessons and finding excuses to talk to her, but I thought that was just because she's clever and you were trying to find her weak spots,'

'Well she'll probably be head girl to my head boy, it made sense to cultivate her,' Scorpius said.

Jack laughed and put down his pool que, 'Don't pull the evil genius act with me. You have a thing for Rose Weasly,'

'I do not! She's not even that good looking,' Scorpius took a crack shot and missed completely, 'she's a little know-it all bookworm, do you want another drink?'

'You're a little know-it all bookworm too mate,' Jack was grinning as they went up to the bar, 'you know you actually have to be nice to girls once in a while,'

'Plenty of girls think I'm nice enough,' Scorpius said coolly,

'But not Rose Weasly?'

'I don't know what she thinks,' Scorpius sighed, 'which I suppose is what makes her so interesting,'

They walked out into the beer garden and sat in the sunshine, watching people make their way down the King's Road. Scorpius would never have admitted it but he sometimes like the easy anonymity of the muggle world, and preferred hanging out with Jack, whose parents were accountants, to the other guys in his house.

'Anyway, this will take your mind off it,' Jack said, rustling about in his rucksack. He pulled out two forms and placed one in front of him. Scorpius sighed,

'Where did you get these?'

'Well it was tough, but in the end after using all my intellectual prowess I simply walked into the Auror Head-quarters and asked for them,' Jack said with a grin, 'look I can fill yours in for you if you want- Name: Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy, Age: Seventeen and three quarters, Skills: Evil Genius and Stubborn Bastard,'

Scorpius took a very large sip of his beer. 'What makes you think I want to become an Auror?' he asked coolly.

'You're taking all the right subjects at school, and you spend a lot of time working on defensive magic,'

'I could just be deeply paranoid or planning to become a dark wizard,' Scorpius said

'Just fill in the fucking application form mate,' Jack sighed,

'It's not that easy-'

'Is this going to be one of those things I don't understand because I'm muggleborn?' Jack said sounding annoyed, 'because I'm not an idiot,'

'Look, you are muggleborn, so they'll love you, you should apply,' Scorpius said

'Not as much as they should love you, you're a prefect and Quidditch captain and you're going to be head boy and the best dueller in the school, and you're marks are the highest in our year and you're generally brilliant- although obviously you know that anyway,' Jack said

'I know which is why I'm not applying only to be rejected by them on some technicality,' Scorpius said angrily, 'and they would reject me anyway,'

'Maybe you should ask your girlfriend, her father's in charge of admissions isn't he?' Jack said thoughtfully.

'Rose isn't my girlfriend and that is one of the many reasons why,'

XXX

"Did not you? I did for you. But that is one great difference between us. Compliments always take you by surprise, and me never. "

'It's a dinosaur, but it's not a real dinosaur, it's called a robot, in the natural history museum' Lyra was saying as Astoria secured a ribbon in her hair in the hallway, 'can we go and see it after my fitting? Please?'

'I'm not sure darling, I only have an hour or so,' Astoria said,

'Where are you going?' Scorpius asked, he had just spent a productive hour refining his Septiscempra using a watermelon, and had managed to get the gouges really deep.

'My meeting was cancelled and I thought I'd take Lyra to her dress fitting,' his mother said, 'why is there juice all over your t-shirt?'

'I was practicing spells,' he said, 'I'll take her to her dress fitting,'

'Are you sure darling?' his mother said, 'because that would be a great help- I could pop in and check on the collections,'

'It's fine, really,' he said, his mother gave him a rather searching look, 'I mean- I have reading to catch up on so I might as well,'

'Why do you want to see it anyway? It's just a crap version of an enchantment and everyone knows that Dinosaurs are just a kind of Dragon which was extinct,' he asked his sister as they walked down the lane to the Potter's.

'What does extinct mean?' Lyra asked

'Died out, I'll take you to see a Dragon one day when you're older,'

'Everyone at school's seen it,'

'Well they're muggles,' Scorpius said, opening the gate for her,

'Well so am I, almost' Lyra said, 'and I want to see the Dinosaur, please?'

'I'd like to see a Dinosaur,' a voice said as the door swung open,

Rose was wearing an apron and her red hair had been tied back in a knot, Lucy Weasly was next to her, beaming.

'Hello the fitting has been rescheduled I'm afraid,'

'Rescheduled?'

'Vicky has decided that Dom's dress is too short and has to be completely remade. So they've gone to Diagon Alley, and Lily immediately went off flying I'm looking after Lucy until Aunt Audrey gets back from work,' she said

'Can Lyra stay and play anyway?' Lucy asked,

'It's not really up to me Lucy, you'll have to see what Scorpius thinks,'

'Please?' Lyra asked, turning wide eyed to her brother,

'I thought you wanted to go to the natural history museum' he said,

'No I want to play. Please?'

'Fine just don't into too much trouble,' he said

'Cool,' Lyra said, and followed Lucy whooping out into the garden. Rose watched them smiling.

'Tea?' she asked as he followed her into the kitchen.

'No I'm alright, what are you doing?' there was a line of ingredients in the kitchen, neatly measured into bowls.

'I'm making a cake,' she said, 'it's Uncle Harry's birthday today and we're having a small surprise party, Mum and Dad are coming back at the end of the week so I want to do something nice to say thank-you for having me,'

'Ok, I'll leave you alone-'

'You can help. Or do Malfoy's not bake?' she smiled at him

'Are you teasing me?' he said, raising an eyebrow, 'no, we've not been known to bake, I don't think my mother knows where our oven is,'

'Well Mum's not a big baker either, but my grandmother taught me how to make cakes and I like it, it's like potions,' Rose said, she had begun to grate some chocolate with neat flicks of her wand.

'Ok,' Scorpius said, 'I'll help,'

'Did you make that chocolate cake the other day?' he asked as she began to sift flour with the usual efficient movements she used in Potions.

'Yes, now could you keep an eye on this? The butter and sugar are creaming together' she handed him a bowel where the spoon was making folding movements, 'when it looks creamy take it out,'

'That cake was actually quite delicious,' Scorpius said, Rose stopped pouring cream into the pan on the stove and raised an eyebrow at him.

'What, I can say nice things,' he said,

'I know,' she continued pouring, and then as though it was a completely neutral comment 'you're much nicer than you pretend to be,'

'What do you mean?' Scorpius said, putting his mixture down.

'Take out the spoon,' Rose said, beginning to sift flower 'well my grandfather always says look at what people do, not what they say and you do nice things, like letting your sister stay to play even though you don't like it here,'

'It's alright here,' Scorpius said, 'and Lyra doesn't have many-' he stopped.

'And you were nice to Lily when she got sorted into Slytherin and everyone was in a flap about it,' Rose said, 'you persuaded Flint to let her try out for the Quidditch team even though she was a first year,'

'She's a pretty good seeker, I wanted us to win,' Scorpius said

'Chop this for me,' Rose handed him a pat of butter, 'and you pretend to be stuck up and proud and care about things like blood purity but last year you took thirty points of Flint for calling Emily a Mudblood in potions and your best friend is muggle-born,'

'Well it's very fashionable nowadays to have at least one- and Jack has good taste in music,'

'And sometimes you slip Yaxley the answers in charms and you let him copy your homework,' Rose took the butter from him and added it to the cream and chocolate, 'now stir this, not with magic, the muggle way, I don't want it to burn,'

'How do you know that?' he asked, stirring.

She shrugged and began to crack some eggs,

'I notice, it's my thing, I'm not funny like James or Fred or Louis, or good at Quidditch like Lily and Al, or pretty like Dom or Victoire or Roxy, and Hugo actually is cleverer than me even if he doesn't try as hard, but I am by far the most observant,'

'Well I hate to disappoint you but I only help Yaxley because he's in my house, and I'd hate to see the pride of-' Rose was laughing at him. She had put the cake in the oven and was holding the bowel covered in mixture. She handed him the spoon to lick.

'It's alright, your secret's safe with me,' she said, she stared out of the kitchen window

'I think it's going to rain, let's go out into the garden and check on Lucy and Lyra,'

They walked out into the garden where the air had turned humid and followed the cries of the children to the bottom of the garden, they crossed a gate and found a stream where Lyra and Lucy were paddling in the stream. Rose sat on a rock and stuck her already bare feet in the water and Scorpius sat next to her and took off his own shoes.

'You are a surprising person Rose Weasly,' he said thoughtfully,

'Oh no, I'm really quite dull actually, that's what most people think anyway,'

'Well most people are idiots,'

'Not idiots, they just don't understand,' she sighed, 'Mum and Dad wanted me to do work experience with Uncle Harry or Teddy or Uncle Percy or- well you get the idea, I'm expected to do something impressive,'

'Yeah, well expectations can be a bitch,' Scorpius said,

He picked up and stone and skimmed it over the water where it skipped several times. Rose laughed.

'See there are no end to my talents,' he said.

'I've always wanted to do that,' she tried skimming the stone but it fell flat with a plop.

'Here,' he slipped an arm around her waist and took her hand, helping her to pull it back, 'make sure it was flat, and it can hop,' he flicked it for her and it did and she smiled delightedly.

'Now try on your own,' he said and she did, it made one skip and she laughed and grabbed his arm.

'Did you see that!'

Rose smelt of soap again and her red hair was brushing against his face. She was still holding his arm and he put a hand up to her face, she bit her lip and there was a shriek as Lyra fell off a rock and came up, soggy and laughing. There was a crack of thunder and the heavens opened. The children shrieked and Rose sprang away from him like a startled animal.

'I'm sorry,' she had gone red, a blush spreading over her cheeks, 'I-' she dropped his hand like it was on fire, 'I thought-'

'It's raining!' his sister yelled.

'Yes I can fucking see that Lyra!' he snarled.

'Don't swear,' she said, she took Roses's hand and the four of them made their way, half running, half laughing to through the garden. They burst into the kitchen,

'Rose?' a red-haired woman who he recognised as Ginny Potter was sorting through the OWL post on the kitchen table, 'there you are- I have to floo Lucy back in a moment- oh hello-' she said to Lyra and Scorpius, 'I thought the fitting had been cancelled?'

'Lyra stayed to play,' Lucy said, 'in the stream, and it rained,'

Ginny smiled, 'Well you're both sopping wet, Lucy can you go and find Lyra a jumper or something to wear?' she said as Rose took the cake out of the oven and set it down on the side.

'Can't we have some cake?' Lyra asked

'No, it's for her uncle,' Scorpius snapped, a sense of unease over taking him,

'I'll save you some for when you come tomorrow sweetheart,' Rose promised her, she was avoiding Scorpius's gaze. Her red hair had gone frizzy in the rain and was a cloud, obscuring her expression.

'Go and get your jumper Lyra we have to go,' he said in a final tone and Lucy dragged his sister up the stairs. He was left with Ginny Potter, who was still sifting through Owl post and Rose who was icing the cake. Finally Ginny turned to him,

'My daughter says you are almost as good at Quidditch as she is,' she said with a rather forced smile.

'She's not bad,' Scorpius said, even though Lily was by far the best player in the school and knew it, 'I mean- she usually catches the snitch reasonably quickly,' he finished lamely just as Albus Potter descended the stairs, hair sticking up everywhere,

'Malfoy,' he frowned, although not in a particularly unfriendly way- Albus was usually indifferent to him unless his brother was there and they had managed to sit on the same table in Herbology all of the previous year without too many insults traded, 'what are you doing here?'

'Waiting for my sister,' Scorpius said,

'Oh, right,' Albus said, 'I would have thought you had-people or house elves or something to do that for you,'

It was as if the words were out before he could stop them.

'Well we're not all as important as you,' Scorpius snarled before he could stop, 'So how is saving the world going?' he added sarcastically, 'can we all sleep safe in our beds?'

Rose didn't turn around but he saw her back stiffen. Albus glared at him.

'I suppose you've been hanging around here then,' he said looking as though Scorpius had spent the day defecating on his parent's furniture.

'Yes-' Scorpius said, 'it has been rather-tedious-'

Rose dropped the bowl she was holding with a clatter- 'I'll go and check on them,' she said softly and pushed out on the room.

He couldn't help but see the look on her face as she left, it wasn't anger, or even hurt, it was disappointment.

XXX

"He was the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world, and every body hoped that he would never come there again."

'And why is my daughter wearing a jumper with a hole in and a Gryffindor symbol on?' Draco Malfoy asked, peering over his glass of wine. He had returned from Gringotts early enough for them to all eat dinner together and the whole family were sitting in the lounge engaged in reading and drinking. Usually Scorpius liked these times, his parents both worked hard and socialised a fair bit and he was at school most of the year so they were rarely all together, but he could not concentrate on A hundred ways to cause excruciating pain to your enemies even by imagining using the more choice ones on Albus Potter.

'She won't take it off,' his wife said, rolling her eyes at Lyra who was sitting in her nightdress and the jumper drinking a cup of hot chocolate, 'anyway her last fitting is tomorrow so it can go back then,'

'But Scorp's friend Rose said I could keep it,' Lyra said, looking up from Angelina Ballerina.

'She's not my friend,' Scorpius said from behind his book.

'You made a cake with her,' Lyra said quietly, 'and you were showing her how to skim stones,'

Scorpius put his book down but his mother seemed engrossed in her magazine and his father was frowning at something for work.

'Mother,' he said, 'would it be alright if you asked Elena to take Lyra tomorrow? I have plenty of research to do and I think I've had enough of that place,'

Astoria raised an eyebrow 'I suppose so,' she said

'Well I like it there,' Lyra said, her eyes brightened and she said in a voice of intense excitement, 'and Lucy said I could come and play at her house if I wanted to,'

'So you can pick up more hideous jumpers?' Draco said, 'and it's your bedtime Lyra,'

'But Father,' she began, 'I'm still reading this,'

'What is it?' he scowled

'Angelina Ballerina,' Lyra grinned 'it's about a mouse who is a Ballerina which is a kind of muggle dancer and Ottoline at school has ballet lessons, can I have ballet lessons?'

Her father sighed, 'we'll see, well I suppose I could read the rest to you, come along,' he said, she put her arms around his neck and he lifted her up.

'It's almost finished and there's another one in the series,' she said sleepily, resting her head on his shoulder.

'Scorpius can take you to that bookshop before we go to France,' her mother said as she kissed her goodnight.

'Yeah because Scorpius has nothing better to do,' Scorpius drawled once his father had carried his sister up to bed, his mother put her magazine down and surveyed him,

'You know Lyra looks up to you very much,' she said pointedly, 'and she's really enjoyed spending time with you this summer,'

'She needs some friends her own age,' Scorpius said,

'Yes, I agree, Audrey Weasly has already Owled me to invite her over to play with her daughter and I've said yes,'

'But Father-'

His mother scoffed and poured him a glass of wine, and another for herself.

'Your Father just wants both of you to be happy,' she said, 'and who-ever that involves he will just have to accept it,'

'What about the Malfoy reputation?'

She smirked 'What- you mean for saying incredibly tactless things the moment you feel uncomfortable?' she asked. Scorpius stared at her-

'Well darling I have been married to your father for eighteen years, and you have that expression he gets when he knows he's been an idiot, in fact you've had it all evening, so I suggest whoever it is you need to apologise to- you do so before we go on holiday, otherwise it will get quite tiresome,' she said, 'now can I finish this in peace please?'

XXX

'SCORP!'

'What-this had better be fucking good-' he moaned, Lyra was standing on his bed. It was a few days after the debacle at Godric's Hollow and his mood had remained bad.

'Your letter from Hogwarts has a buldge in it, Mummy wanted to open it without you and magically re-seal it but Father won't let her, you'd better come down,' she said, 'you know he won't be able to stop her for long'

Scorpius sat up, he had forgotten all about his quest to be made Head Boy, he slid on his dressing gown, following her down to the breakfast table where the envelope was sitting in his place.

'Well go on, open it,' his mother demanded, for once not engrossed in a fashion magazine. His parents, sister and Elena who had come in with a fresh pot of coffee all watched as he tipped the shiny blue head-boy badge on the table.

'Oh darling!' Astoria said, gushing uncharacteristically and getting up to kiss him, 'of course we knew you would get it,'

'Did we?' his father said, 'I thought they'd just do what they usually do and give it to a Weasly,'

'Lily said her cousin Rose is going to be head-girl,' Lyra piped up through a mouthful of crumpet.

'See, typical,' Draco said,

'Oh?' Astoria said with interest, 'and would this be Rose who leant you the jumper?'

'She's really nice,' Lyra said

'You think everyone's nice,' her father said exasperatedly, stroking her hair, 'well I'm very proud of you, whatever annoying ginger specimen you have to share a study with,' he said to Scorpius.

'Rose is fine,' he said, 'when you get to know her,'

His mother raised an eyebrow, 'well that is effusive, for you Scorpius, this wouldn't be the Rose who you made a cake with?' she smiled and Scorpius glared at her-so she had been listening.

'What are you going to do today you two?'

'Now my flower girl dress is done. Can we see my dinosaur? We're going to France tomorrow and then you'll be going back to school,' Lyra asked.

'I suppose so,' he brother said, 'but before that I need to send and OWL, and then we'll go to your bookshop,'

XXX

"They walked on, without knowing in what direction. There was too much to be thought, and felt, and said, for attention to any other objects."

'You're still grumpy,' Lyra said, slurping her milkshake as they made their way down the Kings Road,

'No I'm not, and I've taken you to your sodding bookshop,'

'Yes, you are and you keep looking at your watch,'

'Well nothing gets past you Lyra,' Scorpius snarked but as usual his sister was oblivious, she took his hand to walk over the Zebra crossing. He scanned around, his heart leaping in his chest and then gave a sigh of relief.

She was there, in jeans and a cardigan, standing at the front of the Natural History Museum with a rucksack. Lyra beamed at her,

'Did you bring some cake?' she demanded

'Lyra, manners!' Scorpius said,

'I brought cake and some sandwiches we can eat them in the park after we've seen your dinosaur,' Rose smiled at her and put a hand on her shoulder. 'Lucy is very excited, she says when you get back from your holiday you're coming to play at her house,'

'Yes, and Mummy says she can come and play at ours-' Lyra led Rose into the museum chatting nineteen to the dozen, all through the atrium and the queue to see the robotic dinosaur.

It was pretty pathetic really, not even as good as the weakest enchantment and he was about to say so when he felt a hand on his arm and Rose pointed to Lyra, who was staring at it with happy amazement.

'I wasn't going to say anything, I'm learning the value of biting my tongue,' he said

'Well good,' she said, just a little sharply. He liked the little touch of acidity one could occasionally glimpse under her layers of sweetness.

They sat on a bench and sent Lyra off to look at some stuffed animals.

'I wasn't sure you'd come,' he said to her.

'Well Mum and Dad are back today but it's a bit tense at Godric's Hollow,' she said, 'Lily got made Slytherin Quidditch captain but it must have gone to McCleggon for Gryffindor so she's lording it over Al,'

'Sounds excellent,' Scorpius said

'Then they realised you must be head boy so they all started commiserating at me and in the end I got fed up,' she said, 'so in the I said you only insulted them because they expected you too and it was just one of your defence mechanisms,'

'What?!'

She laughed, 'can't you tell I was joking? Of course I didn't say any of that,'

'You're not exactly famed for your sense of humour Weasly,'

Rose raised an eyebrow and he bit his lip-

'Sorry, I was a total prick-' he handed her the paper bag, 'sometimes my social skills are not the best,'

'Sense and Sensability,'she read opening the paper bag.

'The woman in the bookshop said it's by the same author as Pride and Prejudice,' he said

'Bookshop?'

'Waterstones, it's a muggle bookshop,' Scorpius said, 'Lyra wanted some book about Ballerina's or Princessess or something so we went,'

'I thought Malfoy's didn't read muggle books,' she said

'Well Lyra's different,' he stopped, his little sister was peering with un-Malfoy-like wonder into a case full of stuffed birds.

'You know some children don't show their magic until their almost Hogwarts age,' Rose said, with her usual thoughtful head tilt.

'Yes and some children don't have any magic at all,' Scorpius said, 'and you can check if their names are down for Hogwarts from birth,'

'Oh, I did suspect-' Rose said quietly, 'but that's just me, no-one else would even think, I mean it's very rare-'

'Squibs aren't that rare actually, they just used to get dumped in muggle orphanages or hidden in the attic or even bumped off so no-one knew,' Scorpius said, 'I've read pretty much everything there is to read about it, which isn't much,'

'Well obviously your parents would never do any of those things,' Rose said

'Well I'm glad you think that,' his said tautly, 'because you'd be surprised, when the healer's told Mum it was likely when Lyra was about four and wasn't even making a spark, they looked at her like she might take Lyra home and drown her, and I'm sure lots of people would appreciate the irony of it happening to us of all people,'

'Well most people are idiots then,' Rose said simply and slipped her hand into his, 'although I think you should give them some credit,'

'Yeah I know, I guess I am a bit protective of her,' Scorpius said, 'my parents sent her to muggle school here, and they've got her down for a load of exclusive boarding schools already and we try and do muggle things with her, to help her adapt, but I know it will be hard for her, when she's older-'

'She'll have you, fighting her corner,' Rose grinned, 'that will make it easier,' she was still holding his hand, 'come on, let's get out of here,'

In Hyde Park they ate sandwhiches and chocolate cake and drank butterbeer and lay in the sunshine until Lyra wondered off to feed the ducks.

'With any luck she'll get abducted,' Scorpius said and Rose laughed, lying on her back with her red hair like a cloud around her. To distract himself from what he suddenly wanted to do he said-

'Tell me something about you, something hardly anyone knows, you seem to know all my secrets,'

'I doubt that,' she said staring up at the blue sky, 'ok- well I'm a coward,'

'You're a Gryffindor, brave and foolhardy,'

'The sorting hat just saw red hair- really and I'm very sensible and scared of everything,'

'Like?'

'Zombies, dark wizards, telling my parents I don't want a high-flying career particularly as an Auror because I hate Defense against the Dark Arts, the other day-'

'What about the other day?' he asked, sitting up.

'In the woods, I thought you were going to kiss me and I chickened out,'

'I was,' he said, 'but then you broke away like I'd hurt you,'

Rose's eyes were wide and she bit her lip, 'you see I am a coward, I've never kissed anyone before,' she said quietly, 'and you're cool and nonchalant and you don't care what people think about you and you've probably kissed lots of girls-'

'Oh, hundreds,' he said, sliding a hand around her waist,

'Scorpius,' she said reproachfully she was very close to him now and he could almost hear her heart beating.

'Alright-some, but obviously I wanted to kiss you, you complete idiot. You say people don't notice you but I do,'

'What do you notice?' she bit her lip

'You bite your lip like that when you're nervous, and you're hair gets more frizzy when it's about to rain, you read abnormally fast, you only ever put your hand up when you are totally sure you have the answer, you make amazing cakes and you only have to say one thing and I think about it all day and-'

Rose's mouth stopped his and she tasted a little of butterbeer and chocolate and he got red curls in his eyes, they seemed to kiss forever and when she broke away she was breathless and laughing.

'And you're a good kisser,' he said softly,

'Really?' she beamed.

'A natural,'

'Well I am a surprising person,' she said, kissing him again 'and so are you,'

XXX

To be continued…..