Prompt: Malfoy Problem 18
Summary: Seeing Albus Severus' new best friend at Platform 9 ¾ at the beginning of Christmas break leaves Harry shocked and not knowing how to cope. George swiftly steps in to 'help' - Plot based on Malfoy Problem 18 - NextGen oneshot
Disclaimer: All characters and the world belong to J.K. Rowling and affiliates and I am making no profit from the writing of this fanfiction. In this case, I also cannot claim the plot or title as the idea came from "Malfoy Problem 18" as found on Pinterest and Tumblr.
Warning: This is my first attempt at a next generation story. Also, I have never even read a next generation fanfic. I have, in fact, avoided them like the plague. As such, it's quite likely that anyone reading this who is familiar with the next gen fanon characters will feel that the children are OoC or just generally incorrect in some way. When searching for canon information on the next gen characters I found a few different claims toward the 'true canon' and a whole lot of arguing authors - not very helpful. So, I've tried to keep ages and descriptions a bit ambiguous, but there's not much I can do if I make a character act differently than you have thus far pictured him or her to act. All I can say is that this story fits with the facts presented in the actual epilogue to the best of my ability.
Setting: Platform 9 ¾, Beginning of Christmas break, Albus Severus Potter's 1st Year at Hogwarts
"Albus!" Harry picked his son up and spun him around. "Ugh," he said as he put him down, tweaking his nose with a smile, "You've grown too big for that after just one semester at Hogwart's!"
"I'm not too big!" chirped Lily, who immediately began jumping up and down at her daddy's side, begging to be picked up.
"No, sweetie, you're not too big," he agreed as he picked her up.
"Not yet," muttered Ginny teasingly causing Harry to growl slightly before laughing at Lily sticking her tongue out at him. Ginny enjoyed reminding him that his little girl would someday have to grow up. She remembered vividly what it was like to have overprotective older brothers and parents. She wasn't about to let Harry get too protective of their little girl and keep her from living. She figured it was never too early to get him used to the idea.
Albus shook his head with a smile at his parents antics before turning and catching sight of his best friend waving to him. He turned to his mum and said hurriedly, "Gimme a minute to say goodbye to my friend, 'kay?"
"Sure, honey," said Ginny as she nudged her husband.
Harry, brought out of his face-making contest with his daughter, glanced over at Albus and responded in kind.
He was just about to make another face at Lily, when he caught sight of the friend Albus had been referring to... or more importantly, his parents.
The usually unflappable auror was so shocked he almost dropped Lily. Ginny pulled a confused Lily out of Harry's arms and set her back on the ground as Harry stared dumbstruck at his son casually slapping a young boy on the back. The act itself wasn't of concern; it was the platinum blonde hair attached to the head of the boy that made Harry's jaw drop open. Harry looked up to see a similar shocked expression on Draco Malfoy's face before their eyes met and Malfoy quickly changed his expression to one of distaste. Harry mused about how even without seeing Malfoy for many years, he still managed to recognize his sneer as if he'd seen it at school yesterday. Harry shuddered and looked back at his son and the Malfoy boy talking amiably with an excess of hand gestures - probably about quidditch by the looks of it.
Harry was still in a state of shock and didn't notice his older son, James, approach along with a whole host of Weasley's. Soon after the others arrived, Albus said his goodbye to his friend and headed back over to the rest of his family. Ginny nudged Harry and he shook his head before taking one last look over at Malfoy and his son. Malfoy was grimacing slightly, but then nodded at his son and placed a hand on his shoulder, leading him away from the platform.
Harry turned his attention back to his own son, who was looking at him questioningly.
"Is something wrong, Dad?"
Harry caught himself grimacing as Ginny answered with a hint of a teasing lilt in her tone, "Nothing's wrong, dear, Dad's just surprised we didn't hear about your friend in your letters home."
"Oh," Albus looked uncertainly over at his dad.
Harry had returned to staring into space, completely dumbstruck by this turn of events.
"But, I did technically write about him in my letters. I just called him by his nickname, Pi."
That snapped Harry out of it. "Pi is Scorpius Malfoy?"
"He doesn't like his full name. Too stuffy." Albus shrugged. "Everyone calls me Al too. Short names are easier and more cooler."
The sound of someone clearing her throat behind Albus drew everyone's attention to a stern looking witch with flyaway locks of brown hair escaping what looked to be at one time a tight bun. She was standing with her hands on her hips and looking down at Albus with thin lips. "What did I just overhear?" The witch asked, a smile playing at the edge of her lips - only visible to those who knew her very well.
Albus looked down sheepishly. "I meant 'more cool.' No 'er' at the end. Hi, Aunt Hermione."
Hermione broke down and smiled, leaning down to hug her nephew. "That's a good boy." She teased, while Ron ruffled his hair.
Albus protested his uncle's treatment of his hair while his cousin, Rose, laughed at his expense even as she tried to fix her own hair after similar treatment.
"Did you miss us," asked Hermione.
Ron relented from his attack on Albus' hair to allow him to respond. He almost began the attack again when Albus shrugged casually.
"Oi!" exclaimed Ron indignantly, "You didn't miss us?"
Albus grumbled, "Why would I miss getting my hair messed up all the time?"
Everyone laughed good-naturedly at the looks on both Albus and Ron's faces. Ginny spoke up next, "Surely you missed your Aunt Hermione, though. She doesn't mess up your hair."
Now, it was Albus' turn to chuckle. "Actually, I felt like I was never away from you, Auntie." Albus looked around approvingly at the questioning looks. He'd gotten everyone's attention except his dad, who still seemed a bit distracted. Albus shrugged off his dad's weird behavior and continued, "I had to keep reminding myself not to call Headmaster McGonagall 'Auntie' since she reminds me so much of you."
As one, all eyes - except Harry's whose eyes were still staring off into nothing - turned to look at Hermione's shocked face.
Ron was the first to snort in laughter and shortly everyone - barring Harry again - joined in. Over the laughter, Albus added, "She even stopped me in the Great Hall once to correct my grammar!" This just caused more laughter. Eventually, even Hermione joined in after shooting a mock betrayed look her husband's way.
Once everyone calmed down, Ron finally took notice of Harry's lack of, well, anything. "Oi, Gin, What's wrong with Harry?"
Ginny grinned and said simply, "Ask him," before doing a quick count and ushering the kids toward the platform exit.
Hermione caught up with Ginny and the two fathers fell behind the group a bit. The bushy haired witch gave a questioning look to her friend and gestured over her shoulder at the men.
Ginny smirked and opened her mouth to explain what had Harry all worried. However, before she could get a word out, Ron's booming voice hollered from behind them all, "PI IS A MALFOY!?"
Later that day Harry sat on the porch of the Burrow staring out at the dusky sky. The children were desperately trying to finish their game of pick-up quidditch before the last rays of sunlight disappeared and Grandma Molly called them all inside for dinner. It being Christmas break, all of the children were staying at the Burrow as they did every year, while their parents flooed home each night and back the next morning for breakfast. Even on breaks, the kids all wanted to be around their cousins and friends. Besides, Grandma Molly loved a full house.
A creak behind Harry warned him of George's presence moments before his brother-in-law and friend plopped himself down in the seat next to him.
"Hey Harry," said George cheerily.
Harry nodded in his direction, then returned to staring at the sky.
"Wow," George leaned forward and whistled, "Ginny wasn't kidding. This really has you in a tizzy."
Harry rolled his eyes and - sounding more like his teenaged son than the adult he actually was - protested, "I am not in a tizzy."
George let out a short chuckle, "Then what do you call this?"
Harry sighed and looked over at George, "This is me being worried."
George acquiesced with a tilting of his head, "Fine, why are you so worried then?"
Harry's gaze turned to follow Albus as he flew. "What if he's falling into the wrong crowd? I mean, Malfoy?"
George shook his head. "No way Albus would fall in with anyone who's bad. You taught him better than that. Besides, James would have mentioned it if he thought Albus was falling into the wrong crowd."
Harry shrugged, unable to disagree.
George sighed. "No, this isn't actually about Scorpius Malfoy; it's about Draco Malfoy."
Harry's head fell down to his hands. "I know I shouldn't be so biased. Afterall, Malfoy did end up on right side in the end. I just -" Harry pushed his fingers through his hair in agitation.
"You're allowed to hold a bit of a grudge against Malfoy. He did try to make life Hell for everyone at Hogwarts while he was there, and he made some really stupid mistakes as a kid."
When Harry didn't respond, George continued, "That being said, you don't want to make his kid pay for what he did. Albus is a smart kid. Don't stress so much about him being friends with Scorpius."
"Yeah," said Harry looking up and both men knew he'd wanted to add on the quip 'easier said than done.'
George leaned back and smirked, getting to the main reason he'd come out to talk to Harry, "Besides, I'd think you'd take a bit more advantage of the situation."
Harry looked over at the prankster questioningly.
"I mean this puts you in the perfect situation to get some revenge on Malfoy."
Harry snorted slightly and said, "George, you just said that I shouldn't make Scorpius pay for his father's -" he waved his hand around searching for the right word to describe Malfoy while they were in school "annoyingness."
George raised an eyebrow. "Clearly you're not thinking creatively enough, Harry. There are plenty of ways to torture Malfoy without harming his son in the least."
So began the brainstorming between the Marauder's son and the remaining half of the infamous Weasley twins on ways to make Draco Malfoy's life Hell. He never stood a chance.
After breakfast the next morning, the children were hurriedly getting dressed and pulling spare spending money out of their various hiding spots. The parents had surprised them at breakfast by proposing a trip to Diagon Alley this afternoon.
"Hey Ickle-Alby," James ruffled his younger brother's hair roughly as he guided him away from their shared bookshelf.
"Gerroff!" was Albus' growled response as he pushed his brothers hands away.
James reached for a copy of Hogwart's, A History and opened it to reveal a small hidden safe instead of pages of a book. He placed a finger in a small circle on the face of the safe as he continued to tease Albus. "Are you finally going to pick what kind of animal you want?"
Albus frowned. James had been given his choice of pet when he entered Hogwarts and he'd immediately chosen his charcoal owl, Merle. Likewise, Albus had been offered the same chance to choose his own pet. He'd changed his mind so many times between James' first year and his own that when the summer before his first year at Hogwarts came, he hadn't known what to choose.
"You're not going to put it off even longer are you?" James pulled a small pouch that jingled out of the book that shouldn't have held something that size, then handed the book over to his brother.
Albus took the faux book and shrugged.
James rolled his eyes, "Just pick an owl and get it over with already." He gently shoved Albus over as he pushed himself up. As he reached the doorway, James added, "Hurry up too, or we'll leave without you," before bounding down the stairs.
Albus glared at his brother's retreating back before he too retrieved his small pouch of galleons, sickles, and knuts from the book safe before returning it to its shelf.
He considered his brother's owl perched by the window for a moment before shaking his head and joining the others downstairs.
"You won't believe it!" shouted Fred's voice as he brushed soot off himself and got to his feet after falling out of the floo at the Burrow. The adults who had stayed behind for the shopping trip trickled into the room as Hugo fell right where Fred had been moments before.
Hermione exchanged an amused glance with Ginny as Grandma Molly came in from the kitchen. From the doorway to the living room, Arthur spoke up, "What won't we believe?"
Rose tumbled out of the floo landing on top of Hugo who hadn't gotten out of her way quick enough.
"You have to guess!" exclaimed Fred. He loved nothing more than guessing games.
Fleur and Bill strolled into the room behind Arthur. Fleur opened her mouth to make a guess but was cut off by Rose as she shouted, "Albus picked his animal finally."
Fred groaned, "They were supposed to guess..."
James, who had stepped almost gracefully out of the floo just in time to hear Rose's outburst, nudged the girl gently.
Rose glared up at him, "What?"
With a smirk, James said, "Rosy, you ruined Fred's fun."
Rose pouted and whined, "But he was taking too long. And don't call me that!"
Victoire stepped out of the floo, narrowly avoiding tripping over the two of them. Guiding them out of the way of the remaining incoming children, she scolded them, "Not everyone steps out of the floo as gracefully as I do. You two were lucky it wasn't Uncle Harry coming through after you."
All the children cringed.
Molly II tumbled out of the floo next just in time to hear Fred's next exclamation, "Oo! Rose may have ruined the initial guessing game, but you'll never guess what kind of animal he chose!"
James noticed Rose open her mouth so he clamped a hand over it and gave her a look.
Hermione was the first to make a guess, "An owl?"
"Nope" responded Fred cheerily.
"A cat," guessed Fleur.
There was a slight commotion as James protested Rose licking his hand. He pushed Rose over to Molly II as he scrubbed at his hand furiously. Molly took up holding Rose's mouth shut, carefully keeping a wad of Rose's cloak between them.
Next out of the floo was Louis, who stumbled out of the way for the next person.
"Not a cat," said Fred shaking his head prompting the guessing game to continue.
"A toad," guessed Angelina, sticking her tongue out at her son.
Fred returned the gesture and said, "Ew, no one in their right mind would get a toad!"
A few of the adults exchanged smirking glances, likely recalling their friend, Neville's toad, Trevor.
Dominique joined her siblings and cousins next, sending a curious look at Molly, who was currently struggling to keep hold of a fidgeting Rose.
"A rat?" suggested Percy in a very unsure tone.
A few faces went stony for just a moment, as people remembered the story of the last pet rat the family had owned.
Fred shook his head emphatically in the negative.
"Right, of course not," mumbled Percy.
Next through the floo was Charlie with Roxanne. The latter immediately running to her mother to whisper something in her ear. Fred gave his sister a disapproving look, but shrugged it off when their mother just looked at them confused. The guessing game could continue.
"Any other guesses?" asked Fred, rubbing his hands together.
"What are we guessing?" asked Bill as he stepped out of the floo with Lucy.
"Well, Fred here," spoke up Grandma Molly, "is having us all guess what kind of animal Albus picked.
Bill laughed, "Oh, you'll like it." He glanced over at his little sister, sitting next to Hermione. "I expect only the two of you might get it."
"What is there to get?" Lucy asked to no one in particular.
"I know I sure don't understand," said Charlie shaking his head then he switched to a smirk, "I still say he should have gotten a dragon..."
Grandma Molly swatted Charlie upside the head with the dishcloth in her hand as she scolded him about how ridiculous the idea was.
George and Lily were the next to arrive. Lily giggled when she noticed everyone watching the floo and she pulled her Uncle George over so they could see both Albus, when he came through next, and everyone's reactions.
All eyes were on the floo when Albus stumbled out with his new pet.
Silence and confused expressions reigned for a few moments.
Grandpa Arthur spoke up first, "That's an odd choice, Albus."
Percy cleared his throat, "Yes, I'm sure you'll be the only one at school with a - er..."
Albus perked up obviously excited, "That's what I thought too at first, but that was before Uncle George gave me a brilliant idea! I could start a new trend!"
Harry tumbled out of the floo, smirking from his spot on the floor when he saw that everyone was looking at his son enthusing about his new pet.
Albus continued, barely even noticing his father's typically clumsy arrival, "Soon everyone will want one as their pet too! It's going to be so great! I can't wait to show Pi!"
It was at that moment that anyone who cared to look would have seen Ginny's face light up in understanding. Harry's smirk faded when he noticed the dark look that appeared on Ginny's face immediately after. She closed her eyes, as though to calm herself. "Geeoorge," she drew out his name in an overly sweet tone as she swung her face toward him.
George tried - and failed - to hide behind Lily who giggled and stretched her arms out trying to make herself as big as possible.
"I can't believe you would manipulate your nephew like that, George! And all for a silly prank because of a childhood grudge?" shouted Ginny.
Hermione looked at Ginny in confusion. Then over to the pet again.
Harry scrambled to his feet, "Oh honey, don't blame George. I -"
Ginny rolled her eyes at the lot of them. "I love you, Harry, I do, but I don't believe for one minute that it was your idea to convince Albus to get a pet ferret."
Just then, Ron stepped out of the floo, "What'd I miss?"
"So, I still don't understand completely," said Angelina as she settled onto the couch next to George. "What's the significance of a ferret?"
It was a couple hours later and the adults were all resting in the living room before they had to start helping Molly with dinner. The children had all disappeared to various parts of the house and the yard - many of them following Albus to play with his new ferret.
Hermione rolled her eyes and responded, "The fake Professor Moody turned Draco Malfoy into a ferret as punishment in our fourth year. Ever since, 'ferret' has been a particularly embarrassing nickname for our hateful classmate."
Charlie smiled and said, "Ah, now I get it."
Angelina also smiled and nodded her head, "I can't believe I'd forgotten about that!"
"Technically, 'The Amazing Bouncing Ferret' was his particularly embarrassing nickname," Ron corrected his wife before crossing his arms over his chest and continuing, " but I still don't get why having Albus get a ferret is a way to get back at that git."
Hermione nodded, "To be honest, I'm still a bit fuzzy on that myself."
Everyone looked to George to explain the prank to the those who still didn't understand, but he just crossed his legs, leaned back, and smirked.
Meanwhile, at Malfoy Manor, Scorpius Malfoy bounded down the stairs and rushed into his father's study.
"Dad, I want a new pet!"
Draco looked up at his son questioningly.
"Please, Dad?"
"I don't see why not," began Draco before he was forced to pause to prevent his son's squeal from drowning out his next question. "What prompted this desire for a new pet and what kind will it be?" Draco asked while setting his quill down and leaning back in his chair.
Scorpius pulled some parchment out of his pocket and what looked to be a slightly crumpled picture, "I got an owl from Al today and he got a new pet. It's so cool! Look at it!" Draco's mouth had already fallen into a slight frown when his son had mentioned the Weasley/Potter spawn, but when he looked down at the picture his son had forced into his hand, he barely refrained from screaming.
Barely.
He couldn't stop himself, however, from dropping the picture onto his desk as though it had burned him.
Not noticing his father's reaction, Scorpius bounced up and down and asked excitedly, "Dad, can we go get my new pet ferret today?"
Fin
A/N: Feel free to tell me in a review how close or far off I was compared to how the general fan community portrays the next gen characters. It would be interesting to hear.
As usual for my stories, flames are welcome, though long-winded constructively critical reviews will be taken more seriously than "you suck" reviews. A positive review or two would be welcome as well.
Also, even though I said fin... I sort of want to do a follow up on this still... I'm still picturing all the ways Scorpius could beg Draco for a ferret... hmm...
Lastly, (and for anyone who skipped the disclaimer) I have to give one more note of thanks to whoever came up with Malfoy Problem 18. Very creative.