He's four years old when his grandfather tells him the story. Lucius Malfoy spins a story of a mystical creature that can breathe fire and wield magic no Wizard or Witch can achieve. This creature is feared and revered in equal measure, its strength, beauty and mystery mentioned in myths and legends. This creature is so powerful, he changes his form and becomes a man.
"But why would he do that?"
His young mind cannot quite comprehend why a fearsome creature would give up his form that inspired such awe to become a mere Wizard. Not that being a Wizard is an ordinary thing to begin with but is not as frightening and great as its original body. He thinks the creature foolish. Why become human?
His grandfather smiles at him and as Scorpius' little fingers traces the image of the creature in the book they were reading. The silver scales glisten under the light from the chandelier, the creatures multi-coloured eyes blinking at him almost with real sentience. Its tail swings lightly back and forth on the page, playful, almost baiting. Scorpius tries to pin it down with his hands and the creature gives a soundless little snarl that makes the young boy laugh.
His grandfather pats his head and continues the story.
"And so the creature becomes a man for he found love in a young, beautiful witch. He marries her and they move across the seas to a new land, where they adopt a new name. Mal Foi, bad faith, to remember what has been lost and what is yet to be lost." Lucius traces the dragon on their family crest and wonders. "From fire we come and to fire we return."
He's six years old when he realizes there's something not quite right with him. Although he can see to a certain degree how people react to his family, he never quite thinks there might be more to them than just past mistakes in allegiances. He doesn't think anything is amiss until one noon in the property's gardens. He's on a play date arranged by their parents with his cousin Gabriel Zabini and mouthy, girly Veronica Nott.
Ronnie insists they play a game where they pretend she is the princess in the tower in need of saving and Gabe is the prince while he is the dragon. He declines being the prince because he doesn't want to kiss Ronnie and Gabe doesn't really mind having to. He and Gabe mock fight with his cousin using a stick as a makeshift sword while Scorpius lets out loud roars and pretends to breathe fire. Then for a second it happens.
He imagines it, breathing fire unto Gabe, his skin and hair burning as the glorious heat destroys him. He imagines his own eyes a kaleidoscope, his skin covered in silver scales. He imagines a larger, greater form. He imagines flying into the air and becoming a god.
He hears for a second what sounds like a deep chuckling, like something large and buried underneath the earth is amused at his imaginings. And it makes the hair at his nape stand on end. He feels a warmth underneath his skin he's never felt before and he feels restless, discontent. And then it's gone like a mirage. He is just a boy and it's all in his head.
"Scor," Ronnie shakes him cautiously. "Are you there?"
He blinks and shrugs off her touch. "Yeah. Back off, Ronnie."
Ronnie just sticks out her tongue. "Whatever. I'm tired of this game already."
"No kisses for you, Gabe," Scorpius tells his cousin laughingly. "Too bad."
Gabe just shrugs, unbothered still.
He has the same recurring dream for years. A world on fire, everything consumed by flames, the heat singing a melody to him only he understands. And among the destruction, he walks untouched. He is a god among the terror around him
He can vaguely hear that dark little voice laughing uproariously, victorious. And he wonders.
He wakes up each time, covered in sweat, his breathing labored.
Is it a nightmare? He can never quite label it as so.
He sees Lily Luna Potter for the first time at the age of eleven and he's getting his schoolbooks at Flourish and Blotts with his mother. The book shop is packed with students eager to get their shopping done and he watches from the second floor as the Potter family walks in. The mood in the room instantly changes, awe and fear in equal measure, surrounds the war hero and his family.
Scorpius watches fascinated as he sees the little girl in the light yellow dress. Her hair is as bright and red as fire and he cannot look away no matter how hard he tries. She's so small with skin as delicate as porcelain and he clenches his fists with an unfamiliar feeling of possessiveness overtakes him.
Belongs to you. That dark little voice whispers. Take, take, take.
No. He resists it. No, no, no.
Still, he continues to watch the bright little girl go for the fairy tale books at the back of the shop with the soft carpets and little plastic chairs. She pulls a book out from the lowest shelf and sits down cross-legged on the carpet, the thin book in her hands, fingers tracing colourful drawings. He remembers his father's favourite tale by Beadle the Bard, The Warlock's Hairy Heart for some reason. It was a tale by a Wizard so proud he decides love was worthless and locks away his heart in a glass case to become a monstrous thing in the darkness.
And he used to wonder, why his father couldn't have liked a happier tale like The Fountain of Fair Fortune. But clinging to the wooden railing there on the second floor and staring down at the little girl, he finally understood. And he thinks to himself, maybe my heart will go hairy and beastly too...even with it still being in my chest.
He meets Rose Weasley and Albus Severus Potter on the Hogwarts Express. He's already sharing a compartment with Ronnie and Gabe (which they acquire because her older brother, Theo, gets it for them and since he is the current Slytherin Prince, a Prefect and a shoe-in for Head Boy, no one contested) but the familiar restless is sparking his blood again and the only way he can calm it these days is by running it out and since he is on a train he can only walk, forcing himself to take smaller and slower steps. He glances into the foggy glass of the compartment doors as he passes by and nearly trips when he sees a familiar shock of red.
He remembers the little girl at the bookshop and that sudden burst of invigoration he feels when he thinks of her returns. He forces himself to hold back and not destroy the door of the compartment with his bare hands (like he is that strong or anything) and calmly slides it open.
He is greeted by a red-haired girl but she is not the girl in the bookshop. Her hair is curlier, wilder, her eyes more brown than green, her skin more rose than porcelain. Fire but not the one he craves. The life inside of him goes back to its cave.
He stands awkward at the doorway as the other boy with messy, dark hair and those glasses, looking like the miniature version of his father, stares at him and asks, "Aren't you that boy in the bookshop?"
He is surprised. He hadn't noticed the other boy at the shop, his focus on someone else. Yet ever the clever student of his grandfather's, he replies, "That depends on why you're asking."
"I just noticed you, that's all," The boy returns. "You seemed really distracted then."
He hides a smirk. A subtle dig, if any that is. And he thinks the Sorting will be interesting this year. Oh, he knows about the Hat (Knowledge is power, His grandfather likes to say).
He moves into the compartment and takes the seat beside the other boy and offers his hand. "My name's Scorpius-"
"Malfoy," Green eyes are almost bright with amusement. "I am aware of who you are."
He readies himself for an insult, a curse, anything to remind him of sins he'd never been a part of, just stories told in whispers and over bottles of expensive scotch as all the adults think he's asleep in bed and not hiding to listen in but none come.
"Al Potter," The boy takes his hand and shakes it firmly. "Nice to meet you."
"It's Albus Severus Potter," The girl across them finally speaks, much to her cousin's glare. She's already dressed in her uniform and this amuses Scorpius. "I'm Rose Perdita Weasley."
He doesn't shake her hand but kisses her knuckles lightly like his Grandmother instructed. "Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy."
Al lets out a snort. "Ugh, did you know about the school rivalry our dads had?"
"In passing,"
His father doesn't like to talk about the past all too much, stating that some things are best left over and done.
"Apparently they had some kind of pissing contest when we were born on who could come up with the worse name for their son and guess who won?"
"Neither of you," Rose scrunched up her nose. "Both your names suck."
"Rosie, come on!" Al retorts. "His name is obviously better than mine. He's named after a bloody scorpion in the sky!"
"Language!" She corrects him.
"A constellation!" Al continues to fight his cause, turning to him. "Your name is better, right? I'm named after two dead wizards who were a little bit shady if you ask me."
He lets out a laugh, unable to keep his amusement over their antics any longer. Please, please let one of them be in Slytherin. He can just imagine Ronnie and Gabe bickering with them and imagines life in their new House would never be boring.
He gets his wish.
Their first night at the castle, he gets all his fellow First Year Slytherins in the Common Room late in the night when everyone has gone to bed, their huddled on the green carpet beside the leather couches and their only source of light is the lightly glowing orb Ronnie's father gives her as a going away present. They've collected the votes and Gabe is doing the counting and tallying.
Albus Severus Potter wins as worst name ever according to their little group of four.
He pretends to be upset at losing but it's all just a ruse because Al is bizarrely ecstatic.
Slytherin House doesn't have a lot of students. The majority of the Weasleys were in Gryffindor except for the Half-Delacour ones that all ended up in Ravenclaw. Al is the only one in his family to be sorted in Slytherin, the first Potter ever as the old family has managed to have every born-Potter be sorted in Gryffindor since the Founding of Hogwarts.
He finds it odd that Al is less interested in his family than he is as he's been raised to understand the histories of his old family and its many ups and downs through the centuries. The Malfoy name has prestige and blight to it. Very few people do not know of them.
"Do you know your House words?" He asks Al, one night in the common room.
"I..." Al blinks owlishly. "House words of Slytherin?"
"No, of House of Potter," He replies. "Your family is very old. Not as old as mine but you had history before your father came along, Al."
"I..." Al looks speechless. "I just never thought of that. My father wasn't raised by his parents. He doesn't know much about his family."
"You can just read it all in a book," He shrugs. "We have plenty at the manor about the old families. Lineage is important to us."
The other boy begins to tense. "You mean...all that blood purity stuff?"
He remembers seeing the list of the Sacred Twenty-Eight for the first time and his Grandfather telling him that "It's all in the blood".
"No, of course not," He holds Al's gaze till the dark-haired boy relaxes after seeing his sincerity. "What I mean by lineage, I meant family, your history."
Purity may have been a misquided notion but blood will always conquer.
"I never hear much, just about Dad and my grandfather, James," Al admits. "I never thought they'd be more."
He is amazed at how Harry Potter never grows more curious to dig into his family. This is part of who he was, who his family is. Keeping it all from his children is almost a crime.
"There is, Al," He almost rolls his eyes at his friend. "Animo et astutia."
"What's that?"
"By Courage and Craft," He smiles. "Your House words."
Helping Al trace his lineage becomes his new hobby. He has his grandparents send books and books on the old families, some even ancient diaries for them to devour within weeks. Ronnie and Gabe are less interested as their childhood's been compromised of such studies and thus, to them it's a waste of time. Al is fascinated and a little disturbed by what he learns.
The Potters are not Sacred-Twenty Eight but they had been old, wealthy and respectable and-
"My great-grandmother was a Slytherin!" Al exclaimes one day as he traces his family tree in one of the books, seated on his bed with Scorpius. "Dorea Black married Charlus Potter...and wait, isn't your grandmother a Black?"
He waits for it to sink in for his friend.
"Wait, doesn't that make us...cousins?"
"We're all cousins," Ronnie pipes up from her corner of their dorm, lying on Scorpius' bed, her head hanging off the foot of the mattress. "It's best not to think about it."
"That is a dark and deep hole you do not want to jump into, Potter," Gabe pipes up from his bed, doing his Potions essay earlier than needed. "The trauma will be too much and you'll end up marrying a Muggle."
"What's wrong with Muggles?" Al pipes up.
The concept of Blood Purity is a sore subject to bring up. The majority of their little group practically born into aristocracy, it's sometimes hard to explain certain things with their friend whose father literally killed the concept of Pureblood Supremacy. And since Al's beginning of learning his House's history and gaining some pride with it, he is especially touchy about his Muggleborn grandmother.
"Nothing, except she wouldn't think you're amazing because she'll have no idea on why your father is so revered." Gabe easily deflates the situation. "She'll be like Potter Who?"
"More like Doctor Who," Al says with a grin and gains looks of confusion in return. He sighs. "I will get a telly up and working here someday, I swear it."
Christmas comes and he's sharing a compartment with his friends. Al invites Rosie to sit with them but the Gryffindor chooses to hang out with her Housemates, citing, "I'll see you at the Burrow, anyway".
He thinks this is a shame because she and Ronnie have yet to meet and something tells him it will be something. Good or bad, he's not quite sure yet.
Ronnie is regaling them with her family's upcoming vacation to the Alps which they only half listen to with Scorpius and Al playing Exploding Snap and Gabe doing advanced reading for Charms.
"-and if only Theo would stop moping so much then this trip will be perfect."
"Why is your brother moping?" Al automatically asks.
"He wanted to stay at Hogwarts for the Hols for some reason."
"Probably has a bird he wants to be alone with," Gabe mutters. "Couldn't blame him."
Ronnie smacks him on the arm. "My brother does not have a girlfriend. I would know about it."
"No, you wouldn't," Gabe looks at her over his book. "You're his annoying, mouthy little sister. He's not obligated to tell you anything about his love life."
"B-But..." Ronnie sputters. "Surely, he would tell our parents if he has an understanding with someone. It's tradition."
"Maybe he doesn't have an understanding," Gabe smirks at her languidly, chucking her chin idly. "Maybe it's just for fun."
Ronnie is flustered and he and Al are trying to best block out this conversation. Gabe has always been the most worldly of them all, able to speak about topics they shouldn't even be thinking of yet.
Ronnie recovers slightly and crosses her arms over her chest, trying to regain her composure. "Well, regardless whether there's a girl or not, our parents insisted he come with us despite his objections."
"There's a girl," Gabe insists. "I'll bet you five galleons."
Ronnie glares at him and shakes his hand. "It's a deal, Zabini."
Scorpius just chuckles to himself as he wins against Al again.
He walks down the length of the carriage, feeling a sense of déjà vu as he does so. He is restless and searching for that one unattainable thing again, that feeling of waking up from a long slumber. He remembers the girl with red hair in the bookshop and feels a deep longing in his chest cavity like a dying, hairy heart aching to be healed.
He stops as a compartment door slides open, a tall, blonde girl, one of the Weasley-Delacour girls steps out and without glancing at him stalks away in the opposite direction. She looks angry, face flushed, blue eyes blazing with fury, her fists clenched.
He waits for another minute before Theo Nott, Ronnie's older brother, comes out of the same compartment, looking like a most miserable man. Theo's blue eyes widen at the sight of him before the older boy straightens and stares him down.
"Can you keep what you saw quiet?" Theo intones neutrally but he can see the signs of agitation easily. "What's your price, Malfoy?"
He makes his way back to the compartment and doesn't say anything. Ronnie still looks annoyed with Gabe for insinuating things about her precious, perfect older brother while Gabe ignores her in lieu of explaining variations of the Lumos spell to Al who looks desperate to escape. He takes his seat beside Al and keeps quiet through the rest of the train ride.
It's only when they're getting off that he can feel that familiar restlessness try to overtake him. Al is waving and running towards his family and he sees that right shock of red hair, the green eyes like her father's, her brother's and how small she is as stays practically manacled to her mother's side.
Take, take, take, that taunting voice repeats.
He closes his eyes and shakes his head. No.
He will wait. Now is not the time yet.
He repeats his House words, Sanctimonia Vincet Semper.
Malfoys will always conquer.
For Bree (queenchesh) for being my most loyal reader.
This was supposed to be a one-shot but I got carried away because I really enjoyed writing the new generation Slytherins and I want to develop their characterizations and relationships as I delve more into this mythology I'm writing. The Scorpius/Lily Luna relationship will develop over the next few chapters.
This is set in the same universe as my Louis/Rose fic, my blood is all i see (as you sail from me). Rose's middle name Perdita comes from he daughter of Hermione in Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale. Title comes from the song Nature's Law (Draft One) by Embrace. The dragon mentioned in the story Lucius tells Scorpius is the Antipodean Opaleye found in Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. The fairy tales mentioned The Fountain of Fair Fortune and The Warlock's Hairy Heart can be found in Tales of Beadle the Bard. Many thanks to the HP Lexicon.
This was largely inspired by RZZMG's Opaleye: A Dragon's Love for the Malfoy family's mythology, Colubrina's The Green Girl and The Muddy Princess, ShayaLonnie's Presque Tojours Pur for the Pureblood customs and culture. The Potter House motto is taken from ShayaLonnie's Debt of Time.