Takes place in the Light of Day verse, but you don't have to have read it for this to make sense.
The Meaning of Life
Spring 2038
On the 23rd of April 2038, the cries of a newborn baby girl could be heard from room three of the maternity ward in St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. The baby girl in question was the daughter of Rose and Scorpius Malfoy.
"It's a girl." The healer announced to them as she severed the umbilical cord with a wave of her wand and wrapped up the tiny baby in a towel.
Rose lay back on her pillows and relaxed completely, looking at her husband with a smile and laughed a little. Scorpius bent down and kissed her sweaty forehead as the healer passed Rose their baby.
From the first time that Rose and Scorpius looked at their daughter, they fell in love with her immediately.
"She's got your nose," Rose remarked, looking down at her daughter and caressing her small features. The baby, awake and alert, looked up at her parents with curious eyes.
"And your eyes," Scorpius said.
"Yeah," Rose said, adjusting her hold on the baby.
"Hey, she's got your hair too!" Scorpius remarked, gesturing to the few wisps of ginger hair on their daughter's head.
"Finally," Rose said, "I thought that I'd end up with three blonde kids."
"Well if they're anything like me then they'll end up being brunette by the time that they're seventeen," Scorpius said.
"Yeah," Rose laughed, looking fondly down at their daughter.
"D'you want me to go and get Antares and Lyra? They'll be wondering why we've been gone so long." Scorpius asked.
"Sure," Rose said, not looking away from the baby in her arms. Scorpius shook his head at his wife as he prepared to disapparate. She had been the same with their two other children.
He silently turned on the spot and disapparated, appearing almost instantly in the living room of Hugo's house in the suburbs.
"Daddy!"
Scorpius almost bowled over as two figures, one about the height of his hips and the other the height of his knee barrelled into him.
"Hey there," Scorpius said, picking up his five year old daughter Lyra and ruffling seven year old Antares' hair, "how are my little stars?"
"Good." They chorused. Scorpius looked over to Hugo, who was nursing his three month old son Phillip in his arms as he looked tiredly over his niece and nephew.
"Thanks for doing this for us, Hugh." Scorpius said, nodding at Hugo.
"It's no problem," Hugo shrugged. "How's my sister?"
"It's a girl," Scorpius beamed.
"What? No, I wanted a brother, not a sister!" Antares wailed, "I've already got her, I don't need another one."
"I get someone to play with!" Lyra exclaimed, wriggling around excitedly in her father's arms.
"Congratulations, mate." Hugo said as Phillip started to stir, "I'd better get this one into his cot before he wakes up." He gestured to his son, "I'll come and see Rose as soon as Daniel gets home from his shift. Give her my best wishes."
"I will." Scorpius said, stepping towards Hugo's fireplace; it was illegal to apparate with children under ten years of age. "Hugo, if you and Daniel ever want us to watch the boys, then don't hesitate to ask."
"Thanks Scorpius, but no thanks. You and Rose will be flat out as it is now that you've got this baby to look after too." Hugo said, standing up and walking towards the door.
"Thanks for reminding me." Scorpius said, offering the pot of floo powder to Lyra and then Antares. "See you soon."
"Yeah." Hugo replied as he walked up the staircase.
"Alright, now you have to say St Mungo's Hospital, can you do that?" Scorpius said, turning to his children. Both of them nodded. "Okay Antares, you go first."
Antares stepped into the fireplace, dropped his floo powder into the embers around him and said "St Mungo's Hospital." The flames roared higher than the seven year old's head and engulfed him.
"Alright, Ly, I think you'd better come with me," Scorpius said, picking up Lyra, "But you can drop the floo powder, okay?"
"Okay," Lyra nodded. Scorpius ducked as he walked into the fireplace, making sure that Lyra was holding onto his neck tightly like a monkey. She'd used floo powder enough times to know that she had to hold on tight. She let the floo powder fall out of her grip and the green flames roared up in the fireplace once more.
"St Mungo's Hospital" Scorpius said and again the flames rose up and engulfed the two of them. Scorpius immediately wrapped his arms around Lyra as they started to spin faster and faster, and they travelled through the maze of fireplaces that connected the wizarding world together. Scorpius kept his eyes tight shut, because he knew if he kept them open that he would be violently sick when he arrived back at the hospital.
Unlike his wife, Scorpius hadn't quite mastered the technique of seemingly walking out of the fireplace yet, so when he felt himself start to slow down, he prepared as best he could for the impact that would hit him.
To his surprise, he managed to not completely fall flat on his face, but rather stumble out of the fireplace and make it look sort of professional. Flushed with success, Scorpius walked over to Antares, who had been waiting patiently by the window for them.
"Come on then, let's go and see your mother and sister," Scorpius said, taking his son's hand and leading him towards the hallway that lead to maternity.
Scorpius found Rose in the exact position that he had left her in; staring down at the baby. However, it was short lived, because as soon as Antares and Lyra saw the little bundle in their mother's arms, they jumped up onto the bed, clamouring for a look at their younger sister.
"She's so small!" Antares said.
"What's her name?" Lyra asked, looking at her mother for an answer. Rose glanced at Scorpius.
"We don't know yet," Rose said, with a slight smile. "What do you think Ly?"
"I think you should call her Amy. That's a pretty name." Lyra said immediately.
"No," Rose said almost immediately, "I mean, don't you think that it's too common? There's a lot of Amy's out there," she added quickly at a look from Scorpius.
"I suppose so." Lyra said, looking down at her sister again.
"What do you think, Antares?" Rose asked her son. He shrugged.
"I don't know any girls names."
Both Rose and Scorpius laughed a little.
Scorpius made his way over to the bed and sat down on the edge of it, looking down at his third child, his mind going over every star related name he had ever heard of.
"What do you think?" Rose asked.
"How about… Meissa?" Scorpius suggested.
"I beg your pardon?" Rose asked in disbelief, "Meissa, really? What kind of a name is Meissa?"
"It's a star in the Orion constellation." Scorpius said indignantly, disappointed that Rose hadn't liked his choice of name.
"Oh you're kidding me right?" Rose said, looking from the baby to Scorpius and back again. She soon realised that Scorpius wasn't kidding. "No way Scorpius, we are not naming her after a star or constellation."
"Why not?" Scorpius asked. "You agreed to naming Lyra and Antares after stars."
"Yes, but this is our third child, Scorpius. I kind of want to have a say in her name." Rose said.
"You had a say in the others…" Scorpius trailed off at Rose's expression, "Okay so maybe I decided before you could get a word in."
"Fine," he said in a resigned tone, "What do you want to name her?"
"River."
"Ew, no," Scorpius said immediately, "Can you imagine how much she'll be teased with a name like River?"
"Fair point," Rose said, "Didn't think that one through…. How about Brigitta?"
"I'm sorry, what?" Scorpius said, "What kind of a name is Brigitta, who would name their child Brigitta?"
Rose rolled her eyes at Scorpius and bit her lip, thinking of another name that she liked that they might possibly name their child.
"I've got it." Rose said. "Martha."
Scorpius nodded. "I like that."
"And it sounds like Meissa, so it works for you too." Rose said.
"What do you think?" Scorpius asked Antares and Lyra. "How would you like Martha for your sister's name?" Antares and Lyra nodded enthusiastically.
"Alright then," Rose said, "It's been decided. Martha Malfoy. That has a nice ring to it."
Summer 2039
"Remind me why we agreed to this?" Rose called to Scorpius over the noise.
"Because your mum threatened to tell the kids about the time she caught you and I in a bit of a ... compromising position which lead to Antares being conceived," Scorpius called back. Oh yeah, Rose thought bitterly as Albus' two eldest sons, Benjamin and Brayden ran past screaming again. That's why.
"Where's Martha?" she asked.
"Last I saw, she was with Albus and Blaine," Scorpius said, rubbing his temples as Brayden and Antares tackled each other down the stairs.
"I'll go and find them," she said, "You go and tame the wild beast."
"Why do I always have to tame the wild beast? He's your son too!" Scorpius protested.
"Because you're his father," Rose called back before walking off to find her cousin, who, when she asked Dominique, was outside. Rose made her way through the throng of people towards the door.
Getting out of the house was a relief. She didn't know how the walls of the house withstood the annual party that the Potter/Weasleys threw for her Uncle Harry's birthday. To her it seemed just like an excuse for everyone to get together and be silly… well, it was certainly that way for the kids who ran around screaming their heads off for the better part of the night.
"Hey Albus," Rose said, seeing her cousin sitting on the side of the hill with his one year old son, Blaine and of course, Martha.
"Come to claim the lost child?" Albus joked, handing Martha to her as she sat down next to him.
"I guess you could say that," Rose said, looking up at the starry sky.
"I don't know how Phillip can stay in there without losing it… He must be a very sound sleeper. As soon as I walked through the door, Blaine started wailing. Your mum handed me Martha when I walked out with him."
"It's terribly inconsiderate of Uncle Harry to do this to our children," Rose said, playing with the small tuft of ginger hair that was growing on Martha's head.
"It is, isn't it?" Albus laughed.
The two of them lapsed into silence, just looking up at the stars, their children sat on their laps.
"Have you realised how small we are?" Rose asked after a while, "I mean, there's a whole universe out there and we're tiny compared to all of that."
"I've never really thought about it," Albus admitted, "I'm kind of preoccupied with raising three kids at the moment."
"Yeah," Rose said, "Me too, actually."
"How's that working out for you?" Albus laughed.
"Reasonably well, as a matter of fact. I think we did a good thing waiting five years after the second to have the third." Rose said
"She was a mistake, wasn't she?"
"Yeah, a bit of a mistake, but what can you do?" Rose shrugged with a smile.
"Use protection?" Albus suggested.
"Oh shut up, I know for a fact that none of your children were planned, so take your own advice, mister." Rose said, hitting Albus on the arm.
"I wish I hadn't married your best friend," Albus said, "I swear you know everything about our life now."
"Yeah, pretty much," she said, "Well… everything except the stuff that goes on in the bedroom but I'm content with not knowing that."
"Thank god." Albus said, running his free hand through his hair. "I swear Ella has gone insane."
"All mothers are slightly insane." Rose laughed.
"Albus, Rose, come on. We're blowing out the candles." Scorpius yelled from the doorway.
"Coming," she called, standing up and walking back over to the front door to the Potter manor. She conjured a pair of earmuffs and placed them over Martha's ears to muffle the noise a bit.
Albus slipped inside a bit in front of her, and Scorpius shut the door behind them. Rose moved for the living room but Scorpius stopped her.
"You weren't flirting with him, were you?"
"Um, no," she said incredulously, "He's my cousin, Scorpius, that is disgusting, and you said that in front of your daughter, well done."
"Doesn't hurt to make sure," Scorpius shrugged, "And she's much too young to understand.'
Rose shook her head at him. "Come on then, let's go and get some cake."
Autumn 2040
"I'm home!" Scorpius called from the front door as he shut it behind him. Immediately, Lyra and Antares abandoned their game and rushed down the stairs to greet their father, Martha toddling behind them.
"Hey, kids." Scorpius said as all three of them attached themselves to his legs. "How was your day?"
"It was boring," Lyra said.
"Why was that?" Scorpius asked, struggling to walk over to the kitchen and put down his bag with three children hugging his legs.
"Because Antares wouldn't play with me, he was being mean to me," Lyra said, poking her tongue out at her brother. Scorpius laughed as he looked down at his three children.
"That wasn't very nice of him now, was it?" Scorpius said, looking at Antares disapprovingly. Antares just looked sheepish.
Scorpius looked up to see Rose standing in the doorway and smiled at her, remembering the announcement that he'd been itching to say all day.
"Okay kids, go and get your pyjamas on and I'll give you your presents," Scorpius said. All three of them were gone in a flash, clambering up the stairs to get their pyjamas on.
"Hey handsome," Rose said, walking forward and giving her husband a deep kiss, "You must've had a good day."
"I did, as a matter of fact." Scorpius said, "How did you figure it out?"
"You bought the kids presents…" Rose said, raising an eyebrow, "You never buy them presents."
"Oh, and that reminds me," Scorpius said, unzipping his bag and pulling out a small box. He cracked it open and held it up in front of Rose's eyes.
"Wow, Scorpius!" Rose said, as Scorpius moved to fasten the ornate silver chain around her neck. "This must have cost you your whole pay check!"
"Only half," Scorpius said as she hurried over to the mirror and looked at it. "That's what I wanted to say, I got a promotion today. I'm now Head Healer Malfoy."
"Oh Scorpius, that's wonderful!" Rose exclaimed, flinging her arms around him.
"Got my pay doubled, and that is how I was able to buy you all presents… which reminds me that they'll be back downstairs in a minute." Scorpius said, moving back over to his bag and pulling out three objects: a toy broomstick for Antares, a picture book for Lyra and a teddy bear for Martha.
"You are the most wonderful person in the world. I thought I knew you for a minute, but you're still full of surprises." Rose said, pulling Scorpius' head towards hers and kissing him.
"Ew, Mum and Dad are eating each other's faces!" Antares exclaimed from the doorway.
"Don't be stupid, Taro, they're kissing. You're not supposed to interrupt them," Lyra scolded her older brother.
Rose and Scorpius broke apart slowly and looked over at their three pyjama clad minions.
"Alright, you can have your presents now." Scorpius said, gathering up the things that he had just pulled out of his bag and rushing over to give them to his children.
Rose could only look on in awe and adoration.
Winter 2041
The late shift was torture.
That was what Scorpius deemed it. He hated working past five o'clock on week-nights, especially when Rose was all alone at home with the kids. Not only that, there was never anything to do on the shift. Everyone just sat around drinking tea to keep awake.
Tonight, it seemed that fate wanted to shake things up a bit.
Twenty minutes before Scorpius' shift was due to end at seven thirty they got a call from Diagon Alley.
"Alright everyone, hop to it, we've got lives to save," Scorpius said, walking into the office and clapping his hands loudly as he waved his wand, making sure that all of the equipment packed itself in the bag.
"What's happened, Scorpius?" Rose's friend from Hogwarts, Rio Blanche, asked.
"A couple of muggle suicide bombers broke into Diagon Alley and blew up the place. Don't ask me how, I don't know," Scorpius said, as all twelve of them on duty sprang into action.
Scorpius slung a bag onto his back and hit the emergency button which would call every available Healer in to either help out at the scene, or take over their duties here.
About half the group had disappeared to Diagon Alley already and Scorpius was about to follow suit when Rose appeared in front of him.
"Rose, what are you doing here?" he asked.
"Your beeper went off. You left it in the kitchen." Rose said, handing him the white bit of plastic that was going off. Scorpius waved his wand at it to shut up.
"Rosie, I've really got to go, we've got a crisis on our hands in Diagon Alley."
"Alright, I'll be waiting up for you." Rose said.
"Never give someone the satisfaction of knowing that you'll always be there waiting," Scorpius whispered.
"Come here, you," Rose said, pressing her lips to Scorpius'. "I've got to go, I've left Antares with the girls and that won't turn out well."
"I love you!" Scorpius called after her as she disapparated. He squeezed his eyes shut and focused on Diagon Alley.
When he opened his eyes after the horror that was apparation, he wished that he was at home with Rose, Antares, Lyra and Martha.
It was chaos. There were bodies, blood and rubble everywhere. The injured were sporting burns across their faces or arms and some horrible wounds to the head and chest area.
Scorpius bent down beside an injured teenage girl who looked about sixteen and immediately started treating her.
"What's your name?" Scorpius asked her as he unpacked the bag he was carrying and got out a morphine potion.
"Amelia," the girl said, her voice laced with pain. She accepted the potion from Scorpius gladly.
"Nice to meet you Amelia, I'm Scorpius." Amelia just smiled at him as the potion began to take effect. "Where does it hurt, Amelia?"
"My leg," Amelia said, "I think it's broken."
"Ah, well that's easily fixed," Scorpius said, drawing his wand and muttering a spell which mended Amelia's leg in a heartbeat.
"Thank you," Amelia said, attempting to get up.
"Hey, wait," Scorpius said, pushing her back down. "You've got a rather nasty gash on your head." He waved his wand over her hairline and the wound healed itself. "Now you can go." With one last look of thanks, Amelia was off, undoubtedly looking for friends or family members.
More and more healers were apparating at the scene to help, and others to take those who were badly injured back to the hospital for treatment. Of course, there was nothing that could be done for those that were already dead; Scorpius could see them being piled in a corner of the alley. There were at least twenty and counting.
Everywhere Scorpius looked he could see Healers in white coats helping people. There wasn't one person who wasn't being tended to, except for one. Scorpius could see the figure lying, half crushed underneath a large piece of rubble. He hurried over to it, calling out for a sign of life as he did so. The man's chest was rising and falling quickly which indicated that he was having trouble breathing. Scorpius levitated the rubble off of him and crouched down beside him. He was in a bad way. His side was crushed and his face was mangled, there were a large amount of burns and blood too.
Scorpius fought to keep his dinner down as he got out the morphine potion again.
The man started making a noise, like he was trying to speak.
"Don't try and speak, you'll just hurt yourself." Scorpius said as he held the morphine potion to the man's lips. The man refused to drink it, but only tried to speak the same word. There was an urgency in his eyes as he grunted the same sound over and over again, until he stopped. That was when Scorpius realised what the man was saying.
"Run."
There was a brief beeping sound and Scorpius' life flashed before his eyes. Everything that meant the world to him came rushing back in the same moment. Rose, Antares, Lyra and Martha, they flashed in front of his eyes like a montage of his life.
They say in the moments before death, you only truly realise what the meaning of your life was, and that was when Scorpius realised. The meaning of his life was to love and be loved in return.
Scorpius barely had time to feel fear as the second bomb went off right beside him. There was just a searing pain and then nothing.
The only consolation that Scorpius had in his subconscious as he was blown to pieces was the knowledge that he would always be loved by his family, now and forever.
AN: Many thanks to the wonderful Being A Wallflower for beta'ing.
*deep breath* this is for:
The 1, 2, 3, 4 Season's competition with the prompts – Burn, Silver, Home, "as we lie beneath the stars" "I thought I knew you for a minute."
The Fanfiction Triwizard Tournament with the prompts - Tea, pyjamas and "mothers are all slightly insane."
The OTP Bootcamp Challenge – Prompt #4: Battered
The School Subjects Competition: Divination – write a story about the next generation.
The Last Kiss Competition with the prompt "Never Give someone the satisfaction of knowing that you'll always be there waiting."
100 Different Pairings Competition – Prompt #82: Case
That's about it.
I'd love it if you leave me a review :)
Potter on
~The Original Horcrux~