Healers hurried past Scorpius in the hall on their way to do something important. He watched them go, slowing his own pace to let them pass. While he had a place to be just as they did, he didn't feel the same sense of urgency to get there. In fact, part of him wanted to turn around and leave.

It wasn't that he wasn't excited for the baby. He was. There was no one more excited for the baby than he was, save for his father and stepfather. The problem was that he was too self-conscious. He had never expected to become a brother at the ripe old age of nineteen, and he didn't have any cousins to speak of, unless you counted a few distant ones he hardly knew.

Not once had he actually held an infant, and the prospect of being given that responsibility only to screw it up terrified him. It felt like a test that he was doomed to fail.

But he had to try. Merlin knew he couldn't avoid his family forever, so he took a deep breath and opened the door to the private room that his father and Blaise had, of course, paid for during the short time his little sister would be in the hospital after her birth.

It was much quieter in the room than in the hallway, and the lights were being kept low, as if they were worried about the baby's eyes being harmed. Scorpius didn't know if that was a thing. He didn't know anything about babies. What he did know was that his hands were trembling as he watched his father hover near a small bassinet, a bundle of blankets in his arms that Scorpius knew contained his new sister.

Frozen inside the door, Scorpius had no intention of approaching his father or the baby. From the corner of his eye, he saw Blaise standing on his father's other side, also fussing over the baby, but none of his attention was on him. He couldn't take his eyes off the baby. Though he couldn't see her, he knew she was there, and his palms were sweating just from the proximity.

He would have stood there for ages if his father hadn't noticed his presence.

Draco's smile widened, though it had already been larger than Scorpius could ever remember seeing it. Scorpius' stomach twisted further. He had never seen his father that visibly happy. His wedding to Blaise had come close. At the time, Scorpius had been fascinated with the effect the other man had on his father, who had been morose since Scorpius' mother had passed years earlier, but in that moment, standing there with the baby, Draco looked like an entirely different person.

Scorpius wondered if Draco had smiled this much when he had been born, but that wasn't a question he'd ever ask.

Draco headed straight for him with the baby still in his arms, and Scorpius had to fight every urge he possessed not to flee out the door. Draco's smile grew gentle as he reached him, sensing Scorpius' hesitancy.

"Do you want to hold her?" he asked quietly.

Scorpius swallowed as he looked down at the baby's face. She didn't look like he'd thought she would, but he had never seen a newborn before. He'd expected her to be chubbier than she appeared.

He noticed were her eyes immediately. She was staring up at Draco, not having noticed Scorpius was there, but he could see that the irises were brown, a far cry from the grey of both his and his father's eyes. Her dark hair, too, didn't look like what the world had come to expect of Malfoys. But Scorpius had been expecting that. After all, this baby wasn't genetically related to him or his father. Her resemblance to Blaise was already prominent.

That didn't stop Scorpius' heart from twisting as he observed his new sister, noting the shape of her nose and the small sounds she kept making. Part of him desperately wanted to hold her, to begin getting to know her in a way he hadn't been able to while she was in the womb. But his fear overpowered that urge, preventing him from saying yes to his father's question.

Draco took another step forward and held her out anyway, and Scorpius responded by shooting out his arms as if Draco would drop her if he didn't. He tried not to shake as Draco placed the baby in his embrace, carefully arranging his arms to make sure she was supported. When Draco kept his hands there, underneath Scorpius' arms, to make sure nothing went wrong, Scorpius found he could breathe a little easier.

"Hi, Norma," he said quietly, just for her to hear. "I'm happy to finally meet you."

He couldn't help but smile as she stared up at him in what he imagined was bemusement. Her facial expressions didn't seem quite varied yet, but he had the sense that she was taking in everything around her and trying to make sense of it. He could only imagine how overwhelming it was to see everything for the first time. Perhaps she wouldn't judge him for not knowing how to hold her properly.

"Isn't she incredible?" Draco asked, moving one of his hands out from under Scorpius' arm to let Norma grab onto his finger. "She's a lot bigger than you were when you were born."

Scorpius' eyes widened as he looked down at her. He couldn't imagine having been smaller than she currently was. She felt fragile in his arms. On some level, he'd been sure that she must be small, even for a newborn. He didn't say that out loud, though, not wanting to reveal the extent of his ignorance. His father was already doing half the work of supporting Norma between them.

Blaise approached, wrapping an arm around Draco's waist. His eyes zeroed in on the baby with the same intensity. Scorpius hadn't been prepared for the way she was able to thoroughly capture the attention of those around her.

"You'll be a great big brother, Scorpius," Blaise commented.

He reached out to ruffle Scorpius' hair, and though Scorpius inwardly groaned, he let him do it without complaint. That was a small indulgence he'd given Blaise since he began dating Draco, even if the constant hair ruffling left him feeling like a child instead of the adult he was.

"Thanks," Scorpius replied, his throat beginning to feel tight with emotion.

As much flak as he sometimes gave Blaise in his own thoughts for treating him like a kid, receiving such a compliment gave him a boost of confidence as he continued to cradle Norma in his arms.

He laughed a little as he looked down at her, trying to catalogue her features as much as he could. Their family was small, but he knew one of her fathers would take her from him soon enough, and he needed to soak in what time he had with her. Especially if he wanted to live up to Blaise's expectations.

Prompts:

HPFC

Favourite Character Boot Camp: Scorpius Malfoy - even

Hogwarts Challenges and Assignments

Advent Calendar: (relationship) siblings

Word count: 1,179