A/N: Thank you for all the reviews, they really mean a lot to me. As always most of my one shots are centered around Scorpius and Hermione. This will be my last one shot before I start my story I hope you enjoy.
Scorpius paced around his living room as he waited to be picked up by Hermione. He had received an invite to The Burrow last week by Rose Weasley and now today was the big day. He couldn't help but feel nervous. The only Weasleys he ever interacted with were Rose, Hermione, Ron and Hugo. Today he was going to be meeting the entire Weasley/Potter clan and it felt like he was a lamb or in his case a snake going into the Lion's den. He imagined every possible scenario, which all included being shunned and hated. As he continued to ponder these thoughts, the flames in the fireplace ignited only to reveal none other than Hermione Granger Weasley. Scorpius smiled when he saw her, he had grown to like the woman ever since the time turner incident, and even more after what she did for him during the Mother's Day dance.
"Hi Mrs. Weasley." Scorpius greeted as he approached her.
Hermione smiled as she stepped out of the fireplace. "Hello Scorpius, are you ready to go?" she asked.
Scorpius didn't reply however. He attempted to speak but no words came out of his mouth. Was he ready for this? Maybe he could just say he wasn't feeling well, but then they would assume he was just being rude. 'What you do in my position mother.' Scorpius asked himself. His mother was a brave person while pregnant with him. His father had told him how child birth was a big risk to his mother as it could potentially kill her due to her family curse she was born with. If his mother could pull through that, then he should be able to have the courage to go through with meeting all of the Weasley's.
Hermione noticed there was a slight hint of fear in the boy's eyes. "Don't worry so much sweetheart, if it makes you feel better I instructed everyone to be on their best behavior and I promise I won't let anything happen to you."
Scorpius gained confidence with this and took a deep breath and smiled. "Alright then, let's do this, thanks Mrs. Weasley."
They both stepped back into the fireplace and floo'd over to The Burrow. As he exited the fireplace he was awed at house small The Burrow was compared to Malfoy Manor. At the same time, it had a nice warm feeling to it. Hermione motioned for him to follow her as they walked towards the front door. Scorpius's heart began to beat faster as he heard laughs and chatter coming from the outside. 'Here we go.' He thought to himself.
"Oh, and Scorpius, call me Hermione while we're here, there's to many Mrs. Weasley's present." She told him. Scorpius nodded in response as Hermione lead him outside.
Immediately Scorpius was rushed by 4 familiar faces as Albus, James, Rose and Hugo surrounded him.
"Hey mate, I'm glad you're here, I was afraid you wouldn't want to come." His best friend Albus said.
"Nice to see you here Scorpius." Rose added with a smiled that made Scorpius's face flush.
James then slapped him on the back. "What's with the face Scor, you look like you're walking to your death sentence."
"Come on James, he's clearly nervous about meeting the entire family, no need to make it more awkward." Hugo stated. Rose's younger brother had grown fond of Scorpius. He was like the older brother Hugo never had.
Scorpius stiffened as an older woman approached them. She had red hair which he assumed meant she was most likely Rose's grandmother.
"Alright then, stop teasing the boy James." Molly Weasley said. She then turned to look at Scorpius.
"So, you must be Scorpius Malfoy, Albus and Rose have told me much about you, welcome to The Burrow." She said with a warm smile.
Scorpius relaxed a bit. "Thankyou Mrs. Weasley, it's nice to be here, you have a very lovely home."
Molly then surprised Scorpius by pulling him into a small hug. "Well thankyou Scorpius, you sure are a polite one, nothing like your grandfather or father were."
"Grandma!" Albus, Rose and Hugo shouted in unison while James merely burst out laughing.
"Oh, relax you three, anyways Scorpius, I hope you enjoy yourself, and if any of my sons give you trouble, you come get me and I assure you I will deal with them." Molly stated as she walked back to the other guests.
"Well I'm going to be helping your grand mum out, you kids enjoy yourselves." Hermione said she ruffled Scorpius's Hair and winked at him.
"You know I'm 16 now right Aunt Hermione!?" James said, but his aunt had already walked off.
Rose and Albus decided to take Scorpius around and introduce him to the other Weasley's while Hugo and James went back to conversing with the rest of the gathering. Scorpius felt a little better knowing Rose and Albus were by his side. They both chose to start off easy and took Scorpius over to Albus's Parents first. Ginny noticed them approaching first and gave Scorpius a hug.
"I'm glad you chose to come honey, I was debating on going over to that manor and dragging you here myself." She said.
"It's great to have you here Scorpius, don't feel intimidated, I was nervous as well when I was first invited to The Burrow as a kid." Harry stated.
"Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Potter, I met Albus and Rose's grandma, she was pretty nice." Scorpius said. Albus and Rose then moved on and took him over to meet their cousins. Victoire Weasley and her fiancé Teddy Lupin were talking to their other cousins Dominique, and Louis Weasley who were Victoire's younger siblings. Scorpius remembered seeing most of the Weasley family at school, but he never actually spoke to any of them, aside from Hugo and occasionally Rose. As Albus and Rose introduced their friend Dominique and Louis couldn't help but eye him. He was a Malfoy after all, could they trust him.
"It's really nice to meet you all, Albus mentioned you guys, I wish we had a chance to meet before when Dominique and Victoire were still at Hogwarts." Scorpius said.
Dominique and Louis were stunned by his mannerisms. Victoire simply smiled at him.
"Well we look forward to seeing more of you, hopefully this is the first of your many visits here." She said.
Teddy Lupin nodded in agreement. "We have plenty of time to get to know each other Scorpius, you are after all Albus's best friend and any friend of his is a friend of mine."
Seeing their older sister and her fiancé being so accepting of the Malfoy kid, Dominique and Louis followed suit.
"You should play quidditch with us later." Dominique offered.
"Yea, we always have quidditch matches after we eat." Louis added.
Scorpius felt more and more relieved. "Of course, that sounds great." He replied. This was going better than he anticipated. As they moved on to continued Scorpius's introduction tour, Albus's younger sister Lily approached them.
"Hey, what gives, you guys didn't tell me Scorpius was here." She stated.
"Sorry Lilly, we were so caught up on introducing him to everyone that we forgot." Rose said.
Lily simply shrugged. "Don't let our family scare you Scor, at the end of the day we're all just big cuddly teddy bear."
Albus and Rose now accompanied by Lily then lead him over to meet Molly Weasley II and her sister Lucy Weasley who were hanging out with Fred Weasley II and his sister Roxanne Weasley. Unlike Scorpius's previous encounter, Molly, Lucy, Roxanne and Fred weren't as iffy about Scorpius. They welcomed him as one of their own and had a good long held conversation with him. Roxanne especially found it easy to bond with Scorpius since they both had an interest in reading muggle books. Fred told Scorpius about all the pranks he had pulled at school and Molly along with Lucy questioned him on how his summer was going.
After they introduced him to their cousins they moved on to their aunts and uncles. They all seemed to take a liking Scorpius, even their uncle George, though he was a little more hesitant than the others. Their grandfather was stunned by Scorpius's knowledge of muggle technology.
"Finally, someone here can appreciate muggle technology as much as I do." Arthur Weasley said with enthusiasm.
"I especially find their ability to overcome almost any challenge thrown at them, did you know they can take energy from the sun and use it to power electronics?" Scorpius asked.
"You don't say? Ingenious these muggles are, trains underground, ships that can travel underwater, vessels that can fly in the air, and contraptions and turn sunlight into power." Arthur replied. All to soon the moment Scorpius was dreading the most had come. He felt his legs crumble as he began to approach Rose's father, Ronald Weasley. He was standing with his wife and eyed him as they approached.
"Don't worry, aunt Hermione lectured uncle Ron earlier to behave, plus grandma and grandpa are in love with you for the most part." Albus elbowed Scorpius.
Hermione gave Ron one last glare before turning to Scorpius.
"How's everything going Scorpius, are you enjoying yourself?" She asked.
"Yes Mrs Weas… I mean Hermione, everyone's been very nice, Dominique asked me to play quidditch with everyone after we eat." Scorpius replied as he tried to avoid Ron's obvious glare.
"We're glad you're having a good time then, aren't we Ron?" Hermione looked over to him with a look that said 'you better say yes.'
"Yes of course, very glad." Ron grumbled.
Rose knew her father was struggling to keep himself composed.
"Well I think we're going to go hang out for a bit before dinner, come on Scorpius." She said as she dragged him away from her father.
Lily stood there and gave her uncle a look. "Jeez uncle Ron could you be any more obvious with your glares." She commented before walking off. Albus merely shook his head at his uncle and followed after the others.
Hermione smacked him on the arm. "I told you to be civil."
"Hey I was civil, that doesn't mean I have to smile at him or anything." Ron replied.
"Honestly Ron sometimes you act like a kid." Hermione groaned in frustration.
"Come on Mione, you heard him, he's having a good time, everything is fine."
"He's clearly nervous about being here, and you staring at him as if you're going to murder him doesn't help." Hermione couldn't believe how oblivious Ron could be sometimes.
Ron surrendered. "Alright alright I'm sorry, I'll try to put on a happy face next time."
The extra-long table was full of chatter as the Weasley/Potter clan ate. One blonde boy intently listened in on conversations that were being held. Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and Harry were discussing how things were going in their respective work places, Victoire and Teddy talked about setting a wedding date, all of the cousins were happily enjoying teasing each other and talking about new subjects they'll be learning at school. The rest of the adults were swapping stories and talking about their kids. This was the first-time Scorpius was surrounded by so many people who might have had several differences, but were all still one big family. He felt something he hadn't felt since the passing of his mother. He felt as if he finally belonged to a family again, the Weasley's had all welcomed him and had made him feel like one of their own. He snuck a look at Hermione and she winked at him, 'something mum used to do when I was nervous or afraid' Scorpius thought.
The long awaited quidditch game had begun as the cousins and Teddy divided themselves into teams of 7. Teddy, Victoire, Dominique, Louis, Fred, Molly and Lucy against, Roxanne, Rose, Hugo, James, Albus, Lily, and Scorpius. Both teams were tied as the adults cheered on their kids. Scorpius was playing as seeker for his team. He never played quidditch while at Hogwarts, but his dad had taught him a couple moves when he was younger. He was awed by how great most of the Weasley's were, especially Rose. Rose had been scoring most of the points for his team and was pretty much carrying them. Victoire and Dominique however made a formidable duo as the two scored more points into his team. They had set a point limit to 150 and they were already at 140 points. 1 more goal and it was all over. Scorpius finally had the snitch in his sights as he bolted for it. He was racing against Molly who was playing seeker for her team. He could hear the adults cheering down below. What happened next was too fast for Scorpius to comprehend.
The snitch was so close to the pam of his hand, as Scorpius without thinking leaped forward and grabbed for it. He had caught it, Scorpius had caught the snitch, he had won his team the game. He heard the adults cheering and both teams cheering and chanting his name. He quickly realized however that they weren't chants of cheers, they were screams. He looked down and realized he was falling straight into the ground. He ended up leaping off his broom while trying to catch the snitch and did not notice it with all the adrenaline. None of the adults or kids could react in time as Scorpius hit a couple tree branches while falling. Everyone ran over to him when he finally hit the ground.
"Scorpius, Scorpius, are you ok!?" Hermione asked worriedly. She was joined by the entire Weasley./Potter clan who looked on in worry.
"Merlin's sake Scor I know you wanted to win, but bloody hell don't try to kill yourself while doing it." James said trying to hold back a smirk.
"James this is no time to joke around." Harry reprimanded.
Scorpius shook his head a couple of times before finally replying. "Yea I think I'm ok."
Hermione looked him over making sure he didn't have any serious injuries. Aside from a couple bruises, he was fine. Being a mother to 2 children, Hermione couldn't help but feel protective over Scorpius as she pulled him in for a hug and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"Scorpius, what you did was very stupid and reckless, you could have been seriously hurt." She lectured.
"Are you crazy Scorpius, you hopped off your broom to catch the snitch, you could have died." Rose stated.
Molly Weasley stepped forward. "Young man, you're lucky you aren't my grandson or I would give you a very stern talking about your actions."
"I'm sorry everyone, I didn't realize what was happening until i noticed the rapidly approaching ground." Scorpius stated.
Ginny smiled at him "It's alright sweetie, but pay more attention next time, I doubt your father would be too happy to know we got you killed in a quidditch match."
"Yea and I can't have you dying either mate, who will replace you as my best friend." Albus said half-jokingly.
Scorpius smiled, it gave him a good feeling to see them showing concern toward him. He felt safe with these people. He felt terrible now for assuming they wouldn't like nor accept him earlier. They treated him like a member of their family.
"It won't happen again guys, trust me." He said as he stood up. He took a big stretch to loosen his muscles after that fall, momentarily turning his back towards the Weasley/Potter clan. He failed to notice that during his fall, the back of his shirt had ripped, exposing his bare backside. There was a silence suddenly as no one spoke a word. They all merely stared at Scorpius. He turned his head towards them looking at every one of them in confusion. That is until he realized what they were looking at. The scars were dried up, but the words were still clear as day. Every one of the Weasley's and the Potter's even Ron, looked in shock at the words carved on Scorpius's back. They read, Pureblood Scum. Scorpius immediately turned his back away from them, he wished they hadn't seen that, he wished he could just disappear, why did he even come here today.
The silence continued for another minute, before Ron finally broke the silence.
"Who did that to you?" He asked.
Scorpius did not reply, as he stood silent, avoiding eye contact with everyone. This time Hermione tried.
"Scorpius, who did that to you?" She asked.
"No one." He replied as his eyes started to water.
James was the next one. "It's alright mate, you can tell us."
Rose finally approached him and interlocked his hand with hers.
"Please… tells us, we're here for you." She encouraged.
Scorpius finally agreed. "The day before we were set to leave Hogwarts and come back home for the summer, a… a couple of… Gryffindors… they cornered me… I told them I didn't want any trouble, but they jumped on me, and held me down on my stomach… and I felt something sharp on my back, I didn't know… what they carved on there, until later at night when I looked in the mirror."
The entire Burrow was silent, no one spoke a work. Mostly all of the Weasley's and Potters were Gryffindors. To find out that their own house was capable of this bigotry, hit them like a ton of bricks. Hermione thought back to when Bellatrix had carved Mudblood on her arm. She knew what Scorpius felt, the pain and humiliation of being treated like nothing more than a parasite. She felt sick, she looked toward Scorpius and saw tears streaming down his face. She was about to walk up to him but stopped as he spoke.
"I'd like… I'd like to… to go home now, please." He managed to croak out.
Hermione nodded. "Of course," She said as she lead him back into the house.
Before going inside, Scorpius turned around and looked at the giant family.
"Thankyou, you all made me feel welcomed today, and I just want you all to know that I had a great time." He smiled at them.
"You're welcomed back here anytime sweetheart, you'll always have a place here with us." Molly Weasley said as she and the rest of the Weasley/Potter clan smiled at him as he left. Harry was disgusted by what he had witnessed today. No one deserves to face that type of bigotry, no matter what Scorpius's parents had done in the past. Ron was also fuming inside, a part of him wanted to hunt down those prats who did that to the boy. Regardless of how he felt about Scorpius, he couldn't help but be reminded of the same thing happening to Hermione. Rose felt a wave of guilt. She had been so mean to Scorpius during their first 3 years, thinking the worst of him, only to find out her own house had done such a disgusting act like this. Albus knew his best friend had always faced prejudice, he just didn't know to what extent until now.
Hermione arrived at Malfoy Manor with Scorpius. She waited in his living room until he got on a new change of clothes. Scorpius walked back in and looked at Hermione for a few seconds before taking a seat next to her. They sat in silence for a while as Hermione thought about what had happened. She felt partially responsible for this. She had done so much in the Ministry to make the wizarding world safer for muggle-borns and half-bloods, but she neglected purebloods. She even had measures in place that would at times favor any non-purebloods. It wasn't until now that she realized all she did was become what she had always hated. She had unintentionally encouraged discrimination against purebloods and she hated herself for that.
"I'm sorry if I ruined the evening Mrs. Weasley, I really did enjoy myself though." Scorpius said.
Hermione was shocked by his apology.
"You didn't ruin it Scorpius, everyone was just startled by the sudden turn of events." She said.
Scorpius stayed silent once again. Hermione look towards him as she lifted up her left sleeve.
"It happened to me to once." She said. Scorpius looked over to her in confusion. That is until he saw her looking down at her arm. He had been so caught up in thinking about his own problem that he forgot Hermione had a similar experience to his.
"My great aunt did that to you." He stated. "My father told me the story."
"Yes, she did, I still remember it as if it was yesterday. It's been 19 years and the wound has long since healed, but the emotional scars never go away." She stated.
Scorpius couldn't help but feel hatred towards himself, hatred for being a Malfoy.
"I'm sorry for everything my family put you through." Scorpius said while looking at her with a pained expression.
Hermione cupped a hand on his face. "Oh… honey, don't you ever apologize for that alright?" She hated his great aunt and his grandparents, and to some extent she still didn't like Draco too much, but it wasn't Scorpius's fault.
"Don't you ever think that I blame you for any of this, because I don't, you are a great kid Scorpius, and don't you ever think twice about that."
"That really means a lot to hear you say that, thank you Mrs. Weasley, you… well, you kind of remind me of my mum, she always knew what to say during times like these." Scorpius said trying to hide the blush growing on his face.
Hermione smiled. "Well I'm glad I could help, and you know you could always talk to me about anything, don't ever be afraid of coming to me if you need something."
"I will Mrs. Weasley." Scorpius replied, smiling at the woman who he was beginning to see as a mother figure.
"Well Scorpius, I had better get going, and I want you in bed early today mister, after that fall you took you need your rest." She scolded.
"Yes Mrs. Weasley, before you go can I ask you something?"
"Sure, what's on your mind." She replied.
"Did you really punch my father in the face when you were in school?" He asked.
Hermione's eyes widened and her face turned red. "Who told you that?"
"Uh… Rose's uncle George." Scorpius shifted.
Hermione shook her head, making a mental note to kill George when she returned.
"Yes… I did, and it was wrong of me to do… but your father well."
"Asked for it?" Scorpius finished.
"Yes, but that was still wrong on my part, that's a story for another day however." She said.
"Alright, I think that's pretty funny though." He replied. "Goodnight Mrs. Weasley."
"Goodnight Scorpius." She smiled, but stopped herself remembered to ask one more thing.
"Scorpius, I know you aren't up for it right now, but when you feel more comfortable, I would like you to point out the Gryffindors who did that to you, as Minister for Magic I can't let something like that go unpunished." Hermione instructed him.
Scorpius hesitated before nodding. "I will."
As Hermione floo'd back to the burrow she had a lot on her mind. She promised herself however that after today, she would no longer look at bigotry and prejudice as just black and white. As she learned today bigotry wasn't only purebloods hating half-bloods and muggle-borns or muggle-borns being called mud-bloods. Today Hermione learned that bigotry knows no limits, and even those you think will never be hurt or affected by it, are not safe from its grasp.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed. Please leave reviews, they really help motivate me to write these stories. Also make sure to check out my other one shots and review those if you haven't yet. Share if you like and I hope you all have a wonderful day.