Scorpius picked up the strange necklace and looked at it. It kinda reminded him of an hourglass on a golden chain. Suddenly Albus came skidding down the stairs.
"Scorpius!" he shouted, barreling into him.
Scorpius pushed Albus off of him.
"Oi, watch yourself. I swear you're clumsier than Teddy," Scorpius groused.
Albus jumped up and held a hand out. "I take offence to that, by the way. I'm much more graceful than Teddy. Besides, it's not my fault Lily left her stuff on the stairs."
Scorpius took the offered hand and was pulled to his feet. "You can't stand to at least watch where you're going on the stairs? This house is almost a million years old. I don't think your dad would be happy if you put a hole in the wall."
"He would be if I made the hole where Mrs. Black's portrait is," Albus grinned.
"Just be careful. You almost broke this necklace I found," Scorpius warned.
"What necklace?" Albus asked. Scorpius held it out for inspection. "Oh. I remember hearing dad tell mum about this. It's an illegal time-turner that's supposed to go back years."
"Do you suppose it fell out of his pocket then?" Scorpius asked. "It seems unlikely he'd just leave it on the floor."
"Probably." Albus frowned. "We'd better give this to mum or put it in his office."
"Is your mum even home? I thought she was bringing Lily to get a haircut."
"Dad's office it is then. Come on."
Albus raced up the stairs, with Scorpius following close behind. On the second floor, Albus took a sharp right down a hallway. Scorpius followed.
"Here it is. I'm sure you can just set it on the desk and he'll see it," Albus said.
Scorpius walked into the room, and a step in tripped on the rug. A sharp crack echoed throughout the room. Scorpius felt a stinging pain in his palm.
"I think I've broke the time-turner," he said faintly.
"-is the exact reason why we need to-"
Remus was interrupted by a rather large bang. Everyone's eyes went to the ceiling.
"It's not any of the kids," Moody growled. "Different one. Looks like a Malfoy."
Another bang sounded, this time followed by a sharp, but muffled curse. Everyone shared a quick glance and soundlessly stood up, pulling out their wands.
Dumbledore followed behind everyone. Only his wand remained in his robes. He was smiling serenely, as though he was simply being shown a rather interesting portrait, not a possible invasion of their secret headquarters.
As they reached the drawing-room upstairs, everyone waited at the door.
"He's just looking around," Moody reported. "He doesn't have a wand with him."
Sirius moved to the front. "Then it's good to go in and see what Draco Malfoy is doing in my house then."
Scorpius stood up, feeling woozy. He looked around the office, only he was pretty sure this wasn't what Mr. Potter's office looked like. The window was the same, but everything else reminded him of… well, he wasn't sure. Suddenly, Scorpius stubbed his toe rather hard on a chair leg. He screamed out a curse his dad would have killed him for saying and tears gathered in his eyes. That had stung. Gingerly, Scorpius felt his toe. It wasn't broken, but it was definitely bruised.
Suddenly the door burst open. Scorpius whirled around.
"Albus-" he froze. "You're not Albus."
The man - Sirius Black, his mind supplied - was holding a wand out and looked to be moments away from using it. Behind Sirius was a whole group of people. Some he recognized, others he didn't. Most of them were dead.
"What are you doing here, Malfoy?" Sirius demanded. "Did your father send you here to do his dirty work?"
Scorpius furrowed his brow. What did - oh. They thought he was his dad.
"I'm sorry? I didn't mean to be here. I think the-"
"Shut up," Sirius hissed, moving forward menacingly.
"I'm not Draco!" Scorpius shouted.
That made Sirius stop and tilt his head, though the wand was still pointed at Scorpius.
"Then who are you exactly?" the man with the crazy eye asked.
"I'm Scorpius. I think… I think I've time travelled here," he mumbled, pacing, but still keeping a wary eye on the wand Sirius was keeping trained on him.
"And what exactly makes you think that?" a man with greasy hair drawled. Severus Snape. One of his best friend's namesakes.
Scorpius considered the question for a moment. He didn't want to give anything away, so best be vague. "The room is completely different, plus I accidentally broke a time-turner modified to go back years, not hours."
"And how exactly did you come across a time-turner like that?" a man with greying hair and an overall shabby air about him asked sceptically. The man was standing next to a woman with bubblegum pink hair. Scorpius was reminded of Teddy very vividly. These two must be his parents.
"It wasn't mine. I just found it and was bringing it up to the office so an adult could give it back to the ministry or something," Scorpius said cryptically. "I still have it." He shoved his hand out into the air and opened the palm, revealing the crushed necklace and a few small cuts, no doubt from the glass.
An old man with long silver hair came forward from the back. Everyone parted ways for him. Scorpius stayed still as Albus Dumbledore, the Albus Dumbledore, came forward to inspect the shattered remains of the time-turner.
After a moment, Dumbledore turned towards Sirius and the rest of what Scorpius was only now realizing was the Order of the Phoenix.
"I believe that Scorpius is telling the truth, however, we are in dangerous times, and as such, cannot rely on the word of anyone. Severus, do you have any veritaserum on hand?" Dumbledore asked.
Truth serum. They wanted him to take truth serum. That was all well and good until someone asked him if they won the war or something. That wouldn't end well. Too much knowledge would ruin everything.
"Um, I understand why you want me to take that, but surely you can tell I'm not Draco Malfoy and that I did time travel without it. I don't want to give anything away," Scorpius said nervously.
Dumbledore smiled at him and pushed Sirius' wand down. "Do put that away. He's not armed, as Alastor has already confirmed. And Scorpius, while it is quite clear you are not Mr. Malfoy, we must take every precaution. I will ensure no one asks anything too… revealing."
Scorpius nodded his thanks.
"Why don't we head downstairs while Severus fetches the veritaserum," Mrs. Weasley said, and it was Mrs. Weasley, just younger than Scorpius had ever seen her.
"A wonderful idea, Molly. Then we can have Scorpius here get his hand checked up on. It seems he may have injured it with his broken time-turner," Dumbledore said. "Scorpius, if you could hand me the parts to your time-turner, I may be able to fix it with patience and a few days."
Scorpius shrugged. "Sure." He dropped the broken parts into Dumbledore's waiting palm. "It's sharp though, as proven by the cuts all over my hand."
Dumbledore smiled. "I'm sure I'll alright."
They all went downstairs, and Scorpius was fairly sure everyone was keeping a close eye on him. He didn't really blame them. In this time his dad was a pretty big supporter of Voldemort, and he may not have given his last name, but anyone with half a brain would be able to tell he was a Malfoy, and being a Malfoy meant being a supporter of Voldemort.
They arrived in the kitchen within a minute. It was way different than the kitchen Scorpius was used to. Instead of being warm, cheery, and comfortable, it was dark, dank, and dreadful.
Scorpius took a seat almost automatically and set his hand on the table palm up. It really wasn't that bad. A few small cuts and a little blood. Nothing a few simple spells couldn't fix.
Everyone else took a seat, keeping wary eyes trained on him. Scorpius tried not to let it bother him and waited patiently as Mrs. Weasley healed his hand. It only stung a little.
After a few minutes of silence, Snape came back into the room holding a vial filled with a clear potion. Veritaserum. Completely odourless and tasteless. Scorpius had had to write a paper on it before third year was over.
"Ah, I see you have it ready, Severus. Now, I will be doing the questioning. Scorpius, if you would drink it please?"
Scorpius took the vial from Snape's outstretched hand and pulled the cork out before downing it in one gulp. May as well get it over with now rather than dragging it out.
The potion left him with a strange tingling feeling in his brain. He was smart enough to know the feeling meant it was working. And also smart enough to realize the amount he was given wouldn't last very long. They would begin questioning him right away.
"Now, what is your full name?" Dumbledore asked.
Scorpius knew the question wouldn't be good for him. It was exactly the type of question he'd been trying to avoid, but he also knew that if they were to trust him, they'd need to know who he was. And ask the right questions.
"Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy," he answered.
Dumbledore hummed and held a hand up to silence the beginning murmurs. "And how exactly did you end up here, Mr. Malfoy?"
"I was bringing the time-turner up to Mr. Potter's office."
The murmurs began again. This time, Dumbledore did nothing to dispel them. Merely tilted his head as if considering something.
"What year are you from?" Dumbledore asked.
"2020," Scorpius answered dutifully.
"Do you mean us any harm while you are here? What is your goal?"
"No. I just want to get back to my time."
"Are you an enemy of the Order of the Phoenix, or a friend?"
"Friend."
Dumbledore nodded. "One last question, Mr. Malfoy. You called out my name when we first entered; why?"
Scorpius furrowed his brows in confusion. Oh, Dumbledore's first name was Albus. They thought he'd meant Dumbledore, not Albus Potter. "I didn't call out your name."
Dumbledore chuckled. "A friend named Albus? What a small world."
Scorpius didn't answer. He could feel the fuzziness surrounding his brain starting to go away already. He hoped no one put together that he'd said he was returning the time-turner to Mr. Potter's office and his friend named Albus was with him. That would be hard to explain. Though judging by the sly look Dumbledore was giving him, he'd already figured it out. And it seemed like the others weren't far from reaching the same conclusion.
The fuzziness finally disappeared, which meant that the veritaserum had worn off.
Scorpius shook his head to clear his mind. "How long will it take to fix the time-turner and send me back?" he asked.
"It should only be a week," Dumbledore promised. "But assuming your surprise at not seeing your friend, it may be sooner. Someone may come back for you."
"Yeah, hopefully," Scorpius muttered. "So, where will I be staying?"
"Molly, Sirius, would it be too much trouble to impose another houseguest on you?"
Mrs. Weasley shook her head. "I'll have him room with Ron and Harry."
"Well, he did say he was on our side under veritaserum," Sirius smirked. "I'm sure he won't be too much trouble."
"Perfect! You have your answer, Mr. Malfoy," Dumbledore said. "Now, we need to continue this meeting. Remus, would you mind bringing Mr. Malfoy upstairs and telling the children what's going on? It wouldn't do to have them assume he is Draco Malfoy. You do bear an absolutely uncanny resemblance to your father."
"Yeah, I get that a lot." Scorpius stood up and started to follow Teddy's dad out the door. "Thanks, all."
The kitchen door slammed shut behind him.
"So, friends with a Potter?" Remus asked. "Times must be very different."
Of course, Teddy's dad would figure it out. "Yeah. They are. I can't say much more than that. I don't want to ruin anything."
"I understand that," Remus replied.
The rest of the walk up the stairs and down the hallway was silent. Scorpius considered telling Remus he knew which room Harry and Ron would be staying in (and he should, after all of Mr. Weasley's complaining and jokes about it), but he figured he wouldn't want to enter it without someone being there to explain that he wasn't an intruder.
"Right in there," Remus said, gesturing to a plain door. "I expect they're all awake and talking. I'll be right behind you to explain what's going on to them."
Scorpius took the door handle and nervously pushed it open. He took a step in and was met with familiar faces, although all were much younger than he was used to seeing. They were all staring at him, frozen. Finally, Ron took a step forward.
"Malfoy," he growled. "What are you doing here?"
Scorpius held his hands up. "I'm not who you think I am!" he cried.
"Oh yeah?" a man he recognized as a younger George Weasley asked, cracking his knuckles menacingly.
"Then who are you?" asked the duplicate of George, scowling. Actually, Scorpius wasn't sure which was which. He'd never met Fred before and George wasn't missing an ear. There was no way to tell them apart.
Hermione, Harry, and Ginny were glaring at him. It was actually quite disconcerting to be the focus of such negative attention from people he was used to acting kind to him, or in Ron's case, tolerant. At Hogwarts, he could deal with it, especially since he always had friends like Rose and Albus. Here there was no one. Suddenly, Scorpius was very, very lonely.
"Calm down," Remus ordered, stepping into the room. "This is not Draco Malfoy."
"I am two years younger than him right now. I should hope I'm not," Scorpius muttered.
Everyone froze again. This time their confusion was evident.
"Well, who is he then?" Hermione asked. "And why does he look so much like Draco?"
"That is a long story. This is Scorpius Malfoy. He's from the future," Remus said. "There was an accident with a time-turner and he ended up years in the past."
"So Draco is your dad?" Ginny asked suspiciously.
Scorpius sighed. "Yeah, he's my dad."
"Then why did you travel back year here and not in Malfoy Manor?" Hermione asked. "And for that matter, how did a time-turner send you back years? That shouldn't be possible."
"I was here in the future," Scorpius retorted. "And this was a special time-turner. It wasn't actually mine. It fell out of Mr. Potter's coat pocket, so I was putting it in his office when I tripped and it broke."
"Mr. Potter?" Harry finally spoke. "Why would you call me Mr. Potter?"
Scorpius raised an eyebrow. "Um, because it's respectful? My dad would be furious if I was rude to his friend." And Scorpius knew better than to be causing trouble, but he really didn't like all the suspicion being directed at him. This might get them to leave him alone. And he couldn't stop talking when he was nervous. Plus it was kind of funny. Geez, he'd been hanging around James too much.
"His friend!" Ron screeched. "Malfoy and Harry are friends?"
Harry looked stricken. "I'm just as surprised as you are!" he shouted.
"To be fair," Scorpius began. "You didn't just become friends by choice. It was more me and your son being friends that forced you to be friends with him."
"Should you just be giving information about the future like this?" Hermione asked. At the same time, Ron shouted: "Harry, you let your son be friends with a Slytherin Malfoy!"
Harry's mouth was still dropped open, and he didn't respond to Ron's shouting.
"Probably not," Scorpius agreed amicably. "But I'm sure Dumbledore will perform a memory charm or something. If he doesn't after I get home, the future of the wizarding world as I know it is in danger. Bad things happen to wizards who mess with time. Also, I'm not Slytherin. I'm Ravenclaw."
"A Malfoy in Ravenclaw?" one of the twins asked.
"Now we've seen everything," the other finished.
"Gee, thanks," Scorpius said, voice dripping sarcasm. "You guys are worse than James and Fred."
The twins looked at each other in confusion.
"I'm Fred," said one.
Scorpius waved his hand. "Not you. Albus' cousin Fred. George's son."
"I named my son after my brother?" asked the other twin, Scorpius would assume he was George. "Why would I do that?"
Scorpius' mind raced. Giving away some things wouldn't hurt much if he was careful, but a warning about a death was just plain taboo. "A bet, I think. Or that's what Albus told me."
"You mean Dumbledore?" Harry asked.
"No. I mean my friend, Albus Potter, your son."
"I named my son after Dumbledore?" Harry sounded surprised.
"And your other son James, plus your daughter Lily."
"Perhaps you should stop talking now," Remus suggested. "We don't want to give too much away about the future."
"Sorry," Scorpius apologized. "When I get nervous I talk a lot. Albus tells me I don't have a filter."
"I'll say," Ginny agreed. "It's kind of strange, to see someone who could be Draco Malfoy acting so…"
"Normal? Not high-and-mighty?" Scorpius suggested. "I get that a lot. Albus kind of does too, because he's, well, you know, Harry Potter's son. I think a lot of the people you went to school with had a heart attack over his name."
"What's so surprising about his name?" Hermione asked.
And foot, mouth. Scorpius would have to learn to shut up sometime. He flinched. "It's his middle name people are surprised by. You named him Albus Severus Potter."
"You what!" Ron screeched.
And the end! Sorry for the abrupt ending. My muse ran out and I figured why not leave it open. You can decide what happens next. Does Scorpius make it home? Do they remember his visit? Does Dumbledore wipe their memories? Thanks for reading and don't forget to leave a comment telling me what you think.
Quick note, while I enjoyed the Cursed Child, I didn't like a ton about it, so hello my own canon. The events of the cursed child never happened, and Albus stayed close to his father after being sorted into Slytherin. Scorpius was put in Ravenclaw because why not, and also because he seems smart enough for it.
It's a one-shot, so please don't ask me to continue it. What's done is done. End of story. Have a nice day!