Scorpius had already gone over his Hogwarts list three times to check the content of his trunk to make sure he had everything, including some personal items which were extra special to him, such as his stuffed unicorn, which had been given to him by Astoria when he had been three, and his annotated copy of A History of Magic. He was doing this all over again to keep himself occupied so tomorrow would arrive sooner. He took a moment to place a hand over his chest to feel his heartbeats. It was still a night away but it felt like a miracle that this was finally happening, he was going to Hogwarts at last after dreaming about this day for years.
He had already had a very long conversation with his mum two hours ago, in which she had given him more hugs and kisses than he could have counted, so he was not expecting anyone when he heard a knock on his door. "Come in!" His heart skipped a beat as there could only be one other person who would seek him out at home and it had been a long while since he had had a real conversation with his dad.
Draco Malfoy walked in tentatively but unlike Astoria, who had looked so happy for Scorpius that his dream of going to Hogwarts was finally coming true, Scorpius thought his dad looked very serious, sad and perhaps a bit guilty, which confused him and gave him a bad feeling about this conversation. This reminded the boy a lot of a night three years ago when his dad had first told him about their family history in the Second Wizarding War, or more accurately, his dad had him narrated everything he had known about the War, which had taken them hours because he had already known all about the War even back then. "Scorpius, I know you must be busy packing your trunk but there is something I need to talk to you about… Could you take a seat for a moment?"
His dad had told him many times over the past few years that the students of Hogwarts might treat him differently because of his family name but Scorpius had a feeling that whatever his dad wanted to talk to him about now would be something even worse, he hoped that this had nothing to do with his mum. He would hate to leave her at this time if her illness was getting worse again, but he reminded himself that Astoria had looked as spirited as she had been for a while when he had seen her earlier.
"Sure." He dropped the spellbook he was holding before moving over to sit at the side of his bed. He gave his dad his most innocent and brightest smile, hoping that his smile could possibly wipe the terrible expression, which somehow looked even worse to Scorpius than the sad but accepting look his dad would wear when his mum got very sick, off of his dad's face. Draco let out a heavy sigh before walking over to take a seat on a chair, sitting right across from him.
"Have you gotten everything yet, Scorpius?"
It was obvious that Draco was trying to warm him up with a casual question but his voice sounded stressed and nothing casual at all, but Scorpius was more than willing to humour his dad that he mustered as much excitement as he could while worrying about what his dad would spring on him, if only to delay the inevitable bad news for a bit. "Oh, yes! I believe I have packed everything but I want to go over the list again just in case. There are so many of my favourite books that I would love to bring with me as well but I'm afraid that they may take up too much space and make the trunk too heavy an…"
"You can pack as many books as you want, son… I can cast a feather-light charm and an extension charm for you if you like."
Scorpius was somewhat shocked because being the gentleman his dad was, he had never ever interrupted anyone in front of him, including his grandfather to whom Draco barely talked to anymore, so he could not react for a moment, before he shyly nodded, "That would be really helpful, dad."
His father promptly walked over to the trunk to cast the charms and back. He sat back down and said, "There you go."
"Thank you so much, dad! This is awesome!" He gave his dad a grateful smile and allowed his mind a moment to drift away to the special shelf in the library dedicated to all of his favourite books now that he could pack every single one of them with him if he wanted, but perhaps that was not the best idea when he should be focusing on his studies in school and when he could read the many books in the Hogwarts library he had never read before.
"You're welcome." His dad gave him a weak smile that did not reach his eyes, before looking down to his lap. Even so, it was one of the few smiles Draco Malfoy had ever put on for his son, it made Scorpius happy that his father would smile to him even though he could sense Draco was trying to talk about something difficult. While his father would give his mum an affectionate smile occasionally, he had always looked solemn but gentle in front of Scorpius. The father and son had been spending a lot more time together than they had used to over the past year, in which Draco had been teaching his boy some defense spells and techniques, but still his father had rarely ever smiled even when Scorpius was able to master some harder spells. Scorpius knew that the Ministry of Magic monitored all underage magic but since he had not started at Hogwarts yet, his father had been teaching him using the loophole that his magic could be dismissed as uncontrollable magic at his age.
Draco held his wand with his right thumb and index finger while silently rotating it with his other hand. He did this for an awkward minute while Scorpius was debating if he should come up with something to say to his father. The former Death Eater wondered how he could possibly begin to tell his sweet son that he had been rumoured as the son of the Dark Lord. Unlike every other young child of the Wizarding World who would only have a vague understanding of all the terrible things Voldemort had done, his son had always been obsessed with history that he would certainly understand the gravity of this baseless rumour and would undoubtedly be deeply hurt by it. He cursed himself for his cowardice to avoid this conversation until the very last day. His boy had been glowing with joy despite having been warned about others' prejudices towards the Malfoys when he had entered, what kind of father would he be to throw cold water on his son's excitement with something so unfair and cruel. However, as terrible as this conversation was going to be, it would be crueler for Scorpius to learn about the rumour from the other children, instead of someone he trusted because Draco was certain that the other students would have learned to hate Death Eaters that they would not hesitate to weaponise their words to hurt his boy. He knew from the cautious look his son was throwing him that the boy's mood had already been dampened but this effect was nothing compared to the imminent blow he had to give.
Finally, Draco looked Scorpius in his eye and asked, "So, how do you feel about going to Hogwarts, Scorpius?"
Scorpius tried to ignore his dad's pensiveness and said, "Excited and awesome! Mum has given me a whole pouch full of Galleon for me to buy sweets, it will be awesome to share sweets with the new friends I'm going to make on the train."
Draco said carefully, "Scorpius, it sure would be lovely if you would be able to make friends on the train, but it would be entirely okay if you do not make friends right away… I mean, you can still have a good time on the train eating sweets and rereading your favourite book."
The boy's smile disappeared and his expression turned serious, he looked down before saying "I do understand that others may not like our last name, father… but it's like mum said, perhaps they would like me if I keep being friendly and if I share sweets with them?"
Draco felt his heart broke a little looking at his son. He did not want to discourage Scorpius but he really needed to manage his expectations. "Of course your mother is right, but I just don't want you to get your hopes up only to get disappointed and hurt."
"I understand, father." Draco had long noticed that his son would call him father instead of dad when he was nervous or serious around him but it was not a good time to dwell on his thoughts. He took a deep breath and said, "Listen, Scorpius, what I'm going to tell you may upset you… In fact, you have every reason to feel upset about it but there's very little you… we all can do about it. I'm really sorry about this but I have to tell you now because I do not want you to find out about it from others, who may try to hurt you with it."
"Okay… father." Scorpius looked at his father with an expectant but slightly fearful expression.
"There has been a rumour going around in the Wizarding World for the past few years about our family…" Draco had to take a deep breath before continuing, "This is completely absurd but you know that we have isolated ourselves from the outside world because of your mum's curse." His nervous boy nodded but he looked like he had trouble comprehending what he was trying to say. "They believ… think that you," Draco could not bear to deliver this news looking at the boy's wide grey eyes that he had to turn away, "they think that you are the son of… the D-Dark Lord."
A/N: This fic is sort of a sequel to my older fic "Difficult Confession" but you won't have trouble understanding this without reading that one. I had the idea to write about this because Scorpius seemed to know the rumor very well in the play for someone who had been isolated from the world his entire life. When I first conceived the idea I had wanted to write this completely in Draco's perspective but then I thought the story would be much more interesting with the POV of both father and son. This short will only have one-two more chapters and I plan to finish it within one month.
For those of you who don't know, I have been writing an on-going, books and HPCC-compliant long sequel to HPCC for almost a year called "The Other Malfoy". It focuses on Harry trying to make amends to Scorpius after separating the boys in the play, to repair his relationship with Albus, who has his own demons to conquer, and to develop a friendship with Draco after realizing their similarities. (I haven't given up on that fic but I only started working on this short because I need a break) I hope you will check my other fics out =)
Please comment because comments always make my day.
