Not My Father's Son
Rose was annoyed, seriously annoyed. She had just sat in the Gryffindor common room listening to her cousin Albus showing off to all the little first years, telling them the tales of the war that their parents had told them, 'inside information' as he liked to call it. Rose couldn't be doing with hearing how clever and brave her mother was, not right now, yes she loved both her parents more than anything but with OWLS looming and her barely scraping O's in half of her subjects that was not something she could deal with right now. Storming down the transfiguration corridor she burst into one of the many classrooms, praying for it not to be occupied by a kissing couple, so that she could start countering things to hex.
To her surprise and displeasure however the room was occupied though not, thankfully, by a couple. Sitting, crossed legged on the teachers desk, head hunched so that his silvery blonde hair covered his face from view, was Scorpius Malfoy.
As Rose began to slowly back out of the classroom Malfoy lifted his head, his eyes red rimmed and blotchy.
"What do you want Weasley" he said, his voice was rough and croaky, it didn't take a genius to work out that he'd been crying.
"I er- I was just... trying to find somewhere to practice some spells. Are you OK Malfoy?" Scorpius let out a cruel laugh at my last question, shaking his head before replying.
"Do I look OK Weasley?" He asked Rose, anger colouring his voice. But before Rose could even reply Scorpius was talking again "Forget it. What do you care, with your perfect family and your perfect grades and your perfect life!" Now it was Roses turn to laugh a low bitter laugh.
"You think my life's perfect?! That everything is always brilliant for me? Life is a pile of hippogriff dung Malfoy, for everyone! Some people are just better at dealing with it and covering up has badly it sucks!" Rose shouted, before taking a deep breath so as to be able to ask her next question in a somewhat calmly manner "Now are you going to tell me what's wrong or not? Because I know we're not friend but if there is anyone in this school who probably knows how you feel then it's me, we both have reputations to live up to."
Sighing in defeat Scorpius slid closer to one end of the desk, making enough room for Rose to sit next to him. Although Scorpius had never really hated Rose as his father probably would have wanted him to, he had never really talked to he much either, throughout their time at Hogwarts they had both sort of... ignored each other. Once Rose had slid comfortably next to him on the desk, her hands gripping the desks edges and her legs gently swinging, he began to explain everything to her.
"What you have to understand" Scorpius sighed as he began "is that, when I was a kid everything I did was to be like my dad, I worshipped him. And he- he always though that if I was strong and stood up for myself I would fit in, get past all the prejudice against our family. It wasn't easy to be the kind of person he wanted me to be, I had to stay on my guard all the time, I could never just relax, breath easily. I think me being the sort of person he had been when he was young must have scared him to death but... I'm not my father's son. I mean, I'm not that perfect image of what he dreamed of, someone who could wipe away all our families dirty history, I make mistakes and I do things that I regret, I'm not perfect, but he wants me to be and I can't be that person, with the strength of a giant or the patience of Dumbledore! After the war he built our family a good name, tried to undo the mistakes and crimes committed by generations of my family and I- I can't echo what he's done" Taking a deep breath Scorpius let his shoulder sag, as if with every word he was saying a weight was leaving his shoulders. Rose wanted to put her arm round him, hold his hand, comfort him in any way she could, though she didn't think Scorpius would appreciate that too much, she barely knew him after all.
Straightening his shoulders and taking another deep breath, as if he was mentally trying to pull himself together, Scorpius began to continue his tale.
"So I did my best to... I don't know, rebel? Against him? I found and escape, admittedly reading isn't much of an escape but it helped, sticking my nose in a book made the world seem brighter and I felt like I could just be me when I read. Having the constant sense of expectation looming over me just wore me down, and so here I am." He gestured around the room, letting out a cold hard laugh as he did so "When I realised that books gave me the freedom I always craved I turned my life around, became who I wanted to be" At this last comment Scorpius began to fiddle with the blue and bronze tie currently loosely knotted around this neck "and of course my father wasn't, and still isn't, too happy about that" he sighed "which... is why I'm here, he sent a not too nice letter to me this afternoon, which is currently sitting in Ravenclaw tower's fire, after I read that I just had to get out of there"
Rose looked over a Scorpius then, head bowed just like I had been when she first entered the room, more tears threatening to over flow from his eyes. Damning the consequences Rose finally plucked up the courage to slide her hand over Malfoy's.
"I'm not my mother's daughter" Rose whispers, her posture mirroring his, half hoping that Scorpius wouldn't hear her "I'm not the image of what she dreamed of in a daughter, I don't have her compassion or her brains, hell I have to spend nearly all my free time in the library just to scrape O grades just to make her proud! I can't live up to the memory of the Greatest Witch of her Age"
"We're the same" Scorpius muttered "You and me Weasley, both caught in impossible places."
"That we are Malfoy" she mumbled, letting a comfortable silence envelope them. After a few minutes Rose finally spoke "You know Malfoy, I do have a first name" Rose laughed "it's OK to call me Rose?" At this Scorpius let out a laugh as well "All right Rose, just so long as you know you're allowed to call me by my first name too."
"OK Scorpius" Rose smiled, the name felt odd on her tongue but she was sure she'd soon get used to it "And you know what..." She glanced at him sideways to see him already smiling at her, "I think that, no matter what pressures both out parents place on us, we're going to get through this, after all we've got each other now"
If you've read all the way to the end then thanks for reading :D hope you liked it, please don't be shy about checking out some of my other stories though this is my first HP one.
Disclaimer: I own nothing
This fic was inspired by a song from the Broadway musical of Kinky Boots of the same name which I urge you to go and listen to :)
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