September 1st, 2047

It was raining the day Scorpius met death. He was hurrying along in his too-small car in hopes of reaching King's Cross station on time. Late again, but this time because his grandson refused to eat his breakfast, and Scorpius was the only one awake to force it down his throat. That little lad had to learn sooner or later that eating wasn't just for pleasing Papa and Nana Malfoy.

At 41, he was much too young to be a grandfather, and much too young to die.

However, his daughter Bryony had went and shagged the Scamander kid, Shylock, and gotten pregnant all at 16. Lord, was she turning into one of those spoilt Muggle American girls. Where he and Rose went wrong with that one, they did not know, but at least their son Basil was turning out to be a proper gentleman. Scorpius's father and grandfather were at least pleased that one of his children was a model heir.

And that day, as he was sitting at a traffic light, waiting for it to change, he turned right instead of left, as he should have, and his car was hit by an on-coming truck.

There was a light that shined all around him, yet was placed kilometres away. He supposed that it was only the shadows playing tricks on him that made it seem as if he was surrounded by the blissful glow. How long had it been since he had seen anything but the darkness? Perhaps a few moments, or perhaps not. It felt as if eternity had passed by without knowledge of anything but black.

The darkness had enveloped him; consumed him. Despair replaced the breath in his lungs, and his heart pumped the tar of misery.

But the speck of light… it washed over him and cleansed his soul. The heavenly body freed him from the chains of woe. Pleasure eradicated pain, and there was nothing but peace.

And that day, as he was sitting at a traffic light, waiting for it to change, he turned left instead of right, as he was prepared to, and he made it to King's Cross with moments to spare.

Later that day

His compartment window was open on purpose. Technically, it was very against the rules, but he was too distraught to care, and blew his fag nonetheless. If anyone caught him smoking, Rose would kill him. He told her he'd quit months ago, yet here he was, taking another drag.

Just what had happened earlier was a mystery, but Scorpius's head hurt profusely. All he could remember was nothing, then all at once, he was back in his car. When he tried to think about it, a little voice rang inside his head telling him to stop thinking so hard. It sounded like Al.

It was also against the rules to drink. Scorpius took a swig of Firewhiskey from the rules to drink. Rose would find a way to resurrect him, then kill him all over again if she caught him smoking and drinking. But if she knew a way to resurrect people, then ‒

"Dammit!" He had just put out the fifth cigarette of the day and was reaching for another when he realised he had no more left.

Why couldn't he have just died?

You were saved for a reason, said the voice that sounded like Albus.

"Yeah, and what reason would that be? So I could be tortured some more?" Scorpius knew he was insane. He'd been crazy since that day; he was just really good at hiding it from the rest of the world.

No, the voice replied. So you could meet him.

"Who the hell‒?"

A little boy opened the door and looked at him with large, curious eyes. "Professor…" he began quietly, and Scorpius realised he did not recognise him.

Quickly straightening his appearance, Scorpius smiled at him. "Yes, my boy?"

The boy blushed and averted his eyes. "Um… I was wondering… can I sit in here with you? I… everywhere else is full, and‒"

"You don't have to explain," Scorpius said and patted the seat across from him. "Come on in and sit down."

Nervously, he followed Scorpius's orders and settled himself in the seat. The boy was looking anywhere but at him.

"You're a first year, aren't you?" Scorpius asked him politely, to which he nodded. "Well, my name is Professor Malfoy, and I'm your Potions teacher." Putting his hand forward so the other could grab it, Scorpius waited for him to respond.

"M'name's Albus Potter, sir."