A Love Struck Teenager

Summary: Of course his son had to fall in love with Rose Weasley. It was almost predictable.

His father was sitting behind his antique, elegant desk in his office when Scorpius finally stumbled in after a long day of shopping with his mother.

Draco looked miserably down at the papers he had been working on and sighed, giving them up as a lost cause. He knew his son well – he was incapable of bottling up his feelings and Draco had long ago learnt that he was doomed to spend the rest of his life listening to his son rant on about the irrelevant things.

(Astoria, being the insightful witch she was, had often raised a sceptical eyebrow at Draco when he complained about his sons' inability to shut up and had commented innocently on the fact that he could quite easily tell his son to leave. Draco had settled in pouty silence and yet, when Scorpius had bounced in the room later with a stories already spilling out, Draco had not said a word in protest.)

It was bordering on five minutes of silence when Draco began to get worried.

His son was one of those people that talked till someone had to put a silencio charm on him and Draco was sure he had never been this quiet for so long since...well, ever. Even as a baby he had made an unnatural amount of noise.

Sliding the papers into his draw, Draco looked sternly at his son and raised an eyebrow with a sort of elegance that came with being a Malfoy.

Scorpius Malfoy was sitting in the chair in front of his father's desk, a brooding expression on his face (accompanied with a slight frown) and his arms crossed petulantly over his chest. For a moment, Draco mused on how much they looked alike. They both had the platinum blonde hair, the high cheekbones and the aristocratic features that ran through the Malfoy line. It was almost frightening, really.

(Though they most certainly were not the same personality wise; Draco was never that annoying as a teenager.)

Then the moment passed and Draco sighed loudly, leaning back into his chair and appraising Scorpius thoughtfully.

"Scorpius."

And, although it was just one word said in a rather flat tone, it expressed a colossal amount of other things.

Scorpius frowned at his father and the fifteen year old vaguely registered that this was possibly the first time his father had initiated a conversation without Scorpius jumping on it straight away.

"Dad," Scorpius returned steadily, before sinking slightly down in the leather seat. "I need to talk to you."

"You always need to talk."

(This, both Malfoy men knew, was incredibly and undeniably true.)

Scorpius sighed – his father was not going to make this easy. "It's really, really important. Life changing. Earth shattering. An epiphany of mammoth significance. A-"

Draco raised a hand. "I've heard enough, thank you. Care to enlighten me on what was so monumental?"

Although most typical fathers would have been curious about their sons 'life changing event' Draco was hardly bothered. Almost weekly, Scorpius was ranting on about something that had 'changed his life forever' and was 'more important than the Wizarding War.'

So to say that these kinds of proclamations were regular would be an understatement.

"I think I'm in love."

That, however, was a surprise.

Draco blinked once.

Scorpius stared back.

Draco blinked again.

Scorpius began to wave a hand in front of his father's face.

"Hey, er...Dad? Are you alright?"

"You're in l-lov-love?" Draco asked, stuttering out the question. His usual refined and dignified matter had been lost in five simple words uttered by his irritating son.

Scorpius sighed in relief, obviously glad that his father had snapped out of whatever trance he had been in. "Yes," he said, flopping back down into the chair. His expression which had so far varied from confused to thoughtful had now adopted a rather sickeningly dreamy expression. Draco was horrifyingly reminded of Harry Potter, his long ago school arch nemesis, staring at the youngest Weasley girl.

"Stop looking like that!" Draco snapped, masking his terror with impatience.

Scorpius dropped the dreamy expression and cocked his head slightly to the side. "You haven't asked who?"

"I don't think I want to know."

"Dad," Scorpius reprimanded. "I'm at an impressionable age and can easily be effected for life by your comments and lack of support."

"I don't care."

Like a true teenager, Scorpius huffed indignantly at the lack of justice. "I'm in love with-"

"Hold up," Draco interrupted. "Before you say anything; is she a Potter?"

Though Draco had no particular grudge against Harry Potter anymore (they had even exchanged a few polite words when they had crossed paths in Diagon Alley) he did not want to be subjected to torturous family gatherings involving the Potter's. And apparently the youngest girl, Lily, was supposed to be rather pretty, even if she was only twelve.

Draco, who considered himself to be a rather intelligent man, missed the odd look that flashed across his sons face and the infliction in the way he slowly drawled out, "No..."

"Alright then, go on."

"It's Rose Weasley."

Draco blinked once.

Scorpius shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

Draco blinked again.

"Ro-Rose Weasley, did you say?" Draco near shouted as he stared, slack jawed at his uncomfortable looking son across from him. "Weasley's daughter?"

The venom in 'Weasley' was hard to miss. Although Draco had long ago forgiven Harry, he had never found it in himself to get over the grudge he held against Ron Weasley. Harry Potter, though fairly irritating, was a decent person and Draco could admit to that (if reluctantly.) Ron Weasley however was rude, stupid and ignorant and to find out that his son, his only son, was in love with the annoying prat's daughter came as something more than a slight shock.

"Yes, Dad," Scorpius said calmly. "I did say Rose Weasley. And if you are referring to Ron Weasley, than yes, she is his daughter."

For a moment the two of them stared at each other – Scorpius defiantly, and Draco incredulously.

Scorpius was one of those boys who was in trouble nearly constantly in trouble and Draco had long since surrendered the position of authority to Astoria. She was not swayed at all by Scorpius' sob stories and sincere-looking grey eyes which worked on most professors and (of course) Draco himself.

"It had to be Rose Weasley," Draco said flatly. "Didn't it?" Scorpius only grinned. "Alright, I know you're dying to tell me what happened."

Scorpius smiled dreamily (in a very Harry-Potter-looking-at-Ginny-Weasley way) and rested his chin in his hand. "You know how I went shopping with Mum today?"

Draco nodded. His wife had whisked away a protesting Scorpius yelling at Draco that she would be out the day and not to wait around. Draco had followed her orders willingly – pleased not to be the one at Astoria Mafloy's mercy. "Of course. We may live in a big house but anybody within a mile could hear you whining."

Scorpius glared. "I was not whining."

"Mum," Draco mimicked in a female sounding voice. "I don't want to go! Take Dad! I'm not going! Muuu-"

"Alright," Scorpius snapped. "I get it."

Draco chuckled to himself and Scorpius shifted indignantly. "You were whining and you know it."

"What did I say before about this being an impressionable age?"

"What did I say about not caring?"

Scorpius scowled. "Anyway, Mum carted me off to Diagon Alley and we had to go-" here he gave a shudder – "clothes shopping. Merlin, that was torture. Once she finished nearly buying out the whole of that ruddy men's clothes shop next to the post office she went shopping by herself and I went to the ice cream shop. And then..." Scorpius paused, to build the tension. "I saw her."

"Before you continue," Draco said mildly, "I'd rather not lose my lunch so skip the descriptions."

Scorpius ignored his father. "She was smiling at one of her cousins – the whole Weasley-Potter crowd were there – and the light was playing off her hair and..."

Draco mimed throwing up into the waste bucket beside him. "Scorp. Seriously."

"Fine," Scorpius returned, waving a hand dismissively. "So then Al saw me..." The nickname reminded Draco of the painful fact that Scorpius was indeed best friends with Harry Potter's Slytherin son. "...and then the whole lot saw me. And then Rose threw an ice cream in my face." Scorpius grinned at his father expectantly and when Draco said nothing, he raised his eyebrows. "Doesn't she sound amazing?"

For roughly thirty-two seconds Draco stared at his son as if he had two heads. In those thirty two seconds Draco realised that his son was not being sarcastic at all. He honestly thought the Weasley girl was amazing. "She...threw an ice cream at you?"

"Yeah."

Draco pursed his lips. "Why?"

"Oh," at this his son turned slightly pink. "Well, I was a bit caught up in the moment and asked her to marry me and she thought I was kidding." He grinned a bit. "She's got a temper, that one."

Oh dear.

Draco sighed wearily. "You asked her to marry you? In front of the whole Weasley clan? Are you mental, Scorpius? I always knew you were a bit off but, honestly?"

Scorpius paused, thinking intensely. "It was a bit stupid," he admitted. "James Potter hexed me before Mum came along."

"I wonder why."

Scorpius leant back into the chair, a brooding expression crossing his face. "Dad, do you think that I should ask her out – y'know properly?"

For a second his son's face faded away and all he could see was a very uncomfortable family get-together with the Malfoy family and the Weasley-Potter clan. Grimacing uglily, Draco shook his head. "No, I don't think you should."

Scorpius remained unfazed. "Well, I'm going to ask her out anyway."

"Scorpius," this time, Draco was being deadly serious. "You can ask her out. But I will disown you if you marry her. I swear."

Scorpius let out a hearty chuckle. "Dad, I'm not going to marry Rose!" He rolled his eyes. "It's not like your day. I'm sure Grandma Malfoy would have been hounding you to marry the first girl you went out with."

Draco raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "When I was a teenager, we were in the middle of a war and dating prospects were very low."

"Excuses, excuses. I bet you were a loner."

Draco examined every inch Scorpius' amused, flushed and happy face before finally sighing deeply, and reluctantly not leaping to his feet in defence of his teenage love-life (there wasn't much to defend). "Go off and tell your mother, I'm sure she'll be happy to hear that you're 'in love.'"

Scorpius leapt to his feet and bounded to the door before pausing. Looking over his shoulder at his middle aged father, he smiled. "Thanks Dad."

It was a rare moment of sincerity between the two. "That's alright."

As the door clicked shut, Draco mused idly on his son and Rose Weasley. He had no doubt that she would accept Scorpius; the boy was far too romantic for his own good. They were sure to be only a temporary couple – weren't all teenager relationships temporary? – and would probably realize in a few weeks time that they really weren't suited and break up. And then Draco wouldn't have to face Ron Weasley at all.

And, in the unlikely case that they stayed together, Scorpius would be kind enough to spare him from reuniting with Ron Weasley. He was a smart kid, in a stupid way, and knew enough about his own father to never impress that torture on him.

Sighing in contentment, Draco retrieved his papers from his drawer and began his work once more.

Everything was fine.

Dear Mr Malfoy,

My name is Rose Weasley – Scopius' girlfriend of seven months. I understand that you've been informed of our relationship, but what I was writing to request about is if you would like to attend the Annual Weasley Christmas party this year?

Mum and Dad would love to have you there and it would be a pleasure to meet you.

Attached to this is the invitation.

Sincerely,
Rose Weasley

Draco and Astoria Malfoy,
The Annual Weasley Christmas Party
(hosted by Molly and Arthur Weasley)
would be honoured by your attendance

25 December
The Burrow

Please send your R.S.V.P
to Molly Weasley
before the 20th December

We hope to see you there!

A/N: End. Draco/Scorp bonding is so cute it gives me a toothache.