Scorpius awoke to tapping on the window. He rose from the guest bed and froze when he looked out the window. His grandmother's Tawny owl sat perched outside, a letter in its beak. It took him a moment to realize he was not at home. He was at the Weasley's, and the letter from his grandmother could only mean one thing.

He forced himself to the window. The owl flew inside and landed on the bedside table, dropping the letter onto it. Dreading every sentence, Scorpius opened it.

Dearest Scorpius,

You father has informed me of your relations with the Weasley girl. You, of course, know the nature of her bloodline and should thus understand your family's concern.

In light of these events, I have had the unfortunate duty of locking your Gringotts account. You will not be able to withdraw from it without the presence of me or your mother or father.

Rest assured I understand the furrows of youthful love and know how easily it can cloud one's judgment. Please respond so we can clear up this regrettable matter.

Sincerely, your grandmother,

Narcissa Malfoy

Scorpius sighed. She was ever proper. He had just taken out a quill and some parchment when there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," he said.

Rose peeked her head in as he knew she would. "Ready for breakfast?" Her eyes went to the quill in his hand and her smile dropped. "What's going on?"

He smiled weakly at her. "My grandmother locked my account."

"Oh." She walked toward him and looked down at the letter on his desk.

"You won't like it," he said, but he handed it to her anyway. He turned to compose his response as she read.

Dearest grandmother,

Thank you for your kind concern. Let me put you at ease and assure you that I am not ill, deranged, or in any way mentally compromised. Rose and I have been dating happily since late April and I have every intention of continuing our relationship. This is not subject to change due to any displeasures my family might carry or enforce.

Thank you for informing me regarding my Gringotts account. I will make a point not to stop there when visiting Diagon Alley this August. To ease your worries regarding my mode of living, I would have you know the Weasleys have graciously offered their home to me. You need not worry about me wanting for anything.

Send my regards to my parents.

All my love, your grandson,

Scorpius Malfoy

He looked up at Rose as he finished.

"I'm so sorry, Scorpius," she said. "I feel like this is my fault."

He shook his head as he stood up to give the letter to his grandmother's owl. "Don't worry about it."

She said nothing as he as he closed the window, the owl having flown from the room.

"So," he said, forcing a smile. He slid his hand in hers and the frown on her face gently turned upward. "How about breakfast?"


Breakfast was similar to dinner the night before, with Mr. Weasley sending unhappy glances toward Rose and Scorpius. However, it seemed Mrs. Weasley had separated her husband from his wand, so Rose and Scorpius didn't have to worry about receiving any magical outbursts from it.

After breakfast, Hugo challenged Scorpius to a game of Wizard Chess. Scorpius had played chess with his father many times and considered himself a good player, but he was utterly humbled when Hugo beat him in less than two minutes on the first game.

"That's my boy!" cried Mr. Weasley triumphantly.

Scorpius didn't miss Rose's hurt glance at her father.

"Darling," said Mrs. Weasley. "Why don't you help me with the dishes?" She pulled her husband out of the room before he could reply.

Scorpius played several more games with Hugo, all of which he lost miserably.

"I could slow up a bit," Hugo suggested. "I don't really get to play anyone besides dad." He shrugged sadly. "I know it's not fun to lose constantly."

"Oh, no," said Scorpius smiling. It was frustrating in part, but he could tell it meant a lot to Hugo to have someone else to play against. "I like a good challenge."

Rose rubbed his shoulder appreciatively.

After Scorpius suffered through a few more lost games, Rose dragged him out of the house for a walk around the neighborhood.

"It's mostly muggle families," she explained as they walked hand and hand down the sidewalk. "But there's a good number of wizarding families here too. Mom wanted us to grow up with an understanding of both cultures."

"Does the Ministry of Magic ever show up?" Scorpius asked, imagining all the chaos that could ensue with wizarding families trying to grow together yet live in secret within a muggle community."

"Very rarely," said Rose. "For the most part, the muggles here are used to 'strange things' happening." She chuckled. "When I was five, I made a flower bloom in front of our neighbor down the street. She just shook her head and kept on walking."

Scorpius laughed.

They made it to the playground at the back of the neighborhood, and they talked and played on the swings. Then they headed back home for lunch.


Scorpius had heard stories of Harry Potter, of course. Every witch and wizard knew the legend of the baby who Lord Voldemort couldn't kill and who grew up to later defeat the same Dark Lord at the age of seventeen. With all of that, Scorpius would never have imagined just how normal Harry Potter really seemed.

Scorpius hardly ate anything the whole time the Potter and Weasley families sat down to lunch. He was too mesmerized by this man who was so absolutely famous and yet so absolutely just another dad. Upon sitting down to eat, Mr. Potter chided his two sons for greeting their Aunt and Uncle with a spray of confetti. "No wands at the table!"

Though James and Al had to hand over their wands, everyone laughed. Even Mrs. Weasley, who had to wipe confetti squares off the lunch meat, laughed. Scorpius could tell the Weasleys and Potters genuinely enjoyed each other's company. It was like the two families were really one, separated only by last names.

"Scorpius!" greeted Al, embracing him. Scorpius and Al had become rather good friends in the past few months, and Scorpius greeted him back just as enthusiastically.

Once the rambunctiousness and general joy of seeing everyone again had died down, everyone finally started passing around the food to eat. The majority of the conversation consisted of the adults catching up whatever they had missed since they had last seen each other. Scorpius would have been glad to not be the subject of Mr. Weasley's attention for once had he not been so mesmerized by how un-legendary Mr. Potter seemed. Eventually he remembered he was hungry and looked down to find that Rose had made his sandwich for him.

She smiled. "Typical reaction from everyone who meets my uncle." She looked uncertainly at his sandwich. "You like mustard, right?"

He smiled, nodded, and kissed her forehead in gratitude. He took a bite of turkey sandwich and busied himself by talking with Rose and Al. Eventually Mr. and Mrs. Potter got to asking him questions, such as how he was doing with school and how he was enjoying his stay with the Weasley's. Scorpius was grateful they avoided asking him about his family or Rose.

When lunch ended, the adults left the table to sit and talk in the living room. Scorpius, Al, and Rose went to the guestroom to swap stories of their summer. Lily, James, and Hugo left to hang out in the yard.

For Scoripus it was like being back at Hogwarts, surrounded by his friends and oblivious to his family's drama. But then, after what hadn't seemed like very long but what really must have been a couple hours, Mr. Potter knocked on the bedroom door. "Sorry, but could I borrow Scoripus for a minute?"

Scorpius looked uncertainly at Rose who smiled at him in encouragement.

He reluctantly left his friends and followed Mr. Potter downstairs and out into the back yard. Hugo, Lily, and James had left the area and were supposedly wondering the neighborhood.

"I apologize for dragging you away," said Mr. Potter. "But I didn't want to put pressure on you at lunch by bringing up the conversation then."

"I appreciate that, sir." Scorpius said, truly grateful. He could all too easily imagine the eyes of both families on him while he answered questions regarding his relationship with Rose.

"However," Mr. Potter continued. "Before we get to the topic at hand, I want to talk about your parents."

Scorpius felt his stomach drop. He would have rather talked about Rose.

"Hermione told me you were . . ." he paused, looking for a gentle word to use.

"Disowned." Scorpius finished for him.

He nodded. "I suppose you know I went to school with your father."

Scorpius nodded back. His father had told him stories about how the famous Harry Potter was not everything the legend jacked him up to be, though he had always wondered as to the validity of some of those stories.

"I don't know how much you were told," Mr. Potter continued, "but your family was there at the Battle of Hogwarts."

Scorpius nodded again. He hadn't heard any stories about that day from his father, but he knew his father had been there.

"Your grandparents denied Voldemort for you father," Mr. Potter said. "They refused to help Voldemort because they cared more about their family being safe than about anything else Voldemort could have promised them."

Scorpius had heard nothing about this. He wanted more details, but he suspected Mr. Potter was being vague on purpose.

"It's a situation that should be discussed with your father," Mr. Potter said, noticing Scorpius' interest. "But I wanted to tell you I have personally seen that your family cares more for each other than anything else in the world. Right now they are falling back on values of tradition and bloodlines. But that won't hold out forever. They care about you very much, and they aren't going to let you be separated from them for long. They will come along, you'll see."

Scorpius turned away from Mr. Potter to hide his emotion. He knew his parents cared for him, but he also knew their devotion to tradition. It was hard for him to see which value would win out in the end, but Mr. Potter's speech had given him hope. "Thank you," he said.

Scorpius felt a hand fall on his shoulder. "When you are ready," said Mr. Potter. "We can talk about Rose."

Scorpius took a deep breath, thankful for the topic change. "I care about her a lot," he said once he'd gotten control of himself. "We've known each other since first year, and I think we were friends before we even realized it. And realizing we liked each other happened in much the same way."

Scorpius looked back at Mr. Potter, who was smiling. "I know my family history. I know the scandal that my parents see out of me and her dating. But I don't care. She means a lot to me, and I would never do anything to hurt her."

"I know." Mr. Potter patted him on the shoulder in satisfaction. "Why don't we go back inside?"

"Sir?" said Scorpius, standing his ground as Mr. Potter tried to escort him away.

"Hm?"

"I really do appreciate you taking the time to hear what I have to say, but this is a conversation I really would have rather had with her father."

"I know," said Mr. Potter again. "Believe me when I say we are working on it."


"He seems like a nice boy," Ginny was saying to Ron as Harry rejoined them after letting Scourpius back upstairs. "I don't see why you are being so stubborn."

"He's Draco Malfoy's son!" said Ron, and he sounded surprised that Ginny hadn't figured that one out. "Draco Malfoy!"

"Who was a git," said Harry, reentering the conversation. "But that doesn't mean his son has to be."

"Says the guy who named his son after Snape," said Ron. He crossed his arms. "Sorry, Harry if I don't trust your sense of judgment."

Harry had gotten a lot of flak from his Hogwarts friends for fighting to get Snape's portrait back in the Headmaster's office. And he'd gotten even more flak from his closest friends for naming Al after him. It amazed him that no matter how many times he explained why he had done it, Ron still didn't understand. Hermione at least said she understood, but judging by her tone whenever she acknowledged the middle name, Harry wasn't sure he believed her. Sometimes Harry forgot Hermione and Ron hadn't had the same experiences as he. There were some things they didn't understand, Ron especially. Whenever he remembered this, he was extremely thankful he had Ginny.

"You trust my judgment," said Hermione.

"M-most of the time," said Ron slowly and apologetically.

"His family turned against Voldemort," said Harry, trying to inject further evidence and to cut off Hermione's objection.

"Which is the only reason I haven't gone up there and ripped the two of them apart! The thought of my daughter dating the son of a Death Eater!" Ron rubbed his forehead. "Honestly, how can the three of you be okay with this?"

"Because we can't be thinking of ourselves," said Ginny. "All four of us grew up under the threat of Voldemort. We know what that's like. And we all knew Draco in one form or another. But those are our experiences, and we are not talking about us. We are talking about Rose and Scorpius. They grew up in a different world under different circumstances. We can't project our own experiences onto their situation."

Harry could have kissed her, and in fact he did.

"You should talk to him, Ron," said Ginny once Harry had extracted his lips from her cheek.

Ron sighed and looked at Harry. "What if he was dating Lily?"

"I'd be thrilled," said Harry honestly.

Ron shook his head. "You and your avocation for inter-House relations."

"Ron-" started Hermione.

"You know I have no problem with it." Ron told her. "Just why does Slytherin need to be involved?"

"So you're going to let your daughter date a Slytherin without asking him some questions first?" interjected Ginny.

"Oh, no," said Ron. "I see what you are doing. I'm not gonna fall for that one." He crossed his arms.

"You're not going to talk to him?" said Hermione. "Even though he's Slytherin?"

"No," said Ron. "I'm not."

Hermione sat back in her chair. "Then you are not worried at all about him being bad for her. Like you said, if you were worried, you wouldn't let him within an inch of her."

Ron looked at his wife, but didn't say anything.

"You're worried that the three of us are right." Hermione continued. "You are worried he might actually be good for her."


"Are you all right?" asked Scorpius once he and Rose found some time alone after the Potters had left.

She nodded, but sadly. He sat down next to her and took her hand. "What's wrong?"

"I'm really glad you got to meet my family," she said. He still didn't understand what was upsetting her.

"I'd really like to meet yours," she added.

"You will," he told her.

"But they won't want to meet me."

He hugged her because she looked near tears. He understood why it was paining her. Now that he had met her family, he understood just how close all of them were and how much they meant to her. He wished she could get to see that with his family. But it was hard, even for him, to imagine them welcoming her, though he knew it was within their power to do so.

"We'll think of something," was all he could say.