Scorpius walked into Harry Potter's office, wary of the urgency in the voice of the stag patronus he'd received moments earlier.
"Ah, Scorpius, good, you're here," Harry said, seated behind his desk. He gestured for Scorpius to take the empty seat next to Ron Weasley.
Scorpius sat down and watched his father-in-law swallow audibly and Harry take off his glasses and rub the bridge of his nose before putting them back on.
"Er, sir, what's going on?" Scorpius asked tentatively.
Harry sighed. "We have a new case to check out." He tossed a fat file on his desk in front of Scorpius. Scorpius picked it up and his eyes widened as he read it.
"There's been an outbreak of attacks on muggleborns and so-called blood traitors," Harry said. "They all have the same markings on them when they were found, mostly by muggle police. They didn't understand how they'd died. But that's understandable; the Killing Curse leaves no trace. Every single victim had a mark on them, though. It was a skull with a snake coming out of the mouth." Harry took a breath. "It looked way too much like the Dark Mark to be a coincidence. We've been thinking, and we've come to the conclusion that they are most likely a recently founded group of Voldemort supporters, radicals."
Scorpius nodded, looking at the pictures of the victims. They were bloodied, and grotesque. Every single victim's eyes were open and staring at the camera. They all had a huge skull with a slithering snake peeking out of the mouth tattooed and painted on the victim's chest. It was horrifying.
"I don't really need to explain what we need to do," Harry said. "Ron and I are putting a team together to work on this. We need to keep it quiet. I want you to take a look at this file and try to get some ideas. We need to know where they're coming from, how many there are, what they're purpose is, the usual. Keep it under wraps. The family will obviously know, but try not to scare them, just make them more aware. We're all targets in this," Harry said and Ron nodded gravely, thinking of before. "Tell Rose, but don't scare her. The Malfoys are sure to be big targets with these guys, since you've changed your beliefs since the war immeasurably."
"Rose! Mia! Cassie! Kate!" Scorpius called to his four favorite girls, taking off his coat in the entry way and dropping his briefcase on the little bench.
"Daddy!" Kate's voice rang down the stairs.
"We're up here!" Rose called.
Scorpius grinned and ran up the stairs into the bathroom, where Rose had three little girls in the bathtub, covered in soap, though probably not as covered in bubbles and as drenched as Rose was.
She was dripping wet and pouting, trying to control a smile from escaping her lips. But she eventually caved and was laughing, their three daughters cackling along with her.
"Hey, honey," Scorpius walked over and kissed Rose quickly, ending up with bubbles all over him. "Girls," Scorpius tried to frown but couldn't do it.
"Daddy, we had a bubble fight!" Cassie said.
"They poured water all over me," Kate pouted, looking exactly like a much younger version of her mother with sopping wet red hair, big blue eyes, and pouting lips.
"That's kind of the point of a bath, sweetheart," Scorpius ruffled his youngest daughter's hair, making her giggle and reach for him. Scorpius went to pick her up and out of the bath but Rose moved in to block.
"Uh-oh, no you don't," she said. "You haven't finished your bath yet, missy."
"I'm done!" Mia stood up and got out of the tub once she had gained her mum's approval.
Rose wrapped a towel around her. "Will you finish bathing Cassie and Kate? I promised Mia I'd help her find her favorite PJs," Rose asked him.
"Sure," Scorpius nodded.
"We're going to find the daisy pajamas!" Mia exclaimed, beaming. They were her favorite pajamas and they had daisies all over them, hence why she'd dubbed them the daisy pajamas. Mia absolutely loved daisies. They were her favorite flowers. She'd found them in the garden at the Burrow and Rose had weaved her a wreath of daisies to put on her head as a crown. Ever since then, Mia squealed with delight when she saw them. It was like Rose was with pansies.
Scorpius washed Cassie's and Kate's hair and finished up their bath. He got them into bed and they were fast asleep almost instantaneously. Kate was curled up around her stuffed dragon that Charlie had given her when she was born, in her crib, and Cassie was lying on the bottom bunk beneath Mia, sucking her thumb, while Mia was sprawled out across the twin bed in her usual restless sleep.
Scorpius snuck downstairs and joined Rose on the couch. She was flipping channels on the TV and he snuck in and pressed his lips onto hers, giving her a thorough 'thank God I'm home and thank God you're here' kiss.
"So, how was your day?" Scorpius asked. Rose sighed and snuggled into her husband's chest as he wrapped an arm around her and stole the remote.
"I finally broke this curse around Anne Boleyn's gravestone. Tomorrow the historians and a few of the curse breakers are going to tear apart some history so that they can discover whether or not she was a real witch or someone else just put some curses around her grave." Rose huffed. She enjoyed discovering everything that had happened, but she hated how they had to destroy a few things to find the knowledge. "You?"
Scorpius blew out a breath. "New case. A group of possible Death Eaters are attacking muggleborns and 'blood traitors', leaving a crude imitation of the Dark Mark behind on their victims. Apparently we're targets now, since the Malfoys changed so much. Your dad and uncle briefed me. They're putting together a team and apparently I'm the first recruit."
"Congrats on getting on the case, but that absolutely blows about the people who died," Rose said. "Do you think you'll catch them?" Rose had learned over the six years since they'd had Mia how to pretend that the awful things Scorpius's job dealt with didn't affect her. She knew how to make it appear that she wasn't cringing and feeling sick to her stomach inside behind the façade. It helped her cope with the fact that her husband was surrounded by danger everyday.
Scorpius shrugged. "I haven't really gotten a chance to look over the file yet. I'm going to start doing that tomorrow at work."
"What time are you going in?"
"About eight-ish."
"Ish?" Rose raised her eyebrows suggestively and moved to straddle her husband.
Scorpius groaned and his lips delved onto her neck. Rose's head lolled back. "Ugh, why don't we do this more often?" she asked.
Scorpius chuckled and looked up at her. "You're really asking that? There are three reasons. And their names are Hermia, Cassiopeia, and Katharine."
"And they're all asleep upstairs," Rose argued, smiling.
"They are also all accidental products of just what we're about to do now," Scorpius reminded her. "I think we have some fertility issues."
Rose made a face. "Ew. That word is icky."
Scorpius grinned. "What word? Fertility?" Rose made another face. "Oh, so it grosses you out?" Scorpius raised his eyebrows and started tickling Rose.
"Stop, stop, stop!" Rose giggled, kicking.
"Fertility, fertility, fertility!" Scorpius chanted, tickling Rose more and more, her squeals and giggles getting louder and louder.
"I guess this is the wrong time to drop in on your guys?" Albus's voice floated to them from the fireplace.
Scorpius and Rose looked up and hastily jumped away from each other.
"Hey, Al," Rose smiled and looked at her favorite cousin and other best friend. "What's up? It's kind of late to be flooing, ain't it?"
Scorpius chuckled. "Your grammar has gotten so bad, Rose."
Rose stuck her tongue out at him and turned back to Al. "What's going on?"
"I wanted to see if you guys and my favorite goddaughters were coming to my match this Friday," Al said.
"Yeah, we'll be there," Scorpius said immediately.
"They're James's goddaughters, too, and Lily's, and Victoire's," Rose reminded him before adding, "And do we ever miss a match?"
"Well, there was the time when Cassie was born, and the time when Mia got the chicken pox, and the time when-"
"Yeah, yeah, we got it," Rose interrupted. "You don't have children so you don't understand."
Al scoffed. "I love my girls, but that doesn't mean I want to clean up their sick or handle their temper tantrums. I just get to spoil them."
Rose rolled her eyes. "Yes, and spoil them you do. But, for the record, Kate has had one tantrum so far in her entire two years and Mia hasn't had a temper tantrum for almost a year."
"Cassie?" Al asked.
"Well, you know her," Scorpius said. "I don't believe she's ever had a tantrum."
"Anyways," Al cut in, "before you start ranting about your children…you're coming to the game?"
"Yes, we're coming," Rose said, exasperated. "And the rest of the family?"
Al grinned. "Every single one of the rambunctious Weasleys, Lupins, Potters, and various families our cousins have married into."
"Speaking of marriage," Rose started and Al rolled his eyes, "met any nice girls lately?"
"Rose," Al sighed, exasperated.
Rose's eyes lit up. "I know this really nice girl, Heather, she'd be perfect for you!"
Al groaned. "Merlin, Rose! I swear, you and my mum have met every girl in London and want to set me up with each and every one of them!"
"Actually Al, she lives in Bath, hate to break it to you," Rose smirked. "And you just like going to pubs with all the guys on the team and leaving with a different girl every night."
Scorpius sat back on his heels, officially exiting the conversation. He knew where this one was going.
"Rose, do not set me up with anyone! And I do not leave with a different girl every night! And for your information, I've already met someone. Well, re-met someone. I've been seeing her for the past three months, so give it up already, Rose!"
Or maybe he didn't know.
"You met someone?" Rose gasped. "Who is she? Tell me!"
Al chuckled. "Nope, I'm just going to let you stew about it. I'll see you guys on Friday." Al's head disappeared from the fireplace.
Rose 'hmphed' and crossed her arms. "I can't believe he's not going to tell me."
"Hmm, I'm not surprised," Scorpius said, making his way over to his wife. "Where were we?" he asked, kissing along her jaw.
"Actually, Scorp, you were tickling me, not trying to seduce me."
Scorpius smirked. "Do I really need to try?"
"God! Why is it that every time I come into this house you two are doing something like this!" Draco Malfoy shouted, horrified, as he walked through the front door.
Rose screamed and darted to the side, away from view, like she did every time this happened.
"It might not happen if you actually knock when you come over," Scorpius said dryly.
Draco rolled his eyes. "Scorpius, we need to talk." Draco's voice was so deadly serious that Scorpius actually felt nervous. Draco was paler than normal and he looked like he hadn't slept or shaved in weeks. "It's about your uncle."
"I don't have an uncle," said Scorpius, utterly confused.
Draco slapped a picture down on the coffee table, in front of Rose and Scorpius.
Rose felt dizzy as she looked at all the blood, the distorted figure of Lucius Malfoy. Scorpius grabbed her elbow to steady her and wrapped his other arm around her waist, even as he was close to vomiting.
"What happened?" he finally asked.
"Supposedly a suicide," Draco said, desperately trying to keep his voice calm, and not to betray any emotion. "But some things don't line up. And we think we know who it was."
All of a sudden, Scorpius realized that the idea that Malfoys were targets for any sort of crime made a lot more sense.