"Scorpius!" Hermione yelled up the stairs for the third time in as many minutes as the sound of her son jumping around like a lunatic in his bedroom reverberated around the house.
Hermione was at the end of her tether with her son. Scorpius was naturally mischievous, but he was also a good kid and she never usually had any problems with him. However, for the last week he'd been an absolute terror and refused to do anything she said. When Draco was around he was an angel, but the second her husband headed off to work or was busy, their son started to act up.
When the banging from upstairs continued, Hermione stormed up the stairs to her son's bedroom. Opening the door she froze in horror at the sight that greeted her. Scorpius's toys were thrown all over the floor, rather than tucked away in their toy box as they normally were. There was also clothes strewn all over the room, and Scorpius himself was jumping up and down on his bed wearing a pair of muddy boots.
"Scorpius Malfoy, what are you doing?" Hermione yelled.
"Bouncing," Scorpius replied, not stopping jumping up and down on his bed.
"Get off that bed now," Hermione hissed. "And tidy these toys up."
"Don't want to," Scorpius answered, not making any move to get off the bed.
"Stop it now," Hermione ordered, storming into the room and gently grabbing her son by the arm so he would stop bouncing. "I don't know what's up with you lately, but it stops now. Tidy these toys, or there'll be trouble when your father gets back from work. Do you not realise it's nearly Christmas and bad boys don't get any presents from Santa."
"I don't want anything from Santa," Scorpius spat, curling his lip in disgust as he pulled out of Hermione's grasp and hopped off his bed.
"You're going the right way about making sure you don't get anything at all for Christmas," Hermione retorted. "I'll be back in an hour and heaven help you if you haven't started to tidy up."
Fuming at her son and his out of character behaviour, Hermione stormed back downstairs where she made herself a cup of coffee and tried to calm herself down. From upstairs there was no sound from her son and Hermione hoped that it meant that he was finally doing as he was told and tidying his room. After giving it an hour she slowly made her way back up to Scorpius's room.
"You better have done some tidying," Hermione called out as she approached her son's room.
Pushing open the door, Hermione let out a loud sigh of frustration as she found her son's room in exactly the same state as it had been an hour earlier. Only this time there was no sign of her son. His muddy boots were lying abandoned on the floor, but Scorpius wasn't anywhere to be seen.
"Scorpius?" Hermione called, peering into her son's wardrobe in case he was hiding in there.
Finding no sign of Scorpius in his room, Hermione checked the bathroom next to her son's room. She then checked the second bathroom and the spare room, before heading towards the master bedroom she and Draco shared. There was no sign of Scorpius in the bedroom, but when Hermione checked the adjoining bathroom, she found her son standing beside the large bathtub. Scorpius had water running into the tub, and he was standing emptying every single bottle he could find into the running water.
"Scorpius," Hermione cried, causing her son to jump and drop the bottle of bubble bath he was tipping into the bath into the tub. "What are you doing?"
"Playing," Scorpius answered as he reached for another bottle.
"I don't think so," Hermione said, snatching Draco's shampoo from their son's hands before it was tipped into the bath. Pulling Scorpius away from the bath, she pulled out the plug and looked around at the mess he'd created. "Just what is wrong with you?" she snapped, glaring at her son.
"I hate you," Scorpius hissed, turning on his heel and running from the room.
Hermione was stunned by her son's words and she stood motionless in the bathroom for nearly five minutes, wondering what she'd done to earn her son's wrath. Still not sure what she'd done to upset Scorpius, Hermione magically tidied the bathroom and placed the empty bottles to one side so she knew what she needed to replace. Taking a deep breath she then made her way back to her son's room.
"Scorpius?" Hermione called gently, pushing open the door to find her son lying curled up on his bed, his back towards the door. "Scorp." Making her way to her son's bed, she perched behind him and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "What's wrong? Please tell me."
"I don't want you to leave Daddy," Scorpius whispered, and Hermione could hear the tears in his voice.
"Why would I leave your Daddy?" Hermione asked with a frown. "Scorpius, I am not leaving your Daddy. I love him. I love you both."
"Really?" Scorpius questioned in a small voice as he rolled over to face his mother.
"Really," Hermione promised. "I don't know where you got such a silly idea, but it will never happen. We will always be together, Scorpius. You, me and Daddy."
"I don't really hate you," Scorpius admitted.
"I know sweetheart," Hermione replied, ruffling her son's hair. "Now why don't we tidy up together and then we can go and have some lunch?"
Not sure where Scorpius had gotten the idea from, but satisfied she'd dealt with his worries, Hermione helped her son tidy his room. After stripping the bed to wash the muddy bedding, Hermione and Scorpius headed downstairs to grab some lunch. For the first time in a week, Scorpius was as good as gold and did whatever Hermione asked of him, so when she sat down to eat her lunch, she was convinced that the worst was over and she'd sorted the problem with her son.
Just as they were finishing lunch, and discussing what to do all afternoon, the doorbell rang. Leaving Scorpius to finish his meal, Hermione went to the door, where a delivery driver handed her a large bouquet of red roses.
"Woah," Scorpius gasped when Hermione returned to the kitchen with the flowers in her hand.
"Woah, indeed," Hermione said, placing the flowers on the table and plucking out the card that came with them.
Opening the card, she smiled when she read the message. For the beautiful Mrs Malfoy. Don't forget you still owe me a thank you. Love Santa. Xxx.
Summoning a vase, Hermione filled it with water and arranged the flowers inside. She then stood the arrangement on the kitchen table, placing the card beside them. Not noticing Scorpius's curious stare at the flowers and card, Hermione gathered the plates and began to do the washing up, all the time chatting about what she and Scorpius could do that afternoon.
However, as Hermione washed up she had no idea Scorpius had opened the card and was reading the message with a scowl on his small face. Seeing the flowers were from Santa, and he'd signed the card with kisses, Scorpius reached for the red roses and tore some petals from the pretty flowers. Sending petals scattering everywhere, he then swung his arm at the vase, sending it crashing to the floor.
"What happened?" Hermione cried, spinning around and sending bubbles flying from her washing up. "Scorpius?" she questioned, noticing the torn rose petals scattered over the table.
"My arm slipped," Scorpius muttered with a scowl.
"Which would explain the broken vase, but not the rose petals," Hermione said. "Did you rip the petals from my flowers?"
"I might have," Scorpius replied with an unbothered shrug of his shoulders.
"That is it," Hermione yelled. "I've had enough. Get to your bedroom and stay there until your father gets home. He can deal with you, I've had about as much as I can take today."
Stomping from the kitchen, Scorpius bolted back to his bedroom and Hermione winced as she heard the door slamming behind him. Drying her hands, she then used magic to fix the vase her son had broken and repair the damage he'd done to her beautiful roses. Taking the roses into the front room, she placed them on the fireplace and cast a spell over them to stop Scorpius from destroying them for a second time. She then sat down on the sofa and tried to work out where she'd gone wrong, and how her son had turned into such a nightmare.
A couple of days later, Scorpius was still playing up. Hermione had yet to really get to the bottom of why he was misbehaving, but it didn't help that whenever anyone else was around, he was usual lovely self. When Draco had confronted him about the roses, he'd claimed it was just an accident and he'd convinced Draco that he was sorry and would never do it again. However, he still wasn't doing anything Hermione was asking of him and she was getting sick to death of shouting at her son over stupid little things that he was clearly just doing to wind her up.
"It's as though someone else has taken over his body," Hermione confided to Daphne one afternoon when her friend had popped over with Alex.
Hermione had thought about cancelling the meeting as she wasn't sure Scorpius deserved an afternoon with her best friend, but she'd needed some support and was desperate to talk to someone other than Draco about the problems she was having with Scorpius. So even though Scorpius didn't really deserve it, he was outside playing in the light snow that had fallen that morning, while she was sitting in the warm kitchen baring her soul to Daphne.
"I thought they got all moody and argumentative when they became teenagers," Daphne remarked.
"So did I," Hermione replied with a sigh. "But I now have a six year old terror on my hands, and I don't know how to deal with him."
"Have you spoken to him?" Daphne asked.
"The best I got was a brief conversation a couple of days ago," Hermione replied. "He seemed worried that I was going to leave Draco. I promised him that it would never happen, and that seemed to calm him down for a while. But then he tore my roses to pieces and broke the vase they were in. Since then he won't do a thing I say."
"Why would he think you were leaving Draco?" Daphne asked with a frown.
"I have no idea," Hermione said. "But I don't even know if that's the problem. I thought we'd sorted it, and then he started playing up again. I've tried asking him about it since, but he won't tell me anything."
"What about threatening him with no presents from Santa," Daphne suggested. "With Christmas around the corner, it's how I bring Alex into line."
"I've done that, and apparently he doesn't care," Hermione replied. "He says he doesn't want anything from Santa."
"Can Draco not sort him out?" Daphne asked, rapidly running out of ideas as like Hermione she was used to dealing with a mischievous son, not a downright naughty one.
"Draco's talked to him, but the trouble is, Scorp's an angel when he's around," Hermione replied. "I'm the only one he's playing up for."
Daphne was just about to say that she wasn't sure what else to suggest when the back door flew open and Scorpius and Alex ran into the room.
"Shut the door behind you," Hermione ordered her son.
Instead of doing as he was asked, Scorpius stamped his snow covered boots on the wooden kitchen floor, before flinging off his coat and throwing it on the floor. He then raced from the room and pounded up the stairs. Alex sheepishly closed the back door, before wiping his boots on the mat, carefully hanging up his coat and following his best friend upstairs.
"See what I mean?" Hermione asked with an exasperated sigh as she got to her feet. "He's just being a brat."
Picking up her son's coat she went to hang it up when her heel landed in a puddle of melting snow. Before Hermione could stop herself she went sliding to the floor and banged her hip against the kitchen counter.
"Hermione," Daphne cried, jumping up to help her friend.
"I'm going to kill that kid," Hermione muttered as she allowed Daphne to help her to her feet.
"It was an accident, Hermione," Daphne said gently. "Granted, Scorpius wouldn't normally just stomp in without wiping his feet, but he is just a kid. Maybe he was just impatient to get upstairs to play."
"He deliberately ignored me, Daph," Hermione insisted. "What is going on? Where's my son gone, and how do I get him back?"
"I don't know," Daphne admitted with a sigh. "Hopefully it's just a phase and he'll snap out of it. Surely he can't carry on this way, not with Christmas around the corner."
"I hope not," Hermione sighed, hoping that whatever was going on with Scorpius was resolved before it ruined Christmas for the entire family.