A/N: Sorry this took a bit. Malfoy's are hard for me, and that's what this chapter is! Have you been worried about Scorpius's reaction to not getting Head Boy? Worried that I'd make you wait forever for it? I'm not that cruel. Here it is. Great. This Author's Note was pointless.
Scorpius Malfoy thought that the weight sinking in his stomach was certainly heavy enough to make up for the lack of weight possessed by the unopened envelope in his hands. He knew what it meant, the fact that his envelope wasn't slightly thicker, with a slight bulge in it, he knew that it meant he had failed despite six years of hard work, but he couldn't force himself to open it and face the undeniable truth:
He hadn't gotten Head Boy.
Taking a deep breath and attempting to calm his thoughts, Scorpius tore the envelope open and pulled out the folded parchment inside of it, beginning to read.
Mr. Malfoy,
The following supplies will be required for your classes this year…
Scorpius stopped reading then. He had hoped, foolishly and wildly, when noticing the lack of badge in the envelope, that his badge just wasn't ready yet and it would be sent later, although they'd like to congratulate him now but – no. All he had was a list of books, Potions ingredients and an ever-growing feeling of despair threatening to take over his whole body.
Scorpius threw the letter onto his desk angrily, but the action was sort of anti-climatic. The parchment wasn't even slightly heavy so it fluttered to the desk prettily. Scorpius glared at the parchment as though it was mocking him before walking away from his desk and falling face first onto his bed. Maybe, he thought as he buried his face as deeply as possible into his pillow, this was just an awful, cruel nightmare and he would wake up in a few hours time with a bulging package, brimming with praise and the culmination of his six years of exertion.
Several hours later, Scorpius did wake up, but when he lifted his face from his pillow, the parchment was still exactly where he had thrown it unceremoniously hours before, and the feeling of disappointment in his stomach had yet to dissipate. Scorpius shoved his face back into his pillow and groaned.
As it turned out, hard work meant absolutely nothing in the eyes of McGonagall. She probably picked that prat, Colin Wood, Scorpius thought to himself. She always favors Gryffindors. Except, maybe, she hadn't.
If there was a single person at Hogwarts who matched Scorpius in academic ability, it was Rose Weasley, and if Scorpius hadn't gotten Head Boy, then maybe, Rose hadn't gotten Head Girl. And really, Scorpius thought to himself, it wouldn't be too bad to sit in the back at Prefects meetings and make fun of whatever idiots McGonagall had chosen over the pair of them with Rose.
The weight in his stomach lessening slightly, Scorpius rushed over to the fireplace in his room, grabbing a bit of Floo Powder from the pot on the mantelpiece. He tossed the powder into the fireplace, waited a moment for the green flames to appear, kneeled down in front of them, stuck his head in and said clearly, "Rose Weasley's house."
Scorpius felt his head spin for a moment before he was looking out into the Weasley's sitting room. Rose was not visible, but her mum, Hermione was. Hermione Granger sat up suddenly, her book sliding out of her lap. "Scorpius?"
"Er, hello," Scorpius said, looking up at her surprised face. "Is Rose here?"
"Yes, hold on a moment," Hermione said, looking at him with something that looked like…pity? Scorpius didn't have time to question it, because she stood up and walked out of the room. He heard her yell in the background, "ROSE! SCORPIUS IS IN THE FIRE!"
He heard Rose's heavy steps flying down the stairs and then suddenly she was kneeling in front of the fire, all bouncing red curls and flashing blue eyes, her smattering of freckles getting lost in the redness of her face. She looked like she'd been crying, but before he could comment on that, she said, "Scorpius, I'm so sorry."
"What are you – what?" Scorpius stared at her, but he knew exactly what she meant. She knew he wasn't Head Boy. He didn't have time to ponder how she might've known that before she answered him.
"You should've gotten it, really, you should've," Rose continued, barely looking him in the eye. "I'm sorry."
"Well, it's all right, I mean, we can just make their lives hell, right?" he started to say before he noticed Rose make the same expression that had been on Hermione' face minutes before.
"Well, I – I got Head Girl, Scorpius," she said. She looked guilty.
"Then…well…well, congratulations, I guess," Scorpius said, trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice. If he was honest with himself, the fact that she had succeeded where he hadn't almost hurt as badly as his failure. He was happy for her, sure, but it would've been a lot less painful to fail with her than by himself. "Why are you crying, then?"
"I'm not," Rose said defensively.
"You were," Scorpius said, "Go look in a mirror. Your eyes are red and your face is all flushed."
"Oh – well – I don't know. I'm just upset you didn't get it."
Scorpius narrowed his eyes at her. "So you started crying?"
"Well, that's not the only reason," Rose said. "I might, well, I might know who did get it."
"Colin Wood, isn't it? Isn't McGonagall showing a little too much favoritism by choosing two Gryffindors?"
"Well, she did choose two Gryffindors, but-"
"But what? Are you saying she chose someone who wasn't a prefect?" Rose didn't say anything, which Scorpius took as a yes. "Rose, who the hell did she pick? Did she-" Scorpius stopped talking because an idea had suddenly appeared in his mind, an idea he didn't even want to fathom, but the longer it stayed in his brain, the more likely it seemed.
"Scorpius, I-"
"She picked Albus. She picked Albus, didn't she?" Scorpius asked, his tone very suddenly cold.
"Yes, and I don't agree with it at all. That's why I was crying, we got in a fight," Rose said, sounding like she was about to cry again.
"What did he possibly do that made him deserve this over me? He wasn't even a prefect!" Scorpius's voice had started raising in volume and Rose put a finger up in front of her lips.
"Scorpius, sh, I'm almost certain my parents are listening in-"
"I DON'T CARE!" Scorpius yelled. "This is ridiculous!"
"Scorpius, I already said that I agree with you, you don't have to shout at me."
"I'm not shouting at you, I'm shouting at – at the principle of the thing."
"Well, shouting isn't going to do anything about the fact that I have to essentially handle the duties of Head Boy and Girl by myself."
"Why are you saying that like it's my fault? I'm not the one who told McGonagall to make your idiot cousin the Head Boy!" Scorpius said, regretting his words as soon as he said them. The regret on his face, however, did not seem to faze Rose at all.
"I'm not saying it's your fault, and Albus isn't an idiot! In case you'd forgotten, he's your best friend, not just my cousin! I'm sure he'd love to hear that you think he's an idiot!"
Unable to bring himself to apologize, Scorpius yelled back, "I thought you weren't talking to him! You said you got in a fight! Or are you already over the fact that I didn't get Head Boy?"
"Of course I'm talking to him! He's my cousin! I can have a fight with him and not spend the rest of my life passive aggressively ignoring him! Merlin, you're such a prat, Malfoy!"
"Well I can," he growled. "I can and I will ignore him, and if you're standing by him then I can ignore you too."
"Scorpius, I-" Rose started to say, but Scorpius had already pulled his head out of the fire and was leaning against the side of his bed, breathing heavily.
His sister Gemma's voice rang out suddenly from outside his locked door. "Scorp?"
Scorpius took a few deep breaths before responding. "Yes?"
"Mum and Dad want you down for dinner. Our lovely grandparents just got here." Scorpius could hear the sarcasm in her voice and could perfectly envision the annoyed look on her face without seeing her.
"Give me a minute, all right? I'll be down soon."
"All right. Don't keep them waiting. You know how Granddad gets…"
"Yeah, I know. I'll be down."
He listened to Gemma's footsteps echoing against the floorboards as she walked back down the stairs and when they were gone, groaned loudly. In his whirlwind of emotions, he had completely forgotten about family dinner.
His grandparents, Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, came by for dinner once a month, and said dinners were typically full of Lucius yelling at Scorpius and Gemma for their choice in friends, Gemma and Scorpius retaliating sarcastically, - and, as their father put it, "completely disrespectfully" – Astoria and Draco sighing with frustration, unless Scorpius or Gemma were under fire, in which case Astoria would fight for them, and Narcissa glaring at Lucius, Astoria, Draco, Scorpius and Gemma and going on about how "this whole family was falling apart and didn't anyone respect how hard she worked to bring this family together?" to which Gemma would reply that she didn't understand what hard work she had put in given that house elves did all the cooking. More screaming, sighing, and sarcastic remarks would follow this. Occasionally, but very, very rarely, they made it to dessert without someone storming out of the room. On such occasions, whatever dessert had been prepared ended up in someone's face or on the ground.
However, Scorpius knew that this dinner had the chance to be the worst dinner in the history of Malfoy dinners. All of the Malfoy's were perfectly aware that Hogwarts letters came today and Scorpius was quite aware of the fact that his lack of badge would result in a disappointed rant from Lucius that could very well cause Scorpius to jump out the third floor window.
Sighing, he stood up, unsure if he hoped it wouldn't get to that.
Gemma could tell that Scorpius was upset, which either meant that he was so hysterically happy about getting Head Boy that he had locked himself in his room for several hours (unlikely) or he hadn't gotten Head Boy and was morbidly depressed so he had been wallowing around his room by himself for several hours (very likely). Not that Gemma thought Scorpius didn't deserve the position of Head Boy, because she did and he did. He worked his arse off every year, studying and practicing and tutoring younger Slytherin students in the common room and doing everything possible to be the best boy in the seventh year class. Which he was.
Apparently though, or so she assumed, because really the idea of Scorpius getting Head Boy and not running down the stairs with a gloating smile on his face was so preposterous that she almost burst out laughing, that hadn't been enough. Someone else had gotten it, and Scorpius didn't know who it was (or perhaps he did, which is why he was so upset), and it just wasn't fair. Rose had certainly gotten Head Girl, which would make it all the worse for him, because really, they were equals in academics and discipline and sarcasm and just about everything that made them Scorpius and Rose. The idea of Head Girl Rose without a Head Boy Scorpius was sort of ridiculous, as they worked together so well that they sometimes seemed like a singular unit.
Professor McGonagall clearly hadn't found this to be the case, however, so Gemma groaned inwardly as she thought about the year of moaning, groaning and uncontrollable angst ahead of her with Scorpius as a brother and housemate. She let out an audible groan when she remembered, as they came into her vision sitting around the dining room table, that her grandparents were here and knew that Hogwarts letters were coming today.
"Gemma, don't make noises like that, it's unladylike," her grandmother said.
Gemma bit her tongue to stop herself from delivering the first sarcastic remark of the evening as her mother, Astoria Malfoy, asked, "Where's Scorpius?"
"He said he'd be down in a moment," Gemma replied, walking to sit in one of the two empty seats. "Freshening up, I expect."
"That boy, Draco," Narcissa said, "He has no manners at all."
Draco said nothing, and Gemma took the silent moment to look around the table. Lucius was sitting at the head of the table. He was silent, but his eyes glinted with annoyance and his mouth was set in a very tight line. Narcissa sat to his left, her hands folded in front of her. Gemma could hear her heels tapping impatiently against the floor. Draco was sitting on Lucius's right side, with a tired expression, his face paler than usual. Astoria sat next to Draco, biting her lip and constantly glancing between Draco, Narcissa, Lucius, Gemma and the stairs. Gemma sat next to Narcissa, which left the empty seat at the end for Scorpius, whenever he decided to make his descent from his cave.
At that moment, as though her thoughts were some sort of cue or summon, Scorpius walked down the stairs, and Gemma's assumptions about his Head Boy position, or lack thereof, were confirmed by the slight twitch of his left eye and the way his mouth was set in a tight line, similar to his grandfather's.
"Scorpius," Lucius said, speaking for the first time since Gemma had come downstairs. "So nice of you to finally join us. It's not polite to keep your grandparents waiting."
"I apologize," Scorpius said, without a hint of remorse in his tone. He took the seat at the end of the table, in between Gemma and Astoria.
There was an awkward silence in the room before Astoria coughed and called out, "Missy?"
Almost instantly, a tiny, old house elf sped into the room, an almost terrifyingly wide smile on its face.
"How can I be of service, Mrs. Astoria?"
"We were wondering how much longer we'd have to wait for our food, elf," Lucius said, not looking at Missy but at Draco, as though his elf's service was inherently his fault.
"Right away, Mr. Lucius, right away." The little elf scurried off as Lucius turned his head to Scorpius. "So."
Scorpius raised one eyebrow and echoed him, "So?"
"Your father tells me that your Hogwarts letters for this year came today."
"They did."
"You're a seventh year, are you not?" Lucius's voice was calm but his shoulders were noticeably stiff. Gemma noticed that Draco was pointedly looking anywhere but at Lucius, Narcissa was staring down Scorpius and Astoria's eyes were closed, as though she was trying very hard to keep her patience.
Scorpius seemed to be along the same emotional line as his mother. "That would be a logical conclusion to make, given that I'm seventeen and I just finished my sixth year of school. Seventh year does seem like it'd be the next step."
"Scorpius-" Draco started warningly, but Lucius held up a hand to quiet him.
"No, he's right. I'm ah, what's the saying? 'Beating around the bush,' I believe," Lucius said. "I'm merely interested in Scorpius's reasoning behind not bringing his new Head Boy badge down to show us."
There was a beat of silence in which, Gemma was certain, the flutter of a gnat's wings could've been heard and then –
"That would be because I don't have a Head Boy badge."
"What?"
"What?"
"Weren't you the Slytherin prefect?" Lucius asked.
"Yes," Scorpius said.
"Weren't you the top of your class?"
"Yes," Scorpius said again.
"Then why would you not receive the Head Boy position? What did you do to ruin this?"
"Lucius, really-" Astoria said, disgruntled.
"No, Astoria, this was so simple, this is why we've been pushing him all-"
Astoria let out a humorless laugh. "We? What's this 'we' rubbish? What, have you helped Scorpius do his homework?"
"You dare talk to Lucius like that-" Narcissa started and Astoria laughed and continued.
"I do dare, Narcissa! What has he done? What have either of you done?"
"Story-" Draco said, but Astoria continued to speak over him.
"Tell me, have you sent him study guides? Helped him write a bloody essay? Have you ever even come with us to Diagon Alley to pick out school supplies? What have you done, Lucius, that makes you think you can say you had any part in Scorpius's success in school?"
Astoria's rant was met with shocked faces and silence and then –
"Well, clearly, I haven't been involved in enough. He didn't even manage to get Head Boy." Lucius turned his gaze from Astoria, who was still breathing heavily, to glare at Scorpius. "Who did you say got Head Boy then?"
"A-" Scorpius began before stopping. "I don't know. It didn't tell me in the letter."
Gemma was unconvinced and, it seemed, so was Lucius. "No, you know. Tell me. Who beat you? Who took what we made rightfully yours?"
"Oh, don't you start-" Astoria growled, saving Scorpius from speaking.
"Story, please," Draco said again and was this time interrupted by Gemma.
"No, Dad. Let mum speak, I wanna hear this."
Everyone gave Gemma an exasperated look before Lucius turned to look at Astoria again.
"Someone has taken the position that your son deserves as a Malfoy and yet all you want to do is argue with me. Honestly, Draco, the fact that you let her speak like this to me is ridiculous."
At Lucius's words, Gemma's jaw dropped open, Draco went very pale, Scorpius's eyebrows drew very close together in anger, Narcissa's eyebrows rose very high on her forehead and Astoria's expression went very quickly from irritated to murderous.
"You listen to me very carefully, Lu-ci-us," Astoria said slowly, "First, Scorpius deserved that position because of the hard work he did. Not what you did, not what I did and certainly not what advantage the Malfoy name gives him, which, in case you were unaware of from your delusional state of mind where Voldemort won the war, doesn't exist. There is not an advantage of being a Malfoy. Second, if you ever imply that Draco has any control over how I speak and whom I speak to, you will never be welcome in this house again. Is that clear?"
Lucius's eye started to twitch and he opened his mouth to say something Gemma was very sure would cause an all out duel in the middle of the dining room, but before he could Scorpius stood up and said loudly, "Albus Potter got Head Boy."
"What?" All of the Malfoy's turned and looked at him, momentarily distracted from the fight that had been about to occur.
"Albus Potter is Head Boy," Scorpius said. "That's who got it. Rose told me."
"I-" Lucius started to say, but he was interrupted by a very squeaky voice.
"Dinner is ready!" Missy said, three other elves behind her holding as many platters as they could. Missy looked over at Scorpius and said, "Sit down, if you please, Mister Scorpius, so that we may serve you."
Scorpius took a seat and looked at Gemma, one eyebrow quirked, his head tilted slightly towards Lucius. Gemma turned her head slowly and saw that Lucius's face had gone bright red. She had to try to very hard not to snort into the food that had been placed in front of her.
