Scorpius couldn't wrap his mind around it. His grandfather was dead. Lucius was dead.

The man who had tried to instill all sorts of Death Eater values in him. The man who'd burst into his and Rose's wedding and demanded for everyone to leave because the wedding wasn't going to take place. But this was also the same man who'd given Scorpius his first broom and told him to ride it as often as he could, especially when sneaking out of the house was necessary. To a four year old Scorpius, he'd seemed like the perfect grandfather.

And no matter what he believed, he didn't deserve this death. Suicide or not. No one deserved to end the way Lucius had. People had been killed in more gruesome ways, Scorpius should know, he'd seen the pictures and dealt with their murderers everyday, but they weren't his grandfather. He knew things like this would happen when he walked into work, but he thought that when he got home it was an escape from that.

Scorpius didn't want to associate his girls with murder. It was why he always left his work at work and never brought it home with him. He couldn't stand to have all that horrific death and crime with him as baggage when he came home and hugged his daughters or kissed Rose. He knew he was helping people; he knew he was making a difference, improving lives. And that was why he did it. Because he wanted justice, fairness. He wanted to keep people safe and give them better lives and a safer world to live in. But the road to get there was rocky, and he wasn't going to drag his family into potholes with him.

And that was just where Lucius had obviously been. In a huge pothole that looked like it had been caused by an earthquake. And he was dragging Scorpius with him, Scorpius thought ruefully as he looked at the half empty firewhisky bottle he'd been consuming.

"Scorpius?" a soft voice called into the darkness.

"Lumos," Scorpius muttered, his wand tip illuminating the area so that Rose could find her way over to him.

She looked around the room as she made her way over. "Okay, I definitely agreed with you when you wanted to redo the basement into your office. It meant less clutter for me to trip over in the rest of the house. But sitting here, brooding and drinking in the dark, I really didn't agree with." Rose plopped down on top of the desk in front of him and took the bottle out of his hand and set it down on the other side of the desk.

Scorpius closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair, putting his hands over his eyes and exhaling deeply. "Rose, I just…"

"It's okay," she put her hand on his knee.

Scorpius shook his head. "No, it's not. Whatever he was like, he didn't deserve this. He did before, but he changed. He changed, Rose. He did," Scorpius pleaded with her to understand.

"That's not what I meant," Rose said. "I meant that it's okay to be sad, okay to talk about it. You don't have to just sit here in the dark and mourn all alone."

"I'm not mourning," Scorpius said harshly, more to himself than to Rose.

They were quiet for a moment.

"What do you want to tell the girls?" Rose asked.

Scorpius shrugged. "I don't care. Grandfather was awful to them, to you. He might not have hurt anyone anymore, but he probably wanted to."

"Stop, Scorp, don't say such horrible things about him. He had the potential to be a good man."

Scorpius scoffed. "Rosie, it's just," Scorpius blew out a breath, "I can't deal with this right now. If this is connected to the case, then whoever is doing this could come after you and the girls, next. Or my mum or dad or any of your family." What he didn't say was that he was pretty damn positive it was connected. Lucius had had the same painting of the Dark Mark on his chest that the other victims had. Scorpius had already alerted Harry and Ron, not daring to waste any time on finding out what might have happened and continuing to happen.

Rose stepped off the desk and sat herself on the floor, pulling Scorpius down next to her and into her arms. "We'll be fine, I promise."

"You can't promise stuff like that. Especially after-" Scorpius stopped suddenly and Rose sucked in a gulp of air. They didn't talk about this. They avoided it like the Bubonic plague.

"Scorp," Rose breathed and sighed, leaning into him. "It won't happen."

"You don't know what people will do," he said. Rose gave him a look. "Well, you do," he amended. "But I don't want you to have to go through it again. And I am never ever going to let that happen to Mia, Cassie, or Kate."

Rose brushed some of Scorpius's hair away from his face. "You can't protect them from everything, honey. And it won't happen to them."

"I'm sure you said the same thing to yourself before you got raped, too," Scorpius spat angrily. "Kidnappers, murderers, they'll do anything to achieve their means. And you four are not going to be used to get them there."

Rose kissed her husband tenderly on the forehead, and then on the lips. "We'll be safe. We've been safe for the rest of your cases, what makes this one so different?"

"Because your dad and uncle warned me that all the Malfoys were in danger. Don't you understand that that means you? Six years, Rose, that's how long you've been a Malfoy, and you still don't really get it. We're marked. Always, forever."

"No, we're not," Rose said fiercely. "Don't you dare think so ill of our name. The names of your daughters. We're all equal."

Scorpius smirked. "Is that why when there's a bomb threat in the U.S. and the president's near there, the president is the first one to get out and not any normal people? It seems to me that if we were all equal then we'd all be able to get out. Survival of the fittest, you know?"

"I think you contradicted yourself in that little speech there," Rose said, smirking a little bit, which caused Scorpius to wring his hands together, close his eyes, groan, and fall back onto the ground, lying down in front of Rose.

"Why are you worrying so much about this one, anyways?" Rose asked, playing with Scorpius's hair.

Scorpius shrugged, but seeing as how he was lying down, it didn't work out and made Rose giggle. "Look at the pictures, of my grandfather."

Rose looked around for the photographs and found them on his desk. She brought them down onto the ground in front of her. "What am I looking for?"

Scorpius rolled over and pointed to a spot with a tiny smudge right over Lucius's shoulder. Rose looked more closely and saw that it wasn't over Lucius's shoulder, it was on his shoulder. And faintly on his chest, too.

"What is that?"

"The dark mark. The imitation of it that has been found on all the victims in the case I'm working on. And it's on him."

"Mia, you have to go to school," Scorpius said sternly, giving Rose a not-so covert look saying, 'help me'.

"But I don't want to," Mia pouted.

It was Monday morning and Mia was determined to make Monday a part of the weekend.

"But you have to," Scorpius said. "Won't Mrs. Henderson miss you?"

Mia frowned. "She doesn't like me. And no one else does either."

That was when Rose decided to intervene.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, bending down to Mia's height. "You have tons of friends! You're friends with Claire, and Hilary, and Jessie, and what about Alex?"

"Alex isn't in my class this year," Mia said. "He was in my kindergarten class, not my first grade class," she stressed, as if it were the most important thing in the world.

Scorpius bit back a smile.

"Yes he is, Mia," Rose said. "He was on vacation with his parents up until this week. Hon, you've only been in school for three days. Don't worry, it'll be completely fine."

"He's in my class?" Mia's face lit up as she grinned and it looked like she'd just discovered how good hot fudge sauce tastes on ice cream for the first time. Rose could swear she heard Scorpius growl.

Rose nodded, smiling. "Yeah, his mum told me that he was in your class just before they went on vacation. He'll be there today."

"Okay!" Mia said, picking up her backpack and putting it on. "Aren't we going to go?" she tapped her foot impatiently, something she must've learned from Rose.

"Hold on a second, I have to get Cassie and Kate ready, honey. And you know we always drop Cassie off at preschool first," Rose said, switching Cassie's shoes around so she'd put them on the right feet.

"How come Cassie gets to go to school with Muggles but I don't?" Mia wanted to know.

Scorpius planted a kiss on his eldest daughter's head as he put his coat on. "Because you, when you get frustrated, shoot sparks from your fingertips. Don't you think that that would confuse the muggles?"

"Well, yeah…" Mia admitted, shrugging a little bit and drawing designs on the front hall carpet with her foot.

Scorpius grinned, hugged Cassie, swung Kate around, planted a kiss on Rose's lips which lasted much longer than should have, judging by the fact that Mia squealed, "Eww," and Cassie giggled, "Aww".

"I will see you all tonight," Scorpius said, picking up his briefcase as Rose straightened his tie.

"Dinner at the Burrow, tonight," Rose reminded him, then laughed as she realized the scene before them. Scorpius looked at her quizzically and she said, "This is the picture of domesticity, ain't it?"

Scorpius grinned. "It was until you said 'ain't'. I'll see you girls later," he said before he skipped out the door.

Rose smiled as she picked Kate up and grabbed Cassie's hand, ushering Mia out the door in front of them. Who knew she would've liked this life? Sure, it might be missing all the adventure she'd dreamed of having, but she had a different kind of adventure, now.