Scorpius heaved a sigh. That was nothing like he ever experienced. The moment he stepped out of their fire grate, the more he felt the difference between the Weasley cottage and the Malfoy Manor. He sat down on a velvet couch and pondered on the goings-on of the day.
At half-past eight, he awoke to the smell of ginger bread and peppermint. Upon opening his eyes, he heard the loud snores of Al and Hugo since they were all sharing a room at the Weasley's. The Weasley's cottage was unlike anything he ever saw. It wasn't shabby but nor was it as elegant as their manor. It was cozy and spacious for a reason; to accommodate the large Weasley clan.
Scorpius put on his green and red socks; something given to him by Al, and an oversized sweater over his pajamas. It was the strangest thing ever. He had never slept in somebody else's house before. What was even stranger was how he slept through the noise made by the arrival of several other visitors the night before.
The door to their room suddenly burst open and in came Rose and James. Rose was already dressed for the day while James, like him, just put a sweater over his pajamas.
"Wake up, sleepyheads!" James threw pillow to his brother's and cousin's heads. "Breakfast's ready."
"Five more minutes!" Hugo groaned unconsciously from his bed and hugged the pillow to his face.
"You slept okay?" Rose asked Scorpius as he slid his feet inside a pair of furry slippers.
"Surprisingly, yes." He answered back.
"Of course," Rose said matter-of-factly. "You got the most comfortable room in the house.
"Come on, you guys! You have to take a load of that apple pie!" James insisted as if the end of the world would come if they didn't taste the pie.
Since Al and Hugo were too lazy to get up, the three of them went down to the dining area where it was the first time Scorpius saw a big round table where there were actually people around it.
"Morning!" Rose greeted everyone. Ron shot Scorpius a dirty look. When Ginny saw him, she slapped the back of his head while he was drinking, causing his moustache to be soaked with milk.
"Come, Scorpius, dear, have some cinnamon rolls and apple pie." Ginny smiled motherly at him. "Don't be shy, just make yourself comfortable."
Scorpius sat at the table next to James, who was introducing him to everyone.
"There's Uncle Bill and his wife Aunt Fleur!" James recited as he pointed to the couple. Scorpius' eyes widened at the sight of Bill's scarred face. "Ah, there's cousin Victoire, their daughter, and here's Teddy Lupin, Victoire's fiancé."
"Hey!" Teddy greeted. "So you're the famous Scorpius who played Madeleine! Too bad I didn't get to watch the play."
Scorpius just laughed nervously.
"Here's Uncle Charlie." James pointed to a big-bellied old man. "He used to tame dragons."
"Cool." Scorpius remarked.
"My other uncles are going to arrive tomorrow morning, so that's just it for today."
"So, how's your father these days, Scorpius." Harry attempted at a conversation.
"Well," Scorpius swallowed some apple pie. "I know his trades in the United States and France are going smoothly. He's planning to invade muggle technology, according to mother."
"You hear that Arthur? The Malfoys are going to bring muggle technology to the wizarding world, isn't that delightful?" Harry remarked at the ancient wizard who was just starting to doze off.
"Outstanding, yes!" Arthur Weasley clapped his hands.
At that moment, Molly and Hermione Weasley emerged from the kitchen carrying a batch of hot porridge. Scorpius surveyed Mrs. Weasley (the younger one); Rose really did look a lot like her.
"Goodness!" Molly Weasley exclaimed. "For a second there, I thought young Draco Malfoy was here to join us for breakfast."
"It's Scorpius, Molly, Malfoy's son." Hermione corrected.
"Why, that's lovely. It seems like it was only yesterday when you were cursing each other around when you were kids. They weren't very friendly then." Molly noted to Scorpius.
"Scorpius and the kids happen to be good friends, Molly." Harry remarked.
"Well, your kids are hardly enemies with anyone. Especially sweet, little Al. Where is that boy, anyway?"
"Still sleeping." Rose replied. "Let me help you with that grandma."
"Everyone," Ginny suddenly called the attention of the family. "Is it me or did that play last week seem like it was familiar? I mean the plot was hilarious, but the characters and their lines? They seem all too real."
Scorpius and Rose automatically looked at each other; they remembered the day James told them all about the play.
"Okay, since Aunt Luna obliged me to tell the lot of you about the secrets of the play, I will." They were all sitting around the empty Gryffindor common room the morning after the presentation (most of the students already went home). James stood while Rose, Albus and Scorpius sat at the comfortable armchairs near the fire grate.
"What's this about?" Rose sullied.
"So, the thing is," James smiled like a Cheshire cat. "The characters from the play we just did last night are based from real people."
"They are?" Albus blurted out.
"Yes, according to Aunt Luna." The expressions on their faces weren't what James expected. "Alright, listen carefully to the description of each character. Cravinston is a man with jet black hair and green eyes; he is famous for slaying an evil sorceress. Sound familiar?"
"He sounds like your dad." Rose decided.
"Exactly!" James snapped his fingers. "That's because Aunt Luna did base Cravinston on dad!"
"So you got me for it?" Al inquired.
"Next, Winston is a jealous red-head who can't control his temper. Madeleine is a know-it-all brunette who is a muggle-born!"
"Wait, that's dad and mum!" Rose looked horror-struck.
"Your mum's a muggle-born?" Scorpius started turning pale. "That leaves Marcus to be—"
"An arrogant prick whose father led him to believe that muggle-borns aren't real witches and wizards."
"Bloody hell!" Rose vulgarly ejaculated. "Do you mean to tell me that our parents, Scorpius' dad and my mom, used to be lovers?!"
"Unbelievable!" Scorpius interjected. "It all fits too well. Rose looks like that woman in my dad's old wallet and Rose looks exactly like Mrs. Weasley. This play was to reveal our parents' history?"
"Slow down, cowboys!" James was satisfied by their all-is-chaos exclamations. "It's not exactly like that. Aunt Luna explained it all to me. She told me that it was only her assumption that Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger used to have something between them. So, she wrote this fictional play during the early months of her fifth year. Ten years later, she found the play again and decided to publish it. The plot was so dismantled and wobbly that it failed miserably, but that was only because she didn't make the characters fit each other, she made a fantasy between the four people she met at Hogwarts."
"So, Antoinette was supposed to be mum?" Al asked curiously.
"As a matter of fact, yes."
"Wait, you told us she wrote this during her fifth year." Rose said abruptly.
"Yes."
"Meaning she didn't know that mum and dad would actually get married."
"That's the beauty of it. She made this wild guess of who ends us with whom and she was right!" James started chuckling animatedly. "Save for the part where Cravinston dies. Aunt Luna secretly thought that dad would die in the war against that Voldemort dude."
"Well, Aunt Luna has got quite some divination skills." Al remarked.
"Haha! She was right! If we did know that this play was a fiction about our parents then we would've enjoyed acting it up immensely."
"Don't tell your parents, though, Aunt Luna might get in trouble." James reminded them sternly.
"Still, what about the photo of that lady who looks like your mum, Rose?" Scorpius interrupted. "The one my mum was telling us about?"
"Let's leave it at that Scorp, let's leave it at that." Rose laughed her boyish laugh heartily. She had had enough of her parents' history for the day.
"That's just because Aunt Luna is a marvelous writer, Aunt Ginny!" came James to the rescue. Scorpius sighed in relief.
"Are you up for a game of Quidditch after this?" Rose invited.
"Quidditch?" the Weasley clan looked at him suspiciously; almost all of them were superb Quidditch players.
"You can borrow Hugo's CrashStar 800. He rarely uses it." Hermione announced.
"What kind of brooms do you have at home?" Rose asked intently, although she knew Scorpius wasn't much of a Quidditch player.
"I don't fly out much."
"Nonsense!" Harry joined in. "Malfoy was an excellent flyer, not much of a seeker but excellent flyer, yes."
Scorpius spent the rest of the morning playing Quidditch with Al, Rose and James. Their qualities were equally balanced; both James and Rose were good at scoring goals while Scorpius and Al were not so great at blocking. Al reasoned out that, as a seeker, he never guarded goal posts. At half-past eleven, Ron and Ginny Weasley went out to watch their children play. Lily and Hugo were eyeing them from their room as they concocted some kind of potion.
"That's no way to block a goal, boy!" Ron called out to Scorpius from the bleachers.
"Oh, Ronald! He reminds me so much of you when you were keeper of the Gryffindor team. Weasley is our king!"
The players in the air broke out laughing.
"How I miss playing Quidditch!" Ron cried out.
"We haven't played for nearly twenty five years, haven't we?" Harry suddenly came from the house with Hermione carrying sandwiches and orange juice on a tray.
"How about you children come and eat some lunch first?" the four players grabbed a sandwich, suddenly realizing their hunger after the exercise.
"Still think the old bones' not rusted yet?" Ron asked his best friend.
"Want to find out?" Harry returned.
"Sure do!"
"Children, we're going to need your broomsticks."
After finishing their meal, the four teenagers left the other four teenager-wannabes to play a round of Quidditch. The old team being Hermione and Harry versus Ginny and Ron. They found out there wasn't much difference than before save for their creaking backs and aching knees.
By 1 pm, the teenagers decided that their parents aren't going to return their brooms to them anytime soon so they decided to play a game of checkers. Rose was good at it. Scorpius played decently, but Al was terrible at it.
"Man, Al! You suck eggs at this game!" James exclaimed as he and Rose watched Al play against Scorpius.
"Shut up, James! You're no better at it than I am!" Al blurted out in frustration.
"Yeah, James! I beat you in three consecutive games, who are you to talk?" Scorpius demanded.
"At least I'm an attractive and top-notch Quidditch player." James joked about. "The ladies aren't going to care whether I can win a game of checkers or not; girls aren't really that good at board games."
"Hey!" Rose protested. "I happen to be the greatest chess player in this room right now!"
"Well, Rose, you're kind of a dude." James ducked as a shoe flew right onto his head.
The rest of the day went on well. Scorpius learned a lot about things. He learned how to de-gnome a garden('Are you sure they're not poisonous?'), he listened to Arthur Weasley's stories about how much he dueled with his grandfather back in the day ('I'm sure he only dueled with him half as much as what he said. He tends to exaggerate.' Said Molly.) Harry showed them the old photographs they had when they were teenagers. ('Albus is a carbon-copy of you, dad!' according to James.) Rose even showed him the large collection of books her mother had inside a small magical purse. By the time all the Weasleys had sat down once again in the round table to eat their Christmas feast (one of which Scorpius helped to prepare) Scorpius felt like he was part of their family. Their big, warm and jolly family.
After eating, he said farewell to everyone and reminded Rose of the party she was to attend on the twenty-sixth. Everyone smiled back at him, apparently forgetting that he was the son of their once sworn enemy Draco Malfoy, and the grandson of the former Death Eater Lucius Malfoy. Yes, all was well and prejudices where forgotten.
The green tongues of flames ate him up upon the words 'Malfoy Manor' escaped his lips.
The manor was empty, he remarked after he finished recounting the events of the day. He assumed that his father was still at work. His mother was probably still at the Witch Salon. He remembered that his grandparents were in the study (they rarely ever go out), but he didn't consider them much human, anyway.
Scorpius sank in his couch, pondering to himself. How he wished that his grandfather told him tales about his youth, and that his grandmother would ask him to cook some Yorkshire pudding with her. How he wished that his father would play Quidditch with him every now and again, or that his mother would ask him if he slept well. He always thought his life was perfect before he spent time at the Weasleys.
"Maybe this is the reason why purebloods are arrogant and conceited," Scorpius told himself. "We grow up in bloody boring families."
As Scorpius changed into his night clothes and brushed his teeth, the hype of the day slowly ebbed from his mind. If Rose and Al were with him, he would've stayed up late talking about how good dinner was, when he would join the Slytherin Quidditch team, and probably about whether or not he could spend the next Christmas with them again. With that thought in mind, he slid in his smooth silken sheets and fell asleep.
Scorpius was very worried. It was the morning of the twenty-sixth of December and the Manor was being prepared for their usual post-Christmas party. But it was a different one because Rose Weasley was coming to join them. His eyes bulged at the thought of Rose stepping inside their Manor. His stomach did somersaults at the very idea of Rose talking to the children of her parents' business associates.
It was a formal party. Men were wearing the latest style of dress robes which looked like long, muggle suits. Women wore fancy fur over their dress robes and laughed their fake laughs. Scorpius sat in a corner with a long face; adult parties bored him to death.
"O, little Scorpius!" an old lady with a feathered hat pinched his pale cheeks. "I remember when you were still a boy. You're all grown up now!"
"Hey, hey, hey!" followed a bearded man. "How's it going, teenager!"
"Ah," Scorpius sighed heavily. "Great aunt Matilda, Uncle Geoffrey. What a pleasant surprise."
"We missed you!" Aunt Matilda gave Scorpius a slobbery kiss on each cheek. "You kids grow up so fast!"
"O Aunt Matilda!" Mrs. Malfoy called the old lady's attention.
"Mum!" cried Scorpius, thankful for finally being saved from his great aunt's clutches. "Merlin's beard!"
"Leave Scorpius be, he's waiting for a lady friend."
"A lady friend, huh." Uncle Geoffrey winked as he stroked his beard. "Someone we should know?"
"Uh, no-not really, sir." Scorpius cast his mother an evil look.
"When she arrives, make sure you introduce us!" Aunt Matilda strode away with his son.
"Great, mother." Scorpius turned to his mother. "You couldn't have just kept Rose's existence a secret from those two psychopaths!"
"Sorry, sweetheart," Mrs. Malfoy smiled sweetly. "It suddenly slipped my mind. Maybe you should give Rose a tour around the Manor so she won't get inconvenienced, okay?"
"Anything to keep her away from Uncle Geoffrey's sight."
"You should wait for her in the lobby so she won't be spotted."
Scorpius sat at his usual couch in front of the fire grate, waiting for Rose to floo in. after 7 ½ minutes of waiting, the fire grate filled with green flames and out came the red-headed figure of Rose Weasley.
"Oh, hullo Scorpius." Greeted Rose as she stepped out of the fire grate, brushing ash off her shoulders.
"You-you look stunning." Scorpius absent-mindedly remarked, looking at Rose's forest-green dress. It was simple, innocent and fresh; plus, the combination of the green dress and her red hair made her look festive and Christmassy.
"Er, thanks." Rose was taken aback by Scorpius' sudden compliment. "You don't look half bad yourself."
An awkward silence took hold of them until Scorpius remembered why he was sent to the lobby.
"My mum asked me to give you a tour around the Manor first."
"Why is that?" Rose asked curiously.
"We want to keep you safe from some, er, annoying relatives." Scorpius cleared his throat. "They're going to leave soon, don't worry."
"In that case, I'd be happy to take a tour, Mr. Malfoy." Rose put on a haughty air.
"Well, shall we, Ms. Weasley?" Scrorpius extended his arched arm to Rose.
"I'd be delighted, dear sir." Rose took his arm as she chuckled at their pompous behavior.
They climbed the grand, carpeted staircase arm in arm, with Rose admiring all the portraits of the ancient house; their house was more modernized.
"These paintings are marvelous!" Rose marveled. "They must be at least fifty years old. Who is this lovely young woman?"
Rose looked at the moving, body-length portrait of a bored-looking young woman with long, silvery blonde hair. She was sitting in a poufy armchair with her long, slender limbs hanging from a study table.
"That's my grandmother, Narcissa Malfoy," Scorpius looked at the high cheekbones of the lady who rolled her eyes at him. "She was still Narcissa Black when that portrait was done."
"Black?" Rose repeated. There was something familiar about that surname.
"Yes, and that's my great Aunt Bellatrix." Scorpius pointed at a woman with heavy-lidded eyes and dark hair.
"There's something about this woman," Rose looked into the dark, frowning eyes of the woman in the portrait. "Something, melancholic, yet romantic and cynical at the same time."
"Sure there is," Scorpius smirked, making him look like Draco Malfoy Jr. "She's a mass murderer. Our family used to serve that Dark Lord psycho twenty- thee years ago. I'm ashamed to have such relatives."
Scorpius drew a curtain across Bellatrix's angry face. He smirked at the displeasure in his dead relative's expression.
"Here's a portrait of you Scorpius," Rose approached the large framed portrait behind Scorpius. "At least, it looks an awful lot like you, but the portrait looks so withered."
"That's my father, actually." He corrected.
"You're like Al and Uncle Harry. You each look like a clone of your fathers." Rose laughed heartily.
"Rose," Scorpius looked into her eyes.
"Yes?" Rose replied, not taking her eyes off the remarkable portrait of Draco Malfoy, some thirty years ago.
"Do you think I'm like my relatives?"
"Huh?"
"Dark, cruel and have criminal tendencies?" Rose turned to Scorpius sympathetically.
"Of course not." Rose took hold of his hand. "Just because you're related to them doesn't mean you should be like them. You're your own person; you can decide whoever you want to be, understood?"
"I needed that." Rose smiled at him until she realized that she was still holding his hand. She quickly pulled away and blushed tremendously.
"What?" Scorpius chuckled, apparently amused at Rose's reaction. He pulled Rose's hand back into his and kissed it. Rose turned beet red. "I never knew you were so—"
Scorpius chose not to finish the sentence and took hold of Rose chin, slowly pulling her lips closer to his. At that brief moment when their lips were a millisecond away from touching, Mrs. Malfoy's voice called for them.
"Scorpius!" her approaching sound echoed, the two teenagers suddenly pulled away from each other. "Merlin, I've been looking all over for you! Aunt Matilda and Geoffrey have gone now; you can bring Rose into the party."
"Sounds good to me." Rose was first to recover from their anxious trance.
"Splendid, dear." Mrs. Malfoy smiled charmingly. "By the way, you look lovely in that dress!"
"Thank you, ma'am." Rose mustered a reply. They all proceeded to the party chamber where Rose was introduced to each guest.
Scorpius gazed at Rose the whole night, trying to catch her eye. From across the room, Scorpius raised a glass of butterbeer and smirked ever so devilishly at her. Rose grabbed a glass of champagne from a nearby table and downed it in one gulp.
