Chapter 7 The Letter
At the end of the first week, Scorpius received the thing that he dreaded the most—a letter from his parents, as they had promised.
While everyone's opening their letters and packages with smiles on their faces, he thrust the letter and the small parcel attached to it almost immediately into his black leather bag when the barn owl dropped it onto the breakfast table, and nearly knocked over his glass of milk. Fortunately, nobody spotted his action, and he spent the rest of the day trying to calm himself down.
When he got back to the common room in the evening, he didn't even hesitate a second and headed straight to his room, drew his curtains, and lay down. Albus had not yet returned to the dormitory—he hoped he would not, not until he finished doing what he needed to right now.
With trembling hands, he took the letter out—crumpled and worn at the edges already from being at the bottom of a pile of school books in the bag for a whole day—and tore open the familiar pale green envelope with the Malfoy family badge sealed at the flap.
'Dear son,'
Astoria's handwriting. His mom wrote the letter.*
I hope you have enjoyed your first week at Hogwarts.
No mentioning of the sorting.
He read on.
The attached parcel contained two bottles of cookies made by your granny, she thought that you might have already finished eating the first bottle by now and would probably want some more. They will taste delicious as always, I believe.
We miss you. Me and your father, we both do.
Your father…I tried to persuade him, but it seems like he does not want to talk to you right now—
Draco was mad. He was definitely mad.
But remember my son, I believe the hat has its reasons to make such a decision. Don't feel bad about it, about anything.
Your father is neither angry nor ashamed because of you. He's not yet recovered from the shock, that's all.
But yes he is.
Another thing I want to tell you is that your father and I decided that now is not the best time to inform your grandparents about the sorting.
So what, covering me up in front of Lucius and Narcissa?
When the time comes, it might take us a bit more effort to explain to them the truth, but it's the best choice we've got right now.
Not now. When? A year later? Two years? Never?
Scorpius, please have faith that everything will be sorted out in the end. Nothing is more important than your happiness. Don't overwhelm yourself with worries.
Take everything easy, we will stand behind you no matter what.
Let me know if you've received the letter.
Love, A. Malfoy
Scorpius closed his eyes. He thought he would probably cry when seeing the letter, but the waves of emotions didn't come. Instead, he felt empty.
Astoria wrote as if she had the confidence that unless they tell them he's a Gryffindor, Lucius and Narcissa would never know the truth. But they could have hundreds of possible ways to get the message.
Any Slytherin that knows his name could write to their parents about their disbelief, and their parents would tell the elderly in the family someday that the son of the Malfoy family became a Gryffindor, and Lucius, soon enough, would hear from his friends that his grandson is not in Slytherin but in Gryffindor with a bunch of brainless ignorant kids. Like Albus Potter.
In fact, it didn't have to be the Slytherins who can do the job. The Gryffindors could do it just the same.
A family disgrace.
How's he going to face them in the future? Every Christmas? Every summer holiday?
He was horrified by merely imagining the situation he's going to face. He didn't want to be hated, no one did.
Perhaps he should have reconsidered his decision that night on the sorting ceremony—
He should stop thinking like that. His head was a mess. He couldn't distinguish his real thoughts from what he heard from other people, they were jumbled all together and were screaming towards him in his mind all at once. He burned the letter in his hands, and with a jerk, he extinguished the bedside lamp and pulled his quilt over his head. The whole world turned immediately dark.
Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. He prayed. Please just fall asleep.
….
An hour later, Albus opened his dormitory door and found the room abnormally dark and quiet.
The curtains beside him were drawn. So his roommate was already in bed.
He wondered for a second why Scorpius slept so early today, then shrugged and decided that it's his own business, and forgot it altogether a few minutes after.
*the content of the letter is in bold italic. Scorpius's thoughts are normal texts.
Things started to get troublesome for Scorpius from this chapter on...But the next chapter is going to be fun.
(What do you think of Rose Weasley's talent in flying and in languages?)
