A/N: So remember how I said that I have no self control? Yeah, I really need to work on that because I finished writing this story last night and started writing ANOTHER Dramione story a couple days ago... (I mean not that it's a bad thing but I really need to control my imagination). Anyway, My goal is to try and do daily or close to daily updates with this one and The Serpent, the Lioness, and the Dog while working on this new story that I started (it might be a little hard though 'cause school starts on Monday *sobs*). Also, follow me on Tumblr: im-hurricane-drunk (The Gemini Diaries). Sadly, the queenofpearls was already taken on Tumblr so I went with a Florence & The Machine song title (go listen to the song, it's amazing). Thanks for all the reviews and love for this story!

Tallyho!

Chapter 7: The Aftermath

Scorp's week at home was far more pleasant than he expected. Every day, his parents went off to work, leaving him in the house alone with Delilah appearing here and there as she puttered around the house, and every night he spent time with his parents, sharing stories and laughs for hours. During the day, he would study for his finals but by early afternoon, his brain would be fried so he'd entertain himself with something else to do. Repeatedly, he found himself outside with his broom, flying around the backyard trying to catch the snitch.

One day, he was lost in thought while in the air when a flash of blonde flew right by him. Gathering his bearings, he looked to see his father flying towards him with a smirk on his face. "You have to stay focused if you want to beat your sister, Scorp." he said.

Scorpius looked at his father's hand and saw that he was holding the snitch. He shook his head and chuckled. "I try but she's really good at distracting me, especially when the twins are involved. She'll usually point them out to me in the audience and then fly towards the snitch as I'm looking for them."

Draco tried to look guilty. "She might have gotten her tactics from me."

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "Figures."

Draco laughed and released the snitch again. "Best two out of three?"

Scorpius smirked and took off towards where he last saw the snitch fly to. Scorpius had caught the snitch the second time and they were flying around the backyard trying to find it to catch it the third time when they heard a voice calling them.

"Boys!" Hermione called. "Dinner's ready!"

"Just a minute, mum!" Scorpius replied. "I have to find the snitch!"

"Oh, you mean this?" his mother replied holding up her closed hand. The father and son looked to see that Hermione was holding the snitch.

"What?!" Draco asked flying down to his wife, his son following. "How did you catch it? You don't even play Quidditch!"

Hermione giggled. "It was flying by my head and I knew you wouldn't come in until one of you caught it, so I did it for you," she said, proudly.

Draco pursed his lips and looked at his son who just shrugged. He looked back to his wife who was smirking. "You know we'll still have to finish this later."

She shrugged. "That's fine. Just come on in and eat and then you can do your last round. Scorp can't stay up too late though since he's going back to school tomorrow."

Draco nodded. "Yes, dear," he said, mockingly.

Hermione rolled her eyes and turned around back into the house. Draco and Scorpius were about to follow until Hermione's voice rang out. "Brooms stay outside!" They looked at each other with pursed lips before leaving their brooms by the backdoor and going to the kitchen to get dinner. Since it was just the three of them, they would be eating at the breakfast bar instead of at the dining table, allowing easier access to the food on the counter.

The conversation remained light throughout dinner. At one point, the course of the conversation switched to his parent's school days, which fascinated the young Slytherin. How his parents went from hating each other to being… well, his parents was astounding to, not just him, but to all the Malfoy children. The story of how their parents fell in love during war time was all the kid's favorites. That was until tonight, when Hermione shared a story that Scorpius (or any of the other kids) had not heard.

"Did I ever tell you about the time I slapped your father during our Third Year?" she said.

Draco put the dish he had been holding back into the sink and glared at his wife. "Don't you dare," he said.

Hermione smirked at her husband. Their oldest son watched the encounter with fascination. "Well, now you have to tell me!" he said.

Hermione and Draco had a stare down until the latter finally conceded. "If you must," he groaned, focusing his attention to putting the leftover food away in the fridge. Hermione turned to her son with a spark in her eye. "So it all began in Care of Magical Creatures with this hippogriff named Buckbeak…" By the time the story was finished, Draco was shaking his head and chuckling while Scorpius was crying, he was laughing so hard.

"I can't believe she actually slapped you!" Scorpius said, finally able to make a coherent sentence without cracking up into laughter again.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we get it. I was a royal pain in the ass as a kid. I made up for it though!"

Hermione chuckled and wrapped her arms around her husband's mid-section. "It took you long enough, but yes, you did," she smiled up at him before reaching up on her toes to kiss him.

"Blegh!" Scorpius gagged causing his parents to laugh. Hermione looked at the clock on the wall. "Oh crap, it's after ten. Sorry boys, you'll have to raincheck on that last round."

"Awe, mum! Really?" Scorpius asked.

Hermione chuckled and nodded. "Yes, honey. You have to get to bed so that you're not exhausted when you return to school tomorrow. You can have your rematch when you get back for Christmas, okay?"

Scorpius huffed in defeat. "Okay." Getting up, he kissed his mom on the cheek and hugged his dad before wandering off to his room to finish packing to go back to school as Hermione and Draco wandered back to their room, arms linked.

As Hermione was brushing her teeth, Draco came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. "I really am sorry for being such a jackass to you in school. I was an ignorant kid who didn't know any better."

Hermione rinsed out her mouth before facing her husband and placing her hands on his chest. "I forgave you a long time ago, Draco. You need to stop blaming yourself."

"I know, I just sometimes get flashbacks of how horrible I was to you and I feel bad. I just wish I could make it up to you."

"You already have, my love. You've loved me in every way, you take care of me, you make me feel safe and happy and, most importantly, loved. And you're a wonderful father to our four beautiful children. You've been making it up to me ever since we met at that cafe during the war. And I'm so grateful for that and even more grateful for you. Please stop beating yourself up about the past and just focus on what we have right now. Please."

He rested his forehead against hers. "Okay, I promise, as of right now, I release any past regrets and I will only focus on you and our wonderful children from now on."

Hermione smiled and nuzzled her nose with his. "I love you, you know."

"I know," he replied before picking her up bridal style and taking her back to their bedroom.

Scorpius and Draco met with McGonagall first thing in the morning as they arrived at the school. McGonagall made Scorpius promise that he would ignore Jenner's antagonizing comments to the best of his ability, for she would not stand any more fighting in her school. She also told him that Jenner had been reprimanded and warned that if he said such comments, he would be taken right back to the Headmistress' office immediately. Scorpius agreed to McGonagall's terms and was released back into the school to attend his classes while Draco returned to work.

Being back in the familiar halls of his school was a relief for Scorpius. He didn't mind being at home with his parents but he didn't like how empty it felt without his siblings there so being back behind the school walls with chattering coming from all angles brought him back to life. He was lost in thought, walking to his first class of the day when he heard someone calling his name. "Scorp!"

He turned around to see his youngest sister running towards him with a large grin on her face. "Gem!" he yelled as she ran into his open arms. She giggled as her oldest brother spun her around in his embrace. When he put her down, he smiled at her. "How are you?" he asked.

"I'm good," she smiled. "How are you? Is everything okay? Mum wouldn't tell us much in her letters while you were with them so we've all been wondering how they reacted."

Scorpius sighed and began to walk to class with Gemma following closely. "They weren't mad but they weren't happy with my actions either. But they were proud of me for defending mum's honor, just not necessarily the way that I did it."

Gemma nodded in understanding. "Fair enough. If it makes you feel better though, you did some serious damage to Jenner's jaw. He had to get it completely realigned and is currently walking around with a bandage on his head to keep it in place. I feel bad for saying it, but it's actually kind of funny. Though, if you ask me, he deserved far worse."

Scorpius paused and looked at his sister in disbelief. Gemma didn't say anything bad about anyone so hearing that come out of her mouth was… well, not natural. He studied her for a moment. "Gemma, if I didn't know any better, I'd think you were a Slytherin."

She shrugged. "Well, I am my father's daughter."

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you and Myrna both," he muttered.

The youngest Malfoy chuckled and patted her brother's arm. "How are you, Scorp? Really?"

He smiled at her. "I'm fine, Gem, I promise. How are you? You looked a little shaken after I punched that idiot."

Gemma rolled her eyes and ignored her brother's comment. "It surprised me but I'm fine. Ezra is too. We just didn't really see that coming but we're on your side and we both agreed that we would have done the same."

Scorpius chuckled. Gemma wouldn't hurt a fly and Ezra liked to use his words to stop conflicts rather than his actions so seeing them get into a fight would have been interesting to see. Not that he wanted his siblings fighting anyone. "Well, as much as I'd love to see that, you and Ezra need to avoid getting into any fights, okay? Leave the dirty work to me and Myrna."

Gemma chuckled. "Right. I'll be sure to explain that to Mum and Dad if you ever get into another fight."

Scorpius smiled and ruffled his sister's hair causing her to huff in frustration. "See you later, Gem," he said as he walked into his Transfiguration class. Gemma stuck her tongue out at her oldest brother before skipping down the hall to get to her own class.

As soon as Scorpius walked in, he was accosted by his three best friends. "We were wondering when you were coming back, mate!" James said. "What happened? How did your parents react?"

Scorpius shrugged and sat at his usual spot next to Ben. "Fine. They weren't happy but they weren't angry either."

James seemed disappointed. "Really? That's all? No 'you're grounded for the next century' or anything like that?"

The Slytherin furrowed his brows. "You have met my parents right? You know they're never that dramatic."

James shrugged. "You never know." Scorpius laughed and shook his head but didn't respond as the professor walked into the room and started class.

The rest of his classes went smoothly. He didn't have any classes with Jenner until the next day, which was a relief. He did catch a glimpse of the Ravenclaw during lunch, however, and he had to hide his face behind a book to hide his laughter. His sisters and brother accosted him shortly after, though, and asked him about his week at home. Scorpius recounted his week with their parents (including the story of Hermione slapping Draco) and then caught up with them over everything he missed before going to his final classes.

Due to the bandage on his head, Jenner couldn't speak well, which inhibited his ability to make any snarky remarks to Scorpius. The Slytherin was tempted to rile the Ravenclaw up but decided against it, remembering his promise to himself about treating Jenner with kindness like his parents wanted. He nodded to Jenner before sitting down, hiding his smirk at Jenner's confused expression.

It continued like that throughout the rest of the month. Jenner continued to look Scorpius with a confused expression every time he nodded at him but he no longer tried to rile him up. Myrna and Ezra had thought that he had gone insane when he explained his reasoning of being kind to Jenner but Gemma had jumped right on board and gave the Ravenclaw a bright smile every time she saw him in the hallway. Myrna and Ezra still weren't completely warm to the idea and just ignored him whenever they saw him. The boys felt the same. Scorpius wasn't deterred though; he knew that with enough time Jenner would stop tormenting people altogether and eventually see that his views were wrong. He knew it wouldn't happen overnight but it would eventually. So, with Gemma's full support, he continued to be kind to the Ravenclaw, even if it just consisted of nodding at him whenever they passed. Hey, it would take time for the Slytherin to change his views too.

When Jenner finally returned the nod on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters at the beginning of Christmas break, Scorpius knew that he was doing the right thing.