Seven

Slowly but surely, mine, Sam Finnigan, and Nike Shacklebolt's fame grew in Hogwarts, rumors that I, in fact, was the new Dark Lord. When that word did get around, it seemed no one was brave enough to look me in the eye. Sam Finnigan had yet to confront me about anything and I began to realize that he wasn't going to. Some part of me believed that he wanted to see what my next move was. I wasn't going to give him that satisfaction, though.

The time came when Avery grew bored with our dorm one weekend. She wanted to venture back to the Potters, in Devon. We apparated once we were outside the school borders, Nike having promised us that she would make sure any duels between any of the Alliance would be split up.


Our feet met the earth again in what seemed to be the countryside of Devon. There were fields that spanned as far as I could see. It was raining lightly, the sky a mixture of gray and dull blue. She grabbed my hand and ran towards the only house visible for acres. It was large, three stories, brick with a quaint garden, full of hydrangea and rose bushes, surrounding it. Avery opened the heavy mahogany door which led us into a narrow hallway, two archways on either side and one at the end. I looked both ways to see a living room where the TV was turned on the news, and a study which looked like it was rarely used.

Avery wasted no time in heading to the kitchen in where we heard rustling about. Ginny Potter was behind the countertop reading out of a cookbook. In a bowl beside her was a brown, chocolaty mix.

"This can't be right," she spoke quietly to herself.

"Smells right to me." Avery said sweetly.

"Most food usually smells right to you, my dear." Ginny said, and looked up at the two of us. She smiled at Avery and embraced her. She grinned at me. "Scorpius Malfoy, the son of the darkest age magic has yet to offer us." I smirked.

"How are you, Mrs. Potter?"

"I'd be better if I knew how to cook properly." She said to me and laughed a little bit. "Sit down, I'll prepare the two of you something to eat." At that moment, we heard giggles come from upstairs. I looked at Avery who was looking at Ginny who had gone into the fridge to see what she could possibly concoct for the two of us.

"Is Teddy home?" Avery asked. I had forgotten that Teddy Lupin had lived with the Potters in his younger years. Ginny nodded.

"Yes, he's brought Victoire for the weekend. They've become engaged since you saw them last." Avery rolled her eyes.

"It's only taken them a hundred years."

"Well I believe that Victoire is in a motherly state and Teddy wanted to do the rightful thing. He had been seeing someone else but wouldn't talk about it." Ginny whispered, checking a plate of greens that was covered by saran wrap. She looked back quickly and pointed to the bowl of brownie mix. It began mixing on its own.

"And you don't care?" Avery asked, looking unnaturally concerned.

"About Victoire being pregnant? They're both grown; surely they know what's good for them. Why don't you go say hello." Avery did so and I followed her up the carpeted stairs into the hallway where pictures of the family were displayed on nearly every inch of the walls. Avery knocked lightly on one of the doors and it opened just slightly with a creak.

The two of them were lying on his bed looking up at the ceiling. There were images being created by a soft cloud of magic on the ceiling. The one they were looking at right then was a flamingo.

Teddy looked over at Avery and waved.

"Hello, dear girl!" Teddy exclaimed. Victoire looked over and smiled. "And who's that you've got behind you?" Avery stepped aside just slightly. "A Malfoy is that?" I nodded. His expression changed.

"I've been dating him for some time." Avery informed him. "He's got a good heart." She looked back at me and I could feel my cheeks tingle with blood.

"Yes, well is Ginny done with lunch? I'm starving!"

"She only just started, Ted. She'll call us down when she's ready I'm sure." Victoire pointed to the ceiling and the cloud had formed into some type of arachnid. Avery turned, pulling the door shut and stepped across the hall. She turned the knob and opened the door, stepping aside to let me in.

The room was painted a light shade of yellow-green, white curtains and linens accenting the room. There was only one window, but a very large one, at the end of the room looking out beyond the backyard. Her double bed was pressed up against the window, a closet on the left, a bureau on the right with a large mirror standing atop. The mirror had words inscribed on the top and I recognized the first word right away; Erised.

"You know what it is." She said. I looked at her and nodded.

"It fell into my grandparents' possession after Dumbledore died."

"Why?" I asked, looking at her. Her gaze was concentrated on the mirror.

"There are traces of Elvin magic in it. It seemed only fair that it be given back to my family." She said, her voice almost lost.

"What are you seeing?" I asked her.

"Us, in the future, in Wiltshire, a son." I looked down, remembering the feeling that I was overcome with while I stood in my father's study. "It's not what I always saw." She confessed, tearing her eyes away from her reflection. She took hold of only one of my fingers. "I pictured my life up in the mountains, lonely and cold. Tell me what you see." Her voice was so soft and sweet.

I stepped in front of the mirror as she sat down on the bed and looked up at me. The image came slowly. My parents were in the background with a toddler, my father chasing him and smiling. Avery was dancing with Dev, her head rested on his shoulder. They looked like adults, Avery in a fitted red dress that reached her knees, tall black heals. She had a wedding ring on but a great melancholy fog lay in her eyes. I wasn't sure how to feel seeing my reflection. It was so far from what I had expected.

"The same thing, only my parents are in the background." I sat down next to her, unable to look anymore. At the head of her room, across from her bed, was a bookshelf, containing a library of knowledge and imagination. She had told me before that imagination was something she didn't have much of. Being an Elf, she only saw the realistic parts of life. She wasn't a dreamer. It was ironic that she was given the mirror.

"You're lying to me." She said. I looked at her. "You saw your future with someone else." In fact, it was the opposite. I saw her future with my dearest friend.

"No it was us." I said, putting my hand on her knee. "Marry me, over holiday." She grinned, putting her hand on my cheek.

"You are a charmer."

"I'm serious, Avery. If something were to happen, I'd like to give you one of your dreams." Her grin faded slowly, her eyes sharpening. "In Wiltshire, just your family and mine."

"You're talking nonsense, my dear." I took her hand and put it down.

"I'm not joking."

"Maybe not but we would be the joke of the school." She said, getting up and going to her closet. She pulled out a red flannel shirt and a pair of jeans. She undressed and the sight of her bare body didn't faze me for once.

"We don't have to wear rings, at least on our fingers. We could wear them around a chain or something.

"Neither of us are even seventeen."

"Who cares?" She took her long hair and put it in a thick plait. "If you want it why waste the time, why wait until we're older?"

"It's not about that, Scorpius. If I chose to marry you, I'd be giving up all of my immortality which would make me full witch, rather than half Elf. I value my family name."

"But your grandparents gave you away at the first chance!" I told her. She looked at me and I knew that I had hit the wrong button. Her eyebrows became hard against her eyes, which grew dark.

"They didn't give me away. They knew Harry could take better care of me, given my magical status. Harry wanted me to come live with him and the rest of the Potters. It didn't make sense for a little girl to be living in the mountains." She took a moment, turned to her closet and sighed. "I can't believe you would say such a thing."

"I…I didn't mean to." I told her.

"Never mind it."


Again, my dreams were tainted with much more pleasing images than real life offered me. It was me, holding a son of my own, smiling as I walked up the path of the Wiltshire Manor my parents resided in. Avery was ahead of us, sporting a pregnant belly. The Potters were behind us, holding goods in their hands.

Atlas Alexander, I called my son. Avery had chosen his first name and I had chosen the middle name, trying to steer clear of any dark creature. But his name fit him. He was my world, the apple of my eye. Avery would name the second child, a girl, Iris Melaina. There were bets whether or not the little girl would come out with dark hair or not, seeing as how Atlas had come out with a head full of snow white hair.

I woke up, my heart racing. I turned over in the bed and saw Avery sleeping on her back, her head turned towards me, her hands above her head. I kissed her warm cheek gently.

I got out of the bed and put on a sweatshirt of Albus' that Avery had taken from his room the day before. I went downstairs and into the kitchen where I looked at the soft glow coming up over the hills. I opened the door as quietly as I could and left it. I walked out and down the deck staircase, past their rightful backyard and to the top of the nearest hill where I sat. It was only half past six. The sun seemed to bloom over the hills in an intoxicating manner, rippling the sky in all its brilliance. I thought to myself, why would Avery want to go to Wiltshire when she got to experience something like this every morning.

"Would you like a cup of coffee?" I heard a strong voice ask. I looked up and saw Mr. Potter, his green eyes shimmering in the radiance.

"No thank you." He nodded.

"I left it in the house anyway. You're up rather early."

"Bad dream." I lied.

"You don't need to lie to me. I've been trained in Occlumency. My mind often wonders at night into the dreams of others. Luckily for me I've never come across something I didn't want to see."

I stood up and tried brushing the dew off of me. I then crossed my arms over my chest and continued watching the sunrise.

"You can have anything you want in the world, but you have to know what will get you to that point."

"As in…"

"As in resisting your urges to kill Sam Finnigan; keeping your mind clear of your darkest thoughts; keeping your eyes on the prize. I know you're afraid for your life; she is too."

"She doesn't show it."

"Isn't that why you love her?" I looked at him, the glare of the sun hitting his circular glasses. "Because she's sensible?"

"That's one of the reasons, yes." He smirked.

"Right; love can't be defined by one reason. Forgive me, Scorpius. I have to go to work." I nodded.

"Have a good day."

"You too. Don't be troubled too much."

I went back inside; back upstairs, back into her bed. She was still sleeping but she awoke when I got beneath the covers, her eyes puffy from dreaming.

"Marry me." I said.


"You don't feel you're rushing into things?" Ginny said at dinner that night. Harry hadn't said a word since Avery had mentioned it. She was nervous, something I had never seen from her.

"If something were to happen-"

"But you know that anything will happen. Harry could have been killed dozens of times and we've raised five kids, two of them not our own but you understand."

"Wouldn't you have regretted parts of your life if Harry had died?" Avery asked. Ginny went quiet, waiting for Harry to defend her point of view.

"Explain to them the dream you had, Scorpius." Harry requested. I swallowed, surprised that Harry would ask this of me. I looked back and forth from both women. Teddy and Victoire had gone to town for dinner. "It may make your case sound more logical to Ginny."

"It's really nothing-"

"No, tell us." Avery insisted.

"Fine." Harry said. "He was dreaming of bringing us all to Wiltshire, to his parents' manor, and in his arms was a young boy, hair the color of snow, and Avery was very pregnant with a girl. We were going to have dinner as a family at the Malfoys'." Both women were staring at Harry, wide eyed.

"So you agree then, that the two should get married at such a young age? Avery will have just turned 17."

"I don't agree, no. But if it is their wish, I will support them." He said firmly. "However, it'd be my own wish that the wedding stay fairly quiet, our immediate family as well as Scorpius'. No Teddy and Victoire; I wouldn't want to steal their thunder. I would pay for whatever it was that would make you happy; a dress, food, a photographer as we know that Scorpius can't take the pictures himself." Ginny's lips were parted, unbelieving what Harry was saying, though he said it in a dull tone, telling me that he really didn't approve, but saw where we were coming from.

"Harry…" Ginny said.

"You cannot blame them, Ginny." He looked at her. "You must understand the decision Avery has already made for herself in this." Ginny looked at Avery. "For an Elf to give up their immortality is giving up most of their power that they were born with."

"You don't think they're being blinded by love?" Ginny asked him.

"It's possible. But Scorpius is doing a much more honorable thing than Teddy is. Avery is my bird, but every bird will seek the day that the cage opens." Ginny looked as if she were going to break down and cry. She sighed, stood, and brought her plate to the kitchen. I could hear her weeping softly.

"She doesn't approve, but you have her best wishes." Harry said, standing. Avery looked down at her plate and I could tell she had lost her appetite. Ginny came back in the room, seconds later, her face wet with tears.

"I'm not crying because I don't approve of you, Scorpius. You need to know that this is one of my children, though. I could not bear the sight of seeing her in pain."

"I wouldn't dream of it." I said to her firmly.