A/N I can't believe I managed to unconsciously skip this one, my favourite chapter, too. gonna have to fix the latest chapter to let everyone know to go back to chapter 10 for this.

Chapter 9: Scorpius Malfoy

Up in the Gryffindor first year boys' dormitory, Rast, Teddy, and Valerie sat together, discussing the birthday party set for the next day. Rast was gesticulating wildly, pointing out that with three of them, they could check the manor for anything suspicious, and always keep an eye on Lucius.

Valerie shook her head. "Rast, I know you mean well, but you can't just invite us like that. If your uncle is as bad as you think, then what are we doing going to his house? I'm a half-blood! Teddy's a half-blood! He'd hold that as a good enough reason for us to be chucked out!"

Teddy nodded his agreement, his hair turning a vibrant shade of purple, and Rast could not tell if it had been intentional or not. Teddy was getting better at controlling his powers every day now. "We will come with you, of course. We just don't think you thought it through completely when you wrote the note to your uncle. Let's just enjoy the party and see how your uncle behaves."

As they went to bed, the three did not know that Sir Cadogan was waiting in a portrait near that of the Fat Lady, hoping to see them and alert them to the news he had just learned.

The three left Gryffindor Tower in the morning, hoping to find breakfast in the Great Hall. They walked right past the portrait that held a sleeping Sir Cadogan and did not see him once that day.

Their classes passed quickly, as they slept through History of Magic and managed to play around through most of their Charms class before igniting the feather like they were supposed to. Defence Against the Dark Arts was a history lesson this time, covering Grindelwald's involvement in what the Muggles called World War II.

Apparently Grindelwald had used the Imperius Curse to get a puppet in the Muggle government in Germany, who convinced the German Muggles that other Muggles with slightly different features were abominations to humanity and should be put to death. Eventually Grindelwald released the Muggle called Hitler from the Imperius Curse, but he had been under the spell's effects for so long he couldn't tell his own thoughts from those that had been suggested to him by the curse, and continued anyway. This all flew right over Rastaban and Teddy's heads and all they took from the lesson was that Grindelwald was a grade A git.

Once the lesson ended, Rast, Teddy, and Valerie all packed their things and started toward the door with the rest of the class. Professor Malfoy cleared his throat loudly and they turned around. "Where do you think you're going?" he asked, clearly fighting his natural instinct to sneer at them.

"We were going up to eat. Classes are done for the day," Rastaban said plainly to his uncle, who simply raised his eyebrow.

"And how do you intend to get to the party for Scorpius if you do that? I hope you do not believe that we would not be serving a meal," he replied, fully sneering at his nephew at this point. Sometimes the boy needed a good talking down to, Lucius thought. "Leave your things upstairs in my office; it will be warded so that intruders cannot enter."

The three students stepped through the door at the back of the classroom and climbed the short flight of stairs leading to Professor Malfoy's office. They entered and marvelled at what they saw. There were several bookcases, each filled to the brim with books. The desk was a perfectly ordered collection of quills and parchment. "Even Uncle Percy's desk at the Ministry isn't this neat," Teddy breathed, clearly surprised.

Valerie was looking at one of the bookshelves while the boys looked up at the photographs and portraits. Many Dark wizards looked down at the three with contempt, although they said nothing. From two large wall scrolls, a pair of dark towers faced each other from opposite sides of the room. One rose from the sea, waves crashing against its sides violently. That had to be Azkaban. The other stood in the mountains, where a blizzard raged against it. That one had to be Nurmengard, as they could just make out that the gate near the bottom of the picture said 'For the Greater Good'.

Lucius stood at the threshold and simply watched as the three children forgot all manners and began exploring his office. He watched as the Wood girl took an interest in his bookshelves, noticing that she had passed over his case of Dark Arts books. Rather, she seemed to be examining his books on Muggles and Muggle society, which he had been reading to try and better understand their sort. He let them carry on for another minute before he cleared his throat – one of the least offensive ways he knew to alert them to his presence – and pointed them toward the fireplace.

Rastaban went first so the other two would hear him before they went off to the wrong location. Pinching a bit of Floo powder between his fingers, he chucked it into the fireplace, stepped into the emerald flames, and shouted "Malfoy Manor!"

He whirled about in the Floo network, seeing hundreds of other grates before he was finally spat out of the one he knew best – the fireplace in the sitting room at home. As he stood to brush himself off and get out of the way of his friends, who would surely be arriving any second, a small child ran up to and nearly toppled him over with the force of his hug.

"Rast! Rast, Rast, Rast, Rast, Rast!" Little Scorpius Malfoy hugged his cousin around the middle very tightly, gluing them both in place until Teddy popped out the fireplace and took Rast out at the knees. All three stood up, and Scorpius looked at Teddy sternly. Teddy blushed crimson a bit, and his hair changed to match as he said "Sorry, mates."

Scorpius watched Teddy's hair change and yelled "Cool! What's your name? I'm Scorpius! Do it again!"

"I'm Teddy," he said, not unused to the excited rabble of small children. Albus was this boy's age, after all, and he was used to that. "Why don't you show me around and I'll change my hair all you want?"

"Okay!" Scorpius grabbed Teddy by the wrist and started to drag him to the next room over. "Come on! We're going to the kitchen!" he urged as Valerie came out of the fireplace.

"Where's Teddy? He went in just before me," she asked, having missed him by a second, not noticing Mrs. Malfoy standing off in the corner watching Rastaban greet his friends into his home.

"He got dragged off by Scorp. The little guy seems to really like Teddy; I think it's because he saw him change his hair colour."

They stepped deftly out of the way a few seconds later as Lucius Malfoy clambered out of the grate and righted himself. With a wave of his wand he was dusted off, and immediately surveyed the room. "Where has Mr. Lupin gone?"

"Scorpius is giving him the grand tour," Rast laughed. The house was huge, and a full tour could take several hours.

"I'll go find them," Narcissa said pleasantly, stepping out from her corner.

"And I shall locate the other runts. Draco and Astoria have a handful in Scorpius alone, and I can't imagine them handling another nine at the moment," Lucius drawled, following his wife out the door.

"That is my family at home, Valerie," Rast noted, sitting on one of the many sofas and gesturing for Valerie to do the same. She did, and turned to look him in his eyes.

"Your aunt seems nice enough. And your uncle seems more easygoing here. Maybe we were wrong about him?"

"Maybe. And yeah, she's a great aunt. Always good to me and Scorp," Rastaban sighed, looking up at the photograph on the mantel. "See that photograph there? Aunt Narcissa is helping me hold Scorpius, and Uncle Lucius is sitting on the sofa, reading. Draco and Astoria were so happy to see me holding their son. I think he was about a month old when we had that taken."

Valerie looked and watched the photograph as a seven year old Rast smiled to the camera with a baby in his arms. She saw Professor Malfoy reading a book that looked vaguely familiar, and Mrs. Malfoy was now dabbing Scorpius' chin with a handkerchief. There was no doubt about it; the Malfoy clan had found happiness and family after the war.

"You wouldn't believe where I found them," Narcissa exhaled as she led Teddy and Scorpius to the sitting room, just a few minutes later. Teddy sat down by Rastaban, and Scorpius climbed up onto Rast's lap, laughing every few seconds when Teddy would change his hair.

"Was he teaching you how to play with blocks, Teddy?" Rast smiled, taking the opportunity to tease Scorpius about the fact that he still preferred blocks to the toy broomstick he had received his previous birthday.

"No, Rast. No blocks at all," his friend replied, grinning and clearly holding his laughter inside.



"Scorpius decided that his grand tour should include an explanation of the toilet to your friend, Rastaban. He seemed to be pointing out the merits of the toilet as a habitat for frogspawn when I got there," Narcissa stated seriously, though Rast could detect a hint of amusement in her voice.

"It is!" Scorpius protested. "The tadpoles swim, and there's water, and they need water to swim, and –"

"And the toilet will flush and your tadpoles would die, Scorp," a tall wizard with short, white-blond hair said, bending to his knee to receive the child who was running full tilt at him. "I've been trying to explain this to you for a week, now. Honestly, you can't believe everything Vince tells you. I'm not raising any mug here, you know."

He set the child down, and Scorpius spied his mother and grandfather leading a small troop of children through the kitchen.

"The boy is just so daft sometimes, Mum," Draco said as soon as the boy had joined his friends. "Hey, Rast. How's it going, kid?"

"I'm doing fine. How are you, Draco?" he replied, returning the question to his only and favourite cousin.

"Things could be better. Between you lot and me," he said, motioning to the three first year students in front of him. "Astoria thinks I should join the Cannons and help them a bit with getting up to the standard the other teams have."

Valerie, Rastaban, and Narcissa all sniggered. Teddy, whose hair could only be described as Weasley orange at the moment, said "Uncle Ron's favourite team is the Cannons. I think he'd like to see them do better."

Draco turned his attention to the boy, and simply said "And which of the Weasleys is your father? Can't be Ginny or Ronald; no one my age should really have a child your age," he noted as an afterthought, without the slightest hint of a sneer. Rather, there was a bit of embarrassment in his voice.

"I'm not a Weasley, sir," Teddy said jovially. "I mean, I'm like family to them, but my parents weren't related at all to them."

"May I be so bold as to ask who your parents are?" Draco asked, politely.

"Well, they were Remus Lupin and Tonks," Teddy replied, remembering how his grandmother always told him that his mother could not stand to be called Nymphadora. He'd decided to never refer to her as such ever again once he knew that. "But I live with my Gran now, because of the war."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Draco said, as he glanced toward his mother. A flicker of understanding seemed to pass between them, but none of the children seemed to notice. Lucius, meanwhile, had 

finally formed a queue out of the rambunctious group of children and was marching them into the sitting room for supper, cake, and presents.

After a wonderful roasted lamb and potatoes prepared by both of the Malfoy wives, the many children scrambled over each other to find good spots to sit at while Scorpius opened his presents before the cake was served. This took some time, as several children stopped to gawk at Teddy's hair, having never seen anything like it before. Valerie was giggling at this, and even Rast was amused.

"Now, now, everyone settle down so we can move through the gifts quickly. You all want cake, don't you?" Astoria called out. Within seconds, every child was seated. "Alright, then. Let's start with this one, from Gary, Vince, and Ed."

She picked up a rather large and lumpy package and handed it to Scorpius. Rast looked at the three brothers, all within a year of Scorpius' age, and recognised the Goyle boys. He'd never liked Mr. Goyle that much, but he didn't begrudge Draco his friendship with the man, when clearly no one else would be. He didn't really see the point in questioning his cousin's friendships, as he placed the blame for any negativity in Draco on his uncle.

Scorpius tore into the package and started to pull out everything inside. There were several miniature pewter broomsticks that floated in midair, and then there were miniature Quidditch Players who walked around. Rast took a look and saw that they were replicas of the players for the Falmouth Falcons and the Holyhead Harpies, current as of six years prior. And then there was the miniature pitch and Quidditch balls. The whole set was beautiful, and Rast felt overjoyed for Scorpius. He thought it would be a blast to spend his vacation time using his wand to recreate matches for the little guy.

"Thanks!" Scorpius exclaimed as he tried to make the figure of Gwenog Jones mount her broom.

"This one is from Bill and Ginger," Astoria said, handing over a small, rectangular package. Rast recognised the Nott twins, though he felt no particular affinity for their family.

Scorpius opened this one and seemed to like that it was a book. He held it up for his grandparents to see and then hugged it tightly. The book was clearly old.

"I think that's a copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard," Lucius commented, watching as his grandson set the book down carefully before resuming his attempts to make the Holyhead captain get on a broomstick.

"We have this one from Arnold and Victoria," Astoria continued, handing over a large bag from the Zabinis. Arnold was nearly six, but Victoria was Scorpius' age.

Scorpius started pulling things out of the bag and Lucius' eyes widened as he whispered almost imperceptibly "Not in my house."

Scorpius was now holding two boxes. One was labelled "Weasley's Wildfire Whizbangs: Deflagration Deluxe Package!" and the other "Portable Swamp".

Draco immediately summoned them over to his side and said "I'll hold onto these, son. We don't need any accidents." He then gave Rast a pointed look that said Scorpius would never see those gifts again, if he could help it. There was no point in giving a four year old access to such mayhem, after all.

The next two gifts, from Martin Higgs and Ambrosia Carmichael, were a new toy broomstick and a large box full of toffee éclairs. Scorpius looked at the éclairs and knew he would be set for dessert for a very long time, and looked at the new toy broomstick with mild interest. It was improved after the old one he already had, but Scorpius did not show much of an interest in flying just yet.

Finally, there was the gift from the whole Malfoy clan. Lucius left the room to go retrieve the gift. Rast had given the rest of the family the idea when he had seen Scorpius react to the animals at the Magical Menagerie. He had particularly reacted to a large, black cat. When Lucius returned, holding said cat, Scorpius jumped up.

"Kitty! Grandpa, Grandma, Mummy, Daddy, Rast, look at the kitty!" he squealed, pure joy etched into his little face. The cat, for the most part, looked completely terrified by all the attention it was now receiving from the other nine small children. After the hubbub died down, Narcissa served cake and the cat ran off to find a place to hide until the noise died down. Rast, Teddy, and Valerie all accepted a slice, and conversed about the party while they ate.

"Well, your family seems to be a lot better than we gave them credit for, Rast," Valerie said quietly, in between bites. "Look at them. Your cousin and his wife get on great with you; their son absolutely adores you, and Teddy, too. Your aunt and you seem to have this understanding, and even Professor Malfoy seems to have a soft spot for all of you."

"I'm with her, Rast. Maybe we overreacted. Maybe he has changed. No way would a Death Eater who hasn't reformed greatly accept half-bloods like us into his home to celebrate his grandson's birthday."

"I guess so," Rast said, his theories about his uncle finally falling. "I suppose I'll have to accept him the way he is, eh?"

After the party had ended and the children had been escorted home, Rast went to go say goodbye to his cousins and their child. Draco had the various gifts slung about his arm, and simply said "He's never touching those fireworks. Too dangerous for a kid like him. Maybe next year, though, if you want them?"

Rast laughed in spite of himself. Astoria had turned Draco into quite the protective parent. "Send me the swamp for Christmas and the fireworks for my birthday. We'll see what kind of trouble I can make with those."

"Done," Draco replied, giving his best smirk to the boy.

Rast gave Draco a warm hug, and Draco responded by clapping the boy on the shoulder with his free hand. Astoria bent down and kissed him on the cheek, thanking him for being there to see Scorpius. Scorpius stood by his mother's feet and looked up at Rast. "I want a Teddy!" he said, drawing laughs from his parents and Rast.

"I don't think I can give him to you, little man. He rather likes things the way they are. I'm sure he'll see you again, though," Rast assured the boy. "I've got to go now. Be good for your mum and dad, alright?"

"Okay. I can do that!" Scorpius exclaimed after him as Rast went back to the sitting room to Floo back to Hogwarts with his friends and uncle.

Rastaban, Teddy, and Valerie had just reached the Fat Lady's portrait after having Flooed to Lucius' office. They were exhausted by the sheer energy of those children, and they wanted nothing better than to get inside and crawl into their nice, cosy beds. They were about to say the password when they heard a clanging noise, and looked behind them to see Sir Cadogan.

"My quest is complete, and I bring to you the information you seek," he said.