a/n: how well does harry know his own son?

Chapter 10 – A girl

Scorpius

Dad looked furious. Oh shit, I was in for it now.

Not only was I caught fighting in school, I dragged him all the way here, away from work and forced him to sit right beside the one man that he despised more than anything else. Harry Potter.

Looking at him, I have no idea how dad could hate him so much. He looked like a really nice guy. Like a typical fatherly type. But I also knew not to be fooled by outward appearances, because this seemingly ordinary man, took down one of the most powerful wizards in history countless times. Not alone, of course, but without much help. And if you squinted you could almost see the golden aura of his power crackling around him.

This was not a man to be trifled with. To think my father had fought with him in school was almost unthinkable. How had he not been killed in an instant by Harry Potter? Harry Potter was a legend and my dad was just… dad. I suppose I should give him more credit than that, because clearly he could hold his own in a duel or at least an argument against Mr. Potter, because he managed to live through Hogwarts.

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat and raised an eyebrow.

"Now boys, your fathers would like to know why exactly you were caught fighting earlier."

I sighed. This wasn't good. I had to out myself about having a huge crush on Lilly to her father, who could kill me with a glance, unless my father beats him to it, or Sirius was going to. Normally he would, but under the circumstances, I highly doubted it.

Chancing a glance at him, I noticed that he had cooled down since our fight. His furious face had smoothed to his normal easygoing features, and the angry red that had flared, had receded into a more human shade. He met my eyes, a small glimmer of understanding in them. He nodded infinitesimally to me, barely noticeable. No one else in the room would have picked up on it. I barely had, and I was looking for it. I exhaled silently in relief, he had my back.

Harry

I noticed a small exchange between Sirius and Scorpius. Anyone else wouldn't have noticed it, but as the Head of the Aurors, I have been highly trained at interrogation and noticing tiny, seemingly insignificant details in suspects. It seemed that one of them would be covering for the other and we would get only a partial story today. Better than nothing I suppose.

I watched Sirius shift slightly in his chair and then clear his throat violently. He gently rubbed one of his fists against his pant leg, and I noticed fresh bruising on his knuckles. Looking over at Scorpius, I noticed an answering bruise ghosted across his cheekbones. Sirius's wounds were minimal, some scratches on his arms and face and a red mark on his jaw. Possibly from an openhanded blow or even a strong shove.

Scorpius on the other hand, looked much worse off. He rubbed the back of his head gingerly, wincing slightly at the contact. He avoided his fathers gaze studiously. Not that I blame him, I wouldn't want Malfoy as a father either. Scorpius also had a red mark that wound around his throat, telling of hands pressing against it.

Scorpius didn't start this fight. Hell, by the looks of it, it wasn't really much of a fight at all. More like Sirius beating the shit out of Scorpius. Sirius was only covered with tiny defensive wounds. Odd. Scorpius was more than big enough to have inflicted some serious damage if he had tried. Him and Sirius weighed in somewhere around the same, with Scorpius having a few inches on Sirius. Whatever happened, Scorpius felt he deserved it. Interesting.

"It was about a girl."

Lie. Son, I know that's a lie. It wasn't about a girl at all.

"We were fighting about a girl."

I knew that couldn't have been true. I had my suspicions that Sirius was pretty far in the closet. Farther than even me. Scorpius I could see fighting about a girl, something about him screamed womanizer, but not Sirius. Sirius would never fight about a girl. Which means that either he's covering for Scorpius, who did something wrong, or Scorpius is covering for him.

"We were having a conversation, and things just got out of hand. We were both emotional and just lost control. A fight seemed the only way to solve it."

Things might have gotten out of hand, but I think I knew what was really going on here. I would be willing to bet almost anything that Scorpius got himself a girlfriend, and Sirius was jealous about it. In denial of course, but irrationally angry.

Not that I could blame Sirius. If I had been twenty years younger, I'd probably be in love with the boy too. He was beautiful. Took after his father. Equally as attractive, equally as unattainable. Strange how my son was doomed to make my same mistakes.

Our meeting ended not long after that, not managing to get much more out of the two boys. I sighed. I would get to the bottom of this eventually. But for now I had other things to deal with. Namely, Malfoy. I wanted to know, and I wanted to know badly, whether or not I had a chance with him.

"Hey Malfoy. Before you go, I know that we've never been particularly civil, and haven't really been in contact for almost twenty years, but do you think maybe we could be… I don't know, friends?"

He looked at me astounded. Confusion was a cute look on the ferret. This moment seemed oddly reminiscent of first year on the train and I hoped he wouldn't be as petty as I was. Hw grabbed my hand firmly and shook it once. His hands were warm and soft in mine, and my heart skipped a beat when we locked eyes briefly.

"Drinks tomorrow Pot-Harry. 9'oclock, Leaky Cauldron."