Holidays

Rose stepped off the train feeling as lost as ever. It was weird to think of Christmas without her mum and dad. Weirder still to think that her mum would ever do something as crazy as take off to find her dad. Mum wasn't even an auror, that wasn't her job! This was one time when having a giant family was a good thing, her cousins would never let her concentrate on the lack of proper parents, there would be far too many snowball fights and Christmas cookies for her to remember that. Or so she hoped. Forcing a smile on her face Rose set off to find her aunt and uncle, treated to the happy reminder that she still had one family member, in the form of a crushing hug from her little brother.

Watching all of his friends get on the train to go home for Christmas had not been something Scorpius had enjoyed. Rose, Al and James were all headed off to the Potters to spend a worried Christmas with Harry and Ginny. Hermione had taken off to find Ron a week before, her fear for her husband getting in the way of her love of the proper channels. This had left her daughter, Scorpius' newly rediscovered best friend a wreck. Both parents being gone was more than an eleven year old could deal with.

Scorpius was faced with a very different prospect. He had received one more, short, letter since the one his parents had sent him in mid-November stating only that his grandfather, Lucius Malfoy, had been released from Azkaban and would, accordingly, be joining their family for Christmas. Although he had only met the old man once, he had heard enough stories to expect the worst of this holiday. Not only would he have to suffer the cold harsh disapproval of his parents, but he would also have to deal with one more judging adult in his life.

With the brightest face he could muster Scorpius wrestled his trunk down the stairs. It only made him hate his parents more. If he had left the day before, like a normal kid, then his trunk would have mysteriously appeared on the train. That was how it worked; his parents would have demanded that a house elf bring it all down. But they had never been subjected to the terror of Rose in mid tirade. She had inherited her mother's love of all magical creatures and had, accordingly, made him swear off using them a few weeks before. He was now regretting that decision.

Finally getting the trunk into the Great Hall Scorpius collapsed on top of it to wait for his parents. Using the, newly enriched, vocabulary of a school boy he cursed Rose for doing this to him, he was sweaty and hot, and was about to meet his Grandfather. He had contemplated wearing his nicest robes for the occasion, but had, on reflection, realized that they were not nearly warm enough for leaving the castle of a brisk December day. This would not, he realized, have any ground with his parents, they were so icy he didn't think they could get cold. He moaned at the thought of their withering looks and flopped even further on his trunk. They could find him as dishevelled as they liked. Parents like Rose or Al had wouldn't have cared.

Christmas morning in the Potter household dawned cold and early, with Rose thinking about her parents for the first time that holiday. Any other year she'd have woken Hugo up the second the sun rose, but it didn't feel right. To do so she would not only have to wake up Lily, whose room she was sharing, but also Al who had been quite nice about the whole affair, but was obviously starting to hate being followed around by the younger brother he had never had. She sighed and lay back down on the bed, depressedly looking out the window, sure that none of her cousins would ever have been this nice to her.

It only took a few minutes of moping before she realized that someone else was in the room. Someone who was giggling uncontrollably, and someone, she quickly grew to realize, was being corrupted by his cousins. Hugo's head popped out from beneath her bed and his face split into a huge grin, distracting Rose for the crucial moment. While she was preoccupied with giving her little brother a lecture on the unseemliness of him being in there at this hour, the giant pile of dung bombs that had been hovering above her head, an early Christmas present from the lovely James, no doubt, fell and exploded, causing a giant green cloud of a noxious scent to erupt and quickly fill the room. Rose and Lily ran quickly from the room, screaming all the while, their presents left in a pile on the floor.

Scorpius spent Christmas morning in a gloomy state. He knew his friends were probably enjoying heaps of presents and snowball fights and everything else that led to a magical Christmas, but he, on the other hand, had only a few ill-considered presents from his parents. A Slytherin scarf being the most memorable. He had received a box of chocolate frogs from Rose, but even devouring the entire box had failed to put him in a good mood.

After the charmingly formal breakfast that was among his family's peculiar traditions he managed to escape the house, finding some solace in a friend conjured from snow. He attempted to magic the snowman's hair to red, but all he managed to do was melt it. This left him in such a rage at how unfair it all was that, upon returning to his room, he shattered his window. He then, much to his displeasure, had to have his mother come and repair it when snow started blowing in.

Knowing that he was the only kid in his year who couldn't stand holidays did not help Scorpius' feelings, so, knowing that diner would not begin until much later, he lay down on his bed. He was so sick of his stupid family that he, for once in his life, let his emotions out and cried himself to sleep, knowing his father would detest the sight of him.

"JAMES SIRIUS POTTER," Ginny's voice, echoed through the house, obviously unimpressed at being awoken at such an hour by a prank. "HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU OFF FOR THIS HABIT OF SETTING OFF DUNGBOMBS?" She paused for a moment to clear the smell from the air as Harry pulled his two sons into the room. "I'll have all of them now." She held her hand out expectantly, ignoring the look of surprise on James' face.

"Mum it wasn't me; I would never have done something so childish. I've moved on to more adult things now." James puffed out his chest and made as if to leave the room, a grin plastered across the face.

"Do not for one second think that you can pin this on your brother, young man. He has never so much as hidden your sister's Teddy Bear. I am certain he does not have the stash of dung bombs that would be necessary to pull off this sort of stench. And I do not, for a second, believe that this is the last of them, I will have all of the dung bombs in your possession in the next minute or you will spend the evening inside with the adults." Ginny shoed him with her hand, thinking for a second on the merits of having the biggest pair of pranksters in decades for older brothers. James ran quickly out of the room terrified that she might go through with her threats.

"And you," She rounded on her younger son, "There isn't a chance you didn't know about this. I expect you to at least try to keep him in line." She looked at Albus sternly.

"But mum, he's MY older brother, isn't he meant to keep me out of trouble?" Al, smiled his best smile, sure his mum had calmed down enough to not really be mad at him. Sure enough, she smiled at him and ruffled his hair before following James out of the room, muttering something about his uncles.

Harry had been watching this all with a bemused expression on his face. "Your mum is exactly like her mum when she gets mad. It's frightening actually. Now, go open your presents, we're expected before lunch at The Burrow and it wouldn't do for you to not have your jumper on." He gestured at his own attire as his son grinned and ran from the room.

AN:

So, surprise of all surprises is that I haven't died. I know, it's weird. But suddenly the deathly writer's block that I had been experiencing around this story vanished. It just went poof!

I am very sorry that it had been so long, I'm expecting everyone who ever cared about this story to have vanished by now. But I have another chapter pretty much written! And it is not pretty, for Scorpius anyway. Not that this one sheds the best light on his home life. However, the Weasley family gets along just as well as can be expected, despite James' pranks.

I have an idea, for anyone who doesn't want me to disappear again…Review! Or follow me, or something. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. Or check out my blog, that also makes me grin!