A/N: Sorry for the extremely long wait. The Student Society at the university I attend is trying to evict a group that I am a part of from our space on campus so most of my energy for the upcoming weeks is going to be devoted to fighting that. Hopefully I will still be able to get some updates in. Also somebody suggested that I provide some clarification about the timeline for the chapters of this story, and so I plan on adding in some dates to the chapters sometime this week.
William Nott (OC): Friend of Scorpius, Son of Theodore Nott
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
William knew Scorpius' secret.
William Nott knew Scorpius' secret. Not the secret that Scorpius had been dating Rose Weasley behind everyone's backs, much to his chagrin William hadn't known about this fact until Lily Potter had announced it to the whole school. No, William Nott knew Scorpius' other secret. William knew that Scorpius had almost been sorted into Ravenclaw with him. And so while William hadn't known that Scorpius had been secretly dating Rose Weasley, he hadn't been particularly surprised when he had found out. Because Scorpius was a lot more like Rose Weasley than everyone thought he was.
You see William Nott had grown up with Scorpius Malfoy and Marcus Zabini. Their parents had been friends in school and their work had brought them in constant contact with each other, and as a result they had expected their three boys to be best friends.
And they had been. Or at least William and Marcus had both been best friends with Scorpius.
William and Marcus however had not been best friends with each other.
William was five the first time he had met Scorpius and Marcus. Or at least the first time he remembered meeting them. His family had just returned to England after three years of living in Romania and his parents had taken him to Malfoy Manor to get reacquainted with Scorpius and Marcus, whom according to his Mother he had been best friends with then they were in nappies.
William had brought over to the Manor his favourite dragon toys to play with. Scorpius had been very impressed by the toys and had immediately abandoned the game of snap he was playing with Marcus in favour of the dragons. William had been telling Scorpius all about the Chinese Fireball, when out of nowhere Marcus' foot had come and crushed the toy. Later William would realize that Marcus had done this out of jealousy, however at the time all that William had seen was a bully who had just destroyed his favourite toy.
William had stood up and shoved Marcus in retaliation, and the next thing he had known he and Marcus had been trading shoves and then punches, while Scorpius had tried in vain to break up their fight. Eventually their parents had come to break up the fight and both of the boys had been harshly punished. William had been grounded for two weeks and had been made to help the house elves with the cleaning every day.
The next time they had met William and Marcus had not been friends, however they both now knew better than to take their frustrations out on each other with their fists. The two boys had entered into an uneasy truce and tolerated each other. William had to admit that they had had their moments of fun, but most of the time William and Marcus would be bickering, with Scorpius trying to play peacemaker between them.
Eventually during one of their arguments Marcus had declared "Well Scorpius likes me better!" and after that utterance Scorpius had been pulled headlong into their fight. Their fight became a contest of Who does Scorpius like better?
William would suggest they read comics and Marcus would suggest they sneak into Scorpius' father's study, and Scorpius would be made to decide. Or Marcus and William would get into an argument over something and both would appeal to Scorpius that they were right.
Scorpius never had to outright choose between the two of them though, until they came to Hogwarts. Before they got there Marcus proudly declared that he would be sorted into Slytherin. This was the house his father had been sorted into, and being a cunning and ambitious person Marcus would fit right in with the snakes. William on the other hand knew he would be sorted into Ravenclaw. His father had been a Slytherin, yes, but his mother was a Ravenclaw. Both of his parents were highly intelligent and William had inherited a love of learning from both of them.
Yes, Marcus would surely end up in Slytherin, and William would end up in Ravenclaw, but the question had been, where would Scorpius land?
William had hoped that Scorpius might land in Ravenclaw with him. Both of Scorpius' parents had been Slytherins, and nobody could remember a Malfoy that hadn't been sorted into Slytherin, but William thought perhaps Scorpius would be the one to break this tradition. Both boys had inquisitive minds and Scorpius loved learning as much as William did. When it was just the two of them Scorpius and William spent most of their time engaged in learning. They would spend hours in the library reading about animals or history or biographies of famous witched and wizards. Scorpius was also secretly fascinated by muggles. William found them interesting too, but for Scorpius they held a special appeal for some reason. Their parents did not know, but when they were alone the boys would secretly read muggle books, listen to muggle music (Scorpius was mad about the Beatles), and watch muggle television.
Yes, Scorpius certainly would not fit the bill of your typical Slytherin. William however still hadn't been sure that Scorpius would be sorted into Ravenclaw. After all, no matter how much they had in common, Marcus was still Scorpius' oldest friend. And Marcus had a very strong personality and could be very persuasive when he wanted to be. And unlike his own relationship with Marcus, where they merely tolerated each other due to their parents, Marcus and Scorpius actually had a genuine friendship. On top of this William knew that Scorpius' parents wanted to him to be in Slytherin, and William knew that Scorpius hated to disappoint his parents. Scorpius also did exhibit some Slytherin personality traits; he could be sneaky and mischievous at times (that time he had had to choose between reading comics and sneaking in his father's study he had opted to sneak into the study) and Scorpius was also rather ambitious when it came to matters like quidditch and honouring his family name.
In the Great Hall the Sorting Hat had sat on Scorpius' head for several minutes deliberating, taking all these factors into account. William had waited tensely, as he had known that where Scorpius was sorted would also determine who Scorpius' best friend really was. When the Sorting Hat had finally called out "Slytherin" from atop Scorpius' head, William knew he had lost.
Now, seven years later, William reflected to himself that this had probably been for the best. When Scorpius had come to Hogwarts in his first year there was a lot of people who had hated him. There was a lot of people who had assumed that he was just like his father. There was a lot of people who had expected him to be a prejudiced git. There was a lot of people who had grown up hearing stories about the Malfoy family's part in the war. There was a lot of people who had thought a first year was an easy target for revenge for things that had happened in the past.
William might have been sorted into Ravenclaw, but he was no cowardly bookworm. He knew his way about a duel. He wasn't afraid of standing up for what he thought was right. He was loyal to his friends. William would have been a great best friend for Scorpius.
But he was no Marcus Zabini.
Marcus had a ruthlessness about him that William did not. This ruthlessness which had made William despise Marcus upon their first meeting, also made William see why Marcus was such a great friend for Scorpius.
Scorpius was a Slytherin, but he generally followed the rules of fair-play. He wouldn't hex somebody when their back was turned. He wouldn't lie to get other people into trouble. Marcus on the other hand wasn't opposed to using underhanded tactics when the need arose. And for somebody with the last name Malfoy this was exactly the type of friend they needed. William remembered very vividly an incident that had occurred towards the end of their first year, that had shown everyone you didn't want to mess with Scorpius Malfoy, because that meant by extension you would be messing with Marcus Zabini.
There had been a lot of students who had given Scorpius grief during his first year, but there had been one group of seventh years who had made it their particular mission to hassle Scorpius every time they saw him. They had always made sure to do this when he was alone and there were no professors around. Scorpius would try and fight back, but of course being a first year against a group of seventh years this never ended very well. Scorpius had never reported any of the incidents due to some twisted sense of honour, and because he hadn't wanted to become a tattletale. Eventually Marcus had grown sick of seeing Scorpius return to the common room bloodied or with boils on his face and so he had decided to take matters into his own hands.
Marcus had lured the group of older students into a deserted corridor near the potions classroom with some floating cupcakes. After the students had eaten the cupcakes and left, Marcus had stepped out from where he had been hiding. Marcus had then proceeded to bloody his own face. When the Potions Professor had stepped out of his office he had found a pitiful looking Marcus who had claimed that a group of seventh years had beat him up. A number of witnesses had confirmed that indeed they had seen a group of seventh years leaving the potions corridor several minutes ago. Marcus had then identified his "attackers" and the group of seventh years had been given detention for a month for their "despicable and cowardly actions". And they were unable to do anything to Marcus or Scorpius in revenge after because McGonagall had threatened them with expulsion if they stepped even the slightest bit out of line, and afterwards all the professors had watched them like hawks.
William would have been a great best friend for Scorpius, but not like Marcus Zabini. So William was content with the fact he was not Scorpius' best friend, and despite the fact they were in different houses the two boys had still managed to stay fairly close over the years.
For example both boys took Muggle Studies at Hogwarts and Scorpius sat by William in class. And it was in their Muggle Studies class that William had leaned over and whispered to Scorpius "Why her?"
Scorpius' face had reddened before he had answered "Because I can be myself around her."
"Something in the way she knows
And all I have to do is think of her
Something in the things she shows me
I don't want to leave her now
You know I believe and how"
As William listened to the lyrics of a song that no doubt Scorpius had been the one to choose for the wedding playlist, William didn't think there could be a better song to explain how Scorpius felt about Rose.
A/N: For some reason I can totally picture Scorpius being a Beatles fan. In case you are wondering the lyrics are from the Beatles song Something.
Preview for Next Chapter (James Potter II): James knew thank God for Rose and Scorpius.
