Advice.

Fourteen year old Scorpius hovered outside of his father's study. It was the middle of the Christmas holidays, and he'd deliberately waited until his mother had taken his sister out shopping before deciding to approach his father. He was after some advice on the romantic front, and he figured Draco would be the ideal person to talk to.

Plucking up his courage, Scorpius knocked on the door. Almost immediately Draco called for him to enter. Pushing open the door, Scorpius headed into his father's study.

"Hey Scorp," Draco greeted, looking up and smiling at his son. "What can I do for you?"

"Can we talk?" Scorpius asked hesitantly.

Draco nodded and placed his quill down on his desk. "I'm all yours. What do you want to talk about?"

"I need some advice," Scorpius admitted as he settled down in front of Draco's desk.

"What on?" Draco asked, wondering if his son was having trouble with his school work. Scorpius was actually very bright and Draco had never known him to have a problem with his school work, but he was advancing in his years at school and the work did become harder.

"Girls."

Draco waited for Scorpius to elaborate further, but his son said nothing more. "I need more details, if I'm going to help you Scorp. Are we talking girls in general, or one specific girl?"

"One girl," Scorpius answered.

"So what exactly do you want advice on?" Draco asked warily. He didn't mind giving his son general advice on the opposite sex, but he wasn't exactly looking forward to giving him a talk about the responsibilities of sex.

"How do I ask her out?" Scorpius asked.

"First of all, tell me about this girl," Draco urged.

"Her name's Rochelle," Scorpius answered. "She's a Ravenclaw in my year. She's also the hottest girl in our year. We did a Transfiguration project together before Christmas, and we got along really well."

"That means you've already got a solid base to start from," Draco said. "My advice is to ask her out very casually. One time when you're talking to her, ask her if she wants to go into Hogsmeade with you."

"What if she says no?" Scorpius asked. "I would die of embarrassment."

"That's why you do it casually," Draco replied. "Don't make it sound like a date, make it sound like you're asking her as a friend. If she says no, then you just say she might want to join you and your friends another time."

"But what if she say yes, and doesn't realise it's a date?" Scorpius questioned.

"If she's unsure, she'll check with you what you mean. And if she doesn't check, treat it as a date. If she's shocked when there's only the two of you going to Hogsmeade, tell her you thought she knew you meant a date."

"Is this how you got Mum to date you?" Scorpius questioned. His father's advice seemed a bit sneaky, and he had to wonder if he'd pulled the same tricks on his mother.

"It is actually," Draco replied with a fond smile. "Although it did take me months to pluck up the courage to ask her. For weeks I would talk to her and end up chickening out. That's when I came up with the whole Hogsmeade idea. That way, if she said no, I would have been able to pretend I'd just meant going to the village as friends."

"But she didn't say no."

"No, she didn't. She jumped at the chance to go to Hogsmeade with me," Draco replied. "In actual fact it was your mother that reiterated that it was a date. She said yes, but then said she would only accompany me if it was a proper date."

"So I guess the approach is sound," Scorpius mused. "Now, how do I approach her?"

"Are you friendly with her?"

"Yeah."

"Then subtly drop it into conversation one time," Draco advised. "Remember, don't make a big deal out of it."

"So what do I do when we're at Hogsmeade?" Scorpius questioned, moving onto his second dilemma. "I don't want to have to go to that horrible little tea room that's full of all that romantic crap."

"Don't go there," Draco warned with a grimace. "Believe me, you don't want a girl that thinks that place is nice and romantic. Just wander the shops and talk. Maybe take her to The Three Broomsticks and buy her lunch. If there's a connection between you, you'll find plenty to talk about."

"So if the date to Hogsmeade goes well, what other dates can I take her on?" Scorpius asked. "We're pretty restricted being at school twenty four hours a day."

"That's where you've got to use your imagination, Scorp," Draco said. "Have a picnic in the grounds, or even just go for a walk. Go up to the Astronomy Tower and do some stargazing. Take her for a romantic fly on your broom, and I'm not speaking in metaphors there," He added, knowing exactly where his mind would have taken him at fourteen. "I'm sure you can also think of a few more things to do as well."

Scorpius nodded thoughtfully, his mind dwelling on the advice his father had given him. Now he just had to build up the courage to ask the girl he fancied out. Although he did like Draco's idea of making the request seem casual, if she said no he would still be hurt, but the casual nature of the request might soften the blow a bit.

"Let me know how you get on," Draco said as his son got to his feet. "And don't worry Scorp, it's always harder to ask a girl out the first time. After that, it's a doddle."

"I thought you said it took you months to pluck up the courage to ask Mum out?" Scorpius frowned.

"It did," Draco replied.

"But she wasn't the first girl you asked out," Scorpius pointed out. "You're forgetting, I know all about your reputation at school. You had plenty of girlfriends before dating Mum."

"Your Mother was different," Draco said. "I'd dated a few girls, not as many as you might think by the way. Asking them out had been easy as it wouldn't have mattered if they'd rejected me. But it mattered with your Mother. I really liked her, and it would have hurt if she'd turned me down. Apart from the first girl I ever asked out, your mother was the only other one I was nervous about."

"Who was the first girl you ever asked out?" Scorpius asked with a mischievous smirk. He knew for a fact that his father's first girlfriend was Pansy, but it was something that was never discussed in his parent's circle of friends.

"That's not important," Draco answered. "What's important is that I asked your mother out, and she said yes. Now go and plan how you're going to get the girl."

"Thanks Dad," Scorpius called as he exited the study and headed off back to his room to think about the advice he'd received. He just hoped his father's words of wisdom worked.

Of course Draco's advice worked perfectly, and within weeks of going back to school, Scorpius landed himself a date with the witch he fancied. While that relationship didn't work out, it gave Scorpius plenty of confidence with asking other girls out, and after his first time, he wasn't ever nervous when he asked a girl out.