A/N So this is it! The final chapter of Scorpius Malfoy and the Very Strange Year! To new readers, good timing, and to those who have stuck with this story from the start, if you're still here, there thank you so much. Now prepare to die of a sugar overdose, as this chapter is about 99% fluff!
The rest of the year passed quickly and happily for the most part. When rumours about just what had happened the day of the second Gryffindor Quidditch Match had started to spread, people had begun looking at the four friends oddly, and whispers followed them wherever they went. After all, running on to the Quidditch pitch in front of the entire school and yelling that a Professor might be dead was sure to cause a stir. But despite, or perhaps because of the gossip floating around the school, Albus, Becky, Rose and Scorpius were closer than ever. That wasn't to say it was perfect – but usually arguments were mediated away, and in fact, they helped to better understand each other.
One such understanding came on the 2nd of May. Twenty years after the Battle of Hogwarts, the school had held a memorial service, the 'heroes of the day' coming to honour the memory of those who had fallen here, to make sure that history didn't repeat itself.
The students and visitors gathered in the memorial garden by the lake, close to Headmaster Dumbledore's grave. It was beautiful day, the flowers in the garden 'helped' to be their best. But halfway through the speeches of remembrance, Al noticed a surprising absence.
"Guys, where'd Mouse go?" he whispered, drawing dark looks from the visitors in the row in front. "He's not here." he continued in a lower voice. Rose and Becky both looked around, realising that their fair haired friend was indeed nowhere to be seen. Rose frowned, realising that he had probably felt enormously uncomfortable given the circumstances.
"Maybe the Owlery? He likes being up high when he's upset, right? But we can't really leave..." she bit her lip, torn between wanting to pay her respects to the fallen, many of them family friends, and wanting to help her friend. Becky seeing her friend's dilemma, came to a decision.
"What if only I go?" she suggested. "the Remembrance Ceremony is more important to you guys – I get it's important and everything, but it matters so much more for you, right?" Becky said quietly, and Rose and Al nodded in gratitude. Stealing quietly away, she made her through the castle, winding her way through the many staircases. Rose's suspicions had been correct, as a sullen looking Mouse perched in the window, looking out over the grounds of the castle.
"Hey." Becky said quietly.
"Go away Becky." he retorted, still facing away from her. She didn't move, waiting instead for Mouse to realise she wasn't going to leave him. "What do you want, badger-brain?" Mouse eventually asked, turning to face her. His usually pale skin was blotchy, as if he'd been rubbing at his cheeks repeatedly.
"You left the memorial ceremony. I guessed you felt like an outsider." Becky responded, ignoring the mocking nickname that had stuck ever since their defeat of the Siren. "I think I can understand that a little Mouse." she pointed out.
"You have no idea what it's like Becky!" Mouse yelled, jumping down from the windowsill, facing his friend angrily. He carried on, his voice shaking. "Everyone out there has suffered, had loss because of my family. How can I just sit there when it was my family's fault that there are parents without children, children who never knew there parents and it all-"
"Stop." Becky said firmly, and Mouse glared at her, but allowed her to speak.
"Is your dad Voldemort?" she asked, almost icily
"Of course not, but that doesn't change anything!" retorted Mouse, looking at the floor as if he hoped to burn a whole through it with the intensity of his gaze. Becky raised her eyebrows and joined Mouse by the window, grabbing his arm to make him look at her.
"Were your mum's family Death Eaters? Does your dad regret what he did in the war?" she asked, more softly.
"No, the Greengrasses have always been neutral, and as for Father...I think regular nightmares probably mean he regrets what he did, doesn't it?" Mouse sighed as all of the fight leaving his body, and he leant against the wall. "I've been an idiot, haven't I?" he asked. Becky hid a smile, before tugging Mouse out of the owl-filled room.
"Not really." she said, her smile sympathetic. "You feel conflicted, because you're blaming yourself for things that happened before you ever born. But Mouse, all year, it's seemed like you've been trying to leave the shadow of your family's past behind you, not to forget it, but to become more than it. And if that's your ambition, then I think you'd have made a good 'good' Slytherin, snake-face." her grin turned mischievous, as Mouse gave an indignant yell and chased after Becky.
Becky's right. I'm not the one to blame for my grandfather's mistakes. I just have to make sure to learn from them. And I'm pretty sure Becky will understand why I'm not ready to go back to the service just yet...
The rest of the year passed in a blur, with the days prior to the exams seeming much shorter than those earlier in the year, but eventually, finally, blessedly, the last exam, History of Magic in the most airless room in the castle, or so it had seemed, was over.
So Mouse was beyond glad when Nat and Minna asked him if he wanted to go up on to the hills above the loch, now his relationship with them had been mended. Nat was still adjusting to his returned vision, but was getting thoroughly sick of Madame Pomfrey's administrations and seemed almost as buoyed as Mouse to get away from the castle. It was once again a beautiful day, sunny but with a steady breeze that kept the midges away and the lake sparkled in the light.
"So how did your exams go Mouse? Think you failed?" Nat asked teasingly, breaking the comfortable silence that had settled over them. Mouse looked at him askance.
"Shouldn't I be asking you that? Hey, if I bribed you, would you bump my marks up?" Mouse joked, and Minna raised an eyebrow, though it was obvious she was struggling not to smile.
"Steep hill, not much effort to send you off it, brat..." she pointed out, and Mouse held his hands out in surrender
"Okay, okay I'm sorry!" Mouse he laughed as Minna held her wand out mock-threateningly. Nat gave him a playful shove, and the three of them carried on a little way, to where there was a natural shelf in the hill, a perfect viewpoint over Hogsmeade and the end of the loch, where the tentacles of the giant squid could be seen, floating gently.
"That's not the only reason we invited you out here though." Nat said, prompting a mischievous smile on Minna's face.
"No?" Mouse asked warily looking between the expressions on each of their faces.
"No." Minna said, she started to speak, before changing her mind and turning to Nat "Oh, I suppose you can tell him cherie, he is your cousin after all." Nat rolled his eyes, as Minna started fidgeting, and Mouse's frown deepened
"Tell me what?"
"Well..." Nat started. "We couldn't very well ask you to be best man, what with you not really being old enough to be married without consent, and I can't exactly see your dad or Aunt Story being too keen-"
"Oh for heaven's sake!" Minna interrupted, rolling her eyes exasperated. "What this great lug is trying to say is, we've finally set a date for the wedding, and although you're a bit too young for best man duties, we'd love you to be our ring bearer – page boy, whatever." she waved her hand airily.
Mouse's jaw dropped, and his eyes were wide as he stuttered;
"B-but...really...you...you want me?" Mouse became indignant at his cousins' rather uncharitable reactions to his response. "Stop giggling Minna! You don't giggle - you think giggling and skipping are for the mentally deranged... Nat! Stop laughing at me!"
"Fine." Nat said, wiping tears from his eyes, and he looked almost hurt. "We'll get someone else then...Minna?"
"I didn't mean that!" Mouse said. "Of course I'll do it." He beamed. "Of course I will."
He was suddenly unable to continue as he was engulfed in a three-way hug, through which he could hear Minna squealing 'Yay! Nat, he said yes! Oh my god he's gonna look so cute!'
"Minna...Nat- Can't breathe!"
"So when's the wedding?" Mouse asked on the way back down the mountain.
"We were thinking mid-August, after the world cup." Minna replied, Nat being too busy concentrating on where he was going with his still patchy vision.
"The Quidditch World cup!?"
"Yes, Mouse, that world cup. We didn't exactly want to spend our honeymoon with rabid Quidditch fans."
Mouse grinned. That seemed to imply that they would be attending Quidditch World Cup, or at least the final.
"So..." he started to ask but before he could...
"Hey, Mouse!" The call came from lower down the path, where three small figures, one blonde, one dark and one redhead were waving to them.
"Go on, you have a good time with friends." Nat said, joining his bride-to-be and cousin.
Mouse paused only to grin at his cousins again and take part in a brief tripartite hug before sprinting down the rocky path to where his friends waited for him
"Hi. What's up?"
"We're giving me swimming lessons in the loch!" Becky grinned triumphantly.
"Really, Becky?" the look Mouse gave his friend was incredulous to say the least.
"Yup. You promised, remember?"
"Um..."
"Oh come on Mouse, even I'm doing it." Rose flashed a grin. "You wouldn't want to get beaten a Weasley would you?"
"Hey!"
As they hurtled down to the lake, with no worries except being dunked in the loch, couldn't help but feeling he really belonged for the first time.
But time passed, as it is wont to do, and eventually the end of the year was upon them, accompanied by the mad rush to find odd socks, a tie, missing textbooks and a mind-boggling array of other paraphernalia that had managed to lose itself over the year. In the end, all that was left was the Leaving Feast.
It was a close run thing, the Ravenclaws' exam results giving Gryffindor's Quidditch Cup victory a close run for its money.
"Of course, you realise that this means James will be even more of a git next year?" Al pointed out after dessert, hands resting on his slightly distended stomach.
"And that we'll both be on the team proper next year? Ellie and Isaac are leaving at the end of this year..." Mouse pointed out before groaning slightly. "I think I ate too much." he complained, but the only response he got was a disgusted 'boys' from Becky and Rose. Albus' returning retort was a belch, a loud one, and Rose, Becky and Mouse could only manage to keep straight faces for a moment before bursting into laughter.
The next day, they boarded the Hogwarts Express for the last time as first years, and Mouse looked wistfully out of the window and the diminishing form of Hogwarts. Still, it wasn't as if there weren't things to be looking forward to – Nat and Minna's wedding should be...interesting considering the sort of antics that they usually got up to when alcohol was involved. And of course there was the Quidditch World Cup to look forward to...just then his stomach rumbled, interrupting his reverie.
"I'm off to find the snack trolley," he announced, stretching as he stood up. "Anyone want anything?" Mouse asked.
Rose looked up from her book.
"I'd have thought you'd still be full after what you ate yesterday..." she said, voice teasing, and Mouse pulled a face. Looking up from where she was currently beating Albus at chess, Becky grinned.
"Give me a sec, Mouse, I want to stock up on Chocolate Frogs before going home..." Becky sighed, her previous good mood soured, but Mouse pulled her out anyway. After all, as Minna joked, chocolate might not be a cure all, but it certainly helped. And indeed Becky's mood seemed to have lifted, jokingly threatening Mouse with terrible doom if he forgot to write. They almost made it back to their compartment when coming the other way, who should they bump into but Damien and Dorian Flint, the two Slytherins Mouse and Becky had humiliated earlier in the year. Mouse's stomach dropped to his boots. What with all the craziness that had followed, he had completely forgotten about the Flints, and by the horror-stricken look on Becky's face, she had too.
"Well, well well..." Drawled Damien. "Look what we have here." he smiled maliciously, as Dorian drew his wand. "Two little bugs who need squashing."
Oh cripes...
"Just wait to see what we'll do to you..." Dorian spoke up, and advance menacingly, before a jet of light hit him in the back and he froze.
"And just what is that, exactly?" an icy voice came from behind the Flint brothers. Damien turned and paled and he saw the angry figure of Victoire, wand in hand.
"I...we..." he stammered and Victoire's eyes narrowed.
"You're lucky it's the end of the year, so there not much I can do you as Head Girl" Victoire grinned ferally and Mouse was suddenly very glad that Victoire was on their side. "On the other hand, it's the end of the year – so I can hex you within an inch of your life for threatening first years and not even get in trouble..." she trailed of suggestively.
"We're sorry alright, Weasley! Just, let us go and I'm sure we can come to an agreement!" Damien stuttered, and Dorian gave a tiny nod, limited as his movements were. Rolling her eyes, Victoire cancelled the spell on Dorian with a sharp flick of her wand, and the two Slytherins ran off down the corridor, careening into the walls in their haste to get away. Chuckling slightly, Victoire returned her wand to its holster, before turning to Becky and Mouse, who were looking on in stunned amazement.
"Wow." was all Becky managed to say.
"You're all right then?" Victoire asked ruefully, and Mouse nodded dumbly, still a little awestruck. Victoire laughed, ruffling his hair, and he snapped out of his daze.
"Hey!"
"Be more careful next time." Victoire told them solemnly. "I won't be here next year to look out for you, so if you must antagonise the upper years," she grinned again. "At least learn some decent hexes." she nodded, and then carried on up to the Prefects carriage, leaving Becky and Mouse in her wake.
Rose looked up again as the compartment slid open.
"You took your time..." she said suspiciously. "Everything OK?"
Mouse and Becky looked at each other
"Yeah." they said together, still slightly-shell shocked. "Just a queue." Mouse elaborated, and although she still looked sceptical, Rose merely shook her head, before challenging Scorpius to a game of Gobstones.
A little while later, they pulled into King Cross Station, and joined the surge of students happy to be home for the holidays. Sheltering behind a pillar, the four shared a surreptitious hug, promising to write to one another, and as Al jokingly suggested, to rescue anyone who didn't reply after more than a week. Watching his friends join their respective families, noting with relief that Becky's mum seemed happy to be there, he made his way through the crowd to find his parents. As he squirmed away from his mother's embrace, embarrassed by the attention, Mouse reflected that whilst this year had been, hectic, fraught with danger, and above all very strange, he wouldn't have changed it for the world.
A/N And that's all folks! Only 18 months and two days since I published my first chapter! I have a few ideas of what I want to do next, such as going back through SMatVSY and editing all the mistakes out, and giving a bit more depth to both plot and character. After that, I have an idea for a Rose/Tentoo fic in the Doctor Who fandom, a Draco is brought up by the Tonks family AU, as well as some original ideas. And there might be a few ideas kicking around for this story verse. Feedback would be greatly appreciated ;)
In the mean time, special thanks goes to Sabrina-luna-potter as my most constant reviewer, as well as my other followers/faves, Communist Potato, BooksGoWellWithSteph, Kaekoa, winterspride, Deviliyan21, Princesschloe72, Woolfey1271, TheUnderscore3024, buford12, Sock-O-holic, nativewonder, SuzieChance, Shiranai Atsune, NinonDG, TheGirlWhoEatsPie, culagovski, FairyNinja, Keisha M, ladybug28, maryn90, SSS-love-to-read, nikesilvermoon, Sora Loves Rain, Megan Hermione Lovegood, Winter Rainbow, EvieFortune, and last but not least Yaoiluver801
It means so much to me that you guys actually found my story interesting enough to follow or favorite, and I hope this chapter is a satisfying end.
Reviewers, thank you too, but I'm not naming you all I'm afraid, as I'd be here for a while, and this A/N is rapidly descending into an Oscar Acceptance speech! PLU, Tolrais x