Scorpius couldn't help but smile as he held his mother's hand. If he were at school, a lot of the other students would have judged him for doing so, but his mother was dying, and he had every intention of soaking up what time he had with her to its fullest extent. That meant holding her hand when he could.

They strolled down the road in Hogsmeade, talking about anything and everything that came to mind. Scorpius told Astoria about his favourite Transfiguration class of the previous school year. Then he rambled on about Albus and how he was adorably confused in every Transfiguration lesson. Astoria smiled fondly at him the entire time, not once frowning or acting disinterested in what he had to say.

Aside from Albus, Astoria was the only person who Scorpius felt comfortable rambling to without stopping. She was one of the few people he didn't have to rein in his enthusiasm with, and his time with her was drawing quickly to a close. Their current outing was the first time she'd left Malfoy Manor in several months, and it very well might have been the last. Already, she was beginning to look paler than when they'd arrived.

He had to stop himself from thinking about it before he cried. It got harder every day to keep a smile on his face, but he still managed it most of the time. He had a list a mile long of stories he wanted to hear from her before she was gone, and listening to her recount them with smiles of her own was often enough to help him forget what was coming.

"Tell me about when you and Dad got married," Scorpius said, tugging on her hand in his eagerness.

He'd heard about how his parents met a number of times, and he'd been gradually working his way through the stories of their courtship over the summer holidays. He'd asked about the proposal just a few days before, and he was more than ready to hear how the big day had gone.

"Our wedding," Astoria said with a sigh that made Scorpius stiffen.

His grandparents been entirely absent from the proposal story, which Scorpius suddenly realized had been a bad sign. He already knew much of what came after the wedding after all.

"I wasn't a happy bride. I cried for hours the morning of the wedding," Astoria said quietly, her voice wavering with emotion decades after the events she described.

"Why?" Scorpius asked, his grip tightening around her hand.

Astoria sighed.

"I love your father," she said slowly. "I always did, but everyone kept telling me that I was making a huge mistake. My parents threatened to disown me for marrying into one of the few remaining ultra-conservative pureblood families in Britain, and I'd stood up to them over the years of dating Draco. But the day of the wedding, knowing they wouldn't be there, the reality of the situation hit me in a way it hadn't before. I couldn't be completely sure I was making the right decision when I knew it would cost me my family."

"Were you?" Scorpius asked.

"Of course I was," Astoria said, smiling down at him and bopping him on the nose. "My decision led to you, didn't it? Still, I was facing the prospect of never speaking to my parents again and of having in-laws who were openly hostile to me. Your father and I both could have been disowned for dishonoring our families. You'd have grown up never knowing any of your grandparents. I was scared of that possibility. Part of me thought Draco and I would be happier choosing our families over each other."

"What made you go through with it in the end?"

Astoria's smile grew distant as she stared down the path in front of them as she imagined the memory.

"I'd like to think I'd have gone through with the wedding no matter what, but to be honest, it was my mother. She came to the wedding despite swearing she wouldn't. She stood in front of me in my wedding robes and said that Draco had to be a good man if I'd chosen him, and she'd decided to give him a chance. She couldn't forgive herself for missing her youngest daughter's wedding."

Scorpius had known neither of his parents had been disowned in the end. He'd even known that his Greengrass grandparents had come to tolerate Draco far more than his Malfoy grandparents had his mum, but that didn't stop tears from stinging at his eyes at the thought of Grandma Greengrass setting his mother at ease.

Astoria's smile was gentle, the same one Scorpius was sure his grandma had shown her all those years ago. She pulled Scorpius close, and he held on to her tightly, burying his face in her shoulder and breathing in her perfume.

"Everything was okay after that," she said, running her hand over his back. "I knew my parents loved me, and I knew in my heart that Draco and I weren't dishonoring anyone by marrying. I walked down the aisle with a smile on my face, just as I hope you will one day if you find someone worth marrying."

"I will," Scorpius muttered, throat burning. "Have a smile on my face, I mean. If I get married."

Astoria dropped a kiss to the top of his head, and Scorpius held on for dear life.

Prompts:

The Golden Snitch

Anniversary Event: (words) bride, mother, number

Hogwarts Challenges and Assignments

Fortnightly - From the Shadows: TMNT - Scorpius Malfoy; Sword - (title) Dishonor

Advent Calendar: (setting) Hogsmeade

HPFC

Favourite Character Boot Camp: Scorpius Malfoy - ultra

Word count: 909