Author's Note: This chapter is told from Scorpius' perspective.
"Malfoy!" Professor Crepsley snapped at me, pulling me out of my thoughts. Before I could respond I was thrust forward by Potter's slimy hands from behind.
"Watch now, it'll be a unicorn," Potter sneered at his Death Eaters, loud enough for the whole castle to hear. Subtlety wasn't his thing.
Crepsley glared at me. I ignored the retort forming in my head. I didn't need another detention. Crepsley liked Potter, for some strange, possibly perverted reason, and hated me. It's a shame if he liked me and if I was a good student, him and father would've been the best of friends.
A giant guinea pig sat a foot away. It's big, beady eyes bored into me. A nice break from Crepsley's. I pushed my hair off my forehead. I couldn't imagine or guess what that guinea pig was about to morph into. I was supposed to be the person who knew me best. My fingertips tingled with nerves. 'The faster I get this done the faster I can get out of this stuffy classroom and go into another stuffy classroom alone with Rosie.' I thought. I stepped forward, wand raised, incantation on my tongue.
The guinea pig/boggart blinked, then scrambled into a black blob. It viciously swirled and grumbled. Voices cried out from the boggart, from whispers to high screams but I couldn't understand what they were saying. The voices didn't trigger anything in my memory. I expected it to take longer, everyone else's took longer to take shape. A hand emerged, pale, veiny and filthy. Nails like sharp talons crawled at the air. The hand grew into an arm.
That set my memory off. My heart caught in my throat, I spluttered and stepped back.
No, no, no. It was a left arm. His left arm. The rest of him was growing but I couldn't take my eyes off the dark mark, crinkled with age and darker than any of the dirt smudging his skin.
At back of the classroom, someone cursed.
I never thought I'd see him again but here...
"Grandfather," A whisper escaped my tight throat.
I pulled my eyes away from his mark. His Azkaban robes hung off his skeleton figure. His long blonde hair hung in a wiry curtain around him. His eyes, the ones I see in the mirror every day, stared into mine.
"Scorpius!" He rasped out from his hunched position on the floor. He reached out his long arms in desperation. "Help me! I'm dying! My soul! My soul! MY SOUL, BOY!"
The word wouldn't come. I couldn't remember the spell. My wand was slick with sweat. I was twelve again. Powerless, watching my grandfather die. The man who told me stories and great legends about the Malfoys and the other sacred twenty-eight. So many memories, so much time. He let me come on his walks as long as I was silent, thought me my first jinx before I was old enough for a wand. He told me I was special, the face of the Malfoy family. It's hope for the future, he could feel it in his soul.
"Malfoy!" Professor Crepsley prompted. It felt far away. I only had past.
"Scor-pi-us." Grandfather Lucius drew out a long shaking breath.
There was a clatter that filled the room. Suddenly my hand felt too light.
"Riddikulus!" Professor Crepsley yelled. Just with a spell, a guinea pig replaced Grandfather. Simple.
I looked down, panic flooded my body. My wand was on the floor, the wood glistening with sweat. My heart thundered in my ears blocking out whatever sarcastic remark Crepsley was throwing at me.
The walls were closing in. I ran before they could squash me entirely.
In the bathroom mirror, my cheeks were flushed with colour and dripping with sweat. I tore off my jumper. My white shirt underneath was sticking to my skin. I clutched both sides of the sink. I had to get myself together.
"Scorpius," Grandmother said, her eyes narrowing. "Darling, you saw what they did to him. They will-"
"I miss Grandfather," the words squeaked out.
"Don't we all? But us, purebloods, don't grieve."
"I don't think I'm a pureblood then."
She grabbed me by the collar so suddenly I tripped and fell to my knees, whimpering. Her teeth were gritted, spit formed like foam on her lips.
"Malfoy, Malfoy, MALFOY!" Grandmother hissed over and over again until my head rung with the word. And just when I thought she was about to let me go, she jabbed her index finger in front of my face. She started drawing the family tree in the air. "BLACK, GREENGRASS, ROSIER, LESTRANGE, BURKE-"
"PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER!" I shouted so loudly I expected cracks to form in the mirror. Hot tears mingled with sweat poured down my face. I wiped my face roughly with my sleeve.
I stared at my wand in the sink. I couldn't get the image of Grandfather out of my head. I'm good at not thinking, I don't want to think. That's the past. I have proper friends and a chance at a proper life if the world moves over and lets me have it.
Everything about the castle and the people in it hurt too much. I couldn't go back to class. I sat by the Black Lake watching the small waves lap against the shore.
Author's note: Short but serious. There's a lot more to Scorpius than what meets the eye.
Thanks for reading :) and chapter 80... a milestone... thank you! I couldn't have done it without you! :) x1000.
