Author's note: Enjoy! Also expect a lot of updates in the days to come, there are so many prompts flying on different forums this month. Please send good vibes, good luck, and reviews to keep the spirit up. And since I'm writing so much: please send requests!

Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns the canon, world, and characters portrayed below and you can tell I'm not J.K. Rowling because #transrights

Content Warnings: Describes canon character deaths (Astoria Greengrass and Hope Lupin)

No Winning

"Scorpius," Remus said, looking up from the papers he was shuffling on his desk. "Could I borrow a moment of your time, please?"

Scorpius Malfoy and Al Potter, an unlikely pair if there had ever been one, froze in the doorway. They were the only two students left in his classroom, which was what Remus had waited for so that the young boy wouldn't feel as ostracized and singled out as he might be. Al gently nudged their friend forwards and muttered something about seeing Scorpius in Transfigurations before making themself scarce.

"Mr Potter, you'll want to adjust that tie before Professor Zhang sees you," Remus called out after them. If anything, Al tugged their blue and copper striped tie even looser before vanishing into the hall. Troublemaker.

Scorpius approached the desk sheepishly, hugging his textbook to himself as he got closer. He eyed the pile of papers in his arms uneasily and was looking down so that his eyes were hidden under his long eyelashes.

"I'm sorry, Professor," he said. "I know we were supposed to hand in those essays before spring break and I'd done all the research, but I… I just never wrote it and I'm so sorry, I have an outline for it I swear, but I just—I'll make it up, write extra words if you want or find extra sources…"

"What?" Remus asked for a moment, stunned. "No, Scorpius, this is not about the essay. As far as I am concerned, you do not have any due dates for the rest of this term, you will simply come talk to me as assignments come up and we will make arrangements. No, I wanted to ask you if you needed anything."

"I… really?" Scorpius asked for a second.

"Yes," Remus said. "I am so, so sorry about your mother."

Scorpius nodded as if he'd accepted quite a few similar comments and notes over the last few weeks. His father had pulled him out of school about two weeks before Easter break, essentially to say goodbye to his mother. McGonagall had told all of Scorpius's professors who had in turn ignored the rumours running around the school, and Remus knew through Al that Scorpius had insisted on coming back to Hogwarts instead of staying in the now-emptier Malfoy Manor. That was most likely the only reason his father had sent him back. Remus had not gotten to know Draco very well while he was teaching, and mostly knew him through a teenage Harry's eyes or by the war crimes and reputations of the Malfoy family as a whole. But he found that his heart ached and his stomach twisted for him too.

"I know that doesn't help," Remus said. "At least, I know that nothing did when I lost my mother, and I was a few years older than you are now. But if you do think of something that might help, something that you might need or that could make your life even the tiniest bit easier, please do tell me."

The boy before him took a deep breath, nodding.

"How old were you, when your mum died?" Scorpius asked shyly, eyes flitting up.

"17," Remus said. "She was Muggle and developed an extremely aggressive cancer. Once we learned that she was sick, she went quickly. Maybe it was lucky, but it didn't feel that way at the time."

"I wish my mum had gone quicker," Scorpius said quietly. "But I'm sure I wouldn't feel that way if she had either."

"There's no real way to win," Remus said gently. Even now, years later, he still wished his mother had lived a little longer—just a few years, anything really. He wished for more time with her, he wished she could have met Dora, he wished she could have held Teddy, he wished she could have seen him receive his Order of Merlin and heard about his teaching so that she'd known how right she was to fight for the werewolf son despite what she'd been told by people more familiar about the world she'd married into… it was big things like that, but it was also about wishing he could drop off a loaf of bread he was particularly proud of, dry the dishes as she washed them, listen to her hilariously high hiccups, and all the other little things he hadn't realized he'd naturalized as an inevitable part of the world until she was gone.

"Can I have an extra week to write the essay?" Scorpius asked.

"Of course," he said. "And if you rather come by during office hours to go over the life cycle of Dementors orally instead of having to write it out, we can do that as well."

"Okay," Scorpius said. He swallowed, hard. "I… can I come do that tomorrow night? So I can reread my notes first?"

"Of course," Remus said. "Remember, I have tea and sweets in there."

"I know," Scorpius said with a tiny smile. "Thank you."

WC: 830