Chapter 18: Sincerely, Mum
A/N- prompt used: [Quote] "Powerful women are often threatening to insecure men."
Word Count- 528
Astoria took a deep breath, in through her nose and out through her mouth. Then, she nodded at her Quick-Quotes Quill.
"Scorpius," she began, lulled by the scratch of the quill on parchment paper.
"I wish I could watch you grow up," she continued. "I wish I could see the man you'll one day be. I wish you didn't have to live without your mother. I wish for a lot of things.
"I know this can't make up for my not being there when you need me, but your cousin Teddy suggested I write you letters, like the ones he wished he got from his mum. Your father has promised to give them on the date specified on the envelope, so… I suppose we'll start here.
"Hi sweetie. Happy eleventh birthday. I know you'll be starting Hogwarts in September. I hope you are excited. And I hope your father hasn't been pressuring you with a bunch of Slytherin nonsense. He will be proud of you whichever house you end up in, okay? And you will be amazing no matter what, I promise.
"But if you do end up in Slytherin, just know what a great group they are, and how lucky you are to be part of such an amazing house. Don't let anyone tell you that Slytherins can't be whoever they want to be. They can.
"I'm not sure what Hogwarts will be like for you as the son of Draco Malfoy. You'll probably hear… you'll probably hear some things about him that you might not like. You tell those people that you forgive them as they are children just as your father was a child. And children make mistakes.
"I want you to make amazing friends. And I want you to make friends with whoever you like. Don't let old prejudices sway you. Don't let house divisions sway you. Don't let gender sway you, either. Only insecure boys refuse to make friends with girls. And I think every boy needs a girl to tell them the honest truth. They grow up to be much better men, I think. Your father might not have been the same without your Aunt Pansy. Your Uncle Theo had your Aunt Daphne. And even the great Harry Potter wouldn't have been the same without Hermione Granger. Heed my advice on this one. Make a female friend. A powerful one.
"There's so much I wish I could say to you, so much advice I want to give. I could fill pages and pages with my love for you. And I will. I'll write a thousand letters so if you ever need to hear from your mum, a part of me will always be there. I can't say my advice will always be pertinent to the problem at hand. I'm not a seer, darling. But I'll try. For you.
"I've decided at the end of each of my letters, I'll add a question that you should ask your dad. Tonight, I want you to ask that he tell the story of how he and I got engaged. He'll tell it better than I ever could.
"I love you so much.
"Sincerely, Mum."