Hey everyone! I've had a lot going on, with school and finals and ugh. Hope you like this chapter!
Scorpius landed in a familiar place: Platform 9 and ¾. It was one of his favorite places, second to only Hogwarts, because it meant that it was time for more school, and time to see Albus again. Or, it meant going home and seeing his father again after a long time of being away.
The platform was crowded, and Scorpius saw some familiar faces, although they looked very young. Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger were laughing and talking on the platform. They looked around 11 or 12, so it had to be either the end of their first year or the beginning of their second. Scorpius marveled at how small they looked, and how much Harry looked like Albus. But this memory wasn't about them. It was about his dad. He craned his neck over the adults walking fast him, and looked around for the familiar platinum blond hair that was the most obvious sign of a Malfoy. He saw blond hair and a pale, pointed face, and his mouth dropped open. His dad looked almost exactly like Scorpius had when he was eleven! But his dad looked much more unfriendly and unapproachable. He was not the kind of kid that Scorpius would have wanted to become friends with.
Draco seemed to be looking around for someone, and while he was walking around, he didn't seem to watch where he was going. He walked right into Hermione and Ron, and the two of them glared at him. Harry was nowhere in sight. Maybe he had already left.
"Watch where you're going!" Draco snapped, and narrowed his eyes when he saw who he had crashed into. He really was unfriendly, Scorpius thought. No wonder nobody had liked him when he was a student. In fact, nobody liked him much now either, Scorpius realized.
"You're the one who bumped into us!" Ron sputtered angrily. Draco glared at him.
"Well, Weasley, where's the rest of your family?" he drawled. "Did your parents have to toss out a few of your siblings because they can't afford to keep them all?" Scorpius gasped. He couldn't imagine ever saying anything like that to anyone, even his worst enemy. Ron turned red with anger and embarrassment, and he advanced towards Draco. Scorpius saw Draco's eyes widen with alarm and fear for a split second, and he backed away.
"Ronald, stop it!" Hermione whispered furiously, grabbing Ron's arm. "We don't want to get into any trouble!"
"He insulted my family! He deserves it!" Ron yelled.
"What's wrong? Are you afraid?" Draco taunted, becoming his usual arrogant self now that the imminent threat was gone.
"Where's your precious daddy, Malfoy? Is he too superior to do something as useless as picking you up?" Ron glared at Draco. Hermione grinned.
Draco flushed. "My Father..." he started angrily.
But before he could continue, a hand clamped down onto his shoulder. Draco stiffened and instantly fell silent. Scorpius looked up at the cold face of his grandfather. Hatred churned in his chest, and he knew that he would do anything to get his dad away from that cruel man, if only he could. But this was all a memory. It had already happened, and Scorpius was powerless from stopping it.
"Yes, Draco?" Lucius drawled, looking down at his son. Draco tensed, turning his head slowly towards his father.
"Do continue. What were you going to say about me?" The gleeful, malicious glint that his dad had in his eyes as he was taunting Ron was gone, replaced with the same fearful, nervous look that he had before, whenever he was around his father. He looked lost at what to say. Just then, Narcissa Malfoy, Scorpius's grandmother, showed up behind her husband and son. She put a calming hand on Lucius' shoulder and smiled at her son. That seemed to give Draco courage, and he stood up straight.
"He was insulting you, Father," Draco scowled, folding his arms and glaring at Ron. "And I was only trying to defend you from his unfair judgement,"
Lucius nodded at his son approvingly, and Draco's face lit up in happiness. Draco seemed to practically live for his father's approval, Scorpius thought. He seemed so happy at even the simplest acknowledgement. But Scorpius couldn't understand why. How could his dad love someone who was so cruel?
Lucius then looked down coldly at Ron and Hermione, as if seeing them for the first time. Ron was glaring defiantly, and Hermione's face was cool as she looked at Lucius.
"You are a Weasley, are you not?" Lucius sneered, looking in disgust at Ron's hand-me-down robes. Ron turned red.
"Yeah, and what's wrong with that?" he asked angrily. Lucius only shook his head and turned to Hermione. Narcissa's lip curled as well, and her expression became cold.
"And you are…?" she asked, looking at Hermione. Hermione opened her mouth to answer, but Draco beat her.
"She's a muggleborn, Mother," he sneered. It was strange for Scorpius to think that his dad had actually believed all that nonsense about pure bloods being superior at one point.
"Muggleborn?" Lucius said with a look of disgust. Now it was Hermione's turn to glare.
Scorpius wanted to strangle his grandfather. He was being prejudiced and rude! He turned his head to look at his dad, who was watching the exchange with a cruel smirk on his face.
"Yeah, I'm Muggleborn. So?" Hermione said loudly. "I'm still one of the top students in the school, and I believe that I've even beaten your pureblood son in every subject," she said proudly. Draco's eyes widened, and he looked at Hermione in horror and disbelief. As if he couldn't believe what she had just said, and was hoping that she didn't actually say it. But it was too late. Scorpius winced at the look in his grandfather's face when he heard what Hermione said. He didn't want to see what his grandfather would do to his dad for this. His heart clenched at the look of pure terror in Draco's eyes.
Lucius whirled around to look down at his son with dangerous eyes. "Is this true, Draco?" he hissed. Draco froze, looking like he could hardly breathe due to fear.
"No! No, it-it's no-not true," Draco stammered, meeting his father's furious grey eyes with his frightened ones. Lucius narrowed his eyes at his son.
He clenched his hand around Draco's arm, who winced in pain.
"Come, Narcissa. Draco, we will discuss this at home," Lucius said, jerking his son forward, towards the platform wall.
"Ron!" Scorpius saw Ron's father come forward and put his arm around his son. Ron embraced his dad with a happy smile.
Draco sent Hermione and Ron a glare full of hatred. A hatred unlike anything Scorpius had ever seen on his dad's face. He even looked jealous while looking at Ron and his father.
Scorpius could understand being jealous. After his mom had passed away, he tried his hardest not to be jealous of Albus, but he couldn't help it. Albus had a full family, a mother, father, and two siblings who he claimed annoyed him, but he obviously loved anyways. And Scorpius only had his dad. He loved his dad, and his dad loved him, but Scorpius had always wanted a larger family. Scorpius had always been affectionate person, and his mother had given him that affection until she passed away. Scorpius had been distraught, pushing everyone except for Albus away, including his dad. He would never forget the pained expression on his dad's face when he yelled about how much he hated him, how it was his fault his mother had died, and ran up to his room, slamming the door. He had apologized later for what he said, but it hadn't stopped him from feeling guilty. Now, he felt even more guilty, watching this younger version of his dad being dragged by his arm, wincing. His dad was trying to give Scorpius the love and happiness that he had never felt in his childhood, except maybe by his mother.
Scorpius followed the family through the wall. Draco looked numb, glancing at his father every few seconds to see his expression. But Lucius was emotionless. He held out his hand to his wife, who took it. The three of them apparated away, and Scorpius saw the scene turning black for a moment, before he saw the familiar halls of his house. But it looked so different than it was now that Scorpius almost didn't recognize it. It seemed like his parents had renovated the entire house after his grandparents had moved out.
The four of them landed in the main sitting room in Malfoy Manor, and Draco almost fell over. Lucius steadied his son with the hand he had clamped onto Draco's arm, before abruptly releasing it. Narcissa stepped in front of her son, almost protectively.
"Come, Draco," Lucius ordered. "We have some issues to… discuss." Draco looked pleadingly at his mother, begging her with his eyes to help him. She hesitated for a few seconds, looking between her husband and her son.
"Lucius, he just got back," she argued. "You can discuss with him later." But she sounded unsure of whose side to take.
"Draco has to learn." Lucius looked pointedly at Narcissa, who looked down at her son sadly. She left the room without a single glance back.
"No!" Scorpius gasped. How could she leave her child with this monster? Anger towards his grandparents filled him, and he wanted to go home and hug his dad for having the misfortune of being born to such horrible parents. A mother who loved her husband more than her son, a father who hurt his son in horrible ways, ways that shaped him into the arrogant, rude boy that Scorpius was seeing in the memories.
Draco watched his mother leave with hurt in his eyes, but not surprise. It seemed like this wasn't the first time Narcissa had left her son with Lucius, Scorpius thought sadly.
Lucius turned to Draco the moment the door shut behind Narcissa.
"Draco, is the mudblood girl right? Did a girl from a non-magic family beat you in school?" Lucius asked softly, his snake cane tapping on the floor.
"N-no Father, it's not true," Draco protested, watching his father's every move with fearful eyes. Lucius sighed, tapping his cane faster. Scorpius didn't want to watch what he knew would happen next.
"And how do I know if you're telling the truth? You may be trying to get out of your… punishment." Lucius said, still softly. But the soft tone didn't seem to help Draco relax. In fact, it seemed to make him even more afraid.
"You know that I am a school governor, Draco," Lucius continued. Draco nodded slowly, looking on in confusion. Scorpius knew for a fact that school governors had access to all of the school records, including grades. How could a father manipulate his son in such a way?
"I have access to the grades of everyone in the school," Lucius said calmly, watching the look on his son's face turn from fearful to terrified. "I am sure that you wouldn't lie to me; I believe that I've taught you better than that. But I would like to check to make sure. Unless, of course, you have anything you want to say to me?"
Draco's already pale face paled even further, until he looked almost sickly. "Please Father, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to lie. I didn't want to disappoint you," he said quietly.
Lucius sighed once again, and in a sudden movement, the back of his hand connected with Draco's face. Scorpius had known it was coming, but that didn't make it any less painful to watch. Draco stood stiffly, his face snapping to the side. He put a hand up to touch the mark. It was as bright red as it was in the first memory, and a bruise was slowly forming. Scorpius looked closely at the mark and gasped. There was a shape, an engraved "M". In the same font as the Malfoy family ring that his dad had, and a little different from the one that Scorpius had been given right before he went to Hogwarts. The M was bleeding, and Draco winced when he touched it. Scorpius looked at Lucius's hand, and sure enough, the ring glittered on it. But now it was red, with Draco's blood smeared on it. It was enough to make Scorpius feel sick. Scorpius looked down at the ring on his finger, the "M" that was engraved on it. He wondered how many secrets were hidden behind the glittering gem, one of them being the pain it had caused his dad.
Lucius slowly lifted his wand out of his cane. So that's what it's used for. Scorpius thought numbly. Draco saw the wand and backed into the wall instinctively. His body began to shake, and he closed his eyes. The terrified whimper that escaped him broke Scorpius's heart. Lucius lifted the wand and pointed it at his son's face.
"Incompetent boy! You're a disgrace to the Malfoy name," Lucius sneered. "A disappointment. Beaten by a mudblood. And not just that, you insult me further by lying to me!"
Scorpius couldn't bear to look at the devastated look on Draco's face at his father's insults.
He felt like crying. Draco obviously loved and trusted his father, and having his father insult him like this clearly hurt him more than any physical blow. Even now, Scorpius could see that his father loved his grandfather, and took all of his insults without any defense. Scorpius had always wondered why. Why his father loved his grandfather so much despite the insults, and why his grandfather was so rude in the first place. Now he had the answer to his second question, but was still confused about the first. He knew he had to figure it out himself, because he couldn't go ask his dad about a topic this serious. It was obviously something that his dad had kept a secret from everyone for a reason. Right now, watching Draco's miserable face, all Scorpius wanted to do was go home and hug his dad.
"Well Draco?" Lucius said softly, twirling his wand between his fingers. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?" Draco, who was fighting back tears, whimpered.
"I'm sorry, Father," he said shakily. Lucius's lip curled and he muttered "Pathetic," under his breath. That single word seemed to break something in Draco, and tears began pouring down his cheeks. Scorpius's heart ached at the sight. Didn't Lucius see that his son was hurt? He didn't seem to care.
Lucius still had his wand pointed at his son, and he flicked it carelessly. Draco let out a yelp and fell on the floor, hands and legs twitching. Stinging Hex. Scorpius had felt it once, when in his first year, one of the older bullies who had tormented him and Albus sent it at him, and it had hurt. Not as much as the Cruciatus obviously, but it still stung, until Albus had helped him go to the hospital wing. He didn't know how long it would sting if the person wasn't given the antidote, but he suspected it was for a long time.
Lucius looked down at his son on the floor emotionlessly. He put his wand back in his cane and said, "Get up."
Draco struggled to his feet, wincing with every movement. It was obvious that the stinging hex was doing its job, because Draco was still twitching, as if trying to shake off the pain. He purposely avoided his father's eyes, looking at the floor instead.
Something in Lucius's eyes seemed to soften when he saw his son's tear stained face, and he sighed heavily.
"Why must you always anger me, Draco? Why do you make me punish you like this?" he asked softly. He put his hand under Draco's chin and lifted it up gently, so that Draco's eyes met his. He looked almost sad as he looked into his son's eyes.
But that wasn't an excuse to hurt a child! There was never an excuse to hurt a child. Scorpius clenched his fists in anger. If his grandfather had been here in person, he wouldn't have hesitated to hurt him the way he hurt his dad, and the many other people he had tortured and killed from his time as Death Eater.
Fear and confusion filled Draco's eyes as he stared up at his father. "I-I didn't mean to," he mumbled, but Lucius ignored him. He moved his hand to Draco's cheek, the one with the bruise—the bruise HE had made—and touched it gently. Draco flinched back, and Lucius frowned.
"But you are weak," he muttered. It seemed almost like he was talking to himself.
"And as your father, it is my job to make you strong." He let go of Draco and raised his cane.
The sickening noise of the cane hitting skin and the cries of pain that followed made Scorpius wince. Draco was on the ground again, arms reaching up to cover his face, cowering in a ball on the floor. Blood spurted from various injuries all over his body, and Scorpius could not watch anymore without feeling sick and furious. He wanted to scream at Lucius, to beg him to stop, to yell at him until his voice went hoarse. It wasn't fair. Why was life so cruel to his dad? To give him a horrible father who hurt him, and still make him so desperate to please the man.
He watched as Lucius stopped, the snake head cane coated with Draco's blood.
He looked down at his son emotionlessly, then left the room without a single look behind. Outside the room, Scorpius saw Narcissa standing there, looking at her broken, beaten son with a devastated expression. But she didn't do anything. She turned away, and Scorpius could swear that he saw tears in her blue eyes. But that just made him angrier. She was willing to abandon her son when he needed it most? What kind of mother was she? Now Scorpius understood why his mom had hated both of his grandparents, even though Narcissa had always been kind to Scorpius.
Now, as he watched the two adults walk away, and Draco sob, his back against the wall, his face buried between his knees, he wondered how his dad had become such a wonderful father to him when he hadn't had a good role model. In fact, he had had the worst. He was alone. No one was there to help him. The blood dripped from his clothes, from his face wound. Draco believed he deserved the injuries, for being a failure, for disappointing his father, when all he ever wanted was to make him proud. Scorpius loved his dad, and it hate him to find out that his dad had a horrible childhood, and everyone had believed that he was an arrogant, mean bully, when really he was a product of his upbringing. And there was never a time when Scorpius wished he could be at home, with his dad, more than now.
The scene began to change again, and Scorpius looked around desperately, not wanting to see another painful memory of his dad's past. But it was too late. He closed his eyes as the scene changed once again.