Hi everyone! Thank you for the people who reviewed, I love you:) I hope you like this next chapter! Remember, more reviews are always encouraged!
Draco could only watch as his son turned to run away. He was a failure. He had failed his father by being a horrible son, failed Astoria by not taking care of his son the best he could, and failed Scorpius by hurting him. He had vowed never to hurt his son the way he had been hurt, because the memories of loneliness and pain, of feeling worthless and hated, still haunted him.
Wouldn't it be so much easier to just die? He felt the now familiar sensation of his eyes burning, tears straining to come out. Scorpius would be better off without him. The only reason he had lived after Astoria's death was because he knew that his son needed him. But now his son would hate him, and would never want to see him again. Yes, dying would be so much easier.
He needed Astoria back more than ever. She would have known what to do. She would have been angry at him for what he had done to Scorpius, but he knew that she would have forgiven him after she saw how guilty and heartbroken he was. She always understood. He felt so lonely. He had no one left in the world. The tears finally fell, and he let out a sob. He would do anything, anything at all to have her back beside him.
Now that he had gone into the pensieve, the memories were as strong as they were after the war, when he had locked them away. He couldn't push the memories away like he had done before, and they haunted him. Images of death, destruction, torture, his task, his father's punishments, and the war plagued him, and he shivered, feeling a sudden chill in the room. He had known that this would happen eventually, that he had to face his past sometime. But he had hoped it would be a long, long time from now, when his son was married and had a child of his own.
He remembered the torture he had faced after his failure to kill Dumbledore, and after he and his family had failed to keep Harry and his friends from escaping their home. He had almost been tortured to insanity with the Cruciatus, and his parents had been forced to watch. Hearing his mother scream and beg the Dark Lord to stop torturing him almost hurt as much as the curse did.
He began to shake as he remembered Bellatrix's idea of a punishment, when he had failed to learn Occlumency after a few lessons. For weeks after that, he had been unable to stop trembling and jumped at sudden noises. It disgusted him to even think that she was his aunt. He never thought he could say that someone had more sadistic punishments than the Dark Lord and his father, but Bellatrix was by far the worst. And he could say with experience of all three.
Draco had long given up on healing himself, because all that mattered was the people he loved. Besides, he wasn't worth healing. But his son still had a bright future ahead of him, and Draco didn't want to lose him. He got up and made his way out of the room, determined to find his son and beg for his forgiveness. He hoped so badly that Scorpius would find it in his heart to forgive him. Because Draco Malfoy didn't know how he would live if his son refused to forgive him. But then he stopped. Did he even deserve his son's forgiveness? No, he didn't.
He looked down at the dark mark on his arm, the mark that would forever remind him of the mistakes he had made, of how stupid he had been. It was faded away now, only a scar.
He hated himself, so much. Self hatred churned in his chest, and he stumbled down the stairs, almost tripping and crashing to the floor below. He staggered into the kitchen and grabbed a knife, sinking to his knees. Tears blinded his vision.
He deserved to die. He was pathetic. He was a disappointment to everyone he had ever loved. He had heard it so many times, from his father, from the Dark Lord, from all the newspapers that had come out after the war. Random people he didn't even know would come up to him whenever he was in public and say that he should've died instead of their various loved ones. He didn't know them, but everyone knew him.
They knew him as the pathetic Death Eater who should've just died in the war. As the evil person who was so desperate for an heir that he willingly sent his own wife back to time to have a child with Voldemort. When Draco had first heard about that rumor, he hadn't known if he should laugh or get angry. He couldn't believe that anyone thought of him as so cruel that he would do that. But maybe they were right. Maybe he was cruel. After all, he had tortured people in the war, he had almost killed Dumbledore, and now he had hurt his only son.
He couldn't do this anymore. He couldn't deal with the memories and his own hatred. And now, one person he loved was gone forever, and the other would hate him. With a gasp, he drove the knife into the black skin on his left arm. The skin tainted with evil. He was tainted with evil.
Blood sprung out immediately, and he cut over his dark mark, trying to cover his horrible decision with his knife. He couldn't feel anything but numbness. He frowned. He had always known that he didn't have a great tolerance for pain, from both his father and his own stupid school experiences. Those school days seemed so far away now as he thought about how ignorant he had been as a child, bullying people he believed he was superior to and showing off his wealth and status, when none of that actually mattered.
Why wasn't he feeling anything? Desperate now, he plunged the knife deeper, and the pain he was so desperate to feel blinded him. His vision went dark as he felt himself dropping the knife and falling to the ground.
Scorpius's POV chapter 7
Scorpius ran downstairs blindly, tears blurring his vision. The bruise still stung, but it didn't hurt as much as the realization that his dad had hit him. But this time, Scorpius knew he deserved his dad's anger. He had gone into his room without permission, and had ventured into his most private, painful memories. Memories that he would have kept private from Scorpius, had he not intruded on them. But he didn't understand why his dad would hit him. Was he so traumatized from seeing his bad memories again that he took it out on Scorpius? He didn't know.
Scorpius found himself in front of the fireplace. He grabbed a handful of Floo powder and stepped into the fireplace, yelling out the first place that came to mind. "Harry Potter's house!"
He came out, choking and gasping for breath, tears cleaning the soot off his face. It was dark, obviously everyone was asleep. After all, it was the middle of the night. The Potters had connected their Floo Network with Malfoy Manor, since they knew how often Scorpius and Albus liked to hang out, especially over the summer. Although technically, Scorpius wasn't allowed to be here because he was grounded…
Why was he even here? He suddenly regretted coming here. He considered going back, but suddenly, a light turned on, temporarily blinding him. He was caught. He squinted into the light to a see a surprised Lily Potter gaping at him. He sighed, grateful that if any Potter besides Albus was the one to find him, it was Lily. He had always liked Lily, because she was kind to him and never bullied him like the others did. The one he would've least liked to see was James.
Lily frowned at him.
"What are you doing here?" she asked. Then she noticed his red rimmed eyes, and the tear stains on his face. The bruise that was on his face. She gasped.
"What happened?" she whispered worriedly. Before Scorpius could answer, she continued. "No, wait here; I'll go call my parents."
"No!" Scorpius knew that if Mr. and Mrs. Potter came down and saw the bruise, they would force Scorpius to tell them where it came from. And Scorpius did not want them to assume the worst, that his dad abused him.
Lily stared at him, and Scorpius realized his mistake. He had yelled the word, probably loud enough to wake the entire house. He wanted to hit himself for being so stupid.
The lights upstairs turned on, and the remaining Potters descended the stairs, still in their pajamas. Luckily, James didn't seem to be around. Scorpius saw the familiar figure of Albus, looking groggy and irritated. But when he saw Scorpius, his face became delighted.
"Scorpius!" he yelled, running forward to pull him into a hug. Scorpius felt tears trickle down his cheeks, now that Albus was here. Albus saw his tears and the bruise and gasped.
"What happened?" he asked, gently reaching up a hand to touch the bruise. Scorpius flinched and he quickly pulled it away.
"Scorpius?" Harry Potter asked. "What happened? Why are you here so late?"
Ginny covered her mouth with her hand. "Oh my God," she whispered, catching sight of the bruise on Scorpius's face. She immediately pulled out her wand and pointed it at Scorpius. He felt the pain begin to fade, but when he touched his cheek, the bruise was still there.
Harry was looking at Scorpius in horror. "Who did that to you?" he asked gently.
Scorpius looked at them. "He didn't mean to!" he said defensively. He watched the looks on their faces turn from surprise to horror and disbelief.
"Was it… your dad?" Harry asked cautiously. Scorpius remained silent.
He seemed to take Scorpius's silence as a yes.
"The slimy little ferret!" Harry looked so angry that Scorpius almost took a step back. Ginny's jaw was clenched in anger, and Albus looked furious as well. Ever since the Delphi incident, when Albus had told his parents that Scorpius shouldn't be blamed and that he had been tortured, the Potter family had treated him like an extension of their own family. And they were very protective over him, in a way that seemed to run through the Potter family. And that was why Harry marched over to the Floo and grabbed a handful of powder, ignoring Scorpius's protests.
"Malfoy Manor!" he yelled, disappearing into the floo. Scorpius groaned and followed, hearing Albus begging to be allowed to go with him, but Ginny firmly saying no.
Harry's POV Chapter 7
Harry was so full of rage he could hardly breath. How dare Malfoy hurt his son? That was abuse! He stumbled out of the fireplace, into the elegant sitting room of Malfoy Manor. Draco Malfoy was nowhere in sight, but a house elf was standing wide eyed in front of Harry.
"Where's Malfoy?" Harry asked, looking around angrily. The house elf stared at him.
"I'll go get Master Malfoy." She snapped her fingers and apparated out of the room. Harry took a deep breath, struggling to calm himself.
"Mr. Potter!" Harry heard a shout coming out of the floo. He turned to see Scorpius stumbling out. Scorpius immediately ran up to Harry.
"Mr. Potter, don't blame my dad, it wasn't his fault, he's never done it before, it was my fault, I snuck into his room and found-." Then he went silent, as though he didn't want to say what he found.
Harry frowned at him and relaxed a little. He knew he was making a big deal out of something that Scorpius obviously didn't want to make a big deal. But he couldn't help it. Harry was strongly against hurting children, mostly because of his own childhood. Although the Dursleys hadn't exactly "abused" him, they had neglected him, and Dudley had beat him up on a few occasions. He was not in the least afraid of them, and never had been, but they had left their mark on him.
But Harry had seen the way Draco looked at his son. With love and affection, a look unfamiliar on his normally stoic face. He remembered the look of pure fear on Draco's face when he had discovered that his son was missing. He obviously loved him more than anything. So why would he ever hurt his son on purpose?
He looked at Scorpius's wide eyed face and decided to believe him. But he still wanted to ask Draco why he had done it. He couldn't imagine any reason Draco would do that to the son he loved so much.
A high pitched scream came from the room next door, and Harry jumped. He felt a chill creep down his spine.
"Tiffy!" Scorpius cried, running out of the room. The elf! Harry followed behind Scorpius and froze in horror at the sight in front of him. The elf was sobbing next to a body on the floor.
"Dad," Scorpius choked, falling to his knees before the unnaturally still figure of Draco Malfoy.