Draco Malfoy and the Potions Pupil

AN: Hi again! It feels good to get back into fanfiction. Hope you enjoy this chapter. :)

Chapter 18: Overheard

"Victory for Slytherin!" roared the student commentator as a green-robed seeker sped around the pitch waving a tiny golden snitch.

Draco clapped, eyeing the Head Teacher of Hufflepuff who was sitting near him. She looked extremely depressed. He'd almost forgotten how much joy he could get out of a Slytherin win. He watched Scorpius dart past on his broomstick, still holding the Quaffle and smiling. It was a long time since he'd seen a genuine smile on his son's face and he wondered, even hoped a little, that his presence there today had something to do with it.

The crowd soon dispersed and Draco was making his way back towards the castle when he heard a commotion near the entrance to the Hufflepuff change rooms.

"Shut it, Malfoy!" came an angry voice. "Or I'll hex you!"

"You will do no such thing," said Draco dangerously as he approached the scene. "Lower your wand."

Malevolent grins formed on the faces of each Slytherin as the Hufflepuff who'd made the threat lowered their poised wand.

"Oh so now Daddy's here to protect you," spat one of the Hufflepuff beaters.

"That's right," said Scorpius stilling smirking evilly. "Just try and curse me now."

"St–" started the Hufflepuff who, already out of sorts at having lost the match, accepted the challenge of Scorpius' taunt.

However, Draco's wand was out in a flash and with a silent swish through the air, he had tied the student's tongue in a knot and turned their hand so that the wand was pointed directly at their own heart.

The Slytherins erupted into laughter as the Hufflepuffs all started to protest loudly.

"You aren't allowed to use magic on the students!" yelled a bushy haired girl who reminded Draco (not pleasantly) of Hermione Granger.

"I am allowed to use whatever means I see fit to stop students of this school from harming one another," replied Draco angrily.

The Slytherin Quidditch team were still laughing and looking on with great pleasure.

"That's enough," said Draco with a small smile of his own. "You lot better get back to the castle, I'm sure you have a lot of celebrating to do." His last comment was partnered with a particularly smug look directed at the Hufflepuffs who all wore scowls but did not retaliate.

Scorpius and the rest of the team reluctantly headed off, throwing amused glances over their shoulders as they did so.

Draco waved his wand lazily at the Hufflepuff beater who was struggling to not choke on his newly knotted tongue. The spell was released and he stowed his wand. It would've given Draco great pleasure to give the whole team detention but he decided against it as it would just mean that he'd have to attend too. He could think of a better way to spend his time.

"Fifty points from Hufflepuff," he stated loudly.

"Fifty!" screeched the bushy haired girl. "But that's way too much!"

"Your teammate was attempting to curse another student," said Draco with venom. "You should all think yourselves lucky that I haven't given you detention for the next month. Now scram before I change my mind!"

They all shot him looks of hatred that he was well used to but still hurried away before he followed through with his threat. He heard them mumbling angrily about favouritism as they left but shrugged it off. If a student was stupid enough to try to curse his son in front of him then they deserved to lose fifty points for that alone.

Draco returned to his office with the intention of marking the rest of the essays that he'd abandoned earlier but when he arrived Scorpius was already there, waiting for him.

"Why aren't you at your common room celebrating the win?" asked Draco glancing at the clock and wondering if Lily was going to pay him a visit today.

"I don't feel like it," said Scorpius. "Why are you trying to get rid of me?"

Draco's eyes narrowed as he looked at Scorpius' face.

"I'm not," he replied casually. "Why do you think that?"

"It's nothing," said Scorpius after a moment in which Draco was certain that his son had considered reading his mind. Thankfully he thought better of it. "Like you said I better go and celebrate." He turned and left.

Draco looked at the unmarked essays again and then crossed the room back to a chair in front of the fire and sat down. Scorpius was definitely suspicious but surely he couldn't know anything about Lily. They'd been so careful. But had they? The look on Harry Potter's face was still haunting Draco. Perhaps he had been a little careless.

Suddenly the door burst open and Lily entered the room.

"I need to talk to you," she said abruptly.

"Yes," he replied allowing her to continue although unsure whether he wanted her to or not.

"I don't want you to worry or anything," Lily said looking around the room, at anything but his face.

"What is it?" he asked sharply, she now had him officially concerned.

"It's nothing to worry about," she said again, only confirming in his mind that it was something to worry about.

"Lily," he said, if nothing else the suspense was killing him.

Then, quite suddenly and without any further delay, she told him.

"I think my father is suspicious of us," she said quickly. "But I'm not entirely sure, I mean he just asked me a few questions that seemed well odd but that could mean something else. And I might've mentioned something about my Patronus and maybe he saw you wink at me the other day..."

Draco heard no more of what Lily was saying. He'd just spotted something behind her on the floor. Something that made his whole insides drop. He felt the colour drain from his face and his hand reached up to hold his head as it began to swim. He knew this moment was inevitable but he'd convinced himself that it wasn't.

"Are you ok?" Lily asked but he barely heard her.

The dizziness subsided and his focus sharpened on the thin flesh coloured piece of cord, recognizable to every witch and wizard at Hogwarts as an Extendable Ear. It was lying on the floor of his office and trailing out under the door. As Draco passed Lily and headed towards the door he hoped that the person on the other side would be Scorpius. He didn't want his son, or anyone for that matter, to know about his relationship with Lily Potter but if it had to be someone, Scorpius was the only person he could trust to keep it quiet. Footsteps were echoing on the other side; the eavesdropper was running away. Draco had to know who it was; he grabbed the door handle and reefed it open. His hopes had not been realised. The person that he saw running down the corridor was probably one of the worst people it could've been.

Draco turned around and faced Lily, she was as white as a ghost and her eyes were wide with fear. How could he have been so naive to think he could keep this a secret? How could he have been so stupid to have let it get this far?

"That was your brother, Albus," he told her.

AN: Thanks for reading. Please review. For those of you who asked questions about my trip here are the answers. I took over 3000 photos which averaged out at about 100 per day. Now I'm just trying to go through them and decide which ones to get printed. I'll probably be posting some of them on Tumblr but I'll let you know when/if that happens. In Scotland, we went pretty much all over, places that we stayed were; Kinross, Culbokie, John O' Groats, Kirkwall (Orkney), Loch Ness (saw HP at Inverness), Breakish (Isle of Skye) and Crianlarich.