A/N: I realize that Hugo may seem very old for his age, but I don't really know what to do about it. Chalk it up to him being a genius, if you like.
3. So Like Your Father (Part 2)
Hugo is quite like his father in looks-- same blue eyes, red hair(albeit a few shades darker), tall and thin for his age, though his lack of Weasley freckles is conspicuous. He, too, likes chess, and can beat all his cousins soundly. Sometimes he can beat his father, too.
The resemblance ends there, however; Hugo lacks his father's jovial bonhomie and prefers to be alone. He spends a lot of time reading, first in an effort to avoid his sister Rose, and later because he finds himself interested in certain subjects. When he was 7, he once snuck into the library to read some of the more recent history books, the type his mother never allowed him to peruse. Because of this, he learned far earlier than his sister or cousins about the role his family played in the War. He read the articles once, looked up the difficult words, then read them again. Afterwards, he spent a lot of time staring at his parents, and at Uncle Harry, trying to reconcile the contrasting images of his family and the heroes of the War and the Savior of the Wizarding World.
Reading about the war teaches Hugo some awful truths about the world, and also causes a rift between him and the rest of his family. He can't fathom why his parents would hide such important details about who they were. Who did they think they were protecting? Hugo decides then and there that even good people can do bad things, which makes him think that, logically speaking, bad people can do good things as well, which in turn means that really, there is no separation between good and bad. Trying to reconcile this thought with everything he's been taught before is hard and gives him a headache, so he tries to think about other things.
He decides that he wants to be a curse breaker, like his uncle Bill who once worked in Egypt. He admires his uncle's long hair, fanged earring, and scars, creepy as they could sometimes be. Uncle Bill knew how to use a wand, how to do exciting things and best of all, he didn't need to depend on anyone else. That's what Hugo craves most of all: independence. Consequently, he is happily relieved when Rose's Hogwarts letter arrives, since it means that he will finally have some peace. He slouches along through the station, annoyed at the stares directed their way, and rolls his eyes when his father starts saying something about a family called the Malfoys. His father can be aggravatingly prejudiced at times. He watches as a blond boy-- Scorpius Malfoy-- says goodbye to his own parents, who seem composed and far less boisterous than the Weasley-Potter clan. Scorpius doesn't look evil at all, and when he pauses on his way to the train and catches Hugo's eye, Hugo simply looks back and smiles slightly.