I remember every look upon your face

The way you roll your eyes

The way you taste

You make it hard for breathing

'Cause when I close my eyes and drift away

I think of you and everything's okay

I'm finally now believing

-Two is Better than One; Boys Like Girls ft. Taylor Swift

CHAPTER 10

SCORPIUS MALFOY

No one met me at King's Cross. For a moment I thought they'd forgotten, but I'd come back the same day every year for six years. That just couldn't escape your mind could it? I'd waited for ten minutes when I started to get annoyed. How could my parents just forget me? Bastards. But then something bigger hit me – how was I going to get home? I couldn't apparate yet, although Adrian and I had been secretly practicing. How was I supposed to get there? I pondered this for a few more minutes, noticing how my trunk was earning lots of stares, but I couldn't figure anything out. Then the answer popped into my head so suddenly it was as if someone had put it there: my house elf. I moved over to a quiet spot out of sight, and I summoned him. He appeared almost instantly.

"Master Scorpius! Is there something I can do for you, sir?" He wheezed. Havelock was my favourite house elf. He was warm-hearted and took care of my parents better than the other house elves. He knew he was my favourite too, and it delighted him.

"Yes, Havelock, there is. My darling parents have decided not to show up for my homecoming, and I have no other way of getting home. Could you please apparate me there?" I spoke more formally than I had done in weeks and it felt like I was speaking a different language. Havelock's face had lit up with a large smile, as though he would like nothing better to assist me, but he had flinched slightly when I'd spoken of my parents. His face was still smiling but when he spoke his voice was almost… sad.

"Indeed, Master Scorpius, you need to come home now." He'd said it in an almost insane rambling kind of way, almost like he'd forgotten I was there. He took hold of my arm, and I grabbed a tight hold on my luggage, and we disapparated.

I landed with a thud onto what felt like a path, a path that I knew well. Before I opened my eyes, I took in the scent of the air around me. I could smell that familiar scent of jasmine mixed with lilies and, I smiled, roses. I opened my eyes and I looked around. Nothing had changed; the plants were still green, the flowers still bloomed, the hedges surrounding me still gave the impression of a maze on either side of me. Then I looked up into the familiar sight of the Malfoy Manor. My grandfather had given it to my father after my grandmother had died; he didn't want to live in it anymore. I don't think it was because of memories of her that haunted him, but I think he gave it up because he wanted my father to think that. It may sound cynical, but I truly believed he didn't love my grandmother. I'd seen him shout at her, order her around, and even hit her. My father shouted at my mother sometimes, but very rarely and he never hit her. I think he just didn't want to be like his father. He'd told me once about the things he'd done for his father, the people who'd suffered because of it. He regretted it every day, I knew he did, and sometimes I wondered if he still saw those people's faces like he told me he used to. He'd sat me down before I started Hogwarts, explaining why some people might judge me or be afraid of me. He'd told me to ignore those people, because they weren't worth it. He'd told me I was going to be great, and not just because I was a Malfoy. I'd realised then that that was what I'd been waiting for the eleven years before that.

Havelock led me into the manor, taking my coat and disappearing with my luggage. I wandered around this house that I lived in, the house I hadn't been in for weeks, and I suddenly felt like I didn't belong there. I didn't belong in this dark, damp and – dusty house? I noticed now that everything I'd passed was covered in dust and some things were adorned with a cobweb or two. Something wasn't right. I called for my mother. No answer. I called again, but still no answer. I walked carefully up the stairs, trying not to make too much noise. The manor was silent, my footsteps echoing off the walls. I moved down the hallway so slowly and so quietly you wouldn't know I was there. I turned into my parents' bedroom, and I saw my mother sitting there.

"Mother?" I asked, not entirely sure it was her. The woman I was used to had clean brown hair, and always wore a grey blazer and a matching pencil skirt. The woman sitting before me had hair that obviously hadn't been washed in days, and her pyjamas had been sloppily pulled on. I wondered absent-mindedly if she'd actually taken them off recently. She had no makeup on, and dark circles under her eyes.

I'm not sure whether she even heard me. She was sat up in bed, staring at nothing in particular, and I noticed the crumpled up tissues that were scattered around the bedroom floor.

"Mother?" I repeated, louder this time. Her head snapped up and she vaguely reminded me of a startled meerkat. I would've laughed if I hadn't been so worried. Something was definitely wrong.

"Draco?" She turned to me, her eyes wide. "Draco! I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"Mother, it's me, Scorpius." She thought I was Father. I edged watchfully towards her, shifting my feet clumsily. There was screwed up wrappers on the floor, and I tried to dodge around them. She didn't notice.

"Draco, I'm so sorry we couldn't be there. Please forgive me. Draco, please." She whispered to me, burying her head in my shoulder. I kept silent, trying to figure out what to say. I felt her nails dig at my chest. "Draco! Please talk to me! I'm sorry!" She yelled at me, tears now streaming down her face. I patted her hair awkwardly. I had no idea how to talk to her at the moment; I didn't know what was going on.

"What's going on? Mother? Talk to me! It's Scorpius! It's me, mom!" I think me callling her 'mom' was what snapped her out of it the most. I'd never called her that before. My father had told me that my parents should be respected, and called 'Mother' and 'Father' at all times, so I complied. I did everything he told me to. I was never sure why.

"Scorpius?" She spoke as if she had just woken up, her eyes bulging. "Scorpius! Oh darling, I promised your father I wouldn't tell you! We'll have to wait until he gets home!" And then I heard the door slam shut. Father was home. Mother looked shocked, as if her words of him coming home had made it happen. If it was any other time, I might've laughed. Except now, I was worried. I was worried and I was anxious. I needed to know what was going on.

I ran downstairs so fast I almost fell down them. I ran straight past Father and I had to backtrack a bit. He was about to scold me for running when I interrupted him. My manners didn't matter to me right now. I think he sensed that.

"Father! Father, what is going on? Tell me!" I practically shouted at him. He looked like he was going to chastise me for my lack of manners, but thought better of it.

"Scorpius, your grandfather wasn't a good man. He was my father and I knew that. He worshipped the Dark Lord, as you know," He touched his left forearm, just like he always did when the Dark Lord was mentioned. It was a habit of his. "But that doesn't mean that I won't mourn him, and you shouldn't feel as though you can't grieve for him." He spoke gently, as if talking to a child. I always hated that tone.

"Father, what is going on? What happened?" I screamed. His expression wasn't angry. It wasn't upset. It was… sorry. He was sorry for having to say this to me.

"Your grandfather passed away recently." He said it bluntly, but I could see the emotion in his eyes. Draco Malfoy was never one to share his feelings, and I knew this wasn't going to change anything for him.

"When?" I yelled. He might be good at concealing his emotions, but I wasn't. I couldn't tell if I was upset or angry. I think it was a bit of both. Father flinched, and I saw the sorrow again.

"A week after you left for Hogwarts." He spoke briskly, and I could tell he didn't want to talk about this anymore. But I should've known about this; this happened a week after I went back to Hogwarts and nobody told me! No one even bothered to tell Scorpius that his grandfather fucking died?

"Why didn't you tell me?" I shouted, causing him to flinch again. I think he was on the verge of reprimanding me for shouting, but I think he understood why I was.

"I didn't want to tell you while you were still at school. And we had to sort out his will. The ministry wanted to keep it for longer, but they couldn't. There was nothing Dark on there. My father decided to lead a better life after the Dark Lord's death." He spoke this last sentence bitterly, and I knew he didn't believe that. He always thought his father was an evil man. Father reached in his pocket and pulled out something small and held it in his fist. "He left you this." I held out my hand and he dropped the object in it. It was a ring. It was small and silver – Lucius had always prided himself on his silver – with a green stone set into it. I noticed that they were Slytherin colours. Bloody typical. But even so, I felt some strange pull towards it. Like it was meant to be mine. "It's the Malfoy ring. It's been passed down through the generations. It is given to the true love of a Malfoy, and when either that person or the Malfoy member dies, it passes on to the next unwed blood Malfoy."

It sounded stupid to me, but I think that might've just been the tone in which my father said it. It sounded like he thought he'd been cheated out of the ring by the 'unwed' part. I didn't understand that, why would he want the ring so badly? It's just an heirloom. As if guessing my thoughts, he said, "It's charmed. You can't just give it to anyone you have a crush on. It will only fit the finger of your true love, or yourself. It will not fit another person. It has been used as an engagement ring, but more often it has just been given as a token of devotion. My father never gave it to anyone." I heard the bitterness in his voice. He knew his father didn't love his mother just as well as I did.

As I looked at it, and all its Malfoy glory, I couldn't help picture me sliding it on someone's hand. Pale and slightly freckled, with long slender fingers. Her nails painted black, with another ring on her other hand. I pictured her face as I gave it to her, full of love and happiness. I imagined her lips, sweet and soft that always tasted of cherries. I pictured her in a white dress.

I saw Rose.

That changed everything. I knew how stupid I was being now. Adrian was right; I was trying to be my father. I was trying to convince myself that I wasn't ready for a relationship, when really I just wanted to be like my father. I wanted to not have a steady girlfriend because I was trying to live up to my name. Now I realised what an ass I'd been. How I'd been to Rose. I didn't even think about her in all that. I loved her. Why should it matter if I was a Malfoy or that she was a Weasley? It didn't. I had been so incredibly stupid. And thinking about all that, did I really love her at all?

XXXXX

I couldn't stop thinking about Rose all night and the next day. It'd be two weeks until I saw her again. A whole two weeks. A whole two weeks where I was stuck in this depressing hellhole.

No one spoke to me here anymore. Father tried to talk to me at first but then he realised how weird it felt. I was stuck with no communication with anyone, with the exception of a "hello" said to me on the occasional morning. I was probably going to kill myself before the two weeks was even up.

"…Weasley…"

I snapped out of my thoughts. My head flew up so fast I got a crick in my neck. Mother and Father were talking quietly behind me. I hadn't been paying much attention as I was trying to have a nap on the sofa – lazy? Yes. Unnecessary? No. – but my eyes had flew open at the mention of Rose's surname.

"What about a Weasley?" I said, interrupting my Father. Since I'd been back he hadn't corrected me on any of my manners. I found this quite amusing.

"Nothing about the Weasleys." He lied. His lip curled slightly as he said 'Weasley'. "Everyone would be better off staying away from them, son. Blood traitors. Whores. They've got the lot." It almost made me laugh because I knew I would've said 'gingers'. He would've if he'd been trying to be funny, but he wasn't. And suddenly I felt angry. He judged the whole Weasley family on his view of Ron.

"You don't know them." I said quietly. His eyes narrowed.

"What was that?"

"I said you don't know them." I spoke more defiantly, and I could tell from his expression he hadn't expected me to say it. Then he let out a harsh laugh.

"I don't know them? I don't know them? I know them better than you do. Are you forgetting who went to school with Potter, Weasley, and Granger?" For a moment I wondered who Granger was, but then I guessed that was Hermione Weasley's maiden name.

"You judge them all by how you view one of them. How he treated you. They're not all like that." I was trying very hard to keep my voice steady, and I could feel my temper rising with every sneer he let out at the Weasley name.

"Really?" He said, his voice dangerously quiet. "And how would you know? You're not friends with any of them." I smirked at this.

"No, you're right. I'm not friends with them." He looked smug. "But I am in love with Rose Weasley." The self-righteous smile he'd worn only seconds before was wiped off his face in an instant, and I could see his mind trying to process what I'd said. I walked out of the room and headed upstairs with a satisfied feeling, knowing that I'd now proven to myself that I loved Rose. I felt almost… happy. And that was a big thing in a hellhole like this.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Hey guys! Sorry I didn't update sooner, I had massive writers block-.-

I hope you liked this chapter, I've actually been planning this one for a while. I needed Scorpius to wake up and realise that he does love Rose, and it's her that he wants to be with. But I also needed him to prove it to himself, which is exactly what he did at the end. If there's any confusion about how that proved it to himself, it was because he knew before that he was only trying to be his father by not wanting Rose as a steady girlfriend, and after realising that he wondered if he actually loved Rose anyway. Then he told his father that he was in love with her, and that proved that he did love her because if he hadn't, he wouldn't have bothered telling his father and he wouldn't have got so angry about Draco bad-mouthing the Weasleys. Do you get it? Or am I being one of those writers who never makes sense to anyone:S?

I do have to thank #Amberlil for helping me with this one. She's new to this but when she starts writing you should really check it out, although it will be some Twilight stuff; I haven't converted her to a potterhead yet:(

Please review!

thanks guys

beccasophX