Envenomed Petals
Animals
-II-
"Please, Scorpius," she insists, batting her coppery-hazel eyes and sticking out her lower lip in a flawless pout. "For me?"
He groans, running a hand through his hair, and stares at the vile, rat-like creature sitting on his girlfriend's shoulder. The rodent meets his gaze, an expression of utmost distaste in its beady little eyes, as it sticks out a tiny, pink tongue, and begins licking at its snowy-white coat.
"Can't you leave him with one of your, I don't know, twelve dozen cousins?" he asks, hoping that this last ditch effort will save him from having to care for the little devil. He isn't really sure when, or how, his girlfriend of one year had gotten her hands on a pet ferret, but he does know that for some reason that he can't fathom, the little bugger doesn't seem to like him at all.
"They're all busy," points out Lily, her tone making it perfectly clear that he should already know this. "Victoire just gave birth, Dominique's going back to Romania in a few days, Louis is allergic, Fred is on his honeymoon, Roxanne hates animals, Molly's in her second trimester, Lucy's still in America, and Rose and Hugo are in Hawaii because Aunt Lavender insisted on needing some tropical sun."
"Please tell me how you're able to keep all of that straight in your head, and still need me to tutor you in potions?" he sighs, swallowing as the ferret fixes him with a deathly glare.
"It's not as if we get much studying done anyway," she says with a wink, getting to her feet and tickling her ferret's chin. "So will you please, please keep Dragon with you for the next two weeks while I'm in Spain?"
"Fine," he barks, scowling as she tosses a chocolate frog at him, before turning to pour them two glasses of pumpkin juice. His eyebrows furrow as the ferret stares at him, and then it winks. His jaw drops open, and he gawks, wondering if perhaps he's just imagined it . . . until Dragon winks again, this time sticking out its tongue for good measure.
Scorpius groans to himself, wondering if perhaps he would have been better off had he remained at the Manor, where it's safe, rather than letting himself be talked into visiting Lily before the Potters leave on a summer vacation to Barcelona.
"I knew I could count on you, Scor," she chirps, grinning ear-to-ear as she walks back to the couch, and leans in to press her lips to his cheek. He nods robotically, eyes fixed on the feral creature on her shoulder, especially as it seems to be smirking at him. "I'll just get his things, and you can take him with you when you go home today."
.o0o.
"I'm doing this for Lily," he mutters under his breath as he walks up his front lawn.
All in all, he feels rather miffed that he's somehow managed to splinch off a fingernail whilst Apparating home, especially since the bloody ferret and every one of the pet supplies made it through without so much as a scratch. Right hand smarting with pain, Scorpius leans forward till his nose is on the same level as the doorbell, and rings it by tilting his face against it.
"What are you laughing at?" he grumbles to Dragon, whose entire body is shivering with some sort of animalistic mirth within his travel cage. It's been less than an hour of having the ferret in his care, and he's already regretting giving in to Lily.
The door clicks open, and he nearly drops the supplies and cage in relief at the sight of his mother. He's sure that she'll be able to patch him up in no time flat, and that she can grow back his fingernail so fast that he'll end up wondering if it had been torn away in the first place.
Also, he's certain that his mum would be able to deal with Dragon.
"Merlin, Scorpius," exclaims Mum, hurriedly flicking her wand and levitating the many bags and boxes from his arms. "I thought you were going to see Lily off, not visit Magical Menagerie."
"Lily talked me into watching her pet ferret for her whilst she's away," he explains, dragging his feet as he walks to the table, and sets the cage down upon it. He's barely sat down before his mother's at his side, holding his bloody hand and scrutinizing the wound. For the first time that day, he simply relaxes and lets himself be fussed over, wincing slightly at the sting of Dittany and the sharp tug of a nail being re-grown.
"I really don't want to know," she says when he opens his mouth to tell her more about the ferret, and the splinching.
Scorpius is about to reply, when an ear-splitting shriek tears through the room, and both his head and his mother's whip around. His father is standing frozen in the doorway, eyes wide, skin blanching of colour, fingertips trembling as the Malfoy patriarch points at the cage.
"What is that?" he whispers, his voice cracking like glass.
"Oh no," murmurs Mum, getting to her feet and straightening her dress, before hurrying across the room to soothe his obviously traumatised father. He isn't really sure why his dad is behaving in such an extreme way – sure, Dragon isn't the ideal pet, and Scorpius himself would dearly love to stick the rodent in a sealed vault at Gringotts . . . but it's just a ferret, after all.
Scorpius watches bemused, the scene unfolding before him much too priceless to miss, a grin on his face as he strains to hear his parent's conversation, frowning slightly at the low sounds coming from the cage (they're almost like hysterical laughter, he thinks).
"Hermione, it's . . . it's . . . it's . . ." his father stammers, not ceasing in his pointing, looking paler than the marble mouldings on the wall.
"It's just a little ferret, Draco," comforts Hermione, patting him on the back and slowly guiding him from the room, "Moody isn't her–" her voice trails off and they disappear down the passage, leaving Scorpius with the cackling (he's pretty sure that the little beast is taking pleasure in all the commotion it's causing) ferret. Still somewhat dumbfounded by the scene with his father, Scorpius picks up the cage, and levitates the supplies, before going upstairs to his room.
He's pretty sure that Dragon the ferret is pure evil, but he's doing this for Lily.
.o0o.
"Holy mother of Merlin," screams a feminine voice, "What the hell is going on in here?"
Scorpius shivers beneath the overturned couch, the ends blocked up with all the throw pillows he had been able to find. There's just a single crevice to see through, and he's awarded a perfect view of his father cowering beneath the coffee table.
"Oh thank Morgana," he praises, meeting his father's terrified eyes with an equal amount of fear in his own. "Cassiopeia's home."
He knows full well how the living room must look, from the overturned furniture to the scorch marks across the walls, the singed holes in the carpets, and most of all, the ferret sitting atop the mantel, using one of his grandmother's ornaments as a throne.
His father and he, loathe as he is to admit it, are no match for the foul creature that has taken over their home during his mother's absence. Ever since he's let the beast into his home, Scorpius knows that it's been trying to do him in.
Not only has it eaten his homework, and gone about chewing holes in all his socks and underwear, but there's been more than one incident during the week in which he's woken in the middle of the night to find the little pest watching him, as a lion might glare at a gazelle.
He would be lying if he didn't think it to be . . . unsettling.
Scorpius' arms are covered in scratches and bites, and so is his father's face.
"Cassie!" yelps Dad, "Get rid of that little pest on the mantle! It's been using my trophy cups as a bath!"
Scorpius nods reassuringly at his sister as she enters his field of vision, looking incredulous as she surveys the damage, and then she bursts out laughing, her hands clutching at her sides, tears spilling from her eyes.
"Did you two really let yourselves get owned by a ferret?" she guffaws at him, flicking her wand at hitting Dragon with a non-verbal stunning spell. The ferret crumpled, falling from the mantle and landing on the floor with a dull thud, but it's evident by the slowly moving chest that it's still alive.
"Good girl," pronounces Draco, gingerly sticking his head out from under the coffee table, and warily eyeing the stunned ferret. "Now kill it with fire."
.o0o.
Scorpius groans as he stumbles through the Floo, causing every eye in the room to turn in his direction. Albus is lounging on the couch, a broad grin on his face, and there's no doubt in Scorpius' mind that Cassiopeia's already told him every humiliating detail about the ferret's reign of terror.
His eye twitches as he notices Aunt Ginny hiding the urge to smile, and James openly smothering his laughter with his hands, before he lets his glare fall on Lily. She's looking at him with a cheekily raised eyebrow and a saucy smile, and before he can say anything, she asks:
"Did Dragon behave himself?"
Scorpius feels his cheek spasm, and he's pretty sure a vein's just popped in his temple, but he simply shakes his head and presses the cage into his girlfriend's hands before turning and stepping into the fireplace.
"That animal is the devil," he mutters, tossing a handful of Floo powder to his feet, his eye still twitching as the ferret winks at him.
The last thing Scorpius is aware off before he's been yanked through the Floo Network, is Uncle Harry popping his head in from the kitchen, roguish smirk in place, and commenting:
"Wow, Lily-Petal, that boy really is serious about you."
"I am," mutters Scorpius as he stomps out of his living-room fireplace, noticing his father clamber in as soon as he's vacated it, grumbling about Potters, and looking as though he's about to give Uncle Harry a good telling off.
"You just make it really difficult for me," he concludes, before falling face first onto the couch, asleep before his head had even hit the cushions.
Written for Round 3 of the OTP Knock-Out Battle Competition. OTP: Scorpius/Lily
Written for the Things I Would Do For You Competition: Tolerate your animal even though I really don't like it.
A/N: So I'm taking about a three week break from fanfiction, because my Semester Exams are upon me, and I need to study and pass them. Other than this One-Shot, which I've written solely to meet the competition deadlines, I'll only be posting one more one-shot (my entry for this round of the Quidditch League, before going onto a full hiatus from writing till exams are done with.
I'll still be available by PM, and will probably pop in now and then on the forums, but for any readers following my MultiChapters, I sincerely apologise for the delay.