Hi guys ;)
Sorry for the endless wait on that chapter, I've been away for 3 WEEKS! (I think I'm still suffering from wifi deprivation) There something a little different today, after this there's going to be an a/n chapter. Don't worry I'm not giving up, but I do need your help with something important SO PLEASE READ THAT! Without further ado chapter 14 of Scorpius Malfoy in Red and Gold.
Scorpius glanced warily at professor Yaxley, who was humming what sounded like "a hunting we will go" and staring expectantly up the twisting staircase as though she thought it might sing along. Remembering the gargoyle Scorpius eyed the stone steps suddenly cautious, are they going to talk as well he thought suspiciously. Malfoy Manor was magical of course but the furniture didn't well, speak-at least, it never had to him. Scorpius peered again at Yaxley, who didn't seem to be moving, maybe she wanted him to go first. Scorpius glanced again into the darkness above him, well we're not getting anywhere just standing here, he thought, and feeling rather resigned he hopped onto the next step.
Suddenly there was a great lurch and Scorpius was thrown forward. He flung his arms out in front of him, his robes billowing out behind him making him look like an overgrown bat. There was another lurch and Scorpius toppled back, his trainers scraping against the stone. Lurch. He was thrown towards the left wall, his pale hands catching the uneven stone.
The staircase was moving. But not like the ones that connected the halls, it was spiralling up, the stone grinding against the circular walls. The walls crawled along his hands, the stone tickling his flesh and making Scorpius giggle, which he attempted to disguise as a rather odd cough.
He glanced back at professor Yaxley, who's lip had curled into a slightly condescending smirk. Scorpius blushed and quickly turned away, gasping slightly as he did, because they had nearly reached the end of the stair, and at the top Scorpius could see the most magnificent room he'd ever laid eyes on.
It was big, with a grand marble floor littered unceremoniously with books and indistinct silvery instruments that seemed to whirr and glow. A sturdy desk that might have been mahogany sat squarely in the center decorated in a similar fashion to the floor, but scattered as well with small bits of parchment littered with a tidy scrawl, as though someone usually very neat had been in a hurry. Two black staircases arched up to a pedestal that look as though it were made of gold, and at it's center was a tall figure outlined in the light pouring in from a large circular window.
There was another lurch and Scorpius was thrust forward again, his arms swinging up and catching him on the marble floor.
"Ow." He muttered shaking his wrist.
"Oooh Company!" A voice squeaked. Scorpius' neck snapped up, but the figure on the pedestal didn't seem to have moved. He looked fervently around the room, but it seemed to be empty except for him and the tall person on the platform. There's Professor Yaxley he thought, but her voice doesn't sound anything like that.
"Over here dearie!" Said the giggling voice again. Scorpius glanced fervently around the room and spotted a great wall of portraits muddled up in all the books, and from her portrait, a tiny woman in a dress that looked like a pastry waving at him.
"Miri, I'm afraid you might be frightening him." Scorpius' eyes widened as he spotted another painting, this one of a short little man that reminded him of Professor Flitwick.
"Don't bother Dippet," said a drawling voice. The other portraits started, as though the tall man with the aristocratic nose didn't speak much. "That's the Malfoy boy," he said sneering at Scorpius when he saw him looking. "The Gryffindor, he spat out the word like an insult.
"Phineas," a soft voice muttered.
"I admit I had high hopes," Phineas drawled, his lip curling into a smirk, "but even the best of families have bad eggs." Scorpius balled his fingers into fist's, blood rushing to his face, Yaxley hadn't said anything since the staircase had stopped, almost like she wanted to see how he would handle Phineas. "Just like," the drawing man said, his eyes glittering with malice. "Sirius Black."
"Phineas," the soft voice said more firmly.
"And you know where that got him." Phineas whispered staring right at him now. "Azca-"
"ENOUGH PHINEAS!" The voice from before said, coming from a bearded man with half-moon spectacles, but Scorpius was already running, not at the door, at Phineas.
"I'm DONE, with people insulting me, and my family, and my friends! I'm TIRED of putting up with git's like you who think they can dictate what I do by my name, or my money, or my bloody house! How DARE you say Sirus' name! He was a hero, and you're nothing but a stinking Slytherin' COWARD!" Phineas eyes were still glinting with rage, but there was something else there now, fear.
Scorpius felt livid, but suddenly his rage was fading away. His shoulders slumped. A warm hand touched his shoulder, and he jumped slightly, feeling a bit stupid.
"Are you alright Mr. Malfoy?" Scorpius turned. A tall woman was staring down at him, her sharp face and black robes striking an impressive figure, but her eyes were kind, looking down on him with concern.
Suddenly there was a loud cough from the door. Scorpius looked over at Yaxley peevishly.
"Er-Sorry?" He said weekly, turning as red as Roses hair. Professor Yaxley let out something that sounded like a laugh and a huff all at once.
"It's quite alright Mr. Malfoy," Scorpius cringed, he was really getting tired of the "Mr. Malfoy" thing. Mr. Malfoy was his father. "But," she said smiling for the first time, "Don't do it again?"
Scorpius nodded vigorously as Yaxley strode into the office up to where Scorpius and, he flinched, the headmistress were standing. Phineas had distracted him from why they were here, he'd beaten that ravenclaw boy and now, Scorpius gulped, he was in trouble.
"Professor Yaxley," McGonagall acknowledged with a nod. "I assume it was you who brought Mr. Malfoy here." Again with the name Scorpius thought, he had the odd urge to bang his head against the wall. Maybe they won't expel me if I'm unconscious he wondered grimly.
"Yes," Professor Yaxley said. "I have a, request." She said request as though it was the most sinister thing in the world, not something people did while buying chocolate. Professor McGonagall raised her eyebrows.
"They boy has shown an incredibly developed talent for deuling, I would like to train him privately."
Scorpius' jaw dropped. Dueling lessons? With Professor Yaxley no less. He wasn't being expelled he was being given special lessons? Scorpius' mind was spinning, extraordinarily developed, but how could he have a developed talent? He'd never dueled anyone in his life, never mind that he'd never really had a talent for anything, except maybe hiding in his room.
" -are you sure? Then you have my permission." Professor Yaxley grinned widely.
"Thank you Headmistress."
"Dueling lessons?" Al muttered faintly.
"Oh you'll probably get to learn all sorts of advanced techniques," Rose said wistfully, her golden fork glinting in the light of the candles as she licked her lips. She stood up, the bench scraping against the marble floor.
"Where are you off to?" Al asked accusingly.
"Library," she said, gathering her books of the Gryffindor table.
"Bit keen aren't you," he asked, as though going to the library past seven on a saturday was a crime. "We aren't even two months in!"
"The Order of the Phoenix," she said simply. "There not in Ancient Orders Of the Merlinian Era, or Greatest Wizarding Groups of the 12th Century, but I'll find them, I've still got an entire shelf to go." And with that she was off.
"Can you believe her," Al said shaking his head as Rose's curly red hair disappeared through the double doors.
"Yeah," Scorpius muttered, picking at a bit of meat on his plate. He was still shaking from the way he'd attacked Phineas in the headmistresses office. Was he becoming so defensive he would attack an old portrait for taunting him a bit? Scorpius wasn't supposed to let them get to him, wasn't supposed to get upset or lie for the satisfaction of a little victory. That was what his father would do-the Slytherin thing to do. Was he becoming a Slytherin? It's in your slimy deatheater blood he could hear James potter saying. He thought of Elodora Williams, how she had listened to him on the boats. Scorpius glanced over to the Slytherin table where she was laughing with a slim blonde girl. She's made her choice, he thought resignedly, looking back at his plate, and so have I.
"SCOP!"
Scorpius started, looking over at all who was waving his hands dramatically through the air.
"Huh?" Albus' eyes narrowed with genuine concern.
"Are you alright mate? I've been trying to get your attention for ages!"
"What?" Scorpius frowned.
"You just sort of...dozed off, but you were still awake."
Suddenly Scorpius felt very dizzy, his stomach was churning nearly as much as it had at the sorting.
"I-I'm a bit tired," he muttered faintly. "I think I'll go back to the dormitory. He pushed his uneaten food to the side and stood up.
"Scorp-"
He grabbed his bookbag and headed to the door, leaving Al frowning behind him.
It was easy to find the Gryffindor common Room now after a month and a half Hogwarts felt more like home then the manor ever had. The turns came second nature, the trick steps were muscle memory, he knew which tapestries were doors and which doors were walls and the best ways to avoid Peeves' daily rounds. It was easy to find the common room even with his eyes locked on the floor.
"Lupine," he muttered, to the fat Lady, looking up for the first time since the great hall. The portrait of the fat Lady swung open, and he hopped into the nearly empty room, it's cushy red armchairs and crackling fire looking oddly sad with nobody around to enjoy them.
The dizziness had gone away replaced by an odd urge to cry. Why him? Scorpius thought, slumping into an airchair by the window, owls soared around the turret of Gryffindor tower just as they had the first day he'd come here. He'd been so nervous, but it had been a good kind of nervous, an excited kind. I miss my parents, he thought, I miss not being some sort of anomaly, but most of all, he muttered bitterly so not even the owls could hear, "I miss having nothing to lose."
He reached into his pant pocket, and tugged out a thick red envelope, his howler. He'd hated his life at the manor, he realized that now, he hated his parents pureblood ideals and he hated the pressure to be the perfect little Slytherin son. But Draco and Adele Malfoy were his parents, and somehow he still wished they would write him.
No son of mine. He remembered the words echoing through the great hall, and though he felt stupid a tiny tear crawled across his cheek.
"Are you-er-are you alright?" Scorpius looked up quickly wiping the tear away. James Potter was standing in front of him, his hands awkwardly tucked into his pockets, Scorpius' expression hardened.
"W-what do you want?" He cringed slightly, hating himself for the stutter. James Potter's opened his mouth, and Scorpius prepared himself for the insult. I'm not going to cry he thought angrily, not because of an idiot like James Potter.
"Look-er-I know I haven't been er, nice, to you, but if-well what I'm trying to say-if your good enough for my little brother...well, er, that ought to be good enough for me. And I wanted to apologize for-er laughing-at the sorting and the er-howler and well," He shook his head holding out his hands pleadingly. "Look-it should have been me who clapped first, not Teddy. I know what it's like to be compared to your parents."
Scorpius' eyes widened. James glanced down at his hands and seemed to catch sight of the howler, his expression softened.
"Have they written you since?" Scorpius shook his head
"I know it's stupid," he muttered glaring at his trainers. "But every day I look up at the owls hoping there's a letter for me. That they can forgive me for being a Gryffindor, and that the Gryffindors can forgive me for being a Malfoy. And that I can accept a bloody invitation to my best mates house without feeling like I'll be walking into a minefield. And I just-" Scorpius buried his face in his hands, "-I never did anything. I'm not even special, I'm just...me."
He felt another tear on his face and wiped it away hurriedly, feeling like an idiot for confiding in James Potter of all people.
"Look," James said kneeling down so he was face-to-face with Scorpius. "I'm not great at this sort of thing. But Scorpius, you're more a Gryffindor than Al or Rosie or Ted or even-well even me. Because you've got a hundred people telling you what you can't do, and you don't seem to care one bit."
"But I do," Scorpius said frustratedly. "I try so hard not to but-I do. I care so so much."
"Er," James said looking lost. Then suddenly he brightened. "One time when me and Al were little, Al found a spider and dangled it in front of my face, all hair and legs and-" he flinched.
"Well anyway, I was always making fun of Al for being a wimp, and here I was, petrified by a little spider. I was so upset I didn't sleep for a week, I didn't see how I could be a Gryffindor-something I'd always been so sure of-if I was scared of a tiny spider my kid brother found in the attic. When my dad figured out why I was so upset he told me...'To be brave is not to be fearless, but to acknowledge your fear and have the strength to overcome it-or something like that." He smiled weakly. "I mean I was seven and it was a spider but," and his face turned deathly serious. "Bravery doesn't mean perfection."
Scorpius looked up at him suspiciously.
"You really mean it?"
James Potter laughed. "Yeah, I figure I do. And with the way Rose has been on about you, I figure you'll be part of the family soon enough." He winked.
Scorpius blinked and then flushed bright pink. Just then Rose came stumbling in a great big pile of books teetering in her arms.
"Go on," James Potter said holding out his hand. Scorpius grabbed it and rushed over to Rose catching several books on ancient wizarding orders in his arms as he walked her to the fire.
Ok sorry if that was a little sappy but I thought it needed to happen. As for pairings, I'm honestly not sure yet, there 11. Anyway A/N chapter, please please please read that I'm only going to leave it up for about a week and I could really use some feedback. Thanks guys and I hope you enjoyed!