A/N Wow! Thanks for all of the reviews guys. Getting reviews makes me want to write more...Hopefully I'll be able to get a couple more chapters out before I move into residence. To answer the Review left by ME, what might of confused you at the beginning of the story was the dialogue in the first paragraph is that of Albus Potter, not Rose. So it was him talking about his uncle Ron, not Rose. Well here's chapter one, enjoy!
Chapter One: Pasts, Presents, and Near Futures
It was 6 AM and Draco Malfoy was sitting in the window seat of his bedroom watching the rays of the last August sunrise peek over a distant hill. The room was silent except for the quiet breathing of his wife Jane as she slept. The only part of her that could be seen was the top of her straight mousy brown hair peeking out from under the covers. Draco thought back to the circumstances of their marriage 18 years ago.
Lucius Malfoy, Draco's father, had been spared Azkaban after the war, due to the fact that his wife Narcissa had aided Harry Potter in the Forbidden Forest before the Dark Lord had perished. Even though this had happened, all of the former glory the name Malfoyhad held was now rubbish. So despite escaping the infamous wizard prison, Lucius he had made his manor into a sort of prison. The name was tarnished forever, and it was killing Lucius. 7 years after the war, Draco had received a letter from his father beckoning him to visit him at his deathbed.
Draco, working at the time as an ambassador to the German ministry of magic, had taken the long trip to the Malfoy mansion to find the shell of the man who was once his proud father. Draco could barely look at him. Seeing a Malfoy, especially his father, in such a state was a travesty.
"Draco my son," said Lucious croakily, "you must...heal the family name of Malfoy. We must enter into society again...it is up to you. You must..." Lucius looked as though the next words he were about to utter physically pained him, "you must marry a blood traitor Draco."
"What?" exclaimed Draco, "but that's exactly opposite of what you've raised me my entire life! Do you truly think that this will save our name?"
"Yes," confirmed Lucius, "It will. It is you that will bring us out of the darkness and back into the light. You will make people yet again revere the Malfoys as they have for centuries. I have been in correspondence with the Greengrass family, and they have agreed to make a match with you and their daughter Astoria. At first they were a bit uneasy with the agreement, but, my insistence and promise of quite a hefty bride price changed their minds."
"Father, are you sure that this is what you want? Truly?" asked Draco with concern
"Draco, there are times when you have to do the worst thing you can think of for the greater good. I can assure you that you will grow to...tolerate her in time...even if she is a muggle lover." said Lucius, with an obvious undertone of distain.
Three days later, Lucius Malfoy had passed away, his wife Narcissa following him a week later due to heartbreak of the loss of her beloved. Draco had met Jane, and discovered that the reason he had never seen or heard of her in his life was because she was two years younger than him and had been in Ravenclaw. Nevertheless, he married her, moved into Malfoy mansion, and a year later she gave birth to a son, Scorpius.
Living with Astoria was difficult, but he made it work for the sake of his family's image, and for his father. On the outside, the Malfoys seemed to be a perfectly well adjusted family. On the inside, there were quite a few disagreements. Astoria was very fond of muggle clothes and often went shopping in the muggle side of London. This caused Draco to become very angry and they would often have screaming matches in the living room while Scorpius cried due to the noise.
Draco and Astoria refused to change the way they were brought up for each other. Over the past 18 years of marriage, they had grown to have the kind of partnership you might expect from two CEOs of a large company. They made it work for the sake of the name and for the sake of their son. Over time Astoria, being extremely bright, managed the Malfoy's fortune extremely well, and the name began to have some of the weight it had bore before the war.
Both of them were extremely stubborn, they refused to let go of their views about muggle-borns and the type of education they should be receiving. The only time they agreed about anything was about the raising of their child. They both loved the child dearly. The only time Draco had disciplined his child was to stop him from chewing his wretched fingernails. "It shows weakness!" he had told him.
Although the boy looked almost exactly like his father, he had the personality of his mother. He was quiet boy, not very social. He enjoyed reading above all else, and so for his 7th birthday, they had given him his very own library. His mother was certain that the boy would be placed in Ravenclaw as she herself had, but Draco knew that this would never happen. No matter how many books his son read, he was a Malfoy and no Malfoy would be in any other house besides Slytherin.
As the sun fully cleared its obstruction of the hill on the horizon, Draco remembered his son waving as he got on the Hogwarts train for the first time six years ago. It was the last time that his son had said "Love you" to his father.
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Exactly one floor down from where Draco was, sat a young man, who enjoyed watching sunrises just as much as him. Scorpius had the same pointed face as his father, and was only about a fraction of an inch taller than him, but that was where the similarities ended. Ever since Scorpius had left for his first year of Hogwarts, he had been trying to separate himself from his father's image.
He had the same shoulder length white-blond hair as his father, but he had used muggle hair dye to put black streaks into it even though he could have easily used magic to do so. He had also given himself an eyebrow piercing non-magically. Scorpius had turned 17 this past April, but he did many things non-magically just to annoy his father.
Scorpius looked around his bedroom, which was now bathed in the early morning sunlight. Several posters of his favourite bands covered the walls, and others were already rolled up on the floor to bring to school next to his dog's bed. The unmoving faces of Led Zeppelin and the Beatles smiled down on him, making him smile in return. Just having these posters in his house angered his father, let alone the fact that his son knew every word of Stairway to Heaven.
In a normal teenaged boy's room, you might expect to find pictures of friends or of a girlfriend, but Scorpius had none of that. He was a self-proclaimed loner, which made him annoyingly the object of many girls' desires. He was tall and handsome, and the extra edge of angst was enough to drive them wild. All of the rest of the Slytherin boys disliked him because his marks were always the highest and he always talked to them in such a patronizing tone. Because of his high marks and loner streak, it would seem that he would be an easy target for insults but his family name kept the resident Slytherin bully, Graham Goyle, away from him.
Yes, Scorpius Malfoy enjoyed his silence and loneliness. He had convinced himself that the only friends he would ever need were his books. He had grown very bitter and sarcastic throughout his years at Hogwarts, having the temperament of someone twice his age. He had been told a few times by Professor Longbottom that his sense of humour was not unlike a Professor Snape who had once been head of Slytherin house.
Scorpius had gotten an owl in June telling him that he had been named Head Boy. It didn't surprise him in the slightest...all he did was homework. His mind began to drift and wonder who was Head Girl...but he was interrupted by the hoot of an owl that had just arrived with a letter. He slid off his windowsill to let the owl perch there and he took the piece of parchment from its leg.
The letter had TOP SECRET written upon it and it's wax seal had the letters F&B. Upon seeing this, Scorpius tore it open in excitement.
Dear Mister Malfoy,
We would like to thank you for your donation to our book store, it was most generous. In return, the top secret information you've requested is as follows. We trust you will not share this with anyone. The new 'Transfigured Hearts' novel will be dropped off at the back entrance of our Diagon Alley location by Ms. Felixa herself at 8:30 this morning.
Sincerely,
Flourish & Blotts Inc.
Excellent! He had been waiting for this letter all summer! He reread the letter twice to make sure, then burned it with his wand. He went over to his potions bookshelf and muttered "Obladi, Oblada" and the green tomes upon the shelf all turned into different shades of pink and purple. To any other person who didn't know the password, every one Scorpius' romance novels would appear to be just another textbook. Always being very advanced in his studies, he had discovered how to do this in his first year, and had hidden his secret passion from his peers this way ever since. He had to hide him...what would they think if they knew? Mean, sarcastic, brilliant Scorpius Malfoy, reads trashy romance novels that about 90 percent of the female population of Hogwarts is obsessed with at the moment? The only person who knew his secret was Rose Weasley...
He clenched his fists as a reflex. Just thinking about her infuriated him. Ever since first years that had become rivals. She was the only person in their year who could match his marks. Before fifth year they had only been rivals, nothing more. But after fifth year...he still felt a numb ache of anger when he thought of their OWL examinations two years earlier...
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All of the fifth year students were writing their theory of transfiguration exam, and Scorpius knew every single answer on the test, and he had left himself just enough time to write the last answer on his exam paper when he was interrupted by the girl in front of him. She had leaned her head back to take a steadying breath, and her long auburn ringlets had landed upon his paper, making him unable to write. She seemed to be very nervous, because she stayed there for a full minute, taking deep breaths. Too shy to say anything, not knowing who the girl was, and finding it weird to touch someone else's hair, Scorpius just sat there waiting for her to move.
She had very beautiful hair...even though it was stopping him from finishing his test. It looked like red silk, shining from the sunlight that came through the high windows of the great hall. It smelled good too...like vanilla. The girl sat up suddenly, and wrote the last few lines on her paper. Scorpius was disappointed, the smell of her hair was quite calming...then a bell rang.
"Accio quills! Accio exams!" yelled the examination witch at the head of the great hall as everyone's quills and exams shot from their hands and desks.
"Noooo!" gasped Scorpius as he saw his unfinished exam paper fly across the room, to him as if in slow motion. He hadn't finished the last question! It was all that girl's fault! Getting her bloody hair all over his desk...oh she was going to get a talking to, that's for sure.
Scorpius followed the girl out to the entrance hall, rehearsing all the horrible insults that he would spew at the girl in his head. He grabbed her shoulder from behind and spun her around. There, standing only inches away from him, was Rose Weasley.
"Oh...it's you." was all Scorpius managed to get out of his mouth as he looked into her warm brown eyes. Suddenly the eyes became hard.
"What do you want Malfoy? Do you want to brag about how well you did on that exam? Well I'm sure the whole school will hear about it next year." She said coldly, and as she turned to go she yelled over her shoulder so that the whole entrance hall could hear her, "So please excuse me Mister Malfoy, but I have to go spend time with my friends. Something that you wouldn't understand!"
Those comments had hurt of course, but Scorpius had heard things like that so often, he didn't even really care. The true insult had came a month later when his OWL results came in the mail. He had received an 'O' in every single subject except for Transfiguration. He looked at the small letter 'E' on the parchment and he was so angry he had burned the paper in his hand without muttering a single word.
An 'E'! He couldn't believe it. Scorpius Malfoy did not receive 'E' grades. Of course Professor Brooks would let him be in his NEWT class next year, but that wasn't the point. That GIRL had stopped him from his perfect report card.
From that point on, Scorpius Malfoy despised Rose Weasley. Like some Siren, she had spread her fiery locks upon his desk and entranced him into failure. He had despised her for her good grades, but after the first day of sixth year, Scorpius could only describe his feelings for her as complete and utter loathing.
Even though Scorpius had gotten the one 'E' on his OWLs, he was certain that he would still be praised by his teachers that year for his amazing performance. An 'O' grade in five classes was nothing to sneeze at. But, no one seemed to care about him. All the news was about a Gryffindor witch who had received an 'O' in every single class that she had taken. That witch, was Rose Weasley.
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Scorpius took a deep breath and started his packing for the next day. He had all of his school things bought already, he just had to buy his textbooks, and he'd do that today, after he got his autographed copy of the new 'Transfigured Hearts' novel of course. "I guess being a Malfoy sometimes can't be all that bad..." he begrudgingly admitted.
Two hours later, after combing his hair and putting on his favourite pair of jeans and a black t-shirt, Scorpius walked down the stairs to eat breakfast before he departed. His mother and father were sitting at the table, already fully dressed in their robes...even though it was Sunday. Scorpius gave his mother a kiss on the cheek, grabbed an apple from the bowl on the counter and went out to the garden to apparate to Diagon Alley.
"Scorpius," said his father's drawling voice, leaning on the door frame of the back door, "Where are you going?"
"None of your business." said Scorpius curtly. Draco looked into the kitchen to see if his wife was done breakfast yet, he looked back and Scorpius was gone.
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It was 8:15 AM and Hermione Weasley was sitting in her kitchen finishing her cup of coffee when she heard her daughter Rose scream from upstairs.
"Bloody hell! I'm going to be late!"
The screaming was followed by the sound of several stomps travelling back and forth on the floor above her. Ron Weasley wandered into the kitchen, rubbing his eyes while yawning.
"What is her problem?" he asked sleepily, "She doesn't even work until 11 o'clock today...the bloody bookstore doesn't even open until 10 for Merlin's sake. If she doesn't stop stomping around and making all this ruckus she's going to wake up Hugo, and you know how foul he is when he's woken up earlier than he wants to be."
"I have no idea Ron," said Hermione in return, "I wish she would tell me more...but she's been of age since February so I don't want to pry into her personal life...if it was important I'm sure she would tell us."
"It's a good thing I can use magic to dry my hair!" exclaimed Rose as she ran down the stairs and past her parents in the kitchen fully dressed, "I'll be home for supper Mum, mmmm I love these cookies" she said as she grabbed an oatmeal cookie on the counter as she ran out the door.
"You'd think that she was going to an appointment with the Minister for Magic or something by the way that she's dressed." remarked Ron as Rose poked her head back into the room.
"Not the Minister for Magic Dad," she explained, "Harriet L. Felixa is dropping off her new manuscript this morning at 8:30! I overhead my boss talking about it last week!"
"You know, for such a young talented Head Girl of Hogwarts, you sure read some baaaad fiction," said Ron laughingly looking at his wife, "Don't you think Hermione?"
But Hermione just looked down at her plate of bacon, cheeks slightly flushed.
"Women! Honestly!" exclaimed Ron, "That romance trash has about the same intellectual content as the back end of a flobberworm."
"What and Flying with the Cannons doesn't?" burst out Hermione.
Feeling the beginnings of a row, Rose slipped out of the room before the pots would begin to be thrown.
