The next few months would appear to be, to the outsider's eye, rather uneventful. This may be due to the fact that the outsider's eye would not have noticed the subtle torment that Scorpius Malfoy received from a majority of Slytherins, and from a few other houses as well. Rose and Albus had shown great concern for the situation, but Scorpius brushed them off. He didn't want his new friends getting pulled down into his dilemmas when they had so much more of their minds. Walking through the corridors of Hogwarts was like entering a minefield for the small blonde, with taunts being thrown at him from every direction, books being pushed out of his arms, and even being slammed against the walls when he gave too much of his attention to the floor.
He was doing well in his lessons, but his grades were most certainly dropping. He was finding it hard to concentrate on his studies, what with the constant bullying from his fellow students, and it was starting to concern some of his teachers, if not surprise others. One of these teachers was Professor Todd, his Potions Mistress. He had remembered Professor Longbottom mentioning her, but had not expected her to be so...
Scorpius stepped into the Potions classroom with Rose and Albus, chewing nervously on his bottom lip. Was Professor Longbottom right? Would this Professor really like him as much as was expected? His thoughts were jumbled as a woman made her way to the front of the classroom. Bright brown eyes scanned them all as she tied her long, dark gold locks behind her head. Quickly scanning her notes, she looked up and grinned at them all, a bright smile that made Scorpius feel ever so optimistic about this lesson.
"Good Afternoon class! It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance! I'm professor Todd, your Potions Mistress! I hope we'll have a great time together!" A bubbly New Zealand accent erupted from the red lips, and Scorpius felt himself soothed at her words as she explained the lesson. "Now, I'm sure you would all expect me to put you into pairs and let you get on with it, but I think that I can get a better grasp on your skill when you work separately, so everyone, put your pens away and get your books out, we're doing a practical!" There was a small blast of noise as the chatter arose again and books were slammed carelessly on tables. "Great! Now, we're just going to be working on a really simple potion today, which will require minimal ingredients, but it requires precision! You must pay exact attention to the recipe or the potion won't work! Now..." She explained the Colour draft, saying that a simple drop on your tongue could change the colour of one's hair. Albus laughed out loud, saying that Rose and Scorpius could use a few drops, examining their vivid and extremely obvious hair colours.
When Professor Todd allowed them to start, Scorpius began straight away, doing exactly as the book said, until he got to a certain instruction. Calling over the Professor for help.
"Yes? uh..." The woman looked unsurely over the register, searching for his name. Blinking, he replied, "um, Scorpius Malfoy, miss..."
"Ah! Lovely! Thank you Scorpius, sorry about that. I'm not the best with names..." He mentally frowned she didn't know he was a Malfoy by looking at him? But he looked just like- "So how can I help?" Being jerked back to reality he blushed. "W-well, uh... The Instructions say to cut the beetle to get all the juice out, but surely it would be better to crush it, right? Then you get better results because you get more- mph!" Professor Todd was smiling softly at him, a hand over his mouth. "Say no more, don't repeat yourself. See how many other people can get it." She stood up, Towering over the small blonde, "You just learnt the first lesson of Potions, Mr Malfoy. Initiative."
The rest of that lesson had gone swimmingly, as his common sense had gotten him 10 points to Ravenclaw, and he managed to get another 30 purely by answering questions. But now, only a couple of months later, his grades were becoming abysmal.
It was the last Potions lesson before the end of term, and Scorpius hurried to the door before- "Mr Malfoy, could I please speak with you for a few minutes?" He flinched, and sighed, turning back to the front of the class room. Albus and Rose gave him hopeful looks, and he nodded to them, forcing a smile. " I'll see you at dinner" Rose's gaze hardened, "That's what you said yesterday, Scorpius. Promise us you'll come to dinner. Eat something. Please." Her voice was strained, like her voice would crack at any moment. The blonde stared at the floor for a moment before meeting her eyes. "Okay. I promise. I'll see you two later."
The two looked unconvinced with his reply, but didn't push him anymore. Smiling at him again, they walked out of the classroom. Professor Todd had turned her back to neaten some papers, and Scorpius wasn't expecting (but should have done, nonetheless) a foot to place itself in his path. Crying out, he fell forward, hitting his head on the cold tiled floor. The boy would had tripped him, and his friends -Scorpius hadn't seen their faces- erupted into fits of laughter until Professor Todd turned to glare at them. "King! Green! Selznick! Two weeks of detention for all of you! And how about I take away 20 points from Gryffindor from each of you. I'll take 50 from you, King, as you were the one who tripped him." Scorpius couldn't help but noticed how much scarier the usually cheery New Zealander was when she was angry. "You'll all be receiving owls with the details of your punishment. Now get out of my sight." She scowled at the three of them as they walked out of the classroom. To his own horror, he heard one of them mumble haughtily under his breath, "Little blood traitor deserved it anyway".
Tears welled in his eyes as Professor Todd helped him up, all sign of her anger now gone. "Are you okay, Scorpius? Bloody hell, I shouldn't have turned my back, I knew there must be a problem. Model students' grades don't just drop after a coupl'a months..." She rushed around, looking for something as his head spun. She sat down next to him again, holding up a small vial. "Down it in one. It's bitter, but it should stop your head spinning." He took the vial from her and opened it, frowning at the clear liquid but sighing and quickly downing it. It burned at his throat and he choked on it slightly, but he felt the effects immediately. His vision regulated and he sighed, his tongue still burning. "Here. This should help," Scorpius blinked as a couple of warm chocolate chip cookies and a glass of milk were thrust onto his lap. His mouth watered and he looked over at his potions Mistress. "You always seemed like the kind of kid with a sweet tooth. Eat up, before they go cold~" Scorpius chewed his lip, but quickly dug in. It was the end of lessons for the day, and dinner wasn't for another couple of hours.
"Lord, kid... You're acting like you haven't eaten in days..." Scorpius froze as his finished the last of the cookies, whimpering as he licked his lips. "They were really good cookies, miss..."
Professor Todd sighed, getting up slowly and taking the plate and glass from him. Going behind her desk she rummaged through her drawers before pulling out what looked to be a very old photo album. Sitting down next to him once more, she flicked through the pages until she got to a certain one. Placing the album on his lap, the photo that she was showing him depicted a girl, very pretty with long blonde hair, she looked around 9 or 10, in a pink bikini at... the beach? A man and a woman stood behind her, whom he guessed were her parents, but one of the main things he noticed about it was the fact that it was- "A muggle photo..." He looked over at her, and she was smiling slightly. "Yep. That girl is me. I was 12 in that picture. Don't look it, do I? That was the summer after my first year in Hogwarts. I got placed in Slytherin." Scorpius looked over at her in shock. "Yeah, that's right. A muggle-born in Slytherin, pretty rare, I know. Seems that they didn't take lightly to an 'intruder' in their house.
"I was bullied. Badly. I got tripped up, kicked, hit, ignored... Oddly enough, the ignoring was the worst part. No one talking to you, no one listening... I didn't have any friends, and I never ate anything. Even when I did, I threw it up. But a Guardian Angel came to save me. She rescued me. She may have been a few years older, but she was my best friend." She smiled airily at him, watching him as he listened intently. "She was one of the few who listened to me. She wasn't in Slytherin, but she was still always there.
"She explained how she had fallen in love with a Slytherin, a few years older, but she loved him for who he was. She said that, although he had made mistakes, he had changed." She chuckled at the memory, letting all her thoughts of her worst time return. "She told me how to see the best in people, despite their faults... And she taught me well. I started eating again and I even managed to make some friends. I became healthy, and stayed healthy. Even after that Guardian Angel left Hogwarts to go and marry the man of her dreams, I knew she was there.
Scorpius smiled at the story, feeling even more hopeful about his situation. But she wasn't finished.
"I decided to research you a little bit. See what there was that was so bad about your family," Scorpius felt his face contort in horror, "Sorry for prying, but I couldn't help but notice you looked a little shocked when I didn't know straight away who you were. At first I thought you were just a bit spoiled, but then I dug deeper. Your dad wasn't exactly the most loved person in the world, was he?" Scorpius flinched, knowing she must have read something about his adolescent hatred for muggle-borns. "But, then again. She always told me that he had changed..." Scorpius' head snapped up to look at her. "Who said...?"
Professor Todd grinned. "Well, when you are researching a family, the first thing that comes up is the marriage announcements. So I looked at the pictures of your parents and... I found a picture of my own that might interest you..."
She flicked through the album again, stopping on the last page. "This is a picture of myself and the girl that saved me, the girl I was just telling you about. This was when she graduated from Hogwarts, And I was 13." She slid the album onto his lap once more, and Scorpius' breath caught in his throat.
It was a Wizarding picture this time, showing two girls smiling happily at the camera in what looked like the Great hall. The first girl was obviously Professor Todd, looking much healthier and older than she did in the first photo. Her hair was longer, and her bright smile made her look much prettier. But it was the girl next to her that made Scorpius stop. Breathtakingly beautiful, with a smile that could melt planets. Long, chocolate brown ringlets, brilliant blue eyes, perfect figure.
"M-Mum..." He looked over at his Professor and she smiled cheerily. "Yep. Turns out that Astoria, the beautiful and charming girl who had saved me, had ended up marrying the exact man she had told me about. Draco Malfoy, heir to the third largest fortune in Britain, ex-Death Eater," he noticed she put extra accentuation on the 'ex-', "and now Head Healer at St Mungo's. Malfoy isn't exactly a common name, and you really are the image of your father, so I can't imagine I had the wrong couple."
Scorpius would have cried had it not been a teacher with him, but from the look on her face, she understood. Getting up, she said, "Now, I think you had better follow in my footsteps and actually eat something, otherwise Rose and Albus might lynch me for not telling you otherwise. I also recommend you go and see Madam Patil, as I'm not sure how much good that potion will do for a possible concussion..." Nodding, he got up, thanking her again.
"No need to thank me, my dear. You just seemed like someone in need of saving."
After collecting up his books and making his way to the door, he stood in the door frame for a moment before turning back to her. He smiled again, but this time it was his real smile, the one that showed all his teeth.
"You know Miss, I don't really mind if you're a Muggleborn. Neither does my dad. You're a really great witch anyway." With a last thought he added "Merry Christmas!" before making his way out of the dungeons, leaving the woman sighing and wondering how a kid like that could have ever had a bad day in his life.