Suffocated

Chapter Two

Scorpius stared at his parchment. This was a very familiar situation that he didn't care to be in. Yet again, he was struggling on an assignment for a paper. This time it was his Defense Against the Dark Arts class. The teacher was Professor Potter. She was the Headmaster's wife. Yes, the Headmaster was the famed and notorious Harry Potter who defeated the Dark Lord, nineteen years ago.

"What are we working on today, young master Malfoy?" Came the familiar and lilting voice.

Scorpius couldn't help but to smile as he looked up, "Defense Against the Dark Arts assignment," he explained as the woman sat down.

She tilted her head over the open textbook in front of the boy, "Who teaches this class?"

"Professor Potter," Scorpius answered.

"Do you mean to say Mrs. Potter?"

"Yes," he replied, "Why do you ask?"

A gentle smile raised the corners of the woman's lips, "No reason. I've just heard many great things about her,"

"She's a great professor, don't get me wrong," Scorpius began, "I just can't seem to wrap my head around practical uses for these techniques,"

There wasn't an answer from the library assistant. Usually she had some witty remark to everything Scorpius said. Scorpius looked up and saw her looking down at the table absently.

"I guess nowadays you wouldn't be able to think of reasons to use spells like such. The Second Wizarding War was before you were born, after all,"

"Did you," Scorpius paused, "Did you fight in the war?"

A small ghost of a smile set itself softly on her lips, "I was 18,"

"So you were forced to fight?" Scorpius asked, sudden curiosity bubbling up inside him.

"I wasn't forced to do anything," she said with a small hiss. It was a fierceness that Scorpius had never heard from her before. She looked up at him and immediately her face softened, "I fought for myself and for those important to me that I didn't want to lose," She looked like she had more to say, but bit it back.

"What was it like? The war?" Scorpius asked, his voice much quieter than he thought. It made him feel young and immature and he hated it.

She opened her lips, the organs looking soft and supple, but then she closed them.

"I'm sorry, young master Malfoy," she said, "But I believe you are still too young to hear of war stories."

"I'm not—" He began, "I can handle it. My father has told me about the war a little, but he doesn't like to talk about it that much."

"It's understandable," the library aide whispered, "Your father lost someone very important to him during the war,"

Scorpius frowned and furrowed his brow, "How can that be?"

"A lot of people died in that battle," she said as she stood up, "Some people also simply disappeared."

"Wait!" Scorpius called as she began to walk away, "Please, tell me more!"

The assistant paused and turned slightly towards Scorpius. She was smiling, but it didn't reach her grey eyes.

"Forgive me, young master, but I must get back to work. Even with all this magic, the books simply don't shelve themselves." With that, she turned and disappeared in to the stacks of books. Scorpius let out a frustrated breath and sat back in his chair. He was getting nowhere on his assignment and now he was even more puzzled. Maybe he should ask his father about the war. If he was so curious about it, the only way to learn more was to ask questions. Scorpius pulled his bottom lip between his teeth and worried at it a bit. He really didn't want to ask his father about it. Whenever the war was even mentioned, his father's face would fall and the light from his eyes would fade. It was like he was caught in a memory and couldn't be bothered with the present.

Scorpius shook his head. No—he wouldn't ask his dad. He would find out the answers to his questions on his own. There was no way he was going to be able to do his assignment right now. Once there was a challenge presented to him, he couldn't back down until he found an answer that he could settle with. The chair creaked as he removed his weight from it. Weaving between the stacks, Scorpius made his way to a section of books that he thought he would need. When he was back at his table, his arms were laden with books.

He started with a book on the general history of the war. It was a story he had heard many times before. The Dark Lord had wanted to create a new race—a race that only had magic in the blood. Of course there were those that supported his ideals and those who rejected them. The forces against him prevailed and Harry Potter destroyed the Dark Lord. Once again, peace was restored to the world. It was a bit clichéd, and seen all throughout history, but that was how the story went. Scorpius continued to look in to the prominent figures in the war. There was Harry Potter, his wife, Hermione and Ron Weasly, and Neville Longbottom on one side. Then on the Dark Lord's side, Bellatrix LeStrange and the more prominent pureblood families like the Malfoys. Scorpius swallowed hard when he read his own family's name in the book. It was strange to think that his family name would forever be remembered in history.

He shook his head and moved on to another book. This one wasn't nearly as interesting. But there was one little blurb. It was a diary entry from someone who had been there during the final showdown between Harry Potter and Voldemort. The witness had been a third-year Ravenclaw at the time, but was now an archivist in the Ministry of Magic. He claimed that there had been a fourth figure at the time. A woman in a travelling cloak. Voldemort had tried to destroy the woman that Harry Potter loved, but someone had thwarted the spell at the cost of their own life. The identity of the woman was still unknown, but the witness swore that he saw Draco Malfoy holding them after they had died. However, there was no record of the woman's body being found among those who had perished. Scorpius blinked at the text and checked the title of the book. It was called Unknown Tales of the Second Wizarding War. Just how credible was this source?

He sighed and pushed the book away. His father had never mentioned another woman in his life. But, Scorpius supposed that he wouldn't want to revisit those ghosts. How painful it must have been to watch his loved one die and him not be able to do anything to stop it. But who had it been? He flipped through the other book he had gathered, but not a single one of them so much as mentioned the woman or even Voldemort attempting to kill Harry Potter's love. It was strange that such a tale could have been made up out of the blue, especially by such a revered Ravenclaw. Scorpius put all the books on a cart to be reshelved and pushed a hand back through his hair.

It was about time for dinner so Scorpius grabbed his books and put them in his bag. He still had no idea what he was going to do about his Defense Against the Dark Arts assignment, but he would deal with that after dinner. If anything, he could just throw something together in a few hours that met the minimum requirement but didn't go deep in to the subject. That was how he got around in subjects that he didn't really understand. It's what he used to do in Potions before the library assistant helped him out.

Scorpius paused in the hallway from the library to the Great Hall. He shook his head. What was he doing? It was strange for him to be peeking about in to his father's private life. But he was curious about this woman that had supposedly been important to his father. Never before had Scorpius seen his father give anyone such tender affection. Was there really a person that he had once been in love with? He let out another sigh that made his shoulders sag. His eyes roamed lazily over the pictures that hung in cases down the hallways. The case he was standing by was documenting the last Triwizard Tournament. There were moving pictures of each school that competed and snapshots of each obstacle. There were pennants hung along the back wall. Scorpius smiled as he realized that he would be in school during the Tournament. He would even be old enough to enter if he wanted to. He laughed to himself—he couldn't even do a simple assignment, what made him think the Goblet would choose him as Hogwarts' champion? He shook his head and turned to move away, but he stopped when one of the moving pictures caught his eye.

The photo was of the Yule Ball. It was held to celebrate working together among wizards. Students and professors alike were dancing in their fancy dress. A very young Harry Potter danced in the frame, looking silly in his traditional robes. His date was gorgeous and Scorpius realized with a shock that it was actually Professor Potter. He whistled appreciatively. But his eyes were focused on a couple dancing just behind the Potters. Scorpius wasn't surprised to find his father there. Draco Malfoy had been very handsome when he was younger and still retained that regality now. He was definitely the talk of the pureblood women still to this day. He was one of the most desirable bachelors of the English wizards. But in the picture Scorpius could see the cold fire that had attracted people to Draco. But his eyes were on the woman his father was dancing with.

She was just a bit shorter than Draco was, fitting perfectly in his arms as they danced. The two moved with fluid grace that seemed unreal. She wore a strapless gown, the delicately toned muscles of her arms and back displayed for all to see. Her dress flowed like water around her feet as the couple moved. It was like watching the physical embodiment of magic. Her hair was up in a swirl that was held together by a semi-oval, jeweled hair clip. But when the couple turned with the dance Scorpius could just barely make out the woman's face. The textbook in his hand slipped and clattered against the floor with a muffled thud. He stood dumbstruck as the picture continued to move and the couple danced in and out effortlessly in the frame. The woman dancing with Scorpius' father looked just like the library attendant—and she was beautiful.