XV
In the aftermath of the attack, Irving Low's tome is banned from Hogwarts. When Scorpius is found reading it a month later in the library, his father is summoned to the Headmistress's office.
Scorpius does his best to look embarrassed when his father arrives. He is ignored for a moment, as his father shakes the Headmistress's hand.
"Professor Goshawk," he greets her. "I have been informed of the reason for my summons …"
She is apologetic, "If ever I was to make an exception, I would make one for Scorpius. But I have banned even my teachers from possessing copies of this book. While I understand his curiosity after he suffered so, I cannot countenance disobedience of a direct order. Yet I do not feel it is fitting to punish the boy, either. Would you have a word with him? I think that would be for the best."
Scorpius's father picks up the book in question. He flicks through the first pages, stopping briefly to examine the binding. He puts it back on the Headmistress's desk and regards Scorpius calmly. "When I said that things did not happen the way the history books have it, this -" he taps the cover dismissively - "is not what I meant."
"I know that," Scorpius keeps his voice cool, though he is nervous. "It's rubbish, that's obvious, but how are we meant to argue against lies if we don't know what they are?"
The Headmistress draws a deep breath. "I agree with you from an intellectual standpoint, Scorpius, but," she raises a finger, "Not every student is you. For all that you are able to spot the lies in this text, others are not so discerning."
"Oh, there are truths, too," Scorpius tells her, quietly. He goes on, before she has a chance to marshal a reply, "Not about Voldemort and his Death Eaters, at least, not in any important ways. My grandfather may have regretted his allegiance, but that was only because his association with the Dark Lord threatened his family. He was quite happy to risk other families up to that point.
"No, where it tells the truth is in saying that we're lied to about who fought back. Because when you read the official accounts and you stack them up one against the other, something strange emerges. They're all taken from just five eyewitness accounts. One of them is reliable; Neville Longbottom tells his story just as it occurred, everyone else agrees with him, and the other people I've spoken with who were there on the day say it is as they remember it, too. But Professor Longbottom was in the thick of the fighting and his view is limited.
"One of them was a child, Ginny Weasley, and her account is faithful and accurate so far as it concerns her family and Mr Potter, but it omits several events and people that I am reliably told she witnessed. One other witness was an egoist, and Professor Horace Slughorn's account was mainly directed at making himself appear heroic. Which is not to say that he did not play a key role, just that he ignores any others. Arthur Weasley's account is very accurate, but again, limited and hopelessly distracted by the death of his son. And the final witness, Professor McGonagall, lied."
"Mr Malfoy!" The headmistress is outraged, and even his father is looking at Scorpius with a frown.
He goes on. "She told me. She will tell you, too, if you ask her. She's not proud of it, but she was so angry at the time, and it seemed such a minor lie. It's what she intended to happen, so why not just pretend that it did? And later, everything moved so quickly into established fact. There was no time for corrections. But the story that she told me is the same story that Mr Potter told me, and I think," he looks at his father, "I think it is the same story my father would tell me if he ever spoke about that night."
His father shakes his head. "The Official History is so comforting, so simple. After a war, people crave simple. A simple truth, and simple lives. Let it go, Scorpius. I crave simplicity, too."
The headmistress is looking between them, and she is a smart woman and she has heard the stories. Her conscience is not easy. "Surely truth matters, too," she says.
"People have the truth they want," Scorpius's father answers. "We have spent over twenty years building on that truth. The few of us who were harmed by it will not see all that work swept aside for the sake of our egos."
"I'm sorry," Scorpius beats the headmistress to the phrase. "I didn't realise."
His father kisses his brow swiftly. "Not your fault, I never told you. And you assure me you're not psychic."
As they grin at each other, Professor Goshawk realises exactly where Scorpius comes from. She is impressed. She has heard tales of Mr Malfoy as a student, and can only imagine his work to become this man.
"You have a remarkable boy," she tells the senior Malfoy. "And you have a remarkable father," she adds to the younger. "I am keeping the book, though. If you wish to read it, you may do so in my office. I may read a chapter or two myself if you have any recommendations. Now please escort your father out, Scorpius. I suggest you take a tour of the grounds, it is a beautiful day and you may have the afternoon off class."
"I like your headmistress," Scorpius's father tells him as they exit her office. "Strict but fair, and with kinky boots."
"You've had enough sun already, from the sounds of it," Scorpius sighs dramatically.
His father laughs, then plays his hunch. "I'd like the piece of parchment in your pocket, please."
Scorpius looks at him for a long moment, then passes it over. "I'm trusting you," he says.
It is cheap parchment, the sort used by low-cost printers. It is torn down one side and blank, save for an inscription on the top right-hand corner: Rose Granger-Weasley, Ravenclaw. Mr Malfoy raises one eyebrow at his son.
"She wasn't foolish enough to get caught with it. I owe her three galleons," he says.
His father takes a handful of gold from his pocket and passes it to him. "Treat her to a meal in Hogsmeade with my compliments," he replies.
When Scorpius returns to the common room before dinner, everyone quiets down at his appearance. Rose nervously asks if he is all right. He assures her that he is.
"We were worried, you weren't in class."
"The Headmistress said I could spend some time with my father."
He can't place the muttered reply from one of his housemates, but he hears the words clearly enough: "The Death Eater."
"We were planning a charitable institution to train Squib children, and the mentally fragile," he continues in a louder voice. "And possibly a rescue home for kittens."
"Really?" Maisie Carrington looks up, "I love kittens!"
"Yes," Scorpius snaps, walking towards his dormitory. "As do I. Although the tiny little bones can prove tricky."
XVI
Sometimes the castle laughs at Scorpius. He is never wholly sure why.
You are so young, I forget, it tells him. You know so much and so little at the same time.
"What are you talking about?" Scorpius is too amused to be offended.
The castle shows him in Al's Room of Requirement, swooping through the arches on his broom. Al is watching him with the intent and happy look he always seems to wear.
"Well." Scorpius tosses his hair in faux dudgeon. "If flying is considered youthful and foolish, I'd rather be a child." And he bursts into laughter, too. If anything, the castle laughs harder.
He goes downstairs. Lester is in the Ravenclaw common room again, ostensibly conferring with Mari on Head Boy/Head Girl business, but the whole house has known about their relationship from its inception a few months before. As he has been doing for months now, he makes a point of checking on Scorpius, too.
"I hear Mari wants you to take over as captain next year," he says. "It's a good choice, you have a good tactical brain."
"Yeah," Scorpius shrugs. "But I think that Laura Wadcock would be better. And her aunt might not cope if she leaves school without being captain."
Lester laughs. "Damn Quidditch families. It's the same in Gryffindor, James Potter is convinced he'll be disowned if he doesn't get the job."
"Al would do a better job," Scorpius thinks out loud.
"Yes, he would," Lester agrees. "But I think he'll follow your lead, as usual."
"He doesn't follow me, I follow him," Scorpius doesn't even think these words before he says them.
Lester looks at him, understanding. "I know you do, mate. Anyway, I won't see you much over the next few weeks, so I wanted to ask you about catching up over the holidays. I'm taking a year off, but I don't head for Spain until September, so you're more than welcome to come and stay with us, or I could pop by and see you one day."
Scorpius grins. "That'd be great. You should come and stay with us, Dad thinks the world of you, and Al's usually over for at least a week, so you can see both of us.
"That'd be good. I like your dad." Scorpius's father has stayed in touch with Lester through the course of the year, and has lined up several appointments for him when he returns from his gap year. He jokes about it being the only way he can do anything for Slytherin these days.
"And maybe you can all come and see me in Spain next year?"
"Yeah, that'd be good, too." Scorpius looks at him for a moment. "It's going to be weird," he concludes. "Not having you here. It's as though you keep a steadying hand on the school."
"That's because you are all tiny little munchkins in the face of my physical mightiness." Lester grins, looking down on Scorpius from his full six-foot-four.
"That and the fact that you have a mind like an Italian politician; Renaissance version, not the current lot."
Lester breathes an exaggerated sigh of relief. "Thank Merlin, I'd have had to top myself if you'd been suggesting I reminded you of the Ministero di Magia. Did they ever find their accountants?"
"No." Scorpius shakes his head sadly. "But I heard from Al's uncle that Gringotts were happy to provide some new identities in turn for being given the account."
"Sometimes I think we need a European Union as much as the Muggles ..."
They sit laughing for a short while, aware that this part of their friendship is near its end.
"Lester," Scorpius says, "Thanks. I know you hosed down a lot of crap for me this year."
"Eh," Lester shrugs. "I was more than happy to pummel Byford." They both know this is not exactly what Scorpius means. Lester looks at Scorpius seriously. "I'm counting on you, now. You can keep them all together once I leave. It can't go back to the way it was before the War, no matter how much bullshitting politicians indulge in. This has to be a place of learning and safety. Too many students died so that it would be."
There is a long pause. Lester is looking at Scorpius with great seriousness. Scorpius frowns. "I'm not you," he says, not sure Lester's talking to the right person.
"Malfoy, you muppet, you are, and this pains me, slightly smarter than I am. I admit that you are but a wee pasty creature, but Al hangs out with you all the time and he's handsome enough for the two of you. And I can't think of anyone in the school who doesn't like at least one of you. If you ask him, he'll help. Between the two of you, I'm sure you can manage as much as I did."
"Wanker." Scorpius grins at him. "But yeah, OK. We'll keep it up. I'm not sure you could have found anyone more inflammatory than a Potter and a Malfoy, though."
Lester winks merrily. "I know. That's why it's bound to work. People have too fine a sense of irony to tell the two of you about the War and its fallout."
"I fear for our world if you are ever in a position of power."
"Cheers, mate. Must dash, important Head Boy/Head Girl business ..." and the wink he gives before regaining Mari's attention is positively filthy.
Lester and the other seventh years are well into their NEWTs when Scorpius receives an Owl from his father a few weeks later. Which is frustrating, because Scorpius really wants someone older to tell him that his suspicions are all misplaced.
"I'm sorry, son, but we need you to come home alone for the first fortnight. There are family matters to discuss," it says, among pages of news regarding the gardens, Ministry changes and general chatter.
He asks the castle what it could mean. It attempts to cheer him up. The Manor has been made over into a research library and you are all moving to the Cotswolds? it suggests. Your father has taken to dyeing his hair blue in a bid to stay in touch with the younger generation?
Scorpius thanks it for its efforts, he knows it means well. The Castle distracts him with a quick tour around the school. Look, there's Goshawk looming over first years. Did you know that Professor Flitwick had a long dalliance with an Italian soprano? On the topic of dalliances, the reason Professor Longbottom has stayed at school for the least three weekends is not that he is overseeing a complex experiment, but rather that two of his girlfriends found out about each other and he is letting things calm down before he talks to them.
"How many girlfriends does Professor Longbottom have?" Scorpius asks, intrigued despite himself.
I've only heard of nine. Here's the second year choir, they sound good, don't they.
"Yeah, they do. What's Al up to?"
He's with his brother and sister, they're talking about something in the Gryffindor common room. Would you like to see?
"That's fine, I'll talk to him later. The choir's nice." Scorpius drifts off to sleep listening to the music, and doesn't wake till his dorm mates tramp in hours later.
The next morning he breaks the bad news to Al. "It's just for the first two weeks, I can come to your place later, and that will mean you'll probably be at mine in the week Lester can make it, so he can Apparate us places, which will be great."
Al seems a little distracted. "That'll be good, yeah," he agrees. "Hope everything's OK."
Scorpius shrugs. "They're probably turning the Manor into a research library."
The remaining weeks of school rush by. On the last Hogsmeade weekend, Lester and Mari, free from exams join Scorpius and the Potter/Weasley contingent at the Three Broomsticks, in the lunch gathering that has become tradition among them since James invited everyone else along to Scorpius's lunch with Rose, reasoning they would need chaperones.
As always, James sits with Rose and she calls him a man-trollop. "If only there was a better word ..." she ponders.
"Mollop?" Mari suggests.
Lester offers "Chumpet."
"Town blike," suggests Lily, which elicits an "Oi!" and the raised finger of none of that language from you, young lady from her oldest brother.
"It is your fault, James," Lester consoles him. "I think Rose is the only looker at school that you've not gone out with. Which just goes to show you're mad, she's much lovelier than your usual bimbos."
Scorpius notes that Rose blushes to the tips of her ears at that comment.
"Don't be stupid, she's my cousin!" And with James's scoffing comment, Rose's blush disappears.
"You're the idiot," Lily interjects. "There's no law against going out with your cousins. Besides, none of our grandparents are closely related, so if we wanted to Hugo and I could get married and we'd produce beautiful, brilliant children and if the eldest ones ever picked on the littler ones, we'd lock them in a cupboard."
"You may not marry Hugo!" James says.
"Never did Dad much harm," Al says at the same time.
Rose waits for them to finish talking over each other before opining: "I would be aunt to the most irritating children the world has ever known. Don't expect babysitting."
"Anyway," James says in a lordly fashion. "It'll be Scorp and Rose, wait and see. You can't keep two megabrains like them apart for long."
Rose turns on James in a fury. Scorpius groans and drops his face into his hands. Al laughs and pats him on the back. Lester can be heard even above Rose's high-pitched declarations of James's stupidity. "That would be a genuine surprise ..."
At the end of term, his father meets him alone at the station. Scorpius looks about for his mother, but if he's being honest, he knows that this was inevitable. He stays quiet until they arrive home, then, as his Dad stands at the front door, trying to speak but only opening and closing his mouth, Scorpius puts his arms around him. "I know she's gone," he says. "Are you all right?"
His father holds him for several minutes. Then he steps back and looks at him. "It is entirely my fault," he says. "She wanted someone who was there for her every day. I was so caught up with work and politics that I forgot to be a husband."
"When I was sick ..." Scorpius has a sinking feeling about the timing.
"No." His father stops him. "We were broken long before then. She told me that it was the week she spent in France over Easter that made her realise she wasn't missing me. She loves you, and I love you, and she and I just don't love each other any more."
Scorpius pats his father's hand. "It's OK. Let's go inside. Sit down, have some food. It'll be OK. You two will work something out."
"Scorpius, we're getting a divorce."
A second passes. "Yeah, obviously. But you'll need to work something out about me."
His father laughs and throws an arm around his shoulders as he opens the door. "Of course. Actually, I have told Helene that she can stay here, the Manor's big enough for us to only see each other when we want to. You may have to start having two Sunday breakfasts every week, but that shouldn't be an issue for you since you only drink coffee and eat pain au chocolat."
"Well, if it means extra pastries, I'm not so upset ..."
In his mother's sitting room there is a letter addressed to him. His father leaves him alone to read it. She tells him she loves him. She tells him she has gone to her mother in Cap Ferrat. She tells him she still admires his father deeply as a person and that it is all her fault their relationship no longer works. She apologises to him for her many failings as a mother, and tells him she loves him again.
Scorpius sits and writes to her straight away. "You have never failed me. I love you." He signs his name, folds the parchment twice and calls for a house-elf to Owl the letter.
For the next week he amuses his father. They fly, and visit the cinema dressed in their most Muggle-ish outfits, which leads to some entertaining moments when three women and two men ask for his father's phone number. Then, on Saturday, his mother 'visits', and they all sit down to talk.
It is all so civilised.
She will take the apartment in London and live there during the school year, then occupy the west wing of the Manor during holidays. They will attend functions together when needed, and he will provide her with a settlement in addition to a monthly sum for expenses. If the arrangement changes Scorpius will be involved in any decisions that concern his future.
Of course he should tell his friends, and there will be a discreet announcement in the Prophet, but they will act as all old families do and present a united face despite the divorce. Helene returns to France that night, but she will be back in a fortnight for Albus and Lester's visits.
Somehow, seeing them together acting so calmly as they rearrange his family makes it all so much worse.
Scorpius Owls Albus to tell him. He writes eight drafts. In the end, the letter simply says: "My parents split up. I miss you."
The next morning he receives a reply: "So did mine. I miss you, too."
It is a week before his father Apparates him to the Potter home. As usual, he stops at the gate and hugs him goodbye. "We'll see you both next week," his father says. "I'll bring in a stash of Honeydukes and 3W treats for Al, that will cheer him up a bit. And don't forget that we're all off to the theatre with Lester, so have Al bring something a little formal."
Al runs down the front path in time to wave goodbye to Scorpius's dad before he Disapparates. Mr Potter is a little behind him. Scorpius hears him mutter "Damn" when he realises Scorpius is alone.
Mr Potter looks at him and sees the quizzical look on his face. " I was going to ask your father inside," he explains. "It occurs to me he's never stepped inside the gate."
"You've never been to our house at all," Scorpius points out.
A wry smile flits across Mr Potter's face. "Actually, I have," he says. "But not for years."
Al drags Scorpius away before he can ask questions. They each fill in the details of their families' cracks. Mrs Potter has also gone to her mother's, but is due back the next day. She is talking about buying the house next door. Mr Potter is insisting he will move instead, and this, and this alone, has led to a screaming fight between them. Al agrees that the calmness is the worst. Any other emotion could have been cause for hope.
Lily and James return from the Burrow by Floo before dinner. Lily throws herself at Scorpius. "It's all so horrible!" she wails. He comforts her until she moves her hands too low and he leaps away with a tiny shriek.
"Lil! No using family tragedy as an excuse to grope," James rolls his eyes at her. When she pulls an appalling face at him, he breaks and starts to laugh. "All right then, no using it as an excuse on our friends. You can milk it for all it's worth once you're back at school."
James shakes Scorpius's hand and tells him he's sorry about his parents. Scorpius returns the sentiment.
"Post-traumatic stress," James pronounces. "They've all waited twenty-three years to go mad. What can I say? They're tough."
"Feeble humour will get us through this," Scorpius commends him.
"I have a limitless supply." James grins back.
"We know ..." the others chorus.
Late that night, when the rest of the Potters have gone to bed, Scorpius and Al stay up in the sitting room, talking about school.
"It's really just a matter of communication," Al says, leaning back on the cushions they have piled against the sofa. "So long as we're all talking to each other, none of the Houses can drift too far into the realms of paranoia or bigotry."
"We could convince James, Lily and Hugo to date more broadly," Scorpius suggests wickedly.
Al groans. "My brother is a bad influence. Encouraging him is bad. He is a bad person."
Scorpius laughs at him, and Al laughs, too. Then his voice catches, and his laughter becomes a sob. Scorpius puts his arms around his friend and holds him. Al cries for a long time and Scorpius holds him gently, until they are both too tired to stay awake.
Of course it is James who notices that the light is still on and comes to investigate. His bark of laughter wakes them both. Scorpius has a moment to realise that Al's head is on his chest and Al's arms are around him before Al realises where he is and sits up quickly
"Sod it, Al," James rolls his eyes. "I swear you couldn't be any gayer if you tried. Let Scorp go and get some sleep, you can go back to being sensitive in the morning."
Scorpius is alarmed to see Al's hands ball into fists and his face flush deep red, but his friend simply storms past his brother without looking back.
"He's upset about your mum, and he can't tell any of you," Scorpius defends him.
James looks guilty. "I know. It's just ... he needs to be stronger. He's so tough on the outside and he's a little kid on the inside."
"He is strong, he's just different."
"Yeah, well ... I'll tell him I'm sorry in the morning. Get some sleep."
The next day Al is bright and cheerful.
He stays that way for the entire holidays.
After Lester and Scorpius drop him home at the end of his visit to Malfoy Manor, Lester turns to Scorpius. "What the hell happened between the two of you?" he asks.
Scorpius looks at him with eyes full of worry. "I wish I knew."