A/N: Here's the second chapter. Sorry it took so long. Got distracted with another story. Hope this makes up for it =).
Scorpius had a wonderful dream. He couldn't remember what it was, but he could feel himself smiling as he opened his eyes. Smiling, that is, until he saw the scarlet hangings above his bed.
Scarlet, not green.
It all came crashing back. The unwelcoming stares, the humiliation…Tears stung his eyes, threatening to fall. This was a mistake. It had to be a mistake, or some cruel joke a bored, dusty old magical hat had thought would be funny to play on him. He had to talk to McGonagall. She could fix this.
His stomach gurgled loudly in protest, scolding him for his decision not to touch the wonderful feast of the night before. Breakfast first, then. He sighed, resigned.
He dressed quickly. He was up early, as usual; the majority of his dorm mates were still snoring away in their beds. Good. That meant less of those hating, suspicious stares.
The common room, too, was empty. Scorpius felt himself relax, only to feel himself tense up again when he reached the Great Hall a few minutes later. The Gryffindor table was the fullest of the four tables, relegating him to the very end of the table, just like the night before. No one sat anywhere near him; it was if he didn't exist. Scorpius ate miserably, hardly tasting the food.
When McGonagall left the Headmistress's seat at the teachers' table, he immediately got up to follow. He felt the brush of a wingtip on his cheek and a familiar weight on his shoulder as he hurried after his Head of House. Whatever Darius had, however, could wait.
"Professor! Professor McGonagall!" he panted. The formidable woman suddenly stopped, sweeping around to look at him. Scorpius drew up fast, stopped a dozen steps away by her stern stare. "Yes, Mr. Malfoy?"
"There's been a mistake." He tried to make his voice firm and commanding, like his father's, but he failed, instead sounding like exactly what he was-a miserable, mewling child.
When her eyebrows rose slightly, he plowed on. "I don't belong in your House, ma'am. The Sorting Hat has made a mistake."
Was it his imagination, or did that stern look soften ever so slightly? "I assure, Mr. Malfoy, there has been no mistake. If the Sorting Hat placed you in Gryffindor, then Gryffindor is where you belong."
As she turned to sweep away, he forgot his fear of the stern woman's gaze and hurried right up to her side. "But my entire family has been in Slytherin-"
McGonagall glanced at him, a slight smile on her face. "Some traditions are meant to be broken, Mr. Malfoy. Now I suggest you get to class."
Class…? Darius gave a muffled hoot, his taloned feet digging into his shoulder. The owl had a piece of paper in his beak-Scorpius's class schedule. As he automatically reached for it, he flinched at the sharp pop of McGonagall Apparating-the firmest, most final no she could have ever given to him.
Miserably, Scorpius took his schedule with one hand, letting Darius hop on to the wrist of his other arm. Scorpius looked at his owl-his best friend for most of his life, and who was possibly his only friend in the world now. In a sudden stab of dark, wry humor, he asked the bird, "Mind if I take a flying leap off the Astronomy Tower?"
Darius ruffled his golden brown feathers, giving Scorpius a reproachful, 'how dare you' look. He made a face back. "Oh don't look at me like that. Mother and Father would take care of you if I went splat. Most likely."
Darius nipped his finger in reply. "Ow!" He threw the bird up into the air with his arm. "Go on, you silly bird. You can't come to class with me here, anyway." Darius hooted, swooping back toward the Great Hall. As for Scorpius, he headed back to the dormitories to fetch his Charms book.
…...
In Charms class, Scorpius was one of the last to arrive, despite his earlier start. His father had explained the moving staircases over the summer, but he had gotten lost all the same. He slunk to an empty seat in the very back, trying to ignore the heated stares.
He had just sat down, and Professor Flitwick had just introduced himself to the class, when the door banged open. A very flushed Albus hurried in, book in hand and bag sliding off his shoulder.
"Mr. Potter," the tiny man said, the amusement in his tone outweighing his attempt at scolding. "Be a little more swift on your feet next time, yes?"
"Yes, Professor. Sorry, Professor," Albus huffed. A boy sitting behind Rose and another girl waved for Albus to come sit with him, but right there, in front of the eyes of half the classroom, Albus defiantly turned his back on him and deliberately sat next to Scorpius.
As the other boy's face turned from annoyed impatience to shock, Albus said loudly, "Hello Scorpius."
Scorpius felt his guts twist as the rest of the class focused on him, the heated, suspicious stares coming back in full force. He might not know yet why they hated him, but he knew that Albus was painting the first lines of a target on his back with this little show. And though he knew, too, that this was all done under Albus's volition, and therefore any consequences were his own fault, Scorpius felt a pang of guilt anyway.
"You don't have to do this," Scorpius said softly as Flitwick turned to the blackboard, charming a piece of chalk to write on it.
Albus ignored that. "You wouldn't happen to have some extra parchment? I forgot mine." Scorpius sighed softly, passing some over without further comment.
As Flitwick went on about the uses of charms, Scorpius (who had heard most of this before when his father tutored him over the summer) put his head down on his arms, watching the little man talk animatedly.
He didn't realize he was starting to doze until Flitwick suddenly said a spell loudly, and something soft brushed his cheek. He sat up, glancing at Albus questioningly.
"Levitating spell," he explained with a small smile.
Oh. Was that all? It was a simple spell, one of the first ones his father had made him master-without actually casting it, of course.
His hand went through the motions with his wand absently. "Wingardium Leviosa." The feather-the soft thing that brushed his cheek-rose steadily, and hovered patiently above his head. It marked him, as it were, as only one other feather made it that high into the air. He wasn't at all surprised to find that it was Rose's. She caught his eye and grinned, nodding in approval. He glanced pointedly up at her feather and clapped silently. She beamed at the wordless praise.
When they broke eye contact, Scorpius found himself smiling. Perhaps he wasn't so friendless after all.
…...
Scorpius managed to get through the rest of the morning relatively unscathed. He dreaded lunch, though, expecting it to be twice as terrible as breakfast.
To his relief, most everyone seemed to be more preoccupied with the upcoming start of Quidditch tryouts and practices than with him. He sat heavily at the end of the Gryffindor table.
He'd just started, when somebody flopped into the seat right next to him.
"Hello Scorpius," Albus said brightly. As Scorpius raised his pale brows in surprise, Rose sat directly in front of him.
"Hi guys," she said, a little too cheerfully. Scorpius wasn't stupid-he knew a pity party when he saw one. He sighed quietly.
"I appreciate this, I really do, but I'd prefer it if you sat with me because you wanted to, not because you feel sorry for me."
The bright facades dropped instantly. In another fit of wry, dark humor, Scorpius added, "But before you run away, would one of you please explain why I'm the most notorious person in Hogwarts on my first full day here?"
Albus and Rose literally froze, both staring at him with wide eyes. "You really don't know?" Albus asked. Scorpius slowly shook his head, watching them both with steady gray eyes.
"Scorpius." Rose reached out, touching his hand on the table with the air of someone about to deliver some horrible news. "Your father was a Death Eater in the War nineteen years ago. His-your whole family was, all of the Malfoys. It was…horrible, that War, and the memory of it has been kept alive, especially by those who lost family."
Scorpius nodded. Now that it was out in the open, he'd realized he'd always known, really. He'd seen his father's Mark when he was six, and when he asked what it was, his father's face had darkened, and he quickly changed the subject. He'd known, from overhearing the adults talk, that his father had been in 'the War', a term he didn't truly understand until much later. It made him curious, but whenever he asked about it or the Mark as he grew older, his father would look away, as if ashamed, and his mother would quietly tell him to finish his supper.
That was the real moment when he realized the very thing his parents had been trying so hard to shield him from in keeping him home and tutoring him themselves: his father had been a part of something truly terrible all those years ago. He'd refused to believe in that, though, until now, until he was faced with Rose and Albus's sad faces.
Knowing all that, it wasn't hard to accept the reason for the hard stares. "So they hate me because I'm Draco Malfoy's son."
Rose's hand squeezed his. "No, Scorpius, they don't hate you-"
"-just my name?" he finished for her wryly.
Both of them flinched. "And that you look exactly like your father," Albus allowed. No gloss, no sugar coating, like his cousin. Scorpius flinched slightly, but found that he appreciated the blunt honesty more than the honey coating.
"But," Albus added suddenly, eyes lighting up. "That's fixable."
Scorpius stared at him. "Fixable how?"
He looked to Rose. "Rose?"
The girl looked confused for a minute, but then her face lit up too. "Of course! A new look!"
"A new what?"
"Look." She grinned mischievously. "And I know just the thing. Come on!" Then all Scorpius could do was look at Albus helplessly as she dragged him off by the hand.
A few minutes later, and Scorpius was sitting in a chair in the Gryffindor boys' dorm. After magically rinsing his hair of the gel, Rose attacked his now wet locks with a pair of scissors. He squirmed, watching pieces of his precious hair fall away…
"Stop wiggling!" she scolded. "This isn't killing you."
"It might be," Scorpius sniped back. "Al, tell me what she's doing back there. I can't see."
But Albus, who was rearranging Scorpius's clothes on his bed, merely grinned at him. "Don't worry, Scorpius. You're going to love it."
Scorpius pouted, but kept his mouth shut, resigning himself to his fate.
"Done!" Rose crowed, a few minutes later. Scorpius tried not to notice the rather large mound of silver-blonde hair at his feet, nor the excessive amount of air on the back of his neck as Rose fetched a mirror.
"Ta da!" She showed him the mirror. He took it, looking into it dubiously…
He gaped. Wow. His hair was shorter than before, but that wasn't as bad a thing as he'd thought. It was about an inch in length all over his head, layered a little and brushed forward, giving him spiky bangs that hung close to his eyebrows. This new look softened the sharp cheekbones he'd inherited from his father, and the effect of that was strange-it was like he was looking at a whole different person.
"Rose, how…?"
"Aunt Fleur taught me," She grinned at him. "You like it, don't you? Admit it."
He couldn't help his own smile at her affectionate ribbing. "It will take getting used to, but yeah, Rose. I like it. Thank you."
She gave him a big hug. "You're welcome."
His new look finished, Scorpius and his new friends hurried off to their next class.
…...
The new haircut did wonders. There were more surprised stares than angry stares afterwards, and as the week wore on, almost all seemed to lose interest in him. His life was finally normal…until that Monday.
As he was munching on his breakfast, putting the final touches on a Potions essay due that afternoon, someone plopped into the seat in front of him. "Hullo Scorpius."
Scorpius stilled. It was still too early for either Rose or Albus to join him yet. He looked up, to see a boy in scarlet Quidditch robes lounging in front of him. The boy was older-about third year-with tousled dark auburn hair and friendly chocolate brown eyes. He looked familiar, but Scorpius was sure he'd never met him before.
"Hello," he said cautiously. "You are…?"
The boy grinned at him. "I'm James Potter, Al's brother and the youngest Chaser for Gryffindor. Al's told me a lot about you." The friendly gaze sharpened. "You're friends, right?"
Scorpius smiled a little, too used to such behavior by now to be offended or otherwise disturbed. Besides, James was just being a good big brother. Scorpius would do no less.
"Yes," Scorpius answered pleasantly, meeting the older boy's gaze steadily. They stared at each other like that for half a heartbeat-then that big friendly grin was back. "Pleased to meet you."
Scorpius smiled back, getting the distinct impression that James was the sort who preferred to make friends of strangers, rather than enemies. And he was good at it-James proved to be just as immediately likable as his shyer younger brother, and just as bluntly honest.
The new friends chattered on about Quidditch-both being almost equally obsessed with the sport-until Albus and Rose joined them.
"Wow, James you're up early," Rose said, sitting beside him as Albus plopped onto the bench beside Scorpius.
James made a face. "Early Quidditch practice. Laina's trying to kill us already, and the school year's barely started…"
"I heard that." A pretty fourth year Spanish girl said coolly from further down the table, flicking her long black hair over her shoulder.
James fluttered his eyelashes at her. "Heard what, Lainie?"
Laina pursed her lips, not bothering to dignify that with a response as the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team giggled at the pet name. The giggling stopped, however, as the morning post arrived.
Scorpius sighed as Darius, bearing a large green and silver package, soared in. The owl expertly dropped it into his master's lap and landed on his shoulder.
Albus eyed the package curiously over his toast. "Who's that from?"
"My mother," Scorpius replied, feeding Darius his favorite treat-bacon dipped in a bit of syrup. He really was a spoiled bird-much like his owner.
Rose eyed the color of the package, her quick eyes not missing a thing. "You haven't told them yet, have you?"
Scorpius sighed, slitting open the package with his wand. "No."
"They're going to find out sooner or later," Albus put in, with his usual bluntness.
James cocked his head curiously-reminding Scorpius strongly of a reddish-brown Labrador. "Find out about what?"
"That I'm in Gryffindor, rather than the traditional Slytherin," Scorpius answered, pulling off the package's lid. Treacle fudge-his own favorite treat. He felt a stab of guilt. "Treacle, anyone?"
James and Albus happily accepted some, but Rose just looked at him with steady eyes, firm but not unkind.
"They're your parents, Scorpius. They'll love and support you no matter what House you're in."
"She's right, mate," James chimed in, around a big, quickly melting bite of fudge. "And now you all should go to class. It doesn't do to be late." He looked pointedly at his younger brother as the three shuffled up to leave.
…...
Charms and Transfiguration went by smoothly-with Rose and Albus to sit by and fool around with, Scorpius hardly felt what little stares there were anymore. But Care of Magical Creatures…That turned out to be a different story entirely.
Scorpius arrived late-he'd forgotten his book in the common room, and he had to rush from Transfiguration to get it. The second he arrived, he could practically smell trouble.
The class was with the Slytherins, and the teacher was no where in sight. They seemed to be behaving themselves-except two, whom Scorpius recognized immediately. He groaned quietly to himself. Braxton Zabini and Jordan Parkinson.
Braxton was circling Albus and Rose in a decidedly predatory fashion, while Jordan watched with an ugly smirk on her face.
"So where is little Scorpius?" Braxton asked silkily as a resigned Scorpius approached.
"Looking for me, Braxton?" he asked. Dark eyes flickered up, and the Slytherin's smile widened.
"Why yes." he said pleasantly, stopping his circling to come stand before the slightly smaller Scorpius.
Scorpius raised his pale brows, attempting to channel his father as effortlessly as Braxton was channeling his. "I would appreciate it if you didn't harass my friends in the process."
Braxton snorted, glancing back at a strained looking Albus and Rose. "Friends?" He leaned closer to Scorpius, as if to tell him a secret. "Does your esteemed father know you're associating with such…undesirables?"
Scorpius jerked his head away, glaring. "Don't talk about them like that, Braxton."
Braxton pouted. "I'm only telling your innocent self the truth about the company you've chosen." He tossed another careless, disdainful look at them, eying Rose in particular. "The daughter of a Mudblood, the son of blood traitors-"
Scorpius punched him in the face.
Braxton's ridiculously pointy nose instantly gave way, and in that same second, Scorpius felt a sharp pain in his own fist. He jerked his hand back with a yelp as Braxton staggered away from him, clutching at his now freely bleeding nose.
"Jordan!" he whined, and Jordan was instantly there, scowling and pointing her wand at Scorpius. Rose, Albus and, to Scorpius's surprise, most of the Gryffindors in the class, were there in the same instant for him, without him having to ask. He felt a warm glow fill him up as he cradled his injured hand to his chest.
That warm glow instantly vanished as their teacher-a very irate Hagrid-stormed into view. He grabbed Scorpius by the collar, hoisting him away from Jordan and the tearful Braxton. Scorpius's feet dangled, only his toes keeping contact with the ground-but just barely.
"No fightin'!" the half-giant bellowed at the poised-to-attack Gryffindors, and even Jordan scrambled back from him, pulling Braxton with her.
Hagrid turned to the blonde boy dangling from his fist. "What's the meanin' of this, Malfoy?" he growled, and that was far worse than the bellowing.
Scorpius trembled, but bit his lip, lifting his chin proudly. He kept his mouth shut, for he was smart enough to recognize that no matter what he said, it wouldn't make any difference. In Hagrid's mind, he was the bad guy, and he always would be, because he was a Malfoy, and Hagrid had made his feelings about that quite clear when they got off the train over a week ago.
Lucky for him, he had two nonMalfoy Gryffindor friends who were far more persuasive.
"Hagrid," Rose said quickly, her voice trembling slightly. "Put him down. He didn't do anything wrong."
"Yeah," Albus added. "Zabini provoked him by saying something about Rose and me." Jordan scoffed at that but said nothing. None of the other Slytherins did, either, even when the other Gryffindors made noises of agreement.
"Right." Hagrid put Scorpius back down carefully, the expression on his shaggy face unreadable. "Get ter the Hospital Wing then, both of yeh. And no more fightin'!"
"Yes, sir." Jordan dragged Braxton away, glaring over her shoulder at Scorpius. He followed shakily after, his steps strengthening as he felt his friends fall into step on either side of him.
Albus beamed at him. "That was brilliant, Scorpius. Thanks. For sticking up for us."
Scorpius grinned, nudging him playfully, careful not to jar his injured hand. "That's what friends are for, Al."
A/N: Awww! Again, sorry for the slow update. Will get the third chapter up ASAP!
So, what did you think? =)