A/N Special dedication to Tom, for calling this his fave fanfic and making me feel all fuzzy! :D You rock!
Once more, I am not JK Rowling, even if my cousin used to live under the Elephant café where Rowling wrote bits of Philosopher's Stone :)
Previously:
Being practically related wouldn't get him any favours from Professor Grey, just as being actually related to his Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher would make no difference to their in-school relationship, something Nat made abundantly clear from their first DADA lesson...
Their first DADA lesson took place on a Wednesday morning, and rumours about Professor Carter's unique lessons had already spread around the school. Some of the students had, understandably been slightly sceptical of a blind man's ability to teach a subject that required quite as much aiming a wand accurately as it did.
Scorpius privately thought the idiots that went around the school dissing his cousin, and even more so the ones who said it in ear shot of Min were likely to get a nasty surprise.
"All I'm saying, is that I don't see how he can teach us when he can't see what he's teaching – no offence Mouse." Bradley Thomas said as he walked into the DADA classroom, addressing Scorpius with the nickname that had annoyingly swept around the first-year Gryffindors within about 5 minutes of Becky first calling him it.
"You'd be wrong then, Mr Thomas is it?" The quiet voice silenced the class instantaneously. Nat sat up straighter, from where he'd been sat almost invisible at his desk. "You'd also be surprised at how many people seem to think because I can't see, I can't hit anything in a 5 mile radius. Are you one of those people, Mr Thomas?" Nat said
Bradley barely managed to stutter out a denial over the sound of the snickers in the class.
"How did he know it was Brad though?" Albus muttered to Scorpius, thinking that, as they were sat near the back, Nat wouldn't be able to hear them. He was wrong.
"Because, Mr Potter, I'm only blind, not deaf, and first-year Gryffindors are some of the nosiest in school. I might be a little off at first, but the benefit of losing one of your key senses means that I can compensate with my others. Mr Malfoy, if you'd like to demonstrate?" Nat's voice was lazy, and Scorpius just knew that he was trying not to laugh. He gulped, knowing that was never a good sign.
"Na-Sir?"
"Would you stand up please? Anywhere in the space at the back is fine."
"Ok?" Mouse gulped again, feeling about 7 years old.
What is he planning?
He went and stood in the space, feeling incredibly stupid as he did. Scorpius opened his mouth to tell Nat he was ready, but before he could speak, he was hit with a spell, which simultaneously winded him but left him feeling light headed.
The rest of the class burst into gales of laughter as Scorpius made his way back to his seat slightly unsteadily.
"Five points from Gryffindor for lacking the proper respect...but 15 for an impressive demonstration. I assume that my colour changer did it's job?"
"Did you mean to make it pink, sir?" Rose piped up, trying unsuccessfully to stifle her laughter.
"No, I didn't...well, I always did have a problem with exact shading...still, Mr Thomas, I assume that's a suitable assurance that I'm not going to accidentally hit you with a Bat Bogey hex or the like?"
Bradley nodded, somewhat sheepishly.
"Mr Thomas?"
"Oh, sorry! Yes Professor Carter."
Nat rolled his eyes.
"Um, Sir?" Scorpius said tentatively.
"Malfoy?"
"Could you please change my hair back?"
The class snickered as Nat waved his wand and as Scorpius looked up, he saw that his fringe was once again back to its usual white blond.
"Now, Shall we get on with teaching with that little practical demonstration out of the way?
"Yes Sir!" The class chorused as one, grinning like madmen. Professor Carte might be unorthodox, but as he showed over the coming weeks, he was a strict but fair teacher, with a desert dry sense of humour. Even if he occasionally was a little harsh on Mouse.
Still, the new lessons passed , from Herbology with Professor Longbottom, who had to constantly dock points from Albus for calling him Neville (even if he did usually find a way to give them back) to Astronomy at midnight with Professor Sinistra, with its little shrine to the fall of Dumbledore. If it weren't for that, Scorpius reflected, he might have enjoyed Astronomy a little more – as it was, he always felt slightly uncomfortable with the fact that his father had had a hand in the fall of one the greatest wizards of the 20th century. Still, they all passed without much incident. That is, until their first flying lessons.
Scorpius himself wasn't too concerned – he'd been flying practically since he could walk, and Albus claimed he'd been flying since his parents could put him on a broom. Having seen the skill with which his brother James flew, he could understand Albus's lack of worry, but Rose had never been one for less academic subjects, and, like her mother before her preferred to keep her feet on the ground, and so was slightly apprehensive.
Maybe I'll actually beat her at something. Was Scorpius's slightly uncharitable thought.
Becky on the other hand, as a muggle-born, became quieter and quieter as their First flying lesson approached. Being somewhat of a bookworm, she could be found in the library trying to find as much out as she could about flying without actually going on a broom.
It was, Scorpius thought, a very good thing that their flying lessons were with the Ravenclaws, and not the Slytherins, even if it did make him feel slightly sorry for the Hufflepuffs.
The day of their first flying lesson came, a crisp autumnal day, and for once, the first-year Gryffindors were among the first down for breakfast. Even if Scorpius, Albus and Rose had had to wheedle Becky out from under her covers, as she seemed determined that her on a broomstick would end in fire, destruction and death. Or being expelled.
Zoning out Rose and Becky's increasingly morbid 'what if' scenarios, Scorpius gazed at the teachers table, where Nat was having an animated discussion with Professor Longbottom – from what Albus had told him, they were probably swapping Auror stories. Min, on the other hand looked as though she was about to throw up, her face deathly white, with dark circles under her eyes and holding on to her coffee mug like it was the Holy Grail. Still she managed to smile wanly and waved.
As the owls arrived, Albus looked especially pleased, as apart from a bag of sweets and WWW merchandise he also had a letter reminding him about tea at Hagrid's and a note from his god-brother.
Scorpius sighed. He still hadn't heard from his parents, since the Howler incident, but he did remember that they were in China doing something Ambassadorial.
After finishing his toast, and being consulted on the spelling of splendiforous, Scorpius and his friends headed down to the Quidditch pitch, where they were joined by the first-year Ravenclaws, who, much like the Gryffindors seemed to be a mix of over-confident, mildly apprehensive and merely excited.
Still, the Ravenclaws were nerdy enough that they weren't likely to be particularly brilliant at flying.
"Mouse?"
"What Becky?" he said, looking down at her .
"Did you know that you were thinking aloud?" She replied, her usual mischievous smile breaking through the slightly nauseous expression she'd worn for the last few days.
"Oops." Scorpius grimaced guiltily as one of the nearest Ravenclaw boys gave him an angry glare
"I'll get you back for that Malfoy..." he said, then grinned, sticking a hand out "Alex Davies, son of Roger Davies, ex Quidditch Captain and current Tornadoes chaser. We're not all bookworms."
"Hi. Scorpius Malfoy. Sorry...I occasionally act like a prat. My cousin's trying to knock it out of me." He shook Alex's hand, noting absently that Becky seemed to be blushing.
Girls.
Madam Hooch strolled onto the pitch, on which, as Scorpius belatedly noticed, 20 or so brooms, of which all seemed to have seen better days.
"Everyone pick a broom, and when you're ready, say up! If you're confident in want you want, your broom should rise to your command."
There was a ragged chorus of 'up!' which met with varying levels of success. Scorpius's broom, to his immense satisfaction rose immediately to his hand, as did Albus's, who looked incredibly smug. Scorpius stuck out his tongue at Albus and was rewarded with a hideous grimace that wouldn't have looked out of place on the gargoyles outside McGonagall's office. Rose and Becky were faring less well – Rose managed to get her broom to come to her on her third go, but Becky's broom, an ancient Comet 260 just rolled over , slightly sadly Scorpius thought.
"Becky, what's up?" he asked the now miserable looking girl.
"I don't know, I just. I can't do it." she sighed.
A memory of a 20 year old Minna and his younger self popped into his head, prompted by the similarity between Becky's complaints and what he had said at the time. Well, the situation hadn't been all that different...
"Becky, can you ride a bike?" He asked, ignoring Albus and Rose's curious stares
"Yeah..."
"Think of the broom like a bike, the way you balance is similar. Or – free wheeling down a hill."
A smile broke out on Becky's face, as she remembered an old memory.
"I can do that. I think - but what if I fall?"
"Don't." Mouse said, grinning, remembering the conversation he'd had with Minna, the same, apart from the comparison had been the other way round.
"Up!" Becky's shout broke through the memory, and this time, the broom shot into her hand.
Madame Hooch walked up the lines, correcting the first-years' grips, Scorpius grinning when she told Rose off for gripping her broom too tightly.
Eventually, when she was satisfied, Madame Hooch blew her whistle and the class rose into the air.
A feeling of exhilaration shot through Scorpius and a huge grin spread over his face. Albus looked similarly thrilled, and the two of them shot higher, trying to out fly each other. Albus was good. The combination of Potter and Weasley genes had left him a natural flyer and Scorpius was hard pressed to keep up with him. The rest of the class looked on entranced as the two of the looped around each other, darting as if trying to catch an invisible Snitch.
It wasn't until Scorpius did a barrel roll that Madame Hooch snapped out of her appreciation of their flying and immediately called the boys down to the ground.
"I've never seen anyone so irresponsible!" she scolded them, then paused thoughtfully. "Well, there was Potter back in 91, but I wasn't actually there so..." she gathered her thoughts. "Anyway...10 points from Gryffindor for ignoring your instructions! Each!" she held up a hand to halt the indignant protests from both of the boys. "and detention on Saturday evening-you can go and help Weasley with the Gryffindor Quidditch Practice." Here Madame Hooch broke into a wicked grin. "And 15 points each for such an excellent display of flying. Each." She turned back to the rest of the class, restoring some semblance of order to the now rowdy class.
Albus and Scorpius turned, looked at each other, completely baffled by the strangest telling off either of them had ever received. And that was including a joint Nat/Min telling off, not for pranking them when he was 9, but for being caught pranking them when he was 9.
"Did she just?" Scorpius eventually said
"I think she did! She practically told us to go to try-outs, right?" Albus replied, raising his eyebrows. The two boys looked at each other, grinned and then high-fived.
It wasn't until much later that day, after the pleasant afternoon with Hagrid, (Well, after he had got over the fact that although Scorpius was in fact the son of Draco Malfoy, he was a Gryffindor, had no intention of becoming anything like the bully his father was, and in fact would take the side of anyone who threatened his friends . After that they got on swimmingly) that Becky remembered who it was that had helped her to fly. And how.
"Mouse?" She asked, stifling a laugh at the chocolate he had smeared around his mouth.
"Yup?" he said, looking up from where he was sprawled on the floor of the Gryffindor common room with Albus, playing Exploding Snap.
"You know this morning? When we were flying?"
"Where's this going Becks?" He said, and Rose and Albus looked similarly confused.
"How do you know what a bike is? Aren't your parents purebloods?
Scorpius smiled wryly.
"Well, it all goes back to when I was about 8, and you know what I said about Nat and Min trying to squash the idiot out of me?"
"Yeah?" his friends chorused
"It goes back to then. But it's a long story, and its pretty late, and right now all I want to do is go to bed actually" It wasn't a lie, in fact Scorpius's last words were almost swallowed by a huge yawn. And so it was with that his friends had be content. The full story of how Scorpius Malfoy, pureblood brat became 'Mouse' Malfoy, artist and pranker-in-training would have to wait another day.
A/N hope that ending's not too cheesy! Special thanks goes to Prof Barker for coming up with Nat's line: "Mr Thomas, I assume that's a suitable assurance that I'm not going to accidentally hit you with a Bat Bogey hex or the like?" arigato gozaimasu! And for making me feeling special, and for apparently coming my unofficial beta even if it was unintentionally. Drabbles in the making as mentioned previously. Apologies if this chapter came across too fluffy but action will start happening soon I promise! Oh and in the last chapter I said it was 3 years since Min met Mouse – it's actually four, as the Prof pointed out...doh! Oh and OVER 300 PEOPLE HAVE SEEN THIS FIC! Ahem.