Hey guys, look who's back! I'm so sorry I've not written in MONTHS, but finally the next chapter's here and I think I'll go write the next one now, hopefully post another couple before I go on holiday! Hope you enjoy it!
DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter is not mine!
Their reactions were mixed, to say the least. Lily squeezed Rose's hand supportively, whilst Hermione hid a grin of pride by glancing down. Lucy wasn't surprised, as she had seen how the two had grown closer over the past few months, but Hugo was appalled. Albus was fuming, as expected. Rose thought she could almost see smoke pouring out of his nose, but James sat on Rose's other side, and smiled at her gently. Fred just looked shocked, unsure what conclusion to come to, whilst his sister glared around the table, throwing down her spoon in disgust. Dominique looked at Roxanne in surprise, not expecting the look of betrayal on her friend's face. The two French sisters exchanged a look of shock, unsure how to diffuse the tension that was now weighing down the family dinner like a fire blanket, whilst their brother just shrugged and carried on eating. Louis was long used to the idea of Inter-House friendships (or more-than-friendships) after watching Emily and Alex grow together over the past few months. Teddy's face was neutral, just reading everyone else's reactions without coming to an obvious opinion of his own.
Looking away from her mother, Rose saw Percy choke on his pudding next to Hermione, whilst Audrey slapped him on the back- hard- glaring at Rose as though she wished Percy's back was her niece's face. On Hermione's other side Ron put his head in his hands, making a despairing noise, whilst Harry looked at his best mate in confusion. He turned to Ginny, hoping for a more positive reaction from his wife, but she her face radiated a mix of surprise and disgust. George nervously glanced around the table, whilst Angelina silently dared her husband to make a joke, staring daggers at Rose. Meanwhile, Arthur asked Molly:
"Why's everyone gone quiet?" Then: "Sorry Rose, love, I didn't catch what you said,"
Rose sighed inwardly. How anti-climatic. "I was just saying how Scorpius Malfoy and I have been owling each other over the holidays."
This time the shocked silence turned into an angry murmur. "But why, Rose? He's absolute trash!" Exclaimed Fred angrily. Louis put a calming arm on his cousin's and nodded at him gently, a silent reassurance to calm him down. It seemed to work, Fred sat back, muttering angrily, but shut up. However, his silence was filled by the others.
"Why do you want anything to do with him, after what his family did to ours?!" Ginny questioned.
"You do know you'll just end up getting hurt, right?" Reminded Roxanne.
"He's a no-good piece of Slytherin cr- rubbish, the worst their house has to offer, and you're amiably corresponding with it?!" Percy spluttered, recovering from choking.
"Hey, lay off her, guys!" James exclaimed. "Aunt Hermione, tell them! Isn't the whole point of the Inter-House Challenge to improve relations between the Houses?"
"It is, yes, James," Hermione agreed.
"And by keeping in touch with Ma- I mean, Scorpius, Rose is doing just that, isn't she?"
"Yes, she is,"
"So no-one has any right to be angry with her, because Rose is doing what she's supposed to!"
"That's a good point James, and it's the way I view the situation. But everyone is entitled to their own opinions."
"Mum, you're not saying you're happy about this?!" asked Hugo in shock. "He's. A. Malfoy. You and dad and Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny have always told us about Draco Malfoy and how horrendous he was and given us no reason to believe his son would be any different! And we've found Malfoy Junior is just like his Dad! Yet Rose comes waltzing in, telling us little Scorpius is her new boyfriend-" Rose spluttered, but Hugo carried on: "and you're fine with it?!"
"Firstly, Scorpius isn't Rose's boyfriend, not as far as I know anyway," Hermione glanced at Rose, and just for a moment Rose could have sworn she saw a smirk across her mother's face. Rose blushed and looked away.
"Well, that's something." Muttered Ron, downing the end of his Firewhiskey.
"Secondly," Hermione continued, ignoring her husband, "Scorpius isn't as bad as Draco was. Not even close."
This comment was met by an angry outburst from Hugo, Fred, Roxanne and even Al, who had been silent so far. Lucy opened her mouth to join in, then closed it without speaking.
"what do you mean- not as bad?!"
"You haven't put up with him mocking y-"
"No offence, but you haven't-"
"-six years now!"
"He's a bully!"
"-tyrant-"
"-general douchepants!"
"Language!"
"QUIET!" Roared Hermione. By now even Louis had stopped eating. She composed herself and began to speak. "No, I may not have personally been victimised by Scorpius Malfoy, but I was by his father. Definitely. Draco was, as Uncle Harry, Uncle Ron and I have always told you, absolutely unbearable. Relentless teasing of the vulnerable, absolutely no compassion or sense of equality, but a wimp at heart. Everything he did was for himself."
"Sounds very much like Scorpius..." muttered Roxanne.
"No Roxy, he wasn't. You see, I may not be in Scorpius' classes like some of you are, but I see him round school. I have eyes everywhere at Hogwarts, although you probably don't notice, so I know a lot of the students far better than you might think."
"You've been spying on us?!" exclaimed Hugo angrily. "Mum, that's just weird."
Hermione laughed. "No, not spying as such, but I knew this tournament would cause some tension, arguably as much as it would break down, but I thought it was worth the risk. In preparation, however, I was encouraged to... monitor some of the students, the ones who seemed most likely to cause trouble in mixed house groups."
"Scorpius was one of these?" Rose asked quietly.
"That I can't say. And I know none of you will open your mouths about anything said around this table ever again. But the point is, as a result of this surveillance, I got to know many of the students quite well. When the groups were formed it was done on the basis of who would work well together. I couldn't have two extremely prejudiced students in one group, or the four would be dead before the first task even begun. So Scorpius, who I admit, was rather prejudiced, was put in a group with the very accepting Thomas Smith, the lovely, intelligent Lucy and of course Rose, who I hoped would break down the Inter-House barriers."
"Well, she did that alright..." Albus muttered, receiving a glare from his father.
"My point is," Hermione continued, "that Scorpius isn't like his father. No, I don't want you to disagree with me, you've already made your voices heard. Let me explain. Draco was everything bad about Slytherin House in one person so he tainted our generations view of the Snakes just because he was, out of all the Slytherins, the one we spoke to most."
"Come on, 'Mione, we knew others! What about Pansy Parkinson? She was no better!" Ron exclaimed, "Or Crabbe and Goyle?"
Hermione nodded. "You were unfortunate with the Slytherins you knew."
"Unfortunate?! The whole House were the same!"
"Ah, that's where you're wrong. Did you ever speak to Emily Stringfellow? She was a Slytherin in the year below us who agreed to join SPEW. Or Devon Gannon? He was in my Arithmancy class and would often ask me for help when he was stuck. What about Isaac Crawfield? He was a couple of years older than us and I remember him comforting Cedric's dad after the Triwizard Tournament. Isaac told me him and Cedric had been friends because the Hufflepuffs were the only ones who could see past the green cloak he wore. He was victimised because of the way other Hogwarts students viewed Slytherin House, but a handful of his peers saw they weren't all the same."
Ron snorted. "And you were one of these handful?"
"I suppose I was." A silence settled over the table, before Hermione carried on. "Scorpius isn't like Draco. For his first couple of years at Hogwarts, I didn't see much of him, but from the stories you've told us, he sounded as though although he was cruel, but not to Draco's extent. Last year when the monitoring started, I noticed he was calmer and friendlier with his Housemates than his father had been. Draco had followers; Scorpius has friends. When I saw him speak to you, or any Gryffindors, I could tell he didn't hate you the way Draco hated us, he was just trying to live how he had been taught to. He was acting how he thought was right."
"But doesn't the fact that he believed bullying and teasing was right say enough about him?" Ginny asked.
"Not really, no. I mean, look at us. When we were at Hogwarts, we would have thought nothing of Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff ganging up on the Slytherins to boo them at every Quidditch match, insulting them in the corridors, sitting next to anyone but them in class, gossiping about them behind their back. And I see that even today that goes on- Slytherin are constantly victimised, so are we any better than them?"
Instantly an outcry broke out.
"That's so not true!"
"They're victimised?"
"Only because they bully us!"
"We need to stick together!"
"Slytherin are vicious!"
Then a small voice. "You're wrong." It was Rose. "We have no right to complain about how some Slytherins treat us when we act the same way to their whole House, even to the ones who are decent to us."
Roxanne laughed harshly. "Like who?"
"Like Alex Flint for a start. You know him, don't you, Al? He's in your group and dating Emily Collins from Hufflepuff. You must be right, Mum, about Hufflepuffs being able to see past the fact a person's in Slytherin. Go on, Al, tell me honestly that Alex Flint isn't a decent guy."
Albus looked for something to say. "Just because Flint is more tolerable than most Slytherins, it doesn't mean mini-Malfoy is a nice guy."
"True, but I see that you have been getting on quite well with Katie Thompson in Potions. She's never been overly friendly to me, but you don't seem to mind her, nor do I give you hell for that." Al blushed and looked away, unable to respond. "And Scorpius is another decent Slytherin. Yes, we started off this year on very bad terms with the incident on the train-" Instantly the heads of the older generation snapped towards their children in a mixture of anger, fear, curiosity and badly disguised excitement. Rose sighed and briefly explained. "Scorpius came into our carriage, insulted us, we hexed him into unconsciousness but I helped him off the train when the others had gone. Not everyone was thrilled with me for that." Rose added, looking pointedly at Al. "But from then on, Scorpius was far more pleasant around me. We've managed to work together really well in the tasks- ask Lucy if you don't believe me. Go on, Luce, tell me Scorpius hasn't been valuable."
The Ravenclaw looked uncomfortable at being put on the spot. Glancing nervously at her parents, she said. "Despite my initial concerns surrounding Scorpius Malfoy, he has proved himself an asset to the team, and we would have struggled without him. He has also been easier to get along with than he used to be. Personally, I think that's because he likes Rose-"
"No he doesn't!" Rose squeaked at the same time as Al exclaimed "I knew it!"
"Oh, what does it matter?" asked Louis, speaking for the first time. "Kids get crushes. It happens."
"It matters when it's my daughter and a Malfoy!" Ron exclaimed.
"Dad, shut up!" Rose groaned in embarrassment.
"Don't worry about it, Uncle Ron. Scorpius is a decent guy, but too scared of failure to ever do anything about Rose." Louis explained.
"I am here you know!" Rose pointed out. "I would really prefer it if the whole family stopped discussing my love life!"
A knock sounded at the door.
"I'll go get that," said Teddy, excusing himself awkwardly as Ron retorted with "There would be nothing to discuss if your mother had never put Malfoy in your group!"
"Erm, yeah, come in," came Teddy's voice from the hallway.
"Well, I'm glad she did!" Exclaimed Rose, "Scorpius has been a better friend to me recently than some of you guys-" she stared around the table "-which I didn't anticipate!"
Teddy returned, followed by a slim male figure, shoulders hunched and running his hands through his hair nervously.
"Well, if you feel like that Rose, why don't you just go and find your precious Scorpius and spend Christmas with him!"
"No need," Teddy said nervously. "Look who's favourite Slytherin just arrived."
Teddy ushered the figure forward into the light, illuminating Scorpius Malfoy's form. His blond hair was dishevelled and his face blotchy. His shocking grey eyes were rimmed with red, and his posture was not that of the arrogant boy who had argued with the five on September the first, but slumped like a young man who was on his last hope.
"Sorry to intrude on your Christmas," he mumbled, embarrassed, "I can try to go back to the Manor if you want, but my father has sent me here."
There you have it, Chapter 35! I hope you enjoyed it! Next chapter will be from Scorpius' POV, and explain how he wound up at the Burrow on Christmas Day, so if you can drop me a review, it might motivate me to write a little faster ;) If you haven't already, remember to favourite or follow me or the fic so you get an update for the next chapter. See you then!
Lucy xarrHarr