Shopping.
Shopping had never been something Scorpius had ever liked, but he had no complaints about heading to Diagon Alley the day he was going to get his belongings for starting school. Finally Scorpius was about to go off to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and he couldn't be more excited. After dropping Lyra off at the manor for the day, Hermione and Draco arrived in Diagon Alley with an excited Scorpius in tow.
"Where first?" Draco asked.
"Let's get robes first," Hermione instructed. She knew getting fitted for new robes would be the part Scorpius found the most tiresome so she figured they should get it over with as soon as possible.
Sure enough, getting fitted for his robes was a bore fest for Scorpius. He spent nearly twenty minutes getting fitted, and time had never seemed to pass so slowly. Finally he was finished, and while Hermione was finishing up sorting the payment and delivery of the robes, Draco took their son to get his wand.
"Ah, the young Mr Malfoy," Ollivander remarked as they entered the shop. "Is it time for you to start school, already?"
"It is," Scorpius replied politely.
Draco watched Scorpius and the old wand maker talking, amazed that Ollivander was still going strong. The old wizard had seemed ancient when Draco had started school years ago, and even with the amount of time wizards lived, he figured he had to be retiring sometime soon. However, Ollivander showed no signs of slowing down and winding his business up.
By the time Hermione entered the shop nearly ten minutes later, Scorpius was the proud owner of a wand. Eager to show his mother his new purchase, Scorpius waved the piece of wood in front of his mother.
"It looks like a good wand, Scorp," Hermione remarked.
"It's one of my finest," Ollivander said proudly. "Only the best can wield such a fine piece of craftsmanship. Mark my words, young Mr Malfoy will be a great wizard."
Scorpius preened at the compliment while his parents settled up the bill. Leaving the wand makers, the family headed over to Flourish and Blotts. Wanting to look at a few books for herself, Hermione gave the list of required reading to Scorpius and Draco and headed off on her own. Fifteen minutes later they met up at the doorway, with all their purchases.
"Did you get everything?" Hermione checked.
"Every last one," Draco reassured his wife.
"Let's go and get a cauldron, and the other bits and pieces," Hermione said, leading the way across the street.
An hour later, Scorpius had everything on his school list. The only thing missing was a pet, and Scorpius was unsure about what he wanted. For a long time he looked at the owls, but the family already owned a few owls and he knew Hogwarts also had a supply of the birds. What he really wanted was something different.
"If you don't want an owl, what do you want?" Draco asked his son. Officially the only other options were a cat or a toad, but he knew that other pets would be allowed. As long as they were nothing too crazy, of course.
"I don't know," Scorpius replied with a shrug. "Can we go to the pet emporium?"
Heading to the pet emporium, the Malfoys looked over their son's choices. Toads and cats were readily available, but the emporium did carry other pets. Scorpius admired the snakes, until Hermione firmly steered her son away from the slippery creatures.
"These are cute," Scorpius remarked, pointing at a cage of ferrets.
"No, they're not," Draco grumbled, turning away from the cage. It always bugged him that ferrets were now considered a cool pet for young witches and wizards.
"What about an iguana?" Scorpius asked, turning his attention to another pet after his father had dismissed ferrets.
"I'm not sure an iguana is suitable for school," Hermione said.
"Okay, a komodo dragon," Scorpius said, pointing to yet another option.
"No lizards," Hermione said. "How about a tortoise?" She asked, spotting some baby tortoises in a glass tank.
"Don't they grow up to be really big?" Draco hissed at his wife.
"It depends on the breed," Hermione answered, reading the information beside the tortoises.
"I suppose they are pretty cool," Scorpius said, watching the small creatures slowly crawling about their tank.
After a look at the few other pets available, Scorpius returned to the tortoises. Picking one of the babies, Scorpius set about grabbing everything they would need to raise a baby tortoise.
"This is a hell of a lot of stuff," Draco muttered to Hermione as Scorpius piled his purchases up on the counter. "Do we really need a tortoise?"
"What do you suggest, sending Scorp off to Hogwarts with one of the ducks?" Hermione shot back. The two ducklings they'd acquired years ago had bred, and they now had an entire family of ducks living in their back garden. Although, Hermione had made sure they removed the duck flap, with the amount of ducks in their back garden she wasn't having them traipsing around her house.
"He should have gone with an owl," Draco groaned as Hermione paid for the tortoise and all its bits.
"Owls are boring Dad," Scorpius said as they exited the shop and Draco was still complaining. "I bet I'm the only person at school to have a tortoise."
Sure enough Scorpius was right, and when it came time to starting school he was the only one with a tortoise. Since the tortoise was so unique, everyone wanted to have a look. By the end of Scorpius's first year at Hogwarts, Salazar the tortoise was the mascot of Slytherin house and even had his own bed in the corner of the common room.