A/N - Hello all. There was a review I wanted to address in case anyone else had similar questions/comments, but it would make this A/N long, so if you are curious, it's at the end. :)
Chapter two begins to introduce parents to their children and start to work out what needs to be changed to fix the future.
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When the sun rose the next morning, Draco was up with it. With his children so close and knowing what he now knew, he needed to check on them. He found Scorpius already sitting on the couch reading a book. "Lessons or pleasure?" Scorp looked up and smiled.
"Morning Dad, a little of both," He closed the book and sat up. "Mum sent a some other things with me. I didn't tell the rest. These are things you and Mum need to know sooner rather than later." Draco noticed Scorp's demeanor shift. "It's… it has to do with why Mum sent us."
"Scorpius you keep saying Hermione sent you, what happened to the rest of us?" Watching Scorpius take a few deep breaths, Draco dreaded hearing the answer to the question.
"Honestly, I don't know. None of us do. We suspect you've been killed, but there is only one person, well two people who we know are positively dead. It's why I said Rose is the most impacted." Draco took the seat next to his son, this young boy apparently lost almost everyone then was tasked with caring for and protecting the rest of the children. If Draco hadn't already seen the green edged robes, he would be concerned Scorpius would be a Gryffindor. "Rose had an older brother, he was caught by the other side, we don't know how. They killed him in front of everyone and Uncle Ron attacked. They took him and I know they killed him. From what I heard you and Mum saying, it was very bad."
Scorpius closed his eyes, trying to block out the memories, "So Rose is now an only child and knows for certain her dad and brother are dead. The rest of us, we don't know. You each left and never returned. Mum remained and finally had to go out for food. She gave me strict instructions before she left." He paused and licked his lips in a way very similar to Draco when he didn't want to continue.
"The seven of us were alone in the safe house after Mum left. When she didn't return by the next morning, I started to worry and pack things. Things I didn't want to lose, things I knew were important and precious to each of us. I knew when the time did come there would be no time. I have things for the others as well, memories of a life their parents won't experience with them."
The boy started to rapidly blink his eyes, Draco reached and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "So, when the alarms triggered I followed Mum's instructions. I don't know what the alarms were, but I think it means Mum was killed." Scorpius could hardly get through his explanation before the tears overtook him again. Draco pulled Scorpius into his arms and held him until he felt Scorp's shoulders stop shaking.
"I swear we aren't going to let that happen. What did Hermione send with you? We can talk about the rest later." With a grateful smile, Scorpius pulled out a small box from his pocket and resized it with his wand. When he opened it, Draco recognized almost everything.
He flipped through what looked like reams of parchment. Recognizing both his handwriting and Hermione's, he looked at the information they provided. "This helps and your mother knew that. She knew how much time she was saving us, we're talking months here Scorp, maybe even more. Your mum did everything she could to keep you safe. Hermione will now do everything she can to keep you safe. The same with me and the others, they will have to be told at some point."
Scorpius hugged his father again, knowing it wasn't his dad, but at the same time it was. "There is one other thing." Draco worried about what else needed to be said, "One of the things she explicitly told me to mention when I had this conversation with you. The first volley in the future war is done by Albus Dumbledore. You and Mum could never figure out how he wasn't dead."
"I wondered why you were concerned over the portrait, but that explains it. We'll work on that too, but for right now, you get to be a fourth year. We'll have to come up with some story and fairly quickly, a few of those in the room yesterday are gossips." One of the bedroom doors opened, Draco smiled when his daughter walked out. "Morning Princess," Lyra, who only knew she hadn't seen her daddy in a long time, climbed onto his lap and snuggled.
"Missed you Daddy." Draco wrapped his arms around the little girl who leaned into the comforting smell of her daddy.
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Saturday morning found the majority of Hogwarts whispering about what happened the day before. Those who witnessed the event were fairly confident one of the newly arrived students was a Malfoy. No one except a Malfoy had that color hair and eyes, but no one gossiped about that family. So those who were in the room and available to gossip didn't bring up the potential identity of one visitor. The rumor mill was busy enough with the fact seven children apparently arrived in the middle of the NEWT Charms study session and hadn't been seen since.
At the Gryffindor table, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley heard the rumors as they moved up and down the table. Neither boy attended the late afternoon study session and hadn't been able to find Hermione after the session should have ended. After searching the library, her favorite hideaway, they returned to the Tower and the impromptu party the lions decided to throw.
The boys figured if anyone would know about the gossip, it would be their best friend. So when she didn't show for breakfast, they decided to check the Head Dorms first to find out what was happening. It was easy to determine the lack of the head boy at breakfast. With both missing and at the study session, it wasn't a major leap to think they were involved with whatever.
After swallowing his bite of toast, Harry said, "After fifth year, I really hoped we'd have a quiet couple years. I still don't know what to think about last year and now this. I really worry something big is happening." Ron, who learned very early in life to think four steps ahead of the twins in order to not fall for a prank, nodded at his best friend's comment. Not that it always worked, he was a Weasley and sometimes the emotional response overtook the rational one.
"Probably, I certainly think something is going on." After they finished breakfast and were confident on Hermione not showing up, they headed out and toward their best friend's room. When the pair arrived at the door to the head dormitory they knocked and heard a bunch of voices. "It seems our dear friend is in the middle of everything."
"Quiet," it didn't take the boys long to recognize Hermione's frustrated voice and the silence that quickly followed her demand. When the door popped open, only a wee bit, their friend sighed at the sight, "Hey, I can't really talk right now." Neither of the boys were willing to just walk away when there was this major of a mystery at hand.
"Come on, you know us and if you don't tell us who's in the room we're going to pull the map to see their names." Hermione's eyes grew and in her shock at not thinking about that blasted map, she released the door to rub her head. The now free door opened just enough for a red headed girl to see into the hallway and who was on the other side of the door.
"Daddy!" Rose Weasley burst through the door and launched herself into Ron's arms amid tears and sobs. As if by intuition, Ron gripped the girl and held her firmly to him.
"Well, bugger," Hermione pulled the door open the rest of the way and waved her friends into the room. Hermione looked in the hall and noticed overnight all the portraits were removed. "Thank Merlin." The last thing they needed was for a bunch of gossipy portraits to let something important slip.
"Potter, Weasley," Draco sighed at the sight of Rose. After what Scorp told him, he expected and was unsurprised at how Rose reacted on seeing her father. Even if he was a much younger version. "Scorp, why don't you take Rosie and the rest into your common room. Give me and Hermione some time to explain what's happening."
Before he did, Scorp walked up and hugged a surprised Harry before doing the same with Ron. Both of the Gryffindors looked at the boy and recognized him as a Malfoy, but something else tugged at them. Some other familiarity they couldn't pinpoint. Slowly Scorp pulled a sobbing Rose from her father's stunned arms. "Come on Rosie, you know he isn't going anywhere."
So shocked, neither of the new arrivals looked at the other children and only really noticed them after they turned away because Scorp waved for them to walk into a new room. Scorp continued to whisper into the young girl's ear. Ron, still near enough, heard the boy whisper "I promise Uncle Ron won't leave again. You know your Aunt Hermione will not let it happen again." The girl sniffed because if she only believed one thing, it was simply how things would be different. "Mum promised me Rosie. Do you trust Aunt Hermione to make sure we're safe?" The young girl sniffed her belief in Hermione. Ron not understanding the meaning, only knew trusting Hermione was always the answer. And by the look in her eyes, Hermione seemed to have heard the conversation as well.
Hermione knew the results of the discussion between Draco and her best friends could be disastrous. She silenced the room and placed a tracking spell on the other common room. To make sure the kids were all ok. She, like Draco, found the discovery of children to awaken some part of her she didn't know existed. "Sit down, I'll get some tea and Draco can give you the highlights. He knows more and hasn't had a chance to fill me in yet this morning."
The three men found their seats, Draco looked at his girlfriend's best friends, "I'm sure the rumors are crazy about the kids randomly appearing," the two newly arrived men nodded. "Before I get into too much, yes they are all children belonging to current students at Hogwarts. Hermione and I know who each child is."
"The girl, Rose, she called me dad." Ron, totally stunned at what happened, gladly took the cup of tea when Hermione set it on the table. "What did she mean by she missed me? And Scorp promising I won't leave her again." With a shaky hold he lifted the mug to his lips thankful Hermione knew how he made his tea. He'd not be able to pour the milk without making a mess.
"I'll get to all that in a moment, I think it's best for you to hear this in the same order we learned it." At the slightly disgruntled agreement, Draco pulled Hermione closer and placed his arm around her. "So really quick, Hermione and I planned on telling you this over the summer, but what we've learned changes things. We're together. I asked her out at the beginning of fifth year and have been serious since that Yule. We've kept it quiet because of obvious reasons then and this year, there was something not right, we both felt it and decided it would be better to keep it a secret. Don't ask us what, we don't know, just something."
Harry wasn't surprised, he saw the way Hermione watched Malfoy and over the last year plus, he also noticed Malfoy not going after them like he had in the past. "Ok, we aren't mad, just maybe once we hear everything about the kids we come back to this and talk about it." Hermione sagged in complete relief and leaned a bit more into Draco's body.
Deciding it would be best for her to start, Hermione turned to her two closest friends, "So yesterday in the middle of the Charms study session, which you both skipped regardless of your need to be there, —" Hermione sent the pair of boys a bit of a glare, "— seven children arrived and we quickly determined they were from the future. A future we refuse to allow to happen." Hermione handed Harry the letters she and Draco received. Harry read the first and passed it to Ron. Once both finished the letters they sat stunned.
Draco took over the story from there, "Earlier this morning Scorp provided me with a box of things Hermione packed for us to use. She also gave Scorp instructions on how to make sure they were safe if the alarms sounded. When they did, he got the children and arrived in our time. They can't go home. It doesn't exist anymore. They all arrived to keep them from losing someone else."
Hermione sighed, "I assumed this means we've all died in some way."
"Not totally sure, Scorp said we all left and didn't return. When you didn't return and the alarms sounded it was time." Hermione shuddered. "But that isn't all. The reason poor Rose reacted like she did is what happened to Weas…errr, Ron."
At Draco's change in how he addressed one of her best friends, Hermione gave Draco a soft smile, with him giving some effort, she would make sure her friends did as well, "Scorp said Ron's death was the only one of us, those they consider adults in their timeline, the children knew for certain because his body was returned." Hermione was up and in the other common room almost immediately holding the still crying girl.
"Before we go in there, this is something we have to keep quiet. I don't know how McGonagall will explain their presence, but to save the future we cannot tell anyone. One of the things in the box, Hermione clearly states you are the only two we can tell right now. She did say, later we will more than likely need Longbottom and should explain everything to him then."
Ron seemed to understand first, "No I get it. If Mione says we can't say anything, we don't. If we have the clues to fix this, we can't give the other side any chance." Draco clapped Ron on the shoulder. It seemed Ron understood the innate desire to protect his child at all costs.
"Come on, let me introduce you to your children." Draco led the two boys and facilitated the introductions.
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Rose Weasley refused to leave her father's side and Ron was more than fine with it. Knowing he was murdered with his daughter hearing about it did something to him, and he didn't like it. Seeing just what his appearance did, he wasn't going to ask Rose to tell him more than she could. "So your mum is Lavender?" Rose nodded.
"Yeah, you love her." Scorpius chuckled and the girl looked at the older boy, "What did Mummy always say Daddy did?" The smirk on Scorp's face told Draco something good was coming and looked to make sure Hermione was paying attention.
"Aunt Lavender said after graduation you started to date again because you finally came to your senses." Draco's lips twitched, Hermione mentioned her concern about Ron starting to have feelings for her as more than friends since the previous summer. "It only took being away from her for about three weeks before you realized your folly and sent her a note. By the autumn that year, you were pretty serious and proposed around Yule."
Ron's gaze flickered between Draco and Scorpius. There was something unsaid going on and Ron wondered if the bit of a crush he started feeling for Hermione last year was to blame. Deciding to just ask the question, Ron looked at his friend, "Hermione, when did you plan on announcing your relationship with Draco?" Scorp smiled and appeared to return his attention to the books in front of him. It was a story with multiple versions depending on who told it and the boy was curious to see how it went this time because Dad always snickered and Mum always glared when the topic came up.
Hermione shrugged because the plan was for Draco to accompany her to the Weasley start of summer and graduation picnic. Molly sent the invitation the other day and it was scheduled for the second Saturday after they returned home and coincidently closer to three week after leaving Hogwarts. Casting both of the Malfoy boys a glare telling them to keep their mouths shut, Hermione didn't respond to the question. It told Ron enough to know the answer and wonder if he should feel awkward about it. Instead, Ron turned back to Rose, "Tell me what we do as a family. What are your favorite memories?"
Rose started to talk about the trips to Diagon Alley, "Mummy and I would see pretty new clothes." Rose gave Ron a bit of a glare, "You don't come. You and Hugo …" Rose stopped and started crying again. Ron ran his hand up and down her back after he pulled her back into his arms.
"Shhh, baby it's ok, I'm here." Ron hummed a little tune Molly used and rocked until Rose seemed to calm a little, "Who's Hugo?" Ron looked and saw Rose shaking her head. So he looked to the others in the room and he realized Scorpius was watching. "Scorpius?" Ron knew the boy carried too much on his shoulders and as the boy walked over to where the Weasleys sat, Ron came to a decision. "I think it would be best if you told us everything, you and Rosie are much too young to have all this thrust on you."
Scorpius missed his Uncle Ron immensely and sat on the low table facing his uncle and parents. "Hugo is your oldest, he was six months older than me. He, I don't know how, he was caught and they killed him in front of us." Scorp squeezed his eyes shut, in a fruitless attempt to block the memory, "All of us." His final statement was more a whisper than anything.
In response to hearing Scorp, Rose clung to Ron with a fierceness he now expected. It was Draco, not knowing exactly what to expect, but knew it would be bad, got the kids attention, "When you are a bit older, I'll work with you on occluding the memory."
"Thanks Dad, you were going to start before, but then things got in the way. I think you suspected we would end up here and knew you'd do it now." Scorp scrunched his nose, "If that makes sense."
"It does, but now we need to know the rest. What you just said must have happened at some point down the road. What is the first thing you remember?" Draco leaned forward and placed his hand on his son's shoulder again. He hoped it helped Scorp deal with what still needed to be done.
After a few moments, the young boy pulled himself together, "I guess it started sometime around my seventh birthday, I don't really know, but I don't remember anything too odd before that. What I remember is Mum and Dad being very confused. Someone showed up at the house but shouldn't have." Scorpius paused trying to pull the memories together. "I never heard who it was. I just knew there was a fight and the woman ended up being killed."
Draco wondered who it could have been. Who could he have killed and why. "Did you hear anything, like a name or something like that?"
Scorpius closed his eyes and tried to think back. "The wards went off like family, but everyone was already in the house. So you went to the front door while Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron went out the back to come at the sides." The boy nodded to himself as the memory started to clear up, "Your words were muffled, it's a pretty long distance between the front and where we were. But I think you said something like Auntie B-something. After that all we heard were a flurry of spells. Mum put us in one of the back parlors with a bunch of protections charms on it before she went to you."
Draco leaned back in his chair, he only had two aunts. One he never met until the previous summer when Hermione secretly initiated the introductions between Draco and his aunt. Hermione said she wanted to include Narcissa but it was a risk since there wasn't a way to explain how Draco came to meet Andi without exposing the connection to Hermione.
His other aunt died in an attempted prison break a couple of years earlier. "Auntie Bella?" Scorpius's eyes widened and he nodded. "Well, that explains why I was confused. She was in the Azkaban when attempted breakout happened a couple years ago." Draco looked up at the others before returning his gaze to Scorpius, "She was Mum's older sister. Had been in Azkaban since I was around two years old. Mum once told me Bella had all the signs of the Black madness."
Hermione pulled out her notes, that is to say, the notes older Hermione sent to younger Hermione. As the younger version ran her fingers along the timeline she hummed when she noted a star on the day of the attempted breakout. Knowing how difficult Draco found it to talk about the members of his family that truly believed in what Voldemort espoused, she wanted to get the focus off him.
"It looks like that's the first thing we identified as having changed." Hermione leaned back and tried to think about what happened. "So what do we know about that day above the rumor and rhetoric?" Ron and Draco, having the best knowledge of the wizarding world, knew what aspects of the reported information would be most likely accurate.
"The death eaters who were part of the attack either fell to the protections at the prison or the dementors got them. The prisoners who had their cells blown open, met the same fates." Ron nodded at Draco's assessment of that frightening day. "Since the cells targeted were high risk captives, there were only a handful of others who died. Mum thought they probably would have sided with Voldemort, if given the opportunity."
Ron agreed and added, "I heard Dad talking to Mum over that summer about it. Apparently when Voldemort showed up the dementors attacked him but unlike the others, he violently spasmed until only his cloak remained. No one could understand why it happened. Everyone else acted like expected when the dementor kissed them, Voldemort screamed for minutes, Dad didn't know how long but made it sound like an extended period of time beyond the average few seconds."
Hermione started to run through the day herself and realized something, "Harry wasn't that the day you had that awful headache? The one that seemed to come on suddenly." Harry remembered and nodded, it was the same day.
"It was horrible, it felt like a part of me was being ripped out through my scar. I was in the infirmary all afternoon, but once the pain receded Pomfrey told me it was only five minutes. Still not positive if I believe her. It seems way longer in my memory." Hermione's expression changed to curious and she started flipping through the notes she'd received. Assuming she figured something out, Draco leaned around and started looking at the notes himself. He suddenly grabbed the parchment and looked at Harry with astonishment.
"Kitmu!" The little elf immediately appeared, "I need you to search the library for any book with the term horcrux. Or anything to do with eternal life and ways to achieve it." Nodding once, Kitmu blinked from the room and Draco stared at the notes written by his own hand at some point in the future. Knowing Hermione would be giving him a look, Draco murmured, "Not yet, let me get the books, there won't be many. I think I know what happened to Potter that day and why Voldemort reacted as he did when the dementor attacked him." Draco started to mumble and all Hermione could tell was he was disgusted.
Hermione shrugged at his postponement, if they were going to fix this, they needed to trust each other. "Scorp, so that was the first thing you remember as being odd?"
"Yeah Mum, after that you and dad started looking into things, but nothing compared to after the first attack. The first one where we discovered who was against us and people died." The adults all paused, knowing they were about to learn the specifics of what Scorp alluded to and the letters mentioned.
"It was a couple of weeks before the end of my first year at Hogwarts. There was a memorial for Dumbledore, some anniversary of his death or something, but in the middle of it Dumbledore appeared outside of the school wards."
At this Harry settled next to Scorp, "What do you mean he appeared? He died almost a year ago. Some attempt to reach the dead." Hermione sighed, there were many things that came about after the death of Dumbledore, but Harry refused to see most of them. She understood Scorpius's comment about Harry having a difficult time accepting things. "Could he be alive?" Harry looked to Hermione with hope.
"Harry, from what we've already learned, Dumbledore's appearance triggered the end. We need to accept if he lives, the chances of our survival are nil." She raised her hand to stop Harry from starting. "I know you don't agree, but there are things Dumbledore did that only prolonged the war and led to the unnecessary deaths of multiple people. That includes leaving Sirius in Azkaban for all those years and potentially your parents' deaths."
"She's right Dad. You told me to view everyone with a critical eye and to not allow someone to take advantage of you. You said the only people we could totally trust were Aunt Hermione, Uncle Draco, and Uncle Ron." Jimmy sat on the floor in front of the fireplace. "You also wanted to change Al's name." Not sensing the feel of the room, Al huffed and Jimmy rolled his eyes, "Change Asp's name." Looking at his brother Jimmy shook his head when Asp gave a pleased nod at the correct name. Looking back at his dad, Jimmy finished up, "I remember how disgusted you were. You and Mum mentioned a few options, but everything happened so quickly there never was a chance."
"Uncle Harry, you need to hear what happened at the memorial service." Scorpius said getting everyone's attention, "He couldn't access the school grounds and he swore death to everyone that went against him. He left and attacked Hogsmeade. Quite a few people were killed, including Madam Rosmerta and Uncle Severus."
Draco paused at how Scorpius phrased that. "Were they together?"
"Yeah, they get married in a couple of years, in this time. I didn't tell him that though, Mum said we can't let him know. Something about him wanting to remain a crotchety old man and figuring out a way to get around falling for Rosmerta if he knew. He was happy though." In addition to fixing the future, Draco needed to make sure Severus fell for the wiles of Rosmerta. Once everything was finished, he'd get Narcissa to help. She was a sucker for a good matchmaking scheme.
"So the first attack happened in Hogsmeade in what year?" This would be the first time when those in the room got an idea on when all this happened.
"2017," Realizing that would be the twentieth anniversary of his death, it made sense there would be a memorial. "He claimed he needed to find what was rightfully his. Possessions that not even death could reclaim. I never learned what they were. I don't think you were able to figure it out before."
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A/N2 - Since the comment/review was from a guest account I'm not able to respond directly to them.
To the first comment of Draco not qualifying for Head Boy. Not sure what triggered that comment. I'll start with this is an AU where most of the stuff after year 3 didn't occur as the books. Most of those charges are part of the storylines in the future chapters. Some of them in this chapter. Specifically to Draco, he was a prefect which is more than James Potter ever was. From what I remember the decision on who is awarded the title is the discretion of the head master/mistress. James Potter was Head Boy, however, he was not the male prefect for their year. So, for this story, Draco is perfectly qualified and was appointed Head Boy by the head master.
For the head dorms, it's AU and for the purposes of the story, they do. It's that simple, think of it as a reward for getting the title. Not only do they learn how to schedule rotations for rounds and deal with the prefects complaining about said rounds but they also get some space and privacy.
If these are "plot errors" that throw you off, it's probably best to stop reading because this is the universe for this tale. JKR has nicely allowed us all to play in this sandbox and mess with her characters and world. Most of the stories in this little corner of the fandom are drastically different from canon.