"Dad, really? Why are you coming with us if you can get there by Red Flo?"
"Does it bothers you?" He said smoothing his tunic.
"No."
"Does it bothers you, Albus?"
"Not at all, Mr. Malfoy." Said the beforementioned with a smile on his face. Albus liked Mr. Malfoy, he liked him more than he liked his own father, it was like having a 40-year-old Scorpius. Maybe just a little posher and less cute or kind, but apparently they were just as nerdy, sweet-talking, funny, and sarcastic.
"And don't you have any more friends? I mean, I figured by clearing up the whole Voldemort's daughter thing people wouldn't look down on you anymore, Scorpius."
" Since Scorpius plays quidditch let's say he has a lot of..."
"They're asslickers," Scorpius interrupted. "but no, no friends besides Al... No one was there in the bad times and they treated us horribly for a long time, those things are not forgotten, the outcasts do not forget who their true friends are."
" And no one has a girlfriend?" Mr. Malfoy raised his eyebrows.
"It's complicated." They both said and then laughed.
"Albus likes girls who are more than 10 years older than him." The blonde explained.
" And Scorpius likes the only girl who will ever listen to him in his life." Completed the black-haired.
"Thank God, I figured that in a couple of years, I'd have to call Harry Potter his father-in-law."
"Dad!" Scorpius screeched while Albus let out a laugh.
"It's okay." Said the black-haired boy while wiping away a tear. "Maybe your father is right Scorpius, let's do something, if we don't get married before we're thirty we'll go live together. I don't want to live in solitude, we are a pest, besides that, you and I are practically married right now."
Scorpius was going to retort but he kept thinking.
They slept in the same room; They showered together; They ate all the meals together; They had the same classes, even the optional ones, and therefore they did their homework together; They liked the same things and when they vacationed they were almost always at the Malfoy Manor (Albus still had some communication problems with his family even when things were better than before) and if they were separated for things like business trips or forced family outings they owled each other daily. Their owls had never actually gone to leave a message at other houses. They practically didn't even have to tell them where to take the message, they did it automatically. He sat up straight and gave Albus a startled look.
"Albus, you're right. He" He put his hands up as if he were in the frame of a desperate scream. "We're practically married."
" Yeah, it's not that tragic either," Albus said, downplaying the matter.
"Yes it is, it's like marrying your parabatai."
" A parabawhat?" Mr. Malfoy raised an eyebrow.
"It's a muggle-book thing... They are part-angel warriors who swear an oath to be lifelong companions. Parabatai are supposed to be the people you love the most but can't marry, because you can't love them romantically, it's forbidden. You feel if they are hurt or if they die and a part of you dies with them." Mr. Malfoy's eyebrow couldn't be higher. "I don't know. He is the one who reads books, I only got to read three of them, I hear the rest from him."
"They are wonderful."
" There are too many, like 20 or something like that"
" There are 6 of the main saga, two compilations of short stories about Shadow Hunter Academy and another about the chronicles of Magnus Bane, in addition to the saga of origins and the lady of Midnight. The shadow hunters codex and Downworlders Guide."
" You are an addict."
" Is just that those books are very romantic."
"So Albus, how many NEWTs are you going to get?" Mr. Malfoy said, clearly ignoring his son, which made Scorpiues push him away.
Albus laughed but answered her anyway.
" All except divination. In potions I will try to do my best. Scorpius is my private teacher."
Draco felt strangely good. It was true, his son had suffered a lot from being labeled as a possible son of Voldemort without ever having a friend other than Albus Potter, he was the only one he needed. A true friend. Draco was happy and proud about it. He had people like that in his life and he was glad his son had achieved the same thing without going through all the trauma of the war and what came after it. He wishes Tori lived to see how happy her son was.
He looked out the window as the boys behaved like what they were and she thought of her beautiful Astoria, she was the only woman he had ever loved and she had loved him for who he really was.
"I'll be going back to that place, Tori." Draco said in her thoughts. She would be proud of him too. That he could finally return.
When they reached the station at Hogsmeade the three took a carriage.
"Don't you go to school with the rest of your family?"
"Rose doesn't like us and Lily..."
" She likes us, but she has many friends and her carriage is always crowded," Scorpius said quickly. His brain was always going fast.
" Besides, there will be time at school."
Draco nodded and the boys started talking about various random topics, their minds wandering a bit, their conversations drifting to many strange things and then returning to the main topic as they realized how far they had strayed from the epicenter of the situation.
They went downstairs and left their luggage with the porter and they all went to the great dining room. Dinner started after sorting and introducing Draco as the new teacher. Some made strange faces but he didn't care too much. He had endured far worse.
After that, he said goodbye to the boys and they said goodnight to him with a sleepy face. On the way to his room, he met Professor McGonagall, who greeted him in a way that he couldn't interpret, it was like pride and mockery at the same time.
"Good evening, Professor Malfoy." She said when they were in front of each other. Professor Malfoy, god, that sounded weird. He found there the reason for the mockery.
"Good evening, Headmistress."
" I just wanted to tell you that tomorrow a fifth-year student who wants to serve with you will appear before you, before it was announced that you would be the teacher, I had more applicants but now there is only one left, luckily she is the most ambitious and the most capable."
Draco had already been informed. Since the war, a non-compulsory regime was established where fifth to seventh-grade students could request to do a kind of social service, although it was more like professional internships. The purpose was for students to learn about the different jobs in the magical world, hoping that they would discover what they wanted to do with their lives before leaving Hogwarts, and those who already knew would gain experience in what they wanted to study afterward.
They ranged from cleaning the minister's office to assisting the Knight Bus driver or making beds in the leaky cauldron and even being assistants to some potion maker or weekend caretaker at magical creature reserves. Many of the older ones chose to serve in the ministry even if it was doing paperwork. Others, especially Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors, chose to serve in Hogsmeade helping in the different stores, the more analytical Ravenclaws and Slytherins did so by learning from the goblins after a treaty signed 10 years ago.
Scorpius and Albus would do it by helping Hagrid with the creatures, they had been doing it since fifth grade.
They said it relaxed them.
He didn't think much of it on her first day of school but when the applicant showed up he almost stopped breathing. Were the bloody Potters ever going to leave him alone?
Lily Potter smiled at him as she handed him the papers to sign to finish the service process.
Draco Malfoy raised an eyebrow, but with an inward sigh, he signed the binding contract. At that very moment, two magical copies were being written, one for the headmistress' office and one for the magical education department of the ministry, they flew out of there as soon as they were finished. Lily took the copy from her and kept looking at him with that smile that reached her eyes.
"When can we start professor?"
"Ahh...I guess now." He said, getting up from his desk. "Can you tell me how many types of potions there are according to their consistency?" He approached the small cauldron store and picked up two small ones and one larger one.
" There are the semi-solid ones, which can be spread, better known as ointments, semi-liquid or creamy, and the liquid ones, which are the most common."
" And according to its function?"
" Curative, regenerative, recreational, palliative, poisonous, energizing, suppressive, cosmetic, detective, and antidote."
"Very well, you did your homework, Potter. We are going to get down to work, since I have verified that you know a little bit of theory, let's go into practice to see what you are made of. Let's make a skin regenerative potion. Do you know how to do it?"
"I've only done it a couple of times."
"I see, will you need the supporting text?"
"Maybe, I want to make sure I do it correctly." She said taking her book out of the backpack. Then she walked to the "small" cupboard where Draco had all the ingredients. The older one watched her for a while, he only corrected the way she cut the roots of giant black daisies as she held the knife dangerously because the roots were hard and she had almost no strength.
After two hours of preparation, after he advised that the potion had the right color and consistency, that it was a greenish semi-solid in which the ingredients could be seen, Draco proceeded to burn his hand with the fire of one of the cauldrons to which Lily was dumbstruck.
" What are you doing?"
" Testing your potion Miss Potter." Saying this, he took a knife and cut his burned flesh making a few grimaces of pain. Lily was terrified.
" Please stop, don't hurt yourself."
" If there is nothing to regenerate, we will not be able to prove that it is useful."
When he finished skinning the palm of her hand, he cooled the ointment a bit so that he could apply it to his raw flesh, when he did so, Lily, who was on the verge of collapse, watched as the paste was absorbed and soon new skin emerged. As if nothing had happened.
" Ohhh Merlin, you are nuts."
He laughed and she laughed with him. She knew that the Malfoys and the Blacks were a bit touched by madness. Was that man really crazy?
" I read your application...you want to study medimagic...in St. Mungo's you will see much more horrible things."
" But people there don't hurt themselves. Besides, is it that you don't feel pain?"
Draco frowned.
"It doesn't really hurt that much."
" Are you kidding? Of course, it has to hurt."
"I would have to, wouldn't I? But when you've faced the tormenting curse so many times, there comes a point where things like this don't hurt as they should."
Lily was silent.
"Does that hurt more than this?" She asked carefully. Draco returned a faint smile.
" Yes, it hurts much more."
Lily looked at his hand which now was as good as new.
"Is that why you know how to make such good potions? I read about you, you are a magnificent potions master."
" It's half the reason, the other half... it's my natural talent." He said with such an arrogant and beautiful smile that Lily smiled with him.
He was much more interesting than she thought.
