“So that’s the infamous Rose Weasley. Merlin I pity her, she looks just like her mother.” Draco Malfoy mumbled under his breath, but the uttering was audible enough that Scorpius Malfoy had heard and in response, glanced in the general direction that his father was looking.
“There’s so many of them father,” Scorpius mumbled, grabbing his father in near-trepidation. Taking up nearly a quarter of the station stood what seemed like a mob of red hair and 30 or so people that Scorpius nearly swore were exact embodiments of each other.
Draco thin lips turned up to a smirk at his son’s comment.
“I’m going to give you some advice Scorpius,” Draco looked around warily, knowing his wife had run to the loo for only moments and this would be the only chance he would have to speak his mind, “James Potter—well I’d advise you to stay away from him, but he’s as pig-headed as his father that I doubt you’ll have any trouble. You don’t consort with those types anyways. Fred Weasley—the same, and if he’s anything like his father, there’s another reason to stay away. Rose Weasley—you make me proud, Scorpius and you crush her spirit. You embody the Malfoy name and become the top of your class…I warn you about Rose because…because if she’s anything like her mother, it’s not going to be any easy thing to do.”
“Oh, Scorpy…I’ve almost missed my goodbye’s!” The sound of Astoria Malfoy broke through Scorpius’s hard attention to his father and he nearly jumped at the sight of his well-groomed mother scurrying in her stilettos.
Draco gave his son one last look, “As far as the other Weasley’s are concerned…they never were too significant to me.”
Astoria wrapped her arms tightly around her 11 year old son, “I’m going to miss you Hyperion.”
“I know you’ll make me proud Scorpius,” Draco eyed his son knowingly. “I know you’ll be a Slytherin, just like the rest of us Malfoy’s.” At that last statement, it was evident that this comment was more out of pride than expectance.
“Goodbye, mon amour!” Astoria kissed her son on the cheek once more, as Scorpius looked to his father in desperation. Draco simply smirked once more as he ushered for his son to come closer. He set a careful hand on his son’s shoulder.
“You will amount to great things Scorpius, don’t doubt that. And don’t you dare let those mudbloods get the best of you, don’t ever let them look down on you.”
Scorpius awoke in cold sweat, as proven by the fact that his platinum locks seemed unable to separate themselves from his forehead. As he leaned over to glance at the watch he’d received a couple months ago for his fifteenth birthday (two years before tradition commanded), he’d realized that he’d awoken before even the sun. It was 5 in the morning, and school had barely been in session for a week.
Conceding to the idea that his body wouldn’t allow him to find sleep any longer, he begrudgingly climbed out of bed and meandered his way towards the bathroom to relieve himself and enjoy a hot shower.
Deciding that being absolutely silent in his dorm wouldn’t be his best option, he begrudgingly began to prepare for the day. Hurriedly he began to search his trunk for the appropriate clothing.
Buried near the bottom of his trunk was a perfectly smooth button up, and for a moment he wondered why such a shirt was buried at the bottom of his trunk.
After being otherwise dressed, he eyed the shirt warily, deciding he couldn’t prolong his questions for much longer, but then he realized why exactly that particular shirt was at the bottom of the trunk.
The shirt was on the tighter side, since it was from last year, and he deliberately hid it at the bottom for when he had absolutely no school shirts left.
Sighing, he buttoned the shirt up, put on his trainers, grabbed one of his many ties, his school bag and his robe, and he was off. Off to meander the castle and wait until breakfast was served.
This was going to be a horrible day. He knew it. He’d be on the more self conscious side the entire day; every time he sat down.
It wasn’t that he was a fat boy of 15, nor was it that he was incredibly thin. It was that coming from a family of money and a family of public appearance; he’d been raised to appear worldly. And as a result of this and becoming quite good at Quidditch, his entire summer was devoted to working with a former pro-quidditch coach.
All of a sudden, Scorpius discovered his body’s capability to have muscles.
As he wasn’t quite used to it, instead of feeling boastful, he felt quite uncomfortable at this sudden change in physique. He’d been quite thin in fourth year, and now, now he wasn’t, and despite him trying to hide the fact in the past couple weeks, under his robes, today was especially sweltering, and he couldn’t just get away with being a little burlier under a looser fitting button-up.
He hoped today wouldn’t be too horrid, and instead contented himself with exploring the castle. Perhaps he’d look for the Room of Requirement today?
Instead, his mind decided to delve into the darkness. Where he remembered everything horrible that had ever happened in his 15 years of existence.
It wasn’t something he preferred, but the emptiness of the dungeons didn’t give him many other options.
He thought perhaps he could do homework, but he wasn’t sure he had the mental capability to do that this early in the day.
Homework had always been his escape, but he just couldn’t do that to himself this early in the day.
And then sometimes he wondered why the Sorting Hat so quickly had put him in Slytherin; it was like the hat too, doubted Scorpius’s ability to be something special.
Scorpius should have been put in Ravenclaw; he clearly acted like one. Ever studious, ever moralistic, ever boring. But for some reason, he’d been put in Slytherin.
At first his achievements had been to please his father, how else could an eleven year old find meaning in academic success? But the success had started to feel good, and especially after Rose Weasley started to become intelligent and he felt his own glory start to slip away, his desire to become academically elite was set aflame. It was all he ever wanted in life. It was the only way he felt some sort of glory.
Perhaps his environment had set him up for it. Back in Tinworth, France he’d been a normal boy, adored by most; yet when he attended Hogwarts he was a pariah, hated simply because his last name was Malfoy and he was a Slytherin.
He’d needed some way of feeling important, except his successes only made him feel more of a pariah. He’d been a star at Quidditch since third year, and he’d received top marks since arriving here. And to boot, he was aware enough to know that his parents hadn’t produced a child of unfavorable disposition. Scorpius knew of his beauty.
At times he felt so successful here.
And then at times he felt so lonely.
Sometimes the only people in his world were the ones that lived with him: Zabini, the Nott siblings(the older being a girl, and a 6th year), Aarons, Higgs, and Avery.
Sometime after knicking breakfast from the Kitchens, Scorpius headed off towards the library, hoping he’d be able to finish one more essay before Transfiguration this afternoon. With all this available time, he didn’t see any reason to prolong his inevitable homework.
He was halfway through his essay, when the sound of footsteps and a smacking of lips brought him out of his trance.
He turned around and directly behind him at another table was Rose Weasley trying to eat an apple. He turned back around and pretended not to see the girl as he attempted to finish the essay, but the sound of her eating broke his trance repeatedly.
She was busy reading some sort of book he couldn’t decipher as she bit into her apple, and he glared at her until she realized that he was looking at her.
“Weasley!” Scorpius whispered threateningly when he realized she wouldn’t notice, she shook at the sound of a voice and glanced up hesitantly when she realized Scorpius was addressing her.
“Not only shouldn’t you be eating the library, but you have to be the loudest eater in all of Europe. You know some people come in here to…oh, I don’t know…do homework?”
“Bugger off Malfoy,” Rose rolled her eyes, “The only people in here are you and me, and if you have a problem with me eating, why don’t you just move?”
Malfoy gawked at her for a second as frustration began to overtake his senses, “I was here first! You move.”
She hmphed, and just glanced down to her book as she took another bite of her apple, though this time she brought her knees up to her chin in her chair. She looked incredibly childlike in that moment.
“Merlin, Weasley,” Scorpius was in no mood for an argument, it was far too early, and Rose clearly wasn’t moving, “Just…just don’t eat so damn loud, or I promise that I will personally hex the mickey out of you.”
“Newsflash I don’t have mickey in me,” Rose retorted, “And I’m so scared.”
On any other day Scorpius would have jumped at the chance to find fault with her, but lately, and especially today, he was more concerned with other things than annoying the mickey out of Weasley. Oddly enough, as he began to ignore her she only became more insufferable.
He groaned as he attempted to return to his work, just hoping that things wouldn’t escalate to where he felt the need to kill Weasley, because he really wasn’t in the mood for murder today.
“Whoever’s bright idea this was,” Scorpius mumbled to nobody in particular as he stared up at a tree, “to go to the Black Lake, was an idiot. The entire bloody school is here.”
His cousin, Adela Nott, who was the older sister of his dorm mate Apollo and a Slytherin a year above him, simply waved him off, “Not the whole bloody school, Scorpy. Just most of the Ravenclaws, Griffyndors, and Slytherins age 15 and above.”
Scorpius rolled his eyes.
“It’s not your fault you don’t like people, dear cousin.”
“People don’t like me, little Daphne,” Adela fumed at the nickname he’d given her; she loathed being reminded that she was essentially a clone of her mother, “I have no idea why though, I’m completely lovable.”
“Not true,” Adela refused to look him in the eye, “And why do you still have your robe on? It’s bloody 35 degrees out, how are you not dying of this heat?”
Scorpius shrugged, attempting to show indifference. In reality he was dying and was sure his cousin could tell he was drenched in sweat.
He’d conceded about five seconds later when he was sure he was about to have a heat stroke. The freedom was amazing.
Adela whistled at him, “Merlin, look at my baby cousin. When did this happen?”
Realizing crossing his arms across his chest would look quite feminine; he pretended not to hear her question.
“Hello, earth to Scorp…we still alive Scorp?”
Scorpius mumbled quietly, “overthesummer.”
“Huh?” Adela looked certifiably confused.
“Father hired a professional, and I worked out over the summer,” he blushed, as she nodded in approval.
“I better be keeping my eye on you better then,” Adela glanced at Acacius Zabini, who’d decided that he was quite done with their familial conversation, and had walked away in that moment, “no more of this once a month meeting, I’m going to have to see you more often…make sure these little prostitutes-in-training don’t try to overtake my poor innocent baby cousin.”
He sneered at that, “I’m not some baby, you know.”
She smirked and leaned over to pinch his cheek, “Aww, of course you are.”
“Aw, look at that,” the sound of James Potter broke through their moment, “See I told you. I was right about Malfoy. The only birds he ever could talk to were the one's related to him. Like that's much of an accomplishment...look at her.”
Both James and Scorpius knew the previous statement was in fact, not true.
Although Scorpius was sure James was more upset at him over "stealing" one of his former girlfriends(when in reality it was Scorpius simply convincing her that James was a tosser) than of their respective fathers’ problems when they attended Hogwarts, James was the type of git who’d find a way to start a fight with Scorpius, just because. Before Scorpius could respond to the statement however, Adela was already up and storming towards the boy.
“How! Dare! You!” Adela poked him in the chest hard, though James pretended as if he didn’t feel it. From personal experience, Scorpius knew well enough that such a poke from her would actually leave a bruise, “What the hell, Potter! You pig headed git! You tosser!” She hit him in the chest with her fist, and he just took it, smirking, “Everyone knows you’re just jealous of Scorpius because he’s double the man you’ll ever be!”
Unfortunately, Adela wasn’t the best when it came to verbal arguments, but Scorpius just stood back and let her take her anger out on him. Scorpius was too used to the little comments, it was too insignificant for him to care; James was too insignificant.
“Letting this little creature,” he pulled Adela off of him, but she still fought to hit him, “fight your battles for you? Huh, suits that you’re in Slytherin…a coward that stays away from a fight.”
Scorpius just shrugged, and it wasn’t until Adela got a good hit in and decked him right in his chin, that he turned and glared at her, he took a deep angry breath before speaking, “You’re lucky you’re a bird.”
He’d walked away after that, and Adela glared down at Scorpius’s still sitting form, “What the hell, Scorpius…why’d you just let him say that to you?”
Scorpius, ever indifferent, just shrugged, “Because he’s a git and if I so much as spoke to him, I’d be belittling myself. Merlin, makes me wonder how he came from the infamous Harry Potter. Harry’s alright. James is just a right git.”
“And the rest of that clan?”
Scorpius shrugged, “I don’t really care. I don’t talk to them, they don’t talk to me.”
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