Harry Potter - Title: The Inconveniences of Being a Malfoy (13)

ðHgeocities.com/crystalangel0105//tiobam13.htmgeocities.com/crystalangel0105_/tiobam13.htm.delayedxµWÕJÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÈð1‘2OKtext/html€8»LÜ‘2ÿÿÿÿb‰.HThu, 13 Sep 2007 13:13:50 GMT¾Mozilla/4.5 (compatible; HTTrack 3.0x; Windows 98)en, *µWÕJ‘2 Harry Potter - Title: The Inconveniences of Being a Malfoy (13) Title: The Inconveniences of Being a Malfoy
Summary: Scorpius' life has never gone well, but lately it's really done a turn for the worse. He blames Albus.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Harry Potter.

(13)

Scorpius was surprised by the vehemence of the Slytherin dislike of their new Weasley housemate. Hate mail and howlers arrived at the Slytherin table for Reine every morning, signed anonymously, but it wasn’t hard to tell who it was from the stares and the giggles from the people sitting around them. To his disgust, a good portion of what she received was not only from Slytherins, but from Gryffindors and a few from the other houses as well.

“Little wankers,” James hissed, the first day he had found out, “They’ll see what it means to mess with my family. Even my own house.” He and Lan had gotten together and created a charm that turned the skin of any student who sent a howler from the Owlery purple. It had slowed the flow of howlers for a bit (understandable, because after the skins were turned back to normal, bruises had been discovered on both some of the formerly purple students and Lan’s knuckles, which both she and James swore up and down were from Quidditch), before the students began to find other ways to send them.

Reine started to withdraw into herself – instead of the proud, haughty girl who had arrived at Hogwarts and tried to force a place for herself at the unwelcoming Slytherin table, she was quiet, timid and small. It was unsettling for Scorpius to see how much she had changed.

Albus had taken it upon himself to walk with both Scorpius and Reine, pointedly looking people who stared as they walked by straight in the faces, as if daring them to say anything. And who would say anything to them straight, while Albus was around, Scorpius wondered, the beloved second son of the great Harry Potter? The problem was, Albus couldn’t always be there, couldn’t always keep others from saying anything, from doing anything to them.

Reine had started to struggle in classes as her fellow students began finding ways to torture and distract her in class without the teachers being able to catch them. Rose and Albus tried to help Scorpius tutor her as often as they could, but they had classes and homework and housemates of their own to take care of, and more often than not, it was just Scorpius and Reine.

Scorpius didn’t really mind helping her – well, alright. He did. Reine wasn’t difficult to tutor, but it ate into his time to help her learn the material she should have learned in class. Time that he needed himself to do his homework, study for tests, and practice spells. As a result, he’d ended up staying up later and later to do what he had to.

“Albus,” Rose whispered one morning at breakfast, obviously thinking Scorpius wasn’t paying attention, “Scorpius doesn’t look so good-”

“He’s exhausted,” Albus said, unhappily, less mindful of how loud he was, “He hasn’t been sleeping much – Scorpius, you don’t have to push yourself like this-”

“I can take care of myself!” Scorpius snapped, irritably, fighting the urge to rub his eyes, or let his eyelids droop. He stood abruptly, annoyed that they weren’t more grateful for his work to help their cousin and at himself for being so weak – it was just a little less sleep, that was all. “I don’t want to be late to class,” he muttered, and left the Great Hall, leaving behind a stricken looking Rose and a worried Albus.

It felt as if the day only got worse after that. Scorpius could barely function normally, and every little thing began to grate on his nerves. Scorpius got angry at Reine during the tutoring session that night for not knowing where the talroi herb was mostly commonly found and she ran away from him, tears in her eyes. Scorpius was left in the library, angry and frustrated with everyone and everything – but confused as to why as well.

Scorpius went to bed as early as he could that night, but to his chagrin, he could only toss and turn all night, feeling guilty.

“Mr. Malfoy.”

Scorpius yanked his head out his hands, which he had apparently been using as a pillow. Scorpius stared down at his folded hands on the desk in front of him in disbelief – had he fallen asleep? He bit back a yawn, and Scorpius felt cold as the drowsiness from just waking up informed him that, yes, yes you did, you just fell asleep during class-

Professor Diggory frowned down at him. “Haven’t had enough sleep, Mr. Malfoy?” he asked, coolly polite, “Perhaps you’ve been having a little bit too much fun.” He frowned at Scorpius, disapprovingly and added, “Perhaps you aren’t serious enough about school.” With a rather dramatic swish of his cloak, Professor Diggory walked back to the front of the classroom, but Scorpius heard the underlying message – ‘perhaps you don’t belong in Hogwarts.’

Scorpius’ mood was considerably darker for the rest of class, but he stayed rigidly awake, not allowing his eyes to droop, even slightly, and focused solely on taking notes and learning, not about how tired he was, or how comfortable his bed had been when he woke up this morning.

He walked out of the classroom, fuming quietly, and Scorpius hissed in annoyance when someone deliberately knocked him over, and his battered book bag split and everything inside spilled out. Scorpius ignored the giggles and laughter that came from his classmates as he carefully got up and began collecting his books, loose papers, quills, and such.

Someone knelt beside him and began helping him. Scorpius looked up in surprise.

“I’m sorry,” Reine whispered, tears springing to her eyes again, “I didn’t know, I should have realized, remembered-”

“Don’t pity me,” he hissed at her, feeling irritable and spiteful, “You’re ungrateful, you have a family, a warm, loving family who would do anything for you – and can do anything for you, and you chose this, you chose this life. What is wrong with you?”

“I was tired of people only seeing my family when they looked at me,” Reine said, hurt, “And Jeannine – Jeannine wants to do everything like me and we already look the same, nobody can tell us apart except some people,” she sighed in frustration, “I was tired of nobody seeing me.”

Something stirred in Scorpius’ memory – two people, facing off and “I am not my family name!” He wondered where that memory was from. Somehow, the facts surrounding the memories were a bit blurry. He brushed the thought off, and shoved the last of his stuff back in the back and stood up.

Reine stood up as well. “Thank you,” she said, lowly, “For your help. But I don’t want it anymore.”

“What?” Scorpius asked, blankly, but Reine walked away, chin held high again, in a way that he hadn’t seen since the first day he’d arrived back in Hogwarts. He shrugged. “Whatever,” Scorpius muttered and brushed his clothing off somewhat, feeling rather put out and annoyed.

“Mr. Malfoy,” Scorpius looked up to see Professor Diggory standing ominously and large in the doorway of the classroom, giving him a dark look, “I suggest you hurry along.” Scorpius looked into his Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher in the eyes and wondered if what his professor had seen was not a young, blameless student on the floor to pick up his school supplies after being bullied, but a Death Eater, kneeling at the foot of his master.

Scorpius held back his cross response; this was a teacher no matter how biased or unfair he could be. Besides, he couldn’t afford to do badly in Defense Against the Dark Arts, if he wanted to be able to get at least a somewhat decent job after he graduated.

“Good bye, Professor,” Scorpius said instead, and hurried away.

At dinner, Albus, disregarding the comfort of the rest of his table, forced Scorpius to sit next to him, and spent the whole time trying to make Scorpius eat more food than he particularly wanted to eat.

“Stop feeding me,” Scorpius hissed at him, “I’m tired, not malnourished!”

“Well, I can’t very well go into the Slytherin dorms and make sure you’re asleep, can I?” Albus hissed back, “I’ll take what I can get!” And a roll was shoved rather unceremoniously in Scorpius’ mouth.

Scorpius spat it back out into his hand. “Are you my mother?” he demanded, “No! You are, for one, a boy, and for two, the same age as I am! Stop fussing over me!”

“You know,” Lan commented to James, who looked sickened, “I think they act more and more like an old married couple everyday.”

“Ugh,” James said, gagging. Lan rolled her eyes and punched him solidly in the arm, making James wince.

“Hey now,” the older boy said, almost pouting – honestly, the Potter boys acted like such children – and giving Lan an unhappy look, “No need to abuse me.” She laughed at him, and Scorpius scowled at the two of them.

Reine sat at the Slytherin table, on her own, eating quietly and studying the Potions textbook. The others at the table glanced over at her warily, unnerved by her lack of reaction to their taunts. One girl “accidentally” hit Reine with her heavy Transfiguration textbook as she walked by, but Reine had simply pursed her lips and pretended that it hadn’t happened. Albus growled quietly under his breath, but there was nothing that he could do. She had refused his invite to the Gryffindor table with them, and had warned them all to keep to their own business.

Scorpius didn't feel comfortable about leaving her there on her own, but she had made it clear she did not want her family’s help, or his. Still, Scorpius didn’t plan on leaving her completely on her own – it wasn’t fair to anyone to have to experience that.

He ignored the nagging voice that whispered that he had been forced to.

Albus stood up abruptly and announced, “I’m going to bed, and if you don’t go as well, Scorpius, I will kill you.” He said this with a completely solemn face and Scorpius stared at him.

“Are you joking?” he asked.

“No,” Albus said, cheerily, breaking his façade, “but it’d probably be a good idea for you to sleep a bit more now, I think.”

Scorpius scowled at him for being right. “Fine,” he grumped, and added on sarcastically, “Mother dear.” He stood up and the two of them walked together out the Great Hall early, and Scorpius ignored the stares that the pair of them illicted.

“Just call me Mary Poppins,” Albus chirped, when they had left the other students behind.

Scorpius snorted. “That, I believe,” he said wryly, “is a completely different topic.”

Albus gaped at him. “You’ve seen it?” he demanded.

Scorpius rolled his eyes and waved to Albus as the two of them began heading in two different directions to their respective common rooms. “I’m a mystery,” Scorpius said flatly, “Good night.”

Albus’ laughter followed after him as he walked away. “Good night to you too, Scorpy,” he called after Scorpius, “And good riddance! I don’t know how I put up with you…” his voice trailed off and Scorpius glanced over his shoulder to see Albus turn around and walk away, shaking his head.

Scorpius shrugged to himself, a silent response to the rhetorical question.

He doesn’t really know either.

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