Chapter Five: The Son

After that day, Lily found it impossible not to think about Scorpius Malfoy. She couldn’t not think about him knowing what she knew, or at least what she thought she knew. If her mother had really had an affair with Scorpius’ dad, she wanted to know. Rose had assured her it had been no such thing. In fact, when her older cousin had finally found Lily, almost three days later due to Lily’s avoiding her, Rose immediately explained the circumstances concerning her mother’s former relationship with Draco Malfoy. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough for Lily that Rose assured her everything happened long before her parents were married, that it hadn’t been an affair nor had Ginevra Potter ever cheated on her husband. A certain thing called the present tense was what was bothering Lily, and when Rose had revealed the secret of her mother’s feelings for Draco Malfoy, she had used the words in love, not loved.

That one detail was what left Lily so suspicious of her parents’ marriage. After all, Rose had been under Veritaserum when she had let the whole thing slip, and a magic like that would hardly have allowed her to make that mistake. Unable to help herself or satisfy her morbid curiosity, Lily took to watching the older Slytherin over meal times and during passing periods. Oftentimes, she would find her cousin speaking to him and would join them, never quite noticing the shadow to cross Rose’s face as she traded barbed comments with Scorpius, making his lips twitch in thinly veiled amusement.

She was younger than him, two years his junior; she knew that, but it hardly concerned her. Lily wasn’t interested in Scorpius that way. She could be force-fed Veritaserum and be just as sure as before that she had no romantic feelings towards him whatsoever, but to Rose, her intentions were hardly innocent-looking. The older girl often found herself unable to sleep at night, plagued by recent memories of her cousin making Scorpius laugh, behaving more and more flirtatiously around him. For Rose, who had been unable to admit her own feelings to Scorpius for fear of what her family would say, her cousin’s attentions towards him were unbearable and most times, she simply wanted to scream with frustration and feelings of betrayal.

Soon, the Easter holidays came and students returned home to spend the week with their families. Rose had been looking forward to the week off from school for ages it seemed, for once wanting to be very far away from both Scorpius and her cousin Lily. She was very flustered, then, when Scorpius found her and Lily’s compartment on the train back and invited them both to come to his house for the first full day of the holidays. Unable to form an excuse and not wanting to leave Scorpius and Lily alone together, Rose had simply nodded while Lily had made some scathing comment that was to be taken as a yes and left Scorpius biting his lip to keep from laughing aloud.

More convinced than ever that her presence was absolutely necessary, Rose had immediately concocted a story to tell her parents, planning to tell them that she would be spending the day in Diagon Alley with Lily when in reality she would be at the home of Draco Malfoy. Rose was so consumed with worrying about whether Scorpius liked Lily that she barely noticed this was the first time Scorpius had ever invited her to spend the day with him outside of Hogwarts.

Rose shook herself out of her depressing thoughts as she realized there was movement beside her. Standing on the front steps of the ancestral Manor House, she noticed as her cousin’s hand reached past her, lifting and bringing down the ancient door knocker with a sharp knock. “Excited, Rose?” Lily asked, the older girl grunting non-commitedly in response. Rose felt her heart sink as she surveyed her cousin’s excitement, not knowing that it wasn’t the younger Malfoy Lily was looking forward to seeing, but his father. So caught up in her own doubts and mixed feelings, Rose never stopped to realize that they were about to step foot in the house of the man Lily’s mother had once shared a flat with and fallen in love with. Rose couldn’t even begin to imagine the thoughts racing through Lily’s head as she prepared to meet the man whose existence had shattered her innocent understanding of her parent’s marriage, the man her mother was allegedly still in love with.

The heavy door swung back without a sound and a small creature in a tunic-like uniform shuffled in front of them, bowing until its long skinny nose touched the immaculate marble floor. “Welcome to the Most Noble and Ancient House of Malfoy,” the creature said, bowing once more. “What can Bernard do for misses?”

Rose nearly gasped in surprise at the sight of the house-elf, her mother’s ceaseless efforts to have the creatures freed and paid decent wages repeating their efforts in her thoughts. She closed her eyes for a moment and sucked in a breath, determinedly putting the lists of statistics she’d come to memorize over the years far from her mind. Finally glancing at her cousin, Rose saw that Lily was pursing her lips together, struggling not to laugh. “Boy, am I glad your mum’s not with us,” she giggled into the palm of her hand.

Rose’s expression darkened as she muttered back, “We wouldn’t be here if she had been in the first place. If anyone asks, we were at Diagon Alley, looking through dress robes and books,” she sternly reminded while Lily brushed her off airily.

“Yes, yes, I know, and I’ll be flayed alive if your parents find out that’s not the case.”

Unnoticed by either girl, the house-elf had opened and closed his mouth several times, deflating in disappointment as each unknowingly cut him off in turn, the poor thing looking absolutely suicidal as their giggles continued to drown him out.

Footsteps sounded from down the marble corridor and both girls looked up to catch sight of Scorpius Malfoy, walking towards them with one eyebrow raised as though he were puzzled. Seeing his last opportunity, Bernard filled his lungs with air and opened his mouth.

“Hey, Scorpius!” Lily called, the house-elf giving up speech once again, his resentful glare unnoticed by the two girls.

Scorpius dipped his head in greeting as he approached them, finally opening the door a crack wider and glancing down to the house-elf and then back up to the two girls standing on his front porch. “Bernard,” he sighed, glancing back down at the house-elf, “are you mute? What’s the point of a servant to greet guests if he’s not going to actually say anything to greet them?”

Looking positively mutinous, Bernard sucked in a deep breath and spoke with his words coming out so close together that it would have been impossible to drown him out, “Young Master, Bernard tried! Bernard tried, tried, tried!” he cried, stamping his bare foot. “It’s these misses' faults, Young Master!” he accused, pointing at the two redheads still standing in the doorway, Rose appearing quite sorry while Lily crossed her arms looking highly affronted. “Every time Bernard opened his mouth to speak, that one,” he pointed at Rose, “would say something to that one, as if she was speaking to a dim child, and that one,” he pointed to Lily, “would giggle. She giggled,” he emphasized again, his already huge eyes wide in shock.

Lily scowled, looking as though she very much wanted to kick the creature, but Scorpius, who was grinning from ear to ear at this point, quickly covered her hand with his, tugging her into the house so that the house-elf was safely out of reach. Rose slipped in after them, her lips pursed and her eyes fixated on Scorpius and Lily’s holding hands, trying not to make too much out of it. Struggling to conceal his amusement, Scorpius thanked Bernard for his long-suffering patience and instructed him to take a break from guests and have a nice foot bath. Bernard bowed obediently, his long nose hitting the floor before he shot a final glare at the two cousins and stalked off into the rest of the Manor House.

Scorpius shook his head from side to side in laughter, while at the same time Lily snatched her hand back and playfully slapped his shoulder. “I wasn’t going to hit the grubby little monster, honestly! You nearly bruised my fingers!” she chided, holding her hand in front of his face as evidence.

“My mistake,” Scorpius laughed, swiftly taking her fingers in his and kissing them.

“Eww!” Lily squealed, snatching her hand back and slapping his shoulder a good deal harder than the first time.

Rose stood frozen, watching as Scorpius burst into laughter, his silver eyes never leaving Lily. “You should have seen your face! I knew your family didn’t know a thing about high society manners!” he laughed while Lily scowled at him, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

“It’s hardly manners to accost an unsuspecting lady!” she retorted in as dignified a voice as she could muster, her arms crossed defiantly over her chest.

“No? Then I’ll submit my intentions towards you in writing first,” he replied easily, his silver eyes dancing.

Lily’s eyes narrowed. “Self-assured prat.”

“Giggling and mannerless schoolgirl.”

“I am not a giggling schoolgirl.”

Scorpius raised a single eyebrow in response and, seeing her chance to insert herself in the conversation, Rose coughed, alerting them to her presence. “Erm, should we go a little further inside? We’re still in the foyer and all,” she suggested a little breathlessly, her cheeks flushed.

“Oh right,” Scorpius said, turning on his heel and leading the two girls down the hall with the air of a tour guide. “Parlor’s this way. My dad’s in there, said he wants me to introduce you two to him.”

Lily sucked in a breath, unconsciously quickening her pace just a few steps faster, all other thoughts forgotten as she and Rose followed Scorpius into the parlor. Her first thought upon entering the parlor was that Scorpius’ dad was rich, very very rich. The rich marble floors were covered in elaborate rugs, the long table laden with fine china, and sitting before the intricately carved fireplace, were two chintz armchairs. Suspended above it all was a massive and incredibly detailed glass chandelier, casting a cascade of sparkling diamond light over everything in the room.

“Wow,” Rose breathed. She glanced over to see her cousin’s reaction, but Lily’s eyes were focused further across the room, on a blonde man who was the spitting image of an older Scorpius.