Chapter Nine: Apologies, with Tulips
Harry Potter was sitting in his office in the Auror Department, reading through a stack of current case files as he sipped his tea when his door was flung open. He flinched in surprise, a harried-looking Ron rushing in and brandishing a copy of the Daily Prophet. “Mate, you need to see this!” he instructed breathlessly, looking as though he’d ran all the way.
“Look at what?” Harry asked, calmly sipping his tea before focusing on the newspaper and making a face. “Oh, come on Ron, you know all those papers are rubbish!”
“Oh, yeah?” Ron asked, his eyes challenging. “Well, this is tomorrow’s edition and I think you ought to see it before it goes to print. Front page - your daughter locking lips with Malfoy’s rat-faced offspring!”
“What?” Harry asked, straightening up considerably. Ron threw the paper down on the desk before him and Harry stared at it in shock. Sure enough, the headline read ‘RIVALRIES OF A DIFFERENT KIND: POTTER DAUGHTER AND MALFOY HEIR ENGAGE IN HEATED LOVER’S QUARREL.' Harry’s eyebrows rose past his spectacles and into his hairline as he saw the black-and-white copy of his daughter leaving an angry handprint on Scorpius’ face.
“That’s definitely Lily,” he commented, glancing upwards to his best friend. “How in the name of Merlin did you get this?”
“My secretary’s husband’s brother… forget it!” he gave up, waving his own explanation off. “The point is that I have connections who thought that I thought you might want to be informed so you don’t have a heart attack reading the morning edition over your breakfast tomorrow. Press never did treat you all too well.”
“Merlin,” Harry breathed, looking back down at the photograph.
Just then, a woman ran in clutching a hospital dispatch envelope, her face white. “Mr. Potter, I’ve just received an owl that your daughter’s been admitted to St. Mungo’s!”
“What?” Harry rose from his seat, all the blood draining from his face. “Is she all right? What happened?” he demanded, blood pounding in his ears.
“There was a car accident in Muggle London just outside the Leaky Cauldron,” she explained, her fingers twisting themselves over the half-crumpled letter in worry.
Harry swore, rushing out of the office even as he ripped his coat over his shoulders. “Hannah, contact my wife! Tell her…” he broke off, swearing again and Disapparated with a sudden crack, leaving Ron open-mouthed behind him.
“Right, Justin, you’re in charge,” he instructed, jabbing his finger towards the nearest Auror before Disaparating after Harry.
His shoes nearly skidding over the linoleum floors as he ran, Harry rushed into the Emergency entrance of the hospital. An older man clothed in lime green healers’ robes caught sight of him and immediately ran forward. “Mr. Potter! Mr. Potter, I’ve been sent to meet you and update you as to your daughter’s condition!”
“Where’s my daughter?” Harry demanded, his heart pounding fearfully.
“She’s stable, only minor injuries, sir. Your wife is already with her…”
“What? How? I only just found out myself!”
The healer looked surprised, stuttering slightly. “B-but sir, she was already at the hospital earlier this morning…”
“Whatever for?”
“Your son, James, sir. T-there was an explosion at your brother-in-law’s joke shop. S-surely you already heard.”
“Oh, for God’s sakes,” Harry muttered, his feet keeping pace with the Healer as he led him down the hospital corridors. It seemed that his children had a habit of getting sent to the hospital more often than he had at their age, if that were even possible. He didn’t even blink upon hearing that James had been there. His wife evidently had known and she would have told him if it had been anything serious. When it came to dealing with magical accidents at the joke shop, the Potter family reacted first and informed later as there were usually too many incidents to be bothered with. Lily, on the other hand, had been in a car accident and the part of Harry that had been raised in the Muggle world was scared. Regardless of whether her condition was stable, car accidents were never good and people rarely walked away unscathed.
The Healer continued to assure Harry that his daughter was fine, so well, in fact, that her mother had already began reprimanding her for running into traffic. His reassurances did not make Harry any less concerned, though his shoulders relaxed marginally as he thought of his wife’s angry reaction, knowing she wouldn’t have been upset with Lily had their daughter been seriously injured.
As they rounded the corner and reached the proper corridor, Harry’s eyes narrowed, recognizing the young man sitting in the chair outside one of the hospital rooms, his head in his hands. Scorpius raised his head at the sound of footsteps, his mouth suddenly bone-dry as he saw Lily’s father stalking towards him.
He shot to his feet, rushing to apologize and explain himself when Lily’s father clamped his hand down on the Slytherin boy’s shoulder, shoving the seventeen-year-old back and up against the wall, bringing his face inches from Scorpius’. “What happened to my daughter, Malfoy?” he growled.
“Mr. Potter, it was an accident!” Scorpius explained, the pain shooting through his shoulder nothing in comparison to the sheer fear he felt under the Auror’s furious glare.
“My daughter ran into Muggle traffic running away from you!” he snarled. “Now you’re going to explain to me why!”
At the same time, both men could hear the sound of Ginevra Potter’s angry shouts, her voice raised at a pitch that echoed past the thick doors of the hospital room. “What have I told you about Muggle London, Lily? You’re nearly sixteen years old and you still can’t remember to look both ways before crossing the damn street!”
Flinching at the furious tone coming from the other room and trying not to cower beneath Mr. Potter’s glaring green eyes, Scorpius explained as quickly as possible what happened, everything from his mistake of using Lily to anger Rose to chasing her through Diagon Alley and into the busy Muggle street where the accident occurred.
“Look, is she alright?” he finally asked, his stomach churning with guilt, remembering his fear as the car had struck, hitting Lily and sending her body toppling over it, landing on the hard pavement with a sickening crack. Cars had screeched to a halt, the driver and several other Muggles running over to see if the injured girl was all right. Scorpius had screamed himself hoarse, trying to get Lily to St. Mungo’s instead of whatever Muggle place they were trying to take her to. Desperate, he had caused an explosion with his wand, throwing the Muggles into chaos so he could grab Lily, who had been bleeding severely, and Disaparate to the wizarding hospital. The amount of illegal magic he had performed and the consequences for it hardly measured up to what he was about to face, though. He shook himself, wanting an answer to his question, an answer none of the Healers had seen fit to provide him with. “Just tell me if she’s okay!” he asked again.
Furious, Harry shoved him back. “You better hope so, Malfoy! Now I want you to go home and tell your father exactly why he’s going to be hearing from my attorney unless I hear he’s punished you severely, docking your damn allowance or whatever the hell a proper punishment is in your family! Do you understand me?”
“Y-yes, sir…”
“Good!” Harry released the boy and left him in the hall, pushing open the doors to his daughter’s room and letting them swing shut behind him. Scorpius stared at the double doors, his hands clenching at his side, knowing it was positively suicidal to force his way into the hospital room.
Hurried footsteps sounded on the linoleum floors and a red-haired man came into view. Scorpius made himself appear as small as possible, quickly disappearing down a side hallway, wanting to avoid being threatened to within an inch of his life again. After all, his father would take care of that just fine once he found out and knowing his father, finding out was only a matter of time.
*
Draco Malfoy stalked into his house, absolutely livid. He swept in past Bernard so quickly that his cloak snapped against the elf. “Where’s Scorpius?” he demanded coldly.
A shadow moved in the parlor and Scorpius stood to his feet, swallowing as he faced his father. “Hey, Dad.”
“Hey, Dad,” Draco spat out mockingly, slamming down a stack of papers on the dining room table separating them. “You mind telling me exactly what happened today, Scorpius, that led to Harry Potter setting three Aurors and his attorney on me at work today?” he hissed.
Scorpius forced himself to meet his father’s wrathful gaze and explain the situation, keeping his voice as steady as possible. With each word, Scorpius watched as his father’s expression grew more and more furious until he was positively seething. When he got to the part about Harry demanding that he be punished, his father had a muscle tic in his jaw, slamming his fist down on the table and forcing himself to keep himself on the other side of it, the table the only thing standing between him and his son.
“You're damn right I’m going to punish you! Quite frankly, I don’t think docking your allowance would be sufficient! As of now, your Gringotts account is non-existent until you prove you’re a damn adult! Now you are going to go to Mr. Potter’s house and ask his forgiveness, more than that you’re going to apologize to his daughter, and you are going to bring her mother flowers with the most apologetic expression you can muster! Do you understand me?”
“Yes, sir,” Scorpius answered, quailing from his father’s rage and moving towards the door as quickly as possible.
“And Scorpius?”
“Yes?” he asked tentatively.
“Make sure you bring her tulips. It’s bloody spring already,” his father growled.
It wasn’t long before Draco received word that Lily Potter had been released from the hospital. It had only been a few hours after her accident and just when the Malfoy family was settling down for dinner, but it had only taken a single glance across the table in his son’s direction to have Scorpius out the door, presumably on the way to the flower shop before making the biggest apology of his life.
*
Scorpius stood outside the Potter house, holding an enormous bouquet of red and yellow tulips and feeling the most uncomfortable sense of déjà vu as he raised his hand to knock on the door. Just as she had earlier that morning, it was Mrs. Potter who answered the door, her eyebrows rising in surprise as Scorpius deposited the bouquet of tulips in her hands. Staring at the ground, Scorpius apologized and asked to see Lily.
Ginny rolled her eyes and easily cut him off, sounding exhausted and mildly annoyed. “Oh, enough, Scorpius. It’s hardly your fault I raised a daughter foolish enough to run into traffic. Besides, the Healers fixed her up in a matter of minutes; go see for yourself, and whatever is going on between you two, work it out already and do please leave the hysterics out of it.”
Lily’s mother vanished into the kitchen and busied herself with putting the tulips in a vase, ignoring Scorpius’ incredulous expression. Shaking himself, he mounted the stairs instead. He found Lily in a small bathroom, just across the hall from the top of the stairs. She was scrubbing sinks out with a sponge, working like a house-elf, but aside from the water and soap stains on her clothes, she looked completely unharmed. She raised her head to see him standing in the doorway and her expression fell, quickly looking down and away.
“Lils, I’m so sorry,” Scorpius croaked out. Stepping towards her, he tentatively reached out to touch her cheek but suddenly lost his courage, his hand falling to his side instead. “I’m so sorry,” he repeated.
She turned to face him, tears in her eyes. “You used me just to spite Rose.”
“I know. Lily, please don’t cry.”
“Shut up, Scorpius, I’m not crying!” she snapped defensively, sniffling somewhat. She rubbed the back of her hand over her eyes, hastily wiping away any evidence to the contrary. “I’ve been cleaning for ages and the chemicals are making my eyes water!” she growled out.
Scorpius’ lips twitched upwards in spite of himself at her determined denial, something he’d learned to accept from her. Lily never let herself be hurt but always hid behind harsh and biting words, and his actions had forced her to use them as a shield once more. He easily cupped her cheek in the palm of his hand, turning her head up to face him, pained by her still teary eyes. He bit down on his lower lip, and for a moment, he didn’t know what to say. He could only stare at her, knowing he’d messed up everything and had to put it right, even if that meant blocking the memory of his lips on hers from his mind.
“You’re really not hurt?” he asked hoarsely, shocked that there wasn’t a single bruise or cut on her.
“Not from the car, no,” she chuckled weakly, “but my mother seems determined to punish me by making me scrub my fingernails off in here.”
Scorpius felt a smile tugging at the corners of his own lips, grateful that the conversation seemed to be steering itself towards safer subjects. “Yeah, well, you aren’t the only one with a death sentence. My dad sent me on a suicide mission to come apologize to you and bring your mum tulips.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Tulips are my mum’s favorite.”
“Why am I not surprised?”
“Because you’re a slimy Slytherin and you’re rarely caught off guard?” she suggested cheekily.
Scorpius grinned, pulling her into a tight hug, his face pressed against her red hair, tickling his skin. “We’re all right, then?” he asked.
She nodded once, pulling back from him with a faint smile. “Yeah, we’re good.”
“Lily, if there’s anything I can do…”
She chuckled then, glancing down at the sponge in her hand and back up at him once more, her lips twisting into a lopsided grin. “Well, I could use a hand cleaning up in here; you are the reason I ran into traffic, after all.”
He threw his head back, groaning, “I’m never going to live this down.”
She looked at him dryly, arms crossed over her chest. “Neither am I, you know.”
“True, hand me a sponge.”
Lily smiled and slapped the half-soaked sponge into his open palm, turning to start scrubbing once more. Scorpius watched her for a moment, swallowing back the urge to hug her again and turned to the sinks instead. After all, he had screwed up enough for today. Still remembering how he’d felt kissing her, even if only for that moment, he felt his cheeks grow warm and immediately began scrubbing harder, trying to change the course of his treacherous thoughts, unaware of the glances Lily kept directing his way as she worried her lower lip.
Author notes: Hope you all like it! Especially after that rather evil cliffie last time ;) The quote from Ginny screaming at Lily about running into traffic is taken from Charlie Wilson's War but switched around to be less inappropriate ;) Great movie, by the way! Please leave a review! And thanks again to Miss Opal for her beta and to everyone still reading after the last cliffie and not protesting instead. Lol.