Hgeocities.com/crystalangel0105//tiobam10.htmgeocities.com/crystalangel0105_/tiobam10.htm.delayedxWJ1>OKtext/htmlL>b.HWed, 29 Aug 2007 22:39:45 GMTMozilla/4.5 (compatible; HTTrack 3.0x; Windows 98)en, *WJ> Harry Potter - Title: The Inconveniences of Being a Malfoy (10) 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 dont own Harry Potter.

Thanks to -therealjuliet- for beta-ing - all mistakes are all mine. Please do not kill me. ;__;

(10)

Scorpius woke up with drool on his cheek, pinned to the bed because Albus, once again, had moved about in his sleep and rolled on top of him. Sleeping in Albus' (rather comfortable, he could admit) bed was, he supposed, a concession he'd have to make since he was an unexpected guest here. He grunted unhappily though, and shoved Albus to the side, like he had done every morning since arriving at the Potter home.

Albus mumbled under his breath, and then rolled over to the other side of the bed and burrowed beneath the sheets. Scorpius sat up - and a piece of buttered toast was promptly shoved in his mouth.

"Mmrgh," Scorpius said, and started chewing automatically.

"Morning," Lan said smiling, looking far too awake for this time of morning and wearing an apron that said, 'Kiss the Cook' on it. "You might want to move out of the way." she said as she backed up against the wall.

"Geh?" Scorpius asked, intelligently, and swallowed. A loud war cry echoed through the hallway outside, and he leapt off the bed quickly and stumbled over to Lan, who held out a hand to keep him from falling on his face.

"AAAAAAAAAAALLLLLBUUUUUUUUUSSSSS!!!!" James roared, and Scorpius saw Albus' eyes fly open and as he struggled with his sheets and thrashed, Scorpius saw the horrified look on Albus' face.

"Here he comes," Lan remarked as a blur shot through the doorway and land with a loud fwoomp on top of Albus.

"Aaaaaaaaaargh!" Albus shouted, and James cackled madly as he jumped off of the bed, leaving a wincing Albus doubled over on the bed. "James, you're such a prat," Albus muttered, and turned to see Lan and Scorpius who were still standing off to the side. He shook his finger at Lan, scowling, "You were in on this!"

She grinned unashamedly at him, not even bothering to pretend to be innocent and presented a breakfast tray, piled high with buttered toast and scrambled eggs and sausage. "I brought food?" Lan offered sounding almost apologetic.

Albus' face lit up, and even Scorpius had to fight a slight smile at his simple delight. Albus sat up and gestured enthusiastically for them to come back to the bed, and James made himself comfortable on the bed, careful to sit far enough away to move if Albus decided to retaliate. Lan giggled, and Scorpius followed her as she went to sit down on the bed, and she carefully placed the tray on the middle of the bed.

"Jamie?" a drowsy voice asked from the doorway, "Lan? Why're you in Alby's room? Where's Mum?"

Scorpius turned to look at Lily, who peered sleepily at them, rubbing her eyes. Lan patted the free space in between her and Scorpius, indicating for her to sit there, and Lily crawled up onto the bed next to Scorpius. "Hi, Scorpy," Lily mumbled groggily, and Scorpius bit his lip to contain his automatic response. He was rather resigned to the name now - the entire Weasley and Potter family had taken to it.

"Mum's gone on assignment," James said cheerfully around a sausage, "She had to go check in and she wanted to be back early. Dad just wanted to check in with the office, he'll be back soon."

Lily nodded, and then stole the fork in Scorpius' hand to eat some eggs, so Scorpius reached for some more toast instead, with minimal grumbling.

"Owls!" Molly shouted from downstairs, "And Lan, darling, are you still wearing your apron?"

Lan glanced down, then sighed. "Whoops."

They all helped to clean up the rest of the breakfast tray (James scarfed down the rest of the toast and the rest of them split the eggs - Albus had finished off all the sausage already) and went downstairs. Lan sheepishly handed the apron and tray back to Molly, who looked amused, as everyone else tore open their letters.

"Oi!" James shouted, "They made me a prefect!" The air was suddenly fraught with a mixture of squeals and shouts of disbelief.

"You're joking!" Albus yelled, and reached around Scorpius to attempt to take the envelope and nearly bowled him over.

"Albus, get off-" Scorpius started, and Molly threw her arms around James and Albus and Scorpius who had happened to be in the middle of the two. He attempted to struggle away, but all he succeeded in doing was making Molly clutch them all tighter.

"Oh," she sniffed, "I'm so proud of you, James, sweetie, your parents will be so excited - Lan, dear, what in the world are you doing?" Molly let go of them and Scorpius exhaled in relief.

Lan was searching the countertops and the ground around her frantically. "I just had my letter, I thought I put it down right here-" James snatched the letter out of her back pocket, and she finished with, "-oh, I can't believe I forgot-"

Scorpius was reading over the list of books he needed with a frown. He needed The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2, there was no surprise there - but also three new books for Defense Against the Dark Arts. How in the world was he going to afford them? He needed a new cauldron as well - actually, maybe the hole in the side wasn't that bad, he could probably patch it up with dragon hide or something-

Lan suddenly let out a shriek of surprise. "Oh, I'm a prefect too-"

James cheered loudly and gave her a highfive. "Brilliant, we can abuse our new power together-" he coughed at his grandmother's stern look. "I was just joking, Grandmum," he reassured her, but the look in his eyes said differently. Lan and James shared a grin when she turned around.

"Perhaps we can go to Diagon Alley tonight," Molly mused, "I need to pick up some supplies anyhow, I'll send an owl out to Hermione, and to Scorpius' father as well, of course" She walked off, counting the number of owls she would need on her fingers.

The front door creaked open loudly. "I'm home!" Harry Potter called. Scorpius hunched over in his seat automatically. He could never quite get used to the feeling of being near someone so famous - he almost wished that Harry Potter was an arrogant, stuck up prat, instead of down-to-earth and cheery, just so he knew how to act.

"Daddy!" Lily and Albus cried, and went to tackle their father, as they did every time he came home. James followed them at a run, shouting, "Hey, hey, I'm prefect, I want to talk to him first!"

"Aunt Hermione! Uncle Ron! What are you doing here?" Scorpius heard Albus say, and he turned around to see what was going on. Sure enough, Rose's parents were there, and Rose and Hugo stood behind them, all looking rather confused.

"Good question," Ron grumbled, and pulled off his and his wife's jackets and hung them up, "Me and George were on the brink of figuring out why the trick shoes kept exploding when Harry Apparates right on in and the shoe explodes in our faces again."

Hermione, on the other hand, had a rather worried expression on, and kept glancing at Harry's face. Scorpius looked over at the other man, and he realized, with a start, that instead of the usual easy going smile, Harry Potter was wearing a serious expression. Scorpius could feel his eyes widen as those green eyes caught his, and he and Albus' father simply stared at each other for a moment.

"Dad?" Albus asked, glancing from Scorpius to his father.

"Go upstairs, kids," Harry Potter said, quietly. Hermione nodded to Rose and Ron looked like he had suddenly been whacked with a pole - he obviously hadn't thought it would be too serious. Rose took her younger brother's hand, and Lan picked Lily up, and they all went back upstairs.

Fifteen minutes later, the kitchen door was shut firmly, and James and Lan had their ears pressed against the crack between the wall and the door, Albus and Scorpius were crowded around the keyhole, and Rose, Lily and Hugo were lying on their stomachs on the floor, their ears pressed against the crack between the door and the ground.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked, nervously, "I heard from some of the people in my department that Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy had appeared in the Ministry-"

"What?!" Ron yelped.

"Yes," Harry said, and Scorpius heard pacing, "Narcissa came to me, she didn't know what to do-"

"What?!" Ron repeated, in the same bewildered tone.

"Shut up, Ron!" Hermione snapped, and then her tone immediately turned apologetic, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry - Harry, what happened?"

It was quiet for a second. "Lucius' Dark Mark came back," Harry said lowly, and there was a sharp intake of breath from inside.

Albus' eyes - so green, just like his father's - bore holes into Scorpius' eyes, and he clutched Scorpius' hand. Someone grabbed his ankle and he looked down at Rose, who was giving him a worried look. Scorpius felt like he had been sucker punched, he almost couldn't breathe; they were concerned. About him.

"What does this mean?" Hermione whispered, and there was a scraping of the chair against the floor, she must have sat down.

"I-I don't know," Harry said, sounding exhausted and confused.

"Tell us what happened, mate," Ron said, practically.

"Not much," Albus' father replied, and the pacing grew louder and increased in speed, "They Apparated in, or something, I'm not sure, I didn't see them come in, one of my Aurors came to get me, Narcissa would only see me - and it was there, squirming and black - but not quite the same thing, you know? It was more like a shadow. Like an echo."

"Hmm" Hermione mused.

"And that's not all," Harry continued, "Lucius would randomly start acting like"

"Like what?" Ron asked.

"Well," Harry hesitated, "Like Voldemort."

Someone inside the kitchen choked in surprise. "For heavens sake, Ron," Hermione said, exasperated, "He's gone, Harry defeated him years ago, you shouldn't be so bothered by his name still-"

"Does this mean that Vol- You-Know- ow, Hermione! Fine! Voldemort is back?" Ron demanded.

"No," Harry said, "He's definitely gone, I saw it, I felt it - you both were there, you should know. This is something different - I think. That's why I called you guys here. Hermione-"

"-I'll start looking into it immediately," she said, "I'll have to see Narcissa and Lucius-"

"-who are still at the Auror office," Harry interrupted, "I left orders for them to be contained there, and Ron-"

"I'll notify as many of the Order as I can find," Ron assured him.

"Thanks, guys," Harry said, sounding relieved, "Hermione, I'll go with you-"

Footsteps neared the door, and Lily squeaked in alarm as James nearly tripped over her. They all bolted back upstairs, and when the trio came up to check on them, they were all in Albus' room again and Albus had just beat Lan in Exploding Snap, Scorpius sat between him and Rose on the floor watching the game, and James was teaching Lily and Hugo wizard's chess.

"We'll be right back," Hermione assured Hugo, and Ron was giving Rose a hug. Harry kissed Lily and James on the head (to James' consternation), ruffled Lan's hair, making her giggle, and whispered something to Albus, who nodded.

The three left the room and they all heard Molly yelp in surprise. "Oh, Harry, dear, Hermione, I had no idea you two were here, why didn't you come get me-"

"We were just popping in, Mum," Ron said, "We'll be off now-" There was pop.

"Good bye, Mrs. Weasley," Hermione started.

"No, no, darling, I always tell you to call me Molly-"

"-I'm sorry, I'm remember that next time-" Pop.

"Bye, Molly," Harry said, a grin in his voice. Pop.

"Oh," she muttered, "Always in such a hurry-" Molly stuck her head in the doorway, and smiled at them. "Albus, what do you want for dinner tonight? It's the birthday boy's choice!"

Scorpius blinked and turned to Albus. "It's your birthday?"

Lan smacked herself. "I knew there was something I forgot to tell you!" she groaned to herself.

Molly beamed at Scorpius. "Don't worry, darling," she assured him, "I'm pretty sure we'll be going to Diagon Alley tonight, I've just received word from Bill- oh dear, I wonder if Hermione and Ron will get the message" She disappeared from the doorway, her footsteps going down the stairs.

Scorpius put his head in his hands. Oh, god, what was happening, he groaned inwardly. What was going to happen to his grandparents? To his father? To him? He felt Albus sling his arm around his shoulders, and Rose held his hand tightly.

"I don't mind if you don't get me anything," Albus whispered to him. Lily crawled into his lap, and hugged him around his middle, and Hugo sat on his foot. Lan knelt in front of him and put her hand on his shoulder, and James squatted next to Lan, obviously a bit unhappy with all of this, but ready to support his friend.

"We're all here for you," Rose told him, seriously, "No matter what."

He stared at them. What, Scorpius wondered, did he ever do to deserve this? "Thank you," he said, finally, his throat tight with emotion.

They all just smiled at him (except for James, who gave a sort of grimace, then gave up and just nodded).

"Group hug!" Albus shouted suddenly, and Scorpius let out a noise of protest as bodies collapsed on top of him, voices giggling and laughing in his ear.

"You'll never get rid of us," Rose giggled.

"Nuh-uh!" Albus mumbled cheerfully, muffled by Scorpius' shoulder, "Never!"

Scorpius groaned. "What did I do to deserve this?" he said to the ceiling.

James patted him sympathetically on the shoulder, and grinned.


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