Harry Potter - Title: The Inconveniences of Being a Malfoy (16)

ðHgeocities.com/crystalangel0105//tiobam16.htmgeocities.com/crystalangel0105_/tiobam16.htm.delayedx¹WÕJÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÈð1Y>OKtext/htmlïºLÜY>ÿÿÿÿb‰.HSun, 09 Mar 2008 00:41:53 GMTÁMozilla/4.5 (compatible; HTTrack 3.0x; Windows 98)en, *¹WÕJY> Harry Potter - Title: The Inconveniences of Being a Malfoy (16) 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.

(16)

It had already been three days, but Scorpius was forced to stay in the hospital wing for observation, “just in case,” for at least four days more at the insistence of Madam Pomfrey, despite his increasingly vocal protests. “Absolutely not,” she’d scolded him every time he brought up the topic. “You need to rest! It’s for your own good. Trust me.”

Well, Scorpius thought, trust was all well and good, and Madam Pomfrey was older and wiser and well trained in her craft, but in his mind’s eye, he could almost see his hard-won good grades slowly slipping down the drain. He was fine, healed, just dandy, or, at the very least, well enough to go to class, but he wasn’t allowed. It was so frustrating to put so much effort forth, only to seem to fail in the end.

When he had voiced his thoughts to Albus, the other boy had only laughed at him, which had rather offended Scorpius. “Don’t be silly, Scorpius,” Albus had chuckled, patting him on the back in what supposed to be reassuring but only served to make Scorpius feel as if Albus was being condescending.

That idea was silly, Scorpius knew, even if his worries about his grades were – which they weren’t, thank you very much, despite whatever Albus said – because he somehow knew that Albus would never do that to him. When Scorpius had realized the absurdity of his own thoughts, he had taken a cautious step back and made a reluctant, but considerable attempt to try not to unfairly snap at Albus, or anyone else, for that matter. Still, it didn’t ease the lingering qualms he had about being on enforced bed rest.

Rose, on the other hand, had been completely sympathetic to his situation. Scorpius had even gotten her to smuggle him a set of textbooks he could study from, but there was nothing to do about the lectures he had and would be missing. “I’ll see what I can do for you,” she had promised him when he’d mentioned it, and while it had been nice to hear at the time, Scorpius had not actually expected her to actually manage to do anything.

Scorpius had, perhaps, underestimated the Ravenclaw’s resourcefulness. He made a mental note never to do it again as he stared, somewhat disbelievingly, at Jarrod Nott who was giving him a flat look in response. Scorpius had to resist the urge to rub his eyes, just to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating.

I wonder if she blackmailed him, Scorpius thought wildly, as he eyed the papers being brandished at his face warily. Or, his imagination put in nervously and entirely unhelpfully, perhaps those papers are cursed and when you touch them, you’ll be reduced to a drooling, useless mess…

Scorpius could see that his Slytherin yearmate, who had already looked rather unhappy at being put in this position, was quickly becoming annoyed. “Are you going to take the papers or not?” Nott snapped at him, waving the sheets dangerously close to his nose.

Scorpius shook himself quickly to regain his composure and disdainfully pushed away the other boy’s hand to reduce the risk of gaining paper cuts on his face. That wouldn’t do at all – he wasn’t entirely certain Madam Pomfrey wouldn’t make it into an excuse to make him stay for a few extra days. He could just imagine it; “What if you get an infection?” or “I think your blood is a little too red, dear, perhaps you should stay a bit longer, just in case…”

It would be nice if someone simply said to him: “Sorry, but we’re still not so sure about this entire possible Imperius business, and until we are, we’d like you to stay safe in an enforced bed rest so that you won’t run the risk of being attacked again. After all, if you get hurt, it’s on our heads, and that will require a lot of paperwork and is generally just very troublesome, so it’d be easier if you get stayed here and wasted all of your time doing absolutely nothing besides watching the shadows elongate. Tea?”

Scorpius nearly rolled his eyes at his own imagination. Still, it would be very much appreciated if someone would be forthright enough to tell him exactly what was going on, instead of leaving Scorpius bored and feeling as if he were slowly withering away unnoticed in the hospital wing.

The other boy sighed impatiently at his lack response, pulling back the parchment and crossing his arms with a frown, startling Scorpius slightly; he’d been so wrapped up in his own thoughts, he’d nearly forgotten about Nott’s presence. “Don’t you dare be difficult, Malfoy,” Nott said, darkly. “It’s bad enough I’m helping you.”

Scorpius pursed his lips and with some effort gritted out, as politely as he could manage, “Thank you.” He fought the urge to grind his teeth together. Every time he accepted charity from others, it felt like an individual stab to his pride, but Scorpius mercilessly stomped on the parts of his mind that were still protesting and thrust his hand out expectantly.

Nott looked down at his hand, the expression on his face warring between surprise and derision, before unceremoniously throwing the papers in the general direction of Scorpius’ chest. This resulted in less than graceful fumbling as Scorpius struggled to grab the loose pages without letting any fall to the floor. He was successful, but that hardly did anything to soothe his immediate response, rooted deeply in annoyance and anger. “What was that for?” Scorpius demanded, almost snarling.

The other boy merely huffed condescendingly. “You should be grateful that I’m doing this at all,” Nott replied coolly.

“I have already expressed my gratitude for your… selflessness,” Scorpius said flatly, his tone bordering on wryness. “Am I to assume you have simply taken pity on poor little me and expect nothing in return?”

Amusement flashed in Nott’s eyes before the familiar look of detached indifference quickly reclaimed its place. “You know as well as I do that it doesn’t work that way,” he pointed out.

Scorpius snorted. Of course, ‘Nothing for nothing.’ He supposed that it was just as well that his original decision to take Reine under his own wing had practically sealed her fate as the ostracized Slytherin Weasley, although it hadn’t turned out for the best. A Slytherin could never be sure what would be asked of them in return for something done for them, and Scorpius could hardly have allowed one of Albus’ cousins to be subjected to whatever horrors someone else might demand in return for their help

“What could you possibly want from me, Nott?” he asked duly, beginning to organize the notes. Nott had helpfully labelled all of the pages with page numbers, headlines, and dates, and a cursory glance through some of the carefully written information proved it to be concise, yet thorough. Notes worthy of Rose’s high standards, Scorpius mused.

“Perhaps,” Nott said, artfully casual, as Scorpius shuffled through the papers, “you could grace me with the courtesy of a simple favour.”

Scorpius paused in his work and looked at him warily. “A… favour,” he repeated cautiously. “And what would this favour entail?”

Nott paused thoughtfully. Scorpius had a nagging feeling that it was more for show than the other boy was actually thinking about it. “Well,” Nott said carefully, his eyes gleaming suddenly with a far off ambition, “I can’t think of one off the top of my head.” The Slytherin boy paused again, somewhat dramatically.

Scorpius waited patiently, quickly fighting down the urge to sigh in annoyance and already expecting what was asked next.

“Why don’t I take an I.O.U.?” Nott asked deliberately, his eyes intent. Despite having already suspected this, Scorpius’ eyebrows arched upwards in response. Collecting favours from each other was a way to gain support, and thus power, within the house. If one garnered enough support, it was possible to become the primoris, the unofficial leader of the house, though that usually occurred in later years. Asking for unspecified favours was almost announcing the intention to vie for the position, without, of course, actually shouting it out to the world.

“Hm,” Scorpius grunted, unresponsively, buying himself some time as he considered the offer. He almost regretted putting up such a fuss about his grades; he had no desire to be in any way associated with the inner house politics of his fellow Slytherins, but now it seemed unavoidable.

Scorpius eyed Nott unhappily. He wasn’t too bad, despite Nott’s obvious disdain towards him, but Scorpius suspected the other boy’s aloofness came less from the fact he was a Malfoy and more from the fact that Nott believed in doing one’s own work. Scorpius wouldn’t be surprised if some of Nott’s detachment was coloured by the former, though. From what Scorpius could gather from the few conversations he had ever been in with Nott, his housemate had an even stricter code of honour than he did.

Although Scorpius doubted that Nott would gather much support if he continued being so uptight, he had to admit that Nott seemed to respect him at least a few iota more than much of their house. Case in point, Nott had actually lowered himself to deign to interact with him, whereas Scorpius didn’t even know what the current primoris even looked like. Already, that made Nott the number one candidate in Scorpius’ mind.

“Alright,” Scorpius conceded finally, despite his misgivings, but swiftly continued, “but don’t forget – I get to decide whether the favour is equal to the original favour.” As he finished speaking, Scorpius had a sudden, disturbing feeling of hollowness, rather like he’d just sold his own soul.

Nott pursed his lips, but nodded, luckily oblivious to the emotions Scorpius felt cross his face before he mastered the expression. “You may keep those,” Nott said generously, gesturing at the papers, before turning to leave.

“Wait.” The words left Scorpius’ lips, unbidden, surprising both himself and, evidently from the sudden jerk of his unexpected benefactor’s shoulders, Nott as well.

Nott stopped abruptly, and then turned around slowly, an annoyed expression crossing his face. Scorpius wondered why the other boy was in such a hurry to get away. “Yes?”

“Why?” Scorpius asked simply. Nott gave him a questioning look, and Scorpius indicated the papers on his lap with a slight incline of the head and a quick, meaningful flick of the eyes.

“Oh that,” Nott said scornfully. “The Weasley girl asked me to do it.”

“And just like that, you decided to help me?” Scorpius asked doubtfully.

“Yes,” Nott sniffed dismissively, “I owed her a favour. What she asked of me wasn’t quite equal to what I’d gotten from her, but…” He trailed off, looking thoughtful.

“But?” Scorpius prompted.

Nott’s expression was calculating. “But I decided it might be worth my while in the end,” he finished, eyes cold and intent, making Scorpius shiver slightly. “Now, if you excuse me, I must be going.” He turned on his heel and was out the door before Scorpius had time to even think about politely saying goodbye.

Scorpius slumped dejectedly against the headboard of the hospital bed, withholding a groan of annoyance. He turned his eyes skyward, not for the first time wondering if someone up there was simply playing a huge cosmic joke with his life.

Someone knocked timidly to get his attention, and Scorpius looked down to see Hugo standing just outside the still open door of the hospital wing. “’lo,” Rose’s little brother said sheepishly.

“Hello,” Scorpius greeted him bemusedly. “What are you doing here?”

Hugo shoved his hands self consciously into his pockets and took a tentative step into the room. He shrugged discomfited and said, “Well, Al saw that guy coming up here, and he was kind of worried about you, but he had to get to class.”

“So he sent you?” Scorpius asked curiously. It didn’t sound much like Albus to do that. He thought it was more likely Albus would just skip class altogether.

Hugo gave him a sort of lopsided grin and shrugged awkwardly, one shoulder going higher than the other. He was lankier than both his Potter cousins, Scorpius noticed, and he guessed the younger boy was already taller than Albus. “I volunteered,” Hugo mumbled, looking embarrassed and glancing sidelong at Scorpius almost shyly, as if seeking approval.

“Oh,” Scorpius said, unsure what to make of this. “Thank you?” he ventured, when Hugo continued to watch him expectantly. This seemed to satisfy Hugo’s need for… whatever it was that he wanted, and suddenly, Hugo grinned unabashed, though still slightly nervous. It reminded Scorpius of Albus; he wondered what class his friend had right now.

“So,” Hugo said, wavering slightly, “you are alright, right?”

Scorpius nodded. “As far as I know,” he responded dryly.

Hugo nodded solemnly, before brightening up and producing a deck of Exploding Snap. “If you’d like, I can keep you company?” Scorpius bit back a laugh; it sounded as if the younger boy was both asking his permission and offering.

He glanced down as the notes in his lap and let out a small sigh. While it might be nice to have some company for a little while, he didn’t want to get too far behind. Scorpius shook his head at Hugo, though he gave the Weasley boy a wry smile and explained, “I need to read these notes. I want to be able to keep up with my classes.”

Looking disappointed, Hugo nodded in acceptance. “I’ll leave you to it then,” he said, “I’ll see you around?”

Scorpius nodded, and Hugo walked off. Scorpius shook his head in amusement; he had never had a conversation so full of questions before. Belatedly, he realized he’d forgotten to say goodbye but resisted the urge to say it to Hugo’s back as the other boy stepped out the door and closed it behind him. It felt somehow rude to do so.

‘Page 1, Transfiguration…’ the heading of the first sheet of the notes read, and Scorpius settled down for a long day of reading dry school material.

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