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Harry Potter - Title: The Inconveniences of Being a Malfoy (9)
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.
Notes: Really, the purpose of this chapter was only to get my visual of the Weasley family down in print for myself. It took forever, why are there so many Weasleys?! ^^;; I kept all the woman with their own last names because… I wanted to. .__. Sorry if that really bothers anyone.
(This is unbeta-ed, again, sorry.)
(9)
Despite the fame and fortune that Harry Potter had received after the incredible defeat of the infamous Lord Voldemort, or You-Know-Who as most everyone still called him, it seemed he had decided to live a modest life, instead of an extravagant one. Scorpius glanced over his shoulder at his father, who looked decidedly uncomfortable in the homey setting, and was giving a portrait of the family with a beautifully ornamented frame a sour look (humorously, the Ron Weasley in the picture was returning the look with the same unhappy glare that the real Ron Weasley was giving his father at the moment).
Rose (the traitor, Scorpius thought darkly) had abandoned him with their feuding fathers in the living room to go help her grandmother Molly in the kitchen. He could hear the clanking of pots and pans and the hissing of meat being seared from the kitchen, and a delicious smell wafted out towards his nose. He resisted the urge to drool – it smelled brilliant - better than anything his grandmother or his father had ever made, though not for lack of trying.
His stomach grumbled, reminding him that he hadn’t had anything but some butterbeer since lunchtime and he got up from the admittedly comfortable couch to get a better look at the huge picture of the family featured in the living room.
It was like looking at a sea of red-haired people, Scorpius thought, staring up at them and feeling a bit overwhelmed. Small silver scribbles that bobbed next to people’s heads, which on closer examination turned out to be their names, sparkled brilliantly.
He recognized Rose’s father (Ronald Bilius Weasley) on the very right, hugging who Scorpius assumed to be Rose’s mother (she was one of the few in the picture who was not a redhead and her name Hermione Granger danced back and forth, trying to avoid her bushy hair as she moved).
She was smiling brightly as a small toddler boy (Hugo Weasley) with red-tinted brown tufts of hair clutched the bottom of her robes, staring at Scorpius with a wide-eyed look of childish curiosity and sucking his thumb. Rose, looking no older than five years old, stood beside the child. She was wrinkling her nose at him and impatiently pushing back her bushy red hair. Neither, it seemed, had inherited their father’s freckles.
To her left stood Albus, who seemed to be trying very hard to stand still and look serious, but failing as James (who was on his other side, his name James Sirius Potter jumping up and down in its attempt to keep up with his restless movements) insisted on poking him in the stomach every few minutes and grinning when Albus nearly fell over trying to get away, his name (Albus Severus Potter) nearly crashing into his head as he straightened up.
Both boys, Scorpius was startled to realize now that he was actually paying attention, had the same sort of face as their father (Harry James Potter, the scribble glowed and sparkled obnoxiously, and picture-Harry Potter was giving it a rather annoyed look). Albus had their father’s dark hair and his face was almost identical to his father’s as well, but he also had mother’s light freckles. James Potter did look quite a bit like his father and even had the same bright green eyes, but he had some of his mother’s softer face and his hair was not the same jet black as his father’s, but a dark, deep red instead.
A young girl (Lily Potter), roughly the same age as the boy next to Rose, squealed happily as her mother (Ginevra Molly Weasley) twirled her around in the air. She had red hair and her father’s green eyes, and her father continually glanced over at her in wonder. Scorpius wondered why.
Next to Harry, a teenaged boy with bright turquoise hair stood uncomfortably among the Weasleys, glancing back and forth, almost looking lost. Ted Remus Lupin, the script beside his head glimmered calmly, and then shot down when the boy ducked as a pacifier flew over his head.
Scorpius and all the other people in the portrait turned their heads to look at a grinning, but sheepish looking red-haired man (oh, what a surprise, Scorpius thought) with only one ear wave slightly at them (George Weasley, the glittering text said) and pat the baby in his arms on the back, and it burped and gazed woefully at everyone else. Fred Weasley floated beside the baby’s head.
An exquisitely beautiful blonde woman (Fleur Isabelle Delacour) cooed over the babe. Victoire Weasley looked almost exactly like her mother, except her blonde hair had more of a strawberry hue and she was trying to discreetly glance over at her baby cousin, apparently reluctant to admit she wanted to coo at the child as well. Another red-haired man covered in scars (Bill Weasley) grinned down at the two females as another blonde girl, younger than Victoire (Jeannine Weasley), clutched his hand, and attempted to take her twin’s hand as well, but the identical girl (Reine Weasley) quickly moved out of range, her face set resolutely towards Scorpius, probably to avoid looking at the hurt expression on her sister’s face.
Scorpius recognized Phoebe Weasley without needing to check the text – it was strange to see the same stiff, civilly pompous expression on her younger self. He glanced up to see a man (Percy Ignatius Weasley) that looked ridiculously like her staring at him with the same expression as his daughter. Beside them, a woman smiled almost sheepishly at Scorpius. Penelope Clearwater, the text beside her head read. Scorpius snickered slightly. How tacky, all of the names started with a ‘p’.
A laughing man threw his arm around Phoebe’s father, making the man look rather miffed. There seemed to be burns on his hands - Charlie Weasley, he read, and it didn’t seem as if he had married, or had any children. Indeed, the plump woman standing next to him that Scorpius recognized as a slightly younger version of Rose’s (and Albus’, he supposed) grandmother (Molly Weasley) was giving him a disappointed look from time to time. Next to her, a man who was distinguishable from the rest of the redheaded males by the gray streaks in his hair (Arthur Weasley), was leaning over to pick up the pacifier.
Scorpius’ father came to stand next to him, and watched Arthur Weasley attempt to throw the pacifier back to George Weasley but hit Bill Weasley in the head instead. “Are you sure you want to stay here?” Draco muttered to him, glancing to the side at the real Ron Weasley, who had shuffled to the other side of the room and was sending the both of them wary looks.
“Yeah,” Scorpius told him, “I’m sure.”
Draco sighed heavily. “Why a Potter?” he asked, looking unhappy, “There are plenty of other people you could have made friends with. I wouldn’t have minded you staying with a Hufflepuff, even.”
“I didn’t really have a choice in the matter,” Scorpius mumbled under his breath, and picked at a string on his sleeve when his father gave him a questioning look.
The doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it!” Rose’s father said, looking relieved to have something to do. Draco and Scorpius glanced at each other, and then followed him out to the front door curiously. The door opened to reveal someone that Scorpius recognized from the picture, wearing the same grin - Charlie Weasley.
“Charlie!” Ron said, gaping, “Blimey, what in the world are you doing here-”
“Mum invited me,” Charlie said, brushing past him, and greeted Draco without preamble, “Hey, you must be Malfoy, Mum told me you were here in her message, how’ve you been doing? Must’ve been tough on you – oh, this must be your boy-” Scorpius blinked as Charlie chortled and mussed up his hair. “-I’ll go see if Mum needs any help now – Mum!”
Draco helped Scorpius fix his hair, and Hermione Granger walked through the door, her son Hugo at her heels. She kissed her slightly dumbstruck husband on the cheek. “Hello, dear – Hugo, give your father a kiss now – good boy – I’ve picked up some extra plates on the way like your mother asked me to.” She shucked off her coat and dumped it into Ron’s arms, and Hugo automatically did the same.
Hermione turned to look at Scorpius and his father and blinked in surprise, pausing, before quickly recovering. “Ah, Malfoy, hello, that explains the need for extra dinnerware, that must be your son? Scorpius, isn’t it?” she stuck her hand out to him, and Scorpius automatically shook it; something about her made him want to do whatever she demanded because… well, it seemed right.
“Hugo, say hello,” she said, and the boy waved at him almost immediately. Scorpius nodded back, relieved that it wasn’t just him who felt that way.
“I’ll go help set up,” Hermione said, “Ron, are you just going to stand there? Bill’s following me, and you’re in the way-”
“Coming,” Ron said weakly, and the three walked away.
“That was surreal,” Draco muttered to Scorpius, and he nodded. He jumped when there was a shriek from outside.
“Reine!” a man said disapprovingly, “Stop stealing your sister’s glasses-” A family of five people suddenly crowded the doorway, four blonde heads and one red, pushing and shoving and there were coats coming off and somehow they all ended up in a sort of circle, the woman Scorpius recognized as Fleur Delacour hanging up all their coats.
“It’s not like she needs them,” one of the twin girls said scowling, the mentioned glasses clutched in her right fist, “She only wears them because I wear them, she has perfect vision-”
“Maman,” Victoire Weasley complained, “Reine eez being difficile again-”
“I am not being difficult!” Reine snapped.
Her twin was practically in tears. “I’m sorry, Reine,” Jeannine whispered, looking down at her hands, “I want to be like you-” she sniffed.
Reine scowled, and then turned away, still holding the glasses. “Well, you don’t need to try so hard!” she said, bitterly, and stomped away into the house. Jeannine burst into tears, and her mother carefully took her hand and lead to the kitchen.
“Reine!” Bill called, following his other daughter, “I’m not done talking to you!”
Victoire stared after them and shook her head. “’ow bad eez dis?” she mumbled, and headed into the house herself, completely missing Draco and Scorpius standing there, frozen to the spot.
“Uh,” Scorpius said.
“Yeah,” Draco finished, “Why don’t we head back in…”
Scorpius nodded in agreement and turned around, when he heard voices streaming in through the door again (which had been left open, and Scorpius thought that was a rather embarrassing lack of security for the house of Harry Potter).
“…that was brilliant, wasn’t it, Mum? It was like, fwoosh, vroom - wait for it - McKinley’s caught the snitch! - and they won! Lan’s dad must be having a fit now, their team played such a good game, but then they lost the snitch and lost by only 10 points! I can’t believe it-” Albus walked through the door backwards, still talking to someone outside, and then turned around. His eyes widened in surprise at seeing Scorpius. “Scorpy!” he shouted, happily.
Scorpius gaped at him. Scorpy? “That is not my name,” he began, but it ended with an “oomph” as Albus launched himself at him and wrapped his arms around him tightly. Scorpius glanced over his shoulder to look at his father, who looked as if he was just about ready to just keel over and die.
A red haired woman stepped into the house, and started in surprise at the sight of them. “Ah, Malfoy,” Albus’ mother said, blinking, “Hello. What are you doing here?”
“Uh,” Draco muttered, “I’m going to go see where the bathroom is.” He left, grimacing.
A man behind her nearly walked into her back, but stopped himself in time. “Oi,” George Weasley said, indignantly, “Some warning next time before you stop suddenly would be nice, Ginny- gah!” His son, Fred Weasley crashed into the back of his legs, and Ginny jumped out of the way before her brother collapsed on top of her.
Fred scrambled off his father quickly, apologizing, “Sorry Dad, I didn’t mean to-”
“S’okay,” George mumbled into the carpet, “No harm done.”
“George,” a cool voice said, disapprovingly “What are you doing?” Albus finally let go of Scorpius, and was now turning to beam at the doorway.
“Uncle Percy!” Albus said, cheerfully.
George rolled over on his back to peer up at his brother. “Yeah, hello, Perce,” he said, “Taken some time off from…” he paused to think, then continued, “…doing whatever it is that you do – to finally come visit, eh? Bring the wife and kid too, did you?”
There was a distinct female scream from outside, and George said, “Well, I suppose that answers that question-” and in marched Phoebe Weasley, looking incredibly angry, followed by her mother and two lumpy mud things. Ginny screamed and Scorpius felt Albus clutch his hand.
“Hi Mum,” one of them said.
She gaped. “James?” It- or rather, he- waved. “What happened?” Ginny cried, hurrying over to him and eyeing the mud dripping on the floor critically.
“Well,” the other mud thing said reasonably, sounding very much like Lan, “We lost.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Ginny asked, bewildered.
“The other team was gloating and such, the prats, they just got lucky,” mud-James said, “and it was really annoying, you’ll imagine, because it’s not like it was talent or hard-work or even the remotest bit of intelligence that helped them do it-”
“James!” Ginny snapped.
“Sorry, sorry,” he said, the mud on his face (which seemed to be drying a bit), contorting to what must have been a contrite look underneath, “Anyway, they were gloating and making fun of our team for losing, and then someone insulted Lan’s dad-”
“But he’s brilliant!” Albus interjected.
“Right, right,” mud-Lan grumbled, shaking a fist angrily and making mud fly about, “He is and they should know that, it was just luck that the stupid Snitch got hit by a Bludger and went down the Seeker’s shirt, our Seeker almost had it-”
“-and Lan called them all a bunch of sniveling little weaklings that only managed to pull the broomsticks from their arses to play today by accident,” James finished.
Scorpius and Albus snickered. Percy looked displeased, though that might have been because of the mud splattered across the front of his robes. Phoebe made loud huffing noise, and stomped off as well. Her mother glanced between her and them, and then gave them a frown and she and Percy followed their daughter.
“Sorry, Phoebe!” James shouted after her, “We didn’t mean to land on you, it was an accident, we couldn’t control where the make-shift Portkey would land!”
“What happened,” Ginny said dangerously, and mud-Lan and mud-James cowered against each other.
“Let’s go,” Albus whispered to Scorpius, tugging on his arm. Scorpius nodded, and he went with Albus to the living room, where the entire Weasley family (or at least, the ones that weren’t in the kitchen) were reuniting loudly, and laughing.
“Al! Scorpius!” Rose practically jumped on top of Albus in her excitement.
“Rose!” Albus shouted back, over the din, hugging her, and then Scorpius, to his surprise, was pulled into a three-way embrace with them. “What’re you doing here anyway?” Albus yelled into his ear.
“I want to stay with you,” Scorpius said.
“What?” Albus yelled.
“I want to stay with you!” Scorpius said, raising his voice.
“What?” Albus hollered again.
“I want to stay with you!” Scorpius bellowed.
The entire room silenced.
“Oh god,” Scorpius heard his father groan, and saw Draco sitting on the couch. His father put his head in his hands.
“Well,” an amused voice said from behind Scorpius, “We’d love to have you.” Scorpius’ father’s head shot back up and stared, horrified, at whoever it was. Scorpius turned around slowly, feeling completely exposed and embarrassed, hoping it wasn’t…
“Hi,” Harry Potter said.
…Brilliant, Scorpius sighed in his head. Rose patted his back sympathetically and Albus giggled nervously, squeezing his hand.
“Potter,” Draco grunted.
“Malfoy,” Harry Potter responded.
Scorpius’ father frowned. “…Potter,” he said again, obviously unsure of what else he could say.
James and Lan walked through the door and around Harry. “Welcome to the family,” Lan whispered to Scorpius as she passed him, and James even gave him a nod of agreement and the both of them disappeared into the kitchen.
There was a sudden roar of approval from the entire clan, and they all congested around Scorpius and his slightly panicked looking father, hands clapping them on the back and various voices assuring Draco that they would take care of his son – and Albus breathed a sigh of relief.
“Well,” Albus said, sounding pleased, “That went rather well, didn’t it?”
Scorpius watched his father attempt to handle the many voices talking at him at once and fail, and then shrink slightly in fear. “Er,” he said, “sure.”
Rose giggled.
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