Chapter 8
Scorpius walked nervously to the Slytherin common room. He never had a bad relationship with his father, but it wasn’t particularly good either. He knew that his father, in his sixth year, was going through one of his worst moments. He knew his father was very different during his time at Hogwarts compared to how he is now as an adult. Why did he have to have this conversation again?
Scorpius reached the dungeons but didn’t enter the common room; he didn’t know the password. Dumbledore hadn’t given it to him.
“Mudblood,” someone said behind Scorpius—it was Draco.
“I see no one told you the password,” Draco spoke with a cold voice that Scorpius didn’t recognize as his father’s.
“No,” Scorpius responded with the same coldness.
“I think we should talk,” Scorpius nodded, and both entered the common room, which was empty. They sat on one of the couches. “How?” Draco asked.
“How what?” Scorpius knew the answer but didn’t want to explain everything again.
“How did you become friends with Potter’s son? How did you end up dating the daughter of that blood traitor?” Draco spoke in a cold and disdainful tone.
“I’m going to ignore the insults because I don’t think it’s the right time to argue,” Draco rolled his eyes. “I became friends with Albus on the Hogwarts Express in our first year. I was alone in a compartment; no one wanted to be my friend. Albus and Rose entered the compartment where I was sitting. Albus stayed with me; Rose believed everything people said about me and decided not to hang out with me. I was happy to have a friend, didn’t think I would make even one. Later, Albus was sorted into Slytherin, we were in the same dormitory, and since then, we’ve been inseparable,” Scorpius recounted. Draco felt a small twinge of jealousy; his son had real friends.
“What were people saying? What was the rumor they judged you by?” Draco didn’t change his expression even once.
“People said I was Voldemort’s son,” Draco started laughing. What nonsense was that? “Of course, I wasn’t, but no one believed me,” Draco didn’t stop laughing.
“Where did that rumor come from?” Draco asked once he had calmed down.
“Actually, Voldemort did have a daughter,” Draco’s face turned serious once more.
“Stop calling him by his name. In your time, maybe you call him that, but today, in this time, NO,” Scorpius nodded.
“That daughter obviously wasn’t me, but I did get to know her. Albus fell in love with her,” Draco's eyes widened.
“What do you mean you met her? What do you mean he fell in love with her?”
“It’s a long story, but to summarize, we asked for her help, thinking her intentions were good. She helped us; we traveled back in time and tried to save Cedric. That caused a lot of problems and changes in the timeline. We managed to fix it, but when we thought we had succeeded, Delphine, the daughter of the ‘Dark Lord,’ revealed her true nature and betrayed us. We got trapped in the past, managed to contact the future, and you, Harry, Hermione, and Ron brought us back to our time. Delphine died,” Scorpius narrated everything in one breath.
“You lot really have something with time travel,” Scorpius laughed. “And the girl, how did it happen?” Scorpius took a deep breath and began to speak.
“We hated each other for a long time—or rather, she hated me, and I, out of pride, pretended to hate her. But in our fourth year, she apologized for everything, and after an event, which I’m forbidden to talk about without her present, I forgave her. We became friends, we liked each other, but neither of us said anything until one day, Albus tricked us, and under the effects of a truth potion, we confessed our feelings,” Scorpius told the story with much less detail.
“Did we react the same way in the future when we found out?” Draco felt ashamed of how he had reacted but would never admit it.
“Something like that. In the future, the hatred is less, but there was still a fight. Ron and Rose didn’t speak for a while, Hermione and Rose had a serious talk during which they both cried. Hermione supported Rose, setting aside past issues. You looked at Rose with some resentment for a couple of days; our conversations became awkward, but then everything returned to normal,” Draco analyzed what his son had said and noticed that he hadn’t mentioned Astoria.
“And what did your mother say?” Scorpius looked down at the floor for a second and said,
“Nothing, she didn’t say anything; she didn’t find out.” Draco didn’t understand but decided not to ask.
They continued talking about Albus and Rose for an hour when a girl joined the conversation.
“Hi, can I join you?” Astoria appeared behind Scorpius, grabbing him by the shoulders.
“Of course, he’s telling me about Rose and Albus.” Draco decided he would set aside his cloak of hatred towards people for the two weeks his son would be in the past—maybe not towards everyone, but towards some. After that, he’d forget about it. Astoria sat down.
“I also want to know, it’s not fair.” Draco and Astoria had talked and decided not to let their future together influence them; they would forget it in two weeks. Scorpius wasn’t speaking; his mother had caught him off guard.
“He doesn’t want to tell me what happened for him to forgive Rose. Are you trying to convince him?” Scorpius was oblivious to the conversation.
“Since when are you so nosy, Draco?” Draco laughed.
“I can do whatever I want these two weeks, and then everything will be forgotten. I’m not going to waste it.” Astoria laughed.
“Let me try to get the information out of this mysterious boy.” Astoria turned to Scorpius, seeing that he was looking at the floor and no longer had the same smile from moments ago. “Did something happen?” Astoria asked her son, stroking his hand. Scorpius couldn’t bear it; his mother was alive, she was healthy. A small tear fell down his cheek.
“Yes, everything is fine,” he said with a trembling voice. The tears threatened to come in floods, and he had promised himself never to cry in front of his father because of his mother. He stood up and, with all his speed, left the common room, leaving Astoria and Draco worried and confused.
He ran for a few minutes aimlessly, just running. He needed to find Albus or Rose or a place where there was no one. The Astronomy Tower, he thought.
He reached the Astronomy Tower crying. He entered and was surprised to find people there.
Ron, Hermione, Hugo, and Rose turned to look at him. His eyes were red, swollen, and tears were still streaming down his face.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bother.” Scorpius said with a broken voice and was about to leave when a hand stopped him; it was Rose.
“What happened?” Scorpius turned around and hugged her, not caring that Ron was watching.
“She’s alive, Rose is alive.” Rose understood why her boyfriend was crying.
“I know, I’m sorry. I should have come with you or told Albus to go with you.” Rose felt terrible. How could she not have thought about how hard it might be for Scorpius to see his mother?
“I promised I wouldn’t cry anymore, but seeing her, hearing her say the same things she used to say with the same tone, I can’t. It’s too much.” Ron and Hermione didn’t understand what was happening, and Hugo watched the scene from where he was sitting. He felt bad for Scorpius. They had become friends in recent months, and he couldn’t imagine what Scorpius might be feeling right now.
“I know. It’s okay to cry, Scorp.” Rose hugged Scorpius, who was kneeling on the floor. Hugo understood it was time to leave them alone.
“Mom, Dad, we should go.” Ron and Hermione stood up, and the three of them left the Astronomy Tower. No one said anything about leaving them alone; they understood it was a delicate matter.
“Hugo, do you know what happened to Scorpius?” Hermione asked kindly.
“Scorp’s mom, Astoria, died a few years ago. Scorp has gotten over it, but it can’t be easy to see her alive and healthy.” Hermione hugged her son.
“No, it can’t be.” The three finished going down the stairs. Hugo said goodbye to his parents and went to find his best friend. He couldn’t find her.
In the Astronomy Tower, Scorpius was still crying.
“Scorp, it’s okay to cry. It’s a way to let it out.” Rose was trying to calm him down.
They stayed like that, sitting and hugging for a few minutes until Scorpius managed to stop crying and compose himself.
“Are you feeling better?”
“Yes, thank you.” They continued hugging.
“Thank you for what?”
“For letting me cry and staying with me.” Rose squeezed Scorpius with her arms.
“I think this tower holds our most desperate moments.” Scorpius laughed.
“I think I owe my mother an explanation. I ran off when she arrived.” Rose hugged him even tighter.
“What are you going to tell her?”
“The truth.”
“That sounds good to me.” They sat in silence for a few minutes, interrupted by Scorpius.
“Sorry to interrupt. I thought it was empty.”
“It’s okay. We came here to talk in peace.”
“I interrupted the peace, sorry.” Rose laughed.
“No, thanks. That was one of the most awkward conversations of my life. Hugo is acting super strange, Mom wouldn’t stop asking him questions, and Dad wouldn’t stop asking me questions.” Scorpius laughed, imagining the situation.
After a few hours, they decided it was time to go down to the Great Hall for dinner. They did so.
Rose sat at the Gryffindor table, and Scorpius at the Slytherin table with his mother. Albus would join them later.
“I think I owe you an explanation,” Scorpius said as he sat down.
“I think so.”
“I left so abruptly because I had promised myself not to cry about you in front of Dad.” Astoria didn’t understand. “In the future, you’re dead; you died in my second year at Hogwarts.” The news hit Astoria like a stab to the heart.
“Oh.” She hugged her son, and he returned the hug. “Were you alone? You didn’t go through this alone, did you?” Astoria was genuinely worried.
“No, Mom. In the future, when you died, I had Albus. And today, I wanted to get away, but when I went to the Astronomy Tower, there were people—Rose and her family were there. She was with me today.” Astoria smiled.
“I have to thank those two.” Scorpius smiled. They fell into an awkward silence, interrupted by Albus.
“Hey, Albus.” He greeted Albus, who was sitting down next to him.
“I hate you.” Scorpius laughed.
“Was it that bad?” Scorpius couldn’t stop laughing.
“Not at all with Neville. He’s not as crazy as my parents and uncles.” Scorpius nodded. Albus's relatives had to accept that serious relationships existed in the world. “The awkward part was with my dad; he wouldn’t stop asking me questions.” Scorpius laughed, and Astoria listened attentively.
“What did you do to the guy?” she asked her son.
“He told my girlfriend’s father that he was dating his daughter.” Albus stepped in to answer. “Hi, I’m Albus.” He extended his hand, and she took it.
“Hi, Albus. I’m Astoria.” Albus’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Is she your...” Scorpius nodded.
“Nice to meet you.” Albus concluded.
“Didn’t you already know me?” Astoria was confused.
“No, Mom, you didn’t get to meet Albus.” he replied.
“Well, then it’s nice to meet you.” Astoria said warmly. Albus and Scorpius fell into one conversation, while Astoria joined her friends in another conversation.