Fighting Them
It had been a long day. Scorpius collapsed down onto his bed, exhausted, and shut his eyes - possibly for the last time…
He didn’t dream that night, not really. He’d replayed memories on and off all night, fading in and out, but at what he assumed was around 5 in the morning, he ended up in a black void.
Could this be his conscience? No, it didn’t seem right. Something was… off. He felt as if he wasn’t alone, as if someone, somewhere, was watching him.
“Where am I?” He muttered, not loud enough for anyone to hear. Soon, the emptiness around him started to morph into somewhere oddly familiar. Shaped formed out of nothing and strangely, Scorpius wasn’t scared. It was sort of… calming.
Scorpius started to recognise the basic formation of his own home, Malfoy Manor. But it was almost like everything was too bare, too dull and dark. This wasn’t his home.
He soon noticed the portraits up on the walls; they looked different. There were countless paintings of Scorpius and his father, some even showcasing Voldemort. He gasped and backed away from the paintings, only to find himself surrounded.
Draco, Scorpius, Voldemort, Delphi.
They were all stood around him.
***
Draco set down his newspaper to glance at the clock - it was 11:34. This was very strange - Scorpius was always up by 10 at the latest. He sighed, pushed himself up from his armchair and made his way up the stairs to check on his son.
He rapped softly on the door, but no response came from the other side. Anxious, he knocked again, but still no reply. Draco pulled the handle down and pushed his way into the room, to find Scorpius still asleep in his bed.
He strode over to the bed and put a hand on Scorpius’ shoulder to try and wake him but, before he could try, he felt the soft twitches of his son’s body underneath him.
“Scorpius?” He asked, but still no response. Draco was growing increasingly worried now, and he had no idea what to do to help him.
He rolled Scorpius’ body over so that he was on his back, but he gasped when he saw the gentle trickle of blood dripping from his nose.
Something was really wrong with Scorpius.
***
Albus was startled awake by his phone buzzing on his bedside table. He rolled over reluctantly and swiped to accept the call, not bothering to look at who it was.
“Hello?” He mumbled, still sleep-dazed. All he could hear down the line for a moment was heavy, distressed breathing. “Albus?” A voice who he vaguely recognised asked.
“Sorry, who is this?” He sat up in his bed, trying to wake himself up a little - his clock read 11:53am, he should probably get up soon.
“It’s Dra- Scorpius’ Dad. Look, there’s something seriously wrong with Scorpius and I don’t know what to do. I was wondering if you had any idea how to help him.” So it was Draco calling him.
Albus furrowed his eyebrows, “He doesn’t usually have any problems. Nightmares, occasionally - more often than either one of us would like to admit, actually - but if he has a serious problem you should take him to the hospital.”
Draco’s voice crackled down the line, “No, trust me, this doesn’t seem like anything medical. Does anything else happen when he has these… nightmares?”
“Not really. They don’t last long, and after that he doesn’t sleep. Mr Malfoy, you’re really scaring me. Do you need me to come over?” Albus began to shift out of his duvet, but Draco stopped him, “No, I don’t - I don’t know what I should do. He’s not waking up and he keeps twitching and his nose is bleeding-“
“His nose is bleeding?” Albus asked, worry beginning to take over. “Yes,” Draco sighed, “Does that mean something to you?”
Silence.
“I’m coming over.”
***
The next few minutes of Draco’s time were spent trying to wake Scorpius up before Albus got here, but nothing seemed to make him even bat an eyelid.
He shook his son frantically by the shoulders, but nothing seemed to pull him from his slumber. A thud sounded from downstairs, presumably Albus. Then came the erratic, misplaced footsteps approaching the room quickly.
The door burst open and crashed against the wall and Albus was immediately at Scorpius’ side, taking his hand. Draco could roughly make out the sobs in apology for something, but he didn’t catch what.
A few moments later, Harry appeared in the doorway, an anxious expression over his face. “Is he doing ok?” Harry asked, standing next to Albus.
“I - I really don’t know. I don’t know what’s wrong with him - all I know is that he won’t wake up, he has a nosebleed and he’s developing a fever.” Draco felt sick, not being able to help his son.
Harry nodded and put a hand to Scorpius’ forehead. He drew away in shock just as his hand had grazed the boy’s skin, “Merlin, Draco, he has one hell of a fever! Albus, go run a cold bath for him, or something.”
Draco stared at them in confusion, but soon realised what Harry had meant when he felt his son’s burning skin again, “I swear - I swear he wasn’t like that before.” He shook his head slowly, pushing Scorpius’ damp fringe back.
Scorpius rolled slightly, but not enough to restore any hope in either of them. “We’ll figure this out, ok? Scorpius is going to be fine.” Harry stood up and motioned for Draco to do the same, “Can you carry him into the bathroom? We need to get this fever down as soon as possible.”
“Yeah, of course.” Draco tucked his arms underneath Scorpius’ limp body and hoisted him up. With a sigh, he began to walk to the bathroom, silently praying that this would save his son.
***
Scorpius stood in the room, frozen; he didn’t know what to do. How was he back here? Why was he back here?
“It’s been a long time, Malfoy.” Delphi took a step forward at the same time Scorpius took a step back. Someone behind him laughed - the other version of him. He felt a hand push him back into the centre of this weird circle they’d formed around him.
“What do you want from me?” He turned around the circle, taking in what was going on; he knew something bad was about to happen. The other version of his father was the next to speak, “You disrupted the flow of our lives. Do you have any idea what happened to my son’s reputation - my reputation - when you came here? You destroyed everything.”
Voldemort stepped forward, “Now, we want to destroy you, and every aspect of your life.” Something about the Dark Lord made him feel so…uneasy. Did the other version of himself feel the same?
The circle began to close in on him. His breathing picked up; he was very claustrophobic, and right now, he felt more enclosed than he ever had before.
Suddenly, a fist came flying at him - his own fist, but on another body - and collided sickeningly with his face. Blood flowed from his node and dribbled over his lips, the metallic taste staining his tongue.
Then, they all drew their wands.
Now he was really in trouble.
***
They didn’t bother to undress him. Draco sat silently on the floor beside the bathtub, holding onto his son’s hand. At the moment, Scorpius was propped awkwardly against the tub as they waited for the water to fill it. The tap trickled for another few seconds before Harry reached out to turn it off.
Draco lifted Scorpius again after standing up and placed him gently into the water. Scorpius began to squirm slightly, groaning agitatedly. That was a good sign, right? It meant that he could feel the water, so he wasn’t completely out of it.
His son let out another sharp groan as blood began to pour from his ears, and soon after, his eyes. Scorpius whimpered unconsciously, but still, he didn’t wake.
But there was nothing they could do right now. All they could do was wait.
***
Scorpius slumped to the ground in agony. He could vaguely hear the screams of “Crucio!” all around him, but the ringing in his ears has become too overpowering for him to deal with, and all he could do was close his eyes and hope for the best.
Eventually, the shouts of various curses began to slow, and finally stopped after another minute or so. Scorpius took a shaky breath and tried to stand up, but his limbs shook uncontrollably beneath him.
“That’s really the most you can withstand? Come on, boy, you didn’t even try to fight back.” The other Scorpius kneeled down beside him, “I’m right here. Take a swing at me, I dare you.”
He wouldn’t take the bait, he wouldn’t. But the urge to just skim a hand across his face was so strong. Fuck it, he thought, I deserve this.
Scorpius brought his hand up and struck it across the blonde boy’s face. He snapped his head back to face his other self and chuckled, putting a hand up to his cheek, “You’ve got quite the slap, Malfoy. But that was a mistake; a big mistake.” As he reached for his wand, Scorpius brought his leg up and slammed it into the boy’s chest. He gasped and stumbled back, shocked.
Out of the corner of his eye, Scorpius caught a glimpse of Voldemort and Draco pulling their own wands out of their pockets, but Scorpius was quicker. “Stupefy!” He shouted, his wand pointed towards Voldemort. The Dark Lord flew backwards, crashing into a table behind.
He saw Delphi try to run for the door, but he managed to stop her with a quick “Expelliarmus!”, followed by a “Wingardium Leviosa!” in which he slammed her into the cupboard over the other side of the room and locked her in.
“Crucio!” Draco called out, but Scorpius managed to roll out of the way in the knick of time. He straightened himself up and managed to stand up properly, his wand flicking between pointing at Voldemort, Draco and Scorpius.
“Move and I’ll kill you!” Scorpius clenched his jaw, and watched as they all smirked back at him. “You don’t have the power to kill me.” Voldemort took a step forward, but Scorpius was quick to react, “Expeliarmus!” He watched gleefully as the wand flew out of the Dark Lord’s hand and landed at his own feet.
Scorpius laughed, “You must have less power in my mind, if it was this easy to defeat you. Now get me out of here, or face the consequences.”
Voldemort took a glance at Draco, in which they both nodded in agreement. “This isn’t the end, kid.” Draco sneered as he drew his wand up and muttered a spell that Scorpius couldn’t quite make out.
With that, he felt as if his soul had left his body, and he was mixed up with a whirlwind of memories and emotions.
He was back.
***
Scorpius gasped and shot up from his bed - wait, no… the bathtub?
He looked around frantically to see his Dad, Albus and Harry staring back at him in concern. Scorpius took a few deep breaths before attempting to speak, “Oh my God. I’m back, oh my God!” A wide smile spread across his face.
Draco enveloped his son in a tight hug, almost squeezing all the air out of his lungs. “You’re ok, you’re ok,” Draco drew back, “You are ok, right?” Scorpius nodded vigorously and threw himself back into his Dad’s arms, neither of them caring about the water splashing over the sides of the tub.
“What happened?”Albus asked, placing his hand over Scorpius’, which was previously resting on the side of the tub. Scorpius released himself from his Dad’s arms, “I’m not exactly sure. I was back in the Alternate Reality, or at least I thought I was…” He trailed off, not sure what to say.
Draco put a hand on his shoulder, “Just tell us what happened, and we’ll sort it from there, ok?” Scorpius repositioned himself so that he was leaned up against the wall, facing the others, “Well, I didn’t really dream most of the night, but then I ended up in this black… void? I don’t know where I really was, but then it morphed into our house, but it wasn’t this version - it was the version from the Alternate Reality. Then they surrounded me, I couldn’t escape-”
“Who surrounded you?” Draco asked, leaning closer to him. “There was four of them. It was the other me,” He looked at his Dad, “The other you, Voldemort and Delphi. They said a load of bullshit about reputations, and then said they would destroy me. They tried, and they nearly succeeded, but then I took a chance with an overly-cocky version of Scorpius Malfoy. I swung at him, and then kicked him. I disarmed the rest of them and that was that. Well, that wasn’t all of it…”
Draco ran a hand over his son’s fringe, “What do you mean that wasn’t all of it? What else happened?”
Scorpius looked around the room, scared, “They told me this wasn’t the end. They’re going to come for me again, and they’ll kill me, Dad. I’m scared, I don’t know how to escape them. I got lucky this time, I’m too young to die. I can’t do this…” He sobbed.
“Scorpius, look at me.” Draco brushed a thumb over his cheek, “I won’t let anyone hurt you, ok?”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”