you know that feeling you get when the day you were dreading so much finally arrives? when all your fears come true and terrible things come your way?
that was today.
today, life as I've come to know it, is over.
today is the day my father becomes my professor.
let me rewind a bit. a few months back, my dad retired from working at the ministry of magic as an auror. there were tears and tributes, headlines and fan posts being delivered to our house with eager-to-please owls. witch weekly was all over the place trying to get an interview with him, naming his the "best wizard's smile" and writing articles about his extremely rare wand (learn how to do magic just like harry potter!)
yes. my father is harry potter. the chosen one, the boy who lived, master of death, or whatever else they're calling him these days.
my older brother, james, used to try and get away with being a famous guy's son by telling everyone who his father was. it even worked, for some time. but then he once ran into this woman who was, in fact, a muggle, and had never heard of this harry fella. "harry porter? sorry, wouldn't know him, he sings?"
he never did it again.
anyways, after he retired, my dad decided to torture us (specially me) by becoming a professor at hogwarts.
seriously, what is wrong with him?!
back at today; first day of term and my third class is defense against the dark arts. everyone is huddled and whispering excitedly about the new teacher. I see my brother marching into the great hall with his head held high and some of his friends by his side. proud of the name, proud that he would now be, not only harry's son, but a professor's son as well, and, according to him, that would bring a lot of advantages. I disagree. I can't think of any possible advantage this could have. it feels like, wherever I go, I'm harry potter and ginny weasley's son. no one even bothers to learn my fucking name.
"your dad's cool, al. don't worry" scorpius touches my arm gently when he realizes I'm staring at james "and james can be... a little full of himself sometimes"
"yeah... i know. i hate gryffindors. and my dad isn't cool"
"don't say that" he looked around in case anyone has heard me "I'm trying to stop the hate towards slytherin. regarding you dad tho..."
I turn to him, his blond hair is impeccable and his eyes soft "what?"
"did you get a chance to... say anything to him?" he pulls his eyebrows a little higher to emphasize the meaning of the question
I sigh and place my hands on my head, shaking it. no.
that's the other thing. the most pressing one. scorpius and I have been dating for a couple of months and we haven't said anything to our parents.
we've been trying to keep it quiet, but I suppose we didn't bother enough or we aren't very good at it. for any reason, a lot of people at hogwarts know... it was a big talk to have, too. not only a gay coulpe, but a potter-malfoy couple.
and rumors fly... so it wont be long until my dad finds out.
the options are: either I go to his office right now and confess everything, or i let him get word about it from a colleague or student.
I'm gonna stick with the second one.
scorpius grabs my hand under the table where people can't see and squeezes it slightly. my mind calms down for a minute with ease. "I'm glad I have you" I say to him.
both scorpius and I have some issues with our fathers so we understand eachother. things got better with his dad this last summer, I think.
"can I sit here?" a bespectacled girl with light red hair looks down at me
I'm about to tell her to sit at her own table when scorpius beats me to it, the fool.
"of course, lily!"
my sister sits down next to me and I feel a few stares from some slytherins finding it peculiar to have a red and gold person sitting at our table. I try to ignore it as lily starts ranting about how exciting it is to have dad teaching us; "do you think he'll show us dementors?!"
"yeah, sure, he's gonna make them suck at your soul" I say mockingly. she smacks me in the arm. I keep forgetting how strong and big my sister is getting. I constantly need to remind myself she's not the scared little kid she used to be anymore.
scorpius and lily talk about the things my dad might show us, mostly I listen. after some boring minutes we finish breakfast and say goodbye to lily so we can get to our fist lesson on time: charms.
I'm fiddling with my bag's straps as I walk slowly to the classroom when scorpius grabs my arm and pulls me inside an empty corridor and softly supports me against the wall.
"what are you...?" I start but he cuts me off
"listen, albus. I'm only ever gonna say this once and just for today" I frown at his words
a million possibilities cross my mind for a second, is he breaking up with me? today? did he kill someone and wants me to hide the body? does he want to join the quiddich team? no, that would be too much.
"do you want to skip classes today?, until lunch, that is. so you keep your mind off your dad thing for some time" he's looking at me with one of the most serious faces I've ever seen him with.
I burst out laughing and cling my hands to his shoulders "scorpius malfoy, are you really going to skip the first day of lessons?!"
"well... yes. I'd much rather spend it with you" he blushes slightly and I shift my hands from his shoulders to his cheeks so I can hold his face into place when I kiss him softly
"thank you"
the rest of the morning kept it's course with no interruptions. scorpius and I came to enjoy our empty bedroom with the windows opened and the cool summer air hitting our faces.
I look at him, resting his head on my chest and breathing deeply. I caress his long hair and leave a trail of kisses on his face.
"I'll tell my dad, soon. I think it's better if he finds out from me" I whisper
"I agree. don't worry, I highly doubt he's homophobic or anything" he laughs and so do I
"no, i know. but it's still weird"
scorpius only nods, as though he's too relax to say anything else. he opens his eyes and stares deeply into mine. he takes me by the waist and kisses me. my dad fades into the last thing I could think of right now.
after lunch, all slytherins fifth years head to the defense against the dark arts classroom. when I get in, my father isn't anywhere to be seen.
I sit at the back next to scorpius and secretly regret not having brought my invisibility cloak.
harry potter enters the room a few moments later, he's holding a small box in his hands as he walks towards his desk. everyone goes quiet and eager to get a good look at him. I can feel the amount of magic in the room, a slytherin girl from across my seat is watching so intently I fear she might provoke sparks with her wand. for a moment I feel like crying out 'pull yourself together!', but I don't.
my dad leans slightly on the desk and takes in... something, I don't even know what he's looking at. the room? the students? he seems nervous as he stares down at the slytherins. finally, he spots me and smiles a little more assured of himself; I entertain the thought of this man, who I always thought of as well-presented and confident, being actually a bit shaky in a classroom. I wonder for a second what kind of pupil he was in his time at hogwarts. It makes me want to laugh
"uh, hello everyone, please put your bags aside, and let's move these desks away" the gryffindors were the first ones to start moving, happy to comply, and everyone else follows suit seconds later. we leave our bags on the corner of the room and my father cleans away the desks with a swift maneuver of his wand. scorpius looks over at me curiously, "show off" I mutter.
"perfect. uh, let me introduce myself, my name is harry, you can call me professor potter, and as you can see, I will be teaching you defense against the dark arts"
everyone listens intently. "now, I know this is your NEWTs year and I bet you're probably not excited about that"
"I am" scopius murmurs next to me, I can't help but suppress a smile
"so I figured we could start with something fun" my dad finishes
he opens the small box he still had in his hands and drops a bracelet from within onto the desk. I frown slightly and look around to check if everyone else is also confused, luckily, they are.
"he's finally lost it" I humor scorpius, who bites his lip so he doesn't laugh
my dad —sorry, professor potter— catches my attention again, explaining. "this is a portkey, can anybody tell me what that is?"
a few hands go up in the air, amongst them, of course, is scorpius'. my dad points at him with a soft smile "yes?"
"a portkey is an enchanted object that will transport anyone who grasps it to a pre-arranged destination"
"exactly! ten points to slytherin, come over here, scorpius" harry ushers him with his hand
the blond boy shoots me the quickest panicked stare and walks over to the front. my dad encourages him and prepares to ask his next question:
"how's your dad? haven't seen him in a while"
some people laugh and scorpius is taken aback, surprised by the enquiry. "um, good. well. he's alright"
"good to know. here, have you ever traveled by portkey?" scorpius shakes his head "side-aparated?" he shakes his head again "would you like to try it?"
"uh, yeah. yes, sir" I can tell he's extremely nervous as he passes his wand from one hand to the other
"there's no need to call me sir. now, you're going to grasp the bracelet when I tell you, and it is going to materialize you all the way to the end of the room" he points the place just next to the piled-up desks and chairs "it can shake you up a bit, okay? you ready?"
scorpius may be shitting himself, but he would never say no to a teacher. he holds onto his wand for dear life, and nods. my dad's only ever met scorpius once before, but I know he can see right through him. maybe he is reminded of my aunt hermione.
they count to three together and the blond boy picks up the bracelet and dissappears almost immediately. he appears at the exact spot my father said he would a second later. he seems quite shaken and weaker, but he smiles softly nonetheless. the new teacher starts clapping and everyone else follows suit.
I hear a few sighs and exclamations, people start to get eager to try it themselves. my dad crosses the room and holds scorpius by the shoulders, he helps him sit down on one of the desks and offers him a goblet of water he conjures.
"well done, mr malfoy, let me know if you feel sick" he walks back to the rest of the students who are willing to try it and speaks to the class "unfortunately, traveling by portkey for the first time can be a bit of a mess, for some people. and I wouldn't like to have thirty teenagers throwing up on your first day" some faces show a little disappointment but are clearly impressed either way "mr malfoy was very brave to be willing to try it, and he did great"
I'm next to scorpius by now and laugh a little at his pale face
"which potter does malfoy like better now, huh?" one of the gryffindor students sniggers
it was clearly meant to be heard just by his mate, but stupid people somehow always manage to be loud
teenagers can be really nasty. I've learned that the wrong way, and since the scorpius-and-I thing sort of came out, I've been a constant witness of it; so, you can't blame me for replaying:
"shut the fuck up, asshole"
"albus!" both my father and scorpius say in unison
I stand up and, ignoring scorpius pulling from my robes to stop me, I take a few steps towards the git, I've seen his face around, but I don't really know his name —oliver, perhaps— I cross my arms and stare at him
"got anything to say?" I snarl
"no, it was just a joke. sorry, mate" he fiddles discreetly with his hands, I can tell he clearly doesn't want to upset me in front of a teacher, let alone my father, he's not stupid (well, not that stupid at least)
"you must be a right twat if that's the best joke you can come up with, then" I say and he gets mad now, he gets a glint in his eyes
I can see from the corner of my eye some people biting their lips and looking nervously at eachother, the conversation's scalating pretty quickly and I'm not thinking this through
"whatever, man! don't take things so fucking seriously, no need to come running down to defend your ghost-white boyfriend"
there it is. the word. boyfriend. if my dad didn't know about us before, he definitely knows now. and he finally decides to intervene
"that's enough! twenty points from both gryffindor and slytherin, and detention with your head of houses the whole week"
how do I protest "BUT DAD" without sounding like a spoilt brat?
my father turns to look at the other boy (was it oliver? or justin?) and stares him down, hard "mr fletcher, I hope I make myself understood when I tell you that I will not, under any circumstances, tolerate bigotry in my classroom"
my breath stops for a second and the fact that my dad knows starts to really sink in. he tells everyone that the lesson is over and the class begins to spill out, gossiping about what happened. my dad tells me and scorpius to stay. I close my eyes and brace myself for a very uncomfortable moment.
once the place is empty except for us, he looks at scorpius first "how are you feeling? after the apparition?"
"oh! I'm okay now, I thought it was gonna be worse, honestly" he answers earnestly
my father nods slightly and turns to me "is it true?" I nod. It takes him a few seconds to say anything and it makes me even more nervous "I'm sorry you didn't get to tell me yourself. I know I gave you detention, but I'm proud of you for standing up like that" he smiles at me
it takes me a second to swallow the newly formed lump in my throat, my voice comes out a little strangled "thanks... please don't tell anyone, like mum"
"or my dad!" scorpius chimes in
"your father doesn't know?" he looks at him and scorpius shakes his head, my dad looks... pleased? "I won't say anything, don't worry. I'm just really glad I got to know before malfoy" he laughs
scopius and I look at eachother. our parents' past lives has been something we never quite understood, not just because of the war, but because they were so weird.
"okay... we're going to go now" I say
"yeah, of course. well done again with the portkey, scorpius. and well done to you too, albus" he winks at me and I blush slightly as we leave the room