Raindrops on Roses

Chapter 19: Sixth Year Part 6: After the Reprieve

2024

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Scorpius turned back hurriedly, his heart pounding, the image of the man strolling with purpose across the grounds burned into his brain. "No," he muttered frantically to himself. "No, no, no, no..."

"Did you know he was coming?" Hannah asked, pulling Alice a little closer to her. That shamed him, that she would be so afraid for her child.

"Of course not!" he exclaimed, still trying to think. The shock made it difficult to do so with any great efficiency. "Two years... two bloody years without hardly so much as an owl, and now this..."

Rose squeezed his hand tightly. He knew he ought to let go, but for some reason he couldn't quite manage it.

"You think he's here to see you?" Al said, still staring over Scorpius' shoulder. "He looks pissed. Maybe it's something else." Scorpius didn't dare look round. He didn't think his father had recognised him through the crowd, and once he did the game was well and truly up.

"Of course it's me," Scorpius growled. "He hates this place, he'd never come here otherwise. Has he seen me?"

"Nah, he's going the other way," Al replied.

"Yeah, away from us, the great coward," Ron muttered. "Looks like he's heading to McGonagall."

Scorpius felt his heart sink, if it was possible, even lower into his stomach. "Oh no," he moaned. "I can't let him talk to her, he'll say something horrible to her and she'll kick me out, I just know it." He shook off Rose's hand with a great deal of regret, but there was nothing for it. He turned to her, eyes wide in his suddenly pale face. "Whatever you hear..." he began.

"I know," she said, and he could have kissed her right then, just for that. "It's all right, we won't stay. We'll wait for you inside."

He nodded, stiffly, wanting to hug her but his emotions were too damn scrambled to figure out if it was worth the risk. "Yeah. I... see you."

He tore himself away before he could change his mind, ducking past the Weasleys and around the thickest part of the crowd to where Neville had leant the Headmistress his arm for the long walk up to the castle. The look on Neville's face when Draco stepped into their path would have made Scorpius laugh, any other time. "McGonagall," he could hear his father sneering. "I am here for -"

"Father!" Scorpius called, before any serious damage could be done. He had never known anyone so skilled at insults - by omitting the Professor, he'd no doubt already put himself on the wrong side of McGonagall's temper.

Draco turned. The look of fury on his face was almost enough to make Scorpius turn and run back the other way, but he didn't. He skidded towards them through the mud churned up by hundreds of people walking through the soft grass, staining his shoes and the bottom of his school robe. "What," his father hissed at him as he slid to a halt. "Is that?" He gestured sharply to Scorpius head.

Scorpius raised a hand and realised his father was talking about Hannah's birthday present. "It's a hat, Father," he said shortly, pulling the flaps down with a sudden flush of defiance. "It keeps my ears warm. You should try it." The man was wearing a thick cloak, a good make, Scorp noticed, but his ears and cheeks were bright pink in the cold. His few remaining strands of hair fluttered in the chill breeze, but he did not shiver. He was far too stubborn to be affected by any such thing as weather. With a jolt, Scorpius realised that the reason he could see his father's head so easily was that they were now of a height. If anything Scorpius thought he might be a little taller.