Speechless

Chapter Five: I Won't Be Silenced

Scorpius sat in the drawing room of Longbottom Lodge; it was precisely one floor above the parlor on the ground floor, except this one was mainly just reserved for family and very close friends of the family. He was holding a tumbler of scotch in his fingers, swirling around the amber-colored liquid, not really caring about the outcome of the day. Yes, The Profit and The Quibbler had had many stories about him lately, since he'd graduated from Hogwarts, and especially since he'd gone out in public with one Eloise Chang.

Eloise was a Half-Blood, so suffice it to say all the older Pureblood witches and wizards, who may have been a bit too set in their old ways, were calling sacrilege for the company that Scorpius chose to keep. Eloise had been a year behind him, Lily, and Rose at Hogwarts, but had been sorted into Slytherin House as he had. She had taken on the surname of her mother, Cho, a Ravenclaw student and contemporary of Scorpius's own parents and friends, after her Muggleborn father had left the family, as soon as Eloise and her twin brother, Elliot, who had been sorted into Ravenclaw, showed signs of magic as infants.

Scorpius remembered when he had first encountered Eloise; of course, he had done so on a great many occasions growing up. At Malfoy Manor, which Scorpius was due to inherit one day, after his grandparents passed it to his fathers, and then to him, his Malfoy grandparents would hold grand parties to wizarding families. However, they had become much more tolerant of the various families around them, and were welcoming to all, since their son, and Scorpius's father, Draco, had joined the cause for Muggle rights within the Wizarding World. At one of these parties, Scorpius, in the wake of Lily running out after Rose of their final party at Longbottom Lodge which Scorpius had hosted, he himself had been nursing a goblet of Firewhiskey, when a tall drink of water with the most beautiful legs he'd ever seen walked over.

"Having a good time?" Eloise asked, the painted red smile on her pretty face reaching her dark eyes, fenced by full lashes. Her hair, long, dark, and curly, was pulled halfway up by an expensive-looking pin, and her nails were colored green. She was a perfect blend of Chinese and Scottish, and her pale skin reflected both sides of that same coin. She wore a green, silk dress, which had a close-fitting top, which emphasized her blossomed figure, and was cut down into a U-shape; the skirt portion of it, however, flared outwards, and came to rest just above her knees. She wore green heels to match the dress that evening, and a pear-shaped emerald, suspended on a platinum chain and surrounded by expertly-cut circular diamonds, hung from her throat.

Scorpius smirked; he could see right through Eloise, given that the Slytherin cunning seemed to be practically dripping from her pores. He could plainly see that her face was beautiful, and how lovely she would look on his arm, but, given that she was likely here to make a betrothal match before her final year at Hogwarts didn't faze him a bit. "I could say I was," he said levelly, with a small shrug of his shoulders, "but then I'd be lying."

Eloise took this information in stride as she stepped closer, conjuring some Firewhiskey into her own goblet. "Slytherins don't get into trouble for lying."

"How did your mother react?" he asked her then, and Eloise gave him a curious expression at that, so Scorpius knew that he had to give her more information. "When you were sorted into Slytherin, I mean. Was she all right with it?"

Eloise shrugged her white shoulders. "We never much talked about it, to be honest with you. I mean, after our wretch of a father left, Elliot clung to Mum, whereas I became independent, defiantly so..." She pursed her red lips. "I would stay at Hogwarts for Christmas, and no matter how many times Mum would attempt to reach out..."

"You just wanted some space?" Scorpius guessed.

Eloise smiled. "Admittedly, yes. I just didn't want to appear to be a burden. So then came the Prefect's badge fifth-year, and I'm assigned as Head Girl for next term..."