Fic: 'Fathers and Sons' R
Title - Fathers and Sons
Author - softly_sweetly
Beta - silenceofcedars
Rating - R
Word Count - ~3,000
Characters/Pairings - Draco, Scorpius, Harry, Albus Severus, Highlight for pairing *Harry/Scorpius*
Warnings - Repeated reference to character death Highlight for character *Albus Severus Potter*. Dark!fic, Angst.
Disclaimer - I own nothing but the plot lines. I make no money from this, and mean no offence by any scene depicted within this story. All characters depicted in sexual situations herein are above the age of consent.
Summary - Fathers and sons share more than genes. They share prejudices and preconceptions, and when the line between father and son is blurred, morality no longer has a hold
Author's Notes - Written on the train in a flurry of narrow-ruled paper and overpriced black coffee, this counts to prompt #2 "Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities, truth isn't." - Mark Twain of my mission_insane Themed Table: Quotes.
Friday 28th July 2023 10:03
A wave of Minister Shacklebolt's wand ended the Silencing spell that made the final deliberations of the Wizengamot inaudible to the rest of the courtroom. Speaking with a weary clarity that represented both one of the longest trials of his life, and one of those in which he was most certain of the Wizengamot's decision, he opened the proceedings. "In the matter of the violent attack on Albus Severus Potter, which led to his death, we have heard all testimony and been presented all evidence in a free and fair court. A group of the defendant's peers have heard both his own testimony and the evidence against him as presented by the Aurors who arrived at the scene, the Healers who attempted to revive Albus Severus Potter, and legal counsel to both the Wizengamot and the defendant."
Pausing, Minister Shacklebolt cleared his throat and lay his wand down over the stack of parchment in front of him. Quietly, he continued, "This testimony was heard on Wednesday 26th July, wherein the defendant entered his plea. After the required deliberation period, we the Wizengamot have reached a verdict with no need for additional deliberation time. For the murder of Albus Severus Potter, we find the defendant guilty and sentence him to a life term in Azkaban without the posibility of parole."
As the courtroom erupted into cheers at his sentence and jeers at him, a mirthless smile flourished, hidden by white blond hair. Draco Malfoy was finally following in his father's footsteps.
Wednesday 26th July 2023 8:57
Sitting patiently in his chair, Draco ignored the chains clinking around his extremities to glance around the crowded public gallery. It was hard not to laugh. From the incensed, scandalised chatter it seemed that these people were surprised he was finally on trial. After centuries of Pureblood inbreeding, of dubious morals and Dark magic, was it really such a shock that he had done what he did?
His eyes saw the band of space, and beyond it the lone figure, separated from the crowd. Scorpius. Astoria had refused to come, of course; she was probably long gone with the family silver, and waiting for Scorpius to come and join her. But Scorpius was here, had come to Draco in his hour of need, and Draco felt a wave of emotion so great that he wanted to take Scorpius in his arms, to hold him close and beg for forgiveness for the pain and sorrow in Scorpius' eyes. He loved his son more than anything else in this world or the next, and it was for him that Draco composed his features, held his head high and prepared to pay for his actions.
The Wizengamot filed in silently, taking their seats with a fumbling grace that showed they were not often put through the rigmarole of a full criminal trial. The public gallery fell quiet instantly, silence put out of its reach by the quiet sobbing that Draco knew came from two redheaded women. However, even that stemmed slightly when Minister Shacklebolt opened the proceedings.
"We convene here today to hear testimony and see evidence relating to the murder of Albus Severus Potter. The facts will be laid out in a clear and unbiased way by both the prosecution and the defence, and the Wizengamot will retire into deliberations when these facts have been presented to us. To begin; Draco Malfoy, you stand before a council of your peers accused of the murder of Albus Severus Potter in cold blood and through violent, non-magical means. How do you respond to this accusation?"
Clearing his throat and resisting the urge to look again to Scorpius, Draco answered the question honestly.
"I respond with a plea of guilty."
Tuesday 18th July 2023 14:37
"I need to know why."
"I have nothing else to say." It was true; Draco had said all that he could when the Aurors had first put him in an interrogation room. Through both an overabundance of Veritaserum and a desire to speed up the dull mechanisms of the legal process, Draco had sat down and delivered a detailed monologue on the events.
"I need to know why!" Whoever had let Potter into Draco's cell may have taken his wand, but from the way Potter's hands were clenching, Draco suspected that precaution may not be enough to buy him grace. "I need to know why you did this, why you took my son from me. I need you to tell me what went through your mind when you… when you st-… why, Draco?"
The use of his given name, the inability to say what Draco had done - how he had ended Al's life - coupled with the tears in his eyes, showed just how completely Draco had ruined Harry's life. Swinging his legs off the bunk, Draco stood up and faced Harry. "Everything that I can say is in my statement."
"I read it," Harry spat. "You mean to say that you hate me that much? Could hate my child that much? My child, Malfoy! My son, and you think that spouted shite about school-boy rivalries and teenage jealousy is justification enough for ending an innocent boy's life?"
"Those were my reasons. I never claimed they were just."
"But they are your reasons? It wasn't to do with me, with what I did?"
"I wasn't aware you had done anything to deserve the death of your son." The ghost of a memory was still present in Draco, but pale enough that when he looked straight at it, it vanished away. He was being truthful with his words; paradoxically aware of, yet oblivious to, what Harry had done.
Harry faltered, wavering over his words and ultimately discarding them. Whatever Harry had hoped to find within the four walls of Draco's cell, Draco doubted he’d located it, and had nothing more to say on the matter. He waited, holding Harry's eyes and trying to work out if Harry would actually attempt to kill him. But, the anger in Harry's eyes remained impotent, and Draco just caught sight of the tears spilling over Harry's lower lids as Harry turned and walked out of the cell.
Harry was a stronger man than he; had the roles been reversed, Draco would have snapped Harry's neck without a flicker of conscience.
Thursday 13th July 2023 11:49
Initially he had been thrown in Azkaban, no questions asked, as the Aurors scrambled to find someone who was willing - or able - to impartially interview him. But he had finally been summoned from his cell four days after the fact to account for his actions.
With the incident in the forefront of his mind, Draco didn't bother with convention or waiting to be asked a question. Instead, he drank the water - laced with an unbeatable Veritaserum developed some years ago by a team of Unspeakables - and began to speak.
"It had been a particularly long week, one in which the global financial markets had fluctuated wildly, and I was under increasing pressure by my superiors at Gringotts, my place of employment. Though the trading Floos were closed, I worked all day Saturday and Sunday morning, trying to recoup the money that had been lost through falling shares. I returned home at Sunday lunch time, angry and dissatisfied with my life. I had consumed a large quantity of whisky, and headed to the sitting room to sleep it off.
"There, I found Al pacing, apparently waiting for my son, with whom he had been paired for a holiday assignment. Already angry and under the influence, I snapped at him, demanding to know why his filthy presence was sullying my house. He argued back, and in my mind the line between he and his father began to blur. The anger and dissatisfaction I felt began to pour out of me in increasingly poisonous words, shaped by a rivalry that had been in place since I began my education. I decried him for sins which had been committed before he was even born and, obviously incensed by the crimes I was falsely attributing to him, he fought back.
"As we argued I saw in him his father, who I have been constantly pitted against, who could have given more than a paltry statement at my trial to clear my name in the aftermath of the war. But I also saw Al himself, saw the ease of opportunity which I could never provide for my own son. I saw his father's achievements attributed to him, while my son suffered under my sins.
"When Al shouted that Malfoy was a disgraced name, and worth less than the breath it was spoken on, my temper snapped. Forgetting my wand in my anger, I closed my fingers around the neck of a crystal decanter. Fuelled by rage, I swung the decanter around and cracked Al across the head with it. The crystal shattered, leaving him bleeding and unsteady on his feet. Whether possessed by madness or fury, I do not know, but I drew my hand back and stabbed it forwards, sinking the sharp crystal into his flesh again and again. He was dead long before my anger dissipated and I threw the decanter aside. Staring at him, coldly aware of what I had done, I knew it was a crime which I could not purchase my way out of. Disinclined to waste my time on subterfuge and denial, I sent a Patronus to the Auror Department and awaited their arrival."
Falling silent, Draco sipped at the water not to ensure truth, but to ease his dry throat, and waited for the questions to come and seek clarification on his shaky, petty motive.
But, the silence stretched on, until finally the pale, ashen-faced Auror sat opposite him asked, "Do you have anything else to add?"
"Just that, as implausible as it may seem and as unwelcome as it will be, I regret my actions and the hurt I have caused the Potter family."
"It's far beyond too late for apologies. We'll see you burn for this."
Sunday 9th July 2023 17:36
Scorpius was in his room, blissfully unaware of the carnage three floors below him. Draco had sent his Patronus some ten minutes ago, and knew the response would be swift and most likely brutal. His hand shook from the bottle of whiskey he had downed in one, but Draco kept pressing his wand to his temple, pulling out the silvery strands that could incriminate him and depositing them in an ivory Pensieve. When the last memory was swirling with its brothers, Draco picked up the Pensieve and crossed to the fireplace. Inhaling deeply, Draco raised the Pensieve high above his head, closing his eyes as he brought his arms down and tossed the Pensieve and its contents into the flames.
Opening his eyes as the Pensieve was consumed, glowing into a dangerously black fireball before it melted away into nothing, Draco heard the sound of footsteps and turned around. Led by, in a sick twist of fate, Auror Weasley, a team of six Aurors spilled into his sitting room, fanning out skilfully to surround him and the body on the floor. But Auror Weasley's wand faltered and fell as he properly saw the body on the floor, and Draco almost felt sorry for him as he stammered, "That's… that's… it can't be… it's Al."
"I told you I had killed someone," Draco spoke quietly, confirming to the shell-shocked Aurors that they were indeed looking at the body of their superior's middle child.
Draco had no chance of dodging the right hook that sent him to the floor, and nor would he have wanted to. The cool balm of unconsciousness was welcome respite.
Sunday 9th July 2023 13:47
Draco would have walked straight past the sitting room if he hadn’t heard the sound of sobbing from inside. Immediately worried for his son, Draco drew up in front of the doors and opened them slowly, walking into the room already forming words of concerned inquiry.
The words died in his throat as he took in the scene, the blood that seemed to be everywhere including behind his lids as he tried to blink the vision away. But it wouldn't leave, and when he opened his eyes the scene was still there, his son was still kneeling on the carpet, a broken crystal decanter in his hand and the body of Albus Severus Potter sprawled over the rug.
"Father…"
"Scorpius, what… what?"
"He knew! He knew, and he was throwing it at me again and again, fucking bastard Potter and his bastard arrogance, always thinking he's so much better than me, so fucking special just because people know his goody-two-shoes name!"
The words were not Scorpius', they were Draco's, yelled at his own father in this sitting room when his own school days got too much to bear. The incoherent rambling, the hatred lacing every syllable, was as familiar to Draco as his own body, yet was pouring out of his son. Dropping to his knees in front of his son, he took the decanter from Scorpius' lax grip and squeezed Scorpius' shoulders. "Scorpius, what did you do?"
"He walked in on us, and he came here to throw it in my face."
"Us? Who is us?"
"Don't be mad, Father?" Scorpius suddenly looked so young, so very afraid of making Draco angry, and Draco didn’t know how to assure him that he would never stop worshipping his son. Shaking his head that no, he wouldn’t be angry, bile rose in Draco's throat when Scorpius carried on speaking. "It was just a stupid crush, and I didn’t think anything would happen. But then I saw him looking at me sometimes too, and I couldn’t help myself. We kissed, and more, but he always kept me at arms length, like a dirty little secret. And then Al just waltzed into his office, like he owned the place, and saw us kissing. He shoved me away, and said that my behaviour was inappropriate, that no matter my childish whims I had no right to touch a teacher that way. And Al… Al believed his dad, and he started trying to blackmail me, started throwing the insults at me all the time."
"Scorpius…" Draco's voice trailed off, and he tried not to think about the warmth seeping into his trousers where he knelt on the sodden rug. "Scorpius, did Professor Potter take advantage of you?"
"It wasn't like that! But Al… he made it sound like I was just deluded, like his precious dad would never do something like that, but he did, Father!"
Shaking his head, Draco had to stop Scorpius talking, or he would lose what little composure he had left. He'd suspected that Scorpius was disinterested in the fairer sex, but to think of his son with Potter in that way was more than Draco could bear. And it did nothing to alter the reality of the dead body in their sitting room. "Scorpius, why did Al come here?"
"To gloat, to go on about walking in on his parents fucking this morning. I didn't want to get Harry in trouble, and I let the taunting and the blackmail go on in term time, but he came here and carried it on. He said he was going to tell everyone, Father. Tell everyone that I was some pitiful little boy who wanted what he could never have. He's always hated me, always had a spiteful streak, and he was stood there like he had every right to be in our home and I just… I lashed out. I grabbed the decanter and hit him with it, but it didn’t shut him up! He kept on and on, telling me that Harry would never love me, that it was all in my head. He said you were fucked up, and I got it from you. So I hit him again. And again and again until he shut up."
Scorpius trailed into silence, collapsing against Draco, shaking with sobs and smearing blood all over Draco. And all Draco could do was put his arms around him, all he could comprehend was how hurt his son was, and how there was nothing he could do.
"Father, please don’t let them take me away."
"Hush, Scorpius, I won't. No one is taking you anywhere."
"We can hide him, hide this. No one has to know."
Draco shook his head slowly, "No, Scorpius, we can’t hide this."
They couldn't hide this - Al may have a big mouth and a spiteful temper, but Draco didn’t doubt that he'd have been smart enough to mention he was coming to Malfoy Manor - the antipathy between their families was not for nothing. But, as sure as he knew they could not undo what had happened here, Draco also knew he could not watch his son taken away from him, held up as a murderer because he snapped under the constant pressure of a Potter overshadowing his every move.
Holding Scorpius tighter, Draco closed his eyes and pressed his lips against Scorpius' hair. Moving one hand to free his wand from his robes, Draco whispered, "No one is taking you from me."
As he leant back and drew his wand, Draco was almost proud at the terrified clarity in Scorpius' eyes. His son was intelligent, worth more than a life rotted away in Azkaban. But though Scorpius realised what Draco was going to do, he had no time to stop it, and Draco smiled at his son as he whispered the spell.
"Obliviate."
Author - softly_sweetly
Beta - silenceofcedars
Rating - R
Word Count - ~3,000
Characters/Pairings - Draco, Scorpius, Harry, Albus Severus, Highlight for pairing *Harry/Scorpius*
Warnings - Repeated reference to character death Highlight for character *Albus Severus Potter*. Dark!fic, Angst.
Disclaimer - I own nothing but the plot lines. I make no money from this, and mean no offence by any scene depicted within this story. All characters depicted in sexual situations herein are above the age of consent.
Summary - Fathers and sons share more than genes. They share prejudices and preconceptions, and when the line between father and son is blurred, morality no longer has a hold
Author's Notes - Written on the train in a flurry of narrow-ruled paper and overpriced black coffee, this counts to prompt #2 "Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities, truth isn't." - Mark Twain of my mission_insane Themed Table: Quotes.
Friday 28th July 2023 10:03
A wave of Minister Shacklebolt's wand ended the Silencing spell that made the final deliberations of the Wizengamot inaudible to the rest of the courtroom. Speaking with a weary clarity that represented both one of the longest trials of his life, and one of those in which he was most certain of the Wizengamot's decision, he opened the proceedings. "In the matter of the violent attack on Albus Severus Potter, which led to his death, we have heard all testimony and been presented all evidence in a free and fair court. A group of the defendant's peers have heard both his own testimony and the evidence against him as presented by the Aurors who arrived at the scene, the Healers who attempted to revive Albus Severus Potter, and legal counsel to both the Wizengamot and the defendant."
Pausing, Minister Shacklebolt cleared his throat and lay his wand down over the stack of parchment in front of him. Quietly, he continued, "This testimony was heard on Wednesday 26th July, wherein the defendant entered his plea. After the required deliberation period, we the Wizengamot have reached a verdict with no need for additional deliberation time. For the murder of Albus Severus Potter, we find the defendant guilty and sentence him to a life term in Azkaban without the posibility of parole."
As the courtroom erupted into cheers at his sentence and jeers at him, a mirthless smile flourished, hidden by white blond hair. Draco Malfoy was finally following in his father's footsteps.
Wednesday 26th July 2023 8:57
Sitting patiently in his chair, Draco ignored the chains clinking around his extremities to glance around the crowded public gallery. It was hard not to laugh. From the incensed, scandalised chatter it seemed that these people were surprised he was finally on trial. After centuries of Pureblood inbreeding, of dubious morals and Dark magic, was it really such a shock that he had done what he did?
His eyes saw the band of space, and beyond it the lone figure, separated from the crowd. Scorpius. Astoria had refused to come, of course; she was probably long gone with the family silver, and waiting for Scorpius to come and join her. But Scorpius was here, had come to Draco in his hour of need, and Draco felt a wave of emotion so great that he wanted to take Scorpius in his arms, to hold him close and beg for forgiveness for the pain and sorrow in Scorpius' eyes. He loved his son more than anything else in this world or the next, and it was for him that Draco composed his features, held his head high and prepared to pay for his actions.
The Wizengamot filed in silently, taking their seats with a fumbling grace that showed they were not often put through the rigmarole of a full criminal trial. The public gallery fell quiet instantly, silence put out of its reach by the quiet sobbing that Draco knew came from two redheaded women. However, even that stemmed slightly when Minister Shacklebolt opened the proceedings.
"We convene here today to hear testimony and see evidence relating to the murder of Albus Severus Potter. The facts will be laid out in a clear and unbiased way by both the prosecution and the defence, and the Wizengamot will retire into deliberations when these facts have been presented to us. To begin; Draco Malfoy, you stand before a council of your peers accused of the murder of Albus Severus Potter in cold blood and through violent, non-magical means. How do you respond to this accusation?"
Clearing his throat and resisting the urge to look again to Scorpius, Draco answered the question honestly.
"I respond with a plea of guilty."
Tuesday 18th July 2023 14:37
"I need to know why."
"I have nothing else to say." It was true; Draco had said all that he could when the Aurors had first put him in an interrogation room. Through both an overabundance of Veritaserum and a desire to speed up the dull mechanisms of the legal process, Draco had sat down and delivered a detailed monologue on the events.
"I need to know why!" Whoever had let Potter into Draco's cell may have taken his wand, but from the way Potter's hands were clenching, Draco suspected that precaution may not be enough to buy him grace. "I need to know why you did this, why you took my son from me. I need you to tell me what went through your mind when you… when you st-… why, Draco?"
The use of his given name, the inability to say what Draco had done - how he had ended Al's life - coupled with the tears in his eyes, showed just how completely Draco had ruined Harry's life. Swinging his legs off the bunk, Draco stood up and faced Harry. "Everything that I can say is in my statement."
"I read it," Harry spat. "You mean to say that you hate me that much? Could hate my child that much? My child, Malfoy! My son, and you think that spouted shite about school-boy rivalries and teenage jealousy is justification enough for ending an innocent boy's life?"
"Those were my reasons. I never claimed they were just."
"But they are your reasons? It wasn't to do with me, with what I did?"
"I wasn't aware you had done anything to deserve the death of your son." The ghost of a memory was still present in Draco, but pale enough that when he looked straight at it, it vanished away. He was being truthful with his words; paradoxically aware of, yet oblivious to, what Harry had done.
Harry faltered, wavering over his words and ultimately discarding them. Whatever Harry had hoped to find within the four walls of Draco's cell, Draco doubted he’d located it, and had nothing more to say on the matter. He waited, holding Harry's eyes and trying to work out if Harry would actually attempt to kill him. But, the anger in Harry's eyes remained impotent, and Draco just caught sight of the tears spilling over Harry's lower lids as Harry turned and walked out of the cell.
Harry was a stronger man than he; had the roles been reversed, Draco would have snapped Harry's neck without a flicker of conscience.
Thursday 13th July 2023 11:49
Initially he had been thrown in Azkaban, no questions asked, as the Aurors scrambled to find someone who was willing - or able - to impartially interview him. But he had finally been summoned from his cell four days after the fact to account for his actions.
With the incident in the forefront of his mind, Draco didn't bother with convention or waiting to be asked a question. Instead, he drank the water - laced with an unbeatable Veritaserum developed some years ago by a team of Unspeakables - and began to speak.
"It had been a particularly long week, one in which the global financial markets had fluctuated wildly, and I was under increasing pressure by my superiors at Gringotts, my place of employment. Though the trading Floos were closed, I worked all day Saturday and Sunday morning, trying to recoup the money that had been lost through falling shares. I returned home at Sunday lunch time, angry and dissatisfied with my life. I had consumed a large quantity of whisky, and headed to the sitting room to sleep it off.
"There, I found Al pacing, apparently waiting for my son, with whom he had been paired for a holiday assignment. Already angry and under the influence, I snapped at him, demanding to know why his filthy presence was sullying my house. He argued back, and in my mind the line between he and his father began to blur. The anger and dissatisfaction I felt began to pour out of me in increasingly poisonous words, shaped by a rivalry that had been in place since I began my education. I decried him for sins which had been committed before he was even born and, obviously incensed by the crimes I was falsely attributing to him, he fought back.
"As we argued I saw in him his father, who I have been constantly pitted against, who could have given more than a paltry statement at my trial to clear my name in the aftermath of the war. But I also saw Al himself, saw the ease of opportunity which I could never provide for my own son. I saw his father's achievements attributed to him, while my son suffered under my sins.
"When Al shouted that Malfoy was a disgraced name, and worth less than the breath it was spoken on, my temper snapped. Forgetting my wand in my anger, I closed my fingers around the neck of a crystal decanter. Fuelled by rage, I swung the decanter around and cracked Al across the head with it. The crystal shattered, leaving him bleeding and unsteady on his feet. Whether possessed by madness or fury, I do not know, but I drew my hand back and stabbed it forwards, sinking the sharp crystal into his flesh again and again. He was dead long before my anger dissipated and I threw the decanter aside. Staring at him, coldly aware of what I had done, I knew it was a crime which I could not purchase my way out of. Disinclined to waste my time on subterfuge and denial, I sent a Patronus to the Auror Department and awaited their arrival."
Falling silent, Draco sipped at the water not to ensure truth, but to ease his dry throat, and waited for the questions to come and seek clarification on his shaky, petty motive.
But, the silence stretched on, until finally the pale, ashen-faced Auror sat opposite him asked, "Do you have anything else to add?"
"Just that, as implausible as it may seem and as unwelcome as it will be, I regret my actions and the hurt I have caused the Potter family."
"It's far beyond too late for apologies. We'll see you burn for this."
Sunday 9th July 2023 17:36
Scorpius was in his room, blissfully unaware of the carnage three floors below him. Draco had sent his Patronus some ten minutes ago, and knew the response would be swift and most likely brutal. His hand shook from the bottle of whiskey he had downed in one, but Draco kept pressing his wand to his temple, pulling out the silvery strands that could incriminate him and depositing them in an ivory Pensieve. When the last memory was swirling with its brothers, Draco picked up the Pensieve and crossed to the fireplace. Inhaling deeply, Draco raised the Pensieve high above his head, closing his eyes as he brought his arms down and tossed the Pensieve and its contents into the flames.
Opening his eyes as the Pensieve was consumed, glowing into a dangerously black fireball before it melted away into nothing, Draco heard the sound of footsteps and turned around. Led by, in a sick twist of fate, Auror Weasley, a team of six Aurors spilled into his sitting room, fanning out skilfully to surround him and the body on the floor. But Auror Weasley's wand faltered and fell as he properly saw the body on the floor, and Draco almost felt sorry for him as he stammered, "That's… that's… it can't be… it's Al."
"I told you I had killed someone," Draco spoke quietly, confirming to the shell-shocked Aurors that they were indeed looking at the body of their superior's middle child.
Draco had no chance of dodging the right hook that sent him to the floor, and nor would he have wanted to. The cool balm of unconsciousness was welcome respite.
Sunday 9th July 2023 13:47
Draco would have walked straight past the sitting room if he hadn’t heard the sound of sobbing from inside. Immediately worried for his son, Draco drew up in front of the doors and opened them slowly, walking into the room already forming words of concerned inquiry.
The words died in his throat as he took in the scene, the blood that seemed to be everywhere including behind his lids as he tried to blink the vision away. But it wouldn't leave, and when he opened his eyes the scene was still there, his son was still kneeling on the carpet, a broken crystal decanter in his hand and the body of Albus Severus Potter sprawled over the rug.
"Father…"
"Scorpius, what… what?"
"He knew! He knew, and he was throwing it at me again and again, fucking bastard Potter and his bastard arrogance, always thinking he's so much better than me, so fucking special just because people know his goody-two-shoes name!"
The words were not Scorpius', they were Draco's, yelled at his own father in this sitting room when his own school days got too much to bear. The incoherent rambling, the hatred lacing every syllable, was as familiar to Draco as his own body, yet was pouring out of his son. Dropping to his knees in front of his son, he took the decanter from Scorpius' lax grip and squeezed Scorpius' shoulders. "Scorpius, what did you do?"
"He walked in on us, and he came here to throw it in my face."
"Us? Who is us?"
"Don't be mad, Father?" Scorpius suddenly looked so young, so very afraid of making Draco angry, and Draco didn’t know how to assure him that he would never stop worshipping his son. Shaking his head that no, he wouldn’t be angry, bile rose in Draco's throat when Scorpius carried on speaking. "It was just a stupid crush, and I didn’t think anything would happen. But then I saw him looking at me sometimes too, and I couldn’t help myself. We kissed, and more, but he always kept me at arms length, like a dirty little secret. And then Al just waltzed into his office, like he owned the place, and saw us kissing. He shoved me away, and said that my behaviour was inappropriate, that no matter my childish whims I had no right to touch a teacher that way. And Al… Al believed his dad, and he started trying to blackmail me, started throwing the insults at me all the time."
"Scorpius…" Draco's voice trailed off, and he tried not to think about the warmth seeping into his trousers where he knelt on the sodden rug. "Scorpius, did Professor Potter take advantage of you?"
"It wasn't like that! But Al… he made it sound like I was just deluded, like his precious dad would never do something like that, but he did, Father!"
Shaking his head, Draco had to stop Scorpius talking, or he would lose what little composure he had left. He'd suspected that Scorpius was disinterested in the fairer sex, but to think of his son with Potter in that way was more than Draco could bear. And it did nothing to alter the reality of the dead body in their sitting room. "Scorpius, why did Al come here?"
"To gloat, to go on about walking in on his parents fucking this morning. I didn't want to get Harry in trouble, and I let the taunting and the blackmail go on in term time, but he came here and carried it on. He said he was going to tell everyone, Father. Tell everyone that I was some pitiful little boy who wanted what he could never have. He's always hated me, always had a spiteful streak, and he was stood there like he had every right to be in our home and I just… I lashed out. I grabbed the decanter and hit him with it, but it didn’t shut him up! He kept on and on, telling me that Harry would never love me, that it was all in my head. He said you were fucked up, and I got it from you. So I hit him again. And again and again until he shut up."
Scorpius trailed into silence, collapsing against Draco, shaking with sobs and smearing blood all over Draco. And all Draco could do was put his arms around him, all he could comprehend was how hurt his son was, and how there was nothing he could do.
"Father, please don’t let them take me away."
"Hush, Scorpius, I won't. No one is taking you anywhere."
"We can hide him, hide this. No one has to know."
Draco shook his head slowly, "No, Scorpius, we can’t hide this."
They couldn't hide this - Al may have a big mouth and a spiteful temper, but Draco didn’t doubt that he'd have been smart enough to mention he was coming to Malfoy Manor - the antipathy between their families was not for nothing. But, as sure as he knew they could not undo what had happened here, Draco also knew he could not watch his son taken away from him, held up as a murderer because he snapped under the constant pressure of a Potter overshadowing his every move.
Holding Scorpius tighter, Draco closed his eyes and pressed his lips against Scorpius' hair. Moving one hand to free his wand from his robes, Draco whispered, "No one is taking you from me."
As he leant back and drew his wand, Draco was almost proud at the terrified clarity in Scorpius' eyes. His son was intelligent, worth more than a life rotted away in Azkaban. But though Scorpius realised what Draco was going to do, he had no time to stop it, and Draco smiled at his son as he whispered the spell.
"Obliviate."