Name Game (completed)

Prologue

AUTHOR'S NOTE: (26-05-14) the prologue has finally been edited to my satisfaction :) 

Scorpius was watching the happy red and dark-haired family from the opposite end of a platform. It wasn’t fair – those children, mucking around or gossiping, had everything. Fame, friends, and, above all, love to the point of adoration. They had the attention of everyone on the platform – with the exception of those who were looking at him.

Scorpius Malfoy.

Platinum-blonde Scorpius Malfoy.

His very hair colour marked him out as one of Them.

A Malfoy. The parents congregating on the platform would look pointedly at him, then whisper in hushed tones to their friends, before turning to their children. “That’s Scorpius Malfoy,” they would say. “His father was a Death Eater. You stay away from him, sweetie.”

He looked back at the Potters and Weasleys. There were two he knew of joining this year like him – the famous Harry Potter’s son and his best friends’ daughter. “Those Weasleys breed like rabbits,” his grandfather had remarked haughtily, when Draco brought the matter of Scorpius’ schoolfellows up. While he loathed to agree with old Lucius, Scorpius could see his point. Judging by the size of the gathering on the platform, he have thought there were at least three or four his age.

Scorpius had always longed to be part of a big family.

He craned his pale neck to see. The small boy with the untidy back hair and glasses was obviously Potter’s son; he was the mirror image of his father. Scorpius was unacquainted with Harry, but the war hero’s face regularly graced the covers of Wizarding tabloids. There were two girls of around the right age in the gathering, both with reddish hair. Could it be the older one, with the auburn curls, already dressed in her robes, or was there an older Weasley girl? Then he heard Ronald Weasley’s voice float over the crowd, as he addressed the robed girl. “Make sure you beat him in every test, Rosie...” So it was Rose. His heart sank as he realise who the “him” was.

“Go on, Scorp. Don’t want to miss your Sorting!” his mother said bravely, finally plucking up the courage to say goodbye.

 “Bye, Mum. Goodbye, Dad,” Scorpius replied. His father nodded curtly, in a manner which could have been mistaken for coldness, but Astoria burst in noisy tears and embraced her son.

“Dearest, you are making a scene. Let poor Scorpius board the train,” Draco said pointedly.

“Yes, Scorpius, go on,” Astoria sniffed tearfully, taking a monogrammed handkerchief emblazoned with the Malfoy crest from her coat. Scorpius pulled away, and turned to his father. Draco gave a tight smile and laid his hand on Scorpius’ shoulder – the closest he ever got to an affectionate gesture. Even so, Scorpius liked the gentle weight, and it was with some reluctance that he finally dragged his heavy trunk aboard the train.

He had to walk nearly the entire length of the train before he came across an empty compartment. There had been numerous unoccupied seats, but Scorpius knew that the students already seated in those compartments would not welcome his presence. He stowed his trunk away safely - after rooting through it for his favourite novel, an ever-so-slightly manhandled copy of The Fellowship of the Ring.

He had taken it from a Muggle boy who had once managed to climb into the Malfoy gardens. His first intention on finding the curly-haired boy, a year or two his senior, had been to make friends. He had introduced himself politely, but he’d lived his life isolated from other children, with only his silent father, outspoken grandfather, and overprotective mother for company (his grandmother never ventured outside her room, and Scorpius had seen her only twice in his life). The words came out as little more than a whisper, and the Muggle boy had started, seen a boy as pale as a spectre with almost-white hair, dressed entirely in grey. He’d panicked – understandably, Scorpius now realised – and fled, returning to his home to tell everyone who would listen that the big old manner house over the hill was haunted by a ghost boy called Scorpion.