Falling for You: A New Generation Harry Potter Fanfic

3: Christmas

FIVE YEARS EARLIER

"Is there anyone staying here for Christmas?" asked one of the head boys, scanning the dorm room for anyone's hand. The room was silent and everyone was slouched in some sort of poofy armchair, studiously ignoring the head boy. But one extremely pale and knobby hand shot up into the air and said, "Why do you ask?" in a prim, polite voice.

The head boy motioned for the little first year to come up to him, smiling at how small he was. The first year pushed his way out of the deep and plush chair, scampered across the floor, and landed next to the taller boy, who was dwarfing him by a good two feet.

The little boy was Scorpius Malfoy, a tuft of white blond hair on his head and sporting a case of the winter sniffles. The head boy grinned to himself, again wondering at the miracle that was a Malfoy in the Gryffindor dorm room. For years their family had been Slytherins, and now a scrawny, probably not Gryffindor material anyways, stood in front of him.

The head boy crouched down and whispered to Scorpius, pretending not to know that the entire room was probably listening in. "Hogwarts has to be shut down over the break so that they can replenish our protection spells and all students are being asked to go home for the holidays. Sorry, mate."

Scorpius's face fell, and the head boy scrambled to add something nice, "But don't worry, the Potter-Weasley family generously agreed to take any Gryffindor students in need of a home this Christmas. ALBUS POTTER!"

A head popped up, the person's green eyes sparkling behind a mass of black fringe. Albus sauntered up to the two other boys, listened to what the head boy had to say, and then turned to face the boy who would be going home with him this week. His face froze for a split second, before breaking out in a contagious smile and blissfully exclaiming, "My family's gonna love this!"

Two days later, as Scorpius Malfoy showed up to the Potter house with Al's arm happily slung over his shoulders, the entire family did the exact same thing Albus had done. Froze, said something loud, and then fawned over him.

Ginny refused to stop feeding him, Harry talked to him about Quidditch for a good couple of hours, Ron grumbled, but smiled when he heard Scorpius refer to essays as "worse than that one time he fell into the lake and was captured by the big squid", and Hermione insisted in helping Scorpius with his overly-gelled hair. Let's not even get started on the Weasley gandparents. Arthur could've talked to Scorpius for hours about muggle devices and Molly had a blast creating a sweater with a different letter on it for once. Even the other kids, James, Lily, Hugo, and Rose, adored Scorpius.

Then, as they sat at the dinner table, Scorpius's cheeks gaining color from the cough syrup Hermione forced him to drink and the sweater Molly sewed that hung off his wrists, Scorpius finally knew he had found his place.

"Hey, Scorp, what-" Al started to ask, but not before Scorpius stopped him.

"Scorp?" He asked, a doubtful look on Scorpius's face. His father always refused to call him anything but his name and he had never had a good enough friend to have a nickname.

"Yeah." Albus replied, stuffing turkey into his mouth as he talked, much to the chagrin of Ginny. She reached across the table to wipe his face, but he shrugged her away.

"Well then I'm going to have to call you Al."

"Okay, Scorp."

"Okay, Al."

Albus's face broke into one of his usual smiles and he started to laugh, booming and spitting turkey onto the red table cloth. Ginny sat back in her chair and threw up her hands, knowing her efforts were no good. But across the table, much to his surprise, Scorp felt himself grinning.

Later that night, as Scorp and Al attempted to do their potions homework at the table, Harry and Ron sat by the fire, not taking their eyes off of the two.

"Well I'll be damned." Ron muttered.

Harry nodded in response.

Ron continued, "A Malfoy and Potter doing their homework together and becoming friends."

Harry nodded again and added to the conversation, "They're a new generation, Ron, and they're not letting their parent's mistakes dictate who they are."

Ron looked at his best friend for a couple of seconds, took a sip of his drink, and murmured, "Bloody hell, mate, that was deep."

A same sort of conversation was going on in Ginny's room, as her and Hermione wrapped last minute Christmas presents.

"Do you wonder why Scorpius isn't at the Malfoy Manor this Christmas?" Ginny asked.

"I heard him and his wife were taking a vacation to France." Hermione answered, looking down at the bow she was tying.

"Without Scorpius?"

"Mhmm."

Ginny sighed. "Well we took in Harry when he had nowhere to go and he turned out pretty well, I figure we can do the same thing for Scorpius."

"Agreed." Hermione replied, already deciding in her head that Scorpius would be a part of the family for as long as he wanted to.

"I have no clue what I'm supposed to do." Albus groaned, pushing his fringe off his forehead. His green eyes were wide and strained as he stared down at his potions homework.

Scorpius smiled softly. He had finished his worksheet a half hour ago and now he was left trying to help Al with his.

Was this what friends did? Help each other with homework? Hang out at each other's houses? Was this normal? Goodness, having friends was hard.

"Scorp? You okay?" Albus asked, peering at Scorpius' face.

"Yeah, yeah. You need more help?"

"I think I've got it. Can you check?"

Scorpius scanned over the paper, a slight smirk on his face as he reached the end.

"What? What is it, Scorp?" Al asked, a wary grin on his face.

"It's all wrong." Scorp slid the paper back over.

"No."

"Yes."

"Ah, c'mon. FREAKING POTIONS HOMEWORK."

Scorpius laughed, the second time in a day, Ron choked on his drink, Harry grinned to himself, and Ginny yelled from across the house, "Language, mister!"

Albus grinned slyly, the sides of his mouth pulling towards his ears, and started to turn his worksheet into a paper plane, which proceeded to fly around the room.

Oh yeah, thought Scorpius to himself, this was friendship.

Hi y'all.

Sorry to malecismyOTP and scarysolangelo for not updating sooner

I'm so rude

SCHOOL RULES MY LIFE

Also 18 reads, what the frickle. This is AMAZE

Seriously AWESOME

So comment if you like this dip into their past

I think I'm going to show y'all their backstory for a bit and come back to the present

LOVE LOVE LOVE Y'ALL

again supes sorry to malecismyOTP and scarysolangelo