The Next Generation

Christmas Break at the Malfoys'

Scorpius had decided that he would go home over Christmas break, hoping that his father would be back home. He had been living alone with his grandparents, Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, for almost a year now, and he hadn't enjoyed a minute of it. His father, having been a former death eater, was being punished. However, his punishment wasn't to be nearly as severe as the other death eaters and followers, since he was so young when he was a death eater and he surrendered immediately after the Dark Lord was defeated. He had had to choose between serving some time in Azkaban, or helping to repair the wizarding and muggle communities around the world for an unset amount of time. He had chosen the latter, but both options included leaving Scorpius alone at the house with his grandparents for his last year before going to Hogwarts. Somehow his grandfather, a more severe former death eater, had wiggled his way out of a life sentence in Azkaban after spending years there, due to his connections and money. Since the fall of the Dark Lord, Lucius had been cruel and senseless. Scorpius expected he was frustrated to no longer be a well-respected, superior wizard. His dad insisted he was alright, but he could hear the tone of doubt it his voice whenever he made this claim. It was as if he was trying to convince himself his father wasn't all bad, but couldn't. Anyway, his dad accepted the consequences without question, feeling he deserved them. He regretted leaving Scorpius with his grandfather, of course, but promised to work hard and hopefully return early. He was to be home, at earliest, over Christmas Break, but it was unlikely. Staying at Hogwarts wouldn't be the ideal Christmas Break either, since both Albus and Rose were going home to their families, so he finally decided upon going home.

When Scorpius arrived at his grandfather's small, worn-looking house that he'd learned to call home, his heart leaped with joy at the thought of possibly seeing his father. His home would have been a much larger mansion, known to most people as Malfoy Manor. That building, however, had to be searched after the Dark Lord's defeat, and the Malfoy's were banned by the law from living in the home again as a measure of precaution. Unfortunately, they had also had to turn over the mass majority of their money to the government as a fee for their family's past crimes. He knocked on the worn door, because his grandfather always liked him to knock first, and then stepped inside the cold house.

"In here," called a male voice from the kitchen. It was odd of Lucius Malfoy to be in the kitchen; usually his grandmother Narcissa did the cooking. "I'm just preparing tea for the two of us," said the same voice. Scorpius was a bit surprised, but didn't say anything about him making tea.

"Where's my grandmother?" Scorpius asked.

"Narcissa is out right now." Scorpius was slightly disappointed, for he liked his grandmother much more than his grandfather, but he didn't let that show. Lucius walked into their so called 'living room' with the tea, which was more like a couch in the corner of the kitchen than an actual room, and Scorpius followed. They both sat down, and Scorpius took a sip of tea. It tasted different than usual; perhaps it was a different variety than usual. "So, have you been making friends at Hogwarts?" Scorpius nodded. "What are their names," his grandfather asked.

"There's Albus, Rose, and this kid Aaron, who are all very nice."

"And they're all from Slytherin, I expect," his grandfather inquired. Scorpius was going to lie and say yes, but... he couldn't. Something was wrong. It's not like he felt guilty about lying, he would have gladly lied to keep his Lucius from questioning him further. But Scorpius couldn't lie; it's like he was being forced to tell the truth. Then, an idea dawned on him. But no, it couldn't be a truth serum. Why would his grandfather do that to him? He was clearly waiting for an answer from Scorpius.

"Aaron is a Slytherin," he stated clearly.

"And the other two are...?" Lucius sneered.

When he couldn't resist the serum any more, he blurted out "Rose is from Ravenclaw and Albus is from... Gryffindor." Now, Scorpius knew he was in trouble. "Why did you give me a truth serum?" Scorpius said, glaring at his grandfather. Instead of answering the question, Lucius slapped him... hard.

"You won't continue these friendships, will you, Scorpius?" Lucius sneered, smirking.

"But you don't understand, they're good people, they're my fr—" Before Scorpius could finish his sentence, Lucius had cast a spell on him, and Scorpius was hit with an unbearable, torturous type of pain that he had never experienced before. The last word he heard before everything went black was "crucio."

Scorpius woke up in the same place where he had fallen, but Lucius Malfoy no longer towered over his crumpled figure. When he tried to sit up, his head started to throb, so he lied back down. At first, he couldn't remember what happened, then it all came rushing back to him. He wondered how long he had been there, hough he didn't dare try to get up again. Just then, the person who he least wanted to see came striding around the corner, to find Scorpius awake.

"I'm so sorry I had to use that spell on you, Scorpius," said his grandfather in a fake sincere voice. "But that was the only solution. I expect you won't be hanging around those type of people again?" Scorpius just groaned, clearly still in pain. Lucius grunted, and left the room smirking, making sure to kick Scorpius on the way out.

For the rest of the break, Narcissa took care of Scorpius. He had told his grandmother what Lucius had done, but she had just shrugged and supposedly had a talk with Lucius, though he doubted she had actually said anything. The rest of the break progressed very slowly for Scorpius, because even though his head stopped aching after a day, Narcissa still wouldn't allow him to go out and do anything. Of course, he didn't dare talk to Lucius, but it wasn't hard to avoid him since his grandfather seemed to be avoiding him as well. After a seemingly endless stretch of time, he returned to school. But Scorpius was no longer looking forward to seeing Albus and Rose again. He had put a lot of thought into it, and had decided it would be best to just end their friendship. Scorpius had no doubt in his mind that his grandfather would use the same torturing spell on him without a second thought if he were to ever hang out with them again, and he just didn't think he could deal with such unbearable pain all over again. When he returned back to Hogwarts the next day, he gloomily headed down to the Slytherin dormitory, trying not to think about what he would say to Albus and Rose when he saw them next.