Soldiers and Serpents //Scorbus

19 Family Ties

Everyone had gone home for Christmas. Exams were over, Formal was done. They'd been home for a couple days, cooped up in the house. Draco has been under inquiries by the Ministry, being kept tabs on at home and at work. He's actually had more days off since they were still contemplating if he should even be at work at at all. If he was to be deemed a threat, then it would pose security issues. Not that it mattered he was home. Other than preparing for the Christmas party, Draco would mostly tuck away in his study. Which left the twins alone.

Scorpius laid on the snow covered grass above his mother's grave, imagining how her body looked now. Mostly decayed, what was left of her skin sinking into her skull. Worms and other creatures living in what use to be her body. The thought made him feel worse. "I get it." He speaks out loud. He use to feel weird about this, talking to his mother even though she was dead. Now he didn't. "I understand why you didn't tell me about Cypress." Scorpius raised his cigarette up to his lips, taking a drag before feeling a tear slide down the left side of his face. His back was cold from the snow. It sunk into his black sweater and green striped scarf, making it damp.

"I wanted to be mad. I really wanted to be mad at you." Scorpius goes on, staring up at the overcast sky. "But you just didn't want me to feel like this. To feel... misplaced. Like I didn't belong." He felt more tears slip down his cheeks and he wiped them with his sleeves. "So I forgive you, Mum." Scorpius's face was pink now, his eyes red from crying. "I miss you." His voice cracks with emotion. Scorpius blinked rapidly, trying to stop the tears from falling.

"I don't know what to do anymore. It's like everything I knew is gone and I'm rebuilding from the ground up." Scorpius sniffles, taking another puff from his cigarette. He lets the smoke out of his mouth slowly, watching as it dissipates into the cold air. "I wish it was easier for me to deal with these things. I know if you were here you'd have me vent all my thoughts and feelings to you until I just fell asleep. But now I barely sleep at all." He felt guilt and frustration with himself. "I wish things were different. That you were here." Scorpius finished brokenly, condoning himself to silence after that.

It was a couple hours later when he walked back into the Manor, closing the massive door behind him. "Scorpius." Draco greets him, coming out of the entry room. "Come help me sign the invitations for this year's party." His father requests. Scorpius nods, following the older platinum man into the dining room. He sat down where all the invitations were, sitting beside Draco. "You smell like smoke." Draco observes.

"I wonder why." Scorpius responds, the sarcasm not lost on the older male. Scorpius dips the quill into the ink, pulling an invitation towards him where he neatly signs Malfoy. Draco didn't react to the sarcasm. He just grabs his own quill and begins to sign them as well. The signatures were identical. It was something that they all did, sign Malfoy in pretty perfect cursive. It was like their trademark. Or one of them, at least. "Don't you think I deserve an apology?" He couldn't help but ask. Draco shrugged.

"Raven deserved to know the truth. I don't regret anything." The man was level when he responded, no anger or contempt in his tone. They were silent for a bit, Scorpius subjecting himself to just saying nothing instead of arguing. Draco hadn't made any move to disinherit him or take the trust fund. Clearly he feared losing Raven more than casting Scorpius out of the family. Even though the knowledge that Draco was so content with removing Scorpius was painful for the younger boy, he tried to ignore it. Scorpius tried to look at it logically. How would he feel if a child he raised- who wasn't his son- gave him grief from the time he was eleven? After putting himself in Draco's position, Scorpius found it hard to judge too harshly.

They had been cordial to one another since break started. No arguments. It was almost as though they mutually decided to coexist as they have for many years; except no longer subject to pretend to care for another. Maybe Scorpius just wasn't ready to loose the only father he had known; even if they didn't get on well. When Raven begin to ignore Scorpius, probably still trying to process where they stood with eachother, he found himself latching onto whatever he had left.