Soldiers and Serpents //Scorbus

58 Vengeance

Scorpius walked into the hallway that afternoon as the sound of the front door opens, and watched as Orion and Harry Potter walked through the threshold. "You're not charging me to stay here, right?" Orion asked the Auror. Scorpius found himself smiling, and met Orion's gaze.

"Couldn't stay away, could you?" Scorpius wonders, glad to see that Orion was coping well enough to crack jokes. Harry closes the door and then looks around at the hall.

"Wow. You've cleaned up the place." He observes.

"Did it look bad before?" Orion wonders. Harry nods curtly. "You brought control-freak Scorpius Malfoy to a place of squalor and didn't expect he'd clean it up? You did see the spotless state of that manor, did you not?" The boy obnoxiously asked. Harry shook his head in dismay, obviously having been subjected to this kind of treatment all day. "And they say he's the one who defeated Voldemort." Orion snorts, but Scorpius saw Harry flinch slightly. Scorpius gave a light hearted laugh, gesturing for one of Orion's bags.

"Well, I'll leave you boys to it. If you need anything, send Kreacher. I'll be back tomorrow for a briefing." Harry tells them, going to leave again.

"Oh, a phone charger would be nice." Scorpius tells him. "My phone's dead."

"iPhone?" Orion asked him. Scorpius nods, expecting him to say he had an available charger. "I should've known. Elitist-"

"Hey!" Scorpius cuts off his words, and Orion laughs. Harry rolls his eyes.

"I'll send an owl." The Auror says, and leaves the way he came. The boys grab the bags and Scorpius leads the way up the stairs to the top floor where Regulus and Sirius's rooms were. Scorpius opens the door with his foot, and steps in.

"I figured you'd want this room. It's bigger." Scorpius explains, looking around at the Gryffindor posters and flags. Orion sets his bags on the floor and snorts at the decoration.

"What kind of dork decorates their room like this?"

"Those were my thoughts exactly. Apparently Sirius and Regulus were both those kinds of dorks." Scorpius makes his way back out of the room.

"Oh, so you set me up in the Gryffindor room, and you set yourself up in the Slytherin one." Orion looked at him. Scorpius smiles.

"I wasn't really thinking about it, maybe subconsciously." He shrugs. "I'll let you get settled in. Fresh sheets are in the hall closet. Watch for doxies. I've been working to get rid of all the creatures that have made their home here. Then come downstairs. We have food."

Orion pulls the nearest Gryffindor flag off the wall, and Scorpius leaves him to it. Raven was sitting in the dining room on the ground floor as he enters. She sat at the head of the table, her makeup done today. Michael sat to her left. She told Scorpius yesterday, today's the day for mourning. Tomorrow we return to our faces. So that's what they did.

Scorpius may still feel like all the happiness had been sucked out of his life, but he could smile. He could joke, and be arrogant. Put on that aura that said I'm fine. Even through everything. I'm here. I'm alive. His feet carried him to sit on Raven's right side, and propped his feet up on the table. She sent him a glare when he did, turning the page of-

"You're joking me. Twilight?" Scorpius gestures to the book.

"Ashton thought I should read it." She says.

"Does he know you at all?" Scorpius grimaced, lacing his fingers together behind his head. "I'm never going to hear the end of this." Raven sets the book on the table, picking up her half-eaten bagel to take a bite.