He never was sure why he went to that first meeting. He gave different answers to different audiences. To some, he claimed it was to show that he was different from his father, to break with the family legacy. To others, he said that with ambitions like his, he thought it wise to take advantage of another opportunity to practice for Defense Against the Dark Arts. To yet others, he told that he had been bored that night, and welcomed the chance of an interesting diversion.
Perhaps it was one of those things. Perhaps it was none of them. Perhaps it was a combination of the three.
Perhaps it had something to do with the most infuriating, distracting mane of red hair at all of Hogwarts.
~*~
Scorpius Malfoy had seen the Weasley girl putting up a sign by the entrance to the Great Hall as he went in for breakfast. It was the red hair that caught his eye. Annoyingly, it always seemed to be doing that. He would blame the color, except for the fact that there were so many other redheads at school that went unnoticed by him. He told himself that it was just so much harder to miss it was so much bigger than anyone else’s.
He had quelled to urge to find out what she was advertising when he by it again as he left breakfast for his first class of the day. Unfortunately, his curiosity kept growing throughout the day, but he managed, though just barely, to pass it by without sparing it so much as a glance when he went to lunch. By suppertime, he wasn’t so lucky.
His last class of the day was History of Magic. Though a serious student, Scorpius had long since given up any hope of paying attention during the class. He simply taught himself the necessary information by reading the textbook. It was dry, but nothing could be drier than Binns.
Earlier that afternoon, Hagrid had run over in Care of Magical Creatures, and he’d had to rush to make it back to the castle in time for Arithmancy. He’d been in the Entrance Hall before he’d realized that he’d left his bag back by the hut. He had no time to fetch it, as Professor Vector had no sympathy for tardiness. Since there had been a test that day, Scorpius had only needed to borrow a quill from his neighbor, and hadn’t been called out on his lack of a textbook.
This, however, left him nothing to do in History of Magic. He had parchment for “notes” to doodle on, and no notes or books to secretly read while he should have been listening to Professor Binns’s lecture. He often wondered how furtive he truly needed to be, though, as many students at Hogwarts hypothesized that Binns wouldn’t notice or care enough to interrupt his class if they all came to class wearing nothing but feather boas. Death hadn’t stopped him from lecturing, after all, so what could?
Scorpius had tried to be good for once and listen to the descriptions of the dark time when the Dark Wizard Ulfric the Ugly was powerful, but Scorpius found his attention drifting despite Binns’s repeated descriptions of the huge amount of blood and gore.
Naturally, his thoughts drifted to the reason that he was stuck actually trying to listen to the lecture in History of Magic. Scorpius was usually a very organized person. It was highly atypical of him to leave his bag “ or any other possessions of his, for that matter “ lying about, even when he was running late. He wasn’t usually running late, for that matter, but that had been out of his control.
The problem was, he was so busy thinking about Rose Weasley that the bag hadn’t been at the top of his list of priorities. He felt stupid for wondering about the announcement she’d put up so much. It probably was just another broadside about a meeting or fundraiser of S.P.E.W. It was one of her mother’s causes that the girl had carried on.
Yet he couldn’t help wondering about it during Care of Magical Creatures, and then he’d found himself wondering about it in History of Magic. While Binns was boring the whole class almost to tears with his descriptions of the systematic rape of both Muggle and magical women under Ulfric’s reign, Scorpius Malfoy made the decision to find out what Rose Weasley was advertising. He figured that once he found out about how boring the cause was, he could stop thinking about it.
~*~
Four days later, instead of heading to his dormitory in the dungeons after dinner, Scorpius tromped up the stairs to the library. The meeting should have started five minutes before, but Scorpius was in no hurry. After looking over the notice several times in the past few days, he had learned that Rose Weasley was attempting to revive Dumbledore’s Army. He had also realised that the meeting spot chosen, the library, was probably a poor choice. Madam Pince often got mad at two students exchanging a quiet word while studying, and, though ancient, was still a force to be reckoned with. A group the size of Rose’s probably had gotten kicked out before their meeting could get started, and Scorpius had no wish to be branded a troublemaker like them.
When he arrived at the library, he stood in the doorway to observe the scene before him. Probably thirty or so students had gathered in the area of the library with a large number of desks. Actually, it was an area where there had been a large number of desks, for somebody had apparently transformed all of them into sofas and armchairs except for two desks off to the corner where some annoyed-looking Ravenclaws were trying to study. Some students were lying on them, while others were standing around in small groups. Everyone seemed to be talking, and loudly, too. Madam Pince would have thrown a fit, but she was nowhere in sight.
Suddenly, some second year boy, rather big for his age, that Scorpius was vaguely aware belonged to Hufflepuff house, called out, “What’s he doing here?”
The group, which had been relaxed only seconds before, seemed to stiffen. Everyone fell silent and turned towards the doorway, where Scorpius stood framed.
On the Defensive by sorrow_of_severus
Story Notes:
Let me say it here once and for all right here. None of the chapters in this story are written by J.K. Rowling, the rightful owner of all encompassed in the universe of Harry Potter. Therefore, it stands to reason that I, the writer of this fanfic, am just fiddling around with some ideas from her wonderful work.
Chapter Endnotes: As is the case with many other of my stories, I am forever grateful to Becca (twilightHPgirl18) for beta'ing. You rock, Becca!