Disclaimers: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by J.K. Rowling, various publishers including, but not limited to, Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros. Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Author's Notes: Beta-read by the lovely Alice Helena. Hope you enjoy!

Warnings: Fluff.

Of Chocolate Cauldrons and Birthday Wishes

"You can have anything you want."

Scorpius' little heart jolted in his chest at those words. "Anything?" he asked in awe. His eyes were wide as he surveyed the shelves of the shop, piled high with all manner of colourful sweets and elaborate boxes of chocolates.

"Anything," his father assured him seriously, "it's not every day that a young man turns seven."

A grin, worthy of a Leprechaun after a prank, split Scorpius' face into two. "Thank you, Father!" he cried, hugging his waist forcefully and pushing his grateful face into his father's robes.

"I'll wait for you at the counter, Scorpius," chuckled his father, patting his blond head, "just choose any sweet you want."

"Yes!" he exclaimed, letting him go and swirling around to have a better look at the shop, trying to decide which way to go first.

It was not an easy task.

Honeydukes was swarming with people. So many people, that Scorpius had to push himself in between the customers' legs to reach the shelves, and examine their contents. The blond boy could take… anything he wanted! And he was going to get as many sweets as his little arms could carry. Then, he would stuff his pockets to bursting, and if it really came down to it, he would bite down on as many confections as he could, carrying them like a dog with a bone.

And today, his father would buy him as many boxes of his favourite chocolates, as Scorpius could bring to the counter; the sweets that his mother didn't want him to eat. The ones that melted in his mouth so deliciously, and left him slightly lightheaded and giggling, like his parents, after they had their nightcap.

But as Scorpius looked for those particular chocolates, without managing to find them, he found himself nose to nose with a shelf covered in boxes of Glacial Snow Flakes. He grinned at the toffees, and took a big box in his hands. He liked them. He liked the fact that when he put them in his mouth, it was a bit like eating snow, and since his mother never let him eat snow, he had to make the most of those sweets.

A group of tall girls giggled next to him, and pushed him out of their way as they grabbed a box each. "Oh Merlin," said one of them, "this is gonna be totally perfect if John tries to kiss me at Madam Puddifoot's later."

"Totally perfect," agreed another girl, "they leave your mouth all fresh… and when he kisses you, if he uses his tongue, you know…"

Scorpius rolled his eyes, and walked away. He was not interested in the slightest about the perks of those sweets when it came to smooches. Instead, he sighed. Merlin, why did his birthday have to fall on one of those weekends when all the students would come out of the school, and crowd his favourite shop like that? Blimey! With all those people around, the shelves looked emptier by the minute! He had to hurry to find what he wanted!

He walked past piles of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, and Chocolate Frogs, without deigning them a single glance; he had lots of them at home already. He kept his distance from the Exploding Bonbons, which he distrusted greatly, after a minor accident while at Auntie Daphne's house when he was five.

"Dada, Fudge Fly?" asked a toddler to his father, as he pointed excitedly towards a shelf.

Scorpius' eyes brightened. He loved Fudge Flies. He glanced up, as the tall father picked up his son, and went to the shelves to let him take a box into his clumsy hands, telling him what a good little boy he was.

Scorpius huffed impatiently, he marched towards the sweets, and stood on tiptoes to reach them. One, two, three, four boxes seemed to be enough. He piled them carefully, one over the other, and was glad to see that he still had enough space for other chocolates in the junctures of his elbows.

As he balanced the confections in his arms, he started to wander about the place again. A couple of boys were laughing, and breathing fire in front of the Pepper Imps shelf. They turned to him, and pretended to try to blow flames into Scorpius' face. He stuck out his tongue at them hurried away and…

He finally spotted them.

Chocolate Cauldrons.

His most favourite chocolates in the whole Wizarding World.

And he was just in luck, apparently; because even though there were only a few boxes left on the middle shelf, the mass of people who crowded the place seemed to be steering clear of that corner.

All of them except for one.

Scorpius' narrowed his eyes, as he observed a little redheaded girl gripping the edge of the shelf with her plump fingers. She pushed herself up on tiptoes, as she tried hard to reach one of the Chocolate Cauldron boxes on the shelf, without managing one bit.

He glared at her, as she bent her tights-covered knee to find leverage on a lower shelf, and pull herself up. She barely managed; instead, slipping back down and letting out a small whine of frustration.

Well, all the better for Scorpius, really.

His father had told him that he could have anything he wanted, and he wanted those Chocolate Cauldrons boxes. All of them. And he was going to get them.

He straightened his back, and walked towards the almost empty shelf. All he had to do, was take the sweets from the shelf, and disappear with them through the crowd. All he had to worry about, was doing it all before the little girl would start crying or screaming for her parents, and telling them that she had seen them first.

Not that she could call bagsie on the chocolates, honestly; and even if she did, Scorpius was ready to fight for them.

He held his breath, and saw out of the corner of his eye the little freckled hand withdrawing from the shelf, as he stretched his own to grab the last three boxes of Chocolate Cauldrons, placing them securely in his arms, with the Fudge Flies and the Glacial Snow Flakes.

He turned on his heels without casting a glance to the little girl, and took a tentative step towards his next destination: the Sugar Quills shelf. Before he could even think about walking in that direction, though, a soft sniffle made him stop in his tracks.

He clutched the sweets at his chest and darkened, trying to resist the curiosity to turn and look at the source of that sniffle. But he couldn't find the will needed to resist turning, when another sob reached his ears.

Scorpius turned slightly, and stared at the little girl. Her brown eyes, probably the biggest thing on her freckled face, were shining with unshed tears as she gazed at him. Her small, rosy bottom lip was trembling frantically, and her button-like nose was flaring softly, as if she was trying to breathe through her nostrils to restrain her tears.

Scorpius looked at her sternly. "It's my birthday today," he let her know haughtily, "and my father said that I can have anything I want."

She stared at him without uttering a word, but looked every moment more dangerously close to tears.

"And I want the Chocolate Cauldrons," continued Scorpius sternly, "they are my favourite."

The corners of her little mouth dropped downwards, as she kept looking at him wide-eyed.

"You can't cry," he told her darkly, "they are not yours." He swallowed, and looked down at the chocolates in his arms. "It's not my fault if you are so short," he said, "next time you should grow more before you decide to come in here."

She sniffled a couple of times, her small chest heaving with the hiccups that preceded a good, long cry.

Scorpius turned away from her, looking apprehensively around him. Maybe if he gave her something else, a Chocolate Wand perhaps, or an Acid Pop, she would not start to cry. Because Scorpius didn't want her to cry; somehow he could only imagine her wailing to be extremely high-pitched and irritating.

He clutched his sweets tightly in one arm, and stretched a hand towards a pile of Chocolate Wands stashed neatly next to the Sugared Butterfly Wings. He grabbed one, and turned towards the redheaded girl. "Here," he said, offering her the sweet. "Take it."

She pouted almost angrily, and crossed her tiny arms on her chest, shaking her head.

"They are made of chocolate too," he pointed out impatiently.

She shook her head again, and looked dejectedly at the Chocolate Cauldrons in Scorpius' arms, her eyes filling with tears once again.

"These are mine," he told her crossly, "I saw them first." He knew he was lying, Merlin only knew for how long she had tried to reach them.

Her face scrunched up in a painful expression, and she opened her mouth wide, as she started to cry in earnest. Her cries were really high-pitched, and suddenly Scorpius felt panic rise inside of him. Surely, if someone came and saw her like that, they would have made him give her all the Chocolate Cauldron boxes he had.

Because she was smaller, younger, and cuter than Scorpius. And he knew perfectly well that adults liked small, young, and cute children.

He hastily put the Chocolate Wand on a shelf, and huffed noisily, before he walked up to her, and pushed a box of Chocolate Cauldrons in front of her nose. She sniffled loudly a couple of times more, before finally looking at the box first, and then at Scorpius, her face brightening up with a wet grin.

"You can have one," said Scorpius firmly, "there are eight in there, you can open it, and have one." He darkened as she took the box in her hands, and beamed at him. "Only one," he repeated.

She looked down at the box, and started to fumble with it, but her small fingers seemed unable to find the little tab that opened the lid. Scorpius stared at her for a few long moments. Maybe she just wanted him to get tired of waiting, and give her the whole box.

Well, that was not going to happen.

He rolled his eyes, and used his free hand to grasp her wrist. He didn't even look at her, as he guided her towards a corner of the shop where the shelves were already completely empty. He dumped his sweets on a lower shelf, and sat on the floor, his legs crossed.

"Sit down," he told her as he took the box back from her hands. "I'll open it." He glanced at her and repeated, "You can have one."

She sat next to him, leaning her small hand on his knee to lower herself to the floor. She folded her legs under her little, midnight-blue coat, copying his position, and stared intently at him, as he opened the box with a swift movement of his hands. He stole another glance at her, and lifted the lid only as much as he needed to pull out one Chocolate Cauldron.

"Here," he said, as he gave it to her and then proceeded to close the box again, afraid that she would sneak her minuscule hand inside, and steal all of his precious chocolates.

She took the sweet eagerly in her tiny fingers, and busied herself into unwrapping the chocolate straight away.

"Hey, what do you say?" asked Scorpius sourly.

She beamed at him. "Thank you," she replied in a high-pitched, but gentle tone of voice, before returning her attention to the sweet once again.

Scorpius stared at her as she finally unwrapped the sweet, and brought it to her mouth to suck eagerly on the chocolate. Her fingertips and lips were painted with the molten stickiness of the sweet.

She nibbled at the Chocolate Cauldron, and finally bit down onto it. Her eyes scrunched up as she swallowed the sweet's oozing filling. For a moment, Scorpius thought that she was going to spit out the liquid, that he knew was surely burning her throat, but she didn't. Instead, her face relaxed again, and she kept on munching on the chocolate, dipping her fingers into it.

"You are staining all your fingers," he pointed out, as he kept his eyes on her. "That's not how you eat a Chocolate Cauldron."

She looked unfazed by his comment, but turned her brown eyes – that looked a bit as if they were made of chocolate as well – towards him, as she pushed the last bit of the sweet into her mouth.

"Did you like it?" he asked her.

She licked her lips eagerly, and nodded. "Another," she pleaded, her eyelashes fluttering as she smiled at him.

Scorpius darkened, and looked back down at the box of sweets. "I said only one," he told her bitterly, "you can't ask me for another, if I said only one." He looked back at her, deciding to shake his head in front of her face, if she insisted.

"No, please, another," she begged, pouting with her chocolate-covered lips, and bouncing slightly on her crossed legs.

Scorpius huffed, trying to sound menacing, but the little girl was tenacious, and she looked at him as if she was ready to cry again.

"You can't always cry to get something, you know," he told her, "that's what babies do, not children like you."

"Please," she sniffled, "pretty please…"

Scorpius snorted quietly as he opened the box again, and fished out another Cauldron. "Only one more," he sulked, "then don't ask me for another one, because I'm not giving you one." He pushed the sweet in her hand, and she beamed again, dirtying the wrapping paper with chocolate-covered fingers.

"Thank you," she said, promptly this time, as she leisurely unwrapped the sweet, with her sticky hands.

Scorpius closed the box and nodded, satisfied to have taught her some good manners. He looked back at her, and saw that she had unwrapped the chocolate, and was already sucking on it.

"My father said that I could have everything I wanted, today," he let her know again, "because it's my birthday, you know." He waited for her to comment on that, but she didn't, she just kept sucking until the chocolate thinned between her lips. "I'm seven," he continued, "today. And we're going to have a party at my Manor."

She looked at him again, her pink tongue darting out to collect the filling of her second Chocolate Cauldron. She blinked several times, as if she still wasn't used to the flavour, then her half-lidded eyes looked at Scorpius, as she grinned and sucked on the chocolate.

"Lots of people are coming," he continued haughtily, "all of my father's and mother's friends. Uncle Blaise, Uncle Gregory, Auntie Pansy, Auntie Daphne, Auntie Millicent…" He took a deep breath and pouted. "But I wish some children were coming too… The adults always get tired of seeking, when we play hide-and-seek, you know…" He narrowed his eyes and looked at her intently. "Maybe you wouldn't get tired of seeking, would you?" he asked her thoughtfully. "Can you count?"

She looked at him, and swallowed another bite of chocolate. Her eyes were shining slightly, and she was still grinning lazily at him.

"Maybe I can teach you," he told her, "like I taught you to say thank you… Do you know how to play hide-and-seek?"

She nodded, her head lolling slightly on her little neck. "Yes, I always play at the Burrow," she replied, her voice slightly slurred.

Scorpius wrinkled his nose. "You live in a burrow?" he asked her, disgusted. "But a burrow is no place for a little girl!"

She shrugged her small shoulders and kept nibbling on the chocolate, until she was almost licking her fingers and hands. Well, after all, Scorpius had really no difficulties believing that she actually lived in a burrow…

"You should come and live with me," he told her haughtily, "I live in a real house, with real beds and real walls and real chimneys and real toys and real tables and real bathrooms and real—"

"Another," she slurred softly.

Scorpius looked at her with his mouth open. "No!" he protested. "I told you, only one more!" He clutched the box in his hands and brought it farther away from her. "You are finishing them all…"

"No, please… another…" she whined as she pushed a finger into her mouth, and started to lick it clean.

Scorpius looked at her, and darkened. "No. I said, only one," he replied, "and I gave you two already. I can't give you three."

She pouted again. Scorpius was starting to sense a pattern; he gave her a chocolate, she ate it, she asked for another one, he refused to give it to her, she pouted, he refused again, she cried, he—

"No," he said grimly, "don't cry! You can't always cry! If you cry, I'm not going to give you another one!"

She fluttered her eyelashes over her sleepy eyes, and looked at him expectantly. "Another…" she demanded, stretching a hand towards him.

Scorpius darkened, as he opened the box for the third time. "Last one," he said with finality, "then you stop asking." He raised the Chocolate Cauldron in front of her eyes, and she stretched a hand to grab it, but he withdrew it before her plump fingers could close around it. "Promise you stop asking," he told her.

She whined impatiently, but reluctantly agreed, "Promise…"

He nodded, satisfied, and let her grab the sweet. "Good," he told her, as she unwrapped that too, her fingers slipping slightly on the shiny wrapping. "What other games can you play? Can you play Gobstones?"

She leant her head against Scorpius' shoulder, sucking thoughtfully on the chocolate, and nodded.

"Can you play Exploding Snap?"

She nodded again.

"Snitch Snatcher?"

Again, she nodded, her flaming red hair tickling Scorpius' neck.

"Wizard's Chess?"

She shook her head, swallowing the filling of the third Cauldron, without so much as a flutter of her eyelashes this time.

"Oh well, I don't like it that much myself, you know," he told her, "but I know how to play. I can teach you." He turned to look at her, and narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. "Maybe we need to write a list of the things that I have to teach you…" He opened the box of sweets, and closed it again with a pop. Then a thought popped in his mind. A brilliant thought. "Maybe I can ask Father if he'll buy you for me," he told her, "then you would live at my Manor, and I could teach you everything I know, and you could keep me company when Mother and Father are out at the club or in Paris…"

She kept licking the chocolate and, as her head bobbed up and down at his words, Scorpius grinned. "After all," he said haughtily, "it's my birthday, and Father said that I can have everything I want." He gently shrugged his shoulder, and the little girl raised her head from him. "Yes… and I want you," he let her know resolutely. Then he stood from the floor, and scooped up his sweets again. "We are going to have fun. We are going to play games, and eat chocolates, and run in the garden every day… and in wintertime we are going to build snowmen all around the park of the Manor, and then we are going to fly on my toy broomstick, and then—come on, stand up!"

She looked up at him, with eyes increasingly shiny and heavy-lidded, and he had to put down the sweets once again, to bend over, grab her under her arms, and put her on her feet. She wobbled slightly, and seemed ready to fall back down, but Scorpius grabbed her shoulders, and kept her upright.

"You look like Father when he has too much wine," he told her pensively. "Well then, I'm sure Father will like you, and even Mother, she always says that she'd like a daughter." He grabbed the sweets again, and looked at her. "Let's go," he said, "Father is waiting for us at the counter." He started walking, paying close attention to protect his chocolates, as he avoided hordes of screaming students and huffing adults, until finally coming upon the tall and austere figure of his father.

Scorpius turned to check if the little girl was still following him, and he was delighted to see her trailing closely behind him, her hands covered in melted chocolate, as she sucked on the remnants of her third Chocolate Cauldron.

"Scorpius," called his father, smiling at him, "have you decided what to get?"

"Yes," he replied, raising his arms to dump the pile of sweets into his father's waiting hands. "These," he said, nodding towards them, "and this," he added as looked at the little girl.

His father seemed to stiffen slightly, as he looked at her himself. "And what?" he asked, his tone far more surprised than Scorpius had expected.

"This," he repeated, nodding towards her. "Her."

He could see his father's eyes widen, as they always did, when he was ready to throw himself into a lecture about something that Scorpius wouldn't have liked. But before he could open his mouth, a woman, with hair as red as the girl's, let out a shriek, and swooped the little girl into her arms.

"Lily!" she cried. "Merlin and Morgana! You scared me out of my wits!" She hugged her tightly, before tilting her head back, and looking into her eyes. "What did I tell you?"

The little girl squinted her shiny eyes a bit, as if to think hard, and slurred, "To wait for you at the till."

"The till in Tomes and Scrolls! Not the till in Honeydukes!" exclaimed the woman severely. "And what are you eating? Oh my!" She took the half-melted sweet from her hands, and the little girl pouted slightly, but then she lolled her head and just giggled. "This has Firewhiskey inside!" she gasped, as she made the chocolate disappear with a wave of her wand.

The woman raised her eyes to Scorpius' father, and flared her nostrils. "Malfoy," she hissed, shaking her head, "oh, of course." She took a step towards him, with the girl still in her arms, and raised a finger in his face. "Do you think it's funny? Getting my five-year-old drunk?"

Scorpius looked at his father expectantly, waiting for him to order the woman into silence, like he used to do with Auntie Daphne when she talked too much, but instead his eyes were just staring wildly at her, and all he could stutter was, "I… I…" before he took a step back, looking almost afraid.

The woman shook her head again, and muttered under her breath, "Unbelievable." Then she turned, and started to walk away. "You are grounded, Missy, no sweets for a week. And if Grandma smuggles you some, this time I—"

"Hey!" snapped Scorpius, running to go and stand in front of the woman, before she could reach the door. "You can't take her away, she's mine."

The woman almost stumbled on Scorpius as she stopped to look at him, with brown eyes the size of two Quaffles. "What?" she exclaimed, just like his father had done earlier on.

Scorpius raised his pointy chin. "Yes," he replied, "Father is going to buy her for me, because it's my birthday."

The woman looked at him with her mouth wide open, before turning towards his father, who stood completely still, as if he was one of those mannequins in Madam Malkin's. "Excuse me?" she thundered.

"I wasn't going to buy her," his father spluttered, raising his hands defensibly.

Scorpius crossed his arms on his chest, and pouted. "But Father," he whined, "you promised I could have anything I wanted!"

His father looked at him. "Anything," he told him, smiling nervously, "she's not a thing, Scorpius."

"But I want her!" he replied, stomping his foot on the floor.

The woman put the little girl down, and grabbed her wrist in her hand. "She's not for sale, young man," she said severely.

"But it's my birthday!" he whined, and angrily wiped away the tears that threatened to fall down his cheeks. "And I want to play hide-and-seek with her!"

"Well then," said the woman in a softer tone, "if you want to play hide-and-seek with her, you should invite her to your birthday party."

Scorpius' father groaned. "Weasley, I don't think—"

"It's Potter now, Malfoy," replied the woman lightly, before turning her attention back to Scorpius. "So? Do you want to invite Lily to your birthday party?"

Scorpius looked at the little girl, who was trying to reach her fingers, which were secured safely in her mother's hand, to lick them with her tongue, and he nodded softly.

The woman smiled kindly at him. "Well, go ahead then," she told him, pushing the little girl gently towards him.

Scorpius bit his bottom lip. "Do you want to come to my birthday party?" he asked her shyly.

She stopped trying to reach her hand, and looked at him through half-lidded eyes. "Can I have more chocolate?" she asked softly.

"Yes," replied Scorpius, with a slight grin.

"No!" said the woman, shaking her arm lightly.

Scorpius leant closer to her, and cupped his hands around his mouth to whisper in her ear, "Yes, but don't tell her…"

The little girl grinned wide. "Okay," she agreed, nodding.

Scorpius' lips widened in a grin to match hers, as he looked at the woman first, and then at his father, who looked paler than usual. "She said yes!" he announced triumphantly.

"I heard that," groaned his father. He looked at the woman, and told her, "It's at four this afternoon, at the Manor."

The woman seemed to giggle softly. "We'll be there," she replied, before lowering her head, and asking the little girl, "Lily, have you wished your new friend happy birthday, yet?"

She shook her head, and the woman released her wrist, pushing her gently to stand in front of Scorpius. The little girl stood on tiptoes, and brought her chocolate glazed lips to Scorpius' cheek. She pecked him softly, and Scorpius could feel a sticky mark that smelled like chocolate, being imprinted on his skin.

"Happy birthday," she told him.

"Thank you," he replied, feeling his cheeks getting slightly hotter, for Merlin knew what reason. He hoped he wasn't getting sick, the day of his birthday! Not now that he had found someone with whom to play hide-and-seek.

The woman grabbed the little girl's wrist again. "Let's go," she said, turning and dragging her away, "Auntie Hermione, and Rosie are surely looking for us."

Scorpius stared as the little girl turned to wave him goodbye over her shoulder. "Bye bye," she said.

He waved back timidly, but before he could reply to her, she crashed into a pile of Pixie Puffs boxes, sending them to the floor.

The woman chuckled, "Oh Lily, you little drunkard," and picked her up again, disappearing out of the shop.

Scorpius looked back up at his father, and grinned. "She said yes," he repeated happily.

His father sighed loudly, as he handed the sweets to an employee to pay for them. "Honestly, Scorpius," he groaned, "Harry Potter's daughter? Honestly…"

But Scorpius wasn't listening to him. "If it's not too cold, can we fly the toy broomsticks in the garden this afternoon? And maybe we can play hide-and-seek in the orchard? I hope she doesn't just want to pluck daisies, like Auntie Daphne does all the—"

"Hey! These are open," exclaimed the employee. "Who opened the Chocolate Cauldrons?"

FIN