May 2010

Scorpius grumbled slightly as he buttoned up his light blue shirt. It had originally been pink but he had his dad transform it to blue, because that was his favorite color and while his mum always told him boys were allowed to like pink too, he always thought it was girly and he didn't want to be seen as girly in Italy. He slipped on his navy blue slacks and slouched on his bed. They were itchy and he hated them. He wanted to wear his jeans and the super cool ninja turtle tee shirt that Santa — if he was real — had brought him.

"Scorp?" His mum knocked on his door gently "are you ready? We're going to be late for the portkey if you don't hurry up."

"Do I HAVE to wear this?" He opened the door up and looked at his mum who looked like she had seen the words cutest cat "mummmmm!" He whined.

"Scorpius, you have to." She turned around and made her way down the hall "come on, your shoes are out here."

He groaned and slouched out into the living room where his dad sat on the couch, one ankle resting on the top of his knee, the daily prophet open in his hands. Scorpius noticed that he was also wearing navy blue slacks with a pink button up, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows and his feet clad in brown loafers. Scorpius slipped on his adidas' and looked at his dad.

"Can you roll up my sleeves too?" He held his arms up to his dad and watched as he cocked one eyebrow up at him in interest before he put down his paper and leaned forward, rolling up his sleeves.

"Are we ready?" His mum walked down the hallway in a red dress and black flats. He had seen her wear this dress before, she wore it often when she wanted to look nice but Emeline wasn't available to help. He often thought she was beautiful, even without Emeline's help. He looked over at his dad who had stopped rolling up his sleeves and was now staring at his mum.

"If dad will roll up my sleeves like him, yeah." He looked over his shoulder at her and she seemed to have make up on, her cheeks were a bright shade of pink "why do we have to dress up like this if we're using a portkey? Uncle Harry uses one with us all the time and he doesn't have to dress up like this."

"Because your grandmother will like it." He looked over at his mum who was bent over fussing over his curly hair "and first impressions matter." She stood up "look at you," she cooed "you're so handsome."

Scorpius made a face and slung his back pack over his shoulders "my Australian grandmother?"

He watched as his mum smiled sadly and shook her head no.

"My mother." He turned around and looked at his dad. He couldn't believe how lucky he was, to finally have a dad and for how he seemed to want to be Scorpius dad. He still sometimes laid in bed at night pinching himself just to make sure it wasn't a dream. "She was in Germany for ages and wanted to meet you the moment she got back to Italy."

"Doesn't she live in France too?" Scorpius looked between his parents "mum said on New Year's Eve she was going to her fancy French house. Uncle Harry said he's been there a few times. Why does it have to be Italy?"

"Because she loves Italy very much."

Scorpius looked over at his dad and slipped his backpack onto his shoulders "do you think she'll love me very much?"

Draco crouched in front of him and nodded "very much so. How could she not?"

Scorpius grinned and nodded "OFF TO ITALY!"

.xx.

The portkey had left them in a back alley and Scorpius landed on top of a pizza box sitting next to a pile of trash. He scowled at it before standing up watching his parents float down.

"I landed in pizza!" He called to their descending bodies "it smells back here, why couldn't we have ended up somewhere else?"

"It's the best I could do on short notice, bud." Scorpius watched as his father withdrew his wand and without saying a word the pizza on his legs disappeared and he didn't smell like garbage anymore.

"I can't WAIT until I get to do that!" He jumped excitedly "I have to tell grandma about it!" He rushed down the alley and turned back to look at his parents, a thoughtful look crossing his face "Do you think she'll want to be called grandma?"

His father linked hands with his mother and he wanted to gag "what do you mean?"

"Well... Marcus has a grandmum who likes to be called Nana" he started ticking off his fingers "then there's Alan who has a meemaw and then there's Greg from Ohio who has a Mamaw and apparently they're different than meemaws. Annie has a granny and Beatrice has a babushka."

"I'm sure you can ask." His mum smiled and wrapped her arm around his shoulders "come on, let's go!"

Together the trio made their way out of the alley and into the sunlight. Scorpius held onto his backpack straps tightly as his head turned every which way to look at the buildings. He had seen beautiful buildings before but Italy was different and much to his delight it didn't have the Eiffel Tower anywhere. He gasped slightly as he turned his head to the left to see boats floating in between buildings, bridges connecting lands to lands and guys with long sticks manning the boats.

"I can see why she loves Italy!" Scorpius grinned and looked at the brightly painted buildings and he ran over the bridge ahead of his parents, waving at a guy on a moped he had seen in his history book "can I ride one of those?!"

"Your mum barely lets you on a broom, what makes you think she's going to let you on one of those?" His father quirked his eyebrow and Scorpius grumbled in agreement, he vowed that somehow, some way before he left Italy on Sunday he'd ride a moped.

.xx.

He sat across from her in between his parents on the couch. A very large ornate table sat between the two couches and Scorpius thought it was odd that someone would have more than one couch, even his dad who had a larger house than what his grandma currently resided in had only one couch.

She sipped her tea while looking at the three of them, dressed in white pants and a loose fitting green shirt. Her blond hair cascaded around her shoulders and her blue eyes seemed to sparkle. He didn't understand why his mum was so nervous, he could see her tea cup gently shaking.

"I noticed that the house elves are dressed well." His mum took a sip of her tea delicately.

Grandmother's eyes snapped from Scorpius' face over to his mum's "yes, of course." She leaned down and placed her tea cup on the table so Scorpius did the same. She smiled at him briefly before sitting back up "I remember in your fourth year that Draco came home rather miffed that we treated our house elves as such." She tucked one ankle behind the others "I assumed it had to do with a girl then, but I didn't know it was you. I'm quite surprised to see you here, Hermione." Her eyebrows shot up.

"Mother..."

Grandmother shook her head "no, Draco I'm not—" she shook her head and held up a hand "—I'm not doing that. You know that's not who I am." She frowned slightly "I saw what transpired at the party, I heard about it from you, Draco and I haven't heard from you since I've been in Germany and I didn't realize you both had finally communicated..." she leaned forward, grabbed her tea cup and took a small sip "like the adults that you are not the children you pretend to be."

Scorpius looked between his parents who wore a expression similar to his when he got in trouble "I made them talk." He looked at his grandmother across the table "I pretended I had a bad dream and so mum came over and then I locked them in my bedroom over at dads!"

Her eyebrow raised ever so slightly "but that chateau doesn't have locks."

"I KNOW!" He laughed "I was so determined to get them to talk that I locked the door" he shrugged "and then... and then I fell asleep but!" He gasped slightly "I went to wake dad up because I was hungry and mum was there too! Dads been with us every weeknight because I have school and on the weekends we go over there."

"I see..." she looked at his parents and then back at him "I suppose I could see you in Gryffindor because it's very brave what you did but your bravery is outshined by cunningness and that's a Slytherin trait." She looked at the two other adults "He is going to Hogwarts... is he not?"

Scorpius jumped up and dug the letter out of his pocket "I am! I got this on my birthday!" He grinned and held his letter out to her "well, it came when I was taking a nap. We went to the aquarium and I learned all about giant squids!"

She laughed and he saw her eyes crinkle at the corners "that information will come in handy when you're there!" She took his letter and let her eyes scan over the letters "dear Mr. Malfoy we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." And smiled and Scorpius puffed out his chest in pride "congratulations sweetheart."

Scorpius beamed "thanks!" He paused slightly and looked at her intently "I have a question?"

She took a sip of her tea "ask away."

"What do I call you? Because my friend Marcus has a grandmum who likes to be called Nana" he started ticking off his fingers again in the same fashion he did with his parents "then there's Alan who has a meemaw and then there's Greg from Ohio who has a Mamaw and they're different than meemaws. Annie has a granny and Beatrice has a babushka." He furrowed his brow "and grandmother and grandma and grandmum just sounds too old for you."

He watched as she flipped her blond hair from her shoulder in thought "well, i suppose since were in Italy— and I plan to be here forever— Nona."

His father's voice almost made him jump, he forgot about him being here "but we're not Italian.."

He watched his Nona shrug "doesn't matter. Grandma and grandmother sound too old, like Scorpius said." She smiled at him demurely and he wondered if she was like this when his father was growing up, maybe he'd ask her later or maybe he'd just ask his dad.

"Can I show you my ninja turtles?" He looked at her "mum only lets me bring my favorites." He grabbed his bag and moved over and sat next to her "do you have a broom too? Uncle Harry got me a broom for Christmas but dads been teaching me how to fly because he says Uncle Harry is a pompous—"

"Scorpius." His father's eyes went wide and he watched as his mother's hand collided with his father's arm.

"I'm sure we have a broom around here somewhere but you can't fly it outside, the muggles would go absolutely bonkers seeing a boy on a broom. But" she leaned in "the ballroom is exceptionally large, I think it's just perfect for little boys who want to ride brooms."

Scorpius grinned and looked at his parents. His father looked amused and held the same grin that was etched on Scorpius' face but his mother looked nauseous and less than pleased. He looked over at his Nona who had stood up and made her way across the room to a closet.

"Draco, darling, why don't you go and take Hermione out and show her Italy?" She rummaged through the closet the muggle way, to Scorpius' surprise, tossing a few things over her shoulder "Scorpius and I have a lot to catch up on and—" she pulled something long and wooden out of the closet and Scorpius gasped "—here it is! Draco your old Nimbus. Should be a good broom for the boy." She slung it over her shoulder and walked back to the family on the couches "I think you and Hermione should leave for now. Explore the city and Scorpius and I will get to know each other better." Scorpius stood up and walked over to her and she put her arm around his shoulder "besides, this conversation isn't over between the three of us yet. Just on pause." She looked down at Scorpius "follow me!"

.xx.

Scorpius watched as his Nona showed him how to get the broom up off the ground, not that he got to do it successfully anyway. She smiled fondly at him and assured him that he'd get flying lessons at Hogwarts.

He learned that she played chaser on the Slytherin team from her second year to her seventh and was the reason Slytherin lead in a few victories in those years. Scorpius couldn't wait to watch a Hogwarts Quidditch match, although the Bulgarian team was his favorite and much to his father's dismay, Viktor Krum was his favorite player. His uncle Ron tried to get him into the cannons, but if Scorpius was being honest, they sucked and he'd never wear the cannon orange even if he had a wand to his head.

After lunch, which his Nona had insisted they go to a place he couldn't pronounce but they had really good pizza anyway, they walked to a flower shop and he got his mum some roses and his Nona bought his dad some dark liquid that Scorpius wasn't allowed to touch.

"Nona..." Scorpius took a bite of his gelato that his Nonna bought him after they had bought the flowers for his mum "mum said that dad wasn't always nice to her, why?"

She leaned back in her chair, licking the gelato off the cone she got "well," she sighed "your Nono wasn't the nicest man when it came to people who were like your mum..."

"Muggle born?"

She nodded "I think your father wanted to make his father proud. It wasn't an easy feat." She licked at her ice cream again "but I can tell you that your father has loved your mother since he was your age. It was hard not to notice the way he stared at her when they got off the train after their first year." She sighed.

"Mum once said he was married, that's why she didn't tell him about me for a long time, because she didn't want to ruin anything for him..." he looked up at her, his grey eyes into her brown ones "...if he loved my mum like you said, why did he marry someone else?"

She sighed again "that's a story for another time, Scorpius but I will tell you that things were different back then and betrothals happened at a young age. I didn't realize what he had went through putting him through something he didn't want until I lost the one thing he had."

"Which was?"

She looked at the boy in front of her and smiled "love."

Scorpius made a face and shook his head "ew."

He listened to her laugh, the sound of bells clanged in the distance "we still have a few hours before your parents come back, what do you want to do?"

Scorpius took a bite of his gelato "well... there's something dad doesn't think mum would let me do..."

A half hour later Scorpius found himself sitting on a moped with his Nona in front, the helmet pushing down his soft curls. They cruised through the town, his Nona stopping to get some things for dinner that he couldn't pronounce and took him through a cruise through the town, pointing the historical landmarks and fun things to do when he visits next time. He leaned his head on her back and smiled to himself, she may have been demure earlier but Scorpius knew that this woman was the woman his dad had been raised by, a Nona who would take him on a moped and after dinner, jump on the bed with the weird sisters in the background.

Authors Note: *Pops head around corner* hi, hello. its been a while. I lost my flashdrive for the longest time and I thought that it was at the library but I found it sitting in the drawer next to my bed. I wish I could say that I have the next chapter written for this, but I don't. I have an outline of what i want to write, it's just getting the motivation to write it. Hope to see you all soon 3