Note-Worthy News

10 minutes ago, Astoria Malfoy had grudgingly let Pansy Parkinson into the house and led her into the kitchen. Astoria had never liked Pansy, but with her squished face and annoying manner not many did; but Pansy was a Slytherin, and an old friend of Draco’s. This was another reason Astoria didn’t like her. Pansy and Draco had gone out for a while, back in their Hogwarts years and Astoria was quite sure Pansy had never really gotten over Draco. As she led a fairly un-eventful life, she often popped in to complain about her life, ask where Draco was and share some dubious and normally uninteresting gossip. Astoria put up with her out of pity.

Today, however, Pansy managed had kept her Unfair-life/ where-was-Draco monologue too the minimum (a little less than 10 minutes, Astoria was sure it was a record) before announcing she had some ‘extremely interesting and very scandalous’ news. As this was how she normally introduced her stories, Astoria had not been expecting much, and so was pleasantly surprised to find it rather similar to Pansy’s description, Scandalous and Interesting.

Pansy saw the surprise flicker over Astoria’s face, and thought it was her surprise at the news, which it was, partly. Pansy didn’t much like Astoria, as she had taken Draco from her, and in the past she had gotten the feeling that Astoria didn’t much enjoy her company, which Pansy found rather insulting; Pansy could never understand why, as she was an older, wiser and prettier witch than Astoria (at least according to herself), Astoria didn’t very much admire her. But Pansy still continued to visit her as there were few other Slytherin witches left in the country around her age, especially since Daphne had moved to the Netherlands. At times like these she felt sure that Astoria must really appreciate Pansy, as Astoria, in Pansy’s opinion, didn’t pay enough attention to what was going on around her. In Astoria’s opinion, she wasn’t to much of a scrape, and didn’t gossip more than was un-healthy.

Pansy soon realised that the surprise on Astoria’s face was also due to how interesting it had turned out to be, and she left quickly after that, and the second she did Astoria rushed upstairs to tell her husband about Pansy’s findings. She was embarrassed that she was so interested about what Pansy Parkinson had to say, but it had turned out to be good gossip, and surprising news, and something she was sure Draco would find interesting, as he knew the people involved much better than her.

‘Draco?’ she called, as she reached the third floor of their house. It was the house she grew up in, and when she had gotten married, her parents had given them the house as a wedding present. It was a sweet gesture, but it had meant that her sister had taken offense, and her parents and her sister were no longer talking. Astoria had somehow managed to stay on everyone’s good side, she credited this to all her family’s approval of her husband.

‘I’m in Scorp’s room, we’re playing chess’

Astoria pushed open her only son’s door, smiling slightly to see her husband and son lying on the floor of Scorpius’s rather green room (Scorpius was, like all his family, a proud Slytherin), playing what looked like a very intense game of chess, although she couldn’t know for sure, as she had never been any good at the game herself.

When Scorpius was first born, she had been worried that Draco would be the same kind of father that his was to him, but she needn’t have as Draco had always gone out of his way to be a good father. He had grown to be a better person, it had changed him a lot.

‘Hey,’ He greeted her as she walked in, ‘what’s up?’

‘Well dear-sweet Pansy just dropped by,’ said Astoria, not un-happily, although the compliments preceding Pansy’s name uttered so slowly and sarcastically there was to be no doubt in anyone’s mind what she was really thinking. ‘But the horrible old Bogart actually said something of considerable interest, which I thought I might share with you.’

‘So you’ve come to gossip?’ said Draco teasingly.

‘Yes,’ replied Astoria, and before Draco could get an word in edgewise, she continued: ‘Pansy was saying that Potter’s daughter, Lily’s her name I think, who was supposed to get her Hogwarts letter this year, never got it, so Ginny Weasley wrote to Professor McGonagall, and, wait for it, guess how embarrassing this is!? McGonagall wrote back a letter, saying that, to quote Pansy, eww... I’m quoting Pansy! ‘It appeared that Lily was not on the lists, and was there for not magic.’ She finished her jumbled speech, and stared expectantly at Draco.

Draco looked up stunned. ‘Wow.’ He muttered quietly. ‘She’s a Squib?’

‘According to Pansy, yes,’ said Astoria, quieter now, looking suddenly shocked.

Draco, like his wife, didn’t much like Pansy, but he didn’t think it was the sort of thing she would make up, if only because he doubted she was clever enough to come up with a lie that believable. He didn’t like Harry Potter much either, but respected him. If nothing else, he was a true Gryffindor and a talented wizard. He was brave, and he had saved Draco’s life, on more than one occasion; and he had destroyed the dark lord, something that, if Draco hadn’t witnessed part of the event, he would have put down to luck, but, as he had, he knew it was just as much bravery and skill that had got him through. They would never be friends, and they had spent so many years being enemies, but they could be civil. Draco felt, although he was rather embarrassed to admit it, he owed Harry that much.

Even if he had still hated Harry, he wouldn’t have wished it upon him. To be squib was something so embarrassing, that in Draco’s mind, it was worse than being a muggle. And Draco thought muggles were really quite bad.

‘Wait... Rose’s cousin isn’t a witch?’ said Scorpius, curiously looking from one parent to the other.

‘Hmm?’ asked Astoria, she too had been absorbed in thought. Ginny Weasley had been in the year above her, and she made a name for herself as a difficult and strong-minded leader of Dumbledore’s Army during the Dark Period in Hogwarts. Astoria had disliked her as Ginny had opposed Lord Voldemort, the Carrows and Snape but even at the time had had to admire her for her ability to avoid major trouble. Now she admired her not only for that but also for opposing the Dark Times, the very thing she had previously disliked her for.

‘Rose, her cousin is a muggle?’

‘Who’s Rose?’ asked Draco, also coming back from the depths of his brain.

‘Rose,’ Scorpius said again, and when his parents continued to look confused he sighed and added: ‘Rose Weasley?’

‘Weasley and Granger’s daughter? How do you know her?’ asked his father, sounding rather alarmed.

‘Dad, Hogwarts is a rather small school, and we have loads of classes with the Gryffindors’ answered Scorpius. ‘She’s really clever and really nice, I sat next to her on the train on our first day, ‘cause everywhere else was taken, and now we’re kind of friends...’ Scorpius paused, turning slightly red, before continuing hastily ‘So, is it true that cousin is a muggle?’

Astoria looked over at Draco after a while, as he hadn’t responded. As he looked rather too stunned to speak, she decided explain, ‘sweetie, she’s a squib. That means that she has magic parents, but she isn’t magic.’

‘So she’s a muggle?’ said Scorpius, sounding slightly irritated; why was nobody answering his bloody question? His father hadn’t said anything since Scorpius had said he was friends with Rose, which worried him slightly, as he knew his father wasn’t too fond of Gryffindors on the whole, something he had only just remembered. His mother had replied with a completely useless answer and seemed slightly stunned as well.

‘No, she is sort of half-half. She can’t do magic, but she can see Hogwarts and she’ll be able to do some wizard-like things, for instance, she’ll be have the same kind of control over her pets as us witches and wizards. Also she will know about our world, and she might be able to take part in some of it, there was a squib who was the care-taker at Hogwarts when your dad and I where there,’ explained Astoria, finally, then she added as an after thought: ‘he was pretty horrible mind, so I didn’t really feel bad for him.’

‘Okay...’ said Scorpius slowly, glad that someone had finally taken the time to explain. ‘But how come I’ve never even heard of them? And why do you both look so horrified?’