Work Text:
Title: Just Like You
Author: sapphiretragedy
Characters: Scorpius, Lucius
Rating: G
Summary: Scorpius wants to be just like Lucius. Lucius is horrified.
Notes: I'm just playing in the sandbox. The toys do not belong to me.
Lucius has never been more horrified in his life than this moment. He stares down at his grandson, who today turned four, and asks, "Would you please repeat that?" Lucius knows he's getting on in years and he's hoping he's misheard.
"I said," Scorpius begins, a bit annoyed, "that I want to be a Death Eater when I grow up. Just like you." The boy beams at him. He pulls back the sleeves of the too-small cloak he's wearing, a remnant of last year's wardrobe that resides in Scorpius's toy chest now, and reveals a big, black blotch on his left arm. "See?" Scorpius says, proudly. "I have a Mark just like yours!"
Lucius swallows back the lump in his throat and takes a deep breath to keep from vomiting. "Scorpius," he says slowly, "where did you learn about Death Eaters and Dark Marks?" His right hand automatically falls onto his left forearm and he lightly rubs the fabric that covers the scar of his own Mark - the constant reminder of the biggest mistake in his life.
Scorpius senses he's done something that does not please his grandfather and he pulls down the sleeve of his robe. The very abstract loop of a snake's tail pokes out from beneath the sleeve. Lucius cannot help but stare at it. "I, " the boy stops speaking and looks up at Lucius with bright gray eyes. "Do you promise not to tell Father if I tell you, Grandfather?"
Lucius nods once as balances his elbows on the arms of his chair so he can steeple his fingers in front of him. "It'll be our secret." Though, Lucius has every intention of taking this matter to Draco immediately.
Scorpius sighs. "I heard Father talking about it in the Floo. He was talking to a man named Potter - who sounded really, really angry and the man said you and Father were Death Eaters. He asked if the black Marks faded. And I saw Daddy roll up his sleeve to show him the Mark and he yelled and said it was gone."
Potter. Of, bloody, course it's Potter. "Scorpius you know better than to eavesdrop."
"It was an accident. I was looking for my broom," he says, defending himself. Then he cocks his head to the side, "Grandfather," he asks, "what is a Death Eater?"
Lucius wishes Scorpius had asked him about sex instead. It would be so much easier and less uncomfortable to explain those things than to delve into his own sordid past and ruin his grandson's affection for him. How much could a four year old understand? "Well," Lucius starts, weighing each word carefully, "they're gone now. All of them. Either dead or ..." he lets the sentence hang. In Azkaban, he adds, mentally. "They're just all gone."
"Were you really a Death Eater? And Father, too? If they're all gone how could you and Father be Death Eaters?"
Lucius feels tension dissipate from his body. He's found his out. He smiles; but the smile dissolves just as it's finished forming. If he lies now there will be no explaining it later. "Well, your Father and I were different than the rest. Special," he says. And it's partially true because he and Draco are the only two that aren't dead or in Azkaban - or, in some cases both.
Scorpius pulls up his sleeve and motions to the splotch there. "What's this mean?"
"It means you've spilled ink all over yourself," he replies. Scorpius's glare forces him to tell the truth. "It was a way for the Death Eaters to be contacted."
"Oh," says Scorpius. He runs his hand over the splotch and gets ink all over his other hand. He wipes his hand on his cloak and then on the carpet. "Sorry," he says.
Lucius retrieves his wand; the new wand that has not yet performed one single Dark spell, and cleans the ink from the carpet, Scorpius's hand and arm.
There is a tense and awkward silence. "What did Death Eaters do? That man sounded really angry about them."
"Death Eaters," Tortured? Killed? Followed a mad wizard? "made mistakes," Lucius says, settling on a version of events that will make him look good.
"Like getting ink on the carpet?" Scorpius asks, staring at the spot his grandfather has just cleaned.
Lucius nods. "Promise me one thing Scorpius, or I will tell your father you were snooping."
Scorpius's eyes grow wide. "What?"
"Promise me you will never be like me. Ever. And never pretend to be something you don't understand." He holds his arms open to his grandson and envelops him in a bone crushing hug. And, he thinks, please don't stop loving me when you find out what I've done.
Fin.