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"Scorpius, please open the door," Harry said, his shoulders slumped and voice tired. He'd been sitting in front of his son's door for almost an hour, trying to get him to let him in.
"NO!" An angry voice shouted from inside the room, but Harry could hear the sniffles his son was trying to hide.
"Baby, I can't help you if you won't let me in."
"You can't help me anyway!"
Harry sighed. "Please just tell me what's going on, okay? I'm getting really worried out here and also, my knees are starting to hurt. I'm not as young as you anymore."
"Then just go away!"
Suddenly, the front door slammed closed and Draco appeared in the hallway, long robes billowing behind him. Harry looked up at his husband gratefully, gesturing to the door silently. Draco nodded and knocked on the door, two loud knocks and a silent one. A special signal that he and Scorpius had come up with when Scorpius became old enough to want privacy. This one meant that whatever Scorpius was doing, Draco needed him for something. It was only used in emergencies.
"HEY! Don't you use father's signal! You're not allowed to do that!"
"Scorpius, honey, it's me," Draco said, voice soft and calm. Harry wondered how he did it. Whatever situation his husband was in, he was always elegant and put together. He never lost his temper like Albus did, or got frustrated like Harry did.
"Father?" Scorpius said quietly, obviously trying to sound even, but his voice was small and choked up.
"Yes, honey, I'm here. I came home as soon as your dad told me you showed up here. What are you doing home, huh? Did you just miss me too much?"
Slowly, the door opened a little. Red rimmed green eyes looked up at the two men, and Scorpius sniffed again. "No, I didn't, I'm not a baby," he said, and somehow managed to look down his nose at his parents. Draco reached out a hand and smoothed Scorpius' messy blond hair out of his face. "Of course you're not, love. But what's going on, hm? It's the middle of September, you're supposed to be in school."
"I know," Scorpius said, and his lower lip began to wobble slightly. "But I don't want to go to Hogwarts anymore. Maybe Beauxbatons will take me!" Draco frowned. "You've been nagging my ear off all summer about how much you were looking forward to Hogwarts, and Albus has been excited for you to spend more time together as well, even if he'd never tell you that himself."
Harry took his son's hand and squeezed it. "Did somebody make fun of you?"
Scorpius looked up at him, his eyes frightened, "why, did Albus tell you that? Did he write to you?" He sounded horrified. Harry shook his head, but, as if on cue, a bushy brown owl came flying in through the window and dropped a letter in Harry's hand. Scorpius screeched and tried to grab it, but Harry gave it to Draco as if out of instinct, who simply held it out of his son's reach.
"Well, apparently he did write to tell us what happened, but I'd rather hear it from you first. Who do I need to have a word with?"
"Draco!" Harry hissed, "you can't just threaten children!"
Draco simply raised an eyebrow, winking at Scorpius. "I didn't threaten any children."
Scorpius smiled, but then he gave a great sigh that sounded much too exhausted for someone as small as him, and then he just plopped down onto the floor, his parents taking a seat in front of him, unconsciously leaning into each other.
"I told you I was sorted into Ravenclaw, and I was really happy about it because I love learning, and it was great at first! I'd always spend so much time in the library, just reading and reading and reading!" Harry smiled, feeling weirdly reminded of Hermione.
"But over the last few days, the Slytherins used to come up to me and they were really mean. They wouldn't let me do my homework in peace, and that's just rude! I could've put up with some annoying jokes in the halls or at meals, but my homework time is just one step too far."
Draco furrowed his brows, not liking the way his son seemed to think it was alright for people to make fun of him in passing. "Well, what did they say that made you decide to drop out of school at eleven?"
Scorpius rolled his eyes in a show of being annoyed at his father for pointing out his age, but his parents both saw the way he curled in on himself. "They told me I was a traitor," he said quietly.
"Excuse me?" Harry said, taken aback at the hostility of eleven year olds. "A traitor for what?"
"For being in Ravenclaw, I presume," Draco replied, very familiar with the way the minds of young Slytherins worked.
Scorpius nodded sadly. "Yeah. They said that apparently the Malfoy in me hadn't taken effect, so obviously even the last good part of me was lost." Before Harry could interrupt him, Scorpius continued, "and it wouldn't even have been that bad, because I'm proud to be a Ravenclaw, and I know that being a Malfoy doesn't have to mean being in Slytherin or being mean because father's not mean and you told me the Hat didn't care about last names, but they were so big and then the Gryffindors came as well-"
"What do you mean, they were big?" Draco asked, having a horrible suspicion.
"Well, they weren't First years. They were at least in fifth year, maybe even older. And they all looked down at me and told me that their parents had told them that you were just confused about your values because you wouldn't be with dad otherwise, but I know you love each other, so I told them that you weren't confused, you were right were you belonged, because you told me that last year and I always listen to what you say, at least when it's important-"
Draco and Harry shared a look that only parents shared, slightly bemused but also incredibly proud of their son.
"Anyway, they didn't believe me and they kind of just started crowding in on me and then the Gryffindors arrived and they were agreeing with the Slytherins about how you were a weird couple and that just creeped me out even more, but I also knew that I was right and you know I can't just give in if someone else is wrong, so I just…" He averted his eyes, looking sheepish and so much like a mixture of both his parents in the way that he kept his chin high bravely but also sniffed proudly, as if the tears on his cheeks were offending him, that Harry felt his chest squeeze tightly the way it always did when he realised how much of a family he and Draco had built for themselves, even though neither of them had grown up in a very loving home.
Draco raised a sleek eyebrow. "You just what?"
Scorpius coughed, his cheeks blushing. "I told them that if they were so worried about Slytherins and Gryffindors fraternising they should maybe think about the fact that they were doing just that by ganging up on me." Somehow, he managed to raise his small head even higher. "And then they realised that I was right but since they obviously aren't the brightest of people, they just got angrier at me for pointing out their missing logic instead of yelling at each other."
"Did they hurt you?" Harry asked, laying a protective hand on his son's shoulder.
"No, but not for lack of trying. A few of them cast stinging hexes at me, and something a little harsher that I didn't recognise, but Dad told me how to cast a Shield Charm, so I did that and just escaped by squeezing through their middle and they were too busy yelling at each other to follow me, and then I broke into Albus' dorm because he doesn't put any sort of Privacy Spells on his things, and I took his broom and flew home."
"Which might explain his letter," Harry sighed.
Draco tilted his head. "You remembered the whole way home just by looking out the window the first time going to Hogwarts a few weeks ago?"
Harry shoved an elbow into his husband's ribs. "That is not the right thing to be focussing on right now!" He hissed, but Scorpius' eyes had already brightened and he looked a little less sad.
Draco exhaled a long breath. Then he took his son's hand and said, "listen to me carefully. While your dad and I both know what it's like to be bullied or harassed at Hogwarts, only I know what it's like to be the one to do the bullying." Both Harry and Scorpius looked ready to protest, always defending Draco, even to himself.
"Hush, you, I'm trying to give a life lesson here!" That shut them both up and he found himself peering into two sets of green eyes. "It has never been easy to be a Slytherin at Hogwarts. That does not excuse behaviour such as you have apparently been experiencing, but it does explain it. Being a Slytherin means only being able to rely on the students in your own house, because everyone else already dislikes you. Most of the students who called you a traitor were probably raised to feel a comradery with other Slytherins that made them feel insulted or let down by me as well as you. When Slytherins have ties to other houses, they are often envied because deep down, all the other students just want to be accepted as well.
Now, they might have gotten over me marrying your dad because most of their parents know what it felt like to be enslaved or terrified by the Dark Lord, and are grateful to him for saving them and giving them their freedom back. But their children have never known the fear that we grew up with, so they take their freedom for granted and fall back into the old rivalries. None of this has anything to do with you.
And, as for the Gryffindors," he felt his husband raise his eyebrows slightly in amusement, "I would say they just don't know any better because they might be brave but they're not all the brightest, but to be honest with you, they have grown up idolising your dad, and when he married a Slytherin and both of his children ended up in houses that weren't Gryffindor, they probably just felt a little robbed of what they felt was their right to a part of the Chosen One's private life as well as his legacy."
Harry scowled a little. He hated it when Draco referred to him as the Chosen One. He'd never liked that title, and although newspapers like the Daily Prophet had lost sight of him for a while, they'd been all over him the moment they'd found out that Draco and him had had children.
Scorpius managed to look dignified while wiping his nose on his sleeve. "So they don't hate me because I'm me?"
"No, honey. You know that." Both parents smiled at their son, giving him a double hug.
"Okay," Scorpius said. "I'd like to go back to school, then. I'm already behind on homework." He looked so affronted at the idea that Harry couldn't help but ruffle his hair, even though he knew it would make Scorpius squawk and wave his hands away. "Go on then, I'll apparate you back to Hogwarts."
Draco gave Scorpius another hug and whispered into his ear, "You made me very proud today, son. You defended yourself with words and wit because you knew you were in the right, and still you didn't stoop to their level. Oh, and just so you know, I really am right where I belong. I'm glad you remembered that."
When Scorpius had taken off down the stairs, excited to have an exception to their no side-along apparition until 15 rule, Draco turned to look at Harry.
"Right were you belong, huh?" Harry said, his eyes glinting with mischief.
"Oh, don't you look so smug, you know I love you," his husband replied, pulling him in with a hand on the back of his head and kissing him the cheek.
"C'mon Draco, give me a real kiss. How else am I gonna know I'm right where I belong as well?"
Draco rolled his eyes, but yanked Harry into a kiss so hard his laughter stopped and he had to grip Draco's robes to steady himself. "Darling, I think you know exactly where you belong."