Darker than your Wonderland, Chapters 1-3

Here's a Harry Potter fanfic.  I wrote it in 2011, but I'm now working on editing it.

I'm not the world's biggest Harry Potter fan - in fact, I haven't even read all of the books.  But something about Scorpius and Rose fascinates me, and I'm particularly proud of this story, in which they bond over books.  All of the books mentioned are real, and the descriptions are accurate, if biased towards what they want or need to see in them at any given time.  It has twenty-seven chapters, but I'll post them in batches of three.  You'll be able to find the others through the tags, or you can read the original, unedited, version here.

Darker Than Your Wonderland

1.      In Common

When Rose looked back, it was her first day of Hogwarts that stood out as the moment her life took a different direction.  That was the day she wasn't sorted into Gryffindor, against all expectations but her own.

She’d intended to think Gryffindor, to want Gryffindor with all her might, but when it came right down to it she just couldn’t make herself do it.  Rose had read everything she could about Hogwarts, ever since her mother had taught her how to read.  Despite all the family stories, she knew she was more of a Ravenclaw than a Gryffindor.  She’d managed to keep that a secret right up until the hat shouted it out to everyone.

It had helped that just a few minutes before she'd watched her cousin Al being sorted into Slytherin, and Scorpius Malfoy being sorted into Ravenclaw. She knew she wouldn't be alone in disappointing her parents.

In the common room after the feast, she’d sat down intending to write a letter home.  He'd sat down next to her, returning her shy smile.

Come to think of it, maybe her life had changed earlier that morning - on the train.

2.      Understanding

Rose had lost Al only after a few minutes afterembarking.  She assumed that he’d gone off with his brother and Rose's other cousin, James.

Rose pictured herself walking through the train, asking everyone if they’d seen her cousins. She decided she really wasn't in the mood to be that social. Instead, she sat down in the empty carriage, and pulled a book out of her pocket.  Al would find her if he needed her.

The door opened, and the boy she'd noticed earlier poked his head round.  Scorpius, she recalled, the boy her father had warned her against.  Rose examined his face; the blond hair, and the cheekbones which already looked finely sculpted, even at eleven.  His expression seemed haughty, but when his eyes met hers, he flushed pink.  He looked like he might say something, but, instead, dropped his eyes and made his way to the seat opposite without looking at her again.

Rose felt embarrassed, too. She never quite knew what to say to strangers.

He took a book from his pocket, a battered paperback.  Rose couldn't help but try to read the cover.  She made out the author’s name, Jack Williamson, but she couldn't see the title.  She gave up and went back to reading her own book.

After an hour or so, Rose looked up, and met Scorpius' eyes. She smiled shyly, feeling awkward again.

"What are you reading?" He asked. Silently, she held up her book, so he could read the cover.  He did the same with his.

Alice in Wonderland. Darker than You Think.

Rose felt her pale skin flush again, and felt an irrational hatred towards her father's genes. Stupid pale skin!  She felt embarrassed over her choice of book; Alice in Wonderland seemed so babyish!

Scorpius’ didn’t seem to notice her blush; he asked for a closer look at her book, so they swapped.

Rose had never read Darker Than You Think.  It was a muggle book, as far as she could tell, and although Rose had often been exposed to her grandparent's library, it was one she'd never come across.

"This is a muggle book?" Scorpio asked. She looked up.

"Yes," she said. "It's a classic. Everyone's heard of it."

He looked down. Rose regretted her comment, as she realised he might have taken it as a criticism.

"Everyone in the muggle world," she added, hurriedly. "I wouldn't expect a wizard to know it."

He looked up then, his blue eyes vulnerable. She understood him then, in that moment. Like her, he hated to feel stupid about anything.

"I've never heard of this," she continued, holding his book up, offering her own ignorance as a gift. "Is it a muggle book, or a wizard book?"

"It's a muggle book," he confirmed. She'd suspected as much; it was science-fiction, as far as she could tell, and wizards went in for that even less than muggles did. "I found it in our attic."

Rose wondered why his family had had muggle books in their attic, until she opened the book, and saw the name written inside the front cover. Severus Snape.

Rose knew of the history of her family, and of the Malfoys, and of Severus Snape.  She guessed that Scorpius' father had inherited, or otherwise taken possession of, Snape's belongings.  She wondered why Draco Malfoy had never disposed of them, but she knew enough to realise she should avoid the subject. She handed the book back.

"Do you like it?"

His face lit up.  He explained the way magic worked in the book, so different from how their spells worked, how fascinating he found it.  She'd made him promise to lend it to her when he'd finished rereading it for what he told her was the seventh time.  Then she’d told him about Alice, and he’d extracted a similar promise from her.

They discovered that they both loved stories of magic, any kind, as long as it was different from what they'd grown up with. She'd told him about her beloved Three Hearts and Three Lions knowing he'd understand the appeal, something her family never had.  Her mother shared her love of reading, of course, but what her mother loved was books about real magic. Hermione had never quite understood why Rose liked fantasy and science fiction. Rose’s grandparents hadn't either, but they'd been happy to take her to muggle bookshops whenever she visited them.

Rose realised that what Scorpius loved about Darker was the same thing she loved about Three  and other books like it. Magic, in those books, worked scientifically, had an explanation she could understand logically.  Even though she knew that that wasn't how magic worked.

3.

Later in the common room, Rose was cursing her Weasley genes again. When Scorpius had sat down next to her, the whispers had started, and she’d blushed as red as her hair. She was undeniably a Weasley – red hair, freckles – and he was undeniably a Malfoy, and every student in the room knew the history of their families.

Scorpius had kept his eyes focused on the parchment in front of him. He hadn't gone red, but Rose knew his refusal to look up was a sign of his own embarrassment.

Apart from the stares, the Ravenclaw common room was heaven. Three of the four walls were covered with bookcases, with comfortable sofas and desks taking up space in the middle of the room.  Rose reached behind her, and took some books from the nearest shelf, stacking them in front of her and Scorpius.  He'd looked up when he realized what she was doing and smiled at her properly.

"Good idea," he said quietly. She smiled back, and gestured to her own sheet of parchment.

"I don't know how I'm going to tell them," she confessed.

"Your parents? Me either. The Malfoys have been Slytherins for generations -"

" – and the Weasley's have been in Gryffindor for even longer!"

They exchanged a wry smile, realizing that they were fast friends, already.

"That's what father says," Scorpius continued. "But I've looked at the family tree. Father's cousin, Nymphadora Tonks, was a Hufflepuff. And grandmother's cousin, Sirius Black, was a Gryffindor! It's about time we had a Ravenclaw in the family!"

Rose knew he was rehearsing. It wasn't her he was trying to convince, or himself. It was his father.

He'd know as well as she did that those arguments wouldn't work on the Draco Malfoy she'd heard about.  They were both Ravenclaws after all, he wasn’t a fool.  So either she didn't know Draco as well as she thought she did or Scorpius was unduly optimistic.  She'd guess the former; she'd only heard stories told by Draco’s enemies, and Scorpius had grown up with the man.

Rose filed that thought away for future reference, and looked down at her own parchment. Chewing her lip, she decided to go for the fast and brutal option.

Dear daddy,

I'm in Ravenclaw! I guess you were right about me inheriting mother's brains!

Love,

Rose

PS – did you hear that Al's in Slytherin?

There. She'd appealed to her father's affections, complimented her mother, and, if none of that worked, dropped Al in it too. Damage limited.

Part 2 is here.