Imperfection: A Scorily/Scorlily Fanfic

Chapter One: Little Treasure

  A small, skinny girl, eight years old, with ramrod-straight, flaming red hair, freckles, and a cheerful expression skips happily onto Platform Nine and Three Quarters behind her parents and brothers. She is smiling so widely it is almost ridiculous.

But it isn't, because she is, in the most extreme sense, adorable. Her big, starry hazel eyes shine with excitement, and her legs flash as she begins to run. Some inner instinct has summoned her and she must obey.

She passes ten-year-old Albus, whose scruffy black hair is in his eyes again, and eleven-year-old James, whose equally black hair is closely cropped in an innocent, good-boy style that hides the mischief in the mind underneath those short curls. She flashes past her mum, who she has inherited her hair and freckles from, and her dad, from whom she has inherited her sense of adventure. She darts on into the throng of people, ignoring the protests from her father, telling her to stop and come back.

She runs for several meters until the instinct tells her to stop, but she is not fast enough. She bumps into a tall man with platinum-blonde hair and grey eyes- hurt eyes, she decides, and he looks down at her with an expression of clear surprise- surprise, she notes, but not resentment or annoyance like most grownups display when a child knocks into them.

"Hello," he says.

"Hello," she replies.

The little girl looks into the man's eyes, searching for something, and at last she seems to have discovered it, and suddenly breaks into her previous smile once more.

"I'm Lily Potter," she says, and she holds out her hand.

The man looks closer at her when he hears her surname. But he takes her hand without hesitation. "I'm Draco Malfoy," he tells her. "I'm glad to meet you."

"Do you- do you have any children, Draco?" Lily looks around at the crowd to either side of Draco as though she expects to see a swarm of young blondes.

She calls him by his first name, and though he seems not to have noticed this, he has. The sound of one's own name from the mouth of another can do strange things, and through the simple word Lily has uttered in her small, birdlike voice, she has formed a bond between herself and this hurt man, Draco Malfoy.

Draco laughs a little. "Yes, I do have a child. One. But he isn't old enough for Hogwarts yet. Next year he will be."

"And you came- alone?" She cocks her head to one side and examines this man. Like the animal who has no fear for a human, this child is conducting a fearless investigation of an adult. This inspires a sort of awe inside of Draco Malfoy.

She is unafraid.

"I often come," he tells her. "I like reliving memories. They're all I have left, you know."

She looks at him with wonder in her hazel eyes. "That's not true."

"Isn't it?"

"You just said you had a son."

"I did." His voice is reflective, and a little changed. "I did, didn't I?"

Lily nods. "My dad says he has four reasons he gets up in the morning."

"And what are those?"

"Me, and my mum, and Albus and James."

Draco smiles at her. "I don't know your brothers or even your mother very well. But I think you are a very good reason for waking up."

"Thank you!" He has just complimented her, and she smiles even brighter because she knows he means it. "You're bringing your son next year, aren't you?" she asks.

He nods.

"Lily, what a chase you led us! Don't ever do that again- oh, hello."

It is her father, and Lily smiles happily at him in greeting. "This is Draco, Daddy. He's a nice man."

"I know who he is," Harry Potter says, looking up at Draco with a wary expression. "Hello, Malfoy."

"Potter."

"His name is Draco, Daddy," Lily says, innocently unaware of the reason her father has not used this nice man's first name.

"Right. Hello, Draco. Thanks for keeping her here- we'd better go now, Lily, we have to see James off-"

"Daddy, he didn't keep me. I stayed."

"Right."

As they walk away, Draco's lips move soundlessly. Then he clears his throat. "Listen- Harry!"

Harry turns.

"You've got a treasure there," he says, gesturing to Lily.

At last Harry's lips twitch upwards in a smile.

"I know." He turns, and takes his daughter's tiny hand.

As the pair reach Ginny Potter and the two boys, Draco sees Lily impulsively fling her arms around her father, and then watches as she turns to hug her brother, who grins and hugs her back.

Draco sighs, then turns away.