The first time….

I heard the name Scorpius Malfoy was when I was nine. There I was, standing right next to Hogwarts Express and staring at it with utter longing. I'd watched James go the year before and now Albus, my other brother, was following. As usual, I was last in line to anything and I was feeling rather down about myself.

Then I overheard Uncle Ron make a comment to my cousin Rose - while he indicated towards another family that was a few feet away - about a certain young man and how Rose shouldn't be friends with him. Rose turned to look at him critically while my Aunt Hermione admonished Uncle Ron for his comment.

I stifled a grin. I knew the warning from my uncle was guaranteed to make Rose hunt that boy down and make him her very best friend within minutes. She's a rebel like that.

Sure enough, when I turned to my cousin and followed her gaze, I saw that she was staring at the young man with a speculative look in her eye. He, on the other hand, appeared to have not noticed her perusal, my uncle's comment, or even anything else going on around him.

He looked, for want of a better way of describing it, as miserable as me. I thought that was odd. I was miserable since I had to wait two more years before I could go to Hogwarts. This boy was going to Hogwarts so he should be ecstatic! Like James had been the year before and Albie was this year. No one about to embark on a journey to Hogwarts should be looking down about the whole thing.

I began to make my way over to him, to tell him so, when my cousin Hugo came up to me and started talking about Hogwarts and everything we'd do when we finally got our turn. My attention diverted, I turned away from the young man with the misery in his deep, grey eyes. And, since I really had no reason to keep thinking about him, he flew out of my out of my mind and I just focused on my own misery about being left behind.

The second time….

I heard his name was in the context of an argument my parents were having. Specifically about him. It was rare my parents fought, so I crept halfway down the stairs and dangled one of the Extendable Ears my cousin Fred had given me for Christmas to the first floor. Based on the snippets of conversation I'd heard up to that point, I'd gleaned that Albie had been sending owls home about his new friend and how he was really lonely. Something about how no one was nice to him at Hogwarts because of his father, and Albie wanted him to come our house for Christmas break.

"I don't care how lonely he is, Harry," my mum said in a hushed voice. "That family has never produced a good egg."

"Come on, Ginny," my dad replied. "You can't hold that against a poor eleven year old."

"He's in Slytherin!"

"Your son is in Slytherin," my dad reminded her.

"Yes, and I'm not happy about that, either," my mother answered, her voice rising a bit. "Honestly, I can't believe you told him to choose and he chose Slytherin. No good comes out of that house."

"They're not all bad," my dad said, after a pause. "I'm sure Al knew what he was doing."

"Not bad?" My mum seemed to take a minute to compose herself. "Do I need to remind you of my sixth year when all of Slytherin house stood in line to be able to torture innocent first years? Or the Final Battle, when none of them stood to defend Hogwarts?"

"And not all of them stood with the Death Eaters, either," my dad pointed out reasonably. "Ginny, I know it's hard, but isn't this what we fought for? The ability to live in a world where everyone is equal? Given a fair shake?"

My mum was quiet for a long minute and then I heard her let out a sigh. "Harry, you're too naïve. You can't honestly believe centuries of ingrained beliefs and traditions will just go up in smoke because you defeated a Dark wizard over a decade ago."

"Even a journey of ten thousand miles," my dad said, with a hint of a smile in his voice, "begins with one step. Let's take that step, Gin."

"Hhhmm." I heard rustling and then Mum's voice got even lower. "That is a very clever thing to say."

"It's an old Muggle saying," my dad responded, with a laugh. "But feel free to think I'm brilliant. Especially if makes you keep doing THAT."

"Oh right, I will." They were quiet for a second and I thought I heard some more rustling, but I couldn't be sure.

Then, my mum said, in a thoughtful tone, "And chances are quite high Malfoy won't even let his son come here. So, I suppose it's all right to let Al extend the invitation."

In the end, Mum was wrong. Al sent another owl a mere week later saying that Scorpius was delighted by the invitation and would be joining us for Christmas. No one was more surprised than my father, who hadn't honestly thought Scorpius would come. (I would learn, years later, that Scorpius told his father that it would do well for him to be seen as being liked by the "Potter boys" and that is what swayed Draco Malfoy to let his son go to his mortal enemy's house for the holidays. Scorpius may not be as evil as Malfoys have been for centuries, but he's not an idiot, either.)

The third time….

I heard Scorpius Malfoy's name was when I was first being introduced to him. He'd just arrived by Floo to our house, right at the beginning of winter break. My mother was just starting to ask him about his journey when I came running into the kitchen and then stopped short at the sight of him.

My entire life, I'd been surrounded by people with red hair (of varying shades), black hair (mainly my father and two brothers), and some sort of odd shades of brown in-between. My Aunt Fleur and my cousin, Victoire, had shimmering blonde hair that I'd envied my entire life, but they very rarely kept it down. But even their hair wasn't that light.

And, so, Scorpius was quite a shock to my system. Pale blonde hair, so pale it was almost white. He wore his hair shaggy, kind of long and falling over his eyes, as though he was trying to hide what he looked like. He looked entirely out of place in my kitchen, because he looked unlike any other person who'd stood there before.

At my entrance, he turned his gaze towards me and looked me straight in the eye. No smile. No change. Just very serious. His eyes looked like the color of mercury – the liquid metal thing that Muggle's put in things called thermometers (my Granddad had shown me one once). His eyes were gray, almost silver.

"This is my sister, Lily," Albus said, indicating towards me with a slight smile. "She'll be at Hogwarts in a couple of years."

"Hi, Lily," Scorpius said and then smiled at me. It was a lop-sided smile and made his eyes become a shade lighter.

My response? Was to squeak in embarrassment and hide behind my mother's skirt.

While my mother laughed and put her hand on my head, I heard my brother say, "All right, that's odd. Anyway, Scorp, let me show you my room."

It was a long time before I was able to actually to speak in front of him and even then, it wasn't ideal.