The Sweetest Emotion

Draco was very proud the day Scorpius became an Auror.

He was less than happy when he realized that Scorpius was working under the famous Harry Potter. It took everything Draco had to repress a grimace. He and Potter had developed a certain amount of mutual respect for each other over the years but it was fragile at best. He was damned if he was going to let Potter discriminate against his son because of something that happened over twenty years ago.

Angrily, he stormed into Potter's office at the Ministry to confront him.

"Don't be ridiculous," Potter said irritably. "I do not discriminate. Besides, your son asked me personally to be his mentor. He, unlike certain people, seems capable of seeing beyond the past."

Draco was surprised. He hadn't realized that Scorpius wanted to work under Potter. In fact, he thought with regret, he realized that he hadn't talked much with Scorpius in the past few years. He wasn't sure what was going through his son's mind these days. With effort, Draco wrenched his mind away from his musings and looked around Potter's plush office. "Done quite well for yourself, haven't you?" He had meant it as a pleasant remark, but Potter visibly bristled at the comment.

"You never thought I'd get to this point, did you?" Potter's voice contained a hard edge.

Draco raised an eyebrow. "Potter, if I were you, I'd take a holiday with your family. Astoria and I go to Greece every summer. Maybe you should try something like that? You look a little… high strung."

Potter glared at him and waved a hand. "Get out of my office."

-***-

A few weeks after Scorpius had started working for Potter, Draco started becoming a little worried. His son was being increasingly withdrawn. Scorpius had never been an outgoing child, but now he was barely talking to Draco. Whenever Draco started a conversation, Scorpius kept looking over his shoulder in a distracted manner.

"Leave him alone," Astoria chided gently one evening as they were sitting comfortably beside the fireplace. "The boy needs time to be by himself."

"But," Draco pointed out, "he's spending almost all of his time at work." He frowned. "Potter's overworking him. He's starting to look really jumpy."

Astoria rolled her eyes. "I thought you'd put that behind you. Potter's one of the best Auror trainers the Ministry has. Scorpius seems to like him and his job. Maybe that's why he's spending so much time at the Ministry."

Draco swished his scotch around in the glass and sipped. There was something wrong. He knew it.

-***-

Scorpius started developing the habit of vanishing mysteriously almost every night.

As much as he respected his son's privacy, Draco was worried. Scorpius didn't usually act like this. He wondered if Scorpius was becoming mixed up in anti-Muggle-born elements. That would be disastrous for their family. They had only just recovered from the effects of his actions in the previous war.

It was with that thought in mind that Draco decided to follow Scorpius on one of his late night visits to the Ministry.

-***-

Draco peered through the crack in the door. He could just make out Potter sitting behind his desk and his son sitting in front of it. Potter was rifling through one of the drawers in the desk and produced a bottle.

"Here's to your promotion!" Potter poured a little of the green liquid into both glasses.

Draco squinted. It looked like absinthe. As he watched, he saw Potter pull out slotted spoons and rock sugar from the drawer. It seemed that Potter was a regular connoisseur of absinthe. Draco frowned. He had no clue that his son liked it though.

He saw Scorpius stare at the label. "You shouldn't have, Harry," Scorpius said quietly. There was a note in his voice that Draco couldn't identify.

Potter grinned. "I saw it in Diagon Alley one day and thought of you." He leaned forward and placed a hand over Scorpius's.

Draco was beginning to get a really bad feeling in his stomach. That hand looked awfully possessive.

Scorpius leaned forward and, as Draco watched, placed a soft kiss on Potter's lips. Draco blanched. He couldn't be seeing this. It just wasn't possible. Potter and Scorpius. His son and Potter. Perhaps it was just a sexual fling. Something short that would end soon. His mind clung to that hope.

"I love you," Potter said so softly that Draco strained to hear the words.

"I know."

Fuck.

Draco turned away from the door and slumped against the wall. From behind the door, he could hear kissing sounds and then the sound of papers being pushed off the desk. He groaned. This was definitely not what he had expected when he had followed Scorpius here.

- ***-

Draco paced in front of the fireplace, his knuckles clenched white around his scotch glass. "I still can't believe that Harry Potter is screwing our son. It's disgusting."

Astoria looked at him steadily. "Scorpius deserves our support, regardless of circumstance. I would have thought that you of all people would have realized that." She gave him a pointed look.

Draco raised an eyebrow. "And what of Mrs Potter? What of Potter's son? He's the same age as Scorpius."

"I hadn't thought of that," Astoria said. "It might create some problems."

Draco couldn't help a stifled laugh escaping his lips. He walked over to his wife and put an arm around her shoulders. Astoria always had a tendency for understatement. It was one of the things that had attracted him most to her after that debacle with Pansy. "I'm not sure what to do," he admitted.

-***-

Scorpius always did have a stubborn streak, Draco thought as they sat over dinner the following evening. He was obviously not going to tell them about his affair with Potter any time soon. Regardless of how many hints Draco dropped.

"I apologise for leaving so quickly yesterday evening," Scorpius said. "There was an unavoidable issue at work that needed to be attended to."

Draco coughed. Astoria gave him a pointed look. "Would you like some water, darling?"

"No, thank you," Draco said, through gritted teeth. They had decided the previous evening that they were going to allow Scorpius to come to them if he had any problems. Draco, however, was having a little difficulty sticking to that plan. Somehow the image of Potter buggering his son over his desk kept on springing to mind.

Scorpius fiddled with his napkin. "May I be excused?"

"Yes," Astoria said at the same time that Draco said, "No!"

Scorpius looked at them both.

"What I mean," Draco said, with a forced laugh, "is that your mother and I would like to talk to you. We haven't had the opportunity to have a heart-to-heart chat for a while now."

Scorpius raised an eyebrow. Draco couldn't help but notice that he looked so much like a Malfoy with that look. "Is there anything you would like to discuss, father?" he said politely.

Draco desperately wracked his brains for a conversational topic. "I hear that Potter might be running for Minister of Magic in the near future."

"Indeed," Scorpius said. Was it just Draco's imagination or did his son's face become suspiciously blank?

"No opinions?" Draco asked. "Your boss might become Minister."

"Potter and I aren't close. I barely speak to him. I'm sure he'd make an adequate Minister."

Draco choked on his glass of water.

Scorpius looked inquiringly at him. "Are you alright, Father?"

Draco waved his hand. "Fine, fine. We'll continue this conversation tomorrow night." He decided that this was enough for one night. There was only so much a father could take.

"Certainly," Scorpius said, with a smile directed at both of them. "I am going to retire to my room now. Goodnight."

-***-

Draco couldn't help but notice that he was beginning to get into the habit of listening at doors. He was also a bit disappointed at the skill level of his son's wards on his room. It had taken him five minutes of intense concentration to overcome the anti-listening wards on Potter's office and that was, he suspected, only because they were very weak wards cast by Potter only for appearance's sake. Obviously Potter didn't expect to be spied on in the Ministry. A skill that won't serve him well if he's Minister, Draco thought grimly.

But the wards on Scorpius's room only took a few seconds to break. Draco shook his head. Obviously peace in the Wizarding World was beginning to take its toll on skill levels.

"I think father is getting suspicious," Scorpius was saying into his fireplace.

Potter's disembodied head bobbed in the fire. "Ginny's also displeased at my late nights at the Ministry."

"Are you there now?"

Potter nodded.

"Can I visit?"

There was a look of regret in Potter's eyes as he shook his head. "I have work to do tonight. But I should be free tomorrow night."

"I look forward to it." Scorpius leaned forward and blew a kiss at the fireplace.

Draco crept quietly away.

-***-

"He can't be allowed to continue this affair," Draco said. "He'll ruin our family again. If word leaks out that Potter had an affair, everybody connected will be destroyed."

Astoria looked worried as well. "I'm sure Scorpius is being careful," she said, defending their son as always.

"I need to talk to him," Draco said grimly. "We can't let him destroy his life and our lives like this."

-***-

The next evening, Scorpius left stealthily by broom. Again, Draco followed. He was intending to speak to Scorpius outside the Ministry, but by the time he had gotten there, Scorpius had already gone inside. He decided to wait outside. He wasn't going to go and interrupt his son mid-coitus. Especially with Potter of all people.

Draco tapped his foot against the pavement as he waited. Deliberately, he tried not to think about what his son might be doing inside the building. He couldn't help continually staring at his watch. What was taking Scorpius so long?

When Scorpius came out about a few hours later, his hair was tousled, and he was clutching something in his hand. There was a satisfied grin on his face. Draco was incensed. He really didn't need to know what his son looked like after sex.

"Scorpius!" he called.

Scorpius turned around slowly. To Draco's bewilderment, his son didn't look surprised at all. He gave Draco a brief smile. "Hello, Father. I know what you're going to say. Give me until tomorrow. Everything will be clear then."

Draco hesitated and then nodded. What could one more day bring?

-***-

Draco stared at his son and then at the Daily Prophet front page that proclaimed in large shimmering letters: Potter cheats on wife with unknown lover. Below, was a picture of Potter's face, head thrown back in ecstasy and an unmistakably blond head was bobbing up and down around his crotch. Then in slightly smaller letters: Wife staunchly sticks by her husband.

Quickly, Draco scanned down the article. Potter was denying everything and claiming that this was the work of his political enemies. "But," he said, shocked. "But…"

Scorpius looked at him coldly. "You can't have thought I'd truly love Harry Potter, did you? He ruined our family. He deserved this."

Draco suppressed a shiver as he watched his son walk off.

-fin