Naming Scorpius

Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling. If I were, I wouldn't have this to Scorpius, poor kid! Naming him Scorpius, I mean.

Chapter 1 (and only)

When she opened her eyes, the light almost caused her pain, so she closed them and then tried again, more slowly. It worked and she sighed with relief. Where was she? Ah yes, that should be my room at St. Mungo's.

"Don't move," a voice said next to her right, and she barely managed to turn her head. Daphne.

"Where - ?" Astoria Malfoy asked faintly.

"He's here, he's here," her sister assured her. "He's barely left your side for the last two days. You lost so much blood. Oh, Astoria, we thought - " Her voice trailed off.

"I'm fine," Astoria murmured, and then something popped in her mind, and she wondered at herself for forgetting. "How is - ?"

Daphne smiled. "You have a son," she said. "Five-pounds, nineteen-inches, blond hair."

"Oh." Astoria felt herself smiling. It was over, then. She was alive - there had been a moment where she thought that she would not make it, that she would die from pain and exhaustion - and she had a son.

The door opened and she beamed at her husband, who rushed to her bedside, looking like an enormous burden had just fallen off his chest. "How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Where were you?" There was a slight accusation in her voice and Draco laughed, overwhelmed with happiness: that was Astoria in her usual state of mind, all right. "You were supposed to be the first thing I'd see when I open my eyes after - how many hours?"

"Two days," he answered. "And I would have been the first thing you'd see, but I had to go to the loo. And of course, you had to choose this moment to wake up."

Astoria closed her eyes. She was happy, of course she was happy, but she was so tired, her stomach was hurting, her breasts felt like they would explode and she wanted to sleep -

"I'll leave you alone," Daphne said. "Draco, I'll tell my parents, as well as Lucius and Narcissa, that Astoria has woken up. I suppose the Healers would want to bring Scor - uh, the baby - to her as soon as possible."

Something in the way her sister's voice had trembled at the last words - as well as her husband's hand on her arm - raised Astoria's suspicions that there was something going on, but she would investigate it later. Right now, she wanted to sleep. Her eyes drooped even before Daphne left the room.

When she woke up a few hours later, she found Draco to her bedside and next to her bed there was a crib. Draco lifted the small being that was lying there, and placed him on her stomach.

The first thing that Astoria felt was disappointment. He was so little; he barely weighed more than a kitten! Twenty-two hours in labor, two days being unconscious from the flooding right after giving birth - for such a tiny result! Despite that, she felt happy that her little kitten had finally come into the world. She would make him a nice crib - no, a nursery, Astoria, a nursery! - and she would teach him how to read as soon as he started talking...

Still, she could not feel like a mother. First, she was afraid that she would drop the tiny being, although she knew that Draco was watching them closely and would react immediately if something happened. Second, she did not feel differently than she always had. She had thought that being a mother would change her forever and so on - her own mum had repeated that regularly and even her mother in-law, Narcissa, who had become considerably more tolerant towards Astoria at the news that the next Malfoy was on his way, had said the same thing. Change, change, what change? I am still feeling like myself. That thought threw her into wild panic. What was wrong with her? Why couldn't she love her own child? Third, while she was looking at the baby, she could not imagine that he had come out of her body and especially not by the route that she knew he had used.

"We have to name him," she muttered, only to say something, because saying something would postpone the moment when she would have to do something, like hugging the little one or something like that.

"Er, yes."

Astoria sharply turned her head towards Draco. "Is something wrong?"

"No. Look, he's moving."

Astoria looked at her son, but to her, it seemed like he was completely stationary.

Finally, it was her curiosity that made her do something. She took the baby's nappy off, placed him next to her on the bed and started examining him. He had ten pink fingers, ten toes, rosy cheeks, white fuzz on his head - she could not restrain from burying her nose in it - and the ability to sleep through everything - she turned him to all sides, inspecting him closely, and he was still sleeping.

"What are you doing?" Draco snickered, "counting his fingers?"

"They are eleven," she said, hoping to scare him, but he only smiled.

"They aren't."

"How do you know this?" she asked curiously. He did not answer. "You've counted them too!"

"No."

"You have!"

Before he could deny, a knock came at the door. "Come in!" Draco said, and the room was suddenly full of people. Astoria was happy to see her parents, of course, and not so thrilled to see her in-laws, who, in turn, did not look fascinated to see her, either. Lucius, in particular, seemed rather grim. He must regret that I didn't die, Astoria thought maliciously. It was not a secret that Lucius would have preferred for Draco to marry Daphne, who, being the eldest sister, had the richer dowry. The fact that such a marriage would be a lifelong punishment for his son, as well as for Daphne, was non-essential to Lucius. Narcissa, who had been quite clear how she felt about the marriage, had started to look friendlier at the news of Astoria's pregnancy. Now, she smiled at her and the young woman smiled back.

Astoria's mother looked like she wanted to cry and only her manners of a real pureblood lady stopped her from sobbing with relief that her daughter was fine.

"He's such a sweet boy," she said after kissing Astoria's cheek and stroking the baby's one. Astoria grinned.

"He is, isn't he?"

"Well done, Astoria," Lucius said. "I expect the next children to be as perfect at this one. You did a great job."

Astoria nodded, accepting the praise, and Draco looked nervously at his father. No one had dared to tell Lucius Malfoy that there would not be any other children - the bleeding right after Scorpius' birth had made that sure. I'll have to tell him, though - and Astoria, too.

Astoria had again fallen into examining her baby - this time the way his eyelashes were fluttering, because he was starting to wake up, - while the others were talking to each other in hushed tones.

"Yeah, little Scorpius would undoubtedly make us proud - "

At once, Astoria turned her head towards the speaker, who was none other than Lucius. Naturally!

"What was that?" she asked sharply.

"I was just saying that - "

"Yes, yes, I heard you," she interrupted him, and looked at her husband. "Forget it! My son won't be named Scorpius, I've already told you that. I won't let my baby be saddled with such a silly name. Can you imagine what would happen when he's old enough to meet other children and they introduce themselves? How stupid he would look, while he's saying 'I'm Scorpius, nice to meet you'? I won't do that to a child, especially not my own."

Draco nervously shifted from foot to foot. He knew that finally, it would come to this, but he was quite frightened to tell her that their son was, in fact, already named Scorpius. "Dear - " he began.

"He won't be named after any constellation and especially not Scorpius!"

There was a dead silence at those words. Her father suddenly became very interested in the pattern of the wall-papers. Her mother's eyes were moving from her to Draco and then back to her with a horrified expression. Lucius looked furious, while Narcissa seemed indifferent. Daphne was biting her nails, and Draco was looking at the wall, at the window, at the baby boy - anywhere but Astoria. "What's gong on?" she asked, already feeling that she would her something awful.

"Astoria, I've already named him," Draco finally said. "Legally."

A pause. "WHAT?"

"I named him Scor- "

"Don't say it, I don't want to hear it!"

The baby at her side felt his mother's nervousness and started whimpering. "Merlin, I scared the child! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Mummy is sorry, honey, come here, I'm not angry with you - " she started cooing, while she was taking him into her arms.

When the baby - Scorpius, oh, Merlin, Scorpius! - stopped crying, Astoria raised her head and realized that almost everyone had used her distraction to leave as quietly as possible. In fact, Daphne was opening the door right now, but Astoria would have none of it.

"Daphne!"

Her sister turned to her. "What? I'm innocent!"

Astoria snorted. "There aren't any innocents in this room. Where the hell were you - I mean all of you - Mother, Father, and you yourself? You were just staying there and let him - " A mean glance at Draco - "- name my baby Scorpius?"

Daphne looked at her. "He's the father. He could do whatever he liked."

"He bloody well couldn't! And you, you - you all knew that I had forbidden any constellation names, you knew, you knew, and yet - " Astoria was feeling how her strength was giving away, but she still refused to give up. 'Oh, my poor baby. How could you?"

Draco finally looked at her. "It's a noble name, Astoria, a Black tradition - "

"It's silly!" she hissed, careful not to disturb Scorpius, who looked to have fallen asleep again. "It is - " And then, she herself fell asleep.

Draco bent over her and carefully lifted his son from his mother's arms. "At least the worst is over," he muttered to his sister in-law.

"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you," Daphne muttered and left, leaving Draco with the awful feeling that he would have a few stormy days - weeks - months. Yes, that was it. Months. Astoria could not fume for years. Right?

------------------------------------------

A. N. Read? Yes. Liked? Hopefully. Reviewed? Please.

6