Strangers and Secrets

It wasn't often that Scorpius had enough time to stop by Honeydukes on a whim. The wizard had been extraordinarily busy as of late, juggling more things than he thought he'd ever be able to handle, but the blonde had adjusted to his new lifestyle fairly well. The Malfoy heir had just gotten out of court, his client won, of course, and simply hadn't been able to help himself. Besides, there was nothing urgent that needed doing, and the man was almost certain it was Cesca's shift.

His youngest sister had been working at Honeydukes for a few months now, and the wizard could not be more pleased with the arrangement. Not only was he able to see his sister more often, but he could also keep tabs in her, and Cesca earned pocket money in the process. It had only made sense, considering that the teenager had known the place back to front even before she had started working there.

After a few minutes of pleasantries and catching up, Scorpius's sister had headed back into the storeroom to sort the inventory they'd gotten in that morning, while the man himself lounged behind the register. He'd sent a grateful cashier home upon his arrival, and was chewing happily on a piece of liquorish.

Glancing up as a blonde witch walked through the door, the Malfoy offered her the slightest tilting of lips. "Hello and welcome to Honeydukes. Is there anything in particular you're looking for today?" he asked, his good mood the only reason he had begun to converse with the stranger.

Christy made her way into Honeydukes. It had been a few years since she had even walked inside the quaint little shop. The last time she remembered walking into it she had been in her last year at Hogwarts herself. She had only been allowed to attend Hogwarts because she was quite bored at Beauxbatons and had begged her parents to let her go. They had come to the agreement that she could go if her cousin...no...her twin went with her.

She really and truly didn't know what had brought her into the shop to begin with. She had actually been racking her brain on ways to help Felix clear his name...not so much clear his name as to be allowed to walk around free after attempting to make amends to those that he had hurt. She realized she needed a break from trying to work things out with that.

She looked up at Scorpius and smiled, "Good afternoon." she replied. Her hand went to the necklace she was wearing. It was starting to become almost a nervous habit. "Actually I was just looking for something to send home to my mother." she continued, her German accent coming out.

"Do you carry anything that would appeal to a veela mother who never seems to be able to like anything you buy them?" she laughed a little at this. She normally didn't talk about her mother that much but she honestly missed her a little. It had been at least a month since she had left Germany and come back to England and she hadn't even received so much as a letter from her mother.

Scorpius chuckled a little at the witch's words. He could certainly relate to that. It was difficult to find a gift for people who could have anything they wanted. His mother and father were wealthy enough to buy anything they desired, and little homemade trinkets did nothing but stand out terribly in the beautiful and elaborately decorated rooms of their home. Gifts to his parents had always been more of a formality than anything else, something done because it was expected and not because they would be appreciated.

Scorpius noticed the way that the blonde had clutched at her necklace, but thought little of it. The move was a common enough habit among females, especially if the piece of jewelry had some sort of sentimental value. The necklace looked sort of familiar to the Malfoy heir, but he thought little of it. He easily could have seen it in a shop window or something equally as ordinary.

"Vela," the man muttered aloud. It would certainly explain the woman's beautiful appearance, but Scorpius couldn't help but wonder why he wasn't at all affected by her. He'd met part-vela woman before, but now he couldn't even feel the thrall. It would make sense, he supposed, that he wouldn't be interested. He did have Mai now, after all.

"For a vela, I'd recommend..." The ex-Slytherin said slowly, drawing out the words to give him time to think, "one of our brands of crystallized pineapple, a few flaming kiwi cups, sugared butterfly wings, or some of our famous fudge." It wasn't often that the wizard was out front serving consumers instead of in the back signing shipment orders and contracts, but Scorpius knew his produce better than anyone else. He could probably list every item in the store, if anyone ever asked him to.

In a way her necklace was sentimental. It was a locket that her mother had given to her a few years ago when her father had died. In in contained a picture of her mother and her own twin. She spun the necklace in her fingers, the silver sparkling in the light slightly. Upon removing her hand from the necklace it contained the Malfoy crest on it. Christy had never been aware of the crest. She had never so much as paid attention to it. She thought it was just another crest from a family farther down the line.

"I think that crystallized pineapple would do well actually." she replied. She got the feeling that he would rather be anywhere else than at the front of the store serving customers. She couldn't blame him in the slightest if it were true. She let her mind wander slightly as she spoke. "And the flamming kiwi cups as well."

She really was planning on paying a trip to see her mother. Just to make sure everything was alright back home. She also had a little bit of business at the German Ministry to take care of. Somethings just required you to be there in person and as important as she was to them she knew she had to take responsibility with that.

"Brilliant," Scorpius said with a small smile. He didn't mind interacting with consumers, really. It was almost nice, to see what things were like on this end of his business. It was quite novel for the man, having only ever truly been involved with the finances and inventory of Honeydukes before.

Sliding out from behind the register, the blonde strode over to one of the many shelves lining the wall. "A three-pack of flaming kiwi cups," he announced, picking up a box and placing it gently onto the counter before the register. "For the pineapple we carry two brands, Bolandi's and Honeydukes' own," Scorpius informed the witch, holding up two different boxes for her to compare. It was almost fun, forgetting all of his responsibilities for a little while, pretending to be nothing for than a sales assistant at a candy store.

Raising a questioning eyebrow, the blonde caught a second glimpse of the necklace the woman before him was wearing. It had only been for a split second, but for a moment Scorpius could have sworn that there had been an intricate depiction of the Malfoy family crest interwoven into the design. It certainly hadn't been obvious, he would have noticed it right away if it had, but now his curiosity was piqued. "Where did you get that necklace?" he asked curiously, "it's rather lovely."

Christy stared at the two boxes and bit her lip as if she were trying to make a really difficult decision. She wasn't of course but to an outsider that's what it might have looked like. "I think I shall go with the Honeydukes brand." She replied after taking a few seconds to pick between the two. "Yes, those will do quite nicely."

Christy quickly picked up the fact he was staring questioningly at her necklace. "Oh this?" She asked curiously. "My mother gave it to me when my father died a few years ago." She explained. "She said he had given it to her and she wanted me to have it." She didn't dare open the locket and show off her mother and her twin to a complete and total stanger.

"I'm sure I could find out where he got it from." She continued to say. "He always kept records of everything he had ever purchased since before I was born."

"That'll be four Galleons," Scorpius said, handing the woman the two boxes.

"Yes," the man said hesitantly, "that could be rather helpful. Sorry to be asking all these questions about your necklace, it's just that I recognize it." It took everything Scorpius had to remain polite and calm. Every atom in his body was begging to interrogate the woman, but he needed to remain professional. It was frustrating, how much being in the store was restricting him from saying what he really wanted to.

"The necklace was your fathers," the wizard stated, tone revealing nothing more than mild curiosity, "what did you say his name was, again?" Scorpius may have been nothing but calm externally, but internally his mind was racing. The woman seemed fairly ignorant to what the engravings on the jewelry meant, but her father almost surely hadn't been. Had her father stolen it? Had he been some distant relation, perhaps the child of a squib whom had been disinherited? No matter what the truth was, Scorpius would not rest until he knew.

Christy pulled out the money and handed it to Scorpius. “You recognize it?” she asked curiously. She had never really thought much about the necklace. Of course at the time she was in morning for the man who raised her and her mother was trying to comfort her. It had been a difficult time for her to go through. After all, not many people lose their parents right after their eighteenth birthday. She had been devastated at learning he had been murdered but learned quickly how to move on.


“Well I suppose it was my father’s originally. Or a female relation.” She continued to say, “All my mother said was that my father gave it to her when they were younger.” She looked at him curiously, “My father as far as I know was Alrik Whittle, the former German Minister of Magic.” Christy didn’t dare reveal to this man that she was getting ready to take that position herself as she was currently the Deputy Mistress in Germany. Everyone really knew who was running things there. The current Minister had started out alright, but quickly found that he liked his alcohol far more than he liked his job.


Christy began to wonder why he was so curious about her necklace. She wasn’t stupid by any means, nor ignorant…but being sheltered her entire life had left some things to be desired after all. She craved freedom and found beauty in this new found freedom she was gaining living away from home.

Scorpius knew all the important bloodlines, even those of other nationalities. Such information had been drilled into his head as a child, part of the mandatory lessons that had started long before he was sent off to Hogwarts. While the blonde certainly hadn't been a fan of his lessons, he had understood the importance of these, in particular. As Malfoy scion, it was important to know whom it would behoove himself to be friends with.

"Yes, I do," the man admitted softly. Of course he recognized his own crest! However, Scorpius wouldn't say that aloud, he didn't know enough yet. If the wizard had to describe himself in a handful of words, calculating would most certainly be one of them. There was a reason for that. Besides, he had needed to keep his words simple, as his mind had been concentrating upon something else entirely. No, there was no connection between the Malfoy's and the Whittle's. Meaning...

"There's a family crest, hidden in the etching. I suppose you wouldn't recognize it, being German," and didn't that explain the accent, "but it's rather well-known in England. Do you have any idea why one of your parents would have something with the crest of another family?" he asked, finally turning to put away the money he'd taken from the witch when it was offered. He'd give her a moment, before expecting a response.

“I would suppose that it could have been from a female relation down the line somewhere.” She replied. Christy looked perplexed. She didn’t know why in the world her mother would have given her a necklace with the crest of another family on it. She had to assume that it was possible that it could have been originally a distant relation. After all, weren’t pure blooded families like hers known to interbreed with the other pure blooded wizards? It wouldn’t have been an oddity for that to have been the case. She looked at Scorpius curiously and then took off the necklace and pulled it up towards her so she could actually look at it.

She carefully inspected the necklace and the crest that was engraved on it. It was really the first time that she had ever truly looked at it. At the time that it was given to her, she was so distraught about her father’s death that the comfort of knowing she owned something so treasured by her mother that he had given her seemed to soothe her. Her eyes grew wide. “This is the same crest that Godric had on all of his things.” She said more to herself than anyone else.

She turned to Scorpius as she opened the locket. Godric had confronted the Malfoy family the last time they were in England and they had taken, while not to terribly kindly to him, accepted them so long as he didn’t cause trouble. “This man.” She said pointing to the picture of her twin. “His name is Godric Delk Malfoy.” She started, “Up until a few weeks ago I was always under the impression he was my cousin and the product of an affair. I have recently learned that he was in fact actually my twin.”

Christy started to have some doubts in her mind now. If they had worked so hard to keep it from her that she and Godric were in fact twins, would it have really been so terribly hard to hide the fact that her father wasn’t even her biological father. Of course in her mind he would always be her father if that was the case. After all he had been the one who raised her. He had been the one to drill in the importance of family ties and knowing the right people. The man who pushed her to study so hard that she finished school a year early so she might attend Hogwarts.

She crinkled her face slightly. He was also the one who was so against her going to Hogwarts for her final year of school. Now she had to question that too. Why was he so opposed to her attending Hogwarts for her seventh year? He didn’t really seem even remotely alright with the fact that Godric would have been with her. Now she was beginning to feel uneasy about this cloudy affair that was pretty much her past…and what was worse she didn’t like it at all. She liked for things to be set and known. She liked having the answers.
(OOC: Godric did actually confront the Malfoy’s when he was on the site a few years ago. Just so you know because he actually made friends with Scorpius.)