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“No.” Scorpius crossed his little arms and glared up at his fathers. He looked angry, but more than that he looked frightened. “No, no, no.”
Draco knew that it was good that his son felt able to stand up for himself, and that he was able to express his views. That didn’t make it any easier when their four year old threw a tant-had a meltdown when they had things that needed to be done today. He pinched the bridge of his nose, and counted to ten, trying to remember what it said in all those Muggle books that Hermione had bought them once they realised that the standard books for raising Wixen didn’t necessarily match what Scorpius needed.
“I’ve got this,” Harry promised, waving Draco back and crouching down in front of their boy. “Come on, Scorp, you wanted to have short hair for picture day, didn’t you?”
Scorpius nodded quickly, making his Malfoy-blond hair flap about at the movement. It covered his face, his fringe obstructing his vision. Harry gently pushed it to the side so that he could see, and Draco tried not to feel a twinge of jealousy at the fact Harry was always best at this.
“How about Draco puts some clips in your hair for now so you don’t run into the wall again, and we can go to the hairdresser together?”
“‘Kay…” Scorpius looked up at them, vivid grey eyes shining with distrust. Draco waved his fingers, calling over the hair clips that Scorpius liked. He showed him them. Scorpius’s fingers hesitated for a moment over the one with a daffodil, and the one with a dinosaur, before he finally prodded at the one with a golden snitch on it. “Nitch!”
“Alright then,” Draco agreed, carefully clipping Scorpius’s fringe back so that the boy was at less risk of colliding with every item of masonry, brickwork and furniture in the house.
“Have we got Leggy?” Harry called out, and another quick flick of Draco’s fingers summoned Scorpius’s favourite stuffed toy. The boy grinned, cuddling him close and chewing on the cloth sting of the rainbow-coloured scorpion toy.
“All ready?” Harry asked Scorpius, while Draco did a quick check of their bag to make sure they had everything Scorpius might need for a brief venture outside the home. Harry held up Scorpius’s backpack, getting him to put it on and using magic to tether him close, and then they were ready to head out.
Swish and Flick were a well-known hairdressers, one that Hermione and Ron took their children to. They weren’t the barbers Draco had used as a child, but they were a bright, family friendly store on Diagon Alley, with colourful chairs and mirrors bewitched to show you potential hairstyles prior to the cut. It was the kind of place that Lucius would have hated, and Draco loved. Even Harry liked it, and there was no point in him visiting a hairdressers, given how his unruly hair behaved.
The witch that greeted them, a smiling youth with bright purple hair, introduced herself as Amethyst. Scorpius clung to Harry’s leg, waving awkwardly up at her. Scorpius seemed excited by the magical mirrors, and climbed up into the chair, and Amethyst fetched the smock for him.
Scorpius didn’t like the smock, Draco discovered, as the boy gave a piercing scream, and then his magic lashed out, smashing the mirror. Draco threw up a shield himself, protecting Scorpius and Amethyst from the shards of glass. Scorpius’s next wave of magic sent everything hurtling off the shelves, both in the shop and in the storeroom. Scorpius was howling, and several of the other children were crying as well at the noise.
Draco felt embarrassed. Some part of him wanted to shout at Scorpius, and he worried that made him a bad father, but he pushed all those thoughts aside to crouch in front of Scorpius and rest his hands on his shoulders. “Hey, Scorpio,” he tried to pitch his voice gently, as Harry restored everything to how it had been prior to their son’s outburst. “You doing alright there?”
Scorpius looked up at him, his big, grey eyes filled with tears, and Draco picked him up and cuddled him tightly. Scorpius clung back, sniffling into his shoulder. He babbled comfortingly to himself, his plushie bouncing against Draco’s back.
“Sorry,” Draco said to Amethyst. “I don’t think this is going to work, but thank you.”
“No it… it’s scary,” she smiled at him. “I’m sure we can try another day, but he’s not the first child to struggle a little with a haircut.”
“Thank you,” Draco repeated, bouncing his son in his arms. Scorpius nuzzled his ear, mumbling something about going home, and Draco only just managed to apologise again and tell Harry he was headed back before they Apparated home.
Scorpius had a nap for the rest of the afternoon. Draco looked at him sleeping, and wondered if he could just give him a haircut while he was asleep, but he didn’t think that would work. It wouldn’t be right to just force a haircut on him, and he didn’t want to stop Scorpius from trusting him. Harry came to sit beside Draco on a couch, holding his hand.
“Amethyst said there were spells we could use.”
“We don’t want to make him frightened of wands,” Draco sighed. “We don’t want to scare him, Harry. I just… what…” He closed his eyes. “What if I’m a bad father?”
“You’re a great father, Draco. You care about what he wants, and you handled his panicking really well. You shielded him on instinct. You just… he’s just scared. And we need to work out how to make sure he isn’t scared going forwards.”
“That’s easy to say.”
“He can always just wear his hair clips, if he wants to.”
“I know,” Draco sighed. “But he really wanted to have short hair like the other boys, and… you know he hates it when his hair gets tangled. If it was shorter it would be better for him. I don’t care what he looks like. I think he’s perfect. But he does care, and-”
“And we’ll find a way of sorting it out,” Harry said certainly. “We’ve got a week before the pictures. We’ve got time.”
Draco wasn’t sure about that, but Harry was determined. Harry firecalled Molly, Ron and Andromeda to see if there were any suggestions there. Molly and Ron had both had helpful ideas, and Andromeda didn’t, because the children she had raised were metamorphagi and as such did not need their hair cut. Eventually, they had a plan.
A few days later, Scorpius was sitting on the floor, creating a tower of blocks and then getting Leggy to smash them down. Draco watched as he balanced the blocks in ways that should have been impossible, and only worked because Scorpius had a lot of magic use already. Harry came to sit beside Scorpius and smiled. “Hey, Scorp.”
Scorpius frowned, finishing constructing his tower and having Leggy demolish it again before he acknowledged Harry’s presence. He offered Leggy to Harry, and Harry quickly used the toy to pile the bricks back into a mound of rubble.
“I know you didn’t like having a haircut, but you wanted to have short hair, don’t you?”
Scorpius nodded, gesturing at Draco’s own hair, and Harry’s. “Yeah.”
“Okay, so, we’ve been thinking,” Harry flashed Draco a smile. “I thought that Draco could maybe cut your hair. He can practise on me, because my hair is naughty and grows back, so if he makes a mess, it’ll be alright.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Potter. Your hair is already a mess.” Draco muttered, but he couldn’t help smiling, and Harry smiled back.
“Well, if Draco does okay there, then he can do yours?”
“No coat.” Scorpius muttered, frowning.
“No, we don’t have one of those anyway,” Harry agreed, although they were a bit worried, because if this plan didn’t work they didn’t know what solution would - Scorpius hated itchy textures, and he wouldn’t like strands of hair falling on his neck and into his clothes. “What we thought was that you could use the invisibility cloak over your body.”
“Invisible?” Scorpius grinned. “Daddy’s cloak?”
“Yeah, daddy’s cloak,” Harry agreed. Getting to wear the invisibility cloak was a special treat for Scorpius, because both Draco and Harry were concerned about the chaos that an invisible, small child could cause.
Scorpius looked excited and hadn’t started to scream, so Draco was considering that as a victory. Harry fetched the cloak, and Draco helped Harry to put it on so that only his head was visible, before he grabbed the scissors.
“You sure about this, Harry?”
“I’m sure.”
Draco nodded, holding the comb carefully, the way the videos that Hermione had suggested had shown, and then running the scissors against it. It took a few goes to get the hang of what he was doing, but soon he had managed to make Harry’s hair look neater than normal. Harry sat still, talking to Scorpius, saying it didn’t hurt. Eventually, Draco could step back, and Harry grinned.
“You ready for your go, Scorp?”
Scorpius nodded after only a few seconds of delay. Harry vanished the strands of hair that were on the cloak, and then wrapped it around Scorpius and Leggy, so that Scorpius appeared to just be a floating head. Harry sat down in front of him, casting the little, coloured lights Scorpius loved.
There was no immediate panic. Draco picked up his tools and approached, keeping up a quiet narration of what he was doing. “I’m just taking a look at your hair, and now I’m brushing it…” He wasn’t sure Scorpius was even listening, but it helped him to know what was going on. He explained as he cut it, little golden strands falling down to land on invisible shoulders. Harry kept playing with Scorpius, and Scorpius seemed distracted by the lights and the cloak.
Draco focused and tried to do exactly what the videos had shown. Eventually, he was able to put the tools down out of Scorpius’s reach and admire his son. “All done.”
Scorpius nodded sincerely, and Draco helped him out from the invisibility cloak.
It certainly didn’t look like the kind of haircut that Scorpius would get from a professional, but he would no longer need clips to keep his fringe out of his eyes, and he hadn’t screamed or broken anything. Harry held up a mirror so Scorpius could see, and Scorpius grinned.
“Nice hair!” He grabbed at his reflection, then reached up to stroke his own hair, laughing softly at the change of sensation. He looked around the room, and Draco felt a sense of relief - if nothing else, at least he hadn’t traumatised his son by giving him a haircut.
“When can we do it again?” Scorpius asked, brightly smiling and waving Leggy in one hand.