Chapter One: A Singed Fire
"Oh for Merlin's sake, Albus, hurry up!" Rose's voice echoed in the great hall, and he stumbled behind her, books flying everywhere as his long, gangling legs lost control beneath him. Sighing, he knelt to pick them up, as a blond haired figure above him cackled nastily.
"Going somewhere, Alby?" Grimacing at the patronising nickname, Albus glared up at Scorpius, who simply stood, languidly leaning an elegant arm on the banister of the staircase. He grabbed Albus' transfiguration book from the pile, and held out one hand for Albus to grab and pull himself up with.
"Smart arse, leave it out would you?" He growled, grabbing his book from the other boy's hands. Scorpius laughed, and started walking towards the northern side of the castle, where transfiguration was about to start. They could see Rose's head bobbing about in the crowd, nervous to not be late, as usual, and they laughed in her wake.
Despite her mother's history of impeccable timings, Rose had never seemed to master the art of arriving to class on time, instead gaining Ron's affinity with lateness. Luckily for her, however, she had inherited her mother's brains, so was not normally reprimanded too harshly. The two boys following, however, were not so lucky, gifted more with a knack for mischief and so they pushed through the crowd of confused looking first years to get there in relatively good time.
"Have you spoken to Jasmine today?" Scorpius asked the taller boy, and Albus shook his head. The haughty Patil girl had not been replying to any of his owls lately, and he was beginning to think that there was a possibility that he was in the dog house.
"She's been in a bad mood all week, I'm just going to leave it until she's calmed down. You know what she's like." Scorpius laughed at him, and pushed open the door to the classroom, where the class of third year Ravenclaws and Slytherins were already sat. Slinking into their seats at the back of the class, Professor Lupin turned to glare at them.
"Late again, boys? This is turning into a regular thing, it seems." Teddy Lupin may have only been in his early twenties, but he was a formidable teacher, and the boys shrank down in their seats, heads bowed awkwardly.
"Sorry, sir. Won't happen again." They each muttered in turn, and Lupin turned back to the board, remarking that they were to come back that evening for an hour's detention. Groaning, they pulled out their books, hurrying to copy down the notes already on the board, detailing just how difficult it was to transform a magpie into a silver goblet.
Rose turned to them from the seat in front, grinning smugly at them.
"You two should really learn that disillusionment charm I told you about. It makes it at least five times easier to slip into class unnoticed, you know." She rolled her eyes, and they snorted.
"Ro, not all of us are as perfect at seventh year charms as you are. Give us a break." Albus scoffed, and began to scribble absentmindedly on the side of his parchment. As Lupin passed by, rather like a hawk, he hit Albus over the head with his book, leaving the boy smarting with both humiliation and pain.
"Save it for art class, Potter." He scorned the boy, and walked back to his desk.
"You wouldn't have thought we'd grown up with him, would you? Why did we end up with him as a teacher? It only makes him more insufferable." Albus complained, albeit quietly, and Rose laughed, turning back to her work.
An hour later, the bell for the end of the day buzzed loudly, and the three third years seized their books thankfully, trying not to think about the three page essay they had just been assigned on the symptoms of splynching.
"You'd think it was obvious, to be fair! I mean, come on. Pain, pain, and a bit more pain. I'll just go and ask my uncle, he knows all about it!" Albus exploded later that evening, in the common room. Scorpius laughed, grabbing a bottle of butterbeer from the table.
"Don't let Rose hear you. She'd only go tell him." He sniggered at him, and Albus scowled.
"I'm so glad I didn't end up in her house. Can you imagine actually having to live with her?" He exclaimed, and Dominique walked up to them, her usual haughty expression ruining the fineness of her features.
"At least she isn't your cousin. Then you have the horror of actually being blood related!" She growled, obviously forgetting that they were related, before passing by to bully some poor first year that was sat in 'her' spot by the fire.
"Yeah, and thank Merlin this is your last year." Albus muttered, glaring in the blonde's direction. Glancing at the clock, he yelped, leaping in the direction of the common room entrance.
"Detention! We forgot, dude!" He cried, and Scorpius stood up, stretching leisurely. Strolling nonchalantly after his friend, he laughed with ease as Albus stood, jittery and reddening.
"Calm down. It's only detention. What's he gonna do, give us another one?" He raised an eyebrow, and Albus glared, his dark fringe falling in his eyes.
"Always the joker, eh, Scorp?" He said, as he started jogging towards Lupin's offices. Scorpius let himself be dragged at triple speed through the castle, only stopping to avoid a hail of spit pellets hurled at them by Peeves.
As they slammed into the door, the two boys leant over breathlessly, before Albus knocked gingerly on the doorframe. A voice from inside called out;
"Come in!"
They looked at each other, Albus gulping, Scorpius grinning, and entered.
Teddy stood behind his desk, arms folded angrily by his sides.
"You two are useless, you know that, right?" He rolled his eyes, and began to pull out a first year's assignment from the desk. Albus looked at it nervously, as he recognised his sister's writing, and the fact that it was the essay he had copied not too long ago.
"Potter, either your sister was really stupid, or you were really stupid. I'm betting on Lily being the smarter here. Why on earth did you copy a first year's homework? Least of all your sister's. You think I wasn't going to find out?" He laughed at the boy, slinging the paper down on the desk, and sat down once more.
Crossing his long legs, he signalled for the boys to copy.
"Look, guys. I know it's weird, me being your teacher, when I was Al's childhood instigator of bullying and pain. Someone had to do it, you know? But seriously. Forget about it, and try getting to my lessons on time from now on. This is what I've wanted to do since I was about five, so just give me some slack? Please?" Teddy looked at the two boys, and they sighed.
"Yes, sir." They muttered, and dropped their heads.
"Good. Now get out of here, I need to call Victoire." He winked at them, and they abandoned the room as he threw floo powder into the fire.
Walking back to the common room, the boys wondered how far the relationship between Albus' cousin - or one of them, at least - and their teacher had actually gone.
"You know, I think they've definitely skipped all the bases and just gone for the home run. This is Victoire we're talking about here." Scorpius speculated, and Albus shook his head.
"Do you mind? Stuck up as she is, she is still my cousin, dude. Leave it off." He defended the part Veela girl, and Scorpius held his hands up in mock apology.
"Come on, let's get back. It's getting late now." Scorpius said, and the two clambered wearily down the staircase leading to the dungeons, and the common room.
"Parseltongue." Albus threw at the wall, and it split apart, revealing the somewhat gloomy interior of the low ceiling room. Throwing himself in an armchair, Scorpius sighed, eyeing the essays he had left upon the table with slight disdain.
"Do these teachers think we're all made of iron? How the hell are we supposed to get three essays done in a week?" He complained loudly, as someone sat themselves down in the seats beside them. Albus smiled, and greeted the newcomer.
"Hey Jordan. How you been?" He motioned to a graze on the boy's head, and he blushed, waving on hand in embarrassment.
"Had a bit of a run in with one of Hagrid's blasted Blast Ended Screwts. You'd think after so many accidents, they'd just remove them from the curriculum, wouldn't you?" He sighed, grabbing a sandwich from his bag.
"Had to run down to the hospital wing during dinner. Didn't have… thime… for anthy thood." He mumbled through a mouthful of cheese and bread, at which Albus turned away in disgust. The other boy grinned, showing a mouthful of pre-digested mush, and carried on.
"You're disgusting, Jord, you know that?" The boy laughed, swallowing his food hungrily. As he finished the sandwich, he smacked his lips, and threw the wrapper in the bin across the room.
"Apparently, I get it from my dad." He giggled, and Scorpius raised an eyebrow.
"Which one?" He sneered, and Jordan blushed, a bright red hue of humiliation.
Albus glared at Scorpius, and threw his history of magic book at him.
"Leave it, Scorpius. Jord, just ignore the twat." Scorpius opened his mouth, thought better of it, and went back to despairing over his potions essay. Albus rolled his eyes, and looked once more at Seamus Finnegan's son. The boy definitely had his looks, and, clearly, his pyromania. Shaking his head, he looked at his own potions essay, howled in the sudden feeling of being swamped, and faceplanted the table.