It was September First, and Albus Potter was very excited to get back to school. He had a few reasons for being excited, the first one being his best friend, the second one being the fact that he wouldn't have to talk to his family as much, and the third one was that he wanted to have something to occupy his thoughts again.

Summer for him had been quite rough. First, his family (and all his cousins) went on a trip to America for two months, making it a bit harder for him to exchange letters with Scorpius, and he had to hang out with Rose quite a bit, even though they weren't on quite the best terms.

But school was starting, so at least Albus had something to look forward too.

/

As soon as he got on the platform, he hugged his parents goodbye, and with a promise to write, he rushed on to the train, looking for an empty compartment so that Scorpius could come find him when he was out of the prefect meeting.

He soon found a compartment, dragged his trunk in, put it up on a shelf, and sat down and opened a book. The train started moving not so long after, and after a little while longer, Scorpius appeared at the door.

"There you are, Albus! I feel like I haven't seen you in months!" He said excitedly.

"That's because you haven't, Scorpius."

"Oh." Scorpius smiled.

Scorpius dragged his trunk into the compartment and put it up on one of the shelves and sat down. The pair engaged in a lively conversation, before they were interrupted.

In the doorway was Rose, who Albus was still not on quite friendly terms with.

"Sorry to bother you two, but all the other compartments are full. Would you mind if it sat here?" She asked, a bit awkwardly.

Albus instantly wanted to say no, but before he could, Scorpius replied.

"Of course! We don't mind, right Albus?"

"It's fine," Albus said, reluctantly.

Albus knew that Scorpius was only being nice, he had found out before summer break that Scorpius's so called crush on Rose had fled as mysteriously as it came.

"Are you sure?" Rose asked. "I don't want to intrude on anything."

"Just sit down." Albus told her.

"Thanks,"

A few awkward minutes of silence passed before Scorpius broke it.

"So Albus, Rose, how was your summers?"

Albus and Rose both try to speak at the same time, eager to have something to break the silence. Albus motioned for Rose to go ahead, a bit rudely.

Noticing something was obviously wrong, Scorpius was quite concerned. He let Rose ramble on, though, not wanting to interrupt.

Just then, a knock sounded on the door.

"Anything from the trolley dears?" the trolley lady called, opening the door just a bit.

Albus and Scorpius exchanged a look and yelled "No!" in unison, sliding the door closed quickly.

Rose laughed. "What was that all about?"

Albus instantly became hostile again, retreating back into his corner of the compartment. Scorpius decided that Albus needed a talking too, so he apologized to Rose and dragged him out.

"Why did you do that?" Albus asked, as soon as they left the compartment.

"Because you're being rude, and you should probably stop before Rose storms out in anger and leaves you in a bad mood."

Albus sighed. "You can't expect me to be nice to her, Scorp. She's hated us since first year!"

Scorpius shook his head. "Two points;"

Albus smiled. "You always have two points, don't you?"

"First, it's sixth year, which means that that is a good five years, so she certainly can't still hate us, and second, it's quite obvious that she's trying." Scorpius reasoned. "So maybe you should try too."

"Why are you being so nice? She hated you too!"

"You just said hated, therefore proving the fact that she doesn't hate us anymore." Scorpius replied. "And as much as I love your company, Albus, I would like to make more friends before we graduate and never interact with anyone else. Plus, she's your cousin, give her a chance."

"Fine, I'll be nice." Albus said, grudgingly heading back into the compartment.

/

A few hours passed without any problems, but there was not much progress with Albus's and Rose's relationship either. Scorpius kept on trying to start conversations, but it was quite obvious that it was getting nowhere. He finally gave up and left the compartment, mumbling something about using the loo, hoping that Albus and Rose would take this chance to sort out their problems.

After Scorpius had left for about five minutes, Rose spoke up.

"Hey Albus, do you hate me or something?"

Albus looked up from the book he had pulled out and sighed. "No, not really."

"Then why were you ignoring me?" She said quietly.

"Well maybe because you have been really rude to Scorp and I since first year?" Albus replied, a bit harshly.

Rose's face fell. "Oh."

"And you know, it hurts quite a bit when your cousin starts teasing you because you aren't like the rest of our family."

"I'm sorry, Albus," She said softly. "I didn't realize how mean I was being."

Albus sighed again. "It's fine, just please be nicer?"

Rose smiled. "Of course! If I could, I'd go back and slap myself."

Albus laughed. "Time traveling is never a good idea, Rose. Fourth year proved that."

She went over and sat next to Albus. "You think we can still be friends?"

He leaned over and hugged her. "Of course."

Scorpius, who had been standing outside the entire time, came in almost as soon and they stopped hugging, giving off such a wide smile, Albus couldn't get mad at him for spying,

/

The rest of the train ride was much more enjoyable than the first part, for the mood in the compartment had lifted by a tenfold. And by the time the ride to Hogwarts had ended, Albus and Scorpius were very, very happy to call Rose their friend.