The potion class room had always been his favourite one. The dark colours of the walls and the wooden tables and the high windows made it look like the old crypt of an ancient alchemist, with all the phials crowded together on the shelf in the back behind Professor Slughorn's table. There was always that mysterious green light, the same one that filled the Slytherin common room, and the air tasted different every time he entered the crypt, depending on which potion they were about to brew, or which potion was brewed during the lesson before.

Though today, the smell was not mysterious or magic at all – he recognised damp sweat and fresh earth after rain, as well as something sweet that sent him back to chocolate frogs on his first train ride to Hogwarts.

"I don't recall this being an insanitary version of Honeydukes", he whispered to Matthew Hewer, the bloke next to him who happened to be his best friend since they had shared a dorm together for 5 years.

There were two other guys as well, but potion class was joined by the Ravenclaws, as usually, so he lost track of them. Karl Jenkins and Alexander Nott possessed the two beds near the door, while Albus slept between Matt and the empty bed next to the window. The boys usually used that one for throwing dirty clothes onto it until the house elves would get them.

"Are you kidding?" Matt frowned at him, more than obviously confused about his friend. "There isn't any sweat. It's the Three Broomsticks and.. Roses, I suppose." His frown turned into a mildly worried expression. "Al, you don't think we will mix Butter Beer with Roses, don't you?"

"What are you talking about? This is clearly chocolate, not Butter Beer!"

Suddenly, a hand landed on his shoulder, and a curious redhead sneaked over his shoulder. "Boys, what are you talking about?"

Rose turned to pull Matthew into a tight hug before Albus could even open his mouth. Instead, he growled and covered his face in his hands. Cousin, his friend since birth, and he got ignored as soon as Matt was anywhere near her.

But as much as the constant snogging of two of his best friends annoyed him, he couldn't take amiss. If he had someone, he probably wouldn't be able to take his hands off of them either. Though, girls weren't really his area. He had been on a few dates with one of Rose's friends for a while, Clarisse Vane, and it had been nice, but he had never really liked her hand in his or her fragile arms around him.

After that, he went out with the Hufflepuff head boy, which had felt a lot better, and he had a big crush on him back then, but he never truly fell in love. After he realised that, he broke up with Chris immediately; he was too gentle, and deserved a man who could actually return his feelings properly.

"If you lot could convene around the table, please? It's the first class of the new year, but I beg your attention since I prepared something very special for you", Professor Slughorn announced and pulled Albus out of his thoughts. He immediately rushed forwards and inspected the phials and caldrons that were positioned on the dark wood.

Potions was his best class besides astrology, and he enjoyed being good at it. He ignored the people that now gathered together around him and leaned in closer to the soft pinkish potion that gave off that confusing smell. His mind rattered through the advanced potion book he had devoured during summer holidays, until he remembered an entry on various love potions.

There was one where you had to mix a part of your body – a hair or something similar – into the potion, it was said to attract the drinking person's attention to you for around twenty-four hours. But it was supposed to have no smell, which, as he thought, would make it a lot easier to sneak it into a person's pumpkin juice.

That potion had been followed by a long text on how it didn't cause actual love etcetera etcetera, but he was almost sure he the potion in front of him was the one which description had followed afterwards.

The name was Amortentia, if he remembered it correctly, and it smelled differently depending on what attracted one. He hadn't known yet that sweat attracted him, he didn't even like Quidditch that much, but he chose wisely to ignore that part.

"This thing here is Felix Felicis, also called liquid luck. It is extraordinary hard to brew, can somebody explain why? Yes, Miss Granger-Weasley?"

Albus didn't listen to his cousin as she started to explain. He heard her, but he did not process her words. Had he smelled that before? Anywhere? He had always liked chocolate, sure, but who didn't. Sweat, rain … nothing, not a single face came across his mind. If that potion was referring to one specific person – which he was sure of, he knew for a fact that Matthew's and Rose's first date took place in the Three Broomsticks and that the perfume she used smelled like the flower which gave her her name – he had not met him yet.

Potion class was over way to soon. After Professor Slughorn shooed them out of his classroom, he went back into the Slytherin common room; his next class would be only after lunch. Care of magical Creatures, even though taught by Rubeus Hagrid, was one of his least favourite classes. He loved the creatures, for sure, but feeding Flobberworms was even more boring to him than watching a Quidditch game.

At least his expectations could not possibly be disappointed, and he somehow managed to make it through the day without falling asleep during Hagrid's class. Defence against Dark Arts were a pain in the ass, because everybody expected him to be "as brilliant as the boy who lived" which he, obviously, wasn't.

What mostly annoyed him was that his father really hadn't been that good. Sure, the Patronus and stuff, but he had read all the books about the Battle of Hogwarts and how Voldemort had been defeated – even he could cast an Expelliarmus-Spell. There really wasn't anything tricky about that.

At dinner, he sat between Matthew and Alexander, Rose and Karl sitting opposite of them. "Who's that boy over there?", Alexander asked suddenly, a spoon of pudding halfway to his mouth. Albus gulped and layed his own spoon down. Had he expressed yet that he absolutely loved not only chocolate, but chocolate pudding as well?

"Which one? There are many boys in this hall, you know", he answered dryly. Rose kicked his leg under the table. "Oi! What was that for?"

Rose grinned. "Be nice, little cousin. Besides, he can probably hear you", she added in a lower voice and nodded into the direction of a boy who sat lonely at the end of the Slytherin table, nervously glancing around.

"Who the hell is that? I haven't seen him in any of my classes today." Matthew frowned at the silver-blond boy. "Do you think the hair is dyed?" This time, it was Albus who kicked the other boy. "Stranger sitting on our table, wearing Slytherin robes, definitely not sorted in yesterday, and you are worried about his hair?"

"Well, it is abnormally bright, isn't it?" Matt shrugged. Albus and Rose rolled their eyes simultaneously. "You thought my hair was dyed, too", Rose said and glared at her boyfriend accusingly. "But I love it now!", Matt hurried to say, reached over the table and took her hand. Rose laughed and continued eating with her other hand. "Let go of me, you complete idiot."

"Al, isn't it kind of your job to ask him who he is? You know, with the whole prefect thing." Alexander winked at him. "Attractive guy, even I can see that. Is he your type?"

Albus growled and tried to resist the urge to strangle his friend right there and then. "Stop trying to put me up with every attractive guy you see!"

A few heads turned around to him and his cheeks started burning. "Mind your own business", he murmured into the direction of a few way too curious young Ravenclaw girls, before he turned back to his pudding. "So you are saying he is attractive?" Alexander's grin went bigger from minute to minute. "No! Yes. I don't know, maybe. How am I supposed to tell when he sits that far away?"

Karl, who had remained quiet until now, sighed and gave all of them a deadpanned glare. "How about all of you shut up and eat or give me your pudding as well?"

"No way!" Matthew yelled and, frightened somebody could steal his precious dessert, continued eating hectically. Albus rolled his eyes at his best friend, then risked another glance at the unknown boy before he continued eating as well.

A few minutes later, the boys decided to go back into the Slytherin common room. Rose kisses Matthew goodnight, as usually, and Albus turned away like usually. "Goodnight guys!" She waved and smiles happily before she hurried up the stairs, to where she had seen a group of Ravenclaw girls. "Clara, Lucy, wait for me!"

Alexander turned around as they took another stair that went down to their dorms. "He isn't following us, is he? Where the fuck is he?"

"Developing a small crush yourself, are you?" Albus grinned and slapped his back. "Welcome on the other side, man."

"No way! There's this girl, Clara, the one you went out with last year, remember? She's super cute. Why did you let her go?" Albus deadpanned him. "Oh, that's why. Sorry pal. Anyways, I'm just trying to set you up with someone, okay? You didn't date anyone since that Hufflepuff guy last year."

"And did you date anybody? Leave me alone", Albus murmured, getting seriously annoyed with that shit. If he should decide to date anybody, it was his own choice, and he didn't need any help with that. He didn't want a disaster like last year again. He knew he broke that guy's heart. He didn't want to do that ever again by going out with someone he wasn't 100% sure he loved. And he sure didn't love a boy he had met just minutes ago.

"Ictus Draconis", he murmured at the stone wall, which opened in front of him and let the small group in. He felt himself calm down by the Dungeon immediately. He wandered through the green light and threw himself at a black armchair and took a deep breath.

Then, he felt someone nudging his arm. "Hey, didn't mean to offend you", Alexander started concerned. Albus sighed. "I know why you are doing this. I'm the queer one, I need to be supported, right?"

Alexander frowned. Matthew sighed as well. "He doesn't mean it like that, Al, you know that." The black-haired prefect crossed his arms repulsively. "Would he support me if I was straight? Did he ever try to hook you up with Rose? No."

"For the record, I make jokes about everyone's relationships", Alexander said, slightly hostile now.

"But not constantly, Alex, and you know that! I don't need a special treatment just because I am not into boobs", Albus hissed, and faced the other way.

"Okay, okay, calm down guys." Karl ruffled both of their heads before sitting down in between them. "First of all, boobs are great, even if you aren't attracted to them, Al, you should respect them." Albus sighed. "I do respect them, but–" "Shush, I am talking now. Alexander, stop whatever you are currently doing, Albus, stop complaining about what he is currently doing. I think the two third-years over there are fighting, I wanna hear what they say."

Matthew slapped the back of his head. "God damnit, am I the only sane person here? Not wanting to hook you up, Al, but I really really don't recognise to have ever seen that pal."

Before Albus could open his mouth to answer him, the door, which was visible from inside the dungeon, swung open. Everyone automatically went quiet as Headmistress McGonagall entered the common room, followed by the boy they were just talking about. Authoritative like she always was with her strict black bun and the green robes, the walked into the middle of the room, the boy staying close behind her.

"Quiet, please. Thank you." She looked around, her gaze resting on Albus for one second, then moving on. "From this day on, you will welcome a new fellow student in your rows. He went to the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic for his first five years, but due to certain incidents he decided to spend his sixth and seventh year here in Hogwarts.

"I await open-minded respect from every one of you. Mr. Potter, Mr. Hewer, Mr. Nott, Mr. Jenkins; Mr. Malfoy will be placed in your dormitory. Oh, and Mr. Potter, as a prefect of the same year it is your responsibility to guide our new student around. I wish a good evening for all of you."

With that, she patted the boy's shoulder and left without another word, or explanation, or anything. Albus guessed he really should not be interested in whatever these certain incidents were, but it was quite spectacular in the magic world to change schools two years before graduation. Especially since the boy must have been in France for most of his time. Albus only hoped the boy could speak fluent English.

He was about to stand up and make his way over to the boy as he realized how his friends froze in shock. "What is it?", he whispered to Matthew, and noticed how everyone else was murmuring as well, everyone's eye pinned on the new boy, who kept his eyes on his feet while he waited, just waited, quietly.

"He is a Malfoy. His father was a death eater, just like his grandparents." Matt frowned and glared at Albus concerned. "Will you be okay? I can come with you."

Albus raised one brow, his face growing a little colder. "I am the son of Harry Potter, and I suck at everything he was oh so talented in. I think I can manage talking to a boy who is new and needs our help, because he is nothing else than that."

His anger growing, he stood up. "Everyone, shut your mouths. Don't you all have homework to do? Don't start lagging behind in the first week." Albus straightened his shoulder as he walked over to the Malfoy boy. He had to be a role model now, and he hated that, but his intentions were sincere. If anyone could understand the weight of a famous dad, no matter what said dad had done, it was him.

"Hey. Malfoy, right? I am Albus Severus Potter. If you want, I can show you around. Or I can show you the dorm first, in case you are tired." He heard Matthew snickering and bit his lip, determined to ignore his friend. He reached out his hand. "I would like to be your friend as well." He kept in the "It must be hard to know nobody in here" that he was about to say, because he knew that if he were the new boy, he wouldn't want any pity either.

The boy looked up for the first time. He took his hand and his greyish blue eyes seemed to pierce right into Albus' soul. "I'd love that. And the dorm sounds nice, thank you."

He spoke without any accent, which surprised Albus. His voice was strangely soothing, kind of deep but still really soft; he was too stunned to describe it otherwise, which surprised him as well. What didn't surprise him was a loud crashing noise when Matthew's laugh grew louder, that idiot most likely managed to fell off his armchair.

"Ignore him", he whispered and let go of Malfoys' hand. "Follow me, it's right down there", he said in a normal voice as he led the blond boy to the staircase in the right corner. "The girl's dorms are on the left, but don't even try to get there. My friend did once, the stairs transformed into actual snakes and tried to strangle him."

"Down there", Matthew gasped in the background, followed by another crash, probably Alexander or Nick hitting him.

Albus growled, shaking his head before he climbed down the stairs. He didn't hear the other boy's steps, but he heard him sigh as soon as they were out of view. "Thank you for saying you wanted to be my friend."

Albus, who had reached the sixth year boy's dorm and pushed the door open, turned around abruptly. "I didn't say that for the others. I meant it." He smiles, insecure yet friendly. "You seem to be a nice guy. Don't listen to them, they're all idiots."

The Malfoy followed him through the door and glared around, smiling faintly at the dark green curtains. "I know about the rumours. They're saying Voldemort is my father." He shrugged, not seeming to be affected by that in any way.

"Voldemort is dead", Albus frowned and shut the door closed.

"I know. And they should know, too." Malfoy shrugged again. "I don't really care."

Albus glared back at him, slightly impressed. "But you went to Beauxbatons because of that, didn't you?"

The blond boy's face grew colder. "My father's idea. I don't appreciate talking about it."

Albus bit his lip, knowing he probably ruined everything just with that if he didn't apologize soon enough. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to get too close to you. Like, metaphorically speaking, you are like ten feet away after all." He stopped himself from talking when he realized he had absolutely no idea what on earth he was talking.

Metaphorically speaking? Really? That guy wasn't an idiot, Albus could tell that much, and he was pretty sure he could have guessed he didn't mean standing close to him. He had eyes, after all. Piercing, somehow stunning eyes. He felt his palms getting sweaty the longer the boy was looking at him.

"Um.. so, what is your first name? I prefer to leave the surname thing to the teachers."

"I am Scorpius", the blond boy said, the tiniest smile on his face. Albus gasped. "Like the constellation?"

Malfoy's … no, Scorpius' smile widened a little. "Weird, isn't it?"

"Not at all!" Albus tried his hardest to stay cool, but it wouldn't quite work out. "I love Scorpius. Scorpion. The constellation. Not you, of couse. No offence though. I'm sure you are nice. I said that already, haven't I? The constellation is really beautiful. It lies in the southern hemisphere, and it is Latin for scorpion, right? The zodiac sign. Oh, I'm sure you know that." Albus took a deep breath. He was talking shit again, and he could feel his face growing hot, damn it, he felt so nervous when these eyes rested on him, so suddenly aware of his messy bound tie and his curly, untidy hair. "What I meant to say is, the name is cool", he finished and turned around, an desperate try to hide his flushed face.

"Albus is a nice name as well." Scorpius' voice wasn't mocking; he wasn't trying to make fun of him. It was so soft and sincere that Albus turned towards him again. "Albus and Severus were two headmasters of Hogwarts, right? A powerful name, I think."

"Thank you", Albus stuttered, suddenly the awkward boy he always managed to hide from his friends. "Oh, the beds. The one next to the window is free. I am sleeping next to you."

"In a different bed, I suppose." Scorpius smirked shyly.

"Of course!" Albus stammered sheepishly and sat down on his own bed, because he really didn't know what else to do, and these eyes still were on him.

Scorpius stepped over to the bed next to the window and pulled the closed curtains to the side. Albus secretly thanked god that it was just the second day this year at Hogwarts, and it wasn't covered in dirty clothes. It was a bit too soon for Scorpius to see his boxershorts. Way too soon. Too soon? Albus frowned at himself for what the hell that 'too soon' implied, and watched Scorpius sitting down.

"Can you show me around tomorrow? I think I might go to sleep soon, actually. Getting all the way to Hogwarts was kind of exhausting, to be honest."

Albus nodded immediately. "Of course! Don't worry, you will get used to live here soon. It's actually quite nice." He smiled and glared over to Scorpius.

It wasn't until then that he notices the incredible long legs, nicely covered in skinny black jeans, and the curly bright wisps of hair that lightly fell over his forehead when he looked down. Or the long, dark lashes that concealed these eyes as he didn't look into Albus eyes but to the side, as if the boy got insecure about suddenly being less than ten feet apart from him.

"Thank you", he said timidly, still not looking at him. Albus gulped. His friends had been right, that boy really was damn attractive. Even more than attractive, he was stunning.

His voice was a little huskier than usually when he answered.

"You're welcome."