Some parts of this story may be AU.

***chapter 1***

"A what?" Scorpius asked.

"You heard me perfectly well, Malfoy."

Several nearby students who, until now, had been ignoring the argument between two newbie first years, no doubt about who ate whose chocolate frogs, or who'd broken their promise to sit next to someone on the Hogwarts Express, swivelled round at the mention of the name. Though of course, they remarked afterwards, it should have been obvious who he was. White blond hair,silver-blue eyes pale skin and pointed nose and chin were characteristic features of the notorious Malfoy family. This kid's face, however, was a little more rounded than his father's, and so he'd slipped by unnoticed. And the older students knew – they knew they should quell the dispute before it got any more heated, but, Hell, this was a Malfoy! The first Malfoy to step inside Hogwarts hallowed halls since the infamous Draco. It would be interesting to see how far a Malfoy got with calling anyone a Mudblood these days.

"Why in Merlin's name would I call your Mum that," the young Malfoy was saying; "when I don't even know who you are?"

"I'm Rose Weasley." The fierce Gryffindor with the long frizzy red hair had a challenging look in her brown eyes now and a small grim smile played on her lips. "My Mum's name is Hermione Weasley. You know, formerly Hermione Granger."

"Pleased to meet..." Scorpius extended his hand, but Mad Girl kept her arms firmly folded across her chest, and so he shrugged and thrust both hands into his robe pockets instead.

"So go ahead. Go ahead and dare say my Mum's a Mudblood and we'll see what happens next!"

"No hexing." They both looked towards the quiet, spectacle-wearing boy who'd spoken, Rose with a withering glare, Scorpius with curiosity. He recognised the boy from the train station. He and Mad Girl had been among the large group of people Dad nodded to briefly when the smoke momentarily cleared. And he recollected, too, that the Sorting Hat had been torn between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff before placing him in Hufflepuff. But for every Sort there had been so much noise, applause, cheering, foot stomping and "brouhaha", as one of the Hogwarts' professors interestingly put it, observing that the first years were a particularly lively bunch this year, that it had been difficult to make out anyone's name without straining your ears to listen. Which Mad Girl obviously had because she'd stared long and hard at Scorpius after the Sorting Hat placed him.

"They warned us no magic first week at Hogwarts or fifty points deducted," Spectacles Boy reminded her. "Come on, Rosie. Give the guy a chance. It's only fair."

Rose snorted impatiently at her cousin Albus Potter and she and Scorpius returned their full attention to each other.

"So..." Scorpius frowned, carefully mulling over the recently gleaned information. "Rose Weasley. Hermione Weasley. Hermione Granger..."

Dad had told him to make friends as soon as he started at Hogwarts but it was proving much more difficult than Scorpius anticipated. Draco Malfoy said not making genuine friendships was where he'd gone wrong, that he'd been an "arrogant little jerk" until he did a lot of growing up in his last year or so "when it was way too late to fix things". Scorpius would have laughed at the ridiculous idea of his Dad ever being an arrogant little jerk if his expression hadn't been so solemn and if his eyes hadn't seemed to shine with the same suspicious brightness Scorpius noticed when Granny Narcissa died. But then Dad looked away, to say something to Mum, and the steam from Hogwart's Express thickened again so he couldn't be sure.

Mum pulled him in a last tight hug and Dad placed his hands on his shoulders one last time as the scarlet engine hooted warnings for passengers to board.

"Some students," his father said in an unfamiliar tight, choked voice, glancing quickly at the train and back at his son, "won't like you when they know your name's Malfoy. That's not because of you, that's because of me. Remind them of that. You're a good kid, Scorp. Hold your head high. I don't care if your House wins the Cup every year, whether you make the Quidditch team, get brilliant grades. 'Course all that would be great so maybe I'll just break the law and cast The Cheating Charm..." he chuckled for a moment, then his expression was grave again. " Don't isolate yourself, Scorp. Just...just make friends at Hogwarts, yeah?"

Hordes of kids were milling round, vanishing and re-appearing through the thick grey steam, in a crazy mixture of laughter, screams, cloaks, wands, hooting owls and parents' last-minute instructions. Scorpius was bursting to be among them. Being educated at the same muggle school Mum taught at, he wasn't allowed to reveal his wizarding heritage or practise magic. He'd been looking forward to meeting other wizards and witches his own age.

But nothing had gone how he planned.

First, to his dismay, he fell asleep on the Hogwarts Express. How he slept amid the racket, he never knew, though Mum often remarked he could sleep through a hurricane, ten marching brass bands and a wizard war all happening at once. He remembered finding, tucked away in a corner, a tiny empty carriage half hidden amid the bigger carriages that were spilling over with students, then setting down a small bag – his trunk had already been loaded – and waiting expectantly for the door to open. The next thing he remembered was waking up as the train pulled in at the station. His carriage was still empty. Maybe nobody noticed it. Maybe they saw the name Malfoy on the bag and avoided it. Maybe somebody thought it would be fun to play a Deepsleep Slumberspell on him. He reddened. That wouldn't do much for his street cred at Hogwarts. Even some five-year-old wizards and witches knew how to ward off Deepsleep Slumberspells.

Still, Scorpius was nothing if not an optimist.

The Sorting Hat had placed him in the new House, Columbidae, and he couldn't wait to Owl his parents with the news. Slytherin, Mum and Dad's old House, didn't exist anymore. Hogwarts had decided to close it down and open a brand new House after the Second Wizard War. Someone called Harry Potter won and someone called Voldemort lost, and it all had something to do with some wizards wanting power over some other wizards, Scorpius knew vaguely. History, both muggle and wizarding, was his very weakest subject and he never listened to it. He often argued that he didn't see the point in reliving the past.

"So we can learn from mistakes," Dad had explained.

Scorpius sighed at the time showing on the muggle clock and at the thick muggle history book which his father was using to coach him on muggle history after he'd just come bottom in the class test. They had a lot of muggle stuff in their home. Some of it had to do with the Malfoys losing a lot of money after the the Second Wizarding War, but Scorpius had a feeling most of it was to do with Mum and Dad wanting him to know about muggles. But even though he had a few muggle friends at school, he was a wizard at heart. He gazed at the sunshine lit window, yearning to be out there flying on his broomstick, trying to beat his previous height and speed, and he wondered whether to throw a sneaky distracting spell. But Dad was no fool. He'd suss right away that he'd been hexed.

"Well, people keep fighting each other," Scorpius observed succinctly. "So that proves nobody learns from history."

"Some do," Dad had said quietly. "That's why Slytherin closed down."

The Malfoys kept up with wizarding news via a regular order for a wizarding newspaper which the owl brought each month. They knew Columbidae had opened four years ago, one and a half decades over the Ministry's estimated time of completion. There had been a great many rules and regulations for the Ministry to wade though, certain pureblood wizard families filed lawsuits, costs escalated and the Ministry department dealing with it all proved extremely inefficient. The Sorting Hat, impatient with the Ministry's mistakes, had sulked for a while and refused to sort anyone, on one memorable occasion deliberately banging itself against the walls of the Great Hall, and on another whizzing through Hogwarts at breakneck speed.

At last a Council of War and Peace was set up, consisting of the Sorting Hat, representatives from the Ministry, Hogwarts and the wizarding community, several established ghosts of the school and a few specially invited ghosts who had died in the Battle of Hogwarts. Moaning Myrtle had threatened to bring the new House to an abrupt end before it began because she screamed she was sick of Fred Weasley's jokes and would rather die than listen to any more. The Ministry officials then wasted more time by insisting on appointing four Ministers, three knights, two portrait people and a centaur to discuss whether it was possible for someone already dead to die, which made Myrtle scream and moan all the more, and led to the Sorting Hat's second protest.

But eventually things settled down, the Pool of Thoughts were collected, magicked and poured into The Sorting Hat. It was agreed the symbol of the new House was to be a white dove, its colours snow white and sky blue, and its values peace, wisdom, free thinking and a sense of humour, the latter being Fred Weasley's particular contribution. The old Slytherin common room had lost its eerie greenish glow and was now much brighter with blue-white hues though Fred played a SeeWhatIsn't trick-spell before he left and for two hours afterwards everyone panicked about the room being a constantly changing riot of uncontrollable colours that ran into one another like a river.

Scorpius had been delighted to learn he was to be in Columbidae. It was, he felt, the perfect choice. He'd do anything for a quiet life so he wasn't brave like a Gryffindor; he certainly wasn't noted for his brains like a Ravenclaw and he had an adversity to hard work so being a Hufflepuff was definitely out. Columbidae seemed a nice, easy kind of House where he could go with the flow of school life without putting himself out - though the wisdom value was a little worrying. Like every selection, the applause that greeted him as he took his seat at his House table was deafening, drowning out all else. He felt he really belonged in Hogwarts.

And now, just when he was on his way to Owl his parents, Mad Girl stopped him with her list of names. Scorpius leaned back lazily and half closed his eyes.

"Rose Weasley. Hermione Weasley. Hermione Granger," he repeated, pleased that he'd remembered. "Mudblood," he finished, opening his eyes fully again.

Too late to dodge Rose Weasley's fist.