A/N: Ok. So this is many firsts for me. It's my first chaptered fic (posted), it's my first Harry Potter, it's my first slash, and my first OC. :D Crazy crazy. I am very excited to be posting this but I'm also afraid that I won't keep with it. So review and keep me writing.

Disclaimer: Not mine. I is not J. K. Rowling so yeah. I do not own the characters. Cept Kate. She's mine. I also do not own the myriad of songs that I will be using throughout this. They belong to their respective artists.

Strangers

Yeah, the friends who stuck together
We wrote our names in blood
But I guess you can't accept that the change is good.

- Ignorance by Paramore

"Are you trying to make me look like a fool?" I asked, pushing away my classmate and best friend.

"You seem to be doing a fine job of that all by yourself," Albus said coldly, hurt and angry churning in those…. oh-so-beautiful green eyes. I flinched as if he'd physically slapped me.

"I'm sorry. Its just….."

"Save it," he said, brushing off the hand that reached for his. "I get it. I went too fast. It's fine." He began to walk through the snow back towards the entrance of the school.

"NO! AL!" He didn't turn. His steps didn't slow. The deceptively-pure-looking snow swirled around and through his black hair. I stood and watched his receding footprints through the powder of the season's first snow.

Maybe I should back up. And introduce myself. Um. I'm Scorpius Malfoy and the gorgeous boy filled with pain is my…. love, Albus Severus Potter. This whole situation started in such stupid, mundane ways and ended up almost destroying my life as I knew it. Actually, if you want the full ridiculous tale, it started in our first year. With those damned House assignments, our fates were sealed. But that wasn't even our first meeting, was it? For six years, those eyes have haunted me. You'd think I'd always remember the first time they bore into mine.

13

"Hey. Um, is anyone sitting here?"

Bold as brass, he was. He walked in and looked at me with that smile only in his eyes. I nodded mutely. I couldn't say no, even though I knew exactly who he was and what Grandfather would say if he caught word of me, his precious "prodigy", consorting with the "blood traitors and halfers".

Oblivious to my internal struggle, he sat down across from me at my nod.

"I'm Albus. Albus Potter." His infectious grin spread across his feature. Well, obviously, half-wit, I couldn't help but think. "What's your name?"

"Scorpius." He didn't know the effort it took to even get that much out.

"Oh," he said as if he had just realized something. "You're Draco Malfoy's son." Who would have thought recognition would scare me so much? My father had told me our name meant different things to different people. I couldn't tell what it meant to him, though. His face only showed curiosity, not the animosity or reverence I had come to expect based on experience.

"Is that a problem?" I asked, barely managing to suppress the hostility I felt enough to keep it from my voice.

"Should it be?" His question caught me off-guard. I'd never though about whether or not it SHOULD be. It always just WAS.

"…No," I finally answered. "No, it shouldn't."

"Good. Then it's not." That damned grin returned.

13

"Malfoy, Scorpius." Oh Lord, oh Lord, oh Lord, I thought as I started over and sat on that weathered stool. I have to be in Slytherin. I have to…. I just have to.

Have to, eh? A voice in my head. I thought I was going crazy when I realized it was the voice of the ancient hat that was upon my head. Why exactly do you have to?

A hat is talking to me. Um… I have to because my parents will disown me if I don't. I was answering a hat. Most definitely sure I was crazy.

Are you sure? Are you positive your parents won't love you just the same? The hat continued to question.

They might love me but they'll never forgive me, I said matter-of-factly.

Do you think you're clever enough to fit in, in Slytherin? Can you handle being in the hated house? the hat needled at me. I drew myself up.

I'll have to, won't I? The hat wheezed a laugh.

You'll do fine, boy.

"SLYTHERIN!" No one was surprised. There were scattered claps and my new house broke into cheers. They had no idea I had to fight for my position in the house of my forebears.

A couple terrified first years later, it was Al's turn. He looked just as afraid as everyone else, though he had seemed fine on the train and even on the boats on the lake. He took a steadying breath, squared his shoulders, and walked up to stool. He sat and the hat was placed on his head. It took quite a bit of time for the hat to decide whether or not he was going to be in a house he wanted. I could tell by the look on his face he was arguing with the old hat. Finally, Al seemed to sigh and his face said "If you must."

"SLYTHERIN!" it screeched. The room seemed to be in shock. A Potter in Slytherin? The Chosen One's look-a-like son was in the dreaded house? Whispers full across the Great Hall. Irritated, I began to clap as loud as I could. My new house recovered seconds later and began to clap as well. Soon, all whispers dissolved into cheers for the newest incoming Hogwarts student. Better yet, they cheered for the newest Potter child, the offspring of the savior of our way of life. It was amazing, in a backwards kind of way. They knew now, without a doubt, Albus would be different from his father. And there was nothing they or anyone could do about it. They cheered for a boy coming into his independence. I cheered for the one boy who didn't seem to care who I was, maybe because he too had been judged by his name. But no more. And we both knew it.

He sent me the sweetest smile as he sat down across from me and mouthed a quick thanks. The ceremony continued from there. It wasn't long before "Weasley, Rose" was called. The hat had barely touched her head when it screamed,

"GRYFFINDOR!" She smiled and joined her cousins, already seated at the table. The last person standing in front of the stool waiting to be sorted was a tiny little girl. Her sandy-blonde hair reached little over halfway down her back. She was frightened but had the good sense not to show it, except in those wide blue-gray eyes. When her name was called ("Zimmerman, Kate"), she walked calmly up to stool and sat down. The Sorting Hat was placed on her head and after a few minutes conversation between hat and girl, it smiled as well as any hat could.

"SLYTHERIN!" Kate came and sat down in the empty on my left side. She smiled a greeting and turned her attention to Headmistress McGonagall. McGonagall spoke, giving the normal beginning of school warnings: no Forbidden Forest (hence FORBIDDEN); no magic in the halls or the caretaker, a cranky woman named Ms. Yuul, would have a shit-fit. We were so attentive that first year but we all tuned it out from that point on. After McGonagall said her part, the feast commenced.

"This place is incredible!" Kate said, turning to me. Her eyes lit up as she took in everything about her. "I didn't know Hogwarts was so…." She trailed off, unable to tear her eyes off the scene.

"Yeah, my parents said they loved it here," I said, wanting conversation.

"Mine too," Al chimed in.

"My parents didn't come here. They didn't attend any magic school." Kate hadn't noticed that every Slytherin within hearing range had stopped talking.

"So… your parents can't do magic?" asked one of the older kids, a fifth year. He looked like he could have taken on a troll and come out even. His name was Evan Runner, and he looked down his ridiculously long nose at Kate, who drew herself up at his question.

"No, they can't. Is that a problem?" Hostility seeped into her voice and it never left her eyes. The fifth year sneered and started a whispered conversation with his neighbor.

"Stupid. Who gives a damn if I'm a Mudblood?" Al and I were shocked to hear that word roll so casually off someone's tongue (especially someone talking about themselves). We had grown up treating that word as a swearword, one ten times worse than the "F bomb".

"What? I'm a Mudblood, in Slytherin. The Sorting Hat told me I'd be the first one. I told him to bring it on. Apparently, he found that an adequate response." She smiled as she finished speaking.

"The hat called you a Mudblood?" I asked, really confused. I hadn't thought a supposedly unbiased entity as the Sorting Hat would call anyone such a foul name.

"Is there another word for it?" She looked puzzled, like she'd never even considered the possibility that there might be. Her facial expression caused Al to dissolve into giggles while I explained to her.

"Yes. There is another word. The polite word is Muggle-born."

"Oh. That's lame. I like Mudblood a whole helluva lot better." She had a slight pout on her lip, as if we were going to try to force her to not say it. I shook my head at her.

"Whatever you say." She looked pleased at this and started to sample everything she could get her hands on, totally ignoring the other Slytherins staring at her all through dinner. Finally, the feast was over and we were allowed to leave the Great Hall in lieu of our new House and dormitories.

13

That first night still remains in my head. We were all so excited; Al, Kate, and me. We couldn't seem to help ourselves. Being led to the dungeons by an exhausted-looking prefect, giving the password of "Salazar" to that seemingly-random space of wall, walking into our common room for the first time. This was wonderful but not the best part (or what sticks best in my head). As we walked into our dormitory, Albus Severus Potter looked right at me and said words I will never forget so long as I live:

"I'm happy I got the same house as you. I don't know what I would've done if I had to be separated from you."

I had not realized, up until that moment, that I had made a friend. A true friend, not one that was doing what their pureblood parents said to in order to keep up inter-familial relations. Someone who truly liked me for who I was, who wasn't in struck in awe or in horror by my last name. He just happened to be the son of my father's school rival. Two days ago, I would have broken off all relations, just because my family wouldn't have approved. Now, I couldn't bring myself to give a shit, my family be damned.

End A/N: Um…. Hope you liked it. Btw, the 13's are used in place of linebreaks because I have such problems with them so I no longer use them. If you want this continued, I need reviews. I can't write past a certain point without reader feedback. So, do you like Kate? Should I continue using her? She's kinda important to the future plotline but I can change it if nobody likes her. And if you don't like her here, she gets better in the next chapter.