The train's horn gave warning blow, alerting the witches and wizards on platform 9¾ that they needed to board. It was nearly 11 o'clock. Scorpius Malfoy waved goodbye to his parents one more time before he got aboard the train to Hogwarts. Things were hectic on the train as his fellow first-years and other students started taking seats.
Someone bumped into Scorpius from behind and he stumbled forward, almost falling. He turned around to see a black-haired wizard his age was the one who had nearly knocked him down.
"Hey!" Scorpius complained. "Watch it!"
"Sorry," the boy said, "I was just looking for my brother James. Have you seen him? He looks like me only taller."
Scorpius looked at the boy who had bumped into him. His hair was untidy, framing a face with bright green almond-shaped eyes. He was wearing a Hogwarts cloak but it didn't have a house patch on it yet, so that meant this was going to be his first year. If he had a scar on his face and glasses then he'd look identical to Harry Potter.
The similarity made Scorpius step back and ask in the same sharp tone. "Are you a Potter?"
The boy blinked, surprised that he had been recognized. "Um, yes. I'm Albus Potter, and it looks like we're both first years."
Since Scorpius didn't have a house badge on his robe, it was easy to see that he had yet to be sorted into a house yet either. "Your right, but I don't know where your brother is half-blood so make yourself scarce."
Albus hesitated, surprised by Scorpiu's callous slur, and then said somewhat offended. "You don't need to be so mean."
He stepped back away from Scorpius and went into another car as he continued to search for his older brother. Scorpius shook his head and then continued walking down the car's hallway, looking for his friends. Just as he'd been told, there really was going to be a Potter enrolled in the same year as him.
"Scorpius!" Someone shouted from a compartment he had just walked past.
Oh, what now? Scorpius muttered and glanced over his shoulder.
He thought that it might be the Potter boy or some other mixed-blood come to bother him, and was pleasantly surprised that it was not. Two almost identical boys were standing inside the compartment looking out at him.
Scorpius smiled as he recognized the friends he had been looking for, twin brothers Luke and Jacob Flint. Jacob waved at Scorpius energetically, almost hitting his brother in the face, and Luke slapped his hand away with a noise of surprise. Luke glared at his twin and Jacob narrowed his eyes back.
It appeared to Scorpius that his presence was required to keep the two from causing mayhem, so he quickly walked to the compartment they had secured. The train jolted sharply as it started moving before Scorpius could reach a seat, and he had to grab the frame of the compartment door to keep from falling. He hurried inside the compartment and closed the door behind him, taking a grateful seat.
There was another small jolt, but Scorpius was ready for it this time and managed not to fall out of his seat. Jacob snickered at his clumsiness, covering his mouth with a hand as the twins sat on the seat across from him. Luke saved Scorpius the trouble of lightly slugging Jacob on his arm.
The train began to pick up speed as the jolts leveled out, and the three boys crowded near the window. Scorpius couldn't find his parents, but the twins waved at their mother. Soon they were away from the platform and the three watched until the station vanished from sight.
Once the station vanished, the three settled back down in their seats and began chatting to pass the time. Jacob started by complaining about their nine-year old sister Coraline's whining that she wanted to go to Hogwarts with her brothers. Scorpius was an only child, and he enjoyed listening to his friends go on about their youngest sibling and what their house was like. It was almost always quiet at Malfoy manor unless the twins came visiting Scorpius. Then it was anything but quiet.
Time passed as the three continued chatting, and after a brief update from both on what things were like at their houses they moved onto Hogwarts's houses. Since all three of them were pure-bloods and members of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, it was expected that they would mind themselves while away from home. They knew the importance of blood-purity, and not to become friends with muggle-borns and wizards of the like because they didn't want to be named blood traitors like the Weasley family had been.
Their families were also of Slytherin descent, and all three wanted to be in Slytherin to make their families proud. They were placed in their houses though by the Sorting Hat, and it might not take their wishes into consideration. It could put them in a different House, and that was a chance the three dreaded.
After the four Houses and the Sorting Hat were discussed they went on to other topics that ranged from which Professor would be the best to which class they thought was going to be hardest. It went all the way from Quidditch (which Jacob was eager to compete in once he was old enough) to the upcoming boat ride across the lake that the first years took. Neither Luke nor Scorpius were surprised by Jacob's excitement at the Quidditch match, and they were all curious about the boat ride where they would get their first look at Hogwarts.
"The weather is nice out," Luke offered on the topic of the boats and looked out the window he sat next to at the clear blue sky. "It should be like a dream as long as the weather holds."
Jacob rolled his eyes at his brother's confident voice and asked sarcastically. "Is there anything you don't know?"
"Plenty," Luke replied to his twin smartly without looking away from the window. "That's why I'm going to school."
Jacob huffed and looked towards the compartment doo, the opposite direction Luke was looking. Scorpius was amazed yet again how different Luke and Jacob were despite being identical twins. They were the children of Marcus Flint and Jessica Avery, and although they had their father's black hair it was as soft as fine as their mother's. Overall they looked more like their mother with dark blue eyes and gentle features.
Despite their identical appearances, their personalities clashed. Jacob had a roguish half-wild charm where Luke was logical and level-headed. Luke preferred to have his nose in a book and Jacob wanted to be in the sky on his broomstick racing around. In order to look different, Jacob kept his hair long and Luke kept his short. Luke had bangs that half covered his left eye where Jacob's framed his face.
There was a quiet click of rolling wheels in the hallway, and someone knocked on their compartment door before opening it. IN the hallway was a trolley was heaped high with all sorts of candy from Honeydukes, and an older witch pushing it.
"Want anything off the trolley dears?" She asked the three of them kindly.
"Jellybeans," Jacob chimed instantly and reached inside his robes for a galleon.
Luke turned from the window and made a face at Jacob. "Some of those Every Flavor Beans? You're crazy."
Jacob grinned, "Just because you got that mustard one doesn't mean they're all bad."
"I'll just have a chocolate frog," Luke muttered.
"Anything for you?" She asked Scorpius in the same gentle voice while she got the twins their candy.
"Do you have any Glacial Snow Flakes?" Scorpius asked.
The witch nodded and reached underneath for a box of them.
"Excuse me," a quiet voice asked.
The witch looked up with the box in hand, surprised to see a young witch standing behind her. "Yes, my dear?"
"Do you have anything but sweets?" The witch asked.
Her words were stiff and cold, as if she didn't know how to interact.
The old witch looked caught off guard and shook her head apologetically. "No, I'm sorry."
"That's all right," the young witch said.
She realized that the three boys inside the compartment were staring at her so she looked at them. Her appearance surprised the boys. Although she didn't have her Hogwarts robes on she looked young enough to be a first-year. The witch's skin was fair, pale by normal comparison like porcelain, and her hair was tied up in two ponytails with a few bangs near her right eye.
What was surprising about her was that her hair was silver-white, an unnatural color the boys had never seen before, and her eyes were different as well. The irises were dark amethyst with just a touch of magenta or fuchsia pink, and the pupils seemed to be slightly slitted like a cat's rather than perfectly round as they should be. The silver-haired witch looked back to the witch at the trolley cart.
"Thank you anyway," she said politely and walked away without glancing back inside the compartment.
The silver-haired witch looked back at the witch in the trolley cart, "thank you anyway." Without looking back at Scorpius she walked down the hallway.
The witch at the trolley shrugged it off and handed Scorpius his candy. He paid for it and she pushed her cart past their compartment to the next to ask the same question to the people there. Jacob was already tearing into his jellybeans.
"She was cute wasn't she?" Jacob asked as he tossed a blue jellybean into his mouth, "Mm, blueberry."
Scorpius knew Jacob meant the silver-haired witch, and purposely looked away from Jacob to the window where the countryside continued to roll past. Luke kept a firm grip on his Chocolate Frog as he looked at the card, smiling when he saw it was a Morgana Le Fey card that he didn't already have in his collection. Although Luke was reading the card, Scorpius could tell he was paying attention to what Jacob was saying.
"I think that was an Arclight," Luke said cautiously as Jacob picked up a green jellybean and Scorpius tore open his box.
"A what?" Jacob asked.
He winced as he ate the next jellybean, realizing it had was spinach and making a face at its taste.
"Arclight," Luke repeated. "I think her family name was Arclight. I'm not sure, but I think they're pure-bloods, though not part of the 28. They're not very famous for certain."
"Which book did you read that one from?" Jacob asked as he fished out another jellybean, not surprised Luke would know something as random as that.
Luke didn't bother answering his twin, and recited what he had read, taking advantage of his photographic memory. "Their family is known for having silver hair and dark, unusual eye colors. If I remember correctly then they didn't participate in either of the Wizarding Wars. I don't know what they think of muggles or other wizards since they rarely interact with the Wizarding World. Their children are usually home-schooled."
"Then why is she here?" Jacob challenged and picked up a gray jellybean, eyeing it in suspicion. "If Arclights home-school their children then she shouldn't be at Hogwarts. You must be wrong."
"Maybe," Luke sighed dramatically and bit the head of his chocolate frog off before it could escape. "It has happened once before."
Jacob sighed, and Luke drew his eyebrows together.
"I think there was something else about the Arclights, but I can't remember," he admitted.
"You forgot something your read?" Scorpius blinked in surprise and ate a handful of the Glacial Snow Flakes, savoring their sweet taste as they melted in his mouth.
"Of course not," Luke promised in a voice that hinted he was insulted. "I just can't recall what it is at the moment. I'll remember."
Jacob coughed suddenly as he ate the grey jelly bean and regretted it. "Stupid jellybeans! I just ate a dirty sock flavor!"
Luke laughed softly t his brother's expense and put the Chocolate Frog card inside his robe while Jacob kept coughing.
"Stop laughing!" He demanded his twin once he swallowed it. "It is not funny!"
That only served to make Luke laugh harder and Jacob tried to steal the rest of Luke's chocolate frog in retaliation. He failed, and the two began bickering about the frog and the jelly beans. Scorpius watched his friends quietly, not feeling the overwhelming need to speak up. Just watching his friends enjoy themselves made him smile.
They hadn't even made it to the school yet. If the chaos on the train ride was any indication, the Scorpius bet this was going to be an interesting school year.
I suppose Scorpius is something akin to a wallflower, but as long as his friends are happy so is he. It can't have been easy for him, growing up as the son of the Malfoys, traitors twice. The witch mentioned here will be returning, and it may or may not be as a protagonist.