Rose and Albus scanned the train's seats, searching for an open one. Even James had found his own friends to sit with.
"We've got to find a seat. I'm not going to stand the whole ride." exclaimed Rose.
All of the booths were full… except for one.
Scorpius Malfoy sat alone in the last seat, next to the door, fumbling with his fingers. Twirling them around one another in boredom.
Albus and Rose both sighed, but they both had to admit that it was better than nothing.
As they entered, Scorpius' gaze wandered up, curious to see who would sit with him.
His grey eyes stopped on Rose's brown ones. His eyes were… almost blank with expression. Though Rose detected a hint of sadness behind them.
Scorpius gazed back for a few moments, before Albus cleared his throat.
"Can we sit here?" he asked, almost a demand.
Scorpius looked back to the floor, and grunted.
"Be my guest."
Albus sat farthest from Scorpius, while Rose sat directly across from him, next to her cousin.
"You're Scorpius, right?" Rose asked almost innocently. Albus scoffed, and turned to the window of the train. Scorpius nodded and looked up at her, making grey meet brown once again. Rose was almost frozen by the look in his eyes. They were hopeful, yet careful at the same time. It was like he was afraid of her. Of what she would think of him.
Rose shifted her legs, so they were facing towards her cousin. Scorpius sighed, and leaned back. "An-y- thing from the trolly!" The three heard from the corridor between the train booths.
Rose took a out a few sickles from her pocket, and prodded Albus' shoulder. "You want anything?" She asked.
Albus shook his head. "Don't worry. I have some galleons from my dad. We could use those."
"Anything from the trolly today." The kind old lady said to the three. Albus raised his hand. "Can I have three chocolate frogs, and a box of Bertie Bott's Beans?" The old woman responded. "Just a moment. That'll be… 11 sickles, and 4 knuts." Albus got 5 galleons out of his pocket. "I don't have anything less than a galleon. Rose, what do you want?"
The red-head looked over to the trolly, searching for her favorite. "Do you have any pumpkin juice?" The old woman bent down, and grabbed a bottle of the sweet liquid. "Here you are." Rose held her hands out, and the woman placed the bottle into them.
Albus reached for his own sweets, and gave the old woman his galleon. "You can keep the whole galleon."
He whispered to her. "Thank you my boy." She looked into his eyes. "My my, you remind me of someone. A thin boy he was. He had the exact same eyes as you. Now who was he?" she asked herself. "Well don't mind me boy. My memories aren't what they used to be." Rose caught Scorpius smirk in the corner of her eye.
"What would you like young man?" She asked Scorpius. He shook his head. "Nothing for me."
The old woman continued down the corridor to the other students. Albus gave Rose two of his chocolate frogs, leaving himself with Bertie Bott's beans, and his own chocolate frog.
When he opened it, he saw Severus Snape. "Hey look! It's the wizard I'm named after!" Rose rolled her eyes. "But your name is Albus. How are you named after him?"
Albus sighed. "My middle name is Severus. That's why, besides… Snape is common as far as these go." Albus motioned to the chocolate frogs. Rose took out her book of 'Intermediate Spells', and started to read…
Albus soon fell asleep while staring out of the window. Rose was still reading, and every once and a while, she took a drink of pumpkin juice to keep her awake. She hadn't yet touched her chocolate frogs, because she was saving them for later. Scorpius never moved, except for the occasional shifting of weight, or flicker of unknown feeling in his eyes. When Rose finished her book a couple of hours later, she set it down next to her. Scorpius raised his head slightly at her movement. She looked over to her chocolate frogs, and grabbed each of them. She carefully opened one, revealing her mother on the box. She smirked at the picture of her. She was much younger than she was now of course, but it still seemed strange to Rose.
"What is it?" Someone asked. Rose was surprised to find that Scorpius was leaning forward, trying to find out why she had been smiling. She hadn't noticed it before, but Scorpius had very pale, white skin. It gave him a ghostly look.
"Oh, it's my mom. See." Rose handed over the chocolate frog box.
Scorpius took it from her hand gently, and looked at the picture. "I've heard of her, from my mom. She says she's really smart. Probably the smartest of her class in Hogwarts." Rose brushed her hair behind her ear in embarrassment. "Yeah. Sometimes it's really awesome having a smart mom, but my dad… he isn't the brightest of people." Scorpius handed the chocolate frog box back to her, and leaned back again.
Clearly, Scorpius wasn't the talkative type. Rose had heard her father mention the Malfoy family. They were, in his words "Bastards who don't care for anyone else.' She knew her father had hated Scorpius' father, but so far, he wasn't that bad. In fact, he seemed to want to become friends. It seemed Scorpius knew that his father hadn't been the best of people in Hogwarts, and that Scorpius knew that no one would want to become friends with him because of this. Rose looked down in her hand to her other chocolate frog, and extended her arm to Scorpius.
"Here. You can have it." Scorpius looked at the candy in her hand, and then to her face.
"No, it's yours, you should eat it." He pushed her hand back. His hands were on her's, and she could feel the warmth coming from his. Rose took in a small, almost inaudible, gasp. Scorpius hadn't heard it, and brought his hands back to his side.
Rose found her voice. "But you haven't eaten anything since we got on the train. You should eat one chocolate frog at least." She brought her arm forward again. This time, Scorpius sighed and took the chocolate from her hand. Rose watched him open the box slowly, as if he wanted the box to stay in perfect condition.
When he finally got it open, he took the frog and placed it into his mouth. Scorpius looked over to Rose for a moment, giving her the 'you-happy-now?' look. He finished chewing the chocolate, and looked at the box. His lips pulled into a smile.
"What? Who is it?" Rose asked, leaning over slightly, impatient to see.
"It's Harry Potter. The rarest wizard to find on a chocolate frog box. See for yourself." Rose smiled too, knowing Harry was her uncle. She grabbed the box, and sure enough, Harry was on it.
"He's my uncle." Scorpius looked at Rose as if she had started to levitate. "What!"
"Harry Potter is my uncle. My father is Harry's brother-in-law. And Albus here." Rose pointed to her sleeping cousin. "Is Harry's son. So he's my cousin."
Scorpius was beyond shocked. "Wow. It must be really cool to be related to him." Rose shrugged her shoulders.
"Most of the time I'm stuck home watching Hugo with mom. But yeah, I guess it's fun sometimes."
Scorpius smirked. "Harry and my dad were arch enemies when they went to Hogwarts. He said that Harry Potter had almost killed him, but after, saved his life. I always got mixed emotions from him when he talked about Harry Potter. So I didn't know whether or not to hate him. And now I'm in this small little train cart, sitting next to his son."
Rose twirled her hair around her finger. "I guess it sounds really weird when you put it that way."
The train started to slow down. "I guess we're almost there. I hope I'm sorted into Gryffindor. My dad says he'll disinherit me if I'm not. So now I have a reason to be in Gryffindor. I'm not even sure if he's lying or not. Guess we'll find out."