Chapter 1: Quidditch Pitch
Scorpius Malfoy was soaring over the grounds in the Quidditch pitch that he had gotten to know so well for five years. Now he was in the first game of his sixth year at Hogwarts. He watched the Quaffle get thrown back and forth between the different Gryffindor Chasers. The Slytherin Keeper had missed the Quaffle by inches, and Gryffindor had scored another ten points, now tied four hundred and ten points with Slytherin. Some of the Slytherin students in the crowd booed as some of the Gryffindor players passed by.
Scorpius needed to find the Snitch before James Potter, the Gryffindor Seeker, did. He flew a little bit closer toward center stadium, rising a few feet in the air as he did so.
"Better find it," James called, slowing to a stop about ten feet away from Scorpius, "before I do," he teased. James really wasn't the type to make fun of others; he was just having a little bit of fun while trying to find the tiny little golden ball. They both were getting tired and didn't want to argue like normal Gryffindors and Slytherins anyways. They had been flying around outside for almost four hours.
"How much you want to bet that you'll find it first?" Scorpius called back to him. James looked the other way, looking around for the Snitch once again.
But at last, Scorpius saw the golden ball glistening in the evening sun, in front of a Gryffindor Chaser. He flew toward it as fast as his broom could go. James had still been looking for the Snitch. Scorpius' hand was a few inches from the Snitch when a Bludger hit him right in his gut, knocking him and the Chaser who had been right next to the Snitch off their brooms, falling toward the sand. The Chaser still being right under him, he grabbed her, flipping them over so that he landed on his back, while she had taken no damage at all.
Scorpius had obviously not taken his distasteful attitude after his father, and he was unlike any other Slytherin. It seemed to be that reason why he appealed to others so much. His father, Draco Malfoy, had always had a ruder attitude like most Slytherins. Not that Scorpius wasn't rude, because he certainly could be.
Thanks to the sand, Scorpius' back had not made a disgusting crunching sound. Quickly, the Chaser lifted herself off of Scorpius. Still on her knees next to him, she leaned over him and examined him.
"You know you could watch where you're going!" She said, looking angry.
"I just saved you from getting hit by a Bludger and turning out like me! I can't even move if you couldn't tell."
"I never thought a Slytherin would do that. You're all just mean jerks in my opinion."
"Why are you being so ungrateful you little—?"
They both turned their attention to Madam Hooch, the Quidditch referee and Flying Instructor. He remembered her being one of his favourite teachers back in his first year, when she congratulated him for correctly raising a broom into his hand on the first try, and never had trouble learning how to fly. Madam Hooch was running towards them, the Chaser girl standing up.
James landed next to Madam Hooch with his sister, Lily Potter. James was holding the Snitch in his right hand, meaning that Slytherin had lost their first game to Gryffindor. Madam Hooch blew the whistle, shouting, "Gryffindor wins," as she stood next to Scorpius.
"Were you trying to hit me?" Said the Chaser girl to Lily. The girl looked back down at Scorpius as he turned his head towards her. It hit him in the face when he realized who she was with her red hair. How had he not been able to recognize her before?
She was a Weasley, who were best friends with the Potters. He finally recognized her from his potions class. He guessed she had Double Potions: an hour with fifth years and an hour with sixth years because when he entered the room, she would always be there putting ingredients into a cauldron.
"Rose," Lily said, "of course I wasn't trying to hit you! I wasn't even the one who whacked the damn Bludger."
"Are you alright, son?" Asked Madam Hooch to Scorpius.
"Yeah," he grunted as he finally got himself to sit up, "I'm fine."
Thinking of the huge Weasley family he had heard about made him think back to when his father was telling him stories about them. He told them about Rose's father, Ron Weasley, had married a girl named Hermione Granger, and mixed blood purity; his father always despised that. He explained how Hermione had had brown, wildly curly hair while Ron had the same shade of red hair as the rest of the Weasley's. She had no freckles like how his father had explained what Ron Weasley and the rest of his family looked like. She had the pale skin, though, but brown eyes and more curly hair like how he described her mother. Her hair seemed more tamed than what his father had explained.
Madam Hooch helped Scorpius off the ground, making him snap out of his examination and comparison of Rose's looks to her parents. He could barely stand up on his own; his legs kept quavering and shaking.
"You better spend a night in the hospital wing with Madam Pomfrey." She hoisted Scorpius up and began walking towards the hospital wing while Rose, Lily, and James turned towards the other way towards their cheering team.
"Slytherin would've won if it weren't for that damn Bludger," Scorpius complained to Madam Pomfrey, sitting in one of the hospital beds. "James only found the Snitch because I went towards it."
"Right, right," said Madam Pomfrey as if she wasn't listening to any of it at all. She set down a glass of potion to help his back, and a bottle of pumpkin juice. He was directed to stay the night, and he should be better in the morning and could go to his classes normally.
Awhile later, Scorpius' best friend, Luke Zabini, walked in carrying a Chocolate Cauldron and set it down on the small table next to Scorpius' bed. Luke's father, Blaise Zabini, had gone to school with Scorpius' father.
"Hey, sorry about hitting you in the gut with that Bludger. Didn't mean it."
"That was you? You cost us the game!"
"Maybe you should've watched where you were going!" Luke's voice began to get louder. "If you waiting one more second to go for the Snitch, then that Weasley girl would've gotten knocked off her broom and we would've won the game!"
Scorpius gave Luke a why-do-you-have-to-rub-it-in face.
Luke gave him a confused look. "How did you even make it into Slytherin? Are you sure the Bludger didn't hit your head because usually you're the one trying to get out of painful situations. The Scorpius I know would've flew out of the way before he got knocked to the ground."
Scorpius sighed and slouched in his bed a little. Luke was right: Slytherins were usually self centered. He had saved her from too ending up in the hospital wing and she was being so ungrateful. That's the last time I save a Gryffindor's life, he thought.
After Luke left, he sat in bed, fiddling with his wand. He made the empty cup of potion float in the air, then fall back down to the table. While he couldn't fall asleep, he played with transfigurations. He made the cup turn into a cupcake, then a snake, then into a paper airplane. Around midnight he felt thirsty, so he turned the paper airplane back into a cup.
"Aguamenti." He said, pointing his wand at the cup. It instantly filled with water, and he brought the cup to his lips.
The next day was boring like any other, for the most part. Ancient Runes was boring as usual. Just more translating of passages. Defense Against the Dark Arts was more exciting, however. Professor Wood was teaching them how to cast spells silently. Scorpius ended up casting a stunning spell at one of his friends, Serena Pokora, which missed and hit the table five feet away from her.
"Wow," she said, "your aim sucks." She pointed her wand at Scorpius, gave it a little wave and his wand flew out of his hand.
During break, he, Luke, and Serena walked around, watching the Potters and the Weasleys give them a few glares as they passed by. Luke and Serena didn't seem like they had noticed. Herbology with Professor Longbottom, one of Scorpius' dad's classmates, was boring as usual. His father had never taken an interest in plants either. But in the middle of class, someone set off what looked like a Decoy Detonator from Weasley Wizard Wheezes. The shop was filled with mindless little jokes that he couldn't understand how people could be so interested in. He had walked into the shop once. Everyone seemed to be so excited with the things that went on in there. Love Potions, Fever Fudge, and Daydream Charms were being bought all over the place and being used all around school. Scorpius had already found twenty people looking out the window during class, drooling for a full thirty minutes. Girls were always slipping guys Love Potions into their drinks or food. Scorpius thought it was pathetic.
Then it was Potions class. He walked in, seeing the red curly hair stirring the liquid in her cauldron. The steam from it was making her hair frizz up. Her hair was pulled back with a black hairband. He walked over to her table, putting his stuff down in the spot next to hers. She seemed to be oblivious to the fact that he had ever walked into the room. She looked down at her book and poured silvery liquid into the cauldron.
"Draught of Peace," Scorpius said, and Rose jumped. "I remember making that my fifth year."
She just ignored him. Professor Charlotte walked by Rose, who seemed to have finished her potion.
"Very good, Miss Weasley." She congratulated her, "I can see you passing your O.W.L.s."
"Thank you, Professor," Rose replied in a voice Scorpius had never heard before. Professor Charlotte took the cauldron full of the completed potion and began pouring it in one of the big glass bottles she used for holding potions.
Once class had started, she explained what we would be making: Draught of Living Death, a potion that puts you into such deep sleep you seem as if you were dead.
"And the prize," Professor Charlotte explained, "is a tiny vial of Felix Felicis, otherwise known as Liquid Luck." The whole thing was déjà vu for Scorpius. "Until the effects wear off," the Professor went on, "all the drinker's endeavours will tend to succeed. Once consumed, the potion gives the drinker an exhilarating sense of confidence and a tremendous sense of opportunity. However, if taken in excess the potion causes giddiness, recklessness, and dangerous overconfidence, and it is highly toxic in large quantities."
Everyone got to work quickly, trying to win that tiny bottle of golden liquid. But once everyone started getting through only a few ingredients of the potion, they were wondering if Liquid Luck was really worth the trouble.
"Cut your bloody bean!" Rose yelled. Almost everyone was stuck at the same step. Some people hadn't even gotten as far as cutting a tiny little bean. She looked around the room. Some people looked as if they were chasing jumping beans, others weren't even trying anymore.
"Cut, dammit!" Scorpius, too, yelled at the tiny little bean. He got so pissed with it that he grabbed the mallet that was lying in the middle of the table and smashed it, and the gooey red juice began to ooze out of it. Scorpius quickly picked up the bean and squeezed it over his cauldron.
Serena, who had been too focused on her bean to see what Scorpius was doing, was also getting pissed. "You know what?" She yelled and Scorpius, Luke, and Rose (who had never bothered to move when the others arrived) looked at her. "I'm just putting the whole bean in!" And she did. The liquid in her cauldron burst into flames. She pulled out her wand and yelled, "Aguamenti!" The flames slowly dimmed.
"How did you get the juice out of the bean?" Asked Luke, who had too not seen Scorpius take out his anger on the bean.
But before Scorpius could answer, Rose said, "He smashed it with a mallet," and gave Scorpius a disapproving look.
Scorpius ignored her and told Luke, "try crushing it with the side of the blade."
"The instructions specifically say to cut," Rose said, but immediately looked taken aback by her own words.
"What is it?" Scorpius asked, giving her a snooty-confused look.
"Nothing – déjà vu." She said, and turned her blade to the side, crushing the small bean as Scorpius had said to do so. After that, she began to speed ahead of him in the directions, her hair frizzing up even more in the process. She learned to hold out her wand while making the potion: the liquid would sometimes throw itself out of the cauldron or she wouldn't be able to reach an ingredient fast enough and the potion would begin to react. She would catch the potion in mid-air or call an ingredient over to her table with the summoning charm.
"Accio powdered moonstone!" She called, pointing her wand to a vial of dark, glistening powder.
"Isn't that cheating?" Scorpius said jealously as she poured it in her cauldron. Rose put down the vial and Scorpius immediately grabbed it, pouring some into his cauldron.
"How is that cheating?" She glared at him. The concoction in her cauldron because sizzling and they both looked over to see what was happening. An explosion erupted from her potion, but the potion seemed to still be stable. The same event happened to Scorpius' potion only a few moments later.
"Time's up!" Professor Charlotte called to the class. As she walked around the classroom, her face began to show a boring look, more and more shown as she went farther through the class. But she finally reached Scorpius' cauldron, whose potion was a dark purple colour, and mumbled something that sounded like the word "decent". She looked at Rose's cauldron, whose potion was a light purple colour, and she nodded the same way she had when she saw Scorpius' concoction. After walking around the rest of the class, she began to speak again. "No one finished the potion; however, we have a student that came closest to finishing. Miss Rose Weasley, you deserve this vial of Felix Felicis."
The class looked at her, not knowing who she was. They looked at her with envy, wanting the prize that she had won.
"You're not even a sixth year!" Said Scorpius resentfully, "You don't deserve Liquid Luck!"
"So what if I'm a fifth year?" She said, putting the vial inside her robes. "I still did better than you!"
"Because I was the one who helped you!"
"You helped me?" She laughed sarcastically.
"You wouldn't have gotten past the bean if I hadn't told you to crush it!"
"Yeah, okay," she said sarcastically as she gathered up her things.
Scorpius couldn't believe how ungrateful this girl was being. He wanted to throw a jinx at her.
After sitting alone in the corridors for a while, he got up to look for Luke. But while walking to one of the outside areas, he found the Potters and the Weasleys glaring at him again as he passed by.
"What do you want?" He yelled the question at them, giving Rose a what-did-I-do-to-you look.
"Why did you save Rose's life, Malfoy?" James Potter was giving him an angry and confused look. Was no one grateful that Scorpius saved her? "A self centered jerk like yourself, whose father was a death eater and shags girls like—"
"Don't you dare talk about my father like that!" Scorpius pulled out his wand and pointed it at the bridge of James' nose. "What about you, Potter?" He spat on the last word. "Hanging out with that mutt, her mother was a mudblood and her father was a blood traitor—"
"Don't call her that!" James pulled out his wand, pointing it at the bridge of Scorpius' nose.
"How do you know what I am?" Rose said, looking madder than ever. She, too, pulled out her wand but pointed it at his chest instead of his face. Her expression and her red hair reminded Scorpius of flames.
"Everybody knows who you are! Everyone knows that both of your parents helped save the Wizarding world," he said mockingly.
"And that your father didn't do it any justice." Rose sneered, anger flaring in her eyes. Scorpius turned his wand so it pointed towards Rose's face. He completely ignored James getting more and more pissed at him.
"Oh, so just because my father did something wrong," he gritted his teeth, "means that I might do the same thing? I saved your life—"
"My life?" She laughed sarcastically, "you were the one who hit the ground and you turned out alright!"
He didn't deny that what she said was true, but he still didn't like it. "And you didn't even say 'thank you'."
"Thank you," she said through her teeth. "Are you happy now?" She breathed.
Scorpius couldn't say anything. He pulled down his wand, took a glance at the rest of the Potters and Weasleys and walked away, his robe flowing behind him.