Chapter 1: Anything from the trolley, dears?
"Scorpius!"
"ALBUS!"
The two boys ran to each other excitedly, artfully dodging the students, parents and trolleys, as they made their way across Platform 9 ¾. Harry watched his usually ungraceful son leap over a trolley and zip around some first years, still surprised, even after last year's events, at the intensity of their friendship.
When they finally reached each other, they both paused uncertainly for a split second before Albus pulled his best friend in for a hug. Albus noticed Scorpius seemed tense, but quickly relaxed into it.
Albus suddenly swore loudly. Scorpius quickly jumped back untangling himself from his friend's strong grip. "What? What's wrong? Are you okay?" he asked frantically.
To Scorpius' surprise, Albus started laughing.
"Er…Albus?" he asked confused.
Still laughing, Albus waved his hand. "No, it's nothing, I just realised you're taller than me now. Damn."
Scorpius chuckled. "Can't be more than 2 inches difference. Here –"He pulled Albus to his side, and tried to measure the height difference with his hand.
"No that's not right," Albus laughed. He tried measuring the height difference too but with a vastly different result. They giggled as they both tried measuring with their hands again, playfully wrestling the other's arm out of the way.
Forgetting Rose's hatred toward Scorpius for a moment, he called out to her as she walked by, "Rose, Rose! Measure us - how much taller is he?"
Rose looked from Albus to Scorpius and opened her mouth to say something, but changed her mind and walked off silently, her expression unreadable.
"Oh right, sorry mate." Albus said, patting Scorpius on the back.
Scorpius closed his eyes for a second, reflecting on the embarrassing things he'd said about Rose over the past four years, and shook his head, trying to shake it all from his mind. He opened his eyes to find Albus staring at him curiously. 'Merlin, I missed you," he said and pulled Albus back into another hug. Albus didn't object.
"I missed you too," he whispered so quietly that Scorpius almost missed it.
Draco Malfoy smiled as he watched his son. With Astoria's passing from last summer still fresh, his son's happiness was the sole thing that brought him purpose. He quickly looked over at Harry, worried the father might overreact to their friendship like the previous year, but noticed a similar expression on the other man's face. Their eyes caught for a moment and Draco nodded politely. To his surprise, Harry took this politeness for an invitation and walked towards his ex arch nemesis.
Isn't it funny?" Harry began as he approached Draco.
"What?" Draco asked.
"That after everything we've been through, the fights, the violence, Lord Voldemort"- Draco flinched – "our kids can be so close, so at peace."
Draco smiled. "I'm glad."
"Me too" said Harry as he offered his hand. Draco looked surprised but shook his hand quickly.
Ginny joined her husband's side as the two shook hands. "Draco," she exclaimed, "Good to see you again."
"And you." Draco returned politely, trying to hide his shock at the pleasantries.
Albus and Scorpius slowly made their way onto the Hogwarts Express dragging their trunks behind them. Albus was surprised when Scorpius offered to drag his trunk as well. "Just because you're taller now doesn't mean you're stronger mate." He laughed as he continued dragging his own up the train steps. Scorpius only shrugged.
They quickly found a compartment to themselves and waved to their parents out the window as the train took off, surprised to see them all together. Even after everything that transpired last year, it still seemed strange that the Potters could be civil, even friendly with Draco Malfoy.
"How are you and your dad doing with…" Albus suddenly asked, trailing off, unsure of how to finish the question.
Scorpius, noticed his friend's hesitation and quickly stepped in. "Thing are"- he hesitated – "better. Another summer without her was the worst though. Being with mum's family over the holidays was nice, but sad. It'll never be like –" he broke off not able to continue, his eyes dangerously close to tears.
Albus shuffled over to Scorpius' side, wrapping his arm around his friend's shoulders. They sat in silence for a few minutes, Scorpius fighting back tears, Albus unsure what to say.
Suddenly they heard approaching footsteps and the unmistakable sound of a rattling trolley. They looked at each other panicked, as their compartment door was slowly opened.
"Anything from the trolley, dears?" called out the trolley lady cheerily, apparently not recalling the incident last year, or purposefully ignoring it.
"No thanks!" they quickly uttered in unison. Both boys breathed a sigh of relief when she moved on, before catching each other's eyes and starting to laugh.
Still in bouts of laughter, Albus reached up to close the compartment door, but before he could turn the lock, it was pulled back forcibly. Albus and Scorpius immediately froze, both with images of the trolley lady, claws out, standing in the doorway.
Their fear was short-lived however as it turned out only to be Rose Granger-Weasley. Albus started laughing again, the adrenaline rush from the moment of fear making him quite giddy. However, Scorpius remained frozen, his pale cheeks turning pink.
Rose looked at Albus with narrowed eyes. "Surely my presence isn't that hilarious to you, cousin?"
Albus giggled, looking over at Scorpius for support, but noticed his stiff posture and pink face instead, and immediately stopped laughing.
Rose looked at her cousin suspiciously before turning to Scorpius. "Scorpius, can I please speak to you outside?" she asked with an obviously forced sweetness.
Scorpius muttered something inaudibly and made to stand up, his eyes on the floor.
"Hang on, what do you need to speak to him alone for?" Albus interrupted, noticing his best friend's uncomfortable behaviour and moving in to defend him.
Rose ignored her cousin and spoke to Scorpius directly again. "Would you like to have this conversation here or outside privately?" she asked pointedly.
"Outside" he muttered nervously, suspecting what was coming.
Albus moved to grab onto Scorpius's wrist as he passed, but ended up holding his hand instead. "Is everything alright?" he asked.
"Yes Albus, it's fine," he said lightly trying to act calm, "I'll be back in a minute." He followed Rose outside, extracting his hand from Albus' carefully.
Rose slammed the door behind Scorpius as he exited the compartment and stared at him accusingly. All pretense of sweetness was dropped.
"Why did you tell Albus we kissed?" Rose whispered angrily.
Scorpius looked down at the floor, his cheeks bright red. He had expected this. "Er...um...I" he stuttered.
"I don't appreciate being lied about, especially to my cousin. He mentioned it to one of our relatives over the Summer and now the whole Weasley family knows. I don't care what kind of tough womanizer act you're trying to play, or if you're just living in fantasies, but for the love of Merlin, leave me and my family out of it!" she said heatedly, her voice rising.
Scorpius, anxious that Albus might be listening responded quietly, "Merlin, I'm so sorry Rose. I wasn't thinking when I said it. I just wanted to, I don't know..." He trailed off quietly, unsure of his own words.
Rose temporarily softened and returned to a whisper "Look Scorpius, I want you to know I'm really flattered by your...um...attentions towards me but I don't feel the same way, and the more you push this, disrespecting my feelings in the process, the less likely I am to want to be around you. If you tell any lies about me again, or try to crack onto me when I've made my boundaries pretty damn clear, don't think I will show you any of the patience and forgiveness I am now, okay? I will hex you with every horrible spell I can think of. Is that understood?" She finished somewhat coldly, her hands shaking slightly with the adrenaline.
"Er…yeah, I mean, yes understood" Scorpius stammered nervously.
Rose smiled. "Good. This year I want to spend more time with my cousin. I've really missed him while he's been spending time with you" she emphasised the last word accusingly, but not unkindly, "So we're going to have to be civil, maybe even friends. Do you think you can handle that?"
Scorpius smiled in return. "Yes, friends, I can handle that."
"Maybe friends" Rose reminded him with a smirk before reentering the compartment to see Albus. Scorpius paused for a minute, unsure what he was supposed to do, before following her in.
"Scorpius!" Albus exclaimed when he entered, "Is everything alright?" he asked again, his eyes darting to Rose sitting across from him.
Scorpius sat down next to Albus smiling. "Yes, everything is alright" he said cheerfully.
Albus looked between Rose and Scorpius suspiciously, waiting for further explanation, but they both said nothing. He frowned, upset about being kept in the dark. Scorpius usually told him everything. Now, apparently, they had secrets.
In Albus' silence, Rose and Scorpius began chatting, awkwardly at first, about their holidays, about Hogwarts, about last year. Albus looked out the window, watching the landscape whiz by, his previous excitement had died suddenly and he felt strangely alone.
