A/N: This is my first FanFiction so I'm sorry if I get some things wrong. Please be patient with me because sometimes I have massive writer's block and i might not be able to update because of that reason or personal reasons.
The train had just started to move. After waving goodbye to their parents, and the daunting task of making Albus let her change into her school robes, Albus and Rose rushed round the corridor and banged the door open into a empty compartment. Well almost empty. A boy about their height with static blond hair was sitting by the window in a corner reading. Without looking up, he said absently, "Hey."
Rose looked at Albus and Albus looked at Rose. Rose finally said "Are these seats taken?"
"No" replied the boy. "Go ahead."
Albus nodded gratefully, slung off his bag and slumped on the seat opposite the boy, Rose followed his lead and sat down next to her cousin. Albus looked out of the window and Rose took out a small book and started to write some things in it with a small quill. The boy sighed and shut his book with a snap. The other two both looked at him.
"Just thought that I'm probably being a bit of prick right now you know with ignoring you and stuff. I'm sure I know you from somewhere call me stupid but I'm sure I saw you at a wedding or something..."
Rose replied by saying "There's no need to be embarrassed silly- didn't you know that we are related? Something like our great uncle was a Black and you're a Malfoy right? So you're our distant relation" she said quite fast. "Oh, and my dad said that your dad and my uncle, mum and him were old classmates. He saw you on the platform."
The boy looked confused. "You know who I am?"
Albus chuckled. "Yeah, you're our second cousin. I'm Albus. Albus Severus Potter. You can call me Al. Oh and this is Rose."
The boy looked relieved. "I'm Scorpius." and as an afterthought, "Scorpius. Hyperion. Malfoy. But you can call me Scorp. Just don't take any offence at the name."
Now Albus and Rose looked confused. "Why would we be offended? You've done nothing wrong."
Scorpius looked sceptically at them. The door slid open with a bang and with such force that the glass pane shattered. Three boys stalked in, all of them sneering with haughty looks. The one in the middle with long tangled dirty blond hair stepped forward.
"I told you he was on the train," the blond was saying. "If that's not Harry Potter's son, then I'm a bleeding unicorn.
Rose and Al stood up immediately. Al had his wand drawn, and Rose looked especially fierce. Scorpius stood up as well, for fear that she might turn on him if he didn't. He wasn't keen on taking her on with that look in her eye.
"What? Come to stare, have you?" Rose said. She was taller than the intruder boy and he seemed to wince under her stare. Scorpius didn't blame him.
"I'm surprised you're not taking tickets at the door," the boy said. "My dad says the Potters are notorious attention-seekers."
"Well, your dad's probably just jealous because he's not important enough to be paid attention to." Scorpius was surprised to hear his own voice. Everyone in the compartment turned towards him, and already he was beginning to regret saying anything.
"Well well. Another boy. Friend, is he?" the boy sneered, stepping towards Scorpius and reaching out a hand to touch Scorpius's hair. Scorpius flinched away and the other boy found himself with Al's wand at his throat. Backing away, the boy bumped into his other two henchmen.
"Get out." growled Al dangerously. Rose had pulled out a pretty lethal looking dictionary.
"Oi boss" grunted one of the other boys. "That's Malfoy's kid."
"Malfoy!" The boy snorted with laughter. "Boys, you're probably not familiar with the Malfoys," he said to his cronies. He spoke with a tone that was not unlike the old Rita Skeeter articles about Scorpius's grandparents. "They joined Voldemort back in his time, but couldn't handle the Death Eater lifestyle and came crawling back to the Ministry begging for leniency and forgiveness. Then they moved abroad when they finally realized no one wanted them here. They'd betrayed the Death Eaters, but the Ministry didn't trust them either, so they had no choice but to leave."
"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" Scorpius was startled by his own outburst. The boy eyed him nastily and his cronies gave him the evil eye. Scorpius opened his mouth to say something, but his voice didn't seem to work. His deepest fear had just been realised, and now he was sure that his new friends would want nothing more to do with him.
"Hmmm," Al began, his glance shifting from the intruder to Scorpius. From the look on Al's face, he wasn't about to say anything nice. Scorpius expected the worst, but instead Al said, "I was just thinking it's too bad you don't realise that no one wants you here and that you have no choice but to leave." He took a step towards the door, wand firmly in hand. The boy didn't answer but grabbed Scorpius by the scruff of his neck and shook him roughly. "Now listen here, Malfoy-" and was interrupted by Rose slamming the dictionary into his face. He stood up after the hit and glared at Rose. "Didn't you hear him?" she told him firmly, "He said leave."
The boy clenched his fist and aimed a punch at her. Before he hit her two green jets of light hit him square in the chest and sent him catapulting out of the compartment and crashing into the corridor. He quickly scrambled away, his henchmen scuttling after him. Albus pocketed his wand and slammed the door closed. Rose quickly fixed the glass using her wand and turned to Scorpius. He had dropped his wand and was slumped on the chair. Both cousins could see that he was shaken up badly and went over to comfort him. "Are you okay?" asked Albus, before instantly regretting it. That would be the last thing Scorpius would want.
"Yeah I'm fine." he replied shakily. "I've already been through that before because of my family, but not like that. That's why I started to have a private tutor."
Rose started to speak but Scorpius put up a hand to silence her and carried on. "I know we've only just met but I've never had friends like you guys before. No one has ever stood up to me like that before."
Both boys then looked sheepishly at one another, as if unsure what to say. Rose, who didn't seem to ever have that problem, was the first to speak. "Thanks for standing up for us, Scorpius," she said as she sat back down. "We knew Al would get more attention than his brother ever did, because—you know—he looks more like his dad and all, but we weren't quite expecting that."
"No worries. And, erm…" his voice seemed to fail him again, "thanks to you, too. My family... they're not bad wizards. They just wanted to be left alone." He felt ashamed. He should be fiercely defending his family, explaining how his mum is from Greece, and that they owned a respected apothecary, and that they just wanted what was best for him, but a small part of him knew that this boy was probably just saying what everyone already thought about the Malfoys. Perhaps making friends was going to be more of a challenge than he had imagined.
"My mum says that one shouldn't have preconceived notions about others just because of their family," said Rose. "After all, that kind of thinking is what led to the persecution of Muggle-borns under Voldemort in the first place. So we mustn't let our prejudices determine how we treat others, whether they are Muggle-born or of the oldest wizarding families." She was talking very fast again, and Al smiled at Scorpius as if to assure him that, yes, she was like this all the time.
"Don't listen to what those idiots say, Scorpius" came a new voice from by the compartment door. They all turned around and saw a boy who looked like an older version of Al slouching against the compartment door. A red haired boy with a small red goatee stood next to him. "Teddy!" yelled Rose, and leapt up to hug him. "Hey." said the older version of Al, "No hugs for your favourite cousin then?"
Al went up to the boy- Scorpius worked out that he was probably Al's older brother and clapped him round the shoulder. "Hey bro"
Another boy stepped in to the compartment wheeling a trunk and slid the door shut. "Hey Scorp. Guess I'll have to introduce you to the others."
"Okay Fred."
Fred stopped and looked at him. "How do you know my name?"
Scorpius grinned. "Your trunk." He pointed at the trunk which said in tatty writing; FRED WEASLEY.
"Oh." said Fred. "It used to be my uncle's before he died. I'm named after him you know." And without another word he climbed onto his trunk and started to speak. The others all looked at him. "Right. I think you guys are being very rude. Your friendliness rates are as low as the IQ of a car park attendant!"
"How much is that then?" asked the older boy
"Erm... One. Anyway, this is Scorpius. Scorpius, the cheeky older boy with the brown hair is James, Al's older brother, and the one over there with the stupid goatee is Teddy Lupin."
"I'll have you know that I'm a new teacher here, Fre- Weasley, and I could've easily dock points from your house but I won't - because - I'm - feeling - nice."
James laughed. "Looks like you really scared Smith. Saw him running down the corridor like he was about to wet himself."
They continued to talk throughout the journey, and Scorpius found that he quite enjoyed talking to Rose, who seemed to know about as much or more of the basics as he did. Plus, she seemed fascinated by the fact that his mum had been a Herbology teacher and by the fact that his parents were known for their quality potions and ingredients. Al, though much quieter than his cousin, was also very knowledgeable about loads of counter curses even if most were far too advanced for him. He was also quite the authority on Quidditch, and Scorpius nearly fainted when he learned that Al's mum had been a professional Quidditch player. Rose too followed Quidditch, but not nearly as intensely as the boys.
As time wore on, the subject turned to the Houses. "So your family was in Slytherin, then?" Rose went on. "I've read about the four Houses, of course, and while I expect that I'd be a shoo-in for Ravenclaw, my dad seems convinced I'll be in Gryffindor just like him. Do you expect you'll be in Slytherin? Obviously, no one can really know ahead of time, but it does seem that sometimes families tend to be Sorted into the same Houses."
"I doubt I'll be in Slytherin," Scorpius said quietly. "I don't want to be in Slytherin."
"Why?" asked Fred curiously, perched on a pillow from somebody's trunk.
Scorpius sighed. "I've been trying to break free from my family's legacy for ages now, and I want to prove that not all Malfoy's are bad and I can be different and not be the same as my father or grandfather."
"Well, Harry says all four Houses are perfectly good," Teddy butted in, "and not to make judgments about Slytherins, because the rumors that all dark wizards are from Slytherin only got out of control during Voldemort's years because Voldemort himself happened to be in Slytherin. Anyway, when one considers the entire history of the House—dating back to the Founders, that is—then one can see how ridiculous it is to condemn an entire House for a few bad apples during—say—a thirty-year period or so. That sort of thinking just entirely glosses over all of the positive contributions by Slytherins to wizarding society, particularly advances in medical magic and potion-making." He said this all very fast, and occasionally he'd glance uneasily at Al, who looked as though he'd heard all of this before, and it was clearly not his favorite topic.
He was about to chime in with his own knowledge of the traditional House traits, when the compartment door slid open to reveal a small old portly lady pushing a trolley laden with sweets and drinks. "Anything from the trolly dears?" she trilled.
"Excellent!" yelled James, leaping up and rushing over to the trolly to choose his food. Albus let out an exaggerated sigh as James's order came floating back, occasionally glancing at the others to see what they wanted. "... 7 Pumpkin Pasties, 14 Chocolate Frogs, 2 packets of Berties, 5 Fizzing Wizzbees, a few Caldron Cakes and.. and..."
"Acid Pops!" Al yelled, and everyone groaned
"How about 7 Wizochocs?" asked Scorpius.
"... And 7 Wizochocs." finished James with relief. He walked over to his bag and rummaged in it for his wallet. He eventually lifted his head and told the lady, "I can't find it." Everyone groaned but Scorpius stood up and gave the lady some money. He returned carrying a massive amount of sweets and dumped it on a seat.
"Sheesh James how much did you buy?"
James gave him a sheepish look.
As the day wore on, the subjects kept changing, and between Scorpius's excitement at having someone his age to actually talk to, having friends and Rose's inability to speak in less than a paragraph at a time, the chatter was practically endless. Throughout the day a few kids here and there would linger outside the compartment door and try to sneak a look at Al, and every now and again they'd get an actual visitor, including a sneering Zephaniah Smith (who quickly exited when he saw Lupin) and Blair Zabini, a tiny girl with honey-colored skin, impossibly-spiraled hair, and hazel eyes that sometimes looked green but mostly looked yellow.
And finally, in the middle of an animated discussion about whether the Holyhead Harpies would—or should—ever hire wizards, they arrived.
_xXx_
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
A mousy-looking girl with ringlet curls bounced off to a cheering Hufflepuff table. It seemed that with every shout from the Sorting Hat, Scorpius could feel his heart beating faster and faster. He was certain that he was trembling and that everyone around him could see it. His mind was racing. What House would he be in? What House did he want to be in? Al had told him quietly as they walked to the boats that his dad told him the Sorting Hat would consider what House he wanted to be in, and Scorpius was suddenly faced with more possible outcomes than he was ready for. He always thought that he would be put into the House that his personality matched; he hadn't any idea that he could have a say in it.
Scorpius watched as Professor Flitwick called out names. He barely heard them as he argued with himself in his head.
I could go there. And it would change people's opinion of me!
Father would be mad!
I would be with Albus and Rose… they're nice.
What about Crabbe and Goyle?
They're not even that nice!
Neither are all of the other people
I'm not going in Slytherin. I'm smart maybe the Hat will put me in Ravenclaw.
Yeah, right.
I'm not going in Slytherin.
Everyone will make fun of you for being in Gryffindor. You don't belong there.
I don't belong in Slytherin, either!
"Malfoy, Scorpius!"
His heart pounding, he walked up to the stool- he didn't think that he would be the first of his friends to be called. As he sat on the stool and Professor Flitwick placed the Sorting Hat on his head, the only thought he had was,
Not Slytherin, Not Slytherin, Not Slytherin.
"Not Slytherin, Hm? Well, I'm not going to put you in a house because of your name." the Hat said in his head. "Hm, lets see. You're brave, very brave, otherwise you wouldn't of said that about the houses a on the train and for not wanting to go where you should be... Hm... You're clever, but not that good at riddles... Cunning, yes, bust not as cunning as you should be... Quite reckless I see... Perhaps Gryffindor would suit you... Slytherin is not for you, definitely not... Ravenclaw or Gryffindor... Hm... Lets see... How about..."
"GRYFFINDOR!" The Hat finally shouted to the hall. Professor Flitwick took the hat off his head and he made his way to the Gryffindor table. Everyone started to clap, led by James and Albus, and Scorpius squeezed in between James and, a few claps later, Albus joined them. "Well done, mate." Al hissed to him. "At least no one stared at you like they did to me- I look like my dad." he explained.
The Sorting finished about 10minutes later, with an Oliver Wood Jr. (GRYFFINDOR! ). After a small speech made by Professor McGonagall, everyone tucked in to a delicious dinner made by the house elves ( "New rights now, thanks to my mum!" exclaimed Rose proudly), to which after Professor McGonagall gave a speech- "Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to our new students and teachers- may I present, Professor Babbling, Ancient Runes; Professor Binns, History of Magic; Professor Figg, Muggle Studies; Firenze, Divination; Professor Flitwick, Charms , Head of Ravenclaw and Deputy Head; Professor Hagrid, Care of Magical Creatures; Professor Weasley, Flying;" - Ginny waved at them from the Teachers Table, "Professor Lupin, DADA and Recent Graduater from this School; Madam Pince, Librarian; Madam Pomfrey and Nurse Wainscott, School Matrons; Professor Sinistra, Astronomy and Head of Hufflepuff; Professor Slughorn, Potions and Head of Slytherin; Professor Longbottom, Herbology and Head of Gryffindor; Argus Filch, Caretaker; and myself, Head of School.
"I must now tell you or remind you of the school rules. As always, the Forbidden Forest is Out of Bounds to all students, as is the dungeons further down than the Potions Department. There is one new school rule now in place; As so not to discriminate you from other houses, students will now be allowed into other houses' common rooms only with permission from a house member who will not give you the password- again for house and safety reasons. Timetables will be given to you tomorrow morning. First years, your prefects will show you to your common rooms. That is all. Have a enjoyable year here." And with that, she sat down again, and a perpetual buzz of noise spread out across the hall. "First years! First years this way please!" came two voices from two older kids in Gryffindor clothes. Al and Rose seemed to recognise them. "Louis! Vic!" Rose yelled. Both siblings turned round to face Rose, Al and Scorpius. Both their face broke into smiles, but the boy said, "We'll catch up later." They both looked round as the rest of the Gryffindor first year's joined them. They walked away, the others trailing after them, Rose, Al and Scorpius following them.
Everyone's been so friendly so far. Maybe it'll be ok.
A/N: Next chapter should be up soon. Please tell me what you thought about it and if you have any good ideas :-D