Here's Chapter 1. Review if you like.
Chapter One – Red & Gold vs. Green & Silver
The Divination N.E.W.T class was always tiny; this year is consisted of just ten pupils. In all honesty, Albus had no idea why he had made the decision to take the subject to N.E.W.T level, other than the fact that you only needed to get an Acceptable in the Divination O.W.L., and every single day he wished he hadn't.
"Oh, hello Albus," Professor Trelawney greeted him in her normal ethereal voice as he pushed open the trapdoor and scrambled into the classroom, Scorpius close at his heels. "I haven't seen you in my class for a while."
"Professor, you've been teaching me twice a week for the past six years," he pointed out as Scorpius stood up behind him.
Professor Trelawney ignored him. "Ah, Scorpius dear, how is your mother?"
Albus and Scorpius shared an exasperated look. "She's well, Professor."
"I see," Professor Trelawney said and wandered off to stand by her desk, stroking her grey and white cat's head.
"She gets more and more insane every day, I swear," Scorpius muttered, sliding into one of the two miniature seats at a minute table and leaning back. Albus thought he looked rather like a house cat sometimes; laidback, superior and unthinkingly graceful. He wondered if he threw him out of a window, would he land on his feet? He took the other seat and unceremoniously threw his copy of Unfogging the Future onto the table, almost knocking over the crystal ball sitting on a cushion in the centre.
Scorpius gave the ball a scathing look. "I wish that thing would just smash."
Albus chuckled softly and flicked open his textbook to the pages about crystal-gazing, purposefully keeping his eyes off of Scorpius. "I don't see why you even took Divination; the only subject you struggle with is Potions and you still managed to scrape an E in that."
Scorpius continued to glare at the crystal ball. "I only managed to get an E because Carrow sat on one side of me, and Luce sat on the other, and they're both infuriatingly easy to copy off of, and practically geniuses. Plus, I was hardly going to leave you here alone."
Albus looked up from the textbook to see Scorpius' piercing grey eyes gazing at him, with a strange look in them that he didn't recognise.
Lately, Scorpius had been giving Albus strange glances a lot. He had originally thought it might be because Albus had finally told him he was gay, but that seemed rather unlikely. Maybe it was because Scorpius had failed to join the Quidditch team again. Albus wasn't sure, but it was starting to freak him out a little.
As Lucinda Dolohov sauntered into the Slytherin common room, Albus smiled and remembered the day they had met. Despite being in the same year and the same house, Albus hadn't met Lucinda until two weeks into his third year when the Quidditch tryouts were held. Lucinda was already a fierce beater, much loved by the rest of the team, and Albus was trying out for the open place of Seeker. As the only third year on the team at the time, Lucinda had encouraged Albus tremendously and begged that he join the team, rather than his opposition for the position – an oversized seventh year, that was probably a much better Seeker than Albus. Back then, she had had black hair that fell in lazy half-curls to her waist, and bottle green eyes flecked with bronze, her face round and pale.
That paleness was the only thing she had kept since then. Now, she was one of the tallest girls in Hogwarts, her hair poker straight and shoulder length, white blonde except from her dark blue fringe, her eyes like liquid amber. But she was still just as magnificent a beater.
Lucinda dropped down onto the black leather couch beside him, pushing her cold, bare feet under his thigh.
"Quidditch practise tonight," she said lightly, bringing a thick, leather bound book out of her bag and resting it on her knees.
"Why do all my notifications about Quidditch come through you?" he asked unintentionally sharply. Part of him wanted to feel guilty about it, but he couldn't bring himself to apologise.
Lucinda didn't seem to mind, never taking her eyes off of her book. "Because you never read the notice board, and nobody would tell you otherwise. Have you done your Divination homework?"
Albus shook his head and laughed. "You sound like my Aunt Hermione. And I need to read someone's palms for it."
"That's bullshit, Al."
"What is?" A smooth, deep voice asked from above Albus' head. His green eyes snapped up to see Dimitri Carrow towering above him; one dark eyebrow raised, his mop of dark brown hair falling into his curious golden brown eyes. Albus felt his heart give a flutter and cursed himself for it. Carrow was straight, and nothing was ever going to change that.
"Palm reading," Lucinda answered angrily, as Carrow sat behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. "Divination in general is bullshit."
A fierce, hot jealously shot through Albus and he cursed himself again; there was nothing going on between them, he knew that. He wondered how Calin must feel when he saw them like that - it must be much worse for him.
"Where's Thorne, and Colt?" he asked to distract himself from his own insanity. Because wanting Carrow was insane. He'd dated, and probably slept with, almost every girl in their year, Slytherin or not, and it wasn't as if he was ever going to look at Albus twice. Even if he was gay, it would be unadvisable to go out with him; as Thorne always said, he was probably diseased.
"Thorne's with Anastasia. I would have thought Colt was with you, Luce?"
"Why?" she snapped at him, looking furious.
In the previous year, Carrow and Thorne had constantly accused Lucinda and Colt of having a secret relationship. Though both of them consistently denied it, both of them would disappear for hours on end, and even Albus had to admit he thought there was something going on there. As it turned out, Lucinda was having a secret relationship, just not with Colt. Colt, on the other hand, had been practising like mad to try and get onto the Quidditch team, though was too embarrassed to tell them, and when the tryouts for this year's Quidditch team came around, he had swiped the open place for Keeper from right under Scorpius' nose, much to the taller boy's displeasure. Even still, Lucinda was always angered whenever she thought they might be accusing her again.
Albus raised an eyebrow at her, a smirk playing at the corners of his lips, whilst Carrow laughed and ran his hands through her hair.
"Calm down, Luce," he chuckled. "I simply meant that you both just had a free; normally you spend it together."
I wish he'd run his hands through my hair like that, a little voice in the back of Albus' mind said wistfully.
Shut up! He told it. I do not want Carrow!
Oh yes you do. You want to know what he feels like, what it would be like to-
"Luce, Al!" A voice called over, shutting up the voice in Albus' head, much to his relief. The three sixth years looked around and caught sight of a brown eyed boy coming towards them on long, lean legs that seemed to cover half of the room in one stride.
Now, I wouldn't mind having him either, the voice said suggestively. I wonder if his cock's-
Shut up! Albus screamed at the voice in his head. I do not want Carrow, and I most certainly do not want Calin, okay?
No reply came, and Albus hoped the voice kept silent.
"Remember we've got Quidditch at six, yeah?" Calin kept him eyes mainly on Albus, who was terrible for forgetting.
The younger of the two black haired boys blushed and looked away, frightfully embarrassed. His eyes settled on Carrow, whose head was resting on Lucinda's shoulder, who was gazing up at Calin, who in turn was still watching Albus. Carrow, Albus decided, really wasn't that attractive; his eyes were slightly too light a brown, his nose too long, his chin too sharp. Yet when he looked to Albus and his thin lips curved up in a tiny smile, Albus still felt himself turn an even darker shade of pink. Carrow's smile grew, and his eyes glittered with unconstrained mischief.
"So, I'll see you both there. On time?" Calin's voice brought Albus and Carrow's attention back to him, though Albus felt a little light headed.
"I'll make sure he's there on time," Lucinda assured their team captain.
Finally, Calin's attention was back on his favourite Beater. He smiled a slightly crooked smile, and leaned down to kiss her once on the lips, before he was off again, tending to the call of his friends.
"You two are so cute," Carrow stated.
Lucinda rolled her eyes at him. "And you're such a twelve year old girl."
Albus stood in front of the mirror in his bathroom and straightened his tie. The silk was smooth under his hand, and he found himself imagining what his life would have been like if its colours had been red and gold instead of green and silver. His father would still have favoured him, he guessed, and probably would have continued smothering him. His brother would have actually spoken to him in school time, but would have fought with him constantly. Roxanne would have been his Quidditch team captain instead of Calin. He would have spent most of his time with Rose, not Scorpius. He would probably not even know Scorpius, or hate him like his father had Draco Malfoy.
The thought of hating Scorpius sent a stab of pain through his heart, and Albus knew that he would never give Scorpius' friendship up, not even for the love his family had once shown him. They still loved him, he knew, but it didn't feel the same as they loved James and Lily.
He caught sight of the dark green jade and black diamond pin that his Grams had given him on his sixteenth birthday.
"This belonged to the last member of your family that was a Slytherin. He was my uncle, Ignatius Prewett. Your Uncle Percy is named after him. Don't let anybody make you think you are any less a part of this family just because of the colours in your tie, okay?" she had said, pulling him into a bone crushing hug.
He had worn it every day since.
Albus watched as the blond man swirled the dark red wine in his glass and looked up at the dark haired woman through his eyelashes. Albus felt a stab of pain shoot through his chest, as if someone had sent an arrow straight through his heart. The blood that oozed out of the wound was green, and when Albus looked back at the pair on the other side of the room, his vision was tinged green.
How can he do this to me?! The voice in his head screamed. He's supposed to love me!
Albus flinched.
He didn't know the man, or the woman, or the voice in his head, but they had a vague sense of familiarity to them.
And her, she's just a slut, a whore! She's just using him! He must know that, surely he must know that? He isn't an idiot, but then neither is she. Neither am I. I know what she's doing, doesn't he understand. It was supposed to be just us, just the two of us, together. This was our project, our work, and she thinks she can just worm her way in, does she?
"Are you alright, dear?" A voice said from beside Albus. He turned to face the round, short woman, still furious with the blond man and unaware of whom he was.
"I'm not your dear, and I'm perfectly alright," he snapped at her, turning back to the other pair as pain and worry settled in the woman's face. She too, had looked familiar, but he had no clue as to who she was.
"Albus," she said in a strange voice. Her bright blue eyes turned grey as he looked at her.
Albus leaned backwards; what was this?
"Albus," she said again, sounding worried, but the voice was not her's. It was a voice he knew all too well, but couldn't name. "Albus!"
Albus' eyes snapped open, his chest heaving as air whooshed in and out of his lungs. A pointed, worried face hovered over him with the same grey eyes the woman had had. He smiled, and felt himself relax a little.
"Scorpius," he breathed, pushing himself up into a sitting position.
"You must have been having an awful dream," Colt said, and Albus noticed he, Carrow and Thorne were all standing around his bed, Scorpius perched on the end.
"Did I wake you all?" he asked, suddenly feeling rather guilty. He hadn't been screaming in his dream. Had he been screaming in reality?
"I think you woke up the entire tower," Scorpius chimed in, a smirk starting to form on his lips. Clearly his worry had passed.
Suddenly, the door to the bedroom slammed open and two boys stood in the doorway, both holding up wands, little balls of light emanating from the tip.
"What is going on in here?" Frank Longbottom screeched.
Albus had to smother a laugh as Calin, who stood beside him, winced.
"Nothing, Frank, Albus had a bad dream," Carrow sneered, his voice thick with disgust.
"Well then," Frank snapped. "Back to bed, all of you. It's almost half past four, we have to get up soon."
The door slammed shut again, and the boys laughed as they slunk back to bed. Not long after, Albus could hear the soft, slow in and out of his dorm mates breathing as they fell into a deep slumber, but Albus could not sleep. Who had the people in his dream been? And why was he so jealous of someone he'd never met?
The smell of burnt toast and pumpkin soup wafted towards the door of the Great Hall as the five Slytherin boys walked along the Slytherin table until they caught sight of Lucinda sitting, animatedly talking to Slytherin's other Beater, Irina Avery, five empty spaces around her. The five sank into them and Lucinda glared at them all.
"You're all late," she snapped, already dressed in her green and silver Quidditch jersey, the number four emblazoned on the front, paired with her cream trousers and dark brown boots. Her gaze moved to Colt, then Albus. "Why aren't you wearing your Quidditch stuff?"
"The game doesn't start until two, Luce," Colt said, picking up a barely brown slice of toast and covering it with peanut butter.
Lucinda looked disgusted. She opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by Calin, who appeared behind them.
"Are you guys ready to slaughter those Gryffindors?" he asked, clearly trying to build the morale they had lost after being defeated by the Hufflepuffs in a practice game. He too, was wearing his uniform, as was Avery.
Colt and Albus exchanged a look. "When does the game start?" Albus asked, suddenly nervous.
Calin glanced at his watch. "In fifteen minutes."
Colt gagged on his toast. "Fifteen minutes?!" he shouted, his voice muffled by his food.
Calin nodded, a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth.
"So you'd better get ready," Thorne pointed out.
The two boys were up and out of the Great Hall in a flash.
Colt and Albus sprinted back up the spiral staircase, their green and silver cloaks whipping about behind them. Nobody else was in the corridors now, everybody would already be in the stands for the first Slytherin game of the season. Albus had got a glance at the common room clock before they left. It was two minutes to two; they were going to be late.
"You ready?" Calin asked when they finally arrived in the Slytherin Quidditch room, completely out of breath.
Colt bent over, his hands on his knees, his breath coming out in loud wheezes.
Calin's brow creased with concern, and he came to stand beside the shorter boy. "Are you going to be okay to play?"
Colt stood up slowly, his eyes on the ceiling, and waved a hand dismissively at him. "I'll be fine."
Madam Eldridge walked in then, pulling on her black dragon hide cloves. Her blue eyes swept over the boys and girls in the room and raised a light brown eyebrow at Calin.
"Are you ready yet?" she barked, impatience clear in her shrill, high voice.
Calin glanced at her, and back at Colt. "Yes, Madam."
The aging woman nodded and swept out of the room.
Albus watched from the archway as Madam Eldridge stood in the middle of the Quidditch pitch and gestured for both of the teams to come forward. He and Anatoli Dolohov – Lucinda's younger cousin - left first, as Seeker and Keeper. Lucinda and Avery walked out behind them, with Calin, Colt and another seventh year boy named Nickolas Pike, walked at the back. As the team stepped out onto the field, broomsticks in hand, the Slytherin crowd erupted into cheers and whistles. Albus searched the faces of the crowd and saw Scorpius, Carrow and Thorne standing together, cheering as loud as anybody else. His father wasn't there, of course, he never was. He was probably on the Gryffindor side, supporting his brother and cousins like he always did, but never Albus.
"Mount your brooms!" Madam Eldridge ordered. She glanced around the pitch to make sure everybody was ready, and then gave her whistle a hard, sharp blow. Both teams soared up into the sky, and as always, Albus waited mid-air, far above the rest of the players. He listened for the voice of his cousin Louis.
"Poppy Wildflower catches the Quaffle, and off she goes! Oh, she passes to Roxanne Weasley – my cousin, the captain. She's belting along there, oh she's almost there! She passes back to Poppy – intercepted by Slytherin's new boy, Colt Browning-Foxx! Never seen him play before. He's fast! He's belting back down to the Gryffindor goalposts, a neat pass to team Captain, Calin Lexington. Keeper Fred Weasley – another cousin of mine – swoops to save the ball – misses – SLYTHERIN SCORE!"
Albus heard the Slytherins erupt into cheers again, but his mind was now otherwise occupied. His gaze swept over the field, above him, below him, for the golden ball that would be the Snitch. Abruptly, Hugo Weasley started to move, speeding along near the ground. Albus searched in front of him and saw a tiny golden dot moving along near the ground. Down, he swooped, close to the ground. Hugo reached out, but suddenly a Bludger hit his arm, and the Snitch was out of this reach. Albus didn't pause to see what happened to his cousin, instead, he chased after the Snitch. He heard the Gryffindors roar suddenly, and knew that they must have scored. He felt a whoosh of air as players rushed overhead, and watched, as barely three feet in front of him, Annabelle Worthington crashed into the ground. He curved around her as another Bludger came hurtling his way. Avery was there, then, and she slammed her beater into the Bludger, sending it hurtling along the other direction. She looked at Albus and grinned, before diving out of the way as two Gryffindor Chasers sped up to her.
Cheering started again, Albus didn't know which team it came from. He looked around and saw the Snitch hovering just above him. Hugo was nowhere to be seen. Albus swooped up in chase of the Snitch. He was so close - so close - if he could just – his hand closed around the Snitch, and the Slytherins were so loud, he could barely hear Louis announce that he had caught the caught the Snitch, and that Slytherin had one the game.
Albus' family may dislike his house, but they could never say they couldn't play Quidditch.
Albus watched as the blond man swirled the dark red wine in his glass and looked up at the dark haired woman through his eyelashes. Albus felt a stab of pain shoot through his chest, as if someone had sent an arrow straight through his heart. The blood that oozed out of the wound was green, and when Albus looked back at the pair on the other side of the room, his vision was tinged green.
How can he do this to me?! The voice in his head screamed. He's supposed to love me!
Albus flinched.
He didn't know the man, or the woman, or the voice in his head, but they had a vague sense of familiarity to them.
And her, she's just a slut, a whore! She's just using-
"Wake up!" Albus flinched at the noise, and looked around. Where had it come from?
"Get up! GET UP, GET UP, GET UP!" Albus' eyes snapped open and he bolted up right to see Lucinda standing in the middle of the room, screaming. "GET UP!"
"Right I'm up, I'm up!" Carrow shouted back at her, rubbing his eyes sleepily as he pushed himself up off his bed.
"What is it, Luce?" Thorne asked, his voice groggy.
"You have to come and see!" she shouted, grabbed Thorne and Carrow by the hand and wrenched them both out of bed. She kept her hold on them as she ran from the room. She had looked terrified. Colt, Scorpius and Albus exchanged a look, and then bolted out after them.
They ran, in their pyjamas, from the bedrooms, though the common room, and up several flights of stairs, to stand in front of a wall. Albus felt his chest constrict as he looked at the message, written in what appeared to be blood;
'The chamber of secrets has been opened, enemies of the Heir beware!'
