Scorpius' head had shot up the moment he heard the clunk of the pad lock he'd conjured up hit the floor. His eyes widened in absolute horror as he made eye contact with the intruder, he looked and felt like a deer in the headlights. He hoped more than anything that Albus Potter would just walk and pretend like nothing had happened like a normal 11-year-old boy would but, alas, no such luck. Albus had always thought if he were in an awkward situation such as this he'd pick the easiest route, apparently he didn't know himself as well as he thought. He slipped into the compartment and closed the door behind him quickly.
Albus walked purposefully over to the seat opposite Scorpius with some new-found confidence he never knew he had, but the moment he met the sharp blood-shot eyes of the young Malfoy, all of the confidence he had felt was gone just as quick as it had come. Al could only handle the blond's stare for a moment before being forced to look away. Scorpius hung his head aswell, more in shame than anything else, he wiped at his eyes with the sleeves of his high-end, specially tailored robes. Albus scratched the back of his neck, swallowing nervously as he tried to come up with something to say.
Scorpius sighed, pulling his knees closer to his chest, and rested his cheek against his knee so that Albus couldn't see his atrocious appearance "What are you doing here? Come to mock me?" he questioned with bitterness in his voice, voice croaking slightly from the strain of keeping quiet earlier. Albus was a bit shocked by the assumption "Why do you say that?" he questioned without thinking. "Your brother probably would" the blond mumbled in reply.
A loyalty to his family that was deeply rooted caused anger to burn through his body "James would never do that!" he replied fiercely and he meant it. If it had been James who had found Scorpius he probably would've sat beside the young Malfoy and asked what was wrong. They never talked about it but James didn't like tears, particularly the tears of younger kids.
Albus knew the stories, knew that Scorpius' father and his own had once been enemies. His own father never spoke word against Draco Malfoy and would even defend him sometimes when the Daily Prophet would mention some terrible thing that Draco had done during the war, unlike his uncle Ron who would take any chance to talk badly about the Malfoys even if it normally earned him a smack from his wife who didn't want their children to judge the Malfoy child for things his father had done in the past. He couldn't help imagining all the things most likely said about the Potters and Weasleys around the Malfoy dinner table and it made his blood boil "I'm sure your father and grandparents have told you everything you need to know about us, huh?" he spat back, crossing his arm across his chest and looked away, glaring at a random spot.
Scorpius slowly looked over at Albus, resting his chin on his knee and stared at the fuming boy, weighing what to say next and decided to just go with the truth. "Actually... no" he said, voice croaking softly as his voice was still scratchy from crying, he cleared his throat, a voice sounding suspiciously like his grandfather's telling him to stop being such a wimp and to speak clearly. Albus' ears perked at the soft words but didn't look up from the random spot he was staring at, although his expression did slip from that of anger to that of curiosity. "In fact, my father doesn't like to talk about your family much. Whenever your father or someone else in your family was mentioned in the papers or at a social party he'd get this strange look on his face, like he was in pain but I was never sure... and he'd just change the subject act as if nothing had happened" he described, this far away look coming over his face as he imagined his father looking so pained. "The only information I could find about your family was in the newspapers and books written about you all so of course I've heard mostly good things, except from those gossipy tabloids but those aren't exactly truthful."
"Its been a bit difficult... I've always had this fascination with what happened... you know, the war..." he said softly, Albus had to look up at that "I've had to search old book stores for anything I could find on your father, my father, Voldemort, death eaters, everything and then I'd have to hide them all from my parents... it was amazing I even found any of it considering I had no one to tell me where to start" he grumbled the last bit to himself, remembering all the sneaking and sleuthing he had to do. Albus was quiet for a beat "Me too..." he said barely above a whisper, Scorpius gave Albus a questioning gaze when he didn't quite catch what he'd said. Albus took a deep breath and spoke up "I've always wanted to know what happened too, dad is more willing to talk but he doesn't tell me everything..."
Scorpius unfurled himself, sitting properly "you'd think people would be more curious about all the gaps but everyone just seems to accept that what happened happened and that's the end of that but why?" he said more to himself than to Albus who also looked deep in thought. Albus knew much more than Scorpius because his father had told him at least a few things that the public did not know about but he still didn't know much. The two sat in silence for a few moments, rolling what they knew of the war around in their minds. Albus knocked himself out of his thoughts and looked up at the boy who was now deep in his own mind and once again noticed the blood vessels surrounding the blond's deep blue irises.
Scorpius noticed Albus' staring and quickly scrubbed at his face again with his sleeve hoping it would wipe away the evidence of his shame and shrunk into himself a bit, ignoring his grandfather's authoritative voice in his head. "So... why were you crying?" Albus asked gently unable to restrain his curiosity. Scorpius glared, his pride not allowing him to see the question as anything more than insulting "I wasn't crying!" he yelled back then covered his mouth when he realized how loud he was being. Al flinched at the loud yell and put his hands up to show he meant no harm "I was just trying to help" he defended, a bit miffed that his concern was answered with such rudeness. Scorpius huffed a bit "like you understand" he muttered under his breath. Albus blew out an agitated breath himself "Well I can't very well know if you don't tell me" he replied tartly.
Scorpius sighed "I just... sorting..." was all he could get out before looking embarrassed, realizing how ridiculous it must sound for someone to actually be crying so pathetically over something such as what house they'd be placed in but just imagining what might happen if he were to be placed in anything but Slytherin caused the back of his eyes to burn with forming tears which he quickly wiped at with his sleeve once more. Scorpius expected to hear the young Potter burst into hysterical laughter at Scorpius' ridiculous behavior but it never came.
He looked up to find Albus frowning thoughtfully before standing and sitting down beside Scorpius a bit closer than he'd really intended but decided the damage was already done "I understand that... It's all I've been thinking about since I received my letter..." he said gently bracing his hands on the seat and looking down at his lap as he confessed his own worries "I was... bloody terrified at the thought of ending up in Slytherin... I mean, can you imagine what those ratty old gossip pages would say if they heard Harry Potter's son was placed in Slytherin? Probably say I had some Voldemort in me, or something about my upbringing... I can't even imagine what James would say..." he explained letting his head fall back in thought and rolled his eyes after a moment "well I guess that's not totally true" he mumbled causing Scorpius to crack his first smile all day. Albus glanced over at Scorpius and felt a small smile curl on his own lips.
He righted himself and turned slightly towards Scorpius "but you know what my father said? He told me that one of the greatest men he'd ever known was in Slytherin... they gave me his middle name you see... your father's godfather... and I knew it wouldn't be so bad if I was placed in Slytherin..." he said in a whispered tone as if someone would over hear even though they were in a small compartment with just the two of them.
"But... but my grandfather... he'd be furious... there has NEVER been a Malfoy that wasn't in Slytherin, its become a tradition!" Scorpius answered looking a bit panicked now that he was saying it out loud, Albus glared and in an impulse grabbed Scorpius' small pale hand and squeezed reassuringly "Well your grandfather won't be there with you now will he?" Al stated more than asked "He can't decide your life for you" he added seriously.
Scorpius jumped slightly in surprise as his hand was grabbed but did in fact feel a strange sort of calm wash over him, he looked into Albus' eyes for a moment and opened his mouth to speak but before a word was uttered the compartment door was thrown open and the two boys immediately sprang apart to press themselves against the walls opposite one another.
"Al! I finally found you! Whe-" James stood in the door way and stopped mid sentence when he realized who was in here with his younger brother, he stared at them strangely for a moment before continuing "Annnnyway... Wheres that money mum gave you!? The trolley's 'bout to come 'round and she gave you the money, for whatever reason" he said quickly, glancing out into the hall where he saw the trolley cart slowly approaching, he bounced on the balls of his feet urgently. Scorpius pretended as if he was looking out the window and that he'd been doing nothing but that this entire time while inside his heart was racing rapidly.
Albus' heart slowed down as he looked up at James and pretended as if nothing happened, he raised a brow "Oh really? For whatever reason? So you don't remember the thank you cards we've received from the trolley woman the past 2 years in a row because you bought out nearly the entire cart? Or the letter telling us how sick you were after going on a sugar binge?" he retorted, crossing his arms across his chest. James let out a frustrated groan when he saw the old woman growing closer, he flailed his arms in aggravation "Albus! Come onnnn" he whined desperately, holding his hands out "Just one chocolate frog!" he begged, Albus' serious mask broke at James' plea and he covered his mouth to refrain from laughing at his brother's pained expression which quickly turned to anger "I swear to MERLIN Albus I will rip your-" James was cut off by Albus' loud laughter. He covered his mouth as if that would keep himself under control "Calm your arse James, I'll get your precious chocolate" he placated his brother who had the talent of looking both relieved and pissed. James flopped down on the seat opposite his brother.
Scorpius continued to stare out the window, acting like the two Potters weren't there, during the little tiff he'd had to use every muscle in his face not to laugh at the two brothers' antics. James looked over at Scorpius before look at Albus and raised a brow in curiosity, Albus shrugged and ruffled his hair nervously under his brother's scrutinizing gaze. James looked over to Scorpius once again but this time opened his mouth to speak, by some miracle the trolly woman pulled up to their compartment in stuck his old kind face through the door "Any sweets from the trolley?" she asked with a smile and immediately James' attention was squarely on the sweets hidden in the charmed trolley.
Albus stood and fished into his pocket "Ah yeah may I have 2-" Albus glanced behind himself where Scorpius still sat stiffly before looking back to the patiently waiting old woman "No, better make that 3 chocolate frogs and a licorice wand please" he said politely and handed over a few sickles while she handed him what he'd ordered. He closed the compartment door and tossed the licorice wand and one of the chocolate frogs onto James' lap "go nuts." James caught the treats and grinned "Woo! Yer the best, bro!" he called as he hopped up and scampered out the door, back to his friends. Scorpius' shoulders visibly relaxed and he straightened in his seat once James had left.
"Here" Albus said in a softer tone, holding out a box of chocolate frog to Scorpius, the blond seemed genuinely surprised by the Potter's kindness "Oh, t-thank you" he said taking the box. They opened their respective boxes and ate their frogs quickly before the spell took effect and the frogs got the chance to hop away. Once done the two silently pulled out the cards that came with every chocolate frog. Albus once again scooted closer to Scorpius in order to get a look "Who'd you get?" he asked, Scorpius snorted slightly before quickly covering his nose in embarrassment "your uncle" he said holding up the card and revealing the three dimensional image of Ron Weasley. Albus chuckled "I got Merlin" he said holding up his own card "I can only imagine how Uncle Ron would act if he was here" he said with a laugh imagining his uncle puffing out his large belly proudly. Scorpius laughed and glanced out the window and noticed they were nearing their destination "I think we better change into our uniforms" he observed and gestured at the uniform Albus had crumpled into a ball and left on the seat opposite them. Scorpius pulled his trunk down before pulling out his uniform then pushed the trunk back onto the rack.
Albus opened the door after gathering up his crumpled uniform and held it open for the blond, Scorpius seemed a bit thrown by Albus' kindness "Are you coming?" Albus asked "Oh, yes of course" Scorpius said quickly "thank you" he added as he slipped through the door.
