Author's Note:
First, before we begin this, let me apologize for a mistake made last chapter and pointed out by some reviewers; Scorpius would be born 9 months later, not a year later. Sorry, so stupid of me! And thanks to everyone who reviewed - I'm a bit backlogged with replying to all of them right now, but you'll get a reply eventually, I promise! Also, my formatting is a bit screwed up with this chapter, sorry y'allll! Try to enjoy anyways.
CHAPTER ONE
How, really, does any love story start? Is it a glance, a fluttered glimpse of a soul; a soft smile directed your way, or a collision among stars? Does your universe collapse, does the roof of your carefully built house cave in?
That's what I'm like, personally.
Then the doodles start, the hearts decorating your binders, sometimes quickly erased before others can see them, sometimes drawn in pen … the ones that you can't erase. Those ones are always the worst, the most painful reminders of your crush. Then comes the waiting-stage; the pure, lustful wanting where all you do is toss your eraser (which has a Y on one side and an N on the other side) against the table, repeatedly, trying to find out if the other is thinking about you.
Really, that's the fun bit. I've never really managed to get past that stage.
But sometimes love stories don't turn out that way. They're not all clichéd, they don't all start with just a glance. Sometimes lucky people get away with being not hung over another person, and sometimes they get to actually experience true love.
But everyone has different versions of true love. Maybe they were both smashed at a party and ended up hooking up, waking up in the morning to the realization that the other person maybe wasn't JUST a post-break-up fling. Maybe they collided at a coffee shop, where the boy spilled his black coffee on her blouse, effectively soiling her clothing and her mind with his wry grin of apology.
Maybe it was at a bowling alley, where she tripped on the slippery surface and fell into his arms, knocking over his pretzels and his heart.
Maybe it was at a cocktail party, with both of them decked out in their finery; where they caught each others' eyes and started up a conversation about particle physics.
Maybe it was in high school, where he was the attractive womanizer and she was the bookish nerd, popular and not un-pretty in her own way; the stuff that movies and dreams are made of.
Sometimes, though, if you're one of the lucky ones, it doesn't start that way. There's no movie-like introduction between the characters, things don't just HAPPEN to you because you're not a person that things NORMALLY happen to. There's no collision between the two of you, you don't fall into his lap, he doesn't act debonair and charming, and you don't have perfect hair and a ballgown.
Sometimes, really, it just starts with a glance.
Scorpius grumbled, slamming his face into his pillow as his roommate Isaac Nott punched his shoulder. Swearing fervently, he turned onto his back and dug himself further into the covers.
"Bloody hell, Score," Isaac shoved him again, causing Scorpius to tumble off the bed, wrapped in his covers, "The first day back and ALREADY you're going to be late."
"Mate, just let him be," Hunter Parkinson shouted from across the room, folding his sheets together, "Let the bloke suffer."
"McGonagall will have your head, Scorpius," Jackson Carrow muttered, shaking his head of dark red curls as he shoved his textbooks into his bookbag, falling back onto his four poster bed, his tie askew, "You know what she's like. Bloody cow."
Scorpius moaned an apparent answer, muffled under his sheets on the floor.
"Plus, you never know," Isaac taunted him, kicking Scorpius in the stomach, to which Scorpius flashed Isaac his middle finger, sticking his hand out of his cocoon, "Maybe some of Hogwarts' own got hot over the summer."
"Oh yeah," Hunter replied, buttoning up his untucked shirt, "What was the name of that Ravenclaw girl? The one with all the sharp edges?"
"I didn't know you went for twigs, Parkinson," Jackson smirked at Hunter across the room, causing Isaac to snicker with laughter, making Hunter go slightly red.
"She's not a twig, you bloody arse," Hunter retorted, whirling back around to face his reflection in the mirror, flattening his dark brown mop, "Okay. Maybe she is a bit of a twig. But she's still got a nice face."
"I don't know about you, but I go for girls with a ton of luggage, if you get what I mean," Isaac said, getting cat-calls from Jackson and high-fiving him.
"Oh mates, we are so going to score this year," Hunter grinned ferally at both boys, who smirked charmingly back at him, then noticing Scorpius peacefully sleeping on the floor, "Oh, somebody kick the fool. He's going miss breakfast."
Scorpius' eyes snapped open and he quickly jumped out of his mess of covers, throwing a pair of grey dress pants on and a half-buttoned up shirt, "BREAKFAST? You fucking cunts would have let me miss BREAKFAST?"
Isaac laughed and Jackson leaned against the headpost of his bed, replying as Scorpius ran around throwing on his clothes, "It's not possible for you to miss breakfast, mate. You'd go stark mad and run around the school in your bloody underpants."
Isaac snorted, "Like he hasn't done that already."
Ignoring his three other roommates, Scorpius dashed into the washroom, glancing at the mirror. A painfully handsome boy stared back at him, with touseled dark blond hair and piercing grey eyes. The first two buttons of his white dress shirt were unfastened, and his dark green tie wasn't done up, but merely hung out of his collar. From the full-length mirror, his grey private-school boy pants hung nicely off his body.
"SCORPIUS, STOP STARING AT YOURSELF," Isaac hollered into the washroom, shoving his head in front of Scorpius, who pushed him aside and examined his teeth some more, then looked over at Isaac in shock.
"You have glasses?" Scorpius asked, one of his eyebrows arched questioningly.
"Chicks are attracted to educated men," Isaac said, positioning himself in a lecturing stance, his oversized glasses sliding down his nose, "With these glasses, I exude confidence and sexiness out of every pore in my body."
"YOU LOOK RETARDED, NOTT," Hunter yelled from the main bedroom where he was conversing with Jackson.
"More like exuding nerdiness, Zak," Scorpius smirked, turning back to the mirror where he slapped cologne on his cheeks, "You look like a fucking ponce. Take them off."
"You look like a fucking ponce," Isaac mimicked Scorpius, sighing and then throwing the glasses down on the countertop, "Well, there goes half my ego AND my librarian fantasy."
"Too much info, Zak, too much info," Scorpius guffawed, pushing past him to swing his bookbag onto his shoulder, motioning for the others to follow him out the door.
As they all clambered up the dormitory stairs into what was the Slytherin commons, a petite blonde girl grinned at them from across the room, waving them all over.
"Hey!" Isabel Zabini grinned at them, her wavy shoulder-length hair bouncing as she closed the book that she was reading, snuggled in her green chair, "Scorpius! I haven't seen you in forever!"
"Hey Isabel," Scorpius smiled back, enveloping her in a hug, then standing back and letting her sit back down, "How does third-year have you feeling?"
"Pretty good, pretty good," Isabel pretended to think for a bit, grinning wryly, "Also pretty damn happy that I can finally attend the dances."
Ever since Hogwarts moved into the 21st century, it began to more and more model an upscale English co-ed boarding school, not that many of them still existed. Dances once a month, along with the much cherished Cerise Ball (which many students called 'Pop-A-Cherry' Ball) were established by Headmistress McGonagall, who liked to consider Hogwarts to be a high-class institution. Despite the fact that the goddamn school was called Hogwarts. However, only third year to seventh year (yes, a seventh year was established once the Hogwarts Educational Networking board, aka HEN, decided that seventeen was too young to leave school) students were allowed to attend, to the dismay of the two younger grades.
Scorpius offered Isabel a high-five, grinning in an older brotherly fashion when she eagerly smacked his hand, "Well, I'll see you around then, okay Izzie?"
"Fo sho'!" Isabel nodded at him, then picked up her book and continued reading, but paused for a quick second and perused Scorpius, "You look really hot, Scorpius, but you also look like you've just been laid."
"Tis the point, my innocent flower," Scorpius smirked at Izzie, who rolled her eyes at him, then turned back to her book.
Scorpius turned around and walked back over to his friends, all of whom were waiting impatiently for him. Hunter was running his hands through his dark brown hair, grinning mischeviously at a dark haired girl across the room. Isaac was tapping his foot impatiently, looking down at his watch as he waited. Jackson, shaking his dark red curls, looked to his side and began staring pointedly at a blonde girl, who glanced up from talking to her friends, glared back at Jackson, then turned huffily and ignored him, making Jackson drop his gaze and look up at Scorpius.
"Are you finally done socializing?" Isaac groaned, irritated at Scorpius, who re-slung his book bag over his shoulder and shook his hair across his forehead, "I'm fucking starving!"
"Yeah, yeah, fine," Scorpius rolled his eyes at his friend's dramatics, elbowing Hunter in the stomach (which made Hunter break eye contact with the girl, making a very unattractive OOF noise and collapsing inwards), motioning Isaac forward, "Let's go."
The Great Hall was crowded with clamorous students, all fighting for a spot at their respective tables. Jackson breezed through the crowd, with Hunter, Isaac, and then Scorpius following him. Ever since the Battle of Hogwarts destroyed the castle, renovations had been made (restoring most of the castle to its original beauty) especially to the Great Hall, refurbishing the formerly faded House banners and retouching the sky with more colour and saturation than ever before. The school still held approximately 100 students per year (with four class-sized houses in each year), but there was a tad more room to be comfortable.
Scorpius sat down next to Dennis Goyle, a large hulk of a boy, who started to spit when he began to talk to a friend, causing Scorpius to cringe and edge away.
"I know you like me Scorpius, but I didn't know you were bloody gay," Hunter's eyes widened as Scorpius moved closer to him.
"You want to sit next to McSpitty over here?" Scorpius groaned in exasperation, shaking his head so his hair swept across his forehead, a fringe sticking out, "Then call me gay."
"Oy!" Isaac yelped out, pointing down the table where yellow cards were being passed down the Slytherins, "The schedules!"
"Save yourself," Jackson said dryly, reaching for a croissant, "Merlin, I hope we don't have much with the Gryffindors. A dose of Albus Potter is only recommended once a day, or else it irritates your stomach. Bloody keener."
"Oh, get over him," Hunter replied, opening his mouth while still eating his cornmeal, making Scorpius flinch, "Just because you're still pissed that he showed you up in front of Mary. Merlin, Carrow. Everyone knows that you're a better seeker, it was just a lucky day for him."
"Damn straight it was a good day for him," Jackson replied, muttering angrily under his breath, "I should have kicked his ass."
Scorpius smirked at Jackson, who appeared absolutely livid, then glanced down the table to look at the girl that captured his fancy, "I really don't understand you though, Jackson. Why her?"
"It's not as though I have a bloody choice in this. I dated Renee for a week or so, remember?"
"I swear I don't get it," Scorpius looked at the pissed off redhead, "And I don't understand her either. You've never fucking talked to the girl, she's never talked to you, and yet BOTH of you refuse to stop looking enamored-ly at the other during the day. I swear, the girl probably hasn't even kissed anyone yet, she's holding out on you. Make a move already."
"Enamored-ly?" Hunter stopped shovelling food into his mouth for a second, looking up at the others, "Is that even a word?"
Isaac sighed, smacking Hunter across the forehead, "It's obviously a figure of speech, doofus."
Scorpius stopped eating for a second and grabbed a yellow card from Hunter, passing the rest of them to Dennis, then flipping his over.
Isaac groaned overdramatically, as he perused his, "Yup. Double potions with the Gryffindorks."
"Herbology with the Ravenclaws! Not bad!" Hunter pumped his arm in the air, causing a couple of nearby girls to twitter, "The two sexiest houses together forever!"
"Divination?" Scorpius said, flabbergasted, "Divination? I swore I dropped that!"
"New rule," Isaac replied, putting his yellow card into his bookbag, "McGonagall insisted on it being taken up until fourth year."
"Bloody hell, I hate that subject," Scorpius rolled his eyes, glancing over at the Gryffindor table as his eyes nonchalantly swiped across the room, then stopped and looked back at the Gryffindors.
A vibrant redhead was giggling with a couple of female friends, and Scorpius looked her up and down, intrigued.
"Hey, who's that girl?" Scorpius elbowed Hunter again, causing him to choke and spit out his oatmeal.
"SCORE!" Hunter shoved him, causing Scorpius to fall into Dennis, who plopped onto the floor, making a resounding thudding noise, making heads turn in the Hall, "Oh shit, sorry mate."
"No problem," Scorpius picked himself off the floor, standing to his full height in the now quieter Main Hall.
"Mr. Malfoy, is there a particular reason why you are constantly causing trouble?"
Scorpius turned to gawp at Headmistress McGonagall, whose lips were firmly pressed shut and severely in need of some sort of botox. The Great Hall quieted as Scorpius stood, uneasily.
He grinned awkwardly at McGonagall, who frowned harder at him, "It really was an accident, Headmistress, no harm done."
"I am not referring to you, Mr. Malfoy, but to Mr. Goyle on the floor."
Scorpius turned and stared at Dennis, who seemed unable to pick himself off the floor due to his obese size.
Jackson started to snicker.
"Uh, here you go, Dennis," Scorpius said, extending his hand and pulling up the hefty boy, "No harm done, yes?"
Dennis just shrugged his shoulders, and sat back down at the table, where he started to stuff his face with food.
Scorpius smirked amicably up at McGonagall, who still seemed livid, and made a move to sit down.
"NOT JUST YET, MR. MALFOY." McGonagall yelled, causing the Great Hall to fall back into a gossip-anticipatory silence, "WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?"
Scorpius glanced down at his clothes, and at Isaac for help, who shrugged his shoulders at Scorpius with helplessness.
"Uh, a white shirt, Headmistress," Scorpius said, slowly identifying all of his clothes, as if talking to a toddler, "Grey pants, white socks - "
"Do you consider Hogwarts to be your own personal boudoir, Mr. Malfoy?" McGonagall glared at Scorpius, causing a couple Gryffindors to burst into laughter, "Do up your tie and your shirt."
"It's only a boudoir if you want it to be, Headmistress," Scorpius smiled mischeviously at her, causing Isaac to start choking on his orange juice, Jackson to open his mouth in shock, and Hunter to start roaring with laughter, before Scorpius dissolved into hilarity, holding onto the wall for support as his body shook with mirth.
"Mr. Malfoy, you know what I'm going to say …" McGonagall said, threateningly, rising up from her position at the front of the Great Hall.
"Detention!" Scorpius choked out weakly, "Been there, done that!", not even looking at McGonagall as he turned away from her, still laughing madly, pointing his finger in the air and swaggering out of the Great Hall as a drunken prostitute might, followed closely by Isaac, Hunter, and Jackson, who were gasping and roaring with laughter.
As soon as the doors of the Great Hall slammed shut behind them, the Great Hall was filled with noise and chaos as McGonagall rolled her eyes and motioned Filch towards her. On the other side of the Hall, Lily Luna Potter grinned widely, and then turned to her friends to shout at them:
"I really don't understand how that boy gets away with it."
"Neither do I, Ms. Potter," McGonagall replied loudly, turning to face the group of giggling girls, causing them to quiet, "Neither do I."