Chapter 2 - Hogwarts
There was an excited buzzing around the Platform 9 ¾, first years whispering excitedly with their friends and students giving their last hugs to their parents. The bright red stem train whistled in the background, recognizing the last chance to board.
"I'll be excepting a letter within the week, we'll see you at Christmas dear." His mother smiled at him glassy eyed. Scorpius allowed his mom to hug him and give him a quick kiss on the cheek one last time and earned a short nod from his father; giving his parents one last look he boarded the Hogwarts Express. He began walking towards the compartment's that the Slytherins' when he heard a voice that almost made him groan.
"Scorpius!" Scorpius turned around and plastered a smile on his face and Maive's dark eyes light up like a snake. "Scorpius! Did you miss me?" She cooed at him as she walked towards him like a stem roller. They hadn't seen each other all summer; she had spent her summer on the beach in Spain with her eldest brother. She had broken up with him before she had left. "We should use this summer to grow and I think we need to do that apart." He remembered her saying. He hadn't really minded at the time; he grew tired of her prejudices and cruelness easily. He knew she had only broken up with him so she could go to Spain and flirt with other guys. The whole thing should have bothered him more than it actually did, he thought.
"Did you miss me?" he asked her smoothly.
"Of course I missed you silly. I spent all summer without my boyfriend." And just like that they were back together before Scorpius could protest.
"Missed you too." He told her; I told himself he was lonely without her during the summer, he knew deep down he had gotten along fine without her. She pointed to her lips and Scorpius fought the urge to roll his eyes. He kissed her lightly on the lips, grinning in triumph she lead him into the compartment where Duanne Zabini, and his sisters, Mabel and Belinda, Cason Goyle and Poppy Sparkford were sitting.
Poppy and him had always had an understanding that they weren't like the rest. She was a lot quieter then the rest but it was more of a silent rebellion; with her many piercings going up her left ear behind her soft blond hair. Her face was square but soft, she was the only one he trusted out of his friends. Scorpius never could understand why she was best friends with Maive but then again he thought – he was dating her.
Maive draped her legs across Scorpius and started talking about the beaches of Spain to Poppy; he knew she would tell her a different story later.
"I'll be right back." And with that Poppy got up and left Maive in mid sentence. Maive pouted a bit before starting to go on to Scorpius about how they should spend next summer in Spain, Scorpius nodded and mumbled a lot.
The compartment door opened and revealed two redheads staring at them. His eyes breezed passed Hugo Weasley, a tall, lanky boy and hooved on the small girl standing next to me. This time he was able to really look at Lily Potter, she was definitely pretty, that was almost an insult – she was beautiful. She had finally grown into her large ears; her warm brown eyes shone brightly and her body had caught up to the rest of her – Little Potter was no longer little.
"Can we help, Potter, Weasley?" Duanne Zabini asked them rudely and Scorpius fought the urge to slap him. Duanne was beefy, unlike his two little sisters who were quite thin. He thought very highly of himself, which Scorpius could not stand.
"No, sorry just looking for people," Hugo smiled kindly at him; what was the awkward boy excepting him to stand up for them? Hardly, Scorpius thought.
"Well, I believe you should carry on then, shouldn't you," Maive snarled and gave a shrill laugh. Scorpius had to keep himself from throwing Maive off his lap, but he didn't even flinch. He had gotten very good at controlling what muggles called, his poker face, very little could break it. That thing happened to be standing in the doorway, Scorpius couldn't help but stare at Lily; she was just so interesting, she always had been.
"Come on, Hugo." Lily said slowly, pulling the lanky redhead out of their compartment. Scorpius looked longingly after Lily and shook his head to snap himself out of it.
"That was rude," Scorpius commented.
"I know, but what can you expect from Potter and Weasley. That family has no class." Maive ramble on, while Scorpius gave up and tuned her out. As Scorpius started dozing off Maive screeched as him to wake up with a jolted, Maive scowled at him.
"Where have you been?" She was talking to Poppy who had just walked back into the compartment. Probably hiding he thought, dozing off again.
"Meeting someone are we little Poppy?" Duanne sniggered at her, he had been after her for a while now but because of Poppy's extremely dislike for him, she was nothing but ruthless to him.
"Hardly any of your business, Duanne." Poppy said cold as ice.
"And you didn't tell her best friend?" Maive pouted.
"I'm not seeing anyone, I ran into my cousin." She told her simply, sitting far away from Duanne as humanly possible.
"You never met anyone on your summer then, Poppy Seed," Duanne grinned victorious and Poppy shot him a hatred glare. She didn't let anyone call her that.
"No one that held my interest and if you call me Poppy Seed one more time, you'll be eating through a straw for the next month." She threated.
"Now, now – Pop, I'm sure there must have been someone." Maive dug for more information.
"No, just hung out with Tanya." She told her shortly. She had spent her summer with, Tanya, her stepsister, who was three years older then her. Her father had gotten killed in a freak broom accident a couple years back and just this year her mother had gotten remarried.
"How is – her?" Maive asked bluntly, she didn't like her very much; Scorpius figured it was because Tanya was much prettier then Maive and she didn't like other people having more attention then her.
"We had loads of fun." Poppy told them, Duanne had shut up from her last comment towards him, not daring to make another sound, even though it looked like he wanted too. Maive went back to rambling on about her summer, as Scorpius was half listening he dozed off as his thoughts drifted off to a red headed girl.
She clouded his mind from thinking about anything else, her flashy red hair and her girlish giggle. What a horrible giggle it was, he thought, although it wasn't entirely that awful. Scorpius thought of her knobby knees that he found slightly endearing or the spattering of horrendous freckles that covered her face, which made her seem more soft and innocent. He hated thinking of her this way, hated feeling like she meant something to him – when she didn't, she didn't mean anything to him – someone who he teased and pranked, someone who loathed him. He couldn't allow himself to think about her in any other light but that – someone who loathed him. He was wakened from his thoughts by Poppy who was giving him a rough shove in the shoulder.
"Get your lazy arse up Scorpius, we're here." She joked and Scorpius rubbed his eyes.
When they walked into the Great Hall a familiar homey feeling washed over him putting him more at ease, the candles twinkling overhead, the well-known chatter of the hall, laughter of friends gathering once again. The whole sorting and feast was a blur to Scorpius, his was fogged with thoughts of a giggling redhead sitting at the table over, Professor McGonagall had said her bit, and a few terrified looking Slytherins had been added to the table. Scorpius couldn't be bothered to make small chat as he stared over at the Gryffindor table. Maive was talking to him about something to do with her father's new inquiry at the Ministry; Scorpius didn't catch most of it. Only the part about his father possibly helping him out, for old times sake. After the feast, Scorpius didn't linger around the common room for very long, feeling more tired then he wanted to admit. As long as his head hit his pillow he started dozing off faster then he could let his thoughts catch up with him.
Scorpius was woken up suddenly when a pillow hit him square in the face,
"Oi, what the hell mate?" Scorpius groaned rubbing his eyes and throwing the pillow back at Duanne.
"Get up Scorpius, breakfast and you don't want to make Maive wait." He chuckled as Scorpius rolled his eyes. As soon as they came down the stairs Maive flew into his arms. Scorpius noticed Poppy making a gagging face in the background and he suppressed a laugh.
"Good morning sweetie," Maive cooed grinning like a serpent.
"Morning," he mumbled.
Maive linked her arms with him and Scorpius wanted to shake her off. He knew he should want her; everyone else envied him for having the dark beauty on his arm, he knew he should care more; she certainty cared what he did but he wanted something different; someone he could have interesting and intelligent conversations with, someone to laugh with and tease.
Poppy was walking beside them closely eyeing Scorpius, he kept shooting looks at her but she continued to hover, sitting next to him at the Slytherin table. Scorpius' attention was elsewhere as soon as a redheaded girl came bouncing into the Great Hall. He had a chance to noticed things that weren't as obvious, he noted that Lily had started to curl her hair instead of wearing it straight as she did last year – it made her large ears less noticeable. She seemed bright this morning, her smile danced along her lips teasing him; she was not one to be taken lightly or underestimated. Her face was delicate but she was fierce, like her hexes, a powerful and brilliant witch for her age.
"She got really pretty over the summer didn't' she?" Poppy whispered in his ear.
"I don't know what you mean." He hissed back, face turning red with embarrassment.
"You may want to stop staring at her then before someone other then me notices." Poppy whispered in his ear and chuckled under her breath. He fiercely looked away from the young Potter.
"I was just noticing the horrendous amount of freckles she's picked up for the summer." He was convincing himself that he was only looking at her so closely to tease her in new ways.
"My grandmother says that freckles are a sign of great knowledge." Poppy whispered back harshly.
"Why does she say that?" Scorpius wondered out loud.
"Ah my child, those who wander always have the finest stories." She quoted her 102-year-old grandmother, who Scorpius had met her only once before. She was an odd woman from what Scorpius had gathered in the brief time they had spent together.
"That hardly makes sense," Scorpius retorted rolling his eyes.
"Fact still stands, and you might want to stop being so obvious about your staring Malfoy." Poppy grinned and Scorpius made sure to keep his eyes down at his bowl for the rest of the meal.