When he woke up, it took Albus a few moments to remember where he was.
He was curled up on a leather armchair in the corner of what looked like a n underground dungeon. The Slytherin common room was now lit only by the large fireplace, which was still burning brightly, casting a warm glow on everything in its direct path. The water outside the windows was so black that for a moment he believed that he was looking out at the night sky on a cloudless night.
The small boy was sat in the dark, as the light didn't reach the corner he was sat at.
How had he fallen asleep in the middle of a loud party like that?
Blinking as his eyes adjusted to the light of the room, he noticed that he wasn't alone. A few more of his housemates were asleep, strewn across the sofas or the floor. Judging by the empty bottles and discarded wands, Albus suspected that this more likely due to the alcohol than tiredness.
A lone house-elf was carefully picking its way through the mess, collecting the bottles and wrappers that had been left lying around the room. It was smaller than his own house-elf, younger and - though it was sometimes hard to tell with house-elves - clearly female.
"Hello," Albus greeted her, rubbing away some of the sleep from his eyes. Although he spoke softly, his voice pierced the atmosphere like a gunshot as it echoed off the hard walls. The house-elf squealed in surprise and dropped one of the glass bottles, which broke into tiny shards as it hit the cold floor.
"Sorry!" Albus apologized, getting up to help her clean up the pieces of the broken bottle.
"Master does not need to apologize." She squeaked, quickly clearing the last of the glass to stop him from cutting himself… though Albus suspected that she didn't want him to clean up because that was the house-elves' job.
"Slinky did not mean to disturb master Potter's sleep." Her large yellow eyes opened even wider in apology. "Slinky did not realize anyone was awake, sir."
"It's fine," Albus smiled kindly. "Would you like some help?"
Slinky's eyes widened so much that Albus wouldn't have been surprised if they'd fallen from their sockets. Deep blue pools appeared in her eyes before cascading down her face.
"Master Potter is too kind." She shook her head, her huge ears slapping her in the face. "Slinky could not allow such a kind boy to clean up after his friends."
"But..."
"Slinky can only apologize for waking kind master Potter from his sleep, and allow him to continue with what he was doing in peace."
"I just…"
But before Albus could finish his sentence, there was a loud pop and she disappeared.
BANG
"Ow!"
Albus looked round for the sound of the noise, grinning when he finally found it.
Apparently the sound of Slinky's departure was loud enough to wake up the sleeping blond boy who, apparently forgetting where he'd fallen asleep, had fallen off the sofa nearby and onto the hard floor.
Groaning, Malfoy rolled over, turning his head to look at Albus.
"What the bloody hell was that noise?"
"Slinky."
Malfoy looked confused before closing his blurry, silver, bloodshot eyes and shook his head.
"Who?"
"House-elf."
The blond nodded his head and pointed, with his eyes still closed, at the fireplace.
"Can you get one of the pink bottles for me?"
Albus realized a small case had been placed on top of the fireplace. As he walked closer he noticed that it was full of lots of different-coloured potion bottles. Moving some pale blue ones out of the way, he grabbed a bright pink one for the blond.
"Cheers." The latter Slytherin grimaced as he sat up and emptied the bottle down his throat.
"What's that for?" Albus asked curiously, tilting his head to the side to see if there was any writing on the side of the bottle.
"Hangovers." The other boy started searching for something. "Did you see what I did with my wand?"
"It's in your hair." Albus grinned. Malfoy looked faintly ridiculous with the tie still draped around his head and the red tinge to his eyes. His hair, surprisingly, was still in pristine condition. How was that even possible?
"Huh? …Oh, okay." He felt for it, finding it tangled up in the tie that was still wrapped around his head. "Some party, eh?" He was now smiling, apparently the potion's effect was almost instantaneous.
"It was a little loud." Albus replied, truthfully. Parties like that weren't really his scene, but he didn't want to come across as a total killjoy so he smiled to
"Yeah, fun though. Next time you should join in." Malfoy smoothed down his hair, more out of vanity than necessity. Albus tried not to groan, now he had to say something.
"Uh…I'm not really one for parties." It sounded lame even as it left his mouth, but the blond just nodded in acceptance.
"Fair enough, your parents are probably too busy to throw parties anyway." Albus nodded as he started to pick up some of the litter strewn around the common room. "What are you doing?" The blond boy frowned "That's the house-elves' job."
"They shouldn't have to do everything. I'm just… helping."
"You're a strange kid, Albus, you know that?" Malfoy raised an eyebrow.
Albus frowned. He still didn't know the other boy's first name, but decided not to ask. He really should have been paying attention at the Sorting ceremony… He was sure he'd heard of the Malfoy family before, but couldn't remember where.
"Glad it's Friday." The boy in question commented glancing at his watch. "Four o'clock wouldn't be a good time to go to bed on a school night!"
"Four o'clock?" Albus's eyes widened, he was never up at this time of the morning. "I'd better go unpack my things and try and get some more sleep."
"Suit yourself," Malfoy yawned, ruffling his light blond hair with one hand. "I'm gonna have a bath first, see you in the morning." With that he stood up - that is, he tried to stand up, but since his legs had been locked together he fell back to the floor in an undignified heap.
"What the hell? I've been Leg-locked! You've got to be kidding me!" Malfoy growled, pulling himself back onto the sofa and taking out his wand, his legs completely useless in their magically locked state.
"Do you know the unlocking charm?" He snapped, his grey eyes meeting Albus's bright green through his now-messy blond hair, in a silent plea for help masked in rage.
"I know one – "
"Well, what're you waiting for, then?"
"But that's only for locks..." Albus said, pulling out his own wand and twirling it thoughtfully as he tried to remember the charm.
"My legs are locked!" The blond pushed his hair out of his eyes and stared at the smaller Slytherin. "C'mon, Potter, I can't stay like this all day!"
"Okay," Albus's eyes narrowed in concentration as he pointed his wand at the other boy's legs. "Alohamora!"
The blond's legs sprang apart with a clicking noise that sounded exactly like a key turning in a lock.
"Cheers. I'll try to remember that one." He nodded, stretching his legs as he stood back up. "I'm off to have a bath. I'll see you tomorrow." And with that, he turned and headed towards the bathrooms while Albus made his way towards the first year dormitories, carefully stepping over the unconscious Slytherins dotted around the floor.
xXxXxXx
Albus had been surprised to find that through the door to the 'First-year Dormitories' was actually a long corridor. This corridor was considerably wider than the one leading to the common room and ended in a dead end. Ten plaques were spread along the wall of the corridor - five on either side - but there were no doors. A silver fountain in the shape of a serpent's head was built into the wall at the far end.
Do Slytherins have separate bedrooms?
Each plaque had a name on it; the boys seemed to be on the left and the girls on the right.
Walking down the left hand side of the corridor, Albus started to read the names. He was searching for his own.
'Peter Joseph Saunders'
'Regis Scott Knightly'
'Zachary Alonzo Smith'
'Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy'
…Scorpius Malfoy? So that was his first name… But where had he heard that name before?
xXxXxXx
"So that's little Scorpius. Make sure you beat him in every test…"
"Ron, for heaven's sake, don't try and turn them against each other before they've even started school!"
xXxXxXx
So his uncle knew the Malfoy family? Was that a good thing? His uncle and his dad were famous Aurors, if they knew the Malfoys, did that mean that they were criminals? Or worse… Death Eaters?
Albus shook his head. The Malfoys were probably just at school with them. Maybe Scorpius's dad had beaten Ron at a test or something, and he wanted payback by getting Rose to beat Scorpius. That did sound like something his uncle would do... But Albus made a mental note to ask James and his dad about it.
Moving on from Scorpius's plaque, Albus found his own name at the end of the corridor.
'Albus Severus Potter'
He ran his fingers across the top of the plaque, expecting to find a switch or latch or something that would make the door appear. But after searching the entire thing, he realised that the plaque didn't hide any secret entrance. All it did was say his name.
Albus punched the wall in frustration, cursing under his breath as pain shot up his wrist. Why the hell did Slytherins have to be so secretive and confusing?
…Maybe you need to use a spell?
No. That was ridiculous, it was only the first day and no one had learned any spells yet. On the other hand, punching the wall hadn't got him very far. What was the spell he'd used earlier? Albus wondered how he could have forgotten it that quickly. Aloha-something… He raised his wand and pointed it at the plaque.
"AlohaNora?" His wand didn't react at all. Absolutely nothing happened.
Albus growled and rolled up his sleeves, determined to get it right, but before he could try another spell he heard someone laughing from the end of the corridor.
"Having some trouble there, Potter?"
Albus turned sharply to find himself glaring at Malfoy, who chuckled, taunting him as he rubbed his hair dry with a small green towel. "Want some help?" He grinned.
"I don't need any help." Albus huffed.
The taller Slytherin rolled his eyes. "You're a Slytherin, so drop the Gryffindor pride already…"
Albus felt his eyes narrow as the blond walked up next to him, drawing his wand. Was he going to attack?
Scorpius tapped the top of his own plaque with his wand. Immediately, the outline of a door presented itself and a silver doorknob emerged from the wall in the shape of a coiled serpent.
Albus stared at it in disbelief. You just tap the plaque with your wand? Why didn't I think of that? His face started to burn with embarrassment, but luckily Malfoy had turned his attention to his new bedroom. With a smile, the blond turned to Albus and gave him some final advice.
"Remember to lock your door." He noticed Albus was avoiding eye contact and realized that the smaller boy obviously didn't know how to lock it. "Uh, just tap where the handle should be." He added, giving Albus one last look before he shut the door. As Albus watched, the handle was the first to disappear - then the whole door melded back into the wall.
Albus followed suit, tapping his own name-plaque with his wand and frowning as his door appeared in front of him. He threw it open and slammed it shut, too frustrated to think about the other Slytherin students sleeping nearby. He didn't know why he was angry; he guessed it was just that he was embarrassed.
As instructed, he tapped the door where the handle should have been. It emerged a second later and the door disappeared. Albus hadn't even looked at his room yet, but now he turned to scrutinize it.
It was bigger than he'd expected. The walls were a dark, soft, charcoal colour and he had a small window that looked out into the lake. The marble floor was a deep green and, looking closely, Albus noticed a faint serpentine pattern winding around the edges. In one corner there was a large single bed with a black and silver duvet. His trunk was sitting at the bottom of a wardrobe; the doors were left open to reveal two long drawers at the bottom and a full-length dress mirror on one of the doors. Opposite that was a mahogany desk with an old-fashioned desk lamp and three small drawers. A matching green-seated chair was tucked neatly underneath.
Albus grinned. He had been looking forward to sharing a dormitory earlier, but this was a pretty cool bedroom.
Suddenly realizing how tired he was, he promised himself that he'd unpack in the morning and dug his pajamas out of his trunk.
He fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the soft pillow.
