Scorpius
Albus, Teddy, and I pushed our way through the usual crowd of happy students and tearful parents and walked over to the gleaming engine that was the Hogwarts Express. We all exchanged a quick glance and Albus swung his hands in a pseudo polite way towards the door and gave me a look "After you Scorp."
I took the lead mumbling "Don't call me Scorp" under my breath as I led them down the corridor towards the exact middle of the train where our normal compartment was. Every year since our very first train ride we have sat together in this compartment. I opened the door and stopped dead in my tracks, Teddy and Albus running into my back. I could hear them starting to complain but I held up my hand, a menacing look taking over my face.
"What do you think you are doing here?" I growled out. Two boys and a girl were currently sitting in our compartment, judging by their size they had to be first years. A dark haired boy who had to be either very brave or very stupid spoke up.
"Sitting, what does it look like we're doing? Are you blind?" He asked rather flippantly. I heard Teddy suck in a breath and Albus snicker quietly. I felt Albus pat my back in encouragement he knew what was coming. Inevitably this always happened. At least once a year we would have to chase other students out of our compartment. But never once had they talked back in such a manner. This would be fun. For me that is.
"Sitting. Is that right?" I asked lowly, my eyes narrowing. I saw the dark haired boy gulp heavily. I wanted to laugh at him but kept it reigned in. "Do you know whose compartment you are sitting in boy?" I asked. He shook his head. "Ours." I growled. His eyes widened slightly.
"I-I d-don't see y-your name on i-it." He stuttered out.
"Guess again." I said smirking.
"I think he's the blind one." Teddy said from behind me. Albus laughed and leaned an arm on my shoulder.
"Yeah a Malfoy would never be blind, perish the thought. It must be this kid who's blind." He said airily, nodding at the dark haired runt. I smirked as the kid look petrified at the mention of my surname. It was times like these my father and grandfather's reputations came in handy.
"I think you'll find that our names are on the compartment." I said smoothly. It was a tone I heard my father use many a time on rather impudent or stupid clients at work.
"Oh yes. If you direct your attention to the lower left hand ledge of the window you will find three names, our names." Albus said adopting my tone. I could tell he was slipping into his rare role of a true Slytherin, smooth, seething, cunning, cruel. The little girl in the group lifted her hand and ran her finger under the ledge where our names were. She quickly ripped her hand away as if stung. She got up and grabbed each boy by the arm.
"Come on; let's find somewhere else to sit." She said in her high squeaky voice. The three practically ran out of the compartment.
"Have a good year at school!" Teddy called down the corridor. Albus and I snickered.
"Have a good year at school?" I asked.
"What?" He asked smiling and shrugging. We turned and filed into the compartment smiling a little as we looked around taking it all in. I couldn't believe that three years ago, today, I met them both for the first time in this exact place. Teddy walked over and ran his hand over the carving under the window that we made on our way home from Christmas break after that first semester, already the best of friends. He sat down as he ran his fingers over the first name, a quick and sloppy scrawl, Albus, never one to take anything too seriously. He looked over at said boy and drawled with a smirk, "Why can't you seem to ever take anything seriously Albus?"
"Where did that come from?" Albus exclaimed as he whipped around to look at Teddy who simply nodded his head towards the window sill. Albus gave a shrug "Hakuna matata," he said as he moved over to that side of the room smiling and feeling under the window sill. He first felt his name and then the one next to it.
"What?" Teddy asked. Albus shrugged again.
"Aunt Hermionie." He said, that was all the explanation needed. "Besides, not everyone can have perfect script like Scorp." He retorted with an eye roll.
"You call that script?" Teddy laughed out.
"Shut up!" Albus threw back at him.
"Don't call me Scorp!" I growled out as I struggled to lift my trunk up to the shelf above, next to Albus and Teddy's things. As I reached up, the trunk slipped, and Albus had to reach over to straighten it before it could fall on my head, the quick movement jostling his jacket and a small black object with a hard shell that looked a bit like a crab fell out of his pocket and landed at Teddy's feet. "Ted! Look…" Before I manage to yell out a warning to the unsuspecting metamorphmagus the modified Decoy Detonator went off with a bang and started attacking Teddy's toes.
"ARG!" He yelled and jumped up onto the train seat scrambling to get away from the device before it could do any more damage to his poor toes. He shot Albus and me a glare as we roared with laughter drawing the attention of a few other students who were aboard the train.
"Ok guys, you can stop now," He pouted as he jumped down from the bench squashing the Detonator under his trainers. Teddy's glare gave way to a mischievous grin, "I wonder what your mother would say if she knew you were modifying your uncle's products again Alby, and your aunt Scorp." That sobered us up quick and it was our turn to glare at him.
"You wouldn't dare." Albus growled out. With a shrug of his shoulders and a smirk worthy of any Slytherin, Teddy turned and walked out of the compartment leaving us to scramble after him, asking if he was seriously going to rat us out. He laughed at our panic.
"Seriously guys? I wouldn't, that would mean I would get in trouble too and we can't have that now can we?" He asked stopping to look at us. I rolled my eyes at him.
"Oh no, can't have Saint Teddy in trouble. What would the world be coming to if Saint Teddy were in trouble?" Asked Albus sarcastically, Teddy glared at him before turning on his heal.
"Come on." He called stiffly over his shoulder. We snickered as we followed slowly behind.
We stepped off the train and automatically headed in the direction that my father and my aunt would most likely be in, no words needed to be exchanged for us to decide to avoid Albus's family as long as possible. It's not the Potters we had to worry about, on the contrary, Mr. Potter was very excepting when he first found out that Albus and I were friends, it's the Weasley's I tried to avoid as much as possible. I spotted my father's white blonde hair and we headed towards him. We got to the small group right as my Aunt Ducky turned to Corvus and enveloped him in a teary bear hug telling him to be good and to not forget to write.
My father gave him a small smile before turning to me and offering up a hug. "Be good, and make sure you look after your brother."
"Don't worry, I will father. I'll make sure he writes you tomorrow after he's sorted as well. "As soon as I pulled away from my father I found myself tangled in a hug with my aunt who was still crying. "Don't cry Aunt Ducky. I promise I'll take good care of him, besides, he's got those two goons as well." I said pointing at Teddy and Albus who were having an animated conversation with Corvus while my father looked on in amusement. Albus was currently gesticulating madly and jumping a little. He flung his hands out to the sides nearly cuffing Teddy around the head. Corvus laughed as Teddy pushed Albus to the side and with smaller gestures began talking to my little brother. Albus righted himself and proceeded to make faces behind Teddy's back. I glanced to my father to see him close his eyes and shake his head, trying to stifle his laughs. With a smile I turned back to my aunt to hear her laugh lightly before she pulled me in for a tighter hug.
"I know dear. I just wish your mother could be here to send you both off. Don't worry about me." She let me go with a nod and a deep breath. "Now, you better go find the Potter and Weasley clans before you have to head off. I really don't want to have to hear about that one from Ginny at our next lunch outing!"
"You're not the only one," Albus mumbled. "Come on guys; let's go find them before my mother finds us."
As Albus turned to lead us away, Corvus grabbed his hand.
"Can I come?" He asked.
"No!" I snapped out as Albus said, "Sure thing kiddo! You can hang with Lilly and Hugo." He pulled his hand from Corvus' and placed it instead on his back as he steered us towards the unmistakable mass of red hair that could only be the Weasley clan. Thankfully the Potters were right on the edge of the mass of red hair so I didn't have to deal too much with the customary glares. I stuck to pretending to listen to the Potters say their goodbyes, while sneaking glances at the Weasley's. I noticed that most of the glaring seemed to be coming from Mr. Weasley whose head was swiveling back and forth between me and my brother who had struck up a conversation with Lilly and his son, Hugo. He always made sure to keep a stern eagle eye on us whenever we were around. I laughed inwardly and glanced to my right and noticed the one Weasley who seemed to be paying me mind without shooting daggers at me with her eyes. Rose noticed me looking back and we locked eyes for a second before we both turned red and looked away. In an attempt to hide my obvious infatuation and embarrassment at being caught looking at her, I shifted away from Rose and closer to where Mr. Potter was now talking to both Teddy and Albus. With one last hug from both of his godparents and his grandmother Teddy turned to me and we shared a smile as Albus struggled to be free of his mother's grip.
"Come on mum! I've got to go! I'm gonna miss the train!" We laughed out loud as he finally managed to detangle himself from her and head in our direction. "Shove off," he grumbled seeing our laughter as he shouldered past us and headed back towards the train. Teddy and I easily caught up to him and we fell into our usual three across formation with me in the middle, Albus on my right, and Teddy on my left, with Lilly, Hugo, and Corvus trailing after us as we boarded the train. We stood at the window as is customary to wave one final goodbye to our parents as the train pulled out. Then Teddy, Albus and I turned and headed for our compartment. As I slide open the compartment door I noticed we still had a trail of younger relatives behind us.
"No! No way Corvus! You are not sitting with us! Go find other little first years to sit with! You better go and make some friends now because there is no way I'm having a shadow all year long!" I said rather harshly as I whipped around to face him. By the look on his face I could tell he knew I didn't mean it in a harsh way. I just didn't want him to be one of those kids who stuck out and had no friends. He knew I loved him, and that this was the way I showed it best, with some good old fashioned tough love. I believed that kids would get nowhere in life being coddled at every turn. We had already had it hard enough having to make our way with a father that worked twice as hard as he should to make sure we had everything we needed ever since our mother died. I mean we had our Aunt Ducky, but it just wasn't the same, not that I can really remember my mum any way. She died when I was three giving birth to Corvus.
Teddy snapped me out of my reminiscing with an ever gentle hand on my shoulder.
"Dude, just chill there's no need to make a spectacle." I opened my mouth to rebuke him and tell him that I didn't mean it to hurt anyone's feelings but he cut me off with a knowing look, "I know. Just try not to be so harsh alright? Let's get inside." That was Teddy for you, always the mediator and cutting my temper off at the knees. I honestly don't know what I'd do without him sometimes. Out of both him and Albus, Teddy is the one who really got how hard September first was, because as bad as it was for me to head off each year without my mum, it was even worse for him. He had to start his first year and every year since without either of his parents. Like me he's got his support system in is Grandmother and the Potters but it's just not the same. I shook myself out of my trance just in time to see Albus send the three first years off in a different direction then wheel around to face me with a reproachful look in his eye. "Honestly Scorpius, you should try being a bit nicer to him, he is your brother after all. I get that you want him to make friends, I want the same thing for Lilly, but he's going to need his big brother sometimes too." I hung my head defeated.
"I know. I'm working on it, I really am! It's just been a rough morning; I really didn't think my Aunt was ever going to stop crying." We shared a tense chuckle at that and settled in for the long ride to Hogwarts.
"Oh! I almost forgot!" Albus said reaching down towards his belt loop.
"Whoa man how about you keep your pants on?" I exclaimed as I leaned away from where he sat beside me on the bench. He cuffed me over my head as he finally managed to untie a mole skin pouch from his belt loop.
"My dad gave me and James each one of these over the summer. He charmed it so we can fit lots of stuff in it without it looking big and bulky. He has one just like it that Hagrid gave him." He explained as he reached inside the pouch and pulled out an assortment of items. "My Uncle George gave me these the other day. Some of them aren't even for sale in the store yet!" He dumped them on the bench across from us and next to Teddy so that we could sift through them.
"These are some great new products." Teddy said as he admired a new addition to the Skiving Snack box line. Albus reached over and grabbed another small bag that was sitting next to Teddy.
"And look, I was able to convince my uncle to give us extra Instant Darkness Powder as well! Not that it was really that hard once I convinced him I'd be sure to use it to cause some serious mayhem." He informed us with a wink. I reached over and grabbed the bag from him holding it in the hand that didn't currently have the Decoy Detonator in it, the gears in my head spinning a mile a minute as I looked at the two items. I smirked at them conspiratorially.
"I know that look." Teddy said. I nodded.
"I've got a great idea." I said. Albus rubbed his hands together and laughed in a pseudo evil way.
"Oh the possibilities!" He cackled out making us laugh. This was what we lived on, our main pride and joy while at school, causing mischief. In the past two years we'd gotten more detentions than Teddy cared to acknowledge for the trouble we've caused, and that only includes the tricks they couldn't actually pin on us. Which isn't that many, when it comes to executing our tricks, I'm the master at making sure we don't get caught. And it works, when Albus decides to stick with the plan.
As I was formulating a plan to 'improve' upon Uncle George's products the snack trolley stopped in the corridor outside our compartment and we heard the usual call of "Anything from the trolley?"
We shared a look and each pulled out our coin bags to grab the proper amount of money needed for our usual treats. I pulled out my coins and placed my money pouch back in my pocket turning to Albus to hand him the coins.
"It's your turn to get the snacks this time. I got them on the way home last year." He opened his mouth to argue with me but Teddy too held out his hand with his money in it and gave him a pointed look.
With a defeated sigh, he walked out of the compartment and headed in the direction of the trolley to get our usual snacks; a chocolate frog, a box of Every Flavor Beans, and a Butterbeer for me, a Chocolate Frog and a Butterbeer for Teddy, and half the cart of treats for Albus. Teddy and I set to work putting all the joke shop items back in Albus's bag when Teddy turned to look at me.
"Can you believe we are already in our third year? It feels like just yesterday we were sitting on this train for the first time."
"I know," I replied as I placed the last item in the bag and pulled the strings tight. "The years really are zooming by. Who knows how fast this year's gonna go?" I asked as Albus came back into the room arms laden with treats.
"I'll raise a glass to that!" He said rather animatedly as he dumped the food on the newly cleared bench next to Teddy and tossed us both our Butterbeers. "Let the butterbeer flow." He says as we raised our glasses in a toast to this year.
"Yeah." Teddy snorted. "Maybe at last Scorp'll talk to Rose." He said as he and Albus clinked their glasses together in another toast at my expense.
"Shut up." I managed to get out as my face went an unfitting shade of red. "And don't call me Scorp!" I said as I shot them both a glare, although I'm not really sure it had the desired effect because it only caused them to laugh even harder.
"Oh come on Scorpius! You've been pining after my cousin since first year! The least you could do is talk to her; I mean did you see the way she kept looking at you in the station?" Albus said once he finally managed to calm himself enough to speak.
"Yes, and I'm sure your uncle Ron would just love that! I'll make sure to send him an owl as soon as we get to the school asking him what he thinks about the situation." I bit out sarcastically. I really hated it when they brought up Rose. It's not like if she did like me back it could ever work out. There's no way her father would approve, and it would put us all in a bad position. "Can we just talk about something else please? Like what exactly we plan on doing tomorrow? We've got to top last year's welcome back prank, which won't be easy if you ask me. Malone and McGonagall are going to be watching us like hawks."
Albus and Teddy shared a look that didn't go unnoticed by me, but they accepted the subject change. I am not looking forward to the day they decided to breach the subject again and press the topic further. We spent the rest of the trip planning our big back to school prank and before I knew it we were almost at school.
"We should get changed guys. We're going to be at the school pretty soon." I suggested. They nodded and we changed into our school robes and stored our other clothes in our trunks just as the train pulled up to the station. We grabbed our things and headed out of our compartment and off the train.
"Ugh!" Teddy grunted as we got caught in the inevitable traffic leaving the train, although not nearly as much as if we were to sit in the back of the train. But it's still a considerable amount of people. "I don't get why we don't just sit at the front of the train." He complained as we finally made it out of the crowd and headed towards where the carriages were waiting to take us up to the castle.
"Because, only geeks sit in the front of the train." Albus explains.
"Then why aren't you in the front?" Asked a menacing voice from behind us, we turned to see Albus's older brother James along with a group of his goons behind us. Just as Albus went to retort a group of attractive Ravenclaw girls walked by on their way to the carriages. "Hello hotties!" James purred out. I looked at the others and we all rolled our eyes at his antics as he turned back to face us. "Nerds." He threw at us as he moved to turn away. Without missing a beat Albus replies with an insult of his own.
"Tools." He growled out with his eyebrow cocked and a look on his face that just dared James to try and start something on the platform with tons of witnesses. Teddy and I both tensed, ready to jump in if it came to a fight, which more than often it did when it came to these two. Although James is smart enough not to pull his wand on his younger brother after Albus managed to get him stuck in a matchbox for a full week last year. Now he just sticks to insults and verbal assault in order to not look stupid again. Apparently James decided it was not worth his time. He gave a shrug and one last glare as he turned and walked to find a carriage. We both turned to Albus ready to put out the fire that James had surely just created but Albus was surprisingly calm.
"Come on guys, let's go find a carriage, wouldn't want to be late for the sorting." He said as he led us up to where the thestrals waited, invisible, to take us up to the castle.
"You okay?" I asked placing a hand on Albus's shoulder. He shrugged it off before nodding.
"You sure?" Asked Teddy. He nodded again.
"Don't worry guys. I'm fine." He said smirking. "Now get on the carriage, my grandma walks faster than you two!" He said holding the door open for us.
"I'm sure Molly would appreciate that statement." Teddy said. Albus paled a little.
"You wouldn't." He said.
"Oh I would." He said smirking, and so commenced their bickering. I smiled as I looked up at the castle, a beacon in the black night. This was going to be a good year I could feel it.
