Chapter 2
Albus woke up to his stomach growling. He sat up and looked over at his watch on the bedside table. A wave of panic washed over him as he realized he was already late for his first class on his very first day. He shot out of bed and started shaking Noah, who was peacefully snoring away in his own bed.
"Noah! Get up!"
"Get off!" Noah said as he pulled the covers over his head.
"Noah! We're late!" Albus said, failing to hide the panic in his voice.
At this, Noah jumped out of bed. Without saying a word, he started pulling his clothes on while simultaneously heading for the door. They ran down the empty corridors and arrived at the classroom door 20 minutes late. As they took a seat at the back of the class, Albus caught Scorpius' eye. He shook his head at Albus and Noah as they were pouring with sweat. Albus could hardly endure the embarrassment of having shown up late for his very first class at Hogwarts. He stared intensely down at his desk hoping that no one noticed their late arrival. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a tall figure approaching towards him. He assumed the tall figure must be the professor.
"Well now, who do we have here? A pair of latecomers", the figure said. "Did it somehow fail in your upbringing to teach the two of you how to read a clock?" The man spat out in a raised voice.
Albus' heart was pounding so hard that he heard the blood rushing in his ears. He finally forced himself to look up and face the professor. To Albus' surprise, he recognized the man standing before him. This, however, was not a pleasant surprise. The defense against the dark arts professor was none other than Draco Malfoy.
"We are only a little bit late", Noah said in their defence. He was sitting with his arms crossed, seeming utterly unfazed by the situation.
"A little bit late is still late, and latecomers will not be tolerated in my classroom", Malfoy hissed. "The three of you will have to report to the headmistress' office at the end of class", he continued on, gesturing towards Albus, Noah and Scorpius.
"Me?! What did I do, father?" Scorpius said, staring at Malfoy in complete disbelief.
Malfoy turned around swiftly and gave Scorpius a stern look, signaling to him not to challenge his authority. At this, Scorpius looked down at his hands and tried to bottle up his outrage.
"Now, since you were only a little bit late, the two of you can show the rest of us your wand lighting charm", Malfoy said with a slight grin across his face.
Albus looked over at Noah who was already pulling out his wand. As he did so, he muttered lumos and a light appeared at the end of his wand. Now everyones attention was on Albus. He fumbled around in his cloak looking for his wand. He felt its handle and pulled it out.
"Lumos", he whispered towards the wand. Nothing happened. The classroom was deadly silent except for a few whispers towards the front.
"Lumos", he tried again, this time a little bit louder. A ever so tiny speck of light appeared at the end of his wand, which flickered a little, then went out again. Albus' embarrassment started to show as his face grew redder with every second. He shrinks back down into his seat wishing he could just disappear.
"I have seldom been so under impressed in my life", Malfoy said. "Let us get on with the class." He turned on his heels and walked briskly towards the front of the classroom where he sat down at a large wooden desk. Albus saw him start to scribble something down on a piece of paper. He then slipped it into a neat envelope. In slightly larger letters, Malfoy wrote the address on the front of the envelope. Albus could just make out the first line which read Harry Potter. Through the open window on the far east side of the room, an owl comes swooping in, landing gently on Malfoy's shoulder. He hands the letter to the owl, who takes it in his beak and disappears out the window just as swiftly as it had come in. My first day and dad is already going to be receiving a letter from the school, Albus thought. He sank even further down into his chair.
Malfoy then picked up another blank piece of paper and started scribbling down on that one as well. The silence in the classroom was making Albus extremely uncomfortable. On the front of the second letter, it read McGonagall. Malfoy walked across the room heading for Albus' desk.
"Take this with you after class", he said as he handed Albus the letter addressed to the headmistress.
He then proceeded to hand the other two boys a letter, both of which were addressed to McGonagall. Scorpius gave out a unnaturally loud huff as Malfoy placed one of the letters on his desk. Malfoy glanced back at the two boys sitting at the back of the classroom. He noticed that Noah's eyes looked strangely familiar. A chill ran down his spine when he realized who Noah reminded him of. The boy sitting in front of him with a red tinge to his eyes seemed a lot more harmless than the man who had caused so much disruption to Hogwarts, Lord Voldemort.
Stunned and numb with disbelief at this realization, he quickly picked up his pen again and wrote a second letter addressed to Harry Potter. He then whistled for his own owl which came fluttering in. When he placed the letter in the owl's beak, Albus noticed it had been stamped with Strictly confidential.
Scorpius had clearly noticed this as well and stared at his father with a questioning look upon his face. When he got no reaction from his father, he turned around to look at Albus who seemed equally puzzled. Albus looks over at Noah, who was staring straight at Malfoy. A grin started to spread across his face. Malfoy was staring intensly down at his desk as old memories of Voldemort came flooding back to him. His blood ran cold thinking of the days when Voldemort was alive. Malfoy looked down at his inner left forearm where the dark mark remained on his skin. He started rubbing at it as if rubbing it away would cause his memories of those dark times to vanish. He tried to shake away the thoughts and go back to his lecture. He stood up, took a deep breath and went on with the class.
"Everyone take out the book which I expect you all brought with you", Malfoy said, giving the two boys at the back an accusatory look. "Start reading the first chapter on the basics in defense of the dark arts."
Albus' heart sunk. How could he have been late and now he had forgotten the book as well. Just as Albus was on the verge of giving up and leaving the classroom, Scorpius pushes his textbook between the two of them.
"Make sure to bring it next time", Scorpius whispered.
Noah, who was sitting on the other side of Albus had clearly forgotten his book as well. He reached over and pulled the book slightly more towards the middle, taking advantage of Scorpius' gesture. Albus could see a pang of annoyance in Scorpius' eye. But without making a fuss, he started reading off the pages. Finally, what had felt like the longest class of their lifetime came to an end. The three boys stood up, all eager to get out of the classroom.
"Scorpius", Malfoy's voice bellowed. "You wait here for a minute."
"Me?!" Scorpius replied. "Why me?"
"Because I need to talk to you", his father replied.
Once the classroom was empty, Malfoy slipped his wand out of his pocket and locked the classroom door.
"What's going on?" Scorpius asked.
"How well do you know that Noah fellow?" he asked, ignoring Scorpius' question.
"Not well at all, why?"
"I'm not sure, I just got a bad feeling about that boy, he reminded me of..." His voice trailed off.
"Reminded you of who, father?"
Instead of answering Scorpius' question, Malfoy wrapped his arms around him and gave him a good squeeze.
"We'll be fine son", he said to Scorpius, who had no idea of what his father was on about. "Well now, you better get going to your other classes", he said hastily, releasing his embrace.
"Father, what's going on?" Scorpius asked.
"Go along", Malfoy answered. "You don't want to be late now."
Out in the corridor, Albus had run into James who was on his way to Malfoy's class.
"What's up?" James asked Albus in a chipper voice.
"Well, I have to go to McGonagall's office."
"How did you manage that? You've only been here for a day", his brother replied, fuming at the fact that Albus had managed to get into trouble so quickly.
"It wasn't my fault! I was only a few minutes late, and Malfoy obviously doesn't like me!", he said, feeling even more ashamed of himself for sleeping in on his first day.
"Is he sending you to the headmistress office just because you were late?" James asked, astonished. "We will have to teach him, won't we?" he went on.
Albus could tell his brother was plotting some sort of revenge on Malfoy by the smirk on his face. He pleaded to his brother.
"No, James, please don't!"
"Oh, don't worry", James said ruffling Albus' hair, which he knew he hated.
"Get off!" Albus said, his annoyance towards Malfoy quickly shifting towards his brother.
James gave him a quick smile, then headed off down the corridor.
"Hey, just don't do anything" , Albus called after him in vain. Without acknowledging his brother's pleas, James disappeared into the classroom.
