If Scorpius had thought that the staring on the train was bad, he was seriously misguided, he decided as he stood with the rest of the first year class outside the Great Hall. Most of his classmates were talking in small clumps, turning frequently to stare at him and pressing themselves as close to the walls as they could.
Even Hagrid, who had come to collect the first years for their boat ride across the Black Lake threw him a snide look when he thought that Scorpius was tending to Orion, a blow made that much worse by the fact that Hagrid had given both Rose and Albus a huge smile and a warm embrace.
Still, at least Rose and Albus were still with him. He had assumed that, as Rose had said, it was only one train ride, and that as soon as the Hogwarts Express pulled into Hogsmeade station the two would be off to find their own friends, but they had both climbed into the boat with him as if they were longtime friends.
And now they all stood waiting in front of the Great Hall for sorting to start, and Scorpius was feeling more nervous than ever. If the first years hated him, that would be nothing to the bigger and more capable witches and wizards waiting inside the Hall, all of whom would be acutely aware of his family history due to their classes. He took a deep breath to steady himself and nodded at whatever Rose was babbling about, which at the moment was the enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall.
Show no emotion, his father had told him the first time that they had been nearly attacked in Diagon Alley by the disgruntled relative of some victim of the Dark Lord. If they think you don't care, they will leave you alone. But later that night, Scorpius had heard Draco sobbing in his room and Astoria's gentle, comforting voice, saying over and over "you're different." Still, the emotional distance was wise, and all the Malfoys remained stoic and unfeeling to the public eye. Scorpius would be no different.
And then Professor Longbottom was bursting in through the door and explaining the sorting procedure for those who were still bothering to listen, and then, more disconcertingly, lining the students up in alphabetical order, placing Scorpius right in between Lewis, Catherine and Metcomb, Phillip and separating him from both Rose and Albus.
Rose gave him an encouraging smile as she trotted to the end of the line to stand right behind Walters, Susan, and he was seized by a strong desire to be with her where she would surely be placed in Gryffindor, rather than in Slytherin. At least then he would know somebody. "Prove you're different," she had said to him on the train, "because I know you are."
And as they all marched into the Hall, he withstood the heavy silence by repeating that mantra. "I know you're different." And then it was his mother's voice, too, saying "you're different" over and over again, and Scorpius knew it was true.
His father had been a Slytherin at school, surely, but he had grown and changed and seen horrible things, and the cruel 17 year old boy who had allowed his classmates to be tortured in front of his eyes had been replaced by a wiser man, repentant and determined to be good. That was the man that Scorpius knew, that was the man who had fathered him, and that man was a Slytherin no longer.
And then Scorpius was blinking in shock, because it was Lewis, Catherine's name being called off, and the sleek brown ponytail he had been staring at fastidiously was bouncing up to the stool and being sorted into "HUFFLEPUFF!" and then suddenly Professor Longbottom's voice was booming out "Malfoy, Scorpius," and the cheers from the Hufflepuff table died away suddenly and the whole hall was dead silent.
Scorpius had the odd feeling that he was walking to his own death. Slowly, concentrating only on putting one foot in front of the other and not on the whispers he now heard sweeping the hall, he approached the stool and sat down upon it, under Professor Longbottom's rather disapproving stare.
And then the hat was on his head, and he could hear a voice murmuring in his ear, "A Malfoy, then, didn't think your lot would be coming back. I know where to put you, better be—" And Scorpius, dreading the next word out, could only focus on Rose's voice playing in his head, "I know you're different." And then the hat paused, and said, "different, really? Wouldn't have believed it myself, but now that you mention it, I do see something… I cannot know the person you will become, but if you're sure, we'll make it different." The whole hall was staring at him now, and he had the feeling that they were rather disappointed, for surely they had expected the hat to bellow "SLYTHERIN!" even before it had touched his head, but instead, the hat was yelling "GRYFFINDOR!"
Scorpius would have thought that it was impossible for the Great Hall to become any quieter, but it somehow did. Instead of being greeted by roaring cheers from one of the house tables, Scorpius slipped of the stool to complete silence and walked, rather mechanically, to take a seat at the very end of the Gryffindor table, and his fellow first year Barnes, Julia was sliding away, too far to be entirely polite.
Professor Longbottom hadn't called the next name on the list yet, and Scorpius glanced up at the teacher's table. Headmistress McGonagall was looking rather shell-shocked, rest of the teachers looked as if they had been stunned, and Professor Longbottom, still clutching the parchment in his hand, had a small, disbelieving smile on his face, for he was, as Scorpius remembered then, head of Gryffindor House.
Then there was one small clap that broke the silence, coming from the line of still-unsorted first years, and Scorpius scanned down the row of faces, all looking at him incredulously, past Albus, who looked as if he had been hit with a bludger, down to the very end of the row where Weasley, Rose was clapping gleefully and beaming at him.
It was as if a spell had been broken by Rose's applause and the hall suddenly came back to life. Gryffindor Table was cheering, if not wildly, at least respectably, and Professor Longbottom was trying to hide his smile as he shouted "Metcomb, Phillip," and Metcomb approached to be sorted into "RAVENCLAW!"
Scorpius, though, still couldn't quite believe it himself. He looked over at the green-clad Slytherins, where he had been so sure he would belong, and then down the long table at the scarlet-robed Gryffindors, who were suddenly roaring so loudly that Scorpius snapped his head around to see who was about to join him and saw Albus trotting towards him, beaming from ear to ear.
"Maybe Rose is right," he shouted over the cacophony as he sat down beside Scorpius, "Maybe you are different!"
And then, finally, Scorpius laughed.
It was only later, as the new Gryffindors, including, unsurprisingly, Rose, were following their prefect up to Gryffindor Tower that Scorpius realized that the most daunting task was still in front of him.
He had to tell his parents.