In the last chapter when I mentioned her hating History of Magic, she's already been at Hogwarts for a few days. It wasn't her first day, so she had already had the class on the first day. That was confusing for some people so I had to explain.

Disclaimer: I'm not J.K. Rowling. I don't own HP, unfortunately.

I woke up from my sleep and rubbed my eyes. Already, I knew I was running late for the day. How did I know? I run late every day. But I refused to give up precious sleep just to be on time.

After getting dressed, brushing my teeth, etc., I ran out of the Slytherin common room to the Great Hall. When I did get there I looked for my friends at our long table. I spotted them, and then sat down next to Selena.

"Running late, again?" she said snidely.

"Shut up and just pass me a piece of toast," I responded.

She passed me the toast, and I poured myself a glass of pumpkin juice.

"You eat like a bird," Sabina declared.

"Oh, I do not," I protested. "I'm just not a pig." Every morning all I ate was a piece of toast and a glass of pumpkin juice. It wasn't that I liked starving myself or something, I really just didn't eat all that much. And I also didn't have the time to eat a big breakfast.

"Mum wrote me a letter," Selena proclaimed.

"What'd she say?"

I put butter on my toast and listened to my friend. Usually when she talked to her mother, it ended on a bad note. Her mum was kind of a control freak, and she tended to yell at Selena if she made the slightest error.

She rolled her eyes. "You know what she said. 'Have you found a nice boy who you can marry? If he's a Mudblood, I'll disown you. Oh, he probably is a Mudblood. You can't do anything right.'" Sabina and I laughed at the imitation of her mother. "Scorpius, I hate how you have a LOVING mother."

I smiled. "She is pretty good, I guess."

That was the understatement of the year, and I knew it. I just didn't want to brag to Selena that I had the best mum ever. It wasn't that she let me get away with everything or that she spoiled me. All she did was love me unconditionally, teach me values she knew my father didn't really want me to have, and she just talked to me and listened when I wanted to talk. That is what I consider a good mum is.

"I remember I came over your house once and I walked in on you and your mum cooking in the kitchen," Sabina replied. "It was a very mother-daughter moment, actually."

"Yeah, you never saw that," I said. Did I want everyone to know one of my passions was cooking? No, not really. It was kind of embarrassing for a boy's hobby to be cooking.

"And you know, at least you have a mum, Selena," Sabina responded.

"You're right, Bina," Selena agreed. "It's insensitive of me to complain about my mum in front of you."

Sabina's mum died while giving birth to Sabina's youngest brother, Benedict. Sabina had six siblings and all of the kids in her family were born within a year of each other. The order is Lewis, Lainey, Sabina, Niles, Theodore, Slade, and Benedict.

"We should head to class," Sabina said, trying to avoid the subject of her mother.

"What do we have?" I asked then downed my juice.

Sabina pulled out her timetable, told us we had Defense Against the Dark Arts, and then mentioned how it was her favorite class.

"Oh, good, that's only a floor up from here," I said as we started walking towards the staircase.

I thought the Defense professor was a bit crazy, but I liked him all the same. His name was Professor Davidsen. He was an older man with a huge belly.

We reached the class and grabbed some seats. I was next to Wade Ellerby, who was in Ravenclaw. He was an okay bloke. Most of the Ravenclaws thought they were so smart just because they got in that house. But Wade wasn't like that. He knew he was smart, but he didn't get this cocky look when he got a question right like most of the others did.

I hated how people thought Slytherins were evil or something. We're not. Some are, but overall we're not bad. I mean, we're not goody –two-shoes like those Gryffindors, but we're not terrible people. Just because we're not smartasses, goody-two-shoes, or naïve we should get punished for it? I think not.

Then Professor Davidsen entered the room. His robes were long and big, but I could still see that gross belly. His hair was a light blonde like mine but starting to gray slightly.

"Welcome class," he greeted us. "Open your books to page eight." We all did and he continued talking. "Today we will be learning about the occamy. Can anyone tell me what an occamy looks like?"

Half of the Ravenclaws were sitting up tall and raising their hands. Some were jumping out of their seats. They reminded me of Weasley.

When I first saw her in my Potions class, I couldn't help but start a competition with her because I knew she was a worthy opponent. Most of the Ravenclaws annoyed me, so I didn't pick any of them. Not a lot of the Hufflepuffs were terribly smart, so that was out. And I had to stay loyal to my house, so I couldn't pick a Slytherin. This meant to motivate myself I had to pick a smart Gryffindor as my enemy and I chose her. Plus, having that house competition helped my motivation too. Not to mention family rivalry, Malfoys vs. Weasleys.

"Mr. Malfoy?" I wasn't expecting him to call me and he startled me so much I jumped up and knocked most of my books off my desk. Everybody laughed, but after I glared at them all the Ravenclaws stopped and most of the Slytherins.

"Um…it's a bird?" I suggested. Davidsen's face turned a different color. Uh-oh.

"Did you even OPEN the book, Mr. Malfoy?" he yelled. I shook my head calmly. "IT'S A WINGED SNAKE, MALFOY! A WINGED SNAKE! DON'T EVEN INSULT ME BY SAYING IT'S A BIRD!" See, told you he was kind of crazy.

"Sorry, sir," I mumbled.

I heard Sabina and Selena snickering, but I ignored them.

"Let's not have it happen again," Davidsen said with a lower volume in voice. Then happily he asked the class, "Now, why would this animal attack humans?"

I was in shock. How could he change his mood so fast? Was he pregnant or something? A little laugh escaped my throat at the thought. So that's why he had such a big belly!

"Mr. Malfoy, is there another problem?" His voice still sounded pleasant, but I could tell if I said one wrong word he'd explode. Instead of talking I just shook my head. "Good."

#

My next class was Charms with the Hufflepuffs. Sabina, Selena, and I walked up to the third floor in mostly silence. Then they burst out laughing. And it wasn't for a few seconds, it was like cradle your stomach, face red, and you look like you're about to explode laughter. Also, it's annoying to see this laughter if you know it's about yourself.

"That was so funny," Selena declared after a couple minutes of laughing.

"Honestly, I don't see how that class was funny, even though I have detention for disturbing the peace. All I did was trip when I went to get a tissue!" I explained.

"Disturbing the peace…that guy's a psycho," Sabina replied, and we walked into the class.

I took a seat next to Sabina and Chase Finnigan. Chase annoyed the hell out of me. He was so damn cheerful and encouraging. Those are good qualities to have, I guess, but you want to use them sparingly. This kid, though, he pissed sunshine.

Sabina whispered to me, "Why are we sitting next to Finnigan?"

I shrugged. "Whatever, it might be fun to scare him." Okay, maybe all Slytherins were KIND OF bad, but not as bad as everyone says. We just like to mess with people occasionally. What is so wrong about that?

"Chase," I greeted him.

He turned around to look at me, and his face immediately paled. Did he think I was that scary? "Um…uh, hi," he finally got out.

He was a scrawny boy and knew I could probably beat him up. I mean, I was skinny too, but I still looked like I could beat up someone if I wanted to. Chase looked like a little kid who was scared of everything. I couldn't help it. I poked him in the arm. It was a very weak arm. I didn't even poke him hard, but he looked like he wanted to cry.

"How has your day been, Chase?" I asked, faking politeness.

His face was starting to get its color back. Rich brown eyes were losing the fear that was held there a moment ago.

"It's been fine," he answered. Then he was starting to get comfortable with me, like I would actually be friends with an annoyingly happy person like him. "How about your day, Scorpius?"

That did it. He had the nerve to say my name. I looked at him innocently, and then screamed, "BOO!" The poor kid leaped out of his seat and his arms flailed everywhere. Soft whimpers escaped his throat. All the fear that he had when I first greeted him came back. Merlin, this kid was scared of a simple boo? Imagine if I had actually made a plan to scare him. He might've wet his pants.

I laughed and then turned to talk to my friends. They were laughing, too.

"Ah, that kid is so annoying. He just makes me mad," Sabina declared.

I bit my lip to keep from talking. A lot of things make you mad. She couldn't help it, though. If I had her family I'd be an angry person too. Hell, if anyone had her family they'd be just as angry as she was.

Sabina and Selena have been my friends since I was little. We grew up together because our fathers are friends. Well, my dad wasn't friends with Sabina's dad, but I met Sabina through Selena.

When we were little we had a club house in my backyard. On the outside we painted a huge S because that's what all of our names started with. We were the S Club. Still are, kind of.

I'm an only child, so these girls were my siblings, my family. Their pain was my pain. Their joy was my joy. You get the picture. We were incredibly tight. None of us tried to make good friends with the other Slytherins because we knew we wouldn't like them as much as we liked each other. Why waste our time when we had found the greatest friends a person could imagine?

Slytherins aren't known for their loyalty, but these are the two people I'll always be loyal to. The Sorting Hat had a small, short debate between Gryffindor and Slytherin. It thought I had some good in me and maybe I would find great friends in that house. But I demanded Slytherin so I could have Selena in my house. Then I hoped after me Sabina would be in that house also. If I was in Gryffindor, they could have hated me due to the house rivalry. And that wouldn't have been good.