As always, Harry Potter belongs to the incredible J. K. Rowling

Scorpius settled back onto his seat, and closed his eyes, the image of his parents waving at him - his mother with a supportive, albeit slightly tearful smile on her face, and his father with a look of pride shining in his eyes – still imprinted vividly in his mind. He knew that he should be excited – he was finally going to Hogwarts, the school every wizarding kid dreamed of attending ever since they were old enough to understand what school was. At Hogwarts, he would have the opportunity to receive tutelage from the finest witches and wizards of the wizarding world, and to learn from them how to use the greatest tool in his arsenal: the magic he'd been born with.

Even as such, Scorpius still couldn't seem to fend off the doubts that had been plaguing him ever since he'd first heard the story of the Dark Lord's rise and fall from his father. What if people at Hogwarts didn't like him? What if they didn't accept him, and shunned him based on something his forefathers had done decades ago?

His parents had both reassured him that Hogwarts was a great place. Or rather, his mother had reassured him. Then again, his mother saw the good in everyone and everything, so perhaps that didn't account for too much. But even his father, who was fairly hard to please (something his mother never failed to tease him about), seemed to look back on his early years at Hogwarts fondly.

Yet Scorpius still couldn't help but feel that for him, Hogwarts wouldn't be the haven it had been to his parents.

Scorpius wasn't naïve. He knew that people judged each other based on preconceptions, whether or not they were misconceptions. And he knew that every wizard in England, young or old, would be harbouring quite a few preconceptions of him.

Scorpius had already suffered from this prejudice throughout his childhood – he'd grown up practically without any friends. Most of the pureblood families his parents had grown up surrounded by had all either fallen into such complete, utter disgrace that associating with them would be tantamount to smearing the family name with tar, or, they'd came out of the Second Wizard War untouched, but preferred to stay as far away from the Malfoy family as possible. Meanwhile, the rest of the Wizarding World, half-bloods and muggleborns, didn't accept them any more than the purebloods did.

Thankfully, Scorpius still had his family. His parents weren't oblivious to the way the Wizarding World treated them, and did their best to not only shelter their son from the hostility, but to also fill in the gaps that were meant for friends to fill. Where Scorpius had never felt the comradeship that young children would share with their companions, he was no stranger to the unconditional love of family. He knew that his father would always be there to guide him in his decisions, and that his mother would always be there to offer him support. Besides, Aunt Daphne, Uncle Blaise and their daughter Valentina, paid frequent visits to Malfoy Manor as well. Aunt Daphne was Scorpius' mother's older sister, and the two sisters were very close. Additionally, Uncle Blaise was a good friend of Draco's. These two things put together meant that Scorpius and Valentina spent a considerable amount of time together. Scorpius hadn't minded this one bit though – he had always looked up to his fierce, proud older cousin, and the latter had always been fond of him as well, so the cousins had gotten along quite famously. In fact, Valentina, who was a fifth year Slytherin at Hogwarts, and a prefect no less, was one of the few people Scorpius looked forward to seeing on the train. He knew, however, that his cousin wouldn't be showing up for a while, since she had prefect duty.

Knowing this, Scorpius stood up, walked over to his brand new school trunk, and selected a book to bring back with him. With Equality, a dream become reality by Hermione Granger-Weasley in his hands, he settled back onto the compartment bench, and prepared to while the rest of the train ride away in solitude.

However, Scorpius had barely read past one paragraph when distant voices floated into the compartment, through the door he'd forgotten to slide shut.

"- All your fault, Rose. Now there's no empty compartments left –"

"My fault? For your information, Albus, we were the ones that got to the platform fifteen minutes ahead of the scheduled departure time -"

"Thanks to Aunt Hermione, I bet,"

Scorpius perked up. Hermione? As in Hermione Granger-Weasley, one of his favourite authors?

"- well actually, it was dad who kept on insisting we needed to hurry up. He'd apparently been sealed out of the barrier during his school days, and he'd flown Granddad Weasley's car to school –"

"Dad's told me that story too! Apparently they got into huge trouble though,"

The voices were getting louder.

"…yeah, they were almost expelled. I think that permanently traumatized Dad. Anyway, now he can't stand the thought of missing the train, which is how we ended up at the station way ahead of time -"

"Hey, there's an empty compartment!"

The voices stopped. A second later, two figures appeared in the doorway.

"Hi," The one who spoke first was a girl with fiery red hair. A fleeting look of surprise flitted across her face as she looked at Scorpius, but the moment quickly passed, and she smiled at him warmly, displaying her mouthful of orderly white teeth.

"Hi," The black-haired boy standing beside her echoed, smiling faintly.

"Hello," Scorpius answered. Their arrival took him completely by surprise, and he didn't know what he was supposed to do. There was a moment of awkward silence, in which everyone stared at the other. The girl seemed to be the first to realize that she should say something.

"Oh, right," She laughed, sounding slightly embarrassed. "Everywhere else is full, so we were wondering if we could join you."

"Of course," Scorpius replied automatically, the impeccable pureblood manners instilled in him prompting him to unhesitatingly demonstrate the hospitality of a generous host. "Come in."

Both of them beamed, and one after the other, they entered the compartment.

"I'm Rose, by the way," The girl said offhandedly. "Rose Weasley."

"Oh right," The boy, who'd by now made himself comfortable on the seat across from Scorpius, said. "I'm Al Potter,"

Scorpius knew that it was now his turn to introduce himself, but he hesitated. He knew who Rose Weasley and Al Potter were, of course. Or rather, he knew who their parents were; they were War Heroes. Meanwhile, he was the descendant of Death Eaters, something his last name made no secret of. Both Rose and Al seemed nice so far, but if they found out he was the son of their parents' sworn enemy, would that change? Scorpius was saved from making a decision by Rose, who snatched the book he was reading out of his hands.

"You read my mom's books?" She exclaimed in surprise. Then, she seemed to realize that grabbing someone's book without first asking was rather rude, and coloured. "Sorry," She said hastily, handing the book back to Scorpius.

"That's alright," Scorpius said, relieved that he can delay sharing his name, and thus delay the inevitable antagonism, for a while longer. "Madam Weasley's actually one of my favourite authors," He supplied.

And it was the complete truth too. Hermione Granger-Weasley had published several books, all focussed on an issue she herself had long been involved in: equality between wizards and other magical creatures. She had started off by championing the rights of House-elves, arguing that they should receive their well-deserved wages and benefits for their work. She'd also branched off to include promotion of fair, honest cooperation with goblins, empathy for werewolves, and understanding for giants, merpeople and centaurs, whom she contends are all sentient, intelligent beings who deserve to be treated as such by wizards.

Scorpius liked her works not only because he saw the logic in them, but also because through her passionate words, Scorpius could practically see what an open-minded lady Hermione Granger-Weasley was. He suspected that were he to one day meet her, she wouldn't be so quick to judge him based on the crimes his ancestors have committed. And in reading her works, he was able to maintain hope that perhaps, one day, wizards everywhere will learn not only to look past their differences and accept other magical creatures, but to also accept fellow wizards.

But Scorpius didn't tell Rose any of this, and said instead: "We pay our house-elf, Sunny, and we give him two days of holiday per month."

"Not per week?" Rose's eyes narrowed.

"That's what we initially offered, but he refused," Scorpius explained. Refused was perhaps too light of a term. The reality was that Sunny had responded to the suggestion by bursting into tears, wailing about how his masters were too good to him, and how he would rather work himself to death serving them than sit around, idling for two days every week.

Rose, however, seemed to understand, and she smiled again in approval.

Al, who'd been quietly observing this interaction, decided to join in with a comment of his own: "You should've seen Kreacher when Dad suggested that he retire. I mean, at his age, it's a miracle the elf can still walk. But anyway, Kreacher didn't even let Dad finish the sentence, he just started yelling 'No, Kreacher won't, Kreacher won't, Kreacher won't, won't won't WON'T'".

All three of them laughed, mostly at Al's ridiculous imitation of the elderly house-elf's hoarse croak, and Rose sat down onto the seat beside Scorpius.

"So what's your favourite class?" She inquired eagerly.

"Rose, school hasn't even started yet," Al rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"I know, I know, but there has to be a class you're most looking forward to," Rose replied. "I mean, the classes are all that I've been thinking about ever since I got my letter. I think Transfiguration sounds like the most fun. It also sounds like the hardest though. And don't let Al's indifference fool you – Al's actually looking to Hogwarts even more than I am, he just thinks he's too cool to show it –"

"Rose!"

"Al fancies Defence against the Dark Arts, by the way," Rose told Scorpius in a confidential tone, though it was pointless, considering Al was sitting barely a meter away from them. "Which, I guess would make sense, since Uncle Harry obsesses over it all the time," She added as an afterthought.

Scorpius smiled at Rose's enthusiasm.

"I think I'm looking forward to Care of the Magical Creatures the most," He admitted.

"Care of the Magical Creatures? But that doesn't start until third year," Albus protested.

Scorpius shrugged.

Rose's eyes widened in excitement. "I didn't know we were including subjects that aren't taught during first year! In that case then, I'm looking forward to Ancient Runes the most. Wouldn't it be so cool to learn a language based in magic?"

Al laughed. "What, I thought you'd be one to go into Arithmancy, Rose. Dad told me that was Aunt Hermione's favourite subject when they were at school."

Rose wrinkled her nose. "I'm not a carbon copy of my parents, you know,"

The words hit Scorpius like a pail of icy water. I'm not a carbon copy of my parents… Finally, someone understood. Yet would they understand that about him, when they found out who his parents were?

Al's snort interrupted Scorpius' musings. "Speak for yourself," He told his cousin. "Everyone tells me I'm identical to my dad when he was my age. It's so annoying. I mean, we always have to go shopping at really small stores outside of rush hours, to avoid having to fight through crowds of people just to buy groceries, but then a crowd forms around you as soon as they realize who you are! One of these days, I'm going to have to get a mask and a wig!"

Both Rose and Scorpius laughed at Albus' disgruntled expression, and the three of them fell into comfortable conversation as the kilometres flew by beneath the wheels of train.

Around noon, Al, who was in the middle of animatedly telling a joke to his avid audience, was very disgruntled to find his punchline being drowned out by a great clattering in the corridor.

"It must be the lunch trolley!" Rose realized.

"Oh good," Al said, joke forgotten, "I'm starving."

The compartment door slid open, and a smiling, dimpled woman, who had her now greying hair pulled into a loose bun, appeared in the doorway.

"Good morning, dears. Anyone want anything to eat?"

Al leapt up eagerly. "Yeah! That's three Cauldron Cakes, two Pumpkin pastries, five Chocolate Frogs and a pack of Droobles Best Blowing Gum, please!"

"Al!" Rose protested. "You know Droobles is bad for your teeth! Can you imagine what my mum would say if she found out? Actually, scratch that, can you imagine what Granddad and Grandmum Granger would do to you if they found out?"

Al visibly shuddered at the thought.

The trolley lady glanced between the two cousins, Rose, who looked openly disapproving, and Al, who appeared to be torn. "Still want that pack of Droobles, dear?" She asked.

"Yes," Al said, squaring his shoulders and throwing a defiant look at Rose. The latter rolled her eyes in exasperation, and muttered something along the lines of "well they're your teeth".

The trolley lady smiled indulgingly. "That's 5 sickles and 7 knuts," Then, she looked at Rose and Scorpius. "Anything for you two, dear?"

Rose shook her head. "I'll share with Al." Then, she turned to Scorpius. "What about you, Scorpius?"

Scorpius decided to go with a small assortment of Cauldron Cakes, Pumpkin Pastries, and a few Chocolate Frogs of his own.

After the trolley had long gone, and Scorpius was just biting into his first Cauldron Cake, when he finally realized something. Something that froze him midway through his swallowing, which in turn led to him choking on the bite of cake stuck in his throat. Someone thumped him on the back heavily, and after quite a bit of coughing and wild inhaling, Scorpius finally managed to swallow the stubborn piece of pastry. He straightened, and breathed out heavily. He could feel the heat in his face – what had just transpired went against all the pureblood table manners he'd ever been taught.

But Scorpius wasn't even thinking of that. Instead, he demanded: "What did you just call me?"

Rose was still gazing at him in concern. "…Are you alright, Scorpius?"

Scorpius gaped. "You did it again,"

Rose stared him. "What?"

Albus finally stepped in, and with a roll of his eyes, explained: "Scorpius, we knew who you were the moment we first saw you in the compartment. Our parents pointed you out to us on the platform."

"Oh," Scorpius sagged. Our parents pointed you out… He wondered what exactly the famous Harry Potter had said about him when he had pointed him out. Nothing good, surely. But then again, if that were the case, why had Albus and Rose voluntarily sat with him on the train if they knew who he was, and what his family had done in the war?

"What's wrong, Scorpius?" Rose, who'd witnessed the flash of expressions across her new friend's face, asked.

Scorpius hesitated, unsure of how to phrase his thoughts. Finally, he said: "Why would you still sit with me, if you knew who I was?"

This time, both Albus and Rose were thoroughly confused.

"Er… is there some rule I don't know about that says wizards aren't supposed to sit in another wizard's compartment if they knew the other wizard's name?" Albus finally ventured.

Rose immediately dismissed her cousin's theory as ridiculous, saying that she'd never came across anything like that in all the books she'd read, which therefore meant that the theory had to be false. She then concluded that there must be another reason, and reverted to looking at Scorpius expectantly.

Scorpius peered at both Albus and Rose in suspicion, wary that they were feigning ignorance to make fun of him. When he found nothing but genuine confusion though, it was his turn to be perplexed.

"What, don't you know who I am?" He asked, a hint of frustration in his voice.

"Scorpius Malfoy?" Albus supplied.

Rose threw her cousin a dirty look. "I'm sure he didn't know that, Al,"

Scorpius shook his head. "No, that's exactly what I meant. I'm Scorpius Malfoy, and my father is Draco Malfoy, and he was a Death Eater. Don't you – don't you care about that?"

Rose's face softened in sympathy, while Al looked aghast.

"What, you think we would care about that?" Al sputtered. "If people judged me based on what my parents did, then they would expect me to turn into some kind of self-sacrificing, heroic lunatic,"

Scorpius couldn't help but smile at this, while Rose giggled softly.

"He could've worded that better, but that doesn't make it any less true, Scorpius," Rose took over, still smiling. "Like I said, we're not carbon copies of our parents, and anyone who expects us to be is a big hypocrite, because you can bet that they're not identical to their parents either."

Scorpius looked from Al's scandalized expression, knowing that for Al, the scandal was that Scorpius would expect to be judged based on something that had happened before he was born, to Rose's expression of open acceptance, and beamed. Perhaps his parents were right. Perhaps Hogwarts would really prove to be a haven, even a home. After all, one's home was where one's friends and family were.

Thank you to The Hufflepuff Erudite, Williukea, , lifelong potterhead, annatraynor for your support! Also, special thanks to rowenaphantomhive! And so sorry I accidentally forgot to acknowledge you last time.

Also, I'd like to take the time to reply to a review – because it was a guest who wrote it, I can't PM him/her, so I'll include my reply in the author's note. Dear anonymous guest: firstly, thank you for your encouragement – while I welcome constructive criticism, compliments are always nice to hear ;) Especially thank you for pointing out what you liked - now I know what I did well, and will try to keep up the good work. Finally, my goal, as well, is to keep this story from becoming a cliche – make sure to tell me if you ever notice me straying towards the dark side!