A/N: In case it wasn't too clear, this fic isn't going to be a small 10-chapter. It'll probably end up being around 25 or maybe even 30 (although don't hold me to this and it can be hard to accurately predict)

With the departure of Scorpius Malfoy from the Great Hall, Rose turned back to her own letter. Pushing away the mental image of pure dread on the face of the blond, she instead hastily ripped open her own letter. As she had predicted, it was a letter from her mum, each word carefully written on the parchment in the recognizable elegant calligraphy in blue ink.

My Dear Rose,

What you have described to me of your year so far at Hogwarts sounds phenomenal! Your father and I are so pleased that you have already made some close friends. Who knows? Maybe a mountain troll will escape the dungeons and make you even closer still!
Hugo had become sulky since you left. He says he is fine and completely not jealous about you being at wizarding school, although he has recently been suspiciously researching on potion recipes for quick aging. Even though it might not seem like it to either you or him at the moment, there'll come a time where you may wish you could age backwards. Despite the doubtfulness of Hugo even finding magical ingredients, I've tasked your father with keeping and eye on him; the last thing your brother needs is to be shipped off to St. Mungo's due to ingesting a toxic, failed potion.
I'm afraid there's not much else happening around at home. Reading your past letters had awakened a nostalgia in me for the carefree days of being only a student at Hogwarts, and I find myself wishing I could be your age once more and do it all a second time over.
By the way, to whom did that beautiful eagle owl you sent belong to? Hogwarts owls are marked by a little ring around the left leg, and I didn't see one on him! He flew off as soon as I received the letter, so I'll have to use Faron. Still, I'm sure he'll be happy to see you!

Watch out for trolls!
Mother

Nick was chuckling at his own letter. Having been sent by his younger brother, a muggle, the words were written by a pencil, not a quill, on paper instead of parchment.

"What's so funny?" Katie inquired curiously, looking up at her friend.

"When we were shopping in Diagon Alley for school supplies," the Ravenclaw explained, "one of my brother convinced our mother to let him buy some merchandise at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes."

Rose clapped a hand to her mouth. "No!"

"Yeah," Nick ascertained, eyes rapidly scanning the letter, "He's just telling me about all the hell he's unleashed at home- replacing the table salt with firecracker powder, placing a big bowl of ton-taffees on the coffee table and watching everyone help themselves...the best part is that when Dad finally explodes and comes after him, he just throws instant-darkness powder and runs out the door."

The three couldn't help but laugh at the turmoil that was surely being released at Nick's house. "What happens when he gets back?" Katie asked through giggles.

"Oh, he gets grounded. But apparently, he just slips some flip-truth ointment on Dad's toothbrush so he'll forget about any punishments incurred over the last couple of hours! I swear that kid is a genius."

"Hey, we better get going to potions in a minute," Katie warned, suppressing her laughter.

"Yeah, okay," Rose replied, absently gathering her books she had brought down for breakfast. "Nick, how many brothers did you say you had again?"

"Five total," he prompted, "all younger than me. So it's a guessing game if any of them have magical abilities like me."

Katie stood up, still looking a bit groggy with sleep but largely improved than when she first came in. "I've got three older brothers and an older sister, so we're kinda on opposite ends of the scale. C'mon, Rose, I don't want to be late. Enjoy Herbology, Nick!"

The two friends dashed into the classroom just as Professor Horton was closing the door. "Ah, Miss McMoore, Miss Weasely. Please take a seat. I was just telling the class what we will be brewing today."

Hurriedly, they took a seat at the only remaining pair of desks towards the front, noticing the pewter cauldron between the two. As they settled, the Professor continued: "Now, where was I? Oh yes. Today you will be trying your hand at a relatively simple potion, but a bit hazardous, nonetheless. Forgetfulness potions work best when the brewer is intending for the victim only to forget what has happened in the last two hours. More skilled alchemists learn, over time, how to strengthen the potency for removed memory for a more extended period of time, but for now we'll simply start with the basics. Before we begin, can anyone tell me why someone may choose to use a forgetful potion rather than a memory charm?"

Horton's eyes scanned the classroom, and Rose could have sworn he lingered on her. "Nobody? Come now, take a guess."

A black-haired girl in the front right corner of the room tentatively raised her hand, the green Slytherin emblem evident on her robes. "Could it be because memory charms are illegal without proper ministry permission, sir?"

"That is partially true," he agreed. "However, forgetfulness potions are equally illegal, so don't go trying it out. You are only learning it because as one of the easier potions to understand, it's not as hard for first-years such as yourself to grasp the idea of brewing. Yes, Mr. Malfoy?"

"Sir, even though memory charms can seem more appealing, in truth, forgetfulness potions are better suited for more articulated plans." Half the class twisted in their seats to view the speaker. In the rear left corner of the room sat Scorpius, sitting next to a disgruntled Slytherin girl. The boy appeared nervous at the attention, but continued to speak, keeping his silver eyes on the Professor. "Forgetfulness potions are much easier to correctly learn and are much more reliable. Memory charms, on the other hand, are extremely difficult to get right without lots of practice, and as the only way to practice must include some test subject, it takes a dangerous amount of time for someone to illegally become skilled. On the flip side, anyone even semi-practiced in the art of potions can brew a forgetfulness draught with still a decent chance of success in having the victim forget particular events. Not to mention the fact that slipping someone a potion is much easier than performing a charm on them unawares."

Professor Horton looked surprised at the sudden flow of information from his student. "Er, quite right. Yes." He cleared his throat noisily, then clapped his hands together and forced a broad smile. "Now, everyone, the instructions for this brew can be found on page 34 of your text books, and all the needed ingredients can be found on the shelf, properly labeled..."

Katie designated herself for the job of heating up the cauldron to the approximate temperature, so that left Rose to retrieve the necessary ingredients. Half the class had the same idea, creating a crowd at the back of the classroom. Trying to read the faded labels on the numerous different jars in the early morning light, she delicately pushed her way to the front to begin scooping out a tablespoon of spider eyes.

Out of the corner of her eyes, Rose couldn't help but recognize the pale blond hair of Scorpius as he tried to round up his own ingredients. As he reached for a jar of powdered skullcap, a boy with a mop of brown hair snapped at him and snatched the ingredient first. Malfoy, now looking uneasy, dropped to the back of the crowd to wait until it thinned out.

Rose hurried back to her own desk with an armful of ingredients. Katie had already heated the cauldron and was setting up the mortar and pestle needed for grinding the worms. Eagerly the two set to the task, mashing the spider eyes to a fine paste, to which they sprinkled exactly half a teaspoon of the ground worm.

Half-way through the brewing, the red-head heard the faint sounds of a whispered-argument, and turned behind her to see Albus fiercely muttering with his Slytherin partner. To Rose's amusement, she noticed that their potion, which was suppose to be clear at this point, was a dark gray sludge giving off purple steam. Her cousin seemed to be scolding his partner, who, to Albus's annoyance, was ignoring him.

Just over their shoulders she could see Malfoy in the back corner. It may have been her imagination, but the blond appeared to be doing most of the work, with his partner watching on with a frown. Every now and then she made to speak, but was quickly cut off by an irritated comment from him. Rose was too far away to hear what he said over the bubbling of twelve cauldrons, but judging by the scowl of his partner, it couldn't have been very pleasing.

Katie's voice snapped her back to the attention of her own project. "I need you to stir this: go twice clockwise, then thrice counter clockwise, three times each in that order. On your second stir I'm suppose to add the ground skullcap."

By the sixth stir, the liquid changed from clear to a pale blue. "There!" Rose exclaimed triumphantly, "It's suppose to be blue, isn't it?"

"Yes and no," replied her friend, frowning at the book. "It's suppose to be a dark blue, not this light or pale, I think, and smell like lilacs. Still, not much we can do now unless we start over, and frankly I don't think we have time for that."

Rose squinted at the potion, which smelled more like lavender than lilacs. "Can't we, I don't know...add something? Stir it more?"

"That'll probably make it worse. I'd rather get an acceptable grade on it than fiddle with it more and possibly blow up the classroom."

A few minutes later, Horton was striding between the isles, peering into each pair's cauldron and giving advice to the students based on their final product. Most potions he rated as merely acceptable. It seemed to Rose that the old Professor could tell exactly what went wrong with a brew just by looking at its consistency and color- then again, he had been teaching at Hogwarts for nearly a decade, and who knew how long he had been a potioneer before that.

After wrinkling his nose at the pungent sulfur fumes coming from the dark yellow blob at the bottom of Albus and his partner's caldron, he moved onwards to Katie and Rose's. "Ah, nicely done, girls," he congratulated. "You were pretty close. I believe you messed up in the motions of stirring by turning it counter-clockwise first instead of clockwise."

Rose shot her friend a guilty look as Horton moved on. "Oops," she whispered, "My fault, I think. I was in charge of the stirring, and come to think of it, I'm pretty sure you did say clockwise first-"

"Ah, what have we here? A perfect brew?"

Heads turned once more to the rear corner of the classroom. The Professor stood over Malfoy's cauldron, taking a deep whiff. "Smells like liliacs," he commented aloud. Even from her seat, Rose could see the color of the potion: a deep, midnight blue. Scorpius ducked his head slightly as if he were not accustomed to such attention. His partner, however, had her chin raised high and a smirk upon her lips.

Horton glanced between the two. "Which of you had the idea to add the extra two silkworms?" he asked curiously. "It wasn't on the instructions. If you had not added it, it would still have been a dark blue, but not this dark. I thought it a trick known only to skilled potioneers?"

Scorpius looked like he was about to speak, but the Slytherin girl puffed out her chest, turning to look the Professor straight in the eye with a proud glint. "Oh, that was me, sir. I did most of the work with the ingredients, while he just managed the cauldron."

"That's not true!" her partner hissed, whipping his head around to glare at her. "You barely did anything, only offering useless tips that would mess up the process. If I had done anything you suggested, it would have been a disaster!"

The girl jutted out her chin. "Excuse me? My father is Marcus Flint, one of the most accomplished potioneers in England! I'm pretty sure I'd know what I'm talking about. Isn't it suspicious, Professor," she tittered, "that while I'm the daughter of a successful potion master, he somehow comes up with the idea of adding extra ingredients and taking the credit for it?"

Rose frowned at the Slytherin's words. From what she's heard of Malfoys in the past, she didn't think it'd be beyond him to take credit he didn't earn. On the other hand, the girl was a Slytherin, and she had seen Malfoy doing most of the work when she had glanced back during the session. Rose didn't want to get mixed up in the argument, but she couldn't just keep silent from what she had observed. "Professor," she said hesitantly, calling on the attention of the class, "I know it's not really my place...but earlier, I was looking around the classroom to see how the others were progressing and couldn't help but notice that it did seem like Malfoy was doing most of the work."

"Hmmm, is that so?" Horton frowned, looking torn. "Well, here's my decision. I can't be sure who really should take the credit, since both offered cases are plausible. However, whichever of you two it was, the potion is outstanding, so you will both receive an O on it. In the future, I think it may be best not to pair you two together to avoid such possible deception in the future. Class, you are dismissed."

Katie and Rose quickly gathered their things, the latter trying to ignore how a certain blond boy was staring at her in disbelief from across the room. Before the two could leave, however, Horton pulled the Weasely aside for a brief moment. "Rose, while I appreciated your input on the earlier matter of who earned the credit, I'd advice you to keep your eyes on your own cauldron during class. I trust your motives were innocent, but still, best to avoid temptation."

With an earnest promise to keep to herself in class in the future, Rose slipped out the door and out into the hallway with her friend. Potions class usually lasted about an hour and a half, so they had approximately fifteen minutes to head for Herbology at the greenhouses. Albus ran up to catch up with them, boiling in anger.

"I can't believe we have potions with Slytherin!" he fumed. "It couldn't have been Transfiguration or charms. Nope, it had to be the one class where I had to actually rely on someone else's skill. Did you see that idiot I got paired with, Doran Clofthaggen? I swear, he's got a brick for a brain. I told him three times to gently mash the spider eyes, not pulverize them! Later on he didn't cut the lacewings thin enough, said it'd work better in chunks. That is the last time I get paired with the likes of him!"

"Cheer up, at least you didn't melt the bottom of your caldron," Katie pointed out. "Drew Fortaign did, and got a T for it."

As they passed out the Great Doors and continued on the outside path way to the green houses, they passed Nick and his fellow Ravenclaws. Rose wrinkled her nose; his robes had been splattered with vibrant green glop. "What happened to you?"

He shook his head miserably. "You'll be feeding klingorger plants today. Whatever you do, don't make the chunks too big, or you'll end up like me."

Nick left for his dorm and a change of robes, and the three friends carried on. "Klingorger..." Albus repeated absently. "Isn't that the one that only eats fresh bone-in goat, then later spits back up the liquified bone marrow at predators?"

"Probably," Rose replied weakly, not excited at the prospect of feeding giant carnivorous plants. Sometimes I seriously wonder about the sanity of this school and what they choose to teach kids.

The weak light of late October filtered through the clear windows of the Great Hall one late autumn evening, the thousands of candles floating above the tables brightening the dim room. Below, students were casually chatting among themselves as they enjoyed their dinner, sharing tales of the day and swapping gossip. On the far end of the Gryffindor table, under the scarlet and gold banner, four friends were happily talking away the time.

"I'm not sure I understand," Albus was sighing, his chin propped on one arm. It had been a long week, with two quizzes and more challenging projects. "How does James being at Hogsmeade make him guilty?"

"It's not that he's at Hogsmeade," his red-headed cousin countered, "it's that he's there so late. He should have been back by now with the others. Don't you find that even a little bit suspicious?"

Albus shrugged carelessly. "He's James. I'm sure he's fine."

"I don't think that's what Rose is worried about," Katie cut in. "Your brother can handle himself. The problem is that it's past curfew for those who went to Hogsmeade. Someone's bound to notice sooner or later that he went and hasn't returned even after the grounds closed."

"Wait, so you're saying he can't get back in? He might be stuck in town?"

"Well yeah. I'm pretty sure that's what 'curfew' means, drinklesnot."

Rose raised an eyebrow at Katie's newest insult. The girl seemed to have no shortage of unpleasant names made up on the spot. So far, her favorites had been corkplumgrunt, potato peel, krincho, and dodobrain, although the most memorable remained to be the time Katie said Nick's singing voice was "akin to a half-dead toad trapped under a hot rock". Rose didn't understand what half of the insults meant, but they were certainly fun to hear.

"He's probably fine," Rose tried to assure the now-worried Albus, "probably roaming the grounds or up in his dorm." She tried to hide the doubt in her words; the gates had closed an hour ago, and James was rarely late to a chance to stuff his face.

At that moment, the man himself walked into the Great Hall, a nonchalant look on his face. Nobody seemed to pay him much heed.

"Oi!" Albus called as his brother walked past, "Where've you been? The Hogsmeade visit was over an hour ago!"

James gave an off-hand wave to his younger brother. "Hey Al," he muttered distractedly, heading to sit with his own friends further down the table. Upon noticing his appearance, Joesph Finnigan (whom was often James's partner-in-crime) immediately ducked his head low. The two proceeded to have an urgent whisper conversation.

"Git," Albus muttered under his breath. "Here I was, worried out of my mind for hours, and all he says is 'hey'."

Katie snorted into her lemonade, "Worried for hours? Steady on there, you didn't even notice him missing until five minutes ago!"

As they fell into an intense argument over the level of concern shown by the younger Potter, Nick tapped Rose on the shoulder from where he sat on her left. "Look," he murmured, nodding his head towards the hall entrance.

Obediently, Rose raised her eyes to the heavy oak doors that stood ajar, catching a flash of pale blond hair. As she watched, she saw Scorpius Malfoy hesitate at the entrance, then stride pass the Gryffindor table to the other end of the hall. Looking nervous and hopeful, he approached the table under the silver and green where a crowd of first-year Slytherins sat chatting among themselves over dinner. Upon noticing his presence, one of the students called the others' attention to him, muttering something among themselves.

Looking eager, Malfoy made as if to sit down and join them at the table, but stopped short as the one of the Slytherins began jeering at him. Soon the others joined in, causing heads to turn, and the blond's face seemed to drain of color. Turning on heel, Scorpius marched back to the Gryffindor table, head held high; but his hands betrayed his anger and embarrassment, clenched tight in fists.

"What was that about?" Rose frowned, feeling bewildered by the scene she had witnessed.

Nick blinked at her as if she had missed something obvious. "Think about it. He comes from a pure-blood, all-Slytherin family, and as you pointed out awhile back, he probably expected to be sorted into it too. Instead, he got plopped into pretty much the exact opposite house. I doubt the Malfoys have many family friends in Gryffindor, so he can't rely on any form of connections that way to make acquaintances. Naturally, he tries to fit in where he thinks he would best; in his case, it's among Slytherin friends."

The Weasely frowned. "So?"

"So?" the Ravenclaw rolled his eyes. "Don't you get it? Any of the kids he might have known from childhood are in Slytherin. But that entire house is rejecting him; they think he must be some sort of traitor to his family's name. That little scene that just happened wasn't the first time, either- he's always trying to hang out with them, only to be turned down. That's why he doesn't have any friends. He's an outsider in Gryffindor, the house he was put in, but has been denounced among where he thinks he belongs."

"Oh." In truth, Rose hadn't thought much about the Malfoy boy. From the few rude encounters she had, she had him pegged as nothing more than a snide jerk. She'd never stop to think much on his predicament.

Nick had turned away from her, frowning down the table to where Scorpius currently sat with a bowed head, fiddling with his butter knife. "I'm gonna go talk to him," he blurted out suddenly. Without saying another word, he slid down the bench to sit across from the lonely boy. At first, the blond appeared to snap at Nick's cheery greeting, but as Rose watched, his pale face gradually softened from a scowl to a more neutral expression.

Katie and Albus, who seemed to finally come to an agreement in their debate of fraternal love, turned back to Rose. "Where'd Nick go?"

Before the red-head could respond, a familiar figure with tousled black hair sidled up to Albus. "Hey little brother."

"James! Where were you earlier? Why weren't you back before curfew?"

The oldest Potter waived the questions with careless answers. "Was doing stuff. Had to stay a bit later than usual to do some research and buy a few things."

Katie looked doubtful, shooting James a pointed look. "What sort of stuff?"

"None of your business."

"Wait a minute," Rose cut in, sniffing. After growing up with plenty of visits to her Uncle's shop, she knew that scent anywhere. "Is that...Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder I smell? James, what are you planning?"

"Fine, fine," he admitted (although his tone suggested to Rose that he was planning to tell them all along). "Joe and I have been planning something for Halloween night. We've been planning it for months now, although the idea has been in our minds since the start of the school year."

"Like, 'get-me-suspended' kind of plan, or 'get-six-howlers-in-one-day-each-from-one-of-my-Weasely-relations'?"

"Not fair, Al," James scowled at his younger brother, who was unsuccessfully trying to portray an innocent look. "That only happened once. It's not my fault if Samuel Lorcanster tried to steal my Stormchaser 500 and I reacted justly."

"James, you set his bed on fire. With him in it."

"Details, details- he had it coming!" The older Gryffindor shook his head, a smile twitching his lips. He looked around the table cautiously, and seeing nobody in immediate proximity, leaned in closer to the three. "Listen. On Halloween night, while everyone up here is enjoying the sugarfest of a feast, we're going down to the sealed second-floor of the dungeon; we're gonna find out what the hell's down there."

And that's a wrap for chapter 3!
Most authors think that the only appropriate time for time jumps is between chapters, but I personally felt it was time to skip a bit and fast-forward a few months. Just so everyone knows, this fic will not follow each of Scorose's years of school in a slow manner. There'll probably be about three more chapters for year one, then we'll do a major time skip to third year, and then later sixth year. I just feel it important to show the initial building of friendship between the two, unlike in many fics where two chapters it it's [boom huge time skip to 7th year and look, they're suddenly best friends with little backstory on how they got there]!

The next chapter will be the first (and not the last) from Scorpius's perspective! It'll recap on what's been happening to him since the sorting.
Also, I won't always be updating this quickly (practically daily). I'm currently having a huge influx of writing inspiration, so updating may be sporadic, anywhere from five to twice a week.

Hope you enjoyed this update- please leave a review! They always motivate me to write.