A/N- Hello, here is chapter 4! This is entirely written by the AMAZING 33Lebasi33 I hope you enjoy

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Of course the huddle of girls nearby was discussing the Triwizard Tournament. It was all anybody seemed to discuss these days: who was going to enter, who the champions would be, whether any notably hot boys would be coming with the delegations. Even the elderly Madam Pince seemed unable to stop it, so Scorpius could hear them producing the usual chatter as he sat down at his usual table in the library, throwing his Hufflepuff scarf over the chair and hefting his bag of fresh homework onto the table; now that he was a fifth year he had, for the duration of the day, been unable to tell the difference between the weight of his overflowing schoolbag and the weight of a sack of bricks. In fact it seemed that everyone in his year could do little more than wish they were old enough to enter themselves, not least because they'd be exempt from exams and, by extension, from at least some of the pressure from each new wave of work.

Scorpius doubted he'd be picked even if he could enter though. Leastways, if he did it would cause a minor scandal. Or maybe a more-than-minor one. He wouldn't be surprised if protesting mobs formed against the Malfoy heir being the Hogwarts champion. In any case, out of the people in his year someone like Rose Weasley would be much more appropriate. She had all of her mother's brains – heck, she must've had them, they'd got her into Ravenclaw – which could only be a good thing and besides, she seemed plucky and strong enough to cope with it (well, she was a Weasley for heaven's sake). Not to mention kind, pretty... oh, shut upScorpius quickly berated himself, likethat would help get her in. But then, Rose Weasley was in his year, and like him only fifteen so there was no way she'd even be able to enter. He wouldn't be surprised if one of her cousins became champion though – she had enough of them. And they all seemed like eligible candidates.

The Tournament would be perfect for his own cousin he was sure – well, technically they were second cousins but Teddy had always said genealogy was boring and just referred to them as cousins. Teddy seemed like just the kind of person who would be a good champion, but he was a teacher as of this year, so he was the wrong age too. Scorpius was sure he'd be a good teacher though; it wouldn't be hard for him to become Scorpius' favourite. Even better, he was a metamorphmagus, which was just downright cool.

Whatever happened, Scorpius didn't doubt Hogwarts would produce a decent champion, no doubt from the swathes of Weasleys, Potters, various other war heroes' children and popular people, that kind of person. If not one of the obvious choices, then definitely someone good.

Sighing at the daunting spread on the table, Scorpius turned to rife through the papers spilled out of his bag. Another two foot essay and it was only the first week of term. Brilliant. Ah well. He'd better get it done or there was no way he'd come out of the year with satisfactory O.W.L.s.

"You're Scorpius Malfoy,"

"Wh-," Scorpius looked up suddenly to find an even-featured young boy whom he vaguely recognised from his family's dinner parties and that year's sorting sitting at his table, apparently not with any thoughts towards doing any work himself. Well if he's first year and my family know him, it would explain why he's not avoiding me like the plague, Scorpius reasoned. A significant proportion of the student body that knew his name or saw his family in his face seemed to want to do just that. But of course other people would want to because he was a Hufflepuff, and hadn't upheld the tradition of his family.

"Yes, I am,"Scorpius thought the boy was his father's friend Blaise's son Dwayne, a Slytherin, just like most of the properMalfoys.

"You know my brother," he continued, unfazed by the older boy's hesitation.

"So do you,"Scorpius' acquaintance with the seventh-year Kurtis Zabini was, at best, a minor annoyance.

"He says you're a blood traitor," matter-of-fact, but not accusatory.

Well, wasn't that a surprise? "Why, because I'm a Hufflepuff?"

"Oh no," Dwayne shook his head "he says you're a Hufflepuff becauseyou're a blood traitor, and your house just shows the truth,"

Scorpius had doubts about whether this conversation was actually going to go anywhere, and turned hopefully back to his essay.

"Why are you a Hufflepuff?" the voice piped up again.

"Uh. Because I'm patient, true and unafraid of toil," he remembered the first time he had heard that description of Hufflepuff, when he had been five years old or thereabouts and his father had been mocking the house. Since he had been sorted there hadn't been any more mocking but the awkward hiccups in conversation when Scorpius knew that what would have been said if he had been put in Slytherin would have been significantly different still hadn't gone away.

"So not because you're a blood traitor, then?"

He looked back up from the sparsely-written-on page. Presumably Dwayne had taken him seriously"Erm, I guess not, no,"

"Are you a blood traitor?"

His chances of finishing the full two feet before he went to bed that evening seemed to be wearing thinner. And what was he supposed to say to that anyway?

"I don't know,"he tried, wondering why. Normally he would've given a much simpler answer, probably just a 'no' to avoid getting into a discussion. But then normally he wouldn't be having this conversation, so he couldn't know what he'd normally say. Maybe he really would always say that. But then ideally he would've just given a 'no'. A lie, he supposed. Presumably being stupidly honest just came of being in the most non-Malfoy house in the school. Oh shut up about your house. It's not even like everyone in the school avoids you like the plague – the words sounded stupid now he repeated them. Hufflepuff was a good house anyway. Teddy had been in it. And at least one or two Weasleys. Surely, surely it didn't matter that his parents had their shabbily-disguised disappointment in it–

"How can you not know?" Zabini was talking to him again "My brother reckons he knows whether everyone'sa blood traitor, or -"

Scorpius didn't doubt that at all. "So do you think I'm a blood traitor?"

That earned him a funny look "I don't know. Why did you think I was asking you? I just know that I'm not,"

This was getting increasingly pointless; in a minute Scorpius would have to get on with his homework whether the other boy stuck around or not. "And if I'm not, that would mean...?"

"I don't know, I was only asking. It's just, my brother doesn't like blood traitors, but you are a Malfoy so..."

A pause. If the older Zabini had been talking that would have been worded a shade differently and Scorpius would have been sure it was a thinly veiled threat, but he wasn't at all sure about the younger brother.

"Right," said brother piped up again "Well it was nice meeting you Scorpius. If you ever do work it out..."

"Well. Er, thanks..." the boy was leaving before Scorpius had finished speaking, leaving him in much-needed but unwelcome peace with the pile of work.

He did, somehow, manage to finish the essay and make a start on a second one that evening (comes of being a Hufflepuff, he couldn't help but think again), but not before hearing dozens of people passing and declaring that they (or, sometimes, their current romantic interest) was bound to be chosen as Hogwarts champion. By the time he left for bed, he had acquired knowledge of who at least thirty people would be asking to the Yule Ball, a headache starting behind his eyes, and a bag that felt even fuller and heavier than it had done before.

It was only as he was leaving that a flurry of Ravenclaws burst into the library, Rose Weasley among them exchanging a careless 'hi' with him, before running to tear the books she needed off the shelves, her hair pulled back in a messy, bushy ponytail and her eyes frantic. As Scorpius walked back away towards his common room, her friends' proceeded to laugh and then tried to help her, while she shouted something barely intelligible about 'stupid homework', all of their voices carrying back towards him through the corridor.

A/N- Hello, it's me again That is the end of chapter 4; I hope you liked it. All credit to 33Lebasi33. Anyway, I will leave you in peace now Till next chapter!

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