Scorpius looked at himself in the mirror. He looked like crap. The bags under his eyes screamed exhaustion.

He had tossed and turned all night the sorting hats words reverberating around in his head. Maybe your more like them than you think. He had not registered the snide comment at the time but when he got back to his common room he remembered and that had been the end of any hope of getting a good night sleep.

What did it mean? Scorpius was nothing like them! Though maybe, it was just a reference to the fact he was in Slytherin Scorpius reasoned. That must be it.

The other thing that was nagging at the back of his mind was that Rose and Albus were Gryffindors! They had seemed so nice, he wished they had been in Slytherin too but they're Weasleys of course they were Gryffindors. I should have known from the beginning.

Scorpius turned from the mirror and climbed the stairs down to the common room which he passed quickly not wishing to speak to anyone, not that he knew anyone in this house anyway. He only knew Gryffindors. That's gonna be real helpful Scorpius, well done.

Scorpius got lost no less than three times on his way to the Great Hall but after half an hour he finally found himself in the entrance hall. He was about to go through the huge doors to the Great Hall when a voice behind him called his name. He spun around to see two familiar faces climbing down the stairs. Rose Weasley was tying her hair up in a pony tail as he watched, holding bobby pins in her teeth. Albus Potter grinned happily at Scorpius looking exactly like his father and grandfather. I should take a photo and send it to Grandfather so he can throw darts at it.

Just as the three first years were greeting each other two third year boys and a girl came sprinting down the stairs and into the great hall. Scorpius recognised them from the train. They were James Potter and the Weasley twins, Fred and Roxanne. The ones that hate me, He thought bitterly.

"Ahahaha I don't even want to know what they're up to" Albus laughed.

"Nor much do I" Rose smiled knowingly "that's our cousins, Roxanne, Fred and James, Al's brother. I guess you worked that out".

"Yeh, the looks give it away mostly, red hair and all, there must be a lot of you Weasleys around now, how many of you are the exactly . . . . .?" Scorpius asked uncertainly.

"Oh god ok well there's Victoire, Louis and Dominique, they're Aunt Fleur and Uncle Bill's kids" Rose began counting on her fingers.

"Then there's Lucy and Molly, they're Uncle Percy and Aunt Audrey's girls, they're a right pain in the – "Albus continued but was cut off by Rose.

"Yes that's enough Albus, then there's Fred and Roxanne who you've just seen, Aunt Angelina and Uncle George's twins" Rose continued still counting on her fingers.

"Then there's me and James and our sister Lilly and Rose and her brother, so how many is that Rose?" Albus said looking expectantly at Rose.

"Only 12" Rose said with a shrug. "But there's also Teddy who is as good as family, he's our dad's godson, he used to live with us sometimes".

"only 12, man you guys are so lucky, I have no brothers or sisters and my father has no sibling and my mother has a sister who has a daughter who is such a prat she's about twenty and we never see her anyway" Scorpius said sadly.

"Can we eat now, in starving" Albus whined reminding Scorpius that they had been stood outside the Great Hall for over ten minutes now. The time had flown by. He liked having friends.

Albus led the way into the great hall and all the happiness he had collected from his meeting with Rose and Albus disappeared. I have to go sit at the Slytherin table, all alone.

Rose who seemed to be following Scorpius' train of thought said irritably "these house tables are a bit stupid do they want us to hate each other".

"You sound like your mother" moaned Albus.

"Oh shut up she was a very good witch if you haven't noticed so I don't see that there should be a problem with sounding like her" snapped Rose.

"Your mums Hermione Granger, right?" asked Scorpius delicately, there was a lot of enmity between his father and her parents, he needed to make it clear what his family thought if this friendship was to continue "my father isn't the biggest fan of your mum well any of your parents really.

To Scorpius' immense surprise both burst into laughter at this comment. "You should hear my dad, gasped Rose between giggles, I can't wait to see his face when I tell him we made friends with a Malfoy!" both Albus and Rose were nearly crying with laughter at that, Scorpius merely looked amused.

It was at that moment that Scorpius thought it might be ok, if Rose and Albus could joke about their families hearing about this then surely his parents would be ok with it too but then again their family was the Weasleys, they were accepting, blood traitors yes but still an alright family especially from what he had read about the wizarding wars. His family was the Malfoy's, the polar opposites. Where the Weasleys were red headed and generally freckly, the Malfoy's were pale and blonde. Where the Weasleys were blood traitors, the Malfoy's were pureblood and proud, though being pureblood did not demand the respect it once had, or so his grandfather Malfoy was always saying. Where the Weasleys were open supporters of Dumbledore and The Order of the Phoenix, his family were once well known death eaters. But I'm not my family I'm me.

Scorpius at that moment vowed not be known as a Malfoy but just as Scorpius, his own person. At that moment he didn't care what the world thought if his family, because he did not think highly of them either, he only cared what people thought of him and a true Malfoy he was not.