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Chapter Four; Blessings

Scorpius got on the train later than most students, and discovered fairly quickly that this had been a mistake. Nearly every compartment was full.

He had reached the last few compartments when he finally found one that only contained a few students.

"Hi, mind if I join you?" the words sounded foreign in his mouth after being uttered so many times already.

A boy had risen when he'd opened the door. He was a few inches taller than Scorpius, and his skin was many shades darker. His hair fell around his face in slick black curls.

"Yeah, sure," the darker boy murmured, smiling easy and taking a step back to allow him in. His eyes were a peculiar shade of green, and his nose was a little to broad. His upper lip was thinner than his lower lip. Overall, though, the boy could be described as pretty. Scorpius nearly made this comment out loud, but opted instead to offer his hand to the boy.

"Thanks. I'm Scorpius."

"Nice to mee'chu. I'm Salaam," the boy replied, shaking his hand quickly, then returning to his seat. Now Scorpius could see the entire compartment, and he found himself studying its other occupants.

Next to Salaam sat a petite girl in a red jumper, her chocolate hair pinned into a tight little ponytail. She was dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief, but tried to smile at Scorpius anyway when he caught her eye.

"I-I'm Olivia. Olivia M-McLaggen," she introduced. Scorpius nodded politely to her then turned to see who was sitting on the other side.

"Hi, Scorpius!" a girl with dark red hair, also wearing her Hogwarts robes, beamed at him from beside the window. Scorpius found himself grinning, glad to see someone he recognized and liked. (He'd seen Vinny Goyle at an earlier compartment and was glad to find it full.)

"Oh, hi, Rose!"

"You do know him?" the boy sitting next to Rose murmured a little too loudly. Salaam snorted at this. Rose ignored the boy beside her and continued to grin broadly at Scorpius as he pushed his trunk up over their heads. The boy next to her eyed the trunk nervously.

Scorpius stood for a moment, glancing at the compartment in full. On the one side, there was weepy Olive, and friendly Salaam, on the other there was awesome Rose, and boy-who-clearly-disapproved-of-Scorpius-and-was-yet-to-be-named. After a moment of hesitation, Scorpius sat down beside Salaam.

Which meant that now, he was facing that boy next to Rose. After a moment of studying one another, the boy decided to introduce himself. "I'm Albus."

"Like Albus Dumbledore?" Salaam asked, clearly trying desperately not to smirk.

"Yeah."

Salaam looked like he was going to say something unpleasant, so Scorpius quickly chimed in before he could. "Cool. I've got a frog card of him."

"Me too, I've got dozens," sniffed the girl called Olivia McLaggen.

Scorpius leaned across Salaam to get a better look at her, tilting his head. "Why're you crying?" he asked.

The girl sniffed again, and the others silently glanced from her to him and back again. They were trying to see if they could detect any malice in Scorpius' words, and wondered if Olivia would.

"I—I won't see my mum t—till Christmas," the girl admitted, finally, lower lip trembling.

"You could write her?" Rose suggested brightly.

"M—my sister said you c—can't send owls from Hogwarts, or people would kn—know where it was."

"That's not true," the Albus Dumbledore II corrected. "My brother got mail three times a week last year." Rose snickered at this.

"O—oh." Olivia smiled into her handkerchief and seemed a bit less teary after that.

The compartment was silent for a moment, before there was a hoot.

Salaam glanced around at the others and asked, with great interest, "D'you have an owl?"

Albus and Rose nodded along with Scorpius. Olivia didn't respond, folding up her handkerchief into a neat little square.

Before Salaam could add anything, Rose turned suddenly to Scorpius and asked, eyes wide, "Did you get Loki?"

Scorpius nodded, grinning. "Yeah! Wanna see him?"

Rose and Salaam said 'Yes' the same moment Olivia said 'No.' Everyone turned to look at her.

"I—I'm scared of owls," she confessed, head dropping down. She looked very close to tears again.

"How d'you receive you mail, then?" Salaam asked, raising an eyebrow. He was smiling a little, but it didn't seem to Scorpius like a happy smile.

"She has her mum get it for her, obviously," Rose said, casting a dirty look at Salaam. Olivia sniffed across from her, and Rose took her hand.

"Whatever," Salaam muttered, then turned to Scorpius and Albus. "So, what house d'you guys think you'll be in?"

Albus suddenly became determined to estimate the exact thread-count of the carpet. "Dunno," he muttered, "Hopefully not Slytherin."

"Why not?" Scorpius asked, eyebrows raised, "My dad was in Slytherin. Mum was in Ravenclaw, though."

"My pap was Slytherin, too," Salaam announced defensively. Then, as an afterthought, he added, "Mam was in Gryffindor, though."

"My sister said Slytherins and G-gryffindors weren't allowed to get m-married," Olivia said quietly, eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"Some sister you have," scoffed Salaam.

"My brother said Slytherins were evil," Albus noted quietly, and with a queer sort of detatchment.

"Oh, your brothers always lying," Rose said, rolling her eyes.

"Not always!" Albus protested, looking up from the carpet with a sullen pout.

Scorpius glanced from Albus to Rose. He didn't see much of a resemblance. Albus had a thin face, very dark brown hair, and bright green eyes. Rose had a long face, too, he supposed, but not as long, and blue eyes. They both had freckles, though.

"Are you two related?" he asked.

Rose nodded. "Cousins." That made sense, they didn't look enough alike to be brother and sister.

"I thought so," muttered Salaam, though Scorpius doubted very much that this was true.

"I'm going to be in Gryffindor," Olivia announced suddenly from the corner.

"Why's that?" Salaam asked, eyebrow raised again.

"Because I'm brave, obviously," she sniffed.

Scorpius snorted unintentionally and Olivia whipped around in his direction, wide-eyes daring him to explain himself.

"Bless you!" Rose hastily called.

Albus coughed into the crook of his elbow in a way that sounded suspiciously like a snicker.

"Ah, bless you," Salaam echoed with a smirk.

Realizing that he was being covered for, and glad to take the opportunity, Scorpius murmured, "Thanks," then glanced over at Olivia, who looked suspicious. "Have any other handkerchiefs?" he asked pleasantly.

She shook her head, looking a little more at ease.

"I wouldn't mind being in Ravenclaw," Salaam drawled into the silence, "Neither of my parents went there, but I think it'd be great to be able to go through life being labeled 'smarter than three out of four people,' yeah?"

"Either that or three out of four people are braver, kinder, and more ambitious than you," Scorpius said, trying to keep a straight face. Where he succeeded Rose failed, and Albus 'coughed' into his elbow again.

Salaam's dark curls bounced as his head whipped around and he glared at freckled boy. "Coming down with something?" he asked with something that sounded very little like concern.

Scorpius smirked. "Well, I am, that's for sure. Can't stop sneezing." He did a very unconvincing fake sneeze for emphasis.

Rose giggled again, and Olivia took out a tin of Fruit Newts. Salaam stopped glaring at Albus and glanced over at the tin.

"We sharing?" he asked, and pulled out a bag of Bertie Bott's. "I can trade, if you'd like."

"That's alright," Olivia said, wrinkling her nose, "I always get pavement flavoured."

"No way, me too!" Scorpius lied with exaggerated shock. Olivia positively beamed at him, not noticing Rose snicker acorss from her. Then, he turned to Salaam, and added somberly, "I rather like pavement, though. Could I have one?"

Salaam held out the bag to him, a smirk playing across his lips.

-X-

Note: I know, I know, short and overdue. I'm horrible. I just... gah, train-rides are always hard for me, so I wanted to get it right. Next chapter will be a bit on the train, then on to sorting and all. Honestly, though, the next chapter will actually tuly for realsies be up soon. I'm reallyreally sorry it's taken forever, hope you forgive me and enjoy the chapter! Thanks for reading! Also, happy Spring!