Chapter Four
Erf. Sorry, I know chapters may seem a long time coming. Been busy lately. I also apologize for this one being on the short side, but I doubt any of them will be this short from here on out. Once I get to writing them, that is. Oo Anyway, thank you very much for the kind reviews. And yes, I just had to put Scorpius into Gryffindor. I thought that was a fun little piece of hell to throw his way.
"I can't believe it. It's finally over. And I'm in Gryffindor!" Albus said happily as he bit into a sweet roll.
"Yeah. We're all in Gryffindor." Muttered Scorpius spitefully as he hunched his shoulders, trying desperately to deflect all of the angry glares from his table.
"Don't feel so bad." Albus said, turning to him. "I thought you didn't even care which house you got put into."
"Well I didn't think it'd be Gryffindor!" he tapped his fork incessantly on the edge of his plate. "Everyone's been looking at me like they want to murder me. What am I going to write home?"
Rose shrugged from across the table. "I guess you could just say you were in Slytherin."
Scorpius shook his head. "They'd find out. They'd know. Dad always knows when I'm lying."
"Well I'm glad you're in Gryffindor." Albus noted defiantly. "Now we can be friends. I'll see you in classes, at games—we can even be roommates. I thought I was going to have to spend the whole year alone." He quickly cleared his throat, eyes switching to his cousin. "Um, not including you, Rose."
Rose was hardly paying attention all the same, as she was currently absorbed in a conversation with Mandi Patil, another Gryffindor who sat close by.
Scorpius was silent, thinking to himself about what Albus had said. It was true, he had also been down about not knowing anyone. Maybe Gryffindor wouldn't be so bad. He would just have to break it to his father subtly… He jolted as a boy rammed into him while walking by, a group of his fellow students trailing after him. The boy twisted around with an angry glare, his friends following and all staring at Scorpius.
"What's the big idea, Malfoy?" the boy hissed as though he had been purposefully shoved.
"What idea? I didn't do anything." Scorpius stated with a sneer. "Maybe if you weren't so clumsy it wouldn't've happened."
The sandy brown-haired boy leaned over him furiously. "Maybe if you weren't at our table it wouldn't've happened."
Scorpius set his jaw, but didn't say anything.
"This is all of our table!" Albus intervened, his gentle face contorted into an almost comical expression of anger.
"No, this is the Gryffindor table." The boy returned, intruding in on Albus's personal space as well. "As in it's for Gryffindors only. Which means no snakes allowed!" The students behind him nodded in agreement.
"He's not a snake." Albus threw out his small chest rebelliously.
"He was sorted into Gryffindor just like the rest of us." Rose added haughtily, in case the boy had somehow missed that fact during the ceremony.
"That was a mistake. I'll bet he rigged the hat or something to say that." The boy insisted in offense.
"What am I supposed to do about it?" Scorpius pointed out.
"Asked to be moved to Slytherin, where you belong!" he snapped. "If you don't, we'll be telling the headmaster ourselves. And boy you'll be sorry when he finds out what you did."
Scorpius watched them go with ignited bluish grey eyes, pushing his fork aside and resigning his meal.
"Don't listen to them." Albus advised, sticking his tongue out at them as they went. "You didn't do anything. We all saw."
"Of course I didn't." Scorpius growled back, crossing his arms. "Why would I want to be in Gryffindor?"
"Well it is the greatest of the houses." Rose stated as though it were common knowledge. "You should consider yourself lucky."
"Well I don't." the blonde pouted stubbornly.
Albus smiled sympathetically, offering Scorpius his chocolate frog.
