A/N: Finally, Chapter 6! Sorry for making you guys wait so long. Thanks for Reviews. I don't really like how this chapter turned out, but I'm not sure how I can change it...
I was having problems with the chapter so I had to delete it and then put it back up.

Disclaimer: Don't own, never will.

Chapter 6: Secrets, Exams and Mudbloods

Being back at Hogwarts was great for Albus. He didn't have to suffer his brother's presence twenty four seven, or anyone else of his family for that matter. Albus' birthday was around Easter and he was glad to be at Hogwarts, even though they had so much work.

The only thing which annoyed him was that their exams were coming up fast. Neither Albus nor Scorpius had started studying yet.

"Why are you guys playing hangman?" Rigel whispered to the two of them during one history class.

"Because Professor Binns is boring," Scorpius replied in a matter of fact tone.

"Our exams are coming up and both of you barely have any notes on history of magic! You're going to fail and be held back a year!" Rigel told the two of them.

"Don't be stupid," Scorpius said before turning back to the game. "G?" he guessed.

"Nope," Albus said, drawing the second arm of the stick figure

"C?" Scorpius guessed and Albus wrote it down.

ac_o_antu_a

"P?"

A leg was drawn.

"R?"

acro_antu_a

"That looks so familiar," Scorpius said and then after a moment said, "F?"

"You lose," Albus said, "it was acromantula." He filled in the last two spaces.

"What?" Scorpius asked incredulously.

"It's a gigantic spider with the ability to talk human speech. Hagrid used to own one," Albus explained.

"That's disgusting," Scorpius said.

"If you two kids have finished playing," Michael Derrick, a Slytherin boy in their grade whom they didn't share a dorm with, turned around to face them as he was sitting in front of them, "I have some interesting information."

"We don't care," Scorpius said turning to his piece of paper to come up with his word that Albus would have to guess.

"You sure? It concerns you, Potter," Derrick said.

Albus usually didn't care what Derrick had to say. Derrick was into the gossip stuff girls were always into. He seemed to know everything about anyone though, which was kind of creepy. However, this time Albus was listening.

"Okay, what?" Albus asked.

"I heard from a little birdie that Begonia Blishwick has a crush on you."

Albus raised an eyebrow in disbelief. He looked over to the right side of the classroom where she was sitting. Sure enough, Blishwick had been looking at him and quickly blushed and looked away.

Albus looked back over at Derrick and said, "I really doubt it."

Derrick let out a laugh and said, "believe what you want Potter, but it's true."

Albus heard Scorpius let out an amused snort. Albus shot him a glare.

"Careful Malfoy," Derrick said, "you might not wanna laugh or I'll be telling people who you have a crush on."

To Albus' surprise, Scorpius went pink and his smile disappeared off his face. Something clicked in Albus' head and his eyes twinkled with amusement.

"You have a crush?" Albus asked his best friend.

"Of course not," Scorpius quickly denied it, "That's just stupid."

"Who?" Albus pushed, not believing a word Scorpius was saying.

Scorpius stuttered for a bit before becoming unusually silent. Albus smirked, deciding not to push him into answering. He would just have to come up with a more cunning plan to find out his friend's crush. Albus was pretty sure he could pull it off; after all, he was a Slytherin.


The Slytherin common room felt tense one night after they were defeated by Hufflepuff in their Quidditch match. They had been ever so close, but the Hufflepuff seeker had just managed to take the snitch.

The Slytherin quidditch team were moping in the corner, whilst a lot of other people were attempting to study.

"I'm never going to remember this," Scorpius complained, looking at his notes, "I can't even read this!"

"You wrote it," Albus said and yawned.

"What can you tell me about the twelve uses of dragon blood?" Scorpius asked his friend.

"Albus Dumbledore discovered all the uses," Albus told him. He was lying on his stomach and then put his head onto the floor. He was tired and tempted to fall asleep, but he really needed to try and study.

"I have a feeling I'll remember that," Scorpius said, "When it asks on the test 'Who discovered the uses of Dragon blood?' I can write 'Albus' name sake'."

Albus heard Rigel mumbling to himself about what the twelve uses of dragon blood actually was. Albus took his head off the floor and had a look at the list. Rigel had managed to say eleven of them, but couldn't figure out the twelfth.

"Spot remover," Albus said to him.

Rigel groaned, "Can't believe I forgot that one! It's the easiest to remember!"

Albus looked over at Scorpius, "So who is it?"

"Not saying," Scorpius said sharply. Ever since Derrick had revealed that Scorpius liked someone, Albus had been asking endlessly who it was, sometimes at the most random of times. Albus had tried guessing, but with no luck. He had guessed every girl in the whole of Slytherin house.

"You're never going to get it," Scorpius told Albus, "it's too weird."

"What are you two on about?" Rigel asked, looking over at them.

"Nothing," Scorpius said a little too quickly. Albus smirked.

Rigel frowned at him before going back to studying, "I'm not even going to ask," he said as he looked back at his notes.

"Good," Scorpius said with a sigh of relief.

"But who is it?" Albus pressed.

"If you ask me one more time I'll throttle you," Scorpius snarled through his teeth.

Albus smirked, "I'd like to see you try."

It probably wasn't the best thing to say.


A few days later exams started. The Gryffindor's were acting, in Albus' opinion, all high and mighty after winning the Quidditch Cup. James especially was being far more arrogant than usual. Albus kept his distance so he wouldn't have to talk to his brother.

All the Slytherins had been studying relentlessly, especially OWL and NEWT students who were stressing the most. People in other grades kept their distance from them.

For the exams, they not only had to answer theory questions, but many also had practical elements. Albus didn't have much trouble making a pineapple dance across the table. However, when attempting to turn the mouse into a snuffbox, there were still whiskers on it. Albus also hoped he had managed to create the forgetfulness potion correctly, but he was pretty sure he failed History of Magic, in which the whole test consisted of questions about the self-stirring cauldrons.

When the tests were finished, Albus, Scorpius, Rigel and Vince sat under the tree by the lake relaxing. Rigel was talking nervously because he knew he had gotten a few answers wrong on his charms test.

"I can't believe I stuffed it up!" he exclaimed.

"Go and see Professor Greybark, then," Scorpius said dully.

"But that's not going to do anything! Oh Merlin! On my ast-,"

"-Rigel!" Albus interrupted, "look, we all stuffed up our exams, but there's nothing we can about it. If you're so worried, go and see the Professors."

"And stop going on about the tests," Scorpius said, "It's over, they're done and we don't need to relive them again."

"Those filthy mudbloods," Ethan said to Larry as they came and joined the first year boys.

"Sorry?" Albus asked, looking over to the older boys.

"Mudbloods the lot of them," Ethan repeated.

"I know they were being idiots, but that's no way-," Larry started to say.

"MUDBLOODS," Ethan said loudly, making Larry shut up and roll his eyes.

"Gryffindorks?" Albus asked curiously.

"Hufflepuffs, actually," Larry replied as Ethan seethed silently.

"That's weird," Scorpius said, "they tend to be nice. Although they are idiots."

"Mudbloods," Ethan said again randomly.

"We get it, Eth," Larry said, holding his hand up to tell his friend to stop.

"I've never heard Albus say the word mudblood," Rigel said with a leer.

"I've used it," Albus said quickly, "when I was talking with James."

"It's nothing to boast about if you have used it," Larry said.

"Just saying," Rigel said, "got a problem with a word like mudblood?"

"It's rude," Larry said with a frown.

"Yes, but I've still used it," Albus said and then to make sure they all believed him he said, "Mudblood."

"Mudblood," Rigel repeated.

"Mudblood," Scorpius said with a grin.

"Mudblood," Vince grunted.

"Mudblood, mudblood," Ethan said in a sing-song voice.

They all looked at Larry expectantly. Larry sighed and said, "Mudblood."

"It's really losing its meaning," Scorpius said, "when you repeat the word over and over."

"Stops sounding like an actual word," Albus agreed, "I need to watch my mouth in front of my parents though."

"Same, same," Scorpius replied, "My father doesn't like it when I use it too much."

Rigel snorted, "My mother's good with my use of it. Especially when we go out and run into some stupid muggles."

"Well muggles aren't really that bad," Albus said, thinking about his second cousins who were muggles.

"What do you mean 'muggles aren't really that bad'?" Ethan asked curiously. He had stopped moping.

"Well, I mean, they...They're just not that bad," Albus said, surprised by Ethan's question.

"Look, they haven't got magic," Rigel said, "They can't do anything! Not to mention they're pretty thick."

"But they've gotten on well without magic," Albus said.

"And the only thing they do is lazy around all day in front of their kumplooters or whatever they are," Rigel said.

"Computers," Albus told him, "they're called computers."

"You know this one time when I was younger," Ethan said, "I was about eight and there was this other muggle child about my age who just came up to me and bragged about themselves." Ethan then started to mimic the child in an annoying high-pitched tone " 'oh, my father's got lots more money than yours', 'I can already tie my shoelaces', 'My reading level is age twelve'." Ethan then turned to his normal voice, "Piece of filth, I already know how to read and write and can ride a goddamn broomstick! Can you? Goddamn no, so keep your filthy mudblood self away from me."

"This one time," Rigel said, "I came across this muggle man who thought I was his child. Delusional guy, right? Mother set him right though. She came along and," Rigel then did a hand wave motion to show that she used magic.

"Must have been a nutter if he mistakes you for his child," Ethan said and rolled his eyes, "muggles."

Albus wasn't quite sure what to say about Ethan's and Rigel's stories.

"I've never been anywhere near muggles. My parents would never allow it," Larry said.

"Well it's not like we conversed with muggles on purpose," Rigel said, "but it just happens. If my mum could decide, she'd keep me away from muggles for all eternity or better yet, just kill all of them."

"Isn't that a bit drastic?" Scorpius asked.

Rigel shrugged, "there's my mother for you."


Just before the end of the school year, the first years got their marks back. Albus was surprised that he had just managed to scrape a pass in History of Magic. His best grade was in Defence against the Dark Arts however.

"Just scraped a pass in History," Scorpius said to Albus.

"Same," Albus said.

"Nice job on Defence," Scorpius told his friend as he leaned over to look at his grades, "Guess it helps if your father's head of the Auror office and defeated an evil dark wizard."

Albus grinned, "I don't think that's why I did well. Bet it was the books I received at Christmas."

"Well if I don't know what to get you for your birthday or for Christmas, I'll get you some dark arts books," Scorpius said.

"I liked the sneakoscope," Albus said, "maybe you could get me some other dark detector, like a foe glass."

"Wanna come over to my place on the holidays?" Scorpius asked, "My parents won't mind."

"I'd love to," Albus said, "I'd invite you to my place, but James would make sure your stay was hell."

Scorpius grinned and said, "And if you need a place to escape, just remember you're always welcome."


The train trip home was one Albus couldn't believe was happening. He'd completed his first year at Hogwarts.

"Two months of holidays!" Ethan burst into the compartment, followed by Larry, "Which means two months of nothing but flying!"

"Don't forget to do your homework," Larry pointed out, "OWLs are getting closer."

Ethan ignored Larry and took a seat beside Albus.

"We can try out for the Quidditch team when we get back," Scorpius said excitedly, "there will be tryouts, right?"

"Of course," Ethan said, "We'll need a beater, keeper and seeker."

"Shots seeker," Albus said quickly with a grin.

Scorpius laughed from beside him and said, "Then I shots keeper."

The boys continued to chat, laugh and also played games of exploding snap in their compartment. The train came to a stop and everyone went out onto the platform.

"Later Albus," Larry said.

"Yeah, see you after summer. Hope to see you on the Quidditch team," Ethan gave him a friendly slap on the back.

"Have a nice summer," Vince said.

"Get your brother if you can," Rigel joked.

Albus noticed Begonia Blishwick pass him at the very point she looked up. She looked slightly panicked before quickly saying, "Have a nice summer Albus." And then she walked away quickly. Albus stood on the spot confused.

"Hey Albus!" Someone yelled, which snapped Albus back to reality. He spun around to see Terry Nott walking up to him

"What's up?" Albus asked.

"Just wanted to say have a nice summer. Also, hope to see you in one piece and hope your brother isn't too annoying," Terry said.

"I'll be fine," Albus said, "you have a nice summer too."

Albus heard other people saying 'See you, Potter' but every time he would see who it was, it turned out to be someone talking to his brother.

"So your brother's more popular than you are," Scorpius said and rolled his eyes, "So what? He's a douche and you're awesome 'cause you're in Slytherin."

Albus grinned, "I never complained about my brother being popular. I never even said anything."

"I know, but it still annoys you," Scorpius said, "I can tell."

"You gonna tell me who you like?" Albus asked.

"Definitely not," Scorpius said and then quickly added before going through the barrier, "I'll see you after summer, Al."

Albus grinned, knowing his friend had left so hurriedly because he didn't want to be interrogated. He then went through the barrier, but Scorpius had already walked off. Albus looked around and spotted his family waiting for him nearby.

"Hey mum, hey dad, hey Lily," Albus said to each of them. He was hugged by all of them.

"You okay?" Harry asked his son as they embraced.

"Never been better," Albus replied and grinned.

James came running over and yelling how Gryffindor had won the Quidditch and House cups. Albus couldn't care less though, and continued on grinning as they left the station.

A/N: And that's the end of Al's first year! But it's still a long way to go until the end of the story. I'll try and get the next chapter up soon!