A/N:
I, CaptainMaye, apologize for the delay in this chapter. MustacheLuv wants you all to know that I'm a horrible person. Please forgive me and enjoy this chapter.
Maddie: Yeah, what a total bitch.
The Hufflepuff: You can't curse! This is rated T for teens!
Maddie: Yeah, T. Which means we can curse.
The Hufflepuff: It's not nice to call people names! How would you feel if I called you a name?
Maddie: Do it. *Glares her down.*
The Hufflepuff: Uhhhhh... Okie dokie! I don't own Harry Potter!
Maddie: Subject change, much?
The Hufflepuff: *Giggles* You scare me.
Maddie: Eh.
Chapter 9 - New Digs, Same Old Us
"SCORPIUS!" Albus yelled, bright and early on a day off.
"Al, I'm about to murder you."
"We're ALL about to kill you," echoed from the rest of the beds in the room.
"But but but... It's Mother's Day. And I forgot to get my mum a present. Again. I'll get another howler. First from my mum, and then from my dad."
The quiet that came after the explanation was deafening.
"Holy shit, Albus!" Alexander screamed.
"Oh my god, no." Edward added.
"My mum's gonna kill me!" Finn whined.
All the boys jumped out of bed, quickly trying to get dressed while tripping over each other.
"Albus, you're a genius. I love you. I'm sorry for every bad thing I've ever said to you." Alexander kissed Albus' forehead and ran out of the room.
Albus looked back at Scorpius and blinked. "I'm not really sure about what just happened."
"I think you just made friends with Alexander. I'm not sure whether to say I'm sorry or congratulations, so I'll just go with the first one."
"Can we please, please, please go to Hogsmeade to go shopping? I mean, you have to get something for your mum too, right?" Albus looked up with a big puppy dog pout.
"Yeah, and I need to get something for Maddie to give to her too." Scorpius raddled off, thoughtfully.
"Why don't you have Maddie make her something? Parents like that, right?" Albus questioned tilting his head.
"Not our parents. Well, my father probably would. He thinks everything she does is so fucking wonderful."
"Are you jealous of your younger sister?" Albus attempted to stifle a laugh.
"It's okay. Mother hates her so we're even." Scorpius smirked, shrugging a bit.
"What? Your mum hates your sister?"
"She blames my sister for her stretch marks and father spending less time with her." Scorpius continued walking out the door, with Albus trailing at his heels.
The boys spend the better part of their morning shopping with Scorpius actually picking up more things for Madeline than he did for his mother.
"You do know it's Mother's Day and not Little Sister's Day, right?" Albus questioned, raising an eyebrow at his boyfriend's antics.
"Yeah, but those are her favorites." Scorpius smoothly replied.
"And those and those and those?" Albus smirked while raising his point.
"Yeah... kinda. I mean I just got Bertie Botts Acid Pops, some chocolate frogs, and some hair ribbons. That's all." Scorpius listed.
"You bought her a tiara." Albus chastised.
"It's fake!" Scorpius supplied defensively.
Albus shook his head as the two Slytherins joined the throngs of students at the Owlery to send some last minute gifts.
The twins, the Hufflepuff, and Madeline joined the two male Slytheryins soon after they arrived.
"Here I got you this bracelet to give to mother. All you have to do is sign your name at the bottom of the letter with me, okay?" Scorpius forced the letter and quill into her hands.
"No," Madeline starkly refused dropping the aforementioned items into the grass.
"No? What do you mean 'No'?!" Scorpius shouted exasperated, just praying for peace between his mother and his sister.
"Because I hate her." Madeline responded while examining her nails.
"Well Father will be upset with you if you don't get Mother anything so just sign this letter, if only to make Father happy. I bullshitted through the letter anyway." Scorpius smugly stated.
"I don't care. Daddy said he will love me no matter what."
"Then I'll tell Chase you like him."
"Gimme the freaking letter." Madeline snatched the letter from her brother's hands, signed it, and shoved it back into his face.
Albus watched the entire scene flabbergasted that someone could actually dislike their parents.
"Can you get the stupid owl?" Scorpius questioned, dreading what was about to come.
Madeline screamed "BEBO!" at the top of her lungs and a tiny, pigmy puff sized owl flew square into Scorpius' face, giving him a cut from chin to cheek.
"I will eat you," Scorpius yelled at the small owl that coo'd violently in return.
The rest of the group began to laugh as Madeline sang her praises to the small bird.
Scorpius shrunk the packages, tied them to the owl's leg, and violently threw it at the nearest tree, hoping it would crash. "Good riddance with it."
Albus rolled his eyes at his boyfriend's antics. "Should I even ask?"
"No. No you should not. Oh, Maddie, I got these for you." Scorpius handed the items to his sister. "Oh, that's why I got them. To bride you to sign the letter. I knew there was a reason." Scorpius placed the tiara on his sister's head.
"So what did you get your mother?" Madeline questioned the rest of the group.
"Some self-growing turnips. I think my mum likes to use them as earrings." Madeline, Scorpius, and Albus all raised eyebrows at Lysander but decided not to comment.
"I got her a rock. More of a pebble really. The sides of it are really smooth. She'll like it." Madeline went to question Lorcan but Scorpius shushed her.
"I was going to get her that," Lysander sarcastically replied. "Seriously, what is wrong with you?"
"I got my mum an 'I'm sorry' card. And some sweets. She's still mad at me because I'm not a Gryffindor." Albus shrugged, not really sure what to make of his mother's prejudices.
"It's been over four years, bro. How is she still mad?" Lorcan quipped.
"She's kind of... stubborn. What did you get your mum?" Albus turned the attention onto the Hufflepuff who was uncharacteristically quiet.
"Nothing." She started to examine her shoes.
"Alright then. What do you guys want to do for the rest of the day?" Scorpius inquired addressing the whole group.
Madeline was the first to respond. "We need a new hide-out. We can't just meet by the lake. People will see us, especially now that they're onto us."
"Well, my dad told me that when he was in school, if you can speak Parseltongue you can get into the Chamber of Secrets. And considering I don't know anyone who knows how to open it other than myself and James, it would be a perfect hide-out." Albus excitedly ran off, making the group run to catch up.
When they reached the third floor girl's bathroom, Albus was waiting for them. "Okay, so we run the taps-"
"Is that a Potter?" Came a high-pitched shriek from one of the stalls.
"Oh no." Albus groaned.
"What the freak was that?"
"That was Moaning Myrtle. I forgot about her. She has a crush on James. Apparently he looks like my dad." Albus shrugged, turning his attention to the ghost. "Hey Myrtle, if you don't tell anyone we were here, I'll give you my brother's quill. He chewed on it and everything."
"Fine. Give it." She flew through the stall door and snatched the quill from Albus while the rest of the group climbed down into the new opening in the floor.
"Thanks Myrtle, I owe you one." Albus gave a small smile and ran after his friends.
The group stood in front of the Chamber door, examining it while Albus spoke "open" in Parseltongue, reciting from the story he heard it in numerable times in his childhood.
As the group stepped in, Madeline eyed the space. "This could work. Is that a dead- I don't even know what that is."
"Oh, that's the basilisk that used to live here. It's obviously dead so you don't have to worry about it." Albus explained, gesturing towards the completely rotted corpse.
"That is so cool." Madeline turned to her brother. "I want a basilisk."
"They're extinct, Maddie." He replied.
Madeline pouted, with her hands on her hips. "Well, Albus' dad obviously found one."
"I don't think he did it on purpose." Scorpius replied, shaking his head.
"Both the fangs are gone. That's odd." Lysander added, studying the corpse alongside his brother.
"Yeah, my father used one to kill Voldemort and my uncle used the other to try and kill Voldemort." Albus finished explaining.
"This place just needs to be cleaned up a little bit and it will be good to go!" The Hufflepuff stated excitedly, immediately setting to work.
"You know, you're always happy all the time and that bothers me. You also clean way too much and way too well. You're like Delilah." Madeline commented, a bit annoyed.
"Who's Delilah?" Albus asked, confused.
"My sister's house elf," Scorpius answered. "She's probably just annoyed because she misses her. It's really stupid - she dresses her up in this stupid sun hat and a dress that matches it."
Albus looked confused. "She does know what that means, right?"
"She didn't at the time, but now she does. And she still buys her clothes constantly. Delilah would never leave her anyway." Scorpius shrugged, used to her sister's weird antics.
"So Delilah, how long do you think it will take you to clean this up?" Madeline questioned the newly named Hufflepuff.
Delilah looked around, appraising the room. "A couple weeks with help. A couple months by myself. Depending on how long it takes to haul out that skeleton."
"Don't you dare touch that skeleton!" Echoed from across the Chamber. Madeline and Lorcan exchanged a knowing look, happy to be on the same page for once.
The group began their cleanup, the Malfoys seldom helping out instead of just directing. They did, however, supply the furniture.
When the tedious chore was finally over, the group was happy to have a working space in which they could plan out their future pranks in private.
Please note: MustacheLuv refuses to accept responsibility for this being so prolonged, but it was totally her fault too. CaptainMaye's at first, but MustacheLuv added to it too.
My procrastination was better because it involved dick jokes!
Whatever you say...
Coming Soon:
Madeline loses interest in the Marauders when her crush on Chase intensifies.
