The Hallows of Hogwarts
Chapter 9: An ASP in Slytherin
Dear Scorpius,
How are you doing in Ravenclaw? I can't imagine that you're completely happy right now, being cut off from all your old Slytherin friends. But cousin Max will come around—he's rather like Aunt Daphne, always so unforgiving! She scared me so much when I was your age, I had to beg my way into Slytherin. I wasn't nearly as brave as you are, to accept a different house than what is expected (Incidentally, the Sorting Hat was to put me in Hufflepuff until I begged).
Grandmother Narcissa insisted on sending you the sweets. I know you don't like chocolates usually or this much of it anyways, but perhaps you could find someone to share with over them? That's how I won over the girls in my dorm, by having my sister bring me back candies from Hogsmeade.
You only wrote a bit about your new friends, but I suspect you rather wished to spare us any shocks. Don't worry, your father took it reasonably well. It was a good idea to mention that Albus is in Slytherin before you added that he is a Potter. He's not as thrilled about Rose Weasley but he claims to have no past disputes with any members of Elora Longbottom's family. All the same, he and your grandmother accepted it very well.
It's only a month and I already miss my son! How much longer until Christmas?
Love from your mother,
Asteria Malfoy
Scorpius folded the letter twice before tucking it into his pocket. Pluto hooted, rustling his wings to remind his owner that he still wanted the brown paper package removed from his leg. Scorpius obliged him, bothered to remove the twine before Pluto flew back through the rafters of the Great Hall to the Owlery.
"Whatcha got there?" Martin Goldstein asked, still spreading his peanut butter around with the butter knife.
He shrugged, stilling his fingers protectively over the package. "Stuff from home. My grandmother sent chocolate. Would you want some?"
Goldstein's eyes narrowed. "You Death Eater scum killed my brother," he spat out like he had tasted burnt toast. "And you think chocolate would make that up to me?"
"My grandfather served his time and the rest of my family was pardoned for what they did. I, on the other hand, did and owe you nothing because I wasn't born then and neither were you!" Scorpius retorted, feeling his blood pressure rise.
Goldstein slammed the knife down and left the table, storming from the hall. Scorpius sat there, stonily and silent as the older Ravenclaws eyed him in something near to dislike and the rest of his year whispered like little snakes.
"Scorpius Malfoy—"
"pardoned for what?"
"Chocolates?"
"…Death Eater."
Just to make himself feel better, he tore open the package and ate a chocolate and ignored them all.
Unlike the other three houses, Gryffindor had very few issues involving Elora Longbottom. Even though her brother and sister had been Hufflepuffs, she was a Gryffindor like her father, their Head. So what if she was short and fidgety?
Besides the one muggle girl in her year who thought her name was funny (It's E-lor-a! And there's nothing long about my bottom! It's just a name!), the older students almost respected her. It wasn't that Victoire Weasley had made it her personal life mission to make sure that Elora was never unable to climb into the common room, but that she was the only first year to have remained unpranked by Fred and Louis and James.
But still, even without the protection of her housemates, Elora was bound to fit in. She added red hair ribbons to her uniform and offered to help her classmates with their homework after dinner. She didn't even need to be brave—being a Longbottom meant that no upperclassmen would have said "boo" to her.
And when she woke up at night in an unfamiliar room and ended up re-reading Mumsy's letters from home, she couldn't help but wonder to herself that if Longbottom and Gryffindor weren't always going hand-in-hand, would she still be in Gryffindor Tower?
Then the sixth week came. And on the bulletin board of every common room came the announcement that flying lessons would start. Most first years meet this with excited cheers and there was always the muggleborn who would turn pale at the thought.
On the morning of her first flying lesson, Rose seemed much more cheerful as she and the Slytherins hurried down to the Quidditch pitch. She loved to fly, her broom was her prized possession and the replacement for Madame Hooch was her favorite part about the flying lessons.
Oliver Wood, tall and burly, was already standing there, holding a highly polished broom in one hand as he eyed the first years as if he was already picking his future Quidditch teams.
"All right, you lot," He began briskly. "I'm assuming at least half of you have been on a broom before. Well, that won't matter because the curriculum says we have to take it slow. Don't worry, I trained and got Harry Potter, got on the Gryffindor Quidditch team in his first year." He announced, remembering his glory days with his star seeker. A few people perked up at this, Harry Potter, the boy who lived, the Chosen One, a seeker for the Gryffindors in his first year? Amazing.
Albus looked down at his feet on the ground. He wasn't sure if he quite liked this Oliver Wood. He seemed so confident and over-sure of himself. He knew that Wood was an incredible Quidditch player and that he had been Captain of his dad's team. Al knew that the moment Wood recognized his Dad's face on him he would be subjected to not being the son of the Harry Potter of the Wizarding World but the son of Wood's greatest seeker. He wasn't sure which he preferred but Albus knew he did not want to be dodging Bludgers and up in the air that high.
Wood gave them their first task, to say up and have the broom fly into their hand. It seemed easy enough, Rose got it in her hand with the first try much to her delight as she looked about at all the other brooms still on the ground.
Albus's rolled over, but he wasn't sure if it was magic or a very low and strong wind. Wood came over then.
"Good job, Weasley! Looks like you got the Quidditch genes in you. Hufflepuff needs some good players." He sighed and looked over at the students next to Rose. But then he ignored Rose completely as she urged the nimbus 2000 higher as he saw the familiar messy black hair and green eyes.
"Potter," he whispered reverently. "Merlin's rear end, another Potter at Hogwarts." He punched his fist triumphantly in the air, walking in front of Al and his broom. "YES! That Quidditch cup will be Gryffindor's once you—" Then he gasped like he couldn't breathe. The boy who would have been Harry Potter's eleven year old twin without glasses or the scar was wearing a Slytherin scarf and his broom was twitching on the ground, refusing to jump into the boy's hand. It was exactly like the nightmare Oliver Wood had several times in the days leading up to their first Quidditch match of his fifth year.
Anxiously, Albus yelped "UP!" and the broom flew up and over his hand. Self-consciously, he grabbed it and pulled it down to his level but Wood had already walked away dazed, not even noticing the boy's success.
That night at dinner, Albus caught sight of his brother. James looked sullen, an unusual attitude for him. He was barely listening to Fred and Louis and they were his best friends. For someone who had been taunting him all summer about how he'd be in Slytherin, James looked pretty bitter.
But bitterness and sullen didn't suit him. James was the smiling prankster, the life of a party, the chaser of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, their star player all last year. Nothing ever got to him. It couldn't be about Albus's sorting. It had to be something else.
Returning his attention to his potatoes, he hoped for a better day tomorrow.
Two weeks in, October had come and although the leaves stubbornly remained green, the air had turned crisp and chilled. The new month was particularly blustery and flying lessons were canceled out of fear that the brooms might be swept into the Whomping Willow.
Canceled flying lessons wasn't the only reason why Rose was so miserable though. She was still in Hufflepuff and Mum sent her a sharp letter reprimanding her "constant complaining" and that "whining will get you nowhere". But didn't Mum realize that she already was nowhere in Hufflepuff?
Hugo didn't offer much sympathy either but instead wrote to her last week to explain how he was much smarter than she had been at age ten. The git! Dad was much better on the whole pity part: he at least wrote that he could get then tickets to a Quidditch game for over the holidays. Knowing him, it would be a Cannons game, but still, it was something to look forward to, no matter how far away it seemed and inpatient she was.
In fact, every day seemed longer than yesterday. In her classes with Albus, she had to literally push her way through to get a seat next to him now and the Slytherins crowded around him once class was dismissed. Within the month they had been here, he had won them over totally despite having once been their whipping boy. Then again, her housemates seemed to adore her, if ignore her when she chose to snub them and sit with her friends instead.
Hufflepuff was rather a useless house, Rose began to suspect. The loyal ones could have easily gone to Gryffindor, the patient to Ravenclaw and Slytherin could use some hard workers. At least, this was the argument she was currently devising to present to Mum. And of course, if splitting up the house sent her to Gryffindor, who was she to complain?
An otherwise ordinary day turned extraordinary when Archimedes, Al's barn owl swooped in during breakfast with a large package, followed by five more carrying brightly wrapped objects and letters. They all clustered around Albus dropping their things for him at his plate and in his lap. With a shy but beaming smile, Al pulled open the envelope and read his parents' letter first and then carefully slid the letter back into the envelope before rummaging through the pile for the matching present.
Inside, Albus found a wooden case with gold letters emblazoned across it spelling out WAND CARE CASE-Ollivander Approved! Inside was a jar of wand polish, a rag, a penknife to carve details into it and other wand care essentials. He beamed even brighter, this was the perfect gift for a boy like him who had gotten his first wand and loved to take good care of his things. And taped to the front was a bag of peppermint toads, his favorite candy, a precious gift from Lily who had probably spent her month's pocket money.
Grandmum and Granddad Weasley had sent him a letter wishing him a happy birthday, a small homemade cake courtesy of Grandmum and confirmation that their present was some kind of muggle technology that Granddad was sure he would love, but it would go haywire at Hogwarts so they hadn't sent it. Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione gave him his very own pocket sneakoscope, Uncle George had sent Weasley Wizarding Wheezes products without Aunt Angelina knowing, Uncle Percy had owled him a new quill and two notebooks. Then there was the tens of letters wishing him Happy Twelfth Birthday Albus!
As breakfast ended and students were hurrying off to classes and the wrapping paper disposed of, Elora hurried over from her table to give him an Official Chocolate Frog Collector's Book. Rose and Scorpius came over then from their tables, Rose hugging him happily and Scorpius grinning at him awkwardly. The four of them sang Happy Birthday and they split the cake. Then they left the Slytherin table, gathering up Albus's birthday party so he could carry it back to the dorm before classes started when Scorpius and Albus found themselves a bit away from the girls.
"I didn't know it was your birthday," Scorpius started quietly. Albus waved it away, he was too generous a person and too light-hearted today to care.
"It doesn't matter, Scorp—"
"Yes it does! I would have gotten you something." Scorpius insisted. He pondered this for a moment and his eyes lit up, turning from grey to silver. "I've got it. It will be a few days, but you'll get it." He announced as he headed off to his potions class.
Except for a few good wishes from passing relatives in the halls on the way to class, Albus's twelfth birthday otherwise ordinary throughout the morning. There was classes, and since it was a Friday, they went down to Hagrid's who had a rock-grey colored (and hardness-wise) cake waiting, which they took with them when they went back up the castle to do thier homework in the library before dinner.
The good thing about the four of them being friends was that in every class, they all had someone to sit with and compare notes afterwards. In the case of Binns's class, they could all even do their History homework together because he would do the same lesson plan.
"So, Barnabas Deverill claimed that he was an owner of a wand made of eldrun, whatever that is, and it made him the most powerful sorcerer—"
Elora "hmmph!"-ed, cutting off Scorpius's reading. "Why is it always wizards bragging about being how powerful they are and wanting to take over the world? You never hear about any Dark Ladies."
"Because they like comparing their wand lengths," Rose supplied, remembering a crude joke of her dad's.
Scorpius frowned, not quite understanding himself but he had learned quick when Rose was trying to throw an insult. "Loxias's mother claimed to have been the one to kill him. And there was Morgause, Nimue, Bellatrix Lestrange."
"It's not like we learn anything about them though," Rose protested. "It's all about Loxias and Emeric the Evil and Barnabas the Barmy or whatever he was."
Elora even now rolled her eyes. "Rose, don't. You're not going to seriously become a Dark Witch just to get the attention."
"Any why not?" She replied, half-serious.
"Because," Scorpius answered in an airy tone. "There's nothing menacing about a Hufflepuff. If any of us is going to be evil, it will probably be me or Albus—"
"And there goes the only wizards stereotype again," Rose muttered, wounded and retreating.
"And I've either renounced my family and the Dark Arts or even darker than they are by confunding the Sorting Hat into Sorting me elsewhere depending on who you ask." Scorpius continued. "Albus? You up to being Dark Lord Potter of the wizarding world?"
Albus grinned without showing any teeth. "Let me conquer Slytherin first!" He protested.
The three of them laughed and keep on working with their essays but Albus open his Charms book first, flipping through the pages until the bells were ringing for dinner and they were packing away their things, slinging bags over the shoulders.
On the way down to the Great Hall, they passed James picking up the remains from a game of Gobstones, gleefully. When he saw Al, he waved and jingled a handful of Galleons, which he quickly tucked away at the sight of Scorpius. "Happy birthday," he called out though, before scooting away.
"I never did ask," Albus remarked. "How did you beat James at Gobstones? Never has anyone gotten him, I think."
Scorpius shrugged, frowning slightly. "I'm not sure. I just knew that he was going to…and then I tried hitting it and it bounced off. Just lucky, I guess. I usually don't like playing Gobstones either. Chess at least, you can plan out before you make a move. And you don't get squirted if you lose."
After dinner, most of the students still wandered the halls until curfew. Just to be on the safe side, Albus waited in the common room, reading his school books and glancing up at the end of every sentence. But he didn't get up until it was past nine and when he did, it was quick.
He stood up, shoved his books into his bag, pulled out his wand and slung the bag on to his shoulder before marching up the stairs.
His dormmates were all there—reading, playing catch with a small Quaffle, doing homework. Nobody nodded to him as he entered but Albus stared straight ahead as he steered towards his bed. He let his bag drop and he climbed onto the bed and spoke firmly and clear aloud. "Vix."
His wand lit with a strange fire tinted green and he lowered it until it touched the scarred bed wood. Slowly, he dragged it down in a straight line before he pulled away and murmured the countering.
The Quaffle had stopped being thrown as Albus put his wand away and settled down, crawling under the covers. And then—
"Good night, Albus." One of the boys muttered. The others repeated it. Albus smiled as he looked overhead at his signature.
ASP.
So Albus is 12 and he stands up to his House! Go Albus!
Jo left us with no birthdays so I took the liberty of making them up. Albus was born prematurely by 7 weeks on October 12th 2005. Rose followed on December 2nd, 2005. Scorpius arrived with the New Year on January 5th, 2006 and Elora was born last of all on June 29th, 2006.
