An Interesting Combination

Scorpius couldn't really believe how quiet it was, even this early in the morning. He had always expected the headquarters of for the Order of the Phoenix to be loud and all hustle and bustle twenty-four seven. They were fighting an evil Dark Lord, after all, and since the Ministry wasn't cooperating with the Order, you would think that they would be working extra hard.

There was suddenly noise above his head, and Scorpius couldn't help but be brought out of his thoughts. Edward and Dumbledore were talking quietly down the hall, and while both seemed to glance above them, they weren't brought out of their mysterious conversation. A few moments later, Scorpius saw the tip of a peg leg coming down the stairs, which was quickly followed by the rest of Mad-Eye Moody. For some reason Scorpius started to sweat.

If Albus thought that meeting a younger version of his grandmother was awkward, meeting his teenage parents was beyond any form of awkwardness he could describe. He was the same age as his mother, and only a year younger than his father, for goodness sake! He was running through different answer to some of the question he thought they must want to ask him, but the only thing he came up with was that he hoped they wouldn't ask him about girls. He already had that horrible conversation once, and he wasn't planning on having it again.

One thing that he did notice was that he was taller than his father. That didn't seem like much of an accomplishment, since Harry shorter than average at this point in his life, but hey, it's all about finding the bright-side in everything.

Of course, Harry and Ginny seemed as though they had even less of an idea of what was going on... which they probably did. Ed probably had the most comprehensive knowledge of time travel of anyone here, but Albus at least knew what had happened.

Albus looked at his parents and his parents looked at him, and the three of them didn't say anything for what seemed like an eternity. Luckily, dearest Grandma Molly decided to be the one with the initiative. "So this is Albus."

"Um, yeah, I'm Albus. I'm... well, I'm your son. I'm fourteen, and it looks like you'll be stuck with me for a little while."

Albus gave a weak smile while he scratched the back of his head. He didn't really expect them to do anything. It was obvious that he would do the same thing in their position.

Harry snorted and went to sit down in one of the kitchen chairs.

"Don't give him that look, Harry," Ginny said. "It's not his fault."
Harry sighed. "I know. It's just hard to believe."

Scorpius didn't know why Mad-Eye Moody scared him so much. The man is a legend, both as a dark wizard catcher and as the leader of the Order of the Phoenix after Dumbledore's death. Plus, Lucius Malfoy is a Death Eater at this point in time. That just makes things even worse for poor old Scorpius.

For Moody's part, he just ignored Scorpius and set both his normal and magical eye on Edward.

Ed shrugged. "It's more entertaining this way."

Moody raised his eyebrow. "If you say so. Now if you don't mind, Dumbledore, I'm going to be taking our young friend here out for a bit. I suggest not letting the Malfoy there do anything stupid."

Dumbledore smiled. "Duly noted."

And with that, Scorpius was left alone with the elderly professor.

"What a fascinating young man," Dumbledore said.

"If by fascinating you mean most likely to horribly murder everybody he knows and get away with it, then yup, he's fascinating," Scorpius said.

"It is better that then someone who deceives everybody around them."

During their conversation, a grinning Molly came out of the kitchen door.

"Ah, yes, Molly," Dumbledore said. "How are they doing in there?"

Molly's expression looked like what a "humph" would look like if it were a facial expression. "I swear I brought Ginny up better than to judge someone based solely on their school house. Sorted that out quite quickly, and everything else has been rather staggered since then."

The woman looked around the hallway. "Where did Edward go?"

"Mad-Eye has taken him under his wing, it seems," Dumbledore said.

"That seems like an interesting combination," Molly said. "Now Scorpius, why don't we find out where you'll be staying."