"What's the hurry?" Scorpius asked, panting slightly as he hustled to keep up with his longer-legged friend.
"Nothing," Albus mumbled.
"I mean, I'm as eager as anyone to get this muck off," Scorpius wrinkled his nose in disgust, "believe me, but surely it could have waited until you were done talking with your cousin? She seemed friendly enough—maybe she'd have waited while we washed up, then we could have gone looking for the library together? I mean, we don't have any more classes today, either," he continued, "and it might be fun."
Albus said nothing.
"We could still go back and catch her," Scorpius offered. "I'm sure she hasn't gone far."
"No thanks," said Albus. He was looking very fixedly at his feet.
"Albus…" Scorpius slowed to a stop.
Albus continued on a few more steps, then sighed and leaned against the wall. He closed his eyes. "Yeah?" he asked, his voice heavy with defeat.
Scorpius looked at his friend. He thought about what it would be like to be in Hufflepuff, or in Gryffindor, or even Ravenclaw. He thought about the look of disappointment he could imagine so clearly upon his father's face; the shame on his mother's. He thought about the chill dismay of grandparents, and of a long line of ancestors staring down the branches of the family tree and finding their last descendant wanting.
He thought about Slytherin, and he thought about family. He thought about the look of brokenhearted horror on Albus's face when the Hat announced his fate, and the way his own heart had fluttered when it had hesitated to name his own.
"Never mind," he said. "Come on, let's go wash up. Maybe we can scout the castle a bit so we won't get so lost trying to find our classes tomorrow. We might even stumble into something interesting—it's Hogwarts, right? So you never know." He tried a cheerful smile and was relieved when Albus offered a wan one of his own in return.
"Right," said Albus, "you never know."
Albus cast one last, mournful look over his shoulder along the hallway down which Rose had disappeared, then he followed Scorpius down to the dungeons. He tried to ignore the voracious butterflies working to eat him from the inside out, and asked Scorpius about his favorite Quidditch team instead.
By the time they crossed the main staircase they were so mired in amiable debate over the disparate merits of the Harpies and the Wasps that Albus never even noticed his brother walking past with his boisterous gang of Gryffindors.
But James Potter saw him.