Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling. Raven, Janet, and Jude belong to pnx626 of deviantart.

Children of Lies

Chapter Thirteen: A Boy Returns

Scorpius was woken up early the morning of September 1st to the sound of strange yelling. The blonde, completely shocked at the commotion, quickly wrenched himself out of bed and ran downstairs to see what was going on. He quickly discovered that his family was gathered in the dining hall, but they weren't the only ones there. Two aurors stood in the room as well, their wands pointed at Lucius Malfoy. It took all of Scorpius' willpower not to gasp when he recognized the two aurors as Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. His parents stood to the side, his father not looking at the scene taking place in front of him and his mother clutching her husband's arm, trying her best to calm herself while comforting Draco. It wasn't going too well and just made the woman fall into deeper hysterics. His grandmother, Narcissa Malfoy, was on her knees, begging for them not to take Lucius away.

Scorpius made his way across the room to his mother's side. Astoria wrapped her free arm around his shoulders and pulled her son close. "Mum, what's going on?" asked Scorpius, fear all over his face.

The one who answered Scorpius' question wasn't his mum, but Ron Weasley. "Lucius Malfoy is under arrest. We finally got this bastard!"

A heavy sob was heard from Nacrissa, as she wailed, "No! Please don't take him away! My husband is a good man! A good man I tell you!"

"Blood traitor!" growled Lucius at Mr. Weasley.

"Just come with us," ordered Mr. Potter, slowly watching Lucius Malfoy walk past him and Ron, his wand raised. As Lucius walked out of the room, he quickly followed in suit.

Ron Weasley was about to walk after them, but paused for a second to say," Don't worry, Malfoy, you're next. You may have Harry and everyone else convinced that you are innocent, but I know the truth. I will arrest you someday and force you to serve your appropriate sentence." After that, he quickly left, not walking to look at the Malfoys any more.

Scorpius pressed himself closer to his mother, not wanted to admit that the arrest of his grandfather made him happy. All was silent aside from the sobs of Narcissa.

Four hours later, Scorpius stood at King's Cross, clutching his belongings, and feeling slightly happier and much more relieved than he had all summer. His eyes habitually scanned the crowd, looking for the messy head of Albus Potter. After a few seconds of staring, he followed after his mother and helped her load his trunk into the train. His father had stayed behind at the manor, too distressed to think of seeing his son off.

After kissing his mother good-bye, Scorpius climbed onto the train and walked through, looking for a compartment. He found an empty one and settled into it by the window. After a few minutes, he felt a body sit down next to him and press into his side. Scorpius didn't look up at the newcomer; he didn't need to.

"I hope this is okay. I understand if you want to be alone," said Albus. Scorpius finally turned his head to look into his friend's green eyes.

"You sent your dad and uncle, didn't you?"

Albus dropped his gaze and answered, "I had to do something. I know you probably hate me for what I did to your family, but I couldn't just stand by."

Scorpius reached over and pulled Albus into a hug. The action caught the brunet by surprise as it wasn't the reaction he was expecting. "Thank you. Thank you so much," mumbled Scorpius into his friend's shoulder.

"You're not mad?" asked Albus, taken aback.

"No. Thank you, though your uncle will probably try even harder in his quest to find a reason to throw my dad into Azkaban," sighed Scorpius, letting Albus go.

"Wait, you're dad's done something bad, too?" asked Albus, his eyes wide in shock and concern.

Scorpius chuckled and said, "No. My father's a great man. Your uncle just refuses to forget their past."

"Tell me about things like this from now on. You know I can take care of it," insisted Albus. Then, he blushed at his error and corrected what he said with, "Well, my dad can."

Scorpius nodded. "I definitely will, thanks."

A knock on the door of the compartment dragged Albus and Scorpius out of their conversation. They looked at who had disrupted them and saw their dorm mates standing just outside, looking annoyed. Jude was banging as hard as he could on the door, screaming, "Come on, you love birds! Let us in!"

Albus laughed and stood up to pull open the door. The four other boys quickly piled in and sat down in the vacant seats. Within minutes, the compartment was filled with loud chatter.

"I played so much Quidditch over the break that I'll be sure to make the team!" bragged Jude, grinning.

"What rubbish are you going on about?" teased Nate.

"Yeah, what position?" laughed Raven along with his brother, completely unconvinced of Jude's talent for the game.

"I'm gonna be a Beater!" grinned Jude while puffing out his chest. "Are any of you lot trying out?"

"I might, but I don't know for what position yet," said Duncan timidly.

"I'm sure you'll figure it out. The six of us can practice whenever the pitch isn't in use and we'll help you," offered Albus.

"What about you, Al? Are you trying out?" asked Duncan.

"Oh no. I'm absolutely rubbish on a broom, but maybe I'll get better as we practice," admitted Albus, but he knew the chance of that was slim to none. He had always been terrible at best.

Jude gave Albus a weird look, refusing to believe Albus' words. "Isn't your father Harry Potter, youngest Seeker in a century, your mum Ginny Potter, ex-member of the Holyhead Harpies, and your older brother a brilliant Chaser for Gryffindor? How can you be rubbish at Quidditch?"

Albus blushed bright red and said, "I don't know. I just am. I'm also a Slytherin; that's not a Potter trait, either." Jude wanted to say something as a retort, but nothing came to him so he just sat there with a sour expression as a response.

"What about you, Scor? You going to try out?" asked Albus in an attempt to steer the conversation to a new topic, his face returning to its normal color.

Scorpius shook his head. "I didn't practice at all during the summer hols. If I tried out, it would just be embarrassing. There's always next year."

There was a knock on the door just then and the boys turned to stare at the familiar Hogwarts trolley. The boys looked at each other with large grins on their faces and the compartment was quickly filled with snacks. His mouth full of chocolate frog, Scorpius pulled out a wizard chess set and him and Albus became lost in the game. Mid-way through, Scorpius asked, "So did you find anything out about gay people?" making sure that everyone else was too preoccupied to listen to them.

Albus shook his head. "Not much. Nothing that we didn't know already. What about you?"

"My research wasn't productive, either, but now we can start straight away. With our combined effort, I'm sure we can discover something," suggested Scorpius, wanting the project to take his mind off things.

"Can't wait! Any excuse not to do History of Magic homework!" laughed Albus.

"Normally I would say something about that, but even I sleep in that class at times," sighed Scorpius. Albus just ended up laughing even harder in response.

The train arrived at the Hogwarts station and all the students filed off the train quickly, eager to arrive at the magical castle and to participate in the wondrous feast. Hagrid was seen in the same place as the year before, calling for all first years to follow him.

"What do we do as second years?" asked Duncan.

"There's some carriages that are supposed to take us up to the castle. I haven't the faintest idea where they are, though," answered Albus.

"I think that might be them," said Scorpius, pointing. As they got closer, they found a group of cartridges parked together near a gate.

"What's pulling them?" asked Duncan.

"Thestrals," answered Albus. "At least that's what Auntie Luna always told me."

"Why can't we see them?"

"You can only see Thestrals if you witness death," explained Scorpius.

"Your pa told you that?" asked Albus.

"Not exactly," shrugged Scorpius. "I read it in a book."

Albus rolled his eyes and mumbled, "Typical Scor," but his lips pulled back into a smile, betraying his amusement. He followed the rest of the group towards one of the carriages and climbed inside. They were met with Rose, Fred Weasley, Cedric, James, and Louis. "Do you have room for six more?" asked Albus.

"It'll be a bit of a tight fit, but-" started Fred, but he was cut off.

"Only if you can tell me if you have or haven't seen Janet," demanded Cedric. "We lost her in the crowd."

"Sorry, no," admitted Raven.

Rose bit her lips in worry. "Do you think she'll be okay?"

"Probably," said Scorpius as they all climbed inside. "She'll probably just take another carriage."

Rose blushed in embarrassment upon realizing her lapse in judgment. "Oh, okay."

There was a rap on the open door and everyone turned to see Brett standing there. "There you are, Jamie," said the sixth year, a smile on his face.

"Hi, Brett," deadpanned James. Louis and Albus flashed the older Potter boy a concerned look.

"Aw, come on! Is that any way to greet your friend who you haven't seen all summer? I'm in the carriage one over. Why don't you come?" taunted Brett with a grin.

James sighed. "Okay. I'm coming."

"Can I come, too?" asked Louis.

Brett rolled his eyes, but said, "If you really want to." James and Louis climbed out of the carriage after him, shutting the door behind them once they were out. After a minute, the carriages took off for Hogwarts castle. Albus sat there, chewing on his lips in worry. Scorpius looked at him in concern, wondering why Albus was so distressed. Albus saw Scorpius looking at him and just shook his head to tell the blonde that he didn't want to talk about it.

The carriage was silent as it headed towards the school. Most of the occupants were tired and wanted nothing more than to curl up in their warm beds. The excitement of seeing each other had worn off and they wanted to save any conversations for when they were well rested. Scorpius, the most exhausted of any of them, ended up passing out on Albus' shoulder. Albus was slightly embarrassed that his friend would do something like that in fear of the jests he would receive from the others, but made no move to push the blonde off. Regardless of anything Albus had expected, none of them paid Scorpius and Albus any mind. Rose, however, refused to look in their direction for the whole trip and instead peered out of the window.

Finally arriving at the castle, the nine occupants climbed out and made their way inside. Upon entering the Great Hall, Fred walked off to the Gryffindor table. Rose and Cedric ran towards a surprised Janet at the Ravenclaw table, screaming in glee at finding her. The rest of the group found their place at the Slytherin table.

The tables were very much bare, Albus noticed. Then, he remembered that they were to witness the sorting this year. The brunet turned to Scorpius and asked, "What do you suppose our new housemates will be like?"

Scorpius looked at him oddly. "Probably like the rest of us, but clueless. Besides, what about your family? I'm sure there will be another Slytherin somewhere."

Albus snorted. "Not very likely. I'm most likely the only one. We're a family of Gryffindors, after all. In any case, none of my family is to be sorted this year."

Scorpius grinned. "Really? I expected a new Potter-Weasley every year I'm here. You lot breed like rabbits." He got a punch in the arm from Albus in return, but that didn't dampen Scorpius' good mood.

The Great Hall soon became quiet as the headmistress, Professor Sprout, stood up to speak. "Everyone, welcome back to another year at Hogwarts. Very soon, we will begin the sorting and after that, the start-of-the-year feast. Your timetables will be passed out during the feast as usual. Before we begin, I would also like to take the time to introduce our new Transfiguration professor, Martha Williams. Professor Harkness has needed to take some time off because of personal reasons and Professor Williams is here to take her place."

A short woman with long, dark hair stood up. A shy smile was on her face as she scanned the crowd of students. "I'm honored to be teaching at this school and I hope to be a brilliant teacher for all of you, one that can live up to how wonderful Professor Harkness I'm sure was," she said and quickly sat back down.

"Something bad has happened to Professor Harkness. I can feel it," whispered Albus, a serious expression on his face. Scorpius gave him a weird look and chuckled, amused by his friend's bizarre theory.

"Without further ado, lets get to the sorting," said Professor Sprout. She walked back to her seat just as Professor Longbottom walked in with a gaggle of first years following behind him. The eleven-year-olds all looked nervous and half of them were fidgeting while staring awkwardly at each other. Scorpius and Albus both wondered if they had been like that the year before.

First year after first year was sorted. Scorpius didn't pay much attention, but he couldn't help but notice the students that were sorted into Slytherin. About four of them walked over with their heads held high, seeming to be proud about where they were placed. Even more looked absolutely nervous. The fact that they had heard the rumors about their house was written all over their face. One girl bounded over happily and began chatting animatedly to the random third year next to her.

The feast started and just like last year, Albus dived straight into the food. Scorpius didn't feel all that hungry, but he ended up eating a large plate full. After dinner, completely sated, Scorpius followed Albus up to the Slytherin common room and to their dorms. The two boys came to find that the old "First Year" sign had been replaced with a "Second Year" one, but otherwise their dormitory was exactly as they had left it the pervious year. Right outside their room was a pile of all six of their trunks.

Without even kicking off his trainers, Scorpius crashed onto his bed. He felt completely worn out and wanted nothing more than to fall into deep sleep. Suddenly, the door crashed open and the other four roommates spilled in, laughing and talking loudly. Scorpius groaned and rolled over to glare at them. "Shut up! I'm trying to sleep!" he huffed.

"Come on, Scorpius! You're ruining all the fun!" taunted Jude as he picked up a pillow and tossed it at the Malfoy. The pillow knocked into Scorpius' shoulder and rolled onto the bed.

With a sigh, Scorpius got up and sat down at the foot of the bed. In the bed next to him sat Albus with Duncan on the ground. Jude and the twins sat in the bed across from Albus. "We have class tomorrow. Is this really a good idea?" whined Scorpius.

"Relax a bit. We haven't seen each other in weeks. Don't you want to catch up?" offered Raven.

Scorpius stayed silent for a second. Then he answered, "I do, but I've had a long day. Tomorrow after class, okay?" He didn't wait for a response and just crawled back into the bed, closing the curtains. The whole time Albus watched the blonde; concern hidden behind what he hoped was a straight face.

To Be Continued…

A/N: Here we are at chapter 13, which I ironically started on September 1st and only finally posted it six weeks later. This is what a busy schedule does to you; no editing time. Whatever you do, don't ever be an overachiever. I think my schedule will clear up somewhat pretty soon, but it's still gonna be pretty hectic.

Here's to hopefully making next weeks "deadline"! And please review! Thanks so much!