When I first saw my friends again, they just looked at me expectantly. Even when I'd put my luggage on the rack above us and sat down, ready to enjoy the train ride to Hogwarts, they were still giving me the same hopeful, worried, excited expressions.
"What?" I asked curiously, looking across at Rose and Albus. James was beside me, and Hugo on my other side, and Lily had the window seat on our side- she sat next to her eldest brother. Hugo and Lily would be getting sorted that night, but neither looked fazed- they'd be Gryffindors and they knew it.
"Did you read it?" Rose leaned forward, her eyes dancing with excitement.
"Of course I read it!" I sputtered out in shock and annoyance.
They looked at me, waiting. "Well?" they prompted.
I sighed and glanced out the window, watching the hills roll by. I looked back to everyone. "It informed me very well on everything I wanted to know basically, but in a very negative light; it twisted facts and…" I pinched my nose with my fingers, as if I had a headache. "I'm just glad it's over with."
"Scorp-"
"Can we just let it go? I don't want to talk about it." I let out, exasperated.
"Oh c'mon Scorpius-" James started, but Lily smacked his arm and said, "Leave him be James! Gosh, there's a reason I prefer to talk to Albus or Rose, not you. They actually have a brain." She smirked and the rest of us did our best not to burst out laughing while James shouted in protest.
The rest of the ride passed without a flaw.
The Sorting was fun to watch as usual, and seeing Lily and Hugo up there was like seeing the brother and sister I never had. I was their "god brother", as I liked to call it, as my parents were their godparents. The only thing in the back of my mind that annoyed me was that I watched from the Slytherin table, and all my friends- even newly sorted- were in Gryffindor…well besides my gang.
But on the Brightside, I'd get to go to Hogsmeade now, something James used to hold over Albus, Rose, and I's heads, but we knew he'd get to tease his sister and cousin now- as they were fresh bait- 1st years.
Well, maybe not his sister, I came to conclude as I saw how overly protective he was of her. You could tell it was like the relationship of my mum and uncle, or Aberforth and Ariana Dumbledore. While Albus, Dumbledore and Potter, was mostly preoccupied with everything but family.
Another change this year was that after I'd returned the Death Eater book to the library, the Potter and Weasley children could now talk freely with me about my family history- I'd learned everything basically from the book- it was a loophole, and they, or rather we, took advantage of that. The only difference from the book though, it they told it how it really was.
By the time for the Hogsmeade trip rolled around, I concluded that this year would be the best one at school yet.
For the first Hogsmeade trip, we gave over our forms to McGonagall, waved bye to Lily and Hugo- who by now I treasured as much as Albus, James, and Rose, and we set off the road to the village. On the way there, Albus said, "Thank god we're not orphans or anything. Dad wasn't able to come to Hogsmeade in his 3rd year"
"Why not? What about his guardians?"
"The Dursley's wouldn't sign." They explained the Aunt Marge story and I laughed. "Pathetic." I managed to say and shook my head in pity. "So how'd he get here?" There was always a catch. I wasn't dumb enough to believe Mr. Harry Potter couldn't find a way to bend the rules.
"With a little help from the invisibility cloak- now in Albus' position, and the Maurader's Map- now in mine- he found a secret passage that lead to the village, or rather Uncle Fred and Uncle George told him when they gifted him the map.
"They were quite the jokesters, and this map was gold to them. But they ultimately decided that Dad needed it more than them. Ask Uncle George- true story." James had popped up and continued on with us as he butted in the conversation.
"Maurader's Map?" I asked, puzzled, over Albus' cry that James had no friends to hang out with.
"This." James pulled it out of his pocket. It was old, folded parchment, or so it seemed. "I solemnly swear I am to now good." James told the paper and tapped it with his wand. On the front of the map was the title and the creator's names.
"Wormtail is Peter Pettigrew." James pointed while Albus muttered, "Traitor he was."
"Moony was Remus Lupin…died in the Battle of Hogwarts-"
"I know, Teddy is his son."
"Right. Anyway, Padfoot is Sirius Black, and Prongs is my granddad- James Potter the 1st."
"So they created this map…and they were troublemakers. Interesting matching…smart." I acknowledged.
"To clear the map so teacher's will see it and think it's just old parchment, say "Mischief Managed."' He did so, and like he predicted, the paper went clear.
"Nice hand-me-down." I grinned.
"He also got Uncle Harry's Firebolt for Quidditch, didn't he?" Rose smirked.
"I heard he lost it though." I frowned.
"Nah, he used Accio one night after the war and an hour later the broomstick came crashing through the window into his room." James explained.
I laughed. "What a considerate object, breaking windows."
"Hey, it's old, but great." James defended.
"Okay, whatever you say." I laughed again, but knew it was true. James on that Firebolt in the past; he was still evenly matched with me. The first Quidditch match this year would be Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. The last of the year was us going face to face- Slytherin and Gryffindor. But that match was months away, so I let the subject drop.
"While we're joking around so much, let's head to Zonko's for a bit." Albus put in his two cents.
After we were done in Zonko's, we visited all the other traditional spots like the Three Broomsticks for a classic butterbeer, or the Hog's Head to say hello to Old Man Aberforth.
Finally, we exited the last shop we were willing to go into- Honeydukes, and we looked up to the Shrieking Shack.
"Ugh, I'm so full on these sweets." Albus had groaned, while James grinned and said, "I can't wait until supper!"
I made a face and said, "That's disgusting. How can you eat that much, it's revolting."
"Well, we can't all be as pompous and elegant as you Scorpius. You're a Malfoy…a pureblood." Rose teased.
"What's that?" I pointed in the distance."
"Oh the Shrieking Shack. Locals say screams and shrieks used to be heard from the shack, and everyone thought it was haunted- but it was just Lupin during his transformations. You know the Whomping Willow? Also built for Lupin- a passageway under the tree leads to the shack." "Obviously we're talking about Remus, not Teddy- in case you were confused." James added the last part quickly, and Albus frowned at him before continuing on with his history lesson.
"Our parents had quite the scare in that shack. Sirius Black turned out to Dad's godfather. Pettigrew was alive and he had framed Sirus for his deeds, and then Lupin turned and they had to escape…and the rest is history." Albus wisely summed up when he saw our bored expressions. We were almost up the hill now.
"Mum and Uncle Harry had to time-travel. They used a time-turner. I hear it's still in the Headmaster's Office. Dumbledore and McGonagall never returned it. I heard they actually played with it, adding more gadgets and features to it. James confirmed once it's still there- he apparently saw it." Rose piped up.
"You two enough!" James yelled at them. "You're not much better then Binn's' lessons."
"I thought it was interesting." I muttered, looking at my feet.
Albus gave me a worried look, like I shouldn't be interested in the time-turner business.
"Well, we've heard all these stores of our parents adventures far too many times. You, on the other hand, haven't. Here for instance, in this very spot, your dad was being his usual dick self and he thought he was superior because he was pureblood and rich and crap. Dad had his cloak on, and used his invisibility to his advantage- to get back to Malfoy for mocking his best friends by lobbing snowballs at him and such. To your dad- they came out of nowhere." James snickered, and I laughed.
"Dad told me some of this once. He was sure the ghost from the shack was attacking him."
By the time our snickering and giggling had subsided, we decided we should head back to Hogwarts for the day, but as we passed an alleyway, I froze, devasted by what I saw. Patricia's aunt, Pansy Parkinson, was kissing my father, or he was snogging her. I couldn't tell. His hands were on her shoulders, and her arms were around him.
...
...Ooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh. :OOOOOO
ReViEw! xD