"Are you looking forward to the new classes you will be taking this year?" Scorpius was already reading his new text books.
We were finally back on the train on our way back to school. I really felt like I was getting my routine down. Pack my new things in to my trunk. By hand, which I quickly found I did not like. Magic was absolutely spoiling me. My father would drive me to Kings Cross Station where I would meet the rest of the family.
My father seemed to be getting more comfortable with the train station, but who knows? He no longer looked around like he was expecting to be attacked at any moment.
Home life had also settled in to a routine. Both Angus and I did homework, mine was just on parchment and done with a quill. Usually. Mostly out of tradition I supposed, but a nice regular pen seemed like a luxury these days.
And I still had not seen anything of my grandparents. I wondered sometimes if they would ever forgive me for being different. I always knew when they telephoned while I was at home because if I answered they hung up. It wasn't worth fighting about so I just stopped answering.
Not like their stupid attitude and not being able to answer the phone affected my social life. How could it? I didn't exactly have one. It was pretty amazing that in one year Hogwarts and the magical community had become my whole world. I didn't even really want to hang out with any of my old friends.
Sometimes Abigail from next door and I would go swimming but that was it. And I think she was mostly hoping Angus would be home. It was no secret she had a big crush on him.
So I knew when the telephone rang it would never be for me.
Scorpius and Albus didn't call on the phone anyway, they owled me. Once even Rose sent me am owl asking what I was planning to wear for the first Hogsmeade trip. She wanted to go shopping for an outfit.
Thankfully their owls all hung around and waited for my response. As much as I loved Amata, she wasn't going to be carrying any letters or packages to Albus or Scorpius for me. The one time I suggested it, jokingly of course, to her she looked at me in disgust and later I discovered she had pooped in one of my shoes.
So gross. I don't know if she was punishing me for my suggestion, or for leaving her behind when I went to Italy or just, you know, being a cat.
Her preening on my lap brought me back to the present.
"Well…" I looked down at the transfiguration book I wanted to get started on before classes started. "You know how your Mum was so smart she got to skip a grade?"
"Yeah?" Scorpius looked up excited.
"I will be having the exact OPPOSITE experience." I stroked Amata. "I will be lucky to graduate before I am 30."
"Come on, Lils." Albus laughed. "You aren't THAT bad. You are even pretty good at potions."
"Yeah, ONE subject!" I grabbed one of his licorice wands. "I barely passed my charms exams. And my mouse still smelled like matches. Burnt matches."
"But you DID pass." Albus tried to grab back the licorice wand so I licked it all over proving ownership. "Gross, it is yours." He conceded. "And no one is going to care tem years from now what you got in first year."
"Yeah, it is the O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s you have to worry about." Scorpius the Ever Helpful reminded me.
"Which I will probably fail." I said miserably, turning back to my book. "No matter how good I am at potions you can't find a decent career with a N.E.W.T. in ONE subject."
"You won't fail the rest. Not if you study."Scorpius tapped his book.
"Studying won't make me stop being muggle born." I frowned. Logically I knew that my blood status had nothing to do with my intelligence or my abilities. But It was hard not to think about the things people whispered about me behind my back.
"Your problem is NOT being muggleborn." Scorpius put his book down. "Aunt Hermione is muggleborn and she is brilliant."
"And Minister of Magic." Albus added.
"And you are…" Scorpius started.
But I cut him off. "And I am her complete opposite. In every conceivable way."
"I was going to say unfocused."Scorpius firmly finished. "But I have an idea. In 2023, just five years from now, the Potions Championship will be held. And this year it will be at Hogwarts."
Albus and I looked at each other in confusion.
"How do you always know these things?" Albus shook his head.
Scorpius looked surprised. "How do you NOT? We go to the same school."
"We occupy the same physical space." Albus laughed. "But I am not sure we are actually having the same scholastic experience." We all laughed at that. I am absolutely certain without these two I would have had a miserable time at Hogwarts.
The first week of school was fine. Pretty good even. Scorpius grabbed a few books from the library on advanced potions and I even talked to Professor Slughorn about the chances of my entering the Championship tournament.
He thought about this for awhile and finally nodded. "If you are willing to work very hard and study, perhaps. You have shown a natural talent. But you will have to take extra classes with me and commit yourself to this task."
I was actually getting a little excited. Maybe I could do this! "I will professor!"
Professor Slughorn smiled at my enthusiasm. "Very well then. " He handed me a small key. "In the alcove just before you get to the restricted section you will find a cupboard. There are some books there that should help you with the lesser known qualities of some of the ingredients you will be working on."
I took the key "Thank you professor! I won't let you down!"
"If you work hard enough," He winked at me, "you may even earn yourself an invitation to the Slug Club."
He handed me a list of the books he wanted me to study and sent me off with a warning about how hard I would have to work.
After lunch I showed Scorpius and Albus the key.
"Wicked!" Scorpius grinned. "I wouldn't mind a peek at those books myself."
"Only you would refer to books as wicked, Scorp." Albus laughed.
"Not so, I bet Aunt Hermione would too." Scorpius laughed as well. That was the thing about friendship. We could tease each other and it was OK.
Albus snorted. "I doubt Aunt Hermione has ever said the word "wicked" in her entire life."
We went straight to the library. Scorpius and Albus set up at a table and Scorpius put out plenty of ink and parchment. And by plenty I mean several dozen feet.
"Are you planning to copy the entire contents of those books?" I looked at him, juts a teensy bit concerned for his sanity.
"Only the pertinent parts." He assured me.
"And how will you know which are the pertinent parts?" Albus asked suspiciously.
"Well…" Scorpius hesitated.
"I think the answer to your question" Albus grinned at me "is yes, he intends to copy the entire contents of those books."
With all of us laughing I went to the cupboard Professor Slughorn told me about.
He had been a little vague about the contents of that cupboard. I assumed I would just find the potion books. There were sooo many books in there.
I finally found the ones I was looking for and was getting ready to head back from the table when I heard a sneering voice from behind me, "Trying to copy Harry Potter, are you?"
It was Polly. Because of COURSE it was Polly.
"No, not that it is any business of yours…" I started, but her mocking laughter cut me off.
"Living in a cupboard won't make YOU anything LIKE Harry Potter." Polly rolled her eyes. "As IF!"
"What…." I was confused. "What are you talking about?"
"Oh SHE doesn't know, this is rich." Polly turned to Yann. "After what her filthy muggle family did to The Chosen One and she doesn't even know."
What my family had done what to who now?
I heard Albus behind me, in a colder voice than I had ever heard him use. "Shut up about my Dad, Chapman."
"I am surprised he still lets you call him that after all of your failures and now fraternizing with the enemy." She smiled maliciously between the two of us.
Me? Uncle Harry's enemy? What was she talking about?
Albus stuck his wand under Polly's chin causing her to yelp. "I said Shut. Up. About. My. Father."
I was kind of glad that Madame Pince came just then to see what all of the noise was about/ Albus looked a little scary.
We left the library, Polly stalking off in a huff about how she didn't want to be in the library with our kind anyway.
"Ummm…. Albus…" I had no idea how to start this. "Why would Polly say I am your Dad's enemy?"
"Because she is a stupid bitch?" Albus glared after her.
"Yeah but…" I hesitated.
"You are going to have to tell her, mate." Scorpius looked at me sadly.
Albus ran his hand through his hair. "Yeah, shit, you are right. I mean it should be up to my Dad, but once again he is leaving the awkward talks to someone else."
"Yeah… could we leave your father/son issues out of this for the moment, and just tell me what she meant?" How could I be Uncle Harry's enemy? He had been in my life since I was a baby! He sure never treated me like an enemy.
"Yeah… just not here. Let's take a walk around the Black Lake." Albus shoved his hands in his pockets.
"Around the WHOLE lake? It is HUGE!" I protested.
"Yeah, well, it is going to be a long story." Albus wouldn't quite meet my eyes.
We grabbed a few sandwiches and apples and headed out for that walk. And what would turn out to be a very disturbing talk.
"So… you know how your grandparents are about your magic?" Albus started.
"Yeah…?" Oh yeah, I knew all right.
Albus nodded in understanding "Well, they ignore you. They kind of did the same with my Dad. Except he had to live with them."
"They… ignored him?" That didn't sound too bad… maybe.
"When they weren't treating him like a servant, making him wear your Dad's old clothes and starving him." Albus continued.
OK…. That sounded worse… way worse.
We walked around that entire lake, eating our sandwiches and apples at some point while Albus and Scorpius told me the most horrible things that they had heard about Uncle Harry's life with my grandparents.
And my father. "My father once told me he wanted to be a better man, a better father, to us to make up for having been a not so nice child. He said he had been mean to Uncle Harry, but I never imagined this."
Seeing how close I was to tears, Scorpius spoke up. "None of this is your fault, Lils. And your Dad, well, he was just a kid."
"But this… stuff…" I was trying to wrap my head around it all. "This was child abuse! How could anyone have just left Uncle Harry there?"
"Well, I guess Dumbledore knew that Voldemort would return. And even if not his followers were still out there. That my Dad would still be in danger." Albus shrugged uncomfortably. "I guess he figured better with your grandparents even if they were awful, than dead."
I wasn't so sure. Better for who?
...