OK sorry it has been three weeks. I quite smoking. I have been an absolute shite and I did not want to take it out on my characters. I am better now. I no longer want to run around biting random strangers.
"Come on. Lils." Scorpius threw himself dramatically at my feet. "You don't even like them."
"No, Scorpius! They are terrible for you!" I don't even know why Uncle Ron had sent me this whole stupid box of chocolates anyway. "Probably REALLY terrible for you since they have WWW on the box. Can't you just satisfy your sweet tooth with a nice apple or something?"
"An… apple..? Are you BARKING?! In no way is an apple a replacement for chocolate." Scorpius flopped over in a huff. "You have gone on such a health kick since joining the Quidditch team."
"That's our girl." Elizabeth ruffled my hair on her way past. "Gotta have our new seeker in top form."
"Tch." Scorpius scoffed. "Lils is already in top form."
"Top. Form. Malfoy." Elizabeth clipped out. She grinned wickedly. "Or did you mean something else?"
"What? No!" Scorpius turned beet red which went terrible with his hair. "I didn't mean anything else by it at all!"
"Like what?" I was really confused looking back and forth between Scorpius and Elizabeth. "What else could he mean, Beth?"
"Come to my room tonight and we will have a girl chat." Elizabeth giggled.
Just at that moment Albus had entered the room with his normal gloomy self. "Oh shove off you harpy and stop trying to poison Lilliana with your feminine wiles."
"At some point you two will have to realize that Lilliana IS a female." Elizabeth laughed. "Tootles." She kissed her fingers at me.
I scootched over. "What is wrong Albus? You look upset."
"James birthday." He glared at the table.
"Well, it can't come as a surprise, mate." Scorpius shrugged pragmatically. "He has one every year."
"Yeah, well I wish they would just make it about him and not about his loser brother." He tossed down the paper on the table that showed a smiling Uncle Harry, Aunt Ginny and James in Diagon Alley and a few other places.
The first part of the article, naturally by Rita Skeeter was some saccharine sweet garbage until:
"… one can only assume that Albus thought that that being different would make his father pay more attention to him than his more popular Gryffindor sibling. Clearly that does not appear to be the case with the black sheep of the Potter family who once again is missing from the otherwise perfect Potter family…"
I sighed… "Albus you know that isn't true…"
"Do I?" He asked glumly? "Anyway it doesn't matter what I know, does it? It is what THEY believe!" He waved his arm around the common room
A lot of people suddenly had better hings to do when I glared at them.
"Hey!" Scorpius jumped up "Know what we have done in a while? A walk around the Black Lake for… you know…." He looked at me for help.
"Right!" I hopped up grabbing my jumper. "Our regular reality check walks."
Albus raised his eyebrows. "We take regular reality check walks?"
"We do now. This is the second, so that counts as regular." Scorpius informed Albus in his most pedantic tone. "Now you can put on a jumper or you can freeze, your choice." And heads for the door.
He means it too. When Scorpius says it is time to go, he just… goes. He runs on this internal time clock only known to himself.
Albus knows this too and after quick back and forth with himself, he grabbed a jumper. We learned last time it is COLD on the other side of that lake.
"Hey Lils, you better grab a … oh…" He saw I was already wearing a jumper and scarf.
"What?" I laughed. "You think this is the first time I have been on 'Scorpius Time'?"
"Ok, two points." Albus held up a finger.
"Don't you start." I laughed and slung an arm around his shoulder.
We reached the door outside just in time to see Scorpius coming back towards us.
With a big smile and wide open arms he turns us around. "It is a great day to take the back door!"
"The caste has a back door?" I look over at Albus."
He throws his hands up. "Ask Scorpius, he has read the book three times."
"The castle has a book?" OK, I know the castle has a book, I was just very confused.
"You have really lost it this time mate." Albus marched us right out the front doors where James was surrounded by his groupies.
"Hey!" James waved "How's it going Al! I picked up some…"
"It's Albus." Albus snarled through gritted teeth.
I shrugged apologetically at James. And followed my best friend through the trees towards the lake.
We walked in silence for about an hour until we had found the same small grotto we sat in when I needed to chat last time.
"Hey Albus." I propped my head against his knees. "Do you want to talk about it or just have us sit here while you think about it?"
Wrapping his arms around my shoulders he he dropped his head down on mine. "I just want to think about things for awhile if that's OK?"
"You bet!" Scorpius leaned against my legs and pulled out a book.
We sat like that for a long time, just the three of us. It kind of felt like it would always be the three of us. And it didn't feel like that was a bad thing. I was too young to care about things like boyfriends or girlfriends. Was I gay or straight? Or both? I just knew that right now all I needed was my two best friends.
One day we would be separated by adult struggles, looking at Uncle Harry, Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron told me that. But they were all still best friends, and we would be too.
And our kids would all be family and love each other, and we would have cook outs and family vacations.
I was getting drowsy imagining Albus as Uncle Harry and me as a blonde Aunt Hermione and Scorpius as a blonde Uncle Ron.
But that was kind of weird because Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione are married.
I mean totally weird right? You can't go around marrying your best friends. Because then who would your best friend be? Just as I started to get in to this really weird dream about the sorting hat trying to sort me in to a new group of friends I was shaken awake when Albus stretched.
Albus sighed. "I didn't ask to be different you know. I didn't ask to be in Slytherin."
Scorpius and I looked at each other sadly and back at Albus and nodded.
"I am just nothing like my Dad and not like my Mum either." He blew a puff of air from his cheeks. "They were popular and Quidditch players. And my Dad was all Chosen One and destined to save the Wizarding World. And I am just this weird awkward guy who is in the wrong house; I am not popular, not athletic, and not really good at school work. I am just… abysmally average. I will probably be a desk worker."
I wasn't really sure what was so bad about that, so I wisely kept silent.
Albus went on. "James, he is brilliant. He is good at everything. And everyone loves him. He is athletic, popular. He gets good grades. The girls love him. Guys love him. Higher forms of plant life love him. He is in the right house. The press sure loves him."
"Not sure I would call Skeeter press, mate." Scorpius finally spoke up.
Albus ignored him.
"And Lilly. My sister Lilly, not you." He clarified. "She is the baby, and adorable and looks just like a Weasley, so of course she can do no wrong. If I had even got the red hair, you know?"
I shrugged "No?"
"No I shouldn't have got the red hair?" Albus looked at me confused.
"No I don't know what you mean…" What was the big deal about red hair?
"Well… All Weasleys have red hair?" He looked at me like that was obvious.
"Aunt Aly doesn't." I pointed out.
"OK… Aunt Aly…" he admitted.
"And Roxanne and Georgie." You know because Aunt Angelina is black and all.
"OK… but…" Scorpius had started snickering.
"Besides…" I looked down. "I did…"
"You… did… what?" It was Albus turn to look confused.
"I… umm… I asked to be in Slytherin." I admitted. "And I think I cursed myself with being a mudblood." I held up my hand when they started to protest. "You can argue all you want, it won't change what people think about me especially being in Slytherin. Because I wanted to be different from my grandparents."
Albus and Scorpius frowned.
"What do you mean?" Albus asked.
"Nope." I shook my head. "This trip is all about you. "Next time it will be Scorpius turn. Then I will get a turn again to talk about me. That way it is fair. See?'
"Well…" Scorpius cast a time spell. "We have been letting Albus talk for an hour. What if you talk for an hour then I talk for an hour and we walk back in time for the evening meal. Will that satisfy your sense of fairness?'
I know my friends were just being concerned… and a tiny bit nosey… the same as I would be… so I nodded… "As long as you ALSO share!" I glared at Scorpius.
He grinned back and shrugged. It is not his fault he walks around like he has a charmed life. I know he he doesn't really and I want him to open up.
I had never really talked to anyone about this so I took a deep breath.
"My Mum… she died when I was two."I stared off into the water as I started talking. Scorpius took one hand and Albus took the other. "Father was at work. Albus was at primary school. Mum normally picked him up. I should have been with Mum that day, but grandmother came and picked me up for a special day out. She didn't really trust Mum to teach me manners. Mum came from Wales and had "funny ways about her" grandmother said. When we got home there were bobbies in pandas out in front of our home."
Scorpius interrupted. "I am sorry… there were men named Robert on furry animals outside?"
I shook myself out of my memories and almost laughed… "Ummm no… the police, muggle Aurors, we call them bobbies because they were started by a man named Robert Peeler and pandas are the muggle cars they drive because they are black and white, see?" It was clear he was still confused, but Albus shushed him.
"Grandmother took me to her house. My grandparents were not discrete in discussing the matter in front of me. They seemed to take lurid delight in describing to one another how she was too weak and lazy to stay alive because there was nothing wrong with her… she was just… dead."
"Merlin…" Albus muttered. Scorpius just looked grim.
"They said so many awful things about so many people." I continued. "They said Uncle Harry's parents were drunkards on the dole. Given money by the government for living expenses." I explained before Scorpius asked. "And died in a car crash. Father said not to believe everything they said. They were awful people long before they cut me off. I used to pray to be completely unlike them when I grew up. So you see? They would NEVER be wizards, and they would never be in Slytherin and…"
"Merlin, Lil's you can't curse yourself to be a witch… that's not how that works!" Albus hugged me around the shoulders. "But they do sound like right foul gits.
Scorpius had been very quiet. But finally he asked. "What do you mean you asked to be in Slytherin?"
"Well…" I smiled "Both of you were in Slytherin, so I sat there and kept saying "Slytherin, please Slytherin" and so it put me in Slytherin."
"You are completely metal, you know that right?" Scorpius actually looked pretty impressed. I am not certain if he was impressed that I wanted to stay with them or that I had proven myself fit for being institutionalized.
"Your turn!" I sang out
"Too late" Scorpius smiled. "We have to get back before dark."
He always weasels out of talking about himself.