Carter

"I still can't believe you did that." I said to Scorpius as we sat in a compartment waiting for the others.

I was still on his case about the hair dye. I knew that he liked it but even the tiny bit of regrowth that he'd gotten since we'd don't it was looking ridiculous and I knew that the more it grew, the more ridiculous it was going to look.

"I was sick of being told I look like a mini version of my father." Scorpius responded.

I suppose I could understand where he was coming from. Scorpius Malfoy was his father in everything except personality. From what I could tell while the two shared some personality traits it was instantly recognisable that Scorpius was a much better person than his father had been at his age.

The only problem I'd noticed Scorpius facing was the fact that they looked almost identical. This caused nearly everyone to cast the same judgements over Scorpius as they had over Draco. That, along with the pain caused by the death of his mother, were the reasons Scorpius had dyed his platinum blond hair brown.

Well, he'd told me about the not wanting to look like his dad part. I'd assumed the other half of it.

"Now you just look like everyone else in our year." I tried to tell him again. "Besides, I don't see anything wrong with looking like your dad. He's a pretty decent guy."

Scorpius gave me a look that meant trouble. He knew my opinions of his father. He knew that I liked the man. He just couldn't work out why.

Before Scorpius had a chance to question me the compartment door slid open to reveal Rose and Milla.

"Carter, what did you do to Scorpius?" Rose asked as she and Milla sat down.

"Hey, this one wasn't me." I defended.

I understood why he thought it was me. I had enjoyed turning both his and Scorpius' hair Weasley red. It had been pretty funny.

"Besides Scorpius and Albus looked great as Weasleys." I laughed. "I thought you agreed with that much Rose."

It didn't take long for both the girls to join me in my laughter. I knew that the girls had found it amusing when the boys had red hair. I suppose they liked seeing both Albus and Scorpius looking less than perfect. Although I'm not too sure why they were so mad. The red hair made them both look rather different to their dad's.

"What happened to your hair?" Albus asked Scorpius as he stood in the doorway.

He had gotten to the compartment while the girls and I were laughing at Albus and Scorpius as Weasleys.

"He was sick of being a mini Draco." I explained. "Personally I didn't see an issue with it. Draco Malfoy has been nothing but kind to me."

"I can talk for myself you imbecile." Scorpius said giving me a shove.

The entire compartment burst out in laughter. He really didn't like me saying nice things about his dad.

As the train began to move I looked around at my friends before realising something.

"I should really go find Ivy and Gwen." I said getting up from my seat.

I hadn't seen them in ages, Ivy longer than Gwen, and I really should see them. I looked over at Albus and Milla. I wanted more than anything to leave Rose and Scorpius together. They clearly needed to sort some things out, some to do with Scorpius hair, mostly to do with the throw away comment Scorpius made last year about Rose becoming Rose Malfoy.

"I want to go meet Ivy." Albus said getting up as well. "She's probably going to end up spending more time with my family in the future, you know, what with Gwen becoming so close with James now."

"Ooh, I wanna meet Ivy too." Milla said.

Good, they both worked out what I was trying to do. I got a glare from both Rose and Scorpius. They didn't want to be left alone. Well tough luck.

"Bye, see you later." I said as we ducked out of the compartment.

"We should get back to our compartment." Albus said to Milla and I once I'd returned from my trip to visit Gwen with Felix and Ivy. "At least make sure Rose and Scorp haven't killed each other."

"I think I'd be more worried about Scorpius being bald." Milla laughed.

"She didn't seem to like it too much." I said. "Even had the nerve to blame me."

"Well you didn't exactly stop him from doing it now did you?" Milla asked me.

"I may have actually been the one to put the dye in his hair." I admitted.

Milla began hitting me.

"Why would you do that?" She screeched.

"He wanted it to be brown." I told her. "I wasn't exactly going to shut him down. Not after everything else."

Milla was silent. I didn't have to actually say it. She understood.

"How bad did it get?" Albus asked. "Gwen level?"

"Not Scorpius, he was alright." I said. "We still talked. He wasn't like I was though. Didn't bounce back immediately. It took him a couple of days but he never shut everything out. Draco was another story. He locked himself in the library. If Narcissa hadn't been there I don't think he would have eaten or even interacted with me or Scorpius. It wasn't nice."

They both just nodded. It was hard to talk about how Draco had reacted to his wife's death. I knew their marriage had been and arranged one but I also knew that the two of them had grown to love one another very much. It had been hard to see a grown man so heartbroken like that. He was still young. He didn't deserve to be going through all that.

We had reached the compartment.

"Please don't say anything about what I told you." I told the others. "I don't think Scorp wants you all to know how badly his dad is coping."

Again they just nodded. There wasn't anything really to say to my request but I knew it made perfect sense to them. Scorpius was very closed off. He didn't like talking about his feelings. He preferred people to think he didn't have any.

I opened the compartment door and saw Rose and Scorpius sitting rather close to one another. As soon as they realised that we were there they moved as far apart as they could without actually standing up.

"Oh on, don't move apart for us." I said to them. "As you were."

I clapped my hands at them in hopes that they would return to their previous positions. They didn't. Milla had a better idea. She walked over to where Rose was and indicated for her to move down so the two girls could sit beside one another. This mean that Rose was almost as close to Scorpius as she had been before. I call that a partial success.

"I see you're both still alive." Albus commented.

They gave him a strange look. I don't they realised how bad some of their arguments could get. It was a rational fear for us to have. The two of them being left alone could be nuclear.

"Scorp still has his hair as well." Milla commented looking over at Scorpius.

Albus, Milla and I all started laughing at this. It was a little amusing.

"Okay what are you three talking about?" Scorpius asked us.

"We were speculating what the compartment would be like when we returned." I explained. "Albus thought you'd have killed each other and Milla thought Rose would have pulled Scorp's hair out."

"You lot are crazy." Rose muttered.

We started laughing again. It was kind of funny.

Then the compartment door opened again.

"Hey, sorry to bother you guys." Adeline said looking over at Scorpius, her eyes widening at the sight of his now brown hair. "How are you going? How's Draco?"

Scorpius looked over at me. I don't think he really wanted to talk about it. I think that look mean I could explain.

I shuffled down on the seat creating space between Albus and I. Adeline understood what I was doing and shut the door coming to sit in the space for her.

"I'm fine Addie." Scorpius said.

"Your hair definitely screams fine." Adeline said.

"Leave him be." Albus said.

Adeline rolled her eyes.

"I was just concerned for my cousin." She explained. "Mum's been completely out of it. Dad has to force her out of her room some days. We're all worried about you and Draco though. I imagine Narcissa would be fine. She doesn't seem like one to let these sorts of things bother her."

"Grandma's fine." Scorpius said. "We're all fine."

Adeline looked over at me. She'd found out I was living with the Malfoys. I think she thought I would give her information that Scorpius wouldn't. I looked over at Scorpius who just nodded at me.

"Scorpius has been fine, really." I told her. "Draco on the other hand has been shutting himself up in the library. He only eats because Narcissa makes him come down for meals. I think it might be a good idea for your dad to try to talk some sense into him. He's almost Gwen level bad."

Adeline was confused by my final statement. Sure she knew of Gwen. Who didn't? Aside from the Potters and Weasleys, Gwen was one of the most well known girls in the school. Partly because she was friends with a fairly large group of Potter and Weasley children but mainly because of James' obsession with her.

"Gwen completely shut down when her parents died." Rose began to explain. "It was rather dreadful. She barely spoke to anyone. She kinda just sat in either her dorm or James' dorm and moped."

"She got better over the summer though." Albus continued. "Less moping, more messing with James. She still has a bit of trouble. Mainly the mornings after…"

Albus trailed off. I was confused. Was there something we shouldn't know? I'd have to ask him later. Gwen's my sister after all. He should be able to tell me at least. Although, maybe Gwen swore him to secrecy.

"Did you see that article about her in the Daily Prophet?" Adeline asked us. "I couldn't believe some of the things they said about her."

Albus started laughing.

"What happened?" I asked him.

"Gwen was rather annoyed at the article." Albus explained. "She had a little argument with James which ended with him chasing her around the house and throwing her over his shoulder. Apparently he refused to let her down until Mum told him to. Then he just dropped her on the ground and ran."

"I'm sure she loved that." I laughed.

"What was James thinking?" Milla asked. "I know he doesn't seem very clever but dropping her."

"Yeah, I know." Albus said.

We were all laughing at James now. It was kind of amusing. Sometimes I didn't know what was going on between him and Gwen. She didn't seem to hate him anymore which was good for him.

"Well, I'll send Dad an owl, Scorpius." Adeline said standing up. "He might be able to help Draco."

"Thanks Addie." Scorpius muttered.

"You don't have to leave." Albus told her.

"I really should be getting back to Roxanne." Adeline said smiling at Albus. "She and the others are expecting me back."

"The others?" Rose asked.

"Alice, Lucy, Lorcan and Lysander." Adeline said. "I've found that group's a whole lot better than the Slytherin girls. All they want to talk about is how attractive you lot are and I don't find myself enjoying that sort of conversation."

She had motioned to Albus, Scorpius and I as she talked. I tried not to laugh as she waved goodbye and left the compartment. As soon as the door was closed though all five of us burst out in laughter. We couldn't believe that we were the main topic of conversation with the Slytherin girls the year below us. It was rather amusing.

Albus and I were sitting in the dorm. Fletcher hadn't made an appearance yet and Scorpius was in the shower. I thought now was the best time to ask Albus about Gwen.

"Hey, Al, what were you going to say on the train about Gwen?" I asked him.

"What do you mean?" He questioned.

"She only has trouble the mornings after something." I said. "You stopped. What wrong with her?"

Albus looked around the dorm as if expecting to find someone. Then he moved over to sit beside me on my bed. Clearly it wasn't good if he was acting like this. I was worried about Gwen. Although she seemed fierce she was fairly easy to break. I didn't want anything to hurt her.

"Well on the first night Mum and Dad had put Gwen in Lily's room." Albus explained. "James and I aren't allowed to share a room you see. Dad seems to think we'll destroy the house. And well, Lily's a girl so Mum and Dad put Gwen in there."

"Great, sleeping arrangements." I said sarcastically while rolling my eyes. "What has this got to do with anything?"

"Everything." Albus said. "Well, that night Gwen had a nightmare. She started screaming in her sleep. She woke Lily up who ran straight to Mum and Dad crying. James and I also woke up. I was a little confused but James ran straight to Gwen. He was able to calm her down. Gwen was moved into James' room after that. She still gets nightmares although she no longer wakes up the whole house with her screaming."

"What makes them better now?" I asked him.

"James." Albus admitted. "Some mornings Lily and I would get told to wake James and Gwen up and we'd find them both in one of their beds rather than separate. Mum and Dad knew about it of course. They don't really mind because they know why it happens and they also know that James would never do anything to her."

I just nodded. I could understand why Gwen was like that. She used to join me in my room when she couldn't sleep. Ivy was the same, crawling into either mine or Gwen's beds. Sometimes all three of us would end up in one bed. that mainly happened when there were bad storms though.

"It was a bit of a shock the first time I had to wake them up and I found them like that." Albus continued. "It's not like they just sleep beside one another. They're always completely wrapped up in one another."

"Gwen can be a bit clingy." I said.

She'd always been like that though. She never wanted someone to leave her alone. I knew being alone was her biggest fear. I was just glad she had someone who made her feel safe.