Disclaimer: You know the drill by now. I did not invent the internet, I did not invent Toaster Strudel, and I did not invent Harry Potter. Welcome to Chapter 5!

Chapter 5: Back to School

"Scorpius!" Al cried, "Where have you been? We were getting worried we were going to need to send out a search party!"

"That's . . . well, that's actually rather flattering," said Scorpius, standing and stretching. They followed him into a corner away from the goggling first years.

"How long have you been up here?" Rose asked. "Oh, and hello and all that, only I feel like we just saw you at the Ministry and . . . erm . . . in Flourish and Blotts . . ." she trailed off, realizing that perhaps it was best not to bring up the incident in Flourish and Blotts right now.

"Yes, and wasn't that exciting," Scorpius said in a tone that invited no further discussion. It was hard to tell because he was so pale, but Rose thought his might have gone slightly pink. "I've been up here for ages, feels like," he continued more lightly, "I watched the House Elves bring all of the trunks in from the Hogwarts Express and everything."

"Why'd you miss the Feast?" Al asked.

Rose said nearly simultaneously, "Why weren't you on the train?"

"My father," Scorpius said in a tone that sounded almost surprised, "Was late." He shrugged.

"Late?" Rose asked.

"He was late getting me to the train. Turns out that the Hogwarts Express waits for no one, even the Malfoys."

"How'd you get here?" Al said.

"It was extremely tiresome, actually. We had get all of my trunks and everything back home, and then we had to Floo to some of Father's friends in Hogsmeade, because, you know, you can get past the wards to the castle from the town on certain days if you know it's there and if you're with a student, but you can't really get onto the grounds from anywhere else –"

"I've read Hogwarts, A History," Rose interrupted.

"Yes, but Al hasn't."

"Fair dues," said Al.

"So we had to levitate my trunks the whole way, and Filch had to meet us at the gate to let us in. By the time we got here, the Sorting had already started, and Father didn't want me interrupting the 'ceremony' in the Great Hall – he said it wouldn't be proper – so Filch said he could have the House Elves send up some food to the Common Room. You know," he broke off musingly, "I think Filch likes my dad. I've never seen him be that nice to anyone."

"I thought . . ." Rose said hesitantly, "I thought maybe your father had pulled you out of Hogwarts after all, after Flourish and Blotts."

"What, and sent me to Durmstrang?" Scorpius scoffed.

"He did seem pretty upset," Al said.

Scorpius looked seriously between Rose and Al. "Listen, I wasn't sure whether to say anything . . .," he began. "But my dad did tell me I shouldn't associate with you anymore, for my own safety."

Rose could feel her blood thrumming in her ears. How could Mr. Malfoy think that? Was Scorpius going to listen? "But – " she began.

"You're our friend!" Al said fiercely.

Scorpius held up a hand. "Obviously that's rubbish. I'm not going to stop talking to you because our parents don't like each other. Even my mum said he was being ridiculous."

Rose and Al exhaled twin sighs of relief.

"We didn't . . . we wouldn't have put you in danger on purpose, you know," Rose said. She didn't know she'd needed to say this to him until it was already out. She needed him to know – it wasn't as though she had been trying to be careless with his life, with everything that happened last year. He was her friend, too. She felt a sudden surge of guilt; she'd never even apologized. "But . . . I am sorry that it wound up that way. I never said it, but . . . you know we didn't mean to . . ."

"I know, Weasley. It was my choice to go with you last year. Into the Forest, to the Shrieking Shack." Scorpius looked down. "I'd do it again, you know."

"If we had to do it again, we'd want you there," Rose said quietly.

"We wouldn't have gotten out of any of it without you," Al said, eyes shining with earnestness.

Just then, the rest of the second years piled into the Tower and their little corner was overwhelmed. Everyone wanted to know the story behind Scorpius's mysterious absence and reappearance, even if there didn't seem to be much of a story after all. Everyone except Melisenda, who, Rose noticed, was still missing. She wanted to ask Scorpius if he knew his grandfather was in the castle and why he might be here, but it didn't seem like a good time.

She took it all in, instead. The excitement of her friends to be back, the loud chatter about each House's Quidditch prospects for the year, the rapid-fire plans to join the Gobstones club, or the Wizarding Chess club, or the Cooking Club, or – in Willow's case – to audition for the Hogwarchestra. She noticed a few of her classmates' eyes sliding over to the new first years surreptitiously, usually after some story from last year or knowing comment about the start of courses. It was nice to not feel new this year; sure, they were still some of the younger students in the school, but they weren't the youngest. They were in the know. They weren't first-years anymore, goggling around at the common room and the portraits on the walls and the games of Exploding Snap that had popped up and Fred and Louis holding court loudly with a bunch of other fourth-years. They weren't glancing shyly down at their feet. They belonged. Well, so did the first-years – they just didn't know it yet.

It was nice to belong.

Up in what was now the second-year girls' dormitory, Rose found another small surprise. One corner of the room was now occupied by a wire cage that contained, of all things, a rabbit. Someone had taken great care to ensure that the rabbit was comfortable; there was fresh hay in the bottom of the cage, a water bottle hung from the side, a little food dish, and, inside a small wooden structure in the cage, what looked like a tiny bed. Clearly the rabbit was meant to be here. Still –

"Why is there a rabbit in our room?" Rose asked.

"I've no idea," said Katie.

"I thought it was yours," said Willow. Rose shook her head mutely. "Well, it seemed more likely than it being Melisenda's. She'd strangle a rabbit before she'd crochet it a little bed."

Annabelle puffed up the stairs. "Oh my goodness, we have a rabbit now!" she exclaimed immediately. "How cute! We have to name it!"

Rose had the strangest suspicion that this was the same rabbit that had been placed in Al's bed the previous year. Still, as far as she could tell, 'Chelsea Bun,' as Katie and Annabelle had decided to call the rabbit, was just that – a completely ordinary rabbit. With a very cute nose. Shaking her head, she climbed into her four-poster bed and drew the curtains.

. . .

Breakfast the next morning was a quieter affair than the Welcome Feast as students came to the sober realization that classes – and homework – would start today. The second-year Gryffindors would have Transfiguration first thing with Hufflepuff and Herbology with Slytherin.

"Having to deal with Callister first thing on the first day of school," Al grumbled over his enormous stack of bacon, "Ugh."

"Cheer up, Al," Scorpius said, "It could be worse."

"Could it?" Al asked.

"No."

"I guess if we had it with Slytherin . . ." Rose said. "Oh hang on, Malfoy, I forgot! Did you see your grandfather at all last night?"

"Did you say – my grandfather?"

"Yeah," said Al. "Your dad's, er . . . Lucius. He was here last night, sitting at the High Table."

"He was here?" Scorpius asked, quirking an eyebrow, "I'm surprised they let him in." He thoughtfully buttered a piece of toast. "What was he doing?"

"Not much," said Rose, "Just sitting. Talking to Callister. And he asked to see Melisenda," she added, remembering, "and then we didn't see her for the rest of the night." Or this morning, she thought, but there was nothing new about that. Melisenda had made most of her friends in other houses – well, just Slytherin, really – and spent as little time in the company of her fellow Gryffindors as possible. "Do you know why he would be here?"

"I've no idea," Scorpius said. He looked at the skepticism in Rose's face. "Honestly, Weasley. I really don't know. I see Grandfather and Grandmother Malfoy twice a year; they don't much like my mother, and they don't much like me now that I'm in Gryffindor." He shrugged, so obviously casual that Rose didn't quite believe it was genuine. "It's a crushing loss, I assure you."

"Hmmm."

"Strange, though," said Al, putting down his fork.

"That my grandfather doesn't like me, or that I don't much care?" asked Scorpius.

"That he showed up on the one night you weren't at dinner," said Al.

Now Scorpius put down his fork. "Well . . . yes."

"Hmmm," said Rose, and got no further because that was the moment Louis and James turned up with an empty cage, looking for a mouse they had named "Sheila" so they could try feeding her to Wolfgang – provided, of course, that they could find her.

. . .

Their first Transfiguration class was nothing less than an unmitigated disaster. Callister had, characteristically, not wasted any time. He'd announced that they would begin mixed Transfigurations this year – more complex spells that would require them to Transfigure living objects into non-living objects (or vice versa) – and had set them at turning beetles into buttons. Since they were approximately the same size and shape, this should have been the easiest possible mixed Transfiguration. No one was having much success, though, and it was clear that Callister was growing displeased.

Looking up at where the professor was pacing back and forth across the front of the room, Rose took a deep breath and focused her mind into the tip of her wand. She murmured the incantation with the proper poking wand motion, and POP. A small black button sat on the desk in front of her. Al groaned.

"Professor!" she called, raising her hand, "May I have another beetle?"

"Miss Weasley, if you squashed your beetle I –"

"No, Professor, I did it!"

Callister strode over. "Well done, Miss Weasley," he said grudgingly, "Ten points to Gryffindor for being the first of this lot of dullards to perform the simplest possible mixed Transfiguration." He handed her another beetle. "Now do it again."

As Callister walked away, Katie leaned over. "Oh, well done, Rose! Can I watch you this time?"

Behind her, Rose could hear Melisenda. "May I have another beetle?" she asked in a high pitched, mocking tone. "May I lick your boots, Professor? May I –"

"Must you, Wilkes?" Scorpius said, turning around.

"Must I what, Malfoy?"

"Must you be this insufferable, all the time?"

"Oh, have I hurt your feelings, Malfoy? You don't like it when I make fun of your girlfriend for being a snobby know-it-all?" Melisenda said snidely. Rose opened her mouth to protest, but Scorpius beat her to it.

"I don't like it when you speak at all, when it comes down to it."

"You're such a snot, Malfoy."

"Oh, that's mature."

"You are. You're a snot-brained, mealy-mouthed, pointy-faced little twerp, and you're an embarrassment to the name of Malfoy," Melisenda said savagely.

Scorpius actually looked a little taken aback; his face colored slightly pink, and he raised his wand slightly. Then something shifted, and his color drained back to normal. He sighed. "Wilkes," he said evenly, "You are going to spend your entire life being pointlessly angry at people who literally couldn't care less about you." Rose thought for an instant he was going to hit her with a hex, but instead he turned back towards his beetle. "It's just sad, really, how much your opinion doesn't matter to me."

Melisenda went red. She opened her mouth as though she were going to speak again, then gritted her teeth and raised her wand instead. She pointed it directly at Scorpius's back. Foul play! Rose's brain cried out, but it was Al, having been watching intently, who yelled a warning to Scorpius as Melisenda cast a jelly-legs jinx at him. Scorpius dodged just in time, but the jinx hit the table behind him with predictably disastrous, and very loud, results. As the table wobbled itself into several different pieces, students hurled themselves out of the way and beetles went flying. Rose saw Scorpius shot a Stinging Hex back at Melisenda, who cried out as it hit home. In an instant, Professor Callister was there, looming over the scene.

"Finite Incantatum," he said, deadly quiet. The table gave one more half-hearted wobble and was still. Students and beetles were scattered around the room. The lines in Callister's face were etched deeper as he looked down at Melisenda and Scorpius for what seemed like an eternity.

"Twenty points each from Gryffindor and detention on Saturday, Miss Wilkes, Mr. Malfoy, for irresponsible use of magic," Callister said, his voice carrying in the silence that had fallen. "And if you cause such a disruption in my classroom again, I will make sure you are expelled and sent back to your Muggle schools," he sneered cruelly,

Al looked at Rose and clearly mouthed, "Muggle schools?" but no one dared to make a sound. Scorpius looked as though he were about to be sick, and Melisenda fumed silently. Students helped repair the table and everyone took their places again. The rest of the class was conducted in complete silence. Rose's mind worked furiously. Muggle schools? What had Callister been on about? But Scorpius refused to meet her eyes.

"Class is dismissed," Callister said, sweeping back to the front of the room.

Author's Note: I'm currently doing a good amount of writing for work, which looks very different from creative writing or storytelling (and is, frankly, much less enjoyable). So I find myself procrastinating that by working on this, which is to say . . . editing is definitely on-schedule.

Anyways, let me know if you're liking the story so far! Feedback is always appreciated. This kind of writing is not what I am trained to do, and I am always trying to grow and improve. Thank you for reading, and I'll see you back here next week for Chapter 6!