The plan came to him just before he went to bed. After about four hours of formulating he finally came up with a solution that would allow Albus to talk to Scorpius without being hex'd. Potions. Slytherin's and Gryfindor's had potions together every Wednesday and as luck would have it tomorrow was Wednesday. It was also common knowledge that a Scorpius had advanced transfiguration lessons before potions on a Wednesday and as such was always about ten minutes late, given the fact that a new potions master was due to start teaching today the rest of the class would be prompt as to make a good impression. All Albus had to do was show up five to seven minutes late and he would be partnered with the only remaining individual not yet in the class: Scorpius. All was set, the plan was pretty much fool-proof providing that no-one else forgot their books and had to go back for them but provided it was the first day back, the chances were slim. As it stood, Albus was four and a half minutes late and starting to sweat, what if this doesn't work? He thought as he approached the potions classroom and counted to sixty, pretending to pant he entered the room.

"Sorry I'm late, I forgot my book and had to run back to get…" Albus' speech was staggered as he saw the woman at the front of the room, in a high waisted black pencil skirt and a white blouse she wore a high pair of red heels and bright red lip-stick that was a far cry from professor sprout's dumpy attire. She was stunning. "…it."

"Why hello there Mr?"

"Potter."

"Mr Potter, care to take a seat?" Albus nodded and slowly turned to regard the class; he realised his plan had worked when there was only one desk available with two seats in the centre of the room. Albus hated sitting in the middle.

"As I was saying, my name is Mrs Mathews and I will be your potions teacher throughout the year. I was previously the headmistress of a magic school in the USA however I handed the charge over to my brother-in-law in order to fulfil my own destiny; one it seems that has brought me too…" She was interrupted bt the creaking of the door as it opened,

"Sorry I'm late, I had advanced… Paige?"

"Scorpius?" A stunned silence settled the room for several seconds before the blonde ran up to the teacher and threw his arms around her; she hugged him back just as passionately. "So good to see you, Scorpy!"

"You too, I can't believe you're here. How are the children and Henry?"

"They're fine thank you, and how's your father? I haven't seen him since… well, you know."

"He's OK. You know father, if the source himself couldn't kill him nothing can."

"I'm glad to hear he's well." Scorpius looked as if he were thinking something over in his head before just deciding to say whatever it was.

"Can I ask how he is?"

"Who, Wyatt?" Scorpius nodded, "He's fine. He misses you, and he's still single just in case you wanted to know."

"Hah! After Andrej I don't think I'm going to be opening that door again anytime soon" She rubbed his arm,

"Again, I'm sorry sweety. That must have been rough."

"Yes well did I expect?"

"You expected him to stand by you," someone in the room cleared their throat as to remind the involved parties of their remaining presence. "Sorry about that, please take a seat Mr Malfoy. Class is in session." Scorpius' eyes swept over the room before he saw the only remaining seat; he simply raised an eyebrow and strolled over to sit beside Albus.

"Right class, you have a little over twenty minutes in pairs to brew a simple but effective sleeping draught. I know that it's a tad simplistic for your age and ability levels, but I need to gauge your competence levels before I start to divide the class into smaller groups. All the ingredients and you need are over there," she pointed to the left of the room; "and all the apparatus is to the right. You may begin." Scorpius motioned to the left, you get the ingredients I'll collect the apparatus." Ten minutes later and Scorpius still hadn't said anything other than 'Chop this,' 'add that' or 'are you trying to blow us up, I said twelve times, not twenty!" Albus wanted to say something, he could understand why the other boy was mad with him and he was doing an amazing job of being civil when he had every reason to hate him, just as he was about to pluck up the courage to speak, Scoprius raised his hand. "I've finished." Mrs Mathews came over to the table, "You've finished? This was meant to be a collaborative effort."

"Yes, well Mr Potter here is of the opinion that I look like an overconfident, self-righteous prick' and he hopes that he never has to talk to me and his father stated openly that my father is, how did you put it? Ahh, yes the same horrid little prick he was in school, getting everything he wants because of his stupid fucking legacy name. Needless to say, he doesn't really want to be here." Paige blinked several times in rapid succession and Albus sighed,

"Scorpius, I…"

"Deal with your personal issues outside of the classroom, boys. Did you have any input into this potion, Mr Potter?" He shrugged,

"I chopped a few things, and I stirred but I wasn't doing it right; apparently I almost blew us up."

"Ahh, I see." She walked over to her desk and picked up a vial before returning, "Antidote" she stated. Scorpius nodded and turned to Albus, "You ready?"

"For what?" Before he could complete his question the blonde put the vial to his lips and drank the potion, falling limp almost immediately he fell in Albus' direction and he was forced to catch him. On the upside, he was relatively light and Albus caught a delicious sent of Strawberry's and vanilla but on the downside, he could tell that the entire room had stoped what they were doing to look at them. This freaked him out. Albus could see people looking at him, his first reaction was to run but he had Scorpius unconscious in his arms- logical reaction? Drop him. And that's what he did, but to the untrained eye it looked more like Albus flung Scorpius to the ground; the fact that he hit his head on the corner of the table on his way down didn't really help matters. Now people really were staring and not because he dropped him but because the blonde lying unconscious on the floor was now had a pool of blood forming quite visibly behind his head. Paige swore.

"Did you seriously just throw him like that?" she shouted, kneeling beside him and placing her hands over his head. A bright light shone from her hands and the blood retracted, uncorking the antidote she shoved it into Scorpius' mouth and he awoke almost immediately. He rubbed the back of his head.

"Why does my head hurt, and why am I on the floor?" Mrs Mathews helped him up.

"He dropped you."

"You dropped me?" Albus looked away,

"It was an accident."

"An accident, you held him for about thirty seconds before throwing him against the table; how is that an accident?" Added a Slytherin for somewhere in the background; Paige raised an eyebrow.

"Can I speak to you two boys in my office please?" The class erupted into jeers as the two followed the teacher into her office. "It seems we have a problem here."

"Yes, and for once I'm not to blame," Paige sighed,

"Scorpius, Please let me finish." He nodded, "now I don't care about your petty vendetta, Albus but the issue at hand relates to your less than sup par potions skills. My suggestion is that Mr Malfoy here, in his infinite benevolence tutors you." Scorpius shook his nead,

"No. That's simply not possible. I'm already tutoring transfiguration, arithmetic and runes not to mention doing my advanced courses in the mornings, I'm quidditch captain and have to perform all of my other extra-curricular activities. It simply won't do. I need time to sleep and do essays, I only have one free day as it is. " Paige ushered Malfoy over to a corner where some very intense muttering ensued. Eventually Scorpius sighed and nodded.

"Alright, Potter this is how it's going to go. I am going to get your cousin to take my Wednesday runes student in exchange for her Thursday transfiguration student; you will take Jennifer's place as my Wednesday student and arrive at this location two hours after the end of classes; it will give me time to set up the equipment and do some work. Are we clear?" Albus nodded, it was the only way he'd be able to talk to Scorpius one-on-one. "Good." Paige smiled,

"There now, isn't it nice when we all get along?"