'If you've forgotten anything, we'll send it to you' Draco called, as the gleaming, ruby red train pulled away from him. He looked up at his son's excited, smiling face. His reply was barely audible above the sound of the steam engine and the many of people yelling their goodbyes to the train's passengers. It was hard for him to believe that his only son was now seventeen years old and yet this was his first day at Hogwarts.

In 2009, when Scorpius was two, the Ministry of Magic finally made the decision that eleven was, in fact, too young to begin a magical education and that young wizards and witches had to attend muggle schools until they were sixteen and start Hogwarts when they came of age a year later. They said their reason for this was so that everyone had some muggle qualifications so when they graduated from Hogwarts they had the option of going into a magical or muggle career. However, most people suspected that the real reason was because of pressure from parents and Hogwarts professors after 16 underage students were killed (the youngest being a 13 year old girl who did not get out of the castle in time) during the Battle of Hogwarts in 1997.

Scorpius Malfoy was pale, blond and of average height. He had high cheekbones, pale brown eyes and a pointed chin. He was very much like Draco had been at that age. His mother was called Xanthe-Maud Malfoy, although most people just called her Xanthe. She was two years younger than Draco and they had met at Malfoy Manor while she was interviewing his father for the Daily Prophet. She had shoulder length strawberry blond hair and blue eyes and was a witch on her mother's side. She had lived with her grand parents until she married Draco in a large ceremony in the gardens of Malfoy Manor. Scorpius was born 5 years later and although she and Draco wanted another child they never had one.

Scorpius sat in a compartment near the middle of the train. He had arranged to meet James, Albus and Rose on platform 9 ¾ but because of his nerves and the slight chaos of the platform, he had completely forgotten. Until now.

He sat alone in the little compartment hopefully watching the crowds of people walking past the window for any sign of his friends but there was none. Occasionally somebody would look at him, see that he was alone and give him a pitying smile but still they carried on walking. One or two people saw him on is own, nudged their friends, whisper something to them and laugh or sneer at him.

After half an hour, he had given up any hope of his friends finding him. He climbed up onto his seat to reach where his trunk was stowed and got out his copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. He was just reading about Lethifolds when the heard a timid little knock on the door. He tried not to let the disappointment show on his face when he saw it wasn't any of them. He should have known they wouldn't knock like that. Actually he should have known they wouldn't knock at all, they would just burst in. Standing at the window was a nervous looking girl. She slid open the door.

'Is it alright if I sit here? Everywhere else is full.'

Scorpius merely nodded and went back to reading. He glanced at her over the top of his book. She was looking at him with mingled curiosity and possibly even a little bit of hurt that he hadn't spoken to her.

She was quite pretty. She had long golden brown hair tied back in a low side ponytail, hazel eyes and glasses with thick, dark purple frames. She wore a dark red t-shirt with bold black writing on the front. He started trying to read it but then realized he was staring somewhere he shouldn't. He quickly moved his gaze back up to her face. She was looking at him with raised eyebrows.

'I was just….your top' He said quickly 'I mean…. The writing… I wasn't… Scorpius.' He said feebly. She looked very confused.

'Sorry?' She said. He tried again.

'I'm Scorpius and I wasn't staring at your….yeah. I was just trying to read your top. Not that there's something wrong with your top. I just wanted to see what………. it ………. Said.' He faltered. 'Please talk. Please just make me shut up.' He said, very embarrassed. The girl looked amused.

'I'm Katie Jones.' She smiled. Just at that moment, James burst in, closely followed by Albus and then Rose.

James looked at Scorpius who was sitting very red faced in a corner of the compartment and then at Katie who was grinning and blushing slightly. James smirked at Scorpius. 'Hope we aren't interrupting anything?' He said, but sat himself down next to Katie anyway. Albus and Rose laughed and they both sat down on Scorpius' seat.

James spat a Bertie's every flavour bean that he had been chewing into his hand. He contemplated for a moment then said 'bellybutton fluff.' Rose handed him a tissue she had pulled from the pocket of jeans, looking almost as disgusted as he did, but probably not for the same reason.

'How do you know?' She asked.

'I just do. I, by the way, am James Potter.' He said, turning to Katie. 'That is my cousin, Rose Weasley-Granger and my brother Albus Potter.'

'Oh, hi, I'm Katie.' James looked shocked and disappointed that she hadn't recognized his last name.

'Are you muggle born then?'

'Er, yeah I am, I'm the first witch in my family. When I got the letter I thought it was a joke so I didn't reply for ages and some one had to come to my house and explain it to me and my parents.'

They carried on talking this way for a couple of hours. Katie was telling the about the life she had left behind and James and Rose told her about the magical world. Albus occasionally spoke up but Scorpius stayed silent and watched Katie. James was telling Katie about the Battle of Hogwarts.

'So anyway, when my dad came back to life…'

'He came back to life?!' Katie asked, surprised

'Yeah, cool, isn't it? Well there was this massive battle going on so no one noticed when his body had gone missing. By the time the Death Eaters realized it was too late, he had already got to Voldemort…' James finished telling his story while Katie listened, fascinated. When he finished there was a long silence, which Katie broke.

'So I take it none of your families were Death Eaters?'

'Well…' Albus started.

'Oh look its dark, we'll be there soon. We need to get our robes on. Come on Katie, we can get changed into the toilets.' Katie nodded, they got their robes out of their trunks and went to the toilets. As they were leaving, Rose turned around and glared at Albus. When they had gone, James kicked him hard on the shin.

'What?!' Albus yelled

'What the hell did you say that for? Katie doesn't need to know about Scorpius' family'

'It's not like their still Death Eaters!'

'So what, don't you remember what we thought when we first found about it? And its obvious he likes her! He was staring at her the whole time, looking all gooey. I thought he was looking at me first, worried me a bit actu-'

'SHUT UP!' Scorpius roared, the people in the compartment opposite looked over, clearly alarmed. 'Just get changed' He muttered.

'Sorry' the brothers said in unison. They were shocked; they had never seen him like that.

'Just leave it.' Scorpius whispered. He turned away from them and carried on changing.

'So what did the Death Eaters actually do? I mean, I know they killed people, but why?' Katie asked. Rose hesitated for a moment then decided to tell her the truth, she would find out sooner or later.

'They killed muggles and muggle borns. They thought all wizards should be pure wizard, no muggle blood. They thought they were superior to everyone else.'

There was a long silence then Katie said 'oh' very quietly.

When they had finished changing, they went back to compartment. No one talked for the rest of the journey. Scorpius looked at Katie; she gave him a small smile. He smiled back.

She must never find out the truth.