Chapter 4

By the end of my first week at Hogwarts, I had discovered that the food was always fantastic, nothing like the questionable cafeteria food I had had at my old school.

"Where's Albus?" I asked Rose on the Monday of my second week, noticing his absence for the first time.

"Oh, he's a Ravenclaw. Didn't anyone tell you?" replied Rose, her mouth full of scrambled eggs. Sure enough, when I glanced over at the Ravenclaw table, I spotted him talking animatedly to a girl with light brown hair in a bob cut and very pale skin.

"No, they didn't," I said, mostly to myself. "Who's that girl he's talking to?"

"Oh, that's Clarice Longbottom. Her dad's the Herbology professor. All of our dads are really close friends, so she's always over for dinner and holidays and stuff."

"Are they, you know, together?"

Rose almost choked on her pumpkin juice. "Merlin, no! They're just good friends. Trust me, a bunch of people, including me, tried to get them together last year. It was a disaster; Al wouldn't talk to me for a week."

I smiled. "Hey, where did you get that timetable from?"

"Under the plate. You were probably too busy stuffing your face with bacon to notice, though." I smacked Rose's arm. "OW!" I then pulled out the heavy piece of parchment out from under the plate.

"We've got Potions first. Great. I get to start out my week in the dungeons." I grumbled, remembering what Rose had told me about this particular class. "And it's with the Slytherins!"

"What's so bad about Slytherin?" asked a drawling voice from behind me. As I turned around, I saw a very pale boy with sleek blonde hair standing behind me. He wore a green and silver Slytherin tie and badge. "Malfoy. Scorpius Malfoy. And you are?"

I hestitated. He made me nervous, like the guys at my old school who would pretend to be nice before making your life miserable. "Allie Lancaster."

He sneered. "Muggle-born?"

"Yes," I said, knowing that I was blushing. "What's it to you?"

"Nothing," he said. "Except that Hogwarts ought to be for purebloods only. Mudbloods like you don't deserve to be here."

I had no idea what he had just said, but I heard Rose, James, and Will gasp. "You take that back, Malfoy," said Will angrily. When I looked at him, I saw that his wand was out, as were Rose's and James's.

"You know what?" said Scorpius, slowly drawing his wand. "I don't think I will." Then, all at the same time, the four of them cast curses.

"EXPELLIARMUS!"

"LEVICORPUS!"

"LOCOMOTOR MORTIS!"

"FURNUNCULUS!"

I was between the line of fire, and having the worst reflexes in the world, I didn't duck fast enough. At the first yell, I felt my wand fly out of my pocket and halfway across the hall as I fell out of my seat, shins knocking painfully on the table. Then, quite suddenly, I found myself being held upside down by an ankle. As Rose yelled, I felt my legs lose feeling and clamp together. Finally, as Scorpius's curse reached me, my skin erupted in pain. I saw boils growing on my hand as I flailed about, screaming. Soon, the pain became unbearable, and I blacked out.

I could feel warm sunlight pricking at my eyelids, and someone was breathing beside me. After what seemed like a lifetime, I managed to lift my heavy eyelids. The room blurred, drifting in and out of focus, until I found a single face looking down at me expectantly. Will.

"Allie!" he breathed, looking relieved. "Are you okay?" I looked down at myself. The boils were gone.

"I think so," I said. "What happened?" He grimaced.

"All of our curses got you at the same time. Al, I'm so sorry! I really didn't mean to hit you."

I sat up slowly, pleased to see that the room had come into clear focus and stopped spinning. "Will, it's okay. Besides, you just disarmed me. It was Malfoy who sent the Furnunculus Curse, wasn't it?" At this, his face darkened and he looked murderous.

"I am going to kill him," he growled.

"Will, if you kill him you'll be expelled. You're going to have to settle for hexing him into oblivion, okay?"

"Don't think that I won't, either," he said in an undertone. Just then, the nurse bustled in.

"I see you're awake, Miss Lancaster. I am Madam Pomfrey. How do you feel?" I sat up.

"Fine," I said. "A little tender, but I think I can go back to classes." I started to get up.

"Oh no you don't, missy!" she said sternly, pushing me back into bed. "You can't leave until I run a diagnostic spell on you. And you'll need to rest for at least another hour. Besides," she said in a kinder tone, "you'll want to open your presents." I looked at my nightstand, and sure enough, there were a few packets of candy and notes.

I groaned. "Madam Pomfrey," I said, trying to channel innocence. "It's the first day of classes. I'll miss the introductions and important stuff! Can't you just cast the spell and let me leave?"

"Absolutely not," she said, drawing her wand. "Now, just relax while I run this spell and then you can eat some of your candy." She began waving her wand and muttering some quick incantations. A funny, ticklish feeling swept through my body and then she tapped the wand to a piece of parchment. A full medical description appeared. "Very well, you seem to be recovering just fine. I'll let you go in an hour. Mr. Lancaster, I suggest you get back to lunch. I'll be in my office if you need me."

"Well, I guess I'll see you at dinner, then," said Will.

After he'd left, I examined my candy carefully. The first thing that caught my eye was a bag of the same type of jelly beans that Lily had been eating on the train. Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, the label read. Hmm, well I suppose I can't go wrong with jelly beans. I ripped open the package and popped a little pink one into my mouth.

"Blech!" I said, spitting it out immediately. The taste had reminded me suspiciously of soap. I looked at the bag again. On the back, it said We really do mean EVERY flavour!" I decided to try a lumpy brown one. Mmm, hot cocoa! I spent a good part of the hour tasting the beans, getting caramel, marmalade, grass, roast chicken, and an odd puke-coloured one that tasted suspiciously like mucus just to name a few. When I had finished nearly half of the bag, I looked back at the rest of the candy and noticed a small, folded piece of parchment hidden behind a box of chocolates from some place called Honeydukes. Pushing the rest of the candy aside, I opened it and read:

Allie,

I'm sorry.

Scorpius

I leaned back, shocked. Scorpius Muggle-borns-are-scum Malfoy had apologised to me! What was going on?