Express Time
Summary: The Hogwarts Express travels for roughly 7 hours. A lot can happen during that time, including the start of an unlikely friendship. AU, Next Gen, semi-sequel to Denial
Category: Harry Potter
Genre: Friendship
Rating: K+
Characters: Scorpius M., Albus S. P., Rose W.

Scorpius was being thoughtful. That was never a good sign.

The blond strolled through the train, looking out for an empty compartment. Or, that's what it looked like to any other wanderers. In reality, he was searching for one cart in particular.

After passing by another compartment filled with five teens – third years, he guessed – he sighed. Where were they? A Weasley, at least, shouldn't be hard to miss.

Just as that thought crossed his mind, an explosion went off in the cart next to him. Chuckling, he ducked over, peeking through the window in the door. Sure enough, the two people he was searching for were sitting with a smoking table between them.

Surely they'd know that playing Exploding Snap on a moving train wasn't a good idea?

Swallowing and suddenly feeling more nervous than a Malfoy had any right to be, he knocked on the door, sliding it open slightly to poke his head in.

"May I sit with you?" he asked tentatively. The Weasley girl, who had been laughing and looking a lot like a girl, scowled at him, reminding him immediately of her father. He winced, pulling his eyes from her to look pleadingly at Potter.

Potter looked just like his father, with the only difference being his lack of glasses. They looked at each other for a long moment, then Potter sighed, nodding to Weasley.

"Let him in. I mean, look how pitiful he looks!" the boy grinned, ignoring Scorpius' affronted glare. Weasley pressed her lips thinner, then nodded sharply, jumping over to Potters side of the compartment. Scorpius smiled hesitantly at her, taking the empty side.

The silence hurt.

Scorpius coughed, biting his lip while he tried to think of something to say. Potter noticed his dilemma and spoke first, "Hey. I'm Albus." The Malfoy smiled in thanks, which Albus returned with a shrug.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Scorpius."

Weasley snorted from her spot, arms crossed over her chest. "Nice name," she sneered. Scorpius scowled at her. Before he could comment back, Albus smacked her arm. "Ow!" she turned her glare on him. "What was that for?"

"Be nice, Rose," he scolded, turning in time to catch Scorpius' smile. The brunet nodded at him, "What House do you think you'll be in?" he asked, trying again for a conversation. Though, Scorpius thought as he watched Rose frown even more, a different topic would have been better.

Scorpius shrugged, "I'm not too sure. Father obviously wants me in Slytherin but... I'm not sure," he shook his head. "What about you?"

Albus bit at his lip, eyes on his hands as he wrung them together, "I don't know either. Gryffindor, maybe. That's where the rest of my family was..." He turned to Weasley, trying to pull her into the conversation as well.

She sighed, hand running over her face. "I'll be a Gryffindor. I know that much," she glared at Scorpius, who ignored it. She scowled again. "Gryffindor is the best House," she declared loudly, trying to rile him up.

Albus lifted his gaze to the other boy. "From what I've heard of it, I don't want to be in Slytherin," he said quietly, wincing.

"Slytherin is for all the evil ones," Weasley agreed, grinning like a shark. Scorpius glared at her, leaning forward so that his arms were crossed and resting on his knees.

"There's nothing wrong with any of the Houses," he argued. "Slytherin is for the cunning and ambitious, Hufflepuff is for the loyal, Ravenclaw is for the studious and Gryffindor is for the courageous and brave," the Malfoy recited, trying not to sound as pompous as his father had when he'd told him this. Of course, the man had said more, preaching about the greatness of Slytherin, but Scorpius wanted to find out that for himself. He had his own brain, after all.

Weasley scoffed, waving a hand at him, "You don't believe that. I know you're a Slytherin, through and through," she sneered at him. Scorpius wondered if she'd actually look pretty if she was being nice.

"I don't know. I might be a Ravenclaw," he allowed, leaning back and looking out the window, "or even a Gryffindor. I can't see myself being a Hufflepuff, though."

They lapsed into silence, with only the clunking of the train as background sound. The country side sped by, flashes of green and beige, trees and plain. They were approaching a river when Albus spoke up quietly, changing the subject. He didn't want the two of them to start a fight.

"...I saw you talking to my dad before we left."

"Oh, yeah. Father called him over, don't know why," the Malfoy shrugged. He wasn't going to tell them that Father liked to lord things over the elder Potter, nor that he'd been on the sidelines of a particularly odd conversation. He kept Sacha out of sight, the little snake managing to hide in his pocket. Scorpius didn't think they'd react well to the snakes' presence.

"I think they might have been friends at one point," Albus said, thinking back, "or rivals who became friends. I don't really know. I did see my dad floo over to your manor once and he never uses the floo to go anywhere if he can help it. He's horrible at it."

"He did get my father to laugh," Scorpius admitted, blinking his eyes thoughtfully. He'd seen a few of those floo arrivals. His father had laughed every time.

A weird choking noise, completely inelegant, sounded from Albus' left. The two boys looked over and Scorpius saw Weasley staring at him with wide eyes. "Seriously?" Rose gasped. At Scorpius' nod, she shook her head slowly, as if in a daze. "Who would have thought... a Malfoy..."

"Hey," Scorpius objected, lips thin, "not all of us are evil sticks in the mud."

And he said it with a pretty straight face, too. That's probably what made the compartment erupt with laughter. Scorpius cracked a grin before he joined them.

After she'd calmed down, Weasley reached over and clapped his shoulder, eyes bright. "You know... you're not that bad."

Scorpius huffed, but grinned at her. "Neither are you."

Albus reached for the cards still laying on the table in the compartment. He shook one of them at Scorpius, causing it to smoke, and grinned. "You up for a game?"

"On a moving train?" Scorpius inquired, eyebrow raised. But he was starting to grin and he leaned over the table as Albus dealt out three hands.

When the trolley lady visited their compartment, the room was full of smoke and three mad, grinning eleven year olds.

By the time the Express rolled into Hogsmeade, the three preteens couldn't be bothered to care which family they came from. Scorpius had won only two of the many games they'd played and his hair was singed from the explosions. Rose was laughing at him, trying to say something about haircuts between breaths. Albus was grinning so wide that Scorpius could make out the remnants of the chocolate they'd eaten in his teeth.

Scorpius himself was very glad he'd been able to find them on the train. He had a feeling his life was going to become a lot more exciting with these two in it.

A/N: Oops, this is really short? But I don't know what else to add to it, since it was only supposed to be about the train ride and start of friendship. -conflicted noises-