Disclaimer: I don't own HP.
I'm not sure how regularly this will be updated but we shall see.
Chapter Six
Halfway through the ride back to Hogwarts after Christmas, Scorpius went found Albus. The other boy was in the last car sitting alone in a seat that allowed him to stare opposite of the direction of the motion of the Hogwarts Express.
"Hello. How was your break?" Scorpius asked, sitting down across from Albus and leaning up against the window.
"I'm staring lifelessly out a window in the back of the train, having driven away anyone who has approached me as of yet." Albus said flatly.
"Yes, that does answer the question what are you doing and perhaps have been doing for the beginning part of the ride. It does not, however, answer my question." Scorpius said. He smiled. Albus stared at Scorpius and then sneered.
In some ways, smiling fit Scorpius far more than it fit Albus. And sneering suited Albus far more than Scorpius.
They sat in silence for a bit.
"You know, I always figured that my parents would eventually end up divorced. But, I think they are happy being miserable with each other." Albus finally said.
"Marriage." Scorpius responded. Now he sneered and it was a fantastic sneer. And Albus smiled and laughed and asked how meeting his future bride had gone.
"She's a smart conversationalist, depressingly uncontroversial, and has spent plenty of time in front a mirror learning the proper expressions to make at the proper moments. The wife the family ordered for me." Scorpius said.
"Sounds charming."
"More importantly, you should look through this and tell me what you think." Scorpius said, tossing his annotated wand lore book over to Albus. It wasn't his personal copy—but he had bought another and had a house elf copy over his annotations for Albus to read.
"What's this?" Albus asked. He was still smiling.
"If we're going to create two extremely powerful wands and change the world—we should probably start soon."
It was a companionable near silence for the rest of the ride to Hogwarts with Albus reading and sometimes briefly conversing about the beginning points of wand lore with Scorpius.
o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o
Scorpius has only been alone with Lucius once. It was the summer before his fourth year and a house elf had appeared with a formal invitation to have tea with his grandfather that afternoon. After spending a minute staring slack jawed at the invitation, the house elf had quietly coughed and asked if Scorpius would be replying.
"Tell Grandfather that I will be delighted to join him."
Scorpius then spent the next hour alternating between ranting violently to his fireplace and staring at the invitation. However, by the afternoon tea time, Scorpius was properly dressed and perfectly composed and arrived to the correct room at the precisely correct time.
His grandfather was not there and did not arrive until five minutes after the appointed time.
"Scorpius. You look as healthy as ever." The old man said. Scorpius smiled in a charming sort of way and rose to shake hands with Lucius.
"Grandfather. I think you look younger every time I see you." It was a lie. Lucius had not changed appearance in Scorpius's life. That is, except for his eyes; his eyes sunk deeper into his face with every year and the film of cataracts slowly but surely began to cover both eyes.
They did not continue with pleasantries because neither found pleasantries to be useful. Rather they observed the portraits on the walls quietly while a house elf sat out a proper tea.
"You may be the first proper Malfoy in quite some time. I was far too caught up in the schemes of others. Your father could only lie to himself and never to others."
Scorpius took a sip of tea.
"Grandfather, don't say 'was' as if you two have already passed on." Lucius caught his grandson's eyes with his own cloudy ones.
"Aren't we though. We have learned from our own folly—through our guidance you will restore the Malfoy name. "
They then sat silently drinking tea and staring at portraits and considering their thoughts.
And when Lucius decided to leave, he stood and stared down at Scorpius. Scorpius looked up at his grandfather and the man said, "Don't disappoint, Boy."
After Lucius was gone, Scorpius called the house elf and told the thing to bring him all the same patterned tea sets. When all the sets were located, Scorpius lazily began charming each piece of the set to crash into the wall he sat across from. After each piece of every set was destroyed—except for one—Scorpius took his final sip of now cold tea from the last tea cup.
He considered the tea cup for a minute, calmly stood, wiped his hands on his trousers and then picked the final tea cup up and then hurled it against the wall. It shattered and fell to the ground.
Scorpius left the room.
When back in his room, he summoned a house elf and asked it to please purchase a tea set of the same pattern as the ones he had just destroyed. It was there within an hour and Scorpius carefully set up the tea set in the corner of his room as if it were to be ready to use at any moment. That night he did not sleep but stared at the tea set and memorized the pattern that now would only be a reminder that he had already lost all freedom and someday more would be expected.
The tea set is still there, same as the day Scorpius arranged it, with a fine layer of dust sitting prettily on its surface.
o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o
By the middle of March no one in the school took notice any longer Albus and Scorpius spending anytime together. People had of course gossiped about the formation of the friendship during the fall. There was a bit of outright shock in the Herbology Class at how well the two got on during class after the break. In Potions, both Christopher Nott and Lucy Weasley felt slightly abandoned as it seemed Albus and Scorpius were far more willing to confer with each other about assignments rather than their actual Potions partner. The two frequented the libraries together and were seen frequently in hot debate but as to the topics and directions of their conversations no one was entirely sure. Those that did overhear were confused by the complexities in the conversation that they weren't quite sure what sort of debate the two were having.
But the Hogwarts community, after being so intrigued, finally concluded that there was nothing but a growing academic friendship between the two seemingly different men. This suited Scorpius and Albus' now joint ambitions perfectly.
o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o
"How did your interview go?" Scorpius asked, looking up from his book. Albus wished he didn't immediately notice the way the other man's hair fell attractively in front of his eyes and he wished he wasn't so focused on how Scorpius had a habit of biting his bottom lip after asking a question. He was well aware of the fact that he was finding the smaller man increasingly more attractive but that didn't mean he would like it. After all, it was one thing to be joint partners trying to change the world. But if he tried to make it some sort of romantic relationship—well Albus didn't want that. Not really, he thought to himself, I can't really want that. It would be too close to how one was supposed to love another. And Albus didn't really want to fall in love. He knew what the feeling had done to his parents.
"Fantastic." Albus replied. He shoved his thoughts aside. "I have no doubt that the Minister's Office will be hiring me as the summer assistant to the assistant of the assistant of the Minister of Magic." It was a ridiculous position. But, if he was going to get into politics he would have to start now.
"You know, this most recent book I was reading was saying that powerful wizards will occasionally see magic as shades of colors and that a powerful wand maker will always see magic that way. Think I'll develop the talent?" Scorpius asked. Scorpius had already secured his position as a summer apprentice at Ollivanders Wand Shop. His father had been surprised by the idea but had encouraged it by not refusing his son. Scorpius liked to think that there was a satisfaction in the way his father had signed that letter—that his father was happy that Scorpius was following a path that was perhaps his own.
"Really? I've seen my fathers. His was a dark orange, red, yellow, and purple swirl. Weird, right?" Scorpius nodded—he was not surprised that Albus could see magic untrained. Scorpius could swear that occasionally he could and Albus was as if not more powerful than Scorpius.
"Well, most wizards have two maybe three colors. It is not surprising that with his power your father has four and that the magic presents itself as a swirl." The interesting part, Scorpius thought, was that Harry had dark orange as a color and that Albus had emphasized the dark as a description of the orange. The shade of the color was important his book told him.
Scorpius looked up to see Albus staring at him. The other boys face was very serious and very tense. Scorpius felt like a rabbit staring at its killer and he felt that this was a clichéd way to feel. Forcing himself past this thought he wondered what colors Albus would have. Chuckling to himself, Scorpius said, "You, I think, would definitely have a deep river of green—maybe even emerald running in your magic. Ambition is certainly part of you."
Albus relaxed and smiled.
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