"Welcome to the wizarding world," Scorpius laughed.

Chapter Three: Keep Your Friends Close…

Gage snores. Loudly.

That was the first thing Scorpius Malfoy learned at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry; his roommate could probably suck all the air out of the room within minutes. Scorpius sat up and looked over to Gage's bed. He considered suffocating the boy with his pillow, but they barely knew each other…

Al and Mikael were on the other side of the room, fast asleep in dreamland, and Score couldn't take the snoring anymore. So he rolled out of bed, put on his slippers, and walked down the stairs to the Common room.

To his surprise, Scorpius was not the only one who couldn't sleep tonight. "Hey Rose," he smiled at the red head. Rose looked up from the fire, her curly red hair tied back and sitting on the sofa cross-legged with a book in her lap. She smiled when she saw that the person interrupting her was Scorpius.

"Hey Scorpius," she said. "Couldn't sleep?" he shook his head and joined in the seat next to her. He sat with his back against the back rest and his feet dangled a mere inch from the ground.

"One of my roommates snores…" Scorpius said. Rose raised an eyebrow at him. "Gage, the American one…" Rose nodded. She glanced back at her book. "What are you reading."

"Book my mum gave me," Rose said. She closed it and handed it to Scorpius.

"Hogwarts: A History?" Scorpius laughed. Rose smacked his arm.

"Shut up, it's actually really fascinating. The first time I read it…"

"First time? How many times have you read this Rosie?" Scorpius asked, astonished. Rose blushed.

"Eight," she said. "But like I said, it's really fascinating…" The two started to laugh loudly.

"Hey! Who's out there!" Someone called. The two suddenly stopped, snickering quietly until the door closed.

"Oh we're going to get in trouble before school even starts…" Rose laughed, hiding her face in her hands. Scorpius laughed along. Suddenly, the two were interrupted by a sharp tapping at the window. A hawk owl was perched on the window, rapping it's beak against the glass. Scorpius jumped up and opened the window for the owl, which flew in and flew around a bit before sitting itself by the fire and sticking it's leg out, it's eyes glaring darkly at Scorpius.

"It's for you," Rose said, raising her eyebrows at the owl. Scorpius cautiously walked to the owl and retrieved the letter from its leg. "Who is it from?"

"My parents," Scorpius said. He paled as he stared at the letter.

"Well open it," Rose urged, but Scorpius looked hesitant. "Score?" she asked when she noticed the little color he had drain from his face. "What's wrong?"

"It's probably best I don't open this," he said. His mind was racing. Did they know already? Was he in trouble? Would he be disowned? Scorpius wondered how his grandfather would react to his grandson being in Gryffindor, he already didn't like Scorpius all that much.

"Well, then let me," Rose said and snatched the letter from Scorpius. She ignored Scorpius' protests and opened the letter. Scorpius sat beside her on the couch and nervously watched as the red head read over the letter. "Hmmm…" she said. Scorpius watched her, but she had no other response, just 'hmmm.'

"Well…" He asked, he began to shake nervously.

"Read it," Rose said, no expression on her face. Scorpius took the letter and read over it carefully as he could with his hands shaking.

Scorpius-

We have just learned of your recent sorting into Slytherin. This letter is sent to show how proud we are that you carry on the Malfoy title in Slytherin house. We expect nothing from the best from you, son. Work hard. Stay out of trouble. We wouldn't want to have to cover up anything embarrassing in your first year.

Sincerely,

Your parents.

"Wow…" Scorpius said. He had to read it a second time through just to understand.

"Yea…" Rose looked at him. "How did they find out about your sorting already?"

"Rose, they think I'm in Slytherin," Scorpius said.

"I know, one issue at a time thanks." Rose said, rolling her eyes. "Someone here must have owled them immediately…"

"And told them I was in Slytherin…" Scorpius added.

"Why wouldn't they be happy with you being in Gryffindor?" Rose asked. To this, Scorpius could only laugh. "What?" Rose asked, feeling out of the loop on the joke.

"A Malfoy in Gryffindor?" Scorpius laughed. "Rose, you heard the gasps when I was sorted, the looks of shock that followed me to my seat…" He looked to the paper. "Everyone in my family has been in Slytherin since the dawn of time. I don't really care how my family came to the assumption that I'm in a different house, but trust me, their obliviousness is for the best."

"But your parents should support wherever you are…" Rose said, remembering her conversation with her father:

"I was just wondering…" she said slowly, trying to word the question correctly. "Would you really disinherit me if I wasn't in Gryffindor?" Ron smiled widely and kissed Rose on the forehead.

"No Rosie, I wouldn't," he said.

"Rose, that's just not how my family is…" Scorpius said. He took another look at the letter and then threw it into the fire. The two sat silently, watching the letter burn until it was only ash.

"I should go to bed…" Scorpius said. He wouldn't sleep, he knew that, between the letter and Gage's snoring, he wouldn't be getting sleep for a while.

"Me too," Rose said. They both stood and began to walk to their common room. When they reached their doors, Rose turned to Scorpius. "You going to be okay Score?" Rose asked.

"Yea, don't worry," Scorpius said. "Goodnight Rosie," he added.

"Goodnight Scorpius."

A crashing sound woke Rose up the next morning. She sat up straight and pulled back her bedside curtain quickly to find Bek already up and dressed, her hair which was teal and black only last night now completely black.

"Good morning Bek," Rose said amused.

"Sorry Rose," Bek apologized, looking into a mirror on her bedside table. He had her charms book in one hand and her wand in another. "Just trying to get ready, what do you think? red or gold?" Rose looked at the girl confused. "My hair, should I dye it red or gold?"

"Um, red?" Rose guessed. "Are you doing it with magic?" Rose asked, gesturing to the wand in Bek's hand. Bek nodded, putting the wand between her teeth so she could flip a page. "Do you know how to?" Rose asked skeptically.

"We're about to find that out, aren't we?" she said. Pointing the wand to a part of her hair, Bek muttered the spell. "Colorifico Red," Rose closed her eyes, not wanting to watch if her new friend accidentally blasted off an ear or something. Next thing Rose heard was "Wow, that was easy," and when she opened her eyes, Bek was twirling her wand in her hand, her hair still attached to her head, and the bottom layer of her short black hair was a scarlet red.

"Wow," Rose said, applauding Bek. "That was amazing." Bek laughed and took a bow, but then was side swiped when a pillow flew across the room and smacked into Bek, causing her to crash onto the floor.

"Someone's not a morning person," Bek said, pointing over to Lizzie's bed. "Oh Miss Elizabeth…" Bek skipped over to the other side of the room. "Time to get up sleepy, we start school today!" Bek threw the pillow onto Lizzie's bed and smiled at Rose.

"Best to wake Terra too," Rose advised, looking at her watch. They should be leaving soon since they didn't know how to get to the Great Hall from here.

"She already left…" Lizzie said sleepily from her bed. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. "She said something about going to see her dad? I don't know, it was early though…" and with that Lizzie tripped and stumbled her way to the bathroom, closing the door behind her. Rose and Bek exchanged glances and shrugged, Bek turning to put her mess from her hair away and Rose turning to get dressed. Ten minutes later, Lizzie jumped out of the bathroom, a totally different person than who went into the bathroom.

"Okay, I'm up, let's go," she said excitedly. Bek and Rose looked at her with raised eyebrows. "What?""

"Nothing," the others agreed and after quickly finishing getting ready, they went down to find their way to the Great Hall.

Lizzie, Rose, and Bek ended up running into Al and Gage halfway down the stair case, fighting with a door. Rose rolled her eyes at her cousin and walked over, tapping him in the shoulder. "What are you doing Albus?" she asked.

"Gage and I could have SWORN this door opened…" Al said, tugging at the door again. This time, when he pulled, the doorknob disappeared and Al fell back into Gage and the two toppled to the ground. The girls laughed as Al and Gage stood up and brushed off their robes, both red in the face.

"Nice dude," Gage said. He ran a hand over his short brown-spiked hair and smiled.

"Dude?" Lizzie commented.

"I'm from California," Gage laughed. The others nodded and they began the long decent down the stairs.

"There you all are!" They heard Terra call from the bottom of the stairs, looking rather…different. She was dressed in her Gryffindor colored Hogwarts robes, yes, but they had a sort of…flair that was soon to be known as so significantly Terra. She had a flower in her hair behind her ear and bright, neon orange sneakers on her feat. He blonde hair was braided the stem of the flower wove through with the braid.

"Hi Terra!" Rose said. Al and Gage looked like they were trying to hold back their laughter, but Bek spoke up before the boys could say anything.

"Wow," was all she could say. Terra just smiled sweetly, not really caring what other people thought about her.

"Come on, I'm starving," Scorpius and Mikael were a couple steps behind Terra. The eight Gryffindors had all reached the door way when they heard someone behind them.

"Move," a rude voice came from behind them. The girl who had said the same thing to Al, Scorpius, and Rose last night was walking through. She pushed Gage and Bek out of the way and made her way past most of the Gryffindors without even glancing at them.

Until she saw Terra.

"Oh my Godric, WHAT are you wearing?" She asked Terra. "You look hideous!" She and the other two behind her, a boy and a girl both sorted last night as well, laughed loudly.

"Leave her alone," Scorpius said, he was standing behind the three Slytherins. They stopped laughing abruptly and the main girl turned on her heals and raised an eyebrow at the pale boy.

"Um, excuse me," she said, walking up to Scorpius. She was a little less than eye level with him, but that didn't stop her. "But do you know who I am?"

"No, but I'm sure you'll let us know real soon," Scorpius said. He already didn't like this girl.

"I am Jessika Oppious, of the Dufftown Oppious's." She said, almost shocked that Scorpius had never met her. Scorpius new the Oppious family though; his grandfather referred to them as the "newer" money. They were always trying to find ways to get connections with the "older" money, like the Malfoy's. But the Oppious's were also known for their…high interest in the dark arts. "This is Ashley Patterson," Jessika pointed to the girl behind her, a sort of punked-out, gothed up version of Bek was the first thing that came to Scorpius' mind, mostly because of the purple streaks in her elaborate hair do. Patterson was not a name Scorpius had heard of, from neither his father, who looked into families with money, nor his grandfather, who was interested in dark arts families. Ashley just smirked at Scorpius. "And this is Trevor Lockhaven," another name Scorpius didn't recognize. Trevor and Ashley must be following Jessica, looking for some scrap of wealth that they could cling onto.

"Scorpius Malfoy," Scorpius smirked at Jessika. Just then, her whole demeanor changed. Jessika went from some glaring, I'm better than you twit, to a wide smile and flipping her hair over her shoulder. She took Scorpius' hand like he had held it out to shake it.

"Malfoy, really?" she asked, acting sweet. "Well it's really great to meet you, Scorpius did you say? Great name, so…original…" She dropped his hand. Scorpius rolled his eyes, he was sick of this act.

"Don't touch me Oppious," Scorpius dead panned. Jessika's eyebrow's shot up again and she dropped his hand, going from a wide smile to a scowl.

"Well if that's how it's going to be…" And she turned on her heals and walked into the Great Hall, followed closely by Ashley and Trevor.

The eight stood silently, looking between one another with a combination of confusion and amusement. Finally, Mikael spoke up.

"She's a nut…" he said. "A genuine nut."

"I have a horrible feeling we're going to have to worry about that one…" Rose added.

"Me too," Scorpius nodded.

.

-X-

Pronunciation Key:

Colorifico (co-lar-rif-ik-oh) –Spell to change the color of an immanent object i.e.: Bek's hair

Jessika Oppious (Oh-pie-uses) I spelt her name with a C in the last chapter but I really wanted it with a K so there you have it.

Thank you all so much for reviewing! It makes me SO happy.

I'm sick now, I'm going to take a nap, maybe some inspiration will hit me.

Love, Ashley (not the lackie, the writer :)