Chapter 4

Albus woke up in an unfamiliar bed, looking up at a fabric ceiling. With a jolt, he realised he'd just spent his first night in Hogwarts. That's why the bed felt different. It wasn't his bed, the one at home, but it did feel nice. The bed was soft and pleasantly warm. Albus snuggled back under the covers, closing his eyes contently. His fuzzy, contented feeling disappeared in seconds as Scorpius, all ready in his robes, pulled open Albus' hangings and shook him awake.

"Al! Al! Get up now! You're late; breakfast finishes soon!"

"Go away, Scorp. Let. Me. SLEEP!" Suddenly, Al's warm quilt was pulled off him and a blast of cold air hit him. Yelping, Al bolted out of bed and grabbed his robes from his chest of drawers. The boys had unpacked last night, so Al got them out quickly. He got changed at super speed – too cold to check were the freezing air was coming from. As soon as he'd changed, he ran over to the window to close it, only to find Scorpius pointing his wand at him. Al froze. Had they been too quick to trust Scorpius? He was a Malfoy, after all. Scorpius laughed at Al's expression and took pity on him. Lifting the spell, Scorpius started towards the door. As soon as Scorpius had put his wand down, the blast of cold air disappeared. Understanding dawned on Albus.

"Hey! That was not funny, Scorpius!" Scorpius turned around, and Al saw he was grinning.

"Well," Began Scorpius, but Albus interrupted him.

"I wasn't getting up, so you thought you'd blast me with freezing air to get me up."

"Yeah, kind of." Scorpius' grin was sheepish.

"But you really needed to get up, 'coz the girls are waiting for us. C'mon, let's go!" The boys ran all the way from Gryffindor Tower all the way to the Great Hall. They ran to Rose, Elle and another girl they didn't know and sat down opposite them on the Gryffindor table. The girls looked up and laughed as Al and Scorpius started piling their plates up with anything they could see. Both boys finished their food before greeting the girls.

"Hi Elle, Rose. Who's your friend?" Al asked. Zoe smiled shyly and Al returned the smile.

"This is Zoe Darling. She is the other girl in me and Rose' dorm." Scorpius looked confused.

"Why do you only have three people in your dorm? Me and Al have five." Elle smiled.

"I think we had the odd number. All the other girls have five, too."

"Who else is in your dorm, Scorp?" asked Rose. Scorpius listed the boys off on his fingers.

"A quiet boy called Josh Roads, his best friend - who's a lot louder - called Alex Dunn, and a noisy boy called Ben Walker. He's ok; not the greatest person in the world but he can be understanding." A shadow fell across their part of the table. The kids looked up to see a tall figure standing over them. He was ok looking, not the best in the world. But obviously he was very popular because lots of the girls around him started fluttering their eyelashes and giggling. He had blonde hair and was very tanned. He was a third year, by the looks of him. The boy looked down at Rose and Elle and grinned. His eyes focused on Elle, and widened slightly. Al sensed trouble.

"Elle," he said, trying to distract the boy or make him leave. "Could you pass me the water jug please?" Before Elle could reply, the boy grinned even wider and said,

"So, her name's Elle, is it? Well, Elle, my name's Dirk Holmes. How would you like to come out with me for a while? C'mon, loads of girls would kill to go out with me." Elle looked up, batting her eyelashes.

"I'd love to come with you. Shall we go now?" She simpered. She stood up, and was about to take his hand. Just as he was about to grasp her hand, she pulled it back and slapped him in the face, so forcefully, that you could hear the crunching of his cheekbone. The Hall went silent. Elle was glaring and Dirk as he writhed in pain on the floor.

*

James had been watching the whole thing. He knew this boy. He was in the year above James and thought he was incredibly cool. He also had a reputation for picking up girls then dropping them. Apparently he'd been doing it since he came to Hogwarts. James thought this was crazy. He's thirteen, for crying out loud! And it made James extra angry when he saw he was messing with one of Al's friends. He started walking towards Elle and Dirk. She was about to take his hand! He sped up, and then froze on the spot just before them. She had just slapped him! Everyone had gone quiet. James walked beside Elle and looked down at Dirk, like her.

"I was going to sort him out for you, but it seems you handled him pretty well." He realised his voice sounded pretty shocked, and looked up at her the same time she looked at him.

"Yeah, to be honest I'm not a big fan of sick little perverts like him. Especially ones who have just left play school." She replied. Just then, Professor Johnson ran down between the tables and pulled Dirk to his feet. She didn't even bother asking why Elle had slapped him. Dirk Holmes had a bad reputation with the teachers as well as the students. Professor Johnson handed Dirk to Madam Pomfrey, then continued handing out timetables like nothing was wrong. She gave Al, Rose, Elle and James their timetables before moving on.

Looking at hers, Rose saw they had Defence Against the Dark Arts first. Then they had Transfiguartion. Elle had said goodbye to James and had sat back down. Suddenly, their was a whooshing noise and she looked up to see hundreds of birds flying through the air to their respective owners. A big snowy owl landed in front of Albus and he quickly untied the letter attached to it's leg. A tawny owl landed in front of Rose, and she too grabbed the letter. A beautiful white owl with brown flecks on landed in front of Elle. Lastly, a mean looking black owl landed in front of Scorpius. Nervously he took the letter, and the owl took off. Everyone else was reading their letters, so they didn't see Scorpius' face when he read the letter. It said:

'Scorpius,

You have shamed our family by being sorted into Gryffindor. You are here-by disinherited, and are now free to live wherever you are welcome. DO NOT TRY COME BACK TO MALFOY MANOR. You are no longer my Grandson. Don't bother replying.

Sincerely,

Lucius Malfoy

P.S. I was informed by a worthy Slytherin, Pansy Nott, of which house you were in. Please thank her for me.