Chapter five

Albus and Scorpius had a compartment to themselves once more. It seemed that all the other children steered well clear of the two. Albus was grateful for that, he preferred it this way.

'So,' he said to his friend, 'what will your Christmas be like?'

Scorpius frowned and shrugged. 'We don't do much usually, just dinner. Mom isn't well, so there's not much we can do.'

'What's wrong with your mother?'

Scorpius just looked away and shook his head. Albus decided not to push it.

'So what about you?' Scorpius asked.

This time it was Albus who shrugged. 'I believe we are going to the Burrow, so it's going to be chaos.' He had told Scorpius before about the Burrow and the Weasleys. 'I guess it will be the opposite from your place, but I can't say I'm looking forward to it. Especially meeting my parents again.' He could imagine their disapproval.

Scorpius nodded. 'We don't have it easy,' he said with a weak smile.

In the end, Christmas wasn't as bad as Albus had imagined. Though he felt awkward around his parents and siblings, Teddy and George made up for that. Teddy amused them all by changing his hair color every five minutes and George managed to sneak several items of the joke shop into the Christmas dinner. The main spectacle was the Christmas turkey suddenly standing up and walking away. This caused George to be wacked over the head by both his wife and mother. Albus however suspected that it was his other red headed uncle Ron had placed it on the table, especially when, at the time his brother was lectured, he dropped his spoon when he seemingly couldn't hide his laughing anymore. It was the expected chaos and during everything Albus actually managed to relax a bit.

Once back on the platform Albus said a hasty goodbye to his parents and ran back to the train. He wasn't looking forward to going back, but the alternative, lingering at his parents side, was worse. Even though both his parents had been supportive during the holiday, he could see they weren't comfortable around him. Albus sighed with relief when he spotted Scorpius sitting in a compartment alone. He slipped in and closed the door. Scorpius looked up and cracked a smile.

'Hey.'

'Hey.'

A moment of silence.

They started the same question at the same time: 'How was your Christmas?' Bursting out laughing, Albus waved at Scorpius to answer first.

'It was as expected,' he said. 'My grandparents were there as well. It wasn't exactly the Christmas cheer you might find in stories. How about you?'

'It was a bit better than expected actually. There wasn't a lot of talk about school and the chaos ensured that I could slip away when I wanted to.'

'Family is hard,' sighed Scorpius.

'You said it.'