Chapter six

The rest of the year crawled by. Albus constantly felt like he was drowning in essays, tests and other homework. If Scorpius hadn't been there, he was sure he wouldn't have passed into the second year. And yet, here he was, on platform nine and three-quarters, standing next to his father. The air around them was tense.

'I'm just asking you, dad, if you could just,' Albus hesitated for a moment, then drew a deep breath,' if you could just stand a little away from me,' he finished, not daring to look at his father.

'Second years don't like to be seen with their dads, is that it?' his father asked, sounding amused. Albus looked at a wizard who was staring at them.

'It's not that. It's just, you're you and, well, I'm me and-'

'It's just people looking,' Harry interrupted Ablus. 'People look, let them. And they're looking at me, not you.'

At that moment the wizard who had been staring came up to them and offered Harry a piece of paper with a quill. Harry signed it and handed it back to the now blushing wizard who mumbled a 'thank you' and quickly walked away.

'Yeah,' Albus continued,' they're looking at Harry Potter and his disappointing son.'

'What is that supposed to mean?'

'At Harry Potter and his Slytherin son.'

At that moment James ran up, carrying his bag. 'Slythering Slytherin, stop with you dithering, time to get onto the train!' He rushed off to follow his own advice.

'Unnecessary, James!' Harry yelled after his oldest son.

James ignored the comment and just yelled back: 'See you at Christmas dad!'

Harry turned his attention back to Albus, looking concerned. 'Al-.'

'My name is Albus, not Al.'

Harry sighed. 'Albus. Are the other kids being unkind? Is that it? Maybe if you tried making a few more friends. Without Hermione and Ron I wouldn't have survived Hogwarts. Actually, I wouldn't have survived at all.'

'But I don't need a Ron and Hermione. I already have a friend: Scorpius. I know that you don't like him, but he's all I need.' He looked defiantly at his father.

Harry sighed. 'Look, as long as you're happy, that's all that matters to me.'

Albus nodded. 'You didn't need to bring me to the station though.' He picked up his case and hurried to the train.

'I wanted to be here,' said Harry softly, looking sadly at his son as he climbed on board. As he watched Lily jumping onto the train, a man entered his field of vision. He tensed up as he noticed the platinum blond hair and stern expression.

'Draco', he nodded stiffly.

'Potter,' came the equally stiff response. But then he deflated a bit as he looked down. 'I need a favor.'

Harry cocked his head, slightly surprised.

'These rumors, about my son's parentage, they don't seem to go away. The other students are making things hard for him, teasing him about it relentlessly. If the Ministry could release a statement reaffirming that all Time-Turners were destroyed in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries-'

'Just let it blow over Draco,' Harry sighed, 'they'll soon move on.'

Draco frowned. 'My son is suffering!' he said angrily. 'And Astoria,' he almost whispered now,' she hasn't been well recently. They need all the support they can get.' He looked Harry into the eyes, some spark of hope was there.

'If you answer the gossip, you feed the gossip,' Harry said sternly. 'There've been rumors about Voldemort having a child for years. Scorpius isn't the first to be accused. The ministry, for your sake as well as ours, needs to steer well clear.'

For a moment it seemed as if Draco was going to protest again, but then he sighed, shrugged and turned away, leaving the platform.

Harry looked back to the train, where he glimpsed Albus standing next to Rose, who was waving at her parents. Harry joined his best friends.

Inside the train, Albus turned to Rose. 'As soon as the train leaves you don't have to talk to me.'

'I know. We just need to keep the pretense up in front of the grown-ups.'

The train started to move as Scorpius came running up, dragging his suitcase behind him.

'Hi Rose,' he said, smiling shyly.

'By Albus,' said Rose, ignoring Scorpius and walking away briskly.

'She's melting,' said Scorpius, still smiling. Albus looked at his friend. 'You're daydreaming,' he mumbled. Scorpius just shook his head, but his smile remained.