Chapter 3: Scorpius

Scorpius Malfoy was having more of an interesting day than usual. First, he had an 'emergency' Quidditch session called by their insane Captain which he was late to, then he walked the new girl, Hayley, to class (unless it was Emma-Jane his contact with the opposite gender was very limited) and most importantly, Rose Weasley actually spoke to him in Arithmancy (he was going to ignore the fact that she only came over to introduce herself to Hayley).

"Hi, I'm Rose Granger-Weasley," she strode across the classroom with the bun on top of her head bouncing as she walked along and held out her hand for the new girl to shake. Scorpius looked away, trying to ignore the sudden heat in his cheeks.

His new partner didn't respond. She just stared at Rose as if she's seen a ghost. After a long awkward moment she managed a shocked, "H-Hayley Garwell".

Rose narrowed her blue eyes and smiled haughtily and turned to Scorpius. "Malfoy, have you been talking about your bread fetish again? Haley looks just as horrified as I felt when you graced me with that story!"

Despite the jibe, Scorpius couldn't help but admire how she could turn every tense situation into a joke. Hayley even laughed and relaxed a little as Rose went back to her seat.

It was the first time she spoke to him since sixth year began. She was never the friendliest towards him, no matter how many times he tried to talk to her, or do something to impress her. He even stopped himself from putting his hands up in lessons despite knowing the answers to all the questions just to see that wide eyed smile on her face. She also always did an adorable shift in her seat which used to bring him a strange amount of joy - something he would never admit to anyone, even if he was forced to clean Moaning Myrtle's entire bathroom with his tongue. He plucked up the courage to ask her out last year, but it went so spectacularly badly with her telling him to 'sod off' rather loudly in front of the entire Gryffindor house that he decided to leave her alone after that. He swore to finally get over her during the summer, and to pretend she didn't exist when they came back to school, which he was very successful at, until she decided to speak to him. Her comment was causing a huge urge to smile even long after the professor entered the classroom, so he made an angry mental note to become better at avoiding her for the rest of the week just to be safe.

"Just to clarify, I don't have a bread fetish." He told his companion.

Hayley smiled gently. "I'm sure you don't. Although, I did see you eat your toast very curiously this morning…"

Scorpius laughed and gave her a nudge. They received a scolding glare from the teacher, whose methods consisted of individual silent study of various charts whilst he was marking homeworks, so they went back to doing their work.

"So what's the deal with you and Dean?" Scorpius asked Hayley as he walked her to Ancient Runes. He didn't have anything until Potions in the afternoon, so he thought he'd spare her the trouble of trying to navigate around the castle. "Are you siblings?"

This seemed to amuse her. "No, we just happened to both sign up for the student exchange."

"I didn't think Hogwarts sent anyone over to the US though?"

"It's a new program," she replied. He saw her tense up again. "They're trying it out on us."

"You don't have an American accent," Scorpius mused.

"British families. When we both heard of the possibility to study at Hogwarts, we thought it'd be a perfect opportunity to see what we missed out on." She then changed the subject. "And what's the deal with you and Rose?"

"Nothing," said Scorpius, trying his best to act confused. "We're barely even acquaintances". He made his voice sound as lighthearted and innocent as possible.

Thankfully, Hayley didn't get to say anymore on the matter because they got to the Ancient Runes classroom and her lesson was about to start.

Scorpius went back to the Slytherin common room where Albus and Emma-Jane (or Edge as they liked to call her) were sitting down in their usual leather armchairs. He was curious what his best friend and step-sister thought about the two additions to their year group.

"They're a bit weird," said Al, with a very serious look on his face. "I'm pretty sure this Haley girl thinks you're the new Voldemort."

"She seemed okay in Arithmancy," said Scorpius. The Malfoy family reputation ensured that most people he met were not very eager to get all chummy. He was used to the wary glances and cold, awkward conversations - if there ever were any. As long as he had his closest friends and family, he didn't feel he needed everyone else to like him, but his best friend was always bothered when these situations occurred.

"I dunno, they're just so… awkward and weird!"

"You hang out with Edge who has yet to say a single relatively normal thing but a new kid is a bit nervous on their first day and you freak out," he said amused.

"I don't think Haley likes you very much from how she was acting at breakfast".

"I think Al is right. I can sense their demonic presence. They came here from hell to assassinate us", said Edge in her classic monotone way. "I like them." She added after a long pause.

"We might see them in Potions," said Scorpius in an attempt to distract himself from his thoughts. "You can analyse their highly suspicious behaviour then."

Much to Emma-Jane's dismay, Haley and Dean did not expose their murderous tendencies, which resulted in an uninteresting lesson for her. For Scorpius, however, Potions was anything but unremarkable; For the second time in the same day, Rose Weasley interacted with him.

Professor Arroway, who was a petite woman with an innocent expression on her face and a magnificent talent for Potion making, started the lesson with the usual quiz on the concoction they were going to attempt.

"Who can tell me what we're brewing today?" She asked the class pointing to the cauldron on her desk.

Up until sixth year, this was Rose's time to show off her knowledge and gain points of Gryffindor. Scorpius would always know the answers, but he adored her excitement and happiness whenever she got something right, so he never dared to interrupt. Only after his firm resolution to no longer have any interest for her, he decided to speak up, which seemed to turn the lesson into a competition between them. Both of their hands shot straight in the air, but to Scorpius' surprise, Hayley also volunteered to answer.

"Yes, Miss Garwell."

Hayley took one look at cloudy blue swirls and confidently replied, "It's the Draught of Peace."

"Yep," Professor Arroway beamed. "Five points to Slytherin. I'll add five more if you can tell me what is different about making this potion?"

"The order of the added ingredients is very specific, one wrong move and it becomes poisonous." Hayley replied.

After awarding their house another five points, they were asked to collect their ingredients and make a start. To Scorpius' surprise, Rose approached him on the way.

"Looks like we gained another rival Malfoy", she said smirking at him with a playful glint in her eyes.

He was glad that she didn't wait for his response, because he was still determined to limit their contact as much as possible. As he began to furiously cut up his first ingredient, he was cursing himself for letting her have this effect on him. It was nearly impossible to focus on his work, as Rose's annoying smile and comments kept creeping into his mind. He had no idea what she wanted from him, since she made it very clear last May, that she wanted nothing more than for him to disappear into the Forbidden Forest and be hopefully consumed by the giant spiders or gutted by centaurs. He was going out of his way to ignore her, and she was treating him equally indifferently up until this very day. It set Scorpius on edge, and by the end of the lesson, he realised he got the steps mixed up and what was supposed to be his Draught of Peace, ended up being a toxic sludge.

AN: Hiya! Finally a Scorpius chapter! Hopefully things will pick up from here, after two filler-ish chapters to begin with. Let me know what you think of the characters so far :)

Love,

K.