Chapter o2
By the time we'd made it to Hogwarts, it was as if Scorpius had been with Rose and I our entire lives. As we left the train, we were laughing at a joke Rose had told. "Bugger!" The voice of James breathed behind us. We all spun around to look at him, and Scorpius glanced between me and my older brother in surprise. "Chuming around with a Malfoy. You two are out to give uncle Ron a heart attack, aren't you!?" He exclaimed.
"That's my father you're talking about you stupid prick." Rose snapped, looking annoyed.
"And for your information, we realized that Uncle Ron couldn't have a heart attack. We've already tried." I added, a tad bit bitterly.
"With the proper authorities around of course." Rose said quickly at the surprised look Scorpius held. "My mum was right next to him when I told him I was a lesbian."
"What was that, last year?" James muttered, looking confused for a second.
"Last September if you want to specific. We figured if anything would cause a heart attack, it would be that." I replied. "Didn't work." I added for Scorpius' benifit as we walked towards the booming voice of Hagrid, somewhere to the north.
"I assumed." He murmured, eyes still wide with shock that we could be so cruel.
"Hurry and get to Hagrid before he leaves without you." James said in reply. Obviously he'd just spotted one of his friends. "And for Merlin's sake, choose your friends carefully!" He added before calling out, "Oi! Em, An! Wait a bleeding minute, will you!?" There were girlish giggles and James dissappeared into the crowd.
"Stupid twit." Rose grumbled as we neared the giant figure looming over our heads.
"'Ello there." Hagrid said happily as he spotted us stepping before him. I smiled.
"Hey Hagrid. How are you?" I asked as innocently as possible.
"I'm fine." Hagrid looked pleased at being asked. "'Ello Rose."
"Hagrid." Rose grinned, looking flushed with excitement. "Did you know that there's a type of fungus that grows on top of pumpkins that has minor healing powers?" She asked. Rose was extremely good at acting like her mother, being just as brilliant and having a photographic memory.
"Er...really, Rosie? Tha's..." Hagrid trailed off, scratching the back of his neck, obviously having no idea how to respond to that. He finally managed a "And who's yer friend?" Scorpius looked down at the ground nervously, instead of meeting Hagrid's kind gaze.
"Scorpius Malfoy." He muttered shyly. As I'd told him, there's a time and place to be shy. This was definately one of those times.
"A Malfoy?" Hagrid boomed. "Should 'ave known. Look just like yer dad, you do." He said.
"He's alot nicer." I piped up, grinning over-exaggeratingly.
"Did you know a Malfoy and Potter haven't been friends in nearly five centuries?" Rose said as though this were the most interesting thing in the world.
"Le's get you three to the boats then!" Hagrid said quickly, seeming to be intimidated by Rose's intellegance, just as he always was at family gatherings. Rose sent the two of us a smirk and wink, which we returned.
"Good job there, Scorpius." I muttered under my breath as we followed Hagrid with a bunch of other first years.
"Same to you Albus." Scorpius replied just as softly.
We made it to the boats, and had even gotten into them, before our first misshap happened. The three of us were in a boat together, along with some brunette bimbo, when the boat suddenly shook violently. All of us clutched the sides of the boat as it moved along, still shaking.
"Erm...Hagrid." I called quickly. He glanced back at us, then did a double take.
"Oi! Squid! Watch ou-" But he didn't get to finish, because at that moment, the boat tipped over. The four of us went splashing into the water, and I felt something slimy slide past me and into the depths of the lake. I resurfaced, sucking in a deep breath of air, just as the others appeared next to me.
"What was that!" the girl sheiked, making me cringe at the high pitched squeal.
"That was the giant squid." Rose told her knowingly from the other side of me. "It does that to one boat almost every year."
I didn't get a chance to hear the girls response, because at that moment I felt a hand grab my ankle and pull me under the water. I blanched as it led me to a certain part and then let go just as quickly as it had grabbed on. I pushed myself to the the surface, and barely missed the side of of the capsized boat. In fact, as I resurfaced, I realized that I was on the inside of said boat, and Scorpius was grinning in front of me, his previously slicked back blonde hair now dangling around his head in an organized, wet mess.
"I like the new look." I commented, barely turning the corners of my lips upwords in a smile. "Your hair looks better down. More manly."
"More sexy, you mean." Scorpius was smiling so widly my own lips turned up more in joining.
"Of course mate, your a beast." I joked, winking for good measure.
"Can you believe that bloody squid capsized our boat?" He asked, his grin not fading in the slightest.
"Personally, I was feeling a bit on the warm side anyways. Always nice of the magical beasts to lend a helping hand." I replied.
"We'll have to thank it." He agreed. I went to respond, but my ankle was grabbed again, and I was suddenly completely submerged once again. I pursed my lips as I was allowed to resurface.
"Do you all have to do that?" I asked Rose exasperatedly as I appeared in front of her.
"Well I'm sorry, we were just all freaking out because you were forcefully pulled under water. Excuse me for trying to save you." Scorpius appeared behind me.
"We were having a chat. Sorry Rose." I said, glancing at him in explination. She rolled her eyes.
"No excuses. Just help us turn the boat right side up." After we did that, and all boarded, quite sloppily in the brunette's case, the first year students were back on our way to the castle.
As we boarded the back stairs, four of us soaking wet and the girl complaining loudly that her hair had been ruined, a minature wizard opened the door and hurriedly ushered us in.
"Your late!" He exclaimed in a squeaky voice. "Hagrid you brought them in late!"
"Sorry professor-" Hagrid started, but the little man cut him off.
"No time for apologies, Minerva's going gastly from being held waiting." I shared a glance with Rose that said we both knew exactly how McGonagall could be. Suddenly we pitied this small professor. "Hurry, hurry, don't bother getting in alphebetical order, just get into a pairs...straight line then. Got your partners? Let's go!" The miniscule wizard led us through double doors and into a grand room that could have fit my hourse, Rose's house, and probably even Scorpius' hourse multiple times. I stood beside my blonde friend with Rose behind me, standing next to some sallow, greasy haired boy who was glancing at her every few seconds with either repulse or intrigue, I couldn't tell.
With the sorting hat in place and it's song sang, five minutes later, the sorting had started. "Andrews, Annabelle!" The professor called out from a long scroll of paper. A petite girl walked up nervously and sat down on the stool. A few silent seconds later, and the hat shouted "Hufflepuff!" through slightly charred lips.
It went through the motions, sorting the class alphebetically as the professor listed them. "Brown, Teal" the brunette from the our boat being sorted into Hufflepuff as well. "Malfoy, Scorpius!" Scorpius shot me a slight grimace before walking up to the stool and sitting down. The hat stayed on his head for maybe thirty seconds before it shouted "Gryffindor!" the hall was silent, a first among the older students. Scorpius got up and walked towards the table, his footsteps echoing on the stone floor.
"There's never been a Malfoy who wasn't put in Slytherin." Rose whispered to me as an explination. I nodded in understanding. I looked at him to see a worried stare returning my own curious one.
'don't worry, we'll still be bloody brilliant' I mouthed to him, and saw him nod slowly. The list went on for a few more names before coming to mine. "Potter, Albus." Whispers broke out across the hall and I pursed my lips at them. Hadn't they gotten enough of the Potter fame when James arrived the year before? Would they whisper for Lily too? I sat down on the stool.
'Good merlin boy, I've never seen a Potter with so much Slytherin promise as you!' The sorting hat exclaimed loudly, his voice echoing in the confines of my head. 'what has your father done to you?'
'Well aren't you nice' I thought back sarcastically. 'my da's been pretty amazing to me, I just ended up as the black sheep in the bunch'. I added.
'You've got amazing cunning boy, and if you put it to the right use you could be great. Such potential in a student hasn't been seen since Albus Dumbledore himself. Guess you'd better be SLYTHERIN!" Once again the hall went silent in shock as I took off the hat.
"Thanks for that." I muttered to it, and saw it twitch in response. Shooting a look at Rose, and then another at Scorpius, I walked loudly to the Slytherin Table. I supposed that the people who couldn't speak were the other ones who hadn't realized I would be in Slytherin. James, I saw, was rolling his eyes and grimacing. I hadn't figured he'd be too happy with how it would turn out.
I sat down at the table after what felt like a mile-long walk, only to see that all of the Slytherin's were giving me dirty looks, and all I could do was pretend that it was because I was still dripping wet. I ignored them studiusly by looking back up at the continued sorting. It felt like no time at all that Rose was sitting upon the stool. I held my breath, completely at a loss of what she house she could be in. I hoped it would be either Slytherin or Gryffindor (selfishly I prayed more for Slytherin), but the chance was still to strong of "Ravenclaw!"
"Bloody...hat..." I ground out in annoyance. How could we possibly be the Mischevious Three if we were sorted into three different houses? I wondered if the stupid thing had done it on purpose. It could read our minds after all. But if it was trying to keep us away from eachother, didn't that mean that we could be a bad match together? Maybe the hat foresaw the three of us getting into mischief that we couldn't get out of, but would be able to avoid if we ceased our friendship...I decided to contemplate it later. She walked down to the still somehow surprised, polite claps of the Ravenclaws, and incredulous Gryffindor's. Scorpius and I shared a defeated look, which was then added onto by Rose as she sat down right behind me at her new table. I spun around to talk to her as 'Wescott, William' was sorted into Hufflepuff.
"Congrats on Slytherin." She smiled ruefully, and I could see her mentally seething through her damp, though her face showed no angry emotions.
"Congratulations on Ravenclaw." I grimaced, not bothering to hide it. Her smile turned into a mirroring grimace.
"How can we be the Mischevious Three if we can't even sit together at mealtimes? We can't share a common room." She complained lightly, annoyance etched on her face.
"We're pretty much screwed." I sighed. We sat there in silence for a moment, the only thing breaking it being when "Zambini, Artimus", the greasy-haired boy who had been next to Rose, was sorted into Slytherin. Our eye contact was broken when he passed me to sit in one of the many empty seats around the table.
"Unless..." Her look suddenly became calculating, giving me hope. No wonder the hat had put her in Ravenclaw, when she put her mind to it, she could be genius. Normally she was just brilliant. She didn't finish her thought, just spun back around in her seat and started paying attention to the McGonagall tapping her glass to quiet everyone. I rolled my eyes, but turned my attention to the headmaster and my parents' mentor.
Her black hair, greying with age, lay on her shoulders in waves as she stood and smiled warmly at us. Mum and Da said that she used to be the most severe woman ever, but after the war, she'd become an extremely gentle old lady. Unless you pissed her off. Then she became a very hard taskmistress. "Good Evening Hogwarts!" She started, and immediatly a small smile came to my face. I really did like McGonagall, even if she had threatened turn me into a beetle if I ended up in her office this year. "And welcome to another year of learning. I'm happy to see old faces and new, now present among us, and I'm sure everyone is satisfied as to where they were sorted." I knew she was saying this for Rose and I, even though her gaze didn't linger on us more than it did anyone else. I sat there, listening to her talk about the rules and such, only really paying half-attention and trying to come up with a way for Rose, Scorpius, and I to be able to spend time together. If we even should. I really did need to get ahold of that hat.