~Potions Chamber~

n. the place where good little children begin to comprehend their own psychological nature

Test scores don't mean everything.

Until you've failed a really big test that everyone else had seemed to ace.

Up until then, tests don't seem to matter so much. Down that stretch of time, test scores seemed to become everything.

+!+!+

Scorpius Malfoy wriggled in his seat. The first big potions test of the year was being handed back. He was pretty sure he had done okay. He must have done bit his lip and shuffled a bit when Professor Slughorn called his name to take his parchment back. Holding the rolled up piece of parchment in his hand and feeling the funny texture of test paper, he headed back to his desk. He sat down with a kind of bitter expectation boiling in his mind.

He unfurled his parchment.

Scorpius bit down hard on the inside of his cheek. The taste of defeat was as prominent as the salty tang of blood.

He had scored a bloody fifty-five percent. What kind of fool could score that? What kind of bloody test corrections would he have to bloody do?

"What did you get Scorp? I got a ninety-four. I forgot to add that toadspawn is best added at dusk for potency. How stupid of me, eh?"

Thoughts raced thought his brain, hopping like mad grasshoppers and trying to find a safe topic. But what was safe? His eyes flickered around the chamber. Slughorn, closet, fangirls, Albus, desk, chair, textbook, nothing was safe enough. Suddenly, his eyes landed on Rose's hair. She sat in the seat in front of him. Her hair was red and hung down her back, almost touching his desk. He stared some more. He picked out the different colors in the different strands weaving through her hair like butterflies through a garden. He looked and admired and almost reached out a hand to touch her hair when she turned around. She looked at him quizzically and he felt like an idiot.

"…I guess. Congrats."

"So what did you get?" Rose was burbling happily and Scorpius cringed as she pressed her point.

"A fifty-five." He murmured.

"Oh…"

"Yeah."

To his immense shame, he felt a hatred bubbling in his gut. He was the smart one. He should have gotten the ninety. It was he who was the most dignified of the small group that they were in. Between Rose, and Albus, and himself, he was the one with the best lineage damn it. Wasn't he supposed to be the one blessed with the brains?

But wasn't he supposed to be the bigger person if he was so brainy? Shouldn't he be the one to step aside and let someone else take the spotlight? If he was brainy, why wasn't he more compassionate? That's a simple enough emotion, compassion. So why does he not feel it? Was it because he wasn't as brainy as he thought he was?

Why was he asking himself so many annoying questions anyway?

Swallowing his pride and nearly choking on it, Scorpius muttered a 'good job' before focusing on the lesson.

So, in the tiniest part of his heart, he was pleased he'd made so much progress in dissecting his emotions. He wasn't great at it. But this was one test that he was not going to fail.

He was going to splay them on a lab table and cut them to pieces.

A/N: So how was it? :] It was a little shorter than it was in my head.. . _.

Comments and suggestions are appreciated! x3