The Silver Trio

Rose Weasley and Albus Potter are just as famous as their parents – for doing absolutely nothing. Scorpius Malfoy is just as famous – but for all the wrong reasons. So when the three are finally eleven and beginning Hogwarts, they're bound to be enemies, right?

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or its characters. I wish I did, because then there would be a book on the Next Generation too. Sadly, JK didn't agree with me.

Chapter Three: Halloween and Meeting Professor Slughorn

(Rose POV)

"That certainly is a wonderful potion, Miss Weasley!" Professor Slughorn said as he peered into my cauldron, in which I'd been brewing a Forgetfulness Potion. He beamed at me as I stirred it anti-clockwise five times and waved my wand over it, completing the process. "You've certainly inherited your mother's Potions skills, haven't you? Your father was alright too, I suppose. His skills were in Quidditch. Wonderful Keeper, Ronald Weasley. And very brave, though when he was a student, his Defence Against The Dark Arts teachers did not have a lot of praise for him!"

As he turned and looked into Albus' cauldron, nodding happily, I caught Scorpius' eye and saw her trying not to giggle aloud, in the fear of offending him. I had warned him about Slughorn our first lesson, after Mum had; the man was wise and educated in his subject, but was a big fan of getting on the good side of pupils who were more well-known and successful in the Wizarding World. On our way to our first lesson, Victoire had stopped to tell us about her first lesson, in which Slughorn had been so happy about having a Weasley child in his class that he'd postponed the lesson and had gone to list all the cousins and his excitement at their arrival at Hogwarts.

"And you are also very good, Mr Potter! Not as good as your father, of course. He was the second-best student I've ever had. Second to your grandmother, Lily. Your father certainly is a very talented man, isn't he? Very talented, smart, excellent Seeker – and he saved the world! Wonderful man, Harry is! And your mother, Ginerva! She played for the Harpies! My second student to have done so!"

He walked over to Scorpius' cauldron and his face lit up for the third time. "You too, Mr Malfoy! You are very skilled! Much more so than your father, though I did have them in their harder NEWT years, so we shall see. How is Draco now? When I arrived, he was going through a very troubled time. I thought he was just rude, but you know, I would be petrified if I was placed in the same position, and I probably would have done the same! And he turned himself around, didn't he! Respectable man in the Ministry now, Draco Malfoy!"

He didn't give Scorpius time to reply, as he put his arms around all three of us, squishing us together. "I think I have found my prized students! All wonderfully talented, and all Slytherins! Wonderful, wonderful!" he cried, letting us go and clapping his chubby hands eagerly. He looked us up and down, as if analyzing us all.

"You all look like your parents. Very much. Miss Weasley, you could be Hermione's sister, if it wasn't for your hair colour! Mr Potter, if you had the scar and glasses, you would be identical to your father! And Mr Malfoy, you look very much like your father, only with glasses! Except, as I remember, he used to gel his hair back. I like your hair much more, much more!"

I caught Scorpius' eye, and saw he was trying very hard not to laugh once again, though he let out a chuckle. Albus was biting his cheeks as Professor Slughorn began discussing and comparing our hair to our parents'. And me? I was torn between laughing and thanking him. I love being compared to my mum. I think she's such a beautiful, intelligent, brave person – it's an honour to be compared to her. And my dad – brave, skilled at Quidditch and loyal. Seriously, who wouldn't want to have those qualities? Still, there was a reason I was sorted into Slytherin; there were ways I wasn't like my parents, and I hoped to make a name for myself in ways other than for who my parents were.

"You will be part of my club, yes? We get together, once a fortnight, and eat supper and talk. It is very fun. Harry and Hermione were members themselves, dubbed it the 'Slug Club'. I did ask Ronald after the Second Wizarding War, but he didn't come back to Hogwarts afterwards, and neither did Harry, understandably. And dear Hermione wanted to focus on her studies; it was her NEWT year after all, and she'd spent so much time away from Hogwarts –"

"We'd love to be part of your club, Professor Slughorn, thank you for asking us," I replied politely, wanting to cut him off before he continued talking about my Mum. I could see the Gryffindors listening, and didn't want people asking more questions. Al's eyes widened as I answered for him once again and Scorpius let out a snort of laughter, which he quickly disguised into a cough. Satisfied with our answer, Slughorn dismissed us, humming a Weird Sisters song to himself as he cleared up the classroom.

"Rose, you love getting us into things without consulting us, don't you?" Scorpius laughed, as we walking out of Potions. I swung my bag at him, and then put it on my shoulder, laughing at him. "Scor, c'mon. It's a way to suck up to our Head of House. And it's a way of getting nice food and a bit of gossip. It also ends after hours, and it's not like I fancy lying in the dormitory by myself, this is a nice break from that every two weeks."

"Why would you want to suck up to Slughorn anyway, Rose?" Scorpius asked, lightly punching my shoulder, before hugging me apologetically, worried he'd hurt me. Once he saw I was fine, he laughed and nudged me. "All teachers love you. Especially ol' Slughorn. He'd adopt you if he could, Ron and Hermione Weasley had better watch out, he might kidnap you if he gets to that point of desperation."

Albus laughed loudly, as we turned to go to our common room. "You obviously haven't known Rose for long enough, Scorpius. She's a right ol' troublemaker, and it's good she manages to get the teachers wrapped around her little finger! You'll see. She'll get us out of a load of situations, but she'll land us in a fair few with the stunts she pulls!"

"What are you guys going as for the ball tonight, guys?" Victoria Page, a first-year Ravenclaw turned around to ask Scorpius and I as we jotted down the notes that Professor Monroe, our Transfiguration teacher, had just written on the board. "What are you on about, Page?" Al asked, nudging her with his elbow. "What ball?"

Victoria giggled and playfully swatted Al's shoulder, and I shared a brief look with Scorpius. The pair of us had been sure that the brunette Ravenclaw had developed a crush on Albus in the last two months. "Silly Albus! The Halloween ball tonight!" She raised her eyebrows as the three of us turned to each other, eyes wide, jaws dropping. "Oh, please don't tell me you forgot, you three!"

"I can't believe it!" Al grunted, kicking the leg of the desk in frustration, causing everyone to turn around and stare at us. Not that he cared, the loud git loves the sound of his own voice and loves when people give him attention even more (yes, I love Al, but it's true and we both know it). He held up an apologetic hand as Professor Monroe turned around, looking only mildly annoyed at Albus' outburst; like the rest of us, I think she'd become used to them. As soon as she turned around to face the board, Albus turned back to face us once again, lowering his voice to a whisper. "Honestly! How did we forget? We don't even have costumes! We're going to be the only ones not in costume, and I'd rather not go than do that!"

"Unless we go to Hogsmeade," Scorpius sighed, running his hands through his blonde hair and turning to me for some sort of solution. "And we can't. It's a Friday for one, and we're first-years. I suppose we could ask our parents to go for us, but my dad wouldn't be bothered, and they wouldn't get it in time anyway, and even then the costumes might not fit and –"

It was like someone had cast a Lumos as Scorpius said that, and I clapped my hands together with joy. "That's it!" I cried, putting my quill down and leaning forwards. "I know what we can go as! We don't even need to buy anything, all you two need to do is follow me to the library!"

"Rose, are you sure about this?" Scorpius asked me, fiddling with his tie as we descended the stairs leading towards the Great Hall entrance. The rest of the school were already inside, and we were somewhat fashionably late; partly because Scorpius had been nervous and partly because Albus was too busy looking at himself in the mirror. "Are you sure you want to go in the ball dressed like… your parents?"

Yep, the boys and I were currently dressed as the Golden Trio: Uncle Harry, Mum and Dad. I'd had to hunt down a few charms in the library and practice a few times before I could change our appearances, and I'd borrowed our cousins' Gryffindor uniforms, but we'd managed it. Roxy had been easy to persuade, but I'd had to promise to unconditionally help Fred and James with their latest prank to get them to agree to lend us their uniforms. Even then, I knew the three of them had been confused as to why I'd asked to borrow their uniforms, even more so because I'd asked them to keep it all a secret.

Albus, of course, had taken the part of his father. He hadn't needed to change much, he's already got Uncle Harry's jet black hair and cool emerald eyes, and he'd been told since birth that he looked like a mini version of him. All we'd to do was Scor's glasses (with a charm on the lenses that made it easy for Albus to see through them) and I'd charmed a fake scar onto his forehead. But… I don't remember hearing about Uncle Harry being so cocky…

"Oh, calm down, Scor!" Al scoffed, flicking our friend's tie with the tip of his wand and ruffling his hair. As Scorpius groaned at hit his hand away, I couldn't help but giggle at just how cocky he was. Merlin, he was worse than James, Fred and Louis combined. "We look good. Well, at least I do. You and Rosie look alright, I guess. You know us Potter men. We're come top in everything we do – popularity, brains, looks and dealing with the ladies."

"Oh, please, Al!" Scor laughed. He winked at me quickly, before turning to face my cousin, his lips curled into a smirk. "Everyone knows us Malfoy men have you piped to the post. Maybe not in popularity and 'dealing with the ladies', but brains and looks – easy." Actually, right now, Scor wasn't his typical blonde self, he was Ronald Weasley.

I know, the irony. But Al had already called dibs on Uncle Harry, and I'm a girl, so what else could we have done? Making him look my Dad had been harder than making Al look like Uncle Harry. I'd had to cast a charm so his hair was ginger and a bit shorter, like Dad's had been in first year; I'd charmed freckles onto his pale, normally porcelain face and charm his grey eyes so they turned blue. While Al had burst out laughing when he came out of the dormitory they shared, I honestly think Scor didn't look so bad as a Weasley; but still, the Malfoy look worked a lot better for him.

"Scor, you're a Weasley now," Al teased, laughing and ruffling our friend's hair once again. Scorpius didn't even try to fix his hair this time, just pushing Albus off of him. "And to be honest, the Weasley look doesn't suit you much. I think looking pale and washed-up is your look to be honest, not sun-kissed, ginger and freckled. Your look won't get you many girls, but the Weasley look isn't you at all. Tonight I'll be off with all the babes! I'm the hottest out of us!"

"Rose still looks the best, no matter what you say, Al," Scorpius said, turning to smile at me. He reached out slightly and took my hand in his, squeezing it softly. We'd reached the bottom of the stairs at this point, but my two best friends were just smiling at me now. Everyone said I was the spitting image of my mum, so all I'd done was charm my hair brown. My curly hair was the exact same style hers had been in her first and second years at Hogwarts, and borrowing Roxy's uniform when she was a lot taller than I was meant that her uniform was baggy on me, the same way Mum's had been. To be honest, I don't think I looked half bad… I just looked like normal me.

"Brown hair looks nice on you, Rosie," Al commented, and I couldn't help but smile at his lack of denial at Scorpius' comment. He linked his arm through my spare one and pulled me closer to his side. "You look older, but in a nice way. You look even more like your mum than you usually do." I blushed and he turned to Scorpius, grinning. "We're going to be fighting the boys off her tonight, Scor."

"Oh, please!" Scorpius said. "We're hardly going to be fighting them off her!" I was about to thank him as moved closer to me, so I was sandwiched between my best friends, but he winked at Al over the top of my head. "We're going to need the whole Auror department to keep Rosie safe!"

"Oh, ha ha," I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes and snorting at them. Not particularly ladylike, I know, but I had to resort to that behaviour being best friends with these two. I tried to pull away from them but they kept me in between them, smirking at each other. "Can we just go in now?" My two best friends nodded and laughed, pushing open the doors. As we stepped into the Great Hall everyone fell silent, and I couldn't help but inwardly groan at just how many of those silences we'd triggered since starting at Hogwarts.

My first thought was 'Oh great. We've just made giant prats of ourselves. What a stupid, stupid idea.'

My second thought: 'I'm gonna have to work on a memory charm to get everyone to forget this if we wanna make more friends.'

My third thought: 'Al and Scor are gonna kill me.'

My fourth and final thought: 'RUN!'

But as I was set to use all the strength I had in my body to pull away from my best friends, I looked around properly, noting that people weren't staring at us in horror, it was with admiration and awe. Victoire, dressed as a Siren, and her friends over at the punch table were grinning at us, whilst Roxy and Lucy, as an Egyptian goddess and cat, were giving us the thumbs up. Fred and James, as a pirate and gladiator, were smiling proudly, and Louis, as a poor replica of Teddy's late father, was mouthing 'WOW' to us. And everyone else was smiling and pointing, nudging one another so most eyes were on us. Bloody typical. Place a Weasley in Slytherin and she gets stared at constantly because of it, Merlin, why couldn't I have just been in Gryffindor.

I shifted uncomfortably at the number of eyes on us, and Scorpius put a reassuring hand on my shoulder and dragged me into the room properly. My cheeks flushed as he pulled me (and Al) over to the snack table, and a path was cleared as we walked. Merlin, I got less attention than this when I walked around with Mum and Dad. Amongst the crowd, I could see Jono and his seventh year friends clapping, evidently amazed at our simple costumes, while Scott, Parker and Leo wolf-whistled appreciatively.

But in a matter of seconds, people were coming up to us, telling us how much we looked like our parents (and how Scor made an excellent Ron Weasley). I was being complimented – not only did I have my mother's brains, but her stunning looks too, which made my cheeks heat up. Albus was being told he looked the spitting image of Uncle Harry and the smirk on his face just kept getting bigger and bigger. And Scorpius was being told he looked like a true Weasley.

As someone snapped a picture of us, I couldn't help but realise I'd never seen Scorpius so happy. I think Scor was happy about that, being called a true Weasley, I mean. While Albus and I babbled on about our families and childhood memories with the cousins that attended Hogwarts with us, Scor rarely talked about his. Albus and I would get weekly batches letters from our family back home, while Scor had gotten one in the whole time we'd been at Hogwarts, simply to congratulate him for being sorted into his family house.

I think he liked being friends with Albus and I, because it was like our own little family.