Disclaimer: No I do not own harry Potter nor do I own a TARDIS to take me back in time and write Harry Potter before J.K. ;)

Chapter 18- Mates

Scorpius and I are the best of friends but sometimes our family's past history got in the way of our epic friendship:

I was walking by the lake one day in March, when a fifth year Slytherin by the name of Mark Nott decided to antagonize me.

You see, he was my nemesis I hated him with a passion, and trust me when I say the feeling was deadly mutual.

Any chance Nott got, he and Goyle would curse, insult, degrade, etc., me until someone would come and notice they were bullying me, and today was no exception: except for the fact Nott was alone.

"Oi! Potter!" I turned around with my teeth clenched hard, I was not in the mood to deal with Nott today, not one bit.

"What do you want, Nott?" I snapped, the wind blowing loudly behind me made it almost impossible to hear the response.

"Now, now, wannabe hero, I just wanted to give you a bit of a warning."

I looked at his ferrety face, repulsed by the fact he wanted to "help" me, "Did you know when you speak Nott, you lower the entire castles I.Q.? So bugger off!"

I turned away from the annoying boy, and made my way back up to the castle, but I was ultimately stopped by a tight grip on my arm.

I growled and wrenched my arm out of the slightly taller boys grip and demanded, "What!"

Nott leaned down slightly to whisper in my ear, "You better watch out Potter, soon people won't take to lightly to being spoken to like that." He straightened up slightly and sneered at me, "I thought you would like to know that your friend, Scorpius, his grandfather has been up to no good these days, so you better watch where you leave your loyalty, Potter."

Nott let go of my arm, smirking triumphantly at my confused expression before nodding smugly, and walked back to the castle.

I watched his lanky form disappear all the way to the castle, my heart beating too fast. What was Nott talking about?

What people were the arrogant git talking about?

Could this have something to do with the mysterious break-ins at the Ministry, and Azkaban, Dad had told us about?

And why was Lucius Malfoy involved?

And Scorpius, why wouldn't I trust him? He was my best friend, and good ally.

Did he mean Lucius was fooling around with Dark magic again: working with the people who were working against the light? And Scorpius was somehow involved?

I shook my head: no, Nott was just trying to mess with my head, he knew nothing about what was going on at The Ministry. Dad didn't even know and that's saying a lot.

With that, I walked back up to the castle, doubt slowly creeping into my mind for the first time since my first meeting with Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy.

A week later, I was lying on bed reading a rather long letter from Teddy (he and Victoire were fighting again), when the door banged open loudly causing it to echo around the room the empty, besides myself, room.

I looked up, perplexed, Scoprius stalked angrily to his bed (across from mine) muttering under his breath, "You Okay, Scorp?"

His head whipped around to me and he snapped, "I'm fine."

I blinked, Scoprius never spoke like that to me, "Well, sorry for being concerned."

"Oh, just shut it, Albus."

I sat up and looked at the boy laying across from me. I noticed how dark his usual light gray eyes were, I saw his flushed cheeks and angry scowl: Scorpius looked beyond fine at the moment.

I got up and casually walked to one of the desks facing the window that looked out to the underwater view of the lake, "Did I do something? Did someone anger you?"

I heard him growl, "For Merlin's sake, no, now LEAVE. ME. ALONE."

I just shook my head when would he get it through his thick skull, I couldn't leave him alone, "Tell me what's bothering you."

"Fine," Scorpius spat, standing coming face to face with me (I was an inch taller), "Someone told me today that you thought I was going into the dark arts, like my father and grandfather did. They also said I shouldn't trust you because you would write to your bloody father saying I was up to no good."

"What!" I blurted incredulously.

Scorpius glared at me, "You think your just to good for everyone don't you, Al, because your Harry Potter's son but your not, he's the hero, he's the one who defeated the dark lord, he's the one who changed our world for the better. What have you done? Got an "O" on a test? Caught a snitch? Gone on a date? You're not your father despite what you think!"

With that he pushed me hard against the desk behind me, and stalked out, just as fast as he came in, leaving me stunned, hurt, and alone.

"Thanks, Percy." I said quietly to the green-eyed house elf in front of me, who just placed a plate of food in front of me.

The little guy grinned, "Yours welcome, Albus Potter!" and scurried off to help the other house elves.

I picked at my food, I wasn't very hungry, my run-in with Scorpius ruined any thoughts of food for me.

I couldn't for the life of me think who would say those false things to Scorpius and cause him to actually believe them.

Didn't he have any faith In me at all? I mean I can't even count all the times I've yelled at someone for saying Scorp was "bad blood", and "a dirty traitor", I would defend Scorpius through Hell and back if I had to.

I took a drink of pumpkin juice, morosely, and watched the house elves bustle about, I almost didn't notice Lorcan Scamander slide into the spot next to me.

"Hello, Albus."

I nodded to the peculiar boy, (he definitely took after Aunt Luna, while his twin thankfully seemed to be like their dad) "Hey, Lorcan."

A little elf by the name of Thalia (she and the elf Percy were cousins) asked the Ravenclaw if he wanted anything and he said "May I have some pudding please?," before turning back to me, "You're upset over something."

"Yep."

I didn't want to give anything away, it hurt to much to think of the cruel words he said, and they weren't true, because I loved my dad more then anyone else in the world and as much as I wanted to be like him, I didn't want to be a hero, I just wanted to be Albus Potter.

Lorcan took his spoon and started to eat his chocolate pudding, "You fought with your friend."

I shook my head the sixth year just knew stuff like that, it was almost as bad as talking to Aunt Luna, and trust me I have heard quite enough about Wilbos and Watercrumbs, to last three lifetimes.

"Yeah, me and Scorpius Malfoy, you ah- met him at Dad's last birthday party, he was with Lily, me, and her two friends."

Lorcan nodded thoughtfully, "The one with the hair."

"Yeah, that's him," I said my voice full of amusement, "me and him aren't getting along at the moment."

"I see," Lorcan murmured airily and took a spoonful of pudding before continuing with a raised brow, "you two are having a domestic."

"Yeah we a- wait! We are not having a bloody domestic, we aren't married or together! I'm not gay, I have a ruddy girlfriend!" I said loudly attracting the attention of a bunch of elves.

I was highly offended that Lorcan thought that, Scorpius was like the Watson to my Holmes, my partner in crime, my best mate, and it was just… weird.

Lorcan smiled at me, "I know."

"Huh? Then why'd you say that?"

"Because."

I wanted to hit my head on the table repeatedly, this conversation was getting me nowhere.

"You're frustrated with me," I felt my left eye twitch, "don't worry it happens often. Mummy says I'm as frustrating as a GliddyPlink on a cold December morning."

Please someone, anyone help me.

Lorcan's sea-foam green eyes shined as he went on to describe in detail how a GliddyPlink mates and befriends fellow GliddyPlinks, causing me to lose all hope that this weird (weirder than normal Lorcan behavior) conversation was heading anywhere.

"… and by the age of fifteen a GliddyPlink will have many acquaintances but will have only one true best friend, one that'll follow him to the ends of the earth despite any objections his family may have, he will stick with him through thick and thin, fighting his way to make sure his best friend is safe. Fellow enemy GliddyPlinks will even try and turn them against each other but they will always find there way back to each other."

My head snapped up having caught the end of what Lorcan just said and despite all that I thought earlier, I realized this wasn't completely hopeless (although I'm still not sure why I needed to know how GliddyPlinks mate, ew.) there was a moral to this monstrosity of a conversation. In his own roundabout way Lorcan was telling me to find Scorpius, to make up, and to find the bloody idiot who put those thoughts in his head.

Because Scorpius Malfoy was best friend and despite everything I'd rather be hit with the Cruciatus then give up on him and our friendship.

"I've got to go but I've gotta see a certain Malfoy, Lorcan, and thanks, mate."

I was already by the door when Lorcan called out from his seat, "Albus," I whipped around, "he's in an abandoned classroom on the fifth floor."

Blinking in surprise, I nodded, "See ya, Lorcan."

I had a best mate to find.

Author's Note: Hey everyone! I know I'm late with the update but things happen (meaning I was to busy reading fan fiction to write fan fiction and watching Series five of Doctor Who) and in all honesty this chapter wouldn't even be here thanks to the most awesome person ever ashtonangel13, I swear you deserve a medal for putting up with me :D

And even though this isn't Albus/Scorpius I like to give a nod to that ship because I'm a bit of a shipper but I repeat this Will NOT be Al/Scorpius. And don't ask me about those creatures Lorcan mentioned, I don't even know.

OH and guess what, I found the Magical Quill! Yep on Day Four (and I didn't even try the first three days) I got to register early! Cue girlish screams! And I looove my Username (it's BladeWolf117 btw)

Catch You Later,

Britt

PS- Yes that ^^^^ was a nod to Series 1 Episode 3 The Great game of Sherlock ( Oh, John please let Sherlock rip your clothes off in a darkened swimming pool)