Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy was not the kind of name you'd want if you planned to spend the next seven years of your life living in Gryffindor Tower. And yet, here he was, freshly awake under soft red sheets, high up in Gryffindor Tower. Scorpius had lain in bed replayed the previous night's events in his mind again and again, and thus, hadn't gotten much sleep. Now, however, his mind was blank, silent. He wasn't looking forward to finding new awful experiences to brood over that evening.
His roommates were all still asleep, tossed about their beds like discarded rag dolls The boy next to him, Timothy Tran, was completely upside down; his feet were twisted up in his pillow and his head was tilted on the footboard. A thick line of drool trickled down from the two corners of his mouth on his chin and pillow. His shoulder-length black hair bore such a striking resemblance to a bird's nest that it would be a wonder if he could ever correct it.
Scorpius, though still feeling like he were sinking in quicksand, let out a laugh. Tran, who was apparently a light sleeper, woke up with a start so great he fell out of bed. He sprang up and looked around suspiciously but all her was Scorpius getting out of bed.
"What so funny?" he demanded, waking up the rest of their room.
Scorpius shrugged, "You look ridiculous when you sleep." he answered lightly.
Tran crossed his arms. Matthew Watson, Nathan Finnigan, and Ares Bones had gotten out of bed as well and they flanked Tran against Scorpius. "What's that suppose to mean?" Tran challenged.
"You sleep upside down and drool more than a two year old." Scorpius stated flatly before rushing out the room. As he prepared for the day, he tried to keep down his temper. In any other dorm, the incident wouldn't have been such a big deal, maybe even funny, but not when one of the people in the room shouldn't have been there. As much as the thought stung, Scorpius kept it to himself.
Hurrying, Scorpius went down to the Great Hall for breakfast. When he arrived, a trio of Hufflepuff girls in his year appeared, chatting and giggling like old friends. The sight made him pout in jealousy until he realized that he knew one of them.
"Scorpius!" It was Cathy, flushed and bright-eyed, without a trace of yesterday's nervousness. She took her roommates by the hand and brought them to him. "This is my friend, Scorpius Malfoy." she introduced. "We met on the train yesterday. Scorpius, these are my roommates, Angel Delgado," she gestured to a tall, broad shouldered girl with Hispanic features and thick fuzzy eyebrows, "and Sonya Song." Cathy nodded in the direction of the short, slight Asian girl with short hair and choppy bangs.
"Your friend?!" Sonya gasped in incredulous disgust. "Don't you know who he is? What his family's done? Oh right, you're muggleborn."
Cathy was taken aback, "I don't understand what you mean."
"Why don't you ask your friend?" Sonya spat. "C'mon Ang." Angel sneered at Scorpius and followed her friend into the Great Hall.
Scorpius forced down the lump that was rising in his throat as Cathy's eyes darkened with confusion and doubt.
"What are they talking about Scorpius?" she asked hesitantly her voice low and clouded with concern. "Does it have something to do with what happened last night, when no one clapped for you?"
He didn't want to have this conversation, not now, not ever, and certainly not with Cathy. Nice easy-going Cathy. Once she knew the truth, would she look at him the way everyone else did. The thought made his limps heavy. "Now's not a good time." he muttered awkwardly as he turned a deep shade of red, the shade of shame. "Later perhaps?"
Cathy didn't look happy about it, but she nodded and then went into the Hall without him.
Scorpius stood there for a minute, deciding whether or not he should skip breakfast, but hunger won out and slugged inside to the Gryffindor table. When he sat down, his housemates decided to give him more space that he needed. All their shoulders were turned away from him, they're eyes never met he wanted to get away as quickly as possible, Scorpius ate quickly; with his appetite suddenly gone, there wasn't much to wait around for.
Sulking, he left the Hall in a hurry and went out to the lake. He sat on a solitary bench and watched the dark grey as if waiting for something to arise from its depth and deliver him from his troubles. Not long later, Cathy came up behind him through the morning fog, her shoes crunching the grass with every step. She sat beside him, eyes alert and expectant.
He was cornered now, so he began. "A long time ago, before my dad was even born, there was a huge war. The Dark Lord, V-Voldemort," he swallowed the name like a bitter potion. The Ministry of Magic has been trying to make people stop fearing the name, so they'd stop fearing the man. "and his Death Eaters hunted down muggles and muggleborns."
Cathy's face tensed and she inhaled sharply, "You mean, like me and my family?"
Nodding solemnly, Scorpius continued his macabre history lesson. "They-the Death Eaters-were fanatics of blood purity; they believed that wizard families were inherently superior to muggle families, so they tried to..to..."
"...exterminate us?" Cathy finished in a detached tone. She leaned back in her seat and exhaled deeply, closing her eyes. The way she'd said "us" made Scorpius shiver.
"It wasn't new, actually. For centuries there was this idea that having pure wizard blood made you smarter, stronger, and more important. Better."
"Do you believe that?" Cathy demanded. She opened her eyes and looked straight at him.
Scorpius didn't miss a beat. "Not one word. It doesn't mean anything to me."
"But it meant something to your family."
His shoulders fell in defeat. "Yes." he admitted, "My father and grandfather fought in Voldemort's name, killing muggles, torturing muggleborns, spreading terror." he shuddered again. The words tasted like metal. "Voldemort tried to kill a family, but their son, Harry Potter, survived. He couldn't kill the boy, so he vanished."
"Why? What happened?"
"No one knows for sure; Potter's not telling."
"His children are here."
"Yes. I've seen them." Scorpius shook his head, making his pale blond hair messy, "Thirteen years after Potter survived the Killing Curse, Voldemort reappeared, raised his army back up, and started another, much more terrible war. This time, he required my father; he was sixteen." This was the only time he'd ever explained what happened out loud-the only time he'd ever had to. Cathy's sense of discomfort was so palpable, he choked on it. "He did terrible things…"
"That's why people treat you like they do? They think you're like that?"
"Well they don't have to worry," Scorpius snorted bitterly, "Did you know my whole family's been in Slytherin? I'm the only Malfoy to ever be in Gryffindor. That kind of thing doesn't happen often, and when it does people notice; they talk. So now I'm not just the son of a murderer, I'm a freak to boot."
Contrary to what he expected, Cathy put a small, dark hand on his shoulder and firmly stated. "You are not a freak. You're my friend. If you think I'm going to mad over something that happened before you were even born, you're mistaken."
Scorpius was too stunned to speak. He wanted to stay outside with Cathy the rest of the day, but too soon, it was time for class-Cathy to Transfiguration and Scorpius to Potions.
The Potions classroom was a dungeon near the Slytherin dormitories, so Scorpius had little trouble finding it. But since he'd been out by the lake, when he entered class, the only seat available was next to a thin, black-haired boy with green eyes.
Albus Potter.
Of course.
When he sat down, Scorpius was completely unsurprised to see he'd caught everyone's attention. But with Cathy's reassurance, he found he longer cared what they thought of him.
"Albus."
"I'm sorry." he turned to his neighbor.
The boy focused on the tools and ingredients in from of him, but he repeated himself. "My name is Albus Potter."
'As if everyone doesn't already know who you are: the second son of the Chosen One. Just being polite I guess.' Scorpius mused, "I'm Scorpius."
Albus nodded and returned his attention to carefully organizing the potion ingredients and aligning the instruments. There was something in the way he looked at them-intense fascination, comfortable familiarity-that made Scorpius smirk slightly. Without a doubt, he knew Potions would be Albus's domain.
Professor Slughorn entered the room, grinning jubilantly at his class from under his thick silver, walrus-like mustache. "Good morning." he exclaimed, "Always wonderful to have a new set of students join my class. My name is Professor Slughorn and I will be your instructor in the art of potion making for the rest of your time here."
Scorpius had heard that the man loved to collect the children of famous wizards and witches or those who had the potential to be famous. However vain Slughorn was made out to seem, his first impression of the man, giddy and kind, dashed away any preconceived notions he'd had. Scorpius liked him right away.
The Potions professor continued, "We will spend most of this first class period discussing basic potion ingredients and their uses, as well as how to properly brew a potion and all safety precautions you will have to take."
Albus looked disappointed, "Professor Slughorn, I thought we were going to brew a potion on our first day."
Slughorn gave him an understanding look, "I'm sure you did." he said kindly. "But before you started brewing, you have to know what you're dealing with."
Instead of arguing, which Scorpius expected him to do, Albus nodded and took out parchment and a quill to take notes; everyone did the same. For the remainder of the period, the only sounds were that of Slughorn's voice and the scratching of quills as his students tried to keep up.
After what felt like forever, Slughorn concluded his lecture, assigned homework, and dismissed them. As Scorpius got up to collect his things, someone knocked all his belongings on the floor; his ink bottle shattered, ruining his carefully taken notes. Frustrated, Scorpius knelt down to salvage his work. To his immense shock, Albus got down to help him. Albus held up Scorpius's now worthless notes and crumpled them up.
"Hey!"
Albus reached into his bag, pulled out his own notes, and handed them to Scorpius. "Here. These are better."
"Won't you need them?"
Albus just shrugged.
As he accepted the notes, almost unconsciously, Scorpius smiled at him-a full genuine smile that looked like the sun. Albus smiled right back.