Finals week is officially over :)) I thought I would celebrate with a new chapter. I'm not quite sure how I feel about this one. It's really long and kind of a mash up of a bunch of ideas, so give me any suggestions or comments you have! Enjoy!

That morning, for the first time in awhile, Scorpius got up early. He went into the bathroom, took a hot shower, and got dressed. It was rare for Scorpius to be up early, not that he loved sleep so much, but simply because there was never really anything worth waking up for, especially at Hogwarts. However, today was different.

After he had finished washing up in the bathroom he came back to the dormitory and found that one of his roommates was actually awake. Trey Graves was the final member of their dorm and although Scorpius and Trey had never been close friends Scorpius liked being roommates with him all the same. He was a nice guy and let them get away with a lot. For the last two years Trey had been a prefect, but didn't seem to take the role very seriously.

"Mornin' Mert." Scorpius greeted the boy playfully. Trey rolled his eyes with feigned annoyance. Trey's full name was Merton Graves III, named after both his father and grandfather. Surprisingly enough he wasn't too fond of the name Merton, and chose to go by Trey. This of course meant that Scorpius was overly fond of Merton, and snuck it into conversation with the boy as much as possible.

"Hey Scorpius." He replied.

"Have a good summer?" Scorpius asked, sitting down on his bed.

"Alright." Trey responded, "My dad had this reunion tour for that band of his, and I tagged along for a few weeks. It got too awkward though. He's waaay to old to be wearing leather pants and ripped up robes rocking out on a stage. Reliving the glory days was how he explained it. I went home after 3 shows."

Trey's dad had been in a band that was popular back when his parents were at Hogwarts. Apparently they were a pretty big deal; his dad had an album of theirs. They were called "The Weird Sisters" even though they were all male. They also all looked homeless when they preformed. Regardless, Trey and his family were pretty wealthy because of it, so Scorpius didn't judge.

"How was your summer?" Trey continued.

"Fine." Scorpius answered.

"I notice you're up early today." Trey added.

"I notice you are too." Scorpius countered.

"Prefects meeting. I'll probably off myself halfway through. I hear James Potter is head boy, which means he'll be leading it. I don't know anyone who enjoys the sound of their own voice as much as James Potter, so I'll be in for a rough morning." Scorpius snickered in response, but didn't say anything, so Trey continued, "What are you up to?"

"Oh, nothing. I just couldn't sleep." Scorpius replied with a nonchalant wave of his hand. Trey shot him a look that told Scorpius he didn't buy it for a second.

"Well, have fun then." Trey smirked, "And try not to get a detention on the second day." With that Trey walked out of the room and let the door shut behind him.

As soon as the door shut, Scorpius got back up and walked over to Andrew's bed. He shook the mound under the blankets, which grunted slightly.

"Wake up Andy." Scorpius said. The mound grunted again but didn't move.

"Andrew!" Scorpius said more loudly. This time a mumbled 'what' came from the mound.

"We have to get down to the Great Hall soon if we are going to catch Albus Potter during breakfast." When he got no response he grabbed his wand and flicked it in Andy's direction. A moment later his sheets flew up and stuck themselves to the ceiling, revealing his best friend still half asleep on his bed.

"What the FUCK?" Andrew yelled out, sitting up.

"Come on. We have to go down early if we are going to find Potter before he goes to class."

"Scorpius, no one gets up this early."

"Sure they do, you know those goody two shoes types, they think waking up early is the key to success in life. What's that saying? Early to bed, early to rise. Eat a good breakfast, don't judge on size. Something like that…"

"Dude that is not a fucking saying." Andrew grumbled, pulling his pants on.

"Yeah well it's something like that." Scorpius replied unconcerned.

"Will you too shut the fuck up!" A voice called from across the room.

"Oh no, did we wake wittle Jaysen fwom his wittle nap?" Andrew shouted across the room. "Boo fuckin hoo"

"Fuck you." Came the weak response.

Andrew finished dressing and grabbed his wand. "Alright, let's go." He said.

They walked towards the door and were just about to go out when Andrew turned around and pointed his wand in the direction of Jaysen's bed. A purple spark shot directly on Jaysen's covers and Andrew quickly closed the door behind them.

From the other side of the door they still heard a loud scream, and then the words "FUCK YOU ANDREW!" being shouted.

Andrew and Scorpius kept laughing all the way down to the Great Hall.

Fifty-two minutes later no one was laughing.

"Get out of bed you said. He'll eat breakfast early you said. Well Scor, WHERE THE FUCK IS HE?" Andrew shouted.

"Andy, I don't appreciate the outburst. It's not as if this is my fault. He usually gets up early and sits by himself."

"Yeah well class starts in 10 minutes, so we missed him. Maybe he skipped breakfast."

"Andrew, you know nothing about Gryffindors. They don't skip breakfast. If they don't get 3 full meals everyday they refuse to function and throw big fits. They are a finicky bunch." Tess added.

"Thank you Tess," Scorpius said politely, "See I told you Andrew, he'll be here."

"Maybe he's just running late," Wendy added before taking a big bite of toast. They all shrugged.

Scorpius and Andrew's stake out in the Great Hall had been entertaining for all of 10 minutes. Later, at a reasonable time to get up Tess, Wendy and Steph had joined them. The girls had refreshed their energies for the search, but once the Hall started to empty and Albus was still absent everyone became frustrated.

"At this point, I could care less whether he shows up or not. I'm bored. Let's go to the forest and cut our losses for the day." Andrew stood.

"Oh come on, we've waited this long. I'm sure he'll come." Scorpius said.

"Well, how about this then. We'll go, and you wait here." Andrew said starting to walk away. "When you find him, come join us."

Everyone else had stood up too and they were all walking away.

"Bye Scorpius!" Wendy called.

"Good luck Scor." Steph laughed.

Once Scorpius was alone he looked up at the large clock hanging on the far wall. It was 8 minutes till classes started, where the hell was Potter? Wendy could have been right; maybe he was just running late and went straight to class. If that were the case Scorpius' best bet would be to just head him off on the way to his class. After a little more snooping the night before he had figured out that Albus Potter's first class for the day was Herbology.

Sighing Scorpius stood up and stretched his arms above his head before starting off for the greenhouses.

Once Scorpius reached the Greenhouses, he peeked his head through the window. The room was full of sixth years, and he recognized all of them, however Albus Potter was not among them. Swearing, Scorpius started walking back towards the castle. His friends had told him to meet in the forest, but there was no way he was going there without Potter, that would mean he had failed. Swearing again he started walking faster. He saw someone up ahead, but he was in such a foul mood he didn't even move aside, he walked right into the kid knocking something out of his hand.

Now normally Scorpius would have just walked on, and whomever he had bumped would have been too terrified of Scorpius to do anything. However, a split second before walking into the guy Scorpius had gotten a look at his face. A split second after that his brain registered what it was that he had seen.

Looks like he had found Albus Potter.

Immediately turning to face Potter Scorpius got a good look at Albus' face as he recognized Scorpius. His eyebrows, which had been set downward and his lips, which had been in a scowl, both softened. His eyes grew wide and his cheeks colored a tiny bit. Scorpius collected himself instantly and threw the boy a smile.

"Sorry about that. Looks like you dropped your breakfast." Scorpius hunched to pick up the bagel that Albus had dropped and inspected it.

"S'alright." Came the mumbled reply. Albus held his hand out to take the bagel but Scorpius tossed the pastry over his shoulder.

"No, can't have you eating that. Germs and such." Scorpius said giving the boy a wink. Albus didn't seem to know how to react to that comment, so he simply dropped his hand back at his side and started to stare at the books in his arms.
When the boy didn't say anything Scorpius decided to continue. "You're running a little late today huh?" He asked keeping a good-natured smile plastered on his face.

Albus finally looked up and met Scorpius' gaze again. "Oh, right. Yeah, I have to go." He started to move to go around Scorpius, but stopped as a hand suddenly grabbed his shoulder.

"What's the hurry? Isn't Professor Longbottom in love with you? You could be a few minutes late, besides I was hoping I could talk to you." Scorpius still had his hand on Albus' shoulder and he felt it stiffen as he said the words.

"What?" Albus asked almost at a whisper, "Why?"

"Well, we're in the same year and I don't think we've ever talked. Me and my friends are spending this period in the Forbidden Forest, and we wanted you to join us."

Scorpius dropped his hand off of Albus' shoulder and the boy turned around.

"What?" he asked again even more quietly.

"What do you say? You wanna come?" Scorpius asked sticking his hands in his pockets. He watched as Albus' face grew more and more pink, and grinned. He already knew what the answer would be.

Albus Potter had never thought about dying very much. He sure wasn't very happy with his life at Hogwarts but he was never thought that death would solve any of his problems. That of course was before his run in with Scorpius Malfoy. Every second that passed, with Scorpius talking to him and Albus just standing like some sort of mentally handicapped troll, made him wish for death more than anything else.

It probably would have helped if Scorpius were at least a dick about the whole thing. If he had said, "get out of my way", or "watch where you're going!" then Albus could have felt miserable and gone to class. But no, Scorpius had to talk to him. He had to be friendly and charming. He had to smile and wink and chuckle. And when he laughed Albus saw his teeth, and he knew that Scorpius had brushed those teeth, and that made Albus feel like an unhygienic mentally handicapped troll. Albus wished for death to simply save himself from the embarrassment.

Then his escaped arrived.

"You're running a little late today huh?" Scorpius asked him.

YES! I am running late, Albus reminded himself. I have to go. I have to go to class and get away from you because I can't talk to you because I think you are more attractive than I should and because I didn't brush my teeth, and you did and I can tell because they look great, just like the rest of you.

"Oh yeah, right, I have to go." He said trying to sound calm, but realizing that he sounded frantic. He turned and took at step and seriously considered running away when he felt a hand on his shoulder. If his mouth hadn't been closed a squeak would have come out. His brain tried to fathom that Scorpius Malfoy was touching him, and then he tried to tell himself that he shouldn't care that Scorpius was touching him.

"…hoping I could talk to you."

Albus' heart stopped beating. Before he even knew he had asked why. It was all his head could think about. Why in the world would Scorpius Malfoy want to talk to him?

"My friends…. Forbidden Forest… wanted you to come."

At this point Albus had to turn around, to make sure that Scorpius was actually still there, that he wasn't just imagining all of this. He felt the hand leave his shoulder and he looked into the face of Scorpius Malfoy. Not, his best idea. His mind went blank again, and he managed another "what?"

"What do you say? You wanna come?"

"Do I want to come?" Albus repeated. It took him a moment to realize he had said it out loud. Scorpius just grinned at him with his white, polished, and recently brushed teeth.

Did he want to? Scorpius and his friends were notorious for causing trouble and bullying people. He could be walking into some sort of prank. He looked up at Scorpius again. His smile was so nice. Albus tried to remember the last time someone who wasn't related to him had smiled at him and told him that they wanted him to come to something. Albus never felt wanted. He never felt important. But for some reason Scorpius made Albus feel very important.

"Ok. Sure." Albus replied.

"Great, come on." Scorpius gesturing in the direction they were headed.

Maybe it was a prank, Albus thought, but being pranked was better than being ignored.

Albus and Scorpius started walking towards the edges of the Forbidden Forest, and Albus found himself starting to lag behind. His mind was still racing, trying to figure out what Scorpius wanted with him, and also trying to comprehend why he had said yes to this little venture in the forest. Scorpius seemed to notice Albus' pace and slowed to match it. Now that they were side-by-side Albus couldn't prevent himself from looking at Scorpius.

Albus' first thought was how much taller Scorpius was than him; a good four or five inches. He definitely had grown over the summer. Because of his height Albus' eyes were in line with Scorpius' neck, which featured a very conspicuous hickey. Blushing slightly, Albus looked away from the large red mark and started to examine Scorpius' face instead. Albus had to admit that Scorpius' profile was very attractive. His hair, which was cut only a little longer than Albus' own hair, was bright yellow and shining in the sunlight. His face seemed even more sculpted than it had been at the end of last term. His high cheekbones gave his face a very regal look, which was reinforced by his strange blue-grey eyes, which made him look slightly apathetic but also extremely handsome.

The only thing that seemed to not match his serious and regal demeanor was his nose. It wasn't thin or long, but instead was rounded and slightly turned up on the end and even had a few freckles dotting it and spilling onto his cheeks. Albus had to wonder if Scorpius had inherited those traits from his mother's side. While they weren't typical Malfoy looks, they made a look that was uniquely Scorpius and drew Albus in despite his attempts to convince himself that he wasn't the least bit attracted to Scorpius in that way.

Albus' scrutiny of Scorpius' face was quickly interrupted when Scorpius turned his head and met Albus' gaze. A smirk graced the blonde's lips and Albus knew he had been caught staring. He quickly directed his eyes to the line of trees that were in front of him. They had walked across the entire Hogwarts' grounds to the edge of the forest and Albus' hadn't even noticed. Well, as the saying goes: time flies when you are staring at extremely handsome boys.

"Nervous?" Scorpius asked still smirking.

Albus could feel a blush rising to his cheeks, and he tried to suppress it to no avail. "I've been in there before." He replied nodding towards the forest.

"Wonderful, let's go." Scorpius continued walking. Albus hesitated before following. What he hadn't told Scorpius was that the last, and only time that Albus had been in the forest he had been blindfolded by his brother and then deserted. He wandered aimlessly for hours, until finally he started crying loud enough that Hagrid heard him and came to his rescue. No, it was probably best to keep that to himself. However, Albus took extra care in looking around, unless Scorpius' plan was similar to what James did. This time hopefully, he would have a chance of finding his way back.

It wasn't long at all until Scorpius slowed down and Albus heard voices from a few feet away. Scorpius pulled out his wand and tapped what looked like an overgrown shrub. The shrub's branches quickly grew to form an archway, which Scorpius promptly walked through. Albus followed behind him quickly, afraid the shrub might close back up leaving him alone outside.

As soon as he passed through the archway the shrub did indeed close behind him. However Albus was more interested in the people who sat in front of him. Someone had summoned three large couches and one overstuffed armchair into the small clearing, which he noticed was completely inaccessible from the outside now that the arch was gone.

Sitting on the couches, Albus recognized almost all of the sixth year Slytherins. On one couch Stephanie Blanc, Wendy Damille and Tess Burke all sat closer together with bored expressions. Andrew Chen and Jaysen Villacrow sat on another, although they seemed to be arguing about something. Sullivan Bole was sprawled out on the remaining couch, and Albus would have believed that he was asleep if not for the fact that he was tapping his foot, as if listening to a song in his head. As soon as the group saw Albus they all froze. Sullivan opened his eyes and sat up. They became very silent as Scorpius walked over to Sullivan's couch and gestured his friend to scoot over. Sullivan obeyed and Scorpius sat. He then gestured to the empty armchair.

"Go ahead and sit down Albus." He said. Albus swallowed, as he walked towards the empty chair. He tried to act calm but he couldn't ignore what could only be described as an evil grin on Jaysen Villacrow's face.

It was a sort of dreamlike experience, sitting in a forest with a group full of Slytherins. And not just any Slytherins, but Scorpius Malfoy's friends. Strangely, being with them, Albus was reminded of an old muggle movie that Rose had made him watch once, because it was her mother's favorite from when she was a kid. It was some high school drama and he remembered in the movie there had been these preppy kids, who were perfect at everything and were popular and adored. But then there were also these rebel kids, who broke all the rules and were somehow more popular than the good kids. The boys had in the rebel group were called like, the "T-Birds" or something, and the girls were the "Pink Ladies".

Albus hadn't really liked the movie but it did remind him of Hogwarts sometimes, minus all the singing and dancing. His brother James was a good popular kid. He was handsome and played quidditch and everybody loved him. Then there was Scorpius and his gang, who were like the rebel kids. They smoked and drank and didn't care about school at all and somehow everyone respected them even more. Scorpius Malfoy and his friends had this sort of appeal, some strange mystique that made them by far the most popular people at Hogwarts.

For example, without talking to any of them before in his life Albus knew a variety of things about the people in front of him. Wendy Damille, Tess Burke and Stephanie Blanc were some of the prettiest girls at Hogwarts.

Stephanie had been best friends with Scorpius since they were children and so she was seen as second in command of their little group.

Wendy was pretty much the most sought after girl at Hogwarts. She was a flirt and tended to have about 4 different guys at any given time.

Tess was the one girl you never wanted to mess with. Her dad owned a shop in Knockturn Alley and she apparently knew some pretty dark magic.

Of the boys there was Jaysen Villacrow, who currently had a large bright purple welt on the side of his head, was the stupidest boy Albus had ever heard of. He also partied like crazy. His family was very wealthy and from Italy. He had attended Beauxbaton for his first year of schooling, when he allegedly got "hella ass" despite being the tender age of 11. He was expelled after four months and transferred to Hogwarts almost immediately.

Andrew Chen was Scorpius' right hand man, and also the brawn of the group. He liked to hit things, and also liked breaking rules. He averaged about two detentions a week once the year got going.

If Andrew was the brawn then Sullivan Bole was definitely the brains of the group. He was also the oddest. No one really understood how Sullivan fit into the little group Scorpius had created, but they just labeled him the wild card and left it at that.

Finally there was the ringleader of them all, Scorpius Malfoy. Wealthy, refined, handsome and charming, Scorpius Malfoy was easily the most popular boy in the school. He always was messing around with girls and throwing fabulous parties at his mansion. He seemed to have the perfect life that everyone dreamed of. He had power, popularity and lots of money, there was no downside. Albus tried not to feel strange about knowing all this about complete strangers. These were things that all students at Hogwarts knew. Albus wouldn't be surprised at all if even today, on the second day of the school year older students were already telling the first years all the stories and rumors about the sixth year Slytherins.

Albus sat in the chair and set his bookbag down on the grass. He couldn't force himself to relax, with so many eyes watching him.

"What's the bag for?" Andrew asked him suddenly. Albus frantically looked at Scorpius, wondering if perhaps he would speak for Albus. Scorpius simply stared at him, just like everyone else. Some help he is, Albus thought. But he wasn't exactly surprised. After another thoroughly awkward moment Albus answered.

"A couple textbooks." He said, not making eye contact.

"Textbooks? Classes haven't even started yet, why would you need books?" Andrew continued, not mocking, but seeming genuinely confused. After a few more awkward moments Albus decided that he was being expected to answer, again.

"Well teachers often lecture out of the books, so it helps you follow along." Albus explained.

"Right, but books are soooo heavy." Wendy complained, "Why don't you just share with a friend, that's what I always do."

"Wendy you have never opened a textbook once in your life." Stephanie said, "and when you choose to go to class, you just flirt." Wendy elected not to respond, but crossed her arms and pouted instead.

"Why aren't you all in class anyways?" Albus asked suddenly, curiosity getting the best of him.

Jaysen suddenly grinned and raised his hand, as if electing himself to answer the question. "It was all my genius plan." He started, Tess snorted at him and Stephanie rolled her eyes but Jaysen continued. "You know how teachers are always acting so mad and disappointed in you when you don't come to class or like do your work and stuff?" Jaysen paused waiting for confirmation, so Albus nodded quickly.

"Well, I realized that all these teachers get the wrong idea when you show up for the first day. You know, all that crap about 'first impressions'. Well when you show up for the first day of class teachers think that you are some sorta good student and that's why they get all mad if you don't come to class. So, instead of showing up on time the first day, you just don't go. Now the teacher knows your some fuck up, and so when you come to class at all they get really excited, like they're some great ass teacher, and they don't even ask you for your homework. And when you DO turn in homework, they are so fucking proud that they don't even check to see if you copied the entire thing off of someone else." Jaysen finished and leaned back, waiting for Albus' reaction.

"Oh…" Albus couldn't think of anything else to say and so his one word hung in the air. Thankfully this time Scorpius did come to his rescue.

"We've been doing it ever since third year. That's when we created this place." Scorpius gestured around the clearing. "Sullivan did some shit to make not let anyone but us in."

"Well, that's great." Albus followed lamely. In his head he was wondering how on earth none of them had been expelled yet.

"Alright enough about us." Stephanie said quickly, "I think the real question is why aren't you in class Albus? Why did you come here?" Her words were followed with silence as everyone in the group stared at Albus again. This time Albus felt a lump rise into his throat. This was more than just awkward; these people seemed to be hovering around him like serpents, waiting for him to show weakness so they could strike. They didn't invite him here for his company, he had always known that, but what in the world did they want from him?

He took once last glance at Scorpius, who didn't make any move to explain that he had brought Albus with him. There was something sinister in his eyes now, that hadn't been there before. Almost like he was waiting for his friend's attack just so he could watch in amusement. It made Albus feel sick.

"Scorpius brought me." Albus answered quickly, hoping that this might illicit a reaction from the boy, or at least change the creepy look in the blonde's eyes. It did neither.

"Well duh." Wendy exclaimed, "But why did you come with him? Like, do you even know him?"

"I came because he asked. Not many people ask to hang out with me, although I'll assume you know that." Albus mumbled the words into his lap, which destroyed any authority they might have contained.

"Well, you're sure honest aren't you?" Sullivan asked with a grin, "You must be interested in why we asked you here, am I right?"

Albus looked up suddenly. Were they going to tell him? Really? Just like that?

"We're interested in you Albus. Why is it that everyone in your family is loved and adored by all; your parents, siblings, cousins, and yet you are some sort of outcast?" Sullivan said the words carefully, as if he was pondering them as he was saying them.

"Are you really that much of a freak?" Jaysen added with a laugh.

Albus felt his cheeks grow red. He thought that maybe they would curse him or drag him into the forest to be attacked by a troll. Had he really been brought here just to be mocked?

"Albus?" Tess asked. Her voice was so comforting that Albus was compelled to look up.

"Why did you come here with Scorpius?" she questioned. Albus couldn't find an answer for her; he just stared at her dumbly.

"Albus," Stephanie continued, leaning forward, "Do you want to be our friend?" she had such a sweet smile, that Albus almost believed she was sincere.

"We think you're interesting." Sullivan stated simply.

"And funny." Wendy giggled.

"So if you wanna join our group there is just one thing you have to do. You just have to tell us one little thing." Andrew continued.

Albus tried to stop himself. He knew that if he continued, he would be digging a hole that he couldn't get out of. These people could be horrible and they were playing with his emotions, they were playing on his weakness, he could tell. He needed to leave; he should just walk away and never talk to any of them again. But somehow he mouth didn't listen to his brain. As much as he tried to stop it, the words came tumbling out.

"What is it?"

He didn't even have time to regret the words. He didn't even have time to acknowledge the sinister smirks that had grown on every single one of their faces.

Andrew made eye contact with Albus and leaned forward.

"Are you in love with Scorpius?"