Hooray for lots of snow days, which means staying cozy in bed and writing! I apologize for the false alarm update, here's a real one to make up for it.

Scorpius was not happy to be back at King's Cross for the beginning of the new term. He found himself becoming nauseated when he passed into Platform 9 ¾ and was immediately bombarded with the sounds of hundreds of happy students saying goodbye to their parents and reuniting with friends. Scorpius just sneered in their direction.

The last time his parents had come to see him off was in his second year. After that he had refused to let them come, because what kind of idiot couldn't get on a train by themselves by the age of 13?

After a few moments of tactfully avoiding get bumped and pushed by the large crowds around him Scorpius saw a familiar face from across the station.

"Andrew." He called, walking over. As he got closer he realized it wasn't just Andrew, but all of his friends. They had arrived earlier than him, which wasn't very surprising. What was surprising is that none of them looked very excited to see him, albeit Andrew.

"Hey!" Andrew called out waving a hand, but a quick stern look from Tess and he dropped the hand back down.

"Morning." Scorpius said suspiciously, as he neared the group. He slung one of his arms around Jaysen, but the boy didn't respond, ignoring Scorpius completely. When he looked to Steph to see what was going on, she just stared back at him indifferently.

Scorpius had to admit he was rather confused. He knew his friends had been ignoring him since New Year's. Stephanie who normally popped in and out of his house without warning had been absent all week. He hadn't seen any of his friends in the New Year, and hadn't gotten any replies to his owls. Scorpius had just figured that this was passive anger that would blow over once they all got back together. But the silent treatment? Really? It was so juvenile.

His arm was still on Jaysen's shoulder, so Scorpius shook his friend a bit, trying to make him snap out of it.

"This can't be about Beatrix can it?" Scorpius asked incredulously, "Seriously, I thought you were over her ages ago." Jaysen didn't respond so Scorpius leaned over and said, "You're not missing out on anything. She wasn't even that good."

Wendy gasped.

"You are such an asshole!" Tess yelled at him, "you knew how awful she was to Jayse! How could you sleep with her?"

Jaysen shook off Scorpius' arm and Scorpius began to feel a little angry.

"Well you never know." He replied, "Maybe I wouldn't have slept with her if you guys hadn't disappeared with my other prospect for the night."

"He's not a prospect, he's a person you slimy git." Stephanie responded. "And as if we would let you get anywhere near him after the shit you pulled."

Scorpius rolled his eyes flippantly, but felt uneasy inside. He had expected this from the others, but Steph was his best friend, his other half. Why was she so angry? She knew what he was like. He did terrible things to people all the time. Why did everyone suddenly care now?

"That's what this is all really about. It's him." Scorpius spat out, "You are choosing him over me. Well that's a laugh." Scorpius chuckled for added effect.

"We're not choosing sides." Sullivan said calmly.

"Yeah, we're friends with both of you." Andrew added earnestly.

"But we sure as hell aren't helping you screw him over anymore either!" Tess said, pointing at Scorpius accusingly. "We want out of whatever stupid game you think you are playing."

Scorpius looked around in disbelief. Had all his friends come to this same conclusion? He realized, seeing only stern faces staring back at him, that yes, they had. They must have gotten together without him and planned to... planned to protect Albus Potter.

"We care about him Scor." Steph said finally. "And we aren't going to allow you to treat him this way anymore."

Scorpius fell quiet.

He might always try to act intimidating and tough, but without his friends what did he have? A reputation? A rich family? He tried to imagine his days around Hogwarts without the 6 people in front of him. It seemed miserable and lonely, he didn't want that.

Somewhere in the back of his mind a voice was also telling him that they were right. He had been an ass to Albus. He shouldn't treat him like that and he shouldn't try to hurt him like it was some sort of game.

Scorpius angrily squashed those thoughts. Convincing himself for what felt like the 100th time, that no, he didn't care about Albus. He was only doing this for his friends.

"Alright." He said finally, a resigned look on his face. He looked up to see all his friends smiling at him, and while he couldn't help feeling furious that they had won, he also felt immensely relieved.

A few more moment passed in silence. Finally Jaysen spoke up.

"So how bad was she exactly?" He asked with a grin.

Albus' legs bounced nervously for the entire car ride to the station.

The last week of his vacation had flown by. When Rosie had come over and seen his haircut for the first time, she had been shocked. But, same as Lily, had agreed that it looked very good on him. Unlike Lily, Rosie was not as impressed with his new wardrobe.

"It just isn't very you." She told him.

After she had left their house Lily had scoffed. "What she means is it isn't boring. Don't let her box you into being the same as you have always been. Everyone is allowed to reinvent themselves."

While packing up his trunk his mom had been very curious as to why all of his clothes were still in his closet. Albus had been reduced to snatching his father's wand when he was in the shower and performing a shrinking charm so that his old clothes could be packed in with his new clothes. Of course he couldn't hide the clothes that he was supposed to be wearing on the train, so Albus and Lily had gone shopping one day to explain the presence of the new jeans and shirts and shoes to his parents.

He had woken up much earlier than normal the morning of the train and spent a long while in the bathroom until he was satisfied with his hair.

He had then dressed himself carefully per Stephanie, Tess and Wendy's instruction. He was the last one down to breakfast and his entrance caused quite a stir.

Lily smiled and nodded approvingly.

"Are those your new trousers for school Albus?" His mother asked nervously. "They look small. You know you should always shop for a size larger, you're still a growing boy."

The rest of the morning had been uneventful. They all finished breakfast, packed up the car and went on their way to London, with their father driving, and their mother doing her best to navigate, although Harry usually ignored her directions.

With every passing mile Albus was more and more convinced that he was going to be sick. When they reached the station, his father immediately found a place to park. It looked like a space for handicapped cars, but miraculously the moment they pulled up to it the painted symbol on the concrete disappeared.

"Lucky find." Harry said with a grin, turning off the car and getting out to grab a cart for transporting all his childrens' trunks.

Albus got out of the car and stood by as his dad loaded their trunks. He nervously adjusted his earring and his sleeves and ran his fingers through his hair.

"Albus, dear, are you coming?" His mother called. His family stood about 10 paces away while Albus hadn't taken a step away from the car.

"Yeah mum!" He said hurrying over to them.

They walked around pointing at crazy muggle contraptions being sold in the stores and laughing at all the crazy muggles who were buying them. Lily convinced her mother to by her a muggle teen magazine. James wanted a muggle candy bar that he fancied for the train ride.

"Anything for you Al?" His father asked before he paid at the small little newspaper stand.

"Nothing." Albus managed.

"Everything alright son?" His father questioned him as they approached the platform a few minutes later. "You seem more nervous than your first year."

"I'm fine." Albus tried to convince his father with a winning smile. Harry looked at him skeptically, clearly not fooled.

"If it's about the new hair and clothes…" Harry began. He looked around and then leaned down to whisper in his son's ear," I do think they look very nice. I'm sure whomever you are trying to impress will think you are very handsome."

"What?" Albus almost yelped.

Harry just chuckled. "I may be old, but I'm not that old." He smiled down at his son. "You don't have to tell us about her if you don't want to, but I hope everything works out like you want."

Harry gave his son a reassuring pat on the back, but Albus' heart just sunk. One thing he had not gotten around to in his last week of break was discussing his sexuality with his parents. Despite Dylan's encouragement, Albus was still scared of the idea and with school looming so closely, he had been able to put it off quite easily. If he didn't feel so guilty about the whole thing he might have even been able to find it funny how close his father was to the truth, while at the same time being so, so very far off.

James ran through the platform wall first, followed by Lily, then their mother, then Albus and finally their father.

The Potter family emerged on the other side and were quickly swamped by family and friends. Rosie appeared at Albus' side almost instantly.

"Looking good cous." She said glancing at his clothes. "Did Lily dress you?"

"Ha ha, very funny." Albus retorted, "I dressed myself. Perhaps there was a little influence from interested parties, but the physical dressing part was all me."

She laughed lightly, "I'm so proud."

Albus sighed. He was glad Rosie was here with him. The nerves he was feeling began to relax; although he knew the worst was still to come at least Rosie would be there with him.

Not too long after a loud horn announced that the train would be leaving soon and that all students needed to board. Albus gave both of his parents a hug and a kiss and waving goodbye began to walk towards the train.

The stares were piercing. The whispers didn't even deserve the name 'whisper' because of how audible they were. Students from all sides were spreading the word that Albus Potter was here, and completely unrecognizable.

"Look at that hair!"

"Is that an earring?"

"Who does he think he is?"

"He looks hot."

Albus wanted to find a nice rock to climb under but he was only a few feet away from the train.

"They're like vultures." Lily groaned, standing on his right, glaring at the girls who were whispering and pointing at Albus.

"Don't look now." Rosie said on his left, "but I see a certain vulture who seems particularly surprised."

Albus turned to his left to see what she was talking about. About twenty feet away Albus made eye contact with Scorpius. At first Albus froze. He hadn't seen Scorpius since New Year's. He didn't know what to do. A moment later his fear disappeared when he saw Scorpius' face. The blonde's eyes were open wide and his mouth had literally dropped open. Albus was sure that the rest of the Slytherins must have been very close by. Remembering what they girls had told him Albus made no motion to Scorpius, not a wave or even a nod. He simply cocked an eyebrow, smirked, turned around and kept walking.

"Alright big bro." Lily said after they had boarded the train, "That was super cool."

"What was that?" Rose asked, "Did something happen between you and Malfoy."

Albus had never told Rosie what had happened on New Year's.

He sighed, "It's a long story." He said, "Let's get a compartment and I will tell you about it."

"STEPHANIE!" Scorpius roared the moment they closed the door to the compartment behind them.

"Yes?" She responded innocently, inspecting her nails very thoroughly. Everyone else in the compartment seemed to be avoiding eye contact with Scorpius as well.

"WHAT IN THE BLOODY HELL WAS THAT?" He was hoping that if he kept up the volume they wouldn't be able to ignore him forever.

"Scorpius dear, please sit down." Steph responded calmly, patting the seat next to her.

"NOT UNTIL YOU TELL ME WHAT YOU DID."

"I honestly have no idea what you are talking about." She said smiling up at him. Scorpius felt his temper rising. These sneaky little bitches! They had only minutes before convinced him there would be no sides involved when it came to him and Potter and yet here they were working behind his back the whole time.

"I'M TALKING ABOUT ALBUS!" He spat out, waiting for a reaction of some kind, but none came.

"Oh, that. Yes, he did look rather dashing today didn't he." She said with a surprisingly straight face, given how delighted she sounded.

Scorpius wanted to scream and yell and maybe throw something at her head, but realizing none of those would be practical inside of the small compartment, or helpful given his current predicament, he settled for pouting instead.

He plopped down in the seat next to Steph and sighed loudly.

"So much for not choosing sides." He muttered crossing his arms and glaring around at all of his so-called friends.

Andrew threw his hands up immediately, "Hey, I had nothing to do with this."

Sullivan had his nose in a book and Jaysen seemed to be taking a nap, but they girls all had secret smiles on their lips and kept glancing at each other.

"I want to know when this happened." Scorpius demanded, "I want to know when Albus Potter suddenly became more important to you all then me."

Stephanie finally budged.

She scoffed and rolled her eyes and her childhood friend. "Honestly stop being such a baby." She said pinching his arm, hard.

"I thought we didn't keep secrets from one another." Scorpius muttered angrily, rubbing his arm.

"This isn't a secret." She pointed out, "You never asked me if I took Albus out for a day of shopping with Wendy and Tess."

"Well it sure feels like a secret." Scorpius said, crossing his arms again.

Stephanie sighed again, amazed at how childish Scorpius could become. "All I'm saying is that you messed everything up when you ran off with Ms. Veela-bimbo-queen. We were just settling the score."

"The haircut was my idea." Tess said proudly, clearly glad that they had decided to start talking about Albus' new look. In fact, everyone seemed more interested. Sullivan put his book away and Jaysen sat up, proving that he hadn't really even been napping in the first place.

"Did you see his earring yet?" Wendy asked excitedly. "Its so hot."

"Earring?!" Scorpius couldn't believe his ears, "Albus Potter has an earring."

"Two." Wendy grinned.

"Where did you guys take him?" Jaysen asked.

Tess listed off the majority of the stores, while Steph and Wendy threw in the ones she had forgot to mention.

Jaysen nodded approvingly, but when they had finished sighed, "You really should have taken him to Paris."

The group continued to talk about Albus and his new wardrobe, but Scorpius had a feeling the girls weren't telling him everything. Sure, Albus had looked different, but he had also acted different. When they had seen each other on the platform Albus had looked indifferent to Scorpius' presence. Was the boy really that angry with Scorpius for New Year's? It was possible, but it was more likely that the girls had something to do with it.

A moment later a soft rapping could be heard on the door of the compartment.

"Come in." Wendy sang.

The compartment door opened and Albus Potter stepped in and shut it carefully behind him.

Scorpius noticed that the girls seemed rather surprised.
"What are you doing here Albus." Steph asked him quickly. Scorpius couldn't help but smile. So they had told Albus to stay away from him then. Looks like the little Gryffindor couldn't follow those particular directions, Scorpius thought gleefully. He was about to say something to Albus, but Albus spoke up first, only he wasn't talking to Scorpius.

"Sully, I was wondering if I could take a look at your homework for Ancient Runes." Albus asked sweetly.

Sullivan looked surprised, "You haven't done it?" He asked. Sullivan reached down into his bookbag and began searching for it.

"All but the twelfth problem." Albus complained, crossing his arms and leaning against the doorframe. "I tried to use the method that Langing-Tair showed us in class, but it came out looking really ugly. I don't think I did it right."

Sullivan found the right scroll and passed it to Albus. Albus unrolled it and skimmed the page for a while until he gasped.

"That's genius." He said. "I didn't even think of using the Furthark code because of the context, but that actually makes much more sense."

Albus handed the scroll back and Sully glanced at it. "Yeah it made more sense than the Phoenician method because of the density and placement of the symbols." Sullivan said, "But Langing-Tair didn't really go over that in class."

"Geez Albus," Tess teased, "Aren't you going to be doing this over the summer? You better brush up."

Albus laughed as well, "Lucky for curse breakers, ancient wizards didn't usually start writing runes from different time centuries and different cultures down on the same wall, unlike Professor Langing-Tair feels the need to do."

Sullivan laughed, but seemed to be the only one to appreciate the joke.

Jaysen sighed loudly, "And this is why you will never get laid Sullivan. You are such a dork. That goes for you too Albus."

Scorpius thought this was a perfect time for him to but in. After all Jayse had just mentioned Albus getting laid… But Albus beat him to it again.

This time the Gryffindor turned to Wendy. "I found something to show you." He said. Reaching into his back pocket Albus pulled out a rolled up magazine, he unrolled it, flipped to a certain page and handed it to Wendy.

Wendy laughed out loud when she saw it and handed it to Tess, who laughed and shared it with Stephanie.

"It's the same guy!" Wendy said still laughing.

When Stephanie got the magazine Scorpius glanced at it over her shoulder. There was a muggle man, without a shirt on the page. He was modeling some sort of watch on this wrist. He was very handsome and had long shaggy hair going out in every which direction. It reminded Scorpius of Albus' hair before, well, today.

"He was my inspiration wasn't he?" Albus asked playfully. "Maybe he's trying to tell me something."

Tess mocked horror, "Don't you dare! That haircut cost a fortune."

"The shorter looks better on you." Wendy announced.

"But you have to admit I was right," Albus said pointing, "It wasn't the hair, it was the model. We got lucky. This," He pointed up to his head, "Was a fluke."

"That model would look good in a clown costume." Stephanie said, passing the magazine back to Albus, "And it wasn't a fluke, more of an educated guess. Dylan knew what he was doing. I wasn't worried."

Scorpius was utterly confused by the entire conversation that was happening around him.

Albus took the magazine back and shoved it in his back pocket, while continuing his banter with the girls.

Scorpius couldn't help but wonder how the magazine fit in the pocket of Albus' jeans. They were extremely tight and Scorpius was immensely enjoying the view. He had seen Albus without clothes on before, but the boy's new wardrobe showed off his slim figure even while his clothes were still on. It left less to the imagination, but more to be desired. Scorpius was getting excited at the very thought. He wanted to get Albus alone and under him as soon as possible. There was only one problem; Albus was talking to everyone but him. The Gryffindor had barged into their compartment and since had refused to even make eye contact with Scorpius.

"Well I better go." Scorpius heard Albus say. Scorpius silently cursed. This was his last shot.

"Why don't you stay Albus." Scorpius said, "We'll make room." He patted the small bit of cushion next to him, ensuring that Albus would be squeezed in between him and the wood paneled wall of the compartment.

To his utter astonishment Albus just smirked at him again.

"I'm actually sitting with some other people." He said vaguely. He opened the door and stepped out.

"See you later." He said, directing the comment at everyone in the compartment. Then he closed the door and was gone.

"Huh." Scorpius grumbled, "Well that was rude."

There was a moment of silence in the compartment before everyone around him burst into laughter. Andrew joined in, and didn't even try to hide it.

"What?" Scorpius asked angrily.

"I believe this is a perfect example of what most would call irony." Sullivan said, still chuckling.

"Or poetic justice." Tess added in happily.

Scorpius regarded all his friends in horror and disgust. So this is what it was going to be like from now on? Albus Potter was going to snub him and his friends were all going to laugh about it. No way, Scorpius decided. He already knew Albus liked him, he could win the Gryffindor back.

"This should be fun." Stephanie said, still teasing Scorpius.

Scorpius smiled to himself, yes, it really should be.

Thanks to all my followers and all my reviewers. I hope you guys like the new Albus ;)