~What Am I Feeling?~

~Chapter 4- Just The Start~

Scorpius' eyes slowly fluttered open as he heard ruffling coming from beside him. His first thought was that his mother had come into his room, but when he saw the blue silk hanging from his bed gracefully, he realised where he was.

He was in Hogwarts.

Memories flooded back from the eventful night prior. So much had happened… he had got into Ravenclaw, spoken personally to the headmistress of Hogwarts, discovered there was something that could help his power and most importantly… made friends with Albus Potter.

Who happened to be the one making noise beside him.

Scorpius shifted his eye line, only to see Albus unpacking his trunk, fully dressed in his uniform already, including his new Ravenclaw tie. The blonde pulled himself up onto his elbows and tiredly rubbed his eyes.

"Albus…" Scorpius muttered groggily. Albus' head shot up at the call of his name and instantly grinned happily when he saw Scorpius awake, "Am I late?"

"I'm Al to you, remember?" Al said playfully, quirking his head to the side as Scorpius blushed in return, "And no, you're not. I'm just an early riser. I can tell you're not, Scor."

Scorpius chuckled, shaking his head to himself, "Not really."

"Well, don't worry. I'll always wake you." Albus said happily, when he picked up a blue tie and threw it at Scorpius, "That's your one."

"Thank you…"

"If you want to have a shower, you should go now. We'll have to go soon," Albus made his way towards the window where his white owl was sitting in her cage. He opened the door for the bird who immediately flew out, settling on his arm. Scorpius watched intently while Albus stroked her head, "Her name's Hedwig. I named it after my dad's owl. He really loved his first owl. Hagrid got it for him. She was loyal and brave my dad said. So when I got a snowy owl for my birthday last year, I named her Hedwig too. My dad was happy about that."

Scorpius smiled to himself. He liked Albus so much. The boy was so interesting and had so many stories from his childhood which he had already shared with Scorpius, and Scorpius was sure he had many more. He felt the caring vibe ripple off Albus, just towards a bird. Scorpius had his own owl, but he had never seen such an importance towards it. But Albus… you could see he loved this bird; Scorpius could feel he loved his Hedwig and that was something unusually wonderful.

"That's sweet," Scorpius said honestly, looking at his own bird, "You really love Hedwig."

"Cause you can feel that?" Albus said confidently, Scorpius feeling no sense of fear whatsoever from Albus which still surprised him.

He gradually nodded, "Yes…"

Albus grinned, reaching over and opening the window. It flung wide open and Hedwig spread her wings and flew away, into the sky, "Can I show you something?"

Scorpius shrugged, nodding again, "Sure."

Albus crept towards his trunk, opening it again. He started rummaging through it, Scorpius watching him through sleepy eyes. Albus suddenly pulled out a badly wrapped, flat package. He bounced towards his friend, jumping on the bed next to the other boy, "You've shared one secret with me. I know it's not nearly as big or anything… but I wasn't going to tell anyone about it."

Slowly Albus pulled the string on the package while shifting closer to his friend. Scorpius was still tired, hardly registering what was happening but still kept his eyes on the brown haired boy.

Scorpius was confused when the packaging was dragged off and only a worn out piece of parchment lay there. He frowned and glanced back at his friend. Albus reached for his wand which was sitting on a side table and pointed it at the parchment.

He clearly said, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Like spiders crawling over the map, ink appeared clearly and beautifully, making a swirling pattern as well as bold letter gracing the page.

Scorpius' eyes widened and lips parted. What was this? Where did Albus get it?

"Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers are proud to present the Marauder's Map…?" Scorpius read out loud, almost feeling the urge to reach out and touch it.

"It was my dad's. He was given it in his third year by my Uncles Fred and George," Albus said proudly, "My granddad and is friends originally made it ages ago. They were called the Marauders. My granddad was Prongs," He said while pointing at the name, "They were real mischievous so they made this map; it shows you everyone, everywhere. Here, have a look."

Scorpius carefully took the map into his hands, absolutely intrigued by the object. He opening it up, only to see the names of places around Hogwarts as well as the footprints of students and teachers carefully plodding around the school grounds.

The smaller boy could feel Albus' enthusiasm rolling off him. He wasn't exactly sure why Albus was so excited about telling him this, but he assumed it was because he was able to share this with someone. As well as amazed by the map, he was touched by Albus' eagerness towards him and that he was sharing something which was obviously quite important and special to him.

"It's… amazing… Your dad gave it to you?" Scorpius asked curiously.

"Yeah. He gave me this and James his invisibility cloak," Scorpius almost chuckled to himself. An invisibility cloak too? Did Albus even realise how special and rare these things were? "Lily is going to get his Firebolt when she starts Hogwarts, or at least in her second year cause first years aren't allowed brooms. Our whole family is Quidditch mad. I'm better than James though." Albus grinned smugly, crossing his arms and tilting his chin up.

"W-what position do you play?" Scorpius didn't know much about Quidditch at all, but he would try for Albus. If that interested him, then of course Scorpius would try to take an interest in it too.

"I normally play Seeker. James likes to be Seeker too at home, but he's the Gryffindor Keeper. He was so high up on his high horse when he became Keeper last year because he was only in his second year and is the youngest Quidditch player at the moment in Hogwarts. We had to keep reminding him that dad was in his first year when he got onto the Gryffindor Quidditch team." Albus shook his head, knowing that nothing would stop his brother from showing off.

"So… what are you going to use the map for?" Scorpius was hoping Albus wasn't going to misbehave. He liked Albus a lot but he wasn't the type of person to play up and wouldn't follow any mischievous behaviour.

"Ah, well I'm not really the mischievous type like my uncles, or even my dad. I guess I'll just use it when I need to look for people or anything like that. I just think it's brilliant."

Scorpius let out a small sigh of relief, "Thanks for sharing this with me. It means a lot… Al."

A wide smile broke out on Albus' face and he quickly squeezed Scorpius close, "See, it's not too hard to use that nickname."

~X~

Scorpius fidgeted in his school uniform, tugging on the tie and yanking on his cloak. Albus and Scorpius followed the crowd of Ravenclaws heading to their first lesson of the day, Potions.

Albus glanced down at Scorpius who looked like he was about to rip through his robes in annoyance. Albus couldn't help but smirk and he grabbed the blonde's wrist, "Stop it! You're going to tear your robes and it isn't even the first lesson!"

Scorpius huffed and released the fabric, "They're annoying me."

Albus' head was flicking around the corridor, not knowing where to look, "We have to go exploring after. I need to see this amazing school! We can use the map…"

"That would be fun." Scorpius nodded enthusiastically, almost tripping over his own feet for a second. Albus' arms immediately shot out to catch him and make sure he didn't fall. Scorpius offered an uncertain smile but a blush grazed his cheek yet again, "Thanks."

"Oi, Albus!"

Albus almost jumped out of his skin at the almost aggressive shout of his own name. Both Albus and Scorpius swivelled around immediately. Scorpius recognised the face of the boy strutting down the corridor, his black curls waving over his face.

"How's my little Ravenclaw?" James threw an arm around Albus' shoulders, with the other ruffling his little brother's hair. Albus struggled half-heartedly, but Scorpius did hear a small chuckle come from Albus.

"Get off, Jamie!" Albus laughed, finally pushing his brother off him.

"How the hell did you get into Ravenclaw with your stupid little arse?" James said with raised eyebrows, twisting his mouth.

"Shut up! The sorting hat obviously had a different opinion." Albus huffed, crossing his arms and raising his chin.

"And it was also a big surprise that Malfoy here didn't get into Slytherin."

The sudden resentment from the older boy immediately shot through Scorpius making him shiver. From what he had heard about James, he wasn't surprised about the bitterness. He seemed like he was the type to judge quickly but Scorpius just hoped he could show James that he wasn't all that bad.

"Not really." Albus shrugged, not understanding the tone of dislike to Jamie's voice.

"I bet he's disappointed." James glared at Scorpius, Scorpius lowering his head and gritting his teeth. He did want to say something, challenge him, but he knew he couldn't. He knew he needed to keep his mouth shut because James would only turn on him even more.

Albus then realised what James was doing. James had always been particularly rude about the Malfoys, despite their father telling them their should be no hard feelings towards the Malfoys. He had probably picked up the attitude from Uncle Ron. Uncle Ron didn't mean to be rude about them, he simply made jokes about the Malfoys. But James had always taken them too seriously and ever since he had heard about their participation in the war, had a specific hatred towards them, "Lay off, James." Albus hissed with furrowed eyebrows. He knew his brother could be a complete idiot some times.

Scorpius felt the defensive streak from Albus and it almost made him smile.

"You're not seriously going to be friendly to this guy, are you?" James said angrily.

"Yes, I am. Because I like Scorpius and he's really nice. I really get on well with him and want to be friends with him." Albus said in defence, almost stepping in front of Scorpius.

"Do you not remember what his father did to ours in the war?" James raised his voice, taking a step closer to intimidate the two.

Scorpius' hand shot out to grab Albus' cloak, pulling the boy back slightly, "It's okay, Albus… just leave it."

By now, some of the other Ravenclaws had started to notice the two brothers and the Malfoy. Some had stopped to see what was happening. Some of the more confident Ravenclaws headed towards them, also defensively just in case anything happened.

"You're a manipulative little thing aren't you?" James snarled, his face inching closer to Scorpius, nerves bubbling up within the blonde, "Why don't you just leave my brother alone?"

"First years! Move along, move along!" A Gryffindor boy yelled, Scorpius noticing he was older and also the prefect badge on his jumper. He glanced at James and an instant frown appeared, "James Potter, you should be in Transfiguration right now. Get to class."

James scowled once more at Scorpius and strutted off. Albus and Scorpius watched after him was frightened looks upon his face.

And this wasn't the end of it.

~X~

A/N: Sooo, that's the proper introduction to James Potter. He doesn't seem very nice at all... I don't want to make him seem completely awful and horrible but I'm afraid I'm making him seem that way... and what I've got planned for him so far doesn't make it any better. Hopefully chapters even further into the future will do James justice.

Wasn't actually planning on having Albus reveal the Mauraders Map yet but when I was writing it, it just felt right.

Thank you to drumline for reviewing last chapter! But people... need more reviews! I'm really enjoying this story and I want to know if you are too... Please review!