Water Under The Bridge

a story by lovedmund

November 11, 2018.

"Em, don't forget to bring your assignments. Professor Flitwick is going to collect them today; he gave them to us a month ago." Diana said, brushing her black hair in front of the mirror.

"Of course I won't, Di. It should be me who reminds you of that." Emma wrapped her green Slytherin scarf around her neck to protect herself from the chilly autumn winds.

When finished, Emma went over to her study table and began to collect the parchments of her Charm assignments one by one. "Nine… ten… thirteen? How could it be only thirteen? I'm pretty sure I wrote an essay on fifteen parchments." Emma grumbled as she rummaged through her study table and bed. "Did you see my other two parchments, Di? Or did you borrow them?"

She shook her head. "If I remember correctly, you lent Scorp your five sheets of parchment assignment. Try asking him, there might be some of your parchment left behind."

Ah, that's right! Scorpius borrowed some of her assignments last Tuesday.

"Thanks Di! See you at The Great Hall!"

Emma walked quickly out of her dorm room and up the stairs to the Slytherin common room. Upon arrival, she asked for help from one of the Slytherin students in the same year as her.

"Archie, could you please call Scorpius to get here?" asked Emma with a sweet smile.

While Archie was daydreaming and gazing at the fish, he immediately turned red when he saw Emma's sweet smile directed towards him.

"O-oh, yes… of course, Emma." Archie quickly walked down the stairs to the Slytherin second year students' rooms.

It didn't take long for Scorpius' platinum hair to appear and shine in contrast to the green light of the lamp, then followed by Albus behind him. "Oh, hi, Em. What is it?"

"Do you still have the remaining parchment of my assignment? My parchments that you gave me back was only thirteen, while the total of all my Charms parchments was fifteen, Scorp."

At the same time, Albus and Scorpius glanced at each other. To Emma, it seemed as if they were a little nervous.

"Ah, about that…" Scorpius brushed his hair back with his hand.

Emma, who knew that Scorpius did that only when he was nervous, immediately became suspicious. "You nervous, Scorp?"

"Sorry, Em… I—"

"I spilled my ink on two of your parchments," said Albus. "Sorry, Em." Scorpius threw him a surprised look.

"You did—what? How dare you!" Emma snapped at Albus, holding back tears. "You fool! Why did you do that? You know it's due today, right?!"

"Sorry, Em..." Albus said slowly.

Emma gave Albus a look of disappointment, anger, and disbelief before finally colliding shoulders with Albus and running off to her room.

"Why did you do that, Al? It's my fault, not yours."

"Hey, she is your twin sister. I don't want her to hate you for that, Scorp."

"But she will hate you, dummy! And if she's mad at me, it won't last for long!"

Albus remained silent for a moment. "Well, it's much better. I didn't like her either."

"Hey, she's my sister!"

"She is, but you're much better than her."

"Well, I'm gonna agree with that."

.oOo.

Albus and Scorpius walked together to Charms class with a second-year Ravenclaw. Both of their faces looked haggard, but Scorpius' face looked twice as haggard as Albus's. In fact, Scorpius's face usually looks bright.

"Hey, guys. You two got any problem lately? You don't usually look this gloomy," said Archie Ryan, their roommate.

"We're fine, Arch. Just … not in the mood today."

"Ouh… okay."

Just as Albus and Scorpius were about to take their seats, a platinum-blonde haired girl entered the Charms classroom with several other Slytherins. That girl is Emma.

Their bodies immediately froze when they realized that Emma's nose and eyes were also red, looking slightly swollen.

'Looks like Emma's been crying,' thought Albus.

Albus and Emma exchanged glances for a few seconds, before Emma broke eye contact and walked towards Scorpius. "I want to sit with you, Scorp."

Albus stood awkwardly, looking at Scorpius. "I guess I'll just sit with Ashley then," he said, taking his book and slowly walking over to Ashley, who was sitting across from them.

"Hello Ash. Can I sit with you today?"

Ashley, who had been chanting the spell taught last week by Professor Flitwick, was shocked. "Good grief!" she exclaimed. "Oh, hello, Albus! Of course you can." Ashley quickly cleared her books off the table beside her. "By the way, why don't you sit with Scorpius?"

"Just a small problem," Albus replied with a small smile.

"You guys… had a fight?"

Albus shook his head. "No."

"Oh, thank goodness. Promise me that you'll tell me about any problems or anything that's bothering you, okay?"

"We've already promised that, Ash."

"Well, in case you forgot about that, hehe." Ashley focused on her spell book, but soon she was back to talking to Albus. "Eum, Al … I haven't seen James lately. Do you perhaps … know where he is?"

"Well, he is in Gryffindor. I haven't seen him that much lately either. Perhaps you should ask Rose, or Fred, or Lucy. What is going on? You miss him, huh?" asked Albus.

Ashley's face immediately turned red. "Hey, of course not! I just wanted to ask you, you know!"

"Oh, don't lie to yourself," Albus teased. "Admit it, Ash!"

"No, no, no!"

On the other hand, Emma watched Albus and Ashley with a sinister look. She didn't know what they were laughing about; she didn't really care. Her anger grew in her heart.

"How could he laugh like that after admitting his mistake, make me cry and have to rework two of my parchments that were damaged by his ink? Just you watch, Albus Severus Potter!"

.oOo.

November 14, 2018.

It had been three days since Albus had seen Emma other than during class. Though usually they would greet each other with annoying teasing. Even so, Scorpius still met his twin sister as usual. Only... without Albus.

Scorpius even told Albus that Emma would explode if he mentioned his name in front of her. He said she was really that mad, Scorpius added.

Scorpius has tried many times to tell Emma that he is the one at fault, but Emma refuses to hear him out. Emma was annoyed when she found out that Scorpius was the real culprit. Preferably, she would have liked to blame Albus. However, she was too embarrased to apologize to Albus and chose to hide from the green-eyed boy.

Albus was now sitting on his bed and had opened his Herbology notebook to begin memorizing some types and properties of plants that Professor Longbottom would test them on tomorrow. It was just him and Robert in the room. Scorpius and Archie had headed off to find Professor Slughorn.

Just as he opened the note about the Mandrake plant, a neatly folded parchment fell out of his book. Albus stared at the paper for a few seconds before picking it up. When the parchment was unfolded, Albus already knew very well who had written the letter.

Dear Albus (not the dear 'dear', it's just for the formality),

I'm really sorry for being mad at you, even though Scorpius was the one who did that. I know you wouldn't care a bit, and you wouldn't get annoyed by any means. I want to say thank you for standing up for Scorpius. If it weren't you who lied, Scorpius would have been the victim of my lovely punch. Please forgive me; I hope we can still be friends. And yeah, Robert told me that you once caught a smile when looking at me. Don't you dare feel anything for me! Or I will hate you forever! I am still mad at you for ruining my hair when we were seven! Well, that's my apology. It's enough, right? Because I don't want to write a letter to you anymore.

Your forever frenemy,

Emma C. Malfoy

Robert asked, "You okay there?" as he leaned against the wall of their room. "You kept smiling for two minutes while reading the letter. Who's it from?"

Albus immediately neutralized his face and shook his head. "No one. Just... James. He was teasing me, as usual."

Robert only pretended to nod his head, pretending to understand, and went back to his activities, tidying up his prided Slytherin tie.

"By the way, did you ever talk about me to Emma?"

Robert stayed quiet for a moment. "No, I didn't."

"Okay."

After making sure that Robert was no longer paying attention to him, Albus re-read the letter from Emma, holding back a smile. His heart felt happy at being reconciled with Emma.

"Don't you dare feel anything for me," Albus muttered, repeating Emma's words. "She really is silly."

"Who's being ridiculous?" he asked.

Albus smiled at Robert. "No one, really."