Chapter 9

Harry Potter stood up, back in the office he had known as Dumbledore's office, that now belonged to McGonagall. The office was mostly unchanged, and each visit brought a pang of memories flooding back, both sad and sweet. He looked to Elle, who was not meeting his eye. Harry had a very peculiar feeling in his chest. He realized, with a lurch, that for the first time in his life he understood a minute part of how Dumbledore had felt. He was standing here, in the very same office that Dumbledore once paced, trying to decide how much of what he knew he should tell the child in front him. A child who had been through a great deal, and whose mind was swirling with big questions, and not an insignificant amount of pain.

Harry stared helplessly at McGonagall, trying to silently convey that what he'd seen in the pensieve. Elle spoke first, breaking the silence that hung heavily across the room, suffocating Harry. He had never felt like this in his life. Paralysed. He didn't want to tell Elle what he had guessed from the memory. He felt… cowardly. Elle spoke slowly, clearly trying to think every word through. "My mother wasn't a muggle, was she?" Elle asked.

Harry sighed. "No, Elle. I don't think she was." He avoided McGonagall's gaze. She had had her reasons for not wanting Elle to go into the pensieve. He should have trusted her. "What can you tell me about the necklace she was wearing?" He asked Elle. Elle frowned. "Not much" she said, "she always wore it. But I don't know where it came from." Harry nodded thoughtfully. He privately thought it was their best lead. However, he didn't need to trouble Elle further with the thoughts swirling around his head. That he had a sinking feeling in his chest that the symbol he'd seen was associated with dark magic.

Harry spent the next little while asking Elle more questions about her mother. What she knew of her past. Where she thought she was born. If she ever suspected her mother was magic. Most of the answers were of little use to him. Elle's mother had told her she had run away from home when she found out she was pregnant with Elle. Her family wouldn't have approved. She was quite young when Elle was born, only 18. She said that she imagined she looked like her father, but her mother didn't like to talk about him. All the details she had given Elle were vague, meant for a child's understanding of families and the world. He couldn't even be sure how much of it was the truth. Eventually, after he had sketched the symbol on the necklace half a dozen times, and finally gotten Elle's approval that it was accurate, he called it a night.

"Thank you, Elle, for all your help tonight" Harry said, rising from his chair. "I understand that this is painful for you." Elle nodded, biting her lip. She didn't seem up to speaking about it anymore. Harry wanted to reach out and hug the little girl but restrained himself. She barely knew him. Instead, he offered to walk her back to her dorm. Elle refused politely. Harry realized she probably didn't want questions about why she was walking the halls with him.

As they were taking the spiral staircase down to the main level however, he heard Elle's stomach grumble. Harry realized that she probably hadn't eaten dinner, and it was nearing nine o' clock. "Do you know where the Hufflepuffs head off to their dorms?" He asked nonchalantly. Elle nodded, looking confused. "I heard there's some nice artwork around there, really makes you hungry." Elle looked even more confused by his statement. Harry bent down to whisper conspiratorially in her ear "I hear the pear is quite ticklish. Maybe worth a shot for a late-night snack." Elle still didn't look like she fully understood but nodded that she would check it out. Harry was just straightening up and about to say his goodbye when the way to the Hogwarts halls opened up, and a few feet away from him was his son, holding a stack of books and chatting merrily to none other than Draco Malfoy's son.

Albus hadn't even considered that his father would linger around after James' quidditch game. He hadn't wanted to see him. His mother and father had been sending him letters every week since he was sorted into Slytherin, with lovely messages such as 'I knew many brave men in Slytherin', 'Slytherin house is lucky to have you' and the last one, which was simply 'we love you Albus, please reply.' Albus hadn't answered a single one of them. He had tried to, many times, but every attempt had ended in ink-stained fingers and an overflowing wastebin, but no letter. Albus just wasn't ready to face his family, especially his father. He didn't think he could bear the consolations or the half-hearted attempts to cheer him up.

The fact that he hadn't even considered that his father might still be in the castle well after dinner time was why he was roaming the halls with Scorpius, happily debating which muggle invention they had gone over in muggle studies that week was the weirdest. "It's clearly the electric toothbrush" Albus was saying "imagine having a toothpaste so inefficient at cleaning that it has to be spread around the mouth with vigor" he said, quoting the textbook and laughing. "Nu'uh" Scorpius disagreed, struggling a little bit under the weight of his spell books as they headed down the hall on their way back to the dungeons "I reckon it still has to be the shower squeaker. Why do they need a special music player just for the shower?" "You mean shower speaker" Albus corrected, but the accompanying chuckle died on his lips. He was staring face to face with his father, who had just exited the Headmistresses' office with Elle by his side. Scorpius stopped abruptly beside him, a small "oh" slipping out.

"Son" Harry Potter said to Albus, who couldn't meet his eyes "Why didn't you come to the game today? It was your brother's first match. I would have hoped to see you support him." Albus shuffled his feet, mumbling "I had detention." His father raised his eyebrows. "Detention?" Albus just shrugged. Harry looked at his son for another long moment, before saying "you haven't introduced me to your friend", crossing his arms. Albus finally raised his eyes to meet his father's gaze. "This is Scorpius Malfoy" he said defiantly. "He's my best friend."

To Albus, Harry's eyes were unreadable. "Pleasure to meet you" he said addressing Scorpius stiffly. "Son, I was hoping we could speak privately for a moment before I head off." Albus shook his head. "Sorry Dad, it's nearly curfew. I need to be off. Can't risk another detention." Harry opened his mouth, looking like he wanted to order Albus, but paused and seemed to change his mind, his eyes flitting between Elle and Scorpius. "All right then." His father said sadly. "I must be off. I look forward to your next letter" he said to Albus pointedly. Albus smiled thinly "of course Dad."

After his father had left the small group in the hallway, Albus realized for the first time the significance of Elle's presence. He looked to her questioningly, his mouth already open, to ask his first question. Elle cut him off before he could speak however, looking pale and tired and miserable. "Not tonight" was all she said, before walking hurriedly away in the direction of the Ravenclaw common room.

Albus was so full of thoughts about his father and Elle that he didn't even notice that Scorpius was fuming mad until they were halfway down the dungeon hall to their dorms. He looked at Scorpius, who was cursing with venom at the books he had inadvertently dropped. "Y'alright Scorpius?" he asked, "I don't think the books did it on purpose."

Scorpius paused and straightened up to look at Albus, two books still splayed around his feet. "You never forgave them." He stated. It was not a question. Still, Albus tried to play dumb. "Never forgave who?" he asked. Scorpius rolled his eyes. "You never forgave Rose or James for what they said to you, did you." "How do you know what they said to me?" Albus asked, blushing, a bit of anger creeping into his voice now. "Don't be daft. I was around the corner when you were talking to James. He's not quiet when he speaks. I'm not deaf. And Sam told me what Rose said to you." Albus was indignant. "He had no right to say anything about that."

Scorpius stared directly at Albus, unblinking. His pale grey eyes were cold circles of ice, contrasted by the rosy flush of his cheeks. "I didn't have a right to know what Rose used to think about Slytherins? I didn't have a right to know what Rose said about me?" Albus was quiet. He looked to his feet, but he could still feel Scorpius's gaze on him, unrelenting. "I'm sorry" Albus mumbled "I didn't think of it that way."

Scorpius sighed. He repeated his first statement; "You never forgave them. Not really." Albus disagreed "I did forgive them. I know they didn't mean it." "No" said Scorpius firmly "you 'forgave' them because you liked that they said it. You want to feel like the world hates you. It makes you think it's okay to hate yourself." Albus looked up at Scorpius, at a loss for words. He thought Scorpius was speaking to him in a language he barely understood, but it made him feel vulnerable.

"Do you want to know why I'm mad?" Scorpius said. Albus nodded uncertainly. "it's because you get to hate yourself." Albus did not understand, and it was clear on his face. "Albus, you get to walk around hating yourself about being in Slytherin because you have people like Rose and James. You have people who will wait around the Slytherin common room all night for you to slink back to your dorms, risking a detention just to say sorry to you" Albus didn't know what to say. That had been Rose, after their explosive fight that first Saturday afternoon. "You have people who will enchant all of the suits of armor from here to the dining hall to sing 'I'm so sorry, I'm so dumb, James Sirius Potter, is a great big bum.'" Albus smiled, in spite of himself.

"See!" Scorpius said, raising his hands up in the air in indignation. "Do you know what would've happened if I let myself hate myself after you rejected my handshake like it was a slimy fish? Or if I had decided to give up on making any friends after Rose pulled your arm down after that wave near the lake? Do you know what would've happened if I hadn't forced myself to sit at the library table with you and Elle, even though it was so worried she'd get up and leave that I felt sick? The answer is nothing. Nothing would have happened Albus. Nobody would be waiting for me at the common room. Nobody's enchanting anything for me. You get to hate yourself Albus, because you're surrounded by people who won't let you do it properly. Not everyone gets that luxury. Not everyone has people who would notice."

The silence in the hall was deafening, but Scorpius didn't stop there. He had more to get off his chest. "And the next time you want to call me your best friend" he said, his voice breaking "don't just say it because you want to make your dad mad. Say it because you actually want to be my best friend. Because you sure as hell aren't acting like one right now." Scorpius turned swiftly on his heels, rushing off to the common room. He left Albus standing in dumb shock in the dungeon hall, two of Scorpius's spellbooks still overturned in front of him.

Albus didn't creep back into his dorm room until well past midnight that night. Scorpius's bed curtains were firmly shut, and Albus didn't pry. He softly placed the two spellbooks on Scorpius' bedside table, and then got into bed, closing his own bedcurtains, but he didn't tuck in. He was exhausted, but he still had one more thing to do before he could sleep. "Lumos" he whispered, the tip of his wand now alight. Slipping his tongue between his teeth in concentration, he began to write a letter 'Dear Mum and Dad…'

The next morning, the students were shocked to find that overnight, every single suit of armor had been moved to stand, shoulder to shoulder in a great long line down the Slytherin dungeon hallway. As students filtered by, the suits would alternately croak "I'm sorry", "I would notice" or "I've been a git". As Scorpius sat down, finding his spot amongst his friends, he overheard an older student complain to another "I wish whichever Slytherin pissed off his girlfriend would just apologize like a normal person. He's making us all look bad." Albus looked up at Scorpius from his porridge and gave him a sly wink. Scorpius smiled quietly to himself.

Sam looked up from his plate for a brief moment, frowning as if he'd just realized something. "Where's Elle?" he asked. Both Albus and Scorpius immediately looked up, locking eyes as they both remembered last night at the same time. "Elle" they said in unison, both standing at once.