The train's horn gave warning blow, alerting the witches and wizards on platform 9¾ that they needed to board. It was nearly 11 o'clock. Scorpius Malfoy waved goodbye to his parents one more time before he got aboard the train to Hogwarts. Things were hectic on the train as his fellow first-years and other students started taking seats.
Someone bumped into Scorpius from behind and he stumbled forward, almost falling. He turned around to see a black-haired wizard his age was the one who had nearly knocked him down.
"Hey!" Scorpius complained. "Watch it!"
"Sorry," the boy said, "I was just looking for my brother James. Have you seen him? He looks like me only taller."
Scorpius looked at the boy who had bumped into him. His hair was untidy, framing a face with bright green almond-shaped eyes. He was wearing a Hogwarts cloak but it didn't have a house patch on it yet, so that meant this was going to be his first year. If he had a scar on his face and glasses then he'd look identical to Harry Potter.
The similarity made Scorpius step back and ask in the same sharp tone. "Are you a Potter?"
The boy blinked, surprised that he had been recognized. "Um, yes. I'm Albus Potter, and it looks like we're both first years."
Since Scorpius didn't have a house badge on his robe, it was easy to see that he had yet to be sorted into a house. "Your right, but I don't know where your brother is half-blood so make yourself scarce."
Albus hesitated, surprised by Scorpius's callous slur and then said somewhat offended. "You don't need to be so mean."
He stepped back away from Scorpius and went into another car as he continued to search for his older brother. Scorpius shook his head and then continued walking down the car's hallway, looking for his friends. Just as he'd been told, there really was going to be a Potter enrolled in the same year as him.
"Scorpius!" Someone shouted from a compartment he had just walked past.
Oh, what now? Scorpius muttered and glanced over his shoulder.
He thought that it might be the Potter boy or some other mixed-blood come to bother him, and was pleasantly surprised that it was not. Two almost identical boys were standing inside the compartment looking out at him.
Scorpius smiled as he recognized the friends he had been looking for, twins Luke and Jacob Flint. Jacob waved at Scorpius energetically, almost hitting his brother in the face, and Luke slapped his hand away with a noise of surprise. Luke glared at his twin and Jacob narrowed his eyes back.
It appeared to Scorpius that his presence was required to keep the two from causing mayhem, so he quickly walked to the compartment they had secured. The train jolted sharply as it started moving before Scorpius could reach a seat, and he had to grab the frame of the compartment door to keep from falling. He hurried inside the compartment and closed the door behind him, taking a grateful seat.
There was another small jolt, but Scorpius was ready for it this time and managed not to fall out of his seat. Jacob snickered at his clumsiness, covering his mouth with a hand as the twins sat on the seat across from him. Luke saved Scorpius the trouble of lightly slugging Jacob on his arm.
The train began to pick up speed as the jolts leveled out, and the three boys crowded near the window. Scorpius couldn't find his parents, but the twins waved at their mother. Soon they were away from the platform and the three watched until the station vanished from sight.
Once the station vanished, they settled back in their seats and began chatting to pass the time. Jacob started by complaining about their nine-year old sister Coraline's whining that she wanted to go to Hogwarts with her brothers. Scorpius was an only child, and he enjoyed listening to his friends go on about their youngest sibling and what their house was like. It was almost always quiet at Malfoy manor unless the twins visited. Then it was anything but quiet.
Time passed as the three continued chatting, and after a brief update from both on what things were like at their houses they moved onto Hogwarts's houses. Since all three were pure-bloods and members of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, it was expected that they would mind themselves while away from home. They knew the importance of blood-purity, and not to become friends with muggle-borns and wizards of the like because they didn't want to be named blood traitors like the Weasley family had been. Give Slytherin's standing among the other pure-blood houses, Scorpius was aware he had appearances to keep for the sake of his house. The Flint family was in good standings, so the twins had only the basic concerns about such things.
Their families were also of Slytherin descent, and all wanted to be in Slytherin to make their families proud. They were placed in houses though by the Sorting Hat, and it might not take their wishes into consideration. It could put them in a different House, and that was a chance the three dreaded.
After the four Houses and the Sorting Hat were discussed they went on to other topics that ranged from which Professor would be the best to which class they thought was going to be hardest. It went all the way from Quidditch (which Jacob was eager to compete in once he was old enough) to the upcoming boat ride across the lake that the first years took. Neither Luke nor Scorpius were surprised by Jacob's excitement at the Quidditch match, and they were all curious about the boat ride where they would get their first look at Hogwarts.
"The weather is nice out," Luke offered on the topic of the boats and looked out the window he sat next to. The sky was clear blue. "It should be like a dream as long as the weather holds."
Jacob rolled his eyes at his brother's confident voice and asked sarcastically. "Is there anything you don't know?"
"Plenty," Luke replied to his twin smartly without looking away from the window. "That's why I'm going to school."
Jacob huffed and looked towards the compartment door, the opposite direction from Luke. Scorpius was amazed yet again how different Luke and Jacob were despite being identical twins. They were the children of Marcus Flint and Jessica Avery, and although they had their father's black hair it was as soft as fine as their mother's. Overall they looked more like their mother with dark blue eyes and gentle features.
Despite their identical appearances, their personalities clashed. Jacob had a half-wild charm where Luke was level-headed. Luke preferred to have his nose in a book and Jacob wanted to be in the sky on his broomstick racing around. In order to look different, Jacob kept his hair long and Luke kept his short. Luke had bangs that half covered his left eye where Jacob's framed his face.
There was a quiet click of rolling wheels in the hallway, and someone knocked on their compartment door before opening it. In the hallway was a trolley heaped high with all sorts of candy from Honeydukes, an older witch pushing it.
"Want anything off the trolley dears?" She asked the three of them kindly.
"Jellybeans," Jacob chimed instantly and reached inside his robes for a galleon.
Luke turned from the window and made a face at Jacob. "Some of those Every Flavor Beans? You're crazy."
Jacob grinned, "Just because you got that mustard one doesn't mean they're all bad."
"I'll just have a chocolate frog," Luke muttered.
"Anything for you?" She asked Scorpius in the same gentle voice while she got the twins their candy.
"Do you have any Glacial Snow Flakes?" Scorpius asked.
The witch nodded and reached underneath for a box of them.
"Excuse me," a quiet voice asked.
The witch looked up with the box in hand, surprised to see a young witch standing behind her. "Yes, my dear?"
"Do you have anything but sweets?" The witch asked.
Her words were stiff and cold, as if she didn't know how to interact, her back very straight.
The old witch shook her head apologetically. "No, I'm sorry."
"That's all right," the young witch said.
She realized that the three boys inside the compartment were staring at her so she looked at them. Her appearance surprised the boys. Although she didn't have her Hogwarts robes on she looked young enough to be a first-year. The witch's skin was fair, pale by normal comparison, and her hair was tied up in two ponytails with a few bangs near her right eye.
What was surprising about her was that her hair was silver-white, an unnatural color the boys had never seen before, and her eyes were different as well. The irises were dark amethyst with just a touch of magenta or fuchsia pink, and there seemed to be something wrong with how the pupils were shaped.
The silver-haired witch looked back at the witch in the trolley cart, "thank you anyway."
Without looking back at them, she walked down the hallway. The witch at the trolley shrugged it off and handed them their candy. Once they paid for it, she pushed her cart to the next compartment and repeated her question. Jacob was already tearing into his jellybeans.
"She was cute wasn't she?" Jacob asked as he tossed a blue jellybean into his mouth, "Mm, blueberry."
Scorpius knew Jacob meant the silver-haired witch, and purposely looked to the window where the countryside continued to roll past. He was too young to be interested in that stuff. His older cousin Griffin Lestrange would be a different matter…
Luke kept a firm grip on his Chocolate Frog as he looked at the card, smiling when he saw it was a Morgana Le Fey card he didn't already have in his collection. Although Luke was reading the card, Scorpius could tell he was paying attention to what Jacob was saying.
"I think that was an Arclight," Luke said cautiously as Jacob picked up a green jellybean and Scorpius tore open his box.
"A what?" Jacob asked. He winced as he ate the jellybean, realizing it was spinach and making a face at its taste.
"Arclight," Luke repeated, "her family name. Her family's magic has affected her appearance. It can happen to any wizard, but it's rare, outside of the Arclight family."
"Which book did you read that one from?" Jacob asked as he fished out another jellybean, not surprised Luke would know something as random as that.
"It was one of Cornelius Agrippa's," Luke replied, matching his brother's tart tone. "The Effect of Magic on Its Users, written in the 1500s. Other authors have their own version of it but his was the original. There was a passage about the Arclight family. They were known for having silver hair and dark, unusual eye colors. Cornelius found it fascinating since such effects are usually rare, but all the Arclights he saw had them. He didn't know where they were or much of anything about them. I've never heard anything else about them so they must not interact with other wizards much."
"How do you know something like that?" Scorpius asked.
He couldn't help but be fascinated.
Luke shrugged. "It was just so interesting and quirky, the entire book."
"If they keep such a low profile, where is she on the train to Hogwarts?" Jacob challenged. He eyed a gray jellybean with suspicion. "You must be remembering it wrong."
"Maybe," Luke sighed dramatically and bit the head of his chocolate frog off before it could escape. "It has happened once before."
Jacob scoffed and put the jellybean in his mouth. He coughed suddenly. "Stupid jellybeans! I just ate a dirty sock flavor!"
Luke laughed at his brother's expense and put the card inside his robe. Jacob kept coughing.
"Stop laughing!" He demanded. "It is not funny."
That only served to make Luke laugh harder. Jacob tried to steal his chocolate frog in retaliation. He failed and the two began bickering about the frog and jellybeans. Scorpius watched his friends in silence, savoring the Glacial Snowflake's sweet taste as they melted in his mouth. It was nice just to watch sometimes.
Scorpius is something akin to a wallflower, but as long as his friends are happy so is he. It can't have been easy growing up as the son of the Malfoys, traitors twice. The witch will be returning, and it may or may not be as a protagonist.