Of course it was near the Slytherin common room.
Well, it wasn't super close to the Slytherin common room, but in was in the dungeons, which was too close for comfort. It would have been a convenient location had he gotten Slytherin…
The directions were so frustratingly vague. Scorpius understood that he was looking for a painting with a snake aggressively confronting some muggles and that the painting was in the dungeons but that was all he had to go on. He expected the painting in the photo would look exactly like the one at Hogwarts. He wasn't sure what the painting was supposed to do, but he had to check it out. The curiosity would drive him mad if he didn't.
Scorpius surveyed the paintings in the hallway he was currently in. Merlin, there were a lot of paintings at Hogwarts. And no maps. A map would be helpful. Because Scorpius was only fairly certain he was going the right way. He wasn't using the main staircase, he wanted to bump into as few people as possible, but he was moving downwards. And the dungeons were downwards. It made sense.
If Scorpius couldn't find a good map, he'd have to make his own.
Ten minutes later and Scorpius' confidence in his 'go down' plan was wanning. He paused by a kelpie statue, trying to get his bearings. This was the dungeons now, right? He was underground. Hufflepuff's common room was underground too though. Which parts of the basement were considered to be part of the dungeons? Where was the invisible line that separated the dungeons from the rest of the castle? Was it matching décor? A certain floor? A section of a floor?
Scorpius startled when a voice cut through his thoughts. "There you are!"
Turning a bit too quickly to be considered calm, his eyes landed on- Gavin? Confused, Scorpius glanced around, but no, he and Gavin were the only ones here. Why would Gavin Ollivander seek him out? They weren't friends. He'd met Gavin once, but that had been years ago. He didn't think they were enemies either. At least Scorpius didn't know of any reason Gavin would dislike him more than the usual.
"Gavin?" The greeting came out more like a question. The other boy still looked very much like Scorpius remembered him, expect older. Same medium length curly brown hair. Same silvery eyes. Same slightly intense expression for normal conversation. The Slytherin robes felt odd, though thinking back to their one afternoon together, Gavin getting Slytherin wasn't really a shock.
"Well, c'mon then," Gavin demanded impatiently, motioning him to hurry up with something. Scorpius had no idea what. "Let's see it then."
Scorpius blinked. "See… what?"
Gavin let out an annoyed huff. "Don't be daft. Your wand. Let me see your wand."
Oh. Quite blunt of him. He did very much remember how passionate Gavin was about his family's line of work. Tad bit fanatical really. Scorpius supposed there was no reason not to show him.
As Scorpius took out his wand, Gavin's eyes followed it the whole way, a gleam in his eye. "May I?" Gavin asked, holding out his hand.
"Um, sure," Scorpius shrugged, letting Gavin take the wand. The boy brought it up to his face, tapping on the wood experimentally.
"Acacia, 10.8 inches, quite rigid," Gavin observed. "Dragon heartstring core." He turned the wand in his hand. "Fascinating! Acacia is a rare wood for wands, we don't make many of them. Very sensitive, not a good fit for most. They tend to not produce magic for anyone other than their rightful owner and they withhold their best effects from all but the most gifted witches and wizards." Really? Scorpius hadn't known that. Maybe it had just been the unusual wand wood that had been the issue then. They'd only started trying acacia wands towards the end. Gavin finally looked back at him. "How's it been working for you so far?"
"Well, I haven't had too much opportunity to use it yet," Scorpius lied. Underage wizards weren't supposed to do magic outside of school. "But it's been working fine."
"Hm." Gavin's head tilted thoughtfully, sharp eyes seeming to gaze into Scorpius' soul. He handed Scorpius his wand back. "I've been terribly curious about your wand since dad told me about it. One of the trickiest pairings he's ever done."
A wave of embarrassment flushed through Scorpius. "He told you about that?" Finding a wand had taken so long Scorpius had started to question if there was something wrong with him.
"Yeah," Gavin nodded. "Purely for educational purposes, understand." Oh, well, that made sense. Still embarrassing though. "We Ollivanders don't gossip on such things." A frustrated expression passed over Gavin's face. "I wish I had been there. I would have learned so much more if I'd seen the process in person."
"I don't think you missed much," Scorpius assured him. "I was probably just doing it wrong." Mr. Ollivander had gotten so frustrated with him. It had taken nearly forty wands before he'd found a match. There had been some Scorpius had thought were okay, but Mr. Ollivander had insisted the match be 'perfect'. They'd finally found a match but even then…
Gavin turned his nose up at the suggestion. "There's no 'doing it wrong'." After a second of thought, he added. "Well, I suppose you could not move at all but that's beside the point." His gaze flicked back to Scorpius' wand again, eyes turning analytical. "Out of interest, what would you say was the thing not clicking the most? If you had to guess?"
Scorpius' brows furrowed, surprised by the question. He was no expert on wands. A few books on the subject was nothing compared to an Ollivander's knowledge. There was one thing, but it was stupid. Gavin would know more than him though…
Knowing he sounded foolish even as he said it, Scorpius asked, "Are there any wand cores that can be taken from a living dragon?" It wasn't fair that out of the three best wand cores, one of them always had to come from a corpse. He knew the heartstrings were ethically harvested, but it was the principle of the thing. He didn't have a problem with it for other people but for himself he would rather… it just didn't feel right.
"A living dragon?" Gavin repeated, intrigued. "No. Nothing good at least. Nothing as strong as the heartstring. A scale or a horn or such can't compare. And there's no way to get a heartstring before the dragon dies."
"Yeah, that's what I thought," Scorpius nodded, putting his wand away. "It was a silly question. I really don't know much about wands."
"It was an interesting question, not a silly one," Gavin grinned. "I will admit, I do want to make a wand with dragon horn at some point. Even though it's far weaker, I'd like to measure the differences myself. And I want to experiment outside of the three supreme wand cores. Obviously, those are the best for general wands in Britan, but I'd hate to be completely shackled by tradition. Especially when I can see other cores working in other countries."
"Like what?" Scorpius asked, curious. All the books he'd read really just stuck to unicorn hair, phoenix feathers, and dragon heartstrings. But unicorns couldn't be found everywhere in the world, and there were magical creatures that couldn't be found in Britan or even Europe as a whole.
Gavin's eyes lit up with the sparkle of someone who had been asked a question about his favorite topic. "Oh, there are loads of potential cores. For example, the Japanese use kitsune tail fur in their wands." Scorpius had read about the magical, multi-tailed fox before. "Extraordinarily rare though. The fur needs to be freely gifted by the kitsune. If someone just takes the fur, the fur becomes cursed, and the wand is more likely to attempt to kill you than cast the spells you want. You have to get the fur from a very trusted source. There are plenty of dark wizards out there who would try to sell you the fur claiming it was a pure gift when they really trapped and caged a kitsune and stripped its fur by force. But if you can get untainted kitsune tail fur, it's one of the best wand cores for transfiguration and divination."
"Wow, you know a lot about wands," Scorpius noted admiringly. "Though I suppose an Ollivander would know all that stuff…" Wait, was that too dismissive? "Well, I know your sister is pursuing healing. It's impressive that you're already so knowledge on the topic at your age. You must have studied a lot."
"I don't know that much," Gavin insisted. "Not really. Not yet. But I will. Just wait until you see the wands I make." The zeal left his voice as he sighed. "I was gobsmacked when Gina told us she wanted to go into healing. A noble profession, obviously, but I would never give up wandmaking. Not for anything."
"Was your family-" Scorpius hesitated. It was a personal question. A revealing question. But Gavin was the only other person who might be going through the same thing, or at least something very similar, that Scorpius was. "- surprised you got Slytherin?"
"Surprised?" That Gavin had to think about if for a second already told Scorpius his answer. "I dunno. Maybe. We do tend to get Ravenclaw. I do think Gina's a little disappointed we aren't in the same house." That's right. Having a sibling in another house must make it even worse. Gavin didn't seem upset though. At all. It was a bit grating actually. How could Gavin be unbothered by this while Scorpius was having trouble sleeping at night because every time it got too quiet his already panicky thoughts spiraled into heart pounding, paralyzing dread?
"Were, um, you surprised to get Slytherin?" Scorpius asked, forcing himself not to fidget as he asked the question.
Not fidgeting didn't help. Gavin gave him a knowing look before answering. "Huh, honestly, I really hadn't thought about which house I'd get. It didn't matter much to me, wouldn't change any of my plans. I did have a bit of a 'hm' moment when the hat said Slytherin, but it wasn't a shock. Could've gone either way really."
No point in being subtle now, that cauldron had already boiled. "So your family wasn't- disappointed when you told them?" Not that it would mean anything for Scorpius. They had very different families.
Gavin snorted. "Scorpius, my family has paired countless wands with witches and wizards for thousands of years. We've crafted wands for Hogwarts students since the school's founding. We are very aware of each house's nature. We know better than to fuss over one's house."
"Oh, well, that's good," Scorpius said, disheartened. So he was the only kid in Hogwarts with house issues after all.
"Did you want Slytherin?" Gavin asked mildly, like it was a casual, uncomplicated question.
"Getting Slytherin was a given," Scorpius replied irritably. "Malfoys have always been Slytherin."
"But did you want Slytherin?" Gavin pressed. Scorpius did his best to swallow down his rising anger. Why did people keep asking that? They all wanted different answers. Some wanted him to say no. Some wanted him to say yes. Any answer would make him look bad to one side or the other. Why did people always feel the need to trap him, to trip him up? Why couldn't they just leave him be?
"I didn't not want Slytherin," Scorpius huffed. "I would've been perfectly happy in Slytherin." Would've made his life a lot easier.
"Well I wouldn't-" Gavin started, but cut off when another boy suddenly rounded the corner. Scorpius recognized the sandy blonde. Another first year, the first to be sorted into Slytherin. Spencer something-that-started-with-'A'. Not a pureblood family. Spencer's eyes instantly zeroed in on Gavin.
"There you are, Gav," Spencer sighed, shaking his head in exasperation. "I swear, I take my eyes off you for a second…"
Gavin rolled his eyes. "I walked away. Not my fault you didn't notice."
"You didn't say anything," Spencer chided, no real heat behind the words. Scorpius got the impression that this was a recurring argument between the two. "You can't just run off anytime you see an interesting wand."
"Why not?" Gavin frowned. "It wasn't an important conversation. We were talking about cauldrons."
"That's not- ugh." Spencer rubbed at his forehead in frustration. "We'll talk about this later." The boy's attention turned to Scorpius. "So, he finally cornered you about the wand, eh? Gav's been eyeing you like a niffler eyes a coin since we got here." These two must have been friends even before coming to Hogwarts.
"I haven't been avoiding him," Scorpius protested.
"No," Spencer agreed. "You've been avoiding Slytherin in general. Not that I blame you. Everyone thought it was a sure thing. A lot of Slytherins see it as you not wanting to be on the team because you think you're too good for us."
Scorpius bristled. "I've never thought that. I was fully expecting to get Slytherin."
"Yeah, that's the vibe I've been getting from you," Spencer nodded. "The fact that you aren't half snarling at us while we talk is proof enough that you aren't as stuck up as the other Gryffindors. There are definitely some arseholes in Slytherin, but Gryffindor seems to think we're all would be Death Eaters. Not like they're all saints themselves. We've got plenty of normal Slytherins if they ever bothered to talk to us. Hard to get around the house rivalry at this point though." He smirked. "Great job with Corbin by the way. He was fuming after, even with all the points Gryffindor lost. Which was total rubbish, Corbin was the only one in the wrong."
Gavin's nose scrunched with distaste. "Ugh, chestnut with dragon heartstrings. I wouldn't expect much from Corbin. Not anytime soon at least. I suspect he'll continue to give you trouble."
"If you were both against it, why didn't you say anything when it was happening?" Scorpius asked suspiciously. Were they being sincere or were they trying to trick him into saying something incriminating?
"I was about to…" Spencer defended crossly, giving Gavin a pointed look.
"I wanted to see how it played out," Gavin explained shamelessly. Scorpius was almost impressed. "Shame Potter never cast anything; I would've liked to see that. A cherry wood wand. I've only seen one other cherry wand at Hogwarts so far." Gavin glanced around, like Albus (and his wand) could be hiding somewhere nearby. "Where is Albus anyways? You've always been together whenever I've seen you. We don't share any more classes today so I'm not going to see his wand or see him casting anything if I don't catch him now."
"You have a problem, Gav," Spencer said flatly.
"No I don't," Gavin denied flippantly. "I have a passion." Spencer threw Scorpius a 'see-what-I-have-to-deal-with' look and Scorpius carefully withheld his laughter.
"Albus is doing something with his brother," Scorpius told Gavin. "I'm not sure when he'll be done."
Gavin's shoulders slumped slightly. "Drat."
Shaking his head fondly, Spencer prodded Gavin towards the stairs. "C'mon, Gav, let's go eat. You can't starve yourself chasing after wands. You can harass Potter later."
Gavin's expression was rebellious, but he gave in a few seconds later, allowing his friend to drag him away. "Ugh, fine."
"See you around, Scorpius," Spencer waved.
"Yeah, see you." They probably wouldn't see much of each other, but it was nice to know not all of Slytherin hated him.
Scorpius was not able to find the painting in the time he had left. He met back up with Rose and Albus only a minute before Transfiguration started, so they didn't have time to talk. And they were so busy taking a mountain of notes during class they didn't have a chance to really talk then either. So it wasn't until their free period that Albus (Rose had run back to the dorms to grab something) was able to ask him a question that blindsided him.
"What were you talking to the Slytherins about?" Albus asked with a frown. "Were they giving you shit about the Corbin thing?"
Scorpius' initial surprise shifted to unease. "How did you know I talked to Slytherins?" There hadn't been anyone else nearby. Not that Scorpius had seen. "Were they talking about me afterwards?"
Albus' eyes widened and his body stuttered as he realized he'd asked the question without having planed a proper explanation. He shifted on his feet guiltily. "Er, no, not that I know of. It's, um, James has ways of knowing what's going on in the castle." Scorpius' heart jumped, fear clogging his throat.
"Was he spying on me?!" Scorpius gasped, alarmed. How? He'd been with Albus the whole time, hadn't he? How long had he been watching him?
Albus was quiet for a long moment, seemingly hesitant to tattle on his brother. Then, "Kind of? Yeah." He sighed. "He's being completely mental. He's going to be calling every stick he sees a snake the rate his paranoia is going. And when he saw you with Slytherins he took it as 'evidence' of some kind."
"But how did he see I was with Slytherins?" Scorpius asked, panicked theories racing through his head. Some sort of network with the paintings? House elf spies? Some kind of homonculous charm? Invisibility potion?
Albus looked terribly uncomfortable. "I… I can't tell you. It's a family secret. James nicked it from dad and then dad let him keep it." So it was a thing? Annoyance leaked into Albus' tone. "Cause James is the oldest and he gets first dibs on everything. He's supposed to be using it for good. But no, he's using it to creep on first years. Abuse of power, that's what it is. Ugh, I bet he's using it to spy on me too." He shook his head. "But, er, basically, James has a way of knowing where people are in the castle. So just be careful not to go anywhere weird." Not go anywhere weird? The weird places were the places he wanted to go to most. "He's already jumping to conclusions at the smallest things, no need to give him ammo. Oh, and don't tell anyone else, not even the professors, James can do that. Like I said, it's a secret. And I want to use it sometimes too." Albus seemed eager to move on from his brother's mysterious methods. "So were the Slytherins giving you trouble?"
Still offput by this my-brother-is-all-knowing revelation, it took a second for it to hit Scorpius what the question meant. Albus had not jumped to the worst conclusion like his brother. Instead of thinking Scorpius had snuck off to the dungeons to plot with the Slytherins as soon as he turned his back, Albus had latched onto the far more favorable interpretation. Being trusted was… nice.
"No, Gavin Ollivander just wanted to see my wand and he had his friend with him," Scorpius explained. "I guess the wood is rare. He wants to see yours too, actually. He'll probably ambush you at some point in the next couple days."
"Oh." Albus seemed relieved. "Gavin Ollivander?" The Potter rolled his eyes. "James failed to mention that. He just said 'a couple of Slytherins'. Manipulative prick." Odd. What made Gavin an 'okay' Slytherin? Because he was an Ollivander? But then that proved that not all Slytherins were bad. Or were there Gryffindors sweating in their beds at night that their future wandmaker was going to be a dark wizard?
After a second of thought, Albus processed the last bit of what Scorpius had said. "My wand?" His eyebrows furrowed. "Why would he want to see my wand? It's not like my dad's."
Scorpius didn't follow Albus' logic. For a child to have the same wand as their parent had to be incredibly rare unless the wand was passed down. "I don't think he thinks it is."
Albus shook his head, bewildered. "Why else would he want to see it? Did he want to see Rose's too?"
"He didn't mention Rose's, but I don't know," Scorpius shrugged. "I'm not entirely sure why he's interested in your wand. Something about it being cherry wood, I think. I guess it's another rare wand wood."
"Eh, who cares about wand wood," Albus waved off. "If Gavin wants to see a cool wand, he should see James'. He's got a phoenix feather core." A flash of bitterness passed over Albus' face, but it disappeared between one blink and the next. "Maybe talking to a Slytherin who isn't a prick will help James loosen up."
"The wood is a very important part of a wand," Scorpius argued, though he could understand why someone might think the wood wasn't as big of a deal as the core. The core was the most obviously magical part of a wand. "To a wandmaker especially. From what I understand, the wood plays a large part in a wand's character. Loads of wizards have unicorn hair cores, but only some have unicorn hair with birch wood. The wood is a big part of what makes a wand unique."
"Loads of wizards don't have phoenix cores," Albus grumbled. "But whatever." Apparently done with the topic, Albus pulled out his thick history book with a sigh. He thumbed over the pages. "You don't think the professor will start with something super boring our first day, do you?" History was their next class.
"I'm not sure where, when, he'd start," Scorpius shrugged, mind wandering back towards the James problem. "He'll probably go over Hogwart's founding first, right?" Could he somehow trick James into revealing how he tracked people? He'd rather not interrogate Albus about it.
Albus perked up. "That wouldn't be so bad."
Scorpius was only half paying attention as they continued to walk across the lawn.
There had to be a way to stop James from being able to spy on him. And that way wasn't going to be asking nicely. How annoying.