The weekend arrived. Albus and Scorpius were sitting in their common room, quietly talking.
"I think," Albus began, "that we should first try to travel to the recent past. Just to test it out. What do you think?"
"That's a good idea. We need to practice before we jump more than 20 years back. How about a day during this Christmas break?" asked Scorpius.
"Sure." Albus thought about it for a moment. "Let's try the day I was looking for the Time-Turner in my father's office. I was alone then, and there would be no risk of being seen by anyone."
"Perfect. Is the Cloak in the dorm?" asked Scorpius, and Albus nodded. Scorpius continued. "Alright. Shall we go there now? It should be empty at this time of day."
"Yeah, let's go."
The room was indeed empty. Albus took out the Cloak and the Time-Turner from where he hid them on the bottom of his trunk.
"Stand next to me," said Albus.
Scorpius came to stand next to his friend. Albus put the Time-Timer's chain around both their necks, and Scorpius threw the Cloak of Invisibility over their heads.
"Are you ready?" Albus looked at her friend with a cheerful smile.
"Ready." Scorpius returned the smile. "And you?"
"Me too. Let's go!"
Albus spun the Time-Tuner, and their surroundings disappeared in a blur. When everything around them became focused again, the boys looked around. They were standing in the middle of the living room at Grimmauld Place.
"We did it!" whispered Scorpius. "Now we need to check if we were transported to the right time."
"Let's go to Dad's office. If we did everything right, then I should be inside it now." Albus looked at Scorpius. "Stay close."
The boys slowly came towards the office and noticed that the door was slightly open.
"I forgot to close the door!" whispered Albus.
"Yeah. But you're in there, which means we chose the right time and if the book's instructions were correct, then we have exactly five minutes."
The wizards both abruptly stopped talking as they heard quiet steps approaching their hiding place.
"Someone is coming," whispered Albus, and the boys carefully moved away from the door. "But there shouldn't be anyone here. I made sure that everyone left."
The boys slowly moved down the corridor as Mrs Potter came down the stairs. She quietly stopped next to the half-open door to her husband's office and smiled.
"We need to get back," said Scorpius, panicking.
Albus spun the Time-Turner, and the boys found themselves back in the Slytherin dorm. Scorpius took the Cloak off them.
"How did that happen? I double-checked to make sure no one was home that day. And if my mum saw me in the office, then she would know that I took the Time-Turner!" Albus was pacing the room and then abruptly stopped. "But why didn't she stop me? Why didn't she say anything?"
Albus began to pace the room again. Scorpius came up to his friend and took him by the shoulders. "Al, look at me. If Mrs Potter hasn't told you anything yet, then she's not going to." Albus looked up at his friend. "I think she decided not to interfere and let you figure it out yourself. I saw the smile on her face when she watched you in the office. I think if she had been against you getting involved in this whole time-travelling adventure, she would have stopped you." Scorpius smiled reassuringly.
"You're right. Honestly, if my father's stories are to be believed, my mum was always in the middle of all the Weasley shenanigans. She grew up surrounded by six brothers, after all. Well, at least now we have someone in our corner if anything goes wrong." Albus smiled.
"True." Scorpius sat down on his bed. "Alright, now let's do a breakdown of our first test. I think, all things considered, it went pretty well."
"Agreed. Oh no, I forgot to time it! I don't know how long we were there."
"I timed it. We were there for about two minutes. So next time, we need to be more specific with the place and time. Now we landed in the living room, so we lost time getting to the office." Scorpius chewed on his lip, deep in thought.
"Yeah, you're right. But all in all, not bad for a first try, huh?" Albus laughed cheerfully. "It's so weird to look at myself like that, though!"
"That's why they say you need to be very careful with time travel. If the one using the Time-Turner meets himself in the past, it will lead to completely unpredictable consequences. Some say that people even went crazy because of it," said Scorpius with a frown on his face.
"How do you know that?" asked Albus. It was the first time he had heard about that.
"Father told me. His former classmate Theodore Nott was a part of the team of wizards working on creating the new version of the Time-Turner."
"Ah, yes. All the previous ones were destroyed, right?" asked Albus. The wizard remembered his dad telling him that he was in the Ministry the day that a room full of Time-Turners was destroyed.
"Yeah, that's right. It happened during the battle in the Department of Mysteries." Scorpius looked down. "My grandfather fought in it, with a Death Eater mask covering his face." The young wizard fell silent.
"Hey, Scorp." Albus sat down next to his friend and gave him a side hug. "It's all in the past now. Each of us makes mistakes; you said so yourself. Lucius Malfoy was no exception. Whatever he did in the past is not your fault."
Scorpius looked up at his friend. "You're right. Thanks." Scorpius smiled at his friend. The young man was incredibly grateful to Albus for his support. He was lucky that four years ago, on the Hogwarts Express, Scorpius had entered the right compartment, where he met a dark-haired boy who became his best friend. From the first day they met, the boys only became closer and closer, their souls drawn together. "Thanks for everything, Al."
The next morning, the boys were sitting in the Great Hall and chatting happily. Their first time travel had been a great success. It didn't change anything in their present, so now they could start planning the second travel.
I that moment, hundreds of owls flew into the hall, carrying the morning mail. Neither wizard was expecting any letters, so the boys calmly continued their conversation. They were interrupted by the Malfoy family owl, which landed next to Scorpius's plate. The owl extended its paw with a letter, and as soon as Malfoy Jr. untied it, it flew away with a loud hoot.
"Were you expecting a letter?" Albus asked his friend.
"No. It's actually pretty strange. Something must have happened because Father wouldn't have written otherwise."
Scorpius quickly opened the letter and began to read.
"Dear Scorpius,
I hope you are well. I know that the news I am about to tell you is best told in person, and I'm sorry about that. Tomorrow it will already be all over the newspapers, and I wanted you to know everything first before the gossip starts distorting the facts.
Your mother and I are getting a divorce. Magical marriages are quite difficult to break, but it's still possible. I am truly sorry that you had to find out about this in a letter. I hope you will forgive me for that.
As you know, my marriage to Astoria was arranged, and we never loved each other, not how a husband and wife should. We respected each other and, over time, even became friends. I thought that we could live in a marriage without love, but as I later found out, it's not that easy. Our marriage was difficult, but you can get used to anything. So, I got used to it over time. But, as it turns out, it was more difficult for your mother than it was for me to live like that. I won't justify her actions; I'll just tell you the facts, and you'll draw your conclusions from there.
If you remember, before me, Astoria dated my former classmate Theodore Nott, and I think she even loved him once. I can't speculate on the matter since I don't know all the details. Anyway, they broke up shortly before Astoria and I started dating. I proposed to her soon after, and she accepted the proposal. All these years, I thought that everything was over between them, but apparently, it wasn't. They kept in touch over the years and, as it turned out, a couple of years ago became lovers again. You know me; I would never believe gossip and rumours. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, I saw everything with my own eyes. The two of them in our bed.
I tell you everything as it is, without prettying things up, because I think that you deserve to know the truth. I have already made my decision, and I think it will be better for both me and your mother this way. Astoria will finally be happy, I truly wish her that, and I will be able to move on.
After the divorce is finalised, it will be up to you to decide whom you want to stay with. You are a grown young man, and I will accept any decision you make.
I love you very much, Scorpius, and I want you to know that whatever you decide, I will always be there for you.
Your father,
Draco Lucius Malfoy."
Scorpius put down the letter and took a deep breath. He couldn't say that he was surprised and was just glad that his father reacted so calmly. He would need to write back to his dad as soon as possible and tell him that he would stay with him after the divorce. He didn't even need to think about it. He loved his mother, but his father was the closest person in the world to Scorpius.
"Is everything alright?" Albus looked at his friend with worry written all over his face.
Scorpius just passed Albus the letter, who read it and then stared back at his friend in shock.
"Everything is fine, Al." Scorpius smiled. "I wish her happiness. And you and I will make sure that my dad gets his happy ending too," said the young wizard and winked at his friend.