Scorpius got up early the next morning, wishing to avoid his roommates. He took a quill, ink, and some parchment and wrote a letter to his parents:
Dear Mum and Dad,
I don’t like Hogwarts. A boy named Bernard tripped me on the way to the boats and I was given detention for Thursday night. Bernard is now one of my roommates. I’m in Gryffindor and I hate it. No one likes me and everyone keeps telling me I don’t belong here. I asked my Head of House if I could be re-sorted but he said that I couldn’t. Is it too late for me to go to Beauxbatons or Durmstrang? Please write back soon.
Luv,
Scorpius
Upon completing his letter, Scorpius realized that he still didn’t know where the owlery was. Then he remembered what Albus Potter had told him, while they were still on speaking terms, and began his search for the Great Hall.
A half-hour and several wrong turns later, Scorpius managed to find his way. There were several Gryffindors sitting at their table, but none of them were first years, they still didn’t look terribly friendly though; he sat down by himself at the end of the table. Before he’d started into his porridge he found himself no longer alone; Merlin the owl was more than happy to join his owner, especially if a piece of toast might be shared.
“I need you to take this to my parents,” Scorpius told the owl after they’d finished their toast.
Merlin blinked solemnly as if to indicate that he knew the letter to be of the utmost importance. As Scorpius watched Merlin fly off with the letter, he couldn’t help but feel rather sad that he’d just sent away the only creature at the school who liked him.
By now most of the students had come down for breakfast. James Potter was proudly leading a group of first years, including Rosie, Albus, and two of the other boys who shared a dormitory with Scorpius. He wasn’t sure but thought their names were Creevey and Thomas.
James gave Scorpius a condescending look, highly reminiscent of Victoire and strutted past. However, one of his party didn’t follow.
“May I sit here?” asked Rosie in a rather strained voice.
Scorpius looked up, completely shocked. “Er, yeah. I s’pose.”
Rosie sat down next to him. James came over and put a hand on her shoulder, trying to bring her back to his group but she gave the offending hand a good smack and he took the hint.
“I’m sorry about yesterday,” she said, blue eyes fixed upon the tablecloth.
“Me too.”
“It’s just, Hagrid’s our friend and you really shouldn’t have called him names or said that he shouldn’t be teaching and suddenly it seemed like all the horrible things people have been saying about you might be true but last night I was thinking about it all and…”
“It’s okay,” interrupted Scorpius, “But I still think Hagrid was completely unfair.”
“But you called him a… a…”
“Half-breed? Well that’s what he is, isn’t he?”
Scorpius thought it may have been the first time that he had seen Rosie Weasley speechless. Her mouth was moving but no words were coming out and he still didn’t have the slightest idea why. Finally, after a few moments she whispered furiously, “That’s a horrible name to call someone!”
“No, it’s not, it just means he’s not all human,” replied Scorpius, although as he said the words, it occurred to him that perhaps ‘breed’ wasn’t the nicest way it could be worded. “Besides, what is he if he isn’t a half-breed?”
Rosie let out a little squeak of protest upon hearing the offending word again. “He’s a half-giant. It’s really rude to call anyone a… that word.”
Scorpius felt his cheeks grow warm. He’d had no idea that he’d been that rude; it was the word his parents always used. He mumbled, “I really didn’t know it was that bad. I’ll apologize to Hagrid when I go for my detention.”
Rosie smiled at him, obviously pleased that the whole messy business had been cleared up. Before she could say anything more, Professor Longbottom came round with their timetables.
“Good morning, Mr Malfoy. If you could come with me back to my office, we can have our little chat.”
Rosie waved a small goodbye to Scorpius as Professor Longbottom escorted him out of the Great Hall. As they walked through the school Professor Longbottom pointed out different things about it. “Watch that staircase, it has a trick step. I used to always be getting stuck in it,” he said.
As they continued down a corridor, he reminded Scorpius that the stairs move, gave him tips on how to find the Gryffindor common room and the Great Hall and told him a story about one of the times he’d forgotten the password. By the time they reached Professor Longbottom’s office, Scorpius had begun to get the feeling he was going to like his teacher and that perhaps he wasn’t about to receive detention.
The office itself was quite interesting. It seemed to be a forest floor with a similar enchantment on the ceiling as that of the Great Hall. Plants were everywhere, some of them waving to get their owner’s attention.
“I don’t usually teach in this room but it makes a nice office,” explained Professor Longbottom, “There used to be a centaur teaching Divination here, although he had the ceiling always showing the night sky. However, once he rejoined his herd, the room was available and quite frankly, my plants love the constant sunlight from a similar charm. Help yourself to a seat.”
Scorpius noticed a nice brown squishy chair and still rather nervously sat down. The Herbology teacher took the seat behind his desk.
“So, how do you find Hogwarts so far?” Neville Longbottom asked.
“Er, it wasn’t quite what I was expecting, Sir.”
“Well, most of us are surprised upon arriving at Hogwarts, some more pleasantly than others, especially upon being Sorted.” Professor Longbottom looked at Scorpius over the desk in a meaningful way.
“Everyone thinks I ought to be in Slytherin,” said Scorpius.
“Well, I wouldn’t say everyone,” replied his teacher, smiling slightly. “So do you think you belong in Slytherin?”
“I… I don’t know,” faltered Scorpius. “I mean, my family expected me to be put in Slytherin and people keep telling me that’s where I belong, the hat suggested it at first but…”
Professor Longbottom waited for Scorpius to finish.
“But everyone keeps saying that Slytherin is full of dark wizards and none of them defended Hogwarts in the Great Battle and that Voldemort was a Slytherin and…”
Neville held up a hand to stop Scorpius. “That’s not all entirely true. First of all, I know two Slytherins who defended Hogwarts: Horace Slughorn and Aurora Sinistra. Horace Slughorn was head of Slytherin at the time and he battled Lord Voldemort in his pajamas side by side with the head of Gryffindor, Minerva McGonagall.”
“Was she in her pajamas too?” asked Scorpius, suddenly curious.
“I believe she had her dressing gown on. Now, back to the discussion of Slytherin; Severus Snape was another head of Slytherin and without him, the Great Battle would have been lost. Slytherin students didn’t stay to fight though, however, many of their parents and relatives were Death Eaters, so I wouldn’t have expected them to. Oh, and yes, Voldemort was a Slytherin, likely because he was directly descended from Salazar Slytherin.”
“So, are Slytherins good or not?”
Neville smiled. “They can be either, just like Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws and even Gryffindors. There was a Gryffindor by the name of Peter Pettigrew who betrayed his best friends to Voldemort and helped him return to power. The house you’re in doesn’t determine whether you’re good or bad. Gryffindor has gotten a lot of good press lately because Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger were all Gryffindors. The most celebrated heroes of the Great Battle were Gryffindors. However, very few sing the praises of Severus Snape.”
“But why?”
“Because, while Severus Snape was a very brave man, he showed it in ways that are more Slytherin in nature. He risked his life by becoming a double agent. He was extremely resourceful and cunning, but because of that, very few people ever knew the true extent of what he did for our side.”
“So… should I be in Slytherin?” asked Scorpius.
“Apparently not. The Sorting Hat put you in Gryffindor, meaning it must see something in you that makes you a Gryffindor. I still think it’s important to remember that being in Slytherin doesn’t make one evil, just as being in Gryffindor doesn’t make one good. You are a Gryffindor, what you do with that is still up to you.”
Professor Longbottom smiled and started to get up from his desk.
“But everyone still thinks I should be in Slytherin,” argued Scorpius. “Perhaps I should be put there instead?”
“Everyone thought I belonged in Hufflepuff and now I’m Gryffindor’s Head of House,” replied Professor Longbottom, amused at Scorpius’s look of surprise. “So, perhaps you’ll make a better Gryffindor than you think. Here’s a note explaining why you’re late for Potions, do you know how to find the room?”
“I’m not sure,” answered Scorpius.
“Well, I’ll take you the set of stairs you need, after that you just follow it along the corridor, you can’t miss it.”
Just as they reached the staircase, Scorpius turned to his Head of House. “Umm, Sir? Why did you ask me to come talk to you this morning?”
Professor Longbottom looked at him seriously. “Well, after last night it seemed a good idea. I spent years trying to be what some people thought I should and trying not to be what other people thought I was. I did much better once I was simply myself and I thought perhaps you could use that advice too.”
“Thanks,” answered Scorpius, smiling slightly. Professor Longbottom had given him quite a bit to think over and he hadn’t even had a class with him yet. He hurried down the dungeon steps and knocked on the door.
“Come in,” called a man’s voice.
Scorpius walked in to be greeted with the words, “Ten points from Sl-Gryffindor for being late.”
“But, Sir, I have a note!”
“Oh? Let’s see it then.”
Scorpius rather nervously handed over the piece of parchment Professor Longbottom had given him. He didn’t like the way this teacher had taken points the moment he got in the door.
After quickly scanning the parchment, the teacher added, “Well, er, ten points to Gryffindor for… er, for having a note. You may take a seat Mr Malfoy.”
A quick glance around the room revealed that Gryffindor and Slytherin were in Potions together. Feeling increasingly awkward at standing in front of the class, Scorpius frantically tried to spot somewhere to sit. With a sigh of relief, he saw Rosie waving him over to her cauldron and hurriedly joined her and Albus.
“Alright then, you may begin,” announced the Potions master.
“What are we doing?” Scorpius whispered to Rosie.
“We’re brewing a cure for boils,” she replied, “Professor Macmillan put the instructions up on the board. Pass the dried nettles?”
As Scorpius turned to get them, he thought he saw Rosie give Albus a rather sharp elbow to the ribs.
“So, er, what are you doing for lunch?” Albus asked him a few minutes later.
“Eating, I suppose,” replied Scorpius.
“Well, you should sit with us,” added Albus hurriedly.
Scorpius was slightly tempted to say ‘no’, knowing that Rosie had coerced her cousin into making the offer. Then again, sitting alone wasn’t much fun and he had enjoyed Albus’s company on the train ride.
“Sure, thanks,” he answered. Perhaps today wouldn’t be so bad after all.
“Albus, no!” cried out Rosie.
Clouds of green smoke immediately filled their vision and there was a horrible smell to accompany it. Without thinking, Scorpius grabbed Rosie’s arm and pulled her away from the melting cauldron just as Professor Macmillan pulled Albus to safety. All four barely missed getting splashed with the potion.
With a wave of his wand, Professor Macmillan Vanished the mess. “Did any of you get splashed?” he asked, looking at the three children.
Albus and Scorpius both shook their heads.
“No, Scorpius pulled me away just in time,” Rosie answered, somewhat shaken.
“Ten points from Gryffindor for not carefully following instructions. This is not a class to be daydreaming in, it can be dangerous,” announced Professor Macmillan, rather pompously.
“Oh, and er, five points to Gryffindor for Mr Malfoy’s saving Miss Weasley a trip to the Hospital Wing. I expect an essay from the three of you on what went wrong. You can start writing while the rest of the class finishes up their potions.”
“I’m sorry,” mumbled Albus, face beet red.
“Don’t worry about it,” replied Scorpius, “We’ll likely be done our essays before the rest of the class have finished their potions. It was the quills being put in too soon, right?”
“Right,” Rosie whispered, “they weren’t supposed to go in while the cauldron was still over the flame; the heat causes the quills to break down too much…”
“…and the basic keratin to leave the quills and react with the acid from the horned slugs,” finished Scorpius.
“Exactly!” replied Rosie, beaming.
“What?” asked Albus.
“I told you that you should have read your texts over the summer,” sighed Rosie in exasperation.
“That was in the textbook?”
“Well, near the end of it,” Rosie mumbled.
“How did you not end up in Ravenclaw?” teased Albus.
“Stop worrying about that and start writing your essay,” answered Rosie, primly.
As Scorpius had predicted, they had each finished their essays before class was over. Professor Macmillan insisted on skimming over their essays and Scoprius rather smugly noted how his teacher’s eyebrows raise upon reading them. Apparently they had done well as Professor Macmillan allowed the trio to make their way to the Great Hall while most of their classmates were left cleaning up.
“I don’t think Mum’ll be pleased about my cauldron,” stated Rosie nervously, twirling a lock of rather bushy hair about her finger.
“Don’t worry, I’ll write Dad and tell him it was my fault. I don’t think he did too great at Potions,” replied Albus. “Besides all you have to do is mention that you got into Gryffindor and they’ll be so thrilled that they won’t care about a stupid cauldron.”
“Uh oh,” said Scorpius, stopping dead in his tracks. “I don’t think my mum will be thrilled about my being in Gryffindor, I’m pretty sure she had her heart set on Slytherin.”
“She wanted you to get into Slytherin?” asked Albus, incredulous.
“Well yeah, she was in Slytherin. All of my family was in Slytherin.” Scorpius’s eyes widened a bit. “Grandfather is not going to be pleased. I think I’ll let Mum and Dad break the news to him.”
“I’m sure they won’t mind you being in Gryffindor,” said Rosie consolingly, “It’s a very nice house.”
“Yeah, I doubt they’ll see it that way,” answered Scorpius.
“Maybe you could just not tell them?” added Albus hopefully.
“No, I already wrote them this morning.” Scorpius winced. “And I asked to be transferred to Beauxbatons or Durmstrang.”
“Why would you do that?” asked Albus, in disbelief.
Scorpius gave him a rather withering look. “Let’s just say being made a Gryffindor hasn’t been as great for me as it has for you.”
Albus went red again. “Sorry ‘bout that,” he mumbled.
Scorpius sighed. “It’s ok.”
“Friends?”
Scorpius looked up to see Albus extending his hand, looking hopeful. After a moment, he shook on it.
“Friends,” he answered, grinning ear to ear.
Rosie was smiling hugely. “Well, now that’s all settled, what are we going to do about my cauldron?”
“We’ll use mine until your parents send a new one,” suggested Scorpius, as they entered the sunlit Great Hall. Most of the other classes were just getting out so they had plenty of room at the table. Albus sat next to Scorpius and Rosie sat across from them.
It wasn’t long before James and Fred arrived with the Gryffindor second years. “Ugh, Binns put me to sleep again,” complained Fred.
“Albus, why are you sitting there?” asked James, rather haughtily.
“Because I’m hungry and it’s lunch time,” answered Albus. Fred snickered.
“I meant why are you sitting with him?”
“Don’t be rude, James,” admonished Rosie.
“Don’t you remember what he said about Hagrid?” continued James.
“We’ve cleared that up, it was a misunderstanding,” explained Rosie. “Scorpius said he’ll apologize to Hagrid on Thursday.”
“You can either be nice or leave,” added Albus with a tone of finality.
James looked as though he had every intention of leaving but Fred gave him a look and took the seat on Scorpius’s other side. With a sigh of exasperation, James walked around the table and sat next to Rosie.
“So… how were your first classes?” Fred asked, trying to ease the tension between his cousins. He could usually count on Rosie to fill up uncomfortable silences, and comfortable ones.
“Well we had double Potions with the Slytherins. I’m not entirely sure I like Professor Macmillan; he had us brew a cure for boils and we melted my cauldron, but it’s ok because none of us got splashed with it…” She turned to Scorpius and added, “Thank you, by the way.”
“No problem,” replied Scorpius, somewhat embarrassed.
“You already melted a cauldron?” asked James incredulously.
“Er, yeah,” answered Albus, rather sheepishly.
Fred grinned. “Who added the porcupine quills too early?”
“Me,” replied Albus, face rather red.
“Don’t worry about it, little cuz. Someone does every year, it’s no big deal.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, our year it was Donald Corner and it was Arthur a few years before.”
“Except he didn’t get away from the cauldron in time and spent the rest of the day in the Hospital Wing,” added James, “You three are lucky that you aren’t covered in boils.”
“Scorpius pulled Rosie out of the way and Professor Macmillan saved me,” said Albus.
James gave Scorpius a newfound look of acceptance. “So you’ve saved little Rosie twice now? Rosie, you really need to stop getting yourself into these messes.”
“Odd, I find either you or your brother are the ones who get me into these messes in the first place,” Rosie, retorted.
“And you say I’m a bad influence,” scoffed Scorpius.
At these words, Fred choked on his orange juice and even James snickered. It wasn’t long before Fred and James were telling the three younger kids about some of their mishaps as first years.
“Watch out for Peeves, he locked us in a bathroom once,” said Fred, laughing.
“Remember how mad Professor Sinistra was when she found us in there?”
“Why would she have found you in a boys’ bathroom?” asked Rosie.
Fred and James only laughed harder. “It was a girls’ bathroom, we were trying to find the one that leads to the Chamber of Secrets,” James finally answered.
“And did you?” asked Albus.
“No, but we got to clean it for Professor Sinistra.”
“By hand, no magic,” added Fred, making it clear he thought this cruel and unusual punishment.
The rest of lunch went well, with all five of them talking and laughing.
“What do we have next?” asked Scorpius, who hadn’t so much as glanced at his timetable since Professor Longbottom had given it to him.
“Herbology and then Defense Against the Dark Arts,” answered Rosie.
“What’s Professor Proudfoot like?” Albus asked James and Fred.
“He’s… well he’s a retired Auror. He’s strict but he tells some amazing stories about the Great Battle,” answered James.
“Don’t talk in his class and pay close attention,” advised Fred.
“Thanks,” answered Scorpius as he, Rosie and Albus stood to leave.
“No problem.”
Scorpius found Herbology quite interesting. Professor Longbottom was obviously quite taken with the subject and had many interesting plants in the greenhouse. He awarded Scorpius five points for being able to name one of the properties of Mimbulus mimbletonia. Rosie had received ten and a girl named Cassandra Tulley earned another five.
Defence Against the Dark Arts was interesting, just as Fred and James had said. Professor Proudfoot did not seem like a teacher to cross. He prowled around the room while lecturing.
“Before you can defend yourself against the Dark Arts, you need to know what Dark Arts are,” he told the class. “Over the next several years, you will learn to protect yourselves against various potions, creatures, plants and spells. The question is, what makes any of these Dark?”
The class was quite silent and Professor Proudfoot continued, “Some potions can be used to cure certain ailments but can also be used as poisons, does this make them evil? A spell that can be used to help someone can also be used to hurt them, would this be Dark Magic? For next class I want an essay from each of you on what you believe constitutes the Dark Arts.”
Rosie raised her hand.
“Yes, Miss… Weasley?” asked Professor Proudfoot, after having consulted the seating chart.
“How long should the essay be?”
Professor Proudfoot paused for a moment. “There will be no required length. I simply want to know each of your thoughts on the subject. Class dismissed.”
Rosie, Scorpius and Albus made their way back to the common room, quite pleased that their last class of the day had finished so early. They decided to take the extra time to have a game of Exploding Snap.
After a few rounds Scorpius was suddenly elbowed sharply in the head. “Hey, watch it!”
He turned to find Bernard. “Find a new seat, Malfoy,” stated Bernard.
Before Scorpius had the chance to say or do anything, Albus and Rosie stood to face him.
“Shove off, Smith,” threatened Albus.
“You can’t seriously want to hang around a Death Eater’s brat?” asked Bernard in shock.
“So what if we do, what’s it to you?” asked James, who’d just come in through the portrait hole with Fred.
“This here is Scorpius, our friend,” added Fred. “And unless you want everyone in the school by the name of Weasley and Potter out to get you… I suggest you apologize.”
“And we know tripping him wasn’t an accident either,” added Albus.
“Sorry,” grumbled Bernard, stalking off towards the dormitory.
“Did you all catch that?” asked James, defiantly looking around the room. “He’s with us now, so anyone giving him a hard time will be answering to us.”
Scorpius highly doubted anyone had managed to miss James and Fred’s speeches and noted several first years suddenly become much more interested in their essays for Professor Proudfoot. While he felt a rush of gratitude towards Fred and James for what they’d said, he was feeling a bit embarrassed too. He could take care of himself. Still, being made part of the group meant a great deal to him.
That night, after finishing his Defence essay, Scorpius wrote another letter.
Dear Mum and Dad,
I still hate Bernard Smith, but Gryffindor isn’t such a bad house after all. I know you wanted me to be in Slytherin but I don’t think I would have been very happy there and I hope you don’t mind having a son in Gryffindor.
I’ve made some friends here. Albus Potter shares a room with me and his cousin, Rosie Weasley, is in Gryffindor too. They’re both quite nice. Professor Longbottom is my Head of House and he’s really cool. So, if it’s alright with you both, I’d rather stay at Hogwarts.
Luv,
Scorpius