Chapter 3
The first shop the group entered, Scorpius trailing a bit behind, was Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. Lily and Lysander had convinced them all to go straight to her uncle’s shop. Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes was thriving, thanks to Lily and Albus’s dad’s donation of startup money many years ago, and the business and joke savvy of its two purveyors. It was so much so thriving that Hugo and Rose’s dad Ron and their shy uncle George had been convinced to open up a second shop in Hogsmeade. As they entered the store, the chattering of many of their classmates could be heard and a riotous chaos of colors, sounds, and smells assaulted their ears. A small boy was walking on the ceiling, apparently suspended by nothing but a pair of neon green shoes, fireworks whizzed about the store (apparently safe for indoor use, Scorpius noted), an assortment of cardboard boxes with brightly colored labels floated about the store and expelled their contents into the proper positions on the shelves as soon as a shelf’s stock had been sufficiently diminished, and an adorable clockwork rabbit appeared and disappeared beneath a smiling clockwork Weasley’s tophat. Scorpius suspected that the smiling clockwork magician in the front of the store who bore such a great resemblance to Al’s uncle George was in honor of his much beloved twin, Fred, who, as legend and Al said, was killed in the Battle of Hogwarts by Death Eaters, but died with a smile on his face, laughing at Al’s uncle Percy for making his first joke of many years. Scorpius shook his head as if to shake off the darkness of their parents’ memories, and hurried to catch up with Al.
As he approached Al, the many bright products in one of the alcoves waylaid him. As he drew closer, ensconcing himself fully among the shelves, he saw that they were Muggle Magic Tricks and card games, something his mom had talked about often as being fun to do on the non-magical camping trips they sometimes took. There were many he hadn’t tried, including a card game called Baloney Sandwich and one called Egyptian Ratscrew, which seemed a lot like Exploding Snaps. Mom would love this! Scorpius thought, resolving to buy some to bring home to her and to share with Araminta at school. He sat crosslegged on the floor and had pulled a gold-and-silver embossed deck of cards and it’s accompanying rainbow instruction book into his lap to peruse, when from behind a stack of books and games he heard voices.
“Hey Rose, why don’t you talk to Scorpius? You and he like a lot of the same books, plus he’s really smart and kind. I think you’d get along.” Scorpius’s ears perked up hopefully.
Rose huffed, “I doubt it. This was just going to be the usual group of you and I and the cousins and our friends from Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. I don’t know why you had to go and invite all these Slytherins .” Scorpius wilted and stared down at the book in his lap with a sad expression, not registering the words on the page.
“Rose, need I remind you that I am a Slytherin.”
“You’re the only Slytherin with a shred of decency in the room.”
“Rose, that isn’t fair. I don’t know what you’ve got against Scor, but for some reason you two have never got along, and it’s really hard on me to be in the middle of it all.”
“He’s just so annoying, Al, I don’t know why you had to invite him.”
Scorpius became aware of a shuffling noise behind him, and glanced behind him. Freya’s unmistakable bright blue eyes peeked out from a gap in the shelf at his back, narrowing slightly as she listened. She shushed him with a finger as he made eye contact and pointed ahead of them both.
“Because he’s my friend , Rose, and I’d really like it if you got to know him too.”
“Not a chance,” Rose said, “I can already tell that he’s barely tolerable. You had better get back to Alice and enjoy her smiles - you’re wasting your time with me.”
Albus sighed and his footsteps receded, as did Rose’s in the opposite direction. Freya sidled up to Scorpius and sat next to him, putting an arm around him in comfort. “Ignore her, Scor, she’s mad in general today, and stubborn as hell even on a good day. She’s—”
“Oh don’t worry,” Scorpius said, keeping the tears that stung the back of his eyes at bay and setting his expression stubbornly. “I wouldn’t befriend someone so prejudiced, cold, and arrogant for all of Hogwarts.”
Freya opened her mouth, took in his expression, and then closed it. She nodded and rubbed him on the back. “Come find me when you’re ready to join the group,” she said, and she slipped off to give him some privacy. Freya was a good friend, he found himself thinking, which was hard to find, even on a good day .
He was also beginning to understand how she was such a good judge of character. It turns out that she had been amongst the extendable ears, a shelf back, and he suspected he would find a hefty stash under her bed were he to look in the right place the Slytherin dormitories. He laughed to himself, took a deep breath, then stood up. He would not be so easily cowed by Rose. He would show her who he was, and then she would regret her hasty words. Plus, he was determined to make sure that Araminta had a good first time in Hogsmeade.