Chapter 2
September 6th, Monday ‘21
Scorpius's first week of Hogwarts was unexpectedly pleasant. He was expecting to feel a lot of things, homesick, overstimulated, anxious and he did, but the feelings weren't as intense as he had expected.
Most students had gotten used to the sight of Scorpius and his silver hair after a few days so Scorpius could walk through the halls without the fear of being stared and gawked at, he still made a few heads turn every now and then but it was usually for a quick second.
He missed his home, his own room and his own bed but it wasn't a dark cloud that loomed over his head, rather a ping of sadness he felt every now and then. He was expecting to feel a lot more overstimulated then he actually was; the castle was massive so the large student body was dispersed around that usually Scorpius could it tune out, although he had gotten used to the loud thumping during meal times.
Scorpius was currently sitting in the transfiguration classroom waiting for Professor Bones to come and start the class. Albus was sitting next to him, going over the book and next to Albus was a Gryffindor girl with long fiery red, frizzy hair, brown eyes, she was remarkably pretty, her front two teeth were noticeably larger that reminded Scorpius of a bunny. That girl was Rose Weasley, Albus's cousin. Scorpius couldn't see the family resemblance from the first time Albus introduced her but he didn't comment on it.
The Slytherin girls were sitting behind them, their quills scratching against parchment as the we're busy quickly finishing the summer homework they didn't finish before the Professor came in.
“So… is your hair really natural?” Rose asked, she had been staring at his hair for the past few days, in her defence so we're a lot of people, eyeing it suspiciously as she leaned back in the seat to look at Scorpius over a hunched over Albus who was busy reading.
“It is.” Scorpius confirmed, his voice still barely over a whisper, a habit he was trying hard to get over “I don't really know why it's silver, my parents don't have an idea either.” Scorpius answered prematurely as he could guess what Rose's next question would be.
“Huh… and you mentioned you weren't allowed out as a kid?”
“I did?” Scorpius questioned not remembering what conversation Rose was referring to.
“Not to me, to Albus.” Rose corrected.
“Oh yeah.” Scorpius nodded.
Rose reached out her hand “can I touch it?” She asked before her hand could actually touch his hair.
Scorpius gulped a little, he wanted to say no, he didn't like the idea of someone touching any part of him, but he was also scared he might offend her, so he nodded “y-yeah okay…”
With permission, Rose took a strand of his silver hair between her fingers, examining it, “Wow your hair is soft… what do you use on it?” She asked softly.
“Oh uh Sleek Easy I think…? I don't really know.” Scorpius shyly admitted, he hadn't ever made a fuss over his hair, his parents had done more than a good job of doing that on his behalf.
“That can't be right, I use the same thing, my hair's not this soft.” She pouted and pulled her hand away.
Scorpius was panicking a bit, unsure how to fix her now annoyed mood “I uh brought the shampoo I used… you could borrow it to see if that works…?” He suggested unsure how she'd react.
Scorpius's offer seemed to work as she smiled “really? You sure?” She asked and Scorpius nodded “yea.. I don't mind…” He confirmed.
“Thanks” Rose smiled “so back to your hair-” she changed the topic “You told Albus your parents were overprotective?”
“Yea..” Scorpius nodded unsure where she was going.
“And your hair's been white since birth?”
Scorpius nodded again
“Maybe you were attacked a kid?” Rose suggested.
“Attacked? By what?” Scorpius questioned, still confused about what Rose was on about.
“I don't really know-” She admitted “but you'll see, our defence against the dark arts professor has completely dark brown hair but he got attacked by something and ended up with two strands of white hair because of it” Rose reached up as she took a hold of her own hair to show where the professor's white hair was. “You have DADA today right?”
“It's our last class for today.” Albus finally spoke up, sitting up straight as he closed the transfiguration book.
Scorpius let out a little sigh of relief as Albus joined the conversation “yea… the time table said we share it with Ravenclaws.” Scorpius added.
“Ah, the smart people's houses pairing up?” Rose asked teasingly, propping her elbows on the table as she intertwined her fingers, using it as a hammock for her head.
Albus rolled his eyes as the professor came in and started the class. Professor Bones was pretty, at least Scorpius thought so, round eyes, roman nose, a sweet smile, dark hair tied into a ponytail.
“Good morning class, it's nice to see you all again.” She smiled , clasping her hands together as she looked around the class of Gryffindors before looking at the small group of Slytherin's sitting in the corner, her smile didn't move although it looked a bit more forced “and a happy welcome to Malfoy whose joining our class this year.” her voice was still sweet, although it sounded a bit more forced, “and yes, I'm aware of your curse, arrangements have been made.” Her voice softened a bit, the sweetness in her voice a bit more genuine.
Scorpius nodded at the reassurance as the Professor went back to talking to the whole of the class, asking about everyone's summer. Albus nudged Scorpius's arm “Curse? What curse?? You got a curse?” He whispered with wide eyes, even Rose was leaning in to look at Scorpius, he then also noticed that Daphne Lyrin and Cassandra were also leaning over, the girls all just as curious about what curse Scorpius was suffering from.
“Um… I can't use a wand-”
“What!?”
“No way!”
“How!?”
“What sort of curse-”
Scorpius flinched as the hushed chorus of questions overlapped, Albus held up a hand to make the girls quiet down before the professor noticed, “What sort of curse do you even got, mate?” He asked, echoing what everyone was thinking.
“It's not exactly a curse, I don't know if I can… my mother couldn't, she could still do magic, wandless stuff, she was really good at potions and magic of that sort-” Scorpius explained, not sure if he made any sense.
“Wait so you could use a wand, you're choosing not to?” Rose questioned, scepticism etched into her features.
“Yea sort of… when my mother tried using a wand she got hurt really badly, left her with a scar, didn't want the same happening to me.” Scorpius lied, he technically could use a wand, he had used his father's and uncle's before when he was learning charms when he was younger but he didn't feel know how else to explain his aversion.
“So are you any good at wandless magic?” Rose questioned, still sceptical. Albus shot her a glare to back off. Scorpius felt his heart beat out of his chest, he had never been questioned or put under the spotlight, “I- I- well- I'd like to think I'm p-pretty capable-” Scorpius quietly stammered out.
“How?” Rose questioned, there was a slight accusatory tone in her voice but Scorpius wasn't sure if it was on purpose.
Apparently the girls and Albus noticed the tone in Rose's as they all shot her a quick glare to stop asking questions which Scorpius appreciated, but it didn't seem to stop the curious and accusatory redhead, “wandless magic is something that comes with skill, how does a 13 year old be “pretty capable” of it?”
“Aren't all kids technically capable of wandless magic? Like that's how you figure out if you're magic or not, isn't it?” Lyrin spoke up to Scorpius's defence, her voice was still soft although it held a sharp edge, matching Scorpius's usual volume, Scorpius liked that about Lyrin.
Rose thought about it for a bit, her features easing back into its usual resting face “well that makes sense I suppose.” She admitted, “I'd still like to see a demonstration.” She quickly added although it was more of a request this time.
“We can all see next class, we know Professor Bones isn't going to teach us anything on the first day of classes” Albus spoke up this time, Scorpius noticed that Albus had likely noticed that he was feeling a bit uncomfortable under the spotlight and tried redirecting it.
And as if on cue, Professor Bones turned to their little crowd “what about you, Ms. Weasley? How was your summer?” She asked Rose with a kind smile. Rose then started talking about her summer, giving a quick summary of going to Liverpool for a week and spending most of the time practising Quidditch for the tryouts this year. Albus piped up with a similar story, although he didn't mention anything about Quidditch.
Professor Bones then moved on to asking the Slytherin girls, Cassandra shared that her family went to see a quidditch match in Ireland, Daphne said she had practised for the Quidditch tryouts and Lyrin said her family went to France to visit her older brother. The professor then turned to Scorpius, a smile on her face as she asked “What about you Mr Malfoy? What did you do over the summer?” It was an innocent question but the realisation that the entire class was focusing on what Scorpius had to say made his words get stuck in his throat. Scorpius felt his hands get clammy, he immediately wiped them on his trousers, his heart started beating in his ears again, his foot was itching to tap on the floor. “I - um…” Scorpius looked down, trying to think of what to say, he could feel everyone's eyes staring into him, his skin felt as if it was burning under the curious stares of his classmates.
Scorpius was trying not to overthink what to say but each second felt like an hour, he could feel everyone looking at him, expecting an answer, his head was swirling with what to say, does he lie? Tell the truth? How much does he say? If he says he did nothing would people think he was being snobby or rude? Scorpius suddenly felt like he got dragged back to earth when he noticed the feeling of someone else's skin on him, he looked down and saw Albus's pinky linked with his own, a silent show of support that was Scorpius's saving grace. It didn't answer any of the questions in Scorpius's head but it gave him enough support to at least answer, “I didn't really… do much of anything… mostly some early reading…” Scorpius admitted, still not looking the professor in the eye.
Professor Bones, bless her life, smiled at that and nodded, “Ah, looks like we finally have a studious Slytherin for this batch.” She teased light-heartedly with a polite smile, the other Slytherin girls joined in and lightly protested before the professor moved onto the address for the rest of class, making light conversation.
The class ended and Albus was correct, they didn't end up doing any actual work instead a nice welcoming class where Professor Bones simply talked with the class, Scorpius didn't add much although Professor Bones did try every now and then. If every professor was like her then maybe Hogwarts would be much better than Scorpius assumed.
As the hoard of students exited the Transfiguration classroom, Rose turned to the five Slytherin's “what's your next class?” She asked Albus “History” he responded and the girls, as if on cue, groaned , throwing their heads back/down as they complained about the subject and how boring Professor Binns was.
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The rest of the day flew by fairly quickly. The professors were all kind and understanding to Scorpius, and understood his restrictive “curse” and told him that arrangements were made. What did that mean? He still wasn't sure but he was just glad no one seemed directly opposed to his restriction. Apart from Professor Bones, the rest of the classes were all lecture based. Scorpius wondered if his arrival had anything to do with why all the Professors were being laid back.
That was until the last class, Defense against the Dark Arts. They shared the class with the third year Ravenclaws, which seemed to be triple the size of the Slytherins. 14 Ravenclaws as opposed to the 5 Slytherins. Scorpius finally realised why their year had so few students, they all went to bloody Ravenclaw.
After a bit they were all seated, Scorpius sitting in the third row on the right, next to Albus, the girls in front of them and another row of Ravenclaws in front of the girls and the desk behind Scorpius and Albus was empty.
The room had a dark draughty edge to it, the only lights in the room being the window behind the teacher's desk. The room wasn't the biggest classroom Scorpius had seen that day but it was nice, although the Slytherin dorm was under the lake in the dungeons so maybe his opinion was a bit biassed. The room was cosy to Scorpius, the shelves were stuffed with books, book chases with boxes and stacks of books, and other stuff that Scorpius didn't really bother looking at. There was a ring of ivy vine wrapping around the ceiling and travelling down the crooks of the stone that made the room look less hostile. He wondered if it was on purpose. The door to the room was opposite to the window and desk, meaning so were the two rows of student desks, technically the benches were for two people although that didn't stop people from sitting in groups of three or four. There were four desks on each side which meant technically the classroom could hold 16 people, but thanks to the invention of scooting closer to your friend the number was closer to 24.
The class was buzzing with whispers, the girls were turned around talking to Scorpius ignoring Albus as they had been every time they spoke to Scorpius. It seemed as if they had formed some sort of silent truce, Albus doesn't try to join in Scorpius's conversations with the girls and the girls don't try to join Scorpius's conversations with Albus. It was an odd, Scorpius didn't understand why the girls and Albus had this sort of wall, to act as if the other didn't exist, even in private, they never mentioned anything about the other, even Cassandra, the biggest (and only) gossip Scorpius ever met never tried to say anything about Albus, although she had no problem going off about Albus's brother, James Sirius Potter, and his absolute awful pranks as she called them.
“I am so excited to see him.” Cassandra whispered, a smile and light blush on her face although her chestnut skin did a good job at hiding it. Daphne joined in, a wide grin across her face, “oh my, imagine if his hair got even longer.” she suggested and Lyrin and Cassandra squealed quietly at the thought. Albus looked bored as he picked at the wooden desk with his quill, his head propped up on his right hand, he was clearly listening although he didn't say anything.
Scorpius had heard a vague description of the defence against the dark arts teacher, an ex-auror with the scars to show for it, he was apparently handsome with dark brown hair, and as Rose had mentioned, one of his battle scars were strip's of white hair he had gotten while fighting some creature, one thing that was repeated to him multiple times was “Do NOT ask him about his scars or Arour days” apparently when he left it wasn't in good blood.
The class went quiet when the door opened, the professor entered, Scorpius watched the professor walking up to the desk at the head of the class, he placed down a stack of books on the table and turned around and holy salazar-
Scorpius couldn't tell whether it was his own heart beating in his ears or the other students. Everything the girls said suddenly clicked. The man was tall, brooding, and intimidating. He had a strong jaw, a wide and tall flat set nose, his lips were crooked to look like they were in a permanent frown, his eyes were sharp and narrow, a permanent glare fixed on his face. There were bags under his eyes, as if he hadn't had a good night's sleep in months. He had short dark brown curls, and just like Rose had mentioned, two of the strands were white, almost the same shade of silver as Scorpius's hair. And just like Rose mentioned, he had two large deep scars. One of them dragged up the left side of his face up to his right, the larger of the two going across his nose up to his forehead, the smaller one was lower, going up from his chin, over his thin lips and ending right under his right eye.
“Good afternoon class, welcome back for your third year at Hogwarts.” He started, his voice was deep and intimidating, Scorpius could clearly imagine the man in an Auror uniform. Professor Ferox looked around the class, his eyes landing on Scorpius. Scorpius almost flinched at how intense the teacher's stare was. “Malfoy, I see you're joining this year, and yes, arrangements have been made.” He addressed him politely although the stern edge in his voice still intimidated Scorpius. His eyes flickered to Albus then back at Scorpius before he turned around, going behind his desk.
“This year, we'll be learning about defence against half-breeds.” The professor started. Scorpius felt his blood run cold as he tensed up at the mention of half-breeds. “Of course, half-breeds are a vast topic that we will be covering the whole school year, and I am saying it now, everything we'll be learning about them is not absolute. They are not a monolith so no two are the same even if they're from the same species. Do I make myself clear?” He looked around the class. There was a murmur of “Yes professor.” “Yes sir.” and silent nods before the teacher set down a book on his desk.
Scorpius was nervously tapping his foot, why half-breeds? He knew there was some tension rising in America but he didn't have any details, just some offhand remarks from his father while he was reading the newspaper. Election tension, his father said. Albus noticed the foot tapping and leaned over, “you okay?” he asked quietly. Scorpius just nodded, unsure what else to say.
The class was on werewolves, of course it was, Scorpius sat through the class, listening to the lecture and taking notes. He couldn't help but notice the professor looking at him an awful lot, a flash of untrust and suspicion gleamed whenever Scorpius was in the professor's sight. Scorpius wondered why. He wasn't doing anything wrong, maybe the foot tapping was annoying him? Scorpius tried not to tap his foot although it resulted in his finger tapping on the desk instead, it was quieter than his foot so he didn't stop.
“What are a werewolf's weaknesses?” Professor Ferox asked, scanning the classroom.
Scorpius raised his hand, and so did a few Ravenclaws.
“Malfoy.” The professor called, trying to hide the undertone of disgust as he said the name.
“Werewolves have a weakness towards pure silver or metals with over a half silver base. Although it can harm werewolves in human form, it's most effective during a full moon or right after.” Scorpius answered.
The class was silent, everyone looking at the professor for his response.
“Correct Malfoy… 5 Points to Slytherin.” He said begrudgingly and moved on.
He also mentioned the wizarding wars, and werewolves or Greyback’s part in it. Scorpius appreciated the history lesson, although everyone kept looking over at him and Albus, for obvious reasons. The son of the boy who lived and the grandson of the woman who lied to The Dark Lord himself. It was an odd pair.
The lesson was simple and nothing Scorpius didn't know, just some basic defence spells, advance on how to spot an aggressive one, stuff about the moon. Scorpius found it interesting but the professor's glare towards him made him keep his head down. Scorpius felt a pit forming at the bottom of his guts, did the professor not like him? Did he do something wrong?
Did Professor Ferox know what Scorpius was?
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The rest of the day carried out predictably although the thought of his defence against the dark arts professor kept bringing back a wave of anxiety. The girls suggested they do their homework together, so the five of them went off to the library. Their homework session turned into a gossip session, Cassandra and Daphne were whispering about things they've heard around the castle or at home and their predictions on what was going on or what would happen. Lyrin and Scorpius were silently listening. Lyrin adding her own bits of info here and there. Scorpius didn't really know anything so he was just sitting there listening to what had been going on in the rest of the pure-blood families. Their homework laid on the table forgotten.
Scorpius was amazed at how much drama was happening all around him. The hogwarts gossip were things he had expected, who was dating who, who broke up with who, why this happened, why someone did that. What amused Scorpius was Daphne and Cassandra ending each topic with “but it's not our place to judge.” before starting with the next topic. What piqued Scorpius's interest was the pure-blood family drama. Apparently Blaise Zabini and Pansy Zabini might get divorced, something about scandalous infidelity. Scorpius sort of wondered what the point of an arranged marriage was if divorce was still on the table. According to Lyrin, “it's a stupid tradition.”, Scorpius had to agree with her assessment.
Albus sat next to Scorpius the entire time, the only person actually doing their homework, he was itching to add to the girl's gossip train, Scorpius knew he was because the second they were in private Albus opened like a dam, bringing up details about things Daphne or Cassandra brought up hours ago. Scorpius sat there, wide eyed as Albus's information connected dots in spots where Daphne or Cassandra’s theories didn't really fit. Scorpius had to bite his tongue to stop him from asking why Albus just didn't talk to the girls, what happened? He knew he probably shouldn't, but after dinner, when Albus had gone mute the second the girls appeared and went back to nonstop talking the second they left, he couldn't stop himself. They entered their dorm room and Scorpius cleared his throat.
“So, I was just wondering…” Scorpius started, making his way to his closet to take out his night clothes.
“Hmm?” Albus asked while rummaging through his own closet.
“What's the story behind you and the girls?” He asked, looking over at Albus who paused before speaking.
“Nothing happened, no incident or nothing, when I was sorted into Slytherin, I wasn't really accepted… by anyone, no one bullied me or anything, they didn't stop me from sitting next to them or anything but I knew he didn't want me to, so I just stayed out of everyone's way. The girls, they don't like me, you know why, they ignore me, I don't try to talk to them, it works.” Albus shrugged.
“You'd get along.” Scorpius pointed out.
“Maybe. Goodnight.” Albus stated, getting into bed.
Scorpius knew he shouldn't push this any further. “Goodnight Albus.”
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September 7th, Tuesday ‘21
“He hates me.” Daphne announced as the class of Hufflepuffs and Slytherins piled out of the greenhouse for their first herbology class of the year and last class of the day.
Scorpius turned to her, confused by the sudden declaration. “Don't mind her, she's convinced Professor Longbottom hates her.” Cassandra waved away Daphne's sorrowful complaints. “I'm convinced because he does!” Daphne protested.
Professor Longbottom seemed nice in Scorpius's opinion, he looked a bit surprised by the sight of him but so were most people at Hogwarts so he didn't take it personally. The professor was kind and clearly loved the subject he taught, he wasn't rude or mean or intimidating so he was genuinely curious about what Daphne was going on about.
“Why would you think he hates you?” Scorpius asked as the group walked. Albus was silent as always.
“It's because of her name, Lestrange.” Lyrin answered “His parents were tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange so she's more associated with her family than the Black family.”
“It's not fair! She was a Black, not a Lestrange by blood! If anything, that means Scorpius has more chances of going looney than I do!” Daphne protested. Scorpius had learned in the past seven days to not take Daphne personally. She said whatever was on her mind and didn't filter it, Scorpius appreciated the honesty, sometimes.
“He literally gave me the worst grade out of everyone last year!” Daphne tried to add evidence to her accusation.
“Maybe you're just shit at herbology.” Lyrin offered softly.
Daphne rolled her eyes, “Oh please, Carmen got more than me and his plant died!” She huffed.
“Is this normal?” Scorpius questioned, whispering to Cassandra. “After every herbology class.” Cassandra sighed as they all continued walking.
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It was 4pm, the sun decided to rear its ugly head and Albus decided he needed more vitamin D, so Scorpius was forced to sit in the sun. It's not like the sun directly hurt him unlike it did with his grandfather, but he was never allowed in direct sunlight and he never wanted to be in it. His mother made sure of it when she showed him pictures of nasty sunburns at the age of 5.
Scorpius sat on the grass under the shade of his parasol. It was his mother's. Albus laid next to him, watching the clouds. “You're missing out, cloud watching is fun.” Albus said, trying to get Scorpius out of the literal shadows he was sitting under.
“I can see the clouds fine.” Scorpius retorted. Just then Rose came over, three ice lollies in hand, a red one, a pink with white base and a green so neon Scorpius was willing to bet it glowed in the dark.
“Hey lads.” Rose greeted, handing the neon green ice lolly to Albus. “I dunno what you like so I got you cherry, sorry if you don't like it.” Rose said, handing Scorpius the red one.
“Oh, thank you.” Scorpius wasn't sure why she was being nice to him, she didn't have reason to.
Rose took a seat next to Albus, who sat up once he was handed the neon green abomination. “Thanks” Albus mumbled before biting into it
. “Your teeth are going to get hypothermia.” Rose teased, sucking on her own ice lolly. Scorpius had never really had an ice lolly before, he didn't eat, well, anything, especially things with sugar in them. For most foods, he just couldn't stomach it, he could still taste it, but for some reason, sugar tastes like to him, what coal would taste like to a normal person.
Scorpius was honestly terrified to try and eat the cherry lolly, although just dumping it would be rude since it was a gift… “Do you not like cherry?” Rose asked, having noticed that Scorpius had sort of zoned out.
“No no it's not that… I've just never had an ice lolly before...”
Both of them immediately froze and looked at him “you what!?” Albus shouted.
Scorpius had gotten used to his sudden exclamations, “mhm, never had it, don't like sugar or anything of the sort so my family never really pushed me to try it either”
Apparently that was the wrong choice of words because the two cousins just looked even more bewildered. “I mean I'm not against trying it…” Scorpius tried correcting.
Rose seemed to break out of her shocked state “it's fine if you don't want to eat it, you can just go back to the kitchen and hand it back.” She said casually.
“Isn't it rude to give back a gift?” Scorpius was surprised at how casually Rose was about him not liking the ice lolly she got him, he decided the only explanation was that it was because she didn't have to pay for it or make it.
“Alright, sorry.” Scorpius said, getting up, parasol in hand.
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Dinner was… awful, during lunch he could at least sneak away to the other part of the castle, or pretend he was exploring, during dinners he was forced to sit with everyone, the girls always questioned why he never ate more than a bread roll. Even the prefects would occasionally check up on him, usually it was Calix. Scorpius had gotten the impression that Cassandra had asked him to. Finally his hour of torture was over and he could head back to his dorm with Albus.
Scorpius and Albus were in their room doing homework, or Scorpius was doing charms homework and Albus was waiting to copy it.
“So how do you like Hogwarts so far?” Albus asked, taking the piece of parchment from Scorpius and jotting down whatever was on it.
“It's more pleasant than I expected, the teachers are nice…” Scorpius trailed off.
“But?”
“Professor Ferox has this weird vibe doesn't he?”
“He probably just doesn't like you,” Albus said casually.
Scorpius looked at Albus for an explanation.
“He doesn't like the Ministry, especially Aurors, y’know how Rose mentioned he was one?”
“Yes I remember…?” Scorpius confirmed, still confused about where this was going.
“That's it, he's an ex-auror, he hates the whole department now, and my dad's the head and your dad was incharge of it I guess so he doesn't like either of us.” Albus explained simply.
“Isn't that like, against the rules?” Scorpius questioned.
“Technically, but he doesn't pick you out or give you harsher grades or anything, you just have to deal with him glaring at your direction.”
“So I have to just deal with it?”
“Pretty much.”
“Thank you.”
“For?” Albus looked up confused.
“For explaining it to me.”
“You don't have to thank me for that.”
“I know, but it's impolite not to.” Scorpius offered with a small smile.
Albus smiled back, “Your dimples are cute.” He pointed out.
“Dimples?”
“Yea, the little dents when you smile.”
“Oh yea, did you know dimples are caused because individuals are missing muscle tissue in those spots so when they smile their skin skins in causing dents? So technically it's a deformity.”
“Well it's a cute deformity.” Albus retorted, emphasising the cute.
“Tha-”
“Don't you dare.” Albus warned playfully.
“Fine.”
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September 21st, Wednesday ‘21
It had been a solid three weeks at Scorpius and he was understanding why alumni usually held the school in such high regard. The castle was massive and riddled with secrets, the professor's were usually nice and the students were kind to him. Scorpius guessed the last one was because of his status as a Malfoy.
Scorpius also agreed with Daphne that herbology sucked. Professor Longbottom was kind although he couldn't help but notice a subtle glare in his direction every now and then. It also didn't help that he couldn't keep a plant alive to save his own life.
Scorpius also found out his “arrangements” were just extra writing assignments to earn back the credit for the practical parts of classes, when needed. For subjects like Magical History and DADA, he didn't really need any arrangements. The professors seemed pretty neutral about his presence.
Professor Slughorn, who was also the head of Slytherin, absolutely loved him though, Scorpius had learned a fair bit of advanced potions from his mother, and his mother's potions book also helped him a whole lot.
Scorpius was currently in the library working on a transfiguration essay while the rest of his friends were in flying class. Scorpius nearly jumped out of his seat when he heard Professor Slughorn call his name.
“Malfoy! Just the boy I was looking for.” He grinned as Scorpius almost fell out of his seat.
“Professor Slughorn, good afternoon…” Scorpius greeted, trying to catch his breath.
“I see you're hard at work.” He noticed the half written transfiguration essay.
“Just getting some homework done, sir.” Scorpius panted.
“Of course, Malfoy's, always on top of things.” He continued smiling. He definitely wanted something. “Say, Malfoy, I used to teach your father, did he ever mention me?”
“No sir, father doesn’t speak about his Hogwarts years.”
“Ah, that’s a shame, he was a talented student, one of the best students in his year.”
“You.ve mentioned it before.” Scorpius had no clue where this was going nor did he like whatever direction was going.
“Well it’s worth mentioning again.” Slughorn paused.”Have you by any chance heard of the Slug Club?”
There it was.
Scorpius recognised the name, apparently Daphne and Lyrin said something about seniors nicking some fire whiskey into a flask and bragging about it last year. “I’ve heard about it, sir.”
“How would you like to be a member?” He asked, a smile on his face. “There's a dinner party tomorrow, my office after tea, feel free to join.”
Every part of Scorpius was telling him to politely reject the invitation and save himself the trouble, but as he answered his throat dried up. “O-okay… I’ll drop by..” He nodded and watched as Slughorn floated away.
By Merlin's beard, did Scorpius hate the ghosts at the castle. There were the four house ghosts. The Bloody Baron, The Grey Lady, The Fat Friar and Nearly Headless Nick. There was Moaning Myrtle in the girl’s loo, the two ghost professors, Professor Binnn and Slughorn and the three ghosts from the battle of hogwarts, Fred Wesley who mostly spent his time around Gryffindors, Jermey Ruggins, a muggle-born Huffleppuff who always just seemed too on edge and apparently there was another ghost who hung around The Black Lake although he never saw the ghost.
He couldn’t hear them approach and it freaked him out when they suddenly appeared. Peeves the poltergeist was better, at least he was loud enough to be heard from halfway across the castle. Scorpius sighed, looking back at his transfiguration essay, already feeling a pit at the bottom of his stomach for what’s going to happen the next day.