Chapter 4
26th September, Sunday ‘21
Scorpius really wanted to stab some people. He was on the fence about it though, if he was allowed to stab people, they could stab him back, that didn't seem like something he should be encouraging. His train of thought was broken when he felt a gust of hot wind dry his wet hair and clothes completely.
“Thank you.” He told Cassandra who had moved on to drying Lyrın with a flick of her wand.
It was the third time this week the Gryffindors, or more specifically, James Potter, Roxanne Weasley and Fred Weasely had “pranked” whatever unsuspecting Slytherin that came by. Scorpius knew that since James was now a prefect (Merlin knows why they chose him), the trio of trouble makers could get away with more. Scorpius was usually safe when he was with Albus, Albus would wave and say hi, and they'd do it back, that was fine.
The pranks were always more nuisances than anything harmful but that didn't mean Scorpius wasn't bothered. When he attempted to report it, professor Slughorn gave them detention with the approval of the Gryffindor’s house head, Professor Longbottom, which made him more of a target of these awful “pranks”. Scorpius had gotten drenched by a “misplaced weather charm” three times, had his overnight-potions tampered with, his leisure books had gotten stolen and returned vandalised(the ink had disappeared after a few hours but still!) and now the girls were also victims of another “misplaced weather charm”. Luckily Cassandra happened to know a wind charm to dry them quickly.
Albus was having tea with his godfather, aka professor Longbottom, and was thus saved or as Scorpius guessed, since he wasn't around that's why he got “pranked”. Scorpius was absolutely peeved despite the fact he was already dry.
“Come on Scorpius, don't let them get to you, that's why they do it, to get under your skin.” Lyrin encouraged though that seemed to set Scorpius off more.
“They shouldn't even be allowed to do it at all, why should I allow their behaviour?” Scorpius complained as him and the girls continued to the library.
“Look we know, but you don't have proof, and if you complain again it's just going to get worse.” Cassandra said, trying to softly encourage Scorpius off the warpath.
Scorpius sighed “Fine.”
“Oh look, it's the pit of snakes.”
The girls + Scorpius turned to the voice, seeing the bane of their existence, Polly Chapman, or Potty Shatman as the girls dubbed her, an absolute git of a girl who apparently missed the memo of the Slytherin and Gryffindor rivalry ending. For some reason, Rose was friends with her so Scorpius had to deal with her and her comments more than he'd like.
“Oh Merlin.” Lyrin mumbled.
“What are you lot doing here? Don't you have some evil plans to plot?” Shatman asked as she approached them.
“We have homework like the rest of the lot, Chapman.” Cassandra grumbled, as the Gryffindor approached.
“Oh? Don't you rich flanks have enough money in your vaults to pay it off?” she snared, Scorpius had no idea what she was on about but her shrill voice made his eye twitch.
Daphne grumbled something, Scorpius noticing that Lyrin was holding her hand. Daphne had the shortest fuse out of the five Slytherins, she also had no problem throwing a punch, just in the past 26 days she had already gotten detention twice for punching a classmate, in Scorpius's opinion, they were warned so it was their fault.
“Just ignore her, maybe she'll go away like the ghoul she is.” Lyrin said quietly in French, Cassandra giggled and Daphne just rolled her eyes, taking out her transfiguration books and parchment. After a few more meaningless insults Potty Shatman left, huffing and puffing and blowing down whatever poor student she walked past.
“About bloody time.” Cassandra said as she flipped through her book.
Scorpius was looking at his notes, trying to see what he could use for the essay. He looked up when he heard Lyrin call for him.
“Hey can I see your notes?” She asked. Scorpius handed her the parchment wordlessly, taking out his quills in the meantime she read through it. “Uh Scorpius, you did the thing again.” Lyrin called out softly.
Scorpiu had a tendency to write his study notes, in Japanese, or at least janglish, phonetically writing japanese words in english spelling, he studied better in Japanese, he argued when the girls + Albus first noticed his little quirk. He usually studied alone growing up and his parents both understood his writing so they never pointed it out to him.
“Oh, oops.” Scorpius took the notes back. “I'm sorry I didn't notice.”
Lyrin shrugged, “it's alright, I'm not in the mood for transfiguration anyway.” She stood up and went to the book shelves, looking through the shelves, she came back with a pretty thick book, taking a seat next to Scorpius.
She started flipping through it, Cassandra and Daphne didn't pay her any mind. Scorpius read through his notes.
After a bit, Scorpius looked over at Lyrin, noticing a picture on the book she was reading, “Lyrin, what book is that?”
“Some advanced charms book, it's the book we're supposed to do for our fifth year, I'm just looking through to see if there's anything interesting.” Lyrin explained.
“Can I see for a second there?” Scorpius asked,she slid the book over to him as he read it. Scorpius began flipping through it looking for something specific.
Kataigída, the storm charm
“So this is the jinx that's been soaking me for the past month.” Scorpius mumbled.
“Huh, guess it makes sense, fifth year charm, fifth year Potter.” Lyrin commented.
“…”
“Scorpius, why are you smiling evilly?”
“Because I just realised how to get back at the Gryffindors. Cassandra, Daphne, Lyrin.” He called as the girls looked at him, “How do we feel about getting revenge?”
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Scorpius and the girls kept glancing at each other then at Albus who was happily eating his dinner. They weren't sure if they should let him in on what they were planning. On one hand, Albus was James's brother and the Weasley twins' cousin, he had a very good reason to leak their plan, on the other hand, Scorpius didn't want to exclude Albus, the girls thought extra man power would have better odds as well.
The dinner was rather quiet, one interesting thing Scorpius noticed since Slughorn's dinner was that Daphne would always be looking over at the Ravenclaw table. He didn't comment on it, although he had to hold back a giggle at how hard Daphne would try to hide her smile.
The night continued routinely. The group heading to the common room, lounging about doing their own thing or trying to look for the giant squid in the lake before being forced to bed by whatever prefect came back from patrols first. Scorpius was laying in bed, listening to Albus shuffle around.
“Albus.”
“Hm?”
“How… close to your family are you exactly?”
Albus didn't say anything, Scorpius noticed the slight uptake in his heartbeat.
Scorpius stayed quiet as well, thinking Albus didn't want to talk about it, he turned to his side, closing his eyes when Albus's voice suddenly spoke up.
“Not that much anymore. We used all be really close as kids, then uncle Bill and aunt Fleur moved to France, Molly and Lucy started acting really bratty because they got to skip a year each when they got into Hogwarts, Fred and Rocky tried taking after their dad and uncle but their pranks are pretty mean, Rose is turning more and more like Polly Chapman. James is… the Gryffindor golden boy,, the first born Potter, the Quidditch prodigy he thinks he's hilarious when he makes fun of me and everyone laughs but it's just mean, Lily is… she's fine… for now she's just got into Hogwarts, Hugo's there but he's like 6, and his favourite cousin is Lucy and that's cause she makes him cookies… don't even blame him, they're good cookies.”
Scorpius laid there and listened, he snorted a bit at the end. He didn't remember a single person Albus said but hearing it made him feel guilty. Scorpius didn't want to exclude him, especially after hearing how his family basically already does it. Scorpius thought for a minute.
Albus continued “They're all gryffindor, so they've got each other, they're all pretty close but after I got into Slytherin they don't really invite me to hang out, Uncle bill's kids go to french hogwarts. Victore graduated ages ago, Dom is a sixth year, Louise is my age but he prefers James.”
Scorpius rolled over in bed “You wanna help me get revenge on someone?”
Albus looked over after a brief pause he spoke, “I'm listening.”
“Nothing too crazy, just beating James at his own game.”
At that Albus propped himself up on his elbow, “I'm in.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I don't mind knocking James down a peg, I mean we're not hurting anyone right?”
“Of course not!” Scorpius whisper-yelled “We'd actually get in trouble if that happens.”
“Alright, I'm game then.”
“...”
“...”
“You wanna come in my bed?” Scorpius asked as he moved a bit to the side.
“Yea that'd be nice…” Albus said as he got off his bed with his blanket wrapped around him.
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30th September, Friday ‘21
“No.”
“Scorpius, love, darling, please.” Daphne begged on her knees as Scorpius refused to look up from his book.
“It is not going to happen.”
Scorpius and Daphne were the only two in the Slytherin common room currently. Cassandra and Lyrin had divination and Albus was stuck in the library finishing his essay on half-breed goblins for defense against the dark arts the next period. Scorpius was sitting on the armchair near the fireplace, reading a book about Fiendfyre. Daphne was on her knees next to him, pleading with him to come to the Ravenclaw quidditch practice because she heard Evelyn was going to be there, on Saturday morning at the ass crack of dawn.
“Are you demented? I am not going to wake up before the sun to watch a quidditch practice.” Scorpius huffed. Despite his middle name meaning sunrise, he was not a morning person.
“I can't go alone but I really want to see her!” Daphne got up, leaning on the arm of the chair.
“See her at breakfast.”
“But I can't talk to her!”
“Why not?”
“She already said the archery club was going to start after the holiday break because she doesn't have her equipment and none for us either, I have no reason to talk to her!”
“maybe you can talk to her just to say hi?”
Daphne gave Scorpius a look that made him think he had two heads. “I can't just walk up to her!”
“She's your classmate, you can easily just go up to her to talk to about school work.”
“If I keep doing that she's gonna think I'm a bloody idiot, she's a ravenclaw, there's no way in Salazar’s name she'd like me if I kept talking about school work!”
“Quite a bold claim.” Scorpius said calmly as he turned the page of his book’
“So will you-”
“I'm not going to the Quidditch practice.”
Daphne groaned and admitted defeat.
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It was currently defence against the dark arts class.
Yay.
Scorpius was tucked away in the corner on the right side of Albus and the girls sitting in front of them. Albus was still at the conclusion of his essay. Scorpius looked over and read the ending.
“You're really going to turn that in?” Scorpius asked.
“I'll get in more trouble for not finishing my essay rather than a shite essay.” Albus said as he finally finished, closing his ink pot. “Besides, he's more focused on you, I barely register to him anymore.”
Scorpius groaned, “Thank you for the reminder.”
And with that, Professor Ferox entered the classroom.
Scorpius tried to hide his groan as he took out his homework along with his book, parchment and quills. Scorpius watched the professor head to his table and place down a large stack of parchments. Maybe they were question papers, maybe they were handouts, maybe they were completely unrelated to their class.
“Good morning class.” The professor greeted and a course of good morning’s came back. “I hope everyone completed the homework without any trouble?”, after a glance and seeing no hands raised, he nodded. “Okay, then that completes our goblin portion of the syllabus. Today we will move on to elves and at the end of the week I’ll be taking a quiz on half-Goblins .”
The class let out a collective groan as the professor accio’d everyone’s homework and set it down in a neat pile on his desk. Scorpius opened his book to the section on elves as the professor turned to write on the board.
Albus leaned over and whispered, “Are there really humans who’d shag their house-elves? How would that even work?”
“It can, rare but there’s been a few of them, the most well known are from the Circus Arcanus, they had loads of half-breeds and other creatures as attractions.”
Daphne leaned back in her seat and whispered. “Oh, our family actually had a half-elf as a chambermaid, like over a century ago but still.”
Cassandra then leaned back as well, “Did you say Circus Arcanus?” Scorpius nodded, “I heard my grandmother say Nagini was a maledictus performer there.”
“Nagini? Like Voldemort’s snake?” Albus asked
“Yeah, she was a whole human.” Cassandra nodded. “My family has a poster, it’s bloody ancient.”
“Bloody hell..” Albus mumbled.
Scorpius had to suppress a smile, it’s nice to see the girls and Albus talk freely, although the moment was ruined when Professor Ferox then cleared his throat as he turned back from the class. “Now, I expect this topic to take two or three classes to go through, since there’s not a lot, I’m sure everyone is aware of what house elves are and their magical capacities, including things such as undetected apparition-”
Scorpius went through the motions, writing his notes, drawing a little doodle and answering questions when called on, which earned him a total of 20 points for Slytherin.
Class ended and Scorpius packed up, quickly heading out the door before he was stopped by the professor “Malfoy, a word.”
Albus and the girls tried to hide a smile as they mumbled “good luck” while exiting the class. Scorpius sighed and waited until the class was empty, he then went up to the front bench and sat down as the professor gestured.
“Yes Professor?” Scorpius asked. He hated being around the professor, he always felt this weird feeling in his blood. It felt thicker,a bit slimy and uncomfortable and he didn't know why he felt it. He didn’t feel unsafe or threatened but the feeling in his blood made him want to shiver.
“So I was grading your batch's homework, and I happened to notice something in yours.” Professor Ferox explained as he went behind the desk and looked through the stack of parchments, he took one and handed it to him, “Read that out for me will you?”
Scorpius started breathing a little deeper as he tried not to look nervous , he took it and read out the part that was underlined in red. “ A common or weak jinx can be counteracted with the equally common counter jinx, fregit percutiens. ”
“Good, do you see the issue here?”
“No, professor.” Scorpius said, he honestly didn't, he was right, why was this underlined?
“The counter jinx fregit percuitus is a jinx taught in the fifth year syllabus, and it's not mentioned in the third year book. Where did you learn it?” Professor Ferox asked, looking down at Scorpius.
“I- Uh my grandfather owned a few dueling spell books, I picked it up from there…” Scorpius explained softly.
“I see.” The professor nodded, “and would you happen to have the book with you by any chance?”
“No, professor.”
The professor looked at Scorpius up and down, as if trying to figure out something. “You-” he paused, he glanced at Scorpius’s messenger bag that was slung over his shoulder. “You’re dismissed.” .
Scorpius left the office, thoroughly confused at the interaction.
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1/10/2021
Dear father,
I miss you and I hope you are doing well in my absence, as I said, I’d write to you at the end of month to keep you updated. I’m doing well.
My first month was quite a different experience than I expected, I still haven’t fully adapted to being around so many people at all times, and it’s been quite a headache if I’m being honest. I’ve made quite a few friends, or at least I think it counts as friends. There’s only five Slytherins in our year, me included. I like to think we’re friends.
There's Albus, Cassandra, Daphne and Lyrin, there’s also a girl from Ravenclaw, Evelyn I’m rather friendly with as well. On another hand, my classes are going rather well, the professors have been rather accommodating and the lessons haven’t been anything too difficult. The castle is absolutely giant though , I haven't done much exploring but I suppose I have 5 years left for that.
I got invited to Professor Slughorn’s Slug Club though it wasn’t anything as extravagant as I expected, just a dinner in his oddly large office. The party itself was nothing extravagant although I did have to eat food in front of the other students, it wasn't a matter, I didn't get sick, as I've found out if I balance cooked foods with blood then I can go about with only a mild stomach ache, of course I avoid it unless necessary but I have been questioned on why I avoid mealtimes. I do miss eating regular meals though.
For the negatives , there isn't much to complain about except I suppose this one girl in my year but she's harmless, a bit of a nuisance at worst. ̶I̶ ̶s̶̶u̶̶p̶̶p̶̶o̶̶s̶̶e̶ ̶t̶̶h̶̶e̶̶r̶̶e̶'̶s̶
I miss you and home, and do tell Pipsy I miss her as well. I hope you are in good health and I hope to see you soon.
From,
S.A Malfoy.
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Scorpius was sitting in herbology class. The class was shared with hufflepuffs, Scorpius rather liked the hufflepuffs, they tended to be pretty nice, Albus was also sort of friends with one of the girls, Jaiden Axeman, a sturdy girl with pecan skin and dark brown braids who played as a beater for the hufflepuffs, with undoubtedly the coolest name he’s heard from anyone at Hogwarts yet, Scorpius had ditched the girls to sit with Jaiden and Albus because he just needed a break from Daphne and her utter and complete confidence of being targeted by professor Longbottom. He felt bad for Cassandra and Lyrin but not bad enough to join in their suffering.
Herbology isn’t exactly his favourite subject, he has no issue with the written material, he has no issues with the concepts nor the instructions, yet he couldn’t seem to do it right. His flower petals would wilt, his plant’s stems bent, the leaves would dull and he couldn’t figure out why, he’s never had this issue while handling ingredients for potions although he never needed to worry about keeping the ingredients alive for long.
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The class ended and Scorpius wanted to die from frustration, Albus tried to comfort him although that didn’t really work. The fact professor LOngbottom gave him a glance of pity everytime another plant died didn’t help either, he didn’t like being pitied. At least it was potions now, potions was a subject he didn’t hate. Scorpius had quickly found out that to get the best results , it’s better to just ignore the professor's Slughorn instructions and just focus on the book. He liked potions, he was talented in it and he liked learning potions, although he had learned most of the 3rd year syllabus years ago.
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“Mum! Dad!” Scorpius ran to the grand foyer of the Manor, holding a bottle of blue liquid.
“What’s the matter?” His father asked as he handed his coat to a house elf who poofed to return it to its place.
Scorpius was 8 and while his parents were at work, he successfully brewed a Cure for Boils(if we ignore the three failed attempts), he had seen a toad in the garden by the pond and mistaken it for a frog. He noticed the boils on his back, Scorpius was worried the poor creature was in pain and remembered his father showing him how to brew the potion a while ago and so attempted to brew it himself.
Of course the potion did nothing on the toad and Scorpius was worried that he had maken some mistake so when his parents retired he immediately ran to ask them what went wrong. His mother and father were both gushing at his adorable reason for wanting to make the potion and impressed he had successfully made the potion, even if it took 4 tries and now were playfully arguing to try and take credit for who Scorpius got his potions talent for.
“He clearly got it from me.” Scorpius’s mother said proudly with a faux smirk.
“Oh no it’s clearly my talent.” His father rebutted lightheartedly.
Scorpius liked that, he enjoyed seeing his parents tease each other, they both tried so hard to hide their genuine smiles. Potions was something both his parents were talented in and something they both took pride in, though there was little in his father’s life he wasn’t proud of.
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Scorpius had always taken pride in his potions talents, if for nothing more than his parents’ admiration and praise, he honestly found potions class rather relaxing,the potions were easy, at least to him, and he never exactly bothered to pay too much attention to the professor.
Next to him, Albus was suffering as he attempted to replicate the instructions from the book and panicking as he tried not to make the cauldron explode.
“And now once you finish stirring 15 times clockwise the colour should turn from a red to a light lavender.” professor Slughorn said as he floated around the class checking on students when he stopped by his and Albus’s table,where Scorpius was sitting with his finished cauldron and Albus was trying to see how to get the dark purple to red before he stirs, “Malfoy, good work, 10 points to slytherin, Potter” he looked at Albus’ potion, assessing it for a minute, “Add more snake scales.” he instructed, to which Albus did and the potion immediately lightened to a red.
Albus let out a sigh of relief as he began stirring. “You might want to pay better attention to the weight of your ingredients, Potter.” professor Slughorn advised with a small smile. He didn’t understand why students liked professor Ferox but didn’t like professor Slughorn, in his opinion professor Slughorn was much nicer although he might be biased since he wasn’t particularly fond of professor Ferox.
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It was just after lunch, Scorpius was waiting outside for Albus and the girls to come out. He watched as the hoard of Hogwarts students came out, the girls and Albus joined Scorpius as they made their way to the third floor of the eastern wing. The area was generally abandoned since it was hit with some stray spells during the Battle of Hogwarts and the Headmistress had chosen to keep it as is. From what Scorpius had read in Hogwarts: A History , the decision was made as a way to remind students not to repeat history. What it actually did was make the east wing of the castle a ghost town.
Scorpius and the rest of his year found a relatively undamaged room and took to using it as a practice room. The small group looked around to make sure they were alone and went into the room. Lyrin casted a quick silencing charm on the room while Daphne used a spell to line the remaining desk to the walls to clear out the room. Scorpius placed down his bag and took out the copy of the page of the weather charm, before they could do much else a voice caught them all off guard.
“What are you children doing here?” Called a harsh whispering voice from the wall.
The group turned to look at the voice, and Scorpius’s distaste for ghosts continued. It was the Grey Lady, the spirit of Ravenclaw house. She didn’t look mad, more curious if anything.
“Oh uh, we were going to practice some charms…” Daphne tried to explain.
“I see…. And why here?”
“Well we wouldn’t want to disturb anyone.” Lyrin said, her voice seemed softer than usual, maybe she was scared or maybe she was trying to appeal to the ghost of Ravenclaw.
The Grey Lady looked at the group of students. She then landed on Albus. “You’re the Potter in Slytherin aren’t you?” She asked, heer voice softening a bit.
“Uh yea, I am.” Albus nodded.
There was a thin cold tension in the air as The Grey Lady paused. “I see.” She looks at the rest of the group before leaving.
After a short pause, the tension seemed to dwindle. “Bloody hell, I almost pissed my pants.” Daphne said abruptly, causing Cassandra and Albus to burst out laughing while Lyrin covered her mouth and giggled. Scorpius himself let out a laugh at the suddenness.
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Scorpius had to sit through most of the practice, the girls and Albus didn’t mind him sitting it out since to them, he couldn’t perform difficult magic. Scorpius felt bad that he didn’t even try but he didn’t really want to embarrass himself. So he sat there and watched .
After around an hour they decided that it was enough and decided to return to their usual routine, the day passed and Scorpius and Albus went to their dorms to retire for the night.
“So, what did professor Ferox want to tell you?” Albus asked as he got into bed.
“Pardon?” Scorpius asked as he turned to Albus confused what he was referring to.
“A few days ago, Defense against the Dark Arts when professor Ferox called you to stay back? I forgot to ask you about it and you never told us.”
“Oh,” Scorpius realised what he was referring to, “It’s nothing, just wanted to ask me about why my assignment was too good.”
“Yea? That’s it?”
“Mhm.”
“He… didn’t make you uncomfortable or anything?”
Scorpius paused for a second. Should he tell Albus about the weird feeling in his blood? It’s not as if it make him uncomfortable, just a bit… well a different type of uncomfortable.
No. He couldn’t tell Albus, it would give away too much. So he took a sip from his “water” bottle and shook his head. “No, I was fine.” Scorpius’s eyes then landed on his bag, he got reminded of how professor Ferox had glanced.
“That doesn’t really build a lot of confidence, you know… If you want me to stay back with you next time you get called let me know okay?” Albus said softly.
“Thanks.” Scorpius smiled softly as he went to his bed and pulled off the duvet and brought it to Albus’ bed, “Do you mind moving?” Scorpius asked as he got in the bed.
Albus chuckled and nodded “Yea, course.”
“Goodnight Albus.”
“Goodnight, Scorp”