Summer Before Second Year
Albus finds the summer tiring. James can't seem to stop teasing him about his House, and even Lily makes it beyond clear that SHE won't end up there. Harry makes his usual half-hearted attempts to say positive things but Albus can see right through it all. He and Rose pretend to still be friends so the adults don't fuss but Albus is sick of her bossiness and her suspicion around Scorpius when she doesn't actually know him. He feels more invisible and more smothered by the minute.
The bright spot is when he can escape to his room, to the quiet, and write to Scorpius. He doodles things that happen in the family, or the things that Scorpius tells him, or just pours his feelings onto the page, and can hardly wait to hear back, even if it means hearing James' taunting "another letter from your boyfriend!"
It only takes a few days of the family owl being tied up with letters to Scorpius before Harry and Ginny decide it's time for a shopping trip to Diagon Alley with Eeylops Owl Emporium high on the agenda. It's time Albus has his own owl anyway; they'd got James one when he was twelve and writing to dozens of friends in the summer. Scorpius manages to convince his parents to take him - mentioning that Albus Potter's parents were doing something seems like a surefire way to get Draco to agree, he notes - and the boys spend a happy hour wandering among feathers and giant eyes. In the end, Scorpius selects a long-eared owl with big tufts that he doesn't say aloud remind him of Albus' hair first thing in the morning, and he names it Aero. Albus chooses a short-eared owl with big round eyes that he doesn't mention remind him of an overexcited Scorpius, and calls it Brian (the name he used to wish his parents had used instead of Albus).
----------
Scorpius is mostly happy, in spite of missing Albus. In an odd way, missing him is a pleasure since it means he HAS A FRIEND. Astoria has compiled a list of Muggle classic reading from who knows where and they are determined to read as much of it as they can over the summer. Albus decides he'll get the books and read along too, because Scorpius will just recount the plot to him anyway if he doesn't; Aunt Hermione is over the moon to help him obtain copies of Black Beauty and Hans Brinker and Little Women and Albus revels in being really seen for a week or two. They even have a spirited conversation one evening about whether or not Laurie loved Amy or just wanted to be a part of the March family, and Albus is shocked to hear his aunt's offhand comment that she'd wondered the same about Harry and Ginny at one point - it's the first time Albus can remember her saying anything remotely critical of his father and he feels the world expand with a little more space for him.
As the summer wears on, Scorpius' letters come irregularly and Albus realizes that when Scorpius' mother isn't doing well, the letters dry up. As Scorpius has said before, things seem to get worse and then get better again, and if late in the summer he mentions that his mother can scarcely ever make it into the garden, and that Draco is filling the orangery with flowers and butterflies and even hummingbirds all the way from America, he still seems to find only joy in their time together. He mentions that one sketch Albus made of a hummingbird coming to poke its long beak into his hair made her laugh so much she's put it in a little frame on the table where they sit and drink tea, to remember Scorpius while he's at school. (Albus had to look hummingbirds up in an old encyclopedia of Harry's and was quite proud of how it turned out.)
So the summer passes, and the date of the Hogwards Express draws near, and the boys prepare for their second year.