spoiler: the allied powers win

First five minutes of Princess and the Frog on Youtube!

2009-10-06T16:30:38Z

Oh my god, it's so fucking precious I can't stand it.

I love how John Goodman looks damn near just like John Goodman, and Charlotte's animation is so cute. I love when she swirls around in her dress and is clinging to her kitty.

Fuck yessssssss

childish @ 2009-08-26T11:40:00

2009-08-26T14:48:27Z

Okay, so I've abandoned you all for ontd_ai.

BUT IT'S NOT ALL TERRIBLE. Adam Lambert launched this fan challenge thing to donate to DonorsChoose, a website that allows you to give money to school projects across the US - it's been going great; we've completely over forty projects. Forty schools will now have supplies!

BUT there's this one we're all trying to help, but I don't know if we'll all make it by ourselves. A teacher is trying to find an entire music program through this website, that is to say - she's trying to buy tons of instruments and everything for kids in a high poverty area. She has no funds to do it other than this website.

She needs something like $14,000 before the end of this week, which is when the website expires her time.

We've already got over $7,000, but we need to double that before next Tuesday.

Please, guys? Help us out? I mean, they take Pay Pal, Amazon accounts, credit cards, whatever. The website is safe, the donations are tax deductible, and it's a really good cause. You can just donate $5 if that's all you have

The teacher is so eternally greatful, she keeps writing to thank everyone who is doing their best.

Your gift to our band will help students bring the music that is hidden inside of them out. This gift will give them something to focus on that does not revolve around a gang, or getting into some unknown trouble, or watching TV until all hours of the night. When budgets are failing everywhere, it is more important now than ever to make sure children have something to do that is extraordinary. This gift can give an entire family hope and something to look forward to. Your donation will start a child off in building skills that he or she can use to teach others: technical skills of a particular instrument, personal discipline, cooperation, and community contribution.

If you guys could give anything at all, it would be super.

http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=268976&challengeid=22856
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=268976&challengeid=22856
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=268976&challengeid=22856
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=268976&challengeid=22856
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=268976&challengeid=22856
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=268976&challengeid=22856

Thanks. :(

childish @ 2009-05-17T03:15:00

2009-05-17T06:17:02Z

I've a DreamWidth invite!
First person gets it, and thank you darling duckhippie for the invite!

I'm http://okayla.dreamwidth.org/

childish @ 2009-05-09T01:54:00

2009-05-09T04:56:14Z

Putin might be a crazy motherfucker, but come on - he's singing with school kids. That's adorable. I love a Russian accent.

I have to draw a little Russian girl with those crazy poofy things they always have in their kid hair. So cute!

princess and the frog stuff!

2009-05-05T14:30:43Z

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Princess-Frog-Jeff-Kurtti/dp/0811866351
Ahhhh I want to preorder it nowwwww

childish @ 2009-05-04T21:39:00

2009-05-05T00:39:24Z

Ugh I want a DreamWidth.

childish @ 2009-05-03T20:15:00

2009-05-03T23:17:14Z

Guys, the last EVER episode of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends just finished.

http://cmcc.deviantart.com/
Go thank the creator for his awesome awesome show!

childish @ 2009-05-01T00:10:00

2009-05-01T03:11:15Z

Swine-Flu-tan?

Man I'm ~~lame~~ super-awesome.

childish @ 2009-04-27T21:00:00

2009-04-28T00:13:26Z

1. Comment and I'll pick two of your LJ interests and draw you a picture, using Paint.
2. You have no say in what I draw you!
3. Put this in your journal. And the pic someone drew for you

by the amazing jiyu_chan :D It's Ivan eating bread~

QUICK WHILE I'M BORED.

childish @ 2009-04-27T13:19:00

2009-04-27T16:19:52Z

Things You Should Know about Swing Flu
From ontd_political - my number one source for news! And yes I know it's f/o' but you should really be joining ONTD P anyway.

idk how I'm gonna pay for SCAD, lame

best ads ever

2009-04-24T13:52:30Z

cubism

2009-04-23T13:56:38Z

My professor told me that my cubist piece reminds him of Jacuqes Villon.

...I can't decide if he was insulting me or not.
ThoughtS?

childish @ 2009-04-22T11:51:00

2009-04-22T14:52:07Z

Omg, guys, no more hamsters in the US. D:

Snakes and Ladders - Chapter Seven

2007-09-16T22:39:55Z

Title: Snakes and Ladders
Chapter: Seven - Girls and Boys
Rating: PG
Pairings: Future Scorpibus! Honk honk.
Summary: A new year brings new friends, and new future plans.

"So, how was it?"

After the disaster that were the Christmas holidays, Albus had been dreading going home for the summer. In fact, he'd moaned about it to just about everyone in the Slytherin dorms for weeks before he'd gone. Everyone had thought that it was simply that Albus lived in the most boring place in the world, but Scorpius knew the real reason for why Albus didn't want to go and what happened during that Christmas break.

"It was okay." Albus said truthfully - it had been.

Unlike Christmas break, the summer had been almost comfortable. Albus and his family had kept mostly to themselves, and whenever they had wanted to go visit Rose and her family - Albus had feigned illness to stay home. It'd been some of his best moments of the summer; curled up in the living room with ice water and reading one of his books. Still, no matter how 'okay' summer had gone - Albus was looking forward to being back in the dungeons.

"Of course, I had a great summer." Scorpius said, practically preening in his seat. He pushed a hand across the top of his head, forcing some blond curls to fall into his face. "Father and mother and I visited France."

"France?" Albus repeated, enviously. He'd never really wanted to go to France before, but it did sound like an awfully-interesting place to visit - it sounded 'right'. "My family would never go to France."

"Well you're pretty much the only one in your family with any taste, Al." Scorpius said carelessly, glancing out of the window and missing the rather offended look on his friend's face. After all, Albus did love his family very much. "Maybe you can go with us, though? I'll write to my father, if you want."

Although the topic Draco Malfoy hadn't come up again, Albus knew well-enough from the past reaction that his father wouldn't be excited about the prospect of Albus going on vacation with him. The idea, however, was tempting. A vivid picture of Scorpius's polite looking father pointing at something, Scorpius's skinny mother handing him some treat, and Scorpius grinning at him appeared in Albus's head.

Albus bit his lip at the thought, and glanced out the window: "Maybe."

"You'd be welcome, of course," Scorpius continued, playing with the buttons on his Hogwarts cloak and avoiding the other's eyes. "I've already told them all about you."

Albus hadn't really spoken to his mother and father about Scorpius. It wasn't that he didn't care about the other, but whenever his mother and father had asked - it seemed more like prying than actually caring. Albus, however, was curious to hear what the other had said about him. After his father explosion earlier in December, Albus had begun to wonder about what everyone was thinking about him. He'd always wanted to fit in, but now he was always worried that everyone was harboring a secret hatred for him.

"Oh..." Albus said thoughtfully, linking his hands together; "What's there to do in France, anyway?"

"Um, dunno, there's good food. Really cool things to buy - the French make the best figurines, even better than the Chinese." Scorpius said, looking wistful - he'd already pushed the wiggling figure into Albus's hand earlier. "Plus, you know, the girls there are..." He pinked some, and his voice seemed to twist awkardly; "Really quite nice."

The idea of buying new models was more than tempting - Albus had been impressed with the amount of detail on the one that Scorpius had shown him earlier. He didn't care much about the girls, but he was fast getting used to Scorpius's interest in them. Right before they had left for summer, Scorpius had begun pointing out girls as they walked through the hall and muttering little comments to Albus. Albus didn't really care - he just nodded and agreed all the same. It was the normal thing to do, he supposed. Albus knew he'd like girls in a bit, when he was older - like Scorpius.

Even though Albus had always known that Scorpius being a year older (this made him very mature and a great pick for a friend from the start)- it hadn't become obvious until they'd climbed on the train earlier that day. Over the summer, Scorpius had grown tall and thin - he'd even bragged (red in the cheeks a bit) about growing hair. It was all very impressive, and Albus felt young and shy next to his newly mature friend.

"Did you meet a girl there?" Albus asked, shyly - figuring this was the right thing to say after Scorpius's last comment.

"Yeah." Scorpius breathed, his rosy cheeks darkening further. "Her name is Adelaide. She's brilliant. She goes to Beauxbaton, you know, the French school."

"Ah...is she, er, fit?" Albus asked, feeling a bit awkward - he'd heard the upper forms say things like this, but it felt strange coming out of his mouth. Scorpius, however, didn't notice. He was still looking off with a dreamy expression on his face. Albus hesitated, and then added; "Adelaide, I mean."

"Yeah," Scorpius breathed, "She's really pretty. Her hair...she's got long brown hair, right? It's down her back, and..."

Albus leaned back in his seat, and glanced out of the window and off at the countryside rolling by - he almost wished that he was sitting with Rose. Of course, even listening to Scorpius's lengthy description of some girl was preferable to having to deal with Lenor threatening him for several hours on end.

If only for just by a little bit.

* * *

After a train ride detailing Adelaide's eyes and a carriage ride focusing specifically on her laugh, Albus just about dove for the empty seat in the Main Hall. It was to the left of an already seated figure so Scorpius couldn't sit near him - Scorpius looked a bit confused, but soon pulled a seat next to Zac instead.

"Hello Albus." A familiar breathy voice said, and Albus looked to see he'd sat down next to Alise. As usual, she looked ridiculously tidy - different, however, was the makeup she'd clearly acquired over summer break. There was something glittering green around her slanted eyes, "It's good to see you."

"'Lo, Alise." He said cheerfully, nodding - then hesitated, trying to figure out what next to say to her. He settled for the usual compliments, and pointed at her face; "I like your eye stuff. Slytherin pride and all."

"Ah, it's not really for Slytherin - it's mostly for looks." Alise said, laughing delicately; "But thank you."

"Welcome." Albus glanced over at Scorpius, who was clearly animatedly telling Zac exactly what he'd already gone over with Albus on the train. He looked over at the gently smiling Alise, and decided he rather liked her; "Um. How're you?"

"Nervous actually." Alise said, laughing while her green eyes flashed to the stage of the hall. It was empty save for the stool that would sit the Sorting Hat shortly. "My little sister is being sorted today - I'm so afraid she won't be in Slytherin. I don't know what I'll do if it happens, though - all Zabinis are in Slytherin. Even my Grandmum was one!"

Albus wondered briefly if James would have had a similiar conversation at the Gryffindor table last year about him. That, obviously, hadn't turned out well for him. Having a family history hadn't helped him, and he doubed that it would help Alise's younger sister much either. Putting that out of his mind, Albus forced on an understanding smile for Alise; "I'm sure she'll make it here, don't worry."

"Thanks." Alise made a sudden face, her pointed nose wiggling in a way reminiscant of some sort of animal. It made Albus laugh, because it was the first time he could remember seeing the girl make an actual expression. It was in a disappointed voice that she continued; "I've got to wait all the way until Z!"

"Yeah, but that's because Alise Aggawort doesn't have the same ring to it." Albus said with a shrug.

Alise laughed a great deal louder than Albus thought she should have. She beamed at Albus, revealing a set of excessively white teeth set off by her brown skin. The sound caused Albus to get a strange look from some of those sitting around near them, and Albus squirmed in his seat and avoided the glances - he hated being stared at.

"You're funny," Alise said to Albus, who frowned and glanced away. She nodded at him, raising her slender chin at the other; "I like you."

Albus was saved from a response to that when Professor Benian came out clutching the Sorting Hat to her skinny frame. Alise's head had snapped abruptly to the stage - her glittering eyes wide - and any response from Albus would have been lost. This was great, however, as Albus wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to say that. He'd ask Scorpius later, or something.

* * *

"Alise Zabini likes you."

Despite all the gushing over Adelaide earlier, Albus could hear the obvious envy and awe in Scorpius's voice. The other was staring at Albus slightly wide-eyed, and Albus felt almost regretful for telling the other about the conversation he'd had with Alise that night - the beginning conversation, and the one after her little sister had joined them at the table.

"Um. I don't think she like-likes me, I think she just likes me, you know?" Albus you muttered, blushing some; "We were just talking."

"Alise Zabini likes you. Alise Zabini, the best looking girl in Slytherin - heck, the whole year - maybe even all of Hogwarts likes you."

"She's not that good looking." Albus grumbled.

"Who isn't that good looking?" A voice suddenly piped up from behind them, and Albus turned to spot a beaming Alise heading his way. She was followed by what could have been a minature clone of her - minus the heavy eyeshadow and the other's hair was cut into a bob. "I hope you aren't talking about me or Blaise."

"Of course we wouldn't, Alise." Scorpius said, smiling warmly at Alise. Albus was envious of the other's ability to know exactly what to say, since all he could do was stare at Alise and pray she didn't hate him now. "You and your sister are both the best looking girls in the school."

Alise smiled, but Blaise scowled in return.

"You know Blaise, don't you?" Alise said, guesturing at the scowling girl - her arms were crossed across her chest, and she looked the photo opposite of her sister. "I mean, you've come over to our house before - I don't know if you guys met, though."

"Not that he would remember me." Blaise suddenly spat, her voice harsher and less giggly than her sister's; "Nobody remembers me."

"I remember you, Blaise." Scorpius said, although Albus could tell from a slightly narrow-eyed look that the other didn't. It was obvious that Blaise could tell as well, because she rolled her eyes and looked in the other direction; "How could I forget either of the Zabinis?"

"Not easily." Alise said, smiling in a way that made Albus slightly nervous.

* * *

As it turned out, forgetting about a Zabini was as difficult to do as it was to shake them.

Second year meant a lot of great things - like no longer being bossed about by upperforms, getting to use Greenhouse 2, and the excitement of anticipating Quidditch tryouts - but it also meant the end of things. Specifically, the end of the Scorpius-Albus duo and the beginning of the Scorpius-Albus-Alise-Blaise quartet.

It wasn't that Albus minded - Alise and Blaise were fun, especially for girls. Although Albus didn't care all that much for Alise - she was a bit clingy and strange - Blaise was good fun.

Albus wished more than once that the grinning girl with the skinned knees would replace her pretty prefect sister at his side in classes. Blaise infuriated most of the upper years - she was the only first year who turned up her nose and stormed away instead of taking order - but Albus adored her. She had a good sense of humour, and had a way of twisting her face and throwing her voice that made Albus laugh. Scorpius had already told him that it 'just wasn't on' to like a first year, but Albus didn't care. Blaise was just...fun. Nothing funny, he didn't like-like her, she was just nice to be around.

"Look at what Professor Longbottom gave my paper!" She was currently flushed an angry red, which showed even under her dusty skin. "He's got it out for me, I swear."

"You wrote about how Patchouli was an aphordisiac." Alise muttered, after snatching the parchment from her younger sister and glancing over it. "More than mildly inappropriate discussion choice for a first year. I think he rather expected you to speak about it's healing properties, or even it's use for relaxation."

"An...aphrodisiac?" Scorpius's face betrayed an unusual confusion, "What's that, anyway? Are those the potions that..."

"It means it's a sexual stimulant." Albus filled in absently, while digging through his satchel. When he glanced up, he realised they were all staring at him with rather mixed expressions and he rolled his eyes. "We had the same assignment last year - I looked it up when I was researching."

They all continued staring at him.

"I got a perfect score." Albus said defensively, turning pink under their glares. "You'd guys would know this stuff if you ever cracked a book."

"You should have been in Ravenclaw." Scorpius said, looking rather amused - he shook his head from side to side, and his blond hair caught the light. It was evening and the flickering candles made his hair glitter white, and Albus found himself looking a second longer than he meant to. Scorpius looked so... different since the summer holidays. He smiled, and Albus felt a strange twisting in his stomach; "They really need to resort you one of these days."

"Whether or not Albus should have been in Ravenclaw isn't the issue here," Alise said, clutching her school satchel to her side. "The point is that my younger sister needs to stop acting out. It's not flattering."

"I'm not acting out," Blaise growled, and pulled her paper out of Alise's outstretched hands. Slowly and deliberately, Blaise began to tear the parchment into miniscule little pieces - and fluttering them on the floor. She trodded on them slowly, and glared at the other; "Stop sounding like Mother."

"I only sound like Mother because Mother's right. " Alise raked a hand through her long black hir, and frowned down at her sister - who was letting the remains of her paper flutter into the air like confetti. "Am I supposed to believe that you actually care about some dumb herb? All you care about is freaking Professor Longbottom out. You did. Congratulations."

The gentle flush beneath Blaise's brown cheeks revealed the truth behind Alise's comment, although her expression didn't change in the slightest. "Shut the fuck up, Alise."

A nearby Ravenclaw first-year turned to give Blaise a surprised look at her crude speak, and Blaise's fingers came up immediately in a rude guesture in return. The other turned pink and looked away again immediately, and Alise's mouth turned into a thin line.

"Wonderful, Blaise." She said dryly; "I can see why you're so popular with your own year."

Albus had never seen anyone go redder than his cousin Rose, but Blaise was apparently giving the other quite a run for her money. With her lips thinned out, she looked rather similiar to Aunt Hermione or Cousin Rose when they were mad. It was, however, the way her bushy dark hair bobbed when she stormed off that definitely reminded him of Aunt Hermione - like at this moment.

"I'm sorry, guys." Alise said, looking back at Albus and Scorpius - who had hung back slightly. Fights between the sisters weren't all too uncommon, and neither of the boys liked to intervene during them. "She's been so awful lately, and I don't know what we're going to do with her."

"She's not awful." Albus muttered, looking away; "Blaise is just a little crude."

"I'm amazed she made it into Slytherin - the girl lacks all form of tact, honestly." Alise grumbled, ignoring Albus's comment completely. She readjusted the green bow on her head, and picked up her pace; "She's never going to get married at this rate."

"Married!?!" If Albus had been drinking something, he would have choked at the moment - he still sputtered for a moment, however. "She's even younger than we are!"

Scorpius glanced over at Alise and shrugged his shoulders at the other in response to Albus's expression. Alise herself looked mildly surprised at Albus's reaction, but completely unconcerned with her last statement. Speaking directly to Alise, Scorpius said; "Al's not pure, remember?"

"Ah, yeah, that's right." Alise said, rubbing her chin slightly. "I forget."

Al turned red - Alise coming into the picture had brought in new issues of blood and such. When it had just been him and Scorpius, it had never been mentioned. With Alise, however, it seemed to come up on a near daily basis. "I don't see what that has to do with anything," He muttered, "We're still too young to think about marriage."

"It's different when you're pure, Al." Scorpius said, patting Albus on the shoulder in a way he hated; "We have to think about these things - you're never too young, Father says."

Albus didn't even like girls yet, and seeing Scorpius and Alise talk so confidently about it was completely unnerving. Scorpius was a year older than he was, but Alise wasn't, and Blaise was even younger. It was almost shyly that he muttered "S'weird, that's all."

"Whatever," Alise said, waving her hand dismissively; "The point is, Blaise isn't doing what she's s'posed to."

"She'll come around," Scorpius said in a confident voice, rubbing at his shoulder. "Probably just going through a phase."

Albus sighed - all this talk of phases and marriage gave him a headache - he hated when the two of them got like this. He had a good feeling that most of it was just talking big, but the fact that they even pretended this game made Albus feel small and childish. "I'm going to go get started on my Charms essay," He grumbled, looking bored; "Anyone want to join?"

As he expected, neither Alise nor Scorpius looked concerned over the essay - in fact, they were both involved in a deep discussion over Blaise.

"Figures." Albus growled, readjusting his school bag, "I'm off."

* * *

Quite some time later, Albus had made his way back to the Slytherin common room - his journey had been long, mostly because he'd been clutching almost half a dozen textbooks to his chest. It was with a thud that he let them drop near his usual place by the fire, and settled down to sit cross-legged on the floor to study.

"It's Potter!" A voice crowed behind him, and Albus turned over his shoulder to see Thaddeus smiling at him from one of the chairs. His arm was wrapped around Margarette Parkinson, who was wearing her usual scowl; "Potter, where's your girlfriends?"

"I don't know where Blaise and Alise are," Albus said simply, used to Thaddeus's teasing by now. He turned back to his book, and began to read it; "And they're not my girlfriends."

"Who, the Zabinis?" Margarette asked, frowning some; "Isn't Potter half-blood, or something? I thought the Zabinis only liked pure boys..."

"Potter's different, though." Thaddeus said, nodding at Albus; "He's got his Dad's reputation and money, and he's a smart one. Even Zabini girls make exceptions sometimes."
Albus forced the appropriate smile at this, even though he hated when Thaddeus spoke about him like that. The older form was nice for the most part, but he seemed to enjoy pressing Albus's buttons when his friends were around. He knew that Albus hated being an exception to rules or special, but seemed to delight in pointing it out constantly to all his friends. Albus ducked his head, and made a non-committal noise in response.

"Oh, don't be modest." Thaddeus waved his hand at Albus, and turned over in the direction of Margarette once more. "Straight checks for that boy, and straight Galleons for the pocket."

Albus turned red in response to this, and clutched his book towards his chest. He made a point of standing up and walking to one of the outskirts - near the seated first years - and opening up his books in the corner there. He could hear the older forms laughing at him, but he ignored the giggles and began to conectrate on jotting down notes for his homework.

The book was poorly written, and it took Albus a great deal of notes and rereads before he'd finally made some headway in his assignment. By the time he closed the book, the common room was nearly deserted save for some random older forms bent low over text books.

Albus got to his feet, and rubbed gingerly at a kink that had developed over the time he was slumped over. He was bleary eyed and feeling miserable, which was his usual sign that he really ought to be heading to bed soon - a moment later, he was heading towards the second year common room and covering a yawn with one hand.

The way to the Slytherin boys dorms began with a long winding cooridor, and was lit by flickering candles. It had struck him as a little bit creepy when he'd first gotten there, but now he found it oddly comforting - it was like a journey, and arriving at the elegant dorm rooms was the reward.

Albus let his hands drift across the cobblestones absently, and whistled to himself. The whistle was caught short when suddenly he collided into someone in the darkness - and doubled over in surprise.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" Albus rushed, pulling out his wand to light the way - bumping into older forms was not that unusual in the Slytherin halls. Usually they just lowered there wand and went the other way, but it could go sour if it was the wrong Slytherin. "Let me just- Blaise?"

Holding a hand to her forehead was none other than Blaise. Her robes looked slightly undone, and even in the light of Lumos - Albus could see she was still flushed with her earlier anger.

"Al!" She said, sounding remarkably like her sister; "I've been looking for you. They said you were out."

"Hey, Blaise." Al said, frowning some in her direction - it was unusual to see the lower form girls in the boy's dorm paths. Albus had run into some of the older girls, who brushed right past him - but to see Blaise was about as unusual as seeing Rose here. "What did you want?"

"I need, um," She streaked a hand through her hair, fluffing it so it was a dark halo around her hair. She was lit from behind and looked amused. "Your help."

"I was going to bed, Blaise. Can it wait?'

"No, um, not really." Blaise muttered, scratching at her arm absently. "It's like, um, I need help. S'important."

"Eh, fine - let's go." Albus reached back to rub at the back of his neck, eying Blaise suspiciously. She was practically bouncing on the spot, and kept stroking at her hair and fluffing it. "Where did you want to?"

Blaise's hand had already gripped tightly on it - it was sweaty - and started pulling Albus in some direction. A moment later, she had pulled him out of the cooridor and into the Slytherin common room. A few more people had cleared out in the short time Albus had been away, but Blaise still pulled him into the corner to speak.

In the lighting, Albus could see she was even redder than he originally noticed. He frowned, "What's up?"

"Um, Albus, you were there earlier - right?" Blaise asked, "Yeah, you were - you were..um...good...at...um Herbology and everything?"

"What? I was there earlier, Blaise." Albus said, and scratched his arm absently; "I wasn't agreeing with them or anything, y'know. I think that they're a bit rubbish when it comes to stuff like th-"

"-Don't care, Al. It's just, um, I wanted to prove to Ally that - y'know - I was doing it more than just to shock." Blaise had gone even redder; "So I made it."

Abus blinked, not quite understanding what she'd said; "Come again, Blaise?"

"The potion I talked about in my essay." She raked a hand through her head again, looking uncomfortable and displeased. "That thing. I made it. And then I drank it."

"You what!?" Albus felt like his eyes were going to bug out of his head behind their frames, because the idea of Blaise creating a potion like that was mind-boggling. He'd glanced over the instructions when he'd done the research the previous year, and although it was a quick spell - it was a difficult one: calling for extremely precise measurements and procedures. "Blaise, are you mad? I can't even make that potion!"

"Um, I think I've done it wrong. It was s'posed to go away after the first hour, but, um, I still feel odd."

"Of course you can do! That potions so difficult to make," Albus said, taking a step back to glance at her with a fairly worried expression. He couldnt' see if anything was wrong with her besides the flushing cheeks. "Are you alright? We need to get you to a professor, c'mon we can -"

"No." Blaise said sternly, looking more like herself in a quick second. "Al, look, I've got the book here. You're really clever. Maybe...you can find the antidote?"

"What, Blaise, me? I can't...I can't do something like that!" Albus said, blanching some at the very idea. He knew Blaise and the others thought that he was incredibly brilliant, and usually the was content to let the others think that - but he was bright for a second year, not a blooming genius. "You need to speak to a professor or something, look, we can go to Professor -"

"Al, please!" Blaise clasped her hands in front of her in a pleading guesture, and gave Albus a desperate look; "You *can* do it, you're a fucking genius! I just, please, Al?"

Perhaps being the son of Harry Potter, Albus was predisposed to helping people - but there was something about the desperate expression on her face and the tone of her voice that made Albus want to help her. He sighed long and hard, before holding out his hands for the book in question.

"Right then," He muttered, "I'll help."

* * *

Surpisingly enough, Albus found that making up a Potion was surprisingly enjoyable.

Looking over the recipe that Blaise had used and trying to find an antidote - it was like solving a riddle. One had to know something about different potions, and trying to think around it and in terms of opposites was difficult.

It had become so late that the Slytherin common room was empty even of the older forms. Albus wasn't positive that he was in the right state of mine to be experimenting with Potions like this, since he felt like he should have gone to bed several hours ago. Albus was going to be miserable in class tomorrow - but right now? Now, it was brilliant.

He felt a thrill as he let the chopped up bits of patcholi drifted into the potion, and the whole thing turned a cheerful shade of pink - just as expected. He dipped a finger in it (crude, but at this point he didn't care) and felt that it was ice cold. A direct opposite to the steaming that the original recipe called for.

"I think it's done." Albus said cautiously, holding up the beaker and letting the liquid slosh in place. Blaise looked up from her position on the ground, her expression was hopeful and Albus let a nervous smile grace his face; "No promises, though."

Blaise dragged herself to a sitting position, and held out her hand for the beaker. "Got to be better than feeling like I'm going to chuck."

Albus passed her the beaker delicately, and a moment later she had it pressed to her lips. They shared a nervous look, before she gave a helpless shrug and tipped the entire beaker backwards. Her expression dissolved from the terrified look into a wide-eyed pleased one, and she started to drink it furiously quick. A moment later, the beaker lowered empty.

"Fuck, Al, that actually tasted great." Blaise said, licking at the sides before handing the beaker back to Albus's outstretched hands. "You could market it as a drink, or somethin'."

Frankly Albus could have cared less whether or not it was tasty, and was more concerned with effects of it. Blaise clearly wasn't having any immediate bad reactions to it, but she was still looking flushed. Albus frowned over at her, letting the back of his hand rest against her cheek - still warm. "Bollocks, didn't work."

Blaise frowned, biting her lip; "No, no, I think it did." She pushed his handaway gently, and forced her frown into a smile. "I don't feel like hurling any longer."

"But you're all re-"

" - It's okay, Al, thanks." The smile Blaise gave him was warm and not her usual one, and reminded Albus more of the smiles her sister usually gave. He had the weird feeling that he was supposed to be doing something, so he offered a smile back; "Thank you so much."

"No problem." Albus muttered, shifting uncomfortably. "It's 'mazing what Potions can do, innit?"

"Y-yeah." Blaise said, her smile wavering slightly before widening once more. She looked down at the book they'd been using earlier, and tapped at it slightly - flipping through some of the pages. "This book is brilliant, though - I got it from the Restricted Section. I obviously can't make heads or tails of it, but you might be able to."

Albus glanced down at the textbook, and stopped her hand turning the pages - there had been an image in vivid colour that caught his eye. He opened the book, and smoothed the pages down flat. "What's this?" He said slowly, readjusting his glasses to understand the illustration of a man crushing a pair of thick-rimmed spectacles under foot. "This...this potion, what does it mean?"

Blaise glanced away from his face, and to the book laying on the floor. She brushed back a few of her errant curls, and flicked through the pages; "Repairing...the..." Blaise muttered, her finger moving across the page; "Oh, I've heard of this potion - it fixes eyesight."

"I didn't know there was a potion for that." Albus said, suddenly interested and dragging the book closer to himself. "Why doesn't anyone use it?"

"There's pretty much a potion for everything, Al." Blaise said, but frowned at the recipe for the potion. She dragged her finger down the list, mouthing the steps and the ingredients; "I knew it was dangerous, but Merlin, Al - I've never seen a list like this."

"But...but it's possible?" Albus said, his finger drifting down the page - it was a difficult potion, no doubt, but if it could work...

"Al, we're wizards - just about anything is possible."

* * *

"It's called 'Ophthalmos Reconcilio'."

Albus said, picking up the pace with which he had been walking. It was one of the rare moments he'd had alone with Scorpius since the quarter had begun - but he was used to the walking pace of the two girls.

"Yeah, I've heard of it." Scorpius muttered distractedly, and pushed his long hair out of his eyes and behind one of his ears. The look he gave Albus was distinctly a worried one; "I've also heard how dangerous it is. Have you?"

"Of course I've heard," Albus said, feeling his stomach turn at the very idea. He'd been researching the potion extensively since he found out about it, and had discovered all the variety of ways in which it could go wrong. His voice drifted off some as he continued; "If we do it wrong...I could..."

"Go blind." Scorpius filled in, and turned to face Albus again. "Isn't it easier to just wear the bloody glasses, Al?"

Albus bit his lip, and grabbed at his glasses - he pulled them off absently, and glanced down at them. He'd recently gotten new ones after James had accidentally broke them during a tussle during the summer - they were thin and with silver frames. His father had always been careful to let him pick whichever model he'd wanted, but, still...

He looked over at Scorpius, but without his glasses - the other was just a hazy blur. Albus slipped them over his nose, and shrugged; "It's kinda difficult to explain."

"Try me, Al." Scorpius said, stopping suddenly in his journey. He grabbed at Albus's hand, and pulled him away from the main walking area and off the side. It took a moment for Albus's arm to stop tingling, and by that time, Scorpius's head had ducked low - he spoke gently to the other; "I think I know you well enough to know that you've got good reasons for this, yes?"

Albus swallowed, and looked the other way; "Don't worry about it, Scor."

"Albus, I'm not helping you without good bloody reason." Scorpius said, leaning in close to Al; "So give me one."

"I can't even fly, Scorpius." Albus blurted out suddenly, his cheeks turning an angry red underneath his scattered dots of freckles. Before Scorpius could cut in, Albus continued in a quiet, slow, almost angry, voice. "My grandfather was Quidditch captain, my father got special permission to fly first year, and my Mum flew for the Harpies...and I can barely stay on a broom for five minutes."

"Al, the potion isn't going to help th-"

"I bloody well know it isn't going to help that, Scorpius, it's just -" Albus flinched, and when he continued - his voice was almost indistinguishable, "If there's one of the many things wrong with me that I even have chance of fixing...I'm gonna try it."

There was a silence, and Albus could feel Scorpius's gaze burning at the back of his neck. He refused to meet the gaze, and instead stared intently at the stained glass window in front of him - it depicted a wizard with a long fuzzy red beard involved in a fight against some sort of bird.

"Okay." Scorpius's voice cut in suddenly, "I'll help you, Albus."

"Thanks mate." Albus muttered quietly, still staring out of the window; "I owe you one."

"No, Albus," Scorpius said, taking off from where they were huddled in the corner. He pulled at Albus's hand, dragging the other effectively out of the corner where the two had been standing; "You don't owe me anything."

Snakes and Ladders - Chapter Six

2007-08-15T00:44:15Z

Title: Snakes and Ladders
Chapter: Six - Bookworms
Rating: PG
Pairings: Future Scorpibus! Honk honk.
Summary: Albus goes home for the holidays, but alls not just Christmas and fun.

"For Merlin's sake, Albus, we're not going to see each other for a month and you're still buried in one of your books!"

Getruda the Gargantous's leering face disappeared as the book was yanked from Albus's hands. He blinked several times behind thin spectacles and tried to figure out what had happened. The rest of the compartment laughed at his bewildered expression. Zac was kneeled in front of him with the other's book in hand, giggling the hardest.

Albus scowled at the other, and snatched the heavy book back. "You made me lose my page!" He muttered grouchily, although he made no attempt to search for it again. "And it's not like it's end of year, it's only Christmas break."

"Oh, has it only been that long?" A breathy voice said from near the window, and all heads snapped to a slender figure. Alise Zabini didn't speak much, but when she did - everyone had a habit of paying attention. "I feel like I've known you all forever."

In truth, Albus felt exactly the same way - he could barely remember a time without Jov, Micah, Zac, or Scorpius. He was about to mention it and chime along when he realised the compartment had gone dead quiet. Albus looked, only to notice that all the other boys were staring at Alise with rather odd expressions on their faces. She must have said something odd that he didn't catch, and so he tried to mimic their perplexed expressions.

"Well, we've already known each other for years - haven't we Alise?" That was Scorpius, who appeared to be rosier in the cheeks than normal. The cut he had gotten from Morgana had now nearly faded away, but in moments like these it stood out a shiny white. "Being our fathers and all?"

"Oh yes." Alise said, smiling fondly at Scorpius who beamed back.

Albus frowned, feeling a little bit left out - he kew Scorpius's father and his knew one another, but they'd never hung out before school. He exhaled slowly, and frowned; "Well. I mean. My father doesn't know yours that well, but like, I still like you all."

Scorpius didn't seem to catch Albus's comment, and instead smiled daftly in the direction of Alise.

The frown on Albus's face only deepene, and felt somewhat jealous. If Rose were in the compartment, they'd be able to show them all about having a longstanding relationship. As it was, she wasn't there - or rather, Albus wasn't with her. He'd headed over to her compartment initally, but when he ducked his head in the first thing he saw was the sandy hair of Lenor. That'd been all it took for him to walk out and sit with the other Slytherin first years instead.

Him in the compartment made it crowded, but it was cozy - altough it meant some of them were forced to curl up on the floor. Albus relinquished his seat temporarily to grab at a bag of Bertie Bott's that had been kicked away from arm's grasp, but as soon as his feet hit the floor - a snickering Zac had taken his seat.

And So Albus was forced to tuck himself up uncomfortably on the floor, his elbows nearly touching his chin. This position made him more than grateful when the Hogwarts Express came to it's destination. It meant the end of a leg cramp.

By the time Albus had unfurled himself off of the floor, the compartment had already half emptied.

Now only some of the girls remained - plucking up what remained of the other's messes. Aside from them, Scorpius stood over the other with a rather expectent expression and offered a hand. A moment later, Albus used it to pull himself to his feet.

"Ah, thanks then." Albus said, flinching a little as his legs ached in protest. He looked up at Scorpius nervously, not knowing how he was supposed to react - he'd never really had a friend he would have to leave before. There was nothing Albus hated more than not knowing what the proper thing to do was, and so he tried what seemed the safest response; "Um...have a good hol?"

"You too." Scorpius said cheerfully, pulling at the zip of some of the luggage he brought. He looked back at Albus with the same expectant expression, and rolled his eyes when he realised Albus was glancing blankly at him. "You better owl me something before Christmas, Albus."

With those words, he was pulling open the luggage to reveal a package wrapped in lavish dark green paper and silver bows - a present. Albus realised with sinking stomach that it was an early Christmas gift that Scorpius was giving him, and Albus really had planned on giving him one but he'd always thought people shipped it closer to Christmas and now Scorpius thought he was hopeless and that he didn't like him. "I'm sorry," Albus said, looking remarkably pink; "I...I was going to send you something closer to, honest!"

"Uh-huh." Scorpius said, looking as if he didn't believe a word of it; "Make sure to send it to Serpentvine Court."

"I was planning on it." Albus muttered guiltily, pretty sure he'd gone nearly as red as his mother's hair. He looked down at the package in his hands rather than looking at his friend, and he found the shimmering package rather tempting - and began to pull the bow. Almost instantly, his hand was slapped away by Scorpius; "Oi! It's mine, isn't it?"

"Does it even remotely look like Christmas outside?" Scorpius snapped, and Albus bit the comment back that it did rather look like Christmas from beyond the snowy windows of the train. However, he had the feeling that if he did say it - he was going to end up with a broken nose, so he kept mum,. "Unless you want to be missing a face for a while, I'd suggest you leave it be until then!"

Albus made a face at the other, before remembering the situation and feeling both guilty and shy at the same time. It was the first gift he'd gotten that he hadn't expected, and he smiled nervously in response; "Well, thanks then."

"Uh-huh." Scorpius said, waving his hand dismissively as Albus gingerly rested the package in his own satchel. "It's nothing, Father picked it up for me."

Feeling rather warm and like Christmas, Albus nodded in response to this - he knew this was the closest Scorpius would ever come to a 'You're Welcome'. There was something about Slytherins and modesty that Albus didn't quite grasp yet, mostly because he rarely saw it in use. Still, he felt warm and was grinning from ear-to-ear when the two of them slipped off the train.

They'd been dallying, and as a result - the platform was not nearly as crowded as it normally was. It took nothing short of a second before Albus spotted the usual familiar figures in the crowd - his family was large, bustling. Even his grandparents had come to welcome Rose and him back, and the effect was nearly overwhelming. Everyone was laughing and yelling and Albus turned slightly pink when he realised how much they all seemed to demand everyone's attention. Fearing that one of the upper forms was around and that'd there be hell to pay later, he turned a rosy red and made a face.

"Have a fun holiday." Scorpius said with what Albus knew was a smirk, before he pushed off to walk over to a much more subdued and smaller family.

Unashamed, Albus turned to stare a bit at the family that his friend had walked into - Scorpius's father was a serious looking man with long blond hair, but he didn't look particularly evil. This man that wrapped Scorpius up into a hug couldn't be the dark wizard that everyone gossiped about.

"SNAKEBITE."

Albus flinched instinctively, before glowering over in the direction of where he knew the voice had come from. Sure enough, James had his hands cupped over his mouth and was grinning in the aftermath of his grins. To make matters worse, Albus's family were all smiling up at him with amused expressions.

He sincerely hoped that neither Scorpius nor his father was watching as he walked slowly over to his family, feeling embarassed and shy all of a sudden. It had just dawned on him that this was the first time most of them had seen him since he'd been to Hogwarts. Even now, he could feel their eyes flickering to the green and silver tie knotted at his throat. Nervously, Albus reached up and tried to hide it under the act of rearranging it. All to soon, he was standing in front of his grandmother; "Um. I'm sorry I'm late. I'm - "

His response was cut off as he was shoved rather bodily into a warm soft chest, which Albus instantly recognised as that of his Grandmum. Sure enough, he was being pulled back a moment later to stare into rather watery eyes; "I remember when your father first came home. My word, Albus, you look just like him! I'm..."

Her excitement seemed to break some sort of tension that was in the air, and all of a sudden, hands were in Albus's hair and wet kisses were being applied to both of his cheeks.

Before he knew what had happened, he was being led to the car and his father had his hand resting comfortingly on his shoulders. His tie had been pulled off and hung loosely around his neck, and he was chewing absently on a left over popcorn-flavoured Bertie's Bott from the train ride.

Rose and James were full of stories that he couldn't relate to; full of names he didn't recognise and landmarks he'd never heard of. It didn't help matters that all the adults kept grinning madly and nodding at the names, and throwing in comments that Albus couldn't understand. It was like being a Gryffindor was some sort of private joke, and Albus was the only one excluded from it. So he just sat there eating candy and wondering if Scorpius was having a better time of it than he was.

* * *

Life in the Slytherin common room had made Albus forget how loud the real world could be - and being at home was a harsh return to reality.

There was the clanging of pots and pans to his left as his Grandmother and Mother began their usual holiday cooking routine, and Hugo and Lily simultaneously began their usual annoying sing-a-long to the music blasting from there. Even that would have been bearable, however, if the living room was at least a bit quieter it was. But even the pots and pans paled in comparison to the loud giggling of Rose and Victoire to his left, and the game of Exploding Snap that was coming to an abrupt end to his right.

He snapped his book closed with a thud, and worked on uncurling himself from the arm of the sofa that had been his spot for the past few days. It had been a nice place too, until all the family had come over yesterday. It made his father happy to have the house full and loud like this - Albus knew that his father didn't have a family in his childhood - but it made him feel overcrowded and stifled.

It was odd, feeling out of place in his own home.

"Hey, Al," James was standing in front of Albus with singed eyebrows and a goofy grin on his face; "Want to play next round?"

Since annoyance was still bubbling in Albus's stomach, it was more out of spite that he said 'no' rather than actually not wanting to play. It didn't have much effect on James, however, since he just shrugged and turned back to shuffling out the cards again.

Feeling slighted once more, Albus tucked his book under his arm and began the journey back up the stairs and towards his bedroom. He'd hardly gotten more than a few steps in before he walked smack into a broad chest, and Albus doubled back to rub at a newly sore nose. When he glanced up, he saw his father looking down at him - somewhat apologetic, but mostly looking kind of amused. Albus's clumsiness had always been a bit of family joke. Albus had never found it amusing, and of course now was no exception. He brushed past his father and Uncle to quickly slip up the stairs and into his room.

As soon as the door closed with a thud behind him, Albus felt signifigantly better. The Silencing Charm that his father had placed on the door when he got home wasn't perfect, but it did do a good job of muffling out most of the noise from outside. Albus pulled his book onto his lap, but had barely turned the first page before the silence was interrupted by a short knock on the door.

"Al, are you feeling alright?" His father's face must be pressed very near to the door to cut through the Charm like that, either that or he'd disabled it; "May I come in?"

Albus reached for his wand to open the door, but dropped it when he remembered he wasn't allowed to use magic while he was at home. Hogwarts had gotten him into the habit, and it made being at home a chore somehow. "Yeah."

The door swung open with the obnoxious ease of magic that Albus was not allowed, and the dark head of his father popped in through the door. He could see his father's eyes rove around the room from behind their glasses - obviously taking in the dusty gaps on the walls where Gryffindor banners used to be. Albus had taken them all down when he'd gotten home, after being unpleasantly surprised when he first stepped into his room. Although he'd made a mental note to pick up some things when he was back at school, for the moment the walls stood there blank and unhappy.

His father, of course, saw this; but to Albus's relief, he didn't mention it. "Seems like this is the first time I've gotten a second alone with you," He muttered, looking over Albus's face in a searching way; "You're...doing okay?"

"Yeah." Albus said, suddenly being interested in a scab on his ankle. Like Harry, he'd only just realised how long it had been since e saw his father proper - and even though his Dad had said everything was alright and he didn't mind he was in Slytherin and all that, it was another thing entirely when they were face to face. "I'm okay."

"I'm proud of you, you know?" Harry said, almost too gently for Albus to bear. "You'll be the first Slytherin we've had in the family in ages! It's exciting."

Exciting. Exciting when said like that was almost as bad as interesting, and a pat on a head. Albus's eyes flittered down to the pages in front of him, which were on the slow verge of starting to blur and swim in front of him. He'd been doing a good job of putting it all out of his mind, but having his father there and trying to make him feel better - only made him feel worse. He could only manage a vague; "Uh-huh."

"No, it is! Albus...it's...look, I almost got put in Slytherin myself. You know that."

"...almost doesn't count." Was all Albus could manage softly, and he pulled the scab off his ankle completely - exposing a large circle of pink not-quite healed skin.

"Don't do that." His father said, although Albus didn't know whether he was talking about scraping his ankle or about the other contradicting him. The answer seemed to come however, when Harry pulled the other's hand away from his ankle and pressed it to his lap. "This doesn't have to be a bad thing, Albus. You can make i-"

"-You know Scorpius's father, don't you?" Albus cut in, trying desperately to change the subject. There was only so much ground they could cover over the whole 'Slytherin versus Gryffindor thing', and little of it could be covered without Albus tearing up. "My friend, Scorpius?"

His father's expresion was more than telling that he didn't want the other topic to drop so easily, but his face changed at the mention of 'Malfoy'. It gained a queer look that Albus hadn't seen often, and his father's gaze shifted to the window before looking back at the other's face. "Yeah...Draco...I know him."

"Is he nice?" Albus pressed, looking intently at his father's face for a change in expression.

"He's alright." His father's face was easier to read than his own - it shifted, danced, and was utterly revealing. Right now, it was revealing that Scorpius's Dad was not alright.

"Why don't you like him?"

"I didn't say I didn't like him." His father was quick to counter, and Albus saw him reach up to rub the back of his neck slowly. When he raised his head again, his expression was brighter and he reached for the book in Albus's lap; "Are you sure you're not in Ravenclaw? You're always reading."

"That's what Scorpius says." Albus sighed, pulling the book back into his lap. "But you don't have to be in Ravenclaw to like reading, right?"

"Have you met your Aunt Hermione lately?" His father laughed, relinquishing the book to tossle Albus's dark locks. He smiled, and shook his head; "There's nothing wrong with reading. It's just...are you okay? You're awful quiet these days."

Abus shrugged, not knowing how to respond to that - he supposed he did seem awful quiet, but that was only because he wasn't used to speaking often. It was a habit he'd been getting back slowly after that long period of sulking, but he still preferred sitting back and observing. It was safer. "I'm okay, Dad, really."

* * *

"I wish I got sorted into Slytherin," James snapped, looking mournfully over the pile of gifts sitting in front of Albus. "I'd probably get more things, then."

As it was, Albus had the sneaking suspicion that his father had told everyone to be extra nice to Albus this Christmas - because the gifts he'd gotten outnumbered the amount he'd gotten before. There was a sweater from Grandmother in lush green with a big silver 'A' on the front of it, a red and yellow banner from Uncle Ron (which got eyerolls from Aunt Hermione when Albus opened), 'Hogwarts: A History' from Aunt Hermione, a huge bag of tricks from Uncle George, a planner from Uncle Percy, and already a stack of unopened things.

He supposed he should feel guilty or angry at being looking at like this, but it was hard to hide his pleased smirk as he pulled a sparkling package from Uncle Bill and Aunt Fleur into his lap.

"You wish you got sorted into Slytherin anyway." Albus said, tugging the golden ribbon loose to reveal a glossy box. Tearing the paper off revealed that he'd been given a new set of Potion gloves; nice ones. It was with a superior smile he turned to James; "You're just jealous."

"Yeah, right. Snakebite." James muttered, and nodded at the package that Albus had been reaching for. "That's from me."

Although he hadn't been wary before, now Albus was definitely looking at it with concern. He began to unwrap nervously, but his concerns turned out to be for nought - the package didn't blow up in his face after opening it, and instead, it fell open to reveal a glossy book. Albus stared in wonder at the cover of 'Snakes and Sorcerors - Slytherin throughout the Ages'. He reached out to touch it and sent a confused expression from James, who'd gone a bit pink and wouldn't meet his eyes.

"Um, thanks." Albus muttered, not sure how he was supposed to react to this uncharacteristic kindness from his brother.

Even as Albus continued to open his remaining gifts - including a 'BROOMSTICK' brand broomstick from his Mum and Dad - his mind remained set on the green book and it's shimmering silver letters. So when everyone had shifted into the kitchen for cider (or Firewhiskey in the adult's case), Albus stayed behind to begin to paw through the book.

It was a lovely book, as far as books go - a pleasing weight in the hand, with a glimmering cover that one had to peer close at to realise it consisted of intertwined snakes. The inside was just as impressive, and it featured huge colourful illustrations that winked and moved - and pages of pages of elegant text. A quick breeze through of the stiff pages revealed that it didn't just go into short descriptions of people, but even featured spells and the history of the house itself. In short, it was the perfect book for Albus, and he felt warm and funny realising that James had bought it for him.

"She's just like her mother!" A voice suddenly cut into Albus's happy delirium, and he looked up to see his Uncle Ron clutching a mug and frowning down at him. Ron's hand reached up to scratch at his red hair, and he shook his head; "Corrupting you already."

Albus looked up from the picture of Salazaar to frown over in Ron's direction; "How do you mean?"

"Rose." Ron said, nodding over in the direction of Albus's book; "Can't believe she pulled you down already."

Not liking the idea of simply being apparently a puppet of Rose's, Albus's initial frown only deepend. Almost as if sensing the brewing tension, all of a sudden Aunt Hermione was standing by Ron's side and smiling fondly down at Albus. Albus knew his aunt well enough to know that she would be pleased enough at anyone's passion for reading that rivaled her's - she'd already pulled Albus aside several times just to tell him so - and so he turned rosier under her gaze.

"Leave him alone, Ron." She scolded, " There's nothing wrong with reading."

"It's reading against his will, though! Probably forcing him to under the penalty of dirty looks, Merlin, She's turning into a little you."

"Who is?" Sure enough Rose came poking her head through the gap in her parents, clutching a mug of cider in one hand. Her eyes roved the scene before her, and she frowned some in Albus's direction. "Al?"

That earned laughter from both her parents, and Ron stroked his daughter's bushy hair somewhat clumsily. "Rose, darling, you know it's not nice to force people to read.

"I'm not forcing anyone to read!" Rose squealed, looking more than a bit upset at the notion. Her outraged expression was more than a little bit amusing, and it sent her father (who Albus had suddenly noticed was carrying an empty glass around) into peals of laughter. Rose turned redder at it, and she pointed at Albus with one of her hands; "If I could force him to do something, I'd force him to stop reading rubbish!"

"It's not rubbish!" James's voice called out, and his head poked to the side looking vaguely offended. He'd gone a bit red in the cheeks, and looked more like Rose's brother standing there nexxt to all those red heads. "I had to special order that, and it's supposed to be really good."

"Not that!" Rose said, shaking her head some from side to side. Albus knew were this was going, and he rolled his eyes - Rose had flicked through one of his books once, and had gotten upset over it, and wasn't giving up on it even now. "One of those other horrible books he's always reading!"

"They're not horrible, Rose." Albus said, closing his book slightly to beter concentrate on the situation. They'd already had this conversation plenty of times, and he was sick of her whining about it - there was nothing wrong with his books. "It's what really happened. It's just history."

"History." Rose spat, her nose wrinkled in distaste ad she looked down the side of her nose at him. Albus returned her look with an equally nasty one, and turned back to his book - making a show of ignoring her. Rose spoke louder in retaliation; "No, Albus, what I read is history. What you read...they're just horrible! All those god-awful stories and those nasty pictures!"

"Sometimes what really happens *is* god-awful and nasty!" Albus snapped, somewhat louder than he meant to.

"What books are you reading, Albus?" Aunt Hermione asked, in a softer voice than she typically used. Albus looked up, and saw her looking at him with a relatively concerned face. Albus turned pink, seeing her with a furrowed brow. "Can we see them?"

Albus hesitated - Rose and her mother shared a lot of the same opinions, but Aunt Hermione was slightly more logical than her hot-headed daughter. Perhaps she'd be able to understand, and talk some sense into her daughter. "Yeah."

It toook a few minutes for Albus to bring the copy of 'Midnight: The Life of Welerman the Wicked' down the stairs. It was a heavy book, and Albus was careful not to let it fall open - it had a tendency to sting if not opened carefully, the past result of some old hex. A moment later, he was gingerly passing it up to Aunt Hermione. "it's about Dachria Welerman, and, um his life." Albus said shyly, balancing the book delicately; "It's really interesting. I mean. How he got to where he was, and stuff. There's-"

"-Oh Albus." Aunt Hermione breathed in a way that made Albus cringe - her eyes were wide, and she was flipping through the pages rapidly. Albus flinched as she turned to a particularly graphic image - one that showed Welerman using one of his torture devices on some poor witch, all in delicately detailed ink and colour. That seemed to be enough for her, because she slammed the book shut and looked at Albus with an expression he couldn't place. "Albus, you're reading this?"

"It's, um, it's - just..." He had known that Aunt Hermione might not like it, but he definitely hadn't expected her to react quite so negatively. Albus stammered nervously, "It's just...it's not so bad, that was just one...page."

"Have your parents seen this yet?"

"Blimey, 'Mione." Ron had pulled the book from Hermione and was now flipping through it with a disgusted look on his face. "This is..."

James had peered over his shoulder to look along with Ronn, and now he was staring at Albus with a horrified expression. Albus felt his stomach twist nervously, and he took an awkward step back - he wasn't used to being looked at like this, and certainly not by his family. His hands began to sweat, and he rubbed them nervously on his robes.

"Have I seen what?" Albus's stomach dropped considerably, as his father's head popped round the corner - grinning and tipping a mug back. Harry's eyes caught Hermione and Ron's expressions, however, and the smile fell into that of a confused expression. "What's going on...?"

Wordlessly, Ron handed the open book to Harry to look at - and Albus felt like he was watching a train wreck as he watched his father's face. Harry confused ebbed away as his eyebrow's grew tighter together, and his eyes narrowed behind the glasses. Albus stood dumbly with his hands at his sides, looking at his father flip faster and faster through the pages and his expression darkened with each page. Harry closed the book with a slam, and looked up Albus with an aghast expression.

"Albus-Severus, is this book yours?"

Feeling chilled and unexplicably nervous, Albus nodded mutely.

"Where the hell did you get this?" It was rare that Albus saw his father angry - especially angry enough to swear.

Albus pinked some, not sure he quite knew what was wrong. He'd been reading books worse than this in the Slytherin common room all this time. He knew other's had seen them. Thaddeus had plucked one from him once, and only mentioned that he was impressed by Albus's reading level. Scorpius had even read a few of his, and mentioned that he wasn't much interested in history. Nobody had the reaction that everyone else in Albus's family seemed to be. Albus could only stare blankly, feeling very small.

"Harry," Hermione said slowly, and Albus saw her touch Harry's shoulder softly and send him a look "I recognise this book from the Restricted Section at Hogwarts. I'm sure Albus just got it there...didn't you, Albus?"

Albus wasn't quite sure what 'The Restricted Section' was, and he jsut stared with wide-eyes at the other. He shook his head from side to side, slowly finding his voice; "N-no. I got it from Micah."

"Micah?" Harry was obviously trying very hard not to yell, but Albus could tell that he was still furious. He was speaking slowly, "Who is Micah?"

"Micah. Micah Delkvitch. He's m'roommate. He lent it to me, cuz I said I had nothing to read." Albus explained, flexing his fingers absently - he wanted nothing more than just to take the book back, bury it below his bed, and pretend none of this happened. "I'm sorry, I'll give it back to him."

"Delkvitch...Delkvitch..." Ron was snapping his fingers absently, and his eyes narrowed as he looked over the side and to Harry. He had a furious expression on his face, and his eyes were fluttering. "Harry! Remember? We had a search on Adrik Delkvitch's house - that horrible place with all the spider things?"

"The Delkvitch...that's right." Harry turned back to Albus, the anger back; "How do you know this...Micah Delkvitch?"

"Harry." Aunt Hermione again, who was looking at Albus with a rather stern expression; "He already said - he's in Slytherin wtih him, they share a room."

"I know Micah!" Rose suddenly cut in, eager to help aid in the situation. Albus could have hit her. Clearly she didn't recognise how serious the situation it is (Albus had the sneaky suspicious that Uncle Ron flew off the handle a bit easier than his own father did) - and seemed gleeful to get Albus in trouble. Albus knew she hated the books, and Micah - but he still wished she would just shut up. "He's a terrible bloke - a real bully. I'm not surprised in the least that he would have a book like that."

"Of course he is," Harry's fingers had moved to grip at the bridge of his nose in a pained expression. "He's in fucking Slytherin, isn't he?" Immediately, Harry seemed to realise what he said - his eyes widened and the hand dropped away from his face. "Oh, shite, Al. I didn't mean - "

None of his father's apologies reached Albus's ears, though. The last comment still rang in them loudly enough. Deep down, Albus knew that despite his reassuring words and gentle advice - his father hadn't expected or wanted him to be in Slytherin. It was one thing to know it deep down, but it was another thing to hear him say it. To see the expression on his face.

"I'm sorry." Albus whispered.

Albus could hear his father call his name, and felt hands brush past his shoulders as he bolted by them on his way to his room - but he didn't stop until he was curled up on his bed.

It seemed an eternity before Albus pulled his head away from his wet pillow, although he knew that it was only about five minutes. Even through the Silencing-Charm he could hear the muffled sounds of his mother and father arguing, and knew that his father would be up in a moment to apologise - if he wasn't on his way now already. No matter what his father would say, however, Albus knew he was only going to hear what he'd said downstairs.

His father hated him now too.

Albus dragged the back of his hand across his nose, and sniffled to himself slowly. He'd been excited to go back home, but now all he wanted was to just go back to Slytherin - at least nobody had hated him there. The older forms had given him an indifferent look, but it was nothing like the looks James had given him after seeing the book.

The book.

Albus's stomach curled, and he leaned over to stuff his face in the pillow once more - what had been so wrong? Nobody had said anything. They'd just looked at him with such expressions that he couldn't place. Truth be told, there was nothing more than he wanted right now other than to just curl up with the book in question. It had worked well for taking his mind off of his problems back when he was at school, and he needed his mind taken away now more than ever - but he wouldn't go downstairs for the world.

Albus rolled over, and in doing so he kicked his satchels off the bed. His nose crinkled in pain when his toe stubbed against something hard inside of it, and he leaned off the bed - ready to throw whatever it was across the room. However, when he leaned off the bed, he stopped short - laying on the floor was none other than the same green package that he'd been handed some week's prior.

In all the hub-bub of being home, Albus had forgotten about it completely. Just seeing it however, let the warm feeling rise slowly in his chest - Scorpius's.

Albus leaned off the bed to grab at the package, and it was with some effort that he'd pulled the book back onto the bed and in his lap. The package had a good weight, and whatever magic that had been on it had recently worn off - the box felt warm to the touch. It was wrapped carefully, and Albus almost felt guilty as he unfolded the paper and peeled it away from the gift.

Almost instantly, Albus felt guilty for the package of deluxe Chocolate Frogs that he'd sent the others - candy was nowhere close to this.

There was a note pinned to the beginning of the cover, and in Scorpius's loopy handwriting it read: 'Seemed like something you'd like.' Underneath it and in Albus's lap lay nothing other than a book, but oh, what a book it was.

It had none of the gloss of the book he'd gotten earlier today, instead, it was made of a heavy odd-smelling leather. It crackled beneath his touch, and the pages were vaguely yellowed and were made of the heavy kind of parchment that they just didn't use anymore. In faded lettering, it read 'The Development of Curses throughout Our Century, Published 1632'. After turning the cover, he saw notes written in the various hands of Scorpius's ancestors along the gutter of the book. Albus's heart thumped in excitement - he'd read about this exact same book many times before, it was the one Welerman had written himself. Publication on it had ceased the year it came out, and Albus hadn't even dreamt of seeing a copy of it in his life. Now he had one of his very own.

"Merlin." He breathed, trying to think of how much something like this might cost. He flipped through the book, almost disbelieving it could be true.

"Albus." His father's voice boomed through the door, and the noise screeched through as he ended the silencing spell he'd cast. "Could you unlock the door? I don't have my wand on me."

Still feeling fuzzy thanks to the book, Albus was halfway across the floor and on his way to unlocking it. His hand was on the doorknob before he remembered the book that was laying on his bed. His father's face as he tore through the other book suddenly appeared,
vivid and furious. Albus hesitated, before turning and running back to the bed.

"Al, please, I'm...I didn't mean anything I said. I'm sorry. Just..open the door, we can talk."

Albus clutched the book to this chest - looking around frantically for a place to put it where his father wouldn't find it. It wasn't that he didn't want his father to see it, he really wanted his father to see it and appreciate it. Yet he knew that it would not get the look of admiration, his father would be horrified. Albus didn't want to hear him say horrible things about Scorpius - Micah was one thing. Albus hated Micah anyway. Scorpius was his best friend. It would just be easier if his father didn't know he had it, for now.

"Albus-Severus, open this door! We need to talk!"

His first thought was under the bed, but that was too obvious - he'd used to hide stuff there all the time, and found it in James's hands later. He used to hang things in a hide-away behind one of his Gryffindor scarfs, but with them gone the hiding space hung in the open. He looked around the room in a panic, before his eyes fell to the open bathroom door. An idea hit him, and he ran towards it.

"Albus. I'm getting my wand, and when I come up - we're talking, okay?"

Albus grabbed at the handles of one of his drawers, and pulled it open with somewhat of a violent jerk. Another tug and he'd succeeded in pulling the drawers off of it's tracks and onto the floor, but it revealed an empty little cavern where the drawers didn't quite meet up. Delicately, Albus slipped the book inside the gap and returned the drawer to it's track. He'd barely managed to close it before he could hear his father's voice call out 'Allohomara!'

Guiltily, Albus spun around and stared with big eyes at his father - who was looking at Albus with a sad expression.

"Al, I..."

"S'Okay, Dad."

Snakes and Ladders - Chapter Five

2007-08-04T02:22:16Z

Title: Snakes and Ladders
Chapter: Five - History
Rating: G
Pairings: Future Scorpibus! Honk honk.
Summary: Of fathers and futures.

Getting over it proved much more difficult than Thaddeus had let on. As it was, Albus suspected he wasn't doing a good job of even trying to do so.

Since the incident in the Gryffindor common room, Albus had stuck to his dorm room during his free time. Being curled up with History textbooks seemed a far better alternative to being bossed around by older forms, or getting nasty looks from other house members. It was having a positive effect on his grades - his paper on Bruthen Lorcas had already come back sparkling congratulatory glitter all over the place.

At the moment, he was reading up on 'Conquerers and Crooks of the 17th Century: Volume 2'. It was a hard read, but an interesting one. He was reading about the exploits of Welerman the Wicked when a voice cut in -

"You're turning into a Ravenclaw."

Albus looked up from his book and leaned over the side of his bed. Scorpius was standing there, his hands stuffed in the pockets of his robes.

For a moment he wishfully imagined himself draped in blue and bronze , but other than that, he didn't quite know how to react to that. So Albus simply shrugged and turned back to his book - they were going over Welerman's campaign to capture all the dragons in Europe and use them to pull his carriage along in the sky. It was the last section on Welmerman.

"What are you reading?" Scorpius had pulled himself up on the side of Albus's bunk to stare at his bed.

The picture of Welerman writhing in pain as he was burnt to a crisp was more than enough to distract Albus from responding properly. So all he did was lift the book up so that the other could see the front of it.

There was a gentle thud as Scorpius dropped from the side of the bunk and landed on his feet at the ground. Scorpius didn't ask any more questions, and Albus found himself getting wrapped up in the next tale - these real life stories were more fascinating than any of his Mum's ones, really. He was wrapped up in the childhood of Greithfor when he felt the back of his neck prickle and sensed that Scorpius was watching him. Sure enough, when he looked down - green eyes met unhappy gray. The gray eyes widened when their gaze connected, but then they were narrowed and looking away.

Albus was about to ask Scorpius what was the matter, but a particulary graphic illustration had appeared and was throughly distracting. By the time it had finished looping, and Albus looked up - Scorpius had already left.

It was only hours later that he remembered that anything happened, and that was only on account of Zacharias Smith. He stumbled into the dorm room just before curfew, red in the face and bubbling some of the latest gossip (Albus suspected he was hiding around cooridors again) - and stopped short, mid-sentence; "Where's Malfoy?"

It was only then that Albus realised that he hadn't seen his blond friend since their encounter in the mid-afternoon. It was unusual, as Scorpius wasn't given to wandering and had been commenting more than once that he found Hogwarts 'creepy' after dark.

Instantly concern flared in the pit of Albus's stomach.

"Who cares?" That was Micah Delkvitch, whom Albus didn't particularly care for himself. With a knob nose and a permanent scowl, he had been the nasty Slytherin type that his Uncle's stories had been filled with. "I can sleep soundly tonight without that little rat around."

Albus gave Delkvitch a nasty look from over his book, almost as if daring the other to continue speaking. Of course, Micah was oblivious to any negative reaction to Albus - all of them were. The two of them had taken to ignoring Albus since he'd 'entered his nerd phase', as Zac put its so cheerfully.

Zac tore off his tie and flopped onto his bed, all while laughing darkly at Micah's words; "Tell me about it." He cracked some of the bubble gum that was permanently in his mouth, and it sparkled bright colours. "My Dad went to school with his Dad - told me all about that lot."

For a moment, Albus considered hurling the book at Zac's head - he remembered the first few weeks at school when the other was practically glued to Scorpius's hip. Really, though, it was no surprise to hear Zac talk so meanly about a friend like this - Albus had never met a more two-faced boy in his entire life. It always made him uncomfortable to speak with Zac since he was the type that would grin to your face and make fun of you as soon as you turned around. Zac made it his personal mission to know everything about everyone, and then turn around and make fun of it regularly.

"My father went to Durmstrang," Micah rasped, pulling at his own shirt and unbuttoning it. He sneered as he spoke; "But even he knew about the Malfoys."

Although Albus was staring at the book in front of him, he wasn't really seeing any of it. He wanted to pretend he didn't care about Scorpius's family, but the truth was he really did. Scorpius was quick to inform Albus of the history of every family in Hogwarts, it seemed, but whenever asked about his own family - he would go mum and just shrug. The most Albus knew about the other was that his father seemed to know everything, and that his mother sent him lavish packages from home.

"Hard not to know about the biggest bunch of dark wizards that England's ever produced!" Zac said chipperly, as if he was being clever about it. Albus's hand was set on the page; "I mean... You-Know-Who, Grindlewald, Elewitz. They've followed them all."

"That's a lie." Albus whispered but neither of them heard him, and if they did - they chose to ignore it.

"And they weren't even proper about it, either." Micah said, seeming to not take offense at the news that the Malfoys might be dark wizards. Albus wasn't surprised. Scorpius had told him that Micah's father had been expelled from Durmstrang for 'unspeciffic reasons', and since Durmstrang was a school that looked the other way when it came to the Dark Arts, it must have been bad. "Those lot switch sides as it pleases them - no loyalty on them. Not to any cause or person. They'd turn around and stab their best friends in the back if it meant saving themselves."

At those words, both went still and Albus felt his neck prickle. He knew they were staring at him, and it was all he could do was stare at the picture of Victoria Maretto setting fire to Muggles instead of meeting their gaze. He could feel his heart thump in his throat, and he made sure to keep his face casual. The last thing he wanted was it to seem as if he was bothered by their words, even though he was. Albus blinked slowly, and made a show of turning the page to one of all text.

"...And I bet he's gonna end up just like all the other's." Zac said, his voice going rather soft - but only becoming more audible as a result of it. Albus felt his mind race, trying to absorb all this information. "Just following the next Dark Wizard that shows their bloody face."

"Only if it suits him." Micah sneered, picking up a grimy looking bag and heading towards the first year baths.

* * *

Long after the lights had darkened and the snores of the other boys filled the room, Albus was still awake.

He was still pretending to read his book through the light of his wand, but the words were meaningless and would not crack his blank stare. He was now merely skimming the page, looking for 'Malfoy' mentioned somewhere.

He didn't see anything, but neither had he seen Scorpius all night. Typically he would have been worried, but he needed a bit of time to absorb the information about his friend. Zac and Micah were both idiots, but they were good sources of information. Lenor's words on the first day of school kept rushing to his mind and repeating over and over again - if three people said it was true, surely it had to be?

Albus's head snapped back when there was a gentle creak and a low glow filled the room.

Lit up by his own dull wand was none other than the exact boy that Albus had been thinking the whole time - Scorpius. Scorpius looked rather sullen in the face, and he was sporting a long angry looking slash against one cheek which was darkened by the odd lighting he was producing. It made a rather sinister effect and for a moment he looked every bit the dark wizard he was being portrayed as.

He was still Albus's friend, though.

"Scorpius?" Albus hissed gently, and the other's eyes widened in a panic. Albus was temporarily blinded as the other's Lumos flared and shone brightly in his eyes. It dulled some, and Albus waved his hand away; "Where've you been?'

Scorpius put a finger to his mouth to indicate silence, and shuffled into the room - closing the door behind him. It was in a whisper he spoke; "I let Morgana practice some spells on me."

"You did what?" He momentarily forgot all that he had learned about his friend in this new idiocy. "Merlin, Scorpius! That's just daft."

"No, it's fine." Scorpius said, waving his hand dismissively as he walked into the room. He flinched, however, when he reached a hand up and gingerly touched the cut. He made the same expression after splitting into a smile a moment later; "I mean, it was worth it. Morgana likes me now, he called me 'alright for a first year'."

Albus looked aghast over at his friend - Scorpius always relished doing the chores and things for the older forms a great deal more than any of the other first years. He went out of his way to do things even when not asked, and managed to do it all with smiles and nods. It was a little bit nauseating, but Albus had no problem putting up with it for the most part. However, letting Morgana practice spells on him was a whole other ball game. It was a bit much even for Scorpius. It was more than sucking up, it was dangerous.

"Do you have any cleaning potions, though?" Scorpius asked, "It's starting to burn."

"Yeah." Albus said, nodding slowly in the direction of the bathroom - which is where he kept the first-aid kit that his Mum gave him. He closed the book with one hand, and started to make his way down the bunk. "Meet me in there, okay?"

"Thanks." Scorpius said, nodding - and heading towards the bathroom.

Their dorm bathroom was one of Albus's actual favourite things about being in Slytherin. The floor was covered in mottled green tile that seemed to shimmer and glow like jewels, and the walls echoed it. Silver snakes twisted across glittering knobs and faucets, and the whole place seemed to remain spotless despite the efforts of all five boys to ruin it quite thoroughly.

Scorpius was currently frowning over his reflection in one of the gilted mirrors, and Albus realised that the boy's injuries looked worse in the strong light of the bathroom. In addition to the nasty looking slash across a cheek, he was also sporting a split lower lip, and a fine cut across his forehead. "It looks worse than it is, really." Scorpius said, when his eyes met Albus's in the mirror. "They don't hurt...so bad."

"Right." Albus muttered, not believing a word of it. He ducked under the sink to pull out a brown box, and rested it on the counter. "Is it only your face?"

In response, Scorpius pulled up the sleeve of his robes to reveal a long and jagged scratch even worse than the one on his cheek. Unlike that particular wound, the one on his arm was bleeding heavily.

Albus gritted his teeth against a wave of sympathy pain that he felt just from seeing it, and opened the box to reveal shining colourful bottles. He peered at the labels, and finally settled on a stout bottle filled with a shining blue gel. Scorpius made a face when he saw it, and he shucked his teeth in anticipation for the pain that it would cost. "I hate that stuff."

"You should have thought of that before you decided to be Morgana's practice dummy." Albus muttered, unstopping the bottle and dipping his fingers in the blue substance. "What do you want me to do first?"

"This." Scorpius held out the bleeding arm, and frowning at it. "But I guess you should wipe up all the blood first, though."

Albus thought that might be a good idea, and scraped the gel off of on his robes. He knew his mother would lecture if she ever knew what he was done - it was expensive stuff. Although they were well-off now, his Dad said his Mum hadn't been in her childhood and had never forgotten it. Thankfully, however, it was just the two of them and nobody's mother in sight.

Micah had left his cloth laying on the countertop, and Albus felt no remorse about using it to tend to Scorpius's wound. He ran it under the faucet for a while, watching Scorpius staring at his arm with a horrified expression.

"Scorpius." He broke in, taking the other's arm and wiping it gently. Scorpius tensed up, and Albus wasn't sure that it was simply because of the pain - "...Um...what." Albus realised he was at a loss of words as to what to ask Scorpius. 'Are your family all dark wizards' seemed rather tasteless, after all. He wasn't sure he believed or disbelieved everyone, but he really wanted to know. Lamely, he finished; "How are you?"

"My arm's bleeding." Scorpius said, sounding rather amused that the other thought to ask him. He smiled warmly, but the smile fell some when he met Albus's expression. Albus didn't realise that his face was so transparent, but apparently it was - Scorpius's arm definitely stiffened this time. It was softly, cautiously that Scorpius spoke again; "Are...you mad at me?"

"What?" Albus said, raising his head to stare at the other.

"I...I know Rose probably told you stuff about me." Scorpius muttered, looking past Albus's face and concentrating on the door behind his head instead. His hand was trembling ever so slightly in Albus's grip; "And...I... um. It's. It's nothing to do with me."

The cloth came away covered in blood, and Albus ran it under the faucet for a moment. He knew exactly what the other was speaking about, and it was making his heart thump loudly in his chest.

"I-I can't control anything. I mean. That is. All the bad stuff happened before I was born." Scorpius stumbled aloneg, closing his eyes in a pained expression. He bit his lower lip, almost piercing the fleshy pink and causing the shallow cut he had there to start to bleed. "My father doesn't believe... Albus...you don't hate me, do you?"

"No." Albus said firmly, without even thinking about it. It was true, too. Even though he'd been sitting up all night confused, even that had not changed his opinion of Scorpius. Whether or not his family was messed up, that didn't change the hours of fun they'd had. Scorpius...was Scorpius. "I'm not...mad at you."

"So why've you been acting funny?" Scorpius asked, right about the time that Albus had cleaned the wound enough that it stood out for both of them to see. It was jagged, angry, and almost gaping openly, Albus grabbed the blue gel as the cut began to well up with blood. "You've been ignoring me for almost two weeks now."

Albus had mostly been not paying attention to Scorpius because he'd been too caught up in his own problems. It had never occured to him that Scorpius might think that he was ignoring him intentionally. He dragged his fingers across the cut on the other's arm, watching it burn and hiss as soon as the gel hardened. Scorpius growled in pain, and Albus took a deep breath before continuing. "I've been busy." Albus explained; "I didn't know...about anything else... until tonight."

Scorpius's eyes widened, and he jerked his arm away suddenly - as if he suddenly realised what exactly he'd revealed to Albus. Albus could see real nervousness on his face, despite him having saying that he wasn't mad at the other.

"I heard Zac and Micah talking." Albus explained, reaching for the other's cheek and rubbing the gel against it. It hissed, leaving a red-brown scar in it's wake across an otherwise pale cheek. "They said stuff."

"Oh." Scorpius breathed, and Albus could feel the other's face fall beneath his fingertips. "I...don't know how to fix that yet."

"Fix?" Albus asked instinctively, and drew back with a confused expression. He let his hand drop some, to look at his friend's face. "What do you want to fix? They're both idiots."

"You know...fix it." Scorpius said, his eyebrows raised in a wide-eyed expression that was most unlike him. His face was lit up happily, and he bit his lower lip before launching into an excited explanation. "Like with the older forms - I do stuff for them, and they like me."

Albus's hand had raised to touch up the wound over the other's eyebrow, but his hand dropped slowly when the weight of what Scorpius said dawned on him. He suddenly realised why Scorpius had always been eager to put his neck on the line for the older forms, and why exactly Albus was fixing up wounds that the boy had essentially signed up for. "Scorpius...you're..." His mouth opened and closed in an attempt to find the proper words to describe it. He couldn't manage it, all he could manage was to ask - "You're doing all this for your..?"

"It's not...that bad, or anything. It's worth it." Scorpius interrupted when he saw the horrified expression on Albus's face; "Most of them are from the right kinds of families, and when I do stuff - they'll like me, and they'll go home and tell their parents."

Albus doubted that the upper classmen were writing home about what a great helper would that little Scorpius Malfoy was. Truth be told, they probably didn't recognise who he was - just a bratty blond little first year. They probably confused him with Zac from time to time, honestly. Scorpius's face, however, was so lit up that Albus's mouth formed a thin speechless line instead of the words he wanted to say.

All of a sudden, Albus felt an enormous sense of guilt. He'd only felt this guilty once before - after trying to show off for James and his mates a few summers ago, he had ended up accidentally blasting the head off of Lily's favourite dolly. She'd made such a sad-face that Albus had spent three days trying to repair the doll. But even that miserable little girl look paled under Scorpius's bright smile.

He suddenly had am image of himself as he'd been these past few weeks - sullen, irritable, and angry - and all because he wasn't in the house he'd wanted to be. Then there was Scorpius. He was trying to fix his family's name and sporting cuts and god knows what else - and he was standing there smiling like it was Christmas.

It was all very grown up of the other, and Albus felt like a rather silly child next him.

"Small steps. That's what my father said." Scorpius whispered, now that Albus hadn't said anything in response. His smile had died a bit, and his gaze had shifted shyly to Albus's own face; "It's...it's.. look, I'm sorry."

"You don't have to be." Albus muttered sheepishly, reaching up finally to swipe at the cut above the other's forehead. It smoked slowly, and Albus pulled his hand away to observe his handiwork.

There.

Now at least they could start healing.

Snakes and Ladders - Chapter Four

2007-08-01T00:44:03Z

SPOILERS FOR DEATHLY HALLOWS INSIDE
Title: Snakes and Ladders
Chapter: Four - A Juggling Act
Rating: G
Pairings: Future Scorpibus! Honk honk.
Summary: Certain events and attitudes turn poor Albus's life into a juggling act.

Albus felt slightly better after reading his father's letter back to him, because it certainly explained why he was rubbish at Charms.

As it happened, currently he was jabbing at the ball on his desk in a half-hearted attempt to force it to bounce. Sadly, predictably, the he ball stayed stubbornly still. To his right, Scorpius had managed to make his spin in the spot, and Rose's was infuriatingly still bouncing two minutes after she'd first managed to cast the spell.

"Are you even trying anymore?" Rose scoffed, watching Albus's poking of the ball.

"Not really." Albus said, smiling at the other sheepishly. For a moment he continued tapping the ball with his wand, but an idea struck him suddenly. He reached out and grabbed the ball with one hand and threw it on the desk - it bounced high, and his hand shot in the air with it; "Professor, professor! Look!"

Professor Flitwik turned, and shot Albus a pleased look when he saw the ball bouncing. That's even higher than Miss Weasley's! Well done, Mr. Potter - five points to Slytherin!"

Rose's mouth dropped open in a stunned expression, and she looked around briefly in an obvious attempt to find a similarly furious face. Someone who could voice her outrage, maybe, but even Lenor hadn't seen what happened. The only person that had been paying attention was Scorpius, and he had dived under the desk to laugh.

"B-b-but, Professor!" She stumbled, but Professor Flitwik was already leaned over and helping another student by the time she managed that. Rose turned to give Albus a nasty look; "What are you doing?"

"Don't get upset, Rose! " Albus said, while watching Scorpius doubled over in silent laughter under his desk. He felt clever and warm seeign the other's delight, and he didn't really want Rose to bring him down with her usual lecture. "He already gave Gryffindor ten points cuz you got it first!"

"You cheated!" Rose hissed in return; "It's not fair!"

"Well, it's not fair that you studied the textbook already." Albus said, frowning some that Rose clearly didn't think it was all that funny. He knew she didn't always have the greatest sense of humour, but it had been amusing - didn't she see Scorpius? "That's kinda like cheating. Cuz you looked ahead, and you're not supposed to do that."

"That's not cheating!" She snapped.

"It is, isn't it Scorpius?" Albus said, looking at Scorpius who had pulled himself into his seat again and was now brushing off dust and ash from his cloak. "Cheating, I mean."

"Sort of." Scorpius said, shrugging. He looked over at Rose and frowned; "Calm down, Rose. He was just fooling around."

"He's always just fooling around." Rose grumbled, making a show of pulling out her textbook and ignoring them both. She set the book up on the desk vertically so that the only thing they could see was a bush of orange hair.

Scorpius and Albus exchanged a look, and shrugged - the message clear: 'Girls.'

* * *

Rose was still giving Albus and Scorpius the cold shoulder as they walked to the Great Hall for lunch. Her anger almost seemed to radiate from her slim frame whenver you walked near her.

It probably didn't help matters that they were both bouncing the balls they'd taken from the classroom with each step - they'd both figured it out right before the lesson had ended. Ever since then, they'd been flinging the balls ahead of one another and chasing after them. Rose had been nothing short of not amused.

"Oh, oh, Potter, beat this one!" Scorpius's ball sailed high into the air, looping lazily before coming back down and bouncing once again.

The ball never reached the ground, however, because it was snatched out of the air and hurled down the hall by Rose. Almost comically, both boy's heads snapped to the side to follow it's path as it nearly hit a Hufflepuff square in the face. When it bounced out of sight, they both turned to stare at Rose with confused expressions.

"You are both awful! How can you take credit for something you didn't do!? It is nothing like looking ahead, because looking ahead is being an eager student. It's not misleading the teacher, and then letting them give you points for it - that's what you did, and that's downright dishonest!" She shrieked, flinging the books that she'd been carrying to the floor in her passion. Judging from how eloquent she'd suddenly turned, it was clear she'd been preparing this speech since class. "I'd expect this kinda thing from him," She pointed a finger squarely at Scorpius, "But not YOU, Albus. You're turning into a real - a real - a real prick!"

With that, she spun on her heel and stormed off in the opposite direction . Rose nearly ran towards one of the towers, and Albus knew she was heading towards where the Gryffindor common room was and where he was not-allowed.

"Merlin, she's loud!" Scorpius said, mock rubbing his ears as if to massage away the sound of her yells. "Rose's no fun - did you see where the ball went?"

Albus ignored Scorpius, and stared mournfully in the direction where Rose had stormed off to - he wished that he'd ran after her, but it was too late now. Instead, he'd have to settle for stooping to collect her books. Maybe Rose would be less mad at him when he brought her stuff to her? She had far too many book, and he felt like he was going to topple over under their weight - but he did it regardless. "Do you think I went too far, then?"

"No, I think she's oversensitive." Scorpius said absently, looking at the books in Albus's arms like they were tentacles. "What are you doing? Just leave them."

"I didn't mean to cheat!" Albus continued, feeling miserable; "I just thought it'd be funny."

"It was funny." Scorpius said, losing his care-free voice and sounding stern. One of the books that Albus hadn't picked up yet was laying on the floor, and Scorpius aimed a kick at it and sent it flying across the floor. "She only said something because Professor Flitwick thought yours was better than hers, and she couldn't handle it. She's just mad she wasn't best."

Albus bit his lower lip thoughtfully. What Scorpius said did sound like something Rose would do and think. Albus always had found her a bit of an attention-seeker and a show-off, but he didn't mind it - it was just Rose.

"If I were you, I'd just drop the books and leave them there. This is just what she expects you to do," Scorpius lectured, sounding confident of every word he said; "Pick up her mess, turn around and say you're sorry, even though it's all really her fault anyway. She's just being a big baby."

For a moment, Albus just stood their stupidly - his hands had dropped some, and Scorpius could see it.

"She threw our ball!"

Albus sighed, and started after the book that Scorpius had kicked earlier. He hadn't apolgoised to Professor Longbottom and he still felt poor whenever he saw the other's kind face, and he definitely wasn't going to have that with Rose. With a bit of effort - thanks to Wingardium Leviosa, since apparently they'd learnt something in Charms after all - he had all the books stacked neatly. Albus looked over in Scorpius's direction, not meeting the other's eyes, and he muttered; "I'll meet you in the commons later, okay?"

* * *

About twenty minutes later, Albus was wishing that he hadn't brought the books back to Rose - because doing so had made him feel more rotten than he already had.

The Gryffindor common room was everything the Slytherin common room was not - bright, cheery, intermingled, and warm. The ceilings arched prettily, red and gold banners bloomed across the walls, comfortable looking armchairs sat here and there, and the place was absolutely bustling with people. The energy in the place was enough to make Albus feel uncomfortable and out of place already. He grabbed at his collar nervously as he walked in the room, and hoped that nobody would notice him.

He had buttoned his Hogwarts robes up to his throat earlier so that nobody could see his green and silver tie, but now he was afraid it was himself that would stand out.

Could they tell he didn't fit in? Surely Slytherin was written all across his face, because it felt like it was. Albus couldn't imagine sitting in his common room and making the racket that some first years nearby were doing. He could only imagine the reaction if and Scorpius made a similiar scene in the Slytherin common room. He would probably end up without a mouth for a couple of days, or something much much worse.

He sighed, long and hard, and felt his stomach twist with a strong sense of longing. The ache to be here was almost physical, and he chewed on his lower lip as he stared at the room. Slytherin wasn't bad, or anything, but this? This was Hogwarts. This was what Mum, Dad, Uncle Ron, Aunt Hermione, Uncle Percy, everyone had spoken about. Not chilly nights and being bossed around all the time, but playing Exploding Snap by the fireplace. This was Hogwarts, and he was missing out. Albus's hands balled into fists, and he felt a hatred so strong that he could almost taste it - a hat had ruined his bloody life.

"Albus Potter," A voice called out suddenly, and Albus spun to see Lenor staring at him. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Now he definitely had Slytherin written across his face, as some of the Gryffindors from some of his classes stared at him with confusion. He could almost see the cogs in their head turning, and he felt like turning and running away.

"I came to see Rose, is she around?" Albus said, surprising how self-confident he sounded considering how he felt right now.

"Like I'd tell you, Slytherin." Lenor said nastily, looking at Albus with a nose wrinkled in mock disgust. He and Albus had more than one run-in in the past few weeks, and none of them had ended well. It was safe to say that the two boys disliked each other immensely. "How'd you get in here?"

"That's not important. I really need to see Rose." He held up his satchel and added; "I've got her books."

"Leave them here." Lenor said, reaching for the bag absently. "I'll give them to her."

Albus pulled the satchel back and away from Lenor's outstretched hand quickly, and glowered at the other instead. His hand tightened on the bag instinctively, and he took a shaky step forward; "No. I'd rather give it to her - we need to speak."

By now, Albus was feeling severely overwhelmed as some of the other Gryffindors seemed to catch what was going on. They squinted their eyes and hissed at one another, and some seemed close to attacking the other. Suddenly, a skinny Chinese girl rose to her feet. Albus flinched some when he saw the golden badge sparkling on her chest.

"You there, what house are you in?" She said, in an important sounding voice. Albus bit his lower lip, and stared at her. "I asked what house you were in!"

"Slytherin." Albus breathed, hating have to say it - having to announce it in this happy world of red and gold. Everything seemed less cheerful all of a sudden. "I just want to speak to Rose."

"I'm sorry, but I don't know how you got in here - or what you're doing here - but you have to leave. Ten points from Slytherin." Albus flinched - trust him to run straight into the Head Girl. "Now off with you."

Albus flinched, but stood his ground; "I...could you get Rose? She's a first year...red hair, freckles."

The Head Girl looked insulted, but she considered the other's face for a long moment before nodding slowly. Her chin rose and fell, and she pointed at the door; "I know who Rose is. I'll send her out there to meet you - now out."

He sat on the ground outside of the entrance, satchel at his side and back to the wall. All of a sudden, Albus felt horrible - all those eyes on him, the looks of disgust, the whispering, everything. They'd looked at him like they hated him, and Lenor he understood, but he'd never done anything to Marx or Valerie or Natalie or any of the other's. Somehow he knew they wouldn't have given them quite the same looks had his tie been stiped yellow and black or blue and gold. It'd been when they'd heard he'd from Slytherin that they gave him funny looks, and it made him miserable. He wouldn't have his Mum and Dad's Hogwarts, not ever. They'd never take him in, even if the hat did decide it'd made a mistake.

He swallowed hard against the rising lump in his throat, but it was no use - tears were streaming down his face. Albus buried his head in the bag in his lap, and breathed shuddering breaths into it and tried to calm himself.

There was nothing more Albus wanted than to go home. Home to his Mum. Home to his Dad. Home to Lily. Home to everything, back when he could pretend that he was going to go to Gryffindor and get to go to Hogwarts.

The real Hogwarts.

"Albus." A voice spoke softly from nearby, and Albus looked up in a panic to see Rose. Her eyes took in his tear-stained cheeks and running nose, and her expression was soft. "Are you okay?"

"I want to g-g-go home." Albus sniffed, more than aware of how childish he thought he sounded. He leaned his face back into the fabric, and his response was half muffled by the bag. "I-I-I hate it here."

"Oh, Al." He felt warm arms wrap around his shoulder, and bushy hair scratched at his face. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to call you names. I was just mad."

Albus laughed and began to cry harder, burying his face in Rose's skinny shoulder. "It's not you, Rose. I'm the one who-who's sorry. I...I...just want to go home."

He could feel Rose absently stroking his hair, and was reminded almost instantly of her mother. Once when he was visiting her, he'd slipped when running and landed hard across his front - scraping himself up. Aunt Hermione had pulled him into a hug similiar to Rose's own. Albus clenched his eyes shut, and breathed.

"It'll be okay, Al. Really." Rose said, sounding unsure even as she tried to comfort him. "Is it your housemates? Are they being mean to you? I knew Scorpius was an idiot! I can tell Maddie or..."

Albus exhaled slowly, uncurling himself from her arms and pushing away. He wiped at his eyes and stared at Rose, long and hard, and felt his stomach sink slowly. Rose...was her mother, and her mother wouldn't have understood and neither did she. Nobody would. "I brought your books," Albus managed to breath steadily, "And I'm sorry for cheating. Maddison's already docked Slytherin ten, so it all works out."

"Al - Albus!" Rose started, looking hurt and surprised as he pushed the books into her arms. "What is it? I can help, I'll..."

"I promised I'd meet Scorpius in the common room," Albus said, getting unsteadily to his feet once more. He held his hand against the wall to steady himself, and offered Rose a smile that did not reach his eyes; "Everything's fine. I'll see you tomorrow."

"But, Al-"

* * *

Scorpius was not in the common room - nobody was.

In contrast to the lively Gryffindor common room, the Slytherin dungeons were suspiciously empty. Albus was grateful, however, as that meant that nobody would see his face stained wtih tears and snot. The last thing he needed was a sixth year mocking him mercilessly while making him do some useless task.

Merlin, he hated this place.

In defiance to it all, Albus flung himself in one of the gray armchairs that sat in front of the fire. To hell with the rule that first-years weren't allowed to sit by the fire. Who was making up all these rules and making his life miserable? He was right about ready to punch them in the face, Morgana or not, hexed or no.

For a moment he just sat there, hoping for someone to walk in and challenge him. He kept picturing himeslf jumping to his feet and pointing his wand at another dramatically - the image was so amusing that he kept smiling to hismelf.

"What are you laughing about, first year?"

Albus looked up in surprise, to see Beard leaning over him - although he was now without that thick black beard. Albus's amusement died almost instantly, and he sank down into the chair. "Nothing."

Beard, or rather, Beardless, glanced over at Albus before sitting down in the nearest chair. He regarded Albus with a thoughtful expression, and nodded at the other - who was gripping his wand - "You've been crying? You look like hell."

"No." Albus lied, wiping at his eyes furiously.

"Don't lie. Do you want a hanky? That's a bit nasty, there." He said, frowning in distaste as Albus smeared mucus across the sleeve of his robe. He pulled out a silk green hankie from seemingly nowhere, and held it out to Albus; "This is much more dignified."

Albus took it wordlessly, feeling like he was ruining it as he dabbed at his nose with it. Sheepishly, he whispered; "Thanks."

"Think nothing of it." Beardless said, waving his hand in a grand guesture. When Albus reached out the now rather snotty hankerchief to return it, his expression of distaste turned into one of disgust. "Really, come now. You're in Slytherin, act with a bit more sense - return it only after it's been cleaned!"

"Oh." Albus said, feeling a bit stupid; "Sorry."

"As you oughta be." Beardless grunted, crossing his arms across his broad chest. He looked rather grand sitting there - hair trimmed neatly, robes in spotless condition. He reminded Albus of some sort of politician, because the boy seemed to just ooze importance. "Regardless, what seems to be the problem here?"

"Oh, ah, nothing." Albus said, not wanting to share his problems with this upperclassmen stranger. Then he realised that Beardless was probably refering more to the fact that Albus - a first year - was sitting in front of the fire. Earlier fantasies forgotten, he jumped in the chair some and leaned forward to get out. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"- Easy. Sit back down." Beardless raised a hand to push Albus gently back into the seat. "I don't care about that. I'm referring more to the fact that you're sitting in the common room, covered in snot, looking miserable."

"I'm not covered in snot." Albus said grouchily, kicking at the air. "And nothing's wrong."

Beardless raised an eyebrow, and pulled from his sleeve his wand. He pointed it squarely at Albus, who had turned deathly pale, and began; "There are ways of making people speak, you know? You cover them in the upper forms, and I'm not above using one to make some first year feel better."

Albus felt nervous and pulled back in his seat - he wasn't sure what form Beardless was in, but he was much bigger than he was. Albus had never had a wand pointed at him like that before, and he felt like he was going to be sick. "It's just...I..." He stumbled along, "I think I was sorted in the wrong houes."

The wand dropped, although Beardless looked amused; "Ah, yes, I can see the Gryffindor bravery now."

A warm flush graced across Albus's cheeks, and it took a great deal for him to not begin crying once more. His voice, however, was nearly a whisper as he continued; "I get it. I'm a coward."

"You're not a coward." Beardless said smoothly, letting his shoulders rise and fall in a careless shrug. He pointed his wand for emphasis, but let it drop once more. "You're just intelligent enough not to fight a battle you know you can't win - you taking on me would be a suicide."

Albus thought that was just a nicer way of saying coward, but took comfort in the thought that he'd been thinking about doing just that; fighting an upperclassman. There was, obviously, a part of him that should have been in Gryffindor.

"That's not a bad thing." Beardless said dryly; "I suppose you'd rather be in Gryffindor, where you'd have rushed in and I would have hexed your head off? Or a Ravenclaw, who would have thought about it until they were already hanging upside down? Or a Puff, who - well - let's face it, they're in Hufflepuff."

He couldn't help himself, Albus laughed. Beardless looked triumphant, but then his face relaxed into a much more subtle expression. "Why on earth do you think you were missorted?"

Albus hadn't really thought of a good reason other than Slytherins were bad and he wasn't, but somehow he knew Beardless wasn't going to take well to that. He shrugged; "My family...they've always been in Gryffindor. My Dad and my Mum's side - even my brother." His voice cracked as he stumbled along the sentence; "Me being in Slytherin...feels off."

"Ah, yeah, you're Harry Potter's boy." Beardless looked thoughtful, before smiling darkly; "Well, I'm Thaddeus Livingstock and I'm here."

Albus had the feeling that it was supposed to be signifigant, but could only give a blank expression back. He hadn't the faintest what that name meant.

Thaddeus rolled his eyes; "The Livingstock family has been in Ravenclaw since there was a Ravenclaw - we were related to Rowena." He chuckled, getting a faraway look in his eyes; "You can imagine my parent's reaction to my sorting. They tried to petition for a change."

"And what happened?" Albus said, feeling slightly hopeful.

"Nothing, of course. I cried for days, I was miserable." Thaddeus said, sounding perkier than anyone had the right to when delivering news like that. "But I got over it."

His heart sank as swiftly as it had started to rise. For a moment, he'd thought Thaddeus would have a solution for his problem; after all, he was the first person who seemed to have come close to understanding it. Getting over it, however, wasn't the exactly the answer that the untidy looking first year had been looking for. "That's no help to me."

"Actually, it's the best advice you'll ever hear." Thaddeus said with a shrug, raising himself to his feet once more. As he brushed his cloak into a tidier position, he continued; "The house puts you where you're happiest, so getting over your little problem is the best solution for it."

"If this is me at my happiest, I'd hate to see myself in Hufflepuff." Albus said grouchily, not anticipating the rich laughter the response received. He looked over his shoulder at Thaddeus, who was now standing behind him and on his way out of the common room; "What?"

Thaddeus shook his head, "You fit in more than you realise."

Chapter Three - Snakes and Ladders

2007-07-29T04:54:12Z

SPOILERS FOR DEATHLY HALLOWS INSIDE
Title: Snakes and Ladders
Chapter: Three - Expectations and Reputations
Rating: PG-13 for language, I suppose.
Pairings: AS/S, although nothing yet.
Special thnak you to novangla for unsticking me so much! :D

Previous Chapter

Summary: A newly-sorted Albus is forced to make some tough decisions.

Mum and Dad,

I guess James already sent you the news, but in case you didn't know - the Sorting Hat put me into Slytherin. It didn't even give me a choice like you said it was going to! It's ok here, though. I share a room with five other boys - it's weird, cuz some of them snore and stuff. I share a bunk with my friend, Scorpius, and he sits up and talks in his sleep sometimes. He says he doesn't, but last night he was asleep and then he sat up and asked me to help him herd dragons. I don't think he's lying, though, I think he just doesn't know.

Classes are ok, I like Charms - we have it with the Gryffindors, and so I get to see Rose.

- Albus

P.S. Can you get James to stop making fun of me? He keeps going 'sss' when he sees me in the halls now.

* * *

"Sssss!"

A hand came down and caught Albus roughly around the head and neck, and began to ruffle his hair almost violently. Albus knew what was going to come next even before he had said anything; "Wot'cher up to, Snake, m'boy?"

Albus frowned, flattening his messy hair and scowling at the grinning James. "My name is Albus."

"Funny, I had a brother named Albus once." James said, still grinning from ear to ear. "He was eaten by a bunch of snakes, though."

"Shut up." Albus scowled, smoothing his hair back some and continuing to walk in the direction of his Potions class. "I wrote Dad about what a jerk you're being."

"Getting Daddy to fight your battles, eh?" James asked, falling into step with the other. He reached out and straightened his red and orange tie before grabbing at Albus's silver and green one and pulling it loose. "How brave of you."

Had James been a less brave boy than he was, the look that Albus sent him would have sent him running. As it was, he just ignored the other as Albus reknotted his tie slowly. Seeming to sense he went too far, James offered an apologetic smile. "Anyway, you doing okay? Sleeping with one eye open, never showing your back, and all that?"

"It isn't as bad as all that." Albus said grouchily, hating that James was feeding into all about Gryffindors that he'd been told in the dungeons. "They're nice, just in a different way."

"Riiight." James said, in a voice nothing short of skeptical; "Do your big brother a favor and plant a dungbomb in Morgana's room, eh? It'd be great. He's such a ponce."

Albus tried to envision Morgana's face, and quickly brought to mind an image of a wiry looking boy with a foul temper. He'd sent the first years scattering more than once during one of his tempers, because he had a nasty habit of firing curses at whoever was in his way when he was in one of his moods. Albus snorted at Jame's request; "No way. I'm not putting my neck on the line so you can have a laugh."

"C'mon. What good is it having a brother in the dungeons if he won't be my inside man?" James said, in a pleading sort of voice; "Have you met Morgana? He's a jerk. He deserves something coming to him."

"I know he does." Albus muttered, nodding at a brown-faced girl over to the side that he recognised from the dungeons. "But why can't someone else do it? I don't feel like being hexed by him, y'know? He's got quite a mean Boils Curse. Find someone else to do it."

"SSsss." James responded, sticking out a tongue and cuffing his younger brother against the head again. "Later, Snake-bite."

* * *

"Snake-bite? That's new."

Albus nodded grimly at Scorpius, his expression one of vague and distant amusement. He'd just finished recapping his daily encounter with his brother, which for some reason, Scorpius always found much more amusing than he did.

"Yes, well, quite good for James. Originality isn't one of his strongest points." Albus said slowly. He gave Scorpius an awkward half-smile since he felt rather mean for saying something like that about James - but he knew that Scorpius would laugh at it, and that made it somewhat worth it. "It's better than Snake, I s'pose."

True enough, Scorpius grinned at the statement and let out a giggle.

The giggle was cut short, however, by a yell from near the fireplace; "-I need a first year over here, now!"

Scorpius and Albus's eyes met each other, and they both wore matching pained expressions. Scorpius raised an eyebrow and nodded over in Albus's direction; "You do it. Ralph made me write his essay for him last night while he spoke it - five bloody feet. It was awful, my hand is still sore."

"I said I need a fucking first year!"

Albus flinched at the yell, and made a rude sign before storming off to follow the cry. He feigned a polite expression of indifference, however, when he stood rigidly in front of the fireplace. It was through gritted teeth that he muttered; "You called?"

"It's about time." One of them - a girl with a pug-like face and dark hair - grumbled; "First year, you come immediately when we call you."

Albus bit back a response, and nodded instead. Then he repeated; "You called?"

"First year, do you take Herbology?" A burly boy - bearded, almost closer to man than boy - asked.

"Of course he doesn't! He's a first year!" Pug-girl snapped in irritation, she glanced over at him; "Do you know Professor Longbottom? Fat? Big-in-the-tooth-"

"-Too big for his fucking britches?" A voice chimed in from another seated figure.

"That's the one!" Pug said again, laughing darkly. "Do you know him?"

As a matter of fact Albus did know him, and well. Pug had been wrong, first years did take Herbology - it was one of the classes Albus didn't mind too much, and he wasn't all that bad in. Even if he didn't take it, however, he would have known who she was talking about instantly. Professor Longbottom had always been Uncle Neville when he was growing up - full of warm smiles and always showing them some fascinating thing or another. To tell the truth, he'd been one of Albus's favourite of his father's friends, and one of his favourite professors here.

"No." Albus lied, hoping that would end the matter and they'd send Scorpius or another one of them off to do their dirty work. "Haven't met him yet."

"Oi, oi, perfect. He won't suspect you." The bearded-boy said, looking happy. He pressed a lump into Albus's outstretched hand; "We need you to put this in his desk. Greenhouse 2."

Albus looked down in his hands, and his heart fell to see a brown little Dungbomb sitting snug there. They wanted him to put this in Uncle Neville's desk? "Greenhouse 2? I don't know where that is."

"Take your little friend with you," Pug said, nodding in Scorpius's direction - who was watching them intensly; "He'll know where it is. I had him pick up a book I forgot there once."

Albus bit his lip.

"He's in Greenhouse 4 right now, we checked." Beard said, misinterpreting Albus's hesitation for fear and apparently having a bit of pity for the boy. "Don't worry, you won't get caught."

"Um. Can I ask..." Albus hesitated, trying to find the right words that wouldn't get him yelled at. He couldn't find any, and settled for a polite tone instead; "Why we're doing this to him?"

"No, you c-" Pug started in a shrill voice, but Beard put up his hand to silence her. She went quiet instantly, and flopped back into her chair while giving Albus a nasty look.

"He took twenty points from Slytherin today - just because we gave some little lion cubs exactly what they deserve." Beard said, as if to try an extract from sympathy from Albus. To the other's surprise, Albus felt a surge of indignance in the words - twenty points? Nothing they could have done justified that amount of points taken. "-And now we're gonna give him what he deserves, is all."

Albus's hand closed over the dungbomb slowly, and he nodded; " Yeah. Okay."

* * *

"-And it blew up in his FACE!"

Herbology lessons had been cancelled for the day. The students had been told that Professor Longbottom was feeling ill, and wasn't up to taking classes. Word-of-mouth, however, had spread the story fast that he was really hiding his face after a vicious Dungbomb explosion. It was such an exciting and scandalous stories , that the Gryffindor and Slytherins had a difficult time talking about much else - they had been put in the library to study, but were too busy exchanging gossip with another to crack a book open.

"And I heard he's taken five baths with Essence of Gooein, and it still hasn't come off!" Zacharias Smith chortled, blond head bobbing back in roaring laughter. "Whoever did it was brilliant!"

Scorpius sent Albus a private smile, and nudged him in the side where nobody could see. Albus, however, didn't return the smile - he felt rather rotten.

"What's wrong?" Scorpius asked softly, ducking his head closer to Albus's; "You've gone all funny pale."

Albus found himself resisting snapping at the other with a comment over who was really pale, but instead only flicked open his Herbology book with a thump. He shook his head distractedly, looking at the illustrations and feeling mournful; "We shouldn't have done it."

"Done wha- oh, the dung thing? C'mon! You heard Zac - everyone thinks we're brilliant!" Scorpius hissed, his face bright and happy. "Besides, it's already paid off; the fourth years called me over by name today!"

"They know who you are?" Albus said skeptically, always having assumed the upperclassmen simply saw them as short blurs.

"Well, they said Malfoy - but that's not the point, yeah?" Scorpius said, waving his hand dismissively. "They know us. They like us! We'll be sitting by the fire before you know it."

It was a valid point, and a rather tempting one - most first years, he knew, would be falling over themselves for the opportunity that they had. It was why he couldn't speak to anyone about this, even Scorpius - the others wouldn't seem to catch how there could be possibly anything wrong with it. True, Albus could see the benefits, but he could also imagine Professor Longbottom's face perfectly as well.

"He's not hurt, you know." Scorpius tried again, in a softer tone; "It's just, you know, he probably smells a bit."

"I know." Albus mumbled.

" You're not going to be caught. Nobody would suspect us."

"I know."

"So what's the problem?" Scorpius said, looking defeated. "We got away with it, he's fine, we're gonna be heroes - what's wrong with you?"

"It's - it's - " Albus sighed, biting his lower lip; "It's a family thing."

"Oh. Family." Scorpius said, his tone changing a considerable amount more than Albus would have expected. Albus often had the impression that his friend knew him a lot more than he knew the other - this was one of those times. Scorpius nodded slowly; "Okay, yeah. I get you now."

Albus doubted that he did, but he was grateful for his friend's sympathy. It also seemed to make Scorpius drop the subject, to Albus's relief. Scorpius just nodded his head and glanced over at the book instead of pressing further. His blase expression only lasted a moment, however, before he looked smug and pleased with himself once more.

Albus rolled his eyes.

He was getting to know Scorpius better than he thought he did.

* * *

Albus,
Actually we hadn't gotten the letter from James when we got yours - and we (your mother and Lily too!), are all very proud of you. You'll have to tell us all about what it's like. I'm sure you've got lots of interesting stories to tell us, and I can't wait to see you in December. I miss you. Remember what we spoke about at the Platform? It's true now. We couldn't be more thrilled.

You're not used to sharing a room - and it can be tough. Mum says one of her roommates used to snore, and so we've sent you some ear plugs. Don't worry, though, you'll get used to it. It's a lot of fun. How are your other dorm mates? Your other friends? I'm glad to hear you and Rose get to talk still, it's important to keep the old friends and enjoy the new at the same time.

Charms is quite good, although I was never all that great in it. I'm glad to hear you're enjoying it! How is Herbology? We heard from James that Uncle Neville was feeling under the weather following some incident, so would you give him our love? Mum's words, not mine. James won't do it, of course, but hopefully you'll get a chance to see him.

Write to Lily, won't you? She misses you, and has been driving us all batty with her fake-Hogwarts play.

We all miss you, though.

Love,

Daddy (And Mommy and Lily)

P.S. Did Uncle Ron send you a letter? He's just joking.

childish @ 2007-07-25T15:19:00

2007-07-25T19:30:06Z

SPOILERS FOR DEATHLY HALLOWS INSIDE
Title: Snakes and Ladders
Chapter: Two - The Sorting Hat and Choices
Rating: G
Pairings: AS/S, although nothing yet.
Thank-You to novangla, jenken and starfreckled who glanced over it for me and beta'd and such! Oh, and thank you all for such a positive response. I heart ASS.

Summary: Arrival to Hogwarts brings the inevitable Sorting.

True to his word, Scorpius was more than a useful friend.

After they left the bathroom, they'd retrieved Scorpius's luggage from his compartment and dragged it back and forth to the cabin Albus shared with Rose. Albus found himself wishing that someone would take pity on them and help ( Scorpius had a ridiculous amount of luggage), but he never really realised it was because Scorpius had been sitting alone up until then.

The rest of the trip passed swiftly and pleasantly. He and Scorpius talked the rest of the way, and he could hardly believe his luck in choosing a friends: they both supported the Chudley Cannons, and collected model dragons. Scorpius even had a model Chinese Fireball, which he said he'd gotten from China, and he pulled it out of one of his big black suitcases and let it crawl all over Albus's hand. Rose had wanted to examine it but Scorpius made a funny face and said he didn't want it to break, before stuffing it back into his bag again. Rose hadn't spoke much to Scorpius after that.

Not that Albus minded, because he rather liked that Scorpius preferred him over Rose. People were always being impressed by Rose, because she was good at magic already and so smart - the most he ever got was 'just like your father' and a pat on the head. Having someone who cared more about him and paid more attention to him was a nice change, and he reveled in it a bit.

Albus was having such a good time that he didn't notice the darkening window outside, or that the train slowing down. It was only after Rose began packing up her books that either boy looked up.

"We get off here." Rose explained, as she tucked her book back into a bright red satchel. "We transfer onto the boats, Al, Mum told me."

Sure enough, as soon as they stepped off the train - a big burly man was wielding a lantern high above his head, and yelling at the top of his voice; "FIRS' YEARS, FIRS' YEARS O'ER HERE."

Scorpius's mouth was near Albus's ear in a split second, and he hissed; "His name is Hagrid, and he's half-giant. He's the Groundskeeper here. He used to be a professor here before he stepped down - but my father says he was probably sacked."

Albus didn't respond to Scorpius, but instead ducked his head down and pretended to be interested in the buttons of his cloak instead. Hagrid was half-giant? Nobody had told him that. Albus could remember being swept up into big hugs, and having dirty tears pouring over his head; none of those images seemed compatible with the giants in the stories he'd read or a man who had 'stepped down' from being a professor. He bit his lower lip, and hung back some - hoping that Hagrid wouldn't see him before he got a chance to get his thoughts in order.

"ALBUS!" The large face split into a smile, and the dark eyes twinkled as he hunkered over to look down at the flushing boy. "It's good to see yeh. Yeh look jus' like yer Dad did! Off t'Gryffindor for yeh soon, I 'spect."

Grateful that nobody would be able to see how pink he'd turned in the dim lighting from the lantern, Albus concentrated on staring at his trainers and pretending like Scorpius wasn't giving his back a funny look.

As it turned out, Scorpius wasn't staring at Albus for very long - since he, with a great deal of other nervous-looking and smaller of the students, had begun trailing after Hagrid. The lantern he was waving didn't produce nearly enough light, and the path they were walking was narrow and steep. More than once, Rose grabbed onto Albus's shoulder and squeaked after missing her step. A look over his shoulder revealed a surprisingly nervous looking Scorpius, who had his eyes trained on the ground and was taking very careful steps.

Soon enough, a fleet of little boats came into view - and Albus felt his stomach squirm. He'd heard about all sorts of things about the Lake at Hogwarts; how his father had to fight the merpeople, and about the Grindylows, and the Giant Squid. They'd told him about how he'd ride along on a boat to Hogwarts, but they'd never mentioned how unsafe and little it looked. A look over Scorpius confirmed that he knew and was thinking the exact same thing, and he made an absurd face in Albus's direction.

Hagrid ordered them to into groups of four per boat, and Albus piled in one after Rose, Scorpius, and another thin blond boy. The blond boy managed to slip in between Albus and Scorpius, and the prior was horrified to see the two pale heads ducked together in whispered conversation.

"Dad said not to get too friendly with him,." A voice whispered softly in his ear, and he turned to see Rose glowering at him. "And you're carrying on like you're best mates or something."

"He is my mate." Albus said, surprised that he fully believed it was true - although he found he couldn't quite say best.

"Why?" Rose said, wrinkling a freckled nose; "He's a complete prat."

"He is not!" Albus cried, a little too loudly - and he lowered his voice when the other in question looked up, momentarily confused. "He's really nice, and he's useful. We should listen to him."

"I heard what he said about Hagrid." Rose said, coldly. "And I heard what you didn't say back."

His mouth formed a prim and guilty line, and he looked down at the glassy water on the other side of the boat. Albus knew that Rose was right about Hagrid, but that didn't justify her being mean about Scorpius. In a sulky voice, he muttered; "That doesn't make him a prat."

"Yes, it does."

They endured the remainder of the trip in icy silence.

* * * *

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

The plump little black girl on the stool practically leapt off, and rushed to join the cheering house on the far right. She looked more pleased than Albus would have expected her to, and certainly more than he would have been.

"I'd off myself if I was put in Hufflepuff." Scorpius hissed softly, and Albus nodded furiously - pleased that Scorpius was paying attention to him once more.

"I'd do it if I were placed in Slytherin." Albus muttered back, his green eyes wide in mock horror at the very thought of it. Those eyes stayed wide in a worried panic, wen he noticed that Scorpius didn't look amused at the thought. "What?"

"I'm going to be put in Slytherin." Scorpius said with a confidence that Albus couldn't even imagine having. "Malfoys always are. My father was there, and so was his father, and you know."

"Slytherin?" Albus was staring at the other in total disbelief now - Scorpius was nice, his new friend even, and he wanted to be in Slytherin? "But why?"

"It's the best house." Scorpius said in his usual know-it-all sort of tone, his chin raised proudly. "Slytherins go places."

"Yeah, straight to Azkaban." A brown-haired boy said, looking smug. His comment got a few giggles from people nearby, and a furious look from Scorpius. "Y'know. The place your Dad wormed out of going, Malfoy."

Albus blinked.

Scorpius blotched an angry red and twisted to glower at the other; "Watch your mouth, Lenor, or I'll watch it for you.

'Lenor' turned to glance at Albus, and an expression of recognition crossed his face. It made Albus feel uncomfortable, and he had the unpleasant feeling of being sized up by this 'Lenor' creature. "You're Albus Potter, right? You should watch out for him. He's a bad sort."

"Excuse me?" Albus said, feeling a bit prickly and strange. Who was this boy, and why did he know who he was?

"You heard me. I know all about his family - a bunch of dark-wizards." He pointed a thick finger in the direction of Scorpius, who appeared to be seething. His normally pale complexion was flushed a gentle pink, and his lips were pursed. Lenor didn't seem to notice or care, and pushed on instead; "I'm sure this one will go to Slytherin, and end up just as rotten as the rest of them do. You should stay away from him."

Albus looked back at Scorpius, his newest friend, and saw the other pink and breathing heavily through his nose. It wasn't just anger, though. Scorpius's eyes didn't meet the other's, and it struck Albus that the other was embarassed.

Before he could stop himself, words were spilling out of his mouth in an attempt to make the sad look leave Scorpius's face. It sounded like James was talking, because Albus surely didn't have this bold, confident voice:

"I'll have you know, that my Dad and his Dad are friends." Albus fibbed, giving the other a haughty expression, "And my Dad would never be friends with a dark wizard. You should check your facts before you start spreading lies."

Lenor's expression darkened, and he looked like he was considering hitting Albus. Finally the other settled on a snort; "Whatever. You're just like him anyway - I'd knew you'd be vain."

"LYTE, LENOR!" A voice rang out before Albus had a chance to respond, and the other was walking off without a word.

There was an awkward silence, as both of them frowned in the direction of Lenor. Albus's stomach sank as a moment later Lenor walked over to a cheering table of Gryffindors. Lenor was going to be in Gryffindor? Albus's eyes flashed to the familiar face of James in the crowd who was grinning and cheering, and felt torn. He wanted to be with James in Gryffindor, but the thought of sharing a bedroom with Lenor was somewhat less than appealing.

"Thanks, Albus." A voice breathed at his side, and he turned to see Scorpius looking over at the crowd. It took a moment before he realised that it had been Scorpius who had muttered the thanks, since the other wouldnt' meet his eye.

"MALFOY, SCORPIUS!"

"Good luck." Albus whispered, his own stomach twisting in sympathy. Despite Scorpius's earlier confidence, he looked nervous and small as he walked up to the stool.

Apparently his fear was short-lived, however, as it took barely a moment for the hat to touch his head before it yelled;"SLYTHERIN!"

Albus's stomach dropped, and he realised that he'd been hoping that despite Scorpius's earlier confidence - he would be placed in Gryffindor. He frowned at Scorpius's beaming face, who was grinning from ear to ear as he practically skipped to the clapping table to the far left. Even though he could see how happy his new friend was, he bit his lower lip and wished the hat would announce it had made a mistake and call him back. If Scorpius was in Slytherin, Albus would just about never see him - and he liked him.

He was so busy sulking, he didn't realise that his name had been called until a blond girl nudged him in the side. "You're up."

Albus felt his feet shuffle forward on their own accord, and he could hear his heart thumping in his ears as he moved towards the stool. The hat on top of it was tattered and appeared to have been burned at some point, and it looked like it was on the verge of falling apart. It was with frightened and clammy hands that he reached for the hat, and he looked over the crowd nervously - they were all staring at him with a rapt attention he hadn't noticed with the other students before him. Hands went up to ears, and kids were whispering to each other. Was something the matter? He sought out the face of James in the crowd, and saw the other smiling expectantly at his brother - nudging his friends and pointing up at Albus. It was with a deep breath that he finally placed the hat upon his own untidy hair.

Well, well, well. A voice suddenly erupted in his ear, making him jump slightly. 'What have we here?'

Athough his father had told him that the hat would give him a choice, it hadn't occured to Albus that it would literally speak to him and offer him the choice. Albus felt his own hands tighten nervously on the brim, and his stomach turned.

'Another Potter? And...quite the Potter, too.' The hat said smoothly, and Albus felt it rippling some. 'Interesting, interesting.'

' Interesting? Is that...good?'

'Things are not as simple as good and bad, child. ' It was the first time Albus had heard a hat sound thoughtful, 'And with you, things clearly aren't simple. '

'I want to be in Gryffindor,' Albus thought instinctively, 'Please!'

'Gryffindor? Really, now? Why?'

That hadn't been the response that Albus had been expecting, he'd suspected that it'd echo his request and send him on his way. The hat it made it sound questioning, as if it were skeptical of the other's choice.

' I want Gryffindor - it's, it's, well, it's the best house isn't it? Everyone says so.' Albus thought nervously, trying to figure out the answer the hat was looking for. His mind raced as to what to say, like he was doing some sort of quiz. Finally he settled on: "If I'm in Gryffindor, Jam-I mean, people will...respect me. They'll listen to me. I'll be...um...I . "

'You wish for...Respect? Reputation? Power? Esteem?' The hat chuckled, it's brim rippling; ' These are not things that most Gryffindors concern themselves with...but for a Slytherin. Yes, yes, Slytherin... You'd do well there.'

Albus's mouth opened silently in surprise at the hat's deduction, and it was out loud that he whispered a nervous; "Slytherin?"

' A desire for greatness, yes, very ambitious...and...hm, yes, yes, Slytherin it'll be.'

Panicked now, Albus's eye's widened; "No, I get a choice!"

'Choices are given to those who need them.' The hat said calmly, 'Your heart has spoken your choice loud and clear. '

"SLYTHERIN!"

Albus's short cry of 'no' was lost in the flood of cheers and stampeding that came from the far right of the room. He desperately thought 'Gryffindor, Gryffindor, Gryffindor!' - but the hat either no longer could, or no longer would speak with him. His hands were shaking as he pulled the hat off of his head, and pretended that he couldn't see his brother's stunned face in the crowd.

Snakes and Ladders - Chapter One

2007-07-23T01:34:12Z

SPOILERS FOR DEATHLY HALLOWS INSIDE
Title: Snakes and Ladders
Chapter: One - The Hogwarts Express
Rating: G (right now)
Pairings: AS/S, although nothing yet.
Thank-You to novangla, jenken and starfreckled who glanced over it for me and beta'd and such!
Summary: Like so many before him, Albus's first ride to Hogwarts sets the stage for things to come.

Long after the train had turned the corner, and his father was no longer anything other than a speck in the distance - Albus leaned heavily against the wall and stared in the direction of where he'd last seen his grinning face.

Up until this point, going to Hogwarts had seemed like a distant dream to make-believe about with Rose - like growing up, and having jobs and getting married and stuff. It was something your Mum said you were going to do, and you just believed her even though you hadn't any proof.

Well, now Albus had more than his own share of proof - in the breeze blowing untidy black hair about, and the green-blur of trees reflected in a pair of tidy spectacles.

Merlin, he really was going to Hogwarts.

The thought made his stomach clench, and that combined with the motion of the train produced an unpleasant nauseating feeling. He ducked his head back into the carriage, where Rose was already sitting crosslegged on a chair with a book laying open in her lap. When he settled back into his seat, she glanced up from her book to look up at his rapidly-greening face.

"You better not get sick in here, Albus!" She said, wrinkling a freckled nose in his direction. "Cleaning Charms are the ones I'm rubbish at, you know?"

"I'm not going to!" Albus lied, shifting to lay down in his seat.

"I mean it!" Rose said, pointing a finger squarely at the door; "Go to the toilets. We're going to be in here for hours and hours, and I don't want it to smell like sick."

Years of experience playing with her had made Albus smart enough to know not to challenge Rose when she was in one of her moods. Normally the red-haired girl was fairly easy-going, but when she wanted to boss you - you were better off just ducking your head and going along with it. He rolled off the seat less-than-gracefully, and made his way to the door.

The hall was empty, long, and confusing - who knew that there would be so many rows of cabins on one train? It hadn't looked quite so long from outside. Albus couldn't remember how many people James had said went to Hogwarts, but it seemed like loads upon loads.

His stomach lurched, and he doubled his efforts to find the bathroom - coming close to running up the aisles now.

His efforts were rewarded when he stumbled through a pair of walnut doors and into a tidy bathroom compartment. Albus pushed another boy out of his way, and stumbled into a narrow stall. Moments later, he was doubled over the toilet and wretching.

Having not eaten anything all day out of excitement proved to be an idiot idea, and a very uncomfortable one. It felt like hours had passed before he felt better, and his very sides seemed to ache from the effort. Albus sat there kneeling for a moment, feeling daft and childish, and wanting his Mum very badly when something wet struck the back of his head.

Albus grabbed at the back of his head in a panic, wondering if he'd somehow managed to get sick on the ceiling or the effort had made his magic do something odd - or - or -

"-That was about the most disgusting thing I've ever heard." A slow voice said from behind his head. "Wipe your mouth."

Just about when the other spoke, Albus had closed on what exactly hit his head - it was a damp cloth. Somewhat grateful, although completely mortified, Albus obliged with the other's instructions and wiped his mouth clean. He felt, at least, a little less disgusting now. Pink in the face, he turned to face the other.

It was the boy who he'd blown past in his effort to get into the bathroom, and the same he'd seen his Dad, and Mum, and everyone staring at - a blond boy, a bit taller than him. What had his name been? Scorpio? Something odd. Uncle Ron hadn't seemed to like him very much, and it made Albus feel a bit edgy.

He sat there staring at the other for a moment, biting a lip a bright pink, and waiting for the other to walk away.

Instead, Scorpi-whatsit merely raised a pale eyebrow and began to speak once mmore: "In polite society," He drawled, "The appropriate response might be 'Thank you'."

"I was gonna say it, you just didn't give me a chance!" Albus cut in, rising to his feet and frowning at the other. "What are you, my Mum?"

"I'd obviously be a better Mum than the one you've got. My mother wouldn't dream of sending me to Hogwarts if I was sick, and I should know." He said in an obnoxiously know-it-all sort of voice. "I received my letter last year, but I was ill and so I didn't go. Your mother just doesn't care."

Albus's pink had developed into a beautifully angry red - the only physical aspect of his mother in sight. "She does care! And I'm not sick - it's just...nerves."

The other boy rolled gray eyes to the ceiling, before fixing them in a steely gaze on Albus. It was a look designed to make other squirm before it, perfected in front of a mirror and mimicked from an angry father. Albus, however, had practiced a few glares himself - picked up from his own father. The particular look he returned to the other stemmed from an incident where his father had walked in to discover James and Albus standing guiltily by the pieces of a broken broom.

The other cut his eyes and looked the other way.

"Yeah, well. Are your 'nerves' better - or are you going to be sick again?"

Truth be told, speaking with this other boy had made Albus almost completely forget that overwhelming feeling in his stomach. He let his own arms relax from where they'd tightened into angry fists at his side, and nodded slowly. "Yeah. I'm ok."

There was a comfortable silence.

"My father knows your father." The other cut in, abruptly. "They went to school together." That hadn't been what Albus expected the other to say, and it wasn't anything that he'd heard. Before he could say something, however, the blond boy rushed on. "Your father is Harry Potter, right? I'm Scorpius. Scorpius Malfoy."

"Y-Yeah, I am." Albus said, feeling confused. He was pretty sure he knew most of his Dad's friends from school, and Albus had never seen that blond man in his life. "I'm Al."

"Well, of course I know that. You're Albus Potter, and your father is Harry Potter and your mother is...some Weasley. You've got an older brother, and a little sister." He rattled off Albus's family history cheerfully, counting them off on his fingers like Rose counting off the latest facts she'd read in some book. "Is it true you've got like twenty uncles and aunts?"

Albus blinked.

"Nuh-uh. I've only got five uncles and um, four aunts." He said, scrunching up his face and visualizing them all in his heads.

Scorpius's eyes went wide at the news of Albus's family, and he mouthed 'Merlin'. "I've only got one aunt, and that's it. You've got loads, Father was right."

Albus stomach fluttered uncomfortably, and he felt nervous again - he didn't want to be the weird kid with too many aunts and uncles. Especially because Scorpius was already staring agog at him, and he felt like a bug or something. "Oh, yeah. I guess. I...um...they're not all...I mean. It's-how do you know all this?"

"My father told me, and my father knows just about everything about everyone." Scorpius said matter-of-factly.

"Oh." Albus said, frowning some and feeling a bit lost.

"We should be friends," Scorpius announced, sticking out a pale hand. "I'm pretty useful and all, being that Father's told me so much about everything - I'm a good, um, what'sit? Resource. Yeah."

Albus hesitated, looking at the outstretched hand. Scorpius was a little overwhelming, truth be told, and Albus felt like he needed a second to absorb all that he heard before making a decision. At the same time, however, his heart leapt at the idea of having a mate already. His father had told him about how he and Uncle Ron had met on their train to Hogwarts, and had been inseperable ever since. Scorpius did seem to know an awful lot, too - and not just those pointless facts that Rose could spout non-stop. Scorpius knew the important ones, like who-knew-who, what was normal, and how to act. It was like James, if James wasn't a complete jerk. Make no mistake, he liked Rose and she was fun and all - but - she wasn't his very own friend.

"Yeah." Albus said, taking Scorpius's hand in his - it was warmer than it looked. "Friends."

Friends Only

2006-01-16T19:12:05Z

Friends Only. Mostly.