Harry Potter: 19 Years Later

Chapter 60: The Boy With The Silver Eyes

(A/N: The image attached is a little edit I made in honor of my 60th chapter. 60TH CHAPTER!!)

"And who said miracles didn't exist?" Albus said smugly, shoving his Herbology exam paper in Scorpius's face. He was almost hopping around the Great Hall with excitement.

Scorpius took the paper from Albus's hands and skimmed the front of it, his eyes widening with disbelief. "You got a perfect score."

"A perfect score!" Albus shouted with glee. "I should've gotten you to tutor me in Herbology years ago!"

Scorpius couldn't help but laugh. He had to admit to himself, he was better at Herbology than he thought. Tutoring Albus helped him realize that.

"Wow, I never thought I'd see the day where Albus is actually happy when he looks at his Herbology test score," Holly commented from across the table, clearly enjoying the sight of Albus acting as thrilled as a child on Christmas as much as Scorpius was.

"I'm surprised he managed to pull it off with just a week of tutoring," Scorpius said, comparing his own test paper with Albus's. His friend managed to score one point higher than he did.

"You should've seen Professor Longbottom's face when he handed me the exam," Albus raved. "He looked like he was about to cry!"

No, Albus looked like he was about to cry. Cry actual tears of joy. It was kind of hilarious, and reminded Scorpius of when Albus drank firewhisky with him back in October. Except he was ten times more emotional then than he was now.

Oh, how Scorpius reveled in those moments. Besides the amount of work he put into helping Albus with Herbology, it was the best week he had had in a long time. Scorpius truly missed hanging out with Albus, and the past week reminded him of how much he needed his best friend. As cheesy as it sounded, it was true. Albus kept Scorpius sane.

And he kept him out of trouble. Scorpius had been hanging out with Natalia and his other Slytherin friends less and less, which meant no more getting into mischief. He'd been getting his homework done and doing better in his classes too, and could tell his reputation was repairing itself. As riveting as it felt to get into trouble and, well, be a Slytherin, Scorpius forgot that being a Gryffindor felt just as good. He was more secure.

Along with the renewed friendship with Albus, Scorpius was also happy that Holly occasionally hung out with the two boys as well. She was reluctant to do so, which was understandable, at first. He knew it was because she was so close to Rose, and wanted to remain loyal to her. Scorpius felt guilty that he was the reason Holly had to keep secrets from her best friend. Hopefully this arrangement wouldn't last.

What Scorpius really wanted was for things to be back to the way they were. When it was just him, Albus, Holly, and Rose, and no one else. No Natalia or Xander. Just the tight-knit group of four who were dealing with being the reincarnations of the Four Founders of Hogwarts together. He could tell by the longing looks in Albus and Holly's eyes when the three of them hang out that they want things back to normal too.

But that just wasn't going to happen any time soon. What Scorpius had done left too much damage.

"Scorpius," Holly suddenly said, her voice tight. Her bright eyes were focused across the room at the entrance of the Great Hall.

Scorpius followed her gaze, and his heart sunk. Rose and Xander had just walked in, too busy looking at each other to notice their friends yet, and were heading straight for their table. That was Scorpius's cue to leave.

"You don't have to go," Albus told him, grabbing the sleeve of his robe. Scorpius gave his friend a sad look.

"You know I do," he replied, rushing away to the Slytherin table. Just to his luck, Natalia and her group of Slytherin friends were sitting at his usual spot, waiting for him like they were the predators and he was their prey.