Hogwarts: A Future

Chapter Five: In a Name

Standing in the Gryffindor boy's dormitory Scorpios felt nervousness building up in his chest, as it had done all day. He had had no clue that Al was a Gryffindor when the boy had offered help, had not known in the panicked race up the stairs that the older students who came to help were also Gryffindors.

The fact of their House did not bother him. As far as he was concerned, he thought with heavy tiredness now mingling with the jittering fear, the students in his own House had wanted to attack him, so how bad could the other House's be? What made him wrap his arm about himself once more were the words his father had said to him the day before September 1st. His father had brought up a surprise for him as his mother was helping him pack in his bedroom.

'Scorpius, look, if you put your socks neatly into your cauldron there'd be more room,' his mother sighed, removing (yet again) various items of clothing which Scorpius had attempted to squish into his trunk.

'It doesn't matter, Mum, I'll make it all fit,' Scorpius had replied, forcing a wedge of books into the space she had just made. Astoria shook back her dark hair looking down into the trunk.

'Anything you forget or need your father and I can send to you, dear. Let's make sure you have the essentials, like enough pants!' his mother said, half exasperated, half laughing.

'Perhaps a break from packing is needed,' his father said moving into his bedroom from the open doorway. In his hand he held a something with a cover over it, shaped like a bell.

'Dad, dad, I won't need this many jumpers for ages, will I? So I can leave them, and take almost half my comics, cant I?' Scorpius asked persuasively.

'Has your mother told you to take those?' his father gestured towards a neat pile of jumpers, folded on top of each other, clearly untouched by his son.

Scorpius hesitated, 'Well...'

'Then you take them.' His father said with a smile. 'Look, Scorpius, it gets very cold that far north. You'll be wishing for your jumpers by the end of September.'

Sighing, Scorpius picked up the pile, and placed it in the trunk where it immediately became lopsided and wrinkled.

'Now, we thought you'd might like something to take with you,' his mother and father smiled, 'here you are.'

His dad handed him the shrouded object. Removing the cloth revealed a cage and within it the most beautiful owl Scorpius had ever seen. Soft black eyes stared calmly up at him from a delicate grey and brown face. The owl's markings where horizontal stripes of brown and grey. Scorpius could only stare in wonder at the owl.

'He's... he's amazing!' he said softly, offering the owl a finger. The owl gently took it in his yellow beak. Carefully putting the cage down on the floor, Scorpius turned to his father to hug him. 'Thank you!' his voice was a happy muffle against his father's chest. 'He's brilliant!'

Wrapping his arms around his son, Draco smiled down at Scorpius' blond head, 'I'm glad you like him. Take care of him, alright?'

Scorpius looked up nodding. Moving to his mother he also hugged her, sitting on the bed beside her, 'Thanks Mum!' His mother kept an arm around his shoulders after the hug, smiling, but glancing up at her husband with the expression Scorpius had seen when his father came home from work late, or if he had done something wrong. It wasn't a full blown mum-is-really-angry expression, It was the expression she sometimes wore when she might not agree with something, but would go with the situation.