A hufflepuff friendship

Chapter 4

SCORPIUS' POV

I awoke to the sound of a scratchy pen on parchment and opened my eyes. I was in the beautiful Hufflepuff dormitory, my head comfortably laid on Albus' pillow. Albus sat at the foot of the bed writing something, presumably a letter to his parents. The bed sheets were wrapped around me, not at all as if someone had just got out. I smiled at the thought of Albus tucking the duvet around my sleeping form, and sat up slowly. His eyes met mine as he shoved his letter into his pocket and grinned devilishly. I frowned and looked about me, for some reason the other students weren't awake yet-they were all still in bed. Albus put one finger to his lips and crawled across the bed to meet me, embracing me warmly, his face pressing into my collar bone.

I picked up my watch and saw that the time was only 6 am. That would explain why everyone else was still asleep. I jumped down from Albus' bed and undressed quickly, conscious that he was staring. I pulled on my new clothes, my brand new Hufflepuff robe lay uncreased and shiny on my bed, and my ironed black trousers lay over a chair. I felt very much at ease with myself as I felt the fabric against my skin, I wasn't a failure to myself anymore. I unzipped my rucksack quietly and grabbed my iPhone from the front pouch. I had twelve new messages from Father. I sighed inwardly. I searched around in the bottom of my bag and found my stone, on it engraved the name of my mother and father and myself. And on the back an awkward photograph of us all, much much younger, smiling into the camera lens. Without my realising, a tear dripped down my cheek. Wiping it away with the cuff of my robe, more fell in its place, and before I knew it a torrent of glistening droplets fell onto the dark carpet. Albus was immediately at my side. I brushed Him away harshly, not wanting the attention drawn to an entirely personal, raw matter. But he would not give up, and I eventually gave in to his dark blue eyes and his enveloping hug.

An alarm sounded somewhere in the room, and a long string of curse words ensued. A short brown haired boy tumbled out of bed and landed loudly on the fluffy carpet. "ow" his voice echoed around the room, and I rushed over to help him up. "Are you OK?" The boy nodded, stood up gracelessly and held out his hand. "Jack Thorne." I picked up his hand. "I'm Scorpius..." I paused. "Go on..." he gestured. "M-M" I stuttered "Uh... Malfoy" "I'm Scorpius Malfoy" The boy smiled warmly. "It's good to meet you, Scorpius" I breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't know about my father's negative legacy. He must be from a muggle family. I smiled back. "Great to meet you too, Jack"

Other boys began to wake up and get dressed. I recognised most of them from the sorting ceremony but there were a few I hadn't seen before who must've arrived later. I tried my best to cut through the Malfoy stereotypes and appear friendly and outgoing, but the others kept their distance and appeared cold and afraid. Only Jack Thorne and Albus had talked to me so far, but that didn't worry me because Albus was the most important person to me at that moment in my life. I knew that he was by my side and even though we had only known each other for a day we were the best of friends. The way that he looked at me might have suggested that he wanted something more, in hindsight, but we were very young-too young to know of romantic love...

"Hey Al." I pushed him across the bed and sat down by him. "Hey, Dude" He replied, smiling up at me, clearly excited for his first real day of Hogwarts. I shared this feeling wholeheartedly. "I'm so excited!" I squealed after at least a minute of awkward silence, and he agreed vigorously.

After a while a bell sounded, signalling that it was time for breakfast. We walked together down the stairs into the common room and headed down into the great hall.