Albus stood up and walked over to the Ravenclaw table, taking a seat opposite Scorpios. Scorpios looked positively ill; his face even paler than it had been earlier, as he thumbed eagle crest on his robes.
“Hello.” Albus said politely, “I’m Albus Potter.” He reached his hand across the table to shake hands. The blonde boy looked up, glancing at Albus’ hand for a long moment, as if he was deliberating something.
“Harry Potter’s son.” Scorpios stated, looking Albus up and down. There was a long moment where the two boys stared at each other, Albus’ green eyes keeping steady contact with Scorpios’ stormy grey eyes.
“I’m Scorpios Malfoy, nice to meet you.” He finally said, meeting Albus’ hand and shaking it warmly. The two boys smiled at each other.
“Weasley, Rose.” Albus heard Professor Hodge call, and he turned away from Scorpios and saw Rose walk forward, taking a seat calmly on the stool, and the hat was placed on her head.
Please be in Ravenclaw.
He repeated the same line over and over again in his head, begging for her to be in his house. Finally, the Sorting Hat made its decision.
“SLYTHERIN!”
Albus joined in cheering loudly and clapping, until the reality hit him. Rose is in Slytherin, James is in Gryffindor. He was alone.
He saw the Headmaster stand up and walk forward, taking his place at the golden eagle podium. The entire hall was silent.
“Greetings Everyone!” He declared, beaming at the Hall, “To our new students, welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and to those returning, welcome back! I would like to remind everyone that the Forbidden Forest is, as the name suggests forbidden to all students, for obvious safety issues. Apart from that, let the feast begin!”
With that, the four tables were filled with bowls of all manner of food and drink, and the Hall erupted into the murmur of hundreds of voices talking at the same time.
Albus turned back to Scorpios who was looking through him, at the Slytherin table. Albus followed his gaze, his eyes landing on Rose. He watched as Scorpios caught her eye, and she blushed a little, looking away. Scorpios looked down at his bowl, his cheeks tinged pink.
Albus couldn’t help smiling.
“I’ll introduce you to her, if you’d like?” Albus asked, scooping up a fork-full of green beans.
Scorpios choked on his pumpkin juice for a few seconds, before he recovered.
“Really?” He asked, his grey eyes looking softer, kinder almost.
“Yeah, no problem.” Albus smiled, leaning over and jabbing his fork into a sausage, before sitting down, dropping the sausage onto his plate.
“How do you feel about the Sorting?” Albus asked Scorpios, after a minute of silent eating between the pair.
“Honestly, I wanted to be in Slytherin.” Scorpios answered, his voice sounding kind of upset, “I don’t know how father will react.”
“I’m sure he won’t mind.” Albus answered, “My Dad wanted me to be in Gryffindor, you know keeping with family tradition and all that. He’ll be proud of me either way though.”
“My dad isn’t like yours.” Scorpios answered quietly, pulling on his sleeve.
Albus decided it best not to ask Scorpios to indulge him in details; he would wait until they became closer.
“I know how you feel.” A boy who neither Albus nor Scorpios had noticed before suddenly said. The boy was older than Albus, probably around sixteen. He was definitely handsome with his light brown hair and his bright blue eyes, he had a prominent jaw line too, he would have seemed run of the mill ordinary, yet there was something off, something that made him odd and incredibly interesting. He seemed to be sketching in a small leather-bound notebook which he closed over and placed in his pocket when he saw Albus looking, along with a quill.
