The Next Generation

One Dead Owl, Four Letters

"Albus?!" Scorpius half shouted, startled. He lowered his voice a little, saying, "I wasn't expecting— what are you doing here?"

"I couldn't sleep tonight, so I decided to write a letter to my father, updating him on recent events. I also told him about how you might be staying with us over summer break, and I explained why. What are you doing here, sending a letter as well?"

"Well, no. My owl is dead, and I found those next to him." Albus turned his attention to where Scorpius was pointing, frightened. There lay the same old Bengal Eagle Owl that he had seen Scorpius tie a letter to at the beginning of the year, except that now, the owl was lifeless. Next to him were 4 letters addressed to Scorpius, stacked on top of each other as if a human had placed them down there. "The letters are from my father, except they never got delivered to me. Someone must have been taking my mail and hiding it from me. I'm almost certain it was Parkinson," he said, his eyes still fixed on his lifeless owl. "That owl was my father's before it was mine," he whispered.

"What happened, Scorp?" Albus asked, worriedly.

"Send your mail first," he answered gloomily.

"Alright," Albus agreed hesitantly, concerned for his friend. He tied his letter to his own owl, Bandit, and sent him off. Then he returned his attention to Scorpius, waiting for him to explain. The blonde boy waited a moment before speaking, as if he was searching for the right words, then he started to talk.

"I was down in the Slytherin common room, still thinking about our conversation, thinking about how I could be friends with you and Rose. It was all of a sudden possible, now that I could stay at yours or Rose's house over the summer if I needed to. I was happy for once, and I must have also appeared very happy. Parkinson noticed that I was in a good mood, and called over his friends. I think he thought I was happy because we had gotten him and his friends in trouble. I was getting into bed when a spell hit my back, the same silencing spell they used on you, I think. So I turned to face them, and they told me they were going to punish me. Punish me for helping you. They said they'd gotten into a lot of trouble because of me, and they weren't pleased about it. I tried to escape, but they were too fast. Everything happened quickly, too quickly, until the next spell hit me. Then, everything seemed to slow down," he said, shuddering. Very slowly, Scorpius looked up and met Albus's eyes. "Turns out their form of punishment was a spell they'd never used on a human before, Parkinson said they'd been practicing the spell on my owl. Then he shot the spell at me, and I sort of froze. It's like my body knew what was coming before I did. It was the same spell that I'd been tortured with before. Then it hit me," Scorpius finished, shaking.

Albus was silent for a moment, registering what his friend had just told him. It was the cruciatus curse, that's what Scorpius meant. Then he pulled Scorpius into a hug, and whispered, "I'm so sorry." A tear rolled down his cheek, then another, and he wasn't even sure why he was crying. Even Scorpius, who had every reason to cry, wasn't. But Albus just felt so bad that his friend had to go through all of this, experience that horrible curse twice, all because of him. Scorpius had said it himself... they punished him because he had rescued Albus. He knew it wasn't entirely his fault, but he still felt incredibly guilty.

Scorpius pulled away from the hug and looked at Albus. "None of this is your fault," he said, as if he could read his friend's mind. "Don't think for a second think that this is your fault. I'm serious." Albus was about to argue, but Scorpius stopped him, saying, "then I'll be mad at you."

Albus was silent for a moment before saying, "I suppose you're right. But Scorpius, what happened to you is wrong. This can't keep happening."

"I know. But what can I do?" he said, looking helpless all over again. Albus hated when his friend looked like that. He wanted to reassure him, explain why it was going to be okay. But this time, he wasn't sure that it would be. The two boys sat there in the owlery a while longer in silence. Finally Albus spoke, saying, "it's getting really late. We should probably go back—" before he remembered that they were in different houses. Then he was truly at a loss for words.

"I don't want to go back to my common room," he whispered.

"I know, and you don't have to. Let's both go to mine," he decided.

Scorpius considered that for a moment. "Isn't there some sort of detecter that would figure out I'm in a different house?"

"No, there's not," he said, thinking of what his father told him about when he and Uncle Ron had ventured into the Slytherin common room in their second year.

"Well, if you're sure... let's go," said Scorpius. He made sure to grab the letters from his father, as well as wrap his lifeless owl in some parchment so he could bury him later, before leaving the owlery behind.

When the boys arrived outside the portrait of the fat lady, Albus whispered the password. He crept into the common room quietly, followed by Scorpius, both trying to make the least amount of noise possible. They had decided that they would sneak up to the boys dormitory and rush over to Albus's bed, with Albus on the side closest to the beds. Scorpius was to face his head away from the beds, so that in the case someone was still awake this late at night, they wouldn't see exactly who Scorpius was. Albus would then quickly pull the invisibility cloak out of his trunk and throw it over Scorpius, who would be sleeping on the floor next to the bed. They had agreed that Scorpius could read the letters that night, as long as he stayed completely under the cloak and quiet. They were then going to wake up early, before anyone else, so that they could head down to the common room with Scorpius invisible. This was to prevent anyone from stepping on him when they got out of bed in the morning. They both settled into bed, scorpius lying on top of a blanket and encased by the invisibility cloak, and finally got to rest after a long day.