Leave Out All The Rest

Troubled Days

Chapter Eight: Troubled Days

POV: Albus and James

"I take it back," Lucas groaned from beneath a tree overlooking the Black Lake. He stretched his limbs out, the plush grass shaping around him. He kicked his school books, uncaring that his inkpot rolled down into a puddle of mud. "I hate Hogwarts. They're trying to kill us."

Rose (who had already made her acquaintance with Lucas Zabini in our first Charms class) rolled her eyes at him when she blinked away from her Potions book. "What'd you think Hogwarts was going to be? An endless supply of adventure and Pumpkin Juice? We're at school!"

Lucas turned over, raising an eyebrow at her. "You've got Pumpkin Juice in that big bag of yours?"

Rose glared at him just as Nia said, "Not everyone is equipped to handle this workload. We all aren't Hermione Granger's daughter, you know?"

"She's right," I said. "Aunt Hermione passed on all of her love and patience for knowledge to you. I just  hope Hugo got a shred of it or he's going to hate it here when it's his turn to come to Hogwarts."

"I didn't inherit anything," Rose told us in her best firm voice. "I am not my mother. It is all about determination."

"Of course you aren't Aunt Hermione," I scoffed. "If you were, you'd be pulling my ear for skipping pebbles, hoping the mere-people come out for a quick chat, rather than working on that blasted Transfiguration essay. "

Her brown eyes narrowed as the sun beamed down on her red hair. She might have gotten a lot from her mother, but in that moment she looked like mine. I swore she had Ginny Weasley's ire in her gaze. "I think I'll just do that, too."

"The good thing about this....Oh, wait," Lucas said, glaring at the sky, "there is no good part about this."

Scorpius threw his Transfiguration textbook by his feet. Twenty minutes ago he looked to be on the verge of pulling out his blonde hair—nothing had changed since then, actually. "To think we have six more years of this."

"Six years? Really?" I returned, watching my pebble cause a ripple on the lake. "Aren't we barely on our second month?" I looked over at them, grinning. Lucas looked terrified, raising fingers to count. "That's roughly three-hundred weeks to go."

"Three-hundred?" Lucas exclaimed.

"Don't forget the estimated four years of university to specialize in your field after the seven years at Hogwarts are completed," Rose reminded.

Scorpius mumbled curses.

"Why are you complaining?" Nia narrowed her blue eyes at my fellow Slytherin, her beautiful face pulling into a frown. "You can quit and still have a hefty inheritance to fall back on."

Lucas and I snickered (because we were still reeling about the authentic silk sheets Mrs. Malfoy had sent Scorpius for his bed), but Rose did not find Nia's comment funny. She shut her Potions book with much more force than was required. 

"Don't say that. You don't know him."

"And you do?" Nia returned with a scoff.

"Let her," Scorpius said flatly, not bothering to meet Rose or Nia's eyes when he stared off to the Black Lake. "Harper can think whatever she wants to because her opinion about me and my family is already set. She hates me, that's that."

Honestly, I expected Nia to laugh or come up with a brilliant zinger, but instead flashes of outrage started flickering across those dazzling eyes of hers. It took her a moment to find her words before she said, "I don't hate you, Malfoy."