The Next Generation

A Friendship Lost

Albus was sad to return to Hogwarts, since he had enjoyed spending Christmas break with his family. He'd finally gotten a chance to talk to his father in person about his defeat of Voldemort, and he had even gotten to spend some time with Rose and her family. Although he was disappointed that break was already over, he was excited to talk to Scorpius again. His first class that day was Transfiguration, which the Gryffindors and Slytherins had together, followed by Charms. Albus arrived in class a few minutes early, hoping that Scorpius might also be early, but he wasn't. Instead, Scorpius sulked into the classroom a few minutes late. When Albus saw his friend, he grinned, but the grin wasn't returned. Perhaps Scorpius was just in a bad mood, he thought, disappointed. All of class they were to take notes on Anamagi, so Albus never got a chance to talk to Scorpius as he had hoped he would. As soon as class was over, he rushed over to where Scorpius was seated, but he had surprisingly already left the classroom. In the hallway, Albus soon caught up to him, but wasn't greeted by his friend as nicely as he had hoped.

Scorpius turned around to face Albus, as he knew he would have to at some point. "Look, we can't be friends. Don't ask questions," Scorpius stated abruptly, and turned away to keep walking. But Albus wasn't going to let him go that easily.

"What are you talking about?" Albus asked, concerned and also angry, as he jogged to catch up with Scorpius. "Why can't we be friends?" Scorpius came to an abrupt stop, and turned to face Albus once again. There was a different look on his face this time that Albus couldn't identify.

"I'm sorry Albus, but it has to be this way. Don't talk to me again. And don't ask me to explain anything, because I won't." Scorpius was pleading with him now, as he stared decisively into Albus's green eyes to let him know that he wasn't messing around. And was he... crying? But before Albus could get a closer look, Scorpius was gone, rushing down the corridor away from him, not giving him a chance to speak another word.

When Albus saw Rose next period in Charms class, he explained to her what had happened, and she seemed just as surprised as he had been. Rose decided that she would try to talk to Scorpius whenever she next saw him, and try to persuade him to be their friend again, but Rose had had just as much luck as Albus had. They decided there was no point in trying to talk to Scorpius any more just yet, for he was clearly very upset about something. Although Scorpius was no longer part of their group, Rose and Albus stayed friends, and grew even closer as the year progressed. They had made a deal where when Rose helped Albus with homework, Albus worked on flying with Rose, which Albus had become much better at. Despite being in different houses, their friendship didn't suffer.