The Next Generation

Another Potter Involved

Albus had never really figured out how he was going to remember to get up early, he just figured he would. Luckily, he happened to wake up unusually early that morning, just as the sun was rising. He scrambled out of bed, woke Scorpius, and the two of them crept down to the common room as silently as possible, both hidden under the invisibility cloak.

~

As soon as Scorpius was hustled out of bed early in the morning by his best friend, he realized just how tired he was. It took a moment for him to remember the events of last night, including the letters he'd read. On their way down to the common room, he made sure to grab Albus's bag, since his was still in the Slytherin common room. As soon as they took a seat on the comfy sofa next to the fireplace, Scorpius lifted the cloak off, and retrieved what he wanted from Albus's bag. Before Albus could ask what he was doing, he was quickly scribbling down words onto a small piece of parchment.

~

Before Albus knew what was going on, he saw that Scorpius was eagerly searching through his bag. He pulled out a blank piece of parchment, along with ink and a quill. He began writing immediately, and then he stopped. He crumpled the parchment up, and pulled another larger one from Albus's bag.

"Too small," he mumbled, and began writing again. Albus realized that he was probably writing to his father, and decided not to ask any questions until Scorpius was finished writing. However, Scorpius was taking longer than Albus thought he would, and it was growing closer and closer to when others would be getting up. Suddenly, Albus heard the creak of stairs leading to the boy's dormitory. He quickly threw the invisibility cloak over Scorpius, who was still writing his letter, and seemingly hadn't noticed the sound. The boys waited there in silence for a minute, both holding their breath, but nobody emerged into the common room. After a seemingly long time, Scorpius apparently deemed it safe enough to take off the clock again, his mind still on his unfinished letter. When still nothing moved or made any sound, Scorpius continued to write, but both boys remained much more cautious. Suddenly, a surprised and confused James stepped into the room, startling both boys.

"Wha- who are you?" asked James, directing the question toward a nervous looking Scorpius. He then turned towards Albus with an accusatory glare and asked, "what's a Slytherin doing in our common room?" The three students remained silent for a moment, then Scorpius spoke up.

"I'm Scorpius, who are you?" he asked shyly.

"I'm James, Albus's brother," he answered with a slight frown on his face.

"I'm Albus's friend. And yes, I am a Slytherin, nice observation," the pale boy retorted.

James seemed a bit taken aback by this statement, and replied with, "so.... what are you doing in here?" Now, he seemed merely curious, not as angry and surprised as before. Scorpius was about to answer, when Albus cut in.

"It's a long story, James. But will you promise not to tell?" he pleaded.

"Tell who?" he asked, his eyes narrowing.

"Anyone," answered Albus.

"Only if you explain to me what's going on," he said, smirking.

Albus looked hesitant to agree, but Scorpius replied, "it's a deal. But not now, or here, anyway. Others should be waking up any time now, and we don't need anyone else seeing me here.

"Ok, fine. But if you end up 'forgetting' or something, don't expect this to be a secret any longer."

"Alright, how about I meet you in the library after dinner?"

"I'll be there."

The three of them stood there in silence for a moment, then Scorpius picked up his half-finished letter and left. He murmured, "I'm heading back to my common room, see you in class," to Albus, and headed down to the dungeons.

Immediately after Scorpius left, he asked Albus, "what the hell is going on? He's a Slytherin!"

Albus glared at his brother and said, "it's not like he's a different species or something. Calm down." Then he headed back up to the boys dormitory, for no reason other than to get away from his brother.

~

Scorpius crept into the Slytherin common room as silently as possible, hoping that no one was up yet, and pleased to find that nobody was. He grabbed his bag, pulled out ink and a quill, and finished his letter. Only then did he realize that he no longer had an owl to send the letter with, and decided he would ask to borrow Albus's when he saw him next. Scorpius was exhausted, but decided to not try and go back to sleep, since he would have had to get up soon anyway. Instead, he got dressed into his robes, picked up his bag, and took a walk around the castle.