Found In the Past

28

Albus POV

"Welcome to King's Cross Station! Platform 9 ¾. Proceed with caution. Welcome to King's Cross St-" the conductor's voice is immediately lost under the sounds of pounding footsteps racing through the corridor. I wince and pull open my compartment door in order to enter the stream of students who are completely ready to go on holiday. After loads of jostling, I finally manage to step out of the train, carefully holding Arthur's cage above my head.

It's pretty easy to spot my father in any crowd, including this one. I just follow the trail of whispers and gawking all the way to the perfect lightning bolt on his forehead. Though, this time he's not the only one attracting stares. Besides him is a currently-scowling blonde man who I instantly recognize as Scorp's father. The person who's actually supposed to be picking me up right now.

"Father!" I call out loudly, trying to get the famous Harry Potter's attention. I nearly trip over the fabric of my jeans moving forwards. Why do muggles wear such ridiculous clothes?? It takes me a moment, but I'm able to make my way through the crowd to where my parents are. My mum looks up with a smile, rushing over to hug me.

"Albus! It's so good to see you," she exclaims as I attempt to keep my owl from falling over. The cage is suddenly lifted from my hands and I pull away to see my father grinning at me.

"Hullo Mum. Father," I greet them, knowing how awkward I must sound. My mum beams down at me again and tucks a strand of her signature red hair back into her messy bun.

"I can't wait to catch up with you about school and such! I've been so busy with work that I haven't gotten the chance to ask," she looks down for a second regretfully but catches herself and smiles again.

"Gin, leave our poor kid alone," my father laughs.

"Yes, yes. What a sweet reunion. Can we be going now?" A voice interrupts from behind my mum. I turn to see Mr. Malfoy tapping his watch.

"We have two more kids, Draco," my father raises an eyebrow and Mr. Malfoy rolls his eyes. It's clear that there's unresolved tension between my best mate's parent and my own. Hopefully it doesn't get worse...

"Ah yes. How. Nice."

"Boys. Boys. Let's not start anything right now please," my mum butts in, placing a hand on my father's arm warningly.

"MUM! DAD!" My younger sister, Lily, runs up and proceeds to tackle my parents. I step back from them to give some room and instantly bump into someone else, yelping in surprise.

"Watch it, Albus!" My brother's voice scolds and I nearly have a heart attack. I glance over to see his head poking out of a familiar piece of annoying fabric. "Miss me?" He takes the invisibility cloak off all the way so I can see he's standing in front of me.

"James, I saw you an hour ago," I remind him with a wry grin. My older brother rolls his eyes.

"Well, surprise little bro! You're stuck with me for three entire weeks!" He flings an arm around my  shoulder as my eyebrows sink down in confusion.

"Good news, Pottah. You've got all your kids. We can be on our way now," Mr. Malfoy speaks again, breaking up the reunion.

"Mr. Malfoy," Lily raises her hand like she's in a classroom, "Does Scorpius happen to have a younger sister?"

"No. He does not..." Mr. Malfoy looks away with a small cough, expression darkening sligjtly. My heart sinks as I remember Astoria's early death. She was always so nice to me...

"So I'll be the only girl there..." Lily sighs and pulls on her braid out of habit.

"Wait. Aren't I the only one going to the Malfoys'?" I blurt out, now even more confused. Everyone's acting like we're all going to spend the holidays there or something.

"No, sweetie, our whole family's been invited," my mum tells me with a slight laugh. "Narcissa owled us last week to arrange it all."

"Yes. Isn't my mother amazing at telling people things," Mr. Malfoy sighs and pulls on his black coat to straighten it. "Is everyone ready?"

"Lily, dear, did you pack-"

"Mum STOP," Lily turns bright red to match her hair.

"Pretty sure we have everything," my father confirms, trying not to laugh at my little sister's embarrassment.

"Great. The Portkey should activate in a few seconds so make sure you're holding onto everything you want to bring with you," Mr. Malfoy instructs, bending over to place a hand on a weird shoe thing. I grab my suitcase and make sure Mum's taken hold of Arthur's cage, which she has. James places a hand the boot and I manage to touch it right before it suddenly lets out a beam of light, blinding me.

Reality bends upside down.

The next thing I know, I'm laying face-up on the ground somewhere, feeling like I'm about to lose the little breakfast I was able to eat. Plus it's cold. Very cold.

"Bloody hell," I hear James curse weakly to the right of where I'm laying.

"Language, James," our mum sighs. I manage to sit up enough to see that the three adults managed to stay standing, unlike me and my siblings.

"He's right though," Lily gags and rolls over on the grass, getting various weeds stuck in her long braids. James manages to leap up off the ground quickly, but it takes me a bit longer to get my bearings. A hand is offered down to me and I look up to see my father smiling awkwardly.

"Need a little help?" He asks, hesitating.

"Thanks," I respond, taking his hand. He pulls me up and I stand shakily, dusting off my pants.

"No problem..." my father ruffles his hair, a very familiar motion. A grin stretches across my lips at the shared habit.

"The Manor is this way," Mr. Malfoy breaks the moment, gesturing off to a house someways off. If the haunted castle in the distance can be called a house. I feel my mouth fall open as I take in my first view of the place Scorp calls home. I knew Lucius Malfoy, his grandfather, was a death-eater, but I never expected his house to reflect that so clearly...

"Off we go then!" My mum offers brightly, shattering the silence. I shoulder my suitcase and start walking across the field we landed in. Silence falls over our unlikely group and I start to wonder how we look to passing muggle cars. Probably very odd considering these uncomfortable muggle clothing that we're all wearing. Except Mr. Malfoy. I'm not sure what his formal attire counts as actually.

After ten minutes of trudging through the field in the cold, winter air, we finally make it to the front gate of the Manor where two figures are waiting for us. My heart starts pounding in my chest as soon as I see his familiar platinum-blonde hair. Scorp.

"Hello and welcome!" The older woman besides him greets us all, but all I'm paying attention to is my best friend. We make eye-contact and I instantly spot the dark circles under his eyes. The nightmares are getting worse. It's undeniable.

"Thank you for having us," My mum says politely, and I feel her push me forwards slightly.

"Hey," I offer lamely.

"Hey," Scorpius responds. This is probably when we normally hug, but since my entire family is here, I'm not going to risk it.

"What a nice reunion," I can basically hear Mr. Malfoy laughing at our tense greeting. "Now, if we can all get out of the chilling air, Scorpius can give you all a tour of our house."