Chapter Text
“Ugh! Where is it, where is it, where is it?!” Scorpius chanted as he frantically flicked through all the organised books of the tall dark oak shelves of the Malfoy manor library.
“Gotcha! What are you doing in this column? Sneaky book.” He gave a half smirk before running out of the library and down the carpeted hall towards his bedroom to cram two last books (‘Fantastic beasts and where to find them- Newt Scamander’ along with his diary) into his trunk before Albus and Ginny arrived to take him to Grimmauld Place. Quickly, Scorpius did a double take over his tidy bedroom, making sure he had all his belongings and hadn’t forgotten anything— then he followed the newly arrived sounds of commotion that had appeared out the fireplace in their sitting room. As he stepped into the room he was greeted by Albus’ beaming face and the same strange fluttery feeling that his stomach did when he had hugged Albus on the stairways at Hogwarts before summer. He hadn’t thought back to it until that moment… He was thinking of possible reasons why he felt like that, maybe something was wrong with him? But all of those thoughts were cut off abruptly as he was pounced on and found himself in a firm hug, a hug that could only be described as one of the Potters.
“Welcome Albus, Ginny care for a cup of tea?” Draco greeted.
“Oh why not, a quick one couldn’t hurt!” Ginny smiled back.
As Draco led Albus’ mum to the decorated tea room of Malfoy Manor Scorpius took this as a chance to talk to his best friend.
“Albus, hi! Hello! How are you? Have you got everything ready for school? I have, I went to diagon alley with my dad just the other day and got all the supplies! Well— All the supplies that I’m aware of. Just checking, it was seven books we needed to buy wasn’t it? Anyways hi, as I was trying to say!”
Albus merely stared at Scorpius for a moment amused, as if he’d never seen someone talk so much in his life and then a giggle left his smiling mouth.
“Hey Scorpius, To answer your first question, I am good! Next, No I haven’t got all my stuff for school yet, in fact my mum told me we will all be going to Diagon Alley later! And- uhm what was your last question? Oh right yes it was seven books! I think? Probably!?”
“Okay good! That’s a little reassuring.” Scorpius Snickered.
They exchanged a laugh and turned their focus back towards their parents, who appeared to be making slightly awkward small talk.
“So… have you any plans for the day?” Questioned Draco.
“Yes actually, once again thanks for letting Scorpius stay the night at ours! We are leaving here and meeting the rest back at Grimmauld Place and not long after that we’re leaving for diagon alley to run some last minute errands!” Ginny said chattily.
“Oh, well enjoy, I best not hold you back, sounds busy.”
“Of course, Thanks for the tea Draco.”
Scorpius approached his dad and wrapped his arms around him in a warm hug, he felt that him and his father had grown a lot closer this summer after the scare that they had a couple months beforehand and he was going to really miss him while at Hogwarts.
“Write to me, Have a great year- or at least one better than the last.” His dad told him.
“I’ll definitely manage that, it’s a low bar!” Scorpius joked.
“Yeah I honestly don’t see how it could get much worse than creating a new timeline where Voldemort is the ruler…” Draco looked off into the distance, a grim look taking over his face. Ginny too looked a bit disgruntled after the reminder of the events that had taken place in Albus and Scorpius’s fourth year at Hogwarts.
“Yeah…” The two boys exchanged a guilty look.
“But I do hope you enjoy yourself this year! And do try to not re-awaken any dark witches or wizards!”
“Of course! Bye dad.” Scorpius beamed before entering the green tiled floo fireplace with Ginny and Albus.
After Ginny exclaimed “12 Grimmauld Place!” and tossed the floo powder, he saw a flash of green flames and felt like he was being sucked down a giant drain, then he, his cases and the Potters came tumbling out of the fireplace and into the cosy living room of Grimmauld Place. Travelling by floo always made Scorpius feel quite queasy and when he looked down he realised that he and Albus were tightly holding each others hands. His nose was met with a mouthwatering smell, he looked up and noticed Harry Potter was standing over a counter, wearing a frilly kitchen apron (that had likely been passed down multiple generations of Weasleys.) and he was cooking dinner.
“Ooo that smells delicious what is it Harry!?” Ginny asked delightfully.
“I’m glad you asked Gin” He said proudly before adding some sauce into his cuisine. “I’m preparing pasta for tea later! Could you believe me if I said that I made all of this from scratch with only a little help from kreacher!” He stated with a prideful beam stretched from ear to ear, looking like a prideful child who had just learnt to tie his shoes, he then glanced towards the house elf in the corner who was also looking quite happy.
“Ohh how impressive, you’ve come a long way I must admit” Ginny said with a giggle, thinking of the food that Harry had attempted to make when they had first moved in together.
Harry cheeks turned the same colour as the crimson sauce he’d just added to the pasta as his wife approached and gave him a kiss on the cheek, which was presumably her way of saying- good cooking!
Albus looked extremely embarrassed as Scorpius felt a tug on their still joined hands dragging him out the kitchen and up the carpeted stairs of Grimmauld Place, his trunk hovering behind him. He followed Albus up the stairs (while still being dragged) and they passed a pair of closed curtains mounted upon the crimson walls. They made it up to the third floor where Albus led Scorpius and his floating trunk into his fairly messy room. The walls were dark green but you could barely tell from the tons of posters of quidditch teams and bands stacked atop them. There was a tall spruce bunk bed, the bottom bunk looked like a fire hazard and was clearly where Albus slept, littered with blankets and pillows over the emerald duvet, which left the top bunk looking quite empty in comparison. It was nothing like Scorpius’ room in Malfoy Manor but he found it cosy nonetheless. Naturally, Scorpius’ eyes were next drawn to the large dusty bookshelf that looked like it hadn’t been touched in years, dozens of dormant books waiting to be read were spread across the shelves and next to it, a desk hiding under a ton of paint and parchment sat in place, Scorpius walked towards there and saw loads of different artworks, there was a drawing of two jellyfish which had been enchanted to look like they are swimming, along with an unfinished painting of a dragon and lastly a sketch of the outside of Grimmauld Place.
“Woah you’re an artist? You never drew anything in Hogwarts, why not? You are really good!” Scorpius remarked, truly surprised by Albus’ hidden talent.
Albus had turned the same colour that his dad had earlier and uttered “Thanks but artist is an overstatement, I’m not that good I just do it for fun sometimes…”
“The art is almost as good as your humbleness Albus and that is saying something!” Scorpius joked.
Albus sighed although Scorpius could tell he was holding back a smile.
“I started this one when I came back from visiting my Uncle Charlie in Romania, he works with dragons and I got to see some different species.” He said while pointing towards the fierce looking dragon.
“Woah! You saw dragons? What type is the one you’re painting?” Scorpius asked, mesmerised at the pearly scaled dragon.
“It’s an Antipodean Opaleye!” Albus shared “My Uncle had one at the sanctuary and it blew fire at us all!” He added with a wicked grin on his face.
“You say that as if it’s a good thing?” Scorpius remarked, amused by Albus’ ridiculousness.
“The burns were not good but it was pretty awesome having a dragon shoot fire at me!”
“You know what Albus, fair enough, I’ll add that one to my bucket list.”
They were laughing as they heard a knock on the door then Ginny entered his room.
“Are you two ready for Diagon Alley? We are leaving in a moment or two, we’re just waiting on James and Alice. I don’t know what’s taking them so long… but actually I’d rather not know” She added with a grimace.
Just as Albus was about to reply to his mother there was a loud commotion in the hallway behind Ginny, they heard a crash down the stairs followed by a high pitched “Sorry!” then an ear splitting screech.
“Merlins beard that portrait is going to be the death of me!” Ginny growled as she walked out the room, down the stairs and towards the curtains on the wall which had now flew open to reveal a portrait of a very angry looking woman who was shouting insults and curses at Ginny before the curtains were shut in her face.
“Oh that’s just Mrs Blacks portrait, this house was left to my dad by his godfather and there’s a picture of his mother who was a deranged blood purist. It was placed on the wall decades ago with a permanent sticking charm, no matter what we do her portrait still won’t budge! Any loud noise wakes her from her sleep and she hates us so she starts screaming which is an absolute nightmare considering how loud the people in this house are. All though she slightly prefers me because I’m a Slytherin” Albus told a concerned looking Scorpius “I probably should have warned you before hand” He added, noticing Scorpius’ worried eyebrows.
They heard Ginny from the hallway “Lily Luna! Why the ruddy hell are you chucking chairs down the stairwell!” They heard her angrily stage whisper, Scorpius was sure if it wasn’t for Mrs Black Ginny would be shouting.
“Well, I was trying to move the armchair in my room because I thought it would look better in the living room! So I attempted to carry it down the stairs but then I tripped and kind of dropped it down like three stories…”
“Seriously Lily? You’ve outdone yourself this time, there was various other solutions to that problem, You have two brothers! One of which is allowed to use magic! James, your Dad or I could have casted it to float down the stairs!”
“I didn’t want help! I can do things myself.” Lily shot stubbornly before angrily (but quietly) stomping down the stairs as to not awaken the portrait again.
Ginny sighed before walking the opposite way from Lily, up the stairs, past Albus’ room and away to the top floor.
“Anyways…” Albus said awkwardly “Are you ready for Diagon Alley? We should head down to the fireplace since I think we are travelling by floo again.”
“Yeah! Let’s go.”
They walked down the stairs together and into the living room where Harry and Lily were next to each other on one of the many plush sofas, Lily was sitting tensely, her arms crossed her chest and a grumpy aura emitting from her.
“Hi Al, Scorpius how was your summer?” Harry greeted
“It was good thanks!”
“That’s great.”
Just then Ginny, James and Alice appeared at the doorway.
“Right, let’s go! We won’t all fit in the fireplace so James and Alice you go first, then Al and Scorpius and then Lily you’ll come with me and Dad.” Ginny ordered, adding to Lily’s annoyance.
James and Alice walked into the fireplace, Alice gripping onto the left sleeve of James’s buttoned shirt (clearly disliking travelling by floo as much as Scorpius) as he tossed the powder and said “Diagon Alley” and they vanished into the flames.
It was Albus and Scorpius’ turn next, Albus noticed the nervous expression on his best friends face and took his hand like they had done before to ease him but it was actually quite counterproductive as this had actually just made the butterflies in Scorpius’ stomach intensify.
Again, he felt like he was sucked down a giant drain and as he reopened his eyes, recovering from the nausea, he saw he was now in the lively street of Diagon Alley filled with witches and wizards in cloaks of all different colours. Albus started walking towards where James and Alice were standing Scorpius trailing behind him, he had to tighten his grip on Albus’ hand as he was almost knocked over by a short bearded wizard who wore clashing robes of green and purple, the man appeared to be in quite the rush. Scorpius straightened out his shirt and brushed the ash off his trousers, once he looked up he saw Ginny, Harry and Lily (who still looked annoyed towards her mother) had appeared out one of the nearby fireplaces and were walking towards them through the crowd.
“Wow seems like everyone else decided to buy their things last minute too!” Harry commented looking at the tons of people around him.
“Right, me and Harry have the list of all the supplies we need to get everyone. Lily would you like to come with me and dad then we can stop by Airborne Accents and get you something to add your broom?” Ginny suggested, trying to make it up to Lily because she knew how it felt to be the youngest daughter with only brothers.
The crease between Lily’s eyebrows faded and a smile grew “Yes, I would love to go there! I want a handle for my broom it would be way cooler than Nathan Woods broom then. Ugh he’s so annoying, he thinks that he’s the best at quidditch but I’m clearly way better!” She rambled on, easily giving in to Ginny’s bait.
“Right okay Lily, so James, Alice, Scorpius and Albus you can go wherever and we will buy your school stuff. Meet back at this lamppost around half four!”
It seemed as soon as she had said that, Ginny, Harry and Lily had disappeared into the bustle of witches and wizards and James and his girlfriend had gone off somewhere, leaving Albus and Scorpius with each other.
“Where do you want to go first?” Albus asked.
“I don’t mind!” Scorpius smiled.
“I don’t mind either!”
Scorpius giggled then said “Okay, we can go to that cafe! What’s it called again? Oh right the Lit Lantern.”
“Yeah that sounds good! It’s this way I’m pretty sure” Albus stated before pulling on Scorpius’ sleeve and leading him towards a quieter section of the street which was a relief to the both of them after dodging their way through the crowd.
They arrived outside a small building with stained glass windows, a dark green exterior and a sign pitched above the door which read ‘The Lit Lantern’. Albus and Scorpius sat down at a table for two and ordered two butterbeers to drink, Albus took a sip of his drink which resulted in him gaining a moustache of bubbles, Scorpius admired how stupidly adorable his best friend looked, he gave a sheepish smile as his cheeks turned pink. (There’s that weird stomach fluttering again! What was wrong with him?*)
Albus and Scorpius sat for another half hour before paying and leaving to go to the green, bunting covered lamppost that Ginny said to go to at four thirty. It was around a two minute walk from where they were, as they continued, the lamppost grew nearer in sight, along with Harry Ginny and Lily beneath it. James and Alice appeared a moment later, Scorpius noticed that there was a small pink ball of fur on Alice’s shoulder which he recognised to be a pygmy puff and in James’s hands, a brown, wart covered toad.
“Merlins beard what was I thinking letting you two roam about Diagon Alley unsupervised” Ginny chided as she set eyes upon the purchases of the teens.
“You can’t be mad mum look how cute they are!” James beamed while holding up his hand, showing off the grotesque toad.
“Yeah Ginny these are basically you and Harrys grandchildren!” Alice added.
Lily was staring in awe at the pets “Aww they are precious, have you named them?” She asked happily.
“Yeah! James’ toad is called Cornelius and my pygmy puff is called Cotton” Alice answered “Lily did you get anything nice from Airborne Accents?”
“I got a cool handle for my broom, it has Lily flowers engraved on it”
“Pretty!”
“I think we should head back before the floo fireplaces get any more crowded.” Harry suggested.
They went into groups and took turns going back to Grimmauld Place, Scorpius reckoned if he had to use floo powder one more time in the next week, he really would puke.
Once they had all arrived back at the Potters house, Ginny, Albus and Scorpius were sat in the Living room, waiting on dinner, James and Alice were upstairs and Lily was who knows where doing Merlin knows what. To Albus’ horror and Scorpius’s pleasure, Ginny was telling embarrassing but nonetheless funny stories of when Albus first learnt how to ride a broom and he could only control it to go backwards. A moment later Lily zoomed in the room on her upgraded broom, the gold handle shining in the warm toned light.
“Look how nice the handle looks on the broom” Lily exclaimed.
“Yeah it looks cool! But please be careful flying about the house and don’t break anything.” Ginny warned.
“You say this every time and I’ve never broke anything.”
“Except my wrist…” Albus murmured.
“In my defence I did yell ‘Incoming’ and you didn’t move so it’s mostly your fault Albus… and that was years ago anyway”
“TEA IS READY!” Harry called from the kitchen, unaware he distracted his children from their bickering argument.
Harry had reheat the food he had prepared previously and they all sat around the dining table. As Scorpius took a bite of the tasteful pasta he realised he couldn’t remember the last time he had a meal that wasn’t completely made by house elfs. it must have been before his mother passed, he used to help her cook or bake sometimes, he thought about how much he missed her delicious lasagna and how much he missed her. Scorpius zoned back in and saw Albus was looking at him with a concerned expression, He smiled reassuringly at him and continued eating.
Once everyone had finished their meals they were all sat in the living room, engaged in a deep conversation about the secrets of Hogwarts.
“I discovered a secret passageway leading to the restricted section of the library one time, completely on accident mind you!” Lily Luna said while she was sat on the floor in front of her mothers chair, getting her long ginger hair braided.
”I couldn’t survive without the path from the one eyed witch statue into Honeydukes!” James added, Alice nodded her head in agreement, she was lying on the same velvet sofa as James, her legs placed atop his lap.
Harry had an armchair to himself, parallel from him was where one last settee remained, which held a tired Albus who was leaning into Scorpius’ side. This time Scorpius didn’t even try and fight the fluttering in his stomach. He quickly realised the warmth of the fire wasn’t the reason why his cheeks were red. He hesitantly put an arm around Albus, who was dozing off — Scorpius looked down at him and admired each and every one of his freckles that he had inherited from his mother, and his dark hair which was the same as his fathers. He felt at home with the lively conversation and his best friend at his side. If he had to stay in that moment forever, he honestly wouldn’t mind.
Everyone eventually agreed that they were too tired to stay up any longer and they all departed from the living room and went upstairs to change out of their clothes, into their pyjamas and go to bed.
Scorpius had changed into his silk pyjamas, he approached the bookshelf which was covered in a layer of dust and picked out a book about the goblin rebellion of the nineteenth century.
“Hey Albus, can i borrow this book?” He asked.
“Feel free, it’s not as if I’m going to read it. Here’s a lamp so you can see.” Albus said while handing Scorpius a small potion shaped lamp.
“Aww you sleep with a potion nightlight? That’s precious.” Scorpius grinned.
“Shut up posh boy, you are literally wearing fancy silk pyjamas.” Albus teased.
Scorpius climbed up the ladder and onto the spare bed while laughing.
“Yeah yeah whatever.”
A moments silence passed before Albus asked “Were you okay at the dinner table earlier? You looked a bit sad, I know my dads cooking probably isn’t as good as the food at your house.”
“No, no the meal was great! I was just thinking of when my mum used to cook meals but it’s fine”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Are you sure it’s fine?”
“I promise, Goodnight Albus.”
“Goodnight.”