Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy

The first week of school for Scorpius went by in a blur of scowls, droning teachers, and excited chatter from Albus and Rose about their interesting classes. Rose, somehow, managed to earn Slytherin ten points in Professor Slughorn's class, and he commented on how much better she was at potions than her parents had been. Viktor Krum was the most interesting Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher than Scorpius had heard of. Then again, his father only had bad things to say about all of them, and all the history books said of the teachers were that they rarely stayed longer than a year.
It seemed, indeed, that the post was hard to keep filled as teacher after teacher left for one reason or another. The most recent teacher, Phillip Prior, taught the students half of the year before it was determined that he preferred what McGonagall called "a very Umbridge way of teaching children." Scorpius had heard of Dolores Umbridge, but only through the modern history books and gossip in Azkaban whilst visiting his grandfather.

Professor Prior disliked Scorpius, while Krum-he disliked everyone equally, which was exactly, Scorpius felt, as it should be.

Albus preferred transfiguration, but determined that McGonagall had it out for him for being late to class three out of five days that week. He could not quite manage to remember the schedule of the staircases changing, and took quite a while to wake up in the morning. Scorpius was surprised that there was a sleeper who could sleep deeper than anyone inside of Goyle's family. McGonagall removed points, unsurprisingly all the points Rose had earned them, and proceeded to reprimand him in front of the entire class the third time around by threatening to turn his feet into slugs so he would have a "valid reason to be late three days in a row."

Albus and Rose had managed to share most classes, and talked animatedly to one another about it, leaving Scorpius to brood over his lack of time with them. Luckily for them all, the real reason to brood was postponed until the following week, and Slytherins did not share a single class with a Gryffindor.

James had not checked in with Albus at all, though Albus had received several letters from his mother and father, already, and their contents insinuated that both James and Teddy had informed them on the matter. They certainly didn't take sides, which both Rose and Scorpius agreed would never happen in their families, and Albus' mother informed him that just because they're brothers didn't mean they had to get along. She applauded him for sticking up for what he believed, but asked that he refrain from getting into too much trouble.

Rose received several pages of letters from her mother, that could be combined into a novel by the end of the weeks post. They, however, were always signed "Your father loves you, as well, he's just busy with Auror work. You know how that is." Scorpius noticed how her face fell upon seeing Albus' letter from his auror father, and how she proceeded to lie to Albus when he asked how her parent's were doing. Scorpius noticed, but said nothing.

Breakfast on Saturday was filled with excitement, as McGonagall announced the grounds were open for exploration, barring the Forbidden Forest, of course.

"Why not go see the quidditch pitch, eh? The weathers nice for it!" Holly Norbert asked the girls beside Rose.

"Not like you first years could even fly there," Desdemona scowled. "Why not go somewhere you can actually do something?"

She avoided eye contact with Scorpius, despite having to look right near him to speak at the group. Scorpius noticed, but didn't care. If she was going to act strange and moody, he wanted no part of it.

"What do you get up to on your free times, Scorpius?" Albus asked.

Scorpius swallowed down the egg frittata he was eating, and grinned.

"Gonna go see Hagrid!" he said, matter-of-factly.

"The bird or the professor?" Rose asked. She had barely touched her blueberry scone, and kept glancing to the window where the post was to arrive.

"Both, of course," Scorpius smiled. "Hagrid's got Hagrid, today. Told me to come visit him today, and he'd take me exploring!"

Albus nodded, almost interested, until someone down the table mentioned the Hermes Z-42, and how their father had bought them the Quebracho model. Everyone around began paying interest to that person, who happened to be Yorik Erickson Jr., son of one infamous reporter Rita Skeeter and her husband Yorik Erikson Sr. a wizard who has been an integral part in reestablishing the safeguards in Azkaban after the Voldemort revolt. He was rich and a braggart.

"Why not visit the quidditch pitch?" James asked Rose and Albus. "Just for a quick demonstration?"

Scorpius was skeptical, as he didn't want to get caught up in the excitement or run into any unseemly characters whilst there and end up late to meeting Hagrid. Luckily, he didn't have to answer, as the post owls flew in loudly and several landed with such hard thuds on the table that entire plates and bowls of food went toppling over.

Rose's owl, Peetri, came flying in gracefully,with yet another thick package in it's clutches. It dropped the package, Rose quickly clutched it, and without even a word of praise the owl took off again.

Scorpius noted that he should feed her a rat or too for Rose's sake, as he was sure she was just too worried to remember.

She read the pages quickly, and Yorick had enough time to list all 87 exotic animals and mythical creatures he and his dad had hunted down. Rose closed the papers quickly and shoved them into the pocket of her robes. She quickly became a ball of great depression, and Albus looked as if he had not a clue as to how to react.

"No news is good news, right?" Scorpius asked, lightheartedly joking. Rose and Albus both shot him looks of disbelief, just in different breeds.

"You don't even know!" Rose growled. "You don't have to worry whether your father us being murdered by some escaped death eater. Not even a word from him. Why won't my mum tell me what's going on?"

Scorpius thought to himself that she couldn't be more wrong. Only, he didn't only have to worry about death eaters, but the rest of the wizarding world, too. No one looked too fondly on the Malfoy's anymore. However, he did not correct her.

As dinner ended they decided that they would indeed visit Hagrid, as initially was planned by Scorpius, however, they would visit the quidditch pitch during the visit, with Hagrid in tow.

Scorpius wondered at what his first outing with his friends would be like, but didn't dare hope for too much. After all, there were far more people who hated him in the school than liked him, and they all happened to be let loose by McGonagall all at once.