Thorns: Rose and Scorpius Prologue

Prologue - Scorpius Malfoy

"Albus, come on!"
"G'bye, Mum!"
"Has anyone seen a toad anywhere?"
"We already left! How are you talking to your mum?"
"That's how you cried for your mum, Sean, I'm mocking you!"
I chuckled to myself as I lugged my trunk down the corridor of the train. So many people had so much going on and we had only been on the train for three minutes. I walked past many compartments before finding a few with space, but all of the students glared at me, already knowing my identity. Hogwarts wasn't looking too good to me so far.
All of the compartments I saw were either full or didn't want my company, so I decided to turn my too bloody expensive trunk into a chair and began to read from some of the books I brought with me (What was I supposed to do? Sit on the roof of the cars?).  I easily kept to myself--no one really came out of their compartments--but the lonely feeling I got wasn't helping me to enjoy my book. I sighed (as Rose now teases me, Malfoys get bored easily) and took out my wand, seeing if maybe I could practice some charms I had read about before school.
"Oh, you're practicing magic?" I almost jumped at the girl's voice. I turned to glare at her, but the curiosity on her face made me stammer instead.
"I…well…erm--"
"Well, you shouldn't be practicing out here. Not only because we have room in our compartment," she said, dropping her smile slightly as she added, "but you could definitely endanger some people since you probably can't do it correctly."
"I can definitely cast a charm correctly, Weasley," I answered, putting a little more ice into it than I should have, but she just grinned and laughed.
"Then come on, our compartment has enough space for you and your 'correctly cast charms.'" She giggled and took me to her compartment. A boy with ink black hair and glasses looked up from his chocolate frog card and smiled.
"Did you get another chocolate frog for me?" he asked.
"No, Al. I got someone who will play Exploding Snap with you, though." Weasley and I struggled to get my trunk up, but eventually it stays on the shelf.
"Thanks," I said, trying to be polite, knowing exactly where these two came from.
"It was no trouble," the Weasley girl replied, "Oh, I'm Rose."
"Scorpius," I said, sitting next to her.
"Scorpius," the Potter boy said, thinking aloud, "Are you as bad as my dad says you are?"
"Albus!" Rose glared at him.
I laughed as an insult was cultivating in my mind, but shut my mouth immediately (I didn't want to be exiled to the corridor). "So, you have Exploding Snap?" was what I said instead.
"Yeah," Albus answered, smug already, "You wanna play?"
"Ah…I'm not sure if we should play it in this small compartment. But I do have chess." I reached into one of my bags and pulled out my new chess board (it was the latest and most popular make of the time, as Father told me).
"Oh no. Please don't play this," Rose said.
"Why not?" Albus and I both gave her confused looks as we questioned her in unison.
"It takes forever and it's boring. I don't know why--"
"Don't listen to her," Albus said, then whispered, "She loves it."
Rose's face went red when she smiled.
Albus and I played, with Rose watching intently, despite her protests on how long the game was taking.

***

I joined the other first years in the Great Hall, silently hoping to be put into Slytherin House. Someone's arm brush my shoulder and I looked to my right. Albus stared at the Sorting Hat as though it were an Acromantula ready to kill him. I nudged him with my elbow.
"It's not going to bite, Potter." I chuckled (but as a boy of eleven years, chuckles came out as giggles) at my own joke.
"Oh, Scorpius," Albus laughed nervously at my presence, "I'm fine. I just…" his voice trailed off.
"What?"
"I just…I'm…a little nervous, I guess."
"Why?" I didn't get my answer that day, for Headmistress McGonagall began her annual speech saying, "Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it." She quoted the late Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, as she did every year since her appointing to Headmistress.
The sorting then began, with the reading of names done by the Deputy Headmaster and Head of Ravenclaw House, Professor Flitwick. It went by rather quickly, although there were times when certain houses cheered for much too long in my opinion. Finally, my name was called. I sauntered to the stool (as Rose always describes me doing when I tell the story), expecting to be immediately put in Slytherin, as my father had. However, the Sorting Hat just sat there for a minute, humming in thought to itself. I looked up at it as though it had malfunctioned, and it laughed.
"Are you sure? Slytherin for sure? Because you would definitely be a fine asset to Gryffindor House."
Everyone felt the tension as all of the Gryffindor (this, I am sure of) students mentally crossed their fingers for me to be put in Slytherin. I sat there and kept giving it my look of "are you daft?" while he laughed again.
"Well then. Slytherin it is!"
I grinned and silently gave my thanks as I joined the students at the Slytherin table. I listened and waited for Albus's name. I wanted to see if he'd faint, he was looking so nervous.
"Potter, Albus."
I smirked, but I secretly hoped he wouldn't faint and fall off the stool (although I would have laughed a little if he did).
He sat on the stool and I could see his foot tapping in anxiety. The Sorting Hat took longer on him than it did on anyone else I'd seen before.
"Ooh, how peculiar. You are definitely a boy who could succeed in more than one house. Makes it difficult to place you, you know. You have the sly cunning of a Slytherin, of course, and although you're quite clever, you're too mischievous to be a Ravenclaw"--some students giggled at this--"Just like your father. But you have the heart of a Gryffindor." It eyed Albus, making him shrink lower in himself. "Hmmm, you are surprisingly crafty, but your bravery is impeccable, just like your father, I assume…" Then it murmured something to itself, and it seemed only Albus and Professor McGonagall could hear it.
"Slytherin!"
A few Gryffindors began to clap, and I knew they assumed a Potter would be sorted into their house, but a tense intake of breath was shared by the whole school. Then silence enveloped the room, heavy with tension worse than mine. I saw Albus, looking more afraid of the students than the sorting itself. He slowly stepped down, but I could tell it was difficult for him to even lift his leg. For some reason I stood (of course I know the reason now) and began to clap for him. Soon others joined me, and then there was an uproar at the Slytherin table. It was an honor to have a Potter in any house, after all. Albus looked over and beamed, now glowing.
I made a kid move and had him sit next to me.
"You looked like you saw a ghost for a second there," I said, smiling. Now I had at least an acquaintance in my house.
He laughed. "Well, I was a little scared at first."
I didn't get to ask him why until we were better friends (which was almost instantaneous, but it took awhile for him to tell me). We watched the other first years's Sorting. Rose was put into Gryffindor House, which was no surprise to anyone, and she grinned (but she also had a look like she knew it all along and could've sorted herself) walking to the Gryffindor table. Albus and I both smiled at her, but she and I gave each other competitive looks when Albus wasn't looking.
The celebration continued with a great feast, and everyone devoured their meals, seeing as the Sorting always cuts into the time and makes everyone starving. Everyone was taken out into the corridors afterwards and Albus was miraculously able to find Rose through all of the chaos (although I see it's a lot easier now because of her bushy red hair). We talked while we could before we were all escorted to our common rooms, but we were able to at least get to know each other a little in that time.
Albus took the top bunk of a bed before I had the chance, laughing triumphantly the whole time, so I settled with the bottom bunk (which turned out to be the better choice through the years. So take that, Albus!), which Albus decided to claim as mine. We talked about our summer, and he laughed when I said I didn't know what a "movie" was, so he tested me with other Muggle items (I learned a "movie" was a Muggle thing moments later).
"What in bloody hell is a 'come-pewderr?'"
Albus doubled over in his bed, and some other boys laughed, too, while others just glared at Albus like he cursed their mothers or something. We kept laughing at different Muggle items, like "televisions" and something called a "DVD." And I actually enjoyed myself, which made me wonder why Father was so keen on me avoiding the Potter and Weasley children.