'"Potter, Albus." Professer Hodge called from the list of students, and Albus swallowed nervously, as he walked slowly up to the stool. He sat down carefully and felt Professor Hodge place the Sorting Hat on his head. Out of habit, he bit his lip as he waited, looking out at the Great Hall. He could see his brother James looking up at him smiling hopefully from the Gryffindor table.

"Hmmm…" He heard the Sorting Hat say, his voice as old and worn as he was himself, "Brains of gold….yet a brave heart, where to put you?"

The sorting hat drew out the last word for a minute, making various noises of deliberation before it loudly declared its choice.

"Must be a Ravenclaw!" The hat bellowed, and cheers erupted from the table nearest to Albus' right, just beside Slytherin.

Albus smiled as he walked down, taking a seat half way along the table, as his fellow housemates patted him on the back. His smile grew into a beaming grin, and he turned in his seat watching the next First Year taking their seat on the stool.

This boy was obviously a Malfoy, with his pale, smooth skin and his pale blonde hair. Albus was about to look away, knowing that all Malfoy's got sorted in to Slytherin, but stopped when the Sorting Hat shouted 'Ravenclaw!'.

A series of shocked gasps echoed around the huge hall, and the Malfoy stood up numbly, walking as if in slow motion down to the Ravenclaw table. The hall was deadly silent, everyone having in their shock, forgotten to clap.

Albus heard someone hiss "That's Scorpios Malfoy. No Malfoy was ever not in Slytherin. This is unheard of."

Scorpios took a seat across the table from Albus, sitting down stiffly. Albus heard him mutter 'Ravenclaw' in disbelief.

"Hello, I'm Albus Potter." Albus introduced himself, reaching his hand across the table.

The boy stared wide-eyed at his hand for a second, before he reached forward and took Albus' hand in his own, shaking it formally.

Albus took a good look at the boy. His hair was immaculate, a simple short back and sides, yet he had let his fringe grow a bit longer than the rest of his hair, enough for it to just brush his pale eyes, the colour of rainclouds. His face was quite angular, his cheekbones and jawline prominent.

"I'm Scorpios Malfoy, pleased to meet you." '

Albus awoke with a jolt, his eyes peering into the darkness. He winced, that memory hadn't been the best to dream about, given the current….situation. He sighed, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand.

He had fallen asleep in the Common Room again, the book he had been reading carelessly disregarded on the midnight blue carpet.

Fumbling in the pockets of his robes, he found his wand and took it out.

"Lumos." He muttered, and the end of his wand lit up like a torch, allowing him to see in front of him. He stretched, and stood up slowly, picking his book of the floor, closing it and placing it on armchair he had been sleeping on.

His bones creaked as he shuffled around, protesting against the two weeks that he had spent sleeping in the Common Room instead of the Dormitories. It was simple really, he went to class, ate his meals and spent the rest of the day alone walking in the grounds or reading in the Common Room. Anything to avoid…him.

He walked over to one of the windows, and took a seat in one of the deep window-stills. Drawing his knees up under his chin, he exhaled coughing out a tearless choke.

His brain snapshotted an image of Scorpios sitting across from him at the Ravenclaw table in the Great Hall. There were only First Years back then, Scorpios' eyes were a light grey, not the stormy almost black they were now. His face was almost smiling, and achievement in itself for a Malfoy, his hair perfectly kept, unlike it was nowadays. Three years had passed since then, and an awful lot had changed.

Even after everything that had happened, Albus missed Scorpios so much his heart ached. He wanted, more than anything, to just hold the boy close, and bury his head in his soft blonde hair, simply holding him. He wanted it so much, that he could feel his arms twitching.

He rested his head on his knees, staring blankly out of the window into the night.

"Nox." He muttered, and the light of his wand extinguished leaving him in total darkness again.

XXX

The next time Albus woke up, he could hear the sounds of raindrops hitting the window panes, and people shuffling around upstairs. They would be down in a minute, and he would make sure he was long gone.

Shuffling onto the ground, he straightened up and heard his bones creak. He still felt absolutely exhausted, but he knew he couldn't exactly go back to sleep.

Knowing the rest of his housemates would be down any minute, he picked his discarded wand from the window-still and left the Common Room. Shuffling along, the almost empty hallways, Albus kept his head ducked, letting his chestnut coloured hair fall in front of his face, like a shield.

He walked down stairway after stairway before he reached the almost deserted Great Hall. There were only around a dozen students in total in the entire hall, which Albus was relieved of. Fewer students meant less questions and glares.

Taking a seat at the same section of the Ravenclaw table which he had sat at since that very first night, he sat down only momentarily long enough to grab a bread roll, and shove it in the deep pockets of his robes. He grabbed a goblet of pumpkin juice and sipped it, swirling the sweet liquid around his mouth before swallowing it.

He took another gulp of the orange juice in his goblet, just as he heard a familiar voice call him.

"Al?"

He looked up and locked eyes with his older brother James. James was a Gryffindor and was just one year older than Albus, but James made it seem like decades.

"James." Albus answered in a monotone.

"Where on earth have you been?" James spurted, leaning on the table. "I heard that you aren't talking to Malfoy…or anyone for that matter."

James had never seen his brother in such a state, his chestnut coloured hair was dishevelled, and his face was pale and drawn, the dark circles under his eyes painfully visible. His eyes were bloodshot and distant looking. Everything about Albus looked like pain and vulnerability and loneliness.

James punched his hand in to the bench, resisting the urge to march right up to Ravenclaw tower and 'Avada Kadavra' Scorpios Malfoy for doing this to his brother.

"I don't want to talk about it." Albus answered in a flat voice, devoid of all emotion. James was just about to reach across the bench and shake the happiness back into his brother, when Albus got up silently and left, shuffling along the hard stone floor, and disappearing out the doors.

James searched for the reason why his brother would leave so quickly, and noticed a tall, platinum blonde, dashingly handsome boy sit down at the bench.

Malfoy.

He took a sharp intake of breath in an effort to calm himself, feeling his hand twitch towards his pocket in which he kept his wand.

"Hey, Malfoy?" He found himself calling. The blonde boys head snapped up instantly, and James noticed that he too had dark circles under his grey eyes, which stood out hugely against his pale skin.

"I hope you're happy." James hissed, and he left to turn away, when a flood of rage overcame him and he spun back around, reaching across the table and punching Scorpios.

James heard a satisfying crack as the blonde boy's jaw broke. James looked at Malfoy, blood dripping from his split lip and a purple bruise blossoming on his jaw and felt a little pathetic.

Punching Scorpios wouldn't make Albus happy, hell he'd be lucky if Albus wasn't furious.

"JAMES SIRIUS POTTER, WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON HERE?" He heard someone bellow and turned to see Professor Knockridge, her pale blue eyes fixed in a steady glare on him. James noticed a few of the other students' inch away carefully. For an old lady, Prof. Knockridge was extremely intimidating.

"He deserved it." James declared, trying to be confident but sounding like a little child who just got caught.

"I do not care for stories Mr Potter, only actions and judging by your actions you can look forward to a week of detention. As for you Mr Malfoy, I think you need a visit to the Hospital Wing."

With that Professor Knockridge turned to leave, her emerald robes sweeping the ground after her, leaving the two boys in shocked silence.

She turned back after she had walked a few feet away.

"Oh, and another thing Mr. Potter, If I see you assault one of my students again, your place on the Quidditch team will be revoked."

James stood open-mouthed after the Professor as she stalked off. He lived for Quidditch, and no Malfoy was worth that.

"I'm not happy." He heard Scorpios mumble, doing the best he could with his broken jaw.

"What?" James asked, turning around to face the boy again.

"Your brother is the one that hurt me."

With that, Scorpios stood up, his hand to his jaw. Two other boys stood up too, and together they all walked away, heading for the Hospital Wing.

James stood there, his knuckles still splattered in scarlet, deeply confused and desperate for answers. Why would his brother hurt someone he loved so much? James had seen the way the two boys looked at each other.

Things just didn't add up.