A/N: Hello, dear readers. First up, before I let you read, I'd like to say a really big thank you to Lizaluvsdoggies for coming up with the idea behind this story and letting me write it. If you like it, please, please, please tell her how awesome she is!

A quick disclaimer: I solemnly swear that I am up to no good by impersonating J K Rowling. (We all know it: I'm not her, folks, and therefore, I do not own any of these characters etc. apart from the ones I made up in my imagination.)

"I expect a roll of parchment on the uses of unicorn hairs on my desk by the end of the week," Professor Murphy said, piling his Care of Magical Creatures textbooks on top of one another. "Mr Malfoy, Mr Potter, please wait behind to discuss your detentions. Class dismissed."

I gathered my things, but whilst everyone else left, I had to stick around and wait for my two idiot best friends. That was what happened when you were a Weasley. That was what happened when you were friends with the two biggest trouble makers in the year: Scorpius Malfoy and Albus Potter. Of course, they were nothing on my older cousins, Fred and James, but since they'd knuckled down to their NEWTs after frequent threats from their parents, Scor and Al had done a pretty solid job of filling the boots they'd left behind.

Finally Scor and Al were done being reprimanded and the three of us walked back up to the castle for our next lesson.

"I can't believe it's the first week back and we're already getting homework," Scorpius moaned. "My brain's not ready for this!"

"I know. I hate Professor Murphy so much. He's such a battle-axe!" Al agreed before launching into an impersonation of our Care of Magical Creatures teacher. "If you boys talk over me again, it won't just be a detention you get!"

"Well you really shouldn't have talked over him," I told them both. "It's not polite."

"Sorry. I forgot we were talking to all the teachers' favourite pet," Al moaned, glaring at me. The instant I drew my wand, he was grovelling though. "No, Rose, please. Not that spell – I only just finished getting glitter out of my hair from last time!"

I smiled cruelly and hissed the incantation that would cause Al to have a make-over. Scor snorted at the pink, glitter butterfly that had been painted around Al's eyes like a superhero mask.

"Rose!" Al complained. "Do the counter curse! I can't walk around like this! Professor Cackling will give me another detention! You know she will!"

"Fine, but only if you promise to stop asking me to help you with your homework."

"Deal," Al said, closing his eyes and waiting for me to undo the spell.

"Come on, Rose, put him out of his misery," Scor laughed.

Sighing, I directed my wand at my cousin's face and muttered the spell that would get rid of his face paint. If he wasn't so lazy he could have done it himself. It was only a cleaning spell.

"Now, remember? No asking me to help with your homework."

"Whatever, Rose. I had my fingers crossed," Al said, turning and displaying his crossed fingers as he walked through the Entrance Hall doors first. "I found this new shortcut to the Third Floor. Come on."

"Brilliant," Scorpius replied excitedly. "Where is it?"

"It's right here and it goes along that bit of the First Floor that Professor Longbottom said was forbidden-"

"-No. Not brilliant, Scorpius. This is just another of Albus' stupid ideas that always end up getting you in trouble. That part of the castle will be forbidden for a reason and it's not to invite you to explore it. Honestly, anyone would think you had a complex, Al. Just because you're Harry Potter's son, doesn't mean you have to break the rules all the time to try and be like him."

"Don't be stupid, Rose, it's not like that. I'm not trying to be like Dad," Al muttered defensively. "I just like to save my legs and take shorter routes to class. Is that not okay?"

"Oh, it's not like that? Really? How many times have you had detentions, Albus? What happened the last time you took a so-called shortcut? Oh that's right, the pair of you ended up walking into Professor Trelawney's bedroom. You're an embarrassment sometimes. You really are," I argued, doing my best to keep my voice down.

"Shut up, Rose. I'm not an embarrassment, am I, Scor?"

"I don't know, dude. It was pretty awkward when we saw Professor Trelawney's knickers. I sure don't want to see that again." He looked at Al with pity, clearly siding with me for once.

"And I thought you were my friend?" Al asked himself, shaking his head at his own foolishness.

"I am your friend. I am," Scorpius promised. "It's just sometimes…well, sometimes you act like a First Year, Al and we're not. We're in our Fourth Year now. The time for fun and games is over."

"Do you know what? I wish I was still in First Year," Albus declared, backing away. "And then I wouldn't have to be friends with idiots like you!" After a few pointing fingers, he stormed away from us to take his stupid short cut.

"Talk about an overreaction," I muttered, feeling moody after arguing. I shot Scorpius a dirty look when he didn't agree with me, but he didn't seem to have even heard what I said. He was looking at the portrait through which Al had vanished, guilt and shame all over his face.

He finally turned to look at me. "So? Defence Against the Dark Arts?"

I nodded and looked back to the Grand Staircase, registering that the Entrance Hall was deserted.

"Great, thanks to that slug's breath of a boy we're late!"

"Give him a break, Rose. It's hard enough being the son of the Chosen One in this place." I knew exactly what Scorpius was talking about. Everywhere Al went people stared at him. Whenever he said something, everyone stopped to listen. Sometimes, First Years even asked for his autograph. But it wasn't like he was the only one. James and Lily received the same treatment, and even Hugo and I didn't escape fame.

I led the way up the stairs, stomping with anger. Sometimes Albus could be the world's most inconsiderate pig. He'd been fine when we were younger. We'd always been close. And when we first started at Hogwarts he was quiet and studious. Now he was probably one of the most raucous, laziest boys in our year. Somewhere along the line, we'd stopped getting along.

I was probably better friends with Scorpius now and that was saying something. In First Year, Scorpius and I hadn't agreed on anything. We'd hated each other, even after he was sorted into Gryffindor with Al and me.

The moment we opened the door to Professor Cackling's classroom, we ducked. Every time someone arrived late to his lesson, he threw a piece of chalk at them. I'd never ever experienced it before, but Scorpius had. He pulled me down with him and up the aisle to the table we usually shared with Al.

"So much for his shortcut," I remarked cuttingly when we sat down with him nowhere in sight.

"Thank you for joining us, Mr Malfoy, Miss Weasley," Professor Cackling said, turning to us with a sinister smile. "Perhaps you would like to enlighten me as to the whereabouts of Mr Potter."

"He's probably lost somewhere, Sir," Scorpius mumbled.

"Lost? How could he be lost?"

Neither Scorpius nor I said anything. Despite our argument, we wouldn't betray Al that way.

Dissatisfied with our silence, Professor Cackling turned back to the board where he had begun writing notes for the class to copy down. Scorpius breathed a sigh of relief at having escaped punishment, but I was less convinced. "Please stay behind an extra ten minutes at the end of the lesson," Professor Cackling instructed us.

As the lesson wore on, I found myself increasingly glancing back at the door through which I expected Al to appear. But he never did. All down my right side, I could feel a draft because he wasn't sat in-between Scor and me.

Finally, the end of the lesson arrived and for the second time that morning, I was forced to wait behind.

"Well?" Professor Cackling demanded.

"Well what?" Scorpius asked, just as confused as me.

"Don't talk back to me!"

Scorpius opened his mouth to protest. I kicked him under the table and sent him a warning glare. It was obvious that the most disliked teacher in the school was simply looking for an excuse to give us detentions. We fell into silence. After five minutes, seething, Professor Cackling finally released us.

"Imagine what Al would have said about that!" Scorpius ground out before remembering that we probably still weren't talking to Albus.

"I wonder where he is," I mumbled as we entered the Great Hall for break. I was in dire need of a hot chocolate, grabbed a mug from the table and took a seat, still searching for my cousin. "Lily?"

"Yeah?" Lily answered, looking up from her group of Second Year friends.

"Have you seen your brother?"

"He isn't with you two?" she asked, seeming surprised. Everyone thought that Scor, Al and I were like my parents and Uncle Harry: inseparable.

I shook my head.

"Well I haven't seen him. I thought he had a lesson with you…"

As Scorpius and I explained what had happened, I couldn't help beginning to worry. With Al's luck, he could have ended up walking into a herd of angry hippogriffs but we wouldn't know because we'd refused to use his shortcut.

Scorpius frowned at me. "Maybe we should go and look for him…"

"We can't. We've got Potions now."

"We've got a little bit of time, surely."

"Nope, not even a minute," I told him. I'd barely finished speaking before the bell to signal the end of our ten minute break rang. "Told you."

"How?! How do you do that?" he demanded, looking at me like I had some supernatural time-keeping ability.

"Psychic," I laughed. "Now, come on. I don't want to be late twice today. I'm sure Al will have managed to find his way to Potions by now too."

We stood up, leaving behind our mugs and gathering our bags.

"See you in the Common Room, Lily," I called over my shoulder as we moved off.

Scorpius hummed as we walked down to the dungeons. He did that a lot. Humming, that is. As soon as silence fell, Scorpius would break it with a little tune. And quite often, particularly in the evenings in the Common Room, after humming a while, he'd end up singing without even realising it.

"And I feel you forget me like I used feel you breathe,' he sang quietly.

"You're doing it again," I told him with a roll of my eyes.

"Oops. Sorry. I just can't help it," he replied, shooting me a wry smile.

"I know you can't," I sighed as we stopped outside our Potions classroom and waited with the rest of our class for Professor Jamieson to arrive. It was just a little annoying sometimes. "So, are we placing bets?"

"Bets?" Scorpius asked with a grin.

"Bets. Bets on whether Albus will still be in a bad mood with us," I clarified.

"You know he will be," he laughed. "He's your cousin. Plus the last time you two argued – and bearing in mind it was only about whether there's actually cheese in cheesecake – he didn't speak to you for a whole week!"

"Don't remind me. And I know I'm right. There is cheese in cheesecake," I told him.

"Whatever, don't bring me into it."

Finally, Professor Jamieson hurried down the stairs, her heels clacking against the stone floor. Scorpius raised his eyebrows as per usual. Professor Jamieson was the youngest, female teacher in the school – having returned to Hogwarts to teach after just two years of finishing her education here. And as the youngest teacher, she very much ignored the staff dress code, wearing altered robes that barely reached the middle of her thighs. She always wore ridiculously high heels and about an inch of make-up. Most of the boys, if not all, were harbouring a crush on her.

Clearing my throat, I elbowed Scorpius and looked pointedly at the lack of queue in front of him then back at all the people stood impatiently behind us who were waiting for him to stop lusting after our teacher and walk through the door.

Scorpius gave me an apology, looking embarrassed at having been caught, and entered the classroom. After taking our seats, the two of us looked at the door, searching for Albus. But even Janine – our very unorganised friend from Hufflepuff – arrived whilst he didn't.

Scorpius shrugged at me and flipped open his textbook to the page Professor Jamieson had requested. I glanced down at it before opening my own copy.

"Today class, as I'm sure you have guessed, we are brewing an ageing potion," she announced, flicking her wand and making the instructions she must have written up before break appear on the board behind her. "Begin!"

A/N: So I get that not a lot happens in this chapter. Mainly I'm setting out the main characters' relationships here and setting the scene. The juicy stuff will happen in the next chapter, promise. But I hope you enjoyed this. I'd love to know what you think.

Thanks for reading!

Much love, SabreDae

xxxxxxx