Chapter Two

By the middle of the train ride Albus had to leave the compartment due to the excessive amount of flirting. Rose and Scorpius could make him feel sick to his stomach at times. He wondered how the people in Gryffindor dealt with them; he could only imagine what Roxanne said to them.

Albus found himself at the most avoided compartment, thanks to the teacher compartments nearby. He didn't mind, it wasn't like he was doing something illegal like Loran and Lysander Scamander. Albus was pretty sure they were planning to get a pet dragon. Hagrid probably was included in their plans some way or another. If there was any type of magical creature, Hagrid was there. Albus chuckled, thinking back to the story of Hagrid and Norbet, Norberta, he corrected himself. His dad had nearly lost Gryffindor the cup that year…

"Um, excuse me?" A soft voice interrupted Albus' thoughts.

Albus glanced to the door; he hadn't even heard the door open. A small, blonde girl stood there shifting her weight back and forth from her right foot to her left.

"Oh, 'ello." Albus greeted.

"Mind if I sit here? It seems as if every compartment is filled with these hot-tempered redheads." The blonde smiled weakly, not a trace of an English accent to her voice.

He chuckled, "Go right ahead and it seems like you met the many Weasley cousins."

The girl sat opposite Albus, note even bothering to put her luggage on the shelf, "The Weasleys? I've heard of them, of course, but I didn't know there was so many!"

"Yeah, they're everywhere you go. I'm Albus Potter, by the way." He introduced.

She was silent for a moment as her mind registered the name. Potter? The Potter family? But instead of stammering out a few unintelligible words she grinned and replied, "Oh how misfortunate… It must get really tiring when people ask if you're related to Harry Potter, right?"

Albus blinked, what was this girl playing at? He studied her bright grin and realized, while feeling incredibly dumb, she was kidding, "Oh yeah, real annoying."

She laughed lightly, "I'm Charlie Monte, nice to meet you, Albus."

"You too… Say are you from America?" He asked.

Charlie's grin actually vanished. Her bright blue eyes became dull and uninterested, "Yeah I'm a transfer from Clairton's School of Magic." Her voice was short.

Albus barely noticed the change of her expression, "That must've been brilliant."

Charlie only nodded, her gaze focused on anything but Albus. She always tried to be subtle with her feelings, but a few of them always managed to sneak past her guard.

Now Albus saw how she was troubled by her old school. Nerves perhaps? Maybe she missed her friends. A million possibilities raced through his head.

Instead of pestering her more Albus leaned back and studied the passing landscape. It seemed like there was only a half an hour left. That meant he would have to go back to the compartment. He wrinkled his nose; he did not want to know what had happened in there. Scorpius was going to fill him in later, anyway. Like usual, though, Albus would tune out his voice. Talking to Scorpius was almost like talking to his mum; all he had to do was nod every now and then and mutter, 'yeah' and 'okay.'

"Oi Albus!"

He blinked and returned back to reality. Rose was in the compartment now. She was dressed in her school uniform, but her tie was tied in a big knot.

Her expression darkened, "Don't ask."

"I wasn't going to." Albus replied.

"Whatever, you better go change though." She said.

"Alright," Albus looked at Charlie, "See you later."

Charlie nodded, "Yeah, I guess."

With that Albus headed back to the compartment. Rose watched him leave before taking his spot, "I'm Rose by the way."

"Charlie." She introduced.
"Sorry that you got with Al, he's not the biggest talker unless you're in a constant argument with him like me." She grinned, "Just the usual cousinly love."

"Then I'm guessing you're one of the many Weasleys." Charlie said with a smile.

"Was it the hair? Or maybe the freckles?"

Charlie laughed, "Both, not to mention your badge."

Rose glanced down at her quidditch badge. IT was a new addition to her uniform. Hogwarts just started to give them out ot the house teams. It was a simple circle with a gold border. The three hoops took the center of the badge. 'Rose Weasley' was printed under it along with '#13' and 'Beater.'

"Forgot about that." Rose laughed.

The girls continued to talk, shooting jokes back and forth at each other. They laughed good-heartedly though. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

XX

Scorpius was still in the compartment untying and retying his tie over and over again. His mind was racing. He couldn't get the image of Rose's expression as she ran into him. It had been priceless, but why had he been so speechless, too? It had been the perfect moment for a snarky comment. He hadn't even acted like the Scorpius Malfoy at all.

"What is it with you and Rose and ties?" Albus asked walking into the compartment.

"What is it with you stomping around like a horse?" Scorpius snapped.

"Touchy, touchy."

Scorpius smoothed his shirt. He was being touchy about the whole thing. He just had to let it go.

"Where'd you go?" Scorpius asked eager to change the subject.

"Another compartment." Albus shrugged.

"No shit Sherlock. I meant who'd you go sit with." He rolled his pale eyes.

"No one until an exchange student came in."

"Oooh, let me guess. Let me guess; was she a hot, but very confused, French student? Or perhaps an Irish redhead?" Scorpius grinned, "You know how I feel about gingers."

Albus arched his brow, mentally adding that statement to his list of 'Reasons Why Scorpius Loves Rose.' "I'm going to forget you said that." Not. "American girl, actually."

"Good enough." Scorpius shrugged ignoring what Albus first said.

"She's not your type." Albus simply said.

"What do you mean? Girl is my type." Scorpius grinned.

Albus laughed at that and nodded. There was no doubt about that. Scorpius hit on every at Hogwarts. The only one who objected the flirting was Rose. Why wouldn't Charlie just be another target?

Because she's smarter than that, Albus thought quietly.