Of course, I must let you all know that I do not own any of the characters in this story that you may recognise. I'm just writing for fun, and I hope you enjoy my stories as much as I am enjoying writing them. Please review : ) Any advice is welcome!

C xxxx

Chapter 1

Scorpius sat at the bar of the Leaky Cauldron nursing a fire whiskey as he thought about the events of the day. He'd had a tough twelve hour shift at work and he felt he deserved every drop of the amber liquid that passed his lips. Looking up, he saw the Landlady, Hannah Longbottom heading towards his end of the bar, so he drained the rest of the contents of his glass and set it down in front of him hoping she would provide him with a refill; she took the hint and came over to retrieve the glass. "You'd better have a day off tomorrow if you're going to carry on downing these as fast love" Hannah said with a wink to show she was only playing with him.

Just as Hannah passed Scorpius his change, the stool next to him slid away from the bar and James Potter almost collapsed on to it. "I'll be needing one of those too I think Hannah," he said. "In fact, make it a double."

Scorpius glanced at the dark haired man now sat next to him. James Potter was a perfect mix of his parents. He had inherited the chocolate eyes of his mother and the jet black hair of his father; though he seemed to be able to tame it in a way that neither his father nor brother ever could. Although he was around the same height as his father, he had never been quite as skinny and had the arms of a brilliant Beater, which was the position he played when he played for his school house team, just like his Uncles George and Fred Weasley. Despite the obvious exhaustion that showed on his face at that moment, James still managed to keep his trademark grin plastered on his face.

"I see enough of you at work, do you have to follow me in here too?" Scorpius grumbled.

"Come on Malfoy, you know you'd miss my constant presence if it was suddenly taken away from you."

"Mmm, like a hole in the head," Scorpius muttered, earning him a punch on the arm. "Ow! Git, there is no need for such violence."

James chuckled at Scorpius' look of mock outrage, "You deserved that."

Despite their verbal sparring, Scorpius and James were actually very good friends. They had met when Scorpius started on the Auror training programme straight out of Hogwarts. As part of a second year assignment, James had been required to make sure some of the first years were up to scratch on their basic defensive spells. Scorpius had been one of the group assigned to James, and had been in a very bad mood when it came round to his turn to demonstrate his knowledge of defensive spells. James had managed to break through one of Scorpius' shield charms, and of course Scorpius just had to retaliate and the two ended up having a duel in the middle of the training room. When a particularly brave first year trainee had managed to split the two up, they had glared at each other for a full minute before they both fell about laughing. Having witnessed a fairly intense duel between the pair only moments before, the rest of the room were rightfully confused as to why they were now laughing their heads off.

Eventually James had said "That was great fun, you really know your hexes Malfoy."

"Yeah, you too Potter, I didn't know you had it in you."

"You'd be surprised at what I know." James had replied with a gleam in his eye.

That had been five years ago, and ever since, James and Scorpius met up quite regularly to practice their defence skills. They had gotten to know each other almost as well as they knew themselves, and although nobody ever would have believed it, a Potter and a Malfoy had become the best of friends.

"Dad sent me to find you actually," James said after he had taken a large swig of his drink. "He says that if you come in tomorrow, he'll give you two days off next week."

"No" Scorpius stated firmly as soon as James had finished talking.

"Why not?" James questioned.

"I've worked solidly for two weeks, I need tomorrow or I might crack up."

"Aww, come on Scor, I already agreed to go in. You can't leave me on my own with Palmer. I might end up killing him... Or worse, I might end up actually liking the guy!" The horror on James's face almost made Scorpius laugh and he took a sip of whiskey to try and hide the amusement. "Besides, dad also said to tell you that he also promises not to get mad if you ever decide to pluck up the courage to ask my sister out." This caused Scorpius to start chocking on his drink.

As James calmly smacked him on the back, Scorpius spluttered, "He what? Y...Your dad... said that?"

"Well, no, I made that bit up, but Merlin Scor, when are you going to quit this shy guy act and get it over with already?"

Scorpius scowled "you're her brother. Aren't you supposed to stop blokes, especially older ones, getting anywhere near her?"

James just shrugged. "Rather it be someone I know than some git with his brain in his dick."

"Like you, you mean?" This earned Scorpius another punch on the arm.

"Oi! I resent that comment! I'm the perfect gentleman, thank you very much."

Scorpius snorted. He had been witness to James Potter, Witch charmer extraordinaire, on several occasions.

"Come on Scor, come in to work tomorrow and I'll pay for your Cannons ticket when we go see them on our day off next week."

Scorpius knew there was no point in arguing with James when he was set on something. Besides, he did have a point about the whole killing Jack Palmer thing. The bloke was an idiot who managed to mess up nearly every case he was assigned to. Scorpius tended to have a little more patience than James, so he was usually able to calm James down when he set off on one of his rants.

"Fine." Scorpius said, giving in. "But don't think I'll let you forget about those tickets!"

"Great stuff! Now, how do you think we should go about bringing this McNair git in for questioning?"

"James, do we have to talk shop? I came here to get a drink and forget about work for a few hours, and that's what I intend to do!"

"Touchy aren't we today Scor? Think we need to get you laid." James said in all seriousness while looking around the room for a potential one night stand. "What about those two over there? I call the brunette."

Scorpius followed the direction of James's gaze and his grey eyes landed on a pair of Witches laughing in the corner. One of the girls, the one James had just claimed by the looks of things, had brown hair, large eyes and full lips that were currently carrying far too much lipstick. The other had red hair, pale skin and natural, understated make up. She reminded him of Lily Potter slightly; fairly pretty, though she didn't quite have the natural beauty that the youngest Potter radiated and rendered Scorpius speechless on several occasions. Scorpius had never had any trouble attracting the attention of the female population with his wide, grey eyes and silver-blonde hair. He never really had any trouble when it came to charm either; he always knew exactly what to say to a woman to have her swooning at his feet. The only exception seemed to be Lily Potter. He had absolutely no idea what it was about the girl that had him acting like a shy school boy whenever she was around. Of course James had picked up on this and found it highly amusing, making it the subject of many a joke at Scorpius' expense.

As he thought about it, he was beginning to see the appeal of letting off a bit of steam after a long day at work.

"What time does your dad want us in tomorrow?" Scorpius asked.

"Ten." James replied.

"Great," Scorpius said as he drained his glass and asked for four of Hannah's speciality dragon eye cocktails. "Plenty of time to get home and changed before we have to be at the Ministry."

James grinned at the wink Scorpius threw his way and followed Scorpius over to the two girls in the corner with two cocktails in hand.

"Ladies, may we join you?" James asked. The brunette blushed and said "Sure" while patting the seat beside her. Scorpius sat himself next to the redhead and offered her a smile that would turn any female's legs to jelly.

Tonight certainly promised to end well for the both of them.