The Forgotten Zodiac

As if on cue, the door opened and the prefect stuck his head in. "Lights out, guys. Tomorrow will be here before you know it." He waved his wand and the lights went out, leaving the room pitch black except for the little green-tinted light that came through the lake.
Ewan sighed and slid under his covers, not seeing the point in arguing about it. The sooner he got to sleep, the sooner he would wake up. Hopefully. "Night, guys," he said softly, though his voice seemed loud in the sudden silence.

"G'night, Ewan," Albus responded. He flopped onto his back, pitching the copy of the Daily Prophet onto the nightstand as he settled in.

The next morning seemed to come just as Albus closed his eyes. It was already bright outside when he sat up, and, once again, he was one of very few left in the room.

"I'll have to tell Scorpius and Ewan not to let me sleep in like this..." he muttered, dressing hurriedly and heading down to the Common Room.

When Albus entered the Common Room, Ewan was standing there waiting for him. Scorpius was there as well, flopped in a chair and flicking idly through the Daily Prophet. "Oh, hello, Albus. We were just talking about whether or not to come pour water over you," the Malfoy greeted him. He rose and started toward the exit. "Shall we go, then? I was getting hungry waiting for you."
Ewan pushed off the chair he'd been leaning on and followed Scorpius. "C'mon, we don't want to miss it. We've got Tranfiguration afterward, and I heard the teacher's impossible."

"Oh, you didn't have to wait on me," Albus said, seeming surprised that he hadn't been abandoned in favor of getting to the Great Hall for food. He nonetheless smiled and picked up his pace, following after the other two.

"Anything interesting in the Prophet, today?" Albus asked, glancing at the paper in Scorpius' hands.

"Nothing, really. More Ministry propaganda followed by more Ministry-bashing. You think they'd come up with something new by now, but it's pretty much the same as ever." Scorpius held the paper over, looking rather bored by the whole affair. Albus would come to realize that Scorpius' neutral expression was bored and aloof; it came directly from his home environment.

Albus glanced over the pages of the paper, paying a bit more attention to the moving pictures than the words flashing across the top of the page. "I would think they'd find something else to talk about, too," he agreed, handing the paper to Ewan so he could get a look, too. He paused and shoved his hands into his pockets, feeling his wand in there. "Hey," he said suddenly. "Do you guys know any spells yet? I know we have our first class today and everything, but..." he trailed off, smiling slightly as he shrugged. "I just think it's cool."

Ewan took the paper and flipped through it idly. When he didn't find anything that looked interesting, he closed the newspaper and increased his speed to catch up with the other two. "I've seen a fair amount, but my parents were really strict about not doing any. Whenever they could, they used nonverbal spells to keep me from figuring anything out."
Scorpius looked around as they reached the main hall, expecting Lonnie to jump them any minute and steal his food. That he didn't have yet. "Eyes out for Miss Creepers, everyone. She'll steal everything you love and then threaten you with silverware."

"For wh-- Oh, you mean the Raven," Albus said. He paused as he tried to recall her name. "Lonnie, wasn't it?"

"Yes, Albus dear?"

As if her name had summoned her, she was suddenly behind the trio of boys. "Glad to see you all made it out of Basic Brooms alive," she said, grinning as she made herself welcome, and the trio became a quartet. As if she knew it would annoy him, she strung her arm across Scorpius' shoulders. "So, how's Hogwarts been treating you?"

Scorpius dropped his should out from Lonnie's arm and elbowed at her, making his face as emotionless as he could. "Quite well. I was almost cheerful, until just now when I developed the desperate urge to wrap my hands around someone's neck and shake them until something snapped." Intent on hassling her, he faked a gasp and turn to the newcomer. "That's funny, Lonnie, it coincides perfectly with your arrival! Weeeeird."
Ewan laughed slightly and stepped between Lonnie and Scorpius, before the physical altercation escalated any further. "C'mon, Scor, she's not that bad! You just have to know when and how to wield your silverware as a weapon."

"It's because he doesn't have an older brother," Albus said. "That's why his stabbin reflexes aren't so great." He grinned at Scorpius to show his observation was meant in good humor, before looking back up to Lonnie as the girl spoke.

"You know, Mr. Malfoy, that's not a very nice greeting to someone who's just trying to be friendly. I would say it's because you're a Slytherin, but your other two friends here have disproved that. So I guess it must just be you," she said, flicking her hair over her shoulder lightly as she went before them into the Great Hall.

As she moved off, Albus lowered his voice slightly. "Seriously, though, how does she keep running into us? The Ravenclaw dorms are in the opposite direction as ours. You don't think she intentionally waited out for us, do you?" he asked.

"Of course, she is," Scorpius sneered. "Who else do you think would talk to her?" He strode toward the Slytherin table, feeling absolutely no remorse for Lonnie's reaction. "That's why she came and bothered first years from another house; she figured no one else would warn us off. She wouldn't be so bad if she wasn't such a thief."
Ewan sighed and glanced at Scorpius, somewhat disappointed that he'd chased of their best source of information. "She's not that bad, Scorpius. Why can't you be nice to her?"

"She is a Ravenclaw, though, and a second year," Albus pointed out. "We could at least get her to help with our homework." He paused a moment. "How's that for Slytherin thinking?" he asked, grinning slightly.

Ewan laughed and nodded at Albus. "Nicely done, Al. Maybe I'd better go find her..." He looked around, trying to locate Lonnie in the hubub of the room. "Though really, I'm not sure she'll be in any mood to help us if Scorpius is going to keep jumping down her throat. For it to actually work, you'd have to be nice to her."
Sadly for his friends, Scorpius vetoed the idea immediately. "Ask for her help? Hardly acceptable. Even if we're just first years, we're Slytherin first years. We don't beg for help."

Albus sighed, but nodded at the reasoning. "I'm sure we'll manage," he put in, sitting down at the table and pulling a plate towards him. "Even if it all seems confusing now. I am looking forward to Transfiguration today, though. I've heard you learn some really cool stuff in there," he said.

"Yeah, it should be great!" Ewan stated enthusiastically. He reached the table and elbowed his way to a spot where he could sit down. "What time is it, huh? How long do we have before class?" Combined with how quickly he was loading his plate, that translated to "How much time do I have to stuff this in my face?"
Scorpius squinted up at the clock and quickly continued loading his plate. "It's seven fifteen, class is at eight. You didn't sleep in too far, Al. You did much worse yesterday." As Scorpius took a muffing, he glanced around edgily. It wouldn't have surprised him if Lonnie had jumped out and grabbed it right out of his mouth.

((haha muffing what is muffling?))

"Here's to hoping I just get better and better with this scehdule," Albus said as he grabbed various items of food and sat them on his plate. "Though, really, you could just wake me up in the morning. I wouldn't mind. And it'd keep us on track better, I think," he said with a shrug.

((Muffling is nothing at all. Muffing is a typo of muffin.))

Ewan laughed. "I told you so, Scorpius. We could've saved twenty minutes if you'd just woken him up!" Before Albus could get overly confused, his friend turned to explain. "Scorpius and I were talking about waking you up, but Scorpius assumed you were one of those people who hit when they get woken up, so he made me leave you be."
Scorpius hesitated briefly, exhibiting a mixture of embarassment and annoyance, before he corrected Ewan's statement. "I encouraged you to wake him up; I just told you I wouldn't do it myself. You're the one who wouldn't do it. Besides, now that we know he doesn't assault people for getting him up, it won't be an issue any more."
"He hits me plenty." All three boys turned to see who was talking, and Scorpius and Ewan were rather surprised to see it was a Gryffindor. The surprise slid away slightly when they realized from family resemblance that this was James Potter, Harry Potter's son and Albus' brother. "'Course, that might just be out of revenge for all the times I hit him." James inflated his cheeks then slowly blew out, clearly rather uncomfortable in the situation. "Hey, Albus."

"James!" Albus seemed shocked, but overall delighted that his brother had not, in fact, disowned him for being a Slytherin. He stood and made a slight flailing motion with his arms that indicated he might have been thinking about a hug or a handshake but was torn between the two, so his hands quickly returned to his sides. Fumbling slightly, he said, "What are you doing over here? This is fraternizing with the enemy, you know," he said attempting a smile that hid his nerves - he might have suspected that James just came over here to tease him for being in the wrong house.

"Yeah, whatever. It'd only be fraternizing if I liked you guys." James approached the table and jumped over the bench so he could rap his young brother's head with his knuckles. "This is just being family. People'd glare at me if I didn't come torture you." He turned and examined the other two in the group, doing his best to evaluate the level of... Slytherin they exuded. "So who're you two? I'm James, if you didn't know that already."
In contrast to Scorpius' raised eyebrow and stare, Ewan did his best to be friendly. After all, he was Albus' older brother. They had to at least make conversation with him. "Hi, James. I'm Ewan Allaway. Nice to meet you."

"This is Scorpius Malfoy," Albus supplied with the other boy didn't. "Remember, dad talks about his dad sometimes," he reminded, swatting hurriedly at his brother's hands to try and get them away from his head. "Remember, or did you lose that piece of information in that thick skull of yours?" he asked, a slight teasing grin tugging at his lips.