The Forgotten Zodiac

"Well, Scorpius, you just tell me when I need to shut up, all right?" Albus suggested, huffling slighlty. He then turned to regard Ewan. "I'm fine, really, just thinking. I might have used "I'm tired" as an excuse but I obviously slept enough," he said, grinning slightly at his self-depriciating humor.

Ewan grinned back, glad to have everyone seemingly at peace again. "Oh, okay. Thinking's hard work for you, I get it." He smiled immediately after to show how lightly his words were meant completely lightly. He was just teasing, and he didn't want Albus to get upset immediately after he calmed everyone down. "Hey, one of you knows where we're going, right? I don't think I've ever been in this part of the castle."
Like a true Slytherin, Scorpius ignored Albus' huffling. Instead, he focused on identifying landmarks in the hall and navigating to the Transfiguration room. "I know where we are, Ewan. It's up ahead, on the right."

Albus, instead of getting upset, laughed. He was glad for the opportunity to get away from his somewhat more worrying thoughts and back to school - though he would make the argument that that wasn't too much better.

"We have this class with Hufflepuffs, don't we?" he asked, although he already knew that was the truth. It was why he'd studied practically all night and then slept in this morning - wouldn't do to have a /Hufflepuff/ show him up in something.

"Oh, Merlin," Scorpius commented. "Yeah, we do. No one get any questions wrong, please. If you don't know, just stay silent. Better to never speak than to get shown up by a Hufflepuff." He cringed at the thought and shook his head to clear the thought away. "Never mind. I'm sure we'll do better than them; we're Slytherins."

"Destined for greatness and all that," Albus agreed, heading into the room as the threesome reached the door. He took a seat in the second row - the Hufflepuffs had entirely claimed both the front and the back, so Albus figured this was a safe place to sit.

Scorpius and Ewan slid onto the bench on either side of Albus, Scorpius closest to the wall. "Exactly," the young Malfoy commented. "Hufflepuffs are destined for the workforce; we're destined for management. First, though, we must destroy them in class."
Ewan laughed with a glance at Scorpius and eyed the other students around them. "Well, destroying might be a little hard to do first day of class, but I'll do my best."

"You don't have to worry," Albus said, tapping his textbook. "I didn't stay up late reading this for nothing."

"Oi, would you shut up a little back there?" One of the Hufflepuff first-years that had been sitting in the front row turned around to look back at the Slytherins. He caught sight of Scorpius' white-blond hair, recognized him as a Malfoy, and scowled. "It's bad enough that there's a Death Eater's kid in this school at all, but of course he's already talking about us behind our backs on day one." The boy wrinkled his freckled nose with disdain at Scorpius, then looked to Albus.

"I wonder what's wrong with you?" he commented snarkily. "Something seriously screwed must be in your mind, for a Potter to end up in Slytherin."

"What's your problem?" Albus asked, scowling right back at the Hufflepuff. "Who are you?"

"Tobias Finnigan," he said, tilting his head back. "My dad went to school with yours. Seriously, what's your problem?" he asked, eyeing the trio of Slytherins like the were afflicted with some sort of disease.

Scorpius looked down at his books to compose himself. Being confronted with his father's past on the second day was expected, but it was certainly not something he'd been looking forward to. After just a second, he looked up again, every bit a Malfoy and sneer firmly in place. "Why don't you just go- Oh, you're a Finnigan. That explains it..." He drifted off slightly and shifted to address Ewan. "You might not know, living in the country the way you do. Seamus Finnigan is known for well..." He paused again, pretending to be torn as to the ethics of publically enlightening Ewan. "He's quite the alcoholic; his wife's tried to divorce him going on four times now and changed her mind suddenly each time. One can only wonder why." Despite the slight flush on his cheeks, Scorpius maintained a sympathetic expression as he turned to Tobias. "You ever need a place to esc- stay, my house always has extra rooms."
Ewan's face struggled to keep up with the emotions flickering through his system. His initial respons to Tobias' insult was indignation, but it changed rapidly to confusion at Scorpius response, and his mouth dropped finally in an "O" of shock and horror as the Malfoy announced to half of the first years that Tobias came from an abusive family. Whether it was true or not, it was a nasty thing to be announcing.

((Very nice, Mr. Seraph. Very nice.))

Albus seemed as shocked as Ewan - even though he'd heard about the Finnigan family due to some well placed extendable ears and his parents' conversations when they thought none of their children could hear. His shock was a result of Scorpius' not-so-tactful revelation of this information to the entire classroom; though, if pressed, he'd say that Tobias deserved it for malaigning Scorpius' family and Albus' placement in Slytherin. The sting of the Hufflepuff's comments (which were all the more disparigable due to the fact that they came from a Hufflepuff) lessened the shock Albus felt in regard to Scorp's words.

A very un-Hufflepuff snarl curled Tobias' mouth as he struggled for a word strong enough to put Scorpius back in his place. His fists clenched at this version of his family life as related by the Malfoy, eyes flashing. He opened his mouth to make some sort of retort, when Headmistress McGonagall, who taught transfiguation, strode into the classroom. Tobias managed to see her before he said anything (more) that he might regret, and snapped to attention as he suddenly faced the front of the room, as all the other Hufflepuffs and Albus did.

Scorpius dropped back into his seat and straightened his books and wand on his desk. He'd quickly discovered his talent for looking like a model student. Nearly every teacher they'd been with so far had taken one glance at Scorpius' earnest, attentive face and assumed he was respectfully paying attention.
Ewan reoriented only a fraction behind Scorpius and Tobias, closing his mouth and flipping through his book to do something with his hands. When McGonagall reached her desk and began roll call, he looked away from his book and started paying attention. "Allaway" was usually one of the first names called.

After calling roll, McGonagall looked around the classroom and began the traditional speech on wand safety and proper handling of a wand for transfiguration, then on to the basic principals of the study and what the first years would be covering in the class. Albus listened somewhat attentively, a bit upset that they wouldn't be doing any actual magic on the first day, as they would not have time after this speech. He did pay attention a bit more as it seemed the Professor was wrapping up, and she sat down her wand on her desk.

"In conclusion, class..." she started, but Albus found himself zoning out again. She'd sat down her wand - that means they wouldn't even get a demonstration...

With some shock, Albus then witnessed his professor transform into a cat, jumping up neatly onto the desk in the front of the room.

"Merlin's pants," Albus said, staring at their teacher in awe.

"Didn't you know she was an animagus?" Scorpius looked at Albus in surprise. He'd been drilled, repeatedly, on all of his first-year teachers. Failing to know them could result in failing to excel in the academics, and it would be entirely unacceptable for the the Malfoy heir to place anywhere below first his year. "It's pretty impressive, but not that great. My cousin, Genevieve Burke, is one too, only she turns into a rabbit and then pees all over the place." Scorpius made a face as he remembered that his intent was to impress his friends, not horrify them with tales of overly-inbred pure-bloods. "Anyway, I see her transform a bunch; so I'm pretty much used to it."
Ewan stared at the teacher in awe for several seconds, until she switched back into her human form and nodded to the class, signalling their dismissal. That broke his fascination and he turned back to his desk. "I thought it was good enough..."

Albus' face pulled into a grimace at this story, before he recalled something. "Can Metamorphagai transform into animals, too?" he asked, though he seemed more to be asking the air around him. "I guess I'll have to ask Teddy, next time I see him," he mused.

"We can't." Scorpius stated. He realized just too late that he hadn't meant to flaunt that particular piece of his character yet. People tended to get weird when they realized he could shapeshift; either they demand he perform or they started looking at him as if he was actively trying to steal their identity. "I mean-"
However, Ewan had already noticed. "We? Are you one too, Scorpius?"

Albus immediately looked all the more interested in Scorpius. "Oh!" he said, some thought clicking in the back of his mind. "You and Teddy are cousins, right? It must run in the Black line," he mused. "So. you can't, then?" he asked, returning to his original question as he tilted his head, watching Scorpius as if he suddenly expected the boy's hair to turn blue, as Teddy's so often did.

"Wait, you're a metamorphmagus?" Ewan exclaimed. "That's awesome! Why don't you- you know- do something? If I could do that, I'd never look the same twice!"
Ewan's exuberance was quickly cut off by Scorpius, who quieted his friends quickly. "Yes, I am, and no we can't. Actually, metamorphmagi gene structure is incompatible with the animagus magic. It causes uncontrolled shifting at all times." Having spouted out that fact, he glanced from side to side to see if anyone had heard Ewan's shout. "I don't really tell that many people, though. It was sort of an issue at my last school."

"Really? You'll have to tell us about that sometime," Albus said, deciding to respect Scorpius' privacy at least until they got back to their dorms. "You went to primary school? My mom insisted she homeschool us, like Grandma Weasley did for her and my uncles," he said. "You're probably leaps and bounds ahead of me, then. Mom wasn't that great at teaching, but dad did show me some cool stuff. Couldn't practice any myself, of course, but you know. Learning how a Patronus is cast is much cooler than arithmetic."