Seventh-Year: The Next Generation

Author's Note:

If you like this story, please, by all means, spread it around. I want as many people as possible to benefit from, and enjoy my work. =]

Chapter 8: Tapioca Pudding

"Want to take another crack at the Patronus? After class I mean, unless you want to skip. Then I will, of course," said Albus anxiously, hoping to distract Scorpius.

"No," answered Scorpius hollowly.

The two boys were leaning against the wall outside the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. They had just gotten out of Potions a few minutes ago, and they had a couple to spare before Defense Against the Dark Arts started.

"You going to be okay?" asked Albus. Watching Scorpius with worry-filled eyes.

Scorpius had been staring off down the corridor, observing the students that streamed to and fro, but now he turned his gaze to Albus. His blue eyes were dim and blank, this was very worrisome to Albus.

"Of course I will be. People don't have the option to not be. When something happens, you have to move on, and live with it." Albus opened his mouth to interrupt, but Scorpius kept going. "When the world kicks you down, you get up, and you keep going."

The fact that Scorpius was getting all philosophical was another worrying thing to Albus, but he didn't say so.

"You want to ditch class?" asked Albus.

"Yes," said Scorpius.

Albus hoisted himself off the wall. "Okay, where do you want to go?"

"No, Albus," said Scorpius quietly.

Albus blinked. "What?"

Scorpius had been looking at the floor, but now he brought his eyes up to meet Albus's. "I need to be alone for awhile."

Albus hesitated. He wasn't too sure about letting Scorpius out of his sight, in the boy's current condition.

"I know what you're thinking, Albus. But if you insist on coming with me, I'll hex you and stuff your limp body into a broom cupboard full of tapioca pudding."

Although this seemed highly unlikely to Albus, you could never be sure with Scorpius. He tended to take ridiculous threats quite seriously- his own, anyway.

"Tapioca pudding?" asked Albus.

"Yes, everybody loves a good tapioca pudding, and I wouldn't want your stay in the cupboard to be too terrible," said Scorpius, with lack of his general amusement.

The corridors were starting to empty, the start of class was near.

"What if I don't like tapioca?" asked Albus.

"Don't be ridiculous, everybody loves tapioca," stated Scorpius.

"And you have all this pudding on you?" Albus was incredulous.

"I had the house elves whip me up a batch just the other day, it's in the kitchen."

"You're kidding me..." said Albus under his breath, trailing off.

"I love tapioca. Well, you better get into class, unless you want to know what tapioca pudding looks like once you're swimming in it."

Albus shook his head, and stepped up to the door. He looked at the forlorn figure of Scorpius, still leaned up against the corridor wall, all by himself, and tried to push his misgivings down. "Scorpius," he said.

"Yeah?" said the blonde boy from beneath bangs that were starting to encroach on his eyes.

"Promise me."

"Promise you what?"

"That you'll take care of yourself, that you won't do anything stupid."

Scorpius grinned. It was one of his few, rare, real grins. "You know me, Albus."

Albus sighed. "Exactly." Without a backward glance, he ducked into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.

Scorpius's gut clenched as he watched the shaggy black head of his friend disappear into the classroom. A part of him really wanted to be alone right now, the other part hated to watch Albus go.

Sighing, Scorpius pulled himself off the wall, and started to walk down the hall. He took long strides that pulled him along at a good pace. He felt like stomping, but refrained from doing so. His personal opinion was that people who stomped lacked class. And class was, of course, very important. Well, if your name ended in Malfoy, anyways.

He trailed his long, slender fingers along the smooth wall of corridor. The stone was cool beneath his touch, and it felt good.

Getting a sudden and very intense urge to make something feel pain, Scorpius kicked the wall with all his might. It turned out, the only thing that ended up feeling any amount of pain was the big toe of his left foot.

Scorpius swore colorfully, and leapt around on one leg, clutching at his hurt toe.

Once the pain had receded somewhat, he put his foot back on the floor, and looked around ruefully. "No one to appreciate my wide vocabulary," he said aloud to the emptiness. He frowned. Talking aloud to oneself is never a good sign, Malfoy, he admonished himself. "Hell, talking about oneself in the third person is even worse, though." He continued on his way.

He walked down the staircase into the entrance hall slowly. The marble floor shined as if it had just been polished, just as it always did. He strode over to the large, oak double doors, and pushed them outward, throwing his strength into the task.

They swung open with the creak of old wood, exposing the grounds.

Standing there, framed by the large doors, Scorpius felt like he could have been the king of the world. He stood at the peek of humanity, and the universe would bow at his feet.

The grounds unfolded before him, spreading in all directions. The day was overcast, the sun hidden beneath a sea of clouds. That didn't stop it from being beautiful, for this gave the world it's own sort of charm. The lake was the essence of calm, it's waters a murky green-blue. The trees of the Forbidden Forest swayed slowly, a soothing sight to Scorpius's troubled heart and mind.

The air was fresh and crisp. It smelled of flowers and wind. It was chilly against Scorpius's skin, but he didn't show it by even the slightest of shivers. In fact, he barely felt it.

He took a step out of the entrance hall, his feet crushing the green blades of grass beneath them. The strong breeze whipped his hair into his eyes, and he pushed it away impatiently.

A sudden overwhelming desire to get away, to just go as far as possible, overcame him. He wanted to run, run until he could no longer.

And so he did. He ran, without even one backward glance.

***

Albus paced the common room in agitation. It was starting to get late, darkness had fallen, and still there had been no sign of Scorpius. He hadn't seen his friend since right before Defense Against the Dark Arts, and there was no need to say he was worried.

The common room was moderately empty, and a fire blazed high in the grate. A couple of sixth-years were studying around the table in front of the fire. Albus recognized Hugo's tart, Monique, reading a book in one of the overstuffed armchairs. Her silver hair was bright contrast to the scarlet material of the seat in which she sat. Hugo was there too, but he was sitting on the floor beneath one of the windows across the room from Monique, his back pressed up against the wall. He seemed to be taking great interest in the lace curtains.

Making a decision to go look for Scorpius, Albus rushed up to his dormitory. He quickly grabbed one of his cloaks, and another one for Scorpius, before going hurrying back down to the common room.

He crossed the room to the portrait hole.

"Wait, Albus, where are you going?" It was Hugo, now on his feet, and looking at Albus curiously.

"I'm going to find Scorpius," said Albus, impatiently.

"Where is he?" asked Hugo.

"If I knew that, I wouldn't have to go looking for him," said Albus irritably, his agitation and worry showing through his bad mood.

"Can I come along?"

Albus hesitated, but then decided that he could use the extra help. "Okay, sure." Hugo looked relieved.

"Let me grab my cloak." Hugo disappeared up the staircase, and then returned moments later, cloak in hand. "I'll go first," he said.

"Sure, whatever," said Albus.

Hugo swung the portrait hole open, and jumped out- right into a disgruntled Lily who had been about to knock.

"Watch it!" she snapped, pushing Hugo off of her and into the wall.

"Whoa, don't get too excited, Lily, we're cousins after all," he said, a facetious grin on his face.

"You're disgusting."

"Hey, no need for unnecessary insults," said Hugo in an injured tone. Lily rolled her eyes.

"What are you doing here, Lily?" asked Albus, swinging down out of the portrait hole.

"I came to get Monique, we were going to hang out."

Hugo's jaw dropped open. "Monique? You two hang out now? When did you guys become friends? When did you even meet?"

"Right after you knocked off a chip of her heart," snapped Lily.

"Easy guys, I don't need a fight on my hands, with everything else that's going on," said Albus, pushing them away from each other.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Lily curiously.

"Er, nothing," said Albus hastily.

"Do you mind getting Monique for me?"

"Yeah, she's right here, just a moment." Albus stuck his head back through the portrait hole. "Monique!" he called. "Someone's here to see you."

A moment later, Monique came sliding out of the portrait hole. Her eyes narrowed at the sight of Hugo, but there was no other visible reaction from her. "Hallo, Lily," she said.

Lily smiled. "Hey, Monique."

There was a brief, uncomfortable silence.

"Well, we should probably get going, Albus," said Hugo, clearly not at ease.

"Yeah, definitely, let's go." He turned and started away.

"Where you guys going?" asked Lily.

"Scorpius has decided to mysteriously disappear, and he needs finding," said Hugo, turning and walking backward so that he could face Lily as he said this.

"Does this have anything to do with these ridiculous rumors I've been hearing?" asked Lily.

"What rumors?" asked Hugo in confusion.

"Hugo, come on, we need to hurry," said Albus harshly.

Hugo looked at Albus in surprise. He shrugged and turned so that he was walking forward again.

"Albus? Does it?" Lily called down the corridor at the retreating figures of her brother and cousin.

Albus didn't reply.

"So, where do you think he'll be?" asked Hugo, strolling along at ease, his hands clasped behind his head. Albus half expected him to start whistling any second.

"I don't know," said Albus, biting his lip in worry.

"Well, you must have some idea," urged Hugo.

Albus sighed. "I think he may have gone all the way to Hogsmeade."

Hugo started visibly, the clasped hands dropping from behind his head. "What?" he gasped. "You mean he snuck out of school? Why would he have done that?" he demanded.

"Because he's not exactly having the best day," snapped Albus.

Hugo was silent for a moment. "What are these rumors Lily was talking about?"

"Oh, which ones?" asked Albus sarcastically. "The ones about how I'm shagging Lestraud? Or the ones where he was cheating on Rose with Baddock, and Rose was cheating on him with Driscoll?"

Hugo's eyes widened.

"Yeah, I know, crazy right?" said Albus bitterly.

"You shagged Lestraud?" asked Hugo in utter disbelief.

"What? No, you prat," said Albus, clouting Hugo across the head with his hand.

"Then what about Baddock, and Driscoll?" Hugo asked, rubbing his head.

"The part about Baddock is a lie, Scorpius just hit some, um...unforeseen circumstances that some people took the wrong way. About Rose and Driscoll...well, I wouldn't say she was cheating, per se, but apparently she has strong feelings for Driscoll now, no longer Scorpius."

"Dang," said Hugo with awe. "I never took my sister for such a player. She's almost as bad as me."

"Do not put Rose in the same category as you," said Albus, eyebrows raised.

They reached the entrance hall. It was abandoned. The torches illuminated the large hall, casting flickering shadows across the floor from their brackets in the wall.

"Lucky for us, no one's around," said Albus.

"Why's that?"

"Because," said Albus patiently, "in case you didn't realize, it's against school rules to go out after dark, and there's a whopping great beam across the doors."

Hugo looked up at said beam, and grimaced. "How are we going to get that off?"

"Well, since the bolts go all the way around it, we can't use Wingardium Leviosa to lift it off, so we're going to have to manually slide it out."

Hugo groaned.

"Don't be a baby," said Albus in annoyance. "Now, you start pushing it along, and I'll keep it steady as it slides out. Once the beam falls out of the second bolt though, you're going to have grab it, and make sure it doesn't hit the ground. You understand?"

"Yeah, yeah," said Hugo, taking up his place and starting to push the beam out of its bolts.

Albus moved along at the end of it, keeping it steady as it slid further out. "Okay, watch out, the end's coming out now," cautioned Albus.

"Yep, I got it," said Hugo confidently. The beam slid out of the last bolt, and started to fall. Hugo grabbed it confidently, but then a look of surprise crossed his features, and it pulled through his hands, and crashed to the floor with a deafening bang that Albus figured the whole castle would have heard.

Hugo stared down at where the beam lay in horror. "It weighed more than I expected..." he said, trailing off.

Albus was also gawking. "You idiot," he hissed. "Quick, let's go, before Peeves and the professors show up." Albus swung his cloak around his shoulders, and did the clasp quickly with fumbling hands. The cloak for Scorpius clenched tightly in his fist, he swung the double doors open, and plunged into the night.

Albus flinched back as if he had been slapped. It was raining. He hadn't realized, shoot.

Hugo collided with him from behind. Against his better judgment, Albus let out an oath as he was knocked forward, down the slope that lead away from the front entrance of the castle.

Because of the descent, and the grass being slippery and wet, Albus was forced into a run. He couldn't see anything, the night was pitch black, and the rain stung at his eyes. His heavy, dragon-hide boots were unable to save him, and he lost his footing. He slipped and fell, rolling down the incline. Water shot up in sheets. Albus threw out his arms to try and find something to catch onto, all he found was wet grass.

Albus hit the end of the slope, and fell face first into a shallow pool of water. He started to pull himself up when something heavy fell on top of him, forcing his head back into the water. He came back up spluttering and spitting gritty water.

"Hugo! Get off me, you twit!" he yelled.

"Sorry, Albus," came Hugo's voice from above him. The weight shifted, and Albus was able to pull himself onto his knees.

Slowly, Albus's eyes started to adjust in the dark. He could dimly make out the shape of Hugo crouched next to him, the slope in front of him, and the light that shone through the open doors of the castle at the top of the incline. He could vaguely see the outline of a figure framed in the doorway, but he couldn't make out who it was, if it was a boy or a girl, a teacher or a student.

The rain whipped by in front of his face, lashing his dark locks across his face. The wind sliced through his clothes. It had a cold bite, a warning that winter was very nearly at hand. Shuddering, he pulled his cloak closer about him.

"How are we going to get to Hogsmeade?" Hugo yelled, trying to be heard above the weather.

"Whomping Willow," said Albus loudly. Hugo didn't need to ask for an explanation, he knew what that meant.

The two cousins ran along side-by-side. Pulling the collars of their cloaks up to try and shield themselves from the rain, although their attempts were fruitless.

When they reached the Whomping Willow, they found it in full swing. Its massive branches pounding left and right, not giving much room for maneuvering.

"How are we going to hit the knot?" asked Hugo, the rain plastering his flaming red hair to his forehead.

"We aren't," yelled Albus.

"Then how-" began Hugo, confused.

"Immobulus!" cried Albus. The Whomping Willow froze immediately, mid-motion.

Not much later, after passing through the secret passage that connected the Whomping Willow to the Shrieking Shack, Hugo and Albus found themselves standing on the main street that ran through Hogsmeade village.

It was still pouring rain. Hugo and Albus were soaked to the skin, and miserable.

"Where do you think he'll be?" asked Hugo of Albus.

"Probably drunk in a bar, or maybe passed out on the street somewhere," said Albus, peering through the sheets of rain.

"What bar? You mean the Hog's Head? It may be dingy, but they won't serve him. They'll know he's a Hogwarts student, they'd get in trouble if they did."

"Not true, he's of age, he's seventeen, he can drink legally."

"Still, Hogwarts wouldn't be happy that he was drinking during the school year. They would be responsible for him."

Albus shook his head. "It still wouldn't stop him, but yes, you're right, he wouldn't go to the Hog's Head."

"Then where? Surely not the Three Broomsticks, he'd have absolutely no chance there," said Hugo, wiping aside his wet bangs.

Albus grinned. "There are some things, little cousin, that you know nothing about."

"Like what?"

"Like the Dragon Breath," said Albus.

"The what?" asked Hugo, blinking away the rain water.

"You'll see."

They started along the road, peering down all the side streets as they passed. They kept there eyes peeled for a humped figure laying collapsed somewhere, but for the longest of times, they didn't see anything that looked promising.

They were nearing the end of the road, and Hugo stopped to question Albus.

As if sensing what he was going to say, Albus said, "Almost there Hugo."

The two teenagers approached the last two buildings on the road. Squished between the two half-broken-down buildings was a narrow alley, barely four feet across.

Lying halfway down the alley, face-down in the mud, was a sprawled figure.

Albus recognized the person instantly as being Scorpius. He ran quickly to his friend, and fell to his knees. Grabbing Scorpius by the back of his robes, he heaved him up, bringing his head out of the mud.

Albus had no time to see the fist that shot out of the darkness, before it crashed into his jaw. Albus was lifted off his knees, his body was thrown back and to the side. His head hit the hard brick wall of the alley, and then the darkness came and swept over him like a tide.

Author's Note:

Everybody loves Tapioca Pudding. ;) Anyways, don't forget to leave that review, and be on the look out for the next chapter. =]