As if I didn’t already have enough to do, with Minister of Magic work, school, and managing not to give that horrible Nina girl a Bat Bogey hex, suddenly it was up to me to make Albus regain his senses. Everyone in school had seen him today, in classes and before dinner, talking to Hazel Malfoy. Like she was nice, and his friend. All today! The best day at Hogwarts, and my miserable excuse for a cousin had already made friends with our parent’s worst enemy. 

From my vantage point from the Ravenclaw table, I had the perfect view of my cousin and Hazel Malfoy acting like friends. Which was all fine until you got to the Ravenclaw details, and saw that they were a Potter and a Malfoy. I could also see James, glaring at me along with almost all of the second-year Gryffindors. 

“Go!” he mouthed. “You did promise!” 

Sighing, I closed my book, Prefects Who Gained Power, and slipped the small book into the bag slung around my shoulders. 

I was aware of the muggle-born Nina glaring at me as I crossed from the Ravenclaw table to the Slytherin one. I could swear that I could see the pure evilness that radiated off of the lying, slippery bunch of Dark Wizards. 

Albus looked up as I approached. The two Malfoys glanced at me, then looked back at their plates of food. 

“Hi, Rose,” Albus said. It was not as warm as he usually greeted me, but I didn’t think much about it. “Sit with us! We’ll have all four houses here, then.”

Scorpius let out a breath of frustration. I let myself stand in the, yuck, Mafloy’s shoes for a moment. His sister got a new best friend, who was sitting at their table, and now another one of his family’s enemies was near him.

“No,” I said, rolling my eyes. Hazel glanced up, her grey eyes furious. Albus looked hurt, and Scorpius remained as calm as ever.

“Albus, the reason I’m here is because James wants me to talk to you.” 

Albus looked at his brother, who whipped back around when he realized he was being watched. “Why are you being his owl?”

“Because it doesn’t just apply to James,” I said, disdainfully looking at the two Malfoys. “It applies to everyone— in the right families.”

There was a clang as Scorpius dropped his fork onto the table. I couldn’t see his face, but I was pretty sure that it was furious. 

“What is it?” said Albus. He narrowed his eyes, finally looking like he actually deserved that red and gold tie around his neck.

“Frankly, Albus,” I said, looking to James. He urged me on with his hands. “You can’t be friends with a Malfoy.”

“Why?” Albus said. 

“Because they’re,” I looked for words that my family had used to describe the Malfoys before. “They are vile, pathetic, and cowardly.”

Scorpius turned around to glare at me, his face turning from pink to deep crimson. Hazel’s did the same. 

“James told you to tell me this?” Albus said, his voice rising. “My brother.”

“Yes,” I said. No wonder he’s not in Ravenclaw, if he’s this slow. 

Albus shouldered past me and marched to his own Gryffindor table. The Great Hall quieted slightly as the other tables caught sight of him approaching his brother. I growled softly and looked back at the two Malfoy twins. 

“This is your fault,” I told them, and dashed off to defend James from his idiot brother. 

“You can’t tell me who to be friends with,” Albus said to James, his voice high in pitch. 

“I can when it’s a Malfoy,” the older one said. “I can also tell Mum and Dad. Want to find out what they would say about this?”

“Yeah,” Albus said. “And when you tell her, make bloody sure that you tell her how you had Rose be your messaged owl! Be sure to tell them how I am doing nothing but being friends! Tell them that I am not them! Their enemies do not have to be mine. I do not have to be a prefect Potter!”