Albus woke the next day feeling well rested and refreshed, the layover of an excellent feast. He lay in his bed, thinking about how absolutely warm and comfortable he was. Albus felt a renewed sense of purpose and was determined to discover something about Irelamor. Somehow, he felt that he was close to a breakthrough, if he could only just work a little harder.

As Albus skipped into the Great Hall, he spotted Scorpius sitting at the Hufflepuff table, head slumped on the table. When Albus had reached him, Scorpius groaned.

"Why do classes have to start so early? Don't they know it was Halloween yesterday?" Scorpius moaned again, head still slumped on the table. "Is there any coffee?"

Albus just laughed, Scorpius complained about waking up "early" at least once a week. "You shouldn't drink coffee, you're too young for it."

"I know, but my mum always has a cup of coffee in the morning, and I guess she's got me into it. Plus after the Halloween feast, Jacob Moran who's in 5th year went down and raided the kitchens and we had a party. It only stopped when Longbottom came in to tell us all to shut up."

"And a good thing too, or you would need more than a cup of coffee to get you up for Transfiguration this morning." Albus sniffed

Scorpius managed to wake up enough that by the end of breakfast, he was scouring the Sports section of the Daily Prophet for the latest Quidditch stats. As the two boys made their way out into the Entrance Hall, they saw Hagrid approach.

"Hallo Albus. And young Scorpius too, can' forget about 'im. Say, if you lot aren' doing anything this afternoon, would ya like to come over for a spot o' tea. I just baked some lovely, fresh rock cakes."

"Ummm... yeah Hagrid, that sounds... lovely." Albus said. Scorpius however looked positively sick at the mention of the rock cakes and politely declined, mentioning all of the homework that he had procrastinated on doing.

"Well, guess I'll see you later Albus. An' make sure you get all caught up on the 'omework Scorpius. Not good to be a fallin' be'ind."

With that the three of them parted ways. Albus to Defense Against the Dark Arts, Scorpius to Transfiguration, and Hagrid... Hagrid was on his way somewhere.

Just as Albus was sitting down in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, Professor Blackwood came sweeping in, his long black robes sweeping out behind him. "Don't bother sitting down quite yet, "he said, his voice echoing over the din of all the students. "Today we will be doing a partner activity, and because I believe in inter-house cooperation, each Slytherin student will partner with one of the Hufflepuff students." As he said this, there came a cry of complaints from the students. He raised his voice slightly, "I have made the partners and they are final."

As Blackwood began reading off the names, Albus sighed. He wasn't in the mood to socialize with some snotty Slytherin. As he began to reconcile himself to his fate, he heard "Potter, Albus is with... Weasley, Rose." He sighed again, wondering if this day could get any more awkward.

As the class began to shuffle around while everyone found their new partners, Albus saw Rose walking up to him hesitantly. She sat herself down, and they sat in awkward silence for a minute or two. Finally, Albus cleared his throat.

"Umm, I guess we're partners." He said lamely, trying to figure out what to say.

"Ummm, yeah." Rose answered, not really glancing at him. "We- we should probably get started then."

The class had been working on the theory behind the Disarming spell and were today supposed to practice it on their partners. At first both Albus and Rose were very uneasy with each other, but after Rose managed to poke Albus in the eye with his own wand, the tension seemed to break and by the end of the class the two had fallen back into their easy camaraderie.

"This was nice." Albus said at the end of the class. "We should see more of each other."

"Yeah, I know I've kind of been a bad friend over the last month," Rose answered. "And I just want to say... I'm-I'm sorry. When I was sorted into Slytherin I was so confused and frightened so I kind of pushed you away. And then I started enjoying it, being in Slytherin, and that was even more confusing and it was just easier to not have to talk to you guys. I mean I don't think James has even looked at me since he found out."

Albus laughed. "That's okay. I've barely talked to James either, and I'm just in Hufflepuff. I can imagine how much worse it would be if I were in Slytherin." Reallizing how that sounded, Albus tried to recover. "Not that... I mean there's nothing wrong with... it's okay to be in Slytherin."

Then it was Rose's turn to laugh. "It's okay Albus, I think that I'm okay with being in Slytherin now."

As he made his way out of the class, Albus smiled. He felt like a weight had been lifted off of his chest now that he had made up with Rose. It was a weight that he hadn't known was there, but which none the less felt good to be rid of. At least that's how he described it in his lunchtime chat with Severus Snape.

The rest of the day seemed to take no time at all, and before long Albus was flying along down from Charms to Hagrid's. Albus' hand was poised to knock on the door of Hagrid's hut when he heard quiet sobbing from inside the cabin. Curious, he crept along the side of the cabin and snuck a peak through the window. What he saw surprised him greatly. There, sitting on one of Hagrid's enormous chairs, feet dangling from the side and holding an oversized teacup was the blond Ravenclaw girl Albus had met on the first night. She was crying into the cup.

Albus racked his brain, but couldn't remember seeing her in the Charms classroom, or even at lunch in the Great Hall. He paused, unsure of what he should do. Just as he had decided to turn and return to the school, the door to the hut was wrenched open by Hagrid.

"Oh blimey Albus, I didn' see yer there. I'd forgotten tha' I asked you down for tea." Hagrid said, although he didn't seem that surprised to see Albus. "You'd better come in I s'ppose."

Albus hesitated. "I can come back at another time." He offered.

"No no, come in. Angelica here was just telling me about that Ms. Margaret Harndel that's all." Hagrid insisted.

As soon as she had heard Albus' voice, the blond girl, Angelica, had begun wiping her eyes hastily.

"She's awful." She said, clearing her throat. "She's such a mean bully, and just goes after anyone who's alone or seems out of place. I know you've seen it; I've seen her pick on you too." Angelica looked pointedly at Albus. After this outburst, Angelica seemed to shrink into herself a litte, as if expected some reprisal for her words.

"She is rather mean, isn't she." Albus said gently, his heart filled with compassion for this poor girl. "But it's only because she's insecure about herself. Haven't you noticed that she only picks on the smart people? It's just because she's a Ravenclaw and thinks that she needs to be the smartest of them all."

"You-you think I'm smart?" Angelica asked timidly, the beginnings of a smile on her face.

"Well yeah, I mean you were the first one to successfully levitate a feather in Charms. And you always know the answers."

Angelica's face broke out into a full grin. "That's the nicest thing anyone's said to me since I started here at Hogwarts."

In that moment Albus made a decision. Looking at Angelica's smiling, tear stained face, he decided to befriend this awkward shy girl and help protect her against Margaret's mean words.

Over the course of several weeks first Albus, and then Scorpius too kept Angelica company, sitting next to her in classes and eventually even inviting her to sit with them at the Hufflepuff table during meals. They began as an act of kindness, out of pity for the poor girl, but as Albus and Scorpius got to know Angelica, they realized that this shy and quiet girl was actually incredibly witty, funny and kind. The two boys began to become genuinely fond of her and by the time the snow fell for the first time that December, the three of them were attached at the hip.