3. The Scriptorium

The trio entered the school by the south entrance, entering the clock tower Courtyard. The level of craftsmanship of the castle left Scorpius in a state of astonishment. Argus took him on a trip to the castle, letting Dumbledore leave to go attend to his own matters. Argus took Scorpius to the dungeons, the towers, each courtyard, and even the greenhouse. They finally made their way to the great hall, where Scorpius was shocked to see the large stone walls, the giant stone statues that seemed like they could come to life at any second. To his surprise one of the statues actually turned its stoney face to him, seeming to look at him.

Scorpius kept staring at the statue as they walked their way into the great hall. The students were having their last feast of the year as the duo entered the hall. Luckily no one paid much attention to them as they walked to the end of the faculty table to take their seats.

A few of the students looked at him inquisitively, having never seen him before. He didn't pay them much mind however, as the food looked absolutely delicious. He could only think of Cynthia however as he ate. He felt a small amount of guilt that he was enjoying this meal, while he knew she would probably be going hungry tonight. He felt relieved with the knowledge that Dobby would be looking out for her though.

One person that caught his eye however, was his brother. Draco was looking at him, dumbfounded by his presence. Scorpius paid him no mind, as he talked with Filch.

"I know it's a lot to take in," the man said, digging into his food.

"But the students will be gone after today, and then," he said with a euphoric look in his eyes.

"Peace and quiet. No more problems, no more distractions. No more Weasleys!" He said with a vicious tone near the end.

"it feels like many of the magical families dislike the Weasleys, what's their deal?" Scorpius asked. "Their deal?" Argus repeated. "Their deal is that they're no good, rotten troublemakers!" He said. "Well, the girl hasn't been that bad. And the younger brother hasn't been either for that matter. But the twins!" He snarled.

He pointed to two redheads that were at the gryffindor table. The twins noticed and waved at filch with friendly smiles, looking like they were waving at a close friend.

"Little monsters." Filch added as he sat and leaned back in his chair. "I'll tell you all about it when the feast is over." He added, eating his food once more.

After a while it was time for the feast to be over. Dumbledore gave a few closing words, then let the mass of children leave.

The staff all stood and most walked away, having not noticed Scorpius. But a few had noticed, and walked over to him.

"Hello, my name is Professor McGonagall, who might you be?" An old woman said as she shook Scorpius' hand.

"Hello Professor, my name is Scorpius, I'll be helping Mr Filch as the second caretaker." He greeted the woman. "Scorpius-?" She asked, wondering what his last name was.

"Just Scorpius ma'am." he answered. "Very well, just Scorpius. We are pleased to have you." She said, leaving him to greet the other faculty members.

He didn't recognize many of them, though he did recognize One of them very well.

"I must say, I'm surprised Lord Malfoy let you leave the fields." Severus Snape said with a curious glint in his eyes.

Scorpius norrowed his eye at the comment, deciding to retaliate with one of his own. "Still slithering about Snape? I was under the impression that they would have kicked you out with your… history."

Snape became cold in a second, looking like he would kill the younger man.

"Watch yourself boy. You speak of things you know nothing of." He said as he leaned forward a bit.

"Oh, I'm sure." Scorpius retorted. Snape gave him a sharp look, then walked away.

Scorpius met several other members of the faculty, then walked with filch as the school emptied. As they walked Filch told him what his duties would be at the moment.

"You won't need to do much work right now, as the house elves do most of the cleaning and cooking. Though we will need to repair things, and help keep things in order. You'll be working with the grounds keeper Hagrid, as well as helping some of the teachers." The older man said.

Nodding, Scorpius followed the man to where he would be staying. It was a small room, about the size of the one he had back home.

"I'll come get you in the morning." Filch said, walking away.

Scorpius sat on the bed once the man had left, and thought about what had happened that day, and wondered what Cynthia was doing. He quickly got ready for bed, then fell asleep with thoughts of his beloved.

In the morning Filch knocked on his door. Scorpius was already up and ready, so when he opened the door, Filch gave him a shocked look.

"I thought you'd still be asleep boy! Thought I'd have to drag you out of that bed." The man said to Scorpius.

"No sir, I'm up at dawn everyday. I'm ready to get to work." He said to Filch, who nodded.

"Good, good. Well I'm… I'm glad not everyone your age is a slacker." The man said as they walked the halls of the castle. Curiously, Scorpius noticed that Filch was now accompanied by a brown tabby cat with red eyes.

Argus caught him looking at the cat, and gave a scowl.

"This is Mrs Norris. She usually accompanies me everywhere, but I've had experiences With some of the students on the last day of school. They like to torment her, so I've just decided to leave her in my room."

They came to the great hall where Filch turned to him.

"This is one of the worst jobs. But I like to get it done with in the beginning, to get it over with you see." He said. He walked over to one of the closets before opening the door. He turned around to reveal he was holding two buckets, and two scrapers.

"You'll soon hate these kids as Much as I do!" He said with a sinister smile.

About an hour later, the two of them were under the tables scraping away at the gum the students had left.

"I thought the house elves could do this?" Scorpius shouted from across the hall under the table he was working at.

"They have other things to do. This is unfortunately one of our tasks!" Argus said from under his own table.

Scorpius had moved to the gryffindor table and had worked his way to a particular bad spot. He noticed it was the place that one of the red heads was sitting at.

"Hey!" He shouted. "What's the name of that younger Weasley boy?"

"Oh, you mean Ron. Yes, big trouble maker, thought it's more because of his hygiene more than anything!" The older man shouted.

After they were finished with that, they moved to complete some other tasks. They made sure that the dorms were clean, the armors were all polished, the statues were all in one piece, the bathrooms all still worked, and more menial tasks. It took them about 2 weeks to finish everything.

"Well boy," Argus said to Scorpius as the two looked at the black lake. The two of them had just finished with their last task of cleaning one of the courtyards.

"I must say, it's been a pleasure working with you!" The man continued, as he turned to Scorpius and shook his hand. "It's so refreshing to have a coworker that's a hard worker." He finished, still shaking Scorpius' hand vigorously.

"It was nice working with you as well sir, and you too!" He said breaking the handshake to squat down to pet Mrs Norris, she leaned into his and and started to purr loudly.

"Now we have the rest of the summer off if we're lucky. We only really need to worry about things the headmaster needs done for the moment. Things will pick back up when the school year starts, but that will be in a couple months. Take this time to familiarize yourself with the castle grounds, and it's secrets. If I may, I would suggest the boathouse. It's very nice to stick your feet in the water and relax or think." Filch said with a glint in his eye that went unseen by Scorpius.

"Thank you for the recommendation. I'll definitely do that." Scorpius said, still petting Mrs Norris.

"You never did tell me lad. Where did you come from?" Argus asked. Scorpius just smiled as he looked up at the older man. "It's a long story, and happened an even longer time ago. I was disowned by my family when they found out I was a squib. That's all I'll say on the matter." He said.

Argus nodded, not wanting to pry anymore. "Well, take a couple days, then we will see what else we can do. The headmaster might have something for us." Argus said, walking away from where they stood. Mrs Norris didn't follow him at first, enjoying the head pats, but she eventually wandered off after Filch.

"Well, seems I've got a while to myself." Scorpius said, looking out across the lake.

-one week time skip-

A week had passed, letting Scorpius wander around the castle. He had met with Hagrid, and the man had talked his ear off about receiving a new job as the Care for Magical Creatures teacher. Letting the large man go on and on about his new position, he asked Scorpius if he would be willing to help him teach and prepare lessons, to which Scorpius agreed.

After learning of the layout of hogwarts, Scorpius decided to listen to Filchs advice and relax at the boathouse.

Walking down the long steps he looked across the lake. The waves crashed gently across the stone platform that the boathouse stood on. He could hear the boats bumping against the side of the deck inside the small building. Sitting outside of the boathouse he took his boots off before rolling his pant legs up, then dipped his feet into the water.

He had to admit, this did feel peaceful. He started to think of Cynthia, what she would be down at the moment, if she was OK. He hoped that she was staying away from Lord Malfoy. He trusted that dobby would do his best to help and to keep her safe. He also thought th-.

He felt something brush against his foot. Returning to reality he looked into the black water. He had definitely felt something brush his foot. He began to scoot himself out of the water, preparing to stand when a large tentacle shot from the water and wrapped itself around his leg

"What the fu-" suddenly he was pulled into the water, giving a shout of alarm before he was dragged in. A moment went by, as the waters surface calmed once more. High above the boathouse a man could be seen, standing near the stone railing with his cat. They had just seen the young man be dragged into the water, but did nothing but watch. The man turned and walked away, while the cat stayed put on the stone railing. After a minute the cat jumped from the place she had been sitting, and returned to her owner.

*cough, cough*

Scorpius sat up before coughing up the water that filled his lungs. He got to his hands and knees and more water came from him. Taking several deep breaths he looked around himself.

He was in a medium size cave with a pool of water in the center of it. He noticed that stalagmites, and stalactites rose and hung from the floors and ceiling of the cave. The pool of water glowed a light blue, illuminating the cave he found himself in.

"What the hell?" He said out loud. He got to his feet shakily and he continued to scan the cave around him. He noticed a narrow passageway in one corner of the cavern, leading deeper into the cave. Seeing no other options he walked by the pool of water towards the passageway. As he did he looked into the water and saw many tentacles floating around. He quickly backed away, before finally making it to the passageway. It was pitch black down it, but he didn't want another encounter with the giant squid.

The moment he entered the passageway, torches sprung to life, illuminating his way forward. He walked for about five minutes before coming to another smaller cavern, which also sprang to life. He could see the way he needed to go, as a path had been carved through the stone that surrounded him. This path led him to another hole in the wall that led to a black steel door.

Scorpius reached out an took hold of the door nob. The moment he did the lock clicked, and he was able to turn it.

The door was heavy, but he was able to push it open after putting his whole weight behind it. After pushing the door open he looked around the spacious room that the door led to. It consisted of a room with a large stone desk that had papers, books, and strange cylindrical stones scattered around it. The room linked like some sort of office or study.

There was a fireplace that on one side of the room, with a set of old armor standing next to it. looking closer, the armor consisted of a coat of silver scales woven together, and over that a breastplate was placed. Tattered cloth hung from the waist, scratches and dents scattered over the armor telling of it many battles. The helmet had two eagle wings on either side of it, with a T shaped visor.

Looking away from the armor, he saw a set of stone stairs led to a lower floor, which held a large stone in the center.

And in that stone, stood a sword.