HeartBeater : A Scorose Fanfic

Chapter Three - THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

'We're so behind and we won't be able to catch up today!' Scorpius muttered grumpily as Al hopped from step to step on light feet as the two of them made their way to their detention rendezvous with Professor McGonagall. Saturday mornings in the Slytherin common room usually featured Scorpius and Al slouched side by side on a large emerald sofa as they caught up on all their homework before lunch.

'Al? Al are you hearing anything I'm saying?'

'You should have known better than to attack my cousin with a wand then!'

'You're not going to let it go are you?' growled Scorpius poking his best friend in his ribs with a long, bony finger.

Al ignored him and leaned slowly onto the wall outside the Great Hall, his eyes reflecting the large House Points Hourglasses, clinking as their jewels moved up and down. He had been mad at Scorpius all day yesterday and refused to help take him to Madam Abbott to fix his wobbling legs.

'You tried to hex her!'

'I didn't mean to! I only wanted to scare her, but it sort of-'

'Sort of what Scorpius? Sort of fired by itself? Is that what you would say if you had cast one of the Unforgivable Curses? Oops, I'm sorry Professor; I didn't mean to kill her! Honest!'

Scorpius backed away into a curtain, cowed like he was every time Al transformed into Potter-mode. In their First Year, Scorpius had shoved Perilla Finnegan because she kept pulling his hair in Potions class, accidently splashing her with Erumpent Potion and watching in horror as her robe sleeves caught fire. Albus, who by then had never spoken to him, despite sitting together in most classes and at the Slytherin table for meals had jumped up to douse the flames and then proceeded to grab Scorpius by the front of his robes to spit in his eyes about the many dangerous properties of Erumpent Potion, shaking him once or twice to make sure Scorpius understood the gravity of the situation.

At first it had angered Scorpius who had, under Dad's instructions, tried diligently the whole term to make friends with either one of the Potters or the Weaselys only to be met with cold rebuttals and outright insults, in the case of Rose Weasely.

But then as quickly as it had arrived, Al's anger vanished and he blinked, smoothening down Scorpius' robes and apologising, pointing out that since he lived with a brother and several cousins who exploded things just for kicks, it was in his nature to overreact.

What was born of it was a long lasting friendship; but after six years of living together, Scorpius was still wary and unsure of how to react when Al lost his cool.

'I'm sorry Al,' He mumbled apologetically, trying to look anywhere but the manic, bottle green eyes that bore holes into his skull. 'I know you were worried because it was your cousin. I don't want her to get hurt either.' He paused, horrified at the words that had come out of his mouth. 'I mean, I don't mind if she gets knocked off her broom and breaks a few things, but I would never intentionally harm her!'

Wrong thing to say!

Albus scowled at him, and savagely pushed his messy fringe out of his eyes before stalking towards Scorpius, cornered at the foot of the staircase with his wobbly legs. But Professor McGonagall arrived before he could do serious damage, her features arranged as if she had just tasted one of Hagrid's famous rock cakes.

'And where is Miss Weasley?' She asked by way of greeting.

'Not here yet Professor.'

'Professor McGonagall sniffed, irritated. 'Well, we shall not dawdle, waiting for her. Professor Longbottom has asked for help in cleaning up one of the Herbology greenhouses after the incident,' she inflected on the word as if it was a curse. 'With the Fifth Years. Once Miss Weasley decides to grace us with her presence, I would like you three to help him out! Mr Potter,' she eyed Al up and down as though appraising a lame work horse. 'I hope I can count on you to keep Mr Malfoy and Miss Weasely from burning down the greenhouses?'