Getting him back - Scorbus Fanfiction

Scorpius- Part 12

No one knew what happened but he let go of me and was escorted away by the teachers and I didn't see him again.

"You're supposed to be a Gryffindor? To be brave, courageous and honest in the face of adversity, especially if it's your fault? Lucia...Phillip? Come on, Albus will be expelled for this. What we did was irresponsible and dangerous, the least we could do is take responsibility as a whole. They won't expel us if we explain why we did it." Rachel walked up to me, clearly anxious for Connie's sake more than anything. She was acting out of anger, fear, heartbreak.

"Or we all get expelled: you, me, Connie, Lucia, Phillip? I may have lost Connie now, the girl who could've been the love of my life. I mean she could've been, if I hadn't acted with so much pent up rage, maybe the same rage that will stop you ever having Albus back."

"This isn't about me getting 'Albus back' anymore, this is about preventing an innocent boy losing his education at the expense of a stupidly-planned prank."

"Scorpius, Albus is a Potter. He will not get in trouble, he'll get a slap on the wrist and be sent on his way. This whole thing will blow over and everyone will forget what happened, Connie will and so will he."

It didn't 'blow over'. The winds of rumours kept blowing, round and round, from a gale to a hurricane. Witnesses warped the story, telling people Albus had deliberately rammed Connie off her broom, that 'Potter had finally lost it', that people saw him enchant his broom before the match. But not a breath from Albus, who was nowhere to be seen. It was a couple of days later with no sign of him. I checked on Connie in the infirmary, of whom insisted she was completely fine but wasn't speaking to Rachel. She was still wearing her yellow quidditch jumper, the one I'd seen her lend to Rachel time after time. I surveyed the halls for any sign of his soft brown eyes or hatched up plans to pin the blame on someone else than Albus. I begged and pleaded for my friends to come forward and own up before something awful happened but they were yet to yield.

The final straw came when I, at last, saw Albus walking past my classroom. But something was wrong, he was dressed in a grey jumper and brown corduroy trousers, carrying a small suitcase. No school uniform meant he was going home, away, never to return to Hogwarts, never to smile eagerly across the table when dinner arrived in the Great Hall. My stomach turned in on itself in inexorable guilt. I abruptly stood up, requested to be excused, and promptly headed to McGonagall's Head Office.

Rachel, quick as the Ravenclaw she was, realised what was happening. She stood up as well, one again asking to leave. But the teacher, suspicious, did not allow it and she was forced to sit down. Would she try and stop me? I wasn't going to turn the rest in too, but this school had ways of tracking down perpetrators one by one. It was around three minutes to break so I began jogging, winding the corners of the stone-walled passages. Quicker, I thought, there is no time to waste, I must...

Smash! My limbs were soon entangled with another's, having forced them to the ground with the momentum of my jog. And it was, somehow, exactly who I expected.

"What, wait, what are you doing, Scorpius?" I lurched up, still making eye-contact with him. I did not look away, I couldn't allow myself.

"Albus, I am so sorry. I was responsible for your broom going insane. That was me, all my fault, I do not expect any forgiveness, none, whatsoever. But I'm here, right now," I gasped for air, "to make this all right again."

"I know. I know you were responsible, you and your friends at least," he spoke calmly, each word held so much weight. "I actually had seen Lucia check the potions book out of the library, the records still show it. In fact, she still has the book, and I saw Phillip was still carrying the potion when he saw me before the match."