Albus Potter and his Fifth Year Infatuation

Chapter 9: Healing

Albus woke up in the same stall he had passed out in, vaguely smelling vomit and alcohol. He tried to get up, but his vision was blurry and his body too sore to support his weight for long. Judging from the sunlight coming in through the dusty windows, he guessed it must have been the early morning. Blood covered his sleeve and the scent of copper came from just under his nose. Reaching up to touch it, he pulled his hand into vision and noticed not only the crusted blood but also the grotesquely misshapen fingers.

Hyperventilating as the realization of what transpired the night before came to him, the image of Scorpius and Rose's affection and the sounds of his friend's abandonment reverberated in Albus' brain along with the pain from his clearly broken hand. Silent, stinted breaths came from the boy's mouth and tears fell softly down his cheek. He couldn't even feel his hand let alone get up to move so he laid there for hours, half hoping somebody would find him and half hoping that nobody ever found him again.

~~~

"Goodbye Scorpius."

Albus' words hit Scorpius like a train. It took everything to keep from bursting into tears right then and there.

How did it end up like this? How could I do this to him?

While his former friend ran to some god-forsaken part of the castle, Scorpius was frozen and holding his hand against his mouth to cover the sobs.

He stumbled back to the Slytherin common room before realizing that Albus was probably already in bed and he wouldn't dare sleep in the bed next to him knowing the damage he'd done. Fanning the fireplace a bit, Scorpius took a spot on the nearby couch and covered himself with blankets, the heat of the embers calming his shivers for a while and allowing him to forget his shame in sleep.

~~~

"Scorpius."

The boy stirred a bit.

"Scorpius, wake up, something's happened to Albus. We can't find him, he didn't come back to bed at all last night and nobody's been able to figure out where he went. Does he usually stay out this late?" The hazy boy cleared his eyes before quickly getting up and looking at the group of prefects quietly worrying for their housemate.

"Do you have any idea what happened to him? You two used to be inseparable." Asked one of them.

"N-no, I-I...I have no clue where he could be now, he and I had an argument last night but I don't know where he got off to, I'm sure he just fell asleep somewhere in the castle."

"Well it's our responsibility to make sure all of the students are in bed and safe so we have to find out where he is."

Scorpius paced around the room, thinking. "H-he might be in the abandoned third floor girls' bathroom, we always used to go there when we wanted to be by ourselves." The head girl informed professor McGonagall of the missing student.

The faculty rushed into the bathroom and looked in all of the stalls while a hungover Albus cursed himself silently for his sorry situation.

"Oh lord..." whispered Minerva when she opened the stall. The floor was covered in blood and vomit as well as Albus' shirt.

"Somebody call Madam Pomfrey!"

~~~

"How are you feeling, Mr. Potter?" Madam Pomfrey asked Albus once his eyes started opening.

"Hungover, Professor."

"Yep, alcohol will do that.You're lucky the staff found you when they did, that wizard's whiskey can mess loads with your insides. Much worse than regular muggle alcohol! You'll need at least a good two days in that bed if you want to get better."

Albus wondered if Scorpius could have been one of the students to find him. He was too sick to see who had come.

"Goodness, gracious. Chugging wizard's whiskey for your first drink, even you have to know that was a stupid move, Mr. Potter!" He blushed. "And don't worry about your hand. I set the bones correctly, but you'll still need a week or two in a cast to help it heal quickly."

"You truly are magical, professor." Said the sickly boy quietly before taking a swig of the hangover cure the nurse had handed him. It tasted disgusting, but anything was better than the woozy pain that covered his stomach at the moment.

"And, Albus..." Madam Pomfrey leaned in closer. "Please, for both our sakes, don't make a habit of drinking whenever you're sad. There are much better solutions to your problems." Right after Madam Pomfrey had finished her sentence, Lily burst into the room in tears.

"Albus, I'm so sorry!!" screamed his clearly distraught sister as she ran up to his bed. "I should have been there for you, I should have never let you take that drink! I should have made sure you were safe and happy like mom and dad told me to!!"

"Lily!" Albus tried to calm her down, especially because her squeezing his hand was causing him considerable pain as well as exasperating his headache. "I'm fine, I promise."

"No, you're not fine! You have a broken hand and a messed up body and you might be an alcoholic now! All because I was so busy with the party and Oliver and, and—"

"Oliver, the one you've been pining over for weeks?"

"He kissed me last night and I was too caught up to notice what you were doing." Sniveled out Lily through the tears.

Albus chuckled, forgetting his misfortune for a second. Madam Pomfrey shuffled Lily out of the hospital wing and tended to the other students in the area while Albus floated into sleep.

It seemed everyone with any acquaintance to Albus visited him for the next few days. A large part of the upperclassmen talked with him for the first time and the entire Slytherin house signed his cast. Lily came in every hour to see how he was doing, bringing her new boyfriend and his sister to see his recovery. Ollie and Sam actually brought large amounts of candy to tide him over in between the hard-to-swallow potions.

Throughout what ended up being six days in the wing, an extended stay Madam Pomfrey attributed to his body's inexperience with alcohol of any kind, he even received a handful of letters from his parents, filled with words of affirmation and oftentimes comical worries. They made Albus smile nonetheless.

Everyone came. Except Scorpius.

Sitting on a tower by himself, wrapped in numerous blankets and articles of clothing for warmth, Scorpius pondered over the events of the past few weeks. He cursed himself for being so careless with Albus' feelings and struggled to come to grips with how he really felt. He couldn't believe he had been so cruel so as to leave his former friend in such a lonely place simply because he was afraid of being attracted to him.

But I have Rose! And she's a girl! It didn't matter if dating a girl was the easier choice to make, Scorpius knew that his relationship with Rose wasn't really making him happy and although he found her fairly attractive and enjoyed the occasional conversation with her, a long-term relationship with her was not helping him get over his friend at all. Yes, the kisses were nice and it made him feel good to have somebody intimately attracted to him, but she could be a definite know-it-all and her overconfidence clashed with Scorpius' kind-hearted, soft-spoken nature. Placing his freezing face in his hands, Scorpius groaned and thought long and hard about his best friend.

I really am in love with Albus.

"Feeling down, Scorp?" Rose asked as she sat down next to him, coaxing a mumble from the other boy. "...Is it about Albus? Look, I-I know you guys had a lot of trouble going on, but-"

"You don't know anything"