Slytherins Do It Better - A Scorbus Story

Chapter 18: Seperation Anxiety

James Potter and his cousin Fred Weasley have set up a prank and to be done in the 48 hours from when they planned it. They know it's going to get themselves in trouble with McGonagall, but for James it's worth it. James agreed to take the brunt of the punishment. So they planned to find Peeves and drop a couple dungbombs in the halls to lower Filch in their direction and blame the poltergeist on it, that'll give them time to transfigure a corridor and scare Mrs Norris. Then Fred will leave before Filch finds him and then when he hears him coming he'd going to pretend to not wanna get caught and run. When Filch catches him he's going to take him to McGonagall to explain what why he did this. He's hoping McGonagall will understand.

So now that it's almost time to put the plan into motion. The seventh year Gryffindor cousins are setting up and getting what they need. They head up a few floors from the great hall which is where they found Peeves messing about. So they give each other the look meaning it's time.

Albus during this time hasn't been in the common room at all. He's been sleeping in the room of requirements the the last two days. Scorpius was surprised to not find Albus in his bed the morning after, but went about his business and went to his classes, Albus was in a few of them but he didn't sit anywhere near him. During DADA, Albus sat with Rose, she thought it was odd, but didn't ask. During potions he again sat with Rose. During herbology he sat with a group of Hufflepuffs. That's how it was, Albus avoided Scorpius as much as possible. At meals Albus would sit towards the from of the table closer to the Professors, which is different from his usual spot in at the back of the table next to Scorpius.

Hermione was sitting at the head table noticing her family at all different tables. Her own children, Rose sitting at the Ravenclaw table reading a book, and Hugo, sitting at the Gryffindor table with his cousins and she smiles. Then she sees Albus sitting at the Slytherin table sitting somewhere different. She finds this odd, she knows that he sits in the back and with Scorpius Malfoy. Now that she thinks about it Albus has been acting off lately and skipping her class a lot. She knows his grades are slipping and she's concerned about him not passing the OWL exam. She remembers asking him about his grades already so it's no use to do it again so the thing to do is get his parents involved. So later that night Hermione writes a letter to Harry and Ginny stating her concerns for their son.

Back at the Slytherin table both boys are suffering from the separation. Scorpius was just as miserable, when he'd see Albus in class sitting with someone else it would make his heart ache. He regrets what he did but he can't take it back, at least until Albus is ready and comes to him first. But at this rate he's not sure if it's going to happen. This didn't go unnoticed by others as well. Tracy and Brian Nott definitely noticed right away that something was wrong when Albus stopped sitting next to Scorpius. They found it very peculiar because as long as they could remember those two where attached at the hip, you never saw one without the other, but now it's all different.

"Ok Scorpius tell us right now what happened with you and Albus" Tracy says to him. Scorpius sighs.

"I told him I think we should take a break so that's what we're doing ok" he snaps.

"Oh come on you two need a break? This is the longest you've been apart from each other voluntarily since first year and it's clear that you two need each other" she tells him.

"Well there's things he wasn't telling me and it was frustrating there was too much going on" Scorpius tried to defend himself.

"You know how stupid that sounds right? Look your both miserable now and Albus is probably in worse shape given everything he went through" Tracy tells him.

(A quick A/N: this is happening in the 48hrs James and Fred are planning, like two days after their separation ok continue)

"Well I told him when he's ready to talk to come find me" Scorpius says to her.