Hey! Hi! Hello! (Georgia Productions be quaking). May or may not've stolen that intro. Anyway, this chapter, we are going to be seeing more of Albus. I don't know why, but I feel like he hasn't been in it much. Although that could be because I've already written a bunch of future chapters and, not to spoil, but the couple I just wrote were about other people. Enjoy!
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Albus and Scorpius stood outside of the potions classroom, waiting for it to begin. Potions was never really fun for either of them. Slughorn had asked Scorpius to join the Slug Club in the years prior, which had also never been much fun for him. Being that the club included students like Lucy Weasley, Christopher Reynolds, Barbara Fortescue, Connor McClaggan, Jason Spinnet, Louise Glossop, Alice Longbottom, Yann Fredericks, Diana Hilliard, Roxanne Weasley, Amethyst Worth, Samuel Turpin, Hugo Granger-Weasley, Lysander Scamander, and Aster Zabini. He supposed Dmitry Yaxley, Tethysa Lee, and Rheia Farley were okay. But the majority of members hadn't come from Slytherin, and were usually a bit judgemental.
The start of year dinners had always been annoying as well. The sly remarks people would make that everyone knew were directed at Dmitry, Tethysa, Rheia, and Scorpius were enough to get Dmitry to throw a spoon at Diana. It wasn't quite like the meals in the Great Hall though. Mainly because there was a teacher right there and they couldn't get away with throwing food at Scorpius. But, after Slughorn retired their replacement Professor Babinoch had not cared much for what students did to the Slytherins.
Babinoch was a young woman that had apparently been in Ravenclaw. She had lost her Uncle in the war and so she didn't think too kindly of Slytherins. So, students could essentially do whatever the Hell they wanted to the four Slytherins and she wouldn't stop them. There were many teachers that thought the exact same way. Professor Gracon — their Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor — had a bias towards Gryffindors. Even Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws hated him.
The only Professors that didn't have biases were Flitwick, Longbottom, Lupin, Trelawny, Hagrid and Bhagat. Professor Bhagat being their Head of House. All of the other's like Sinistra and Binns seemed to not like Slytherins all that much, although they didn't take much action on it. So, Albus and Scorpius had never really liked Potions or Defence Against the Dark Arts. But, they still had to attend.
"What do you think we're doing today?" Albus asked, hands in his pockets.
"I don't know," Scorpius shrugged. "I just hope it doesn't involve anything slimy. I was picking snail goo out of my hair for the rest of the day last lesson."
Albus nodded, "Do you think the Gryffindors will stop getting extra ingredients to throw at us any time soon?"
Scorpius sighed, "If they haven't stopped by now I don't think they ever will," Scorpius instinctively went to check his hair for anything. "It's fun for them. Especially when the ingredients are slimy."
Albus groaned in annoyance, crossing his arms against his chest and pouting. Scorpius gave a sympathetic smile and and checked his watch. More students had begun to gather, and Scorpius could already see Atlas, Finn and Capri. Eventually a few Gryffindors started to file in. Polly, Rose, Vega Creevey and Alexandra Bell all showed up at the exact same time, Vega still holding a cup of pumpkin juice.
"On Wednesdays we wear pink," Albus pulled a face. "Someone needs to knock them off their high horses."
Scorpius stifled a laugh, "The pink thing was a muggle reference wasn't it?" Scorpius smiled.
"I am forcing you to watch Mean Girls, and after it's over you will agree with me," Albus scoffed. "I would just love to punch those smiles off of their bitchy little faces."
"Remember what happened last time you punched someone in the face?" Scorpius folded his arms.
"Okay, but James deserved it," Albus said in a defensive tone. "Granted, the detention wasn't fun. And having Louis drop pudding over my head wasn't fun. But punching James, that was fun. So, yes there are negatives, but punching them would be so worth it."
Scorpius shook his head, "Albus no. Violence is never the answer."
"Tell that to my Father would you," Albus shook his head. "The condition some of those criminals are in when they finally get to the Ministry."
Scorpius chuckled slightly.
"Hey!" They turned to see Vega and Rose standing there.
"Planning your next date?" Rose smirked.
"Ah yes, see it was quite a romantic evening we had planned," Scorpius smiled. "Candles, flowers, and a delicious dinner."
"Maybe even some silk too," Albus joined in with his eyebrows raised suggestively.
"Or lace," Scorpius shrugged. "We haven't decided yet."
Rose rolled her eyes and Vega scrunched up her nose.
"You do realise you can't take drinks in right?" Albus pointed to Vega's pumpkin juice. "Babinoch is very strict on that rule."
"Well I guess you can hold it for me then," Vega smiled before tipping the juice over Albus' head. Rose chuckled and gave Vega a low high five. Vega dropped the cup onto the ground and crossed her arms giggling. The two left and Scorpius turned to see Albus standing there in slight shock.
"I walked right into that one didn't I?" Albus said in a questioning tone, shaking his hands to get some of the sticky orange liquid off.
Scorpius hummed in response, "I'll help you wash up."
But before they could leave Babinoch came out with a smiling face and greeted the class. Albus groaned in annoyance and Scorpius took his wand out. The spell wasn't always so efficient at getting everything out. Albus would still have some sticky residue, but at least he wouldn't be sitting in class, soaked in pumpkin juice.
"Wands away, Mr. Malfoy," they heard Babinoch's voice call out.
"I was just —"
"Mr. Malfoy," Babinoch said in a demanding tone, "put, the wand, away."
"But Albus —"
"This is a Potions classroom," Babinoch narrowed her eyes in annoyance. "You do not need the wand. Now put it away, before I take five points from Slytherin."
Scorpius gave Albus an apologetic smile and put his wand back into his pocket. Babinoch directed the class inside and told them to take their seats. Scorpius lead Albus to the back of the classroom, and took a seat in the far corner. Albus was still dripping slightly, but it could've been worse.
Babinoch told them which potion they would be brewing and Scorpius checked the book for what ingredients it required. He told Albus he'd get them and got up, heading towards the store room. The store room was piled high with jars and containers, filled with a variety of ingredients. Some of them rare, foreign and fragile. However all of them were only to be touched if you were getting ingredients.
Scorpius saw Phoenix standing under a shelf, struggling to reach for something. Lacewig flies. Scorpius was only a little taller than her, but he reached up and got the jar for her with little struggle.
"Thanks Scorpius," she smiled.
"Not a problem," Scorpius turned to look for the other ingredients.
"Waylon," he heard Phoenix say bitterly. He didn't have to look to know she was scowling.
"Well hello, Snyde," Benjamin Waylon — a Muggle-Born from Gryffindor — said in a sing-song voice. "Be careful where you step."
It took Phoenix crashing into Scorpius and causing a few jars to rain down upon them for him to realise Benjamin had pushed her over. Jars shattered on the ground and a few hit shelves, raining glass fragments and whatever was inside onto them. A lizard tongue fell into Phoenix's shirt and a few dried lentils got stuck in Scorpius' hair. Luckily for them, not many slimy or gooey ingredients fell down, if you don't count the lizard tongues.
Scorpius and Phoenix were left standing there in slight shock. Ingredients stuck in their shirts, hair, and broken pieces of glass as well. Scorpius could see a few tiny shards sticking out of his hands and arms, even a small cut under his ear through the reflection on one of the jars. He moved and so did everything that landed in his shirt. An uncomfortable mixture of dry ingredients and glass shards mixing in his shirt. He ended up untucking it to let everything fall out.
He glanced over and saw that Phoenix hadn't gotten it much better. There was a piece of glass in her hair that when she moved, scratched her neck. She had a few lentils stuck in her hair too. Glass was sticking out of the webbing in between some of her fingers, one was buried deep into her palm and there was a cut on her knee. But unlike Scorpius, she had left her shirt untucked, and so anything that fell down there made it all the way to the ground.
"Oops," Benjamin smirked, "sorry. Did that hurt?"
Phoenix glared, "Sorry, I don't speak mudblood. Could you say that again?"
Scorpius pouted at her choice of words. It made Benjamin angrily stalk out of the store room and leave them alone, sure, but Scorpius hated that word. He had never tried to reform anyone in Slytherin, he knew from his Dad that changing a persons way of thinking about something they grew up with wasn't easy. It took Draco years to come to terms with muggle-borns being part of the wizarding society. The real driving force for that was the war and Astoria.
Phoenix was one of those people that only used the word in defence of herself and her friends. She fully believed in what pureblood society was teaching, but she wasn't all that verbal about it, never pushed it onto others and didn't think Voldemort went about it correctly. She was more afraid of the muggles finding out about them and the war they would start. After all, the wizarding world wasn't really prepared for another round of witch trials.
There were many pureblood Slytherins in the same boat as Phoenix. They were lovely people for the most part, but a lot of them had their opinions on muggle-borns. Albus and Scorpius had learnt to understand that it wasn't an issue that could be fixed in one lecture, simply put, they didn't really try to reform any of their classmates. Vincent and Atlas weren't prejudice, but Zeus and Finn were. And as for the girls, only Tethysa wasn't prejudice. All the others were, although the only one verbal about it was Honoria.
Scorpius sighed and started to pull the shards out of his hands and arms. Once he was done he saw Phoenix struggling slightly.
"If you like, I can help," he offered.
"Thank you," Phoenix smiled.
Scorpius assisted her with pulling the glass out until the got to her palm. It was too deep to just take out without bandaging it up. He bit his lip and thought for a moment, unsure of what to do. He glanced to the top of Phoenix's head. She always wore her orangey-brown hair with a silver ribbon to keep it neat. The ribbon would work, but he didn't know whether or not she'd be okay with him asking.
Luckily, he didn't have to. She saw where his eyes travelled and took the ribbon from her head giving it to Scorpius for him to tie around her hand. He smiled in a thanks and starting to wrap it around her hand, tightly next to the glass before pulling it out and continuing to wrap her hand tightly. The bleeding wasn't so bad and all that anyone could see were two small red dots. Scorpius was impressed with himself. Perhaps his Dad working as healer had more bonuses than he had originally thought.
"Thank you," Phoenix said, averting eye contact. "I feel like just saying that is dumb."
Scorpius chuckled, "I don't think so."
The way Phoenix was behaving reminded him a little of Lilith, a contrast to the confident and opinionated Phoenix he was used to seeing.
"It's a Hogsmeade weekend," Phoenix started, looking a little flushed. "I could thank you by buying you a butter beer and lunch."
Scorpius smiled, "That's really nice of you. That would be lovely."
Phoenix cheered up and practically skipped out of the store room. Scorpius took the jar he had needed and left to find Albus in the back. He was sitting there, preparing the cauldron but seeming slightly confused by it all. No class had ever really been his forte.
Scorpius came up with the ingredients and sat next to Albus.
"Took you long enough," Albus complained. "What have you got in your hair?"
"Lentils," Scorpius answered simply.
"Pumpkin juice, lentils," Albus sighed shaking his head. "What's next? Steak?"
A few seconds after he said that a small cut of bat liver slapped him on his forehead and clung for a second.
"People put liver in stew and soups," Scorpius said with a cheeky grin, "it's actually quite nice."
Albus pulled the red flesh off his forehead in disgust, "Yes well while you eat livers, spleens and stomachs, I will figure out what our main course will be."
"Probably potatoes," Scorpius groaned.
"It's always potatoes," Albus grunted.
Scorpius smiled lightly. They continued the potion and it didn't turn out half bad. It was one of the better potions the two had concocted when working together at least. Even Babinoch had to admit it was decent. Which they took as a win.
When class ended, the hurried to the Slytherin boys bathroom to help Albus wash all of the pumpkin juice off. Scourgify would remove any remaining liquid or stains, but most of the pumpkin juice had dried to be a sticky jell like substance. Scourgify wouldn't fix that. Albus was lucky enough that his bottom half of clothing remained completely unstained. But his hair had matted together in places and his shirt was tinted orange apart from the areas his arms had covered at the time.
Scorpius was about to speak, because he saw Albus pulling the shirt away from himself so it would stop clinging, but instead stood mouth slightly ajar when Albus just took the shirt off. Scorpius had never been particularly comfortable with nudity, it freaked him out really. His own Klinefelter syndrome had been apart of that, being that he was afraid of being teased for his body type. But he had also just not liked the idea of seeing other people naked as well. He felt like he was invading their privacy in some way and it made him extremely uncomfortable whenever he saw his dorm mates getting changed.
"Do you want me to look away?" Scorpius asked, feeling slightly warm in the face.
"I would prefer if you didn't turn your head while trying to clean the pumpkin out of my hair," Albus stated, not seeming to sense Scorpius' discomfort. "Unless you have somewhere to be?"
"No," Scorpius shook his head. "I just um," get freaked out by nudity to any fraction, "thought that maybe you would prefer to do that yourself. But if you're okay with me taming that nest you call hair then that's, great," Scorpius gave an awkward thumbs up.
Albus nodded, looking a little weirded out, "Somehow I think you've gotten stranger over the holidays."
"Yep," Scorpius nodded, feeling the awkwardness he was creating and silently cringing at it, "that's me. I get stranger and stranger the longer you know me."
What are you doing!? Scorpius scolded himself. He's just shirtless! It's not like he's gonna strip down completely. I'm overreacting. This is fine. I can handle being in the same room as a half naked person.
Thing is, Scorpius really couldn't handle being in the same room as a half naked person. This was Albus, they'd known each other for years and slept in the same bed a few times. How was seeing him shirtless that different?
The whole interaction got Scorpius thinking. He knew guys with Klinefelter syndrome had a reduced sex drive, but if he was this freaked out by seeing someone shirtless that he'd known for years he didn't know if he had any sex drive. He thought about it, and really he'd never felt the need for sex. All he'd ever really craved from the relationships he'd imagined was cuddles and affection. In fact, he thought the whole idea of mashing yourselves together under a blanket kind of gross, and probably only for people you were willing to spend the rest of your life with. He didn't know whether that was reduced or non-existent, but either way it worried him a little.
He pushed any and all thoughts not about Albus and what was going on then out of his mind and transfigured a mop into a chair. He moved it in front of a sink and told Albus to sit down. Albus obliged and sat down, back facing the sink. Scorpius turned the tap on and got Albus to lean his head back. He splashed the water into his hair a little, seeing bits of dried pumpkin juice already falling out.
When only bits around two millimetres in diameter were coming out Scorpius began to comb his fingers through the ebony black mop. It was slightly sticky and still clung together in some places, but Scorpius managed to fix that for the most part. He started thinking that maybe Albus' hair was just knotty in some areas and used his fingers as a sort of hairbrush. Once basically all of the juice was out Scorpius was surprised at how soft it was and also how long it was. If it weren't for Albus' hair being so messy it would probably reach to his chin.
He heard Albus yawn, "I'm sorry, just struggling to stay awake," Albus smiled tiredly and yawned again.
Scorpius chuckled, "Sorry Albus, you've still got the rest of you to clean."
Albus groaned, "Stupid Creevey."
Scorpius shook his head at Albus' complaints. After a few seconds Scorpius felt like there wasn't anything else he needed to do and stepped back with a smile. Albus slowly sat up and hunched forward sleepily, using a hand towel to dry his hair off. Scorpius began to feel uncomfortable again, seeing Albus was still shirtless and Scorpius still didn't really like that fact. But Albus still didn't seem to mind which only served to make Scorpius think about how there was probably something wrong with him.
"Well I'm gonna shower," Albus said. "Afterwards I can help get any lentils you can't find out?"
Scorpius shook his head, "No, that's fine, I can handle that myself."
"I insist," Albus said. "It's the least I can do seeing as you got pumpkin juice out of my hair."
Scorpius nodded and took the chair from the sink, sitting down and twiddling his thumbs. He bit the inside of his cheek, which was beginning to feel raw, trying to ignore the tight feeling in his chest. He really didn't feel like having another anxiety attack while Albus was in the room. There was too much to unload and he didn't want to pile his shit on top of Albus', the guy already had enough to carry.
Albus went into one of the shower stalls, closing the door and locking it with a click. Scorpius felt his knees shaking and leant back, biting his cheek harder than before. He looked around the room, as Albus made conversation as though this was the most normal situation. Although it probably was to Albus. He grew up with a giant family and privacy in the bathroom was probably not so common. Although Scorpius doubted Albus would act the same with him.
Unless he would. What if he simply forgot and walked out in nothing? Scorpius would have to avert his eyes and probably find the furthest corner of the room from him. But then Albus would have questions. And Scorpius would have to explain everything. And then he'd have to explain more about it so that Albus would understand better. And then he'd be extremely embarrassed because Albus would know about his Klinefelter syndrome. And, what if Albus reacted like Connor, Jason and Coltan? Then Albus would constantly be in his personal space. And he'd lose his best friend. And everything would go down hill from there. And Scorpius was hyperventilating.
Scorpius felt his airway tighten at the thought. He was shaking an unusual amount. His chest felt tighter and tighter, as though some weight was inside. And he bit down harder on his cheek. Blood spilled into his mouth and he had to swallow the metallic liquid. No, no no! Scorpius thought, beginning to shake like he was in the snow. This can't happen! Albus is here! Excuse! I have to get out!
"Albus I um," Scorpius coughed to help with the dryness of his mouth, "I actually have to go. See you later."
Scorpius didn't bother waiting for a response. He ran out of that bathroom like his life depended on it. He left the dungeons. He wanted to put as much distance between himself and Albus as possible. He couldn't take being close to him when in such a state. Albus couldn't know. He had his own issues he needed to deal with. Scorpius would just be burdening him.
He was in such a rush that he hadn't even registered he was near Gryffindor tower until he collided with someone. He knocked them both onto the ground, and heard the person underneath him grunt out at the impact in surprise. Scorpius was breathing fast and shallow. So much so, he wasn't sure if any oxygen was being absorbed.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry —"
"I get it," the familiar voice of James Sirius Potter spoke, "you're sorry. Said that enough times."
"Sorry, was this a bad time?" Scorpius was still trembling, but a little less now that he was with someone that understood a little better. "Sorry if it was —"
"Jeez," James chuckled, "is that your favourite word or something?"
"Sorry — I mean — argh!" Scorpius threw his head into his hands and James sat up properly.
"Hey are you okay?" James asked, placing a hand on the blondes shoulders. "Did you have an attack?"
Scorpius felt tears starting to form but pushed them down. He couldn't think of why he would feel sad. "Yeah..."
"You wanna talk about it?" James smiled. "I can sneak you into my dormitory if you want?"
Scorpius smiled lightly, "Sure."
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*sigh* that was a lot. I don't know if it came across, but Scorpius is asexual in my opinion. I wrote that based on my own struggles with figuring that out, because at the time I realised I didn't feel that way I hadn't heard of romanticism and so I was really confused by it all. But yeah. Should I steal the outro too? Yeah I'll do it. See ya later! Potato!
- Turtlefreakakw2 <3