Chapter 8 - Hurt
Chapter 8 - Hurt
Albus Potter thought he was going mad. His strange behavior, which he had recently put on the table, not only caught the attention of Scorpius but also of Nott and Zabini. He slowly felt like he was being watched. The three of them didn't ask, but Albus still noticed their attentive looks and observations.
So Albus did the only logical thing - namely, to distance himself.
Not that he didn't do anything with them anymore, but simply kept the conversations shorter than usual and didn't pay as much attention. He didn't want to do that, actually. But he couldn't think of anything else.
Scorpius was the first to notice this change in Albus.
One school day in the afternoon - long after the last lesson, Scorpius pulled Albus into a secluded corner that was almost entirely surrounded by darkness.
"What's wrong with you?" The first thing that came out of Scorpius' mouth. "You know you can tell me anything. I'm not angry... But you really don't have to be so distant." Scorpius sounded a little sad, but concern in his tone took over his statement.
Albus scanned the long corridor with his eyes, but there was no other person there.
"I'm sorry... it's not you." For a moment Albus scratched the back of his head. "It's just that I have a lot of different thoughts in my head right now, and they're not that easy."
Scorpius looked around the corridor. Then he turned his head back to Albus. "What's really going on?"
Albus pressed his back against the wall when he noticed Scorpius taking a few steps towards him. Albus' heart was pounding in his throat and he was having trouble breathing.
The distance between them was closing.
Scorpius watched him closely, frowning. Albus hid his hands behind his back as they began to shake.
That damn crush.
"Um, nothing." Albus said slowly, then added after a few seconds of silence: "Really."
Scorpius tilted his head, bit his lip and visibly thought. Albus avoided his gaze, staring at the wall behind him.
Scorpius drew his attention back to him when Albus noticed Scorpius stepping back a little and looking around the corridor again.
He slowly turned his head to Albus and met his gaze. Albus narrowed his eyes slightly, not trusting Scorpius's brain at all right now.
"You're either in love with Nott or Zabini," Scorpius said firmly.
"I-what?!" Albus' jaw dropped before closing his mouth again after a longer moment. Then he blinked many times in a row.
"That explains your strange behavior lately. Do you want me to help you? Being your wingman?" Scorpius asked cheerfully, a smile forming on his face.
"I'm not in love with either of them," Albus replied quickly, but Scorpius didn't buy it.
"Denying it won't help, Albus," Scorpius explained. "You don't have to lie to me or pretend to be someone else. I don't see you differently just because you like someone. What kind of bad best friend would I be then?"
Best friend.
Ouch.
Why did Scorpius have such a smart head and yet he still came to the wrong conclusions?
It was true that Albus was in love, but not with those two idiots. He was in love with the beautiful blond who had that stupidly pretty smile and oh, those eyes...
Albus shook his head quickly as his thoughts became clear and he blushed like a tomato. Scorpius misunderstood this, of course, and it only improved his opinion of his smart but stupid conclusion.
Scorpius grinned even wider, put an arm around Albus' shoulders and pulled him along. Albus reluctantly went with him, but his mind was elsewhere. Albus' shoulder burned under Scorpius' hand and Albus wanted to run away. It was too much for him.
Being in love at thirteen wasn't as easy as many said.
Scorpius had taken his arm away from Albus and had now his hands buried in his front trouser pockets. Albus' left hand fumbled with his own right sleeve when he started to stumble and almost fell to the floor. He was still able to stand on his feet, Scorpius was held firmly by an older student.
Albus was pulled backwards and fell to the floor after all. He hit the ground on his back and grimaced in pain, his eyes burned, but he blinked away the tears.
Albus tried to look up, but a fist hit him right in the face, his body instinctively turning to the right. He coughed a few times and tried to catch his breath. His back hurt like hell and the impact had constricted his lungs. At least that's how it felt to him.
He was grabbed by the shoulder, his upper body was pulled up, only to be hit in the face again. This blow was the last straw for him, and this time he reflexively spat out blood.
His ears began to ring and his vision became slightly blurred, his senses began to go crazy.
He could hear laughter. Mean laughter.
But he couldn't sort it out.
Wait, Scorpius. What was happening with him?
Albus opened his eyes again in pain, tried to see something, and his vision became a little sharper again. The students left Albus alone now, but instead turned their attention to Scorpius.
He was thrown against the wall and a fist landed in his stomach.
Albus tried to get up - he couldn't let anyone hurt Scorpius.
With shaking hands he reached for his wand, pointing it at the student who was trying to hit Scorpius.
"Stupefy!" Albus said it so quietly that no one heard. But for some reason, the spell worked anyway.
He quickly hid his wand so that the others didn't notice that he was the one who fired the spell. A few other students walked past them and completely ignored what was happening.
"Fucking blood traitor!" snapped one of them and looked at Scorpius before turning his gaze to Albus. His look was angry. "And fucking Potter scum! You have no urgency to live. You should get out of here before we do you any more damage!"
Scorpius quickly freed himself from the grip, nudged the boy away, ran right into Albus and helped him up.
"You're going to regret this so much! Now you're dead!" shouted one of the group, pulled out his wand and shouted: "Sectumsempra!"
When Scorpius heard that, he quickly sucked in his breath, grabbed Albus' wrist and pushed them both against the wall so that the spell flew past them. He reacted quickly enough.
"You idiot, you didn't get them both!"
"We have to go!" Albus breathed, coughing again as his back hurt as he spoke. Scorpius looked at him, anger flashing in his eyes as Albus sucked in a sharp breath.
"I'm sorry, but we have to run," Scorpius whispered before tightening his grip on Albus' wrist and running off.
They turned a corner, the others following them. But then there were two different corridors that could be used, and they turned left. The bullies didn't see that.
They braced themselves against the windowsill before slowly sliding to the floor. Both breathing heavily.
"Fuck," Scorpius said, turning his face to Albus. "You don't look well at all. You need to go to the hospital wing."
"I can't," Albus whispered, wincing in pain. "They'd call my father immediately."
Scorpius grabbed his temple. "But you need help. What if you have a concussion? Or have injured your back more than you can feel right now? Shit, they threw you to the ground with full force and I couldn't do anything about it!"
Scorpius grabbed his hair in desperation.
Albus tried to turn his body a little towards Scorpius, despite all the pain he felt.
"Scorpius," Albus whispered and placed his hand gently on Scorpius' forearm. "You couldn't have done anything! They probably would have done even worse things to you. It was right that you couldn't do anything!"
"But I would have done something if I hadn't been held!" Scorpius snapped before his gaze softened again. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to attack you like that."
Albus managed a slight smile. "It's fine, Scorp. It's all just too much right now."
"That's right. It's all too much," Scorpius murmured and Albus nodded for a moment.
-
The two somehow managed to get Albus back to the dorm. It took them three times as long as normal, but it was justified under the circumstances.
Albus hissed a little louder than he had intended when Scorpius helped him sit down on his bed.
Nott and Zabini immediately looked up in alarm. "Shit, what happened to you?" Zabini immediately jumped up and ran to Scorpius and Albus. He looked at Scorpius, who had no visible injuries, and then turned his gaze to Albus. He gasped in shock.
"You have to go to the hospital wing! Now!"
Nott was now standing next to the three of them and his eyes widened when he saw Albus.
"I can't," Albus replied firmly and sighed. "I mean that." He slowly leaned against the wall and then bit the inside of his cheek as the pain shot through his body like a huge stab.
"I just don't understand why I'm in so much pain. I mean, it was only my back that I fell on, and otherwise only my face was damaged," Albus added after a longer silence.
Scorpius frowned and thought for a moment, then he sat down on the bed. "Maybe you were hit with the spell after all."
"What spell?" Zabini asked immediately, Scorpius sighed. "Sectumsempra."
"What?!" Nott snapped and anger flashed in Zabini's eyes as the word came out of Scorpius' mouth. Nott narrowed his eyes. "That can't be true."
"What kind of spell is that?" Albus asked, and now he was curious. Why did only the three of them know this spell, but not him?
Zabini looked at Albus and his gaze was intense. "That must not get out of the Slytherin house."
Albus needed a moment before he nodded slowly. He was unsure. But his curiosity was greater.
"The spell was invented by the Half-Blood Prince," Zabini began, Nott continued. "At least that's what they say."
Scorpius finished the explanation. "His name was Severus Snape." His gaze rested cautiously on Albus.
"The victim suffers deep wounds that appear one after the other," Zabini said before he stopped abruptly and his gaze rested on Albus' stomach. His shirt became redder and redder.
"Damn it," Albus cursed as he also looked down. "I got hit." His breathing got heavier. The blood got heavier.
"Okay, um," Nott looked around the room before he found his notebook. He leafed through it a few times, all at a very fast pace. "Pull up your shirt."
"What?" Albus' look was priceless, Zabini had to suppress his laughter. He was worried about Albus, but that look was too funny.
"Just do it," Scorpius demanded seriously and Albus swallowed.
"It's just your stomach. We all have the same body," Zabini said, trying to somehow make Albus' discomfort fade slightly.
"Man," Albus whispered and he pulled up his shirt, trembling, the pain got worse and more cuts appeared.
He could see tears in Scorpius' eyes, but Scorpius suppressed crying. He was even somehow holding back his tears to ran out of his eyes.
And then Albus understood.
Scorpius had just lost his mother. He couldn't lose him too.
He couldn't lose Albus.
"I'll be fine," Albus whispered in Scorpius' direction. Scorpius slowly met his eyes. "Don't say that. You can't know that. Please just try to stay alive."
Albus nodded. "I promise you."
"Okay," Nott's voice rang out and he approached the three other boys. Zabini looked from Albus to him, there was unease in his eyes. And to see that in a Zabini's eyes was damn rare.
"You said you couldn't go to the hospital wing," Nott said. "I think I found the counter spell."
Scorpius' gaze quickly wandered to Nott. "Are you sure?" he asked, his voice shaky.
Zabini furrowed his eyebrows. "Trust me, if Nott messes up, he'll get in trouble."
"Nice as always," Nott replied, looking at Zabini for a moment. Zabini shrugged. "You know what I mean. Now try to heal Albu-er, Potter. Exactly, Potter." Zabini scratched the back of his head nervously.
The four of them haven't really addressed each other by their first names yet. Only Albus and Scorpius between them two, and Nott and Zabini between them two.
Nott nodded and then looked down at the notebook, which was really old. "I have a feeling that if the spell goes wrong, Albus will haunt me?"
Albus managed a quiet laugh. "You can bet on that."
Sarcasm slowly became Albus' way of dealing with pain.
Nott pointed his wand at Albus. He took a deep breath.
"Vulnera Sanentur." Nott repeated this three times. And it actually helped. Slowly but surely.
Albus breathed in carefully again, the pain was much lighter than before. "Thank you," he thanked Nott sincerely and Scorpius breathed a sigh of relief. "You'll still be resting for the next few days."
"Why did you do that three times?" Zabini asked, curiosity in his eyes. All three of them were now looking at Nott. Albus could now sit up a little straighter and it did him more than just good. The pain was lessening more and more. It was so pleasant that Albus even closed his eyes for a moment and enjoyed the silence that reigned in the room at that moment.
Then Nott's explanation began: "Well, in the book that I read years ago, it said: To achieve the greatest effect, the incantation must be repeated three times.
First, to slow the blood flow to prevent death by bleeding.
Second, to remove the residue and to be able to start healing the wounds.
And third and last: to close the wounds completely, but diptam must be used to prevent scarring... Wait, shit. We need diptam."
Albus groaned in annoyance. That couldn't be true. With a grim expression on his face, he looked at Scorpius, who was about to get up. "I'll get some."
"But it has to be stolen from the hospital wing," Zabini said quickly and Scorpius nodded. "I know that, but we have no other choice, do we?"
Zabini nodded in agreement. "No, but then I'll come with you if we have to steal it, that's really exciting!"
"Fine by me."
"Have you memorized all of that?" Albus spoke up and watched Nott, who hid the notebook well again so that even Nott wouldn't be able to find it again if it was necessary. Just like before.
Nott shook his head and rummaged around in his things. "No, I wrote it all down in this notebook. Anything I found interesting."
"Hey," Scorpius began gently, a smile forming on his face. Albus turned his attention back to him. "Your face was healed too," Scorpius finished his statement before leaving the dorm with Zabini.
》♡《
Albus spent the weekend lying in bed. The pain was still there, but it was getting easier. But normally it should have disappeared completely after the spell had healed the wounds. But Albus didn't want to deal with it.
He sneaked into the forbidden section of the library, but when he read through the titles, he couldn't find anything that could fit his situation.
Sighing, he turned around, wanting to leave the section again, so he headed towards the exit. He looked around a few times, but he didn't see anyone.
Outside he bumped into someone.
"What were you doing there?" Fred's voice suddenly rang out and Albus jumped in shock. Great. Why couldn't it have been Lily or James?
"What? Um, well," Albus stammered and a grin slowly crept onto Fred's face. "I don't care, don't worry. I was just kidding. I've been in there a few times."
"That was obvious," Albus replied and Fred nodded with a broad grin. "There are a lot of interesting topics there."
Albus raised his eyebrows. "Oh really?"
"Mhm," said Fred before pointing to his school books. "I hate it when I have to study. But Roxanne makes me do it."
Albus grinned a little. "She's right."
Fred gasped, playing dramatic and put his hand on his chest. "You're on her side? Traitor."
The word traitor - although it wasn't meant seriously - triggered something in Albus and he felt sick. "Um, yes. I have to go too. See you around!"
"Yep, see you!" grinned Fred before dropping his books on one of the tables, which got him into trouble for making noise.
Albus quickly disappeared from the library. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and suddenly it felt like wounds were appearing on his body again. He knew he was imagining the pain.
Shit, he only now fully realized that he had probably almost died. His heart raced, and his stomach turned.
It was getting unbearably warm for Albus and he could feel his food coming up. He quickly ran into one of the many toilets and threw up.
Breathing heavily, he sat down on the floor and leaned against the wall. He bent his legs, rested his arms on his knees and let his head fall onto his arms.
The bullying hadn't been that bad in the first two years of school.
He had to try to defend himself against it somehow, he just didn't know how yet.