Chapter 18
Writers don't cry, they bleed on paper.
Don't we all?
The Daily Prophet arrived today. Two Muggle families were killed. Hermione was the most affected by this, the others were there for her of course.
Albus stared into the fireplace and watched the fire. He frowned before trying to give the fire a different appearance. He took a sharp breath as the fire took the shape of a snake. Then he shook his head and the fire was as it was before.
Those poor Muggles.
Albus felt sorry for them. These people did not deserve to die so brutally. He would like to do something about it.
But what could he do? There was nothing he could do.
Anger was building up inside everyone. Everyone was angry. At the Ministry of Magic, at the dark wizards. At everyone.
The war times were long over, why did they want to bring them back to life?
"How is Hermione?" Albus kept his voice low as James sat down next to him. "Not good at all. Those dark wizards and witches are idiots."
"Right." Albus nodded and turned his attention back to the fireplace before James sighed. "Look, Albus. I'm sorry for how I am. Really. I'm really trying to improve, I'm just worried, Albus. You're my brother, I feel like I have to protect you, you know? I-" James' voice was shaky and Albus put his hand on James' shoulder.
"I know, James. It just annoys me, okay?" Albus replied, James nodded quickly and wiped his eyes with his sweater before they became even more watery.
"I'm worried. We're on the verge of a wizard war. I'm afraid we'll be on two different sides, Albus," James explained, moving his fingers back and forth, cracking them every now and then.
Albus raised his eyebrows before shaking his head and leaning against the sofa. "We'll never be on different sides, not in a war."
"Promise, little brother?"
"Promise."
"Okay...Malfoy really acts normal towards you?" James asked after a while of silence and Albus had to admit that he was surprised.
"Yes..." Albus replied and James nodded very slowly. "I still don't like him."
"I know."
James' face broke into a smile before Lily, Rose and Fred came in. Fred rolled his eyes. "You should have heard what Rose said earlier."
"Fred!" hissed Lily, but Fred continued. "She said she was thinking about talking to Malfoy." Now Lily rolled her eyes.
James and Albus looked confused. "I just said that!" Rose defended herself and threw her arms in the air. "Who says something like that and doesn't mean it?" Fred asked, frowning before shaking his head and sighing in annoyance. Then he moved to the other sofa, which was closer to the fireplace.
♡
"A party?" Albus asked, emptying his suitcase. "Yes, the New Year's Eve party. It's this Friday instead of Saturday. We're celebrating the day before New Year's Eve. You're both coming anyway, right?" Alaric asked again and both nodded in response.
"Okay, then I'll leave you alone now," Alaric said, a grin creeping onto his lips before he turned around and disappeared from the dorm.
"To be honest, I was already confused why the other Slytherins hadn't thrown a party this school year," Scorpius explained and Albus nodded twice.
"I'm fed up," Albus sighed, slammed his suitcase shut and threw himself onto Scorpius' bed. Scorpius grinned, cleared the last few things out of his suitcase before moving to his bed, where the tired Albus was lying.
He sat down on the bed and his gaze was on Albus, who was also looking at him. Albus put his hand in Scorpius' hand and intertwined their fingers.
"Is that okay?" Scorpius asked quietly and Albus smiled slightly. "Yes."
Now Scorpius smiled too and lay down gently next to Albus.
Their fingers still intertwined.
"Do you want to talk about your father?" Scorpius' voice was quiet, almost as if he was afraid that he might ruin the moment otherwise.
Albus took a breath. "I sometimes think that he hates me. I know it's completely unnecessary and Mum keeps telling me that he loves me. It just doesn't feel like it."
He felt like he was drowning in his words. They filled his lungs like a waterfall. And he couldn't do anything about it.
Scorpius' eyes were filled with pity. That was the last thing Albus needed right now.
"Distract me...please." The words flowed out of Albus faster than he could think.
Scorpius swallowed once before tightening his grip on Albus' hand a little. Then his eyes wandered back and forth between Albus' eyes and his lips.
Both hearts began to race fast. Too fast.
Scorpius slowly came closer and both could already feel each other's breath.
Nobody distanced themselves.
Before their lips could touch, there was a knock on the door and the Slytherin prefect came in.
He stopped immediately. Scorpius fake-coughed and separated from Albus, while Albus immediately sat up and put some distance between them.
The prefect opened his mouth, closed it again, opened it. This happened four times.
Until he started to speak. "Um, the timetables for all school years have been changed a little. Here, I'll put it on the nightstand here. Okay, um, have a nice evening, carry on." He turned around as quickly as he had come. The door slammed shut.
"That was awkward," Albus broke the silence and Scorpius had to laugh. "More than that."
Albus joined him in laughing and neither of them mentioned the almost kiss.
"Shall we make up for it with Hogsmeade on Sunday? The party is on Friday anyway," asked Albus, looking at Scorpius.
He really admired him.
He is so in love with him.
Scorpius' eyes looked as if they were sparkling as soon as he laid his eyes on Albus. Then he agreed to Albus' suggestion.
♡
"Hogsmeade is open for visitors again from this week. I hope you all had a nice holiday. Enjoy your meal!" McGonagall finished her speech and clapped her hands once before she sat down with the other professors.
It was already Friday and the Slytherin common room was as ready as possible for the party. The professors didn't know anything about it. But it was being whispered about in the other houses. Whoever wanted to reveal that.
"I'm already excited to see what kind of tensions there will be again tomorrow," whispered Alaric to Jareth, Albus and Scorpius.
Albus could see his family looking at him out of the corner of his eye.
Understandable, they had never seen Albus talk to Alaric and Jareth before.
Except Lily and James.
"I think it's so ridiculous to destroy your own relationship because of a night of partying," Jareth shared his opinion. "Well, I mean, you can have fun together.....No, Alaric! That's not what I meant!"
Alaric's face was already grinning widely.
"Do you understand everything wrong?" asked Albus and couldn't suppress his grin. Neither did Scorpius.
Jareth was simply at the end of his nerves.
Alaric shrugged his shoulders and Jareth shook his head. "Yeah, he does."
-
"Otherwise, where's the fun?" asked Alaric as the four stood up together and made their way into the corridors.
"Oh, Merlin..." whispered Jareth and hit his forehead with his hand.
Lily and Faye followed the four quietly and then tried to scare them. It worked and Jareth screamed the loudest.
"Dude, you sound like a little girl!" laughed Faye and gave Lily a high five. Albus had to lean on Scorpius because he was laughing and Alaric was already on the floor, he couldn't control himself anymore.
"I can't get up," Alaric pouted and Faye shook her head with a grin before taking both arms from him and pulling him back to his feet.
"You're having a secret party tonight, aren't you?" asked Lily, Scorpius nodded and Lily immediately started talking to Scorpius.
"Be careful that no one scares you. Don't be alone," Faye provoked and her grin grew even wider. "Yeah, yeah. Very funny." Jareth crossed his arms with a grin.
"Don't you have to study something?" asked Alaric and Faye quickly shook her head. "Nope."
"We'll accompany you to the Slytherin common room," Lily explained and they set off together. "What are you planning to do?" asked Albus skeptically, a grin formed on Lily's face. "We have to go to the kitchen."
"You're breaking into the kitchen? Without the four of us?" Jareth dramatically placed his hand over his heart.
"You can be there next time," Faye replied and nudged Jareth. Because Alaric and Jareth have been best friends for years, Faye and Jareth were like siblings to each other.
"See you!" Lily called before taking Faye's hand and walking with her down the corridors.
The boys shook their heads, with a smile on their faces, before they entered the common room together.
"Well, have fun!" Alaric clapped his hands once before secretly winking at Albus and nodding his head towards Scorpius. Albus blushed visibly.
Alaric just laughed and went to get drinks.
Loud music blared in the students' ears as they got drunker and drunker.
Albus wanted to be able to forget everything for at least one evening. All the drama, the family problems, him being in love.
Him being in love.
That was probably the most stressful thing for him.
Not being able to tell Scorpius. Not being able to say that he was in love. In love with him.
Otherwise the friendship would be ruined. And that for ever and ever.
"Hey, Potter." Another Slytherin boy, who was already pretty drunk, moved towards Albus and Scorpius. "Want to pay your family everything back what they did? You too, Malfoy?" The guy had a wide, mean grin on his face and some kind of tattoo on his arm, but the image was not visible.
It was definitely not the dark mark.
Albus and Scorpius exchanged a knowing look.
It was only a matter of time before the dark wizard group at Hogwarts tried to recruit students.
"Not interested," came out of Albus' mouth and he was about to leave with Scorpius when the guy started speaking again. "Really? You don't want to pay back all the injustice? The feeling of not belonging that they must have given you? You want to let them get away with it?"
"It's my family. And you're exaggerating."
"Come on-"
"Shut up," Scorpius now intervened, throwing the guy an angry look before putting his arm around Albus' shoulder and pulling him away.
"They're sick," Albus said annoyed and shook his head, drinking a glass in one go. "Their attempts are ridiculous."
"They just want as many people on the dark side as they can get." Scorpius shrugged his shoulders and looked worriedly at Albus, who drank two more glasses in a row.
"Come on..." Albus muttered and pulled on Scorpius' arm. He just let himself be pulled along.
Towards the dance floor.
"Merlin, I can't dance." Scorpius whispered in Albus' ear.
Goosebumps covered Albus' body as he felt how close Scorpius was.
"They're all drunk. We're drunk. No one will remember that... Probably we don't either," Albus explained and Scorpius frowned, looking around the entire room. Then he nodded. "Okay, but only this time." A grin formed on Albus' face.
Albus blushed as Scorpius gently placed his hands on Albus' hips.
Scorpius didn't notice.