Chapter 20
sleeping is so hard,
when you can't stop thinking.
~~~~♡
In the middle of the night, it was dead silent. Hogsmeade was quiet, everything was dark, lights were out. Everyone was peacefully at home.
The students were sleeping comfortably in their dorms, as were the professors. Even the house elves were getting some rest.
The exception to all of them was Albus Potter.
His left arm was under the back of his head, his right arm was stretched out on the bed. He was staring at the ceiling.
He actually wanted to sleep, but couldn't.
There were too many thoughts in his head.
He breathed out quietly, he wasn't tired at all. But he had to sleep, he had classes the next day.
Suddenly you could hear the rustling of the blanket next to Albus' bed, and he literally froze. He didn't dare move. He hoped he hadn't woken Scorpius.
However, he was just getting up and walking to Albus' bed.
"Why can't you sleep?" asked a very tired Scorpius and Albus swallowed once before his gaze fell on Scorpius, who had already crossed his arms.
"I don't know..." Albus was not in the mood to talk and Scorpius noticed this from Albus' tone. Scorpius sighed. "Would it help if I lay next to you?"
Albus' gaze shot back to Scorpius immediately and he didn't answer at first. He had to realize what Scorpius had said. Finally he nodded.
Scorpius nodded once too before he went back to his bed and darkened the window next to it even more - in the hope that this might help Albus to sleep.
After Scorpius has darkened the window, he moved to Albus' bed and Albus lifted the blanket hesitantly at first before sliding a little to the edge of the bed so that both of them had space.
The beds weren't exactly big. And certainly not designed for two people next to each other who wanted to keep a decent distance.
So Scorpius lay down next to Albus, who had already spread out his left arm so that Scorpius could lay his head on it.
Albus' heart fluttered for a moment.
Before both of them got comfortable.
Scorpius crossed his left hand with Albus' right hand.
Both tried to keep a good distance between their bodies.
Nobody of them wanted that tho.
As soon as Scorpius lay next to Albus, Albus immediately became tired.
He yawned once - then twice. Scorpius began to smile slightly - you could see that he was completely tired.
"Oh, as soon as I'm in the same bed with you, you get tired?" Scorpius provoked Albus, who laughed briefly. "Shut up."
Albus' whole body tingled, but he ignored it and closed his eyes.
He didn't care how much he wanted to kiss Scorpius at that moment - he just couldn't.
No matter how much he longed for the feeling. The feeling of Scorpius' lips.
Albus wanted it so much.
♡
Albus hated History of Magic. Of course it was interesting to hear what had happened in the past, but the professor in the subject made it as boring as he could. Most of the students even fell asleep during the class.
"I want to do a little group work today," Mr. Binns began and no one could believe their ears.
Most of the time he usually only spoke in class or asked for essays on the topics they had covered.
But usually no group work.
The class suddenly got louder and talked over each other - or students woke up other students.
Until Mr. Binns interrupted everything.
"Wait! I'm dividing the groups," he explained and now there was complete silence.
Oh no.
"Does that have to be?" asked a student from Hufflepuff, but Mr. Binns didn't answer her. On the contrary, he started to list the groups.
"Of course I've thought about the groups." Then he started to say names. "Alicia, Rose Granger-Weasley, Scorpius Malfoy, Albus Potter."
"Nope," said Albus, which only Scorpius could hear. "It's just for one class, Al. We'll manage, come on."
Albus looked at him. "It almost seems to me as if you're happy to be able to work with Rose." His voice had taken on a cold undertone.
Scorpius then rolled his eyes. "Albus, seriously?" He folded his arms. "Come on now, we have to go to their table."
Sighing, Albus stood up and followed Scorpius.
"Very pleased to be working with you," Alicia greeted and Rose patted her on the shoulder. When they were all sitting together at a table, Mr. Binns began to walk back and forth in the classroom. "There are questions on the paper and you have to answer them. Only one person from the group writes."
When the paper landed on their table, Alicia immediately picked up a quill and pressed it into Rose's hand. "You write."
"And who decided that?" Rose asked, her voice dripping with annoyance. "I do," Alicia replied before turning to Albus and taking strands of hair in her right hand and wrapping them around her fingers.
Rose and Scorpius looked at the whole scenario - Scorpius just crossed his arms while Rose grimaced in disgust.
Alicia tried to flirt with Albus, but he didn't respond. At least he tried - Alicia couldn't stop saying or asking inappropriate things. Albus was really uncomfortable, but he didn't let it show.
Rose made a gagging noise, Alicia turned her head to Rose.
"Can we please concentrate on our damn task?! Stop flirting with Albus!" Rose's voice was a little quieter so no one could hear the conversation, but she still kept a stern tone. She had had enough.
"I'm not flirting," Alicia replied, but Rose put both her hands on Alicia's shoulders and shook her once - then she stopped. "Yes! And now we'll get on with the task!"
"Why are you being so weird?... Wait, are you jealous? Are you in love with me or something? Gross. Hands off me, Weasley!" Alicia slapped Rose's hands away. Rose distanced herself from her, shocked.
Albus and Scorpius both couldn't believe what they were seeing.
"I'm not in love with you!" Rose protested and crossed her arms. Alicia rolled her eyes. "You always take everything so seriously."
What?
Albus leaned back in his chair and raised his eyebrows. What was going on?
"Of course you don't like me," Alicia started to talk and turned to Scorpius. "She's in love with you."
Albus' heart stopped.
"Alicia, that's enough! I'm not into anyone! Be quiet now!" Rose demanded and Alicia leaned back a little. She raised her arms in the air. "It's your own fault. You interrupted me earlier."
Rose ignored Alicia's sentences now and didn't want to answer them at all. It was so hard to be friends with Alicia sometimes.
Then Rose turned to Alicia again and leaned towards her ear. "There's one more thing I have to say: I'm not sure if I can forgive you for your homophobic sentence." Alicia looked at Rose. "Don't take everything so seriously."
Albus would have broken off his friendship with Alicia long ago if she had said something like that.
Albus could see from Rose's look that she was hurt. He just didn't understand why she didn't just start ignoring Alicia. Rose had other friends - better friends. Alicia wasn't Rose's only friend.
After all, Alicia had hurt Rose once before. And that was in third year.
The rest of the class went by very quickly. Alicia tried to flirt with Albus a few more times, but that was really it.
Rose handed in the assignment sheet before she picked up her bag and angrily pulled Alicia along by the arm. "We need to talk!"
Albus actually wanted to leave the classroom, but Scorpius didn't move from the table.
The classroom became emptier and emptier until there was no one left inside. Except Albus and Scorpius.
Albus frowned and stood next to Scorpius, who was leaning against the table.
"Why didn't you flirt back? At first?" Scorpius whispered and Albus frowned even more before blinking twice. "Because I didn't want to."
"Why?"
Albus's heart began to race. He shrugged his shoulders. "Notinterested."
"But you could have had some variety," Scorpius said and started playing with his hands.
"Variety? For what? Variety because of you?" Albus asked, confused. Scorpius nodded. "You only have me. You can't tell me you don't like any girl."
Albus swallowed and remained silent. Scorpius noticed this and looked over at Albus. Scorpius frowned before his gaze softened. "Why didn't you tell me earlier, Al?" Scorpius kept his voice calm and gentle as he moved closer to Albus, who slowly pushed his back against the wall.
Albus' gaze fell to the floor, he sighed once. His heart raced. This made it harder for him to breathe.
"I didn't know how you would react..."
"How I would react? Because you like boys? Albus, then I would have to hate myself..."
Albus slowly looked up and into Scorpius' eyes, which were just radiating warmth. "You too?"
Scorpius nodded and his eyebrows furrowed slightly. "No more secrets from now on, okay? I want you to know that you can tell me anything and never have to be afraid of how I might react. Even if I do react negatively, it won't last forever. I will always like you, Albus. You're my best friend."
Best friend.
Albus nodded and a smile formed on his face. This time he was the one who moved closer to the other. The two fell into an embrace and held each other tightly.
They separated, but only so that they could look at each other. Their arms were still wrapped around the other.
Scorpius' eyes wandered from Albus' eyes to his lips. Albus swallowed nervously and Scorpius looked back into his eyes - searching for answers to his questions.
When Albus' gaze also fell on Scorpius' lips, that was answer enough for Scorpius. Scorpius moved his face closer to Albus' face, and Albus was not left without a reaction this time. Albus also leaned closer forward.
It felt like his heart was racing in his throat and his breath caught.
Before anything else could happen between the two, the door was thrown open and the two immediately jumped apart.
"Students shouldn't be in empty classrooms." Mr. Filch crossed his arms before shooing the two out of the classroom.
♡
"Did you see Alaric's face earlier?" Albus asked, laughing as he walked into their dorm with Scorpius. Scorpius nodded in response.
Albus wanted to move to his bed, but Scorpius was faster and pulled him back. Scorpius' arm was wrapped around Albus' waist and pulled him close to him.
Albus' heart began to flutter and he got butterflies in his stomach.
Their upper bodies were pressed together, Albus only wanted one thing at that moment - to kiss Scorpius. And to feel his lips. His damn lips.
"Hey..." whispered Scorpius and his eyes fixed on Albus' before they moved to his lips. Albus swallowed nervously and managed a slight smile. "Hey..."
Scorpius' eyes moved back to Albus' eyes. "We're going to ruin everything with this." Albus furrowed his eyebrows for a moment.
Their faces were so close that they could both feel each other's breath. Albus' heart began to race even more, he was worried that it would soon jump out.
"Fuck it," Albus breathed and then it happened.
Their lips collided. It felt like fireworks that could finally explode after a long time. Two souls who belonged together. Two souls who finally found eachother again.
It was a firework.
Albus tried to ignore the fact that he once again felt as if he was feeling his feelings twice.
He tried to capture that moment in his mind so it would never break out again. He never wanted to forget the feeling of Scorpius' lips on his.
After a short while, their lips separated, but their faces remained very close. Albus leaned his forehead against Scorpius' forehead.
A grin spread across Scorpius' face, which Albus immediately returned.
"Do you still want to go to bed?" Scorpius asked with a grin and Albus shook his head. "No."
Scorpius licked his lips. "Okay. Then let's continue." Albus nodded, put his hands on Scorpius' cheeks and Scorpius put his hands on Albus' waist.
Immediately after that, Scorpius put his lips on Albus' and Albus kissed back. This time their lips moved gently and tenderly.
It was the first kiss. For both of them.
Neither of them had kissed anyone before.
The kiss lasted a little longer than the other, but still not very long. The two separated completely and both knew that they urgently needed to have a conversation.
But somehow neither of them really knew how to start the conversation.
They had kissed. Twice.
They were actually best friends.
Then suddenly there was a deafening noise. It filled the whole of Hogwarts and gave everyone goosebumps.
Alaric and Jareth opened the door to the dorm and both were completely out of breath. "We are all supposed to go to the Great Hall, immediately. Rumor has it that Death Eaters were seen in Hogwarts and wanted to hurt a student, but Madam Promfrey intervened in time."
Albus and Scorpius immediately followed Alaric and Jareth, all of them had racing hearts.
At the moment, Hogwarts was a complete mess. Students were afraid. No one really knew what was going on or what had actually happened.
It was a miracle that no students were running into each other.
When they arrived in the Great Hall, everything was a little quieter, but still complete chaos. Albus looked anxiously for Lily in the Great Hall and recognized her after a while.
She was standing next to Faye and holding her hand, she didn't let go.
The professors were standing at the front. As always.
Then the doors to the Great Hall opened.
At the front walked the Minister of Magic, Hermione Granger-Weasley. Then everyone else came in. Professor McGonagall immediately moved away from her seat and towards the group that was just walking in.
Not all of them were from the Ministry of Magic, there were also families of the students among the group. But not all of them.
Harry Potter looked around the room and searched it for his children. He saw James, he also saw Lily, who was now standing next to Rose and no longer next to Faye.
Then he saw Albus.
Albus who was standing next to Scorpius Malfoy.
"Oh oh." Alaric muttered and Jareth wanted to hit him for that.
However, James saved Albus from the situation and Harry believed him. Albus was more than grateful to James for that at the moment. James pulled Albus towards him and chatted him up.
Hermione cleared her throat once.
"Death Eaters were in Hogwarts. We can only be glad that no one was hurt, because they tried it. We still have to think about the measures we will take from now on. But one thing is certain: Hogwarts will not be closed." Hermione folded her hands.
"But we need to discuss something else."