Chapter 24
If it's meant to be,
it'll be.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~♡
It was completely quiet in Albus' room and completely dark.
Alaric and Jareth were both snoring quietly, they were sleeping on a mattress on the floor. Albus and Scorpius were both lying in Albus' bed. Wide awake.
Both wanted to talk about the topic, but neither really knew how to start.
Albus was lying with his head on Scorpius' arm and his hands were buried in Scorpius' hair. With his left arm, Scorpius gently ran Albus' back up and down.
"We should talk, don't you think?" whispered Scorpius and Albus nodded - as well as he could in this position. "But it's going to be a bit difficult with the other two in the room, isn't it?" whispered Albus back, a grin creeping onto his lips.
Scorpius pulled away from Albus, sat up and looked down at the others.
Albus propped himself up on his left elbow so that he was not lying down but not sitting down either. He looked at Scorpius, who was illuminated by the moonlight.
Then Scorpius turned over again, crawled over Albus', carefully laid on top of him and gently leaned his nose against his. A pleasant feeling came over Albus.
Albus sighed and smiled before wrapping his arms around Scorpius and inhaling his scent.
"Could you start talking?" Scorpius asked, blushing, but Albus could hardly see it because of the darkness.
Albus waited a moment to make sure Alaric and Jareth were really fast asleep. In fact, they were.
"I mean...we don't have to... sleep with each other right away... For now we can only help each other? And take it a little bit slow?" Albus cleared his throat quietly. He wanted to take it slowly, but not too slowly.
Scorpius nodded immediately. "I would like that." Then he gave Albus a quick kiss before laying down next to him again and pulling him into his arms.
Albus wrapped one leg around Scorpius and pulled the blanket back over them. Then he closed his eyes.
He had really imagined the conversation to be worse. But it wasn't.
Maybe it was because they had been best friends for so long and that's why they got along best with each other.
♡
The first two days went really quietly. There was no real chaos or anything, everyone was just really nervous. Because everyone was coming to visit today.
"Hey, Albus. Doesn't that get really exhausting at some point? I mean every holiday? You just want to have some peace and quiet sometimes, don't you?" asked Alaric and Jareth turned to the conversation with interest.
Scorpius sat next to Albus, Alaric and Jareth sat opposite the two.
Albus quickly looked around the room before turning to the other three.
"To be honest. Yes."
Then Lily and Faye stormed into the kitchen and joined the boys. "Were you gossiping?" asked Faye and sat down. "Isn't that more your thing, sister?" Alaric nudged Faye, who immediately nudged him back. "That's right."
"I hope I'm not disturbing you," Ginny's voice rang out, who had just entered the kitchen with a box. She put it down at the end of the table.
"Nope," Lily replied, looking curiously at the box. "What do you have there?"
"Actually, I'm not allowed to tell you, but there are things from the Ministry of Magic in there. They want to hide them with different families so that Death Eaters don't get their hands on them," Ginny explained. Albus tilted his head slightly.
"Is there a time-turner in there too?"
Ginny nodded immediately. "Yes, that's why I don't want James to find out about it. He and Fred would only mess things up with it."
There was something to that.
"What would I do?" James came into the kitchen, Ginny flinched briefly before turning to James and smiling at him. "Nothing. Everything's fine. Are the others here yet?"
"They're just coming."
Not even a second later, various voices rang out, they had all gathered outside. Ginny and Harry had specially put together tables and chairs in the garden because it was a pleasant day outside. Of course you had to dress warmly, but it was bearable.
"I don't want to go out there," whispered Alaric and Albus could more than understand. He didn't want to either. But he had to.
"Come on, you have Albus and me. I won't let anyone badmouth you or provoke you," explained Lily before jumping up from her chair and pulling Alaric and Jareth outside. "Faye, you take care of the other two!"
"We can go ourselves," Albus said quickly, but it was already too late and Faye was already pulling him and Scorpius along.
It was a complete mess outside.
Hermione sneaked away from the others and moved towards the six teenagers. She stopped in front of them and Lily screamed. Hermione bit her lip to hold back her laughter. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, Lils." She put her hand on her shoulder and Lily just nodded.
Lily wasn't usually so jumpy.
"How are you?" asked Hermione, looking at the Slytherins and then at Faye. Faye answered for her and the boys. "It's okay." Hermione was more than satisfied with this answer and began to smile, then Ginny appeared next to her.
"The others aren't very happy, are they?"
Hermione sighed briefly. "I've already threatened Ron that he should be nice."
"Okay." Ginny turned to the others. "Albus, Lily, you have to come with me to the others for a moment. It won't take long, Hermione is waiting here with the others." Ginny took Albus and Lily by the arms and pulled them along. Hermione folded her hands.
Albus and Lily were greeted immediately, of course, James was standing next to Fred and was involved in a conversation.
Molly hugged them both once, then smiled at them both. "How are you?" "We're okay," Lily replied, smiling and tucking her hair behind her ear.
There was a bit of talking, but it didn't last long. Until Molly got a little too curious.
"Albus, do you have a girlfriend yet?"
Complete silence. You could have heard a pin drop.
Even James and Fred were interrupted by this. Lily swallowed nervously.
Albus thought he was going to throw up at that moment. He suddenly felt so sick. He was afraid of his family's reaction if he revealed that he wasn't into girls.
James noticed Albus' hesitation and frowned briefly. Then Albus cleared his throat once.
"Um, no. I don't."
Ginny looked at Albus once, then her gaze flew back to Scorpius, who was standing further away. Hermione stood in front of the Slytherins and Faye.
Lily linked her arm with Albus's to give him emotional support.
"It's coming, Albus. You still have the rest of sixth year and the whole of seventh year ahead of you. But please no Slytherin." Arthur whispered the last part so that the other five teenagers wouldn't hear.
Albus tilted his head slightly, Lily sighed. A feeling of disappointment overcame Albus and he suddenly felt sick again.
"Seriously?!" Lily snapped and Ginny put her hands on her shoulders. "Hey, I know. That was more than just inappropriate." At the last sentence she turned to her family and narrowed her eyes.
James frowned again and swallowed the lump in his throat. He was torn.
Either he would finally get over his fears and stick with his siblings, or he would continue to stick with his other relatives. He didn't know what to do.
Lily tugged briefly on Albus' arm. "Come on, let's go to the others."
"Woah, have you been in contact with them for a while?" Harry asked immediately, putting two and two together.
Lily took a breath before making a decision.
"Yes. And I like them. I've known them personally for a few months!"
"Another child of mine who lied to me!" Harry accidentally raised his voice before immediately regretting it. He didn't mean to raise his voice, he was just hurt. But that was no excuse.
"Harry! Albus and Lily have always been close. Do you seriously think Albus won't tell Lily?" Ginny crossed her arms.
"Stop now! Immediately! We're going to have a great holiday. The others are here now, there's nothing we can do about it. But we shouldn't argue either. Can we please try to behave like decent people?" Ted had his hands on his hips and a stern look on his face.
"We'll try."
♡
Ginny and Albus were alone in the kitchen, everyone else was still in the garden. Ginny wanted to make drinks - but in a Muggle way.
"I hope Grandma didn't make you angry," said Ginny, a hint of anger in her sentence.
After a moment, Albus shook his head. "No, it's fine. It was just unnecessary and unpleasant. And the argument afterwards..."
Ginny nodded immediately. "Completely unnecessary. But it's time for the others to behave," she explained and fetched glasses. "Do you think I can manage the drinks?"
Albus looked at the scenario, then began to smile. "You sure can."
"That's right. I can manage everything," Ginny said haughtily and threw her hair over her shoulder. Everything was quiet for a moment before Ginny and Albus started laughing.
"That was so arrogant," Albus replied and laughed again at the end, Ginny joined in before answering. "That was the plan too, my son."
After that everything calmed down again.
"Hey..."
Albus leaned on the counter and his gaze flew to his mother. "Yes?"
"If I go too far, please tell me," Ginny began and Albus nodded. "Do you like boys?"
Albus froze and goosebumps covered his body. His lungs filled with air, he could fall over on the spot.
After a short pause, his heart started beating again. At three times the speed.
Ginny put the glasses down and turned her body completely towards Albus.
He was at the end with his nerves. Should he finally tell the truth? Then it would be behind him.
But what if that triggered a bad reaction?
After a moment he made a decision.
And the only thing that gave him support in this decision was when he thought of Scorpius. The only one who would always stand by him.
"Yes, i do."