Garden Gnomes
Al hadn’t realized he fell asleep until his back happily reminded him he was back at Hogwarts. It was crazy what difference a fancy, likely rich, private school made when it came to mattresses and sheet quality. While most other pure-blooded Slytherins would scoff, Al enjoyed every little perk he could get out of being here.
As he blinked the sleep out of his eyes, the night before caught up with him. After Scorpius had given him a short debrief on this Harry Potter lad, Al was about at his limit on processing things. He must have fallen asleep shortly after.
Scorpius was nowhere to be found, which made Al question if anything that happened had even been real at all. He still felt like his head was spinning, though he felt slightly less like someone was playing a very cruel and very abstract practical joke on him.
Deciding there was nothing he could do about this maybe-dream, maybe-joke, maybe-murder plot as of right now, Al sat up, stretching out his limbs with sporadic pops. He slipped out of bed, feet hitting the cold tile. The sensation creeped up into his bones, and though everything else about this place may have been miserable, the living conditions were definitely nothing to scoff at.
All the other boys in the dorm had left, presumably for breakfast already. That left Al alone, just how he liked to be. He trudged over to the bathroom, letting the fresh summer air drift from the cracks in the wall to the deepest parts of his bones.
When he turned the corner, he was met face to face with one Scorpius Malfoy.
“It was real,” Al muttered, dimly aware of how starstruck he probably looked right now.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Scorpius replied with a laugh. He looked like he had been up for a while, all neatly put together. His hair was brushed, his uniform perfect. It made Al very aware of how messy he looked right now.
“So… uh. Mr Time Traveller,” Al started awkwardly. “What do you do now that I know I’m a dead wizard walking?”
“You're not– No, it’s not…” Scorpius stammered, panic rising.
“Sheesh, I was just tryna joke,” Al muttered, before retreating back from the bathroom. Today was just going to be a messy day, it seemed. “I just meant, what do you do now?”
Scorpius opened his mouth to reply, but before he could respond, Al flopped down on his bed once more, pulling the covers in around him like a cocoon.
“You’re so much like him…” Scorpius muttered, nearly inaudible.
“Like who?” Al asked back.
“Well, like… you , I guess. My you. My Albus,” Scorpius said, smiley fondly. Al can’t imagine anyones ever thought fondly of him.
“Right… the other version of me you know and love and probably can’t wait to get back to,” Al scoffed. He might share a name with this kid, but they both knew that Al would never be the right one.. “So why are you here with some weird copy of this kid who’s got a warrant out for their death?”
“I don’t know how to explain it all, mostly because I don’t even understand,” Scorpius said, fidgeting with his own fingers as he sat down on Al’s bed. “If I try to go back from here, it just takes me to this timeline’s future. I have to figure out how to get back to my own.”
“And you think ‘fixing’ this one will help?” Al asked, a little more genuine than before. Maybe he was a little harsh considering all Scorpius wanted was for him not to die.
“I dunno,” Scoropius admitted. “But if I’m here, I’m not letting you suffer. I don’t care if you decide you hate me or you don’t want my help. Any Albus is my Albus, and I will do anything to keep you safe.”
“You don’t know me,” Al warned, though he guessed that wasn’t exactly true.
“No,” Scorpius agreed, surprisingly. “I don’t know you. But I know versions of you. And I would get to know every version of you that ever existed if it meant being by your side.”
Al tried to say something, but the thoughts never quite made it to his tongue. No one had ever said anything like that about him. People rarely spoke to him in general. He was ignored on a good day and spat at on a bad day.
“So,” Al cleared his throat. “You never answered my question. What now?”
“Uh,” Scorpius so helpfully added.
“You didn’t think that far did you?”
“...No. No, I did not.”
“Unbelievable,” Al muttered, before sitting back up in his bed. He thought for a minute.
“Tell me about them,” He asked Scorpius suddenly.
“About who?”
“My family,” Al replied. “You said I had a family, right? Tell me about them.”
~~~
When Albus was two and three quarters, he was scared of gnomes. It was such a silly little thing, but they just petrified him. He would cry and cry every time Ginny took him out to the garden.
He used to point and babble nonsensically, more unintelligible than most toddlers. Something about faces and pointy teeth made for eating. Something only a two year old could come up with.
So he would stay away from the garden, as far away as he dared without letting his Mum out of his sight. Someone had to protect her in case the gnomes attacked. But who would protect Albus?
“Alby! Look! They aren’t that scary!” James cried, holding one of the cursed things in his hands.
Albus screamed and cried until his brother put the gnome down. No one ever knew what it was about the gnomes that made Albus cry, but after that summer, there were no more little creatures to be found in the Potter’s garden.
~~~
“...Albus! Can you hear me? Please, c’mon Al, just answer me,”
Al blinked, spots clearing from his vision. His head throbbed as dregs of what felt like a daydream blew away in the winds of his mind. The pieces scattered before he could grab hold of anything, leaving behind a hollow, empty pit where memories should be.
“Gnomes,” Albus whispered. It was so strange, to feel like years had passed yet nothing changed. He had moved and laughed and cried yet he was rooted into the same spot as he had been for the last hour.
“Oh thank heavens,” Scorpius cried, letting out a breath.
“...What?” Blearily, Al turned to face the other boy. His head was throbbing, why did it hurt so bad? Was it always that bad?
“We were talking, you remember that?” Scorpius asked. Al thought, hard enough it sent another wave of pain through his brain from his neck to his temples.
“Yeah, I think so,” Al said, licking his lips. His mouth was dry, he could really use some water or something.
“Well, you were fine one minute and the next you were just… gone,” Scorpius said. He may not know the older boy well, but he could hear the panic in his voice. The fear.
“Where did you go?” He asked.
And Al… didn’t really have an answer. The more he thought about it, the more his brain seemed to remove. The empty space got wider and wider until eventually there would be nothing left up there.
“Garden gnomes. I used to be afraid of garden gnomes,” Al said, wisps of red hair and sunny afternoons dancing behind his eyes.
“Yeah,” Scorpius said, his eyes, his face, his entire body, really, lighting up.
“I never mentioned it, but I remember that story,” Scorpius said. “James tried to make you less scared, but you only screamed. Your Mum told me about it once. They never bought another gnome after that. Hid all the rest in the garage. You grew out of it, of course, but still. No one could bear having gnomes in their garden after that. It was like an unspoken rule.”
“Huh,” Al said, mind reeling. He… remembered something. A fact, a random story from before. From a time in his life that maybe, just maybe he was loved. That maybe there were people out there, looking for him, loving him. His heart ached as heavily as his head.
“How did you know that?” Scorpius asked.
“I… I don’t know,” Al replied, genuinely. He really didn’t. The longer he thought about it, the more his head hurt. The further away the dreamlike memory faded away.
“Um,” Scorpius cleared his throat, breaking the silence that had fallen between the two of them. “Maybe we should take a break. Breakfast, maybe?”
“Oh,” Al said dumbly, mind drifting to Great Halls filled with jeers and laughs. “Yeah”
“I don’t know… I don’t know what this time travel thing has done to me or any other me in this timeline, but…”
“But it’s probably best if you stayed hidden,” Al agreed. He hated everything about this. “I’ll go grab us some food.”
~~~
Scorpius has never felt more awkward around Albus. And that’s including the brief period they were both crushing on each other in secret. This is worse than that. Something about this boy is so painfully familiar, yet so achingly distant that Scorpius can’t bear it.
This whole stupid timeline was a mess, and Scorpius had no clue how they’re going to fix it. How he’s going to fix it.
God, why did they get into these messes?
The answer was Albus, Scorpius thought sadly. It was always Albus. His Albus, who he wouldn’t change for the world. Who he’d love in every timeline.
Al, Albus, whatever it was, was grabbing them breakfast from the Great Hall. Scorpius didn’t know if there was another one of him just running around however they usually would in this timeline. He’d seen it though, in Albus’s eyes. The hesitation, the fear. He’d said something about it earlier too. The Slytherin Squib. In this timeline and every other, apparently.
Scorpius hated everything about this. While he waited for Albus to get back, Scorpius thought. He needed Albus to remember, remember his family, his life. Remember him. If it was in Scorpius, it had to be there in Albus too. Then maybe they could actually do something about Delphi.
Scorpius shuddered. That wasn’t something he wanted to think about now.
What could he use to jog Albus’s memories? Lily would be in her second year by now, right? And James, he would be in his sixth year by now. So, they were here. He couldn’t get ahold of Harry or Ginny, or his dad. That would draw too much attention.
But maybe… There’s one other place they could go that he’s sure this Albus has been to.
Scorpius pulled one of the empty journals from Albus’s things, throwing a silent apology to whoever would listen, and grabbed one of Albus’s quills. He wrote quickly, much messier than he usually would be. He had to get everything down before it slipped his mind.
The quicker they could figure all this out, the better. He had no idea when Delphi was coming. They needed to be ready as soon as possible.
“Hey,” Albus said, breaking him out of his train of thought. He had a plate of food, tucked slyly into his robes he had thrown on before leaving. There wasn’t much on there, barely enough for both of them to split.
“You take it,” Albus said, offering Scorpius the plate. His hands shook. If it was his Albus, Scorpius would say something. Would set the plate down and grab his hands until they stilled. But this wasn’t his Albus, and Scorpius had no clue what to do.
“Uhm,” Albus cleared his throat, his voice wavering. Something obviously happened on the way to or from the Great Hall. It hurt Scorpius’s heart that he couldn’t do anything to help.
“Sorry,” Scorpius said, grabbing the plate. “You need food too.”
“It’s fine. You eat,” Albus said simply, sitting down on the chest at the end of the bed.
The two sat in awkward silence, save for the soft crunch of the buttered toast Albus had brought. Silence between them should never be awkward.
God, Scorpius thought. He needed to stop. Stop comparing this Albus to his Albus. To stop getting lost in what used to be. It wasn’t going to help anybody.
“So, I had an idea on jogging your memory a little bit,” Scorpius started slowly.
“Right… that,” Albus replied warily.
“Well, uh,” Scorpius continued, trying to ignore the piercing stare he had once grown used to. “I thought maybe we could talk to your siblings. James and Lily. I figured they oughta know lots we don’t about the night you were taken and maybe hearing parts about it and parts of your childhood will help you remember and I figured–”
“No,” Albus cut Scorpius’s ramble off, shot down in no uncertain terms.
“No? What do you mean–”
“I mean no. James fucking Potter has made my life miserable since the day I stepped foot in this place. Talk to him all you want, but leave me out of that,” Albus scoffed. It was a quick shift, Scorpius noted. What had James done in this timeline?
“Okay,” Scorpius said, trying to dodge around another landmine of Albus’s emotions. “What about Lily then? She’s a second year in Gryffindor, right?”
“Lily Potter? She’s a Ravenclaw,” Albus said quizzically, his mood shift before gone.
“Huh,” Scorpius said. It made sense, but he never thought he’d see the day all three Potter’s were in different houses.
“Would you be willing to talk to her?” Scorpius asked.
“I guess so,” Albus shrugged. “But your leading this discussion. I still don’t know if I believe your whole ‘time traveler bit.’ If anyone is gonna get ridiculed here, it better not be me.”
“Yeah, okay,” Scorpius laughed, a real genuine laugh. “That’s fair.”