Brute.

"Have you heard of The Witch?" James asked the rest of the group, slouched down in his chair.

After the whole talking to Tom riddle incident, Albus had been awfully quiet. However, Rose, Scorpius, James and Teddy knew how to fill silence and so, Albus didn't find it necessary for him to speak. Sadly for James, his Knight had regular breaks and so he took that whilst they were in protection of Scorpius. They had started their training in the morning, and now it was an hour past noon. James was definitely better than Albus, and maybe if Albus' head wasn't a mess - James would've had a close competition with his brother.

"The Witch?" Rose probed, leaning forwards in James' direction, "There are many witches here, no?"

"Sure." James shrugged, "But The Witch is so much more, there are many folk tales about her from centuries ago."

Albus found himself not looking at the floor, but at his brother - who had gotten him intrigued with the topic. Rose was right, nearly every woman on this Kingdom was a witch. Why was this one labelled 'The Witch'?

"Then what makes her so special?" Surprisingly, it seemed like Teddy hadn't heard about this tale - which was shocking due to how much he already knew.

James smiled proudly at himself, standing up out of his chair and started pacing around the lounge room. He brushed himself off and cleared his throat.

"The Witch can tell anybody's future, it's said that she can always see her own future - she always knows what's coming. Many of these tales speak of her having a power like no other seen before, she can move things with her mind - manipulate any object at her own will.

At the Witch trials, it was proven that she had indeed existed. The King of that time tried to light her on fire, drown her, hang her, strangle her - any death you could think of, they tried it. She wouldn't die. Later on, The King was found dead with no evidence of murder and with no relatives the throne had gotten passed to a very loyal Knight. Rophior Potter."

"What a load of rubbish, James!" Rose bursted out laughing, "There's no possible way that anybody can see their own future!"

Albus rolled his eyes at Rose, slouching back into his chair.

"There's been people like that before, Your Grace." Scorpius perked up, smiling down at Rose - who's posture was brilliant considering everybody else around her was relaxing.

"He's right." James shrugged, jumping over the back of the chair to sit back down in it, "Dad told me that it could be a recessive gene passed down from one of the first wizards."

"Then who are the people you can name with this extreme witchcraft?" Rose had a knowing smirk on her face, she looked much like her mother.

"Tom Riddle, Salazar Slytherin, Godric Gryffindor. It's been debated if Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff also had this power." James quickly answered, swiftly raising his brows when he saw Rose's face drop.

"Tom Riddle is just intelligent, James." The girl scoffed.

"It happens to one wizard every.." James stayed silent for a moment, shrugging, "Fifty odd years? However, none of them we know of have reached their full potential. Only The Witch has ever done that."

"You think Tom will?" Albus queried, looking at his brothers face drop.

"Well-" James paused, looking between Scorpius and Teddy. Pleading for help.

"He won't." Rose smiled at her cousin, "The powers aren't real."

"The Witch is said to be on the island, Ro-"

"James!" Rose turned her head to James at a worryingly fast pace, widening her eyes at him to get him to stop going on about it, "Such nonsense isn't real."

"When you see her you'll think otherwise." James sarcastically smiled at his cousin, proud of himself.

"If I see her I'll give you my most prized possession." Rose returned the smile, tapping James' cheek.

"Nothing will beat Alice, have you met her?"

"Yes, James." Rose rolled her eyes, "She lives close by, genius."

Albus rolled his eyes at the two bickering, looking up at Scorpius. He was already looking at Albus. They made eye contact for a couple of seconds, before Scorpius softly smiled at Albus.

"What does she look like?" Albus turned to his brother again.

"Who?" James furrowed his brows, "Alice? You always see her?"

"The Witch, James." Albus spoke like it was an obvious answer.

"Oh?" James smirked, "You fancy her?"

"What?" Albus choked out, shocked at what his brother said with a laugh.

"You wanna kiss her on the lips?" James made kissing sounds, the rest of the group cringed, "You want her to fuc-"

"James Sirius!" Rose slapped his knee, cutting him off his next words.

Albus was bright red.

"Fine!" James laughed, looking at his annoyed brother, "She's got long brown hair, brown eyes, fair skin-"

"So she looks like every ordinary person?" Albus huffed, leaning his head back into the chair.

"She might have bright red eyes and blue hair like Teddy." James shrugged, ignoring the gasp coming from Teddy, "I'm sure if she really wanted to she could be noticed. Maybe she's watching you now and getting ready to seduce you, Al!"

"James!" Teddy slapped the boys head, "Al is just a kid he's not even ready to kiss let alone make love to someone!"

"Oh merlin.." Albus mumbled, covering his head with his hands.

"Me and Alice did that stuff when I was sixtee-"

"James!" Teddy slapped his head again.

Scorpius was smiling widely, watching Teddy and James with amusement. In the corner of his eye he could see an embarrassed Albus, who was covering his red face, and a shocked Rose.

"Sex is a normal thing and should be appreciated in life!" James clapped his hands together, rising up from his seat.

"Don't say that!" Albus too stood up, pacing around his chair.

"What? Sex?" James watched his brother nod, "Sex! Sex! Sex! Sex! Sex! Sex! Sex! Sex! Se-"

He was cut off by Rose shoving James back into his seat.

"Leave him alone, James." Rose slapped James around the face.

"Ow!" James held his cheek with his hand, looking at Scorpius, "He's laughing! He clearly is a man that knows about sex!"

"What!" Albus gripped his hair, looking between James and Scorpius, "Scorpius has definitely not!"

"I can assure you, he's had more action than you." James smirked, watching his brothers anger.

"And how would you know?"

"He's an attractive male, clearly the ladies love him."

Rose laughed at that, smiling widely.

"He's not had sex!"

Scorpius had his mouth dropped open.

"And how would you know? Do you two regularly talk about sex!"

"James!" Albus walked over to his brother, looking down at the older Prince who was slouched in his chair.

"Albus!"

"One time James and Alice got caught!" Albus shouted out, earning multiple laughs and gasps from the group.

It took no hesitation for James to shove his brother onto the ground, covering Albus' mouth.

"We didn't!"

Scorpius was finding this amusing, and he was going to let it go on before he looked at Rose. The girl nodded towards the two brothers battling on the floor, signalling for Scorpius to split them up.

"Alright." Scorpius walked over to the two, pulling James off Albus, "Give it a rest."

"I was winning!" Albus cried out a protest, shoving his brother one more time.

"You were on the floor, you weren't winning." Scorpius spoke in a calm tone, watching Albus closely.

"But-"

Scorpius covered Albus' mouth with his hand, smiling at the others.

"We're going to go outside and we'll be back shortly." Scorpius watched Rose smile gratefully.

Then, he dragged Albus out of the room.

Scorpius did keep his hand over Albus' mouth, and it was only when they reached the garden that Scorpius removed it.

"It's raining." Albus crossed his arms, hiding beneath the cover.

"Really?" Scorpius acted shocked, despite the loud patter of the rain hitting the floor, "Great observation, Your Grace."

"Shut up." Albus groaned, sitting on the bench underneath the roof.

“Can you fight?” Scorpius turned to Albus, who was slouching on his chair.

“Of course I can! Why would you ask that?” Albus shouted in his defence, ever so slightly raising up from his slouch.

“I don’t know…” Scorpius shrugged, his armour lightly clashing together, “It just seemed like you don’t know how, with all due respect.”

“That’s such lies.”

“You were on the floor attempting to fight your own brother, failing.” Scorpius had a smirk on his lips, “And your enemies won’t go that easy on you.”

“I have no enemies.”

“I could list many.”

“Sure you could.” Albus mockingly spoke, looking out to the garden.

“Get up.” Scorpius walked over to Albus.

Albus let out an offended gasp, “I beg your pardon? That is no way to speak to a Prince!”

“Like you ever cared about how I spoke to you.” Scorpius was still smirking, grabbing Albus’ wrist and yanking him up.

“I was comfy!” Albus pulled his wrist away from Scorpius’ hold, glaring up at the blond.

“Follow me.” Scorpius walked out into the rain, looking back at the Prince who remained stood.

“It’s raining!”

“A bit of rain isn’t going to kill you, Al.”

“I have to be presentable.” Albus watched the rain get heavier, almost banging on the floor.

“For who?” Scorpius tilted his head slightly to the side, raising a brow.

Albus shrugged, “I might need to go out.”

“Then you’ll get ready before you head out.” Scorpius nodded towards himself, “Come.”

Albus just let out a very deep sigh, shaking his head to himself as he found himself walking towards Scorpius. He had his hands over his head, attempting to prevent the rain from falling on his hair.

“Are we going to dance in the rain like the books?” Albus sarcastically spoke, his hands moving into crossed arms.

He was immediately soaked by the rain.

“No.” Scorpius raised the palms of his hands in the air, “Hit my hands.”

“What?”

“Like you’re going to punch someone in the face, pretend my hands are Rita.”

Albus let out a little laugh, looking between Scorpius and his palms that were rose in the air.

“You sure?”

“Yes, Al.” Scorpius watched Albus curl his hands into a fist. He cringed at the sight, “Stop!”

Albus looked up at Scorpius, he had put his hands down and into a fist too.

“Untuck your thumb, you’ll break it.” Scorpius showed Albus the correct way to get ready for a punch, the thumb laying on top of all the other fingers.

“Like this?”

“Go on.” Scorpius nodded, raising his palms in the air again.

“Now?” Albus questioned, furrowing his brows together.

“I said go, genius.”

Albus rolled his eyes, hitting Scorpius palms multiple times. There was nothing interesting to it, apart from the fact that Scorpius didn’t flinch once - or move his palms back.

Albus suddenly stopped, his arms crossing together again.

“I know how to throw a punch, Scorpius.” Albus was unimpressed with Scorpius and his expression showed it, “Besides, I have a wand.”

“And what if you lose your wand?” Scorpius swiftly replied, making Albus speechless for a second.

“I’ll use yours.”

“What if I’m not there?”

“I’ll use James’.”

“You won’t.”

“I’ll never be anywhere without any of you two, you guys practically stalk me the way it is.”

“Would you rather die or be watched all the time?”

“Hard question.” Albus shrugged, looking at Scorpius with a smirk, “I can put you on the floor, anyway.”

“Yeah? Do it.”

“I’m afraid not, you’d end up bruised.” Albus cockily smiled.

“I have armour on.”

“Not enough.”

“Do it.”

“No.”

“Why?”

“I already told you.”

“I don’t think you can do it.”

“Fine, suit yourself.” Albus stepped slightly back from the grinning Knight.

“It defeats the purpose when I’m expecting it.”

“Then walk around, pretend you’re not.”

Scorpius sighed, beginning to walk around the garden. He looked at the flowers planted by the many gardeners, how each individual flower had a unique colour. Purples, whites, blue, yellow, orange, red. Personally, Scorpius liked the purple ones crowded together, though he never knew the name of them. Astoria, his mother, used to plant them when he was younger. She loved to make such a depressing manor into something beautiful with little things like flowers.

Whilst Scorpius looked distracted, Albus decided. It was now or never, (he had never tackled anybody). He saw James do it plenty, mostly to himself, but he knew how to do it. The Prince moved closer to Scorpius as quietly as he could - he actually thanked the rain, otherwise he’d most likely be heard. He stepped one leg besides Scorpius and attempted to grab Scorpius’ shoulders.

He sort of did, but in that moment he cursed the rain. The ground beneath him was way too slippery, and for a clumsy person like Albus - he was bound to fall over.

“I’m slipping!” Albus shouted into Scorpius’ ear, still pushing down on his shoulders.

“Move your bloody foot back!” Scorpius shouted back, trying to get Albus off him.

Albus did move his foot back, but forgot to stop pushing down on Scorpius’ shoulders. And so, naturally, he fell to the ground and dragged his Knight down with him. With a thud, Albus landed on the mud beneath him.

With another grunt and a sound of pain, Scorpius landed on top of Albus.

“I think I’m dying!” Albus cried out, Scorpius let out a groan and immediately putting two hands besides Albus - lifting his body off him.

“You don’t know how to tackle people, do you?” Scorpius laughed, his blond, wet hair dangling from his face as he looked down at Albus.

“What?” Albus looked up at Scorpius, somehow caught off guard.

He was smiling, he wasn’t even mad. And that made Albus smile. In them few seconds of silence, Albus found out a lot about Scorpius. He found out that he had a few freckles on his pale face, and that his eyes were not only just blue. But his eyes were fire in water, if you can imagine such a thing. They were passion in ice. His eyes were a perfect spring sky, his mind clear and his smile warmer than the gentle sun. Scorpius had cheek bones, and a jawline sharp enough to slaughter anything in sight. His nose was defined, yet blended into the rest of his face perfectly. Albus could only stare at the face on top of him, smiling down at him - in awe. That’s what the Prince was in. Complete and utter awe at how somebody could be so handsome.

“I said you don’t really know how to tackle, do you?” Scorpius repeated, in a soft, almost hushed voice.

“I nearly got there.”

“You’re covered in mud.”

He was covered in beauty.

“I know.”

“You want to get up?”

“Not really.” Albus let out a little laugh, “This is quite comfortable.”