Never mind whatever Albus had thought about hugging Scorpius before, by October of third year they were sleeping in the same bed at least twice a week. At first Scorpius tried to conceal his nightmares, until one night halfway through September when Albus had gotten up to pee and heard him. It was getting colder and he was half asleep, hurrying across the carpet because he was loathe to leave his bed but also dreading setting foot on the freezing bathroom tile. He was hurrying even faster on the way back to his warm thick blankets, but a sound stopped him just before the curtains on the four poster. From his best friend’s bed came shuddered breathing, and then something like a muffled sob. Albus sank back onto his heels on the carpet and leaned a little closer to the thick green curtain. There it was again, a choking noise, a sharp inhale.
“Scorp?” Something rustled behind the curtain. “Scorp, are you awake?”
No answer. “Scorpius?”
There was definitely a sniffling sound at that. Something could be wrong, he might be, like, having a seizure or something in there. Albus slipped in between their beds and grabbed his wand from the bedside table, gripping it tightly and using his free hand to draw the curtain back. He could see a shape in the dark, but not much else. “Lumos.”
And then there was Scorpius, sitting curled with his comforter twisted and clenched in his hands. His face was blotchy red and there were tears sliding down his cheeks. The back of one of his hands was pressed to his mouth, but it wasn’t doing much to stifle his sobbing.
“Scorp, oh my god, are you okay?”
He was crying too hard to answer, and before he really knew what he was doing Albus had pushed himself onto the bed beside him and put his arms around Scorpius’s shoulders, rubbing them through the pajamas. “Hey, hey, Scorp… shh, it’s alright…”
He was trembling, and Albus pulled him closer. “M-my—my Mum, my Mum, I—”
“Oh, Scorp,” Albus let his own eyes fall shut for a moment, cradling Scorp’s head to his chest. It made him feel sick to think about what he was going through because he couldn’t imagine losing his mum, but this wasn’t about him. “Scorp, I-I’m so sorry, Scorp—”
“M-my mum—” A choked sob interrupted his words and he pressed himself closer to Albus’s chest. He was sucking in huge heaving breaths, shaking with the effort of stopping himself from crying.
“Hey, hey, Scorp, Scorp, listen,” Albus bent his head to speak in Scorpius’s ear, softly. “Hey, you… you can cry, yeah? It’s okay, I’m… I’m not going anywhere, yeah?”
His heart was pounding and he was starting to feel wildly out of his depth because his best friend seemed on the verge of a panic attack in his lap, trying to think of what he’d want if he was in Scorpius’s shoes. He’d want Scorpius to hold him, yes, and let him cry into his chest and comfort him. Albus didn’t think he’d ever want Scorp to let go. “It’s not… Scorp, hey, you don’t need to hold it in, alright? I’m here, Scor.”
That must’ve done something, because Scorpius turned to wrap his arms around Albus’s chest. Albus scooched back to lean against the headboard of the bed to let Scorp curl into him and when he did he brought the comforter with him, letting the tears fall freely now as he clung to Albus. He helped to wrap it around his thin shoulders so Scorpius pulled his arms back and allowed himself to be bundled into the thick blanket. Albus sat back against the headboard and wrapped his arms around his friend’s huddled body, rocking slightly. He pressed in as close as he could get and tried with all his might to show Scorp that he was here, that he wasn’t going to let go, that he wasn’t going to leave him, not now and not ever. There they sat for what could have been hours or days until Scorpius had stopped trembling and his breathing was slower than Albus’s heartbeat. After a while, he sat up. The red was fading from his tear-stained face.
“You okay?”
“Y-yeah.” The dark bags beneath his eyes were becoming prominent again.
“Wanna go back to sleep?”
“Y-yeah, I mean—”
“D’you want me to stay, Scorp?”
His gray eyes widened a little, pupils going big for just a moment. “I mean, you… you can, but you… you don’t have to.”
“Scor?”
“Yeah?”
“How—when was the last time that you… the last time you slept well?”
Scorpius shrugged, looking down at his hands. “I… I dunno, really. It’s been… it’s been a while, I guess.”
“Do you think you’d sleep better if I stayed?” Albus could feel his face warming at the idea, but he didn’t think he’d asked a more earnest question in a long time.
Scorpius blushed, eyes flicking back up to meet Albus’s. For a moment neither of them said anything. “Yeah.”
“Ok, good.” And as if his heart rate hadn’t just skyrocketed ridiculously Albus leaned off the bed to reach through the curtain and deposit his wand on the bedstand, a whisper of nox shrouding the two of them in darkness once more. Scorpius scooched to one side of the little bed and Albus lay down beside him, pulling the covers over them both. He could feel his best friend’s body heat and warm breath against his shoulder in the small space.
“Goodnight, Al.”
“‘Night, Scorp.”
“Albus?”
“Mm?”
“Thank you.”
“Of course, Scor. I… anytime, okay? I’ll always be here, yeah?” There were things that Albus for some reason found easier to say when the lights were out. He could hear Scorpius smiling at him in the dark.
“Okay.”