Scorpius didn’t write at all over the summer between their second and third year. His silence worried Albus, but then again they’d usually only exchanged one or two letters during the holiday and maybe he just didn’t want to talk. His mum hadn’t been all that great last he’d heard, and maybe his friend needed space, or something. Albus didn’t write either. He didn’t want to cross an invisible line. His father already didn’t approve of his friendship with Scorpius, and he didn’t think he could bear losing someone who was becoming almost more important to Albus than Harry was. He wondered if it was strange to think so much about a person he hadn’t spoken to for months, to lay awake at night as the clock chimed in his birthday hoping against hope that an owl would bring something from Scorpius by morning. But even if it was, Albus didn’t have it in him to stop.
On September 1st he was awake before dawn, fiddling with his wand and sitting on top of his trunk with his shoes on at the door when his mother came down for breakfast. She laughed when she saw him. “Someone’s ready to go back, yeah?”
“Yeah.” Albus kicked his heels into the side of his trunk, looking at the floor. His face felt warm, but he didn’t know why.
“Alright, well, did you eat?”
“Yeah.” Albus drummed his fingers up and down his wand. It was only just eight in the morning, and he wanted nothing more but to be sitting next to his best friend on the Hogwarts Express.
“Scorpius?” Albus called, peering into each compartment window as he passed by, dragging his trunk. The floor of the train car was starting to rumble beneath his feet, but it wasn’t nearly time to leave. The goodbyes had been especially drawn-out and teary this year because Lily was going with her older brothers, and Albus had slipped away at the nearest opportunity after a kiss from his mother, an awkward side-hug from his father that he half-heartedly attempted to resist, and lots of staring from the other students. But his heartbeat had slowed now, making his way to Scorpius and some semblance of a happy, free school year.
“Scorpius?” In the last compartment of the car Albus found him, staring out the window and not yet in his robes. Something was off today. Albus slid the door open and shuffled inside, yanking his trunk over the threshold with a dull thud. He could feel himself relaxing in Scorpius’s presence, sinking into the seat beside him. “Hey, Scorp, it’s me. Albus.”
Finally, he turned, smiling in a way that did not reach his eyes. “Hey, Al. It’s good to see you.”
Albus’s stomach flopped. There were dark shadows beneath his friend’s eyes and he looked thinner, even if his voice was as neutral and calm as it always was. “Scorp… a-are you okay?”
“What?”
“You… you just look… tired, is all. Did you sleep last night?”
“Oh, yeah, I slept fine.”
Comprehension was worming into Albus’s thoughts, and his stomach fell further. “Scorp… is… is your mum alright? Has… has it gotten any worse?”
Scorpius looked at his hands and gave a sort of bleated laugh. His voice was tight when he spoke next. “It’s gotten the worst it could possibly get, Al.”
She was dead. Albus felt goosebumps rising on his arms. “Scorpius… Scorp, I-I don’t know what to say, I’m… I’m so sorry.”
When he raised his eyes again they shone with tears, and not knowing what else to do Albus held his arms open. Scorpius nodded, or maybe shook his head, and Albus had barely any time to see his face start to twist before he’d thrown his arms around him, burying his face in Albus’s shirt. It felt a little like the air had been knocked out of his lungs. He could feel his face reddening and he thought that he’d never really hugged Scorpius before, but all those thoughts were pushed away when his best friend let out a sob, and Albus, without really thinking about it, tightened his arms around him and began to rub circles into the back of his neck. He also wanted to cry, but this wasn’t about him. This was about Scorpius, and Albus decided that now was the time to start acting on his promise. He would do anything for Scorp.
The two boys stayed like that until the trolley witch came by, at which point Albus put his lips nearly touching Scorpius’s ear and asked, “Do you want any sweets, Scorp?”
He’d nodded, and the motion pressed Albus’s mouth to the shell of his ear for a fraction of a second.
“Wh-which ones?”
“Pum’kin pasties ‘n’ choc’late frog.”
"M'kay." Albus relayed the message, stroking his shoulder as the witch deposited the candies on the empty seat. When the door was closed again, Scorpius sat up. Albus’s lap was almost cold without him.
His face was red and tear-stained, with the imprint of a wrinkle in Albus’s jeans across one cheek and his blond hair stuck flat to his face. Albus lifted a hand and gently tucked the section behind his ear again, letting his touch linger there for a moment over the blotched skin. “You okay?”
Scorpius nodded and used one sleeve of his oversized sweatshirt to wipe his eyes. The material looked rough, and Albus had a fleeting urge to wipe his tears away with his own thumbs instead.
“Yeah.”
“Feeling… any better?”
“Yeah,” Scorp reached for a chocolate frog and then met Albus’s gaze with a small smile. “I… it’s—yeah.”
“It’s what?”
“It…” His blotches were making it close to impossible to tell whether or not he was blushing. “It just always makes me feel a little better to be with you, Al.”
“Scorp?”
“What?”
“You know… you know it makes me feel better to be with you too, yeah?”
The smile reached his eyes this time. “Yeah.”
He settled himself back against Albus’s stomach and Albus let one hand rest across his chest, leaning into the corner. It didn’t take long for the two of them to fall asleep like that.