“Albus?” Scorpius said, crawling into the other boy’s bed and sitting at the edge of it. “Can we talk? Please?”
“Rather not.” Albus replied, burying his head into his pillow and groaning. He honestly felt like screaming and cursing, but ultimately he decided it was best not to do that in a room full of still sleeping teenage boys. “There’s nothing to talk about anyway.”
“Albus…” Scorpius started. Albus rolled over onto his back but took his pillow with him, keeping his face stuffed in it. “Do you remember anything from last night, at all?”
He did. He remembered drinking way too much firewhisky and getting sick on Alan Farley’s shoes, among other things he’d rather not talk or even think about.
“No, nothing.” Albus lied, wishing he would’ve just went straight to bed last night. There was a party after Slytherin won the most recent quidditch match, and one of the 7th years snuck a few bottles into the common room to celebrate. Albus didn’t really want to go, and probably would’ve just stayed in the boys dormitory if Scorpius hadn’t been Seeker for the team. Albus was on the team, too, he just didn’t particularly care about socializing and partying. “Can you leave me alone now? It’s too early for this.”
“Clearly you remember something if you’re acting this way,” Scorpius said, crawling up the bed to sit next to Albus. “I really think we should talk about this.”
Albus removed the pillow from his face and regretted it instantly. Scorpius was looking at him so softly with those shimmery silver eyes, Albus just knew that he would give in if he let himself get lost in them.
“I already told you, nothing to talk about.” Albus replied as he sat up and swiftly hopped out of bed, avoiding all eye contact. “I’ll see you later.” And with that, Albus left Scorpius sitting by himself, alone and dejected.
Albus got ready for the day in silence, and it almost felt wrong. Scorpius had always been there with him in the mornings, pretty much every day since the day they met. He would talk Albus’s ear off about any random thing he found interesting or whatever book he’d stayed up far too late reading the night before. Albus liked it though, all of it, even when Scorpius was harassing him about studying or assignments. He really liked listening to his best friend talk, especially when he was passionate about something.
When he arrived at the Great Hall, he decided to sit alone at the end of the table instead of in their usual spot. Scorpius was nowhere to be found, but Albus assumed he’d probably show up later. A decent while later, he hoped.
“Albus!” Rose shouted. And before he even had time to turn around, she’d already appeared in the seat next to him. “Congrats on the win last night. Where’s Scorpius?”
“Since when have you cared about Scorpius?” Albus scowled, turning away from her.
“Hey, I care!” Rose said defensively. “Why isn’t he with you? You’re always together.” Albus didn’t reply. His eyes were fixed to his plate as he shoveled his food around with his fork.
“Hey!” He shouted as Rose pulled the fork from his left hand.
“Don’t ignore me, Albus. Has something happened?” She asked seriously. Her expression softened and her voice went quiet. “Is this about what happened last night?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Everyone knows, Albus,” Rose said, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Nobody here can keep their mouth shut about anything, you know that.”
Albus sighed and buried his head in his hands, desperately wishing he could disappear. He wanted to just get up and walk away, but for some reason he was frozen in place. “Whatever. It doesn’t matter.” He finally responded.
“Clearly it matters, or you would be having breakfast with Scorpius right now.” Rose said, somewhat mockingly. “Why don’t you just talk to him?”
“Why should I? So he can reject me? I don’t think I could ever get over it and I’d much rather pretend nothing happened.” Albus responded lowly.
“Right… what makes you think that he doesn’t feel the same about you? Everyone knows it, it’s obvious by the way he looks at you,” Rose said, matter of factly. “And I’m sure he’d tell you that himself if you’d just talk to him, Albus.”
Albus sighed and looked down at his plate. His food had been completely massacred by his anxious poking and prodding. Whatever, he wasn’t even hungry.
—
When Albus returned to the dormitory, Scorpius was still in Albus’ bed. Except now he was lying down, his arms folded across his chest and his eyes firmly closed. Albus made his way over and tapped lightly on Scorpius’ shoulder.
“Sorry for being an idiot,” Albus said as he smiled down at Scorpius. “Mind if I join you in your sulking?”
“I’m hardly sulking. You’re the one who’s been sulking.” Scorpius said quickly, then stopped for a moment and looked to Albus. “Okay, I guess I’ve been sulking. Come here.” He said with a smile as he patted the empty spot on the bed next to him.
“I shouldn’t have stormed off this morning,” Albus said as he lowered himself onto the bed. “I know it was stupid, I should’ve just talked to you- even if it would’ve sucked.”
Albus was laying next to Scorpius now and was visibly shaken with nerves, he was trying so hard to think of what it was he wanted to say. He wondered how he could just make everything go back to the way it was, how he could make that horrible sinking feeling in his chest disappear.
“It wouldn’t have sucked that much. I like you too, Albus,” Scorpius said as he turned to the raven haired boy. Albus didn’t move.
“And I should’ve just said that earlier. I should’ve told you last night, and I should’ve kissed you back but I was scared. I’m still scared. I thought maybe you were too drunk and you didn’t know what you were doing, that’s why I didn’t. I don’t know, maybe I should’ve done things differently, too bad we don’t have that time-turner anymore, huh? Could we please just try it again?” Scorpius said, bouncing his foot nervously.
“I-if that’s what you want, I mean. Maybe I’ve gotten all of this completely wrong and you were avoiding me because you regret it and you hate me now,” Albus was still quiet, and Scorpius was quite visibly becoming more and more nervous with each passing second. “Albus? Please say something.”
“You say entirely too much sometimes, you know that, right? I love it.” Albus said as he leaned in to kiss a flustered and blushing Scorpius. Albus felt his friends’ once tense body relax instantly, and he couldn’t keep his lips from curling into a smile after each slow peck. Despite being surrounded by magic for as long as he could remember, Albus still felt like this was the most magical moment in his entire life.
“I can’t quite believe we did that,” Albus said, almost breathless.
“I can’t quite believe we did that either.” Scorpius beamed, before leaning in to kiss Albus again.