"Albus? You're okay. That's fantastic."

Scorpius was so worried, when he and Albus came back and Albus started yelling, all he could do was stand there. Then suddenly his parents and Scorpius father appeared. Albus lost consciousness because of the pain in his arm.

But he is fine now and that is everything that matters for Scorpius at the moment.

"He's completely cured. And we have to go."

Scorpius always knew that Albus' father did not like him, but he thought he would just ignore him as always instead of being that rude. Scorpius' and Albus' eyes meet and Albus looks so sad. But he keeps walking.

"Are you mad at me? What's going on?"

Then Albus stops and turns around still with that sad look on his face.

"Did it work? Did any of it work?"

Why is he asking that now? Why is he looking so sad? Scorpius does not know what to say.

"No...but, Albus-"

Harry interrupts them, "Albus. Whatever gibberish you're talking, you need to stop it, now. This is your final warning."

Albus stares at him and then at his best friend again, he looks like something is tearing him apart.

"I can't, okay?"

„You can't what?", He looks at his father again and then back to Scorpius, „Just- we'll be better off without each other, okay?"

Why would he say something like that? Scorpius wants to ask him but his best friend turns around and follows his father, who is leaving the room. Scorpius eyes tear up and he has to sit down. He always thought they were friends, why did he say that? Could he maybe be angry with Scorpius because he got hurt and Scorpius did not? Normally Albus would not mind and he would not think about it but today he is acting so different, that everything could be possible. Harry was angry, too and Scorpius reckons it is because Harry believes that Scorpius is responsible for Albus' injury. Half the wizarding world thinks that Scorpius Malfoy is Voldemort's son, it would be rational for Voldemort's son to hurt Harry Potter's son. How is Albus going to avoid him? After all they still are in the same house and he is still sleeping in the bed next to his. When he turned away he looked so unhappy, Scorpius never wants to see that look on the face of his best friend again.

After what feels like an hour the blonde boy stands up and goes to the Slytherin common room. Albus has to get there, if he wants to sleep or get his things. But when he arrives is Albus not there and when Sorpius asks someone who is standing nearby, the person looks at him bewildered

"Albus Potter, has never been a Slytherin, every Potter is in Gryffindor. Why would he be any different?"

Then he turns around and leaves. At first Scorpius does not understand, Albus has always been with him, they slept in the beds next to each other since they started school. Even if he did not want to talk to his friend, he cannot simply change houses. This is not how the sorting hat works, no one has ever changed houses.

Unless..., no that could not be. As fast as he can, Scorpius runs upstairs and there it is, the one thing he was afraid of. Albus' bed is gone, as if he had never been here at all. The second time this day he has to sit down. When they traveled back in time and tried to safe Cedric Diggory they somehow changed the presence. In this alternate universe, Albus was never in Slytherin. Just as every Potter, he is now a Gryffindor. Scorpius reaches into his pocket and takes the Time-Turner in his left hand, what should he do with it? Suddenly he has a plan and jumps up.

The most important thing now is that he finds Albus, but how should he do that? Albus' father took him away and he brought his son to the Gryffindor tower, where else would he be? Scorpius does not exactly know where the Gryffindor tower is but it cannot be that hard to find and when he is there all he has to do is wait for Albus to come out. Then the both of them can talk and they can think about what to do next. Scorpius cannot keep the Time-Turner forever, one day someone is going to notice that it is missing. Albus has to help him bring it back somehow. They stole it together and they will bring it to Hermione's office together. At least that is what Scorpius thinks is what going to happen. So he stands up and leaves the room.

Twenty minutes later he stands in front of a portrait and waits, while the woman in the painting keeps talking to him. Obviously he has been here more than once, because she seems to think that they are friends or something. But she would not let him in unless he has the password which the boy obviously does not.

Finding the entrance was not that hard, all he had to do was go to the dinning hall, wait for a Gryffindor student and then follow him. The hardest part of the plan is to stand here and wait for Albus to leave the room just so that they can talk.

From time to time someone walks past the Slytherin student and he has to hide behind a corner. Some time Albus has to come out of there, because he will have to eat and then Scorpius is going to explain everything to the other boy and tell him that he is sorry. Even if Albus does not want to be friends with him anymore, he has to help bring the Time-Turner back. It is his fault that Scorpius has it.

Because he is so caught up in his thoughts Scorpius does not notice Professor McGonagall, who is now standing directly in front of him, looking very angry and holding a piece of paper in her right hand.

„Aren't you supposed to be somewhere else, Mr Malfoy? As far as I'm concerned you're still a Slytherin."

Speechless Scorpius nods and turns around to make his way back to his own common room. Maybe he will see Albus at dinner and have a chance of talking to him there. He cannot always hide from him.

Albus was not in the great hall or at least Scorpius did not see him, even though he spent two and a half hours there, always coming up with a new excuse why he still sat there. Professor McGonagall passed the boy twice.

Scorpius does not know what to do, he spent all his days at Hogwarts with Albus and suddenly he is not there anymore. He tries to read a book but he cannot concentrate on what he is reading because his thoughts always wander off.

Obviously Albus does not want to see him, probably because Albus thinks that it was Scorpius fault that he was hurt while trying to save Cedric. Scorpius never understood where his friends sudden passion for Harry Potter's past came from but he always thought it was something good. Maybe that was Albus' first step to talk to his father again. Scorpius never thought this would mean for them that they were not friends anymore.

But the fact that Albus is a Gryffindor now made it easy for him to end their friendship without actually talking to his friend and explain to him, why. Before all of this happened they hoped that they would be friends forever and Scorpius believed that Albus never thought the rumours about his friend being Voldemort's son were true. The strange thing that made him a Gryffindor must have changed that, too.

Scorpius tries to remember which classes the Slytherins and the Gryffindors have together but the only one he can think of is potions and he cannot speak to Albus during mixing a potion and trying not to let it explode. The other boy definitely will sit somewhere else, not near Scorpius like he used to. Scorpius does not think that he will be able to walk around and just abandon his cauldron.

No, Scorpius cannot talk to his friend during potions, maybe he has to wait for him in the corridors. Somewhere where Albus will definitely pass trough. In front of the Gryffindor common room did not work and doing the same thing again is just stupid. If McGonagall sees him there again she is probably going to give him detentions. He never had detentions before and he does not want to start now.

Scorpius still could just be overreacting because he was so worried and now he has not seen Albus because he is not a Slytherin anymore. It still could be possible that the dark hared boy was not in the great hall and that he did not leave the Gryffindor tower because he was just tired or that they did not see each other. Now Scorpius is in his room in the Slytherin dungeon and Albus cannot come in because he does not know the password. They changed it after the two of them came back or maybe they did not and it is part of this the present is changed thing. It is giving Scorpius a headache to think about it for too long.

Tomorrow Albus will talk to him and everything will be like it was. Albus will explain to him how that was all just a huge misunderstanding and nothing more. All Scorpius has to do is go to sleep and when he wakes up everything will be back to normal.

But if he truly believed that, why is he not able do go to sleep? Every time Scorpius closes his eyes he sees Albus' face when he left the nursery and followed his father, he looked so miserable and lonely, in that moment all Scorpius wanted to do was take him and leave with him. They could go to America or Australia, Scorpius does not really care, the important thing is to be away from here. When he was younger he spent a lot of time thinking about leaving and never coming back. He wanted to go to a place where nobody knew who he was. Somewhere where he could leave the house without people staring at him and whispering behind his back about him. These people seem to believe that Scorpius would not notice the looks on their faces whenever he passes by. When he met Albus and they became friends he stopped imagining a future without people knowing his name but now that he is alone again. He cannot get these thoughts out of his head.

When Scorpius wakes up the next morning, he automatically turns around to check if Albus is already awake but he has to stop himself after he realised that Albus is not here. That is a terrible start for a day and Scorpius does not really want to get out of bed. But then he remembers his new plan for today and stands up abruptly. He has to be in the great hall before Albus has a chance to eat breakfast and then disappear again.

In all his life Scorpius has never dressed up that fast, not even when he was younger. When the Slytherin student runs into the great hall he realises that he is the first one there and just sits down at the Slytherin table, completely alone. At least the food is already there and so Scorpius starts eating because he does not know what else to do. Suddenly he hears footsteps and when he looks up he sees Albus standing in the door, staring at him, then he turns around and leaves. Scorpius stands up and runs after him, normally Albus would have been faster than his friend but Scorpius wants to have answers and he is not going to give up.

Albus stops in a dark corridor what gives the other boy time to catch up with him.

"Albus, what happened? Why are you avoiding me?"

Albus looks at his friend and then shakes his head. That is all he does, looking at Scorpius and shaking his head.

„I thought we were friends, why are you doing this?"

But Albus remains silent. Suddenly Professor McGonagall appears.

"Mr Potter, Mr Malfoy, don't you have somewhere else to be?"

Albus shifts uncomfortably and finally says.

"Yes, Professor."

Then he turns around and leaves. She looks at Scorpius and all he can do is leave, too.

All the time Albus did not say a word, the only one who spoke was Scorpius. If Professor McGonagall had not turned up this would have been just him, talking to himelf.

Anyway, why does she keep appearing every time Scorpius wants to talk to Albus? How does she know and why does she care? Everything is so confusing since they came back and Scorpius does not know what happened to make it that way.

Still disappointed from his attempt to talk to his former best friend again, Scorpius turns around and makes his way to his first lesson, Defence against the Dark Arts. But when he arrives there, another surprise is waiting for him: the teacher is Hermione Granger. Scorpius first reaction is confusion, again, but he catches himself. This obviously is another part of the the-present-is-changed-incident. If she is a teacher, could it be that she and Ron are not married, that would explain why Scorpius has not seen Rose, yet. The boy has spent his last one and a half days watching the Gryffindors, but the fact that Rose is gone is the least of his problems. In fact he is not even that sad. Every time Scorpius talked to her she was either mean to him or ignored him completely. Maybe because she believes that he is evil and wants to destroy the world.

But right now nothing could be worse than being without Albus. He was Scorpius' best friend and maybe, if he thinks about it, Albus was even something more. Now that he has time Scorpius slowly realises that he somehow fell in love with Albus Not that it mattered now anyway, the other boy does not want to see him again. But it is a beautiful feeling to admit it, Scorpius never thought about it when Albus was always there for him but now when he left and Scorpius experienced a life without him, he wants to have his friend back. Albus does not feel the same way, that is clear, otherwise he would not act the way he does right now. Scorpius just wishes that he had known earlier, then he could have told Albus. Instead he always talked about Rose, as if she ever looked at him properly.

When the last lesson of today ends Scorpius quietly walks back to the Slytherin dungeon. If only his mum was still alive, she could help him and give him some advice. Wait, the universe is changed, if you want to look at it that way, could it be that his mother is still alive? He has to find out but how should he do that? He cannot just send a letter and ask. The only way to do this is to write to his dad about something and then wait for the response. Or he could try to get this out of someone, but he never really made friends with anyone besides Albus. It would be weird to come up to someone he has barely spoken to and talk to them about his mother just to see their reactions. But on the other hand, he does not really have a reason to write to his father. Everything would be easier if he just had made other friends besides Albus. The boy seems to be his main problem.

If Scorpius only knew why Albus did not talk to him anymore he could apologize or try to make it right. Or if that was not possible he would have liked to have the chance to tell Albus how he feels about him. Albus would reject him because he is not gay but he already ended their friendship and does not talk to Scorpius anymore so he cannot do anything worse than that. After Scorpius told Albus that he loves him, his friend can go and admire Delphi all the time Scorpius is not going to bother the two of them anymore. Still sad the blonde boy goes to sleep. Before he starts dreaming he decides to write to his dad tomorrow.

After Scorpius ate lunch he wants to go to his room to start writing but then he sees Albus step up the stairs and he follows him. Scorpius wants to try to talk to his friend once more. Even if Albus does not want to see him Scorpius will talk to him. When Scorpius stands on the foot of the stairs he realises that Albus is not here. He must have mistaken someone else for him.

Suddenly Scorpius feels like he cannot do this anymore and he just sits down on the stairs. He is so lonely he never thought anyone could feel like this. When he was younger, before he went to Hogwarts he did not have any friends because everyone was afraid of him. Then everything changed when he received his letter and met Albus on the train. From that day on Scorpius never was lonely again until the last two days and after he felt friendship it has become worse to be alone. Madame Hooch comes up the stairs and when she sees Scorpius she makes a gesture that clearly means he has to move. So he gets up, wipes his eyes and continues walking.

In his room he gets out a paper, a quill and ink. Then he starts to write:

Dear Dad,

How are you doing? My school marks are okay. They are not that bad but they could be better, I guess. The weather is fine for September but you have the same weather so you already know how it is.

I write to you because I do not know who else to talk to. After our adventure of leaving the Hogwarts express Albus stopped talking to me at all. After he came out of the nursery he went with the Gryffindors and he has not tried to meet me again. He ignores me completely and even when I try to talk to him he just looks at me and then turns around. If I only knew why, but it just happened. One day he was my best friend and wanted to run away with me and the next day he avoids me completely. I know you do not like our friendship because he is Harry Potter's son but he is also my best friend. And beside him I never made friends with anyone, you know that.

I feel like no one is there for me. When he was with me I could ignore all the whispers behind my back because I knew that he would be there for me and support me. But now I do not have anyone. To be honest, I do not know how to react to all that. I know that you cannot do anything about this but could you please give me some advice?

Sometimes I even feel like the teachers are after me. Every time I see Albus, Professor McGonagall is there, too and sends us in opposite directions. She always appears even when it is not the way she is going and I start to feel haunted by her. I do not know why she would do that I mean it is nothing of her concern to worry about the friendships of her students. And even if it is, she let Albus and me be friends before all of this happened so why suddenly change that? We were best friends and it is not as if I had a bad influence on him.

Do I have a bad influence on him? Please give me some advice, I do not know how to survive the rest of the school year if I do not have someone to talk to. I am sorry for running away and worrying you but I really thought I could start completely new and now everything I got is loneliness and sadness.

At this point Scorpius has to stop for a second because otherwise a tear would drop on the paper.

I really hope that things change around here but enough about me what about you? How is everything at home? Tell me what is happening in your live I have not heard many things lately because I was too busy with my own problems. I forgot that you have problems, too. At least I think so, everyone has problems right? So tell me about yours and how it is going at home.

Write back soon.

Yours,

Scorpius.

After he finished he reads the letter again, decides that it is okay the way it is and gets out of the Slytherin common room to go to the owlery. Hopefully no one is there, Scorpius hates to meet other people when he is alone. He walks up the same stairs he had his breakdown on earlier and then continues walking. The next staircase moves after he stepped on it and it meets another staircase with another person on it. Scorpius looks up. It is Albus. They both look at each other and Scorpius waits for a reaction, any sign that Albus recognises him at all. And for a moment he thinks that the other one is about to say something. Scorpius missed his voice so much he would do anything to hear it again. Just one time. Instead Albus looks away. The staircases start to move again and all Scorpius can do is to stand there and look after the other boy, heartbroken.

When he arrives at the owlery all he can do for a moment is stand there and look at the birds. Scorpius wishes he was one of them, he could just fly away. Leave Albus and Hogwarts and Time-Turner behind. Who needs magic if he has real wings?

Finally Scorpius remembers the reason why he came here and takes out the letter. Then he ties it to an owl and it flies away. Still sad he looks after it. He does not want to go downstairs. He would have to face all these people and they will look at him or ignore him. They always did, everywhere he went. All because of these stupid rumors that he is Voldemort's son.

Why would they even think something like that? It is not as if he never hurt anyone. Scorpius has always been nice and polite in his entire life but everything he got was prejudice and hate. Albus left him for some reason that he could not explain and now he is alone and has no one to talk to except for his father. It is so unfair the world never treated Scorpius the way he deserves. Anyone he met either believes that he is evil or abandons him at some point in his life. Just as his mother and now Albus, too. Why are they all so mean to him? Why are they not able to see the good in him just as his father or Albus? And why is Albus avoiding him? No one is giving him any helpful answers and Professor McGonagall who seems to follow him around the castle surely has something better to do. But they all had to team up and try to make his life as miserable as possible.

Suddenly Scorpius' body is filled with rage and before he can think about it he punches the wall next to him. A sudden pain in his knuckles brings him back to his senses. It hurts, it hurts so much. He cannot breathe because of the pain. In books it never hurt when someone did that. Scorpius looks at his hand and he sees that it is bleeding. It is bleeding! His hand is bleeding! What should he do? What should he do in a situation like this? Scorpius begins to panic and looks around for help until he realises that he is surrounded only by owls. They are not going to help him in any way. Hopefully his knuckles are not broken because otherwise he would not know how to explain that to Madam Pomfrey or how to hide that during class. But when he examines them closer he notices that they seem not to be broken and he has just damaged the skin above his knuckles. All he has to do is wear a bandage for a week or something like that.

When Scorpius finally leaves the owlery it is time for dinner and he goes to the great hall. Even though he is not hungry he goes there because he knows that he has to eat and because he can see Albus again. But Albus is not even there and Scorpius just sits down staring at his food and not looking up for twenty minutes before he leaves. All this time he has to hide his hand so that no one notices the blood that soaked a little bit through the fabric he put around his knuckles.

This evening he lies in bed and tries to sleep but he cannot because of the pain in his hand and his thoughts wandering off to Albus.

Frustrated Scorpius turns around but then he realises that now he is looking and the space where Albus bed used to be. Suddenly Scorpius eyes start to tear up and before he can help it he starts to cry. All he ever wanted was to be accepted and not be lonely anymore. And when he went to school he became best friends with Albus and later Scorpius even started to feel something more than that for Albus. But now he has to see his friend avoid him every time he meets Scorpius. Albus is not even able to look him in the eyes anymore. Instead the other boy just runs away. The thought of Albus is making Scorpius sad and angry at the same time. He turns to lie on his back and stare at the ceiling above him while trying to get rid of these stupid tears.

He decides that he is not going to spend the rest of the year crying and being sad because Albus Potter does not want to be friends with him anymore. Tomorrow he will stand up and go and have breakfast and then try to speak to the other people who are in Slytherin. They have known him for four years. It cannot be that hard to make friends with them. But why is he still crying? Scorpius does not want to be forced to be friends with someone he does not even know very well. He has a friend or at least he had one and he is not going to give that up.

It simply does not feel right it feels wrong. Very wrong. The end of the world wrong. Maybe not that bad but still it is bad. He tries to imagine what a future without Albus being his friend looks like but Scorpius starts to cry and he cannot stop until he finally falls asleep.

The next days are all the same. He wakes up, eats something and tries not to look to the Gryffindor table. Then Scorpius goes to the lessons and after that he visits the library or goes to the Slytherin dormitory and does his homework. After this he reads a book because he does not know what else to do.

It is another morning and Scorpius sits alone at breakfast when suddenly an owl arrives. He did not expect this to happen, his father only writes to him on weekends because he has to work and Scorpius does not have anyone else who would write to him. Still confused he takes the letter and opens it. The handwriting is familiar and Scorpius almost chokes on his food when he recognises it. The letter is from Albus! When he looks up he sees Albus sitting at the Gryffindor table, staring at him. Their eyes meet and the other one looks away. Scorpius does not feel like he can open the letter right now. So he stands up and leaves the great hall.

Back in the Slytherin common room Scorpius sits down.

Dear Scorpius,

I know that you have to be angry with me and I want to explain everything to you but I cannot do that just so easily because of the reason I was ignoring you in the first place. Even writing to you is a risk because someone could read it, too. But here I sit writing to you because I can't spend another day without seeing you.

At this point Scorpius' heart does a little jump. Maybe Albus feels the same for him. Or did Albus just mean it as they are friends? And what does he mean by someone could read the letter? Why would anyone care about Albus and him? Scorpius does not understand anything.

So I decided to meet you. What do you think about Saturday? We can meet at the lake and talk there. I am going to bring my father's invisibility cloak and we can hide under it so no one will be able to see us.

Now Scorpius is entirely confused. He does not understand why they have to hide from anyone. Why is Albus so paranoid? Or has he been right and Professor McGonagall has followed Scorpius or Albus and tried to stop them from meeting? Obviously it has to be that way otherwise he cannot explain her and Albus' strange behaviour.

It is best if you do not try to contact me to give me an answer just be at the lake on Saturday, Ok? I will be there and I really hope you will come, too.

Albus.

Scorpius does not know whether he should go or not. For so many days he has tried to talk to Albus and get an explanation and he has just been rejected. What if that is just a cruel joke made by someone? But now is his chance to see Albus again and the temptation of talking to him again is too big. So Scorpius decides to go there. If this turns out to be joke he is still going to be able to go. It does not necessarily mean that he will speak to Albus.

Saturday feels so far all of a sudden. It just is Wednesday and there are two whole days until then. It feels like an infinity when Scorpius thinks about all the classes he has to go trough. But after all he has waited long enough. Two more days are not going to kill him. And he has something to look forwards to.

Finally it is Saturday morning and Scorpius stands up way too early just because he cannot sleep or lie in bed anymore. He just feels like he has to do something. So he gets up, dresses himself and goes to the great hall to have breakfast. When he arrives there he is almost the only one, not even the teachers are there and only five students sit at the tables and eat. Quietly he goes to his table and sits down.

After he finished his toast Scorpius practically runs out of the castle. Then he stops for a minute. He has not been out in a while and it became colder while Scorpius spent his life inside. Then he turns to the lake to sit there and wait for Albus. This morning Scorpius was so nervous he tried to put his jumper on his feet and it took him five minutes to realise that his socks were somewhere else. Luckily no one saw that happening. This would have been the most embarrassing moment of his life.

Half an hour later Scorpius sees a figure walking towards him across the grass. It is Albus! Scorpius quickly rises. When Albus reaches him they both look at each other until Albus finally says: "Hi,"

Suddenly feeling a bit shy Scorpius answers "Hi,"

Then there is silence again.

"What did you want to tell to me about?" Scorpius ask his friend because he was the one who wanted him to come here in the first place.

"Scorpius, I ….., I am so sorry... you know for ignoring you and everything. ….I didn't want to...but I had to. If that makes sense."

All Scorpius can do is just shake his head. "No, not really."

"It is difficult to explain. My father... he thinks that you are putting me at risk. So he decided... that it would be better if we were not friends anymore."

"But how does he control if we are together or not?"

Albus starts to answer but stops and looks over Scorpius' shoulder. When Scorpius turns around he sees Professor McGonagall walking towards them. He turns back to Albus just in time to see him get out the invisibility cloak and pull it over both of their heads.

"Albus, what are you..."

"Ssh"

So they just stand there perfectly still and wait. Scorpius does not know what they are waiting for but Professor McGonagall stops and then leaves again. Albus waits for ten seconds and then puts the cloak down again.

"My father gave her the Marauder's map so she can use it to see whether we are in the same room or not."

"Now I understand why she just suddenly appeared every time when I wanted to see you. But why did you decide that we should meet despite all that?"

"The last few weeks weren't easy for me and... and I missed you. I missed talking to you and knowing that you are there for me. I missed listening to you when you are enthusiastic about something from my father's childhood or the battle of Hogwarts in general. It's just... I missed you and I don't want to avoid you."

When Scorpius looks at Albus he can actually see tears in his eyes and for the first time the thought occurs to him that the last days were tough for Albus, too. He seems more thin and paler since Scorpius last saw him or maybe he is just making this up. Suddenly there are tears in Scorpius' eyes, too.

"It's okay, it wasn't your fault."

Albus looks like he does not believe Scorpius and so the Slytherin student does the only thing that seems logical to him right now, he hugs Albus. At first the other boy is confused but then he wraps his arms around Scorpius, too. They stand there like this for five minutes until the dark haired boy pulls away.

"I'm sorry, I thought you might need it." Scorpius does not really know why he hugged Albus. It just felt right.

"It's okay, you were right I really needed it. I was just a little bit overwhelmed because I didn't have a hug for a lot of time."

Scorpius smiles at Albus and he smiles back. In this moment Albus looks like the most beautiful human being on earth to Scorpius. Their faces come closer and closer together until finally their lips meet. Scorpius does not have enough words to describe everything that he is feeling in this moment. It is as if time has completely stopped and he forgets what he thought about. He does not know whether Albus kissed him or the other way round but Scorpius does not care because kissing Albus Severus Potter is the most fantastic thing that ever happened to him. It feels like lots of butterflies are flying around in his stomach. He feels as if he could do anything he ever wanted to do. There is a firework in his whole body. He has to concentrate to not fall down because his knees are getting weak. The only thing holding him up is Albus. Scorpius can feel Albus' hand in his hair and Albus' other arm pulling him closer. Scorpius' hands are tangled in Albus' hair. They both have to breath, so they break away from each other. Albus looks at the other boy and Scorpius is not able to do anything else then look at him. He feels like he should say something but he does not know what. Albus looks like he has the same problem because he also does not say anything and stares at his friend with big eyes.

After a while Albus blurts out a "Wow".

"Yeah"

"I don't know... I don't know what to say."

"Yes, me too."

"Well, I mean... it wasn't bad. It was great... I mean... I liked it. Did you like it?"

"Yes,... I liked it. It was... beautiful. I mean I don't know. I don't have much... experience. But it is... the best thing I ever felt."

"Yeah, me too."

The conversation stops, so they stand there in an awkward silence. Scorpius looks at the lake, after a while Albus joins him. They just both stand there, staring at the water. From time to time Scorpius casts a look over to Albus and he is doing the same. Scorpius whole life has been flipped upside down in just a moment. First when Albus ignored him and then when they kissed. Just when he starts to build up the courage to say something, Albus starts talking.

"I feel like we should talk about how we proceed after this. I still want to be your friend... well, actually I want to be more than your friend but if... you don't want to... that's okay. Just... tell me, okay?"

"No,... I mean... yes. I want to be more than your friend, too."

Albus looks relieved. "Oh, thank God. Because over the last week I realised that... Scorpius, I love you."

Scorpius feels how his face is getting red and warm. "I... love you, too, Albus."

Now it is Albus' turn to get red and then they kiss again. Scorpius feels like this is the best day of his life.

When they pull away again Scorpius asks the other boy: "But what about your father? And Professor McGonagall? Do you think they will let us be together? I don't think I can stand to be separated from you again."

"I don't know what to do. Maybe I will talk to my mum first. I hope she will understand and explain it to my dad."

"And what about Cedric Diggory and our plan to safe him?"

"Everything is going to be fine and we will still try to safe him. You have the Time-Turner, right?"

"Yes, I do."

"That's good, I already have a new plan how to safe his life and to bring Rose back. But what do you think about taking a day off?"

Scorpius smiles and nods. "Okay, sounds good."