Interruption
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or setting, etc...
"I love you, Scorpius." The rich voice that spoke was hushed but passionate.
Scorpius looked up from the desk, piled high with cluttered stacks of textbooks and notes that he had been trying (unsuccessfully) to revise from to find a slender hand resting on his shoulder. He couldn't help but frown slightly, "What have you done, Albus?"
Albus Severus Potter withdrew his hand from the young man's shoulder in mock anger. "Right, so I declare my love for you in the sexiest tone I can muster and the only way you can think of responding is to accuse me of doing something wrong. I'm glad to know that you trust me so much!"
"Don't try and be sarcastic, Potter, it doesn't suit you."
"Don't try and mimic your father, Malfoy, because you couldn't be half as threatening if you tried," Albus grinned broadly as he spoke, pulling out the chair next to Scorpius before throwing himself down on it lazily and putting his black booted feet on the desk.
Scorpius stuck his tongue out scornfully, "I'll tell him you said that, you know." He shook his head as he put down his unused quill. If he hadn't been able to get any work done before Albus came, he certainly wouldn't be able to concentrate now.
He looked back at the young Gryffindor and looked disapprovingly at him. "You can get those big boots of yours off my notes before you start apologising about whatever it is that you have done. And don't start looking all hurt because I know that you've done something, besides, it's rude to do that in a library."
"There's nobody here apart from you," Albus sighed, nevertheless he put his feet back under the desk. For a few minutes neither of them spoke.
Scorpius stared at Albus expectantly but the other boy remained silent. Albus couldn't return his lovers gaze. There was a reason he had come to speak to Scorpius tonight, but he had hoped that the subject wouldn't come up until later on, much later on.
At this rate our whole evening will be full of arguments and shouting, Albus thought to himself regretfully.
He licked his lips apprehensively as if he were preparing to deliver an epic speech but first had to check if his lips were in working order. Looking out of the corner of his eye he could see Scorpius was still staring. At any other moment that would have been a good sign, but right now it was just building up the tension...
He sighed. "Scorpius, I don't want you to have a go at me, so hear me out-"
"So you have done something!" Scorpius interrupted. He shook his head again, a habit Albus had only noticed quite recently, but then again they had only started having these stupid fights recently.
Albus grabbed at Scorpius' free hand. "Scor, will you pleasejust listen to me. It's not a big deal alright, it's just something I thought I ought to tell you."
This time Scorpius kept his mouth shut, but once again his pale blue eyes were fully concentrated on Albus, which had an unnerving effect on the young Gryffindor. Scorpius had the kind of eyes that seemed to pierce a person's very soul. They were pale and washed out as if they had faded in the sunlight but there was something intense about them at the same time that was mesmerising.
Albus was finding it difficult now to articulate what he had to say in a way that wouldn't make his boyfriend explode.
The issue hadn't seemed like a big deal when he had been thinking about it on his way to the library but now that he was sitting right next to Scorpius he began to seriously wonder if he had made a big mistake. His mouth opened and closed uselessly a few times before he finally managed to make some noise. "Y-you remember when you said you didn't want to go to the Yule Ball?"
Oh, for goodness sake, it's definitely a bad sign if he's starting to stutter, what has he done? Scorpius thought, nervously. But he nodded all the same, confirming Albus's statement. He had indeed refused to go to the Ball. It wasn't his sort of thing, too loud and too crowded. Besides he got forced to go to those sorts of things at home, he wasn't going to go to them at school as well if he had the choice not to.
Albus gulped. "Well the thing is, Kathleen Strider asked if I'd go with her and I thought that would be alright, you know so I wouldn't be on my own."
"So what you're telling me is that you're going to cheat on me for the night just so you won't be lonely despite the fact that half of freaking Gryffindor is made up of people from your family?" Scorpius could feel his blood pressure rising as he.
"I'm just going to dance with her, that's all. She knows you and I are dating and everything. There's no point us both going alone when we might as well go together and have some fun."
"You could have come up to my dormitory and then we'd spend the night together."
"Scor, whenever I come up to your dorm for a chat in the evening you always manage to fall fast asleep at half past nine on the dot. No offence but watching you snore wouldn't be the most entertaining way for me to spend the evening."
Scorpius blushed, "I never snore!"
Albus couldn't help but laugh, "Alright! I'm sorry, I've never heard you snore and to be fair you are very cute when you sleep. But all the same you do go to sleep super early, do you really mind if I just go with Kathleen, as a friend?"
Scorpius sighed and looked down at his hand, trapped beneath Albus's. It was a strange thing to admit but he really did love Albus's hands. He had pianist's fingers, long, slender and graceful.
"Alright, there's no point in you having to miss out on all the fun just because I don't want to go." His voice was low and tired.
Albus touched his cheek with his other hand and stroked it lovingly, "Thank you, Scorpius."
He leant in towards the handsome yet awkward Slytherin and their lips met. They stayed that way for what felt like forever, tugging at each other's lips with their eyes clamped shut, lost in the moment.
It was then that James came rushing in. His cheeks were flushed and his breathing ragged. He leant on their desk while he recovered and looked at the startled pair who had sprung apart at the sound of his thudding footfalls.
With a shake of his head he raised his eyebrows in annoyance. "Why is it that every freaking time I go looking for someone they've always got there tongue down somebody or others throat?"
"James!" Albus cried out indignantly, "What's going on? Why did you need to find me?"
James held up his hand, wordlessly asking for a moment to get his thoughts together. "I got this weird call from dad. He said he wants us all to come home, now. Aunt Hermione's gonna pick us up but we have to pack whatever we want to take home in the next half hour. He doesn't know if we'll be coming back to school again for awhile."
Albus was startled and couldn't think of thing to say but Scorpius was anxiously looking from one brother to the other, "Awhile?" He asked.
James shrugged, "He wouldn't say how long exactly. All I know is that something happened to Victoire and he doesn't think it's safe to be at school anymore, and that's saying something, all things considered."
James looked about the high vaulted room. Hogwarts was meant to be one of the safest places in the whole of the wizarding world. The idea that they weren't even safe here was a very bad sign.
But Albus wasn't thinking about any of that, the only thing he could concentrate on was the first thing James had mentioned: that Victoire was in trouble.
"Why didn't you say something happened to Victoire in the first place?" He leapt up from his chair and grabbed his bag, shocked in to action. Within seconds he was already making a move towards the door with James in tow.
"Wait!" Scorpius started grabbing at the piles of books and notes, trying to gather them up in his arms.
Albus looked back with a startled expression, as if he had forgotten about Scorpius entirely for a moment.
"I can't wait, I'm sorry Scor. My family are in trouble." And with that the two brothers walked out of the library, leaving a confused and anxious Scorpius in a stupor. He looked a mess with his fine blond hair all ruffled and disorderly and bits of paper fighting to be freed from his grasp.
"But when will I see you again?" His anxious voice echoed around the empty room with only the distant tolling of a clock to answer him as the shadows of the dying day lengthened and gave way to a prevailing darkness.