Trimmings
A HariPo oneshot
by mew-tsubaki
Note: The Harry Potter characters belong to J.K. Rowling, not me. I write so much slash…and yet I don't think I've written these two before. Huh. Read, review, and enjoy! *Written for Slytherin Cat for the Gift-Giving Extravaganza 2014 forum with the pairing Scorpius/Albus.
- ^-^3
It wasn't as though they were friends. Despite all the hemming and hawing about their dads, Scorpius couldn't find it in him to hate Albus Potter or even befriend him in spite of the bad blood.
Albus was just mildly interesting to watch. Their first year, they and several others were like celebrities considering their parentages. Him, Albus, Albus' cousins, the Scamander twins, the Midgen twins, Hollie Kirke, Grace Wolpert… There were others, too, who gained unfavorable attention: Calytrix Zabini, Asha Nott, and Macareus Goyle, for instance. But while Scorpius didn't mind rooming with Mac, Deimos Midgen, or Ethan Pritchard, he couldn't decide upon an opinion regarding Albus Severus Potter. They were just from different worlds.
Scorpius chuckled to himself every time he had that thought. If his father knew, he'd set Scorpius straight. According to his mother, his father had sobered up after the war and considered the great Harry Potter a friend. Draco Malfoy had brought up his son believing the best in people, and he'd corrected Scorpius whenever Scorpius had thought otherwise.
But, honestly… It wasn't even as though Scorpius thought badly about Albus. He just didn't know if he cared very much.
Then, of course, Albus became more interesting to watch.
- ^-^3
First year, Albus had looked like some kind of Harry Potter clone. The straight dark hair that was a tad messy in the back, the bottle green eyes, the pale skin—hell, just put some spectacles on him and give him a scar, and even Scorpius could've been fooled.
But when their second year rolled around, Scorpius was rather surprised. They weren't friends and therefore didn't see each other outside of school, so perhaps that was the only reason why it struck Scorpius so. Or maybe others were too oblivious to notice?
But Albus' hair was shaggy. Not trimmed and short and somewhat kempt like his father's, nor even like Mac's or Ethan's.
Scorpius was a bit stunned, but he didn't say anything, not even in the dorms. He didn't hear girls talking about Albus, nor did he hear the guys talking about him behind his back. Although, if Scorpius thought it through, how he regarded their roommates made sense, as Mac was a bit thick, Ethan had friends in other Houses, and Deimos preferred the company of his books when not with his twin, Phoebe. Translation? The only shrewd ones around were Scorpius and Albus.
However, the blond snake dismissed his observation. I'm just perceptive, he decided. And he insisted on leaving it at that.
- ^-^3
Third year, Albus' hair was even longer. More so than before, he looked like a totally different person.
Several times, Scorpius caught himself opening and closing his mouth, always on the verge of inquiring. Still no one said anything. Scorpius supposed that could fly, as Albus never looked particularly disheveled. Maybe he was just growing his hair out…
I don't get it, though, the Malfoy would muse occasionally while he tried to fall asleep. He often tugged on his own hair while he thought, knowing he'd chosen to look like a casual version of his own father. Dad doesn't have particularly bad hair, but I know that receding hairline is heading my way come adulthood.
But with no one else commenting, Scorpius knew he ought to keep his comments to himself. It wasn't as if Albus would take too kindly to Scorpius' curiosity, even. They rarely spoke outside of class.
- ^-^3
Fourth year, the girls started talking.
"He's not bad," Asha told Mac and him once when they studied in the library for a History of Magic quiz.
"Who?" Mac asked.
Scorpius rolled his eyes. Leave it to Mac to open the can of Flobberworms.
"Potter. The one in our year," Asha said, turning back to the table. Her dark eyes glittered with an interest that she clearly did not possess for her notes, so she closed her book.
Mac sneered. "He's just another Weasley. They all look alike."
"No, he looks more like his dad," the witch continued, and she began to fiddle with her hair.
Scorpius raised his eyebrows. "Ash, don't do it."
She grinned cheekily. "Do what?"
Mac looked between the two of them, but things slowly clicked into place for him. "Hey!" he growled lowly. "I thought we were an item."
Asha snorted. "Mac, you're good snogging practice, is all." Then she winked and left the boys alone.
And Asha was not the only girl to chat Albus up. Even Calytrix spoke to him often, and his cousins could be overheard talking about him on occasion.
In one instance, Scorpius overheard Rose chatting with Lily Luna on their way down to Hogsmeade. Rose, ever the loud one, could be heard by everyone around her. "I mean, by this time next year, he's going to look exactly like James!" she exclaimed.
James Potter, of course, had appeared at the sound of his name, with some fellow sixth-year girl hanging off his arm. "What's that about a handsome devil?" And on and on the drivel went.
Albus hadn't been anywhere near the debacle. He had already gone on ahead with Lorcan and Lysander Scamander—a quiet threesome which didn't make sense but existed nevertheless.
Scorpius stuffed his hands in his pockets and kept his remarks to himself. Perhaps word would get back to Albus anyway, and he'd get a new hairstyle and stop trying to be someone else….
- ^-^3
Fifth year, Scorpius didn't get a good look at Albus until the opening feast had concluded and everyone had returned to the dorms. Then, he mistook Albus for a witch.
"Hey, you're not—oh, sorry," Scorpius hastily backtracked once he kicked his trunk aside.
Albus gave him a sidelong look and quirked an eyebrow. "…I'm not what?"
Scorpius fidgeted under that piercing stare. "Sorry. I just…" He sighed. "Honesty is the best policy" was one of the reformed Draco Malfoy's favorite sayings, and so it had been figuratively beaten into Scorpius. "I thought you were a girl, your hair's so long now."
That other black eyebrow joined its compatriot. "That's a new one. No one's told me that yet. I keep being told that I look like my brother."
"Not with it tied loosely back like that."
Albus shrugged. "It was getting in the way when I was putting things away."
"Oh."
The room grew quiet, and suddenly Scorpius became aware that the other blokes were downstairs fraternizing. He scooted over to his bed and unlocked his trunk, putting things in their proper place. The silence persisted, and Scorpius felt like an idiot. He desperately wished for some stroke of genius to hit him so that he could carry on a polite conversation with his classmate…or maybe he could just have a stroke and use that as an excuse to stay quiet.
As luck would have it, Fortune looked kindly upon Scorpius that day, and Albus spoke:
"Do I really look like a girl?" He said it so quietly that Scorpius wasn't sure if it was rhetorical or not.
But then the blond looked up over the beds and saw the befuddled, somewhat frustrated expression on the other wizard's face. And Scorpius smiled to himself. "Erm. Maybe a little?"
Frustrated or not, Albus shrugged it off. "Ah. Well."
Yet somehow Scorpius thought that maybe it gave him blanket permission to be open with Albus, friendship or no.
- ^-^3
Sixth year brought fewer comparisons to James, as he had graduated the year before. Albus seemed to appreciate it.
"Lily doesn't like it very much," Albus commented offhandedly one evening that found him and Scorpius studying in the Slytherin common room.
Scorpius glanced up from his assignment before answering. Always he preferred to evaluate Albus' expression before offering his two Knuts about it. "It's not as nice today. You remind me of that portrait of Snape hanging up in McGonagall's office."
Rather than be offended, Albus shrugged (sometimes it was infuriating when he treated that as an appropriate answer or interaction). But then a slight smirk drew the corners of his mouth gently upward. "And how would you know what the portraits in the headmistress' office look like?" he queried.
Scorpius bumbled through an explanation that he hadn't been given detention and never had had detention and would never have detention. He forgot to explain why he was there in the first place (just to explain to McGonagall that the impromptu duels between Asha and Mac in the corridors these days weren't really dangerous—they were like marital spats). But Albus didn't seem to mind; instead, he actually laughed at Scorpius' fluster.
And somehow, that just made sixth year all the better.
- ^-^3
Over Christmas break, Scorpius and his mother went through old family photo albums while his father visited with friends before the holiday.
"I'm surprised you never organized them before," Scorpius commented as his mother took tomes off the shelves in one of the older rooms in Malfoy Manor and piled them in his arms.
"I never really felt right about it, but it's so dark and dreary in this house," she stated. "I figure the first thing I can do is to go through the clutter and try to make sense of it."
"This house, cluttered?" He snickered. "I thought the joke was that was how the Weasley home looks."
His mother gave him a look. "And Narcissa might not have appreciated the comparison, but she and Lucius have a lot more in common with the Weasleys than they'd prefer known."
They took the albums into the main sitting room, one of the few well-lit places in the manor, and spread the books out. Pictures flew everywhere, and Malfoy ancestors could be heard griping from down the hall.
"Oh, shut it!" his mother yelled at the paintings. Silence.
As they sifted through the images, Scorpius became interested in the Black side of the family. There weren't many pictures from that side anymore, and he asked why.
His mother bit her lower lip. "It's all very annoying, Scorpius. But I'm sure you've heard by now that the Black family is one of the oldest Wizarding families?"
"Of course. We learned a little about them last year for O.W.L.s, which cover the second war now. Regulus Arcturus Black gets two questions, you know."
Her face tightened briefly. "Yes, well… It's still not as well known how the Black family treated their own kind when they fell out. But if you were disowned, you'd be blasted off the family tree at the old family home at Twelve Grimmauld Place. Afterwards, belongings the person left behind and most images containing the 'offender' would be destroyed. About the only thing the Blacks couldn't do was get their disowned off the family registry at the Ministry."
"Well, of course not. They were still born into the family, regardless." Scorpius flipped through the few dozen pictures again, and one caught his eye. "Oh!"
"What is it?"
"Nothing, just… Thought I saw someone familiar."
She looked over his shoulder. "Oh. I think that's a picture of young Sirius and Regulus, the brothers. Isn't there a picture of either of them in the new texts? I'm sure there is. That's why you'd recognize them."
"Uh, yeah…" Scorpius rubbed the back of his neck a little nervously. "Clearly…"
- ^-^3
When the year resumed after the break, Scorpius felt a little guilty. He had snuck the photo of Sirius and Regulus from its album home and brought it to school with him, and now the evidence seemed to burn a hole in his pocket.
Yet he had the chance to flag Albus down and show him the photo in late January. "What do you think? I was surprised, but—well, see for yourself," he explained, dropping the image onto Albus' doodle-laden notes.
For several moments, there was no reaction. Then Scorpius scrutinized his face and saw there was, indeed, a reaction. And Albus didn't look happy. "What is this?" he asked softly, coolly.
The blond frowned. He'd have thought Albus would be interested in this, not disappointed. "Sirius and Regulus Black. Your brother's namesake and his brother. I just thought… Well, you remind me of him. Or, he reminds me of you, with your looks like that."
The photo crumpled in Albus' grip, but Scorpius daren't object, though if Scorpius' mother ever saw the result, he'd get a nasty telling off.
Scorpius, like that time before, opened and closed his mouth, searching for the words to make things better, to keep them talking. But this time nothing came.
And Albus was silent once again.
Worse yet, this time, Albus didn't even shrug it off.
- ^-^3
"It's weird in here," Ethan said as they exited the dorm for the train.
"What's weird?" Mac asked.
"Well, it's the end of the year, but it feels like someone died," Ethan elaborated with a shudder.
Albus pushed his way past him and Scorpius at the doorway and scampered off ahead of them.
Ethan and Scorpius watched him go. "Hmm," Ethan continued. "Suddenly it got five degrees warmer in here."
Scorpius gave Ethan a look. "That's rude, mate."
Deimos and Mac also left, and Scorpius fell into step with Ethan. "I'm not trying to be rude," the taller boy explained. "But ever since you and Potter turned chummy, it was okay in the dorms. A little friendlier. But since the start of the spring term, things have been worse than they were before. Before, our room was always like some polite stalemate. Now it's just awkward." Ethan pursed his lips. "Why'd you have to go and poke the dragon?"
The Malfoy heir frowned but didn't answer. Even if he did have an answer, he wouldn't have shared it with Ethan. Only Albus deserved to know, anyway.
And so began Scorpius' summer haunted by dark locks.
- ^-^3
"You look like someone ran over you with their broom!" Asha laughed as their final year began.
The train ride to Hogwarts weighed heavily on Scorpius' mind. Good Merlin. They were minutes away from pulling into the station. They were minutes away from heading to their last opening feast. They were minutes away from separating according to House, and Scorpius still had no idea how to interact with Albus.
A letter wouldn't have made things right, Scorpius knew, which was why he hadn't sent one. No, that only would've worsened things. Suddenly getting a letter at home from someone he supposedly didn't know—Scorpius, in his shoes, knew it would've raised a ruckus, and he didn't want to put Albus in that position.
Yet Scorpius' worries only multiplied as the whispers on the train grew to a din inside the castle, and he finally saw what had everyone buzzing.
The hair painstakingly left uncut over the years—was gone. In its place, Albus sported a super short trim. Not a buzz cut like Mac's, but it was short nevertheless.
Even from several seats away, Scorpius could see that Albus didn't appreciate the attention in the exact same way he hadn't appreciated the attention when he'd first begun growing it out.
And yet…despite all his worries, Scorpius liked the look. But, as ever, conscious of how his openness had gotten him into trouble before, Scorpius kept his mouth shut. He only gave in to showing Albus a small, kind smile when their eyes briefly locked during dinner. And Scorpius was sure that would be more than enough, his frets be damned.
- ^-^3
A week passed, and Scorpius found he kind of missed the noise Asha and Mac caused when they studied together in the library. No, they were getting on better these days and didn't spend as much time with him.
He took his things, giving up on the library, and thought to study at the Quidditch pitch. Hufflepuff, he'd heard, had practice today, and with Louis Weasley on their team, things were bound to get loud.
On his way to the pitch, Scorpius hustled through the Clock Tower courtyard, and someone called out to him.
"Hey. Hey!"
He glanced over his shoulder and slowed to a halt as the person caught up with him.
Albus grimaced at him. "Don't make people call after you," he grumbled.
"Ah, yes, sorry." Scorpius blinked, realized he was gaping, and closed his mouth. "Erm… What brings you out here?"
"I saw you walking by." Albus pointed behind him. Apparently, he'd been in the Clock Tower.
"Oh."
Albus stared at him, and Scorpius adjusted his grip on his bag's straps.
"…are we talking again?" Scorpius asked cautiously.
The other boy continued staring…but at last he shrugged. Ah! Maybe they were all right after all.
"Would you like to join me at the pitch? I was going to study there."
Albus raised that lone eyebrow again.
"Don't ask. Even I'm aware how absurd it sounds to need noise in order to study." He laughed at himself, and Albus' body language shifted. Albus seemed comfortable around him once more. "Come on," the Malfoy said, and he waved Albus on.
They walked across the covered bridge mostly in silence. Scorpius didn't feel the need to talk, and he certainly knew Albus would talk if and when he had something to say.
Near the Stone Circle, Albus reached out and touched Scorpius' arm. "Yes?" Scorpius faced him.
"You… You still haven't commented on this year's style." His expression was ambiguous, but there was something in his tone. Scorpius couldn't help picturing a child rocking on his heels, waiting to be praised.
But Scorpius had not been raised to be a yes-man. Astoria Greengrass had made sure of that. "I think I deserve an explanation over last year," he said simply. "I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings, but I don't know what I did wrong."
Albus sighed. "…I reckon I might've jumped the gun." His grimace returned. "That's Mum's impulsivity in me, sorry."
Scorpius furrowed his brow, not convinced. "What happened?"
"Nothing happened."
"Albus…please tell me." "We're friends, aren't we?" was on the tip of Scorpius' tongue, but he withheld those words. Somehow, they didn't feel right, plus they would've made him look as though he was begging, which he certainly didn't do.
They started walking again, but slowly this time, so Albus could gather his thoughts. "Don't you know what it's like? The constant comparisons?"
"How do you mean?"
"To your parents. To your dad." Albus glanced at him and, seeing that Scorpius wasn't offended, plowed on. "I've seen pics. You look like your dad."
This time, it was Scorpius' turn to shrug. "Some, but it doesn't bother me. I've got my mother's nose."
"Yeah, but… Well, I look too much like my father. Everyone kept expecting great things from me. Dad was even hoping I'd be in Gryffindor like him. Mum thought I'd play Quidditch like both of them. All the teachers that taught Dad and the rest keep holding me up to such high standards—even though Dad wasn't even that great a student." He balled his fists. "McGonagall's twice called me 'Harry' by accident. But I'm not my father. And I've never wanted to look like him."
Ah. Now things were beginning to make sense. Even Albus' cool exterior, so out of line with what the school had come to expect of the Weasley–Potter clan—"You'd been trying to figure out who you are, besides Harry Potter's son, haven't you?"
Albus stared at him, but it was evident he was relieved not to have had to come out and say as much. "I thought you got it, you know. Didn't you have it bad with your family?"
"I think my mother changed things a lot, but the war wore my grandparents down." Thinking back on it, it occurred to Scorpius that never once had his parents compared him with anyone in their bloodline. Grandpa Lucius and Grandma Narcissa needed a little practice, but Scorpius had been raised as a happy, healthy child. The past of the generations before him was in the past—but that had not been the same case for Albus.
"Lucky you," the raven-haired boy grumbled. He sighed again. "I guess I was trying so hard not to be my dad that I ended up being everyone but me."
Scorpius gave it some thought. "Hence looking like James, Snape, and Sirius Black over the years… Yes, I'll give you that—it was all very un-Albus of you."
Albus looked at him hopefully. "What about now?" He stared at Scorpius again, but his green eyes seemed so alive, as they never had before.
The blond found himself squirming under that gaze, but he forced his eyes upward. "I…suppose it's very…Roman? Like how Roman men cut their hair when they were in the military or something… Roman Muggles and wizards did the same thing." It looks soft, a voice teased Scorpius inside his head, but he quieted it.
Albus eased into a smile. "No one does that anymore, huh?"
"It's nice."
"It's very 'Albus,' wouldn't you say?"
Scorpius hated that his eyes had dropped down to Albus' gaze once more, and he sped up, wishing the pitch were closer. He tore his eyes away, but he couldn't help himself: "I don't know, I think I'll miss the long hair."
"What?" Albus whined. "Why? Even you said it made me look like a girl!"
And, with that, with something more than friendship entering the tone of their bickering, Scorpius knew the answer: Because I'd want to run my hands through it.
Like their fathers…not.
- ^-^3
Well, this was pleasant. :] I've honestly never written these two before, I think mostly because I like their friendship, but like this I think they work. I've always held it as my head-canon that Al would have issues being Harry's doppelganger, and that Astoria rubbed off a lot on her son, but I never really stopped to consider the possibility of Scor having a very pleasant childhood…which I find I quite like and could be possible when one considers the change of heart the Malfoys had post-war. So yeah. :D Thanks so much for asking for this, Slytherin Cat! I wrote something kind of outside of my comfort zone…and I enjoyed it! Also, lots of OCs, mostly for name-dropping, but they'll appear in other places from time to time. Calytrix, Mac, and Asha all have already, but the others… ;) Thanks to Morghen and BlueMango for beta'ing, also!
So yeah! Thanks for reading, and please review!
-mew-tsubaki :3