A/N:
First off, I want to thank Gen, Cass, AJ and Elaine for reading this through. It means so much to me, seriously.
Secondly, I highly recommend you listen to the song list at the end, but it is not my song recommendation list. The real thing is much, much longer. :)
Thirdly, this contain a lot of Panic! At The Disco. In case the title and the description didn't clue you in.
Last but not least, a very happy birthday in advance to the one and only - Brendon Boyd Urie.
A Fever We Can't Sweat Out
It all started in the inter-house study group.
Originally an informal gathering initiated by Teddy Lupin in his fourth year at Hogwarts, it had slowly evolved into a monthly engagement for students of all houses. Every last Friday of the month, students from all levels, swathed in Slytherin green and Gryffindor gold, would be seen flocking to a nondescript wall on the seventh floor, satchels swinging from their hands and quills tucked behind their ears.
Generally, the attendees of the study session were fairly mild-mannered, but on that particular day, Scorpius had just fallen victim to yet another of James's infamous slime pranks, and while he had been thoroughly deslimed earlier, the irritation and touchiness had lingered through the afternoon, waiting for the opportunity to resurface.
"Hey!" he yelled, and the Hufflepuff boy who had just entered stopped short. Impatiently, he chin-pointed at the door, which stood ajar. "Do you mind?"
The boy toed the door shut and hurried off to a corner, head down.
"Honestly, though," he muttered as he pulled out his seat at the round table, slamming himself down in the chair vehemently. "There's so much noise coming in from outside! Hasn't anyone ever heard of closing the goddamn door?"
It was like he'd struck a match; at the adjacent table, Dominique's book tumbled out of her hands onto the floor as she screeched openly at Scorpius like he'd sprouted tentacles.
"What?" asked Scorpius, bewildered. "What did I say?"
"You listen to Panic! At The Disco too?!" shrieked Lori Scamander, abandoning her quill and storming over, shaking Scorpius madly by the shoulders.
"I don't even know what Panic! At The Disco is!" protested Scorpius.
Lori's eyes shot wide. "Wait - you don't?" she sputtered, disappointment bubbling into her expression.
Scorpius looked at her apologetically. "Sorry, I-"
But her look of dismay evaporated just as abruptly, replaced by a set jaw and a steely glint in her gaze. "No matter. Come, Dominique," she announced, straightening up. "We must educate this boy."
"I concur," Dominique replied, equally determined. Both wore the same zealous, borderline insane look on their faces, the looks that only die-hard fans had.
"Um, can we talk about this for a second?" asked Scorpius timidly as the two girls scribbled on a scrap of parchment, muttering frantically to each other.
"...and put down Far Too Young To Die and Vegas Lights, he needs to hear some of the less known ones," Lori asserted, scratching a name on the parchment underneath Dominique's neat handwriting. "And add Hey Look Ma, I Made It while you're at it."
"If you're talking about the underrated ones, then we need to put in Collar Full," Dominique added, "and don't forget King Of The Clouds, and One Of The Drunks, and -"
"Emperor's New Clothes?"
"Emperor's New Clothes."
"You read my mind. Okay, I think that's all." Lori drew a line across the bottom of the list and shoved it at Scorpius, who accepted it with a look of mild confusion. "You go listen to those by next week."
"What's Death Of A Bachelor?" Albus wrinkled his nose as he peered over Scorpius's shoulder. "Weird name."
Dominique clasped a hand to her chest, scandalised. "How dare you!"
"You listen to the list too," Lori ordered in her no-nonsense, drill-sergeant voice. "Looks like you need to be educated as well. Now, if you'll excuse us."
Albus raised his eyebrows as Dominique threw him a haughty look and swept back to her table, Lori behind her.
"May as well give it a whirl," Scorpius muttered to himself, running his finger down the parchment. "I mean, it can't be worse than Celestina Warbeck."
"Agreed," Albus replied, crossing out an answer on their Potions homework.
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Lori made good on her word to check on them after one week.
"So." She slammed her Divination textbook on the table with a bang. "I assume you did as I said."
"I did," Scorpius said, sipping calmly from his mug.
"Prove it."
Scorpius grinned as he set down his mug. "Hey, Rose!" he yelled.
The red-haired Gryffindor paused on her way back to her table and squinted at him with a fair amount of suspicion. "What?"
"Are you Brendon Urie? 'Cause you make those high heels work," said Scorpius, dropping her a very unnecessary wink.
Rose stared at him for a minute before striding away. Scorpius turned back to Lori, tilting his head.
"Okay, you're good." Lori stifled a giggle. "Welcome to the club, drunk."
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"And Gryffindor is now in the lead for the House Cup, fresh off the glorious win you just witnessed on the Quidditch pitch," chimed Lorcan Scamander from the commentator's stand. It had been a long match - the sky was already starting to dim from dusk to night - but not even the tenacity of Hufflepuff could stand against the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
On the pitch, Albus could make out a dark-haired silhouette peering up at him from below. The figure grinned knowingly, before heading off the pitch with the other red-robed players.
Albus narrowed his eyes. "James is up to something," he insisted, crossing his arms. "I can taste it in the air."
"Boy, you're a real drama queen," Lori said. "I see I've raised you well."
"Agreed, Lorcan. You could say they were..." Lysander paused, grinning conspiratorially, "...victorious."
There was a sudden blast of sound from the opposite side of the stadium. "What the-"
Multicoloured fireworks bloomed against the backdrop of the night, as the Gryffindors burst into song:
"Double bubble disco queen,
Keep the Quaffle in the green,
Granger-Weasley is our Queen,
We will be your killer kings..."
James smirked at Albus from the pitch, still singing along, and he growled in his throat.
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"This is war!" Albus seethed as they sat down at the Slytherin table. "Gryffindor killed it last night with that performance. And they're in the lead for the House Cup too. We need a comeback."
"Agreed." Scorpius bit into his waffle aggressively. "If we don't win the next match by two hundred points, the lead that they have won't be breakable. We've got to have a plan."
"While you're at it, do bear in mind that I've got your favourite Skullcandy headphones."
Albus's green eyes flashed with horrified rage as he whirled around on the bench.
"James! Why, you-" He made a wild grab for the headphones, but his brother pulled them away, waving them teasingly above his head. "I bought those with my own money, you git! Give them back! Now!"
"Nah." James winked at him and pocketed the headphones, infuriatingly smug. "You did leave them lying around on the table at the study session for me to find, and you know what they say. Finders keepers, losers weepers. See you around, bro."
He sashayed off, whistling Victorious as he went.
"That insufferable bastard," Albus raged, nearly tipping over the coffee on the table, "just wait, I'll show him-"
Scorpius jabbed a square of waffle with his fork and shoved it in his mouth, grinning madly.
"What's up with you?" Albus asked, his anger giving way to confusion.
Scorpius just smirked even wider. "Did you hear what he said?" he replied, swallowing his waffle bite with a gulp of tea. "I think we're ready to go for that comeback."
XXXXXXXX
James pouted as he surveyed the Quidditch pitch. The team of Slytherin players swarmed around their Seeker, who had the Snitch clutched in her gloved fist, raised in triumph.
"..and with a lead of three hundred points, Slytherin is now tied for first with Gryffindor in the House Cup!" proclaimed Lysander, amid rapturous cheering from the green-clothed stands.
James clenched his jaw as Albus touched down on the pitch, the most aggravating smirk in history plastered on his face as he high-fived Scorpius with gusto.
"What a win!" sighed Lys theatrically. "I'm sure the Slytherin Quidditch team are house heroes now. Good for them. After all," he said, winking at his twin, "heroes always get remembered, don't they, Lorcan?"
A thought tickled the back of James's mind. That phrase sounded so familiar...
Lorcan grinned eagerly, as if he was anticipating something. "You have a point, Lys. But like they say-"
"-you know legends never die..."
James's head snapped around to the Slytherin stands, and he bit back a yell.
The Slytherins were standing, some of them waving lighted wands, some with gold crowns glittering on their brows, others with their wands pointed at their throats in the Sonorus Charm. As one, the entire house launched into a familiar chorus, albeit with a twist:
"We're taking back that Cup,
We'll chase it till we make it,
We see what's ours, we'll keep it,
(Finders keepers, losers weepers!)
Oh, yeah..."
At "Finders keepers, losers weepers," the memory of his jab at Albus last week sank in with embarrassing clarity, and as he spun around, spotting his brother in the crowd, he could have sworn that Albus's eyes were filled with blood-boiling satisfaction.
"Sneaky little Slytherin," James ground out through his teeth, although he couldn't help but feel a tiny bit of grudging respect.
XXXXXXXX
"What are you listening to, Scorpius?"
Scorpius glanced up. "Oh, hi, Dad," he piped cheerily. "It's High Hopes by Panic! At The Disco. Come on," he held out an earbud, "I'll play it for you."
Draco raised an eyebrow, his expression strangely similar to Albus', but made no comment as he sat down on the bed beside his son and put the earbud on.
When the last strains of trumpets faded out, Draco shrugged his shoulders and pulled the earbud out, standing up in silence. Scorpius looked at him expectantly, waiting for his verdict.
"It's catchy," he said, placing the earbud in Scorpius's palm. "But I'm afraid Taylor Swift is still my go-to singer."
"Pretty. Odd. flex, but okay," Scorpius replied, before going back to his jams.
XXXXXXXX
"Did you get the tickets?" Albus hissed at Scorpius.
His best friend nodded, his face a gleeful mask of excitement.
Albus opened his mouth to ask about the transport arrangements - they would be attending the concert in London, which meant that they would have to take some time to get there from the Burrow - but was cut short by Ron's voice calling from the breakfast table.
"Sorry, 'Mione, could you get the maple syrup?"
Hermione looked like a volcano about to erupt. "I just put it back in the cupboard! By Dumbledore, you're going to be the death of me," she groaned, excusing herself from the breakfast table.
"That's how you want to go, admit it," Ron fired back cheekily.
The room fell silent.
"What?" Ron looked round at them. "Cat got your tongues?"
Scorpius stood. "Albus."
His friend looked up from his cornflakes. "Yes?"
"We must educate your uncle," Scorpius monotoned, staring at Ron from across the table.
"Excuse me?"
"Uncle Ron, do you listen to Panic! At The Disco?" Albus asked, barely keeping the excitement from his voice, and Rose moaned helplessly.
"Here we go again," she announced to no one, as Albus and Scorpius fawned over the parchment with the feverish fervour of a fussing mother, while Ron looked on in bemusement, blissfully unaware of just what he was getting sucked into.
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House: Ravenclaw
Year: 3
Category: Standard
Prompt: [Time Period] Next Generation Era
Word Count: 1861
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Songs mentioned (in order of appearance):
I Write Sins Not Tragedies
Far Too Young To Die
Vegas Lights
Hey Look Ma, I Made It
King Of The Clouds
Death Of A Bachelor
Don't Threaten Me With A Good Time
One Of The Drunks (x2)
Victorious
This Is Gospel
Ready To Go (Get Me Out Of My Mind)
Emperor's New Clothes (x3)
High Hopes
Pretty. Odd. (album)
Collar Full (x2)