Chaser 2 of Pride of Portree;
Prompt : Write a TRAGIC story about NEXT GEN CHARACTERS
Optional Prompts : (word) control; (opening sentence) 'It had happened again.'; (word) instinct
Disclaimer : Do I own anything? Let's see… *looks around* Nope, nada, nicht, ne, nein.
Word count : 1250
A/N : No sense of organisation + being sick = deadlines flying by.
Also, Greg the OC belongs to a friend of mine.
It had happened again. Hogwarts had been struck by tragedy once more.
"A-Albus…?"
Another innocent life was lost in vain, sacrificed for the petty reasons of a petty coward.
"This isn't funny, Albus; wake up! Wake up, Albus; WAKE UP!"
Love makes us do crazy things, doesn't it? It makes you happy; it makes you sad. It makes you lose control and do bad things.
"ALBUUUUUUUS!"
Oh yes, love makes us do a lot of things. But most of all, it brings us grief.
Time seemed to be frozen in place. Denial could be plainly seen on everyone's faces. Who could have done such a terrible thing, and why?
They did not know, but what they did know was that Albus Severus Potter was dead.
He had been found four days prior by his best friend, Scorpius Malfoy, near the Black Lake. The two seventeen-year-olds were supposed to meet there as Albus had a secret to share with his friend. A secret he took to his grave.
Albus hadn't been the most popular student at Hogwarts. If anything, it had been the exact opposite. The public hadn't taken so well to the son of a war hero being sorted into 'the house of evil'. Becoming friends with the son of a known Death Eater had been even worse. But Albus hadn't cared about any of that; he had been content as long as he had his two best friends. He had loved them, and they loved him, even more than he had ever realised.
Scorpius was sitting at the shore and staring at the murky lake, lost in thought. Rose sat next to him, watching him with sad eyes. She knew he loved her cousin and how devastated the other boy's death had left him. A small part of her couldn't help but think, 'Now's your chance! With Albus gone, Scorpius can fall in love with you!' She quickly looked away in shame. How could she think that way? Her precious cousin was dead, and all she could think about was a boy she had a crush on! There must have been something wrong with her; the grief was making her lose her mind!
She looked back at Scorpius and tentatively put her hand on his shoulder. "I… He…" She found herself at a loss for words. For what did one say in a situation like this? But she couldn't not say anything. "We will get through this, Scorp—we have to. It's what Albus would have wanted. He always tried so hard to make you smile." She tried to smile but stopped as she took in the blank look on his face.
"It doesn't really matter now, does it? He's gone now, Rose. And we're not getting him back!" He all but shouted the last word.
"I know that, but I'm trying to help you feel good! I get it, I get it, alright! You loved him and now he's gone—boo hoo for you! But guess what? I loved him too. He was my cousin, for Merlin's sake!"
Scorpius hugged her and she realised she had started crying somewhere in the middle of her rant. She closed her eyes and hugged him back while they both cried for the loss of their friend.
"Rose? What are you doing?" a sleepy voice called out.
Rose flinched and put a hand over her heart, startled. "Hugo, you scared me! What are you doing out of bed?"
"I could ask you the same thing, sis. Is—is it the nightmares?" Hugo asked with a worried expression.
Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes as she nodded. "He keeps calling my name again and again, telling me to hurry, to help him. I run and try to get to him but he just keeps getting farther and farther away. It continues that way for a while and then I finally manage to get to him only for him to turn into smoke and disappear."
"It's alright, sis; it wasn't your fault. You had nothing to do with his death."
"But what if I did?" she whispered.
"What do you mean by that? There's no way it could possibly be your fault! You would never hurt Albus that way!"
She knew that, of course. But she couldn't shake the feeling that maybe, just maybe, her jealousy was what hurt Albus. She loved him, but she knew that, somewhere deep down, she resented him. She hated that Scorpius loved him while only seeing her as a friend.
Scorpius was lost. He had been sitting on his bed for almost an hour now. He just didn't know what to do. Usually, he would be hanging out with Albus right now. Doing homework, studying or just playing chess. But, right now, the room seemed too quiet. Like a Dementor had come and sucked all the happiness out of him.
"Come on, Scorp. You have to eat. Please come down to dinner with us," Greg cautiously said. "It's been three days already. You have to come out of here eventually."
"Leave me alone, Greg. I'm not hungry."
"Scorpius, please. We are all sad. He was our friend as well. But that is no reason for you to hurt yourself like this. It wasn't your fault!"
"But what if it was?" he whispered.
"Now, that's preposterous—you'd never hurt him like this."
"But I did! I've been ignoring him for a while now! All because of… Well, it doesn't matter; what does matter is that I left him to wait. He told me to come as soon as possible and yet I… I was so scared of him knowing that I bolted. I didn't want to face him because I was afraid of him hating me. Him hating me! Man, was I a fool! How could I have even thought that? I knew he loved me and yet… I ran away when I was supposed to be there for him. And now, because I was such a coward, he's gone!"
A few weeks later, Rose decided to make her move. In the wake of Albus' death, she and Scorpius had been spending more time together. They understood one another's loss more than anyone else did, after all. While she knew that she couldn't replace Albus in Scorpius' life, she was hoping that being together would ease the pain for both of them. He would have someone to lean on, and she would have the relief of knowing that something had come out of her inner conflict.
They were sitting in the library after a day of half-hearted studying when she brought it up. "There's something I have to tell you."
Scorpius glanced up at her, but his eyes were dull. All humour had fled with Albus' death. "Yes?"
Her gut instinct screamed at her to stop. It was the wrong time—too soon. They still didn't even know who—or what—had killed Albus! But she didn't know that there would ever be a good time, and she had to try. "I… I like you. I have for a while, actually. I know my timing is horrible, but…"
His face shut down entirely. "I can't do this," he said, shutting his textbook and shoving it in his bag. "I'm sorry, but I just can't."
He hurried out of the library without another word, and her heart broke all over again. Not even caring what anybody else thought of her—she was already disgusted enough with herself—she lay her head in her arms and cried.