This is to help Dee (close your eyes darling) celebrate her first FFN anniversary! Here's to many more, darling. :D Thanks to Dee for these amazing prompts: warmth, shadows, imagination and kingdom.
burn bright, little candle
When Scorpius was eleven, he saw a boy around his age on the platform. The boy had long blonde hair, a different shade from Scorpius', big blue eyes and a huge wide grin. Scorpius turned to his father and said, "Daddy, I'm going to marry him one day." He thought that he and the mysterious boy could be kings together, ruling over the Malfoy kingdom.
"Little boys don't marry other little boys," his grandfather said before his father could respond. "You will not bring this up again, understand?"
"Yes, Grandfather," Scorpius said, while Draco glared at Lucius. While the two men had some sort of staring contest, Scorpius looked at the boy again. The boy looked back and smiled shyly. From that moment on, Scorpius could not get the boy out if his head.
—O—
"What are you thinking about?" Louis asked, that old familiar wide grin on his tanned face as he threaded his fingers through Scorpius'.
"The first time I saw you, on the platform before our first day at Hogwarts," Scorpius said slowly, slightly embarrassed. "I've never told you this, but I saw you and told my dad I was going to marry you one day."
"You were a very smart young boy," Louis laughed. "Since I'm cooking tonight, do you want takeaway pizza on our knees in front of the television or Chinese takeaway at the table with candles?" It was Scorpius' turn to laugh as Louis rifled through the pile of takeaway menus on the table, looking for the one he needed.
"Chinese takeaway with candles, definitely." As Louis grabbed the phone and dialled the specific takeaway he needed, Scorpius drifted back through the years.
—O—
"Malfoy, Scorpius!" Frightened, Scorpius ascended the few steps up to the staff platform and sat hesitantly on the wooden stool as Professor McGonagall lowered the Sorting Hat onto his head.
"Ah, a Malfoy. I suppose you'll be wanting sorted into Slytherin, then."
No, I want to be different Scorpius thought fervently, hoping the Hat could hear him.
"Well, I always take your choice into account. Hmm…too cunning to be a Hufflepuff, a fair amount of intelligence…but with that recklessness…yes, better be GRYFFINDOR!"
The hall fell into shocked silence as Scorpius handed the hat back to a speechless Professor McGonagall and walked calmly to the Gryffindor table and took a seat.
"Potter, Albus."
"SLYTHERIN!"
"WHAT?" James roared, shooting onto his feet along with Dominique and Fred. Other Weasleys got to their feet in different parts of the room.
"Sit down!" Professor McGonagall shouted. "The Hat's word is final. Mr. Potter, if you don't mind, please join your housemates at the Slytherin table." Blushing and looking at his feet, Albus shuffled to the Slytherin table, who were all cheering and whooping gleefully.
"Weasley, Rose."
"RAVENCLAW!"
"Weasley, Louis."
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
—O—
Scorpius looked over at the mantelpiece while Louis tried to make himself understood to the server on the other end.
The sheer number of photographs jostling each other in silver frame was ridiculous. Pictures of their families, including baby pictures of Louis' nieces, fought for space with pictures of their friends and pictures of just the two of them.
His personal favourite was one taken on their last day at Hogwarts, with Rose and Albus crowding into the picture too. Scorpius and Louis stood with their arms around each other while Rose grinned, her arms around her bag and Albus smirked, holding his fingers in V behind Louis' head. They all looked happy, just the four of them, with no annoying older or younger relatives leaping into the picture.
"Right, finally got him to understand me," Louis said, clattering the phone down. "It'll be here in about half an hour. Shall I light the candles?" Scorpius dragged his eyes away from the photographs, smiled and nodded.
—O—
"I'm so glad the OWLs are over," Albus said, lying back on the crisply-warm grass. "Now we have the whole summer to relax."
"Until we get our results and have to choose what we do for NEWTs!" Rose exclaimed, wringing her hands fretfully. All three boys rolled their eyes.
"As if you'll get anything but straight Outstandings," Louis said, shading his eyes from the strong sun.
"It's us that'll end up with straight Trolls and no job opportunities," Scorpius sighed. "Ow! What was that for?" Rose smirked at his reaction to her vicious pinch and leant back against the tree.
"Stop being so melodramatic," she chastised. "Don't do that and I won't pinch you. Simple."
The four of them, two Weasleys, one Potter and a Malfoy that encompassed all four houses, lay and sat on the grass in lazy silence, Albus pulling up blades of grass, Louis sunbathing with his eyes tightly closed, Scorpius watching the Giant Squid and Rose reading a heavy Muggle Studies textbook.
The sun shone down on the four of them, four friends who'd come together despite familial and house rivalries. And, perhaps, Albus hoped, Scorpius and Louis would get their act together and become something more. Otherwise, Rose would win a bet with him for the eighteenth time in a row.
—O—
Scorpius looked over at the picture of Rose and Albus that took pride of place next to one of him and Louis on the mantelpiece. Only a trained eye could have spotted the anger behind Rose's smile and the satisfaction of Albus' smirk, but anyone could see the gleam of gold Galleons in Albus' hand.
"What was that bet about?" Louis asked. "They made so many bets through the years I can't remember why that one needed a picture."
"Well, it was the first and only time Albus won," Scorpius said wryly, "but that bet was about whether or not we'd get together. Rose bet we wouldn't, Albus bet we would."
"Just goes to show," Louis said, examining the picture carefully and smiling as he noticed the Scamander twins laughing in the background, "Ravenclaws don't always get everything right."
"Ravenclaws don't have the faintest clue about romance," Scorpius agreed. "Just look at Teddy, Hugo and Victoire."
"Well, thank goodness neither of us was one." Louis grinned and found another familiar picture. "Remember this?"
—O—
"Can we go to bed yet, Rose?" Albus groaned. Rose looked up from marking passages in her textbook with a scowl and shot a jet of hot water at Louis, sleeping on a Potions textbook. He awoke with a yell of pain and shot a very black look at his cousin.
"Not until you've finished revising all the goblin rebellions of the 1800s!" Rose shouted, hitting the page with her wand and making Albus jump. "If you stopped complaining for two seconds, you'd get it done."
"But Rose, it's eleven o'clock!" Louis complained, barely lifting his head from his uncomfortable textbook pillow. "Shouldn't Madam Pince have kicked us out ages ago?"
"I got special permission from her for us to be here for as long as it takes," Rose said airily. "And it'll take all night if you three don't do it properly!" Groaning and complaining loudly, Scorpius, Louis and Albus vaguely attempted to memorize dates and names.
"Marissa Chang asked both of us out again today," Louis said. "We refused."
"Did she say she's going to tell her friends you're gay?" Albus asked. "That's what she told me when I turned her down for Harriet."
"Of course she did, but it's true for them," Rose said briskly. "Stop gossiping and revise!"
"What do you mean, it's true for us?" Scorpius asked indignantly. "Do you want to be on the receiving end of that evil Bat Bogey hex Lily taught me?"
"I have to confess, you two, that Rose and I have had a bet for three years that you two are gay and will eventually come out of the closet and snog," Albus said casually. As Louis blushed and Scorpius spluttered with rage, he continued, "I bet that you would and she bet you would. Seeing as this is our eighteenth bet and I cannot lose to her again, you have to snog and help me win."
There was a long moment of silence, broken only by the screaming of some possessed book in the Restricted Section.
"Albus, you weren't supposed to tell them about our bet!" Rose exclaimed. Her jaw dropped a second later when Scorpius just smirked and kissed Louis.
"Pay up, dear cousin," Louis said as they broke apart.
Rose had never looked so angry in her life.
—O—
"I'll never forget how annoyed Rose was with us," Louis said. "She wouldn't speak to any of us for three weeks."
"Which we were very happy about, because it meant she wasn't forcing us to revise," Scorpius reminded him. "Remember all those double dates with Albus and Harriet?"
"Well, imagine the consequences if we hadn't," Louis said, stretching. "Albus wouldn't have talked to us for a year"
"My imagination cannot fully comprehend how terrible that would've been," Scorpius said. The doorbell rang and he added, "You get the door, I'll light the candles."
The flickering candles threw their shadows onto the walls as they ate Chinese and drank pumpkin juice in companionable silence, speaking every so often to muse over when Albus was going to propose and which man Rose would be seen with next.
And, after the meal was finished and the dishware in the sink, they found warmth in each other's arms.
I hope I did this pairing justice, Dee! :) Happy anniversary, lovie.
Please don't favourite without reviewing, thank you :)