Duel Practice
The third of October in the year 2020 was a rainy Saturday at Hogwarts. Albus Potter, or Al, as he would insist, had started his fourth year just a month before. Already, he was bored.
Al was a smart boy. He never had any problems with his classes. At least, not in the way one might think. The curriculum was easy for him, the teachers annoying. Al didn't need nor want long explanations on the theories behind a spell. Those could be learned from a book, if he wanted to. A professor should be able to teach him other things. Make it easier for him to understand difficult lessons. But Al didn't have difficult lessons.
Thoroughly bored by the classes, he studied on his own. But he also liked to show off. So he put a lot of extra effort in his homework. Working outside the given guidelines, but still giving relevant information. His professors loved him, but still. Al was bored.
He had just finished his charms homework. The essay was supposed to be one foot long, Al already had two feet. It had gotten too tedious to continue it, so he had written an ending, and finished it. That's why he was bored now, though, and he didn't feel like reading something. In the end, he decided to simply take a walk in the castle.
It was evening, and curfew was just a few hours away. The corridors were fairly empty. Most people were either in the library or in their common room.
Though there were probably a fair few hiding in broom cupboards too, Al thought, as he eyed a door that didn't quite muffle the sounds from within.
Al blushed as the door unexpectedly shook. Forcing himself to look away, Al continued walking. His light flush finally disappearing after he rounded a few corners.
After that he continued his aimless wandering, carefully steering clear from cupboards. It was several minutes later, that Al started to feel the need to relieve himself. Looking around, he noticed a bathroom close by. Sighing in relief, he walked over and pushed the door open. Freezing in shock as he saw another boy washing his hands.
"Potter," the boy said.
"Malfoy," Al answered in turn, watching the other with wary eyes.
Both boys had their hands in their robes by that point, gripping their wands. An instant passed, nothing happened. The next moment, curses went flying.
There was no doubt that Al knew, and could perform, the most spells. But Malfoy was much faster, and it didn't take more than a minute for Al to get hit. The spell knocked him back a few feet. In a moment's notice, everything Al knew was flipped upside down. He had always hated levicorpus.
Barely keeping a hold of his wand, Al glared at Malfoy as he felt his blood rush to his face. The other boy simply smirked back.
"You should be glad. I could've used sectumsempra instead," he gloated. "That's a nice colour of underwear, by the way."
At the last part, Malfoy glanced up at a point slightly above Al's face. Al got a shocked look on his face as he reddened. He pressed his chin against his chest, and looked up. Indeed, his sea-green underpants were visible for the world to see.
"Let's change it to a more appropriate colour for a defenceless little girl like you, shall we, Albus?" Malfoy asked mockingly.
Malfoy waved his wand, muttered an incantation, and Al saw his briefs turn a bright pink. He felt his face go even brighter red from embarrassment and indignation.
"Well, I'll be leaving then," Malfoy said casually.
"Malfoy, wait! Put me down!" Al ordered.
But Malfoy just smirked over his shoulder and walked out the door.
Al glared hatefully at the empty doorway, but then the feeling of his full bladder distracted him. Fumbling with his wand for a bit, he managed to get himself down. He quickly rushed inside a cubicle. Once done inside, he also changed his underwear back to its original colour. On his way towards the Gryffindor tower, he had murderous thoughts about one Scorpius Malfoy.
For the next several days, Al was in a foul mood. By the time the next weekend arrived, however, he was back to his usual happy, but bored self. The next Sunday after the school week had passed, though, found him running into Malfoy once more.
It was night, and Al had been sleeping. At half past one, however, he had woken up. He'd been unable to fall back asleep. Thinking he might as well take a walk, he got out of bed. Al quite liked strolling through the castle at night. It was a bit spooky, but also wonderfully silent. Unless you ran into a professor, of course.
Al put down his feet in the spot where he had left his shoes, wanting to put them on. Instead, he only felt the fluffy, red carpet between his toes. Looking down, he saw that his shoes were gone. A quick search revealed that they weren't anywhere nearby.
James, Al thought angrily. His older brother had probably taken away his shoes. James was always pranking his siblings, to Al's and Lily's greatest annoyance. Deciding to just forget about his shoes, Al put on a pair of sea-green socks and walked out of the room. He exited through the portrait hole, ignoring a snoring Fat Lady.
During the next few minutes, Al enjoyed the silence and peacefulness that enveloped the castle. The only sound there was to be heard was the light padding of his feet against cold stone. In some corridors it was dark as night, in others there were window letting in beams of moonlight that lit up the floor.
Several minutes later, however, Al's feet started to get cold. He figured he should look for a bathroom. Like the common rooms and the dormitories, they had floor heating. Your feet never got cold there.
When he entered a bathroom, he sighed as his feet touched the warm floor. After properly getting the feeling in his toes back, he looked around. It was the same bathroom he had fought Malfoy in the week before. Feeling rather uncomfortable just standing there, Al went to wash his hands. Just as he reached for the faucet though, the door creaked open.
A surprised looking Scorpius Malfoy entered. Upon recognising Al, he quickly adopted his usual haughty expression.
"Well, if it isn't baby Potter," Malfoy said, looking Al over. "Dear Merlin, you also have socks in that colour? I guess it's not too bad though, I'll let you keep it this time."
Al looked at Malfoy, an angry expression on his face, even as he shifted his feet self-consciously. If there was one thing he couldn't handle it was people who sounded so unbearably superior. He pulled his wand and pointed it at the other boy, who pulled his wand in turn.
"Do you like losing? Or are you just stupid?"
The duel was short, the result much the same as last time. Al hanging upside down, Malfoy leaving as he laughed at his matching underwear and socks. Al remained inside, just as frustrated as the week before.
After that night, Al somehow managed to keep running into Scorpius. Sometimes at night, sometimes during the day. It was always in the same bathroom though. Al kept going there because he was determined not to be chased away.
As the weeks passed, however, the meetings became less hostile. They stopped outright insulting each other, and were now getting together for friendly duels. They even simply talked sometimes. Al was determined to beat Scorpius, the duels were getting longer and both were tired when they ended. Though Scorpius still managed to win each and every time.
After every duel, Al was still left dangling from an ankle. It still peeved him a bit, but Scorpius' mischievous smile as he left made that better. Though there had been an incident which made him stop using levicorpus for a few duels.
It had been at night. Al had woken up from a rather stimulating dream, and had decided to take a walk to get rid of his excitement. However, his feet had carried him towards the bathroom, out of habit. There, Scorpius had been lying in wait, he had cast levicorpus, and Al had turned upside down.
He hadn't been in the air for long. The moment Scorpius noticed the rather noticeable bulge in his briefs, he had been let down. The following minutes had been composed of awkward silences and stuttered apologies. They had left soon after. Making a mental, silent agreement to never mention the incident again. Not to each other, and not to anyone else.
Al had known since halfway through his third year that he was gay. He had never expected to fall in love with Scorpius Malfoy though. But he had. Or at least, he thought he had. He wasn't exactly sure. Al didn't really have experience with those kinds of feelings, but he was pretty sure he was in love.
He often found himself looking for the other boy in the Great Hall, or during classes. He could think about Scorpius all day and really looked forward to meeting him in the evenings. He also had rather embarrassing dreams about him. Just thinking about those made him blush so furiously he could feel his ears burn.
Over the Christmas vacation Al was rather sad. Scorpius had to go home, so he wouldn't see him for two weeks. Al himself stayed at Hogwarts though. He wanted to practise, so he could finally beat Scorpius in a duel. Despite the fact that he really liked him, the rivalry was still there. The spell he practised the most was levicorpus, he couldn't deny he was curious about his colour of underwear. Though he would most definitely never admit that out loud.
In the end, his hours of practice paid off. The first time they duelled after the holidays, Al managed to beat Scorpius. This time it was Scorpius who was swung bottom-side-up. Al had to hide his blush when he spotted his pair of rather small black briefs.
"Al! Put me down right now!" Scorpius commanded.
"Why should I care? You certainly never did…" Al teased, before letting the boy down.
"I'll get you back for that," Scorpius threatened.
"I'm afraid not Scor, you can't beat me anymore."
"That's what you think. I can still do things that would leave you speechless."
This last statement confused Al. It didn't really make that much sense, and it sounded rehearsed. Scorpius was also looking rather nervous.
"Er, what do you mean?" Al asked rather reluctantly.
Scorpius didn't answer. He simply walked over, grabbed Al by his shoulders, and kissed him.
It was short, and by the time his mind had caught up with what was going on, Scorpius had already pulled back. He was looking at Al with a rather terrified expression. Al opened his mouth, but didn't find any words to say. So he simply kissed him back.
From that night on, Al and Scor were boyfriends in secret. They still got together most nights, though there was less duelling, and more kissing going on. The night of the fourteenth, Valentine, had even involved a bit of groping.
During the last week of February, however, things changed. It was Friday night, and Al entered the bathroom, expecting Scor to be there already, as usual. Scor was there, but instead of smiling at him, and giving him a kiss, he was sitting on the floor, crying.
Al quickly ran towards him, and sat down next to him.
"Scor?" Al slowly pulled away the hand that were covering his face. Scor's eyes were red, and tear tracks lined his face.
"Scor, what's wrong?" Al asked, concerned.
"I- The guys in my dorm, they…"
"They what? What did they do, Scor?" Al was getting scared, Scor was always so unaffected by everything, to see him react like this, it worried him.
"They found out I was gay. They were laughing. They… tried to hex me… I ran…"
"I'm sorry Scor," Al said. He didn't really know what else to say, so he put his arms around his boyfriend and held him tightly.
They sat like that for a long time, hugging, just enjoying each other's presence. It was at least half an hour later when Scor unexpectedly glanced up. Al gave him a questioning look.
"I- Can we-," Scor whispered.
Then he leaned in even closer, his lips almost pressed against Al's ear, and spoke his next words nearly inaudible.
Quickly pulling away a bit, he watched with red cheeks for Al's reaction. Who was sitting there, shocked. Al looked up after a few seconds, a blush of his own on his face.
"If you want… I'd like to," Al said shyly.
He then pushed himself closer to Scor, and slipped a hand between his robes, feeling around. Al's face grew even more red as he felt Scor's chest. He slipped his hand down, until he felt his waistband. He then felt a hand enter his own robes. The cold fingers pressed to his body were so exciting. He looked up, straight into Scor's eyes.
They nodded at each other. And continued their exploration of each other's bodies, their hands slightly sweaty as they clumsily removed their clothes. They shared a kiss and took in the other's appearance, blushing fiercely.
"You- You look good," Al mumbled.
"You too," said Scor.
They embraced, enjoying the feeling of the other and the warmth the floor radiated.
Al quickly cast a mild privacy charm he had picked up somewhere. He nodded at Scor once more, and upon receiving a nod back, he lowered his hands. Intent on making his boyfriend feel better about being gay. Because Al certainly didn't think it was a bad thing.