Title: Nodos Luporum
Author: ArbiterDeliberata
Fandom: Harry Potter

Pairing: Albus Potter/Scorpius Malfoy (Scorbus)
Rating: MA
Summary: After admitting their feelings for each other at the end of fifth year, the boys explore an exciting, sensual new level in their relationship. But when a fellow classmate casts an experimental spell on them, the boys are forced to deal with a lasting consequence of their Transfiguration.

Warnings: This story will contain adult language and graphic sexual content between underage (16-year-old) boys.

Additional Notes: Lodos Luporum is Latin for "The Knots of Wolves".

CHAPTER 1

Have you ever had someone that you went through crazy shit with? Someone who understood your fears and weaknesses and stuck by you anyway? That's what I had in Scorpius. Although over the last couple years, things seemed to have changed for us.

After the chaotic events with Delphi and nearly breaking the world with our time-travel escapades, Scorpius and I weren't entirely sure how to move forward. We were still best friends, but we'd gone through something nobody else had. It had fostered a level of emotional intimacy that was new and honestly a little frightening for both of us. It gave us a deep level of trust, but our bond got more confusing. Was a lingering touch on the arm just getting attention to point something out; in class? Or did it also remind him of the touches we shared in the church as we were hiding during the fight against Delphi? Was it…more than that? We became, for the first time in our relationship, completely unsure.

Everything came to a head in May of our fifth year. It had been a particularly rough week leading up to our O.W.L. Exams. The Common Room had been empty except for the two of us late on a Tuesday night. I had become terribly frustrated with my Charms work; a number of spells just weren't clicking for me. With another failed attempt at an Invisibility Charm, I stomped off up the stairs, leaving poor, tired Scorpius, probably more exhausted from trying to help me understand the work than from an actual lack of sleep, sitting by the fire with our books and parchment spread around him, looking dejected.

Guilt gnawed at me. Great job, Albus. Ditch your best friend who's trying to help you. Have you really become that dick?

Ashamed of my pouting and subsequent outburst, I realized I wasn't just frustrated by the work, but by the change in our relationship and the constant flare between us that neither of us could explain or wanted to confront.

I took a deep breath and counted to ten. Then I turned on my heel and walked straight back. There he was, still slumped in his chair, hair glowing magnificently in the firelight. He looked up when he saw me re-enter and managed to look heartbreakingly apologetic, like my stomping off was somehow his fault.

"Albus, I think you've got the wand work and theory down perfectly, it's just your focus that –"

I knew it would have been politer to let him finish his train of thought, but I couldn't help it. I was pent-up and selfish and greedy right then. I strode to his chair until my knees hit the front of his seat and bent over to him, then cupped his face and pulled him into a kiss.

I didn't realize it would sear the way it did. I didn't anticipate the relieved sigh that would escape…somebody. To this day, I still don't know if it was him or me.

Neither of us bothered with chaste or slow, the second either of us realized that yes, this is happening, we were suddenly all hands and tongues and happy fucking whining. I don't recall moving to straddle his lap and fist his hair, I don't recall him pulling my shirt from my trousers and dragging his blunt nails down my back, but I do recall that when we finally pulled back several minutes later, we were both hard. We were panting and wide-eyed, completely dumbstruck. Our relationship had been through so much in the last couple years, with the most recent months existing in an irritatingly nebulous realm of are we more than this?

So there had been our answer. Right there, alone in the Common Room, surrounded by a heat we couldn't just blame on the fire. I wasn't sure who confessed first but we'd spent the next several minutes whispering admissions between kisses.

"About bloody fucking time," Scorpius gasped, breathless, and I loved the sound of voice when he swore in the heat of the moment. "Why did it take us so long?" He tipped his head back, breathing shallowly, inviting my attention.

"Hey, you could have made the first move," I murmured, trailing my lips along his jaw and nipping at his pulse point.

A small chill wracked him, and I felt his shiver as though it had gone through me, too. He clutched at me, one warm hand grasping my thigh and the other buried in my hair. I felt him tug and I managed one more small, sucking kiss on his jaw before he'd dragged me up to his lips again.

It was nearly an hour before we'd shakily disentangled and headed off to our dormitory, exhausted and unsure of our readiness to take anything further. I'd gotten to the bathroom first, which meant I'd gotten dibs on a quick private wank, biting my hand as a I came to stave off the shout I might have let loose otherwise.

After cleaning myself up, I'd slipped quietly back into the dormitory, relieved to find the curtains pulled closed on every four-poster but my own. The other boys were all sound asleep, thank Merlin. All except, apparently, Scorpius, although I could hardly blame him for being as worked up as I'd been. His curtains shrouded his bed like the others, but he'd forgotten to cast Muffliato, and had I not just come minutes before, I'd have been hard again just hearing his soft sighs and the rhythmic wet pull as he furiously worked himself off, too. It hadn't been long before he gave a tiny gasping moan and a shuddering sigh. His soft panting gradually slowed.

I tried not to think about it. I tried to not think about the fact that my best mate of 6 years, with whom I had gotten up to terrible world-altering mayhem, had just jacked off not eight feet away because he was hard over kissing me.

I tried not to think about the fact that I'd just done the exact same thing.

Despite the admission of our obvious attraction, we still both harbored our mutual interest in girls. It was surprisingly easy to discuss later. We decided, perhaps out of insecurity and false bravado, that we wouldn't be totally exclusive because hey, what if a girl came along, ya know? We just didn't acknowledge the obvious lack of interest we were getting from any girls at Hogwarts.

And so as sixth year started, we continued to be – though not for lack of half-hearted trying – functionally exclusive. Sharing a room with three other boys made finding private time difficult, especially since we weren't terribly keen on letting anyone know we were…whatever the hell we were. The Malfoy nerd and the Slytherin Potter were already low on the likeability list. The stress of dealing with potential prejudice just wasn't worth it to either of us to out ourselves not only as bisexual, but together as well. News would spread beyond the House, beyond the school, to our families and to the gossip columns of the Daily Prophet. The media would have a damn field day. A field day neither of us was ready for.

So on rare occasions, such as free periods or lazy weekends when our homework was finished, we'd explore. We realized we were both very tactile and sensual. He quickly realized my adoration for snogging. Hours of long, lazy kisses, I love it. Scorpius frequently teased me about that. "You're such a girl, Albus," he'd snicker, but then he'd pull me right back in for another kiss. Maybe he won't admit to loving a good snog as much as I do, but the way he lick into my mouth and whimpers when I nip his lower lip tells me he just might love it too, all teasing aside.

Hogsmeade weekends in particular had rapidly become our favorite weekends. I'd never given a shit about Hogsmeade, although Scorpius had been fascinated by its history for a short while. But when we realized that the other guys in our dormitory always went off the village whenever the chance arose, we started becoming just as excited as the rest of the House when the visit dates were posted in the Common Room, though for a markedly different reason.

For the most part, we spent those blissful weekends alone, just petting, kissing, learning each other. We dragged fingertips over goose bumped skin and twitching muscles. Scorpius realized he could make my heart race and my abs shiver if he dragged his lips, barely touching me and huffing hot breaths, across my chest. In turn, I discovered that he liked to have his hair pulled and his ass grabbed roughly during a snog. We did everything we could to elicit those feelings in each other, as often as we could. And that meant wonderful stolen hours wrapped around each other, trembling and groaning.

But we'd never actually fucked. We just…weren't there yet. We'd wanked together, sure. First on our own, watching each other from our respective beds through heavy-lidded eyes, but after a couple instances of mutual tossing, we'd finally taken each other in hand. I'll never forget the look in Scorpius' eyes as he came for the first time by my hand, painting my stomach and huffing out a desperate, breathless moan that I've since come to crave way too much. He'd looked so vulnerable and beautiful and filled to the brim with raw contentment as he had slowly come down from his high, shakily pulling me in for a kiss with one hand, his other hand still working over my cock.

As I'd neared my own peak, I vaguely heard his voice cutting across my lusty haze.

"Look at me, Albus," he breathed. I sluggishly raised my head to meet his fiery gaze. "I want you to watch me watching you come."

His hand had sped up, which, while certainly appreciated, was ultimately unnecessary. His words alone were enough. I'd come suddenly, with the force of a gut-punch, and I swear only my shock at hearing my sweet, awkward nerd make that dirty demand had kept my eyes open.

We'd gone down on each other about a month later, curled around each other in a shuddering pile of limbs. We trembled through our orgasms together, trying to maintain our wits while still licking and sucking each other with our rookie abandon. I weakly rationalized that finesse would result from more experience, and so we continued to revel in our shaking thighs and debauched, wet smiles. And hey, gaining more experience sure sounded like fun.

We'd eventually braved attempting fingerfucking, and with the aid of copious vials of lube and whispered reassurances, we'd both managed to take a couple of each other's fingers anally several weeks later. I was on my back, legs splayed ridiculously wide, when I felt Scorpius seat his palm against my ass, his middle and index fingers sunk all the way to his knuckles. I looked down, hysterically and pathetically tempted to congratulate us both, when I caught sight of him. His fingers were slowly working in and out of me with his head ducked low, his disheveled, silky white hair brushing my dripping cock. He looked up at me when he felt my movement and gave me a sinful leer.

"That's my boy, Albus," he grated out. He stared me down as he gave my straining erection a kiss and long lick.

Scorpius had a tendency to tell me to come for him, but as with so many of our trysts, I didn't need that particular instruction. He brushed my prostate for the first time at the exact moment I fully registered the intense affection in his eyes, his pupils blown wide, and I can only scarcely remember the blur of my undignified moans and the heat of release, soon followed by the wet drag of his tongue and the vibrations of his chuckle as he kept thrusting his fingers, letting his knuckles scrape roughly at my entrance on each push.

Was this my life? Was this never-ending bliss of giddy smiles shared across the breakfast table and frenzied encounters during free periods truly my life?

It had continued on like this steadily into the winter. We were too caught up in schoolwork and exploring our relationship to have time or interest in any dangerous shenanigans like our fourth year.

Until Nate bloody Craglin set us on another journey we didn't ask for.