As Albus lies awake in the darkness of the Slytherin dormitory, the first thing he observes is that he can no longer hear Scorpius's faint, slow, and steady breathing. Instead, there is a quiet nothingness. Albus reassures himself that he cannot have gone far at all. However, when Scorpius doesn't return after a long while, the dark haired teen sluggishly drags himself out of bed in search of his best friend.
Albus finds him in the Slytherin common room. Scorpius is seated by the dark-stoned fireplace with his knees drawn up to his chest, unaware of the other's appearance. Albus watches the way that the light of the flames dances faintly across his pale features. His skin looks warmer. The shadows makes his facial features sharper. In his hands Scorpius holds a gift, wrapped in silver paper.
"Scorpius?" Albus asks hesitantly.
"Scorpius turns his face away from the fire light, towards Albus, smiling. It touches the depths of Albus' belly like a faint light amidst the darkness, both memorizing and hopeful. If he could, Albus would capture Scorpius' smile and put it on display for the whole wide wizarding world to discover, because the sight of Scorpius' smile is a real undiscovered treasure. Warm and kind and radiant.
"He ambles over to the other Slytherin, who immediately makes room for Albus in front of the fireplace.
"Oh, hi Albus! I thought you would be asleep." Albus returns a tired smile before nudging Scorpius' shoulder slightly.
"Chocolate?" Scorpius offers, pressing a piece of Honeyduke's chocolate into his palm. Albus accepts it graciously before popping it in his mouth. For a while, they sit in comfortable silence. Scorpius inserts chocolate into his own mouth. He is never without sweets, and it is one of the many things that Albus loves about him.
"Why are you up so late?" Albus yawns, tugging his blanket around himself for the extra warmth.
"It's Christmas eve, Albus! How could I sleep?" Scorpius sways into Albus, and their shoulders brush together.
"Christmas." Albus corrects.
"What?"
"It's after midnight, Scorpius. Technically, it's Christmas." Albus watches as the realization hit Scorpius. Those clear grey eyes widen with amazement, and they fill with such glee as his lips curve into a delightful smile. Everything about Scorpius' expression goes deliriously bright, and Albus feels overwhelmed and flushed staring at him. Scorpius tends to have that effect on him.
"It's Christmas!" Scorpius declares joyfully. A laugh bubbles in Albus' throat until it is too joyous to contain.
"Yes, it's Christmas."
"After they'd almost destroyed history as they knew it and heralded in a new age of dark magic, Professor McGonagall had cancelled their Christmas. Meaning neither Albus or Scorpius were allowed to go home for the break. The punishment seemed fair enough for resurrecting the most evil wizard in history.
"Christmas at home would have been nice. Things aren't perfect with his father, but they are better. Albus doubts that he would ever be as close to his father as James and Lily are, and he accepts that. He likes to hope that they would grow to one day understand each other.
"Albus' eyes finally land on the gift resting in Scorpius' hands, and it breaks him from his thoughts.
"What do you have there?" He asks softly, watching as Scorpius' face reddens before he gently sets the tidily wrapped gift in Albus' lap.
"It's for you…from me."
"Yes, I figured out that part." Albus responds dryly before he eagerly rips open the paper. It's a black leather book. Upon opening it, blank pages greet Albus.
"I don't understand…" He looks up at Scorpius.
"I know. It's a scrap book. I know that our four years at Hogwarts haven't been the kindest, but I don't want to leave this place bitter and resentful because it's given me the best gift of all. It gave me you, Albus. And I guess I'm saying that I want to make new memories at Hogwarts with you. Kinder memories. So that when we look back, there will be evidence that our time wasn't all bad. That something good happened here."
The room grows silence, and a certain stillness settles in Albus' chest as he runs his fingers along the spine of the leather book, replaying his friend words in his head. Scorpius studies him quietly, trying to gauge a reaction. When the silence becomes unbearable, Scorpius breaks it.
"Albus-"
Without warning, Albus flings himself at Scorpius in an affectionate and warm hug. Scorpius loosely wraps his arms around Albus.
"Oh, we're doing the hugging thing again!" The two boys disentangle and grin. Albus laughs at Scorpius.
"That was the most vomiting-inducing thing that has ever came out of your mouth."
Albus wants to tell Scorpius that he isn't laughing at him. Albus laughs because he doesn't have the words, and laughing is the only way to cope. Albus really wants to say that Scorpius' amiable words overwhelmed him. And how can Scorpius expect him to create a thoughtful and coherent response to something like that? How does he express that he has never felt as known and as loved as he does with Scorpius?
"Thanks, Scorpius," Albus says, then he pauses.
"I should get your gift from upstairs." As he moves to fetch Scorpius' gift, Albus feels a pull on his blanket. He gives Scorpius a curious glance.
"You don't have to do that, Albus, I can wait until Christmas morning." Albus frowns.
"I feel weird about opening your present without giving you anything."
"You can give me something as a placeholder, then. Until we go upstairs." Albus looks around them.
"What am i supposed to give you as a placeholder, Scorpius? A empty wrapper of Honeyduke's chocolate. Don't be ridiculous!"
"Humor me." Scorpius smiles. There it is again. That bright and beautiful smile that Albus firmly believes should be the eighth wonder of the wizarding world. Albus' gaze flutters down to cupid's of bow of Scorpius' lips and lingers for moment before averting away. His skin grows heated and flush.
"I can think of something." Albus mumbles. Scorpius seems surprised, raising one eyebrow in response.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. Uh, close your eyes," Albus instructs. Scorpius does as he is told, holding out his hand. Suddenly, Albus feels nervous. Is he actually going to do this? If he doesn't do it now, he would never gather the courage to do this leans in slowly. When their lips meet, Albus lets himself savor the memory of his lips on Scorpius'. The kiss is warm and sweet and entirely too brief. The blonde exhales gently before his eyes flutter open.
"Oh. I thought…" Scorpius starts, but trails off as he closes his hand.
Dread floods Albus. He second-guesses himself. Maybe that isn't the most well-thought out idea that he has ever had.
"I know." He swallows thickly. Scorpius remains silent, and his brow furrows in deep thought. The action frightens Albus. He prepares himself to take it back and apologize, but Scorpius softly takes his face into his palms and kisses him, long and slow. They fill the kiss with soft gasps, nervous laughter, gentle hands in hair, and trembling breaths. When they pull apart, Scorpius appears timid. Albus craves more long and slow kisses with Scorpius. This is uncharted territory for both of them.
"I can't quite believe we did that," Scorpius' voice is soft and incredulous.
"I can't quite believe we did that either."
"Do you regret-" Albus interrupts quickly.
"I don't regret…kissing you. I mean, I would gladly do it again." The two boys laugh. Albus feels glad that the awkwardness of the night dissipates.
"Does this mean that we-" Scorpius pauses to consider what he is about to say. "I want to give this a try. If you want to."
Albus responds with slowly sliding his palm into Scorpius', lacing their fingers through. Scorpius smiles.
"Merry Christmas, Albus."
"Merry Christmas, Scorpius."
For a moment, Albus considers running upstairs and getting his camera. But Albus wants to savor this moment and keep it to himself. The seconds tick by and slowly each second fades into a memory that Albus will remember for the rest of his life. He doesn't need a scrapbook to know that this moment with Scorpius happened. There are some things that a camera cannot catch as beautifully as a memory does.