A/N: This is an AU where Albus and Scorpius didn't meet on the train and Albus was sorted into Gryffindor instead. It takes place once Albus and Scorpius are out of Hogwarts. This was written for Albus as part of Slash September over on the Hogwarts Challenges and Assignments forum. Word count: 4,281
Making up for Lost Time
Albus took a step back to admire his handiwork. He hadn't quite trusted his memory of the spell for making sure a picture was hung straight, yet it had worked as far as his eyes could tell.
He looked around the room, taking it in for the hundredth time.
Having a house entirely to oneself was satisfying. He'd been waiting for it for years. At Hogwarts, he had felt slightly uncomfortable around his roommates in the Gryffindor dormitory, and in the couple of years since when he'd been living back at home, he had felt more smothered by the day. It had been time for him to have a place to himself. He could already feel the freedom of being out from underneath the watchful eyes of his parents.
Settling onto the couch, he leaned back and closed his eyes, basking in the glory of being able to do anything he wanted. There was no one to stop him. He could sing in the shower, and no one would judge him for it. He could dance while cooking dinner, and no one would have to know.
He smirked as he thought about it, though he knew he was unlikely to do either himself.
A knock on the front door made his eyes fly open. He glanced around as if the knocker was in the room with him. He hesitated before getting up, unsure of who it could be.
It wasn't any of his family. They'd left after helping him move in the boxes, and he'd made it clear that he wanted the rest of the day to decorate the house just how he wanted it. He didn't have many friends who would have bothered to come see him either. Actually, he wasn't sure he'd told any of his friends where his new house was. He'd been putting it off because they might have felt obligated to help him with the move.
That only left the neighbors, and Albus wasn't sure he was up for meeting them yet. Once they got wind that Harry Potter's son had moved to the neighborhood, he was going to have to deal with the same crap he'd dealt with at Hogwarts.
He'd known that a Muggle town would suit him more than a wizarding one, but his mother had felt better knowing that Teddy and Victoire would be nearby if he needed him. And it had been a nice house, so he'd given in. At least it was Teddy and Victoire instead of James.
With a sigh, he rose and headed for the door. The lights shining through the windows would make it clear that he was ignoring whoever it was on the other side, and it was in his best interest not to offend his neighbors on his first day in the neighborhood.
He swung the door open and could only stare at the equally stunned Scorpius Malfoy standing on the other side.
"Hello," Scorpius said slowly. "I wanted to welcome my new neighbor. I brought a casserole."
Albus didn't look at the dish Scorpius held towards him. His thoughts were going a mile a minute. Scorpius Malfoy. In the house next to his. Merlin, what had he gotten himself into? The Muggle town would have been much more preferable to this.
"Neighbors?" he asked, voice rising in panic.
Scorpius gave a short nod and motioned at the house that sat next to Albus', the one with a garden that was tended to every day if the state of it was any indication.
"That's me," he said.
Albus watched as Scorpius shifted from one foot to the other, over and over. At least he wasn't alone in his discomfort. Scorpius Malfoy had acted terrified of him since their first year at Hogwarts. He hadn't been sure what to make of it at first, not knowing if it was because he was a Gryffindor or because he was a Potter, but at some point, he'd accepted that he'd never know the answer and stopped trying to figure it out.
"What are the chances?" he mused.
Scorpius' answering smile was more of a grimace.
"Casserole?" he asked, holding the dish towards Albus again.
Albus took it. He wasn't sure what was in the dish, but it smelled amazing. He couldn't help but grin at the thought of eating it. There wasn't much food in the fridge, and he hadn't quite figured out how he would make up for not having his dad around to cook his meals for him anymore. At least this would cover him for a day or two before he had to start brushing up on his cooking spells.
"Thank you."
Scorpius flushed, looking down at the floor, and Albus' stomach tightened. The blond boy had been gorgeous to him since they'd first met, but as they'd gotten older, he'd really come into his own. He'd been distracting Albus for years. He'd thought he'd escaped it when he left Hogwarts, that for once he could finally get things done without thinking about Scorpius Malfoy, but apparently he'd only been granted a few years of reprieve.
His former fantasies were already returning. It felt rather like he'd been thrust into puberty again without warning.
"You're welcome," Scorpius said.
If Albus hadn't known better, he'd have thought he'd said something to offend him.
"I need to get going," Scorpius said quickly, backing away from the door and almost stumbling down the stairs.
His face grew redder at the blunder.
"It's getting late," he continued, "and I have work tomorrow. Lots to do at home. Today's my cleaning day. Yes, cleaning. Lots of cleaning to do. See you later, Mr Potter."
Albus cringed at the way Scorpius addressed him and how he stumbled over the "mister." Did Scorpius expect Albus to address him with the same level of formality? Was it an adult thing or a stuffy Malfoy thing? The few times he'd spoken to Scorpius at school, they'd addressed each other by their first names.
He watched Scorpius disappear into his house, face still flushed.
It was remarkable how he could be so confused, amused, and turned on all at once.
It didn't take Albus long to realize that he could see over Scorpius' fence and into his back garden from one of his upstairs windows. He felt like a massive creep because of it.
Perhaps he wouldn't have if he hadn't quickly learned that Scorpius loved his back garden more than seemed normal. To Albus, the back had looked a tad more unkempt than the front at first, but he learned from observation that Scorpius spent more time tending to it. He must have liked the freedom of growing the plants he liked and not the ones that looked the nicest and would win the approval of the neighbors.
Albus had a dilemma. He refused to stand around and actually watch Scorpius when he didn't know he was being watched. Albus had lines he refused to cross, but it seemed he couldn't walk down his own hallway without glancing out the window and seeing Scorpius hard at work. Albus was beginning to wonder if Scorpius spent any time inside at all.
Throughout the summer, he saw Scorpius gardening, reading, and grilling behind his house.
Inadvertently, Scorpius kept fueling Albus' fantasies. It was like being at Hogwarts all over again. Those days, he'd encounter Scorpius randomly in the hallway and struggle to keep it together in front of his classmates. If he nearly tripped over himself when he saw the other man out the window, at least there was no one around to mock him for it.
Several months in, his habit of glancing out the window for signs of Scorpius was becoming too much. He refused to sit and watch. That would have made him a stalker, but he hated the fact that he looked as much as he did. It was driving him crazy.
He needed to get away from the temptation if he had any hope of getting over his crush, so he did something he'd been putting off since he'd moved into his house: he visited home.
His parents were surprised by his decision to spend the entire weekend at their house, but they were too thankful to have him there to ask many questions, for which he was thankful.
It took until Sunday, his last day there, for his mother to actually question him. He tensed as she lowered herself next to him on the sofa and looped an arm around his shoulders. He'd been hoping to avoid having this conversation, but he'd known that wasn't likely. Ginny Potter wasn't one to just stay in the dark.
"We've loved having you the past few days," she said, smiling softly. "Your dad's been on cloud nine."
Albus gave a short nod and fiddled with the sleeves of his robes.
"But you've been pretty quiet about how life is going this weekend," she continued, leaning forward to get a better look at his face. "How are things at work?"
"Work is fine," Albus said. "You know, working for the research institute isn't the most exciting job in the world. I just file the paperwork, but I don't have any complaints. Everyone's nice; the pay's decent."
"So, it's not work then."
"What's not work?" Albus replied as if he didn't have a clue what she was getting at.
Ginny tilted her head knowingly in his direction, a small smile on her lips.
"Something has you worked up," she said. "You've chosen to spend two nights in your old bedroom, and I remember a time when you happily declared that you'd never sleep there again. You were so excited to get out of this 'small, good-for-nothing town' as you once called it."
Albus scowled.
"I was barely an adult and wanted my freedom, Mum. You can't take everything I said back then as absolute fact. Sometimes a guy just wants to visit his parents."
"Sure," she said with a shrug. "That's all fine and good, though I'll remind you that this was only a few months ago, Al. You could come every weekend, and we'd happily have you. But I know that look on your face. Your body may be here, but your mind has been somewhere else."
He hesitated. Telling his mother everything hadn't been part of his plan when he'd come home, but he knew from the way she was looking at him that he was going to come clean eventually. There was little use in delaying it.
He could feel the heat in his cheeks before he'd even spoken.
"Scorpius Malfoy is my next-door-neighbor."
"Oh." Ginny leaned away from him, surprised by the turn in the conversation. "Is he giving you trouble?"
"No, no trouble."
At least not the kind his mother was asking about.
"He's been nothing but nice to me. When I first moved in, he brought me a casserole to welcome me to the neighborhood."
Ginny blinked a few times.
"You're sure this is a Malfoy?"
Albus laughed a little.
"Yes, that's always been what he's like, Mum. Even when we were at Hogwarts. I know what you have to say about his father, but Scorpius is nothing like that. At all."
He'd gotten more heated in defending Scorpius than intended. Sinking back into the couch, he tried to calm his breathing. His mother was smiling knowingly at him, and he hated it.
"Most people don't get so worked up over their neighbors that they need to escape," she pointed out.
"Mum," Albus whined, losing all pretense. "He's so attractive, and he cooked me a freaking casserole. A casserole! And he gardens. I can see over his back fence from my upstairs window, and please don't tell me that's creepy because I already know it is. But he talks to his plants, and I should probably find that off-putting, but instead, I just find it endearing."
He paused to take a deep breath before letting himself collapse against his mother, resting his head on her shoulder. He suddenly felt much younger.
"I like him," he admitted in one long sigh.
Ginny patted his head several times and laughed softly.
"I can tell," she said, "and as your mother, I feel it's only appropriate for me to tell you to go get him."
Albus whined, turning to press his face into her shirt.
"Easy for you to say when you're already married. How the hell am I supposed to do that? Do I just go knock on his door and say, 'Hi. I'd like to date you'?"
His head bobbed as Ginny shrugged.
"That works as well as anything else."
He scoffed, pushing himself away from her.
"No, it doesn't, Mum. It makes me sound like a weirdo."
Ginny laughed loudly at that, shaking her head.
"It really doesn't, Al."
He scowled at her, and she put all of her effort into being stoic as she wrapped an arm around his shoulders.
"I don't know Scorpius," she admitted, "so it's impossible for me to tell you how he'd react. That being said, I think it might go better than you think."
Albus didn't stop scowling, and Ginny shrugged, patting him on the shoulder a few times before releasing him and saying something about getting them tea.
Albus had only been home for fifteen minutes when there was a knock on his door. His heart raced as he ran through the possibilities, but he forced the thoughts away. The likelihood of it being Scorpius was slim, and even if it was, he was probably coming over to complain about Albus' grass being too long or something else ridiculous.
When he pulled his door open and saw Scorpius on the other side, it took all his willpower not to visibly react.
"Hello," he said, voice falsely light. "Can I help you?"
He wanted to hit himself for how uncaring he had sounded. He had wanted to strike a nice middle ground between not being too interested but being a little interested, and he wasn't sure he had managed it. He was so busy beating himself up about it that he almost missed Scorpius' response.
"Your house was dark for days," he said with wide—maybe worried, but that might have been Albus' imagination—eyes. "I was getting worried, so when the lights were on, I wanted to come check on you."
Albus' heart stuttered, and he swallowed.
"Oh," he said softly. "Thank you, but everything's fine. I spent the weekend at my parents' house."
"Oh," Scorpius replied with a jerky nod. "That sounds nice. Sorry I was worried then."
"You don't need to apologize."
Scorpius gave another jerky nod, and the two men stood facing each other for several seconds as neither of them knew what to say.
"Well," Scorpius said, drawing the word out. "I guess I should go."
He motioned at his house, and Albus felt his heart tighten at the thought of Scorpius leaving, though it would do wonders for his anxiety.
"Okay," he said quietly.
He stood in his doorway, nodding awkwardly as Scorpius gave a short wave of his hand and headed down Albus' path instead of cutting across their front gardens like a normal person would have. Albus bit at his lip to keep from smiling as Scorpius reached his own front door and waved one last time.
Albus didn't go back inside until Scorpius was gone.
It was easy to ignore your neighbors when you could leave the house using the Floo, but sometimes, the floo arrival times didn't line up with your work schedule and you needed to Apparate.
Albus had almost gone so far as to disable the anti-Apparition wards from his house so he could come and go without going out the front door, but he'd forced himself to give up the idea. That was a perfect way to get robbed, and besides, he was a grown adult who refused become so scared of a cute boy that he refused to leave his own front door.
He still should have been smart enough to look out the window before leaving. He knew Scorpius liked to tend to his plants first thing in the morning. He inwardly cursed himself when he spotted the blond bent over the flowers that lined his porch.
For a split second, Albus thought he could make a run for it, but even if Scorpius didn't turn around, he would hear the pop of Albus Apparating and know he'd been snubbed.
Taking a deep breath to brace himself, Albus called, "Good morning!"
Scorpius' answering smile was so large that Albus figured he must have already been beaming at his plants.
"Good morning," he returned, waving his gardening spade in the air.
Merlin, he was gardening the Muggle way. Albus bet he preferred it because it made him feel closer to the plants. His stomach twisted.
"I haven't seen you out much," Scorpius continued, fiddling with the spade as he spoke. "You know, I could bring you some hydrangeas. They'd give your garden some colour."
Albus didn't care if his garden had colour, but he nodded.
"That sounds nice," he lied, "but I'd only kill them. I barely made an Acceptable on my Herbology O.W.L., and my practical was much worse than my theory."
The way Scorpius smiled at him was almost fond. Albus was going to faint before he made it to work.
"I can take care of them then," Scorpius said. "I don't mind. They'd make the whole neighborhood brighter."
Albus almost made a joke about not realizing he'd hired a gardener when he'd bought the house, but he refrained. He could remember when, years ago, Scorpius hadn't gotten his sense of humour and had run away from him after a poorly timed joke. Albus thought he would have worked up the nerve to ask Scorpius out years ago if that moment hadn't stuck with him for years afterward.
"I can't ask you to do that," he said instead.
Scorpius shrugged, his smile making it clear that he planned to anyway.
"I need to get to work," Albus said, taking a reluctant step down the path.
"Of course," Scorpius said, smile dimming. "Have a nice day."
He'd almost made it to the edge of his anti-Apparition wards when Scorpius stopped him.
"Wait!"
Albus whirled around without thinking, finding Scorpius in the same position he'd been in when he'd first turned away.
"I was wondering if you'd be interested in having dinner with me on Saturday. As a friendly neighbor thing, you know?"
Scorpius was such a bright shade of red that Albus could see it from the end of the path.
"Sure, I love friendly neighbor dinners," Albus responded, unable to keep a slight smirk off his face.
Scorpius took a deep breath and nodded.
"Great. We're having roast beef."
"Great," Albus said, bobbing on his toes for a few seconds before remembering that he was supposed to be leaving for work. "See you then."
Scorpius gave him a small smile and waved his spade at him.
"See you."
Albus was so distracted that it was a miracle he didn't splinch himself.
On Saturday evening, it took Albus an embarrassingly long time to get ready. He put on every pair of robes he owned at least once before tossing them to the side in frustration.
In the end, he decided on his simplest pair. This was a "friendly neighbor thing" after all, and it was ridiculous that he'd entertained the thought of getting his hair to lie flat.
His heart was out of control as he followed Scorpius inside the house. He smiled nervously as Scorpius led him to the kitchen, bouncing as he went.
"The rolls are almost finished," Scorpius said, "and that will be the last of it."
The table was already laden with food, but Albus didn't pay it much attention. His focus was firmly on the other man because that was the only way to keep up with him. Something had Scorpius moving a mile a minute, like someone who was particularly sensitive to caffeine and had chugged several cups of coffee.
He moved through the kitchen as if everything needed to have been done five seconds ago, and Albus found himself hovering instead of taking a seat, feeling like he should be doing something to help but not knowing what that something was. Scorpius was too focused on the foot to give him directions or tell him to take a seat.
The timer rang, signaling that the rolls were ready. Scorpius waved his wand, silencing the timer, and went for the oven. Albus didn't realize his mistake until it was too late.
Scorpius grabbed onto the baking sheet with nothing protecting his hand, not even a charm, and cried out in pain. He dropped the rolls, and the pan flipped, leaving the rolls scattered inside the oven and on the kitchen floor Clutching his hand to his chest, Scorpius sunk to the floor himself.
Rushing forward, Albus knelt beside Scorpius and wrapped his hand around the other man's wrist to inspect his hand for damage.
"I'm okay," Scorpius assured him, though his voice was pained. "It's just a burn. I can handle this."
He scrambled for his wand. It had been in his hands only seconds before when he'd used it on the timer, but he had dropped it in his shock. Before he could crawl around on the floor looking for it, Albus waved his own wand, and Scorpius flexed his fingers, finding his hand pain free.
Scorpius looked up at him with eyebrows raised, and Albus became aware of how closely together they were crouched on the floor. He cleared his throat.
"Not all of us may be Healers," he joked, "but cooking for myself has proven to be a challenge. I've learned some things."
Scorpius was able to overcome his surprise to smirk.
"Despite the show I just provided, cooking does get easier," he said. "Soon, you'll be flipping omelettes in your sleep."
Albus returned the smirk.
"Somehow, I doubt that."
Scorpius shrugged. He began looking around as if he were considering standing up, and Albus felt a pang at the thought of him getting further away. His hand was still wrapped around Scorpius' wrist he realized with a jolt. He dropped it as if it had burned him. Scorpius grinned sheepishly at him.
"In that case," Scorpius said slowly, "I guess I'll need to make omelettes for you instead."
Albus swallowed, willing his mind not to go where it wanted to with that suggestion.
"I like omelettes," he responded dumbly, somehow managing to get another smile out of Scorpius.
This time, the blond did stand up, and Albus followed him as if they were attached to each other with string. Scorpius didn't comment on how close he was standing, so Albus didn't make a move to give him space.
Scorpius was taller than he was, making Albus lean back to look at his face, but Albus found that he didn't mind much. He noticed that Scorpius was nervous, and he wondered if the buzzing energy from earlier hadn't been about caffeine.
"I've had a crush on you since I was eleven," Scorpius blurted out.
Despite his nervousness earlier, the sight of Scorpius looking as worried as he'd felt left Albus feeling far more confident than before. He smirked as he took another step closer, edging into Scorpius' personal space. The Slytherin didn't move away or protest, and Albus watched with wonder as his pupils widened.
"Really?" he asked, surprised at the flirtation in his own voice. "That's a handy coincidence."
Scorpius began to nod before his brow creased.
"Coincidence?" he asked. "What's a coincidence?"
Albus hesitated. He'd never told the story of his sorting to anyone, but he decided to go for it. He was already doing all the things he'd told himself he never would in the past.
"I was terrified of being put in Slytherin, so when the Hat suggested it, I begged to go to Gryffindor, and it listened. Still, there was a part of me that almost let it put me in Slytherin. All because I'd watched a cute boy go there not long before it was my turn."
Scorpius squeaked, and Albus chuckled.
"Really?" Scorpius asked. "But I'm a Malfoy. You can't have possibly made a decision like that just because you thought I was cute."
Another step forward. He could feel Scorpius' breath on his face when he spoke. He shrugged.
"I didn't in the end, but part of me wonders if I shouldn't have. Things would have been different, but I don't think they would have been as terrible as I thought when I was little. It might have been nice having you around."
With the height difference, Albus was doing all he could to close the gap between them without going up on his toes and looking too eager.
Luckily, Scorpius caught on, and with a sharp intake of breath, he leaned down and closed the space between them.
The two of them sunk into the kiss, not coming out of it until the smoke and smell of the burnt rolls at the bottom of the oven became too strong to ignore. Even so, they held hands throughout dinner, and by the time he went home that night, Albus was more convinced than ever that he'd made the wrong choice when he'd sat under the Sorting Hat all those years ago.
But there was nothing to be done about that anymore. He would have to make up for the lost time, and he was well on his way to doing that.