Warning: use of bad language, as well as a boy/boy relationship. If you have a problem with that, don't read.

no heroes allowed

We talked together sharpening a knife

Like killing partners for a life

Hey, we can hide the bodies on the ride home

-she's my ride home, blue october

Scorpius finds him on the top of the astronomy tower.

Albus is blowing smoke into the cool night air, a silver cloud floating amongst the darkness. He is sitting against the wall, one hand curled around his knee.

For a minute, Scorpius forgets everything, and he just watches.

Then Al turns around, tilting his head slightly to the left, and he smirks as though his startling green eyes aren't empty.

'Alright, mate?' he says, coolly. Scorpius takes this as an invitation, whether it was intended as one or not.

'What are you doing up here?' Scorpius asks. He rakes his hand through soft blonde hair. Irritated, agitated. He's not sure why. Except, there's something about Al that makes him forget about the pretty little Gryffindor girlfriend that hangs around for him after class and ignores his moodswings.

He can't figure it out.

He doesn't like that, not one bit.

Al takes a few moments to answer. He takes a few drags. Scorpius can't help but notice the way he opens up his perfect pink lips, just a bit, to let the smoke exhale. He can't help but notice those eyes, again, always staring. Watching.

'Thinking,' he decides.

'About?' Scorpius presses. 'I worry about you, Al. You're quite possibly insane.'

Al smirks.

'And you aren't? Scor, we're both fucked.'

Scorpius nods. 'As fucked as we can be. I'm a Malfoy, mates with a Potter, after all.'

'And I'm the Potter in Slytherin,' Al says, a wry smile on his face.

Scorpius wants to tell him that he looks kind of really good with the moonlight illuminating his skin and making his intense eyes shine, but he doesn't.

Instead, he laughs. A little hollowly. 'Ah, yes,' he says. 'I don't think James has quite forgiven you for that.'

Al shrugs. 'I don't need James.'

Then a small silence.

'Don't need anyone.'

Scorpius shakes his head.

'Oh please, Potter. Don't get all independent on me. You need me.'

Al raises one eyebrow. The ghost of a smile flickering on his lips.

'I think you'll find,' he says slowly. 'That, Scorpius, my dear- you need me, just as much.'

Scorpius can't think of a reply to that, so they sit in silence for a few moments, and he thinks maybe they don't even need words.

Al leans towards him, breathes out smoke, right into his face. Scorpius can feel the closeness of his lips, the proximity of his face and the eyes that light up his face.

His breath catches in his throat. But then Al is pulling away, laughing, and the connection is broken.

x

Their shared dormitory is silent besides the faint snoring of Jake Golding, and the slightly raspy breaths of a sleeping Tate Redwood.

Scorpius is lying on his back, eyes dancing across the ceiling, few shadows visible in the corners of the darkened room illuminated by a stream of moonlight. He is very much awake.

He assumes Albus is, too. Out of the corner of his eye he watches his best friend toss and turn, pulling the duvet covers over his body before kicking them off again.

Scorpius senses some kind of distress.

'Al?' he whispers. His voice seems too loud in the silence of the dormitory. Outside, the moon stares on at them, bright and glowing and too huge for Scorpius to really comprehend.

He'd like to go the moon one day, maybe. He'd take Al with him.

Al sits up in his bed. His dark hair is messier than normal, Scorpius can see the shadowy outline of his hair sticking out in every direction, and of course, those glinting emerald eyes. How come they always seem so bright to him, even when they're both shrouded by darkness?

'Yeah?' he murmurs. His voice is muffled.

'You awake?'

Scorpius doesn't know for sure, but he's pretty sure Al rolled his eyes at that. Hell, he would, too. The lack of sleep is obviously getting to him.

'No shit,' Al hisses. 'What's up?'

'Can't sleep,' Scorpius replies. 'Doesn't sound like you can either.'

'It's 4am, Scor, I've mostly given up hope of getting any shut-eye tonight.'

'Yeah well, I fell asleep for about an hour.'

'Did you do that Potions essay?'

Scorpius groans faintly. 'Fuck me, I forgot about that.'

'Fuck you? Well, okay,' Al says, and Scorpius can picture him: eyes glittering dangerously, dark hair falling over in a perfect contract to that unearthly white skin, his lips curled into a suggestive smirk and-

Scorpius feels his cheeks glow pink. Thank fuck the lights are out. Al and his laughing eyes and no welcoming sight for anyone deprived of sleep.

'Shut up, Potter,' he says, carelessly, but his heart is beating faster and his cheeks are burning.

Al snickers. 'Don't act as if you don't love me, Malfoy.'

'Yeah, well,' Scorpius mutters. 'You love me right back, asshole.'

Silence takes over again. Just for a little while.

As he's drifting back into a restless sleep, Scorpius thinks he hears just a faint murmur coming from his best friend's bed. The voice is gentle, soft, loving, and totally unlike Al.

'Yeah, I do.'

x

The Charms classroom is full of bustling students, an agitated Professor Flitwick and a sea of laughter and voices spilling over each other.

Yet all Scorpius can see is Albus and his messy hair and his angry eyes. He stares right past Rose and her pretty red hair, despite the fact that she's mid-way through a sentence in an attempt to talk to him.

Al spots him looking. Catches him in a green-eyed gaze, and smirks.

Scorpius looks away, a blush threatening, and when he looks back at Rose, it's like she knows.

'Scor?' she says, uncertainly, and he barely acknowledges her.

Because acknowledging Rose and her crestfallen expression and sad eyes- they're the wrong colour and the wrong shade of sadness- means acknowledging these feelings that are clotting up inside him. It would mean facing up the the boy who's smirks linger behind his irises and follow him when he shuts his eyes at night.

He can't. He won't.

'What is it, Rose?' he snaps, irritably, and yeah it's unfair but so are those eyes that taunt him from way across the classroom where Al is paired with Izzy Goldstein, and she rests her hand on his arm, inching her body too close to his and he whispers in her ear and she giggles.

And Scorpius wonders why it hurts so much, whilst somehow still ignoring the glaringly obvious truth that shines, red, white and blue, painstakingly clear, right in front of him.

Rose backs down, something almost unheard of for a Weasley like her- especially her- but she does and he takes a moment to consider whether or not this means she loves him.

She might love him.

Well, fuck.

Flitwick dismisses the class, and they file out. Izzy Goldstein is still flirting with Al, and he looks faintly amused. Scorpius watches the way her olive skin and slender figure curve into Al's own body. He can't help but notice how his hand perches on her shoulder, tendrils of dark hair curling over his fingers.

Rose is talking to him about something or other, Merlin knows what, and Scorpius should be listening but he's not because all it'll take is the occasional nod of his head or a murmured 'yeah' to satisfy her.

He fastens his pace until he's falling into step with Albus, who in turn leaves Izzy behind and grins at him.

'Wondered how long it'd take you to get over here,' he says softly.

Scorpius shrugs. 'Figured you needed saving.'

x

The top of the astronomy tower.

It is mid-day, grey clouds looming over the Hogwarts grounds. Scorpius is lying across the floor, a quill in his hand a piece of parchment laid out in front of him. He bites his lip, thinking.

Al sits with his back pressed against the wall, another cigarette rolling between his fingers, blowing ribbons of smoke into the air.

He is aware that any one of is professors may come out and apprehend him at any moment, but at the same time he also knows he is Albus Severus Potter, Harry Potter's youngest son, and the most he'll get is a detention. If that.

'There are perks to being the son of the hero of the wizarding world,' he tells Scorpius, vaguely amused. Scorpius looks up. Al's lips are curled, that same smirk again, but his eyes are still empty. Hollow.

He wonders if he'll ever see a softer side to his best friend. He doesn't even know if Al has a softer side.

'I'm sure there are,' Scorpius says. 'But us lowlier students actually have to do our work ourselves.'

Al snorts. 'That sounds like absolutely no fun at all.'

'So when are you intending to do this essay for Flitwick?'

'When you've done it, of course,' Al smiles ruefully.

'You can't just copy me all your life-'

'Shut up, Scor.'

'Why can't you copy Rose?' Scorpius whines, sitting up. 'She gets better grades anyway.'

Al grins. 'She also hates me.'

Scorpius blinks. 'What? Since when the fuck has she hated you?'

'Let me think. Maybe since her boyfriend pays more attention to me than her?' Al smirks. 'She's never been very good at coping with jealousy, now, has she?'

'Why would she be jealous of you?' Scorpius snorts. 'You're my best friend.'

'You're adorable, mate.'

Scorpius feels his cheeks tinge pink. 'Fuck you, Potter.'

'Back to surnames, are we?' Al raises his eyebrows. 'You're just so cute when you're pissed, Malfoy.'

Scorpius sticks out his tongue, choosing to ignore the way his heartbeat has suddenly increased. He glances at Al, feeling his green-eyed gaze watching him.

It dawns on him then, how close they are. He can feel Al's hand brushing against his own. And suddenly they're leaning in closer. Until their lips are just inches apart, and-

Al coughs.

They spring apart.

Scorpius drags his fingers through his hair. Al fixes his eyes on the floor.

'So, you giving me permission to copy your essay, then?' he says quickly.

Scorpius's heart thumps underneath his shirt. He chooses to ignore it.

'Whatever, Potter.'

Al grins. 'Thanks, mate. You know I'd do the same for you-'

Scorpius rolled his eyes. 'Yeah, if you ever actually managed to get any work done.'

Al stumps his cigarette out on the stone. He winks at his best friend.

'You know you fucking love me, Malfoy.'

Scorpius ignores him.

He's thinking too hard- about Rose, and the freckles dotted across her nose and her cheeks, and the way her lips are always first to press up against his. About how he never really wants to touch her when she's more than willing. He thinks about his mother and his father trying so hard to accept him but not quite understanding, and the fact that is essay is so incoherent he doubts he'll get a passing grade.

But mostly, he's stuck thinking on and on about how he almost kissed his best friend.

And when he shoots glances at his best friend, staring idly out over the Hogwarts grounds beneath them- he realizes he kind of definitely really wanted to kiss him.

x

'So,' Al says, amused, lying on his back on his bed in their Slytherin dormitory. It is Saturday afternoon- Jake and Tate are somewhere else, and it is just the two of them. 'Technically speaking, I should probably hate you right now.'

Scorpius sits up instantly, eyes snapping wide open.

'The fuck? Why?'

'Well, you just dumped my cousin,' Al explains. 'If I was a nice guy, I suppose I should be even the least bit pissed off with you.'

Scorpius snorts. 'Since when have you been a nice guy?'

Al considers this. 'Hey, I'm lovely,' he retorts.

'Yeah, right, and I'm a Gryffindor.'

'Okay, fair enough,' Al shrugs. 'Seriously though, why'd you dump Rose? I thought you were supposed to be Mr and Mrs Perfect, and all that?'

'I... Realized I didn't like her as much as I thought I did,' Scorpius says carefully. 'I mean, I guess I was kind of like- pressured? To go out with her, I mean.'

'Fucking clichés?' Al offers.

'Fucking clichés,' Scorpius agrees.

'James wants to kill you, I hope you know. Pretty sure Rose's Dad would happily punch you in the face, too. Half of my family, in fact.'

'C'mon, they've basically hated me since the dawn of time anyway.'

'Well, they thought you'd hurt Rose,' Al says, and he's grinning wolfishly.

Scorpius groans. 'Which I did.'

'Nice move, dickhead.'

Scorpius thrusts a pillow across the room into Al's face. Al retaliates, leaping up from his bed and slamming his own pillow over Scorpius's head. Scorpius yelps, before smacking Al in the chest with a cushion, which Al tears from his grip and uses to beat him down to the ground.

Scorpius has somehow accidentally ended up lying on his back on the floor, Al pinning him down. They are silent, both breathing heavily.

'We're such fucking girls,' Al says, breaking into laughter, and Scorpius joins in.

'I know,' Scorpius grins.

Al looks at Scorpius from under his fringe.

Scorpius suddenly realizes their position here is his best friend, somehow straddling him on the floor of their dormitory when just a few minutes ago they were discussing his break up with said best friend's cousin.

He doesn't really know what happened.

But then- Al looks at him, emerald colliding with grey, and then he's leaning down before pressing his lips quickly to Scorpius's, and he kisses back urgently.

Al's lips move down towards his neck, pressing a trail of kisses on the soft white skin, and it sends shivers down Scorpius's spine because it was never like this with Rose- and this his best friend and her cousin and it's a bit like, what the fuck- except it's a good kind of what the fuck.

Then they're kissing on the lips again, desperately, hungrily.

Al pulls away first, breathing heavily, his face still only inches away from Scorpius's. He rolls off of his best friend, and they both sit up slowly.

Scorpius rubs his neck awkwardly.

'Well,' Al says. 'That was, uh-'

'Different?' Scorpius offers.

'Interesting,' Al decides, after a few moments. He shoots Scorpius a rueful smile.

'Uh-'

Al puts his finger to his lips, leaning in towards Scorpius again before kissing him softly.

Scorpius smiles into Al's lips.

x

Scorpius sits alone on the astronomy tower, sat with his back against the brick walls and a million thoughts swirling, untamed, in his head.

What the fuck-

He hears footsteps, and looks up.

Beneath a messy mane of dark hair, he finds Al's familiar eyes, and a half-smile.

'Hey,' Scorpius says.

Al sits down beside him, taking a deep breath.

'So,' he says. 'I think I might be in love with you.'

Scorpius blinks. 'You high, mate?'

Al laughs. 'Sadly, no. But seriously. I am. In love with you, I mean. I'm not high.'

'Seriously?' Scorpius says cynically. 'I thought you didn't do love, Potter?'

'Yeah, well,' Al shrugs. 'Maybe I made an exception. Wouldn't be the first time you'd fucked my neat little life plan, Malfoy.

'You mean it, then?'

'What?'

'You're in love with me.'

Al looks amused. 'Don't get all insecure on me, Malfoy.'

Scorpius snorts. 'Believe it or not, Potter, not everybody in this castle is head over heels for you.'

'Nah, I know. You are, though.'

'What makes you say that?'

Al smirks. 'You're staring at me. Again, I might add.'

Scorpius blushes furiously. 'Fuck you, Potter.'

'So, do you love me, or not?'

'Bloody hell, Al, slow the fuck down.'

'Simple question, Scor.'

'You're about as subtle as the dark mark-'

'And right now, you're as irritating as Moaning bloody Myrtle.'

'Okay, yeah,' Scorpius rolls his eyes. 'Yes I fucking love you, you fucking prick.'

Al grins. 'That's better.'

He tilts his head, and meets Scorpius half-way, running his fingers through soft blonde hair as Scorpius's hands cling to the thin fabric of his t-shirt and, well, shit.

Al pulls away, only for a second.

'Hope you know my brother's not going to be happy,' he says, vaguely amused.

'Shut up, Potter.'

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