Soon the first few weeks of term had drawn to a close, and quidditch try outs were coming up. They were set for the weekend of the current week and the captains were busy organising pitch times and try out sessions. Mae and the Slytherin captain, Igor, were in a tense conversation about when their team could run their try outs, when James walked past on his way to Herbology.
"Igor, I'm not listening to you anymore, I spoke to Professor Shirq and she clarified for me that we could have the pitch from 11-1 on Saturday. The Hufflepuff's have already got the pitch from 9-11, and the Ravenclaws have got it booked from 2-5 on Sunday. There are plenty of other slots that you can have, heck you can have all afternoon on Saturday or all morning on Sunday! Why do you want my slot so badly?" Mae spoke clearly, even if she was rattled. Being the daughter of Oliver Wood gave her nerves of steel when it came to holding her own, especially if quidditch was involved - she'd been brought up from a young age to understand that life revolved around quidditch, both of her older brothers had played for their house teams, and now played for different league teams, her dad was currently the England captain and her Mum had been a league player too.
Igor knew when not to rile Mae, and was about to calmly explain why he wanted that slot when James stepped in, "What's the problem here? Wood, Goyle?"
Igor Goyle quickly backed down, not wishing to start another argument with James - they'd done enough of that in their fifth and sixth years.
"Oh great." She muttered under her breath, "James I do not need your help. I have this under control." Mae rolled her eyes. Her hands were placed firmly on her hips. At 5 ft 4, she tried her best to stand up tall next to James and Igor - who were both at least 6 ft. "I was simply informing Igor that my pitch session was booked 11-1 on Saturday. We had a few qualms of session times."
"Good good. Do you need me to come down for the session?"
"Well considering that you, irritatingly, are my vice captain, yes I do need you to come down. Plus, I want to show the team that we have a high standard of players, so whoever makes it onto the team will need to match up to that."
At this point Igor rolled his eyes. He could never cope with her ego, and his personality was not known for being a patient one.
"Amy and Louis will be there too." She finished off, ignoring Igor's eye rolls altogether. Amy and Louis were the two beaters for the team, and had a hardy reputation for being unstoppable. Last year in the final they had been let down by their seeker who missed the snitch and therefore let Slytherin win the game, this had left a bitter rivalry between Mae and Igor.. one that Mae was hoping to soften this year.
"You think I'm a high standard of keeper?" James smirked, nudging Mae.
Mae took a deep breath, trying not to retaliate to James' annoying habits. "So Igor, the pitch is ours between 11-1. I hope that doesn't pose a problem to you, but that's how it is. Good luck with your try outs." And with that, Mae walked away from the two boys, determined not to heighten the rivalry with Slytherin any further.
Meanwhile, Scorpius and Albus had been enjoying a leisurely lie in, they had double free periods in the mornings on Thursday's. Normally they would lie in and skip breakfast, then run around the grounds to burn off the stress of the week before they got to their third period class. However this morning the rain was lashing at the castle, so they both decided to stay in bed.
"Al, can we talk?" Scorpius mumbled, sitting up in bed, playing with the silk on his pyjamas.
Albus sleepily turned over, facing Scorpius. His hair was messily covering his eyes, and one of his legs was hanging off of the bed. "Mhm, what's up Scorp?" he mumbled.
"About the train. You know."
"Ah.. So we're going to talk about that, finally."
Scorpius rolled his eyes, biting his lip. "If you're going to be like that .."
"Oh come on, I'm only joking. Spit it out."
"Do you, um, get nightmares, maybe? Or uh, flashbacks? To.. like, um. Last year."
"Is that what happened on the train?"
Scorpius nodded, shyness taking over him. He was rubbing the soft Egyptian cotton between his thumb and forefinger, trying to look at anything besides Albus right now. He'd pushed his covers off himself and was sat cross legged; avoiding Albus' gaze was difficult when he could feel his eyes burning into him. The whole scenario seemed so incredibly intimate, yet so natural, like they'd done it a million times before and would do it a million times again.
"You should've said Scorp, I could've helped." Albus sighed, but not in a pitying way, more in a way that he empathised with his best friend. "Of course I get nightmares and flashbacks sometimes, no one should have gone through that. We were only kids, we are only kids. You could've spoken to us though.. like your dad or my parents. Wait. Have you even told your Dad?" When Scorpius gently shook his head, Albus desperately wanted to get up out of bed and hug his friend tight, tell him that everything was going to be alright.
"I didn't want you to think differently about me."
"Scorpius, whatever you tell me I will never think differently about you. You know that, right? You need to be honest with me, because I'm honest with you." Albus spoke before he thought, and as soon as the words were out of his mouth he realised that he wasn't entirely honest with Scorpius about everything, but he didn't need that bomb shell dropping on him quite yet. "But why didn't you tell your Dad, or why haven't you?"
"How could I? He went through so much worse.. With the war."
"Which is why our families can help us.. Look it's not like they're really keen on talking about the war, but we went through a trauma, and we're only 15. They're the only people who can help us." Albus knew he was going to regret this but he got up anyway and walked over to Scorpius, wrapping his arms around his friend. Slowly but surely Scorpius wrapped his arms around Albus too, melting into his arms. "I promise, we're going to get through this." Albus mumbled, unsure of what else to say.
"Thank you Al. Thanks for listening." Scorpius mumbled quickly, whilst untangling himself and running for the bathroom, to escape any awkward post-hug interaction.
"James! James!" Albus went running after him down the corridor, it was a little while after dinner and Albus had already completed all of his homework so had some free time.
James turned around, grinning. He always had time for his family, even if he wasn't very good at holding down relationships with girls. "What's up mate?"
"Do you think I've got a chance with the quidditch team?"
"You play chaser, like Rose right?"
"Yeah."
"Merlin yes, they're desperate. Have you been practicing?"
"Yeah, and I had all that practice with you over summer."
"Might as well try out Al, the worst that's going to happen is you'll get knocked back."
"Okay! Yeah I'll go for it then." He was about to continue when James jumped in.
"Do you think Scorpius will try out? I know how you two are."
Albus scoffed, suddenly feeling angry deep down. "What do you mean by that?! 'How you two are'?!"
James was about to try and cool his brother down when Albus turned and walked away, sulking off towards the library. He couldn't stand this, everyone around him insinuating that he and Scorpius were more than they are.
He was glad to see that the library was fairly quiet and warm, so found an old book on quidditch that he hadn't read before and curled up in a corner to read. … Albus didn't even realise how long he'd been in there when James walked in, a face of determination that made it clear who he was looking for. If there had been time Albus would've crept around one of the book shelves and hidden from his older sibling, but eye contact had been made. There was no way out of this conversation now. "Shit."
Sooner than he'd have liked James was sat next to him, taking the book out of his hand and placing it on the table next to him. "Al, what's wrong? You totally blew up in my face earlier and I don't even know what I said.." James tried to play the defensive line, but the emotions on Albus' face showed a different situation, so James tried to soften his tone."I didn't mean to upset you.. I just want to know what's wrong, you know I'm always here for you - no matter what."
"I can't tell you.." Albus mumbled, looking anywhere but at James.
"Why not? I won't tell anyone, you know I'm good at keeping yours and Lily's secrets." James was starting to worry about his brother, they'd always been close, and he couldn't think of anything that would break that bond they had. Albus told him everything when they were little, even if he knew he could get in trouble for it - it was the role of the big brother, to keep the younger siblings safe from harm, or from getting told off by their parents. Not that Harry was much to be afraid of, it was more facing the wrath of Ginny Weasley that they had to watch out for.
"James.." Albus looked up at his brother, his eyes full of tears. "I think I'm gay."
James' face slowly broke into a smile as he got up and pulled his little brother into a tight hug. "Mate, I could've told you that.." He fought back the urge to chuckle slightly, knowing that this was probably one of the hardest things Albus would ever have to do.
Albus hugged James back, feeling a pang for his Mum and Dad, but then that was quickly forgotten when he processed what James said. He broke away, confused. "You could? Does everyone know? Everyone but me?"
"Quite possibly. Think the family are still in the dark though. Lily and me had a bet on it." James smirked a little, trying to gauge his brother's reaction.
"You had a bet on whether or not I was gay?!" Albus stood shaking his head, "What were you betting?"
"Well I bet you were gay, and I bet 6 sickles on it. But Lily wasn't sure, so she bet that you and Scorpius were just best friends."
"Me and Scorpius are just best friends!"
At this point the librarian leaned over from her desk and shushed the two boys.
"Okay Al.. Just don't rule anything out yet. Yeah?"
"Fuck.. What do I do? Do you think I should tell Scorpius?"
James shoved his hands into his pockets, completely unsure of what to do in the situation. This was where he realised that he needed his Dad's worldly wise honesty, or his Mum's deep rooted family values, that carried her through any difficult parenting decisions. He settled for a mix of both, with a little bit of his Uncle Ron's curiosity thrown in. " Well.. Are you guys always honest with each other?"
"Yeah I guess. He's going through a lot right now though.. I don't want to make things weird between us."
"I'm sure things won't be weird between you guys, but if that's what you're really worried about then why don't you wait until Christmas or Halloween? You could tell him before we go home, and then he has time to get his head around the idea.." James smiled at Albus, feeling he'd given good advice, but then to top it all of he couldn't help but add in "And then maybe, just maybe he has time to think about how he feels.."
Albus shot him a dirty look, all the while thinking over James' advice. "Yeah.. That's not bad. Okay. You can't tell anyone. Except Lily. And I'm getting half the sickles - you did make a stupid bet on me."
"Fine. Alright. Look, it's getting late, we can't have someone catching the Head Boy's brother out of dorms after lights out. I'll walk you back to the dungeons."
"Hey you're back late." Scorpius smiled, his reading glasses resting on the crook of his nose just like Albus' dad's did.
"Yeah, me and James had to uh," Albus awkwardly scratched at the back of his neck, looking at his feet. "Talk about something. In the library."
"Matt and Higgs are already asleep. They were both snoring though so I charmed their beds." Scorpius smiled softly at Albus. "Are you okay Al? You seem.. a little dazed." Scorpius gently unfolded his legs and got up off his bed, going over to Albus. He was wearing silver and green silk pyjamas, with his slightly long hair pulled back into a bun. He knew he should get it cut but that was effort that he couldn't be bothered with at the moment.
"I'm okay. It's just been one of those days, y'know." Albus shrugged a little, dropping his bag on the floor by his bed, just that slight movement made him even closer to Scorpius than he was before. He felt his heart flutter at the proximity.
"Want to tell me all about it?" Scorpius ever so slightly moved closer, his slightly taller physique in front of Albus.
"Not really." Albus mumbled, trying not to undress Scorpius with his eyes.
Scorpius had been watching Albus' eyes for a while now, he knew what he was thinking. His silky white hands cupped Albus' face and then he dipped his head towards Albus'. Their lips met but Albus felt nothing, until his eyes burst open and he was stood in the dorm, facing Scorpius.
"I asked if you'd done your charms essay. What were you thinking about Al?" Scorpius smiled, laughing a little. "You're in your own little world, Merlin."
Albus smiled and nodded, completely ignoring the question before he got changed into his pyjamas and pulled the curtains on his bed. "Night Scorp." He mumbled, laying flat on his back, staring at the top of the bed, he couldn't stop thinking about his day dream. Had he actually done that? Had he actually stood in front of Scorpius and imagined him kissing him?
