Another chapter is up, please enjoy!
"Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" asked the raven guarding the entrance to the common room.
"Well they come under the circle of life so my answer is a circle is round and therefore has no beginning or end," Albus said.
"Well reasoned," the raven said. "Shame that you're not in Ravenclaw, lad, we could do with someone like you."
Albus smiled at the Raven before leading Olivia who was almost asleep into her common room where her friends had waited up for her. "You girls capable from here?" he asked as he knew it would look weird if he tried to take her up to the dormitories on the first night of school. The friends yawning nodded and then grabbed her before pulling her up the stairs. He just got the chance to give her a quick kiss on the cheek before he could leave.
He walked down to the Dungeons at a casual pace because he was never in a hurry to be anywhere. He eventually reached the dungeons and after saying the password of "Power" he hurried down the stairs into the main common room. At first glance he thought the room was empty like you would expect it to be at way past midnight on the first day back. But then he noticed sitting on one of the sofas reading a book was Scorpius Malfoy.
"Er, Scorpius are you not going to bed?" he asked quietly. Scorpius jumped and dropped his book. Albus picked it up for him and read the front cover: The Noble Art of Legilimency and Occlumency by Edgar Waffle. He handed it back and then waited for an answer to his question.
"I was going to but– never mind. I'm coming up now."
They walked up to the dormitory together and then both got changed for bed in silence. The other four weren't in their beds but in Slytherin House that was certainly not unusual at all. "So why didn't you go up to bed earlier? You sounded like you were going to tell me earlier but then stopped."
"No, I just was going to say that I was going to go up and then I got engrossed in my books as you do," Scorpius replied calmly but Albus had this feeling that Scorpius wasn't telling the truth. They both were now dressed in their pyjamas and after wishing each other good night they fell asleep.
In the morning Scorpius woke earliest out of everyone as he liked to do. He knew that then he could spend extra time in the shower and getting ready without any funny comments. Scorpius grabbed up some fresh school clothes, underwear, a towel and all his products (which were subtly hidden in a very small wash bag with a large undetectable extension charm). He hurried into the room and then began to strip before he clambered into the shower with a small smile.
The hot water cascaded down over his pale but perfect body and he began to sing quietly to himself. He was singing something by a muggle and had just reached the high point of the piece when someone said, "Oh shit!"
Scorpius whipped round to find Albus standing there looking kind of embarrassed – as usual – and he also blushed. "I'm sorry you heard that," Scorpius said.
"You're a really good singer but I am sorry that I interrupted, it's just I heard singing from the shower and wondered who it was. Sometimes the others do things to annoy me and I wondered if it was just one of them. I'm a light sleeper which is why I woke up but just a word of warning; they can all hear you in the dorm or would be able to if they were awake."
Then Albus looked around slightly awkwardly before saying, "Do you mind if I have a shower now as well? I mean if it makes you feel uncomfortable then I'll have one a little later–"
"No that's fine Albus," Scorpius said. I truth was told then he did feel slightly awkward because as much as he truly didn't fancy Albus he couldn't help but glance at the boy as he was showering. He had a pretty amazing body which was clearly gained from years of Quidditch Practice. They both showered slowly and then Albus got out followed almost immediately by Scorpius. Both boys stood in front of the mirror and then began their morning routines, which they both surprisingly had.
Albus began to shave but was pretty clumsy as he managed to cut himself multiple times until there were plenty of drops of blood coming to the surface of his skin. "I hate it when I cut myself," Albus moaned, half to himself, half to Scorpius. "Then it bleeds for ages and I look weird."
"Do you put toilet paper on it?" Scorpius asked him.
"What? What do you mean by that?" he replied confused.
"If you take a sheet of toilet paper or a tissue if you have one then rip a small square off and stick it to the cut. It stays in place by itself and it stops the blood flow way faster. Just remember to take the paper off when you leave the dorms or you're going to look a bit weird."
Albus tried Scorpius' tip and found that when he was done gelling his hair to perfection five minutes later that the cuts had stopped bleeding. As he watched Scorpius put some white cream on his face from a pot labelled "Moisturiser" he heard someone come into their dormitory. "He's in there," said Jasper.
Seconds later and Esme propelled herself into the room looking thoroughly pissed off with someone or something. "Albus Potter, we need to have a word. Hello Scorpius how are you?" she added smiling at Scorpius. Scorpius was surprised that Esme even knew who he was but answered the question and returned it.
"Esme, I have to ask what the hell is this about but you shouldn't really come barging into the shower rooms without knocking. What if I or Scorpius had been standing in here naked or something?" he asked then blushed when he realized he had just talked about Scorpius being naked.
"Then I would have got a very nice memory and come on Albus, it's not like I haven't seen you naked loads before. We're best friends remember?" she continued. As Scorpius began to laugh at Albus' embarrassment and Esme's anger Albus just hoped no one inside the dormitory had heard her say that.
"So, what did you want to talk about then?" he asked her.
"Let's go and sit on your bed," she suggested. They both smiled at Scorpius as they left and then walked to the bed whilst the other four boys were watching. Harris laughing called out, "Two girls in less than twelve hours? You move fast!"
"You've shagged Olivia already?" Esme exclaimed.
"You're going to shag her?" Ewan asked.
With that Albus pushed Esme onto his bed, drew the curtains round them both, and then cast a silencing charm so no one else could listen in. "So I suppose you better tell me what I've done wrong this time then?"
"Why the hell are you now officially dating Olivia?" she asked indignantly. "I thought that we had decided that she is transparent?"
"No, you had decided that she was transparent, not me," he replied with a small smile. "She is actually really nice, not to mention drop dead gorgeous, and I have been dating her for quite a while now. It was only natural that we would make this more official if we lasted the summer holidays. Esme come on you've dated jerks before that I've hated beyond everything but I never complained."
"Like who?" she demanded angrily her face flushing slightly with annoyance.
"Like the time when you dated that guy Herbie or something stupid and he turned out to be gay but experimenting with you. Or when you dated that guy Alex and he had two other girlfriends. Or even when you dated Danny and he ended up getting weirdly possessive and is now in Saint Mungo's receiving treatment for mental issues."
"Alright, I get the idea! And his name wasn't actually Herbie, Albus, as you well know it was Horatio, as much as you insisted on calling him Herbie all the time. He was a jerk though, that I'll admit."
"So can you please just let me date her because actually for once I can see this lasting a while which is why I want to officially date her. Come on Esme I need to get dressed for school now and you need to go back to your dormitory," he said. "I'll see you down at breakfast with the others."
"I might as well wait for you as I am here already with my books and everything but I'll be down in the common room, alright?" she said giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. Then she left down to the common room and everyone began teasing him all at once. Their conversation soon turned to people they had dated and then unthinkingly Albus said, "Who've you dated Scorpius?"
"Just a few girls from out of school," he lied seamlessly.
"Bullshit!" declared Harris with an evil smirk. "I bet you're still a little virgin that can't stomach the idea of shagging someone or thinks it's something for grown-ups. How cute little virgin."
"I am not a virgin!" Scorpius yelled angrily and he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Albus looked pretty guilty right then for bringing up the whole thing.
"I don't believe you," said one of the boys, Jasper he thought. Then suddenly there was a flash of blue light and everyone in the room now had halos round their heads. He noticed at once that everyone else had a red halo but if the light shining about him down on his hands was to be believed his was white.
"YOU ACTUALLY ARE A VIRGIN?" shouted Jayce and at once everyone was in fits of laughter except Albus. Scorpius didn't want to cry in front of them, it would show his weakness, and so with tears in his eyes he hurried into the bathroom to cry alone. He heard the other boys leave eventually still hooting with laughter and after wiping his eyes and dousing them with cold water to remove the redness, he walked back out into the dormitory.
He hadn't been expecting for Albus to be still there, sitting on his bed too. Albus got to his feet when Scorpius came into the room and at once said, "I'm so sorry that I even brought up the conversation. Can you ever forgive me?"
Scorpius wasn't even angry with Albus if he was honest as the boy had done nothing wrong at all. He was more angry with the boys who would now tell the whole world that Scorpius whilst being sixteen was still a little virgin. Also he didn't think that Albus was mean – he was quite nice in fact – so losing him as an amicable acquaintance would not be a good idea.
"It's fine really. It's not like you had anything to do with it really," he said with a small smile. "Well I suppose I better go downstairs and have breakfast then never mind their ridicules."
"Sit with me!" Albus blurted out suddenly surprising them both. "I want to sit with my cousin Rose – you know her, Rose Weasley – and she is in Ravenclaw. If you sit with us at their table then no one will be able to say anything about it. Does that sound alright to you?"
"That would be alright if you are sure you don't mind?" he asked sounding slightly anxious. Together they walked down to the Great Hall and went straight to the Ravenclaw table to sit next to the redheaded Rose. It was clear that half the Slytherin Table were laughing at Scorpius but he tried his hardest to ignore what they were laughing about. Soon he was caught up in Rose and Albus' conversation anyway.