Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

I'm afraid I don't have much time to comment this week, but I'd still like to say a very brief and very heartful thank you to SonofWhitbeard, JSLaw, MLMarint and AMBERJANUS for your reviews. I don't think I'll ever find an apt way to sum it up in words, but I can't say enough how much your reviews mean to me.

Enjoy!

Chapter 4: A Shout

Dark, perpetually warm, and full of all kinds of weird things, the potions classroom felt like a second home in the castle to Scorpius. He felt at ease, surrounded by jars of weird ingredients, the sound of pots bubbling away and the smells of the nicer potions. Sure it was damp, the architecture left a lot to be desired, and a little bit miserable when the sun took an extended vacation all the way through autumn and winter, but who needed sunlight, anyway? He'd been very popular in that alternate universe even with his anaemic complexion. He sat on a stool at one of the wooden tables, with Albus around the corner to his right. Mia Clarke, a beautiful but slightly weird Slytherin had been staring at him from another table for quite a while now. He was trying desperately not to make eye-contact for a while now so she didn't think he wanted to talk but it was kind of hard not to. Lucy Weasley sat at another table, head up her arse as usual, with that half-French girl, Amelie Bennett, and Lydia Griffiths next to her. Apparently, they were all dorm mates, and judging by their all being in Ravenclaw and chatting amongst themselves, they seemed to be good friends.

"Honestly I don't even know how she has friends," rolling his eyes at Lucy, Albus mumbled in Scorpius' ear. "She spent all summer sucking up to Victoire, you know. Asking about how much better life was outside Hogwarts and how much more fun she was having not living at home anymore."

Scorpius snorted. "She's joking, right? She can come and spend a week at mine if she wants to know what that's like."

"To be fair, Uncle Percy is…"

He didn't finish that sentence, but from what Scorpius had heard, he didn't need to. Way too many stories involving that particular uncle seemed to revolve around being put to sleep by his stories and his strange glasses being destroyed.

Harry Shaw and Rhys Owens sat with Mia Clarke and proceeded to enter into their own staring match with her rather large and, Scorpius admitted, inviting, chest. Not that she seemed to care, though. It really was quite unsettling how she stared. The door opened again and Alexander Wilkinson, a very handsome and non-Hufflepuff-like Hufflepuff entered, with Lucas Goyle close behind.

Lucas Goyle was an odd one, because although he came from a family of death-eaters (who was best friends with Scorpius' own father in school, and was renowned for being exceptionally stupid), he had been able to distance himself utterly from his family's name by being unquestionably opposite to them all that no one cared what his family name was anymore. Perhaps it was a strange quirk of nature that Lucas should hate his parent's principles and stand against them so much that he became a jolly and true Gryffindor. Scorpius has often wondered if he might have saved his own family from their grief had he begged harder to be put in Ravenclaw.

The pair split, with Alexander sitting with the Ravenclaw girls and Crabbe joining Mia and the men, all now staring at her. To teenage, heterosexual and hormone-charged teenage boys, 'respect' was a word often laid by the wayside when the objects of their every waking desire were right in front of their face.

Rose was the last to enter all a fluster, just as Slughorn did, belly bouncing before him. She surveyed her seating options and decided that sitting with Albus and Scorpius wasn't the any worse than sitting alone, and so joined them, sitting next to Scorpius but only briefly flicking her eyes to meet his as she focused on sorting her books in front of her, and then turning her rapt attention to Slughorn.

"Well," he began, voice as distant and slightly slurred as ever, "with the addition of Miss Granger-Weasley, I do believe we're all here. Jolly good." He stood before them all, hands in his waistcoat pocket. "I suppose I should start by welcoming you all to N.E.W.T level Potions, and congratulate you on getting this far. Last summer's exam was one of my harder ones, but you all made it through in the end."

Albus guffawed at Slughorn quietly, and Scorpius gave him a careful grin. Albus had been a nervous wreck for two hours after that exam.

"Now," he broke the silence and shocked Scorpius out of his comfortable daze, "I want you all together around this table, please." Pointing to the table next to him, with four potions brewing away in cauldrons of varying sizes, he watched as they cautiously trudged over. With there being just eleven of them in class now, it was easy for them all to crowd around the table and examine the four potions laid out before them.

One was just a small cauldron-full but shone like it had a thousand golden diamonds trapped inside it, a molten sheen on the surface as it joyfully bubbled away. The one next to it looked rather disgusting, like mud, or thick, dark clay, or all kinds of gross things he didn't want to know about. Next to that was a strangely water-like potion, but with almost purple steam rising from the surface as it gently bubbled away, with fiercer boiling trapped just below the surface. And finally, in the cauldron closest to where Albus, Rose and Scorpius stood was a potion with a beautiful sheen to it, like mother-of-pearl, and steam that rose in slow, iridescent spirals. Looking at it made his head feel woozy, and he breathed slowly and deeply, looking only into the surface of the pot. It smelt like freshly cut grass, and morning at a bakery, and the most beautiful of red roses. He smiled slightly to himself, and then looked at the girl next to him. She frowned at him - although it wasn't the usual frown filled with ire. Progress already, he thought, perhaps unreasonably. He looked back down at the potions swirling away before him as Rose, too, looked away.

"Well, well, it looks as though young Mr Malfoy is quite enchanted with our most lovely potion," Slughorn commented, a chuckle always at the end of a comment like that. Merlin his jokes were horrendous.

"You know me, Sir, I'm just a romantic deep down." He flashed Slughorn a winning smile, and could almost feel the groans of disbelief on either side of him.

"I don't doubt it." Slughorn chuckled. Slughorn was an easy man to charm, but Scorpius liked him, regardless. "Now, can you tell us about the four potions?"

Scorpius nodded. "This," he gestured to the potion in front of him, "is Amortentia. Then next to that is Vertitaserum, I believe, and beyond that is Polyjyice Potion. Finally, that's Felix Felicis; otherwise known as 'Liquid Luck'."

"Very Good!" The jolly old professor exclaimed, smiling widely. "And can anyone tell me the purpose or effect of these potions?" He looked around the class. "How about you, Miss Granger-Weasley?"

Rose nodded, preparing to recite the definitions as though reading the textbook. "Felix Felicis grants the drinker luck in their actions for a limited time. Polyjyice potions allow the user to change their entire appearance for a brief period, if they add the hair of the person they are targeting to the potion."

He nodded. "Very good." On one of their first lessons, the first time she'd recited a definition quite like that, he'd said how much like her mother she'd sounded. "And Mr Goyle, can you explain Veritaserum?"

The boy nodded. "It forces the drinker to speak the truth."

"And lastly - oh, go on then Miss Granger-Weasley - Amortentia?"

"It makes the drinker fall desperately in love with the first person the person who brewed the potion. It only lasts for a brief period of time, however, and is merely a similitude of real love."

Slug horn nodded. "The potion smells different depending on who and what one likes - as I think many of you have noticed." The old professor looked around the students, a slight grin on his face. Did he think he was a match-maker or something? "Well then, ten points for all your houses!"

He clapped his hands together, rubbing them as he surveyed the class. He moved away from the table and gestured for them all to go back to their seats, flicking his wand over the bubbling cauldrens to put a lid on them. Scorpius felt as though he was slowly coming round from a glorious dream. "As some of you may have read in the paper, there have been new developments in the brewing of Amortenia. Risky though it may be, we will be trying to attempt Mr Plantastrode's new method later this year. I'm sure our headmaster won't be opposed to a little fun, now then, will she?" Even as Slughorn's old eyes twinkled, Scorpius didn't doubt for a second that Headmaster McGonagall wouldn't be a big fan of a bunch of sixteen-year-olds brewing love potions together. Not that Scorpius was planning on saying anything, though.

"We will also be making either Polyjuice Potion or Veritaserum later in the year, and you must correctly brew whichever one I decide in order to pass this year and proceed to the final year of N.E.W.T. Any questions?"

Scorpius saw Rose tense next to him. It wasn't something she broadcasted widely, but potions was her worst subject; Scorpius didn't even have to try to beat her at it.

Slughorn surveyed the silent, nervous class for but a moment. "No? Excellent." Scorpius hadn't even had time to process it all, never mind form a question. Not that Slughorn probably cared. "But to ease you all in, today we'll be making a draught of the living dead; whoever makes the best draught of the living dead, wins a tiny vial of Felix Felicis to use at your discretion. Although I warn you," he said, in a sort of secretive tone, "one student used this in such a remarkable way that any other consumption has been frankly disappointing."

"What's the betting someone used it to ask out the person they fancied?"

Rose raised her eyebrows. "That's just creepy."

Scorpius grinned, hopefully dashingly, at her. "Oh Rose, you don't know how much we men suffer in front of the women we like." Scorpius could still feel the heady fumes of the love potions affecting him; he could smell her more strongly than ever, and he found it increasingly difficult to tear his eyes back to Slughorn the longer he looked at Rose. Even as she gave him a concerned look.

She seemed to freeze for a moment, mouth hanging slightly open. "Right."

"You will find the recipe on page 293 of your textbooks." Slughorn clapped his hands together. "Chop-chop!"

The classroom always seemed to burst into a flurry of activity every time Slughorn did that; everyone rushing to light their caldrons and take out the ingredients they needed, no matter how deep of a trance they were in mere seconds before.

Scorpius knew what he was doing with potions. He was at home here, adding ingredients, adjusting the fire, stirring the mixture so many times one way and a dozen more the other. Today though, he was distracted by Rose more than ever. Usually, he was just desperate to get near her, touch her, maybe even kiss her if he was lucky as a Niffler. But today he was desperate to kiss her senseless, lay his hands all over her, do things to her that Albus would never forgive him for doing mid-potions. But right now, he'd have done them in a heartbeat had she been willing - Albus be damned.

"Scorpius?" Albus chimed.

Scorpius blinked, turning his head quickly, shaking it free of his imagination. "Yeah, What?" Rose had gone from the table, leaving the two of them alone.

"You were gorming into nowhere again."

"Oh." He blinked sheepishly, looking back down at the thick, gloopy, dark mixture. "Cheers." Albus rolled his eyes and went back to focusing on his own potion - which looked perhaps a little too green, but Scorpius knew better by now than to try and correct him.

Scorpius chanced a look over to Rose, who looked frazzled. She was frowning down at her recipe, eyes frantically flicking between the contents of her cauldron and the book before her. Eyebrows drawn together and a worried crease between them, she hummed frustratedly as her potion was on the verge of curdling,

"Rose, you should add a bit of snake's bile now otherwise it's going to curdle." He suggested with a smile, and she looked up, fury flashing in her eyes.

"Are you suggesting that I need help from you?" Her nostrils flared in anger, and her chocolate eyes narrowed dangerously.

Scorpius held his hands up in surrender. "Sorry. Promise that I'm not trying to sabotage you, though. I don't know what I'd even use the liquid luck for."

Eyes still dangerously narrowed, she muttered something to herself and looked away. Fury aflame in her eyes, she put the bile in, anyway. Her expression softened slightly as her potion became the ink-like mixture Scorpius' was. It wasn't much, but he still smiled ridiculously widely about it.

The two hours in the muggy potions classroom and Rose slowly shedding layers of uniform as the dungeon heated up was killing him. Even if the effects of the love potion's vapours had long worn off, he knew that just standing next to her was almost the same as inhaling a whole cauldron full of love potion's fumes. They chatted quietly amongst themselves, but not nearly as much as he'd have liked. Even when they didn't talk it wasn't Rose declaring that she suddenly reciprocated his feelings, which was always disappointing.

Scorpius had finished his potion some time ago, as the end of the third hour approached. He sat back on his stool, leaning against one of the back wall counters and reading a bit more of his Herbology book.

Albus was standing back from his, persuading himself that he was vaguely pleased with the finished product. It was dark, but more like indigo, and lumpy instead of as viscous as water. Rose, however, was having some real trouble with hers. It was only midnight blue, not pitch black. Her ruby hair had escaped from the neat bun at the back of her head and fell about her face. Some splayed down the wide open collar of her shirt. He couldn't seem to help where his thoughts went anymore.

"Rose." He called, and she looked up at him distractedly.

"If this is some stupid joke-"

"Want some help?"

Her eyes flashed again. "If this is some stupid joke or last-ditch attempt to ruin mine..."

"It's not."

She scowled at him, her face shimmering slightly from the steam. "I don't need help from you, anyway. I'm good at potions."

She huffed and turned away. Albus had finally stopped convincing himself his potion was okay and watched their exchange with raised brows. Scorpius motioned for him to go over to her with a tilt of his head. Albus rolled his eyes and reluctantly walked around the wooden table to stand next to her, and gave her the advice Scorpius mimed to him.

"Time is up, ladies and gentlemen." Slughorn finally called, after having said almost nothing for three hours.

Scorpius waited next to his caldron, hastily shoving the Herbology book back into his bag as Slughorn came to their table. He assessed Albus' to be adequate as he lay a dried leaf on the surface which hovered for a moment, then combusted in a spluttering flash before their eyes and crumbled to a crisp. Rose's potion fared slightly better, with the leaf floating on the barely black surface for a while, before falling under the top layer and emerging a moment later as a shredded mess. Her face dropped, and she bit her lip either to curb her frustration or tears. Scorpius looked at her curiously, wondering just why she wanted that liquid luck so much. He came to Scorpius' cauldron last, an excited grin on his face. Scorpius had quickly become a favourite of Slughorn's in their fifth year, as it was more socially acceptable to pay attention to Albus and him (and Merlin knows Slughorn cared about that). Slughorn invited the two to join his Slug Club not long after.

He dropped the leaf on the surface of the runny, midnight purple mixture and it burnt at the edges before crumbling into nothing almost immediately.

"Why, Scorpius! It is beautifully made. It is a good job you aren't out to kill us all with a potion as good as this!" He chuckled to himself, and Scorpius found himself only able to give an uneasy laugh in response to the questionable joke. By Arthur, he said some weird things. "I will award you the Felix Felicis," he pulled the vile out from his velvet robes, "use it wisely, boy." Scorpius nodded, thanking the professor and looking curiously at the bottle in his hands.

The class looked at him enviously, and Scorpius tried to avoid making eye contact with any of the heated glares. Not that he more than one idea of what he might use it for.

"Now then, for your next class, please go through and annotate the recipe for Laughing Potion and Euphoria Potion. Oh- and make sure that you all clear up well. Until next week!" He left the classroom without a second look, retreating back to his office and presumably to the plush purple armchair beside his fireplace. Scorpius had no idea how he sat in front of a fire after leaving the roasting hot dungeons, but it was all he seemed to do - even during summer.

"Alright then, clear up quickly, and we can get to dinner soon." Albus emptied his cauldron with a nonchalant wave of his wand, yawning into his hand.

"You really do only think with your stomach, don't you?"

Albus shrugged at Rose. "Grandma's cooking influenced my psychology."

Rose laughed. "I can't argue."

Scorpius gathered up the rarer ingredients that they'd borrowed and returned them to the shelves. He'd never say it to their faces, but he was jealous when they could talk about things like that.
He felt Rose next to him before he saw her.

"So what amazing things did your grandmother cook this summer?"

Rose eyed him warily. "Not much."

"Oh come on, Al's already told me she baked a snitch cake at least!"

Rose smiled widely, seemingly remembering it fondly. "Oh, yeah. And she did the most amazing roast for all of us before we came here."

"All of you?"

Rose hummed, standing with a jar of frog's eyes in her hands, looking nowhere in particular but seeing a life full of colour before her eyes. Scorpius took the jar from her hand gently. As if thrown violently from a dream, she shuddered faintly and blinked rapidly; the smile dropped as she saw Scorpius, suddenly desperate to look anywhere but him.

He frowned. Hadn't they just been having a civil conversation? Hadn't it actually been going okay for all of 30 seconds? He didn't get it.

He opened his mouth, but she got there first.

"I'll be going then."

Deflated, he took a moment to answer. "Alright."

She left without a backward glance, catching up to Lucy and her friends at the door and transforming into the radiant Rose that he never really got to see.

It was just Albus and Scorpius left by the time they were meandering to the door.

"Scor- you tried." Albus clapped him on the back.

"I know I can always count on you to cheer me up like no one else."

Albus grinned. "As the self-designated best friend, I consider it my job."

Grinning, they clambered up the narrow, winding stairs that functioned as a shortcut from the potions rooms to the dungeons, dropped their bags off in the common room, and headed up for dinner.

Max and Joshua were already sitting there, giggling darkly like two thirteen-year-old girls discussing sex for the first time. Knowing them, they probably were.

"Do we even want to hear what you're talking about?"

Scorpius silently agreed with Albus' question as they swung their legs over the benches across from the womanising duo. A bunch of fourth-year girls were next to them, and slid a little bit further down the bench when they saw them. Unfortunately for them, the bench was now so full that they could barely shift down. Scorpius pulled Albus' hand back down as he went to flip the girls off.

"Depends. How much do you want to hear about your brother, Albus?"

He cringed. "Oh, Merlin. Stop! I don't ever — ew." Spearing a sausage angrily, he munched it with a cringing expression. "That's just— ew. You're both so lucky you're only children."

"My sister is very offended."

"Sorry Joshua's sister. The only magical child."

"I'm sure your sister's sorry she's related to you, anyway." Max barbed at his friend next to him.

Thankfully, Alfie arrived before anyone could say anything else.

"Alright?" He greeted, calm as ever, as he squeezed onto the very cramped bench next to Scorpius. Max stared open-mouthed between the spot next to him and the tiny space Alfie had just slithered into on the other side of the table.

"Joshua's poor sister was being forgotten; Max was about to restart their Hundred Years' War, and so on." Scorpius filled him in quickly.

Alfie only offered "Poor Melissa," before he loaded his plate and began to eat.

"Good day?" Scorpius asked between mouthfuls of carrot and potato mash.

Alfie shrugged. "Firenze's going harder than ever on the importance the of Mars-Venus alliance this year, but he's always been one to emphasise the stranger planetary connections. Jupiter-Neptune's a lot more common and sometimes more influential, but that barely gets a look in, in comparison. I mean, with Mars-Venus it only makes suggestions at compatibility, Jupiter-Neptune is fare more influential in telling both the success rates of current situations and is key in leading to possible routes of seeing future outcomes!"

Dazed, Scorpius scrambled for an answer. "Right. Yeah, sounds strange Alfie."

"How was yours?" Alfie took another bite.

Scorpius shrugged, mouth full.

"Favourite of Slughorn here won another prize in his first lesson."

Scorpius couldn't help but detect the slight bite lurking in the undertone of Albus' voice.

"Ooh, favourite student!" Joshua and Max cooed in unison, putting on their high-pitched voices and smiles so fake they could've been in a muggle advert. A group of Hufflepuffs from the next table looked over and gave the pair judging looks.

"About twenty Hufflepuffs just decided you're idiots."

"No they didn't."

"Yeah, they did."

"Nah, they decided you're an idiot. I bet I've got with half of them."

Joshua turned around and winced. They were a group of second years.

"Oh Merlin's left bollock no."

Ignoring the foot currently in Joshua's mouth, they surprisingly managed to pass the rest of dinner in pleasant conversation. They could do that sometimes. Mostly when Joshua was absent - mentally or physically, both worked pretty well.

"Alright." Scorpius declared after two idle hours before the fire. "Alright, I need to move."

Alfie, the only one left before the fire, watched him as he and Theia stretched in unison. "Why?"

He shrugged, stroking Theia behind the ear before she wound around student's legs and up the dormitory stairs. "I've got, you know," scratching the back of his head he searched desperately for answers, "stuff."

"Classic."

Scorpius grabbed his bag from the floor. "I don't know. I've got to put up that sign about the Phoenix Ball, and I should probably try and find Sophia and desperately avoid and incoming Mia and—"

"Scorpius!"

His stomach clenched. He really didn't want to deal with this right now. "Mia!"

"How was your summer, Scorpius? Miss me?" She gave him a flirtatious smile, batting her long eyelashes over her almond-shaped dark eyes. "I'm sure you did."

Scorpius grimaced. Alfie watched the scene with his trademark nonplussed daze as Mia pushed Scorpius back down onto the sofa, sitting almost on his lap. Oh boy, he bet it would've been funny if he hadn't felt so damn awkward about this. Mostly because her chest was basically in his face.

"Yeah- good summer thanks. How was yours?"

She shrugged, winding a strand of platinum hair around her finger. "Saw some friends, went to Switzerland, had a couple of parties. Would've been better if you were there, though."

He quickly shuffled upright and further away from her, nodding along to whatever she said.

"Well, maybe my invitation got lost in the post." He laughed nervously and uninterestedly. The thing that bothered Scorpius was that she would never have said that two years ago. Hell, even a year ago she was only just starting to take notice of him in a way that didn't entail all kinds of pain. She was one of the people who hid his timetable in second year, one of the people who laughed after his clothes were stolen all those times after Quidditch lessons the first two years. Didn't help him get the Soothing Solution when he'd been burned badly in third year and needed it, either. By the time Lydia Griffiths had arrived in the classroom and found him almost collapsed by the foot of the table with the Solution on it, it'd been too late to stop the scaring - and to numb the pain. He still had that cherry-coloured scar on his waist to this day; Madam Pomfrey only managed to shrink half of it.

No, he'd never be able to think about Mia that way.

"Do you want to share a desk with me in Herbology?"

"How do you know I'm doing Herbology?"

"Matilda Parker let it slip in Arithmancy."

Scorpius withered inside, cursing to himself. Mia was almost as bad as Hufflepuff's Grace Hill for gathering up news. She had eyes everywhere; she had to have!

"Well- anyway…" Scorpius stood up as soon as he was far enough away from Mia again. "I've just- I've got to- y'know."

He hopped off before she could argue and almost knocked Albus over at the door of the dungeons.

"Al! Library! Let's go!"

"What the—?"

"Come on!"

He dragged Albus up the stairs at a rate of knots only ever seen when they were not just late, but fucking late to Professor Henrich's class.

"Seriously Scor- what the hell?"

"Mia."

"Ah."

"Yeah."

Scorpius panted, doubled over, and Albus watched his friend with a mixed look on his face.

"Still being psycho and pretending that she didn't contribute to that elephant stamp on your back?"

Scorpius nodded. "Pretty much."

They met eyes in the eerie silence of Hogwarts corridors in the evening. Albus got it; they never had to talk about it. The things they'd endured, just because no one bothered to ask about rumours and decided that Al and Scorpius were social poison, had been terrible. It was one of the things Scorpius let himself get irrationally angry about. The kind of anger that burns through your body from top to toe, keeping you awake at night.

"So, library?"

"I've got no idea, really."

Albus grinned, looking far more like his siblings than he usually did. "Butterbeer from the kitchens?"

Scorpius matched his grin. "Couldn't refuse you."

"Head up to the tower?"

"You read my mind."

Albus saluted like he'd seen those soldiers do on the news sometimes and set off on the advance path as he pulled that weird map of his out of his cloak, checking the map for teachers or prissy students and the air for Peeves.

He walked over towards the cleaner's closet hidden in an inlet just between the statues of two angry goblins. Actually - just goblins. They always look angry. Balwin the Brash and Unready Grumpkrik, if his foggy memory served him correctly.

Backing into the closet, he was studying each way down the corridor, when he stepped on a foot behind him.

Whirling around, he felt a hand over his mouth and heard a muffled scream as he was pulled into the cramped closet. His scream. Chocolate eyes glared at him through angry slits, and Rose slowly withdrew her hand from his mouth.

"What the hell, Malfoy?"

"I was uh... practising. For… the…" By Zeus he was bad at thinking, "Toad choir."

"The toad choir? You're in that?" For one brief moment, she looked vaguely impressed. It also could've been confusion.

"No. But I want to be."

Not for the first time that day, she gave him a sceptical look and only said, "Right."

"B-but, what do I owe the honour to?"

"Honour?" She whispered mostly to herself. He really didn't want a knut for her thoughts at that moment. "I was returning from somewhere."

"Somewhere?" He had no idea what made him so bold in that moment - maybe it was the adrenaline, possibly it was pure stupidity. That sometimes happened, even to him. Especially to him.

But clearly Rose was taken aback by him too, and the proximity of the pair wasn't helping. He could see as all the flickers of shock and indignity went through her eyes. She huffed, folding her arms tightly across her chest. "If you must know, I was on my way back from seeing Jamie Rodgers."

"Rodgers?"

"Yes. He was asking me to the Ball."

And this was it. This was the moment where Scorpius truly, utterly embarrassed himself worse than he ever had done before. Worse than the time he'd sneeze-coughed during McGonagall's end of year speech. Worse than when he'd been waterbombed by Peeves in the Great Hall.

"Rose!" He seemed to be shouting even though she was only about a foot away from him. It was like he heard himself say it from outside of his body, not realising he was shouting, or even talking to a real person. "Wannagototheballwithme?" He blurted out, like some vile kind of word-vomit he had to get out of his system.

Rose raised her eyebrows. "Sorry?"

"WANT TO GO TO THE BALL WITH ME?" He accidentally shouted, and then drained of all blood as soon as he realised what he'd done. It hadn't butterbeerset in how terrible that sounded until he looked out of the cupboard they were both currently trapped in and saw the Gryffindor ghost drift by, a startled and embarrassed look faint on his face.

Merlin's bollocks, that was bad.

"Uh, Okay," she muttered, eyes wide and backing out of the cupboard one cautious step at a time. "I'm just going to-" she stepped out into the corridor and then ran off.

He didn't know how long he stared at the same spot in the corridor. The entire earth around him was so irrelevant now that he couldn't have even told you what he'd been staring at. It was the kind of horrifically embarrassing moment that you'll never be able to explain, and you'll never, ever get over.

Who know's how long later, he heard several pairs of footsteps approach as he stood there, head now buried in his hands and trying to desperately refrain from banging his head on the mop leaning against the cupboard wall.

A voice was laughing, and he knew who it was immediately.

"Oh you tosspot why didn't you help?!" Scorpius groaned, as Albus doubled over with laughter in front of him, Alfie standing behind him and cringing desperately, and someone else who he only assumed was Max, crouched on the floor just beyond the shadow of the cupboard door. "I'm having a moment of intense cringing over here! I want to eat my own lips. Please don't laugh anymore." He whined, but it did nothing to cease the endless flow of laughter.

"That-" he panted, "was- that was ridiculous!" Albus put an arm around Scorpius as he staggered out of the cupboard, legs like lead and no feeling in his lips, only succeding in keeping himself half upright. "You looked like a fucking moron."

Scorpius pushed Albus' arm off, instead appealing to Alfie for comfort. Who in response only gave him his best attempt at a smile through the cringing.

"You're my friend, but that was so bad I'm not even sure I know any words to describe it."

"I know." He whispered, clapping his hands over his eyes. "So bad."

Max was an incoherent lump on the floor. Scorpius could only summon the will to manage a soft kick and a few insults to his jittering form. Alfie raised his eyebrows, but Scorpius justified it easily by just looking at the giggling heap.

"Oh let's just take the butterbeer, pretend it's actually whiskey, and forget this ever happened." Scorpius whined, picking up the keg of butterbeer Albus had abandoned when he saw Scorpius' display, marching over to the stairs. He could only tell by Max' deceptively high-pitched laughter that the three were trooping after him.

"Where's Joshua, anyway?" Alfie asked.

"He's— haha. Helping— oh my god. Paige, with Ancient—"

He collapsed into laughter too heavy to be useful anymore.

"It's been a day and — already?"

"Those two did have a fling last year."

"Started in year— hehehe. Year two—"
"Oh." Alfie and Albus vocalised in unison. "Ew."

"How does he even do it?" Scorpius asked, immediately regretting all the actions he'd ever taken that lead him to that moment as Max collapsed into harder laughter again.

"You— you suck!"

Albus turned to Scorpius and gave him a grin. "It's going to make however I ask whomever I ask look so much smoother in comparison."

Scorpius did not answer that.

They made it to the seventh floor of the Yseult tower in the west wing of the castle, where only the pigeons occasionally roosted, and collapsed onto the floor. Max, still giggling to himself, was largely ignored as they set to work on transfiguring the fluffy rug on the floor so that it covered all the concrete ground, and making the furniture they'd miniaturised before the summer large again. Soon enough, the room was furnished with three chairs, a table and a stack of cards. For Alfie - he'd insisted on them.

Scorpius and Albus had stumbled here in their second year and found it to be a haven in their outcast days. Now that they were, for the most part, over and they could relax in their dormitory in peace, the five of them had started to use this place whenever they needed peace from the Slytherins, a change of scenery or, for the most part, when they needed somewhere private to take girls. No prizes for guessing who got the most use out of it.

Cramped though it may be, it was comfortable enough and served them well.

"Bit bloody chilly tonight lads." Max intoned, finally coming round from his laughing fit.

"Ah, finally done, are you?"

He sniggered.

"Oh for the love of Guenevere's left cheek — really?"

He looked like he was eating his lips. "Promise- I'm done."

"Good."

With a hesitant expression, Alfie spoke. "Though Scorpius, you do need some help in that endeavour."

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "No - really!? I thought it was going perfectly!"

Alfie raised his brows again. He'd make a great teacher if he was a bit more of a slave-driver. "I'm just saying."

"Yeah, maybe you should ask someone else, now?" Albus suggested hopefully, but Scorpius didn't miss the underlying meaning there.

Neither did Alfie or Max.

"Well. This is awkward."

A silence hung over the room.

It hung, and it hung, and it settled like a thick layer of dust, choking them all.

"Wanna hear about my cousin's trip to an American Witches' retreat?"

It was as though the entire room sprung into action trying desperately to stop Max from finishing that story.

So they broke open the butterbeer, listened with regretful interest as Max finally did tell that story, and the ones about him in France, and passed the rest of their evening as irresponsibly as they possibly could've done. Who cared about the homework? Surely it couldn't stack up that quickly.

So far, Scorpius was actually living up to his dad's advice. He was sure he'd be proud.

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