Summer Fling

Chapter 7

It was the last Hogsmeade weekend before the Christmas holidays and the stores were packed with students, searching for presents to give to their friends and family. The paths were covered with snow but that didn't deter the Hogwarts students at all. Albus had invited Seline on a date, so Scorpius was alone with Lucas and Rose. He felt like the fifth wheel and wished he could meet with James instead.

Hold on, did I just think James would be better company than my friends? I really should get my head checked.

Lucas and Rose weren't dating but the sparks flying between them were plain for Scorpius to see. So he separated from them after a while under the pretence of wanting to buy presents for them. It wasn't really a lie but still only an excuse to get away from them. He strolled through Hogsmeade alone, only now and then stepping into a store to buy a present for someone.

There weren't many people on his list, only his parents, Lucas, Seline, their parents, Albus and Rose, maybe Lysander. He had thought about giving James a present for Christmas but had decided against it. Surely James wouldn't give him anything either. Their relationship was still strictly physical.

James didn't fare much better. Fred was with his girlfriend Alison, Louis had asked Olivia Wood out on a date and Roxanne and Alex were flirting heavily beside him. After a while he couldn't bear it any longer and went his own way. Roxanne and Alexander didn't even seem to notice.

In front of Honeydukes James' and Scorpius' ways crossed. As usual they weren't able to ignore each other.

"All alone, Malfoy? Has my brother finally realized that you're bad news?" James couldn't resist taunting Scorpius.

"All alone, Potter? Has your family finally noticed how annoying you are?" Scorpius gave back.

"Fuck you, Malfoy," James cursed angrily.

Scorpius stepped towards him until only inches separated them.

"Wouldn't be the first time, would it?" he whispered.

Then he stepped back, turned around and left James standing in the middle of the street.

What was that? James wondered.

Without even noticing, he began to follow Scorpius, still lost in thought. He followed him to the Shrieking Shack where Scorpius stopped to look at the derelict shack pensively.

Scorpius had quickly noticed that he was being followed and had purposely gone there to wait for James. Very few students came here nowadays to see the Shrieking Shack and the risk of encountering someone was slim. They would be able to talk here without needing to worry about being seen.

"What are you doing here? This place isn't really haunted, you know" James remarked.

"If I thought it was haunted, I wouldn't be here. Why are you following me?" Scorpius replied.

James ignored his question. He had no answer. He hadn't even notice he had followed Scorpius until he saw him standing there.

"Why did you come here?" he repeated his question.

"I wanted to know why you are stalking me and here we can talk without someone seeing us," Scorpius explained.

James apparently wasn't in the mood for talking. He stepped towards Scorpius and kissed him. Then he whispered into his ear: "Room of Requirement in an hour," and quickly left for Hogwarts. Scorpius watched him go before following him. No one would miss them in the next few hours anyway.

At the leaving feast all the students were chattering excitedly with their friends about their plans for the holidays and even the professors on the head table seemed to be in a good mood. The Great Hall was decorated festively with the usual twelve Christmas trees. Mistletoe was hanging everywhere, giving James and Louis, who many students had a crush on, a hard time getting around the castle. They, with the rest of their family, where scheduled to leave the next morning with the Hogwartsexpress to go home for the holidays.

When the end of the feast drew near, Professor McGonagall stood to address the students.

"Attention please," she stated and the students fell silent.

"I'd like to announce that Madam Pomfrey will return to Hogwarts after the holidays for the rest of the school year as substitute for Madam Lupin, who will have her first child in February. Madam Lupin will presumably return to us next school year."

"To those of you, who are going home tomorrow to spend Christmas with your families: The Hogwartsexpress will leave from Hogsmeade at 11 o'clock sharp, so please gather in the Entrance Hall with your luggage at 10 o'clock. I wish all of you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!"

After her speech she sat down again and started talking with Professor Flitwick, who was sitting next to her. The students stood up from their seats and left the Great Hall to go to their dormitories.

The next day most of the students were gathered in the Entrance Hall with their luggage. It was loud and crowded as everyone was trying to find their friends to say good bye. The Weasleys were relatively easy to find among the crowd because of the mass of red hair. Albus easily made his way over to his family. He, James, Louis and Hugo were the only ones still at Hogwarts without the trademark red hair.

Scorpius, Lucas and Seline followed Albus and together they waited for the carriages that would bring them to the train station in Hogsmeade. When the carriages arrived they had to separate again since only four people fit into one carriage. Albus, Lucas, Rose and Seline shared one carriage, while James, Fred, Roxanne and Louis shared another. Hugo, Lily and Lucy were left to share a third one. They stayed in the same groups when they went looking for compartments on the train and James and Scorpius only saw each other again at King's Cross.

At King's Cross the Hogwarts students were picked up by their parents. Although Albus and Scorpius had been friends since their first year at Hogwarts, the Malfoys still kept their distance from the Weasley and Potter families. Draco and Harry nodded at each other in greeting and Ginny and Astoria shared a short smile but that was all.

Albus and Scorpius said their goodbyes and promised to write each other over the holidays like they did every year. James ignored Scorpius to avoid suspicion and Scorpius did the same. The Malfoys apparated from platform 9 ¾ while Harry and his family took the car.

As always the holidays at the Weasleys were complete chaos. Nana Molly still insisted on having the whole family over at the burrow for Christmas and it was always a cheerful affair.

Molly was especially excited this year because she was looking forward to having her first great-grandchild and had knitted mountains of baby blankets and clothes for Victoire, who was now seven months along. The rest of the family also gave Teddy and Victoire mainly things for their baby. Babygros, a pram, books on how to raise a child (from Percy), and more.

After they had unwrapped their presents there was a huge feast, of course cooked by Molly. She refused to accept the help of her daughter or daughters-in-law. The living room and the dining table had to be expanded to fit all the people.

When the meal was over, Albus sneaked away to one of the upper rooms. Since Fred had asked him for help he had worked tirelessly on the potion. He had bought the necessary ingredients in Hogsmeade and now wanted to start on his first experiments. As expected it wasn't easy and he would have to accept some failures and disappointments before he found the right combination. But he was determined to brew the required potion.

During all the hustle and bustle no one had noticed his disappearance and when he reappeared in time for cake no one took note. Tired and full with Nana Molly's food they finally made their way home sometime in the evening.

Albus spent the next few days brewing in his room. It wasn't the first time he did that and no one wondered about him staying in his room all day. He had sent Scorpius his Christmas present – a book about animagi – on the second day of Christmas and got his own on the same day – new potion ingredients. With the present came a letter, as promised.

Hi Al!

I hope you are having a nice break and don't spend your whole time brewing in your room. Here at the Manor everything is as usual. We had a boring Christmas dinner with Aunt Daphne, Uncle Blaise, Lucas and Seline. I would have died of boredom without those two.

Father has expressed his sympathy to Uncle Blaise, because he will apparently get one of Harry Potter's sons as his son-in-law. I don't understand why Father insists on holding on to his old grudges. At least he has stopped asking me to dump you and find better friends. You don't need to worry about Uncle Blaise though he doesn't seem to have anything against you as his son-in-law. His only comment was: "At least he's a Slytherin."

Mother is preparing a party for New Year's Eve again and will probably invite your family, too. It's the only good thing about this party. You know how much I hate them.

See you soon

Scorpius

Albus had to laugh at some points while reading the letter but couldn't help worrying about Seline's father. He hoped she wouldn't want to introduce him to her parents at the party but he knew she probably would. He quickly started writing a response.

Hey Scor,

It's good to know you survived Christmas and didn't die of boredom. I will have to thank Lucas and Seline for that. I would hate to have to search for a new best friend.

Thanks for the potions ingredients by the way. It's just what I needed. I'm trying something new at the moment but can't get it to work how I want it to, yet.

My parents will probably accept the invitation to your party, even if it's just out of courtesy, and I will probably have to tag along. But of course I will gladly make this sacrifice to make this evening bearable for you. I just hope Seline will wait to introduce me to her parents.

Love

Al

He had written a letter to Seline as well that he sent together with her and Lucas' presents.

James spent his days with flying outside even thought it was bitter cold and thinking of new strategies for his Quidditch-team he wanted to try after the holidays. After being defeated by Slytherin he was determined to win the next two games against Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff to still have a chance at winning the cup.

To his own surprise he missed Scorpius. No, I don't miss Malfoy. I only miss our meetings, the sex, nothing else, he reassured himself. Still, he longed to see Malfoy again and wished for the holidays to end, something that had never happened before.

Scorpius didn't fare much better. He liked the presents he got from Albus, Lucas, Seline, his parents, godparents and grandparents but he was terribly bored. His mother was busy planning her New Year's party, his father as usual spent most of his time in his office and Lucas wasn't able to come over every day. He was so bored he wished he could fight with James – or sleep with him. I've obviously gone mad form boredom if I'm yearning for Potter's company, he thought with a shudder.

Normally he hated his mother's parties but this time he was actually looking forward to it. It was a welcome distraction from the boredom that plagued him. Maybe James will even be there, his traitorous mind whispered.