Hello! Sorry that there was a little wait. I've just finished my first year at uni so the next and last chapter should be up in the next couple of weeks :D
"So, me and James are fucking."
Henry's cigarette dangled from his fingers. "What?" he said, like Scorpius had said something he hadn't meant to. Like maybe he meant to say, 'me and Jasmine are fucking'.
Brian and Tony squinted at him; Louis grimaced.
Scorpius shrugged. "Me and James are fucking. Just letting you know." He hadn't brought it up once since James first mentioned it; it had been up to James to remind him as they met on Platform 9 and 3/4. Probably he'd dared himself to say it now, before he lost his nerve.
Four pairs of eyes switched to him. James shrugged as well.
"What so – so," Tony frowned. The Hogwarts Express shot through a tunnel and out just as fast, fields sloping away in the approaching gloom of dusk. "What so you're like – you're like-"
"Like having sex?" Brian put in.
"Yeah, that's kind of what fucking is," Scorpius drawled.
Tony didn't respond to that well. His eyebrows shot up, he folded his arms and slumped in his seat. "Since when?"
"November, the first time," Scorpius said.
"Why?" Henry broke in.
"What, are you gay?" Louis added.
"No," Scorpius shrugged again. "I dunno. He's a good fuck, I'm a good fuck. We're just… fucking."
Henry gave a short, loud laugh, and then another. "So," he raised a finger, pointing to the two of them, "if you two are fucking," he grinned, "who's the – what did you call it Potter? Bottom? – who's the bottom then..?"
The others giggled and sat up expectantly.
"Hey," Brian hit Henry on the arm, "Potter said he doesn't take." He grinned widely at Scorpius. "Which would make you the bitch."
Scorpius flushed. He shifted in his seat and threw James a glance.
"No!" Tony crowed, "Scorpius Malfoy taking it up the arse! God that must be a sight!"
James rolled his eyes irritably. "Leave it out," he said. But the lads were just getting started.
"Virgin then?" Louis asked.
"Well obviously," Scorpius sneered. But they weren't addressing him. They spoke to James and looked at James and pretended like Scorpius wasn't even in the carriage.
"Did he cry?" Tony asked excitedly. "Oh, please say he cried."
"Fuck off, Abernathy," Scorpius snapped and James wrinkled his nose.
"That's sick man," he said.
Henry shrugged. "So what's Malfoy like in bed then?"
"Better than anyone of you I'm sure," James said.
"Well," Brian grinned, "you're not like to find out. None of us are a slut for it like Malfoy."
Both James and Scorpius glowered at him. "Shut your mouth, Thorne, if you know what's good for you," Scorpius spat.
Brian looked abashed but Henry rarely let Scorpius intimidate him and Tony never knew when to leave it.
"Yeh," the older boy grinned, "but does he ever shut up?"
"Bet he loves the dirty talk!" Tony added before shrieking in a high pitched voice: "oh, make me your bitch, Potter. Make me your bitch!"
Scorpius retort was drowned by their bellows of laughter.
"Oi, oi Potter," Henry snapped his fingers to gain James' attention. "Is he clingy?" The others snorted. "Do you cuddle after? Does he cry after and ask if it was good for you?"
"Mate, you want to shut the fuck up?" James snapped.
"Hey, does he go down on you?" Louis asked.
"Does he shut up even then?"
"Mate, mate. If he does, though, can we make that a permanent thing – you gagging him with your cock!" Tony ducked the book Scorpius hurled at his head. "That could have killed me, you fag!"
"Potter, could you please control your woman?" Henry said lazily.
"Who the fuck are you calling woman, Zane!" Scorpius snarled.
Henry just scoffed in return. "You on your period or something? Jesus, sit down you're embarrassing yourself."
Scorpius had his wand out. "I swear to god, Zane, I will-"
"Oi Potter, could you shut this bitch up? Christ, doesn't she know her place?" Tony mocked.
A jet of light suddenly erupted from the end of Scorpius' wand, though he made no movement nor uttered no curse, and burnt through the floor. The railway tracks rattled by underneath, cold wintery air whistling up through the gap. The blonde leapt black, Tony flinched and the others stared.
James pushed himself to his feet, one hand on Scorpius' arm. "I think that's your cue to leave," he said to their friends.
Scorpius pulled his eyes away from the small hole by his feet and shrugged James off. "Oh no," he sneered. He twirled his wand in his hand, Tony's eyes fixed on it warily, before shoving it into his pocket. "Don't leave on my account." He smirked then, the way he used to, and swept from the carriage car.
It was a few moments before someone spoke.
"The fuck was that about?" Brian muttered.
James shot him a hard look. "Reading between the lines I'd say he was pissed," he snapped. "The fuck is wrong with you?"
"We were joking," Henry said idly. He's already picked up the book Scorpius had thrown and was leafing through it carelessly.
"Oh fuck off," James said. Henry and his fucking nonchalance really fucking wound him up sometimes. "You were so completely out of line I don't know what you were thinking!"
Henry rolled his eyes and Tony looked between them quickly but Brian and Louis at least seemed ashamed. He knew none of them were really trying to be mean but they were rarely given opportunity to rile Scorpius like he did them.
"Yeah, but he did overreact," Henry said.
"It was my idea to tell you, he didn't even want to. Christ!" James raked a hand through his hair. "Fuck you all," he muttered and made for the door.
As he reached for the handle, however, it was flung open and four girls stood in the corridor. Louise pushed James out of the way, crossed the carriage and slapped Henry full across the face.
"Dude!" Brian yelled as James stared.
"Desperate, am I?" Louise demanded, "well don't worry I shall relieve you of the burden of having to shag me." Henry's eyebrows shot up and he reached out for her.
"Babe," he started but she turned on her heel and left.
Sophie and Kelly stepped in. The former had dated Louis the year before and Kelly had a tenacious relationship with Tony.
"You think my sister's fitter than me do you?" she snarled, "well you know what Tony, I think your brother is a better fuck."
"The worst head you've ever got?" Sophie sneered, hands on her hips. "Well I'm sorry that you didn't give me much to work with." Louis flushed and avoided her eye. They stepped back as Olivia came forward.
Brian's eyes widened. "'Livie," he began.
"Apparently," she hissed, angry tears blooming in her eyes, "I pull some lovey-dovey face when we're together. I hope you remember it well because you aren't seeing it again."
She turned and stormed out, Kelly and Sophie with her.
The boys were left reeling.
"Oh god," Brian moaned.
"Fucking hell!" Tony yelled. "The fuck was that?"
James was still by the sliding door, one hand grasping the threshold, when Scorpius slipped back into the carriage, the most infuriating smirk on his lips. "Now you can leave," he said.
"Yeah, good," Brian, good-natured, mild-mannered and so in love with his girlfriend, was furious. "I think I know a few people who would love to hear how you've turned faggot."
"Oh really?" Scorpius looked entirely unfazed. "So you're going to screw James over like that?" He jutted his chin and cast James a fleeting glance. "What's he done to you?"
James wouldn't have minded if the whole world knew about him and Scorpius, except that he knew Scorpius would so did a little bit as well. "Mention me and him and I wouldn't bother coming back," he said.
Brian's chest was heaving; Henry, Louis and Tony looked no less incensed. Henry was the first to leave, shoving Scorpius in James as he passed. Louis and Tony followed him and finally Brian with his little face all red and his bloodshot.
James pressed his lips together.
/ \
Scorpius fell down into one of the seats and shook his head.
James slid in next to him and nudged him shoulder to shoulder. "You okay?" he asked quietly.
Scorpius' mouth convulsed and he looked at the ceiling sharply.
"You know that was kind of hot," James whispered. He inched closer to him. "I mean, you thought we were never gonna get the room to ourselves." One finger trailed over Scorpius' collarbone.
The younger boy slapped his hand away. "For god's sake, James, could you just leave off!" He jumped to his feet and threw himself into the seat opposite James.
The sky had turned black and purple outside, dark trees rising tall beside the train tracks. Smoky grey clouds hid the stars.
"I can't do it," Scorpius whispered.
James looked down at his lap. "Scor, they were just messing… you know."
"Why do you keep calling me 'Scor'?" the blonde snapped. "What even is that?"
James scoffed and folded his arms. "I don't know, I liked it. Christ, Malfoy, relax."
Scorpius' head dropped back against the wall and he took a deep breath. James could see the way his chest swelled; see the shadows dancing in the hollow of his throat.
He swallowed. "I'll get the lads back in here, make them apologise. You can set things right with the girls, I dunno…" He shrugged one shoulder. "It'll be fine. Things can go back to normal."
"Like how things were before this," Scorpius still had his head tipped back, his eyes closed, as he gestured between them, "ever happened."
"No, well not that normal-" James started to say but Scorpius was shaking his head.
He pushed away from the wall and stared hard out the window. "Yes," he said softly. "Things can go back to normal, how it should be-"
James sat forward abruptly. "Are you breaking up with me?"
Scorpius fist slammed into the seat beside him and he was on his feet. "I can't break up you, Potter, if we were never together! Fuck! I'm not your – damn – girlfriend!"
/ \
James had thought once they told their friends Scorpius would be in his bed every night. But Scorpius never even returned to their dorm, that night or any of the ones that followed. James heard that he spent them all in Jasmine's bed. Jasmine, his on and off girlfriend, the one he'd been with back when things were 'normal'.
For the first couple of weeks they had tried to pretend like things were normal between them as well. The same couldn't be said for the Scorpius and the others. No one knew what it was about; the boys had kept their silence, but so long as Olivia wouldn't speak to him, Brian wouldn't speak to Scorpius. Tony stood by Brian on that account and Louis and Henry were angered enough to do the same. They had been upset with James for a bit but that passed. James was put in the position, then, of choosing between them.
Scorpius, unwittingly and through little fault of his own, made the decision an easy one. It was too much for James, being close to him when he knew what it was to be inside him. He couldn't look at him without picturing his face as unravelled. Every time he said James' name reminded him of the way he moaned it in his ear. James could barely remember how things had been before, hadn't be always flung an arm over his shoulder, hadn't Scorpius sat so close their shoulders touched, hadn't he brushed the hair from his eyes?
"Quit that, James," Scorpius had muttered one day, as they sat the Gryffindor table, yards of empty places either side of them.
"Huh?"
Scorpius had batted his hand away. "Don't mess with my hair."
James frowned. "I always used to play with your hair..."
Scorpius dropped his gaze.
"Fine whatever," James muttered and he had turned back to his dinner.
As the weeks continued their relationship fractured little by little. James took to eating with the other lads whislt Scorpius sat with Jasmine. He got into a fight with Tony one night in the Gryffindor common room and after that James rarely saw him there as well. He wasn't even sure who was pushing who away anymore. By March Scorpius spent most of his time with Nero Dolohov, a Slytherin from his own year of ill repute. He saw them swap a book once, one of dark, stained leather. When Scorpius saw him, across the courtyard, he got the look like he was doing something bad. James crossed over to him, watching as Scorpius pushed Dolohov away.
The Slytherin smiled at him as he passed, thin lipped and cold.
"So, you're hanging out with Dolohov now," James had asked.
Scorpius gave a sly shrug. "He's fun," he said.
James scoffed. "Let me see that book."
Scorpius had drawn it into the folds of his cloak, a richer kind of late. "It's in French."
James narrowed his eyes. "Will I see you at dinner?"
"I promised Jasmine I'd eat with her."
"Oh that's right." James had thrown his head back and laughed. "Because you're fucking her again."
Scorpius hadn't even responded, he's looked at James steadily and when it was all too much James and stormed off.
After that they barely even spoke. James was sick with hurt and lust, it was worse than before. He woke at night in agony. Sometimes he felt he might cry from the ache of it all, the way he was so sure it was his fault. He'd been drunk, Scorpius had been drunk and they'd gone and thrown away everything they'd had.
/ \
"Oh, sweetie, are you lost?" Someone took his hand. "Here, we'll go see if we can't find your friends shall we? They're probably picking on first years as we speak, come on."
James rolled his eyes, pulling his hand from his cousin's grasp. "Not now, Rose, I've got a lot to do."
She laughed and said sympathetically, "is it because you left it to the last minute?"
James frowned, shuffling through scraps of parchment and shoving books to the side, "what? Oh right... er yeah. So if you could bugger off," he noticed a sheet of notes on the floor and reached for it, "much appreciated."
"Okay," she dropped into the chair next to him and propped her elbows on the table.
James bit his tongue to keep it in check. "What is it Rose? I don't mean to intrude on your domain." He gestured to the library, a place he'd seldom seen in his seven years at Hogwarts. He was brilliant, sure that was a given, but he preferred to be so without ever entering the library.
"Just I heard a funny thing today," Rose said. She was smiling at him.
"What?" James muttered, scrawling a quote by Bathilda Bagshot into his essay.
"James, it'll be two seconds, put your bloody quill down. I want to talk to you about something."
James sighed but dropped his quill and slouched in his seat. "Yeah, what?"
"Right." Rose sat up straight, eyes shining in excitement. "So, you know we get paired up in potions, right? And I'm in this group with Scorpius and Brian."
"Yeah…" James rocked back on his chair, frowning.
"Well, obviously you know they've had this fight. Something about Scorpius telling Olivia something about – well I don't really care. But that room was just palpable. They wouldn't even talk to each other, all: 'Rose, would you please ask Thorne to pass the beetle eyes.' 'Rose, would you please tell Malfoy he can get them himself.' So childish."
James rolled his eyes.
"Anyway, so I leave the room to go the loo and I come back and they are at each other's throats. I mean wands out and everything. So Brian's yelling: 'oh get over it, we were joking. Because of you I lost the girl I love!' And then Scorpius is like: 'yeah, well because of you I lost James!'
James blushed at that, his heart doing all kinds of funny things in his chest.
Rose slid him a smile. "So Brian goes: 'well, it's not like you're in love with him.' And Scorpius yells: 'of course I'm fucking in love with him!'"
James' eyebrows shot up. He tried not to grin stupidly but his face felt like it might break. "He said that?" he heard himself say.
Rose nodded, beaming.
James frowned at her. "What are you so happy about?"
She laughed and flicked a curl from her eyes. "Well," she shrugged. "You know how I like to be right."
"Right?"
"About you and Scorpius," she explained, "I knew there was something going on between you."
James smile faded. He slumped further in his chair. "Not any more there isn't," he grumbled. "Not like there ever was, we were just," he mimed air quotes, "'fuck buddies.'"
Rose scoffed. "Seriously, I don't get how two guys ever work out a relationship, not without a girl," she gestured to herself, "at least."
James shifted in his seat moodily.
"He's devoted to you. I've known it for years. He's apparently only just realised himself and clearly it's going to take some sort of intervention for you to realise it."
James harrumphed. "I don't know, Rose. We don't even talk anymore, I mean-"
"Oh grow a backbone," she said dismissively, waving a hand. "Go after the boy you love and stop sulking. It's unbearable."
A smile tugged at the corner of James' mouth. "Do my essay?"
"No."
James grinned, gathering his books up and shoving them into his bag. "Do you know where he is now?"
"Still in detention, probably. Down in potions."
James slung his bag over his shoulder. He turned to go but halted a moment. "What do I say to him?"
"I dunno." Rose gave him the once over and smiled. "Tell him that you've been in love with him since your first hard on."
James was deep in thought by the time he reached the lower levels of the school. His mind was at war, nervous and excited at once, lost between his love and his lust. If things went to plan he could have Scorpius on the desk in fifteen minutes. The thought made him tremble. How long had it been now? Three months, at least six weeks since he's even touched him, let alone slipped inside of him. It would be sweeter than their first time and when he released he could whisper in his ear just how much he loved him. James was lost deep, deep, in those thoughts. He didn't, therefore, realise he was being followed till someone fell into step beside him.
He started slightly and his stomach dropped when he saw that it was Rosier. "Hey, Potter," the Slytherin said.
James stopped in his tracks. He made to turn around and walk away and came face to face with Mulciber, who grinned. Mulciber was broader than him and of his height, Rosier taller though very slim. He had to take a step back to avoid them both.
"Heard you wanted a good… proper fight," Rosier said. His hand slipped into his pocket.
James made one short and desperate attempt for his own wand before Mulciber's fist slammed into his jaw. The ground rushed up to meet him, and when he spat blood splattered the stone.
"Well, we're only too glad to oblige," Rosier said softly. James shook his hair from his eyes, making to push to his feet.
Mulciber's boot collided with his head and he was thrown onto his back. He groaned and flinched when a hand closed around his jaw like a vice. "We'll have it so the whole school'll see you as the bent cunt you are."
/ \
Albus gripped Lily's hand a little tighter, staring at Professor McGonagall intently and nodding. Tears shone in the girl's eyes, and she kept raising her finger to stop them spilling over.
"Can I tell the boys?" Louis asked. "They'll want to know."
"Yes, quickly."
He turned from them and rushed into the Great Hall. Rose watched as he crossed to the Gryffindor table where he'd been pulled from moments before. Henry Zane, Tony Abernathy and Brian Thorne leant in as Louis explained the reason behind McGonagall's urgency, why the Potter and Weasley children were obliged to collect an overnight bag and report to her office. Brian covered his mouth. Tony curled his fist.
Rose frowned and took a step closer to peer further into the hall. Scorpius was sat on his own further down from them. He gave them a surly glance and stabbed moodily at his food. Without a word Rose strode off, making her way towards him. When he noticed her his shoulders sagged. She dropped into the seat opposite him but found the words wouldn't form in her mouth. Looking into his face, this boy who loved her cousin, she couldn't tell him the truth.
"You told him didn't you?" Scorpius asked.
Tears welled in her eyes; she parted her lips and closed them again.
Scorpius buried his face in his hands. "Oh God, he thinks I'm a freak. Some infatuated, immature – stupid quee-"
"James is in St Mungo's," Rose whispered.
Scorpius froze. Ever so slowly he raised his head. He had such pretty eyes, steely but so full of emotion. She could read them now so clearly. Fear. "What?"
She wiped at a tear hastily. "He was attacked-"
"What?" Scorpius' voice rose.
A sob slipped from her and she choked it back. "He should- should be... okay-"
Scorpius' palm smacked into the table and she started violently. "He should be okay?" he spat.
"Rose!" Lily was calling her, Louis had returned and the rest of her family wanted to make haste.
She turned back. "I have to go. I'll owl you okay. Let you know what's happening."
"But-" Scorpius protested.
"I'm sorry!" she leapt to her feet and hurried away.
Scorpius was left alone. He stared hard at the table, eyes darting this way and that. He swallowed and shook his head. No, no, no. His finger twisted in his hair so hard it hurt. No.
Someone fell into the seat next to him, rattling the plates and cutlery. "Hey," Brian said quietly. He gripped both of Scorpius' shoulders and pulled him close, "he's gonna be fine, Mal. He'll be okay, I promise."
… :D
Hi, thank you for reading and pretty please review. No previews this time but I always reply so don't hold back! I don't if it felt a little rushed considering several months passed in the one chapter… So let me know what you think!
