Chapter 7: Can't Stand Me Now

November was a strange month for Hogwarts castle.

It started with Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy camouflage dancing on Halloween and ended with Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy engaged in a violent fistfight on the first floor staircase in front of everyone.

Finn and Albus made up a few days after Halloween. Finn apologized again and while Al likes to do more of the reckless things that he likes, Albus is his best friend. Albus just hugged him and said that he needed him.

A few days later and Scorpius was studying in the library with Finn and Cale. Finn suddenly looked up and hailed someone over. Albus Potter walked over and stood awkwardly behind the empty chair at the table. Scorpius realized that Albus was waiting for his permission to sit so he just shrugged and Albus took the seat opposite him.

"What's up, crazy?" said Cale happily. He then swore much too loudly when Finn stepped harshly on his foot under the table.

Albus snickered. "It's fine, Finn. Though it's soon not gonna be fine for you, Cale."

The four of them watched Ms. Rey the librarian march up to the table, grab Cale by his hoodie and drag him out of the library. The moment they were gone Finn burst out laughing and started riffling through his brother's bag which had been forgotten.

"Merlin, what an idiot. Ooh, candy."

Finn pulled out a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and handed them out. He went first.

"Eugh, mayonnaise," he said, coughing.

Albus gagged on his. "Oh god, hairball."

"Mmm, vanilla," said Scorpius.

Albus kicked him under the table and Finn whipped the candy box at his face. Scorpius laughed, throwing the box back and kicking Albus right back under the table.

That was the first time Scorpius and Albus hung out civilly together.

The next time was in potions. They had been paired up for the lesson, which normally would have caused mass destruction, but today they just looked at each other and nodded.

Albus got the ingredients while Scorpius heated up the cauldron. They divided up the steps and got to work only saying the bare minimum. Scorpius wanted to at least have some sort of a conversation but he didn't want to be the first one to say something. Albus really didn't like the silence so he waited for Scorpius to be the first one to talk.

Thirty minutes later and it was still dead silent. It was broken when Scorpius went to throw in the Keuning Roots and Albus grabbed his wrist.

"HOLD UP," he said. "Are those the Roots?"

"Yeah?"

"You gotta core them first," said Albus, taking them from Scorpius and grabbing the knife. Scorpius flipped through the potions book.

"What? It doesn't say that in here."

"Tip HP taught me," said Albus. He caught the look on Scorpius's face. "That was weird. I don't know why I just called him that."

Albus cored the first root, taking out the deep purple centre. Scorpius watched Albus's hands, noticing for the first time that he was left-handed. He looked at Albus's long, pale fingers.

"Piano," Scorpius blurted out. Albus looked up.

"What?"

"Uh, sorry," muttered Scorpius, horrified. "Umm, sometimes I, uh, do this thing where I predict what instrument people play by their hands."

"Oh," said Albus. He looked down at his hands. "I did play piano actually. I haven't though since- well, not since awhile now."

The way he said it, all nonchalant and offhanded, told Scorpius something wasn't right. But Scorpius knew what he meant. He had read it in the Prophet when the story came out, everyone had.

To bypass the moment, Albus handed Scorpius the knife and went to get more ingredients that they didn't need. Trusting Albus (something Scorpius never thought he'd do), Scorpius finished maiming the Roots and threw them into the cauldron. The green color of their potion that would have gotten them an Exceeds Expectations turned neon green, the exact shade in the book. Scorpius left potions with an O and a strange new take on Albus Potter.

~O-O~

There were five moments that led up to the fallout.

The first one happened on the first Saturday of November. Scorpius was in the library, trying to find a very specific book for his Herbology essay. As he was weaving through the aisles trying to find the Toxic Herbology section, what he found instead was Albus Potter sitting cross-legged on a chair eating licorice wands. He looked up when he heard Scorpius coming and they both nodded before Scorpius went on. When Scorpius came back the same way, struggling to carry a massive tome that seemed to be shedding dirt, he noticed something different about Albus. Now he was lounging on the chair with his legs dangling off the end and an arrogant smirk on his face. He had his wand out and was pointing it at the book he had been reading earlier so that it had a fistfight with another book in midair. When he saw Scorpius he grinned and winked and yelled, "MALFOY" before tossing him a licorice wand. Scorpius caught it though barely, as he was still wrestling with the heavy book. He wasn't sure what to think of that after he had left, other than maybe Albus wasn't just a prick after all.

The next happened a few days later. Albus and Finn had been studying in the Great Hall when Cale decided that he absolutely needed to see his brother at that moment. He dragged Scorpius along with him to sit and awkwardly and wait for him. Albus had all his books spread out on the table. He seemed to be studying every subject at the same time.

Something was sticking out of Albus's Transfiguration book and Scorpius realized that it was their first quiz. He slipped it out, hoping to see that he has beat Albus's grade. He took one look at it and burst out laughing.

"Holy shit! Is that me!" he asked, pointed at the figure that was being violently murdered by a unicorn. Albus looked up, paled, grabbed the paper back and then blushed furiously.

"No," he said much too fast.

Scorpius roared with laugher. "Can I keep that? Seriously, I didn't know you could draw, that's really very good. Can I pin that above my bed?"

To Scorpius's surprise, Albus actually handed over the picture. That night Scorpius did actually pin it above his bed. He wasn't really sure why but waking up to a picture of Albus Potter astride a unicorn that was fantastically killing him made his day infinitely better.

The third time happened after Albus had been absent for a record 7 days. Al was even crazier than usual, spending most of the time high or drunk or mysteriously missing at the same time Nathan the Ravenclaw was. Rose had given up, Finn had stopped getting high with him because even he was worried and even Al himself wasn't happy.

While everyone was at dinner, Al snuck off, unable to ignore Rose's constant overbearing stare anymore. He grabbed his bag and left, ignoring his friends calling out after him. He had meant to go back to the common room and curl up in front of the fireplace and stare into the flames for hours like he'd been doing for the past week but instead he went the other way, down the steps until he was striding across grounds towards the quidditch pitch.

It was dark, but still light enough to see. It was also quite cloudy for the time of day and Al thought that it was probably going to rain.

He climbed the stairs to the stands and sat down at the very top. He opened his bag and took out a stack of papers stuffed haphazardly in a folder. The outside of the folder said ASSIGNMENTS.

That is actually a total lie. The folder was filled with Al's stories. He wrote all the time because writing was his escape. Albus escapes to Al and Al escapes to the worlds he creates in his mind. Because things are better there. They could be how he wanted and no one got to decide for him how things happened.

Al took a quill and ink from his cloak pocket and wrote from where he had left off. It was a short story he'd been working on for awhile. The main character was to be killed in the end.

After awhile Al looked up and noticed that he was not alone. Someone was flying around the pitch. Al watched the figure shoot the quaffle through the centre hoop before flying after it and catching it before it hit the ground. Al squinted at the figure as they flew back into the stadium. The emerald robes and silver hair were unmistakable.

It was another twenty minutes before Scorpius noticed Al. He flew over to the stands and hovered above him.

"What are you doing here, Potter?" he asked suspiciously. "Not spying are you?"

Al looked up from his papers. "Nope, just developing hypothermia."

Scorpius landed next to him. "Seriously, what are you doing?"

He snatched the paper out of Al's hand. Al jumped up looking ready to punch him in the face but then he sat back down like he just didn't care anymore.

Scorpius read the first few lines of Al's story. His eyebrows disappeared under his fringe. He didn't know Potter wrote stories. It was actually pretty good.

Scorpius handed it back. "Wow, umm, not bad."

"Thanks."

"How does it end?"

"The boy kills himself.

"My, how cheery," said Scorpius.

Scorpius looked up as it began to rain. He missed how Al shuddered and closed his eyes.

"We should go back in," said Scorpius. He looked down at Albus and noticed that strange look on his face. "You okay?"

Albus looked up startled. "What? Oh, yeah."

Albus packed up his things and tucked them away in his bag. Scorpius watched him.

They walked back to the castle together in silence. The rain came down harder and the wind picked up. Albus and Scorpius huddled together automatically. Once they were back in the school Albus took off without a word to Scorpius. Scorpius stood frozen, watching Albus until he was out of sight. Part of him felt somewhat pleased that he'd been able to break through Potter's mysterious shell and read his story, something Scorpius was sure not many other people could say. The other part was complete confusion and strangely enough, worry.

~O-O~

It wasn't even a week later when Scorpius stood outside Defense Against the Dark Arts and watched as Albus sprinted the length of the hallway…

and right to him. He stopped in front of Scorpius and bent over, gasping for breath. Scorpius waited patiently.

"I've just been talking to Finn about quidditch," wheezed Albus. He took a couple more breaths. "You need to beat Ravenclaw in the next match or else I'll die. I will literally die."

Scorpius smirked. "Right. I remember how Ravenclaw creamed you in your last match how embarrassing."

"Shut up," growled Albus. "Just… please. I will literally do anything. Just flatten them and I will owe you big time."

Scorpius rolled his eyes and walked into class. He was surprised when Albus followed him in.

"You already owe me one from Halloween, Potter. Remember?"

"Fuck. Okay so now I just owe you a really big one okay?" said Albus.

"Ha, that's what she said," said Scorpius, sitting down at his desk beside Cale who looked up curiously.

Albus looked shocked and pleased by that. "I did not think I would ever hear you-"

That's when the Professor came in and loudly reminded Albus that he did not have Defense Against the Dark Arts that period. Albus ran out but not before pointing at Scorpius and sending him a very poignant look. When he was gone and the lesson had started, Cale pushed a note over to Scorpius's side of the desk.

You two are so cute together.

Scorpius calmly folded up the note and then violently shoved it down the back of Cale's shirt. He squealed loudly enough for everyone to look round at them. Scorpius just smiled like nothing was out of the ordinary.

Three days later and Scorpius was sitting on his broom as the sea of green and red fans screamed and cheered. Slytherin had won which meant Gryffindor was back in first place and Ravenclaw had been bumped back to third. Slytherin was now in second place which would have made him happy but something else was on his mind.

He had scored thirty-seven times in the game. He had never scored that much. Really the only thing this time that had been different was Albus Potter asking him to win. Scorpius didn't have to, if anything he should have played terribly and let Ravenclaw win so that Gryffindor wouldn't be first like they always are. Instead Scorpius did exactly what Gryffindor wanted. And why did he do that?

Because Potter asked him to.

Scorpius flew down, not really sure what this meant. He had a strange feeling like he was missing something.

The moment he touched down on the ground he saw Albus sprinting for him. Scorpius barely had time to look surprised before Albus was enveloping him a bone-crushing hug. Scorpius nearly fell over from the sheer excitement of Albus's hug giving.

"Christ, Potter," said Scorpius, "it's as if you just won the game."

Albus pulled back but kept his arm around Scorpius's shoulder. He was grinning like the damn Cheshire Cat.

"I DID!" he yelled. "Thirty-seven points, Scorpius! THIRTY-SEVEN!"

Scorpius grinned back and wondered if Albus's mood was infectious.

There was a party that night in the Slytherin common room. For the first time in Hogwarts history there were Gryffindor's invited into the Slytherin common room. The Gryffindor's were celebrating being back in first and the Slytherin's were celebrating their win.

The first half of the night, Scorpius was happy that the Slytherin's and Gryffindor's could actually get along. The second half of the night was basically a complete blur. Scorpius got very very drunk from all the shots Cale seemed to be pouring down his throat. Scorpius figured this was Cale's revenge for not getting drunk with him his first time. Scorpius knew he would regret this in the morning but tonight he didn't care.

Tonight he wasn't Scorpius Malfoy. Tonight he was just a boy, a drunk happy mess who played flip cup and beer pong and let a Gryffindor girl kiss him and who danced with Albus Potter under the lights. Scorpius had never felt so alive and Albus Potter's eyes had never been so green and for the first time Scorpius understood what it meant to be alive.

~O-O~

The next morning, Scorpius expected to spend the whole day in bed with the worst headache imaginable and praying for death. Instead he woke up early, dressed and went down to the Great Hall to get a rather large cup of coffee. He found he had no hangover.

He took his coffee up to the Owlery where he sat on one of the window ledges. He held his coffee but forgot to drink it.

Everything made sense now. Scorpius considered himself smart but it had taken him so long to realize it that he felt like a complete idiot.

It explained everything. Why a part of Scorpius was near constantly worried for Albus Potter and whatever the hell he was going through. Why he'd spent six years hating him and suddenly they were best friends. Why after saying no to Cale for years he agreed to get drunk after Albus asked him once. It explained everything and yet now Scorpius felt even more lost.

Scorpius fancied Albus Potter.