With an almighty sigh, Scorpius heaved himself up into a sitting position, disentangling himself from Albus.

"Where are you going?" Albus moaned, opening his eyes and looking around the dormitory blearily. It was almost entirely deserted and the glass surrounding them was still fogged up, making it hard to tell whether the sun had risen yet or not. Only one other boy was still in bed, Roger, the one who had given Albus the idea to use the freezing charm the night before.

"I said I'd meet Rose for breakfast in the Great Hall." Scorpius replied, pulling on a pair of jeans from his trunk under the bed. He caught sight of Albus frowning out the corner of his eye and turned back around to face him.

"Didn't I tell you?"

"No, you didn't." Albus huffed, wiping the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. Scorpius reached over and stroked Albus' hair.

"I won't be long," he reassured him, "She just wanted to talk about stuff."

"Stuff?" Albus pouted, "You're not cheating on me are you?" He asked, with a wink.

"It's just breakfast." Scorpius insisted and Albus nodded, slightly disappointed that his cheeky comment went by unnoticed. Scorpius kicked his feet into his shoes, tied them and stood up. He turned back and surveyed the scene before him. A half-dressed Albus sprawled out on the sweat-drenched sheets. Scorpius crinkled his nose in disgust.

"What?" Albus barked.

"Oh…no, not you. I'm looking at the sheets. I'll have to wash them, they're foul." Scorpius explained as Albus propped himself up on his elbows.

"They're not that bad. I mean, they're not clean but…it's not like we did, well, no. But we did do…but not everything, so they're not-"

"Stop," Scorpius held up a hand to silence Albus' nervous babbling, "The sheets are covered in sweat from the heat. I reckon everyone else will have the same problem. If someone doesn't fix the temperature, this whole place will start smelling like sweaty socks pretty soon."

"Of course, sweat, yep. I thought you were talking about-"

"I know what you were thinking." Scorpius interrupted, "I'll be back before you know it."

As he was walking away, he added, "Perv."

"I heard that!" Albus called after him, to which Scorpius shouted back, "You were supposed to!"

The shouts woke up Roger, who jumped up with a great snort and didn't look best pleased.


The common room was similarly empty, but thankfully, much cooler than the dormitory. There were dozens of strings of ice crystals dangling from the ceiling, all in various stages of melting. Over in the far corner, Finlay stood with his wand over his head, muttering to himself.

"Everything okay, Finlay?" Scorpius called over. Finlay's head snapped around in Scorpius' direction, his eyes wild.

"Oh, yeah, everything's just fine." He replied, his voice a little shaky. He mumbled a spell under his breath and another string of ice crystals grew out of the tip of his wand, extending up towards the ceiling where they latched on. Finlay shook his wand free from the ice and dropped his arm to his side, his shoulders hunching.

"Get much sleep?" Scorpius asked as Finlay slid into a nearby chair.

"Sleep? No, not really. Been up all night trying to keep it cool in here. Course they only last about 20 minutes, so I have to keep making more." Finlay mumbled, his eyelids drooping. Scorpius watched for a few moments as Finlay's eyelids bounced up and down as he desperately tried to keep himself awake.

"Hang on there a moment." Scorpius told him, before darting back into the dormitory. Roger had lay back down on his bed, with his pillow stuffed over his head. Over in the corner, Albus was stood up by the fogged-up glass, his back to the door. Scorpius approached slowly and saw that Albus was drawing on the glass with his finger, his wand stowed in the waistband of his boxers.

"What are you writing?" Scorpius asked and Albus jumped with fright. His hand flew up to the glass and smeared away the words he had been tracing through the condensation. Albus spun around on his heels.

"Back already? I thought she'd definitely be chewing your ear off for a good hour." Albus said.

"No, no, I haven't gone up yet. I didn't make it past the common room. I need your help." Scorpius explained. Albus raised a suspicious eyebrow.

"With what? Something fun?" Albus grinned, reaching out and grabbing Scorpius' hand.

"Nothing like that. I need you to help Finlay. He's exhausted and needs someone to take over with the spells in the common room." Scorpius detailed, patting Albus' hand as he did.

"Spells? What spells? Did he fix the heat charm?"

"No, think more…counter-measures!" Scorpius tugged on Albus' hand and lead him out of the dormitory into the common room, where Finlay was still trying to keep himself awake.

"Finlay, I have an idea. Albus can take over with the ice while you get some sleep." Scorpius suggested, letting go of Albus' hand as Finlay looked up at the two of them.

"Mate, are you alright? You don't look so good." Albus mused and Finlay furrowed his brow in annoyance. He got unsteadily to his feet and tried to shake the exhaustion from his limbs.

"You don't mind?" Finlay asked, stifling a yawn. Albus shrugged and pulled his wand from his boxer shorts to Finlay's astonishment.

"You really shouldn't keep your wand there." he scolded, "What if you blow off something important?"

Albus rolled his eyes in protest.

"Never mind that, what do you need me to do? Make more of those ice things?" Albus asked, signalling up towards the rapidly melting strings of frozen crystals. One just above their heads had started to drip water down and a droplet of cool water landed on Scorpius' shoulder.

"If you don't mind. It's not too difficult once you get the hang of it. You know how to do a freezing charm?" Finlay asked. Albus nodded enthusiastically, remembering the night before and felt a smirk creep across his lips. He had the sudden desire to grab Scorpius' hand but thought better of it, considering present company.

"Great," said Finlay, a little confused by Albus' grin, "Well, this isn't much different. The incantation is 'Glacius Vinculum'…got it? Good. Visualise the chains like I've made and try not to flick your wand too much. Wait until the chain hits the ceiling before you start another one, okay?"

Albus nodded, doing his best to try and understand all of Finlay's instructions. He held his wand out above his head, pointed it at an ice-less spot of the ceiling and muttered 'Glacius Vinculum'.

His wand tip flashed a pearly white light, but no ice emerged. He tried again and again, to no avail.

"You sure you've done a freezing charm before?" Finlay asked, his eyes were narrowed in suspicion. Scorpius placed a reassuring hand on Albus' shoulder as he raised his wand over his head again.

"Glacius Vinculum." he repeated the incantation, and this time his wand shot out a jet of blue light, leaving a thin web of ice crystals in its wake. The ice wove tendrils out of his wand, wrapping around each other and reaching upwards towards the ceiling. Albus held his wand there for a few moments, concentrating on the ice holding together. The crystals were rougher and much less polished than Finlay's own, but they vaguely resembled the others clinging to the common room ceiling. When at last it seemed the ice had touched the stone above, Albus shook his wand a little, disconnecting the ice from it.

He knew he'd made a mistake almost immediately from the mix of shock and bemusement crossing Finlay's weary face. The ice fell and crashed on Albus' head with a rather dull thud. Scorpius brushed some of the shattered crystals from Albus' shoulders, trying to contain his laughter.

"I told you." Finlay said, "Wait until it touches the ceiling before moving on. You have to make sure it's got a good grip."

"Will you be alright trying again on your own?" Scorpius asked, aware of the time and imagining Rose sitting alone in the Great Hall.

"Sure." Albus huffed, wiping the melting ice shards from his face. He pointed his wand up at the ceiling once more, muttered the incantation and watched as the ice grew upwards, stronger this time. Waiting as it latched onto the stone, Albus shook his wand free and slowly lowered his arm, amazed that the crystals were holding in place.

"I knew you could do it." Scorpius whispered, squeezing Albus' hand before dashing off out of the stone passageway, down the corridor and up the stairs into the school proper.


The Great Hall was sparsely populated at this time of the morning. Most students didn't wake up early enough for breakfast on Sundays and instead waited until lunchtime to eat. Nevertheless, Rose Weasley was sitting over at the Gryffindor table, with a copy of the Daily Prophet propped open and a half-eaten plate of eggs. As Scorpius approached her, he could see that she was intently reading from the newspaper, silently mouthing the words as she went.

"Morning Rose." Scorpius called. Rose jumped a little - she had clearly been deep in thought - and looked around before spotting Scorpius. She folded the paper over and waved.

"Mind if I take a seat?" Scorpius asked, gesturing towards the bench opposite Rose. She nodded in approval.

"Unless you'd rather we sit over there." Rose tilted her head in the direction of the Slytherin table as Scorpius slid onto the bench.

"Not really, here's fine. Is there a problem with our table?" Scorpius had noticed how Rose's tone had changed when she referred to the Slytherin section of the Great Hall.

"Well, not that I know of. But, you never know, there could always been some anti-Gryffindor hex on the benches!" she protested. Scorpius shook his head dismissively.

"We haven't got around to hexing the benches just yet." he added. Rose's eyebrows flew up in shock and her jaw fell slack. "It's a joke. Just a joke." Scorpius clarified.

Rose let out a little nervous giggle and patted Scorpius on the arm.

"Sorry. Usually jokes are funny. You can see how I got confused." she chided playfully.

"I didn't know the Prophet came on Sundays." Scorpius noted, trying to steer the topic of conversation away from his sense of humour, or rather, lack of.

"Oh yeah, Sunday Prophet. The owls dropped them off early this morning. Mum says it's good to keep up-to-date with current events. Nothing particularly interesting in it though." Rose mused absent-mindedly. Her fingers traced over the front page of the Sunday Prophet, dancing over a moving photo of two witches grinning broadly and holding up a shimmering cup between them.

"You looked pretty interested in it." Scorpius asked, remembering how Rose had been completely lost in thought when he arrived. She looked up from the front page.

"That's right. There's a feature on Albus' Dad in here. My parents sent an owl last week telling me to look out for it. Bit of a daft move putting it in the Sunday Prophet when next to no one reads them on Sundays. Here, look." Rose had opened the Prophet to the page she was reading. She turned the paper around and pointed to a half-page article entitled:

Heroes of Hogwarts: Volume 1

Harry Potter

"It's some anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts so they're putting out a feature every week on a different witch or wizard who helped win the war." Rose explained as Scorpius scanned the text.

"It's always some anniversary of that." Scorpius muttered.

To the right of the article was a photo of Harry Potter in his office at the Ministry, arms folded across his chest and grinning broadly.

"He looks just like Albus." Scorpius mumbled to himself and Rose smiled.

"He does." she agreed, "He's rather handsome, don't you think?"

Scorpius didn't look up from the photo, still staring intently at the photo of Albus' father. There was a certain quiet power that emanated from Harry Potter, even in a photograph. He had the same dazzling green eyes as Albus, although Albus' seemed more hopeful.

"Scorpius? Don't you agree?" Rose prompted.

"Oh yes, quite. Wait…were you referring to Mr Potter or Albus?" Scorpius asked, feeling his cheeks turn a deep scarlet.

"The interpretation's up to you. But you said 'yes' anyway." Rose smirked, content with her vague answer.

"Oh, give over! Who are you? The patron saint of Ravenclaw? Asking confusing riddles." Scorpius grumbled, pushing the paper back towards Rose. She folded it over once more and crossed her arms, satisfied.

"A question is a question until it's answered." she offered, "I heard a seventh year Ravenclaw say that. Bit stupid if you ask me. A question is still a question, even when you've got the answer but I suppose it's served its purpose once you have the answer. It's not so much a question as a prelude to a statement. An introduction perhaps."

Scorpius shook his head in confusion.

"You should write for the Quibbler with that sort of wobbly logic."

"Great minds always go unappreciated in their time!" Rose declared with a dramatic flail of her arms.

"If that's true, why is your mum the Minister for Magic?"

Rose half-shrugged in defeat and placed her hand again on Scorpius' arm.

"So, how are you?" she asked.

"I'm fine." Scorpius replied slowly, looking suspiciously between the hand on his arm and Rose's strangely sympathetic look, "Why? Have you heard something?" he questioned. Scorpius could feel himself panicking. What could Rose possibly know? Had students been gossiping about him behind his back? Had she asked him to meet her so she could get all the details to go spread about the castle?

"I hear a lot of things." Rose answered serenely, "However, not a lot about you. That's why I was worried. You were the talk of the school last term between all the arguments and outbursts and Albus trying to fight anyone and everyone. We've been back for over a week now and I've barely seen you, let alone heard anyone mention you. I thought you could use a friend."

Scorpius nodded slowly and smiled in gratitude. Sure, Rose had a tendency to be overly judgemental and loved gossip, but her heart was in the right place.

"I'm…fine." Scorpius said again, "I've been trying not to get into so much trouble this term. Better to keep my head down and get on with things, isn't it?"

"Is it? I mean, you've always been so out there and the centre of attention-" Scorpius threw Rose an offended look, "Oh, I don't mean it like that! It's just there's always something going on. Some big adventure. With you and Albus."

Scorpius chewed on his lip. It was true that the years he'd been at Hogwarts hadn't exactly been uneventful. Even in his first few years, Albus was always off hunting down mythical gemstones or trying to interview centaurs. And, of course, he had always followed in the wake of his more outgoing friend.

"I suppose I'm just settling down."

"And everything's fine…with Albus?" Rose asked, she looked deeply concerned, as though she had heard something troubling had happened between Scorpius and Albus.

"Of course. Everything's fine. We're…friends." Scorpius responded, stumbling a little over the last word. Rose tilted her head slightly in contemplation.

"Friends?" she prodded.

"Good friends." Scorpius replied.

"Just good friends?" she prodded a little further.

"No…not just good friends. Great friends. Best friends, even." Scorpius added hastily. He was starting to feel frustrated with all these questions. Why should he have to define his friendship with Albus? Was it not enough for everyone that they weren't bickering anymore?

"Good, I'm glad." Rose smiled sweetly. Scorpius was a little shocked that she had given up her line of questioning so easily. It had seemed that she was trying to ask what exactly had been going on between the boys recently.

"So, how have you been?" Scorpius asked, after the pair had sat in silence for long enough.

"I've been fine, too. Very busy. Trying to keep up with all the homework we've been getting. I can't imagine I'll get nearly as many Outstandings in my O.W.L.s as Mum did, but I can at least hope for better than Dad. Homework keeping you busy too?" she asked.

"Like always."

The pair sat chatting about various homework assignments, with Rose declaring that her recent shortage of parchment was the worst thing to have ever happened to all of wizardkind. Rose then regaled Scorpius with tales of her Quidditch successes. She had, as predicted before the year began, made the Gryffindor team and done quite well in a recent test match against Ravenclaw. Scorpius didn't mention that he'd heard rumours of Gryffindor's Quidditch team being the weakest it had been in centuries. Scorpius told her about the heating charm gone awry in the Slytherin common room and dormitories and Rose mentioned that it had been getting warmer in the Gryffindor's quarters also. They discussed whether it was some malicious plot by an evil wizard gang, planning to destroy Hogwarts by melting the students. Scorpius ate some of Rose's leftover eggs while she told him that 'Glacius Totum' would be a better spell to use to cool down the Slytherin living area and she looked positively offended that Finlay hadn't already thought of using it. Scorpius made a mental note to try it out when he got back.

Off in the distance, the clock tower began chiming and interrupted Rose's speech about why shorter wands were more efficient than longer ones. Scorpius counted the chimes and noted that it was eleven o'clock.

"I have to go, I told Albus I wouldn't be gone too long."

"Well, best not to keep him waiting," Rose grabbed Scorpius hand and squeezed it, "It's been good talking to you."

Scorpius thanked her and dashed back off down towards the Slytherin dungeons. He paused for a moment before heading down the stone steps. It was definitely much hotter even around the Great Hall. Could the heat charm be seeping out into the rest of the castle? Why hadn't any of the teachers come to investigate?

Surely enough, when Scorpius descended the stairs, he felt the blast of heat hit him even more intensely than before he had left and found little, old Professor Flitwick just outside of the entrance to the Slytherin common room, waving his wand elaborately in the air. Professor Flitwick was the Charms professor and had once been Head of Ravenclaw, before turning over the position to Professor Rivers a few years ago. Flitwick looked extremely flustered and as he crept by the teacher, Scorpius heard him muttering,

"Honestly, a heating charm. And getting me all the way down here in the dungeons just to fix it!"

Scorpius dashed down the stone passageway to escape Flitwick's squeaky protests and indignant ramblings. Inside the common room was almost unbearable. The air was thick and heavy and there was now a slight haze in the air. Over in the corner, slumped in an armchair was Albus. He was soaked through and looked worn out.

"Oh, you're back!" he called out cheerily to Scorpius, waving him over, "Not as bad as it looks, once you stop moving."

"How did you get on with the freezing charm?" Scorpius asked, dropping into a nearby chair and pointing up to the almost completely melted icicles hanging from the ceiling. There were far less there than when Scorpius had left.

"I gave up about a half hour ago. Or maybe an hour. I can't remember with this heat. How long were you gone?" Albus asked, running a hand through his damp hair.

"It's eleven now." Scorpius said.

"Then I gave up a long time ago. It was a losing battle, the ice just melted the second it came out of my wand. No point really. Might as well just sit here and wait to die." Albus chuckled darkly.

"Well, the ones you made look good." Scorpius offered but Albus waved his hand in front of himself.

"If I told you I had a win-lose ratio of 10 to 90, would you think badly of me?"

"Not in the slightest. You tried. And that's all that matters to me." Scorpius concluded, grabbing Albus' hand and intertwining their fingers together.

"Your hand is cold." Albus moaned, leaning his head back, eyes closed and smiling.

"Yeah?" Scorpius felt himself smiling too, and looked around to make sure the common room was empty before pulling his hand free and sliding it under Albus' t-shirt. He pressed his cool fingers into the soft flesh of Albus' torso. They sat for a few moments as Scorpius drew his fingers over Albus' chest and stomach, eliciting a moan every time he touched a particularly warm part of Albus' body.

"Oh!" Scorpius exclaimed, pulling his hand out from under Albus' t-shirt and taking his wand out of his pocket.

"Oi!" Albus complained, eyes flicking open, "I was enjoying that!"

"Another time." Scorpius promised as he got up out of his chair, trying to ignore Albus muttering under his breath.

"Rose gave me an idea of what to do." Scorpius explained. Albus furrowed his brow in confusion.

"Rose told you to do that?" Albus asked, referring to what had just happened.

"No, no. I came up with that all on my own." Scorpius replied, winking at Albus, "She told me a better spell we could try."

"Should I go get Finlay?" Albus asked, sliding further upright in his arm chair.

"No, let him sleep. It probably won't work anyway." Scorpius held his wand out in front of himself, not pointing at anything in particular and remembered the incantation Rose had told him, "Glacius Totum."

A wave of white light rushed out of Scorpius' wand in all directions, flooding the common room. Both of the boys shivered as it passed through them and they even heard shouts of approval from the dormitories as the light went through the stone walls. Scorpius stood still for a moment, enjoying the cold flooding through his body. Not a moment later, the heat returned, somehow worse than before.

"It didn't work!" Scorpius yelled, jamming his wand back into his pocket.

"Oh, Merlin! Scorp, we have to go, it's getting worse. My eyes are watering." Albus declared as he jumped to his feet. Students began rushing out of the dormitories and piling towards the stone passageway. Flitwick's voice drifted in from outside,

"Come on now, children. Hurry up, into the castle. Quickly, quickly!" he squeaked from outside. Albus and Scorpius joined the rush of students heading out and they caught sight of a rather disgruntled Finlay, herding students in the right direction and checking everyone was out.


Professor Flitwick lead the students up to the Great Hall and placed a barrier charm in front of the staircase, so no one accidentally wandered down into the sweltering depths. The Slytherins were glad to gather in the cool, drafty Great Hall. Some were sprawled out on the benches of the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables. Scorpius looked around when they entered but there was no sign of Rose, she must've gone back to Gryffindor tower shortly after he left.

"Settle down, everyone!" Professor McGonagall called as she strode into the Great Hall, looking very flustered, "Get up off those benches! Potter, for heaven's sake! Where are your trousers?" McGonagall exclaimed, exasperated. Albus tried pulling his t-shirt down to cover his legs.

"They're in the dormitory, Professor. I didn't realise we would be evacuated and I didn't have enough-" Albus began.

"Yes, yes, alright. We should have your trunks up here soon enough. Make sure you get yourself fully dressed when they do arrive. And that goes for all of you, I don't care to have my eyes assaulted by your bare bodies!"

McGonagall marched to the staff table at the head of the Great Hall and began conversing rather animatedly with several other staff members, including Professor Flitwick, who looked very relieved to be away from the heat.

"I wish I'd grabbed some jeans…or shoes!" Albus complained, trying even more to cover up his bare legs.

"I think you look lovely! Why not show off your legs?" Thorne teased from opposite Albus, falling into laughter with some other Slytherin boys.

"Don't listen to him," Scorpius whispered, "You heard McGonagall, they'll have our trunks up any minute."

Surely enough, stacks of trunks appeared all around the tables and Albus rushed to grab his from the other end of the Gryffindor table. The staff must've asked the House Elves to brave the heat and apparate all the trunks out. Albus came back, zipping up his jeans with one hand and carrying his trunk in the other. He dropped his trunk down on the table and landed hard on the bench next to Scorpius.

"No shoes," Albus said, slipping on a pair of red socks, "I didn't leave them anywhere near the trunk so they must've missed them. Either that or they burst into flames?"

Scorpius chuckled to himself at the thought of Albus' shoes burning alive down in the Slytherin dungeons.

"Probably melted," Scorpius joked, "If you were a better wizard, maybe you could summon them."

"Shut it, you!" Albus growled, although a half-smirk crossed his lips.

"Oi, Al! What's this I heard about you running around the castle naked?"

James Potter came striding up to his brother and Scorpius, looking thoroughly amused.

"I wasn't naked! I didn't have my trousers so we got rushed out…how did you hear about that so quickly?"

"I have my sources," James waved off his inside knowledge, "Never mind that, how are my two favourite Slytherins?" James asked. He knelt down between the pair and wrapped his arms tightly around each of their shoulders, a grin plastered on his face.

"We're fine." Albus replied curtly, "Better if you buggered off!"

James got back to his feet, a hand still on each of their shoulders.

"Watch it, just because your my brother doesn't mean I won't chuck you in detention!" James said sarcastically. Albus ignored his playful warning and shrugged off James' hand.

"Go away, you'll get us in trouble if you're hanging around!" Albus protested.

"Alright, I've got important Prefect business to be attending to anyway." James declared, patted Scorpius on the back, before turning dramatically on his heel and marching away in the opposite direction.

"Potter? James Potter! What are you doing in here?" Professor McGonagall called from the staff table.

"Nothing, Professor, important Prefect business!" James yelled back, dashing out of the Great Hall.

"What a nightmare!" Albus complained, laying his head down on the table.

"I think it's nice that he looks out for you." Scorpius offered, thinking on how he would've liked to have had an older brother at Hogwarts.

"You don't have to live with him all year!" came Albus' muffled voice.

"Neither do you! I live with you all year!" Scorpius countered and he thought he saw Albus smiling into the table.

As Scorpius thought on, he came to the conclusion that he'd quite like to live with Albus. Just the two of them in a small little house, close enough to both of their families that they could visit often. Scorpius couldn't imagine ever feeling lonely, even in a secluded little village, so long as Albus was by his side.