Albus looked down at his dinner plate and licked his lips hungrily. Sausages and mash had always been his favourite, and the gravy they served at Hogwarts was much nicer than the lumpy stuff their mum made them eat at home. He dug in heartily, pushing his cabbage to one side with his fork and helping himself to an extra sausage. It was rather amusing to watch the way the vast majority of students pushed aside their greens, and something of an oddity to come across a student who helped themselves to more of them. He wiped a droplet of gravy from his chin on the back of his hand and grinned, his mouth full of meat, as Scorpius sat down heavily beside him.
"'ere oo een?" mumbled Albus through his chewed food.
Scorpius tutted and narrowed his eyes, pushing his bag under the table. "Don't talk with your mouth full, it's disgusting."
Albus swallowed and grinned sheepishly. "Sorry," he said, licking his lips. "Where've you been? I didn't see you in the Common Room after class." He picked up his goblet and took a mouthful of pumpkin juice as Scorpius picked up his knife and fork.
"I've been in the library," he replied simply. Albus rolled his eyes and nodded, watching Scorpius cut his sausage into even little slices.
"Should've guessed, really," said Al. "What were you studying this time, then? You know, at this rate, you're going to be teaching the classes instead of taking them."
"Defence Against the Dark Arts. I didn't get as much done last week as I would have liked."
Albus swallowed his mouthful and nodded. "Yeah, I heard about that," he said. "What did you actually say to Rose? She spent the whole of Muggle Studies bitching about you."
Scorpius sighed and Albus had to stifle his grunt of amusement as Scorpius helped himself to more cabbage. "As far as I know, nothing. She sat next to me at the start of the class, so we ended up working together. That's really all I can tell you. I have no idea what I could possibly have done to upset her."
Albus shrugged, he honestly didn't mind if the two of them didn't get along, even though he'd thought they would. It was just slightly odd, he thought, since Rose hadn't really been able to give him an answer on exactly why she didn't like Scorpius, either. He trailed his fork through his mashed potato, making wavy lined patterns across the surface, before scooping some up and shovelling it into his mouth. "She can be a bit hot headed, sometimes," he said after he'd swallowed, trying to reassure Scorp, who looked somewhat bothered by the conversation. "It's not like her opinion is going to affect mine, is it?" he grinned.
"No, I'm aware of that. And to be honest, it's no great loss, since it's taken me almost five years of sharing classes with her to even learn her name."
"Are you going to eat that sausage?" Albus asked, leaning over somewhat and looking at Scorpius' untouched sausage, buried under a mound of cabbage. Scorpius grinned and pushed the sausage out from under his greens and Albus had it on his own plate within seconds.
After dinner had finished, the students seemed to filter slowly out of the Great Hall, until only one or two were left finishing their second helping of chocolate sponge. Albus, having gorged himself on sausages, had declined dessert in favour of running his finger through what was left of his gravy and sucking it off the tip.
He watched as Scorpius finished up the last of his cake and licked the remaining chocolate sauce from the spoon, before placing it back in his bowl and pushing it away.
"Nice, was it?" Albus grinned, seeing the little satisfied smile on his friend's face.
Scorpius blushed a little and nodded as he licked some sauce from the corner of his mouth. "Better that last nights." He reached under the table for his bag and pushed himself up. Albus did the same and they walked out of the Hall and down the corridor together, slowly. Albus felt delightfully full and mellow and decided that he'd probably not be up for much other than relaxing on the couch for the rest of the evening. Scorpius looked just as comfortably lethargic, and as they got into the Slytherin Common Room, they both sank down into the couch at exactly the same time, with identical tired sighs.
They were both quiet for a while, as were most of the occupants, then Albus turned his head in Scorpius' direction. "Do you realise, in just under two months we'll have finished our fifth year? This year has gone so quickly, hasn't it?"
Scorpius nodded. "Do you realise, in just over a month we'll be taking our O.W.Ls?"
Albus knew Scorp was going to say that. He grinned. "And you'll ace them, and I'll be standing there at the end of the year, with my Quidditch trophy and a report card full of Ps and Ds…" he smirked as he used Scorpius' exact phrasing. Scorpius smirked back.
"Exactly. Then we'll see who spent their time more productively."
They both chuckled and Albus gave Scorp a playful punch on the arm. They sat in comfortably silence for a while, then Albus spoke again. "You, know…" he said, pushing himself up a little and turning to face his friend properly. "If you get anything less than an O on any of your exams, I will personally complain on your behalf."
Scorpius turned to him and smiled - a bright, huge smile that Albus very rarely got to see on Scorp's face these days. Neither of them said anything for a while, then Albus shrugged. "Or beat you up for slacking," he added, teasingly. Again they laughed, and this time the comfortable silence between them lasted for quite some time.
The large, oak Grandfather clock by the back of the room struck ten o'clock and Albus yawned and rubbed at his eyes, tiredly. "You have Arithmancy tomorrow, don't you?" he asked, and Scorpius nodded. "If Rose starts anything, just ignore her. She's likely just to keep to herself, though, so don't worry about it."
He doubted Scorpius really cared too much, since, as he had said, it really was no great loss to him. He was curious to know exactly what had gone wrong, however. Maybe he'd have another chat with Rose about it in Care of Magical Creatures, tomorrow.
He pushed himself up on tired legs and stretched, feeling his spine crack satisfactorily in various different places. "You coming to bed?" he asked, nodding vaguely in the direction of the dormitory. Scorpius stood up silently and headed towards the stairs. Albus quite liked these early nights, especially after a hard day like today, but he was rather looking forward to Friday again, since it was Ed Nevin's birthday and there had been rumours of a party circulating for the past few days.
He followed Scorp up to the dormitory and changed into his pyjama bottoms, climbing under the covers and lying on his back, one hand up and tucked under his pillow. "What are you doing over the summer?" Al asked, staring up at the dark canopy above him as Scorpius climbed into his own bed.
"I don't know. Possibly going to see mother's parents in Paris. You?"
Albus shrugged. "Dunno. Probably just go down to the beach or something, as usual. Lily says she wants to learn how to surf but I don't think mum's very keen." He grinned, imagining the look on his mum's face if he and James came home one day carrying a broken-legged Lily and a surfboard. He laughed inwardly at the picture and rolled over onto his side.
"There's one more Hogsmeade trip before exams start," he said, watching Scorpius' shadowy outline in the dark. "Do you want to go?" He was pretty sure he knew what the answer would be, and he braced himself for it.
"Sure," Scorpius replied. Albus grinned, taken somewhat by surprised, but quite pleased with this answer. He rolled onto his back, once again.
"Goodnight, then," he said, smiling into the darkened room.
"Night."