A/N

Ah man, I am so sorry for the time delay on this chapter. I have been absolutely swamped with university work, and to be honest, it's killing me a little bit. However, it's my Christmas holidays, so I thought I'd treat you all to a little festive cheer! The next chapter will be the official Christmas chapter, so I hope you all have your bobble hats and reindeer antlers! Gather round with a mince pie and a glass of milk, and enjoy the much awaited for… chapter fourteen!

Again, many apologies for the time delay. Blame my bitch of a tutor, Sarah, who forgets I'm a first year, and funnily enough, not quite a professional graphic designer… yet.

For some reason, FF isn't letting me put in any line breaks... ._.

If you see this: (-) it means there is a line break. Sorry for any confusion caused.

Chapter Fourteen: A Whispered Promise

Breakfast over, the four drew away from the table, pushing their satchels higher up their downcast shoulders; disgruntled, they were ushered through the great hall doors by a dishevelled Professor Longbottom, who didn't even acknowledge their appearance. Rose was still gripping a hefty "light reading" book she had extracted from the depths of the library to try and overcome Scorpius' natural talents in potions, and as the group moved sullenly toward the gloom filled dungeons, Albus bit on his lip thoughtfully, deep in thought as he fiddled nervously at the hem of his cloak.

Something nudged against his elbow and he looked up to see his sister glaring at him in all her furious, ginger glory. Her eyebrow was raised suspiciously, and he gulped under her gaze.

"What?" He asked somewhat obnoxiously, and the girl sighed, shaking her head in what seemed to be pity.

"You're hopeless sometimes, Al, you know that?" She tutted, before moving to catch up with a small gaggle of first year Ravenclaws on their way to Charms.

Bewildered, he stared after her, a frowned puckering his forehead slightly. A hand clapped down on his back, and he jumped, startled, only to see Scorpius laughing hysterically at his fright.

"Yeah yeah, nice to see you've forgiven me, asshole." He grumbled, before pushing the blond into a statue of a rather wart infested old hag and legging it down the corridor, causing Rose to exclaim in irritation as she dropped her book to the ground.

(-)

Slughorn prowled down the aisle between the benches, and Albus crouched lower of his already smoking cauldron, looking around with pleading eyes at Rose from across the room. Waving his hands frantically over the billowing clouds of sulphurous black smoke, he grabbed his wand, mentally scanning through all the spells he knew to fix it before the inevitable explosion that was sure to happen if he didn't think of a solution.

"Potter, kindly tell me what this congealing mess in your cauldron appears to be before it destroys my classroom." The rumbling voice of the walrus-like teacher appeared to his right, and he groaned, waving his wand again, more panicked as it started to smell of rotten eggs.

"Well, professor…" he gasped under the stench of acidic potion ingredients burning, "I think I may have forgotten to add the powdered moth wings…" He pleaded inwardly for the smell to dissipate so that he could breathe, and Slughorn sighed, waving his wand to get rid of the affects of Albus' potion wearily.

"Potter, if only you had some of your father's talents… or indeed your grandmother's… it is indeed a pity." He sighed once more, moustache rippling as he mumbled under his breath, moving on to berate a Slytherin girl behind him for adding too much unicorn tale to her potion, which had resulting in a bright glare around her potion that was blinding several bystanders next to her.

"The next time I ask you to prepare a new potion under pressure, I expect you all to fare far better than this. As third years, you should be expected to work at the merest mention of an unknown potion. If it happens that you need to produce something in a life threatening situation that you haven't even heard of before, this skill should prove important. I can't be having young witches and wizards everywhere accidentally killing people because they haven't heard of a potion to cure a broken spine, or some such problem." He grumbled more and more as he heaved himself to his desk, dismissing them with a wave of his hand, and orders to have produced their potions to perfection by the end of the term.

Mentally adding the homework to the already growing list in his mind, Albus groaned at the prospect of so little free time, contemplating gracing the giant squid with his presence for the rest of his life, permanently.

"Come on, Al, you look like you've been petrified. Let's get down to Charms before Flitwick murders us for being late. Grab Rose on your way out." They hurried out of the door, Albus still stuffing his potion ingredients in his bag as they pulled Rose from her simmering potion by the front of the room.

"Oh get you, little miss perfect. How come you didn't balls yours up?" Scorpius frowned, looking at the scorch marks that punctuated his fair skin up to the elbows morosely. Rose sniffed, looking scathingly at the boys.

"I listen, you twit. Now, if you don't mind, I have places to be." With a flick of her bushy hair, she flounced off, leaving the two Slytherins behind her, looking bemused at the display. Shrugging, Scorpius started off down the hall, before Albus suddenly came to a decision, grabbing his friend's arm, dragging the blond to a darkened alcove a little ways down the corridor.

Scorpius looked down at Albus' hand upon his arm, puzzlement resting upon his brow.

"Al, what-"

The other boy merely looked at him, shaking his head, before leaning forward with all the bravery of a Gryffindor, and kissing the blond on the lips gently. Eyes widening, impossibly, Scorpius stared at his friend as he pulled away sharply. The boy's eyes were closed, his mouth down turned.

"I'm sorry. I- I needed to do that." Blushing a deep red, he turned in the corridor, and ran off in the opposite direction of Charms, leaving Scorpius behind in the alcove, touching one slender finger to his lips, a curious look upon his face.

(-)

"Is it working?" The voice was low, panicked. Once bright eyes were frantic, dimmed by panic, and a hand drew nervously through bedraggled hair.

"Yes, please stop worrying. Everything will be fine, eventually." The voice in answer was smooth, soothing. It was almost a calming draft, and the face in the fire relaxed slightly, small wisps of smoke blowing around it's mouth as it exhaled with a slight breathlessness.

"We must be sure that the plan runs perfectly, you understand? If even one thing goes wrong…" The face in the fire visibly shuddered, and began to fade out in farewell.

"Everything will be fine, father, everything will be fine. Just leave me to it." The face nodded, and disappeared completely. Once again, the Slytherin common room fell to silence, the silver work serpents upon the dark mahogany wood of the fireplace seeming to grin in conspiracy at each other.

(-)

The silken hangings of his bed were practically burning permanent images into his eyelids, for all of the time that Scorpius had spent staring up at them. The sounds of gentle snoring were drifting around the room from the others boys, but try as he might, he could not sleep. Glancing morosely at the empty bottle of dreamless sleep at his bedside, he tossed over to his side, glaring instead now at the slight view of the window, with its slender slither of moonlight drawing through it.

The memory of Albus' kiss was still reverberating about his mind, no matter how he tried to banish it. Waking dreams had skewed the kiss, so that he was not entirely sure what was real anymore; images of Albus leaning towards him, taking his chin gently in hand floating lazily across his eyelids, taunting him to breathlessness. Thoughts of how soft the other boy's lips had felt - now those thoughts were definitely real.

Someone was murmuring on the other side of the room, and he froze, muscles tensing in anticipation for… something he was not entirely sure of.

"Scorpius…" Someone muttered, and he shot up as if he had been hit by a bucket of ice down the back. Pulling back his hangings slightly, he glanced over at Albus' bed, to see the brunette had left his hangings open, and was tossing and turning in his sleep, eyes clenched shut, hands clawing tightly at his quilt.

Glancing around nervously, Scorpius brushed a strand of blond out of his eye as he knelt down to grab his dressing gown. Wrapping it tightly around himself, he breathed in deeply, before pushing himself up from the bed, and crawling silently across the room to where Albus was still whimpering, clearly afraid, in his sleep.

Sitting gently beside his friend, he stretched out a hand nervously, hesitating slightly before pressing a palm against Albus' shoulder.

"Al, Al wake up, it's just a nightmare." He whispered, trying his best to sound calm. The other boy merely groaned in response, turning onto his side, and instinctively clinging to Scorpius' dressing gown sleeve as if his life depended on it.

"Albus!" He whispered louder, shaking his friend awake harshly.

"Wha… what's that?" The boy mumbled, shaking his head and blinking curiously, looking not dissimilar to an owl.

"You were having a nightmare, mate." Scorpius winced at the seemingly casual use of the endearment, and Albus nodded slowly, a small frown framing his face.

"I… you were in it. You were…" He shuddered, and shook his head, curling up into a small, Albus shaped ball beside Scorpius, eyes shut tightly in remembrance.

"So, I take it you won't be needing Professor Longbottom's ancient remembrall to help you with the fine details?" He smiled slightly at the lame attempt at a joke, but Albus merely shook his head, a faraway look in his now open eyes.

"You… you died."