Title: until I feel your touch
Summary: Albus Severus Potter hates all of it. The attention. The whispers. The serpentine crest that sits on his robes and the emerald blocks on his scarf and tie. What he's not expecting though, is to like the one person he's destined to hate: Scorpius Malfoy.
Or, the story that Cursed Child could have been if it was written about a pair of Cursed Children instead. Soulmate AU - ish.
Disclaimer: I am not associated with JK Rowling and make no profit from any of what I am posting.
Inspired by: a video and tweet about "reverse fanfiction tropes" that made me think of "the world turns grey when sworn enemies touch each other for the first time" the reverse of "you start seeing in colour after you touch your soulmate". Except, it's a bit more complicated than that. [Linked on my Tumblr and ao3]
until I feel your touch
Chapter 1
The first time Albus sees Scorpius Malfoy, he's not really paying attention.
He's standing at the far end of the platform with his parents while Uncle Ron, eyes fixed on the Malfoys, mutters about them distastefully. Al can tell that, at that moment, Uncle Ron is joking; but he's spent enough time listening through closed doors to know of the rumours that follow the Malfoys.
Albus glances at James to see if he's noticed, but James, leaning on his trolley, is still going on about Teddy and Vic. Lily, sitting on Al's trolley, is staring into space, nodding whenever James stops to catch his breath.
His stomach knots uncomfortably, and tears prick the back of his eyes. Albus wonders, not for the first time, if he'll miss this. The quiet moments when he's with Lily; the louder ones when he's arguing with James. He wonders if they'll hang out, or if he'll still be close to Lily when he comes back home. It's scary to think of leaving; it's scarier to be leaving for a place he's never been to.
James — who had snuck into Al's room with Lily late last night — had told him that he spends more time with Louis, Dom and Vic at home than he does at Hogwarts and the thought of it scares Albus. He wonders if Rose will abandon him too, leaving Albus friendless. James had gone on to ramble about the monthly family lunches — usually in the kitchens — and the trips to Hogsmeade, but the message was clear. Things are different at Hogwarts.
Which is probably why James had given him a talk about how ' most people only get letters from home about once a month' and ' you can't come to me every time you have a problem .'
Albus is convinced that James and Fred were joking when they told him about the Giant Squid that lives in the lake and occasionally steals people's snacks or tickles their feet. He's not sure how much of the rest was a joke though, and that certainly doesn't help quell his anxieties.
And then there's the other thing. The one that's kept Albus up late into the night.
Last week, James had gone on about the four houses and how nobody good ever came out of Slytherin and, for the first time, it had occurred to Al that he might not make it to Gryffindor. Everyone's in Gryffindor. Louis got into Ravenclaw, but Louis likes it there. Everyone else — Victorie, Dom, James, Fred, Molly, Roxanne — they're all Gryffindors, and Al doesn't know what he'd do if he isn't too.
Worse still, he doesn't know what he'd do if he got into Slytherin.
He'd brought it up with Rose that weekend, but unlike Al, she likes to put numbers to things and had quickly told Albus that the probability of getting into Slytherin was a third that of not getting in. It simply wasn't something that scared her. Albus doesn't get numbers the way Rose does though, and they certainly don't comfort him.
"Dad," he says, before he can stop himself, and Harry turns. "What if I'm in Slytherin?" There's a lump in his throat that makes it suddenly hard to breathe, and Al's barely listening as he goes on about Severus Snape for the umpteenth time. It doesn't help. It hasn't yet. But then, bending down, Harry gives Albus a small, almost nervous smile.
"The Sorting Hat takes your choice into account," he says, and Albus feels like he's being let in on a secret.
"Really?" Albus asks. It almost feels too good to be true.
Harry smiles. "It did for me," he says.
It's funny how much that does for him. Al's suddenly able to breathe again, his heart slows once more, and the lump at the back of his throat feels suddenly less suffocating.
That's all Al needs — to be in Gryffindor — and then everything else will be okay. He'll have James nearby and he'll be there for the post-Quidditch parties that Dom always talks about. He'll have Rose for company in all his classes.
Albus almost feels lighter when he steps onto the Hogwarts Express.
The train leaves King's Cross before they find a place to sit. James is still with them, walking ahead of Rose and going on about the trolley lady with her sweets and the view once they're out of London. Rose is excited. She asks him if he's still friends with the people he sat with on the way to Hogwarts ("Not really," James admits) or if he knew back then who he'd end up being closest to ("I mean, Molly, Fred and I were always going to hang out.")
"Hey," Albus says, sliding open the door of an empty-looking compartment that James and Rose walked past, "This one's empty!" Then Al freezes, hand still on the door. Sitting against the window, a bag of sweets next to him, is the Malfoy kid. They gape at each other, and, without thinking through it, Albus slides the door shut and jogs to catch up with James and Rose.
"Not empty," he mumbles, ears warm.
"Got you one!" Fred shouts, appearing out of a compartment and sparing Albus from being teased. "We're further down, James. Bert wants your sandwiches v he's threatening to keep your sweets if —"
"I'm going, I'm going!" James shouts, and he disappears down the train.
"Doing good, kids?" Fred asks, taking Rose's trunk from her and dragging it the last few steps into the compartment.
"Kids?" Rose scoffs. "We're like two years younger."
"Don't care," Fred says, "At Hogwarts, you're one of the babies."
Rose falls into a seat, eyeing Fred warily as he points his wand at the trunk. It lifts off the ground easily, but the trunk hovers for a few, short seconds before landing on the ground with a deafening thud!
"Already wreaking havoc, are we?"
"Dom!" Rose squeals. "Your hair—"
Dom beams, threading her fingers through her hair. She's got an undercut on one side and her usually blonde curls are tinted red at the tips. For Gryffindor, she'd told Albus when they'd last met. It looks cool. Though, everything about Dominique always has been.
She winks at Al, eyebrows shooting up in a silent " You okay?"
Albus nods. Dom's been his favourite cousin for as long as he can remember. They're both the middle child, and he's always felt that Dom, more than anyone else in the family, gets what it's like to not be like the rest. Except, where everyone's always envied Dominique for her differences, Albus tends to get mocked and teased more often than not.
"Excited?" she asks, flicking her wand at Rose's trunk and succeeding at getting it into the racks above, much to Fred's chagrin.
"You bet!" Rose says. "I think Mum was on the verge of murdering me over how many questions I asked her—"
"—and James," James butts in, appearing behind Dom and squeezing his way into the compartment. "I might have murdered Rose if we'd been left alone any longer, just in case anyone was wondering."
"That's rude," Rose says at once and Fred echoes Rose, dramatically crossing his arms over his chest in a manner that definitely feels very Rose-like. Rose huffs, but she's smiling at them. The teasing's never really bothered her.
"Where's Vic?" she asks.
"I saw her with Teddy," James says at once.
"Your Teddy?" Fred asks.
"Our Teddy."
"Isn't he—"
"Yep. Caught them snogging each other."
Dom scrunches her nose. "I did not need to know that."
"Imagine how I felt," James says. "I had to see it. You good?"
It takes Albus a moment to realise that the last part's directed at him. He nods stiffly. He's excited too, of course. Hogwarts is all Al's dreamed of for as long as he can remember. He remembers Dom telling him stories about the moving staircases and rows of armour when she'd visit for Christmas. He remembers, more recently, the letters James would send them. Albus is itching to explore the dungeons and the astronomy tower and see it all for himself.
He just really doesn't want to end up in Slytherin. Dad's words helped, but he's spent so long worrying about it that worrying has become almost normal at this point.
"Don't fret," Dom says, like she knows what he's thinking. "You'll still be Al, no matter what house you end up in."
"Yeah," James says. "You'll still be an annoying little prick."
Dom swats him on the arm for that, and Rose lets out a gleeful burst of laughter. This is familiar. The banter, the jokes. All the stupid things James says. He knows what James said about things at Hogwarts being different, but Al can't help but feel like they won't be that different. Not if he's in Gryffindor, at least.
"I'll see you guys later," Dom says. "Don't get into trouble, James, Fred. Vic knows you better than anyone else at school."
"Teddy did too," James points out.
"Yeah. And Teddy enjoyed your stupid shenanigans. Vic's definitely scheming against you, though." She gives Al one last meaningful look, like she's trying to tell him everything will be okay, and then Dom's gone.
Fred grins. "She's not wrong," he says.
"We'll just have to be smarter."
"Anyway, we'll be off too. Got people to meet and snacks to steal. Don't forget to get into trouble!"
Rose makes a sound of protest, but the compartment door slides shut and, for the first time since that morning, Al's all alone with Rose. He sinks deep into his seat, turning towards the window. They're out of London now and James was right: the view is stunning.
It's sunny outside and there's something about the light blue of the sky and the endless green of the fields they're speeding through that calms Albus. They'll be at Hogwarts tonight and the thought of it both excites and terrifies him.
The Sorting Hat takes your choice into account, he reminds himself. Dad wouldn't have lied to Albus just for the sake of it. The hat will listen to him. It'll put him into Gryffindor and then — and then everything will be exactly as it's supposed to be.
"Wanna go around and make friends?" Rose asks.
Albus jumps, snapping back to the present. He almost says no, but Rose has been rambling about first impressions and early friends ever since they got their letters. Dad met Uncle Ron on the Hogwarts Express, and maybe, just maybe, he'll make a friend too. There's no harm in trying, right? It can't be all bad.
"Okay," he says and, in his head, just to quell his nervousness: You've got this.
I've been sitting on this chapter for a couple of months and the fact that I'm finally posting it is in equal parts terrifying and exciting. I'm not promising regular updates, though I will finish this. Even if I die trying. I've got the entire thing plotted out though, so there is hope.
Thanks so much for reading! Kudos and comments are always appreciated!
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Being posted on ao3 too