Saturday December 12th 2020:

Before the holidays, the celebration for Christmas was held in the Great Hall; the band performing superbly harmonized with the joyous theme of the party, and overhead the dance floor and the large assembly of students situated a glowing lantern, ornamenting its silver light in all quarters of the dance floor. Not only that, but the ceiling was enchanted with the display of falling fluffy snowflakes. The refreshments table was filled with delectable treats: peppermint humbugs, candycanes, freshly baked cookies, and chocolates of all sorts.

Albus escorted his date inside with something that was rare to find on his face: a smile. Abigail wore a long-sleeved vermilion dress — perfectly capturing the holiday's semblance — and her hair retained by a gold barrette. That's what Albus liked about her, she was beautiful, but natural. As for himself, he wore emerald-green dress robes, with his dark hair just as untidy as ever.

Walking in, Albus was met with laughter. Some mocking, some in awe.

Dylan purposely laughed out loud when Albus walked past him. To confuse the bully, Albus simply waved at him and walked off.

"Nice job handling him there, mate," Scorpius said, joining Albus and Abigail.

Albus observed Scorpius' get-up; he was wearing a presentable tux with his hair slicked back. He smirked when noticing his red and green bowtie that stood out like a sore thumb.

"What? Wearing just simple black and white is terribly boring," Scorpius said, as if reading Albus' mind.

Albus laughed.

"Come on, Aly. Let's dance!" Abigail encouraged, trying to alter Albus' center of attraction.

"I'm coming," Albus assured, holding her hand.

Before they could dance, the couple's focus was disrupted from an unforeseen hushed commotion among the crowd.

The root of this hush was Rose making her way inside the crowded Hall with her female escort, hand in hand. This female escort accompanying her was Polly Chapman.

"Polly? She's dating Polly Chapman?" Albus asked in complete shock.

Scorpius stood there, just as wide eyed as Albus.

Rose and Polly attracted many eyes goggling their way, especially since both of them were very beautifully dressed with fancy hairdos.

Mary Zabini rounded up on the couple.

"So, you're interested in getting busy with another girl, huh?" Mary Zabini mocked, groping Polly's shoulders to pull her in closer, so close that it was astonishingly uncomfortable. "As if that wasn't stupid enough, you really had to go for a gap-toothed snob like her?"

Mary and the oh so needed newcomer of the bullies of the school — Anastasia Cinder of Hufflepuff house — walked off in their costumes, but not before Mary paced her fingers up Polly's arm and flicked her in the nose.

Rose shot a menacing glare Mary's way, and then led Polly away.

"Enjoy yourself, okay?" Albus said to Scorpius as Abigail was still yanking at his arm.

"Okay," Scorpius murmured, experimenting with a persuasive enough grin to disguise his feeling of isolation.

XXX

Albus proved to be a perfectly decent dancer, efficient with working with his feet, although he was more suitable not taking the lead. In spite of his ability however, his focus was less on his beautiful date and more on his lonesome friend sitting by the refreshments table, and Scorpius' was on Rose and Polly. Abigail thankfully didn't draw any attention towards any of this, even when her boyfriend would regularly induce them to collide into somebody else or haphazardly step on her toes because of his distraction.

"Albus, do you mind getting me a drink, please?" Abigail charmingly requested.

"Of course. As in I don't mind," Albus said, finally concentrating on Abigail and Abigail only.

Spinning past Albus with his own companion, James comically reflected, "What a gentleman."

Albus neglected James and strolled over to the refreshments table. At the refreshments table, Roxanne was snogging Abigail's brother, Jacob. Albus sighed in distaste from the spectacle, and James' lanky figure slanted against the table. "You might not want to drink that."

"Why not?" Albus asked.

"It's been spiked," the taller brunet answered.

"Not anymore," Roxanne rectified, putting her make-out session on hold. "I told a professor right away."

"Way to ruin the fun, Rox," James complained.

"No problem," Roxanne teased.

Albus gathered a good amount of punch for Abigail, and when he was about to treat himself, James exclaimed, "What the—?"

"What is it?" Albus questioned.

"Look," James demanded, pointing ahead.

Albus did as instructed. "Okay. What am I looking at?"

"Cora Figel! She is holding hands and making googly eyes at some ninny over there," James said in disapproval.

"So?"

James for once in his life went speechless. "I don't know. Just didn't know she had a boyfriend," he mumbled after a period of time.

"Do you like her?" Albus enquired, actually inquisitive to know the answer.

"Define like."

"As in fancy."

"Oh, well, she's not at all bad to look at. She's athletic, kind, determined, and —"

"Okay okay, but that's not exactly answering my question."

"I was just about to get to that," James sneered. "My point is that she's a great girl, but I don't think of her like that."

"Then why do you care?"

"I don't. It's just weird is all," James replied, fixedly staring at the couple.

"Uh-huh," Albus said dryly.

"James, it shouldn't take that long to get some punch. Now get your arse back here," called out a girl.

"Alice Adgate, huh?" Albus said.

"Yup. I had a few other chicks ask me out like Kaitlin Bell-Rogers, and Daisy Porter, but I asked Alice," James bragged.

"Of course you did," Albus muttered.

"Gotta go," James said, ruffling Al's uncluttered nest of hair.

Albus intended to return to Abby, but he noticed Scorpius sitting by himself — parallel to when he had first met him. "What are you doing?"

"I was dancing — by myself — and then I decided to get a drink and a few sweets," Scorpius said, sounding moderately sluggish than usual.

"Oh no, you didn't drink the spiked punch, did you?"

"Perhaps."

Albus looked concerned.

"But I guess that's why I feel strange. Oh, and it tasted a little funny. You know, I couldn't help but watch Rose and Polly. They seemed to be happy together, but now not so much."

So far, Scorpius was right. Polly and Rose appeared to be disputing, but naturally nothing was heard from the result of blustering music. Rose was infuriatedly putting her foot down — not a good sign, particularly when her lips began to quiver — and she charged her way through the large assembly of people.

"Oh no," Scorpius said, concern made clear in his slurring voice.

Seeing his once most devoted cousin close to crying was not something Albus ever thought he would witness; she was everlastingly an emotionally stable being, but regarding her stability collapsing was unquestionably devastating to watch. "I'm going to talk to her."

"I'll go with you," Scorpius said.

"No, you sit down. You gotta get that alcohol out of your system," Albus urged like an overbearing mother.

"I'm not that intoxicated," Scorpius argued. "I only had two cups."

"Still, let me handle this," Albus said, tapping Scorpius' soft and pale hand.

"Wait," Scorpius said, squeezing Albus' hand that was tapping his. His face inclined so near Albus' own that his warm intoxicating breath was huffing right on his lips; it's as though they were sharing identical breaths. While Albus didn't fancy the stench of alcohol deriving from the Malfoy's mouth, he was delighted from his heat, and he could only lean back the slightest bit from their intimacy. "My word, you have really nice eyes. As if I never noticed that before."

Not one part of Albus' mental state was expecting that. "Well, they are my father's. You know, like everything else about me," he grouched.

"Oh yeah, I forgot," Scorpius said. "I wasn't even thinking about that." It was almost overwhelming how much Albus cherished hearing that. "Yours is a bit different though. Yeah yours is a bright-green like an emerald jewel, but with a bit of brown within the iris."

The brunet was frozen into position in complete dumbfoundment, but his mind caught up to him and reminded him of something crucial. "Rose!" Approximately tumbling over nothing in particular when turning around from what just came to pass between him and Scorpius, he walked it off and struggled to maintain a level head.

Albus tracked down the source of Rose's sobbing while scouting the passageway that she took to flee the festivity. She was sitting in a cramped, lightless, and isolated area of the Main Hall corridor. Her back spruced up in contact with the drafty gravelled wall, and arms cradling her upper body.

"What do you want?" Rose demanded, not caring to alternate the angle of her head.

"Just wanted to see what's wrong," Albus said.

This time, Rose did alternate. "Out of all people to follow me, I wasn't expecting you," she said, wiping her trickling nose with the dress-sleeve of her getup.

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Yes. No matter who would have come to comfort me. I don't feel like talking about my feelings."

"Are you sure?" Albus inspected.

"Yes."

"Alright," Albus said, lingering in his spot to verify that his cousin's response didn't deviate. Ten seconds and she didn't make any other diverse answers, so he was haltingly on the verge of departing.

"Polly acts in a very passive aggressive manner," Rose tardily said, her voice cracking. Albus restored his spot standing by her, stumped on what she now desired him to do. "She would call me things like boring, pretentious, or bossy, and at first I would mind, but then she would assure me that she's joking. After the hundredth time however, I realised that... she meant it."

Albus plopped down near side of Rose. "Okay, not to sound rude or anything, but you seriously didn't notice that until now?"

Judging by her scowl, Rose was offended. "I didn't notice it "just now." I've always noticed. I just didn't want to believe it."

Albus faintly chanted a charm that unleashed several fluttering tissues, bewitched to have the structure and dynamism of a bird, and they all gilded circles around Rose.

"Thanks," Rose appreciated, catching one of the charmed scraps of tissue but not yet blowing her nose. "It wasn't until tonight when she said that my mum or dad didn't deserve as much credit for saving the world as Harry Potter did. That's when I drew the line. No one talks about my family like that and gets away with it."

"Yet you didn't mind when she offended your own cousin," Albus snarled.

"I know," Rose grumbled.

While that was not exactly the sort of response Albus wanted to hear, he heard the regret in Rose's tone, and for someone like her, he knew that was good progress.

"Look, Rose, unlike me, I know you love the attention, and I know for a fact that ever since you started hanging out with her, you've been, well, not exactly nice. Honestly, I don't understand what you see in her." Rose expressed an accustomed scowl. "I'm not saying the right things, am I?"

"She is a good listener. She's smart, and not to mention very attractive," Rose elucidated.

"Well if you ask me — which I know you didn't — it's for the best," Albus said.

"I realise that. It's just difficult to not only let her go as a girlfriend, but as a friend all together."

Albus and Rose fell silent.

"Do you remember that time when we were four-years-old, and we thought up all of these scenarios where we would go on a bunch of adventures in Hogwarts like our parents?" Albus reminisced. He was implicit that Rose would be unsure of what that memory had to do with anything, but while there was nothing that triggered him to recall that nostalgia, he wanted to think of something that would make the other fourteen-year-old smile to a certain degree. Additionally, it was privately one of his fondest memories, and being with Rose as children in general.

"Yeah," Rose snickered. "Like when we imagined a dragon attacking the school."

"That was a good one," Albus concurred.

"Both of us being Gryffindor students battling a deadly dragon invading the castle. Hugo helped, but ended up only lasting for a day, same with Lily, and James just ran away crying in fear," Rose continued. "I miss those days."

"Me too," Albus said, truly feeling and appearing content.

"Hi, Rose," came another visitor. "No need to tell me what happened. I just wanted to see if you were okay. That's all that matters."

"That's sweet, Scorp," Rose said, without even needing to turn around to perceive the individual with her own eyes, finally blowing her nose into the tissue given to her.

"Didn't I say to take it easy," Albus nagged the blond.

"I'm fine. See?" Scorpius said, granting the others to behold his sober condition for themselves.

"I will admit that I didn't feel like cheering up, but I am certainly better than I was before," Rose said, rubbing Albus' back and wearing a certain special look on her face that he hadn't seen her use in a while.

"Good," the pair of boys said in sync.

Rose stood upright spur of the moment and moved in on Scorpius. "Scorpius—" From that alone, Scorpius' jaw dropped as what was just said echoed throughout his eardrums. "The dance is not over just yet, and you originally requested for me to come with you as your date."

"What are you proposing?" Scorpius asked.

"If you still want to, I could be your date for tonight," Rose proposed.

Scorpius was expressionless. After countless seconds of this pressing on, Rose gestured her hand back and forth in front of his face. "Oi! Are you still there?" the Gryffindor asked, knocking on the blond's forehead like it was a door.

"Are you… agreeing to go out with me?" Scorpius asked, ignoring the previous knock to the head.

"I'm agreeing to be your date, not your girlfriend," Rose corrected. "I am still shaken up with what happened with Polly, but who knows, might not stay that way long." She winked.

"Yes! Yes, of course!" Scorpius practically yelled.

"Let's go then," Rose said. "Besides, Albus, your date is probably wondering where you are or at least what's taking you so long?"

"Good call," Al said.

XXX

"Aly! Where have you been? I was getting worried!" the blonde raved, sprinting forward and securing both of her hands over and under the brunet's arm.

"Was just talking with my cousin, like I said. Sorry I took so long," Albus apologised, tenderly holding one of Abby's hands; that small gesture soothed her.

"It's alright. I was just getting worried, but you're here now. Let's go!" Abigail said.

Their hands carried on entwined just as they returned to the dance floor, and they didn't squander any supplementary time. Instead, the two lightheartedly spiraled around, and when Abigail drew in close to Albus' chest, he had a fine view of the inadequately dancing Scorpius continually spinning Rose about and twirling her out (hand in hand) and then backtracking against him recurrently. Instead of vexation or anger, Rose was chortling good-naturedly, and she was already internally mending by the looks of it.

Albus ought to have been thrilled for his relative, likewise with his best friend. While he was pleased that Rose was the happiest she's ever been in a while, seeing the two actually bond and holding each other close was not only startling, but provoking assorted with a fragment of hopelessness, he never felt anything like it. All he knew was that he frowned upon the idea of them touching, or worse — snogging! The concept induced anger to pulse through him like blood and his brows unintentionally wrinkled. Why was he feeling this way? Was it the idea of his family member making out with someone? Well, it was positively vulgar, but not aggravating. Then, when he centralized more on the theorization of Scorpius kissing someone, his resentment heightened. Could this be jealousy?

Subsequent to detecting that driblet of sweat trickling down Scorpius' prolonged, pale neck from Quidditch practice, he became conscious of just how attractive he was, notably each year when his physique would develop more into a man than boy. Just because he believed that he was a good-looking person doesn't inevitably mean that he was in love with him; it was a straightforward compliment. Right? Surely that must have been it... it had to be. He cared for Scorpius more than anybody, but they were best friends, and that's all it was.

Confident about that last explanation, Albus embraced his beloved girlfriend closer and smiled, and then substituted another quarter of the Hall to avoid the view of the potential new couple.