Something Isn't Right
SPOV
"I can't believe it's nearly Christmas!" Al said giddily.
"I can. I feel as though I've aged a hundred years." I spat back cynically. The twit is entirely too cheerful for his own good.
"Thats because Al's supercharged brain doesn't let you get any sleep. I know what you're dealing with since Al and I shared a bed for years." Louis said to me while poking his green eyed cousin playfully in the face.
"Lou…" Al responded irritably, swatting the blond's finger away.
"What does he mean by 'what you're dealing with'?" Asked James eyeing me suspiciously, obviously failing to register what had been implied. His troll brain might overload if he were ever informed that my ordeal consisted of Al's complete neglect of his own bed in favor of sharing mine.
Come to think of it, the only night Al had ever stayed in his own fourposter was our first night at Hogwarts when I had had to join him in his. Ughh, how long was this going last…
"Nothing Jamie. Jeez I thought you had gotten over your dislike of Scor?"
"Not on your life twerp. And you can bet that Mom and Dad won't either." James spat back at Al who had just looked down apprehensively at the mention of his parents.
*Thump Thump*
Ow.
That was strange… Why was my heart suddenly beating so fast…
Al's eyes bolted upwards instantly, his face getting heavily flushed as his breathing become obviously labored. It was as though he'd just spent hours on the pitch. Whatever this was it was obvious that Al was feeling it too.
*Thump Thump*
"Come on James! Scorpius is awesome so just cut him some slack ok?" Louis threw defensively at the ill mannered Troll.
"For once I agree" Rose added.
*Thump Thump*
OWWW!
I couldn't for the life of me follow the thread of the conversation.
It felt like I was going to explode… my chest hurt so badly but I could neither move nor shift my eyes away from Al's. He was looking at me as though he was experiencing the very same pain in his chest.
It reminded me of one hot summer's day when I'd gone swimming deep down in the Malfoy lake. It got so dark near the bottom that I couldn't quite tell which way was up. The pressure that was building in my chest now was the same as when I had raced up to the surface for air that beautiful afternoon in July.
I couldn't breath, yet I was somehow panting.
What was happening to us?
No one seemed to notice anything until the train suddenly shifted on the tracks, allowing bright light to flood the compartment through the parted curtains. It was crippling.
"Scor whats up with your eyes? They're … they almost look … purple." Louis said incredulously interrupting Rosie.
Before anyone could look, the train groaned slightly again, cutting off the sudden intrusion of blinding sun as it started a second slow turn on the rails.
It was fleeting and I wasn't entirely sure I'd seen it, but for a second I could have sworn there was something out the window. Way out here? why would there be peop…
"What are you on about Lou? They're blue like always." Rose snapped back at Lou, angry for being interrupted.
It hurt too much to think let alone consider what anyone was actually saying.
"Oh so you noticed what Scor's eyes usually look like?" asked Rori in a tone that said she was grinning wildly.
I couldn't give two blasted galleons about their stupid Fucking noise! We were dying, drowning in the open air, and the horrible pressure would only increase every time someone opened their stupid mouth.
Al had already started to sweat by the time his hand darted to clutch the breast of his robes. The heat was stifling and i could feel the moisture beading on my forehead start to trickle a slow trail down my skin.
*THUMP THUMP*
"Al are you alright?" asked Lou curiously stopping mid-sentence.
Ow…
"Scor you don't look too good either."… that had been Rori…
Stop talking… stop talking… stop talking… just stop talking…
It hurt so badly. My head, my eyes, my heart…
"You aren't trying to work some scary magic on us are you?" queried Rose suspiciously.
"Shut up!" Al screamed. He looked like he was about to collapse.
I don't know how I managed to stop the window from exploding. I'm even less sure how I knew Al was going to try to blow it up in the first place. It all seemed beyond real. The whole room seemed wrapped in a thick blanket of fog.
Everybody stopped to look at Al. He never snapped at anyone but James.
Suddenly his eyes fluttered closed and the second they had the pressure lifted. We could breath again.
What the fuck was that? Why did I feel so angry?
"…"
"…"
"…"
"Al?" I asked weakly after a moments silence, still panting wildly like a dog in the summer sun.
"… Sorry Rosie… I just was… feeling really sick all of a sudden… I …think I should get some air." Al said panting out each group of words as though entirely winded. He stood to leave without so much as a look in my direction…
Whatever that was, it was as though something had intruded into my very being. I was worried about the twit but i was torn between a simultaneous desire to make sure he was ok and punch him repeatedly in the face. Although I couldn't have said why, i was simply beyond angry.
"I think I might need some too." I added quickly bolting out of the compartment before anyone could speak.
I was shaking badly, but something told me Al had gotten the worst of it. "Fucking twit" I whispered walking in search of the tell tale mess of chocolate hair that was as signature to Albus as his emerald eyes.
There are always empty compartments I thought ducking into the one Al had run off to hide in. He was looking out of the open window and didn't even turn to acknowledge my presence when I'd appeared.
His expression made me sick. I don't know why I was so angry, did the fucking git not just feel what I had? I was fuming.
"Al"
"..."
I knew he knew I was here, but he looked too completely self important to even shift his eyes from the landscape. He looked like a portrait of Grandfather I'd seen in the manor, and that was entirely too revolting for words. What was wrong with him? I resisted the urge to pounce somehow more concerned with his wellbeing than for addressing his current malcontentedness.
"Al, I don't thin…"
"Don't insult me by im…" the green-eyed twit started calmly with concealed anger…
oh we were playing this game? Presumptuous twit…
"…By what? Implying that that was just about parents and Holidays? Al who do think you're talking to?… I'm aware there's something seriously wrong. Frankly I'm irritated that you would think I'd try and placate you with nonsense like tha…" I started back angrily, two could play mind reader.
"Scorpius. Shut up." he interjected dismissively without so much as adjusting his gaze from the scenery.
This was not Al… something about the boy in front of me screamed he'd crush me mercilessly without a second's hesitation should I test him. He was acting beyond ridiculous… I'd never seen him like this. The air was charged with his magic, but it wasn't frenzied at all.
I was often suspicious that Al played down his intelligence to humor us all. I imagined if that were true he must have meant well by it. This Al however, looked too detached, too inhuman to try and hide anything. And thatfrightened me too much to think about, yet inflamed my ire beyond all reason.
I was not THEM! He couldn't dismiss Me! How dare he even try!
"Do Not, mistake me for one of your ridiculous halfwits…" I began again moving closer to him in an attempt to force his acknowledgement.
"I thought I told you to shut up, you stupid, simple, absurd child" Al interrupted venomously, turning to face me with unimaginable malice in his eyes.
Enough!
*Slap*
The sound seemed to resonate into my head as well as the rest of the compartment.
It had only been an open handed blow but it had landed so hard that his skin had already started to redden where my palm had struck his face. Why was that stupid hand tingling when I had used the other one to smack the idiot.
Well actually, in all fairness I wouldn't say I had struck Al. The person in front of me could not really have been Al. It was impossible I thought feeling my cheeks grow warm too as my heart began to beat faster.
Several seconds went by before his head turned slowly back to look at me. I was about to smack him again but stopped when I saw his expression.
All the malice and fire had gone from him the second he had registered the intensity of my glare. I would have paid a mountain of gold to see my own face at that moment.
I may not have been his equal, but there was an interminable depth to my mind that he could not solve. I was not some simple puzzle whose solution he could gleam from a mere moment's glance. I was not the rest of those simple fools who shunned and feared him.
"Don't you ever forget that you fucking green-eyed twit!" I said watching him.
He stared at me for a few moments blinking wildly finally registering what I had meant.
"Scor... I am so sorry" Al whispered quietly, his face melting from shock into guilt ridden shame. Ugh… he wears his heart on his sleeve. It's so very unseemly I thought suddenly amused. I almost took my handkerchief to his face… as if I could have wiped off his emotions. He was too vulnerable for a Slytherin.
*SIGH*
"Only you, you twit. Who else would apologize for somebody else hitting them?" I asked sitting down as close to him as physically possible, pulling his hand into mine as acceptance of his apology. 'I forgave you before you even started yelling' I thought softly to myself.
That was that.
It was over as fast as it had started.
"We are beyond strange" I whispered softly as he let his head fall to rest on my shoulder with a small thud.
We didn't fight like twelve year olds.
He cried strangely, he spoke strangely, he did magic strangely yet the two of us, together, were stranger still. He changed everything about me. Maybe we really were dying? I realized I should have been scared but I wasn't.
If you think about it… It's actually quite hard to fight when you communicate as wordlessly as Al and I do. It must have been the horrid pressure in our chests…i'm sure whatever it was had affected our emotions…
The next few moments were spent in total silence… we jus sat there together. I listened to the steady breathing and felt the soft rise and fall of his chest as the wind blew in through the open window. His hair was always so ticklish i thought feeling the silky strands on my face.
"Scor … I'm really scared. I don't know what's happening. We could be dying and this is one thing I just can't solve. Nothing makes sense."
You know what scares me? When things stop making sense to you, twit. I thought laughing to myself. Although i guess we really were in trouble if Al couldn't figure this out.
"Al something told me the second we'd met that you would be the death of me, but somehow I highly doubt a coordinated coronary at twelve is going to be what does us in." I offered a little too playfully in light of how afraid he seemed. I really was only trying to cheer him up.
"Don't be flippant, it's entirely too transparent a look for you." Al threw back softly as i felt a smile form on his lips. Cheeky shit.
"I thought we just settled this…" I said more as an observation than a reproach.
"Scor I absolutely can read you…and before we get back into this it's not because i'm smarter… it's just … there are times when you just let me…" Al said interrupting, his words humming through me from his position on my shoulder. I guess there was some truth to his words.
"… I mean you just act differently with me than you do with everyone else…" Al added with a barely audible whisper. It was true that the carefully constructed facade I had crafted over the years somehow refused to work in front of Al. It took all my energy to conceal something from him.
"Everybody seems to act differently around you."
"You know that is not what I meant." he said pausing before the crux of our problem surfaced.
"I think we should consider telling Aunt Hermione about the fountain… I'm seriously afraid."
Only if there was a serious likelihood that we were dying would I tell anybody … not before. I would be in so much trouble, and the radicals would get ahold of the information and be after Father again. I couldn't let that happen.
"Why don't we shelve this until after your family decides whether to hate, tolerate, or kill me, yeah?" I offered strategically.
"Fine. But Scor... how are you not afraid?" He asked softly.
"Well it isn't because Malfoys don't get afraid, but rather because I can't really imagine anyone else I'd rather be stuck with." I said softly stroking his hair … "I mean whats better than a genius prodigy with a penchant for undue kindness and a perplexing tendency towards simultaneous feats of silliness and trickery?" I added trying not to sound too sentimental… gods Al was right… I let him read me too easily.
"Hmhmhm"
"Besides… you've overlooked something again. Just like in the forest."
"What the fact that 'genius prodigy' is redundant?" he asked cheekily.
"No, and the redundancy was warranted you smug shit. Use that brain everyone seems to find so clever to figure it out. There is no value in it if you don't discern it for yourself."
"Why do you always feel older than me? I was born first…" Al said poutingly.
I could tell he was smiling by the way his muscles moved against my shoulder.
"A matter of hours Al."
I got a headache communicating so much wordlessly… how were we able to guess ninety percent of what the other was thinking? It was weird. We were smart but this was just strange.
"You are outrageously comfortable for somebody so sour all the time. I could just fall asleep like this." Al said drowsily. "Whats the worst that could happen? We'd merely go back to Hogwarts right?"
"You miss a lot when you're tired Al… first of all if you fall asleep on me I will send you back home in a pine box… second in response to your question… our parents could actually find us like this when we fail to show up on the platform." I added humorously.
He jolted upright at that, knocking my head painfully as he did.
"I'm up! I'm up! Let's just go rejoin the others."
"That might be best Al."
He was acting silly again. Maybe he really does just turn it off i thought watching him.
It might be easier that way.
"On second thought. Just give me a few minutes Scor." he countered after a few moments silence, resting his head back on my shoulder.
"They're going to have a million questions ... and i'm too tired to reassure them that i'm alright." Al added with a yawn.
Despite my previous warning we somehow managed to fall asleep there anyway…
JPOV
"Hey everyone." Said Teddy popping into the compartment to say a quick hello.
"Teddy!" cried Rose and Louis together in unison.
"How are my little chicks and pups?" my oldest sibling asked teasingly.
"Well if you hadn't noticed big brother, we're short a few." threw in Louis playfully.
"He's not your brother." I snapped irritably.
"Well when he marries my sister he will be." Louis shot back sticking his tongue out for emphasis. Merlin they are still such children.
"Where did the twerp and his snake get off to?" I asked since the two failed to return after what felt like hours.
"James, come on." said Louis.
"I agree twerp you have to stop this." Added Teddy.
"Oh shut up." Maybe Malfoy had all of them fooled but not me. I knew what his family had done and what he was likely to do in their name. I was not going to let that snake steal my brother to do it.
"Scorpius has been the best thing for Al in years. I mean you've seen the way they are together right?" Teddy asked seriously.
Of course I'd noticed the way those two were together. It was revolting. They acted like they had known each other from birth.
"You honestly think Al could have survived Slytherin without Scorpius?" queried Ted again.
"There's no sense trying to reason with him Teddy. James is just jealous that Al is closer to Scorpius than he is to him." said Louis.
"Hmph." They are being beyond ridiculous. I was definitely not jealous.
"See I rest my case Ted."
"Well Louis I had noticed by the way. I saw them napping in an empty compartment near the back of the train. I even took a picture." Teddy added in response to Louis earlier statement, passing a magical photo to my blond cousin.
"Awww" Said Rose and Aurora looking over either side of Louis's shoulders.
"They are beyond adorable" added the blond.
"Give me that!" I said grabbing the photo to examine it. It was a picture of Al and Scorpius, asleep together in another compartment, their hair blowing softly in the wind from the open window. My brother's head was resting peacefully on the snake's shoulder who in turn had rested his head on Al's. They were even holding hands. I felt the sudden urge to burn the picture and was about to pull out my wand when Teddy snatched the item away from me and handed it to Connor.
"Ah ah ah, none of that." he said sternly, knowing what I was about to do.
"Sell that to the Prophet and you'll never have to work a day in your life. I'm sure the wizarding world would love to see the son of the chosen one and the son of the traitor are friends." Laughed Aurora maniacally.
"Since they're both family I'd never dream of something so cruel" replied Teddy with a smile.
"They are pretty adorable… they almost… look like they're together." Said Connor looking at the photo.
"Connor… don't be ridiculous." I said eyeing him dangerously. They were only twelve. Besides I'd kill them both before I allowed something as perverse as that. He was a Malfoy for goodness sake.
"Anyway I just wanted to pop in and say hi. Vicky sends her love and wanted me give you this." Teddy said handing Louis a fashion magazine.
"Thanks Teddy! I've been waiting forever for this!" cried Louis grabbing the magazine enthusiastically.
"And whats this then?" Asked a sleepy Al from the door of the compartment rubbing his eye with the back of his hand yawning as he did so. His hair was its usual mess, which reminded me of dad.
"Hello cousin." said an equally sleepy Scorpius appearing directly behind Al. I hated him for being related to Teddy, another brother he would try and steal no doubt.
"Have a nice little nap did you?" asked Connor which incited an effusive torrent of giggling from Rose, Louis and Aurora.
"What are all of you on about?"
"Oh just this Al." said Louis handing the picture to my brother who reddened madly when he realized what it was.
"Teddy!" Al screamed mortified rounding mercilessly on our oldest sibling.
"See you guys on the platform." Teddy finished leaving the compartment at a run.
"Why are you blushing? What is it Al?" asked the snake. Merlin I couldn't stand him.
"Nothing!" Al said shrinking and pocketing the photo before Scorpius could see. Scorpius merely eyed Al suspiciously as though he were the one with something to hide.
LPOV
"Come on Al you're not even going to show him?" I asked playfully. James looked like he was going to either vomit or explode. There was something about James that had become dangerous. Something that had begun to fester in his eyes ever since Al and Scorpius had started their friendship. James was inextricably espoused to the idea that Scorpius meant Al ill, which was preposterous. Anybody could see how much the two benefited from the other's friendship, so why couldn't James? James would have to learn that fighting Scorpius wasn't the way he was going to protect Al. All James would succeed in doing was forever alienate himself from his brother. Teddy should have a talk with him. That was assuming Scorpius survived the holidays with the Potters first.
"Hey we're here. Come on Al!" I cried over the others, rushing to grab my things.
Sorry for the late post. Chapter 26 will be up much sooner. The next 10 or so chapters are written and edited. This means the more you review the faster the story gets updated. (+Reviewing really does make us better writers. If you're still with the story then thanks for reading!)
