THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE CHAPTERS ^_^. Please if you're following the story, read regularly and are enjoying please consider reviewing. VERY dark plot based chapters to come soon.


SPOV

"Al… did you think about how we were going to go to the lou? Or bathe? Or how we were going to sleep? Or Eat? OR…" I started incredulously. He was a genius and yet I had never seen him act as silly as this before. Well that was not strictly speaking entirely true. Louis could bring out silly Al all the time.

"Oh shut up you whiny baby."

Al was diligently inspecting the spellwork on our hands. I felt like jabbing him in the ribs again for good measure. A good rictumsempra was in order.

"First of all, we sleep in the same bed all the time, sometimes with Rori, Lou and Rosie… so quit complaining. Besides, I thought it was fairly obvious that I wasn't really thinking at all. A genius has to power down some time." Al finished, looking up at me with an infectious smile.

Infectious smile indeed. I felt like infecting the twit with dragon pox had I not had the misfortune of being inoculated… hahahah the misfortune.

"I'm going to fix that smile right of your face."

I couldn't help smiling despite myself.

"But you're doing it too!" Al shot grinning wider. I was going to hex him. "Besides half the other stuff you mentioned can be done with our eyes closed. I'm entirely certain the great Malfoy family has a bath large enough for two." Al shot back as though I were a stuck up elitist snob… oh.

"Or I could kill you and sever your hand from your wrist." I mused aloud in a tone much too serious for Al to consider it jest.

"Now wait a minute…wait a minute… Scor I was just kidding." Al pleaded in terror putting his free arm forward as though it would calm me, and backing up as far as our joint limbs would allow.

"Alright well barring murder how about this… And then Al erupted into uncontrollable, violent laughter!" I offered mischievously with my most Slytherin smirk.

"Scor you wouldn't dare. You wouldn't dare…"

"Ric-tum-sem-pra" I poured slowly, pronouncing each syllable for emphasis, watching Al's eyes narrow before he really did erupt into violent laughter.

"Make… it… hahahahah stop…. I'm going … to… choke… hahahahaha…"

Al flailed helplessly from where we were still attached, begging for a lease from the tickling jynx.

"I'm sorry I couldn't quite catch that." I was leaning down over the rumbling mess diabolically, watching him squirm. I couldn't understand how this was so entertaining for me.

"Fine… hahahahaha… I will just …. have to … hahahahah … pee myself … hahahahaha … on your… thousand galleon…ahhahahahah carpet… ahahahahahaha."

"Fine, Fine! you win!"

'finite incantatum' I thought quietly inside my head, releasing the magic wordlessly. "You are absolutely no fun Al."

"Try this for fun you Slytherin snake!" Al shot tackling me to the ground and tickling me with the one hand he had available.

"What are you two doing might I ask?"

'Grandmother'

Her voice was always so filled with grace and command that i still shuddered to hear it.

"Cissy!" Al had immediately abandoned any idea if me, looking up at my grandmother with glee. I felt jealous all of a sudden that my grandmother had known my best friend before me, and that Al had not felt embarrassed at being discovered like this by her.

"Well I would hug you but Scor and I are sort of stuck together." Al explained lifting up our fused hands. "How is Dromi?"

"My sister is well enough Albus, aging as gracefully as a woman of our time can."

"Then again you are both from the same family so there is little chance of you ever actually aging at all." Al added smoothly, complementing my grandmother in a roundabout way. 'What on earth was this nonsense?' i bristled, getting annoyed. I had forgotten that Teddy Lupin, Al's godbrother, who Harry had helped raise, was Andromeda Black's grandson.

"Thank you most noble and wise Grandmother, graceful and beautiful Grandmother." I mocked slightly annoyed. "I am so wonderfully grateful that you saw fit to greet me, your blood, before this green-eyed twit. Oh Scorpius it was my pleasure." The indignant imitation was not like me at all.

"Aw is Scor pouting?" Al asked annoyingly, pulling at my cheek with his free hand. "Is my Scor a little jelly?"

"Careful you. I tolerate you because I find you to be mildly amusing… but don't test me." I spat at Al who merely smiled and looked like he was going to hug me. Damn him. He always knows I'm just teasing. There is no fun being Slytherin with him.

"It is good to see you too Scorpius. I will greet you properly when you've bathed… and hopefully when you've detached yourself from Albus here." my grandmother's raised eyebrow was more telling than her words had ever been. Father must have learned that raised eyebrow expression from Grandmother. they were nearly identical. I suppose her surprise was warranted. It wasn't in my character to act as informally as Al so I'm sure she found our behavior entirely too strange for words. Well... al and i are very... familiar with each other.

"But Grandmother..."

"Masters your bath is ready." Itsy announced from behind us.

"See you when we are all clean." Al tossed backwards, pulling me up the stairs.


Bathtime Chess

APOV

"So how is this going to work again?" I asked, running through in my mind how best to get out of our current situation.

"You're the genius, you got us into this mess. F-i-g-u-r-e—it—out" Scor spat with his arms as crossed as they could be while still attached to me.

"Well... I can perform wandless magic but I can't perform any magic blind! Unless of course I devise a spell…"

"We don't have time for that!" Scor snapped. He was getting testy.

"Well I can't very well spell away our clothes and not look at the same time. What if I rip our skin off instead?" I asked suddenly terrified. "Well that won't happen… but I'm not risking it… Let's see … we could spell our shirts off first, then take our pants off one at a time … while the other closes their eyes?" I offered sheepishly.

"This isn't chess for merlin's sake… besides that leaves us naked outside the bath… how do we get into the bath without our eyes? You will note how large this room is." Scor offered crankily. 'He makes me laugh when he's cranky.'

I suddenly remembered an old character named after Merlin from a Disney animated feature that we saw in Muggle Studies. The feature was called The Sword in the Stone. Scor reminded me too entirely of that curmudgeon to not make me want to laugh.

"This isn't funny you twit!" Scor barked, eyeing my enormous grin. Odds are Scor was just being difficult on purpose. He probably would get so annoyed that he'd eventually strip and drag me all the way to the bath with an irritated scowl.

"Hahahahahahahaahaha I have a solution."

"Well. Have at it twit." Scor barked, spitting the word 'twit' out so venomously that I feared for his health. I moved next to the blond thanking the spirits that I had played enough quidditch to have the requisite strength to lift my idiot friend princess style.

"Al? What are you…" He started as I merely picked him up. This was revenge for the rictumsempra.

"AL DON'T YOU DARE!" he screamed, clutching at my neck. I laughed maniacally the entire way over to the enormous tub and simply jumped in. When we were both completely soaked I looked down at Scor, who resembled a thoroughly drowned cat, and laughed again.

"Noooow we take our clothes off."

I could have sworn his eye twitched.

"Here." I spelled away our clothes with and wandless flurry, watching as they appeared dry and folded on a stool beside the tub. "Ha! I'm getting better at that."

"You are going to be the death of me you horribly fatuous cretin."

"Well yeah. Your eyes are already twitching and everything. I can't imagine thats very healthy." I teased, poking the tip of his nose playfully... before a jet of water shot into my face.

"What's not healthy is considering how we're going to get out now. TWIT." Scor said. "I certainly hope you don't intend to carry me out now that we are in here?"

...

Oh… right… Well thats unfortunate…

"Oops. I didn't think that far ahead."

"Ooops? Ooops? Does your brain somehow turn off when we leave school? I could have sworn you thought twelve steps ahead of everything." Scor shot angrily.

"Perhaps you simply haven't considered the possibility that I'm actually trying to give you an aneurism?" I teased, soliciting another jet of water to my face.

"Or that I'm planning some elaborate murder scheme that involves—"

"—Raaaaarg!" Scor yowled, leaping at me like a feral animal. I'm not quite sure if he wasn't actually trying to drown me.

"Now Scor …girlgele… I was only kidding… blurlblle… Scor! murdering me… isn't a terribly … girgle… smart idea…" I garbled, half laughing, half choking from beneath the water.

"No… but it might make me feel better" Scor finished, releasing me with a shove and a soft chuckle.

"Thank you for not murdering me, you." I offered softly, poking the tip of his nose repeatedly. He merely wiggled it, scrunching his eyes as though the contact had made him itchy. The movement reminded me of some small woodland animal. I considered telling him that but he might actually kill me for it.

I pushed at his shoulder then, trying to get him to move.

"What are you—" Scor asked confused by the movement.

"—Turn around."

I lifted the soapy cloth from beneath the colored water with my free hand and he understood.

"Oh well I guess we can't really wash ourselves..."

Scors face brightened a little as he turned his back towards me slowly.

I remember taking baths with Lils and James and this is what Jamie would do for the two of us back when he used to be nice, before he became a troll. I merely mimicked the circular motions over Scor's soft skin, tenderly attending my best friend.

"How on earth did you meet Grandmother again?" he asked after a moments silence.

"As i'm sure you know, after the war, Cissy had lost Lucius to a fifteen year sentence in Azkaban. She decided that reconnecting with her surviving sister was more important than some stupid family feud. Her parents had already died of course. So we met once when Teddy and I were over at Dromi's place." I started simply. "One day she just popped in and went to hug Andromeda. She was crying. I don't think I could ever picture her doing that again. The crying that is… I don't imagine crying is something any of you do very often." I continued, scrubbing Scor's free arm, moving up his shoulder and neck delicately. He couldn't possibly have reached it with our hands glued together.

"Well we aren't cold emotionless statues. We just hide it better than most."

"I know Scor. I know better than most."

"Because of the way you are? Or because you think you know me?"

"Oh I know you Scorpius Malfoy." I said playfully, continuing along his soft neck towards his scalp. He knew too well that it was in my nature to hide my emotions from those closest to me. With one exception I guess.

His hair was already wet so I decided to wash it too. It really was just as soft as it looked, I thought, rubbing the lather gently in. I massaged his scalp for a few minutes before washing it all away with a quick spell.

"I still find it weird that she knew you first." Scor said after a moment.

"Why, you jealous?" I teased.

"NO and I'm quite clean now, thank you." Scor huffed turning back and grabbing the fancy magical soap and cloth.

"I just… you have a weird effect on people thats all." he added, turning me around and gently rubbing circles into my skin the same way I'd done. It felt nice.

"Its too bad the rest of your real family can't see those same qualities."

It was hilarious that while I was born before him and was probably slightly more intelligent he always still felt like the elder. I always felt vastly younger than Scor. He could see people better than me. It was too odd for words.

I could beat him at chess or probably even in a duel, but he would always understand me more than I ever did myself.

It was too pleasant in here to cry. The feel of the soap and the water was too nice to cry. Besides Scor would comment on my 'leaking' as he called it. That made me chuckle.

"What?" my brother asked me.

"Oh nothing." I said back. "You know the spell has worn off." I explained, pulling my hand out of the magical water to show him. He didn't need to keep washing me.

"I realized." He returned quietly, continuing to scrub gently in silence for another few moments. He surprised me when he leaned in to kiss me softly on the neck. "Im glad you're my best friend Al... I thought I should tell you..."

i spun around towards him, surprised by the words. He so rarely displayed affection or any emotions at all. It was so out of character for him. He motioned for me to face away again so that he could resume his ministrations.

"I can't wait until christmas, I worked so hard on those presents. I hope everyone likes them." I offered changing subjects as his hand roamed gently up the side of my shoulder and neck.

"I'm sure they will. I hope they let you keep mine." That statement was even stranger. How cryptic a thing to say.

"Ooooo… some piece of dark magic is it?" I asked intrigued.

"Nobody is quite sure about that." Scor whispered seriously. He got annoyed as I turned back to face him for the second time.

"Really? Well that sounds more than interesting." I wondered what it could be. Scor was fingering his ring absently in silence.

After a contemplative pause he merely shrugged and moved to walk out of the bath. I could feel the heat rise in my face and had already started turning quickly away when I realized Scor had pulled all the steam in the room around himself like a veil. That was a neat trick. It was like he was wearing a cloak of beaded mist. Scor always had incredible control over water and frost. Fire was my specialty...

As he neared the door he released the mist and I started to redden again at the sight. That was until I noticed the strange mark that was etched in ink on the lower half of his smooth back, right above his ass. I couldn't help but wonder what it was. How had I missed it? It was glowing.

"I will see you in my room Al." He called as he rounded the corner. Just before I heard the door close I heard a strange voice calling my name.

My hand was tingling. That same stupid hand. Why did we have to fall in that fountain?

"I'm not sure we are going to survive our school years Scor." I whispered in the empty room.

"Something dark… something I sensed in your father as well." Thats what the hat had said… what on earth did it mean?

As I lay back to soak and contemplate the somber message, an image flashed in my head of two boys asleep against each other on a train. One was a purple eyed blond and the other had green eyes, his hair a dark chocolate. I don't know how I knew what color their eyes were since they were asleep, I just somehow knew. Their hands were clasped together and their frames locked perfectly. They looked as though they had been carved to fit each other.