"Okay, I'll quickly get the Marauder's Map and then we'll go to the Room of Requirement. There we'll find the Pensieve and the mystery will be solved!" - Rose shook her head at how simple Albus thought the whole thing was. It was actually really cute how naive he was.
"Albus, do you even know what the Room of Requirement is anyway?" so Rose asked him, having to stifle a laugh. Of course he didn't know, or he wouldn't be imagining it so easily.
"Uh- A room?" - Now it was Scorpius' turn to laugh at that. But quickly he put his hand over his mouth and tried to suppress it. After all, it wasn't fair. After all, he himself didn't know what the Room of Requirement was either, yet it was just hilarious how lost Albus looked and how obviously he had no idea.
"The Room of Requirement is not on the Marauder's Map. It is also called 'Come and go room'. It only appears when it is really needed. You have to conjure it up with your mind, in a way, and then wish for a room. And here is the problem. If Uncle Harry has thought up a special room, we have to find out what the 'password' is. Otherwise we will never get into this room" - Rose was more than happy that her mother had already informed her about this room in the first year of school. Hermione had told her daughter all about it, in case she needed some quiet time to study. Since Hermione could remember all too well her own school days and had used the Room of Requirement for the same purposes. And she knew that Rose was second to her in her eagerness to learn, which made her very happy!
"Well great! And how are we supposed to do that? I can hardly ask my father about it," Albus groaned in resignation. This was all getting way too complicated!
"Maybe it's not as hard as we think. I mean, why hide a Pensieve, in a school, if you don't want anyone to find it? If they really are such secret memories, surely I'm not going to allow them to be discovered in any way. Unless they were recorded for posterity," Scorpius came up with the idea, and he wasn't wrong at all. Hiding a Pensieve like that in a school was already quite risky, so maybe there was the possibility that it was meant to be found on purpose.
"Then, for now, we should just wish for the Room of Requirement. Usually, a room with all the lost or hidden things will appear. We should search that first" - Without saying anything, the two boys agreed with their friend and immediately set about finding the Room of Requirement. It wasn't particularly difficult, after all, Rose had been there a few times before and knew where and, more importantly, how to find it.
"So, that would be it. The room is pretty huge, so we'd better split up. You know what a Pensieve looks like?" - "We're not stupid, after all" - Scorpius looked at his housemate with a grin that carried a slight hint of arrogance. Rose grinned back in the same way. After three years, they had just picked up a thing or two.
They split up and searched the entire room for the Pensieve. Hours seemed to pass, during which they found nothing except some bits and pieces of junk and dusty furniture. Just when they had almost given up hope, Albus came across their sought-after object of desire.
"Guys! I found it!" he shouted immediately, and alarmed, the Ravenclaws ran to him. And indeed, Albus had found his father's Pensieve. At least, they suspected that it belonged to his father, who else could it belong to?
Briefly, they examined the large, shallow stone bowl, and Scorpius promptly found the hidden compartment embedded in the stone bowl's base. Inside were memories.
"They're not labeled. I'll just take any," Scorpius said, grabbing the nearest best vial from the cabinet.
"You guys ready?" he asked again before taking a breath and looking his friends in the eye. He received only an affirmative nod and poured the silvery viscous liquid into the bowl. It was just about the right size for all their heads to fit in, so they could experience the memory together. They looked at each other only briefly and then simultaneously put their faces into the liquid.
/ They were in the corridors of Hogwarts. Everything was gray and the school seemed empty. Then, however, they could see young Draco Malfoy turning the corner. He was maybe 16 in this memory possibly 17, they couldn't tell for sure. But Scorpius was struck by how similar he really looked to his father. Actually, confusingly similar.
So Draco Malfoy turned the corner and stopped instantly when he spotted two people down the hall. It was none other than Harry Potter, standing there by Ginny Weasley, pressed against the wall. They were kissing and Harry seemed to be enjoying it. Which was more than could be said for Malfoy. His stomach churned with disgust and he immediately turned on his heel. He didn't realize that Harry had already caught sight of him and, with a lousy apology, left Ginny to follow Draco.
The latter was just about to leave in a furious rage. He felt such unbridled rage inside him that his hands, clenched into fists, were already shaking. How could he be so stupid? How could he have gotten involved in something so stupid?
Full of rage and shame, he stopped and knew nothing more to do with himself. That was simply too much! Now it was enough for him finally! With all the strength he had, he hit with his fist against the stone wall. That he could break some fingers, he did not pay attention to this rash act. He just wanted to get rid of his frustration and not feel like a betrayed idiot anymore.
"Malfoy!" he suddenly heard a voice behind him. A voice he would recognize among thousands. But without looking at the caller, he kept walking. He paid no attention to him and merely tried to disappear as quickly as possible.
"Malfoy, stop!" - He wouldn't give up. He just had to explain it to him!
"Please Draco, stop!" he shouted repeatedly, hoping that the man he was addressing would finally respond, which he finally did. Full of rage, he turned around. Anger at himself, anger at his stupidity, at his naivety, but most of all with anger at Harry Potter and his impudence in still calling him by his first name after all this!
"What do you want, Potter?" he asked angrily, feeling at the same time like a nagging fury. How could he let that blasted Gryffindor hurt him like that!
"Draco please, it's not what you think. Let me explain!" - "Save your fucking excuses! I just don't want to hear them anymore! I've had enough of you and your filthy lies once and for all! You do it every fucking time! You just can't keep your hands off her! Again and again you have to kiss her in front of my eyes, although you promised me not to! But you seem to be just playing! The hero of the Wizarding World can afford it, after all! Get back to your Weasley rat and lay her, I don't care, just leave me alone already!" - Draco had never yelled at him like that before, and Harry was almost afraid that someone might hear them, but luckily today was the first day of summer vacation and most, or rather just about everyone, was already at the track to board the Hogwarts Express. So they had to be the only ones here. Which didn't save him from being put down like that by the blond Slytherin.
"I can understand your anger, but will you stop talking about Ginny like that? It's not her fault!", Harry defended the red-haired girl, not knowing that he had made probably the biggest mistake he could have made. Malfoy looked him in the eye, even more hurt, and that was exactly the moment when the otherwise so controlled Malfoy, finally lost his patience.
Without thinking about it, he took out his fist and tried to hit the Gryffindor with all the force he could muster. But Harry fortunately had good reflexes and was just able to stop his rival's fist. With surprise he could see bloody spots on his knuckles and his ring finger was already purple. It had to be from hitting the wall.
"Just get out of here! I don't need you fucking Samaritan! It's over for good, Potter!" - Draco pronounced his name with such disdain as Harry had never heard before. And that was the sign for him to have lost. He couldn't calm Malfoy down, no matter what he might say. He had simply done too much wrong already for that. So he let go of his hand and looked at him silently. Tears formed in his green eyes, on the verge of bursting out. Draco was much more controlled. He just looked at the Gryffindor coldly, as he always did, and turned to leave. But as soon as his back was turned to the black-haired man, his eyes filled with tears as well. That didn't stop him from rushing away quickly, though. /
The three students, emerged from the bowl again and looked at each other. They were silent, trying to really comprehend what they had just seen.
"So there are memories of my father in this Pensieve as well," Scorpius was the first to break the silence, leaning heavily on the edge of the bowl. He didn't dare look at his friends again, preferring instead to stare into the silvery liquid moving merrily along in the bowl.
"What makes you think this memory is from your father?" - Unlike Scorpius, Albus had no problem looking him in the eye. So he purposely looked for eye contact and finally found it when Scorpius squinted briefly in his direction.
"In a Pensieve, you can follow what is happening as an objective observer, but you always accompany the person from whom the memory came. If this memory were from your father, we wouldn't have seen my father hurt his hand on the wall." - How he hurt his hand on the wall was still a very nice euphemism for what they had seen. Rose was sure that she had never seen anyone hit a stone wall so hard, and it definitely took a lot of emotion to unthinkingly and with such force expose his hand to such damage. Because she was sure that the purple swollen ring finger was definitely broken.
"Let's look at another memory," was all Albus had to say about it. He couldn't wait to learn more about his father and his relationship with Draco Malfoy. This thing was getting more and more twisted and by now he wondered if his father was really happy with his mother. He had never seen even a hint of doubt in his eyes when Harry Potter looked at his wife. Albus had always been under the impression that his parents had a picture-perfect marriage. But slowly, his entire worldview began to falter.
Without Albus really noticing, Scorpius pulled out his wand and moved the memory from the bowl back into the vial. Only to put it back and take a new one from the cupboard right after.
"Scorpius, take one of the last ones. If they're not labeled, maybe they're arranged by date. The first one pretty much came from the middle. So the ones from the end would have to be the last memories stored in the Pensieve. Maybe the ribbon on the willow was a goodbye of sorts."- The blond Ravenclaw merely nodded, not really listening, and did as Rose told him. He took the last memory from the cupboard and poured it into the bowl.
"Hopefully this one has something to do with the tree. Because if not, I guess we'll just have to look at all the memories until we find something," Rose said, reminding the boys again what they were here for in the first place. They wanted to find out what the tape around the whomping willow was all about. But slowly they felt that they were losing sight of their goal. So many new chasms had opened up that they were no longer sure what to think of their own fathers, their families. Had it all been a lie? Could it really be that their fathers felt so much for each other and no one had ever noticed? Why? Why weren't they together if they seemed to love each other? Or had once done so?
/ It was a light windy day and some gray clouds crept lazily across the dark sky. The wind blew scattered leaves from the trees and made the grass sway gently back and forth. The three students immediately recognized the place they were in. It was the whomping willow, stretching tall before them and hiding beneath its whips, two people.
"Are you ready?" asked the black-haired Gryffindor, who held his wand in his hand, waiting. The blond sitting in the grass in front of him just grinned smugly.
"What do you think, Potter?" was enough for Harry to answer, and he received his wand towards the ground, pointing it at an indefinable pile of cloth. The Gryffindor muttered something to himself, which was not even understandable to the blond man in front of him, who was sitting quite close to Harry after all. But what else had he expected? It was Harry Potter, after all. When it came to spells, he handled them as neatly as he handled his hair.
When the spell was cast, the pile of cloth began to move, revealing the ribbon that the unseen spectators had been able to make out earlier on the whomping willow.
On its own, the ribbon tied itself around the tree and then ended in a knot.
"Sure you don't need your scarf anymore, Draco?" asked Harry after their work was completed, smiling gently.
"It's too late now anyway. Besides, I don't think I'll be able to use it in the war."- With these words, a depressing silence fell over them, preventing the previously exuberant mood from continuing.
"You know I love you, don't you?" asked Harry after a while, looking into Draco's eyes. Into those stormy gray eyes that almost took his breath away and made the world stop for a brief moment. Just for a moment, there was no war, there was nothing around them.
"For all eternity," Draco confirmed to his boyfriend, daring to stroke his cheek gently.
"And as a sign of that eternity, this ribbon will hang here. As long as this ribbon remains, you can be sure that my feelings for you will never change." - And with these words, Draco placed a permanent sticking charm over the ribbon. Now this ribbon can never be taken from the willow. For all eternity it will be here and be a symbol of their feelings, their love.
"The war is comming. When the new school year begins I won't be here anymore," Draco continued to speak, simply unable to refrain from touching the tender skin of his counterpart again and again.
"I know. I just hope we both survive this" - "We will ... Trust me, we will" - Draco kissed Harry on the lips. Gently and shyly. That was the last time they saw each other. The last thing they did and it was the last thing the three young students saw before the memory blurred. /
"So it's true. They loved each other," was the first thing Rose said when they emerged from the Pensieve again. But it was also the only thing that was said, as neither boy dared to say anything. They were much too absorbed by the information they had just received. It was all more than confusing. They had just learned that their fathers had been a couple in their school days. Why weren't they now? That seemed to be the next big mystery for Albus.
"It's late, we should get back. Besides, I have homework to do for Muggle Studies," Scorpius said, and it was quite obvious to him that he needed time to process this now. He just wanted to get out of this room and away from this Pensieve, away from his father's memories.
Fortunately for him, neither Rose nor Albus objected. Therefore, Albus quickly let the memory disappear back into the vial, put it back in the cupboard, and walked out of the room with the other two. From there, they wordlessly parted ways. Or much more, Scorpius' way. Rose and Albus said their goodbyes and then disappeared into their houses.
Albus had been lying awake in his bed for hours, thinking about what he had learned today in the Room of Requirement. He just didn't know whether to find it horrible or just sad. On the one hand, he never thought his father would have anything to do with a man, let alone a Slytherin. On the other hand, it almost broke his heart. Because what had to happen, that two people who seemed to love each other so much went their separate ways. Something must have happened, something serious. Albus just had to find out. He needed to know what had happened to his father, that he was now living a life he probably hadn't planned on living.
But he wouldn't do that today. Nor tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. For now, he needed to get away from this, to calm down and get a clear head before he plunged into this tangle of feelings again. And now he tried to sleep, like the hours before. Unfortunately in vain.
