Albus chilled for a few hours with Scorpius at the sitting room where they played with the things Scorpius had gotten at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. It amused Albus that not only had Scorpius gotten Muggle "magic" sets at all, his friend had actually bought the complete lineup the store had to offer. Scorpius said that he had never played with them before but thought them so interesting that he had to get them all. Albus could not help thinking Scorpius could probably get along very well with his granddad. For two hours they played with items like Muggle playing cards, a hat, cup and balls, dice and some silk handkerchiefs. Albus found it difficult but he enjoyed watching Scorpius frowned in concentration trying to get the tricks to work.

It had stopped raining by the time they had dinner and amazingly, the sky was almost completely clear when they were done. Scorpius had bought a bunch of the most luxurious fireworks at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes so he was absolutely overjoyed that it was perfect weather for them to light the fireworks. While Albus had seen a fair share of Weasleys' fireworks as his uncles would light them every Christmas, New Year's Eve and sometimes at someone's birthday, even he had not seen most of what Scorpius had bought.

Apparently there was now a line of fireworks which produced fire dragons based on real dragon species which could maintain their shapes for ten minutes and would breathe "safe" fireworks at people at least twice a minute. For some reason, Albus was not surprised at all when Scorpius pulled out his Hungarian Horntail firework, based on the dragon species his dad had to battle at the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament.

"It said that the dragon would be of real size, are you sure about this, Scorpius?"

"Absolutely! It's stated here that it's perfectly safe."

Albus could see Draco's eyebrow jump up an inch from ten feet away but surprisingly, his friend's father did not raise an objection despite insisting to keep an eye on them while they lit the fireworks even though he had left them alone the whole day before the fireworks. As far as Albus was aware, many people had tried to sue Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes for damages caused while using their products over the years but it had never been something severe and surprisingly, never over their fireworks so he imagined he would not be too hurt being chased by a fire Hungarian Horntail for ten minutes as he saw Scorpius lighting his fire dragon.

The fire dragon was fifty-feet tall and looked so fierce that Albus wondered if he had just wet his trousers. While he had gotten a glimpse of the Scottish Short-Snout Cedric battled when they had gone back in time, it might as well be a cat compared to what he was seeing now. Scorpius stood frozen and stared at the dragon with his jaw dropped. Albus turned to look at Draco only to realise he had disappeared, before he sensed his presence right behind them. He wondered how his dad had felt at his age facing a real Hungarian Horntail.

The fire dragon was just a shape of fire with no eyes and other intricate body parts but it seemed to be able to sense their location that one moment he turned slightly so it could face them straightly, the next moment fireworks that were at least twenty feet long were shot directly at them, or more accurately, at Draco as he was now standing right in front of them but the little fireworks Albus could feel were only warm tickle and didn't singe or hurt them in any way that he could visually see Draco relaxed before awkwardly moving away towards the corner where he had come from. Scorpius, however, had a different idea.

His friend half-hugged Draco as he teased, "I told you there was no reason to worry about, dad!"

"Well, it's hard for me to trust things the Weasleys invented." Draco flinched a little as another round of fireworks was shot at him.

"But this is pretty cool, right?"

Draco observed the dragon stretching its wings, he shrugged and said, "Hm… I guess."

"Oh right! You were there when Mr Potter battled his Hungarian Horntail! Is this really its real size?" Albus wondered what his dad would feel if he could hear Scorpius referring to the dragon as "his Hungarian Horntail" as if it were a pet he cuddled to sleep.

"You know even the same species could have variations in size and it's been so long… I think it's more or less the same size."

Once he had gotten used to the fire dragon, Albus no longer found it scary. Scorpius, however, began to feel bored by standing still and having the dragon shooting fireworks at them intermittently that he improvised a game, where the two of them would move around the garden and whoever got blasted less would win. Albus started by standing still, thinking he would attract less attention to the dragon than his friend, who was enthusiastically running in circles or zigzagging around the garden but he started running around too after gotten blasted three times in a row. Draco got shot at occasionally too but he would look totally impassive with his hands behind his back that even the dragon seemed to find it boring.

It was a fun game in general but at one point, the dragon blasted at Scorpius and he seemed to swallow some fireworks, which made Albus a bit nervous. To his shock, smoke started coming out from his ears the next moment that he immediately started running towards his friend, but he was nowhere near as alarmed as Draco, who yelled as he rushed forward, "Scorpius!"

"I'm fine, dad!" Scorpius immediately tried to calm Draco after seeing how concerned his dad looked. Draco was holding Scorpius' face with his hands when Albus arrived next to them just after being shot by the dragon yet again.

"You didn't look fine! How did that happen? Your ears look normal, open your mouth so I can see if you got burned inside… It looks fine, but I don't understand, how would the smoke come out from your ears?"

"Please don't be mad, dad… I swallowed a little fireworks before when you two couldn't see but it didn't feel much hotter than say, when my arm got hit… so I-I sneaked in a Pepper Imp just before it blasted me again."

Draco heaved a sigh of relief, then he stared intensely at Scorpius and said seriously yet not harshly, "Don't ever do this to me again, Scorpius."

Scorpius nodded at least five times in a row, "I'm sorry, dad, I didn't mean to scare you… wait, you're not banning me from eating Pepper Imps, right?"

Draco shook his head frustratedly. "Of course I'm not going to ban you from eating your favourite sweet, Scorpius. I meant not to pretend to be hurt as a prank ever again."

"Good, I won't be able to survive without Pepper Imps." Albus could not help rolling his eyes a little, Scorpius caught his look and gave Albus a playful glare then turned back to his father.

"I promise, dad, I won't do that again… But how did you know it's my favourite sweet? I don't think I've ever eaten a Pepper Imps in front of you before."

"Scorpius, I'm your father. Of course I'd know. Why do you think I'd send more Pepper Imps than any other sweets to you during the school year?"

This was something Albus was well aware of, Draco would regularly send Scorpius sweets and books during the school year. He suspected many of their schoolmates had been quite envious of his friend. Albus would probably have been jealous himself if he had not been the lucky friend who almost always got half of the sweets. Usually Pepper Imps would take up at least a quarter of the sweets but Albus had always assumed it was something Scorpius requested specifically.

The dragon died soon after that but after the distraction, neither of them remembered who had gotten hit more. They moved on to another kind of new and most expensive fireworks, which produced a white glowing animal with a more steady and defined shape that looked kind of like a Patronus. Like the dragon, the fireworks were "safe" that while the animals would not be truly tangible, they could at least try to touch them without getting hurt.

Scorpius, being who he was, had bought three types of fireworks, a phoenix, a stag and a doe, which were the Patronuses of Dumbledore, Harry and Snape.

"There are three of us and three types of fireworks, we should each pick one to light together."

Albus instinctively gave Draco a look and was convinced that he was not the only person feeling slightly uneasy about their options. While he would be choosing among his father and his two war hero namesakes, Draco got to choose among his former nemesis, the person he had tried to kill and the person who had ultimately killed his would-be victim for him. It might be just fireworks but the connection was a little too strong to dismiss. Saying no to Scorpius, however, was something he had always found nearly impossible.

"Hm… I pick the phoenix then." Albus had never seen a phoenix even though he had heard his dad mentioning Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix, a few times. He had been told it was a truly magnificent creature that he guessed even a phoenix-shaped fireworks, a shadow of the real thing, could be impressive to see.

"I will light the doe." Somehow Albus was not surprised by Draco's choice.

"Great! Then I'll light Harry's stag then, or his father's I guess." Scorpius said as he happily started passing out the fireworks to them.

They lit the three fireworks together just as Scorpius had wanted and the phoenix immediately started soaring into the air, the stag and doe were content to stay very still to nuzzle up against each other. Albus had expected himself to associate the two animals to his dad and Snape, he was taken aback when he was reminded of his paternal grandparents instead and his memory of seeing them as a regular, happy family in Godric's Hollow. How could that picture of perfect happiness had taken place just mere hours before their death? Albus felt his heart tightened as he thought about his grandparents and his own dad that he barely registered Scorpius' calling his name.

"... Albus, are you alright?" Scorpius was petting the firework doe with one hand but turning sideways to look directly at him in concern. He could guess that Scorpius was inviting him to join in only to find him spacing out looking upset.

"I-I'm fine." He immediately arranged his expression so Scorpius would not be able to tell who he was thinking as he rushed forward, "May I touch them?"

"Of course." Despite the words he said, Scorpius was not smiling as he always did. Albus could still feel his friend's concerned gaze as he felt the warm Patronus, which impressed him even more than he would like to admit. His uncles had really outdone themselves with these fireworks.

Draco had prepared a room for Albus himself and it was indeed a spacious and gorgeous room at least triple in size compared with Albus' own room at his home but naturally, Albus had been playing with Scorpius in Scorpius' room after dinner that by the time they were willing to go to sleep after star-gazing at Scorpius' balcony (of course Scorpius would be able to recognise every star and constellation Albus had challenged him to) while drinking butterbeer and eating dozens pieces of chocolate, it just made no sense for him to return to his own guest room instead of just sharing Scorpius' ridiculous super king size bed, which was Albus' major mistake.

At home during the holiday, Albus had been having nightmares about once or twice a week these days but lately he had been casting the silencing spell there, the same way he did every day in the dormitory room he shared with Scorpius and his other Slytherin classmates, despite the law since the Ministry would not be able to tell underage magic in a full household anyway. He regretted agreeing to sharing a bed with his friend as he saw Scorpius contentedly cuddling his favorite unicorn toy, a present he had gotten from Astoria when he had been a toddler. He worried about having a nightmare on Scorpius' own bed without the protection of a silencing spell. He tried to soothe his worry as he reasoned that he had a long and exciting day that surely the excitement and fun would keep the monster at bay.

"Good night, Al...bus." Albus could tell from Scorpius' voice that he was already falling asleep.

"Good night, Scorpius."

Despite his exhaustion, Albus found himself staring at the ceiling for what felt like a long time. Albus did not have a religion but he ultimately slipped away while he mentally repeating the same words "please don't have a nightmare" over and over again like a mantra.

"No!"

Of course Albus had to mess up everything again.

A/N: What can I say? Sorry for another long hiatus. I wrote the majority of this chapter months ago, thought it terrible and stopped writing altogether, finally gathered the courage to read it again recently and actually thought it isn't that bad so I should publish it anyway. Surprisingly, I've been able to write this week but I've no idea how long that'll last and how I'll be able to continue with the main fic but I should be able to publish the next chapter much sooner this time.

Thank you so much for whoever is still reading now, especially to those of you who have commented. Any comment would mean the world to me. Stay safe, everyone.