Christmas was a dud. Whilst it was nice to get away from school and just chill with the family, time off always seems to drag after the first several weeks, especially when one's mind is fixated upon something… or someone; and Albus' mind firmly fixated on Scorpius Malfoy. (But not in a gay way, because he wasn't gay… Honest.) As it stood there was one day left until he returned to Hogwarts and he had come to the conclusion that he had to Scorpius, the only logical explanation for his fixation was that he wanted to be friends with the blonde and constantly thinking about him was his minds way of letting him know. Now the only thing left to figure out is how to talk to the boy. He was just thinking through different scenarios when his dad came and sat beside him on the couch
"What's up with you? You look like someone stole your tuna sandwich." Albus raised an eyebrow,
"I hate tuna and it's James who doesn't share his food; I'm Ablus, remember?" Harry rolled his eyes,
"That doesn't answer my question."
"How do you talk someone you've never talked to before?"
"Ahh, so it's one of those kind' of problems. After James, I hoped never to have to have this talk again but here goes… You see, Albus, when two people love each other very much, they tend to show that love by…"
"Ohh God, dad no! No no no no no! I already know all about that, I just can't figure out how to approach someone who I wouldn't usually talk to. Nothing about sex, I already know everything I need to know on that front, thank you very much."
"Ahh, well that saved me a hassle. So this person, what are they like? In the general hierarchy of Hogwarts, where does she stand?"
"Pretty high, I guess." He sighed, "The kind of person who everyone clamours to be near and get with but who doesn't seem to realise the effect they have on people or even that half the school is fighting for their attention." Harry scoffed,
"Sounds like Malfoy,"
"What?" Replied Albus, perhaps a little faster than was strictly necessary.
"When we were in school that person was Draco Malfoy, still is in today. I had a meeting with him the other day to discuss several matters and in the space of two hours he got two glasses of wine, a shrimp cocktail, a bottle of champagne and a marriage proposal... by the time we left the restaurant I was bladdered yet he was still in perfect control of himself. How he manages it, I'll never know."
"Yes, well… Back to my problems?"
"Well, have you tried saying hello?"
"Hello, that's your great advice; say hello?"
"Well what better way to start a conversation?" The man had a point, nothing was stopping him just going up to Scorpius and saying hello…
"Well what do I say after I say hello?"
"How about 'I'm Albus?'"
"Ohh come on dad, they know my name."
"So you've spoken before?" Albus looked pointedly at his shoes,
"Kinda." Harry scoffed,
"Kinda? How can you kinda talk to someone?"
"It wasn't so much as talking as I slapped them in the face before burning off their eyebrows." Harry snorted,
"How… How did you… What?"
"We were in potions… You know how hopeless I am at potions."
"Good point, have you apologised?"
"That's the thing, they weren't mad… Just laughed and said it gave them a chance to try out a new healing charm. Speaking to someone so nice is slightly intimidating." Albus cringed inwardly, he was purposely using the word "they" in attempt to conceal the fact they were talking about a boy from his father but it somehow offended his concept of correct English.
"I have no idea what to say to you, son except be yourself and good luck. I'm sure she'll love you just as much as you love her."
"Dad, I don't… you know what, never mind you suck at this. So do you and Mr Malfoy work with each other a lot?" Harry shrugged,
"A fair amount, there's a lot of overlap between my job and his… well one of his. Although, I think I may have upset him."
"Why?"
"I don't know, son" He said, wrinkling his brow. "Last time we had a meeting he was just so quiet, seemed like all he wanted to do was get me drunk so he could leave as soon as possible; didn't even walk me back to the HQ like he usually does. I may have to owl him." Albus laughed, his father sounded like such a sad puppy.
"I wouldn't take it personally, Scorpius seemed pretty upset the day we were finishing term- maybe it's a family thing?"
"Yes well, it's times like these I wish I read the prophet." Albus rose to his feet and smiled,
"I really should finish packing, I want to get there early tomorrow with the hopes of getting a cabin; did you know that James and Lilly still have books to get? Anyways- g'night!"
"Good night, Al." And with that, he left to finish packing.
As the fates transpired, Albus left for the train a little over two hours before his siblings (both of whom opted to sit around and sleep all holiday instead of actually buying the supplies they needed for next term,) and as such went in search of a free cabin. Considering his relative earliness he was slightly surprised to see quite a few of the cabins already occupied. Sighing, he began the walk down the train.
Slipping his head into what appeared to be a free cabin his eyes widened as he saw Scoripus Malfoy sat alone with his head leant against the window; his long blonde hair was handing freely over his face and he was filing his nails. His eyes flicked over to Albus when he heard the door click open, tear tracks stained his cheeks "Ohh, Hey Albus." He wiped his eyes and sniffed slightly, "What are you doing here?"
"Are you OK?" Scorpius gave a half laugh,
"I take it that was a rhetorical question?" Albus shook his head, "Don't you read the Prophet?" again, he shook his head.
"No, my dad won't let us read it after they took a picture of him and my auntie Hermione together, claimed they had an affair and she got slapped for being a 'home wrecker.'" The boy gave a half laugh and gestured to the seat before him,
"Please, sit." Albus acquiesced and sat in front of the blonde,
"I enjoyed your performance on the last day of term," Scoripus raised an eyebrow, "You're very talented."
"Thank you, it seems all of my pent up… emotions served for quite a show. So, how was your holiday?" And thus the conversation continued, Albus revealed how his holiday was spent lounging around doing nothing in particular whilst Scorpius revealed that his was spent in France being forced to make appearances at several fashion shows his father was under contract to model in, he didn't go into detail but from what Scorpius said it was clear his father would rather have been with his son than working.
"I know that it's none of my business and I'm not going to push you to talk about anything you don't want to, just know that I am here if you ever want to talk to anyone."
"Thank you; however I'm not one to push my troubles on others. Especially people I hardly know."
"I know that, I also know that out of everyone I'm probably not the person you want here right now." Mumbled Albus looking pointedly at the floor,
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you're you. You're the smart, popular boy and I'm me. Hardly a comparison."
"I'm hardly loved by everyone. When I came to the school everyone was of the opinion that I was evil… present company included," Albus blushed slightly "I've tried hard to change their opinions, but there's only so much I can do. Some people never accept change."
"Like who? You seem to have friends is every house," Scorpius snorted,
"I think of all people you would know who I'm talking about, he is your cousin after all." Albus frowned,
"Hugo?" the Blonde nodded,
"He loathes me. There's no real reason for it, he's just grown up with the stories of how evil us Malfoy's are and then there was the whole 'muggle ambassador' fiasco. To make a long story short, your cousin would be appalled if he saw you talking to me and I'm pretty certain you felt the same way for a time."
"I tried to, I mean my father seems to get on well enough with your father now but I grew up with stories from my uncle Ron always telling me your family as evil. I didn't want to like you, but then you were so nice to me and then I accidentally slapped you and burned off your eyebrows and then you were so nice about that and how could I hate you when you were so nice? I couldn't, I just couldn't. I There's nothing about you to hate - you're kind and happy and your hair is amazing, you're rich but not a snob and after spending thirty seconds with you it became pretty obvious that I would never be able to hate you." Albus then realised that he had once again been speaking to the floor and it wasn't until he looked up did he realise that Scorpius was actually smiling at him,
"That may be the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me… Thank you. Really, Albus, thank you." After that, the while conversation was a lot more freewheeling and friendly; Albus could have sworn at several points that the boy opposite him was flirting with him but tried not to read too much into it. The two hours seemed to fly by in the blink of an eye and it wasn't until they were both sat in the floor with Scorpius moving Albus' hand in the correct way to induce wandless magic, at which he was somehow completely apt, were they interrupted by a particularly loud voice.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Albus jumped, visibly at the intrusion but Scorpius only turned his head;
"Hello, Hugo."
"Hey Hugo, what's up?"
"What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Just having a chat, wait am I missing something? You seem angry."
"Too right I'm angry what are you doing with Malfoy?"
"As I said… Just having a chat," He looked over at Scorpius to see him staring at their hands with a slightly intrigued expression on his face; it seemed Albus had linked their hands together and interlinked their fingers in a surprisingly intimate manner, which was odd because Albus wasn't gay. Honest. The fact that Scoripus had not pulled his hand away however excited Albus perhaps slightly more than it should have. Realising what it must look like to his cousin, the brunette snatched his hand away,
"That's right Albus, don't touch it for too long; you don't know what kind of diseases this queer may be carrying.
"Please leave, Hugo." said Scorpius somewhat helplessly; he knew it was never going to happen. "I'm not really in the mood for this,"
"I don't care if you're in the mood for it…"
"Really Hugo, I came to talk to him he's done nothing wrong. Since when did you hate Scorpius so much anyways?"
"Don't say his name!" Spat the redhead, "It's filth. And Albus, why are you talking to him? Weren't you the one who said that he 'looked like an overconfident, self-righteous prick' and you hoped that you never had to talk to him? Even your dad complains non-stop to my dad about having to work with his prick of a father!" Albus blushed,
"Well yes, but…"
"Just the other day he was saying to my dad how he's so sick of Malfoy and the way he craves attention, said he's still the same horrid little prick he was in school, getting everything he wants because of his stupid fucking legacy name."
"Listen Hugo, Albus, I think you should both go."
"I'm not going anywhere, you little bitch."
"Gods, will you just stop?"
" I'm not going to stop until you realise your place." At this, Scoprius raised an eyebrow,
"Which is?"
"Beneath us. Beneath families who fought on the right side in the war. Your family had its time at the top and they abused it by killing innocent people, now you belong below us!" the blonde let out a low laugh and rose to his feet, something in his posture had changed and the boy moved in a way that was overtly sexual, walking towards the redhead with a gaze that would convince even the holiest of nun's to abandon their faith,
"You'd like that wouldn't you, Hugo?" He moved forward and slid into the small space between Hugo and the door, "You'd like it if I were underneath you."
"W-What are you…"
"I can see it in your eyes," He let out a ragged breath and moved even closer to the man so there bodies were pressed close together; he was practically gushing. "In fact, I think that you want nothing more than to be on top of me right now, or to have me here on my knees in front of everybody. You'd like that wouldn't you, Hugo? Too have every person on the train know that you were fucking me?" Hugo's face had turned bright red and judging by the way he was standing; the boy was desperately trying to conceal a growing bulge in his robes.
"I…I"
"Don't deny it, Hugo." The boy purred, "It's OK to give in to your desires." The last part was whispered into the larger boy's ear and for a moment it actually looked like he would lean in for a kiss, "Too bad I'm not in to redheads." Scoripus hopped away from the still stunned Hugo "Can't believe that father was right…" he mumbled somewhat to himself, "Anyways, I'm done with you now, both off you." He spared a glance for Albus, "The things you said about me were horrible and you," He turned back to Hugo "Need to face up to yourself and fast, it's not healthy to stay in the closet for so long, Weasley."
Usually, Albus was pretty sure that he could see the mind of Hugo Weasley ticking away like reliable and monotonous a grandfather clock but today everything seemed different, thus when he grabbed Scorpius by the hair and dragged him out of the cabin before pinning him against the door opposite, it was a total surprise.
"Who the fuck do you think you are? You're not worthy of me, you're not even good enough to suck my dick; you're nothing!" Albus rushed out of the cabin after the pair but stopped dead when he saw heads poking out of every single cabin on the train, he hated being the centre of attention; he just froze up.
"I suggest that you remove your hands from my persons," said Scorpius, his voice eerily calm.
"You suggest, Ohh you suggest do you? I don't give a fuck what you suggest because you are nothing! You are pathetic; you're a disgusting horrid little excuse for a man. I bet you're the reason your own mother is dead!" The last word seemed to stretch for what seemed like minutes, a shocked calm came over the hallway that had been previously buzzing with questions regarding the fight.
"Mother's death was nothing to do with me, she…"
"Bullshit! I bet she topped herself just to get away from you, and let's face it why wouldn't she? I know that if you were my son I'd do whatever it takes to get away from you. I bet she felt the same way, the fucking whore. Just face it, the only person who can love a Malfoy is another Malfoy and apart from your father there are none. Nobody loves you because scum like you doesn't deserve it," He sniffed and spat in Scorpius' face. "You're dirt." At the mention of his mother (Whose passing was news to Albus) all of the light in the blonde's eyes had vanished and now instead of fighting back or retaliating he simply nodded
"You have some nerve, Weasley. Someone ought to teach you some manners." Said the leader of a very large group of Slytherins who Albus recognised immediately as Malik Zambini; "I think you need to turn around and go back into your cabin before I decide that you deserve a punishment." Hugo sneered,
"I'm not afraid of you, Zambini and besides, Malfoy here is old enough to fight his own battles aren't you Malfoy?" Silence. "What, nothing to say? How about why does no body love me? Or why was my mother a whore?" Scorpius' face was totally passive, it was like a stone mask had been fitted in order to conceal his emotions.
"Yes, well… How silly of me. I didn't realise that you felt so strongly… you either, Albus. It was silly of me to think that we could… I think I'll just… go." Scorpius freed himself and wondered in somewhat of a daze towards the luggage compartments followed by the large group of Slytherins who had come to assist.
"Yes, that's right you little bitch, slither off like the snake you are!" Hugo smiled and strutted back into the carriage with Albus closely flowing him behind, they spent the rest of the journey in strained silence, only worsened by the arrival of Lilly, James and Rose all of whom dared not breach the subject.
Albus wondered how he had never noticed the Hugo's animosity before and midway through the journey had to wonder, why when something good happened does something bad have to come along and fuck everything up? Now I'll never be able to talk to Scorpius. Sighing, he tried to count the raindrops on the window.