Written for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments)
Prompts are at the end.
Word Count: 1,642
"Albus," his mother says, her light brown skin and impassive features painfully familiar as her dark chestnut eyes seem to pierce into him and see straight to his soul. She shakes her head sadly. "Why are you fighting this? I'm so disappointed in you."
"Do you really think you are anything special?" his father asks, his features blurry half-memories of the auburn hair and bright blue eyes Albus inherited. "Do you really think you could change the world, if you had the chance? Do you really think Elphias wants you around on his trip? Do you really think anyone will want to meet you?"
I'm the brightest wizard in the school! Albus wants to say. I got the highest Defense and Transfiguration NEWTs in history! And Elphias is my friend! But nothing comes out - his mouth is closed shut like it always is in these dreams.
His angry gaze must convey something to his (dead) parents, though, because his mother changes tactics, her stoic gaze softening.
"Maybe you should just accept this, Albus. Maybe it's fate," she says. "My death. Your father's imprisonment. Your sister's condition. Everything happens for a reason, after all."
Everything happens for a reason. It had been his mother's favorite thing to say, growing up. Why was Ariana attacked? Don't question it, it was for a reason. Why did Father go away? For a reason, I'll tell you when you're older. Why do we have to move from Mould-on-Wold? For a reason, and why are you so nosy? Aberforth doesn't talk nearly as much as you do. But everything happens for a reason, and everything will balance out, in the end. Never mind that no one else's sister is an Obscurial, that no one else is infamous even before starting at Hogwarts for being the son of a Muggle-hater, that...
"Just trust the universe, Albus," Mother says. But he doesn't, because how could the 'universe' care about every single person in it, when there are billions of humans on the planet? "Trust me. Don't you love me?"
He flinches, even knowing that his real mother would never say something like that, to control and to hurt, because it's so true. His urge to prove himself, his thirst for knowledge, sometimes eclipses his love for his family. And she did say that once, when his father was taken away, and she told him that he did it because he loved them, and Albus asked her to prove it, and she snapped, "He's your father! Don't you love him?"
"Hold on. That's not right."
That's not part of the script, is Albus's first thought, as he turns toward the sound. His second is that this newcomer, a young man about his own age, with silver-blond hair and dark grey eyes, is quite handsome.
"Who are you?" Belatedly, Albus realizes that he can speak once again. The young man blinks at him, obviously startled.
"Wait, you can see me? I mean, obviously you can, but also that, this, is not how it normally works."
"Normally?"
"Er, yes," the young man says, eyes flitting around the dreamscape nervously. "Like, normally, when I'm in other people's dreams, they can't see me. Wait, you do know this is a dream, right?" Albus nods - he's heard of people controlling their dreams once they're aware, but that's never worked for him in his nightmares - but before he can say more, the young man blinks, shaking his head slightly, and adds, "Sorry, also, who are you?"
"Albus Dumbledore-"
"You're kidding," the young man breathes. "As in, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore? Head-" He cuts off abruptly, eyes wide in fear.
"How do you know who I am?" Albus asks, frowning. It's such a pain, that Mother and Father decided to give him five names, and he avoids telling people his middle names whenever possible. "And what do you mean, head? Who are you?"
"Scorpius M-" the man cuts off again. Albus can't help but think, though, that 'Scorpius' sounds like a pure-blood name, that of the pure-blood families whose surnames begin with 'M', MacDougal, Macmillan, Macnair, Malfoy, Max, Meliflua, Merrythought, Montague, Moody, and Mulciber, only the Macmillans, Malfoys, and Moodys are known for having blond hair, and only the Malfoys for hair such a pale blond, but that 'Scorpius' is also the name of a constellation and that it's the Black family whose known for naming after constellations…
"Er, I don't know how much I can- no, should tell you," Scorpius is saying though. "I… What year is it, for you?"
Albus' eyes widen at the question - what year… it feels impossible, but could this Scorpius be from the future? "1899," he answers, all the same. "And… for you?"
Scorpius gives a half-hysterical laugh. "2024."
That- "That's more than a century," Albus says slowly. And Scorpius recognized his name, so- "Do you… do you know me?" Wizards can have longer lifespans than Muggles, and that would be over a hundred forty years-
But Scorpius is shaking his head, no. "You died before I was b-" He cuts off abruptly again, though Albus can guess what he was about to say. Before Scorpius was born, and the man looks about the same age as Albus is now, so he must live at most to the year 2006. At most 125 years of life, then-
He forces himself out of his thoughts, to pay attention to Scorpius again. "Sorry," the young man is apologizing, "but I've had… bad experiences with time travel, and I don't want to accidentally ruin the timeline." Which implies that Scorpius has ruined the timeline before? Perhaps like how Eloise Mintumble made the news a few months ago, for having time-traveled back centuries?
"I won't ask, then," Albus says, trying to temper down the part of him that's saying that more information can't possibly be a bad thing. "But… how is it even possible that you're in my dream right now? You say it's happened before?"
"Well, yes, kind of. I mean, no one could see me, before, and I kind of assumed it was all taking place at the same time period, but I guess all those other dreams could also have taken place at different times, I just wouldn't have known it."
"I've never heard of such magic before," Albus muses, "but I suppose… something to do with Divination? Both in how this interacts with time, and as a form of oneiromancy?"
"Maybe… But there's no history of the Sight in my family, and this only started last year, right about when I came of age, although it could also be because I turned seventeen. Or, I was actually thinking, some form of passive Legilimency, since I'm actually in other people's minds. Or maybe-"
"A combination of inherited talents?"
"That's what I was thinking! So like, the connection with other minds would be the Legilimency part, and then the connection through time and space - I've entered dreams from halfway across the world - would be the oneiromancy part. And then I've also, most likely, inherited something from my mother, since she had-" he swallows painfully "-a blood malediction."
Albus notes the past tense, but doesn't comment - Merlin knows he wouldn't want anyone asking about his own mother's death - and Scorpius shoots him a grateful look. "But is there a precedent for such combination in inherited abilities?"
It's the most fascinating conversation Albus has had in… well, forever. It's not arrogance so much as certainty to say that he's the most brilliant wizard of his age - not even Elphias can challenge him intellectually, like Scorpius is doing now. And even though there's so much Scorpius can't tell him, with their different times and all, there's so much he learns from their discussion, magics he never really got the chance to look into, perspectives he hasn't considered before. It's all, well, exhilarating.
And though they're discussing first about this strange dream-sharing, then about the reliability of Divination in general, then about Cassandra's Curse, then about Muggle myths and their reliability in regards to the wizarding world, Albus can't help but notice, the little things about Scorpius. The way he moves as though to take notes when they're discussing something he didn't know before, though there's nothing for him to write on, until it happens for the fifth time and Albus imagines a quill and parchment and hands it to him; the way his hands won't stop moving though the rest of him is still and poised; the way his dark grey eyes brighten and dull and reflect every emotion, unlike Mother's, which were always impassive and piercing, Aberforth's, which are always so dull and quietly angry, Ariana's, which are always flitting and nervous.
But then-
"Albus!"
They both turn toward the sound, but there's no one around who could've spoken. Albus glances back towards Scorpius, sitting cross-legged besides him on the grass, and-
"You're… you're waking up."
Albus closes his eyes, then opens them quickly again, trying to memorize every one of Scorpius' features as he asks quietly, "Will I see you again?"
"I mean, I don't really know, since no one's ever noticed me in their dreams before-"
"Scorpius."
The details of the dreams, the vivid colors and quiet sounds and unnoticeable scents, are fading, faster and faster, but Albus can still see Scorpius' beautiful grey eyes as he replies, "I don't think so."
And then Albus is awake, Aberforth glaring over him as he snaps something about Ariana and Albus' irresponsibility and how Mother would've taken care of the problem before Aberforth even needed to say anything.
(Months later, when Albus meets another handsome, blond man, much more charismatic and eloquent than Scorpius, but with that same brilliant intellect to match Albus, he wonders if this is the universe's apology that he can't have Scorpius.)
Autumn Seasonal Challenges
Days of the Year & Religious Events: 21st November - World Hello Day: Write about saying hello to a new person
Get Organized Month: Item: Notebook
Chemistry Week: Plutonium: Passionate
United Nations Day: Senegal - (word) Useless
Princess Day: Twilight Sparkle - Write about someone making new friends
Tarot Reading: Two of Pentacles, reversed: Write about someone overwhelmed by their responsibilities
Writing Club: November
Character Appreciation: First Doctor - Write about the start of something
Record Collection: If You Wanted a Song Written About You, All You Had to Do Was Ask: (color) grey
Time Machine: Object: Quill
Book Club: Elizabeth Dalloway: (relationship) parent/child, (emotion) uncomfortable, (trait) ambitious
Showtime: People: (word) lucky
Amber's Attic: Bubble baths. They're so simple but so luxurious: (emotion) relaxed
Elizabeth's Empire: Churro chips: (plot point) trying something new
Liza's Loves: Walker in Dreams - Write about travelling through a dreamland, or the soulmate trope where people meet in their dreams.
Bex's Basement: Vortex: Write about time travel
Lizzy's Loft: (scenario) Teaching someone
Angel's Archive: (trope) Time Travel alt. (pairing) PercyHermione
Scamander's Case: (emotion) confused
Film Festival: (plot point) moving house
Lyric Alley: Oh brother we've been smothered
TV Spree: Write about a controlling parent
The Forecast Says… 30th. Sunny with clouds: Troubled
Honeydukes Hoard: Hard Candy - Witty
All Aboard: Blue Train - Surprised
Scorpios Appreciation: Prompt: Write about a dream.
Talent Show: Pet Tricks - Trope: Time Travel, Word: Pointless