As he paced up and down the hallway, Scorpius swore Boris the Bewildered was starting to look more and more confused than usual. Briefly he wondered if Boris was just a password guardian or if he was like the gargoyles at the front of the school that could have simple conversations.

"Do you think I should go in?" He asked, pausing in front of the statue. Boris, however, was as confused as ever and gave no answer.

Scorpius went back to pacing as he pondered over his thoughts. Why was he even doing this? Albus had sent him an owl earlier that morning asking to meet up at eleven, an hour past curfew. He'd be better off actually going into the prefects' bath. At least then he wouldn't get caught by professors. He already knew that if he went back to the commons now the knocker would have one of its more difficult questions, something it usually did to those who were out too late.

Yet Albus' words seemed to be the most difficult question he'd recently received. Not the question itself, as yes, Scorpius did have a thing for Harris once upon a time and yes, it was because he was a buff quidditch player, which meant that technically yes, Albus fit that quota. But what would it mean if he agreed to it? What would it mean if Scorpius showed up for another joint bath, knowing full well that it answered all those questions for Albus? Was Albus just teasing him or was he actually interested? Did he even care if Albus was?

Scorpius didn't bother to ask himself if he was interested in Albus. He had done so just before bed after their first bath together and knew that he was interested, or at least interested enough to dwell over the questions that ran through his head and want some form of proper answer.

"I take it you're undecided?"

Scorpius nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard the voice whisper behind him, hand reaching up to clutch at his chest.

"Will you stop doing that!" he hissed out, turning to glare at Albus.

His anger only grew as he saw the boy smirking at him. "No." Then without any preamble Albus had laced his arm through Scorpius' and pulled him towards Boris.

"What are you doing! Let go of me!" Scorpius attempted to pull his arm away from Albus but it was no use, the stupid Slytherin was gripping his arm so tightly that there would be no escape.

"Stop pulling and shut up. Tally's just a floor below. I had to take a back passage up here."

At those words Scorpius stopped pulling against Albus and worked with him to get into the prefects' bath. After Albus shut the door Scorpius turned the handle up to lock it.

Tally was the school caretaker and one thing she would never let slide was curfew breakers. She knew that rain brought mud, that peeves smashed things, and that sometimes kids messed up, but she never let being out of bed slide. One could show an 'O' marked essay and get out of a detention for most simple things, but if she caught you out of bed it would be a week of dusting the portraits.

"Great, just great." Scorpius muttered and took off his glasses to rub at his temples. "Who knows how long she'll be there!"

"Best bet is to wait until about two or so."

"That's three hours in a bathroom!"

"I know, good thing you've got a buff quidditch player to keep you company."

He could feel himself starting to go red so instead of answering Albus, he walked over to the taps. "I'm just going to set it the way we usually do for pool parties then. That way we won't over heat or anything in a hot tub."

"Oh so are we going to go skinny dipping?"

"Technically we already did that," Scorpius answered as coolly as he could, trying to ignore the crack in his voice at the first syllable.

"Tell me more about these pool parties."

Scorpius looked over at Albus to see that he was already stripped down and making his way into the half filled pool. Again he turned red and looked as he saw that Albus wasn't bothering to cover anything. "What do you want to know about them?"

"Anything you care to share."

"Alright, so um, they usually happen after the final exam or midterms just before holiday. Holiday we do a secret santa as well and that one is prefects only. " Scorpius paused as he took off his robes. "I'm looking forward to it already, though we don't pick santas until the end of November." He took off his glasses and set them neatly over his clothes before making his way over to the tub.

"Is the end of term one not prefects only?"

Scorpius laughed as he got into the pool next to Albus. "Caught that bit did you?"

"I caught all of it, but that bit mainly."

"Right, well yes, the end of the year is prefects, quidditch captains, and their plus ones."

"So I'm already invited?"

"Yes, but don't tell the other captains about it. We like to surprise them."

"How so?"

"I'm not going to tell you. I've already said too much!" Scorpius laughed and splashed at him.

"You know I can just ask Parish. She was captain last year so she already knows."

"Parish is sworn to secrecy. Even if she wasn't she wouldn't tell you anyway. Not only does she want every other captain to go what they all went through fairly, but she's also mad about your team's loss. Hufflepuff was going to have a good chance of winning this year, but already being 510 points down it's going to be a hard stretch for anyone to take the lead."

"She can just do the same thing the Gryffindor did. There is very little hope of my team even coming in third with only 50 points in at the moment."

"I doubt Parish would do that. I also know that Davidson isn't going to either. Instead he's focusing on defense and is going to try and make sure Gryffindor doesn't score at any of his games. "

Albus raised an eyebrow at this, "Should you really be telling me, Slytheirn captain, the goals for Ravenclaw team? Why does Davidson tell you these anyway?"

"I told you the strategy for Ravenclaw vs. Gryffindor, there's a difference. Davidson tells me because I happen to be his roommate and can actually listen to his plans and do my homework at the same time. Mostly he just needs a rebound board. Half the time he forgets where he put his chasers mid play, I can remind him."

"So I could talk to you about my quidditch team if I wanted? And you would understand?"

"Just because I don't play doesn't mean I don't understand. I'm just one of the worst fliers imaginable."

"And now I get why you are attracted to quidditch players."

Scorpius splashed Albus at the comment.

"Admit I'm right!" Albus splashed water back at Scorpius.

"NEVER!" As Scorpius yelled, he used both hands to send the biggest wave of water over at Albus and then made his way to the other side of the pool as fast as he could.

Only halfway there Scorpius felt two arm wrapping around his waist. He didn't have much time to think before he was lifted into the air and then brought back down into the water. He felt Albus go down with him, forcing the two of them to the bottom of the pool. Scorpius tried to kick and squirm away, but Albus' grip was tight. Rationally, Scorpius knew that he probably wouldn't be able to get out of his grasp, as Albus never even dropped a quaffle, but he still tried.

He was brought back up, Albus' arms still wrapped around him. "Admit it!"

"NO!" Scorpius wasn't even sure the word had completely escaped before he was thrown back in the water. Again he tried to escape, but it was harder this time as he had less breath. Both of them were brought up to the surface again, gasping for breaths.

"You like quidditch players! Quidditch captains!" Albus sang, arms still not letting him go.

"No! I refuse!" Ready this time, Scorpius sucked in a breath before he was dunked back into the water. He made no attempt to struggle as they sunk down. It would be his will that stood strong. He could outsmart Albus. He felt a small loosening of grip as Albus brought them back to the surface.

"You like buff quidditch captains!" Albus sang again.

"Not on your life!" Again Scorpius sucked in a deep breath before submerging, again he made no struggle as they sank. Instead he waited, and when he felt it, that small slack in grip as Albus pushed off the bottom, Scorpius kicked and slipped out of Albus' grasp.

"Ha- HA!" Scorpius yelled as he came up out of the water a few feet away. "You can't hold me!"

"Yes I can!" Albus yelled and started to chase Scorpius, pulling at the water to give him some momentum. Scorpius didn't give him a chance as he started running from him. As Albus got closer, Scorpius dove forward and started to swim away from him.

"No fair!" Albus yelled, still running after him.

"Catch me if you can!"

It was a silly thing to say, and Scorpius knew it. Albus redoubled his efforts, running after Scorpius, nearly catching him many times. It wasn't long before Scorpius felt himself tire. With a small glance back he saw that Albus was nowhere nearing tiring. He was foolish to challenge a quidditch player who actually had stamina. It wouldn't be long before Albus caught him.

"Gotcha!" Albus yelled as he latched on to Scorpius' foot, yanking him back. "Admit that I'm right!"

"NO!" Scorpius laughed, sucking in water as he was thrown under.

He emerged coughing and laughing at the same time. "I give I give!" He laughed as he held up his hands.

"Admit it!"

Scorpius laughed and shook his head. "I already did!"

"I want to hear you say it."

"Fine," Scorpius laughed some more, feeling himself going red again and not from exhaustion. "I might just happen to like buff quidditch players."

"YES!" Albus jumped in the air, pumping his fist, before falling back into the water.

"Why do you even care?"

Albus rolled his eyes at this as he moved back to where they usually rested. "Take a wild guess."

"I think you're lying."

"No you don't"

"You don't even know what I think you're lying about."

"You don't think I'm lying" Albus sighed, "but that's okay, I always get what I want eventually."

Scorpius studied Albus, not bothering to hide it. The boy had rested his head back against the tile and closed his eyes. Scorpius had never really thought much of the slytherin. There we a few instances that they had interacted. Occasional partners in Herbology and other classes, once he had woken up the boy and saved his history of magic O.W.L. Nothing that would actually cause Albus to like him.

"You're gonna have an aneurism. Just sit down."

Since he had nothing else to do and since he wasn't going to figure out Albus just by watching him in the bath, Scorpius moved forward and sat next to him. He sat there for a while, mulling things over.

"What are you thinking for a career?"

"huh?"

Albus chuckled beside him, "Career, you know after Hogwarts and all."

"Oh, right. I'm applying to be a healer."

"That's very admirable. And pretty intense."

"Yep. You?"

"I'd like to play professional quidditch. Everyone say's I'll need a backup plan though."

"With your team, probably."

"HEY!" Albus splashed water at Scorpius. "I'm the only who gets to talk shit about my team!"

"You'll have to dump water on the entire school then. "

"And my siblings, but that's beside the point. I'm decent enough. The 50 points we made were by me and the progress the team will make over the year will also show, not only how good I am, but also how dedicated I am."

"I'm sure that's exactly how it works."

"It is! Well that and insistent pestering of the teams you want to be on. I knew not to let anyone come to this game, but I've got two scouts lined up for the next one. Also other players have scouts coming so that works in my favor as well."

"I'm sure if you really want it you'll make it. After all, you always get what I want."

"And don't forget it!" Albus laughed.

The two lazed around a bit longer. Eventually Scorpius felt his hands prune up and decided it would be best to wash and get out of the water. Albus followed in suit. They continued talking, mostly about classes and quidditch, while they passed time.

After a while Scorpius looked at his golden watch, "It's a little after two."

"Guess that means it's safe to go." Albus stood up and offered a hand out to Scorpius. He took it and stood up himself.

"Listen, next week, Thursday, I'm having a practice specifically with my beaters."

"And you're telling me because?"

"Well I'm going to need a nice long soak afterwards aren't I? Also I'd like to prove to you I wasn't lying earlier."

"You never did ask me to clarify what I thought you were lying about."

"Well it's obvious isn't it?" Albus still had Scorpius' hand. Scorpius didn't protest. "You think I don't actually have an interest in cute Ravenclaw prefects," And in an action that Scorpius had never actually seen before, Albus brought their hands up to rest a small kiss on Scorpius' knuckles. "I'll see you later Scor."