II
The first lesson Albus and Scorpius had after was Care of Magical Creatures, together with the Gryffindors of their year. They had to take care of a Crup in order to learn how to handle these common pets responsibly. The professor was a young witch just having finished her training because Hagrid was only working as a professor as a half-time job. Most of the time he was busy in the Forbidden Forest with… well nobody really wanted to know this.
Since they were told to form teams of three, Rose screw up her courage – "are you a Gryffindor or not?" she said to herself – and asked her cousin Albus and her heartthrob Scorpius whether she might join them. Although Albus didn't seem too delighted, Scorpius accepted politely. This way he caused Rose to beam of happiness all day long, but probably didn't know it. He didn't care too much for Rose, but she was too happy about his closeness to realise that. Those two hours near him, they meant everything to her, so shortly after the autumn holiday, when she hadn't seen him for weeks. It had only occurred to her then, that it was not just a simple crush on him what she felt, but that she had really fallen in love with him. As she usually was brave, she expected from herself that she was brave in this matter, too. During the vacations, she had made up a plan how to conquer this boy, who was always so polite, even reserved, every time correct – something he had learned from his parents. He had grown up in the ancient way the old pureblood families used to educate their children in order their family stayed pureblooded. She didn't know exactly why this was attracting her, but well, it was. Coming from a very hearty, great family whose parties always caused a lot of chaos. Scorpius' aristocratic behaviour was unknown to her, and she was very curious about what was lying beneath it.
Scorpius however didn't show a similar interest on her, it even seemed as though he'd not remark Rose's. They usually met more than twice a day, because Albus was often hanging out with one of them (actually mostly with Scorpius, the two seemed to be undividable), but then only for a very short time. When they spent a longer time together, it was always the three of them, what made it a bit awkward for everyone, because there was an Albus/Scorpius-couple and an Albus/Rose-couple. There was no triplet, but Scorpius usually didn't care. He was always very concentrated on Albus, talking gently to him. This made Rose feel quite uncomfortable, unwanted sometimes, but she didn't stop trying to build up a more secure relationship to Scorpius. Once he realized who she really was, he would return her feelings, she was quite sure. She hoped she could go with him to the Yule Ball which was taking place on the occasion of the Trimagic Tournament, but it was a lot of hard work until then.
Unlike Rose, Albus spent the whole rest of the day with Scorpius. Or the other way around, as one could say. In History of Magic, they had to summarize a chapter of their book on the relationship between wizards and goblin in the seventeenth century. It was a long and particularly boring chapter. Albus deeply disliked this subject, but he had to get a few extra O.W.L.'s to impress his parents (although they didn't care much about history of Magic, either) and, much more important, to have a better chance to get his dream job. He wasn't quite sure what that would be, but having a lot of O.W.L.'s would surely help, so his calculation. So he was working quite hard and concentrated to distract himself from the fact that he didn't give a shit on what he was learning.
When he glanced up from his book one time, he noticed Scorpius wasn't really working. He rather seemed to try staring a hole in the table, approximately where Albus' parchment was placed.
"Scorpius? Eh Scorp, what are you doing?"
Scorpius slowly turned his head towards Albus' until their looks met. Hesitantly he answered, "Nothing, actually."
"Yeah, I can see that. You could at least pretend to be working, or do you want Bims to come here and check what you have done so far?"
"No… no I don't. You're right, I'm sorry."
"What's the matter, anyway?"
"I… I don't know. And certainly not here."
"Uh-hum…" Albus continued working, still shaking his head slightly about the abnormal behaviour of his friend. When someone like Scorpius behaved abnormal, this was just… frightening.
Albus was still quite absorbed in his work when he felt a slight touch behind his ear. It was a tickling, a strange sensation. He turned his head again – only the second time in a double-period, quite unusual – and found Scorpius staring at him. His neighbour had his quill in hand, the rear of it pointing towards Albus. The latter looked him full of surprise.
"Scorpius, what's wrong with you? Why are you, for Merlin's sake, tickling me with your damn quill? What comes next, putting your wand in my ear? You're not quite yourself today, Master Malfoy; what would your father say if he could see you like that."
"Please Albus…" Scorpius' voice was weak. "Don't call my father…don't tell him…" He shut his eyes firmly, rubbed his face shortly with two handy and blinked a few times.
"This is not the place we should talk about this. I – I will have to force a bit more concentration onto myself. I am sorry, Albus. You are right; my father would not be delighted to see me in such a state."
"Oh c'mon Scorp, that was nothing why you should overreact. Everyone's a bit distracted now or then. It was just a new thing to see it on you. We'll get that sorted out."
"Thank you, my friend." Scorpius smiled a tiny smile, squeezed Albus' hand, and held it for a short time while he locked his gaze in his eyes. Then he let go of him and began finally to write his summary.
