Author's Note: This song is very, very strange. It's even stranger with the music; as always I encourage you to find it online & listen to it. And yes, I am aware for any Shakespeare nerds out there that the quote itself is not correct but rather the vastly common misquotation, but it's the title of the song, so what can I do?

This chapter is again all Al POV. As in the last Al chapter, it picks up right where the last chapter (Scorp's POV) left off.

Disclaimer: Really, isn't the word kind of self-explanatory?

Chapter Seven: Out, Out, Damn Spot

Albus wrapped his arms more tightly around Gretchen Spimoni's too skinny waist, feeling her hip bones digging into his forearms as he let his hands roam over her non-existent ass. Her tongue and lipstick smeared lips greedily lapped and sucked at his own in a very showy, practiced manner. Both participants were perfectly aware of the large audience that had gathered to watch them in the corridor, and they were trying to make the entertainment as worthwhile as possible for the spectators.

Finally, after several minutes, they drew apart, Albus casually flicking his hair back into place and Gretchen straightening the skimpy tank top which was revealed by her open robes. Gretchen and Albus each threw a wave to the crowd surrounding them in the corridor, which drew back as they strode, Gretchen clinging to Albus's arm, his other arm encircling her bony waist, through their midst and disappeared around the corner.

The couple stopped for several more showy make-out sessions on their way to Ravenclaw Tower, where Albus dropped Gretchen off with a last, lingering kiss.

Albus had a free period before Defense Against the Dark Arts. Feeling suddenly exhausted, he made use of several short-cuts and secret passageways and arrived back at Gryffindor Tower without meeting anyone else.

*****LA*****

Albus sat at his bedside table, studying himself in the mirror. A suave, slightly scruffy young man with a perpetual five o'clock shadow looked back at him out of lazy green eyes from under slicked back black hair. He sighed and turned the mirror away from him, rubbing at his mouth, where he imagined he could still feel Gretchen Spimoni's thick, red lipstick. He hated the feel of lipstick; it was so sticky and chalky. And he hated how it tasted too, like wet dust. He checked the mirror again, but his mouth was lipstick free. He rubbed at it again anyway, just to be sure.

Albus checked the clock and swore. It was already time for Defense Against the Dark Arts and he hadn't even started on the homework. He never used to have problems completing his Defense homework, it was his best class, and if he did have homework questions he would always just ask Rose. But he hadn't needed to for this, it wasn't even difficult; he had looked it over and known he could do it. He just...hadn't. Where had the time gone?

Well, it was too late to do anything about it now; he would just have to go to class without his homework. Albus picked up his schoolbag and slung it over his shoulder, checked his hair and mouth one more time in the mirror, and then left the dormitory at a jog.

*****LA*****

Albus slid into his seat just as the bell rang, signaling the start of class. He grinned easily at Gretchen, whose seat was right in front of his. She grinned back and turned around to lay her hands in his lap. Albus responded automatically by lifting his own hands to Gretchen's chest, barely registering the feel of the hard little nubs surrounded by layers of soft padding under his fingertips.

"Did you do your homework?" asked Gretchen in a seductive whisper. Why was she asking about homework seductively?

Albus shook his head.

"D'you wanna copy mine?"

Albus glanced guiltily across the room at Rose; she heavily disapproved of copying.

"Yeah, alright, thanks."

Albus hastily scribbled Gretchen's answers down on his own sheet of parchment, knowing even as he did so that half the answers were wrong. A 50 was better than a 0 though, and he didn't have time to do the work for himself. As it was, he was barely finished when the professor came by and collected his work.

*****LA*****

On his way to dinner Albus passed Lily in the corridor. Albus avoided meeting her eye, knowing that if he did all he would see was disdain. He had used to have a very good relationship with his little sister, especially while he and Scorpius were dating, but now she wouldn't even talk to him. Not that they would have had anything to talk about.

Not looking where he was going, Albus didn't see the girl rounding the corner until he crashed headlong into her, sending both her and her things sprawling on the floor.

"Oh!" said Albus, feeling like a world-class-idiot. "I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going."

"That's alright," said the girl shyly, climbing to her feet and dusting herself off. Albus bend down and gathered up her things and then handed them back to her.

"Here."

"Thank you."

Albus started. The girl, who looked to be about fourteen or fifteen, had the most stunning eyes he had ever seen. They were big and deep and brown like cocoa, with flecks of green and gold swirling about in their centers like stars in a faraway galaxy. Albus realized he was staring. He swallowed and looked hastily away, his heart pounding inexplicably fast.

"Er—are you okay?" he asked.

The girl bobbed her head shyly, peering up at him through her red-gold bangs, her fair cheeks flushing.

"Do you—do you mind if I walk with you to dinner, A-Albus?"

Uh oh.

Albus shook his head. "No, I think you'd better not," he said firmly, even though he wished for nothing more than to be able to say yes. "Goodbye."

Albus started purposefully down the corridor, but the pretty girl's voice stopped him again.

"Wait!"

He turned and she blushed again, staring at the floor.

"I—I—my name's Sarah. Sarah Ann Copper."

"Goodbye, Sarah."

"Wait!"

Against his better judgment, Albus turned again.

"Since we're both going to dinner it would be kind of silly not to walk together, right?" Sarah said quickly, staring at the floor and scuffing her toe against the stone.

Albus had to admit she had a point.

"Alright then," he said, forcing him not to stare at the way her red-gold hair fell just into her eyes. "Let's go then."

The two of them walked into the Great Hall and to the Gryffindor table, where Albus made sure to choose a seat as far away as possible from Sarah Copper. Unfortunately this put him nearly across from her, and he spent the entire meal desperately trying to avoid catching her eye.

*****LA*****

After his first meeting with Sarah, Albus seemed to see her everywhere. In the library, in the corridors, in the Great Hall, on the grounds, in the common room, coming out of a class he was going into, going into a class he was coming out of; it seemed whenever he looked up there she was; it was as bad as it had been with Scorpius those first few weeks after they had broken up.

Sarah would always smile shyly at him, blushing behind her red-gold hair. And Albus would always avert his gaze, pretending he didn't see her. It wasn't that he didn't like her; he liked her immensely. What he felt when he looked at her...he hadn't felt anything like that since Rebbecca, and before her, Scorpius. It would be the easiest thing in the world to respond to her blatantly obvious feelings for him. But she was so sweet, so pure, so innocent, and he was... Well, he didn't know what he was, but he wasn't any of those things, not anymore, and he wasn't safe for her. She reminded him of himself in a way, how he had been back in his second or third year; trusting, innocent, oblivious, and, judging by the way she continued to seek him out him even after his many rebuffs, just a little dense.

A memory suddenly leapt to Albus's mind: he was eleven years old, it was Christmas break and he and Lily and James had all gone to the park. It was a gorgeous winter day, cold and clear, with a bright yellow sun hanging in the sky overhead. Albus had had some leftover breadcrumbs in his pocket from the roll his mother hand packed in his lunch. He had thrown them on the ground and a great flock a pigeons had come swooping down around his head, the sun glinting off their iridescent feathers in much the same manner as the sun glinted off of Sarah Copper's red-blond hair...

Albus shook his head sharply to clear it of the image. Perhaps if he and Sarah had met then, before all of Albus's many meaningless girlfriends, before Rebbecca Matlock had played him for a fool, even before, perhaps, his life had been forever changed by Scorpius Malfoy, perhaps if Albus had met Sarah then, then things would be different. Maybe. But not now. Now, not ever.

What did she see in him anyway? Did she truly like the Albus Potter who sauntered and strutted through the halls of Hogwarts like the king of coolsville? Or did she see something of who Albus used to be? Used to be when? Before Rebbecca? Before Scorpius? Whichever it was, didn't she know that that person—those people—didn't exist anymore?

*****LA*****

Albus sat in the Gryffindor common room, surrounded by his friends, prattling on about something or other that only half his brain was paying attention to. A bunch of the guys laughed and Albus guessed he must have said something funny. He didn't know, he'd already forgotten what it was. There was a girl on his lap. Gretchen? No, they had broken up two days ago. Or was it three? Someone else then, he couldn't remember her name. This was supposed to be fun, yes? He remembered having fun like this, surrounded by his friends, talking, laughing, joking, flirting, having a good time. When had it stopped being fun and started being simply routine? Surrounded by friends? He didn't even know the name of the girl who was currently sitting on his lap, whose—and how did it get there?—breast was cupped under his fingers. Her giggling was giving him a headache. He peered through the group, trying to locate Rose and Asher and Morgan and Jerry, but he couldn't see them. A forlorn little voice at the back of his head whispered, "Where did my friends go?"

Slowly everyone else trickled up to bed until Albus was left alone in the common room, sitting in a chair, gazing into the dying fire. Rose appeared at the bottom of the girls' staircase, dressed in a purple flannel nightgown.

"Albus, what are you doing?"

Albus opened his mouth to give one of his smooth, witty, dismissive retorts, but what came out was a tired-sounding, "I don't know."

Rose came and sat down next to him.

"You should go to bed, it's almost two."

"Then what are you doing up?" said Albus, surprised to find that it was so late. He realized he had forgotten to do his homework again. Where did the time go?

"I woke up and remembered that I left my book down here," said Rose.

Albus recognized this statement for what it was, a flimsy excuse for Rose to check on him. Normally he would have felt irritated, now he just felt grateful.

"Where were you and Morgan and Asher and Jerry tonight?" asked Albus.

"Here in the common room," said Rose. "Until about eleven-thirty."

"Oh," said Albus. "I didn't see you."

He turned his gaze to the window. The snow that had been falling earlier had turned into dull, slushy sleet. It reflected his mood.

"What am I doing, Rose?" asked Albus, sitting up and looking at her. "I'm living a lie. All of this used to make me happy, but it doesn't anymore. How can a person be surrounded by people and still feel lonely?" He sighed. "It didn't start out like this. It was just a little white lie..."

"What lie, Albus?" asked Rose.

"The lie that I was over Scorpius," said Albus. "I figured if I told myself that enough then it would be true. It didn't seem like such a big deal. A good thing to lie about..."

"So you're not over him?" asked Rose, sounding slightly surprised.

"Yes. No. What does it matter?" said Albus. "The two of us are over anyway. We're not even the same people we were when we were together. Merlin knows I'm not. I decided I didn't like the person I was when I was with Scorpius, but I'm not sure I like the person I am now either, I'm not sure I even know who that is."

"Well then, find someone you do like to be," said Rose.

"Hmph," said Albus. "If only it were that simple. I'm stuck now, cornered, checkmate. At least until I get out of Hogwarts. It's too late to change who I am here; I already tried that and it just turned into a horrid mess. There are worse things I could be doing, I suppose, than scamming people who know they're being scammed. I'll wait until I have a clean slate. There's no use looking into the past for myself anyway, that's all long gone. Once I graduate and leave school, then I'll figure myself out. Then maybe Lily will talk to me again." He ran a hand through his hair. "You know, Lily saw it long before I did. She hated what I was doing right from the start. There's a girl who knows who she is, and isn't afraid to show it." He chuckled.

Rose leaned over and gave him a hug. "That all sounds pretty philosophical and thought out."

"Thought out? Maybe. Philosophical? Hardly," said Albus. "It's just the confession of a Hogwarts popularity king." He snorted. "Maybe I should write a book."

Albus stood and yawned. "I'm going to bed, thanks for listening to me dissect my life. I take comfort in the fact that your school years are supposed to be a wreck, right? So nothing abnormal here. I'm not really being cheated of anything. Oh, and Rose," he turned back at the foot of the steps to the boys' staircase. "There's a girl, a fourth year, Sarah Copper. Tell her..." his heart clenched, "just tell her to be careful, okay?"

*****Song Lyrics*****

Out, out damn spot.

John's conscience would return to him in time.

John lived a lie.

A lie that started out white and benign.

If you wanna know the truth about my life it's a mess, it's a mess, it's a mess, it's a mess.

If you wanna know the truth about my life I confess, I confess, I confess, I confess.

If you wanna know the truth about my life it's in disarray.

I wish you'd met me earlier than today.

John checked his hat, his coat, his mind,

and somehow now the ticket stub he cannot find.

John only dabbled, he babbled, and somewhat unraveled,

he never really looked me in the eye.

If you wanna know the truth about my life it's a sham, it's a sham, it's a sham, it's a sham.

If you wanna know the truth about my life it's a sham, it's a sham, it's a sham.

If you wanna know the truth about my life it's a scam, it's a scam, it's a scam, it's a scam.

I wish you'd met me earlier when I was outside and I was feeding the pigeons,

they were flying around, it was really pretty outside.

Where did my friends go?

It seemed some nights I had so many.

Where did my ends go?

It seems I used to make them meet but now I'm so incomplete,

when the snow turns to sleet.

If you wanna know the truth about my life it's a mess, it's a mess, it's a mess, it's a mess.

If you wanna know the truth about my life I confess, I confess, I confess, I confess.

If you wanna know the truth about my life it's a sham, it's a sham, it's a sham, it's a sham.

If you wanna know the truth about my life it's a scam, it's a scam, it's a scam, it's a scam.

If you wanna know the truth about my life it's a wreck, it's a wreck, it's a wreck, it's a wreck.

If you wanna know the truth about my life I'm in check, I'm in check, I'm in check, I'm in check.

Where did my friends go? Where did my friends go? Where did my friends go...?

AN: I promise that the next chapter has both POVs in it, it's just that the last few songs have only applied to one or the other of the boys.

I hope you liked the chapter, I know it was kind of short, but it got done what it had to and I think it does it well. As you can see, this story does not flow in the same way as TTG at all. Reviews are always, always appreciated, and also always replied to.

Thanks!

-SQ