A few days after playing Quidditch together, Scorpius and Albus were crouched over a book in the library, sitting considerable closer than they had been when they first started working together.

"So, um, Albus, do you want to maybe get together this weekend?" Scorpius blurted out.

"You mean to work on the potion?"

"No... like, just to hang out."

"Um, well, sure, I guess," stammered Albus, taken slightly by surprise. "Do you want to meet up in the Astronomy Tower on Sunday night? Around nine? The prefects will be done with their rounds by then. We'll be all alone."

"Sure. That sounds good," Scorpius said, then gave Albus a small smile. "Do you want to go look for a book on Herbaria? I think we could use some help on that."

The boys got up to go to the Potions section of the library. They looked through the titles on the spines of the books.

"Look, there's one," Scorpius said. He reached up, standing on his tip-toes to grab the book. Albus's eyes kept flickering over to Scorpius as Malfoy's shirt came up, revealing his sculpted abdomen muscles. Scorpius stood next to Albus, opened the book, and held it in between the two of them. Their upper arms touched and neither of them moved away this time. They brought it back to their desk and copied down notes from it for a few minutes before finishing up and heading back to their own dormitories.

Albus sat in the common room with James on Sunday night, anxiously awaiting 9 PM. He looked at the clock. 7:30. He pulled out his Herbology assignment, hoping that it would occupy him until it was time to go meet Scorpius. He finished it much earlier than he expected and looked at the clock again. 8:15. He read over his Defense Against the Dark Arts notes. 8:30. Still too early to go to the Astronomy Tower to meet Scorpius. James asked why he was so jittery. Albus made up some lame excuse and took out his History of Magic essay to work on. 8:45. Albus would probably be early, but he was too anxious to wait around in the common room. He put away his books and headed towards the hallway.

"Where are you off to?" James asked. Albus cringed before putting on a straight face and turning around to face his brother.

"I was just going to the kitchens to grab a snack before bed," Albus said. He hoped James wouldn't be able to tell that he was lying. He really didn't want to see James's reaction when he found out that Albus was hanging out with a Slytherin instead of him.

"Oh, I'll come with you. I'm feeling a bit peckish."

"No, no, that's okay. I'll, um, bring you something."

James's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Okayyyy," he replied, drawing out the last syllable.

Albus fled the room before his brother could ask him any more questions. He strode quickly through the hallways and moving staircases. Albus was about to turn a corner when he heard his cousins, Rose and Lily coming towards him from around the corner. Albus childishly looked for a place to hide so that he wouldn't have to lie to more of his relatives, but his cousin and sister rounded the corner before he had time to duck inside a classroom or behind a statue.

"Hey, Al!" Lily said brightly. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, well, I'm just going to the kitchens."

"Why? We just went at about 7," Rose said,

"Yeah, we did, didn't we... um, well I guess I'm still hungry."

"Alright, then," Rose answered slowly, a bit confused.

Albus passed on by them and breathed a sigh of relief, hoping that he wouldn't have to explain himself to anyone else. He walked through the hallways until he arrived in front of the long staircase leading to the top of the Astronomy Tower. Albus looked over his shoulder to make sure that no teachers were lurking around to get him into trouble for going into the Tower. He made his way up the creaking steps until he was at the top, his heart pounding in anticipation. He didn't even know why he was so anxious to see Scorpius. He peeked his head in to see if anyone was in the top of the tower. Albus's eyes were immediately drawn the bright, blonde head that belonged to Scorpius Malfoy.

Scorpius spotted him immediately. "Hi, Albus!" Scorpius said to Albus. Scorpius's face lit up as he greeted Albus. Scorpius was sitting on the floor with his legs stretched out in front of him, leaning back onto the wall.

"Hey," Albus responded bashfully, looking down. Albus sat down next to Scorpius by the wall.

"So what were you doing before you came here?" Scorpius asked, making small talk.

"I was just doing homework with my brother, James, in the common room."

"James, he's the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, right?"

"Yeah, that's him."

"Why aren't you on the team? You were pretty good when we played together."

"So were you, why aren't you on the team?" Albus replied semi-playfully, and gently nudged Scorpius with his shoulder.

"I don't know, my dad really wants me to, but I'd rather focus on school and other things."

"James is the same way. He just won't take no for an answer."

"I bet that's tough, with him going to school here. At least I can get away from my dad when I'm at school."

"He isn't that bad. I mean, he can be a pain, but he's a good brother."

"Are you guys close?"

"Yeah, we're close. He's one of my best friends."

"So did you tell him about this?"

"God no! He'd freak out if he knew I was hanging out with you," Albus said, then bit his tongue, worried that he might have offended Scorpius.

"So would my dad! It seems our parents had a bit of a feud back when they were our age."

"My parents told me about that. And so did my aunt and uncle, Ron and Hermione."

"Right, I've heard about them, too," Scorpius said with a grin on his face. "Didn't your aunt slap my dad once?"

"Yep, that was her," Albus said, laughing.

"Good for her, mate." Scorpius commented, laughing along with Albus.

Albus stared into Scorpius's deep, piercing blue eyes, noticing them for the first time. Scorpius stared back, and then, with a small remainder of his smile still in place, leaned forward, and pressed his lips to Albus's.