Breakfast was proceeding as it usually did when the owls flew into the Great Hall. It had been a week since the photo shoot and after taking the group picture of the team at their game against Ravenclaw (which they won) Scorpius had sent his pictures off to Diagon Alley to be printed. Today, Scorpius' screech owl Saber flew into the hall with a small package tied to his foot. He dropped on to Scorpius plate, which was thankfully empty.
"Scorpius, are those the pictures?" Parker asked, peering at the box.
"I reckon they might be!" Scorpius replied, hurriedly untying the small box and peeling the paper off after giving Saber a biscuit.
Upon hearing his revelation, the rest of his roommates looked on interestedly; especially Albus who leaned purposefully close to Scorpius, allowing their shoulders to touch.
The pictures were soon getting pulled out of the box and passed from boy to boy.
"Hey, are those the pictures of the team?" Rose called from down the table
"Yeah! Come see!" said Albus.
Soon the entire Quidditch team was passing the pictures around, laughing and talking excitedly. Their calendar was really coming together.
"So, what's the next step then?" Kevin asked
"Well, these are all of the pictures I took. We need to narrow them down to the thirteen that are going to make it into the Calendar." Scorpius replied
He had been taking the pictures out of the box, looking at them and then passing them on. He had come to the end of the pile and picked up the first of Albus' pictures. He couldn't help the heat that rose to his cheeks as the pictures of his crush laughing and posing grinned up at him.
As he passed them around he heard the collective appreciation of Albus' body and snuck a glace over at his best friend.
Albus was blushing furiously, feeling very exposed at the fact that his friends and his teammates were openly ogling his body.
Scorpius had finally gotten to the last picture, it was the one in which Albus was winking at him. He was about to pass it on when he felt an odd bubble of jealousy. He didn't want to share this private moment between them with everyone. Then he realized that people would probably really like to see that picture because they would feel as special as he did when Albus winked at them through the picture. He sighed and passed the picture to Parker.
By the time it had circled the whole team, there was no contest; everyone thought that it was the picture of Albus that needed to go into the Calendar.
…
The first time Scorpius saw the completed Calendar he was pleased. Albus' uncle's friend had done a fantastic job; not only did the calendar look professional, the picture and paper quality rivaled some of the most expensive and ornate calendars Scorpius had ever seen. He was completely impressed.
The Gryffindor Quidditch team was floored with the results. They loved the calendars and before long, Albus had devised a plan to sell them. Word of mouth worked best, he said, but he also given each team member a calendar and told them to feel free to show them to friends from different houses and spread the news and their team was selling the calendars to raise money for new brooms. He planned to do the actual selling, where they collected money and handed out calendars, at meal times in the Great Hall.
Bones had approved his plans, and the team launched their Calendars. News spread like fiendfyre, and soon the entire school was buzzing about the Calendar. Scorpius heard a lot of talk about the picture of Albus and tried and failed to curb his possessiveness. He couldn't help it though; flocks of students, from every house were thronging around the Gryffindor table meal times, easily passing galleons to team members in exchange for calendars.
After seeing the umpteenth calendar being hastily opened to the back page at lunch on Day Two of sales, Scorpius moved outside to the lake along with Parker and Max to finish eating.
Albus watched him leave and sighed. He really wanted to make a move with Scorpius, possibly invite him to the last Hogsmeade weekend of the year. But the calendar sales and piles of assignments had kept him from getting a proper conversation in with his best friend. He was therefore utterly surprised when an unwelcome guest snapped him back to the present.
"Hey Albus" Lorenzo drawled smoothly, smiling.
"What do you want?" Albus replied without preamble.
"I thought you'd be a little nicer to a potential customer mate" Lorenzo's smile didn't falter.
"Fine, buy the calendar then get away from my table." Albus' eyes remained steel; he couldn't bear to act civilly to the boy that had caused his Scorpius to sob his heart out just last month.
Lorenzo dawdled with his money before handing over the appropriate amount. Albus hastily handed him a calendar, hoping that he'd leave. Lorenzo, however, had other ideas.
Opening to December he whistled, "Are you single Albus?"
"What does it matter to you?" Albus said; he couldn't keep his cool now. He could feel his blood beginning to boil.
Zenneth, who had been sitting beside him and also doing Calendar sales looked up and quickly stood.
"Don't get like that Al!" Lorenzo tried smiling, though he looked nervous now, "I was just wondering if you'd like to go to Hogsmeade this weekend with me?"
Albus saw red. He couldn't believe the guy's audacity.
"You're fucking kidding me right? This is a joke right?" Albus' voice rose and he soon had the attention of more than half of the Great Hall.
Lorenzo started backing away but Albus stood up, Zenneth quickly got between the two boys.
"You had Scorpius. You had the best thing you'll ever get the chance to have in your life and you screwed that up. You hurt him. You hurt Scorpius. I think he might have loved you, you know that? And you stamped on his heart after tearing it in half. And now you think," Albus took a deep breath trying to calm himself down, "and now you think you've got a chance with me?"
Lorenzo looked like he was either going to run away or try and punch Albus to shut him up.
Albus continued, "I'm not going to go to Hogsmeade with you because one: you're a piece of shit. And two: I'm taking Scorpius. You had your chance and you fucked up."
To punctuate his last line, Albus reached for his wand but Zenneth had the presence of mind to pull him out of the Great Hall and away from a furious Lorenzo and the hoard of curious and whispering students.
"Albus!" Zenneth said through gritted teeth; Albus was struggling to get back into the Hall.
Many students were now looking on in shock. No one had ever seen him lose his cool.
"Al, you really need to calm down!" Zenneth insisted, pulling him further down a corridor.
Finally Albus caught his breath, he could still feel the blood pumping in his ears, but his anger was ebbing away.
Finally he sank to the floor against the wall, "I'm sorry Zen, thanks for stopping me."
Zenneth sat on the floor beside him, "It's no problem mate. Are you alright?"
"He just made me so angry. I had to say something. And you know, I do genuinely want to ask Scorpius out."
"Al, you basically told the entire school that you and Scorpius are already together"
Albus was surprised that a small smile came to his lips.
"My only question is," continued Zenneth, "when are you going to tell Scorpius?"