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Happy Easter!
Hiding Out
Harry mentally cursed a blue streak as he headed for his office. He'd forgotten to send off some paperwork, only to remember once he was home and ready to stay in for the evening. Now here he was, the Auror thought darkly, pulling out his wand to undo the magical shields he kept around his office when he wasn't in it. Opening the door Harry was about to reach out and turn on the light when he sensed the presence of another. Recognizing the shape of his younger son in his office chair Harry's hand stalled as he closed the door behind him without turning the light on. "Albus?"
"Hey, Dad."
"Why are you sitting alone in my office in the dark?"
Slumped over the desk with his head in his arms Albus didn't bother to look up. "Hiding."
Raising an eyebrow Harry could think of only one person beside his wife and mother in law that Albus would hide from. "I heard Malfoy was in a bad mood today. Did you two have a fight?"
"You could say that." Was Albus's weak response to the older man's amused question. The red haze had left his eyes, hence the fact that he was hiding like a little kid instead of celebrating his victory over the Slytherin. Because it really hadn't been his victory, though Scorpius would probably see it that way. He was just too damn passive aggressive, Albus thought bitterly, disgusted with himself. What he'd done was…highly inappropriate given the boundaries they'd always kept to in the past. And boy would the Slytherin make him pay as soon as the opportunity presented itself.
Hence his decision to hide out in his father's office for a little while.
Harry considered asking his son what the two had fought about but figured he probably didn't want to know. His son was predictable enough except when it came to Draco Malfoy's son. Then all bets seemed to be off. The two boys had been circling each other since their last years at Hogwarts, shooting off chemistry that was often hotter than Fiendfyre. People had been laying bets for years as to when the two would end up as a couple and they'd all lost money, the boys stubbornly determined for whatever reason to remain just partners.
And it wasn't their families holding the two back, the boys had been told by both sides to just hurry up and get it over with. Even Lucius had apparently given his okay in the hopes of finding the two more bearable to be around together.
But thus far Albus and Scorpius weren't cooperating.
So rather then ask what the one had done to set off the other Harry walked over to his desk, turning on the lamp there so that he could see what he was doing. After giving his son's head a comforting pat Harry went to one of his filing cabinets to retrieve the papers he'd come to get. That done he turned his attention back to his boy, fighting back a small smile as he took in the younger man's dejected posture. "Come on now, up you get. I'll protect you if he's still in the building."
Lifting his head Albus studied his father's features with knowing eyes. "You're amused at my expense. I would be mad, but I'm self aware enough to know that I'm behaving like an idiot." Albus sighed as he got to his feet, shoving a hand through his already well tousled hair. "I'm not really hiding from him…I just needed to be by myself. To figure out what I'm going to do when I do have to face him tomorrow."
"And have you figured out what you're going to do?"
"Nope."
Chuckling at the man's tone of voice Harry slugged an arm over his son's shoulder. "Well what's say you accompany me on my delivery of these papers, and then we'll go to the Leaky Cauldron for a quick drink and good company."
Albus smiled. "Sounds like a plan to me."
Once they were out in the hallway Harry frowned, the better light allowing him to see the fat lip his son was currently sporting. "What did you do to your lip?"
"Sparring with Scorpius. He won again."
That was nothing new. The Slytherin had been kicking his boy's butt since their days of training to become Aurors together. Albus lacked Malfoy's killer instinct, and cared too much about not hurting whoever he was fighting. His boy had always preferred to use his brains over his brawn, while Scorpius used both with equal force and precision. He was damn glad the kid hadn't been around for Voldemort to use back in the day for that reason.
"I heard you went out to dinner with Mr. Santana."
"Yeah. He's up to something. He's trying to hook up with me, but not because I interest him. I'd guess that he is gay, but I'm not his type. But he's working really hard to make me think so."
"What does Malfoy think?"
Albus shrugged, keeping a wary eye out for the man they were now discussing. "Scorpius doesn't like him, but I haven't told him that I think Santana is up to something with his flirting. He thinks the guy just wants in my trousers."
Which would be one of the reasons the Slytherin was in such a piss poor mood, Harry thought with a small shake of his head over the games the two played. "Why haven't you told him about your suspicions?"
"Because if I told him that he'd go all overprotective on my ass and try to play bodyguard. Or he'd go after Santana like a predator spotting wounded prey. I can finesse what I need to know from the Spaniard. He's not out to harm me…use me yes….but not harm. At least that's what my gut is saying."
Yes, Harry thought as they exited the building, Malfoy would indeed go after Santana if he got wind of the truth behind the man's interest. The Slytherin had scared off plenty of his son's admirers over the years with less cause. Albus would probably be shocked at the number of men he'd lost because of the Slytherin's tactics.
Of course…the Slytherin would probably be equally surprised to know that Albus had, in his devious, subtle way, dispatched a number of the other man's suitors too.
)
Rorake opened the door to see Scorpius on his doorstep, looking ready to kill someone. This wasn't all that unusual so Rorake wasn't terribly worried yet as he motioned for the man to come inside. Following the man into his parlor after he closed the door the large Slytherin poured them both a glass of whiskey, shoved one into Scorpius's hand, and then sat down across from the man to hear whatever had happened to piss the other man off.
"I'm going to kill him." Scorpius began after taking a sip from his glass. "I'm going to kill Potter. And before that I'm going to put him over my knee and tan his ass raw. The passive aggressive rabbit." He added, still bitter over the fact that the Gryffindor had vanished by the time he'd been up to giving chase. "You will not believe what he did to me, Rory."
Settling in for what was sure to be a long and familiar rant, Rorake calmly sipped from his glass. "What did he do to you this time that I won't believe?"
"I'll tell you what he did. He…shit. DAMN. FUCK!" Slapping his hand against his knee Scorpius used some very creative language to demonstrate how annoyed he was to realize that he couldn't tell Rorake what Potter had done to him without describing the shower scene which he had no intention of doing. Sexy moments with Albus were between the two of them. Talking about them with Rorake would put his relationship with Albus on par with his other relationships which wasn't right. Their bond was so much more than that.
Used to this as well Rorake toasted the other man in amusement. "This is another one of those times where he's pissed you off in a sexy way and therefore I can't hear about it even though you want to rant about it."
"Yes." Was Scorpius groaned response as he rubbed a hand over his face in exasperation. "Dammit. This would be so much easier if he weren't so…so…damn good at getting away from me after he's made his move."
Because this might have been the first time Albus had pushed him to this degree, but this sure as hell wasn't the first time that the Gryffindor had deliberately stirred him up as punishment. The most memorable before this one had been the popsicle incident. He couldn't remember what he'd done to piss the other man off, but he vividly recalled every second of Albus's talented tongue doing very interesting and creative things to a pink popsicle in his presence in revenge shortly afterwards. To this day he couldn't see a pink popsicle without getting ridiculously turned on.
And there were plenty more incidents like that, Scorpius thought darkly as he finished his glass's contents. "I'm going to have to pay him back good this time."
"Just don't use another man to do it." Was Rorake's sage advice on the matter. When Scorpius gave him a 'why not' look the Slytherin shook his head. "Because if you try that route he might turn around and do the exact same thing just to spite you. And there are already rumors going around that he went out to dinner with some exotic looking Auror from Spain. No need to help that relationship along the way." Because if it did he'd have to buy a new bottle of whiskey for Scorpius to console himself with, Rorake thought wryly.
Grumbling a little as he acknowledged the validity of his friend's statement Scorpius set his glass aside as he shifted into sulk mode. "Why does he have to get under my bloody skin so friggin easily? It's not fair. He walked away like it was nothing."
Since he had no idea what Potter had walked away from, nor did he probably want to, Rorake opted to not dig for the details. "You insinuated that he rabbited. That says to me that whatever happened got under his skin too."
"Not to the same degree though." Scorpius shot back, perilously close to pouting.
"Would you like me to tell him to stop picking on you?" Rorake inquired dryly.
"Bite me."
Rorake made a show of considering the idea before shaking his head. "Nope. You're still not my type. Biting you is Potter's job, sorry."
Reluctantly amused in return Scorpius rolled his eyes. If only it were Potter's job, Scorpius thought, imagining how pleasurable it would feel for the other man to apply his lips and teeth to his skin. But that too was off limits. Though the way Potter was pushing his buttons it was possibly they were going to move that line again. And if they kept doing that they were going to cross the line before they caught themselves.
Sensing where the man's thoughts were going Rorake's face went form amused to serious. "I know you think it would screw everything up between you two, but you guys can't go on like this either. It's only a matter of time really, before you both blow like a blocked valve. And like a blocked valve you're better off unblocking it yourselves, rather than risk an explosion that will damage you both, possibly beyond repair."
"If he wanted to…unblock the valve he'd ask me out." Was Scorpius stubborn response, knowing the man was right but not about to admit it openly.
"Or he could be waiting for you to do the asking." Rorake shot back. "And don't say I'm wrong because I'm sure you've thought the same a time or too."
"He's not waiting for me."
Rorake toasted the man with a shake of his head. "Or he is, but might not wait much longer. Keep that in mind too, while you're at it."
)
Albus had given plenty of thought to how he should handle Scorpius. He'd considered apologizing, admitting that he'd crossed lines, but doing that was essentially admitting what was between them which was something they just didn't do. That was part of the game they played, pretending that they didn't know what they did to the other. That and in all honesty he wasn't really sorry for what he'd done, Albus silently admitted. He might have gotten little sleep the night before, but he now knew what the man looked like butt naked and that was worth the loss of sleep no question. The mental images would no doubt haunt him for a long time to come.
He'd also considered bribery, bringing the man treats from a nearby bakery, but that had struck the Gryffindor as a bad idea too. The Slytherin would see that as weakness and pounce on it. And the man was probably already posed to jump him as it was.
So he'd act like nothing had happened and hope that the Slytherin did the same.
Or that was his plan up until the moment the Slytherin walked into the room. Then the excuses and apologies welled up, clogging up Albus's throat so that he all but choked on them. Which turned out to be a good thing since Scorpius was apparently playing it cool as well. While Albus watched the other man walked over to his desk and pulled out his chair like he had not the slightest problem being in the same room as him.
Albus managed to push back his apologies and excuses and decided to keep things businesslike until he got a better reading as to what the Slytherin was up to. "Uhm…we got the report in from the healers. According to them McEntyre died of natural causes."
"They've got their heads up their asses as usual then. It was murder. I don't know how, but my gut says murder so it is."
Used to Scorpius's dismissive attitude when it came to the crime fighting competence of anyone not them, Albus smiled just a little. But he had long ago learned to trust the other man's gut, and Scorpius was so stubborn that nothing he said would change the man's mind anyway. And it wasn't like there weren't plenty of people who had celebrated the death of the politician. The rumored to be easy to buy off, corrupt politician, Albus mentally added. His Aunt Hermione had been one of the people happy to see the wizard's career end. The man had been too deeply ingrained in the Ministry to fire without some extremely convincing evidence, and he'd been one sly, devious old man apparently.
So Albus didn't argue. "Well he was your stereotypical, corrupt son of a bitch politician."
"Yeah. And speaking of son of a bitches, if you have plans with yours tonight you're going to have to cancel."
"You do realize that by calling him that you're not only insulting him, but my aunt as well." And the look that was in Albus's eyes suggested that Scorpius would be in for a world of hurt if the man didn't apologize immediately.
It took a moment for Scorpius to realize what the man was assuming. "Not him, you idiot. I know better than to call that brainless twit best friend and cousin of yours a son of a bitch. I meant the Spaniard, Potter."
"Oh." Blinking, Albus immediately settled down now that he knew the man wasn't speaking badly of his family. The Slytherin could insult Santana all he wanted. "And why do I need my night clear, exactly?"
"Because you still owe me dinner for kicking your butt yesterday."
A small smile curving his lips Albus nodded his head in agreement, unbelievably relieved to feel no anger or dark intent from the other man. It was like what had happened after their sparring had never occurred. "Where do you want to go?"
"I figure we could try that new restaurant run by goblins." Scorpius smirked over at the other man. "Given how they run the bank, their attempts at running a hospitality business should be a sight to see. And since you're paying, I won't be wasting my money if the food's as bad as the service."
Laughing, Albus shook his head. "You know how the goblins feel about me. About anyone whose last name is Potter or Weasley really. You'll get crappy service and burnt food for no other reason than you're with me."
"I'll risk it."
"You like to live life on the edge, Partner."
Scorpius grinned. "You know it."
)
The restaurant the two men stepped into that night was about as welcoming as the bank vaults of Gringotts. Very gothic, cavernous based décor that made its patrons feel like they'd stepped back into the time before man had been the dominant species on Earth. The tables, the chairs, all smoothly shaped stone, the only light in the large dining room coming from lit torches placed around the room. All in all, it was as ugly and unappealing as the goblin who seemed to feel that they should be extremely grateful he was showing them to their table.
Taking their seats Albus and Scorpius shared amused looks, which only grew when they were handed menus and told what to get by their waiter. The goblin informed them too, with a gleam in his dark eyes that hinted at trouble, that there was a house drink that if one of the men could finish, would entitle the two to dinner on said house.
"Has anyone managed to finish this drink?" Albus asked, though his had no intention of even trying it. He had a decent head for liquor, but he knew better than to take a goblin up on a dare. And the goblin was daring him, he could see it in the creature's face.
"No human has." Was the goblin's smirked response.
Challenged, Scorpius was not about to back out on the goblin's dare. "I'll try it."
"Scorpius."
It was the Slytherin's turn to smirk at the Gryffindor, his tone superior and indulgent. "I'll be fine, Darling, no reason to worry."
"Sure you will, Sweetie. Sure you will."
