Albus Scorpius

On Your Side

Chapter Eighteen: Hard Truths

A/N: I'm really reluctant to keep writing this, because I can see the end approaching in my chapter plan, and I don't want it to end. I love it too much

Scorpius shifted slightly as he felt himself begin to wake, not entirely sure he wanted to go back to the land of the living. He was warm, and hadn't slept so well in what felt like years. He tightened his hold on the person who was lying next to him, nuzzling his head further into the mess of dark hair, smiling as he smelt a familiar scent. It was no wonder he'd slept so well, really. After the tiring day they'd had, making the place look presentable, trying to figure out what to do for food, going for a walk round the cabin, to make sure that there was no one else around. And then of course, there was the sex.

The smile on Scorpius' face grew wider. He couldn't forget about the sex.

The boy in his arms shifted about, and Scorpius finally opened his eyes to look down. Albus was still asleep, curled up against Scorpius' chest, spooning against him and facing the wall. The blond lent over, placing a delicate kiss to the sparsely freckled cheeks. The boy shifted again, rolling onto his back, green eyes beginning to flutter open.

Scorpius was sure that he could just be quite content to watch Albus sleep.

"Hmm?" Albus murmured, rubbing one eye. "Scor?"

"Yes?"

The green eyes opened fully, lined with sleep and moisture, a soft smile gracing Albus' face as he took in the image of the blond beauty hovering above him. "Hey."

Scorpius chuckled slightly, running his knuckles down Albus' cheek. "Hello. Did you sleep well?"

Albus nodded slowly, turning once again, this time to face Scorpius, wrapping his arms around the older man. "Sleep."

Scorpius allowed himself to be pushed backwards, laying down once again and wrapping his arms around his student. In that moment, he found it very difficult to believe that there was anything wrong with the world. In that perfect, picturesque moment, it was nearly impossible to conceive that anything could be wrong.

It was another hour before Albus woke again, Scorpius merely enjoying the light flittering in from outside and the feeling of the body pressed up against his own. This time the boy looked like he was actually waking up, lifting his head to take in his surroundings, before settling on Scorpius.

"So we're really here."

Scorpius nodded slowly.

"It seems strange," Albus murmured, settling back down. "Though I love the fact I'm here with you."

"If it had been under different circumstances, I would've been thrilled for it," Scorpius agreed. "Or more thrilled."

Albus hesitated, fingers drawing patterns on Scorpius' chest. "How-how long do you think we'll be here for?"

It was the question that managed to not come up yesterday. Scorpius knew exactly how long they would be there for. Until he knew Hogwarts was safe enough for Albus to return to. "I'm not sure. I suppose we need some kind of plan."

"Do you think we should start thinking about it?"

"I'd rather just enjoy my time with you at the moment, Albus," Scorpius admitted. It was true. But he also didn't want to start thinking about it until it was safe.

Albus looked up, searching the grey eyes, smiling and pressing a kiss to the man's lips. "I agree."

After that, their day was spent in a very similar fashion to the one before. Time moved slowly, but neither of them seemed to mind. Scorpius was amazed at how well he was managing to avoid the question of 'what happens next', spending some time of every day listening to the radio, trying to find out what was happening. It had been mostly uneventful, not having heard anything terrible.

The first sound of chaos that he heard came very suddenly however.

Five days after they'd left, the sound of the news reader's voice came through, a slightly disturbed undertone to it.

"In recent news, Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry has been under attack, dark magic infecting the walls and spreading fire. We are unable to get much information from inside the castle, due to the chaos, but will keep you as updated as we can- oh! It appears-"

"What was that?"

Scorpius nearly jumped out his skin, flicking the radio off as quickly as he could, turning to see his boyfriend. "Albus! I didn't know you were awake."

"Are you listening to the radio?" Albus asked, confusion on his face.

"Just the news, nothing interesting."

"I thought someone was here with you."

Scorpius shook his head, standing and heading over to Albus. "No, it's just me."

"So what's happening on the news?"

"Nothing really."

Albus turned his attention to the box. "Shall we listen to it?"

"No!"

Green eyes snapped up, suspicion creeping into his features. "No?"

"No," Scorpius tried to calm his voice down. "I'd rather do something else."

"What's wrong with the news?"

"I would've thought it would be boring."

Albus narrowed his eyes, walking towards the radio. "I want to hear it."

"Don't, Albus-!"

"Why are you so object to me listening to the news?"

Scorpius pulled him away. "Because I don't want to listen to the news."

"You just were!"

"And now I'm bored of the news."

"I don't believe you."

"You not believing me seems like a regular occurrence," Scorpius shot. He needed to think fast. These excuses weren't nearly good enough.

"Then once I've heard that there's nothing to be suspicious about on the radio I'll apologise."

Scorpius narrowed his eyes. "I'm warning you, Albus."

"Why are you getting so tense about a radio?"

"Because you never trust me!"

Albus moved as quickly as he could, reaching forth and smacking the on button just as Scorpius wrapped his arms around the smaller male to stop him moving. But the radio had sparked to life. Albus stared on at the small box as the words rang out, Scorpius behind him doing much the same.

"-The Aurors are doing their best to help the Professors evacuate the school, but are still unable to find the source of the fire. It appears to be some kind of Dark Magic that they are unable to destroy, but are doing their best to control. Children that are evacuated will be taken straight to Hogsmeade, and those who need medical attention will be escorted to St Mungo's.-!"

Scorpius flipped the off switch, not letting go of Albus, still staring ahead at the little box, feeling the body in his arms stiffened and tense. He knew turning off the radio wasn't going to help. The damage had been done. Albus had heard.

There was no way to describe how hard the wave of regret and fear hit him as it did then.

"You lied to me."

It wasn't a question. There was no need to ask.

"Albus-!"

"No," the boy stepped out of Scorpius' arms, turning to face the man with large green eyes that were shining with moisture. He felt his heart stop. "I'm going back."

"You can't go back!"

"I have family there!" Albus shouted, raising his voice for the first time. "I'm not just leaving them!"

"It's not safe!"

"This is your fault," Albus jabbed a finger in Scorpius' direction. "I should've listened to Rose. I should've never trusted you."

The blond choked on his words, stretching his arm out, shaking his head. "Albus, please-!"

"I'm not listening to you anymore."

"Please, don't."

"I gave everything to you and," Albus wrapped his arms around himself, grimacing and sucking in a breath. "And this is how your repay me?"

"I'm so sorry."

But Albus had gone.

The castle was a mess.

Students and Professors were scrambling around everywhere, trying to run away, or trying to help the wounded, or trying to fight. Albus ducked behind a pillar as he saw a dark clad figure down the hall shooting spells at an Auror, green eyes wide as he looked around. It was a mess. Fire licked at the walls, despite them being made of stone, and there was ash and debris everywhere.

And Scorpius was responsible for it.

Albus sucked in a breath, sucking up all his courage and pushing the pain aside, pulling out his wand and dashing out of cover to point the wand down the hall, shooting a disarming curse at the figure. Caught by surprise, the Auror had a few moments to stun the figure as the wand came flying to Albus.

When he knew it was safe, the Gryffindor ran down to where the Auror was. "What's happened?"

"Al?"

The two turned to a redheaded girl who was curled up on the floor behind the Auror.

"Rose!"

The Auror stepped to the side as Albus got on his knees next to his cousin, grasping her face in his hands. "Are you okay?"

"I-I broke my leg," she explained. "I tripped when we were trying to escape, and something fell on it. I told my friend to keep going, because then-the man came," she glanced towards the hooded figure, who the Auror was unmasking. "Where-where's Prof-!"

"Don't care," Albus cut off icily, before softening his tone. "We need to get you to safety."

"There's part of the school where students are being evacuated to. You need to get her there as quickly as possible. Tell them that we got Theodore Nott," the Auror explained. "Head for the Headmistress' Office."

Albus nodded, supporting Rose as he pulled her to her feet. "Thank you. Can you walk on it?"

"I-I think so," she stuttered. "I'll manage."

"I can levitate you if it'll be easier?"

Rose flushed at the words that automatically tumbled from her mouth. "It's against the rules to-!"

"I doubt the rules really matter right now."

"I'll be fine, really. Let's just go."

Albus nodded, supporting Rose as they began to leave. "Where's Lucy?"

"I'm not sure, I wasn't with her when it all happened. Al, I'm really sorry, I-I didn't realise that they'd…" she trailed off, regret etched on her face. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine," Albus replied, trying to keep the anger out of his voice. He wasn't doing too well.

"What happened?"

"You were right," Albus explained. "Professor Malfoy was no good."

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For being right."

A slightly awkward silence descended on them as they continued to head towards the headmistress' office, Rose trying to keep up with Albus' pace, Albus' mind still reeling about what was happening. He felt like an idiot. Blindly trusting his Professor because of some stupid crush, abandoning his friends just to go have a nice little holiday by the beach. He was a fool.

"It's not your fault," Rose said softly as they got closer to the headmistress's office. "You didn't know."

"I did. I just refused to believe it."

"You chose to believe your boyfriend instead," she corrected. "There's nothing wrong with that."

He wanted to argue more, but he could see people up ahead, so simply squeezed Rose's arm and continued down the path. He felt his heart stop as a tall, lean man with silvery blond hair stepped into view, coming to an abrupt halt.

What was-?

The man turned round, grey eyes pulling forth a slight whimper of horror from Albus. But the rest of the face was older, the hairline receding, the face shape slightly different. Albus had seen this man before, when he'd broken into Malfoy Manor. This was Draco Malfoy. Not Scorpius. Though the similarity was startling.

"This one, this is Albus," Draco said, pointing directly at the dark haired boy. "Where is my son, boy?"

"I-!"

"Al!" all of a sudden his father was rushing past the elder Malfoy, concern written on his face, green eyes flickering to Rose. "Merlin, Rose, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Uncle Harry, my leg's just a bit broken."

"We'll get you seen to as soon as possible," Harry assured. "Al, you shouldn't have come here."

The boy paled. "You-you knew where I was?"

"I explained to them where you were," another voice said, a much older one. Rose and Albus turned to their Headmistress, almost afraid to hear what she had to say. "That you had followed Professor Malfoy, to try and get his help. That you have become," she paused, giving Albus a meaningful look. "Friends."

"Yeah, friends," Albus muttered.

His father was far too worried and oblivious to notice anything out of the ordinary. "You should've stayed with Professor Malfoy. It's not safe here."

"I couldn't just leave everyone."

"Is that Albus?" came a slightly hysterical voice that was oddly familiar. From the stairs up to the headmistress' office came a brunette girl, her eyes wide as she ran as quickly as she could towards the boy, stumbling once. A boy followed her out the office, at a much slower pace. "Al! Al, I was so worried about you!"

Harry swiftly moved Rose out of harm's way as Lucy threw herself at her cousin, arms wrapped tightly round his neck, making him stumble backwards, wrapping his arms round her. "I'm sorry, Lu. Are you okay?"

She pulled back, tears staining her cheeks, eyes wet. "Yeah, I'm okay. Liam got us to safety. He was very brave."

The admiration in her voice pulled a smile to Albus' face, looking over her shoulder to the boy who had his hands shoved into his pockets, shrugging it off. "She helped."

"I'm sure she did," Albus said, turning back to Lucy. "So long as you're okay."

She turned her attention to Rose. "Are-is Rosie okay?"

"I'll be fine," the Ravenclaw insisted once again, as Harry was inspecting her leg. "Something just fell on my leg, that's all."

"We need to get you to the hospital," Harry said, making Lucy look incredibly upset. "You will be fine, but it still needs fixing. We need to round up the rest of the students who are about, bring them all here, get them to safety."

Lucy stepped forward, offering Rose support. "I'll get Rose into the office."

"Thank you, Lucy," Harry turned to the others. "Professor-!"

The woman had transformed into a cat in seconds flat, despite her age, tail flicking and bouncing into action quicker than someone who would be dead in cat years probably should've been able to.

"Right," he turned to Draco. "I know you want to find your son, but we need to evacuate as many students as we can."

"I'm not a duelist, Potter."

The man bit back a comment. "If you don't plan on helping, you can always leave."

The two men stared at each other for a few moments, eyes locked.

"What do you need?"

"I need you to scout the halls for children, help the Aurors out."

Draco scoffed, folding his arms across his chest. "Wanting me to turn my wand on people who might be my friends?"

"If you don't want to be arrested for assisting, yes, I am."

"Fine. Anything else?"

"No, thank you," Harry turned to Liam and Albus, about to speak before his son cut in.

"I want to help in the castle."

"Al-!"

"No, if I'm going to be an Auror, I can't turn away from this."

Draco snorted. "Just like you, isn't he?"

"Okay Al, go with Malfoy, help the students who are there. Your brother is about somewhere, he was trying to help find the source of the problem."

"Got it," Albus turned to Draco nervously. "Mr Malfoy."

"Before we start," he said, voice cool, looking down at Albus curiously. "Where is my son?"

Albus glanced around nervously. "At-at a beach."

Recognition flickered through the grey eyes, and the man started storming off down the halls. "Come on then, child. No time like the present."

"Yes sir!"

Harry patted Albus on the shoulder as the boy began moving. "Good luck."

"Thanks."

Albus had to jog slightly to keep up with Draco, surprised by the man's walk. Then again, he was his father's age, and Harry was quite fast in dire situations.

"Keep up, Albus. Else I might have to tell your father about your whereabouts one wonderful night during your Christmas break."

Well bugger.

"Er, yes, sir. Sorry sir."

"Please stop calling me sir."

"Okay."

They lapsed back into silence, marching through the corridors, searching for students who needed help. Those who they saw, Albus instructed them on where to go, while Draco supplied a few helpful charms, telling Albus that he hoped the boy knew what they were if he was going to be an Auror.

The whole experience would've been a lot more painful if Albus hadn't had the distraction of other people. This was his boyfriend's father, and he wasn't sure he was willing to spend more time with the man than necessary.

He bit on his lip as he thought about it. He wasn't exactly sure he could call Scorpius his boyfriend anymore.

"Al?"

The boy looked up as he heard his name called again, Draco scoffing and muttering something about everyone having to interrupt them to talk to the 'Potter clone'.

"James!" Albus called back as he saw his brother, leaping up and hugging the older boy. "Dad said you were here."

"He said you were with Malfoy," James countered, pulling back and glancing at Draco. "Where is he?"

"He's not here."

James raised a brow at the edge to the comment, but said nothing, turning to Draco. "Thank you for working with my little brother, Mr Malfoy."

"My pleasure."

They could tell it wasn't. "Are you okay, Al? I've been talking to Rose."

Of course he had. "I'm fine, really. Scorpius just decided not to come back."

"My son is a fool," Draco stated. "And probably stuck wallowing in guilt at the holiday home, rather than trying to take responsibility for his actions."

"If I could-!"

"James," Albus put a hand on his brother's shoulder. "Don't."

"But Al-!"

"It's not worth it," Albus turned to Draco. "We should get back to evacuating the students."

"And finding my wife."

Albus frowned. "Your wife?"

The man bristled, as if he didn't want to talk about it. "Astoria has gone missing."

"Why would she be here?"

"A threat that my father no doubt made true," Draco decided he'd had enough of that conversation. "Let's get moving. The sooner we finish here, the sooner I can get back to more important things."

The blond started striding down the hall again, James leaning close to his brother as he spoke. "He's kind of a dick, isn't he?"

Albus nodded and hummed in agreement. "Seriously though, you don't need to worry about Scorpius."

"Are you sure? If he hurt you, I'll hex him into next week."

"Really, I'm sure."

"Remember what I said about telling your father you broke into my house?" Draco called over his shoulder.

The two boys sprang apart in moments, Albus racing off after the man.

James turned around, a frown on his face, new mission in his mind.

I TOTALLY DIDN'T GET DISTRACTED FROM UPDATING BY WRITING ZACHXGINNY ONESHOTS but you can't blame me because they're magic and like a little drop of sunshine on a cloudy day and omg I love them so much D:

Anyway. This chapter was kind of difficult, because it's kind of like…transition chapter. And I hate those.

The end is near.

I can feel it.

R+R!

Thanks ~

Kivea R.

PREVIEW

"What on earth-?"

"We need to talk."

"What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?"