Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations all characters get in.

Note: Snow's newest song for this chapter is to the tune of 'Home On The Range'. Hope you enjoy.

Touché, Touché

With some arguing, name calling, and displays of extreme stubborn bullheadedness, they were still a Malfoy and a Potter after all, Scorpius and Albus were able to come up with ground rules that suited them both when it came to the 'neighbors with interest' idea. Their arrangement would remain between the two of them, and if they were somehow to be discovered they would shut their traps tight and refuse to discuss the matter with whoever thought it was their business to stick his or her nose in theirs. If either wanted to end the arrangement or get involved with someone else they were to say so first. They weren't dating they both agreed, but neither was the sharing type either. Who was on top would be rotated, but subject to negotiation if so desired by them both. The only other big rule, the small ones Scorpius had generated not ones Albus was planning to bother to remember, would be no sleeping in each other's beds until morning because that was far too couple-y in Scorpius's books, not to mention a good way to get caught by someone else.

Though that rule had already been broken three times before they had reached mid-September, Albus thought with a smirk as he sat with his back pressed up against a tree, watching Yue and Snow play around in the fallen leaves. Not that either had done it on purpose, or at least he hadn't, but now that school had actually started they were busy and sex was not only a really great stress reliever, but it could make you sleep like a baby after a hard day if done right.

And boy did they know how to do it right.

His smirk turning into a grin as he thought about the past couple weeks, Albus couldn't help but be amused as he imagined what the reaction would be from their students if they knew why their Potions instructor hadn't maimed them yet despite all their many comments about Snow. That might change in the future, but for now the Slytherin was handling the jokes made about his fluffy kitten fairly well.

Which is to say that he'd only assigned them incredibly hard potions and homework to do instead of outright cursing them the way Albus was pretty sure the Slytherin wanted to.

"Babysitting?"

Looking over in the direction of the voice Albus found his smirk again. "Yup. Come to check on your baby?"

Scowling, Scorpius seemed to be debating whether to leave or not, the Slytherin surprising Albus when he chose to walk over instead and take a seat beside him, the tree trunk wide enough for both of them. The other man's long blond hair was unexpectedly damp in its habitual low ponytail, suggesting Scorpius had recently showered despite the fact that it was in the middle of the day. For his part Albus had to work hard not to lean in closer to appreciate that fact, especially since there were a few droplets of water stubbornly clinging to that pale, lovely throat he'd become very fond of nibbling on.

Instead of applying his tongue to the Slytherin's skin Albus rather hurriedly gestured towards their pets, thankful when Scorpius looked over at their animals instead of at him. Yue's attention was currently on a bird that had landed nearby, while Snow all but vibrated with eagerness from his best friend's side.

"So…they're catching something to go with their tea?"

Albus chuckled, fairly sure that Snow was the reason that Yue hadn't been able to catch his own breakfast recently. "They're more into milk than tea, but bird goes with everything in their books. Most of their songs revolve around birds in some way or another."

"They sing." Scorpius repeated, his tone skeptical.

"Well yeah, what do you think Snow's doing when he makes those humming/purring noises? Your boy loves to sing, more than any kneazle I've ever met. He's even come up with his own stuff, which is impressive given how young he is. They're pretty cute, actually, I've listened to him a few times while I was in Animagi form."

"Okay…."

"Want to hear my favorite of his?" And not waiting for the other man's response Albus grinned and launched into the simple but pretty adorable in his opinion.

"Snow, Snow is my name,

And catching birds is my game,

I seldom catch one, but it's terrible fun,

And the skies are not cloudy today."

Lips twitching a little in amusement, he couldn't help it, Scorpius could only hope that Albus was the only human being who ever actually heard what his pet was apparently saying when he made those weird noises in his throat. Though it would be kinda sick if he could understand Snow the way the Gryffindor could. But that would require him to develop an Animagi form, and he'd always figured it must not be worth the effort to learn because if it was all the witches and wizards would want to adopt an animal form they could take on at will, right?

"So has he ever actually caught a bird yet?"

"Not without Yue's help, no."

"Figures."

)

Content to stay where they were and shoot the breeze until they had to head back into the castle to teach, Albus asked why Scorpius had really come over since they both knew that the Slytherin hadn't come looking for Snow. From what he could see Scorpius was fine with Snow going off on his own as much as possible, and never seemed worried when the fluffball didn't show up at night. Of course that was usually because Snow was off doing something with Yue or sleeping in Albus's rooms since the two never stuck around when he and Malfoy were in bed together. Which was really for the best for all concerned in everyone's books.

"Walking off my annoyance. Bad potions explosion that shouldn't have happened."

Wincing, Albus asked if anyone had ended up in the Medical Wing.

"No, thankfully. If I'd had to deal with even more whining than what the little brats were already doing over their messed up robes I wouldn't be out here talking to you. I'd be explaining to the Headmaster, again, why the students came crying to him about my evil, son of a Death Eater behavior."

Since there was no point in pointing out that it wouldn't kill the Slytherin to be nicer to his students Albus opted to ask who had caused the potions explosion in the first place.

"Silica Pettyfer."

"Silica? Seriously? That's unusual. I thought she was one of your best students, if not the best." She was one of the school's best students, come to that. The fifth year Ravenclaw was quite brilliant.

"She is. That's why I said it shouldn't have happened in the first place. Wouldn't have happened, if she hadn't deliberately been sabotaging her potion in the first place because over the summer she turned into a daft, boy obsessed twit." Getting angry all over again Scorpius cursed the fact that girls turned into such idiots when they got older. Why couldn't they just keep thinking boys had cooties and crap?

If he'd had stories to throw in the Slytherin's face about how Scorpius had dealt with his teenage hormones Albus would have, but even when they'd been teenagers the blond had always been remarkably self-composed. Depressingly so. There were also stories Malfoy could throw in his face so Albus wisely didn't go there, not wanting to mentally revisit those years.

"Why would she want to screw up in front of the boy she likes?"

"She's all gaga over Pendragon. Think about it."

"Ah. Gotcha." Trevor Pendragon was another fifth year Ravenclaw, the boy shaping up to be a world class arse as far as he could see. The boy thought he was the greatest thing since the invention of the wand and did not take kindly to anyone showing him up at anything. Silica was smarter that Pendragon, and therefore not someone her fellow Ravenclaw would ever want to hang out with, much less date. Little arsehole. "She'll wise up eventually."

"Yeah, after she's graduated and can't get a proper job because her grades were crap."

"It won't be that bad. She's a smart girl. I mean we all do stupid things when we're teenagers to try and get the notice of someone we like. I can't even tell you how many bruises I got showing off on my broom during Quidditch games." Paying for them now too, Albus thought ruefully, his body starting to show its wear already.

"And the way that idiot Chaser of yours kept feigning shoulder pain so you'd give her back rubs." Not that he'd seen it, but he'd heard about it around the school. The girl in question had had to see Potter with his tongue all but down a male Hufflepuff's throat before she'd accept that she didn't stand a chance.

"That too, though who doesn't appreciate a good shoulder massage? I give amazing ones."

Scorpius rolled his eyes.

"Questioning my abilities, are you? Well I'll show you. Come here in front of me." Albus flexed his fingers in preparation, which were always in good shape for a rub since he spent so much time petting and stroking his kneazle and now Malfoy's. Plus the unusually warm weather they'd been experiencing the past couple days meant that there was no jacket or coat to get in his way, so he'd be able to dig his fingers into all those tense muscle fairly well. Though he'd have preferred the Slytherin naked, naturally.

"Are you serious? Have you lost what mind you have? Anyone could pass by."

"And just assume that we're getting along better and our friends now. I mean everyone is talking about the fact that our pets are all but inseparable as it is, and let's face it, keeping a secret in this castle isn't exactly easy. Better people mistake us for friends than figure out the truth, right? And besides, you can't tell me you couldn't use a shoulder rub given how much tension you carry normally, much less when you're irked like now."

"No."

In a mischievous mood, as well as wanting to get his hands on his Malfoy for a bit of a warm up that would have the Slytherin thinking about him for the rest of the day, Albus kept his voice relatively conversational as he threw out the offer that if Scorpius were to let him give him a shoulder rub he'd let the blond have top position that night.

As bait he'd chosen well, Albus watching the other man mull over the offer without any real thought behind it, the answer obvious to both of them before Scorpius nodded in acceptance and got up and then sat down again in front of him, warning him or dire consequences if he did more harm than good. And the massaging was to stop if he spotted anyone coming.

"Oh ye of Slytherin faith."

Starting to roll his eyes in response to that Scorpius froze at the first touch of Albus's fingers as they settled on his shoulders, thumbs moving into his neck in a circular fashion that felt incredible, the sensations building and becoming more pleasurable as those strong, skilled fingers loosened the tense muscles in his neck and then moved lower to work into his shoulders.

Knowing how much better those fingers felt on bare skin was certainly part of the reason Scorpius found himself leaning into the digging fingers, wanting to get closer, though it was the way the Gryffindor leaned forward in turn and started whispering in his ear that had his quiet, mostly bitten off groans becoming unhampered moans. The images the Gryffindor was planting in his mind about the full body massage he could have later, in his bedroom naked…well he was only human, for Merlin's sake.

When Albus started describe going down on him while massaging his inner thighs…well the outside world ceased to exist to the point where Scorpius forgot all about their nearby pets and the possibility that someone could happen by and see him reduced to putty in Potter's hands.

)

Snow watched the bird fly away with a sign of resignation, well used to failure at this point. He was not good at stalking birds, much less catching them. Yue was way, way better than he was. His bestest friend in the whole wide world could catch anything. He was proud to have such a fierce hunter for a friend, though he knew he exasperated Yue sometimes cause he accidentally scared the other feline's prey away sometimes. Yue always forgave him though.

Turning his head to see what Yue was currently looking at Snow was delighted to see that his person had arrived while he'd been stalking his bird. Of course that also meant that maybe he'd seen him fail to catch the bird, but his person didn't look angry so maybe he hadn't. In fact, Snow realized with growing awareness, his person was looking very happy at the moment.

Getting closer to make sure his eyes weren't deceiving him Snow's eyes went wide as his ears picked up sounds that had looking over to Yue in confusion. "Is that how humans purr or is he hurt?" Cause it looked to him like Yue's person was stroking his person, and Snow knew from personal experience that Albus was the best petter ever. But still…

"Those are happy sounds." Yue assured him, doing his best to block out the mating groans assaulting his sensitive ears. There went his appetite, the kneazle thought bitterly to himself, though that was probably for the best with Snow around to scare away everything that was remotely edible for him.

Lifting his head in the hopes of catching the scent of something interesting to take his mind off of things, Yue was pleased to catch the familiar smells he associated with one of his favorite Hogwarts occupants. And while normally he would have warned Albus of the other man's approach Yue decided his person had brought this on himself and instead simply burst into speed as he ran towards Hagrid with Snow following as quickly as he could behind him.

"Well hey there, Yue, out and about with your wee kitten again I see."

In the past couple weeks Yue had gotten used to people referring to Snow like the partial kneazle was his offspring. When too many people crowded in on Snow the fluffball had a habit of running to him and hiding underneath him, sticking his head out between his front legs to observe from there what was going on. All the female students seemed to think that absolutely adorable for some reason and had made almost as many comments on how sweet it was as they had jokes about Profess Malfoy being stuck with a bit of fluff for a pet.

Since he liked Hagrid Yue didn't complain, letting himself be picked up and set on the half giant's shoulder as usual. He loved the view, though it was the chance to tower over everyone else that he liked best.

As he watched his friend picked up Snow as well, cradling the smaller feline in his hands instead of setting him on his other shoulder since Snow wasn't that good at holding on as yet.

Naturally Hagrid's attention soon shifted over to the two men still engaged in their mating dance, Yue feeling a little smug at the surprised curse that passed Hagrid's lips, the sound part horrified, part confused.

"Hello, Hagrid." Albus called over, having apparently preplanned an explanation to cover himself as his lie came out smooth. "I lost a bet."

Nicely done, Yue had to acknowledge, watching Snow's person shift away from Albus, the color on his high cheekbones suggesting that he was embarrassed to have been caught in such a state.

"A bet?" Hagrid repeated, his shoulders relaxing a little, though his tone was slightly suspicious.

"Yup. I thought Snow had a bird in the bag…and Scorpius bet me he'd lose it like always."

"Ah…the wee little one can't catch anything worth a damn." Seeming it buy the excuse Hagrid shook his head and with a friendly finger wave reminded Albus that he'd told him to never make a bet with a Slytherin. And for that matter, what would Albus have got if he'd won? He must have wanted it bad was the underlying message in Hagrid's voice.

"I would have had to actually set aside a valuable hour of my day for a week and spend it playing with that useless powderpuff."

Another good lie, Yue acknowledged, though that didn't surprise him. In his experience Slytherins were very skilled liars.

"I see." Brows bushing up even more than normal Hagrid gave the Potions teacher a hard look as he informed the Slytherin that he should be spending lots of time with Snow, who was a right sweet little thing and deserved better than to be ignored by his person. Persons were very important to kneazles, the bond somethin special. If he wasn't gonna take proper care of the wee fellow he should give Snow to Albus who knew how to raise him up proper.

It was a testament to how rattled Scorpius still was by the massage that he simply glared coolly at the school's game keeper before sarcastically assuring him that he'd keep that in mind.

And as an afterthought he got to his feet and demanded that Hagrid hand his pet over.

Obviously not happy to do so Hagrid reluctantly gave Snow to the Slytherin, Snow just as obviously thrilled to be in Scorpius's hands as he purred and rubbed his sides up against the long fingers of his person.

His person rarely ever wanted to play with him during the day! Yay!