Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations all characters end up in. Everything else belongs to someone else and that's the way of it.

Friends Are For

"-and then he cursed some more, and I thought he was going to throw the pretty flower plant in the fire, but he didn't. So now it's sitting by the window, and it makes the whole room smell really nice, so I like it a lot. Oh, and my person says that when he finds out who sent him the plant he's going to slip him or her a potion that will make them break out in exploding pustules. Or maybe make all their hair fall out if they're vain like someone named Louis. I don't think he likes this Louis person very well. Do you know him?"

"I do. He's…interesting." That was the nicest way Yue could think to put it as he walked down the currently deserted hallway with Snow. He actually did appreciate the uniqueness of Louis Weasley, the blond was an interesting human, but Yue did understand why some people, like Malfoy, weren't terribly fond of that particular Weasley.

Not that most people dared say anything against the blond for fear of the man's wrath, Yue thought with a smirk, not to mention the Gryffindor's huge husband and Louis's insane fan club. And remembering something Albus had said the day before Yue added that he was fairly sure the blond would be coming to visit in the near future, so Snow could possibly meet him then.

Wiggling his little body with joy, he loved making new friends, Snow asked if Louis was very pretty like the flowers.

"He would say so. And for a human he seems to have quite a few admirers. Or he did."

"What happened to him? Was he only cute as a kitten?"

"No, he just managed to ensnare a very large and powerful mate no one wants to compete with for him."

"What's a mate?"

"A mate is a special person. Like how we have a person that's ours, only better than that. A mate is the one we stay with for as long as we live, and have children with and love more than anyone else."

Eyes wide, Snow couldn't begin to imagine such a thing. But he was trying and frowning because he didn't like the idea that there was more than one person who was more special to Yue than him. Albus was okay, because he was Yue's person, as Scorpius was Snow's person, but… "Do you have a mate, Yue?"

"If I had one you'd know."

"Oh." Snow just caught himself before he said that that was good.

"Yue!"

Both felines jolting a little at the sound of Yue's name being called, the two turned around to see two people walking towards them at a leisurely pace. One was blond and quite stunning, almost like a female in Snow's opinion, while the other had brown hair on his head and his cheeks, his eyes so very kind and absolutely lovely as he smiled at them.

"Hugo!" His whole demeanor changing Yue ran like the hounds of hell were after him in the direction of the man who had called out his name, Hugo crouching down to scoop Yue up as soon as the kneazle had reached him.

And standing back up again the man called Hugo cuddled the feline against his throat while Yue rubbed his head against the man's jaw and purred madly to show his love and affection. "How have you been, My friend? I hear and see that you have a new friend as well. Is this Malfoy's pet?"

Still in a state of shock, he'd never seen his bestest friend shower anyone with affection like this before, Snow could do nothing but stand there and stare at the man.

"Malfoy, stuck with a little powderpuff for a pet. I love it!" Laughing in delight Louis reached over to give Yue's head a pat before walking over to scoop Snow up, loving how small and fluffy the creature was. "Maybe I should get one of these little guys. Think my sweetie would go for it?"

"While I have every confidence in your ability to talk your husband into things…are you sure it's wise to get a pet he could squash accidentally so easily?"

"Good point."

Snickering at that, Yue met Snow's gaze with as much of a smile on his face as a feline could manage. "This is Hugo, Albus's cousin. He's one of the best humans I've ever had the pleasure meeting. You'll really like him too. Even your person likes him, though he probably won't admit it out loud."

"You like him more than me."

Blinking in surprise, and not having expected that response, Yue took in the sad pout on the other feline's face with more than a little shock. And while his first instinct was to shake his head at the little one's childish behavior, Yue could see that Snow was genuinely hurt at the idea that Hugo might be more important to him than Snow.

"I like him differently from you. He's family, like a littermate." That wasn't exactly true, but it was probably the only way Snow could understand what he meant. "You're my friend."

"Oh." Snow wasn't sure how to take that, especially since this Hugo person looked nothing like a kneazle to him, so how could they be littermates? Snow mostly remembered his own littermates and they'd looked a lot like him. Maybe this one was just a really odd shaped runt? If so he was oddest looking kneazle Snow had ever seen. Though he hadn't seen many so maybe that was it.

Still… "We're bestest friends though, right?"

Now Yue really had to work at it not to shake his head. "Yes, we're friends."

Beaming, Snow purred happily in the one called Louis's arms, enjoying the ear scratching he was getting now. He was still Yue's bestest friend, and that was all that mattered.

)

Knowing that Scorpius would blow a gasket if he knew that Louis had basically commandeered Snow for the afternoon to pet and cuddle with, Albus could only hope that the Slytherin never found out. He knew how sensitive Snow was to being scolded after all, not to mention the fact that Scorpius would blame him for exposing Snow to Louis in the first place. But Snow seemed to love all the attention he was being given and Albus figured the little guy deserved all the affection he could get since Malfoy definitely wasn't the cuddly type unless he was unconscious. Then he could be pretty damn cuddly.

"So why did you call in the calvary? Or us for that matter, since Hugo won't be much help if this involves mischief and mayhem." Louis sent Albus an inquiring look from the chair he was lounging on, Hugo sitting with Albus on his couch with Yue sprawled out on the man's thigh.

Albus would have been jealous, but he got that Hugo was special.

"Actually, I need to consult with you about your Slytherin taming skills."

While their mutual cousin raised an eyebrow Hugo pointed out that he didn't exactly have much expertise with that. It wasn't that he did anything that kept the majority of the Slytherins from leaving him alone. They just did for some reason.

"True, but you made Alexei Dolohov want you and that takes serious skill unless you're a snitch."

"Alexei doesn't want me. You think he wants me? Why? Did he say something? What did he say, Louis?" Ears practically pricking up Hugo's eyes lit up at the idea that his Quidditch obsessed former classmate might be interested in him.

"Sweetie, he's always wanted your fine Weasley ass." Louis smirked at Hugo while Albus nodded in agreement. "He just refuses to admit it or make a move because he's a stubborn prat."

"Are you sure?"

"We're sure." His two cousins told him in tandem.

A moment of consideration and then Hugo nodded in a definitive manner. "All right then. I'll take care of that tonight then. Which Slytherin do you want to tame, Al? The most obvious one would be Malfoy since you wouldn't be consulting us if it was a student you were having problems with. Are you trying to be friends with him or sleep with him?"

While Louis sputtered at the very idea of Albus being interested in Malfoy, Albus smiled at Hugo. "I'm already sleeping with him, which you two need to keep to yourselves, FYI. And what I want is a shot at dating him, but I've no clue how to talk him into giving me a chance there."

Since Louis was still sputtering Hugo asked what Albus had tried already, knowing his cousin well enough to know that he would have made a couple attempts at least before calling them in as reinforcements.

Briefly Albus outlined how he'd gotten Scorpius into his bed in the first place, since that was very much a factor in all this, leading them through his interactions with the Slytherin s all the way up to the chess matches and the fact that he'd left the blond flowers on his desk, which had not gotten him a good reaction since Malfoy apparently intended to cause the sender physical harm when he eventually got ahold of him.

"Are you mad?! Why would you want to date him? He's Malfoy!"

"He is fairly good looking." Hugo pointed out reasonably. "Especially since it looks like he won't be inheriting the Malfoy family's receding hairline problem."

Snorting with laughter, Albus had to shake his head at that, especially when he imagined what Scorpius would say if he heard someone say something like that. Not to mention the man's facial expressions. Priceless.

"This is not a laughing matter, Albus. The fact that you're sleeping with him is…why am I the only one who sees what an epically bad idea this is? Even if he was interested in dating you, and that's a really big if since this is Malfoy we're talking about here, there's still his family to consider here. Your family too, for that matter, considering the fact that he and James get along about as well as two wet cats stuck in a sack. Hell, it's not even his family or the fact that he's a Slytherin that's a problem. It's his…what about him could you possibly like besides his looks and the skills he must have in bed since you're trying to hatch this utterly mental scheme?!"

"I just do. He…fascinates me. I want to be with him in bed and out. Badly." Albus gave them a shrug. "I know he can be mean and nasty and about as friendly as a cactus…but he's interesting and oddly funny at time. Not to mention adorable without meaning to be, though don't ever tell him I said that. Basically I can't explain it except I've never felt like this about a guy before, and I want to see where it goes and to hell with what everyone else might think about it."

"And you really shouldn't talk since you're married to a Goyle and just told me that I should proposition Alexei Dolohov, who is just as bad as Malfoy if not worse, Louis."

"I didn't tell you to proposition him!"

"You told me he wants me. Of course I'm going to proposition him. Who wouldn't, knowing that he wanted them?"

Actually Albus and Louis were both pretty sure that most people wouldn't proposition the infamously bad tempered Slytherin even then, but Albus wasn't about to say so. He left that to Louis.

"You can't hit on Dolohov! Are you two trying to give me stomach ulcers?!"

Both men wincing at the high pitch Louis had hit at the end there, the two shook their heads automatically when he pinned them down with hard glares, one after another, while Yue hissed over the assault on his poor ears. Snow had squeaked and put his paws over his.

Pointing that out to his cousin Albus wasn't surprised when Louis immediately apologized and started to lavish the cat with attention in between shooting them more death glares for traumatizing him with their plans for the currently oblivious Slytherins they intended to seduce.

"Maybe I should have just asked Rorake for advice instead."

"He did land Louis. The man must have serious seduction skills."

Louis gave them looks that stated they'd only further cemented his belief that they'd gone mad with that statement. "I seduced him, thank you very much. If I'd waited for him to realize that we were meant to be together for the rest of our existence he'd have ended up proposing to me on his death bed."

It was on the tip of Albus's tongue to point out that Rorake might have done precisely that just because Louis was just that high maintenance and bossy at times, but given the shocks he'd already delivered Albus figured it was best not to push the blond any further.

"So since you managed to get him to put him to put a ring on it you're obvious the Slytherin dating expert. Or do I have to ask someone else for advice?"

Normally Hugo would never encourage someone to do something just to annoy someone else, but in this case he wanted to help Albus out and calm Louis down at the same time. "You should give him advice just because it will drive James mental when he finds out."

James had spent a great deal of their childhood teasing Louis about what a high maintenance girl he could be, and while the teasing had all been in good fun, and James hadn't done it to be mean, there was no question that Louis rarely missed a chance to take the redhead down a peg either. Helping Albus hook up with Malfoy would definitely drive James up the wall from the mental images alone, much less having to see Malfoy and be nice to him at family gatherings.

"I'll do it."

)

Heading back from the library with a number of books tucked under one arm, his other hand loosely held his wand at his side, Scorpius continued to curse the fact that he'd felt like someone had been stomping over his grave for the last couple hours. This strange sense of foreboding was annoying the bloody hell out of him, especially since Scorpius couldn't imagine what he had to worry about. This was Hogwarts after all, and the odds of him being attacked were fairly low. Sure there were students that stupid around, that went without saying, but it was a Sunday and they should all be busy doing the homework they'd put off until the last minute. Not plotting their future suicides.

But it was that feeling that something that wasn't quite right was coming his way that had Scorpius tensing up when he heard the sound of someone entering the hallway he was currently walking down, the new set of unfamiliar footsteps inspiring a bad feeling that had Scorpius turning to get a look at the man in question.

Huh.

He and Rorake Goyle had been roommates for the seven years they'd been at Hogwarts together and they'd gotten along fairly well despite their disinterest in being friends as their fathers had once been before the Battle of Hogwarts. Personally he hadn't been interested in making friends, and Goyle had only cared about his art and being left alone with his sketchpads. But if he had wanted a friend Scorpius probably would have picked the oversized, quietly observant and intelligent man walking towards him.

Even if the man had been insane enough to marry Louis Weasley.

"Rorake."

"Scorpius."

"What are you doing here?"

The faintest hint of a smile. "Louis and Hugo came here to visit Albus, and now they're all apparently quite pissed and needing to be picked up."

Having had experience with a drunk Albus before, that was how they'd gotten into their present arrangement in the first place after all, Scorpius thought that he was more than happy to let the other man deal with them. Then he considered the possibility that Albus might hit on Goyle while under the influence, and that made him scowl and announce that he was coming too.

"Oh?"

"I want to see what Hugo is like drunk."

"Are you sure about that? He's even more cute and adorable."

Scorpius almost stated that that couldn't possibly be possible, but he caught himself just in time. "Now you've just made me more curious."

The look in Rorake's eyes reminded Scorpius that the man rarely missed a thing, and often saw things that everyone else would miss. And the man did know him better than most, having essentially lived with him for those seven years minus the summers. But since there was no way the man would jump to the conclusion that Scorpius wanted to come so that he could see and keep an eye on Albus, Scorpius figured that he was safe. He'd just have to hope that Albus didn't give them away when he…

Oh crap. That would total happened, and then he'd have to perform memory spells on all of them so that they didn't know that he'd actually lost his mind to the point where he had invited a Potter into his bedroom. And Rorake wasn't someone he wanted to tangle with, especially when you added Louis Weasley to the mix. The blond was vicious when crossed, not to mention the fact that Albus probably wouldn't like the idea of him erasing the memories of his relatives, even for a good reason.

Deciding that he couldn't risk it, especially since it stood to reason that Louis would protect his husband from any advances his drunk cousin might make, Scorpius inclined his head in a nod. "Actually, nevermind. Have fun collecting your Weasleys."

"Okay." A brief pause. "Are you alright?"

Surprised, Scorpius asked him why he was asking.

"Something's off about you. And normally you're pretty unruffable."

That much more surprised that Rorake would care enough to ask, Scorpius was more than a little mortified to realize that he wanted to ask the other man if he might want to get a drink sometime just so that he could have someone to talk to about what was going on with Potter. And yeah Rorake would be his first choice if he decided he wanted a friend, but still…what the fuck was Potter doing to him, making him so weak in the head?

What had he done to deserve this, honestly?