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

Asking Your Opinion

Okay, he got the not flexible part because he wasn't remotely interested in sports and though he was in decent shape Scorpius knew that he was nowhere near as limber or fit as Al or the football playing bastard. It was the bottom thing that confused him for a moment as he tried to figure out what the man was saying about him. But the fact that Al obviously didn't want to discuss this, combined with the topic under discussion, had the light going on over the Slytherin's head so that the man's grey eyes darkened as he crossed his arms in front of him as he glared down at the Gryffindor.

Shoulders hunching Al figured it was a good thing that Scorpius had rubbed the cream in first since he might need to move quickly very shortly. "I don't mean that in a bad way." Though obviously that's how the blonde had taken it. "It doesn't make you less a man or anything. Heck, I figure I'll at least give it a try one of these days. I just meant you're not the aggressive, need to be on top sort." Now he was perilously close to babbling but couldn't seem to stop. "And maybe I'm wrong, I probably am now that I think about it. I don't know why I considered that one of the three reasons. I shouldn't have said it that way. I should have said-."

The rest of Al's longwinded spiel was cut off when Scorpius slapped a hand over the man's mouth to shut him up.

"I'm as alpha male as you, Albus Potter."

Al nodded his head in complete agreement.

"Don't ever suggest otherwise, understand me?"

Again he nodded since his mouth was still covered. That he was finding the man's reaction strangely cute and adorable were thoughts he knew to keep to himself anyway. And it wasn't like he didn't agree with the man, because he did. That Scorpius wasn't the sexually aggressive type didn't change or speak less of the blonde's manhood as far as he was concerned. It was just a personality trait, like the fact that he liked to cuddle as much as any girl.

It probably didn't help that he was usually on top when he fantasized about them making love, so he'd always pictured Scorpius in that way.

The fact that whenever he'd dreamt about the two of them making love he'd been on the bottom was at the back of Scorpius's mind, but he pushed that aside with true Malfoy skill. It was one thing for him to imagine that scenario and another thing entirely when they were discussing reality. Especially after the week he'd had.

Gently wrapping his fingers around the pale wrist attached to his present muzzle Al moved the man's hand away from his mouth, turning it so that he could kiss the back of it. "No more impinging on your masculinity, promise."

"Don't kiss my hand like I'm a girl!"

"Opps."

The long week he'd had weighing on him like a ton of bricks, Scorpius scowled at the man who was making things that much more trying without even trying. "For your information I'm going to be on top when I find someone…so there."

Having always suspected that Scorpius intended to marry a woman who met his family's approval and continue the Malfoy line Al supposed the other man was right about that. He would have felt sorry for the woman Scorpius would marry if he weren't obligated to hate her for the rest of his existence since she'd have the man he wanted most.

And since thinking about the future without Scorpius was depressing as hell Al hid his thoughts behind humor. "Yup, and then you and your brother or sister to be will do away with any question about the Malfoy ability to reproduce and multiply."

Opening his mouth to make it perfectly clear that bringing up that conversation, which had possibly played a part in his parents' marital discord, was not a good idea, Scorpius closed it again as another thought occurred to him. One that he hadn't thought of before because he'd been too busy worrying about his parents to consider what having a sibling meant. How that changed things he'd thought unchangeable.

When his mother had her baby he'd no longer be the only heir to the Malfoy line.

He'd have a brother or sister who could provide his parents and grandparents with heirs.

It didn't have to be him. He wouldn't have to get married.

"Uhm….Sweetie? Are you okay?" Sliding forward so that he could get a closer look at his former man Al waved a hand in front of the Slytherin's face. "Please say something. You're worrying me here. I can't tell if you're breathing or not. Please tell me that you're breathing and that you haven't suffered a stroke or brain aneurism in front of me."

"Did you…just call me Sweetie?"

"Ahhhhh…No?"

"I'm gonna go now before you say anything else I'll have to yell at you for." Scorpius got out, knowing that he needed to be alone with his thoughts. "See you in the morning."

Letting the man go since he knew better than to think he could stop the man when he was determined to leave him, Al wished the man good night once more and watched as the blonde scooted back across the bed and let himself out.

"What did I say?" He wondered aloud, rewording the statement as he answered his own question. "What didn't I say? I can't believe I called his sweetie. I took way too many footballs to the head today."

And on that note Al turned his attention to settling back into his bed, feeling a lot better body wise but even more churned up when it came to his emotions.

How much it sucked to be a teenager, let him count the ways.

)

After a night of trying to figure things out on his own Scorpius was ready to admit that he needed a second opinion. The problem was that there really was only one person he could get an opinion from. He couldn't go to Al because it involved him, and he'd sooner eat a bat than ask Wimbledon for personal advice. Domi was not someone he wanted to owe a favor to and Christopher would require the werewolf to write all his answers out since he didn't understand sign language. That left Gellert as his only option. Which was depressing, and not just because he couldn't see how getting the man's point of view would help him in the long run. He might not get Gellert's mind and thought process a lot of the time, but he did get the fact that the man's view point when it came to relationships and family was seriously skewed.

But the man was all he had.

Like he needed one more reason to be depressed about his life.

Desperate times called for desperate measures though, and Scorpius found himself seeking Gellert out the next day, relieved to find the blonde alone in a corner of the school's library. Walking over he took a seat across from his roommate, grateful that their peers avoided their headmaster's grandson and therefore weren't sitting nearby. "Can I talk to you for a few minutes?"

Looking up from the book he'd been reading Gellert's answer was to the point. "Albus is meeting me here in approximately ten minutes. You have until then to talk. Less if whatever you want to talk about doesn't interest me in the slightest."

"You're all heart."

The sound Gellert made in the back of his throat made it plain what he thought of that sarcastic statement.

"Okay, so it's like this. You already went through all the reasons Al and I broke up with him and you're the smartest man I know, so I figure that you've at least guessed some of the other reasons, like the fact that until recently I was the only Malfoy around to carry on my family's line. But I'm going to have a brother or sister in the coming year and unless fate decides to be really twisted and cruel that sibling will be more than capable of having children with their future spouse. It would be wrong though, to dump that kind of responsibility onto him or her, right?"

"Why? I'm expecting Tristan to provide my mother with the grandchildren she wants."

Normally Scorpius would have pointed out that that was a little unfair to Tristan, but it really was for the sake of humanity that Gellert didn't reproduce. Young, highly impressible minds should be kept away from him at all times unless supervised.

So instead he continued with his earlier train of thought, debating out loud how it would probably be wrong of him to expect his future brother or sister to take on the responsibility and pressure that came with being the Malfoy heir. It would be selfish of him, especially since he was the oldest and therefore it was his duty, wasn't it, to do what needed to be done regardless of his own feelings. And besides, he argued, even if being a heir wasn't a problem there was still the undeniable fact that the majority of his family didn't like Al and therefore what was the point of debating the matter in the first place?

Marking his place in the book Gellert closed it, brown eyes clearly conveying the fact that it was in the other blonde's best interest to shut up now. And when Scorpius did so Gellert sighed and did what needed to be done so that his roommate would leave him the hell alone.

"Look, you want to know what you should do? You need me to push you in the right direction because you don't have the personal fortitude to make the decision on your own? For Merlin's sake, Domi has more balls than you do sometimes." Seeing the protests about to spew out of the other man's mouth Gellert pointed a threatening finger in his roommate's direction, effectively shutting him up once more. "Fine. You want an opinion? I'll give you an opinion. My opinion is that you know what you want to do but you don't have the guts to do it because you're scared. You're scared because you know that no matter what road you pick you're going to pay a price and you're going to lose people. People who matter to you. And they matter in different ways which makes it damn hard to pick sides, especially since you know in your gut that you shouldn't have to pick sides in the first place. But that's life and it sure as hell is never fair. Trust me. So let's look at your little dilemma at its most basic, shall we? Forget Potter, forget your yet to be named sibling, forget what society will have to say on the matter."

And since he didn't trust the other man to be able to do that Gellert shoved the information down Scorpius's throat, hoping for both their sakes that the idiot absorbed at least some of what he was wasting his valuable time on.

"At the bottom level, the level you have to build on, you have two basic choices. To be true to yourself and your nature and live your life as a gay man, or be the man the majority of your family expects you to be and play the straight man. Since it's the second road you're currently on we'll start there. You choose to play the straight man, marry some woman your family picks out for you. The pureblooded woman who, provided she's not as dumb as a troll due to serious inbreeding, is going to know that she's married to a man who desires other men and who has to force himself to sleep with her in order to produce a heir. Neither of you will enjoy the sex, you'll hate each other, and she'll blame you for ruining her life which let's face it, would be entirely justified unless you plan to tell her you're gay before you marry. You won't cheat on her since you're too honorable for that, so you won't be getting properly laid and you'll have to live in a world with sexually appealing men you won't be able to touch, same for her provided she's just as honorable. Should you have a child he or she will know, provided the inbreeding isn't too bad at this point, that his or her parents are miserably unhappy, and should it figure out the reason will likely blame his or herself for the situation you all find yourselves in. And since you'll love your child or children, you'll hate yourself for hurting them that way, just as you'll feel guilty for effectively ruining your unknown wife's life too. You'll end up like so many Malfoy men before you, filled with misplaced anger, hate, and a terrible loneliness that will slowly consume you as the years go by."

Gellert took a quick breath and then continued what he'd started. "So that's what you'd face all for the privilege of remaining a Malfoy in good standing. Living that life so that your paternal grandfather, a bigoted, small minded, hate filled man will call you his grandson. Nevermind all the war crimes he committed and the fact that he basically destroyed your father's life by recruiting him as a Death Eater. What he thinks of you matters to you. So does your paternal grandmother's, a woman who at the very least was complacent in the murders of her cousin, brother in law, niece and nephew in law, and who has spent decades ignoring her only living, non Malfoy relative in spite all of all her sister's lost because the man she married was a Muggleborn. And let's not forget your self-loathing and hate filled father, who recently kicked his pregnant wife, your mother, out of your family home because of all the self-loathing he feels towards himself because unlike your grandfather, he at least has the self-awareness to know what he is and that he doesn't deserve your mother, hence his willingness to believe she's found someone else. He doesn't see himself as worthy of the happiness he has with you and your mother so he's just been waiting for the other shoe to fall with his own father fueling his fears by criticizing him, his marriage, and his raising of you every chance he gets. Criticisms he has to make because seeing how much better you turned out in comparison to your father only shoves it in his face how many mistakes he made with Draco."

"And as icing on the cake, in case this was your fallback plan, there is indeed an afterlife, but if you assume that all your problems will just go away after you die then think again. You'll have spent a lifetime living a lie and the man who was meant for you, Potter or someone else, well he'll have had a lifetime too. A lifetime he might have spent loving someone else. Someone he'll want to spend his afterlife with once they both pass on. And FYI, I have it on good authority that without the love of your life heaven can't be called heaven."

Opening his book once more Gellert opened it to the page he'd marked, turning his attention back to his reading while he delivered his last, finishing blow. "So in the end your choice should be clear, Malfoy. Don't make your choice based on Potter, your family, or what anyone else thinks because most people are stupid. Doing anything because others want you to is the height of stupidity if it's the opposite of what you want to do. It's your life to live or ruin, and in the end it will be on your shoulders what you get from this life and possibly the next. Obviously you know what I think, and if you don't I'll shove you out the nearest window for wasting my time. Now get the hell out of Albus's seat."

"I think he's in shock."

Turning his head Gellert met the woman's gaze and then switched his attention to the man sitting so pale and silent across from him. "You could be right."

Walking over to stand beside her stunned son Astoria gave his hair a loving stroke before she glanced in Gellert's direction again. "Remind me never to make you angry at me."

Eyes on his book Gellert's response was a tad perturbed. "I miss the days when that was just common sense. I really do."

If she weren't worried about her eldest child's emotional and mental state Astoria would have asked the blonde to elaborate. Instead of doing that she turned her attention to trying to get some sort of response from her son, who appeared to know she was there but seemed unable to verbally respond to her. She'd caught most of what her son's roommate had said to Scorpius and it had certainly been…thought provoking. Right up there with the conversation she'd had the night before with Andromeda after Flora had gone to bed. She'd learned a lot about the relationship her son had had with Harry Potter's son from her husband's aunt and Teddy and Victoire had added more pieces to the puzzle when they'd joined the discussion.

Which was why she'd come to see her son.

"What happened to him?" Albus asked as he joined the trio, as surprised by Scorpius almost catatonic state and he was by the unexpected appearance of the blonde's mother.

"He asked for my opinion."

"Ah." Since there was no way to tell how long it would take Scorpius's brain to recover from the beating it had no doubt just taken Albus decided that it would probably be in everyone's best interests if he and Gellert vacated the scene so that Astoria could take care of her son.

So he turned his attention to his lover and suggested they head out to find somewhere else to sit, Gellert agreeing since he didn't want to be around when Scorpius recovered.

The man might want to talk about his feelings some more after all.