Since finding out about Scorpius' new relationship, Albus was dreaming of him more. He couldn't get the boy out of his head. Most of the time, it was just memories that played behind his eyelids. Happier times in their lives. And that wasn't so bad. In those dreams, Albus could find something beautiful. He wanted to live in those dreams and never come back.

There were also, of course, the…'wet' dreams. Half the time those were memories, but the other half…. The other half were fucking fantasies that had him waking at full attention. He'd taken to sleeping with his curtains drawn just to avoid humiliation. And to give himself the comfort of being able to take care of himself before he had to start his day around the source of his discomfort.

Worst of all were the nightmares. They weren't much worse than their present situation, which probably made them all the more terrifying. It seemed most mornings he was either waking hard, nostalgic, or in a cold sweat. It was a rare night if he didn't dream of Scorpius in some respect or another.

Which wasn't all too terrible, Albus had to rationalize. Especially considering he never saw his friend anymore. If Scorpius wasn't off studying or attending some class Albus had no desire for, he was with Louis. And sometimes they were studying – his Slytherin cousin took a lot of those difficult classes Scorpius loved. Most often, however, they were snogging.

Like right now. And they weren't all too subtle about it, either.

It didn't take long for Louis to be over whatever fright he had about coming out. They were public soon enough and Louis just loved to tell anyone who would listen about how they got together. For the first time he could remember, Albus was actually jealous of their prefect status. And of the alone time that came with their patrols.

Apart from those patrols, their favorite place to snog was the library. Being in different houses, they didn't have the luxury of taking over a corner of the common room. And Albus, needing about ten different books for his History of Magic research paper, didn't have the luxury to avoid them. They always insisted upon sitting at his table, even though he was obviously ignored the whole time. The whole ordeal was so frustrating, Albus had taken to timing how long they could go just to keep himself somewhat distracted.

This time was a record. They'd been snogging for an hour and forty-two minutes and counting, their own research papers ignored once again. Albus was certain they didn't realize the due date was the next day. Or that neither of them had really started, whereas he had just finished his last sentence. Looking up just barely, Albus snuck another peek at the couple. Just a brief one, because if he stared he found himself growing irritable. "Well…I think I'm out for the night," he stated loudly, causing the pair to finally pull away from one another.

Sort of. Scorpius pulled back just enough to set his teeth to Louis' jawline while fixating his gaze on his friend. "You're done?" Louis asked on a giggling gasp.

"It's funny what you can accomplish when you're not snogging someone's brains out for two hours every night," Albus snorted, snapping his borrowed books closed one by one. "Now if you'll excuse me…I'm actually going to get some sleep tonight while the two of you are rushing to finish your papers." He gave Scorpius a look that spoke louder than words could for them. Trying to remind him not to lose his good grades to his teenage libido.

"Uh…yeah," Scorpius said with a shake of his head. Looking like he was trying to reset himself on a smarter path. "Yeah, Al's right. We should probably call it a night, Lou. I haven't really even started my essay and…and I don't want to fall behind already." Gently, like he was afraid he might hurt Louis' feelings, he leaned in and planted one more kiss to his boyfriend's lips. "I'll see you for breakfast, yeah?"

After a few more gaggingly sweet promises and goodbyes, Albus and Scorpius were finally heading back to their dorm room. Louis had, begrudgingly, gone the other way and Albus couldn't help but be silently grateful for his absence. "You're going to lose your rank at the top of our year if you miss assignments for him," Albus warned as soon as they were out of earshot.

"You don't think I missed assignments to fool around with you?" Scorpius teased back. He didn't seem fazed in the slightest by Albus' irritated tone. And that only caused him further irritation.

"No, I don't actually think you did. You got excellent marks all throughout last year. Even while we were dating."

Scorpius shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets. "I have it handled, Al. I don't need you mothering me. I've done fine enough without one for fourteen years." Leaving the air tense with emotional magic behind him, Scorpius rushed off ahead towards the common room.

They'd never fought before. Six years of friendship and a year and a half of that dating, they hadn't had so much as a small row. Albus rationalized they were about due and allowed Scorpius his space. He couldn't explain his anger, anyway. Not while still keeping their friendship in tact. So he let it go and vowed to be as friendly as possible in the morning.

After he'd had a good fantasy-driven wank to get Scorpius out of his system for another day.