Platform 9 ¾ was unusually empty as Scorpius passed through the brick barrier between the Muggle world and the Wizarding world.
"Not a lot of students came home for Christmas, it seems?" Draco mused, carrying his son's suitcase under his arm.
"It was actually a lot busier on the way back. Do you reckon a bunch of students are bunking off this term?" Scorpius asked.
"For their sakes, I hope not. I can only imagine the trouble they would get into if they did. Good thing you had me here with you to make sure you don't go wandering." Draco chuckled, patting his son on the back with his free hand.
A loose owl whizzed overhead the pair, tweeting excitedly at its newfound freedom as a fourth year girl chased after it, lunging in the air to catch her pet.
"Dad, I wouldn't miss this term for my life! With O.W.L.s getting closer every day I need to spend as many hours in the library as I can."
"You certainly get your work ethic from your mother. Don't get me wrong, I got good grades at Hogwarts but you wouldn't have caught me in the library the first day back after Christmas."
"No doubt you'd have been up to some dastardly scheme in the dungeons?" Scorpius teased and his father smirked half-heartedly.
"Quite right, quite right." Draco muttered absent-mindedly.
"Scorpius!" came the voice of Lily Potter over Draco's shoulder and Scorpius leant around his father to see Albus walking side-by-side with his sister, each carrying a suitcase of their own. Lily plopped her case down on the ground and pulled Scorpius into a tight hug, even though she still only came up to his chest. When she released him, Scorpius reached over to hug Albus who took a wary step backwards and smiled, almost apologetically. Although subtle, Draco caught this out the corner of his eye and furrowed his brow.
"Did you like the scarf Dad made?" Lily asked excitedly, "I helped!" she added when Scorpius nodded.
"Hi Mr Malfoy. Here you go," Lily handed two gold coins to Draco, "Dad says it's for the drinks you paid for last time."
"Thank you. I was almost missing these two Galleons." Draco commented sarcastically and Lily giggled in response then grabbed her suitcase and dashed onto the train.
"It was three Galleons, but Lily pocketed the third one." Albus admitted as almost a pseudo-apology on his sister's behalf.
"That's fine, I'm quite surprised she didn't keep them all and tell you she lost them. Gryffindors, you see, just as cunning as us but a bit too thick to execute a plan properly." Draco said, a certain Slytherin pride radiating from him.
"That is my sister you're talking about." Albus scolded.
"Yes, yes, I didn't quite mean it-" Draco began.
"It's alright, I would've kept them all." Albus said and Draco clapped him on the shoulder with an enthusiastic 'Good lad'.
"Should we get on the train? I know you have to get back to work, Dad." Scorpius intervened. Draco looked down at his pocket watch and nodded. He reached his arms out and hugged his son, whispering in his ear,
"Be patient with him, Scorpius."
Scorpius gave a slight nod to his father to show he had heard what he whispered and took the suitcase from under his father's arm, then turned and climbed up the metal stairs into the Hogwarts Express, with Albus just behind him. They found a compartment with the window facing onto Draco on the platform, who waved again when he saw them sitting down. Standing there in his black suit with darkened jade accents and smoothed out expression on his face, Scorpius couldn't help but admire his father for his poise and dignity, especially when his reputation around the Wizarding community wasn't exactly stellar.
"Where'd you think Lily disappeared to?" Albus asked, breaking Scorpius' train of thought.
"No idea, did any of her friends go home for Christmas?" Scorpius asked, scratching at the rubber lining the window frame.
"Probably. Yeah, you're probably right. I'll go find her once we've set off."
They sat for a few moments, Scorpius picking rubber out from under his fingernails and Albus kicking his left shoe on and off before the train jumped into motion and pulled slowly out of the station. Scorpius watched his father from the window, making writing gestures with his wand and he nodded back to him to let him know he would.
"I'm going to find Lily. I'll be back in a minute or two." Albus said and Scorpius waved him out of the compartment. He twiddled his thumbs together wondering why things were suddenly so strange between the two of them. Scorpius hadn't heard anything from Albus all Christmas, not even a Christmas card other than the one the Potter family sent him and his father.
Albus popped back into the compartment after a few more minutes of Scorpius' quiet contemplation. He was brandishing two Pumpkin Pasties and chucked one to Scorpius as he took his seat again.
"I made Lily buy us these. I threatened to tell Dad about the Galleon otherwise." Albus chuckled as he unwrapped his pasty, "The Trolley Witch still gives me the creeps."
"I know what you mean," Scorpius agreed, "The less said about that, the better."
The two boys sat eating their snacks with an uneasy silence still hanging over them. When they were finished Scorpius took out a Muggle fiction book he had found in the train station in London and Albus lay down on the seat and announced that he was going to have a little nap.
With Albus' faint snoring as white noise in the background, Scorpius settled in and read the book about Muggles falling in love with other Muggles and giving birth to little Muggles and buying things like 'toasters' and 'televisions', words he had only heard in passing during Muggle Studies. He could only imagine what kinds of fantastical items they were, although he vaguely remembered that a toaster had something to do with food.
As the train rounded a particularly sharp corner, the compartment rocked from side-to-side and woke Albus up with a jolt. Scorpius lowered his book and saw Albus rubbing his eyes and yawning.
"How long was I asleep?" he asked, squinting to look out the window, as darkness was beginning to pull in around them.
"I don't know, I lost track of the time." Scorpius replied. Albus gestured to his book.
"Good read?"
"Yeah, kept me busy." Scorpius concluded, having ploughed his way through the majority of the book.
"Good, good." Albus mumbled before yawning and stretching again, his eyes watering slightly. Scorpius put his book to one side and stretched his own legs out, feeling the effects of having sat still reading for so long.
"We should probably get changed into our robes now, Albus." Scorpius offered.
"Alright." Albus flicked down the blinds with his wand as Scorpius begun to unbutton his shirt. He caught his friend's eye for a moment and immediately dropped his gaze and took off his own jacket. Albus reached to pull off his t-shirt as Scorpius was slipping into his Hogwarts' shirt.
"Would you mind?" Albus asked, indicating a swivelling motion with his finger.
"What?" Scorpius asked, undoing the top button on his jeans.
"Could you…turn around please? While I change?" Albus asked again, trying not to look at his friend and feeling incredibly foolish for asking this.
"You've got to be kidding, Albus, you've gotten dressed and undressed in front of me a million times!" Scorpius said, astonished at his friend's sudden case of shyness.
"I just…please." Albus begged, clutching the chest of his t-shirt tightly. Scorpius sighed and turned around to face the carriage walls and it hit him square in the face why his friend had asked him to turn around. He was worried that Scorpius would…check him out. No wonder he had ducked out of hugging him on the platform. As Scorpius slid his jeans down he felt a sudden chill pull in around his body and he looked up to see the first flakes of snow start falling from the ceiling of the carriage. Scorpius turned his head slightly to see the reflection in the compartment window. Albus was standing just behind him, having removed his t-shirt, staring unblinkingly at Scorpius. After a moment of watching each other, Albus caught the reflection in the window and looked away ashamedly, the snowfall instantly vanishing. He turned his back to Scorpius and they both got changed like that in silence and spent the rest of the journey without a word passing between them.
As the train pulled into the station at Hogsmeade, both boys got up and as Albus reached to open the compartment door, Scorpius grabbed his wrist and stopped him.
"Albus, are we…okay?" he asked hesitantly. For a moment Albus said nothing and then, as though a switch had been flicked inside his head, he smiled broadly at his friend and said,
"Of course, mate, now come on, we better get to the carriages!" And with that, Albus dashed out of the compartment with Scorpius closely following behind. For a moment he had thought to ask his friend about the kiss they shared before Christmas but Albus hadn't given him a chance. He resolved to ask him once they reached the relative privacy of their dormitory.
As they approached the carriages, Scorpius once again noted how few students were on the train and he furrowed his brow in confusion. There were definitely many more students on the train to London so why had they not returned? He could just imagine the look on McGonagall's face when she realised that so many students had skipped out on Hogwarts. Albus and Scorpius got into a carriage occupied only by a lonely Ravenclaw girl, who smiled weakly at them. As they were waiting for more people to inevitably get in, the carriages burst to life without warning and took off up the familiar path to Hogwarts.
"Did even more people vanish getting off the train?" Scorpius whispered to Albus, who shrugged.
"I dunno, doesn't seem right, does it? People are missing."
As they got out of the carriage and headed into the Entrance Hall of Hogwarts, they realised why there were significantly less students on the Hogwarts Express.
CRACK.
CRACK.
CRACK.
CRACK.
Parents and students were apparating into the castle at every available space. The parents looked concerned while the students looked mildly impressed at seeing so many other people apparating into school.
"Guess McGonagall lifted the apparition ban for everyone?" Albus asked as they turned towards the corridor down to the dungeons.
"I thought she only did it for our parents. You don't reckon it's got something to do with Professor Gideon, do you?" Scorpius asked back, panicking slightly. Had the situation with Professor Gideon been more serious than McGonagall had told them? Was he more of a threat to the school than they knew?
"Dad said he was just a crack pot with a bit of a dark side. Nothing to worry about." Albus assured his friend, although he wasn't sure he was completely convinced himself.
Approaching the dungeons, the boys noticed a crowd gathering around the entrance to the Slytherin common room. Albus left Scorpius lingering at the back and elbowed his way to the front where Finlay was standing facing the crowd, with his arms spread across the open entrance.
"What's going on, Finlay?" Albus asked, feeling elbows digging into his back as other students tried to clamber to the head of the crowd.
"As I already told this lot, there'll be no more passwords for the common room this term. For the time being the passageway will be open." He explained as sounds of frustration and exasperation went up all around them.
"Who's gonna stop the Gryffindors from sneaking in here and hexing us at night?"
"What if someone wants to steal our stuff?"
"Don't we have a right to privacy?"
"Alright, that's enough. The Headmistress has informed me that to control security this term, all the common rooms will be open without passwords. So you've just as much chance of getting hexed in your sleep as they do. That's not an excuse to sneak in, mind you! I catch anyone in the other common rooms without permission and you're finished!" Finlay advised as several students started muttering excitedly at the prospect of visiting their enemies in Ravenclaw or Gryffindor unannounced.
Finlay sighed and turned on his side to allow the crowd to enter the common room. Albus waited to the side of the rush until Scorpius passed and he whispered in his ear,
"Seems counter-productive, doesn't it? Increase security by making the common rooms a free-for-all?"
Scorpius chewed his lip in thought, he certainly wasn't sure why McGonagall had decided to both lift the Apparition ban and open the common rooms. He would send an owl to his father the next morning to see if he had any news. To their surprise, the jinxes on the dormitory doors had also been raised and several – including the fifth year's one – were swinging open on their hinges.
Albus and Scorpius dumped their suitcases on their beds and sat down facing each other.
"Weird things are happening at school, eh?" Scorpius pondered.
"When aren't weird things happening here?" Albus countered with a grin.
"Albus, can I ask you s-something?" Scorpius' voice trembled slightly. Albus frowned in response and nodded hesitantly.
"Why didn't you send an owl over Christmas? We should talk about-"
"I was really busy. Doesn't matter now though, does it?"
"Is it because-" Scorpius paused, taking a deep breath to summon the courage to continue, "Because you kissed me?"
Albus' cheeks flushed a dark red and he suddenly looked away from Scorpius.
"Why did you do it? Why did you kiss me?" Scorpius asked, on the verge of tears.
"I don't know why I did it, Scorp! Can't we just forget it happened?" Albus yelled, still not meeting Scorpius' gaze.
"No, Albus, you kissed me. We can't forget that happened. Just tell me why!" Scorpius shouted back.
"I don't know, maybe I was feeling sorry for-" Albus started.
"Feeling sorry for me? How dare you!" Scorpius spat, feeling positively venomous towards his friend.
"That's not what I meant!" Albus tried to explain.
"Albus Potter, I definitely don't need your pity of all people!" Scorpius hissed.
The two sat there in silence, Scorpius trying to calm his breathing and Albus feeling tears well up in his eyes.
"I was feeling sorry for…myself." He admitted.
Scorpius wasn't sure how to respond to that. He tugged at the sleeve of his robe and tried to focus on the tiny, little stitches that lined the edges. Anything to distract himself from the thoroughly awkward silence that hung over them as the other Slytherin fifth year boys cautiously re-entered the dormitory, having fled immediately as the argument began. Thorne shuffled in nervously, his head hung low. He had been particularly careful not to draw attention to himself around Albus after their altercation, fearing Albus would be in the mood for a rematch. After a few more moments, Albus got to his feet, pulled the curtains around his bed, got changed into his pyjamas and climbed into bed.
Scorpius did the same and lay down, trying to calm his frantic mind to allow him some sleep. From the bed over he could hear Albus gently sobbing and so he got back up and crept over on his hands and knees. He pulled the curtain open and saw Albus clutching at his pillow, tears running down his face. Without hesitation, Scorpius threw his arms around his friend and held him tight until the tears stopped flowing.