Disclaimer: I only own the original characters and storyline. Everything else belongs to J.K. Rowling.
Usually, when Al woke up, he couldn't feel his toes, because in the middle of November at Hogwarts, no matter how many heating spells he cast the previous night, temperatures would always be just above freezing.
That morning was different though. That morning Al woke up warm. He felt the cocoon of heat that surrounded him shift slightly, his mind taking more time than his body to understand the situation.
"You're so fucking beautiful." A voice breathed as something wet traced the shell of his ear.
"Mmm." Al smiled, tilting his head back to receive Scorpius's kiss, which was as gentle as it was enthusiastic. "Don't call me beautiful." He pulled away to say, frowning slightly as his boyfriend's words registered.
Scorpius chuckled, "Not in front of other people." He compromised.
Al seemed to accept that, sighing and snuggling further into the arms that were wrapped around him.
And then suddenly, he was sitting up, back straight and eyes wide.
Scorpius let out a groan; his arms, which had been wrapped around Al when he had bolted upright, felt like someone had tried to take them out of their sockets and bloody hell, it hurt! "Al!" He whined, annoyed.
"What time is it?" Al asked, looking around for his wand and finally casting a tempus charm. 11:00 a.m. "Oh fuck." Al groaned, letting his head fall into his hands.
Scorpius frowned, "What is it? So we got up a little late. Why is that a problem?"
"Why is that a problem?" Al repeated incredulously, "We're stuck up here Scor!"
"No we aren't." Scorpius frowned, "We just need to...oh."
They couldn't use the Gryffindor Common Room to exit their room because at this time in the morning, it would be buzzing with activity.
Scorpius cast his eyes around the room, passing over then doubling back to the four brooms that lay in a heap by the door. He nudged his boyfriend who looked up at him, annoyed, and nodded to the brooms. Quickly catching on to Scorpius's line of thinking, Al got out of bed and went to inspect the brooms.
"I don't know." He said contemplatively, "They look like they're ancient. They can't possibly be safe."
"It's our only option." Scorpius pointed out, coming up behind him and curling his arms around Al's waist, "Unless you want to stay up here for the rest of the day. I admit I'm not entirely opposed to that idea." He nuzzled the back of Al's neck.
Al turned around in Scorpius's arms and frowned at him, "What about food? We would get hungry at some point. Not to mention, my family will completely lose their mind if they can't find me for a whole day."
Scorpius pouted, "I hate it when you're thinking rationally."
Al laughed at that, brushing a quick kiss to Scorpius's lips, "Around you, love, it's a fairly rare thing."
He picked up one of the brooms and tried a test flight around the room. The broom was a bit shaky, but otherwise it didn't seem to have suffered too much because of its years of neglect.
"It should be enough to get us down." Al said, nodding at Scorpius to take one of the remaining brooms. Then, both of them flew out of the room and had an impromptu race to the Black Lake. They landed in a heap of tangled limbs and laughter at the clearing by the lake.
"I won." Al said with a grin.
"Only because you cheated." Scorpius said, grinning as well. His eyes took in Al's shirtless form with desire so obvious that it delighted his boyfriend.
"You're a quidditch player. You ought to be able to concentrate enough while you're flying to ignore me removing my shirt." Al said with a wicked gleam in his green eyes.
Scorpius shifted so he was hovering over his boyfriend, his hands on Al's lean but perfectly defined chest, "I don't think I could ever ignore you removing your shirt, love." He bent down to kiss Al just as a throat cleared itself angrily.
Both boys stiffened, not having realised they had an audience. They turned their heads toward the sound and each of them had a different reaction to the person they saw sitting beneath one of the trees nearby. Justin Smith had obviously come out to the lake to be alone since not one of his friends was in sight.
Al's lips curved in a smug smile, because really, he couldn't have asked for a better way to show Smith that Scorpius was well and truly his. For good.
Scorpius on the other hand frowned, his eyes flashing with temper as he remembered the previous afternoon and the hour he had spent not knowing if Al had been hurt by the Hufflepuff boy.
Smith stood, his face turning red with anger at Al's obvious glee, his eyes swivelling to meet Scorpius's, "I honestly thought you had better taste than this." He hissed, gesturing at Al.
Scorpius raised a single brow before turning and blatantly checking Al out from head to toe. He glanced over at Smith, "Oh, I'd say my taste has improved drastically."
Smith's eyes narrowed, "You went from dating a perfectly respectable wizard from a noble family to dating the defective Potter-Weasley."
Scorpius didn't have to look at Al to know how Smith's words had affected him. He felt his boyfriend stiffen at his side and put an arm around him in the hope of being comforting, "I don't recall ever calling what the two of us did 'dating', Smith."
Smith growled angrily, "What the hell does he have that I don't? He's a sneaky, manipulative Slytherin with next-to-no friends! He's barely accepted by his family and for good reason!" Smith threw his arms up in the air, "A Potter in Slytherin?! What's the bet that whatever bit of Voldemort that was in Harry Potter got passed on to this one? He's a bloody freak!"
So livid was Scorpius that he forgot to worry about Al. Instead, he pulled out his wand and waved it in a silent spell that had Smith hanging ten feet in the air, pinned to the tree trunk. "I could let you drop now and not feel one iota of remorse for having disfigured you. In fact, I could kill you now without feeling the least bit bad about it." He waited for the fear to enter Smith's eyes before continuing, "I won't though, because I don't want to spend the rest of my life separated from Al and rotting in Azkaban." He lowered Smith five feet then let him fall the rest of the way, watching with some satisfaction as pain crossed the boy's face when he landed. Scorpius strode toward the Hufflepuff, grabbing him by the collar and bringing his face up so it was inches away from his own, "You utter so much as one more word, good or bad, about the man I love, and I swear I will hunt you down and make you regret it. Do you understand?"
Smith's eyes flashed with fear, surprise, pain and regret as he slowly nodded. Scorpius let go of his collar and turned to Al, freezing when he realised he was alone at the clearing with Smith. Al was gone.
Hello everyone :) It's so nice to see that all of you like this story!
Anyway, I'm putting up two chapters today. So, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year :D
~Living to Laugh and Love