Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and all the situations said characters find themselves in. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy.

Spying On Bonds

Neither Albus nor Scorpius knew why Phoenix was in such a pouty mood, but it was so unlike their son's usual upbeat mood that they alternated between eating their breakfast and watching him like a potion made by a Longbottom. As in something that was guaranteed to go off and cause mass destruction when it did, it being only a matter of time. In this case they couldn't exactly clear the room for safety reasons, and no matter what they tried to do to put a smile on Phoenix's face the boy sat in his high chair, his little arms crossed in front of him wearing a grouchy look that did not bode well for them.

"Maybe he's just homesick for Hogwarts? He wouldn't remember this place after all this time."

Hoping that that was it, Albus suggested that they should get a big box while they were finishing his Christmas shopping to build Phoenix a box house that he could play in while they were in London. Nothing cheered their boy up quite like a cardboard box to play with, which sounded really weird when spoken outloud, but it made them both smile so Albus shrugged that off as worth the silliness. Now if only Phoenix would smile too…

"Good morning, Tomo is here!" The loud declaration was followed by the elf herself all but skipping into the dining room, though her sunny smile of greeting dimmed a little as soon as she got a look at Phoenix's face. That neither teenager could tell her what was wrong with the little master had her hurrying over to stand on a chair so that she could lean in close to look him over for herself. Like Scorpius and Albus she couldn't find any visible reason for his bad mood, but when she outright asked him Phoenix just looked in Albus's direction for a moment before loudly banging his spoon against the side of his chair.

"Okay, what did YOU do, Albus Severus Potter?"

Flinching at his boyfriend's tone of voice, not to mention the very Slytherin look he was now getting from the blonde, Albus shrugged his shoulders, genuinely mystified as to what he might have done to earn that brief but definitely annoyed look their son had just given him.

"Won't you tell Tomo what's wrong, Phoenix? Please tell Tomo so she can scold your mummy for you."

While both teenagers pondered the question of whether or not the house elf would actually scold Albus or not Phoenix seemed to consider Tomo's words too, a thoughtful look on his face.

"He no wake up."

"He didn't wake up?" "I didn't wake up?"

It took a moment or two, he wasn't quite at his mental best at the moment, but pretty soon after Phoenix's accusation Albus snapped his fingers as it all came together in his mind. "He must have tried to wake me up last night and I slept through it. That was why he was sleeping on your side of the bed, Scorpius. The suitcase beside my side of the bed…that must be how he got on to the bed in the first place."

"But that's so strange. Normally you're a light-" Scorpius blushed a little, not finishing the sentence since he didn't want to go into detail around Tomo about why Albus might have been so tired last night that the Gryffindor had apparently slept through their son's late night visit.

Coming to his boyfriend's rescue Albus stated that at least now they knew why Phoenix was so perturbed with them, or him to be more specific.

"Let him see you building him a new b-o-x h-o-u-s-e and all will be forgiven in no time." Was Scorpius's opinion on the matter, knowing their son's weakness for box houses well. "Plus maybe it's for the best that he's on the outs with us at the moment. This way he'll want to stay here with Tomo and won't kick up a fuss when we leave to finish up your shopping."

"Excellent point."

Their discussion about their future plans was interrupted by Tomo's outloud musing about whether Phoenix liked the room she'd prepared for him or not, both Albus and Scorpius hurrying to assure her that she shouldn't take the fact that Phoenix had crawled into bed with them personally. He did that all the time at school too. Plus when they brought home a new box house for the boy Phoenix would spend most of him time in it, including sleeping inside it and refusing to come out even when they attempted to bribe him.

And given that she wanted Phoenix to feel at home so badly Albus suggested that once they came home with the boxes she could help them design the house and decorate it for him. This brightened her mood right up again, and allowed them to finish their breakfast on a high note so to speak since Phoenix wasn't annoyed with Tomo and was willing to smile and chat a little with her.

All the frowning he'd been doing had really killed their appetites.

Their son also didn't seem to care much when they informed him that they were going out after breakfast, which stung a little, but both Albus and Scorpius knew it was probably for the best that he wasn't begging them to let him come with them, especially since they probably would have caved. Neither wanted a repeat of the day before after all.

So they left Phoenix in Tomo's happy care and headed out to Diagon Alley as planned, promising not to be too long since they were sort of hoping that Phoenix would start missing them soon enough and would want them back by then.

Being parents was hard.

)

Neither of the two failed to notice that without Phoenix around their pairing up was being looked at with much less favorable eyes this time around. Nobody outright came up to them and stated that they shouldn't be romantically involved with each other, but Albus got plenty of looks that said precisely that. Scorpius they mostly ignored, their eyes slipping over him like he wasn't really there, but Albus…well he was getting the message loud and clear from the older generations. Even before they'd gotten together most of their peers had known Scorpius well enough to know that the blonde wasn't like his father or grandfather, but the older generations had had very little chance to get to know Scorpius, or the desire to. And Albus decision to become romantically involved with the Malfoy heir, especially when he was the Chosen One's son…was not sitting well with them.

Naturally Albus responded by taking Scorpius's hand and refusing to let go even when the Slytherin suggested that he should. He didn't give a flying fuck what anyone else thought about them being together and if they didn't like they could go shove brooms where the sun didn't shine.

Scorpius felt that that was unnecessarily graphic, though he was keeping his free hand in his pocket so that he would have easy access to his wand, just in case. Thank Merlin Albus had had the idea to bring a pouch that could hold all their shopping in it so that they each had a hand free if something did go wrong, or it wouldn't be safe for them to hold hands the way they were.

Lifting their joined hands up to his mouth, he figured he'd give their audience a visual, Albus kissed the back of Scorpius's hand before letting their linked fingers drop back to their sides. "My most sincere apologies."

Rolling his eyes and hoping his ears weren't too red, Scorpius gave Albus a look that was meant to scold but obviously fell short since Albus just grinned at him. Trying to change the topic he asked instead who else they had to buy for. They'd gotten a good start on Albus's list the day before, and they'd tried to figure out what to buy for the remaining people before coming so that they wouldn't have to be away from Phoenix any longer than was necessary which helped.

"Lily and a couple other things for Phoenix." Albus grinned as he gave Scorpius a light hip check. "And you too of course, though I can't pick that up with you around."

"All right, which do you want to deal with first?"

"You aren't even going to try and worm out of me what I'm getting you?" He totally didn't get that. The only reason he wasn't still trying to get hints from Scorpius about the present his boyfriend had got him was because Scorpius had made it quite clear that if he didn't stop asking he wasn't going to get to enjoy any real meals not provided by Tomo. And Scorpius would forbid the house elf to feed him the good stuff too if necessary. Scorpius had been serious about that too.

"No, I'm fine with waiting until Christmas. I'm not a child."

Albus fake winced. "Ouch, that hurt."

Shaking his head Scorpius smiled a little and then changed the subject back to who they were shopping for next. Phoenix or Lily?

"Well we might as well just go to my uncle's place and see what's there since I have no idea what I'm going to get her and there's usually stuff she'd like there. Plus there might be stuff for Phoenix too. And at a family discount."

"No buying him anything from that shop without my approval." Lily could handle herself but Phoenix was a whole other ball of yarn. Scorpius was not taking the chance that one of the Weasley 'joke' items might cause his baby harm or to grow cat ears and a tail. Not that Phoenix wouldn't look absolutely adorable as a kitten, but Christmas with his family would be strained enough this year without having to justify that Phoenix had been magically altered on his watch by a Weasley.

"Don't you trust me?"

"No."

Miming that he'd just received a terrible blow Albus stumbled back a couple steps and then returned to take Scorpius's hand since they were still in public and he still had a point to make so long as that was the case. "You're wounding me constantly today."

Rather than argue the point, because what would the point in that be, Scorpius dryly pointed out that the longer they stood around debating the more likely they were to catch a cold or encounter someone who would do more than just glare at him and give Albus disapproving looks.

Looking around Albus checked to make sure no one was glaring at his boyfriend and then agreed that they should be on their way.

So off they went, the two of them nearly to the store when they were greeted with a strange sight that had them stopping in their tracks, eyebrows rising as they tried to figure out just what they were looking at. After a moment to assimilate they both recognized that Louis was one of the three people stacked almost on top of each other while peering around a corner in what might have been a failed covert attempt to spy on someone or something. The bottom bottom was female to their discerning eyes, while the middle one was male and not nearly as nice as Louis's.

Sharing confused looks Albus and Scorpius started over, clearing their throats loudly to get the other's attention.

That the three didn't tumble down into the slush on the street was a clear indication how often they spied on or snuck around causing Weasley mischief. As it was Roxanne, Fred and Louis all gave them dark looks before spinning back around to go back to whatever it was they'd been doing before they'd been so rudely interrupted by the other two.

"Uhm…Guys? What are you three doing?"

"Freddie's girlfriend is currently arm in arm with a taller, sexier, and way more built hunk." Louis informed them in a voice heavily laced with Weasley mirth. "And this after we just went with him to pick up the very expensive, engraved locket he bought her for Christmas."

"He is not that much better looking than I am!"

"He totally is." Roxie informed her brother without an ounce of pity.

Curious to take a peek now too, it wasn't like Gabrielle was the cheating type after all, Scorpius and Albus moved so that they were in a position to get a look for themselves, Albus silently agreeing with Louis and Roxie while Scorpius's brows furrowed in a couple moments of speculation before putting Fred out of his misery.

"You don't need to worry. I'm pretty sure that's Rory."

All four wanted to know who Rory was.

"He's her second cousin. They had a huge fight about three years ago and rarely saw each other before that, but he's like her in that he's very un-Goyle like so on the rare family reunions he attended they tended to stick together before the fight."

Roxie asked what the fight had been about while smirking at her brother's mini happy dance.

"Me."

"You?" Albus repeated.

Scorpius nodded. "She introduced us and apparently once I wasn't around he told her straight out that I was gay and that she should start looking for someone else to fancy because I'd only hurt her. Then he got me alone and lectured me about how I needed to make it clear to her that I would never be interested in her romantically and she, having recovered from what he said, heard him and that was pretty much that. I told her not to be mad at him for simply caring about her emotional wellbeing but Elle is Elle. She could teach stubbornness to a mule."

"Ah." The Weasleys nodded in complete understanding.

"Well now I have to meet him."

And saying so Albus called out to Gabrielle and brought Scorpius with him since their fingers were still joined, the other three following after them because they weren't about to miss a moment of this latest twist in the drama that was a Weasley's everyday life.

)

Taking in the group that was about to descend on them, and really, what had she done in a past life to deserve these people in her life, Gabrielle sighed as she raised a hand in greeting before turning her head to give her cousin a look that hopefully conveyed the fact that she was sorry for all the trouble that was about to be dropped on them whether they wanted it to or not. Because when you were dealing with Weasleys, especially in bulk, trouble was pretty much always unavoidable to some degree. The fact that she was dating one of them only upped those odds.

"The one with his sister is your boyfriend?"

"How do you know they're siblings?"

Rorake shrugged his wide shoulders, his eyes moving over the group with an artist's knowing gaze. "Similar bone structure, coloring, and they have an air of family about them. All of them. Even your Scorpius fits with them and that's unusual for him from what I remember of his personality and habit of trying to fade into the background when in a group."

"Yeah, he does." And ignoring why he would make that comment Gabrielle turned her attention to the approaching Gryffindors and lone Slytherin. "Good morning. Where's Phoenix?"

"We left him with Tomo for the morning so that we could finish Albus's Christmas shopping. We were on our way to the joke shop to get something for Lily when we saw you and thought we'd come over to say hi. Hello, Rorake."

"Scorpius."

Shaking her head Gabrielle figured she might as well get the introductions done and over with before a Weasley made it worse. "Rory this is Scorpius's boyfriend Albus Potter and Albus's Weasley cousins Fred, Roxanne and Louis."

"Nice to meet you."

Everyone echoing the sentiment Fred moved to take Gabrielle's hand, which she decided to allow given the circumstances.

"So you're the boyfriend?"

Taking the hand offered him Fred shook it as he agreed that yes, he was the boyfriend.

Watching them Gabrielle hoped that this wouldn't be a repeat of Fred's meetings with other members of her family, though her second cousin was more evolved than her brothers and her father put together. Still, she and Rorake hadn't spoken in like three years because he was the type who said what needed to be said even when no one wanted to hear it. And he was protective of her since she was one of the few relatives he had that he liked. "Rory's going to be spending a year in England, housesitting for his grandparents. He's from Canada."

"I was wondering about the accent." Roxie gave Rorake a flirty look. "So how come I don't remember you from school?"

"I attended a small wizarding school in my home country. I was offered a place in Hogwarts though." And leaving it at that Rorake turned all his attention to Louis, who interested him nearly as much as the man his cousin was apparently dating. "May I get a better look at your face?"

"My face?"

"Yes."

Louis gave Scorpius a sidelong look that asked for some explanation, understanding dawning when Scorpius volunteered the information that Rorake was an artist. The blonde was used to being admired, especially by people who had an appreciation for beautiful things. And he was damn beautiful so yes, he gave permission.

While Louis was being admired and Rorake was occupied doing the admiring, Gabrielle turned her attention to Fred, the look in her eyes less than amused as she very quietly asked him why he'd been spying on her earlier with his sister and Louis.

Opening his mouth to state that he had no idea what she was talking about Fred very wisely swallowed back those words under the heat of his girlfriend's stare. His mother hadn't raised a complete fool after all, and he had the sense that he should just be glad that she hadn't argued with him when he'd stated that he was her boyfriend. Though come to think of it…

"Did the twins tell him I was your boyfriend or did you?"

Cheeks flushing with color the answer was written all over Gabrielle's face, delighting Fred to the point where he just had to give her a kiss despite their audience.

She let him do that too.