~ Albus Potter, Healer for Creature-Induced Injuries ~

"Healer Potter, I heard rumors the new potion makes it painless. Please, Healer Potter."

Al awkwardly scratched his head, aware of the pitying glances of the other family members in the waiting room of his floor. The distraught mother could barely stand on both feet, keeping herself upright as she gripped the railing attached to the wall.

"Mrs. Prescott, as I've explained before, the reduced-pain elixir for werewolf transformations only limits the pain about sixty-percent," Al sighed, feeling a lump in his throat as the distraught mother continued to sob shamelessly in front of him.

"But even if it isn't completely reduced, it makes it much more bearable, especially for young boys like Randy. We pushed to roll this out for the benefit of infected children, who have much lower pain tolerance than an adult werewolf."

"What about the Wolfsbane potion then?" Mrs. Prescott demanded. "Surely he'll be in the right mind even as a wolf. Can we take him home for the transformation so his family can help him when he still feels the pain?"

"Mrs. Prescott, regardless of the Wolfsbane potion, we highly discourage you to take Randy home on a night of transformation," Al responded calmly. "Of course it's still your choice in the end, but we have trained professionals at the hospital who will be with him every step of the night. My trainees are very experienced with in-hospital monitoring and we will do our very best to make this night as bearable as possible for Randy. If you take him home, we can't look after him."

Al watched with a comforting eye as Mrs. Prescott stifled her sniffles with the back of her hand, the other rubbing furiously at her face to wipe the free falling tears. To his relief, the mother eventually began to nod in understanding, gaze down on the ground in resignation.

With an empathetic face, Al placed a hand on her shoulder and she looked up in surprise.

"I understand that you're terrified for your son, Mrs. Prescott," Al said softly. "But the hospital is well-equipped to help him. I hope you can trust me."

Mrs. Prescott nodded again with unexpected fire in her eyes.

"If there's anyone I trust with my son, it's you, Healer Potter," she said. "You've been so gentle with him. I can't thank you enough. I apologize for mistepping and questioning your procedures."

Al laughed openly at that, waving his hand with a humble smile.

"Nothing to apologize for, Mrs. Prescott," he assured her. "You're Randy's mother. It's your job to make sure everything is in order for his treatment."

She showed a genuine smile at Al's words. But before she could respond, the glass doors behind her split open and a determined brunette in pigtails paved her way into the waiting room

Al perked up at the sight of his trainee healer, Lisa Morris, who caught his eye immediately. She strode towards them with a smile, lime green robes whipping around her ankles.

"Healer Potter, excuse me." She politely interrupted, bowing her head at Mrs. Prescott before facing Al again. "We have a situation in the Pollux Nancy Ward."

"Please excuse me, Mrs. Prescott." Al bade the mother goodbye and followed Lisa into the hallway. The brunette proceeded to brief him on the case as they strode towards their floor's emergency room.

"The eleven year-old girl who was stung by a red vampyre mosp in the head. Her parents are refusing to let her drink her potion for today," Lisa sighed, her smile fading and face twisting into irritation once they were out of sight of the family waiting area.

"Why?" Al asked.

"Well, they think they know better," Lisa said, sounding more and more defensive after each step. "The mother kept asking what ingredients you used to brew it and had the audacity to give me a lecture on the proper steps that we apparently didn't follow."

"And what did you tell her?" Al raised a critical eyebrow at his fuming trainee.

"I wanted to tell her to shove it up her arse," Lisa snapped, eyes fierce. "Healer Potter, you're the best healer for CNI in the country! I told her I'd get you so you could explain in a way she could understand."

Al sighed, paused in his step, and placed a hand on Lisa' shoulder who abruptly stopped with him. They were a few doors away from the ward and she gave him a questioning look.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "I know the hag is a pain to deal with, Healer Potter, but I really need your help to get through her thick skull."

"Lisa," Al began, giving her a stern eye. "Enough with it."

Lisa stared up at her senior, hostility gone in a second at Al's hard tone.

"I don't want to hear you talking about a patient's family member like that again, do you understand?"

Jaw dropped, the trainee healer responded with a stiff nod. A rush of bright red grew in her pale cheeks, but Al kept his ground.

"I–I apologize, Healer Potter," Lisa stuttered, dipping her head low.

With that, Al continued forward towards the Pollux Nancy Ward. He swiftly entered the room and said mother rose from the foot of the bed closest to the door. Her eleven year-old daughter, Amanda Rubin, was fast asleep on her side while her mother sported dark bags under her dull gray eyes.

Immediately, she approached Al with a desperate tone, not unlike Mrs. Prescott from the waiting room. And for five minutes, Lisa had been correct. She prattled on about what she had learned about the potion Al brewed for her daughter's healing procedure – quoting rumors she had heard from her friends about said potion and its components.

She said she didn't approve of certain ingredients. Her friends shared that they could give long-standing side effects.

She expressed her distrust of St. Mungo's supplies. They were rumored to come from a dirty apothecary in Diagon Alley and the hospital paid for their services because they sold their ingredients cheap and affordable.

They were complaints that weren't new to Al, and in all his years handling family members of his young patients, he had heard worse.

So he listened, and next to him, Lisa silently observed.

Five minutes later, Mrs. Rubin visibly calmed, breathing heavily after a long rant and clutching her chest with a tight grip. Al took the opportunity to speak.

"Mrs. Rubin, I understand you have reservations," he said, tone level. "You're allowed to worry and have questions about your daughter's treatment. I'm all ears."

"That's…" Mrs. Rubin began but hesitated with a wary eye on Al.

"Those are perfectly valid questions to have, Mrs. Rubin," Al said with a soft smile. "St. Mungo's can't control the rumors that circulate the magical community, so it's part of our job to clarify the integrity of our hospital's facilities to all patients and their families."

Mrs. Rubin seemed speechless at his kindness, shoulders slumping forward in defeat.

"I apologize if I'm being rude, Healer Potter," she whispered shakily.

"You just want the best for your daughter," Al replied. "I understand completely and I would be the same. So please allow me to put some of your worries to rest."

He navigated through her concerns, explaining in great detail through each procedure, while Mrs. Rubin hung onto every word. She didn't speak to interrupt once, eyes growing wider with understanding after each passing second.

Eventually Al finished, and Mrs. Rubin allowed the tears to flow free down her cheeks. Heavy silence filled the room as Al patiently waited for a response, but the distraught mother merely fell back on her daughter's bed, shoulders slouched forward and head hanging down.

Amanda stirred in her sleep, tired eyes blinking open and settling curiously at her mother who sobbed at the foot of her bed.

"Mummy?" she murmured sleepily. "Is there something wrong?"

Mrs. Rubin hastily wiped the tear stains from her cheeks, smiling softly at her daughter.

"Nothing, dear," Mrs. Rubin whispered. "Healer Potter and I were just having a chat. I'm sorry to wake you."

Amanda groggily turned her attention to Al, who was already on his way to kneel next to her bed with a cheerful face.

"Hello, Amanda," he said, gently laying a palm on the mattress. "How are you feeling?"

"Better than yesterday, Healer Potter," she said with a confident grin, sitting upright against the headboard. "I think the potions are working."

"Have you been seeing anything strange since you started taking them?" Al asked.

"None since I got stung," Amanda replied. "Thank you, Healer Potter. At this rate, I'll be back at Hogwarts soon, right?"

"You'll be back in no time!" Al exclaimed. "Missing the castle, are you? I do too."

"Did you go to Hogwarts too, Healer Potter?" Amanda said, eyes lighting up with excitement. "What was your house? When did you graduate? You look so old!"

Al was fairly sure he had heard Lisa try to hide a snort at the little girl's proclamation. Her mother hissed a stern, "Amanda!"

He laughed good-naturedly and waved her mother's scolding off.

"I'm thirty so I'm much older than any of your classmates. I was a Gryffindor and I graduated nearly thirteen years ago. Imagine that?"

Amanda narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the beaming healer in front of her.

"You don't look like a Gryffindor."

Al barked another laugh. "I think I take more offense from that than the old comment. Which house did you think I looked like, hm?"

Amanda giggled and made a thoughtful expression as she pondered on the answer.

"Ravenclaw."

"I'll take that," Al chuckled. "One of my best friends is from Ravenclaw. She's an incredible healer for spell damage."

"I'm in Ravenclaw too!" Amanda cheered.

"That's wicked!" Al grinned. "Maybe we'll see you at St. Mungo's if you decide to become a healer, eh?"

Amanda shook her head apologetically. "I want to be a teacher like my mum. She teaches muggles for pre-school. She doesn't know much about the wizarding world, but she's the smartest person I know."

Al chanced a glance at Mrs. Rubin who was smiling thoughtfully at her daughter from the edge of her bed.

"You're a sweet girl, Amanda," Al said, patting her shoulder. "Your mother must be proud."

In one move, Al was back on his feet, turning back to face Mrs. Rubin.

"I'll be off now, Mrs. Rubin," he said politely, dipping his head forward. "My trainee healer is here and she'll take good care of your daughter."

"Thank you, Healer Potter," Mrs. Rubin said, jumping up to her feet and reaching for his hand to shake it. "We appreciate all your help."

Al returned the enthusiastic handshake and bade goodbye to Amanda who eagerly waved at him as he stalked out of the room.

Feeling positively energized at the interaction, the healer walked with a skip in his step towards his office. He vaguely heard a brisk pair of feet following behind him, but he didn't stop to turn until an urgent call echoed in the empty hall.

"Healer Potter, wait!"

Al found his trainee healer jogging to catch up and he stayed in place with a curious expression.

"What's wrong?" He immediately asked once she reached him, his mind already sifting through potential scenarios with his patients.

"I just…" Lisa began, breathless from the jog and a tinge of red in her cheeks. It only took a second look at her face for Al to realize her attention had nothing to do with his patients.

"I just wanted to apologize. Again." She hung her head low, refusing to look into his eyes in clear embarrassment. "I misjudged the situation and disrespected the patient's family member. That was out of order and I understand I need to empathize better."

Al sighed and tilted her head up with a poke at her chin. She looked surprised at the contact.

"The more you look down like that, the less time you can practice understanding the people right in front you," he said simply. "Families are an extension of the patient, Healer Morris. Best you remember that."

"I will," she said with a determined nod.

Al showed her a small smile, satisfied by her attitude.

"Don't beat yourself up over it, hm? Everyone makes mistakes. I'm sure I've made twice as many when I was your age."

"You mean three years ago?" Lisa asked with a teasing eye.

Al stared blankly, unsure of what she meant.

"Because you're thirty right? I overhead earlier," Lisa continued. "I'm twenty-seven."

Al's jaw dropped in disbelief, eyes fixated at his trainee healer like he was looking at her for the first time.

"Did you not know?" Lisa laughed. "Anyway, I should get back to the ward and check on the patients. Thank you, Healer Potter."

She swiftly turned on her heel while Al remained dumbstruck in place at the revelation. All this time, he had assumed Lisa was fresh out of Hogwarts.

He wrinkled his nose. Perhaps he should work on getting to know the people around him too.

~ Scorpius Malfoy, Healer for Magical Bugs ~

A loud knock echoed in the room.

Scorpius irately opened his eyes from his much needed afternoon nap. He briefly considered telling the person behind the door to piss off, an itch in his neck giving him a strong feeling it was Al coming to visit to complain about his job.

The timid voice that called out through the wood confirmed otherwise.

"Er… Healer Malfoy? Are you… Are you in there?"

Suppressing a groan, the blond forced himself out of his office couch. He wouldn't have been against telling him to fuck off to the moon but one of his troublesome patients could have escaped their room and potentially exposed the entire floor of their contagious disease.

It definitely wouldn't have been the first time.

So Scorpius sighed and responded, "What do you want, Watson?"

His trainee healer seemed to understand this as an invitation to come in – even if Scorpius purposely refrained from saying so in the hopes the twenty-five year old could take a bloody hint.

But Spencer Watson walked right in, stiff and shaky as he always was but with a smile on his face that healers on their floor didn't particularly reserve at any time of day for Scorpius.

His wavy hair, a darker shade of blond than Scorpius', was in wild disarray, almost akin to Al's bird's nest.

"I brought you some snacks," Spencer said, lifting two small boxes in each hand and cautiously approaching his superior.

Scorpius frowned. "You brought me what?"

"My mum baked too many cookies so she wanted me to share it with my colleagues," Spencer replied with visible excitement.

Scorpius' dull expression didn't match it.

"Take it to the break room, Watson. The trainees would have a bigger appetite," Scorpius said stonily.

Spencer, unfazed by his superior healer's hostility, merely responded with a clueless, "That's not true. You devour every meal you can get."

"You think you know me so well?" Scorpius snapped. But he eyed the cookie containers with a scrunched expression. "But if you must give them to me…"

"Do you prefer chocolate chip or raisins?" Spencer asked, innocently tilting his head to the side as he raised both containers in his hands.

"Chocolate chip, you imbecile. I haven't got the appetite of an eighty year-old Hogwarts professor." Scorpius spat out his words like a petty child on timeout.

Spencer nodded in understanding, offended in the least at his superior's name calling. The smile never left his face as he placed the container of cookies on the desk.

"I figured," Spencer said thoughtfully. "Chocolate chip cookies are much tastier to gobble down."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Scorpius questioned with a jolt.

"I've heard from the trainees that you've got quite a hefty appetite," Spencer said easily. "You and Healer Baker. We often talk about your group of friends in the hospital. The stories are quite fascinating."

Scorpius narrowed his eyes. "And who's we?"

"Oh, me and the other trainees. The girls are quite smitten with Healer Potter and it all started when they were trying to figure out how your friendship dynamic worked. Ever since then, they've kept tabs on all five of you."

Scorpius spluttered in disbelief. "Wha–? Our friendship dynamic?"

"Yes, it's an accurate representation of the opposites attract trope," Spencer explained thoughtfully. "You're distant, unapproachable, and crass, while Healer Potter's kind and gentle. Yet, you're best friends."

"Don't make me sick." Scorpius wrinkled his nose. He feigned curiosity and asked, "And who exactly came up with this conclusion?"

Spencer didn't hesitate with the unnecessarily detailed response.

"Well, Agatha brought it up first and shared it with the rest of the trainees. I always thought the same but I never verbalized it because I thought it would be a breach of professionalism to talk about our superiors' personal lives behind their backs."

"I see." Scorpius nodded.

He rose up on his feet and showed his trainee healer an off-putting smile.

"Tell Buchanan she's on night duty tonight and the rest of the trainees will be reporting to me in fifteen minutes in my office on their findings on the spattergroit case that checked in this morning."

"I think you're mistaken, Healer Malfoy," Spencer said with a naive frown, shaking his head side to side. "Agatha's not supposed to be on night duty tonight. I am. And you said you'd handle the spattergroit case on your own for now as he's showing unique symptoms that aren't typical to our usual observations."

"Well, damn, Watson. I've changed my mind." Scorpius' grin steadily turned manic. "Buchanan's most certainly on night duty and the trainees better have some ideas on what's going on with the latest spattergroit case or I'm extending your MB rotations 'til Christmas! Now carry on!"

Spencer seemed to only just realize his mistake in running his mouth, blinking in wide-eyed silence at Scorpius' now fuming expression.

"I said something I shouldn't have, didn't I?" Spencer muttered, pouting like a kicked puppy.

"No, Watson," Scorpius deadpanned. "I'm ecstatic to know how gossip about me spreads around my own department. Buchanan will be begging to be your girlfriend once she finds out you sold her out."

Spencer's bright blue eyes lit up. "Do you really think so?"

"Get out!"


Five minutes later, Scorpius was grumbling under his breath as he walked down the hallway of his floor. A few healers in the area had flattened their backs against the wall in a near desperate attempt to get out of his way and avoid his raging aura.

Rose definitely took the title of the most intimidating healer in the hospital, the way she commanded rooms with her presence. Scorpius, on the other hand, took the cake of being the hospital's biggest prick. He gladly took it if it meant keeping people out of his line of sight.

There was nothing more he detested than a bubbly hospital crew talking to him more than they should.

He turned a corner to the elevator station and found himself face to face with Al, positively radiating with light.

"Scorp! I was just about to see you," Al cheered.

"And now you have," Scorpius snapped, gesturing to all of him. "Goodbye then."

He pressed the elevator button, tapping his foot impatiently. Al, much like Spencer earlier, didn't seem to take the hint and fell into the space next to him.

But Scorpius knew better. Al very much took the hint, but decided to ignore it. A habit he had developed over their many years of begrudging friendship.

"Where are you headed?" Al asked.

"Your office," Scorpius replied brusquely.

Al jerked his head to give him a look of utter perplexity. "What? But I'm already here!"

"I need to go somewhere I can actually concentrate without the trainees bothering me."

"They're supposed to bother you," Al pointed out smartly. "You should be teaching them essential skills for the job."

"I may have asked Watson to tell them they've got a pop quiz with me in my office about our latest patient," Scorpius admitted begrudgingly. "So to avoid that, I'm going to camp out in your office, if you don't mind."

"What–?! I especially do mind," Al squeaked.

The elevator dinged and the doors opened. Scorpius ignored his friend's flustered attempts to get him to stop and strode inside. Al hesitated for a moment before hastily following after him, just as the doors slid shut.

"What was the point of telling them they've got a quiz if you didn't want it in the first place?" Al asked with raised eyebrows.

"Watson pissed me off."

"So you decided to take it out on your entire batch of trainees," Al said with a disappointed sigh. "Sometimes I can't tell if you're thirty or thirteen."

"Says you," Scorpius retorted. "You cry more times a week than a newborn fetus!"

Al glared at him, red-faced. "I cry a perfectly healthy number of times for a stress-ridden healer who works sixteen hours a day!"

"You shouldn't be crying at all! You chose to live empty, alone, and sleep deprived for the rest of your life so don't go complaining to me!"

"I may be empty, alone, and sleep deprived but at least I don't go around acting like a git to everyone around me!"

Scorpius scoffed at the accusation, waving his palm carelessly and whacking Al's shoulder by accident. This set off the steaming Potter to react in blazing fury, pushing his blond friend's shoulder in impulsive retaliation.

"Ow! What the–"

A split second of charged eye contact passed. Then Scorpius pounced in enraged physicality, attempting to lock Al in a choke hold while the shorter healer tried to muscle him off.

Neither of the two heard the elevator ding as they reached their floor, nor did they notice the doors split open to reveal three witches with their jaws dropped at the sight of two esteemed thirty year-old healers wrestling against the elevator wall.

"What in the name of Merlin is going on here?!"

Somehow Al had been the one to successfully pin Scorpius' head with his arm, the blond awkwardly bent backwards to reach Al's height. That was the position they froze in at the shrill voice that could only belong to one feisty redhead in St. Mungo's.

They raised their heads in synchronous movements, finding themselves face to face with a furious Rose Weasley, a dumbstruck Morgan Baker, and a dark-haired girl with cropped bangs who Scorpius didn't recognize, but she seemed to be looking at Al with a similar bemused expression.

"We were just…"

Al's initial attempt to explain their situation brought Scorpius back to reality. He acted quickly, removing himself from Al's grasp and placed a palm on his shoulder.

"Practicing," he grunted.

Al cleared his throat. "Yeah."

"For what – a professional wrestling match? Have you finally snapped to pursue a career change? Merlin's beard…"

Rose walked in with a huff while Morgan followed behind her, snickering under her breath. Bangs girl walked in too, still eyeing Al rather inconspicuously. Scorpius wondered if she was one of the trainees in his department, but she looked a bit too old to be a fresh trainee hire.

The doors slid shut and Scorpius just came across the realization.

"Wait, that was our floor," he muttered.

"Maybe if you two weren't busy grabbing each other's hair, you'd have noticed," Rose snapped.

"Why were you two on my floor anyway?" Al asked.

"We went to your office but it was locked," Morgan replied.

"That's a relief," Al sighed, "My office is a mess. You'd have rearranged it the second you walked in."

Morgan wrinkled her nose in distaste.

"Anyway we're headed to Morgan's for lunch," Rose said. "So unless you want to continue your elevator business, you're welcome to join us."

"What did you get?" Scorpius asked, ears perking up at the mention of food.

"Gracie went to buy take out from this steak place in the city," Morgan said, grinning so wide with excitement Scorpius wouldn't have been surprised to see drool seeping out the corner of her mouth.

Scorpius saw Al do a double take at the corner of the elevator where the extra healer stood, a considerable space between herself and the four of them.

"Lisa? I didn't see you there!" Al exclaimed. "Are you joining us too?"

"Oh, what?" The healer called Lisa jumped in alarm and shook her head, a tinge of red in her cheeks at Al's sudden attention. "No, I'm headed to the cafeteria."

"Are you meeting anyone there?" Al asked conversationally.

"Just a couple of trainees from my year."

Scorpius immediately jumped in, casting a threatening look in her direction. "Including the ones from MB?"

"Oh, I think they mentioned something about an emergency," Lisa said, wide-eyed in shock that he was addressing her directly. "They didn't specify though."

With a look too smug from a healer who put his own trainees into a spiral of psychological terror, Scorpius relaxed against the elevator wall. He didn't miss the glare Al shot in his direction, nor the curious looks from Rose and Morgan at the strange aggression displayed by the hospital's resident care bear.

The elevator dinged at Morgan's floor and all the four healers walked out, Al turning around to give Lisa a friendly wave goodbye.

"Who was that?" Scorpius asked as they strode down the hall to Morgan's office.

"That was Lisa Morris, my trainee healer," Al said, looking exasperated. "Wasn't she rotating at Magical Bugs last year?"

Scorpius shrugged and Rose verbally answered for him.

"Scorpius doesn't remember faces," she said with a snort. "He thinks it's a useless attachment to people that don't concern him."

"Now that's just rude!" Al said indignantly, earning a growl from the already heated blond walking next to him.

"Bite me," was Scorpius' childish response.

They reached Morgan's door, but the healer for spell damage didn't immediately let them in. She faced the boys first, a stern look on her face that could rival Rose on her worst days.

"If you've got beef, I allow none of it to mess up my office. Is that clear?"

Scorpius and Al exchanged looks then synchronously nodded in response. Satisfied, Morgan opened the door and the four of them filed in.

The number of times they hung out in their friend's office gave them designated spots around her coffee table. Al immediately took his seat on the couch with Rose next to him. Scorpius sat on the carpeted floor adjacent to Rose. On the other end of the table, Morgan took her space on the floor as well.

"So are any of you two idiots going to tell us what happened in the elevator?" Rose broke the silence, eyeing Scorpius and Al with a single raised eyebrow.

Al was never the first to respond to Rose's accusatory interrogations of his behavior, and Scorpius wasn't exactly ready to explain he had no idea how that fight broke out either.

So he settled with, "Do you guys think I'm unapproachable?"

A wave of silence fell over the group, but it wasn't out of pity. Rose looked like she was about to burst out laughing at his expense. Al looked just as bewildered as his trainee healer when she saw her mentor holding Scorpius in a choke hold. And Morgan looked just about done with everything in life.

"Where is this coming from?" Al finally asked, looking more confused than empathetic.

"Watson told me people thought I was distant, unapproachable, and crass," Scorpius admitted, turning away from their gazes with a heated face.

"That's rude," Al remarked sadly.

Rose let out a derisive snort. "Coming from a trainee you terrorize fifty times a day? Sure, absolutely out of order."

Before Scorpius could defend himself, a loud crack echoed in the room and Gracie appeared with two paper bags full of take out boxes.

"What did I miss?" she said after taking in the wide range of expressions on her friends' faces. She plopped on the floor across from Rose and placed the bags on the table.

"Scorpius was asking whether or not we think he's distant, unapproachable, and crass," Morgan filled her in, immediately grabbing her take out box before anyone else.

"I asked if you thought I was unapproachable," Scorpius corrected her snippily. "I already know I'm distant and crass."

Morgan looked unimpressed.

"Can you be distant and crass and still be approachable?" Al genuinely looked curious for an answer.

Scorpius felt his eye twitch, accepting his food as Gracie passed the boxes around the table. Morgan looked like she was halfway through her own.

"Answer my question first," he snapped.

"Yes, Scorpius, you're not exactly Mr. Popular in hospital grounds," Rose said. "Why are you in a self-reflective mood all of a sudden? It doesn't suit you."

"It's not necessarily a bad thing," Morgan said, the first comforting attempt since Scorpius brought up the topic. "That's just who you are."

"It's absolutely a bad thing," Rose countered.

"Well, people are used to it now," Al added. "So while I do agree it can be a bad thing, people have accepted it as part of who you are."

Scorpius felt his face scrunch up in a deep frown, food temporarily forgotten. He turned to Gracie who was the only one who didn't voice out her opinion. Expected, but he demanded it anyway.

"What do you think, Gracie?"

The healer for artefact accidents slowly looked up, chewing carefully and drawing out the silence until she swallowed.

"I think you're a wanker."

Rose nearly spat out her water mid-drink. Morgan hid her laughter much better behind the palm of her hand.

"That wasn't even the bloody question," Scorpius grumbled.

"You're just being insecure about Valentine's day," Gracie said with a roll of her eyes.

"What?" Rose exclaimed. "Valentine's was three days ago."

"It's not that!" Scorpius cried, cheeks reddening. "Watson was just giving me shit about being unapproachable and all."

"Spencer Watson wouldn't hurt a fly if his life depended on it," Morgan gasped. "Much more give you shit about anything!"

"He gets like this every time he spends Valentine's alone," Gracie said pointedly, returning to her point. "He's already a grumpy old cow on regular days but he gets particularly worse after a glaring reminder that he's alone."

"How can you expect a date when you can't even associate names with faces?" Rose asked.

"Or act like a decent human being with manners," Al added.

Scorpius was ready to throttle both of them on the couch but ever the peacekeeper, Morgan stepped in before he could succumb to his growing temper.

"Let's not gang up on him please," she said. "There must be a reason for all this."

Morgan turned towards him with a determined face.

"Is there any chance that you're freaking out about this because you actually want people to like you?"

"How is that question not considered ganging up on me with them?!" Scorpius demanded.

"See, he's doing it again," Rose said with a huff.

"Doing what again?" Scorpius exclaimed.

"Scorpius," Morgan said, tone still level and eyes filled with softness that admittedly helped him calm down. "Try not to act so defensive over simple questions. We're your friends and we care about you."

For once, nobody seemed to have any side comments to that. Scorpius watched as they silently continued with their meals and a strange sense of comfort washed over him.

"It just bothers me that the trainees have got something to say about me, is all," he muttered. "I barely even talk to them outside of work."

"People are going to say whatever they want to say," Morgan said. "And if what they think bothers you so much, maybe you should give them some more thought too."

"They're people too, Scorp," Al chimed in, his typical empathetic side finally showing signs in his tone and expression. "Don't you realize they say these things about you because you haven't exactly been the best senior to them?"

"It's not like I mean to–"

"I know," Al interrupted with a small smile. "And I'm not asking you to change yourself completely just to gain their approval. I doubt that's what Morgan is saying either."

"Then what are you saying?"

"That you can be a grumpy old hermit, but respect is important too," Rose said, eyeing him pointedly. "It's essential in healer training. It's a wonder you passed hospital ethics."

Scorpius laughed a bit at that, sharing an amused look with the redhead.

"Have you always been so scared of people?" Gracie asked dully. "I don't remember much of you in Hogwarts but I'd remember if you were one of the popular kids."

"Don't remember much–?" Scorpius spluttered. "I played Quidditch! Against you a couple of times, for that matter!"

Gracie merely shrugged.

"And I'm not scared of people," Scorpius began, but he caught Morgan's stern eye, reminding him to stop being so defensive over questions.

He sighed and continued. "You guys don't understand. People lie and they're always out to do things for their own self-benefit. It's much easier to avoid that completely."

"You think we hang out with you because of our own self-benefit? It feels more like self-harm, if anything," Rose said, but there was no real malice to her tone.

Scorpius ducked his head instinctively.

"Oi," she called. Scorpius met her gaze and she had a small smirk on her face. "You're a bastard. My colleagues know, my parents know, my bloody cat knows. But we hang out with you. Figure out why on your own. But you've got four people in this room who can put up with your shit, and I'm fairly sure a ton of others out there could too if you gave them the chance. Now stop looking like Al on a full moon and cheer up, will you?"

"Hey!" Al exclaimed in indignation.

"You are terribly boring when you mope," Morgan said. "Can't believe I never noticed you get like this after Valentine's day."

"How do any of you not?" Scorpius asked, more curious than aggressive. "It's bloody depressing, innit?"

"I don't mind it." Al shrugged. "I'm not looking for anything with anyone right now anyway."

"Oh, don't say that, Al," Gracie unexpectedly replied first among them. "You'd break the hearts of the entire trainee community at St. Mungo's. I have the most in AA, and I can't afford for any of them to lose focus."

"W-What?" Al spluttered.

"Do you not know?" Rose demanded, looking at him then at Scorpius. "Does he not know?"

"S'pose not," Scorpius said. "The Lisa girl already acts whipped right in front of his face and he hasn't noticed at all."

"Lisa?!" Al squeaked. "She's my trainee healer!"

"We know," all four of them responded.

"Are you implying–"

"We're not implying; we're saying it clear as day," Rose said. "Your trainee healer's got a crush on you. And so does the entire population of female trainee healers."

"That's impossible," Al protested. "I just told her off earlier. I'm fairly sure she's more scared of me than anything!"

"Scared of you?" Gracie deadpanned.

Morgan spared him a pitying glance and said, "Al, you're as intimidating as a flobberworm."

Rose guffawed, laughing openly as Al grumbled incoherent words next to her. Morgan pat his knee in a weak attempt at comfort. Even Gracie watched on with amusement.

Scorpius cracked a smile at their antics, thinking for the first time that day, and everyday they hung out together during their breaks, that people weren't so bad after all.

He made a mental note to thank Watson for the cookies after his meal.