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littlerose13writes · 7 years ago

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Sweeter Than Fiction Chapter 15: The Right Person

Scorpius Malfoy and Albus Potter have decided fifth year is going to be their year; the year everything works out for them, and if that means Scorpius keeping his huge crush on his best friend a secret, then that’s just what he’s going to have to do.

It’s just a crush. He can get over it well before fifth year is over, can’t he?

Chapter 15/27

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Scorpius had missed Albus a lot over the holidays. He always missed him when they were apart - after all, they spent nearly all their time together at school - but this was a deeper, stronger sense of missing him. As if the feelings he was finally letting himself feel were manifesting themselves in Albus’ absence, which was why seeing a flash of that dark, messy hair - longer than Scorpius had ever seen it - made his heart leap.

He wanted to go barrelling over and attack Albus with a huge hug, but he wasn’t sure if that was something Malfoy the Platonic could get away with. Albus didn’t seem to have spotted him yet as he laughed easily with Lily and his mum, a yellow pygmy puff perched on his shoulder.

“Go on,” his dad’s voice said shrewdly, watching Albus too.

It was at that moment when Albus looked over and lit up when he saw Scorpius. He reached up and removed the pygmy puff, handing it to Lily, and he ran over to Scorpius. “Scor!” he cried happily, throwing his arms around Scorpius in a giant hug exactly like the one Scorpius had wanted to give him.

“Hi, Albus,” Scorpius held on for just a second and forced himself to pull away.

“Hello, Albus.” His dad sounded amused for some reason.

“Hello,” Albus smiled back. “Did you have a good Christmas?” he asked them both.

“Very pleasant, thankyou,” his dad responded.

Albus grinned at Scorpius and he noticed the infuriatingly attractive smattering of new freckles over the bridge of his nose. “It’s so good to see you, I missed you.”

Scorpius felt a swoop in his stomach at the idea that Albus had missed him too, even if he meant it in a platonic way.

“Behave yourselves this term, boys,” Draco said with a tiny smirk.

Once they were on the train, before they found a compartment, Albus fixed Scorpius with a very serious look. “Be honest with me, Scor. Was your holiday really okay? Nothing happened?”

Scorpius frowned. “No, nothing happened. No attacks, nothing bad. I would have told you in my letters.”

Albus’ expression lifted as they reached an empty compartment. “I know, sorry, just checking. That’s two whole months now, though! I’m so happy for you.”

“Thanks,” Scorpius smiled and waited until the door was closed behind them. “I saw a therapist.”

It felt weird to say my therapist when he’d only been once.

Albus sat down. “How was it?”

“I liked it,” Scorpius said honestly, choosing to sit beside Albus. “It was nice, helpful.”

Albus reached out to gently touch Scorpius’ shoulder. “I’m so pleased for you, Scor.”

“I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you, Albus. Thanks for giving the courage to do it.”

Albus went a bit pink underneath his new freckles. “Oh, no, I didn’t really do anything…”

Scorpius gave him a look and reached into his pocket. “I brought leftover Christmas chocolate!”

“Excellent!”

They shared the chocolate and Albus showed Scorpius photos from his trip away. There were lots of James and Lily on a beach, and some artful shots of the sun setting.

“Albus, you��re not in any of these,” Scorpius commented, flipping through the stack of photos.

“No, I took most of them. There’s a couple Mum took near the end.”

Scorpius reached the end of the pile and came to a shot of Albus with Lily, a surfboard tucked under his arm and his wet hair swept back from his freckled face, smiling brightly, clearly not aware his picture was being taken.

Malfoy the Platonic was mightily glad Cole chose that moment to come barging noisily in and sit with them for the next two hours.

After only a week of being back at school, the first Hogsmeade weekend was upon them and with it, Scorpius’ date with Rose. The closer it got, the more Scorpius was starting to wish he’d never asked her and he could just go with his best friend like usual.

It hadn’t been until the end of their fourth year that Albus and Scorpius had finally decided to venture into the village and they had been pleasantly surprised to find it was actually as fun as everyone said.

Scorpius brushed his hair neatly, the way he did every morning. For some infuriating reason, it chose to defy his wishes and stick out on one side, no matter how many times he brushed it into place. He was reminded instantly of Albus and his hair’s wayward habits, although if Scorpius was being honest with himself, everything reminded him instantly of Albus.

He wished he could do what Albus did and hide his hair under a hat, something Albus managed to pull off effortlessly when he wasn’t in his school uniform (and sometimes when he was). Scorpius pictured himself wearing one of Al’s grey beanies with his own smart, black outfit and grinned at the image.

Al entered the dorm, wearing the grey beanie Scorpius had been imagining. He’d thrown it on casually, his long, dark fringe poking out adorably at the front, and paired it with his favourite emerald green zip up hoodie and faded, black, fitted jeans. On his feet were a pair of white lace up trainers. He would have looked every inch a muggle if it weren’t for the thick cloak he was carrying, along with his Slytherin scarf; Scorpius suddenly felt incredibly attracted to him.

“You look-” Scorpius quickly stopped himself from complimenting Albus’ appearance, “ready.”

“Oh, yeah I’m gonna leave in a minute. Er, are we walking down together? Shall I wait for you?”

Scorpius desperately wanted to say yes, but he hardly thought Rose would be amused if he turned up for their date with his best friend in tow. “That’s okay, you go ahead. Maybe I’ll see you in Hogsmeade?”

“Maybe. I don’t know if I’ll stay long, it’s not much fun on your own.” Scorpius couldn’t help but hear the wistful tone in Al’s voice and he reminded himself that he must be thinking about Thea. Albus seemed to notice his own miserable tone and quickly spoke again. “It’ll be alright, James said he’d meet me for a drink at the Broomsticks, and Uncle Ron will be at the shop. Mainly I want to see Teddy, get this mop sorted out.” He grinned, pointing at his hat-covered hair.

Scorpius wanted to tell Albus not to cut his hair; he secretly loved Al’s hair when it was long enough to sweep back from his green eyes. But that would hardly be a platonic thing to say, nor would Scorpius explaining how much he one day wanted to sweep Albus’ hair from his green eyes himself and kiss him senseless.

Once, when he’d not been concentrating, he’d told Albus he liked his hair when it was longer. Albus had gone very red and very quiet and Scorpius had rambled for ten minutes about Gobstones in an effort to cover up his mistake.

“Okay, well I might see you around then. Have a good time!” Scorpius found himself speaking in a small voice as Albus threw his cloak on and left the room.

Scorpius made a few more unsuccessful attempts to get his hair to behave, then gave up and donned his own cloak and scarf, his nerves building inside him as he left the common room.

Was it socially acceptable to bring a book with you on a date? Scorpius felt like he needed an option to escape more than ever before.

Rose looked very nice as he approached her in the Entrance Hall. She wasn’t scowling or giving Scorpius a pitying look, which made a nice change.

“Hello, Scorpius,” she said in a friendly voice.

“Hi,” Scorpius squeaked and cleared his throat.

There was a pause. Was he supposed to hug her? Shake her hand? He’d never hugged Rose before and a handshake didn’t seem right either.

“Shall we go then?” She grinned and led the way outside.

Was he supposed to hold her hand as they walked?

Just as he was contemplating this thought, she stuffed both hands into her pockets against the freezing, January air. Scorpius took that to mean no, he was not supposed to hold her hand as they walked.

“We could go for a drink at the Three Broomsticks?” Rose suggested. “We can’t go there,” she said sternly as she saw Scorpius glance at the colourful, inviting display of Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, “my dad will be in there.”

Scorpius gulped and hurried on. Although Albus seemed to really like his Uncle Ron, Scorpius wasn’t sure the protocol for how to behave if he was faced with him in the middle of taking his daughter on a date.

Or perhaps it was Rose taking him on a date, as it had been her who had initiated the whole thing and now it was her making all the decisions about where they went. He pushed open the door of the Three Broomsticks and held it open for her as they stepped inside.

The pub was busy, packed with Hogwarts students. Scorpius spotted Lily Potter and Poppy Longbottom whispering secretively and casting furtive glances at a nearby group of boys. At the next table, Thea was surrounded by her Slytherin girls, seemingly having a wonderful time with her friends. She caught Scorpius’ eye and gave him a little wave which Scorpius returned.

“Can’t I even go on a date without having to compete with Thea Jordan?” Rose rolled her eyes at the interaction and Scorpius immediately felt like he’d been caught misbehaving by Professor McGonagall.

“Uh, sorry,” Scorpius muttered uncomfortably as they looked for a free table.

“It’s okay, she hasn’t got a date, has she?” Rose grinned and picked a table in plain sight of the Slytherin girls.

Sat across from each other at the small table, a warm butterbeer in each of their hands, Scorpius realised he really didn’t have much to say to Rose. And as it turned out, she had little to say to him either.

He cast around desperately for some kind of conversation topic. “Have you had any ideas about getting the dress code changed? You know, the skirts and trousers thing?”

Rose shook her head. “No, not yet.”

“Oh.”

Scorpius didn’t know what to say after that; he didn’t have any ideas for the dress code either.

They talked about Quidditch for a bit, Rose describing a few of her more recent successes as a Beater for Gryffindor and Scorpius nodding along. But as Scorpius was best friends with a member of the rival team, she was careful not to give too much away and the conversation quickly fizzled out.

“What are you going to get Albus for his birthday?” Rose asked, after a pause that had been just that bit too long.

“Oh! I’ve had his present bought and wrapped since November,” Scorpius replied honestly. “It’s an extension for his music box, it reads the user’s mood and chooses music for them based on what they want to hear.”

Rose looked impressed. “I was just going to get him a box of chocolate frogs.”

As silence settled on the unlikely couple again, Scorpius spotted a flash of dark hair and a Slytherin scarf out of the corner of his eye and, with a jolt, he remembered Albus had said he would be meeting James here too. He casually turned around, on the pretence of scratching his ear, but it wasn’t his best friend at all, just some other Slytherin with dark hair which was far too tidy in Scorpius’ opinion.

The rest of their date passed in a similar way: Rose would suggest where they went, Scorpius would agree, they would arrive there and have a brief conversation about something, the conversation would die out, Scorpius would become paranoid he had seen Albus.

It wasn’t until Rose bumped into a huge gang of Gryffindors in Dervish and Banges that she seemed to be having a good time. She was laughing and joking and chattering freely with her friends. One of the friends was holding up some sort of contraption he had just bought as the rest spoke enthusiastically about the ‘wicked game’ they were going to have with it up in the Gryffindor common room. They rushed off, one of them turning curiously to see why Rose hadn’t followed.

She looked at Scorpius awkwardly. “You don’t mind, do you Scorpius? I’ll catch you later.” She gave him a fleeting hug and ran to catch up with her friends, leaving Scorpius stood there feeling like he wanted the ground to swallow him up.

All Scorpius could focus on was how much he wanted his best friend: Al’s reassuring smile, his kind laughter as Scorpius told him what a disaster it had been, his warm, comforting hugs.

Scorpius trudged glumly up the quiet high street towards Locks by Lupin. After the disappointment of not seeing Al anywhere in Hogsmeade that day, he thought it unlikely he’d still be in the village but he wanted to check before he returned to the castle alone.

The shop was the quietest Scorpius had ever seen it, with nobody in the waiting area. The receptionist smiled up at him as the shop bell rang. There was music playing faintly in the background, a band who sounded familiar to Scorpius as something Albus might have listened to in their dorm.

He couldn’t see Albus in the shop anywhere, but he could have been round the corner with Teddy, who Scorpius also couldn’t see anywhere.

“Hi, do you have an appointment today?” the smiling receptionist asked him kindly, but she looked a bit confused, probably aware that he did not have an appointment.

“Er, I’m looking for my friend,” he started to explain. “He probably left already, sorry.”

At that moment, Teddy emerged and greeted Scorpius with a wide smile. Despite only having met the older boy a handful of times that summer while he was staying at the Potters, Teddy was always friendly towards Scorpius. He knew Albus considered him a brother, which was funny because it was actually Scorpius who was distantly related to the metamorphmagus.

“Hi Scorpius, are you here for a haircut?” Teddy asked him and Scorpius immediately felt self-conscious. Did he look like he needed a haircut?

“Um, no,” Scorpius replied stiffly, running his hand through the front of his hair. As soon as he said it, he realised it sounded rude. Damn the Malfoy need to be overly polite. “Not that I don’t want you to, er, well, I just got my hair cut in the holidays.” He tried to explain why he’d said no immediately.

“It looks great,” Teddy said genuinely with a smile.

“Thanks,” Scorpius replied, reminding himself why he was there in the first place. “Um, is Al here? I know he said he would be at some point and I couldn’t see him in The Three Broomsticks.”

“Hey, Scor.” Albus appeared from where Teddy had also just been. He was looking adorably grumpy and Albus-y, his green hoodie tied around his waist revealing his bright, white t-shirt with the logo of a band he liked. His hair, while not the messy length Scorpius had admired before Albus had left, still made his fingertips tingle when he thought about running his hands through it. It was shorter at the back and long on top and it really suited him quite well like that. It fell into his face artfully and brushed at the freckles dusting his cheekbone. Scorpius caught himself starting to stare and tried to rearrange his face into a casual, I-wasn’t-just-checking-out-my-best-friend expression.

“Hey,” he replied in a small voice.

“Where’s Rose?” Albus questioned, still looking a bit sulky. Scorpius wondered if he was still peeved he’d had to come to Hogsmeade on his own instead of with Thea (or him, but he wouldn’t let himself think that).

“Er, with her mates,” Scorpius replied, the embarrassment of his afternoon washing over him again.

“Good date?” Albus asked, not sounding very interested in the answer. Scorpius felt slightly hurt that his best friend didn’t seem to care about how it had gone.

Still, there was no point in being anything less than honest. “On a scale of one to ten, one being the worst, most awkward encounter you can imagine experiencing, ten being blissful oblivion, better than a thousand sunsets-”

“I get it, Scor,” Albus interrupted him, his expression warming ever so slightly.

“It was around a minus five.” Scorpius stared at his feet, knowing how comforted he would be if Albus started acting like himself again.

“That bad?” Teddy put in, leaning on his shop counter and giving Scorpius a strange look. “Blimey, I thought Rose was alright,” he grinned.

Scorpius couldn’t have them thinking badly of Rose. “Merlin no! She is, it was all me.” He turned from Teddy to Albus, wanting his best friend to sympathise with him. “Turns out I’m terrible at going on dates. Really, truly awful at them.”

Albus looked at him briefly, his eyes still giving away a hurt Scorpius couldn’t explain.

“Maybe you haven’t been on a date with the right person yet?” Teddy mused, and unbidden to Scorpius, a vision came to his mind of going on a date with Albus. Sitting cozily opposite Albus drinking butterbeer, agonising over whether to hold hands with Albus as they walked down the street, going to all of Albus’ favourite places because Scorpius loved to see the smile on his face when they visited the apothecary that hardly any students went to, huddling together to keep warm outside the shrieking shack and maybe, just maybe, sharing a kiss with Albus.

“The right person, maybe,” Scorpius mumbled, willing the image to go away before he said something stupid. “No offence to your cousin, Al. It’s not Rose’s fault. I’ve never been on a date with a girl before and I’m not sure I’d want to again.”

He wondered if Albus picked up that he meant he wasn’t sure if he’d want to go on a date with any girl again. Albus wasn’t looking at him though.

“How was your Hogsmeade visit?” Scorpius changed the subject from his disastrous date, relaxing a bit and leaning against the counter.

“Okay,” Albus replied, mirroring his movement and bringing them closer together. “Didn’t do much: saw James in The Three Broomsticks, said hi to Uncle Ron, came here and got my hair cut.”

“It looks very nice,” Scorpius said quickly, hoping this sounded as platonic as he wanted it to and didn’t give away just how attractive he thought Albus was.

“Thanks.” Albus ran a hand through his dark hair and looked up at Scorpius through his eyelashes. “Wasn’t really as good as Hogsmeade normally is though.”

“No,” Scorpius agreed, feeling a bit reckless. “I suppose I missed hanging out with you.” What he wanted to say was I missed you but that didn’t seem platonic enough.

Scorpius didn’t miss the sudden grin that took over Albus’ sulky face, which he quickly tried to conceal. “Did you?”

He looked adorably vulnerable in this question, giving Scorpius the confidence to tell Albus some of the truth. “Yeah, I really did. I was on my disastrous date with Rose, and all I could think about was how much fun Hogsmeade usually is with my best friend.”

Albus’ posture relaxed at Scorpius’ words and Scorpius felt pained that Albus might have thought he didn’t want to spend time with him.

“So, will you be going on another date with Rose?” Al teased, sounding more like himself.

Scorpius laughed, pleased that his best friend was back. “Absolutely not. Al, you would have found it so funny, there was a point where nobody spoke for ninety-two seconds! I counted! Neither of us could think of a thing to say, I felt like a goldfish, just opening and closing my mouth. It was hideous!”

Albus joined him in his laughter, shrugging his cloak back on to leave. “See you later, Teddy! Thanks for the haircut.”

“Bye, Teddy,” Scorpius said as he left the shop side by side with his best friend.

“So tell me more, Romeo,” Albus said keenly, bumping his shoulder into Scorpius’ side. Scorpius responded by messing Albus’ new hairstyle up with his hand and Albus grinned and ducked away from his reach.

Scorpius talked him through the catastrophe that had been his date with Rose, leaving out only the parts when he thought he’d spotted Albus. He told Albus nearly everything, right up to the point before Rose had abandoned him in Dervish and Banges to go off with her Gryffindor friends. “It was a disaster from start to finish, I’m sure she’s wishing she’d never gone with me.” Scorpius tried to evaluate his feelings towards this fact. While he was still crawling with embarrassment at the whole thing, he also felt distinctly relieved that there was no chance Rose would want another date with him.

“Well if she is, she’s an idiot.” Albus sounded a bit fierce and Scorpius gave him a questioning look. “She shouldn’t be messing you around like that,” Albus said softly.

He knew he’d been kidding himself more or less the whole time, but he’d thought maybe he’d have so much fun with Rose he could learn to like her in that way. It was with that thought that Scorpius considered what would have happened if it had gone well and Rose had wanted another date, what if she had really enjoyed herself and he’d just been using her the whole time? Scorpius decided with that horrible thought that enough was enough and he wasn’t going to involve anybody else in his crazy, weird feelings for his best friend.

“Maybe that’s just what dates are meant to be like?” Albus joked, the grumpiness he’d displayed back in Teddy’s shop long gone. “I wouldn’t know, I’ve never been on one. Rose was right, I barely know what ‘dating’ is.”

“I don’t understand why you haven’t. You’re amazing at Potions and you’re on the Quidditch team and you’re funny and you care about others and-” Scorpius abruptly stopped himself before Malfoy The Platonic was overpowered by Scorpius-who-fancies-Albus.

Albus had gone quiet and was looking at his feet as they walked. “You’re a good best friend, Scor.”

“I’m not just saying that because I’m your best friend, Al. It’s all true! Do you know I once overheard a group of girls in our year all discussing how much they wanted to date you?” Scorpius had never shared this with Albus before, mainly because it reminded him that they’d also described his best friend as ‘cold and unfriendly’, but he felt it was the right time for Albus to hear it.

“Did you?” Albus sounded uninterested, as if he thought Scorpius had made it all up.

“Yes! I think you could… I think you could have anybody you wanted if you put your mind to it.”

“Because it went so well the last time I asked someone out?”

“Albus, stop! Thea only said no because she was going with someone else.” Scorpius said this quickly, a sudden realisation flashing before his eyes. Because he’d seen Thea hadn’t he? And she definitely wasn’t on a date with anybody else. So why would she say no to Albus? Why would anyone say no to Albus?

Albus grumbled and said nothing, Scorpius decided not to reveal he’d seen Thea.

“You really like her, don’t you?” Scorpius was afraid of the answer.

Albus looked up from his feet, an uncomfortable expression on his face. “No. I don’t actually fancy her. It just seemed like a good idea at the time.”

Scorpius internally scoffed at his best friend’s stubbornness but he let his expression soften, telling Albus it was okay to feel the way he did. “Albus, it’s okay if you do. I mean, you were very upset when we left Slughorn’s Christmas party.”

There was no other explanation for how upset Albus had been that night when Thea had turned him down (apparently by lying to him, which Scorpius was not happy about).

“I wasn’t… That’s not… Have you ever had a crush on anyone other than Rose?” Albus asked in a very small voice.

Scorpius considered his words. Yes, I have a huge crush on you, stronger than anything I’ve ever felt for Rose.

“It’s hard to know, what are crushes supposed to feel like?” is what he settled on instead.

“Mum once said it’s when you look at them or think about them and it feels different than with anyone else. Is that how it feels when you look at Rose?”

Scorpius considered Ginny’s words but not in the context of looking at Rose. They seemed to perfectly explain how he had always felt when he thought about Albus, what he had first thought was just how friendship felt. They definitely didn’t describe his feelings towards Rose; those were more nervous and fearful and desperate to impress her and failing miserably every time.

“I’m not sure, maybe not.”

“I told her that didn’t make sense because, when I looked at Gonçalo Flores playing Quidditch, it felt different to watching anyone else. But, well, I couldn’t have had a crush on him, could I?”

“Couldn’t you? People do that don’t they, have crushes on other people who are the same as them. You know like girls having crushes on girls, or boys having crushes on boys.” Or me having a crush on you.

Albus nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah of course they do! Mum and Dad’s friends are married and they’re two boys. But I was so young, only eight.”

“Oh I see! Well, what about when you watch him play Quidditch now?”

“He’s been retired for several years,” Albus explained, looking suddenly gloomy.

Scorpius’ stomach lurched: was Albus implying what he thought he was? He didn’t say I wouldn’t have a crush on him! He’s a boy and I’m not into that.

“So, do you think you have a crush on Thea?” Scorpius knew the answer, but he sort of wanted Albus to admit it to him.

Albus shook his head fervently. “No, I told you I don’t fancy Thea.” He sounded genuine, which didn’t make any sense.

“You don’t?”

“No. In fact, I have no crushes on any girls. I don’t think I know how to have a crush on a girl.”

Scorpius froze. No, he couldn’t mean… Albus wasn’t trying to say… there was no way he was saying…

“Y’know, ‘cause they’re so weird and everything. I’m sure James would find it easier if he didn’t like any girls.”

What about liking a boy? Scorpius asked in his head, trying to pluck up the courage to say it out loud. But he couldn’t quite bring himself to vocalise this thought, and instead Albus tailed off, leaving a companionable silence between the two of them.

They didn’t talk about dating anymore after that, as Albus was reminded of a hilarious story from practice he hadn’t told Scorpius yet, involving Cole and inside-out Quidditch robes.

But Scorpius couldn’t help but feel as if something had shifted between them.

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chapter index

#scorbus #Scorpius malfoy #Albus potter #hpcc #cursed child #Harry Potter #ccsquad #Scorpius x Albus #sweeter than fiction #swflr15

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