Fic: Invisible to the Gods (Albus Severus/Scopius)
I haven't posted any of the fics I've written for fests lately, so I thought I'd start with this one...
Title: Invisible to the Gods
Pairing: Albus Severus/Scorpius (yes, a non-H/D Harry Potter fic from me)
Rating: Hard R
Word Count: 6850
Warnings: Angsty and kind of dark, definitely no happy endings to be found here, POV switches between the 2 main characters, violence (implied)
Summary: Albus and Scorpius learn that some things can never be undone and others can change in an instant, when an innocent act of teen rebellion puts into motion a series of events that change both of their lives forever.
Disclaimers: It all belongs to JKR, I only play in her sandbox. Plz to be not suing me.
Notes: Written for dark_branwen in hpvalensmut. The title was given to me by my fabulous beta, djin7, and comes from the Iban Proverb: "A man without tattoos is invisible to the Gods."
Invisible to the Gods
"C'mon, Dad. Please? If you read it carefully, you'll see that all we need is the signature from a parent." He passed the parchment to his father and continued, "It doesn't actually stipulate that it has to be one of his own parents. Besides, Al turns seventeen in August anyway, and he promises to hide it from Mr and Mrs Potter until then. Just think of it as an Easter present."
The elder Malfoy scanned the parchment and smirked. "How can I say no when you've done so well as to find the glaring loophole in this contract. Brilliant. Well done, son." Turning to Albus, he said, "If your father finds out, he's likely to devote the rest of his career to making my life miserable, you do know this?"
Albus felt his mood turn from bliss to dismay in an instant. "I hadn't thought of that. If you'd rather not sign, sir, I understand."
Mr Malfoy chuckled. "Not to worry, Albus. It's been too many years since I've had the opportunity to piss your father off. You get your tattoo. I'll only be too happy to face whatever he wants to throw my way." He signed his name with a flourish and passed it back to Albus.
Once again Albus felt excitement bubble to the surface. "Thank you so much, Mr Malfoy." Turning to Scorpius, he said, "What are we waiting for? Let's go now before they close."
~o~
Scorpius winced in pain and tried to focus on Albus and his never-ending string of questions. Albus had already survived his tattoo experience, thanks to Scorpius' brilliant efforts to distract him from the pain and now it was his turn to return the favour. It worked intermittently, but fuck, this hurt. Not for the first time, he questioned the sanity of their decision to get this done in the first place.
"C'mon, Scorpius, check it out! How cool does it look when its tail flicks?" Albus was standing in front of the full-length mirror, admiring the fresh tattoo that adorned the right side of his abdomen.
Admittedly, it was pretty amazing to look at. The large, black scorpion that Albus chose as a testament to their friendship was surprisingly lifelike as it crawled around and flicked its tail. "Yeah, it's brilliant," he said through gritted teeth.
For his own tattoo, Scorpius had chosen to have an asp circling his left thigh. He thought it was pretty clever. ASP for Albus Severus Potter. Like Albus, he had also wanted his tattoo represent his love for his best mate. His hopes were that it would evolve one day in to something more than platonic, and he sensed that Al felt the same way, but had not yet fully reconciled himself to the possibility. That was fine with Scorpius. He was patient. He could wait. Albus was worth it.
"How's your Grandfather been lately?"
"Wow, you sure do know how to distract a bloke. He's…" Scorpius let out a sigh. "He's… completely cracked, is what he is. Thinks the war's still going on and that I'm my dad. It's a bit creepy, to tell the truth. For the most part, he keeps to his study, reading all these dark books and talking to an imaginary Dark Lord."
Albus winced. "It's that bad, yeah?"
"Yeah. Dad says it all started while Grandfather was still in Azkaban. Every year he got a bit worse, lost a little more of his connection to reality, you know? And then, last month when he was released, he learned that Grandmother ran off to France with Marcus Flint; that just pushed him over the edge. He flailed about in a rage and pounded his head against the wall. Dad says it was awful, like something just snapped and ever since then it's been a downward spiral into complete madness."
"So why doesn't your dad send him to St Mungo's if he's that bad?"
"I dunno. Feels responsible, I guess. Dad set up the north wing of the manor just for him and allocated two house elves to keep watch over him on a full-time basis. You can imagine how much my mum liked that one."
Albus laughed. "Oh my! Two less servants to cater to her every whim. However does your mother cope?"
"She bears it well, poor lamb." Scorpius laughed. "As if she'd notice the absence of any of our elves all the way from her family's villa in Spain. She just whinged about it because she could."
"Ah yes. The Spanish villa. Does she ever actually come home anymore?"
"Pfft. For about six hours at Christmas. Just long enough to cure me of any inkling I may have had toward missing her at all."
"All done, mate," said the scruffy tattoo artist. "That'll be twenty-seven galleons each."
Scorpius looked down to admire the man's handiwork and smiled as the snake wound itself around his upper thigh, its head resting inches from his groin. He couldn't help but like the idea of having his own personal representation of Al that close to his cock at all times.
~o~
Gnawing on the tip of his quill, Albus gave his exam paper one final read-through. Satisfied with his answers, he tossed the quill onto the desk and gathered up his parchment. He was a picture of confidence as he strode up to the front of the Great Hall to hand his very last exam paper of sixth year.
He spoke briefly with Professor Kubota, the tiny witch who taught Arithmancy, before returning to his desk to pick up his bag. With a wink to his best friend and partner in crime, he left the room, thoughts of summer adding an extra spring to his step.
~o~
Cocky bastard. He literally sashayed out of here. He sure looked good doing it, too, didn't he?
Several minutes after his friend had turned in his paper, Scorpius handed his own exam to the diminutive witch and left to find Albus. It wasn't difficult. He was in front of the castle, sitting in wait on the steps.
"We're done, Scorpius. Finally free for the next two months! Praise Merlin!" Albus hopped up and draped his arm around Scorpius. "I totally fucking aced that exam, just like all the others. I'm sure I'll be top in Slytherin, and second overall only to my lovely, but annoyingly swotty Ravenclaw cousin. Let's celebrate my brilliance, shall we? I've still got some of Uncle George's contraband that I nicked for our last party. Shall we head down to the lake to partake?"
Scorpius didn't enjoy smoking those funny-smelling Muggle herbs the way Albus did, but he did enjoy how touchy-feely Al got when they did. He was even able to grope back most of the time, and if Al was high enough, he'd moan; a deep and sultry sound that went straight to Scorpius' cock. The last time this happened, Al had noticed that Scorpius was hard and began rubbing him through his robes until he came with a barely stifled groan. That had been a month earlier, and ever since then, he had been fantasizing of a repeat performance. Perhaps it wasn't entirely ethical to take advantage of his friend's diminished capacity like that, but Scorpius had never really considered ethics his prime motivating factor anyway.
"Absolutely," he replied. "Lead the way, my cocky, overconfident friend."
~o~
"ALBUS SEVERUS POTTER, WHAT IT THE BLOODY HELL IS THAT THING ON YOUR BODY?" In her anger, Ginny Weasley's face had turned such a dark shade of red that it clashed with her hair.
It was too late. In a careless, forgetful moment, Albus had removed his shirt to jump into the pool and his mother saw the tattoo. Fuck. Nothing for it then, may as well shrug it off and pray the nonchalant approach deflates her anger. "It's a scorpion. Isn't it brilliant? Look, it moves around and even flicks its tail."
His mother's face turned an even darker shade of red, and Albus could see how hard she strained to physically hold herself back. It was clear that her deepest desire at that point was to launch herself at her son and claw the tattoo right off his body. Alright, so, nonchalance wasn't the right approach this time around, then.
His mother seemed too angry to speak, so his father spoke up. "Albus, get to your room. Now."
"Yes, Dad." He schooled his face into a look of absolute contrition in hopes that it would garner better results. Turning back to his mother he said, "I'm sorry, Mum. I didn't mean to disappoint you." He bowed his head and slunk back to the house and into his room.
Once inside his room he grabbed a pair of Extendable Ears and fed them through the open window so he could overhear parents' conversation.
"Gin, I know you're upset, but there's nothing we can do about it now."
"Oh, yes we can. We're going to find out exactly how he managed to get that thing without a signed note of permission. Then we'll report the shop that did that to him. He's not of age, Harry!"
"I know, Gin, but do you really think those Knockturn Alley shops are real sticklers for rules? Even though it's much less dodgy than it was when we were kids, the bottom line is that it will always be a place where anyone with enough Galleons or cunning can get whatever they want. Unfortunately for us, our son and his best friend have both of those things in abundance."
"Ugh, that Malfoy brat. Little bastard. I bet this was all his idea. I knew we should have forbidden that friendship. Look what's come of Al now-he's gone and vandalised his own body! Bloody Malfoys. Why aren't they all rotting in Azkaban where they should be? Even Lucius is free. Mad as the hatter, I hear, but still roaming around the Manor like the Lord he thinks he is."
"Ginny, you know as well as I do that Scorpius is a nice enough kid. Yeah, he's a bit like his father, but Draco Malfoy isn't evil, he's just a git. And we can't forbid our son from being friends with someone just because of his family. That's a little too close to what Lucius and all his friends believed in for my liking."
Albus saw his mother get up from her chair to sit on his father's lap. As she ran her fingers through his hair, she said, "You're right, Harry. But I'd still like to place a perpetual Bat Bogey hex on Draco Malfoy. Something tells me he had a hand in this."
His father chuckled, "Oh, please don't. Knowing Malfoy, he's likely to sue."
His mum joined his father in laughing. "Okay, Harry, if you insist."
Al saw his mum lean her face towards his dad's, so he yanked the Extendables out of his ears before he had to suffer through the sounds of his parents snogging.
~o~
Scorpius awoke with a start. Someone was screaming. He jumped out of bed, threw a robe on and ran toward the noise. It seemed to be coming from the north wing of the manor. "Grandfather!"
As he neared his Grandfather's study, Scorpius was shocked to realise that it was a woman's voice he heard, and that the screams were sounding increasingly desperate. What the hell is going on in there?
"Keep screaming, you blood-traitor bitch, it's music to my ears! Wait until the Dark Lord arrives! He'll be so pleased."
Scorpius tried to open the door but it was locked and his Alohamora had no effect.
As he desperately tried every other spell he could think of for unlocking doors, he heard the screams come to an end, followed by a loud thud. He pounded on the door, shouting to his grandfather to unlock it and let him in, but to no avail. "Grandfather! Please! Let me in! Please!"
"Move out of the way, Scorpius."
"Dad!" he exclaimed as he stepped aside to allow his father access to the door.
Draco Malfoy raised his wand, made a series of movements, and turned the doorknob. The door opened with a click. The sight that met Scorpius as he stepped inside the room made him wretch until the entire contents of his stomach splattered on to the carpet.
On the floor of the study lay the limp, bloody, and broken body of Ginny Potter. Her legs were both hanging at an unnatural angle, and her entire torso was split wide open. He had no idea what his father did to incapacitate his grandfather, but the older man was sprawled in a wing-backed char a few feet from Mrs Potter.
"Dad?" Scorpius' voice was hardly above a whisper. "Is she… is she going to be alright?"
His father was kneeling down next to her body, carefully examining her, his expression grim. He mended the slash in her torso and replied, "Not likely, son. She's been tortured using some rather extreme techniques. I haven't seen something this bad since-"
His father couldn't finish his sentence, not that he needed to. He had told Scorpius all about the horrors of the second war of Voldemort.
Scorpius knelt next to his father. "Dad, please save her. It's Albus' mum! You have to help her."
His father shook his head. "I'm sorry, son, the damage is too extensive. There's nothing we can do for her."
"How can that be? She was only in here for a few minutes! How could he have hurt her so badly in such a short time?"
"Judging by the extent of the damage, I'd say she's been here for several hours. Father must have had an imperturbable charm on the room that somehow got disabled a few minutes ago." Turning away from Scorpius, his father called out, "Dipsy! Flicksy!"
The two house elves appeared nearly simultaneously, both sporting bandages on their hands and a guilty look on their faces.
"Take this woman to St Mungo's and make absolute certain that you are not seen by anyone. Leave her somewhere that she will be noticed right away, but be careful that you remain unseen. That is of paramount importance. Understand?"
Two heads nodded.
"Good, go now, quickly, and come directly back to this room when you're done."
The elves bent down to pick her up and disappeared with a pop.
"Well, now we know who disabled the imperturbable charm." Scorpius felt a hand on his shoulder. "Go back to bed, son, I've got a lot of work to do. I'll need to erect wards and confine your grandfather to this wing. It would appear that his insanity has reached a dangerous level and I don't want you around him."
"But-"
His father stood and glared down at him. "But nothing, Scorpius. Go back to your room and forget everything you've seen here tonight. Nobody must ever know about this, including your mother. This is a horrible thing, but we cannot allow ourselves to be associated with any of the happenings of this evening. It would ruin us all."
"That's what you care about? My best friend's mum is dying and all you care about is our reputation?!"
For the first time in his life, Scorpius felt the sting of his father's hand across his cheek.
"Don't you dare judge me for doing all I can to save my family! I've done as much as possible for Ginny Potter, including putting myself at great risk to get her the medical attention she needs. And now I am protecting my family. Or would you rather we all get branded as dark wizards and thrown into Azkaban? That's what will happen to us if the Ministry finds out about tonight. Do you think they won't assume we're all in on it? The Malfoy name may not have as many negative connotations as it once did, but there are still enough people who would take great pleasure in putting us all away for life."
Scorpius did not know what to say.
"Go back to bed, Scorpius."
Knowing that any further argument was futile, Scorpius returned to bed. Every time he closed his eyes, he was haunted by the scene in his grandfather's study, so he gave up on sleep and stared at the ceiling until the sun rose.
As he sat at the dining room table, barely noticing his untouched breakfast, a large barn owl dropped a letter on Scorpius' plate.
Scorpius,
Mum is in the hospital. She's not doing well. I need you here. Please come.
Al
Scorpius put the letter down on the table and resumed staring at his food.
"What did Albus have to say?"
Scorpius turned in surprise. "How'd you know?"
His father merely raised an eyebrow.
Scorpius sighed. "He wants me to go there to keep him company."
His father nodded. "Then finish your breakfast and go. Your friend needs you."
~o~
"They say she must have been brutally tortured for hours and it's a miracle she survived. They found her in a hallway here in the hospital, but nobody knows how she got there. It doesn't make sense. Did they suddenly realise they went too far? Did they change their minds and decide to get her some help? What? And why would anyone torture my mum anyway? I don't understand. Who would do something like this, Scorpius?"
Albus looked up at Scorpius to see tears forming in his eyes. Anyone who ever wondered how Scorpius Malfoy could be my best mate would not ask that question if they saw him now. This is a true friend. He stood up and put his arms around Scorpius, putting every thankful feeling he had into the hug.
Scorpius murmured into his shoulder, "I'm so sorry, Al."
"Thanks. You have no idea how much I need you here right now. Dad's a mess. He doesn't move. He doesn't talk. He just sits there. He can't stand being unable to do anything for her. It's fucking awful, Scorpius. How did this happen?"
~o~
Scorpius stepped from the fireplace and dusted himself off. He could see relief flood Al's eyes when he sat down next to him. "How's your mum doing? Is she any better this morning?"
Al shook his head. “No change, and the Healers don’t have much hope. Dad went mad after he got over the initial shock. He refused to leave the hospital and had to be escorted home via Floo. Then, after the security wizards left, he flew into a rage and started throwing things around the house. We had to call Uncle Ron to come and settle him down."
Scorpius winced.
Albus gave a wry laugh. "Yeah, exactly. You know things are bad when Uncle Ron is the voice of reason. Anyway, they headed off to look for clues about who did it, and now he's at the hospital. I don't think he slept at all last night."
"I'm sorry, Al." You have no idea how much.
~o~
"Any change in your mum?" Scorpius hated asking, but he knew it was expected.
"No. All this time and she still hasn't shown any improvement." Albus sighed. "Dad's worse than ever. The Auror Department forced him take a leave, so he could concentrate on Mum, and not run around torturing their informants. So instead he spends all his days at the hospital, and his nights trying to find out who's responsible for it with Uncle Ron. James has taken an extended leave from Auror training to keep an eye on him, too."
"Are you still going back to Hogwarts?"
"Absolutely. I can't handle the tension, nor can Lily. September first can't come fast enough for us." Albus stood up and continued. "I don't wanna talk about this anymore. It's my birthday, after all. I've nicked some more of Uncle George's stash. Let's head to our favourite spot on this lovely Manor's extensive grounds and smoke it."
~o~
Feeling at peace at last, Albus lay back and watched his friend play with a blade of grass. "Scorpius."
"Hmm?"
"Lie down next to me. You're too far away."
Scorpius shifted and lay down next to Albus. Pleased with such easy compliance, he reached out and pulled him closer still. "I want to touch you, Scorpius."
"You are touching me, Al."
"No, I mean, not through your robes this time. I want to touch your skin. Don't you want to do the same?"
Albus could see from the look in Scorpius' eyes, that he wanted exactly that. He pulled his own robes off, then stared at Scorpius expectantly. Once again, his friend complied.
He reached forward and gave Scorpius' pants a downward tug, smiling as the already hard cock bobbed up and down as soon as it was freed from the constrictive material.
Within moments, he felt fingers pulling at the waistband of his own pants, followed by cool air on his naked cock. This was more like it.
Albus rolled Scorpius onto his back and leaned in for a kiss as he wriggled until both his and Scorpius' legs were no longer tied up by their pesky underwear.
Scorpius gasped. "Oh Merlin, that feels good."
"What?" Albus asked, wriggling some more. "This?"
"Yes, oh God yes," replied Scorpius, thrusting his hips upward as he did.
"Oh!" Heat shot through Albus like a lightning strike. It had felt good when he was wriggling, but Scorpius' thrusts made the feeling something akin to heaven. "Yes, I have to agree with you on that one," Albus said, returning the favour.
Scorpius deepened the kiss and the pair continued to grind against each other until Albus felt his release rock through his entire body. He let out a loud moan and collapsed on top of Scorpius.
He lay there for a moment when a thought suddenly occurred to him. "Oh, Merlin! I forgot about you. I just… uh, finished and didn't think to make sure you did too."
"It's okay. I already did. Uh, a few minutes before you."
"Oh. I, guess I didn't notice. Um. Sorry. Apparently I was in my own little world."
Scorpius smiled. "That's alright. You're allowed, it's your birthday."
Smiling, Albus leaned in to kiss Scorpius again. "So, if it's my birthday, do we get to do that once for every year I've been alive?"
~o~
As Al began to snore softly, Scorpius slid out of the bed and into his own four-poster. Yet again, Al fell asleep almost immediately after coming, leaving Scorpius high and dry.
In the three months since they had started fooling around on a regular basis, Al had become increasingly self absorbed, both in and out of bed. Scorpius never ever said anything about it to Al. How could he? Al's life was a mess and so much of it was Scorpius' fault. After all, it was his grandfather who tortured Al's mum so bad that she was now a long-term resident of the closed ward at St Mungo's. Every time Scorpius thought of it, his guilt overwhelmed him and he would try to confess. Something always stopped him.
Al's dad seemed to care about nothing but finding the person responsible, and this hurt Al. Scorpius could make at least that source of pain go away for both his best friend and Mr Potter, but he kept his mouth shut and watched, while it ate his friend up inside.
Scorpius was a bad friend who deserved to be ignored. In fact, he deserved much worse than that.
So, rather than become frustrated at the one-sidedness of their relationship, Scorpius reminded himself to be grateful that Al finally saw him as more than a friend. He crushed down that nagging feeling of being used and grasped his cock. Shutting his eyes, he focussed on one of the many fantasies he'd constructed in his head and stroked himself to orgasm.
~o~
Albus watched his father disappear in a swirl of green flames as he left for St Mungo's. Arriving home for the Christmas holidays, Albus was shocked to see how terrible his dad looked. On some level, he knew that the whole family was showing the physical indications of the prolonged stress and grief for his mum, but he had always pictured his father as a tower of strength, the Auror and Defeater of Voldemort. In only a couple of months, his dad had turned into an old man.
The weight that had slowly begun to lift throughout the school term settled right back on to Albus' shoulders. He turned to his older brother and said, "For fuck's sake, James, why the hell didn't you tell me any of this? Why didn't you tell me how much Dad's been wasting away?"
"What good would it do, Al? It's not like you can do anything for him. It's better that you and Lils stayed in school and didn't know how bad things were."
Albus buried his face in his hands. "He's aged at least ten years since I last saw him, and he's so thin. How is he still able to function?"
"Right now, I think it's only out of sheer will. He's still holds out hope that Mum will get better and he's determined to find whoever is responsible. He's even got Aunt Hermione using some of her resources from Department of Mysteries. She thinks she's close to finding a way to remove and study memories from someone in a comatose state. She's been working on it day and night, hardly getting any sleep. No one is doing too well, right now. Trust me when I say you're better off at Hogwarts and away from all this." James ran his fingers through his hair Albus noticed that his brother, too, was looking much less like himself these days.
"I gotta get the fuck out of here. I'm going to visit Scorpius for a while."
~o~
Scorpius was in his father's library selecting a book to read when a house elf appeared and told him that a visitor had come through the Floo. As he neared the fireplace, he saw Albus walking toward him, his face more tense than usual.
"Al! I wasn't expecting to see-" Scorpius' greeting was brought to a halt by forceful hands pulling him in for a searing kiss.
Albus broke away from the kiss as roughly as he started it and said, "Your room. Now."
Scorpius nodded and Apparated them both to his bedroom. "What's going on, Al? You look-"
"Don’t wanna talk," said Albus as he yanked at Scorpius' robes. "Wanna be naked. Want you." He leaned down and began to kiss Scorpius' neck, an action that always made him weak in the knees.
Scorpius began tugging Al's clothes off of him as well and the two young men tumbled onto his bed in a writhing mass, Albus rolling on top of Scorpius as they landed.
Albus raised Scorpius' arms above his head and pinned them there, then resumed kissing, biting and licking Scorpius' neck, from chin to collarbone. Scorpius sighed and bucked his hips forward, desperate for even more contact.
He felt Al let go of his grip on his arms as he made his way slowly downward. He stopped for a while to play with Scorpius' nipple, another of his weaknesses. First he'd bite it hard, then lave it with his tongue to soothe it, and just as the burning sensation was starting to ease, Albus would bite down again, sending waves of pleasure coursing through Scorpius' body. He moaned in delight.
Eventually Albus licked and nibbled his way down to Scorpius' groin, but rather than stopping at his cock, he continued down Scorpius' left leg. "What do you think this thing will do if I lick it?" he asked, then flicked his tongue out and traced the outline of the asp on Scorpius' thigh.
The tattoo began to slither its way up and down his thigh, stopping whenever Al's tongue made contact. Scorpius propped himself up on his elbows so that he could watch the spectacle.
"This is really cool. Why haven't I tried this before?" Albus was completely engaged in his pursuit of the moving snake tattoo and whenever he caught it with a lick, Scorpius' cock would twitch. He had never seen anything so arousing.
At least, that's what he thought until he saw Albus give one final lick to the snake tattoo and then engulf Scorpius’ cock in one fell swoop. "Oh dear Merlin!" he shouted, as, with just that brief moment of contact between mouth and cock, Scorpius came harder than he ever thought possible.
Al swallowed, leaned up to kiss Scorpius and whispered, "I wanna fuck you. May I?"
Still reeling from his orgasm, Scorpius simply nodded his assent.
Al propped Scorpius' bum up on some pillows and asked, "Do you have anything? Lube?"
Again, Scorpius nodded, this time gesturing to his beside table.
Al reached over to grab the jar and opened it. He scooped out a generous amount and put the jar back on the table. Scorpius watched as Al covered three of his fingers with lube, and then slathered the rest on his gorgeously hard cock.
Scorpius gasped when he felt a slick finger enter his arse. He'd done this to himself numerous times before, but he was fast realizing that it wasn't nearly as good as having it done by someone else.
After a few moments of working one finger in and out of Scorpius, Al added a second, and eventually a third. By this point, Scorpius was hungry for more. He finally knew how it felt to have part of Al inside of him, and every fibre of his being was aching for the feel of Al's cock inside him.
As if he could read Scorpius' mind, Al removed his fingers and began lining up his cock with Scorpius' opening. In a gruff voice he asked, "Ready?" and before Scorpius was finished saying yes, Al's cock breached his arse and he felt the most intense burning pain he'd ever known.
"Oh!" he grunted.
"Too much?" Albus asked. "Only, I've always thought that the best way to remove a bandage was to rip it off in one go. I figured this might be the same. Should I pull back out?"
For a moment, Scorpius wanted to scream, YES! Get that thing the fuck out of me now! It's tearing me apart! But he knew the pain would pass, and so he shook his head no. "Just, give me a moment," he said between clenched teeth.
He lay there taking deep breaths in hopes of getting past the pain, and when it became bearable again, he nodded to Albus, who pushed more of himself inside, this time a bit more slowly. It still hurt like hell, and he felt an incredible amount of pressure inside of him that made him feel like he was about to burst. Then he felt Al draw himself out and the pressure abated.
Al pushed forward again, and back out, slowly picking up the pace with each motion. Eventually, Scorpius could tolerate the sensations and encouraged Al to move faster. Al complied most willingly, thrusting in and out at a quick pace that Scorpius started not only to bear but to almost enjoy.
At some point, Al found an angle that allowed him to graze Scorpius' prostate. Scorpius felt himself growing hard again, and just as he was on the brink of coming once more, Al gave a huge, hard thrust that actually knocked the wind out of Scorpius, then he felt a heat fill his insides as Al came.
Al collapsed in an exhausted heap next to Scorpius, completely engrossed his orgasm and blissfully unaware that his partner was still hard. Scorpius sighed, then reached down and stroked himself to completion as he listened to the sound Al's breathing settling into soft snores.
In this moment, he felt almost content. Up until his own orgasm hit, Al had been surprisingly attentive. And Scorpius did manage to come twice. Yes, he felt almost content. If only he could do something about that voice in his head that kept telling him that he was going to lose Al the moment he found out how badly Scorpius had been deceiving him.
~o~
One day in late February, Albus and Scorpius were returning to the castle after spending the day in Hogsmeade, when Lily rushed up, her face looking both tense and hopeful.
"Al! There you are! We have to go home, Aunt Hermione has figured it out, they're gonna try to retrieve Mum's memories tonight. Dad sent an owl to the Headmistress who's given us permission to leave. Hurry, we have to go to her office and use her Floo!"
Mum's memories! We'll finally know who did this! Dad can finally stop searching for the culprit and start living again. Finally, thank Merlin! "Scorpius, you have to come with me."
"No, Albus, that's a family moment. I mustn't intrude."
Albus felt panicked. Everyone in his family had become so insular lately that Scorpius was the only person he felt an emotional connection with. "Please, Scorpius. Come with me. I can't. I need you there with me, please."
Scorpius looked as if he was about to say no again, but Lily piped up. "Headmistress Vector's permission has been extended to you, Scorpius. It seems my dad expected you to come along with Al and asked her if she'd allow it."
"See, Scorpius, you have to come. Please say yes."
Albus could see that his friend was still very hesitant, but he nodded his head and came along with them, much to Albus' relief.
~o~
Scorpius had never felt so nervous in his life. Sitting with Al and his family was something he had grown comfortable with over the years, but tonight, as they all crowded into a private waiting room at St Mungo's, he felt like a rabbit who had stumbled amidst of a pack of sleeping wolves, terrified that, at any moment, one would awaken and he'd become their next meal.
Al had been clutching his hand so tightly for the past twenty minutes that it was starting to go numb, but Scorpius was not about to complain. He would be there for Al for as long as he was wanted, which, he knew, was not likely to be much longer.
Scorpius had no doubt that the moment they knew of his family's involvement in Ginny Potter's torture, his friendship with Al and possibly his freedom would come to an end. As he sat, he mentally prepared himself for this eventuality.
Because they expected the memories to be horrific, the family were not allowed in the room during the retrieval. Even Hermione Weasley, who invented the process, was only in the room long enough to get things started. Once it had begun, her staff members took over and she joined the rest of the family to wait for the outcome.
After an interminable amount of time, one of the Aurors called Mr Potter into the room. Was that a suspicious glare that Auror just shot at me? Is this when it all ends?
As slowly as time passed while they were waiting, the time between Harry Potter leaving the room, and his return with a group of Aurors heading straight toward Scorpius, was over in a heartbeat.
"Scorpius Malfoy, please come with us. We are taking you in for questioning about the incarceration and torture of Ginevra Potter."
Scorpius couldn't breathe, let alone speak. He simply nodded his understanding. Al, on the other hand, leapt up and put himself between the Aurors and Scorpius.
"What the fuck are you talking about?! Dad, get these goons away from Scorpius!"
"Al, his grandfather is the person who did it. It happened in his home." Mr Potter said flatly. "The Aurors just want to ask him some questions to see what he knows."
Al turned to face Scorpius, his eyes wide with disbelief. "Did you know?"
"Al, please."
Anger flooded Albus' features. Narrowing his eyes, he repeated his question. "Did. You. Know?"
Again, Scorpius found himself at a loss for words. He closed his eyes as he felt the sting of tears starting to fall and nodded. "Please," he croaked. "Al. I-."
"Oh my God, you did. You knew."
Scorpius couldn’t find his voice.
"You make me sick. Get out of my sight." Al stepped aside, turned to the Aurors and said, "Take him wherever you want. I'm not gonna fight you on it."
"Al." Scorpius whispered . He felt completely helpless when Albus refused to look at him. Unable to face anyone else, he dropped his eyes to the floor and allowed the Aurors to lead him away.
~o~
Albus packed hastily, trying to avoid a confrontation. His thoughts ran to his mother, still in her bed at St Mungo's, and unlikely to ever recover. His father wasn't much better off. He’d returned to work, but Albus knew that he was only going through the motions. His once strong and seemingly invincible dad was just a shadow of the man he had always been.
James had said he'd keep an eye on their dad, but Al knew that his older brother was having a hard go of it, too. Of the three of them, James was closest to their mum, and her loss was hitting him hard.
Lily was distant and moody, and Al was pretty certain his classmates would describe him in much the same way. His once happy family had fallen apart at the seams, and he couldn't help but blame himself for it.
Even though he was relieved that Lucius Malfoy was never leaving Azkaban, he felt a bit guilty that Scorpius' dad had also been sentenced to five years for concealing the truth. Apparently he even went so far as to invoke some old family magic on Scorpius that made it physically impossible for him to divulge details about that evening's events to anyone not of Malfoy blood. It was that fact that saved Scorpius from any prison time.
Albus was torn on the subject of Mr Malfoy. On the one hand his concealment caused so much torment for Al and his family, but on the other hand, he never would have had to do any of that if Albus' mum had never gone to Malfoy Manor that day to confront him about Albus' tattoo. And this, Al knew, was all his doing.
Al scratched his abdomen, remembering how excited he was the day he and Scorpius got their tattoos. Everything about that day- the excitement, the love he had for his best friend, the summer full of promise - now seemed like a memory that belonged to someone else. Back then he had thought nothing would ever come between him and Scorpius, but everything changed that night at the hospital.
Al was standing by his bed, throwing the last few items into his trunk and remembering Scorpius' haunted, guilt-ridden face at St Mungo’s, when the dormitory door opened.
~o~
"Oh. I, uh, didn't know you were here."
Scorpius could see Albus’ back stiffen at the sound of his voice. "Yeah, I was just packing up my stuff. I'm moving to the sixth year dorms."
"Oh," Scorpius replied, stepping inside and closing the door behind him. "So, I guess I have my answer about whether or not you forgive me."
"No. You don't, actually." Albus turned toward him. "I do forgive you, Scorpius. I know that you couldn't tell me. And I know you had nothing to do with what happened to my mum, I know you tried to get her help. I know all that, but-"
"But you still can't stand the sight of me."
Albus seemed to be at a loss for words. He stared at the ground for a few moments, then finally shook his head, his lips silently mouthing the word, “No.”
"So that's it, then? That's the end? We've been best friends since first year. We've been more than that. Hell, we even have tributes to each other tattooed to our bodies and-"
"Not anymore."
"What?"
"I said," Albus lifted his shirt and showed Scorpius the clear, unmarked skin that lay in the spot where his tattoo used to be. "Not anymore."
Scorpius felt like he'd just been hit in the stomach by a bludger at full speed. "You got it removed?"
Running a hand through his dark hair, Albus said, "That tattoo, it's what triggered this whole, awful thing. If we weren't so impatient to get them, my mum never would have gone to the Manor and your Grandfather never would have… That tattoo reminded me of everything bad that's happened in my life and I had to get rid of it."
Scorpius nodded. "And now you're getting rid of me because I also remind you of everything bad in your life?" He choked out.
"Don't you get it, Scorpius?" Albus asked. "If you and I hadn't been friends, none of this would have happened and my family would be happy and healthy. How can I be around you knowing that?"
Scorpius could think of nothing to say in response. Instead, he only watched, his own world just as ruined, as Albus turned back to close the lid on his trunk, pick it up and leave the room without another word.
~FIN~
Title: Invisible to the Gods
Pairing: Albus Severus/Scorpius (yes, a non-H/D Harry Potter fic from me)
Rating: Hard R
Word Count: 6850
Warnings: Angsty and kind of dark, definitely no happy endings to be found here, POV switches between the 2 main characters, violence (implied)
Summary: Albus and Scorpius learn that some things can never be undone and others can change in an instant, when an innocent act of teen rebellion puts into motion a series of events that change both of their lives forever.
Disclaimers: It all belongs to JKR, I only play in her sandbox. Plz to be not suing me.
Notes: Written for dark_branwen in hpvalensmut. The title was given to me by my fabulous beta, djin7, and comes from the Iban Proverb: "A man without tattoos is invisible to the Gods."
Invisible to the Gods
"C'mon, Dad. Please? If you read it carefully, you'll see that all we need is the signature from a parent." He passed the parchment to his father and continued, "It doesn't actually stipulate that it has to be one of his own parents. Besides, Al turns seventeen in August anyway, and he promises to hide it from Mr and Mrs Potter until then. Just think of it as an Easter present."
The elder Malfoy scanned the parchment and smirked. "How can I say no when you've done so well as to find the glaring loophole in this contract. Brilliant. Well done, son." Turning to Albus, he said, "If your father finds out, he's likely to devote the rest of his career to making my life miserable, you do know this?"
Albus felt his mood turn from bliss to dismay in an instant. "I hadn't thought of that. If you'd rather not sign, sir, I understand."
Mr Malfoy chuckled. "Not to worry, Albus. It's been too many years since I've had the opportunity to piss your father off. You get your tattoo. I'll only be too happy to face whatever he wants to throw my way." He signed his name with a flourish and passed it back to Albus.
Once again Albus felt excitement bubble to the surface. "Thank you so much, Mr Malfoy." Turning to Scorpius, he said, "What are we waiting for? Let's go now before they close."
~o~
Scorpius winced in pain and tried to focus on Albus and his never-ending string of questions. Albus had already survived his tattoo experience, thanks to Scorpius' brilliant efforts to distract him from the pain and now it was his turn to return the favour. It worked intermittently, but fuck, this hurt. Not for the first time, he questioned the sanity of their decision to get this done in the first place.
"C'mon, Scorpius, check it out! How cool does it look when its tail flicks?" Albus was standing in front of the full-length mirror, admiring the fresh tattoo that adorned the right side of his abdomen.
Admittedly, it was pretty amazing to look at. The large, black scorpion that Albus chose as a testament to their friendship was surprisingly lifelike as it crawled around and flicked its tail. "Yeah, it's brilliant," he said through gritted teeth.
For his own tattoo, Scorpius had chosen to have an asp circling his left thigh. He thought it was pretty clever. ASP for Albus Severus Potter. Like Albus, he had also wanted his tattoo represent his love for his best mate. His hopes were that it would evolve one day in to something more than platonic, and he sensed that Al felt the same way, but had not yet fully reconciled himself to the possibility. That was fine with Scorpius. He was patient. He could wait. Albus was worth it.
"How's your Grandfather been lately?"
"Wow, you sure do know how to distract a bloke. He's…" Scorpius let out a sigh. "He's… completely cracked, is what he is. Thinks the war's still going on and that I'm my dad. It's a bit creepy, to tell the truth. For the most part, he keeps to his study, reading all these dark books and talking to an imaginary Dark Lord."
Albus winced. "It's that bad, yeah?"
"Yeah. Dad says it all started while Grandfather was still in Azkaban. Every year he got a bit worse, lost a little more of his connection to reality, you know? And then, last month when he was released, he learned that Grandmother ran off to France with Marcus Flint; that just pushed him over the edge. He flailed about in a rage and pounded his head against the wall. Dad says it was awful, like something just snapped and ever since then it's been a downward spiral into complete madness."
"So why doesn't your dad send him to St Mungo's if he's that bad?"
"I dunno. Feels responsible, I guess. Dad set up the north wing of the manor just for him and allocated two house elves to keep watch over him on a full-time basis. You can imagine how much my mum liked that one."
Albus laughed. "Oh my! Two less servants to cater to her every whim. However does your mother cope?"
"She bears it well, poor lamb." Scorpius laughed. "As if she'd notice the absence of any of our elves all the way from her family's villa in Spain. She just whinged about it because she could."
"Ah yes. The Spanish villa. Does she ever actually come home anymore?"
"Pfft. For about six hours at Christmas. Just long enough to cure me of any inkling I may have had toward missing her at all."
"All done, mate," said the scruffy tattoo artist. "That'll be twenty-seven galleons each."
Scorpius looked down to admire the man's handiwork and smiled as the snake wound itself around his upper thigh, its head resting inches from his groin. He couldn't help but like the idea of having his own personal representation of Al that close to his cock at all times.
~o~
Gnawing on the tip of his quill, Albus gave his exam paper one final read-through. Satisfied with his answers, he tossed the quill onto the desk and gathered up his parchment. He was a picture of confidence as he strode up to the front of the Great Hall to hand his very last exam paper of sixth year.
He spoke briefly with Professor Kubota, the tiny witch who taught Arithmancy, before returning to his desk to pick up his bag. With a wink to his best friend and partner in crime, he left the room, thoughts of summer adding an extra spring to his step.
~o~
Cocky bastard. He literally sashayed out of here. He sure looked good doing it, too, didn't he?
Several minutes after his friend had turned in his paper, Scorpius handed his own exam to the diminutive witch and left to find Albus. It wasn't difficult. He was in front of the castle, sitting in wait on the steps.
"We're done, Scorpius. Finally free for the next two months! Praise Merlin!" Albus hopped up and draped his arm around Scorpius. "I totally fucking aced that exam, just like all the others. I'm sure I'll be top in Slytherin, and second overall only to my lovely, but annoyingly swotty Ravenclaw cousin. Let's celebrate my brilliance, shall we? I've still got some of Uncle George's contraband that I nicked for our last party. Shall we head down to the lake to partake?"
Scorpius didn't enjoy smoking those funny-smelling Muggle herbs the way Albus did, but he did enjoy how touchy-feely Al got when they did. He was even able to grope back most of the time, and if Al was high enough, he'd moan; a deep and sultry sound that went straight to Scorpius' cock. The last time this happened, Al had noticed that Scorpius was hard and began rubbing him through his robes until he came with a barely stifled groan. That had been a month earlier, and ever since then, he had been fantasizing of a repeat performance. Perhaps it wasn't entirely ethical to take advantage of his friend's diminished capacity like that, but Scorpius had never really considered ethics his prime motivating factor anyway.
"Absolutely," he replied. "Lead the way, my cocky, overconfident friend."
~o~
"ALBUS SEVERUS POTTER, WHAT IT THE BLOODY HELL IS THAT THING ON YOUR BODY?" In her anger, Ginny Weasley's face had turned such a dark shade of red that it clashed with her hair.
It was too late. In a careless, forgetful moment, Albus had removed his shirt to jump into the pool and his mother saw the tattoo. Fuck. Nothing for it then, may as well shrug it off and pray the nonchalant approach deflates her anger. "It's a scorpion. Isn't it brilliant? Look, it moves around and even flicks its tail."
His mother's face turned an even darker shade of red, and Albus could see how hard she strained to physically hold herself back. It was clear that her deepest desire at that point was to launch herself at her son and claw the tattoo right off his body. Alright, so, nonchalance wasn't the right approach this time around, then.
His mother seemed too angry to speak, so his father spoke up. "Albus, get to your room. Now."
"Yes, Dad." He schooled his face into a look of absolute contrition in hopes that it would garner better results. Turning back to his mother he said, "I'm sorry, Mum. I didn't mean to disappoint you." He bowed his head and slunk back to the house and into his room.
Once inside his room he grabbed a pair of Extendable Ears and fed them through the open window so he could overhear parents' conversation.
"Gin, I know you're upset, but there's nothing we can do about it now."
"Oh, yes we can. We're going to find out exactly how he managed to get that thing without a signed note of permission. Then we'll report the shop that did that to him. He's not of age, Harry!"
"I know, Gin, but do you really think those Knockturn Alley shops are real sticklers for rules? Even though it's much less dodgy than it was when we were kids, the bottom line is that it will always be a place where anyone with enough Galleons or cunning can get whatever they want. Unfortunately for us, our son and his best friend have both of those things in abundance."
"Ugh, that Malfoy brat. Little bastard. I bet this was all his idea. I knew we should have forbidden that friendship. Look what's come of Al now-he's gone and vandalised his own body! Bloody Malfoys. Why aren't they all rotting in Azkaban where they should be? Even Lucius is free. Mad as the hatter, I hear, but still roaming around the Manor like the Lord he thinks he is."
"Ginny, you know as well as I do that Scorpius is a nice enough kid. Yeah, he's a bit like his father, but Draco Malfoy isn't evil, he's just a git. And we can't forbid our son from being friends with someone just because of his family. That's a little too close to what Lucius and all his friends believed in for my liking."
Albus saw his mother get up from her chair to sit on his father's lap. As she ran her fingers through his hair, she said, "You're right, Harry. But I'd still like to place a perpetual Bat Bogey hex on Draco Malfoy. Something tells me he had a hand in this."
His father chuckled, "Oh, please don't. Knowing Malfoy, he's likely to sue."
His mum joined his father in laughing. "Okay, Harry, if you insist."
Al saw his mum lean her face towards his dad's, so he yanked the Extendables out of his ears before he had to suffer through the sounds of his parents snogging.
~o~
Scorpius awoke with a start. Someone was screaming. He jumped out of bed, threw a robe on and ran toward the noise. It seemed to be coming from the north wing of the manor. "Grandfather!"
As he neared his Grandfather's study, Scorpius was shocked to realise that it was a woman's voice he heard, and that the screams were sounding increasingly desperate. What the hell is going on in there?
"Keep screaming, you blood-traitor bitch, it's music to my ears! Wait until the Dark Lord arrives! He'll be so pleased."
Scorpius tried to open the door but it was locked and his Alohamora had no effect.
As he desperately tried every other spell he could think of for unlocking doors, he heard the screams come to an end, followed by a loud thud. He pounded on the door, shouting to his grandfather to unlock it and let him in, but to no avail. "Grandfather! Please! Let me in! Please!"
"Move out of the way, Scorpius."
"Dad!" he exclaimed as he stepped aside to allow his father access to the door.
Draco Malfoy raised his wand, made a series of movements, and turned the doorknob. The door opened with a click. The sight that met Scorpius as he stepped inside the room made him wretch until the entire contents of his stomach splattered on to the carpet.
On the floor of the study lay the limp, bloody, and broken body of Ginny Potter. Her legs were both hanging at an unnatural angle, and her entire torso was split wide open. He had no idea what his father did to incapacitate his grandfather, but the older man was sprawled in a wing-backed char a few feet from Mrs Potter.
"Dad?" Scorpius' voice was hardly above a whisper. "Is she… is she going to be alright?"
His father was kneeling down next to her body, carefully examining her, his expression grim. He mended the slash in her torso and replied, "Not likely, son. She's been tortured using some rather extreme techniques. I haven't seen something this bad since-"
His father couldn't finish his sentence, not that he needed to. He had told Scorpius all about the horrors of the second war of Voldemort.
Scorpius knelt next to his father. "Dad, please save her. It's Albus' mum! You have to help her."
His father shook his head. "I'm sorry, son, the damage is too extensive. There's nothing we can do for her."
"How can that be? She was only in here for a few minutes! How could he have hurt her so badly in such a short time?"
"Judging by the extent of the damage, I'd say she's been here for several hours. Father must have had an imperturbable charm on the room that somehow got disabled a few minutes ago." Turning away from Scorpius, his father called out, "Dipsy! Flicksy!"
The two house elves appeared nearly simultaneously, both sporting bandages on their hands and a guilty look on their faces.
"Take this woman to St Mungo's and make absolute certain that you are not seen by anyone. Leave her somewhere that she will be noticed right away, but be careful that you remain unseen. That is of paramount importance. Understand?"
Two heads nodded.
"Good, go now, quickly, and come directly back to this room when you're done."
The elves bent down to pick her up and disappeared with a pop.
"Well, now we know who disabled the imperturbable charm." Scorpius felt a hand on his shoulder. "Go back to bed, son, I've got a lot of work to do. I'll need to erect wards and confine your grandfather to this wing. It would appear that his insanity has reached a dangerous level and I don't want you around him."
"But-"
His father stood and glared down at him. "But nothing, Scorpius. Go back to your room and forget everything you've seen here tonight. Nobody must ever know about this, including your mother. This is a horrible thing, but we cannot allow ourselves to be associated with any of the happenings of this evening. It would ruin us all."
"That's what you care about? My best friend's mum is dying and all you care about is our reputation?!"
For the first time in his life, Scorpius felt the sting of his father's hand across his cheek.
"Don't you dare judge me for doing all I can to save my family! I've done as much as possible for Ginny Potter, including putting myself at great risk to get her the medical attention she needs. And now I am protecting my family. Or would you rather we all get branded as dark wizards and thrown into Azkaban? That's what will happen to us if the Ministry finds out about tonight. Do you think they won't assume we're all in on it? The Malfoy name may not have as many negative connotations as it once did, but there are still enough people who would take great pleasure in putting us all away for life."
Scorpius did not know what to say.
"Go back to bed, Scorpius."
Knowing that any further argument was futile, Scorpius returned to bed. Every time he closed his eyes, he was haunted by the scene in his grandfather's study, so he gave up on sleep and stared at the ceiling until the sun rose.
As he sat at the dining room table, barely noticing his untouched breakfast, a large barn owl dropped a letter on Scorpius' plate.
Scorpius,
Mum is in the hospital. She's not doing well. I need you here. Please come.
Al
Scorpius put the letter down on the table and resumed staring at his food.
"What did Albus have to say?"
Scorpius turned in surprise. "How'd you know?"
His father merely raised an eyebrow.
Scorpius sighed. "He wants me to go there to keep him company."
His father nodded. "Then finish your breakfast and go. Your friend needs you."
~o~
"They say she must have been brutally tortured for hours and it's a miracle she survived. They found her in a hallway here in the hospital, but nobody knows how she got there. It doesn't make sense. Did they suddenly realise they went too far? Did they change their minds and decide to get her some help? What? And why would anyone torture my mum anyway? I don't understand. Who would do something like this, Scorpius?"
Albus looked up at Scorpius to see tears forming in his eyes. Anyone who ever wondered how Scorpius Malfoy could be my best mate would not ask that question if they saw him now. This is a true friend. He stood up and put his arms around Scorpius, putting every thankful feeling he had into the hug.
Scorpius murmured into his shoulder, "I'm so sorry, Al."
"Thanks. You have no idea how much I need you here right now. Dad's a mess. He doesn't move. He doesn't talk. He just sits there. He can't stand being unable to do anything for her. It's fucking awful, Scorpius. How did this happen?"
~o~
Scorpius stepped from the fireplace and dusted himself off. He could see relief flood Al's eyes when he sat down next to him. "How's your mum doing? Is she any better this morning?"
Al shook his head. “No change, and the Healers don’t have much hope. Dad went mad after he got over the initial shock. He refused to leave the hospital and had to be escorted home via Floo. Then, after the security wizards left, he flew into a rage and started throwing things around the house. We had to call Uncle Ron to come and settle him down."
Scorpius winced.
Albus gave a wry laugh. "Yeah, exactly. You know things are bad when Uncle Ron is the voice of reason. Anyway, they headed off to look for clues about who did it, and now he's at the hospital. I don't think he slept at all last night."
"I'm sorry, Al." You have no idea how much.
~o~
"Any change in your mum?" Scorpius hated asking, but he knew it was expected.
"No. All this time and she still hasn't shown any improvement." Albus sighed. "Dad's worse than ever. The Auror Department forced him take a leave, so he could concentrate on Mum, and not run around torturing their informants. So instead he spends all his days at the hospital, and his nights trying to find out who's responsible for it with Uncle Ron. James has taken an extended leave from Auror training to keep an eye on him, too."
"Are you still going back to Hogwarts?"
"Absolutely. I can't handle the tension, nor can Lily. September first can't come fast enough for us." Albus stood up and continued. "I don't wanna talk about this anymore. It's my birthday, after all. I've nicked some more of Uncle George's stash. Let's head to our favourite spot on this lovely Manor's extensive grounds and smoke it."
~o~
Feeling at peace at last, Albus lay back and watched his friend play with a blade of grass. "Scorpius."
"Hmm?"
"Lie down next to me. You're too far away."
Scorpius shifted and lay down next to Albus. Pleased with such easy compliance, he reached out and pulled him closer still. "I want to touch you, Scorpius."
"You are touching me, Al."
"No, I mean, not through your robes this time. I want to touch your skin. Don't you want to do the same?"
Albus could see from the look in Scorpius' eyes, that he wanted exactly that. He pulled his own robes off, then stared at Scorpius expectantly. Once again, his friend complied.
He reached forward and gave Scorpius' pants a downward tug, smiling as the already hard cock bobbed up and down as soon as it was freed from the constrictive material.
Within moments, he felt fingers pulling at the waistband of his own pants, followed by cool air on his naked cock. This was more like it.
Albus rolled Scorpius onto his back and leaned in for a kiss as he wriggled until both his and Scorpius' legs were no longer tied up by their pesky underwear.
Scorpius gasped. "Oh Merlin, that feels good."
"What?" Albus asked, wriggling some more. "This?"
"Yes, oh God yes," replied Scorpius, thrusting his hips upward as he did.
"Oh!" Heat shot through Albus like a lightning strike. It had felt good when he was wriggling, but Scorpius' thrusts made the feeling something akin to heaven. "Yes, I have to agree with you on that one," Albus said, returning the favour.
Scorpius deepened the kiss and the pair continued to grind against each other until Albus felt his release rock through his entire body. He let out a loud moan and collapsed on top of Scorpius.
He lay there for a moment when a thought suddenly occurred to him. "Oh, Merlin! I forgot about you. I just… uh, finished and didn't think to make sure you did too."
"It's okay. I already did. Uh, a few minutes before you."
"Oh. I, guess I didn't notice. Um. Sorry. Apparently I was in my own little world."
Scorpius smiled. "That's alright. You're allowed, it's your birthday."
Smiling, Albus leaned in to kiss Scorpius again. "So, if it's my birthday, do we get to do that once for every year I've been alive?"
~o~
As Al began to snore softly, Scorpius slid out of the bed and into his own four-poster. Yet again, Al fell asleep almost immediately after coming, leaving Scorpius high and dry.
In the three months since they had started fooling around on a regular basis, Al had become increasingly self absorbed, both in and out of bed. Scorpius never ever said anything about it to Al. How could he? Al's life was a mess and so much of it was Scorpius' fault. After all, it was his grandfather who tortured Al's mum so bad that she was now a long-term resident of the closed ward at St Mungo's. Every time Scorpius thought of it, his guilt overwhelmed him and he would try to confess. Something always stopped him.
Al's dad seemed to care about nothing but finding the person responsible, and this hurt Al. Scorpius could make at least that source of pain go away for both his best friend and Mr Potter, but he kept his mouth shut and watched, while it ate his friend up inside.
Scorpius was a bad friend who deserved to be ignored. In fact, he deserved much worse than that.
So, rather than become frustrated at the one-sidedness of their relationship, Scorpius reminded himself to be grateful that Al finally saw him as more than a friend. He crushed down that nagging feeling of being used and grasped his cock. Shutting his eyes, he focussed on one of the many fantasies he'd constructed in his head and stroked himself to orgasm.
~o~
Albus watched his father disappear in a swirl of green flames as he left for St Mungo's. Arriving home for the Christmas holidays, Albus was shocked to see how terrible his dad looked. On some level, he knew that the whole family was showing the physical indications of the prolonged stress and grief for his mum, but he had always pictured his father as a tower of strength, the Auror and Defeater of Voldemort. In only a couple of months, his dad had turned into an old man.
The weight that had slowly begun to lift throughout the school term settled right back on to Albus' shoulders. He turned to his older brother and said, "For fuck's sake, James, why the hell didn't you tell me any of this? Why didn't you tell me how much Dad's been wasting away?"
"What good would it do, Al? It's not like you can do anything for him. It's better that you and Lils stayed in school and didn't know how bad things were."
Albus buried his face in his hands. "He's aged at least ten years since I last saw him, and he's so thin. How is he still able to function?"
"Right now, I think it's only out of sheer will. He's still holds out hope that Mum will get better and he's determined to find whoever is responsible. He's even got Aunt Hermione using some of her resources from Department of Mysteries. She thinks she's close to finding a way to remove and study memories from someone in a comatose state. She's been working on it day and night, hardly getting any sleep. No one is doing too well, right now. Trust me when I say you're better off at Hogwarts and away from all this." James ran his fingers through his hair Albus noticed that his brother, too, was looking much less like himself these days.
"I gotta get the fuck out of here. I'm going to visit Scorpius for a while."
~o~
Scorpius was in his father's library selecting a book to read when a house elf appeared and told him that a visitor had come through the Floo. As he neared the fireplace, he saw Albus walking toward him, his face more tense than usual.
"Al! I wasn't expecting to see-" Scorpius' greeting was brought to a halt by forceful hands pulling him in for a searing kiss.
Albus broke away from the kiss as roughly as he started it and said, "Your room. Now."
Scorpius nodded and Apparated them both to his bedroom. "What's going on, Al? You look-"
"Don’t wanna talk," said Albus as he yanked at Scorpius' robes. "Wanna be naked. Want you." He leaned down and began to kiss Scorpius' neck, an action that always made him weak in the knees.
Scorpius began tugging Al's clothes off of him as well and the two young men tumbled onto his bed in a writhing mass, Albus rolling on top of Scorpius as they landed.
Albus raised Scorpius' arms above his head and pinned them there, then resumed kissing, biting and licking Scorpius' neck, from chin to collarbone. Scorpius sighed and bucked his hips forward, desperate for even more contact.
He felt Al let go of his grip on his arms as he made his way slowly downward. He stopped for a while to play with Scorpius' nipple, another of his weaknesses. First he'd bite it hard, then lave it with his tongue to soothe it, and just as the burning sensation was starting to ease, Albus would bite down again, sending waves of pleasure coursing through Scorpius' body. He moaned in delight.
Eventually Albus licked and nibbled his way down to Scorpius' groin, but rather than stopping at his cock, he continued down Scorpius' left leg. "What do you think this thing will do if I lick it?" he asked, then flicked his tongue out and traced the outline of the asp on Scorpius' thigh.
The tattoo began to slither its way up and down his thigh, stopping whenever Al's tongue made contact. Scorpius propped himself up on his elbows so that he could watch the spectacle.
"This is really cool. Why haven't I tried this before?" Albus was completely engaged in his pursuit of the moving snake tattoo and whenever he caught it with a lick, Scorpius' cock would twitch. He had never seen anything so arousing.
At least, that's what he thought until he saw Albus give one final lick to the snake tattoo and then engulf Scorpius’ cock in one fell swoop. "Oh dear Merlin!" he shouted, as, with just that brief moment of contact between mouth and cock, Scorpius came harder than he ever thought possible.
Al swallowed, leaned up to kiss Scorpius and whispered, "I wanna fuck you. May I?"
Still reeling from his orgasm, Scorpius simply nodded his assent.
Al propped Scorpius' bum up on some pillows and asked, "Do you have anything? Lube?"
Again, Scorpius nodded, this time gesturing to his beside table.
Al reached over to grab the jar and opened it. He scooped out a generous amount and put the jar back on the table. Scorpius watched as Al covered three of his fingers with lube, and then slathered the rest on his gorgeously hard cock.
Scorpius gasped when he felt a slick finger enter his arse. He'd done this to himself numerous times before, but he was fast realizing that it wasn't nearly as good as having it done by someone else.
After a few moments of working one finger in and out of Scorpius, Al added a second, and eventually a third. By this point, Scorpius was hungry for more. He finally knew how it felt to have part of Al inside of him, and every fibre of his being was aching for the feel of Al's cock inside him.
As if he could read Scorpius' mind, Al removed his fingers and began lining up his cock with Scorpius' opening. In a gruff voice he asked, "Ready?" and before Scorpius was finished saying yes, Al's cock breached his arse and he felt the most intense burning pain he'd ever known.
"Oh!" he grunted.
"Too much?" Albus asked. "Only, I've always thought that the best way to remove a bandage was to rip it off in one go. I figured this might be the same. Should I pull back out?"
For a moment, Scorpius wanted to scream, YES! Get that thing the fuck out of me now! It's tearing me apart! But he knew the pain would pass, and so he shook his head no. "Just, give me a moment," he said between clenched teeth.
He lay there taking deep breaths in hopes of getting past the pain, and when it became bearable again, he nodded to Albus, who pushed more of himself inside, this time a bit more slowly. It still hurt like hell, and he felt an incredible amount of pressure inside of him that made him feel like he was about to burst. Then he felt Al draw himself out and the pressure abated.
Al pushed forward again, and back out, slowly picking up the pace with each motion. Eventually, Scorpius could tolerate the sensations and encouraged Al to move faster. Al complied most willingly, thrusting in and out at a quick pace that Scorpius started not only to bear but to almost enjoy.
At some point, Al found an angle that allowed him to graze Scorpius' prostate. Scorpius felt himself growing hard again, and just as he was on the brink of coming once more, Al gave a huge, hard thrust that actually knocked the wind out of Scorpius, then he felt a heat fill his insides as Al came.
Al collapsed in an exhausted heap next to Scorpius, completely engrossed his orgasm and blissfully unaware that his partner was still hard. Scorpius sighed, then reached down and stroked himself to completion as he listened to the sound Al's breathing settling into soft snores.
In this moment, he felt almost content. Up until his own orgasm hit, Al had been surprisingly attentive. And Scorpius did manage to come twice. Yes, he felt almost content. If only he could do something about that voice in his head that kept telling him that he was going to lose Al the moment he found out how badly Scorpius had been deceiving him.
~o~
One day in late February, Albus and Scorpius were returning to the castle after spending the day in Hogsmeade, when Lily rushed up, her face looking both tense and hopeful.
"Al! There you are! We have to go home, Aunt Hermione has figured it out, they're gonna try to retrieve Mum's memories tonight. Dad sent an owl to the Headmistress who's given us permission to leave. Hurry, we have to go to her office and use her Floo!"
Mum's memories! We'll finally know who did this! Dad can finally stop searching for the culprit and start living again. Finally, thank Merlin! "Scorpius, you have to come with me."
"No, Albus, that's a family moment. I mustn't intrude."
Albus felt panicked. Everyone in his family had become so insular lately that Scorpius was the only person he felt an emotional connection with. "Please, Scorpius. Come with me. I can't. I need you there with me, please."
Scorpius looked as if he was about to say no again, but Lily piped up. "Headmistress Vector's permission has been extended to you, Scorpius. It seems my dad expected you to come along with Al and asked her if she'd allow it."
"See, Scorpius, you have to come. Please say yes."
Albus could see that his friend was still very hesitant, but he nodded his head and came along with them, much to Albus' relief.
~o~
Scorpius had never felt so nervous in his life. Sitting with Al and his family was something he had grown comfortable with over the years, but tonight, as they all crowded into a private waiting room at St Mungo's, he felt like a rabbit who had stumbled amidst of a pack of sleeping wolves, terrified that, at any moment, one would awaken and he'd become their next meal.
Al had been clutching his hand so tightly for the past twenty minutes that it was starting to go numb, but Scorpius was not about to complain. He would be there for Al for as long as he was wanted, which, he knew, was not likely to be much longer.
Scorpius had no doubt that the moment they knew of his family's involvement in Ginny Potter's torture, his friendship with Al and possibly his freedom would come to an end. As he sat, he mentally prepared himself for this eventuality.
Because they expected the memories to be horrific, the family were not allowed in the room during the retrieval. Even Hermione Weasley, who invented the process, was only in the room long enough to get things started. Once it had begun, her staff members took over and she joined the rest of the family to wait for the outcome.
After an interminable amount of time, one of the Aurors called Mr Potter into the room. Was that a suspicious glare that Auror just shot at me? Is this when it all ends?
As slowly as time passed while they were waiting, the time between Harry Potter leaving the room, and his return with a group of Aurors heading straight toward Scorpius, was over in a heartbeat.
"Scorpius Malfoy, please come with us. We are taking you in for questioning about the incarceration and torture of Ginevra Potter."
Scorpius couldn't breathe, let alone speak. He simply nodded his understanding. Al, on the other hand, leapt up and put himself between the Aurors and Scorpius.
"What the fuck are you talking about?! Dad, get these goons away from Scorpius!"
"Al, his grandfather is the person who did it. It happened in his home." Mr Potter said flatly. "The Aurors just want to ask him some questions to see what he knows."
Al turned to face Scorpius, his eyes wide with disbelief. "Did you know?"
"Al, please."
Anger flooded Albus' features. Narrowing his eyes, he repeated his question. "Did. You. Know?"
Again, Scorpius found himself at a loss for words. He closed his eyes as he felt the sting of tears starting to fall and nodded. "Please," he croaked. "Al. I-."
"Oh my God, you did. You knew."
Scorpius couldn’t find his voice.
"You make me sick. Get out of my sight." Al stepped aside, turned to the Aurors and said, "Take him wherever you want. I'm not gonna fight you on it."
"Al." Scorpius whispered . He felt completely helpless when Albus refused to look at him. Unable to face anyone else, he dropped his eyes to the floor and allowed the Aurors to lead him away.
~o~
Albus packed hastily, trying to avoid a confrontation. His thoughts ran to his mother, still in her bed at St Mungo's, and unlikely to ever recover. His father wasn't much better off. He’d returned to work, but Albus knew that he was only going through the motions. His once strong and seemingly invincible dad was just a shadow of the man he had always been.
James had said he'd keep an eye on their dad, but Al knew that his older brother was having a hard go of it, too. Of the three of them, James was closest to their mum, and her loss was hitting him hard.
Lily was distant and moody, and Al was pretty certain his classmates would describe him in much the same way. His once happy family had fallen apart at the seams, and he couldn't help but blame himself for it.
Even though he was relieved that Lucius Malfoy was never leaving Azkaban, he felt a bit guilty that Scorpius' dad had also been sentenced to five years for concealing the truth. Apparently he even went so far as to invoke some old family magic on Scorpius that made it physically impossible for him to divulge details about that evening's events to anyone not of Malfoy blood. It was that fact that saved Scorpius from any prison time.
Albus was torn on the subject of Mr Malfoy. On the one hand his concealment caused so much torment for Al and his family, but on the other hand, he never would have had to do any of that if Albus' mum had never gone to Malfoy Manor that day to confront him about Albus' tattoo. And this, Al knew, was all his doing.
Al scratched his abdomen, remembering how excited he was the day he and Scorpius got their tattoos. Everything about that day- the excitement, the love he had for his best friend, the summer full of promise - now seemed like a memory that belonged to someone else. Back then he had thought nothing would ever come between him and Scorpius, but everything changed that night at the hospital.
Al was standing by his bed, throwing the last few items into his trunk and remembering Scorpius' haunted, guilt-ridden face at St Mungo’s, when the dormitory door opened.
~o~
"Oh. I, uh, didn't know you were here."
Scorpius could see Albus’ back stiffen at the sound of his voice. "Yeah, I was just packing up my stuff. I'm moving to the sixth year dorms."
"Oh," Scorpius replied, stepping inside and closing the door behind him. "So, I guess I have my answer about whether or not you forgive me."
"No. You don't, actually." Albus turned toward him. "I do forgive you, Scorpius. I know that you couldn't tell me. And I know you had nothing to do with what happened to my mum, I know you tried to get her help. I know all that, but-"
"But you still can't stand the sight of me."
Albus seemed to be at a loss for words. He stared at the ground for a few moments, then finally shook his head, his lips silently mouthing the word, “No.”
"So that's it, then? That's the end? We've been best friends since first year. We've been more than that. Hell, we even have tributes to each other tattooed to our bodies and-"
"Not anymore."
"What?"
"I said," Albus lifted his shirt and showed Scorpius the clear, unmarked skin that lay in the spot where his tattoo used to be. "Not anymore."
Scorpius felt like he'd just been hit in the stomach by a bludger at full speed. "You got it removed?"
Running a hand through his dark hair, Albus said, "That tattoo, it's what triggered this whole, awful thing. If we weren't so impatient to get them, my mum never would have gone to the Manor and your Grandfather never would have… That tattoo reminded me of everything bad that's happened in my life and I had to get rid of it."
Scorpius nodded. "And now you're getting rid of me because I also remind you of everything bad in your life?" He choked out.
"Don't you get it, Scorpius?" Albus asked. "If you and I hadn't been friends, none of this would have happened and my family would be happy and healthy. How can I be around you knowing that?"
Scorpius could think of nothing to say in response. Instead, he only watched, his own world just as ruined, as Albus turned back to close the lid on his trunk, pick it up and leave the room without another word.
~FIN~