Like Fools: Chapter Seven
Title: Like Fools
Author: Kimberry531/Clandestinelle (same person)
Rating: R
Pairing: Al/Scorpius
Word Count: 52,207 total; ~5k this chapter.
Summary: In the middle of his quest to find and master the Elder Wand which his father didn’t want, Al finds his family in the midst of a second Wizarding war. While in hiding, Al finds himself struggling to fight against feelings for one of the other refugees - blonde, sweet, innocent Scorpius Malfoy. However, when the war takes a turn for the worse, Al finds that he suddenly has bigger problems than his heart, and the two must embark on a frightening adventure fit only for Gryffindor idiots.
Notes: This fic is COMPLETE and will be updated every Monday and every Friday.
Dedication: Rosa, Slashfiend337, for getting me out of my two-month pit of despair of the last chapter and setting it straight within thirty minutes. Owe her my soul. And this fic.
“On me dit que le destin se moque bien de nous
Qu'il ne nous donne rien et qu'il nous promet tout
Parais qu'le bonheur est à portée de main,
Alors on tend la main et on se retrouve fou
I’m told that fate makes fun of us,
That it gives us nothing and promises everything,
When happiness seems to be within our grasp,
We reach out and find ourselves like fools”
- Carla Bruni
Scorpius was awakened the next day by a loud crash downstairs.
“What was that?” he murmured sleepily.
“I’m not sure, pumpkin, but don’t worry your pretty little head over it,” Al replied, sounding much more awake. Scorpius opened his eyes and looked over. Al was up, showered, and dressed.
“What’d you get up early for?”
“I didn’t get up early, darling-pants,” Al sing-songed. “You have now officially slept past noon. Congrats, you’re a sloth.”
“I don’t think Sloth counts as a pet name. Darling-pants either,” Scorpius said, pushing off his blankets and sitting on the edge of his bed. “Is it really past noon?”
“Sure is, sugar,” Al said, and headed out of the room, leaving Scorpius to dress in peace.
*****
“Here,” Albus said, patting the seat next to him at the lunch table. “I saved you a seat, Snuggle Bear!”
Rose froze in her seat, fork halfway to her mouth. Her eyes narrowed. “What?” she said sharply.
Al stuck his nose in the air. “This doesn’t involve you, Rose. Does it, snookums?”
Rose growled something under her breath and stalked out of the room.
Scorpius giggled behind his hand.
*****
“Alright, Pooky,” Al said that night. “My twenty-four hours are officially up. It’s my turn.”
Scorpius grinned. “Can you still call me Hunny Pie? I liked that one.”
“Shut the hell up,” Al said amiably. “For the next twenty-four hours, you’re going to act as my personal servant. You are to call me ‘Sir’, and wait on me hand and foot.”
Scorpius groaned. “Seriously? That could actually be hard work.”
“It will be,” Al promised with a grin. “I want you to be believable. Show off those acting skills again. Come on, let’s go check out the attic for a suit.”
“A suit?”
“Proper servants have uniforms!” Al said.
*****
Scorpius coughed, brushing cobwebs away with his hand. “This is gross.”
“How is it gross? They’re just clothes.”
“The Blacks were twisted people. Merlin only knows what this suit has seen.”
“It’s probably been thrown in a pile on the floor a good many times so its owner could have a deviant shag,” Albus agreed.
Scorpius shuddered. “I don’t want to wear it. The jacket’s too big anyway. I’m a slim chap.”
Albus snorted. “Slim is one word for it.”
Scorpius narrowed his eyes. “I’ll have you know -”
“Yeah, yeah,” Albus waved his hand absently, still rummaging through a trunk for a bow-tie. “Malfoys are slender people, it’s in your genes. We’ve argued about this before.”
“We have?”
“Probably not out loud.”
“Oh.”
“Here!” Albus came up triumphantly, a red bowtie in hand. “Do you know how to ties these? I’ve no clue.”
Scorpius made in impatient noise and snatched it from Al’s open palm. “I swear you Potter-Weasleys have no class at all. Who can’t tie a bowtie?”
“My Mum always does it for me,” Al explained.
“Yes, well, I have my uniform. Can we go to sleep, now? Please?”
*****
Lily smiled and stretched out on the lawn chair. The sun was delicious against her bikini-clad body, and the breeze made her hair flutter.
The sexy, built, tan God who was simultaneously fanning her with a palm leaf and feeding her chocolate covered strawberries suddenly leaned closer to her and said her name.
“Lily?” he said. “Lily? Lils? Lily, wake up!”
The palm leaf turned into a pillow and whapped her in the stomach, leaving her winded and cranky.
“What?” she snapped, pulling off her eye mask and sitting up.
“Shh,” Roxanne, still pajama clad, said from the door, which was open a crack. “Come look at this.”
Lily got up and stumbled to the door. Outside in the hallway, Scorpius was standing rim-rod straight, wearing a suit, his blonde hair slicked back - a stark contrast to its usual loose shag.
“Here you go, Sir,” he was saying, holding open his and Albus’s bedroom door. Yawning widely, Albus shuffled out of the room.
“I’ve turned on the shower so the water will be warm, and set out clean towels. While you bathe, I’ll get your clothes ready and start preparing your breakfast.”
Al grunted and made his way blindly towards the loo, which was billowing steam.
Lily and Roxanne exchanged glances, and then hurried downstairs.
“Rose, Rose!”
Rose turned to look at them. “What’s wrong?”
“Albus and Scorpius are being weird,” Roxanne said, eyes wide.
Rose hmphed loudly and set back to drying the dishes.
“Aren’t you going to do something?” Lily demanded.
Rose set down the plate she was drying. “Are they sexually harassing anyone?”
Lily and Roxanne exchanged a glance. “No.”
“Are they hurting anyone?”
“No.”
“Is there blood involved?”
“No.”
“Does it look like their weirdness will soon personally affect me?”
“Not really.”
“Fine. Leave them alone. Help me dry so we can make breakfast.”
*****
Louis stood, head cocked to the side.
“Hugo?”
“Yes, Louis?”
“Why is Malfoy dressed as a butler?”
“I think he and Albus are playing some sort of game.”
Louis’s head cocked the opposite way. “Why is Malfoy opening the doors for Albus?”
“Must be in the rules of the game.”
Louis’s head returned to its original side. “Why is he carrying Albus down the stairs?”
“I guess that’s in the rules too.”
“Hugo?”
“Yeah?”
“Isn’t that kind of… weird?”
“A little. But we have to be accepting, Louis.”
*****
Scorpius pulled back the chair. “Your seat, sir.”
Albus sat haughtily. Scorpius hurried to put a bowl of steaming oatmeal in front of him, alongside a cup of tea.
Shaking her head, Rose picked up the breakfast tray she’d prepared and headed upstairs to Gemma, who was still working to get Fred healed.
“Would you like anything else, sir?” Scorpius asked.
“Cinnamon on the oatmeal,” Albus said.
Molly looked over at Lucy, who was looking back at her.
“Kinky sex games?” Molly guessed.
“That’s what I was thinking,” Lucy said, before spooning a bite of oatmeal into her mouth.
*****
Fred was stirring more than normal, sweat appearing on his forehead. Gemma pressed her hand to his forehead. The fever seemed to have broken.
“This is good,” Gemma murmured to herself, and glanced around for a piece of parchment to owl the Weasleys. When she didn’t find one, she went to the door.
“Rose?” she called, and Rose poked her head out of their room.
“Yes?”
“Can you watch Fred while I owl his mum? Just let loose a yell if he wakes or tries to move.”
“Sure, I can do that,” Rose said, moving to enter the room and take Gemma’s chair at Fred’s bedside.
Gemma headed to the library, where she knew there would be parchment and quills.
The sight she found there caused her to pause in her steps, mouth open wide. Her brother was dressed in an antiquated suit, his hair slicked back, holding up a book for Albus Potter, who was comfortably curled up reading avidly.
“Page,” Albus said, and Scorpius reached up and turned the page.
“Your hand is shaking too much,” Albus complained and Scopius stilled it as best he could.
Shaking her head, Gemma walked over to the desk to write her owl. “Don’t let Dad ever find out about this,” she advised darkly.
*****
“-And they all lived happily ever after.”
“Okay,” Albus said, tucked into bed. “You are officially relieved of duty.”
“Good,” Scorpius said, ripping off the bow tie and stripping out of the suit. Once in his boxers, he pulled on his loose pajama bottoms.
“My favorite part of the day was when we almost died trying to get up the stairs,” Al said, his voice laced with humor.
Scorpius shook his head. “That was not fun.”
Albus yawned. “What’s your dare gonna be?”
Scorpius flopped across his bed on his stomach, facing Al. “Hmm,” he said, chewing on his lip. “I dare you to tell me something. Something about you that no one knows.”
Al’s brow furrowed. “I don’t know, Scorpius, there’s not much to know about me. What you see if what you get.”
Scorpius smiled to himself. “I don’t believe that for a second.”
“I don’t know, it’s too hard,” Albus said, feeling uncomfortable. “Ask me something specific.”
“Fine,” Scorpius said. “What’s it like to be you?”
“I don’t understand,” Albus admitted, rolling on his side to face Scorpius.
“To be Albus Potter. What’s it like?”
Albus was silent for a moment, and Scorpius could hear the train of thought swirling around trying to get a concrete answer.
“It’s like… it’s like everyone thinks they know who I am and who I’m supposed to be - not only do I have my super-hero dad to live up to, but now I’ve got James with all of his fire. And I’m just not like them - I don’t show my fire.”
“I still see it,” Scorpius said.
Albus smiled. “I know.”
Scorpius pushed down his blankets and got into his bed. “Do you think you truly see me?”
Albus pondered this for a moment. “I think I see more of who you are than most people. Especially now, you know? But I don’t think I truly see you to your core. Actually, it’s my dare, isn’t it? The same question - what’s it like to be Scorpius Malfoy?”
Scorpius laughed. “Alright. Let me think for a second.” He rolled onto his back, feeling the sheets under him crinkle. “I guess it’s like I have my parents expecting me to be the model Malfoy child, learning five languages and how to fence and to just be perfect, but under that is the knowledge that no matter what they’re going to love me and I’m going to good enough. I beat my dad just by default, I guess. People expect me to be just like him- all darkness and snark and righteous anger, and it throws them off because on the outside I’m not. I’m charming and pleasant and -”
“And modest.”
“And I have a lot of friends. I’m clearly living a much happier life than he had. But people just think that’s me. It’s what I let them believe. Deep down, I am just like him - cunning, reserved, and dead-set to keep my family going.”
Albus was quiet. “Are you unhappy?” he asked finally.
Scorpius turned to face him, eyes bright. “I don’t know,” he said, his voice hard. “Are you?”
*****
“Hey.”
Scorpius opened his eyes. Al was standing over his bed.
“What?” Scorpius asked sleepily.
“Let’s go make breakfast before Rose gets up. We’ve given her too hard a time lately, and she’s been playing Mum really heavily. She needs a day off.”
“A’right,” Scorpius said through a yawn. “I’ll meet you down there.”
When he made it down the kitchen, Al was bustling around busily. Scorpius set right to work helping him. About halfway through, Rose showed up at the doorway.
“What are you doing?” she asked suspiciously.
“Giving you a day off,” Al told her.
“Take a seat,” Scorpius said. “I’ll start some tea.”
Rose sat down warily.
“Relax,” Al said with a laugh. “It’s not a trick. We felt bad for freaking you out so much lately.”
Rose looked at them through narrowed eyes for a moment. “So you’re really being normal today?”
“As normal as we can be,” Scorpius said, smiling.
Lucy appeared at the door. “Why are they cooking? Are they pretending to be chefs today?”
“No,” Albus returned. “We’re pretending to be nice people today.”
*****
Seeing Al’s concern for Rose made Scorpius think - something Al was not unaware of - about the dynamics of the Potter-Weasley family. So that afternoon, when they were curled up on separate ends of a couch in the library, he spoke up.
“Oy,” he said. “It’s my dare, right?”
“I think so,” Albus said, lowering his book. “Why, you got one?”
“Yeah,” Scorpius said. “Explain to me the dynamics of your family.”
“Wow,” Albus said, putting the book on the floor pages-down to hold his place. “All of them?”
“At least your immediate family. And if you wanna bring in any of the cousins and stuff, that’s alright.”
Al thought for a moment. “Well my mum is a typical mum. She’s always screeching at someone for something. My dad is the one who gets each of us. He’s so involved with who we are. I think a lot of it is making up for him not having a mum or dad his whole life, and I think he’s just desperate for us to be ourselves and be happy and not worry about trying to live up to anything- which just makes the pressure worse, because not only do we have to live up to him but we have to pretend we aren’t trying. James is the typical git older brother. He taught me all the cuss words, how to fight. He taught me about girls and sex. But he’s a complete git, no tact, no secrets. He’s just James, loud and full of fire and ready to fight. Lily’s still a kid in my mind, but it’s really clear that she’s starting to grow up now. I’m closer to her than James, definitely. You can’t really trust James with your secrets, or they’ll come back to bite you in the arse. But Lils has her own world, one I don’t know much about. Girl world, you know? I don’t understand it. Rose is more like my sister, except I understand her, ‘cause she’s not such a girl.”
“Don’t let her hear you say that.”
“Now,” Al grinned. “Your turn. I’m giving you the same dare. Tell me all about the Magnificent Malfoys.”
“You’ve got to stop stealing my dares,” Scorpius said.
“This is my last one, I promise,” Al said. “But answer it. It’s only fair.”
“Fine, fine,” Scorpius said. “Well Mum and Dad didn’t want to get married. My mum was crazy in love with some other guy, but the marriage was arranged. Pure blood families, you know. But they loved the hell out of Gemma. Everyone always says you shouldn’t have kids to save your marriage, but they didn’t have Gemma to save them - she just did. Gemma saves everyone. They finally fell in love with each other down the line, and had me. Dad was really glad to have a son to keep the Malfoy name going. They both drank really heavily though. For my dad, I think he just can’t handle everything he’s been through. My mum still resents having everything chosen for her, but that’s just a guess. Anyway, she was never much of a typical mum, and my dad was never the hugging sort. I don’t mean that I was abused or neglected. Just, Gemma did most of the Mummy stuff for me, you know?”
“I’d always wish I had a sibling that I was that close to,” Al admitted. “I can’t trust James with anything serious, and Lily’s always been kind of like a butterfly. You can’t pin her down. But we do have Teddy - I guess he’s kinda like Gemma is to you. We always used to think that Dad loved Teddy more, ‘cause Teddy was an orphan like him. But Ted never got special treatment or anything. I dunno.”
Scorpius nodded. He eyed the bookshelf across the room, knowing which book he wanted. Too lazy to get up and get it, he looked around for his wand to summon the book. However, in the time they’d been flopped on the couch, his wand had rolled out of reach. Frustrated, Scorpius waved a hand and the book zoomed out of the bookshelf into his hand. Satisfied, Scorpius flipped the book open and began to read, but became aware of a heavy gaze. He lowered the book and found Al staring at him wide-eyed and slack-jawed.
Scorpius looked around in confusion. “What?” he asked.
“Did you just…” Al trailed off, shaking his head. “You can do wandless magic?”
“Oh.” Scorpius blushed immediately. “Uh, yeah. That’s, um, one of the things my dad thought imperative to my education.”
Al looked at him blankly. “Seriously? How can you possibly be so casual about it?”
“I don’t know,” Scorpius whined, fidgeting. “It isn’t a big deal to me. I only do it once in a while.”
“How do you do it?” Al asked suddenly, dropping his book unceremoniously on the floor and sitting up briskly.
“Uh -“
“Teach me,” Al said eagerly. “Will you?”
“I don’t think I can,” Scorpius said uneasily. “It’s, like, hard. I’m not always very good at it. I can only do stuff like I just did - summoning and shit.”
“Well teach me just that, then!” Al said. “It’s so cool!”
“Well,” Scorpius said, still uncomfortable, “you just have to want to receive the object, and channel your magic into that desire.”
Al focused on a pillow on the other couch. ‘Accio pillow,’ he thought.
Nothing happened.
“The words aren’t enough,” Scorpius coached. “You have to send your magic to it and back.”
‘Accio pillow,’ Al thought, pushing with all of his might. Scorpius heard the request sound in his mind and felt Al’s magic rush through him. His own magic reacted, and the pillow flew into Al’s hand.
“It worked!” he cried in shock. “I did it!”
Scorpius squirmed. “Actually… I did it.”
Al looked at him crossly. “Well let me try, you tosser.”
“I didn’t do it on purpose…” Scorpius said. “I don’t know what happened. I think your magic came through our weird little brain-thing and made mine react to do the spell for you.”
Al thought this over for a second. “So what you’re telling me,” he said slowly, “is that when I want to do something wandlessly, I just have to control your brain and you’ll make it happen?”
“No,” Scorpius said quickly. “Nope. It is not that at all.”
Al grinned. “Let’s try again.”
“Let’s not,” Scorpius pleaded.
‘Accio book,’ Al thought, and Scorpius felt the rush of magic before the book sailed into Al’s outstretched hand.
*****
Albus showered before dinner that night, and Scorpius waited in their room, planning his next dare. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.
“Come in,” Scorpius called, assuming it would be Gemma.
Instead, Rose’s face peered at him. “Can I talk to you quick before Al gets back?”
“Sure,” Scorpius said. “What’s up?”
“I have to just be blunt,” Rose said, seeming reluctant. “Is there something going on between you and Albus?”
‘I don’t even know,’ Scorpius thought. Instead, he said, “We’re becoming actual friends now, if that’s what you mean.”
Rose gave him a hard look. “It almost seems like more than friends.”
“The problem with that is that neither of us is gay and neither of us is interested in the other,” Scorpius said flatly.
“After that party, I’m not so sure about that,” Rose said. “And you two have been inseparable lately.”
“I think the real issue here is that you’re jealous because he’s starting to spend all of his time with me, when it used to be you,” Scorpius said. “It’s only natural that Albus have a guy friend. It doesn’t have to be something.”
Rose’s face flushed with anger, but she held her tongue. “Fine,” she said. “I just wondered.” With a slight flounce, she turned and left.
It was only moments later that Al returned, soaking wet and towel-clad. “Who was in here?” he asked offhandedly, pulling on his pajamas as Scorpius pointedly didn’t look.
“Rose.” With that, he replayed the scene in his mind, so Albus could see first-hand.
“Thanks for setting her straight,” Albus said finally. “Nosy stinking cousins.” Then after a beat, “Do you think she’s really jealous? Maybe I should spend more time with her.”
“I dunno,” Scorpius said.
“You’re preoccupied,” Al said accusingly. “What’s up?”
“Nothing,” Scorpius said quickly.
“I can find out,” Albus threatened playfully.
“I was just thinking about my next dare,” Scorpius admitted.
“Got any ideas?” Albus asked, still playful.
Scorpius took in Al’s wet hair, unclothed chest, and easy grin. “Yeah,” he said, taking a deep breath. “I dare you to kiss me like you did at that party.”
Al grinned even more. “I think I need to be drunk for that,” he said, but he moved forward quickly, backing Scorpius breathlessly against the wall.
Without any hesitation, he brought his mouth to Scorpius’s, pushing intently until Scorpius’s head hit the wall and his mouth fell open.
Al pushed his hips against Scorpius’s as they kissed frantically, and Scorpius found himself clutching at Al’s back as if the wall weren’t holding him up. Scorpius’s mind went blank with the sheer feeling of Al’s bare chest against his own, and his lips firm and unyielding against his mouth.
Albus finally pulled away, leaving Scorpius out of breath.
“Was that up to your standards?” Al asked, trailing his hands along Scorpius’s chest.
“Yeah,” Scorpius said breathlessly. “Might have raised them a bit, actually.”
Al stumbled to his bed and flopped onto it. “Night,” he said.
“Al,” Scorpius said, “Don’t you think we should talk about -.”
“Hey,” Al said suddenly, sitting back up. “If we had to leave here on the spot to run, what one thing would you bring with you?”
“My angel statue, probably,” Scorpius said, somewhat uncertainly. It was unclear whether Al’s interruption had been intentional or not, but it made him uneasy. “What about you?”
“The Elder Wand,” Al said with a grin. “I’d bring the Elder Wand, and I’d take down whoever was chasing us.”
*****
“Oy,” Cliffe Ratburn growled. “Why’d you put out the fire? It’s bloody freezing out here.”
“Shut yer face, Ratburn,” Agnus Beachtree snarled. “Doncha ever listen? They think someone’s on the outside of the wards.”
Ratburn sniffed. “Ain’t no cause for worry. I did them wards up real good. No one’s gettin’ through.”
“Stop being prideful and pack camp,” their leader, Jasper Grieg, said. As it was, there wasn’t much to pack. Their camp was relatively small, only six of them. Ratburn knew that some of the camps held tens of dozens of Rhinehart’s men. But Jasper held great information and was one of Rhinehart’s top men, so he was strategically placed here to bring little attention to himself.
“What’s gotcher knickers twisted, hm?” Ratburn asked as he began rolling up his sleeping bag. Snow evenly coated the ground except for where they had melted it away around the camp fire. The big camps got tents and tables, but their small number meant meager living.
“One of our alarms triggered,” Jasper said, watching the surrounding woods intently.
“Probably just a deer,” Ratburn muttered, but he trusted Jasper. The younger man was strong and upstanding, intelligent and powerful.
Jasper didn’t reply, knowing Ratburn’s grumblings weren’t heartfelt. Instead, he listened intently for any clue where they were going to be attacked from.
“Be ready to Apparate away at any given second,” Jasper said.
“That won’t be necessary,” a voice said, right as another called, “Expelliarmus!”
Ratburn felt his wand tug from his hand, and watched in horror as the others’ wands flew into the hands of a group of Aurors - a tall redhead wizard, a shorter redhead wizard, a thin black witch with long black hair, a witch with large brown hair, and none other than Harry Potter himself.
“Well, I’ll be!” Ratburn said, awestruck. “It’s ‘Arry Potter!”
But around him, the others had bolted in different direction.
“No!” yelled the bushy haired witch, the Aurors throwing out leg-lockers, and four of the runners went down. Ratburn watched as Jasper dodged the attack and headed into the woods, Harry Potter right on his tail looking determined as all get-out to catch him.
Ratburn gave a little whoop. “’E sure is something’, ain’t ‘e?”
“Who?” the black witch asked as she cast the leg locker at Ratburn, who hadn’t yet tried to run.
“’Arry Potter,” Ratburn said from the ground, where he’d fallen. “Lookit ‘im go.”
Angelina looked down at him. “What’s your name?” she asked.
“Cliffe Ratburn,” Ratburn said. “I don’t know nuffin of interest, I swear. I’m only ‘ere ‘cause Rhinehart threatened my sweet little girls. I got two o’ them back home. D’you think I’ll get back ‘ome?”
“I guess it depends on what you’ve done for Rhinehart,” Angelina said.
“Ain’t done nuffin but froze my knackers off,” Ratburn grumbled.
Harry walked back out of the deeper woods, dragging an unconscious Jasper behind him.
“Who’s that?” Angelina asked Ratburn.
“’E’s Jasper Grieg. ‘E’s our leader. If’n I tell you all about ‘im, do you think I’d get ‘ome to my little girls?”
“It wouldn’t hurt your case,” Angelina said. She called over to Harry, “Shall we round them up and head them to Azkaban?”
“Azkaban?” Ratburn squeaked.
“For interrogation,” Angelina said. “But play your cards right, and you may not stay long.”
“My littlest girl is jus’ turned seven,” Ratburn told her as the prisoners were gathered and placed touching a portkey that would take them straight to Azkaban, where another team of Aurors would take care of them.
Angelina reached over and put Ratburn’s other hand, the one not touching the portkey, on his head. “Keep that there,” she told him. “When they ask you why, say the Auror at the camp told you to.”
The portkey lit and the prisoners were gone.
“You’re too soft,” George teased. “Making pals. Your little hand signals probably don’t mean a thing to them anymore, you send so many of them.”
“It means they’ll cooperate!” Angelina defended herself. “Now let’s head back to our camp so I can read that owl from Gemma Malfoy and see how our son is doing.”
“We had better go,” Harry agreed. “It’s getting dark.”
*****
Back at Grimmauld, Al and Scorpius were cleaning up after dinner, still being nice and letting Rose get some time to relax.
“I’ll help with that, come on guys,” she begged.
“Rose, for the last time, let us do this! We’ve been total prats for the past weeks, let us make up for it!” Al scolded, and he scraped leftover food off of a plate into the garbage before putting the plate into the suds-filled sink.
“Oh, fine,” she huffed, but she was smiling as she left.
Upstairs, they could hear the beat from the music and the stamping of feet as Lily and Roxanne danced around in their room.
“Crazy girls,” Scorpius said with a shy smile as he rolled up his sleeves and plunged his arms into the soapy water to start washing.
“I’d say we’re crazier,” Al said, scraping off the last plate, dropping it into the sink and moving around to Scorpius’s other side, ready to dry the washed dishes. As he moved, he deliberately bumped Scorpius so their sides were touching as he went.
He watched with delight as a flush worked its way furiously up Scorpius’s cheeks.
Grinning, he made his way to the opposite side of the sink again, letting his hips trace along Scorpius’s bum as he went. He picked up a towel to dry with and then headed back to where he’d come from, again letting his hips trail along Scorpius’s body.
“Merlin,” Scorpius muttered, cheeks blazing. “Stop.”
“Stop what?” Al asked innocently. “Drying?”
‘You know what,’ Scorpius thought.
‘What?’ Al thought, and moved behind Scorpius, pressing his hips strongly against the other boy’s, trapping him against the sink. ’This? Okay. I’ll stop.’ Al wandered back to his spot to dry, a smirk playing around his lips. Scorpius began washing very quickly, piling up the clean, wet plates next to the sink faster than Al could keep up. When he was done washing, he swiftly left and headed up the stairs.
Al chuckled and dried the last few dishes quickly, hurrying up to go torment the boy some more. Their door was shut, but Al headed in anyway. In the doorway, he froze.
Scorpius was facing the wall to Albus’s right, one hand against the wall above his head, holding him up, the other down his pants and working furiously. His face was even redder than it had been in the kitchen, and his fringe stuck to his face where it was sweaty along his brow.
The door shut behind Albus, and Scorpius looked up. He gave a wordless shriek and turned away from Al.
“Go away,” he said raggedly, tugging his hand out of his pants.
“No way,” Al replied, his heart racing, his mind burning with the image.
“Then I will!” Scorpius turned and strode past him and burst into the hallway, where he went and locked himself in the bathroom. Al fell onto his back on his bed and shoved his own hand down his pants, alight with the knowledge that Scorpius was doing the exact same thing across the hall. The knowledge bounced between them in their minds, and Al barely lasted a minute. Breathlessly, he rolled onto his stomach and fell asleep.
****
When he awoke, Scorpius was back on his bed, reading a book.
“Hey,” Al said.
‘I’m not talking to you,’ Scorpius thought, turning a page.
“But you’re still communicating with me,” Albus pointed out.
Silence.
“Fine,” Al said, as if he didn’t care. “I’ll just keep my dare for you to myself until you get over it.” He stood and left the room, heading to the loo, aware that Scorpius was itching to know what the dare was.
Al went back and laid across his bed.
“Well?” Scorpius said finally, after a tense silence.
“Well,” Al said, “does that mean you want to know?”
“Yeah, I guess,” Scorpius said, putting down his book.
Al took a deep breath, thrumming with excitement and nerves. What if Scorpius killed him?
“I dare you to do… what you were doing today… to me.”
Scorpius fell into a shocked silence. Al knew it was shocked silence because he could hear Scorpius’s brain go blissfully silent.
Finally Scorpius blinked and bit his bottom lip nervously. “Really?”
“Yeah,” Albus said. “Really.”
Scorpius bit his lip again. “Well,” he said, “if that’s the dare, then that’s the dare. I’ll do it.”
He got up and went over to Al’s bed, draping himself next to the boy. It was very mechanical, and the awkwardness was magnified by the acknowledgment of the awkwardness happening in each of their minds, loud and clear.
Closing his eyes and taking the leap, Scorpius slid his hand under the waistband of Al’s pajama bottoms. Al squirmed a little - he wasn’t even half-hard yet.
“Maybe you should kiss me first,” Al suggested, and Scorpius grinned briefly before doing just that.
He rolled Albus onto his back. It was the first time they’d kissed with Scorpius in the leading role, and he found it thrilling as Al ran his fingers through Scorpius’s hair and made delightful sounds below him.
“I’m totally ready now,” Al gasped, and Scorpius pushed his mouth back against Al’s as he slipped his hand under Al’s waistband again.
He wrapped his fingers loosely around Al’s cock and pulled them around to get a basic feel. Al’s skin was soft and satiny under his fingers, from the slick head down to the rough hairs at the base.
‘More,’ Al’s voice called. His eyes were shut tight and his lips were pressed into a thin line. ‘You’re teasing like hell here, Scorp.’
“Call me my whole name,” Scorpius said roughly, tightening his grip and tugging upward.
“Oh!” Albus gasped, his hands scrabbling against the sheets.
Scorpius continued his movements, taking in the feel of Albus’s cock in his hand, the sight of Albus screwing his eyes shut and trying to stay quiet.
“Hey, Al,” Scorpius whispered.
“Yeah.” It was meant to be a response, but it came out more like a plea.
“I dare you to return the favor.”
Al scrambled to get his hands in Scorpius’s pajamas, curling his hand eagerly around Scorpius’s length, making Scorpius release his breath in a hiss.
“Roll to face me,” Al said. Scorpius furrowed his brow in confusion but obeyed. Al scooted closer so their groins were touching.
“Al?” Scorpius said, “What-?”
“Shh,” Albus said. “Just move.”
“Oh, Merlin,” Scorpius hissed as they began moving together. The feel of Albus’s prick against his own, even through the layers of pajamas, felt incredible, and Scorpius clung to Al like a drowning person.
“Oh. Shit, Al,” he ground out, and he was coming, and the heat between them greatened as he felt Al shudder too, Al’s hands tightening painfully around Scorpius’s upper arms.
They both collapsed onto their backs, breathing heavily.
“Gross,” Albus said with a grin. “I need another shower.”
“Me too,” Scorpius said slowly. “Hey, Al? I really think we ought to ta-.”
Al sat up and headed towards the door. “I’m gonna grab the shower while it’s open. Tomorrow, your dare is going to involve a thong, and there’s not a thing you can do about it.” With a cheeky grin, he disappeared into the hallway, leaving Scorpius feeling awkward and empty.
Author: Kimberry531/Clandestinelle (same person)
Rating: R
Pairing: Al/Scorpius
Word Count: 52,207 total; ~5k this chapter.
Summary: In the middle of his quest to find and master the Elder Wand which his father didn’t want, Al finds his family in the midst of a second Wizarding war. While in hiding, Al finds himself struggling to fight against feelings for one of the other refugees - blonde, sweet, innocent Scorpius Malfoy. However, when the war takes a turn for the worse, Al finds that he suddenly has bigger problems than his heart, and the two must embark on a frightening adventure fit only for Gryffindor idiots.
Notes: This fic is COMPLETE and will be updated every Monday and every Friday.
Dedication: Rosa, Slashfiend337, for getting me out of my two-month pit of despair of the last chapter and setting it straight within thirty minutes. Owe her my soul. And this fic.
“On me dit que le destin se moque bien de nous
Qu'il ne nous donne rien et qu'il nous promet tout
Parais qu'le bonheur est à portée de main,
Alors on tend la main et on se retrouve fou
I’m told that fate makes fun of us,
That it gives us nothing and promises everything,
When happiness seems to be within our grasp,
We reach out and find ourselves like fools”
- Carla Bruni
Scorpius was awakened the next day by a loud crash downstairs.
“What was that?” he murmured sleepily.
“I’m not sure, pumpkin, but don’t worry your pretty little head over it,” Al replied, sounding much more awake. Scorpius opened his eyes and looked over. Al was up, showered, and dressed.
“What’d you get up early for?”
“I didn’t get up early, darling-pants,” Al sing-songed. “You have now officially slept past noon. Congrats, you’re a sloth.”
“I don’t think Sloth counts as a pet name. Darling-pants either,” Scorpius said, pushing off his blankets and sitting on the edge of his bed. “Is it really past noon?”
“Sure is, sugar,” Al said, and headed out of the room, leaving Scorpius to dress in peace.
*****
“Here,” Albus said, patting the seat next to him at the lunch table. “I saved you a seat, Snuggle Bear!”
Rose froze in her seat, fork halfway to her mouth. Her eyes narrowed. “What?” she said sharply.
Al stuck his nose in the air. “This doesn’t involve you, Rose. Does it, snookums?”
Rose growled something under her breath and stalked out of the room.
Scorpius giggled behind his hand.
*****
“Alright, Pooky,” Al said that night. “My twenty-four hours are officially up. It’s my turn.”
Scorpius grinned. “Can you still call me Hunny Pie? I liked that one.”
“Shut the hell up,” Al said amiably. “For the next twenty-four hours, you’re going to act as my personal servant. You are to call me ‘Sir’, and wait on me hand and foot.”
Scorpius groaned. “Seriously? That could actually be hard work.”
“It will be,” Al promised with a grin. “I want you to be believable. Show off those acting skills again. Come on, let’s go check out the attic for a suit.”
“A suit?”
“Proper servants have uniforms!” Al said.
*****
Scorpius coughed, brushing cobwebs away with his hand. “This is gross.”
“How is it gross? They’re just clothes.”
“The Blacks were twisted people. Merlin only knows what this suit has seen.”
“It’s probably been thrown in a pile on the floor a good many times so its owner could have a deviant shag,” Albus agreed.
Scorpius shuddered. “I don’t want to wear it. The jacket’s too big anyway. I’m a slim chap.”
Albus snorted. “Slim is one word for it.”
Scorpius narrowed his eyes. “I’ll have you know -”
“Yeah, yeah,” Albus waved his hand absently, still rummaging through a trunk for a bow-tie. “Malfoys are slender people, it’s in your genes. We’ve argued about this before.”
“We have?”
“Probably not out loud.”
“Oh.”
“Here!” Albus came up triumphantly, a red bowtie in hand. “Do you know how to ties these? I’ve no clue.”
Scorpius made in impatient noise and snatched it from Al’s open palm. “I swear you Potter-Weasleys have no class at all. Who can’t tie a bowtie?”
“My Mum always does it for me,” Al explained.
“Yes, well, I have my uniform. Can we go to sleep, now? Please?”
*****
Lily smiled and stretched out on the lawn chair. The sun was delicious against her bikini-clad body, and the breeze made her hair flutter.
The sexy, built, tan God who was simultaneously fanning her with a palm leaf and feeding her chocolate covered strawberries suddenly leaned closer to her and said her name.
“Lily?” he said. “Lily? Lils? Lily, wake up!”
The palm leaf turned into a pillow and whapped her in the stomach, leaving her winded and cranky.
“What?” she snapped, pulling off her eye mask and sitting up.
“Shh,” Roxanne, still pajama clad, said from the door, which was open a crack. “Come look at this.”
Lily got up and stumbled to the door. Outside in the hallway, Scorpius was standing rim-rod straight, wearing a suit, his blonde hair slicked back - a stark contrast to its usual loose shag.
“Here you go, Sir,” he was saying, holding open his and Albus’s bedroom door. Yawning widely, Albus shuffled out of the room.
“I’ve turned on the shower so the water will be warm, and set out clean towels. While you bathe, I’ll get your clothes ready and start preparing your breakfast.”
Al grunted and made his way blindly towards the loo, which was billowing steam.
Lily and Roxanne exchanged glances, and then hurried downstairs.
“Rose, Rose!”
Rose turned to look at them. “What’s wrong?”
“Albus and Scorpius are being weird,” Roxanne said, eyes wide.
Rose hmphed loudly and set back to drying the dishes.
“Aren’t you going to do something?” Lily demanded.
Rose set down the plate she was drying. “Are they sexually harassing anyone?”
Lily and Roxanne exchanged a glance. “No.”
“Are they hurting anyone?”
“No.”
“Is there blood involved?”
“No.”
“Does it look like their weirdness will soon personally affect me?”
“Not really.”
“Fine. Leave them alone. Help me dry so we can make breakfast.”
*****
Louis stood, head cocked to the side.
“Hugo?”
“Yes, Louis?”
“Why is Malfoy dressed as a butler?”
“I think he and Albus are playing some sort of game.”
Louis’s head cocked the opposite way. “Why is Malfoy opening the doors for Albus?”
“Must be in the rules of the game.”
Louis’s head returned to its original side. “Why is he carrying Albus down the stairs?”
“I guess that’s in the rules too.”
“Hugo?”
“Yeah?”
“Isn’t that kind of… weird?”
“A little. But we have to be accepting, Louis.”
*****
Scorpius pulled back the chair. “Your seat, sir.”
Albus sat haughtily. Scorpius hurried to put a bowl of steaming oatmeal in front of him, alongside a cup of tea.
Shaking her head, Rose picked up the breakfast tray she’d prepared and headed upstairs to Gemma, who was still working to get Fred healed.
“Would you like anything else, sir?” Scorpius asked.
“Cinnamon on the oatmeal,” Albus said.
Molly looked over at Lucy, who was looking back at her.
“Kinky sex games?” Molly guessed.
“That’s what I was thinking,” Lucy said, before spooning a bite of oatmeal into her mouth.
*****
Fred was stirring more than normal, sweat appearing on his forehead. Gemma pressed her hand to his forehead. The fever seemed to have broken.
“This is good,” Gemma murmured to herself, and glanced around for a piece of parchment to owl the Weasleys. When she didn’t find one, she went to the door.
“Rose?” she called, and Rose poked her head out of their room.
“Yes?”
“Can you watch Fred while I owl his mum? Just let loose a yell if he wakes or tries to move.”
“Sure, I can do that,” Rose said, moving to enter the room and take Gemma’s chair at Fred’s bedside.
Gemma headed to the library, where she knew there would be parchment and quills.
The sight she found there caused her to pause in her steps, mouth open wide. Her brother was dressed in an antiquated suit, his hair slicked back, holding up a book for Albus Potter, who was comfortably curled up reading avidly.
“Page,” Albus said, and Scorpius reached up and turned the page.
“Your hand is shaking too much,” Albus complained and Scopius stilled it as best he could.
Shaking her head, Gemma walked over to the desk to write her owl. “Don’t let Dad ever find out about this,” she advised darkly.
*****
“-And they all lived happily ever after.”
“Okay,” Albus said, tucked into bed. “You are officially relieved of duty.”
“Good,” Scorpius said, ripping off the bow tie and stripping out of the suit. Once in his boxers, he pulled on his loose pajama bottoms.
“My favorite part of the day was when we almost died trying to get up the stairs,” Al said, his voice laced with humor.
Scorpius shook his head. “That was not fun.”
Albus yawned. “What’s your dare gonna be?”
Scorpius flopped across his bed on his stomach, facing Al. “Hmm,” he said, chewing on his lip. “I dare you to tell me something. Something about you that no one knows.”
Al’s brow furrowed. “I don’t know, Scorpius, there’s not much to know about me. What you see if what you get.”
Scorpius smiled to himself. “I don’t believe that for a second.”
“I don’t know, it’s too hard,” Albus said, feeling uncomfortable. “Ask me something specific.”
“Fine,” Scorpius said. “What’s it like to be you?”
“I don’t understand,” Albus admitted, rolling on his side to face Scorpius.
“To be Albus Potter. What’s it like?”
Albus was silent for a moment, and Scorpius could hear the train of thought swirling around trying to get a concrete answer.
“It’s like… it’s like everyone thinks they know who I am and who I’m supposed to be - not only do I have my super-hero dad to live up to, but now I’ve got James with all of his fire. And I’m just not like them - I don’t show my fire.”
“I still see it,” Scorpius said.
Albus smiled. “I know.”
Scorpius pushed down his blankets and got into his bed. “Do you think you truly see me?”
Albus pondered this for a moment. “I think I see more of who you are than most people. Especially now, you know? But I don’t think I truly see you to your core. Actually, it’s my dare, isn’t it? The same question - what’s it like to be Scorpius Malfoy?”
Scorpius laughed. “Alright. Let me think for a second.” He rolled onto his back, feeling the sheets under him crinkle. “I guess it’s like I have my parents expecting me to be the model Malfoy child, learning five languages and how to fence and to just be perfect, but under that is the knowledge that no matter what they’re going to love me and I’m going to good enough. I beat my dad just by default, I guess. People expect me to be just like him- all darkness and snark and righteous anger, and it throws them off because on the outside I’m not. I’m charming and pleasant and -”
“And modest.”
“And I have a lot of friends. I’m clearly living a much happier life than he had. But people just think that’s me. It’s what I let them believe. Deep down, I am just like him - cunning, reserved, and dead-set to keep my family going.”
Albus was quiet. “Are you unhappy?” he asked finally.
Scorpius turned to face him, eyes bright. “I don’t know,” he said, his voice hard. “Are you?”
*****
“Hey.”
Scorpius opened his eyes. Al was standing over his bed.
“What?” Scorpius asked sleepily.
“Let’s go make breakfast before Rose gets up. We’ve given her too hard a time lately, and she’s been playing Mum really heavily. She needs a day off.”
“A’right,” Scorpius said through a yawn. “I’ll meet you down there.”
When he made it down the kitchen, Al was bustling around busily. Scorpius set right to work helping him. About halfway through, Rose showed up at the doorway.
“What are you doing?” she asked suspiciously.
“Giving you a day off,” Al told her.
“Take a seat,” Scorpius said. “I’ll start some tea.”
Rose sat down warily.
“Relax,” Al said with a laugh. “It’s not a trick. We felt bad for freaking you out so much lately.”
Rose looked at them through narrowed eyes for a moment. “So you’re really being normal today?”
“As normal as we can be,” Scorpius said, smiling.
Lucy appeared at the door. “Why are they cooking? Are they pretending to be chefs today?”
“No,” Albus returned. “We’re pretending to be nice people today.”
*****
Seeing Al’s concern for Rose made Scorpius think - something Al was not unaware of - about the dynamics of the Potter-Weasley family. So that afternoon, when they were curled up on separate ends of a couch in the library, he spoke up.
“Oy,” he said. “It’s my dare, right?”
“I think so,” Albus said, lowering his book. “Why, you got one?”
“Yeah,” Scorpius said. “Explain to me the dynamics of your family.”
“Wow,” Albus said, putting the book on the floor pages-down to hold his place. “All of them?”
“At least your immediate family. And if you wanna bring in any of the cousins and stuff, that’s alright.”
Al thought for a moment. “Well my mum is a typical mum. She’s always screeching at someone for something. My dad is the one who gets each of us. He’s so involved with who we are. I think a lot of it is making up for him not having a mum or dad his whole life, and I think he’s just desperate for us to be ourselves and be happy and not worry about trying to live up to anything- which just makes the pressure worse, because not only do we have to live up to him but we have to pretend we aren’t trying. James is the typical git older brother. He taught me all the cuss words, how to fight. He taught me about girls and sex. But he’s a complete git, no tact, no secrets. He’s just James, loud and full of fire and ready to fight. Lily’s still a kid in my mind, but it’s really clear that she’s starting to grow up now. I’m closer to her than James, definitely. You can’t really trust James with your secrets, or they’ll come back to bite you in the arse. But Lils has her own world, one I don’t know much about. Girl world, you know? I don’t understand it. Rose is more like my sister, except I understand her, ‘cause she’s not such a girl.”
“Don’t let her hear you say that.”
“Now,” Al grinned. “Your turn. I’m giving you the same dare. Tell me all about the Magnificent Malfoys.”
“You’ve got to stop stealing my dares,” Scorpius said.
“This is my last one, I promise,” Al said. “But answer it. It’s only fair.”
“Fine, fine,” Scorpius said. “Well Mum and Dad didn’t want to get married. My mum was crazy in love with some other guy, but the marriage was arranged. Pure blood families, you know. But they loved the hell out of Gemma. Everyone always says you shouldn’t have kids to save your marriage, but they didn’t have Gemma to save them - she just did. Gemma saves everyone. They finally fell in love with each other down the line, and had me. Dad was really glad to have a son to keep the Malfoy name going. They both drank really heavily though. For my dad, I think he just can’t handle everything he’s been through. My mum still resents having everything chosen for her, but that’s just a guess. Anyway, she was never much of a typical mum, and my dad was never the hugging sort. I don’t mean that I was abused or neglected. Just, Gemma did most of the Mummy stuff for me, you know?”
“I’d always wish I had a sibling that I was that close to,” Al admitted. “I can’t trust James with anything serious, and Lily’s always been kind of like a butterfly. You can’t pin her down. But we do have Teddy - I guess he’s kinda like Gemma is to you. We always used to think that Dad loved Teddy more, ‘cause Teddy was an orphan like him. But Ted never got special treatment or anything. I dunno.”
Scorpius nodded. He eyed the bookshelf across the room, knowing which book he wanted. Too lazy to get up and get it, he looked around for his wand to summon the book. However, in the time they’d been flopped on the couch, his wand had rolled out of reach. Frustrated, Scorpius waved a hand and the book zoomed out of the bookshelf into his hand. Satisfied, Scorpius flipped the book open and began to read, but became aware of a heavy gaze. He lowered the book and found Al staring at him wide-eyed and slack-jawed.
Scorpius looked around in confusion. “What?” he asked.
“Did you just…” Al trailed off, shaking his head. “You can do wandless magic?”
“Oh.” Scorpius blushed immediately. “Uh, yeah. That’s, um, one of the things my dad thought imperative to my education.”
Al looked at him blankly. “Seriously? How can you possibly be so casual about it?”
“I don’t know,” Scorpius whined, fidgeting. “It isn’t a big deal to me. I only do it once in a while.”
“How do you do it?” Al asked suddenly, dropping his book unceremoniously on the floor and sitting up briskly.
“Uh -“
“Teach me,” Al said eagerly. “Will you?”
“I don’t think I can,” Scorpius said uneasily. “It’s, like, hard. I’m not always very good at it. I can only do stuff like I just did - summoning and shit.”
“Well teach me just that, then!” Al said. “It’s so cool!”
“Well,” Scorpius said, still uncomfortable, “you just have to want to receive the object, and channel your magic into that desire.”
Al focused on a pillow on the other couch. ‘Accio pillow,’ he thought.
Nothing happened.
“The words aren’t enough,” Scorpius coached. “You have to send your magic to it and back.”
‘Accio pillow,’ Al thought, pushing with all of his might. Scorpius heard the request sound in his mind and felt Al’s magic rush through him. His own magic reacted, and the pillow flew into Al’s hand.
“It worked!” he cried in shock. “I did it!”
Scorpius squirmed. “Actually… I did it.”
Al looked at him crossly. “Well let me try, you tosser.”
“I didn’t do it on purpose…” Scorpius said. “I don’t know what happened. I think your magic came through our weird little brain-thing and made mine react to do the spell for you.”
Al thought this over for a second. “So what you’re telling me,” he said slowly, “is that when I want to do something wandlessly, I just have to control your brain and you’ll make it happen?”
“No,” Scorpius said quickly. “Nope. It is not that at all.”
Al grinned. “Let’s try again.”
“Let’s not,” Scorpius pleaded.
‘Accio book,’ Al thought, and Scorpius felt the rush of magic before the book sailed into Al’s outstretched hand.
*****
Albus showered before dinner that night, and Scorpius waited in their room, planning his next dare. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.
“Come in,” Scorpius called, assuming it would be Gemma.
Instead, Rose’s face peered at him. “Can I talk to you quick before Al gets back?”
“Sure,” Scorpius said. “What’s up?”
“I have to just be blunt,” Rose said, seeming reluctant. “Is there something going on between you and Albus?”
‘I don’t even know,’ Scorpius thought. Instead, he said, “We’re becoming actual friends now, if that’s what you mean.”
Rose gave him a hard look. “It almost seems like more than friends.”
“The problem with that is that neither of us is gay and neither of us is interested in the other,” Scorpius said flatly.
“After that party, I’m not so sure about that,” Rose said. “And you two have been inseparable lately.”
“I think the real issue here is that you’re jealous because he’s starting to spend all of his time with me, when it used to be you,” Scorpius said. “It’s only natural that Albus have a guy friend. It doesn’t have to be something.”
Rose’s face flushed with anger, but she held her tongue. “Fine,” she said. “I just wondered.” With a slight flounce, she turned and left.
It was only moments later that Al returned, soaking wet and towel-clad. “Who was in here?” he asked offhandedly, pulling on his pajamas as Scorpius pointedly didn’t look.
“Rose.” With that, he replayed the scene in his mind, so Albus could see first-hand.
“Thanks for setting her straight,” Albus said finally. “Nosy stinking cousins.” Then after a beat, “Do you think she’s really jealous? Maybe I should spend more time with her.”
“I dunno,” Scorpius said.
“You’re preoccupied,” Al said accusingly. “What’s up?”
“Nothing,” Scorpius said quickly.
“I can find out,” Albus threatened playfully.
“I was just thinking about my next dare,” Scorpius admitted.
“Got any ideas?” Albus asked, still playful.
Scorpius took in Al’s wet hair, unclothed chest, and easy grin. “Yeah,” he said, taking a deep breath. “I dare you to kiss me like you did at that party.”
Al grinned even more. “I think I need to be drunk for that,” he said, but he moved forward quickly, backing Scorpius breathlessly against the wall.
Without any hesitation, he brought his mouth to Scorpius’s, pushing intently until Scorpius’s head hit the wall and his mouth fell open.
Al pushed his hips against Scorpius’s as they kissed frantically, and Scorpius found himself clutching at Al’s back as if the wall weren’t holding him up. Scorpius’s mind went blank with the sheer feeling of Al’s bare chest against his own, and his lips firm and unyielding against his mouth.
Albus finally pulled away, leaving Scorpius out of breath.
“Was that up to your standards?” Al asked, trailing his hands along Scorpius’s chest.
“Yeah,” Scorpius said breathlessly. “Might have raised them a bit, actually.”
Al stumbled to his bed and flopped onto it. “Night,” he said.
“Al,” Scorpius said, “Don’t you think we should talk about -.”
“Hey,” Al said suddenly, sitting back up. “If we had to leave here on the spot to run, what one thing would you bring with you?”
“My angel statue, probably,” Scorpius said, somewhat uncertainly. It was unclear whether Al’s interruption had been intentional or not, but it made him uneasy. “What about you?”
“The Elder Wand,” Al said with a grin. “I’d bring the Elder Wand, and I’d take down whoever was chasing us.”
*****
“Oy,” Cliffe Ratburn growled. “Why’d you put out the fire? It’s bloody freezing out here.”
“Shut yer face, Ratburn,” Agnus Beachtree snarled. “Doncha ever listen? They think someone’s on the outside of the wards.”
Ratburn sniffed. “Ain’t no cause for worry. I did them wards up real good. No one’s gettin’ through.”
“Stop being prideful and pack camp,” their leader, Jasper Grieg, said. As it was, there wasn’t much to pack. Their camp was relatively small, only six of them. Ratburn knew that some of the camps held tens of dozens of Rhinehart’s men. But Jasper held great information and was one of Rhinehart’s top men, so he was strategically placed here to bring little attention to himself.
“What’s gotcher knickers twisted, hm?” Ratburn asked as he began rolling up his sleeping bag. Snow evenly coated the ground except for where they had melted it away around the camp fire. The big camps got tents and tables, but their small number meant meager living.
“One of our alarms triggered,” Jasper said, watching the surrounding woods intently.
“Probably just a deer,” Ratburn muttered, but he trusted Jasper. The younger man was strong and upstanding, intelligent and powerful.
Jasper didn’t reply, knowing Ratburn’s grumblings weren’t heartfelt. Instead, he listened intently for any clue where they were going to be attacked from.
“Be ready to Apparate away at any given second,” Jasper said.
“That won’t be necessary,” a voice said, right as another called, “Expelliarmus!”
Ratburn felt his wand tug from his hand, and watched in horror as the others’ wands flew into the hands of a group of Aurors - a tall redhead wizard, a shorter redhead wizard, a thin black witch with long black hair, a witch with large brown hair, and none other than Harry Potter himself.
“Well, I’ll be!” Ratburn said, awestruck. “It’s ‘Arry Potter!”
But around him, the others had bolted in different direction.
“No!” yelled the bushy haired witch, the Aurors throwing out leg-lockers, and four of the runners went down. Ratburn watched as Jasper dodged the attack and headed into the woods, Harry Potter right on his tail looking determined as all get-out to catch him.
Ratburn gave a little whoop. “’E sure is something’, ain’t ‘e?”
“Who?” the black witch asked as she cast the leg locker at Ratburn, who hadn’t yet tried to run.
“’Arry Potter,” Ratburn said from the ground, where he’d fallen. “Lookit ‘im go.”
Angelina looked down at him. “What’s your name?” she asked.
“Cliffe Ratburn,” Ratburn said. “I don’t know nuffin of interest, I swear. I’m only ‘ere ‘cause Rhinehart threatened my sweet little girls. I got two o’ them back home. D’you think I’ll get back ‘ome?”
“I guess it depends on what you’ve done for Rhinehart,” Angelina said.
“Ain’t done nuffin but froze my knackers off,” Ratburn grumbled.
Harry walked back out of the deeper woods, dragging an unconscious Jasper behind him.
“Who’s that?” Angelina asked Ratburn.
“’E’s Jasper Grieg. ‘E’s our leader. If’n I tell you all about ‘im, do you think I’d get ‘ome to my little girls?”
“It wouldn’t hurt your case,” Angelina said. She called over to Harry, “Shall we round them up and head them to Azkaban?”
“Azkaban?” Ratburn squeaked.
“For interrogation,” Angelina said. “But play your cards right, and you may not stay long.”
“My littlest girl is jus’ turned seven,” Ratburn told her as the prisoners were gathered and placed touching a portkey that would take them straight to Azkaban, where another team of Aurors would take care of them.
Angelina reached over and put Ratburn’s other hand, the one not touching the portkey, on his head. “Keep that there,” she told him. “When they ask you why, say the Auror at the camp told you to.”
The portkey lit and the prisoners were gone.
“You’re too soft,” George teased. “Making pals. Your little hand signals probably don’t mean a thing to them anymore, you send so many of them.”
“It means they’ll cooperate!” Angelina defended herself. “Now let’s head back to our camp so I can read that owl from Gemma Malfoy and see how our son is doing.”
“We had better go,” Harry agreed. “It’s getting dark.”
*****
Back at Grimmauld, Al and Scorpius were cleaning up after dinner, still being nice and letting Rose get some time to relax.
“I’ll help with that, come on guys,” she begged.
“Rose, for the last time, let us do this! We’ve been total prats for the past weeks, let us make up for it!” Al scolded, and he scraped leftover food off of a plate into the garbage before putting the plate into the suds-filled sink.
“Oh, fine,” she huffed, but she was smiling as she left.
Upstairs, they could hear the beat from the music and the stamping of feet as Lily and Roxanne danced around in their room.
“Crazy girls,” Scorpius said with a shy smile as he rolled up his sleeves and plunged his arms into the soapy water to start washing.
“I’d say we’re crazier,” Al said, scraping off the last plate, dropping it into the sink and moving around to Scorpius’s other side, ready to dry the washed dishes. As he moved, he deliberately bumped Scorpius so their sides were touching as he went.
He watched with delight as a flush worked its way furiously up Scorpius’s cheeks.
Grinning, he made his way to the opposite side of the sink again, letting his hips trace along Scorpius’s bum as he went. He picked up a towel to dry with and then headed back to where he’d come from, again letting his hips trail along Scorpius’s body.
“Merlin,” Scorpius muttered, cheeks blazing. “Stop.”
“Stop what?” Al asked innocently. “Drying?”
‘You know what,’ Scorpius thought.
‘What?’ Al thought, and moved behind Scorpius, pressing his hips strongly against the other boy’s, trapping him against the sink. ’This? Okay. I’ll stop.’ Al wandered back to his spot to dry, a smirk playing around his lips. Scorpius began washing very quickly, piling up the clean, wet plates next to the sink faster than Al could keep up. When he was done washing, he swiftly left and headed up the stairs.
Al chuckled and dried the last few dishes quickly, hurrying up to go torment the boy some more. Their door was shut, but Al headed in anyway. In the doorway, he froze.
Scorpius was facing the wall to Albus’s right, one hand against the wall above his head, holding him up, the other down his pants and working furiously. His face was even redder than it had been in the kitchen, and his fringe stuck to his face where it was sweaty along his brow.
The door shut behind Albus, and Scorpius looked up. He gave a wordless shriek and turned away from Al.
“Go away,” he said raggedly, tugging his hand out of his pants.
“No way,” Al replied, his heart racing, his mind burning with the image.
“Then I will!” Scorpius turned and strode past him and burst into the hallway, where he went and locked himself in the bathroom. Al fell onto his back on his bed and shoved his own hand down his pants, alight with the knowledge that Scorpius was doing the exact same thing across the hall. The knowledge bounced between them in their minds, and Al barely lasted a minute. Breathlessly, he rolled onto his stomach and fell asleep.
****
When he awoke, Scorpius was back on his bed, reading a book.
“Hey,” Al said.
‘I’m not talking to you,’ Scorpius thought, turning a page.
“But you’re still communicating with me,” Albus pointed out.
Silence.
“Fine,” Al said, as if he didn’t care. “I’ll just keep my dare for you to myself until you get over it.” He stood and left the room, heading to the loo, aware that Scorpius was itching to know what the dare was.
Al went back and laid across his bed.
“Well?” Scorpius said finally, after a tense silence.
“Well,” Al said, “does that mean you want to know?”
“Yeah, I guess,” Scorpius said, putting down his book.
Al took a deep breath, thrumming with excitement and nerves. What if Scorpius killed him?
“I dare you to do… what you were doing today… to me.”
Scorpius fell into a shocked silence. Al knew it was shocked silence because he could hear Scorpius’s brain go blissfully silent.
Finally Scorpius blinked and bit his bottom lip nervously. “Really?”
“Yeah,” Albus said. “Really.”
Scorpius bit his lip again. “Well,” he said, “if that’s the dare, then that’s the dare. I’ll do it.”
He got up and went over to Al’s bed, draping himself next to the boy. It was very mechanical, and the awkwardness was magnified by the acknowledgment of the awkwardness happening in each of their minds, loud and clear.
Closing his eyes and taking the leap, Scorpius slid his hand under the waistband of Al’s pajama bottoms. Al squirmed a little - he wasn’t even half-hard yet.
“Maybe you should kiss me first,” Al suggested, and Scorpius grinned briefly before doing just that.
He rolled Albus onto his back. It was the first time they’d kissed with Scorpius in the leading role, and he found it thrilling as Al ran his fingers through Scorpius’s hair and made delightful sounds below him.
“I’m totally ready now,” Al gasped, and Scorpius pushed his mouth back against Al’s as he slipped his hand under Al’s waistband again.
He wrapped his fingers loosely around Al’s cock and pulled them around to get a basic feel. Al’s skin was soft and satiny under his fingers, from the slick head down to the rough hairs at the base.
‘More,’ Al’s voice called. His eyes were shut tight and his lips were pressed into a thin line. ‘You’re teasing like hell here, Scorp.’
“Call me my whole name,” Scorpius said roughly, tightening his grip and tugging upward.
“Oh!” Albus gasped, his hands scrabbling against the sheets.
Scorpius continued his movements, taking in the feel of Albus’s cock in his hand, the sight of Albus screwing his eyes shut and trying to stay quiet.
“Hey, Al,” Scorpius whispered.
“Yeah.” It was meant to be a response, but it came out more like a plea.
“I dare you to return the favor.”
Al scrambled to get his hands in Scorpius’s pajamas, curling his hand eagerly around Scorpius’s length, making Scorpius release his breath in a hiss.
“Roll to face me,” Al said. Scorpius furrowed his brow in confusion but obeyed. Al scooted closer so their groins were touching.
“Al?” Scorpius said, “What-?”
“Shh,” Albus said. “Just move.”
“Oh, Merlin,” Scorpius hissed as they began moving together. The feel of Albus’s prick against his own, even through the layers of pajamas, felt incredible, and Scorpius clung to Al like a drowning person.
“Oh. Shit, Al,” he ground out, and he was coming, and the heat between them greatened as he felt Al shudder too, Al’s hands tightening painfully around Scorpius’s upper arms.
They both collapsed onto their backs, breathing heavily.
“Gross,” Albus said with a grin. “I need another shower.”
“Me too,” Scorpius said slowly. “Hey, Al? I really think we ought to ta-.”
Al sat up and headed towards the door. “I’m gonna grab the shower while it’s open. Tomorrow, your dare is going to involve a thong, and there’s not a thing you can do about it.” With a cheeky grin, he disappeared into the hallway, leaving Scorpius feeling awkward and empty.