Staring at the Sun; 01
Severus was startled awake as something jabbed him in the ribs, and the first thing he saw was the half-written essay he’d been using as a pillow, the ink blotting in a puddle of drool that trailed in a string from his chin. Disoriented, he tried to wipe his face on his shirtsleeve - only to discover he was wearing a short-sleeved shirt - and blinked several times, looking up into a face he always hated waking up to.
“You realize we’ve got class this morning, don’t you?”
“Scorp. How did you get over there?” he croaked groggily. “You were just…” Sev looked around himself again and realized he was not in his dorm as he thought he’d been. “Oh, must’ve been a dream,” he concluded, smiling sleepily up at Scorpius, who did not respond very nicely.
“Wake the hell up!” he said loudly, leaning imposingly over Severus, who winced at the loud noise of his voice. “Do you realize what time it is? We’ve got Muggle Studies in fifteen minutes, you oaf!” Severus tried to get his mind working again. It always took an unbearably long time to get his brain in gear after a sleep. Especially when he’d been dreaming. But he slowly took notice of all the crucial little details. One was that for whatever reason, he’d been sleeping at a table in the common room, in his clothes from the night before. Another was that he had a very strange feeling, that wasn’t completely due to just having woken up. He also realized, at last, that his Muggle Studies paper was as yet, undone.
“Ohh…shit!” He stood up too quickly and his head began to swam, and at the same time he noticed something else that was very off, and not in a good way. He looked sideways at Scorpius and bit his lip, thinking of what to do. “I’m gonna, erm… I’m going to go use the bathroom…” he trailed off, edging toward the door that led off the common room to the boys’ loo, and Scorpius sighed and leaned against the edge of the table.
★ ★ ★
There was one reason, and one reason only that Albus Severus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy had any interest in Muggle Studies, and that was Patricia Pinkerton, who taught the class. Patricia was a beautiful 28 year old Muggle rights activist, who had taken the job a year before when the previous teacher had quit for reasons he wouldn’t disclose. Before Patricia had come along, Severus and Scorpius had despised the subject. One could say they’d allegedly gone so far as putting jarvey jizz in Professor Roundy’s tea and inviting a ghoul to live in his wardrobe. Not that any of that can be proven, because the ghoul doesn’t speak English.
“Sorry we’re late, Professor,” said Scorpius, striding into the classroom to the first row desk, with Severus in tow. “Potter had an issue to work out.” He and Severus took their seats and began pulling out their books.
“And surely you couldn’t have come without him?” she asked, half-smiling at him in that beautiful way she did. Scorpius looked up from what he was doing to answer her, and caught himself in her blue eyes for a moment.
“Er, no Professor, we always come together.”
Someone near the back of the classroom snickered, and Sev shot them a hostile glance. Professor Pinkerton sighed, and turned back to the blackboard behind her. “Pictured here is what’s called an electrical outlet,” she said, speaking again to the class as a whole. “These conduct electricity, which you’ll remember we studied earlier in the year…”
Scorpius felt his eyelids becoming heavy as his brain tuned out the words she was saying and focused on the sounds of Patricia’s voice. It was soft and melodic, and not high-pitched like a lot of girls he went out with. He felt Severus lean in toward him and whisper in his ear, “Ohh, no, she’s dropped the chalk again,” in a way that didn’t sound like he was sorry for it at all. Patricia frowned and bent over to retrieve it, and Scorp and Sev leaned closer to each other and softly sang, “Ass like that.”
The class seemed to drag on, while the students tried to pay attention to their reading about plugs and outlets. Severus and Scorpius occasionally snickered to each other and pointed out a line in their textbooks about inserting something into something else, and Patricia busied herself at her desk, reading and grading papers.
Finally, she walked to the front of the room and said, “Alright, class, I’d like you to please hand in your essays on electrical wiring. Pass them to the person in front of you, and the person in front, hand them to me.”
Severus swore under his breath and rummaged in his bag, making time to think up an excuse for not finishing it. In his efforts to put off her giving him a detention - which was inevitable - most of the class had handed in their work and left the classroom by the time she’d realized his paper was missing. Scorpius hung back, waiting by the door for his friend.
“Albus?”
He cleared his throat. “Severus, please, ma’am,” he said, standing and walking around the desk toward her.
“Oh, right,” she said, blushing and running her fingers through her dark hair. "I always forget cause, you know it says Albus on every paper…”
Sev was now standing a few feet away from her, in front of the desk he and Scorpius occupied. He felt taller around Patricia than he did around most anyone else, even though she wasn’t all that short. Maybe it was her quiet nature, in contrast with his outgoing, spontaneous personality. He counted it a good thing, as hanging out with Scorpius always made him feel short. It was good to be the tall one, every once in a while.. “Right… Okay, Professor Pinkerton, I know this looks bad and it’s like…the third time, but I didn’t finish the paper.”
She bit her lip, looking over the boy and wondering what she could ever do about his constantly lowering grade. “Well, do you at least have the part you did finish?”
Sev made a strange expression that was half smile and half grimace. “Trust me, you don’t want it. I, er…I fell asleep on it.” He grabbed the paper off the desk and gave her a glimpse of it - enough for her to see the ink stains and that it looked a little damp.
Patricia sighed, and hung her head a little. “Really, Mr. Potter, what are we going to do with you?” She smiled a little, and added, “I’m beginning to think you like my detentions.” She straightened the stack of parchment in her hands, and didn’t see his grin.
Scorpius groaned quietly and walked over, saying, “Professor, please, don’t give Sev another detention! At this rate he won’t have any time to do the one thing he’s actually good at.” He put his arm around Sev’s shoulders, and at her confused look, he went on. “You know, Quidditch! The entire team is practically riding on his shoulders, and if he doesn’t get the practice time he needs, Slytherin suffers. We don’t want that, do we?” Severus watched as his best friend made those big pouty eyes he did oh-so well. They were a rare sight, except to someone close to him, and when you did see them they almost made your heart melt. Well, they almost made his heart melt, anyway.
Patricia smiled at the boys. “Well I’m a Hufflepuff, so it doesn’t matter much to me. You’ll have detention at five tomorrow afternoon. You’re free to go.”
Sev and Scorpius packed up their things and left, one feeling quite a bit lighter-hearted than the other.
★ ★ ★
“Why do you fucking do that all the time?”
Severus looked confusedly across the way at Scorpius, who had just thrown his book down onto his bed. “Oh, don’t give me that look. You always act so innocent, like you’ve no idea what you did wrong.” He leaned forward, over the gap between their beds, and said quietly, “Do I need to spell it out?”
Scorp’s gaze threw Severus off guard, and the model dragon that had been flying around the room fell onto his bed. “Well, yes, please do, because you obviously think I’ve done something wrong and I’ve no clue what.”
Sev flicked his wand, and the toy dragon that had been flying around his head fell to the bed. “Yes, please do, because you obviously think I’ve done something wrong and I’ve no clue.”
Scorpius groaned and leaned back against his pillow. “Patricia, dipshit.”
Sev furrowed his eyebrows, more confused than ever. “What about her, asshole?”
Scorp rolled his eyes. “You and your bloody detentions! You’re really not giving this a fair chance, are you? Did you forget we’d had an agreement?”
Severus turned so he was properly facing Scorpius. “No, I didn’t. So far as I know, the agreement was that we were gonna do it like everything else: may the best man win. So what’s the problem? If you’re so fussed about my spending more time with her, why don’t you get a few detentions.”
“You know I can’t do that, you git. My father would kill me if my grades started to drop.” He put his hand on his book, as though he were about to pick it up but didn’t want to officially end the conversation. “Besides,” he said with a sideways look at Sev, “the way you’re going I wouldn’t have a chance anyway,” he said resentfully. “The way you’re going you’ll be shagging her by the weekend.”
“You really think I could have her that fast?” Severus grinned, and picked up the box of Bertie’s from his nightstand.
“Idiot.”