Gift for faynia
Author: lisabird
Recipient: faynia
Title: Love Is a Many Splendored Thing and Other Clichés
Pairing(s): Albus/Scorpius, Scorpius/Rose
Summary: Albus isn't happy when his best friend and his cousin start dating.
Rating: PG
Warning(s): None
Word Count: ~2200
Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters herein are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Notes: If you squint really hard, faynia, I hope you can see your prompts. This came out way fluffier than I originally intended, but hopefully you still like it!
Albus couldn't - wouldn't - believe the rumor. His cousin and his best friend? Ew. Ewwww. What were they thinking? They had nothing in common. Okay, so they were the two best students in their year and they were both sort of ridiculously good-looking, Scorpius with his fair hair and high cheekbones and Rose with her gentle curves and glossy lips, but so what? There's really no reason for two smart, attractive people to start snogging on school trains. No reason at all. What, just because you're Head Boy and Girl means you have to get it on with each other? This was so cliché.
He held his breath for a moment, trying to hear what the voices in the common room were saying. He had come straight up to the dormitory after dinner, wanting a break from the gossip. If he heard one more Did you hear what Scorpius Malfoy and Rose Weasley were doing on the train?!, he was definitely going to have to kill somebody. He hadn't seen Scorpius since they parted on Platform Nine and Three Quarters. Scorpius had to tend to his Prefect duties, which apparently included wild make-out sessions, and Albus had to tend to his Eating As Much As Possible Off The Trolley duties. Which was surely to blame for his lack of appetite at the feast (he only managed to go back for seconds and barely had any room for treacle tart) but probably not to blame for the terrible sinking feeling in his chest. Unless he was having a heart attack. Was his arm tingly? Could wizards even have heart attacks? Merlin, he should probably lie down.
So maybe Albus had always been a tiny bit jealous of his best friend. Scorpius was good-looking and popular, smart enough that he never really had to work at school and polished enough that social interaction came naturally to him. He nearly always had a girlfriend or a boyfriend, depending on his whim that particular week, but somehow he never got a bad reputation for being promiscuous or easy. He caused quite a scandal when he started dating Eloise White, a Sixth Year, when they were still Fourth Years. The next winter, he started even more of an uproar when he was caught in a broom closet with Nigel Stevens, a Hufflepuff in their year. But after that, the shock factor sort of wore off.
Plus, nobody rocked a pair of forest green cat eye reading glasses quite like Scorpius Malfoy.
Not that Albus was a hermit or anything. He'd had his share of girlfriends. Fifth year, he dated Kristen King for almost a month and he'd felt up Mallory Brown in an empty classroom just last spring. And, well, he was always really busy with Quidditch and schoolwork and stuff.
For the first time in, like, ever, Albus wished that his brother was still in school. James could overreact like no one Albus had ever known. He would probably rant for hours about how wrong this was, how he would kill Scorpius if he tried to lay a finger on her, how he should lock Rose in her room and never let her out before realizing that he had no way of getting to the Ravenclaw dormitory. And all of this would make Albus feel immeasurably better about just lying on his bed and pouting. Instead, James was off interning for the Ministry and Albus was left to fend for himself.
He felt very much alone. Rosie was his cousin, yes, but she was also the first friend he ever had. They grew up together. She was his confidant, his escape. She was the one who was always there for him while Scorpius was off having his latest escapade. Now she was his latest escapade. And he had no one to turn to.
Albus heard footsteps and the low sound of someone humming before Scorpius practically waltzed into the room. Literally, he was almost dancing. He flopped down on the bed next to Albus, pointedly ignoring the latter's attempt at pretending to be asleep. He continued to hum something that sounded suspiciously like "White Christmas" but was most likely some sappy love song. Scorpius was always singing sappy love songs. It kind of made Albus want to punch him in the face sometimes.
"Albus Severus Potter. You can lie there with your eyes closed as long as you want, but I know you're awake."
"And how do you know that?"
"My superior intellect. Also, it's like nine-thirty and you forgot to close your curtains. You're old, Al, but you're not that old."
Albus sighed his most melodramatic, defeated sigh and opened his eyes. Scorpius was lying next to him, head propped up on his hand, grinning like a damned idiot.
"What."
"What?"
"Don't give me that innocent routine, Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy. I do believe you have some explaining to do."
"And what, pray tell, do I have to explain to you?"
"She's my cousin, Score. And since you're practically my brother, that makes you and her practically incestuous. Also, I think I may be having a heart attack."
Scorpius sat up and, looking quite serious, started counting points off on his fingers. "One, sixteen-year-old wizards don't have heart attacks. It's probably just indigestion. You should try not to eat so much. Two, if you were going to play the incest card, you should have gone with the argument that all pureblood wizarding family are somehow interrelated and that she's probably some really obscure cousin of mine, but that's ridiculous so shut up. And three, it's not like she and I planned for this to happen or anything. It just… did." He shrugged off this last point, looking far more ingenuous than should be possible for a Slytherin.
Albus couldn't help but smile.
*****
Thus began his seventh and final year at Hogwarts. Albus started to dread having classes with the Ravenclaws, whom the Slytherins generally got along with quite nicely, but it was hard to concentrate in Potions when the couple next to you was snuggling over their cauldron. Rose and Scorpius ate every meal together, sometimes at the Ravenclaw table, sometimes with the Slytherins. They studied together, spending inordinate amounts of time in the library, usually until they got kicked out for inappropriate displays of affection. Scorpius was known for being a romantic, but this was just ridiculous. He sent her flowers and chocolates and books of poetry, from which he would read loudly at breakfast. It was embarrassing for everyone.
Obviously, something had to be done.
Albus owled James, who took his sweet time responding, and then had the nerve to be all level-headed and reasonable, advising Albus to leave well enough alone and to let the lovebirds be. Obviously, his brother was a pod person.
Lily thought they were, like, the cutest thing ever OMG! Lily had discovered the internet while she was visiting her grandfather's house over the summer and had taken to using indecipherable codes. Albus really hoped it was just a phase.
Even his fellow Slytherin Seventh Years who may have been generally annoyed by their housemate being such a fop didn't seem to understand why Albus had such a huge problem with them. They were happy and sort of sickeningly adorable but they certainly weren't hurting anyone.
It looked like Albus was on his own.
*****
However, it turned out that Albus was kind of helpless on his own. He tried every plan he could think of - distracting Scorpius with attractive schoolmate, hiring Veela strippers as a surprise for his 17th birthday, sending Rose gifts from a secret admirer, even planting a pair of panties in Scorpius's bed (never mind that they really were Scorpius's own) - but nothing seemed to get between those two.
So, after a month of evil plotting, Albus had given up. He decided that maybe he should be mature about this, accept that his cousin and his best friend were just meant to be, and try to redeem his status as future best man. He really wasn't looking forward to the inevitable sorry-I've-been-a-horse's-arse speech, but he'd been practicing his monologue in the shower.
"Scorpius! Listen. I know I've been a huge prat over the last month or so," Albus muttered to himself on the way down to breakfast, "and I really appreciate you not turning me into a newt or something. You're a good mate. I would very much like to be invited to your wedding."
He entered the Great Hall, praying to every god he could think of that Scorpius would be at the Slytherin table alone. And lo! It looked like Vishnu finally pulled through. Albus took a deep breath and, straddling the seat next to him, launched into his rehearsed speech before Scorpius could even say good morning.
To his credit, Scorpius listened attentively and didn't laugh out loud or hex him or anything. He just sat there with a bemused look on his face until Albus was through.
"You have been a prat. But you're my best friend. And I love you."
"Uh, thanks. I love you too, Score," Albus said, reaching for a glass of pumpkin juice. "So where's Rosie?"
Scorpius shrugged. "We broke up this morning."
Albus dropped his goblet, making a wonderfully dramatic clanking sound and spilling a brilliant orange stain down about three meters of tablecloth. "Sorry. Didn't catch that. You what?"
"We broke up. No big deal. We've decided still to be friends, only to lay off the snogging for a while. It was a mutual decision. Besides," he paused, reaching across Albus to upright his glass, "I think I need a break from girls. I prefer being the pretty one in the relationship."
"I. You. I don't believe this," Albus stammered.
"I thought you'd be happy, Al. You've been trying to get between us since the first day of term, after all. And as much as you may have annoyed me, I must admit that you were right. Rose and I weren't right for one another."
"Yes. Good."
"Also, you're kind of adorable when you're being insanely jealous."
Suddenly, Albus noticed how close Scorpius was sitting to him. Despite himself, a warmth crept into his cheeks.
"Yeah, well, no. I wasn't jealous. I just. You're my best mate and it felt like I was losing you."
"Uh huh." Scorpius took off his glasses, laying them gently on the table. Albus always liked his glasses, but noticed how much easier it was to see his eyes without them.
"And Rose too. She's, uh, my cousin and we've always been quite close and I'm glad it ended well because of course I never wanted to hurt you, or her, or I mean…" Albus was babbling now, trying desperately to fill the silence. "I should go," he finished quickly and bolted from the table.
He only got as far as the hallway before he felt a hand reaching around his waist and another pushing him into the wall. And then, suddenly, inexplicably, Scorpius was kissing him. His brain went all fuzzy and he wasn't entirely sure what to do because Score was his best friend and also a guy and Albus was totally and completely straight here, but hey, it would probably be rude not to kiss back just a little bit. So he closed his eyes.
Scorpius was, apparently, a take-charge kind of kisser. Which was good since Albus still wasn't entirely sure what was happening. There was definitely kissing going on, and a hand resting firmly against his hip, and a soft moaning coming from somewhere. The stone wall was cold and hard behind him, but not entirely unpleasant. His own hand appeared to have meandered its way into Scorpius' hair while the other was gripping the front of his robes. There was also a crowd of people watching, which startled Albus enough to break the kiss.
Gasping, Albus stammered, "Wait, wait. You're my best friend. And I'm-"
"Totally in love with me." Scorpius appeared perfectly calm and collected, if a bit disheveled.
"What?"
"Everybody else has figured it out. It's about time you got with the program."
"Oh." Albus glanced at the crowd and noticed people nodding.
"Right. So, I reckon there are two ways we can go about this. We can take it slow, all gentlemanly-like, while I slowly convince you that I am, in fact, completely right about this. Or you can just admit that you're completely gay for me and we can get back to the snogging."
Albus considered for a moment before saying, "I choose the latter. Now let's get the hell out of here."
"Excellent notion," Scorpius grinned, grabbing Albus's hand and leading him down the hall. Albus thought he heard people cheering, but he liked to think they weren't that cliché.
Recipient: faynia
Title: Love Is a Many Splendored Thing and Other Clichés
Pairing(s): Albus/Scorpius, Scorpius/Rose
Summary: Albus isn't happy when his best friend and his cousin start dating.
Rating: PG
Warning(s): None
Word Count: ~2200
Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters herein are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Notes: If you squint really hard, faynia, I hope you can see your prompts. This came out way fluffier than I originally intended, but hopefully you still like it!
Albus couldn't - wouldn't - believe the rumor. His cousin and his best friend? Ew. Ewwww. What were they thinking? They had nothing in common. Okay, so they were the two best students in their year and they were both sort of ridiculously good-looking, Scorpius with his fair hair and high cheekbones and Rose with her gentle curves and glossy lips, but so what? There's really no reason for two smart, attractive people to start snogging on school trains. No reason at all. What, just because you're Head Boy and Girl means you have to get it on with each other? This was so cliché.
He held his breath for a moment, trying to hear what the voices in the common room were saying. He had come straight up to the dormitory after dinner, wanting a break from the gossip. If he heard one more Did you hear what Scorpius Malfoy and Rose Weasley were doing on the train?!, he was definitely going to have to kill somebody. He hadn't seen Scorpius since they parted on Platform Nine and Three Quarters. Scorpius had to tend to his Prefect duties, which apparently included wild make-out sessions, and Albus had to tend to his Eating As Much As Possible Off The Trolley duties. Which was surely to blame for his lack of appetite at the feast (he only managed to go back for seconds and barely had any room for treacle tart) but probably not to blame for the terrible sinking feeling in his chest. Unless he was having a heart attack. Was his arm tingly? Could wizards even have heart attacks? Merlin, he should probably lie down.
So maybe Albus had always been a tiny bit jealous of his best friend. Scorpius was good-looking and popular, smart enough that he never really had to work at school and polished enough that social interaction came naturally to him. He nearly always had a girlfriend or a boyfriend, depending on his whim that particular week, but somehow he never got a bad reputation for being promiscuous or easy. He caused quite a scandal when he started dating Eloise White, a Sixth Year, when they were still Fourth Years. The next winter, he started even more of an uproar when he was caught in a broom closet with Nigel Stevens, a Hufflepuff in their year. But after that, the shock factor sort of wore off.
Plus, nobody rocked a pair of forest green cat eye reading glasses quite like Scorpius Malfoy.
Not that Albus was a hermit or anything. He'd had his share of girlfriends. Fifth year, he dated Kristen King for almost a month and he'd felt up Mallory Brown in an empty classroom just last spring. And, well, he was always really busy with Quidditch and schoolwork and stuff.
For the first time in, like, ever, Albus wished that his brother was still in school. James could overreact like no one Albus had ever known. He would probably rant for hours about how wrong this was, how he would kill Scorpius if he tried to lay a finger on her, how he should lock Rose in her room and never let her out before realizing that he had no way of getting to the Ravenclaw dormitory. And all of this would make Albus feel immeasurably better about just lying on his bed and pouting. Instead, James was off interning for the Ministry and Albus was left to fend for himself.
He felt very much alone. Rosie was his cousin, yes, but she was also the first friend he ever had. They grew up together. She was his confidant, his escape. She was the one who was always there for him while Scorpius was off having his latest escapade. Now she was his latest escapade. And he had no one to turn to.
Albus heard footsteps and the low sound of someone humming before Scorpius practically waltzed into the room. Literally, he was almost dancing. He flopped down on the bed next to Albus, pointedly ignoring the latter's attempt at pretending to be asleep. He continued to hum something that sounded suspiciously like "White Christmas" but was most likely some sappy love song. Scorpius was always singing sappy love songs. It kind of made Albus want to punch him in the face sometimes.
"Albus Severus Potter. You can lie there with your eyes closed as long as you want, but I know you're awake."
"And how do you know that?"
"My superior intellect. Also, it's like nine-thirty and you forgot to close your curtains. You're old, Al, but you're not that old."
Albus sighed his most melodramatic, defeated sigh and opened his eyes. Scorpius was lying next to him, head propped up on his hand, grinning like a damned idiot.
"What."
"What?"
"Don't give me that innocent routine, Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy. I do believe you have some explaining to do."
"And what, pray tell, do I have to explain to you?"
"She's my cousin, Score. And since you're practically my brother, that makes you and her practically incestuous. Also, I think I may be having a heart attack."
Scorpius sat up and, looking quite serious, started counting points off on his fingers. "One, sixteen-year-old wizards don't have heart attacks. It's probably just indigestion. You should try not to eat so much. Two, if you were going to play the incest card, you should have gone with the argument that all pureblood wizarding family are somehow interrelated and that she's probably some really obscure cousin of mine, but that's ridiculous so shut up. And three, it's not like she and I planned for this to happen or anything. It just… did." He shrugged off this last point, looking far more ingenuous than should be possible for a Slytherin.
Albus couldn't help but smile.
*****
Thus began his seventh and final year at Hogwarts. Albus started to dread having classes with the Ravenclaws, whom the Slytherins generally got along with quite nicely, but it was hard to concentrate in Potions when the couple next to you was snuggling over their cauldron. Rose and Scorpius ate every meal together, sometimes at the Ravenclaw table, sometimes with the Slytherins. They studied together, spending inordinate amounts of time in the library, usually until they got kicked out for inappropriate displays of affection. Scorpius was known for being a romantic, but this was just ridiculous. He sent her flowers and chocolates and books of poetry, from which he would read loudly at breakfast. It was embarrassing for everyone.
Obviously, something had to be done.
Albus owled James, who took his sweet time responding, and then had the nerve to be all level-headed and reasonable, advising Albus to leave well enough alone and to let the lovebirds be. Obviously, his brother was a pod person.
Lily thought they were, like, the cutest thing ever OMG! Lily had discovered the internet while she was visiting her grandfather's house over the summer and had taken to using indecipherable codes. Albus really hoped it was just a phase.
Even his fellow Slytherin Seventh Years who may have been generally annoyed by their housemate being such a fop didn't seem to understand why Albus had such a huge problem with them. They were happy and sort of sickeningly adorable but they certainly weren't hurting anyone.
It looked like Albus was on his own.
*****
However, it turned out that Albus was kind of helpless on his own. He tried every plan he could think of - distracting Scorpius with attractive schoolmate, hiring Veela strippers as a surprise for his 17th birthday, sending Rose gifts from a secret admirer, even planting a pair of panties in Scorpius's bed (never mind that they really were Scorpius's own) - but nothing seemed to get between those two.
So, after a month of evil plotting, Albus had given up. He decided that maybe he should be mature about this, accept that his cousin and his best friend were just meant to be, and try to redeem his status as future best man. He really wasn't looking forward to the inevitable sorry-I've-been-a-horse's-arse speech, but he'd been practicing his monologue in the shower.
"Scorpius! Listen. I know I've been a huge prat over the last month or so," Albus muttered to himself on the way down to breakfast, "and I really appreciate you not turning me into a newt or something. You're a good mate. I would very much like to be invited to your wedding."
He entered the Great Hall, praying to every god he could think of that Scorpius would be at the Slytherin table alone. And lo! It looked like Vishnu finally pulled through. Albus took a deep breath and, straddling the seat next to him, launched into his rehearsed speech before Scorpius could even say good morning.
To his credit, Scorpius listened attentively and didn't laugh out loud or hex him or anything. He just sat there with a bemused look on his face until Albus was through.
"You have been a prat. But you're my best friend. And I love you."
"Uh, thanks. I love you too, Score," Albus said, reaching for a glass of pumpkin juice. "So where's Rosie?"
Scorpius shrugged. "We broke up this morning."
Albus dropped his goblet, making a wonderfully dramatic clanking sound and spilling a brilliant orange stain down about three meters of tablecloth. "Sorry. Didn't catch that. You what?"
"We broke up. No big deal. We've decided still to be friends, only to lay off the snogging for a while. It was a mutual decision. Besides," he paused, reaching across Albus to upright his glass, "I think I need a break from girls. I prefer being the pretty one in the relationship."
"I. You. I don't believe this," Albus stammered.
"I thought you'd be happy, Al. You've been trying to get between us since the first day of term, after all. And as much as you may have annoyed me, I must admit that you were right. Rose and I weren't right for one another."
"Yes. Good."
"Also, you're kind of adorable when you're being insanely jealous."
Suddenly, Albus noticed how close Scorpius was sitting to him. Despite himself, a warmth crept into his cheeks.
"Yeah, well, no. I wasn't jealous. I just. You're my best mate and it felt like I was losing you."
"Uh huh." Scorpius took off his glasses, laying them gently on the table. Albus always liked his glasses, but noticed how much easier it was to see his eyes without them.
"And Rose too. She's, uh, my cousin and we've always been quite close and I'm glad it ended well because of course I never wanted to hurt you, or her, or I mean…" Albus was babbling now, trying desperately to fill the silence. "I should go," he finished quickly and bolted from the table.
He only got as far as the hallway before he felt a hand reaching around his waist and another pushing him into the wall. And then, suddenly, inexplicably, Scorpius was kissing him. His brain went all fuzzy and he wasn't entirely sure what to do because Score was his best friend and also a guy and Albus was totally and completely straight here, but hey, it would probably be rude not to kiss back just a little bit. So he closed his eyes.
Scorpius was, apparently, a take-charge kind of kisser. Which was good since Albus still wasn't entirely sure what was happening. There was definitely kissing going on, and a hand resting firmly against his hip, and a soft moaning coming from somewhere. The stone wall was cold and hard behind him, but not entirely unpleasant. His own hand appeared to have meandered its way into Scorpius' hair while the other was gripping the front of his robes. There was also a crowd of people watching, which startled Albus enough to break the kiss.
Gasping, Albus stammered, "Wait, wait. You're my best friend. And I'm-"
"Totally in love with me." Scorpius appeared perfectly calm and collected, if a bit disheveled.
"What?"
"Everybody else has figured it out. It's about time you got with the program."
"Oh." Albus glanced at the crowd and noticed people nodding.
"Right. So, I reckon there are two ways we can go about this. We can take it slow, all gentlemanly-like, while I slowly convince you that I am, in fact, completely right about this. Or you can just admit that you're completely gay for me and we can get back to the snogging."
Albus considered for a moment before saying, "I choose the latter. Now let's get the hell out of here."
"Excellent notion," Scorpius grinned, grabbing Albus's hand and leading him down the hall. Albus thought he heard people cheering, but he liked to think they weren't that cliché.