Who: Scorpius Malfoy and Albus Potter Where: Scorpius's dorm at school When: BACKDATED; February 18th, evening Status: Log; Complete Warnings: Drunken snogging, underage drinking.
Albus was done with the day to say the least. The week, really. Which was funny in that it technically just started. His bout of wandering paid off, which counted for something. A bit of... misdirection on his part and he was able to come back to Scor's room with his spoils: a bundle of sweets and a sizable enough bottle slipped from his pocket. He was young. Young people did this sort of thing. It seemed as good reaction as any to everything. Entirely reasonable as far as coping went. Dysfunctional family issues aside, they had each other.
"No more thinking tonight! Let's play a game." With a piece of chocolate between his teeth, Al leaned over to stretch out on his side over the pillows and blankets he'd fashioned into a fort in the middle of the room. What else were adolescent boys prone to do? He scrolled through his phone, absently nibbling away at his chocolate while he read something over. It was a cinch to get the hang of, he had that much going for him. "Help me pick one," he had a list of your typical drinking games pulled up, holding his phone out for Scor to take. It wasn't fair that they were apart in age now, that Scorpius knew how everything turned out. Really, it was all relative. Time and age were just a number. This was them, no matter what the circumstances were.
"Unless you would rather just drink and complain, complain and drink," he smirked, scooting the bottle over in front of him with a shot glass propped on top. "Not going to back out on the fun with me, are you, Scorpion King?" Oh he was going to run with that one for a good while and enjoy it too. It was as hilarious as it was terrible. He was pretty sure Scorpius secretly liked it, but only when he called him it. How they might have sounded to anyone else didn't even register to him, not that he would have cared if he did take the time to consider it. "Don't disappoint me now!"
Scorpius was fairly done with the day as well. The day, the week, the month. Hell, he was done with all of it. Nothing made all that much sense to him in this place, and he didn't much like that. For Scor, it had always been about how much he could read about and learn, but here, he was literally in a whole new world with a different history and different rules governing the place as a whole. It wasn't about Muggles or Wizards here. Everyone was different. Some special, some less than. There was no sense hiding who you were in a place like this, but when you'd been called the son of Voldemort for so long, hiding yourself was just about second nature.
Enter Albus.
The other boy always did have a way of appearing at just the right time. Well.... except for that one time when he hadn't even been born, but Scor tried not to think about that. He was here now, slightly younger and with that look in his eye that always caught Scor's attention. If there was one thing about Albus, it was that Scor could never take his eyes off him no matter how hard he tried. He leaned in when Al showed him his Muggle device and squinted at the bright screen to read what was on there. "Never Have I Ever," he read one of the suggestions out loud. "Salazar's Ghost, what does that mean?" He turned back to Al with an amused look on his face.
It was so true that he hated the name Scorpion King. As far as names went, well, it was pretty awful. But every time Al said it, he couldn't help but feel a chill down his spine for some reason. "Oy... the Scorpion King never disappoints." He winked at him before picking up the bottle, casually reading the label and discerning that Albus had managed to nick one of the highest concentration of alcohols available. Smart lad. "Well then, let's get this started, shall we?" He smirked and with his wand poured two shot glasses, inching one toward Al with his finger. "Never have I ever had a baby sister.... Drink."
Al was starting to not even care if anything ever made sense. When he came here, he took a chance on Scorpius being here when he didn't know for sure and it just so happened to pay off for him. It was a rare thing for the odds to work out for him, but when it had to do with Scorpius he seemed to have some luck. That was all that really mattered to him, where they went from here they could figure out together. They always did, somehow.
Still, he knew very well what it was like to want to hide yourself away when it was impossible. These past few days he felt a strong twinge of it as details came to light on just who was in Preya. It boggled his mind more than a touch. He supposed in some way he got what he wanted. It would figure the alternate timeline version of Harry Potter wouldn't want anything to do with him. That was fine. He had the only person here he was convinced he really cared about and they were about to stir up some mischief. At least a little.
More of those Potter genes talking, he supposed. The innate draw towards trouble. More like fun. "Good, I'm not the only one who was confused." Truly, some of it sounded quite so, but many of these games were designed for groups as well. And it was a truly dreadful name. Right up there with his real name. Al never would have let anyone call him that if he was there to say anything about it. "I don't know how many more times I can call you that and keep from laughing my arse off, you know." As such, he wasn't and the thought that they mucked things up once enough for him not to exist was more than unsettling, but tonight was for forgetting. Not thinking. Drinks up, brains off.
Al had dumb luck. Potters were full of it. "Lets," he agreed with a grin and a wiggle of his brow. "Ohh and lucky you too," he took up the shot glass and knocked back the liquid with a hiss at the burn down his throat. It settled in his stomach in a warm pool and a tingling sensation. He looked thoughtful a moment, propping himself on his elbow to look at Scorpius. "Never have I ever... had the worst nickname of all time." He had to laugh some, nudging Scorpius' shot glass even closer to him. “Drink, your highness.”
When Scorpius arrived here, he hadn't thought he would meet people like his grandparents who were of such a young age. He'd known them from much older and even then he couldn't really say he knew them all that well either. As he'd explained to Cassiopeia, relations were strained among them and his Malfoy grandparents as they didn't quite approve of the marriage between his father and his mother. However, they had to suck it up if they wanted an heir, and here he was, in the flesh. The heir to the Malfoy estate and all its wonder, a social outcast who didn't care for Quidditch, would rather have his nose stuck in a book and had rumors flying all around him since birth.
And then his father got here, a young version of his father with an infant version of him. He thought it peculiar (and down right creepy really), but it was the closest thing he had to his real father outside of their world. Now that Draco was gone, Scorpius couldn't help but feel an emptiness inside of him. Yes, he had family here and luckily, he had Al too, but it was hard for him to know where he truly belonged even now. Other than with Al. That was the only thing in his life that ever made sense. No matter what sort of mischief they both got into, Scor knew in his heart that Albus was his home. He hated that Harry in this world was just as much of a prat to Albus as he was back home, from their perspective, but he wasn't sure how exactly to deal with that either.
So getting sloshed it was! He smirked at Al's quip, his eyes never leaving him when he tossed back that shot. "So manly," he teased. Of course, his teasing wouldn't last for long as Al fired back just as strongly. "Oy! That's a matter of opinion, you know!" He scrunched up his face and huffed indignantly, but in the end, he had to take the shot too, because Al was so right. He tried to look just as cool as Al had when he did it, but the bite of it at the back of his throat was so strong that he had to cough a bit just to get it to go down properly. "Why... do I always let you talk me into these things..." He shook his head and tried to clear his mind, already feeling a lazy fog start to come over him. "Never have I ever..." he glanced over at Al with a raised brow. "Had a Malfoy as a best friend."
They were both a sore disappointment to the legacy of their names. Not everyone may have thought so, but Al knew how much of one he was to at least one person. Only now he had the luxury of being able to not care, or so he would claim. It was miraculously difficult to simply stop, even after it all. When it came to family, they were the ones supposed to be there for you through thick and thin. He guessed there were plenty of people who made it by with nothing but themselves. As long as he had Scorpius, he could get by. All he cared about right now was in this room.
“Oy now, it was thanks.” Never mind that he was coughing some himself and doing his best to hold it back. He'd had one drink before and he never trusted James to be the cool big brother ever again when he spit Firewhiskey all over the floor. He also swore off of Firewhiskey. He wasn't sure if they had that here or where, but what he nicked off with was plenty strong enough. He'd plucked up some licorice from the mountain of sweets, chewing at it idly as he looked back at Scorpius. “It is a matter of opinion. My opinion, which naturally is the only one that matters.” Full of himself? Only sometimes and when Scorpius was involved.
“Cheat. You're the only Malfoy.” How they kept their eyes on each other only started to seem strange to him after he took his next shot. That might have been his mind wandering a tad dangerously. Give teenage lightweights very strong alcohol, things happened quickly. Thoughts ran off. Like how Scorpius had gorgeous blue eyes that Al dreamily got lost in for a long second until it occurred to him that he was very intently staring. “Uh…” He blinked a few times, focusing back on what was happening right now. Now wasn't the time to let his thoughts run away with him… or maybe it was, it was hard to say.
“Never have I ever… had a crush on a Weasley.” Bothersome, but absolutely true for one of them. No matter that they were his cousins and he could never.
It was perhaps the reason why they got on so well. They understood on a fundamental level what it meant to disappoint your entire family simply by existing. The rumors about him had all but killed his mother. Sure, there was that bit about the curse, but Scorpius knew that the slight comments here and there all got to her. She was frail in the end, easily driven to tears. Not that she'd ever done anything but smile in his presence, but Scorpius was adept at sneaking around the manor and overhearing all sorts of things. Including... the weeping of his mother. He often didn't know why she cried and assumed it was due to her poor health, but sometimes he realized it was because of all the horrible things being said about their family that she could do nothing about.
Those thoughts were far from his mind though with every shot they took. His own eyes narrowed and focused on Al as he made such a simple motion as to select a piece of licorice to eat. He had such lovely looking fingers, which was a strange thought even to a mostly already inebriated Scorpius. Then again, he knew why his own eyes couldn't stay away from him, but there was really nothing he could do about it. "That's not true," he replied slowly, already his tongue feeling heavy. "You value my opinion. You don't always heed my warnings, but you value my opinion. Or at least that's what you say to make me feel better anyway..."
He hardly noticed the way Al was staring though, because Scor was staring just as hard. In fact, he'd completely forgotten about the sweets, simply focusing on the drink in front of them. Good thing he'd casted the spell before he'd gotten trashed that refilled their shot glasses over and over again on its own, otherwise it would be a damn mess all over the floor of his new dorm. "Low blow, Potter. Low blow." This next shot he tossed back was taken better by his throat. All he need do was clear it a bit and that was that. "Not anymore though... I guess you can only get ignored for so long before it starts to get old." He shifted his gaze to his shot glass as it refilled itself and sighed. "Never have I ever.... had a crush on a boy," he muttered.... and tossed back his drink.
Did Potters attract misfits? That must be another incredible trait which he inherited. He had a double fatality there being a Potter and a Weasley. Misfits the lot of them. His grandfather attracted an oddball Black, a werewolf, and a fiery redheaded Muggleborn (and the other one they never spoke of) and so on with his father and now you had Albus. Slumming it with a Malfoy without a damn to give about it.
Everything around him was already falling in and out of focus. The sweets were a mess of colors and the dim light likely did nothing to help. “Fair. I do. Yours is the only opinion I value, you ought to very well know. But when it comes to that name, I get to deem it horrid. You're biased because you like hearing me say it.” Ohh yes he was going there. His mouth was very likely to steadily slip out of his control more and more… which could either be a very good or very bad thing depending on how you wanted to look at it. He was teetering on his elbow with that same sly grin on his face as he watched Scorpius take his shot. “Oh? Just when I thought she was warming up to you.” Which might not have been true, but who was keeping track? They both knew why their eyes lingered, yet neither of them wanted to budge because that just wasn't possible. This might have been the push they needed…
Taking his own shot, Al sat himself up slowly to keep the room from spinning out of control along with his thoughts. He somehow barely grasped the implications, only he couldn't be bothered to care. “Scor… if you had a crush on me, you could have just said so.” It took what felt like monumental effort to move himself closer when the floor felt uneven under you, but he managed by some miracle to play himself down right beside Scorpius. “Or are you gonna be a heartbreaker and tell me it's really whoever gave you that nickname.” Eventually, he'd give it up, but today wasn't that day.
As for Scor, well his lineage didn't help much either. They came from a long line of Malfoys and Blacks. Add in the Greengrass family with a bloody curse on their heads and well, you just had yourself a rather interesting little gene pool there. With the Malfoy's involvement in the Second Wizarding War, things only went downhill for them after that. If his ancestors could see him now getting sloshed alongside a Potter, they'd likely turn over in their graves, but Scor didn't care about that. This was his life, and he was the one to decide who was best for him to become friends with. Al wasn't perfect, but he was the best friend Scor could ever ask for, and that meant more to him than anything.
The liquor was fast-acting, or perhaps he and Al were just such lightweights that it didn't have to do much for it to already get into his bloodstream. Scor had on a lopsided grin already from what all Al was saying despite shaking his head ever so slightly. "Not my fault your voice is made of honey," he said, his tongue also loosening but in different ways. Scor had the distinct inability to lie even under normal circumstances. Now he was just spouting out everything he could think of without much consideration for them all. "You know that feeling when you think you want something because it's expected of you, but come to find when it starts to become more and more of a possibility, it actually isn't what you want at all?" Right, well.... he just wasn't making any sense now.
It was Al's words that both sobered him and made him dizzy at the same time. If you had a crush on me... Did he... did he already know? Scor frantically tried to remember what they'd spoken about before Albus came to Preya. Had he given something away then that made him suspicious to Al? No, impossible. But even so he was in no position to do some extreme deep thinking at the moment because even as his mind was going in one direction, his mouth was going in another. "Wish I'd known who had given me that nickname so I could have a few choice words with them," he answered, eyes fixed on the blurry figure of Al right next to him as something wild came over him. "Besides, who in the world could possibly resist falling in love you, Albus Potter?" He took the shot even before he said the words.
"Never.... have I ever.... fallen in love with my best friend."
Any nonsense about family and blood and expectations fell out of his mind in a blur of more pleasant things. The sweet taste still clinging to his tongue mixed with the bite of alcohol. The warmth which was steadily creeping through his whole body. The sight of his best friend and that lopsided smile that was devastating. It would have been easy to blame it on the alcohol and rampant teenage hormones, but he knew it was more. More to how his heart raced from time to time. More to how they pulled together like magnets no matter how far apart you placed them. And it was so simple for feeling terrifying in the same.
“I… think?” It made some sort of sense to him, because he got Scorpius. He knew what it was like to try to walk the line in front of you, only to stumble until you see a more appealing path. He knew, but wasn't in the mind to comment right then when his head was fuzzy and he only wanted to think of what he did want. If that even made any sense. “With me, you don't have to live up to any expectations.”
Truly, he was only teasing when he said it, but the look in Scorpius’ eyes spoke volumes. Al hardly even registered what he said about the nickname, partially because he was too busy watching his lips move. The other part was stoned over by an inner monologue that made about as much sense as anything else did just then, but the conclusion boiled down to one undeniably. “Oh, I don't know. Everyone,” he watched Scorpius, mirroring him with the next shot before hearing what he would say either. And thank Dumbledore for anti-spilling charms and the like or else Al might have sent everything scattering in a terrible mess when he moved more quickly than his body really wanted to allow to close the space between them.
“How dare you tell me you love me while we're drunk,” he muttered against Scorpius’ lips, fingers toying in the ends of his blonde hair with his arms over his shoulders. “Don't forget to breathe,” it might have been a reminder just as much to himself before he pressed his lips to his best friend's and it took his own breath away. “Don't you ever think about leaving me again, got it?”
Later, Scor would wish he would have eaten more sweets or at least drank water or had some kind of dinner before drinking so much. But in the moment all he could think about was Al. It would all come crumbling down on him in the morning, but for right now, everything felt just right. It wasn't something that happened overnight for him. It was years of getting to know Al, of having to deal with the scariest experience a teenager would ever have to face in his life. He had always believed that his heart was leading him to Rose, but it was only after he and Al had survived that ordeal that he realized where his heart was actually pointing to.
And it was so true. Al knew him down to his core. Scorpius didn't have to pretend or hide. He didn't have to wear masks or be someone he wasn't to live up any kind of expectations. Al had accepted him from day one, from that first moment on the Hogwarts Express. Whereas Rose judged him instantly, Al came in and sat with him even after knowing who he was. There was never any judgment in his eyes, and Scor should have known it then. He should have realized it in that moment that it was Al all along who deserved his heart, not Rose. But somehow it took them nearly dying for Scor to come to that realization. And he regretted it. And maybe... maybe that was the real reason he was here.
The moment happened before he even knew it. It was like he was witnessing the whole thing from outside of his body. One minute they were just there, a decent distance away, and the next Al was right there, eyes blazing and fingers in his hair. Albus. His Albus was so close he could smell the alcohol on him, and for some reason, it was the hottest thing he could ever imagine. "Can't think of a better time really," he muttered back as his arms circled Al's waist. "You gonna be a prat and not say it back?" What even was breathing anyway? Because as soon as their lips connected, Scorpius felt like he was underwater, drowning in a sea of alcohol and licorice and Albus Potter. And by Salazar, he wanted more of it.
"Never," he said with a gasp, tilting his head to go in for another kiss. "I couldn't ever leave you."
They would be feeling this harshly come morning. Al vaguely recalled something Lily said to him… about his father disapproving of this sort of thing. He would, undoubtedly highly disapprove of him being drunk with Scorpius Malfoy. Would this version who wasn't a father at all? He wasn't sure it mattered. There was no point in forcing any connection between them. That would be worse than dealing with what he left to be entirely honest. Al wasn't sure how to deal with that or if he wanted to for all the good intentions in the world Harry Potter ever had.
As for Scorpius’ love life, Al tried to stay out of the way for Rose, at first. He was there to tear the mickey out of Scorpius while telling his cousin off for being so… Rose. It had to do with that Granger blood, he was convinced. Then there was Al… who only knew it now but developed some sort of weird crush on Voldemort's daughter. If he wasn't a disgrace of a Potter to start, he was after that.
With everyone else out of the way - at least in some sense - maybe they could be how they should have been. No one was going to keep him away from Scorpius this time, he didn't give a damn. They would be fine, just the two of them… and their well meaning relatives. “Don't you know already?” He grinned, leaning into Scorpius until they could fall back against the pillows and blankets piled on the floor through a rush of more kisses. If he said he'd never daydreamed about this, it would be an incredible lie. Only they were friends and Al never liked the thought of messing that up too.
Leaning back, Al looked down at his best friend, cheeks touched red from alcohol and unexpected kisses, hair mussed up from his fingers. Really, when it came to Scorpius he shouldn't have worried about that at all. This was them, it was always them against everything. “I, Albus Potter, have loved you longer than either of us even know, my dear Scorpion King.”
Scor hadn't the foggiest what his father would say about this. Or would have said, as he was no longer around to pass judgment. He had always had a bit of respect for his father and tried not to get on his bad side, because his good side was something he rather preferred. All in all, the man wasn't a terrible father. Scorpius hadn't grown up in the slums or worse in a cupboard under the stairs like the famous Harry Potter. And Scorpius was a reasonable young man; he knew he had it good. All his parents had asked of him was to live the life of someone he would be proud of, which made him strive to be the best version of himself that he could.
Things were so different in Albus's family though. He had siblings. He had famous parents. He was the middle child. And while Scorpius could relate on some level when it came to family drama, there were certain aspects of Albus's life that he would never be able to understand. That said, you couldn't blame Scorpius for wanting what he thought was normal with Rose, and some part of him also feared losing Albus as a friend. When you only had one friend in the entire world who got you and accepted you, the last thing you wanted was to muck all that up. He hadn't wanted to bring up the thing with Delphi that in retrospect made Scorpius want to throw up, but that had rubbed him the wrong way long before they had discovered Delphi's true motives.
That they could just be Scorpius and Albus from now on, well, perhaps that was what this place was all about. Second chances and doing things the right way for a change. No more taking leaps off the Hogwarts Express like lunatics. Of course, Scorpius wasn't thinking about any of this, not with Albus's perfect lips attached to his. He grinned against his lips, laughing as they fell back into the pillows. He really must have been a genius to plan out even the execution of cushioning spells all around. Did he predict this happening? Certainly not, but he was sure they were going to be a drunk mess in no time.
He held Albus's gaze as they remained there in some wild mess of limbs and bedding. Scorpius couldn't help but toss his head back and laugh though at Al's comment. It was so sincere yet hilarious at the same time. Scorpius in his drunken state just couldn't take it. "Have you then? Such hasty confessions, my dear Albus." He was leaning up for more kisses, gradually getting used to this whole snogging business. He was going to be rather irate in the morning to discover he had no memory of his first ever kiss. Damn it, Albus. "You're brilliant, you know," whispered Scorpius, the alcohol making him spew out compliments left and right. "Smart and witty and fit and there is no place in the world I would rather be than in your embrace."