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Harry Potter, the boy who lived in a cupboard under the stairs until age eleven, liked big, open spaces. The boy who found his family for the first time in his adolescent years, loved big family gatherings. Therefore, it doesn’t come as a surprise that, when he decided to move out of his flat to a proper house, he bought a whole ranch with a house big enough to fit his family plus friends, a guest house for Hermione and Ron and enough space for a barn, pool, and a Quidditch field, of course. He bought it when he was just 25, but after the war, after being able to live normally, he realized he’s actually a planner. And he had big plans for the ranch. Years later, Potter Ranch became the go to place for summer holidays.
The first renovation he did was putting up Quidditch hoops. Once Ginny started staying more time with him than at The Burrow, he built a field with stands and everything; that’s where he proposed to her. The second big renovation was the barn. They built it when Lily turned six and asked for horse-riding lessons as a gift. Harry bought her a mare and then the boys got into riding and in less than a month the Potters became owners of three mares and two horses. In the following years, the barn expanded as Ginny, Albus and Lily kept bringing animals home. Harry was pretty sure he had seen a demiguise a couple of times. After just ten years Potter Ranch had become a kids’ paradise, which suited Harry just well as he kept acquiring nieces and nephews, both Weasley and honorary, by the month it felt like.
Teddy, as the oldest, had the privilege of hosting the first Potter Summer Holiday; just a few kids with access to a Quidditch field, pool, barn, pirate-teamed playground (James’ ninth birthday gift) and state-of-the-art media room: best summer ever. That quickly changed as his cousins started Hogwarts and more friends-of-family came over. Potter Ranch was the place to get invited to and everyone at Hogwarts knew it. Not only because you would get to meet the elusive Harry and Ginny Potter, but because The Prophet got photos of the ranch when one of Dom’s ‘friends’ sold them for a few galleons. It was because of that issue that Harry and Ginny had to set some rules:
- Max two friends per person, no matter how much you whine James.
- Said friends had to be Lupin-Potter-Weasley Hogwarts meeting approved.
- They have to provide written permission from their parent(s). Harry was hesitant about this rule, considering his upbringing, but Hermione convinced him that it was for the best and that way they would find out if any of the kids’ friends were having a hard time at home and help out.
Normally people just sent a letter, so Harry was a bit surprised when Albus’ first summer after starting at Hogwarts came around and instead of the regular owl he got an intervention. It was the day after James and Albus got back from Hogwarts, Harry came down for his mandatory morning tea and found Ginny, James, Albus, Hermione, Rose, and Vic chatting in the kitchen. That in itself wasn’t weird but Harry’s alarm system turned on when everyone shut up when he went into the kitchen and Ginny patted the chair next to her.
“Hullo?” he said; Hermione patted Albus back, apparently to help him start.
“Em, hi dad, morning. As you maybe know it’s summer.” At this Harry raised an eyebrow and snorted a bit. Ginny pinched his thigh to shut him up. “Sorry, that was dumb. So, I, the thing is, I –“
“He wants to bring Scorpius over and is shit-scared that you will say no.”
“James!” The girls yelled followed by an exasperated “Language” from Hermione.
But Albus was relieved. “Yeah, that” he mumbled.
Harry was about to answer when Hermione interrupted, “Don’t let your bias and issues with Draco affect your decision. Rose has told me that Scorpius is a very nice and sweet boy.”
“And you know Astoria, she’s in our book club. She already gave hers and Draco’s permission for Scorpius to come over,” Ginny added.
“Scorpius is part of the Hogwarts family meeting, since the start of the year actually. He is very sweet and he gets bullied at school, it’s awful, but we’ve made sure to help him, specially Albus and James.” Vic continued.
“He’s cool, dad, really!” James said next while Albus just nodded.
“Ok, ok, ok! May I speak now?” Harry asked. “First of all, I already know all of this. Albus has said so in every letter and I trust you and your judgement son.” At this Albus jumped out of his chair and collapsed in his dad’s arm, yelling ‘thanks’ and ‘yes’ on Harry’s ear; Harry winced a little and patted his back. “What I want to know is why you thought I needed an intervention to say yes?”
“It wasn’t an intervention, love.” Ginny replied.
“It kind of was, sorry Harry I think we were the biased ones,” Hermione smiled sheepishly.
“Well, as I said, I trust you Al, he’s your friend so of course he’s welcomed here.” Albus, still clinging to his neck, mumbled “He’s my best friend.”
“I know.” Harry whispered back. “May I have my tea now?”
That was how Scorpius first proper Potter summer holiday began. That year Harry wasn’t super aware of the logistics as he had a big case to work on, so he forgot exactly when Scorpius was coming over. He was surprised to one morning find Malfoy in his kitchen, then his brain caught up and he realized it was a Malfoy, just a different generation.
“Hi Scorpius,” the kid was looking out the sink window, he jumped and dropped his teacup.
“Sorry! Sorry!”
“No worries, sorry for scaring you. Reparo!” The teacup flew back into Scorpius hand, who almost dropped it again. “I’m Harry, Albus’ dad.”
“I know, I mean, I’m Scorpius, Albus’ friend.”
“I know,” Harry mocked, “Best friend, I hear?”
Scorpius looked down and mumbled, “Yeah, th-thanks for letting him be my friend and letting me spend part of the summer at your house.”
“Of course!” The backyard door opened then and Ginny and Astoria came in. “Morning, love” Harry said.
“Morning,” both women replied. Harry laughed and got onto preparing his tea.
“Alright, sweetie, got everything you need?” Scorpius nodded, “Toothbrush, pajamas, underwear?”
“Mum! Yes, thank you!” Scorpius exclaimed, Astoria chuckled and kissed her son’s cheek, “See you in a week, don’t forget to write us.” Scorpius nodded again and kissed her back. “Bye Harry; see you at the book club Ginny.”
“Scorpius had you eaten? Want anything?” Ginny asked.
“I’m fine, thank you Mrs. Potter.”
“So polite, call me Ginny. I can make some panc-" At that moment a blur of a person entered the kitchen, pushing Harry out of the way and making him drop the milk. Albus stopped just in front of Scorpius and whispered a croaky ‘hi.’ Scorpius beamed and said ‘hi’ back. Ginny and Harry looked at each other and decided it was best to do as if they weren’t there, the boys for sure had forgotten about them.
“You are here,” Albus continued, his voice still affected by sleep.
“I am. How did you know I-“
“Sixth sense.”
“Oh, I didn’t know it worked while asleep too.”
“Of course! But only if you are not in the room, your snores mess with the signal waves.”
“Shut up! I do not snore!” Albus started fake-snoring very loudly and Scorpius hit his arm, laughing. Plates came out of the cupboard behind Scorpius interrupting the boys. Albus flushed, realizing just then that they weren’t alone in the kitchen; his hand went to the back of his head as it tends to do when he was felling anxious or embarrassed. “So, you met mum and dad, right? Come on I want to show you my room!”
“Albus! Remember your breakfast!” Ginny said, Albus made a face, but then Scorpius pushed him unto a chair.
“Let’s eat first, ok?”
“Ok.”
Scorpius first summer holiday at Potter Ranch went great. He rode Albus’ mare, Belle, met a family of bowtruckles, started to learn how to swim, and broke only three more teacups. He and Harry shared a love for having tea very early in the morning and Scorpius jumpy disposition didn’t go well with Harry’s knack of sneaking around. Considering that a proper Potter summer almost always involved some sort of small accident, Harry was very happy with the outcome.
~~~
If only next summer had been the same. On the third night of Scorpius visit after his and Albus’ second year at Hogwarts, the older kids decided to watch a film. Albus was reluctant, he wanted to show Scorpius the song he had been working on over the summer, but Scorpius loves all things muggle and he rarely gets the chance to watch a movie. Also, the only place at Potter Ranch where they would watch it was the media room on the guest house and this was by far Scorpius favorite place. The media room was originally the basement but Harry, with Hermione’s help, added in state-of-the-art muggle technology: gaming consoles, two computers, home theater, and enough couches and bean bags for everyone. It was far enough away from the main house that magic didn’t affect the devices and Hermione had use a spell that moved the basement lower than it was originally. It wasn’t only because of the muggle things that Scorpius loved the media room though. Last summer, he and Albus were watching Steven Universe when Harry’s stag Patronus came in saying Scorpius parents had come pick him up. It was a few hours before the set time and Scorpius was very bummed he had to go earlier than expected, but then Albus kissed his cheek in goodbye and he became so dazed that he realized he had left Potter Ranch until he was back in his bedroom. Even though the kiss-on-the-cheek goodbye became customary, that first one remained Scorpius favorite and made his love for the media room increase tenfold.
Now, it’s possible this room might no longer be his favorite. The kids were voting on watching IT or Ghostbusters. Scorpius is not the best with scary things so he voted for IT because he thought Ghostbusters would be horror, it did had ghost on the name and he knew muggles had very weird ideas about ghosts. IT won so he was happy; he should have asked Albus before voting because he was very, very wrong. He spent half the movie with his hands on his face and the other half clenching Albus’ arm, hand, or leg. Albus, on the other hand, wouldn’t stop laughing, which was just a very Albusy thing to do, laugh at horror movies. Or maybe he was laughing at him?
The movie finally ended and everyone went to their rooms, Scorpius laid down on his bed but every time he heard a noise he imagined the weird clown thing jumping on him. He was finally close to falling asleep when James barged in wearing a clown mask and screaming like a banshee. Scorpius grabbed the closest thing he would reach and threw it at him.
Which is how Harry came to be sitting in a uncomfortable chair in St. Mungo’s waiting room between a sobbing Scorpius and an angry Albus.
“I swear, I-I didn’t d-do it on p-purpose! I didn’t mean t-to crack his skull!”
“I know Scorpius.” Harry said for the eleventh time.
“It’s James fault! He’s always pranking people, he shouldn’t had barged in like that!”
“I know Albus.”
“I’m re-really sorry Mr. Potter! It’s just I was already scared from the film a-and-“
“Scorp! Don’t”
“T-then Ja-James came in-“
“Which film?” Harry asked, a frown on his face,
“Ghostbusters! We watched Ghostbusters but Scorpius is a scary-cat, you know and really James-“
“Scorpius, which film?” Harry interrupted.
Hours before, Louis had made very clear that the ‘little kids’ would watch only if they promised not to go crying to the adults, but Scorpius was not a very good liar and he was already feeling guilty.
“IT,” he mumbled. Albus threw up his arms, while Harry tried to remember what IT was about and failed, but it was obvious that it wasn’t a film suitable for kids under fifteen. ‘Godric, I hope it’s not R rated,’ he thought.
“Thank you for telling me Scorpius. James will be fine, we all know you didn’t do it on purpose and you’re sorry, so please stop crying.”
“He can’t,” Albus said.
“What?” Harry asked, now confused.
Albus sighed, “when he gets like this is pretty hard to make him stop. Dad, would you give is a mo?”
Harry nodded, “I’ll go check on James.”
Albus pulled Scorpius into his arm and stroked his head, humming the song he wanted to show him earlier. “Is that new?”
“Yeah, I can play it for you when we go back. Feeling better?”
“Mhm, can we stay like this a bit longer?”
“Sure.”
Scorpius pressed his face against Albus’ shoulder; he felt a slight pressure against his head. “Did you, did you just kiss my hair?”
“Is that ok?” Albus whispered on his ear.
“Yeah.” Albus kissed him again. Harry, standing a few paces away, pretended he didn’t notice; just as he did last summer when he came for Scorpius at the media room and saw Albus kissing his cheek.
At the end James skull was fine, Ginny didn’t have to come from Harpies to check on them and the media room was shut down for the rest of the summer as punishment.
~~~
Third year was very stressful for Scorpius, he took on more assignments that he would handle and decided to become a Chaser on the Quidditch team. He was a reserve only for now but he hoped to officially play games next year. During second term he had a chat with Headmistress McGonagall because he had an anxiety attack just before Easter holidays and they decided to remove Care of Magical Creatures from his schedule. Scorpius wasn’t super happy with this, that was one of Albus’ favorite subjects and they already didn’t share Arithmancy because ‘I already have to deal with the muggle math, I don’t need more math in my life,’ nor Muggle Studies since ‘all my cousins and I still take some muggle course-work so no need for more.’ Scorpius would give anything to be able to also have muggle lessons outside Hogwarts and he was a bit disappointment with Muggle Studies; he had learnt more from the Potters and Weasleys than he did at class. He thought about leaving it but he was told that the NEWT course-work included multiple outings to muggle places and even driving lessons; and it helped to remove some of the Malfoy stigma. So now he shared only the mandatory lessons and Runes with Albus. He knows that wanting to spend every single moment of the day with his best friend is not ‘normal’ and that he’s codependent on Albus too much, but unfortunately the Nott twins were repeating Arithmancy and Vincent, Muggle Studies. One would think bullies would leave him alone in the classrooms but not such luck and the Muggle Studies professor sort of turns a blind eye. At least Professor Athene was very strict and didn’t allow for anyone to chat in her lessons, so less chance of bullying from the twins. Scorpius was hopping they would need to repeat again or let go of the classes next year. With less lessons to share he had hoped to convince Albus of joining the Quidditch team but he became more focused on his music and decided to start a band with Lorcan, now that he was also at Hogwarts. Scorpius wasn’t jealous, he really wasn’t.
Maybe it’s because of all this that Scorpius was extremely excited for being able to spend the whole summer at Potter Ranch. The whole summer! He had so many plans, he would go the muggle homeschooling lessons, continue his horse-riding lessons, practice Quidditch with Ginny Potter, show his cat Valentina to the Potter’s cats, maybe even go to the muggle London with Albus, watch all the series and movies that had come out that year and they had on their watchlist, and who knew what else. He was so excited that he didn’t even care that the reason why he was spending the whole summer at Potter Ranch was because his grandfather had become critically ill and his lawyer managed to get him house arrest. He had never met his Malfoy grandfather and his mum and dad were adamant about it remaining that way, so they needed the summer to figure out the living arrangements. Lucius was already at the Manor so he and his dad used the floo at The Leaky Cauldron to get directly to his bedroom. Scorpius was to stayed there until the evening when the Potters would be home and they would receive him at the ranch.
He was now packing everything he needed and considering which books to bring when he heard a commotion. He opened his door a cracked and clearly heard his mum scream, he ran towards the sitting room and found his mum on the floor clutching her forehead, blood oozing out between her fingers; her dad and a tall man that would only be his grandfather were dueling.
“Scorpius! Get out of here!” His mum yelled but just then a red stream came towards him and it would have hit him if Valentina hadn’t jumped in front on him in that second. The cat fell down apparently lifeless at Scorpius feet. He screamed and all the windows on the room exploded, the shards going directly towards Lucius.
“PROTEGO!” Both Astoria and Draco pointed their wands at Scorpius who dropped unconscious on the floor. Astoria crawled towards him to check his pulse, he had passed out. Behind her Draco finally managed to remove the wand from Lucius and bound him to a chair. Astoria checked Valentina, she was knocked out only.
“Astoria, your head!” Draco came running towards her and fell down next to his son and their cat.
“I’m ok, they are ok. It was a Stupefy and Scorpius passed out.”
“Let me fix your wound.” Draco waved his wand and Astoria’s forehead sealed up, he waved it again and all the blood was cleaned up. “I’m so sorry, so sorry.”
“Shush, we need to call Laurence. Lucius is unstable, he can’t stay here, and how did he get a wand?”
“I don’t know.” Draco sighed and pulled Scorpius unto his arms. “I’m not confident rennervating Valentina, we should take her to a menagerie. I can deal with that and Father, would you take Scorpius to the Potters?”
“Yes. Scorpius, sweetie wake up.” Astoria whispered on her son’s ear and patted his cheek lightly. Scorpius came to and started sobbing hysterically. “Shush sweetie, Valentina is ok, dad will take her to the menagerie, she will be fine. Come, we’ll go the Potters now and I’ll send your things later ok?”
“No! I can’t leave you here alone with that, that lunatic!”
“Scorpius, we will be ok, he can’t stay here, we knew that. I’m so sorry you went through this son, so sorry. I never wanted this.” Draco held his son and pulled Astoria in, kissing both their heads. Scorpius calmed down after a few minutes and they all stood up. He took Valentina and kissed her head. “I will take care of her and bring her to you at the ranch.”
“Ok,” Scorpius mumbled. “I’m sorry about the windows, I don’t why that happened.”
“Accidental magic can happen at any age during stressful situations. Don’t worry about it, the good thing is you’re safe.” Draco reassured but he was very sure that the glasses were going towards his father, that didn’t seem very accidental. It wasn’t the first time that Scorpius showed a knack for wandless magic, but this time it was also wordless and very powerful.
Scorpius arrived at Potter ranch ten past midnight. Albus had been very anxious since they got home and crashed unto Scorpius the minute he apparated with his mum. Scorpius started crying again and Albus hugged him harder. “Come on, we should go inside the wards,” he said walking with an arm around Scorpius shoulders. “What happened Mrs. Malfoy?”
“We should get inside first.” Once at the dinner table, Astoria told the Potters what happened. Albus pulled Scorpius towards the living room and they fell together on the loveseat. “What do you need?” He asked quietly. Scorpius hid his face against Albus’ neck and mumbled, “just this.”
Harry and Ginny had told Albus in their last letter that they thought it was best if Scorpius slept on a separate room this summer, but when Harry found them sleeping all tangled up on the living room he just couldn’t separate them. ‘Tomorrow night then,’ he thought.
At the end, the summer before fourth year ended up being the best so far. Valentina came to the ranch just two days after Scorpius and had a great time chasing gnomes with the other cats. Scorpius finally learnt how to horse-ride alone and swam on his own all summer. He also learnt many more things about the muggle world and was ‘the best student Mrs. Malcom had ever had.’ He went with the Potters to an amusement park, to the cinema, and even to the beach. His mum and dad came over for dinner a few times and they had a nice, long chat; Scorpius finally told them about the bullies and his anxiety attacks, and they agreed to seek a mind healer for Scorpius, to chat with Headmistress McGonagall about his course-work, and to help find a solution to the bullies. In the meantime, Draco gave him a book on magical self-defense and another about wandless magic and Mr. Potter showed him a few tricks. Even Rose’s father, who Scorpius is sure doesn’t like him a lot, gave him some products from WWW that ‘are excellent for pranking bullies.’
The best day by far of that summer, and any other, was when he and Albus went to an arcade. Scorpius had never been to an arcade, so that in itself made it a great experience, but while waiting in line to buy tokens, two girls in front of them were flirting and swinging their hands together, and then they kissed. He suddenly felt very envious and then guilty for feeling that way, but he wanted what they had. He wanted to hold someone’s hand and kissed them and flirt with them; just then his and Albus’ hands brushed. He was gathering courage to reach for Albus’ hand when the line moved, and Albus pulled him by the hand! It wasn’t unusual, but it was new for them to held hands while just walking around.
They found a photo boot hidden in a corner of the arcade and Albus (still holding his hand!) pulled him inside. “What’s this?” Scorpius asked breathlessly, he’d had issues breathing properly the whole day.
“It’s a photo book, we go in and take pictures and the machine prints them right away. They won’t move like ours but it’s nice, I think. Do you, do you want to do it?”
“Of course! It’s a bit cramped though, isn’t it?” Scorpius replied, he sat on the small bench and there was no space for Albus’ left. “I guess,” he started and then just pulled Albus unto his lap, he let out a little shriek and Scorpius laughed. “Is this ok?”
“Ye-yeah!” Now Albus sounded breathless. He reached out and pushed a button, they made silly faces and laughed together. Albus kissed his cheek and Scorpius kissed his back, their faces stayed closed together, noses almost touching, someone knocked on the side of the machine.
“Hey! Come out now, it’s been forever!”
“Patricia! Let them be, they might be snogging!”
“Yeah! I want to kiss you too, you know?”
It was the girls from before, Albus and Scorpius blushed and looked elsewhere. Albus stood up and Scorpius followed. “Sorry,” they mumbled and left.
“Hey, wait, your photos!” The blonde girl called out. Scorpius turned around to pick them up, but the girls were looking at them. “So cuuuuttteeee!” They said at the same time.
“Would you please give them back?” Albus said behind Scorpius.
“Sorry, here you go,” the brunette said, “you two make a very cute couple!”
“Ah, we, I mean we are not-” Scorpius started.
“Thanks, you too,” Albus said, grabbed Scorpius hand and pulled him away.
“Albus, Al, what was that?”
Albus sighed, “Well we do behave sort of couplely sometimes, don’t we? But I’m ok with that! And, and I think you’re too?”
“I am! I like that we are close and don’t conform with society’s beliefs of how best friends should behave.” Scorpius answered very seriously.
Albus snorted, “Nerd.”
“Shut up! Here, let’s sit and look at the photos ok?” They’ve taken a lot of photos; Scorpius’ favorite was the one where Albus was kissing his cheek and Albus’ where Scorpius was kissing his. “When we get to the ranch, we can duplicate them and I will paste these on my journal.”
Hours later, at Potter ranch, Harry was about to send an owl when he saw the boys waking down the lane to the house; he was pretty sure they were holding hands.
~~~
The Malfoys spent the summer after Scorpius fourth year in France. As soon as the Hogwarts Express arrived on platform 9 ¾, Astoria, Draco and Scorpius apparated to the manor and Scorpius had about one hour to check if his mum had packed everything he wanted to take on vacations, have some light supper and a shower before their portkey to France was scheduled to depart. They would stay at Aunt Daphne’s house for the whole summer; they weren’t even going to go back to Diagon Alley for Scorpius stuff, it would be delivered home.
In principle it sounded like a great vacation but Scorpius was massively anxious about it. He and Albus had had a row, if you would even call it that, the day before end of term and they didn’t even sit together on the train back home. Albus woke up earlier than Scorpius, which in itself was a clear sign he was very pissed still as he hates early mornings, and hid himself among his many cousins. Scorpius sat with Ivan and Camille from the Quidditch team but barely said any words during the whole journey. He tried to write a letter to Albus but he couldn’t tell him the truth about why he had been so awful towards Lorcan and he didn’t even know he was capable of being so… terrible. He had tried so hard to be different from his Malfoy relatives, not be an ass, but ‘I guess it’s on my blood,’ he thought. He knew he had been jealous of Albus’ relationship with Lorcan since the third year, even though he knows they are friends, band mates only, but all that pent-up resentment, the jealously he felt the whole year as he saw his best friend getting closer and closer with Lorcan, came to a peak and he exploded in the worst possible way, at the worst possible moment. His Muggle Studies class had ended early, so he went back to their dorm room to finish packing. There was an end of term party going on the common room; Albus, Rose, Alice, Lorcan, and a few others were playing some sort of game with a bottle. Scorpius was about to ask what it was when Lorcan moved over to Albus and pecked him on the lips. Scorpius felt as if someone had punched him, but then Albus grabbed Lorcan’s neck and kissed him again, people started wolf-whistling and Scorpius just snapped. He pulled his wand and used the first curse that came to mind. Lorcan flew across the room and hit the wall horribly. Rose and Alice jumped towards him and the others looked around to see who had cursed him, Albus was the first to catch Scorpius’ eyes.
“What the fuck?! Scorpius, what the actual fuck?!” Albus yelled, he pulled his wand but someone put a up a shield between them. “What the fuck is wrong with you?! Why did you do that?! Why do you hate Lorcan so much?!”
“Albus!” Rose yelled, “we have to take him to the infirmary, he’s unconscious and there’s blood on the back of his head.”
Everyone started moving, trying to help, someone called for a professor, all the time Scorpius just stood there, tears falling down his face. Someone pushed him unto a sofa and gave him a tea, he drank it; at some point he was back on his dorm room, somehow, and finished packing, he felt like in a trance. By then everyone at Hogwarts and his parents knew what had happened, he was sure someone told him he had detention for one month once the fifth year started, but he couldn’t tell who. He tried writing on his journal but he was shaking too much.
The first two weeks in France Scorpius refused to get out of his bedroom, he barely ate and he knew his family was worried, but he just couldn’t face anyone. He had written so many letters to Albus and even more to Lorcan, but he felt none were good enough. One morning he was woken up by an owl pecking his window, he fell from the bed in his haste to open it, thinking it might be a letter from Albus and immediately thinking he was such a coward for expecting Albus to reach out first. But the letter was not from Albus, it was from Lorcan; it wasn’t a long letter, more like a note.
Hello Scorpius,
Hope your vacation is going well. I’m better now.
I was very sad when Albus did that, but I shouldn’t had been playing that game either. I don’t like Albus, nor anyone else to be honest. I apologize if I made you feel bad at any moment, it really wasn’t my intention, I think you are a great person.
Albus is not fine, he needs you, please owl him soon.
All the best,
Lorcan
Scorpius took a deep breath and sat down, decided to finally write a proper letter for both Albus and Lorcan.
Hi Lorcan,
Thank you for owling me. I’m terribly sorry for what I did. I was a coward and just plain awful and now I realized I’ve been horrible to you all year, maybe even since I met you. I’m really sorry. You’re such an amazing person and so cool and I felt jealous, which is no excuse for what I did. How’s your head by the way?
I’m owling Albus too. I have so many half-written letters, but I just don’t know where to begin, what to tell him. Again, I’m being a coward.
Thanks for being Albus’ friend, would we maybe be friends? Do you like chocolate? I’m in France now and they have some very interesting options here.
Thanks again,
Scorpius.
It took him hours to just write that and it took him so long to write Albus’ letter that Lorcan had time to reply:
Apology accepted 😊 My head is ok. I thought we were already friends so yes, we can be friends and yes, I like chocolate but not the white one. You are not a coward.
Your friend,
Lorcan
He was finishing Albus’ letter when his mum came into his bedroom, “How are you feeling sweetie?”
“I think I’m better now, thanks mum.”
“Are you writing Albus?” Scorpius nodded, “would you prefer to speak with him?”
“I, how?”
“I’m about to fire-call Ginny to talk through the notes I gave her for her book. I would ask her if Albus is up for a chat.”
“I don’t think he will accept,” Scorpius mumbled.
“We can try. Come on.” Scorpius followed his mum to the other guest bedroom and sat on the bed while she and Ginny talked about the book, anxiously eating his nails. “Is Albus around?” He heard her asked at last.
“Yeah, he’s in his bedroom playing the drums, barely comes out from there.” Ginny answered.
Astoria sighed, “Do you think he would like to talk with Scorpius, he’s here and he has some things to say to him.”
“I’ll go ask him.” Scorpius started to gently rock back a forth, his mum game him a reassuring smile.
“Hello Mrs. Potter.” Scorpius literally jumped when he heard Albus’ voice.
“Hi dear, I will leave you and Scorpius alone, ok?”
“Ok, thanks.” Scorpius knelt near the heart and his mum squeezed his shoulder. He felt tears run down his face and quickly cleaned them.
“Hi,” he mumbled.
“Hi,” Albus replied.
Scorpius took a deep breath, he heard the door close. “Oh Albus, I’m horrible, terrible, the worst, a coward. I’m so sorry! I’ve been trying to owl you but I couldn’t find the words and then Lorcan owled me, can you believe it? He’s great and I been such a horrible person to him. I replied back and I think we might be friends now. I was just about to finally send you the hundredth letter I wrote you when mum asked me if I would like to speak with you. I’m really, truly sorry, may we please, please still be friends?”
Albus stayed silent through-out all of Scorpius monologue, his face giving away nothing. “First of all, don’t talk about yourself like that. You know I don’t like it. And second, Scorpius, I don’t think we can go back to just being friends.” Scorpius started sobbing and rocking back and forth more violently. “No, no, I meant like I don’t, ugh! Scorpius, please look at me. I can’t just…be friends with you.” Albus took a deep breath and looked down, hiding behind his fringe. “I’ve had a massive crush on you since the first day I saw you and on that stupid game, when Lorcan kiss me, I did something awful.” Albus grabbed his face. “It was supposed to be just a peck, it was a dare, but I forced him to kiss me again because, because, well, you too are very similar! Like the blonde hair and the light eyes, and I just, I just want to kiss you so much, and I, I did that. And then you did that, and yeah.” He peaked at Scorpius through his fingers. “What I mean is I want us to be more than friends?” Scorpius heart stopped, he was sure of it. “Scorp, please, please say something!”
“Yes,” he mumbled.
“What?”
“I want that, I want to be more…than…friends.”
“You do?!”
“I, I don’t know what I am like you do, but I know I love being with you and I think, lately, I’ve realized I love you not just like a friend, but more. I mean I’ve had these dreams where-” Scorpius shut up and put a hand over his mouth.
“What dreams?” Albus asked with a glint in his eyes.
“Nothing! Forget that!”
Albus laughed and looked down sheepishly. “I think I have a pretty good idea what you mean.”
They stayed talking for hours, until Albus was called for dinner. Scorpius wouldn’t wait for the summer to be over and be back home with his boyfriend.
~~~
“I really don’t understand why you’re so worried. Scorpius, you’re a literal genius, you have eidetic memory, you are a massive nerd, of course you did well!” This was the first thing Harry heard when he got home, after a week of chasing neo-blood purists in Wales, without any success. He wasn’t in a great mood, so he decided to just pop-in the kitchen real-quick for some water, say hi, find his wife, take a bath, maybe with said wife and sleep for a day.
“Morning boys,” he said. Albus jumped out of his chair and practically tackled him. “Hi, Al. Hi Scorp.”
“Hello Harry, how are you?”
“Better now, but I’m really tired. Al, I love you son, but would you let me go for a bit so I can get some water.”
“Scorp bring my dad a glass of water please?” Albus replied still clinging to him. Harry and Scorpius laughed and he had to drink his water with Albus still practically hanging from his shoulders. The kitchen door opened again and in came the rest of the Potter family.
“Aww, group hug!” James yelled. He, Lily and Ginny squished Harry from all sides and he felt instantly better.
“Get in here Scorp!” Lily said, pulling him by the hand. They stayed like that until Ginny complained about Harry’s smell and took him to their bathroom. Scorpius really loved watching their dynamic, they always felt like friends first and then partners.
Harry’s arrival helped stop his spiraling thoughts about OWLs’ results, well at least for a bit. He turned to look back outside the sink window. He heard Albus sighed before feeling a hand clutching his. “Sorry,” he murmured.
“You owe me a kiss, one kiss per sorry, that was the deal.” Albus whispered in his ear, which always gave him goosebumps. “I’m starting to think you’re saying it in purpose though, maybe we should change it to one galleon per sorry?”
“Shut up.”
“Make me” Scorpius happily complied. Albus would see from the corner of his eye that James and Lily were fake gaging, so he grabbed Scorpius neck and pulled him down to kiss him deeper.
“Ah, no, I’m out, I’m out!” James yelled and ran out to the backyard, followed by a giggling Lily.
“Wanna go up to my room? Make out for a while?” Albus whispered against Scorpius lips.
“Ah, OWLs, have to wait,” he mumbled between kisses. “Ah fuck it, ok.” Albus snickered and ran upstairs, pulling Scorpius along. They took advantage of Harry and Ginny taking a bath, so they would close Albus’ door. Albus put on some music, he was currently on an Alt J binge. He pulled him to the bed and kissed his cheek, then his other cheek, the corner of his mouth, the other. He did that sometimes, kissed everywhere except his lips and Scorpius adored it, he felt loved whenever he was with Albus, but specially when he did that.
“Are you feeling better now?” Albus asked after some time, they were now laying down, Scorpius head cocooned against Albus’ neck. He was feeling sleepy, so he just mumbled a yes. Albus laughed a bit and kissed the top of his head, Scorpius replied by kissing his neck. Scorpius was about to fall asleep when Albus’ door banged opened. “Fuck!” Albus yelled and sat up quickly, making Scorpius fall on the floor. “Scorp! Sorry, babe, are you ok?” Scorpius nodded and stood up. “Fuck, James, what’s-“
“Letters! Just…got them!” He said, a bit winded. Scorpius ran the three steps between the bed and the door and almost crashed against James, who pushed two envelopes towards him. “LILY! MUM! DAD! THE RESULTS ARE HERE!” What sounded like a stampede was heard and suddenly, everyone was in Albus’ room. Scorpius had already opened his letter and threw Albus’ envelope towards him without seeing. He skipped the message at the top to immediately check out his results:
Ancient Runes – O
Astronomy – O
Arythmancy – O
Charms – E
Defense Against the Dark Arts – E
Herbology – E
History of Magic – O
Muggle Studies – O
Potions – E
Transfiguration – E
“Ha! I knew it! Only Os and Es! Nerd!” Albus said, reading over his shoulder.
“Let me see yours!” Scorpius grabbed Albus’ letter and read:
Ancient Runes – E
Astronomy – E
Care of Magical Creatures – O
Charms – E
Defense Against the Dark Arts – O
Herbology – O
History of Magic – P
Potions – A
Transfiguration – E
“Albus! These are great!”
“You sound sort of surprised?” Albus said, he’s face flushed.
“No, no, of course not! And I told you, you should have study more for History of Magic.”
“Scorp, even if I had passed, I would have given it up.”
“You failed History of Magic?!” Lily exclaimed. Albus just shrugged. “How?! It’s the easiest class, you just memorize stuff.”
“Well at least it was a P.” Harry said, now looking at Albus’ results. “I got a D. James, what about you?” James was looking at his letter, tears streaming down his face, up until now no one had realized he was very quiet. “James, son?” He looked up at Harry and murmured, “I got in.” Everyone started taking at once, until Ginny shut them up. “I got in! I got all the NEWTS I needed and I have a place in the healing program!” All the Potters plus Scorpius crashed unto James, screaming and jumping. James had wanted to become a healer since he was fifteen and he wished to specialized in mind healing. He knew it was going to be hard work and he did lose some of his small kid attitude because of it, but he was extremely proud of himself, of what he had accomplished.
“We should go out, celebrate. I’ll owl Ron and Hermione, we can all go out and have dinner together.” Harry said once everyone had calmed down a bit. Scorpius deflated at this, he liked Rose’s family but he wanted to stay away from Rose. He wouldn’t tell them this though, not even Albus knew what he was dealing with and he hated himself for it. Scorpius was pretty sure he’s bisexual and has a crush on Rose. Not a massive crush, but still a crush and he was terrified of unconsciously flirting with her or doing something that would hurt Albus and by extension himself.
He tried to stayed behind, faking a stomach ache, but then Albus said he would stayed with him and he didn’t want to keep Albus from his family, so he ended up going. They got to the restaurant first and when Rose came in wearing a short white dress that made her look angelical, Scorpius was sure that people in France would see his blush. Then Albus stood up to pull her chair and looked back at him, smiling sweetly, his dimples showing, and his blush increased, he felt like they would cook an egg on his face. Albus cocked his head and mouthed ‘are you ok,’ Scorpius nodded far too fast and made himself dizzy. He didn’t know if this was heaven or hell, he was sitting between the boy he was sure was the love of his life and the girl he was crushing on. He barely ate, barely spoke, and Albus wasn’t helping his blush by putting his hand on his leg or behind his chair, linking their feet and being just annoyingly beautiful. Rose was as polite as ever, maybe a bit reserved, and wouldn’t stop fiddling with a black ring she was wearing on her right hand. Scorpius found it peculiar, he had never seen her wear that ring but he had an idea that he had seen it somewhere. They were about to get dessert when Rose called everyone’s attention to herself. Her father and Harry were laughing like school boys and their wives had to shut them up so Rose would talk.
“I, well, sorry, I’m a bit nervous,” she started. At this Albus straightened up and moved his arm across Scorpius to held Rose’s hand. She looked up and smiled at him, then took a deep breath, “do you all know what asexual means?” Some nodded other shook their heads. “Well, it means feeling little to no sexual attraction, for anyone, basically.” She looked down at her right hand and Scorpius remembered where he had seen the ring, it was an ace ring. “That’s me, I’m ace, asexual. I just wanted you to know,” she shrugged.
“Thanks for telling us sweetheart.” Hermione said and Ron smiled next to her. Albus stood up and hugged Rose from behind, mumming something on her ear while she nodded and cleaned up some tears. Everyone else smiled, the waiter came with their desserts and dinner continued as usual.
Just before the two families went their separate ways, Rose asked Scorpius if they would talk for a bit. They sat on a bench outside the restaurant and since it was a bit chilly, he gave her his coat. “You are a great friend Scorpius.”
“It’s just a coat.”
“Idiot, I’m not saying it because of the coat. You are compassionate, empathetic, sweet, kind, very smart, annoyingly intelligent, but you doubt yourself a lot. I think, and please correct me if I’m wrong, that you have a bit of a crush on me?”
“Salazar, fuck, Rose, I’m so sorry! I, I don’t know, I just, I’m really so-”
“I know about Albus’ deal you know, you owe me two galleons. So, I’m right?”
“Yeah,” he mumbled.
“I’m sorry if I ever gave you romantic signals, let’s say.” Rose said, putting one of her curls behind her ear.
“No, no, absolutely, this is all me. Just a regular bi-crisis I guess.”
“Did you just come out to me?”
“Oops, I guess I did? Ha, ha, yeah I’m bi.”
“Oh Scorp, does Albus know?”
“Nope.”
“Well, tell him, when you get to the ranch, and tell him about the crush too, he can help you with that, I’m sure.”
“No! I don’t want to hurt him!”
Rose laughed, “You won’t, believe me, he might feel a bit repulsed, but he won’t get mad or be sad. You know Albus, I’m sure you know him better that anyone, this is you, doubting yourself again.” With that she stood up, gave him his coat back and went to look for her parents and Hugo. Albus appeared suddenly and sat next to him.
“Albus?”
“Jmm?”
“I’m bi and have a crush on Rose.” Scorpius said in his typical stoic manner when he had to deliver ‘bad news.’
“I know, well I know about the crush on Rose and that made be believe you’re bi. It’s nice to be right from time to time.” Scorpius looked at him with his mouth opened. Albus laughed and closed it for him.
“Si-since when?!”
“Mmm, I’ve had suspicions since the start of the year I think, at least about the bi thing. You speak on your sleep when you’re really stressed, did you know? You were mumbling Aelin, Aelin, who I know it’s that girl from the books you love. And then a few months after that, I saw you staring at Rose in the library and then all the blushing and you not studying with her anymore, yeah.” Albus shrugged and Scorpius dropped his head on his shoulder. “Don’t!”
“What?”
“You were just going to say the s word.”
“How do you know that?!”
“Sixth sense. Remember I can read your mind.”
Scorpius snorted, “But I should say it, I did something wrong!”
“What exactly did you do wrong?”
“I have a crush on someone that isn’t my boyfriend.”
“Oh, in that case, I’m sorry.”
“What?!”
“Yeah, I have a crush on Gonçalo Flores, Kit Connor, Joe Keery, Timo-”
“Those don’t count! They are famous people!”
“Ok then! Frank, you know, James’ mate? Paul from Runes and Adrian.”
“You always pair up with Adrian for Herbology!”
“Yeah.” Scorpius hit his arm and Albus laughed. “It’s absolutely normal to have crushes on other people that are not your partner. Mind, it is weird that is my cousin, but I’m ok with it. Do you have crush on just her or is there anyone else?”
“No, just her and I think it it’s going to go away pretty quickly.”
“Why? Is she not pretty enough for you or what?” Albus asked, faking anger.
“Shut up!” They both laughed and Scorpius caressed Albus’ face. “What did I do to deserve you? You are the best friend and boyfriend anyone would ask for, I adore you.” Albus blushed and smiled down, bashfully.
“You sap.”
“You love it.”
“I do.” Albus mumbled.
“Albus, Scorpius! Let’s go!” Harry called.
When they got to the ranch a letter from Scorpius parents was waiting for him on his pillow. They congratulated him on his OWLs and said they were making plans to have dinner with the Potters sometime soon. Scorpius thought that would be a great time to tell his parents about his sexuality.
The next morning Harry woke up earlier than normal to make pancakes for everyone, he was about to head into the kitchen when he heard Albus and Scorpius talking and based on their conversation he thought best to go up back to bed.
~~~
Albus and Scorpius turned seventeen during their sixth year, so they planned to go on a trip just them during the summer before their last year at Hogwarts. They felt confident they would manage on their own for about two weeks but their parents said no, after much back and forth they arrived at a compromise: five days, within Europe, preferably England, Albus would take a cellphone and they’ll call the Potters every night. Astoria and Draco thought about buying a phone themselves but quickly gave up on the idea.
Scorpius wanted to do everything the muggle way, travel by plain or train, stay on muggle hostels, eat at muggle restaurants, and not bring their wands. Albus had to ‘put his foot down’ at the no wands idea, he was sure they wouldn’t survive one day without them, no matter how much Scorpius thought he knew about the muggle world.
They went to France since Scorpius was fluent in French and Albus would butch his way in a conversation. They took the train and stayed at a little hostel in Paris. They went exploring by day, taking as many muggle tours as possible and checking the wizarding section one time until people started pointing at Albus and reporters appeared out of nowhere trying to take pictures of them. By night, they had dinner at nice restaurants, went clubbing a couple of times, but mostly stayed on their hostel room making love or just watching TV and snuggling together. It was a nice change, not having to put up a tie on the door or finding a moment when The Room of Requirement was available.
It was their second day of the trip and Scorpius was waiting for Albus outside the Louvre, playing with their phone and taking pictures of anything he found interesting, aka a lot of things, when a boy came up to Scorpius and gave him a pamphlet about a concert in a bar that was going to take place that night. Scorpius asked him for clarification on the address and it wasn’t that far from their hostel, he was really excited to show Albus. Just then he felt arms going around his waist, he turned around quickly in Albus’ arms and smiled brightly.
“Hi,” Albus sighed.
“Hi! Look, look at this, there’s going to be a concert tonight at a pub not far away from our hostel, we should go!” Scorpius replied, excitingly showing Albus the flyer.
“I would love to, but we’re not of age.”
“What? Of course, we are! We are seventeen!”
Albus laughed, “Love, we are not of age in the muggle world, we don’t have IDs. I would confound the security guy of course.”
“Albus! No, that’s against the law.”
“Scorp, how do you think we have a room without being of age?”
“I, well, you paid with your credit card, right?”
“Yes, and the lady asked for my ID and I confound her because I forgot that tiny detail.”
“Albus! You didn’t!”
Albus laughed again and kissed his temple. “Do you want to go? Be honest.”
Scorpius thought about it, he really wanted to go, he’d never been to a muggle pub, or a wizarding one at that and he had brought the perfect clothes for such an occasion. “I want to,” Albus kissed him and very quickly it got heated. Scorpius pulled back, “Maybe we should go back to the hostel, have an early supper and get ready for the pub.”
“What’s wrong with what I’m wearing now?” Albus asked, looking down at his yellow t-shirt and white shorts ensemble.
“Nothing! You look cute, I just thought we should take a bath?”
“Yes, if by that you mean we’re together in said bath.”
“Of course, darling.”
They had supper, took a long bath and Albus was picking out his clothes while Scorpius got ready on the bathroom. He chose a dark red t-shirt with skinny black jeans and his trusty Converse. Since they were going out he decided to apply some makeup, Scorpius loves when he uses eyeliner and highlighter. He was applying cherry Chapstick too when he saw on the mirror a person that had to be model coming out of their bathroom and his brain stopped working. He turned around slowly, his mount hanging open and the Chapstick fell from his hand.
“What? Is it too weird?” Scorpius asked, trying to cover his body with his arms.
“Bloody hell, you are so hot!” Albus exclaimed. Scorpius was wearing black dungarees with a hot pink crop top and combat boots. He had left his blond hair natural so it was slightly curly and Albus didn’t know what makeup he had on but his cheekbones looked like they would cut glass and his grey-blue eyes appear to have stars in them. Albus stood up and slowly walked towards him, “We are not going anywhere tonight.”
“What?! Why not?!” Scorpius pouted.
“Because I want you to fuck me while you’re wearing that crop top and those boots.” Albus whispered against Scorpius lips before kissing him deeply. Scorpius was a bit taken aback but he caught up quickly, Albus pushed him unto the bed and climbed on his lap, he started taking off his dungarees but Scorpius stopped him. Albus whined and started kissing his neck, his collarbone, everywhere he would reach.
“Al, Albus, stop, stop.” Albus immediately drew back, they were both breathing heavily. “I actually want to go out.”
Albus brushed against him and Scorpius hitched. “I can’t go out like this, I’m wearing skinny jeans.”
“Well, I can help with that.” Scorpius pushed Albus, so he stood up and unbuckled his jeans.
At the end they managed to get just in time for the concert, Albus confounded the guard, they had some drinks, Scorpius became tipsy and when that happened he always got horny, which was just perfect for Albus because he didn’t like the band all that much and he really wanted his boyfriend all to himself. They stayed for one more song and went back to their hostel, running and laughing all the way, stopping a few times to kiss.
Back at Potter ranch, Ginny and Harry were anxiously waiting for their son to call. Obviously, the call never came.
~~~
Albus and Scorpius had been planning their future after Hogwarts since their sixth year. Both of them wanted to continue their education, Albus in magizoology and Scorpius in muggle technology. Scorpius was applying to multiple muggle universities, some even in America, he was very interested in MIT. He gathered the courage to tell Albus until their seventh year about his plans, when he received three admission letters. It was very hard work to apply to muggle universities, Scorpius was endlessly thankful for Hermione’s help, and secrecy, as his own parents were completely lost on ‘the ways of muggles.’ He was quite sure that his dad was not very happy with his career decision, he kept talking about the few good positions available on the Department of Muggle-Magical Cooperation, about the monotony of the jobs. Scorpius hadn’t told his parents about his plans to study in America, to maybe…stay in America. They just didn’t know, they were secluded in the mansion and hadn’t had to deal with the hate that so many people had for the Malfoy family. Scorpius had to deal with it his whole life, at least while he was at Hogwarts or any predominantly wizarding place, and he was tired of it. Albus and his family had been so helpful, but they wouldn’t be there in the ‘real world.’ He wouldn’t keep relying on Albus forever, it wasn’t fair to either of them. Their time in Paris opened their eyes to the possibility of being truly themselves, of being free of their last names, no more Malfoy scum or Potter lookalike. The last straw was when their seventh-year letters came a few weeks before start of term, Scorpius’ was heavier than normal because of the Head Boy badge inside. He was shocked, he had been a Prefect but he was absolutely sure that he wouldn’t become Head Boy. His parents were on the process of opening a bottle of champagne when another letter came in ‘apologizing for the confusion, there had been a mistake with the owls and the letter was sent to another person.’ But it was his full name on the letter, the badge was Slytherin green, there was a schedule for meetings with the Headmistress and Head Girl that fit perfectly with his lessons. Minutes later there was a knock on the door, Headmistress McGonagall came in and starting apologizing, but not because ‘of the confusion’ because she was overridden by the board, she had chosen Scorpius, the Governors voted no, all of them. It was the first time in Hogwarts history that the Governors’ input was taken into consideration when choosing a Head Boy or Head Girl. Astoria and Draco were massively mad, demanding this and that, Scorpius gave the badge back, thanked the Headmistress and went to his room. Scorpius never told Albus.
Scorpius still applied to the Department of Muggle-Magical Cooperation, just in case he didn’t got in on any university. He was rejected almost immediately, as in he sent the application form with his OWL and NEWT Muggle Studies scores, a recommendation from Hermione Weasley and Headmistress McGonagall, and they replied that same afternoon with a big, fat, no. He applied to other departments, same results. He was thinking of applying to the French Ministry but he got an admission letter for CalTech, decided to tell Albus his plan of studying in America and promptly forgot about any sort of ministry job when Albus started kissing him all over his face excitedly. Albus had been sending requests for apprenticeships to well-known magizoologists in the UK and getting positive results from everyone; he was concerned that they were looking at his last name only and not his accomplishments. This proved to be true when he had interviews with a couple of them and they kept insisting on meeting his parents, ‘at least your uncle.’ So, Albus decided that a change of scenery would be good and sent a request to The Arizona Magical Conservatory. They specialized in thunderbirds mostly, but it was actually the only place Albus knew about that had research facilities instead of focusing on just taking care of creatures. All the magizoologists he had contacted wandered around the world researching and Albus was alright with that, but he really didn’t want to be constantly away from Scorpius. This time around Albus had to send an essay, his OWL and NEWT qualifications, two letters of recommendation from magizoologists and all of that was before the interview. Since his fifth year he had been in contact with Lorcan’s father and he was happy to provide his recommendation, although Albus didn’t tell him exactly what for in case he told Luna and then his mum would find out. The second letter was a bit tricky, he accepted to work on a project with one of the magizoologists he had contacted before, Greg, and in exchange they would give him a recommendation letter. Albus had to put the band on hold for five months while he worked on the project and request a special permit to go to Hogsmeade in order to apparate to Greg’s farm. It was all worthy when he got his acceptance letter.
Albus internship was set to begin mid-August and Scorpius had to go for the final interview to CalTech, he hadn’t been admitted to MIT, in July. They were planning to leave for California one week after the end of term and decided to tell both their parents at the same time that they would be studying in America. They thought it would be better to go to a restaurant, less possibility of anyone making a scene, and selected a muggle restaurant to avoid eavesdroppers. Albus and Scorpius weren’t sure when to bring the subject, but thankfully Draco asked Albus if he had decided on whom to apprentice with.
“I have, I was accepted by The Arizona Magical Conservatory.” Albus said, Scorpius was squeezing his hand under the table and Albus had to tap it as he would barely feel his fingers anymore.
“That’s great! Congratulations!” Astoria said and everyone else exclaimed their congratulations. Albus looked at Scorpius and shrugged a bit, smiling shyly.
“I just have a question, weren’t you working with Greg?” Harry asked
“Yes, that was one project so he would give me a recommendation letter as I needed two. Rolf gave me the other one.” Albus explained.
“I thought you would stay with Greg, so this conservatory isn’t his?” Harry continued.
“No, dad. Greg has a farm, barely that. The Arizona Magical Conservatory has existed for over 75 years, they specialized in thunderbirds since they are endemic to Arizona and have excellent research facilities.”
“Arizona? As in United States of America, Arizona?” Harry asked.
“Duh! Yes, it’s in the name. The. Arizona. Magical. Conservatory. Where did you think it was?” Lily said.
“Thank you, Lily.” Albus interrupted. “It is in US, but it’s alright we’ll come visit as much as possible.”
“We?” Astoria asked, looking concernedly at her son.
“Oops.” Albus whispered and squeezed Scorpius’ hand.
“Yes, we, as in Al and I. We’ll visit.” Scorpius said with a confidence he wasn’t feeling.
“But, but, you don’t want to be a magizoologist.” Astoria continued.
“No, I was admitted at CalTech. That is California Institute of Technology. And yes, California as in United States of America. It’s a muggle university.” Scorpius was a firm believer of the ‘like taking a band-it off’ philosophy, better to tell it all at once.
“I don’t understand Scorpius, even if you wanted to study at a muggle university, you would go to one here, in Britain, were your family is.” Draco said. Scorpius deflated, not even one congratulations.
“First of all, you should be congratulating him too. Getting into a Caltech is extremely difficult even for muggles, it’s worse for wizards. Second, Scorpius did plan on studying here but as a wizard he needed permission from the Ministry, and guess what, they didn’t give it. MACUSA on the other hand was very happy to receive him in America a, and I quote, ‘such an exemplary student.’ Third, Scorpius is my family and I sure hope he considers me family too.” Albus replied, he had let go of Scorpius hand in order to put an arm around his shoulders.
Scorpius smiled at him, kissed his cheek and whispered, “Of course you are, my love.”
Astoria seemed to finally react accordingly and stood up to hug her son, she apologized and kissed his forehead even though she had to go on her tiptoes to do it now. “Draco!” Her husband came around the table and pull them both in a stiff hug.
They sat down again and Scorpius took a deep breath, “There’s something else I want to say. This decision is not something we just took on a whim. We don’t like” – hate, Albus interrupted, “well, yeah hate living in Britain. Mum, dad I’m sorry I never truly told you the full truth, but well, you know that people are unkind towards me, to put it lightly. At Hogwarts, Albus and his cousins would always protect me as much as they would, put that’s impossible anywhere else and I feel that I’m very dependent on Albus. It’s not healthy for our relationship. I need to find reasons to be happy without Albus and being very honest, that is not going to happen here. I love muggle technology and it’s been my dream since I was twelve to find a way to fusion magic and technology in more ways than what we have. Muggle technology grows exponentially and we, wizards, are being left behind very quickly.”
“Wait, like a magic cellphone or a magic computer?” Lily said, vibrating with excitement. Scorpius nodded. “That’s brilliant! Mum, dad I’m going with Scorp to school!” Scorpius laughed, feeling more relaxed now that the heavy stuff was out of the way. He would see his mum crying on her handkerchief and knew that they would talk more at home.
“Scorpius, that really sounds incredible. Congratulations!” Ginny said.
“Thank you, I appreciate it.”
“Albus, do you truly hate it here?” Harry asked, his voice low.
“Yes, everywhere I go, if it a wizarding place, people harass me, asked me very personal questions, the newspapers are awful and when they found out about Scorpius and I, that was terrible for me, for us. Greg, all the other magizoologist, they wanted to work with me because I’m Harry Potter’s son, not because of my grades. With the conservatory I had to actually fight for a way in, they even confused me with another Potter from Australia.” Albus laughed, “James and Lily, I think they got used to all the fame, but I never would and never will I believe. And well, they have the advantage that they don’t look like Harry Potter.” Scorpius pinched his leg, meaning, he was being rude unknowingly. “Sorry, dad.”
“No, no, it’s…” Harry sighed, “I understand, truly I do. Congrats, son.”
“What if you grew your hair? Dad had never had long hair.” Lily said
“I would pay good money to see that.” A voice said from behind Albus.
“James!” The younger Potters jumped into their brother’s arms and almost made him fall over. He took a look at the parents’ faces and whispered in Albus’ ear, “So you guys told them?” Albus nodded and Lily punched them both, “You knew?!” she screamed. “What can I say? I’m his favorite sibling obviously.” James said.
James patted Scorpius in the back and took the chair next to him. “By the way, mum, dad, Felicia is pregnant.” Everyone started screaming at once, until a waiter asked them to lower their voices.
“But how? When?” Harry asked.
“Well dad, Felicia and I loved each other very much and when a man a woman loved each other, they sometimes have sexual relation-”
“Stop!”
“James!”
“Dad, seriously, you never had the talk? No wonder Lily happened.”
“JAMES!”
“I’m an accident?!”
“NO!”
“Excuse me, if you continue screaming I will have to ask you to leave, please.”
Albus and Scorpius arrived to America in June and first went to Arizona to find a part time job for Albus, a full-time summer job for Scorpius and a place to rent. Albus had also applied to the Conservatory’s summer program, but that was just three days of the week and unpaid, so they needed jobs to find a place to live as Scorpius would be using a big portion of his trust fund to pay the university tuition and Albus trust fund was blocked until he was 25. For now, they would stay at an Airbnb. Finding jobs was easier that they expected, Albus was working at an ice-cream shop which suited his boyfriend just find as he got tiny scoops of ice cream every time he visited and since Albus worked Fridays-Sundays, Scorpius was at the shop all the time on weekends. Scorpius was working at the local library and he had organized it from the chaos it was to pristine order in three days. He was now working on digitalizing decades of local newspapers with a machine he found in the basement. Albus was sure that the old man who manages the library would cry when Scorpius leaves.
July came upon them very quickly, Albus took the day off the Conservatory to go with Scorpius to California. Astoria and Draco surprised them at CalTech, how they manage to find it themselves, no one knows. Scorpius was more excited than nervous, he absolutely loved the campus and the anonymity, that is until he was called for the interview. A woman, a witch most defiantly, was sitting behind an enormous, old desk, drinking tea.
“Hullo, Scorpius.” She said with a London accent. “Please take a seat.” Scorpius sat, he was trying hard not to feel negative emotions, to be positive, but he had a horrible feeling. “Let’s make this quick, shall we? Why did you apply to this university?”
Scorpius took a deep breath, “I first saw a computer when I was twelve. I know it might seem strange since most everyone now grows around computers, but that was not my case.”
“Of course not,” the woman snorted, “I can’t imagine any Malfoys even know what a computer is.”
“I’m confused, I thought I was going to be interviewed by Dr. Rochester?”
“Yes, I am Dr. Rochester. So sorry, my manners, I always forget them. I should have introduced myself first, but I’m having a busy day, so I want to get this over with.”
“We can reschedule for a later date? If that helps?” Scorpius continued, his hands were sweating.
“No, no. I’m a busy woman. Alright, so you first saw a computer at eleven, what else?”
“Twelve, I was twelve. My best friend, Albus, has a basement, well his parents do, with a computer and other muggle tech. I visited their ranch for the first time when I was twelve and just fell in love with technology. I wanted to learn everything, I have eidetic memory, so I asked Mrs. Potter, Albus’ mum, to take me to-”
“Who?” Dr. Rochester interrupted.
“Mrs. Ginny Potter, she’s my best friends’ mum? Mmm, why?” Scorpius leg was now shaking.
“Ginny Potter? As in Harry Potter’s wife?” Scorpius nodded. “Did you truly think I will believe that?”
“Believe? It’s the truth, Albus is my best friend, well he’s my boyfriend now. Ginny Potter took me to a library and she got me lots of books on muggle tech. I know how to code in five languages, how to build a computer and since then my dream has been to fusion muggle tech with magic, make magical-tech devices. Dr. Rochester, please, have you seen my documents? I was top of class at Hogwarts, my Muggle Studies NEWT project is now being used by the Ministry of Magic to organize all their departments’ memos, I took the idea from how Wikipedia works. I am more than my last name, I came here, to America, to get away from my last name. I deserve to be recognized for me, for my accomplishments, please forget my last name and tell me if you think I would be a good fit for this university. Or please send someone that is not biased to do the interview, because I won’t give up my dream.” By the end, Scorpius was breathing heavily, his hands were clenched around his legs and he was cold sweating.
Dr. Rochester stared at him for a few minutes, put her glasses on, opened his folder and started reading. She didn’t make any sounds, but looked at Scorpius every now and then. Once she was done, she took a sip of her tea, made a face, waved her wand, and took another sip. “We have only two other magical students here, I’ve been in charge of admissions of any no-mages, muggles, for the last eight years. No one has ever come in from Hogwarts and, I believe, no one be it no-mage or wizard has been more deserving of a place at CalTech than you, young man. Here is your starting package, it has a map of the campus and your dormitory number. Welcome to CalTech.”
Scorpius took the folder, his mouth slightly open. “I’m in?”
“Yes lad, who am I to reject a friend of the Potters? Now, of you go that I have much to do.” Scorpius stood up and was almost out the door when what she said clicked.
“Wait a minute, did you accept me because my boyfriend is Albus Potter?” He turned around, but the woman was already gone. He found his family waiting outside the interview room and ran to Albus, collapsing in his arms, sobbing.
“Oh no, sweetheart, what happened?” Scorpius explained between sobs, Albus face getting whiter by the minute. “I know you’re disappointed, but joke’s on her. You are amazing and will do amazing things, and when you finish developing your Google magical thingy, you’ll go to her and rub it in her face. I’ve never been gladder to be a fucking Potter, if it means that it can help you achieve your dream, my love, no matter how unnecessary it actually should be.” Albus kissed his hairline. Draco patted his back and Astoria stroked his hair. “Let’s go see the rest of the campus?”
August was upon of them and Albus moved to the studio provided by the Conservatory. Scorpius wouldn’t live there and wouldn’t move yet to his dormitory, so he stayed at their apartment. It was weird not living together, but they would have to grow accustomed to it as they would only see each other on weekends, and not all of them, once Scorpius’ classes started. Scorpius had made a schedule so they would visit each other as much as possible, they would use the Conservatory’s floo network once Scorpius was able to find a floo connection nearby CalTech, he had already made the inquiry at the California MACUSA office. They also bought cellphones and Albus was quickly learning how to FaceTime so they would see each other every day, at least through a screen. Albus would have to leave the Conservatory but he didn’t mind it. They would be apart only for four years, maybe less if Albus was recruited by the Santa Catalina Project. It was closer to CalTech than middle-of-nowhere Arizona; and Scorpius is a literal genius, he was probably going to finish university in two years although he was planning to continue developing his NEWT project alongside classes. Maybe the other two magical students would like to participate, it would be amazing to make it work worldwide.
The Potters, including James and his girlfriend Felicia, visited them the week before Albus was set to begin his internship. Albus was planning on going back to Britain once his nephew or niece was born so he would meet them, hopefully Scorpius would be able to go to. It was the last day of their visit and Harry woke up early to have a cup of tea before going to the airport. He was about to go into the tiny kitchen when he heard his son and Scorpius talking in low voices.
“…really liked it, my love, stop worrying.” Albus was saying.
“Are you positive it wasn’t too soon?” Scorpius replied.
Albus laughed, “I’ve wanted to do it since I was eleven, no it wasn’t too soon.”
“Then why haven’t you?” Scorpius asked and Harry would almost imagine his pouting face.
“Scorp, kids or teenagers can’t get married.” Harry’s gasp would have been heard if Ginny wouldn’t have put her hand on his mouth. Harry jumped a bit.
“We’ve been eighteen for more than a year.” Scorpius replied.
“True and at Hogwarts, and dealing with NEWTs, internships, bureaucracy, and hell.” Albus sounded a bit exasperated. “I was planning to propose tomorrow, once my parents weren’t here actually.” Harry and Ginny looked at each other, Ginny’s hand still over Harry’s mouth.
“Oh, you were? I beat you to it by a day?” Scorpius laughed and Albus followed.
“I plan on proposing still. I won’t leave my ring and my beautiful plan go to waste, just pretend to be surprise for me, please?”
“Yes, absolutely!”
“I can’t wait to introduce you to everyone at the Conservatory as my fiancé.” Albus said in a low voice.
“I can’t wait to introduce you to everyone at the CalTech as my fiancée.” Scorpius replied equally lowly. Harry and Ginny would hear what definitely sounded as kissing, so they move away from the kitchen door backwards and stumbled on the rug. The noise drove Albus and Scorpius out of the kitchen.
“What, what are you guy doing?” Albus asked.
“Why are Lily and James under the table?” Scorpius said at the same time.
“Where you eavesdropping?!” Albus yelled.
“It was an accident!” Harry said, Albus snorted. “Truly! I was going for a cup of tea and-”
“And heard us talking and decided to eavesdrop.” Albus finished.
“Yeah, no, I mean-” Lily, James, and Ginny started laughing.
“So, you guys are engaged?” Lily asked.
Albus and Scorpius looked at each other, smiling. “We are.” They said together. The Potters crashed unto them and everyone fell down, there were tears, laughs, screams, someone hit Albus with their elbow and Scorpius legs were cramped under everyone, but that was what happened when you had a proper Potter summer.