Chapter Text
Original Published (13 April 2024)
Edit (23 April 2024)
An assembly for all Gryffindor students has just been called at Hogwarts. All Gryffindor students gathered for this announcement at lunchtime, before eating together, in the common room in Gryffindor Tower. It was no secret to the students what it was about. For days until shortly before the meeting, the legends spread that the new Gryffindor prefect had been chosen and that the results of the election should now be published. The elections had also been a long-term topic that many of the older and newer students were looking forward to taking part in, as these new elections only take place every 4 years. James Sirius Potter was the only one of his cousins and siblings to have seen one so far and now the rest of his family will too. He was excited about the meeting because his goal was to stand for election. Some of his cousins were even newly assigned to the Hufflepuff house.
James was looking, or at least planned to, for his younger brother Albus so that he could tell him his new news later. He basically had some time before they had to be at the meeting point and as long as they didn't forget the password, everything was good. Halfway there, he stopped himself when he spotted Rose, his sometimes annoying cousin. Normally she always knows best about Albus because they were in the same year and it was somehow tradition for Gryffindors and Slytherins to take courses together, even though everyone knows that it's not a smart idea. So he immediately asked her if she saw him.
Rose was sitting on a foundation reading a book about history. But since James didn't care if anyone did anything, he disturbed her without concern and spoke to her. "Hey Rose. Do you happen to know where Albus is? We have a meeting coming up and I was going to tell him about it afterwards if it went well, but I'm very sure about it." Rose hesitantly put her book down. Sighed deeply and looked at his cousin "Albus is definitely with Scorpius. It's lunchtime and I doubt Albus will use the time to study. So if you don't see him on the premises, he'll definitely be doing some nonsense somewhere in the Slytherin building . Remember, both of them still don't have their wands back, so it's not that hard to guess what and where they might be."
And that was true.
It had been at the end of the 4 year, almost 3 months earlier, when the time travel fiasco had occurred. Fortunately, everything turned out normally and the time with its events was not changed, but Albus and Scorpius suffer some consequences. She, Scorpius and Albus had to explain everything that was connected to Delphi and time travel in front of Headmaster McGonagall, a few other professors, wizards and, although they were part of the adventure, their parents. The punishment wasn't too big. The only reason was that although Albus and Scorpius had tried to change time and thus put everything in danger, it seemed that everything had been attempted by Delphi, Voldemort's daughter, and the damage that had been done was undone Imprisoned like Delphi, they had averted a danger and so there was no longer any great damage or possibility of judgment. In the end there was only a simple punishment of 1 month house arrest, which they had to carry out without a wand. However, since this was the time of winter break, they made an agreement that part of the punishment could be taken at home with the Potters-Malfoys, but only with strict parental supervision. They would then have to take the remaining 2 weeks at Hogwarts at the beginning of the 5th year. The wands were safely stored in the headmaster office during this time. If they went to class at the time, they would be excused from magic class, but anything magical would have to be caught up. They had just completed the orientation week, so the two boys only had a week left to complete their punishment. Which is good because the Quidditch games will be played again the following week so that we can score points in the house cup fight. Rose and James knew that Albus and Scorpius often met during the holiday season, whether they met at Malfoy Manor or the Potter Mansion, but they sometimes talked about Quidditch and participating in it, Scorpius in particular had been excited about it.
James and Rose giggled at that.
So far they've gotten along well without magic. You could say that Rose and James were assigned to keep an eye on the two boys.
"All right. I'll look for him later and see what's going on with them. I might also ask what kind of candidates the Slytherins suggest that can be discussed among student representatives. Or at least when it is is far!"
There are currently student representative elections in the individual houses. Everyone deals with the election differently, we knew that, different house, different customs. The Hufflepuffs did a democratic vote and at the end it will be evaluated. The Gryffindors went by the principle of courage and chose the one who was the bravest and could be relied on. However, nothing is known about the election process for Ravenclaw and Slytherin and it has always remained closed for a long time. The only rumor that had been circulating for a long time among the students was that James Sirius Potter, Albus' big brother, was likely to be elected as Gryffindor Head Boy. The reason for this is that either Rose or James were considered in the final round. They talked about it without an audience and agreed that no matter who won, either was acceptable. Rose would have liked to be upstairs too, but she had asked James to be a co-prefect for Gryffindor in case the worst came to the worst, and he had allowed her to do so. Afterwards she was happy, but she also had to tell Albus about it. However, that wasn't possible yet because the announcement was about to come for the first time.
Rose put her things in her backpack and stood up. "What do you think, shall we go now? After that, I'll consider going with you to see the two of them. Like I said, they're in Slytherin house. That's all I know. But I doubt they'll be there anyway moment something productive takes place." James smiled slightly at that and nodded. "Yeah, that would be typical... especially when Albus is there. But you know what, sometimes I still have hope for him. And especially when Scorpius is with him."
Both looked out in the direction of the Slytherin house further back.
"Maybe," Rose said simply, and so they both walked down the path to find out which of the two was the winner. Rose or James.
Unlike the Gryffindors, where the emphasis at the moment is on the elections, the Slytherins are focused on something else. This also applied to Albus, who with a slight smile on his face walked through the corridors to his bed room, where his best and only friend was currently. He was holding some papers in one hand and with the other he was getting ready to gently pull the door open as he ran. When he opened it and leaned slightly against the door, panting, and after three blows raised his head to show a grin, he quickly got his beloved friend's attention by throwing himself at him from behind. This resulted in both of them falling to the ground and the chair breaking due to the sudden weight. "Ahhhhh Albus! What's the point, you scared me, owwww!" whined his friend, Scorpius. "Ahahahaha I'm sorry, Scorp haha. I'm getting off you. Althoooooough..." (Note: it was ´obwoooooohl once cuz i was writing in german but keep it as a storie in english so...i want to say for my sounds the germ word more funny sryy about that xD)´
"Although what?" Scorpius asked slightly dully.
Albus grinned even more mischievously and moved his head slightly closer to the blonde boy. "Although you look really cute wedged under me like that!"
This statement made the blonde blush slightly. And the blush would only get worse if Albus didn't get off him. "Seriously, Al." Scorpius looked away embarrassed as he pushed the other away, but he only chuckled at the action. Finally Albus pushed himself up on his own and reached out a hand to his friend, who happily accepted it. "Thanks, Al. But tell me, what was that for again. I don't really have anything against it, but... well, you know... the hugging thing... well... oh, just warn me beforehand, okay! It's still different "Weird to me," Scorpius said as he rubbed his arm. "Okay, sure, I'll do my best for next time but I won't promise anything," Albus promised, more or less. "Say, are you still busy studying?"
The blonde raised a slight eyebrow at the question, "Yes?"
The dark-haired man, on the other hand, suddenly seemed more nervous: "Well, I thought that maybe we could do something different, something more fun, instead of studying like a geek!"
Scorpius frowned sharply at Al when he mentioned the word geek in connection with studying. At that, realizing his mistake with the word, Albus quickly defended himself, wiggling his hands around. "Oh come on. You know what I mean. Besides, you know that I don't mean you personally, or at least not now."
Scorpius didn't answer directly, but when he did, he just let a sigh escape him. "Maybe right away. To be more precise, maybe when I get through the part I was doing before you attacked me."
Albus' eyes flashed and asked enthusiastically, "Cool and approximately how long will it take?"
Scorpius rolled his eyes and said with a shrug, "I dunno. If I do it quickly, maybe like... 30 minutes?"
Now Albus frowned. "Oh, that's still far too long. Can't it be shorter than 10 minutes?"
Scorpius shook his head. "Oh, forget it. But..." The blonde looked around and immediately thought of something "...if you do me a favor and clean up your side of the room, I'll set the reading of my script for 20 minutes. If "Don't... you're welcome to learn with me. It'll take you longer than me anyway so it's only fair."
"Ehh no passe. What does that mean? But what if I finish before you? Huh? I won't wait silently for the rest of the time."
“Don’t worry, it won’t happen.”
"Wanna bet?"
"The bet stands!"
As a joke, Albus immediately grabbed a stopwatch that belonged to one of the Slytherins and set the timer. So time was now running out for them. While Scorpius used his time to read, Albus cleared out his suitcase, which he had previously been too lazy to empty.
It hadn't been too long since they arrived back at Hogwarts anyway. They had been with their parents for two weeks over the winter holidays and had also partially completed the punishment of the ban on magic. This meant they arrived back at school last week, giving them plenty of time to unpack. Which means that only Scorpius had his things organized so far. Albus, on the other hand, always said he would do it later. And the time was now. At home it had been no effort for either of them to get along without magic, but as soon as they were back and the countdown got shorter, a feeling of missing them grew over them. Especially Albus. Scorpius put it away better. So, following his cousin Rose's words, he did something and studied for once, which wouldn't let him stick around for long if Scorp wasn't there. From now on there was still 1 week of study punishment left and he'll probably get around that, even if he didn't know how he managed it so far. Although the answer was obvious.
They still remembered the procedure before, watching how their family reacted to everything. While Harry and his family found out about this, his father was furious about this measure and tried everything to get McGonagall to agree. However, Albus was the only Potter who found it half as bad, as did Scorpius and indeed Draco, who could still tolerate it even if he blamed everything on Harry. It wasn't like Draco and Harry were still enemies. It was more that they had a neutral 'relationship' and instead of a rivalry, they simply accepted each other and only made an effort for their sons' friendship. They learned what happened when Harry forbade Albus and Scorpius from meeting and unfortunately it only led them further into mess, darkness, worry and chaos.
It was actually both fathers' idea for both boys to stay at Malfoy Manor and do their time in the basement by the secret rooms where Draco would keep an eye on them while Harry and the others in his family were busy. Scorpius was glad that at least he and Albus weren't separated; at least they were able to carry out their semi-punishment together and luckily it's something that Scorpius is good at and was able to support Al. The idea of Albus allowing his trunk was probably because he might think he would be sent there again as punishment, but who knows.
Albus collapsed onto his bed after less than 10 minutes and things still don't look any better. Scorpius frowns, noticing that his friend stopped as soon as he looked up at the thud. "Come on Albus, I don't feel like it either, but...we have to at least finish this." Albus huffed and wanted to reach for his staff to say "Scourgify" but he remembered too late. "What a shame, I don't have a magic wand anymore," he said with a sigh and then thought. "Useless!"
"Hey, it's not that bad now. Hold on a little longer," the blonde encouraged him. But Albus already had a grin on his face: "Yes, yes, no problem. And besides, that's how I do it now. Be careful." With that, Albus pushed himself up again and pushed everything under his bed and/or into a cupboard with his feet.
Scorpius couldn't help but smile slightly, but shook his head slightly. "Owwww hopefully at least the other two won't notice."
Albus quickly countered, "Oh no! And if it bothers you, you can do it properly, aka use magic! That would help both of them, not just me. Sooooooo" He abruptly latched onto Scorpius again and took the book from his hand. "That means we can probably get going! Come on." He then grabbed the blonde's hand, threw the book to the side and ran out of the room with him. On their way they hardly saw any Slytherin kids around them. They didn't do it until they got to the direction of the farm. When they were at the playing field seconds later, they saw not only Slytherin, but also some children of the Hufflepuff house. Some have already placed themselves on the field, while others were still deliberating before they took to the skies. The two stood at the edge of the square next to the other observers. Less than a second later, the loudspeakers announced that the match was about to start. And after another 10 minutes the Quidditch game started. The Slytherin team was very confident that they were entitled to win and that they would have a good chance of getting the House Cup this time. After many years, they are confident that they will finally be able to defeat Ravenclaw and/or Gryffindor in the final again.