Chapter Text
Scorpius couldn’t still believe that his father had agreed to this. As he sat down beside Albus, who was next to James, on the backseat of a rusty car rented by the Potters, he had to repress a groan of excitement. It was the start of his real summer holidays, even if he had already spent two weeks with his father back at home, this was what he was looking forward to.
It had all been Hermione’s and Harry’s idea, since they were familiar with the muggles, to spend two weeks in a little village by the beach, living as far away from magic as they could after such a complicated year. Of course Draco hadn’t been happy with the idea when he first got a letter from Ginny asking him to let Scorpius go with them. It was clear to Scorpius that his father didn’t trust any of them and that he still held some grudges against Harry, so he begged for days until Draco gave up and wrote to Ginny, demanding to know every last detail about the trip and what they’d be doing, what would be Scorpius’ part in all of it and who would be watching over them, apart from a threatening warning if any harm was done to his son. Scorpius had never been happier, and he even hugged his father tightly and promised him to behave, Draco hadn’t said a word back then, but he held his son back tight and hoped that nothing bad would happen to him.
Behind Ginny’s letter there had been days and days of Albus begging both of his parents to invite his best friend over. Harry had laughed at him the first time – ‘’a Malfoy, coming on holidays with us, have you lost your mind?’’ – but Ginny had quickly understood what it meant for her son to have that kid around, and after a few arguments with Harry, he had given up on his initial position and agreed to let her ask Draco. Harry was reluctant, but Albus knew right away that his father’s old enemy would end up agreeing to it, because his love for Scorpius was far stronger than whatever grudges he could hold against them, and he had been right. Draco had travelled with Scorpius in order to drop him at their house in the morning, and had politely invited Albus to spend a few days in the Malfoy Manor when they got back if he wanted, to which the young Potter had replied he’d think about it and thanked him for it. Where as Harry had acted a bit distant, Ginny truly appreciated his visit, and told him he could be in contact with his son via owl post, but she also explained that it would be far easier for him to just use a common muggle mobile phone, to which Draco frowned but asked for the number they’d be using anyway.
They had firstly travelled by plane, for the kids it was their first time on it and they all had loved it except for James, who had been sulking the whole time saying how he didn’t like to fly if it wasn’t on a broom. He then went on to complain about the car that Harry chose to rent once they landed on Italy, and they all were relieved when he ended up falling asleep during the drive. Albus and Scorpius didn’t have time to sleep as they were too busy chatting non-stop, and they kept on doing so until they reached, at dusk, the house they’d be living in for the next two weeks.
It was an amazing place, the house itself was bigger than any of theirs – except for Scorpius, of course – consisting of five bedrooms, three bathrooms, a kitchen big enough for a whole family and a huge living room. The yard that surrounded it was big enough for a Quidditch field, but since they were not allowed to use magic in their holidays, it would have to be used for normal sports. As they walked around it, they found out that it also had a swimming pool in the backyard, and the views from there were those of which they had only dreamt about, with the sea standing right in front of them as the sun went down. It was an amazing landscape, they all stood speechless at it and even James kept quiet for about a minute. Harry pulled Ginny close to him and kissed her cheek softly, smiling as he stared at their children standing together. Lily had travelled with Ron and Hermione, but had come to them as soon as she got off the car.
‘’Do you like it, kids?’’ Ron asked, walking up to meet Lily and Hugo, who were looking at the sunset together.
Both of them nodded enthusiastically and the man grinned, then took Hermione’s hand and walked into the house, being followed by the rest of the adults shortly after. James excused himself to the room he had chosen and the two younger kids stayed outside playing together. Scorpius and Albus were left to the only room that was downstairs, but they didn’t mind it so much, it had two single beds separated by two night-stands, and a rather large sofa. They put the bed’s sheets on them and then decided to put on their swimsuits and go for a swim in the pool. They were joined by James, who wouldn’t stop throwing water at them and trying to keep Albus’ head underwater for as long as he could, Scorpius would try to defend his friend but James was far stronger than them and had his brother beg for mercy after several seconds of feeling like he was going to drown. He got angry and said that he wouldn’t be in the pool near him anymore, to which James laughed alone until it hit him that he had been left alone there and had no one to play with. Scorpius ran after his friend, finding him sulking standing on the sofa in their room.
‘’You didn’t have to run away like this, you know…’’
‘’He’s so annoying! You’re lucky you don’t have to live with him.’’
‘’I guess… I would’ve liked to have a brother when I was younger though, but I would hate it if he had been like James.’’
‘’You really would have.’’ Albus replied with a chuckle, suddenly forgetting that he was angry, and stood up from the sofa. ‘’Do you wanna go back to the pool?’’
Scorpius shrugged as if he didn’t mind, but he was actually eager to do so, and he followed his best friend along the long corridors of the house until they got outside and he stopped mid-way. Rose stood on the edge of the pool, her skin glowing in the dark with the last strikes of light coming from the sky, Scorpius stared at her in awe, and Albus couldn’t help but smirk at him, even if he didn’t quite like it. He decided to run and push the girl so that she would fall, but she was quicker and her cousin was the one to end up falling into the water. The Malfoy laughed and joined them in the water, awkwardly trying to get along with Rose but she would simply not pay attention to him and focused on her brother and Lily instead.
They went to bed early that night, happy, exhausted but feeling light-hearted, and as sleep came to haunt him, Scorpius realised how glad he was to have found someone like Albus and how he’d love for him to understand the feelings he had been hiding for so long. Rose was a beautiful girl, he had tried to develop a real crush on her, in order to forget Albus, for so long that he had almost believed it. Now the feeling was weird, he wouldn’t mind holding her hand, going on trips to Hogsmeade, or even kissing her. He would probably like that, he thought, he would definitely like that, but he knew deep in his heart that he would prefer to do all those things with the boy sleeping on the other bed next to him. He wondered what it’d be like to be in a relationship with Albus. Not very different from what they already had, just adding the kissing part and the romantic stuff, he guessed. He had read about a lot of people in love, mostly gay couples since he had found a very interesting LGBT book section in Hogwarts’ library as soon as he started feeling things towards Albus. He had questioned its existence, he doubted that it was there before, but he got some really good stories from it and so he never asked. He knew he couldn’t be the only bloke who felt things for another bloke in the whole castle, but truth was he had never seen anyone else wandering around that special part of the shelves, and he didn’t feel brave enough to ask anyone about it. In those books he learnt about things that normal, heterosexual stories, hadn’t taught him, and he also felt identified with the story of a special boy who had been in love with his best friend for twenty years. He hoped he wouldn’t have to spend so many years of his life hiding his feelings, though. There was also the issue with his father; it wasn’t that he thought him to be homophobic, he had already tested the waters and Draco had made it clear that he had no problem with gay people. Scorpius, however, had remained silent about his own sexuality, even if he knew he’d have his dad’s full support about that, the man would like to know who was in his son’s radar and a Potter’s name could be too much to bear for the old Malfoy.
Albus, on the other hand, tried to think of anything that wasn’t his friend’s body in that swimsuit. Scorpius’ gleaming pale skin was all he could picture in his brain as he tried to fall asleep, his dashing smile and his grey eyes full of light, of freedom, of happiness. He had never seen Scorpius in such a state, and he had loved it way too much. He wondered how much longer he’d be able to keep quiet about his feelings, which felt as though a beast was hiding in his belly, chewing through the insides of his body trying to get out. He wanted to shout it to his friend, but every time he felt brave enough to do so he had to face the stare that Scorpius was giving to Rose. Stupid boy, couldn’t he see Rose wasn’t and would never be interested in him? He had to admit he was a bit jealous of her, to receive all of the kind of attention he so badly craved, but he couldn’t tell her, he couldn’t tell anyone, it would risk the only friendship he had managed to make. The thing was, there had been times when Scorpius and him were all by themselves in the Slytherin common room, times when everybody in the castle had left for Hogsmeade and yet Scorpius stayed with him as he sulked about everything. It was truly admiring, he thought, for such an amazing and talented boy to stay by his side, the side of a total loser. Sometimes he thought that Scorpius only wanted him because he was the only one who got even more bullied than him, but then he saw it in his eyes… Scorpius’ eyes were his safe place, the only thing that mattered in the whole world was for them to keep shining, even if that meant having to give his best friend and his cousin some time alone.
If that was what Scorpius seeked during the holidays, to finally be able to start something with Rose after so many years crushing on her, who the hell was him to deny him the pleasure of doing so? He made up his mind as sleep finally knocked on his door; he’d let go of Scorpius and see what happened, and if fate wanted them together then sure as hell they would find their way back together.