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First year
Albus slipped out of the compartment quietly and unnoticed and ventured down the train’s hall, passing full and loud compartments of students all eager to get to Hogwarts. The only thing Albus had been eager about was finding a quieter place to sit. If Albus had to hear Rose talk about which house she wanted to be in for one more minute, he might have thrown up. Though Albus was happy that she was excited, he couldn’t help but feel a huge pit of fear at the bottom of his stomach. Albus’ father had done a pretty good job encouraging him about his sorting, but that encouragement had honestly only given Albus the nerve to actually get on the train. The anxiety of being a let down to his family or being unhappy with his sorting built with every step he took trying to find a calmer place to sit.
Albus peaked inside the very last compartment in that portion of the train and found one person sitting inside. The boy in the compartment had his back to Albus so all Albus could see was his striking blond hair and the mountain of sweets that surrounded him. Albus took a deep breath a rapped a light knock on the compartment window and slid the door open when the boy turned to face him.
“Hi,” Albus breathed out, “Do you mind if I join you?”
The boy smiled brightly and nodded as Albus closed the compartment door and took a seat across from him. “Would you like a sweet?” The boy offered kindly, extending his arm out with a handful of assorted treats captured in his fist.
“Yeah, I would actually,” Albus smiled slightly, accepting the candy that the boy poured into his open palm. “I’m Albus, by the way, Albus Potter.”
“Oh, hi! I’m Albus - no I mean you’re Albus! I’m Scorpius, Scorpius Malfoy,” the blond boy, Scorpius, spluttered.
Albus smiled lightly, extending out an open hand, the one that wasn’t full of sweets, for Scorpius to shake. Scorpius gratefully shook the hand of the boy across from him.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you Scorpius Malfoy,” Albus said, reaching across the boy to steal one of the chocolate frogs from his pile of sweets.
“Hey!” Scorpius said with a laugh, making no move to take the sweet back from him.
Albus just smirked slightly and began pulling open the packaging of the candy. He picked up the wiggling frog in his hand and used the other hand to look at the card inside. Albus flipped the card in between his fingers a few times before tossing it over to Scorpius’ side of the compartment.
“It’s a Dumbledore card,” Albus said with a shrug as Scorpius made a move to pick of the card.
“A Dumbledore card, that’s so bloody cool,” Scorpius exclaimed holding the card up above his face. “I have a collection of these at home, I probably have about a dozen of every other card, but I don’t actually have any of Dumbledore yet. I actually probably have about thirty just of your father-” Scorpius stopped abruptly and looked up at Albus to see him sitting uncomfortably, still holding the wiggling frog in one of his hands. “Oh wow, I’m sorry, you probably get enough people talking to you about your father and stuff like this. I mean, Albus Dumbledore is literally your namesake and I’m probably annoying you - nope I’m definitely being annoying. I’m sorry.”
Scorpius looked up at Albus sheepishly, wringing his hands together and looked away quickly when Albus made eye contact with him.
“Hey, mate, it’s literally fine, I promise. You are right though, I do get plenty of people asking me about my parents and everything. It does get a bit annoying but, you just met me, so you get a free pass,” Albus said, smiling warmly at the boy across from him as they made eye contact. Albus probably wouldn’t have been so kind if it had been anyone else sitting across from him. Albus didn’t doubt that Scorpius experienced much worse than him because of his last name. “So how was your summer?”
Scorpius beamed up at Albus, thankful for the immediate forgiveness and the change of subject, and immediately dove into telling the story about the trip he and his family had taken to Paris that summer.
Albus smiled at the excitement Scorpius displayed through his flailing hands as he described his trip. Albus glanced out the window quickly to see the Scottish hills rolling beside the train. Albus could not believe he had met a friend before they had even left the train - he couldn’t wait to tell his parents.
-----
Second year
“Mum,” Albus huffed, struggling to escape his mother’s embrace. “Lemme go! I have to make sure Scorpius and I get a good seat!”
Ginny let out a sigh and smiled down at her youngest son. “Of course you do, sweetie. Off you go! Send Scorpius my love!”
Albus beamed, running towards the train, waving at his mother as he climbed the steps onto the train. He briskly walked through the train until he found an empty compartment and threw his bag onto the same seat that he dropped himself into.
“Anything from the trolley dear?” the trolley woman asked sweetly, motioning towards her giant trolley full of sweets.
“Yeah I will have a few things, if you don’t mind,” Albus said, digging into his pockets to pull out the few spare coins his father had given him. He handed the coins over to the woman and began picking various sweets of the trolley. Albus thanked the woman and smiled as he went back into his compartment and dumped his new pile of sweets onto the seat across from him. Albus stared out the window of the compartment, thinking about what the next year may have in store.
A knock on the compartment window tore Albus from his thoughts and the origin of the knock caused Albus’ face to break into an enormous grin.
“Hey Al, how was your summer? Mum, Dad and I went to Brussels this time - and yes - before you even ask, I brought back plenty of Belgian chocolate. It looks like you’ve brought most of the sweets this time though,” Scorpius rambled as he took his seat next to the mountain of candy that Albus had bought moments before his arrival and began pulling out his own Belgian chocolate.
Albus smiled at his friend seated across from him. “Well, someone once told me that sweets were the quickest way to make new friends. Though I can’t remember who said that for the life of me...”
Scorpius whacked Albus playfully and stole a carton of Bertie’s Every Flavor Beans from Albus’ pile. “Looking for new friends are you?” Scorpius muttered, half jokingly and half not.
“Well I did only stay in your compartment last year for you sweets,” Albus joked, oblivious to Scorpius self doubt.
“Ah, I see,” Scorpius said, turning to face the window and popping a few jelly beans into his mouth.
Albus glanced at his friend, finally noticing something was off. “Oh, Scorp, you know you’re my best friend, don’t you?”
“Scorp,” Scorpius repeated, testing the nickname on his tongue, “That’s new.”
“Well best friends need nicknames for each other, don’t they?” Albus said, his cheeks going a bit pink.
“Oh, do they, Albie?” Scorpius teased, using a nickname Scorpius had overhead James use once.
Albus groaned, “Gosh, I’m going to kill James.”
Scorpius snickered and continued stealing sweets from Albus’ pile of candy. “Now come on Albus, if you killed James I wouldn’t have such quality nicknames for you!”
A licorice wand hit Scorpius square in the face, which sent both boys into a fit of laughter. The two boys laughed, clutching their stomachs, as the train continued rolling down the tracks and towards Hogwarts, for yet another school year.
----
Third year
Albus had an eery sense of deja vu walking down the hall of the train to find a compartment. Though this moment felt suspiciously similar to the day that Albus had met Scorpius, he knew it would never be the same - not after what had happened this summer. Albus’ mind was racing, trying to decide how to talk to his best friend once he had found him. How do you talk to someone who had just lost their mother?
Albus didn’t knock when he found the compartment, he slipped in quietly and sat across from Scorpius. Scorpius looked up, shooting Albus a small and watery smile. Albus opened his mouth to speak, but stopped immediately as soon as a tear started to fall down Scorpius’ cheek.
“Hi, I.. I don’t really feel like talking at the moment, if you couldn’t tell by... all of this,” Scorpius joked lightly, gesturing to his tear streaked face. “Could you just tell me about your summer, perhaps?”
Albus gave his friend a small smile. “Yeah Scorp, I can do that, but first-” Albus began emptying his pockets of the homemade sweets that his grandmother had sent him with. “Grandma Weasley made these for us, I told her we didn’t need that many, but she just laughed and told me to fill up my pockets.”
Scorpius smiled shakily and took a few of the sweets. He began unwrapping a piece of candy and then pointedly looked up at Albus again.
“Oh right, yes my summer,” Albus began and then popped one of the homemade fudge squares his grandmother had made into his mouth. He then launched into a very detailed telling of their Weasley family camping trip that summer.
Albus was telling the story of how he was forced to play quidditch during his family’s annual tournament for the second year in a row, even though they all knew he wasn’t that great at flying. Albus looked up to see Scorpius’ face as he was telling the story and looked away as he saw Scorpius’ head ducked and his hands wiping the tears off of his cheeks. Albus’ voice faltered a bit as he talked about how his mom had been on his team, but continued his story anyway, playing with the wrapping from his fudge square.
“And you should have seen it, Scorp,” Albus said, laughing slightly. “Rose caught the snitch before my dad even had the chance and he tried to act as if he had let her win, but you could tell. He was just as surprised as everyone else!”
Scorpius chuckled slightly, which startled Albus and caused him to look up from his very interesting, folded fudge square wrapper. Scorpius gave Albus another shaky smile, but this time there were no tears. Albus smiled back and, somehow, knew that they were going to be alright.
----
Fourth year
Scorpius opened the door of the compartment, cladden in his Slytherin robes and ran a hand through his hair and smiled at Albus, who was sitting on the floor of the compartment, candy wrappers surrounding him.
“You should really go change into your robes,” Scorpius said with a tut.
“Yeah, yeah mum, I’ll get right on that,” Albus teased as he dug through his bag.
“M’not your mum,” Scorpius said, cheeks tinted red. “But I am glad that you’re listening to me and finding your robes.”
“Oh, I’m definitely not doing that,” Albus said with a cheeky smirk. “Do you want to play wizard chess? Uncle Ron got me a new board this summer and I’ve been dying to use it.”
“You haven’t used it yet?” Scorpius asked curiously, wondering why Albus would wait so long to use a new gift that he could already tell Albus loved.
“Nah, I wanted to play the first game on my new board with you,” Albus said nonchalantly with a shrug.
Scorpius could feel the warmth on his cheeks growing. “Oh, t-that’s nice,” he stammered, sitting down opposite of his friend once again.
“Black or white?” Albus asked, searching his friend’s face.
“Huh, what?” Scorpius asked, quickly looking around the compartment and landing his gaze on Albus’ face.
“Uh, do you want to use the black or white chess pieces?” Albus asked with a shy smile.
“Oh! Oh, um I’ll use the black pieces, if you don’t mind,” Scorpius said, grabbing one of the black knights and placing it on his side of the board.
“Of course I don’t mind,” Albus said, reaching to set up his own white pieces and looking to Scorpius to see if he was ready to start the game.
“You take the first move,” Scorpius said smiling slightly.
“Oh, yeah, right,” Albus smiled and moved one of his pieces ahead on the board. “How was your summer?”
“Uh, dad and I just stayed in for most of it, we went through some of mum’s stuff, I read about a billion new books,” Scorpius said quietly, making a move on the board as well.
“It was nice,” Scorpius added as an afterthought after sitting in his friend’s silence. He peaked up from the game board to look at Albus’ face.
“Oh, well, I’m glad,” Albus said quietly, avoiding eye contact. He still didn’t know how to approach the topic of his best friend’s mother. Albus didn’t like feelings in general, but he definitely didn’t like sadness or grief, they were too hard.
“Yep,” Scorpius said, rather awkwardly. He was okay, and he wanted Albus to know that he was okay, but sometimes Albus was rather awful when it came to emotions. “So, what about your summer then? Any adventures for the Potter-Weasley bunch?”
Albus rolled his eyes and laughed slightly. “Well the Potter-Weasley bunch didn’t do much this summer. I hung out with Lily in the garden quite a bit, which was rather nice. My summer was actually all around pretty nice until James got his prefect letter in the mail. He’s insufferable you know, to good for his own good.”
Scorpius chuckled slightly, “You know, your brother isn’t really all that bad.”
“He kind of is,” Albus admitted. “The teasing wasn’t as bad this summer as it has been, but he clearly hasn’t accepted the fact that I’m in Slytherin yet. It’s literally almost been four years, Scorp!”
Scorpius looked down at the game board and pretended to be deep in thought about his next move, but he was actually ashamed that he had brought the topic up. Scorpius knew that Albus and his brother weren’t that close.
“I’m sorry,” Scorpius muttered. “I shouldn’t have brought it up. At least everyone had any shock at all when you get sorted. How could anyone have ever doubted where the son of Voldemort would have ended up?”
“Oh Scorp,” Albus breathed. “Scorp-”
“No, I’m sorry I’m being self deprecating I know, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything,” Scorpius muttered, biting off a piece of his licorice wand bitterly.
Albus set a hand on his friend’s knee. “Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy, look at me right now.”
“Did you really just middle name me? I thought we promised we’d never repeat our awful middle names ever-”
“Scorp, look at me,” Albus said quietly.
“Uh, okay,” Scorpius said, fluttering his eyelashes a bit and looking up at his best friend.
“T-there, better,” Albus stuttered, they were a bit close now and the eye contact was a bit intimidating but he had Best Friend duties to uphold.. “Now, do you believe those things that they all say about you Scorpius? Do you think you’re really the son of Voldemort?”
“Well, I mean no but-”
“Then it’s not true,” Albus said simply. “Only what you think matters, Scorp. Don’t let those pricks get under your skin.”
Scorpius blushed and looked down at the hand on his knee. “You’re a great friend, did you know that Albie?”
Albus groaned at the childish nickname, “Yet another reason to hate James,” he joked, but smiled up at his friend. “You’re a great friend too you know, except for when you use insufferable, awful nicknames.”
“Well you just broke the no-middle name pact,” Scorpius teased, moving another piece on the chess board. “Checkmate!”
“Unbelievable! Can’t you ever just let me win?” Albus whined helplessly.
“Now where is your ambition, you Slytherin?” Scorpius asked through giggles.
“Unbelievable,” Albus muttered fondly, smiling while his friend held his sides, his whole body shaking with laughter.
----
Fifth year
“Oh, wow!” Scorpius exclaimed as he felt the weight of his best friend fall into his arms and squeeze him in a hug. “I forgot that, we - uh that we do this now.”
Albus pulled away immediately. “Oh, I’m sorry. You didn’t like that at all, I’m sorry. I just thought that, you know, after last year. Ahh forget it-”
Scorpius wrapped his arms back around his best friend and hugged him tightly. “I don’t want to forget it though.” Scorpius’ cheeks went red from his own words, so he wasn’t surprised when Albus pulled away and his cheeks were tinged with pink.
“We hug now, don’t forget it,” Albus said firmly, smiling with a tint of pink still dancing across his cheeks. “Come on, we don’t want to get the shite compartments!” Albus grabbed Scorpius by his arm and dragged him towards the train.
The shouts of the Potters and Mr. Malfoy yelling their goodbyes were heard in the distance, but Scorpius and Albus just waved and rushed their way into one of the nearest compartments on the train.
Albus led the pair into the compartment and they both plopped down next to each other without a second thought. Things were different now, after last years events had driven them apart, they couldn’t even think about sitting across from each other.
Albus began to empty his pockets to reveal more of Molly Weasley’s homemade sweets and offered a handful to Scorpius. “So we don’t have to deal with the trolley lady.”
Scorpius gladly took a few sweets and began opening the packaging. “Thank godric for Molly Weasley.”
Albus chuckled and took a few sweets for himself as well. “How are you?” Albus asked seriously.
Scorpius took a deep breath before answering. “Truthfully, I still have nightmares about it but, I’m okay.”
Albus looked at his friend’s face for a few seconds, searching his eyes to find they weren’t as bright as they once were. “You’re brave, you know?”
Scorpius ducked his head, avoiding eye contact with the raven haired boy across from him. “Stop,” he muttered quietly.
“No, it’s true!” Albus said sincerely. “Neither of us would have made it through last year if it weren't for you. Plus, you’re always so open and honest, which is an entire different type of bravery. I admire that about you.”
Scorpius blushed and looked up to make brief eye contact with the boy to his right before muttering a quiet thank you, and grabbing another one of Grandma Weasley’s home made chocolate sweets. “You’re quite brave too, you know?”
Albus chuckled, “I literally almost ended the world as we know it because I wanted to prove that I could be as adventurous as my dad and you call that brave.”
“I said brave, not smart,” Scorpius teased, which received a gentle elbow to the side.
“I can’t even argue with you there,” Albus said with a laugh. “Do you think this year will be different? After everything?”
“Of course it will be,” Scorpius said. “For us, it will be different at least. I’ll probably always be the son of Voldemort to the rest of the school.”
“Scorp-”
“No, it’s fine! I’m used to it, at least there will be some consistency in our lives,” Scorpius joked. “I’m okay Al, really.”
Albus smiled, “Al - that’s new?”
“Best friends need nicknames, don’t they? You’d better get in your school robes before you get too comfortable, I know you. You’ll make us take the last carriage because you were too lazy to change before we got to the station,” Scorpius preached as Albus began stretching himself across the seat where they were both sitting.
“At least some things never change, huh mum?” Albus laughed as he laid his head across Scorpius’ lap.
Scorpius blushed and looked away from the smaller boy who was draping himself across his lap. “M’not your mum,” Scorpius muttered, honestly that was about to become his catchphrase when it came to Albus.
“Mmmh,” Albus muttered, eyes fluttering closed. “I’m going to take a nap now, mum.”
“Fine,” Scorpius whispered. “But I’m going to wake you up before the train stops!”
“Unbelievable,” Albus whispered, eyes still closed but a smile ghosting his pale lips.
Scorpius laughed quietly and rolled his eyes. He reached to brush the hair out of Albus’ face, but pulled his hand away at the last minute and instead glanced at the calm face of his best friend. Scorpius couldn’t help but think that Albus was quite unbelievable.
----
Sixth year
Draco stood awkwardly in the middle of the crowded station, waiting for the Potters to show up. He had finally agreed to let Scorpius spend a week of the summer at the Potter household, but he never realized how inconvenient it had been to make that week the last week of the summer holidays. His son was almost sixteen now, but that didn’t mean that Draco wanted to miss seeing him off to the beginning of another school year.
“Draco,” he heard his name shouted and looked over his shoulder to see Ginny Potter smiling and giving him a small wave. Draco walked towards her and returned her smile with a polite one of his own.
“Draco, how are you?” Harry Potter asked, a little stiffly.
“I’m okay, thanks Pot- thanks Harry,” Draco answered honestly.
“Dad!” Draco turned to see his son, who now towered over him, both to his and Albus’ annoyance. Draco smiled and pulled his son into a short hug.
“How was the rest of your summer?” Draco asked him, pulling away from their embrace.
“We had a blast Dad, thank you for letting me go. Truly,” Scorpius beamed, turning to Albus when he said “we”.
Draco smiled, glancing at Ginny and the two shared a very knowing look, and Harry, as always, looked a bit confused.
“Well, run along now you two,” Ginny said to Scorpius and Albus, her eyes sparkling slightly. “You wouldn’t want to miss the trolley woman, now would you?”
“Mum,” Albus groaned, rolling his eyes and grabbing his trunk.
Scorpius laughed grabbing his trunk in one hand and Albus’ hand with his other. “Goodbye Mr. and Mrs. Potter. Bye Dad!” And with that the two were out of sight, making their way hand in hand to the train.
The two boys dropped their belongings off on one side of the train and found a compartment and sat next to each other, still holding each other’s hand.
Albus smiled shyly at Scorpius, a blush crossing his cheek before his gaze landed on their clasped hands. “S-so, uh, we do this now?”
Scorpius turned red and averted eye contact with the boy next to him, beginning to slowly pull his hand away. “I-I um I’m sorry, I’ll just-”
“No!” Albus protested, adjusting Scorpius’ hand in his. “I think I quite enjoy this new version of us actually.”
Both boys were blushing very scarlet now as Scorpius looked into his best friend’s eyes. “And um, what would this new version of us be exactly?”
“Well, I’d quite like to be your boyfriend,” Albus said, confidence growing suddenly. “Would you like that as well?”
Scorpius swallowed hard, looking at Albus silently for a second. It was Albus’ turn for his confidence to falter. “Shit, Scorp. I’m sorry if that isn’t what you want, I’m sorry this is probably weird now, bloody hell,” Albus rambled, running his free hand through his hair and his eyes danced towards the window as he awkwardly watched the Scottish scenery pass.
“Albus Severus Potter,” Scorpius whispered. “Would you look at me?”
Albus turned slowly and grey eyes met green as Scorpius took both of Albus’ hands in his. “I’d like that very much.”
“What would you like?” Albus breathed.
“To be your boyfriend,” Scorpius stated.
“Oh yes! That, yes,” Albus turned an even darker shade of red if possible. “So, boyfriends now?”
Scorpius chuckled slightly at Albus’ nerves and leaned down to place a chaste kiss on the darker haired boy’s cheek.
“Okay, so we do that now, too,” Albus said in awe and then looked back up at Scorpius. “I’m a complete, embarrassed mess right now, but don’t let how useless I am now make you think that I’ll ever forgive you for breaking the no-middle name pact!”
Scorpius laughed before leaning in close to Albus’ ear, “Are you sure there’s no way I can make it up to you?”
“Well, I mean,” Albus stammered. “You could maybe kiss me again?”
Scorpius let out another laugh and kissed Albus lightly on the cheek.
----
Seventh year
Scorpius rushed into a compartment that was empty, save for one boy sitting and eating sweets, as always.
“Scorp! Hey, how was your summer internship at St. Mun-”
Albus was interrupted when Scorpius pushed the smaller boy against the back of the seat that he sat in and planted a long, sweet kiss to Albus’ pale, chapped lips.
“Oh!” Albus exclaimed, laughing as they pulled away. “That’s new.”
Scorpius laughed, “Is it really new, though?”
“For train ride compartment activity, it’s a bit new,” Albus insisted. Scorpius laughed again and gods had Albus missed his laugh, and his grey eyes, and his soft hair and his bum-
“St. Mungo’s was good,” Scorpius said, answering the questions Albus never got to finish. “I’ve honestly learned so, so much and they say there will be a position open for me in their Magical Trauma training program as soon as we graduate!”
Albus smiled, pride for his boyfriend dripping from every pore in his body as he leaned over and gave him a short kiss. “I’m so happy for you, Scorp! I knew you could do it, you’re bloody brilliant, top of our year!.”
Scorpius smiled shyly, still not used to Albus’ constant praise. “Stop,” he said humbly. “I couldn’t have done it without you, honestly, I probably couldn’t do much without you.”
“Me?” it was Albus’ turn to turn away shyly. “Scorp, you’re the brilliant one. You’re always the one saving both our asses. How is it that you couldn’t do much without me?”
“You make me brave, Albus,” Scorpius admitted quietly, tucking a strand of hair behind Albus’ ear. And with that they were kissing again, and maybe the whole kissing in a train compartment thing wasn’t so new for them after all.
They pulled away from the kiss at the same time, resting their foreheads together, their stomach’s still tingling with butterflies. “This is going to be a great year,” Albus admitted quietly. The Hogwarts Express rolled down the tracks, leaving rural Scotland behind them. And all Scorpius could think was, yeah, it was going to be a great year.