Chapter Text
“Alby~,” Scorpius cooed as he brushed some curls away from the boy’s face, “wake up,” Albus made a complaining noise and rolled over in his sleep, turning his back to him. Typical, he thought with a smile; the last four months he’d been on cloud nine, 24/7! He knew that it wasn’t healthy to be around his boyfriend all the time, but how could he help it when Albus had always been at his side? How could he help it when his bed felt so empty without the other lying in his arms? How could he help it when the feeling of Albus’ lips on his, made his heart race and his stomach flutter with butterflies?
Scorpius gently ran his knuckles down Albus’ spine in a try to wake him up, making the boy arch his back like a cat with another little complaining sound as he turned around to look at him through squinted eyes.
Swat!
Albus whacked his forehead lightly with the back of his hand. “You’re an arse!” he groaned as he rubbed his eyes with the hand-roots. “What time is it?”
“Almost two,” said Scorpius with a little sigh, “we really should put an alarm when – oh!” he chuckled when the black-haired boy put his arms around his torso, cuddling close so the hawthorn-like mane tickled his nose. “Albus!” he laughed but wrapped his arms around him and nuzzled his neck-hair with his fingertips. Two minutes went, five, ten. “Sorry.” He said and looked him in the green eyes. Albus’ face wrinkled into a nervous expression seconds before Scorpius pushed him out of the bed. “I’m sorry!” he stuck his nose over the bed’s edge to look at the boy on the floor. “Sorry!”
He simply stared at him, expressionless. Whatever went through his mind, Scorpius was sure that he wouldn’t want to know, judging by the fire in the jade-green eyes. Albus rose himself up on his elbow, ruffled his big hair with a yawn big enough to swallow him and the bed.
***
Albus had barely gotten his jumper on before Scorpius took his hand and laced their fingers with a happy smile. They were on their way to the big oak tree by the lake; a lot of their free time was spent there since spring had come to Hogwarts and touched the grounds with her green fingers, sprawling forget-me-nots and buttercups, winter aconites and snowdrops all over the grounds. Last Friday, Scorpius had walked up to Albus at lunch and handed him a little bunch of various spring-flowers and a kiss on his cheek before he’d gone to Transfigurations, not giving two galleons for the rest of the students who gawked and ‘aawww’d in the corners. In truth, Albus didn’t do so either anymore; in the start, he’d insisted on being discreet, like holding hands under the table in History of Magic, stealing kisses in empty hallways and tip-toeing to each other’s bed after the rest of the boys in the dorm had fallen asleep and back to their own bed before the rest of the boys woke up again. But not anymore – now they held hands whenever they could, now they stole kisses when they met in the hallway on their way to classes and now they’d moved their beds together so they acted as a double bed.
They reached their little spot and Albus conjured an outdoor-blanket they could lie on. Scorpius leant against the tree and the other placed himself comfortably between his legs, back-to-chest. He placed a pocket-sized version of Treasure Island on his stomach, found the page they were at and began to read aloud for Scorpius.
“From the side of the hill, which was here steep and stony, a spout of gravel was dislodged, and fell rattling and bounding through the trees,” he spoke lowly in a steady pace. The blonde laced his fingers with Albus’ as he read. He liked this story, he found it better than the Tales of Beedle the Bard. Albus had in the past four months introduced him to a lot of muggle-stuff – for example, on his 17th birthday in March, Mr. Weasley, his granddad had tampered with one of the gifts called an iPod, so it could work on the Hogwarts-grounds without getting disrupted by the magical sphere and so it had endless battery. The iPod was apparently a miniature wireless that you plugged… earbuds in and then you could listen to music, but only music of your own choosing, playlists with Albus’ favourite music. Last week, they’d skipped the afternoon class and had gone to the astronomy tower to listen to music. It’d been everything from 1920s jazz to The Beatles to funny-sounding music from the 2010s. He admitted that he preferred the older music rather than the music from ten years back.
He kissed the back of Albus’ hand with a smile before he rested his cheek there and listened intently to the story. It was thrilling, the whole piracy-thing, Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver, the thought of the loot of a thousand worlds, the story made his imagination run wild! Back in January, Albus had read Oliver Twist for him, one chapter every night or until he’d been lulled to sleep by the sound of his calming voice. How it’d started, he couldn’t remember, all he knew was that he loved it.
“Al~bus~!” Scorpius looked over his shoulder and waved to Lily with a smile. Albus didn’t even nod to signal that he’d heard her, but he did close the book and tilted his head with a beam when she sat down in front of them. “Thought I’d find you two here,” she smiled as she sat down and found a book from her bag.
“You have homework in the break?” her brother sat up a bit, looking at her with a raised eyebrow. Scorpius didn’t hesitate with putting his arms around the other’s shoulders, hugging him.
Lily nodded with an eye-roll, “yes!” she sighed deeply when she found her quill and a bottle of ink. “It’s nothing big, just a foot-long paper on billywigs, Merlin’s balls!” she cursed under her breath before inhaling deeply. “It’s nothing.”
“We can help if you want?” Albus said and looked at Scorpius over his shoulder, who nodded. If he remembered correctly, they’d made a paper on billywigs, too, but not that long – if he remembered correctly! Care for Magical Creatures had been one of Albus’ good subjects since it often didn’t include using magic but actual care and handling of the creatures and note-taking, you know, practical stuff. “Let me see what you have so far,” smiled he and lied on his stomach to look at the parchment.