Albus Potter and his Fifth Year Infatuation

Chapter 7: The Party pt. 1

Fall hit Hogwarts unusually hard this time around, especially for Albus. The weather got colder, the trees' beauty faded away and the birds by the castle stopped singing. Scorpius took Rose to one of the towers of the castle on a picnic for their first date. Before the event, he couldn't stop telling all of the exciting predictions he had for their relationship to Albus, who could only smile and nod with the disappointments instead of bearing to tell his friend the truth. September was not off to a great start.

The heartbroken boy retreated to the library during the night of to avoid thinking too much about what his friend was up to in the tower. He never was too fond of books, but he had found a particularly relatable tale about a princess who was secretly in love with a wizard from a rival kingdom. The short story ended with the object of the princess's affections being banished by the king and marrying someone else in a faraway land, leaving her devastated and lonely. Albus hoped that that would be where the similarities with his current life ended.

He continued to flip through pages of random books and texts, reading lines over and over again without learning anything because his brain was already preoccupied something else.

I hope it goes terrible.

Albus' mind turned to bitter thoughts. No matter how hard he tried to control his vitriol, he could never be anything but angry and disappointed at the budding couple. The tired boy groaned and smashed his forehead to the table.

"Is that a new study exercise?" Lily walked over and pulled up a chair before another student shushed the pair. "Oh, sssshh yourself!"

"You know Lily, you might want to consider being more cordial around others..." The girl lifted her eyebrows and looked up mockingly.

"I have considered it! It just doesn't come that easy to me Anyway, what's got you down, Albie?" Lily picked up a book and scanned over it, clearly just looking for something to do with her hands.

"Scorpius and Rose..." Albus mumbled.

"Ah...Those two." Lily looked at her brother with pity and reassurance. "Oh, come on I'm sure they're having a terribly awkward time and they'll date for a couple weeks, realize they're not meant to be together and break up."

"But Lily, they work great together. He's been after her for years, there's no way he'll forget about her at this point." Lily gulped and rubbed her brother's shoulder.

"Albus, I know how you feel about Scorpius." Cheeks already going red, Albus tried to defend himself.

"Of course, he's my best friend, he's very important to me, I don't try to hide that."

"No, Albus, I know how you really feel about him."

"I don't know what you're talking about-"

"." Albus cursed himself for being so transparent.

"Then you know why this hurts so much?"

"Believe me, I know. Apparently, I'm not only girl with an interest in Ollie Thatch and I'm losing out to all the girls flirting with him. It's incredibly frustrating, especially considering all these girls don't really even like him for his shy, adorable self, they just think he's cute, and, an-" Lily saw the dejected look coming from her brother and decided to listen to him instead.

"Lily, I understand how it feels, but I guess sometimes there are better people for those we love." Lily leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms.

"Albus, I'm really sorry about Scorpius. I don't know what to tell you, but I know everything will turn out all right in the end. I have to be back before fourth year curfew, but I'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye Lily." Albus dumped his nose in a book once again.

Eventually, the staff closed the library and ushered the handful of students into the halls a few minutes before curfew for the younger students. As fifth years, Albus knew that Scorpius and Rose had another hour of time before having to be in their common rooms, and he really didn't want to be awake for Scorpius' celebration. He trudged across the courtyard for a bit, trying to distract himself with stars in the clear night, despite the cold.

He pictured the two of them, wrapped up in a heating-charmed blanket, talking and watching the same stars he was alone under. Tears fell to the ground while other students simply walked around halls. Albus felt almost more alone in the world than he ever had before, his best friend and the boy he loved had fallen in love with somebody else, and his only ally was his little sister.

Wiping his eyes, he then continued on to the Slytherin common room, where the few students that were up at the time glanced at him and each other, wondering what happened to make their housemate eyes so red and puffy. Albus waved shortly and awkwardly gave them a quick "good night" before going off to bed.

Scorpius saw Rose any time he could and it seemed to Albus that he was little more than an afterthought in Scorpius' mind now. He angrily shut his curtains and laid down, hoping to fall asleep before Scorpius came in.

The infatuated boy swooped into the dormitory, wide eyed and smiling ear to ear. Albus quickly dried his eyes and cringed in anticipation for Scorpius' excited comments. Scorpius was never one to keep his joy to himself. Whenever the two boys would talk about their summers on the Hogwarts express, Albus would always sit and listen attentively to his friend's various memories: trips to the Ministry of Magic, apparating across Europe, practicing magic with his dad. Scorpius let everything out in front of Albus, who enjoyed nothing more.

"Albus! Everything went exactly as planned!" Albus heard the excitement even in his whispers and tried pretending he was asleep.

"Albus?" even the exaggerated snores coming from the bed didn't discourage Scorpius. "Albus..." eventually he figured it would be rude to wake his friend up so late at night and went to bed thinking about his new beau. Albus went to sleep five feet away, cursing himself for letting his happy ending go to somebody else.