The Many Musings of Albus Potter

iv. snakes

iv. snakes

"Lumos."

Albus holds his breath, his chest constricting with both fear and curiosity, as the tip of the stranger's wand lights up in front of him. Familiar grey eyes are illuminated in the darkness and Scorpius's face draws closer to his wand, reflecting a look of mild disapproval at Albus. 

"I really should report you to Professor Zabini," he comments drily but the small, upward quirk of his lips gives him away. "The whole school thinks we've got another serial murderer prowling the corridors." 

"You nearly scared my balls off, you prick." Albus laughs, not before giving Scorpius a light shove. "What in Merlin's fucking beard are you doing out here?" 

Scorpius sweeps his silver fringe out of his eyes, a growing habit of his that Albus finds both irritating and endearing - at the same time. Being thirteen years old and the conflicting emotions that come with it are a lot more exasperating than Albus had anticipated. (Before starting his Third Year, Harry had drawn him aside and given him a thoroughly embarrassing talk, one which made him turn as red as a Muggle fire truck). 

"Look, I'm no Ravenclaw but it doesn't take a genius to suss it out." Scorpius purses his lips firmly together. "Don't think I haven't noticed you sneaking out of bed at night with your dad's Invisibility cloak. Also - " His eyebrows furrow. "Didn't he give it to James?" 

Albus cocks up an eyebrow. "I thought it was about time brother dearest started sharing his toys with me." 

"You stole it?" Scorpius's eyes widen. "He'll kill you." 

"James loses it at least three times a week," Albus shrugs. "He won't notice it's gone for a while. Unless - " He pauses thoughtfully. "Oh, well, I suppose I'll have to return it soon enough. Rumor has it James is going to ask Nandini Shah out." 

"I don't understand," Scorpius says. "What's that got to do with the Invisibility cloak?" 

Albus cringes. "James Potter is probably planning a whole list of things of what he'll do in the Invisibility Cloak if Nandini Shah says yes." 

"Oh." The light from Scorpius's wand shows tell-tale signs of the familiar red pigment creeping up rapidly on his cheeks. "Oh. Too much information."

"You did ask," Albus points out. His eyes slide over to the cloak, now draped over his left arm, and startles himself with a rather sudden imagery of Scorpius and himself under it - grey eyes boring into his, a thumb caressing his cheek, lips parted in breathless anticipation...

"What's wrong?" Scorpius's hand is reaching for his face and Albus's body jerks back violently when he feels the coolness of a hand just barely grazing his forehead. He splutters out an incoherent apology - for what exactly he is apologizing for he is not sure - and is relieved to find that Scorpius has an expression of nothing more than befuddled amusement. 

"You sure you didn't hit your head anytime during your midnight wanderings?" Scorpius teases. "You went sort of red for a minute there - I thought you were having an aneurysm." 

Albus shakes off the overwhelming urge to dig a hole and bury himself under it, and feigns a small yawn, desperately hoping to change the subject. "I'm sort of tired now. We should really go back. Filch would really love to catch me out of bed at the moment, ever since I accidentally stepped on Mrs. Norris's tail."

Scorpius sniggers. "Filch on revenge mode is never a pretty sight." 

"Exactly. Now get under my cloak before he catches both of us." 

Albus doesn't realise what he's just done until he has ushered Scorpius beside him, the Invisibility Cloak now wrapped around the both of them, and they start to make their way back down to the Slytherin dungeons. It is a lot more difficult to maneuver themselves around with stealthiness when Scorpius has grown a foot taller than Albus over the summer and his lanky legs, so unused to walking in such a congested space, keep knocking against Albus's knees.