Falling for You: A New Generation Harry Potter Fanfic

6: Quidditch Tryouts

THREE YEARS AGO

A gray fog rolled over the nearly-empty field and covered the tips of Al's damp sneakers. The dew from the trimmed grass seemed not to be a big deal from the stands, but it had only taken a couple steps and Albus's red high tops were drenched. Scorpius stifled a giggle as Al scrunched up his nose in disgust at his shoes, to which Al playfully shoved him. Scorp laughed harder, a noise that was slowly becoming familiar, and Albus hurried to hide his happy grin. He loved when he made Scorpius laugh, even if it was something small like this. 

"Whatever Scorp, your boots are for losers." Al gruffly said, after composing himself, crossing his arms and sending a pointed look to Albus's goofy-looking waterproof boots.

"Yeah, well, I'm not the one who'll be stuck with wet socks for the rest of the day." 

Albus frowned. He had forgotten about that. Maybe he could persuade Scorpius to stop by the Gryffindor dorms before lunch, he wouldn't want the troublesome cold to return. But as he thought back to a week ago, when Scorp had cuddled, fretted over, and fawned at him for the whole day, perhaps that wouldn't be so bad.

"Don't worry," Scorp whispered sideways. "We'll stop by the dorms to grab you some new socks."

Al smiled to himself. This had been happening more lately, one of them knowing exactly what the other needed. From everything to finishing each other's sentences, to handing the extra bit of food to the other, to telling a person the homework when they had dawdled off in class; you name it, these boys were doing it. Al now couldn't stop the grin spreading across his face, the reason was so silly, but he couldn't help feeling like they were making progress. Maybe one day, if he was really lucky, something could happen between the two of them.

"What's that grin for?" Snooped Scorpius, tilting his head up to Al. That's another thing, Al's growth spurt had kicked in and he was once again an inch taller than Scorp. 

Albus faltered, not quite knowing what excuse to use, but luckily he didn't have to, as the Gryffindor Quidditch captain, James Potter/his older brother, had made it onto the field and started to talk. Tryouts were about to begin.

 Scorpius squinted up at his best friend, completely disregarding the joke-filled instructional speech James was giving. He watched as Al laughed at one of the particularly bad puns, a lift of his lips and a happy huff of breath. Scorp tilted his head, wondering what in the world could have made Albus smile like that, certainly it wasn't socks. But maybe he saw it too. Maybe he saw the way that the two of them clicked; how they knew what the other meant to say, how they knew what the other person wanted to eat, how they could guess each other's awful charades in a second or less. 

Maybe, one day, they would have a chance.

But that thought quickly flitted out of Scorpius's head, refilled by trying to catch up in what James was saying. He barely caught the end bit, where James was telling them to get in a line and, one by one, he would test them on various skills. Immediately, the twenty or so boys on the field clumsily herded to the middle and back, forming a lopsided line. They grunted and shoved until they got the place they desired.

"Alright!" James announced with a clap of his gloved hands. "Let's get started!" 

Albus nervously shifted in front of Scorpius, jumping up in down in an attempt to calm his nerves and return some warmth to his frozen body. But he was not nearly as anxious as Scorp, who was so petrified he wasn't even fidgeting, just staring ahead with his fingers clenched on the handle of his broomstick.  

"I'm so ready for this to be over." Scorpius whispered in Al's ear, not even registering the slight shiver of Albus's neck.

Al turned around, an incredulous look on his face, and declared, "Are you bonkers? We've been wanting to try out for the Quidditch team since we were first years!"