Soldiers and Serpents //Scorbus

51 Unity

Scorpius laid on his back on the blanket he'd grabbed from his bed in the dorm. Missy laid beside him, and the sound of spring filled the air around them. She purred softly, and he held a book open above him, silently reading. His sleeves fallen down a bit past his wrists due to his position, exposing the dark scar on his right arm. Albus sat crisscross on the blanket inches away, taking a bite out of a sandwich as he crossed out sentences in his notebook. The sun was splotchy on the forest ground, the leaves above them casting shadows across the blanket. The smell of blooming flowers and fresh grass enveloped their senses. The cool breeze made Scorpius's nose pink.

Both their bags sat in front of Albus, where he dug around for a bag of chips. They'd been like this since classes ended that day. Albus was adamant about going into the Forbidden Forest again, but Scorpius insisted they were only going to a peaceful area. A grassy area teeming with life. Occasionally Missy would raise her head and her ears would perk as she heard some unknown animal scurrying around in the brush.

It wasn't so far into the forest, where fog lingered and the sun was snuffed out by the trees overhead. Where Aries and Scorpius would train and visit the beasts only a few can see.

Albus would sometimes read aloud, his voice filling the air with random information from their classes. And when Scorpius came across one of his favorite quotes he would read it aloud to his boyfriend, who would usually comment on it in some manner. It was Malfoy's idea to come out here, to escape from the castle and everyone. It's the closest thing they could get to a date while on campus. Luckily, both of them were perfectly content with this kind of thing.

"'I have love in me, the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy one, I will indulge in the other.'" Scorpius reads out, looking up and watching as Albus's emerald eyes glance back at him.

"I still like the first one you told me the most." Albus replies.

"'Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.'" Scorpius recalled the quote, and the brunette boy nods in agreement. "Female writers come up with better quotes than males. That's just fact. You mentioned you want to be an author right?"

"Yes."

"Don't try to outdo the females, Albus. Trust me it just won't work." Scorpius tells him, keeping his eyes on his page. Albus snorts, putting his notebook down, and Scorpius knew he was about to go on a tangent.

"Females come up with better quotes?" Albus mocked. "That's sexist. There's plenty of males who have come up with quotes that are arguably just as good as Mary Shelley's." He gestures to the Frankenstein book in Scorpius's hands. Scorpius smiles, and rests the open book on his chest to hold his page, looking up at the other boy.

"Okay let me change my claim then." The blonde thinks before speaking. "Female authors pioneer more genres than males, and make them more mainstream."

"That's not true either." Albus shakes his head. "Name one female author that pioneered a genre."

"Before Frankenstein science fiction wasn't mainstream." Scorpius begins. "Some may argue that Dracula pioneered the modern fascination with vampires, however I would propose Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles-"

"Scorpius! You must be joking right now."

"You're going to sit there and tell me that Dracula made you fall in love with vampires? Really? Dracula?" Scorpius poked, laughter bubbling in his throat.

"One, I'm not in love with vampires."

"Anne Rice's work is what prompted all the pop culture surrounding vampires today. She even made vampires desirable, in a way that Dracula never did because Dracula wasn't a romance." Scorpius persists. Albus gapes, his mouth falling over in mock surprise.