A L B U S

Scorpius and Albus lay together on a sofa in the Slytherin common room, legs tangled with each other's, as they talked. It was 2am, and nobody else was there. Everyone else was asleep, but Albus hadn't been able to and so had decided to sneak into Scorpius' dorm (Scorpius had given him the password weeks ago, saying that most Slytherins gave their boyfriends or girlfriends it if they were in different houses).

Scorpius had his hands in Albus' hair and was playing around with it, curling locks of it around his fingers. "What's up?" Scorpius asked him softly.

"I can't stop thinking about Piper," Albus admitted. Scorpius stiffened slightly, and Albus reassured him with a fleeting kiss. "Not in that way. I just don't-" he sighed. "It's all over the place. I care about her, I do, but we've both shown the ugliest sides of us in this. I don't know if she wants to be friends or not... I don't know if I want to be friends with her or not. We're always trying to  apologise and then fighting."

Scorpius nodded, making a noise of agreement. "Mhm."

"I think maybe we should just have a long talk," Albus mused. "Maybe I should talk to her."

"I don't think you should." Scorpius took his hands out of Albus' hair and looked him in the eye. In the dim light of the Slytherin common room, Scorpius' eyes almost seemed like they glowed. "You said you weren't sure if you want to be friends with her or not. Well, it's only a few months until the end of the year. I think you should wait for the summer, spend the break away from all of this, and then see what you think in September."

Albus hummed, but his mind was whirling. He was the one who'd argued with Piper last. She'd tried to apologise and he'd thrown it in her face.

"Maybe I'll do that," Albus mumbled, and Scorpius resumed his hair-curling.

But deep inside, Albus knew he couldn't live with himself if he left an argument unsolved for months and months. And he knew certainly that if he didn't speak to Piper for that long that when he did try and make up with her she wouldn't be interested.

He couldn't say he would blame her.

Albus bit his lip and mulled over what to do.

****

The next morning, he went to the Owlery. Having exhausted all his advice options at a Hogwarts (which, admittedly, was only Lily and Scorpius) he decided to go for someone who didn't actually go to Hogwarts and would (hopefully) have a fresh perspective on the whole thing.

He wrote to his parents.

Hi Mum and Dad, he started it with.
I know I wrote to you last week, but I wanted a bit of advice. It's about Piper.

Once he started, he couldn't stop. Words poured out of him like he was bleeding ink and letters, and he wrote with such speed that the ink smudged on the paper and his quill ripped through the page.

See, we had this fight. I won't tell you what it's about, because you'll get so annoyed at me that you probably won't want to give me advice. Grandma hit me with a saucepan when Rose told her what happened.

Anyway, the argument isn't important. (Well, it is, but you know what I mean.)

What's important is that me and Piper have both said some bad things to each other and done some bad things. She said something to me a few days ago, and then yesterday tried to apologise to me, but I was with Scorpius and I... well, I basically told her that I didn't want her anywhere near me and threw her apology in her face.

I don't know what to do next, and I don't even know if me and Piper can make up after what we've done.

Dad, I know you had that big fight with Uncle Ron in your fourth year. Please help and tell me what you think I should do.

Love, Albus