Hi! So, this one is going to be an interesting chapter. I think you guys are either going to love it or scream at me for doing this to Scorpius again. I haven't quite figured that out. But anyway, enjoy!

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Scorpius watched the clouds, sighing out in contentment as the sun began to reach it's apex. It was almost midday, meaning the boys were probably almost done. They'd have to start leaving soon. But a scratching sound caught Scorpius by surprise. He turned his head to see Albus looking at the book James and Lily had gotten him. Scorpius raised an eyebrow before seeing the wooden box had contained graphite, charcoal, pencils and other art supplies.

Scorpius was surprised to say the least. He'd never pictured Albus as the type to be interested in art. Albus had listened to a lot of music, and Scorpius figured he might've been more interested in a profession in that, but he'd never imagined Albus liking other forms of art. Drawing didn't really seem like his type of thing. 

Scorpius tried to see what exactly it was Albus was drawing, but he couldn't get a glimpse. Until a light bulb turned on in his mind. It was obvious but Scorpius thought it might work.

"What you doing?" Scorpius asked. "Writing about how much you hate your parents?"

Albus flushed red and opened his mouth before closing it. He looked around the room before coming up with a reply, "No," he smiled with obvious nervousness. "I was just um, writing a list. That's right! A list of things that need to be done before Halloween."

"What's on the list?" Scorpius smirked.

"Uh...," Albus gulped. "Recipes and, other spooky stuff. Like, you know what I mean."

"I don't think I do," Scorpius snatched the book and Albus quickly jumped to take it back. "Whatever you've got in here must be embarrassing if this is how you react!"

Albus tried to take it back but Scorpius held it out of his reach somehow, despite being way shorter. Eventually Scorpius managed to hold Albus away so that he could look. He was surprised by what he saw and blushed a little. Albus had been sketching him. And in such close detail Scorpius was shocked Albus had managed to do that himself. 

Scorpius turned to find a look of pure panic on Albus' face. Scorpius couldn't understand why Albus would be so embarrassed, it was really good. It was much better than anything Scorpius could do at least. He'd mastered the art of cursive but gave up on anything after that. Terrible motor skills and all.

"Albus where did you learn to draw this good?" Scorpius smiled in an attempt to reassure Albus.

"Um -" Albus cut himself off by gulping. "I found a few videos and, I just figured it out from there."

"Well it's really good," Scorpius returned the book to Albus, who was still blushing a little. "Just don't abandon me when you become the next Picasso."

Albus chuckled, "I wouldn't dream of it," Albus looked down, still red. "Thank you for the compliments. But it's really not that good."

"Of course it is!" Scorpius didn't like that Albus was talking himself down. He did it much to often. "You got every detail! Down to each individual strand of hair!"

"Scorpius don't exaggerate," Albus shook his head. "There is no possible way I did that."

"Okay, maybe that was a hyperbole -"

"A what?" Albus interrupted.

"A hyperbole," Scorpius explained. "An over exaggeration of the truth. It's usually used when talking about literary devices, however it can be used in real life situations when the word exaggeration doesn't quite fit how disproportionate a phrase was to the truth."

"You are an absolute nerd," Albus shook his head. "Only you would use - what was it? A literary device? - in a real life situation."

"Oh sod off!" Scorpius exclaimed with a playful shove. "But the part about it being good wasn't a hyperbole."

Albus rolled his eyes, "You're too sweet for your own good," Albus crossed his arms and they started walking out. "One day, someone is going to hurt you because you're too nice to see how evil they are and I'll have to pick up the pieces!"

Scorpius felt a twist in his chest at those words but he ignored it, putting on his trademark smile. "So, it'll be like what happened with you and your girlfriend?"

"Delphi was not my girlfriend!" Albus pouted. "She was merely, a super attractive woman that tricked me into doing what she wanted because I thought she was pretty."

"Ah," Scorpius nodded. "So it was your hormones that nearly destroyed the world?"

"Okay, now it's your turn to sod off!" Albus chuckled. "Besides, it's my birthday. You have to be nice to me."

"Damnit!" Scorpius joked. "How will I ever get by?"

They chuckled a bit before falling into a comfortable silence. Well, Scorpius assumed Albus was comfortable. He most certainly was not. He couldn't help but think about the phrasing Albus had used. 'I'll have to pick up the pieces'. Was Scorpius bothersome? He'd done everything he could to avoid forcing Albus to deal with any of Scorpius' problems. He'd intentionally been saying things that would force Albus to change the subject for years. Had Albus been gullible, or did he really just not want to help Scorpius at all?

No, he must've cared. To some degree at least. If he didn't care at all, he would never have asked how Scorpius was doing ever. Unless he was just doing it out of common courtesy. In which case it became entirely possible that Albus really didn't want to hear about Scorpius' problems and took any opportunity he could get to change the subject. But that also didn't make a whole lot of sense. There had been times when he'd persisted. But perhaps that was when he was okay.

This whole time Albus was going through stuff and asking Scorpius how he was doing out of courtesy, in the hopes that he'd get the help he needed. And Scorpius had only helped because he didn't want to talk about his feelings. Was that selfishness or something else? Scorpius couldn't tell. But what he could tell was that Albus had things he was going through that he wasn't getting help for. 

If Albus had kept his art skills hidden, it meant there were probably other, more troubling, things about himself he kept secret. Maybe he'd wanted to tell Scorpius, but after seeing him upset he chose to put Scorpius first because he cared. Or he did it because he was supposed to. This wouldn't do. Scorpius needed to make sure that Albus didn't fly off the handles and plummet even further into his own pessimistic nature.

If things continued that way Albus would probably end up with some type of mental health issue that he wouldn't tell Scorpius about. And if he didn't tell Scorpius then he wouldn't tell anyone else. Which would mean he wouldn't be getting any love and support. No. That wasn't going to happen. Because Scorpius would be the strong one so that Albus didn't have to carry so much. Scorpius would take the load off and Albus wouldn't crack under the weight. He would make sure of that.

Scorpius pushed his thoughts aside as they neared the dungeons. The blonde silently hoped that the boys had finished setting everything up. But the only one with an intelligent phone was Atlas, and Scorpius never actually got his number. So, Scorpius would just have to find a way of letting them know they were arriving before Albus saw anything. Although, Albus had probably figured out what was going on because of what Scorpius said back at the Astronomy tower.

"Thistle weed," Scorpius called out. "So, we're back!"

Vincent, Atlas, Finn and Zeus all quickly walked up with smiles on their faces.

"Surprise!" The four yelled before stepping aside to reveal what they'd done to the common room. Most first and second years would be off around the school, excitedly watching as Halloween decorations were hung up, so they'd have the common room mostly to themselves. The seventh and sixth years were preoccupied with studying, so they'd all be hauled up in their dorm rooms or the library. So that left maybe a handful of sixth and third years, and the fourth and fifth years, with a sprinkling of sixth and seventh. All around, it would mainly be people Albus had actually formed friendships with that would be in the common room.

The room itself had been decorated according to Albus' taste. He'd always liked black and white much more than colours, so there were black and white balloons and ribbons decorating the room. They'd moved some of the tables to form an almost banquet, with a series of platters on them. Atlas had probably asked for some help in the kitchen, and based on the fact that Maeve Selwyn was standing nearby watching, Scorpius would guess it was her that helped.

Scorpius turned to see Albus was actually pulling a surprised expression. He was either a really good actor or he hadn't expected this. But Albus had never been very good at hiding his true feelings, especially not from Scorpius. So, Scorpius decided it was the latter and let the others gave Albus their gifts. Scorpius went to speak with Maeve and thank her for helping. She smiled and nodded, before going to snuggle with her boyfriend Artticus Murk.

In total there were around twenty odd people there for Albus' birthday. Vincent, Atlas, Finn, Zeus, Phoenix, Nebula, Tethysa, Honoria, Demeter, Capri, Maeve, Artticus, Lyra Goyle - although she looked different - Hadrian Flint, Giuseppe Pucey, Lacerta Higgs, Nora Nott, Magnolia Runcorn, Dmitry Yaxley, Nikolas and Violet Krum, Rowan Davis, Trinity Dereks, and of course, Scorpius. Albus had formed friendships with all of these people. Well, they were more friendly with each other but when it came to birthdays all twenty-five or so of them would be there. It was a strange system, but it worked for them. Albus, Atlas, Nora, Nikolas, Violet, and Lacerta had all made some strange muggle reference and called them the 'Snaky Bunch'.

Scorpius smiled at it. He'd never seen Albus look so much like a kid in a candy store before. Albus had never particularly enjoyed celebrating his birthday, but Scorpius had been dragging him around and forcing him to have fun for years. After a while, the other Slytherins just joined in. Scorpius had been quite happy when they started to make more friends, especially since they all knew each other's experiences a lot better than someone like Polly Chapman.

Magnolia found a few games and brought them out to play. They weren't all games Scorpius had heard of, and he was pretty sure some of them were less than okay in his books. But Albus seemed to think they sounded fun, so Scorpius would force himself to join in. There were three games there. Spin the bottle, TDKS, and something called Do or Drink? Scorpius didn't like the sound of any of them, but he didn't want to be a party pooper so he sat down, with an entire internal protest going on.

He'd played Spin the Bottle once, and it didn't end well. He ended up having to kiss a mirror because the bottle landed on himself. He got mercilessly teased for it and vowed to never play the game again. He'd heard of TDKS. But after Spin the Bottle he was admittedly scared. Do or Drink sounded the most terrifying. Scorpius learnt he was in fact allergic to alcohol after accidentally drinking some of his Dad's. He skipped the whole drunk part and went straight to vomiting and massive headaches.

The first game was Spin the Bottle. It was spun a few times, people getting nothing too exciting. Really, the craziest thing that happened was people kissing someone they weren't dating. Although Violet did manage to get Giuseppe, so that couple was fine. However, Hadrian did have to kiss Dmitry, which mildly annoyed Nebula. Rowan kissed Honoria, and Vincent wasn't too happy about his partner kissing someone other than him.

Then came Scorpius' turn. He was more than a little nervous. He wasn't entirely sure who he'd prefer it to land on. Someone he was really close with or someone he didn't know as well as say, Finn. But he knew was he would rather it land on anyone other than who it did land on. It was a one in twenty-five chance and it just had to land on the one person, he'd hoped it didn't land on. At the end of the bottles cap, Scorpius locked eyes with none other than Phoenix Snyde.

He blushed a little, and he could see in his peripheral vision that Albus was smirking, but oh if he only knew. Scorpius had never really rejected her, she did the rejecting for him. But that was the worst part. She knew full well that Scorpius didn't return her feelings no matter how much he would like to. This kiss would bring nothing but pain to her, and he didn't want to reopen the old wound. And by the look on Honoria's face he could tell that at least one other person in the room knew. And then he noticed a similar look on Capri's face and realised that all of the fifth year girls probably knew. They'd all probably heard her crying.

"I can spin again if you're uncomfortable," Scorpius suggested, mainly for Phoenix's benefit.

But before she could reply Lyra cut in, "That's not how this game works!" She crossed her arms over her chest. "If I had to kiss Magnolia you can kiss Phoenix!"

Magnolia humphed as she crossed her arms, "I am a great kisser, you're just upset that I wasn't a guy."

Lyra rolled her eyes and Scorpius looked at Phoenix. He really, didn't want to kiss her. She was very red and looked just about ready to run out. Scorpius sighed. He really didn't want to hurt her, but he was ruining the game for everyone else and people would start to get suspicious. Or perhaps they'd think he was being considerate. Divination wasn't in his course work. He put on a brave face and decided fuck it. He'd peck her on the lips and very little harm would be done. He hoped.

He hobbled over to her on his knees a little slower at first, as though asking for permission. He took her nod as a yes and continued forward. Once he was directly in front of her he began to remember exactly why he didn't want to kiss her in the first place. Her eyes were shiny, as though she was beginning to cry. Merlin, he didn't want her to cry! He didn't want anyone to cry! He just wished he could return her feelings! That way no one would get hurt!

He sucked in a breath and gently lent forward, placing a soft peck on her lips before returning to his prior spot. Phoenix was redder than ever and looked down, as though trying to let her hair cover her face. Although her ribbon made it very difficult. Her mannerisms had completely changed. Before she had been walking around with her head held high and had a snarky comment coming out of every pocket. But now, she hung her head low, and slouched forward. All in all, you'd have to be an idiot to not know she was upset.

Honoria looked mad, but she didn't say anything. The game continued, things getting weird when Nikolas spun and it landed on his sister, but nothing really too bad happened. Scorpius spent the rest of the game glancing towards Phoenix, just to make sure she was okay. As the game continued, her behaviour changed and she gradually went back to her normal, snarky self. She even called Nora out for enjoying kissing Lacerta a little too much in her words.

Things seemed to be going well, apart from Albus' spin landing on Trinity and him making an audible complaint. Trinity answered in her Australian accent that he wasn't a peach either though, so there was really nothing too bad. But, TDKS came up and Scorpius began to feel nervous again. He'd never played it, as previously stated, but he'd heard many horrid stories. Truth seemed like the safest option to him, and he was lucky that it was his turn before anyone asked him.

"Nora," he smiled at a thought. "How was snogging Lacey?"

There were a few giggles as the two girls both turned bright red. Lacerta Higgs was in the year above Scorpius and Nora Nott was in the year below. Neither of them had been in any relationships and they'd kept their sexualities relatively private. No one really knew what their preference was. 

Most people would bet Nora liked someone either tough or the exact opposite. She had once threatened to, and I quote, 'shove a broomstick so far up someone's ass that they'd be tasting broom polish! Bristled end first,' because they called her shortie. She apparently looked a lot more like her muggle mother, with her ruby red hair, blue eyes, pale skin, and short stature. So, despite her size and unassuming appearance, she'd quickly become one of the most feared girls in her year. Hell, she was scarier than Roxanne.

Lacerta on the other hand, had quite a different reputation. People had called her a vain, dumb blonde. Scorpius resented that. Lacerta was not vain, she simply liked looking nice because it made her feel nice. She also wasn't a dumb blonde. She was one of the best Transfiguration and Charms students in her year after Helena Ollivander. She'd allegedly gotten her vain reputation after Willow Goldstein insulted her for 'caking her face in make up'. Lacerta wore make up, yes, but caked the stuff on? No. She quickly replied without any actual thought that at least she didn't look like she fell out of bed and said good enough. 

The two would probably become one of the most infamous duos in all of Hogwarts if they started dating. Although, Scorpius couldn't tell if that would actually happen. Nora was quite the tomboy, and definitely more interested in a physical than verbal fight. Lacerta was the opposite. But people do say that opposites attract. If he was honest, they seemed like the type that would secretly be bitching about each other behind the others back or defy all odds and be friends. 

"Um...," Nora went slightly quiet and glanced at Lacerta. "Well um, you see. It's like - It's not - Uhum, uh...?"

"For fucks sake!" Lacerta exclaimed. "We've been dating behind closed doors for over a month now. My parents are the absolute worst, so let's just say we didn't feel comfortable telling them about it."

"Not surprised," Rowan shrugged. "The only thing about this that shocked me was Nora stuttering."

Nora went bright red, "I was not!" She crossed her arms and pouted. "I just - Um, well... Okay maybe I was!"

Scorpius chuckled. Not quite the answer he'd really been expecting but it was the answer he got. He made a mistake though, because Nora was angry. She'd never liked being the weak one, although, her history with her parents and Aunt Cassandra was probably why. From what he knew, Nora's Mum was a muggle. Allegedly Nora's first act of magic happened when she was five and she levitated a bottle of water to herself. Felicity Nott, he thought her name was, freaked out so bad that she and Theodore just weren't getting along. She left them that same year and apparently Nora hadn't seen her since then.

But it was worse when Theodore got arrested. Scorpius didn't know much about it, other than that it was his time turner in Hermione's office. He believed that was why he was arrested, but Albus and Nora were sure to know more about it. Right after it happened Nora was reported missing, she had runaway from home and no one knew where she went. After a month and a half, she was found in a small apartment building with very little meat on her bones and three giant scars on her shoulder. 

The details were never revealed to the public, but it was fairly obvious what had happened. The year after she'd suffered through bullying for being a criminals daughter, and eventually she snapped. She decided she would be the one people would be afraid of, so she joined the quidditch team as seeker, got herself what teachers called 'an attitude' and refused to let anyone victimise her. Part of it was probably PTSD, and she still got very jumpy when in small or dark spaces, but she didn't beat the crap out of everyone that tapped her shoulder anymore. So, that was progress. (Just so you know, Nora's backstory comes from a different fanfiction where Delphi has escaped Azkaban, there's this prophecy, and two other OC's are there, and she's helping them hide - not Delphi. Hadrian Flint's backstory also comes from that fanfiction. It's on AO3 and it's written by a friend of mine. If you want to find it it's called 'The Cursed Trilogy'.)

"Scorpius," Nora smirked, "truth, dare, kiss or swear?"

"Truth," he replied nonchalantly. There was no way she'd be able to find something he wanted to keep secret. Didn't know him well enough, nor was she the kind of person to ask about anything triggering. Her own experiences probably countering into that.

"Why were you so reluctant to kiss Phoenix?" She smiled. "Your eyes only for Albus?"

Albus chuckled, "I must admit," he sighed in his usual dramatic way, "it hurt to see you kissing someone other than me. But I'll forgive you, I did kiss the demon from down under."

"Hey!" Trinity crossed her arms. "Just because I don't melt like a popsicle in twenty degree weather, doesn't mean I'm a demon!" (Yes Trinity is an Aussie for all of my fellow roo riders.)

"That tone of voice does," Albus replied.

"At least I don't dress like an emo goth, just trying to prove a point!" Trinity quipped.

"You take that back you coffeeholic!" Albus narrowed his eyes.

"I am not a coffeeholic!" Trinity whined.

"Three cups a day is an addiction," Nikolas chimed in.

"Says you!" Trinity glared. "You hoover food down like your life depends on it!"

"Um, my life does depend on food," Nikolas shook his head. "If you don't eat you die. If you don't drink coffee -"

"You also die," Trinity frowned.

"Yeah," Albus said, "from withdrawal symptoms."

"Anyway," Nora shook her head, "Scorpius still hasn't answered the truth."

Scorpius bit his lip. He didn't know how much he was allowed to share. It wasn't even really his secret to share. Honoria silently glared at Nora, and the rest of the fifth year girls all seemed to be more preoccupied with comforting Phoenix with their eyes? Scorpius figured that was what they were trying to do at least. He couldn't see the function of it, nor could he see how it was efficient, but he supposed it must've worked to some degree because she didn't look like she was about to flee the country. Just the room.

"Come on Scorpius," Giuseppe said. "There's no point in getting a bruise over something like this."

"Shut up Jiz," Capri retorted. "You don't know anything."

"How many times do I have to tell you guys?" Giuseppe whined. "I hate being called Jiz."

"Your fault for telling us your name," Dmitry shrugged.

"Scorpius just spit it out!" Violet exclaimed. "Can't be that embarrassing."

"Unless you actually like her?" Artticus raised an eyebrow in suggestion.

Scorpius felt his face heat up at the thought, and his shoulder bruise at his silence. It wasn't his place to tell the story, and he most certainly wasn't going to do that to Phoenix. He'd hurt her enough in the previous game, didn't need to do any more damage. But he had to come up with some sort of reply. He could say he just wanted to make sure she was okay with it. It wasn't technically a lie, although it wasn't technically the truth either.

"I -"

"Oh my Merlin!" Phoenix got to her feet and Scorpius could see her holding in tears. "We went out and I told him I had a crush on him! He didn't return the feelings and so that's why he didn't want to kiss me!"

Before anyone had a chance to reply she stormed out of there and up the stairs to the girls bedrooms. They'd messed up. Scorpius looked down, he felt a pit in the bottom of his stomach. Why couldn't he just like her back? Things would be much less complicated that way. Plus she'd probably be the only person to ever have those feelings for him. But things were never that simple. Not for Scorpius at least.

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So, I clearly underestimated how much writing Albus' birthday actually required. There's gonna have to be a fourth chapter on his birthday, it's probably gonna be more about Phoenix and Scorpius though. Obviously. I don't know how I'm going to write it in a way that it'll be more than 3000 words, but I will give it a damn good try. I mean, if I can make this last over 4000 words I think I can handle it. Please vote, comment and suggest. Thank you!

      - Turtlefreakakw2 <3