chapter two : the fluke

he noticed his absence better than anyone else. he noticed the empty camping chair and the abandoned metal prongs that had been cooling after the s'mores were cooked. he noticed the way the absent boy's older brother kept eyeing the abandoned chair sadly and wondered if the two had gotten into an argument. he then wondered if maybe it had been what he said to him that made him leave.

but it was the truth. he did miss his best friend. he missed spending the summer with him and watching quidditch games with his father, the green-eyed boy by his side. he missed the way his best friend would joke with his father about who was the better quidditch player when they'd been at school, and the way his father would always claim 'it was me, of course' even though school records showed otherwise. he missed staying up late in his too-large bedroom, the way they'd talk about school, or their families, or just anything. he missed albus.

school was almost upon them and when the term started, the boys would be back to sharing a dorm room down in the dank slytherin dungeons. they'd share a desk in their classes, because no matter how much they may have liked the other students, they always worked best with each other. they'd sit beside each other in the great hall and watch in awe at the way vincent goyle (named supposedly after gregory goyle's best friend at school, according to his father) would eat entire cakes and still complain he was hungry.

all this and more: things that used to define scorpius and albus's friendship would soon become a day-to-day feature. but the boys were no longer scorpius and albus - they were scorpius, and albus: separate individuals, individuals whose tastes had changed over the span of one summer apparently.

he frowned, continuing to stare at albus' empty chair until he noticed pale fingers snapping in front of his face. he blinked his grey eyes and turned to find rose staring at him curiously.

"did you hear anything i just said, scorp? and don't you lie to me, either." she asked and he shook his head. his mind had been elsewhere entirely.

"rumor has it," rose began again, and scorpius found himself to be attentive despite himself. "mcgonagall's doing away with the rules where we have to sit with our houses. apparently, even after a war, house prejudice is still huge, and so she thinks free-range seating could encourage students to become more hospitable towards each other. you know what that means, don't you?"

"what does it mean?" scorpius asked, though the question was pointless. the answer was already obvious, though he knew his girlfriend loved explaining herself. and he loved her for that.

"i can sit with you! we can sit together!" she cheered and he smiled at her, pecking her cheek.

"when did you find this out, rosie?" he asked curiously.

"well, my mum's been all about that 'free the house elves' campaign for years, so she occasionally travels to scotland to visit the school and kitchen elves there. she's been trying to talk them into quitting for ages, but they claim they're happy there. and she's been talking to the headmistress to try and make the woman fire the elves, claiming they could hire actual chefs, but mcgonagall claimed things are good the way they are - expect for dining arrangements, which isn't my mum's department but she listened to the concerns anyways." rose explained and scorpius nodded.

"of course. your mother: such a powerful figure." he claimed, wrapping his lean arm around her shoulder.

"is that sarcasm, mr. malfoy?" the redheaded girl rose an eyebrow and the blond kissed her forehead.

"you know i'm only playing, rosie. your mum's a wonderful woman - way nicer than your dad."

---△⃒⃘---

it was an accident, a total fluke. scorpius hadn't meant to step on mrs. norris's tail, but it had happened, and now filch was forcing him to dust the cobwebs from classrooms that hadn't been used since before his father had gone to school.

as scorpius went to clean an empty bookshelf, a violent sneeze erupted from his nose, and filch jumped, startled. in the process, the squib thunked his head on a desk he'd been cleaning the underside of, and when he came out from under it, he glared at the blond.

"you'd best be grateful the punishments we used back in the day are no longer acceptable for students. otherwise, i'd have you hanging by your toes in the dungeons for a week." the caretaker snapped and mrs. norris, his cat, hissed. as the grumpy old man turned away, deciding to clean something else, scorpius shot mrs. norris a displeased look. he went back to facing the bookcase, wondering if he was perhaps allergic to dust.

they'd only been back to school for a week and already he was serving an unfair detention. when he'd stepped on the cat's tail and the caretaker had whisked him away, he'd been in the middle of searching for books in the library. he hadn't seen the ugly thing moving towards him. the cat had let out a nasty shriek and filch had been there within a second. it seemed he always frequented the library with mrs. norris, whatever that reasoning may be.

"once you're finished with that there bookshelf, feel free to do the undersides of the desks. you can leave once those are done." filch ordered and then sat his lanky bottom along the edge of an old professor's desk. his cat climbed onto the surface a moment later and he began stroking behind her ears. scorpius tried his best to ignore the two of them. he'd always found the caretaker's relationship with his cat to be disturbing.

it was a thursday, but not just any old thursday. this one was different - special even, and that was why scorpius found himself to be so annoyed while he cleaned. because while he was up on the sixth floor cleaning old classrooms, his girlfriend was celebrating their four-month-anniversary alone somewhere. in that moment, he felt like a jackass.

when he finally finished cleaning, he let himself out of the classroom quickly and bounded down the many staircases towards the great hall. he stepped inside, surprised to find that rose was in fact not seated at the slytherin table - nor anywhere for that matter. as he headed to the table, he found that albus was gone too.

he sat across from vincent goyle for a moment and eyed the fifth year as he devoured a turkey leg. he watched a droplet of the grease slide down to the boy's third chin and then he cleared his throat, drawing his attention.

"have you seen my girlfriend?" he asked quickly, wanting to get his words out before the boy got immersed in his dinner again.

"which one?" goyle asked, winking. scorpius stared at him in confusion.

"what do you mean?" he asked and the fat fifteen-year-old laughed heartily, and then wheezed. he coughed violently into a napkin, and when he pulled the paper away from his mouth, scorpius took notice of a small turkey bone folded inside it. goyle had just choked.

"you know what i mean, malfoy." vincent smirked, taking another bite of turkey before following it with whatever he was drinking in his goblet. water, most likely.

"i'm afraid i don't, goyle. care to enlighten me?" he crossed his arms over his chest, because where had this rumor that he had two girlfriends come from? and why today, of all days?

"merlin, malfoy. my dad used to go on and on about how smart yours was while they were in school together, but now i'm thinking he was wrong, or you're just nothing like him. i'm talking about weasley and potter." goyle explained, licking his fingers.

scorpius' eyebrow furrowed and he swallowed thickly.

"albus isn't a girl. he couldn't be my girlfriend." he claimed dismissively and vincent rolled his eyes.

"yeah, you're way dafter than your dad. it's a joke, malfoy! that boy clings to ya almost as much as your girlfriend does: only this year, not so much. what happened? did ya have a fight?"

"it's none of your business, goyle." scorpius gave him a look and then stood up. "and if you're not gonna be a help to me, i'm done here."

"fine by me. see ya!" goyle waved his meaty fist towards scorpius and the blond boy left the great hall quickly. where was rose? where was albus?