Chapter 16 ~ Fixing Things
Scorpius' POV
I was walking down the staircase when I thought about Albus again.
I was over him avoiding me every chance that he got. There was nothing I could do about it. I wished Uncle Harry would come to his senses and stop whatever he was doing. I was sure that Albus was feeling the same way. I missed having him around. Slytherin House was completely boring without him.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs, I decided to go outside and take a walk. I needed to clear my head. All of this was just getting too much for me. I huffed a sigh and enjoyed the quietness until someone jumped out in front of me, causing me to jump back.
"Okay, so I shouldn't really be here right now..." a girl said, making me instantly know who it was.
"Delphi?" I asked, sighing in relief. "You bloody scared me. What are you doing here?"
"I'm basically endangering our entire operation," she said. "I'm not a natural risk-taker, which you knew that already. I've never been to Hogwarts. Pretty lax security here, isn't there? There's so many portraits and corridors and--"
"Wait, you've never been to Hogwarts?" I cut her off.
"I was...unwell, as a child. For a few years, actually. Other people got to go, but I didn't."
"Oh," I simply said. "Sorry. I didn't know that."
Delphi shrugged her shoulders. "I don't advertise the fact. I prefer not to be seen as a tragic case, you know?"
I nodded my head. "Listen, Delphi, maybe it's too dangerous for you to be here."
"Well, someone's got to do something about what happened when you two went back in time," she replied.
"None of it worked," I informed her. "We failed."
"I know. Albus sent me an owl. The history books changed, but not enough. Cedric still died. In fact, failing the first task only made him more determined to win the second task."
"Ron and Hermione are acting funny as well," I added. "They've gone completely skew whiff."
Delphi sighed. "Well, everything is just confused and I'm glad you still have the Time-Turner. But right now, I'm here to get you and Albus back to talking to each other."
I scoffed. "Yeah, that'll never happen. Uncle Harry is being a dick and he won't let Albus even come near me."
"Since when did you start listening to your uncle? You and Albus are practically best friends. Every owl he sends I can feel your absence. He's destroyed by it."
"I've tried to see him, corner him in the corridors, talk to him, but he always finds an excuse to run off. It's frustrating me. I need him right now. My parents...they're separated right now...and it doesn't look good for them."
Delphi shot me a sad look, placing her hand on my shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Scorpius."
I shook my head. "Albus is my best friend, my only friend."
"You know, I didn't have a best friend when I was your age. I desperately wanted one. When I was younger, I made one up."
I laughed. "I did the same thing as a kid, called Flurry. We fell out over the correct rules of Gobstones."
Delphi smiled a bit. "Albus needs you, Scorpius."
"He needs me to do what?"
"That's the thing, isn't it? You don't know what he needs. You only know he needs it. Find him, Scorpius. You two are family, for Merlin's sake. Find him and make things right." Delphi turned around to walk away, but she stopped herself and looked at me. "You know, you and Albus remind me of your mum and his dad." With that, she smiled at me, then turned to walk away. She didn't stop this time.
Delphi was right. I needed Albus back. We had to make things right. I couldn't do this without him.
*******
After doing some research, I headed for the library, the one spot that I had a feeling Albus would be at. The library was a place that he couldn't avoid me, no matter how hard he tried. Delphi had a point. Albus needed me and I needed him. I couldn't mess things up with him. If we wanted to fix what we created, I was going to need his help.
When I spotted Albus walking to an aisle, I followed him. He was looking for a book when I approached him. "Hi," I said.
Albus looked at me and groaned. "Scorpius, I can't..."
I sighed. "I know. You're in Gryffindor now. You don't want to see me. But I'm here, anyway, talking to you."
"Well, I can't talk right now..."
"You have to," I informed him. "You think you can just ignore everything that's happened? The world has gone crazy, have you noticed?"
"I know, okay? Ron's gone strange and Hermione is a professor," Albus stated.
"And Rose doesn't even exist," I added.
"I know that I don't understand everything that's going on right now, but you can't be here. We can't be seen together, Scorpius."
"Because of what we did," I replied, getting irritated. "Because we went back and changed things, Rose wasn't even born. Do you remember being told about the Yule Ball? All of the champions took a partner. Your dad took Parvati Patil, my mum went with my dad, Viktor Krum took--"
"Hermione," he finished. "Ron got jealous and behaved like a prat."
"Only he didn't do that," I said. "Rita Skeeter has a book about them and it's very different from what my mum told me. Ron took Hermione to the Yule Ball, not Viktor."
Albus now seemed interested, yet confused at the same time. "What?"
"Ron and Hermione went to the Yule Ball as friends. They danced in a friendly way and it was nice. Then, he danced with Padma Patil and that was nicer. They started dating and he changed a bit and then they got married and meanwhile Hermione became a--"
"--psychopath."
I rolled my eyes and shook my head. "Not the word I was going to say. Anyway, Hermione was supposed to go to the Yule Ball with Krum. She ended up not going with him because she had suspicions the two Durmstrang boys she met before the first task were somehow involved in the disappearance of Cedric's wand. She believed that under Viktor's orders, we cost Cedric the first task."
Albus widened his eyes in surprise. "Wow," was all he said.
"Without Krum, Ron never got jealous and that jealousy was all-important and so Ron and Hermione stayed very good friends but never fell in love, therefore, they never got married and they never had Rose and Hugo."
"So that must be why Dad is different," Albus added. "What about our parents? Did they change, too?"
"I don't think so. I mean, we're still here, so our parents must've stayed exactly the same."
"So why is my dad being such a--"
Suddenly, Polly Chapman came walking on our aisle, forcing us to leave and go to an isolated table in the back. Albus sat down with his bag and I took a seat beside him. "Albus, this is bigger than us and our parents. Professor Croaker's law states that the furthest someone can go back in time without the possibility of serious harm to the traveler or time itself is five hours. We went back twenty-six years. The smallest moment, the smallest change, it creates ripples, and well...we created really bad ripples. Rose and Hugo were never born because of what we did."
Albus was at a loss for words. He threw his hands up in the air in defeat. "Fine, let's go back and fix things. You've still got the Time-Turner, right?"
I pulled it out of my pocket and Albus snatched it from me. "You do realize how worse we can make things, don't you?" I asked.
"Yes, I do, but things need to be fixed. Cedric still needs saving and Rose and Hugo need to exist again. We'll be more careful. Trust me, we'll get it right this time."
"Are you absolutely sure?" I questioned.
Albus nodded his head. "I'm sure. We need to make things right. I know we can do it. We're not total failures."
I scoffed. "I sure hope you're right about that. So does this mean we're friends again?"
Albus laughed a bit. "We're cousins, Scorpius. Do we really have a choice?" A smile crept upon his face.
I smiled back. "I'm glad to hear that. Let's not put each other through that kind of hell ever again. We've got a lot on our plate right now."
"I couldn't agree more."
Suddenly, the sound of Professor McGonagall's voice was heard from a distance. "Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy. If you two are in here together, then I advise you not to be."
Albus grabbed his bag and pulled out the Invisibility Cloak. "Quick. We need to hide." Albus covered both of us with the cloak and we hurried out of the library. We sped down the corridors as McGonagall was following us. "I can't believe James hasn't realized that this is missing from his trunk." We stopped for a moment to take a break when we saw that she was getting closer towards us.
Professor McGonagall had the Marauder's Map in her hands, confused while she was looking at it. "Where did they go? I never wanted this thing and now it's playing tricks on me." She paused for a moment. "Unless...unless you two have the Invisibility Cloak." Then, she smiled to herself. "Well, then, if I didn't see you...I can't really do anything." So Professor McGonagall strolled away from us. Once she was gone, Albus removed the Invisibility Cloak and tucked it back in his bag.
"You stole that Invisibility Cloak from James?" I inquired.
Albus nodded his head. "He's remarkably easy to steal from, you know. Listen, I'm sorry about your parents. I overheard my dad and your mum talking about it. I didn't realize that me being away from you was only making it worse. My dad told me that you were this dark cloud around me. He started to think that we should stay away from each other, ut he can't keep us apart. You're the best person that I know. You couldn't hold me back. You make me stronger, Scorpius. It killed me inside when Dad forced us apart."
I nodded my head in agreement. "I didn't like it when you were avoiding me. I was so alone."
Albus took a deep breath. "We'll always be the offsprings of The-Twins-Who-Lived and we can't change that."
"No, we can't, but I guess it's not too bad. After all, I've got a cool cousin."
Albus smiled at me. "If our parents taught us anything, it's that family always comes first."
"If only your dad remembered that before he kept us apart," I said.
"Well, forget about him. I have an idea that involves the second task and a little bit of humiliation."
"As in, humiliating Cedric?"
"Yes. Losers are taught to be losers. And there's only one way to teach a loser something we know better than anyone: Humiliation."
I thought about it, then nodded my head. "That's a really good strategy."
"I know," Albus responded.
"Cocky now, are we?" I retorted. "Anyway, the plan really is quite spectacular. Humiliate Cedric to save Cedric. And what about Rose?"
"I'm saving that as a sparkly surprise. I can do it without you, but I want you there. I want us to do this together. So, will you come with me?"
"Do I really have a choice?"
"No, you don't."
I chuckled. "Okay, then. So the second task took place in the lake, but you're basically not allowed to leave the castle."
Albus grinned. "Which is why we need to find the girls' bathroom on the first floor."
~~~~~~~
A/N: I. Am. So. Sorry.
I have been busy this summer. I didn't even think I'd be so busy, but I am back and I WILL finish this story by December (LOL, maybe).
I have another story out right now. It's another Harry Potter fan-fiction called When Fire Meets Gasoline. There's new characters and I love them already!
So yeah, no Max in this chapter (it'll be like that for the next few chapters). It'll be a nice change, don't you think? I know that in Cursed Child a huge argument happened between Albus and Scorpius, but this is my story, so it's gonna be hella different. Lol.
So comment, vote, I'll try not to take so long with updating next time. ;)
-A
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