[LOG] A long, awkward journey

[of-gunmetalgrey.livejournal.com]

Where: The Hogwarts Express
When: September 1, 2021 (fifth year)

"Bye Dad, bye Mum!" Scorpius hugged both his parents quickly, trying his best not to pull away too soon as his mother kissed him on both cheeks.

"Remember what we talked about, all right?"

"I know, Mum," Scorpius said, pulling out of his mother's embrace and poking his head over the crowd to see if he could spot the cluster of Weasleys and Potters that usually came to send off their children.

Scorpius had been distracted all summer, sleep coming rather uneasily to him despite the late hours. He'd finished all his summer reading and all his essays the first week he'd been home, which meant that he'd run out of excuses to avoid martial arts lessons from his father by the end his third week, which was only relieved once Delphina had come home, fresh from graduating from the Mount Emei Girls Academy. She had been at the top of her class and awarded honors in almost every field she'd studied, which made their parents proud to no end and finally let Scorpius have some time to himself as she continually pestered their father to teach her more techniques and spells.

There was a part of Scorpius that itched to go back to Hogwarts, and a part that also dreaded it. He'd been thinking about Alby all summer and had been trying to construct something akin to the casual correspondence they usually kept up all during the holidays, but failed miserably to write anything that didn't, upon a second inspection, look terribly childish, boring, or lovelorn, or all three. His mother had advised him to tell Albus about his feelings, to which his immediate gut reaction was to recoil in horror. He was not particularly good at telling anyone his feelings, and had absolutely no experience in the type of confessions that his mother had suggested. Moping about the house for the last week, Scorpius had reluctantly decided he was going to pretend that everything was normal, that Alby didn't mean anything special to him, and that the preservation of their friendship was the most important thing.

Scorpius spotted a cluster of red-heads of all ages, possibly even the dark hair of Harry Potter himself, and decided that rather than face all the Potters and Weasleys, he'd better make a run for the train and save a compartment. He knew there was no way that he was going to be able to greet Alby's siblings without looking guilty about something, and the last thing he wanted was for Alby's overbearing older brother, James, to think that something was up.

He grabbed his trunked waved a hasty goodbye to his parents and pushed the crowd aside, heading for the doors of the train. Most of the compartments were already taken by the time he was onboard and looking around. Suddenly thinking that perhaps it would be a better idea for him to sit with some familiar faces from his house (the thought of being left alone with Alby for the entirety of the ride filled him with fear), by a stroke of luck a compartment door opened, and an arm grabbed his sleeve.

"Hey mate," said Alex with a grin, "we saved you and Alby a seat."

Comments

[of-gunmetalgrey.livejournal.com]

Scorpius quickly went back to his reading to hide his embarrassment. Good job, he told himself, trying not to obviously roll his eyes as he berated himself. Act natural, huh? Act like an idiot, more like. Then he realized he hadn't even asked how Alby's summer had been, and given the awkward silence in the compartment, it was too late to look up again. That would be admitting his idiocy, and all he wanted to do right now was blast a hole in the bottom of the train, slip through, and never be seen by anyone ever again.

"So..." Joe coughed, looking first at Scorpius and then at Alby, who both seemed to be looking everywhere but at each other. "Uh...I got a made a Prefect."

[n3xt-in-line.livejournal.com]

Alby winced, feeling like he'd been stung. He stood there staring at Scorpius for a moment, but that didn't change the fact that Scorp had just called him 'Albus.' Had he heard something? Had he figured it out? Did he know? Was he mad?

Alby took a breath, sitting down in the only available spot - next to Scorp, of course, because it wasn't like they shouldn't want to sit next to each other or anything like that. Alby suddenly wondered if maybe it wasn't more awkward to have their friends around - at least if he and Scorp had gotten a compartment all to themselves, they could've sat in awkward silence the whole ride - which seemed to be what Scorp was trying to do, given that he'd buried his nose in his Transfigurations text. And the train had barely started moving. Alby moaned, inwardly. Maybe if he waited a moment, then jumped out the window, he'd break something badly enough to miss a large part of the school year.

He blinked and immediately turned his attention to Joe as the other announced he'd gotten made Prefect. "Really? That's great! I guess that means you'll be cracking down on Alex here?" he asked, motioning to the bottles the other had in his hands, though his tone (extra-cheerful, to hide the fact that something in him still stung) said he knew nothing of the sort was likely to happen. Joe might be decent Prefect material, but he wasn't about to drag Alex under the spotlight for anything.

"What are those, anyway?" he asked Alex, now trying to get a look at the labels. Alex, looking just as happy to fill in the silence as Joe had seemed, held them out for him to see.

"Stout! I was trying to tell someone here that he ought to build up his tolerance a bit."

[OOC: Sorry for all the repeats, I seem to have writing disorder. ^^;;]

[of-gunmetalgrey.livejournal.com]

Scorpius breathed a silent sigh of relief as Alby sat down and began chatting with Joe and Alex. Maybe he hadn't noticed. Scorpius glanced out of the corner of his at Alby, who seemed just as cheerful as usual, if not more. Of course he was cheerful, he was seeing his friends again after a long summer spent with his family. His mum and dad probably called him "Albus" at home, so he'd probably been hearing it all summer and it hadn't registered. Phew, that was a close one.

Joe went back to his Quidditch magazine, holding it up front of his face, block his view of Alex and his friend's bottles of beer. "I'm not seeing this," he declared loudly, "you're going to put it away and I'm going to put my magazine down, and we can have a nice, sober trip back to school."

Alex snorted. "If you want me to put this away, mate, it might take a while." Alex grinned and winked at Alby, who he knew could hold his drink quite well.

"For Merlin's sake, Alex, it's just a Guinness! Muggles drink it all the time! It's in every pub in bloody England! Even my dad drinks it sometimes and he's not even a Muggle!" Joe protested, his eyes peeking over the top of the cover photo of the grinning Wimbourne Wasps. He looked rather angry from behind his magazine, though obviously not angry enough to do anything much but pretend that whatever imbibing might transpire in his train compartment wasn't really happening. "Besides," said Joe with a frown, "how did you get that? You're not old enough to buy beer."

Alex grinned. "I have a big brother, you know. He's a pretty sweet guy." Alex laughed and tossed Alby a bottle. "Did you want this now, or did you want to save it for later?"

Scorpius looked up from his book. He was trying not to be a killjoy, really. He hated the term and he tried not to be one even at the worst of times, but there were just some times when Alex Moran needed to be shut up and stuffed somewhere out of sight for the safety of everyone in his vicinity. He looked at Alex severely. "If you're going to drink, please do it somewhere else."

Joe raised his hand. "I concur wholeheartedly."

Scorpius looked at Alby, his voice and expression softening. He didn't like disapproving of Alby. He couldn't actually remember a time when he'd ever disapproved of anything Alby had done, even getting low marks on an essay or an exam because he hadn't wanted to study.

"Alby..." Scorpius began, and then trailed off, not exactly sure how the hell he was supposed ask his best friend not to do something moronic. "Uh..."

[OOC: Haha, I've always got a writing disease, it's called "too lazy to proofread for typos." XD So no worries. :3]

[n3xt-in-line.livejournal.com]

Alby caught the bottle, grinning back, glancing down at it and thinking that maybe, if he could drink it fast enough, it might have enough of an effect for long enough to get him through this train ride.

That was, until Scorpius glanced up again and snapped at Alex, Joe following his lead, and suddenly Alby's fingers felt a bit numb; he grasped the bottle more firmly, so as not to drop it. Scorp turned to him next, looking admittedly less angry, but his voice still rang in Alby's head even as the other trailed off.

At least he hadn't called him Albus, again. That was a little better. But he still couldn't shake the feeling that he'd just been yelled at, even if he technically hadn't.

"I'll... er, I'll just save it for later, thanks Alex," he said, rather weakly, reaching over and stuffing it carefully into his bookbag, staring at the bag for much longer than he really needed to. "I don't think James'd ever buy stuff for me, even if he could, but he did show me and Lily where Dad keeps the firewhiskey." The stuff had tasted horrid - Alby didn't know how their father could drink it - but James had seemed awfully proud that he hadn't choked on his shot of it, while Lily just made faces and kept watch to make sure no one had caught them.

Alby settled back into the seat, pulling his knees up to his chest (as it seemed only he still could, not having gained much height over the summer, unlike the other three boys) and stared up overhead at the bottom of his trunk on the luggage rack. "S-so, everyone's summer was all right?" He supposed, at least, he could hear about Scorp's summer indirectly - maybe Scorp wouldn't be angry if Alby asked the whole compartment instead of just him. Scorp seemed to still be talking to him... a little, so... maybe he hadn't heard? (Alby's mind hadn't even gotten to processing the fact that there was nothing to hear, given that no one other than Alby knew what he'd been thinking about Scorp.)

Maybe all Alby had to do was prove that he wasn't... that he wasn't gay, and it would be all right? Scorp would know that nothing had changed (even though it had changed - and even though Alby was gay, he thought to himself, with dismay). "And hey, did you see Libby Claysington when she got on the train?" he asked (Joe and Alex, mostly). "She didn't used to be much to look at, but obviously her summer must've been good! Maybe I should try and ask her out." He squirmed a bit, feeling rather horrible about lying through his teeth - but none of them had to know that, right?

Then why did he still feel miserable?


[OOC: And Alby finds a way to make things worse. I wouldn'tve thought it possible. XD; It's off to bed with me now, but you have a good rest of the evening! :D Also, I think Semagic killed my student profile entry a while back, but I have the basic file saved and I'll fix it tomorrow. :D;; I just noticed when I went back to look for a name. XD]

[of-gunmetalgrey.livejournal.com]

"Uhh..." the sound hung in the air a bit, as Scorpius tried not to panic when he realized that he'd opened his mouth to say something that had a beginning but not an end. Thankfully Alby seemed to cotton on to what he'd been trying to say and filled in the blanks. Scorpius heaved another silent sigh of relief. In hindsight, he realized he probably should have just skipped the train ride completely and asked his mum to Apparate him directly to Hogsmeade. He could walk from there, trunk and all. Anything to be spared the horrible awkwardness that had seemed to suddenly replace the relationship he'd had with Alby for the past four years.

And of course, it was entirely his fault. Entirely his fault that he'd gone dragging his best friend off to find some mental homosexual painting, ended up kissing him--twice--and now he just couldn't get Alby out of his head. It wasn't fair for Alby to suffer for his own awkwardness, so Scorpius cleared his throat, determined to try again at keeping things normal between him and Alby.

He shrugged casually. "Summer was all right, I suppose," he said, putting his book down and resting it open, in case he needed it, in his lap. He thought about talking about his sister, Delphina, but figured that he best not let it know exactly how much she picked on him every time she was back for the holidays. "Dad kept pestering me to learn more martials arts, but I didn't want to."

Scorpius tried to keep back a twinge--or maybe more like a giant wrench--of jealousy when Alby mentioned Libby Claysington. He knew who she was, but had trouble conjuring what he thought of her. Was she pretty? He found that he had no idea, because he didn't care to have an opinion about her. In fact, searching through his memory, Scorpius found that the only women he really had strong opinions about were related to him somehow. His stomach plummeted when he heard Alby wonder whether or not to ask her out. Any doubts he had about his mother's advice were cleared up, or rather, cemented. Alby was straight as an arrow, and he was never going to have a shot.

Scorpius went back to his Transfiguration text, which suddenly seemed like the most boring thing that had ever been written.

"I think that's a good idea, Alby."

[OOC: Oooh, the angst! ;____; It huuuurts! I think I ran out of sadism juice and now I am filled with fluff again and all I want is to see them togetherrrrrrr! Must...hold...out...

And dude, your student profile entries did get axed! I hope you can recover them! They were cool, you must've spent ages!]

[n3xt-in-line.livejournal.com]

"Yeah?" Alby asked, his voice sounding rather pitifully weak, even to him. "Yeah." Well... that was that. Scorp hadn't even blinked - obviously because it wasn't as though he cared who Alby dated. not the way Alby wanted him to care. "Maybe I will," he murmured, but he wasn't sure if anyone else in the compartment had heard him. Not that he cared, because it was a lie.

This was really going to be the most miserable ride to school in the history of miserable rides to school, Alby thought, as Joe eyed both of the suspiciously and went back to his magazine. Alby watched the Wimbourne Wasps smiling and waving from the front cover for a moment, but his eyes kept unfocusing and it was giving him a headache. Or maybe that was just the lump in his throat that he was trying to suppress as he watched Scorp page through his Transfigurations book, oblivious to the way Alby was working very hard to keep his hands firmly on his knees. He wanted to take Scorp's hand, or something equally as stupid and pansy, but that... was never going to happen. He might as well get used to the fact now.

Suffer in silence, indeed. Alby was a coward, he thought miserably, sliding down in the seat a bit. He glanced over his knees and caught Alex's eyes. Alex was glancing from Alby to Scorp and back again, with look on his face that seemed to ask, "What kind of row did you two have and why didn't I hear about it?"

Maybe a row would've been better.

[OOC: Awww, yeah. ;_; But sooooon! Really! Do you think things might get a little better between them, for a little while, as they try to ignore stuff and are able to at least talk to each other for a bit? :O

Yeah, it's okay, I still have most of the file, and the original "file" was on paper, but I don't think I'll have to retype it or anything, whew! I'll fix it later tonight. :D;;

Also, did we want to skip forward a bit and have other awkward scenes, or keep them suffering on the train? XD I was just thinking when we're done with the ride, we can skip around a bit maybe~ Though I think the middle of the night thing might have to be its own log. XD]

[of-gunmetalgrey.livejournal.com]

Scorpius felt another twinge of jealousy at the fact that Alby could just talk so casually about asking someone out, as if it was as easy as going to the Great Hall in the morning and eating breakfast. Of course it was easy for him to do, if Libby Claysington rejected his advances, there were always plenty of other girls at Hogwarts to ask. Besides, he was a Potter, and which girl wouldn't want to date a Potter? Scorpius adjusted his glasses and glanced up at the rest of the compartment. Joe was reading his magazine, Alex was trying to look as though there was something about the compartment itself that was very interested, and Alby was quiet for once in his life, probably thinking about the girl he wanted to ask out. Scorpius frowned and flipped a page, still trying to keep up the appearance that he was interested in fifth year Transfigurations. He wished that Alby would think about him as much as he thought about Alby, but his friend's mind was pretty obviously elsewhere.

"Well, good luck," Scorpius said, wondering if he had anything in his bag that would be more interesting than the book he had in his lap right now. Charms? Ancient Runes? Arithmancy? Suddenly Scorpius wished he'd had the foresight to bring a magazine, instead of his schoolwork. Maybe some nice magazine with tips for how to confess to your best friend that you were in love with him and therefore very likely gay. Was there any way for that sort of talk to go down well? Probably not.

Scorpius glanced up from his book again, and noticed that instead of staring out the window, Alex was staring straight at him.

"What?" Scorpius said, as Alex looked away quickly and his eyes landed on Alby.

Alex shrugged, he looked out the window again, as they shot through the outskirts of London and into the surrounding boroughs. "Nothing. Just, uh, trying to gauge how much of a bottle of Guinness you can drink without passing out." Alex winked at Alby, who he was betting could put away at least two bottles.

"I'm not drinking any of your beer," Scorpius growled, closing his Transfigurations text with a loud slam and digging savagely in his bag for something else to read. He rummaged up something that didn't feel familiar, and pulled it out to look at it. It was a card from his Mum, written entirely in Chinese, in her delicate script.

Good luck with your best friend, it read, and good luck on your exams. If you need anything, write! Love, Mum.

For Merlin's sake. Scorpius stuffed it back in his bag. If his mother only knew what was happening in the compartment, she wouldn't be writing him stupid notes.

[OOC: I think we can wrap this log up with skipping a bit over the rest of the awkward ride, and the whole Sorting/feast business. Scorp will realize the next morning that he acted really badly, and try to make it up to Alby by being as normal as possible. XD We can have a brief "return to some semblance of normalcy" thing where the first morning of classes Scorp fixes Alby's tie? :D

Yeah, the middle of the night thing totally needs it own log. *laughs* Did you have anything in mind to do before that?]

[n3xt-in-line.livejournal.com]

"Thanks," Alby said, not meaning it at all - in fact, feeling almost bitter over the fact that Scorp didn't even bat an eye. Well, what was he expecting? The other boy wasn't just going to throw down his book and tell Alby that Libby wasn't what he needed, that Scorp was what he needed. Alby nearly laughed at that image, because it was just so absurdly far from reality that he was beginning to think he'd gone absolutely mad. And they'd only been on the train for twenty minutes.

He was beginning to wish he could take out that bottle of Stout - he was also beginning to wish that Alex had brought more than two bottles, because one wouldn't have been enough anyway. Scorp may not care about Alby's newest girlfriend prospects, but Alby knew him well enough to see that he was acting rather annoyed - he was mad about something, and Alby was sure that whatever it was, it was his fault. A lot of things felt like his fault right now, especially with the way Alex was frowning and casting glances at him and Scorp every once in a while.

The rest of the ride passed slowly; Alby talked to Alex a bit, discussing their summers (or, at least, the fictional summer Alby managed to make up, in which he hadn't been miserable for days on end or had to change his bedsheets once a week), the upcoming Quidditch season, and the pros and cons of firewhiskey. Joe occasionally threw in his own commentary, especialy when it came to Quidditch, and Alby tried to - wanted to - include Scorp, but he could barely turn and look at the other, let alone address him, so it was... tense. Horribly tense. When the train finally began to slow, Alby felt a surge of relief as he pulled his trunk down and dug through it for his school robes and tie, pulling them on and concentrating quite hard on his tie, all the better to look around at his dormmates less. They filed off the train with the rest of the student body, Alex and Joe rushing ahead a bit, as though they wanted to get as far away from the tense atmosphere of their compartment as quickly as possible. Alby couldn't blame them, shoving his hands into his pockets and walking alongside Scorp towards the carraiges, feeling very far away from a person that he was walking right next to. He didn't like that feeling at all.

"Glad you had a good summer," he finally managed, quietly (lamely, he berated himself, staring at his feet but determined to make up his shortcomings to Scorp, because his best friend didn't deserve to suffer for Alby's cowardice, or his unnatural urges), as they waited for a carraige to pull up.


[OOC: Awwww~ At least the note was in Chinese? XD And yeah, I think we can just skip through some stuff, to highlight how awkward they are, and hopefully they'll settle into a pattern of mostly-normalcy, probably punctuated by small periods of Alby almost saying something and then getting weird for a couple hours before he manages to recover?

Hm... I don't think I had anything in mind for before that, really - we should definitely do something with Hawk, but that can go whenever, I think.

The next question is how Alby gets to *deal* with his middle-of-the-night hard-on. XD Because, you know, he can always jerk off in the shower if he doesn't realize Scorp is watching. >D;; Though that's not the only way to deal with that, just the really evil way out. There are a number of ways that log can go, I think.]

[of-gunmetalgrey.livejournal.com]

Scorpius counted the hours slowly, as the day passed into afternoon and eventually into the evening, the sun setting beyond the horizon as Scorpius watched from the window. Joe left them eventually, saying that he had a Prefect meeting to go to, and finally the silence between him, Alby, and Alex began to seem a little more like their usual comfortable silences. Scorpius passed the time by picking up Joe's magazine when he left, reading about Quidditch teams he'd never even heard of. They had a small paragraph on the Huashan School team and how nearly all of their seventh years would be graduating and moving to the professional leagues. Needless to say, Scorpius found the advertisements in the magazine just about as interesting as the content, but at least it gave him something to do while he tried to work out exactly how he would keep his attraction to Alby a secret.

Finally the Hogwarts Express slowed to a stop, and Joe returned. He glanced at his best friend Alex, who was giving him a look of pure hatred for leaving him alone in a compartment with Albus and Scorpius, who were still not talking to each other much.

"Uh, let's go help some of the first years find their way to Hagrid, and maybe I'll forget about that beer you've got in your bag," said Joe. Alex all but scrambled to comply.

That left Scorpius and Albus by themselves to find a carriage. Scorpius put away Joe's magazine and shouldered his bag.

"Yeah," Scorpius said as they walked together through the crowd of students, trying to sit with their friends on the ride back to Hogwarts. Scorpius was glad for other people crowding around them, because it gave him an excuse to stand close to Alby and bump gently into him on occasion. "Sounds like you had a fun summer too," Scorpius said a bit enviously, his summer had been all but miserable except for the few moments when he'd gone on short, day trips with his family to the mountains.

Still thinking of the outdoors, Scorpius valiantly pushed away his feelings for Alby. They'd never gotten in the way before, why should they now? A carriage pulled up in front of them, pulled by what Scorpius knew was a thestral that he could not see. He and Alby climbed in and sat silently for the ride.

Their trunks had arrived in their rooms by the time they'd gotten back to the castle. It suddenly seemed rather odd for Scorpius to be stripping in front of his dormmates as they scrambled to find their robes and put them on in time for the Sorting. Joe and Alex didn't seem to mind as they dropped their pants, running about in their boxers trying to dig up their uniforms. A bit self-consciously Scorpius put on his robes before changing his pants. He did his best not to look in Alby's direction as he saw his friend bend over and dig in his trunk.

They managed to make it to the Great Hall, just as students were beginning to filter down from the other Houses, and the first years began filing in.

"Wait," Scorpius said just as Alby was about to take a seat at the Slytherin table. He did this every year, almost every day. Why did it feel so awkward now? Scorpius pushed thoughts of that aside, and put his hands on Alby's tie, adjusting the knot, which was turned to the side and looked terrible.

"There," said Scorpius when he was done, shooting his friend a smile and letting his hand linger a bit too long on Alby's shoulder.

"Come on," Scorpius said, looking away quickly and finding himself and Alby a pair of open seats on the bench, feeling the beginnings of a blush begin to crawl across his cheeks, "I'm starving."

[of-gunmetalgrey.livejournal.com]

[OOC: I like the fact that once school starts they start falling into a mostly-normalcy sort of thing, because Scorpius and Alby are both equally determined to stay friends and not let their feelings get in the way. :3

We should do something with Hawk, but I think Scorp would try that a little later in the year. I was thinking around November-ish, when he just wouldn't be able to take it anymore. Did you have an idea when Alby and Scorp would get together? Pre- or post-Christmas? XD

And yes, Alby should totally take a shower in the middle of night to resolve his uh...problem... and Scorp will be lurking around the bathroom, to see if Alby was okay after running out of the room like that. XD

EDIT: Oh, and this is probably super dorky, but I was thinking of compiling an AS/S fanmix, cause there are a couple songs on my playlist that really remind me of them. XD I can probably send you the songs from my end if you don't have them already.]

[n3xt-in-line.livejournal.com]

[OOC: Yeah, because they're not stupid or uncontrollable (well, maybe stupid XD) - I do think they'd be able to fall back into some semblance of normal, really.

Yeah, I think it would definitely take a while for Scorp to get to the point that he would seek out Hawk to talk to him. My first gut reaction is to say they should get together before Christmas, but I wouldn't really have a problem with after. (Ahaha, though it would be funny if they both said they couldn't come home for the holidays because they had to study and ended up with the dorm to themselves all holiday. XD I don't know if they'd do that, though - or if their families would let them...) But if they did get together, and then visited each other over the Christmas holiday, that'd be cute too~

XD All righty then, he'll totally do that. Because I can just kind of see him fed up and so turned on that the cold shower isn't helping and he'd try to get rid of the problem as quickly as possible, all without realizing Scorp was in there too. :D;;;

Ahaha, OMG, yes~ I actually have a song or two I could contribute. :D; But yes, I'd love to see what you put together!]

[n3xt-in-line.livejournal.com]

Changing for the Feast was one of the strangest experiences of Alby's life so far. He suddenly felt very self-conscious, leaning over his trunk to find the rest of his things so he wouldn't have to see what was going on around him. Especially not Scorp getting changed - Alby wasn't sure, but now that he'd realized that he was attracted to... well, guys (or at least Scorp), he wondered if he shouldn't be a little more careful around any of his fellow Slytherins.

There were going to be a lot of late-night showers, he vowed - he'd start waiting until after everyone else had gone to bed, because he didn't think he could deal with being naked in the same bathroom as Scorp ever again, and that somehow guilt-tripped him into feeling like he should be fair and stay away from all his dormmates. If they found out that he suddenly fancied boys and had continued to shower in the same room with them, Alby was pretty sure he'd be chased out of the dorm and forced to sleep in the Chamber of -

His stomach turned to lead before that thought even finished, and he hurriedly pulled off his old pants and his new ones on while it seemed Scorp's back was turned.

Alex and Joe running ahead of them again, Alby and Scorp made their way to the Great Hall just as the first years were about to come filing in to be Sorted. When Scorp stopped to straighten his tie, Alby tilted his head down, watching the pale fingers fix the lopsided knot. He bit his lip to keep from blushing and nodded - why was this so weird? Scorp had fixed his tie nearly every single day that Alby had attended Hogwarts. Tonight was no different, and that was that.

"Thanks," he said, following quickly after the other as they sat on the bench; being fifth years, they had migrated more to the middle of the table than the ends, and Alby was nearly pressed up against Scorp's side, and couldn't help but take a sliver of guilty pleasure at their proximity. It's as close as you're ever going to get, you bloody pervert, he told himself, slumping a little but nodding at Scorp's statement.

"Yeah, starving too," he murmured, striving once again to return normalcy to what had been a thus far horribly uncomfortable day.

[of-gunmetalgrey.livejournal.com]

The Sorting finished and Slytherin welcomed its newest students. Looking at them, Scorpius had a hard time believing that he had ever been that small, or that young. They were all bright-eyed, their cheeks flushed with the excitement of having just turned a new page in their lives.

"You know," Joe said, giving the first years a good look over on the other side of the table, "this must be the smallest class of first years we've ever had."

"They look more and more like vermin every year," said Alex with a laugh, who was sitting roughly across from Scorpius. Scorpius kicked him in the shins beneath the table. "Ow! I was just kidding, Scorp! Come on, you were thinking it too. We were never that short."

Scorpius put an experimental arm around Alby's shoulders, trying to conjure the usual friendly way he touched his friend. "Maybe just Alby," Scorpius said with a small grin, testing the waters of the atmosphere to see if the usual jocular nature of the four dormmates had returned yet.

The feast began in earnest after the Sorting, the food appearing on the tables seemed to outdo itself from what Scorpius remembered from last year. The Great Hall broke out all at once into a loud rustle, the scraping of silverware against plates, the sounds of students serving themselves and their friends, and wishing each other a good year. The Slytherin table started its annual toast, the newly-appointed Head Boy, Rogir Kerrigor, beginning with a short speech before passing the cheer down the table. Scorpius raised his mug of hot cider and clinked glasses with Alby's butterbeer. The toast each year remembered him of their first year, when Alby had been first sorted into Slytherin and Scorpius had made him a promise to take care of him.

"Cheers, Alby," Scorpius said, finishing off his drink. He smiled at his best friend, and silently pledged that he'd always be there to take care of Albus Potter, no matter what might happen between them in the near or far future. "To our fifth year."

[OOC: Did you want to finish it off? :D I think we can about wrap it up here.

I like the idea of them getting together just a couple of weeks before Christmas. Hahaha, if Scorpius insisted on spending the Christmas holidays at Hogwarts, I think Draco would Apparate into Hogsmeade and forcibly march his way into the Slytherin boys dormitory and drag his son home for the rest of the break. XD I think it would be absolutely cute for them to visit each other over Christmas holidays. Scorpius's family always congregates at Malfoy Manor for Christmas, so he'll be in the area. X3 They should hang out and visit each other (on a near-daily basis)!

and I have four song ideas for the fanmix posted here (http://of-gunmetalgrey.livejournal.com/1743.html). It's terrible, because I have so many songs running around in my head. XD Including a whole hell of a lot for Draco and Ora too. XD *NERD ALERT*]

[n3xt-in-line.livejournal.com]

Alby thought the new Slytherins didn't look much like vermin, but then, Alex had always had an... interesting take on things. He nearly jumped as Scorpius put an arm around him, but managed to suppress the urge at the last moment. Scorp had done this millions of times before, and Alby had never, ever minded - hell, he didn't mind right now, that was for sure, it was just... different, somehow. Different because it wasn't, maybe - because it was so familiar, but Alby suddenly seemed to have a new take on life. One that derived even more guilty pleasure from this contact than before, but... but it was okay. Scorp obviously didn't mind touching this much, or he wouldn't do it. So it was all right, right?

... Besides he was being made fun of! "I'm going to get my growth spurt!" he insisted - and in doing so, suddenly felt marginally better, nudging Scorp's shoulder with his own in a not-quite-shove, as food suddenly appeared on the table and all around it students took up their mugs, Rogir Kerrigor starting a toast from the other end. Alby watched as glasses clinked in succession, thinking that things didn't have to be weird. He might have to work a bit at it, but he was going to have to face the reality that his best friend had probably never (and would probably never) consider him in the fashion in which Alby suddenly wanted to be considered. And he could either stumble and mumble his way uncomfortably through the next three years, or he could get his bloody act together and stop whatever he was doing, and be Scorp's friend.

The latter option seemed harder, but ultimately more rewarding. He'd just have to try, as hard as he could. Alby raised his glass and clinked it with Scorpius, a small, though genuine, smile on his lips as he nodded. "To fifth year," he agreed. Hopefully I'll survive it.

[OOC: Sure, ending here sound good?

Yeah, I think they'll probably hit a breaking point before Christmas, so there's no need to drag it out more than that. Ahaha, Draco, I totally could see him doing that. XD I guess they'll just have to settle for hanging out as often as they can, then. XD I'm sure it can be arranged~

Ooh, I'll have to check it out! I totally understand, though. XD I have songs that remind me of Snogs stuff, though for no really good reason, they just do. And the two Scorp/Alby songs floating around my head are so... lame, but they still remind me of them. :D;; Ah well~

I guess I'll be up next to start the next log, when we get to it. Do we want to do the shower one? I think I might already have a start around here, that I wrote while it was fresh in my head. XD But we can wait a couple days to start it or whatever, doesn't matter to me~]

[of-gunmetalgrey.livejournal.com]

[OOC: I think it might be fun if either Scorp convinces Grandma Cissy and Grandpa Lucius to invite the Potters to their annual Christmas Eve party or if Alby can convince his parents to invite the Malfoys (Ora, Draco, Scorp, Delphina) to their party. We can have a giant party scene! That would be fun! :D

Oh yeah, I should totally link to those songs now that I'm home. XD *gets on that* And I want to know what your Alby/Scorp songs are! D: I don't care if they're dorky, cause we're both pretty big dorks. :3

Let's do the shower one next!]

[n3xt-in-line.livejournal.com]

[OOC: Woo, par-tay! :D I wonder if the second option might be a little more likely? XD Though I suppose either one might be as amusing as the other. We'll have to see whose parents seem more easily swayed.

Hee. I'll upload them in a bit, then~ Working on some LJ code for Jennie, but I can upload in a bit and give you the links. :D I'll make a journal entry for Alby or something. XD

Mwahaha, okay~ Do you want me to post up what I have?]

[of-gunmetalgrey.livejournal.com]

[OOC: Yeah, I have a feeling that the Potters inviting the Malfoys will be more likely than the other way around. XD Let's have Alby work his charm on his Mum and Dad then! :D

XD sure, start posting up what you have. I'm gonna head off to the midnight movie soon, so I probably won't be able to post a proper response until tomorrow. :D]

[n3xt-in-line.livejournal.com]

[OOC: Yeah, that definitely seems more likely to me. XD He'll do his best! And possibly enlist Lily to help~

Heh, okay, I'll throw it up there in a sec~ No worries, I shouldn't stay up *all* night, since I got up early today. :D;]

[of-gunmetalgrey.livejournal.com]

[OOC: It'll be nice to see the Malfoys and the Potters celebrate Christmas. ¬_¬ Now we'll get to see everyone else be awkward except for Alby and Scorp. XD

Oh, I updated the fanmix page! (http://of-gunmetalgrey.livejournal.com/1743.html) It's friends locked now, cause I'm paranoid. D:

[n3xt-in-line.livejournal.com]

[OOC: It... will, kind of. XD I suppose it's some kind of justice? Besides, if there are Weasleys involved, Alison and Ora can try to keep things.... uh. From escalating to disaster~

Ooh, yay! Actually, that's a good idea, I usually flock music anyway, myself.

Aaand a log is up~ Though obviously take your time and stuff~ And have fun at the movie! I WANT TO GOOOOO. D:]