[LOG] The Birds and the Bees

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Where: The Slytherin Dungeons
When: Late January to Early February, 2022 (Fifth Year)

It was quite a bit before the morning bell when Scorpius woke up, blinking his eyes in the darkness of his dormitory room. His left arm was numb from the shoulder down where Alby's head was nestled, and there was a little wet puddle forming in his pajamas just below Alby's open mouth. He gave Alby a gentle push and managed to ease his numb arm out from under his boyfriend, who smacked his lips and rolled over, taking a significant portion of blanket with him. Scorpius smiled and placed a small kiss on the back of Alby's shoulder before reaching under his pillow to retrieve his wand. He parted the curtains of his bed, squinting to see clearly as he dimly lit the rest of the room with a spell. He spotted his bag, which was sitting near the foot of the bed, where he'd dropped it the previous night. Scorpius wondered if he ought to get out of bed to retrieve the text he wanted to read--but the room was rather cold--or risk a spell. He decided on the latter.

"Accio book," Scorpius whispered, and his Muggle Studies studies text came flying at him. He caught it before it smashed him in the face, and propping himself up on his pillow, reached for his glasses, and began reading by wandlight.

It was at least another hour before the morning bell rang. He heard Alex and Joe stirring in their beds, groaning as they parted their curtains and stared off into space blearily. Closing the book in his lap, Scorpius gave Alby a gentle shove. "Alby," he said quietly, "the morning bell just rang."

Scorpius, already awake for a while, managed to get dressed first, and had already washed his face and brushed his teeth by the time the rest of his mates were shuffling around half dressed. Scorpius and Alby made their way up into the Great Hall after it was mostly filled with the bustle of the students' morning chatter. The Slytherin table quieted when they approached and took their usual seats with the fifth years. Since Alex and Joe had had their fight, their usual seats across from Scorpius and Alby had instead been filled by Ellimere and Saffron who dropped their forkfuls of pancakes to stare.

Scorpius sat down and was busy serving Alby some eggs when he noticed that the silence had stretched on unusually long.

"What?" he said, more irritably than he'd meant.

Ellimere and Saffron shared a significant look.

"What?" Scorpius said again.

Ellimere raised an eyebrow. "Is it true you and Alby are sleeping together already?"

Scorpius paused, remembering Alessandra and Rogir's words of warning the previous night. He glanced in Alby's direction quickly, hopefully not too significantly.

"Of course not," he scoffed, reaching under the table to put a hand on Alby's knee and give it a squeeze. "What gave you that idea?"

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Alby bit his lip, feeling rather guilty at the last round of questions posed to them. He supposed they hadn't exactly asked for permission or anything of the sort from any of their roommates; they'd just assumed no one would care and that (apparently mistakenly) they'd keep it to themselves. But it had been rather poor planning and in no small part rude, he realized. Scorp's tone of voice said that he hadn't really realized either, and that he was feeling just as bad as Alby.

Alby's eyes went a little wide and he shook his head from side to side at their professor's last question. "No!" he said rather quickly, and then went on to make it sound less rude, "No, sir, we'll talk to them. We hadn't thought... We'll work it out." He would much rather deal with this in the privacy of their dorm, without the added embarrassment of having their head of house mediate a discussion on whether bed-sharing was acceptable or not. It was awful enough having this "discussion" with him about magical maladays and their sexual transmission. Alby didn't want to heap on any more embarrassment where none was needed.

At least now they and their roommates were all on speaking terms again. And while it still would be rather awkward talking to them about something like this, much less trying to come to some sort of decision or compromise if there were issues, it was preferable to having some sort of meeting in Professor Blackwood's office with all of them. That was sure to get them even less far, Alby was sure.

He shifted in his chair again, glancing up at Professor Blackwood and wondering if that was it. Were they free to go, yet? Alby was sure they'd been embarrassed more than enough for one - or many - evenings.

Professor Blackwood leaned forward over his desk once more, watching the two boys squirm uncomfortably. He sighed. "I want you to know," he said slowly, "that you must feel you can come to me if you have issues or questions about anything in these pamphlets," he indicated them with a sweep of his hand, "or anything else that might arise. I may be much older than you, but I was a teenaged boy once, and I won't have embarrassment keeping you from asking important questions that might keep you safe." He looked between the two of them. "This is a serious matter, and while I don't want to make more of it than needs be, I won't have you making light of it, either. Everything you do reflects on Slytherin House, and I want you to remember that."

[OOC: Is there anything else in particular we wanted to have him bring up? I was just kind of supposing he'd leave them to go through the pamphlets together, once he knew that they'd actually do it.]

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Scorpius shifted uncomfortably as Professor Blackwood admonished them to talk to their roommates about their situation. Along with Alby, he assured his head of house at the, ah, sleeping predicament, would be addressed amongst his friends.

Normally rather serene in chairs, Scorpius verily twitched with the desire to leap up and rush out of the room with Alby. The longer his professor went made reference to their illicit activities, the more embarrassed Scorpius felt and the more he wanted to leave. There was a less humiliating way to get the information he needed--and it was not ideally from a serious talk from his head of house. It wasn't that he wasn't taking the matter seriously--he was--he just didn't want to be hearing about, well, sex, from his Transfigurations professor.

Scorpius nodded vigorously when Professor Blackwood finished. "Thank you, professor," he said, and decided to emphasize that with a final and serious nod. "We'll read the pamphlets and make sure we're informed."

"Good," Blackwood said with a nod. "You boys should be old enough to know how to take care of yourselves. If the two of you have no questions, then you're dismissed."

Scorpius glanced at Alby, relief washing over his face. The two boys got up, thanking their professor again, and then left the office as quickly as possible without appearing too hasty about it.

They paused in the hallway to quickly hide their pamphlets before they bumped into any of their housemates. Scorpius looked at Alby, a wry twist to his lips.

"To the Chamber?" he asked, figuring the sooner they were someplace private, the better.

[OOC: That sounds good to me!

Is there anything else we wanted to write in fifth year besides Alby's conversation with Hawk and Scorpius's fruitless search for informative materials in the library?]

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Alby certainly had questions, but none that he wanted to ask Professor Blackwood. He'd much rather ask James what all this meant than Professor Blackwood, that was how little he really wanted to speak up. He sent a silent wave of thanks to Scorpius for sounding so mature and, well, final on the issue. He didn't think he'd have been able to sound like that, given the circumstances.

Finally their professor seemed to get the idea that they were done speaking for the time being. "If the two of you have no questions, then you're dismissed," he said, and Alby tried not to look too relieved as he slid off the chair and resisted the urge to bolt out of the room. Even Scorp seemed anxious to get out of there, and the two boys paused outside of Blackwood's office only long enough to make sure their pamphlets were safely stashed where no one could see them.

Alby nodded with relief as Scorp mentioned the Chamber. "Yes, please," he breathed, taking his boyfriend's hand and setting off down the corridor in the proper direction. He didn't know what most of the things in the pamphlet in his pocket meant, but he was quite sure that since he hadn't caught any of them yet, a little while of ignorance longer wasn't going to matter much. Though he was still curious about what it was going on about, with penetration and all. Was that important? Was he missing something big? He wondered, as he and Scorp came to the top of the stairs and made their way to the now-familiar portrait, if Scorp knew anything about it. Maybe he could enlighten Alby. But that didn't mean he had to be fully clothed to do it, did it?

[OOC: I... don't think so? I need to write down that conversation he and Hawk are going to have, I imagine it'll be... very amusing. XD Though I think Hawk will probably mostly explain it to Alby, and it'll take him a little while to get up the nerve to explain it to Scorp.]

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[OOC: I think this is a good spot to end! :D

I can't wait for Alby's conversation with Hawk, really. XD It's going to be hilarious. Meanwhile, I'm trying to decide whether or not Scorpius's parents send him any safe-sex type books for his birthday. ¬_¬ Maybe Ora can convince Draco to finally accept that his son is kinda gay and is going to be exploring with Alby who is RIGHT THERE in his dormitory room.]

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[OOC: Yeah, that's going to be pretty fun to write~ XD Ahaha, it would definitely be funny if Ora sent her son some literature on the subject, though. Such a helpful mother! ;D]

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[OOC: Oh, that is so happening. SO SO SO SO happening. D: Poor Scorp. He's going to go beet red when he opens the package and sees some of those titles. And hey, Ora's got to make sure her boy stays safe and knows what he's supposed to do. XD]

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[OOC: XD That would be fantastic~ Oh, poor Scorp. Ora's only trying to help! Mostly... Between the two of them and their adventures in sexual research, at least they seem they'll be relatively well-prepared for the eventual future? XD;]