dinner parties | scorbus

CH19: deepest attraction

CH19: deepest attraction (4737 WORDS)

* * * * *

Albus struggled to do his homework, though he couldn't tell if the cause was a distraction or his inability to figure out his equations. He had read through his questions a dozen times, underlining the numbers and values; sorting them on a separate page. He failed to manoeuvre them and eventually gave in, reading his textbook chapter again in a desperate attempt to understand. Of course, it might just be the effect of a Friday afternoon, Albus always struggled to do his schoolwork at this time.

It also might be nerves, as Albus had decided that he was going to spill his guts to Scorpius later that night — and he was utterly terrified, but also very excited.

When the idea of confessing his feelings had first been proposed to him by Teddy and Rose, Albus had merely agreed to remove them from his case. As he'd dwelled on it, he realised that he would be confessing to Scorpius — the sweetest person Albus had ever encountered. He doubted that Malfoy would blow up in his face, or reprimand him for having such feelings. Honestly, Albus had taken some of Rose's words to heart and believed that maybe, just maybe (if he had been reading their flirting correctly) Scorpius would return his feelings.

"Albus, I asked you a question."

The boy shook his head to rid it of thoughts about Scorpius — something he had to do frequently. It only worked for a second or two, but Albus knew how to shove Malfoy into the corner of his mind. Within seconds, he'd returned to the library and his brother's agitated face swam before his eyes.

"Repeat it?" Albus requested, glancing up at his elder brother.

James scoffed and threw a hand up in the air. "It hurt enough to ask the first time."

Albus paused and lowered his pencil to the desk. He cast a look at his brother's eyes, noticing that James' handsome face had been painted with grief. He furrowed an eyebrow in suspicion.

"What's wrong?" Albus questioned.

"I... I wanted to know if it was weird that I haven't kissed Lorelei yet."

Albus frowned. "You haven't? You've been dating for five months!"

James appeared to shuffle. "So it is?"

The younger prince immediately realised that he'd said something wrong, and tried not to panic. "I suppose not. I'm not sure — I haven't thought about things like that. Why haven't you kissed her?"

"I never have the chance," James spun his pen, looking away from Albus' face. "I want to, of course. We just... never get a moment alone."

Albus thought for a moment. "You should really ask Lily a question like this. She's got a boyfriend."

"I did ask her. I felt terrible bothering her whilst she's unwell," James sighed. He leant back in his seat. "Are you ready to court Aurora next year? You'll have to tolerate this — a lack of privacy."

Albus resisted the urge to laugh through his nostrils, aware that he would not be caught dead with a girlfriend. He knew, at this point, that his mother wouldn't allow it either. Albus wondered if — had he not met Scorpius — he'd have come to recognise his true feelings at all. Would he have continued on believing himself incapable of love?

These days, Albus wondered frequently as to how he had endured life prior to realising he had a crush on Scorpius. Crushing gave his life excitement; it gave him something to wonder about, something to look forward to, something to romanticise whilst he laid in bed at night attempting to sleep. He enjoyed fancying Scorpius, and he enjoyed believing that Scorpius fancied him too. It caused his heart to morph into a large, incandescent butterfly — or so he liked to think.