Albus (A Next Generation Harry Potter Fanfiction)

Unhappiness

All of a sudden their second term was upon them, and Al's dorm was a flurry of excitement, mess already strewn over the floor as the boys discussed Christmas and how much fun they had. Al greeted his friends with a wide grin and a friendly nod, although Matilda had full-on flown at him to give him a hug, which was a bit weird, but he was happy to see her all the same. Scor, less affectionate, had resumed his usual position atop his bed, entwining his long fingers as his trunk sat unopened next to him. He's got here earlier than the rest of them that came on the train, and he seemed a little off. He was always off, however, so Al wasn't phased.

When the others went to dinner, Al stayed because Scor didn't want to go. He didn't mind; he was to full from all the sweets he'd eaten on the train.
"How was Christmas? Did you get my letters?" He asked excitedly, not being able to wait to hear all of Scor's news. He hadn't stopped thinking about Scor's Dad, and how scary that man must be to live with every day. It did explain why Scor was so influenced by him, which was something Al couldn't figure out before.

Scor didn't wipe the scowl off his face. "Yeah, I did," he said, unamused.

"You didn't write back,"

"I was busy," Scor said, running his hand through his floppy blonde hair. He was in such a bad mood today, Al thought. Sometimes, without Al pestering, Scor would tell him why he got these moods, but that was a rare occurrence and they were usually over something trivial like Muggleborns or History of Magic. Once Peeves chucked a bucket of icy water over him, and that put him in a grump for a week, solid. He'd come back to the dorm soaking wet, and Al had cracked up, earning himself a mouthful from the sulking, furious Malfoy for every day of that week.

He didn't understand why Scor was so annoyed now. Flipping heck, they'd only just got back and he was irritable. Al played with the hem of his dark green robe, which he'd grown to like. After trying on James' Gryffindor one over the holiday, he had realised his was so much more comfortable. Al stared around the empty room, a dark cloud looming over him. The mess and the dimming light outside reflected the inside of what he imagined Scorpius' head to be like.

"How was your holiday, anyway? Did you go abroad?" Al said happily, changing the subject to something nice. Throughout Christmas he'd worked and worked on his Dad to get the Malfoys over for their next family Christmas, and he didn't see why his Dad wouldn't say yes after all that nagging. His mother would be more stubborn, but that was why he picked his father to probe.

"It was miserable," Scor grumbled, his green eyes glazing over. Was he crying? No. There was absolutely no chance of Scorpius Malfoy crying in front of anyone.

"Why?" Al asked, ready to play the psychiatrist. Surely in his Pureblood family, life was perfect for Scor, with absolutely no Muggleborns in sight? His mind wandered to what they'd do later, maybe hang out with Matilda or the other first-year Slytherins that they didn't know too well, or they could sneak around and find something to do that might get them in trouble. That was always fun.

"My parents are getting a divorce," came the monotone, nonchalant reply from the bed next to him.

Al's head full of fantasies ground to a halt. Oh. So he actually did have a reasonable thing to be sad about.

"They decided about a week ago, after months of fighting. You can't tell anyone, Al," Scor continued, a crack in his high-pitched voice.

Al frowned. Why would anyone want to marry Scor's Dad in the first place?

"That's awful, Scor," he replied, and he really meant it. His own parents were always happy, but any scenario he could imagine when they didn't like each other ruined everything. It would have ripped his childhood apart of he'd been in Scor's position. Scor wouldn't have any more happy family Christmases, and that broke Al's heart. "What's going to happen?"

Scor shrugged, avoiding his eyes, staring instead at the cracks in the ceiling, pretending they represented what was going on. "I don't really know. They haven't told me much, only that there's a court case or something and they decide who I have to live with. Apparently the whole thing's done in a very Muggle way, because all the Muggles started it. I don't want them to separate, but I don't want them to carry on being horrible to each other. I hear it and it's awful," he said, sniffing. Al kind of understood. He could kind of guess how horrible it must be to have the two people that are supposed to have promised to love each other forever suddenly start to fight. Rain fell over the glass pane of their window, streaming down in little rivers to settle at the bottom and drip off, steadily being lost in the ground below.

"Hopefully the whole thing will be over soon, though, and they'll sort it out," Al said quietly, for want of something more comforting, but there was nothing he could come up with that might make Scor feel better. Remembering he had a chocolate frog in his trunk, he made a mental note to give it to Scor when he uncovered it during unpacking. Scor loved chocolate frogs, so maybe it might lift his spirits a little.

Scor pursed his lips into a thin line, slowly closing his eyes as if he was physically trying to prevent the tears from falling. Al desperately wanted to tell him that he wouldn't breathe a word of it if Scor shed one in front of him. He didn't care if Scor cried, he was just a person. But he simply listened, afraid that if he said something wrong Scor would go all stony-faced and would close up forever, alone and sad. Al wouldn't let that happen to his best friend. He would help him as much as he could.

"Didn't make it better that Mum dropped a bit of a bomb this holiday," Scor added. "She told my Dad that she was a Mudblood."

Al was shocked. He looked at Scor deep in the eyes, trying to find answers. All of that fuss and he had a Muggleborn mother? He was astonished that Scor still used that hideous word to describe his close family. Flipping heck, he was screwed up. Quickly remembering where all the hate came from, he blurted out- "Your Dad married a Muggleborn?"

Scor rolled his eyes, his expression hardening for a second. "He didn't know, damnit. She lied to him, she even got her parents to lie. Turned out she made an excuse because she wanted to impress him, because she was in love with him. She knew if my Dad found out she was Mudblood, he'd end it immediately, and she was absolutely right. She pretended for years she was almost as Pureblooded as we were. It makes me sick when I think about the muddy blood in my veins."

Al winced at Scor's attitude, but nodded slowly. It made sense to Scor, but not to him. He'd never care this much if one of his parents were Muggleborn, but he couldn't expect anything less from Scorpius. He thought about when he'd met Scor at the shop, and how overbearing his Dad had seemed, even though Al had only spoken to him for a moment.

"You seemed fine when I saw you at the bookshop," he commented, assuming that if Scor had been so affected by it, he would have shown it there and then. Scorpius wasn't one for hiding emotions, only for not being able to say why he felt them in a way that was politically correct.

"I pretend to not care when I'm around Dad. He says crying's what little kids do, and that I'm not a little kid anymore so I have to act grown up. It's hard, but I really don't want him to send me to live with my Mudblood mother when they break up," Scor said. By now Al was almost used to Scor's foul language, and he was about to open his mouth to reply, (probably unhelpfully) when Scor added quickly, "Not that I cry."

"Sure you don't," Al replied hurriedly, before Scorpius closed up inside the little hole of his brain, locked away with all his feelings in a big stew that Al wasn't invited to. The rain continued to fall outside, the drops they were seeing on their window falling also into the black lake, tiny splashes into a huge expanse that meant nothing.

A/N: rocked the boat a bit there... Hope it wasn't too much dialogue!

Thanks for everyone's comments and votes, hopefully you're all enjoying it so far❤️❤️❤️