No One Else

Chapter One

Scorpius Malfoy's eyelids fluttered as the sunlight crept through the window across from him. Above him was a boy named Albus Potter, sitting cross-legged on the edge of the bed, simply looking, memorizing everything about Scorpius. Everything about him was pale, washed out. His skin was the color of lilies, his hair was so blond that it was white, tousled by sleep. Even his lips, Albus noticed, were but a soft, muted roseate. The boy continued staring, completely lost in him, even if only for a moment, before Scorpius truly woke. Albus suddenly began scrambling, stammering, trying to quickly come up with an excuse as to why he was watching his best friend sleep, and ended up falling from the bed in the process. Scorpius' eyes burst open, worried, erratically scanning the room.

    "Scorpius?"

Then all at once, it stopped. The pale boy's lips parted in a soft half smile at Albus' voice. He sat up, looking at his friend on the ground.

    "Good morning to you, too,"  Scorpius mumbled, his voice groggy and rough, still shrouded in sleep.

    "H-hey," Albus said, quickly pulling himself off the ground, wracking his mind for an excuse, "I was just, ah, looking for-you know- um a sock. Yeah, oh, there it is."

    "Sure, Albus. Loosing a sock again every morning right I wake up ever since this year started," laughed Scorpius.

Albus' nose and cheeks turned bright red, but he then gave up and smiled shyly,

    "You caught me."

    It was a Saturday in October, the seventeenth of October to be exact. Most of the school was currently in Hogsmeade. Albus and Scorpius had Hogwarts almost to themselves. They spent much of the day in the Slytherin common room, Albus with a book and his head resting in Scorpius' lap, stretched across the sofa and Scorpius with a notebook, writing furiously. Albus always wondered what, exactly, he was writing, he even built up the courage to ask a few times. Scorpius never shared much though, replying with a slow "Something," and going slightly red in the face. This did not discourage Albus, though, if anything it only made him more determined.

    In the silence, Scorpius allowed his eyes to slowly travel from his quill to the lines of words to the top of the page then to the other boy's face. His hair stuck out in all different directions, his eyes the most incredible green-blue that Scorpius had ever seen, and light, subtle freckles dotting his nose and cheeks, twenty-three of them all in all, and before you ask, yes, Scorpius had counted them. Many times. Scorpius smiled to himself, then his chest did this fluttery thing. No, he thought, I am not going to do this. The feeling returned.

    "Oh, shit."

    "What?" Albus looked up. Scorpius looked away.

    "Nothing. It's.. Nothing," Scorpius mumbles.

    "Er...Okay, if you so," Nodded Albus, not entirely convinced, then added, "if there was something, you'd tell me, right?"

    "Yeah, of course," Scorpius felt tremendous guilt now in place of the fluttery feeling at his lie. But his friend nodded, and he told himself to get over it.

    Albus continues to wonder, but they both continue what they're doing separately.

    Around two hours later, Scorpius checks his watch.

    "We should probably head up to dinner soon?" he suggested. Albus looked at the clock and agreed. In ten minutes, they were in the dining hall, sitting across from each other at the very end of the Slytherin table, away from the first and second years. Their food appeared, and Albus began looking around, thoughtfully. Scorpius smiled,