When words fail- Albus x Scorpius

Twelve

James' P/V

Everyone was in a good mood, everyone except Albus, he was good at hiding it, the only reason I knew was that I had noticed him digging his fingernails into his wrist.

I wanted to confront him make him stop but we were in a big group and if I brought attention to him it would make things worse, walking over to Teddy I tap on his shoulder.

"Hey James, What's up?" He said a big smile on his face.

"I need you to help me keep an eye on Albus," I say in a hushed voice that only Teddy could here.

Teddy's face fell just a little bit as he furled his eyebrows, he took a quick look over at Albus then Turned back to me, "What's wrong?"

"He's been having it rough and isn't taking it well, but of course he's good at hiding it so I need an extra pair of eyes on him."

"Understood, anything else I need to know?"

"He's digging his fingernails into his skin, and we need to stop that," as I relay the information Teddy's eyes widened and he looked back at Albus.

"Ok here the game plan, we need to get him out of here and have a one on one talk, figure out what exactly is wrong and how to fix it."

"How are we going to do that?"

"Just follow my lead," Teddy said walking over to Albus and picking him up and throwing him over his shoulder, "You are captured, Albus Severus Potter!"

"Teddy put me down!" Albus said struggling to be released from Teddy's group.

"Hahaha!! Never!" Teddy said before running out of the room, I followed a second later after grabbing Lin who had fallen off of Albus' shoulder.

Entering the empty room I look at Albus who was sitting in a chair looking at his feet.

"Show them to me," Teddy said, Albus didn't move, "Albus this isn't a game, show me,"

Albus took a quick breath and held out his wrist, Teddy took it and pulled back his sleeve to reveal red marks all around his arm.

Teddy didn't say anything just pulled the sleeve back down and took his own seat.

The room was quiet.

"Al, we want to help, but we can only help if you tell us what's wrong," I said handing Albus his snake.

"You can't help me," Albus said looking at Lin.

"Well, we can't if you don't tell us what's wrong!" Teddy said.

Albus bit his lip, "I-I have a crush on Scorpius...." he said curling his body up.

"Oh, well that is hard to deal with but it's not impossible," Teddy said.

"How is it not impossible!? He has a girlfriend! He's my best friend...... I-I Just don't want to ruin what we have," Albus said curling up so much that his head was resting on his knees.

"Have I ever told you about Sunshine and Scales?" Teddy asked, Al shook his head, "Well i have this friend who I call Scales, she liked her best friend and was terrified of her crush, not only because she was scared of rejection but she was also scared of how others would react, her family was strict and her classmates already teased her for being friends with a Hufflepuff, so she internalized her felling and it brought her to a place where she couldn't get out of bed in the morning because it hurt too much, morale of the story you can't internalize you're feeling or it comes out in nasty ways, Slytherin's are known for doing it and it's not a healthy way to live,"