bittersweet //scorbus//

amortentia

Albus and Scorpius's first week of school went just like any other. Except, not really. Albus was constantly running into Scorpius and dropping is things. Classes seemed further and further away from each other every day. Not to mention the pile of homework assigned to them.

"Okay, I know Slughorn is like, one of the core fighters during the war, but whatever, I mean he assigned us sixteen inches of parchment due next Tuesday!" Albus groaned.

"Yeah, it's only the first week!" complained Scorpius.

They grumbled and decided to put it off for a few more days. A little delay couldn't hurt that bad, right?

It did. By Thursday, the boys were frantically running around the dark common room, trying to collect notes or discard any broken quills. 

"Never again." Albus sighed as he finished his essay on Amortentia very late on Monday night.

"Procrastinating is actually the worst. Why did we ever do it?" Scorpius moaned.

Albus shrugged and put his head down in his arms.

"No, Al, we have to sleep in our beds tonight, you'll be exhausted." Scorpius said, poking at a still Albus.

Albus didn't reply, so Scorpius sighed and put down his own head.

"SCORPIUS!" shrieked Albus the next morning.

Scorpius looked up from his arms, which were covered in ink. They had both fallen asleep at the table the previous night.

"What, Al?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.

"We overslept! First class in ten minutes!" Albus shouted.

Scorpius shot up and ran to his trunk upstairs. He grabbed a hairbrush and combed his hair, but quite obviously didn't have time to shower. Albus could care less about brushing his hair, it'll still look a mess anyways.

They sped to the Potions room, only arriving a few minutes tardy. The forgiving Professor Slughorn waved it off and let them slide.

The two sighed in relief and sat at an empty table. After handing forth their essays, Slughorn announced the day's lesson.

"You all seem very educated in the art of Potions, I reckon, you are fifth years," Slughorn said, "So I thought we'd begin the year with a bang and brew Amortentia today!" 

He clapped his chubby hands together in delight as the rest of the students either smiled widely or blushed.

"You'll find all the ingredients in the cupboard, of course, but the Ashwinder eggs will be found at my desk." he informed.

Albus left to get the ingredients while Scorpius prepared the cauldron. He was excited, he'd never smelled Amortentia before.

"I can't smell anything," Albus says when they're done, "Did we do it wrong?"

"No, of course not, but I can't smell anything either." Scorpius replied.

"All I can smell is your bloody scarf." Scorpius shrugged, looking at Albus's neck.

To Scorpius's great embarrassment, Albus was not wearing his scarf. Albus didn't seem to notice though, he was busy sniffing the potion.

"God, how much bloody shampoo did you use, Scorp?" he laighed, looking up, "That's probably why we can't smell anything.

It dawned on Albus that Scorpius didn't have time to shower that morning, so his hair didn't smell like anything, and especially not anything as strong as Albus was describing. It also caught up to him what Scorpius said, and he looked down at his bare neck.

Both the boys burned bright red.

"You know, I-I think I smell lilies." Albus stammered.

"Yeah, a bit of a honey aroma is taking over." said Scorpius awkwardly.

No matter how much they told each other how they smelt sugary and flowery scents, it could never erase what they both confessed.

And though they'd never admit it, they each loved what the other said.