undeniable | scorbus

two - scorpius

these dorks will be the death of me.

—

"Okay, then," Albus said, letting out a slow breath.

He started to pack up his things, and the rest of his group followed suit without a moment's hesitation, not bothering to mask their appalled expressions regarding this obvious injustice. Katie looked so distressed that Scorpius suspected she was genuinely worried for Albus's safety.

"I'm going to go work with Rose," Katie said finally, still keeping a wary eye on him, as she pushed herself off her stool with an air of haughtiness. "Don't let him convert you to the dark side."

"Shut up, Katie." Albus's voice was slightly lower than it usually was, and he furrowed his eyebrows at her as he spoke.

It wasn't harsh enough to be rude, but it certainly wasn't friendly enough to be taken lightly. She gave him an almost hurt look, clearly trying not to let the surprise show on her face before stalking off.

Albus walked over to him until they were about a meter apart, and for a moment, it seemed like the eternally confident Slytherin was at a loss for words.

Scorpius was all too familiar with what that felt like, so he interjected before Albus could speak.

"Do you want to set up while I grab the ingredients? Or you could grab the ingredients and I could set up. Whichever you'd prefer." Scorpius blurted out, much too quickly.

It was during times like this that he desperately wished he was the type of person to go silent, rather than ramble, in stressful situations. It would certainly make things less weird.

"That's an awfully hard decision to make," Albus said, raising an eyebrow. "I'm conflicted."

"Are you? I've noticed you're a little clumsy sometimes. No offence of course," Scorpius replied, failing to note the obvious sarcasm on Albus's part. "But maybe I should get our things, just to be on the safe side. Not that I watch you closely or anything. That would be a little bit weird."

Albus just stared at him, a hint of a smile now playing across his face, which, strangely enough, only made Scorpius more anxious. His will to make a decent first impression had almost been completely defeated.

"It's just that... well, last class you dropped your jar of beetle eyes and they rolled all over the classroom. You can probably imagine how hard it is to clean beetle eyes off the soles of leather shoes..." Scorpius trailed off as he noticed the growing expression of amusement on Albus's face.

"I guess you can get the ingredients then, since I'll probably trip and get Flobberworm mucus in your eye or something," Albus said nonchalantly, twirling on his heel to head towards an empty desk.

Scorpius winced.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to-" he started, feeling a dreadful sense of worry creep up to him, but he cut his sentence short when Albus let out a soft laugh.

"I was just kidding," he said, now grinning widely.

"Oh." Scorpius let out a breath of relief. "Okay."

"Sorry about your shoes. I'll wait at your desk," Albus called as he walked away, and Scorpius could feel his cheeks growing warm.

Sighing, he supposed keeping his mouth shut was a skill he had yet to master.

Scorpius waited for the small crowd to scatter before making his way into the old, wooden storage cupboards and gathering their materials into a small tray. The lavender sprigs were particularly hard to find, so it was a while before he was able to head back to where his mysterious new partner was sitting.