i love you more | scorbus

~ Chapter Three ~

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"Friendship is the comfort of knowing even that when you feel alone — you aren't."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Scorpius Malfoy was seated in a corner of the library, reading the book about dragons that his father had given him. The library was his favourite place, as there was always something there to distract you from your problems.

That was what Scorpius was currently doing: distracting himself, although the majority of people would just call it hiding.

What was he hiding from? Well, Polly Chapman's teasing was a brilliant name for it.

The other name was Albus Potter — who he'd run off on about an hour prior to avoid the conversation the brunet had started following Polly's actions. Scorpius knew it wasn't fair to hide his heartbreaks from his friend, after all, he'd exploded at the boy in the same room the year prior for exactly that reason. However, he couldn't bring himself to dump his sadness on Albus when he could deal with it just fine by himself.

In all honesty — neither of them were very good at talking out their problems.

The library fire was crackling in the grate, bright orange flames licking the burning wood for fuel. The room was almost silent, apart from the familiar sounds of pages turning, quills scratching and the snow on the window comforting most students who occupied it. The librarian was wandering around, returning books to shelves and tucking in chairs at desks where uncouth students had left them out.

She offered Scorpius a soft smile, noticing the fresh tear tracks on his face. She chose not to say anything, she understood who he was and knew how much people despised him.

The silence was broken as the library doors swung open in a flurry, almost knocking over a small first-year who had been carrying a stack of books beside them. She caught the few of the novels that fell, soon scurrying off in the other direction. The culprit attempted to apologise, but he didn't seem to care too much about her wellbeing.

Albus Potter stood in the doorway, his face pink from the exhaustion of racing around the castle for the past hour. His inhales were deep, his stomach inflating and deflating rather quickly. His wide eyes searched the room for his best friend. Scorpius raised the book in his fingers, attempting to hide his face as much as possible. Running off would be much too suspicious. For once, he would have to try and blend in.

Albus stopped to catch his breath, wrapping an arm around his stomach. He was relieved as he knew he'd have time to rest whilst searching the shelves for his beloved best friend. His eyes flittered everywhere, hoping for a sign to show that Scorpius Malfoy was indeed in the library.

He'd stumbled upon Scorpius earlier that afternoon, flustered and teary outside Slughorn's office. The scene had crushed him, as the blond was one of the only people that could make him happy when he was sad. He hoped he could distract his friend like Scorpius always did for him.  He just wanted to see the Malfoy's smile, the smile composed of perfect white teeth. He wanted to see Scorpius' stormy eyes fill with warmth again, as they should be.

All he wanted was to take Scorpius' pain away.

He spotted the blond in the corner of the library, his face buried in his book. Immediately, Albus raced over to the table and slammed his hands on it, interrupting Scorpius' reading without a second thought. He could barely speak, as he was still panting, but disregarded that for his friend's wellness.