Harry Potter Next Generation Social Media

12 - The Morning

(Set the morning after Albus came out.)

Albus was looking at himself in the mirror, knowing that breakfast might end up being a catastrophe. He looked at the rainbow bracelet that was still on his wrist and sighed. He didn't know how much backlash he was going to receive, but being the gay son of Harry Potter, he knew there wouldn't be peace and quiet. When Kitty came out, people were mean to her for weeks. She was already a fairly hated person since she had blood supremacist parents that she rebelled against, and her family situation made her unpopular among the students who believed in equality for muggle-born students and among the students who didn't. After she came out as a lesbian, she would have various slurs shouted at her whenever she left her dormitory for weeks until the drama finally died down. Even after people stopped being outwardly hostile, hardly anyone was nice to Kitty.

Although Albus was nervous about the bullying, he was even more nervous about what Scorpius was going to say to him. They hadn't talked since he posted yesterday despite the fact that they usually never spent two hours without talking unless they were asleep. Something had been super off about their friendship lately, and Albus was worried his crush was ruining his friendship, but he didn't know how to stop liking his best friend.

Albus sat down on his bed to wait for Scorpius because they always walked to breakfast together, and when he saw Scorpius emerge from the bathroom with his curly blonde hair unstyled and slightly damp and his Slytherin robe and tie off, leaving him in his white shirt and his black pants, he decided it was his chance to talk to his friend.

"Hey," Albus said as he stood up from his bed, and Scorpius's eyes immediately went to the rainbow bracelet on Albus's wrist. He stared at it for a few seconds before Albus tugged at his sleeve self-consciously, causing Scorpius to remember that someone spoke to him.

"Oh. Hey, Al. Give me one sec and then we can go to breakfast," said Scorpius, picking up his tie and starting to tie it in the mirror. He fiddled with the green-and-silver piece of fabric for a few seconds before he turned to Albus. "Hey, look. I feel terrible right now. You came out yesterday and I have hardly been supportive of you at all. There has just been a lot on my mind lately but I want you to know how much I support you and I feel awful for not being a better friend."

"Please, Scorp, you don't need to apologize. I'm gay, so what? You don't need to make a big deal. You're a great friend."

"No, I wasn't one yesterday. You deserve to feel like you're important to me because you are important to me, and I am sorry if I made you feel like I was unhappy with you," Scorpius told Albus, and it made Albus feel good although he still didn't think he was owed an apology.

"Okay, if you want to apologize that badly, then I will accept your apology, weirdo. Now, let's just finish getting ready and go to breakfast, alright? I am starving and I am sure you are too."

~

Scorpius, Albus, and Kitty all walked to the Great Hall together for breakfast as they usually did. When they entered, everybody's eyes immediately landed on Albus and the normal chatter throughout the hall was replaced with various whispers. Albus and his two friends sat in their normal seats at the table and they noticed that some of the people that usually sat near them had chosen different spots. A couple of boys at the table were speaking loud enough for Albus to hear, and their words were not kind.

"I can't believe one of the Potter kids is messed up in the head so badly. His dad will be mortified when he finds out."

"Yeah, I always thought he was chill-"

"Shut the fuck up, you two," Scorpius hissed menacingly at the two boys as he stood up.

"Keep your pants on, Malfoy," responded the taller, more muscular boy of the two boys in an agitated tone of voice.

"No, don't tell me to keep my pants on. I don't wanna hear you making homophobic comments about one of the only genuinely good people in this shitty school. If Albus wasn't here at this school, it would be a much darker place, and if you don't see that, I feel bad for you. Because I didn't see that for the longest time and now I do and I am sorry that I didn't notice right away. And if you two want a problem-"

"Scorpius, be careful. It's okay," Albus pleaded, but Scorpius shook his head.

"It's not okay. It's not okay..." Scorpius ran his hands through his hair in distress and then quickly walked out of the Great Hall.

"He has been acting so weird since he broke up with Priya," Kitty stated confusedly. "I don't know if we should chase after him because I don't know what's up with him and I don't know how to help him. But someone needs to help him, though. It's like he is slowly going nuts."

"I have a plan, but it probably won't get us anywhere, and it might just make things worse."

"What other kind of plan would we have? Fill me in."