Unspoken Love

2: CRUSH

     The next morning Albus woke up by himself on the sofa. Breakfast had begun half an hour prior so the footsteps and voices of fellow students filing through the common room broke him from his slumber. He was still rather drowsy, but he hadn't slept so well in weeks, he hated to admit that Scorpius might have had something to do with it. Albus resigned to go upstairs to get dressed for the day, hoping that his blond companion would be waiting for him.

"Hm." Albus hummed to himself as he stopped short in front of Scorpius's empty four-poster. He observed that his book bag was also missing, figuring that Scorpius had just gotten up early to send his beginning of the year letter to his father. Albus dressed quickly and ran a stressed hand through his unruly hair, a hairbrush always seemed to make it worse anyways. He hurried down to The Great Hall, pleased to find Scorpius sitting at the Slytherin table already.

"Morning. Just perusing my schedule, let me see yours." Scorpius said as he approached. Albus set down his schedule obediently and slid into the seat across from Scorpius.

"Most of them we've got together," Scorpius nodded approvingly, his voice muffled by a mouthful of toast, "The others..." he and Albus groaned in unison.

They both knew that the classes they had apart would be slightly unbearable, especially when it came time for collaborative projects. Albus snatched his schedule back and scanned his course load once more. Fifth year was the time to start tailoring your classes to go towards the career you want to go into, but truthfully, he had no idea what he was interested in pursuing so he'd just written down the classes that looked easy or mildly intriguing.

"I have literally no idea what I want to do with my life." Albus said, staring blankly at the sunny-side up egg that Scorpius had just placed in front of him, "And what if," he looked up with wide eyes, "What if by the time I've figured it out, I'll be so behind that I've ruined my chances in doing anything at all? What if I don't figure it out? What if-"

"Al," Scorpius said calmly, he leaned forward and raised his eyebrows, "You're not alone in this, you know. More than half of our year don't know what the hell they're doing, I promise." he added two slices of bacon to Albus's plate and the brunette flitted his eyes towards the fork loading up his plate warily.

"You know what you're going to do." Albus mumbled grudgingly. He refused to see the common humanity in this, I'm going to be a failu-

"-Albus." Scorpius kicked him under the table, interrupting his dreadful thoughts, "You will figure it out. I'll help you." he said, trying to be reassuring. Albus bit his lip anxiously and locked eyes with his best friend. Scorpius gestured at his chest and mimicked breathing in deeply.

"Do it." he said persistently when Albus didn't budge. Eventually, Albus rolled his eyes but did as he was told, inhaling for as long as he could before exhaling it all and relaxing his shoulders as he did. He hated to admit that he always did feel a lot better afterwards. He was a bit of a known stress-head and Scorpius had always done his best to be there through the panic attacks, the meltdowns, and the "What if?" spirals. He even researched on his own how to best help somebody who was feeling overwhelmed. Albus didn't know that though.

"Maybe I could be the Knight Bus driver." Albus said out of the silence, eliciting a snort from Scorpius, "Or," Albus continued, hoping he would keep Scorpius laughing, "One of the Gringotts goblins."

"You'd have to dress up like one. Big ears and all." Scorpius chuckled. Albus was nearly starstruck by the smile on Scorpius's face, it was one of his favorite things to look at in the entire world. He was quickly distracted though by a loud, obnoxiously familiar voice to his left, further down the table.

"What if I become homeless?" Albus said as he stared off in the direction of his older brother James, he was sitting with a few of his 7th year Slytherin friends. Very hypocritical, Albus thought, as James had made fun of Albus for being sorted into Slytherin for at least the first two years of his schooling. James was going to work in the Ministry after he graduated, it'd already been discussed and decided between him and Harry. His father had offered Albus a job too but the thought of being a Ministry worker under the watchful eye of his father and in the company of his older brother made his chest pang with misery.