All recognizable characters and places belong to j. k. Rowling

It seemed the only good thing about this year was going to be the newly acquired access to the prefects bathroom. Albus Potter let out a small groan as he slid into the pool like tub, relief filling him as the hot water slowly relaxed all his tense muscles. He couldn't believe that he had put off investigating this place for so long, that it had taken a devastating, rainy, five hour quidditch game to fully require the advanced bath.

He couldn't believe that he would go down as the Slytherin quidditch captain that had brought about the biggest defeat they had ever had. It wasn't his fault that he was the only returning member of his team, though it was his fault for who he chose as replacements. He didn't know how his team still sucked so much after a month of intense practicing. Sure most of the team was under the fourth year, but it shouldn't have mattered that much. His father had practically the same quidditch team his entire Hogwarts career and that didn't stop them from winning at least a couple games. Just at the thought of how badly they had done Albus wanted to bang his head against the tiled edge of the tub.

"460 points!" he yelled out, taking advantage of the empty bathroom to get his rage out. "Fucking stupid Gryffindors taking advantage!" He pounded the water harshly, "460!" He let out a scream and then submerged himself under water. He would stay under for as long as he could. He would drown himself if he had to. He'd rather take that then the letter he knew he was bound to get from his brother in the next coming days.

He launched himself out of the water with a gasp, sucking in a deep breath just so he could yell it back out.

"Bloody hell!"

Albus turned around quickly, looking up to see a soaking wet Scorpius Malfoy standing in the doorway, clutching at his chest as if he was having a heart attack.

"What do you want Malfoy."

"You nearly scared me to death! You know there's a way to lock the door right?"

"Yes, " Albus answered though he actually did not know. He stood, the water coming just over his waist, and crossed his arms, "But I doubted I would be disturbed at such an hour. Again, what are you doing here Malfoy?"

"Prefect," Scorpius Malfoy said, pointing to the badge on his robes, "Baths," he pointed to the water, "One doesn't need to be a Ravenclaw to figure it out."

"Oh, right, well" Albus ran a hand through his hair, realizing now how obvious it was. He saw Scorpius Malfoy shiver a bit in the doorway, he saw once again that the boy was soaking wet, "Why are you so wet?"

"I think I'll just go,"

"No, no," Albus shook his head, "I probably shouldn't be left alone, you just walked in on me trying to drown myself."

"The loss wasn't that bad."

Albus gave him an incredulous look.

"Okay, okay, yeah it was bad."

Albus saw Scorpius Malfoy shiver again, "Shut the door, you're letting in a draft."

"You sure?"

"It's basically a pool, and like I said, I need someone to make sure I don't drown."

"Alright. Just turn around then."

"You do realize that we've got the same equipment and I change around most my team daily?" Albus laughed a little, but turned and sunk back into the water none the less.

"You never told me why you were wet," Albus asked again when Scorpius had eased himself into the water a couple feet away from him with a sigh.

"You were at your own game, were you not?" Scorpius rested his head against the tile, closing his eyes. His face looked different without the glasses he usually wore.

"That ended an hour ago though."

Scorpius opened his eyes to look at Albus, his hands messing with the water at his sides. "Prefects usually stay behind to make sure that everyone gets back to the castle and makes sure that the stands are clean of most trash."

"Seriously? That must suck. Do you always show up late to your parties if you win then?"

"Yeah. It's worse when some of the prefects don't clean up, but at least my house takes the clean up seriously. We were just really late today because the weather and all the Gryffindor's ditched. We let the Slytherins go because of the defeat and worked with the Hufflepuffs to clean up their side. "

"Well that's bullshit."

"It really is. Hold on a moment." Scorpius dunked his head under water for a couple moments, "My ears were about to freeze off."

"Fucking Gryffindors."

"Tell me about it. It was pretty shitty of them to delay catching the snitch."

"Ugh, don't remind me!" Albus really did bang his head against the title this time. "I know for a fact that Locke saw it at least six times before she went for it! She was toying with Monroe the entire time! Stupid 'on your left' shit."

"Is that what she was doing?"

"Yes! Monroe was complaining all about it. He's just a second year, where does she get off doing that?"

"No offence, but why did you pick him for your team?"

"He's pretty good in practice. Had a solid tryout. I think it was just rain and nerves. And fucking Locke! " Albus let out a frustrated scream and flopped under water again in frustration. He probably should have cared that he was losing his cool around Scorpius Malfoy, but he didn't. He had no reason to not trust the Ravenclaw and didn't think that anything that happened would get around the castle. That and the game was so horrendous that nobody could blame Albus for the way he was reacting if they ever did find out.

"I didn't think you were serious about the drowning part." Scorpius said when Albus emerged again. "Any longer and I would have pulled you up."

"I wasn't kidding."

Scorpius hummed and nodded. He relaxed back into the tile, closing his eyes again, "You know it started hailing when I headed back up to the castle. I got hit in the head by one the size of a snitch!"

"Oh you poor baby," Albus rolled his eyes, "That sounds so bad when compared to getting hit in the gut by a bludger."

"Ah, but I didn't sign up for hail, whereas you signed up for bludgers."

"No, I signed up for a beater who would stop bludgers."

"Are you telling me that your third year also had nerves and rain to blame?"

"No, my beaters actually are shit, but they were the only two who tried out." Albus folded his arms and relaxed against the tile. The continuous talk of quidditch was doing him no good.

"Have you walked in on anyone else?" Albus asked after a moment.

"Huh?"

"You've been a prefect since fifth year, so that's two whole years and the start of this one where you could have walked in on people. I find it hard to believe that I'd be the first one. "

"No, you're the second one," Scorpius said, "Most prefects know how to lock the door. It's the quidditch captains that don't figure it out. I'll show you before we leave so it doesn't happen again. "

"Who'd you walk in on then?" Albus asked, looking over at Scorpius, suppressed to see him turning red.

"Huffelpuff Captain."

"Oh Parish?" Albus started laughing, "What'd she do when she saw you?"

"No, no, not Parish," Scorpius said, going even redder, "It was my fifth year, so er, Harris. I don't think he saw me, he was, er, toweling off. "

"Are you going red Scorpius Malfoy?" Albus teased, all thoughts of quidditch forgotten. He hadn't seen the Ravenclaw flustered before. Frustrated, sure, N.E.W.T. classes did that easily enough, but he hadn't seen him red and embarrassed. "You are!"

Scorpius hid his hands in his face. "My turn to drown," he muttered as he started to slip under the water.

"Oh no you don't!" Albus laughed as he moved over and gripped his arm to pull him back out of the water, "You can't hide from me when you've just gotten me into a decent mood!"

"Oh shut it," Scorpius tried to pull away, splashing at Albus as he did so. "He was a buff seventh year and I was a weak fifth year. I also didn't expect to walk in on anyone the first time I used the prefects bath. Like I said, there's a way to lock it! We were all told!"

"You'd think Boris would automatically lock it."

"No," Scorpius shook his head, "We've got the end of the year prefects party after exams. Couldn't do it if Boris only let one person in."

"Prefects have a pool party?" Albus had said disbelievingly.

"What?" Scorpius finally managed to get his arm out of Albus' grasp. "We can't be stuck up do gooders all the time. We get a day off and pretend to be cool for a couple hours."

"I highly doubt Patil could ever be cool. "

"You've obviously never talked to Patil."

"Very true. I mean she's basically the girl version of you and you're turning out to be alright. Then again, why would I ever want to talk to a girl version of you?"

"Is that supposed to mean that you'd rather not talk to me at all?"

"Did I not just say that you were alright?" Albus grinned at him, pushing lightly at his shoulder. "it's more like why would I want the girl version when the boy version is much better."

Scorpius rolled his eyes at this but didn't say anything.

"So you had a thing for Harris then?" Albus continued, watching as Scorpius went red again, "Was it because he was a quidditch captain or because he was... how did you put it? Buff?" He grinned down at the Ravenclaw.

"I didn't have a thing for Harris!"

"Sure sure. But if you did, then technically I would fit that list wouldn't I?" Albus laughed as Scorpius turned red again and then escaped under water. It took almost a minute before Scorpius came back up.

"Trying to take a peak were you?"

"NO!" Scorpius hid his face in his hands and Albus laughed again.

"You know what," Albus said as he pulled himself out of the bath, "You don't have to answer me tonight. It's been a long day and I think both of us would like to get to bed." Albus didn't bother to hide anything as he made his way over to the towels and began to dry off. "Instead you can answer me on... Wednesday? That'll give you a couple days to think it over."

As he toweled off his hair he heard Scorpius get out of the water. Waiting until the Ravenclaw was next to him and drying off as well, Albus wrapped the towel around his waist and smirked at him. "Then, if it is because you like buff quidditch players we could have another bath."

"I, er,"

"No no," Albus held up a hand, "think it over." Albus slipped on his robes and took out his wand to dry Scorpius'. Handing the now dry robes over to him, Albus said, "Have a good night Scorpius," then left.