It had been twelve days since The Thing that Happened had happened.

Not that Scorpius was obsessively keeping count except that he totally was because, besides perhaps meeting Albus Potter, it was his favourite memory of all time. And obviously it was a very different memory than meeting Albus had been because that was all about sweets and jokes and this was all about...other things. Like Albus's hands. Albus's mouth. Sexy things like...

"You're doing it again," Albus muttered to Scorpius. He was revising and he sounded annoyed but Scorpius knew him well enough to be able to tell that he wasn't unhappy at all.

"Sorry, thanks," Scorpius told him quickly and forcibly stopped his restless leg from fidgeting by pressing it down with his hand, "Sorry, I just...you know, lots on my mind like...homework, or, yes, homework, leg needed something to do..."

"Mm," Albus murmured, and his eyes narrowed slightly, but he didn't say anything else and they fell quiet again. It was a comfortable quiet though—sitting together on one of the old black leather sofas in the common room, which was full of other people, but as none of them were paying the slightest bit of attention to Albus and Scorpius, it didn't matter. They were sitting rather closer together than would be typical of two male best friends, but since they had pronounced themselves boyfriend and boyfriend (boyfriends?) during The Thing that Happened, this snuggly seating arrangement had become a bit of a regular thing with them. They held hands sometimes now, hugged more than occasionally, they had even kissed again (only a few times, briefly, when they were sure no one else was around), and literally not one person had said a thing about it to them. Eventually someone would probably notice and word would get around, but for now, it was very nice to stay out of the spotlight while he and Albus got their bearings together.

There was just one thing...The Thing that Happened. Scorpius wanted it to happen again. In fact, he hoped very much that it would become a thing that they did—like how they were sitting together right now, something that happened rather frequently. A regular thing. Scheduled groping, so to speak.

The trouble was he did not know how to ask for such a thing. Every idea that popped into his head sounded more terrible than the last: can you stick your hand down my trousers again? was the most recent thing he had come close to blurting out, and he was so embarrassed for even thinking it that he had just hid his red face behind a textbook and said nothing at all. Albus had not brought it up again either, though Scorpius was certain he had not forgotten it, and he had a strong suspicion that Albus was hoping that Scorpius would broach the topic first.

Good luck with that, Albus, Scorpius thought to himself, crossing the fidgety leg over his lap to keep it still and resting a composition book full of Defence Against the Dark Arts notes on it. He twirled his quill in his hand.

"Are you—is something wrong?" Albus asked him quietly.

"No," said Scorpius quickly, shaking his head a bit more violently than was probably strictly necessary, "why do you ask?"

"It's just, you seem...I dunno, a bit odd?" said Albus, "Is something bothering you?"

Bothering. Scorpius was actually feeling quite significantly more bothered than usual these days—bothered in the much more pleasant but no less frustrating connotation of the word.

"Bothered? I'm not bothered. I'm fine. Why? Are you bothered? Is something bothering you?" he asked Albus, and since that sounded very unnatural, he continued on with, "It's a funny word, isn't it? Bothered. Very odd."

That...was not any better.

Albus closed his textbook and gave Scorpius his full attention, staring right into his eyes, his face soft with concern. He didn't say anything, he just waited for Scorpius to spit it out.

"Okay, well, maybe there is something," Scorpius admitted in a rush.

Albus waited.

"You know The Thing that Happened?" Scorpius asked him.

Albus furrowed his brow and shook his head slowly.

"You know The Thing," Scorpius pleaded with him. He had to know The Thing.

Albus was starting to look as though he had serious concerns about Scorpius's well-being.

"The Thing!" Scorpius cried, "The Thing with the..." he accentuated his meaning by gesturing down into his lap.

"Oh," said Albus quickly, his eyes widening. He grabbed Scorpius's flapping hand out of the air and looked around frantically to see if anyone was watching them. A couple of people had turned their heads at Scorpius's outburst, but very luckily none of them had been present for The Thing that Happened so they would have no idea to what he had been referring.

"Okay, yes," Albus muttered, "do you want to maybe go talk about this somewhere else? Or, you know, at least keep your voice down."

"Somewhere else," Scorpius decided, not entirely sure he could abide by the other condition, "How about by the lake?"

Albus shrugged—he probably had no particular opinions on the matter. Nor, in fact, did Scorpius—he just wanted to escape from the people in the common room who were eyeing him suspiciously. Albus got up and dumped his book carelessly onto the sofa, clearly intending to just leave it there where who knows what could happen to it—so Scorpius rescued it and placed it in his school bag along with his own work, which he left in a chair by the entrance to the dormitory as they exited.

They walked quickly and quietly outside—the corridors were bustling with people and Scorpius was keen to get as far away from them as possible.

The lakeside was dotted with couples cuddling and groups of friends laughing and he was struck with the sudden desire to lie down under the trees with Albus and kiss him all over his beautiful face...

"Over there?" Albus asked him, pointing to a tree with no one sitting at the base, probably due to it getting less sunlight than the areas closer to the edge of the lake. Still, they were looking for privacy, not sunshine, so Scorpius agreed and moments later they were seated, legs crossed, facing one another.

"Sorry," Albus told him immediately, "I thought The Thing you were talking about was maybe that practical Transfiguration exam you thought you'd messed up last week, not..."

He trailed off and fell silent.

"Okay so..." Scorpius started, willing Albus to hop in and get the discussion going. Albus did no such thing. He simply stared at Scorpius expectantly.

"I was just thinking..." he tried again, falteringly. Albus just blinked at him.

"Come on, Albus" Scorpius begged, "It's just that I've been thinking about it rather a lot since it happened...have you? Also?"

"Yeah," Albus admitted, "I honestly haven't thought about much else."

"Oh," Scorpius whispered, feeling his heart speed up a bit at that revelation, "It's just...I don't know how to ask this. It's that...it's like this. I want The Thing that Happened to become A Thing that Happens. Do you know what I mean?"

"You mean you want to do it again?" Albus asked him slowly.

"Right, yes," Scorpius said quickly, "but only if you do, I thought maybe— "

"I do," Albus assured him, "I really do. That's...yeah."

"Alright, fantastic!" Scorpius squealed—hopefully Albus finds squealing attractive, he thought. That hadn't been so difficult! "When shall we...?"

"Hmm," said Albus, screwing up his face and evidently thinking hard, "Er...we could maybe just have a lie-in during the next Quidditch game, everybody will be up at the pitch..."

"Good idea!" Scorpius told him enthusiastically, "When is that, exactly?"

Albus's kind of cringed. "Three weeks?"

"Oh," sighed Scorpius, his grin faltering. He waited to see what Albus would say. Three weeks was a lot longer than he had been hoping they would have to wait. He could manage though. Probably. Maybe. Hopefully.

"Yeah," Albus agreed with a grimace, "or..." He hesitated.

"Or?" Scorpius prompted.

"Or...we could just try and... you know, you could come join me in my bed after lights out," said Albus tentatively.

Scorpius must have looked as shocked as he felt, because Albus quickly added, "I'd be really quiet, I promise."

"We should probably use a Silencing Charm if we're going to do that," Scorpius suggested.

"Oh," said Albus, "why didn't I ever think of that?"

"It's okay," Scorpius assured him with a smile, "I'm glad you never did."

Oops. Maybe Albus would just not notice that or gloss over it or—

Albus frowned. "What?" he said.

"What'd I say?" asked Scorpius—playing innocent, but probably not very well.

"Why exactly are you glad I didn't think of a Silencing Charm?" Albus asked him shrewdly.

Oh no. Oh no. Scorpius had a very specific reason for being chuffed that Albus had never thought of using a Silencing Charm under these sorts of circumstances and he had had every intention of taking that information to his grave with him. He felt all the blood in his body rushing up to his face.

"Oh nothing," he said, in the high, awful voice he couldn't help using when he was nervous, "I just—I thought of it, so I wanted you to be impressed with me, for thinking of it, for having it be my idea, and I. Yes. There you go! Are you impressed?"

Albus wasn't listening, and his eyes nearly bugged out of his head as he made the connection. Oh no.

"Were you...can you hear me at night?" he asked, nearly whispering, even though no one was near enough to hear them.

Scorpius's mouth opened and closed many times—a clear admission of guilt, he was aware, but his useless brain had not provided any other ideas for what to do or say. He definitely looked like a goldfish.

"Oh my God," said Albus, plainly mortified, "Why didn't you say anything?"

Scorpius was positive he could not get any redder or more humiliated than he already was.

"Because...if I told you, then...you would use a Silencing Charm," he admitted, wrinkling his nose and squeezing his eyes shut.

Albus just looked confused. Was he really going to make Scorpius spell it out?

"I... didn't want to not hear you anymore," Scorpius whispered. Somehow turning it into a double negative made it easier to say. He squinted to look at Albus out of the corner of one eye.

"You were listening...on purpose?" Albus clarified.

Scorpius nodded. Albus looked down at the ground and licked his lips before saying:

"What were you doing while you were listening?"

"I couldn't possibly say it out loud," Scorpius squeaked.

"Were you...you know, because you could hear me doing that?" Albus asked. Scorpius had closed his eyes again so he couldn't see Albus's face, but his voice had gone oddly low and raspy.

Scorpius nodded again.

"Right," Albus breathed, and then Scorpius opened his eyes to look at him and was very glad he did, because there was that word again: bothered. Albus looked exceedingly bothered—in the good way. His eyes bored into Scorpius's.

"Right," he said again, still raspy but with conviction, "we're doing this tonight. I can't wait any longer. After lights out, you come meet me in my bed and cast a Silencing Charm and then we'll Do the Thing again or whatever you were calling it. Tossing each other off."

Scorpius's mouth had suddenly gone completely dry. He could only nod again. He was sure he looked like a bobble head doll, but apparently Albus was into bobble head dolls because Albus was looking at him as though he was going to tackle him to the ground and just start going at it. As appealing as that sounded, there were first years who could probably see them where they were, so Scorpius stood up, wiping his sweaty palms on his trousers.

"Okay, well, this has been...illuminating," Scorpius said in a terrible imitation of an airy, unconcerned tone of voice, "we should probably head back now that we have a plan, don't you think?"

"Yeah," said Albus, though he didn't stand up. Scorpius noticed that he appeared to have sort of curled in on himself—his knees were drawn up to his chest and he had put his arms around them.

"Um...are you coming back to the common room, or...?" Scorpius asked.

"Eventually," Albus muttered.

Scorpius finally got it.

"I see," he babbled, "okay, so I'll just, I'll go. I'll go right ahead and you, you can catch up when you're...when you've...you know, when everything's back in its proper place and its proper state and..."

"Scorpius," Albus hissed through his teeth, "the sooner you leave, the sooner I'll be able to join you."

"Right!" he squeaked, "okay, bye!"

And he scampered along up the grounds and into the castle.