I've been working on this off and on for awhile and it's finally done. Hope you like it!

prima nocte.

All he hears is the sound of dripping water, and a desperate, pained whimpering. Albus stands in the middle of the water-logged bathroom floor, but he is not alone. Shirt saturated in blood and face screwed up in pain, there on the grimy tile lay his best friend.

Scorpius.

"S-Scorp?" he half-whispers. He takes a step forward, but the dream ends without warning.

Albus lurched forward with a gasp. He ran his long fingers through his sweat-dampened hair and tried to catch his breath. There was no doubt that was Scorpius writhing in pain in his nightmare. He couldn't bare seeing his best friend in such a state.

A dull white light to his left caught his attention. Scorpius had his wand raised, having cast a weak illuminating spell. "Albus?" he asked blearily, rubbing sleep from his eye. "You okay, mate?"

He bit back a sigh of relief at the sight of him, safe in his bed in their dormitory. "Yeah, just a nightmare. Sorry for waking you."

"S'okay," he mumbled, a soft smile on his face. "Delphi again?"

"Uh, yeah. No big deal," he lied. He wasn't exactly keen on explaining that he saw him dying on a bathroom floor.

Scorpius frowned. "I'm sorry. I still get them sometimes, too."

Albus felt a pang of guilt at that. He was the one who dragged him into the time-turner incident after all.

"You gonna be able to go back to sleep?" Scorpius whispered. He nodded numbly. "Okay," he said with another soft smile. Albus loved that. Scorpius put out his wand and rolled onto his back to sleep, head turned away.

He watched the rise and fall of his chest until he was sure Scorpius fell asleep before finally submitting to a restless slumber.

secundo nocte.

He is standing in the bathroom again. Everything is as he remembers, but Scorpius's pain is growing worse. The blood on the floor has nearly reached Albus's shoes. Scorpius groans, the pitiful sound echoing off the walls.

Albus finally gains control of his legs and rushes to his friend's side, careful not to splash even more blood and water onto him. "Scorpius, mate, what's happened?" He reaches a hand out towards him, but Scorpius makes a feeble attempt to shift away from his touch.

"No, hey, it's all right," he reassures, ignoring the sting in his heart. "Tell me who did this. Who cursed you?" Scorpius's breathing increases in pace and his eyes grow wild in fear. Upon closer examination, he sees that Scorpius is covered in deep gashes along his face, neck, and torso.

"Scorpius, what-?" he is cut off by a mangled cry that sounds suspiciously like "no."

Albus holds his hands up in surrender. "Okay, I won't touch you, but at least try to tell me what curse it was. I need to know the counter-curse so I can help you." Scorpius is rapidly fading, but he looks at Albus as if he is insane. Albus begins to panic. "Scorpius, please-!"

"Get away from me!" Scorpius yelps, attempting once again to push himself away from him. He whimpers again, eyes screwed up in pain.

Fine, Albus thinks. He rises to his feet and rushes to the hallway. There is no sign of anyone in the area. He cups his hands around his mouth and shouts, "Help! Somebody, please! We need help in here!" His voice carries all the way down the empty hallway, but he knows no one hears him.

Silence follows. He whips back around to Scorpius so fast his neck cracks. He is no longer moving, breathing, or whimpering.

"Scorpius!" Albus yelled, waking everyone in his dormitory, including the subject of his recurring nightmare.

"What the hell?" he heard Jenkins groan.

Scorpius was already upright with his wand ready, having once again cast lumos. Concern was painted across his face. "Albus, what happened?"

Albus took in the scene before him, all at once feeling relief, shame, and embarrassment. "Sorry," he mumbled, staring at his hands in his lap. He heard his dorm-mates mutter some rather unkind things and turn over to sleep again.

Scorpius rose and treaded over to sit on the edge of Albus's bed. "They're getting worse, huh?" Albus nodded, resigned. "Is it me?"

Albus looked up at him. "Yeah," he exhaled.

Scorpius gulped. "It's Delphi cursing me, isn't it? I'm sorry you had to see that. I really should have just—"

"No," Albus interrupted. "None of what happened last year was your fault. I'm the only one to blame." He believed that much. He just wasn't sure what was causing his nightmares of a dying, blood-covered Scorpius.

Maybe Scorpius had the right idea. Perhaps it was a manifestation of his guilt over the events of their fourth year.

Scorpius's silvery eyes bore into his for a moment before he scooted closer and wrapped his arms around him. "Still sticking with the hugging, yeah?" Albus joked feebly, returning the hug.

"Of course," he replied as he held him even tighter.

"Oh, get a room already," came a disgruntled voice from Parkinson's bed.

Scorpius pulled away and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "I guess I should go back to bed. Are you good?" Albus feigned a smile and nodded. "Okay. Good night."

"Night." Scorpius fell asleep soon after that, but Albus remained awake even after sunrise.

tertio nocte.

This time, Albus is alone in the Great Hall. He has never seen the school so void of students before.

"Where is everyone?" he voices. Then, he remembers. "Scorpius!" he shouts, and he is off like a shot toward the bathroom.

He is nearing the bathroom's corridor when he sees him. Scorpius is rushing to the bathroom, looking panicked. Albus is tempted to call out to him, but his curiosity doesn't allow it.

Albus trails behind him, matching his swift pace. When Scorpius arrives, Albus waits outside the door for some indication of the reason for Scorpius's stress.

His blonde hair is disheveled, and he has never looked more like Mr. Malfoy. He has profound dark circles around his eyes, and his knuckles are turning white from his tight grip around the basin in front of the mirror.

He quickly sheds his uniform sweater vest and his emerald tie. He splashes water on his face and leans over the basin as if he will he sick. Then, Albus sees his shoulders trembling. He is crying.

Albus can't take it anymore, he must get his attention and warn him about what happens to him in this bathroom. But Scorpius meets his eyes in the cracked mirror first.

He whirls around and glares daggers into him, looking ashamed and furious at having been caught in such a pathetic state.

Before Albus can say anything, he is dodging a hex that Scorpius hurls his way. A portion of the brick wall behind him explodes, and Albus launched into defense mode.

Scorpius dodges his levicorpus attempt, firing off two more hexes, one of which blasting a pipe beneath a sink and unleashing a torrent of water. He blocks Albus's leg locker curse and raises his wand once more, showing no sign of letting up.

"Why is this happening?" Albus silently wonders.

Scorpius's face scrunches up, and at once, time seems to slow down. Albus slips on the soaked tile, landing painfully on his side. He is barely aware of the fact that he has fallen when Scorpius yells, "Cruci-!"

On autopilot, Albus slashes his wand like a sword and shouts a curse he didn't know he knew.

As Albus is halfway to his feet, Scorpius stumbles backward and falls to the floor with a splash. There is blood pouring from deep wounds in his chest and face.

"Oh, oh god, Scorpius!" Albus gasps. "What did I do? God almighty, what did I do?" He is crying now, tears pouring down his face and landing on his bleeding friend.

What color could be seen behind the blood covering his face is rapidly fading, and his expression was terrified. He doesn't take his wide eyes off of Albus. He is writhing, clenching and unclenching his shaking fists, all the while wordlessly vocalizing his hurt.

Albus is wracked with sobs, his broken cries mingling with Scorpius's and echoing off the walls. He frets over his trembling body, hands hovering over him. When Scorpius pathetically pushes away from him, Albus puts his head in his hands and moans.

"I'm so sorry, Scorpius," he bawls. "I-I didn't… I didn't mean…" He pauses, realizing something. "It was me." He hiccups. "This whole time, I was the one who did this to you."

Scorpius is gasping for air, but is no longer whimpering. Albus reaches forward and softly brushes a hand against his cheek. He flinches, but does not try to move away. Whether that is a good sign or bad, Albus doesn't know.

"I don't know the counter-curse," he murmurs. "And no one is coming." He gently lifts Scorpius's head into his lap and brushes his matted hair from his forehead. "I'm sorry, Scorp, I'm so sorry…"

Scorpius's gaze softens, gray eyes boring into Albus's. His breathing grows more shallow, and he closes his eyes. He releases a few more ragged breaths and goes limp in Albus's arms.

"Scorpius? No, Scorpius, please," he begs. "No, no!" He is openly bawling again, clinging to his lifeless body.

The weight of his grief is crushing, he can hardly breathe. His vision grows cloudy. The last thing he sees is Scorpius's pale, bloody face, and then—

Albus surged up into a sitting position in his bed, gasping for breath. The Slytherin dungeon air felt cooler than usual on his face. He touched a hand to his cheek to discover the tears in his wretched nightmare had carried over to reality. He shuddered.

I don't know how much more of this I can take.

He huffed and threw his covers off. Not even bothering to put on a pair of slippers, he marched to the common room. He flopped down on a love seat by the fireplace and ran a shaky hand through his hair.

Lifting his legs up, he rested his head on his arms atop his knees. He was frankly disgusted. How could he consistently imagine Scorpius in that way across the span of three nights? How could he have been the one to do that to him?

Before he could further disparage himself, he felt someone sit beside him. He didn't have to look up to know it was Scorpius.

"Here," he heard him murmur. Albus peeked an eye up at him and saw he was holding a goblet of water for him. He sighed and took it.

"Thanks." He took a sip, pointedly avoiding Scorpius's gaze and staring into the fire. He felt Scorpius scoot closer to him and nudge him with an elbow.

"You know Albus," he said softly, "you can talk to me about this. I mean really talk about it. I was there too. And I'm here now."

Albus finally met his eyes. He was so sincere and knowing and soft. There was a pale orange tint to his cream-colored skin from the fire that made him glow, and his silver eyes appeared to hold all the knowledge in the world. Though it most certainly wasn't Scorpius's intention, he felt guilty.

"I haven't been honest with you," he finally said, setting his water down on the end table.

"Oh god," he replied jokingly. "You're leaving me for a new best friend. It's Jenkins, isn't it?"

At last Albus smiled and chuckled, "No, there's no new best friend. Especially not Jenkins." His nose scrunched up at the thought.

"Ah, good. For a moment there I thought maybe you'd gotten tired of being friends with such a geek." He slung an arm across Albus's shoulders, drawing him close. He leaned into him gratefully, not realizing until then how terribly he had needed his embrace. He closed his eyes and took in Scorpius's scent. It was comforting.

"Of course not," he mumbled into his shoulder. "I need you around to make me look good."

"Oh, sod off," he retorted, and they laughed together. "Okay, I'm serious now. What's going on?"

The smile faded from Albus's lips and he cleared his throat. "Right. Um. Well, these nightmares. They weren't of Delphi, like I said."

Scorpius's brows knitted together and took his arm off his shoulders. "They weren't?"

He shook his head. "No. Not Delphi, not Voldemort, not anything from last year."

"Oh," he breathed. He waited for Albus to continue.

"They were of, ah—" His voice hitched and he swallowed, face scrunched up in disgust. "I've been dreaming that I cursed you. Badly."

Scorpius looked taken aback for a brief moment. "You cursed me? Why would you dream that—"

"I don't know! It was so horrible, I-I couldn't bear it. There was so much blood and—" His breathing came hard and fast, prompting Scorpius to lay a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, it was just a dream, right? I know you would never curse me. At least I hope not," he attempted to joke. "What curse was it, anyway? Out of curiosity, of course." His eyes glittered with interest.

"I don't remember. It probably wasn't even a real curse. I just remember shouting something and then you were on the ground, covered in gashes as if you'd been attacked by a swordsman. It was…" He shuddered, unwilling to continue.

Scorpius put a hand to his chin in thought. "A swordsman," he repeated slowly. "Huh. Well what exactly happened in the dream? Besides the whole 'cursing me' bit."

So he relayed each moment of the recurring nightmare with painful detail, from when he chased Scorpius down the halls to the bathroom, all the way to the second his life slipped away in his arms. He almost hadn't noticed how Scorpius's eyes had grown wide with familiarity.

"What? What's that meaningful look?" Albus questioned.

"Sectumsempra."

"Gesundheit?"

"Sectumsempra. That's the curse," he stated reverently. "My dad told me about it."

"This is the first I'm hearing of it."

Scorpius's eyes narrowed, though not accusingly. "Are you absolutely sure?"

"Y-Yeah?" He was not as sure as he had been before. "Why would I know something so horrible?"

Scorpius sighed. "Maybe I'm wrong. Forget it."

Albus straightened and turned to face him head on. "No, wait. You were certain it was this sectma-whatever curse and now you're saying to forget about it because I've never heard of it. If you start backtracking over every spell I don't know then you're in for a long career at Hogwarts, my friend."

"I s'pose you're right there," he said, nudging him playfully. Albus nudged him back harder, and they had a brief shoving war before coming to a truce.

"Okay, okay, come on. What do you know about the curse?"

The playfulness in Scorpius's eyes faded and turned to concern. "You really want to know?"

"No, I thought I'd ask for no reason," he retorted sarcastically.

"Shut up." They smirked at each other. "All right. The only reason my dad knows that curse is because… er… someone used it on him."

Albus stifled a shallow gasp. "Merlin… That's terrible. Who?"

"It doesn't matter. It's just odd that… well…"

"Odd that what?"

"It happened here at Hogwarts. And… he was pursued from the Great Hall… into a bathroom."

Albus leaned back. "Now you're just messing with me."

"I'm serious!" he proclaimed, puffing his cheeks out.

"That is rather… odd." His eyes widened with realization. "Oh, it wasn't Voldemort was it? That's beyond terrible."

Scorpius began picking at his sleeves. "No… Not Voldemort."

"Bellatrix? Maybe? I can't think of a whole lot of people who would do that to him."

"N-No…" He then opted for chewing on his thumbnail. Albus was getting concerned. He placed a hand atop his and lowered it to stop the nail-biting.

"Hey, if it bothers you—"

"It was your dad," Scorpius interrupted.

"What?" he hissed back.

"It was your dad," he said again. "Harry Potter. He used it on him. He pursued my dad to the second floor bathroom where they fought, and things… got out of hand."

"'Out of hand'? If that curse is half as bad as I dreamt I'd say it was a little more than 'out of hand.'" His fingers tightened over Scorpius's and he involuntarily winced. "Sorry."

"No, I'm sorry. He really never told you?" he whispered.

Albus shook his head weakly. "No… I knew they didn't get on when they were kids but, this is…" He sighed. "My dad, he… He's not—"

"It was an accident."

"It was?" He had a hard time believing that.

"Dad is very understanding about it now. He says that Harry didn't know what that curse did. Luckily, someone came to help him. Well, obviously. He didn't bleed out, otherwise I wouldn't be here," he chuckled awkwardly.

"Who was it? Who came to help?"

"None other than your namesake, Severus Snape," he said almost gleefully, tapping his nose. His mood seemed to have picked up, but Albus was still reeling from it all.

"I'm sorry," Albus said finally.

"Don't be. It's really quite intriguing, when you think about it. What are the odds that you would dream of something that so similarly paralleled history? A Potter curses a Malfoy in a bathroom, with the same curse no less!"

Albus didn't share his enthusiasm. "But why? How could I dream of you that way? A bloody mess, literally."

"If it was as horrible as you say, then it was a nightmare. Those just happen sometimes, you know that. I'd only really be worried if you enjoyed it." He laughed, which got a smile out of Albus. "You don't still feel guilty about Delphi tort— err, cursing me, do you?" He always tried to keep himself from saying referring to it as "torture" in front of Albus, but often ended up needing to correct himself.

Albus shrugged, looking away. "In that moment, it was like she was torturing me too. It must have been so awful for you."

Scorpius smiled at him. "I know. I can't imagine being in your position, either. If anything happened to you, I'd be lost."

"Heh, yeah. You are a bit of a lost cause," he teased, lightly punching him on the arm. Scorpius stuck his tongue out in response.

"But really," Scorpius said, sobering. "That guilt can't be good for you. I think that's what's causing your nightmares. You can talk to me about what happened. And…" He paused, blushing. "I'd like to talk to you too."

He hadn't thought about that. "I… never considered you might want to seriously talk about it. I was just so focused on leaving it in the past."

"That's not always what's best. My dad did that, before he met my mum. She said once he finally opened up to her, he was much happier, and more free." He made a face like he'd misstepped, and continued "I-I don't know if that works for everyone, but…"

"No, it's all right. We can talk about it. Maybe not right now since it's—" he checked the clock on the wall behind Scorpius, "half past three in the morning. But some time."

"Some time soon, I hope. Tomorrow, maybe?" he suggested hopefully.

Albus nodded and stifled a yawn. "Tomorrow."

Scorpius looked at him for a moment. "I'm glad our dads aren't like that anymore." He suddenly looked bashful. "I'm glad we were never like that."

"Feelings change," Albus said without pause.

Scorpius bit his lip. "Yeah, they do."

Suddenly Albus surged forward and enveloped him in a tight hug, which Scorpius returned immediately. "Thank you," Albus mumbled into his neck.

They slightly pulled back to face each other, still wrapped up in each other's arms. Their eyes met, and Albus felt a fire in his belly that he hoped Scorpius could feel too.

"Albus…?" he whispered. There was a nervousness to his voice that unsettled him.

He swallowed. "Yeah?"

His pale face drew ever closer. "Do you think our feelings have changed?"

Albus couldn't speak, so he nodded dumbly. Scorpius smiled softly and closed his eyes, leaning his down forehead against Albus's. "I think so too."

Neither of them said anything for a moment, so Albus took a flying leap of faith and titled his head up to allow their lips to meet. When Scorpius's lips parted invitingly in response, he knew he hadn't made a mistake. Albus lifted a hand to his jaw and relished in the feeling of his smooth skin and soft lips.

Their lips moved against each other in tandem, though inexperienced. Scorpius tentatively put a hand to Albus's hip and drew him even closer. Albus made a light sound of surprise, which seemed to encourage Scorpius.

The each pulled back for breath, and they went back to simply leaning against each other. Albus chuckled in disbelief. "What on earth just happened?" he breathed.

Scorpius only laughed in response.

"I think we have a lot to talk about."

"Tomorrow," Scorpius said dreamily.

"Tomorrow," he agreed.

Eventually they stretched and resigned to finally getting some sleep. "Try not to have any nightmares, yeah?" Scorpius said, getting into his bed.

Albus smiled. "I don't think I'll have to worry about that anymore."

And he didn't.

Let me know what you thought! Hope you didn't mind the present VS past tense. Leave kudos and comments, and check out my hp tumblr hyperionis :)