The Great Hall was alive with voices and colour, as each house attempted to outdo its opponents by having the most green, blue, red or yellow on show as they possible could. From one end of the table adorned in green, Albus Severus Potter could see the whole Great Hall stretched out before him. He caught the eye of a red-haired Ravenclaw on the other side of the room. He smiled and gave her a little wave, and Rose waved back before the hall hushed and the big double doors swung open.

Down the centre of the Hall, a group of about twenty children progressed toward the weathered old hat sitting on its stool before the teacher's table. Some almost had to run to keep up with McGonagall, and they all looked more than a little nervous.

Albus remembered exactly how that felt.

Exactly 5 years ago it had been him walking up the row of tables, Rose by his side, overwhelmed with the colour and sea of faces that greeted him. He remembered standing in front of the hat and looking to his left to see a small boy with defined features and blond hair, looking almost, but not quite, as nervous as Albus was feeling. The other boy had caught his eye and lifted one side of his mouth in a half smile. Then, when his name was called, he had joined the table in green with a grin a mile wide.

When Albus' name had been called and he'd sat down on the stool, he remembered thinking that even if he was placed in Slytherin, it might not be so bad after all. At least he would have a friend. However, that thought hadn't prepared him for the shock that came when the hat did actually call, "Slytherin!" But I can't be in Slytherin, Mum, Dad, James, they're all in Gryffindor, he thought.

And before McGonagall took the hat from his head, he heard it say, "You were always different weren't you, Albus. And don't go thinking that's a bad thing."

Not quite knowing what to make of that, Albus slipped off the stool and looked for James' face in the sea of red at the Gryffindor table. He expected a scowl or a mocking expression, so when he caught sight of James' raised eyebrows and knowing smile, it threw him a little. It almost looked like James wasn't surprised. And Albus found himself thinking that he wasn't surprised that James wasn't surprised, and then thought he'd better sit down before all the thinking gave him an aneurism.

Sitting down at the Slytherin table next to the blond boy with the nice smile, Albus decided to make the best of it. After a second, there was a whisper in his ear. "Im Scorpius Malfoy, nice to meet you." Albus, surprised, turned and whispered back, "Albus Potter, nice to meet you too." He offered his hand and managed a smile. Of course this boy was a Malfoy. Still, Albus thought, I did just get placed in Slytherin, why not go the whole way and befriend a Malfoy too. So he added, "My friends call me Al."

Albus was brought back to reality when an elbow nudged his side. Scorpius gave him his half smile. "Remember when that was us?"

Al nodded. "Like it was yesterday."

"You still sorry you were put in Slytherin?"

He shook his head. "I wasn't sorry for long."

Much later, the tables were cleared and the food had all been eaten. The first years had been led to their respective common rooms by the newly appointed and eager to please prefects, and Al and Scorpious made their way down to the common room. The passage was cold, and when the opened the door, the common room wasn't much warmer. Scorpius shivered and sat down beside the fire to warm up. Al stood behind him, looking into the flames as they jumped and danced in the grate.

Scorpius titled his head up to look at him, and Al smiled. "Game of chess?"

This suggestion only drew a snort from Scorpius, who leaned back against Al's legs and sighed. "Why would I play chess if I know I'm going to lose anyway?"

Al laughed, "True, I do always beat you. Exploding snap then?"

"Now you're talking."

Al moved back to fetch the cards, depriving Scorpius of his backrest and making him fall backwards onto the rug. He lay where he was and watched as Al retrieved a pack of cards from one of the bookshelves on the other side of the room, weaving in and out of the students as they entered through the hall door. He came to sit on the rug beside Scorpius and dealt out the cards.

After almost an hour of playing, and being no closer to deciding a winner, the common room had almost emptied save for a dark haired sixth year reading his book in an armchair, and a pair of fourth year girls playing chess at a table on the other side of the room.

Al yawned and stretched, throwing down his cards. "Alright, you win, now can we go up to bed?"

Scorpius smirked in an irritating way and picked up the cards, only to have them explode right out of his hands again, making him jump. Al sniggered and Scorpius gave him a smack on the arm. "I still won."

"You're still a dick."

"You're still the only Potter in Slytherin."

"You're still friends with me."

Scorpius paused and then said, "I can't work out if that's more insulting to you, or me…"

"Definitely you." The girls on the other side of the room were packing up their game, and the boy reading had marked his place with his finger and was heading out the door.

Albus sighed. "Everyone else is going to bed, come one."

"One more game?" Scorpius was using his persuasive voice, and Al always found that very hard to resist.

In fact, Albus always found Scorpius very hard to resist.

As he looked at the blond boy busy dealing out the cards, he let his mind wander. It was the eyes, he decided. Scorpius had the most brilliant eyes. Stormy grey. Dark in the sun and bright in the moonlight. They seemed to see right through him, and it was a mystery to Al how Scorpius had not figured out his secret. Maybe he had. Without asking, Al would never know, and there was no way he was asking his best friend if he knew he fancied him.

His attention was caught by the flick of Scorpius hair as he shook it out of his eyes. Maybe it was the hair, Al thought. It was pure blond and shiny, and always seemed to be perfectly styled. Well, not at 6 in the morning. Al held a secret delight that he was one of the only people to see Scorpius in his 'just rolled out of bed' state. The hair would be mussed and spiky, eyes bleary, and movements a little unsteady as he makes his way to the bathroom. This isn't the sort of thing a best friend notices, Albus thinks. And for a second, he wonders if Scorpius ever thinks about him that way.

He shakes the thought from his head, and surfaces from his daydream to see Scorpius staring at him, cards held in one hand and expression unreadable. Albus had the terrifying thought that Scorpius had temporarily been given the ability to read minds, but then Scorpius spoke.

"You ok?" His face had shifted to an expression of slight amusement, and Albus gave him a smile and replied, "Yeah, why wouldn't it be?"

"Because you've been staring at me with an exceedingly vacant expression for about a minute now, and I was wondering if someone had stolen your brain." The corner of his mouth lifted in a classic Scorpius smirk, and Al blushed.

"I was just thinking. Sorry. Are you done dealing?" He reached for the cards in the other boy's hand, but Scorpius moved them a little out of his reach.

"What were you thinking about?"

"Just… things. School work and the first years and such." It was a lame argument, and Scorpius did not look impressed, but it was better than saying what was actually on his mind.

"Yeah. Right. You're a terrible liar, Al. Come on, tell me!"

"I can't." It was out before he could stop it, and he quickly bit the inside of his mouth to stop anything else being blurted out."

"You can tell me anything, you know." Scorpius looked entirely like a concerned parent, and the image was almost enough to make Al laugh. But he didn't.

"Not this."

"Don't be silly Al, you know the Malfoy motto, throw enough money at it and of course it can be fixed." The words would have been exceedingly pretentious if they had come from anyone but Scorpius, who made no secret of the fact that he was not entirely proud of his family's methods. His signature smirk was back, and Al gave a snort of laughter.

"Thanks, Scor. But please don't start throwing money at me, or I'll be forced to keep it."

"So you're the problem?"

"I… I didn't say that." Al bit his cheek and looked down.

"You didn't have to."

There was a silence for a couple of seconds, in which Albus found the floor to be a very interesting place to look at, and Scorpius found the top of Albus' head to be a very interesting place to look at.

"Al… If I do something really stupid, will you forgive me?"

Al's head snapped up and he frowned. "Why, what are you going to do?"

"Fix your problem."

Albus gave another snort of laughter. "I highly doubt it."

"So if it doesn't work, we forget the whole thing?"

"What are you talking about, Scor?"

"Just, close your eyes."

"What? Why?"

"Do it!" Scorpius' voice was rougher than usual, and Albus thought it would be easier just to obey and see what happens.

There was silence for a couple of seconds, and then Al murmured, "Scor, whatever it is you're doing, it better not-"

Then his words were cut off as a pair of warm lips pressed against his own, just for a second. Albus jerked backwards in surprise, eyes flying open to see Scorpius kneeling in front of him, eyes worried and biting his lip.

Albus didn't quite know what to say. What do you say to someone you've been best friends with for 5 years just after they kiss you? So he did the only reasonable thing he could think of. He leaned forward and kissed Scorpius back. Lips moved together, and Al's hands found their way to Scorpius' hair, and Scorpius' hands found their way to Al's waist. Scorpius leaned into Al, wanting more contact, more of Albus, and the other boy was pushed off balance, back thudding to the floor with Scorpius crashing down on top of him.

Al felt a bubble of laughter building up inside him, and when he heard Scorpius disgruntled little "Oof," as Al's knee came into contact with his ribs, he couldn't contain it.

They laughed until it felt like they'd forgotten how to stop, Al with his head thrown back and Scorpius with his head buried in Al's shoulder to stifle his own laughter. They were both still lying on the floor in fits when the door from the dorms opened and one of the prefects walked in.

If he found it odd that two of his housemates were lying, breathless from laughing, on top of each other on the hearthrug, he didn't say so. He did, however, tell them to go to bed before he took house points.

"You wouldn't take points from your own house,"Scorpius informed the prefect airily.

"Try me," came the firm reply.

Scorpius hauled himself to his feet and held out a hand for Al. "Alright, alright, were going. Goodnight… sir," he added with a cheeky smile at the unimpressed looking prefect, and the two boys quickly left the room.

Once up in the dormitory, Albus shut the door behind him with a soft click. Scorpius grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him towards his own bed, shutting the curtains behind them and muttering a silencing charm. He turned to face Albus who was looking at him with an odd expression on his face.

"I feel like the appropriate thing to do now is to push you backwards onto the bed and ravage you, but I feel bad pushing you since you took the fall earlier. You could push me if you like?"

Albus looked at him and quickly sat down on the edge of the bed, raising his eyebrows.

"What!" Scorpius knew that look, and it nearly always led to trouble.

"Why did you kiss me?" Albus voice shook a little, and he looked about to cry.

"Merlin, you're an emotional wreck tonight, Al! I kissed you to solve your problem. It did, didn't it?" Scorpius had a sudden sickening thought that maybe Al didn't want him after all, and he'd made a terrible mistake. "I thought that was what you wanted. I'm sorry."

"Scor, you're impossible. I'm sitting here asking you to confirm that you do actually like me, and you're still managing to act like you've done something wrong."

Scorpius breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"Thank god, I was beginning to think Rose had got something wrong for the first time in her life."

"Wait. What? What's Rose got to do with it!" Al looked confusedly up at him, and Scorpius hastened to back track.

"It's just… well, she told me something about you, after she found out something about me."

Al was silent for a few seconds, as though processing this information.

"So Rose found out something about you, and then told you that I fancy you? That doesn't sound like a very fair deal to me…"

"Well it wouldn't unless you knew what she found out about me."

"Which was?"

"God, you're dense! That I fancy you too!"

There was a silence then. Al looked at Scorpius, who found the carpet to be an appropriate place to fix his gaze. Al was the first to speak.

"Thank fuck for that then. Otherwise this situation would be incredibly awkward, wouldn't it."

Scorpius gave a snort of laughter and ran a hand through his hair, mussing it even more. Al stood up and slipped his arms around the slender boy's waist. He leaned in as if to kiss him, and then gave him a violent shove back onto the bed. Scorpius gave a squeak of surprise, and then Albus was on top of him, kissing him for all he was worth. In between kisses, Albus muttered, "I'm going to hex Rose next time I see her."

Scorpius murmured back, "Okay, but make it a nice hex. We should be thanking her really."

"Nothing like a nice thank you hex to start the day," Albus mused.

After a few minutes of tongues battling and hands roaming, Scorpius pushed Albus off him and took a deep breath.

"What was that for?" Albus' indignant comment made Scorpius smile, and he turned his head to look at the dark haired boy. "We should get some sleep. Classes tomorrow."

"Mmmm… But I don't wanna move." Albus stretched and turned on his side to look at Scorpius, eyelids heavy and hair sufficiently messy.

"Then don't. Sleep right there." Scorpius turned on his side to look back at Al, and bit his lip.

There was a pause, and then Albus said, "Okay."

Reaching over Al to get his wand, Scorpius muttered a quick, "Nox," plunging them into darkness.

"Night, Al." Scorpius reached out a hand to where he hoped Albus' cheek was and stroked it gently.

"Night, Scor," Al replied, raising his own hand to take hold of the one stroking his cheek. "And in the morning, we'll hex Rose together."

"Sounds like a plan. And we'll have to tell the others. James and Lily, Hugo, our friends. Everyone's going to find out someway or other."

Albus took a deep breath. "You're right-"

"As always," Scorpius cut in.

"-we should make a list of everyone who needs telling."

"That's going to be a huge list."

"I come from a huge family. Deal with it."

"I've had more than enough experience to know how to deal with your family, thanks very much." Al could hear the smirk in Scorpius' voice, and he squeezed the other boy's hand.

"Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow."

TBC

AN: To Be Continued! :D I felt like I hadn't written in way too long, and thought I'd try a different pairing. It was Cheryl Dyson who introduced me to this pairing, and her stories are completely amazing by the way. :) Albus and Scorpius are my way of dealing with the lack of canon Drarry. If they can't be together, I'll just put their sons together instead :D. But anyway, let me know what you think of this pairing, feedback is always loved. More soon! Love to all who read and review! xx :D