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Shedding Old Skins	By : WillGirl Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Albus Severus/Scorpius Views: 5165 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter novels (or movies), nor the characters contained therin. All rights remain with JKR. No monetary reconpense is gained from the writing of this story, which is purely for entertainment purposes.

Chapter List
- 7
- 8
- 9
Harry Potter was silent while his son spoke. He watched Albus, because he could not bring himself to look at the boy sitting next to his son, and because he was afraid of catching his wife’s eye, because he did not know what he would see on her face, and he didn’t want to make Albus worry any more than he was already.

Albus was very pale, and he spoke in short, halting bursts of quick speech, stumbling over his words and wringing his hands. He fidgeted nervously; playing with his hair, the hem of his shirt, a loose thread on the arm of the couch. Albus and Scorpius sat next to each other, although they did not touch, yet. Albus had not gotten to that part of the story, and he wanted to reveal it all in order—do it properly, this time, instead of the debacle that had happened with his dad. He could happily live the rest of his life without repeating anything that mortifying, and certainly he didn’t want to screw things up with his mother, but it was comforting having Scorpius next to him nonetheless.

His mother sat across from the boys, perched on the edge of her chair, peering very closely at her son. She nodded automatically as he spoke, trying to coax his words out as he stuttered his way through a short story that was taking a very long, painful time to tell. Ginny’s bright hair wavered like flames around her face as she bobbed her head encouragingly, worrying at her lips to keep herself from speaking, from interrupting, until her son was done.

From upstairs came the muffled sounds of James and Lily screeching at one another, but that was far away, and for the moment no one was paying the other children any attention.

“...and so, well, I’m gay,” Albus finished at last. He looked down, gnawing his lip with his teeth, afraid to even glance at his mother—afraid of seeing horror or hatred on her face.

“Right,” she said, “yeah, okay.” She leaned forward and squeezed his knee, and Albus only flinched a little. “I appreciate you telling us, hon. That was really brave.”

For a moment Albus didn’t move, just sat there and stared at his mother’s hand on his leg. He blinked several times then, slowly, he raised his head. He eyed his mother through the curtain of his dark hair. “You knew,” he said quietly, accusingly.

Ginny shrugged, and bit her lip, as if to hide a smile. “Nah,” she said, “of course not.”

Albus raised his eyebrows and stared harder. Ginny shrugged again, the smirk starting to slip free of her teeth. “Well, maybe a little bit,” she admitted. “I guessed, can we put it like that?”

Harry and Albus gaped at her with identical expressions of slack-jawed shock. “You knew? ” Harry said.

Ginny shrugged. “I said I guessed ,” she emphasized again. “I mean, Al hadn’t said anything, how could I have known?”

“But you did,” said Harry, rather heavily. He shook his head. “I had no idea.”

“Well of course you didn't, sweetheart,” Ginny said. She patted her husband’s arm comfortingly. “You never do, do you?” She couldn’t help but grin at him, even though he looked so miserable. “How long did it take you to figure out that Dean and Seamus are more than just ‘roommates,’ anyway?” she asked him.

Harry stared. “Are you joking?” he asked plaintively.

Ginny tried very hard to swallow her laughter. “Maybe we’ll talk about that later,” she said, her voice very strained from repressed amusement. She reached over to tweak Harry’s nose. “You’re just lucky I like the cute, dense ones,” she teased him. “But anyway...I think Al probably had more he wanted to say?” Ginny looked over at her son as her husband settled back in his chair with a heavy sigh.

Albus was in the middle of exchanging what appeared to be a very complicated series of facial gestures with his friend. If Ginny was any judge of those sorts of things—and after a childhood spent with trouble-making twin brothers, she liked to consider herself nearly an expert—it appeared to be a conversation along the lines of, “parents, oh my god, I know right? Honestly...” But when Ginny turned her attention back to her son, he froze in mid-grimace, his head jerking around to stare at her so fast he might have hurt himself. His freckled face had gone very pale.

“I’m not a mind-reader, hon,” Ginny said drily, “but you still look way too tense to have finished your confession already.”

“Oh,” said Albus. He glanced down, and then over at Scorpius, who smiled encouragingly, and then up at his mother again. Ginny was glad that the kid had someone here to offer him some moral support for the apparently grueling task of telling his mother shit she already knew, although she did—as always—have to wonder at her son’s choice for the source of that support.

Scorpius was a good enough kid, for a squirmy, scrawny snake, but Ginny didn’t really think he was the overly supportive type. Too prone to sneers, in her opinion, and then there was that scathing, drawling voice of his, that set her teeth on edge...but at least Al had someone . Ginny hoped it helped; he looked very nervous, so anxious that she almost couldn’t bear it. She just wanted to grab the kid and smother him in a hug until he calmed down, but she thought that might not be very helpful, at the moment, so she restrained herself (barely).

“Come on Al,” Ginny said gently, “what else you got?”

“Well...a boyfriend?” he ventured, very quietly. He was staring up at her pathetically through the veil of his fringe, and he looked like a puppy that thought he was about to be kicked. Ginny crossed her legs to keep herself in her seat, fighting that urge to hug him.

She grinned. “No shit?” Ginny said, “Al, that’s great. Brilliant. When can we meet him?”

“Er...” Albus squirmed in his seat, so uncomfortable he looked like he was sitting on a Blast-Ended Skrewt. “Right now?” he said, his face screwed up in a fearful grimace of anxiety. He was so pale the freckles on his cheeks looked like they were about to swim away.

“Huh?” said Ginny. “What, do you have him stashed upstairs or something, or is he just standing by his floo on call?” She chuckled.

“Well...neither,” said Albus, still squirming. “He’s, um...he’s right here, actually.”

Albus’s furtive little nod sideways was a plainly obvious gesture, but it still took Ginny several minutes to process what it meant. Her eyes shot from her son’s face to the pale, pointed, sickly one of the boy sitting next to him. She stared at Scorpius Malfoy. He went even paler under her scrutiny and edged backwards on the couch, drawing away from her. He looked like a wilting corpse. The fingers of his hand—the one nearest her Albus—twitched and slowly crawled across the cushion, reaching for her son. Their fingers met and twined together, and Scorpius’s scrawny throat bobbed as he swallowed very hard.

“No,” said Ginny Weasley.

“I—what?” said Albus.

“I said no,” Ginny repeated. “No, absolutely not.”

“I...but, mum...”

“No,” she said again. “No, you are not dating...him.”

Scorpius shrank back against the couch, looking very small and helpless, and utterly annoying. Albus put an arm around the brat’s scrawny shoulders. “Mum...” he said again, sounding breathless and outraged, “mum I am.”

Ginny shook her head. Her hair whipped violently, a bright red lash of denial. “ No ,” she said again.

“Gin...” Harry leaned forward, speaking softly. His eyes darted to their son, and the skinny boy cringing at Albus’s side, and then back again, searching her face, trying to smile. “Gin, come on...”

“No,” she said, yet again, “no way. Absolutely not.”

“I thought you didn’t care,” Albus cried.

“I don’t care that you’re gay,” Ginny clarified, “that’s cool, that’s fine. It makes no difference to anything. But you are going to date a nice boy, Albus, not that—that one.”

Scorpius’s lip slipped out in a pout and the shadows under his puffy, empty grey eyes were very deep. A shock of white-blond hair curled next to his ear, emphasizing the skeletal thinness of his face, and his pointed chin trembled. Ginny was reminded very strongly of another boy who had looked like that, a long time ago, and what he had done, and said, and caused. She scowled at the miniature version of Draco Malfoy that was cowering on her couch, and she remembered a hundred crimes and curses.

“I love him,” Albus said, glaring fiercely, “and we are dating. Go on, dad, tell her.”

Harry, for some reason Ginny couldn’t fathom, went absolutely crimson and looked away from everyone. He swallowed hard, as if fighting the urge to be ill. “I, uh...that...that’s true,” Harry stammered, “they uh...they are, yeah...”

Ginny shook her head. “Not anymore,” she said firmly.

“Mum!” Albus gaped at her, his arm going very tight around Scorpius’s skinny shoulders. The aristocratic little wretch cringed against Albus’s side, looking like he needed someone to protect him; whether it was deliberate or not, Ginny thought, Malfoy was very good at appealing to her son’s savior-tendencies. Albus had inherited those from his dad, and ordinarily Ginny thought it was cute—even when it meant things like half-drowned pigeons at three in the morning, or broken-pawed mice in the kitchen—but not right now. Not when the thing involved was that boy.

“Absolutely not,” Ginny said, “I forbid it. You’re not dating him, and I’m not having him in my house anymore, and this is over. End of discussion.”

“Fine then!” Albus shot to his feet, his green eyes blazing. He tugged Scorpius up with him, although the other boy still shrunk backwards, tight against Albus’s side, as if hoping to use her son as a shield against an oncoming hex.

Albus’s hand dropped from Scorpius’s shoulder to grab his hand, and their fingers laced together tightly. Albus looked like he was on the verge of tears, and despite her furious scowl Ginny still wanted to hug him, pry him away from the Malfoy brat and enfold her poor little boy in her arms, and convince him everything would be okay. But Albus quite obviously wasn’t in the mood for hugs, even from his mother, not right now. He glared furiously.

“I’ll just leave!” he roared.

“ALBUS!” Harry’s shout, and his sharply extended hand, stopped the boy in his tracks when he would have tugged Scorpius with him out the door.

“What?” Albus said, his angry green eyes glimmering wetly.

“Don’t leave,” Harry said simply.

“Please,” Scorpius whispered in Albus's ear, "I’ll just go, please, it's all right...”

“It is not all right!” Albus snapped back. “If Scor can’t be here, then—then neither can I!”

“Your mum didn’t mean it,” Harry cajoled, “please Al, come on, just calm down...”

“I bloody well did mean it!” Ginny exclaimed.

“Gin, come on.” Harry took her hand and Ginny scowled at him but did not yank herself free. He turned back to look at their son. “Let’s just all be calm for a minute, okay? Can we just talk?”

Albus nodded, although he still looked mutinous, and he did not sit down. His knuckles had gone bone white, his grip on Scor’s hand tight enough to hurt, but Scorpius did not pull away. Instead he pressed closer, and placed his other hand on Albus’s shoulder; soothing or reassuring or simply holding him back, or maybe all three at once.

“Ginny...be reasonable?” Harry asked, hopefully. Ginny gave him a look that said plainly, without any words at all, not bloody likely. Harry’s smile turned into a wince. He looked at Albus.

“Just...just don’t go anywhere for a minute, okay?” he said. “Your mum and I need to talk.”

“So talk,” said Albus, glaring belligerently. Now he did sit down, dropping onto the couch like he was digging his heels in for battle. “I’ve got time.” Albus tugged on the hand he was still holding and Scorpius hesitantly joined him, although his fearful grey eyes never left Harry and Ginny’s faces. The boys drew close together, a united front, even if it was evident that Scorpius would much rather just flee, while Albus was prepared for a fight.

Harry sighed. “I meant...” He shook his head. Albus obviously knew what he meant, he just wasn’t in the mood to listen. Fine, let Albus hear the dirty details, if he was so determined. Harry clearly wasn’t going to be able to stop him.

Harry looked at his wife. He squeezed her hand and said gently, “Gin...he’s not his father.”

“Yeah, and Draco wasn’t his father, either,” Ginny retorted, “and look how that turned out for everyone. Awesome.”

Harry could practically hear Scorpius stiffen from across the room. He winced. He really didn’t want to say anything bad about the kid’s father in front of him, but...

“You can’t blame Scorpius for that,” Harry said. He spoke very quietly, but he knew the boys would hear him anyway, even though he wished they wouldn’t.

“I don’t have to blame him for anything,” Ginny said, “I just don’t want him near my son.”

“They’ve been friends for five years, and nothing bad’s happened to Al,” Harry pointed out.

“This is more than just friends we’re talking about here, Harry, and you know it,” Ginny said grimly. “And I won’t have Albus getting involved in that with his family.” She glanced over at Scorpius, scowling darkly. This time the boy returned her gaze firmly, although he still flinched a little bit in fear. He was as extraordinarily pale as before, but now there were two bright red spots on his white cheeks, and his mouth had gone very thin.

“What do you think dear old Draco’s going to do when he finds out his son is dating a half-blood boy, anyway?” Ginny shook her head. “I’m not running that risk.”

“Father is delighted, actually.” Scorpius’s voice was shrill, but very loud. Harry actually jumped. It had been so long since the boy had spoken up, he had half-forgotten that the kid was capable of making any noise. Then Harry realized what Scorpius had said, and blinked hard.

“What?” he said.

“Say what?” Ginny echoed. She stared at Scorpius with stark disbelief etched onto her freckled face; Harry imagined his own expression was probably identical to his wife’s.

Scorpius shrank back a little, pressed tight to Albus’s side, but his pointed chin jutted out defiantly. “I said, my father is delighted.” He was still speaking a few octaves higher than was normal, but his voice was strong, his flickering expression almost confident.

Ginny snorted. “The hell he is,” she said.

Scorpius tilted his head back further, a haughty frown on his thin face. “I assure you,” he chirped firmly, “he is, and mother too.”

Ginny’s eyebrows arched up towards her bright red hairline. “Uh-huh,” she said drily.

“He is,” Albus confirmed, nodding. “We, um...we told him yesterday, actually.”

Ginny’s face went blank. “You told Draco Malfoy before you told me,” she said, her tone flat.

“Er...” Albus nodded, a little shamefacedly. “Yeah,” he admitted. “Well,” he said, “we kind of thought that...honestly, we thought he was more likely to react badly than the two of you,” he said.

An awkward silence followed that pronouncement. Ginny’s cheeks went pink under her freckles. “Oh,” she said, in a strangely strangled voice. Harry said nothing at all, but he could feel his own face burning. He swallowed hard and said, “but he...didn’t?”

Albus and Scorpius shook their heads in unison. “Father was, er, surprisingly thrilled, actually,” Scorpius said. His voice had shrunk back to its earlier small whisper. “And unsurprised.”

“Looks like you weren’t the only one to guess I was gay, mum,” Albus added. “Mr. Malfoy just...figured out the rest of it, too. Actually,” Albus added hesitantly, “it turns out he had figured it out ages before we knew, even.”

Ginny raised an eyebrow. “Huh,” she said. It was a very noncommittal sound, but her tone was as disbelieving as ever.

Harry frowned, struggling to process the most important part of this revelation. “So you’re telling me,” he said to Albus, “that Draco Malfoy knows that you’re dating his only son...and he’s okay with that?”

Albus nodded, and so did Scorpius.

“Huh,” said Harry. “Okay, then.”

“What do you mean, ‘okay’?” Ginny demanded.

“Well...” Harry shrugged. “Just, okay.”

“It is not okay,” Ginny said darkly, “it will never be okay.”

“Gin...”

“No,” she said, “no I hate this. I hate them. I hate all of it.” She blinked furiously, scattering tears before they could fall.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Potter,” Scorpius said. He had hunched in on himself, and was looking up at Ginny and Harry with a very pained expression. He looked the picture of abject misery and repentance. “I’m really very sorry.”

Ginny looked at him, her face hard.

Scorpius looked very small, and pale, and contrite. He looked frightened and ashamed and his fingers were still laced very tightly with those of Ginny’s son. Albus stared at her, his own face pained and desperate and sad, but his green eyes glimmered with unshed tears and fragile hopes. Albus’s lip trembled, and he bit it, and looked like he was trying very hard not to cry.

“Oh, fine,” Ginny snarled, relenting angrily. She jabbed a finger sharply in Scorpius’s face and he flinched away. “But when you break his heart, and let him down, and hurt him, I’m going to string you up by your ferrety little ankles and feed you to one of Charlie’s dragons!” With that said, Ginny stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her so hard that the picture-frames on the nearest shelf wobbled dangerously.

“She doesn’t mean that,” Harry said automatically.

Scorpius nodded stiffly, obviously terrified and not believing Harry. That was good, because he was pretty sure he was lying, and that dragons would indeed be in Scorpius’s future if he hurt so much as a hair on Albus’s untidy head.

Harry sighed. “I’m sorry, Al,” he said heavily. “It’s just... hard .” He shook his head, his expression bleak. “We’ll try, okay? Be patient with us...will you?”

Albus hesitated, then nodded once, jerkily. “Okay,” he said. He swallowed hard and dredged up a watery smile for his father. “Thanks,” he added.

Harry smiled weakly and ruffled his son’s hair. He glanced at the boy sitting next to Albus, frowned, and forced the smile back into place. “So, uh,” he said, “I guess it was good we waited until after dinner to do this, yeah?” His weak attempt at casual good humor sounded strained and horrible to Harry’s ears, and he grimaced.

Albus nodded, his own smile a forced rictus. “Guess so,” he agreed. “Um, I guess...I guess we’re done, then?”

Harry nodded. “Yeah,” he said, “yeah, I...yeah. Okay. That’s probably it, yeah.” He stood up, then hesitated. “Although...Al?”

“Yes?” Albus looked anxious, but not anywhere near as frightened as he had before.

“Could you, maybe...do me a favor?” Harry scratched the back of his ankle with the other foot, balancing awkwardly.

“Okay?” said Albus.

“Maybe just...just for a little while...try to, um, to keep your hands to yourselves, okay? If you...get what I’m saying.” Harry grimaced, and tried to smile, and grimaced again.

Albus stared at him. The expression on his face—a face that Harry knew almost as well as his own, a face that he had adored since the moment the kid was born—the expression on it was, suddenly, inscrutable. “Okay,” said Albus. Harry could make out nothing from his tone, either.

He glanced at Scorpius, but the other boy was wearing that infuriatingly blank Malfoy Mask that his whole family did so well, the one that gave nothing away. Harry would have bet good Galleons that Scorpius was an Occlumens.

Harry nodded. “Okay,” he said. “Thanks. I just...I think it’d be best, you know? Give everyone a chance to just...cope. You know? I appreciate it.”

The boys nodded, and Harry forced another smile, and then he left. When he closed the door behind him he turned and rested his forehead against the old, dark wood. He sighed heavily. Why did life have to be so... complicated?

Albus and Scorpius sat in silence for a while. Then, “I should probably go,” Scorpius said quietly.

“What?” said Albus. “No, why?”

“Al...come on,” Scorpius said. He smiled gently. “I really don’t think I should be here right now. Do you?"

“You’re not breaking up with me, are you?” Albus asked. He didn’t believe it was possible, of course, but he still had to know, to make sure, just in case...

“Of course not,” Scorpius replied immediately, “you idiot.” Albus grinned in relief and Scorpius leaned in to kiss him, very gently. “I just think, given everything...”

“Yeah,” Albus admitted, “you’re probably right.” He sighed, his shoulders slumping. He stood up to walk Scorpius over to the floo, even though it was only a few steps away. Albus wanted to spend every second he could in Scor’s company, right up to the edge of the fireplace grate itself. He wrapped his arms around his boyfriend’s waist and rested his forehead against Scorpius’s. “But I’ll see you again soon, right?” he asked.

“As soon as you like,” Scorpius replied. He grinned softly. “You know where to find me,” he said, and raised his mouth to Albus’s for a long kiss. They stood wrapped around one another in front of the mantle for a long time, neither one speaking.

Scorpius pulled back with a sigh. “I should go,” he said again.

Albus nodded, although he did not want to. He lifted the lid on the jar of floo powder and Scorpius took a handful. “Hey—” Albus caught Scor’s arm as he turned to the fireplace. “What we were doing, earlier...do you think, I mean...can we, maybe, finish that, later?”

Scorpius smiled. “Promise,” he said. Then with a flash of green light, he was gone.

Albus sighed and sank down on the chair nearest the fireplace. He stared at the empty grate for a long time before he dragged himself to his feet and trudged upstairs, returning to his bedroom—all alone.
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