Taming

They had looked for Jack all Wednesday night but never found him. Scorpius had been getting more frustrated by the hour.
Luckily, Thursday afternoon they were able to spot him, walking to class.

“Hey, Huggins.” Jack turned around and met Hugo’s fist, which was swinging directly at his face. Completely unprepared, Jack stumbled backwards and nearly fell.

“What the fuck are you doing, Weasley?” he shouted, clutching his eye.

“We have a few questions for you, Jack,” Rose said in her haughtiest tone. Scorpius stood over to the side, clutching Lily’s hand, nervous about the outcome.

“Most people who have questions ask them instead of punching people,” Jack said angrily.

Hugo shrugged. “I’m not most people,” he said implacably.

“Anyway,” Rose began again. “We want to know what you said to Albus Potter.”

Jack looked confused. “When? I haven’t talked to him since the last time I had the pleasure of getting manhandled by Hugo,” he said, glaring at his teammate.

“Well, someone said something to him that caused him to break off his engagement with Scorpius,” Rose told him.

Jack looked at Scorpius. “I was sorry to hear about that, Scorpius. Really.”

“Why do I find that hard to believe?” Scorpius asked him coldly.

Jack flushed a bit. “I know I was a real arse to you and Albus that night a while back. But I think you paid me back for it.”

“And you wanted revenge for that humiliation,” Rose accused, sounding more like she was the future lawyer rather than Scorpius. “So you decided to break Albus and Scorpius up.”

“I have no idea what you’re on about, Weasley,” Jack said, seemingly confused. “I haven’t talked to him in months. Scorpius had me pegged right. I was jealous and I didn’t handle it well.”

“You’ve got that right,” Scorpius told him.

“Well, this is a lot harder for me than it is for you!” Jack burst out.

“What are you talking about?” Scorpius asked.

“Being… you know… gay.” He looked around to see if there was anyone else in the corridor that might overhear. “You’ve always been so open about it, not caring what people thought. It’s harder for me. I’m a Quiddich player. A Beater even. People expect me to be tough and everything.”

“What is this, your coming-out story? I want to know what you did to… my ex.”

“Nothing, I swear!”

Hugo cracked his knuckles menacingly.

“But you admit to being jealous of Albus,” Rose said, trying to keep the interrogation on course.

“Sure. But after that night, I did a lot of thinking about… my feelings. I mean, Scorpius, you’re good-looking and everything, but I didn’t even really know you. I wasn’t jealous of Albus as much as I was jealous that it seemed so easy for you guys to be together in public and not care what people thought. I… uh… a couple of months ago, I started seeing someone. He’s a Ravenclaw. George Ashe. I- I’d appreciate it if you didn’t say anything. We’re not really ready to tell people yet. But things are good with us.” He flushed a little again.

“So you really didn’t say anything to Albus?” Rose asked him.

“No. I really was sorry that you guys broke up. I hate to think of George and I going through that.”

“Well, I guess if you really didn’t say anything,” Rose began.

Hugo cracked his knuckles again. “If I find out you lied to me, Huggins…”

“Hugo, mate, I just told you a pretty big secret. If I thought you’d have reason to want to hurt me, I just gave you a good way to do it,” he pointed out, sensibly. “I’m glad you’re seeing Kate Finnegan, too. She’s a sweet girl.”

Hugo looked surprised at this turn of events. “Yeah, thanks. She is,” he mumbled.

“So are we alright here?” Jack asked.

“I guess so,” Rose said dejectedly.

“Sorry about the punch, in that case,” Hugo offered.

“Nah, I’m just glad you’re okay with me being like this. With us being teammates and all.”

“You know that I don’t have a problem with gay people,” Hugo defended himself.

“Yeah, well. Some people still do. I just want to live my life. Scorpius, I’m sorry about that time I tried to pick a fight with you.”

Scorpius waved his hand dismissively. “Forget it.”

“Well,” Rose began lamely. “If you hear anything about something happening to Albus, will you tell us? He won’t say what happened.”

“Sure. If I hear anything. Okay, well, I’m going to go find George. I’ll see you lot later.”

The four of them watched him walk away and disappear around a corner.

“Should we believe him?” Lily asked, speaking for the first time.

“I think we have no choice. He actually seemed like he was telling the truth,” Scorpius admitted.

“I agree. But this leaves us without a suspect now,” Rose sighed.

“We just have to think harder,” Lily said, trying to make her voice encouraging.

“In that case, I’m going to class,” Hugo said. He turned to Scorpius. “Sorry, mate. I really thought it would be him.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry, too,” Scorpius said dejectedly.

“Don’t get down about it. We’ll get to the bottom of this soon enough,” Rose said, her jaw set determinedly. “C’mon, Scorpius,” she said, grabbing his hand. “We have class.”

******************

Thankfully Scorpius and Rose’s Thursday afternoon class, the only class they had together, was Muggle Studies, which was one class that Rose didn’t take too seriously. Her family had always been open to the idea of Muggles, so she was much more knowledgeable than most of their year.

That left them free to take a seat in the back of the room and spend most of the class whispering about their lack of a suspect. The brief hope that Scorpius had felt when Rosie had suggested Jack as the culprit had faded and left an even deeper depression in its wake.

“Rosie, I just don’t know,” Scorpius hissed for what seemed like the hundredth time.

“Sweetie, if we just think about this logically…”

“Oh, that’s my mistake. I’ve been thinking about it without any rhyme or reason,” he shot back, snidely.

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I know, I’m sorry. But this is making me crazy!”

“Clearly. But I certainly don’t blame you. I just mean there’s something that we haven’t thought of yet, and we just have to get there.”

“I think we’ve done enough thinking. I want to try to talk to him again.”

“Sweetie, you know Albus. He’s not behaving rationally right now. He’s just going to lash out at you.”

“I know that. Maybe if I’m willing to take a little abuse, though, he’ll end up spitting out what’s wrong.”

“You could be right,” she admitted. “But are you sure that you’re up for it?”

“No. But I’m running out of options.”

She squeezed his hand reassuringly. “Just let me know what I can do to help.”

He squeezed back. “You’re already doing it.”

***************

Scorpius went down to supper with Rose and Lily, hoping that Albus would be there. He was, but unfortunately, so was Kane Morton. With Albus. Scorpius resolutely sat at the Gryffindor table, his back to the Hufflepuff table.

He tried to talk to Hugo, Kate and Lily, but after a few stunted comments, he just sat in silence and let them chat. They were all tense, and he felt guilty about it. Rose had taken the seat across from Scorpius so that she could watch for Albus to leave.
Scorpius idly picked at his food. Finally after what seemed like an eternity, Rose whispered, “They’re leaving.”

Scorpius stood up and followed Albus and Kane into the hallway. He was pleased to see that they weren’t holding hands or touching in any way. It made him feel mildly better.

Before he could lose his nerve, he cleared his throat loudly. They turned around, and both of their mouths curled into unpleasant sneers, but Scorpius steeled himself against it.

“Could I have a word?” he asked, looking directly at Albus.

Albus shrugged a little.

“Piss off, Kane,” Scorpius said, without malice.

Albus started to protest, but Kane said, “Whatever. See you later, Al,” and turned off towards the Slytherin dorms.

“What do you want?” Albus demanded rudely.

“Near as I can figure it, someone told you something that made you break up with me. And I want to know who it was and what they said.”

“Fuck you! I don’t owe you any explanations. If you don’t know, I’m not going to tell you!”

“You do know that is the most immature argument of all time, right?”

“Shut the bloody hell up!”

“No! Now, I think that someone wanted to break us up. They could’ve told you the truth because Merlin knows I’ve done enough shite in the past that would make you angry. But probably not this angry. So I have to assume that someone lied to you. On purpose. To ruin us.” Scorpius took a breath, forcing himself to stay calm. His hands itched to grab Albus’s shoulders and shake him.

Albus actually looked hesitant for a moment, but then his face closed off again. “You’re such an egomaniac! You think that someone wanted you so badly that they had to get me out of the picture by lying to me? Because you’re so hot? That’s rich.”

“It is what it is,” Scorpius said matter-of-factly, refusing to back down. “You used to think I was hot.”

“That was before I knew what a liar you are!” Albus yelled angrily.

“But you won’t tell me what I’m accused of lying about and let me explain my side of the story.”

“There is no your side! There’s the truth and there’s lies, and I’ve heard enough lies out of you to last me forever!” With that, Albus whirled around and took off towards the Hufflepuff dorms.

Very glad that Albus hadn’t chosen to follow Kane, Scorpius watched him walk away. Then he went back into the Great Hall.

“Well?” Lily demanded. “Did he say anything?”

“Plenty. But nothing terribly helpful.” He carefully relayed their brief conversation.

“But that’s a huge help!” Rose crowed.

“How?”

“He basically admitted that we were right. Someone told him something. And they told him something that made you seem like a liar.”

“Yes, obviously. But what am I supposed to have lied about? I admitted all of that past shite to him. That I shagged girls. That I shagged everybody. That I partied… hard. That I drank. That I was mean and catty and rude and unpleasant. What else is even left that I could have lied about?”

No one had an idea.