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Removing the snow from atop the wooden picnic table had been easy enough and Scorpius, now with his robes properly charmed to repel water and insulated to protect him from the cold, is lying atop of it.

With an almost half-empty bottle of (pilfered-from-his-friend) Ogden's Old forgotten beside him, a fire curling in his belly, and an old, charred broom at his feet.

He had been working on a modified charm for the broom. It hadn't turned out as well as he would've liked, as evident by the charred (and still smoking) remains of bristles.

He's obviously not too bothered by the experiment gone wrong. Maybe the firewhiskey helped or maybe it's just one of those days. Peacefully perfect - or perfectly peaceful - and he can't be bothered to care.

He's just going to enjoy the oncoming night, gloved fingers curled loosely around the neck of the bottle.

[OOC: Back! Open until it scrolls.]

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And Scorpius has scooted away from the side of the table where she's gesturing rather forcefully. He's flushed pink in the face, grimacing in the hope she doesn't get firewhiskey everywhere with all her gesturing, and staring at the frost-covered wood beneath him.

"I never - "

He huffs a sigh, hot breath meeting the cold or a hiccup of smoke from too much firewhiskey. He's also semi-aware he's only arguing back because of the firewhiskey too.

" - I never said I was indestructible. I mean, I did wait until after I was done experimenting before I had the firewhiskey, didn't I? It could've been loads worse if I hadn't. And I wasn't going to stay out here, I just wanted to see the - Well, you know."

He gestures vaguely toward the sky with an airy wave of his hand.

A bit more softly and apologetically, "It's a nice night, isn't it?"

"No. I don't know."

Is the sky doing something it normally doesn't? Not that she can tell.

Parker sets the bottle down on the table with a bang.

"Scorpius, sweetie. I'm being a bitch out of love, here. You have more sense than this. So what's with the booze and the fires? What's going on?"

Maybe it is just a teen being a teen. God knows, there were a few parties back in high school that had involved a bonfire and a couple of more beers than had been good for her.

But that had been a party scene. Not a solitary endeavor. And that's part of what worries her.

"Nothing is."

He sounds like he's swearing his innocence on Merlin's grave and he could be pleading it too with an innocent, if glassy-eyed gaze when he looks up at her again.

"Honestly, I'm just - I was bored and I'd read this article in my Quidditch periodical about brooms and their charms and I wanted to modify this old thing, but it backfired, hence the fire, and I grabbed the firewhiskey before any of it, because - I don't know."

He shrugs. Maybe he hasn't got as much sense as she thinks he does.

"Some things might've happened since the last time we talked, but I've already thought on the bad and moved on."

"You just grabbed a bottle of stuff that just about singed my nose hairs just from sniffing it?"

Parker sighs, sets the bottle far out of the way, and hitches herself up onto the table.

"Some things, huh? Well, I haven't seen you for a while. Or so it feels. Why don't you catch me up?"

Her eyebrow goes up, though her gaze softens a bit.

"I'm all for moving on from the bad. But the sneaky thing about the bad? Even when you're working on moving away from it--which is a good thing--it has this nasty tendency sometimes to circle back around, come up, and bite you in the ass again."

Been there. Smarted from that.

Scorpius only spares the bottle a longing glance before he focuses on Parker again. She should try it instead of turning it away like that. It is quite good and then maybe he could have some more and -

Oh, right. He's supposed to be catching her up.

At least he's had enough firewhiskey to be chatty still. Even if he thinks what he might have to say is boring to her ears.

"Well, uhm. The good? I asked Annabeth out. I've never - I've never actually asked a girl out before. It's always been sort of ...arranged for me. Not that I have had a lot of dates before. Probably only a handful, really. But, uhm, that's good, right?"

He offers a quick grin. (He may be trying to avoid having to talk about the bad.)

She's pretty sure he's beating around the bush. But he is talking. And that's something, especially given how unforthcoming young men can be.

So she'll go along for now. It it gets too cold, she can always hustle him inside and get some coffee into him.

"Yeah, that's good. That's great, even."

"So, how did that go?"

She really hopes Scorpius hasn't gone and gotten his heart broken. She might have to hurt someone.

"Oh. It, uhm - "

His mouth twists into a frown, only he doesn't seem very upset or like he's gotten his heart broken.

"It hasn't happened yet. She's from Milliways too, so timing has been a bit difficult."

"Okay. Yeah, I can see that."

Milliways sometimes likes to make macrame knots out of time.

"So, you have a date lined up with a girl you like."

"That doesn't explain why you're out here having a one-man frat party."

He almost asks her what a frat party is, exactly. But then it'd seem like he was stalling for time.

He shrugs.

"I'd have invited my friends, but they were busy. With each other."

"You do realize I'm not dropping this, right? Seriously. I was a bulldog in a past life."

Tenacious doesn't begin to cover it.

Parker picks up the bottle again. Exhibit A.

"Call me a drama-llama if you must, but you could have killed yourself like this, you know. If you had kept drinking and just stayed out here. What if your heater charms wore off? Or you decided that a swim in the lake sounded like a good way to cap off the night?"

"I wouldn't have done that."

As much as the firewhiskey warms his belly and the charms keep him warm enough that it starts to feel a bit hot in the thick robes... He's starting to sweat now, just thinking about it.

And thinking on that, he could see the lake being somewhat appealing to the judgment-impaired.

"I don't think I would have, anyway. Honestly though, I would have invited them. But they don't know about Milliways so we'd be having a drink in Slytherin instead. And they were busy with each other. Which isn't a problem. It's never been and they've been together for ages.

I could have asked Albus, I suppose, but I didn't think he'd be for it and he was reading anyway."

He frowns, rubbing at his brow.

"Oddly enough, I would have found it less worrying to find two of you out here."

Parker pulls her legs up so that she's sitting indian-style on the top of the table.

"So, what were you doing to the broom, anyway?"

[OOC: Bed is beckoning, but I'd love to continue in slowtime.]

"I tried to modify it so it'd fly faster," is the simple answer Scorpius provides to her question as he too finds a more comfortable way to sit.

He pulls his knees to his chest, an arm loped around his legs as he gives the broom a poke.

"It didn't work. Obviously."

[OOC: Sure! I'd love to slowtime.]

"Just as well."

Parker rests her elbows on her knees.

"Those videos they showed us in school of accidents from drunk driving were gruesome enough."

"I hate to think what the result of drunk broom flying would look like."

"I am not pissed enough to fly," he says, quite primly, before frowning. "Or, uhm, sober enough. I think you know what I mean."

From sitting to lying, as if he can't seem to sit still, he's on his back again, staring up at the sky. His legs dangle over the side.

"I wouldn't have managed it anyway. Maybe I knew I'd fail. I'm not surprised I have. I don't know what that stupid Hat was thinking."

"In other words, you're not as think as I drunk you are?" Parker asks, dryly.

She cocks her head at him as he loses verticality again, and restrains herself from ruffling a hand over his hair.

"Okay, honey. You're going to have to rewind and start over for me, there."

"Oh, uhm."

It made perfect sense to him.

"I only meant that I know I'm not sober enough to fly, but I'm not pissed enough to try. Or did you mean the bit about the Hat? Because then I was saying that Hat - the Sorting Hat, that is - "

He mimes a pointy wizard hat. As best he can. Mostly, he's just gesturing toward his head.

" - was stupid for sorting me Ravenclaw. Because, I'm not clever enough for that House. I couldn't modify the broom correctly. I can't do anything, really. Only make stupid decisions. Rather like having a lie-in in the snow. Or telling Albus Potter I fancy him.

"Except I didn't tell him that it was him, I sort of lied and pretended that it was another bloke, and I'm done with it now. Honestly, I am. But it was a stupid thing to do."

Scorpius heaves a heavy sigh.

"Idiot."

There's a pause. Not a long pause. But a pause.

"Oh."

So. At least some of this boils down to heartbreak (or at least heartbruise) after all.

"Scorpius. Hon. Listen to me."

Parker scoots closer so that, even at such an odd angle, she can look Scorpius in the eye.

"This stuff that you're talking about? It's not stupidity. Or idiocy. It's just....growing up. It royally sucks a lot of the time. And it's the hardest, most confusing thing you are ever going to do in your life. I don't care if you're Einstein crossed with that guy who won all those round on Jeopardy, it's hard to figure out."

She's in her twenties. And while she knows a hell of a lot more now than she did at sixteen, there are still things that need figuring out sometimes.

"So.....," she adds, venturing into what she realizes is territory that might get her shut down. "You like a guy?"

She wouldn't have called that one.

Scorpius had tried his very best to avoid her gaze and failed miserably at doing so, finally listening to what she had to say with unwavering attention. (He'll always listen to what she has to say, even if he might not quite put her advice to practice right away.)

He swallows a heavy lump in his throat and he thinks he could do with some more firewhiskey.

Especially when she asks that.

"No. Yes. Sort of? I suppose, rather, I'm trying not to."

He can feel the heat in his cheeks as he turns pink in the face and he finally glances away, looking at a spot over her shoulder.

"I don't think I like growing up very much."

Parker's mouth quirks into a bit of a smile.

"Well, the good news is that it's a temporary state. The bad news is that the only way out is through."

The only thing you can do is keep moving, no matter how rough it gets.

"Can I ask you something? When you told him, you know, hypothetically, what did he say?"

"That he was under the impressions that I fancied more than two people."

Scorpius shrugs, and then grins slightly when he realizes how funny that sounds. It hadn't then, given his heart was practically in his throat.

"But, I was more awkward about it than he was, if that's what you mean. He didn't think it was weird. Why?"

"Just curious."

She's glad this Albus kid didn't react badly. In Parker's experience, the possibility of liking another guy is a risky thing to admit to for a lot of teenage boys, even in this day and age.

Maybe it's different in Scorpius' world.

"I'm sorry that things are rough right now. I know how sometimes things can feel so bad that you just want to get a break from them any way you can."

When Parker had experienced it, drinking had been off the table as a means of escape, since that was what had contributed to the whole mess in the first place. She had, instead, opted for righteous fury there for a while.

"But why don't we strike booze and hypothermia off the list, okay? Because that is going to lead to me having to haul your butt to the doctor and making sure you get better so that I can then kick your ass and have a good cry because you scared me half to death."

"Deal?"

Her concern is noted with a solemn nod from Scorpius before smiling, minutely, at her overtly descriptive concern.

He really wasn't trying for the hypothermia bit. It was just a nice night out.

"Deal," he says. "And I'm sorry. For being in the middle of growing up and all that."

"Eh. Don't be."

It's not like that's the sort of thing you can help. Growing up.

Parker wags a finger at him, but it's with much more good humor now.

"But no more talk about you being stupid. I don't tolerate blatant lies about my friends."

Parker sits back a bit, palms resting on the tabletop.

"How about I buy you a coffee or something." She casts her eye over the sad looking broom. "We can get one for Mr. Clean, here, too. He looks like he could use some caffeine."

Scorpius can only promise not to try. His confidence in himself is a work-in-progress. He sits up at her offer, giving the poor broom a glance.

"Sure, but I think he probably needs more rest than anything. I'll work on attempting to repair him tomorrow."

He can, at the very, least attempt to restore it cosmetically.