Photo Booth | Albus Potter x Scorpius Malfoy Oneshot
Prompt idea from @blue--ingenue
Scorpius is practically pressed against a shop window, peering at the different types of cameras on display. Albus has noticed how fascinated Scorpius got whenever they passed by a technology shop.
“This is… incredible.” Scorpius begins, eyes wide. “These things are all so cool. Cameras, phones, computers… these muggle inventions are incredible”
Albus just chuckles at his reaction. “I’m surprised you're so into these cameras considering ours are magical.”
“Precisely - I’ve been using magical cameras ever since I was little. I have no idea how these could possibly work.” He pointed at the display of photos near the window. “I’m dying to know how they produce pictures without magic! I feel like we should go inside!”
Albus laughs and nods, letting Scorpius pull him into the shop. It’s small and a bit cramped, but packed with electronics and little gadgets. Scorpius looks around like a kid in a candy shop, immediately heading to the section with cameras.
Albus follows him to the camera section and begins inspecting a few of the cameras on display, fascinated by the technology. “This is insane.” He mutters, adjusting a few of the settings to see how they work.
“I know.” Albus says, smiling. He looks over at Scorpius who’s fiddling with the settings, looking concentrated. He’d be lying to himself if he said he didn’t find his boyfriend's fascination with cameras adorable.
Albus watches as Scorpius continues to examine the cameras, feeling a fondness in his chest. He could happily stand here and watch him play with the cameras for hours.
Scorpius picked up another one of the cameras, messing with its settings as well. He suddenly turned it and pointed it at Albus. “Smile!”
Albus blinks for a moment as he processes Scorpius’s words before giving him a small smile. As soon as he smiles, Scorpius takes a picture of him. He grins triumphantly as he looks at the photo that he had just taken.
Albus leans in closer to look at the photo as well. The photo shows Albus smiling directly at the camera, looking a little caught off guard by the sudden picture. “See? You look handsome even when not prepared for a picture.” Scorpius teased.
Albus rolled his eyes, his cheeks turning pink from the compliment. “You just took a picture of me without warning, of course I didn’t look prepared.” He smirked.
“I gave you a warning by saying the word smile.” Scorpius continues to tease with that contagious grin of his. Albus rolled his eyes again, still blushing a little. “That hardly counts as a warning in advance, you git.” He nudged Scorpius playfully.
As they continue with their bantering back and forth one of the employees makes their way over to the two. “Do you need help with anything?”
Albus and Scorpius both turn to face the employee, caught off guard by the sudden interruption. They look at each other, a little stunned, before Albus gathers himself enough to speak. “No, we’re just browsing,” he says with a polite smile.
“Actually,” Albus says before the employee walks off. “We’ll take this camera.” He points to the camera in Scorpius’s hands.
Scorpius looked down at the camera in his hands, surprised by Albus’s sudden decision to buy it. “Really?” he asked, a grin slowly spreading across his face.
Albus nods. “You like that one right? If you want a different one that’s fine too.” He begins to ramble making sure Scorpius didn’t want a different camera.
Scorpius shakes his head, stopping Albus’s rambling. “No, no. I do really like this one. “A small smirk tugs at the corners of his mouth. “You just surprised me, that’s all.”
A smile returns on Albus’s face as he takes the camera from Scorpius’s hands to give it to the employee.
“Let me get the box for this and I’ll meet you back at the register.” the employee says kindly as they begin to walk off.
Albus and Scorpius nod and begin walking towards the register to wait. As they’re waiting, Scorpius nudges Albus with his elbow. “You didn’t have to buy this, y’know. You didn’t have to buy anything.”
“I know but I wanted to.” Albus shrugged. Scorpius smiles at that and reaches out to link his hand with Albus’s.
While waiting Albus notices something out of the corner of his eye taking a mental note of it as the employee returns with the camera just then and starts ringing up their purchase.
Scorpius watches as the employee rings up the purchase, barely able to conceal the excitement on his face as he thought about the camera that Albus had bought for him.
A smile forms on Albus’s face at Scorpius’s excitement. He’s always so much more smiley whenever Scorpius is around.
The employee finishes ringing up the purchase and tells them their total. Albus quickly pulls out his wallet to pay them. He can feel Scorpius practically shaking with excitement next to him, making his own smile grow.
Once the transaction is complete, Albus turns to Scorpius and holds out the bag to him. “Here you go. It’s all yours now.”
Scorpius takes the bag carefully, almost as if he feared that the camera inside was going to explode, and pulls it close to his body, grinning from ear to ear.
“Thank you,” he says, his gratitude evident in his voice. “Now come on I saw something I think will really get those wheels in your mind turning.” Albus says pulling him deeper into the store.
Albus’s vague statement piques Scorpius’s curiosity, and he lets himself be pulled deeper into the store. They quickly find themselves in front of a photo booth and Albus smiles excitedly at him.
Scorpius looks at the photo booth and then turns his gaze to Albus, a mixture of curiosity and excitement on his face.
“A photo booth?” He raised an eyebrow at Albus, a small smirk playing at the corner of his lips. “If you think cameras are interesting just wait and see how this works.” Albus grins.
Scorpius’s curiosity was now fully piqued. “How does it work?” he asks, walking closer to the photo booth and examining it.
Albus lightly pushes him into the booth before following right behind. “Best way to learn is to watch.”
Scorpius stumbles into the booth, surprised by the sudden push, and then turns to watch as Albus closes the curtain behind them and joins him inside the cramped space.
Albus fishes out some spare coins from his pocket and inserts them into the machine. “Okay so there will be a countdown on this screen so make sure you pose before the countdown ends.”
As he inserts the last coin he says one last thing. “I think this machine takes four photos.” Scorpius listened intently as Albus explained to him how the photo booth works. His face lit up at the information, eager to try it out.
“Four photos, got it,” he repeated, nodding his head in understanding. The machine lights up and the boys blink from the extra sudden lights before the countdown appears.
As the countdown appeared on screen, Scorpius felt a sudden sense of urgency. “Albus! We have to make four different poses!” he whispers urgently, slightly panicked by the time limit.
Albus chuckled as he saw Scorpius’s panicked expression. “Relax, Scorp. We have enough time to make four different poses.”
3…
Scorpius places his bag in front of their feet before standing back up.
2…
He glances at Albus as they still aren’t in a pose. His eyes dart around as he tries to think of a pose for them to do.
1…
Scorpius throws himself into Albus as he tightly hugs him. That’s the only thing Scorpius could think of as the countdown was stressing him out.
Albus almost stumbles backwards from the force of Scorpius’s unexpected hug, but he quickly steadies himself and hugs Scorpius back. He grins as he looks down at his boyfriend, thinking that the panicked hug was adorable.
As they sway in the hug and finally get their balance back they turn to face the camera and see in bold letters ‘Thank You! Please collect your photos down below.’
“We’re done already?” Albus asks, surprise evident in his voice. Scorpius grabs the photo card that the machine printed and can’t help but laugh.
As they both look at the photos Albus joins in on the laughing. All four photos were of their singular hug. Each photo was slightly different due to the force Scorpius put behind the hug.
The pictures were all slightly blurry, but captured their hug in various stages. In the first photo, they were both off-balance and stumbling backwards.
In the second, they were just managing to regain their balance. The third picture showed them standing still in a hug, and the final photo captured them looking at each other with such adoration in their eyes.
The pictures were all so candid, so real, and Albus couldn’t help but think that they were perfect. He looked over at Scorpius with a smile, seeing the same adoration in his eyes as in the final photo.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works