It wouldn't even have taken a competitor - Scorpius" mistake was not being as energetic as Albus. He was only about sixteen, but he had found ways of searching for a cure, hidden from the world, all on his own. It didn't even occur to Scorpius at the time to run away on his own and dedicate his life to finding him; that would have been his only chance of not losing him to the vast gulf of time that now already separates them.