Lily Luna Potter stood in the Great Hall, feeling lost. It was her first day back at Hogwarts after the Christmas Holidays, where she had learnt something huge. Her friends waved at her from the house tables, and she smiled half-heartedly back at them. Meanwhile, she began scanning all of the tables for boys. Sighing, she gave up when she knew there was no way she would know who she was looking for simply by seeing their faces.

Ginevra Potter hurried down the alleyway, her cloak pulled tight against the howling wind, her unmistakeable hair hidden in her hood. She turned onto Knockturn Alley and looked down the street until she found the shop she was looking for. When she reached in, Ginny looked once in each direction to make sure nobody was watching, then pushed open the door and strode in.

"You are late, Mrs Potter," a high, cracked voice like creaking furniture sounded from the shadowed interior of the room; Ginny started.

She bowed her head. "I am sorry," she said humbly. "When you are making sure you are not followed, it is hard to be hasty."

Ginny stepped forward into the small shop, and gradually began to make out the furniture inside. Floor to ceiling shelves covered the walls and were filled with books, clothes, and beads, as well as numerous Divination supplies. A small, round table was placed at the back of the room, with a low stool on either side of it. The woman who had just spoken was seated on one of the stools.

She had dark, leathery skin and a bejewelled turban wrapped around her head, with a few stray wisps of thick, black hair escaping. Her fingers glittered with chunky rings and her nails were sharpened into points.

"Take a seat, Ginevra," she said, her grin revealing teeth yellowed with age. "Tell me why you came."

Lily sat down next to her friend, Macie West, and brother Albus. He passed her the toast and she offered an empty smile in return, her mind still on her impossible quest. What Ginny had asked her to do… It was impossible. Not only that, but if she did complete it, then her life would be forever changed, and not in a way she was sure she was ready for.

She shook her head and tried to forget about her secret mission. Instead, she turned to Macie and asked about her family's Christmas trip to France. But while she nodded and laughed and responded in all the right places, her mind couldn't help drifting back to what Ginny had said to her.

"Now, Lily," Ginny said, taking a seat at the dinner table and inviting her daughter to do the same. "What I'm about to tell you may be a shock, but I want you to hear me out until the end, alright?"

Lily nodded, frowning at the serious expression on her mother's usually carefree face. "What is it?" she asked slowly.

Ginny took a deep breath before launching into the story of when she'd visited the fortune teller's shop in Knockturn Alley.

"You were just four years old at the time. But already, I felt like something was wrong. It was like a strange sense of foreboding, and it worried me so much, that I went to someone who could help. She made a prophecy, that day:

The Potter girl of flower's name,

Her heart to all shall be fair game

Many a love she'll take then set free,

But she will meet her match at the age of one and three

However, should she love the serpent boy,

She shall find herself faced with a terrible ploy

To find the man with whom a wedding occurs,

Look for the boy with the mark like hers."

Lily stared back at her mother. She found she had hundreds of things she wanted to say, but she couldn't get any of them out. "So what does that mean for me?" she finally asked.

Sighing, Ginny stood up and moved around the table to her daughter, stroking her hair idly as she said, "I have been pondering it for nine years, and I still cannot say for certain all of the prophecy's meanings. However, the last line suggests there is a boy at Hogwarts with a birthmark that matches yours, and he shall marry you one day. Do you have a birthmark?" she asked Lily, who thought for a moment.

"I do," she said, and Ginny visibly sighed with relief. "I have a small, claw shaped mark on my inner left thigh."

Ginny's mouth split into a wide grin. "In that case," she said happily, "All you have to do is find a boy with the same claw shaped mark on his thigh, and avoid the serpent boy, while you're at it."

Lily thought about the prophecy for a moment before speaking again. "But, Mum…" she said slowly. "If the mark is in the same place, how am I supposed to see a boy's thigh to check?"

Her hand freezing halfway down Lily's hair, Ginny's eyes widened. "I didn't think of that," she said, cursing under her breath. "Well, I suppose you'll just have to think of something," she said after a moment of thinking.

At that moment, the door opened, and Harry walked in. He greeted them and sat down at the table. Lily looked to Ginny, an unspoken question plain in her eyes: Does Harry know? Ginny bit her lip, then gave a tiny shake of her head. Lily rolled her eyes before getting up and leaving the room. She had a lot to think about – in private.

'To find the man with whom a wedding occurs, look for the boy with the mark like hers.' The words kept drifting around in Lily's mind all day but she couldn't for the life of her think how to act on them. Was she just supposed to unclothe every boy she met until she found the one with the right mark? No. She was thirteen, for Merlin's sake! However, the temptation still remained.

Not that she would ever act on it, of course.

Of course.

She shook her head, banishing the intrusive thoughts from her mind. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment and she was glad nobody could see what she was thinking.

"Lily? Lily, are you alright?"

Lily was brought back to the present to find Albus and Macie staring worriedly at her.

"You look a bit pale. Are you ill?" Albus was asking gently.

Standing up, Lily shook her head. "No, no, I'm fine," she said, trying to clear the haze of her mind. Maybe she was ill. "I'm just going to go for a walk."

Letting her legs take her wherever they wanted, Lily ignored her surroundings until she felt wetness. Looking down, she realised she had walked all the way down to the Lake, and was now standing with her ankles submerged in water.

She took a quick step back, which was met with a bark of laughter from behind her. Turning around quickly, Lily found a boy with pale blonde hair standing behind her.

"I was wondering how long it would take you to realise," he said, his eyes crinkled in amusement.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Well, I'm sorry that I'm feeling a bit out of it today," she said, raising her eyebrows. "But as long as you get some amusement out of it."

This just made the boy grin wider. "I don't believe we've met," he said after a moment, and held out a pale hand. "I'm Scorpius. Scorpius Malfoy."

They were stood on Platform 9 and ¾, a few minutes before the train was due to leave the station for Hogwarts. When Harry left to put Lily's trunk in, the girl turned to her mother, a stricken expression on her pale, freckled face. "Mum, what did the prophecy mean? About the serpent boy?"

Ginny knelt down next to her daughter and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry about it too much, sweetie," she said, but Lily could tell that Ginny certainly was worrying. "Just focus on your exams, okay?"

Lily nodded, but she felt numb with worry. Who was she meant to avoid, and why? What was the 'terrible ploy?'

When she was on the train, her parents stood on the platform, waving at her. Just as the wheels started to move, Lily shouted back at them, "Dad! Who is a serpent boy?"

Harry frowned in confusion. "What do you mean?" he shouted back, and Lily could only just hear him over the roar of the train and the rest of the people.

"If there was a serpent boy, who would you say it was?"

He thought for a moment, before looking up at her with haunted eyes. "The Malfoys are a family of snakes," he told her seriously. "Stay away from them."

Then Ginny said something else to her, but the words were swept away with the wind, and all Lily could do was wave as the train pulled away from the station, a hollow feeling in her stomach.

"Malfoy?" Lily choked out in surprise. His hand wavered in the air, as if he was unsure if he should have offered it at all.

She swallowed her surprise and shook his outstretched hand. "I'm Lily," she told him, waiting a moment before saying, "Lily Potter."

Now it was Scorpius' turn to be surprised. His hand, cool and dry, dropped from hers and fell to his side. He recovered more quickly than she did, however, and offered her a charming smile a moment later.

"You don't mind if I take a swim, do you?" he asked. "If you were planning on going in yourself, I can come back later…"

Lily shook her head and he glanced down at her wet feet, before smirking.

"I suppose you've already gone in, haven't you?" he laughed.

Lily scowled.

Scorpius just grinned at her, before pulling off his jumper, followed by his shirt. Lily quickly averted her eyes. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of seeing her watch.

As he stripped down, she wondered how he wasn't absolutely freezing. It was January, after all, and a particularly cold morning. Goose bumps stood out along his arms, and he shivered.

When he was down to his swimming trunks – he must have planned to come out here, then, and it wasn't a spur of the moment decision, if he had dressed for it – Scorpius waded into the lake until he was submerged up to his chest.

He looked back and Lily and winked at her. "I take it you haven't changed your mind?" he asked. "There's plenty of room out here."

Lily crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. "Merlin, no," she said, and managed a weak smile. "It's bloody freezing enough already, thank you."

A wave of nausea overcame her at that moment, and she stumbled over to one of the rocks that sat next to the lake and sat down on it. Scorpius frowned up at her from the water. "Are you alright?" he asked.

She nodded vaguely. "Just feeling a bit ill," she said. "Don't worry; it will pass. Can you just… talk to me, for a bit? Distract me from the sick feeling."

So they talked. Soon, she forgot all about the sick, twisted feeling in her stomach, so absorbed was she in the boy in the lake.

After a while, he got out of the water and joined her on the rock, and they talked as the sun rose properly into the sky. It was hours later that they finally decided to go inside, and that was just to soothe their rumbling stomachs.

Lily didn't know what she was going to do. This was the serpent boy – it had to be. But that meant he was going to hurt her, and she couldn't believe that. She was surprised to admit that she really liked him.

She knew she shouldn't, but she did. He was kind, and sweet, and charming, and funny, and she couldn't help but feel like there was a connection there.

There was no point thinking about it, though. He was the snake, and her Mystery Mark Man was still out there somewhere. However, surely she could spend time with him just until her future husband came along, couldn't she?

"Why do you have to make everything so complicated?" Lily muttered to herself under her breath, mentally cursing her over-analysing mind. Couldn't she just live in the moment for once? She wanted to forget all about that stupid prophecy.

"Sorry, did you say something?" Scorpius asked.

Lily shook her head. "No," she said quickly. "You, err, must have misheard."

Scorpius shrugged. "If you say so," he said as he pulled his shirt back on.

Then he stood up to put his trousers on, and his trunks rolled up, and Lily gasped in shock as she saw a flash of something dark.

Scorpius hastily pulled his trousers on. "Sorry," he said quickly. "I didn't just flash you, did I?"

Lily shook her head. "No, you didn't, don't worry," she laughed. "I just thought I saw something…" She frowned. "This is going to sound weird, but do you have a birthmark?"

"Ah, I see," Scorpius nodded in understanding. "I guess you just saw it, didn't you? Yeah, I have this weird claw-shaped mark on my thigh, I don't normally tell anyone because it's really strange, but-"

Lily cut him off by pulling off her shoes. She then pulled her tights down and rolled her skirt up a little way. Scorpius' eyes widened. "Lily, what are you-"

She pointed to her now-exposed thigh. "Does it look like that?" she asked.

Scorpius peered at it for a moment, then nodded, the wonder he was feeling evident in his expression. "How…?"

She pulled her tights back up and put her heads in her hands, taking deep, shuddering breaths.

A minute later, she sat back up to find him staring at her like she was crazy. "Would you call yourself a serpent boy?" she asked him suddenly.

He frowned. "Well, I am in Slytherin, so I guess that kind of makes me a serpent boy…" he said unsurely. "But then, so are a lot of people. Why?"

Scorpius was right, Lily knew. There were a lot of people in Slytherin house, and she had no way of knowing who would hurt her until it was too late. And, she realised with a start, she didn't want to know. Life was supposed to have an element of surprise in it, and she didn't want that taken away from her. So yes, she had found the boy from the prophecy, but that didn't mean she was going to marry him. She didn't have to.

Maybe he would hurt her, but maybe he wouldn't. Maybe he would love her, but maybe he wouldn't.

Maybe the prophecy would come true, she thought as she leaned forward and kissed him, but maybe it wouldn't.

Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, Round Two of Finals

Team: Holyhead Harpies

Position: Beater 1

Task: Write about your chosen 'cliché' (Soulmates)

Prompts Used:

(narrative device) Flashback

(dialogue) "Why do you have to make everything so complicated?"

(word) temptation

Word Count: 2,518