A/N: For those who read this on the HPFC fic exchange, you have several more chapters beyond the original seven to look forward to as I had to cut it off due to time constraints even before I'd gotten to the real climax I'd planned for the story. I'll get the chapters posted as they get revised and beta-read.


-Chapter 1-

One minute. She let him out of her sight for only a minute and look what happened.

"Perkins, you put him down this instant if you know what's good for you!"

"Well, what have we here? Needing a girl to protect you, Malfoy? How pathetic."

"For the love of—Get lost, Potter. Now."

She raised a skeptical eyebrow at the livid, pale blond boy floating upside-down before her. "Riiight, because you're obviously handling this so well on your own."

Grey eyes like sharpened steel glared back at her, but the full effect was tempered by his ignominious position with gravity wreaking havoc on his normally impeccable hair and robes.

"Mind your own business," he bit out through clenched teeth.

She ignored him and turned instead to face Perkins and his sniggering goons.

It was time to end this.

Lily raised her wand menacingly in the direction of the smug Gryffindors and smirked with satisfaction at the unease that immediately flitted through their eyes. Several instinctively touched their hand to their nose, no doubt reminded of the infamous hex she'd learned from her mother. With Uncle George's help, she'd perfected a way to cast it in en masse, which had often proved a necessary skill these last several weeks. Few could match Scorpius Malfoy in a duel, so instead they tended to gang up on him.

"I'm not going to ask again. Let him down, gently."

Perkins' squashed face sneered at Malfoy before glancing back and grinning at her. "No need, princess. We've had our fun. You can have him now, little Potter."

She seethed. "Do not call me little."

He ignored her and swished his wand, turning Malfoy sideways in the air, and lowered him until he was a foot from the ground. With a quick snap of Perkins' wrist, Malfoy crashed to the floor.

The hex left her wand before anyone even blinked an eye. She turned from the boy puking up slugs to offer Malfoy a hand. He glared up at her and pushed her hand aside as he leapt to his feet. Without another word, he took off down the hallway.

She sighed. You would think it would kill him to offer even a small word of thanks. Of course, it wasn't for his gratitude that she was watching out for him, but still, some acknowledgement would have been nice. The bloke remained cold as an ice block despite her helping him out just about several dozen times this year alone.

Something clattered at her feet, jolting Lily from her thoughts. She glanced down and spotted a polished ebony wand—Malfoy's. Concurrently, someone had cast the counter spell so that Perkins finally had his mouth freed of slugs to speak.

"Do your brothers know you're running around defending a Malfoy?" he sneered at her.

She'd never quite understood the animosity certain students and their families still held against the Malfoys. Hadn't they all been acquitted in the war trials? But even if they hadn't, it was ridiculous to place the blame on someone who hadn't even existed when that whole war went on.

She twirled her wand and smirked when Perkins and his goons reflexively stepped back. "It's called loyalty to my House. Got a problem with that? And honestly, five on one? You put Gryffindor to shame." Without waiting for their responses, she bent to pick up the ebony wand before taking off in Malfoy's direction, leaving his assailants behind, still scrambling for their rebuttals.

Idiots.

And damn if she was going to let a bunch of idiots ruin it for her.

Lily found him again easily, even though Malfoy had been nowhere to be seen in the hallways. She'd not only memorized his schedule by now, but all his usual and not-so-usual haunts as well. This time it was one of the towers which used to be a classroom, judging by the dusty state of the desks and chairs piled on one side of the room. It was a well lit space with windows all along the circular wall.

She heard glass shattering over and over again with steady timing before she rounded the last turn in the winding staircase and saw him from the doorway. He sat against the wall, chucking a glass ball at the narrow space between two windows on the opposite side. Upon breaking apart, the ball swiftly reformed and leapt back into his hand, only to be thrown again, striking the exact same spot every time.

She walked over to him and held out his wand, but he continued to ignore her, his eyes glued to the point where glass shattered against stone.

Throw, crash, catch. Throw, crash, catch.

Impatiently, she dropped the wand into his lap and spoke with an exaggerated, sarcastic drawl, "Why thank you, Lily. Thank you for saving me from yet again having to fish my wand from a toilet in the girl's bathroom. How could I ever repay you?"

The ball was once more caught in his hand, but at last he lowered it to the floor while looking back up at her. "Your help was never needed," he replied coolly.

"Could have fooled me—what with the hanging helplessly in midair and all."

He scowled and snapped his head away from her, a sudden flush to his cheeks.

It couldn't be.

Before he could resume his throwing, she stepped into his way and leaned in to inspect his face more closely. "Are you blushing?" she asked gleefully.

Grey eyes once again caught hers. "What? Absolutely not!"

"There's no need to be embarrassed, you know. Everyone knows you could wipe the floor with any of them in a fair fight instead of being ambushed six to one. Heck, you might even be a match for me."

A corner of his mouth tugged slightly upwards as if in a smile but then reverted so quickly she couldn't be sure she hadn't imagined it. In the next second, he shoved a hand through his still messy hair and glared exasperatedly up at her. "First off, there's no way I'd lose to a fourth-year girl, but that's irrelevant. I can't believe I even have to say this, but for the love of Merlin, leave me alone. I'll even pay you to do it. Just name your price."

The I'm-at-my-wits-end was a rather good look on him, she decided. Lily grinned back at him and dramatically placed a splayed hand on her heart. "Why Malfoy, I'm not that type of girl. I just can't be bought."

He glowered at her and uttered something incoherent, which she suspected was a choice curse word or two, before speaking audibly again. "For the hundredth time already, why are you doing this?"

She sat down cross-legged from him and replied cheerfully, "I already told you the last hundred times. I'm just looking out for a fellow housemate. There's no need to be so hostile."

He narrowed his eyes at her but remained silent. Just when she thought he wasn't going to bother to respond as usual, he finally muttered, "It's hard to tell with you."

"Tell what?"

"Whether you actually have something up your sleeves or if you're just plain nutter. I'm leaning towards the latter."

She couldn't quite believe it. Was Malfoy actually taking a dig at her? She was so used to him ignoring her ninety percent of the time with the other ten spent telling her harshly to go away. It made for a dreadfully boring time tracking him. When trouble wasn't finding him, all she ever found him doing was studying or practicing Quidditch, reticent as a rock. She couldn't have picked a duller target to hang around if she tried.

Eager to see how he'd respond, she quipped right back. "If I'm crazy for wanting to help a fellow Slytherin, then even you must be mad by your own standards."

To her amusement, he scoffed at her. "Trust me, your madness is leagues beyond anyone else with all of your 'wanting to help' by sticking to me like a bleeding parasite. That and your slew of other mad acts."

She raised her eyebrow in challenge. "And what might those be?"

He matched her with an eyebrow raise of his own. "Where to even begin? How about running naked through the school grounds and skinny dipping in the lake while playing out some pagan ritual for the moon goddess?"

Her mouth opened and closed in rapid succession, at a loss for words. How had he known? Had he—? After several floundering seconds, she managed to gasp out, "First off, it was a dare. But more importantly, you were watching me?"

Twin pink spots appeared on his cheeks, but his reply oozed nonchalance. "Of course not. How was I supposed to know the blur streaking across the grounds was even human at first? You don't have to worry. It was too dark to see much anyway." Briefly, his eyes flicked up and down her body. "Not that there would have been much to see," he added offhandedly.

She reflexively crossed her arms, feeling strangely naked under his disinterested gaze, all the while feeling her cheeks burn at his dismissal.

His remarks hit dead home. Every year she prayed for womanhood to grant her even a fraction of her mother's voluptuous figure, but alas she remained flat as a plank. Rigorous Quidditch training probably wasn't doing her any good in that aspect either. But hell, this was Malfoy. She didn't give a flying horse about what he thought of her.

Promptly, her humiliation cooled, and she smirked at him instead. "I wouldn't be talking, you pale skinny arse."

Instead of the scowl she expected from him as per usual, he surprised her again by smirking right back. The expression was positively transformative on his normally stony face. "Spend a lot of time looking at my arse do you?"

"Why would I when there's nothing to look at?" She returned the disinterested once-over he'd given her. Unfortunately, the difference was that internally she had to admit he wasn't half-bad looking. He'd inherited his father's coloring, but the sharp features she'd seen on the elder Malfoy were softened on Scorpius, likely from his mother's contribution. If he had a better personality, she didn't doubt that girls would be swarming over him. Really was a shame for good looks to be wasted so.

When his scowl made a reappearance, she couldn't help but laugh. "Your rebuttal skills are sorely lacking, Malfoy. You're welcome to stop being such a recluse and practice them on me anytime."

"Nutter. Completely nutter. That's what you are," he threw at her before exiting the room, but she didn't fail to notice that the angry tension in his posture had dissipated, and for once, though he pushed on ahead, he wasn't walking a mile a minute with those long legs to immediately get away from her.

She didn't know what had brought on the change with just now being arguably the longest exchange they'd ever had. Maybe she had simply worn him down. Regardless, she would take it. Sure beat following an uncommunicative, sullen boy around. Not that that deterred her in the first place.

Lily Luna Potter was a girl on a mission, and she wasn't about to let anything or anyone get in her way. The end goal was in sight. Only a few weeks more.


Author Notes: Comments, suggestions, or any constructive feedback you have to offer would be lovely to hear. :) I hope you'll enjoy the story. Thank you to cherryredxx for the beta-reading!

-Written for xThe Painted Lady (previously UnleashTheSnitch114)-

Pairing: Lily Luna Potter/Scorpius Malfoy
Rating: Nothing above T
Must-haves: Takes place at Hogwarts, Slytherin!Lily, later Hogwarts years.
No-No's: No unrequited-ness please, Crackfic/Parody.
Bonus Points: Protective!James and Albus, either one of Lily's brothers walking in on her and Scorpius snogging.

I also tried to incorporate her preference for Scorpius' characterization, but with some tweaking to fit the plot.

"Seems quiet, almost shy, but not from being a shy soul. The Malfoys are not a well-loved family, as Scorpius is well-aware. After numerous childhood adventures involving people shouting at him and threatening him out of nowhere, including one that did not end well, he is quite glad to keep his head down and study alone. However, he also won't stand by when others are being unjustly attacked."

Image Credit: Two photos I used for the story cover are courtesy of sattva and anekoho at freedigitalphotos.