Lily Potter was pissed off. No matter how hard she tried, she could not stop strands of hair from falling loose from her ponytail and going straight into her face and over her eyes. She couldn't shut up the Hufflepuff Second Years, whose gossip must have been oh-so bloody important, in the row behind her for even a moment, and she couldn't keep the nagging voice in her head that told her that none of this was going to be even worth it quiet.

Lilt was hunched over her Potions book in the Library in a desperate attempt to understand even a small iota of what her examination would be on the following day. In many cases, Lily didn't find studying necessary or worthwhile, but Potions was an entirely different matter. The complexities and theory of the class had escaped her understanding since First Year, and had only grown worse over the next three. If she even wanted a chance at passing this year, the rest of her work had to be spot on.

A few more pieces of hair slipped out of her ponytail and angrily pulled the elastic band out of her hair, snapping it in the process. On most other occasions, when Lily was acting like a sane human being, she would have just pulled out her wand and repaired it. But Lily was not of sound mind at this particular moment. She chucked the faulty band as far as she possibly could across the library and was contemplating doing the same thing with her stupid, confusing, and utterly unhelpful textbook, even picking it up, when someone walked by the stacks she was sitting amongst.

"Potter, are you okay?" Scorpius Malfoy asked worriedly as he grabbed the book from her, though hindsight suggested that this was not the appropriate choice of words. Lily looked just about ready to seriously harm something. This something had previously been her textbook, but now most likely her Slytherin housemate.

"Do I look okay to you, Malfoy?" The Fourth Year demanded. She had not really known Malfoy all that well, except for the fact that they were both in Slytherin and he was in her brother's year. They were also both on the Quidditch team, but neither of them tried all that hard to make much an acquaintance. This was mostly because her brother James had told her awful rumors about the Sixth Year and his family, with a suggestion to stay away.

"Well, um, no," Malfoy stammered for a second before gaining her composure. "But I wasn't exactly sure who you were planning on murdering, and I thought it was my civic duty to prevent such a heinous crime."

Lily snorted, and flopped ungracefully into her chair, her momentary lapse of insanity passed.

"Sorry about that," she smiled wearily. "I just lost it for a second there. But nothing in that bloody and moronic book," she pointed an accusatory finger at the offending reading material that Malfoy was protectively holding, "makes any sense."

Malfoy looked scandalized and quickly sat down next to Lily while placing the book down reverently.

"How could you say something like that? Potion making is one of the most amazing things we do as wizards and witches. Think about all the complexities and bringing together-"

Lily cut him off. She had heard it all before from Professor Slughorn and various other Potions experts.

"I don't get it at all. I just go to class and don't understand a word of what's going on. I'm going to fail and there's nothing I can do about it." She dropped her head into her hands with a sigh of defeat. Scorpius wasn't sure whether she was about to cry or not, and he was not a huge fan of hysterical girls. To avoid that embarrassing situation, Scorpius said the first thing that came to his mind.

"Would you like me to help you study?" He wasn't completely sure why he offered, but it seemed like the right thing to do. The poor girl looked inches away from another mental break, and Scorpius just couldn't leave her like that.

"Really?" Lily looked up. The only people who had offered her help before were her cousin Rose and Albus, her brother. Neither of them was able to do anything, and their study sessions would usually just dissolve into fights.

"Yeah, I mean you look like you kind of need it. Besides, what are teammates for?" Scorpius opened up the book in front of him. "What are you having trouble with?"

"Everything," Lily said quietly with an air of embarrassment.

"Oh." Scorpius realized that he might have bitten off more that he could chew.