Disclaimer: I don't own any of the songs or the characters (unless there's an OC, obviously).

Anywho, welcome to another Next-Gen collection by yours truly! ;) This one is part of a competition on Next-Gen Fanatics forum, run by the spectacular Bri (swirling-summernotes), where she posts a color and a song every day for a week and we write a drabble for it. So, there'll be seven drabbles in here, all Next-Gen and based on different songs and colors. I have honestly no idea what pairings there'll be, though :P

Warning: I entered and wrote this to help get over my writer's block, which means there's a high chance it'll suck because I haven't written anything decent in, like, a month. Fair warning.

Color: red
Song: Hey Lady by Thriving Ivory
Couple: LucyScorpius

don't burn your heart out love
till we're ash over seas

-:-

All she's ever done is wait, and she's tired.

Wait to go to Hogwarts. Wait to be Sorted. Wait for the reactions when she's Sorted into Slytherin. Wait for her mother to come home. Wait for her father to become unbroken. Wait for her family to realize she's a lonely little girl and she needs help.

Half of those things never happen.

She likes the beach, though. If she hates her life (and sometimes, she thinks she might), then she likes the beach. It's the only place where she can be calm, where she doesn't have to wait with the kind of frantic urgency she's been waiting her whole life.

Here, she is peaceful. And that's all she's ever wanted.

One day, Scorpius Malfoy joins her on the beach. He lives on the other end of the beach, but he meets her somewhere in the middle all the same. He's a lot like her – too quiet because he's so busy thinking – so he doesn't say hi, and neither does she.

He just sits there, alongside her, and they breathe the starshine and just be.

One day, he speaks. "Is the moon red tonight, or is it just me?"

Lucy curls her knees to her chest and lays her head across them. "Yeah. I asked Rose about the moon once and she said this sometimes happened. Something to do with the light. I always just thought – well, it's stupid, but I thought the moon just needed attention."

"Maybe it did," says Scorpius, touching her hand with his thumb, and she has a feeling he's not talking about the red moon anymore.

That night, he kisses her. There's no waiting. She's just happy.

-:-

like pretty girls need cowboys
i need you here tonight

A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed this! :) I don't really know if it makes sense with the song lyrics because I'm a crap interpreter, but hopefully you liked it anyway! If you did, make my day and drop me a review, please?

And don't favorite/alert without reviewing, as it's one of the most annoying things in the world. Thank you :)