Hello! This is my story for the first round of the QL and I am playing beater 2 for the Bats! My task was to write about a death eater on holiday.

Additional prompts: (word) espresso, (dialogue) 'I really do like the pants' and (word) tomorrow

The Game is on: study in scarlet

The Quidditch Pitch: swimming

…

"Mum says we have enough time to go to the beach for a few hours, and stop by the arcade, and then we have to come back to the hotel so we can pack up our stuff."

He smiled at Lily. The last two weeks had been great, and, if it hadn't been for her, he would have been locked up in school the whole holiday with only Mulciber, who was currently ignoring him, for company. Instead, he had flown out to Spain with his best friend. Bu they were going home tomorrow. And all of the Slytherins would be laughing at him for going away with that mudblood, Lily Evans.

"Sev? You hear that? Because we only have one more day, I think you should wear the speedos mum bought you."

"Ha ha. Not happening."

Lily laughed and hit him on the shoulder. "You're no fun!"

"Are you going to wear them?"

"I'm a girl!"

"Aw, you're no fun!"

And the two friends laughed and headed down to the beach.

"I really do like the pants…"

"No! Not happening!"

They went to the arcade, where Lily whooped Severus at all the games but he displayed his surprising natural skill (discovered the week before and used many times to win her random toys) on the claw machines. They went shopping. At the start of the week that had been Lily trying things on and asking for his opinion (for which she elicited a slight grunt of approval), but now they would both run around the shops trying on the most ludicrous skirts and tops and swimming suits. Severus bought Lily a bracelet, and Lily bought Severus a snow globe, and then enlisted his help buying things for Marlene and Dorcas.

They finally ended up at the beach, and accidentally spent more than a couple of hours there. They went swimming, trying Lily's massive banana float and pushing each other off, and then getting into a massive splash war. They did races, in which Lily beat him by miles. Severus would complain that she was cheating because she had been swimming for years, and then she would give him a head start, but still win, and he would complain she was cheating until eventually she told him to start about a millimetre from the finish line and then complain that he was cheating because he had obviously been swimming for years if he went that fast.

Then they would expand on the sandcastle they had made on the first day. Every day it got a little bit destroyed, and they would re-build that part bigger and better. Lily brought flags for the top, and they wrote 'trespassers will be prosecuted' in the sand next to it.

Then Lily got her usual from the shop (a double salted caramel ice cream) and Severus got his usual (Lily had introduced him to espressos and he had become addicted to the stuff). And they sat on the stools and talked. About anything and everything.

"Are you going to do chess club next term?"

"Nah. Dorcas has convinced me that it was a waste of time because I play chess every few days with you or Alice anyway."

"But if you go to the club, Professor McGonagall will teach us to become really good!"

"I don't know… Anyway, I heard from Black that someone has a little crush on her sister!"

"Narcissa?"

"Who else? If you tell me you have a crush on Andromeda—"

"No! Andromeda is a seventh year! I'm only thirteen!"

"And Narcissa is almost fifteen!"

"Which is why it's a good thing Bellatrix is a stinking liar. She shouldn't be going around talking about crushes when everyone knows she is obsessed with Rabastan!"

"Rabastan? I thought she liked Rodolphus!"

"You need to get more reliable gossip sources then, my friend!"

And the two friends laughed. They were best friends and they loved each other's company. It didn't matter that they were in different houses, or that their other friend's hated the inter-house friendship. It didn't matter that they came from completely different families and backgrounds, or that Petunia had been ignoring both of them all week. The looming worry of having to go back to school was ignored by both of them, because they had one more day with their best friend.

They laughed and joked about Slughorn's toupee and Potter's quidditch accident. They talked about lessons and books and general nerdy things. They talked about muggle things and wizarding things. Lily taught him about muggle movies and bands and sayings. Severus taught her about wizarding objects and bands and sayings.

"Why a duck?"

"I don't know! It's just a saying! Looks like a duck, walks like a duck, it's a duck! I don't know why!"

"But it's completely random!"

"Says you! 'The fire's lit but the cauldron is empty'? What's a cauldron got to do with anything?"

"You put a fire under a cauldron! And what was the other phrase you said?"

"Wilkommen, bienvenue, welcome. Just means hello, or welcome, I guess. You have to see carabet. It's amazing! And that's the best song."

"Well, if we're on songs now, I still can't believe you haven't heard of The Bludgers."

"And you haven't heard of Elvis! King of rock and roll, Sev!"

And when they finally had to leave, Lily made sure to blast Elvis from all speakers possible. In return, Severus talked to Marlene and soon all of Lily's best friends were blasting Bludgers songs at top volume whenever she walked into the room.