Title: Someday We'll Know

Prompt: "You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget." (Cormac McCarthy, The Road)

Pairing: Lily x Scorpius

Character: Lucius Malfoy

Word Count: 2, 517

Draco Malfoy did not see it coming.

Neither did Harry Potter.

Ginny Potter however was not surprised when she realized that her daughter was in a relationship with Scorpius Malfoy. Not that it was obvious. They hid it quite well. But Ginny knew what it was like – falling in love with her brother's best friend – and she saw all the signs. She saw the way her daughter would smile bigger whenever Scorpius came to visit during the summers; he rarely did. The redheaded girl straightened her back, put her hair behind her ears and smiled from the breakfast table as she greeted him. He often showed up early in the mornings. He learned quickly that Albus did not wake up until much later but he kept arriving early. Scorpius would sit on the opposite side of the table and listen to Lily go on and on about whatever was on her mind that day.

There were signs. They just were not as obvious as they needed in order for Harry to notice. Draco if nothing else had a reason. Lily never went to the Malfoy household. Draco never saw them together.

Other than the occasional chat. Ginny noticed it in the way Scorpius leaned back and listened to her daughter with a smile on his face. She imagined that Draco could have looked like that had he grown up in a better environment. There was a certain innocence in the way he looked at her. And a certain endearment that Ginny noticed grew as they did. Lily, in the first few years, only smiled at him. She would look up whenever his name was mentioned and defended fiercely him when needed.

But as they became older. As they began seeing each other at Hogwarts the signs became easier to spot. It was in the way Scorpius positioned himself close to her. It was in the way they would glance at each other when they thought no one noticed. And the way Scorpius would draw in deep breaths whenever she did something even remotely risky when she was playing quidditch with her cousins and brother; while he was sitting below with Albus. Neither of the two boys being very fond of flying.

Ginny watched as her beautiful girl, turned into a beautiful strong-willed, independent woman. Her brown eyes glimmered with mischievousness, bravery and revolution. She could go from being joyful to be furious in mere seconds and fought for all the things she considered right and the people she cared for. Scorpius turned into an enthusiastic, kind-hearted young man who could calm her down with only a touch. He was the wind, calming, and she was fire, ever so energetic and explosive.

They complemented each other perfectly.

They first shocked their parents when they came out and told them – Draco, Harry and Ginny all at once – that they were a couple. Ginny suspected something was going on that day based on the fact that her eldest son James would not let his little sister or Scorpius out of his sight even for a second. Whenever he saw one of them or both he would laugh even after being on the receiving end of a glare from Lily and a loud sigh from Scorpius. Albus rolled his eyes at his brother but said nothing. Her children was a lot of things but not discrete.

Lily and Scorpius walked into the room, holding hands. Ginny looked at the two men next to her. Some of the childishness that had their feud continuing for so many years had disappeared. That did not mean that they liked each other, or the situation they were in.

"We are…" Scorpius began but stopped himself. "Lily and I…"

Ginny could barely contain her laughter when she saw her youngest daughter roll her eyes. While Scorpius pulled at his shirt and sweated profusely while desperately avoiding the eyes of the adults she seemed more annoyed with the situation than anything else. Scorpius looked nothing less than extremely relieved when she interrupted him.

"Scorpius is my boyfriend. I am his girlfriend." She said gesturing. "We are a couple."

A loud laughter – James undoubtedly – was heard from the second floor. And then a second laughter – Albus – and that was much more surprising than Ginny liked to admit. The redheaded woman looked to the side and saw that Draco and Harry did appear to have something in common after all. Quite a few things actually. They were both completely oblivious to what was going on around them and when they were shocked they got the same stupid facial expression.

"But…"

"We…"

They glared at each other. And while they were quiet Ginny chimed in with the right thing to say, the thing those two baboons would never come up with. "We are very happy for you two."

Scorpius sighed and Lily rolled her eyes at his dramatic behaviour. "I told you they were not going to make a big deal out of this."

"Yeah…" Scorpius said and sneaked an arm around her waist. "You were right, as always."

They kissed. When they story were retold years later by Harry and Draco simultaneously it would sound as if the two teens had spent minutes sucking each other's faces. That was far from the truth. It was just a kiss. The kind that had Ginny strain herself as not to aw out loud. Then they left and she was left to deal with two gobsmacked adults. People would think that it took more than two teens in love in order to shock these two. But apparently, this was worse than anything they had ever seen before. Despite their very dramatic experiences.

The second shock came four summers after Lily had quit Hogwarts. Ginny had been told over and over again that very day that Lily and Scorpius had been dating for exactly five years during breakfast in the garden. Her now adult daughter had left because of that very reason. Apparently, she needed to get ready for their date that very night. Harry pointing out that there were hours until the date did not affect her the slightest. The redheaded woman had barely disappeared before the blond young man came stumbling across the yard red-faced while he fidgeted with his fingers.

Harry did not look up from his newspaper. "Hello Scorpius."

He spoke as he did every time the blond man came, knowingly and made his voice somewhat darker than it normally was. Ginny rolled her eyes at her husband's behaviour. Harry never stopped trying to act as if he was more intimidating than he really was and Scorpius never learned the secret to why Harry always knew when he was coming. She enjoyed the little act between the two and was not about to spoil it.

"Hello Mr. Potter." Scorpius said. "Hello Mrs. Potter. I was hoping that maybe I could talk to you?"

"Oh, please do not call me Mrs Potter, it makes me feel old." Ginny said smiling while she gestured for the young man to sit down on the empty chair on the opposite side of the round table. "But of course, sit down. Would you like some tea?"

"Actually no, thank you." Scorpius shook his head. "I would like to ask your permission to marry Lily."

What happened afterwards was never revealed. Not when Lily asked them the day after when she proudly showed them the ring, nor when James nagged Harry and asked him repeatedly just to whisper it to him. Harry merely smiled at his son and winked at Scorpius. Even Ginny was relentlessly quiet.

People were both shocked and not shocked when the news spread that Lily and Scorpius were getting married. The idea that the Potter and Malfoy family would unite once more seemed to annoy people to no end or amuse them to the point where everything else from that point onwards was going to fall short in comparison.

Harry Potter was not shocked.

Draco Malfoy was not shocked.

Lucius Malfoy on the other hand did not know what to do with this news that he received from no other than Lily herself. It had been her idea that she was the one to tell him. Scorpius had hesitated. He could only imagine the kind of things his grandfather could tell her. Just because his mother and eventually Draco accepted the fact that the ideas about purebloods and what not had been wrong that did not mean that Lucius did the same.

The man – now old and weary – sat silently in his bed watching the redheaded woman. They had very little in common but she had so much in common with Narcissa. Even if Lucius would never admit that. He could not dislike this girl for that very reason even though he wanted to.

Lila walked in his room with her head held high. Her bright red hair hung loosely around her head and her brown eyes looked even more defiant than normal. Her hands rested against her tights and she stopped in front of the bed. Lucius glared at her. He had heard about this one.

"I am marrying your grandson." She spoke.

Lucius laughed. Lily did not react. "If that was true when why is he not here to tell me that himself?"

"Because I asked if I could tell you." Lily replied. "He was unsure of the idea at first. You see, he was afraid of what you would tell me. But then I explained that if you were going to insult me and my family then I would like to talk to you alone. I have always been better at dealing with these kinds of situations anyway."

"What kind of situations?"

"The tense situations." Lily frowned. "Scorpius has a habit of running away from conflicts you see. I have never been like that. I prefer confronting conflicts rather than letting them breed in silence. You may not want to hear this but I think that you are partly to blame for his dislike of conflicts."

"How dare you?" Lucius hissed sounding much more like a snake than he intended to.

Lily laughed – sounding carelessly nonchalant – and in that moment, she reminded the old man very much of his wife. Narcissa – though aware of how powerful her husband was – had never been afraid of him either. Maybe because she had been powerful herself. "How dare I accuse the great Lucius Malfoy of being afraid of conflicts and contributing to make his grandson the same way? To make a long answer short, I have never allowed someone's last name or imagined importance in society determine what I say or do not say."

Lucius became quiet and Lily sighed.

"I am not here to mock you. I was quite sure that it would be the other way around. I can imagine that you have a lot to say about my entire family." Lily took a step closer to the bed and rested her hands against the end of it. "I am here to tell you that I am marrying your grandson. Now, I can imagine that you do not approve of this but quite frankly Mr. Malfoy that changes nothing. I love Scorpius and I have for much longer than we have been together. I am marrying him whether you like it or not. But before I do that, I am going to have to tell you something." – Lily took another deep breath – "I am sorry for everything you have experienced with the war and everything. I will never be able to imagine the kind of horror you went through and I will never understand why you fought for him. But I can understand having a cause to fight for even if I do not like said cause. Scorpius have told me that you have been struggling since it ended and I want to let you know that I am sorry for that. Because no one deserves to suffer for such a long time."

Lucius let out a bitter laugh. When he realised that he could not sleep at night after the war he believed that it would end in just a few months' time. That did not happen. The insomnia was there to stay and there was nothing he wanted to do about it. So many things had happened since then. Astoria's choice to let her son grow up in a different way than Lucius would have liked himself. This was just the icing on the cake. A Potter in his bedroom accusing him of being afraid of conflicts and then telling him that she was sorry for him. The absurdity of the situation did not go unnoticed.

"I remember every bad decision I took, during those years." Lucius said looking at Lily. "That is the reason that I was not afraid of conflicts until the war ended. Once the war ended all I could remember was the bad things I did. Granted the good things I did were very few but I forgot all of it."

Lily smiled. "You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget."

Lucius nodded. "I do not like your family; I especially do not like your father. But I have a feeling that opposing this wedding would be another bad decision on my part."

"Because of my dad or Scorpius?"

"No," Lucius pointed at her. "Because of you. I pity the man or woman who would do anything to oppose you."

Lily smiled defiantly and brightly all at the same time. She wore the same smile on her face during the wedding. They were all there. Some not because they wanted to celebrate the reunion of the couple but because they had a bet going on which family was going to make the first move. They left the wedding disappointed. No one attacked and no on argued. Other than Harry and Draco over who was the best seeker between the two. Lucius eventually settled it by saying Draco truly was not that good.

So many questions circulated the wedding and then the party. No one was stupid enough to ask the couple themselves but stuck to bombing her two brothers. They reacted very differently. Albus rolled his eyes and blatantly ignored them while James listened with an amused grin on his face.

"What happened when Scorpius proposed? What did Lily say to Lucius? How come these two were drawn to each other?" someone asked as they watched the couple dance.

James smirked and leaned closer to the whoever asked this time. Most of the time he merely shrugged. But not this time. He could see out of the corner of his eye how excited they got. He whispered a short answer and could barely contain his laughter when he saw their reaction. Disappointment clouded their eyes and they gave him one last look before moving to the other side of the room. James laughed once more and drank some firewhisky.

Albus – who had only heard the questions – nudged him. "What did you answer?"

James smirked. "Someday we'll know."

The end