A/N: This was written for Slytherin Cat's "Green Houses Competition" for the category "Stargazer" as well as Amber's "Out of Your Comfort Zone" competition for the prompt: "Lily/Teddy, Roses & Thorns".
As always, all of the characters are JK Rowlings - I own nothing.
"What did you just say to me?"
She was still wearing her Slytherin school robes, her tie loose around her neck, and the top few buttons were undone in a way that suggested she had been hoping he'd finish the job; he could just see the, admittedly gorgeous, curve of her breasts from where he had been standing at the other end of his room, and from his now kneeling position on the floor her long legs seemed even longer under her short school skirt. Her wand was curled in her left hand, her knuckles white with the tension her body was holding, and Teddy Lupin wisely stayed crouched on the floor, his hands covering the shock of blue hair on his head.
"Lily, please. We need to talk about this."
"Do not speak to me like I'm some child!" Her voice came out as a snarl, and her words were followed by a quick slash of her wand, sending another shower of sparks across the room. The young man cringed, ducking his head again.
"Lily, calm down. You're only 17, how do you expect me to talk to you when you're acting like you're 7?" He looked up at her, trying for a pleading expression, and yelping, scrambling to jump backward as she sent another powerful blast his direction.
"You sure as hell didn't seem to think that way last summer! I suppose you thought 16 was plenty grown up for you then." She was sneering, her eyes flashing dangerously. "You didn't seem to care when you were fucking me, Ted!"
"Lily!"
"You seemed to think I was perfectly adult when you snuck around with me in my father's house! I was old enough for you when you bent me over any flat surface you could find! Or what about when you fucked me in your godfather's bed, was I old enough for you then?!"
"Lily! Enough!"
"What!" She whirled away from him, hurling her arm in an arc, shattering the green teacups he had sitting on his kitchen table. "What! That's what you did, isn't it? You found a lonely girl in the rain one summer, and you kissed her. You kissed me, Ted. Remember that? You came out and put your arm around me, and we talked and then you kissed me. You said that you'd take good care of me? That you'd make me feel wanted?" She turned around, sneering at him, her normally pretty face contorted. "I believed you. I gave you everything."
"Lily…"
"Don't touch me!" She shouted again, jerking away, her body violently shaking. "I knew you were just getting over her and in the beginning I thought that it was just a good way for us to stop feeling, but it didn't end up like that." She straightened her back, tilting her chin up as she wrapped her arms around herself, willing herself not to cry.
Slytherins do not cry, Lily Luna Potter, she reprimanded, knowing full well that Slytherins also didn't lose their temper like she did; that had been a very uncharacteristic, very Gryffindor, move of her, and she hated losing the handle she kept on her temper, something that she usually prided herself on. Slowly, she turned taking stock of the room.
The glassware from the kitchen, teacups and plates, crystal bowls and wine glasses; they had been thrown to the ground, shattered into a fine dust. The curtains had been torn down from their place above the windows, shredded and laying in a heap on the floor. Her upper lip curled as she turned to face Ted squarely, quietly taking in the holes in the floor and the plaster surrounding Ted's figure. Then she looked at him, her green eyes surveying him, finally feeling calm again.
"I waited for you," she said, finally, taking a step forward, her hands behind her back, shoulders tall and proud. "This year, I did. I thought… I thought you'd actually want to make this work if you saw how dedicated I was. I didn't go on a single date. I turned a Zabini down for you, I saved myself." She scoffed, a small smile pulling up on her lips. "I wasted my seventh year at Hogwarts for someone that never responded to any of my owls. I should have known you were going to dump me."
"Lily, you're so young," Teddy said, quietly, taking a step toward her. "You're only 17, and I made a huge mistake last summer, I did. We were both hurt, we both needed comfort, I just shouldn't have turned to you like that." When she didn't jerk back from him, he went closer, finally able to reach out and gently take her hand. She looked down at where he rubbed her knuckles, and then looked back up at him. "I've always thought of you as a sister, you knew that."
Lily laughed, leaning into Ted's shoulder as he rubbed her hand, looking up at him through her hooded lashes. "Does a sister kiss her brother like this?" Pulling her hand free from his, she pushed them into his hair, pulling his head down to hers. Teddy Lupin stood rigid for a moment, before wrapping his arms around her waist, bringing her body against his. Lily smiled against his lips, pulling away.
"You're into freakier shit than I thought if kissing your sister like that gets you off." Teddy cringed at her cold tone, shaking his head, pinching the bridge of his nose as she turned away from him, again.
"Come on, Lil' don't be like this."
"How did you expect me to be, Ted? Be all obedient and subservient when I come home from school, ready to make this work and you tell me you're proposing to Victoire tonight? The same skank that broke your heart? That had you come crawling to me to, literally, bury yourself in? Did you think I'd smile and say 'okay' and that everything could go back to normal? Do you know me at all?"
"Don't talk about her like that!"
The young girl paused, putting her hand on the sofa she was standing next to, as if taking a moment to catch her breath. In all her seventeen years of knowing Teddy, he'd never yelled at her, not once.
"You're right, Ted. She isn't the skank, you are."
"Lily…" It was a warning, a low growl, and the girl just laughed. "I expected you to act like an adult, since that's obviously how you want to be treated," he said, watching her, his eyes flashing. "I expected you to understand, since you're ten years younger than me and we haven't talked since our last night before you left for Hogwarts. I expected you to realize that this is what I want, and that it's best." Lily snorted, eyeing him up and down.
"You can't have the rose without the thorns, Ted."
"What?" Lily shook her head, snatching her purse off of the floor as she scooted around Ted, turning around only briefly to look at him. "You can't have just a piece of me… I can't just be your sweet little sister after you made me scream. You can't expect me to just sit by quietly while this happens. Every rose has its thorns," she grinned, "and being a Slytherin is just one of mine." Slinging her bag over her shoulder she walked toward the door. "I hope for your sake you never get our names mixed up. Wouldn't that be a story to tell?"
"Lily! How good to see you!" As Lily Potter had pulled the door open, Victoire Weasley had been fiddling with her key, and stopped to beam at her young cousin. "I didn't know you were coming. Back from school, then?" Lily stood still as the girl leaned forward, kissing both of her cheeks.
"I'll see you all Sunday, at dinner, I suppose. Oh, and Teddy?" She paused, half pivoting, "this isn't over."