Disclaimer: I am not the legal owner of Harry Potter nor am I the owner of anything that is written in the Harry Potter series.
"But look—he flicks his hand to the back of his neck. For such gesture one falls hopelessly in love for a lifetime." Virginia Woolf – The Waves.
By the end of the day neither Scorpius nor Lily will be able to tell you why each of them was with the other, because at the beginning it wasn't even an option.
It was around noon when Scorpius, finally on a day off from his job at Gringotts, looked around Diagon Alley for a decent cup of coffee and perhaps a sandwich. Sure, there was always the Leakey Cauldron, but truth was that he wasn't up to some small chit-chat with the pub's usual crowd. He walked around a little bit before remembering there was a small coffee shop right around the corner of Olivander's. He strolled casually, a little hungrier than previously, but not starving. Reaching his destination he entered the small café and the first thing he noticed (other than the intoxicating smell of freshly baked bread) was the slander figure of one, Lily Potter.
She was hunched over a scroll of parchment, a familiar position back at their days at Hogwarts. He stepped forward and pulled out the chair across from her. They were friendly back in school, and he was still good friends with her brother Albus.
"Hello, Potter," he greeted her and set down. Lily looked up and rolled her eyes.
"Hey," she said. There was a steaming cup of tea on the table and an empty plate of what must have a sandwich of sorts.
"Working on an article?"
"Hardly," Lily answered. She picked up her scroll of parchment and showed him what seemed to be a clear and unwritten page.
"Fascinating," he drawled. "I'm sure it'll be a masterpiece."
Lily huffed. "It's my wedding vows."
Now he was speechless.
"I'm getting married this weekend," she explained.
Scorpius was still silent – perhaps shocked that he actually forgot all about baby Potter's wedding or that it really just hit him that she was not a baby anymore.
"Anyway," she continued. "I was supposed to write these stupid vows weeks ago but I never seemed to find the time. And now that the wedding is a couple of days away I think I really need to get started, don't you reckon?"
Finally, he recovered and shook his head. "I reckon you should."
Lily narrowed her eyes. "But?"
"But what?"
"Don't play coy with me Malfoy, there's a 'but' hiding there."
"Well," he shifted in his seat. "I do think you should've started by now-"
"But?"
"However," he rolled his eyes. "Maybe you don't want to write them."
Lily turned silent. She frowned at Scorpius but then she stared down at the empty parchment. Surely, she would want to write them, why wouldn't she? It was part of the entire ordeal: get engaged, plan a wedding, write your vows, say them, and be married.
She looked again at the clean parchment. She could write a story, beginning to end, in a heartbeat. She can come up with a number of sonnets in a snap. She looked up at Scorpius. There he was drinking his tea, having just receiving it from the waitress and giving her his signature suave smirk making sure to get a small giggle from her. He then looked at her, his smirk still attached but his eyes, his eyes were a dark grey, just like a dark cloud.
"You just realized something, didn't you?" he snapped her of her reverie. Her eyes stared widely at him, her mouth slightly open.
Recovering, she cleared her throat. "And if I did, so what?" growing up among her fellow house mates and brother in Slytherin helped her with her outward composure whenever needed.
His gaze still fixed on her. Cumulonimbus, she said to herself, the rainstorm easy it would be to write her vows to him.
"What scenarios playing in your mind, lovely Lily?" he leaned over the array of plates and cups. "What are you trying to hide?"
She pushed him away. "Quit the mind games, Malfoy." she said. "I had enough of it in school, grow up."
"You don't want to get married." He said as he leaned back in his seat.
Lily gave him a pointed look. "I beg to differ," she presented him with her engagement ring.
"Rubbish," he said. "It's not that you don't want go married. If you really wanted to vow your endless love to Scamander you would've done it ages ago. You don't want to marry him."
She knew he was right. She adored him for it just as much as she hated him. His feral smirk told her he knew she agreed with him.
As Scorpius looked at her, really surveyed the woman before him, he understood that if there ever was a golden moment, a sliver of a chance for him with her, this was it.
This sudden change of events made him really nervous, good nervous. Lily was staring at him. If he knew any better he could have sworn there was actual fire in her amber gaze. She was asking him to challenge her, to contradict her, to help her solve this mess. She was still looking at him with a burning expression. His lips curled to a faint smile. Lily could not but return the gesture. In that instant he knew he had most astoundingly fallen in love with Lily Potter.
Lily sensed an understanding between them and decided she should indulge Scorpius for what it's worth.
They set in silence for some time, occasionally glancing at each other with a new glint in their eyes.
"Very well," Lily said and rose to her feet. She glanced momentarily down at him before he too got up from his seat. While gathering her belongings, Scorpius went and paid their bills.
He helped her put on her light jacket and she held his briefcase while he put on his. From afar it would look like they had done this little routine for years by now. They shared a knowing smile, something that has been resonating between them for the past few minutes but felt like it has been there for ages. As Scorpius opened the door for Lily, she beamed at him. Surprisingly, they were both at ease after their little tête-à-tête earlier.
Exiting the coffee shop, Lily held out her hand and more then willingly, Scorpius took it. She began to walk when he pulled her back, spun her around and kissed her. A heartbeat later and they were gone in a blink of an eye.
It was later that evening that Lysander Scamander sighed with relief. He received a familiar looking engagement ring attached with a short note.
Let's rewrite our stories.
Lily.
He looked at his empty scroll of parchment and smiled.
Thank you for reading
SnowFlakeGinny!
