A/N: This is my (extremely late) submission to Kore-of-Myth's Planetary Prose challenge. What else but Lily/Scorpius did I claim? XD
Also, as many people pointed out, Lily is a bit young to have a boyfriend, but...blame it on 12-year-old memories! ;)
Disclaimer: I didn't discover Venus, and I was WAY too young when JKR got her Harry idea to own it!
Dedication: For Kore/Dea, who rocks at writing & being awesome!
Pinky-Promise
A Scorpius/Lily Fanfiction in 5 Parts
Beauty
It's third year, the first year that Scorpius has begun to like girls.
She's beautiful. She's everything. Her hair is the first thing. It flashes in his face, and he finds himself staring after her.
"Who's that?" he asks his friend Orlando Zabini.
His best friend simply groans. "Lily Potter. Don't tell me you like her."
Scorpius looks guilty. The two have known each other since birth, ever since Pansy, Orlando's mum, and Astoria, Scorpius's mum, became great friends. Orlando knows him better than he knows himself.
"She's a Potter, man! James Potter's sister! And way to young for you!"
"But Albus Potter's alright, and anyway, she's cute."
Orlando gave a chuckle. "Look, forget about her."
"But she's so…pretty!"
"Ooh, Scor likes the pretty flower, does he?"
Scorpius groaned and shoved his friend a bit, but didn't broach the subject again.
Envy
Fourth year starts with a whirlwind of green-eyed monsters and angry words.
Lily and Scorpius have become something resembling friends, perhaps because they understand that the other is more than just a surname, and there's a person behind the prejudices. They sit together in the library, and smile in the halls.
But officially, they're still "Potter" and "Malfoy", proud and cold, civil but disdainful.
And then Lily gets a boyfriend, and the whole façade drops.
Scorpius is yelling at her in the library, ignoring her in the halls, and glaring at her in the Great Hall. And everyone knows it's not because of family feuds.
"Are you bloody kidding me?" he yells when he finds out.
Calmly, she says, "What? Jack is a great boyfriend. He's sweet, funny, smart, and really great."
He stares at her, full of incomprehension. "Lily. He was dating Lizzie Jordan, like, a week ago! What happened to 'forever and ever amen'?"
"Why are you bringing religion into this?" she snaps. He's long made fun of her for believing in something. He's such an atheist it isn't even funny. But now, he isn't joking.
"Jack McLaggen! C'mon, Lily, don't you see?"
"What don't I see?" she shrieks, half-hysterical. "The fact that you're jealous? The fact that you can't accept that I might have a life outside pretending to dislike you? Or maybe the fact that I think someone is better than you?"
With a disgusted noise in the back of her throat, she sweeps out and doesn't speak to him again.
Vanity
He's never liked the idea of fifth year. Perhaps because it will be another year without speaking to Lily, or perhaps it's because his mother suffered in her fifth year. Either way, he finds himself brooding over this as he sits in the Slytherin common room, mid-way through the year.
"Orlando," he says.
"Scor?"
"What do you think of the year so far?"
Orlando laughs. "What kind of question is that, mate? Don't tell me you're gonna get angsty and philosophical!"
Scorpius laughs. "No, man, of course not. But, like, you know how my mum…"
"Hated her fifth year so much she asked your Grandmum if she could drop out of school? Yeah. I know."
For once, he appreciates the fact that his friend can practically read his thoughts. "Yeah. And—"
"And you miss Potter…" Orlando finishes for him with a resigned sigh.
"Yeah. I really do. Quidditch isn't the same without practicing with the best Chaser since who-knows-when, and classes just plain suck. She used to send me all these funny notes in the halls to read during boring classes."
Orlando gives him a half-smile. "Look, Mr. Lovesick, why don't you just ask her out?"
"I'm not stupid enough for that. She'd turn me down in a flash."
"Well, who knows? Even Potter had to fall for your charms," he jokes. Scor rolls his eyes.
"What charms?" he asks bitterly.
That's when they hear the portrait hole open and shut very quickly.
"Who was that?" Orlando asks Kiri Nott.
"Lily Potter," says Kiri. She wrinkles her nose. "I thought she was all right, but I knew she was a drama queen. You should have seen her—rushing in her, crying really silently, and then POW! She runs out looking freaked."
Orlando and Scor look at each other. "How does she know the password?"
"How should I know, Orlando? Listen, you know how there's a Hogsmeade weekend coming up? Well, see, you know my friend Leni, right? She…"
Scorpius nods to his friend and rushes out of the portrait hole, an agitated look in his eyes. A few people try to stop him, and a girl throws herself in front of him. "Hogsmeade, me, you, Saturday, Madame Puddifoot's?"
"I'm sorry," he says, and rushes past her without sparing a second glance. He knows he should feel sorry for her, or at least a tad guilty, but he can't think of anyone but Lily.
"Password?" the Fat Lady asks.
"Oh, right. Um…"
"Fiddlesticks," Albus Potter says, coming up behind him. "Well, lookie here. Scor Malfoy."
"Al, please. Good Merlin, I need to see your sister!"
Al cocks a single dark eyebrow and calls into the common room, "Who's seen Lily?"
"Oh, Albus!" a girl says, wearing too much makeup and sounding like she'll faint.
"She's in the dorms, crying her eyes out. McLaggen broke up with her, and then she found out all the grudges she's been holding against Malfoy aren't true. Her life pretty much broke," Alice Longbottom reports sympathetically.
"Thanks, Alice," Albus says. James walks in and strides over to her, upon when all the rest of the girls in the common room get defeated looks on their faces. All except his cousins.
One of the many, Lucy Weasley, two years Albus and Scorpius's senior, whispers something in Al's ear. Then she spots Scorpius. "Merlin!" she shrieks, alerting the whole common room to his presence.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. But look, could someone get Lily? I really need to talk to her."
"Why?" Elizabeth Thomas asks.
"Just someone get her," Albus says firmly. Elizabeth suddenly stands and runs up the girl's staircase.
A moment later, she and Lily return. Scorpius looks at her, with her red eyes and rumpled hair, and finds the urge to beat McLaggen up to be practically unbearable.
"Scor?" Lily asks in a pitifully small voice.
"Can we talk?" he responds.
And, in front of the whole Gryffindor common room, he rushes to Lily and hugs her tightly.
There are a few shocked gasps, an "Oooh!" and one or two wolf-whistles.
"You're not vain, Scor, I'm so sorry. I judged you, obviously, and…I don't know. I freaked out because I got a boyfriend," she says, hiding her face in his chest after she's noted that she can't quite breathe.
"Yeah…I guess so. But it isn't your fault. It's that—that skunk."
Lily gives a muffled laugh.
"Will you go to Hogsmeade with me?" he asks, holding up her chin.
She smiles at him. "Duh. What do you think I was planning on doing this weekend?"
He laughs a tad, too, and everything is forgiven in the next hug.
Fountain
Sixth year is a scary one for him as well. The year his father became a Death Eater, almost killed someone, and became dreadfully depressed. The year his mother lost her best friend, a muggleborn, to Lord Voldemort.
But for him, the year was nothing but bliss. It's the first year he and Lily have decided to test their luck and go out.
The school had raised money to get a fountain to be built right in the middle of the grounds, with the War Memorial carved into the stone sidewalk in front of it. They had the entire school leave a handprint on a block of the fountain's foundation.
"Put yours next to mine," Lily had urged him. He'd wrapped his pinky around hers, so in the stone, under 'Scorpius Malfoy' and 'Lily Potter', it looked like they were making a pinky-promise.
Now, they sit together on the ledge of the fountain, staring at all the names, full of nostalgia.
"You know," Lily says, after they've briefly talked about every last person, "you made me a silent promise that day. A pinky-promise. You can't break it."
"I know," he says. He knows the promise, too, and Lily squeezes his hand. They both know it.
"I love you," he tells her, and leans in for a kiss.
"Mmm. Just for that, I love you too."
Love
Seventh year comes much too fast for his taste. He'll soon be leaving her behind, going on to the big, scary world out there.
Lily, the astronomy nut, keeps telling him the planets are all mixed up. "Sinistra says that—that it's a time for endings, and maybe new beginnings."
"Are you breaking up with me?" he asks playfully.
She giggles. "Of course not. I love you, Scor, no matter what."
He gives her an Eskimo kiss. "I do too. I promise."
"You pinky-promise!" she corrects, smiling. He smiles back, because what isn't there to smile about? Who cares about the bloody planets?
Well, how can he help it? He's in love.
It's the end of seventh year, and Lily has lost control. She's crying into Scorpius's shirt.
"Hey, whoa, Lily, it's alright! I'll be really close by. I'll visit on Hogsmeade weekends. Just write me."
"Remember your pinky-promise," she reminds him, blowing her nose on his handkerchief.
He smiles and slips his hands into hers. "I will. I'll always love you. That's the promise, isn't it? We'll always love each other."
"Of course," she says, smiling a bit at him. "What else would it be?"
"Well, at the time…it was also, Don't follow in your dad's footsteps. For both of us, I think."
She laughs. "Yeah. No saving the world for me, and no turning evil for you. Got it?"
He hooks his pinky with hers. "I pinky-promise."