Scorned

Rose

Once again, the Golden Quartet waited outside of Slytherin corridor for Esmerelda Zabini, otherwise known as the Wicked Witch of the West, her boyfriend Keith Goyle, or the Monkey, and Esmerelda's equally annoying and wicked brother, Jareth Zabini, or Dracula, as they liked to say.

"Scorpius your wand isn't at the ready," Rose scowled. "We need all our magic together to bind them, aye?" Immediately, Scorpius glared at Rose but understood. He took out his wand, which was long and stiff and made of elm wood with a bone core, a wand for purebloods as his grandfather had pointed out, which bothered Scorpius. He had tried to step away from the terrible notions of the Malfoy name, but he had only done so with his closest friends. And even though he never liked to think about it, it was probably just because their best friend was a Slytherin and they wanted to see what crowd he was with, just to keep him in the light.

"Thank you." Rose turned her head, full of grand bushy hair, red but stroked with brown.

"Look!" Albus looked ahead at the Slytherin gang, walking in a messy heap, their movements slowed from the sleeping draught that they had drunken instead of their own fire whiskey. Now, Lily Luna, Rose, Albus and Scorpius watched with delight as the three ignorant students fell to the ground with tremulous snores.

"Ha!" Scorpius shouted, kicking the leg of Keith Goyle. "Incarcerous!" He pointed his wand at them, intending to bind them. Alas, he was not the greatest spell caster, and the giant body of Monkey went flying over the stair railing, robes tangling his head and legs.

With an instant knowing of what she must do as a student fell at a great speed to the hard floor, and most likely his death, Rose outstretched her hand and called, "Arresto Momentum!" Thankfully, his body stopped falling and went up again, landing beside the bodies of Esmerelda and Jareth. "Goodness, Scorpius, we need to work on your spells. Incarcerous." Without much thought, she waved her rose wood wand, slightly springy and 7/34 long with a Dragon Heartstring core, three times, and bound them all up. With another spell, she had lifted them above their heads in the air.

Rose turned back to see her closest piers in complete and utter shock at the ease of which she had just completed spells that they had trained all Summer for, and still nearly killed someone. "Bloody Merlin, Rose!" Albus and Scorpius exclaimed at the same time. "You are a genius!" Scorpius said, put away his wand. Rose blushed deeper than Lily Luna's hair, as Rose's hair wasn't quite that dark ginger.

"Scorpius. . . enough flattery. We can work on your magic sometime. All of us. For now, we've got to get to herbology in ten minutes, so let's get a move on, shall we?" They all nodded except for Lily, who was disappointed that she was left out of all of their activities because they were fifth years and she was a third year. She knew that one day, they'd be off doing good in the Wizarding World and she'd still be at Hogwarts, alone.

Lily tugged on Scorpius's shoulder once more until his kind gray-green eyes were matched with hers, a smile toying on his lips. "Professor Neville said that I can come to fifth year class if I have an official partner. I know it's embarrassing, but I just wanted to ask if you would. . .?" Scorpius laughed and nodded patting Lily on the shoulder.

"Anything for my favorite Potter."

"Hey!" Albus gave him a punch to the shoulder. "We've been on the same quidditch team since second year! Not to mention the same house!" He thrust the Slytherin tie in Scorpius's face.

"Everytime we have a game, you choke out and we have to get the Wicked Witch of the West to play in your spot as a beater, and do you not remember the time she sent the bludger at Lily and broke her arm in her first game." Even now, two years later, Scorpius and Albus gripped their wands tighter, wanting to hurt them for what they did. Nonetheless, she got her punishment.

Albus laughed slowly. "Yeah. I also remember Lily not only punching her in the stomach so hard the Wicked Witch cried, but Rose sending a flock of birds after her, just like her Mum did to her Dad once." All at once, the three laughed as Rose finished painting on the wall one of their crimes. We dueled Eddie Longbottom and We Deserve to Pay for It! It was written in thick black sludge.

"Brilliant, Rose." Albus clapped her on the back and examined the Witch, Monkey, and Dracula all together, named after some of the muggle stories Hermione would tell her children, including the ones with the Wicked Witch and her pushover monkeys, and Dracula, a different type of evil. He was sure they would be punished. He hoped so. "Alright, off to herbology!"

"To herbology!" Rose, Lily, and Scorpius threw their fists into the air and laughed. This had been their little routine ever since they became friends in the middle of first year, united over their hate for Esmerelda and the corrupt Slytherins that were not like Albus and Scorpius.

. . . . . .

Lily

"I just don't get it!" Lily tossed her book to the ground. "Quidditch makes so much more sense than this! How can you even live with this?" Professor Neville had said she was above and beyond in her third year class and would perfectly fit in with his class. If that was true, Lily wouldn't be biting down on her unnecessarily long fire red hair which reached down to her waist.

"I tried to tell you Lily, that this class might not be something you're up to." Albus winced as soon as he had finished his sentence.

"Do you want to fight me, Al? I will bloody fight you!" Lily raised one of her fists and her wand, as if she wasn't sure which medium she would use to defeat her older brother. All the color was gone from Albus's face as he realized his mistake. Lily wasn't great at producing spells without purpose, but if her competitive spark is lit, there would be no stopping her. That's how she one nearly every quidditch game as the best Seeker in Hogwarts history, perhaps better than her own father.

Scorpius took both of Lily's hands and put them down, speaking softly. "Maybe you should go for a walk, Lily. Alone, so you don't kill anyone. With no wand and no way to harm passing people, alright?" Lily looked at him again, his kind eyes and felt that overwhelming feeling she couldn't explain and knew she had to leave before she did something stupid.

"Alright!" She brushed his hands off hers reluctantly. "I'm going. If I'm not back in twenty minutes, send yourselves out for me." She commanded, brushing off her Gryffindor sweater. Rose, please feed Nichol for me." Lily asked for her best friend to feed her sweet tawny owl. Lily had a tawny owl, James had a snowy owl named Fitz, and Al had a barn owl named Evika, though Rose, who was allergic to animals had a little honeybee named Honey who acted as her best form of defense, stinging those who displease Rose, and even though she claimed she wasn't controlling Honey, everyone knew she was.

Scorpius though kept a canary bird name Sergio, and Sergio was a small little bird that sang the most lovely wakeup songs, according to Albus. He wasn't the most powerful bird though, and he often failed to deliver heavy mail. Nonetheless, Sergio was one of Scorpius's closest friends.

. . . . . .

Lily had been wandering the halls of Hogwarts for quite some time now. She had gotten a stash of lemon sherbets and was delightfully munching on them on her way back to Gryffindor dorms when Esmerelda, Goyle, and Dracula, pale and frightful surrounded her.

"Well, well, Potter." Esmerelda snarled. "I wasn't expecting to see your face here." Lily examined them. They were all holding their wands, teeth bared and ready to strike.

"I wasn't expecting a person with your looks to be so dumb. After all, when one is extremely foul looking you'd think they'd at least be a bit intelligent." Lily smirked. This only made the Wicked Witch even more angry, and to be honest, Esmerelda was a good spell caster. So was Jareth. He had even done well in silent magic, a skill Lily wasn't even close to possessing.

"You'll pay for that, Potter! One—two—three—Crucio!" Lily Potter stood, no wand and fists unmatched against this dark curse. There were three of them, those dark red lines in lightning cackles. That would kill her. One Cruatious Curse is enough to cause paralyzing pain for someone her size and age. But three would kill her, for sure.

As the terryfiying bolts came to her, she was suddenly saved by a purple shield shrinking the curses into nothingness and protecting her. She nearly fell down from the simple shock. "You Wicked Witch!" The angered voice of Scorpius called. "Locomoter Wibbly!" He aimed at Keith Goyle, who immediately fell to the ground after his legs turned to metaphorical jelly.

"Agh, Crucio! Crucio! Crucio!" The first two were aimed and dodged by Scorpius, but the last one hit an unassuming Lily.

She collapsed in a heap on the ground, her eyes like pockets of warm blood that could not see, her lips a boiling, melting mess. Her whole body felt like it was being eaten by coyotes, a humorous species that was laughing and taunting as it whipped and bit her into shreds.

Then nothing. The last sight before the world turned to darkness was Scorpius. His kind green-gray eyes.

. . . . . .

Lily awoke, not in the hospital room, but in her own bed. The maroon red sheets were still against her, but she had not been changed out of her robes. She felt the back of her head. "Ah!" She exclaimed softly. There was a bump buried in her deep entanglement of hair. She knew it was from where her body hit the ground after being hit by the Cruatious curse. While everyone was still sleeping, she put on fresh robes and headed to the Slytherin dorms.

It seemed that Scorpius hadn't been able to get any sleep. This is what he stated. "I didn't sleep last night. Sorry. It's kind of a lot when you know there's a raging lunatic out to kill you just a few locked doors away." There was a notebook and pencil in his hand.

"What happened?" Lily's voice quavered. She wasn't sure she wanted to know.

"Well, I stunned them and left them and then carried you to the hospital. I made Dr. Kina promise not to tell anyone. I knew your parents would get overprotective, and your brothers would get overprotective, and you just hate that, so I let you get fixed up with a Pepperup Potion and then I sent you back to bed." All while he said it, he didn't look at Lily.

. . . . .

Scorpius

When he was carrying Lily in the darkness of Hogwarts halls, her lifeless body in his arms, his gut was twisting and burning all the while. He didn't know this feeling. He had never felt it before. . . the only thing on his mind was her safety. All very strange.

Actually, he had felt that feeling before, every time he spoke with Rose. Yet, she had showed very little interest in him and more and more, his conversations had been with the other Gryffindor girl in the Golden Quartet. She was fiery and compassionate still, but putting her off was to sign your death contract.

Had those feelings been lingering in the background of his feelings for Rose? The idea made his brain turn to mush. Not only did it make almost no sense, but Lily was a third year. Daughter of Harry Potter. So passionate and free and fiery. They couldn't match, could they?

Oh, and Rose, so beautiful and intelligent. Pretty in a way you'd have to look to see. She didn't play quidditch or fawn over the boys like anyone else, not that Lily fawned over many boys! She was just this entity, and Scorpius—was Scorpius. Embarrassed to say his full name.

Yet, he didn't want to ponder on that anymore. He just wanted to return to the Gryffindor-Hufflepuff game that would be happening today. Lily would be playing alongside James Potter and Fred Weasley in the game. Not to mention Eddie Longbottom, the awkward but somehow efficient seeker working on the Twigger 90 broom, which often made loud noises, distracting his opponents and making his surprising victory time after time.

"You've got your big game tonight, though, don't you?" Scorpius still couldn't look at her. He was sure he had heard the sound of her hair rustling on her shoulders, indicating she had nodded her yes.

"Scorpius—I," Lily paused, obviously not sure what to say. This time, Scorpius looked at her again. "I'll check on Nichol. I have some mail I want him to send before I get dressed. . . thank you Scorpius." With a curt nod, Lily turned on her heel and her mass fire red hair trailed behind her.

Scorpius sighed on his bed as she went farther away from him, like a precious flower floating away in the ocean.