I own nothing. It's JK's sandpit, I just build sandcastles. No copyright intended.
So, the big summery from live journal as usual,
Al and Scorpius have a falling out during lunch and Scorpius storm off. Knowing no one else will bother, Lily goes after him to see what is wrong and the pair reach an understanding, even if neither understand it.
I would looooove to hear your thoughts on this. I originally planned just a 500 piece but it grew so I decided it was long enough for here. Reviews are cherished, they really are. Thanks for reading.
Lily would never be entirely sure what made her do it. The notion of it alone seemed absolutely ridiculous, yet she couldn't help herself. Couldn't stop herself rising to her feet, ignoring her friends and following the seething blond from the Great Hall. Her brother remained in his seat, green eyes wide, angry, disbelieving.
She remained in the shadows, watching him stomp across the entrance way and out into the school's sprawling lawns. Following quietly, she shifted her bag's straps on her shoulders and bounced down the stone steps, cringing as each step echoed from her kitty heeled boots. He continued on his way, dodging through Puffs and Claws in his haste to get to the lake's edge, Lily following behind, a little more obvious in her staring now as she crashed into the big fourth year Edwards and carried on without a word.
He eventually came to a halt and threw himself under the big oak tree, seemingly uncaring that a, they had classes in ten minutes and b, that he would be all dirty when he got up again.
She moves in, cautious now she has more to think about than just keeping sight of him, taking in his red cheeks, quivering form and closed trembling fists. She had always thought Al a bit of an idiot, but even she couldn't possibly imagine what he would have to have done to make his best friend do this.
Malfoy was one of the most composed people she had ever come across in her life.
"Scorpius?"
Scorpius jolts, surprised to her, clearly, not expecting anyone to follow him, obviously.
"Lily? What are.....why are you here?"
She stills, not sure what to say, not sure she really has an answer to give him,
"You looked upset.", she settles for.
He rolls his eyes, amused somewhat and slaps the worn earth beside him,
"Take a seat if you dare!"
She rolls her eyes now, letting her bag drop to the ground with a thud and sliding her cloak off to lie it on the floor like a blanket before gently sitting down beside him,
"If I dare? Isn't that a little dramatic?"
They don't interact too often, that wouldn't be cool. He has always been Al's best friend, here and there during the summer, just like Mark was with James.
"Ask your brother. Big bad Malfoy might drag you home and eat you or something."
Lily stills again, daring to look up at him yet hardly daring to breathe, instead she pulls at the tufts of grass over to her left,
"So you fell out over your family. And I don't do what my brother tells me, life would be too boring."
It wasn't a question. She knows her brother better than anyone, they were almost like twins before Hogwarts came and stole him away from her.
Scorpius looked up at her, eyes troubled, defeated.
"Something like that. I guess he just.....realised where I really come from."
Her hands still, her mind races and her heart clenches at her brother's idiocy.
In a way, she wonder how it had taken seven years but then she just gets angry, because it should never have happened at all. The feud didn't belong to them. Scorpius doesn't need to explain, she knows too well and it just makes everything seem even more ridiculous.
"But that doesn't explain who you are! You define who you are! What your parents or grandparents or great grandparents did doesn't decide who you are! You have to know that! Surely you have heard about your cousin Sirius? He came from the vilest of backgrounds and died fighting as a hero!"
Scorpius looks like he is trying to smile, sneer maybe, but moments later all he is doing is trying to hold back tears,
"He...I thought....Al was different. That he would understand!"
Lily edged closer to the broken seventeen year old and placed her arm gently around his shoulder. She didn't want to go too far. She knew he didn't like physical contact, it was a totally foreign concept to him. Just because the Malfoy family wasn't as dark as they were, didn't mean they were full of close and loving relationships.
"Oh Scorpius. I'll talk to him. Whatever he said, it would have been in anger! He isn't...he knows what it is like, really he does!"
Scorpius shook his head and immediately pulled himself from her grasp, cheeks flushed, embarrassed to be caught needing or taking support from a girl two years his junior, his supposed best friend's sister to boot.
"No! Whatever you do, not that! Merlin no! I mean, I ....I appreciate you coming out after me, I appreciate your concern but you are....and I'm...."
Lily stiffens but refuses to allow things to get to her, this is about Scorpius after all, not her,
"I'm his little sister and though you do need someone here, you can't admit it and people certainly can't know it was me", she summarises, voice deadpan and emotionless.
"Something like that", he mumbles under his breath.
She waits for him to say something else but he just remains sitting under the tree, not bothering about the orange and red crippled leaves being blown up around him or the breeze that is upsetting his almost always perfect hair. His muscles relax as he goes from angry to upset and back again and Lily wonders if she is making any difference at all. The bell sounds in the back ground and though both know they should go, both students remain in place, one cracking around the edges, one wallowing in hopelessness.
"Scorpius. You can't stay out here.", Lily whispers some time later, minutes, hours, she isn't sure.
"Can. There is nothing physical stopping me. You should go inside though, people will wonder where you are."
Lily blushes, with anger, with guilt, with sadness.
It's not said, but they both hear it, ipeople will wonder where you are, not where I am/i, because the only person who would care about where Scorpius was before it was time for the dorms to shut, was the very reason he was outside in the first place.
"Can't you tell me..."
"No. I'm a Malfoy. He has suddenly decided he doesn't like that. That is all there is to it."
She sighs, then she rises to her feet, fully aware of stormy grey eyes watching her progress,
"Right. Enough wallowing. It's freezing. Let's get inside and no Malfoy, that wasn't a question. Shift. We are going to see the moron I am forced to call my brother. We will sort this."
She leans forward, hand extended towards the Slytherin but all she gets in return in a murderous glare,
"I'm not going running to him Lily. I haven't gone running after people to get them to like me because of me and not my surname in seventeen years and I will not start now. Just go Lily. I'll talk to him when he can be like an adult and not call me names and blame me for things I haven't done."
Lily pursed her lips, biting back her remarks. She didn't find running away and sulking outside, skiving from classes like extremely mature behaviour but she could hardly talk. Even if she was fifteen, she knew better than to skive off too and skive she had, all afternoon just to make sure her brother's mate was ok.
"So you are just going to sit out here? Alone, sulking?"
He peered up at her with wide eyes and then smiles his first true smile of the afternoon,
"Last time I checked Miss Potter, you were here, and that stops me being alone."
Lily smiles but then bends down to brush her trousers down, pulls her fingers through her hair and sighs,
"We can't just sit here Scorpius. I didn't want you to be alone. I wanted to help you but, guess I can't do that. You and Al....you need to do things your way, ok but that doesn't mean you have to be forced out here. Let's go inside, we can go get something in the kitchens or something."
Grey eyes fall to the floor but the smile is still there, his mind clearly chewing things over before he pulls himself to his feet.
"Ok. I'll come in, but I'm not going near Al, not yet, we will sort it out later, when we have both calmed down."
"You mean when you have left him in his misery and worry long enough?", Lily teased, fully aware that Al would have been anxious about what he said the minute he said it, at least at the back of his mind.
He just didn't have enough balls to come after Scorpius, too much temper to boot. Al was still a Potter, still a Weasley, still explosive. He was just better at hiding it.
"Something like that."
Lily just smiled and turned towards the path that lay off to their right,
"Come on then. I hear the elves calling."
Scorpius just smiles and follows after her, giving her a nudge in the shoulder as he catches up,
"Thanks. For being there."
Lily smiles, still not entirely sure she did anything at all and nods.
"That is what friends are for. Just because Al is your friend, doesn't mean I can't be too."
Scorpius nods, smiling and laughing softly,
"I guess people might say it's not cool but, to hell with it, uncool is good."
"Not what you were saying earlier", Lily teased.
"Well, that was then, this is now and now, I recon uncool is good. Lily Potter is my friend, I'm a Malfoy and to hell with anyone who doesn't like it."
Lily could only smile, she wasn't sure how, but somehow, they had gotten to where they needed to be, even if neither was sure where that was.