Lily Potter was never friends with Scorpius Malfoy. They weren't enemies either. They had this unspoken agreement never to bother each other throughout their years at Hogwarts. He heard rumors about her and vice versa, neither ever bothering to check if they were true. The only time they had said anything to each other was when Lily dated one of his friends, Matt Nott. It's a funny name, yes. But back to the point. He'd said, 'Don't give him too much trouble yeah?' and she'd said, 'Wouldn't dream of it.' And they had gone their separate ways.

Now, two years after Lily left Hogwarts, she found herself being extremely close to Scorpius. How did this happen? Well, they ask themselves and each other the same question every day.

Their relationship was complex, to say the least. They needed each other emotionally. They needed to speak to each other every single day. They kept in constant contact. They told each other almost everything. They were best friends.

The only problem was he had a girlfriend, or at least the equivalent of one. Scorpius and Sarah were those kinds of people who didn't like 'defining' their relationship. But they were, for all purposes, together. And Lily quite liked Sarah.

'Babe?'

'Yeah?' Lily mumbled.

'Feeling sleepy, are you?' Scorpius asked, slightly amused.

'Mmm.'

'You better get up, though.'

'Mmm,' she protested.

'Don't you want to know why, babe?' he teased.

'Ugh.'

'It's because it's your birthday. You're twenty now.'

'Hmm,' she said, falling into the depths of sleep.

'BABE!' he yelled, laughing.

'What the fuck, Scor!' she said, thoroughly annoyed.

'Happy birthday.'

'What?'

'Happy twentieth birthday.'

'Oh. Fuck. Thanks, I guess,' she said, a little confused.

'You guess?' he asked, in mock outrage.

'Uh. No…?'

Scorpius laughed. 'Go back to sleep now. You've got a brilliant birthday ahead of you. G'night babe.'

Lily was fast asleep already. It was as though she was Scorpius' girlfriend; the way he spoke to her and treated her. And the way they behaved around each other when they were alone: he always had his arms around her, in some way or the other.

Morning brought with it a grumpy Lily. She hadn't slept very well, and her birthday, as always, didn't seem promising. It's not that it was a bad day, it's just that she always set high expectations for this day, and felt hugely disappointed when they didn't come true. But this year, she had Scorpius. Although she doubted he'd do anything big, she had this feeling that he would do something to make sure she'd never forget her twentieth birthday.

And he did that, indeed.