Chapter One

Scorpius waved his wand lazily over the quill in front of him, watching as it rose into the air, elongating as it went, before it floated gracefully back into his lap. He picked up the newly transfigured satin ribbon and murmured a second incantation to turn it deep orange in color. After taking a moment to admire his handy work – some of the first he had done as an of age wizard – he tied it into an elegant bow around the slender green stem of the brilliant sunflower nestled between his knees.

He slid the train window open, just enough to levitate the finished product outside and over the hustle and bustle of the King's Cross platform. He focused his attention on the redhead, who currently had her arms wrapped around her father's neck, whispering good bye in his ear. After the hug had broken and her parents had retreated through the brick wall once again, he sent the flower into motion.

It reached her just as she had finished straightening her owl's cage on the trolley she was sharing with her black haired, bespectacled brother. It hovered by her shoulder and took her by surprise when she turned around. He could hear her light laughter as she plucked it out of the air and he smirked and waved when her brother's irritated gaze met his. Scorpius reclined in his seat, out of view of a disgruntled looking prefect lingering outside, and waited.

A few minutes later, the redhead appeared in the doorway and he helped her position her trunk and owl into the overhanging luggage rack before taking her into his arms for a long awaited hug.

"Al was jealous you wrote to me more than to him," she said as she pulled away from him, leaving his shirt smelling of vanilla and strawberries.

"Did I really?" he chuckled, resuming his seat across from her.

"He counted each and every letter," she laughed. "You should be glad he considers you such a good friend, or he might try to find someone less annoying."

Scorpius laughed. "It's good for him, besides he should have expected it."

"Should have expected what?" a voice asked from outside the compartment.

Scorpius raised his eyebrows jokingly at Lily. "That empty threats of death and castration would not deter me from falling madly in love with your dear sweet sister."

Albus Potter rolled his brilliant green eyes as he heaved his trunk above his sister's head. "It's been five years now Scor, can we stop the childish games? We all know Lily is too good for you," he said.

"And yet your eyes still send daggers, threatening to mutilate my skillfully crafted gifts," Scorpius pouted. Teasing his best friend was all too easy sometimes (not to mention extremely entertaining).

"Yeah Al, that's hardly something a best friend would do," Lily piped in.

Al glared at her as well. "And making repeated advances on your best friend's sister after it was

explicitly stated that she was off limits is?"

"Oh Al, we all know it's in good fun," Lily countered, waving her hand dismissively at him. "Don't you have somewhere Prefecty to be?"

He groaned after a quick glance at his watch. "Rose is going to kill me."

Scorpius raised his eyebrows. "Isn't she your cousin?"

"Rose will always satisfy her role as Head Girl before she even thinks about her role as our cousin," Lily stated somewhat crossly.

Al nodded in agreement before bolting out of the compartment. "Hey don't forget your noose!" Scorpius shouted after him as he tossed Al's green and silver school tie out the door behind him.

He retook his seat next to the window and watched Lily for a few moments as she gently fingered the petals of the sunflower. "Again," Lily said as she tucked the perky yellow flower into her bag, "not my favorite."

Scorpius chuckled lightly. And so their friendly banter began once again. He had missed this time with her. "You'd think that I would have figured it out by now, after all of the Valentine's Days, birthdays, Christmases, Easters, September firsts, and other random days warranting flowers."

"Time's a ticking," Lily said as she swept her hair out of her face.

Scorpius pulled the orange bow off of the sunflower and motioned for her to turn around. He gathered her smooth hair lazily into the ribbon before using his wand to tie the perfect bow. "Did you just use magic outside of school Mr. Malfoy?" she teased as she turned around gingerly touching the bow.

"Hey! I've been 17 for three days now," he replied, twirling his wand expertly between his fingers.

"You're such a baby!"

"Oi! And how old are you missy? Twelve?"

Lily crossed her arms in front of her. "I'll be sixteen in two weeks."

Scopius sighed and shook his head. "What flower will I choose next?" he contemplated.

They laughed and spent the next hour or so telling summer stories and discussing the various

Quidditch matches they had both attended. She was different somehow, he noticed. It wasn't her body (that had matured a few years ago) it was her face maybe? Was she wearing make up?

Scorpius continued to study her face as they chatted, picking out traces of mocha lining her eyes, bringing out the darker brown accents of her irises. Her cheeks were a healthy pink, and her lips were also a pale shade of pink. She looked so...alive! Maybe Al did have a reason to be protective of her...against other male students of course!

The sound of approaching footsteps jarred him from his thoughts. He and Lily instantly grinned at each other. At once their hands went up to ruffle their hair and each bit down on their lips, turning them a nice shade of red. Scorpius had just finished undoing his top few buttons when the door was pulled open.

"Lily are you-" a voice came. "Oh! I'm sorry. I didn't know…didn't mean to interrupt," their visitor grumbled.

Lily bolted out of her seat."Wait, Carl come back!" she called after the brunette while attempting to tame her hair. "We thought you were Al," she explained as she dragged a very red-faced Gryffindor back into their car.

Carl turned out to be the very same disgruntled looking prefect Scorpius had seen outside of the train earlier. "People might start to get the wrong idea about you two," he said, staring disapprovingly between them. He was worse than Al!

Lily and Scorpius both laughed. "He's only got eyes for his broomstick."

"And she for chocolate frogs!" he recovered quickly.

Lily smacked him with her copy of the Daily Prophet. Scorpius feigned injury. Carl continued to look unamused, and Scorpius couldn't help but wonder what color stick was jammed up his -

"So you're still free to come to Hogsmeade with me then? We can check out that new tea shop that went in next to Puddifoot's," he said as he turned his back to Scorpius, completely shutting him out of the conversation.

It was a bright green stick, which slapped Scorpius in the face between each word of his date request. Part of Scorpius wanted to laugh at the bluntness of his request. Instead, he watched as Lily nodded and smiled her shy smile. Scorpius saw Carl's shoulders fall slightly in relief. "I'll see ya in the common room then. I'm on prefect patrol," he said smugly before turning to leave.

"Looks like you might have less time than you thought to figure out my favorite flower," Lily teased as she curled her legs beneath her on the seat.

"Carl? Really Lily, you can do better," Scorpius teased, while knowing inside what he spoke was the truth.

"What's wrong with Carl?" she asked.

"He's just all…Perfect and Prefecty…something's gotta give."

She laughed, fingering the silky flower petals lightly. "You're just jealous he'll guess my favorite

flower first," she teased as she unfurled the Prophet.

"I bet he doesn't even think to bring flowers on your first date," he challenged.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Until you came along, I thought flowers were only given in story books, or if they guy messed up…but you never cease to find an occasion that warrants flowers."

"Or chocolate frogs," he added.

"Speaking of…I know you have them somewhere. Hand them over," she demanded.

Scorpius laughed. "You better hope that Prefect-Face picked up on the chocolate frog comment or you might start going through withdrawals. Everyone knows you can't quit the frogs cold turkey."

Lily pouted as she accepted the box from Scorpius' hands. "And you better hope your first girlfriend is as much of a Quidditch enthusiast as I am," she joked.

Scorpius rolled his eyes as he watched her unwrap her first victim. He felt a bit bitter suddenly, a feeling which he blamed on the pompous air Prefect-Face had exhaled into their compartment. "I hear Olivia Nott has her eyes on you," Lily said, not looking up from the wizard card she was holding.

Scorpius sighed and swiped one of her frogs for himself. Olivia was one of his fellow Slytherins, a 6th year chaser. She was fairly attractive; dirty blonde hair, deep blue eyes, not overly muscular, good smile...but not Scorpius' type. His type was a bit...different. "I think Al has his eyes on her," he said quickly in hopes that the comment would put an end to their current conversation. Of all the things he and Lily talked about, boys and girls, crushes and romantic gossip were usually never among them.

"Gee Al really cramps your style when it comes to girls, doesn't he?" Lily teased, and Scorpius couldn't help but notice the tension creep back out of the compartment.

He just laughed lightly and went back to staring out of the window. Thankfully, Al reappeared a few minutes later, and Lily excused herself from their company. Apparently she had promised her twin cousins, Lucy and Molly Weasley, that she would spend the later half of the journey with them.

"It's finally our last year, huh?" Al mused as Scorpius changed into his school robes.

"Yeah, finally," he muttered back as he pulled his green tie up to his throat.

For some reason, those words came with a feeling of dread.

XxX

"So did you say yes?"

"Of course she did, Luce. She wouldn't be smiling if she hadn't," Molly said as she snapped the head off of the chocolate frog Lily have given to her.

"Just trying to be in the moment, Moll," Lucy responded as she pulled her legs more tightly to her chest.

"I knew he looked a bit...less rigid than usual at the prefect meeting today," Dominique chimed in.

"Well this has certainly made my news a bit anticlimactic," Lily pouted.

"I knew it!" exclaimed Lucy, punching her fist into the air above her.

Molly rolled her eyes into her darkly powdered lids. Lily laughed lightly at her cousins' responses. Predictably, Lucy played the excited "I can hardly contain myself" friend, Molly was complete opposite to her twin with the "Will everyone just calm down-whatever" persona, and Dominique the ever smooth and observant "I thought something was up" component. If Rose had been there, which she never seemed to be any more, she would have added the "Let's analyze this logically, piece by piece until we forget what the overall picture was" flavor. Last but not least, Roxanne would be the first to offer physical relationship advice and secretly slip lacy underwear into her satchel. Girl gab sessions with her Weasley cousins were always fun and helpful in one way or another.

"I should go soon," said Dominique as she glanced at her watch. "I don't want to be caught out of bed after hours on our first night back."

"Oh come on," Lucy said, "you're a prefect now. No one will say anything."

"Louis will," Dominique replied in a sing song voice as she grabbed her bag and shoes.

"Why does one of the twins in our family always have to be a downer?" Lucy grumbled, shooting a glare at her sister Molly.

She rolled her eyes. "It's called grasping reality, Luce."

Lily giggled, acknowledging that there was some truth in Lucy's comment. The Weasley family had two sets of twins: Lucy and Molly and Dominique and Louis, each having a personality that balanced out their twin's perfectly. Lucy and Molly, however, were a bit more extreme in this way than Dominique and Louis.

"I should probably head to bed as well," Lily said.

Lucy and Molly got up to show their cousins out of her dormitory. Lily turned left, heading up a flight of stairs to the 5th year Gryffindor girls' dormitory, while Dominique turned right to start the long journey back to the Ravenclaw common room for the night.

While being careful not to wake her two sleeping roommates, she lit her wand just enough to see a few feet in front of her. Yawning deeply, Lily quickly shucked her robes, exchanging them for her comfy pajamas. She placed her wand on her bedside table and shimmied under her scarlet comforter. Before laying her head on her beckoning pillow, she reached her hand behind her head to remove her pony tail. She was momentarily surprised to find the long satin bow instead of her usual brown elastic. She fingered the orange material with a sigh and placed it under her pillow before finally closing her eyes for the night.