Hello Everyone! Chapter two is up like I promised. I hope you enjoy this exciting chapter. I had a lot of fun writing it.
….
Chapter 2
The next day, Lily woke feeling slightly groggy. Her mind had been racing with so many thoughts that she had a hard time shutting down her brain to sleep. She tried her best to shake off her drowsiness as she prepared for her first day back at Hogwarts. She had almost forgotten to check over her schedule for her first week back before going to bed. The thoughts of her brother racing through her mind overtook any other thing she should have been thinking about. The more she thought about it, the more concerned she was about the two boys' behavior yesterday.
After her morning routine, Lily made her way to the Great Hall and sat with her three friends, this time at the Hufflepuff table.
"Where were you last night? We didn't see you at dinner," Norma asked when Lily took a seat across from her.
"Oh yeah, I was a little late to dinner, sorry," Lily sighed as she tried to focus on what her friends were saying.
"Are you okay, Lily? You look like you didn't get much sleep," Mary asked softly in concern.
Lily looked at her three worried friends. She took a big intake of breath before slapping her hands to her cheeks in an attempt to shake herself out of her thoughts.
"Actually something strange did happen yesterday," Lily stated seriously.
Her friends' expressions went from worried to interested. Lily looked around at each of them.
"I found my brother and Scorpius last night!" Lily expression was stern.
The three girls let loose a collective 'Oh~'.
"Was he happy to see you?" Sandra asked.
"Well…" Lily sighed as she deflated a little. "He was acting strange…"
"Stange? How so?" Mary gasped.
"He…." Lily searched for the correct words to describe what had happened last night. "Well, he was very... I don't know, out of it? Like he was not all there in that moment," she explained lamely.
Her three friends exchanged looks, all not quite sure what to say.
"And Scorpius… he was just…. kind of mean," Lily carried on. "He… It was like he didn't want me around."
"Well, maybe they were tired?" Norma squeaked, hoping this would lift Lily's spirits.
"Scorpius would never… I have never seen or heard of him behaving like he did last night. You guys have hung around him. He is always so… so friendly," Lily insisted. Exhaustion would not change a person's personality so drastically. "And my brother. He seemed so empty. So unaware of what was going on around him," Lily's tone became more worried when talking about her brother. She always half worried that Albus might do something drastic like he had done in his 4th year.
The three other girls looked to each other once again, trying to figure out how to comfort Lily.
"And they didn't even want me to help out with preparations for the celebration," Lily carried on. "I had to pull a parent card on them to get them to even consider letting me join in," her voice was now a whimper.
"Oh, Lily, I am sure they didn't mean to come across as they did last night," Sandra said as she put a comforting arm around her friend.
"Yeah, your brother and Scorpius are usually quite delightful to be around. Maybe they were just having a bad day or something," Mary added. She reached her hand across the table and placed it on Lily's.
"Yeah…." Lily said, still unconvinced. "I just don't know what to do if they are still like that tonight when I meet them to help out with the preparations."
Her three friends all nodded at each other, all agreeing silently.
"Well, we can go with you and help out as well," Norma declared.
"Yeah, we can back you up if they try to push you out," Sandra added.
"Everything is going to be okay," Mary hummed.
Lily huffed a happy sigh as she looked to her three best friends. "Thanks," she said with a grateful smile. What would she do without these three.
…..
Later that evening, after finishing up dinner, Lily and her three friends made their way to the library. They gathered around a large table near the entrance so Albus and Scorpius could not miss them. Only a few minutes after they settled down did the two boys appear.
"Hey, Lily," Albus greeted as he headed over to the table.
Scorpius was not far behind and looked surprised to see so many others with Lily.
"Albus! How are you feeling today?" Lily asked with worry.
"Just fine! Why would you ask?" Albus replied with a smile.
Before Lily could reply Scorpius butted in.
"I thought just you were going to be helping out with preparations," Scorpius said coolly. His expression was very calculating.
"Well, since Albus was getting help from his friends," Lily said in reference to Scorpius, "I thought it would only be fair if my friends also helped out."
"Yeah! We are great helpers," Norma chimed in.
"Oh, yes," Scorpius said with a smile. "Yes, the more the merrier."
Albus just smiled, not giving too much of an opinion. Lily took note of it.
"I have something very important all of you could help us out with," Scorpius cheered with the shake of his wand.
Suddenly, several crates of colorful tissue paper appeared on the table. The four girls jumped in surprise with the sudden appearance. They all then looked to Albus and Scorpius for explanation.
"I need you ladies to help make the decorations," Scorpius scooped up a piece of blue paper and a green paper. With a shake of his wand they scrunched together to create a paper carnation.
"Paper flowers?" Lily inquired.
"2000 by the end of the week," Scorpius said with a nod. "500 blue and green, 500 pink and purple, 500 yellow and orange and 500 white and gold," he explained.
Lily could not help but think this seemed kind of cheep. Hogwarts events were normally littered with extravagant decor, not cheap, handmade, paper puffballs. She shook the thought from her mind and moved aside to make room for her brother and Scorpius.
"Well, shall we get started,"Lily asked as she motioned for Albus to sit next to her.
Albus made to sit before Scorpius stopped him.
"We have other things to do… We still need to contact the entertainment and prepare for the dueling competition that will be held at the party," Scorpius explained.
Albus almost robotically stepped away from the table and back beside Scorpius.
Lily looked up from her paper carnation as Albus moved away. "Well, if you help us here now then we can also help you with that later. I haven't had a moment to catch up with you two since getting back from Africa," Lily whined.
"Sorry, Lily, but can't. Important things to do," Albus said with a shrug.
"Maybe if we finish early we can help you ladies out," Scorpius said with an overly sweet smile.
"Oh that would be great," Mary replied with a much more natural smile, not taking notice of anything strange.
"We will definitely get this done with more than enough time to spare! I just know it," Norma chimed in cheerfully.
"Oh that would be wonderful," Scorpius said as his sweet smile grew, although Lily felt it never quite met his eyes.
Before any more could be said, Scorpius looped his arm through Albus's and they both left the library.
Lily watched the two leave, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. Something was definitely up. When she turned her attention back to her friends she was surprised to see they had already begun working. None of them seemed to be aware of the two boys' strange behavior.
Lily reluctantly magicked some paper into a flower without using a wand. With her mind still on her brother, she powered through 20 flowers. The three other girls chatted idly about their day as they worked.
"Did something happen while I was away?" Lily asked, not really paying much attention to the conversation the others were having.
The three other girls stopped talking and exchanged looks.
"Beside the announcement of this event, everything has been the same as always," Norma shrugged.
"There was that scuffle last week between a first year Ravenclaw and second year Hufflepuff. I think they were both interested in the same third year… can't remember who the lucky girl was," Sandra hummed as she worked.
"Oh yeah, the Ravenclaw boy hexed the other kid's face to have a pig nose. It was kind of funny, but to be shown up by a first year! That must have been mortifying," Mary said with a shiver.
"I saw the Hufflepuff boy, I think his name was Jim or something, when he was on his way to Madam Pomfrey's. His pig nose was so gross. It was so funny," Norma chuckled.
"So nothing out of the ordinary has happened?" Lily said, not quite ready to drop the subject.
The other three went silent. All trying hard to think of anything out of the ordinary happening.
"Mary, how about the Slytherin dorms? Are they the same as always?" Lily asked desperately.
"N-no. I mean… I have not noticed anything out of the ordinary…" Mary replied apologetically.
"Hey, tell you what, we will ask around our dorms to see if maybe anyone else has notice a disturbance in the force," Norma suggested.
Lily thought for a moment before replying. "Yeah, if that's not too much of a problem," she said with a nod.
"Don't worry. We have your back," Sandra vowed.
Lily smiled at her three friends. She knew something was up and she was going to get to the bottom of it. For a moment she thought of asking her parents, but decided against it. If she got Dad involved Albus would never forgive her.
…..
Tuesday and Wednesday passed exactly the same as Monday. Scorpius and Albus would meet them for mere minutes every evening before running off to go who knows where to make preparations for who knows what. First it was entertainment, then it was ordering the correct amount of food from the house elves. Lily could not wait for what their Thursday excuse would be.
To make matters more frustrating, it seemed not a single other student noticed a difference in the school. Lily and the others had asked around their respective dorms and every student they spoke to seemed content with their day-to-day lives. She had even approached Rose with her worries. Rose had shrugged it off as one of Alubs's Albusy moments and to give him some space. Lily could not help but wonder if she was going crazy.
At the moment, Lily was making her way to the library. The other girls all had personal things to get done before meeting in the library to fold more damn flowers. As Lily entered the library she was met by an angry shout coming from none other than Scorpius.
"These flowers here are pink and green!" Scorpius snapped as he threw an off color flower at a very startled Mary.
"I… I'm… I..." Mary stuttered in fear.
"This is not what I asked for! Now we have to redo all of these in this box here! I thought you had said you would get these done in no time! Now I need to order more paper," Scorpius shrieked, kicking the box full of offending flowers.
Mary looked as if her soul had left her body.
Lily felt anger boil in the pit of her stomach. How dare Scorpius yell at Mary in such a violent way! They had all taken time out of their busy lives to help them prepare for this event, and here he was having a petty bitch fit in the library over paper flower colors. Perhaps Lily had been wrong about the young Malfoy.
"What was that?!" Lily inquired as she stormed over to the three. Mary was still too shaken to reply.
Scorpius shot around and turned on Lily. His lip curled as he seemed to analyze his next move.
"Whoah. Calm down, Scorpius. Everything will be just fine," Albus assured as he sauntered out from behind a bookshelf. He wrapped his arm around his best friend. "Lily, did you see that?" Albus asked in concern.
"Yeah, I sure did," Lily snapped. "You have no right talking to any of us like that," she seethed as she turned her attention to Scorpius.
Scorpius shrank away from the burn in her tone. He stuttered over his words for a moment.
"Come on, Lily," Albus sighed.
"Really, Albus?" Lily huffed in utter disbelief.
"You know we are under a lot of stress and with the deadline —" Albus began, but was cut off before he could finish.
"No! No, she is right, Albus… that was uncalled for," Scorpius admitted with a sigh. "I… Sorry for shouting, Mary," Scorpius sighed as he rubbed his temples.
"N-no… we should have payed more attention when making these," Mary stuttered a reply.
"And sorry you had to see that, Lily," Scorpius added, still rubbing his temples in what looked like exhaustion.
"Well…. Just don't do it again," Lily mumbled.
"See, all is well," Albus assured. "And I don't think anyone is going to notice these flowers being slightly different. We will just stick them in a corner or something."
"Yeah… Yes, I suppose we can do that," Scorpius said as he finally stopped rubbing his temples.
"You know, if you need a hand with anything else we can help you with more than just these flowers," Lily suggested.
Scorpius let loose a humph at that. "Yeah, I guess we may need a few more hands on our end," he admitted. "You know what, as an apology for shouting at you, Mary, why don't you give me and Albus a hand tonight?"
Mary all but stuttered at this. She was fully aware how much Lily wanted to be with her brother. She desperately wanted to decline the invite but the words just wouldn't come out.
"Great! Lily can get started on the flowers," Scorpius said, looking at the table they had taken over since Monday. "And we can head on down to the the kitchen and finish up food preparations," he finished as he began to lead Mary out of the library.
"Albus!" Lily demanded, unable to get much more out. Was Scorpius doing this on purpose – trying to make sure Lily and Albus didn't spend any time together?
"Sorry, Lily," Albus shrugged as he followed after his best friend.
It took everything Lily had not to cry. She felt hurt and rejected. Like Scorpius and Albus had slapped her across the face. Is this really how it was going to be? How dare Scorpius turn on her like this. Had she been a fool to believe in a Malfoy like that? Uncle Ron had always insisted that Scorpius would eventually take after his father and grandfather. That it was only a matter of time. She always thought he was joking but could he have been correct in saying that?
Lily slumped down heavily in a seat at the table. All these negative thoughts stormed in her mind. She wanted so badly to call Scorpius out on what he was doing, but Albus was alway so sensitive when it came to his best friend. If she so much as even implied that Scorpius was evil she would never have a chance at getting close to Albus again – that is, unless she had proof.
But she had no proof.
…..
Lily had made it a point to tail her brother the best she could the next day. She went to her morning classes but for her afternoon classes she skipped her Care of Magical Creatures and Divination in lieu of seeing if Scorpius was acting out of character any other time of the day.
She hid in a small cupboard during their History lesson, and in a broom closet during Potions. If anyone found out she was this obsessed they would think she was out of her mind. She was surprised to see that Albus and Scorpius talked to no one during their afternoon classes, not even each other. Scorpius didn't answer a single question, he didn't even look like he was paying attention in class. Albus jotted down notes like a robot. It looked like he wrote down every word the teacher was saying.
After their Potions class, the two boys headed to the Slytherin dorm. Lily followed close after, watching their every move. To her surprise, something very out of the ordinary happened. She ducked behind a corner as she watched the two boys who were currently alone.
"S-Scorpius?" Albus suddenly moaned as he fell against a wall.
"P-Potter?" Scorpius replied sharply.
Albus looked up to Scorpius, his body shook with random tremors. He looked horrified "Y-you… Your—" he mumbled incoherently.
"No! Not now! Not yet. It's too soon," Scorpius said sternly as he lifted his wand to Albus's right temple. He mumbled something under his breath and his wand began to glow.
"No! No, stop! I have to..." Albus pleaded in what sounded like a very pained, desperate voice. Suddenly, Albus blinked a few times and stood up straight.
Scorpius examined Albus for a short moment before giving a curt nod. With that, the two boys linked arms and carried on down to the Slytherin dorms.
Lily sat frozen in her hiding spot. What had she just seen? Was that a memory charm of some sort? Was he messing with Albus's mind? What had Scorpius done to her brother? She felt the desperate need to scream. After a few moments of erratic breathing, Lily made her way back to the Great Hall. Her appetite was non-existent. She swiped a few rolls from the Gryffindor table, in case that changed later, and then headed straight to her dorm. Her mind was racing. She didn't know what to do. She didn't know what to say. But she had to tell someone. She had to reveal Scorpius for what he truly was, a mind-manipulating monster. She finally had her proof.
It was only after she had flopped down on her bed and screamed into her pillow that she noticed the letter that had been lying on her side desk. She shook the confusion from her mind as she opened the letter.
Dear Lily,
Your brother wanted me to tell you that we will be meeting in the Great Hall at around 10 o'clock tonight to help go over last minute necessities needed for tomorrow's party. Please don't be late.
Your best friend,
Norma
Lily folded the letter and set it by her desk. Yes! Tonight she would reveal Scorpius for what he truly was. It was probably best she do it with witnesses in case Scorpius tried something on her. She looked at the clock in the room. It read 6 o'clock. She had several hours until 10. She tried her best to calm her mind, so as to not babble like an idiot come tonight. She needed to get it together. She needed to save and protect Albus.
…..
Lily arrived at the Great Hall just before 10 o'clock. As she entered the room, she was surprised to see that almost everyone else was there, but Albus and Scorpius seemed to be running late. There were a few house elves off in a corner, her friends were all talking around a box of paper flowers and a tall man with a guitar was standing off to the side. The next thing Lily noticed was her father, Harry, talking with Professor McGonagall. She strode over to her dad, wanting nothing more than a hug from the man.
"According to the schedule, at midnight tomorrow you and Albus will start off the celebration with a speech that will then be followed by the dueling competition," Professor McGonagall explained as she and Harry examined a sheet of paper.
"And then, after the winner of the competition is decided, I will award them with their prize," Harry confirmed as he ran his finger down the list on the paper.
"It would seem so," Professor McGonagall replied.
"Alright, I think I got it," Harry said as he took the paper from Professor McGonagall.
With that, Professor McGonagall went over to a few house elves that Lily assumed were there for the catering.
"Dad," Lily cheered as she tackled Harry with a big hug.
"Oh, Lily! How is my favorite daughter doing?" Harry replied fondly as he returned the warm hug.
Lily felt all her pent up stress slowly subside as she tightened her hold on her dad.
"It's been kind of stressful to be honest," she mumbled into her dad's chest.
"Is everything alright?" Harry asked as he rubbed a circle on his daughter's back.
Lily pulled away and looked up at her father. "Actually, there is something I have been wondering," she replied.
Harry lifted an eyebrow wondering what his daughter had to say.
"I have been wondering, you usually like to spend the night of grandma and grandpa's death at home, why did you decide to put on this event?" Lily asked.
Harry seemed a little surprised by the question. "It wasn't my idea. Didn't Albus tell you he was the one who wanted to put on this event?" Harry inquired.
"This was all Albus's idea?" Lily stuttered in shock. She knew that Albus would never want to do something like this on his own, but she had an idea who might be behind this.
"He insisted we do this as father and son, so I agreed," Harry confirmed, with what looked like hope in his green eyes.
Lily silently considered what her father was saying. She had to reveal Scorpius for what he was. Not only was that snake controlling her brother but he had the gall to mess with her father's emotions.
Just then, Albus and Scorpius entered the Great Hall. They were walking arm in arm like a sweet couple taking a stroll through a flowery park. Lily always thought this sight would please her, but now all it did was fill her stomach with knots. The two made their way to where Professor McGonagall was currently talking to the man with the guitar, whom Lily assumed was the entertainment.
With much conviction, Lily made her way to the front of the Great Hall and stood in front of the pedestal from which the teachers would often make announcements. She looked around the room only to see that Harry was the only one to take notice of her actions. Pointing her finger to her throat, Lily silently casted a voice amplifying charm. Her voice echoed through the Great Hall as she cleared it, winning her everyone's undivided attention.
"I have something to say," Lily started.
No one in the hall said a word as they looked at her in confusion.
"Someone in this room has been deceiving us all. Someone in this room is not telling the truth," Lily went on.
A small murmur filled the room as the others exchanged very baffled looks. Lily's friends seemed to have an idea what this was about and all looked very nervous.
Lily felt a lump gather in her throat as she fought to find the will to carry on. She had to do this.
"Scorpius Malfoy has been deceiving us this whole time," Lily accused as she pointed at the very shocked boy. "He has been snapping at everyone left and right."
"L-Lily?" Albus demanded as he wrapped a protective arm around Scorpius, who looked hurt.
"E-ever since I came back from Africa, Scorpius has been keeping Albus to himself and snapping at anyone who tries to get close," Lily carried on, trying to ignore Scorpius's hurt look.
"I-I…" Scorpius began to sob.
"Lily what is the meaning of this?" Harry asked. His gaze was stern.
"Dad! Scorpius has been casting memory charms, or, or something on Albus! I saw them today alone in the hallway," Lily began to explain desperately.
"I-I would never do such a thing," Scorpius began to sob.
"Lily! You know we have been over this!" Harry warned.
"But Dad! I saw him! I saw them this evening. Albus almost passed out in the hall saying 'No! Stop!' as Scorpius casted a spell on him!" Lily practically shouted in defence.
A few gasps could be heard around the room, mixed with a few sobs from Scorpius.
"Lily Luna Potter, you'd better not say another word!" Harry warned yet again.
"Dad! He is evil! He is doing something to Albus—" Lily was practically pleading.
"Lily, he has not been casting mind spells on me," Albus cut Lily off before she could say more. "The 'mind spell' you saw was merely a spell used to subside headaches," Albus explained as he glared daggers at his little sister.
"H-headache?" Lily mumbled.
"I would never hurt Albus like that," Scorpius blubbered.
"But! But Albus you- you told him to stop you—" Lilly stuttered in her defence.
"Lily, I think you have said just about enough," Harry said sternly. Lily could tell her father was quite upset. Ever since the incident two years ago, Harry, too, was a little defensive of those who accused Scorpius of being evil.
"But Dad! I know what I saw!" Lily pleaded. She looked around the room to be met by an array of disapproving looks. Even her friends looked disappointed in her.
"Maybe you should just go," Albus snapped. His glare was the fiercest of them all, and left Lily feeling burnt inside.
"Albus…. I—" Lily whimpered.
"No! I don't want to hear it, Lily," Albus spat. "You know Scorpius would never, ever do anything to hurt anyone! How could you! I trusted you! Just go."
Lily looked around the room to find no one seemed to disagree with her brother. Lily felt tears gather at the edge of her eyes. How could this be?
Canceling the voice amplifying spell, Lily let loose a pained whimper as she ran out of the Great Hall. She ran up the stairs leading to her dorm but stopped half way to let loose a heartfelt sob. How could she have been so blind? She felt awful for what she had just done. She was so certain something was amiss. Perhaps she was just jealous of Scorpius getting all of Albus's attention. She stood silently on the stairs as the candles on the wall bathed her with an orange glow. All other students were up in the dorms, so the castle felt empty. Shame started to settle in as she slowly made her way up the flight of stairs.
As Lily reached the top of the flight of stairs, the candles in the area went out all at once, bathing her in darkness. The only light to be seen was from the half moon that shone through the windows.
Lily fumbled in her pocket for her wanted and whispered "Lumos" before carefully carrying on down the hall. She had only taken a few steps when she noticed a silhouette of a person standing beside the next window.
"H-Hello?" Lily greeted cautiously. For some reason, she felt a sudden wave of fear.
"Oh, Lily, you just couldn't let it go, could you?" came the all too familiar voice of Scorpius Malfoy. The boy stepped into the light of the moon. His hair glowed silver in the moonlight, his gray eyes shone with confidence and a wicked toothy smile was painted across his pale face.
"S-Scorpius?" Lily gasped. She took a step back as she tried to keep her cool.
"You just had to go and meddle, didn't you," Scorpius seethed as he began to pace slowly in front of Lily. "I was going to let you go free, but today was way too close," Scorpius carried on with a cold laugh.
Lily tried to find her voice, unsure if she should turn and run or confront the boy.
"But I can't have you poking your nose around when I am so close to my actual goal." Scorpius's smile faded to a scowl and his eyes shone with murder.
"I- I knew it! I won't let you get away with this! I won't let you hurt Albus," Lily tried to spit threateningly but failed.
"I am going to have to remove you from the situation. I hope you understand. No hard feelings, right?" Scorpius mocked apologetically.
Lily felt the sudden urgency to get away. She turned to run back down to the Great Hall but, to her horror, she was blocked by tall purple flames. A gasp of horror escaped from ther throat.
"Sorry, Lily, but I can't have you squealing to anyone else," Scorpius laughed wickedly.
Lily turned around to see that she was surrounded by the flames. Her mind was racing with fear. She was certain she was going to die. Before she could react, the magic fire rushed towards her from all sides. Lily let out a terrified shriek as the purple flames engulfed her. In a matter of seconds, the fire was extinguished, along with Lily.
"Good riddance," Scorpius scoffed coldly as he made his way back down to the Great Hall.
….
All right! Chapter two is over! What could possibly be going on!? Is that really Scorpius? Is Lily dead? What about Albus! Who is going to save Albus? Oh gosh! So many questions! SO MANY QUESTIONS! And there is only one way to find out the answers and that is to….. Stay tuned for chapter 3! YAY!
Chapter 3 should be up by next weekend. It is still in the middle of proofreading so as long as time allows I should have it up by Sunday at the latest. Also I live in America so when I say Sunday I mean America's Sunday so that could be Monday for those of you on the other side of the world.
I would like to thank my beta reader, Teenage Mouse, for helping me out with making sure things made sense in this chapter! If yall have time then hop on over to her page and check out her work too!
I want to thank everyone who has subscribed to me and this story. I really appreciate it and it fill me with excitement to post more and more and more stuff. I really hope you all hang around to read the rest of this silly story of mine.
If you have a moment please do leave a review and tell me what you think of this chapter. I love hearing my readers feedback and suspicions.
Replies to reviews:
Guest (Whoever You Are): Thank you so much for the sweet review. I appreciate your kind words.
Trolleywx: Thank you for the wonderful review. Indeed what is going on with our sweet boys! Perhaps someone has polyjuiced into them… or perhaps not! Perhaps Lily is just falling into slow insanity. Regardless, I hope this story does not disappoint.
WizardingWhovian:Thank you for taking the time to leave me a review. It seems Lily has indeed discovered something quite sinister about our beloved Scorpius but there are some puzzle pieces missing.
Teenage Mouse: You are far too kind to me! I am happy to hear you enjoy my Lily. It's fun to write her since she didn't really show up in the play. There is a lot of creative license in writing her character. I also have the top taste in OTPs.
