Written for the Battleships Event at Diagon Alley II, for the prompt: first encounter.

Words: 1635

Summary: Lily thinks back over her first encounters with Scorpius, and how they brought them to the life they led.

Beta'd by the lovely RainbowJH - thank you for your hard work!

Three First Encounters

Whenever Lily was asked when the first time she met Scorpius was, she never knew what to say. To her, they had shared three first encounters. She'd been nine years old when she saw him for the first time at Platform 9¾, seeing her brothers onto the Hogwarts Express. She'd been begging her parents, desperate to join her brothers at the school, but she'd caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of her eye. A blonde boy stood with his parents, obviously a Malfoy, his shoulders held high with pride even as nervousness worried its way into his expression. She heard her Uncle Ron say something to her cousin, Rose, about making sure she beat him in tests, and felt an innate sadness settle in her as she looked at the blonde. This boy's life had yet to begin and yet it was already defined by those who assumed to know him.

Lily had understood why. The war had not ended as everyone had expected it would. Her father was kept as busy as ever in the Auror department as the self-proclaimed Death Eaters, old faces and new, sought revenge for the death of their Martyr. Lily had learned many years later that her aunt Hermione had offered Draco Malfoy, Scorpius' father, the chance to join the Order of the Phoenix, the freedom fighters, and he had refused the day before Hermione and Ron's wedding, claiming war had defined too much of his life. He was not the eternal soldier. If it was possible, this soured her father's opinion of the Malfoys even further.

The second time she met him, she was old enough to board the bright red Hogwarts Express herself, and she was brimming with all the excitement and nervousness befitting that of a first year. Her brothers had offered to let her sit with them, but she'd refused, instead opting to sit alone. Her journey through Hogwarts would be hers alone, and while she appreciated the offers, she wanted to make her own way and find her friends alone.

Scorpius and his friends had seen the near-empty carriage and made their way in, not stopping to see whose compartment it was they were choosing to share with.

"Where's Albus?" a blonde girl asked, looking around the other two for their missing member. Lily's curiosity was piqued as she turned to look at the Slytherin's, her brother's housemates and friends. She hadn't met them before.

She found Scorpius' eyes trained on her as a tall dark-haired boy replied, "Playing Potter with his brother."

"Who are you?" Scorpius asked, as if the answer was already known to him.

"She's just a likkle firsty," the blonde girl replied, pulling her upper lip up into a sneer as if Lily was beneath her. Lily found her face growing hot.

"Lily Potter," she replied, proud of her name in the face of the girl's contempt.

The blonde-haired girl looked startled as she took in Lily's green eyes and red hair. "Did I just completely blow his cover?" she asked, but Lily was no longer looking at her. Scorpius came to sit next to her with an easy smile on his face that didn't quite reach his eyes, which were tense and calculating.

"I'm Scorpius, Scorpius Malfoy," he told her, holding out a hand for her to shake.

She ignored it. "I know who you are," she said.

"Albus is our housemate, nothing more, okay? We don't really get on. Got it?" he asked, explaining as casually as he could.

"If you say so," Lily replied, her eyebrows pulling together in confusion. "But I don't think you're telling the truth. I trust my brother, though, you know. He's smart. If he was friends with you, then I reckon you must be okay."

The eleven year old shrugged, and as Scorpius eyed her with confusion and misunderstanding, she pulled a book out of her bag and began to read.

Lily always remembered that scene with fondness, knowing it was the first time she'd confused him. He always swore she'd been confusing him ever since, but he wouldn't have it any other way. In later years, though, she would admit she hadn't liked Scorpius much that day. He'd seemed haughty and controlling, presumptuous. None of those characteristics seemed particularly endearing to her.

Over the next couple of years, however, she got to know more about her brother, Albus, and the rag-tag group of friends he secretly kept. They were Slytherins, and with that came an automatic assumption of which side of the war they were on, but these four defied all conventions. Albus Potter, Scorpius Malfoy, Amelia Carrow and Aidan Mulciber were the double agents, the Slytherins that were against the ideas of blood purity and honour: they sought their accomplishments and recognition down another path. Knowing all this, however, did not mean Lily spent much time with them. In fact, she hardly saw them at all during her first few years at Hogwarts. She stuck with her friends at one end of the Great Hall, and they kept to themselves at the other.

Scorpius Malfoy was neither here nor there for Lily Potter until one dark night in her fourth year . The evening post had brought with it a sordid story of a music hall blasted to pieces in the midst of a Muggle band's concert. Dozens of people had been found dead, lying in the ruins of the once proud and precious venue, while dozens more lay in hospital beds. For years, people had screamed out for Voldemort's death, but all they had done was immortalise him in the eyes of his followers. Lily had been distressed by the news, as she often was. She often felt things deeply, and this was no exception.

She was in the Astronomy Tower, contemplating the meaning of the Endless War and the great tragedy that was death when Scorpius Malfoy happened upon her.

"Hello," he called out gently, so as not to startle her where she stood staring out at the night's sky.

She turned to face him briefly with a smile before turning back to the view. He came to stand next to her.

"I saw you on the Map," he'd said, gesturing to the parchment in his hand. Lily had forgotten all about it since her father had told Albus where to find it. She didn't realise he'd got it. "I would have sent Albus, but he's in detention," Scorpius explained.

"What for, this time?" Lily asked, half-curious, half making small talk.

"An argument that turned into a duel that McGonagall happened to see," Scorpius told her, and she decided she didn't want to know the details. She knew how hot-headed Albus could be.

"So, what brought you to the Astronomy Tower at midnight?" he questioned, and she turned to him with a slight smile.

"Thinking. But I'm not about to talk to you about it. I don't know you," she told him, honestly.

"But you know of me," he smiled, his Malfoy pride showing, before he shrugged. "Anyway, sometimes it's easier to tell a stranger.

"Will the war ever end?" she asked, thinking out loud. Scorpius surprised her when he attempted to answer.

"If you mean to ask if a day will come when no one believes in Pureblood Supremacy and everyone believes in equality and justice for all, then no. There's always been bigots and there always will be. But I think that with time and perseverance, we can make them feel more unwelcome, more unjustified, and news like today's will become a rare occurrence. We just need more people from that world to take a step back and think, and question, and stand against their upbringings and families."

"More people like you, you mean?" she asked, with a smile, looking at him. She'd never noticed before then how long his eyelashes were, and how they brushed his cheeks when he blinked. She'd never noticed before his conviction and courage.

"No," he smiled a little, "More people like the ones we're told about. Like Sirius Black, and Andromeda Black. Even more people like Severus Snape and Regulus Black. They're our martyrs," he told her. "The ones who had a path set out for them that they could follow blindly, if they wanted. The ones whose lives could have been easy but they chose to make it difficult by standing on the right side. The ones who died for a better world," he told her.

Lily couldn't help but smile at his optimism. It was something she rarely felt herself, and the last thing she expected from him. He suddenly looked down at his feet with an embarrassed sort of smile.

"I think I got a little carried away there," he said, not meeting her eye.

"Don't apologise," she told him. "Thank you. That… that really helped. I'm glad there are people like you on our side."

Many years later, a young woman with tired eyes and a precious, swollen belly sat on an old cushioned chair with a little girl on her knee. The little girl, five years old, had platinum blonde hair and her mother's green eyes, with a book about princesses in her lap that her mother had just read.

"Mummy, how did you and daddy meet?" the little girl asked, looking up at her mother with a smile.

"You know the story, Iris," she told her daughter.

"Tell me again!"

"Well, we first met when I was nine years old on Platform 9¾. We met for a second time on the Hogwart's Express, two years later. But we didn't really meet until my fourth year, in March, at midnight at the top of the Astronomy Tower," Lily told her.

"I want to meet my husband at the top of the Astronomy Tower at midnight," she told her mother with a grin, before sinking in to her warm embrace.