It would be another week before Scorpius even saw Lily again, and it wasn't going to be while she was walking around the corridor. As part of his effort to put the Malfoy name under a better light Scorpius had volunteered to help Madam Pomfrey around the hospital wing when he had some spare time. At first the woman was quite hesitant to give him a chance seeing as how he was Draco's son, and knowing how vile he was to Harry Potter. But after Albus had told the matron that Scorpius wasn't anything like his father, and that he would do everything she asked she had given him a chance…now two years later Scorpius was a regular volunteer, and the matron was quite glad for his assistance, "Could you please put this away Mr Malfoy?" Madam Pomfrey asked giving him a vial to store, as Scorpius nodded.
He had, of course, been thinking lots about his encounter with Lily. It had seemed strange that she was quiet and reserved; almost scared of anything that was around her. He couldn't put his finger on what exactly was causing the problem, even with Jacob's threat hanging over his head he sometimes tried to find Lily around the corridor…being two years above her made that quite difficult as he wasn't in any of her classes obviously. Furthermore he couldn't ask anyone where Lily was as they would find it suspicious, as well hexing, or cursing him for her 'protection'. He contemplated asking some first-year Hufflepuff, but went against that, as he wasn't sure that they wouldn't go straight to Amara as soon as he left their sight. So he had to help Lily by himself, a difficult problem that he was yet to solve. He had been seeing her from afar, where no one can accuse him of stalking the girl, he had seen how she reacted around Jacob and Amara…she seemed scared and frightened whenever she was around those two even though they seemed so nice to her…was there something else going on?
He then heard the door open and turned his head wondering who was injured, or sick when to his surprise he saw that it was Lily. She too looked at Scorpius with surprise on her face, her eyes widening as she tried to back out but Madam Pomfrey saw her, "Lily!" she exclaimed pulling the girl in, "What's wrong? Are you sick?" she asked.
"N-no Madam P-Pomfrey I-" Lily began to say before the matron gasped.
"Goodness, you look pale and thin, have you been eating right?" she asked as Lily hung her head in embarrassment as Scorpius didn't know how Madam Pomfrey was able to tell, but if she said that Lily looked thin then perhaps she was though she did look a little pale, "Still having trouble eating?" Madam Pomfrey asked as Lily nodded, "Alright then take a bed." Lily then automatically went to the farthest bed in the hospital wing as Scorpius finished putting the vials away and went to Lily.
"Hi Lily, are you feeling alright?" Scorpius asked as Lily gave a small nod, he could see that she wasn't smiling at him like she did a week ago…did she think badly of him now? "Uhm…anything I could do to make you more comfortable?" he asked, normally he would only say hi to the patient and then go back to whatever he was doing as all of the patients so far didn't want to talk to him.
"N-no t-thank you," Lily said in a small voice, "a-are you sick too Scorpius?" she asked curiously.
"No, I'm here volunteering, have been since first year. Thought it would be a good way to put the Malfoy name in a good light you know," Scorpius said, "and I enjoy it anyways…helping people I mean."
"I see," Lily said as Madam Pomfrey came back with a bottle.
"Here you go dear, an Eating Tonic," Madam Pomfrey said.
"I don't think I've heard of an Eating Tonic Madam Pomfrey," Scorpius said, as that was true for most of the medicine as well.
"Oh well the Eating Tonic just gives whoever eats it a good healthy appetite, just a boost so to speak, though too much will make whoever ingests it want to eat, and eat, and eat until he or she literally burst," Madam Pomfrey explained. Not a very good image as Scorpius thought up of a person exploding and all their guts going everywhere…not very pretty, and extremely not pretty for whoever has to clean that mess up. "Here you go Lily, this should help you keep the food down…perhaps I should write to your parents? You haven't been eating well ever since the second week of school."
"N-no!" Lily yelled surprising both Scorpius, and Madam Pomfrey never thinking that a quiet girl would yell so loudly, and so adamantly. Lily immediately blushed and seemed highly embarrassed, "I-I'm sorry, I'm sorry…please don't write to my parents," she pleaded almost on the verge of tears as Madam Pomfrey could only nod in mute shock while Scorpius' brain was filing this little incident away.
"Well if you say so, but if you're not gaining some weight by next week I will write to your parents," Madam Pomfrey warned as Lily nodded her head vigorously, "now eat up before you faint," she said as she waved her wand and a plate of sandwiches appeared. Lily then took one hesitantly before taking a bite, as soon as she did that she began eating at a ferocious pace, "good at least the tonic is working well," Madam Pomfrey beamed before she went away to take care of other things.
"Wow…you must be really hungry," Scorpius said looking at Lily as she devoured her food.
Lily slowed down when she heard Scorpius talked and looked up at him before eating again at a much slower pace. She kept glancing between the food and Scorpius like she wanted to talk to Scorpius, but couldn't decide whether or not she should. Scorpius decided to walk away for a moment as Madam Pomfrey called him for a moment, he then returned to see that Lily had her knees drawn to her chest and was rocking back and forth while her eyes seemed to be lifeless and empty, "Lily?" Scorpius said softly approaching her, he wondered what she was thinking about right now? She seemed to have not even heard him, "Lily?" he said a little louder as his hands reached out to touch her shoulder, "Lily!" he shouted as she suddenly snapped out of her tupor.
"Huh? What? Who?" she said seemingly confused, and dazed, before looking at Scorpius, "D-Did you call me?"
"Yeah…you seemed to be kind of out of it," he said as she nodded.
"S-sorry," she apologised.
"What's there to apologise about?" he asked with a smile as Lily gave the smallest of smile, "So uh…you want me to call Amara? She seemed kind of friendly to you to last week," he knew that wasn't the case but he wanted to see Lily's reaction to Amara's name. As he suspected her eyes widened in fear as she shook her head.
"N-no do-don't call her, I-I'll be fine…" Lily said as she laid down on her bed, "d-don't call Jacob either," she added.
"Alright if you say so," Scorpius said with a smile before she then gasped and winced, "what's wrong?" he asked as he could see that she was holding her arm.
"N-nothing," Lily said even though her body language told Scorpius that everything was not okay, "I-I just fell down the stairs…"
"You what?" Madam Pomfrey said surprising the two students, "Let me see that," Lily seemed to be regretting telling Scorpius that she had fallen down the stairs, as she was now subjected to Madam Pomfrey's examination while Scorpius looked away and busied himself with other things. However he heard Madam Pomfrey gasp in shock, "Merlin's beard! You must have taken quite a fall from the looks of it, I'll go get something to ease the pain, heaven's child why didn't you tell me the moment you stepped inside?"
"It's n-nothing," Lily said softly, "it'll h-heal b-by itself."
"Well I want you to be healed as soon as possible, can't have you missing classes now could we?" the matron said, "There we go…I know it tastes terrible but those bruises will be gone within the night. I think you should rest here for the night."
"N-no I'll be f-fine," Lily protested, and tried to move out of the bed but then Madam Pomfrey exclaimed as Scorpius instantly went back to see that Lily had half-collapsed into the matron's arm.
"I don't think so young lady, the potion would make you a bit dizzy for a while, I think it is best if you stay in the hospital wing," Madam Pomfrey said in a kind tone, but at the same time demanding as Lily nodded and went back to bed before curling up, "there you go…now you just have a nice rest dear."
Madam Pomfrey then had Scorpius run several errands and it was close to curfew time before he was finished with everything. "Thank you so much for helping me out Mr Malfoy, you really are a life saver," Madam Pomfrey whispered as Lily had fallen asleep already.
"Your welcome Madam Pomfrey," Scorpius asked as he glanced at Lily before looking at the matron, "uhm…can I ask you something?"
"Certainly," Madam Pomfrey said.
"Has Lily been here before?" Scorpius asked hoping that he didn't seem to be too nosy.
Madam Pomfrey sighed and for a moment Scorpius thought that she wouldn't tell him the information that he needed. But then she looked at Lily with worry in her eyes before turning to Scorpius, "She has been here a few times, mostly for digestion trouble, hasn't really been eating well since the second week of school. She also came in last week because of a broken arm, said she fell down the stairs, frankly I'm a bit worried that's she's going to be here as much as her father was here," she admitted.
Scorpius only nodded at the explanation, so this wasn't Lily's first visit to the infirmary, nor would it be her last judging by what Madam Pomfrey was saying. He wondered what was the real reason for the broken arm and bruises; surely Lily wasn't that clumsy that she fell down the stairs twice in two weeks? But he didn't voice his concern to Madam Pomfrey, he didn't want Lily to think that he was being too nosy into her well being. "And I hope you're not going to spread that around the school," Madam Pomfrey's voice cut in surprising Scorpius as he turned to Madam Pomfrey who had a steely gaze.
He knew that she was talking about, his father had admitted that he had spread a few nasty rumours while he was at school, of course he regretted it now and told Scorpius to never do such a thing. "Of course Madam Pomfrey, you can count on me to keep silent," Scorpius said truthfully as the matron's smile returned again as she bid him a goodnight.