A/N: Hullo grasshoppers, sorry its been a long wait for this next chapter. I hadnt had this chapter written and was just waiting for inspiration to strike one fine day. I feel very much like Rowling herself at the moment. No i didnt say I am rowling. god forbid no! I wish I was like her but sadly I aint! No i feel kinda like her cause i have my ending in my head and my characters, just gotta rewind from the ending to the start.
Thanks for whatever reviews and faves I got. It wasnt much but I'll take what I can get. Broken wings thank you for pointing out certain things. I wanted to reply but I can't do that without revealing things that I have planned in my head. So you will have to wait. But i will say this that Lily's age and year can be most certainly figured out by Albus' age and year and not James'. Cause if you go back to the epilogue of DH we know that its Albus' first year and Harry consoles Lily sayin that shes got two more years to go. However it wasnt revealed what year James was in. I dunno why ppl want so badly for him to be only a year old than Albus! I wanted him to be two years older than Albus. But even then my stories havent remained all that true to the series I'm sorry to say. I have changed a few minor things here and there in my previous stories. Anyhow I'm done ranting as always. Here ya go! Review ppl!
Chapter 2
Albus struggled with his Potions essay as he always did. He wished he had Professor Slughorn for Potions like his father had. No matter how eccentric the man was, he favoured the Potters and it would be nice to have some partiality in Potions class.
But no, he was stuck with Professor Bulstrode and if he was anything like his father he was bound to despise Potions. From what he heard and understood from the tales from his parents, being in Slytherin gave one an automatic do-well in Potions class ticket. Blimey, how wrong he was to have thought that. He frowned heavily and took a look at all the reference books open around him and sank deeper in his chair. Any further and he'd be sliding down it. He leaned forward to take a look at the dusty book furthest from him and the movement caused him to glance at Scorpius sitting across him.
Scorpius was supposed to be rapidly going through and finishing his Potions essay. The lucky child had it so easy in Potions. Albus scoffed in his head. It was funny how both of them were just like their fathers. Coming back to the present situation at hand, Scorpius was supposed to be completing his essay but he wasn't. He had the end of his quill between his teeth as he chewed on it absent-mindedly, his eyes fixated on something behind Albus' back. Albus leaned in slowly to take a look at his friend's parchment and his mouth almost dropped open. The blond had barely written two words. Albus just knew he was going to regret turning around to see what had his best friend's attention. And boy, regret it, he did.
Rose was sitting at the table at the other end of the library. If Albus thought his area was covered with books, one should've seen Rose's. She was a frazzled mess. What part of this picture Scorpius found intriguing, Albus didn't understand. But still, Albus had begun to notice Scorpius' attention for Rose since their third year when Slytherins were paired with Gryffindors in Divination.
Scorpius had been assigned to Rose and Albus very vividly remembered his blond friend complaining before class about being paired with her and after their first class as a team didn't hear a peep of disdain towards his cousin. And then in a few days it seemed as if Scorpius was eager to get to Divination. Albus hadn't the guts to bring it up with him yet. It felt odd. Rose was closer to him than his own sister.
Was this how Uncle Ron felt with his father regarding his Mum? He turned back in his chair and discreetly observed an oblivious Scorpius. He bit his lip and tried to organize his feelings in his head. Albus and Scorpius had never really talked about this kind of thing. Well here and there sure about random people but never heartfelt.
What was it that Scorpius found particularly appealing about Rose? Scorpius and Rose came from two different worlds. Was it just physical? Albus almost visibly blanched at this thought. He forced his mind to not go down that lane. He looked down at his half filled parchment in an effort to get distracted. He couldn't go back to writing that crap now. He looked at Scorpius and had an idea.
"Hey Scor?"
Scorpius blinked, "Yeah?"
"If you finish my Potions essay after yours, I could...you know..." he left the sentence trailing and only jerked his head towards the table behind them.
Scorpius just stared at him for a couple of excruciating seconds before letting a small tilt appear on his lips.
"I'll do it anyway."
Olivia turned around the corner and followed the corridor to the end where the boys' locker room was. As expected, James was right outside the door and as usual, chatting up a fourth year, his broom in one hand and his Quidditch bag thrown over his shoulder. As soon as he saw Olivia he pushed himself off the wall he was leaning on.
"Good you're here. Let's go", he started walking without a backward glance. The lass he was talking to opened her mouth, closed it and then opened it again as she watched James walk off. Olivia looked at the both helplessly for a moment before following James.
"Not going to say goodbye?" she asked as she tried to keep up with his athletic gait.
"To whom?"
"Never mind" Olivia smirked. Even after so long of their friendship (or whatever their relationship was) it still baffled her. Girls still fell for him even after the fact that he was clearly not famous for caring too much about each. He would randomly date girls but they never lasted long. Some not even more than a few hours and others were just a flirt-fest for him. And girls still liked to take the risk and go out with him in serious hopes that they would be the one.
As they neared the Head Students' Common Room, Olivia glanced at James furtively, "Uhh James..."
"Yeah, Yeah. I got it" he replied irritantly and turned and stomped off a little farther away from the door. Only when Olivia was certain he was at a safe distance away did she lowly mutter the password.
"Merlin, you're such a goody two shoes" James huffed as he pushed past her, past the common room, right into her room. He flopped on her bed as if he belonged there.
"Umm we are going to work in my room?" she asked from the doorway.
"Well yeah" James rolled his eyes as if it was the most obvious thing, "this assignment is important. We don't want distractions. We gotta put our heart and mind into it."
Olivia shrugged and began to unearth books from her bag.
"And our bodies if we have to", James added.
"Do shutup!" Olivia quickly retorted, "Ok you chose the room, I get to choose the spot and we'll be working on the floor. We need lots of area anyway."
James sighed dramatically and dragged himself of her bed, "Fine, but I'm warning you, it's going to be rough on the back-"
"I thought I told you to shutup!"
"Aaaah someone end this torture" Lily wailed.
"I wish I could. I don't know how" Beatrice Longbottom replied dryly as she continued peering into the teacup.
"If one of us had paired up with Flo this would have made more sense."
Beatrice nodded as the two looked towards their friend. Florence Finnigan's face was quite animated as she rattled off things that she apparently saw in her teacup. Her partner, Hugo seemed to be hanging on to every word.
"Yeah, as if she would pair up with anyone else with him here" Beatrice pursed her lips.
"And vice versa" Lily chuckled.
"I wonder if she actually sees stuff or is just very good at making stuff up" Beatrice continued a little more seriously.
"Do you want to try again?" Lily cleared her throat and asked.
"This? It's not going to work the sixth time, Lily."
"Just humour me, will ya?"
"Alright then" Beatrice straightened up and cleared her throat dramatically, "I see a lot of red..."
"Yeah no surprise there" Lily pulled on a strand of her long red hair and looked down at it.
"But wait" Beatrice continued, "what's this I see? Amidst all the red I see a blond head. Hmm."
Lily's heart sped up. She couldn't tell if Beatrice was playing with her now or not. The other girl's eyes were glued to the little cup.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"It's not a what, it's a who I'm talking about."
"Yeah, my family is really warming up to the Malfoys" Lily quickly said.
This finally made Beatrice tear her eyes away from the cup and now Lily wasn't so happy about it. Beatrice smirked slightly, "Nice try."
"Yeah I know" Lily said wryly, "who am I kidding? Daddy's never going to warm up to the Malfoys. Just Scorpius I guess."
Beatrice set the teacup down, "No, I meant nice try for using the Malfoys as a cover up."
"Whatever do you mean?"
"Wow Lily, are you sure you didn't ask the Sorting Hat to change your house from Slytherin to Gryffindor? Because you really have a penchant for making conversations go in circles."
Lily flushed and looked down.
"Ok I'm sorry I didn't want to put you on the spot. And for the record I didn't see that in the teacup. I don't need a teacup for what my eyes alone can do. I see that your behaviour around the whole Lysander thing is changing."
"How do you figure?" Lily asked even though she knew the answer.
"Lily even if neither of us hadn't wanted to, we've been forced to become friends, you know having been forced to play with each other, the play date shite that my mother was obsessed with, I know you for so long now. I understand a behavioural change in my best mate when I see one."
"I just...I'm not sure if...I just want to know why he stares like that?" she cried defiantly.
"Well that part is obvious, genius. It's up to you what you want to do about it."
"I'm not sure if do is something I want to do, already" Lily replied wryly, "I barely know him."
"Yeah, isn't that strange? Our fathers are so close to his mother, yet there is nothing we can say about him. Maybe he's attracted to you because you're middle named after his mother" Beatrice's eyes lit up with humour at this.
"Eww, Bea." Lily couldn't from laughing though.
"You know, I could ask Alice about him. They're not in the same house but I'm pretty sure they share classes."
"That could be a start" Lily commented warily.
" K hand over the map then so we could find her and ask."
"No!" Lily cried out aggressively, "I mean do it in your own time. I don't want it to be obvious that I want to know."
"Oh Lord" Bea rolled her eyes, "alright, bashful!"
