Voices. Voices calling all through the house woke Lily up. For some reason she had decided to open her window when she got home last night and that let whoever was shouting in her garden to wake her up.
"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Lily groaned, grabbing a pillow and covering her face with it. She felt terrible already; her head was pounding, her mouth was dry, her throat was sore, her legs were aching from the heels and dancing and she knew that she smelled too. How many drinks did she have last night? She groped on the floor for her phone to see whatever morning greeting she got from Finn read and then she remembered James broke her phone - which was why she went to the party and got extra hammered.
"I need tea. And headache tablets," she moaned and very carefully put her feet on the floor. Sometimes after she drinks, moving around the morning after has proven to be a bit dangerous. Last time she simply walked down the stairs too quickly and threw up all over her mother's freshly painted wall.
Lily took several deep breaths as she stood up, her head and her stomach getting used to the new found height. When she walked closer to her door, she saw that her laptop was flashing a bright red colour. Frowning, she moved slowly over to it. She didn't remember turning it on last night - or rather this morning, when she came home.
At the click of a random button, her Facebook page opened up for her. A stream of updates from all of her friends from ten hours ago made her smile slightly. She laughed and cringed a little when she saw that Megan Dursley, Oliver's cool older sister, uploaded a photo of her and Lily mid-shot.
"My head hurts . . . I hate the world!" Lily mouthed out the message that Joelle sent her with a series of little faces following; the most realistic one was probably the little green face with vomit coming out of its mouth.
She quickly tapped out a message to her best friend, telling her that she hated the world too and then closed her laptop. She desperately needed tea with lots of milk and lots of sugar. She very slowly and very carefully made her way down to the kitchen. She glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall and was quite surprised when she saw that it was already almost one in the afternoon.
Albus and James were both sitting at the table; the shouting from outside seemed to be her parents, arguing over how to light a barbeque.
"You look awful," James noted, looking up from the paper in front of him.
Lily just ignored him and went over to the kettle. She pulled out her favourite mug, poured nearly half a cup of milk in, adding a tea bag and then four spoonfuls of sugar.
"You're going to make yourself sick," James muttered, observing his little sister carefully.
"If I do, I'll be sure to throw up on you," Lily retorted. "Where's my phone?" she asked as she turned around and looked from her oldest brother to her older brother. Both of them looked like their dad, Albus more so considering he had their dad's eyes. James had their mother's eyes, like Lily did. Brown, chocolate brown eyes. The differences between her brothers was obvious though, James was thin and tall and Albus was stocky and average height. James preferred books, Albus preferred working out. Both boys needed to wear glasses, but Lily hadn't seen Albus wear his for about three years now.
"What?" James scowled as Albus laughed behind his pile of fruit.
"You broke my phone so you can replace it," Lily told him seriously. When she heard the click of the kettle she turned back around and poured the hot water into the cup. "If you go into London, you'll make the shop before it closes," she said as she squeezed the tea out of the bag and then tossed it in the direction of the bin. It of course went in, Lily had perfect aim - she played for her school's netball team from year seven right up until Christmas of her current year when she got bored of it. Instead she played football.
She picked her cup up and turned round to see that both of her brothers were looking at her with shock on their faces.
"How am I meant to know what phone to get you? Or where to go?!" James spluttered out.
"Whoa, that was a good shot!" Albus complemented her.
Lily simply took a sip of the hot tea, feeling a little bit relieved when she didn't want to throw it back up as soon as she swallowed it. "James, you're supposedly smart. Figure it out. I want a new phone by the end of today." She walked out of the kitchen, ignoring James' voice and Albus' laughter.
Just as she walked through the hallway, the house phone rang loudly. Racing back into the kitchen before one of her idiot brothers grabbed the phone for a joke, Lily picked it from the hub and pressed the green button. "Hello?"
"I have found the best hangover cure in the world!" It was Joelle, being her usually loud self, something Lily didn't want to deal with until she could see the bottom of her cup of tea. "It's Sprite! Who fucking knew?"
Sighing painfully, she winced and walked out of the kitchen, away from potential eavesdroppers and headed into the living room, curling up into a ball in her favourite spot. "Inside voice please Elle!" she exclaimed, closing her eyes and bringing her tea to her lips.
"Apologies darling," she replied mockingly in a posh voice she liked to adopt every now and then. "Now how did the parents react when you got back last night?" she asked in her normal soft and seductive voice (it was just naturally seductive).
"I haven't seen them yet," she answered in a resigned voice. Facing facts, she had accepted her fate and probably her grounding too. "All I know is that I have a fucking killer of a headache, probably because of those shots me and Megan did."
Joelle's chiming laugh sounded through the phone. "You were definitely on a mission to get pissed last night. Did Finn managed to find you in the end?"
"I think I hid in the cupboard under the stairs to get away from him," Lily admitted, her face screwing up in concentration as she tried to think back to the events of last night. She took a massive gulp of tea and settled deeper into the sofa. "Did you bump into Isabelle last night?"
"Oh yeah," she replied unenthusiastically. "Apparently she's not very happy with me. She tried to start a fight but Aaron dragged her way before she did something stupid and embarrassed herself. Although Aaron did tell me to call him just before he took Isabelle home."
"Dun, dun, dunnn!" Lily mocked, sipping on her tea. "Are you going to call?"
There was a slight pause. "Only if someone better doesn't come along," Joelle replied seductively, setting the pair of them off into fits of laughter.
In the background, Lily could hear muffled noise. "Dad get out of my room!" Joelle squealed and then the line went dead. Looking down at the phone, she rolled her eyes. Her best friend could be so clumsy sometimes, Joelle probably just dropped the phone.
As Lily reached for the TV remote, the house phone rang again. Lazily, she picked the phone back up and pressed the green button. "You are such a klutz!" she giggled down the phone. "Let me guess, you dropped your phone?"
"Hello?" a deep voice replied, a voice that certainly wasn't Joelle's. "Is this Lily?"
"Oh my god," Lily gasped, recognising the voice. Instantly a blush burned her cheeks and she wished the ground would swallow her up. "Hi Scorpius," she murmured awkwardly, placing her tea down on a nearby table and then smacking her palm onto her forehead, which didn't help her headache. "How are you?" she asked.
His deep laugh sounded and Lily felt her cheeks burn hotter. "I'm good thank you, although you sound a bit rough this morning," he joked, and Lily felt a bit lightheaded. Sweet baby Jesus, his voice sounded sexy through the phone, all deep and sensuous. "What are you doing tomorrow?"
"Well it's Monday, so I have to go to school," Lily answered, wishing she could have finished school for the summer like him.
"What about after school?" he asked quickly. "I thought I could show you my favourite spot in London and then we could go out for dinner?"
Inside, Lily's heart started thumping hard, butterflies erupting in her stomach. "That sounds fun!" she replied as calmly as possible, when inside all she wanted to do was do her goal celebration and slide across the floor on her knees. "What time tomorrow?"
"I was thinking 5 o'clock outside the book store?"
Lily pinched her lips together to stop herself from squealing and rolling around across the floor like she was thirteen. "I guess I'll see you there!" she replied after taking a deep breath in.
"Perfect," Scorpius said simply. "I've got to go and help my mum with my washing from school but I'll see you tomorrow!"
"Until next time Scorpio," she added in a small attempt at being cheeky. She smiled as his deep, rumbling laugh died out and he hung up. After the phone went dead, all Lily wanted to do was scream in disbelief.
All of a sudden, the phone began ringing again in her hands, scaring the living daylights out of Lily. Pressing the green button once more, she held the phone to her ear, waiting for whoever it was to speak first so she didn't embarrass herself like she did with Scorpius. What if it was him again?
"Sorry about that," Joelle's voice said. "I dropped my phone. What were we talking about?"
"The party," Lily replied as a side thought. "But you are never going to believe what just happened to me!" After a dramatic pause, which was occupied by her grinning like a Cheshire cat. "Scorpius just asked me out of a date!"
###
Lily sighed in content when she stepped out of the shower; after a dozen cups of tea, pigging out on a dozen cheeseburgers for breakfast/lunch that her father made on the barbeque and sitting in front of the television all day, a hot shower was the last thing needed to rid her of her hangover. Now all she needed to do was get dressed and then lounge about on the sofa for the rest of the night.
She didn't bother drying her hair; she simply plaited it and would let it dry naturally over night. Lily pulled on a pair of shorts and a vest top, grabbed a book and her glasses and then headed downstairs.
Her parents were doing their normal Sunday night routine, but this time Albus was joining their father with watching a game of football. Lily rolled her eyes as she curled up in her usual spot on the sofa; Albus was asking endless questions to their dad who was replying patiently every time.
"What are you doing?" Lily asked suddenly; she looked over at her mother was standing and ironing what Lily guessed to be a school year's amount of clothes from her brothers.
"Ironing. Your uniform is hanging up in the kitchen." Ginny answered, folding up a t-shirt as she did.
Lily raised an eyebrow at the sight of the actual iron in her mother's hand; normally Ginny charmed and observed as the iron flattened the clothes but tonight . . . she was actually using it.
"Whatever." If her mother wanted to use less magic around the house, then Lily wouldn't complain.
Pulling on her glasses, she opened the book at the page she was at on the train yesterday. She soon became enthralled in the story about two teenagers who managed to find love even though they had both been diagnosed with terminal cancer. She was wiping her eyes discreetly to hide her tears when the front door slammed shut.
"Is she down here?"
Lily closed the book just as James came stomping into the room, Dominique following him with an amused grin on her face. When her brother saw Lily looking at him he tossed something at her. She caught the plastic bag easily and opened it to see a box in there, holding her brand new iPhone.
"Are they always so expensive?!" James fumed, throwing himself down into an armchair, glaring at Lily as he did. "That's wiped my summer funds out!"
Lily just waved her hand in his direction, not really caring for his complaints; she had a new phone! And an even better one than the one he broke!
"Shouldn't have broken her other one." Dominique smirked and sat down next to Lily.
Lily grinned smugly in James' direction and headed out of the room. She made it halfway up the stairs before she remembered her book. Turning back, she headed down the stairs and down the hallway but stopped when she heard voices.
"Why are you doing it the Muggle way?" James asked their mother.
"Because, we need to learn to do things for ourselves." Ginny said slowly. Lily frowned when she heard the volume of the television turn right down.
"Why? We're both adults now, we can use magic whenever –"
Harry interrupted James. "Well . . . there's a new house rule boys."
Lily rolled her eyes but stepped forwards so that her parents would know they don't need to tell her it. "No wands or magic in the house while Lily is home." She stopped when she heard the rule though.
No magic? At all? While she was in the house nobody would be allowed to use any magic?
"Why not?"
"Because this is her home and she needs to be comfortable and happy here!" Lily was surprised when she heard her father snap; he was normally the cool parent, the one she could wrap around her little finger with one innocent look and a smile.
"This is our home too –," Albus started but their mother stopped him.
"Yes, we know this is your home but we have made a decision. We aren't going to use magic while she's in the house either," Ginny sighed deeply. "Anyway, she's got school for another month and then she is hardly ever here for the summer holidays anyway. Chances are she'll be in the house a couple of times a week," her mother reassured her brothers.
Lily didn't say anything, she just silently tiptoed away from the doorway and then ran up the stairs all the way to her room. There she grabbed her cordless house phone from the hub on her vanity and dialled the number to her uncle's house.
###
Trying not to stress out, Lily rested the phone between her ear and her shoulder as she tried to balance her school bag and a small overnight bag in one hand and tried to fasten her tie with her other hand. As well as walk down the stairs without tripping; the last thing she needed was to have a black eye on her first date with Scorpius.
She was momentarily surprised when she saw her entire family around the kitchen; normally both of her brothers surfaced from their rooms just after lunch time like she did during the school holidays. Albus was chopping fruit and giving the blender a funny glance while James was sitting in a smart shirt and tie, looking at the paper.
"Hello?"
Lily sighed at Joelle's slow and grouchy voice; definitely not a morning person.
"What do I wear?!" Lily dropped both bags into an empty chair and hurried over to the kettle, ignoring her father wondering loudly who she could possibly be wanting to speak to at seven in the morning. "I've got a couple of outfits and I'll bring them into school. Also I'm bringing a spare uniform that you can hide in your dance locker." She ignored Elle's threats of violence because of being woken up an hour before she had to be up and simply got a mug from out of the cupboard.
"Good morning to you too," Joelle sighed irritably down the phone. Lily waited for the kettle to boil and watched as Albus gingerly placed his fruit pieces into the blender one by one. The look on his face made her think he was scared the blades would chop his fingers off.
"Yeah yeah, morning. Now what do I wear?" she muttered, moving Albus out of the way and pouring the bowl of fruit into the blender. She added the yoghurt and then turned it on, taking his hand and putting it on top of the jug.
"A bra and no panties. Wait, this isn't your number. Whose phone are you calling me on?" the sound of running water could be heard in the background, making Lily wonder what she was doing.
"That's something you would wear, not me and James broke my phone so he got me a new one." She poured her tea and went to sit at the table. "Elle, what am I going to wear?" She ignored the curious and frustrated looks her mother, father and James were giving her and swiped the last piece of toast from the rack.
"Ooh your brothers are back? Is Albus still fit?" Elle giggled.
Lily sighed and shook her head. "How do I know? I can't exactly judge if Albus is attractive or not can I? Look, do whatever you're doing. We can skive History and decide what I can wear then." She hung the phone up and placed it in her breast pocket. As she took a drink of her tea, she noticed that everybody around the table was staring at her, her mother with a raised eyebrow, James with a slight glare and her father with laughter in his eyes. Albus turned and grinned at her from his spot by the blender.
"What?" she exclaimed, immediately regretting that she asked.
"You are not skipping History, young lady."
"What do you need fashion advice for?"
"I didn't break your phone – I just didn't know it didn't respond well to magic!"
"Was that Joelle? The hot dancer?"
Lily ignored all of those questions and focused on drinking her tea and eating her toast in silence. The rest of breakfast passed quietly, with Albus announcing halfway through that he was going on his run and would see everybody later. He bid farewell to Lily with a "have a nice day at school, squirt." She responded by throwing her toast crust at him, which he caught in his mouth. James left shortly after, their parents wishing him luck on his first day of working as an intern with Aunt Hermione. Her mother also had to go to work, saying she needed to be in the office for a meeting with the owner of the newspaper.
"I'll drive you to school today Lily-Pad," Harry called out when Lily shouldered her backpack and picked up her overnight bag and headed for the door.
She turned with her earphones in her hand, ready to put them in her ears and looked at her father curiously. "Erm, why?"
Her dad chuckled and grabbed his car keys from the key holder close to the kitchen door. He took the overnight bag from her and held the back door open. "Because you're my daughter and I don't have to be in work for another three hours so I may as well save you the train fare."
Lily shrugged lightly but followed her dad to the car. She hopped into the front seat, put her feet up on the dashboard and turned on her favourite radio station. Normally Lily got the train into London and then a bus to her school. However before she turned thirteen and managed to convince her parents she was old enough to do the journey herself, her father would drive her into the city and drop her off at the bus stop. Occasionally Uncle Ron or Aunt Hermione would drive her into the city. Lily liked those days because she could always convince them to buy her an early morning treat from the bakery.
"Must you listen to this awful music?" Harry crinkled his nose as a particular song came on the station that made her tap her feet against the dashboard to the rhythm of the beat.
"You insisted on driving me to school so I insist on listening to the music," Lily teased her father. "They are the terms Daddio." She used the nickname that she had used on him since she could remember.
Lily was a lot closer to her father than her mother. She knew it was because he understood her more. Harry had grown up in a house full of people who didn't really understand him too. They had both grown up different to their families. They both know what it is like to be on the outside looking in.
"I insisted on driving you to school because I want to talk to you; without you being able to storm off in a huff," Harry said as they drove past the village by their house.
"What did you want to lecture me on?" Lily put the window down and let the summer air cool her face down a little. "If it's about Saturday night then I am sorry. I didn't mean to get so . . . well drunk. I –"
"It's not that. But remind me to yell at you for that tonight," he said and from the corner of her eye, Lily could see him smirk as he pulled out at a junction, looking on his right for oncoming traffic. As he moved out, he started to speeding up since they were now on the motorway. He wouldn't have dared to drive as fast if her mother was in the car. "I want to talk to you about the rule your mother and I have set."
Lily felt herself blush a little but she looked out of her window, her hair hiding the blush from her father. "What rule?"
"The one you listened in on last night," Harry shot at her Normally he hated it when people eavesdropped on his conversations but Lily, who sneaked a look at him behind her hair, saw that he was smiling at her. "What do you think of it?"
Lily sat up straighter but looked back out of her window. "I don't really know. I mean, it's not like it applies to me, is it?" she spoke sarcastically.
She heard her father sigh deeply and felt a tiny amount of guilt; she knew he hated that she seemed to resent her family for being able to do magic while she couldn't. She knew that her father was upset for her for not being able to do it. She had overheard a conversation he had with her mother when she was twelve. She remembered the pain in his voice when he said that it wasn't fair that the thing most precious to him wasn't allowed to be a full member of the world that he loved most.
"But whatever," Lily replied with a shrug of her shoulders. She pulled her phone out of her pocket, formulating a text in her head to Oliver and Emery, saying that she wouldn't be catching the bus. "Oh, I won't be home for dinner tonight." She told her father as an afterthought as she tapped out the message.
"Lily . . . be home by ten thirty," her father sighed, not bothering to chase the subject of her attitude to magic, just like she knew he wanted to talk about.
###
Lily tuned out as her science teacher, Mrs Dempsey, droned on and on about the different chemical compounds. She hated science with a passion; it was the only class that Lily wasn't easily passing. Science just didn't come naturally to her; every experiment that she did ended up with her blowing the test tubes up. There's a scar on her arm where she somehow managed to get a tripod to burn through her blazer, her school jumper and then burn her skin when she was eleven. Mrs Dempsey was furious and after that she never let Lily near any of the dangerous equipment again.
She hated her science class; it was full of the students who ran to get behind the swimming block to have a cigarette before the teachers caught them.
And she also was forced to sit on the same table as Finn's younger twin brothers, Jace and Shay. It's not that Lily doesn't like the twins . . . it's just every time she sits next to them, they get that leering look in their eyes that reminds Lily that they both walked in the room just after her and Finn had sex and saw her practically naked. Ever since then, they continued to make it clear that they wanted to see more of her naked body and it freaked Lily out.
A slight slamming sound made her jump in surprise. Mrs Dempsey was standing in front of her with an armful of papers.
"Miss Potter, glad you could join us." Her teacher glared down at her. "Although if you look at your pitiful mark for your last exam, you would realise that you need to be with us more often," she said in a patronising tone that made Lily want to tell her where she could shove her exam paper.
However before she earn herself a detention for every day until they broke up for summer, the bell rang and all the other students got up from their seats, making Mrs Dempsey rush around trying to hand the papers out before everybody ran out the room. Lily took her time putting her belongings back in her bag – it was lunchtime.
"Do you want a hand with that?" Shay asked. As always the two boys waited for her.
She rolled her eyes but took her blazer off and folded it across the strap of her backpack; it was far too hot for her to have the blazer on in the yard. She picked up her overnight bag in her other hand. "I've got it covered Shay", she replied with an added sigh and led the three of them out of the room.
"Did you get home alright on Saturday?" Jace asked, walking on her left side while Shay was on her right.
Lily rolled her eyes. "Yeah I did."
"Finn was going to offer you to stay over," Shay told her. She looked around as they walked down the maths corridor. Normally a teacher would be around to yell at the twins for something they had done wrong the week beforehand but today the halls were empty but of the three of them. Just Lily's luck!
"I know he was," she replied, walking in the empty classroom in front of them to use the shortcut. If they went through this classroom and into the store cupboard, another door inside that cupboard would lead them to a short corridor that led to a fire-exit which then opened up onto the yard where the other students would be.
"How come you haven't stopped over? It's been about a month." Jace asked.
Lily stopped in her tracks, looking from one twin to another slowly. Jace looked more like Finn with his long legs, skinny chest and brown curly hair whereas Shay looked more like their younger sister Mika with his straight blonde hair and fair skin. All of the siblings had the same bright blue eyes though.
"Oh!" She struggled to find the words to explain her and Finn's 'relationship'. How does she define her casual on-and-off-but-mostly-off again relationship to two creeps who just happened to be the guy's brothers? "You two do know that Finn and I aren't boyfriend and girlfriend, right?" she asked, opening the door to the store cupboard.
"But you guys have done it loads of times!" Shay protested.
Lily pushed open the other door and blew out a deep breath as the twins followed. How did they know so much? Sure, it was obvious that she had had sex with Finn when they walked in – she was naked for crying out loud! But how did they know she has had sex with him more than once?
"Who told you that?" she asked, storming up the short corridor pushing open the fire exit.
As soon as the fresh light hit her eyes, Lily could see her group of friends. They were all there sitting around two double sided benches with tables that they pushed together. She could make out Elle flirting with her boy toy for the week – it looked to be Harvey from the year below. Oliver was telling some joke to Isaac while Emery was sat between them all, a space beside her for Lily.
"Look, I don't even want to know. If there are rumours going around school that I bang your brother every day then stop them," she told the twins strongly and before they had the chance to say anything or leer down her top or up her skirt some more, she walked towards her group of friends.
"Elle!" she called out when she got close. "Put him down and help me pick out an outfit for my date!" She dropped down into the small gap between Oliver and Emery and hugged her cousin and friend.
Sometimes, Lily felt bad for Emery Baker. She was the new girl at school since her parents moved her all the way to England from Ireland three months ago. The two shared an Advanced Literature class together and since they were the only fifteen year olds in the class of sixteen and seventeen year olds, they both gravitated towards one another. Emery was a quiet and timid girl, a little over-weight but she had the nicest personality and Lily simply adored her. Even if some of the others in her friendship group didn't really like her, (Elle and Isabelle).
"You've got a date?" Emery asked curiously.
Lily nodded eagerly and put her bag on the table in front of them. "Uh huh, I met him in David's on Saturday –."
"So that's why you wouldn't stay at Finn's after the party?" Emery asked. Another reason why she felt bad for Emery was because she had the biggest crush on Finn but even Lily knew that he only had eyes for her.
"Why not still stay the night with Finn?" Isaac asked, reaching over to pinch her cheek annoyingly. "I mean, you slept with Finn whilst you have still been with your last two boyfriends," he pointed out.
Lily rolled her eyes at the mention of her past with Finn.
"First of all, James and I hardly counted," she exclaimed, shaking her head. "We were seeing each other for what, two weeks? Had sex once and Ryan and I . . . well I didn't cheat on Ryan," Lily clarified. "Besides I don't like Finn in that way anymore and I haven't for ages now."
"Why'd you have to go and break my heart like that Lily?" Finn's voice teased from behind.
When Lily turned around, she saw the oldest Reynolds, with his curly brown hair pushed out of his face, followed closely by the ever-present Bradley Nayer, Finn's best friend. The pair of them were two years ahead of Lily and were usually inseparable. They even took the same apprenticeship at a mechanics down the road from the school.
Rolling her eyes, Lily pulled a can of coke out of her backpack and popped the top. "Because the sooner it gets into that thick skull of yours, the happier we'll all be," she remarked in all seriousness, watching as Finn and Bradley hopped up onto the space on the opposite bench.
The attention immediately clung to Bradley as his eyes fell on Joelle who still had her lips attached to Harvey Mapps. Rolling her eyes at the awkwardness between the two of them, Lily sighed to herself and ordered her best friend to come up for air. Joelle pushed Harvey away slightly and flicked her hair over her shoulders, dabbing her lips to even the colour of her smudged lipstick. As she looked around at her friends, Lily watched her spot Bradley and saw the small smirk curl her lips.
Bradley and Joelle had a very complicated relationship, one that was nearly impossible to keep track of. One minute the pair were hating each other and then a week later, Joelle would be divulging on how great the makeup sex was. At the present moment, they hated each other.
"Bye Harvey," she whispered, loud enough for everyone to hear however and then she reached forward and kissed him again on the lips. Then she pushed him away to the point where he stumbled back.
As he scratched the back of his head, Harvey looked up from his shoes at Joelle, probably acutely aware that everyone was looking at him and Bradley was sending him death glares. "Will I see you tonight?" he asked in a quiet voice, no longer his arrogant self when he was around older boys like Oliver, Isaac, Finn and Bradley.
"Maybe," Joelle said with a shrug before turning her back to him and jumping up on the table of the bench opposite Lily. She didn't even bother to watch Harvey stumble away, instead choosing to rummage in her bag and find a packet of chewing gum. "So what options did you bring me to decide on?"
Lily tossed her the overnight bag she had been carrying around all day at Joelle and leaned back, taking a sip of her drink. "Hey Oli, can I come back to yours tonight for a bit so I can get ready for my date?" she asked her cousin, nudging him in the ribs.
"Of course," he replied, taking a bite into his sandwich and flicking his hair out of his face. Oliver Dursley was definitely her favourite cousin, followed closely by his sisters, Megan and little Grace. He had messy dark brown hair that he swept up and apart from that, looked a lot like his mother – something Lily's uncle was repeatedly thankful for. "Where is he taking you?"
"Yeah, where is this asshole taking you?" Finn added, making Lily roll her eyes in annoyance.
But before she could say anything to retaliation, Joelle did it for her. "Oh get a life Finn and stop stalking Lily's," she sighed as she packed the clothes back into the bag. "Tartan dress and over the knee socks," she said, throwing the bag back to Lily. "It's innocent but sexy at the same time!"
"What would I do without you?" Lily replied dramatically, tucking the bag under the bench and taking another swig of her coke.
Joelle smiled to herself as she rummaged in her bag for her salad box. "You'd probably be a fashion reject who's so weird, she only hangs out with her cousin!" she joked, flashing a bright smile at Oliver when he faked a hurt expression.
Her best friend's words made Lily think of her cousin Rose and how as far as she could gather, only hung out with Albus and the rest of their cousins at that school of theirs. Then she laughed at how Rose couldn't really dress herself past boring blouses and ugly jeans. Maybe Joelle was right.
"Where is he taking you then?" Oliver asked again, taking the can of coke out of her hand and swigging a big gulp of it down.
Lily simply shrugged. "I'm meeting him in London at five and the rest is a surprise," she said, snatching her drink back with a smirk on her face. "But we are going out to dinner. That's all I know."
"Make sure you call me when you get home and tell me all about it," Joelle interrupted, stabbing her fork into her chicken salad. "I want to hear all the sexy details!"
"Your wish is my command," she replied with a cheeky wink.
Then seeing as Oliver started asking for help on his Spanish homework and Lily didn't actually take Spanish, she turned to Emery on her left and rested her head on her shoulder. "I'm halfway through reading The Fault In Our Stars and I know something bad is going to happen. I don't know what but I just have this terrible foreboding that something is going to make me cry," she murmured, talking about the book that she had been recommended.
"Can I just apologise in advance?" Emery replied in her sweet quiet voice. "And just know that I'll make you brownies once you've finished!"
Lily smiled and nodded her head. "I would like that," she replied. "And perhaps some tissues too."
###
After lunch, Lily and Emery left everyone and went to their Advanced Literature class for the last two periods of the day. For just over two hours, they were stuck in class, discussing the cultural implications of the Jane Austen novels when they were written, surrounded by those in the year above. During that time, Lily just quietly sipped at her water bottle and scribbled down notes as the discussion progressed.
When the bell finally rang, Lily and Emery hopped out of their seats, quickly gathering their things up and heading to the front gates to meet Oliver. Together they caught the 21 bus that took them further into Finchley. It took forty minutes to get there but eventually they were at their stop. Lily and Oliver said goodbye to Emery, who was walking in the opposite direction and then the cousins trekked up the long hill where the Dursley's family house was – right at the bloody top.
At her Uncle Dudley's, Lily got changed into the outfit Joelle had picked out and was dragged into a tea party with her 5 year old cousin, Grace. In the huge lounge of their house, a lounge that had housed so many sleepovers, they set up a blanket and lots of teddies and had an imaginary tea party. The best part was when Grace forced her older brother to wear a tiara like both girls. Quickly Lily took a picture and uploaded it to her Facebook page.
The time flew by and soon she was saying goodbye to Oliver, Grace and her Aunt Imogen and was hurrying back down the hill to the bus stop. She made it just in time and sat down in a seat at the back, wedging herself between the window and a business man who was talking too loud on the phone. Taking her headphones out of her bag, she plugged them into her phone and blasted some Foo Fighters.
By the time she got back into London, she was running late. It was already 5 o clock when she got off the bus and she still had a walk to make to get to David's. Still she walked at a normal pace, not wanting to get there and be all hot and sweaty and out of breath in front of Scorpius. As she rounded the corner of the street that David's was on, she stopped to smile as she saw him waiting outside the door.
He hadn't spotted her yet, which left Lily time to scoop her wavy hair over her shoulder and admire her date. He was wearing dark jeans and boots with a white t-shirt tucked in. As a sort of jacket, he was wearing a checked shirt that bore the exact same colours as Lily's dress. She looked down at her own dress and let out a long sigh, throwing her arms up.
Then she walked up the pavement towards him. "You look lost," she said softly behind him, a small smile on her lips.
"Oh I'm just waiting for someone," Scorpius replied, before turning round and letting his surprised face turn into a smirking one. "And here she is," he added leaning down to plant a soft kiss on her cheek.
"Do you always kiss on the first dates?" Lily joked, trying to cool down her burning cheeks. Why was she reacting to him like this? She'd never blush when Finn kissed her.
Reaching down, he pulled her backpack off of her back. "Only the beautiful ones," he replied in a low voice that had Lily's stomach doing somersaults. "Now come on, I want to show you my favourite place before it closes." He stepped away from the bookstore and successfully managed to hail a taxi.
"Where are we going?" she asked, crossing her arms across her chest.
He held the taxi door open and waited for her to move towards him. "You'll love it, I promise," he said, and although he gave her no more information than that, she climbed into the back to the taxi.
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In the end, the taxi took the pair of them into the centre of London, stopping outside Westminster Abbey. Scorpius paid the taxi driver with a crisp £20 note and didn't collect the change, instead helping Lily out. Then they walked up to the entrance, Scorpius smirking all the way.
"Why are we at a church?" Lily asked impatiently, trying to figure out when this was one of Scorpius' favourite places in London. He didn't seem very religious. Then again, could you really tell someone believed in God just by looking at them?
He laughed his rumbling laugh that had Lily's stomach swimming with butterflies instantly. "We're here to visit some friends," he replied simply, thoroughly confusing Lily. Was this the date? Meeting his friends?
Nevertheless she followed him inside along with all of the tourists who was flittering around, snapping pictures at everything. It seemed like Scorpius was leading her to the south side of the Abbey. "That's where we're going," Scorpius said softly. "Poet's Corner."
Poet's Corner was a memorial in Westminster Abbey dedicated to all of the amazing English writers. Lily had read about the place in books and had even seen photos of it online but she'd never visited it. If she had asked some of her friends to come, none of them would be that interested, apart from maybe Emery.
A group of Chinese tourists were blocking Lily's view of Poet's Corner, which was starting to annoy her terribly the more and more she waited. At first Lily waited patiently but when it seemed like they wanted to take a million photos of the monument, along with pictures of themselves by the plaques and tombs of famous writers, she snapped. "I know I'm short but that usually means people don't stand DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF ME!" she muttered, ending in a slow shout in the hopes that one of the tourists understood English.
"You really don't have a lot of patience, do you?" Scorpius muttered beside her, his smirk sending her butterflies aflutter.
In response, Lily just shook her head, blowing out a final sigh when she looked forward and saw the Chinese tourists moving on. As they moved off, one of the taller men shoved past Lily, sending her flying into Scorpius. Acting on instinct, she reached out and gripped his hand tightly, then turning around to yell obscenities to the guy that pushed into her.
When she turned back around to face Scorpius, she quickly realised that her hand was still holding on to his tightly. With a small blush burning her cheeks, Lily let out go of his hand and stepped up to the monument. "Sorry about that," she muttered quietly, knotting her hands together.
"It's ok," he murmured in her ear, and when Lily pulled her attention away from Shakespeare and looked up at him, she smiled at his warm smile.
Then without any words being spoken, their eyes never leaving one another's, their hands reached out simultaneously and intertwined, fingers twisting together. Scorpius gave her hand a soft squeeze and pulled her into his side as they looked at the memorials in front of them.
"Wow!" Lily gasped, her eyes flickering from name to name: William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, C.S. Lewis, authors she had read the works of so many times. "They are all here!" she sighed.
"Technically no, only a few of the names are actually buried here," Scorpius said quietly, tilting his head to speak softly into her ear.
Looking up at him, she smiled up at him. "Even then, I can see why this is one of your favourite places. There is so much history here," she said, turning her attention back to the monument. "It's unfathomable."
"It is amazing," he replied, squeezing her hand in his own.
As her attention pulled to their twisted hands, Lily had a spark of an idea and turned around, her focus on an old man who was snapping picture with a fancy camera hung around his neck. Pulling her phone out of her bag, she pulled up her camera and let go of Scorpius' hand. "Excuse me? Could you take a picture of me and my friend please?" she asked and when the old man nodded, she showed him how to take a picture and then moved back next to Scorpius.
His arm snaked around her back, his hand resting respectably on the top of his hip. Not even realising it, she wrapped her own arm around him and allowed him to curl her up slightly against his side. As the old man aimed her phone at them, Lily looked up at Scorpius and smiled at him, feeling butterflies in her stomach as he smiled down at her. Then she turned to the old man and continued to smile until the old man smiled in return and handed her phone back.
"Thank you," she said quietly, dropping her phone back into her bag. She didn't want to seem self-conscious by checking the photo.
When she looked back up at Scorpius, he held his hand out. "Shall we go and get some dinner?" he asked with a smirk on his face.
"Can you hear my stomach growling?" Lily joked in reply, placing her hand in his and letting him lead the way out of Westminster Abbey, leaving all the famous writers and poets behind her.
Author's Note: We really hope that you enjoy this chapter! We love writing this story and it's great to hear that you like it!
Thank you!
