Scanning the quickly filling room, I sighed. This would be a hell of a lot easier if he didn't speak in codes, I thought. What the hell does he mean by my favorite room? He knew I loved his entire house. It truly was gorgeous. My dad said that a few years ago, during The War, it was scary and dark. But that's not true at all. There was light green and light grey décor with dark grey walls. Almost every wall has a ton of windows, bringing so much light in. During the night, they have chandeliers with sparkling glass and diamonds.

With a huff, I sat down into a plush green armchair. Closing my eyes, I thought back to every time I've been here.

There was the first time the Potter clan had ever been welcomed into Malfoy Manor. It was Al and Scor's first year Easter. By then, it had been widely accepted that the two boys were friends. So, Draco sent us an invitation to have Easter dinner at his house. Dad was slightly hesitant. He had only horrible memories associated with the house at that time. He used to tell me bedtimes stories about Dobby, the house-elf that saved his life but lost his own in the process. Sometimes I even imagined those big blue eyes watching over me whenever I did something reckless, like stealing James' broom and going for a spin.

But Mummy forced us all to go. We dressed in our Sunday best. Somehow she even managed to get Teddy to turn his hair a natural color and get James in a tie. I didn't mind dressing up. In fact, I absolutely loved it. I was only 9 at the time, but I appreciated a dinner that required me to wear a fancy dress. For that particular dinner, I chose an emerald dress with a chunky gold necklace that Aunt Audrey had gotten me from Muggle London. Mum loaned me her diamond studs to wear too.

The dinner went off without a hitch. Scor has a little brother, Ajax, who was only 3 then. I played with him for most of the night. This was right after Teddy and Vic started dating. While at Hogwarts, Teddy had racked up a long list of ex girlfriends. One of whom just happened to be Ariel Malfoy, Scor's big sister.

Ariel kind of had a meltdown when Teddy walked through the door. She was a 7th year then, so Teddy hadn't needed to see her. Once she quit screaming things that a 9 year old didn't understand at the time, dinner went pretty decent. But then Teddy made a stupid comment about Vic and we hurried out of the house while Ariel chucked vases at our heads. Before we walked out, I turned and took one last glance at the magnificent house. Scor was holding Ajax and laughing with him. Looking up, he caught my eye and smiled. I smiled back then rushed off to catch up with my brothers.

Looking around the room, I saw one of those vases. Smiling, I walked over and peered at it. There were still a few cracks, but Astoria had mended it. Inside the vase was a little silver note. Curious, I reached in and opened it.

Remember when Ari tried to kill Ted? And you spent the entire night attached to Ajax and taking care of him? That was a great day. It was the first time I had ever really seen you. I admired your patience with him and your laughter when Ari threw this vase. Even at 11, I knew you were going to be my girl one day.

This is a good room, but not the room you want. Keep looking love.

~S

I gasped. The music was pounding in my ears. My face was flushed. There were sweaty bodies all around me. Suddenly, I was overwhelmed.

How did he even remember that? It wasn't that special of a night. He and I didn't even talk to each other. And yet, he knew I would look into this vase. He knew that I played with Ajax all day. Then a thought popped into my head. Where was the little rascal anyway? He wasn't old enough to be at the party, but he did live here.

Pushing through the pulsating crowd, I hopped up the stairs and skipped towards the Bedroom Wing of the Mansion. I passed Ariel's old room. She moved out 2 years after she graduated to go work as a Healer. I think she specified in the children's wing actually. Now, with the overbearing music fading, I could finally breathe. It was a good idea I had thought to come up here. I needed to clear my head. Glancing at the Grandfather clock at the end of the hallway, I saw that it was only 11:45. Had I really only been here for 20 minutes? It seemed like ages already.

When I got to Ajax's door, I tapped lightly. He was absolutely in there. I could hear him tossing a ball against his wall. "Password?" he called from inside. Smiling I called back, "Hairy Tossers!"

A towheaded 11 year old opened the door. He hugged me tightly. "Hey you. Still sulking that you couldn't go to Hogwarts this year?" I asked, fluffing his hair. We walked in and I flopped onto his couch while he sat in his spinney chair, glaring at me. "Shut up. It's so stupid that I couldn't go! I turned eleven on September 3rd! I should be there with you guys and my friends!" He pouted.

"Poor baby. Quit whining. You'll be there when you should be. And you're gonna be the cool older kid with upperclassmen friends!" I tried. And yet, he still pouted.

"Jaxie, please cheer up? How about this, before you leave next September, I will personally take you to Diagon Alley and help you pick out all the coolest things you're gonna need hmm? I'll take you to get your wand and I'm sure you'll meet some incoming first years there! It'll be loads of fun and then we'll get ice cream!"

Slowly, Ajax's eyes lit up. "Really? You would do that?! Lily, you're the absolute best!" He rushed over and tackled me into a hug. I laughed. "Thanks sweetie, but I knew that already!"

"My brother is waiting for you, you know." Jaxie said, wiggling his eyebrows. "Seriously, who else did he tell?!" I exclaimed.

"Relax, I'm the only family member that knows. Oh, and I'm supposed to give you this." He handed me yet another little note, only this time it was my favorite shade of purple. "Now get going! You only have 15 minutes to find him!" he pushed me out of his room and locked his door behind me.

Laughing, I opened the letter.

I knew you would go see Jax. You're closer to that kid than anyone else. And I adore you for that. He's a tough kid to love, believe me. So that was close to your favorite room. But just think a little harder, I know you'll get it.

I'll be waiting.

~S

Once again, Scor predicted just where I would go. But where the hell was he?

I racked my brain for a hint or any clues. Then, suddenly, I knew exactly where he was hiding. Glancing at the clock once more, I saw that I only had 5 minutes to get there. I tossed my heels into Scor's room for safe keeping then dashed across the house.

As I ran, I thought back to last Christmas. Since that first Easter, we decided to have Easter at our house (mostly because we have less breakable things) and Christmas would be at Malfoy Manor. Last Christmas was the first one that Scor and I had been getting closer at. We'd had our share of intense, stolen moments the summer before, but those all ended once his girlfriend at the time, Rosie Sheridan, caught us when he came to watch my first Quidditch game as captain. She shrieked about it for months. So it was a tad awkward at dinner.

And of course our families didn't make it any easier. Ariel brought her new boyfriend, some trashy guy she met when he slit his hand open and had to go to St. Mungo's. With them was her daughter, Mira. That was the reason she'd moved out. Mira was a sweet little girl, coming from the evil of her mum. Teddy and Vic both came and brought their twin boys, Gabriel and Nolan. So naturally the two groups had to sit on separate sides of the table. I ended up sitting between Scor and Ajax. I ignored Scor for as long as I could. I spoke to Jaxie the entire dinner and then ran off before Scor could confront me about it.

When he found me, I was in his old tree house that his dad built for him when he was little. It wasn't used anymore, mainly because Ajax was afraid of heights and Scor was too old. But I could stay in there forever. There was a sky window where at night you could see the stars. There was just something so peaceful about it.

Scor found me in there about five minutes before midnight. I can still remember the smoldering look he gave me when he saw me laying there, counting the stars. "You've been avoiding me all night love. I'm sorry about Rose. I haven't even seen her before that moment. We've been broken up for weeks. I'm not a cheater, I promise."

"It wasn't even cheating Scor. We aren't a thing, we never have been. Nothing ever happened." I said without even looking at him. Yes, I was being sour. But believe me, so would you if Rosie had screamed at you like she screamed at me.

"And if we were? If we were a thing?" he asked. He took a few tentative steps forward while I said, "Al would murder you, then James and Teddy would burn your body." He chuckled and took my joke as his cue to lie down beside me. Instinctively, I snuggled closer and he let me use his arm as a pillow.

"This room has a sort of magic to it. So peaceful. Oh, look! You can see the constellation Scorpio from here. That's what I was named after, you know. Do you know that in mythology, the scorpion would do the bidding of the goddess Artemis because he was in love with her? He chased off all of the men that ever did her harm and protected her with everything he had." He explained softly. He turned his head slightly and stared into my eyes with those stormy grey eyes.

"Artemis is Lissa's middle name." I said, trying to ignore the obvious point of his story. He looked at me like I was kidding. "Angel." He said exasperatedly. "Sorry. Your story was very interesting though. What if Artemis had so much bad experience that she wasn't ready for the scorpion yet?" I murmured. He rolled his eyes. "No task is too large for the mighty scorpion!" he puffed his chest out and I couldn't help but giggle. He raised his eyebrows at the sound. Let's just say that I'm not exactly the giggly type of girl.

"Shut up." I grunted as he laughed. I love his laugh. It's so full and hearty. You know he means it whenever he laughs. When he wouldn't stop though, I elbowed his rib. He growled devilishly and flipped over, so he was leaning right above me, his breathe tickling my nose.

"I'm going to kiss you now." He said simply. Before I could get a word in otherwise, he kissed me gently. It was intense, perfect, and magical. Everything I could have ever hoped for. It was by far the best moment of my life. That's how I knew that Scor was waiting for me in there, watching the clock and probably going stir crazy.

When I reached the main room where the party was being held, my girlfriends immediately converged on me.

"Where the hell have you been? We've been looking all over this freaking house for you Lillian. You can't just disappear like that! We were worried sick!" Kate scolded. Arden looked like she was a wreck while Lissa had little tears in her blue eyes. I felt so guilt about leaving them again this year. "Guys I am so sorry! I was talking to James and then I went to visit Jaxie upstairs. I promise, the only drink I had was the one with you guys! I'm barely even buzzed! But, I seriously have to go do one more thing, and then I'm yours for the rest of the night!" I hugged them all and whisked off.

By the time I reached the tree house, it was 11:58. With only seconds to spare, I slowly opened to door to my future…


Hope you're still enjoying.

Slight disclaimer: I'm obviously not JK Rowling, even if I wish I was! Anything you recognize is her's besides the original characters and other character's personalities!