Chapter 3

Meeting Frank

Lily didn't have any more interaction with Scorpius until two weeks later. It was breakfast time and Lily was exhausted. She had had Quidditch until 10:30 last night, than stayed up doing homework until 12:00.

Professor Longbottom had had sympathy, but none of the other teachers had. Lily stared at her oatmeal, yawning and spooned some into her mouth.

"Hey Rose, what time is-" Lily was cut off by the sensation that her tongue was stuck to her mouth. She tried to finish her sentence, but was unable to do so. Lily than noticed why.

Rose had hexed her. She was talking to Frank Longbottom, another third year who was as equally brilliant as Rose. His mother and father (Professor Longbottom) had been divorced and his mother had been killed by some Voldemort sympathizers soon after they separated. She was only 23.

Professor Longbottom had remarried Luna Lovegood, One of Ginny's best friends. She had given birth over the summer and had a beautiful daughter named Violet Lee Longbottom. She was identical to Neville.

"I mean, My dad was no good at Quidditch, neither was my mum, so I can't really expect to be bloody good or anything," Frank said, staring at Rose. It was obvious they liked each other.

"My dad was mad as hell when he found out I wasn't going to be another Weasley Quidditch Star. My mum was ecstatic, because my dad's grades REALLY suffered from Quidditch. It took up all of his time," Rose said, taking a sip of pumpkin juice.

Adonia was eagerly talking to Kristin about an upcoming trip to Hogsmeade which Lily herself was excited about. She would have tried to enter the conversation if she hadn't been so exhausted.

Lily played with her oatmeal for another moment until Professor McGonagall stepped up to the podium; looking unusually sad.

"Students of Hogwarts," She started, her voice monotonous, "It is with a heavy heart I report that Venus Kirby of Hufflepuff, was reported dead this morning in the hospital wing,"

Lily heard a scream, followed by muffled sobs from the Hufflepuff table as a third year left the Great Hall with a professor, crying.

"It appears she died from an attack... most likely the killing curse," Lily was in shock, and stared up at McGonagall who looked worried and saddened, a bad mixture.

"We are going to have to keep an EXTREMELY watchful eye. As the muggles say, see something, say something. Thank you,"

The rest of breakfast was in silence. Lily noted some Hufflepuffs quietly crying. Rose, James, and Frank all seemed saddened, but not as much as the Hufflepuffs. By the time breakfast was let out, the pace of students leaving was unusually slow.

As Lily walked to the staircase that would lead her to Potions, she heard several Slytherin boys joking around. She heard words like "Mudblood" and "Deserved to die". Lily could sense something bad was about to happen.

She stopped walking and listened in on the conversation, eavesdropping as stealthily as possible.

"She was a filthy little mudblood. My family is all pure-blood and my father agrees. I don't think mudbloods should be allowed to be accepted into Hogwarts... or the wizarding world at all," One boy spat.

"It's disgusting how much filth roams around these halls," Another agreed. Lily noted Scorpius standing outside the small group of boys, and he looked mad as hell.

"Hey, Carson. Just shut up, will you? She was a student too, you know," Scorpius said, staring the boy dead in the eye. The boy just laughed and shoved Scorpius. Scorpius shoved back.

The boy threw a punch at Scorpius and hit him directly in the eye. Scorpius hit back, his fist meeting with the boys nose with a sickening crunch.

The boy yelped, blood gushing into his now cupped hands. Not even five seconds later, McGonagall and Professor Longbottom had grabbed the two boys by their collars and dragged them into her office.

The small crowd that had assembled was now dispersing. Adonia stayed with Lily, gaping at what had just happened.

"I can't believe he punched another student! That's despicable and awful!" Adonia said to Lily, fuming.

Lily wanted to explain to Adonia that Scorpius was defending Muggle Borns, but she didn't and she didn't know why.

"I mean, that's just ghastly! Scorpius Malfoy is the biggest jerk ever!" Adonia screeched, clutching her books to her chest.

Lily rolled her eyes at her friend. Adonia had come in after the fight had taken place and hadn't heard any of the terrible things the boy had been saying before Scorpius shut him up.

Adonia went on and on about what a terrible thing he had done, and Lily realized that she was falling hard for Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy.

…...

"Students, eat up quickly! We are leaving for Hogsmeade in 10 minutes!" McGonagall yelped, walking down the paths between tables.

Lily gulped down her last mouthful of pumpkin juice and swallowed her last bite of kippers and joined the students waiting by the wall.

She glanced over at Scorpius and saw him staring at her, almost studying her. Another Slytherin girl tapped his shoulder and he looked away.

After 10 never ending minutes, everyone began to walk towards Hogsmeade. Lily caught up with Frank and Rose who were holding hands (they had begun dating several days after the announcement of Venus Kirby's death) and walked with them, not saying anything, but listening in on their conversation.

"Hey Lily!" Adonia shouted from a few feet behind Lily. Lily turned to see Adonia walking with a fuming Scorpius.

"Where do you wanna go first?" Adonia asked Lily, completely ignoring Scorpius, who seemed to be a world away.

"How about my uncle's shop? I bet I could get a discount," Lily shrugged and the two girls trudged through the foot high snow.

Scorpius kept mumbling to himself. Adonia rolled her eyes at him and kept talking about the day to Lily.

Lily couldn't help but feeling bad for Scorpius who was looking longingly at a group of Slytherin boys, throwing snowballs at each other and laughing.

He glanced over at Lily and shot her a nasty scowl. Lily rolled her eyes. And to think she even felt bad for the jerk.

The girls made it up to "Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes" with rosy cheeks and cold toes. Inside, the best type of magic was happening.

Fred was helping his VERY pregnant wife Cho down the stairs. She was insisting that she would be fine, but Fred persisted, holding her hand in his and putting his free hand on the small of her back.

"Hey Uncle Fred!" Rose shouted from the bottom of the stairs, waving her gloved hand up at him. His face lit up once he saw her and he abandoned Cho halfway down the stairs. She rolled her eyes, smiling at her husband.

"Hey Lils! How's school? I haven't seen you in a long while," He said, scratching the top of his head.

His red hair had turned into a darker red, more of a brown and the years had been kind to him. He was tall and gangly, like a bean sprout. George was nearly identical, other than the scar across Fred's face from the Battle of Hogwarts. It reached from his eyebrow to his jawbone, a dark red fleshy mark.

"School is fine. I'm a beater for the Gryffindor team, so I'm excited," Lily explained, eying the bright red sign exclaiming "SALE ON SKIVING SNACKBOXES!"

Adonia was looking at the love potions, and she turned only to see Scorpius leave the shop in a huff.

Lily noticed Adonia place down the love potion and run after him in the snow. She didn't think the couple would last much longer, as Scorpius seemed to grow more and more aggravated as the month went on.

Lily finally decided on some nosebleed nougat (George had given her a funny look as he had rung up her purchase) and walked outside to see Adonia and Scorpius yelling at each other in front of everyone.

"YOU'RE AN ARSE, SCORPIUS MALFOY! YOU HURT ONE OF YOUR ONE HOUSEMATES!" Adonia spat at Scorpius who laughed jeeringly.

"You weren't even there!" He growled at her. She rolled her eyes and stormed off. Just as she was about to disappear into the crowd, she shouted out to him, "We're over!"

Scorpius didn't seem to be too angry, just a little tired. He sat down on a snow covered bench and shook his head while rubbing the bridge of his nose.

Lily pondered sitting down next to him or chasing after Adonia. She chose the first option and sat down next to the boy, his pale blonde hair flecked with snow.

"You alright?" Lily asked him, looking at him. He nodded, but didn't say anything. He remained deathly quiet.

"Adonia can be a bit naive," Lily said, trying to converse with him. He chuckled and lifted his head to face her.

"You think? I wasn't doing anything bad and she decides to dump me for being the opposite of my family," He said, rolling his eyes.

"Well... The name Malfoy doesn't exactly remind most of sunshine and peace, now does it?" Lily jokingly reminded him, hoping to get a slight chuckle. She was greeted with silence.

"God, this year is Hell," Scorpius murmured. Lily stared into his grey eyes. To her, it was like swimming in a grey ocean.

"Do you wanna go into the Three Broomsticks and get a butterbeer? I'm kinda cold, and I can tell you are too," Lily said, touching his shoulder.

Something warm flowed through Lily's hand, up her wrist and up her arm. She suddenly felt warm all over, like she was taking a bubble bath.

She could tell Scorpius felt it too. He stared up at her with a look of shock and nodded his head. They trudged through the snow, Lily's bright red wavy hair, cascading behind her. Her pale cheeks were rosy red and she was looking beautiful.

Scorpius thought that she was the vision of perfection. He stared at her for a moment before snapping around to see the Three Broomstick's sign just over his head.

They trudged into the restaurant and walked through a maze of Hogwarts students, all of them giving the two of them very strange looks.

James, Albus, Rose and Frank all gaped at them, open mouthed. Lily gave them a meek wave and sat down with Scorpius at a small booth, hiding them from the gawking Hogwarts students.

"Do... Do they think we're an item?" Scorpius asked, sounding shocked and confused. Lily laughed at him jokingly and shrugged.

They didn't talk much while eating. Scorpius drank some tea with lemon and honey and biscotti, while Lily drank butterbeer with a red velvet cupcake.

He stared at her occasionally, but only for a few quick seconds before turning away. She would blush and stare into her butterbeer.

Lily took out a galleon and handed it to the goblin waitor and the two new strange friends walked out of the Three Broomsticks.

As they were walking down the Cobblestone path to school, Lily felt something hit against her nose, followed by a crunch and searing pain.

She couldn't help but scream out in pain. She put her hand to her nose to find it badly misplaced, and pulled her hand back to find it full of blood.

She turned and saw Scorpius run towards her. James, Albus, Rose and Frank all raced out of the Three Broomsticks, each clutching their wands in their hands.

"What the bloody Hell did you do to her?" Rose screamed at Scorpius and shouted, "Stupefy!"

Scorpius fell to the ground. Lily turned to face Rose, and slapped her across the face. Rose had an immediate look of shock and dropped her wand in the snow.

"He didn't do anything! Someone threw a ball of ice at me!" Lily shouted, blood pouring into the snow.

Frank, Albus and James had put away their wands and Rose was frantically searching through the snow for hers.

"We need to get her and Malfoy to the castle," Frank said. Everyone agreed and Frank and Rose lifted up Scorpius. Rose lifted him by his ankles, Frank by his wrists.

Albus picked Lily up, too weak from all her blood loss to even move her legs. James ran ahead to the castle.

"You alright, Lils?" He asked her, carrying her bridal style. Her entire face was bloodied and pale.

He didn't get a response. Lily's mind was almost inactive, she felt her stomach churning. She turned her head away from Albus and vomited on the ground. She shut her eyes, her head resting against his chest, her head throbbing with pain.

"Albus... It hurts," She said, her voice hoarse from screaming. He had always been a good brother, but now Lily didn't doubt he would ever hurt her. She nestled into his arms, and fell into a deep, uncomforting sleep.