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Chapter 3

Lily settled back into life at Hogwarts quickly. The daily routine of lessons and homework was added to by her prefect duties. She found she enjoyed being a visible presence for the younger years to come to with their queries, worries and problems. She was also quite surprised to find that she was a popular prefect to come to and not just amongst Gryffindors. She had her fair share of Hufflepuffs and even some Ravenclaws come to her. However, she wasn't too keen on the patrolling. Surrounded by so many protective, older males Lily was sheltered for a 15 year-old. She had seen more in her last month as a prefect than she thought she ever wanted to of steamy lovers clinches. Luckily for her, she had been set to patrol with her Gryffindor counterpart so the sniggering at her blushes had been kept to a minimum. This month the rota was set to change. The prefects would now be consigned to patrol with prefects from other houses, but Lily had her embarrassing reactions under control now.

Lily bounced down the steps to the Gryffindor common room. She was in a very good mood this morning, as it was not only Saturday, but she'd also managed to get through a particularly nasty Potions essay the night before. "Morning sunshine, you're a happy, little bunny today," Hugo greeted her.

"What's not to be happy about, the sun is shining, despite it being October, and it's the weekend."

"Yeah, well some of us still have that evil Potions essay hanging over our head."

"I did offer to help you with that, but you, Mr Stubborn, were determined not to study last night."

"Lily, it was Friday night. No-one studies on Friday nights except losers like yourself."

Lily stuck her tongue out at him, "I may be a loser, but right now I'm a smug loser who only has minimal homework for the rest of the weekend."

"So, does that mean your offer to help me out no longer stands?"

"Yep, I've put that unwelcome episode behind me for good."

"Huh! Some cousin you are. Besides, shouldn't you be nice to me this close to your birthday. If you want a good present that is."

"Blackmail, Hugo? I'm shocked. Isn't that too much of a Slytherin trait for a Weasley?"

"Ooh a low-blow from a Potter. I thought you were meant to the noblest of all Gryffindors, Miss Sass. But speaking of the snakes, have you seen the patrolling rota? It's going to make Albus spit nails."

"What's going to make me spit nails?" Albus asked, joining the conversation at the end.

"The new patrolling rota, wait until you see who little Miss Potter here is down to patrol with."

The siblings, intrigued by Hugo's teasing, went over the notice board. Lily found her name and saw that she was down to patrol with Alcyone Malfoy for the next month. "That bloody bastard," Albus yelled.

Hugo sauntered over, "Look on the bright side, Albie, it could be worse. She could be patrolling with Marco Zabini or our esteemed Head Boy himself."

"He did this on purpose. He's probably been waiting to get back at me ever since I warned him to stay away from Lily."

"Hang on, you did what?" Lily asked.

"And the cat is out of the bag," Hugo interjected.

An enraged Lily turned her attention to her cousin, "Back off, Hugo, now is not the time."

Hugo backed off slowly, hands in the air in the universal sign of surrender. "Don't shoot, Lily, I'm too young to die," he quipped at her.

Knowing that this was Hugo's way of leaving the heated argument, Lily just growled at him in frustration before turning her narrowed eyes back on her brother. "Explain," she demanded.

"I may have had a little word with Malfoy after the carriage incident. I told him to stay away from you."

"What gives you the right to do such a thing?"

"Unless it's escaped your notice, I'm your older brother."

"So? You do not get to dictate who I get to socialise with and you going to warn people off behind my back is crossing the line."

"It's Malfoy and he was getting too interested."

"You are way out of line, Albus. Malfoy has done nothing but be nice to me. He kept me from getting ripped to shreds in Knockturn Alley and he was doing his job as Head Boy and picked me up in the last carriage. Can you point out where precisely he has been showing too much interest?"

"Well," Albus spluttered, "It's not that he's done anything per se but the intent is there and no Malfoy is allowed to mess with a Potter."

Lily threw a handy, nearby book at Albus. "You are unbelievable. You're the one causing a problem not Malfoy. How dare you embarrass me so much?" Lily was so angry she was practically in tears. She went to storm off before she did some actual damage to Albus and cause an even bigger scene.

"Hey, Lily, fancy being a Beater this year?" Hugo called out causing Lily to scream with frustration.

"It's far too early for noise like that, young lady, and you're a prefect as well," the Fat Lady scolded as Lily fled the common room.

Lily remained angry with Albus for the rest of the weekend. Her sunny mood dissipated and she was left stomping her away around Gryffindor Tower, scattering frightened first-years. Albus wisely kept his distance from her, scheduling several extra Quidditch sessions to stay out of her way. Only Rose would come near her and she didn't bother to hide the fact that she found the situation amusing. Albus never learnt his lesson. Lily was easy going up to a point, but if you made her mad then no-one could save you. She may have inherited the Potter genes, but Lily definitely had the Weasley temper, something, Rose thought, people were stupid to forget.

Monday came round quickly and there was still no truce between the Potter siblings. The usual prefect meeting was held that evening and on this week's agenda was the new patrolling agenda. Lily stalked ahead of Albus towards the meeting room. She was not in the mood to play nice and united in front of the other houses. "Come on, Lily, I was looking out for you. That's my job."

"No, your job is to be my brother. A brother should not go out of his way to humiliate his sister by making out that innocent boys are looking to corrupt her and confront said boy about it. God, Albus, Scorpius must have laughed long and hard at our expense."

Albus had the sense to not prolong the conversation. Beside, Lily had hit a nerve. Malfoy had looked amused at Albus' rant. What was it about the annoying snake that made him lose his temper so much? He always came off second best in their confrontations. It wasn't meant to be that way. His dad and Uncle Ron were always full of amusing anecdotes about how they had bested Draco Malfoy, from his dad constantly beating him at Quidditch to his Uncle Ron punching him after saving him from a Death Eater in the final battle. As soon as Albus realised that Scorpius Malfoy was in his year, he had looked forward to emulating his dad. But Scorpius had turned the tables. Albus couldn't touch him on the Quidditch pitch and Scorpius always foiled Albus' attempts to make him look stupid. How Albus hated the Slytherin. Lily spun round just before entering the meeting, "I'm warning you, Albus," she hissed, "Don't you dare start."

Albus briefly wondered if he should tell Lily that he'd been trying to track Malfoy down all weekend to discuss the rota. Maybe now was not the time, she'd flip out and he didn't want an audience for one of her lectures. Being shouted at by your little sister was not good the image.

Lily was pleased when the meeting finished without Albus making a massive scene about her new patrolling partner. She was clearing up her stuff, getting ready to leave when Scorpius burst her bubble. "Albus, I believe you've been trying to get hold of me all weekend. Do you want to stay behind to chat about what is worrying you?"

Lily looked at Albus who at least had the sense to look slightly ashamed as he gave her a quick smile and wave. Lily was about to object, knowing why Albus had been keen to speak to Scorpius, but the Head Boy beat her to it. "Maybe Amelia, Lily and Alcyone should stay too as I think this may have something to do with them."

Albus looked annoyed at this but Lily thought it a good thing that she, the Head Girl and Alcyone stay behind. It would stop this confrontation ending in hexes and a trip to the infirmary.

"What's wrong, Albus?" Amelia asked. She was the daughter of Susan Bones and had been named after her Great-Aunt who had been killed by Voldemort's supporters in the war.

"I'm not happy with the new rota," Albus remarked.

"Why didn't you say anything during the meeting?" Amelia looked towards Scorpius who was leaning against the table, his arms crossed and the Malfoy smirk on his face.

"I didn't want to cause a scene but I don't think it's a good idea to pair Lily and Alcyone up as patrol partners."

"Why?" Amelia asked getting more and more confused.

"Well," Albus blustered, trying to think of an excuse that didn't revolve around the fact that Alcyone was a Malfoy, "I just think that it would be better if Lily was partnered with someone like Algernon Blake."

Lily was doing her upmost to keep a hold of her temper especially as both Malfoys were openly amused by Albus' poor excuse. Amelia was looking frustrated, "But I spent ages going through the relative strengths of all the fifth-year prefects and thought that I had produced the strongest rota possible. To be honest, I was rather pleased with Lily and Alcyone being paired up together. They will make a formidable pair of prefects."

"You mean that Malfoy didn't make the rota up?"

"No, we take each month in turn and Malfoy had the rota last month."

"Oh," was all Albus could say as his whole theory about the rota being used as personal revenge by Scorpius went up in smoke. If Lily hadn't been so angry with Albus she may well have felt sorry for him as he looked foolish right now. Only Amelia was clinging to the idea that Albus had any legitimate concerns with the rota.

"So if that is all cleared up, maybe we can call it a night," Scorpius said.

Albus had had the wind completely taken out of his sales and could do nothing but nod his agreement. Scorpius smirked at the deflated Gryffindor and left.

Thursday night came round quickly. It was her first patrol with Alcyone and Lily was nervous. She wasn't sure why she was so worked up about spending time with the Slytherin girl but she was. Possibly because she knew that Scorpius had discussed her with his sister but also because she did admire the girl. Alcyone was breaking down Slytherin stereotypes like an unstoppable force of nature and Lily respected that.

"Hi, Lily, ready to go?" Alcyone greeted her when Lily arrived at the prefects' office.

"Hey, Alcyone, yes lets get this out of the way. I have double Potions in the morning,"

The first half an hour went off quietly, both girls walking in silence not sure of what to say to each other. Alcyone decided after a while that she may as well break the ice and get the elephant out of the room. "So has your brother calmed down about this yet?"

Lily grimaced, "He's had to after he was so thoroughly embarrassed by Amelia and Scorpius on Monday. He's still mumbling about it around the common room but everyone else has grown bored of his insane ramblings by now."

Alcyone giggled, "He really has it in for us Malfoys doesn't he. Does he think I'm going to kill you and feed you to a snake?"

"Don't ask. Unfortunately Albus is pretty irrational when it comes to you guys. Maybe he thinks you're going to indoctrinate me into the darks arts," Lily joked.

"Ha ha, my mum would love that. She'd lock us in the Malfoy dungeons before she allowed any of us to meddle in the dark arts."

"Your mum seems really nice," Lily said shyly.

Alcyone smiled fondly, "She's great. She keeps dad under control. She even won my grandparents over. They adore her now too despite the fact that they were completely opposed to her marrying dad."

"Why?" Lily asked. She was excited at finally getting some information on Hermione Malfoy.

"My mum is muggle-born whereas the Malfoy's have always been the purest of all purebloods. Grandma and Grandpa didn't want "muggle blood contaminating the Malfoy line" but dad defied them anyway and eloped with mum."

"That's so romantic," Lily sighed, "But now they like your mum?"

"Yeah, they came around when Scorpius was born. I think the fact that mum continued the Malfoy tradition of giving birth to sons first gave them hope that she wasn't going to totally destroy the House of Malfoy. Then, of course, I appeared followed by Maia and Cepheus. No woman had given birth to more than one child in over two centuries which cemented my mother in their affections. Then there is the fact that we all have the Malfoy colouring and have all been sorted into Slytherin. Grandpa was very happy about this."

"What's with all your weird names?" Lily had to ask

"Well that is a Black tradition. Grandma Narcissa is a Black by birth and they like to name their children after constellations and stars. Hence why my dad is called Draco and we've all got ridiculous names too. Dad was hoping mum would end this madness having suffered with Draco his whole life but she got together with Grandma and he had no chance to give us normal names. Mum says she thinks the tradition is cute. We think she's crazy."

"The Black family? Hey, my dad's godfather was Sirius Black."

"Yes, he was my grandma's cousin. I don't think my grandma has ever forgiven him for leaving 12 Grimmaud Place to your father. My mum has tried to convince her that she wouldn't want the house as it's so grim and dark but Grandma is adamant that she should have the Black family home."

"If I had my way I'd happily give your grandma the house back. We all hate staying in it which my dad makes us do the night before returning to Hogwarts. But your mum has been there?"

"Yeah, she stayed there during the war. It was the headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix."

This confused Lily a lot. She had always been told that the Malfoy family had been loyal to Voldemort hence why she was stay well away from them. Now she was hearing that Hermione Malfoy had been part of the Order. She didn't feel comfortable to ask Alcyone how a muggle-born member of the Order married into a family of notorious Death Eaters. She was spared trying to think of something else to say by the fact that they had completed their rounds and had returned to the prefects' office.

"That wasn't bad. Only a few stragglers out after hours," Alcyone commented.

"Yes, it was nice and quiet. Here's hoping every night is like this for the next month."

"See you around, Lily," Alcyone called out as she made her way back down to the Slytherin dungeons.

Scorpius was waiting up for her. "How did it go?" He asked when she sat down on the sofa next to him.

"Fine, it was really quiet. I gave a couple of Hufflepuffs detention for being out after curfew."

Scorpius made an impatient gesture, that wasn't what he was asking and Alcyone knew that. "How was it with Lily? Did you have any trouble with that brother of hers?"

"Nope, it was all fine. He wasn't around and Lily is very easy to get along with. You forget she's a Potter with the lack of animosity towards us."

Scorpius nodded pleased. He had nudged Amelia towards pairing his sister with Lily. He knew it'd get Albus' goat but he also wanted Alcyone to get to know the youngest Potter. He felt drawn to the young girl since Knockturn Alley. She had looked so brave but vulnerable trying to hide how scared she was. She had obviously been embarrassed by her father's behaviour later in the bookshop. She had never been hostile to any of the Malfoys throughout her time at Hogwarts. Alcyone had regularly commented on this as it contrasted so sharply with his own relationship with James and especially Albus Potter.

"She seemed very interested in us," Alcyone commented.

"How so?" Scorpius asked.

"Well I got talking about mum and dad's marriage and instead of zoning out like most people would, she was really curious and asked lots of questions."

"She tried to pump me for information about mum in the carriage up to Hogwarts but I didn't bite. I don't think she knows anything of mum's relations to Potter and Weasley so keep that in mind."

Alcyone grew sad at this, Scorpius went over and pulled her into a hug. "Don't stress about it Alcyone. You've seen mum and, yes, it upsets her but she doesn't let it affect her too much."

"I'm just so angry that they get away with treating her like that just because she fell in love with dad. No-one could deny that she's the best thing that has happened to the Malfoy family in generations, but they cling onto petty school rivalries and treat her like dirt."

"It says more about them than it does her, sweetie."

"Be careful Scorpius."

Scorpius raised his eyebrow questioningly at Alcyone. "She's had a crush on you for years. I've seen her staring at you across the Great Hall. I know that you've been intrigued with her since Diagon Alley but her family would never accept a relationship between the two of you. You'd be making her life difficult if you pursue anything. She doesn't deserve to have to make a choice between a boyfriend and her family."

Scorpius sighed, "I know. I'm going to stay away from her. I don't want to be the cause of a rift between her and her family, no matter how little respect I have for them."

AN: Please review, it's my birthday on Thursday and it'll be a nice early present.