September 1, 2024 10:30

It was eerily quiet as they got on the platform. Everyone was thinking about Lily, how she was missing. Ginny could hear her voice, saying, "But Mum, can't I go now?" She reached into her pocket for the flask she had started keeping there, and took a deep drink as she waved to her sons.

Harry glanced at his wife, sad that she couldn't stop drinking, but lacking any real ability to stop her from doing it. He felt so lost without his daughter that he couldn't breathe sometimes. He and Ginny didn't fight, because they didn't have the energy to fight. They didn't talk. He went to work, hoping that it would be the day when a Dark wizard would finally kill him, and he could see Lily again.

"Bye, Mum," Albus said, leaving for his Seventh Year quietly, kissing Ginny on the cheek, able to smell the booze. "Bye, Dad," he said, hugging his father, then quickly walking away.

"Bye," they elder Potters both choked out, and reached for each others' hands, gripping tight.

"Let's go home," Harry said, looking at his half-drunk wife. She smiled gently at him with tears in her eyes.

On the platform, Albus looked around for Rose and Dom. His cheeks were sunken in, and his hands shook, however slightly, from lack of a cigarette. He spied a curtain of blonde hair – Dom – and walked over there with his shoulders hunched.

"Hey, Dom."

"Al." Dom's eyes were ringed with kohl, making her look like she had been up all night. Which she probably had.

"Got a smoke?"

"Yup." They both began to breathe in the chemicals, their bodies relaxing. Dom scanned the crowd with a bored expression on her face, looking for Rose's red hair that was so much like Lily's.

Albus looked at Dom with a hint of concern. He could see how desperately thin she was, and the scars up and down her arms. She was always high now, flying, even if she wasn't on drugs. Everything that she used to be died with Lily.

Dom looked back at Albus. She felt so guilty for everything he had become. It was all her fault, because without her, Lily wouldn't have started starving herself and cutting. Albus was skinny, and looked tired and hung over. His cheeks were sunken in and his eyes were huge, reflecting the train station around them. Their peers walked around them in a hushed silence, a façade of reverence, and a cover for them to gossip about the wild Weasleys and what they had become over the summer.

"I heard Dom… you know, the blonde one… I heard that she's done every drug available and has started selling her own pills."

"Well, I heard that Al will screw anything that moves."

Cackling laughter rang out, and was shushed by those with a modicum of respect.

Of course the rumors were going to fly, Dom thought. We've all gone mad. And it's my fault. Her eyes welled up as she slid sunglasses on, gestured to Al to follow her, and climbed onto the train, shaking her butt as she went.

The crowd, especially the boys, stared at her. Last year she had been the quiet girl who always wore black. This year, she was so different. Her long blonde hair was wavy and loose, and she was wearing clothing that amounted to little more than lingerie with shoes. She could feel their eyes on her, and was determined to give them a good show. She climbed up the steps leading to the train, and popped a hip, showing everyone her black lace thong.

The spark of enjoyment it gave her wasn't enough to wipe out the cold, empty, cloying feelings of guilt she had buried inside. Al followed her silently onto the train, and they went to go look for Rose.

They poked their heads – one blonde, one black – into each compartment, looking for a flash of red hair. They continued until they reached one that they could hear someone ruffling pages.

"Rose," Al said, grinning a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. Dom gave a sigh, and pushed open the door to the compartment.

"Hey, Ro," Dom said, throwing herself onto the seat next to Rose. Rose looked up from the massive book she was flipping through – A Magical History of Wizards Who Tried to Cheat Death – and gave them both a giant, entirely fake, grin.

"Hi guys! Seventh Year, I can hardly believe it!" Dom loved her for this, for trying to pretend that everything was normal. She could see in Rose's eyes that she kept looking for Lily, out of the corner of her eyes. And, of course, Dom could guess the purpose of the giant book – Rose was trying to bring Lily back.

Dom's guess was totally and completely correct. Rose felt so guilty for letting Lily die. They were more than cousins, they had been almost sisters. Their names were similar, and their hair was similar, and they thought alike. Both were high achievers, in the beginning, at least.

Al didn't think about Lily. He couldn't. It hurt him too much. He thought instead about the Muggle girl he had been fucking over the summer, about how tight she was, about her curves.

The cousins chatted amicably, trying to ignore the elephant in the room. Of course, Lily had always made conversation awkward. As the only Potter or Weasley to become a Slytherin for thousands of years, she always made a splash. The green and silver had set off her hair, and her palor was only intensified by her dorm under the lake. Lily had loved challenging the status quo, and she did that, even on her dying day.

As Rose, Dom, and Al, talked, they didn't know that someone was listening outside and trying not to cry at their stiff conversation. Scorpius Malfoy, like Lily, was supposed to be in a different house. Scorpius Malfoy, like Lily, had faced judgment from his house in the beginning, but Scorpius Malfoy, like Lily, quickly adjusted to his house – Ravenclaw. And he looked beautiful in blue.

Scorpius took a deep breath and stood up, and knocked quickly on the compartment door, before walking in of his own accord.

"Hey, Rose," he said to the redhead, who smiled absently at him before looking down at her nails.

"Hey, Scorp," she said to her fingers. Scorpius waved at the other two in the compartment, who smiled back at him. After he and Rose had both been Sorted into Ravenclaw, he had done his best to befriend the Weasleys. A lot of the Ravenclaw had hatred for Scorpius. Rose was the first one to become his friend in First Year. And for that, he would be forever grateful to her. Even if he did really like the way she looked in a swimming costume. But that was more to do with his obsession of the Weasley body.

He had been addicted to Lily Potter since Fourth Year, when he was a dreamy and horny14-year-old and she a clever 13-year-old who knew how to get what she wanted. Her robes were always half-thrown off, her shirt was unbuttoned halfway, and her skirt was rolled up so high that boys of all ages fell after her. She had developed quite quick, and with that, and her dark Slytherin look, she was enchanting. She had always been pretty, but with her new look, everyone seemed to notice her. She was the new whore of Hogwarts, and she seemed to revel in that fact. She wore a black bra all the time that showed through her white shirt, and too much eyeliner. Her hair was always mussed, as though she had just come from shagging someone, and it was a commonly spread rumor (which some speculated she started herself) that she never wore panties.

Scorpius was obsessed from the first day of his Fourth Year, when she walked in, making a scene and catching eyes. He had always thought of her as his alter ego. In another life, it would have been he who had been at the Slytherin table, glaring at the rest of the school with a dark, sexy look, and she who would have been at the Ravenclaw table, twirling her hair and laughing.

He would have been the one who would have died.

Once, he had gotten to kiss her. They were at a Gryffindor party, and everyone was drunk, and it was his Fifth Year, and he had just turned 16 and thought he was the shit. But he wasn't that drunk. But she was. Little Lily Potter, the youngest of the Potters, was staggering around, sexy as ever. She was falling off her heels, and falling out of her dress, and falling all over the boys. When she fell on Scorpius, he had grabbed her around the waist, and kissed her hard. She had looked so pretty, and he wanted her so badly, that he couldn't help but to kiss her. When she responded – albeit a bit sloppily – he pushed her back into one of the walls, and pinned her there. He ran his hands along her arms, lifting them above her head as he trailed his lips down her neck and along her dress. He could hear her gentle pants as he kept her hands pinned with just one hand, and moved his other hand down to caress her tits through the straining black fabric. He kissed her hard and fast and furiously, penetrating her mouth with his tongue as she strained to press closer to him. She began to lead him upstairs by his hand, giggling at all the people whispering about him, when she suddenly clasped her hands to her mouth, and ran to a corner and threw up. She was paler than Scorpius had ever seen her, and he ran to catch her as she fainted. Then he picked her up, and carried her over to a couch, where he sat her down with her head in his lap. He stayed there until morning, just as she was waking up, and he pretended to be asleep as she kissed him on the cheek and pattered upstairs.

It was the happiest night of his life. This girl – woman – whom he had loved for so long was lying in his lap, a mess of red hair strewn everywhere.

Scorpius took a deep breath, bringing himself back to the present, back to the quiet compartment. The others were talking about Quidditch, and he could see that they knew what he was thinking about. It was what they all were thinking about.

"It's hard, isn't it," Scorpius suddenly said. "Without her here." They all turned to him with a look of relief that someone had brought it up.

Rose gripped his arm before speaking. "I feel so… guilty. That I couldn't save her."

"Rose, it's my fault!" Dominique practically shouted. "I was the one who started her on the path that led to… it. We were starving ourselves to be pretty. And, and cutting. And drinking and smoking and I think I ruined her," she spilled out. "And its all my fault and I'm so sorry." Dom's eyes were blue and watery, staring at them all, begging for forgiveness.

"Dom, shh," Albus said, moving over to stroke her hair. "It's not your fault." She shook her head. "Maybe it's everyone's fault, that we didn't notice. I should have been a better brother. But you can't blame yourself, Dommie."

She took a gulp and nodded, but they could all sense her unwillingness to agree.

Once the elephant in the room was gone, they could talk like real people, instead of the automatons that they had become earlier.

Rose's giant white cat, Missy, jumped up halfway through the conversation onto Rose and started meowing.

"I better take her for a walk." Scorpius nodded; he was used to this.

"You… er… you walk your cat, Ro?" Albus asked, tilting his head to one side.

"Yes… doesn't Dai fancy a fly every now and then?" Albus looked at his dark brown barn owl and scowled.

"Whatever."

Rose strode out of the room, clutching the furball tight to her chest. "Rose out." She slammed the compartment door behind her.

"…Did she just say 'Rose out?'" Scorpius asked, confusion marring his aristocratic face.

"She watched a lot of American films over the summer," Dom said, trying not to laugh.

They all laughed a little. It was forced, and sad, but it made them a little bit better. When Rose got back and they were still laughing, she laughed too. And things got a little bit better for all of them. They could be strong together.