Knockturn Alley is indeed a dark and damp place, but it's narrow as well. The brick walls reach up indefinitely above, like twin versions of the Tower of Babel. Lily puts a hand up against the rough, wet brick. The two walls have been built close together, and there's barely enough room for two people to walk side by side.
The alleyway is lit only by the flickering candles and lanterns placed in shop windowsills. Lily walks slowly down the path, taking in everything, fingertips brushing against the right wall as though she's scared that she'll lose her way in this claustrophobic place.
The main path breaks off into even smaller pathways everywhere, but Lily keeps on walking straight ahead. She glances down some of the other directions, but it's all dark and she can't see down them beyond a foot or two.
Most of the stores have been built into the wall, but sometimes Lily spots an alcove where she can see a flicker of light indicating an open shop – but often, there is only darkness. Knockturn Alley has a bad reputation because of its association with Dark Magic, and it's no secret, even growing up so many years after the war, that the alley took a serious financial blow after so many of the Pure-blood supremacist owners were tried and sentenced to Azkaban.
It's one thing to hear about it, but it's quite another to see the impact. Lily passes shop after shop with dark storefronts and boarded-up windows. A pale ice blue shudders down her spine as she takes in the outline of these abandoned stores. She knows most of the owners must have been bad men, but she feels a dull purple ebb coat her heart nonetheless. Surely, some of the men must not have been evil but must still have suffered bankruptcy – burned by association, by the unfortunate decision of their shop's location.
Eventually, the brick walls separate further, each spreading in opposite directions, until Lily sees the parallel structures finally curve around and meet once again, kissing ahead of her. The large and open space of what Lily suspects must have once been a marketplace is disorienting after the cramped path Lily has been walking. She spots a few boarded-up storefronts along the curved walls, but the center of the cul-de-sac is nothing but large, empty dirt ground.
Only one store is still in business, and Lily slowly makes her way to it. It's located near the end of the circular square, and when she approaches the doors left ajar a warm gust of wind washes over her. Peeking into the room, Lily spots a long counter at the far end, and rows of tables scattered throughout. She smells roasting chicken, and hears the euphoric orange and pink shouting of people having a good time. It's a tavern. There aren't many taverns left in Wizarding Britain anymore. There's the Hog's Head Inn in Hogsmeade, but it's a greasy, depressing place where only old people go to reminisce. The Leaky Cauldron used to be one, apparently, but Lily only knows it as the convivial pub Neville and Hannah have turned it into.
Lily feels a magnetic pull towards this place and she's almost tempted to walk right in. She knows this strange and delicate mood she's feeling will be ruined if she does, though, that she'll stick out like a squib at an O.W.L. exam. Slowly, she backs away from the door before anyone spots her.
Lily feels different as she takes in the empty marketplace once more, her back to the tavern now – it's a deep purple that warms her toes and relaxes the muscles in her face. A flickering of light catches Lily's eyes, and she looks at one of the stores she'd passed by earlier. The sign above the store reads, "Borgin and Burkes."
Still holding that feeling close to her, Lily makes her way over to the store and pushes the door open. A bell jingles when Lily walks in, and two customers turn their heads her way only look away again disinterestedly.
Lily ducks right between two mountains of odd-looking items: a two-legged chair; what looks to be a stuffed baby acromantula, which is still as big as Lily; a collection of white porcelain dishes propped up on a seemingly unsteady shelf; and so much more. The place is a real mess of knickknacks. The far wall has been transformed into one continuous shelf containing smaller items. Lily has her eyes on a peculiar-looking shoe when a voice startles her.
"That item is over 300 years old."
The stranger has thick, light brown hair that's been combed over to the left side while the right side has been buzzed short. His cheeks have deep pock marks in them, contributing to a mean look which is only intensified by his height and square shoulders. Despite the scarring and intimidating look, however, Lily's second thought is that he's not actually that bad looking. He has long eyelashes and deep brown eyes. His right ear has two piercings in it, and he has a pair of sunglasses – an uncommon item in the Wizarding world – propped up on his head. He's dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt despite the heat, although the fabric looks thin enough. He doesn't look like the owner of the store or even a worker, but Lily hates judging people based on their appearances.
"I'm not looking to buy."
The guy shrugs. "Couldn't care less. I don't work here."
He's kind of smiling at her, a tilted upwards slant on the right corner of his mouth. He crosses his arms over his chest, and for a few seconds they stare at each other silently.
"An item's wealth is in its history, you know? How can you know if Lopin's Shoe really is worth its 567 Galleons price tag if you don't know anything about it?"
Lily can't tell if he's trying to hit on her or if he's just an incredibly strange person with no qualms about starting up bizarre conversations with complete strangers. Lily doesn't think it's the former, but then again, she wouldn't know even if he was putting some weird moves on her. She's only ever been with Scorpius, and that had just happened. It's not like she'd needed to read any signs.
Still, it's unnerving. Normal people usually avoid Lily like a Dark curse; her strange appearance really sets them off. This guy, though, is half-smiling, half-frowning at her, and Lily suspects the frown has nothing to do with her looks but more because she doesn't know anything about this old, musty shoe.
"It's a shoe," Lily answers. "I wouldn't spend that much money on it even if I knew anything about it."
The half-smile disappears. "It's not about the money or that it's a shoe. It's about History. The story behind it. Someone one day will pay that much for this, maybe even more. Doesn't that make you wonder why?"
The purple feeling's all but disappeared now, and Lily starts feeling a grayish-white, a color that starts from the outside of her skin and pushes in, nearly absorbing her entire body until she can't breathe. She doesn't think this guy is all-there. Maybe he's one of those mentally unstable people parents usually keep locked up in their attics. She wishes she'd told Scorpius where she'd gone.
"Not particularly…" Lily wonders if he'll notice if she starts inching backwards slowly.
He clicks his tongue. "How can you live with all your ignorance?"
Thick black flames of anger shoots through Lily, overtaking the uneasy cloud of gray. Who the hell does this guy think he is? "Hey, man, screw you and your stupid old shoe. How far is that going to get you in life, anyway, unless you're a fucking cobbler?"
He shakes his head, completely unperturbed by Lily's outburst, as though he hasn't just insulted her without knowing the first thing about her. "It's not about shoes, I said. It's about curiosity, wanting to know more, being interested… being alive."
"I'm plenty alive enough, thanks," Lily mutters. What a right jerk. What's she even doing enabling him in his bullying? She turns to leave, but she hadn't realized before that she's backed herself into a corner – behind her is the wall, and to her right is a big pile of junk. The asshole is blocking her only way out.
"Are you, though?" He's uncrossed his arms, and now he's holding out his hands like he's cradling an invisible globe. "How much do you know? I mean, really know?"
Lily feels her mouth drooping open, and she hurries to close it and gather her composure. "I know not to lecture total strangers, for one. Who the bloody hell are you to just come up to me and start talking to me like this, huh? You've got some serious problems."
He just smirks, but steps aside, just enough so that Lily can squeeze past him and the shelf to get by.
"Just think about it," he adds, when Lily's formed a perfect line between the shelf and his body. She presses up against the shelf as much as she can so that she doesn't have to brush against him.
"I'd rather not," she snaps, keeping her eyes on the floor. Her heart is slamming against her chest and she's scared that he's going to follow her out of the store, pull her into one of those dark side paths, and murder her or something.
Thankfully, he doesn't, and Lily runs all the way back to Diagon Alley, where the sunlight burns her retinas and she has to close her eyes until they've adapted to the brightness again.
Lily makes a beeline for Flourish and Blotts; it hasn't quite been an hour, but Lily hopes Scorpius and his co-worker have found what they needed because she's ready to head home.
She finds the two heads bent over a book in the Law Reference section, with four other books stacked and levitated behind them.
"Hey."
They look up, slightly startled, but Lily notices how the girl's eyes widen in a way that's more than just surprise. Lily straightens out her shoulders and lifts up her chin.
"Find what you're looking for?"
Scorpius smiles. "Just about. Um, Eva this is Lily. Lily, Eva."
"Pleasure." Eva smiles, but Lily doesn't miss how her eyes flicker from Lily's head to her shoes and then back up again.
"I'm sure." Eva is gorgeous, even Lily will admit that. She has long eyelashes, and long brown hair tied up in a neat ponytail; her complexion is perfect, with not a blemish on her face, and she's wearing subtle make-up, and has long legs and a nice, white smile. She looks sweet. Lily wishes she'd just waited outside after all.
She turns back to Scorpius. "So?"
"Give us another quick five minutes? We might have something here." Scorpius lifts up the book he's holding and Lily rolls her eyes.
"Fine. I'll wait for you outside then." Lily shoots Eva a quick smile. The two of them look good standing there together. Scorpius is only just a little bit taller than her. Their bodies would fit perfectly together, like one of those Muggle jigsaw puzzles.
Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour is right across the street from the bookstore, so Lily heads over to buy some ice cream and takes a seat out on their patio so she can spot Scorpius as soon as he comes out. She gets her favorite black raspberry ice cream in a cone, and vanilla fudge in a cup with a cold spell placed on it so that it won't melt for Scorpius.
Lily finishes her ice cream in ten minutes, and still no Scorpius. She brings her feet up onto the seat so that she can rest her chin on her knees and stares at Scorpius' ice cream.
After another fifteen minutes have passed, Lily begins to feel foolish for having bought him anything in the first place and eats his ice cream.
Lily draws the line at forty minutes. She has half a mind to storm back into Flourish and Blotts and give Scorpius a piece of her mind, but she would hate to give Eva the satisfaction of thinking her a crazed loony. She can just imagine what the woman must have thought after seeing her in the first place: just what is a straight-laced, smart, and good-looking guy like Scorpius doing hanging out with someone like Lily?
Instead, Lily pulls out her wand and Apparates back to Malfoy Manor.
The Malfoys have the most impressive library Lily's ever seen. She's willing to bet all of her savings that their collection beats even the one at Hogwarts. Although Lily has only ever entered the library on a handful of occasions – to study with Scorpius back when she still kind of cared about her grades – the Malfoys have developed a great cataloguing system and locating-spell, so that even Lily can find any book without too much difficulty.
After a few trial and errors, Lily finds the book she's looking for: a historical text which includes a passage on Lopin's Shoe.
Lily's never been a big reader, having difficulties concentrating on the small print, but she feels strangely determined as she sits down in one of the many comfy armchairs.
It takes Lily a while to get through the three passages which detail the events that led to be known as Lopin's Shoe, but it turns out to be a rather interesting story. According to this history book, Lopin was a Muggle in the early 1700s, shortly after the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy had been instated, who went around freeing Witches and Wizards being persecuted by Muggles. No evidence points to Lopin having any Wizarding background, and yet the story goes that Lopin earned himself an infamous reputation in his part of Northern England for going around freeing convicted Witches and Wizards before their trials could take place. It got so bad that finally a huge bounty was put on his head and everyone began hunting for him instead of magical folk. Eventually, a mob caught up with Lopin and they didn't go easy on him – torture and mutilation, apparently, although the book is sceptical of these accounts, since his body was in fact never found. All that was found of him was his shoe.
Lily closes the book and runs her finger across the cover. It's an old book with engravings of vines around the front and back cover. She doesn't know how she feels about the story – little black and white cubes vibrate inside of her at such high frequencies that they repeatedly bump into each other. The ending feels so inconclusive. Why does the book not go on to relate the events that happened after Lopin's Shoe was found? Why was there no mention of the Witches and Wizards Lopin saved from certain painful death? Why did they not show their gratitude by placing a protective or untraceable spell around him? Or some sort of tracking spell on him so they would know if he was in trouble?
Lily presses her palms against her eyes. Screw the guy in the store. So she isn't ignorant anymore, but she certainly doesn't feel any better for it. If anything, she's angry at her people for their selfish ingratitude. But, at the same time, why help the very people who are persecuting you? Lopin may have only saved them because he thought torture was wrong, and not necessarily because he accepted or liked Wizarding folk. Who is Lily to know, when the book provides no insight on the matter? And who's to know if he had even been killed – no body had been found, after all…
Lily's head hurts, and the black and white cubes vibrate even faster. She thinks that maybe being ignorant wasn't so bad after all.
The door to the library opens, and Lily watches as Scorpius walks in. She looks down at her book, pretending she hasn't noticed him.
"I looked for you everywhere." He sounds angry.
"I waited for you for nearly an hour." Lily traces the vine on the book cover and doesn't look up.
"I was working. You could have said you'd be going."
"Yeah, well you could have said you'd be longer," Lily snaps, looking up now. She remembers the ice cream and feels stupid all over again, a solid square of red with pulsating edges.
Scorpius' facial muscles relax and his eyes soften. He looks down at the book. "What are you reading?"
He doesn't sound surprised, but Lily knows the library must have been the last room in the house he thought to check.
"Lopin's story. Do you know it?"
"Of course, doesn't everyone?"
More of the red square inside of her starts to pulse; she's bordering on embarrassed now. "I didn't."
"We studied him briefly in History of Magic. Don't you remember?"
"Is that a class I took as well?" Lily tries to joke, but Scorpius' frowning at her now like he wants to say something but knows better. "Anyway, I bumped into someone in Knockturn Alley and we talked about it." Lily frowns. "Actually, he kind of yelled at me about it."
"What? Knockturn Alley? What were you doing there? Who did you talk to? You really shouldn't go there by yourself, Lils, that's-"
"Relax! God, you're like an old man." Lily stands and spells the book away. Telling Scorpius about Knockturn Alley wasn't something she'd planned on. It just slipped out. "And I don't know. He was just some random guy in the store. He started lecturing me about being ignorant. I didn't think to ask his name. He was an asshole."
"I wish you wouldn't talk to strangers."
Sometimes, Scorpius sounds too much like Ginny and Lily can't stand that. She doesn't want or need a second mother, she just wants a friend. But Lily knows how protective and cautious Scorpius can be. Like with her mother, Lily knows better than to try and defend herself. At these times, Lily chooses to either ignore him or change the subject. "So, you got your work done? Are we still good to go out tonight, or are you seeing Eva again?"
"Were you jealous?" Scorpius grins suddenly, and Lily wishes she hadn't put the book away already so that she could chuck it at him now.
"Hardly. I don't care. She looks stuck up, anyway."
Scorpius stops smiling. "She isn't. She's a good co-worker, and she really knows her stuff."
"That's so great."
"Don't be like that. I don't like her that way."
"All right, fine, whatever. Your life, you know." Lily glances at the clock pendulum near the door. It's almost four o'clock. It's still too early to go out, but in a couple of hours they can head to a pub for some pre-drinking.
"You got anything in mind for dinner?" Lily asks, before Scorpius can push the subject of Eva.
For a second, Lily is scared that Scorpius isn't going to let her off the hook, but finally he sighs and turns to head for the door.
"Not really. What are you in the mood for? I'll cook."
Lily grins. Vigie isn't a half-bad cook, but it's certainly not her specialty and Scorpius' meals are always the best.
"Spaghetti with meat sauce!"