Lily Luna and Scorpius Chapter 7:
The week seemed to fly by, as I waited for Saturday… When the girls and I had discussed our mentors, I'd got some very strange looks for saying it had been "ok" (lies, but I didn't think they'd have believed the truth) . Anna distracted the others' curiosity from me and moaned for hours about Christine Parkinson, who we learnt over time was the daughter of single parent Pansy Parkinson, whose name seemed familiar to me (when I asked dad about it, he told me she'd been in his year at school), and was horrible to Anna. I was grateful to whichever fate had decided to place me in Scorpius' hands, rather than some other, horrible, Slytherin. Isobelle, Mary and Rachel were happy with their mentors; while they considered the time slightly wasted, they were with reasonably nice second years, so… Mary was in fact delighted: a handsome, older Ravenclaw boy… She hadn't been in the dormitory 5 minutes but she was already telling us her plans to make him fall in love with her…
The only interesting lesson all week was double potions, and our flying lesson. In potions we made our first really "magical" potion- A forgetfulness potion, which White then tested on an enchanted frog- it was supposed to want to walk to the end of the desk, but if the potion worked, it would forget… I was delighted to have brewed one of the only five successful potions (all the others were Ravenclaws…) and even more pleased when White awarded us each 10 house points. Flying was fun because now Madam Hooch was actually allowing us to fly: after three whole months of hovering a couple of feet off the ground we could actually fly. Flying had always been in my blood (with both my mum and dad being the Quidditch players they were…) and mum always loved to tell the story that, aged about one and a half, having been given a toy broomstick for Christmas, I had ignored the toy and summoned her Harpies broomstick (as a child I couldn't be punished for "accidental" magic) and started flying on it, outside, before she'd realised what was happening…
Saturday arrived at last and I got up before all the others, to enjoy a long shower, wash and tame my hair into looking decent, and have time to do my make-up… After a long shower and plenty of beautifying time I decided I looked ok. As it was Saturday, and I didn't have to wear my uniform, I spent at least 15 minutes worrying about what to wear, and wondering, at the same time, why I cared so much… In the end I settled on skinny jeans, which showed of my figure, a nice top, and a Weasley jumper, that I'd got last Christmas from Grandma Weasley, which I might take off in the Room of Requirement, as it would probably be warm, but would need until then because we'd now hit the real November weather, and it was freezing. I pulled my red hair into a messy bun, and looked at myself critically in the mirror… If it wasn't for the glasses, I could have looked like a younger version of my mum. Pleased, I went back into the dormitory, to find all the girls but Anna awake. Rachel was already ready, and we went down to breakfast, the others promising to follow.
"You look really lovely today Lily" she said as we walked into the Great Hall. "Thanks," I replied smiling shyly. I wasn't sure why, but I felt a bit weird that she seemed to have realised I'd made a special effort today, and I hoped she hadn't realised why… Not that I was even sure why I so wanted to look good… She smirked at me slightly and I realised I was blushing again… Curse being a Weasley! "Is there something special happening today?" She must have realised… Should I just tell her the truth? But what was the truth? My mentor's a really really amazing guy, and I wanted to look prettier than usual, but I don't even understand why myself? Like she'd believe that… I wouldn't believe her if she told me the same thing, and yet it was true… I didn't understand my own feelings. I couldn't understand why I was as excited when he smiled to me from across the Hall at breakfast, as I was when I got my letters from mum and dad about three times a week… I didn't know how it was possible that I should be looking forwards to spending an hour with a Slytherin this afternoon, but I felt like a small child on Christmas Eve all the same…
"Not particularly" I said. She smiled at me knowingly and we both laughed. "Don't worry Lily, I won't tell anyone" she said. She was teasing me, but at the same time she was sincere, as she told me many years later, she had guessed what even I hadn't realised, and would not tell anyone, until I was happy for people to know. The other girls joined us, just as we were finishing our last few mouthfuls of toast and we chattered for a bit, while they ate. We discussed the upcoming Quidditch match: Gryffindor against Ravenclaw. We'd just lost against Slytherin in the first match of the season, but they'd lost to Ravenclaw, so as long as we beat Ravenclaw, by a margin of about 50 points, and then beat Hufflepuff then we could still win.
Once they'd finished we went up to the common room, and, having learnt from last Sunday, I started on all my homework for the day- a foot for Patil on changing the colour of a plain piece of parchment, and 8 inches for Longbottom on Devil's Snare. Isobelle did likewise, while Rachel left us to go visit her mother with Patil, and Mary discussed "tactics" she would use on her mentor with Anna. I tried very hard not to listen, because I couldn't prevent myself from realising that at each suggestion, my mind's eye created a similar picture in the Room of Requirement, with a handsome blond boy and a shy redhead… Forcing myself to concentrate on my homework, I worked solidly until lunch. The essay for Longbottom was fine but I struggled much more with Patil's. "Do you reckon Patil'll make a fuss? It's only 11 and a half inches…" I asked Isobelle, instantly regretting my words, as she showed me her own foot and a half essay, suggesting a couple of things to add. The additions made, and grateful, despite my irritation at her unfair brilliance, for her help, the five of us headed down for lunch.
I forced myself to eat slowly, reminding myself that there was no rush, and once we'd all finished eating, Longbottom stood up, to remind us that we were all meant to be spending an hour with our mentors this afternoon and that he suggested immediately after lunch would be a good moment, unless we had organised something specific. He went on to remind us how important friendship was, and that if we were friendless life would always be more difficult for us, and that learning from each other was a skill that would always help us in life. Then he dismissed us. The girls and I stood up, and Isobelle said she was headed for the library, to meet with her mentor: Frankie Reid. Mary said she was meeting John at the bottom of the astronomy tower and we all laughed, the place being well known as the romantic rendezvous of the school… Rachel, who'd come back just before lunch, was meeting her Hufflepuff friend down near the kitchens, and they were hoping to find an old classroom or something to chill in.
This left Anna and I; the "unlucky" ones with Slytherin mentors. Christine Parkinson came over at that moment, looking as though she was afraid of stepping in something nasty, and scowled at Anna. "Hey you there! Do you mind us missing our heart to heart today? I can't be arsed with dealing with a snotty little Gryffindor's problems and unfortunately, I need you to tell Patil that we did have our meeting." Her commanding tone dispelled the question in her words, and Anna just nodded, looking a bit scared. Once Christine had left though, relief broke over her face. "I'll just chill in the dormitory or something," she said, grinning. "have a nap…" I told them I was meant to be meeting Scorpius upstairs and we all headed off in various directions.
Forcing myself to walk slowly, and take deep breaths I headed up towards the seventh floor. Suddenly someone came up behind me and grabbed my shoulders. I jumped and screamed slightly, whirling around to find Scorpius grinning. I burst out laughing and my nerves evaporated. "Did I scare you?" he asked me, mockingly, his eyes twinkling. "Well after all, you are an evil Slytherin!" I joked back, making sure he could tell I wasn't serious, and sticking my tongue out at him. We walked up to the Room of Requirement together and the door materialised in the wall after he'd paced in front of it only once. The Room clearly realised we wanted to hurry up, as we only had limited time…
We settled into our sofa and chattered. He told me more about himself; how he had grown up only around adults, who lovely as they were, had often left him to play on his own, which meant that, once he had learnt to read, he had often got lost in his own word- the world of books, muggle and magical. He loved music and singing, and he liked muggle theatre. He had gone to and enjoyed muggle school, to his father's pride and his grandfather's disgust, because as both of his parents were healers and worked a lot, they could not teach him themselves. I told him about how mum had played for the Holyhead Harpies, until she gave up playing Quidditch to look after James, and the Albus and I, and now she worked as a Quidditch reporter for the Daily Prophet. I told him about dad's work as Head of the Auror office. We just talked and talked and talked about life and it was surprisingly lovely. I had been right in assuming it would be warm in the Room of Requirement: a fireplace had appeared in one of the walls, and a blazing fire kept the room so toasty that I did eventually have to take my Weasley jumper off. Again, we were interrupted by the dinner bell, and found that a whole afternoon had flown by without our noticing it.
Scorpius looked a bit shy for a moment then asked almost awkwardly if I had plans for the next afternoon. "Just homework and stuff… Why?" I told him, hoping that he was asking for the same reason I had wanted to ask him the exact same thing, but had been too shy to dare… "Well if you want to come do it up here, I haven't had such nice afternoon for ages, and I was wondering if you wanted to um… well… talk some more or whatever…" He sounded uncomfortable again, but, seeing the enthusiasm on my face seemed to make him feel better. "After lunch again?" I suggested "Yeah sure! I'll see you then!" We walked down to the Great Hall for dinner, and as we walked in at the same time as some of his friends he casually got them to sit with us, and we carried on chatting over dinner, more quietly than we had in the Room, but still having fun. I saw Anna, Isobelle and Mary looking over curiously and realised that I was going to have to explain my absence all afternoon today and tomorrow. Rachel I trusted not to be too inquisitive, but the others would definitely want to know what was happening, and why I was getting so friendly with a Slytherin.
Thinking about what I was going to say to them made me worry, not that I blamed them for being curious; I was just as inquisitive into other people's business, I just wasn't sure how to explain myself. I loved hanging around with him and when I did I lost track of time because everything just felt perfect was impossible to believe, not to mention ridiculously soppy, an emotion I hated with a passion, and that definitely was not present in my confused feelings for Scorpius…