Chapter 8
We were on the Quidditch field, just staring at each other.
"So, Potter, are you gonna start or what?" Scorpius asked me, a sword in his hand.
Start what? I wanted to ask, but my voice wasn't working. I tried to speak again. No words came out. He charged at me. Before he reached me there was a flash of green light. Scorpius fell and I saw a man with scarlet eyes and two slits for nostrils, like a snake. I didn't need any one to tell me who this was. Finally my voice started to work. I whispered, "Tom Riddle."
"How nice of you to drop by. So, the Chosen One's daughter is this?" he signalled all of me.
I felt scared, and I knew that If my father was here his scar would be killing him. Or was it right now, in the middle of night?
The scene shifted. I was in the Great Hall, except everything was set up for our OWLs. A Ministry wizard whom I'd never seen in my life sat me down at a desk. There was a giant piece of parchment on it.
"Please begin, Miss Potter," the Ministry wizard said in a monotone voice.
I looked at my exam. The were all questions about ridiculous things I'd never heard of before.
"How old was William Shakespeare when he died."
Who the heck is William Shakespeare? I thought. And the Ministry wizard behind me kept on talking, which made it very difficult to concentrate. Suddenly his voice changed and became high and cold. It sent shivers down my spine. A white spidery hand grabbed my shoulder and said, "I believe in you Lily. Make your father proud."
I turned around and saw that Lord Voldemort was wearing normal wizard robes behind me, still clutching my shoulder.
"Excuse me?" I said.
"Come on, sweetie, write your test. I want to see Os on all your OWLs when we get the results."
I woke with a start, and sat bolt upright. I took deep breaths, trying to calm myself. Those were the weirdest dreams I'd ever had. Especially the last one. I stood up and headed downstairs to the common room.
I sat down in a chair closest to the fire, thinking. I'd never had any dreams, or nightmares, about Voldemort. But Voldemort wasn't the scariest part. It was the fact that Scorpius had tried to kill and, when he died, I didn't seem to even care. I calmed myself down again and stared at the fire. I heard a noise and jumped. A small house elf had just appeared inside the Common Room. She, I think it was a she, shuffled over to where I was sitting, not noticing me, and started to tend the fire. I watched her for a bit before I decided to go back to bed.
She didn't jump when I hopped off my chair. Frightened house elves totally piss me off. So I guess it's good that she didn't notice me.
I reached my dorm and saw something in the corner of the room. I hadn't seen it when I left. It moved and I almost screamed, until I realized it was Jimmie. He had a note tied to his leg. It read:
Dear Lily, I hope you receive this note while awake, so I won't feel bad about waking you up in the middle of the night.
Meet me in the Owlery please.
S
I put on a jacket, hoping he was in the Owlery now and that he thought I would get it in the morning. I exited through the portrait hole. I was almost at the end of the hallway before I realised that I was still wearing slippers, so I decided to go back and put on some actual shoes. I put them on and set off again.
I reached the Owlery, not really expecting to see anyone there. But, there he was. He was petting one of the school's barn owls.
"Are you insane!" I said. "What if I didn't come? What if you were here all night?"
"I would wait for a thousand nights if it were necessary…" he mumbled. "Sorry, sometimes I just blurt things out!" he quickly added.
"Don't worry, I hadn't heard you anyways." I lied.
"Oh, okay" he sounded relieved and depressed at the same time.
"So, anyways… Why'd you want me to come?"
"To be honest, I'm not really sure. I just had this sense, you know?"
"I totally know how you feel. It's a good thing I was awake I wouldn't want you to have been here all night in the freezing cold."
"Are you cold?" he asked me.
"A little bit, I wish I would've worn a warmer jacket."
Scorpius took his coat off and handed it to me. "Put it on," he ordered.
"What about you? Won't you be cold?"
"I've been through worse. What woke you up in the first place?"
"Strange dreams. Like insanely strange dreams."
"What kind of strange dreams?"
"Well, there was one where you got killed by Voldemort and then he started to criticize me. Then it changed and I was taking my OWLs and didn't know any of the answers and Voldemort was my father and he even called me sweetie!" I shuddered. "I'll never get that image out of my head."
He smiled at me. He moved forward a bit, then he stopped himself.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"You know how when I was talking about the girl I'd loved since I was thirteen?"
"Yeah?"
"I was talking about you."
I stood there shocked. "Well don't look so surprised!" he said. "I mean, I did kiss you on your birthday. Don't you remember? It was right after I gave you the ring and before I left to get on the Knight Bus."
Whaaaaaaat! I thought. I'd completely convinced myself that it had been a dream. That it was too good to be true, and then I had settled for Charlie. But I couldn't just break up with him and start dating Scorpius. That was a terrible idea. Besides, I wouldn't be able to take it if it didn't work out. Then again, if I didn't go out with him wouldn't it be worse? Would he turn into my biggest, "what if"?
"Aaaah!" I screamed.
Scorpius looked really hurt now. "Wow, thanks Lily. I didn't know that that was how you felt about me."
"No! That's not it at all! It's just that I'm really confused, and I'm really bad with these kind of things and…"
Scorpius came close to me and wrapped me in a hug. He was warm, and comforting. He smelled slightly like cologne. Just like my love potion! I thought. I'd smelled that, and the smell of my grandparents home. It would seem as though I really did love Scorpius. I started crying. I wished we would be able to stay like that forever. He grabbed my face and gave me a kiss. Then he apologised and said, "Sorry, I just thought I might as well do what I wanted to do when I called you here." He started to leave and at the doorway he said, "Forget about our meeting next week. It won't be necessary." Then he left and headed back towards the castle.
"Wait! You forgot your…" he was already out of earshot. "…jacket."
I sighed, way too confused for words. I headed outside and walked down the stairs. I walked to edge of the Black Lake and sat down. There hadn't been a blizzard yet and whenever it snowed it hadn't stuck so the ground was still green. I looked across the Lake. Soon it would freeze and people would skate on it. Mostly couples. Now I was really depressed and going out with totally the wrong guy. It would be stupid to break up with him after only one week. Who knows? I could grow to be crazy about him.
I started to feel sleepy; the sun had started to rise. It was Saturday morning. I closed my eyes and fell asleep.
"Please!" I heard.
"No! We are not going to throw Lily in the lake Jeremy. That would be stupid!"
"It'd be funny!"
"And incredibly immature."
I opened my eyes. "There, now we won't need to throw her in the lake." Jeremy said.
"Thanks, Lily!" Jeremy pouted.
"What… did I…" I yawned, "do?"
"Jeremy wanted to throw you in the lake to wake you up. What the hell were you doing sleeping out here?"
"Oh, I fancied a late night stroll and I guess I must've fallen asleep. What time is it?"
"About ten thirty. If you hurry you could probably get some breakfast," Jeremy said.
I was pretty hungry. I got up and headed towards the castle. Will and Jeremy beside me. "Hey, where's Sri?" I asked.
"She needed to send some secret letter." Jeremy answered. "D'you think she's gotten herself a boyfriend finally?" he added teasingly.
"Like your one to talk, smart guy. You don't even have a girlfriend" Will defended Sri.
"Uh, neither do you!"
"But I don't go around making fun of people because of it."
"Touché" Jeremy finished the conversation.
I sat on one of the benches and grabbed some juice, filling a goblet. Then I remembered how much I hate orange juice. I pushed the glass in Jeremy's direction. "Do you want it? I can't stand orange juice. It's kind of disgusting and it gives me heartburn."
"I know that," he smiled. "I was just waiting for you to give it to me."
I grabbed a plate and put some eggs and sausages on it. I started eating, remembered why I'd been outside in the first place, and lost my appetite. Great, now I was going to be depressed all day long.
"What did he do this time?" Jeremy asked.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." I lied.
"Come on Lily, I've known you since we were both toddlers. I can always tell when you're feeling down, and so can Will."
"He's right," Will agreed.
"And same with Sri. Guys actually do have feelings you know. We can tell when girls are feeling bad. That is, unless you're stupid like Malfoy."
"It's nothing he did. It's something I did. I made a huge mistake. I never should've gone on that walk with Charlie. Now my life's totally screwy!"
"You don't even like Lynch as much as you love Malfoy," Will pointed his fork at me.
I blushed, "What do you mean?"
"Oh please! If you wanted to be more obvious you'd have to make a giant billboard that said 'Lily Luna Potter loves Scorpius Malfoy'. Anyone who spends five minutes with you two can tell that you're in love. Which are basically only your brothers, Jeremy, Sri and I."
"You seriously think so? But I don't want to hurt Charles. I mean, we have only been dating for a week. It would seem like those stupid couples who're twelve and they only go out for short periods of time to say they have a girlfriend or boyfriend. I would seem totally lame!"
"You already are lame," Jeremy pointed out.
"Wow, thanks, I feel so much better now!" I retorted sarcastically.
"Sorry, that was sort of mean. Anyways, you gotta dump Lynch. I didn't like him that much. Always thought he was annoying."
I sighed, staring at my eggs. I started playing with my food, not really sure if I was hungry or not. I put some food in my mouth again and decide that I was hungry. Extremely hungry.
"So what are you two doing for the holidays?" Jer asked.
"I'm going to Romania with my family, we're visiting my Uncle Charlie. Did you know it's been five years since we last saw them? Crazy right?"
Will said, "I'm going to Switzerland to ski. I'm going to the Alps. My sister's wanted to go since she was a little girl. She thought it was pretty."
"Your sisters coming here next year right?"
"No, she's not a witch. She would've started this year. At first she was a bit disappointed, but now she doesn't really mind. That's one of her greatest qualities I guess."
"That she's a Muggle?" Jeremy asked, puzzled.
"No, that she doesn't dwell on anything bad for too long."
"Well I'm going to be having the better Holiday than either of you. I am, wait for it… Going to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas!"
We clapped, laughing and Will joked, "Lucky git! I wish my hols could be as great as yours!"
"I think Sri's staying too, so I guess she'll keep me company when you're in Romania and you're at the Alps."
"Really? I thought she was going home."
"No, something happened and she has to stay at school."
"Oh, that sucks."
"No it doesn't. She has wonderful me to keep her company!"
We all laughed and finished breakfast.
I stood at the door of his dorm for about ten minutes before I turned around saying, "I can't do it."
"Of course you can!" Sri said. We'd told her about our conversation at breakfast.
"No I can't! I'll sound fickle and really lame!"
"You sound.."
"Yeah I know lame anyways!" I cut her off. Today my ego certainly wasn't growing.
"So, go!"
I knocked on the door and Sri ran out of sight. Lynch opened the door.
"Uh… hey can I talk to you?" I asked lamely. I totally was making it way too obvious I was about to break up with him. "I don't think we can see each other anymore."
"Have you met someone else or…" he asked
"Well… sort of. Not really… I mean… Oh Merlin this is hard for me!"
"Oh! I know who it is! It's that Slytherin isn't it? I was hoping maybe you would at least settle for me. Guess I was wrong." He sounded awful.
"I'm-"
"Save it!" he cut me off. "Don't apologise. It'll just make it worse."
He slammed the door.
I walked down to the common room and Sri almost pounced on me.
"That was very quick. So… was there any crying involved."
"Thankfully no, but he seemed very upset. Is it mean for me to hope that he'll kick me off the Quidditch team? "
"Yeah, it is." She paused for a second. "But both of us know that isn't going to happen. You have the quickest broom on the team, even if you aren't the greatest player."
I sighed, hating how she was always right.
"So, are you gonna go out with Scorpius now?" she raised her eyebrows seductively.
"What? No! You can't just break up with someone and start going out with someone else in the same day."
"Why not? They do that in the movie industry all the time."
"Yeah, but those people are stupid."
"Not everyone. Some of them are cool!"
"Whatever I still think they're stupid. Besides the girl shouldn't ask the guy out."
"What! That's not true. My mom asked my dad out and now they're married."
"And had she just broken up with her previous boyfriend the same day?"
"Well, no. Okay, so maybe you should wait a bit."
"Yeah I sort of want to be single for a while. Too much guy drama going on whenever I go out with a guy. Remember James?"
James had been a guy from the states and I'd gone out with him last year for about five months. It didn't end well. He threw a type of fit and then tried to slip me a love potion.
"Yes I remember him. But wasn't he mentally unbalanced or something?"
"Yeah… But I only found out two weeks after we broke up."
I found a chair and sat down, wondering what the future held for me.
Note: Hey guys, sorry I haven't written in 6 months. I went on vacation and then the computer I was writing on broke down. And then I wrote this chapter and someone was reading it and forgot to save it so… after all this time here it is!
