Chapter 10 – The Calm Before the Storm

...

I walk a lonely road,

The only one that I have ever known.

Don't know where it goes,

But it's home to me and I walk alone.

Greenday – Boulevard of Broken Dreams

I do not own Harry Potter ... or any of his children ... haha

Hugo, Ellie and I have been so overloaded with homework recently that I haven't had much of a chance to see Scorpius.

I suppose it was inevitable given that we are in our O.W.L year, but still.

Right now, I am sitting in the astronomy tower. I have been weighed down with astronomy homework and here is the best place to do it because so much of it involves writing the positions of the stars.

I look at the question I am on.

13. Plot the constellation; Scorpio.

I curse loudly. Professor Robinson totally knows what he is doing. I should be spending time with Scorp now, but I can't because of this damned homework.

'Something wrong, Lil'?' a cheerful voice comes from behind me.

I turn to see Scorpius behind me. His pale skin and blonde hair seems to glow against the night sky.

He looks like an angel. I didn't just think that.

'Nope, just this stupid astronomy homework.' I reply.

'Let me have a look.' He says.

As he takes the paper from me I feel my face flushing ever so slightly.

He looks at me over the paper and raises his eyebrows for a second. 'Well,' he says, 'that's easy enough. It's me, isn't it?'

I grin up at him. I feel even smaller than usual now I am sitting down and he is standing up.

He hands me the paper back.

'So,' he says in a deadly serious voice, 'shall I pose, or…?'

He looks upwards to the night sky with a thoughtful, posey expression that muggles always seem to use in photos in magazines.

He places one hand on his hip and the other on his chin and freezes.

He glances down at me without moving. I shake my head and laugh.

'Draw.' He says dramatically, and then freezes in his pose again.

I have no idea if he is being serious or not.

I watch him for a second and then, breaking into a little smirk, I grab a quill and sketch him standing there.

It's only a quick, sketchy drawing, but it sort of looks like him.

When he sees it he laughs. 'Oh, Lil', you're actually not bad at drawing. Though I'm not sure Professor Robinson would be happy if you handed that in …'

I grin, and he leans down and kisses my forehead gently.

My stomach explodes with butterflies as it always does.

I don't know what I'll do when my parents find out. If my parents find out.

He sits beside me and throws his arm around me and then we work on my astronomy together and try to ignore the fact that we're far more interested in each other than the useless paper.

ϟ O-O¬

We avoid conversations about Rose, because it stresses us out, and we avoid Rose as much as possible without being mean, because she stresses us out.

I feel so sorry for Hugo. It's worse for him because she's his sister, and he's got his O.W.L.s to focus on too.

He's got Ellie as well though, because I swear they're more than friends even if they won't admit it.

I think Rose knows I don't like her being friends with Scorp.

I know I'm being a jealous bitch but she's had her fair share of bitchiness too so I try not to feel bad about it.

I see them in the library talking one day, and I know they are only talking about work or something but I can't help throwing them a nervous glance.

Unfortunately, Rose notices and storms over. 'Lily,' she says angrily, 'I know you think I hate Scorpius – and hell, I know you want me to hate him, but it's nice to have someone giving a damn about you who isn't in your family.

'He's been through shit with his family, and I'm feeling shit and we work through things together.

'Maybe he's your boyfriend or whatever, but he makes me feel better so for Merlin's sake, stop acting so fucking jealous. I don't fancy him.'

I stare at her. 'I'm not jealous.' I say, because well, I'm more annoyed than jealous but I won't tell her that. 'I'm just worried about you, that's why I keep trying to talk to you but you won't talk to anyone but him when you used to fucking despise him.'

'Well I don't anymore, okay? Seriously, nothing's going on, he's just being nice. And he's Al's friend so I feel I should be nice to him.'

'And yet,' I say, 'you're my cousin and you don't seem capable of being nice to me.' I get up and leave before she can say anything else.

I know I shouldn't have said it, Rose is delicate at the moment and the Potter-Weasley clan have agreed to tread carefully around her.

Upsetting her isn't going to help her self-esteem. But there's nothing I can do now. She's not a baby after all.

I start walking somewhere, but I am not paying attention to my surroundings and I have no particular destination in my mind. I try not to think about Rose because it angers me and I am trying to control my temper. Suddenly I walk straight into someone.

I pull out of my thoughts and look up embarrassed. Fortunately, it's Al.

'Hey, Lil',' he says, 'what's got you all upset?'

He reads me like a book. I'm surprised he didn't see me coming and move out of the way.

But then again he's not a seer.

Suddenly I cannot take it anymore because I have so many complicated and confusing emotions swirling around in my head and with the stress of O. and everything with Rose that I just don't know what to think anymore.

Before anyone can say anything I have burst into tears for the first time since I was about 5 and I have collapsed into Al's arms and I have no idea what's going on.

It's been way too long since I went flying.

ϟ O-O¬

Al holds me and takes me to the room of requirement by the shortest route possible to avoid too many people seeing me.

When we are in there me and Al sit against one of the walls and he doesn't force me to talk.

He gets that I am not entirely sure why I am so upset, and he's not going to intrude.

After a little while, when I have calmed down, he says, 'do you want me to get you anything?'

I shake my head.

'Anyone?' he asks with a slight raise of his eyebrows.

I consider this, but I can't think of anyone I want to see. Not really.

Not even Scorp, he's with Rose …

Nobody. Except maybe Hugo.

I look up at him and he squeezes my hand. 'I'll go get Hugo.' He says.

I don't understand how he knew what I meant just by that one look. This is why I love my brother.

A minute later he returns with Hugo.

'Hey, Lily pad.' Hugo smiles. 'What's up?'

Al gives me a little look over Hugo's shoulder that says Do-You-Want-Me-To-Leave-You-To-It?

I give him a Please-Stay look, and he sits back down beside me.

Hugo follows suit. 'You okay?' he asks me.

I shrug. 'I guess I was just suddenly overloaded. I had a bit of a fight with Rose and I'm just stressed with my O. and everything is piling up and I feel so pathetic and helpless. I'm sorry.'

'Don't apologise,' Hugo laughs, 'you haven't done anything wrong, we all have those days.'

This is why I love Hugo. He is always so optimistic and smiley about everything. He loves to cause trouble and mayhem, but in some ways he's a bit like me.

He doesn't care what the rest of the world thinks of him. Not that he needs to anyway because everyone loves him.

'Want to talk about it?' he asks.

I shake my head.

'I know what we do need to talk about,' he says to the both of us, 'it's Molly's birthday on the 13th and we ought to get her something.'

I groan. Hate is a strong word, but I really dislike Molly. She's organised some big 18th birthday party saying it should be just as important as her 17th because she's coming of age in the muggle sense now.

The thing is, she hasn't actually invited any of her family and we're still supposed to buy her presents.

'What will she want?' Al asks.

'Something crap.' I say.

They both laugh. 'Let's just order her some stuff from Uncle George?' Hugo suggests. 'If she doesn't like it, then it's her problem.'

Al agrees and I grin at him.

'So what happened with Rose?' Hugo asks, seeing I've recovered from my attack now.

'Oh, er, she thinks I'm jealous of her and Scorp being sort-of-friends.'

'And are you?'

I pause. 'No. Not really, I just ... I like him a lot,' I flush, 'more than I ever wanted to anyway, and I feel like he's taking Rose's side in things. It upsets me more than anything.'

I feel awkward talking about Rose to her brother and her best friend.

'Nothing's happening between them though, is it?' Hugo asks.

I shake my head.

'So why's she upset?'

'Well, I don't really know. She's always upset,' I say carefully, 'she's cross that I don't trust her, I think.'

'Well that's stupid. What happened to her hating him, anyway?'

I shrug. 'I really don't know.' I say.

'I think, Lil',' Al says, 'you need to talk to him.'

'Why do I always have to talk to people and sort things out?' I ask miserably. 'Why can't things just sort themselves out?'

Al smiles. 'Come on, Hugh, let's go find Scorpius.'

Hugo nods, but as they leave he turns back to me and says, 'I'll come find you later, Lily pad. Let me know what's happened.'

I nod. Hugo is brilliant.

I suddenly feel a huge rush of gratitude towards the people in my life. To be honest, pretty much all of them are my family, but they are all so amazing and brilliant and I know I could count on them for anything. I really ought to say thank you.

Scorpius comes in as I am thinking this, and he is not followed by Al or Hugo, who have obviously both decided to leave us to it.

'Hey, Lil'.' Scorpius says, smiling sadly. 'What's bitten you?'

'Rose.' I say, glaring at nothing particular, and then I look up at him worried that he'll be offended. 'No, just stress, everything. Argh this is so embarrassing, I never cry.'

He kneels down in front of me, holds my face in his hands and kisses my nose gently.

He then sits down opposite me and looks at me carefully. 'You don't always have to be strong, you know.'

I am surprised by this. I'm not strong. It's not like I'm holding in loads of secret emotions or anything. I'm just upset and stressed.

'What's Rose done?'

I feel my cheeks flushing slightly, but I decide I should tell him. He's being good to me anyhow, I owe him that much.

'She thinks I'm jealous.' I say.

'Of what?'

'You and her, being friends. Or whatever it is that you are.'

I don't want to hear his response so I continue quickly asking, 'what happened when you two came in here the other day?'

I feel my heart tighten a little bit. I'm still not sure I want to hear what he has to say.

He sighs. 'Well, I guess I was going to have to explain myself to you sometime.' He says.

'In here, the other day, I told her I wanted to just get over all these stupid prejudices and be friends. She told me she didn't care, didn't give a damn either way.

'I asked her why and she burst into tears on me. I spent about 10 minutes just trying to calm her down. Then she said that she had fucked everything up and her life was shit and whether or not she was friends with me didn't affect her life at all.

'I told her she was being stupid. I told her she was beautiful, popular, smart, and had a brilliant family that cared about her so much. I told her she had far more than I did. She doesn't have an ex-death-eater-bastard for a father. I told her she was being ungrateful, just as she had told you you were being.

'She just looked at me for a while and I couldn't work out what she was thinking. Then she said she wished there were people in her life who cared about her who weren't related to her. I told her about my problems, and it comforts her to know she's not the only one suffering.

'I know how to make her feel better. She has this need to feel loved and wanted. It doesn't work when her brother and her cousins show this, though, because she feels they – you – only love her because you have to.

'I don't love her, of course, not at all, but you're right; I have a saving people thing. I want to help her, and she needs me. She's annoying and bitchy and moody as hell, but I don't hate her for it, because I know I'm making her feel better.

'I know I'm making you feel better too, Lil'. And the difference there is that you're making me feel better too and I forget about my family shit when I'm with you. I don't want you to be jealous; I don't want you to feel that I'm siding with her or anything, because I'm not. I just don't want people to see me as a bastard anymore.'

I can feel my eyes welling up and I have no idea what to say.

'Forget Rose,' he says, 'I'm sorry. I really am. I know she's been a bitch lately and I don't want to upset you. Let's not talk about her, she doesn't have to be involved in everything. Let's just stick together, yeah?'

I smile, and he brushes my hair out of my face. 'Dammit, Lily, I never thought I'd be saying this but you make everything better.'

And then he leans forward and kisses me, pushing me gently against the wall.

I don't understand how I found someone so perfect … when I used to hate him so much.

'What do you mean?' I ask quietly, after a while, 'about your family. I don't want to pry …'

He cuts across me. 'You're not prying, Lil'. It's just my dad. He's always been a bastard. I guess my stupid, cocky, arrogant side you hate so much comes from him.

'He's really into all this stupid pureblood stuff and well, you know how he's refused to sign my Hogsmeade slip?'

I nod.

'That's because he knows I'm friends with Al, and Al's not my only non-pureblood, non-Slytherin friend either. In my dad's eyes, that's the worst crime I could possibly commit.

'If he knew I was with you, he'd probably disown me.'

I hate the stupid pleased feeling I get when he says this. He's under threat of being disowned and yet he still likes me? Aw shucks.

I frown. 'Well that's shit,' I say bluntly and he kisses me quickly and hardly.

I can't help grinning then.

'Like I said,' he smiles, 'you make everything better.'

A/N: So yeah, plenty more fluff I'M SORRY! I hope it's not too much I just needed some cute stuff before the shit happens; as the title suggests, THERE IS DRAMA TO COME! It's not all fluff forever:)

Hope you're not bored of it:)

I've gone for Scorp 'cause that's what most people like:) Also Rose is going to stop being so involved now, because she's annoying me:)

Thank you so much for all your lovely reviews! I wanna cry you guys are so awesome! Please keep going! :')

Love you all! {Big heart because I'm not allowed to use the more than sign:) hehe}

~Mango :)

[Anon: I know, I love him so much! God I'm so pathetic loving my own characters;) Yeah, I think he was always the only one to put up with her but now...
I'm glad you didn't think that was too fluffy but you probably will with this :/ But I promise it was just because I needed to include the stuff Scorp said here, and because of what's happening next! Sorry:)
Anyway, I'm glad you're enjoying it! Thank you so much for your lovely reviews!
~Mango :) X]

[Leels: Hehe well it won't be long 'till you find out ... I hope you're not going to be disappointed!;)
Hehe thank you, I think so too:) I hope you didn't think this chapter was too much though!
I'm so glad you like it, you're so sweet! Ah thank you thank you thank you! I feel so special!;) Hehe;)
I hope you liked this chapter!
Thanks for your lovely reviews:')
~Mango :) X]