As the sixteen-year-old lifted her hand to knock on the door to her brother's office, there was a lingering fear. The fear of what was coming next for her, for him. There was no telling what was going to happen after she did it, after she took the step to actually knock on the door. After she took the step to tell him everything.
He stopped her right there, the boy beside her. He grabbed her wrist, at the ready to knock, and turned her around to face him. Just from looking into his eyes, she knew that he was just as scared as her, if not more.
"Can I just kiss you, in case it's the last time?"
He had never asked permission for anything before, and certainly not to kiss her. She had liked that about him, his confidence. But this time, it was given. After everything that had happened, after everything he had done, him asking that question was the most brilliant way it could go down.
"It's not going to be the last time, Scorpius," she said, smiling vaguely, for the first time since she had found out, and revealed that mark on his left arm. She lent in, and did what she hadn't been sure if she would ever be able to do again - she kissed him. The boy who she had been sure was the love of her life. The boy who had done such horrible things to protect her. But he was no monster, she knew that now.
It didn't last very long, the kiss, and Lily realized that she needed to stop postponing what needed to be done. So without any further anticipation, she turned back to face the door and steadily knocked it, twice, hoping that was enough to wake up her morphmagus/werewolf/professor brother.
As always, when Lily woke him up in the middle of the night, and trust me it was more often than you would think, Teddy Lupin came to the door looking a mess. He certainly wasn't a morning-kind of person, and he definitely did not enjoy being awoken from his oh so precious sleep. But for his little sister, Teddy would go through fire and ice, and yes, he would also get up in the middle of the night.
His bright turquoise hair was long gone and replaced by a dull dark brown shade, which Lily imagined might have suited him if he wasn't Teddy Lupin, the bright and colorful wizard. When the muggle kids had teased him for his blueish hair in his childhood, Harry had told him stories of his mother, a strong and opinionated young witch with bright pink hair. Lily imagined that he was a lot like her, although neither of them had really known her.
"What is going on?" the oldest of the three asked, as he wearily looked at the two students standing in his doorframe. He had expected Lily, but after what had happened earlier that week, he hadn't ever expected to see his distant cousin Scorpius Malfoy showing up at his office/dorm ever again, and he had not expected to see Lily with him again.
"Get in here before someone sees you," the professor continued, dragging the girl into the office, which was quite the mess. Of course Scorpius followed.
"I will tell you everything, if you promise not to tell anyone," Lily stated, she was ever so determined, but Teddy's mind had been haunting him, and no matter how badly he wanted to still be her best friend, he was realizing that doing what she wanted wasn't always what was best for her.
"You know I can't promise that, Lilyflower, but I can promise to do what's best for you," the man said, his hair changing back to that trademark turquoise.
"And Scorpius," she finished his sentence. "What's best for me and Scorpius," she said, taking the tall blonde's hand, where he stood, quite speechless.
"Alright. That's a deal. Sit down," Teddy said, pulling out a pair of chairs for the young couple, fearing what he was about to find out.
"I'll tell you, since.. Lily doesn't even know the whole story," Scorpius mumbled, still afraid of what would happen once he let the professor in Defence against the dark arts, in on this. It was absolutely terrifying. But Lily trusted him, he had saved her life once, and as far as Scorpius knew, he was like a brother to her. At least she had said so many times. Not that it was very comforting, neither of her brothers had been very fond of him, and the feeling was mutual. It was given, that Malfoy/Potter rivalry, it wasn't new, and he was sure it wasn't going away.
"You know about my friends. The Zabinis, Avery and Prince. We were always slytherins, you know. 'The pureblood mafia'." It was different now, Lily could tell. There was a sort of disgust in his voice as he spoke those words now, the words he had been so proud of months ago.
"We were never .. I don't know how to put it. We were stupid, pulling pranks and saying dangerous things we would never dare to do. All of us have people in Azkaban. Thom's dad had the dementor's kiss, it's just complicated. We were all angry, you know."
He was quiet for a while. Lily had never heard this side of the story before, he had never told her about his friends, other than that they were conspiring against her. Once again, the sad fact that nobody's life was easy, struck her. She had been through hell, but maybe they had too?
"In February, when I got to know Lily, I changed, I guess. I didn't want to be in on their pranks and pureblood mafia anymore, but they were my friends. Anyways, nobody knows about me and Lily, besides from you and Albus." Lily cut him off quite unnecessarily.
"And Dominique, Dom knows," she said, not knowing why she would interrupt him in that serious explanation. Probably because she knew what was coming, and she wasn't sure she wanted to hear it.
"Last week," the blonde continued.
"Things changed. I guess they just snapped. They decided that they wanted revenge. I don't think they would ever be capable to really hurt someone, but they decided to turn their words into actions. It would be suspicious if I wasn't in on it, and they had always been on about Lily and her family, your family," She interrupted him again, she was afraid he would say the wrong words, afraid he would turn Teddy against him.
"He was protecting me, Teddy. He even tried to break up with me and I .. That's when I found out, that night when I came to your office and you know, lost it."
"Hold on a minute," the professor said, clearly trying to follow in the story. There were missing pieces everywhere and he simply couldn't put it together.
"Found out what?" Teddy asked, looking right into the eyes of the girl who had always been the picture of brave, the gryffindor-heart who didn't even look remotely scared, as oppose to her boyfriend. However, it did take some nerve defying his friends and going to the professor, who also happened to be his girlfriend's older brother, about this, what ever it was.
"Show him," Lily said, taking a deep breath, and holding it as if it were her last one. With those words, she looked scared. And quite frankly, so was Teddy. It was as if with those two words, he had it all figured out, and it was messier than he could have ever imagined.
As the tall blonde, merely seventeens year old, pulled up his left sleeve to once again reveal the permanent mark of everything bad in their world, the 26 year old pushed his office chair further away from the two. He was simply staring at the boy who was supposed to be his second cousin, who was supposed to be Lily's boyfriend, but who looked like nothing more than the people who had killed both his parents. Who looked nothing more than the people who had tried to kill Lily. Who looked nothing more to Teddy, than the monster of a man who had killed Lily's grandparents all those years ago.