That Summer Chapter XI
Ginny Weasley was a happy woman all things considered.
She had three wonderful children that, all right, were kind of a handful at times but still all she could have asked for. She had a beautiful house, a loving husband and a fulfilling job. She had the life she had always wanted as a child, the life she had fought for with everything she had during the war.
Her work schedule was a bit hectic so she particularly liked moments like this when she could put her feet up and just enjoy some quietness next to the love of her life. Today, however, was different.
She had been reading the same paragraph of some trashy romance novel for the past five minutes because said man kept interrupting her with annoyed sighs and angrily turned pages of the Night Prophet.
"Harry," she started in the most patient voice she could muster, which wasn't saying much at all, "I swear to Merlin, you're this close to getting kicked out of your own living room."
Ginny looked at him over her book and snorted when she saw him roll his eyes in a gesture that was so Lily that she couldn't keep the amusement out of her face. Harry looked at her and opened his mouth to say something but no words came out, just an irritated humph after he floundered for a while.
"I'm just so angry," he said at last.
She marked her book and slowly put it down to look at him better.
"Harry, she lied to go to a party, it's not the end of the world," Ginny said carefully. She expected a reaction from him and wasn't disappointed.
"Not the end of the world?" He exclaimed and threw his arms in the air. "Ginny, she lied to my face! We're losing her to that damned house and you're just sitting there like nothing's wrong."
Ginny furrowed her eyebrows at that.
"You think I don't care?" She narrowed her eyes at him and watched as he ran a hand through his hair and pushed his glasses up to squeeze the bridge of his nose.
"That's not what I said, Gin," Harry said more calmly but it was no use. She was already on a roll.
"I care that she felt she had to lie to us. I care that she clearly doesn't feel comfortable in this house and doesn't feel welcomed in her own family, Harry!" Ginny felt her eyes burn as her voice cracked.
"Gin..." Harry raised from his position on the settee and went to sit next to her on the sofa. She accepted his arms around her and brought her own hand to play with the buttons of his shirt for a moment before she exhaled slowly through her nose and pushed him slightly away so she could look at him.
"We're losing her, Harry." Her face was so close to his that she could see his eyes darken immediately. "We're losing her and not because of the house she was sorted into but because of how we're making her feel."
"I don't know what to do," Harry confessed in a low voice, his face scrunched up in an expression that was just so lost, Ginny felt affection tugging at her chest.
"We have to make more of an effort. I don't want to be the type of mother my mum was. I want her to be able to confide in me and I want to know about her life." Ginny sighed. "I don't want to lose my baby girl."
Harry's hold tightened around her before he rested against the sofa more comfortably and forced his muscles to relax. He buried his nose on her hair and Ginny felt him inhale deeply.
"I don't want to lose her either," he sighed, "but she's still grounded."
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Lily went straight to her room after breakfast that morning. She spent the past week and a half reading all of Albus' sixth year books. It was hard work—harder than expected, that's for sure— but she suffered through it, practicing a charm or a transfiguration spell when her eyes started to cross from so much reading. Yesterday she finally managed to master the Crinus Muto spell, her first attempt at Human Transfiguration. Today, she wanted to try it wordlessly one more time before moving on to the Avis charm.
She had barely time to breathe, rushing through all the text work to master the spells she needed to wordlessly. The only thing that kept her from going headfirst into a breakdown was that she was into the schedule she had set up for herself. Loath as she was to admit it, she couldn't have done it without Scorpius. Be it with a helpful tip about some subject, answers when she didn't understand something or even a crude joke that made her laugh, he was always there for her for whatever she needed.
Lily smiled to herself, thinking about how he offered to quiz her about Defence Against the Dark Arts and managed to turn it around as an excuse to get her naked. She didn't, of course, because she ended up getting all of the answers correct but he ended up in only his boxers and one sock. She moved to the floor length mirror in front of her bed and pointed her wand at her hair.
She had just transfigured her usual long dark red waves into a pastel pink bob when Albus burst into her room.
"Never heard of knocking?" She narrowed her eyes at him.
He didn't show any indications of being sorry or surprised at her new look, only shot her a hurried, "Get ready, we're going to Diagon Alley," and left, leaving her door open.
"Idiot," Lily mumbled before reversing the spell. She closed her door and locked it this time before moving to her closet to choose her attire.
They were supposed to go to Diagon Alley tomorrow like they always did—the last Sunday before leaving to Hogwarts—but she figured if Albus, who was never hurried in his life, even when he was late, burst into her room like that, something had changed.
Lily quickly changed into a dark grey slip dress and some ballerina flats. She remembered seeing in the back of her dad's Prophet that morning that the forecast for the day was of rain so she quickly grabbed a dark green bomber jacket and her black umbrella. She brushed her teeth in lightning speed before moving her hair on top of her head in a messy bun while grabbing her sunglasses and purse and left.
Her parents and Albus were waiting for her by the fireplace. Her brother had an annoyed look on his face.
"C'mon, lazy ass, Rose is already there," he moved his hands in a hurry up motion before turning around and grabbing a pinch of floo powder. "Leaky Cauldron." And then he was gone.
"I thought we were going tomorrow," Lily said to her mum as her dad followed through the fireplace.
Ginny rushed her forward. "Some important meeting at the Auror Department, it seems. Your father and Ron have to go in tomorrow instead of today." She held the little container out for Lily to take some of the powder, "Quick now, dear, everybody is already there."
Lily didn't waste any time and before she knew it she was inside the almost empty Leaky Cauldron. She spotted Old Tom quickly and sent him an honest smile and a wave which he responded to with a wink. Her mum came through the floo connection behind her and hooked her arm with hers to guide her to where her dad and Albus were already tapping the correct brick with their wand.
On the other side, aunt Hermione quickly accosted them and said in a rush, "Good, everyone's here. Looks like we managed to get here early enough to escape the rush hour. Let's divide and conquer, shall we?"
And then everyone was moving. The girls went with aunt Hermione, aunt Fleur and her mum to buy their robes and new scrolls and quills while the boys went to get their books and potion supplies. The day was getting progressively hotter and the streets getting fuller by the point that they could barely walk without bumping shoulders with someone.
Lily shed her coat and asked her mum to shrink it so she could put it in her purse just like her umbrella was. Rose had been babbling nonstop about how great professor Wickham was and it was only contributing to her increasing bad mood. Professor Doris Wickham taught Arithmancy and while Lily liked the class well enough, she thought that the middle aged woman complicated things that were usually not difficult at all just to make the class seem harder. She usually studied only by the book and almost never needed to pay attention to class.
Lily exchanged a long-suffering look with Dominique as they entered the restaurant they usually had lunch in after shopping for their supplies. It seemed the platinum blonde was as done with their bushy haired cousin as she was.
"Wow, Rosie, that's really interesting," she said with exaggerated cheeriness, "how about we see now how long you can keep your mouth shut now?" Dominique raised her eyebrows at Rose as Lily watched it all with an amused look on her face.
"You don't always have to be so rude, Dominique," Rose crossed her arms and raised her nose in the air.
Lily saw that aunt Hermione was about to interrupt their altercation and decided to intervene. She knew by experience that her aunt would defend her daughter but Dominique wouldn't just let it go so aunt Fleur would butt in and it would all turn into an unnecessarily big thing.
"Dom, could you order me a salad, please?" She shot her cousin her most charming smile. "I'm going to check the autumn collection at Royston."
"I'm not your servant, cousin," Dominique replied, thoroughly distracted and argument with Rose forgotten.
"Unfortunately, no, you're not. But still. Be a doll, would you?" She winked at her cousin and didn't give her time to reply before turning around and leaving.
She mentally catalogued where they chose to seat—the largest table by the window—said her excuses to her mum and left hurriedly. Royston was an upmarket shop across the street from the restaurant that sold only what was newest in fashion. Lily loved to go there from time to time to get something for herself or even just to window shop.
It was a relatively new shop and all the salespersons knew Lily by name. Some of them waved at her through the window and she waved back, debating wether she should go inside or not. The cooling charms would surely be a nice reprieve from all the heat and she figured she had enough money to buy something from the new collection. Just as her consumeristic side won out, a flash blond to her left caught her attention.
Scorpius Malfoy was just walking out of Gringott's when he noticed her. His usual smirk immediately appeared as he made his way towards her, dodging passersby fluidly as if he hardly put any effort into the action. All his attention was focused on her. Lily grinned at him before casually looking at her family. She caught her mum's eye and saw the gesture she made to hurry up and quickly held up a hand to tell her to wait.
Just as Scorpius got close enough and opened his mouth to greet her, Lily spoke, "Behave, my whole family is watching."
"Nice to see you too, Potter," his smirk widened as he took a step forward, his eyes roving over her hungrily, "Nice to see you, indeed."
"I mean it, Malfoy," she narrowed her eyes at him and took a tiny step backwards.
Scorpius raised his hands, "Chill out, I'm keeping my hands to myself," he put them into the pockets of his dark washed jeans as if to prove his point, "for now."
Lily raised her eyebrow at him and scoffed, "For now?"
"Yes, you see I do need to give you a congratulatory… hug," his voice took that rough undertone that sent shivers down her spine even in the stifling heat.
"A hug, sure," she shook her head at him, her grin growing bigger by the second.
"I can't wait for Septem—" Scorpius was saying but was interrupted when a drop from the sky hit him right on the tip of his nose. What was once bright blue skies now took a turn for the grey and drizzle was quickly turning into heavy rain.
"Shit," Lily cursed. "Enlarge this for me, please?" She handed him her umbrella. He complied while she took her jacket out and offered it to him as well. Scorpius stepped closer to her and held the umbrella above them as Lily put on her coat. "Thanks."
She took the stick from him, casually brushing their fingers in the process. If their hands stayed longer than necessary in contact, no one would be able to tell.
"You're welcome," he mumbled, dark grey-blue eyes fixed on hers.
"I have to go…" she said to him, her voice matching his even as she took a step towards the restaurant.
"Yeah, me too," he cleared his throat, "Lunch with the parents."
"Me too," Lily said and felt her cheeks burn at how stupid she sounded. She shook her head slightly, "I guess I'll see you at school?"
"Yeah," he smirked at her again, "See you at school." And then he held his wand up, the point towards the sky and left the shelter of her umbrella. It looked like he created a barrier of some kind because the rain fell around him without a single drop ever touching him.
Lily forced her blush down and made herself turn immediately towards the restaurant without looking back at him. She walked to their table with her shoulders back and chin high and placed her wet umbrella besides the chair reserved for her between aunt Fleur and Dom on the round table by the window.
"Find anything interesting?" aunt Fleur asked in her barely there accent with an excited smile. She loved fashion just as much as Lily did and always had something new for her favourite niece. Louis left to open his boutique in France the year he graduated Hogwarts so Lily was now the only person in the family that shared her passion.
"The collection is amazing, I was pretty tempted to go inside," Lily answered. Their food arrived just then and any conversation was cut off in favour of their empty stomachs.
But it wasn't long before her mum turned her attention to her.
"Was that boy with you Malfoy's kid?" It was as if the whole table suddenly focused on them. In her paranoia is seemed like even the rest of the customers turned quiet.
"Yep," Lily forced herself to continue eating calmly even as her heart raced. She exchanged a casual look with Dominique before quickly smiling to her mum and focusing her attention on her salad.
It looked like her mum wasn't done yet, but Rose and her loud mouth was the one who saved her this time. The bushy haired redhead stuck her nose in the air and huffed.
"Scorpius Malfoy is absolutely foul," her nose scrunched up as if she had smelled something rotten, "He's a womaniser and a player, has no respect for rules whatsoever and is all in all an arrogant arse."
Lily raised an eyebrow at her but it was Dominique who replied, "You're only saying that because you're outraged that he still beats you in almost every class," she scoffed.
Lily watched in gleeful amusement as Rose's face turned red.
"Shut your mouth, Dominique," she said through gritted teeth but it was no use. Lily knew that Dom had been itching for an argument with their cousin since they left Madam Malkin's with their new robes. And when Dominique Weasley decided a fight was long due, she didn't pull any punches.
"See, and now you're getting angry because I'm telling the truth," she smiled sardonically, "You're jealous because he has an active sex life and a lot of friends and still manages to beat you when you are ridiculously obsessed with your studies."
"That's not true!" Lily watched in fascination as Rose's face turned progressively darker, getting closer and closer to uncle Ron's trademark purplish outraged look.
"You should really try and let lose sometimes, cousin, it'll be good for you." Dominique pretended to examine her nails. "You should find yourself a new beau."
"She absolutely should not!" Uncle Ron exclaimed at the same time as uncle Bill said a warning but still amused, "Dominique." But it was Albus who made himself heard throughout the exchange.
"And you should stop attacking your family and defending the enemy," Lily scoffed at that and received an annoyed look from him in response before he focused on Dominique again. "Maybe the reason you're saying this stuff is because you're just like him. Tell me Dominique, just how many guys have you been with? I wouldn't be surprised at all if Malfoy was one of the many."
Oh, Albus, she thought, you really shouldn't have said that.
"Tell me, Albus," she copied him in a drawl, "are you completely sure you want to go down that road?" Lily let just enough danger enter her tone to let him know she wasn't kidding. His green eyes met hers and widened at what he saw. Lily knew very well that Albus wasn't exactly a saint and most of his irritation towards Scorpius came from the fact that the two usually competed for female attention and Malfoy, most of the times, won. Still, there were plenty of cringe-worthy stories she could bring up and he knew that very well.
"Albus Severus Potter!" Her mum thundered in an anger filled whisper, "You should never, ever say something to a girl like that! As if how many boyfriends she's had is any of your business! Apologise right now."
Albus just continued glaring at Dominique and Lily with an annoyed look on his face. After a few tense seconds he murmured a completely unapologetic, "Sorry," and went back to his food. Ginny seemed satisfied for the moment but her eyebrows were still furrowed.
"You should apologise to Rose as well, Dominique," Hermione said with both her eyebrows raised at her niece.
Lily almost cringed at the look that crossed her cousin's face at that moment. Dominique practically sneered at her pumpkin juice before turning to Rose with a false smile on her face and saying, "Sorry for speaking the truth, Rosie." Lily would have laughed if the vibe around the table wasn't so heavy.
"Dominique—" Hermione began but aunt Fleur quickly interrupted her.
"Thank you, Hermione, I will take care of my daughter's behaviour now," Her voice left no room for argument. The french woman just turned a look that clearly said, "Just shut up now," to her daughter and nothing else was said.
All throughout the altercation, Lily just kept her face carefully schooled into a bored and mildly amused look. Her heart was still racing a bit because anytime the conversation could turn towards her and that was something she really didn't need happening. After a few beats where everyone just went on eating their foods quietly, Lily felt it was in her best interest to lift the mood and direct their attention elsewhere.
"So," she said casually, "uncle Bill, how has things been going at work? Any exciting stories to share?" Lily raised her eyebrows expectantly at him. Only when he promptly began an elaborate tale of a faux break in at Gringott's did she let herself relax. The meaningful look Dominique shot her was impossible to ignore.
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Lily spent the rest of the day practicing her wand work. It was gruelling but she enjoyed it so she didn't mind much. It was exhilarating to be excelling at something that many others found difficult. The pride she felt when professor McGonagall said she was one of the best witches she had ever seen was almost too much.
So she suffered through and even got herself ahead of schedule.
She was almost done practicing all the potions that were required of her, her desk now a working table complete with a cauldron that was always filled with some concoction or another. Now, her main concern was Herbology. She didn't have access to either the Venomous Tentacula nor to any Snargaluff pods so she could only study the theory.
Professor McGonagall had sent her a letter explaining that she would have to take a quick practical test on the subject when she got back but not to worry that professor Longbottom would be reasonable when evaluating her. She still worried.
So when Scorpius called that night she didn't waste any time in asking him to help quiz her on the subject.
"You know everything you need to know, Potter, chill out," he said after she'd been stressing out for a while. "Now let's move on to more important things, shall we?"
"More important?" Lily's eyes widened as her mind came up with different scenarios of how much saying yes to skipping a year was coming back to bite her in the ass.
"Hmm, yes," Scorpius said with a serious face before his eyes darkened and his voice lowered, "Like what colour is the knicker you're wearing right now."
Lily blanked out for a second before giving a very unladylike snort. The contrast from all the worrying she'd been doing was so big that she couldn't help but laugh.
"Be serious."
"I'm dead serious, love." Scorpius grinned at her. "But perhaps that's the wrong question and a more suitable one would be if you're wearing knickers at all."
His voice was still low and the look in his eyes intense and Lily was suddenly reminded of how stressed and wound up all the studying was making her. She felt her cheeks flush as heat settled in her belly. She missed sex.
"Wouldn't you like to know," she smirked at him, deciding to play along for now.
"Don't start something that you won't finish, Potter," he warned her, using the same words she'd used on him before.
She paused for a second and seriously considered this. She really wasn't a fan of phone sex. Not that she'd done it before but the whole concept just wasn't something that appealed to her, even if they were FaceTimeing. But still, he'd stoked a fire inside her that she hadn't been aware was there until he plucked the right cords with his voice and words and she needed release. A wicked smile formed on her face as she thought that yes, she would come tonight, but it didn't have to be with him on the other end of the line.
"Oh, I will finish, Malfoy," she said in her most sultry tone of voice. She waited for his reaction to it before adding a quick, "Talk to you later," and hanging up on him.
Who cared if she had said that the next time she came would be with him inside her. She needed to let go of all this pent up tension inside of her and she needed it now.
So she wasted no time in kicking her shorts off and sliding her hand inside her knickers. She reclined on the bed and took only a second to be amused by the buzzing of her phone before getting right down to business.
It was ridiculous how quickly she got worked up. Her fingers glided effortlessly between her slit before coming up to rub tiny circles against her clit. An image of Scorpius doing exactly that to her that first time in his place suddenly came to her and she couldn't help but moan as more of her desire seeped out of her.
Her fingers weren't thick enough to satisfy her now that she had him to compare it to so she focused on circling the small bundle of nerves almost feverishly. Hot pleasure bloomed from her core and she knew she was close. Her toes curled, her back curved and she was almost there. The image of him earlier that day on Diagon Alley was what tipped her over the edge.
She felt her walls contracting on nothing as she gasped for breath, sweat beading on her skin. It hadn't been as mind-blowing as it usually was with him but it was still amazing and she took a moment to bask in the afterglow before getting up and heading to the shower.
Lily was still worried about her academics but she knew one thing. She just couldn't wait for September 1st.
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Hey, guys! I feel like I should be grovelling at your feet, begging for forgiveness. I should have reasonable explanation as to why this took so long, but I have none other than RL is hard. I have some good news, I'll be moving to Melbourne in August and am really, really excited for it but for a while depression and arranging everything for the move took up most of my writing time.
Now I'm back! I made myself a nice cup of tea, sat my ass down and wrote. Expect at least 4k words on Saturday because *drumrolls* WE HAVE REACHED 100 REVIEWS! I had no idea this fic would get this much love and all I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you guys and promise to give you the reunion you guys want this weekend. Oops, spoilers.
Thank you all for reviewing, favouriting and following this fic, you guys are my muse and always manage to get me back from whatever writer's block with your kind words. I want to thank the anons especially because I can't reply to your comments: you guys rock! Please create an account so I can reply!
All right, ridiculously long A/N is over, see you Saturday,
~JulietteDeschemps