By Sunday morning Lily had had a full restless night's worth of time to think about her situation with Scorpius. Down in the dungeons, every echo of noise from the Slytherin common room had seemed magnified tenfold. There was also the fact that she had been sleep deprived for the past few days, which perhaps was the reason for the odd conclusion she'd come to about things.
If Teddy had been the one to offer Scorpius the job, Lily reasoned, she could just go talk to him about it, change his mind, make Teddy tell Scorpius that he was wrong about the need for another employee in that department. She knew it was a horrible thing to do, but working at Hogwarts wouldn't be torture for Scorpius as long as they worked things out. And she knew that if he returned he'd be somewhat forced to, for the sake of both their jobs. Then, she thought, everything could go back to normal.
She knew Teddy slept in late on weekends, so she decided to give him the courtesy of not showing up until later than she desperately wanted to, because if he lacked sleep he would be predisposed to refusing. She had also realised that Victoire would have been useful in helping her convince him, but unfortunately she and her mother were in France visiting her aging grandmother to tell her the big news.
At around ten o' clock she walked to Hogsmeade, then apparated to the sleepy wizarding village where Teddy and Victoire lived. She opened the gate of the white picket fence and strolled down the path, past the neatly-manicured lawn and garden, to the steps of their comfy little house. Knocking loudly on the door, she hoped that Teddy wasn't still asleep, or that he hadn't gone out with friends. Moments later there was movement inside, and the young wizard appeared at the door in his everyday robes, his hair a gaudy shade of turquoise with magenta tips. "Oh, hello Lily, what brings you here? Come in, it's freezing out there."
"Hey Teddy," she said as she stepped over the threshold. "How's Victoire?"
"Vic's good, still not showing yet but I expect it won't be too long. She's not here at the moment, though, you do know that?"
Lily nodded. "Uh-huh, I actually came to talk to you."
"I'll put the kettle on, in that case," he replied. Lily had to suppress a laugh as he walked to the kitchen; he was wearing a pair of what she was sure were Victoire's slippers. It just showed that he couldn't go for even a couple of days without being close to her in some way or another. Soon, Teddy was bustling about the room in search of tea bags, muttering under his breath as he did so. "So, I hear your boyfriend will soon be coming to work in the Ministry. You must be happy for him."
Lily bit her lip. "Actually, that's sort of what I wanted to talk to you about."
"Oh?" he said absentmindedly, turning on the kettle as his search for tea bags was finally justified.
"Yes. Well, I don't know if you've heard, but we sort of had a complication and… Ineedyoutotakebacktheposition."
"Slow down a bit Lily, I didn't catch one word of that. What happened?"
Lily sighed. "Well, something sort of happened between us and that's why he decided to take the position. I tried to talk to him but he wouldn't listen, and if he's not working at Hogwarts then I'll never see him and I'll never have the chance to apologize, so I thought maybe you could take back the position so he could come back."
Teddy looked up at her sympathetically from his cup of tea. "It's not that simp-"
"But why? Why can't you just take it back? You don't understand how important this is, Teddy. I know I'm being selfish, but what if Victoire wasn't talking to you and there was a chance you'd never be able to see her again, what would you do? You'd do everything in your power to try and get her back, so can't you please help me?" she pleaded with him earnestly.
Everyone knew that there was nothing more important to Teddy than Victoire; if she was comparing her feelings for Scorpius to his for Victoire, Lily clearly wasn't joking around. "That much, Lily?" he questioned, to which Lily nodded slowly. Teddy sighed, seizing her arms in case she tried to interrupt him again. "Lily, I would if I could, but the fact is that I'm not in charge of the department, I didn't give him the jo-"
"But Vector said that-"
"I told him about the job, yes, and I'm truly sorry about that. If there was anything in the world I could do to help you, I would, Lily. You're like a little sister to me. I hate to see you upset, but there's nothing that I can possibly do." He explained to her softly, now feeling extremely guilty for mentioning the job to Scorpius. Sensing by the sniffles that the tears were about to fall, Teddy cringed; he hated it when girls cried, he had no idea what to say to them. "Look, why don't you sit down and tell me what happened? I might be able to help you think of what to tell him, at the very least. Come on, tell me what happened. From the top."
Teddy was a good listener, but refused to believe that her brother had any part in this. Upon finishing her story, it was clear that he realised just how difficult the situation was. It was also apparent that he had no idea how to help her, having never been in the situation himself. Lily didn't want inconvenience him for much longer, but there was just one thing she had to ask.
"Teddy, can you answer this question for me, honestly? If you were in his situation, would you forgive me? If this was you and Victoire, would there be any way to make things between you right?"
Teddy sighed. "That's a very difficult question, Lily. I don't know. With the information he knows so far, I don't blame him for his reaction, I'm sure you agree. He just trusted what he saw. Find a way to explain it to him – I know you've tried already and it didn't work, so think of other avenues. Write to him or something… spoken words can be harsh, but things can be easier to believe if they're down on paper. As for if it were me and Victoire… I dunno. I truly don't know. I'm sorry, I haven't been much help to you Lily, have I?"
"I shouldn't have asked you to take back his position, anyway. It was wrong… I suppose I'm just sleep deprived," Lily said with a shrug, sighing. "I don't know what's wrong with me."
"You care about him a lot, that's why you're like this. Just make him realise that. Don't worry, it'll turn out right in the end."
Lily nodded, hoping that he was correct. "Thanks Teddy, you really were helpful. I better be going… make sure you and Vic owl me regularly with all the news, okay?"
Teddy snorted. "You Weasley women and your gossip… don't worry, if I forget I'm sure Vic will. See you soon, Lily."
Apparating into Hogsmeade rather than taking the Floo network proved to be a good idea, because it gave Lily plenty of time to clear her head on the way back to the castle. She sighed as the castle loomed in sight. It was so much more uninviting, colder without him; she desperately wished she could escape for a while, forget it all.
No, she thought. She didn't want to forget. She didn't want to forget about Scorpius. Lily hadn't quite let go of that hope yet.
Her feet carried her quickly to the dungeons, though she slowed down considerably when she spied the figure waiting outside her door. Her eyes glanced over a garish bouquet of flowers and she groaned inwardly; standing there was Tristan Saunders, whom she was definitely not in the mood to deal with right now.
"Lily, there you are! I'd hoped you'd be back soon. I just wanted to talk to you… about what happened on Friday."
"Look, no offence but I'm really not in the mood to talk right now." Lily replied coldly, trying to handle this as civilly as possible, but the mere sight of him had her temper escalating. She clenched her fists tightly, her right hand around her wand. "I'd appreciate it if you'd just leave."
Saunders opened his mouth to speak, but Lily interrupted him. "Saunders, I'm about three seconds away from hexing your bloody nose off, so unless you fancy the idea of Poppy refashioning the remains of your face I suggest you back off."
"Please let me explain, James said-"
Lily had heard enough. Instead of listening to whatever he had to say, she drew her wand and shouted the spell for the Bat Bogey Hex, watching as it spiralled toward him. She felt a mixture of vindictive pleasure and guilt as it hit him and he yelled in pain. Well, I warned him. And he deser-
"MISS POTTER!" Lily whirled around to see Professor Vector standing a short way down the corridor, looking as though she was so stunned she had forgotten how to be angry.
Uh oh, Lily thought to herself. This really isn't good.
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"Where is it tonight, Jamie?" he said casually, leaning against the door frame; he knew very well that James was going out with friends. "Or should I say who."
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"Come off it, Albus, do you really think things would have gone that far? They went out for what, a couple of months? I'm surprised his family didn't end it earlier. Plus, she's only twenty-three, she doesn't even know what love is-"
Author's Note: So you know how I said things couldn't really get worse… I lied :p
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or settings, unfortunately. That honour belongs to JKR. I just like placing them in horrible, evil situations.
