A/N: Hello there...It has been a VERY VERY VERY long time. And I apologize greatly. I never meant to abandon this story. I was, and still am, actually very excited about it and have many many ideas for the future of Lily's timeline. I actually have 7 whole "books" mapped out that I'd very much like to finish eventually, but unfortunately life has thrown me some curves and I'm trying my best to adjust to them and still find time for this writing. Since my last update, I have moved, finished two degrees, gotten engaged, and had a very unexpected baby, who is now a nearly 1-year-old little energy ball. Needless to say, my time is limited. For now, I'm back though, I think...if I still have any readers! I will try and be more faithful with this story. Please don't abandon me! Thank you all for your amazing reviews and dedication. Hugs and Kisses.

Also, I must admit this is not the exciting chapter I would want to start up again with after all this time-it's mostly exposition, but I found it a necessary scene between Scorpius and Lily. Hopefully you will too.

Chapter 12: An Unwanted Haunting

"If this ghost doesn't leave us alone soon, I'm going to fail out of my first term here." Lily dropped her head down on her scroll. "I can't concentrate!"

"And I can't sleep." Julianne complained.

"Do you think any of the girls even notice it?"

"It doesn't seem to bother them if they do." Julianne covered her head with a pillow. "I am so tired."

"I'm going to the library," Lily decided. She gathered up the scroll and book she was using. "I can't study here."

"But it's almost curfew!"

"I can't be late on another assignment." Lily held her things tightly and left the bedroom, leaving Julianne hiding beneath her pillows. She had only barely made it across the common room and to the door when she was stopped.

"Where do you think you're off to?" Scorpius stepped in front of her path and leaned against the door casually.

"The library," she answered promptly.

"At this hour?"

"I can't study in my room."

"You can't go to the library now," he reminded her. "You'll break curfew. You'll lose our house points."

"I have to study!"

"Then study out here." He motioned to an empty chair tucked away into one of the corners of the room. "No one will bother you."

Lily gave in and retreated to the chair he had indicated, settling down and pulling out her book and scroll. She studied in peace for almost fifteen minutes before she noticed Scorpius staring at her from where he had perched on the couch by the fire. She tried to look away, but she couldn't. Scorpius smirked and headed over to her.

"So why can't you study in your room?"

"I thought you said no one would bother me here," she nearly growled.

"And no one has," he reminded her. "Right?"

"Until now." Lily attempted to stare only at her book.

"You looked bored," he told her.

"I was studying."

"Exactly."

"Look Scorpius, you know as well as I do that the professors don't have pity on first years that fall behind. I need to do this."

"All right, all right." He took a couple steps away from her and then paused. "Do you need help with anything?"

"Just silence." She snapped.

"Sorry. I was just trying to be helpful."

Lily clenched her teeth together, wishing instantly that she hadn't been so harsh to one of the only people who had made an effort to be kind to her, but her stubbornness prevented her from apologizing. So, Scorpius withdrew, leaving her to her demanded silence. She fought the urge to look over her shoulder and see where he ended up, but she knew he hadn't gone too far.

After only a paragraph into her scroll, she gave up the silent treatment and twisted around to find Scorpius. She spied him sprawled out across the sofa nearest the fireplace pretending to read a book, but she noticed him peek up over the pages towards her. When he caught eye contact with her, he quickly looked down again.

"Scorpius…"

He ignored her first attempt. And her next two.

Finally, she stood, putting her books and scrolls aside, and crossed the room until she was standing directly in front of him.

"Will you at least look at me?"

"I was trying to give you the silence you wanted, and now you're pestering me."

She frowned. "I was trying to apologize."

He looked up slowly, smiling a little. "Oh?"

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For being a brat."

He grinned. "You're not a brat."

"I can be."

"Maybe so, but I've got Cassie for a sister, remember?" He smirked a little and then sat up straighter, making room on the couch beside himself.

She sat down slowly.

"Look Potter…"

"It's Lily," she said.

"Right. Lily." He nodded. "So look Lily, you really need to loosen up a bit. Things are rough enough for you as it is without you making it harder on yourself."

"How so?"

"Relax. Give yourself a chance to actually enjoy school and you might even start liking our house."

Lily considered the way he called Slytherin "our" house, like he and she were a team, part of a family. Being part of Scorpius Malfoy's family was something she wouldn't have imagined possible in a million years. But when he said it like that, so matter-of-factly, so kindly…

"You're right," she said.

"I'm always right," he said.

"My brother says that," Lily said.

"Oy, I'm not sure I care to be compared to your brother." Scorpius grinned.

"Well you're both kind of gits so there's that."

"That's not nice."

"Yeah, but it's true."

"I offered you help with your homework," he said. "I'm trying to be nice."

"I know you are," she agreed. "You always are actually."

"Not always."

Lily shrugged. "I never did get to thank you for what you said to James the other night. You didn't have to stick up for me."

"He needs to lay off. He's your brother, he should only want you to be happy," Scorpius said. "My sister's a piece of work but she's still my sister. I've still got her back."

"Really?" She asked, but then she reconsidered. "Cassie doesn't really seem to need anyone to watch her back," she said, and then quickly added, "and neither do I."

"Of course you don't," he smirked again.

She frowned. She didn't like his smirk. It came too easily to him, too quickly, and she felt certain it was his way of making fun of her, just like her brother and cousins did.

"Why do you talk to me?" She asked suddenly.

He just frowned.

"I mean, you're a Slytherin…" she hesitated. "You're a Malfoy. We both know that our dads never exactly got on."

"You're a Slytherin too, you know?" He said.

"Scorpius, I'm serious. Most people in this house either attack me or pretend I don't exist. You actually talk to me. If I didn't know better I might actually say you're nice."

"Don't push it," he said, but he smiled too. After a moment of silence, he continued, and his tone was surprisingly serious. "You know how you say the Slytherin's look at you? How they don't trust you, make you feel unwelcome, unwanted, and everything?"

She nodded.

"That's how I feel the rest of the world has been looking at me and my family ever since the war."

Lily hesitated.

"It's not fair," he said. "It's not fair to be judged because of who we're related to, or something that happened before we were even born. I am not my family, and neither are you. I thought you might deserve a chance to be judged apart from your family, too."

"Really?" Lily smiled. "That's all I've been asking for from people. That's what I told the hat."

"The sorting hat?"

"Yeah, I told it that I was more than blood, more than my family."

"And that's why it put you in Slytherin," he said.

"I don't know, maybe. It almost put me in Gryffindor," she confessed.

"Do you wish it did?"

"I don't know yet," she said, feeling a strange desire and ability to be completely honest with him at that moment.

"Well when you make up your mind, maybe everyone else will too."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lily asked.

"I just mean that until you decide that you're really okay being a Slytherin, no one else will be able to be okay with it either. You're so angry about being in this house it makes it hard for anyone to think you belong," he said.

"But I'm not angry. I accepted it, I decided to stay," she argued.

"Yeah, but you're not really okay, are you? You're still fighting with your family, you're still fighting with yourself."

"I'm trying not to."

"Try harder." He stood, and gathered up the books he had been working from. "I'm going to bed. Good luck studying."

"Scorpius…" she didn't know what she wanted to say. She knew he was upset, somehow, though she didn't understand what she had done to upset him. She still didn't understand why he should care about anything she said or did. "I'm sorry," she said.

"For what?"

"For people treating you differently because of what happened in the past," she said. She knew somehow as she was saying it that it was important to say. "It isn't fair."

"Yeah."

"My parents don't talk much about that time, especially my mom, but from the few conversations my dad and I have had, I know he doesn't really think badly about your family. He told me they came around in the end…they did the right thing."

"It wasn't really enough though, was it? They were on the wrong side the whole time," he said.

"That doesn't have anything to do with you," she told him. "It doesn't have to anyway."

He just shrugged. "They're my family."

She was silent.

"Goodnight, Lily."

"Goodnight, Scorpius." Lily watched him walk off to the boys' corridor, leaving her all alone in the common room now.

It wasn't the first time she had been alone in the common room, and she was starting to wonder if it was unusual for a student to be up this late, alone, in the common room. She didn't need to give her housemates anything else to talk about behind her back. It was comfortable though, comforting almost. The fire still blazed strong in front of her, and the warmth felt good on her skin. She knew she should return to her studying, but the conversation she had just had with Scorpius wouldn't give her the silence she needed. She couldn't stop repeating the things he had said, about her being different from her family, about him wanting to be different from his family, about them being housemates now and that being like family…

James would have my head if he knew I was even giving Scorpius space in my thoughts at all, she thought. But James wasn't there, and James didn't have to know what went on in her private thoughts.

He's right, she thought now, about Scorpius, and not James. She considered what he had said about her accepting herself as a Slytherin before anyone else could and realize it made absolute sense. She may have told her family and her roommates she was staying at school, but she hadn't entirely accepted what it meant and what the consequences could be. She wasn't sure she was ready too either.

Lily shook her head abruptly, whipping the long strands of red around her neck. She squeezed her eyes shut and took three deep breaths, trying to clear her head like she used to do when she was little and had nightmares about the war her parents had survived. The conversation with Scorpius, her concerns for her family, and any preemptive consideration to the consequences of staying in Slytherin would have to wait until she finished her essay. She figured that if she didn't pass the class she wouldn't be staying in school anyway.

It had been a week of sleepless nights and homework sloppily finished in the library before classes, and the ghost still hadn't let up. Lily didn't know anyone who had lost their mind, but she figured she was getting pretty close by now. She needed sleep, and she needed better marks on her assignments.

"Do you think we should tell a professor? Or maybe the head of our house? Someone has to be able to do something," Julianne suggested one morning at breakfast after a particularly difficult night for Lily. It hadn't been a hard night for Julianne, since she could sleep through almost anything and didn't seem at all bothered by the ghost, but she cared for her friend's sake.

"I tried. I talked to Professor Willoughby about it. He said he would look into it, but that was two days ago!" Lily said. Her plate still sat empty in front of her and she had her head resting on the table, tempted to fall asleep right there.

"It can't keep it up forever," Julianne said. "Ghosts get bored staying in one place for too long, right?"

"Why don't we just go find it and tell it to get lost?" Kenny suggested from Lily's other side.

Julianne shook her head quickly. "I don't think that's a good idea."

Lily had lifted her head a little though. "Do you think we could find it? What if it's like in the wall or something?"

Kenny just shrugged.

"Lil, just give it another day or two. I'm sure it'll go away on it's own," Julianne said. "There's no reason we have to go and find it, and talk to it."

Lily frowned. "It's had eight days. It's not going anywhere."

"But, try talking to Professor Willoughby again and maybe he can go find it. There's not reason we have to," Julianne continued.

"What's the big?" Kenny asked. "It's just a ghost."

Julianne kept quiet. She pretended to be eating, but mainly just kept her eyes cast down.

"You all right, Jules?" Lily asked, turning her head to look at her.

She nodded quickly. "I just don't really like ghosts is all."

Kenny started laughing. "They can't hurt you," she said.

"I know that. But I just don't like them, okay? If you two want to go talk to it, then go ahead. I'll stay behind if it's all the same to you." She took a second ginger muffin from the plate in the middle of the table and began picking little bites from the top of it.

"What do you say then?" Kenny asked Lily. "Want to go find it?"

"Find what?"

The girls all glanced up as Scorpius took the empty seat across from them. He was alone this morning, for the time being at least. Lily had realized that he was never alone for long.

"A ghost," Kenny said.

"A ghost?" he repeated. "Any ghost?" He glanced around and pointed towards the entrance. "There's Nearly Headless Nick now."

"No, not just any ghost, you nitwit," Lily snapped. Exhaustion always made her snippier, or so her family had told her time and again through the years. "The ghost that's been haunting us for over a week now. It just bangs and bangs on the walls or the pipes or some such by our room. It's impossible to sleep or get anything done."

"So that's why you've been driven out to the common room almost every night this week," Scorpius said. "I thought it was just to see me." He gave her one of her smirks and she felt a desire to hit him, but was too tired to find the motivation.

"It won't go away," she said. "It's bloody awful."

"I told her we should go find it and make it go away," Kenny said.

"A ghost like that is probably hiding in the walls, and even if you did find it, he isn't likely to listen to the pair of you," Scorpius said.

"That's what I said!" Julianne finally spoke up. "They don't listen to me."

"You just don't want to try finding him 'cause you're scared," Kenny said.

Julianne fell quiet again.

Lily dropped her head down on the table once more, seriously considering a quick nap before first class.

"Well, if you want to find him, just let me know," Kenny said. "I'm off." She snatched up an orange from the table and two pieces of toast before darting away from the table.

Lily yawned.

"We've only got ten minutes before class," Julianne warned her.

"I'm too tired for class."

"Want me to save a seat?" Julianne offered.

Lily knew her friend didn't want to get stuck in the back row like they had the previous day when Lily wouldn't get out of bed on time, so she nodded, giving Julianne the permission she needed to abandon Lily at the table. She hurried off immediately.

"You look awful," Scorpius said when they were alone.

"Thanks." She growled, her head still half buried on her arms.

"You really should get some more sleep."

"I'd love to," she said.

He started to speak again but was interrupted.

"Scorpy!" Delia's voice rang out across the Great Hall as she skipped down the length of the long table to reach where he was sitting. "I've been looking for you!"

"You always are," Lily said, more in a mutter though so she assumed no one actually heard.

"Ready for class?" Delia asked Scorpius, completely ignoring Lily's presence.

"In a minute," he said. "You go on ahead."

"But, I thought we could walk together," she replied.

Lily knew she wouldn't leave without him.

"I'm in the middle of something."

Lily could feel Delia's eyes on her. "What?"

Scorpius sighed. "Fine, let's go." He stood, but paused before leaving. "It's probably Cassie," he said.

"What?" Lily glanced up at him. She noticed Delia tugging on his hand.

"The ghost. She's good with ghosts, good at talking to them, making them do things for her. She probably got the ghost to drive you crazy hoping it would make you leave or something," he said.

"Seriously?" She wanted to scream.

"Want me to talk to her?"

"No," she said, her instincts kicking in. Then she hesitated, considered how much Cassie hated her, and how desperately she needed sleep, and she finally nodded. "If you think she'd listen to you."

"I'll give it a go," he said.

"Thank you."

"Sure. Anything to get you out of my common room so I can have privacy again," he said, but he winked at her very briefly before leaving.