Molly and Hugo were sitting by the fire in their common room, gazing lovingly into each others' eyes whilst drinking Butterbeer.
"I think you're amazing," said Molly, smiling shyly as Hugo tucked a piece of her chocolate-brown hair behind her ear.
"I think –"
But what exactly Hugo thought was never revealed, for at that moment the portrait door swung open and James raced in, his face white but his eyes conveying many shades of conflicting emotion.
"It's Rose –" he gasped, pausing for a moment to catch his breath. Hugo and Molly waited for him to continue, but, when he didn't, they took matters into their own hands.
"What about my sister?" said Hugo, half standing up from his chair.
"We were playing Quidditch …" James started, and his cousin groaned. It was common knowledge that Quidditch games with James was a recipe for disaster. "We were playing Quidditch – me, Rose and the twins – and the game was quite violent, to say the least –" (Molly raised her eyebrows, exchanging a heated look with Hugo) "– and Fred accidentally hit a Bludger at Rosie's head … She fell off her broom, and it wasn't a pretty sight when we all got down to ground level.
"She's in the Hospital Wing," he continued, throwing a furtive glance to Hugo. "McGonagall, once hearing about the incident, stormed down to us and demanded an explanation. Lily –"
"Lily was there?" Hugo interrupted, a curious smile spreading over his freckled face. "What about Lysander?"
"– Er, yeah, he was there too." Hugo gave a satisfied smirk. "Anyway, McGonagall said that we're in massive trouble and she's confiscating our brooms. She says it's 'irresponsible' that seventh-years like ourselves would display such an act of violence in the presence of our guests. But I don't know what she's harping on about," James frowned thoughtfully, "Rosie's only fifteen, and the only people watching were Lily, Lysander, Scorpius and some other boy called Jack. It wasn't like the whole of Durmstrang was watching, now is it?"
Hugo blinked, unsure if James was actually posing a question to them or just musing to himself. He took it as the latter and stayed silent.
"So I'm just getting our brooms ... the twins are busy arguing with McGonagall over the unfairness of the whole situation," smirked James, as a plausible explanation for why he was getting their broomsticks as well as his own.
"What about Rose's broomstick?" said Molly, at the exact same time as Hugo said,
"What about the Gryffindor Quidditch team?"
James looked at them both, fidgeting uncomfortably.
"Lily and Lysander rescued Rose's broom after she fell, so they've handed hers in. As for our Quidditch playing..." James paused, unsure himself of how he and the twins were expected to play for Gryffindor if they didn't have broomsticks. He settled with a "Let's not run before we can walk, shall we?" before heading up to the dormitories.
"IT WASN'T OUR FAULT!" yelled Roxanne, standing opposite the Headmistress, in the middle of the Hospital Wing, both women looking absolutely furious.
"MISS WEASLEY, DO YOU EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE THAT YOUR BROOMSTICKS FLEW THEMSELVES?"
"NO, BUT ... ACCIDENTS HAPPEN!"
"I AM SOMEWHAT DOUBTFUL THAT BEING HIT IN THE HEAD WITH A BLUDGER WOULD CLASSIFY AS AN 'ACCIDENT', WEASLEY!"
"THAT WAS FRED!"
"SO IT WAS SOMEONE'S FAULT?"
Roxanne paused, looking at the others for help. Lily and Lysander exchanged glances, both of them sitting by Rose's unconscious form, neither of them speaking. Jack was standing by the window, watching the scene uncomfortably. Fred, on the other hand, was busy pacing behind his sister, an unusually pensive frown on his forehead. James had vanished.
"I never said it was nobody's fault," said Roxanne slowly, "I just said it wasn't our fault."
Professor McGonagall stood there, fuming; her face an angry red, her hair falling out of the tight bun it had been in.
"Miss Weasley," she snapped, "you and your friends have already got a month's detention, do not make matters worse for yourself by trying to be clever. Now, if that's all, I'm leaving. Tell Potter to bring your broomsticks up to my office when he returns."
As she swept away, Jack let out the breath he had been holding, all of the students looking positively relieved the Headmistress had left.
"It's too bad about your detention," he said sympathetically to the twins. "If there's anything I can do to help ..."
He trailed off as Fred finally looked up, staring at Jack as though he had never seen him before, a bright smile upon his face.
"There is something you can do," said Fred, "you can get our brooms back."
"What?" Lysander exclaimed.
"How ridiculous," murmured Lily.
"I – But – McGonagall –"
"It's nothing personal," said Fred in what he clearly thought was a comforting voice. "Lily and Lysander can help you. But my sister, James and I will be in detention all month so we naturally cannot get them back ourselves. And we have got Quidditch practice on top of our NEWTs, not to mention all the things James has to do for the Triwizard Tournament ..." he stopped, looking at Jack hopefully. Jack chanced a glance at Roxanne. She was standing in the same place McGonagall had left her in, but she had an odd expression on her face as she watched the two boys.
"I'm sorry," said Jack, sounding as though he meant it, too. "I have a lot of homework this year and –"
"We'll do it," interrupted Lily, pointing between her and Lysander, saving Jack the embarrassment of having to decline Fred's offer. "We're, er, a lot more experienced at this sort of thing. Perhaps ..."
"Perhaps what?" said Lysander drily, not at all impressed with practically being labeled as a criminal.
But Lily had fell silent, and if it wasn't for the sly smile that had crept onto her face Lysander would be comforted with the thought that she had given up. Unfortunately not – he knew Lily well enough to understand that when she grinned like that she was up to something. Something that was, more than likely, bound to end in trouble.
"Albus, we need your help."
Albus looked up from his unfinished Potions essay to find his sister staring down at him forcefully, Lysander loitering in the background.
"What with?" he said politely, turning a page in the book he was using for reference – Standard Book of Potions: Grade Five – and scratching a few words onto his parchment.
"We need to find a way to steal three broomsticks from McGonagall's office as soon as possible."
Albus took a while to digest this statement, and, once he had, took even longer to think about it.
"Albus …" said Lily, pointedly tapping her fingers on the table.
"Well, first you need to work out how you're going to break into McGonagall's office in broad daylight."
"Why broad daylight?" said Lysander, moving closer to the two siblings so he could hear properly.
"Professor McGonagall will be out of her office in the day, won't she?" Albus rolled his eyes. "She'll be teaching."
Lysander nodded slowly, casting his mind back to every conversation he had had with James that involved breaking into places. James was, admittedly, an expert at sneaking around – Lysander had seven years of hard-earned proof on the matter.
Lily, on the other hand, pushed her brother's suggestion of finding a way to break in to the Headmistress's office away impatiently.
"Yeah, so once we've found a way to enter her office …"
"You go in and take back the broomsticks," said Albus simply. "Only, make sure you're not caught – the Head Boy and Girl are favorites to patrol that area. A disguise should be a good idea – I'd say use Polyjuice Potion, but that's take at least a month to brew … not to mention it's awfully complicated and there's a whole heap of things that could go wrong …"
But Lily wasn't listening anymore – at the mention of Polyjuice Potion she had gone very still, and Lysander could have sworn she had forgotten to breathe.
"Albus … you're a genius," said Lily finally, in a rather strangled sort of voice. "You know, I might even start admitting that you're related to me, which I assure you is something James and I have been trying to cover up for at least five years."
Albus smiled modestly, a bit taken aback at the mention of his unknown disownment from his siblings.
"It will take over a month," he told them again, but once again Lily brushed what he said aside.
"You can help us," she said instead, and both Albus and Lysander stared at her as though she were mad. "Don't look at me like that, Ly, we need his help. Without him, we wouldn't have managed to come up with such a brilliant idea."
"But a month?" said Lysander incredulously. "What are James and the twins going to do in the meanwhile?"
"There might be a way," murmured Albus, once Lily had opened and closed her mouth wordlessly, "to make it in, say, a fortnight."
"How?" the other two asked at once. Albus smiled superiorly.
"There is a spell, do not ask me what it is – but it should be in a book somewhere, I'm sure."
Lysander shrugged aimlessly, flipping over Albus's own book to see the title. Lily groaned.
"Not books," she complained. "Besides, McGonagall would have given the broomsticks back soon, won't she?"
"Lily, this is McGonagall we're talking about. She's likely to keep the brooms all year – Rose was one of her favorite pupils, after all."
Lily grumbled a bit at that, but thankfully went along with the idea of spending the next few days stuck in the library, searching for Polyjuice Potion.
The three of them soon began skipping lunch, choosing, instead, to grab a bite to eat from the kitchens later on when they finally took a break. They spent every minute of their free time in the library – Lysander, who had plenty of free periods that were supposed to be spent revising for his NEWTs, looked on his own when the other two were in their lessons. Since he was a seventh-year, he had unlimited access to the Restricted Section, so no awkward questions had to be asked by Madam Edgecombe, the librarian who notably wore a thick layer of makeup every day, as to why he was leafing through Dark reading material so eagerly.
The number of books they had combed through steadily grew higher and higher as the days slipped by, and by this point even Albus was beginning to lose hope.
"It's impossible," he moaned one rainy afternoon, when the whole school was outside watching Gryffindor's latest match against Hufflepuff. James and the twins had been forced to borrow three of the school's old broomsticks, something none of them were particularly happy about.
The three students had the library to themselves, for a change, for usually it was full of giggling Beauxbatons girls, menacing-looking Durmstrang students and the odd crowd of Hogwartians, frantically doing their overdue homework on one of the short wooden tables.
Lily, who had leapt at the chance to browse the Restricted Section in the absence of Madam Edgecombe, was busy leafing through a dusty old book called Moste Potente Potions. She had grown uncharacteristically quiet over the last few days, and had developed a tendency to snap viciously at anyone whenever they tried to talk to her.
Lysander, on the other hand, had turned uncontrollably jumpy and tended to answer questions in a high voice that was punctuated by increasingly frequent pauses.
Albus suspected both of these startling changes were down to their lack of sleep, food and company of others. He himself was finding it harder to concentrate in lessons – he often found his mind wandering to passages he had looked at in various books that morning, mentally rereading them to see if he'd missed a mention of Polyjuice Potion.
Their friends had also noticed the change in them – but they had put it down to exam stress, for Albus was also supposed to be sitting his OWLs in June, and most of his year were in various states of panic; and the only seventh-years who freely welcomed the approaching NEWTs were Fred and Roxanne, because they claimed their future lay outside the world of academic achievement.
"It's not ... impossible!" said Lysander, his voice faint from lack of use. "It's got to be ... here ... somewhere!"
"It won't be," Lily said shrilly, as both boys threw themselves back into their task of reading.
"What makes you say that?" asked Albus testily, scanning an article on the effects of the full moon on various potion ingredients.
"Because it's right here."
Both of them paused together, their eyes raising to each others' faces – it couldn't be, could it ... ?
"It was right under our noses, you know," Lily continued, not at all fazed by their silence. "I can't believe you missed it, Ly."
Albus started to stand up, but a warning glance from Lysander stopped him.
"Prove it," he said instead, and Lily bounded over to them and thrust Moste Potente Potions under their noses.
"Here it is," she said unnecessarily, tapping the page with her finger. "And on the next page –" she turned the page quickly "–there's a small paragraph on how to speed up the brewing process. So, all in all," she said, shutting the book with a loud 'bang', "it should only take a week."
"Lily ..."Lysander said hoarsely, "you're a genius, I don't know what I'd do without you."
Lily went slightly pink, but looked pleased all the same.
"So, we'll need the ingredients ... Albus, you can get those," she said in a business-like voice.
"Why me?" her brother asked.
"You have a clean record," Lily explained, and it was true – both her and Lysander had caused too much trouble with a varying mixture of James, Fred and Roxanne to get away with being caught in the private potions cupboard. Albus, on the other hand, didn't have a troublesome bone in his body. Yet. "Me and Lysander will start brewing the Polyjuice; we'll be in that old bathroom, the one that's been out of order for years."
The two boys nodded, Lysander going along with his friend's plans out of habit more than anything, as he was more than aware of the consequences of an irritated Potter.
"Well, since that's settled, we'll be seeing you –" she thrust Moste Potente Potions into Albus's chest forcefully "– later."
"That was quite a good match," said Hugo, as he and the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team walked back to the changing rooms after the game. Fred nodded his agreement, and all seven of them relayed the various highlights from just before – Molly's memorable Sloth Grip Roll to avoid a speeding Bludger; the said Bludger then hitting the Hufflepuff Seeker, a broad-chested sixth-year that was recognized as Michael McKenzie, in the stomach due to a ferocious hit from Roxanne; Brooklyn Peakes, Gryffindor's Keeper, making a spectacular save using her elbow and the end of her broomstick; and James snatching the Snitch right out from under McKenzie's nose fifteen minutes into the game.
"Well done!" Rose, who had been discharged from the Hospital Wing that morning, ran over to the Gryffindor Team, her face shining. "That was really good, Jamie, I don't think I've ever seen anything like –"
But James, who normally would have soaked up the praise happily, had noticed a serious flaw in the way his two siblings and Lysander were missing.
"Where's Lily?" he asked, to no response. "What about Lysander, or Al, has anyone seen them?"
"I'm sure they're fine," said a fifth-year called Rachael Chaentler, who was a fellow Chaser to Hugo and Molly and who knew Albus well enough to know that he was way too sensible to get into anything too dangerous. Little did any of them know that at that exact moment Albus himself was sneaking into the Potions store-cupboard and stealing – though he preferred the term 'borrowing and conveniently forgetting to replace' – ingredients for a certain Polyjuice Potion.
Lysander walked down the hallway, hand in hand with Lily, his heart hammering uncontrollably and a broad grin on his face. He looked down at Lily – she smiled up at him in response, her deep brown eyes reflecting their feelings for each other.
Lysander looked up, enjoying the fact all eyes were on him; pleased, for once, that he was in the limelight – it seemed fitting, now he was the happiest he had been for as long as he could remember instead of because he had been involved in some celebrated prank with James.
Speaking of James, he was standing at the end of the hallway, leaning against the wall nonchalantly. His sister and his best friend – it was natural they would have got together, but the latter worried for the reaction they would receive – James had refused to speak to his sister for weeks after she started dating Scorpius; but Lysander and Lily were made for each other ...
But this was Lysander's moment, and it was he who put his arm around Lily, scanning James's face for the approval he so desperately needed. At last he got it – James slowly, but surely, nodded and then beamed.
Lysander felt a wave of relief rush through his veins; as he bent down to Lily, James and the other students mysteriously vanished ... and Lysander gently placed his mouth over hers –
"LYSANDER!"
The real Lysander awoke with a start, his vision blurry and his head swimming. As both his sight and mind cleared, what he had just dreamt hit him with the force of an oncoming train and his face started to heat up uncontrollably.
"Honestly, can you not stay awake for two minutes?" said Lily furiously, waving her wand over the cauldron they had acquired and watching as flames magically appeared beneath it.
Lysander, upon realizing that it was her, Lily, the girl he had just dreamt he was in a relationship with, in front of him, sitting so casually on the bathroom floor, not knowing that just seconds ago she had been kissing him – but no, Lysander would not let himself dwell on his dream. All the same, he felt himself blush even more as she turned her eyes – her lovely brown eyes – to him.
"Are you all right, Lysander?" she said kindly, searching his face for any sign of distress.
"No!" yelped Lysander. "I mean, yes! I mean, where's Albus? Where's Scorpius? Ha ha, Scorpius, your boyfriend! You have a boyfriend! Of course you do, how stupid of me to forget! After all, he loves you! He said it himself on the staircase! Ha ha ..." he trailed off faintly, once noticing the look on Lily's face. "That is to say," he said in a stronger, more natural voice, "I don't think –"
"How do you know Scorpius loves me?" Lily cut across him with disgust. Lysander flushed.
"Er, well ... I accidentally overheard you two on the staircase the other day – but I didn't tell anyone!" he hastily added, and she narrowed her eyes slightly.
"Yes, you did," she said calmly, but her red hair seemed to crackle with electricity. "You told Hugo."
"Well, technically, but – wait, how do you know that?"
"Helena told me," Lily glared. "She said that you told Hugo, who told Molly, who told Lucy, who told Fred, who told Roxanne, who told James, who told the whole school."
This took a moment to sink in, but once it did, Lysander fidgeted rather uncomfortably, cursing Helena's tendency to gossip.
"It was an accident," he finally mumbled, and Lily nodded fairly.
"Yes, I suppose it was," she said briskly, stirring the boiling water in the cauldron with her wand, once again showing her uncanny knack of not being fazed by anything.
Lysander smiled inwardly, as he watched her mutter incantations under her breath. God, he loved her.
Wait, what? No, he most certainly did not. Of course he didn't.
That would be absurd, he thought, but as Lily glanced up and smiled at him, a new wave of contradictions rose in his mind.
You love her, said an inner voice that sounded all too suspiciously like his twin brother, Lorcan.
No, I don't, he argued. She's my best friend's sister.
So?
So nothing can ever happen, because James would go crazy.
But do you actually care what he'd think?
Yes.
No.
Yes.
No, you don't,otherwise you wouldn't be alone in a bathroom with her.
That was Lily's idea, not mine. Hey, wait a minute – does that mean she likes me?
You tell me. It's not that hard to figure out.
Well, yes, Lysander thought reasonably, it kind of is.
Well, there's only one way to find out ... You're in Gryffindor for a reason, so use your bravery and courage and lean over there and –
And what?
– kiss her.
WHAT? I can't kiss Lily! Besides, she doesn't even like me.
Idiot.
"Lysander, what are you doing?"
Lysander came to his senses, only to find himself a few centimeters away from Lily's face.
"I'm, er, 'using my bravery and courage to lean over here and kiss you.'"
Lily burst out laughing. It took a moment, one painstakingly long moment, before Lysander realized she hadn't taken him seriously – she thought he had been joking. He smiled weakly.
"God, Lysander, you're hilarious."
"I know," he shrugged unsteadily, not knowing what else to say. However, this just made Lily giggle even more. "Imagine if I were serious!" he exclaimed, getting into the swing of things and sincerely laughing himself.
"Imagine!" Lily agreed, now rocking back and forth hysterically. "I mean, there'd be no way of knowing, would there? Not unless I went over to you –" she slid towards him, both of them still laughing "– and I put my arms around your neck, like this –" she proceeded to do so, Lysander being the first to register how unnaturally close they were "– and told you to take me up on it!"
She giggled momentarily before also noticing, and acknowledging, the state they were in. Yet, in all honesty, there was something about Lysander's gray eyes, his lopsided smile, his floppy blonde fringe, that made Lily wish that something would happen, off the record, so both of them could finally admit to themselves that they liked each other ...
And without thinking, without planning it, without knowing what had come over him ... Lysander brought his lips down, barely brushing them against Lily's own; before Lily regarded him in utter seriousness, tightened her hold around his neck and kissed him.
That was it. Fireworks exploding against a dark, velvet sky ... exactly what it should have been, exactly what it was. Nobody else existed. Nothing else mattered. It was perfect – as perfect as Planet Earth before people, perfect like snow before footsteps.
Neither of them ever found out how long they sat there, in the middle of the broken-down girls' bathroom,their lips blending together so naturally and so easily ... It could have been minutes, hours, days even.
All that mattered to them was the other – Lysander fitted into Lily's arms so comfortably it was as though they had been designed to hold him; and Lily herself, pressed against his shirt, could think of no better place to be, not with Scorpius or ...
Scorpius.
Her blood ran cold, and Lysander, sensing her hesitation, slowly pulled away too.
"Scorpius," she whispered simply, and Lysander's eyes widened, a thrill of dread coursing through his mind.
"You think?" A voice, a horribly familiar voice, sounded from the doorway. Both of them looked up, not knowing what to expect – but it was only Hugo, a large bag of Albus's potions ingredients in his hands. His expression was apathetic, unreadable.
"This isn't what it looks like –" the two hastened to get away from each other, Lysander's lie cutting the tension in the air with a knife.
"He's right – it didn't – this didn't mean anything." But that was a lie, too – it was written all over Lily's face even as she spoke those words ... it meant absolutely everything, and she, Lysander and Hugo all knew it.
"Oh, really?" said Hugo calculatingly, dropping the bag to the floor and advancing towards Lysander menacingly. Then before any of them knew what was happening, he had thrown his arms out wide and was beaming tearfully.
"Welcome to the family!" he sobbed thickly, shoving Lysander into his arms. "I always knew this would happen, oh, I'm so glad Malfoy isn't – well, you know what I mean ..."
Lily stared at her cousin, quite alarmed, and from over Hugo's shoulder Lysander threw Lily a frightened look. This was quite unexpected, to say the least.
"Albus asked me to drop these off – he said he had an errand to do – oh my, when I tell him –"
"No," said Lily fiercely. "You must tell no one."
"Especially," Lysander added gravely, "Scorpius Malfoy."