I gave Matt a wide berth for awhile, unaware of how to deal with the situation I had been put in. Libbys' only advice had been, 'dump him, dump his ass right now.' This unsurprisingly wasn't that helpful. Focussing completely on my studies for 2 weeks, I managed to not only catch up, but stay on top of all of the homework being thrown at us.
Scorpius had calmed down his antics and I was starting to feel more comfortable with him again now he wasn't trying it on all the time. Don't get me wrong, it would have been weird if he didn't flirt or be suggestive at all, but it was only a little bit more than what he had normally been like. Today I had agreed to help him with the Inanimatus Conjurus spell. We were in a corner of the library, after an hour we were both pretty confident with the spell and were now challenging each other to conjure either weird, or hard items.
"One of them Muggle rubber duck thingys." He told me. He was sat on the edge of a table, his legs hanging down over the side.
Focussing on an image of a cute little duck I had had as a child I decided to take this to the next level and tried the spell non-verbally.
"Show off." I heard Scorpius mutter and I opened my eyes to see him holding a little yellow duck that had big sad eyes and a drawn on bow.
"What can I say? I got skills."
"Yeah, yeah. What do you want me to do now?" he asked, climbing off the table.
"I think..." I started rummaging in my bag and pulled out a Muggle magazine I had mom send to me. I opened it up and showed him a picture. "You should make this for me. Size 8."
He looked at the cute little dress I had shown him and frowned.
"Is that even possible?" he asked.
"It's inanimate, so I don't see why it wouldn't be. Just focus on it."
"All I can focus on is you in it." He mumbled.
The dress was black and strapless, the bodice cut so it formed a rounded v and showed off a lot of cleavage. Across the front, jewels were attached in a sweeping pattern and it was really rather short.
"That'll be even more encouragement then."
"Will you wear it for me?" he asked slyly.
"If you're a good boy." I answered automatically.
He grinned evilly at me, and then shut his eyes to concentrate.
After a moment he muttered the incantation and lying across the back of one of the chairs we were near, my little black dress materialised. I gave a squeal of delight and rushed over to it.
"Oh yes, birthday dress, sorted."
Scorpius laughed behind me. "Doing something with Matt?" he asked. He was trying to be nice, I could hear in his voice how hard it was for him not to spit out Matts' name and actually ask me that question.
"Not as far as I know." I answered. Pressing the dress against my body and twirling with it. "I haven't spoken to him in awhile."
"How come?" I shrugged. "Lily?"
"We had a disagreement." I allowed.
"A disagreement over what?" he asked, caution seeping into his voice.
"You don't want to know." I told him.
"No, I think I do."
I looked him in the eye at last, and I saw the concern there that showed me he actually cared enough about me to put aside his own feelings over the issue to help me out. I sighed in defeat.
"About what stage of our relationship we were actually at, and what he expected of me."
His fists clenched. "Oh yeah, and what was that?"
"Really Scor? You want me to spell it out for you?"
I saw his jaw tighten as he gritted his teeth. "That dirty scum, you wait till I get my hands on him..." he stopped, looking at me with wide eyes. "You, you and him...didn't...you know?"
"No Scor. I didn't want to do anything with him. After I said no he went really moody and hardly spoke to me for the rest of the night. He's owled me but I don't want to talk to him just yet. Oh, and don't you dare go near him. If Matt and I have a problem, we'll sort it out ourselves."
He groaned but wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into a tight hug.
"If he so much as lays an unwanted finger on you, I'll kill him." He whispered into my ear.
"And what if it's not unwanted?"
I felt his arms stiffen around me and he didn't answer for a moment.
"Then, that's your choice."
x-x-x
"I swear to god this time since Christmas has just flown by." Libby muttered, walking along next to me as we made our way to the village. Libby has a habit of nattering a million miles an hour when she was nervous. And now it was half way through March, and my birthday, the impending exams were starting to have an effect on her. "Just a few more weeks and we're on break, then we come back and it's nothing but revision. I swear they forgot to teach us stuff this year though, they can't have covered the whole curriculum."
I let her drone on and on. It was better to just let her say her piece, she wouldn't let you talk until she was done anyway. So I'd be wasting my breath. She'd only just gone quiet when we reached the first few houses of Hogsmeade.
"Who's coming today?" I asked, wrapping my arms tighter around me.
We may be heading into spring, but up here in the Scottish highlands, it didn't mean too much yet.
I had white skinny jeans on, with a thick knitted sweater top that ran in varied white, black and grey. There was a slit where it rested on my left leg, so it cut into a V, above this white buttons curved their way up the top ending just above my breast.
"Urm, your parents. James said he was trying to come, I think your aunt and uncles were trying to as well. But they couldn't confirm." I nodded.
We were heading to the pub, for drinks and a meal, we tried to get as many of the family as we could together, for as many birthdays as possible. Kind of hard given the size of us.
Walking into the pub I was met by a chorus of screams all wishing me a happy birthday. Looking around I tried to take in who had managed to come.
Mom and Dad were standing directly in front of me, uncle Ron and aunt Hermione on either side. George with his wife Angelina had made it, but I could only see Roxanne, she was a few years younger than me. Molly and Lucy were both there as was Victoire and Teddy, with her younger brother Louis not far from her either. I beamed round at all of them, excited they had come, and spotted both of my brothers hovering in the corner. After the expected hugs and kisses I squeezed my way over to them, Libs at my side.
"Well if it isn't my favourite brother." I exclaimed, hugging James. "Oh, hi Al. Didn't see you there."
He pulled a face at me and poked me in the side.
"And lets' not forget I'm your favourite boy." Scorpius cut in, practically bouncing to our sides, a big grin on his face.
"Have you been drinking?" I asked.
"Only a little. Nothing for you to disapprove of."
I shot him an amused look, but then spotted my table of presents. "Oooo."
x-x-x
"Did you open mine yet?" Scorpius asked, sliding into the seat next to me.
"Urm, not that I'm aware of."
He got back up again and searched around the table that had held all my gifts, and then came back to me with a small black bag. Quickly undoing the ribbon that held it closed I shook out a small jewellery case into my hand.
"Scor, you really didn't have to." He cut me off, holding up his hand to stop my protests.
"Yes I did. Now open it."
Pulling open the case I saw a new silver charm for my bracelet. This one had a dangly piece that held the symbol for Pisces on it, my zodiac sign.
"Thank you Scor." I whispered, pulling him in for a hug. Leaning back from him, I offered him the wrist that still held my bracelet, I never took it off, and he quickly undid it and slid the new one on before clasping it again.
"Lily?" I turned to find Matt standing behind me, Scorpius froze.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, shocked into rudeness.
"Well, it is your birthday, and I am your boyfriend." His eyes flickered to Scorpius as he talked to me. "Don't think we've met, I'm Matt." He held out his hand. After a moment Scorpius relented and offered his own.
"Scorpius."
"Malfoy?" Matts' eyebrows shot up into his hairline and his eyes darted between the pair of us again.
"I er, I got you a present Lily." He told me, handing over a wrapped bundle.
I murmured my thanks and ripped into it. Inside was a reservation slip for a hotel in London.
"What's this?" I asked confused.
"Well I thought we could go there tonight, order some room service, have some alone time."
"Well you can cancel that plan right bloody now." Scorpius spat, taking the ticket off of me. "There's no way she's spending the night with you, you presumptuous git."
"I don't think that's your decision to make." Matt glared at him, Scorpius rose to his feet, towering over Matt in his 6ft 1 glory.
"And what makes you think she'll want to?" he asked in a deadly voice. "What have you done since the last time she rejected you that could have changed her mind?"
Matt went pale and turned to me. "You told him about that?" he spluttered.
I shrugged and watched as my mother walked over to us.
"Scorpius dear you're not causing trouble are you?" she chirped at him, taking him gently by the arm and sitting him back down next to me. "And you are?" she asked turning to Matt.
"Matthew Cross, I'm Lilys' boyfriend." He told her sullenly.
"Oh yes, I think she mentioned you once or twice. From abroad or something. I'm her mother, Ginny." As he shook my mothers' hand he looked a little put out by her comment.
"I don't recall inviting you." She told him.
He blushed. "Lily said you normally met up for birthdays so I thought I'd surprise her."
"Hmm, did you now? Well it is normally just family during the day."
I blinked in surprise. Was it? I could see Matt thinking the same thing as he looked at Scorpius and then at Libby, who stood on the other side of the room talking with James, Teddy and Victorie. Mom didn't care that she'd blatantly been caught out for her fib, she indignantly crossed her arms and looked Matt up and down, then looked at me followed pointedly by Scorpius. I think I may have actually let out an involuntary groan. If Matt hadn't guessed already that mom was on Scors side, he knew now. Unless he was stupid.
"If you must see Lily today, she'll be at the club in Diagon Alley with all her friends later, you may join her there. Perhaps." She had to tag on at the end.
Matt looked at me, as if expecting to contradict her. But after the incident at his flat, the only letter I had received showed me he had not regretted his actions, and saw nothing wrong with them. Clearly shown by his choice of present today as well. He had not even attempted to apologise. So I just shrugged, as if I had no say in the matter, and to be honest I probably didn't. Mom had chosen her team, and dad would go with her on that, and once all my family knew she didn't approve, they'd soon join the band wagon.
Once he had left the pub Scorpius turned to me, looking worried.
"Did I over step my mark?" he asked.
"Hell no. You're right. How can he think I'll sleep with him after last time? Weirdo."
"Are you and him over then?" he asked delicately.
I sighed. "I don't think so. I mean, I should at least talk to him before I decide. Maybe he's having a rough time of it, he's not acted like this before."
"Yeah, I suppose." He mumbled, looking crestfallen.