Just a quick note! I know the results for student's O.W.L.s probably don't come through so quickly after taking the exams but I jiggled it about a bit for pacing purposes :) Enjoy!

Chapter twenty-one – Results

"Lily please stand still you're making me dizzy." Emma grumbled from her seat.

"I can't I'm too nervous." I continued my frantic pacing provoking another sigh from her.

"They'll be here soon." I glanced towards the door again but it was still deserted.

"What if I failed Emma? What do I do then?" I was clutching the envelope containing my O.W.L.s results.

"Stop worrying Lily, we'll think about that if it comes to it which I'm sure it won't." She was trying her best to calm me.

"Oh where are they? I'm dying here!" we'd decided to open our results together so Emma and I were waiting for the arrival of Hugo, Lucy, Scorpius and Al.

"Breathe Lily, you're starting to hyperventilate." Emma rose to her feet and placed her hands on my shoulders.

"Ok, sorry I'm ok." I focussed on taking slow deep breaths. Behind us the portrait swung aside and the four of them poured in.

"Thank god, she's been driving me insane." I scowled at Emma and felt calm wash over me as Scorpius took my hand.

"Are you nervous?" Hugo asked me looking terrified himself.

"Scared to death." I admitted.

"Right well, no time like the present I suppose." With that Emma tore open her envelope and withdrew her results, we all held our breaths and watched silently, and then a huge smile spread across her face.

"I passed everything! I even got an outstanding in Charms." She showed us the paper as cheers erupted and we took turns hugging her.

"Ok who's next?" she asked eagerly.

"I'll open mine." Our attention turned to Lucy as she carefully opened and extracted her page of results.

"Well?" Hugo urged the silence getting too tense for him.

"I got a poor in Arithmancy and History of Magic but I expected that." Despite this she looked quite pleased.

"But you passed the rest?"

"Yes." Another round of hugs went by and then it was Hugo's turn.

"A poor in Arithmancy and Astronomy and a dreadful in Divination but I passed everything else, I even got an outstanding in Care of Magical Creatures."

"Hugo that's excellent!" I congratulated him.

"Mum won't be happy I didn't get an O in History of Magic but I swear she's the only one ever to get that." We all laughed and to my horror their attention turned to me.

"Just yours left now Lils." Al pointed out and my heart rate picked up again as the nerves set in.

"I guess I can't avoid it any longer." Reluctantly I opened my own envelope and withdrew the paper. Taking a slow breath to steady myself I unfolded it and scanned the results, my eyes widened as they counted the many E's and O's.

"Come on Lily we're dying of suspense."

"Only one acceptable and that's in Divination." I told them distantly as my mind still tried to absorb what it was reading.

"And the rest are what?"

"Are they poor? Or are they worse? Oh no you didn't get any Troll marks did you Lils?" before I could answer Al had snatched the paper from me and they all crowded round to peer at it.

"Lily!" Emma gasped with a huge grin.

"These are all better than A's…" my brother stared at the page with wide eyed shock.

"You got 5 O's!" Scorpius sounded a mix of amazed and proud.

"Blimey Lily you got an Outstanding in Potions!" Emma sounded as shocked by this as I felt, five years of doing mediocre in the class and with the help of Scorpius' book I'd managed to scrape the highest grade possible. My other O's were in Transfiguration, Charms, Defence against the Dark Arts, and Herbology.

"Just wait until you see mum's face when she sees this!" Al was laughing and I couldn't tell if it was disbelief or pride.

"You did it Lily!" Emma squealed happily.

"Actually we did it." without their help studying and keeping my spirits up I'd never have done that well and I knew we all owed each other for our success.

"At least we can relax now." Al sighed satisfied and collapsed back into a sofa closely followed by the others, I moved to follow them but Scorpius pulled me aside.

"Congratulations, I knew you'd do brilliantly." He was right; all along he'd been confident that I'd achieve high despite my own disbelief.

"Thanks." my smile was dazzling as he took my face in his hands and bent to kiss me.

"Are you two just going to stand around snogging all day?" Al called from the sofa; Scorpius sighed and lowered his hands.

"One of these days I'm going to be able to kiss you for as long as I want without any interruptions."

"I hope so." I grumbled feeling rising irritation for my brothers constant interruptions.

"Come on." He took my hand lacing his fingers with mine and led me over to where the others were sitting.

With the exams over life at Hogwarts started to calm down, students were no longer crammed in every available space frantically scanning books in a last attempt to revise, professors had stopped their stressful pacing as they highlighted the importance of the exams yet again, and the castle was filled with the buzz of cheerful chatter and laughter.

"Hey." Scorpius greeted as he slid into the seat next to me. "Ready for the match Al?" my brother looked up from his plate of scrambled eggs and tried to manage a lopsided grin through a mouthful of food.

"I was born ready Scor." He joked spraying us both with chewed pieces of egg.

"Couldn't you have been born hygienic?" I retorted furiously brushing off the food crumbs staining my robes.

"Couldn't you have been born mute?" I rolled my eyes and turned my attention to Emma.

"This is what married life would be like for you." I said to her casting a scrutinising look at my older brother shovelling more eggs into his sauce stained mouth.

"Lucky you Em…" Scorpius murmured fighting back laughter, Emma was glaring at me her cheeks burning red and her expression mortified. I rolled my eyes again at her naivety, Al wasn't an idiot despite popular belief and he was fully aware that she liked him.

"No lucky you Scor, you get my stroppy and refreshingly sarcastic sister." I scowled at him furiously but he merely laughed.

"You're right, I do." He tugged me against his body and gazed down on me adoringly, it amazed me how even when my brother was pointing out my flaws he still looked at me like I was most perfect thing in existence.

"Oh here we go again." Al rolled his eyes and sighed anticipating the kiss that we all knew was coming.

"Right again." Scorpius said flashing him a grin before delivering to me the kiss I was eagerly awaiting. This time he didn't withdraw when Al complained, his lips lingered on mine parting them gently and I tilted my head slightly letting the delicious taste of him fill my mouth. He seemed to remember that we were in a public place around the same time I did and we both broke apart looking rather flushed. The four of us were silent aside from the clattering of Al's cutlery as he helped himself to a third helping of eggs. Emma was deeply engrossed in a copy of the Daily Prophet though I suspected it was more of a way for her to hide her previous embarrassment than an actual interest in the content.

"Morning." Lucy appeared at the table smiling brightly and apparently oblivious to the tension surrounding the four of us.

"Hi Lucy, why are you so cheerful?" I asked her as she seized a slice of toast and started to butter it quickly.

"Why wouldn't I be cheerful? The exams are finally over, we're going home for the holidays soon and it's a gorgeous day!" her optimism was almost sickening.

"Are you coming to the match later?" Al asked as he polished off his plate of food and began heaping on another lot, the guy was an eating machine I was sure of it.

"Oh yes I forgot about that."

"You can come with us if you want." I pointed to Emma who still hadn't looked up from her paper.

"Thanks Lily."

"Where's Hugo?" Emma had her voice back now.

"Oh he went out early to get some practice in for the game; I'm meeting him on the pitch in a bit." I found it hard to believe Al was going to be going anywhere at the rate he was eating.

"I guess that's if Scor can prise the fork from your hand." He shot me a scowl and I shrugged.

"I need to eat a lot on game days, it gives me energy." I snorted at his excuse and received another scowl in reply.

"Come on Al you eat this much every day." who was he kidding pretending it was for Quidditch.

"Yeah well I'm a growing lad I need my food."

"You only have a few years left on that excuse Al then you'll just be greedy."

"Oh so what's your excuse for being a moody witch?"

"I have to live with you." The others laughed and his grin faded.

"I'll never understand why you love her." He said to Scorpius.

"You don't see her as I do." He replied simply.

"Good because that would be very wrong." We all laughed and this time Al joined in all traces of bitterness gone.

"I'd better get to practice." Al reluctantly set his fork down and pushed away his plate.

"Oh I'm going to go with him, scope the competition." Scorpius said winking at me playfully, he kissed me briefly and then hurried off after my disgruntled brother.

Emma, Lucy and I squeezed our way through the crowds packing out the Gryffindor stands and managed to find a seat to watch the game. It was hot in the sun's blazing rays and the number of bodies crammed in the small space only made it hotter, my hair was sticking to my skin damp from perspiration and I deeply regretted wearing a jumper. The teams walked out onto the pitch and I craned my neck to see Scorpius, it was a difficult match for me this time because I desperately wanted to support my boyfriend but at the same time I had a responsibility to support my brother, my cousin and my house.

"Are you ok Lily?" Emma must've sensed the tension surrounding me.

"Oh…yes." I didn't sound very convincing.

"Don't worry Lils he won't get hit again that was just an unfortunate accident." I hadn't even thought about the last Quidditch match I'd watched Scorpius play in, suddenly the horror of seeing him knocked to the floor and lying in a pool of blood flooded my mind and I felt anxiety rising in my stomach.

"Oh it's started." Lucy pointed to the pitch where both teams had kicked into the air and I felt sick watching Scorpius take his position above the other players. The first few minutes passed without event, both teams scored points and were level pegging, and there was no sign of the snitch. My eyes rarely left Scorpius' flying figure for fear that something might happen to him, Gryffindor scored another point thanks to a magnificent shot from Al and the stand erupted with applause. Just as I was starting to relax a Bludger flew past Scorpius and he swerved to avoid it, I gasped sharply and Emma grabbed my hand squeezing reassuringly. I couldn't settle after that, I sat on the edge of the bench biting my lip violently and gripping Emma's hand like a vice. Gryffindor had taken the lead by a sizable chunk though I wasn't sure of the exact score because my attention was held by Scorpius who'd zoomed off after a small golden dot.

"It's the snitch!" a random student shouted from behind us pointing out at the sky where the two seekers were now racing. I watched terrified as they dived and zigzagged towards the ground at a dangerous speed, they flew lower and the crowd of students rushed to the front of the stands peering down at the flashes of green and red now side-by-side. Seconds later they both spun and sharply bolted back up from the ground, I heard the whistle blow and saw the little golden ball clasped in Scorpius' hand, I blew out my breath in relief and released my death-grip on Emma's hand.

"I told you he'd be fine." She told me with a kind smile, the commentator announced the scores and the Gryffindor stands erupted with ear-splitting cheers at their victory. Despite Scorpius' excellent catch of the snitch we'd had too much of a lead over them already and we won by 10 points.

"Come on, there'll be celebrations in your common room!" Lucy reminded us excitedly as the students started to hurry off, winning this match had secured Gryffindor the Quidditch cup for yet another year and there would no doubt be a huge party.

We followed the crowd back to the portrait and found it crammed full of the team and far too many students to count, Colin the captain had been hoisted into the air as he showed off the trophy and I noticed that the students weren't all from our house – there were lots from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff and I was shocked to see several Slytherin's who were no doubt here to congratulate friends.

"Come on let's find Hugo and Al." Lucy tugged on our arms but I pulled away from her grip.

"You two go ahead, I'm going to see if I can find Scor." I had to shout over the singing and cheers.

"Ok, see you later." I waved to them as they disappeared into the rowdy crowd and hurried back out the portrait hole.

I wasn't sure where to start looking for him, I didn't know the password to the Slytherin common room so I asked a girl who was leaving if he was in there but he wasn't, and I couldn't see him in the great hall so I decided to try the Quidditch changing rooms.

As I walked down the corridor leading from the pitch to the changing rooms I passed the Slytherin team who glared at me angrily – no doubt because of my house. There was one player left in the changing rooms, he looked up when I entered and a small smile replaced the frown he'd been wearing.

"Hey, what brings you down here?" as if the answer wasn't already obvious.

"Take a wild guess." I joked, he was still wearing his Quidditch robes and his white hair was falling across his face damp from sweating.

"You should be joining in the celebrations." Didn't he realise that I had no interest in being somewhere that he wasn't?

"I'm exactly where I should be." I replied simply hands-on-hips so he knew I wasn't budging.

"I don't want you to miss out Lily." Frown lines creased my forehead, why was he trying to get rid of me?

"You don't want me here?" I tried to mask the hurt in my voice; he looked shocked and swept across the room to take my hands.

"Of course I do, I never want to be away from you." I relaxed a little knowing he wasn't rejecting me.

"Then shut up." Then I did something I hadn't planned, I kissed him, and he seemed just as surprised as I was that I'd done it. After a few seconds of shock he responded enthusiastically lifting me off the floor and pinning me against his body.

"I should lose more often if this is my consolation prize." He grinned when his lips were free.

"It was a great catch Scor." He shrugged nonchalantly.

"I've done better, I thought Luca had it at one point…"

"But he didn't get it."

"Didn't make any difference anyway, we still lost." He sighed sadly and slumped onto a nearby bench.

"I'm sorry Scor…" I didn't know what to say to make him feel better so I just stood there awkwardly tugging on my jumper.

"It's not that important." He pulled me onto his lap and I rested my head on his shoulder.

"I can't believe this year is over already." It seemed like only last week I'd been getting onto the train on the first day.

"I know, this year flew by." He replied twiddling a strand of my hair idly. Normally I looked forward to the holidays but this year I was less enthusiastic.

"The holidays are going to be tough…" I lifted my head and met his eyes, was it possible he was dreading being apart as much as I was? "I've gotten used to seeing you every day, I don't know how I'm supposed to go back to being apart from you…"

"I don't want to be away from you." I could barely breathe, the emotion enveloping us was like a thick fog and it left my skin craving the touch of his.

"You know I'd spend every second with you if I could." I'd never fully been aware of how intense the air around us got when we were alone, we rarely found ourselves totally alone usually there were others in the house or background, and so the overwhelming sense of attraction toward him it awoke within me was both intriguing and terrifying.

He felt it too, I could tell by his smouldering eyes and shallow breathing. He kissed my bottom lip softly, his cool breath washed over my face and I trembled. His lips lingered millimetres from mine for what seemed like an eternity before he kissed me again, this kiss was not as gentle as the others it was rough and hungry, and I kissed him back desperately craving more. My feelings started to creep up on me, slowly taking hold of my senses and reactions, and I gave up fighting them. I shifted on his lap so that I was straddling him, my hands seized his face and I kissed him with desperation as though it would be our last. I felt his hands grasp the back of my jumper and I pressed myself against him, my blood was burning beneath my skin throbbing around my body, a moan rose in his throat and I could hear my own gasps through the kiss.

When it ended we were both breathless and flushed, we sat for a while silently with our foreheads touching waiting for our heart rate's to calm down and our breathing to quieten.

"Do you want to go back to the party?" he asked me his voice trembling.

"No."

"Come to my common room, there won't be many people there." At first the idea scared me, a lot of Slytherin students hated me and my Gryffindor status so I wouldn't be welcome, but it meant time with him away from the others and so it was worth the risk.

"Ok." I climbed off his lap and he took my hand leading me back towards the castle.

I very rarely ventured into the dungeons, it was damp and dimly lit, and the closer we got to the Slytherin common room the colder it grew. He gave the password and helped me inside, I'd never been inside before but it was exactly as I expected. It was a grand room with low ceilings and soft green lighting, the rich carpet was littered with low backed black and dark green leather sofas, and the walls were decorated by skulls, animal horns and dark wood cupboards.

"Wow…creepy." I muttered gazing around the room, Scorpius had been right about there not being many people here, in fact I could only count three students who were all sitting alone their heads buried in books.

"Do you like it?" Scorpius' voice broke the eerie silence and made me jump.

"Oh, well it's really…posh." In my mind I compared it to the messy but warm Gryffindor common room filled with mismatched old furniture and faded drapes.

"Hmm." He leant closer so his lips were next to my ear. "It's a bit spooky to be completely honest." I was shocked to hear him saying this as he was after all a Slytherin but I guessed his bloodline might have something to do with that, I'd never seen Scorpius as much of a true Slytherin anyway he wasn't mean enough.

"Yeah just a bit." I agreed eyeing a skull on a nearby table.

"Come on, let's sit down." I let him lead me over to a large leather armchair and we cuddled up together.

"Shouldn't you get changed?" I asked tugging at the ties on his Quidditch robes.

"There's no rush, I don't have anymore matches this year." A fact that I was very glad of, since we started dating I found Quidditch matches far too nerve wracking.

"It's a lot quieter in here than in the Gryffindor one." I observed casting a scrutinising glance at the silent students.

"Yes well us Slytherins aren't known for our socialising skills." He replied in a hushed tone so nobody else heard.

"You've always been very sociable, with us anyway."

"That's true, but I've never really fit in with the Slytherin stereotype."

"No you haven't and I'm glad." I rubbed his nose with my own and he chuckled lightly.

"It's nice to be uninterrupted for a change." He remarked brushing a kiss across my cheek.

"Yeah." I sighed contentedly and snuggled closer to him.

"Would you like to stay at my house sometime in the holiday?" the offer caught me off guard and I sat up straight.

"Really?" spend the night at Malfoy manor…could I handle that?

"You don't have to Lily." He assured seeing my moderately scared expression.

"No I want to…it's just that…well your house sort of scared me a bit." It was, after all, a huge spooky looking mansion surrounded by towering metal fences and filled with photographs of Malfoy ancestors who despised my heritage, oh and then there was his father too.

"Try growing up in it." he grumbled.

"You don't like it?" I hadn't expected that.

"Nope, don't get me wrong it's a great house if you like expensive oversized mansions but it's just not my kind of thing."

"Wow, I never expected to hear you say that."

"Well it's my father's house and he loves it. He inherited it when my grandfather died so I never really had a choice about growing up in it."

"So what is your kind of house?" I was curious; it was a chance for me to learn something new about him.

"Um…well actually I think yours is pretty perfect." I thought of our detached Victorian house in a new light. Growing up I hadn't considered my home to be anything special, not in comparison to the houses some of my fellow students grew up in – such as Scorpius, but really it was a great place.

"I didn't think our house was anything like your taste." I admitted and he laughed.

"It's easy to think that way when you've seen where I grew up but I love it, it's the place I've always felt most at home."

"That's good, it means we won't have trouble picking a house that we both like." As soon as I said it I wished I hadn't. We didn't speak about anything serious or about our future and I didn't want to scare him. In my panic I froze and couldn't think of anything to say to salvage my blunder but I was surprised to see he was smiling.

"We wouldn't have any trouble anyway." He remarked simply.

"We wouldn't?" I was pleasantly intrigued.

"No because I'd get you whatever house you wanted even if I hated It." my heart swelled in my chest with adoration for him and a goofy smile lit up my face.

"Aw Scor…" I felt myself blushing and looked away. He slid a finger under my chin and turned my face back to his.

"Why are you blushing?" he asked softly tracing a finger across my hot cheekbone.

"We just rarely talk about, you know, the future and stuff." I kept my eyes down and nibbled nervously at my lip.

"I know I didn't want to scare you by coming on too strong…" had he really been as worried as I had?

"It doesn't scare me." when I said it I realised how true it was, we'd been together for over four months now and I hadn't doubted for a second that we'd have more months ahead of us.

"When I think of my future you're always in it." he told me honestly, we stared at each other intimately for a few seconds and then his lips pressed softly onto mine and I melted against his chest. I'd always been a bit of a sceptic when it came to true love. I never thought I'd find myself swept off my feet at sixteen.

"Lily listen…" He shifted in the chair so we were facing each other and fear swept through me like ice.

"Oh god, what is it? What's wrong?" the words fell from my mouth in a frantic rush.

"Lily, calm down, breathe sweetheart." He held my face in his hands and I tried to take deep breaths.

"Nothing good ever follows a line like that." I could still hear the fear ringing in my voice.

"Just give me a chance, I promise it's nothing bad." His face was completely sincere and so I swallowed hard and nodded stiffly.

"Ok." He smiled gratefully and brushed a quick kiss on my cheek.

"I don't want to rush this, us, but I don't want you to think that's because I don't want a future with you." My entire body relaxed with relief.

"I know." We hadn't spoken much about the big things in life, we hadn't even mentioned making our relationship more intimate; I blushed at the thought and prayed he wouldn't notice.

"I love you Lily and when I gave you this ring…" he lifted my left hand and traced the silver band with his finger. "I wasn't just promising you my heart I was promising you my life." I gazed into his intense grey eyes and not for the first time thought of how lucky I was that he chose me.

"I keep waiting for you to realise you could do better than me." I admitted sadly.

"Lily…" he took my hands and looked deep into my eyes. "For years you were the only person I thought of, now you're mine and still you're the only person I think of. For me there is nobody better than you." I couldn't think of a reply, I doubted I could even form a coherent sentence so I just poured all my unspoken feelings into a kiss.

"Now cheer up." He tugged playfully on a piece of my hair and I laughed.

"Better?" I asked, smiling and eyeing the fiery orange strands in his hand.

"I love the colour of your hair." He kissed the piece he held and brushed it back over my shoulder.

"Yours is really unusual." I remarked eyeing his silvery white hair.

"Yeah, it runs in my family."

"The red runs in mine." My mother and my grandmother had exactly the same shade as me as did James and all of my uncles. Albus was the only one who'd escaped the curse and inherited dad's black hair.

"What colour do you think our kids would have?"

"They're doomed to become fresh victims of the Weasley curse." I illustrated it by pointing to my hair and he laughed.

"You don't think there's a chance they'd inherit my blonde?"

"Nope, trust me they're doomed." He laughed and stroked my hair tenderly.

"I don't mind if they all get your colour." Silence fell over us and I realised we'd been talking about the future more tonight that we had in the last four months.

"I guess we'll have to wait and see." I replied, smiling.

"We will." I noticed the shift from a hypothetical point of view.

"Do you want me to take you back up?" I didn't want to leave him yet and I knew the Gryffindor common room would still be crammed full of celebrating students.

"No thanks, I'd rather stay here." I snuggled against his chest and he wrapped me up tightly with his strong arms.