Oh my gosh, Hi everyone, I really hope you haven't given up on me or the story! I'm insanely sorry about the delay and for how long it took me to update this. I've had some technical problems with my laptop and haven't been able to get it written. Finally I have it fixed and wrote my fingers into a frenzy to get this finished.
It's been a complete nightmare. What with the problems with my laptop, the work problems, my house breaking apart and having to get engineers out to fix stuff, I've been practically frantic for weeks.
Anyway, I sincerely hope you can all forgive me for the shocking and appalling lateness, now that my laptop is all done up I will be able to get back in to regular updating. However, upon saying that, I do how have a new pub manager who has given me 50 hour weeks, so the updates may slip to around one a week until she leaves soon. I'm going to try my best though, so please bear with me.
Thank you all so much for your utterly fantastic reviews, I honestly adored every single one of them, and I'm endlessly sorry for not replying to you all but I guessed you'd all want a new chapter before a little reply. I'll try my best to get around to it soon but I have a busy week ahead of me with shifts, trips and other time consuming stuff like my anniversary with my boyfriend.
I hope you enjoy this chapter, and let's get back on track with things shall we! :D
Chapter twenty-one – Panic
I stared at the ring sitting on my finger for the millionth time since Scorpius had put it there. I tilted my hand so that the light from the setting sun caught the stones and sent them glistening. I felt a familiar surge of excitement wash through me and smiled. I was engaged, to Scorpius Malfoy. He really did want me to be his wife. That little fact still seemed so unbelievable to me. He was intelligent, talented and insanely good looking and he wanted to marry me.
A soft knock at the door broke me out of my daydream and I looked up to see my mum peering around the door. We'd all returned to my old home after the celebrations at the burrow had finished. Scorpius and my brothers were downstairs talking with my dad; I could hear their loud laughter drifting up the stairs occasionally.
I was so glad that they were ok with Scorpius' proposal; a part of me had always been deathly worried that they would kick off again if he ever asked me, and that it would be a repeat of the burrow incident. But all of my family had been thrilled, a few – namely Teddy and Ron – had taken a little while to warm up to the idea and join in the cheerfulness, but they'd come around eventually.
My mum sat down on the bed beside me and cast a nostalgic glance around my old bedroom. I stopped admiring my ring for a while and smiled at her. My ears were still buzzing slightly from the noisy time at the Burrow and I hadn't fully recovered from all of the excitement.
"You've been up here a while, what are you thinking about?" Mum asked gently, giving me a reassuring smile that told me she wasn't drilling me.
"Nothing specific really, I just needed a quiet moment to let my head recover." I told her. The celebrations at the Burrow had been fantastic but it had all been so much in such a short space of time that I felt like I'd been in a whirlwind for most of it. I just needed to chill out a bit.
"It's a pretty big development, are you sure you're ok with it?" I glanced across at her and could tell that she was worried I might've felt pressured into it, because of how serious my relationship with Scorpius had been and not to mention my entire family had been watching at that moment. But I hadn't been forced at all. This was what I wanted.
"Yes, I mean I know I'm still really young and it's a serious commitment and all, but this is what I want for my future and you heard what Scor said, we don't have to get married right away. We have time." Her expression lightened a bit and she sighed softly. I knew it had been worrying her that I might rush off tomorrow and get married when I was barely eighteen. But I wasn't that reckless, I wanted to do this properly and not rush into it.
"I'm glad we raised you to be so level-headed." She said with an affectionate smile. That little comment brought back a bunch of earlier worries from way back when Scorpius and I had first started dating.
I remembered everyone talking about Rose's then boyfriend, Drew, and saying how Hermione was all set to have them married. Obviously I knew that was probably a major exaggeration but hearing my mum say that Rose wouldn't do something that silly when she was only young, because she was too level-headed, had got me thinking about what she'd say if it was me in Rose's position. Would she have considered me reckless? And now here she was telling me the very thing I'd worried so much about, she didn't think I was reckless at all. The relief was unimaginable.
"Thanks mum." I replied, though I knew she didn't know what I was thanking her for. She was polite enough not to pry and instead placed her hand over mine and gave it a little squeeze.
"It's a strange feeling, knowing one of your children is going to be married soon." She mused.
"It is?"
"Yes, it's not a bad feeling, just strange."
"Why do you think that is?" I asked, intrigued. She thought about it for a long moment and then sighed.
"I don't really know, I suppose it's because you're my child, you're a part of me and I've raised you from a baby and now I have to relinquish my role to someone else. When you're married I won't be the one who'll care for your needs or protect you, that will be Scorpius' role then, I'll just be the mother." I could hear the sadness in her voice, it tugged at my heart and made me long to hug her.
"A mother is a pretty important person you know, you'll always be the one I turn to for advice and the one who I'll emulate whenever I have to raise my own kids." She glanced across at me and smiled.
"Nobody can ever take your place mum." I added, rounding off my point. She draped her arm around my shoulders and pressed a kiss to my forehead.
"You're a good kid Lily."
"I love you, mum." I hugged her a bit closer.
"I love you too honey." We shared a moment of silence, enjoying the closeness and the tenderness of the moment.
"Are you happy mum, about me marrying Scorpius?" I asked nervously. She withdrew slightly to give me a steady smile.
"I am. I know he'll look after you Lily, he loves you so much. Seeing you two together reminds me of your father and I when we were your age."
"I hope we can have what you guys do, you're so happy together." I replied longingly. She laughed softly and tucked some of her hair behind her ear.
"We are, but we've had our bad days just like anyone else. Lord knows your father and I haven't had the easiest of rides, relationship wise, but the fact that we got through it all just proves to me that we were meant to be together."
"Do you have any regrets?" she thought about this for a while and then shrugged.
"Nothing substantial, I regret some of the things I've said in silly arguments or embarrassing things I did in front of him because I was so nervous, but I don't regret any of the important stuff and I definitely don't regret choosing to spend my life with him." I took in what she was saying and nodded, my gaze drifting back to the glistening ring.
"Why, do you regret anything with Scorpius?" she asked me, sensing a motive behind my question.
"Oh no, it's just nice to hear more about you and dad." I'd always loved their story, to me it was like the perfect fairytale romance, and how bizarre it seemed that I now found myself in the same position, in love with my older brother's best friend from a young age. I had no doubt that in thirty years time we would still be married as my parents were, and I would still love Scorpius just as much as mum loved my dad.
"Wait here, I have something to show you." she told me with an excited smile.
"Ok." I watched as she hurried out of the room and tapped my feet as I waited impatiently for her to return. When she did, she was holding a large white box. She set it down on the bed between us and lifted the lid.
"I've been waiting for the time when I could show you this." She said as she moved aside the covering and revealed a luxurious white satin dress, folded neatly. I gasped and reached out to stroke the silky material.
"Your wedding dress." I stated. She nodded and touched the garment affectionately.
"Yep, I don't expect you to wear it of course; every woman deserves her own dream wedding dress. But I thought you might like to wear this." She pulled out a thin square velvet box from beneath the folds of material.
"What is it?" I asked excitedly. She laughed and held it out to me.
"Open it up and find out." I took it from her gently and prised open the lid. Inside sat a delicate silver headdress adorned with pearls, shining diamonds and strips of silky ribbon. I stared at it with shining eyes, it looked so much more beautiful up close than it did in the photos.
"Oh my god, it's incredible." I breathed, reaching out to trail my fingertips over the surface.
"It is. I was supposed to wear my Great-Aunt Muriel's goblin made tiara, it's been in our family for generations and it had become a bit of a tradition for the women to wear it on their wedding days, but I wanted something that was mine. I'd waited so long for your father to love me and then for us to properly be together, through the war and the aftermath, that I wanted our wedding to be perfect, like I always dreamt."
"Did you design this?" I asked, hardly believing it to be possible, it was just so magnificent. She nodded.
"It cost quite a bit to get it made but your father insisted. He said he wanted me to have whatever I wanted, whatever the cost."
"Wow, dad was really sweet when he was young." She laughed and looked down at the headdress affectionately.
"He's still sweet now, just only around me." now it was my turn to laugh.
"So that's where Al gets his shyness from then, Emma says he's really affectionate and treats her like a queen but we're yet to see it."
"Yes, well, Al had always been uncannily like your father." We both giggled and then looked back down at the headdress.
"I completely understand if you'd prefer to have your own, after all, I wanted the very same thing. But I thought I'd show it to you anyway, just in case." I looked up at her and smiled gratefully.
"I'd love to wear yours, maybe we can start a new tradition." I flashed her a cheeky grin and she laughed again.
"Maybe, but I think this one should be optional and not an obligation."
"Oh, I totally agree." I snapped the lid back down on the velvet box and hugged it to my chest.
"Thanks mum, this means a lot to me." I said sincerely. She smiled and slid the lid back onto the dress box.
"It's my pleasure, really. I'd better go check on them lot, they can't be trusted unsupervised for too long." She rolled her eyes and left with the box holding her headdress. I ran my hand over the soft velvet box again, unable to suppress a smile when I saw the light catch my new engagement ring again.
"You can stop staring at it you know, it's not going to disappear." The male voice startled me and I looked up to see my brothers hovering in my doorway, both wearing identical crooked grins. I rolled my eyes and lowered my hand.
"I hope you haven't been horrible to him." I reprimanded, they both adopted a false expression of shock and came to sit either side of me on the bed.
"As if we'd be horrible to him for wanting to marry our little sister, really Lily, give us some credit." James replied, in a mock hurt tone.
"Yeah, he'll be family soon, and we're never horrible to family." Al added. I snorted and gave each of them the same disbelieving look.
"That's a load of rubbish, you were always cruel to me and I'm family."
"You're an exception."
"We're allowed to be mean to you because you're our sister."
"Yeah, it's like the brother-sister rule." I looked back and forth between them as they spoke, feeling my neck starting to cramp and then sighed. Great, they were ganging up on me.
"There is no rule that says that. Now did you two come up here just to ruin my good mood or was there another reason?" they laughed in unison and I suppressed a groan. They were so annoying to handle when they were together.
"We just came to see how you were doing, things got a bit crazy back there and you started to look a bit overwhelmed." James said in a more serious tone, I smiled at him gratefully.
"I'm fine; I just needed a minute to calm my head a bit."
"This is what you want, isn't it sis?" Al asked, pointing to the ring on my finger. I sighed.
"Is everyone going to ask me this?" I exclaimed in exasperation.
"I was just checking! Can't blame a brother for being worried when his eighteen year old sister gets engaged." My irritation ebbed away and I nudged him gently.
"Sorry, I guess I just feel like everyone doubts me. I know what this means, I understand how serious it is, but it's what I want." He frowned at me and then sighed.
"Alright then, as long as it's what you want."
"There's no rush anyway, right?" James added, smiling hopefully. I laughed and then nodded.
"No James, I'm not going to run off tomorrow and marry him. We've got plenty of time."
"Good, that's what I wanted to hear." We fell silent and as expected I found my gaze drifting back to the ring. I hoped they wouldn't notice. Of course, it was a fool's hope.
"So you like it then?" James piped up, pointing at the little piece of jewellery. I glanced up at him and managed to resist a big smile.
"It's perfect." I declared. My voice was rich with adoration.
"It took us bloody hours to find that one." He told me, making my brow furrow into a frown.
"What do you mean 'us'?"
"Me and Scor, he asked me to help him pick out a ring for you." he looked at my confused expression and then laughed.
"Oh come on Lils, you didn't really believe we went shopping for your birthday present that day did you? He even told you himself that he got that coat brought over from France, didn't that click anywhere in your head?" suddenly I felt incredibly stupid and incredibly naïve. How could I have missed that? I blushed and looked away, embarrassed by my own lack of observation. James chuckled softly and roughly hugged me to his side.
"Don't look so wounded, isn't it better this way? At least now it was a surprise." God I was so blind sometimes. But he was right, I was glad for that blindness this time because I preferred his proposal being a surprise than me suspecting it.
"Are you guys ok with this then; I mean you're not mad are you?"
"Why would we be mad?" Al asked, looking perplexed. I raised a disbelieving eyebrow.
"Have you forgotten how you both behaved when I first started seeing Scorpius? If I remember correctly you both tried to beat him senseless, you broke his nose!" I jabbed an accusing finger at James' chest and he flushed guiltily.
"Hey! Actually it was Teddy who broke his nose, I just bust his lip." He cried in his defence. I narrowed my eyes.
"Oh, like that's any better?" he hung his head shamefully and I heard a snigger from Al.
"I don't know what you find so funny, you tried to hex him!" I reminded him. His smile faded and he flushed the same shade of red as his brother.
"But I didn't, James actually hit him."
"So did you, you threw him against a table! And it's much worse coming from you, you're his best friend!"
"I know, I know, I was an idiot. I don't need reminding." He grumbled. I huffed and crossed my arms across my chest moodily.
"Look, can we just forget all this and focus on what's happening now? We came up here to tell you that we don't object to you marrying Scor, and that if you want it, you have our blessing." James said softly, prying my arms from their furiously crossed state and looking at me seriously. I couldn't stay mad at them when they were being so nice to me.
"I really have your blessing?" I asked, glancing from one to the other. They both nodded.
"If you don't believe us then just go and ask Scor, he asked us if he could marry you way before he even got the ring."
"Well actually he asked me after he got the ring." Al corrected. James shot him a murderous glare.
"Yes well you would have been asked before if you hadn't been gallivanting off around the world Canada boy, you might've even been around to help us pick the ring." He snapped. Al leant around me to fix his older brother with an angry stare.
"Will you stop calling me that?! I already said sorry to Scor for not being around to help, it's not my fault that I needed some time away to sort my head out!" he shouted back angrily. James barked a laugh and shook his head.
"You didn't need to go anywhere; you were just being a prat!"
"I was not being…"
"Will you both just SHUT UP!" I shouted, throwing up my hands to silence them both. They snapped their mouths closed and turned away from each other moodily.
"Did Scorpius really ask you both if it was ok for him to propose to me?" I asked softly, hoping to steer them away from their argument.
"Yup, said he'd do it even if we said no, but he wanted us to be ok with it." James told me, Al nodded his agreement. That little piece of information filled me with warmth and happiness. Scorpius had checked with my family before asking, he'd really done it all properly. That was so sweet.
"He asked dad too." Al continued. My head snapped around and I stared at him wide-eyed.
"He asked dad?" I repeated. They both nodded.
"Way back before he started saving up for the ring, I don't think he would've asked until he got dad's approval, it was a big thing for him." Suddenly my mind was flooded with memories. The first being months ago when Scorpius had admitted that he was saving up for something, all along it'd been an engagement ring for me. Then there was that night after the snowball fight, when I'd overheard a conversation between him and my dad in the kitchen, at the time I had no idea what Scorpius was thanking him for but now it all made perfect sense. Everything was crystal clear.
"Lils…?" Al said, sounding worried. He waved a hand in front of my hazy eyes and I snapped out of my trance.
"He's been planning this for ages." I realised. They both nodded.
"Yup, he was waiting for the right time." I blinked, waiting for it all to sink in properly.
"Is it so hard to believe?" Al asked incredulously.
"Even a blind man could see how much he loves you Lily." James added softly. I looked down at the ring and felt my eyes tear up. The full realisation of what his proposal meant was starting to sink in; I started to see just how much he really did care for me.
He'd withstood both our families objecting to our relationship, had to face violence and the almost-loss of his best friend, hell he'd even threatened to curse his own grandmother because she'd threatened me!
Yet still he'd never wavered in his affection, nor had he ever considered turning his back on what we had. Instead he'd saved up over months to buy me the perfect ring, been brave enough to seek my family's blessings and somehow managed to get the courage to propose to me with them all watching. Then there was the most hard hitting realisation of them all, the tiny but powerful fact that he did all of this because he wanted to be with me, always.
"Is she going into some sort of delayed state of shock or something?" Al whispered.
"I dunno, maybe we should chuck some water over her." I heard James reply. Al snorted.
"I'll let you do that, I'm not putting myself in the firing line for one of her hexes."
"I'm not going to hex anyone, and I'm not in a state of shock." I said finally, blinking my eyes to bring the room swimming back into focus.
"Are you sure? You actually didn't move for like five minutes there." Al told me, looking at me like I was a bomb and he expected me to explode at any second.
"Yes I'm sure, I was just…thinking." They both frowned at me warily and I sighed.
"Will you stop looking at me like that!" I snapped. They flinched and both looked deliberately in another direction. I rolled my eyes.
"Thanks guys, for giving your blessing, and for helping pick out the ring." Al nodded and James gave me a proud smile.
"It'll be pretty cool having my best friend as my brother-in-law." The younger of the two mused.
"Yeah, I always wanted another brother." I turned to scowl at James and his expression turned defensive.
"I didn't mean in place of you Lils, I'd never trade in my darling sister." He pinched my cheek mockingly and I sharply slapped away his hand.
"Oh bugger off." I retorted, almost laughing as he rubbed his assaulted hand and pouted like a scolded child.
"Fine, I will." He got up and stomped out of the room. I laughed and turned to look at Al. His expression was serious and I frowned.
"What's wrong?"
"I'm sorry I wasn't around to help pick out your ring." He said quietly, looking sadly at his lap. My heart felt like led in my chest and I reached out to hug him.
"It doesn't bother me Al, as long as you're around for the wedding."
"I wouldn't miss it for the world." He replied with a sad smile.
"Good. Although it is a shame you weren't on that shopping trip, it would have been good practise for you, for when you have to buy Emma one." I nudged him playfully and his eyes widened.
"God, don't talk about that. I don't want to even think about how hard it'll be to find something she likes."
"Oh, so you're planning on proposing someday then?" I teased. He blushed and started stuttering adorably.
"No! Well, yes. Maybe…I dunno, it's too soon to be thinking about stuff like this."
"I tell you what, if it's ever the right time to think about it, I'll help you find a ring. Women are good at this sort of thing, and besides, I know Emma better than anyone." He looked up at me with hope filled eyes and I smiled.
"Deal." We shook on it and then laughed.
"I'm gonna head back down, mum said something about chocolate cake in the fridge and I don't want James eating it all." He looked suddenly panicked and I laughed.
"Go on, he's been gone for over five minutes already, any longer and it really will be too late."
"You're right, see you down there Lils." He sprang up off the mattress and darted from the room, leaving me behind, laughing.
"Where's he off to in such a hurry?" This time the voice belonged to my dad. He appeared in the doorway, glancing back over his shoulder where his youngest son had just run by him.
"Is the whole house taking it in turns to come and talk to me or something?" I asked, frowning at him. He laughed and took up the place where the others had previously occupied, on the bed beside me.
"Well I can't speak for the others, but I just came up to see how you were."
"I'm fine, dad." I managed to give him a little smile but I was still feeling irritated by my family's insistence at seeing if I was fine. I'd just gotten engaged for crying out loud, not been told I only had a month to live, of course I was bloody fine! I was better than fine, I felt utterly fantastic, or at least I would do if they would stop fussing over nothing and ruining my mood.
"Listen Lils, I just want you to know that I'm ok with this, with you marrying Scorpius." He said. His voice was strained from awkwardness. Clearly this was a tricky conversation for him.
"Honestly?" I asked, raising my eyebrows sceptically.
"Yes. I'll admit that in the beginning I didn't like it, I didn't think that a Malfoy was good enough for you, but it turns out I was wrong."
"You, wrong? Never!" I joked. He laughed and gave me a playful shove.
"He came and asked me, months ago." I knew what he was talking about.
"I know, Al told me."
"My first reaction was to refuse, flat out; I considered throwing him out the house for even suggesting it…"
"Dad!" I cried in horror, but he held up a hand to silence me.
"But then I allowed myself to think about it, for longer than a few seconds, and I realised that it was what you would want. And strangely I found that I didn't hate the idea, I never thought the day would come when I would want a Malfoy to be part of my family, but hey, I guess I was wrong on that too." He shrugged lightly and I smiled up at him tearfully.
"Thanks dad, that means a lot." And it did mean a lot, for him to say he wanted Scorpius to be part of our family was a huge statement, and I treasured every word.
"I can't accept that anyone will ever be good enough for you, but that's not my choice to make. So as long as you think he's good enough…"
"More than, I don't deserve him." I confirmed.
"I can't agree on that flower, nobody can possibly deserve you."
"You're bound to say that dad, I'm your daughter!" I laughed; he just shrugged lightly and grinned.
"No father ever believes a man is good enough for his daughter, but we all have to accept that someday we'll have to put aside our own opinions in favour of yours."
"So this is just a long drawn out way of saying that you approve of me marrying Scorpius, right?" I clarified.
"Basically, yes. I'll admit, it sounded shorter in my head." I laughed and he hugged me close to his side.
"Thanks dad, I mean, I know I already said that but I just wanted to say it again."
"There's a thousand things I want to say to you right now but I can't seem to separate one from another. I've been planning for this moment pretty much from the day you were born, I had it all worked out in my head, what I would say to you and the advice I'd give you. But now that it's here, I'm lost." He sighed sadly and gazed off into space as his mind raced after its lost thoughts.
"I guess you can't plan some things dad." He looked down at me thoughtfully and nodded.
"I guess so. I might not know what to say now, but if you ever need any advice or just someone to talk to, even if its years down the line, I'm certain I could help then."
"I won't be getting married for a long while dad, so stop worrying about this ok? You have lots of time to think of what to say." He sighed again and then nodded. There was a loud crash from downstairs that sounded like something had smashed, we both flinched and then my dad groaned.
"What have they broken now? I'd better go and see what the heck is going on." He stalked out of the room furiously and I sighed. Well they'd all come up to talk to me now, so unless the rest of my family were flooing in to have a chat too, I could relax and stop being pestered. I exhaled in relief and flopped back onto my bed to stare up at my ceiling.
I don't know how long I'd been lying there silently, replaying every second of Scorpius' proposal in my head, when suddenly he was there. He dropped down on top of me on the bed, being careful to support most of his weight on his hands that lay either side of my head. I grinned up at him like a giddy little schoolgirl, and to my delight, he grinned back equally as happily.
"Hi." He said sweetly, rubbing the tip of his nose against mine. I giggled girlishly and felt myself blush.
"Hi." I replied, nibbling my lower lip.
"You've been up here a while, is everything ok?" he asked, sounding rather worried. My smile never faltered as I replied.
"Everything is perfect." And it was, truly.
"You're not regretting it?" he checked in a low voice, avoiding my eyes. I pushed up off the bed to give him a firm but loving kiss on the lips.
"Never." He smiled down at me and then kissed me again, for longer this time. Somehow his kisses seemed so much sweeter knowing he wanted me to be his wife.
"Let's go home." I whispered between kisses.
"Ok." He slid off me and gently helped me to my feet, and we set off downstairs to say our goodbyes.
~*~
"Do you like it?" Scorpius' soft voice broke our comfortable silence. He held up my left hand so that we could both admire the new ring that sat on the third finger.
"I love it. It's so beautiful." I replied, unable to wipe the broad smile off my face. He stroked the band with the tip of his finger and I let my head drop onto his shoulder. We were curled up together in the chair by the window, it had become a bit of a routine for us now.
"Good, it's not an easy task you know, buying the perfect ring. I think James would've killed me if I'd said no to another one." I laughed at the mental image that conjured and he lowered my hand back into my lap.
"I can't believe this is what you were saving up for." I admitted, laughing slightly. He twisted around to meet my eyes and frowned curiously.
"You must've suspected that I was planning this."
"Nope." I contradicted. He raised a sceptical eyebrow and I looked away as a blush coloured my cheeks.
"Really, you had no idea?"
"Not a clue. I actually thought you were scared by the thought of marrying me." this surprised him.
"How could you think that?" He asked, looking completely aghast.
"Because you were so horrified when your mum showed me her wedding dress. You looked absolutely terrified, so I just guessed it was because you were worried I'd want my own wedding dress then." Now it was my turn to be surprised, as he laughed.
"I wasn't terrified by the thought of marrying you Lily; I was terrified that she'd told you what I was planning!"
"What?" I spluttered dumbly. He shook his head and sighed.
"I told my parents months ago that I was planning on proposing. Then we went round for dinner and you said you'd tried on my mother's wedding dress, I was so sure that she'd told you." that made a lot of sense.
"Oh, is that why you panicked so much?"
"Yes! I thought she'd ruined all my plans to surprise you."
"Oh!" I said with a little giggle. I was so relieved to know his panic wasn't what I'd thought.
"You thought I was scared about marrying you?" he asked incredulously. I nodded, blushing guiltily. He laughed and kissed my cheek.
"Silly girl, as if that could scare me." I felt like I might cry from relief and happiness. Luckily a memory prevented me from such embarrassing actions.
"What did you and your dad go off to talk about that day?" I asked bluntly.
"The wedding, he offered to pay for it, or at least a substantial part. He said that if we wouldn't accept it, we could consider it a late birthday present for you."
"Oh, so that's what he meant, when he said he'd make it up to me for forgetting a present!" I felt like in the last day I'd managed to put in the final pieces of a jigsaw, and now, everything made perfect sense. Clarity, it was something so easily taken for granted.
"Yes." Scorpius confirmed. I laughed, out of relief and not humour. How had I missed all of this? I felt so blind in that moment. Scorpius chased away any miserable thoughts I might have over my own lack of perception with his lips. I melted into the kiss, feeling our lips mould together as if it was what they were always meant to do.
Moments later I was no longer seated in his lap, I was being hoisted into the air. One of his strong arms supported my weight as the other eased my legs around his waist, all the while his lips refused to relinquish their control over mine. He started moving but I couldn't tear myself away to see where to.
"What are you doing?" I mumbled against his lips.
"I'm going to make love to my new fiancée." My heart almost leapt out of my chest at his words. My back collided with the cushy mattress as he lay me down and then I was being carried away in a sea of pleasure. He touched me differently that night, it was almost in reverence, like he worshipped every inch of me. It was impossible to doubt that he loved me, and that little ounce of clarity made that night more blissful than anything I had ever imagined.
~*~
I stirred, feeling my consciousness shift as I slipped from one dream into another. I could vaguely feel Scorpius lying up against my back, his warm body pressed against the length of my own as his arm held me securely against his chest. I gave over to the tug of weariness and let myself be drawn into the folds of a new dream.
A loud crack echoed around the room, snapping me out of my dream limbo, a loud thud followed and I sat up alarmed. Squinting in the darkness I could see the blurry outline of something big now occupying my floor. That something was making noise, I shook my head, trying to snap out of my slumber and hear what it was. As my drowsiness wore off my ears were met by the sound of whimpering and panic flooded my body.
"Lily…?" a cracked voice whispered. I felt my blood turn cold. I threw aside the duvet and bolted from the bed, accidentally kicking Scorpius in process. I heard him groan objectively but ignored it as I flew to the person sprawled across my floor.
"Oh god, Lucy." She was knelt down, her arms wrapped around her stomach tightly and her face scrunched up in pain. As I knelt down beside her, her hand flew out and grasped my wrist agonisingly tightly.
"Lily, it…hurts." She gasped. I could feel the hysteria rising within me. This wasn't good.
"What hurts Lucy? Tell me where." I could only see her blurry outline in the darkness, but I didn't need light to know that she was crying.
"Stomach…my stomach." She spluttered, gasping in agony again. I started to peel her fingers off my wrist so that I could stand up.
"I'm just going to get my wand, ok Lucy? Don't move." She didn't reply, too pained to speak again, but released her hold on me. Immediately I leapt to my feet and darted to the bedside. I snatched my wand up off the little table and rushed back to her.
"Lumos." As soon as the light flooded the room I saw the state she was in. Keeled over, weeping in agony. She was biting down on her lip so hard it had drawn blood, in a desperate attempt not to cry out from the pain. I set my wand down and reached out to try and pry away her arms as they clutched her belly.
"Oh god, what happened?" I asked frantically. I tried to help her straighten up but she whimpered and waved me away. I heard Scorpius moan from the bed, the light from my spell had woken him.
"I woke up…in pain." She spoke through gritted teeth and my heart started racing in panic. What was I going to do? What could have caused all of this, and what about the baby? Oh god, what if the baby was hurt.
"What's going on?" Scorpius asked sleepily. I ignored him Lucy was far more important right now.
"Do you think you can stand? We need to get you to a hospital." Her head snapped up in alarm and her eyes flooded with hysteria.
"No, no hospitals!" she exclaimed firmly.
"Lucy you're in agony, you need to be checked out!" I argued, trying again to tug her to her feet but still she resisted.
"Lucy? What are you doing here?" Scorpius was sitting up now, blinking through the light at us.
"No, please, they might tell my parents!" she cried, stumbling over the last word slightly as she gasped through more pain.
"Shit, what's happened?" Scorpius was out of the bed now; he appeared at my side with a frantic expression that matched my own. My attention stayed firmly on my friend.
"It doesn't matter if they tell them, this is serious Luce!" I urged, trying to pull her up again.
"No! I can't!" she snatched her hand away again and winced as more pain shook her.
"What's happened to her, why is she in so much pain?" Scorpius pleaded.
"Think about the baby Lucy, what if this is harming the baby!" I cried desperately. I knew I was betraying my promise not to tell anyone, because now Scorpius would know, but I needed some way to persuade her into going to hospital.
"Baby, what baby?" Again I ignored my clueless fiancé and watched the battle in my friends' eyes. She didn't want her parents knowing anything but the possibility that her baby could be in danger was much more important.
"I have no choice." She whispered sadly as she offered me her arm.
"Help me get her up." I instructed. Scorpius nodded obediently despite the many questions his expression held. We each took one of her arms and carefully lifted her up, she wobbled unsteadily and Scorpius threw an arm around her back to support her.
"Is anyone going to explain what the hell is going on?" he demanded, looking worried and annoyed.
"Explanations will have to wait; right now we need to get her checked out." I was surprised by the calmness of my own voice as I spoke; it reflected none of the spiralling panic and worry I was experiencing inside.
I bent down to scoop up my wand and something startling caught my eye. On the pale yellow cotton of Lucy's pyjama trousers was a very distinct patch of dark red. My eyes widened in alarm as I realised it was expanding by the second.
"Oh god, Lucy you're bleeding!" now I was really scared, my own eyes were welling with tears and I felt myself slipping into blind fear. Scorpius and Lucy both looked down at her pyjama bottoms at the same time and both made equal sounds of alarm as they too saw the puddle of blood.
"Oh no, no, please, not my baby…" she whimpered helplessly as tears poured down her cheeks.
"We need to get her to a hospital, now." Scorpius announced, but I was still too stunned to speak. Too many fears and questions were racing through my mind. Blood wasn't a good sign, especially not when you're pregnant. What if Lucy was loosing her baby? What was I supposed to do? How could I help her?
She cried out as a new stab of pain hit her and the weight of it all became too much and she fell limp in Scorpius' arms.
"She's passed out." He stated as he quickly scooped her up and started carrying her to the door. I watched him go numbly, still in shock.
"Lily!" Scorpius' shout snapped me out of my trance and I managed to get a grip. Lucy needed me, I couldn't just stand here helplessly while she was bleeding and in pain. I clutched my wand a bit tighter and rushed to his side.
"There's a muggle hospital in town, we can apparate into the alley behind it without being seen." I told him.
"Good girl, now take us." He gripped my hand tightly and I closed my eyes. I forced away all my worry and my fear to focus on apparating properly. The last thing we needed right now was to end up being splinched.