Birthday Wishes Always Come True - Wish Upon a Star
written by: albe-chan
DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction and I do NOT own Harry Potter or any of the characters mentioned, I am making no money from this, and any similarities with real life are purely coincidental. This work will contain MATURE THEMES, such as coarse language, mature subject matter (scenes containing graphic sex, recreational drug use, nudity, etc.), and/or violence. Please, if you are not over the age of 18, or of majority in your country, DO NOT READ THIS! You have been warned!
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By lunchtime Lily was feeling back to normal, for the most part, and headed off to Arithmancy with Matilda, who was proving to be a great friend by helping Lily, who barely understood half of what their teacher talked about in class. She was wishing, by the time she bid Matilda goodbye and headed down for Herbology, she'd taken Care of Magical Creatures instead of stupid Arithmancy. Because it might be cold, but it was way easier to baby sit a Niffler than figure out advanced magical equations.
Once in Herbology, they found out they'd be transplanting their Snargaluff seedlings into larger pots to mature into saplings. It seemed fairly straightforward, and absurdly easy, and Lily picked up her little tray of three seedlings gently, to bring them over to a work bench. But the little bastards, looking like twigs stuck into the earth, had grown their stupid little vines, and they shot out, wrapping around Lily's hands and fingers and pulling tight, like thread.
"Ow!" she hissed, putting the tray down with more force than necessary. The little vines loosened and she pulled away roughly. "Little fuckers," she murmured, frowning.
"Don't be mean to the poor little buggers," MacDougall said softly from beside her, and she blushed a little but smiled over at him. "They think you're the enemy."
"She is," said Robertson darkly from across the bench, and Lily fixed him with a glare.
"Nay," MacDougall said easily. "Professor Longbottom's the enemy, because he's the one who's going to terminate them at the end of the year."
Lily barely refrained from sticking her tongue out at Robertson and ignored him the rest of class, and didn't see the suspicious looks the other Hufflepuff sent her as she talked and laughed with MacDougall. After she'd wrangled her seedlings into pots (the first one had been especially tenacious and put up a good fight after it escaped, half covered in fertilizer), class was dismissed and Lily, with a smudge of dirt on her nose, exited with MacDougall.
"So I have to ask, Potter," he said once they'd gained the Entrance Hall, dawdling by the four glass bulbs that tallied House points. Lily dawdled with him. "Are we going to tell anyone?"
She didn't have to ask about what and blushed a little. "I suppose we could tell some people. Trustworthy people, who aren't going to tell the whole world." MacDougall frowned a little and Lily reached for his very large hand, frowning at the dirt under her fingernails. "I'm not opposed to telling the whole world, I'm just saying, it gets kind of old, everyone looking at your relationships, or lack thereof, under a Magnifying Charm."
MacDougall closed the space between them significantly. "Aye, I can see where you're coming from, Potter." She smiled up at him. "Does that mean I'm not allowed to kiss you right now? Because I'd really rather like to."
Lily felt her heart speed up a little bit. "Only if you stop calling me Potter and call me Lily instead," she murmured.
MacDougall grinned, eyes crinkling. "Does that mean you'll call me Evan?" His brogue roughened and Lily swallowed thickly. Damn, but that was a good accent!
"Sure," Lily said, smiling and feeling a tad giddy as he bent down and kissed her, the redhead lifting onto her toes and pressing into his warmth for a long moment. "So did you want me to come to your Quidditch practice tonight?" she asked softly.
"Aye, but you'll be frozen," he murmured. She grinned a little goofily at that, because that was really sweet. And true.
"I'll practice my Warming Charms," she murmured back, and made a noise of surprise when he kissed her again and her feet left the ground briefly. "And you can warm me up after," she added throatily, and he chuckled.
"It'll be my pleasure, doll," he rumbled back, and Lily practically floated up to her dorm to shower before dinner. By the time she sat at the Gryffindor table an hour later, word had spread like wildfire through the castle that Lily Potter's newest conquest was obviously the quiet, relatively un-gossiped-about Evan MacDougall. The redhead had assumed word would go round after the kisses in the Entrance Hall, and braced for the awkwardness she associated with being the center of gossip.
Instead, to her surprise, when Lily sat down, Kasey Michaels sat down across from her and asked if it was true her and MacDougall were together. "Um, yes," Lily admitted. Kasey's mouth dropped open for a beat, then snapped shut.
"Oh. Damn." Lily frowned. "It's just, I totally thought Robertson was spreading bull about you, so I may have kind of hexed him when he said you and MacDougall were dating or whatever." Lily burst out laughing. "So can I ask a personal question?" Kasey added, dropping her voice as Cheryl sat down beside Lily.
"Go for it," the redhead said, waving a hand. "This bitch already knows."
Kasey leaned in closer across the Gryffindor table. "Is he big everywhere? Steph Marsden has had a crush on MacDougall for ages and she reckons it has to be proportionate."
Cheryl snorted as Lily blushed. "Wow, I am so not answering that," Lily said firmly. Mostly because she couldn't, but she was kind of hoping it would be proportionate too.
Kasey Michaels sighed, getting up. "I guess I should apologize to Robertson," she murmured.
"Nah," Lily said lightly. "He deserved it anyway. What'd you get him with?"
"Tarantallegra. Dancing jinx."
"Nice," Lily said with a grin. "And don't forget, Thursday at seven!"
Michaels waved a hand and departed. "Steph Marsden's going to be out for blood," Cheryl murmured, even as the other Gryffindor Sixth Year came into the Great Hall. Lily slunk down a bit in her seat.
"Doubly so," Lily sighed. "I had to cut her from Pep Team beginning of the year. She's going to try to duel me I bet."
Cheryl laughed. "Get Matilda to be your second. She'll give her detention."
Lily snorted. "I'd probably get one too if I got a spell past."
"For sure," Cheryl agreed. "So are you gonna help me with Transfiguration homework tonight?"
Lily grinned shiftily. "No. I'm going to watch Evan's practice." Cheryl's eyebrows shot up.
"Who?" she drawled. Lily rolled hazel eyes. "Oh, you mean your boyfriend."
"Yes, him," Lily said smugly. And she knew exactly what she'd do to amuse herself while trying to avoid freezing to death watching Quidditch practice that evening. She'd write a nice long reply to Scorpius, pleasant as punch, and oh so casually mention her boyfriend. And when she posted her letter, she'd even send him some real coffee still. Although she'd make sure it was decaf.
That evening, wrapped in a double layer of Weasley Christmas sweaters, her cloak and scarf, she staked out a section of bench seating around the Quidditch pitch and settled in to watch a Quidditch practice and write her reply to Scorpius. She had the rest of his letter and read it by wand light in the growing dark.
Okay, so I should probably explain that last bit. I'd like to start by saying I haven't made it a habit to snog random women wherever we've been. I have snogged a few, if you'd like the truth, but they didn't mean anything. At least nothing compared to you, Lily. And I never meant to tell you, but I don't want to lie to you. The barmaid was a distraction, that's all, and I was rather drunk. And if it makes you feel any better, Albus punched me in the mouth this morning after regaining consciousness. (That will make this the third punch, for the record.)
I don't expect you to be anything but upset, but I want you to know I didn't mean for any of it to happen, Lily. She was just there. And we didn't sleep together.
Godric, I know, I'm an absolute ass, and I'm sorry. And I want to write that I'll never do it again, but I don't know if I can promise that.
The next bit was clearly from some time later.
Lily, you'll never believe it. We're in America. I'm not sure how it happened, precisely. We got drunk with some Irish guys who were going to visit their cousins and somehow we booked a nonstop Portkey, on my father's dime, to New York. And Godric fucking Gryffindor, Lily, it's the most insane thing I've ever seen. I wish you were here to see it with me. There's...
The redhead stopped reading. She didn't want to hear about another new, fabulously beautiful, exciting place he was visiting, because now, every time she read his letters, she'd wonder whether or not there was some faceless bimbo. And then she'd be unable to help thinking, possibly obsessing, whether or not Scorpius went all the way and slept with said bimbo. So Lily tucked the letter firmly away into her jeans pocket, after folding it up, and watched the last fifteen minutes of Quidditch training for the Hufflepuff team, indeed practising a Warming Charm on her hands and feet.
MacDougall exited the change rooms third out of the team, and Lily was pleased to see Robertson, who emerged directly after him, head up to the castle with a stony faced expression. She climbed down the few rows to the little wall. "Hi," the redhead said softly as her boyfriend approached. It was funny, but while she didn't get the burst of intense butterflies she seemed to get when she'd dated Scorpius and seen him coming toward her, she felt a definite wriggle of shy elation as he smiled at her.
"Hi," he said back, and when she put her arms around his neck, he lifted her right up and over, against himself. Lily couldn't hold in her giggle.
"How many sweaters are you wearing?" he teased, moving his hands under both, and her tank top. Lily gasped into his mouth, arching, because his hands were cooler than her skin.
"Ah! Cold!" she said. "And only two."
"Only?" MacDougall teased, laughing. His hands had equalized temperature with her flesh and Lily bit her lip on a groan when they moved from her hips to the top of her waist. Their mouths met, both hot and eager, and Lily didn't hold back the groan this time. Her own hands roved over his shoulders and up his neck to push through his soft curls. And when his thumbs brushed the naked underside of her breasts, Lily sucked in a sharp breath through her nose, nipples hardening. "Lily," he rasped, right against her ear, after breaking from her mouth, and the redhead almost melted.
"Uh huh," she replied, somewhat distracted by his teasing thumbs, very distracted by his mouth against her neck, just below and behind her ear.
"You're naked under your clothes." His rough brogue softened the words melodiously, but Lily still burst out laughing at them, burying her face in his warm neck, still pressed to him from thighs to chest.
"Aren't we all?" she asked. He chuckled a little.
"Aye, but you know what I mean," he murmured. "You're going to be a bad influence on me, aren't you?"
Lily pouted a tiny bit, because she wasn't all that bad, was she? Then she realized she might be, at least from someone else's eyes, and frowned. "Or," she murmured instead of answering, "you'll be a good influence on me."
MacDougall chuckled again, and Lily bit back a sigh as his hands moved down and out from her shirt. "Aye, maybe," he murmured, kissed her briefly once more and then they started slowly toward the castle. They parted ways in the Entrance Hall, after another lingering kiss that had Lily more than thinking about more, and she sighed a little as she climbed up the stairs toward Gryffindor Tower.
She was starting to think Evan MacDougall was a bit old fashioned about the whole sex thing. Which was quite possibly the exact opposite of Carmichael, now that she thought about it, because the Ravenclaw had been pretty upfront about fooling around, and how he was okay with it outside the context of relationships. The rub was, Lily couldn't decide whether she was pleased by that notion or not. Sure, Evan was a nice guy, through and through, and Carmichael had done something utterly despicable. But a tiny part of the redheaded witch kind of missed the casual intimacy she'd had with Carmichael. And, of course, the slutty part of her missed the sex, or the option of, anyway.
But she could wait for MacDougall, if he wanted to wait. She had nothing but time to kill until Christmas break when she might see- No. "Gobbledygook," she said sternly to the Fat Lady, who simpered.
"Oh no, dear, the password has changed."
Lily scowled. "Well what is it?"
The Fat Lady merely smiled, and Lily wanted to call her a lot of mean names. She refrained, took a deep breath, and waited for someone else to come along, wondering how she was always the last person to know the Godric damned password. After a few minutes she was bored to tears and was debating looking for someone to ask the password of in the Library when the portrait hole finally opened.
Lily got up and wanted to cry when Stephanie Marsden slammed it behind herself, stopping short at the sight of Lily. "Potter," she said darkly. Lily set her mouth.
"Marsden," she said respectfully, and swallowed a large dose of pride. "Do you have the new password?"
The other Gryffindor girl, with her strawberry blonde curls and cornflower blue eyes, glared back. "Of course. Not all of us like to spend every night sleeping their way through the male population here, y'know."
Lily rolled her eyes. "Would you like to tell me what it is?" she asked patiently.
"No," Stephanie said primly. "Want to know why?"
Lily rolled her eyes again, checking her wand in her pocket. "I'm guessing you're going to tell me anyway," she mumbled. Marsden glared.
"Because you're a slut, and-"
"And you're jealous Evan wants to go out with me, aren't you?" Lily supplied. She smiled grimly at Stephanie's blushing and spluttering. "Well that's cute, but you're kind of shit outta luck on that one, and your anger is misplaced. And if you want to duel me, let's go, but I'll kick your ass."
Stephanie gaped for a beat, then snapped her mouth shut. "You're a bitch. You don't even care about other people's feelings, do you?"
The redhead shrugged. "I'd be more inclined to care if you gave me the password," she admitted, and then Marsden was drawing her wand and shouting and Lily barely had time to cast a Shield Charm before three spells bounced off it. "Holy shit," she said, eyes going wide, and put her Shield Charm up again as Stephanie cursed her with abandon. "Oh Godric, stop!" she shouted.
Marsden didn't hear or wasn't listening. She threw hex after jinx after curse at Lily, who did her best to dodge and block and evade, while defending herself. And then, as though time slowed, Lily noticed three things happen at once. The portrait hole opened and Matilda and Dave McEwan, holding hands and smiling, stepped out, her Shield Charm dropped, and her nonverbal Tarantallegra hit Marsden just as the other girl's Petrificus Totalus went wide.
And as Stephanie started doing a superspeed version of an Irish jig, Lily's mouth dropped open that she'd actually successfully used nonverbal magic, and Matilda said incredulously, "What is going on here!?"
Stephanie burst into tears, falling over as her legs danced madly, and Dave hastily performed the counter curse to stop her dancing. The other girl sobbed and Lily could only gape for a second. "She came at me," Lily said at last. "I… She was saying I was a slut, and I said she was jealous Evan wants to date me and not her, and she flipped out," Lily said breathlessly, feeling guilty when Matilda glared, trying to quiet Stephanie's sobs.
"I saw the whole thing," The Fat Lady added gleefully. "It was awful."
"Is that what happened?" Dave asked her. "What Lily said?"
"Mostly."
"She deserved it," Marsden sobbed, and glared up at Lily. "You're a slut, and a bitch, and you're going to break Evan's heart, because that's what you do!" Lily squished her mouth together, trying not to rise. "You did it last year, to Malfoy, didn't you!?" she added and Lily saw red, gripping her wand, telling herself she wouldn't rise. That would be foolish, and if she just kept a level head, she'd avoid another detention. "You've already done it this year to that Carmichael guy, too, so don't go acting all innocent, Potter."
Lily lost it at that. "You don't know a thing about me, bitch, but you'll learn not to mess with me." And without thought, she waved her wand and performed a perfect nonverbal Boil Hex on poor Stephanie Marsden. And, to nobody's surprise, Matilda gave Lily detention.
So the next night, Lily reported to the Library and the ancient Madam Pince for detention, feeling mutinous and furious. Because word had travelled about her and Stephanie Marsden dueling outside the portrait hole and Stephanie, it seemed, wasted no time vilifying the redhead to the entire school, and gotten off scot free to boot. And then Madam Pince informed her smugly she'd be copying out records of late returns, by hand.
After an hour, she was cursing Stephanie Marsden to the darkest depths of every kind of hell she could think of, and all the ones she couldn't, too. Her wrist was on fire, her back ached from hunching over, and her eyes were burning after trying to read dusty, faded parchment for too long. "Somebody kill me now," she breathed, pushing a hand through her hair, and was pretty sure she was hallucinating when Evan MacDougall turned around the corner to the moldy, cobwebby section Lily had been banished to in the Library for her detention.
"Hello, doll," he whispered, and she looked around in alarm, certain Madam Pince was about to swoop in and go ballistic. "I only have a second, but I heard about why you're sitting detention."
Her mouth pursed. "Because bitches are crazy," she grumbled. MacDougall grinned.
"Aye. So to stay off the crazy radar, here you go. Please use it wisely." Lily felt her brows go up as he slipped a little bottle into her hand, leaned down and kissed her parted mouth swiftly, then slunk away. The redhead blinked, wondering if she'd actually fallen asleep and it was all an elaborate dream. But she still had a little bottle in her palm, and could almost feel the lingering warmth of Evan's kiss.
And then she glanced down at the bottle in her palm and frowned. Invisible Ink, guaranteed to stay out of sight, no matter the light, and even under magical probing. What the hell could this possibly do for her? Except make her detention stretch into infinity, of course. What an asshole thing to give her!
She went back to her stupid detention just as Madam Pince's pointed nose peeked around the corner and she creaked away again. Lily sighed, arm slowly going numb from her hand, to her wrist, then to her elbow. And, at last, when night was thick outside the window, Madam Pince let her go.
Lily hustled up to her dorm to try and get some homework done before she passed out and gave the password Matilda had told her after the Prefect had given her detention, to the Fat Lady. "Correct," the plump woman said pleasantly. "And just a head's up, I'm going to change the password again, December first."
Lily grit her teeth into a smile. "Thanks," she mumbled as the portrait swung open and she climbed into the common room. "Stupid old portrait," she added under her breath. And only half a dozen steps into the common room, she caught the unmistakable smell of someone who was not Scorpius, but a scent imposter. "Go away," she sighed.
Aaron Worthington smiled. "So defensive, Potter. No, I have a favour to ask."
"The answer is no," Lily replied automatically, and fixed the tall blond wizard with a steely glare. "To any favour you might need."
His mouth quirked up into a smile. "Surprisingly, that's not the favour I had in mind."
The redhead paused on her way to the girls' dormitories. "Let's hear it then, before I tell you no again."
Worthington smirked a little. "When you and your little cheerleaders go out, we're going to need a distraction. Or maybe more than just one." Her eyebrow climbed impossibly higher.
"A distraction?" she repeated.
"Yes. Just act slutty or something, you should know the drill. Something to help us get a strong early lead. And then-"
"No," Lily cut across him firmly, and turned away, heading to the girls' dorms. What a tosser. Why in the name of Merlin's favourite kettle would she want to do anything other than make sure her girls didn't embarrass her or themselves? She went upstairs, glanced at her Transfiguration, and took a long hot shower instead, hating Stephanie fucking Marsden, even as she felt warm and sleepy and mostly relaxed climbing into bed a half hour later in the quiet dorm. And rather detesting Worthington as well. What an idiot he was for thinking she'd just act slutty to earn him a strong Quidditch lead!
That weekend was the first Quidditch game of the season for Gryffindor, who were set to play Slytherin. Lily barely ate before the game, wracked with anxiety about stupid Pep Team, wondering why in the hell she'd ever agreed to be the freaking Captain. No wonder Rose had shouted a lot. Lily felt like shouting. When the Team assembled, she gave them the best thing she had in way of a pep talk. "I know this is going to sound lame, but I really want you girls to give me your A-game right now. And if you don't, you're probably going to wish you hadn't made the Team. Ready?"
"Let's do this shit," Kasey Michaels said, nodding, and Lily and the others went out and onto the pitch properly.
To Lily's delight, the whole thing lasted only an hour and a half, and Slytherin won, by a landslide. Three hundred points to twenty. And after the game, there was Evan. "Aren't you cold?" he teased, moving his large hands over the cutouts on her stupid Pep Team uniform, and leaned back with her against the back of the little pitch office.
"Not anymore," she replied, moving closer, and lifted onto her toes, pulling him down to kiss him. "So what was better for you, watching us do our Pep thing or watching Gryffindor get stomped on?"
"Tough choice," he murmured. "On the one hand, attractive young women jumping around in skimpy uniforms, shaking it. On the other seven little boys who can't get more than two past, whining and pouting after Slytherin won."
Hazel eyes rolled. "I'll give you a hint. There's only one right answer."
"I hope it's the truth. Because I much preferred watching the Pep Captain. How do you do that backwards thing?"
Lily grinned. "You'd be surprised what I can do, Evan," she said, trying not to sound too slutty. To her delight he lifted her right off her feet, up against himself, and she moved her thighs around his hips instinctively, clutching his broad shoulders.
"I'll bet," he agreed, and dropped lazy kisses on her neck. "You're definitely a bad influence, Lily," he murmured after several heated minutes of snogging and light fondling. She smirked, gripped him tighter with her legs and arched up into him, drawing out a grunt that had his hands, which had just slid to her ass, grabbing the supple, firm flesh. She moaned into his mouth. "Cho dona, ach fìor mhath."
"I hope that means something good," she mumbled, feeling a little dizzy with desire at the rough timbre of her boyfriend's voice and that way too sexy sound of his thick accent making melodious sounds that definitely weren't English. "And I really hope there's no one else who's noticed it's kind of really hot when you talk like that."
MacDougall chuckled, eyes crinkling, and gently set her on her feet again. "Nay, just you, doll."
"Good," she murmured, and kissed him again. "So I was wondering," she said as they finally started back up toward the castle holding hands at long last, seemingly the very last of the stragglers. "What's with the Invisible Ink?"
MacDougall grinned crookedly, as though equally amused and exasperated. "For your Pep Practice, doll. So you can book the pitch, have a secure time, and no one will see it."
Lily's mouth parted, because that was a really thoughtful thing to do. "Thanks," she said throatily. He squeezed her hand gently.
"You're welcome." And in that moment, when Lily looked up, she realized it would be easy to fall for Evan MacDougall. He was thoughtful and sweet, and the gentlest of giants, and she could picture being with him seriously. He'd be steady as a boulder, safe, and maybe just the tiniest bit boring, but lovable all the same. Even if he went around the wizarding world without her, she couldn't see him making out with slutty barmaids. But, as always, there was one thing wrong with that picture. That one something she hadn't mentioned to MacDougall, either. She was still, even though she was mad at him, more than a little in love with Scorpius, and she doubted she'd ever not be.
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