"Rose, what the hell is your problem?" Scorpius snapped, finally reacting to her constant flirts and giggles. The whole thing had become unbearable for him and the fact that Lily had just walked out of the Great Hall wasn't helping his mood. "I've already told you, I don't like you."
Lily's older cousin didn't look fazed by Scorpius' harsh words. "Oh Scor, I'm sure you can learn to like me in that way and you know I'll make it worth your while," she said seductively, lowering her eyelashes and unbuttoning the top of her shirt.
Immediately Scorpius diverted his eyes, pushing his bowl away and getting to his feet. When he reached down to pick up his bag, he hovered at Rose's level, noticing how many more freckles she had in contrast to Lily. "I'd rather have sex with old Professor Denbright than be with you," he hissed, watching the smirk drop from Rose's face. He adjusted the strap on his shoulder and stood up straight.
"And leave Lily alone," Scorpius added, giving a little salute to his friends before hurrying out of the Great Hall in the search for some peace.
####
It had a barely been five minutes since Scorpius had left - with Rose leaving soon after seeing as she had no actual reason to be at the Slytherin table – and since then, Albus hadn't eaten a thing. Although the fact that his best friend and his little sister dating was a disgusting thought to have, at least when they were together they were happy. All weekend, he had slowly watched his friend become a shell of his usual self, someone he recognised but barely knew.
"Well that went well," Ariana's sweet voice chimed, making Albus snapped out of his train of thought. His girlfriend sat down on the bench between him and Kaleb and pinched a bread roll from the basket. "Got any other bright ideas?" she said sarcastically, looking up at him with a cute frown on her face.
"It's not my fault Rose came over here," Albus exclaimed defensively, folding his hand into hers under the table like they always did. "I'm her cousin, not her psychic."
Lazily, Kaleb pushed his plate away and leaned back, even though there was nothing to lean back on. "It was never going to work in the first place," he remarked, taking a casual sip from his cup. "You need to do more than just get them in the same room. Forcing them to be together and work this out is the only way they'll resolve anything."
"But I know my sister," Albus countered, not likely the sound of forcing Lily to do anything didn't want to do. "She's got a temper on her equal to my mum's and I don't fancy getting on the wrong side of it."
"Kaleb's right," Ariana said, turning in her seat to look up at Albus with soft chocolate eyes. "Once Lily and Scorpius get into the same room and start talking, they'll sort everything out and then they'll be thankful to us for pushing them together." Then she made a nonchalant shrug. "And if not, we blame the whole thing on Kaleb."
"HEY!" Kaleb exclaimed loudly, frowning hard as Albus let out of loud laugh and cuddled his giggling girlfriend closer to his side.
####
Seeing as Lily had already finished the majority of her work, aside from the parts she needed Hugo's help on, she decided to channel her frustration into a different outlet. When she got back to her dormitory, she changed into some tight yoga pants and a vest top with a big hoodie over the top. Then she slipped on her Converse and headed down to one of her favourite spots at Hogwarts – the Quidditch pitch.
With the help of her wand, Lily unlocked her broom from the Gryffindor changing rooms and immediately took to the sky, instantly smiling as she climbed higher and higher. The wind whipped around her body, making her shiver at the temperature; so to warm up, she paced around the pitch with her body close to the broom in order to pick up speed.
She loved flying. It was the greatest distraction and was such a relaxing activity for her – obviously not when she was playing Quidditch though. Up in the air, her mind immediately cleared of all worries and focused on simply flying. It made her feel at peace and free from all the drama that plagued her when she was on solid ground.
And she would have stayed up there all night if it hadn't been for the Ravenclaw team coming onto the pitch for their training session.
Lily landed back on the grass, locked her broom back up in the changing rooms and headed back to the castle, hurrying herself as the temperature had dropped quite considerably. Inside the castle wasn't much different in terms of temperature, making Lily tug her sleeves down to her wrists to conserve heat. Winding her way through the secret passages, she quickly made her way to Gryffindor Tower, stopping abruptly at the Fat Lady's portrait.
"Scorpius?" she asked questioningly, her attention focused on the blonde-haired boy Lily would have recognised anywhere. He was sat on the floor with a heavy book in his lap, hands in his messy hair.
At Lily's voice, his head snapped up and the book fell from his lap as he got to his feet. "There you are," he said softly, without any trace of anger in his voice. Why wasn't he angry at her? She sure was.
"What are you doing out here?" Lily took a few steps towards him slowly, trying to read his face. All of a sudden, she wished she'd showered after flying.
"I was waiting for you," Scorpius replied, closing the gap between the pair of them. "I would have waited in the common room but I think Rose is in there and she's probably the last person I want to see right now."
She reached out, taking a deep breath of Gryffindor courage, and wrapped her fingers around his. "I'm so sorry Scorpius. I shouldn't have lost it back in the library." And once she started, she couldn't stop. "I know you would never got there with Rose, the logical part of my brain knows that. But at the same time, there's always that little bit of doubt that makes me worry that maybe you do want something more." And when Scorpius opened his mouth to argue, Lily had up a hand to silence him. "I know we've had this conversation already and I know you said you're willing to wait but sometimes these little insecurities get me worried and that makes me lose my temper. I'm sorry."
"I'm the one who should be apologising Lil," he said softly, squeezing her hand tightly in reassurance. At the mention of his nickname for her, Lily felt her heart beat faster as she listened to Scorpius. "I shouldn't have let Rose act that way around me. It's not fair on you to have to fight our corner all the time and that makes me a bad boyfriend. The truth is, I love it when you get angry, even if it is aimed at me, because you do so with so much passion that fills my heart up." A small smile crawled up onto his lips replicating Lily's own. "That is until you go and leave like a badass," he added.
"From now on, I'll stand up for us," Scorpius announced, pulling Lily closer to his body. "You are the best thing that has ever happened to me and I'm not letting you go because of silly Rose Weasley."
Looking up at Scorpius' big grey eyes, Lily pressed her body up against his, closing any remaining gap. "Can we never argue again? This last weekend hasn't been a great big cauldron of fun for me and I hear from Kaleb that you had a troll of a weekend too."
"Let's make a promise that we never go to sleep angry at each other," he replied. "That way, the anger never festers and damages our relationship and we never have to endure a weekend like this past one. Sound like a plan?"
Lily beamed brightly and reached up on her tiptoes. "This is the best thing I've heard all day," she said quietly.
Quickly Scorpius closed the gap between their lips, pressing them hard up against hers as if they hadn't kissed each other in months, not mere days. His strong arms wrapped themselves comfortably around her waist and he bent down slowly, lifting her off her feet and pushing her against his body. With a small gasp, Lily giggled against his lips and tangled her fingers in his hair, pulling him back and moving her lips seductively against his. The kiss didn't last as long as Lily would have like, but she knew there would be more to follow.
She pulled her lips away as her feet fell back to the solid floor and looked up at Scorpius with a burning smile. "How about we go somewhere a bit more private?" she asked quietly, indicating with her head to the Fat Lady pretending to be asleep in her frame.
With a smirk on his face, Scorpius dryly laughed and bent down to grab his book and bag. As he stood up straight, he took hold of her hand again and began pulling her down the corridor.
####
They ended up spending the majority of the evening curled up on small sofa they had conjured up in Room of Requirement in front of the warm fire. As the flames flickered and danced around one another, they talked about their classes and Lily's failing at Potions. They also spoke about Rose and how they needed to get her off their backs and onto someone else's, like Maxy's. In the end, they decided to talk to Hugo about the problem.
By the time Lily left the Room of Requirement with a kiss goodnight from Scorpius, it was very late: definitely the early hours of the morning judging on how dark the sky looked outside the windows. Lily hurried through the corridors, taking extra care not to bump into anyone still patrolling the halls that late. She made it to her dormitory with no problem and found everyone asleep with their curtains drawn.
All except Ariana, who's curtains were wide open as if she had been waiting for Lily to return.
Quickly, Lily changed into her pyjamas and curled up under her covers, facing her best friend's sleeping face. "I hope Albus knows how lucky he is," she murmured quietly to herself, grateful that she had such a caring friend. And with thoughts of the pair of them together, Lily slowly drifted off to sleep.
The next thing Lily knew, Ariana was shaking her awake, yelling allsorts about the fact they were going to be late for class. "Come on Lily, get the hell out of bed before I drag you out," she called frantically, darting into the bathroom. "Everyone else has already gone down and you're always cranky if you don't have breakfast. Also I need to stop by Professor Flitwick's on the way to pick up my bag," she added.
Yawning to herself, Lily pushed back the covers of her bed and sat up on her bed, feet dangling off. "I'm getting up," she moaned loudly, picking up the brush from her bedside table and running it through her hair. "Why didn't you wake me up earlier?" she asked, stifling another yawn.
"Because I knew you didn't come back to the Tower until quite late and you probably needed the extra sleep," Ariana called back, her voice muffled by her toothbrush.
Lily smiled to herself and tied her hair up in a ponytail. As she had said before, Ariana was the best of all best friends. She jumped off the bed, hurried to join Ariana in the bathroom and quickly brushed her teeth and washed her face. Then she got dressed into her uniform and was still slipping into her shoes and tying her tie as Ariana hurried her out of the dormitory, looking at her watch.
As they made their way through the corridors, heading to Professor Flitwick's classroom, Lily frantically tried to make herself to presentable. She had resolved to tell everyone about her and Scorpius once they were all sat down at the Gryffindor table, just to save time instead of repeating herself. Turning around the last corner, Lily slipped her lip balm back in her bag and rubbed her lips together.
"Merlin's beard, my shoelaces are untied," Ariana exclaimed, just outside the door to the classroom. Immediately, she crouched down. "Can you go and find my bag for me? I'll help in just a second."
With a shrug of her shoulders, Lily pushed open the door and made for the back of her room where Lily and Ariana sat during their Charms class. But she couldn't see the bag anywhere. As she searched around the back of the room, she got down onto her hands and knees, trying to spot the bag under the many desks and bookcases.
Loudly there was a slam of the door.
Lily peered over the desk she had been searching under and shot a questioning glance at Scorpius. At Scorpius? "What are you doing here?" Lily exclaimed, quickly getting to her feet.
"What are you doing here?" he countered, walking down the aisle and closing the gap between them. Together they met in the middle of the classroom, just as voices emanated from the door.
"We're not going to let you out until you sort this out between yourselves," Ariana called out from behind the door. Next Lily heard her best friend murmur the Locking Charm, tailoring it so only herself could open it back.
The voice that followed Ariana's shouldn't have surprised Lily at all. "As much as it pains me to say this, you two belong together and I will not stand by and watch my best friend and sister be unhappy, all because of Rose," Albus yelled.
Looking up at Scorpius, Lily rolled her eyes and reached up to kiss him softly on the lips. "Always interfering," she muttered softly, smiling up at Scorpius' smirk.
"Thanks for the concern Al but you're a day too late, I'm afraid," he called back, his head facing the door as he unconsciously reached out for Lily's hand.
"What do you mean?" Albus asked, through the door. In her head, Lily could imagine Albus' scrunched up face as he tried to make sense of what Scorpius had said.
"What he means is that Scorpius and I are perfectly fine," Lily answered, resting her head on her boyfriend's chest. "We made up yesterday."
"Seriously?" Ariana's high voice asked.
Above her, Scorpius let out a loud sigh. "Yes, so can you let us out so we can go and grab some breakfast? My stomach's rumbling."
There was the muttering of spells and all of a sudden, the lock on the door made a loud click. The door swung open, revealing an awkward looking couple. "We're really sorry," Ariana was quick to say as she stowed her wand away in her waistband. "It was all Kaleb's idea."
"It's fine," Lily replied, pulling Scorpius towards the door behind her. "You were only trying to help us out. It's not your fault you didn't know that we'd already made up."
"In that case, it was all our idea," Albus bragged casually, slinging an arm around Ariana's shoulders. "Now let's eat because I'm starving."
"I'll catch you guys up," Ariana said, kissing Albus swiftly on the cheek. "I still have to get my bag from the common room."
Lily squeezed Scorpius' hand and let it go. "I'll go with you," she added and the pair of them linked arms and waved goodbye to their Slytherin boyfriends, promising to meet them on the snakes table, before heading off to Gryffindor Tower.
####
"Do you think Hugo will have any suggestions?" Ariana asked, twirling one of her chocolate curls around her finger absentmindedly. "Because from what Dominique's told me, she's not one to give up."
"None of us are," Lily replied as they turned into another corridor. Already the loud chatter from the Great Hall could be heard. "It's how we were raised. Fortunately for me, it means that I won't give up on Scorpius and I. I'll fight even harder than Rose for him now."
Ariana squeezed an arm around Lily's waist. "That's my Lily," she said softly, beaming with a bright smile. Together they walked through the doors of the Great Hall, where Ariana caught the attention of their friends at the Gryffindor table and gave them a big thumbs up.
However Lily was too busy glaring furiously at Rose, who had decided to seat herself next to Scorpius once again. "That bitch," Lily muttered under her breath, twisting her arm out of Ariana's grip. She stormed over to the Slytherin table, hair flaming red in her ponytail like her flaring temper. Her boyfriend didn't see her coming but from the tension in his shoulders, she knew he was very uncomfortable.
Blowing out a deep breath, Lily strutted over to Scorpius, a face of thunder on her face. She fell onto his lap dramatically and took his face in her hands. With a smug smirk in Rose's direction and a rise of her eyebrows, Lily smiled inwardly and crushed her lips against Scorpius', closing her eyes and taking him by surprise. His hands instantly went to Lily's neck, snaking their way round to the back of Lily's head and tilting it upwards. Lily parted her lips and ran her tongue across Scorpius', the swell of satisfaction making her head spin.
Usually Lily and Scorpius weren't so public with their relationship. They would share the odd kiss around others to say hello or goodbye to each other and they were always hanging out. However the fact that Lily was publicly, passionately kissing – and she didn't care. She was with Scorpius and that was all that mattered.
"Good morning beautiful," Scorpius breathed heavily, pulling away from Lily with a smirk on her lips.
When Lily turned to look at Rose, she realised her cousin had already left the Great Hall.
Author's Note: This is such a short chapter and I apologise for it. But at least something is being published, which is nice. After this chapter I'm going to kind of skip to Lily's fifth year. I'm going to include a few milestones of Lily's and Scorpius' but it was then merge into the juicy stuff that we've been building up to. All will be revealed, just in time for Christmas.
The most exciting chapter of this series so far which I hope will have you all hitting your reviews buttons will be published Christmas Day, unless something bad happens between then and now.
Anyway, let me know what you thought about this chapter with a little review and I shall talk to you next time, unless you have a question, then it will be sooner :D