Albus winced as Lily shouted his name from across the library. Several people angrily shushed her and he sunk a little deeper into his chair as he heard her apologise and make her way over.
"There you are," she said, pulling up a chair opposite Al and giving him a sunny grin. "Are you studying?" She looked down at his book, and Al subtly tried to cover the blank page with his hands. He hadn't actually been doing much of anything for the past two hours.
"Uh… yeah," he said, shrugging. "Sort of. What do you want?" He wasn't really in the mood for Lily's cheery banter. He'd come down here to be alone, if truth be told – to think. Although he was having some difficulty thinking of much beyond how utterly ridiculous this whole situation was.
"Just wanted to see how you were," replied Lily, her smile faltering as she looked up at Al and narrowed her eyes slightly. "Joanna's not been in the best of moods, lately. You two alright?"
"We're fine." Al turned a page in his book, looking for something to occupy himself with; perhaps Lily would leave him alone if he actually looked busy.
"Okay."
There was a brief silence, and Al thought maybe he'd been successful. No such luck.
"It's just that she said you'd had an argument, and she doesn't know what to do."
Al ignored her, turning another page and pretending to be deeply engrossed in lacewing fly crushing methods.
"What was the argument about?"
He grit his teeth.
"Al…?"
"God, Lily," he snapped, looking up. "It's none of your business, alright? We'll sort things out on our own, just… stop trying to meddle, will you?"
"Sorry," she said, and sat back in her chair. Albus looked back down at his book, just staring blankly at his page. The sound of pages turning and quiet chatter filled the large room once again and Al was sure Lily had given up.
"I was just wondering if it was about Scorpius," she said, and Al winced. His hands clenched around the edges of his book and he let out a long sigh, before looking up at her slowly.
"Don't tell me you know, as well?" he asked, sounding slightly exasperated. Lily nodded, almost apologetically, and gave a weak smile.
"Yeah," she said, softly. "I've known for a while, actually. Well… I was pretty sure, anyway."
Al groaned and let go of his book, lifting his hands to run them both through his hair. "Am I the only one who didn't see this?" He felt absolutely stupid. He also felt utterly terrified that everyone else in the school had known and had been laughing at him all this time for being so blind. Clearly it had been obvious to Joanna, and now Lily, too.
"Well," Lily began, tilting her head at a slight angel. "It's not common knowledge, if that's what you're worried about."
Al's stomach calmed itself a fraction at that. That was something, at least. He looked up at her through his fingers and sighed again. "Who else does know, then?"
Lily shrugged. "I don't think anyone does. Not as far as I'm aware, anyway. People would have been talking about it if they did." She paused. "How is Scorpius, anyway?"
Al sighed. "I dunno. I haven't seen him for days."
"You haven't checked on him?"
Al was silent and Lily shook her head, making his insides twist unpleasantly. He should have checked on Scorp – Merlin only knew what he was going through. He'd looked awful the morning he'd finally decided to join them for breakfast, and he'd actually gone three whole days without attending a single class. That in itself was worrying, but… what on Earth was he meant to say to him?
Albus looked at her for a while, then lowered his hands, sinking further into his chair. "So what am I meant to do about this? I mean… am I just meant to be friends with him as if nothing happened? Just ignore that he said anything at all?"
"Well… is that what you want to do?"
Albus groaned again and looked up at the ceiling in frustration. He didn't know what he wanted to do about anything at the moment.
"Do you miss him, Albus?" Lily asked.
Al nodded wordlessly.
"Alright, do you want to be his friend?"
Again, Al nodded.
"Then it's really kind of obvious what you should do, isn't it? I mean, he's had these feelings for you for… well… at least a while. He's not done anything about them, has he? I don't think he's expecting anything from you in that sense."
Al was silent for a while, still staring up at the ceiling. He took a deep breath and flopped forward again, propping up his chin in both hands, his elbows resting on the table. "No… I guess that's true."
"How do you feel about him?" Lily asked, and Albus looked at her blankly for a few moments.
"… what do you mean?"
"Well…" she shrugged. "How do you feel about him? You've been best friends for years. You miss him when he's not around. You're miserable when he doesn't come to watch your games. Why is that?"
Albus frowned, confused. "He's important to me, I guess. He was my first friend at Hogwarts. He helps me study. He makes me laugh. He's one of the few people I can really let go with and be myself around."
Lily smiled at him, and Albus' confusion deepened. "And does knowing about his feelings change any of that for you? Like… is he any less important to you, now?"
"No," Al shook his head, genuinely shocked that Lily would even think to ask that. "Of course not."
Lily just looked at him for a while, smiling a weird, unreadable smile.
"What?" he asked, getting slightly annoyed at her cryptic questioning all of a sudden.
"Really, Al…" she chuckled. "You're one of the most incredibly oblivious people I've ever had the misfortune of being related to. I'm not going to spell anything out for you."
Albus didn't know what she was talking about, but he didn't particularly like her tone, or the smug grin now plastered across her face. "Fine, I don't need advice from you, anyway. Just… go away and let me study."
"What are you studying?"
Albus stuttered, having completely forgotten what he was meant to have been reading; he frowned. "You just… you…" He sat, glaring at her for a while, before hastily shoving his books into his bag and standing up. "Go and pester someone else for a while. You're so annoying."
He realised he sounded childish, even as he said it, but he couldn't think of anything else to say. And it was true. He turned and stormed out of the library, heading towards the Dungeons. Maybe there he'd get some peace.