AN: Sorry about the wait! I meant to get this out days ago, but things got to me and I had to rewrite this a few times to get across what I wanted. I would love your feedback about a few of the happenings in here...

The wind whipped around Lily and she silently cursed it as she made her way through the Quidditch pitch. She had come to spend quite a bit of time here when Scorpius' practice ran late and she worked the afternoon. Today was no different, accept for the fact that she was relegated to wash dishes in the pub as the inn was undergoing some repairs and the kitchen was busier than usual. Gracie had let her borrow clothes, but ones that she didn't exactly feel comfortable in. The shirt was tight and dipped low, the shorts tan and shorter than she normally wore. Gracie had helped her tame her hair, but it still fell haphazardly around her shoulders in messy waves.

Still, it was nice with the sun hitting her as she watched the Thestrals practice formation drills. Their flying was impeccable, probably one of the best in the league, but she knew from Scorpius that it was their playing that got in the way of them winning many games. When she sees Score dip low and then come back up before doing a loop in the air she smiles. His face is open and expressive, always is when he's flying like that. The only other time she can see him like that is when their alone and she can get his guard down. That only happens when it's late or early in the morning, he's sleepy and relaxed. When he's like that she plant a bruising kiss on his lips, and run a hand through his hair. He's surprised, eyes wide, as he pulls her close.

"What's got you grinning?"

Lily spins around and sees Albus coming toward her. "Nothing," she answers, "just thinking." She looks him over and sees that he's changed after his auror class. He looks so much like their dad it isn't funny, what with is messy hair, thin flannel thrown over a loose t-shirt. The only thing that's different is a pair straight leg jeans that hug in all the places thanks to Dom and Roxie declaring if he wants to start dating, he should stop dressing like a slob. "Ready for your date?"

He let out a groan and leaned against the railing. "Can I tell you something? Don't tease me because if I wanted to be with James I would be."

"I promise, but just this once."

"When I broke my wrist in training the night of the party, I was angry at myself, but also glad that I didn't have to go."

"You were supposed to meet him then?" At that Lily looks up to the sky to see who 'him' is. Vince Hendricks, Beater for the Thestrals. The guy is attractive, built a lot like Teddy with broad shoulders and decent height. His hair, though, is cut short and he has bristly stubble with clear blue eyes.

She had seen him that night at the party, at least from what she remembered. As much as she hated to admit, after the first drinkn Jordi gave her, her mind went a little fuzzy. Something that she liked to do, kept her further away from visions.

"Yeah, I've tried meeting guys myself, but dating is frowned upon for Ministry employees, especially if you're in the same department. Julian and I may have been more friends than boyfriends, but I liked him." He kicked at the ground at that. Lily leaned against him and smiled at him. Sweet, thoughtful Al attracted the peculiar men. Julian was intelligent, fairly quiet, and had a biting sense of sarcasm. From what little she'd heard from Lucas and Stephen, Vince was a large teddy bear. Even during a game, he never showed any sort of aggression. Sure, he did his job and he did his job to the very best of abilities, but he stuck to the rules.

"You look like you're about to bolt any second and you want your first date to be with your best friend and little sister..."

Albus shrugged. "I just...this dating thing wasn't something I did. I didn't even think...When I met Julian it was because we were partners for a project, then we started hanging out together, going to Hogsmeade or playing chess or taking walks...I just fell into it, somewhere along the line I had to admit that I was gay." He swallowed and ran his hand through his hair. "I don't have to do that this time, I can start from scratch and be honest with myself."

Lily slides an arm over her brothers shoulder and then gives him a full on hug. Al lets out a laugh and returns it. By the time they pull apart the players have landed and are trickling into the locker rooms. "They're heading to the old training center that's attached. They never go to the newer one unless it's a game day." She reaches for her brother's hand once they pull apart and tugs him in the direction of it. The old center is all cement blocks, white paint, and cracked grey tile. They go past the front desk, Lily smiling at the receptionist—a guy in a polo shirt—and sprint past the weight room. Before long they are in a maze of hallways, all melling vaguelly of chlorine, sweat, and cologne, before they come to a plain looking door. "Now we wait."

"You spend a lot of time here."

"Summer is the only time I get to see him, so I have to spend time here with Score's crazy schedule. I was even able to work out here once, it was a voluntary session." Granted as soon as she showed up, she was handed one of Scorpius' jerseys and told by the coach to play nice with the press. Apparently, voluntary workout meant mandatory media meeting.

"I'm surprised that you can tolerate it."

"If you make some sort of crack about me getting busted for staying late at Score's I swear-"

"No, it's just... I know how attached you get to people Lily, I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but I imagined you had a hard time when most of us graduated and you still had two years left."

"It was hard, it is hard, especially since that's what everyone keeps on asking me about. I trust Score and he trusts me, besides I have other friends. My roommates and I are getting along fine, plus I have Jordi. If I ever get particularly lonely I know I can go to Louis or Hugo or Alice."

Their conversation is cut short by the team members spilling out of the locker room. Lily greets Lucas and Stephen enthusiastically, giving each of them a side hug and a bit of teasing before they have to leave. It's then she notices Vince come out, no doubt hanging back.

"I take it your Albus," he said with a voice that is deep and rumbling. "I'm Vince." He holds out a hand and looks Lily's brother straight in the eye.

"Call me Al, most everyone does." He takes the hand and holds it a bit too long before retracting it. "You've met Lily, right?"

"Never formally," he replied and looks at the red head. "Everyone else has crazy stories about Malfoy's girl, but-"

"She's not 'my girl'," a voice calls out. It's Scorpius, appearing from the locker room. "I think that implies I have some sort of control over her." He wraps his arms around her and Lily gives him a kiss. When they pull away Albus rolls his eyes.

"You two are nauseating," he complained and then looked at Vince. "Don't you agree?"

The larger man shrugs, but there is a smile that tugs on his lips. "I'm starved, where are we going?"

"Do you have muggle money?" Lily says immediately, which earns her a glare from Scorpius and Albus along with a confused look from Vince. "What?"

"Lily that tactic never works," Scorpius told her. "And I have been on the team with Vince for months." He looks up at his teammate. "Lily likes to make people squirm, give them a test to tell if they still have ridiculous prejudice against muggles. I never pounds on me, though."

"Neither do I," Vince replied. "Before I came to England I did, but only because the wizarding community wasn't as large as it is here."

"Can we stop with the interrogation?" Albus says. "Why don't we go grab lunch, I'm starving and I'm sure the two of you are."

"Let's go to Blue Moon," Scorpius suggests. "It's nearby and we can eat outside."

"Is that the one with the striped awnings and painted windows?" Al asks as he watches Scorpius reach for Lily's hand to side apparate.

"Yes." He nodded and in a blink of the eye, he's gone.

"Do you now where that is?"

"Afraid not."

Al nodded and held out his hand. It would be easy to grab his arm, but that's something you do with a sibling or a friend you're not very close to. "Is this alright?" He laces his fingers with Vince.

"Fine," the man replied with a smile. In an instant they are in a secluded area that most wizards apparate to in order to arrive at the cafe. "Do you think they did that on purpose making us go together?" Vince hasn't drop Albus' hand.

"Probably, Score has spent way too much time around Lily." Albus looks down at their hands and then looks him in the eye. "We better find them or I won't be able to get her to shut up about how the two of us went missing."

Vince releases his hand, but it goes to Albus' arm letting it linger for a few moments. Without anymore words the two men went into the restaurant, interrupting the bickering of Lily and Scorpius. Though, from the tone of their voice, it appears to be an argument, the teasing smile on Lily's face and the look in Scorpius eyes, Albus can tell it's anything but. Vince, on the other hand, looks back and forth between them, not quite knowing what to say. It takes until after they order their food and get their drinks for him to be put more at ease.

"I think that I am at a great disadvantage. I hardly know anything about you, other than what Score's told me." Albus is sitting between Vince and Scorpius, Lily across from him.

"It's not that exciting, I graduated from Hogwarts when you and Malfoy were in your...fourth year, or fifth year...I was in Hufflepuff, played on the house team all six years. I attempted to go to uni, but was recruited to go Ireland and accepted. A few years later the Thestrals were created and I was eager to go home." He stares back down at the table and then looks back up. "Sorry, I'm not much of a big talker."

"What about your family?" Albus assumes it's a safe question, he could talk for ages about his family members.

"Uh...It's been me and my dad for quite some time. No siblings."

"Oh," Albus responded, hoping that he could talk for longer about that.

"Not everyone is a member of the Weasley family, Al," Lily informed him. "Our family is huge and crazy and-"

"Wonderful," Scorpius interjected. "Some of them may glare at me, but at least their not trying to pair you off with someone else."

"We always hoped she'd end up with Lysander," Albus teased, this caused his sister to roll her eyes and mutter under her breath until Scorpius reached under the table to steady her wand.

"Who's Lysander?" Vince questioned, looking at them with a puzzled expresson, he thought about it and then, "Oh, one of the Skamander twins?"

"Their practically family," Albus said.

"Once the Weasley family welcomes you and you accept, we latch on to you and refuse to let you go." Lily looked at Scorpius at that. "For example, Teddy Lupin was just our god brother, but he married our cousin Victoire. Should I continue?"

"Lily, stop trying to scare him, honestly, you're worse than James," Albus complained. "This is what I got for agreeing to go on a double date with my best mate."

That part of the conversation is interrupted by their food being delivered. Vince and Al both got large orders of fish and chips. Lily was frustrated when the server tried to give her Scorpius' fussy goat cheese and fruit salad instead of the burger she had ordered. Once the mishap was resolved she began to tear into it. "This is good, I'm glad you suggested coming here." She took another bite. "It's going to be miserable going back to school, I swear the food gets worse every year."

"Going back to school?" Vince asks. "You still go?"

"I thought you knew," Scorpius said as he sets down his fork

"I assumed..." He looked to have paled a bit and dropped the food that was in his hand.

"I'm 17, it's not like he's a pervert," Lily said. "And you're, what, three years older than Al?"

"No, it's just, you seem older, it's hard to believe that you still have a year left in school." He prods at his plate and then looks over at Albus. "Like you said earlier, you know all about my job from the papers, but how's your job going? Malfoy told me that you were training to be an auror."

"Yeah, it's going good. I started straight away after school, admitted on a contingency of test scores." Albus looks at Lily, the way she is studying her burger and moving her chair a bit closer to Scorpius. "It's really not all that exciting."

"It was a shame that you broke you wrist the night of the party."

"Yeah, but it was an accident. I didn't block a particularly nasty curse that was thrown at me and sent my flying backwards," Albus explained. "Other than that, it's fine."

"Don't lie for my sake," Lily interjected. "Score and Albus try to keep things from me because I worry." She rolled her eyes at that. "Worry implies that the scenarios that pop into my mind are unwarranted and stem from panic, not that they are realistic possibilities."

"She dislikes the amount of danger associated with being an auror," Scorpius summarized.

"And I don't like to talk about it all that much, if you have specific questions I can answer them," he said.

"That would require some extra time," Vince said, there was a smile playing on his lips.

Lily looked at the two of them and then at Scorpius who was still picking apart his salad, before she dabbed her lips with her napkin and set it down on her plate. "Score, I need to run to the book store before it closes, would you come with me?"

Scorpius looked up at her, his face breaking into a secretive smirk. "Of course, they have such odd hours, you wouldn't want to risk it." He got to his feet and then waited for Lily who grasped his hand. "Sorry to duck out early."

"It's fine," Albus said immediately and gives Vince a smile to tell him that it really is fine.

They don't make a trip to any store, let alone a bookstore. Scorpius lets Lily side apparate them to her house, something that she—for once-pulled off without a hitch. He stops by the doorway to hand her the only bit of mail that's sitting on the counter by the door. She looks down at the letter from Hogwarts, rolls her eyes, and then pulls him up her stairs. He still hates her room, especially her narrow bed, but they end up their anyway. She tosses the letter on her desk and then looks at him.

Lily pushes him forward and he falls back. She sets astride his lap and kisses him. It's hard enough to make his lips feel like they are being bruised. Working her way down, she gives him the same type of kiss on his jawline, his neck, his collar bone...Never enough to bruise, just enough for him to feel it. He stops her, when she tugs at the hem of his shirt. "No."

"Why? I want it, I want you."

"Not like this," he said and places a kiss on her lips. This one is chaste, light and loving. "Besides, it's nearly five and your parents will be home some. I doubt your father wants a repeat fo the Albus/Julian incident."

Lily nods and gets off his lap and goes to her mirror to fix her hair, only to scowl at her outfit. She strips quickly, not even glancing back at Scorpius, before she slides on a pair of sweatpants and t-shirt. "I think Vince will be good for Albus."

"They're both good guys."

"Score..." She faces him now and walks to where he stands halfway between her bed and the door. "At lunch...I was just thinking, and the thought is silly and bit selfish, but... Your decision to not go to auror training didn't involve me, right?"

There is a pause and a fleeting look of panic from Scorpius before he speaks. "No, Lily, as much as I love you I don't base my life around. I like playing Quidditch and I get paid well for something that most people consider a hobby."

"You like playing Quidditch, you don't love it." She looks down at her feet and then up at him. "When you were flying today you looked so...happy, but..."

"I'm fine, don't worry about me." He crosses the distance to pull her in his arm. A gesture that has become easier for him and is very welcomed by her. When steps back, it's only to rest one hand on either side of her face and give her a kiss. He drops them when done and gives her a smile. "Are you sure you aren't projecting your worries about your future onto me?"

At that she rolls his eyes and causes Scorpius to let out a laugh. "I would love to stay, but I probably should get going. I promised my flatmate I would be there to sort out a few things tonight, and I have an early practice tomorrow."

"It's fine." She hugs him, foregoing a kiss and he apparates from her bedroom. When he's gone she spins on her heel and goes over to the desk, reaching for the letter. Earlier, when the letter was first handed to her, the weight was unnoticable and now it feels like a brick in her palm. Even with Scorpius gone, she can't bring herself to break the seal and see what lies inside.