Lily sat on Hagrid's lumpy couch with a steaming hot mug of tea clasped between two hands and Fides curled up by her feet. Next to her, Lysander was perched with his knees pressed to his chest and his rainbow socked feet on the couch pillows. He held a mug too, only his was filled with hot chocolate and as many marshmallows as could possibly be added without it overflowing because Lysander had a soft spot for sweets and Hagrid had a soft spot for Lysander.

Lily had taken him along for her weekly afternoon teas at Hagrid's quite regularly when she had been in her first and second year and each time the pair had gotten along like two horklumps in a worm farm. If Hagrid wasn't showing Lysander a basket of illegally obtained Fwooper eggs, Lysander was there sharing recipes for Glumbumble treacle.

On this particular evening Lysander was treating them to a rendition of his impression of a Crup barking in an attempt to show how the sound was different from that of the average non-magical dog. Though Hagrid was thoroughly engrossed in Lysander's presentation, Lily couldn't help but let out a few sighs. She had been bogged down with a sense of despair since her argument with Scorpius. Several weeks had passed and the pair hadn't so much as looked at one another let alone spoken.

It wasn't even that Lily was particularly angry anymore; any irritation she had felt on the night they had argued had completely dissipated. Truth be told, she wasn't entirely sure why she had even gotten so worked up in the first place. It was true that she had felt a real pain in her chest when she had spoken to Scorpius in the library… in fact just remembering what he had said made her heart fill with an inexplicable misery. But it wasn't as though Lily had ever wanted anything from Scorpius other than his friendship. So then why had it hurt so badly?

Now she was just left with a sense of shame that she had gotten so angry at him right after he had come to her rescue and with a horrible pit at the bottom of her stomach at the thought that he may never speak to her again.

Hagrid appeared to have picked up on this. After an enthusiastic round of applause for Lysander, he turned to Lily with a serious expression.

'Yer very quiet of late Lily… yeh're all righ', aren' you?

Lily had predicted this. Hagrid's invitation had been rather abrupt. A scrawled note had been delivered to her during breakfast that had been written in an altogether overly cheery tone.

'Dad asked you to check up on me, didn't he?' Lily folded her arms and looked at the half-giant with sober eyes.

Hagrid fidgeted awkwardly, shifting his weight and causing the huge armchair underneath him to wobble under the added pressure from his large form.

'He's jus' worried 'bout yer-' Hagrid replied softly, appealing to Lily with round, empathetic eyes.

'-Thinks yeh've been caught up in som'thin dangerous what with all this Noirmorter business goin 'round'

'Albus is the one he should be worrying about…' Lily muttered, shaking her head and avoiding Hagrid's gaze.

'Albus?' Hagrid asked in alarm. 'What's 'e got ter do with it?'

Lily let out a sigh. She didn't know how much she should be confiding in Hagrid about her suspicions. Anything she said was sure to get back to her father after all. She exchanged a look with Lysander who took it as an invitation to explain for her.

'We think he might be being controlled somehow by Professor Raleigh who we think is probably very evil and behind the Noirmorter outbreak' Lysander said matter of factly.

Lily couldn't have phrased it more concisely or with more conviction. Surprisingly Hagrid didn't seem as shocked as Lily had expected- instead he looked thoughtful.

'Roger Raleigh… he's very well respected. Yer father seems ter think very highly of him-'

'Tell me something I don't know' Lily murmured, rolling her eyes.

'What do you think of him Hagrid?' Lysander wanted to know.

Hagrid cleared his throat. Then he took a swing of his firewhisky and fidgeted about again as though conflicted about whether to speak his mind.

'Well, just between you an' me… the Acromantula don' seem ter like 'im much… and I've always thought they 'ad a good sense 'bout these kinds of things…'

'The Acromantula?' Lily was surprised. 'You mean the ones that live in the Forbidden Forest?'

Hagrid began to nod but then quickly stopped.

'Yer not to go anywhere near them though, yeh hear me? Students ought not be running 'bout in ther forrest- it's forbidden!'

Lily exchanged another look with Lysander, this time with an eyebrow raised. The warning didn't sound very convincing coming from Hagrid of all people.

Hagrid looked more than just a little relieved when the sound of his fireplace whistling- a charm he had put on it to signal when his rock cakes were close to burning- interrupted their conversation.

After Lily had fit as many rock cakes as she could politely manage into her mouth (one) and Lysander had scoffed down as many as he could physically manage (six), they bid farewell to Hagrid and made their way back up to the castle in time for their bedtime curfew.

Lysander was terribly excited at the thought of going looking for the Acromantula but Lily was less certain it would be a good idea.

'This is the first lead we've had in months!' Lysander pointed out cheerfully as they hurried across the grounds through the dark.

'And we could get Scorpius to come- I'm sure he knows a bit about how to treat giant spider bites by now-'

Lily ignored the wretched pang in her stomach at the mention of Scorpius and instead turned her attention towards preventing her friend from voluntarily heading towards certain death.

'Lysander, think about it. Even IF we somehow manage to find them and start up a conversation without being killed by them, what are we going to ask exactly?

'Why don't you like Professor Raleigh?' Lysander said without hesitation, voicing the exact question Lily had been trying to insinuate would sound ridiculous.


Lily had thought she had gotten used to Poppy's irritating commentary during her classes, but the added burden of her sadness about not having seen or spoken to Scorpius in weeks made it almost impossible to stand.

After a unfortunate incident in which Lily caused the pile of opera glasses that the class had just finished transforming from owls to smash when Poppy told her that her glasses didn't look anything like the ones in the diagram they were following, Montespan asked her to stay back after class.

As soon as all the other students had filed out of the room, Lily opened her mouth to defend herself and Gryffindors current lead for the House Cup.

'I really didn't mean to Sir, it was just that Balfour- well she, you know, she was acting like she always does, and I lost my temper but it wont happen again so please don't take any points from Gryffin-'

Lily stopped when she saw the unusually serious expression Montespan was wearing.

'No of course, no points will be deducted. This isn't about that Miss Potter…' he said with a sigh. He took a seat behind his desk and gestured for Lily to sit on the chair that was positioned opposite it.

Lily did so rather hesitantly, looking her professor up and down in confusion. He was usually trying to get students out of his office as soon as possible and yet here he was asking her to settle herself in for a chat.

'I was just wondering if you might be able to tell me what on earth is making Mr Malfoy so mopey lately' Montespan said shuffling some papers on his desk and raising both eyebrows at her.

There was a shattering sound behind her as the last few intact opera glasses took a hit from Lily's surprise at the question.

'Why would I know Sir?' She muttered back, folding her arms and shuffling in her chair uncomfortably.

'Oh come on. There's no need to hide anything from me Potter. Scorpius doesn't. He talks about you all the time'

'He does?' Lily was momentarily thrown off guard by this revelation. She hastily looked down and put a hand to her face to hide her expression of elation.

'When I insist on it' Montespan clarified with a small smile.

When Lily remained silent, Montespan cleared his throat.

'You two have had some kind of argument I take it-' he began.

'He told you that too?' Lily was astounded. Her mind raced in panic at the thought that he might have mentioned what had happened that day in the snow.

'No' Montespan chuckled.

'I just assumed that because you both started to act so bloody miserable at exactly the same time'

Lily clenched her mouth shut and shot him a sullen look.

'And why do you care?'

'Because it's effecting his ability to conduct his studies in my tutoring program' Montespan shot back with his chin raised defiantly.

'So you're pretending to be a good Professor now Sir?' Lily retorted silkily.

'Oh no' Montespan replied with mock sobriety. 'I always was one- you just never realized'

Lily rolled her eyes. But she couldn't suppress the smirk that tugged at the corners of her mouth and she found herself relax a little against her better judgement. She supposed it wouldn't do any harm to throw the Professor a bone.

'Ever since I've known him-' Lily began, swallowing hard and gathering her thoughts.

'-he insists on acting like we aren't friends. And what's worse, he pretends to be this unsociable, angry, forbidden curse wielding distasteful person just because that's what people expect of him, when in actual fact he's nothing like that at all!'

Lily had to take a few deep breaths to steady herself as her frustrations from the past week came tumbling out. Montespan watched her thoughtfully as she did.

'Did Scorpius ever tell you about the time he went to get ice-cream at Diagon Alley?' Montespan said finally. Lily was utterly confused by the sudden change of topic.

'No' She said with a frown.

'Ah' said the Professor taking a moment to lean back comfortably in his chair before he began again.

'Well, once when he was a young boy- I think he said five or so- his mother took him to Diagon Alley to get some icecream-'

'Okay…' said Lily, not really sure how she was supposed to react to this piece of information. It seemed like a fairly ordinary thing for any wizarding family to have done at some point.

'His mother had gone on several occasions before by herself and was quite fond of the strawberry-and-peanut-butter flavour-'

Lily nodded as she listened. That was her father's favorite too. Aelia Fortescue always had a scoop of it ready to give to him on the house whenever she saw him approaching.

'But on this particular day she took Scorpius along with her for the first time- a boy of just five years old you should remember-'

Montespan's face formed a forlorn expression at this point in the story.

'But Miss Fortescue wouldn't have it. You'd have heard that her cousin was captured and killed by death eaters during the war, I assume? Yes, well, as one might expect, that's left her with a strong hatred for anything death eater… related. She took one look at Scorpius and refused to serve them. What's more, having realized who she was, she called Scorpius's mother all manner of nasty things and made quite the scene…'

Lily felt her chest tighten and a pang of sadness rush through her heart.

'But how did Fortescue even know who Scorpius was?' She asked with bunched eyebrows.

'It's the hair' Montespan said ruefully. 'That white-blonde Malfoy hair and pale skin is rather recognizable I'm afraid'

Lily thought back on the times when she had seen Scorpius's father and grandfather. They did all share a great resemblance with one another, particularly Scorpius and his grandfather.

'Can you imagine having someone you loved treated that way just because she was seen with you?' Montespan asked softly.

Lily looked down at her hands. Her cheeks flushed in shame.

'What I'm trying to say Potter-' Montespan added quickly, seeing her discomfort.

'-is that I don't think he's pretending like he doesn't know you for his own sake.'

'But people wouldn't care-' Lily scoffed, though there was no confidence in her tone.

'Wouldn't they? To see Harry Potter's daughter of all people buddying up with a Malfoy? I rather think they might!'

Montespan chuckled despite himself.

'So we should just go on pretending not to know each other forever and ever…?' Lily asked in a pained voice.

'Oh no of course not!' Montespan cried. 'No, no you're quite right that you can't keep on like that. I've been telling him that for years! But I suppose you might just have to wait a little longer until he realizes and comes to terms with that'

Lily sighed. She wasn't sure how long that might take.

'His friend from first year- Timothy. He got bullied by Horon Carrow just for hanging around with him…' Lily reflected sadly.

'People can be rather nasty' Montespan sighed.

'Heck, even some of my old colleagues at St Mungo's have had the nerve to ask why I'm training him to be a healer considering his family history' he added bitterly.

'What?' Lily burst out in outrage. Montespan looked away and shook his head as though still in disbelief about it himself.

'You're nice to him though…' Lily pointed out. Now that she thought about it, Professor Montespan had been the only other person outside of herself to really try to break down Scorpius's walls and get to know him properly.

'He's got talent when it comes to healing… and a lot of drive too' Montespan brushed her observation aside.

'Besides-' Montespan got up suddenly and reached over to take a book off of the shelf behind him. 'I know what it's like to grow up with a shady family past…'

He handed her a very old, battered book with a navy blue cover which read 'Death in the Deep Sea: A Hunter's Adventures by L.J. Montespan'.

'My grandfather' Montespan explained. 'He committed great atrocities against Merpeople in the name of gathering magical ingredients for potions…before the hunting of magical people was banned by the International Confederation of Wizards that is. it's one of the reasons I took an interest in the communities and languages of magical peoples during my career as a Healer I suppose'

'Scorpius showed me your book' Lily said softly, 'The Merpeople and their Medicines'

Montespan gave her a feint smile.

'That was the first one I ever wrote. And the most difficult one. Quite understandably, no Merperson had any interest in speaking to me let alone teaching me their healing techniques…'

'How did you get them to change their minds?' Lily was eager to know.

'Learning their language was the most significant factor I think' Montespan said.

'People are more likely to trust you when you put effort into understanding them'

'You can speak Mermish?' Lily asked impressed.

'Mermish, Giant and a handful of Gobbledegook. Plus a splattering of troll if you count that- but it's mainly just a lot of pointing and grunting' Montespan grinned.

'I can only speak standard Mermish though- I didn't go so far as to learn the Selkie dialect' he added quickly.

Lily couldn't help but think back on the times when, with the help of the locket, she had regularly gone out to the outskirts of the forbidden forest to converse with the grass snakes and how much she had enjoyed it.

'The world must feel so much wider when you can talk to people of another language' She sighed forlornly.

'I can lend you this if you like' Montespan said brightly, turning around to grab another book. He handed her a thick text book of beginners Mermish.

Lily took it in both hands and flicked through the pages with great interest.

'Does it take long to Master Sir?'

'Oh it's not so bad' Montespan replied. 'A lot of it is just getting used to screaming at the top of your lungs underwater. Are you a competent swimmer Potter?'

Lily nodded. She felt like she had spent the majority of her childhood growing up in Thiramard either in the air on her brother's broom or else in the river behind their property.

'Well then, you're already half way there' Montespan said cheerfully.

Lily slid the book inside her satchel bag before standing up and throwing it over her shoulder in preparation to leave.

'Thank you Sir' she genuinely felt much better and for once, she allowed the Professor a grateful smile.

'You're welcome Miss Potter. Do try to cheer Mr Malfoy up won't you?' Montespan said with a smirk.

'I can't promise anything' Lily yelled back with a disgruntled laugh as she shut the door behind her.


A/N: Hi everyone! It's been a little while. How are you all finding the past few chapters? I'm a bit worried I might have turned some people off by writing the argument between Scorpius and Lily but I hope not. This is very much a slow burn kind of romance but please hang in there, there is lots more Scorily coming...