It was late at night on the last day of the Christmas holidays and Lily was still awake. She was sitting in the windowsill of the top floor study of Grimmauld place, the one with the enormous tapestry of the Black family tree hanging off the wall, staring out through the darkness at the street lamps below.
Her father had come and gone; more transient than a ghost. Christmas Day was the last that she had seen of him. Her not-so-grand plan to make him listen to her and to convince him of the need to get Albus away from Raleigh had been a disaster.
It seemed utterly nonsensical to her that he would respond to her concerns with such dismissiveness. Harry had only ever been a caring and involved father, and Lily had always been made to feel that her thoughts, ideas and fears were of the utmost importance to him. Yet now it felt as though he were nothing more than a shadow. Impossible to pin down and untouchable.
She didn't know how she could have let the holidays end like this. Tomorrow she would be boarding the Hogwarts express to return to school where everything would be just as it had been before. Albus would still be taking lessons from Raleigh. So much time had passed since she had first began to suspect something was very wrong about the Professor and yet she still had nothing to show for it; no evidence, no eyewitness accounts of him actually doing anything wrong. But most disheartening of all she hadn't been able to secure her father's trust. She was beginning to wonder if she should have taken the opportunity over the last couple of days to storm into his office at the Ministry and appeal to him again.
Lily heard the sound of shuffling feet and turned to find that Teddy had slipped into the room unannounced. She didn't know how long he had been there but he was watching her with an unusually serious expression.
'What do you want?' Lily asked gloomily setting her chin back onto her knees which were curled up in front of her.
But Teddy didn't answer. Instead he walked silently over to her and put a comforting hand to her shoulder.
'You've been rather reserved lately' he said.
Lily looked up at him. He took a seat next to her on the windowsill, facing her.
'What's the point in talking if no one listens to me anyway?' Lily mumbled. She knew she sounded childish, but she didn't care. If there was anyone she could act this way in front of, it was Teddy.
'I'm all ears if you're ready to tell me who the boyfriend is' Teddy's eyes glinted teasingly.
'I don't-' Lily began to say.
'It would be easier to take your word for things if it didn't seem like you were hiding something all the time' Teddy interjected lightly.
'-think it's anyone's business whether I have a boyfriend' Lily finished awkwardly avoiding Teddy's eyes. He had a point, she thought begrudgingly. She hadn't exactly been upfront about all of the aspects of her life recently.
'But I believe you anyway' Teddy told her. He was looking out the window now too.
Lily turned to look him in the face.
'About not having a boyfriend?'
'No, that's hogwash. There's definitely someone' Teddy said quickly, causing Lily to let out a frustrated 'hmph!'.
'I meant about Roger Raleigh'
Lily's eyes widened and she sat up straight.
'You do?'
'I believe that there must be something that has caused you to think what you do anyway' Teddy clarified. 'You were right about Linnea Munter after all'
Lily flopped back against the window pane again as she let out a sigh. She supposed that was all she could really ask for. After all, she had no actual evidence of any wrongdoing on Raleigh's part.
'So can't you help me? Can't you do anything about it?' she felt her throat tighten as she spoke.
'Lily' Teddy looked her in the eyes sympathetically. 'When you told me about Munter I did everything that I could to get the trading standards body to investigate whether or not she had in her possession the contraband goods that you said she did. But unless you know that Raleigh has something like that on him, and you can tell me what it is, then there's no way the Ministry can conduct a search without sufficient reason'
'What if I planted something on him?' Lily asked gloomily.
Teddy snorted.
'Then I'd have to report you to the Auror office for manufacturing a crime'
Lily let out another long sigh and crossed her arms as she looked back out the window.
'But I did talk to him about it' Teddy added gravely. Lily's head whipped back around to look at him in surprise.
'To dad? About Raleigh?'
'Yeah' Teddy looked rather deflated upon remembering it. It was hardly an encouraging sign but Lily held onto the flicker of hope burning insider her anyway.
'And? What was his reaction?' she asked impatiently.
'The problem is Lily,' Teddy said matter of factly, 'Your father seems to think very highly of Mr Raleigh'
'Tell me something I don't know' Lily moaned.
'To him, Raleigh is the person who helped him on Durer's case. He's the one who was finally able to get Durmstrang to open up to muggleborn students after centuries and centuries of discriminating entrance regulations. He's everything the pureblood worshipping deatheaters that Harry fought against were not. Raleigh just does not fit his profile of a homicidal extremist'
'Well maybe he needs to get a new profile' Lily muttered.
'Perhaps' Teddy conceded. 'But the other problem is that he's not the only one. Raleigh has numerous powerful allies within the Ministry'
'So what are you saying? You think I should just give up? You think I should just assume I'm wrong and everyone else is right and carry on as if nothing is worrying me?' Lily demanded.
'No' Teddy retorted. 'I'm saying that I'm on your side. I'm saying that if you keep your eyes peeled and your ears to the ground for information that might be detrimental to Mr Raleigh then you can send it my way and I'll do my best to ensure it gets into the right hands'
Lily sighed. She was thankful for the support, more thankful than perhaps Teddy realized. But she didn't know if she would ever have the opportunity to take him up on his offer.
'He hasn't made a wrong move in all the time that I've been suspicious of him' Lily lamented.
'Everyone slips up from time to time' Teddy said firmly. 'Just keep your eye on him'
Lily nodded. If nothing else she felt buoyed by his expression of confidence in her detective skills.
'But don't go getting yourself into trouble' Teddy added hastily. 'No following him, no stealing, none of that-'
Lily rolled her eyes. 'Yeah okay'
'And speaking of slipping up' Teddy's eyes danced with amusement. 'I saw a certain someone leave your room on Christmas'
Lily winced.
'Teddy that's not-'
'Who would have thunk it? Johnathan Adderly' his face broke out into a grin. 'I can see why you wanted to keep it under wraps- James might go a little bonkers when he finds out'
'Teddy, it's not John' Lily told him quickly in a fluster.
Teddy's grinning face froze for a moment and his eyebrows twitched.
'Oh… really?'
'He just had something to talk to me about that night- I swear it isn't him'
Lily felt the need to clarify. Johnathan had wanted things to go back to the way they were before; it wouldn't do to have Teddy treating him oddly.
'So it's not him, but there is someone' Teddy raised an eyebrow at her.
Lily's jaw dropped open. She'd inadvertently admitted to it twice. There didn't seem to be any hope of backtracking now.
'Ugh-just- forget about it would you?' Lily stood up off the windowsill and paced over to the other side of the room whilst Teddy let out a chuckle.
'Alright, alright. I guess I just thought that after hearing how much I trust you, you might trust me enough to confide in me' he teased her in a light tone.
'You offered me your help in order to manipulate me into telling you who my boyfriend was?' Lily accused him, an aghast expression forming on her face.
'There definitely is a boyfriend then' Teddy noted her admission with another sly grin.
'That was a hypothetical' Lily protested.
'Okay, so hypothetically, who is your boyfriend?' Teddy shot back quicker than a snitch.
'Alright' Lily sighed. She flopped back onto the windowsill beside him and raised her eyes to the ceiling in defeat. 'I'll tell you'
Teddy's face instantly lit up. He lent forward expectantly.
Lily lent forward too, whispering right into his ear.
'Stubby Boardman'
Teddy jerked his head back so that he could look her in the face with an admonishing expression. Lily struggled to keep her face straight.
'You mean to say that you're dating Stubby Boardman, lead singer of the Hobgoblins? That Stubby Boardman?' he asked her with mock astonishment.
'The very same' Lily told him seriously. But a flicker of a smile had appeared on her lips.
'Bit old for you, don't you think?' Teddy raised his eyebrows at her.
'Love knows no bounds' Lily replied with a shrug before snorting and falling into a fit of giggles.
Teddy ruffled her hair and shook his head at her.
'You're impossible Lils. What a menace' he said with a grin.
The Hogwarts express arrived back at the castle in time for the evening feast. Though she had been self-consciously on the lookout for him, Lily had not seen Scorpius either on the platform or on the train. It wasn't until she spotted him taking his seat at the Hufflepuff table that she realized just how much she'd missed him.
It took all of Lily's self-control to stop herself from running over to him. After a few moments he seemed to sense her gaze because he looked up, directly towards where she was seated at the Gryffindor table. He let his eyes linger on her, giving her a longing look that Lily was sure someone would take notice of. And yet she couldn't tear her eyes away.
With a feint smile on his lips, Scorpius lifted his right hand up. The wooden ring that Lily had carefully whittled and sent to him via owl was on his index finger. All of a sudden her chest was fluttering. She was finally able to look away from him as a blush took hold of her face and her lips widened instantaneously into a joyful grin.
'Shall I ask everyone in the hall to leave so you can have a moment?' Poppy snorted at her from across the table.
Lily's expression immediately sobered. She tried to focus on the food in front of her so that the corners of her mouth would stop twitching upwards involuntarily.
A few hours later, she was walking down the dark passageway between the Whomping Willow and the Shrieking Shack with Poppy to meet Scorpius and Lysander. Poppy was explaining in length about all of the annoying, stuck-up cousins of hers she had had to meet over Christmas and how difficult it had been to hide that she was going to a magical school when they all kept boasting about their muggle private schools to her. Lily was vaguely wondering what it would be like to have to hide the fact that you were magical from your extended family and whether it was more or less difficult than hiding a boyfriend, when she stopped in surprise.
Standing facing them just below the trap door that led to the shack was Scorpius. As they approached, he glanced at Poppy and shuffled his feet sheepishly. Poppy let out a sigh and without a word, clambered up the trap door ahead of them. For a brief moment Lily wondered whether she should follow her, but Poppy let her know that she shouldn't by slamming the door back down over them and yelling down through the floorboards 'see you in a bit then!'.
Lily was left standing alone in the dark in front of Scorpius feeling utterly nervous. Though it seemed illogical for her to have forgotten how to act around him in the space of less than two weeks apart, somehow she felt that she had.
It was Scorpius who crossed the small space between them and reached out to caress her cheek, before placing a soft kiss on her lips. Once he had, it was as though he had broken a spell and all of Lily's nerves dissipated. She threw her arms around his torso and squeezed herself tightly to him, burying her face in his chest.
'I missed you' Lily said, feeling ridiculous but meaning it with every fibre of her being just the same.
Scorpius raked his fingers through her hair and kissed her on the forehead.
'I missed you too'
'I hope your father wasn't angry with you all holidays' Lily shot him a remorseful grimace. To her surprise Scorpius chuckled.
'Don't worry, if there is one thing my family is good at it's pretending that absolutely nothing is wrong when clearly there is. He didn't say a word about it for the whole two weeks'
'Sometimes I wish my family were the same…' Lily mumbled. She felt like she'd heard the word boyfriend more times over the last week than in her entire life.
'What?' Scorpius was confused.
'Nothing. It's nothing' Lily replied quickly. She didn't want to unnecessarily worry him.
'How did you know about John?' She asked him instead. The question had been driving her insane with curiosity all holidays.
Scorpius froze and looked down into her face with alarm.
'He asked you out?'
'Not exactly…' Lily avoided his eyes. Scorpius's entire body had gone stiff in her arms. Lily looked back up at him with concern.
'How did you know?' She asked him again.
Scorpius let out a sigh. He was silent for a moment as he considered his answer.
'Was it that Queen of the Quaffle stuff?' Lily asked wincing. Fides had been rubbing her nose in that particular clue ever since Christmas.
Scorpius shook his head incredulously.
'That as well' he admitted. 'but more than that… it's just the way he looks at you'
Lily frowned. She'd never noticed Johnathan looking at her any differently than the way he looked at anyone else.
'He's always looked at you in front of everyone the way that I wanted to but was to afraid to' Scorpius said exhaling. He looked very tired all of a sudden and Lily felt sorry for having brought up the topic.
'The way you looked at me at dinner was nice' she told him with a cheeky smile. But Scorpius still looked sombre.
'So have you decided?' He asked. His eyes were gleaming with worry. He peered at each of hers in turn, trying to read her.
'Decided what?' Lily asked perplexed.
'Who you're going to choose' Scorpius said glumly.
Despite his crestfallen face, Lily found herself snorting with laughter. She hit him on the shoulder.
'What's there to decide? I've already chosen you, you twat!' she cried incredulously.
'Because you didn't know about him' Scorpius pointed out, his face as serious as ever. 'But now that you do, I thought maybe you might prefer-'
Lily put each of her palms onto either side of Scorpius's face and squeezed to get him to stop talking.
'What're you trying to say? You think I should be with him instead?' She asked in an accusatory tone.
'I just don't want you to regret anything because of me' Scorpius exhaled out his nose. 'He's smart and handsome- and good at quidditch… plus your family likes him…'
'You're smart and handsome' Lily said firmly. 'As for quidditch, I'm good enough for the both of us. And as for my family… well, we'll work on that eventually'
When Scorpius still looked unconvinced, Lily pulled his face down to hers and kissed him passionately.
'It doesn't matter who else there is…I'd choose you every time' she whispered to him.
Scorpius's features softened. He put an arm around her waist and pulled her tighter against him.
A few minutes ticket by as Scorpius went about placing soft kisses on every inch of her face in a show of gratitude.
When finally he pulled back, he asked; 'And did you manage to convince your father about Albus?'
Lily's face fell. She shook her head slowly.
'But I've got something of a plan' she told him resolutely. She moved back a little so that she could reach into her satchel, out of which she pulled a velvet drawstring pouch.
A/N: Hi all, thank you all so much for the reviews. I swear I have the loveliest readers. Your kind words and helpful advice always cheers me up so much.
I had a good laugh regarding everyone's reactions to Johnathan. Approximately half of you said you had forgotten about him (poor John! lol) and half said they saw it coming. I hope there were some obvious hints, I tried to put some in there.
Anyways, next chapter will be action packed and a bit of a climax so I hope you stay tuned :)
