A/N: Okay so disclaimer! This isn't the chapter I mentioned last time that I had started writing ages ago. As keen as I was to publish that chapter asap, I realized I really needed a bridging chapter in order for the plot to work. I'm really sorry if people feel like I got their hopes up. Please know that I do intend to post that chapter tomorrow night!
Anyways, I would be super happy if you could pretty please leave me a review on this chapter before then xox.
'James, don't read it' Lily said darkly.
She was eyeing her brother from across the Gryffindor table over breakfast. He had just reached out a hand to grab a copy of the Prophet that one of the school owls had dropped down onto a plate of cut fruits.
James ignored his sister and snatched it up. Lily grabbed the other end of the paper and tried to wrestle it from him.
'If you're just going to get in a foul mood about it, don't read it!' she hissed at him.
Johnathan looked on wearily.
'James mate, she's got a point…' he said weakly as James finally managed to rip the thing from out of Lily's grasp.
Ignoring them both, James opened up the paper with an nervous but resolute look on his face, as though he was preparing for war.
Lily huffed and folded her arms. With Albus still in the hospital, she'd had to bear the brunt of James's outraged mutterings for more than a week. On the morning after Raleigh had disappeared, Lily had been upset but unsurprised to find a front page article listing the failings of her father in stopping Raleigh in great detail. His suitability for the role of Head of the Auror Office, his good relationship with Raleigh, sense of judgement and even the amount of leniency he was receiving from his good friend and Minister for Magic Hermione Granger was thrown into question.
Naively, Lily had hoped that one front page story would be the end of it. But it wasn't. Every day an article would be printed and every day James would angrily devour the words on the page until his face was red and his hands had curled into fists. And then Lily would have to hear him ranting about the injustice of it all for the rest of the day, until she got so tired of the whole thing that she felt she might scream.
Today, however, James had hardly been reading for more than a matter of a few seconds before he looked back up at Lily with an expression of disgust.
'This is too far' he announced through grit teeth. 'If I ever meet that bloody Edward Blishwick, I swear I'll hex him so badly he'll never be able to hold a quill again'
'What does it say?' Lily asked despite herself. She knew it wasn't doing her any good to hear about this stuff either, but her curiosity got the better of her.
James turned to the side with the newspaper still spread between his raised arms so that she could see the article. At the centre of the page, in large type print were the words Two out of three; Potter's children hit with Unforgivable Curses.
Lily felt as though she had made a particularly sudden dive on a broom. Her stomach dropped and it felt as though all the air had been knocked out of her.
James began to read the article out loud in a spiteful tone.
Harry Potter- Voldemort vanquisher, accomplished Auror and now 'unforgivable' father?
Lily let out a little gasp. She grabbed hold of the top of the paper to tip it down to check that what James was reading was truly written there, not able to believe that anyone would write such nonsense. But the words were there, as plain as day, just as James had read them.
Her older brother shuffled the paper back in front of him and continued to read;
As Head Auror Potter continues to face scrutiny from all sides of the Wizarding community over his handling of the Noirmorter outbreak, new revelations have come to light about the effect his mismanagement of the crisis has had on those closest to him. In an exclusive scoop, this Journalist-
'Can't believe he calls himself a 'journalist'!' James muttered, before continuing on;
-has heard from a source close to the Potter's that two out of the three Potter children (all students at Hogwart's School of Wichcraft and Wizardry) were the victims of forbidden curse casting at the hands of disgraced former teacher Raleigh.
Albus Potter is rumored to have been the target of several sustained uses of the imperius curse, although the Auror Office is keeping the details of the scandal hushed up.
'It's not 'hushed up'!' James yelled in protest. Lily shushed him. Many of the other Gryffindor students were looking over at them with curious glances.
'It's part of an ongoing investigation, of course the details are confidential!'
Lily shook her head and sighed. All this hyperbole was beginning to do her head in. She hoped that Albus's ward didn't have a subscription to the Prophet and that he at least had been spared from having to read it.
'Oh and get a load of this!' James said, slapping the paper with the back of his hand, before continuing to read it out loud.
Perhaps even more heartbreakingly, Lily Potter, the youngest daughter of Mr Potter, is said to have been tortured by Mr Raleigh with the Cruciatus Curse. The motivation for this heinous crime is yet to come to light.
'Well it's because Raleigh is an evil sod, isn't it' James growled angrily. Johnathan looked over at James and then Lily in turn with alarm.
'Is that actually true?' his face paled as he whispered to Lily.
Lily felt uncomfortable by the sudden show of concern and tried to brush it off.
'The only people I told about that were mum, dad and James… I don't understand how they could have found out…' she told him with a furrowed brow.
James voice grew louder and his anger appeared to multiply as he read the next sentence;
Miss Potter is known to struggle with wand use and is unlikely to have been able to defend herself from the attacks.
James threw his arms down so that he could shoot a look over the top of the paper at Lily.
'Did he not hear about the dueling tournament in France? Does he bother to check up on those kinds of things before he writes this hogwash?' he fumed.
'He wouldn't be writing that if he'd ever had to face you in a duel' Johnathan agreed.
Lily shrugged it off. She didn't care if some journalist thought she was bad at magic. Her father's reputation was of much bigger concern to her. Besides, it was better that he think she was magically inept then that he find out the hidden truth about why she was unable to fight back. She hadn't even told her father about having been trapped in the cage in her animagus form so she certainly didn't want anyone else knowing about it.
James tutted loudly before returning to his recitation;
With one Potter child and one unforgivable curse left, one hopes that the suspected murderer from the far North will be captured soon so that we can all sleep easier.
'Bloody hell…' Johnathan muttered. Usually he was a calm influence on James but now even he was sounding vexed. 'The bloke sounds like he'd have a field day if it becomes three out of three'
James threw the newspaper down and nodded along angrily.
'He's wishing death upon me- he's actually wishing death upon me!' he cried in outrage. 'What did I ever do to him?'
Lily remained silent. She looked down at her plate, feeling queasy. It was hard to have an appetite these days when every morning there was another onslaught of slander printed about her father. This was the first time she or Albus had ever been mentioned however and she knew it was likely to cause her mother to have a few strong words with the editors at the Prophet. Ginny had always been very vocal about her opposition to having any of her children mentioned in the media. And there was something else bugging her.
'They left out Teddy' Lily mumbled, pushing her scrambled eggs around with the back of her fork.
'What?' said James.
'They forgot Teddy' Lily told him sulkily. 'They said there's only three of us but there's four if you count Teddy'
'Is that really the biggest problem with this article Lils?' James asked her incredulously.
'Well it's just a bit rude, isn't it' Lily muttered despondently. She was suddenly feeling very sad not to have Teddy with her just then. It had been so long since she had seen him at Christmas.
'Yes well I'm sure Teddy will be gutted not to have had the honor of being mentioned by Elliot sodding Blishwick, but he'll get over it' James retorted sarcastically.
One afternoon a few days later, Lily decided to go and find Professor Montespan to ask him if he could lend her another Mermish text book. Lately practicing Mermish at the lake had been her only way of getting away from all the rumors and the stares. As such she had quickly made her way through the rest of the beginners text book and was eager for more material to memorize.
She walked in through his office door without knocking, a habit she had picked up which seemed to annoy the Professor to no end but which she didn't feel the need to correct.
'Professor, I've finished this one, may I borrow another-?' Lily called out. She walked towards his desk holding up the thick text book.
When there was no reply, Lily lowered the book to look over at Montespan. But to her surprise, it was not Professor Montespan at all, but Scorpius who was sitting at the desk in front of her.
He looked just as surprised to see her barging in as she was to find him sitting there.
'Don't you ever knock?' he asked her amused.
Lily answered his question with a question.
'Why are you here?'
Scorpius lifted his hands up off the parchment he was writing on to show her.
'Montespan asked me to help him mark some first year essays on the use of transfiguration for blood transfusions- water to blood, wine to blood, that sort of thing'
Lily snorted. She strode over and sat on top of the front of the desk, letting her legs swing back and forth over the side as she picked up the pieces of parchment to examine them.
'He's getting you to do his job now? Are you sure he's not training you to be a Professor rather than a healer so that he can get out of having to teach?'
Scorpius grinned at her. Then he stood up out of Professor Montespan's chair and walked around to the front of the desk to stand in front of her.
'Would you prefer that?' Scorpius put a hand out and let his fingertips brush her neck under her earlobe. 'If I trained to be a junior professor then I wouldn't have to leave after seventh year. I could stay here with you'
Lily frowned in amusement.
'I think there might be a conflict of interest with that arrangement…'
'Mmm' Scorpius replied absent-mindedly. He had moved forward to stand in between where her legs hung over the edge and was leaning in with his hands on the desktop at either side of her.
Lily blushed at the feeling of his shirt brushing up against the inside of her bare thigh just below the hem of her skirt. As though trying to cool her hot face with his lips, Scorpius began to place soft kisses along her cheekbone. Then he moved on to her lips, starting soft before deepening their kiss and caressing the tip of her tongue with his.
As their kiss continued Scorpius gradually leaned further forward and Lily lost her balance, almost falling onto her back. But Scorpius steadied her by wrapping two arms around her torso and pulling her to him. Lily's entire body tingled at the contact; from chest to thighs, he held her against the length of his body, standing between her parted knees. He was looking into her face with eyes that were glazed over with desire and Lily was surprised to find that she was yearning to lie back and feel the weight of his warm body against her.
Instead she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him hungrily. She was so absorbed in her desire for him that she didn't have room to feel embarrassed about it anymore. Scorpius responded just as eagerly, moving with more urgency as he ran his hands up and down her back over her uniform and then down the sides of her body, until finally he put a gentle hand over one of her breasts.
That one small action, much more hesitant and tender than the hasty manner in which they had been embracing each other moments before, had the effect of making Lily suddenly self-conscious. Her face reddened. She buried it in Scorpius's neck.
Scorpius stopped moving but he didn't remove his hand.
'Is this okay?' He whispered into her ear uncertainly.
Lily nodded, her forehead brushing against the soft skin of his neck. She felt like she had the time he had kissed her after the Halloween party: it was a mixture of excitement and a yearning that was so strong that it lit up every nerve in her body. She wasn't sure if she wanted to loose herself in it or fling herself away from him so that she could regain some control over her senses.
'Are you sure?' Scorpius asked, sounding concerned.
Lily lifted her head up and forced herself to look into his eyes as she nodded this time. Scorpius lent forward again to kiss her softly on the lips. His kisses were enough of a distraction to allow her to relax a little more as he moved his fingers over the top of her knitted school vest, very slowly and gently massaging her breasts.
Lily began to kiss him back much more vigorously, surprising even herself with her sudden eagerness. She completely lost herself. Desiring to feel every touch of his hand more firmly, she moved herself against him in time with his strokes, feeling dizzier and dizzier until to her utter embarrassment she let out a small moan.
Lily felt Scorpius's lips, which were still moving against hers, curve upwards into a smile. She grabbed hold of the front of his shirt so that she could burry her face in his chest. Scorpius was forced to take his hands away from her chest. He rested them on her waist instead.
'Are you aright?' Scorpius asked, breaking the long silence.
Lily stayed where she was and nodded. There was a moment's silence before Scorpius spoke again;
'I liked that noise you made…'
Lily immediately sat upright and swatted at his chest with her hand.
'Don't tease me' she said, her face burning.
'I'm not!' Scorpius shot back quickly. He pulled her into a hug. 'I mean it. Merlin, everything you do just makes me want you more'
The proclamation didn't help with Lily's reddening face. She felt a jolt of nerves and excitement go through her and tried not to read too much into his words.
Scorpius pulled back a little so that he could hold her face between his two palms and looked into her eyes. Then he lent forward into another deep kiss.
It was then that the door flew open, hitting the stone wall beside it with a loud 'bang!'.
Lily and Scorpius jumped and immediately broke apart.
'Merlin help me!' Montespan roared, striding up to where Lily still sat on his desk with Scorpius standing between her legs. Scorpius hastily stepped backwards and put out a hand to help Lily hop down.
'Forty points from Hufflepuff!' Montespan announced. He strode past the pair and began trying to right all of the ink bottles and paperweights that Lily had unknowingly tipped up.
'Why only from Huff-?' Lily began to ask but she stopped half way through, taken aback by the Professor's hard expression.
'-I think you'll find that snogging isn't against the school rules Sir' Scorpius cut in quickly.
Monstepan turned towards Scorpius and stared down at him wordlessly. He was clenching his jaw and his eyes were wide and unblinking.
'I think you'll find trespassing in a Professor's office is' he replied testily.
Lily scrunched up her nose in protest.
'But he was here doing your essay marking!'
'That didn't look like essay marking' Montespan huffed. Lily flushed and looked at her feet.
Scorpius cleared his throat.
'Sir-' he began calmly.
'A word please Scorpius' Montespan cut across him in a strained voice.
'In private' he added, giving Lily a meaningful glance.
Lily brushed down her skirt, which had unfortunately hiked up a little after her tussle with Scorpius on the desk. She shot Scorpius a look and he gave her a small apologetic nod. It had been a very long time since Lily had seen Montespan look this humorless and annoyed. Without another word she picked up her school satchel and made her way to the door.
Once it was shut behind her, Lily could hear the muffled sound of Montespan speaking in a raised voice. She hesitated, wondering if she should barge back in again. But she soon realized that the Professor had locked the door after her.
Lily was still thinking about Montespan's strange reaction as she polished glasses at the Three Broomsticks. She had an afternoon shift which happily coincided with another of Poppy's performances on the small old stage in the corner of the inn. Despite having recovered from his cold, Trocar had been well and truly replaced as lead singer of the band of vampires. So impressive was Poppy's voice that even Trocar was forced to begrudgingly accept that she was the better choice and take up the tambourine instead. The band was becoming something of a small sensation in the small wizarding village and so Ailbeart had begun to schedule her in almost every weekend.
Lily let her shoulders relax as she listened to Poppy singing a slow Celestina Warbeck number. Over the past few days her father's bad press had been weighing down upon her and at her lowest, during particularly dark moments as she struggled to sleep, Lily even wondered whether she had done the right thing in exposing Raleigh. But Poppy's melodic voice was helping to sooth her worries and remind her that what was written in the papers took up only a minuscule percentage of life.
Lily moved out from behind the bar with her fingers raised, levitating a dozen of the clean glasses in front of her as she headed towards a cabinet on the far side of the room. She danced along to the beat of Poppy's song as she did so, twirling here and there but keeping the glasses steady in front of her.
'Hey, Potter!'
A familiar deep voice sounded from across the room. Lily looked up to see the dark eyes and pallid face of Horon Carrow staring at her with a lopsided smirk. He was sitting at one of the booth tables by the windows with the usual group rowdy Slytherin boys that seemed to hang around him like flies; Brice Scabier, Cruin Yaxley and Voisin Duff.
'I need another drink!' Carrow barked at her raising an empty butter beer tankard. The other boys tittered in amusement at his gruff demand.
Lily took a deep breath. She didn't want to do anything that would provoke the elder Slytherin boy to hound her further. But she also couldn't bring herself to act as though she were at his beck and call, after everything she had heard about his constant tormenting of Scorpius.
'Then you'll need to order at the bar like everyone else' Lily told him flatly, turning away from him and continuing on her way to the cabinet. But in that brief moment, Lily knew that she had made a mistake. An flash of fury passed behind his eyes and his mouth twisted into a grimace.
She was glad to be able to have her back to him as she lined the glasses carefully up inside the cabinet.
'Do I have to pour it for myself too?'
Lily jolted and turned quickly around to find that Carrow was now standing less than few feet behind her, glaring at her with an expression of disdain.
'I'll be there in a minute if you just wait' Lily began crossly. But all her confidence from before had drained under the pressure of his close proximity.
'Oh no rush, Potter' Carrow said sarcastically. 'I know you're probably very tired after your little adventure the other day'
Lily let a frustrated breath out through her nostrils and turned her back on him to continue levitating glasses into place on the top cabinet shelf. 'An adventure' is not the way she would describe being captured and tortured whilst she feared for her friends lives.
'How was it by the way? Did you scream a lot? I've always imagined you'd scream a lot if someone got you with the torture curse…'
Carroll's lighthearted tone made the hair on the back of Lily's neck stand up. She bit her lip and closed her eyes, forcing herself not to react. He was trying to bait her and she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of seeing her upset.
'But I suppose all in all you really should consider yourself lucky,' Carrow went on, his voice softening to a menacing whisper. Her silence seemed to be getting under his skin. 'You didn't end up in the loony bin like your brother did, so that's something'
Lily's head whipped around and she glared at him. Carrow's face broke out into a grin at having succeeded in getting her to cease ignoring him.
'Just shut it and go wait at the bar' Lily seethed at him.
'No chance for him now is there?' Carrow's eyes sparkled with glee. 'There's no way he'll get into the Auror's Office now- not after having been an accomplice to murder-'
'JUST GET LOST' Lily roared. The glass levitating beside her exploded, sending shards of glass flying in all directions.
Lily let out a gasp and took a step away from the cabinet, scared that her flaring temper might cause more destruction.
The room fell into a great hush. Even the band of vampires stopped playing. The entire clientele of students and villagers watched as Poppy leapt off the stage and strode over to where Lily and Carrow stood.
'What have you done now?' she demanded narrowing her eyes at Carrow as she stepped into the space between him and Lily.
'Stay out of it Balfour' Carrow muttered. To Lily's surprise the smile on his face disappeared and he looked instantly disgusted at the sight of Poppy.
'I'll stay out of it when you stop bothering my friend you twat' Poppy retorted incredulously. She put her hands on her hips and looked him up and down with contempt.
'Potter was just about to go and get me a drink' Carrow said tersly staring straight at Lily.
Lily looked back at him with a dark expression.
'Oh is that what this is about? Poor baby is thirsty' Poppy scoffed mockingly. 'Well then, how about we go over to the bar and I show you how a tap works?'
'I'm not drinking anything you've touched, you filthy mudblood!' Carrow hissed at Poppy.
Lily's mouth flew open and she stepped forward ready to throw as much magic at Carrow as her palms could conjure.
'HOW DARE YOU-?'
But Lily's angry exclamation caught in her throat at the sound of abrupt and historical laughter.
Poppy was clutching her stomach and pointing at the pallid Slytherin boy as though he'd just said the most ridiculous thing she'd ever heard.
'Mudblood?! You think my blood is dirty?' Poppy exclaimed through bursts of laughter. 'You do know I'm related to the Queen of sodding England?! That I come from a line of Dukes and Duchesses?!'
Carrow's brown furrowed and his lips parted, but he didn't seem to be able to comprehend Poppy's reaction.
'I'm nobility!' Poppy cackled. 'Compared to that, what are you? Nothing but a peasant!'
The anger that had flared up in Lily at Carrow's use of the derogatory slur suddenly faded and she sobered. She wasn't sure about how she felt about the logic behind Poppy's retorts, but she was glad at least that her friend didn't seem in the slightest bit hurt.
Carrow looked both confused and disappointed that his insult had been received with such indifference. He backed slowly away from Poppy, sauntering back to where his friends sat as she continued to howl with laughter.
The next time that Lily saw Scorpius, it was night time. She was laying on the grassy slope near the lake, at the hidden spot beneath the wooden bridge where she usually practiced Mermish.
He took a seat next to her on the grass and wordlessly handed her a textbook.
'Montespan?' Lily guessed, sitting up to take it. The cover read Watery Wails: An Intermediate Textbook.
Scorpius nodded.
'I mentioned you were looking for something a little more challenging' he confirmed.
'What in Merlin's name was his problem the other day?' Lily scrunched up her face with displeasure at the memory of his reaction to finding them in his office. Montespan had seemed very irritable, even for him.
Scorpius looked a little sheepish. He glanced around at the ground and pulled one of his knees up to his chest.
'Don't be too hard on him' he murmured. 'He was just worried about you'
'Worried about me?' Lily frowned. 'What on earth for?'
Scorpius sighed.
'He thinks it's… ungentlemanly of me… I think that was the word he used…'
'What is?' Lily scoffed.
'Going around with you in secret' Scorpius let himself fall backwards into a laying position on the grass.
'But he was the one that tried to get us together in the first place' Lily said moodily. 'He snuck my letter into your text book!'
'It's not so much the being together part that he minds…' Scorpius mumbled. 'It's more that he thinks the physical side of things shouldn't be… progressing… unless I'm open and honest about my intentions…'
Lily raised an eyebrow. She had had no idea that Montespan was so old fashioned.
'And he's right of course' Scorpius added covering his face with his hands and sighing.
'Well I don't think so…' Lily protested. She prodded Scorpius in the side with her fingers before laying down next to him and hugging his arm to her chest, trying to get him to touch her.
But Scorpius was too preoccupied with his thoughts and it seemed as though Montespan's scolding had succeeded in making him feel guilty. All the boldness he had shown in Montespan's office had disappeared and he wouldn't even hold her hand.
'Maybe if we told your parents at least…' Scorpius said. He was looking up at the stars, his brows knit together with worry. 'That would be a start'
Lily let go of his arm and rolled back onto her back with a sigh.
'I do want to tell them but…' she said quietly. 'But it's just a bit hard at the moment… with everything that's going on…'
Scorpius turned his head to the side to look at her with empathetic eyes. Then he reached out a hand and began to run his fingers soothingly through her hair. Lily was relieved to see that Montespan hadn't lectured all of the affection out of him.
'There's no rush' Scorpius told her softly. 'If that's what you want to do, we can wait until things have settled down for your family…'
Lily nodded.
'At least until Albus is discharged from St Mungo's' she said, surprising herself with her own quivering voice. Scorpius reached out and brushed a tear that she hadn't even realized was there from her cheek with his thumb.
Lily did her best to hold back any more tears.
'So are you planning on not kissing me again until we've told them?' she asked him sulkily.
Scorpius's face broke out into a grin at her sullen expression.
'There's no way I'd be able to manage that' he chuckled, leaning forwards to kiss her on the forehead.
