'So are you a Harpies or Wasps supporter?' Ginny asked brightly over the tense silence.

Scorpius looked up quickly from the plate of roast in front of him that he had been gazing at in order to avoid catching the copious sets of eyes that were boring into him.

'Er…'

He looked instantly bewildered by Ginny's innocent question and Lily wished that she was sitting next him so that she could whisper an explanation. Once they had finally coaxed her out of the kitchen, Grandma Molly had grabbed ahold of Lily's hand and requested that she sit right next to her. As a result Lily now faced Scorpius and could clearly see from across the table the confusion in his eyes.

'Scorpius doesn't really like Quidditch mum' Lily explained.

'Oh…' Ginny said in unusually high voice. Lily could tell that she was doing her best to be polite but that she couldn't quite comprehend how anyone could not like quidditch. The rest of the table looked equally as bemused by the idea.

'What do you two even talk about then?' James muttered skeptically, causing Lily to scowl at him.

'Your father didn't want you to join the Slytherin team?' Ron asked loudly from across the table with interest.

Lily felt her skin prickle up in annoyance.

'At first he did I think… but he knew I didn't like flying so…' Scorpius fumbled in reply.

'Scorpius isn't even in Slytherin' Lily shot back icily across the table at her uncle, causing him to choke on his pumpkin juice.

Seven sets of eyes immediately shot over to stare at Scorpius questioningly. He cleared his throat and looked around uncertainly.

'Hufflepuff' he answered quietly.

Uncle Ron had to duck under the table to make sure none of the juice he coughed out ended up on his plate. Hermione rolled her eyes and patted him forcefully on the back as he regained his composure.

When he finally resurfaced there was a shadow of a smirk in the corners of his mouth which he tried unsuccessfully to suppress.

'Your father must've been a tad surprised, I'd imagine…'

'At first' Scorpius said again dismissively.

'Lucius must have been mortified!' Grandpa Arthur exclaimed with even less tact than Ron had shown.

Scorpius diverted his eyes away and took another deep breath.

'He doesn't… well he doesn't really know'

'Wait- he doesn't know that you're in Hufflepuff?' James asked incredulously. 'Your own grandfather?'

Scorpius shook his head and a great silence filled the room.

'Does he-' Harry spoke up after a beat. 'Does he ah… know about you two?'

Harry motioned to Lily and Scorpius with his fork.

Scorpius slowly shook his head again.

'Mr Malfoy does' Lily said defiantly, knowing it would touch a nerve for her parents to know that they had found out after him.

'And what did he say?' Ginny asked, trying to sound only casually interested.

Scorpius and Lily exchanged a look but remained silent. It was enough for Harry and Ginny to guess that Draco had not been wholly supportive of the idea of them together.

'Scorpius was just telling me that he likes the way Lily makes flowers bloom when she's happy' Teddy said loudly in an attempt to placate the tense atmosphere in the room.

'Does he know about how you make furniture melt when you're not?' Albus muttered snidely.

Lily kicked his chair from under the table.

Meanwhile Grandpa Arthur was leaning forward looking intently at Scorpius's nose, and Scorpius was doing his best to pretend he wasn't aware of this. But after a while, he couldn't help but let the confusion seep onto his features and a self-conscious hand jumped up to brush off any dirt that might be there.

'Grandpa, it was just a Halloween costume' Lily hissed. 'Scorpius doesn't actually have piercings…'

'Oh…' Grandpa Arthur said, his eyes still narrowed and his tone distrustful.

'Oh yes, no she's right Sir. Absolutely no piercings. Piercings are for bad boys' Scorpius blurted out in a nervous ramble.

As soon as the words left his mouth however he cringed and turned his eyes decidedly back towards the plate in front of him.

Teddy, who was sitting on Lily's other side, was doing a terrible job of suppressing his laughter, his shoulders jiggling up and down and a hand clasped over his mouth.

'Teddy' Lily admonished him with a prod of her elbow into his side.

Having caught sight of Lily's disapproving expression, he stopped laughing. But to Lily's horror he pulled out a copy of Witch Weekly and flipped it open to the article inside.

'They suit you though, the piercings' he commented. 'Great costume idea… Lily is quite the Stubby Boardman fan, but I suppose you knew that?'

Scorpius shifted uncomfortably and nodded. His cheeks turned a faint pink again. Lily too flushed, even as she narrowed her eyes at Teddy. He had always taken a mischievous pleasure in embarrassing her and right then she was certainly an easy target.

'Don't mind him' Rose said loudly from the other end of the table. 'He's just jealous because he and Victoire never made the front page'

'This happened to you too?' Scorpius asked in surprise, looking over at Teddy.

Lily rolled her eyes. 'Yeah only about a million times… Teddy basically made a sport of it'

Teddy gasped in mock outrage.

'I never tried to get our photos in the press on purpose!' he exclaimed before turning to Scorpius and winking. 'It's just that my lady happens to be the most beautiful witch on the planet'

Scorpius was looking from Rose to Teddy with a crease in his brow.

'But isn't Victoire… your cousin…?' he asked Lily uncertainly.

Lily nodded and took a bite of her baked potatoes, not really sure what he was getting at. Scorpius lowered his voice to a whisper and bent across the table towards her.

'Is that… legal?'

'Oh we're not blood related' Teddy said quickly, motioning to himself and Lily as thought it were obvious.

'Oh…' Scorpius blinked a few times and then looked down at the table again to gather his thoughts. Lily could hardly blame him. She had a hard enough time keeping up with all her many cousins and relatives herself.

'You and I are though' Teddy said nonchalantly, waiving his fork in the air as though he had just remembered the fact. Scorpius's eyes whipped back up to Teddy's face to try to ascertain if he was joking with him again.

'You are?' Lily's voice rose a few octaves in surprise.

'Teddy's grandmother and Scorpius's grandmother were sisters' Harry explained calmly from the end of the table.

'You're second cousins?' James asked, sounding irked by the revelation.

Scorpius still looked confused but he seemed hesitant to voice this. Teddy looked upon him with sympathy.

'You won't have heard of her because she got disowned by the Black family when she married a muggle' he explained matter of factly.

'Oh…' Scorpius took a deep breath and shifted nervously.

'Anyway-' Teddy said loudly, as though trying to settle Scorpius's nerves. 'As someone with experience in being hounded by the press, I have some advice for you two love birds'

'What's your advice Teddy?' Lily asked robotically. She wasn't expecting it to be particularly insightful.

'Firstly, do as much wild stuff as possible- that way when they report about it, it will sound like they're making it up.'

'Sounds a little counterproductive…' Lily muttered.

'Secondly, stop caring about what they write. Or what anyone else thinks at all for that matter' Teddy continued firmly. 'Oh and most importantly- don't leave a paper trail. No love letters. The newspapers go wild for that kind of stuff and you'd be surprised by the lengths they'll go to get their hands on it'

Lily felt her veins go cold and she looked up to exchange an alarmed look with Scorpius. Teddy burst out laughing at the looks on their faces.

'Got some cleaning up to do?' he teased.

Lily looked down at her plate and made a mental note to ask Scorpius to incendio the smitherines out of her embarrassing letter once they were in private. By the time she looked back up, Teddy had already returned to reading the article.

'Teddy don't read that at the table' Ginny said irritably, 'it's complete hogwash, full of utterly defamatory, ridiculous, incorrect information'

But Teddy was already too engrossed in the article to follow Ginny's directions. A crease formed on his forehead and he began to read out loud.

'Harry Potter may be known for vanquishing dark wizards, but he hasn't had much luck banishing his daughters' boyfriends-'

'Well he hasn't actually tried yet' Ron pointed out. Hermione was quick to shoot him a silencing glare which Lily mirrored.

'They make it sound like you've had more than one' James scoffed. Lily stuck her tongue out at him.

'How do you know I haven't?' she said just because she knew it would annoy him to think so. James mouth fell predictably open in outrage.

Teddy cleared his throat to get everyone's attention back and carried on reading.

'-Lily Luna Potter, the youngest and only daughter of the Potter family was spotted in a passionate embrace with Scorpius Malfoy, heir to the Malfoy family, notoriously known for their fierce loyalty towards the Dark Lord Voldemort during the first and second wizarding wars. But this isn't the first time Miss Potter has rebelled against her father and caused a stir-'

'Oh gee, breaking news' Albus muttered with a smirk. Lily narrowed her eyes at him and gave his chair another good kick under the table.

'-Miss Potter, thought to be the black sheep of the family-'

Teddy finally looked up, an expression of disbelief on his face. '-is rumoured to have blown up the Slytherin common room in her first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry'

James snorted. 'That wasn't Lily!'

Lily caught Scorpius's eyes before clearing her throat awkwardly. Harry had been about to take a sip from his goblet but stopped with it raised halfway to his mouth and was now staring at Lily with a startled expression.

'Absolute nonsense!' Ginny said again firmly. Then she turned to shoot Lily a comforting look.

'Don't you worry about it dear, I'll be speaking to a contact I have at Witch Weekly to get them to set the record straight'

'No, mum don't do that' Lily said quickly. Her mouth had gone dry and she was looking at the table now to try to avoid her many relative's eyes.

'I can't allow them to print falsehoods about you-' Ginny began to say.

'It was an accident!' hurried words tumbled out of Lily's mouth. 'Raul Pucey carried me in there after our quidditch game and then Horon Carrow was in a foul mood because James hit him with that bludger and he was saying bad stuff about dad and I just sort of lost my temper and then there was a bang and there was soot everywhere and I just-'

Teddy slung an arm around Lily's shoulders to get her to stop blabbering.

'Perhaps it's time for dessert' he said cheerfully, looking over at Harry meaningfully.

Harry, who was still looking shell shocked from the revelation, nodded along numbly and got out of his chair to go and fetch the cake he had prepared in advance for Molly's birthday from the kitchen. The room was silent as everyone watched him depart.

'Anyway, I don't understand how they could know all that…' Lily muttered in a fluster.

Scorpius nodded.

'No one was there that night on Halloween. It was just us' He said quietly.

Ginny let out a sigh. She, Ron and Hermione all exchanged knowing looks.

'I think I could make a fairly good guess' She said.

Lily frowned at her mother questioningly.

'There's only one person who would go to such lengths to get such a ridiculous scoop… and only one person who could manage to get onto Hogwarts grounds undetected to do it' Hermione explained.

'I would have thought she would be retired by now living under a log or in a pile of dung- that's where beetles like to be isn't it?' Ron quipped.

'I don't understand' Scorpius said. 'Who do you mean?'

'Rita Skeeter, dear' Ginny said gently. 'She's a journalist who used to write about Lily's father quite a bit when we were in school. She retired from the Prophet quite some time ago, after she was discovered to have been an unregistered animagus using her powers to spy on and attain information about private individuals'

'Still managed to tell absolute porkies whenever she got the chance, despite all that undercover work' Ron pointed out.

'But it says here that it was a B. Edwards who wrote the story' Teddy said, squinting at the corner of the page where the article finished.

'Ah!' James exclaimed, standing abruptly up out of his chair.

Everyone turned to look at him in surprise.

'B. Edwards! B. Edwards!' James flapped his arms about wildly, looking around at them all. 'Don't you see? It's that toerag Edward Blishwick using a pseudonym!'

Ginny let out a groan and rested her forehead in one hand.

'Merlin, I should have known… there's no knowing what he'll write now that he isn't being restrained by the editors for the Prophet…'

'So then, it wasn't Skeeter?' Lily asked in confusion.

'She probably sold the photos and the information to him…' Ginny lamented. 'They're from Halloween aren't they? So she must have been holding onto them for a while, waiting for some kind of family scandal to occur so that she could get a better price…'

Lily felt nauseous. All those months, she'd felt completely assured about the secrecy of her relationship with Scorpius. But all that time Skeeter had had their photos, waiting to sell them at an opportune moment. Their secret had been nothing but a ticking time bomb.

Hermione let out a sigh and looked around at everyone with a tired expression.

'Harry was asked to step down from his role today by Ministry veteran and former head of the Auror Office Gawain Robards. He's not going to of course- there's no reason to, and I wouldn't allow it, the Ministry needs him- but it's caused quite the stir amongst Ministry Officials'

Lily felt her eyes begin to sting. She could feel that Scorpius was watching her keenly and she didn't want to worry him so she forced herself to stay calm.

The room had gone dead silent again when Harry came back in carrying an enormous, three-tiered chocolate cake that was covered in a thick icing and dotted with raspberries. Grandpa Arthur let out a forced cheer at the sight of it and one after the other everyone seated at the table joined in clapping. Harry placed it on the space on the table between Scorpius and Lily and went about lighting the candles with his wand.

'Wow…' Scorpius said in sincere awe. 'I don't think my father can even make toast for himself without burning it…'

Ron let out a triumphant 'hmmph!' at the mention of Draco's shortcomings and instantly the room became tense once more. Harry quickly took his seat back at the table again. The candles were lit and ready but nobody was game enough to start singing in such an awkward atmosphere.

'Does your mother enjoy cooking?' Hermione asked Scorpius brightly, shooting Ron a dirty look.

Lily stiffened at the question and watched Scorpius's reaction. But he didn't batter an eyelid.

'She does… did' he corrected himself.

'She must have the patience of a house elf…' Uncle Ron muttered under his breath.

'Ronald!' Hermione scolded him angrily, turning to openly glare at him now.

'What? I just can't imagine it that's all… having to live with that twat all the time…'

'How dare-' Lily began angrily, but Scorpius cut in calmly.

'She left' he said matter-of-factly. 'Not because of my father' he added quickly.

The room went silent again. Ginny, Hermione and Rose looked simultaneously sympathetic and horrified that Ron had brought up such a thing. Ron had gone completely pale himself, whilst Harry's expression was unreadable. Lily, on the other hand, was fuming. The cutlery that lay on the table beside her curled up fist began to clatter and shake.

'She had a blood curse' Scorpius continued patiently.'It meant she couldn't stay human any more- that she couldn't stay with us'

'What did she do to get cursed?' James asked callously.

That was the final straw. Lily couldn't stand it any more- the rudeness, the insensitivity and the nastiness. She jumped out of her chair.

'COULD YOU ALL JUST STOP?!' She bellowed down at them.

There was an enormous 'bang!' and suddenly the huge tiered cake that Harry had crafted was flying in all directions. Lily shut her eyes and ducked as the splatter flew towards her. She felt a ripple of wind against her cheek as a handful of it flew past her shoulder.

Opening her eyes, Lily gingerly took in the damage before her. There was no longer a cake but simply a brown smudged silver platter at the centre of the table. Her family slowly lowered the arms they had thrown up to shield themselves or, in the case of Albus and Hugo, resurfaced from where they had lunged below the table for shelter. Everyone seemed to have avoided the worst of it.

Everyone, that was, except Scorpius. He was sitting very still in the same position across from her, completely covered from chest to forehead in a thick layer of chocolate icing and lumps of crumbled cake.

Eleven sets of eyes took in the sight in dead silence. For a moment, Scorpius blinked a few times in surprise before opening his mouth and addressing Lily in the drawling tone he reserved for teasing her.

'I do hope you're planning to reimburse me for these clothes Potter'

Lily, who was still frozen in shock, blinked back at him with a blank expression before suddenly letting out a giggle. She clasped a hand to her mouth but it was too late and it wasn't long before her giggles had turned into a fit of laughter.

'Lily!' Ginny scolded her.

'Do you have any idea how much this attire is worth Potter?' Scorpius went on in his mock pompous tone, motioning to the ragged jeans and old t-shirt he wore. But the corners of his mouth were beginning to twitch upwards giving away his feigned outrage.

'S-Sorry!' Lily howled, sounding anything but. She was in tears now but she took a moment between wheezes of laughter to point at him mockingly before doubling up again.

'I think you ought to apologize to your father don't you-?' Scorpius used a finger to scoop up some of the icing on his shirt and eat it.

'-I suspect he was hoping that other people besides me might enjoy this'

Harry looked on, a little taken aback by the familiarity of Scorpius's tone of voice.

Then Scorpius's face cracked into a grin and his eyes sparkled with affection as he watched Lily struggle to contain her mirth. He wiped a lump of the cake off of his face and reached across the table to smear it on her cheek.

Lily gasped at him in outrage and then suddenly they were both caught up in a fit of laughter that seemed to have no end. They would take a few breaths and manage to calm themselves for a few moments only to have it all fall apart again each time they caught each others eyes.

After a while Ginny ushered them into the kitchen to clean themselves up.

Everyone could still hear their laughter from the dining room as Lily stood in the centre of the kitchen trying to get the sticky substance out of Scorpius's hair with a tea-towel in between fits of giggles.

Then Teddy waltzed into the room and helped her out by using some cleaning spells and before long Scorpius was restored to his cake-free self.

When Lily and Scorpius had finally calmed down, Teddy escorted them not to the dining room but to the sitting room where they found the family gathered drinking tea and playing games of wizards chess. Teddy treated Lily and Scorpius to a game of 'guess that witch or wizard' using his Metamorphic abilities which Albus and even a reluctant James soon joined in on. They were utterly distracted by Teddy's impression of a post-mandrake incident Venusia Crickerly, when Uncle George arrived with his children Fred and Roxanne.

George stopped still in the doorway, staring at Scorpius with a baffled expression.

'Meet Lily's new boyfriend' James drawled with obvious displeasure.

Lily instinctively stood up, ready to defend Scorpius from any sort of snide remark that might leave her uncle's mouth. He was looking from Lily to Scorpius and back again with a blank face.

'Well that's just ridiculous…' George said firmly. The room went quiet. Ginny too stood up too, her face tense and a crease in her brow. Lily opened her mouth to protest but George got in ahead of her.

'…He's far too good looking for you Lils'

Albus snorted loudly, burying his face in the crook of his arm to suppress his laughter. Teddy was equally as amused, but rather than try to hide it he slapped Scorpius on the back and chortled openly. Even Scorpius was having trouble wiping a relieved grin off his face.

Lily walked over to her uncle to hit him on the arm. She feigned offense and continued to reprimand him for the rest of the evening but secretly she was very grateful that he'd not made any nasty remarks about Scorpius, or heaven-forbid, burst into tears.


It was dark and a little chilly when Lily walked outside the front door of 12 Grimmauld Place with Scorpius to farewell him. They stood on the steps facing each other. Standing two steps above him, Lily could see directly into Scorpius's amber eyes. They looked particularly animal-like and engaging through the darkness. She lent forward and wrapped her arms around him.

'Thank you for coming' she whispered into his ear. She squeezed her arms tighter, trying to communicate to him just how grateful and relieved she was that he hadn't run away after all of her family's belittling remarks and antics.

'I'm sorry everyone was so awful' Lily added sadly.

Scorpius leaned back out of their hug to look her in the eyes.

'What're you talking about? It wasn't that bad'

Lily made a face at him.

'You can stop being so polite now' she said.

Scorpius smirked at her.

'I'm serious. Your mum was nice… and nobody raised their wand at me so I think it went pretty well actually, all things considered'

Lily snorted and let herself fall forward into a hug again.

'Also-' Scorpius said brightly, 'You should know by now that I'm always polite'

'Uh huh' Lily rolled her eyes. She couldn't help but think Montespan might disagree with that assessment.

'You look beautiful by the way' Scorpius whispered into her ear.

'Is that you being polite too?' Lily quipped.

'No, that's me being honest' Scorpius said seriously. He put his arms around her torso and rubbed his hand across her back.

'I'm glad you think so. I'll let uncle George know that I'm not out of your league after all' Lily said sourly. But she was blushing.

'Of course I do. You're my definition of beauty' Scorpius said emphatically, hugging her to him.

Lily felt all the tenseness in her shoulders melt away at the feeling of his arms around her. He had a way of making her feel so calm even after such an eventful evening.

'I'd really like to kiss you' Scorpius added ruefully, 'But your brother is shooting daggers at me through the window'

Lily pulled instantly away and her head whipped around. James's narrowed eyes could be seen peering through a gap in the curtains of the front room at them. She let out an annoyed 'Hmph!' before turning quickly back to Scorpius and capturing his lips in a passionate kiss.

Scorpius jolted in surprise but he was soon reciprocating with even more enthusiasm then she had shown. When they broke apart, Scorpius grinned at her.

'I'll bring my wand next time in case your brother decides to hex me for that' he joked.

'I'd like to see him try' Lily said haughtily.

She watched as Scorpius backed down the steps, still smiling at her before he sauntered off down the old street turning to wave every now and then. Lily watched him go until he had completely disappeared around the bend at the other end of the street. Then she turned around with a hard look on her face, determined to give James a good dressing down for prying in on her only moment with Scorpius alone.

But when Lily returned to the front room she was surprised to find it almost empty. All her relatives had disappeared. Only Ginny, Harry, Teddy, Albus and James stood huddled at the center of the room speaking in low voices.

'It's absolutely important that we get everything out right now, in the interest of being prepared and preventing something like this from happening again' Ginny was saying.

'What's going on?' Lily asked in alarm, joining the strange family circle.

'Mum wants us to let her know if we've got any secrets' James said gravely. 'You know, like secret boyfriends who the press might go crazy over' he added snidely.

Lily clenched her jaw.

'That's it okay? That's all I've got, I promise. Now can we just move on-' she said irritably.

'I'm not blaming you for any of this Lily' Ginny said quickly, putting a hand to her shoulder to calm her. 'I just need to know that there isn't anything else anyone in this family is hiding so that we aren't blind-sighted next time. We know some of these journalists are out to get us, so we need to be careful'

Harry let out a sigh.

'If anything, it's my fault-'

'No, dad-' Lily protested.

'It is though' Harry said firmly. 'I'm the one who took on this job at the Ministry and I'm the one who has been messing up lately'

'Dad, it wasn't your fault-' Albus jumped in. Harry held up a hand to silence him.

'I know it isn't fair on you all. But we really do need to know- in order to protect you. If anyone here has any more secrets then I just ask that you please let us know now'

Teddy crossed his arms and shuffled his feet about before opening his mouth to say something.

'Not you Teddy' Harry said quickly. 'I already know about that. I found out when I took on this job'

Lily's brows immediately scrunched up and she turned her head quickly from Teddy to Harry and back again.

'Wait- what? What secret does Teddy have!?'

'Nothing for you to worry about' Harry said hurriedly.

'But you just said there should be no secrets!' James pointed out aghast.

'This one is different' Harry said, shooting James an admonishing look that told him to drop it.

'So is there anything else?' Ginny said over the top of the squabbling. 'Does anyone have anything else we perhaps ought to know about?'

Albus took a deep breath and let out a sigh. He had his hands in his pockets, his eyes on the floor and was looking very uncomfortable.

'You don't have to' Lily said quietly to him. 'You can decide when you want to tell everyone'

James's face contorted into an outraged expression again.

'Why does everyone but me have secrets?!'

'Just shut up for a second James' Albus sighed irritably. He stepped forward, his face pale.

'I kissed Scorpius too' he muttered. His eyes still on the floor.

Lily froze as silence filled the air yet again. When finally she looked up and around at her parents faces, she saw that they were looking at Albus with a mixture of confusion and hesitation.

James on the other hand was letting out awkward snorts of laughter as he tried to catch the eyes of every other person in the room.

'James, he's not joking' Lily said quietly.

'What, you actually snogged him? As like a practical joke or something?' James asked Albus incredulously. He still had an confused grin on his face as though he was trying to understand the punchline of a particularly odd joke.

'No you great git, I'm gay!' Albus tutted and narrowed his eyes at his older brother. 'Do I have to spell it out for you?!' Then he shot him a disgusted look before storming out of the room.

'Albus-!' Lily called out after him. She made to follow him out into the hallway but Harry held up an arm to stop her.

'It's alright, I'll go talk to him' he said calmly, walking swiftly from the room.

Ginny, Teddy, James and Lily were left standing alone in confused silence.

'Wait- so is Scorpius-?' Teddy began to ask.

'No, it was just a misunderstanding' Lily said quickly.

'That's one hell of a misunderstanding' James gaped.

Lily pouted at him, but she kept her mouth firmly shut. If there was one thing James wasn't known for it was tact in sensitive situations. She didn't want to give him any more information than he needed.

Ginny had a hand to her forehead and was looking around the room in a daze.

'Merlin, there better not be photographs of that too…' she said numbly.

Lily quickly shook her head.

'I doubt it… I mean, they were completely alone in the boy's bathroom. Surely nobody would follow them in there, even if they were disguised as a beetle'

'You don't know the lengths that Skeeter will go to for a scoop' Ginny lamented.

'Well it's not important anyway' Lily said loudly, suddenly feeling quite emboldened by Albus's show of courage. 'The important thing is that we support Albus'

'Oh but of course dear' Ginny said quickly. 'Of course we all do. Whether or not he likes witches or wizards has nothing to do with how much we love him'

Lily felt momentarily relieved. But then she remembered James and turned to fix a skeptical look upon him. James threw up his hands in defense.

'Of course I support him!' He cried in frustration, 'Merlin, who gives a flying bogey if he likes wizards! I wouldn't care less even if he told me he fancied goblins!'

Teddy nodded along in agreement.

'Things just get more and more interesting every day, don't they?' He said with glee in his voice. 'Imagine the day when little old Albie brings a boyfriend to dinner!'

'Are you planning to terrorize him too?' Lily retorted dryly.

Teddy put an arm around her and steered her towards the hallway as he ruffled her hair.

'A little bit. But I'll reserve most of it for you, don't worry'

'I'll invite Victoire over next time so she can see how much of an arse you are' Lily threatened.

Teddy let out a laugh as he pulled open the front door.

'Oh she already knows. That's part of my charm'

Lily rolled her eyes and followed Teddy outside. Albus was sitting on the front steps with Harry, who had an arm around his son.

Lily moved quickly forward to crouch down behind Albus and hug his shoulders from behind.

'You were much braver than I was' she told him. 'You told everyone the truth'

Albus shrugged in embarrassment. Lily could feel that his shoulders and arms were still shaking from nerves. He put a hand to gently touch her forearm that was wrapped across his chest.

'And I did it without making anyone cry on their birthday' he said with a chuckle.


A/N: Oh my gosh, I have been so busy you guys. I'm not even exaggerating. I've had a bazzilion portrait commissions to get done (I paint btw) and I was also on a business trip with work for the past week or so. I'm not complaining, I like being busy but it means I don't get a chance to write sometimes.

Please be patient with me. I know I'm really slow to upload sometimes. Anyways, thank you again for all your lovely reviews. I'm really really looking forward to hearing about what you thought of this chapter.