Wednesday January 14th 2021:

"What are you doing?" Hugo asked his favorite cousin, who had just alarmed him when wheezing out a melodramatic gasp in the act of hauling out her pocket-notebook.

"Nothing," Lily lied, skimming over various pages at their library table.

Hugo mischievously reached forward to abduct it, but Lily levitated it into the air with her wand.

"I'm not stupid. You think I wasn't expecting that?" Lily said, smug.

Immediately upon Lily's eyes rebounding to her journal, it was magically seized into Hugo's clutches, followed by him disarming her so she was unable to levitate it back, "and you really thought I wasn't going to do that?"

"Oi! Give that back!" Lily ordered, tussling to win back her wand and notebook.

"He tries to make you laugh. Finds any excuses to touch you," Hugo read aloud, his one foot forcing the red-head back and a hand gripping one of her wrists. "I don't get it."

Because of the disruption in her library, Madam Pince let the preteens off with a warning to be settled and silent, and so Hugo (under protest) returned Lily's wand and suspicious journal. In the children's favor, Pince seemed more concerned with the noise rather than their use of magic outside class.

"It's nothing you would care about anyway," Lily whispered to Hugo, securely sealing the book.

"Hey, Lil," greeted a handsome young man, roaming past her, playfully prodding her shoulder in the process. He had downy, thick locks of blond hair, a dreamy profile, and following him were a trio of fawning girls; there was seldom a time where he attended somewhere companionless.

"Hey, Nigel," Lily greeted back, spinning a strand of hair around her finger.

When Nigel was outside her range of vision, Lily reopened her notes as swift as a bolt of lightning and checked off an obscure sentence.

"Ohhh, I see. That's the he," Hugo drawled, sneaking a peak over Lily's shoulder.

"So what if it is?" Lily said.

"So, should I start calling you Lily Finnigan-Thomas now?" Hugo teased.

"No!"

"Why not? You did write it," Hugo said, evidencing the page put on display.

"No I didn't!" Lily fibbed, cloaking the words with her hands.

"Wait, that looked a little like my Mum's handwriting," Hugo called attention to.

"It is."

"My Mum is helping you get boys?" Hugo questioned in disorientation interweaved with more or less horror.

"In a manner of speaking."

"Why didn't you ask Aunt Ginny?"

"My Mum is... smart, but she's not super smart."

"Whatever you say," Hugo mumbled, hastily losing curiosity.

Suspending the not so engrossing argument or conversation, a notorious duo of inseparable friends entered from behind the two second years. Albus aided Scorpius in hoisting dozens of books back to their original spots.

"Need some help there, good-looking?" Albus humorously offered.

"Why, thank you," Scorpius said, his face evolving into a great deal of warmth without him even realising it, "but it's best that you don't tell Rose that you called me that."

"I will if you don't tell Abigail," Albus laughed.

Lily up-reared an eyebrow suspiciously.

The ridicule was discontinued when Albus acknowledged the preteens hardly any inches away from him and Scorpius. "Hey, Lily. Hey, Hugo," Albus said, uncharacteristically chummy. Quickly it was short-met when he aimed his attention back to Scorpius.

Instead of returning the greeting, Lily questioned both of the boy's playful little banter.

One of the hints listed and advised from her aunt specifically said that boys would often 'playfully' compliment your appearance and qualities.

As they approached all sections the books belonged in, they floated from Scorpius and Albus' hands back into their respective spots amidst the empty spaces on the shelves. Albus rested his hand on Scorpius' back and Scorpius didn't seem to mind, like the gesture was such an ordinary thing for them, and perhaps it was.

'Needlessly touching.'

"Instead of being here in the library, maybe you two should get a room," Lily joked, not suppressing the seriousness behind it well.

Albus laughed sarcastically, and Scorpius' reacted like they were caught in the act. They wandered off to further spots of the library, reducing their touches and teases to none (probably so nobody would be skeptical about them again).

"What was that joke for?" Hugo chuckled.

"Did you hear that little 'joke' Al made earlier?" Lily whispered.

"You mean the 'good-looking' thing?"

"Yup."

"What about it?"

Lily prepared herself for going in depth concerning their actions, but she thought it pointless. She was probably wrong. After all, it was a boy with another boy, and Hermione's list was specified for what boys do when they fancy girls, so it could have been just something boys did with each other.

"Nothing," Lily shrugged off.

XXX

Lily's next encounter with the two boys was in the Great Hall that evening when they chose to sit at the Gryffindor table to be with their sweethearts.

Albus and Abigail Wood have been an item from the time of the Christmas dance; they were a modest couple. They would hold hands, kiss in only the most discreet of places, and were awfully quiet by nature.

Rose asked out Scorpius herself a month after the dance, and nobody could believe it, not even Scorpius despite his glory. Their relationship was expressed more with words rather than actions, and both of them were happy, but their relentless bickering was unsettling to most. In fact, right there at the table was them commencing a debate; a debate that nobody close-at-hand seemed to grasp due to their lack of interest.

Fortunately the disagreement was brief, and the couple mutually apologised. Scorpius tenderly kissed Rose's cheek, and she jerked his green and silver streaked tie so their lips could unite. That small act of affection emphasized an implying expression of distaste to seize Albus' features.

Lily took careful notice of her sibling's display, his disgust was dissimilar to those around them, it was displayed with a prolonged, discouraging sigh, along with a lazy turn of the head. It's almost as if he was... upset on a deep personal level.

Lily did not need to flip a page of her journal to recall jealousy being a segment of the hints.

Relieving to the eyes of students (including family) nearby, the smooch didn't keep on, and Scorpius pulled back in a dreamy state.

Lily's focus returned to Albus, he was holding his own girlfriend's hand and seemingly starting a conversation. All while his body language was overlooking Scorpius'.

That's when Lily was officially cocksure of her beliefs... Albus was in love with his best friend.