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Lily shut the carriage door on Albus's face with a huff. He'd followed her all the way from the front carriage where the meeting had been down to the carriage where Hugo, Scarlette, Lorcan and Lysander were sitting. He'd demanded to know every word that had been said and hadn't been satisfied at all when Lily had told him it was uneventful.

Really, Lily thought as she turned around and rested her head on the door, it was as if he wanted Scorpius to have hurt her. She closed her eyes and sighed.

"Glad that's you and not me."

Lily opened her eyes to see her friends looking at her apprehensively. Clearly Hugo, the other fifth year Gryffindor prefect, had told them all what had happened. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Rose and Malfoy being heads together was never going to be drama free," she replied to Hugo, taking a seat next to him.

"I can't believe I missed it." Lily couldn't help but laugh at Scarlette's comment. She looked really disappointed.

"Tell us what he said to you though," Scarlette demanded, perking up and zeroing in on Lily. "Why did he keep you back alone instead of talking to you in the meeting?"

"An excellent question! He didn't hurt you, did he Lils? Or threaten you? Or -"

"For Merlin's sake, no!" Lily interrupted Lysander's concerned questioning. When he looked at her sceptically she threw her hands up in frustration. "Like I just told Albus about 20 times, he just wanted to let me know which days I would be doing the rounds with him and asked if I was sure I wanted to swap with Rose. He's not half as bad as you all seem to think!"

Maybe she was pushing it by trying to paint him in a good light, but she had just told him that she loved him, and he had told her the same. She didn't have it in her to make him out to be someone cold and evil.

"Not half as bad?! Lily, you just spoke to Malfoy! Alone!" Lysander suddenly became quiet. His jaw dropped and his eyes widened in horror. Lily leapt backwards as much as her seat allowed when he was suddenly in front of her, gripping her shoulders and staring intensely at her.

"Lysander! What are you- Get off me!"

"Lily, he didn't place a confundus charm on you did he? To make you do what he wanted? He didn-"

Lysander didn't finish as Lorcan and Hugo yanked him away from her. He was gripping her shoulders so tightly that she was dragged forward with him. Thank Merlin, Scarlette caught her before she face planted on the floor.

"Lysander! That's enough!" Lysander wasn't struggling against Lorcan and Hugo, but he did look a bit angry that Lorcan was telling him off.

"But Malfoy-"

"But Malfoy nothing," Lily asserted firmly, after regaining her balance. "If neither you nor Albus can accept that I'm telling the truth and can handle myself in a bloody conversation that the entire carriage knows is going on, then I won't have a thing to say to you until you stop this nonsense. Malfoy did nothing to me. If he ever tries then I can handle myself."

No one spoke when Lily finished her speech. She could guess how she might look to them. Her eyes were narrowed in anger and she had set her jaw determinedly. She was sure she had what Lorcan had once called the 'Determined Lily' look. Once she got that look in an argument, her closest friends all knew that she would never change her mind.

"Fine," Lysander ground out. "Perhaps he didn't do anything to you. But I'll be watching him."

"No you won't. Did you miss the part where I said I can handle myself? Besides, of the two of us, who here has actually fought an older Slytherin and come away unscathed?"

Lily knew it was a low blow, as Lysander had once attempted to help Rose and Albus in a duel against Scorpius, Zabini, and Smith, but had come away as a half transfigured rabbit. Lily fought to maintain her glare as she remembered how Lysander's fluffy rabbit behind had been unable to support his human upper body, causing him to face plant and have to haul himself to the hospital wing with only his arms. Lily heard a cough from Scarlette that sounded suspiciously like it had started off as a laugh.

Low blow or not, it worked. Lysander bent his head before shaking off Hugo and Lorcan, then slumped angrily into his seat, crossing his arms. Lorcan and Hugo sat on either side of him, which, Lily noticed, was probably not accidental. Only once the boys were seated did Lily sit opposite them, next to Scarlette. Scarlette's subtle jab in the ribs confirmed to Lily that she had indeed been covering a laugh at the memory of Bunny Lysander.

An awkward silence settled over the five of them like a blanket. Lysander was still scowling at his shoes , Lorcan and Hugo were awkwardly looking anywhere but her, and Scarlette was looking like she was trying to find a good topic of conversation to follow their dramatic argument. Or maybe she was trying to figure out how to talk about Lysander as a half rabbit again. Lily wasn't sure.

After the awkward silence went on for a few minutes, then that few minutes became 5 minutes, then that 5 minutes turned to ten, Lily sighed. Clearly, as the argument had centred around her, she would have to be the one to break the silence first.

"Can we please just let this go? I already have to do rounds with Malfoy, I don't want our group to suffer too. Why don't we just agree that if I become uncomfortable then I'll come to you guys first? Actually make that second. I'll go to Albus first, but then you'll be next, I promise."

Lysander kept scowling at his feet, but the others all looked at her.

"You know I'm always here for you Lils. I know you can handle yourself. Except in DADA lessons."

Lily stuck her tongue out at Hugo, but inside she was grateful that he was teasing her again.

"I know you're sensible, Lils. You wouldn't be so insistent that he didn't hurt you unless he hasn't hurt you." Scarlette squeezed her hand. Lily squeezed it back, immensely grateful to her friend. She'd known Scarlette would be the least bothered by her new patrol partner. She had never taken on the same hatred of the Slytherin's that most of the Gryffindor's did. Well, off the quidditch pitch that was.

"I trust you too, Lily, and I believe you. Even Malfoy wouldn't do something to you at a time and place where practically the whole school knew the two of you were alone."

"Thank you, Lorcan," she replied. "You wouldn't mind telling my brother that, would you?"

"I doubt it will do much good, but I can try."

"Thank you, Lorcan," Lily said again, feeling very grateful. She had been half joking, but he must truly have believed her if he was willing to approach her fire-breathing dragon of a brother on her behalf.

Lily shot a look at Lysander. He still had his arms crossed and was still scowling at the ground. Lily looked away quickly. She didn't want to make up with Lysander just because he thought it was expected of him.

Silence settled over their carriage once again. Instead of feeling like a blanket of awkwardness like before, it now felt like a gravitational pull towards Lysander.

Lily sighed again. She knew Lysander well enough by now to know that he probably didn't think he'd done anything wrong. She knew he thought he was just protecting her and that Scorpius really had confounded her or something equally ridiculous. Still, Lily had already tried offering an olive branch. She refused to do it again just because Lysander was stubborn.

And so silence reigned. This was really not how she had wanted the reunion between all of her best friends to go. Lily glanced out the window. It was getting dark. They would surely be arriving soon.

Lily turned her head away from the window and caught Scarlette's eye. Scarlette grinned before trying to suppress her smile and looking away. That's when Lily realised she probably wouldn't get an apology out of Lysander until she apologised for humiliating him. She sighed again.

She doubted bringing up his time as a rabbit again in front of everyone, especially Scarlette who would probably burst out laughing the second she brought it up, would be the best way to apologise. Lily resigned herself to an awkward ride of silence until they arrived.

Finally, after what seemed like a much longer time than it actually was, the Hogwarts Express slowed to a stop. Everyone in the carriage instantly jumped up. It seemed that they were all as eager as Lily to escape the train.

"Lysander, can I talk to you for a sec?" Lily asked as they all swarmed towards the door.

The other two looked between Lily and Lysander before rushing even faster out the door. Lily rolled her eyes.

"I'm sorry for bringing up that incident," Lily said, once it was just the two of them in the carriage. "That was mean of me. I was just so frustrated that I wasn't thinking straight."

For the first time in at least an hour, Lysander's scowl lifted.

"It's ok Lils, I was acting like an arse. It's just so unbelievable that Malfoy would actually leave you unharmed."

Lily fought the urge to roll her eyes.

"He's not interested in hurting me. He's more interested in showing Rose and Albus that he can do whatever he wants. I'm just collateral." It felt strange to be talking about Scorpius like this, but Lily figured she may as well get used to it. It would be impossible to see him any other way.

Lysander still looked sceptical. "Are you sure? He probably wants to get back at you for beating him last year in the quidditch final."

"Trust me, Lysander. This had nothing to do with me. He was trying to get at Rose. I volunteered," she added, "for Rose. He didn't pick me." Lily was lying through her teeth and she knew it. She felt guilty, but she'd prepared herself for this. Her lies weren't hurting anyone, and to be honest, her relationship with Scorpius was none of anyone's business. This whole train ride had proven exactly why she had to lie in the first place.

"I'd say you were stupid to volunteer, but I know how sweet and caring you are to the people that you love. It's one of the things I like best about you. I'm sorry for blowing up before. I'll try to behave better in the future."

Then he pulled her into a hug. Lily was very surprised at both his very kind words and his hug. He'd been so angry with her, and all of a sudden he gave her a very heartfelt compliment and had wrapped his arms around her.

Lily hugged him back, then went to pull away. Lily felt her cheeks heat up in embarrassment when she realised he was still holding her. She awkwardly put her arms back around him.

"We should get going before we get taken back to London," she said, trying to hint to him to let her go. This hug was much longer than hugs friends normally shared, even if it was after a fight.

"True," Lysander said, finally letting go. Lily noticed his eyes flick to her red cheeks. He grinned almost triumphantly, which caused Lily to automatically blush even more.

"Let's go," Lily said quickly, wanting to get back to the rest of her friends. She wasn't sure why she suddenly felt uncomfortable. Afterall, it was just Lysander. She'd known him her whole life. He was her god brother for Merlin's sake.

Still, Lily turned around and hurried out the door.

The start of term feast was, like always, spectacular. The food was delicious, the company was great, and the feeling of being back at Hogwarts was always special. More whispers than normal followed Lily as she found her seat, but she really didn't care. She was always followed by whispers, but this time it wasn't hard to guess that people were gossiping about how she and Scorpius would be paired up for rounds.

Back in the girls dormitory, after the feast, the Gryffindor girls in their year level all donned their pyjamas and gathered around a few of the beds for a holiday catch up. There were 12 girls in total. Not all of the girls got along, of course, but these sort of sessions were a tradition that they'd developed in their first year. No one dared bring personal disagreements to these catch ups.

The girls shared sweets and took turns retelling what they'd each done on their holidays, then Scarlette, of all people, Lily thought half fondly and half annoyed, asked her if it was really true she was going to be patrolling with Scorpius. Lily suddenly had the undivided attention of everyone in the dorm.

Mentally bracing herself, Lily nodded. A collective gasp rose from the girls.

"But why?" Amanda Sims, the most notorious gossiper of their year level, asked.

"He was going to force Rose to pair with him. Rose has been wanting to be head girl for as long as I can remember. I couldn't just let her dream be ruined when there's something I could've done for her." Lying was starting to become second nature, Lily thought.

"I guess nobleness runs in the family," Scarlette quipped, earning the laughs of all the other girls. Even Lily chuckled.

"I also heard," Amanda continued, looking at Lily like she was another round of dessert at the feast, "that he made you stay back to talk to him after the meeting. Alone."

"No way!"

"Are you serious?"

"I heard that too," the other girls chimed in.

"He did," Lily confirmed. She was actually beginning to enjoy herself. She knew that tomorrow the entire school would know that she had indeed been alone with Scorpius, but this way they would be parroting the story Lily wanted them to know. The Gryffindor fifth year girls had the respect to gossip with her before gossiping about her, at least. Dangling such a juicy piece of gossip in front of Amanda was also quite entertaining.

More exclamations of surprise followed her simple statement.

"Why? What did he say? Oh Lily, don't tease us!" Amanda begged after Lily shot her a sly smile.

Yes, Lily decided, this was very fun indeed.

"It's really not that interesting, unfortunately. He told me the days we'd be patrolling and asked me if I was sure I wanted to swap with Rose. He was actually kind of nice about it."

"Malfoy was nice to you? Lily that isn't 'not that interesting'! That's huge! Why would he be nice to you?"

"Excuse you Amanda, I'm very worth being nice to."

Amanda threw a Honeydukes sweet wrapper at her head, grumbling that Lily knew what she had meant. Lily and some of the other girls laughed.

"I don't think he really cares about tormenting me anyway. He was just doing it to get at Rose and Albus. I think his plan was to make them miserable the whole year. I couldn't save Al but at least I could help Rose."

The other girls looked at her in wonder. Volunteering into such a situation for their cousin was probably not something any of them would do. To be honest, if it was Smith or Zabini or one of the other seventh year Slytherins, Lily wouldn't have done it either.

"Let's hope he doesn't try to get you back for the quidditch finals last year," Scarlette piped up. She looked as though she was having the time of her life. Traitor.

"Oh Merlin, that's true," Daphne Peakes said, looking concerned.

Lily waved her hand dismissively. "I doubt he'll try anything. He saw me hex Zabini and get away unscathed last year. Besides, I'm only a reserve. Stopping me from playing won't exactly help his chances."

"You hexed Zabini?!"

"You did what?!"

"I'm sorry, when was this?"

The other girls were gaping at her. Lily smirked slyly at them and shrugged.

"He insulted me," she said simply.

The girls continued gaping at her, but this time no one said anything. She could understand their reaction. If any of the girls sitting around her now told her they'd done the same thing, Lily would've been gobsmacked. Zabini was two years more advanced than them and he got into duels all the time. He was good at it, and usually won. Lily saw no reason to tell them that the only reason she got away was because Scorpius shot a shield spell to protect her.

"Why do I feel like there's a lot more to you than you let people see, Lily Potter?" Amber asked.

Lily blushed.

"I was lucky. I caught him off guard," she admitted.

"Oh come on Lily," Scarlette said, rolling her eyes. "That's what you said about the quidditch match. Either you're the luckiest person alive or annoyingly modest. Seeing as how I know you so well, I'm pretty sure you're just annoyingly modest."

The other girls laughed. Lily grinned at Scarlette.

"Well I would never dare contradict you. I'd rather face Malfoy," Lily returned playfully. And just like that, the focus was off Lily and Scorpius and the girls moved on to another topic.

Lily's first day of fifth year netted her more homework than she could believe. Double DADA resulted in an essay 3 rolls of parchment long, due Friday. In ancient runes she was given a stack of parchment to translate by Thursday. Herbology gave her another essay, this one 2 rolls of parchment and due by Wednesday. Double potions was the worst though, an essay 4 rolls long, also due on Wednesday.

That night Lily and her friends all sat down to try and tackle their awful pile of homework. The night before had been much more fun, Lily thought grumpily as she rifled through her textbook for the 'infusions' chapter.

Tuesday was much the same. Transfiguration, history of magic and herbology all gave essays. In arithmancy she was given 3 rolls full of problems to solve. Charms, however, was the best one. The homework was practical. They were given two weeks to master the colour changing charm. This led to everyone trying to change each other's hair, robes, books or whatever they could point a wand at that didn't belong to them, a different colour. No one had succeeded yet, but it wasn't for a lack of trying.

The hours after dinner crawled by. Lily had finished her DADA essay the day before, and was now working on her herbology one. The minutes always ticked by slowly when doing homework, but they ticked by extra slowly tonight because she had rounds with Scorpius later.

She finished her herbology essay, then started on her translation work for ancient runes. After doing a roll of that, she decided it was close enough to 10pm to meet Scorpius in the great hall for their rounds. Lily tried to ignore Lysander, Albus and Rose watching her leave with varying degrees of concern and anger on their faces.

Scorpius was already out the front of the great hall when she arrived. He was standing straight and stiff, his hands clasped behind his back. She kept her face carefully neutral as she approached him.

"Potter," he greeted her coldly.

"Malfoy." Lily matched his tone, crossing her arms.

"Shall we?" He asked her, his face still cold. He winked at her though. She winked back and flashed him a grin.

Together they headed up the stairs to the seventh floor. They were to start from there and work their way down to clear the fifth floor. If they cleared each floor thoroughly, it should take anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half. Personally, Lily wanted to clear the floors as quickly as possible before finding a deserted classroom to 'catch up' with him.

Lily guessed Scorpius was acting coldly to her because it wasn't actually past curfew yet. There was still a chance someone would walk past them. By the time they reached the seventh floor, it was after curfew.

Scorpius muttered "homenum revelio" and Lily felt a slight tingle as the spell detected her.

"We're alone," Scorpius said softly, turning to look at her. She looked back at him. Then, just like on the train, they crashed into each other again. Lily kissed him just as fiercely as before. Since their kiss on the train Lily had felt this intense hunger for him. She wanted him more desperately than she ever had before.

Lily didn't know how long they stood there, wrapped up and lost in each other, but eventually they parted. Scorpius kissed her forehead before they continued walking down the corridor, one of them casting homenum revelio every now and then.

"You've caused quite the stir by forcing poor little me to patrol with you. I haven't had so many people whispering about me for quite a while," Lily teased.

Scorpius laughed, lacing his hand through hers.

"I've been hailed as quite the hero back in Slytherin. I don't think anyone's ever seen your brother so angry. The other Slytherins think it's quite the achievement."

Lily frowned. "I've never seen him like that either. We'll have to be careful not to get caught. I don't even want to think about how mental he'd go. You know my friend Lysander is convinced you confunded me on the train."

Scorpius's laugh echoed through the empty corridors. "That would be very Slytherin of me. Maybe I should start spreading that rumour around when people start noticing we haven't been trying to kill each other."

"Oh don't you dare, Scorpius Malfoy," Lily grumbled."It's been so annoying without your supposed confession of bewitching me. Albus probably wouldn't even let me leave my dormitory."

Scorpius laughed harder. Lily swatted his arm. Scorpius laughed harder again.

"I can see it now," he said, still laughing. "Slytherin King Malfoy bewitches poor Gryffindor Princess Potter to carry out his evil bidding."

Despite how annoyed she'd been with everyone over the past few days, Lily found herself laughing too.

"What is your wish, my lord?" She asked, bowing to him.

"Well," Scorpius began. Lily looked up to see him stroking his chin thoughtfully. He looked down at her and grinned devilishly. He took a slow, deliberate step towards her before he spoke.

"I do have one wish for you."

Lily stood up. "Oh? And what would that be?"

Scorpius didn't reply. He stared at her for a moment before turning and walking into a nearby classroom.

Lily followed him, a thrill running up her spine. She had a feeling she knew what his wish was. She entered the room locking the door behind her with a spell. Scorpius stood in front of her, staring at her so intensely that Lily felt herself blushing.

"What did you have in mind?" Lily asked, not breaking eye contact with him and keeping her voice deliberately slow and steady.

Then Scorpius's hand touched her face, and Lily thought of nothing else but him.

—

Lily returned to the Gryffindor common room in a happy daze. She spent 5 minutes outside the portrait of the Fat Lady trying to compose herself and wipe the smile off her face. Eventually she succeeded and climbed up into the common room, which hurt her a little bit.

Lily stopped dead as soon as she was standing up, the portrait door swinging shut behind her. Sitting in the middle of the common room was Albus, Lysander and Rose. They were all sitting on the same side of a table, facing her. Albus, the tallest, sat in the middle, Rose at his right, Lysander at his left.

It took every speck of Lily's self control not to roll her eyes right then and there. She knew exactly what was coming. Albus and Lysander were looking furious and Rose was looking worried. The combination of the looks of cold fury on the boy's faces and the judgement panel arranged before her would've intimidated anybody, but not Lily. To her, it was dramatic and annoying.

Rose's eyes kept flickering between Lily and Albus, which gave Lily the impression she had been forced to join the panel to make it up to Albus for leaving Lily to face the horrible fate that should've been hers.

The rest of the common room was empty and silent, save for the occasional crackle or pop from the dying fire.

Lily crossed her arms and walked forward, scowling. Each footstep on the carpet sounded like a heavy drum beat, breaking the silence but increasing the tension until Lily felt like the air was almost too thick to breathe.

The three of them remained silent and Lily followed their lead. She had done nothing to deserve this ambush and Merlin knew she wasn't going to play along with it. Lily contemplated her chances of running up the stairs to the girls dorm where only Rose could follow her. She had just decided she could probably make it when Albus finally spoke.

"What did he do to you, Lily?" His voice was soft, deadly.

Lily rolled her eyes, knowing an explosion was coming.

"Before you ask, let me answer all your questions. No, he didn't hurt me. No, he didn't confund me. No, he wasn't even mean to me. That everything? Great, I'm going to bed." Knowing she had no chance, Lily attempted to dart around the table where she could escape up to her dorm.

Her movement seemed to break the tension in the room. Lysander leapt out of his chair and caught her arm, yanking her back away from the stairs. She shook him off angrily, then turned to face her trio of gallant protectors.

"Perhaps you could explain why the two of you were alone in a classroom when you were supposed to be doing rounds together," Albus asked, barely suppressed rage in his voice.

Lily gaped at him, wondering how he could possibly have known that. Then her eyes caught sight of a bit of parchment sitting on the table.

Lily cursed herself for not thinking of this before. Her shock suddenly gave way to fury when she realised he'd been spying on her with the marauders map. She hoped to Merlin Albus hadn't noticed how close they had been in that classroom together. Fear shot through her at the possibility of a question about that. She knew there was no world in which Albus, or probably anyone at all, would believe that what had happened was, in fact, very much consensual.

Lily took a deep breath to compose herself. If she showed her fear then that would be as good as admitting to Albus that his fears were correct. She latched onto her fury instead.

"So you mean to tell me," Lily said, matching the calm yet deadly voice her brother had used just moments before, "that you were spying on me? Even after I told you I could handle myself? Perhaps you could tell me just why you thought betraying my trust was a good thing to do."

Albus flushed.

"It's not you I don't trust, Lily. It's-"

"Malfoy. Yes, yes. You've said that before. Except you clearly don't trust that I can handle myself against him. If you did, you wouldn't have spied on me. So don't spout that shit to me again Albus."

Lily stood there, glaring defiantly at her over-protective brother.

"Lily, he had to!" Lysander burst out. Lily turned her furious gaze on him. His jaw was open and his blue eyes were wide with shock as he stared at her. He was looking at her as if he was stunned that she was upset, even though the two of them had had almost this exact same fight just two days ago.

"What if he had tried to hurt you? His parents are death eaters and your dad is Harry Potter. It's only a matter of time before he tries something on you! Look at how often he attacks Al and Rose."

Lily's shock at the stupidity of Lysander's words was the only thing that saved him from her palm connecting with his face.

"Lily, you can tell us," Rose said gently, distracting Lily from blowing up completely at Lysander. "Did he hurt you? Why were you in that room together for so long?"

Lily wanted to tear her hair out and scream.

"No. For the millionth time, he didn't do anything I didn't want him to do. And just so you're all aware," she added, struck by a sudden idea, "even if something did happen, I wouldn't tell you when you try to bully it out of me. You're all making me not want to tell you anything ever again, whether it has to do with Malfoy or not."

"Lily, please, I-"

"No, Albus. You nothing. Give me that blasted map right now and let me go to bed."

"But Lily-" Lysander tried.

"Now," Lily screamed.

None of them moved, so Lily strode forward and snatched the blank parchment off the table before marching up to her dorm. She left the common room as silent as she found it.

Thank you so much for the kind words in your reviews and the follows and favourites. It really keeps me inspired to continue with this story. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! I've been working on trying to paint a picture with my words and convey emotion as opposed to just saying what happens. If you have any constructive criticism I'd love to hear it :)