Disclaimer: Harry Potter isn't mine!

Chapter 4 The Cursed Child

Severus entered his office in the early hours of the morning to find someone in his chair. With narrowed eyes, he took out his wand, sure it was one of the Weasley twins. His heart skipped a beat when the chair spun around.

"I missed you, lover," Lily murmured. Almost immediately, his wand fell to the floor with a clatter. She slowly rose from her seat and pressed her body against his. "Long time no see."

"I didn't lock the door," he whispered as she nibbled on his ear.

Lily hummed like she thought he was being funny. Severus almost melted into her embrace when she roughly shoved him against the wall. "Stop treating my daughter like shit."

Severus glared at her. Anyone else would quiver under the sharpness of her protective claws, but not him. "Then tell her to stop acting like it."

"I think you forgot, Severus," she snapped, "that I would never have slept with you until I gave my husband an heir. Remember that, before you continue to resent her for not being yours."

"I don't like children," he said flatly. "Although I never would have pictured you one to spoil their spawn rotten."

Lily shrugged like it was nothing. "She's my princess. And she is quite lovely, Severus. She's simply going through some things." Severus snorted. "Just as she was coming to terms with James's carelessness, she finds you, snoring away in my bed the day before school starts."

Severus felt all the blood drain from his face. "She knows?"

"She knows a lot of things, Severus," Lily said coldly. "She snuck over. Stupid Grangers. I would have sent her to my parents for the summer, but they would have beaten the stuffing out of her for that mouth… And I decided not to test the Weasley fertility. She hated it at the Grangers."

"She won't say anything?" Severus practically wheezed.

"Don't push her," Lily warned. "She's thirteen, Severus. If anything happens to her this school year, you're going to end up looking like lunch meat."

"Dually noted," Severus drawled. Lily used to be one of the happiest, brightest people he had ever known. Because she had been free. Now, she was one of the most miserable, apart from himself.

Lily smirked. "Now that that is taken care of, why don't you show me your new quarters, Professor."

Her misery didn't stop him from loving her. He always would.

All week, everyone was talking about Regulus Black. Meanwhile, Draco couldn't get his mind off Sirius Black. Over the past few years, seeing him so sad to go home, it's made me want to… adopt him. Draco never thought he would want to live somewhere any less than where he spent his summers. He could only imagine what a summer with Black would be like.

"Draco?" It was normal for his head of house to talk to him. Draco held his breath. Could he say no? Black folded his arms over his chest and sat on the arm of the black leather sofa in the Common Room. He meant to stay a while. Great. "So about the other night…"

"What about it?" Draco forced himself to say. His voice sounded like a squeak. He had to act like he didn't know.

"I don't know what Regulus is up to." Black sighed tiredly. "So Flint is going to schedule Quidditch matches when it's still light out, and I want Madam Hooch to supervise."

"That's it?" It really was a squeak this time.

"That's it," Black said slowly. "Never met someone so out of sorts…"

Draco stared as Black walked away to go complain about him to someone. If that wasn't the pot calling the kettle black…

Their first Quidditch Practice was cancelled. By Oliver Wood. Flint didn't even ask why. He just started glaring at Wood, getting ready for the fight. They hated each other that much.

"We got special permission from McGonagall." Wood help up a scroll of parchment without breaking eye contact. "To train our new seeker."

Now Draco was interested. He should have known better than to bother to look. Potter stepped forward.

Her hair was in too little messy buns on each side of her head, and she was wearing goggles, even though it wasn't raining. Draco looked closer to see they were rather thick. They were charmed to act as glasses. The little buffoon was looking around in amazement at the newly clear world. When their eyes met, Draco turned pink. What was wrong with him?

"You're going to be crying like a little bitch during our first game, Malfoy." And like that, the warm feeling in his cheeks was gone.

"Yeah, until the air gets too thin," Draco said dryly. Potter's face fell at the mention of her asthma. She just called him a little bitch!

"I'm getting Black," Flint announced. If there was one thing their head of house actually sided with them on, it was Quidditch.

Potter laughed evilly. "He's with his divorce lawyer."

Flint was not about to give up a practice. "We're practicing in the woods. By Professor Hagrid's."

Oh joy.

"She's like stalking me!" Draco complained to Pansy and Blaise that night. Flint didn't stop when it started raining, claiming they had no idea if Potter had any talent or not. His friends shared a look. "What?"

Pansy took a deep breath. That meant she was about to try to do a motherly lecture that would only come off as rude. "Draco, we think you're becoming a little… obsessed with Potter."

"Obsessed?" he repeated. "She knows something about my mother, Pans!"

"Sometimes you have to let things go, Draco," Blaise said quietly. "It's not going to bring her back, and for all we know, this is some trap. You think Lily Potter is just going to crawl back into the shadows?"

But Draco had had enough. They didn't understand, even though he thought Blaise should. His father was dead too. "Just because your father was a scumbag you want to pretend never existed, doesn't mean my mother was!"

For the first time ever, he saw hurt flicker over Blaise's features. Even Pansy, who found Blaise annoying on a good day, looked shocked by his words. Draco found himself not caring. Potter knew something about his mum.

For once, Pansy was on Blaise's side, so neither one of his best friends were talking to him. Draco was too stubborn to apologize, even though he knew better than to bring up either one of Blaise's parents. He actually found himself doing his homework with Vince and Gregg, even though that meant he was doing homework for three instead of dividing the work evenly.

The worst was in class, when they were forced to be in the same room with each other. At least in Arithmancy, Blaise would ignore him. In Ancient Runes, Pansy was his partner for the current term.

"My dad works in the Ministry," Pansy hissed. He was the only Muggle in history who did. He was responsible for Muggle Relations in the Muggleborn Department, meaning he had the pleasure of working for Arthur Weasley. "You don't know anything about Blaise's father, do you?"

"No." He had assumed the worst, given Blaise's mother's track record.

She lowered her voice to a barely decipherable whisper. "Regulus Black killed him."

Draco tensed and was barely aware of the ink pooling on his parchment. Regulus Black? "Wha-When?"

"Right before he got arrested," Pansy whispered. "My dad had just started his job. He wouldn't tell me the details. He gave me the don't go after Black speech too, considering our past two years. Dad said to keep Blaise busy during the school year."

Well she certainly was, Draco thought dryly. Then, his heart sunk when he realized what he had said. Blaise's dad probably died a hero like his dad. And Draco had called him a scumbag. He had to apologize.

Potions was next. Yippee. Draco found himself inching away from Potter, even though originally, it was Blaise's idea to create a false friendship with her.

"You don't look so good," Potter said. "Do you have gas? Because I'd prefer to get a different seat if you do."

Draco stared. How could someone so casually be so crude? "At this point, I wish."

Potter put the tip of her quill on her bottom lip. "That's more Ron's area of expertise, so I'm afraid I can't help you."

"I'm sure your dates are very romantic," Draco drawled as he sprinkled ground pixie wings into their potion.

"How did you…?" Potter shrugged, not really caring how he knew. "Very. Ron has quite the tongue."

Draco literally gagged at her words. Before he could voice his disgust, a thick, dark gray smoke enveloped the classroom. His eyes instantly watered, and he couldn't stop coughing as he and the rest of the class evacuated the room.

"ZABINI!" Black coughed once they were free from the room. The professor pointed his wand in the doorway to dissipate the smelly clouds. "WEREN'T YOU PAYING ATTENTION?"

"I guess not," Blaise said coolly.

"One hundred points from Slytherin!" Black yelled. "And you can redo your and everyone else's potion in detention. CLASS DISMISSED!"

"One hundred?" Draco repeated in horror as Black walked over to talk to Potter.

Blaise smirked. "Worth it." Then, he grabbed Draco's arm and started dragging him towards the Common Room. "We need to talk."

This day just keeps getting better and better.

"You were right." That was the last thing that Draco expected to come out of Blaise's mouth. His best friend conjured a handkerchief and wiped some of the soot off his face. "I don't think Potter is trying to trap you."

"I'm sorry. About before." It was awkward, but Draco had to say it. Blaise was his best friend. The fact that Blaise simply stared at him didn't help matters.

Then, he went on speaking as if nothing happened. "I botched the assignment on purpose."

"And cost us a hundred points?" Over the drama queen, Pansy threw herself on the sofa and draped her arm over her eyes. "At least it got us out of Black's class an hour early."

Blaise ignore her too, so perhaps things were back to normal between him and Draco. He started pacing in between them. "You said Potter had asthma. The smoke was so thick that it should have set her off."

"You were trying to give her an asthma attack?!" Draco looked around to make sure Black was nowhere around. He was sure Blaise wouldn't appreciate having his head mounted on the wall above the fireplace.

"But I didn't," Blaise pressed.

Pansy sat up and looked around for Black too. "You think she's faking it?"

"You can't fake that." Draco remembered her lips turning blue, and she was checking her pockets for her inhaler. She didn't want to go to Pomfrey.

"She wasn't," Blaise said. "What was she talking to you about when it happened?"

"My mum," Draco breathed. Pansy closed her eyes in annoyance. She still didn't believe it.

"And who happened to have her inhaler when she "lost" it?" Blaise asked.

Now Pansy was interested. "Granger."

Blaise grinned evilly, a scary sight. "Potter's cursed."

The icing on the cake was the end of the week. Defense Against the Dark Arts was about to begin, and they sat at their desks eagerly. After about fifteen minutes, Draco started doodling on his parchment. He wasn't too worried until Potter yelled, "YASSSS!"

Draco looked up to see Black strutting his way across the classroom. "Where's Professor Snape?"

"Sick," Black said simply as he grabbed a piece of chalk. "He said that he only trusts me to put the notes on the board. So guess what we're doing today?"

"Taking notes?" Pansy said hopefully.

Black tapped what looked like a small keychain hanging out of his pocket with his wand, causing it to change into a large box. Draco gulped when the box shook with a hair raising screech, fell on its side.

"Blast ended shrewt milk does wonders for the digestion," Black announced. "After we procure some, we can make him a card."

"I'm not making him a card," Granger spat.

Black raised an eyebrow. "Then you can take notes on chapter 6, Miss Granger."

"Can I take notes?" Pansy practically pleaded.

"No."

Thank Merlin it was Friday.

James forced himself to have an awkward dinner with Lily at least once a week. He wanted to have the old Lily back, the one he wanted to marry. But the old Lily didn't want to marry him.

She married him out of familial obligation. The Lily he loved was the Lily who was rebelling against her parents. She used to play Quidditch and skip class and speak her mind. Now…

Now she was eating in silence because no one was around to put on a show for. James desperately wanted to ask if she ever loved him, but he knew the answer. She knew she had to marry a pureblood or end up like her older sister, Petunia, who Lily hadn't even been allowed to look at in public when she ran off to marry Vernon.

James was her safest bet, and he knew it. He knew it, and he married her anyway. He had hoped that she would grow to love him, but as the years flew by, it became obvious. She started cheating first so…

They had both become cowards. They had both destroyed their marriage. James wanted to make things right. After everything that happened, he wanted it to work. But some things just weren't forgivable.

So James decided it was high time to stop being a coward. He was better than this. He used to think Lily was too. "I want a divorce."

Dun dun dun! XD Thank you Captain CV, Gabriel2015, gr8rockstarrox, and myafroatemydog for the reviews!

Gabriel2015: I think stupidly weird describes all my stories. ;)

Captain CV: I plan to do all seven years!

Any of you guys like Gilmore Girls? I published a HP fic loosely based on it called Potter Girls if you want to check it out! Chapter 2 should be up!