Lily awoke with a groan to find her dorm mate Madeline Whipsmith poking at her foot.

"What?" Lily moaned, trying to bury her head further into the pillow.

"It's time for class," Madeline said, not speaking nearly as quietly as Lily would have liked.

Lily opened her eyes just a crack, glad that the curtains around her bed was closed. Minimal sunlight was what she needed right now: she felt absolutely rotten and was sure she probably looked rotten too.

"Merlin, did you get absolutely licked or something?" Madeline asked, a grin breaking out on her face.

Lily nodded, feeling quite sorry for herself. "It was Slughorn's party. I think I might be dying."

Madeline giggled. "Nope, just supremely hungover."

"Wow," came another too-loud voice. "Did you just say our Lily hungover?!"

Seph Jones appeared in the gap in the curtains, and eyed Lily sceptically. Lily made an effort to sit up, but it was only half-successful, thanks to her swimming head.

"I thought you didn't drink," Seph said.

"I don't…" Lily said. "Didn't. I was under a bad influence."

Seph's smile widened. "Is that bad influence someone we might know? Like, a certain dark-haired boy who at this moment is downstairs fannying about with Sirius Black?"

Lily mustered enough energy to shake her head vehemently. "No! Not Potter! Why do you always think it's Potter?'

Seph shrugged. "It's obvious you two are gonna shag eventually."

Now Lily was certain she'd be sick.

"So who was it?" Madeline asked, poking at her foot again.

"Just a Slug Clubber with a dangerous flask," Lily sighed.

"How many drinks?" Seph asked.

"Four."

"Four! And look at the state of you. You have a lower tolerance than Lorenzo," Seph said, referring to her toad. She couldn't tell Seph that the hangover was part drink, part shame at this point — but she couldn't tell anyone about the incident outside the Common Room. "So I take it you won't be joining us on the pitch this afternoon, if you're this worse for wear?"

"I will be… Wait, you're coming too?"

Seph nodded.

"You hate Quidditch," Lily said.

"I do," Seph said. "But when you're dating the Quidditch announcer, you have to show up occasionally. Apparently Rachel's feelings have been hurt by my absence."

"Are you going to class or not?" Madeline said impatiently. "If you are, you've got 20 minutes to get dressed."

"I would like to," Lily said, rubbing her temples. "But I'm afraid I might throw up if I move."

Seph cackled. "I have just the potion for you. Let me find my vial… It's the only hangover cure you'll ever need."

The hangover cure — Lily didn't want to ask what was in it — worked a treat. She still felt fairly nauseous but it was enough to get her through Arthimancy, and her Charms class after.

After a hearty lunch, in which she ate more than usual to try and cover the deep well of shame that was still lingering in her stomach, Lily was shuffling down the aisles of the Quidditch stand seats, arm in arm with Madeline and Seph. The sunlight, thankfully, was hidden behind clouds, as her headache still hadn't shaken.

"How are you feeling?" Madeline asked, sitting next to her.

"Better," Lily said, grimacing. "Not quite myself, but better."

"Don't I always come through for you?" Seph said, waggling her eyebrows.

"You really do," Lily said.

Well, it was half-true. Seph was always the one to get Lily into trouble, but she did always get her out of it too.

"Blimey, it's cold," Seph said, pulling her robes tighter. "So I brought a book to read, but will you tell me if anything exciting happens? At least then I can feign interest to Rachel."

The match, for all intents and purposes, was fairly rote. Slytherin and Gryffindor were well-matched in skill, and the scoreboard inched up on both sides as the day proceeded.

Lily was doing her best not to watch Lucius incessantly. Every time the crowd cheered, she'd break free of her reverie and realise she'd been staring at him. Luckily, the girls hadn't seemed to notice her attention.

He scored once, and she had to cough to cover the cheer that almost escaped her, smiling demurely at Seph's arched eyebrow.

God, it was practically annoying that he looked so good, his intent focus, his easy moves to grab the ball. She always was a sucker for a boy on a broom, and it didn't help that she knew now what he tasted like, though she was trying extremely hard to ignore that fact.

The match ended with Gryffindor catching the Snitch, and Lily got up from her seat to cheer with the rest of the stand.

"Is it over?" Seph asked, putting her book down. "Give me the highlight reel."

Madeline mostly filled her in — thank goodness. Lily hadn't been paying enough attention to the match at large to really help there.

"Oh, and that Malfoy creep almost knocked James off his broom," Madeline said.

"What are you smiling at?" Seph asked.

Lily blushed. She hadn't realised she'd been smiling. "Just deserves to be knocked off his perch, literally or figuratively."

"Not by that snot-nosed Malfoy, he doesn't. Merlin, he gives me the willies," Madeline said, grimacing.

Lily shrugged. "He's not so bad."

Lily got up to join the crowd streaming out of the stands, but she didn't miss Seph and Madeline's curious glance. She shook her head — stupid stupid, shouldn't've said anything.

"Right," Seph said, shuffling in front of Lily. "I've got to go appease the girlfriend."

"Why don't you just tell her you don't like Quidditch?"

"I don't not like it," Seph said, shooting a grin back at Lily. "I loathe it. But she looks so cute when she thinks I'm into something she is, I can't resist."

Lily laughed. "My, my, our Sephy has a soft centre."

"I think we all knew that," Madeline said drolly.

Seph stuck her tongue out at them. "Keep it to yourself, girls, I don't need my reputation tarnished."

Then she swanned down the stairs, pushing second years out of the way as she went.

Madeline went back to the dorm room, and Lily knew if she followed her, she'd not be leaving her bed until tomorrow morning. So instead, she made her way to the library. It was time to sort her notes out from that morning's lessons.

Her concentration was shot, but she managed to transcribe the first page of her chicken scratch into much more legible entries before she was interrupted.

"Do you ever take a break?" Lucius asked, swinging into the chair opposite her.

She glared up at him. "No, and that's why I'm tutoring you, not the other way round."

Both his eyebrows shot up.

"Isn't someone a little bit feisty today?"

Lily sighed, put down her quill.

"Sorry," she said.

"That's alright," he said, with an easy smile. "Were you at the match today?"

"Of course, I never miss one" she said.

"Ah, so it was you checking me out from the stands then."

Lily's entire face felt like the surface of the sun.

"No — I — how did you —" Lily stammered.

Lucius started laughing, and Lily stopped her stuttering short.

"I was only teasing," he said lightly. "Although from your reaction…I'm guessing there was some checking out in play."

SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT. She closed her eyes. Of course it was a joke, no way would he have spotted her.

"No," she said, a little too forcefully. "I was kidding too."

"Right, right…" he said, still with that stupid grin on his face. Clearly she wasn't very convincing.

"What do you want, anyway?" she said, trying to change the subject so her face wouldn't spontaneously combust from how hard she was blushing. She must have looked like a very unattractive tomato at this point.

Lucius shrugged, his eyes trained on hers. "I wanted to say hello. And, I suppose, check you didn't forget our tutoring agreement yesterday. Which it seems you haven't."

"No, I haven't," Lily said. "I wasn't that drunk."

"It seemed like you might have been," Lucius said slowly, searching her face. She tried not to squirm under the intensity of his gaze. "Given our, you know, goodbye."

She hadn't thought it possible to turn even redder, but she was wrong. Her eyes darted around the library, but no one else was there, thank Merlin.

He got up and moved around the table, and Lily froze. Then he sat down next to her, but he was leaning away, giving her space. She let out a breath. She thought he was going to kiss her again, out in the open. She didn't even want to consider what she would do in that scenario.

"It was very unexpected," Lucius said. His voice was a whisper, but he was watching her intently still. "I wouldn't have done it if I wasn't a little drunk. I assumed I'd be rebuffed…it was a surprise."

"Unexpected," she repeated back to him, struggling to look away from him. "Surprise. Yes."

"I just wanted…to check," Lucius said. God, she wished he would stop staring into her eyes. "Whether I should apologise for anything."

Her eyebrows made a run from her hairline.

"Apologise?" she said quickly, her senses coming back to her, little by little. "What do you mean?"

"You were drunk," he said. "I was too, but. I hope I didn't take advantage of the situation, is all. If I did, I wanted to say sorry."

Lily couldn't remember the last time she was this speechless. She blinked at him. Was this some kind of game? What the hell was he up to? This was not… not the Lucius she knew, all vulgarities and flirtations, nor the Lucius she heard of through the grapevine. He was different than his rumours let on, but she was pretty sure a lot of them were true.

"No, you don't need to apologise," she said slowly, testing the weight of each word as she said it. "It was okay. It was…fine."

He looked at her a little longer, and she wasn't sure if he wanted more out of her. Then he nodded, and finally a little smirk appeared.

"I was hoping it was a little better than fine, but I'll take it I suppose," he said. "Better than 'repulsive' or 'Merlin, what a creep'. All compliments I've received before now."

Lily breathed in relief. Back to normal. Back to safe ground.

"You know you have an oversharing problem, don't you?" Lily said. "You really shouldn't advertise this stuff."

Was that a little blush on his cheeks? He shrugged, clearly trying to seem more nonchalant than Lily reckoned he actually felt.

"It only seems to come out when I'm around you," Lucius said.

She saw something in his face then, but he got up too quickly for her to really process what it could be.

"Good," Lucius said, with a tone of finality. "With that out of the way, Christmas break starts tomorrow?"

Lily nodded, trying to catch his eye, but now he was looking around the library.

"I guess I better get used to this room," he said, and made a disgusted face.

Lily laughed.

"The Potions room, too," Lily said. "And let us hope we don't get caught by Slughorn."

"His star Potions pupil, and his friend's son? I think we'll be fine," Lucius said. "Shall we meet on Saturday, in here? Say 3, time to lie in?"

Lily blinked at him. "You're eager."

Now that definitely was a blush, light though it was.

"The quicker we get to it, the sooner I can put my studious days behind me," he said.

"It'll be fun," Lily said. "I promise."

It looked like Lucius might say something, but then he just nodded. "I'll leave you to it."

She watched him strut out of the library, then closed her eyes and flopped her head down on the desk.

Lucius was truly a boy of many surprises. She didn't know if that made her feel better or worse. Much easier, she supposed, if he was a jerk and she could hate him. She definitely didn't like that blooming feeling inside her chest that spoke of crushes and kisses and and and and.

"Merlin," she sighed. "What have I gotten myself in to?"