AN: Sorry, this is a bit late! Had a very hectic Tuesday and didn't manage to get it up. Next week'll be on time :)

Lily wished she had asked Lucius what clothes their evening appointment would require. She had gone for simple, but boring, to not give him the wrong impression: a cosy jumper and black jeans, but she was buggered if he intended to take her out for an evening stroll again, as her shoes were too old to stop leaks, and she'd be soaked through in no time. She had even forgotten her cloak in her nerves.

She passed Remus on her way out of the Common Room.

"Off for a late night dalliance, are we?" he said, leaning over the back of the sofa. The fire was roaring behind him.

"Knock it off, you," she said. "Just going for a walk."

"Mmm," he said, clearly unconvinced. But at least he returned to his book without another word.

It was funny, to walk back to the library. She had no idea, just a few days ago when she met him there for the first time, what their studying was going to entail. Would she have gone if she had?

She wanted to say no, but she suspected she was lying to herself. Just like when she told herself, when she couldn't sleep, that she would have rejected his first kiss had she been sober. But trying to decide whether she would have or wouldn't've was a pretty convenient excuse for her to replay the events over and over.

Not that she needed an excuse. Even when she was talking to Gryffindors, or trying to get to sleep, she would remember his hands on her body, his intensity while fucking her, him calling her beautiful, and that mouth and that talented little tongue… It made her stomach flutter every time a broken shard of a memory appeared in her mind, and she would smile and bite her lip. She had never been so turned on by one person before.

Anyway, she could pretend she would have refused, but she was becoming less and less sure of that by the day — by the hour, practically. Because not only did it make her stomach flutter when she thought of them together, she would also get little flashes of things he'd said, the way his face had looked when he was concentrating, the warmth of him at the Christmas party and them dancing together, and her heart would flutter. She knew that was a bad sign.

When she rounded the corner, she saw Lucius was already there, early as always. He was facing away from her, looking up at the tapestry on the wall, presumably as a cover for any students that might pass him.

She cleared her throat, and he turned, with a smile on his face that widened when he saw her.

"Come with me," he said eagerly, before she'd even reached him. He marched past her.

It was only then that she noticed that he was carrying some kind of basket, with a big cosy blanket thrown over the top of it, obscuring the contents.

"What's that?" she said. It was difficult to try and keep up with his fast pace while simultaneously craning her neck to try and catch a glimpse of what might be in the basket..

"You'll see soon enough," he said. "You'll like it. I think."

She frowned. "I've never heard you be unsure of anything. Now I'm worried what it might be."

He rolled his eyes at her.

"You will at least not hate it" he said.

"Will you just tell me?"

He swatted her hand as she tried to reach for the blanket. "You really are an impatient one, Evans."

"Isn't that what you like about me?" she said.

"One of many things," he replied, not even looking at her.

Which was good, because she blushed. It was dumb, really, to feel warm and fuzzy about it when he had demonstrated his liking of her before, and yet… It still felt nice to hear. Some confirmation that cowed her niggling fears that this was all a lark to him, even if their late night walk the day before had put that to rest squarely.

The reached the astronomy tower, and, while Lily expected him to walk right past it and head for the stairs down to the Grand Hall, Lucius started instead up the stairs of the tower.

"Quick as you can now," he called behind him, perfectly imitating their astronomy professor.

She did as she was told, although mostly so she could find out what the heck he had planned.

She was about to say something, to try and get more out of him again, or at least ask him to slow down given he was so far ahead of her but decided to save her energy to try and catch up. She finally entered the tower proper, and her breath caught in her lungs.

Hanging from the ceiling, Lucius had lit and enchanted candles, and she watched as he spread out the blanket in the middle of the floor. From the basket, which she could just make out the contents of through the dim light and the long shadows cast by the candles, he pulled a bottle of something and glasses, and fruits and crackers and cheese.

"What in Merlin's name is this?" she asked.

He shrugged. "What do you think it is?"

"Are you trying to, what, woo me? This looks like something out of a romance novel." Not that she was displeased, she just struggled to think of why Lucius would orchestrate something like this if there weren't secondary moments. He certainly didn't strike her as a romantic.

"It's a date," he said. He sat down on the blanket and went to work on uncorking the bottle, of which she was sure was wine. "I said we should slow down."

"Yes, but I thought that meant, you know, spending less time together or playing Wizard's chess!"

He looked up at her sharply.

"I don't want to spend less time with you. And yes, I suppose, I would like to woo you."

She crept to the blanket, and took a trepidatious seat next to him, watching him struggling with the cork. She was on edge, nervous, and as if he read her mind, he said: "Have you never been on a date before, Evans? You're moving like you think I might hex you at any moment."

"I actually haven't…" she said slowly, and wished she'd just kept that to herself.

Lucius looked at her, the surprise obvious in his face. Well, that was a compliment at least.

"Oh. Then I'll count myself fortunate that you've agreed to one with me, since clearly not all suitors are this lucky," he said. Then he gave a triumphant little snort as he finally freed the cork, and began to pour her a glass of wine.

"It's not like I have many," she said. "My ex-boyfriend. James Potter"—she couldn't help but wrinkle her nose when she said his name, like a gag reflex—"and, I suppose, you."

"I think you, in your studious and headstrong ways, might have just been missing all the times men have tried to flirt with you."

"Oh, is that right?"

"I've seen the way the boys in your Year look at you. Don't forget, I've been watching you for a while." His eyes suddenly widened. "That came out much, much creepier than I'd anticipated."

She laughed. "It's okay, I know you're a little bit sleazy."

"Isn't that what you like about me?" he said. He flashed her a grin.

She rolled her eyes and snorted.

"This is nice…" she said, to save them sparring any longer. And it was. The candles made it cosy, and eventuated the sharp lines of Lucius face. It made his eyes look shining black, and his hair, in its bun, almost white. She wanted to run her fingers through it again, but knew that was against the entire purpose of Lucius' evening plan, so amused herself with her wine glass instead. She took a few, gentle sips. There was no need to get drunk and make a fool of herself — she might not have cared particularly, before they first kissed, about propriety, but now she did. It made her smile to think of how much the weight of Lucius' opinion had shifted in the last week.

Lucius leant back against the blanket, propping himself up with an arm. He was watching her closely. She leant back too, and smiled nervously.

"So…" she said, her voice quiet. "What do people normally talk about on dates?"

He smiled, but not unkindly.

"Well, I've only ever gone on dates with people from old wizarding families before — we usually moan about our relatives."

"I could tell you about my family, but I think that would be frightfully boring," she said. She set down her glass, the warmth from the wine already spreading to her cheeks, and spread some cheese onto a cracker.

"I don't think you could ever bore me," he said. And he followed it up with what Lily could have sworn was a dreamy sigh, even if it didn't fit Lucius at all.

"Hm. My mother works as a cleaner. My dad — I'm not actually sure what he does. Works in an accounting firm, but not as an accountant." She paused a moment, chewed on her cracker. "See? I told you, frightfully boring."

He shook his head.

"Keep going."

"Fine. I have one sister, Petunia. We used to be close, she and I… Used to spend all our time together. I'd make up games for us to play, tell her stories when she was having nightmares. She was good at braiding my hair, and finding adventures whenever we went on holiday together. She was bold, when we were together, shy when I wasn't with her. But she absolutely loathes me now. She can barely look me in the eye whenever I see her, and never answers my letters."

"What happened?"

Lily arched an eyebrow at him, before she realised — of course a Pureblood wizard wouldn't understand. She motioned around the room, showering her jumper in cracker crumbs.

"This happened."

Lucius frowned for a moment, but she watched the realisation dawn on him with the raising of his eyebrows.

"Oh. You had magic, and she didn't?"

Lily nodded. Lucius was silent for a long moment, taking a sip of his wine. His brow was furrowed in thought.

"Is that why you aren't home for the holidays? Do you normally stay here?"

Lily shook her head. "No. But Petunia decided to book the three of them a holiday — just a cheap one, she has a job and is always rubbing it in my face — and said she couldn't afford to buy me one. So they're not back until Christmas Eve night, which is when I'll go back. I'm not planning on staying. The fact mum and dad even agreed to go on this jaunt tells me how much they really miss my presence…"

Lily blushed. She had rambled more than she had intended, but Lucius was looking at her intently, rather than rolling his eyes or looking bored.

"I imagine that must've been really hard, on both of you. I'm sorry," he said. He reached out his free hand and touched arm gently.

"It's just a thing, you know. All families have something going on."

"Yes they do," Lucius said. He plucked a grape off the vine and popped it into his mouth, biting down with more force than Lily thought he really needed.

"So what about you and your dad? Why aren't you talking?"

Lucius' face went blank, but she could see wheels turning in his head. She frowned; what could he be weighing up?

"Just something," he said finally, with a gentle shrug. "Something important."

She rolled her eyes. "Are you cultivating mystique or something? Tell me."

Lucius pursed his lips, and looked at her quite seriously.

"My father is extremely committed to a cause. I don't disagree with him, but he wants me to fully commit too."

"If you don't disagree, what's the issue?" Lily asked. She wanted to know what cause it might be, but she could tell he was trying to keep it to himself.

"The issue… the issue is, it would affect people I care about. It would be good for me, for our family, for our friends. But for others, it would ruin them."

"Is this some kind of money-making scheme? Aren't you Malfoy's rich already?"

He gave a short, humourless laugh.

"Not money. I can't, I can't talk about it, with you. But I don't want to hurt people I like."

"But you don't mind hurting the people you don't like?" Lily said, which a mischievous grin.

To her surprise, Lucius didn't share the look. Instead he lay back on the blanket so he was looking at the ceiling.

"It's best we don't talk about this," he said, finally. "It's more messy than you can possibly imagine."

Lily sniffed. She took umbrage with his patronising tone, but also… She didn't want to push the point too hard. Not this early, anyway. Maybe she would be able to bring it up again in the future — what exactly was so messy that it would stop him going home for Christmas?

She sighed, and ate another cracker, wrinkling her nose at how much cheese she'd loaded onto it.

"So what else do we talk about?"

Lucius chuckled. "Really, must I do all the work?"

"Your date, your work," she said. She lay down next to him, there arms barely touching. After a moment, she felt his arm move closer, and he entangled his fingers with hers. She couldn't help but smile up at the ceiling. It felt nice — simple, but nice.

"Come on then, tell me which professors you would most want to sleep with, and which ones you'd rather kiss a blast-ended shrewt than them."

It was Lily's turn to laugh, but she gave him her rundown dutifully.

The wine had made Lily sleepy, and at the bottom of the stairs, she leant heavily against him.

"Can I kiss you?" she whispered.

He didn't reply, only leant down and took her face in his hands, kissing her deeply. She returned it eagerly, her hands snaking round his back and into that hair she had so desperately wanted to touch all evening. But when she felt his tongue flicker into her mouth, she pressed closer to him, one of her hands sliding down to grab at his buttocks.

He pulled back, grinning.

"Hey now," he said, mock-chiding. "We're going slowly."

So it was much disappointment on her part that she wound back to the Gryffindor Dorm on her own, into her own lonely bed, without his comforting presence beside her.