Okay so just to let you know, I've decided that I'm going to try to do updates on Sundays starting next week since I didn't have internet connection, but it could be for any of my stories, not just this one. Hopefully, this will make things a little more regular but thanks to everyone who has read (I had about 1200 hits last month) and Please Review! This is the third part of the super long chapter I had originally planned and this is finally the title I wanted to name the whole big chapter.
And, by the way, HAPPY LABOR DAY EXTRA-LONG WEEKEND!
Chapter 9: Seeker's Good Luck Charm
"This is awful!" Jordan complained on Friday right as Lily plopped down at the Gryffindor table for dinner. Her hair was in disarray and curly wisps were stuck to her face. She was panting and threw her Quidditch bag onto the ground beside her.
"What's wrong?" She asked, pulling some delicious-looking pie towards her.
He looked around conspicuously; making sure no one could overhear him. "Well, I need a spy for tomorrow, you know, for the Slytherin Quidditch tryouts. I need to know who's on the team."
"Oh," she said simply, "I'll do it."
The pie was on her fork and traveling towards her when it was suddenly whipped away by James, and he smirked as he ate the pie off of her fork. "Hey!"
His smirk became more prominent. "You shouldn't be eating pie, deary. You need to stay fit for you-know-what."
"You do, too, you twat!" she half-shrieked. She stood up and hit him with whatever her hand had reached for first, which happened to be a breadstick. "You're such a prat, James!"
"Hey, hey," Albus intervened, much to her disappointment. "I'm sure you don't want to see your brother's obituary in the Prophet tomorrow. I can see it now. 'Death of boy by Breadstick.'"
Lily grumbled to herself about pie murderers deserving vicious deaths by breadsticks until Albus calmly turned to her and said, "But back to the subject, I don't think you should go, Lily."
"I'm going anyways," Lily said as she ate her pie, all her anger fading away at the sweet taste of apple pie.
"What do you mean you're going anyways?" James asked, his brotherly overprotection going into overdrive. He was worse than Dad sometimes.
"I mean that I had already planned to go. Scorpius Malfoy invited me on Monday. It isn't a crime that I want to go, is it?" Already her pie was half way gone. She began to wonder what kind she should choose next. The lemon meringue looked very tempting…
"What?" All three boys stood up immediately. "Why are you going with a Slytherin?" Albus asked frantically.
"More importantly," James almost yelled in his fury, "why are you going with a Malfoy?"
"Because he asked me, and I can go if I want to!" she defied, abandoning her pie with a little pang of hunger. "What I do is none of your business, so you might as well get over it!"
"But you're fraternizing with the enemy!" McLaggen said angrily.
"He's not an enemy," she spat angrily. "He's my friend."
"You are so not going," James decided, crossing his arms over his chest. That action, obviously meaning to show her that he was serious, would have sent any student below fifth year running in terror, but she laughed openly.
"You can't tell me what to do!" she yelled at him. Many heads were swiveling their way, and she could feel the pair of grey eyes trying to burn through her. "I'm thirteen!"
"I'm fifteen!" James yelled back with even more power. "I'm the oldest here, and what I say, goes!"
She laughed. "I didn't know that while we were at school that you could try to be my dad," she screamed with cutting venom dripping from every word.
"Well, Dad's not here, and I think I can tell when it's time for him to step in! You'd better believe that he'll be storming Hogwarts by tomorrow!"
"You're such a prat, James! You think that you can do whatever you want, but you're wrong! I can be friends with anyone I want to be, and you can't stop me from going tomorrow!"
"I'll lock you in a broom cupboard if I have to!" He yelled. Everyone was watching the fight now with the lust for gossip making their eyes glaze over. Even the teachers were watching with a little more than mild interest. Oh, yes, the Potters could put on quite the show. "You are not going!"
Lily would have already left by now if the boys hadn't blocked her from the great doors. It was easiest to storm out and let herself cool down so that things didn't get out of hand, but this time, they would. She took a deep breath.
Albus started talking then, too, rather loudly. "He's right, Lily! You can't be as thick as to think that Dad would be okay with this! Trust me; I know what fourteen-year-old boys are thinking!"
"Oh, Merlin!" She exclaimed a blush rising to her cheeks. "Yeah, but it's not like that! Oh, Merlin, Al! I didn't need those images!"
"No, absolutely not," James was yelling again. It was easier to fight with James, seeing as he didn't bring up embarrassing topics like Al (And in front of the Great Hall, too?) "Lily, you're too young to be around those sorts of people. You are not going!"
"Yes I am!" she screamed before she punched James in the face. What else was she supposed to do? She couldn't leave until the idiots that were graced by her presence had moved! Besides, it's not like she had hit him that hard.
In fact, he only had a cut lip when he recovered. He was about to kick her like she was about to punch the living daylights out of him, but Professor Longbottom stood up and shouted across the Great Hall, "Enough! Miss Potter, see me in my office!"
She muttered a curse under her breath as she picked up her things. As she left the Great Hall, Lily yelled to the watching James, "Besides, who died and made you king of anything?"
She strutted down the corridor behind Professor Longbottom, trying to think up obscene things to call her brother when she got back to the common room. He was so dead. She was led into Neville Longbottom's office which was ever so familiar. The chairs were comfortable and a nice blue-ish color. Many Herbology books crowded the shelves along with Defense Against the Dark Arts, many she recognized from the library. Behind his chair was a perfect view of the Herbology Greenhouses.
Neville obstructed her view out of the window as he sat down with a heavy sigh. "Why are you always fighting with one or the other of your brothers?"
She half pouted. "It's not my fault, especially this time. James started it."
He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes with another sigh. "Lily, do you realize how immature that is? You're thirteen; can't you at least save the fighting for the common room? Many students don't like to have their meals interrupted everyday by the infamous Potters. What was it about this time?"
Lily shifted in her seat uneasily and blushed. When she didn't answer right away, Neville opened his eyes inquisitively. "Lily, you know you can tell me anything. I'm a friend, not just your teacher."
She blushed even more. Without warning, the words came out in a rush. "Scorpius Malfoy invited me to watch his Quidditch tryouts tomorrow."
She cringed when his jaw went taut. "And?"
"And I've been playing Quidditch with him all week and we're really like friends now. But James and Albus and even Jordan McLaggen don't like it because I'm making friends with an enemy, a Slytherin, and a Malfoy. But I don't think of him with all those stupid names because we're friends, and when we're playing Quidditch, he's just Scorpius, and I'm just Lily." She sucked in a deep breath after she had said all of those things in less than three seconds.
Neville was silent for a long time, and the silence made Lily uncomfortable as she fidgeted and chewed a few nails. Finally he leaned back in his chair with another sigh. "I wouldn't advise this friendship, Lily, and I don't think your father would either. We both know exactly how his father acted in school. But as you said, he is not Draco and you are not Harry. He is Scorpius and you are Lily. Just be careful because it would be awful for you to get hurt. I do think, though, that you should write to your parents about this. Tell them to write me as soon as they can, and if I don't get a letter concerning this matter in two weeks, I will tell them myself. Understood?"
She nodded with relief and shame mixed together. "Yes, Professor. Do I get detention?"
He looked at his clock. "Not tonight, Lily. Although I suggest you hurry on or you will be late for tonight."
She groaned a little. "Shoot, I didn't have time to get a shower. Merlin, I must smell." She grabbed her things and practically raced out of the room. "Thank you, Professor!"
OoOxXxOoO
Stella McLaugh was woken by a mass of approximately one hundred and three pounds jumping onto her with a, "Stella! Stella! Please wake up! It's an emergency! I need your help!"
She groaned and moved under the covers. "Is Hogwarts burning down?"
Lily chuckled a little. "No, Stella, but I really need your help! I don't know what to wear!"
The words made Stella sit up straight in her bed, almost hitting her head against Lily's. "Are we going to Hogsmeade today?"
"No, I'm going to the Slythering tryouts!"
The girl's excitement quickly dulled. "Oh. Just wear something very Gryffindor-ish and show it off. I would suggest painting your bum red and yellow and mooning them."
"Ewwwww!" Lily shrieked rather loudly and jumped away from the bed. "Merlin's dirty underpants! I don't want to do that! Merlin, I want to look nice!"
Stella looked at her strangely while her brown curls fell slightly from her pigtails. "Lily… are you trying… to impress a Slytherin?"
"M-Merlin, no!" Lily exclaimed. Maybe she should have woken up Lavender instead. "I-I just d-didn't want to g-give them some sort of a reason to m-make fun of me. T-that's all."
Stella sighed as she swung her feet over the sides of her bed. "Lily, you're stuttering. You only do that when you're nervous."
Indeed, Lily was frightened out of her skin, but she didn't want to impress any Slytherin boy… Did she? No! Of course not! Her dad would kill her if she went out with a Slytherin. And for clarification, this was absolutely not a date. Scorpius had only asked her because they were friends. Right? Right.
Stella sighed. "Well? What do you have to wear?"
Lily sighed and the girls set to work. They dug through every article of clothing Lily possessed. In the end, they had picked out a lovely green T-shirt with golden sparkles that was almost the exact shade of her eyes and a jean skirt with rugged edges.
Lily moved to the mirror and groaned. "What do I do? I look like a complete mess."
Stella observed her features for a moment before pulling out her wand. "You don't look that bad, and it's easily fixed."She charmed Lily's unruly hair into beautiful waves and gave her make-up. The eye-shadow was a gold glitter and a light blush along with powder and foundation. The mascara made her green eyes seem to pop right out of her face which made Lily stress a bit before Stella reassured her that she looked beautiful but casual, just like she should.
Lily practically danced down the stairs, and Stella watched with amusement from her bed until she collapsed backwards and almost instantly fell asleep. But James and Albus were downstairs, blocking the door out of the common room.
"Didn't we tell you that you weren't going?"
"Professor Longbottom didn't mind," she retorted. "Or otherwise he could have scheduled a detention for this morning."
"What about Dad?" Albus asked, obviously wanting to scare her. They really needed to learn new ways to scare her.
"I wrote a letter to him last night," she stated matter-of-factly. "I told him all about me and Scorpius, and how I always beat him in Quidditch."
They were actually surprised. "No you didn't," James accused.
Lily sighed. "Fine, just write to him and find out for yourself." Then, without warning, she pulled her wand out of the waistband of her shorts and petrified them both. She stepped over them and opened the door. "Sorry, big brothers. If your little sis is big enough to beat you, she can probably handle a few big, bad Slytherins."
When she entered the Great Hall, it was practically empty. Only the Slytherins were at their table, and only two or three teachers were eating. The Divination Professor, Trelawny, gazed at her oddly before making some odd hand gesture. Lily was about to return it for a rather obscene one when someone called, "Oi, Lily! Over here!"
She turned to find Scorpius making room for her at the Slytherin table. She walked over with a beaming smile. "Hey!"
He chortled as she sat down next to him. "I was certain that you wouldn't show up today. I was positive that you'd get detention or your brothers would try to stop you. Brilliant punch by the way. I've had times where I've wanted to do that to certain blokes before."
Lily was almost redder than her flaming hair when she saw that almost every Slytherin was openly staring at her. The entire table had gone silent, letting Scorpius's voice ring eerily across the room. "Th-th-thanks," was all she could choke out.
Let me introduce you to my friends," Scorpius said with perfect ease that only embarrassed Lily more. He pointed to the boy on his right. "This is Julian Zabini, my best mate." She shook hands with him cautiously, desperately hoping that her palms weren't very sweaty. The boy had dark hair, and nice dark skin. He smiled nicely enough, as though he had accepted that she was hanging out with Scorpius.
"This," Scorpius informed, gesturing to the girl next to Lily, "is Alicia Baddock. She helps me out with all the girl things." Lily half smiled and would have asked him what 'girl things' he needed help with, but she was certain that if she opened her mouth, her voice would come out as a squawk.
Alicia leaned close to Lily and whispered, "Nervous? Scorpius couldn't stop freaking out this morning. He's actually tried to rehearse this. I swear, I've never seen him get so worked up over a girl." She giggled and it eased Lily's spirits a bit.
He went on introducing practically all of the Slytherins there, but she lost track of anyone that wasn't as important. Eventually he looked down at her. "Aren't you going to eat something? We have to leave soon."
"O-Oh!" Lily started, being so wrapped up by his voice. She pulled some pie (of course) towards her and hastily shoved a bite into her mouth, trying to be lady-like about it.
Scorpius chuckled at her choice before his face turned serious. "So… I noticed your little fight yesterday with your brothers. Is everything okay?"
She smiled tentatively up at him. "I-I-I, erm, w-well let's j-just s-say that I-I h-hope they're c-c-comfortab-ble on th-the floor…"
He laughed and so did many of the others, including Alicia. All too soon, it was time to leave. Most of the others raced each other down to the pitch while some even flew down on their brooms. They walked slowly, and the others took the lead and left them skillfully alone.
He smiled at her uneasily. "So, erm, do you like them? My friends, I mean…"
Lily returned the smile more confidently than she had at the table. "Th-they a-aren't l-like I e-expected them t-to be."
"Why?" Scorpius asked seriously, "Because they aren't the awful Slytherins that would kill a muggleborn if they got the chance in the world outside? The Slytherin House, just like its occupants, has changed. We aren't like our parents, and even some of our parents were never like that."
He kicked at the ground dejectedly, the dust swirled around his Quidditch boots. She blushed to a light pink, a tad ashamed of herself for him being exactly right. "B-but I never thought of you like th-that. I guess I-I thought th-that you were s-so good that y-you had t-to be one-of-a-a-kind." Her voice had fallen to barely above a whisper and she blushed to a deeper red.
He returned his melted eyes to her face. He watched her silently, as though trying to commit each individual freckle that rarely splattered her face to memory. She became even redder and brushed a stray strand off of her face. Was there something on her face? Didn't he know it was extremely rude to stare?
Finally, he broke from some sort of trance, and they both realized that they had stopped walking simultaneously. He looked back down at the plush grass beneath them as they continued walking. "I know I'll do well today at tryouts."
Lily watched him, showing him some of her confusion. "Why? What could possibly make you better than usual?" She stopped warily. "You aren't using Felix Felicus are you?"
Scorpius seemed surprised and slightly appalled that she'd think of something like that. "No, no, nothing like that! I have my good luck charm. I wasn't sure if sh—it would come. It's sort of unpredictable."
"You still refuse to tell me what it is!" she said. "I mean, I showed you my good luck charm!"
He chuckled. "True, but I'm afraid that if I tell you who it is, it won't work anymore."
"Who?" Lily practically screamed in delight for a hint to the question she had been begging for all week. "This 'it' thingy is a person!"
Scorpius cursed rather colorfully.
By now they had reached the Quidditch pitch and everyone else was already setting up, waiting for them. The Quidditch Captain, a gigantic, hulking sixth year named Gregor Duffsonn, was smirking when they finally appeared, and he shouted, "Malfoy, get your lazy bum in the air, and do twenty laps for flirting with your Gryffindor girlfriend!"
They both blushed, much to his satisfaction. Scorpius stepped away from her. "You'll stay, won't you? I mean, yeah, they're dummies, but they're only teasing."
Lily smiled. She seemed to do that a lot around him. "Of course I won't leave! I told you that I was staying today, didn't I? I'll sit right here and won't move a muscle if it convinces you. Now you'd better get out there before twenty turns into thirty. Is your good luck charm here yet?"
He grinned to himself. An infuriating grin that was specifically used when he had some secret that he didn't want her to know, and it made her want to punch him and—never mind. "Yeah, it's safe and sound."
She was about to whack him; he was so asking for it. But he somehow managed to be hovering on his broom the next moment, and he patted her cheek as though she was a little child and swooped away, performing his twenty laps with breakneck speed.
Lily tried not to be too bored or too stressed while she sat on the cool benches, both being impossible. The tryouts were dull and she watched Scorpius carefully, who was racing against a nicely built seventh year. They hadn't seen the snitch; they were just having some battle of the wits.
"Okay, you've been staring at Scorp for ten minutes straight. Tell me what is going on between you two, right now." Lily gasped and whirled to find Alicia right behind her. She blushed.
"I-I-I—w-we, n-nothing is g-going on b-between us… w-we w-we're only fr-friends…." Her face had to be redder than her crimson hair considering that her cheeks were on the level 'about to die of humiliation after being slowly roasted at 1000 degrees.'
Alicia snorted lightly and sat down beside Lily. "He has to like you. He just has to, because he's always running off to play Quidditch instead of hanging out with any of us anymore. In fact, Zabini feels a bit lost without his best mate to speak up for him; he actually has to talk now."
That solicited a grin and dulled blush from her companion. "B-but w-we don't sp-spend all o-of our time t-together…"
"Do you have a speech impediment?" Alicia asked. The girl was quite blatant and not one to beat around the bush.
"N-no," Lily stuttered, "I-I just st-stutter when I-I'm u-unfamiliar w-with things. O-or nerv-vous."
Alicia laughed. "That's alright; I used to do that before I came here. When I met everyone, they sort of helped me out of my problem. My mum and dad had never been so happy."
Lily soon fell into a bit more of a reassured ease with Alicia whom she found that she liked very much. At least she wasn't stuttering nearly as much as she usually did with Scorpius. The said bloke was obviously becoming a bit bored after having caught the snitch for the fifth time in a row, but he would spot Lily every so often and wave at her. After two hours, they were only half way through the tryouts.
And of course, someone would have finally have come across two boys lying immobilized in the Gryffindor common room by this time. James and Albus had thankfully at least had the decency to dress themselves other than their boxers, but stormed as quickly as they could to the pitch.
James was actually red in the face like their mum was whenever she got really mad. Before she could react, the boys had grabbed her and were dragging her away from the stands. "Hey!" she protested rather loudly.
Alicia stood up with her wand out. "Let go of her."
Albus and James pulled their wands out and pointed them at her. Lily half-expected her to put her wand away and back down, but she firmly stood her ground. "You can't just take Lily. Merlin, leave her alone."
James laughed cruelly, making Lily shudder. "Poor Lily, she's not your charge. Go back to watching your tryouts."
When he said the first two words, Lily could have fainted of shock, paling at the words that haunted her nightmares and her real life. So far, she hadn't seen anything more of Mortellea since those dreams, but she just knew that the evil woman would be back.
Alicia saw her reaction and her trembling hands stopped shaking. "Let her go. If she wants to watch, then she is more than welcome to."
"She shouldn't be here. She's not Slytherin scum," Albus retorted. Well, it looked like two brothers woke up on the wrong side of the Petrificus Totalus curse today.
"Shut up, Al," Lily whispered as quietly as a breath. If he heard it, he had ignored it.
The Slytherin fourth year cuttingly replied, "At least I'm not a bunch of overprotective, arrogant brats. Just because your dad killed the Dark Lord, doesn't make you the best in the school."
"We never said that we were," James replied coolly.
"You certainly flaunt it every time you can, seeing as you use it twice a day at least to squirm out of expulsion."
"At least we don't think we're better than everyone else because of our blood; at least we have something honorable to flaunt." James and Albus glared daggers to the girl who glared right back.
"Enough!" Lily shrieked, loud enough that people playing Quidditch turned their heads to stare at them. "Stop acting like immature prats! Who cares if you disagree? Go away, boys! You're such prats!"
They seemed a bit shocked that she'd want to be with the Slytherins, but before anyone could say anything else, the snitch darted right in between them at eye level. Everyone stared at it as though it had hypnotized them.
Lily was the first to wake from the trance. She pushed her brothers away from the snitch since they were closest to her and she shouted at Alicia. The fourth-year Slytherin stepped back just in time for the seeker, some fifth year, to speed past, whipping Lily's long hair across her face. He didn't even seem to notice or at least care about the people barely centimeters away.
Scorpius was beside them merely half a second later, but he stopped between them. "Are you alright? Brandon's such a prat. He's gonna be in trouble for that one."
Murder glinted in his eyes and, with a shudder, Lily realized that he wasn't kidding. The boy named Brandon had been the first to catch the snitch besides Scorpius, and he triumphantly showed off the gleaming object in his fist. "Oi, Kaseton!" the real Seeker called out loudly in a voice that immediately made Brandon look to him with fear.
He slowly walked over to the group of Gryffindors and Slytherins, obviously trying to take his time before he died. Lily hovered close beside Scorpius and put a tiny, reassuring hand on his arm. "D-don't hurt him, p-please."
He looked down at her with those grey eyes that seemed to look through to her soul. She determinedly met his gaze and tried to use it to convict him not to do anything rash. He finally dropped his gaze to her hand and said, "Fine, but I may not be able to keep a promise."
She removed her hand but stayed near to him, still frightened that Scorpius might hurt the boy. When he was close enough he started lecturing him. "What on earth were you thinking? You could have gotten these people hurt! Were you even sure that they knew you were coming? If Lily hadn't been paying attention, you would've flown right into them!"
To the Potters' amazement, Brandon's head lowered in shame. Why would a fifth year even care about a little fourth year bossing him around? "That was stupid, irresponsible and reckless. I want you out here for practice at five tomorrow, and be ready to do plenty of drills."
"But—" Brandon began to protest at the earliness of such an awful time before the sun was even up, but Scorpius cut him off with a glare. "Sure," he grumbled instead.
"Get to the showers," Scorpius commanded coldly. "You're done for the day."
And that was that. There was no complaining or questioning, just obeying orders. Eventually, James came to, and pulled Lily away again. "Sure, I just love to throw myself into Slytherin drama, but it's really time to go, Lilsies."
"Stop," she said firmly. "I want to stay here. James let go of me!"
"Where do you think you're going?" Scorpius questioned with his last remnants of anger.
Albus answered, "Lily doesn't need to be in a place like this."
Scorpius actually paled (which Lily had been unsure that it could actually happen since he was so pale already) before he said, "She's not going anywhere; she said herself that she wanted to stay here."
"Too bad," James muttered with mock-pity. "She can't decide for herself what she needs. Besides, I'm in charge here."
Lily realized that she still had a free hand and used it to slap James upside the head. "Let go of me, you prat. I'm thirteen; I can decide for myself if I'll die if I stay here or not."
Albus stepped in and grabbed her other hand to keep her from whacking James again. "We know better than you, Lils. Just trust us."
"Oh, I'm supposed to trust you when you're physically restraining me? I'm not sure how that one works." She gave a sweet smile that usually meant trouble before she kicked Albus in the shin. As he bent over in pain, she muttered, "I only went easy on you because I have to."
But James had already tried to keep Lily from breaking away, and in the end, he picked her small body up and slung her over his shoulder as though she was a bag of grain. "Sorry, Lilsies," he apologized with a smirk and a tone that was mocking her.
She made some sort of unidentified screech before she started kicking and flailing in every way she could think as the blood rushed to her head. "Put me down right now, James Sirius Potter! I swear I'll write to dad!"
She could hear Albus snickering, at the sight of her knickers? Her skirt was hitched up rather high. A new wave of panic washed through her at the thought of Scorpius seeing her emerald colored knickers, and she ended up kicking James a bit lower than she had wanted to.
With a grunt, James froze, letting Lily slip down to the ground. He bent over, his face distorted in pain. Albus and Scorpius were obviously imagining with horror the pain he had to be going through while Alicia was behind the rest, snickering with her hand covering her mouth.
Lily's eyes widened and she said, "I'm sooo sorry, James. But you deserved it."
He recovered after a few minutes. When he did, he attacked her by surprise and punched her in the gut. Her breath came out with a whoosh as she felt a sort of reeling sickness. She tackled him and they fell back onto the ground and tussled on the grass. Her nails scratched James so hard that he started to bleed, but he quickly overpowered her.
He took in raspy breaths once he had won. He held her to the ground, his body barely hovering over her. "Just give up and come inside."
"Never," she gasped, just as breathless as him. Then she punched him in the face.
He punched her back and she struggled underneath him, before she finally managed to wriggle out of his grip before she dove on top of him again. She didn't even care that she was wearing a skirt. Suddenly, Albus and Scorpius were there, each trying to restrain them. Scorpius quickly grabbed Lily around the waist and pulled her out of the fray just as Albus managed to restrain James somewhat.
"Just go away," Lily said hotly to the boys. "I'm going to stay here, so you'd better just leave before I hex you."
They seemed to realize that they had lost this battle, and they left, thoroughly beaten. James glanced back once with a very unhappy glare that said, you are so dead as soon as you enter the Gryffindor common room.
Lily sighed and Scorpius let go of her, seeing that the fight was over. Alicia was beside her, glaring at James just as angrily. She turned to Scorpius. "I'm sorry about my brothers. They're so stupid sometimes."
He smiled bleakly. "It's fine, Lily. I'm just glad you get to stay. I've got to keep playing. If anyone gives you anymore rubbish, just call me and I'll hex them right into the Hospital Wing."
She smiled, reassured as he flew away. If she had won the battle, why did she feel so awful? She and Alicia sat down together again in the stands, but didn't talk much. Eventually, Lily pulled out her broken snitch and watched it feebly try to fly, its wings moving up and down ever so slowly.
The tryouts ended much too soon, and Scorpius was by her side the moment he was allowed to. "So? How did we do? We're going to beat Gryffindor, aren't we?"
That brought half of a smile back to her face. "N-No, absolutely not. W-we'll a-always win."
They walked slowly to the castle again, Alicia muttering some excuse about needing to talk to Julian Zabini. The silence was awkward, and Lily slowly shuffled across the grounds. Barely anything of importance had been said by the time they reached the Entrance Hall. She could hear the jabbering sounds of the students as they ate lunch in the Great Hall.
She stopped at the stairs and so did Scorpius with much confusion. "Th-thank you for today," she said, almost formally. "I had a lot of f-fun."
"Aren't you coming to eat lunch? You must be starving." His quizzical grey almost seemed to X-ray her.
"N-no, I-I'm n-not very h-hungry. I-I'm j-just going to g-go t-to my dorm." She dropped her gaze to her shoes that were splattered with mud from earlier in the week.
"Alright," he said quietly. "But if your brothers try to pull anything, just tell me and I'll kick their butts."
She smiled. "Thank you, Scorpius. I'll see you tomorrow."
Lily slowly made her way to Gryffindor Tower, and when she stood before the painting of the Fat Lady, she took a deep breath before she muttered the password and walked to her doom.
Another super-long chapter. I'm pretty glad that I got all of this finished in time for Sunday because I have been dealing with absolutely the worst week of my life. I hate my teachers, suffered a short period of writer's block, had to deal with some really stupid people and I just got news that my aunt died, so I'm sorry if it was a bit down there at the end. Anyways, please remember to review!