Okay, so I know I didn't update last week, but I held it for an extra week because I wanted this chapter to be really good because this is what we have ALL been waiting for! Thanks to everyone who reviewed and tell me what you think of this chapter, even if you don't normally review! Sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes I didn't catch!
Chapter 18: Scorpion's Kisses
Once again, Lily sat nervously at the Gryffindor table surrounded by the six other members of the Quidditch team clad in red and gold, butterflies fluttering weakly in her stomach as she picked at her food. Rose, the only one of the group who wasn't on the team sat close to her, retying her red and gold, striped scarf nervously. "It might snow today. It would be horrible if you came down with pneumonia or something…"
The older girl was too nervous to see that Lily went rigid and still and her emerald eyes suddenly had a blank stare to them. "It's not going to snow, and I won't get sick today. It's really nothing to worry over."
Pale hands covered her eyes, pulling her roughly from the world of visions that she had not meant to drop into. "Guess who," a familiar voice said loudly, but he was so close that his breath sent shivers of pleasure down her spine and sparked her heart into running a marathon. She fervently hoped that she wouldn't throw up from the combination of nerves and giddiness. She felt as though someone had directly injected electricity into her bloodstream as a playful giggle escaped her throat.
She pretended not to know who it was although her body's reaction had clearly given it away. "Umm… Is it Santa Claus who's come early to give me my presents early since I'm a good little girl?" she asked brightly in a false, high-pitched tone that resembled the voice of a bratty nine-year-old.
She felt his body so close to hers begin to shake with a chuckle. "You haven't been a good girl! Good girls don't make people's underpants sing!"
"Hmmm," she mused thoughtfully. In her falsetto, she asked, "Are you the Easter Bunny? Surely, you've come to give me a ton of candy and help me out of my recent candy withdraw!" She was beginning to find it quite difficult not to laugh by now.
He laughed more this time. "You need to be on candy withdraw or else all of your teeth would rot out! Guess again."
"Well then, since you're so concerned about my teeth, you must be the Tooth fairy who has come to give me a shiny galleon for having healthier teeth because I'm on candy withdraw!"
She could just see his grey eyes, enhanced by the green and silver robes he wore, rolling comically. "One more chance…" he muttered to her softly.
She could hear Roxy and the rest of the Quidditch team chortling at their antics, but Rose was silent beside her. "Okay," she sighed, "If you're not Santa, you're not the Easter Bunny, and you're most definitely not the Tooth Fairy, then I suppose you're Scorpius who has come to surrender already because he knows that Gryffindor will win."
She could almost feel the giddiness radiating off of his body and she was vaguely reminded of a time when his body seemed closer than close to hers and they were pulling each other tighter against each other… She just couldn't seem to remember. "Actually," he answered, still not moving his hands, "I prefer 'The Super Awesome Quidditch God Who Will Completely Obliterate Gryffindor'."
Lily laughed as she removed his hand away from her eyes herself. "You are very cocky and arrogant; I might just have to teach you a lesson or two about respecting your superiors," she mocked with a smile tugging at her lips.
"Is that so?" Scorpius asked, unbearably close to her. She didn't know why he was acting so much less reserved than usual, but it had the butterflies fluttering viciously in her stomach. She knew that he had probably started the game in the first place to pull her out of her visions, but it was almost like he was flirting with her. Something inside her, the little greedy part, told the rational part of her mind to shut up and enjoy the treatment while it lasted. "You'd best be careful; I've been practicing."
Lily stood up, crossed her arms, and glared at the Slytherin prefect. He had refused to practice with her more than once or twice this year, holding his new strategies just out of her reach. But instead they spent their time just hanging out, maybe stuffing themselves in the kitchens or taking a splendid trip to Hogsmeade, although Rose (whose emotional state had been so unbalanced that Lily was afraid to leave her to her own devices) had gone with them most of the time. "You're so evil," she complained.
His infuriating smirk only confirmed what she had said. "Well, M'dear, haven't you always known that scorpions are poisonous?" With a laugh, he took off, running after his friends on the Slytherin team. She sank back into her seat, glaring at his disappearing mop of platinum hair that he had grown out over the summer.
When Roxanne had finished devouring one half of the table of food and James the other, the team made their way down to the Quidditch pitch together, Rose clinging to Lily like a child. Rather used to this after a month or so, Lily gently pried her older cousin off of her arm and excused herself to find her broom.
Madame Hooch reminded the two teams not to have any rough-housing or dirty tricks (still, probably, upset over last year's game), and, after James and the Slytherin captain shook hands, fifteen people flew into the sky at the sound of the referee's whistle. Lily floated around the edges of the fierce game, watching intently for the snitch. The game was only started for a few minutes before fouls broke out and the whistle went off almost continually it seemed. James got battered by a bludger, and, although she could make out the crimson blood flowing from his face, she couldn't see where he had been hurt. Roxy 'accidently' bloodied the nose of one Slytherin when she kicked him in the face. The crowd was very involved in the game, leaning forward in their seats and screaming until they went hoarse. The score was almost always tied, with one team scoring and then the other retaliating and getting their team more points.
Lily was the first one to see the snitch twitching around wildly right in the middle of the game. When she drove straight towards the fray to get the snitch, people thought that she was going to beat the living daylights out of one of the Slytherins that had just hurt Albus, except for Scorpius who followed right after her.
Something, someone pulling on the back of her broomstick, caused her to swerve to the side without any warning and crash into another Slytherin, who roughly shoved her away, trying to unseat her, but only successful in making her head spin. "This is my game," Scorpius hissed to his teammates that had blown the game. Lily didn't have time to reflect on how quickly his manner had changed from flirting to deadly and competitive in so short of a time. She raced after the snitch which dodged into the watching crowd, and people hit the floor as the Seekers zoomed past at over a hundred kilometers per hour. The little bugger darted into the rafters below the stands, and they raced down with it without any hesitation. They precariously avoided slamming into the rafters while also trying to gain the advantage over the other. Scorpius suddenly did some fancy spin through the wooden beams and shot ahead, his hand outstretched to catch the snitch.
Cursing, Lily tried to gain the advantage, but the edge of a rafter caught her broom and sent her spiraling forward. She slammed into Scorpius and his broom, and together they went crashing through another beam before they hit the ground with a thud. She groaned when she fell on top of Scorpius, their brooms landing who knows where.
"Merlin, I hate gravity," she groaned again as she rolled off of him, trying to determine if they were both alright. She was sure she would have a few bruises, but was more concerned about Scorpius. He wordlessly stood up and brushed himself off, turning his back to her. Her heart sank down into her stomach and a wave of nausea hit her. "Merlin, Scorp, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to—"
It took only one of his giant strides to close the distance between them, and he roughly grabbed her, a fierce, almost angry, look in his stormy grey eyes. One hand pulled her body against his and the other pulled her face to him. His lips pressed against hers, and any will she might have had seemed to melt into a puddle at their feet as she wrapped her arms around his neck, running her fingers through his long hair. His tongue asked for entrance, running against her lips, and, without thinking, she opened her mouth, sighing at the feeling of finally doing what she had wanted to for so long. But it wasn't his tongue entering her mouth, but rather something hard and circular that tasted almost metallic.
Scorpius broke away as quickly as he had basically attacked her. His grey eyes wouldn't meet hers, and he began to throw a tantrum, his face growing a heated red as creative obscenities flowed from his mouth. She popped the thing from her mouth into her hand, and gasped at the sight of the golden snitch. "B-but this i-is yours…" she told him with confusion, holding out the trinket to him.
Two girls, who had been in the back of the stands, peered down through the rafters. One of them screamed to the other awaiting fans, "Lily caught the snitch! Lily Potter caught the snitch!" People swarmed up at the edge of the stands, trying to find a way down to the pair. She looked helplessly to Scorpius who was trying to make his voice heard over all of the screaming fanatics, and he winked slyly and picked up the brooms. Thankfully, neither of them was damaged, and they flew up to meet the others, Scorpius acting cold with her the whole time. They were swarmed by the excited students and James, practically drowning in blood from a cut on his forehead, lifted her up in the air and boosted her onto his and Al's shoulders. They began to take her up to the castle, but Lily insisted that she wanted to take a shower in the girls' locker room.
They finally let her be, and she grabbed her bag of spare clothes from the Strategy Room. "Bubblegum," she told the door, which swung open at the sound of the password. She sighed at the sight of the showers, each stall only separated from the main room by a thin pink curtain. She pulled one of the curtains open and turned on the shower, letting the water heat up.
She turned to her bag and unzipped it, searching through it for some decent clothes. Warm lips suddenly pressed to the back of her neck, and she simultaneously gasped and squealed, making her choke. Lily whirled around to see Scorpius grinning at her, his perfect teeth shining in the dim light. "Wh-what are you d-doing?" she asked uneasily. "H-how d-did you even g-get in here?" She was so confused now. Scorpius had been clear that he refused to date her because he wouldn't cause that sort of a rift between their families even though they both fancied each other.
His grey eyes smoldered, melting her will and he whispered in her ear, "Bubblegum? Is that really the only thing the girls could come up with? I guess I got tired of being good," he whispered seductively, making her shiver as his hands glided smoothly up her arms and rested on her shoulders. "How can anyone resist you?"
A short little giggle escaped her lips, and this time, she kissed him first with excitement. Her fingers once again found his soft hair, and his hands moved to the small of her back to trap her more firmly against him. His tongue once again traced her lips and she opened her mouth, trying to commit the sensations to memory. His tongue moved and traced her teeth, making her shiver as bolts of electricity flowed everywhere he touched her.
"Lily? Are you in here?" they broke apart at the sound of Roxanne opening the door and calling to her cousin. Without a second thought, Lily dragged Scorpius into the running shower and closed the curtain, shoving him in the corner and away from sight, the water soaking their Quidditch uniforms. "Yeah," she yelled back as the door slammed closed. "What are you doing in here?"
Roxy laughed, and Lily could see her outline as she stripped off her clothes through the thin curtain. "I'm not allowed to take a shower? Merlin, I couldn't stand how I smelled after the match. I think some snake stink rubbed off on me."
Scorpius glared through the curtain at her offense, but he stepped away from his corner and softly wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her backwards into his chest. He gently brushed her now-soaked hair off of her shoulder and placed feather-light kisses up and down her neck. Trying to respond to Roxy's comment, she laughed, but it was too high-pitched to not sound insane.
Roxy froze just before she stepped in the shower. "Lily, are you okay? You're acting kind of funny."
"O-oh, yeah!" she exclaimed, desperately trying to get the usually unobservant Roxanne to think nothing was wrong. Just fant—ahhhhh—stic!" Scorpius at that moment choose to completely throw caution to the wind and found her sweet spot, sucking at a spot on the side of her neck, just above where her neck smoothed into her shoulder, which made her voice go up at least three octaves as the pleasure rippled through her body with electric tingles.
Roxy took a step closer to the shower. "Lily what's wrong?"
She tried not to freak out and shoved Scorpius into the corner again with a glare that would have put her grandmother to shame. "J-just stubbed m-my toe!" she lied hurriedly. "I-it, ah, really hurt." She glared again at Scorpius who was only grinning mischievously in the corner.
Roxanne finally stepped into the shower beside hers. "You really are so clumsy on the ground sometimes, Lils. Luckily you aren't in the air! Without you, I think we would've lost today's match! I couldn't bear to lose to those snakes."
Lily successfully put a hand to his mouth before he hissed out something and gave them away, and with sadness in her eyes, she told her cousin, "I guess you'll have to find someone really good next year then."
"What do you mean?"
She swallowed convulsively, and Scorpius could how much she hated to talk about it. "Didn't you hear?" she asked with a false brightness that didn't even come close to covering her sorrow. "I got kicked off the team at the beginning of next year, and I can't play anymore. I have detention for the rest of the year, and I can't go on the visits to Hogsmeade anymore."
"Your life must suck," Roxy commented lightly. "But what did you even do to get in that much trouble? Did you throw Wilkinson off of the Astronomy Tower? I'd love you forever if you did that."
"I-I don't think I should really talk about it," she murmured as Scorpius, disobeying her direct orders again held her tightly against his chest. She rested her head on his chest as the water droplets continued to soak them the warmth now beginning to dull from scorching hot to pleasantly warm. She sighed, wishing she could stay in this moment forever.
Roxy's shower went off, and Lily and Scorpius broke apart, realizing that they had staying in that moment for at least five minutes. "Merlin, woman!" her cousin exclaimed at their still running shower, "Do you like to take showers that last all day? If you don't hurry up, you'll miss the party! Albus is probably already back with the buterbeers by now!" She dressed and dried her hair with a charm.
Lily glanced at Scorpius who had retreated to his corner and put her hand on the knobs to turn the water off and then she glanced down at herself. Her emerald eyes widened; she was still in her Quidditch clothes! If she turned off the shower she would have to come out and face Roxy, but how would she explain why she took a shower in her clothes? Scorpius seemed to realize the same thing, but when she looked back to him for help, he only shrugged. She scurried over to Scorpius and forcefully turned him around so that his nose was in the corner, "No peeking!" she hissed quietly in his ear as a mischievous grin spread across his face. She resisted a groan and prodded him in the ribs. "I mean it!"
"Lily?" Roxy called as Lily stripped out of her clothes, a blush pooling on her face and gradually reaching down her neck. She glanced at Scorpius who had decided to be a perfect gentleman and faced the corner, even putting his hands over his eyes.
"Uh, yeah, just a second!" Lily called to her cousin, shutting off the water, shivering, and pulled her towel off of the hook just outside her shower. She wrapped it around her body and thankfully stepped out of the shower, more at ease with her cousin than her… could she call him her boyfriend? Roxanne had already dressed and was almost done with getting ready, thankfully.
"Do you want me to wait for you?" Roxy asked, not looking away from her mirror as she inspected her teeth for food and also not seeing the blush that reappeared every time Lily thought of Scorpius in the shower.
Lily tried to make her voice sound normal. "Uh—nope! That's alright. Y-you can go on ahead, ya know, if you want. I-I mean you d-don't have to, uh, stay here or, ah, anything. Yeah, i-it'll be d-dreadfully b-boring just, uh, waiting on my. I-I mean, I've got t-to curl my hair, a-and, uh, put on my make-up, and, ya know, all those s-stupid girlie th-things that you d-don't like."
Roxanne put the last of her things in her bag and zipped it. "Seriously, what's wrong with you, Lily? You're acting all nervous, like you have something to hide. You don't have anything to hide from me, do you?" she asked walking closer to Lily with a rather intimidating look.
Lily had always been a little afraid of her older, aggressive cousin. It sort of frightened her the way she didn't care and could beat the crap out of James if she wanted. "W-well…" she hesitated. She couldn't just tell her cousin that she was snogging a Malfoy in the shower! "Well, you know Amos Blocc, right?" She shook her head. "Of course you know Amos; he's on the Quidditch team! W-well I have a crush on him," she blurted out, a little astounded at her own audacity. "A-and I wanted to look extra special tonight so that I could, uh, impress him, and show him that I'm not just the Seeker on our team… a-and that I could be something… more." Her voice got quiet and she hung her head, trying to determine if Roxy had bought the lie.
"Ew," she said, and Lily resisted sighing in relief. "I don't get involved in guy troubles, so I'm out of this one, cuz. See you at the party. I'll tell everyone that you'll eventually get around to showing up at the party." With her bag slung over her shoulder, Roxy departed with a little wave, letting Lily sigh in relief.
"Don't come out yet," she warned the shower where Scorpius was still hidden. "I'm not dressed yet." She rummaged through her bag and threw on a warm, low-cut sweater and some skinny jeans. She stuffed her clothes into her bag and said, "You can come out now."
Scorpius emerged with a grin on his face and her wet clothes in his hands. She giggled at his long hair that had turned a sort of light brown from the wetness. He set the clothes on the bench beside her bag and took her into his arms again, kissing her. He was forced to lift her off of her feet, seeing as she only almost came up to the top of his chest so that he wouldn't have to bend down so much. She didn't care that her clothes were getting wet again as his body pressed against her and she smiled into his lips. She hardly noticed that they were moving, back, past another pink curtain, until the shower came on again and she squealed at the sudden surprise, causing them both to break apart.
She held her face up to the onslaught of cool water, but neither made a move to turn it off. Lily smiled. "I've always wanted to be kissed in the rain," she whispered in his ear before her lips moved to his again and their tongues swirled together. Neither of them was sure if they could ever find the restraint to stop.
Eventually, Scorpius's lips moved from her mouth to her neck and the sensations had her completely at his power. His lips gradually moved up her jaw and extremely close to her sweet spot. She tried to get him to move away from that spot, but he remained there, almost teasing her as she whimpered. "I need something," he murmured against her creamy white skin, "I need the new password to Gryffindor Tower."
Her breathing was ragged, but she managed to rasp out, "And just… why… would you need that?"
He smiled, his nose tracing up and down her neck. "For a little… Slytherin project we've wanted to work on for a while. What's the password, Flower?"
Her hands moved from his hair and lifted his chin so that she could move to kissing his jaw. "Tell me why, first," she breathed, her breath causing a shiver down his spine and she smiled, reveling in the fact that she could solicit a reaction from him.
"We… we're going to crash the party…" he sighed contentedly. His silver-grey eyes reopened, and he regained control of the situation, kissing her neck again, just a little away from her sweet spot.
She sighed. "I… don't think I should give away that… information…"
Scorpius moved to her sweet spot, and she moaned, rather glad that the sound of the shower masked the noise. "Tell me… Tell me, Flower…" he whispered before he started sucking on the skin there.
She moaned more loudly, but refused to give in. Just because he could do devilish things with his tongue on her neck, didn't mean that she had to give him anything. Her hands knotted in his soaking hair as he continued to ravish the skin there. She cried out a little bit when he broke the blood vessel beneath her skin. "Caput Draconis!" she exclaimed, at the brink of breaking at his feet. Immediately, he stopped his ministrations to her neck and straightened up, turning off the shower. He had a big grin on his face. "You're evil," she muttered to him angrily. Couldn't they snog just a bit longer?
"I'm a scorpion, remember?" he kissed her cheek lightly and led her out of the shower.
"So you're just going to leave me now that you've tortured information out of me?" she asked, a little hurt. "That's so unfair!"
He laughed, the sound like soft bells, and kissed her lips lightly, but pulled away when she tried to deepen the kiss. "I fear that if we don't leave now, we'll spend quite a long time in here. Besides, isn't there some Amos Blocc man that you should be flirting with?"
Her mouth dropped open. "No!" she exclaimed a bit too quickly. She smirked. "Besides, as soon as I get to the party, I'll just tell James what you're planning to do." She smiled to herself.
"Hmm," he mused, rubbing his chin. "Well, we simply can't have you doing that, so… I guess there's only one option left."
Her emerald eyes narrowed. "What option?" When he didn't immediately answer, she said, "Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy, what are you going to do?"
He pulled her to him to kiss her forehead, but he didn't let go. "I guess I'm just going to have to capture you." He grinned and led her out of the shower, watching carefully for no one to see them. She giggled as they darted under the cover of various trees, neither of them wanting to be caught. He shamelessly pulled on her hand, keeping it intertwined with his own. They snuck through the grounds and reached the castle. Just as a Gryffindor tromped down the main stairwell, Scorpius hid Lily in a niche close to the way down to the dungeons.
Lily recognized the voice of Lysander Longbottom. Why he wasn't with his twin, she wasn't sure; he was almost always with Lorcan. "What's a snake doing out in the sunlight? Shouldn't you be down in the snake pit with the rest of the scum mourning their 28thloss to Gryffindor in a row?" From where she was hidden, Lily could see Scorpius clench his hands into fists, but she couldn't see the expression on Lysander's face. He was usually a nice, humble boy, and she didn't understand why he would try to rub their victory in his face.
"Well, at least I'm smart enough to figure out that my girlfriend's been cheating on me."
Lily froze, her mouth agape. "At least in Gryffindor, we can be honest, and not have to cheat like you slimy Slytherins." If she had been an avid gossip like her roommate, Amanda Thomas, she probably would have died at the shock of such drama-filled information. "Just mind your own business, Longbottom. Can't you go mope in some other part of the castle?"
"Maybe I want to mope right here," Lysander said, obviously trying to goad a reaction out of Scorpius. He got quite close, too. Scorpius took a step forward, pulling his clenched fist back as though to punch him, but just before he did, Scorpius caught sight of a very distressed Lily, her emerald eyes wide and imploring.
He half-snarled, "Maybe I'll just hang around for a while, too." He crossed his arms, and Lily tried to be as quiet as possible as they had a silent battle of the wills for almost fifteen minutes, each second ticking uncomfortably. Finally, Lysander gave up, stalking past Scorpius and purposely knocking him as he swept past. Scorpius just about turned and beat the crap out of the idiot, but he took a deep breath through his nose, and closed his eyes to calm himself.
When Lysander's footsteps had long since faded away, Scorpius opened his grey eyes and took Lily's hand again, leading her down to the dungeons where it was rather cool, and she shivered slightly. He led her down past the Potion's room, and Professor Slughorn's office to what seemed a blank wall down a flight of stairs. "Dragon's Breath," Scorpius muttered and the wall moved aside, revealing a passageway. Just before they entered into the midst of the green-tinted common room, Scorpius placed a light kiss on her forehead.
When they came to the center of the Slytherin Dungeons, Lily smiled, glad that the place was somewhat familiar to her. The room was tinted green because it lay beneath the Great Lake, and many students lounged in the emerald and silver sofas. One boy, one that Lily recognized as a chaser for Slytherin, Heston Lestrange, stood up. "What are you doing with her, Malfoy?"
Lily, realizing that she had a sort of act to pull, tried to tug her grip from Scorpius, but it was like his grip was made of iron. "You're such a prat, Scorpius! Let go of me!" His grey eyes met hers with approval.
He turned back to Lestrange and glared. He jerked on her arm rather painfully to stop her and said, "I got the password, but she was going to go tell her brothers and warn them before we could get there. I had to take her with me."
Julian Zabini stood up. "So you brought her here? Why not just lock her in some abandoned classroom where the teachers wouldn't find her?"
Lily rolled her eyes. "I'm a witch, too, you know. It would've been easy to get out."
Lestrange talked again. "So did you get the password or not? Can we even rely on her?"
"She's a reliable source, and now we have her in case she lied. The password did have to be… tortured… out of her though." She tried to hide a blush and Scorpius grinned.
He forced her to sit on an empty seat on the couch beside Alicia, who smiled comfortingly. "We could still use this to our advantage," he told the group. "We could use her as a sort of ransom. Or at least something to make them keep quiet, and not go blabbing to the teachers."
Lily rolled her eyes again. "You don't need me to ensure that. Just say something about how it would be un-Gryffindor-ish, and they'll completely freak. Make a slight about their Gryffindor courage, and they'll be like putty in your hands."
There was silence for a few moments before Alicia laughed. "It appears that the Sorting Hat made a mistake when it put this cunning little girl in Gryffindor." Many murmured their agreement. She looked the pair of them up and down suspiciously. "How did you both get so wet?"
Lily looked to Scorpius who was at a total loss, so Lily exclaimed, "It rained!" Many eyebrows shot up at the obvious lie, seeing as it had begun to clear up at the end of the match, the sun appearing and shining. She tried to hold in the giggled, and Scorpius had to resist laughing.
Alicia rolled her eyes. "Whatever. So what's the plan for crashing the party?" she asked the others. They all began to murmur around what seemed to be a sort of dead map, some sneaking glares at the unwelcome Gryffindor. Scorpius pulled her up again and began leading her up to what Lily assumed to be the boys' dormitories.
"That's a pretty nice hickey you have, Lily." The redhead stumbled and almost died from embarrassment. Her whole neck and face flushed a bright red, and the platinum blonde beside her was more than a little pink. Her hand unconsciously moved to cover the sensitive skin where Scorpius had sucked on to get the password out of her. "Who'd you get it from?" At the moment, the pair had an intense desire to strangle Alicia.
"I-i-it's a, uh, r-regular bruise… ya know, f-f-from the Quidditch g-game," she lied nervously. "Wh-when I f-fell and hit th-the rafters, I-I guess I g-got this bruise."
"Mm-hmm," Alicia only nodded with amusement. Many of the other Slytherins started snickering.
Scorpius sent a warning glare as he escorted her up the stairs, as though daring anyone to ask why she was going into a bedroom with Scorpius. He hurried down the hall that was so much like the one in Gryffindor Tower, and opened a door with a five on it for fifth year. The room was rather pretty, with nicely made beds with emerald and silver comforters and hardly any clutter in the room, but like any boy's room, clothes were strewn across the floor and a rather healthy mess was obtained. Lily smiled at the way that the window was like looking into a murky aquarium. He noticed what she was admiring and muttered, "Yeah, it's pretty until the merpeople and Grindylows decide that they want to hang out around here."
She smiled as he began fishing around in his trunk. She tapped the glass and a little school of fish scurried away, frightened away by her. Suddenly, she whirled around and punched Scorpius in the arm as hard as she could. "Ow!" he yelped in surprise and fright. "What the hell was that for?"
"That's for giving me a hickey, you prat!" she hissed. "Merlin's dirty underpants, did you have to do that? If my brothers find out you gave me this," she pointed viciously to the bright red, now turning blue, welt, "or worse if my dad finds out, I'm screwed for the rest of my life!" she struggled to keep her voice down.
"I didn't mean to!" he snarled. "You just wouldn't give me the password!"
"Oh, so I'm supposed to do something that would get me detention for next year? I'm already screwed enough! Merlin, what am I supposed to do?" She groaned and flopped down on his bed, her wet hair flying in every direction and her clothes probably soaking the sheets.
He gently lay down beside her and sighed when she didn't push him away. "I'm sorry. And just so you know, you probably gave me a huge bruise on my arm," he said as he rubbed where she had hit him. "At least everyone knows you have a boyfriend now. They just don't know who he is." He smiled. "Now if anyone tries to hit on you, I can beat the crap out of them without hesitation."
Her eyes turned on him, suddenly full of a softness he hadn't expected. Really, he had expected another punch but to his face or a kick where he wouldn't want it. "Really?" she asked softly, turning to him and snuggling closer. "Is that what you are? My boyfriend?"
He almost laughed, but he had a sudden instinct tell him that he would never be able to have children if he did. "Are you kidding me?" he asked. "You think I would just snog you and then dump you on the floor and pretend it never happened? No, I'm tired of you not being my girlfriend."
She smiled. "But we can't tell anyone," she voiced the exact thing he had been about to say. "No, my brothers would murder me, and you'd have all twenty-six of my family members to face." Her hands ran up his chest and he kissed her lightly on the lips, almost lighter than a feather.
They stayed that way for maybe a minute, exchanging soft kisses that sent shivers down her spine, before Scorpius sat up again, tearing him out of her reach. "We can't stay up here too long; we wouldn't want rumors spreading. C'mon, stand up and I'll use a Drying Spell on you."
She jumped up with a happy smile. He tried the charm and all the moisture lifted away from her clothes, except that her shirt refused to dry. "Shoot," she murmured. "I forgot this is one of those shmancy shirts that has some good effect to being sopping wet."
Scorpius laughed. She sat on the bed and kept her hands over her eyes while he went into the loo and changed from his Quidditch clothes to regular muggle clothes. When he was done, he handed her Transylvania National Quidditch team shirt. She looked at it appraisingly. "Transylvania?"
He gave her a cold stare. "Do you want a dry shirt or not?"
She giggled and ran into the bathroom, shrugging the wet shirt off and the dry one on. It was about ten times her size. "How do you even fit in this?" she called out to her boyfriend as she studied herself in the mirror. She pulled her spare ponytail off of her wrist and tied it behind her back to make it fit better.
When she came back into the dorm room, his eyebrows shot up at her creativity. "I don't. It was too small for me when I turned, I don't know, twelve?"
She put her hands on her hips. "Uh-huh."
He led her back downstairs where they had just finished up the plans. "Took you long enough," Julian muttered and Lily had to keep from blushing. Alicia grinned mischievously as she saw the shirt Lily was wearing. "I was going to tell you that you could borrow some of my clothes if you wanted too," she whispered in Lily's ear when she sat down next to her friend again, making Lily go red again.
The group was made up of a bout ten Slytherins and Lily who was dragged along just in case (plus, Scorpius adamantly refused to go if she didn't and he knew the password), and they all seemed to be in pretty good spirits despite losing to the Gryffindors. Again. They were in the corridor not far from the Fat Lady when they were ambushed. The remainder of the Gryffindor Quidditch team and Rosie surrounded them and all had their wands out. Of course, the Slytherins had their wands at the ready in a fraction of a second. "Oops," Lily chatted innocently. "Forgot to tell you about their special map."
"What special map?" Alicia hissed, very unpleased.
"Lily, shut up," Albus told her. It was rather hard to see everyone because dusk had begun to settle over the castle, and Scorpius was shielding her from everyone, her back pressed gently against the wall. "Lily, what have you told them?"
"Oh, not much," she told him dreamily, "Just the password… and the secret staircase to our dormitories… and the special jinxes that we use to keep other houses out of our Tower. Other than that… not much."
Both sides could tell that she was lying, but Albus and James were relieved. "What jinxes?" Scorpius asked suspiciously, playing along with her even though he knew there were no such things.
"Oops. I forgot to tell you about the jinxes, too."
"I should've know you'd be involved in this," James scoffed at Scorpius. "You're just a backstabbing, son of a—"
"Language, Jamie," Lily giggled. "He only came to crash the party."
Lestrange hissed suddenly. "You'd better believe I'm not going to stand here while they take the glory that's rightfully ours!" Suddenly he stepped forward and punched Albus.
Lily couldn't help but scream as chaos broke out. Albus slumped to the floor, completely out cold, after his head hit the opposite wall when it snapped backwards from the impact. Alicia was suddenly trying to dig her claws into Rose who was clawing back just as much, and James had rounded on Lestrange and was repeatedly punching him for damaging Albus. The students abandoned their wands, and struggled in the semi-darkness. Scorpius kept Lily back against the wall, punching anyone who tried to come and take her from him.
"Poor Lily," a voice murmured in the darkness.
"I am sure as hell not dealing with you tonight," Lily stated aloud to Scorpius's confusion. She suddenly focused on the happiness she felt when she and Scorpius had been snogging in the showers. Mortellea always wanted to make her feel like she was worthless, but she twisted away from the urges and used her boyfriend as the answer.
"And just what do you think you're all doing?" the authoritative voice stopped James in the middle of punching Alicia and Lestrange from hitting Roxy, whose nose was bleeding. Amos Blocc dropped Julian to the floor, having been holding him up by the collar of his shirt, and Scorpius had Lily pinned in what could be a rather bad situation. Professor Longbottom had his wand lit, blinding some of the students as he took in each of their faces. "Brawling in the corridors? None of you even has the decency to pick up your wand?"
"For your information, Professor," Lily said meekly, "I couldn't reach my wand."
He glared. "Why are you even doing this in the first place? Shouldn't Slytherins be in the dungeons and Gryffindors in their tower?"
"Well, we would've, Sir," James answered, "but they abducted our sister. We were only on a search party to find her, and we found her being held captive by all these Slytherins. You think I was just gonna wait around for my sister to be on the receiving end of some curse?"
Longbottom sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "So the Slytherins kidnapped Lily Potter?" Everyone reluctantly nodded. "But why?" he asked, obviously confused.
"To regain the glory that's rightfully ours! We had to redeem ourselves!" Lestrange answered loyally. Roxy punched him in the stomach and shot a half-apologetic grin at Longbottom.
"Redeem yourselves from what?" James asked, "Your horrible failure at life?"
"That's enough James," Neville sighed. "I'd give you all detention, but if I give any more to Miss Potter over here, we'll be taking her out of class to punish her."
"But what did I do wrong, Professor?" protested Lily skillfully. "So far as we've gone, I was only kidnapped."
"Are you implying that you did something else, Miss Potter?" Neville asked, seeing right through the façade that the Potters could put on so well.
"No."
Scorpius tried to hide his grin, and she used his eyes to silently implore him not to give away that she had told him the password. Longbottom sighed again. "Alright, fine. You all have a month's worth of detentions, excepting Lily who'll already be in there with you all. I want you all to report to Filch tomorrow night at… what time do you go to detention at, Lily?" he asked quietly although everyone heard.
"Six," she answered promptly.
He nodded. "At six. Now, do I have to escort you all back to your own common rooms?" Everyone hurriedly shook their heads and everyone immediately began heading to where they belonged. When no one was looking, Scorpius, like a perfect gentleman that was raised by proper parents, softly took her hand and kissed her knuckles, sending the familiar electricity jolting though her and the butterflies flapping their wings faster than ever in her stomach. He winked at her before he left, his warm, grey eyes obviously amused, and she blushed to a light pink. Longbottom revived Albus with some sort of smelling plant stuff that he kept in his pocket and he fixed the big lump her older brother had on the back of his head.
James, Albus, and Lily were the last ones to leave the scene, excluding Professor Longbottom, James and Lily having to support Albus back to the Fat Lady. When they entered, most of the party had stopped to listen to the already-distorted tale told by the Quidditch team. Albus groggily looked to Lily. "So what just happened?"
She smiled bleakly. "Well, let's see. The Slytherins took me captive after the game, they were going to crash the party, but you guys ambushed them. You got completely slugged by that prat Lestrange, and you ended up with a month's worth of detention along with everyone else after Neville busted us all brawling, even though you were unconscious for the whole thing. I think that pretty much sums it up."
He groaned. "Not to mention my bloody headache. Remind me to hex Lestrange the next time I see him."
She grinned and nodded and then James helped him up the stairs and into bed. Lily stood for a few minutes in front of the fire as the party began to pick up again, entranced by the flickering flames. "You don't seem too upset for someone who was just tortured by Slytherins."
Lily gasped, and turned to see Rosie, her brown eyes questioning, and her red hair wrestled back into a ponytail. She smiled at her cousin. "You know I hang out with Scorpius and Alicia a lot. It's not really that bad. It was… interesting, to see all of those secrets, and the Great Lake is so cool when you look at it from underneath. I kind of wish I had seen the Giant Squid…"
Rosie nodded, "And you just had a fancy time because Slytherins, as they proved tonight, are not people to be feared, or who will kidnap a girl for fun, but a kind and loving house, full of rainbows and sunshine and happiness." Her tone positively dripped with sarcasm. "Really. Why do you seem so happy?"
Lily smiled to herself. "Well, I did beat the Slytherin team today. That made my day."
Rosie gave up, knowing that she probably wouldn't get a real answer out of her cousin. "But, listen, Rose," Lily added seriously, quoting Scorpius, "Slytherin House, just like its occupants, has changed. They're not full of a bunch of evil Deatheaters and even their parents were on the good side sometimes. They just have their differences. You just can't underestimate them." She yawned obviously. "I'm exhausted. Something about being kidnapped just wears me out. I'm gonna hang out upstairs for a while before I hit the hay."
"Just—" Rosie hesitated. "Just be careful, Lily. I don't want you to get hurt by the Slytherins."
Lily smiled in appreciation. "I trust them, so I don't think I will get hurt, but it's possible. I'll be careful, but remember, Rosie, Slytherins aren't the only bad guys. Anyone can let someone that trusts them down."
She smiled knowingly, and Lily went upstairs. She sighed as she slipped out of the jeans that she didn't feel like wearing; she wanted comfort at the moment. She pulled out her favorite pajama bottom, ones with little snowmen and Christmas trees on them, and slipped them on, relaxing just at the feel of the soft fleece on the inside of them. When she turned to her bed, she laughed at the sight of the dark grey owl on her bed. She took the letter and opened it.
Dearest Flower,
You aren't upset over today, are you? I just need to make sure that you've already forgiven me for any pratish behavior I might have had while you were with me today. And I really am sorry for the You-Know-What on your neck. I honestly didn't mean to do that.
Sincerely,
Scorpius
She laughed before writing her reply.
Scorpius,
You are such an idiot. How could you think I'd be upset with you? Today was absolutely the best day of my life, and if you think otherwise, then I don't know which planet you live on. And if you think I'm still upset over that, I'd say that you are very unobservant. I can't wait to spend time with you after detention tomorrow.
Always,
Lily Luna
When her other dorm mates came into the room, long after she had come up by herself, they found Lily curled peacefully on her bed, clad in an odd Transylvania National Quidditch team shirt on. No one disturbed her but rather one of them drew the curtains around her bed closed as they went on to discuss some of the hottest single males in the school, Scorpius Malfoy a little reluctantly included in the subject.
But down in the Slytherin boy fifth year boys' dormitory, Julian Zabini snickered over the fact that Scorpius Malfoy had fallen asleep clutching some sort of a sweater to his chest like it was a teddy bear. Before he pulled the curtains around Scorpius's bed closed, he noticed yet another letter from Lily discarded next to him on the bed. He rolled his eyes, thinking that those two never liked to be apart.
Teeheeheehee. They finally got together! This is a HUGE milestone in the story! It probably means that this might even be about halfway over, maybe a little less. Yeah, this thing is FAR from over. It's also my longest chapter with over 8k words (o.O)! PLEASE REVIEW! Tell me how you think I did on this chapter, and whether you liked the snogging scenes and such! IF YOU REVIEW, I WILL LOVE YOU FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER AND EVER AND EVER… are you getting the picture yet?