I'm alive! But I'm positive I won't be for long! *ducks for cover* I FINALLY got this chapter done! It's been over a month since I've updated and I'm sorry for taking so long, but I've had a hard time concentrating. So Merry Christmas to all! I got some really awesome stuff and you should think of this as a (late) Christmas present from me to you! Thanks to all of my reviewers!

Chapter 19: Hectic Day

Lily groaned when she sat down the next day. Soreness seemed to bloom all over her body, from her fall through the rafters at the Quidditch game, but she was still in an extraordinarily good mood for someone who had supposedly been to hell and back the day before. "Hurting just a little there, Lilsies?" James asked from across the table, patting her cheek, to her annoyance.

She smacked his hand away and rolled her eyes. "How's the forehead?"

"It could be worse," he answered, tenderly rubbing the newly patched skin of his forehead that Madame Pomphrey had healed after he'd been bashed by one of the Slytherin chasers. Albus sat down beside his older brother, absent mindedly pulling a fresh batch of eggs onto his plate, completely engrossed in his copy of the Quibbler. Rose came in behind him, her mangy hair pulled into a ponytail, and sat beside Lily, scooping a waffle onto her plate and almost drowning it in syrup, intently studying for her Potions test.

Lily deftly took the bottle of syrup before the syrup began to run off of Rose's plate and into her lap. Her cousin looked up with surprise and noted her breakfast. Her face turned red as she smiled appreciatively at Lily. "Oops, sorry. I wasn't paying attention." Underneath her slutty façade, a kind, timid girl had appeared who was trying to study and make good grades and always there for anyone who needed her although she often needed help when she saw that prat, Zachary Smith, with one of his many new girlfriends.

Lily smiled in response. "Yeah, you rarely do that anyways," she teased. She set the now-empty bottle back on the table and laughed when Rose engulfed herself in the book again. Her eyes flashed warily to the Slytherin table where Alicia and Julian seemed to be in some heated debate on either side of Scorpius. But he couldn't care less about what was going on around him; rather, he was smiling at Lily, looking a little silly with the wide grin plastered on his face. She smiled back and waved, a little timidly.

"I don't see why you didn't just go sit with them today, Lilsies," Albus cut in, noticing her wave. "I mean you rarely eat with us anymore anyways." He turned back to his paper, not even bothering to let her answer, so he completely missed her bright pink blush and ignored her feeble stutters.

No one was really focused on the conversation, and James was busy trying to flirt with his fellow sixth-year prefect, Kathleen Dereville. He really did have a terrible crush on the girl. Rose suddenly commented, "You need to find some better cover up, Lily."

Lily didn't understand, her eyes meeting Rose's in confusion. "Why?"

She pulled a roll onto her plate without looking up. "Because that cover up hardly covers your hickey."

Lily's eyes grew to the size of the platters on the table and both of her brothers looked to her, also Hugo, Dominique and Kathleen. "What about my little sister having a hickey?" James snarled, ready to beat up the first man that she looked at.

"Why on earth do you have a hickey?" Albus incredulously asked, almost as angry as James as he roughly turned her head to get a better look at the purple bruise on her neck.

"I-it's not a-a-a hickey!" Lily stuttered, her face redder than her hair. "I-I b-b-bruised m-myself y-yesterd-day wh-wh-when I-I-I f-fell through th-the rafters," she related the same lie she had told Alicia. She glared at Rose, whom she really felt like murdering at the moment.

"I dunno," Rose said with a knowing smile as she buttered her roll. "I've had plenty of hickeys in my life, and I know when I see one. Besides, that's a little odd of a place to get hit by a rafter, isn't it?"

Lily stopped her hands from wrapping them around her neck and wringing the living daylights out of her cousin by clenching them into fists at her side. Dominique was laughing loudly. "Wow, someone actually wants to snog you! But I think the question we're all asking here is: who the hell gave you a hickey?"

The young redhead looked around nervously, but almost everyone at the Gryffindor table seemed attracted to this query. All eyes were on her as she fidgeted nervously and bit her lip. She sent a pleading look to Scorpius, but he was already up and moving. "Hey, Flower, you said you needed help on that Charms report…?"

Lily was standing up like lighting, her bag already on her shoulder. With wide emerald eyes, she nodded, "Yup, I definitely need help. I just don't understand the concept of Cheering Charms. Will you explain it to me in the library, Scorp?"

James towered over them as they tried to sneak away. He leered at Scorpius. "And you wouldn't happen to know how Lily got a hickey, would you?"

Scorpius seemed surprised. "Lily has a hickey?" He almost laughed as he tilted her chin to observe for himself the purplish-red mark on her neck. He started laughing. "I have no idea who did that, but I sure feel bad for the guy who got himself into a heap of trouble."

Lily flushed crimson, adding a nice effect to the whole thing, all while she thanked Merlin for Scorpius Malfoy being an excellent liar like his father and his grandfather before him, as smooth and slippery as a snake. With a hand over her neck, she practically dragged Scorpius away from the Great Hall and towards the general direction of the library. Hardly anyone was in there although there was still half an hour before classes started. She dragged him back towards the Charms section which was in one of the more secluded areas of the library. After checking to make sure that no one was in the vicinity, they turned on each other, Lily still a light pink.

Scorpius once again turned her chin with an amused smile as he observed his handiwork. "I must say I did quite well."

Her eyes were full of green fire. "This is your entire fault."

"It's starting to look a little dull though; perhaps I need to give you another one."

"Oh, no you don't, mister!" she hissed quietly, pushing his face away. "I'm not having you get me in even more trouble. If anything, it's my turn to give you a hickey. Then we'll see how youdeal with it."

He laughed softly at her viciousness. "Just calm down, Flower; I was only joking. Everything will be fine. The rumors will fade as that mark does, and by the time it's gone, the rumors will have disappeared and moved onto the next big scandal at Hogwarts, I swear."

"But what about my brothers?" she asked helplessly, leaning into his chest as he wrapped his arms around her. She looked up at him through her long eyelashes. "They most definitely won't forget this. I'm completely and utterly screwed."

Scorpius smiled softly at her antics and kissed her flaming red hair gently. "Yes, they will; whatever you do, just refuse to tell them."

"You don't know my brothers," she moaned into his chest, hugging herself closer to him. Lily breathed in the scent of cologne from his shirt, and instead of making her relax, her heart began pumping faster. "I don't think I can do this, Scorpius," she whispered, both of them aware that a figure was moving on the other side of the bookshelf. "I just know they'll catch us, and then what? I-I just don't think I can go through with lying to their faces and sneaking around behind their backs." She ripped herself painfully away, but he grasped her wrist roughly.

"Oh, no you don't," he roughly told her, with grey fire swirling in his eyes. "I did not go through hell trying to stay away from you only to have you walk out on me at the slightest second you get scared. Where's your courage, Flower? I thought you fancied me!"

"I-I do, of course I d-do!" Lily answered, taken aback by his territorial manner. "S-Scorp, what if we get caught? Sweet Merlin, you won't have time to think before they kill you if they find us doing anything. I don't think I can handle that stress." Her big doe eyes couldn't meet his, she too ashamed of what she had done. "Th-this is just a big mistake, S-Scorp. Yesterday—yesterday was the best day of my life, but I was on some sort of ecstatic high and wasn't thinking straight. But now, I'm regaining my senses and—"

"Stop! Just stop!" he practically yelled at her. They both froze, looking at the bookshelf as though they had vision that could see through solid objects to the unknown person who had to have heard their fight. They both breathed in jagged rough breaths as they waited for some sign that the person had gone back to normal. There was absolute silence on the other side. Scorpius gently tugged on her hand with a soft look in his eyes that made a truce for the moment until they were successfully past the danger of being discovered. He walked briskly beside her as they left the Charms section, neither of them anywhere near to touching as he tried to partially shield her from the intruder's sight. They shortly decided on going to the Room of Requirement, and Lily paced in front of it tensely three times. We need a place where no one can hear us that's comfortable.

When the plain, old-fashioned door appeared, Scorpius, like any good gentleman, opened the door for Lily. She could almost feel the ice growing from between them and she hated it. They sat down on a sofa on opposite ends facing each other. Lily bit her bottom lip nervously and tried not to let this get to her, they were only talking at the moment, right?

Scorpius took a deep breath but neither of them spoke. They sat there for probably hours in the dreadfully cold silence until he got up and began to pace back and forth before her. They both knew they had missed several classes, but neither cared. He stopped abruptly before her, and she squeezed her eyes shut, not sure she wanted either of them to say anything that could damage the fragile relationship. But at the same time, why did she still care? Wasn't she going to end things in the library? "Tell me again why you're so worried," he told her softly but with strain that was almost indiscernible but told her that she should be cautious.

She took a deep, shaky breath. "We're going to get caught," she explained carefully, still not daring to open her eyes. "And when we get caught, we're going to be in so much trouble. And it's going to terrify me that I might slip up and blow the whole secret."

She felt him sit down right beside her on the sofa and take her hands in his calloused ones. "Do you really believe that? Are you so afraid of the fall that you refuse to jump?" His warm breath softly caressed her cheeks and she unconsciously leaned towards him, her eyes fluttering open to see his eyes burning passionately.

"I don't know," she said nervously. "I'm just afraid that when I fall, no one will catch me."

He cracked a smile. "Then what am I here for?" she giggled and nudged him gently. His smile faded and Scorpius softly kissed her, hardly brushing his lips against hers. Lily leaned forward and firmly pressed her lips against his. He sighed into her mouth and a great battle of dominance began. As their tongues wrestled, Lily dissolved into nothing more than mush as he gently lay back on the couch and pulled her on top of him. Her auburn hair fell in swirls around them both as his fingers pulled through the strands.

Every doubt melted away like Lily's composure. They snogged maybe for hours, but it still seemed too short to her before he pulled away from her, them having moved until she was underneath him. She whined desperately when he stopped kissing up and down her neck. He laughed. "We wouldn't want another hickey, would we?"

"That doesn't mean you have to stop," she cajoled huffily, still lying there to see if he would return. Of course, he got up, standing away from her reach as he straightened his tie and redid the few buttons that had come undone, smiling at her enraged glare. He sat in the armchair opposite the sofa with a broad smile at her. She sat up, her arms crossed over her chest and her tie hanging down over her back. Her hair must've been in a disheveled mess, and she had to blow a few strands out of her face for him to get the full effect of her glare. "This isn't making me very happy."

Scorpius chuckled. "And who said that it was your happiness on the line? Maybe I'd be happy just to sit here and talk to you." She bit her swollen lip, swallowing back the retort that they had talked all last year and they needed to catch up on snogging.

He saw her torn expression and laughed at her restraint. "Well, then," she choked out, "What do you so desperately want to talk about?"

As she fixed her hair and straightened her tie, he came back over and relaxed on the couch, pulling her to him when she looked a little neater. "Well…" he thought for a moment as he looked to the ceiling, rummaging around for something to talk about. "How's school so far?" he asked lamely with a grin that said he knew it, too.

She shook her head with a laugh. "You're impossible. You make us stop snogging so we can talk about our classes? Come up with something better or I'll be forced to seduce you."

With a wry grin he muttered, "You'll probably end up doing that anyways." He sighed. "Ummm…"

"What about your family?" Lily asked inquisitively. "I don't know much about them."

"And yet you can probably list off every charity that we've ever donated to, can't you?"

She rolled her eyes. "How was your… erm… could you call it a recent vacation?" she asked, referring to his recent leave after his grandfather's death

He smiled. "Well, my 'vacation' wasn't all that fun, thank you. Dad went to Azkaban to get Grandfather to give him a 'proper Malfoy burial' or something like that. But we buried him in the Black family cemetery like Grandmother wanted. Then we all went to the Ministry to have the reading of his will. It was really rather boring."

"Dad's always said that a will from someone you don't like could be like an early Christmas for adults," she reminisced.

He laughed. "That's sort of what it felt like. Dad 'officially' owns Malfoy Manor now, although we've always owned it. Mum got a lot of money that she intends to go shopping with, and Grandmother got the bulk of the money and the old vacation villa on the beach."

"Wow," Lily said with raised eyebrows. "And I thought we were rich."

"And grandfather put me in his will, too," he told her, his grey eyes still showing the slight surprise that he would be included. "I mean, we never even met, and he gives me enough galleons to fill two gringott's vaults!"

Her mouth dropped open in surprise. A mischievous grin spread across her face as she snuggled up closer to him. "My, that's a lot of money for one person; maybe you should split it with me. I'll take one vault and you can have the other." He laughed at her grin and sarcasm. "But, ya know," she added, "If your money is a little heavy, I'd be more than happy to take some off of your hands."

Scorpius shook his head. "I'll let you know. But tell me about your family. Mines all sticklers and rules, and Merlin's dirty underpants, I hate it."

"Aw come on," she told him sweetly. "It can't be as horrid as my family. I mean, at least you don't have twenty-five other people who want to know what you're doing every second of every day. Although, whenever we go to the Burrow, it's the most fun anyone ever has."

"The Burrow?" he prodded.

Lily nodded. "My grandmum and granddad's house. It's huge, and I think they put charms on it to keep it from collapsing. I love going to the gatherings because they're the only times the entire family is together. Usually we have one in the summer and one a day or so before Christmas. Even Uncle Charlie comes in from Romania."

"Why does your Uncle Charlie live in Romania?"

"For the dragons, of course. He brought a baby dragon home for Christmas one year when I was seven and I tried to smuggle her home with us, but she burned my jacket, and I was busted. He christened the little Antipodean Opaleye after me, Lily Luna. He brought her back with him another few years, but now she's grown up and too big to come home. He always brings me a photograph of her though, and one day, Uncle Charlie says he'll take me to see Lily Luna one day."

Scorpius smiled as he imagined the innocent seven-year-old Lily reveal the missing pearl-colored dragon that had vanished into thin air from inside a jacket covered with scorch marks. "Do you think that's what you want to do?" he asked. "Will you become a dragonologist like your uncle and live in Romania or something?"

She smiled but shook her head. "I don't think so. I wouldn't want to be so far away from home. I mean Uncle Charlie is rarely even here twice a year. As annoying as my family can be, I think I'd miss them too much."

"Then what do you want to do?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. When I was little, I switched between wanting to be an Auror like Dad or a Holly Head Harpies player. Now, I want to be different from the rest of my family, but not too different. What about you? Surely you've got something in mind."

"I dunno," he sighed. "Dad wants me to work at the Ministry like he does, but I don't think I want to sit in an office all the time. It just seems so boring."

"Well, with two vaults full of gold, you'll probably never have to work again," Lily smarted. "But if you were an Auror like my dad, you could still work at the Ministry but not be stuck in the office."

He shrugged but shook his head. "Nah. Everyone I know wants to do that, and I mean, I like them and everything, but I just want to do something different. I think what I'm leaning towards most now is being a curse-breaker for Gringotts." A smile lit up his face. "It's like being a treasure hunter—"

"But you don't get the treasure," Lily interrupted. "The goblins take all the galleons you find. My Uncle Bill was a Curse-Breaker, but he stopped a few years ago. He said that it was way too dangerous and Auntie Fleur refused to have him killing himself when he set off some ancient Egyptian jinx."

"Aw, come on," he cajoled, ruffling her auburn hair. "Loosen up, Flower. It's not that bad, and I could handle it."

Her emerald eyes glared. "Sure. Let's see if you're still saying that when you don't have a head."

He rolled his eyes. 'Fine, let's just drop the subject before I have a bloody nose. You still haven't told me what you want to do." Scorpius nudged her gently. "C'mon," he half-whined. "Won't you tell me what you want to do?"

She nudged him back although it was more of a punch than a nudge. "I actually think I might want to go into something like muggle protection, or perhaps be an Obliviator. My dad and granddad talk so much about muggles and I get along with them very well, and it would be cool to be more involved with them."

He smiled. "Of course. It seems like you would be the most popular girl if you were a muggle. It seems like they just flock to you. Just exactly how many people came to your birthday party after they hadn't seen you in four years? You just have a way with muggles."

Suddenly Lily's stomach rumbled through the momentary silence and they laughed. They slowly clambered off of their perch on the couch and stretched their stiff limbs. Scorpius checked his watch. "I think we'll only be a minute or so early for supper. Your stomach must double as an alarm clock."

When they got down to supper there was an amazing amount of student beginning to pile sandwiches and desserts on their plates, and Lily and Scorpius had to squish themselves into a small space between Alicia and Julian. Lily struggled to act no differently towards Scorpius as Julian leaned over and started whispering to Scorpius and they fell into an intense conversation. Lily left them to their devices, but only because she had Alicia on her left chattering away. "I hope you didn't forget that we all have detention tonight."

As Alicia munched on her cucumber sandwich (?), Lily laughed humorlessly. "Yeah, right. Like I could forget about it after I've been going to Filch's office for three months now and scrubbing every bloody trophy in that bloody trophy case. I honestly think that I've cleaned them all at least three times. You're in for a grand surprise because there's nothing like having twenty or so kids in detention who absolutely hate each other."

"You know I'm not good with the girl stuff, Julian!" The hushed tone was just loud enough that Lily looked to her right with an amused smile and raised eyebrows. "Can't you just ask Alicia or Lily?" the boys nervously looked up from their heated conversation with sheepish looks.

"Ask me or Alicia about what 'girl stuff,' Scorpius?" She asked with a smile.

"Erm, well—"

Julian Zabini interrupted Scorpius with his dark skin blushed a dull red. "Well, you see, Lily, there's this girl I really like, but she's older than me, and I don't think she even notices me," he told her in his soft but powerful voice with a lovely cadence.

"Who?" Lily asked curiously, leaning a little over Scorpius to see Julian better, her hand on his thigh, closer to his knee. "Who do you have a crush on? I swear I won't tell a soul."

He shifted uncomfortably. "I'm afraid you'll hex me of I tell you."

She laughed. "The only reason I would be concerned would be if it was one of my brothers and you already said your crush is a girl, so… who is it?"

"Rose Weasley."

Lily's mouth dropped open in shock and it took her three minutes to remember that she was leaning on Scorpius, much too close than she should be, and that she was probably beginning to salivate. She leaned back, her auburn hair swinging with her and muttered, "Umm, wow."

Scorpius laughed, his grey eyes twinkling. "What do you think I should do, Lily?" Julian asked, his big brown eyes beginning to resemble that of a puppy dog. "I-I mean do you think there's a possibility that she could… fancy me?"

Lily bit her lip. "I mean… she's been going through a really bad break-up and I'm not sure how she would feel about that, but it's been a while… and I think it would be good for her to start over… I can talk to her, make a few hints, but I can't promise fantastic results."

"Thanks so much, Lilyflower," he sighed in relief a white smile flashing across his features. Students began to dwindle from the Great Hall as Scorpius checked his watch.

Scorpius cursed, pulling Lily up with him as he stood up. "C'mon, we're all going to be late for detention if we wait much longer."

Lily laughed and rolled her eyes as Julian tried to cram another roll into his mouth before they all left. "Please, only the goody-two-shoes get there on time. Filch doesn't even care when it's me." But she still flowed gracefully down the hallway with the older Slytherins, humming some vague tune easily. They tromped down to the dungeons where everyone else had already gathered. About twenty kids crowded into Filch's tiny office to receive their detention for the night with long faces. Lily was the only one with a bright smile as she hummed, a few people giving her odd looks.

"You're late again, Miss Potter," Filch grumbled, his last remaining strands of greasy hair smoothed back on his shiny head. His black eyes were like beads and his clothes grimy and with many patches. "How many times do I have to tell ya not to be late?"

She grinned with self-satisfaction. "Oh, maybe I'll get it by the end of the year, Argus." She gave him a bright smile and sank into the chair that was his, all of the others staring at her with wide eyes.

To everyone's surprise, Filch just huffed impatiently. "What did I tell you about doing that?"

She looked up with an innocent, mischievous grin. "Well, Argus, I mean, look around. Do you see any other empty seats around here? You've got so many kids for detention there just isn't enough room around here. But, switching to another subject, "she randomly began, "I was wondering if I can do something besides washing the trophies tonight. I'm beginning to think that I'm going to scrub my granddad's name right off his Quidditch plaque if I have to wash it one more time."

"Outta mah chair!" he exclaimed angrily. James's mouth seemed to be nearing the floor seeing as Filch loved to get students in trouble and would yell at them for tracking in a speck of dust. Lily laughed but got out of the chair, bouncing over to stand by Rosie. He glared at the kids crowding his office. "Now I want 'bout a fourth of you'ns to go out to Hagrid, a fourth to the trophy room, a fourth to the dungeons where Slughorn's waitin' for yeh. An' the rest of yeh will stay here an' file the detention slips. All of yeh besides Hagrid's had best hand over yehr wands. Miss Potter, You're stayin' in here."

She muttered a low curse as she grudgingly handed over her wand. She'd been hoping to go with James and Albus to Hagrid's, but Filch, after having had three months of detention with her already, knew her well enough to know that she wouldn't get anything accomplished. She ended up stuck with Rosie and Scorpius, Julian and Alicia having snuck off to the dungeons, probably to get an extra couple of hours of sleep. Scorpius nudged Lily towards Rose. "Talk to her," he muttered before joining one of his fellow Slytherins to discuss Quidditch.

Filch, with an evil smirk pulled out a long file and handed it to Lily, who staggered beneath the weight. "I think it's time you got a head-start on yehr own file."

She grinned. "Hey, Rosie!" she exclaimed, sitting beside her cousin who had been given the task of recopying the detention lists of those with last names beginning with As. "I got my own file! That's gotta be better than Uncle George, 'cause he had to share with Uncle Fred!" She snickered. "I've probably got the most detentions now!"

"Considering the reason why you have your own file, I'm surprised you're in such a good mood. Who gave you chocolate today?" Rose didn't look up from her neat script as she carefully retraced the words onto a new sheet of parchment. Yet another kid trying to achieve fame for setting off dungbombs in the caretaker's office. The room had forever been tainted by the awful smell.

Lily laughed, shoving Rose lightly. "No one, thanks; I nicked it from the kitchens 'cause Winky said I've been having too much chocolate. She rarely succeeds at trying to keep us rogue students healthy." She wiped off most of the laughter from her face, leaving behind only a faint smile. "But on a more serious tone, I know someone who fancies you!" She used her taunting voice that always drew Rosie into whatever they were talking about.

And although she rolled her crystal eyes, Lily could see that the words were irresistible. "What have I told you? I'm not ready to go out dating again. When I'm ready, you'll be the first to know, okay?"

"But you've been improving so much recently!" Lily pleaded. "I mean, you can almost say that with a straight face now! Besides, it's not anyone who will be too intense for you or anything. He's really sweet, and quiet, and a lot like you actually. But I know he's not going to push you, and he's willing to take things slow. Maybe, don't you think it might be time to try it out?"

Rose glared at her, but her resolve wavered beneath the façade. "Lily, if he really doesn't want to push me, then neither you nor he will push me into this relationship.

"He is a bit younger, but it wouldn't bother you that much, would it?"

Curiosity raged and the words slipped off her tongue. "How much younger is he?"

Lily shrugged and turned to filing her papers. "Well, I thought you said you weren't interested. It probably doesn't matter to you anyways."

Rose scooted closer to Lily. "I never said I wasn't interested! I only said that I didn't think I was ready for a commitment again! Please, Lily," she wheedled, "Please won't you tell me how much younger he is?"

Emerald eyes slyly looked over to her cousin. "Well, it's only a year. But he's so tall that you wouldn't really think that, and he's very mature for his age, too."

Rose got some sort of a glassy stare as she was rather obviously imagining a tall, handsome man who was only seen in Witch Weekly and more like a Gilderoy Lockheart than anything else. "Well, he doesn't sound bad at all. Who is this bloke anyways?"

A Cheshire grin stretched Lily's lips, and she knew her cousin was hooked. "Well, I'm still not sure if you'd like him…"

"Well, why not?"

"Because he's in Slytherin," she answered truthfully, her eyes not looking up from the scrawled handwriting that was slowly being engraved in her mind, burned in.

When Lily finished the paper and had still heard no reaction from Rose, not even a sharp gasp, she looked up to be facing her wide blue eyes and her mouth that was hanging open. "Um… Rosie?" She waved a hand in front of her cousin's face to snap her out of the trance.

Rose's cheeks started to flush a bright crimson which was thankfully not noticed by any of the Slytherins in the room, especially Scorpius, all of whom would have tried to drill information out of the girls. "Is… is it Julian?"

It was Lily's turn to be surprised. "How did you know?"

"Well, I am most certainly not blind," Rose told her in a grand impression of Grandmum Molly when she caught one of the grandchildren (James) doing something they weren't supposed to be doing (lighting the gnomes on fire). "I mean, he can't hide it very well, and I mean I've suspected it, but… I wasn't sure… and I was worried that I was just deluding myself into thinking that someone fancied me…." By the end of her speech, her voice was hardly above a whisper and her cheeks were red again and a blush was creeping up her neck.

"Will you go out with him?" Lily asked, mentally kicking herself for sounding too much like a gossip.

"I dunno," Rosie said, her unusually shy manner reappearing as her eyes fell to the floor and she absently brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "I might… but I'm really not—"

"Potter, Weasley!" Filch barked, finally noticing their whispers. "Move away from each other before you have double detentions!"

"What's that to me?" Lily asked, half-seriously. "You can't give me any more detentions." She relaxed back from her hunched over position over her file on the floor so she could see Filch more easily. "I'm basically untouchable."

Her cool demeanor should have gotten her more detentions, but she was right. Scorpius sat up behind Filch who was completely focused on Lily and started motioning to her to shut her trap before it got her expelled. The greasy old man glared at the fourteen-year-old with beady black eyes. "Now, listen here, Missy. If you keep actin' up like this and keep not doin' your work, I will go to Madame Wilkinson and get bloody permission to tie you up to them old chains I got and do some serious damage. I will make you behave 'round here or else."

"You can't do that!" Rose defied. "It's illegal to use physical harm on the students!"

"Let's see how long that lasts with her around," the caretaker answered gruffly before he pulled Lily up by the collar of her shirt and dragged her to her feet. He roughly pushed her and she staggered forward and would have fallen if Scorpius had not taken a few steps forward and caught her, pulling her close to his chest, a steely glint in his icy eyes. "Potter, work with your beloved Slytherins, but if I hear another sound outta you, you'll get the lickin' of a lifetime."

Actually afraid of the man who could hardly wobble around, Lily clung to Scorpius and buried her face in his chest. "My father will hear of this," Scorpius told the man in such a harsh voice that it made the girl in his arms cringe slightly as she tried to catch her breath at the shock and steady her rapidly beating heart. "You can't do this and not have the parents take their kids out of the school."

"The only one I care about is her," he barked, "now get back to work!" And he slung her file over, just short of where the pair was standing and it landed on its side with a thud in front of Lily, the contents spilling everywhere. She stayed in his arms for a few moments before it would become too long for just friends and steadied herself. She still wasn't willing to leave Scorpius's warm arms and turn back to her drudgery, but she did, just for the sake of not being discovered.

"What did I tell you, Flower?" Scorpius whispered as they settled back to their work, obviously ignoring the whispered jeers of his Quidditch mates. "Didn't I warn you not to do something stupid?" But her face was blank and unresponsive as she wrote out another detention file, not bothering to pick up all the scattered ones.

As they bent over their files, Scorpius very distinctly brushed her hand with his own, and Lily looked up, half-startled. "Midnight," he whispered behind Filch's back. "In the Room of Requirement." She smiled slightly.

OoOxXxOoO

"That was insane!" Rose exclaimed on their way back from detention around ten-thirty that night as they winded up the many stairs to the common room. All of the other detentions had been let off two hours earlier. "He can't do anything like that; not without Uncle Harry being furious."

Lily sighed, feeling rather exhausted of the whole subject; her mind had whirled through the exchange all night, and she was rather tired of it now. In the middle of the detention, Filch had gotten out rusted chains from an old drawer and had started cleaning them, trying to make as much noise as possible with them. "I don't want to think about it anymore. What about Julian?"

"Oh," Rose said, her eyes lighting up, even in the moonlight. "I've come to my decision…. I'm going to go out with him, but I'm telling Dad."

Lily stumbled but not from tiredness. "Are you crazy?" she spluttered. "Uncle Ron will kill you for going out with a Slytherin!Why don't you just keep him a secret? You've done it plenty of times before!"

"I know," her cousin sighed. "But I want something without pressure, and I'll get nervous if I keep it hidden. So I'm going to write to Mum and Dad and tell them the truth before things get out of hand. It's my own choice, Lils, and I'm not taking it back."

Lily was slightly startled to realize that they were already up the girls' stairs in the Gryffindor Tower and realized that she was more tired than she had expected. "Alright, fine, but your tombstone will say 'Lily told you so.' I'm gonna hit the hay," she told her. "'night."

"'Night," Rosie told her with a smile as she drifted into her dorm. Lily walked into hers and collapsed on the bed. She only remembered to grab the Invisibility Cloak that she had never given back to James and hold it tight to her along with a certain Transylvania Quidditch shirt before she drifted off to sleep, her alarm already set to 11:30.

So I was really hoping to get a lot more put into this chapter and make it a cliff hanger, but lucky for you, that would've been another 6k words probably and I wanted to update. PLEASE REVIEW! So since this is my Christmas present to you, a review should be your present to me! :D lol I love reading every review and please click the button down there!