The weekend came quickly and, because Emma had stopped her research sessions with Blaise Zabini, she was spending more time in the common room. Friday night was no exception. Jacob was sitting on the floor next to the fireplace with Khirsa snuggled in between his legs. They were idly chatting with each other, ignorant to the world around them. Fred and Sid sat on one couch while James and his brother were on the other. Emma sat in the armchair with Lily on the floor in front of her. She was in the process of french braiding Lily's hair while she read. Emma had come to love her nights playing with Lily's hair. This had been the third night in a row that Emma had done Lily's hair while the boy's made conversation.

"Oh please Bulgaria has and always will be the best Quidditch team." Sid defended.

"Please they only just won the last Quidditch World Cup! Ireland is so much better!" Fred defended.

Emma chuckled. "Do you guys talk about anything other than Quidditch? You've been having this same conversation all week."

James smiled. "They always have this conversation. I blame the parents." Emma laughed even more. "You mean your uncles?" She questioned.

"Well if you met them you'd understand. Their fathers all run a joke shop in Diagon Alley. Pranks are a thing in this family. Besides they all know my mother is the best. She plays for the Holyhead Harpies." She giggled at him

"There Lily you are all done." Emma tied a red ribbon on the end of her braid.

"Thanks Emma." Lily got up and hugged Emma. "I'm going to go return this book to the library before curfew. See you guys later." Lily then skipped off out the portrait hole.

Lily's walk to the library was quiet as it was just after dinner and so most students were either outside or in their common rooms. When she got there Scorpius Malfoy with the library obviously frustrated. "I'm sorry Mister Malfoy but Magical Hieroglyphs and Logograms is already checked out."

"But it was one of my mother's favorite books on magical theory for her Ancient Runes homework. Can you at least tell me who has it out?"

Lily walked up to them. "Actually I do, I was just coming to return it." She handed the book over to the librarian.

"Well then you are in luck Mister Malfoy. Here you go." She handed Scorpius the book and smiled at the children. "Now hurry along you two. It's almost curfew." They nodded and headed for the stair well.

"Are you even old enough to take Ancient Runes?" Scorpius inquired.

"Of course I am. I'm a fourth year. Rather take that then the rubbish Divination. I take Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and Care of Magical Creatures." How could he think I was a second year? He was very cute but apparently not very smart.

"I take the same but I'm a fifth year. Though I wanted to take Astronomy but it's not like I have a time turn for that load of homework." So cute and brains, he thought to himself. He was a bit impressed.

"Truth and you have O.W.L.s this year."

"Yep. My mother got 9 Os on her O.W.L.s and 1 E. She's never seemed to get over that E so I'm planning on getting all 10 of mine Os."

"That's going to be a lot of studying. Well I'm up so I guess I'll see you later."

"Oh yeah see you later." They split and as he started down the rest of the stairs he was met with a group of giggling Ravenclaws on one of the landings. He waved, but was stopped by a blonde haired girl.

"Ok so this is a dare so don't take this personally please." She then planted a very passionate kiss on him and the other girls chuckled. When she pulled away he smiled at her.

"Well can I at least know your name if you're going to kiss me like that?" He tried to sound as charming as possible though he didn't have much real experience with girls. Though it wasn't his first kiss he wasn't as experienced as some of the other boys his age.

"Samantha Weasley." And with that she simply walked away with her group of friends.

Above them Lily saw the exchange and ran up to the Gryffindor Tower. She could feel hot tears welling in her eyes. Of course her stupid cousin would get to him first. Samantha always got everything Lily wanted. It was one of the reasons Sid was always fighting with Sam. Though she was a Ravenclaw she had become very brave when it came to boys and they always seemed to have the same taste in boys.

Lily tried not to look at her family and friends as they talked and laughed around the fire but Emma instantly knew something was wrong. Lily tried to run straight up to her room but only got about halfway there before she heard Emma behind her.

"Lily wait what's wrong?" Lily turned around. "Nothing it's nothing. I'm going to bed." She then wiped the tears from her eyes and kept running, slamming her door behind her.

The rest of the night went by without much fuss but Emma decided to go to bed shortly after that. It bugged her that she didn't know what was wrong with Lily. When she woke up the next morning she saw that some time after she had come to bed Khirsa finally made it. Em was pretty sure that girl was going to end up falling asleep in the common room one of these nights with how late she would stay up with Jacob.

After getting dressed, Emma quickly made her way down for breakfast finding the Potters already there. "Hello." She said as she sat down across from Lily.

"Hey." Lily seemed to just be pushing her food around her plate every once and awhile glancing over Emma's shoulder. When Emma turned she saw her younger brother smirking at a blonde Ravenclaw. The girl's hair was almost whiter than her brother's and father's.

Emma got a determined look on her face. She got up and marched over to her brother, sitting down next to him across from Deavanne.

"Good morning Emma." Deavanne smiled. "Are you going to Hogsmeade today?"

"Yes actually I'm meeting my father for lunch. Hey Scor who's that girl you keep glancing at?" Her brother's face started to turn a light shade of pink. Deavanne turned around. "Blonde Ravenclaw?" Emma nodded. "Samantha Weasley. Kind of on the more braver side when it comes to boys. Her favorite opener is 'this is a dare' and then kisses them."

Scorpius looked like he was turning into the color of a strawberry smoothie. "Hmm. Thank you for the insight." Emma got up and walked back over to her table. She sat down next to Lily. "Would you boys mind giving Lily and I a minute? Girl stuff."

James smiled and loved that Emma was taking such an interest in Lily. Since Sam started Hogwarts and had been sorted into a separate house than the rest of her family she had only really interacted with them during holidays. Then a couple of years ago Lily and Sam's relationship got even more strained when Sam started dating. James wasn't sure if Lily was jealous of their cousin or if it was just that Sam caught the eye of someone Lily had her eye on, but their relationship got even more strained to the point that they no longer talked.

"Come on Albus we should go make sure the rest of the family wakes up early enough for breakfast." Albus nodded and followed James out of the Great Hall.

Emma grabbed a piece of toast and started to pull it into bite size pieces. "So how long have you had a crush on my brother?"

"It's not really a crush. I thought I might sort have started to develop a crush, but it's nothing. I don't need to talk about it."

"Is it nothing because Samantha made a move first?" She took a bite of toast giving Lily a knowing glance.

"It's whatever. Like I said it's nothing." She continued to push her food around.

"Lily, here's the thing about girls like Samantha, they come in hot, but unless the guy is actually interested they fizzle. Even if the guy is interested the relationship barely lasts 6 months." She took another bite. "The way I see it a kiss means nothing, especially with no conversation prior. If you ask me, Scorpius is still available and from what Deavanne says Sam does that whole kissing move a lot. I highly doubt her friends dare her to kiss that many boys."

"Ms. Emma Malfoy, did you just call my cousin a slag?" Lily smirked at Emma. At least someone else was willing to say it like it was.

"I didn't say it in so many words but perhaps. The important part is you are better than that. You are the whole package. Beauty, brains, and brave. A true Gryffindor. Never forget that." Lily smiled at Emma.

"You know Emma it's nice to know I have a friend in you. You're like the big sister I never had."

Emma and Khirsa walked together to Hogsmeade leaving the boys behind. When they walked into the Three Broomsticks it wasn't hard to spot Draco Malfoy. For one he was a decent height compared to some of the student. Then there was his white blonde hair. Lastly he was much more elegant than any of the students. His back was straight and his shoulders were back.

"Hello daddy," "We missed you." They both kissed him on the cheek at the same time. Emma and Khirsa sat down across from him.

"I missed you too. Now girls I wanted to talk to you more about my past and what happened during the war. I know that Em has been doing research but I wanted to give you my side of the story. You see my family was not on the good side. That's one reason you never see your grandfather. He's in Azkaban for his crimes. Actually most of my side of our family is in Azkaban. On top of that I wasn't very nice to most of the families that you girls are getting to know. I wasn't very nice to your mother either but for some reason she still forgave me and married me. I called your mother awful names and I even was in line to be a Death Eater at one point."

"Wow I would have never thought that you could do anything like that. You're such a softy daddy." Khirsa put her hand on her father's nervous grip.

"Well sweet that was nearly 20 years ago. I've changed a lot since the war. Now I know you girls have your eyes on some boys. Who exactly are these boys?"

Emma didn't want to get into this subject especially after she just found out that he had lied to her. "I'm sorry I need a minute to process this excuse me." She got up and walked outside.

Khirsa pressed her lips together. "It'll be ok daddy she just needs a minute. It is kind of a lot to process. I mean I'm ok with it but you know Em. She hates lies. I mean you know what happened with that 6th year in Australia. She has trust issues. He totally led her on while he was doing half the school. She's very black and white and you did kind of uproot our lives. Not that I don't love it here. I do but sometimes it's weird to be in a different country."

"Should I follow her?" Khirsa looked out the window to see James Potter walking by. "No I think she is good." She smirked.

Draco looked outside. "Why are you smirking at a replica of Harry Potter?"

"Because he has a huge crush on Emma. Him and Blaise Zabini. She quite the hot commodity." She wasn't sure what Harry Potter looked like but she assumed he was related to James. Her father rubbed his forehead like he had a headache.

"I don't know really like the sound of that, but me trying to stop you two from dating went out the window about three years ago. So what about you?" She smiled.

"Well you see the redhead out there? The tall handsome one. His name is Jacob."

"Ah a Weasley. I wasn't the nicest to their family either. Are there any children at your school who's parents don't hate me?" He chuckled.

"Uh the Zabinis don't hate you." She giggled. "Dad he's super sweet and kind. He made me a picnic one day and there was Mac and Cheese. Within days of knowing me he knew my favorite food."

"Well I'm happy that you have found someone you like. Even if his father probably hates me."

James saw Emma pacing outside of the Three Broomsticks. She looked like she was mumbling to herself. When he walked up to her she looked like she was on the verge of tears. He tried to stop her from pacing but taking her hand. "Hey Emma what's wrong you look upset?" She stopped and looked into his eyes. Merlin his eyes were so green.

"My dad has been lying to me my whole life. He had this whole life I didn't know about. He was almost a Death Eater, James. He was horrible to my mother and even worse to your family. I just don't know what to think of him anymore."

"Em he's your father. Have you ever seen him do a bad thing your entire life?" Man she was pretty. How did her hair always look perfect?

"Well no." She looked down.

"Then whatever he did was in the past. Plus your mother forgave him right?"

"Yeah, I mean she married him and they are insanely lovey dovey so I'm assuming she forgave him." She looked back up at him.

"Then I think you shouldn't change the way you feel about him. No matter what his past it doesn't matter. He's still your dad and it's how he acts now that really matters." He placed a hand on her cheek and smiled.

"Thank you James. I really appreciate you. You're a great friend." She smiled back at him. "I'm going to go back in and spend time with my dad, but I'll see you later?"

"Yeah." He tried not to show his disappointment that she called him a friend. He watched her walk away with the feeling like he should have stopped her and asked her on a real date.

A/N: Hopefully this chapter doesn't seem too choppy. I've done it in short sprints. I have three tests this week so I've been writing in between homework and studying. Please review because I really want to know what you think. Thanks for reading.