Chapter Four
Lily managed to make it back to Gryffindor Tower undetected with a hell of a lot of luck.
She wandered through alleys, ducking behind corners when she saw someone approaching. Luckily, Scorpius' shirt managed to cover up her torso and her bare arms so she looked less like an escort. She also looked less wild with a bare face, having thoroughly washed it until her freckled, veined eyelids were visible once again.
Walking through the mostly busy streets at the edge of Hogsmeade without shoes was no easy task, but she managed to make it all the way to the back of the Leaky Cauldron until she realized Merlin was truly on her side – there was Albus around the corner, ambling along the street, sans his usual bunch of friends or family. She risked stepping out into broad daylight for only a moment to shout his name, sharp and loud so that she wouldn't have to do it again.
A couple people turned to see her, but no one she knew. She waved Albus over fiercely and he obeyed, following her back behind the bustling building.
"Do you have the cloak?" Lily whispered, despite being far from prying ears. Albus was looking her up and down, his face scrunched in confusion.
"I do. Should I even ask?"
"I'd rather you didn't. Hand it over," she demanded.
Albus dug around in his magically extended pockets before he pulled out the cloak, hand over hand. She practically ripped it from his grip, throwing it around her shoulders and disappearing before he could ask any questions about her morally ambiguous night.
By the time she got back to her dorm, her feet were bleeding from walking over dirt, gravel, and concrete. She wanted to cry, for more reasons than one. She threw off the cloak and Scorpius' shirt, staring at the plaid pattern before her eyes blurred with tears. She stuffed the shirt into her pile of dirty clothes, deep at the bottom where she couldn't see it.
Lily lay down in bed, imagining Rose's face that night at dinner – a look of hurt. Betrayal. Hate. She felt sick to her stomach.
Executive decision: no dinner tonight.
Scorpius made an executive decision: he wouldn't tell Rose about the Lily thing. It would only hurt her, and Lily was so young and innocent that it couldn't possibly mean anything to her, nor him. Therefore, it didn't mean anything, and might give Rose the wrong idea. Rose wouldn't understand – so there was no need to tell her, really.
But he knew he was fooling himself. Something like this would eat away at him.
When Rose asked where he was the night before, he told her he had gotten tired and passed out in bed before he could come and tell her good night.
"Sorry I slept in so late today. I didn't mean to worry you," he said, and she fell into the circle of his arms, looking up at him with her big brown eyes.
"It's alright, Malfoy," she said with a little smile, speaking in that baby voice she sometimes had when she spoke with him alone. He couldn't help but smile down at her and receive her kiss, forgetting his mistake from the night before.
Rose cut off the kiss too soon and led him out of her dormitory door for dinner.
Lily came to the Astronomy Tower every night for the next week to find it empty. The first night, she wandered around for a bit, as if he was hiding somewhere. The next night, she called his name into the darkness and got no answer. After that, she caught on.
It was odd to not have a smoking buddy. Suddenly, she had so much more to think about but so much more silence to not think at all. Sometimes she would look up into the sky and wonder about her future, her family, Scorpius. Sometimes she would rage with jealousy and cry until she fell asleep and woke up at the edge of the ledge, on the brink of falling. Sometimes she would just stare at the sky until it all blurred into indigo velvet.
She kept buying weed from Albus' friend Lenny Gray until he asked her if she was okay. Yeah, that was right, her drug dealer asked her if she was okay. She huffily replied that she was fine and he gave her a discount, just for being pathetic.
It was lonely. She felt like she had no friends. And she realized, she really didn't.
It was approaching a year that Scorpius and Rose were together. A year of them being disgusting together, and sexually active, and generally the worst couple ever. At least Lily thought so.
One day at lunch, it was just Rose, Dominique, Roxanne, and herself sitting together. Dom and Roxy were asking Rose about their anniversary, and what they were going to do to celebrate.
"Well, first we're getting breakfast at this fancy muggle restaurant in London. Then we're going to come back here and exchange presents, and then probably just hang out for a while. Then he wants to take me to dinner on the lake, like, a picnic." Rose was glowing. "Isn't that sweet?"
Roxy and Dom awed simultaneously. Lily forced a wry smile.
"What're you getting him?" Dominique asked, leaning forward with her chin rested in her palm. Over time, she had definitely warmed to the thought of Scorpius and Rose together, although Lily swore she saw Dom flirting with him when she could get him alone. It made her wonder if Dom was really just biding her time until she could seduce Scorpius out of his relationship with Rose. She would definitely be one to see Rose as her enemy even after she had "forgiven" her for "stealing" Scorpius away, and even more so one to keep her enemies close.
Rose clammed up, swirling her tea with a spoon and turning bright red. "Well…"
"Ooh, what is it Rose? What naughty thing do you have planned?" Roxy demanded, slamming her hand on the table and practically gushing with excitement. Lily felt her stomach turn sour from the little bit of the sandwich she had eaten.
"I didn't actually buy him anything. I was just thinking… I could just… like… go down on him?" Rose was bright red from head to toe, burying her face in her hands.
"Wait, you've never given him a blow job before?" Lily blurted, aghast. Her three cousins turned to her, one embarrassed and the other two admonishing.
"I mean… no," Rose replied, sounding unsure. "We just have sex every now and then." She shrugged a shoulder, avoiding eye contact.
"Aw, Rose, it's okay. Everyone goes about relationships at their own pace," Dominique assured, pointedly glaring at Lily.
"I'm not saying it's bad, I was just surprised," Lily defended herself self-consciously. This was why she didn't talk to Rose and Dominique.
"Do you need tips?" Dom asked excitedly, already forgetting her younger cousin. Rose chippered up a bit, nodding. Dominique swiftly started going into gruesome detail about giving head, even demonstrating with a spoon, and Roxy added in advice between breaths. Lily focused on the rest of her sandwich, trying to forget that this was all for Scorpius. She really didn't want to imagine it.
"Make sure you make eye contact," Dominique added. "Boys find it sexy."
Lily suddenly pictured, in perfect clarity, being on her knees in front of Scorpius. Looking up into his clear blue eyes. Leaning forward with an open mouth as he slowly closed his eyes in pleasure…
"I have to go," Lily burst out, shooting up from her seat.
"Oh – ok," Rose said, surprised. "Bye."
"Yeah, bye, Lily," Roxy added. Dom said nothing.
Lily strode away, throwing her hood over her burning face as she exited the Great Hall.
Lily was nauseous. She couldn't stop crying. She lay in bed all night, thinking about what would happen in two days, when Scorpius and Rose's first anniversary arrived.
If she wasn't out of the picture now, she knew after Sunday, she would be out of the picture forever.
She rolled from one side of her bed to the other side restlessly. If she felt this horrible now, she didn't even want to think about how she would feel in forty-eight hours. She couldn't stop hearing Rose's soft voice, embarrassedly admitting her idea for her anniversary present. The thought made Lily sick. And the horrible thing was, she couldn't stop thinking about it.
She tried reading. She had recently picked up (stolen) a romance novel from one of her dorm mate's, Penny Berger's, stash of cheesy romance novels with glistening six-pack abs on the cover. The only thing was, every time she tried to read about Damien and Crystal's torrid love affair, she imagined herself and Scorpius as the hero and heroine. In her mind, he would ride up to her on a black stallion, shirtless and sweating and sporting a cowboy hat. Lily would be breathless in his presence, dramatically clutching her bonnet to her deep red hair. He would reach out for her hand, and with a strength no other man she had ever met had, would sweep her up onto the saddle, where his hands would circle her slim, corseted waist with a husky sigh. They would gallop away into the sunset, where his disapproving family could never judge their love again.
Then she would remember that she wasn't Crystal, and he wasn't Damien. Not even close.
She even tried to skip over the romance so she didn't have to think about the flutters she felt only around Scorpius. She skipped straight to the smut. But even then, she couldn't visualize the two main characters – she could only think of the two of them. What was even worse was when the scene in her mind warped her face into another. Rose.
Lily tried doing her homework, but found herself staring at blank pages with nothing to write. She could only think of one person.
Crying it out wasn't helping. She needed to resolve this. She needed to get rid of these plaguing thoughts once and for all.
Lily climbed out of bed, disoriented for a moment. Her eyes were squinted and dry, creasing around the corners with bags underneath from her intense distress. Her cheeks were bright red and aching, her head pounding. She was a mess, and she needed to pull herself together, stat.
She pulled on her black boots and gray hoodie, then went to the bathroom to wash her face. She lathered it in lotion, her tears having left her sensitive skin dry and crusty. She patted on some mineral make-up, wanting to look pretty for once. She wasn't used to vanity like this. She hardly ever changed her appearance to impress anyone. This was further evidence that Scorpius was making her crazy.
Still in possession of the cloak, she swept it around her and let it settle for a moment, watching as she disappeared in the mirror in front of her. Excellent. She was ready to go. She was ready to confront him.
In almost all ways, Lily was different from Rose. In fact, she would even agree that Rose was her exact foil. Lily was quiet but not shy, laid-back, uninterested in what others thought of her, witty and quick, uninhibited with her body and her emotions. Rose was outgoing, friendly, liked by almost everyone, but also careful, studious, self-conscious, and a follower, never a leader. This was most likely the reason she wasn't picked to be Head Girl. She was restrained and prudish. While Lily let her emotions loose, Rose withheld them, in order to not hurt others, but more importantly, to protect herself.
If Rose was bothered by something, she would ignore it. Lily knew if their roles were reversed, she would repress her feelings and try to move on. But this was Lily, and she was hurting. Rose hardly confronted Scorpius – not because he didn't, on occasion, make her mad, but because she didn't want to fight. Lily was wild and eager to confront Scorpius, because she knew something he didn't. As Lily steeled herself outside of the Slytherin common room, she knew he would know soon.
Lily, invisible and tense, leaning against the stone wall in anticipation, watched a girl in Slytherin robes approach her. Well, not her, but the entrance beside her. The little blonde stopped in front of the stone door that blended into the walls surrounding it, the only indication that anything resided behind it was the barely perceptible shadowed outline of the opening.
"Vengeance," the girl announced, and the door slid back. Lily quickly followed, unsure how long it would stay open behind the Slytherin.
Lily made her way up the boys' staircase, having taken this route so many times before to seek solace from Albus. Except this time, she passed the seventh year dormitory and climbed the last ten steps to the top. Only once her foot landed on the top step did the outline of a door appear, the silver door knob materializing before her. She looked up to the plaque that hung on the door, silver with green embossing that declared HEAD BOY SCORPIUS MALFOY. She almost wanted to giggle at the way it rhymed, how catchy and gimmicky it was. She'd have to mention it to him; why hadn't they noticed it before? Perhaps that would be a good ice breaker. But as soon as his eyes met hers, she forgot how to speak.
She knocked on the door but didn't take off the cloak yet, just in case someone else was in there with him. The lack of any sort of copulating noises was a good sign, but she didn't doubt Rose's skill at silencing charms.
A few moments passed where she heard rustling inside, satiating her fear entirely. The door swept open and there he stood, silvery blonde hair a bit tousled and eyes groggy from sleep, in a green T-shirt and football shorts, barefoot and handsome and entirely alone. He stared blankly ahead and was about to take a step forward to further investigate this possible ding-dong-ditch, but Lily quickly swept the cloak off her shoulders like the Phantom of the Opera. Scorpius jumped back in surprise.
"Lily! What are you doing here?" he cried, seeming happy at first, but the positive expression melting away a bit as it seemed to dawn on him that they weren't on the best of terms.
"Aren't you going to invite me in? Rude," Lily countered, lowering her head a bit to look up at him through her long lashes and offering a flirty smile. He laughed nervously and stepped aside, muttering an "of course" in compliance.
Lily entered his room, entirely too aware that this was their first time alone in what seemed like forever, and the first time she had ever been in his room. With the dim lighting, only a lamp by his bedside to illuminate the space, she could almost imagine that they were meeting at the astronomy tower for a smoke. But no, this was different. Not just anyone could interrupt them here.
She strode to the center of the room, turning around in a circle to evaluate the space. It was a bit messy, his clothes in a monumental dirty pile by his desk similar to Lily's own horrendous mountain of hoodies and jeans and robes, but other than that, his room was pretty clean. It didn't smell horrible, either. It was like being encased in a giant plaid shirt of his, and she discreetly inhaled the intoxicating scent.
"You can just – let's sit here," Scorpius said, gesturing to his bed. He hurried over to rearrange the blankets a bit so that they wouldn't be sitting on lumps of Egyptian cotton. Lily followed his lead, sitting at the edge of the bed, making sure to put a few inches between them so that she wasn't too alarmingly close.
It was quiet for a moment, a tense moment where they didn't dare look at each other.
Scorpius absentmindedly scratched his straight, lightly freckled nose before mumbling, "I've missed you." Almost as if he didn't want to say it. As if the words were being sucked from his throat.
Lily looked over at him in surprise, but he was still staring at the floor, a blush creeping up his neck. She smiled, trying to put him at ease. "I missed you, too." He was biting his cheek, she could just barely tell, trying to hold back a smile.
He sighed in relief, the tension partially dissipating. This ice breaker was even better. He said, "Things have been weird. I should have come to see you, I just felt – I felt weird. I made a mistake… that night," Scorpius said, finally meeting her eyes, his expression entirely serious and sober. He licked his lips, and her eyes followed the motion. She snapped her gaze away quickly.
"The thing is…" Lily started, her heart pounding so hard and fast she was afraid he could hear it, or that her body was vibrating with it. She wanted to back out. She wanted to run. But she couldn't... he had to know. She took a deep breath and met his unsettlingly beautiful blue gaze and continued, "I don't think you did."
Scorpius sucked in an audible breath, leaning away from her a bit. His eyes narrowed, whether in an accusatory way or in suspicion, Lily couldn't tell. But she wished she could duck back under the cloak, perhaps even obliviate this whole night from his memory. But she couldn't. She needed to push through or the next week would be torture, and she'd know that she did nothing to prevent it.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that," Lily took a deep breath, digging her grave, "I know you like me."
She didn't know that. In fact, it was a complete gamble. Sure, he flirted sometimes. But mostly he joked and talked about Rose. But she couldn't make that night after Vice go away. She couldn't forget his heated gaze, or the fact that he'd carried her so close to his heart. She couldn't stop feeling his flannel against her bare skin, and she couldn't get his smile disentangled from her heart. She needed to know, and she had a feeling she already knew… but she needed to know.
Scorpius' reaction was slow. He still looked at her with narrowed eyes, as if she hadn't even said anything. Then they slowly widened, his pupils noticeably dilating with the action itself. His hands clutched the bedsheets beneath him, and his head turned away to look at the wall opposite them. He shook his head, closing his eyes, his mouth opening as he evidently tried to think of something to say.
Finally: "What?" His eyes were now boring into hers, and if she wanted to flee before, she wanted to run away as fast as she could to Siberia now.
She could have easily said "Actually, never mind!" and leave, but she wasn't going down without a fight. If their friendship was going to be ruined, she might as well fight for it first. Oh, hell, she was fighting for more.
"You like me, Scorpius. You find me attractive," she stated, trying to sound more confident than she felt. She considered saying that she saw the way he looked at her, but deemed it too cliché.
"I can find you attractive and not have to like you, Lily." He rolled his eyes, as if the idea was ridiculous. But she couldn't help but smile at his response, because it did confirm one thing – that every time she'd felt the heat of his gaze and wondered if he had been feeling just as enticed as she was feeling, he was. She wasn't completely crazy.
"Why are you smiling?" he snapped, gesturing angrily with one hand. Lily's smile dropped but a hopeful glint remained in her eyes.
"Because you know it's true. You have a crush on me!" she replied triumphantly. He scoffed, but she quickly added before he could refuse, "Oh, stop being so dramatic, Scorpius." She tried to imperceptibly scoot close to him, but he turned away, collecting himself for a moment before turning back to her.
"I'm not being dramatic. You're being… weird. This is weird. We're… friends! I thought we were friends," Scorpius replied, but his last sentence came out more like a question.
"We are. But we could be more. I like you, Scorpius. And you like me, too. It's that simple," Lily said slowly. She ran her hand along his jaw, turning his face towards her. He complied easily, his eyes meeting hers, confusion written across his features.
Lily's heart pumped so fast, she felt the energy it was releasing could power a city. She licked her lips lightly, but this time it was his eyes following the motion. Her breath hitched as her hand smoothed back over his jawline, curling around the back of his neck and feeling the silky hair there. This was it.
Lily leaned in while Scorpius remained entirely still, his pouty lips slightly parted in disbelief. Once she was halfway there, the anticipation was killing her. And then it all happened very fast. She swooped in and their lips collided. Scorpius caught her around the waist, pulling her closer. She pressed her thighs together, her clit throbbing with wanting. Her hands tangled in his hair, scratching against his scalp and smashing his lips against hers in desperation. Their teeth bumped together from the force of it.
They kissed for several hot seconds before Lily knew – she wanted more. She wanted more, now.
She kicked her leg over his lap and straddled him, opening her mouth and laving her tongue against his. He sucked her lip hard between his teeth, and she moaned desperately, writhing against him. And then she felt it – a hardness in his pants. She bucked against him, stimulating her clit and making her pant in wanting.
Scorpius' hands dug into her back, grasping her hoodie and panting along with her. Their eyes met for a moment as their kiss broke and she let out a frantic moan as she approached climax. His eyes were glazed over as he watched her, tousled and aroused, a way he had never seen her before. She lowered her head back down to kiss him again but suddenly his arms tightened around her and threw her back against the bed.
She bounced and giggled as she landed, excited for him to climb on top of her and hopefully drive her arousal home. However, when she looked up, he wasn't leaning over her like she thought he would be. He was across the room, facing partly away from her, his hands covering his face in shame.
The blood drained from Lily's face. Oh, no.
"You need to leave," Scorpius said hoarsely. Lily quickly sat up, her face falling.
"What? Why?" Her voice sounded whiney, even to her own ears, but her eyes were filling with tears and she couldn't help it.
"Get out!" he yelled, turning around and approaching her fiercely. He grabbed her cloak along the way, flinging it at her just as the door flung open. She turned to it in surprise, expecting someone to storm through, but realized it was of his own doing – wandless, nonverbal magic. You could only really do it if you felt the spell with passion.
Lily realized then – he passionately wanted her to go.
Hurt and mortified, she grabbed the cloak and left. She turned to say something, perhaps to plead with him or argue, she wasn't sure what, but the door slammed in her face.
She pulled the cloak around her and headed to Albus' dormitory, where she found that his bed was empty. At half past midnight?
Lily shrugged off the cloak and climbed under his covers, crying silently into his pillow until she fell asleep.
Lily was woken by an aggressive nudge to her shoulder. After a restless night of on-and-off sleeping, her eyes shot open to meet a pair of brown eyes behind metal-rimmed glasses.
"What are you doing in my bed, Lils?" Albus asked, although his expression gave insight that he might already know why.
"What are you doing sneaking in at," Lily groggily looked over at the dim glow of his alarm clock, "five in the morning, Al?"
Instead of answering her question, he simply replied "touché" and motioned for her to scoot over.
That was the sweet thing about Albus. He would share the bed with her, comfort her when she needed it. He had a paternal gene that had helped Lily greatly through childhood when she woke up from terrible nightmares and didn't want to brave walking all the way downstairs to her mum and dad's room. Albus was always right there next door, available to comfort her and wipe away her tears when needed. If James caught her in his bed, he would kick her out. And if she went to him for comfort whenever Albus spent the night at a friend's (usually the Malfoy's), he would tell her to go back to bed. She would spend those nights in Albus' empty bed, breathing in his brotherly smell and pretending he was there.
Albus stretched his arm out behind her, and she settled down in the crook of it, her abundance of dark hair spread across his forearm and shoulder, even tickling his face until he blew it away. She giggled at the dramatic way he did it, scrunching his nose and pretending to sneeze.
"Thank Merlin there's no school today," Albus remarked. Lily sighed in content agreement. It only took her a couple of blissful moments until she remembered – Scorpius. Rose. She had kissed him, and he had kicked her out. Their friendship was over, and any potential of more.
Scorpius and Rose's anniversary was tomorrow, and just as Lily feared, she was officially out of the picture. For good.
She closed her eyes, hoping to banish the emotional pain, but it still swept over her, making her shiver against Albus' side.
"Are you cold?" he asked in concern, reaching over to rearrange the blankets to cover her. Lily nodded, unable to explain a differing reason.
"So what are your plans for today?" Lily whispered.
"Well, everyone's going into Hogsmeade, I guess." He sighed, making Lily aware that he wasn't particularly fond of this idea. She could tell something was wrong, but she didn't want to pry.
Oh, hell – she definitely wanted to pry.
"Is someone going to be there that you don't want to see?" Lily asked, trying to sound casual but unable to rid the knowing look from her piercing emerald eyes. Albus' lips flattened into a straight line while his eyes closed.
"Yes," he said simply, his tone offering no further invitation to investigate.
They were quiet for a while. Albus pretended to sleep and the cogs in Lily's brain churned. Finally she broke the silence.
"Fuck Hogsmeade. Let's go see James' new place in London," Lily suggested fervently, sitting up and kicking her legs over the side of the bed. She looked back for his reaction and was pleased to see that he was smiling in agreement.
Lily woke up on Sunday morning with a horrid hangover in a room she didn't recognize.
She sat up too quick and grabbed her head in pain, nausea overtaking her. She ran out of the room into more familiar territory – the main hallway of James' new flat. One door down was the bathroom. She shoved the door open and cried out in disgust upon seeing James already occupying it.
"Lily, get the fuck out!" James yelled, hunching over and turning away. A spray of urine hit the shower curtain similar to the sound of sprinkler water hitting her bedroom window at Godric's Hollow. "Shit!"
"I have to – ," Lily stopped and ran to the sink, emptying her stomach into it.
"Aw, man," James said. "You're cleaning that, you dirty drunk."
Lily leaned away, backing up until her back met the wall, sliding down to the floor. James faced away from her while he tucked himself away and zipped up his pants. He turned back to her and knelt down beside her, placing a comforting arm around her shoulder.
In a quieter, kinder voice he added, "And you're cleaning up my piss from the curtain, too." He patted her shoulder and heaved himself up, leaving her alone in the bathroom.
Lily recalled the day before – a mostly fun yet uneventful day, until around eight in the afternoon, James suggested they play a drinking game version of exploding snaps.
Lily had lost. A lot.
Albus returned with a glass full of water and some pain killers. While she drank, he cleaned up her sick with his wand.
"You missed a spot," Lily said, jerking her chin toward the toilet. He headed over and, upon seeing the puddle beside the toilet, sighed and cleaned that as well.
"Thanks, Al. James is useless."
"Not entirely true. He's the one that sent me."
"Ah," Lily exhaled. "Well he's still a wanker."
James popped his head in, sticking his tongue out at her before leaving just as abruptly.
"James says we're kicked out because he's having a girl over," Albus said, waggling his eyebrows at her from where he leaned against the counter.
"Really? Who?" Lily chirped, perking up at the potential gossip.
"Do you remember that g—?" Albus started, before suddenly the bathroom door banged open and James stepped in, chest puffed out like a soldier at arms.
"Okay, that's it girls, out!" he snapped. "I've had enough trouble with Witch Weekly disclosing my personal endeavours, I don't need my own siblings doing it, too."
This only peaked Lily's interest even more.
"Who is it, Jamie?" she taunted, getting up from the floor and approaching him with outstretched hands. As soon as she started wiggling her fingers, his eyes widened in horror.
"Don't you dare tickle me, Lily! Remember last time?" James warned. She did remember last time. She also remembered the guidance counselor pulling her aside to ask about the sick shiner she was sporting. She stopped in her tracks but didn't cease her examination.
"Who is it?" she asked again, this time turning to Albus.
"Don't you dare, Albus Severus!" James cried. Albus' smug smile immediately dropped from his face as the brothers' eyes met. Something silent seemed to pass between them before Albus shrugged and turned back to her.
"It's no one you know, Lily. Don't worry about it," he conceded.
Lily dropped the subject but made a mental note to ask Al about it later.
Roxanne Weasley headed down to breakfast at her usual time on Sunday morning with her Hufflepuff friends, the usual bittersweet, tired haze of the last day of the weekend settling around them like a fog.
She wore a purple felt sunhat atop of her caramel hued curls, shadowing her face from the early blue sunlight outside, reflected above her in the ceiling of the Great Hall. This also disguised her shock as she realized that everyone around her seemed to be in a buzz, whispering loudly about something.
Roxy loved gossip just as much as the next girl, but this didn't appeal to her particularly – it was too early in the morning. Despite it being nine, it was too early for her. She had never been a morning person, but they stopped serving breakfast at half past ten.
As she walked further into the hall, she noticed someone. Not just any someone; Rose Weasley.
Her friends veered off towards the Hufflepuff table, but she stopped dead in her tracks.
"Rox," Irma Hernandez called, falling back from their group to step up beside her. "You coming?"
Roxanne shook off her friend's hand from her shoulder, receiving a hurt look because of it that she ignored. "No, but I'll see you later."
She walked purposefully over to Rose, where she sat looking entirely depressed in a way that she tried to cover up with cakey concealer over the redness under her eyes and thick eyeliner around her watery eyelids. Perhaps others didn't notice her distress, but Roxanne and Rose had known each other since they were in diapers. They had grown up together. Rose's sorrow stuck out like a sore thumb to anyone with the Weasley name.
She slid in next to Dom, who was saying something hushed and comforting to Rose. She stopped talking immediately when Roxy dropped her bag down beside her.
"What's going on?" Roxy asked, leaning forward. Over Rose's shoulder she noticed a group of girls staring at them and whispering. One of them giggled and rolled her eyes. Roxy glared at them until they noticed and sheepishly turned away.
Rose's face scrunched up in pain, and she ducked her head to hide it.
After a moment of silence in which Rose couldn't find the strength to say anything, Dominique blurted out, "Scorpius and Rose broke up."
She guessed it should've been obvious. Usually when a girl is crying, it's because of a boy. But Scorpius was crazy about Rose, and vice versa. They were the power couple of the school, beautiful and popular in their own ways. How could this have happened?
"But why? How could this – I thought everything was going so well with you two?" It was their anniversary, for crying out loud! Roxy took a shuddery breath, more shaken than seemed necessary for someone else's heartbreak, then asked the golden question as straightforward as possible: "Why did you two break up?"
Rose lifted her head, her eyes seeming to have dried. Her mouth wobbled into a hateful frown, her nostrils flaring briefly in anger. She clenched her fork tightly, as if she was about to stab someone with it.
"Lily."
