CHAPTER NINETEEN

"Uh, will you two stop that?" Scorpius yelled at both Mike and Jeal, as they were cuddling and kissing each other in front of him. Scorpius always knew that Mike was an idiot, but to date his sister? That made him stupider. Scorpius sighed, oh well, he was pretty happy that his sister and best friend had each other, and seem happy, if not annoying. Really, it was one thing to let your relationship known to the public, but it was another to be so damn obvious! Not much that Scorpius could do though, he thought. But he stopped thinking about Mike and Jeal, when he saw Lily walk down the stairs. He smiled inwardly, if everyone knew of their relationship, they would be the ones on that couch cuddling and kissing, and disgusting everyone around them.

"You two have only been dating for four days and yet you act like you're newlyweds," Lily said as she sat down on the couch next to Scorpius, looking at the gross couple. Jeal grinned, not affected by anything that people seemed to tell her these days, like she normally would have.

"Gross, huh?" Scorpius said, and Lily turned to him and gave him a smile. He smiled back at her, but the couple didn't seem to notice.

"Well, Scorpius, when you find a girlfriend and I see you making out with her madly everyday, don't get mad when is I say g-r-o-s-s," Jeal said, saying the last word slowly, and Mike laughed, bringing Jeal into his arms. Scorpius grinned.

"You don't know that I have a girlfriend?" Scorpius said teasingly, and Jeal raised an eyebrow. Lily laughed.

"What's so funny?" Dani asked, sitting down next to Lily.

"Nothing really, just calling Mike and Jeal names," Lily replied when she had calmed down. All Dani said was a mysterious 'Ah' and she understood completely. Smart girl, Scorpius thought. Scorpius looked at the clock; time for practice. He stood up.

"Well, see you guys later," Lily said as she stood up. "I want to practice some more before the Duel Party."

"Okay," everyone said. Well, all but Dani.

"Wait, you're going to leave me here with them?" Dani said, pointing a disgusted finger at Jeal and Mike. Scorpius laughed, went over to her, and kissed her forehead.

"You're her twin sister, you can stand her more then I can," Scorpius said wickedly, and she frowned at him.

"Why don't you go ask Fred to help you with practice more?" Lily suggested, and Dani's face turned pink. Fred? Scorpius thought, when did that happen?

"Lets go, Malfoy, later guys," Lily said, waving her hand.

"Happy birthday Scorpius!" yelled Mike, for the hundredth time that day. Scorpius groaned, and he couldn't wait until tomorrow, when Mike could be yelling 'happy birthday' to Dani, and then Jeal the day after.

Scorpius and Lily left, walking down the halls, to what had become their 'practice tower'. As they reached the stairwell to the tower, Scorpius grabbed Lily's hands, making Lily look at their down in surprise, then at his face with a small smile, earning a quick peck from Scorpius. Scorpius led her halfway up the stairs, and once Scorpius knew they were out of eye range, he spun around, grabbed Lily by they waist, pinned her to the wall and kissed her. He loved kissing Lily, and knew he never get enough of her. Her charm, her wit, her beauty, inside and out - everything about her, even her damn plant Boom, that burned him whenever he got too close.

"What was that for?" Lily asked, pulling away. Scorpius leaned his head on her shoulder, and she turned her head to look at him.

"Mike and Jeal were pissing me off, because I couldn't do that to my own girlfriend," Scorpius told her and Lily smiled, pinching his cheek.

"Well then, I was also mad because I couldn't do that to my own boyfriend," she gave him a peck on the lips, grabbing his hand and tugging his hand, indicating she wanted to go up. He obliged, but wondered why she was in a hurry to do so. Lily was top of her class in DADA, so she really didn't need practice. It was all just a cover up to be together. So why was she so urgent? Scorpius wondered why. Did it have to do with his birthday? She had told him happy birthday in the morning, when everyone else did, but did she have a surprise to show him?

They got to the top of the tower, and Scorpius was a little disappointed; no candles, no food, not even a gift - nothing out of place and nothing new. Maybe she had nothing to show him. Lily pulled out her wand, went to the other side of the room, positioning herself, and facing him, ready for practice. Maybe she really was excited for the Duel Party on Friday, and wanted to win? Scorpius pulled out his wand, and they started their practice.

Some 15 minutes into it, Lily sent a spell towards him, but missed by five feet or so. Scorpius was surprised, Lily never missed by so much. It wasn't 'til a second later that Scorpius realized the spell Lily had said was 'Reducio'. Why would she use that spell on him? That was when Scorpius saw fire out of the corner of his eye, and looking down, Scorpius noticed a thick rug with candle sticks on top of it and a picnic basket with Butterbeer beside it. What? Scorpius turned to Lily.

"Surprise!" Lily said, as she walked towards him, leaning up and kissing him gently.

"Happy birthday Scorpius," Lily whispered against his lips. He was about to kiss her again when she sat down on the rug.

"I'm hungry," she said, as she pulled food out of the basket. Scorpius sat down beside her, looking at all the food. Mashed potatoes, chicken, bread, pasta - where had she gotten all this food? As if she had read his mind, she answered his unspoken question.

"I told the house-elves about a surprise I wanted to give to somebody and they let me make some food." Make? Scorpius thought as he looked at the food again, and wondered if it was as delicious as it looked. Lily gave him a plate of everything and he tried it. It was better then he expected, and was about to take another bite when Scorpius noticed Lily looking at him nervously. Was it the food she was worried about?

"It's delicious," Scorpius said, leaning forwards to give her a quick peck on the lips. Her face instantly brightened up, turning red. He grinned and went back to his food.

"You didn't have to do this," Scorpius told her, almost reproachfully.

"I wanted to," Lily said, looking down at her hands, and sounding embarrassed. They ate, talked and laughed and when they were finished, Scorpius thanked her for the surprise.

"No problem, I was happy to do it," Lily said, as she leaned against the wall, beckoning to him. He laid his head in her lap, her fingers running through his hair, massaging his head.

"I was actually really surprised," Scorpius said, as Lily rubbed his head.

"Why?" Lily asked.

"Because when everyone said happy birthday to me this morning, you seemed surprised. I just thought that you probably didn't know when my birthday was."

"It was to trick you, and it worked, I guess." Scorpius chuckled.

"Yeah, I was a wondering if you were up to anything when you dragged me here, because you don't like to practice, and you just seemed too eager to get here. I assumed you had a surprise for me, but then you just got your wand out."

"I've been planning this surprise since a few days ago. It seemed the best way, holding it from you for a while."

"Yeah, then your Reducio caught me off guard. I wondered why you would use that spell when I noticed a light. One up for Lily, surprising me like that!" Lily laughed, bending her head down and kissing him.

"Yeah, well, I am pretty good." Scorpius chuckled, closed his eyes and enjoying her warm, gentle hands caressing his head for a few minutes.

"I have another surprise for you," Lily said, breaking the silence. Scorpius opened his eyes to find her smiling at him.

"Really?" Scorpius said, sounding astonished. Lily had already given him such a great gift. To think she wanted to give him something else!

Earlier that day, Jeal and Dani had given him an expensive coat, Mike had given him a shiny new Quaffle, and even Maddie had come up to him, not saying a word, while handing him a present, immediately walking away before Scorpius could get in a word . Maddie's gift to Scorpius had been a Chocolate Frog.

"Yep," Lily said. She pulled an envelope from her jacket and handed it to him. Scorpius looked at it, wondering what it was, putting it against the candle light to see if he could see through the paper, with no success.

"What is it?" Scorpius asked. Lily laughed.

"Just open it," Lily said, sounding nervous again. Scorpius tore open the envelope, and out came two tickets to the Chudley Cannons and Kenmare Kestrels Quidditch Game. Scorpius laughed and gave Lily a kiss. This was the best gift he had ever gotten.

"How did you know that the Cannons are my favorite?" Scorpius asked. Lily sighed in relief.

"Oh good, I thought Jeal and Dani were pulling my leg when they said that the Cannons was your favorite team. They said it had started out with you supporting them just to piss your dad off." Scorpius laughed.

"How did you get them?"

"Uncle Ron, he's a huge fan of the Cannons too, but he said he wouldn't be able to go to the game, so he sent the tickets to me. He knows that the Kestrels are my favorite team, and even though they're Cannon seats, I'd be happy to watch the Kestrels from there."

"Really? Well your team is going to lose so you might as well cheer with me for the Cannons," Scorpius said cheekily. Lily slapped the side of his head.

"Hey, what was that for?"

"Because the Cannons are the one's that are going to lose," Lily said, looking away from him.

"We'll see" Scorpius said in a disbelieving voice. "The game is on Friday 29 December?" He felt Lily tense up.

"Yeah, why, are you busy that day?" Lily asked in a worried voice.

"Nope, just saying." And he laughed again when she hit him lightly on the head, because she realized that he had done that on purpose. They sat there chatting for a while until they decided to go back to the common room to join the rest of their friends.

"Lily, write to us when you can, okay?" said Dani, before they got off the train to join their families. Lily nodded. Then Janika went up to Lily.

"Lily, thank you for being my friend, we should hang out sometime this break." Lily agreed with her, and they would set up a date later.

"Later, Potter!" yelled Mike as he, Jeal, Dani and Janika went out the compartment, leaving Scorpius and Lily alone. Lily was looking at the closed door when she felt his arms snake around her.

"Merry Christmas, Lily…" Scorpius said as he spun her around.

"Merry Christmas, Scorpius," Lily said, as she put her arms around his neck, and kissed him. Lily was glad that they were in the back of the train, so no one could see them from the windows. They stopped kissing, but still held on to each other.

"Write to me," Scorpius said, and Lily nodded, too nervous herself to ask him that same question. He let go of her, and gently pushed her towards the door.

"You should get going before anyone decides to search for you." Lily nodded, too sad to speak.

He noticed and said "Don't worry, in six days we'll see each other." Lily nodded again. Not being able to help herself, Lily kissed him once more and then left the compartment, stepping off the train. Once out, Lily ran into someone. Looking up, she saw that it was Jaeger, and like always, she felt this weird shiver run up her spine.

"Hello Lily," he said, even though Lily told him not to call her by her first name.

"Hello Mr Jaeger," Lily replied, even though he had told her to call him by his first name.

"Have a good break Lily, and I shall see you on Christmas day." And with that, he walked away and Lily wondered what he meant by that. Lily then spotted her family and ran to them, hugging her mother, her father and James.

"Lily, oh I'm so glad you're coming home. Come on, let's go!" her mother said, looking up at her. As she pulled Lily along with her, Lily turned to see Scorpius get off the train, giving his mom a hug, and a nod to his father. Scorpius caught her eye and gave her a wink, which Lily returned, then turned to walk towards the gates.

And here I am writing for Christmas which I upon all of us. It was hard coming up with something to give to Scorpius when I remembered a magazine, (Cosmopolitan actually) said that instead of cloths, why not give him tickets to his favorite sports team and I decided that be the best course. I know that I love tickets to my favorite soccer team, and I'm a girl. Wonder what Jaeger is up to thou...?