A/N: Thank you to those of you who are reading and reviewing! I do appreciate it greatly.
Disc.: Creation is a start. Manipulation is divine.
Cherries
I wasn't really surprised that as we crept towards our last days of the term I didn't get to see Lily as much as I would have liked. Whatever had transpired between Lily and Shale seemed to have had no ill effect on their friendship and pushed Shale towards dating their third friend, Kate. Watching the two of them together was sickly sweet and the few times I caught a glimpse of Lily, she was usually giggling at them or rolling her eyes. Once she even turned to Darla and made a gagging face, her face blossoming into a grin. I had hoped that with Shale and Kate partnered, Lily would hang out more with Darla, who was spending an insane amount of time following me around.
There was no such luck. Lily truly was content it seemed, following the two around or being alone. Anytime I would get near her while she was hanging with Darla, she'd tense up and excuse herself from the conversation or bury herself in one of the giant text books she always seemed to hang onto as a shield. At first it was amusing, but then I started to get a little annoyed that she seemed so uncomfortable around me.
"So, Scorpius, your grandparents are hosting this year's Slytherin Ball, aren't they?" Darla asked me toward the final days before the end of the term. I was lounging in the common room, looking around for something to make the time go faster. Damon was off Merlin only knew where. I glanced up at her.
"Yes," I said. I didn't frown but I was tempted to. I knew that her grandfather and mine had been talking, finalizing the plans for our arranged marriage. She knew that the ball was being hosted and girls like that drove me insane. I hated when they always played stupid, because it was hard to think of them as stupid. Playful on the occasion, annoying as the common method of behavior and Darla seemed hell bent on always playing the wide-eyed ignorant little girl.
"So, have you decided who you are going with?" Darla asked with feigned disinterest. I could see her watching me out of the corner of my eye and she looked like she was ready to rake her nails across any girl's face that I might mention. I also knew that she was vying for a personal invitation. My grandfather had been sending me owl after owl to invite Darla as my date, and I had no intention of doing so.
"I don't think I'm going with anyone," I said as I looked over at her, judging her reaction. "I just think with me helping my Gran out with preparations is going to keep me so busy, and I don't know that I could devote as much time to my date as I think she deserves."
Darla pondered that for a minute, contemplating if I was speaking about her or not in regards to asking her. Before she could get it worked out, I stood and waved good bye to her, wondering how far I'd get before she tried to chase me down. I decided to take my loaner back to the library and grabbed it from my dorm. I slipped out the portrait hole just as Darla seemed to catch up with her thoughts and began to look for me. I was grateful for the group that came in as I was going out, hiding my escape. I knew that I would have to get over that part of my relationship with Darla, but I still had hope that I could talk my grandfather out of it.
Lucius could be a reasonable man, sometimes, and I hoped that I could work on him a bit over the Christmas Holiday. It wasn't that I didn't like Darla, because she was a very nice person under everything, and the Goyle family had been friends of the family for eons, but I just didn't think Darla was the girl for me. I told myself that this had nothing to do with Lily. After all, I had been having doubts since it was announced two years before I even met Lily.
I slipped into the library and scanned the room as I placed my book in the return bin. My eyes fell on Lily sitting by the window, hiding behind a book, ducking behind it but not quickly enough for her to realize that I had seen her. I felt a little giddy as my heart picked up the pace and my feet propelled me across the library to her table. I stood above her, the table between us, studying the parts that I could see from my position which amounted to the hands that gripped her book and the top of her hair.
"Are you still embarrassed about kissing me?" I teased her lightly. Bantering with her sometimes was so natural, and she rose to the occasion when it did. Lily looked up at me, her face a mix of embarrassment and resentment.
"It was an accident," she hissed at me. She looked away, focusing on her book. She groaned aloud as I pulled the chair out and sat down. I stared at her for a moment, watching how tense her hands were while she gripped the book like a life preserver.
"Lily, it happened weeks ago," I taunted her laughing. Lily looked up at me over her book, and I read her expression easily as slightly annoyed. "It was cute, but totally nothing, you know? You should move on. You've been acting weird around me since."
"I didn't kiss you on purpose," she defended though her face did take on a rosy hue. "And I've not been acting weird around you."
"Yes, you have," I whispered grinning at her. "And it's really cute, really, but I am almost three years older than you. You understand why it wouldn't be a good idea, right?"
"I don't have and ideas about you, and I'm not asking anything of you," Lily laughed. "I can't tell you enough, it was an accident. I meant to kiss your cheek. You turned your head. End of story."
"End of story?" I challenged with a grin. Lily forced herself to grin.
"Yes, end of story," Lily said. She smirked at me, one befitting of a Malfoy and I was impressed. I chuckled as she focused on her book. "Plus, you're not my type."
"You're eleven years old. How do you even have a type," I challenged. She laughed, looking up at me. My heart pounded inexplicably.
"I have a type," Lily said. Heat rose to her cheeks slightly, which did not go ignored by me. I couldn't help but grin. The obvious discomfort she seemed to have with this conversation prodded me to continue. Bantering with her was always so much fun, the way I would goad her.
"You're blushing," I teased her. She laughed and ducked behind her book again, hiding her face and her embarrassment behind the pages.
"I am not," Lily lied from behind her book. I reached across the table, gripping the book and pulled it out of her hands. I didn't want her to hide from me. I couldn't explain it. The sensations internally brought about when she reacted to my words were addictive. She looked at me with a mix of curiosity and annoyance. "Yes?"
"So, what is your type, then, Lily?" I questioned easily. Her face got redder.
"I'm not telling you!" Lily exclaimed.
"Why not?" I prompted. After all, it seemed like a perfectly appropriate thing to talk about since she was the one to bring it up in the first place.
"I don't know. Maybe because you're a guy," Lily said emphatically. She frowned at me, but not in the way that other girls sometimes frowned. It was cute on Lily.
"Yeah, but I'm also your friend," I reminded her playfully holding her book from her. She laughed.
"What's going on here?" James asked standoffishly. Stupid git snuck up on me and nearly scared me. I watched Lily's face contort slight from playful embarrassment to annoyance and reluctance as she looked up at her big brother. I placed the book on the table between us. Lily looked terribly uncomfortable with him towering over us, and me in the lower position, it bothered me as well.
"Just a friendly chat between two Slytherins," I smirked arrogantly as I stood. Lily's eyes were still glued to James and I saw that the boy was glaring at her. Eager to break the eye contact between the two before Potter set his sister on fire with his glare-ray vision, I rapped my knuckles on the table, breaking the concentration. Lily pulled her eyes away from him and looked at me, almost reluctant. "I'll catch you later in the common room and we can continue to chat."
"Ok," Lily said nodding. I smiled at her reassuringly and she smiled reactively. I started walking away, hoping that James would follow. Oh how I would have loved to duel him a bit, but as I glanced back at Lily, he had sat down at the table and seemed to be giving her a piece of his mind. I snickered, hoping he didn't run out. Madame Pince looked at me.
"Move along, Mr. Malfoy," she said and I nodded once, heading straight out of the library. I headed back to the common room to find Darla was nowhere in sight, for which I was grateful. I headed into my dormitory to make sure that my last minute holiday packing was complete.
The entire train ride home, I ignored the first years as much as possible. Damon and I attempted a few hands of exploding snaps to bide our time. My father was there to pick me up, as always, and we apparated back to Malfoy Manor. The house looked as immaculate as ever and my grandmother embraced me with the constraint befitting a Malfoy woman. It had bothered my grandfather that my mother had never been that way. Mum would throw herself at you with her arms wide open. When I was little, she'd pick me up and spin me around in a circle. My grandfather told her that she was spoiling me and keeping me soft, but Mum didn't care.
Sometimes the impact of losing my mother caught me off guard. Gran was great, and so was dad, but some things a boy really just needs his mother for. I would have loved to have been able to talk to my mum about Lily. Mum would have gone to bat for me, gone against my grandfather. She had tried back in the beginning when my grandfather announced the arrangement. Dad and Gran had backed down, by not Mum. Mum was my advocate. She was always there with a quick word, a silly joke, and eager, warm arms to embrace me with. Dad didn't even hug me anymore, Gran hugged with reserve, and I couldn't remember a time that my grandfather ever hugged me. I looked up as he walked into the room, his stately can helping him keep balance.
"The boy returns," he said in his quiet and austere voice. I looked up at him and nodded once.
"Yes, sir," I said respectfully. He launched into all the arrangements that he had been making in regards to Darla and me. I really didn't listen to him carefully, wanting nothing to do with it. It just didn't make sense. My dad had been lucky, not having to deal with this. He married for love, my mother, but then my great grandfather had died before he could force the arranged marriage. Love because I was supposed to love someone? Not because I actually did. I wanted what my mum and dad had, not what my grandfather made me marry someone.
"So, you asked Darla to the ball, didn't you?" Lucius pressed. I looked at him and shook my head hesitantly.
"No, sir," I added, remembering that he was not one that you just made gestures with. I straightened my spine as his face contorted slightly with anger. His hand twitched slightly on the top of his walking can, his wand sheathed inside it safe and withdrawn.
"Why not?" Lucius said to me coldly.
"She and I discussed that I would be very busy helping out with the ball preparations, and neither wants her to be bored or tied to me," I said. I looked at him, holding his steely gaze wanting nothing more than to look away. I wasn't lying, exactly. He looked at me critically but said nothing more.
"There are a few names on the list that I need for you to confirm with me," Gran told me as she took my arm and led me away from the front foyer. "We have to get these invite owled out and there are a few students that just don't seem to be fitting the list, exactly."
"Thanks, Gran," I said as she closed the door to the drawing room.
"Scorpius, dear, you know I only want what's best for you," she said to me as she sat down at the small table set up in the drawing room. "And, to be honest, there is a name on the list that I am not sure is correct."
"Let me guess," I said sighing. "Lily Potter?"
"So, she is a Slytherin after all?" my grandmother said as she looked at the name again on her list. She looked up at me as I took a seat. "You know, her father saved your father a few times, during the war."
"Dad doesn't talk about the war much," I murmured. It was a forbidden topic in our house, a grand embarrassment. A few times, my grandfather had sequestered me in his den and told me about how great things had been in the time of the Death Eaters. He spoke proudly of his branding, and of my father's branding. He spoke almost reverently of the Dark Lord, long since passed, and of the work that they did.
I asked my father about it once, hesitantly, when I was about ten years old or so. My dad hadn't wanted to talk about it, but my mum never hid anything from me. She had explained that my dad hadn't really wanted to join, even though it made his father incredibly proud of him for once. Shortly after the fall of the Dark Lord, my mum watched my father carve up his own arm to remove the branding. She had encouraged him, and she sewed up his arm. I had glimpsed the now long healed scare on his fore arm, faded into a line of silver.
"Tell me about her," Gran said. I looked up at her, my thoughts shattered.
"Who, Lily?" I asked. My grandmother nodded. I shrugged and started talking. "She's a small girl with dark auburn hair, which is good since she could have been a carrot top like her cousin. She's incredibly quick witted, great at bantering. She sat up all night with Ash when she was laboring, cried over the dead kitten. She seems like she's a really nice person."
"Hmm…" Gran said looking at me after I finally stopped talking Lily up fifteen minutes later.
"What?" I asked uncertainly.
"Do you like her?" Gran asked me with her wide, innocent eyes.
"Of course," I said confused. "She's fun and a really good friend."
"I mean do you like her," Gran asked me. I felt my cheeks get pink.
"I don't know," I said frowning. "Doesn't matter who I like or don't like, though, does it? Granddad has me marrying Darla, doesn't he?"
"Yeah, yeah he does," Gran said. She looked over the list, thinking. "Since Lily isn't even aware that we have this little ball every year, she's probably not going to know what to wear."
"Probably not," I said. I felt my pulse quicken at the sound of Lily's name. When someone else spoke it, it was hard to guard myself from being affected. It was a little annoying. "Hey, we should probably pick one out for her."
"You want to buy her a dress?" Gran asked me smiling. I blushed again and shrugged.
"We have an image to uphold, don't we?" I rambled off quickly.
"We can head there just after I set the house elves up with addressing and sending off the invites," Gran said dismissing me to change. I passed no one on my way up to my room. I changed out of my school clothes and opted for a little more casual look. I rejoined Gran in the foyer and she apparated us to Diagon Ally. We headed to the one somewhat decent dress shop that every witch and wizard went to for formal robes.
The beady eyed shop madam looked up as we walked in. She seemed genuinely surprised to see Gran there, as Gran had already purchased her gown. I wandered around a little, not really comfortable with the whole dress shop thing as Gran and the shop keeper spoke.
"Do you see anything that you'd like for your friend?" the shop keeper asked. I shook my head once and continued to wander in between the racks. I didn't know what the hell I was looking for.
"Scorpius, how tall is Lily?" Gran asked me.
"She's short," I said. I held my hand up to my shoulder. "Shorter than this. I think she's the shortest student at the school."
"Perhaps we should look in the girls' section then," Gran recommended. I looked at the dresses and they were for adult-sized adults. I blushed and followed Gran and the shop keeper towards the girls' section.
"I have a very special dress that just came in," the shop keeper said as she headed towards the back for a moment. I looked at Gran who seemed just as surprised as I did. We patiently waited, my turning down the blacks and blues and maroons for one reason or another. The shop keeper returned holding a huge garment bag.
"That is the dress," I said in a rush when the shop keeper pulled it out of its bag. I could picture Lily in this dress. It was Slytherin colors, green fabric and silver colored buttons.
"We'll go ahead and get it," Gran said after the shop keeper gushed on about some stupid antique silver buttons. I didn't care the specifics, I just knew it when I saw it that it was the dress that Lily had to wear to the ball.
Gran worked out all the details while I headed towards the window of the shop, watching as people hurried down the ice cold street. At first, I thought we were going to bring the dress home with us and send it over to Lily ourselves. Gran grinned at me.
"Let the child think she has a secret admirer," Gran said in her sometimes devilish way. I laughed because I could picture that look of surprise on Lily's face, a faint blush creeping across her cheeks.
"Plus, if there needs to be any altering," the shop keeper said quickly.
"Oh, I doubt that it'll need to be altered," I said grinning. In my mind, the dress would fit Lily perfectly, as if the dress was made for her.
Gran and I walked along the street silently. She didn't say anything about Lily but I could tell she wanted to ask me more about her. I didn't know what I would say if she asked. How do you tell your grandmother that you fancy a girl that isn't your betrothed? I didn't know, and so I secretly prayed she'd not ask. Instead, we wandered a bit more until it was time to depart back to Malfoy Manor. I headed upstairs, thoughts of Lily swirling in my mind while I took the steps two at a time.
I sat down on my desk, looking at the wall for a moment, thinking. I knew that Lily and I were only supposed to be friends. After all, I had Darla to think of. Darla was easy to shop for, I had already put in my order for some benign bauble I had seen and knew she'd gush over it. Darla's present took no thought. Still, I sat at my desk wondering what kind of gift I should get Lily. It would have to be one that others couldn't misconstrue as something more. I didn't need my grandfather catching wind that I put more thought and effort in to Lily's gift than I did Darla's.
"What do I get Lily?" I said aloud as I scratched out Lily's name where I had absentmindedly doodled her first name with my last name. I glared at the paper with indignation. I was going about this like some little school girl. I was just a friend, she was a friend.
"Mew," Ash said from the floor as I wrote down a few more of my ideas for gifts for Lily. I frown and scratched each one out, vetoed for one reason or the next.
"I don't know what to get her," I told Ash. She licked her paw a few times before starting in on the fluff ball of a son of hers. I turned back to my paper and growled at it feral-like. I wanted to get her a gift that she would never forget, no matter how much time passed. I wanted it to make a lasting impression.
"Mew," Ash said as she jumped up on my desk. I didn't look up at her, just tilted my head back and stared at the ceiling. What do you get a girl that you can only ever be friends with, even if you fancied the dickens out of her?
"What do I get her? Something that shows her I care?" I murmured at the ceiling. Ash threw her baby into my lap, its tiny razor blade claws stabbing into my leg. I yelp slightly, trying to pull the mini-demon cat from my pants leg. I looked at Ash as I held the boy kitten I had named Asher. It all made perfect sense. Asher was the perfect gift for her. I believed in signs and Ash was obviously giving me a sign that Lily would make a perfect pet owner of Asher.
Gran looked at me in surprise when I waved the kitten in the air as I spoke. Still, she smiled almost as if she knew a secret no one else knew and agreed that it was fitting. Lily had, after all, stayed up with Ash while Asher was being born. She helped me find a box and some ribbon. We decided that I would send it out with the owl the morning of Christmas so Lily would have a wonderful Christmas surprise. I sent a house elf out to get a tiny green collar, the color of the dress, with a tiny silver bell, like the tiny silver buttons on the back of it. If nothing else, it would be my own private joke.
"Ready, Asher?" I murmured on Christmas morning as I headed to the window. It wasn't too early, just earlier than I would have preferred to have been awake. I know that most kids my age would still be all into the Christmas thing, but I just couldn't be that excited about Christmas aside from the ball.
My family had hosted these things ever few years even when I was too little to go to Hogwarts. It was an honor, as I was told, that we were who the Slytherin alumni looked to throw the ball. Every year, I hadn't exactly been impressed or shown much interest in the ball. This was the first year that I was thrilled about it. I glanced at the package in my hand, careful to make sure that there were air holes for the kitten before I attached the package to Ari, the hawk our family used to send only the most important items. I had secretly used it to send out Lily's invite, and I knew that Ari would get the kitten to Lily safely and quickly.
I watched as Ari took off in the slightly lightening sky of the morning before I headed to breakfast. My father glanced up from the paper hesitantly before he smiled and wished me a Happy Christmas. We never really exchanged gifts. After breakfast, we'd retreat for the day to our rooms, unwrap our presents at a leisurely pace and dress for the ball. The house elves usually brought up our midday meal.
I had my arms tucked behind my bed as I looked at the frosted window. I wondered idly if her parents would flip out over me giving her a kitten. It would have been awesome if James was deathly allergic and he swelled up like a giant balloon. I laughed to myself, thinking that it would be awesome to see him come to the ball tonight with his parents, guests of Lily, all puffy and red. I could imagine Lily's look of excitement over opening the box and seeing the kitten there. I grinned, knowing she probably had him in her arms right now. I felt something brush up against me and purr loudly, my hand went to my cheek, my fingers brushing the white fur.
"She'll take care of your son," I murmured needlessly. I knew Ash had intended Lily to have the kitten; she knew Lily would care for him.
I felt an odd sort of excitement well up in me as I got dressed for the ball. I looked up as my grandfather entered the room and looked at me with his cold, calculating gaze. I continued to struggle a little with my tie as he watched, knowing that it was the way he looked at me that made me feel uncomfortable. He didn't speak for what seemed like and insanely long time while I straightened my collar.
"You seem oddly excited about the ball for a change," he mentioned carefully. I glanced at him and nodded once. I groaned internally at the rule about speech and gesturing.
"I am excited," I said honestly. There was no sense on lying about it.
"Why?" he asked.
"I don't know, or understand why," I said. He looked at me and frowned.
"So, then, it's not Darla then?" he asked. I looked at him and shook my head.
"No sir," I replied. He didn't say anything for a while as I finished up.
"We should head down, the guest should be arriving shortly," he said and I know I grinned. He looked at me suspiciously but said nothing further.
Guests arrived by the hoards, and each time someone was announced, I would instinctively look up hoping it was Lily. I knew that it was bad. I should have been looking with grand anticipation for Darla but I couldn't help it. It wasn't Darla that I was after.
I felt the world come to a slamming halt when Lily and her family arrived. I was pleased when James and the younger boy didn't seem to be with them, my imagination giving them all sorts of horrible allergic reactions and such. I watched as Lily came down the stairs, her dress looking as perfect as I imagined it would. Elena looked to where I was looking, both of us just a few feet from the bottom of the grand stair case. Lily glanced up and missed the last step, falling on her face.
I nearly laughed, not because she fell but because anyone who falls flat like she did would have gotten a laugh out of me. She fell like a piece of lumber, all without the cry of 'timber' from a lumberjack. I squashed my desire to laugh at her fall and instead hurried to her side and jerked her up by her arm. I glanced around but so few people were actually paying attention to anything.
"Are you ok?" I asked as I helped her stabilize on her feet. Girl or not, she really wasn't well versed on wearing those sort of dress heels. Even her extra inch or so didn't justify the death traps she had strapped to her fee.
"Yeah," Lily said quickly as her face turned bright red. I grinned and nodded. I could tell that she was mortified, and her parents were right there. I dropped my grip on her arm, certain she had regained her balance.
"Watch that last step, it's a long one," I teased lightly, trying to make her more comfortable. "I think I saw the first years congregating over by the ice sculpture."
"We'll be mingling," Lily's dad told her before wandering off, disappearing in the crowd. Lily looked at me as if she had something more to say but she clamped her mouth shut and wobbled over towards her friends. I looked back at Elena and shrugged.
"What a strange little girl," Elena said. She laughed. "Not that Darla isn't strange, too. It must be something about their class. I think the lot of them are just plain… odd."
"Speaking of Darla, where is she?" I asked trying to sound interested. Elena shrugged.
"Probably shoving her face with sweets," Elena said. She laughed. "That one, I swear, I don't know where she gets her appetite from."
"Surely it's not all bad," I said. Elena raised an eyebrow at me.
"I'm surprised that you aren't working harder to get out of this arrangement. We both know you can't stand my little sister, and I can't say that I blame you. She's so annoying," Elena said. She looked at me, but I was looking back at the first years. "Scorpius, did you hear a word I said?"
"Huh?" I asked as I looked back at her. I made a face. "Yeah, I heard you. I'm not going to bother. My grandfather isn't an easily swayed man when he's got it in his mind to do something and he's determined that I am going to marry your sister once she graduates from Hogwarts."
"You sound like you're talking about a business transaction," Elena teased me. I laughed.
"It is a business transaction," I reminded her. Elena nodded and spotted a friend of hers.
"I'll catch you later?" She asked as she had already started away from me. I nodded, holding my cup as I scanned the first year students again. From the outside, anyone could surmise that I was looking for Darla, but in honesty it was another first year student that my eyes sought out. I saw my grandfather slip out on the portico and I hesitated, knowing he wasn't one to step outside, even when he lit up his pipe. I scanned the crowd a few more times, unable to locate either Lily nor her two friends. I headed toward the door, thinking maybe a few of the first year students were congregating outside. It was getting a little stuffy.
I pushed open the door, stopping just outside of the door. My grandfather and Lily were standing there, face to face. Lily looked positively terrified, this ancient man towering over her. Granddad had Lily by the arm, and not in a friendly way. His eyes were flashing warning to her and she was trembling in his hand. Panic welled up in me, unknown and possibly undeserved.
"What's going on out here?" I demanded as I stepped further out onto the portico. Lily looked at me, obviously frightened but still trying to be brave. I wanted to my grandfather's throat out suddenly for touching her, even in a threatening manner… especially in a threatening manner. Granddad looked back at me and dropped Lily's arm just as quick as he changed his expression to cool and unperturbed.
"Nothing," Lucius said forcing a smile at me. The smile was all wrong, more so than ever.
"Lily?" I asked. Lily glanced at my grandfather quickly but shook her head.
"Nothing," Lily said quickly.
"Don't stay out here too long," Granddad said as he entered the manor, leaving the two of us on the patio. I was really concerned about her, her bottom lip pinned mercilessly between her teeth. She turned and started to walk away from me, to head back inside when I reached out and gripped her arm gently in my hand to stop her.
"What just happened?" I asked quietly as I looked down at her upturned face. I could see the fear in her eyes, the uncertainty written on her face.
"Nothing," Lily replied quickly. She looked away from me, over the snowy gardens. Her arm was still lightly in my hand, not really holding her to me more than she wanted to be. At any point, she could have broken my grip. I knew she was lying to me. That didn't look like 'nothing'. That looked like 'something' and if he hurt her, there would be hell to pay. One way or another, I would make him pay.
"You can't lie to me, Lils," I told her gently.
"Your grandfather just wants me to stay away from you," Lily said simply. I frowned. That wasn't exactly what I had expected and I dropped her arm in shock.
"He's not the boss of me," I told her as I recovered from the initial shock. Lily shrugged but didn't look back at me. I scratched the back of my head for a moment, thinking. She obviously didn't want to talk about her little encounter with my grandfather. I decided a better tactic was to change the subject completely "Hey, did you get my furry little Christmas gift?"
"Yes," Lily said as her face suddenly lit with happiness and excitement. I grinned, happy that her reaction was ten times better than I expected. I wasn't even sure that she would really want the kitten, and it could have been a disastrous distraction technique. "Oh, he's perfect Score, he really is. I couldn't have asked for a better present. I love him."
"I'm glad you like him," I told her simply.
"You were behind this dress, weren't you?" Lily asked uncertainly. I grinned at her but said nothing, at first.
"I don't know what you mean," I said as I tried to suppress his grin. I failed, which was a shame because I kind of liked the idea of being a secret admirer to her. I froze a moment, wondering if I was her secret admirer. I didn't have time to ponder that. Lily threw her arms around me, catching him off guard.
"You are the best kind of friend," Lily said hugging me tightly. I could smell her shampoo and feel her arms around me. Instinctively, my own arms would not remain at my sides and I found them encircling her with such ease it should have frightened me.
"I'm glad you like it," I confessed. "I just wanted to make sure that there was nothing keeping you from coming to the Slytherin Ball."
"Thank you," Lily said still in my arms.
"You're freezing," I realized after a minute. She was shivering slightly and her skin was cool. She had left her cloak inside, apparently. I pulled her closer. "We ought to get you back inside."
"I'm supposed to be chaperoning Shale and Kate," Lily said. I shook my head at her, thinking that she was a far better friend to them then they were to her.
"I won't have you catching your death at my grandfather's manor to baby sit them," I told her.
"Ok," Lily said. I know she was waiting for me to release her because at first I was expecting the same, but my body refused what my mind told it was best. I could let her go, not quite yet. I glanced up and saw a sprig of wild mistletoe growing in the arch of where we were standing. I grinned. "What?"
"Mistletoe," I replied to her, nodding at the plant. She looked up, her face suddenly a little rosier, though I couldn't be sure if she was blushing or cold..
"Oh," Lily said.
"Well, it would be bad luck not to," I said suddenly very bold feeling as I put my hands on either side of her face. "The things friends will do for other friends, just to keep the bad luck away." Lily grinned nervously at me but closed her eyes. I could feel my heart strumming in my chest, faster than the beat of a humming bird's wings. There was a lot going on inside, this aching twisty feeling that seemed to want to plague me. I took a deep breath and pressed my mouth against hers. I didn't know how long was a proper kiss so I counted to ten and released her. I released her completely and she seemed a little unstable but before I could move to balance her, she seemed to pull herself together.
"Gee, what a good friend you are, indeed," Lily teased me and she headed back inside, her cheeks rosy, though it was undeterminable from the cold or the kiss. She glanced back at me with a shy sort of smile before she disappeared inside. I licked my lip, a slight residue still present.
She tasted like cherries.