A/N: Thanks to those of you who read and reviewed the last chapter. As promised, these are coming out quicker than the previous. I hope that you enjoy and that I am keeping true to the story. Thanks, again, for reading and reviewing. --Edited... fixed the big mess in the middle there, sorry. Not sure what happened there... just a whole lot of mess in the middle of a sentence... easy fix... thanks for the heads up...--

Disclaimer: Just manipulating premade characters.

Whispering

My dad was quiet as we headed to our apparition room, used only by us to apparate. I didn't say anything as he straightened his tie and then offered me his arm. I took it, thinking that I really couldn't wait until I was old enough to apparate without any help. I still had two more years before I was even old enough to test. He looked at me, approvingly, my silver prefect badge glinting in the light, perfectly polished.

My dad had been so proud of me when I received my badge and proudly shared the news with his colleagues. I had forgotten that Harry Potter and he worked in the same area, and was surprised when Dad brought home the news that James was a prefect too. How I hated James Potter, which is surprising that I'd like his sister that much more. They were, truly, nothing alike. Not that I could see. I knew I had made a face when I heard about it over dinner, and the only person who seemed genuinely pleased with my reaction was my grandfather.

I wasn't paying attention when we landed at King's Crossing in their apparition room, and I stumbled slightly. My dad's tight grip on my arm was the only thing that kept me from falling. He raised an eyebrow at me but didn't say anything. He released my arm and I righted myself. He paused a moment, glancing at me, and then smiled slightly.

"Try to have a good year," he said simply. Then he was gone. I was used to these brief good-byes and I headed out of the room and onto the platform. I glanced around for Damon, trying to avoid Darla and Elena. I glanced to the Slytherin car to see Lily standing there with James, and I automatically made my way over towards her.

"I feel so dirty for having gone in there," James said shivering. Lily hit him on the shoulder. "Hey, you can't hit me. I'm a prefect."

"I can still torment you," Lily laughed. "Prefect status doesn't scare me."

"Good to know, Lils. Maybe you won't continue to run off on me," I said coming up beside her. "I made prefect." Lily looked at me slowly, almost as if she wanted to groan at my sudden appearance.

"Congrats, Malfoy," Lily said crossing her arms slightly. It was not a good sign that she was calling me by my surname. Lily was slightly stand-offish, a complete change of personality from the moments before I came up and interrupted.

"How's Asher? How was your birthday?" I asked her as I ignored James. I knew James was probably boiling in anger. He hated to be left out of things, and he hated me. I was almost tempted to push him a bit more but Lily didn't seem pleased to see me, and the last thing I wanted to do was fight with her older brother.

"Both good," Lily said in a clipped tone. She looked around, almost hunting for an excuse to abandon us, and saw Shale and Kate standing on the far end of the platform. "If you don't mind, I see Shale and Kate. I want to show them the compartment. Catch you later, James."

I watched as Lily headed away quickly, rejoining her friends. I cringed as Shale embraced Lily, almost jealous that he had his arms around Lily. It didn't make sense to me. I had Darla. I shuddered involuntarily.

"I want you to stay away from my sister, Malfoy," James threatened me quietly. I pulled my eyes away from her and looked at him incredulously. "She has a boyfriend now and is finally happy. Leave her alone."

"Or what, Potter?" I challenged, hiding my surprise at this new information. Lily had a boyfriend? When did this happen? Who was he? I steadied my racing thoughts. It didn't make sense that I should get upset by this. After all, Lily was a sweet girl, and I couldn't have her. She should be happy. I just couldn't get the thought out of my head that this guy, this boyfriend of hers, no matter who he was he was never going to be good enough for Lily. No one was.

"Or else," James sneered at me, pulling me back from my reverie, and stalked away towards his cousin with the bushy hair. I nearly laughed as the whistle blew and everyone started to mill onto the train. I found Damon and Elena hiding out in a compartment and I tossed myself in one of the spare seats.

"Where's Darla?" Damon asked me. Elena snickered.

"I've not seen her in quite…"

"Scorpy!" Darla squealed as she threw open the door and jumping into my lap, interrupting my sentence. We had spent the better part of the summer together, as we probably would until the end of time. Her enthusiasm was slightly annoying, though it did feel good to see that at least one third year student was thrilled to see me. I smiled at her.

"Good to see you, too, Darla," I said as she wrapped her arms around me.

"Remember we have a prefect meeting in like two minutes," Elena reminded me as she and Damon made a hasty retreat from our carriage.

"I'm glad we're alone," Darla whispered as her mouth reached for mine. I grinned and complied. I couldn't pretend that she wasn't good at what she did, but kissing her sometimes made me long to have another pair of lips attached to mine. I froze for a second, the thought crossing my mind, before I shoved those eyes and her face from it.

"I really do have to go, Darla," I said after a few minutes, pulling out of her deathlike grip. She pouted but climbed free of my lap.

"I hope that you'll get to spend more time with me later," Darla said as she watched me check my reflection on the plate glass window.

"We will," I promised. "After I do patrol of the train corridors and what not." Darla's face bloomed into a smile and I left the compartment. I glanced at the random compartments as I headed towards the prefect's carriage, seeing Kate and Shale cozying up in one of them, talking. I didn't need to see who they were talking to, I already knew.

I went to the prefect meeting, dutifully, really not wanting to be there, listening to our head boy and girl talk. I didn't pay as close attention as I probably should have, but I knew Elena would update me sometime later. I wasn't surprised to see Rose, James' cousin, sitting next to him, donning the silver badge as proud as she could be. If those two weren't cousins, I would have suggested that they get married. I had heard that they were best friends, and I thought that it was weird. Damon was my best friend, the only one I ever came close to telling the whole truth about anything.

We were released some time later and I wandered back along the corridor towards where I had seen Shale and Kate. I glanced in the window of their compartment to see the cozy couple intently looking at a framed picture of someone. I slid the door open as Kate went to hand Lily back the frame.

"His father came into town and I met him through our parents," Lily said grinning. She went to take the picture back at that very moment that I had opened the door. Her face went dark immediately and she scowled.

"What have we here?" I asked as I intercepted the picture. I held it in my hand, looking down at this smiling boy that looked way too old for her, in my opinion. Decked out in Durmstrang gear, he had a hint of a shadow along his jaw, it clenched in a brilliant smile. I hated him. I didn't know him, and already I hated him.

"Give that back," Lily demanded.

"Mind yourself, Lils. I'm a prefect," I reminded her as I crossed my arms, the picture still in my hand. I didn't want to give it back, but I certainly didn't want to look at the boy that had stolen young Lily's heart. I looked at Shale and Kate, both of which were staring at me with shock. "Scram." Kate and Shale scrambled out of the compartment quicker than I thought possible, leaving Lily and I alone. Lily crossed her arms to match my pose as I sat down across from her.

"Your being a prefect doesn't scare me, Malfoy," she said crossly.

"Look, you spent the better part of last year avoiding me like the plague," I said as I lowered my voice against her agitated one. "You actually ran away from me at the ball last year and sent back my Christmas gift."

"Ok," Lily said disinterested as she held out her hand to me. "Can I have my picture back?"

"Isn't that cute," I said in a condescending way as I looked at it. I, personally, didn't think it was cute at all. In fact, I didn't know this man, but I hated him. "This is the boyfriend, is it?"

"Yes, my boyfriend," Lily said lowering her voice and leaning forward. "Just as you have Darla to keep you warm at night, Taryn did a damn good job bringing out the best in me."

I looked at her uncertainly, holding the picture. I hadn't expected that to come from her mouth, nor did I know what she meant by it. Certainly she didn't mean what I hoped she didn't mean. I held the picture out to her, her hand closing on the frame. I didn't even resist, having felt almost stung by her words. I stood, frowning involuntarily at her. I was surprised to see Lily avert her eyes from me, as if I didn't matter. Her gaze fell on the boy in the picture and she slightly smiled. She stood and reached to her bag, stowing the frame in its canvas confines. Retracting her hand, she knocked the top of her cat's basket, the fur-ball springing from the wicker prison.

"Why are you so mad at me, Lily?" I asked her despite myself. Surely she couldn't be mad about Darla. It wasn't even like I had control over that.

"I'm not," Lily lied. I smirked. She was a terrible liar.

"I know you better than that," I reminded her quietly, my eyes on her face. "Ever since the end of first year, you've been distant and then you avoided me all year last year. What's the deal? What did I do?"

"What did you do?" Lily taunted angrily. I nearly stepped back at the harshness to her words. Her eyes held mine and I held my ground, ignoring the hurt and fire in the depth of her eyes.

"Yeah, what did I do?" I asked. Lily sat back down sighing, glancing out the window in what looked like defeat. I moved toward her, wanting nothing more than to comfort her. Asher raked his claw across my cheek, the sting almost immediate. "What did you do; train him to attack?"

"No," Lily said as she stroked the cat.

"He's more of a demon than Ash," I grumbled as I dabbed at my cheek with a handkerchief.

"Asher's not a demon," Lily snapped as she scooped him up in her arms. "You scared him, that's all. I think you're done talking and you should go."

"You didn't answer my question," I said. I wasn't letting the conversation end that easily. This was the most that she had said to me in over a year and a half, even if her words were filled with anger and hurt. It was something. The door slid open, and I nearly turned to tell whomever was interrupting to scram, but my eyes fell on Darla and I bit back my demand. She looked at me, her hands on her hips, and she looked a little annoyed.

"That's where you ran off to," she cooed to me in her fake-sounding lovey-dovey voice that I couldn't stand. "Lily did Scorpius tell you that his grandfather took us on a cruise?"

"That's lovely," Lily said sarcastically as she glared at the two of us. I wanted to reach out and tell Lily that I had been sick the entire time and hadn't spent even a little bit of time with Darla, to explain that it was a family vacation that meant nothing but Lily's eyes were ice cold as she looked at me. "I really think I will go visit my brothers."

"Yuck, Gryffindors," Darla said. "How do you even manage to survive that all summer?"

"If you'll excuse me," Lily said pushing through the two of us, Asher still in her arms. I minded his claws while rivaling in the fact that she had touched my whole right side with her body as she brushed by me. I could smell her lovely scent assaulting on my senses and my heart started to race despite the commonsense my head screamed at the rest of my traitorous body.

"I heard she had to work all summer," Darla whispered to me loudly, certainly so that Lily could hear. "Imagine a pauper Slytherin."

"Excuse me?" Lily snapped as she turned around. I took an instinctive step back, Lily's free hand was clenched as if she was doing everything in her power not to pull her wand on us and hex us into next week. "Did you say something?"

"Oh, no, not at all," Darla said quickly. She forced a smile. "See you in the dorm room."

Lily made a face, one of contempt and anger, as she turned and stalked out of the car, slamming the door behind her. I looked at Darla, her face already turned up at mine. The falsely sweet innocence bothered me more than usual. I couldn't believe that Darla was that bitchy to gossip like that. I mean, I had heard from a few people that Lily had worked at her uncle's store for a bit of the summer, but having been inside Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, it couldn't have felt that much like work.

"You know, Darla, that's really not very Malfoy of you," I chastised. Darla looked up at me with even more innocence, but I could see that she knew I meant business. If she was going to be my wife, a Malfoy by marriage, she was going to have to learn some manners. I wouldn't be married to a spiteful woman.

"I didn't mean anything by it," Darla promised, but I knew she was lying. Not that she was bad at lying, but because I knew Darla could be a spiteful girl sometimes, I gave her a look and steered her back towards our compartment where hopefully I could have a few minutes to collect my thoughts.

Elena and Damon were chatting when I walked in, both glancing up as I sat down, Darla on my heels. It was increasingly annoying to always have her under foot but I had yet to find a tactful way to ditch her for any serious length of time. Elena and I had discussed this numerous times, and we both agreed that perhaps this year, with my being a prefect with duties and all, I would have an excuse. Granted, the excuse didn't save me from having to sit with her the rest of the ride to Hogwarts.

Darla was right behind me when I bounded off the train and I gave her a quick peck on the cheek before I sent her ahead to find a horseless carriage to the school while I helped round up the first years for their traditional boat ride to the castle. Darla was reluctant but she complied and I sighed a breath of relief before I started calling to order the first years that were in my general area. I saw James and Rose trying to get a few rather weepy first years to calm down and I hoped that they were not Slytherin.

Once the first years were in the boats with Hagrid, Elena and I climbed into one of the last two horseless carts that would take us up to the school. I groaned as James and Rose sat across from us. Neither they nor I looked too thrilled about it and poor Elena just stared out the window as we four made the long ride up to the school grounds. I was the first to jump free of the carriage just moments after it stopped and Elena and I headed into the great hall with the other prefects as everyone was getting ready to sit down.

I took my seat next to Darla and glanced up and down the table. Lily looked right at me and took a seat on the same side, a good ten or so people between us. I was disappointed that I couldn't covertly watch her while we ate dinner. The thought caught me off guard. It was weird, in my mind, that I wanted to watch Lily eat and then it came to me. I didn't want to just watch Lily eat, I wanted to watch her. A funny feeling swirled in my stomach, one that I thought I had extinguished for the auburn haired girl.

After the sorting and dinner, we were dismissed to our common rooms. I insisted that Darla walk with Damon while I dealt with the first years. Eager to change her clothes, Darla did not resist for once. I was thrilled to see her go. My eyes scanned the throngs of people heading out of the great hall and there, by the door, Professor Perkins had accosted Lily and pulled her out of the masses queuing up to leave. I shuffled the first years out the door closest to them, but with the din that accompanied the group I was unable to hear what they were talking about.

I would have loved to have hung back and walked with Lily to the common room, but my duties were to Darla and to the first years. Elena walked them down to the dungeon and to the portrait hole that led to our dungeon. The woman in the portrait looked at me and then at Elena, her eyes scrutinizing. She turned away from Elena and focused wholly on me.

"You may choose the password," she told me. I glanced momentarily at Elena who shrugged.

"Can I use a phrase?" I asked and the woman in the portrait nodded, the wheels in my head turning and spinning. If Lily wouldn't listen to reason, if she wouldn't talk to me, if she insisted on avoiding me… Then it hit me, I knew the perfect phrase. "Ok, the phrase is 'You can't avoid me forever'."

"Excellent," the portrait woman said clapping her hands. "Surely to remind all Slytherins that our lesser beings can't avoid our leading hand forever. Very good, Mr. Malfoy."

"Sure," I said shrugging, not caring that it was being misinterpreted that way.

"Remember, Scorpius, you have castle patrol tonight," Elena said waving as she slipped in to the portrait hole. "I'll spread the password."

Being on castle duty was boring, at least it was for me that first night. I didn't encounter anyone other than other prefects wandering about. Everyone else was tucked in their common rooms shortly after we arrived. Glancing at my watch, I headed back towards the Slytherin common room, eager to get into bed and out of these clothes. I was full and sleepy, and the warm bed beckoned me. As I turned the corner, I saw a lump of a child curled up on the floor, back to the wall, bum to the ground. She had her ankles crossed before her, her legs extended, and her arms were crossed in either annoyance or defiance. She looked my way, as if my footsteps had been loud and intruding, and she groaned, actually groaned, at the sight of me. I smirked.

"So, this is where you are," I said as I stood above her. I reached my hand out, offering her help up, but she rose without it. I was not surprised. She was still rather pissed at me.

"I don't know what the password is," Lily said simply. I grinned and leaned towards her to whisper the password in her ear and was rather put off when she just as quickly leaned away, as if I were vile or something. I made a face.

"I have to whisper it to you," I explained to her.

"Why? We're alone," she said. Suddenly her cheeks went bright red and my heart skipped a beat. We were alone and she was embarrassed by whatever connotation was implied by that. I grinned and she acted all flustered, rapidly speaking. "Go ahead, whisper it quickly." I leaned in a little more slowly this time, my mouth was so near her ear that I could see my breath causing the loose strands of her hair dance.

"You can't avoid me forever," I whispered deeply. She pulled away scowling.

"Just tell me the password so I can free Asher and go to bed," Lily said frowning. She looked even more angry, but there was something else, the way the heat remained in her cheeks. I didn't know what to think of that, but I shrugged, trying to come off as indifferent. I had tried to be her friend, I think I wanted to be more, and still she turned a cold shoulder. If friendship wasn't enough for her, who was I to keep trying?

"That is the password," I said in an overtly polite tone. "I got to choose the password and I figured that maybe if you hear that phrase enough, you'll finally understand that it's true."

I turned away from her and the picture portal opened, allowing me access. I stepped inside, ignoring the black cat that seemed to wait impatiently for his mistress. The portrait slammed closed behind me. I had given her the password, and my duty was done. I had a warm bed calling to me. I briefly kissed Darla good night and immediately to my dormitory, barely shutting the door before I loosened my tie and headed to bed.