A/N: I know its been a while, but I've been very busy planning my overseas move.
Disc.: I am only warping these characters for my (and your) viewing pleasure. I didn't create them.
Breaking Up
I left Damon following, trailing, as I ran back towards Hogsmead. A few people called to me, vying for my attention. I ignored them, ignored Damon as I skidded down the steps to the dungeon. He followed, muttering under his breath as we entered our dormitory. I headed to my dresser and opened the box. I peered inside for a moment.
"Do you think I could repair this?" I asked. Damon raised an eyebrow and looked at all the shatter little pieces of the locket.
"I… I don't know. It looks pretty destroyed," Damon said poking his finger into the box, moving the pieces around. "Wouldn't it be easier just to buy a new one?"
"It would if there was another one like this, but that's not the point. Do you think I could fix this?" I asked closing the box. I placed it up on the top of my dresser. No one ever asked me why I had a box that looked so feminine on my dresser out of respect. They had known it was my mothers.
"I think you could, if you wanted to," Damon said slowly as he looked at my face. "What are you thinking?"
"That if I fixed it, maybe Lily would be ok," I said hesitantly. Damon raised his eyebrow again. "You know, that it'd make things ok with us."
"You think fixing a piece of jewelry is going to fix the problems you two have?" Damon asked me as he crossed his arms. I opened my mouth to say something when Elena knocked and entered our room without waiting for us to give her entrance.
"Did you hear?" Elena asked quietly as she crossed the room. She was keeping herself together, but some days were worse than others. Today, she looked tired, stressed.
"Are you ok?" I asked quietly and she seemed to be physically holding herself together with her arm. She sat down with a huff.
"Not really," she admitted and she looked at her shoes for a minute. I looked to Damon but he could only shrug. She sighed and looked up, recollected. "Anyways, do you want to know what I just saw?"
"I don't know, do I?" I asked. I felt the weight, the ghost of hands on my shoulder and wondered if Darla was hanging out with me. I definitely wasn't going to discuss that little snafu with anyone. The last thing I needed was someone calling me crazy or having me forced to go to the hospital wing. Elena met my eyes and there was such sadness that it was nearly overwhelming.
"No, not really," she said in a defeated voice. "But I think you need to hear it now, from me, before you witness it for yourself."
"Um, ok," I said shrugging. Whatever she had to tell me, it couldn't be that bad. Hell, my betrothed had died and the girl I love was cold and distant. It couldn't get much worse. Oh, was I wrong.
"I saw Lily…" Elena said. She took a deep breath and in a rush continued. "I saw Lily kissing Malvo Flint in front of the great hall."
I stood there, looking at Elena, frozen. My mind heard what she had said, it could understand the words individually, but together they refused to make sense in my mind. Lily, my Lily, was kissing our captain in front of the great hall? No. That didn't make any sense. Lily was Lily and she didn't just kiss people, kiss authority, like that. I opened my mouth to protest, then closed it unable to make words come out.
"No, it can't be," Damon said. Thankfully one of us still had his wits about him. I couldn't form a coherent protest in my head, much less anything to speak.
"I saw it with my own eyes," Elena said warily as she watched me. I kept opening my mouth, to protest, and kept snapping it shut with unformed words.
"Maybe she was properly thanking him for the extra practice, or whatever," Damon continued in my favor. Elena got a sharp look in her eye.
"If that is how people are supposed to properly thank someone, then my parents like to properly thank each other behind closed doors," Elena said firmly.
"She… kissed him?" I finally managed. Elena looked at me and nodded sadly.
"Open mouth, full on," Elena said with a gentle voice. The room jerked slightly and I stumbled. Damon grabbed my arm.
"You going to pass out, man?" Damon asked. I jerked my arm free and shook my head.
"Malfoys don't just pass out," I growled. Anger swept over me, burying the hurt that was tearing at my insides. "I need to get some air."
"I'll go with you," Damon said and I caught him throw Elena a look as we walked out. I stopped him.
"No," I said firmly. My hand was on his chest, holding him at bay. "I need to be alone."
Damon allowed me to leave on my own, though I could tell that he didn't want me to. I half expected him to yell for me to not do anything rash or stupid, but that was too late. I had. Sure, no one knew about it, but I had given my heart over to Lily in ways that I hadn't even been aware of. I was left, shattered and broken as I headed up the stairs. I hope that I wouldn't cross their path, Malvo and Lily's. I just couldn't stand it.
I walked around alone for about a week, not really there. Sometimes people were physically near me, but emotionally, spiritually, I was alone. Hell, even the weight of whatever spirit that was normally near me seemed to have all but disappeared. Truth be told, it was a dark time and I wasn't even really aware of the people who normally surrounded me. I was a shell of myself, not truly Scorpius Malfoy, but a shadow of the man with the beautiful exterior.
"Man, you need to snap out of it," Damon whispered at me at breakfast one morning. I had been stirring my tea for at least ten minutes, unaware of my surroundings. It was hyperaware of Lily just a ways down the table, holding hands with Malvo. The silver lining was that I had yet to see them kiss.
"Sorry," I mumbled. Damon was right, I did need to snap out of it. Slowly, I allowed my head to break the surface of despair. The feelings were still there, the salt in the wounds, but little would change that. I grimaced.
"Did you get your potions paper written?" Damon asked. I nodded slowly, as if slightly drugged.
"I did it last night," I said quietly. Damon sighed.
"It's going to be ok," Damon promised. I looked at him skeptically, and the first flickers of anger lit my eyes.
"No, it's not, and you can't even promise something like that," I said in a low growl. A slight relief crossed Damon's face. I guess anger was allowed, but wallowing in a numb void was not. I preferred the numb void, personally, but who was I to know what was healthy or not.
"Oh, damn it," Damon said as he reached around in his bag. "I forgot my Herbology book. See you in class."
"Bye," I said glancing back down at my cold tea. I made a face and pushed it away, deciding that I still wasn't hungry. I stood, and when I did Lily's eyes flickered to mine. It felt as if the air was knocked from my lungs and they couldn't draw a new breath. I was going to suffocated if I stood there for another moment, and I forced my legs to push me forward, out of the great hall. I decided that I would just go to class early when a pair of strong hands pushed me into the nearest wall. James was at the end of those hands.
"What the hell?" I demanded. My voice sounded angry. Anger was a good thing. Hotter than numbness and better feeling than pain, anger suited how I felt now.
"Why the hell is she with him?" James demanded in a low growl. He glared at me, as if it was my fault that Malvo and Lily were together. "I had a hard enough time understand why she was with you, but this… this I can't even begin to wrap my mind around."
"I don't know," I growled back. We kept our voices low to not draw attention, but some interactions did anyways and a few curious eyes flickered to us as their owners passed us by. "You think I like this any more than you do?"
"He's too old for her," James said angrily.
"I agree," I squeezed out from between clenched teeth. James wasn't telling me something I didn't already know, and frankly I was getting angry having to face this fact with him so up in my face about it. I wanted to yell at him, to hit him, something. I wanted to tell him that if I could change the fact that his sister was dating Malvo Flint, I would in a heartbeat.
"You told me that you would never hurt her," James reminded me. James' voice didn't drip with anger, it was flooded with anger. It was nearly tangible, like I could have been slapped upside the head with it. "I want you take that back. I want you to hurt her, by hurting him. Anything to get him and her broken up."
"He's the captain of my team," I countered. I was still angry, but also weary, tired. I wanted to hurt Malvo, I wanted Lily, but I felt like I was constantly at war to win her heart and now it was gone, a lost battle. "Not to mention that he's older and larger than me. It'd be suicide."
"I'm willing to risk it," James said suddenly and I couldn't help it. I laughed, not a laugh of joy or elation, but one of just surrender with a hint of pain. I pushed James' hands off my shirt before someone came along and got the wrong idea, and found that James was laughing too, in the same defeated way. The sound died as quickly as it had come and James' face became a mask of seriousness again. "Isn't she worth it?"
"Yes," I said in a breathy voice that I even cringed at hearing. James raised an eyebrow at me with the breathy sounding word and I cleared my throat. "But if she's happy, really happy with Malvo Flint, who are we to take that happiness, even if we want to."
"He's too damn old for her," James retorted in a snarl. "Half a decade almost."
"She'll be fourteen soon," I said quietly. To me, the voice of reason sounded vaguely tired. Perhaps reason was tired of fighting.
"Not until the end of summer," James continued. He didn't sound angry, just lost and uncertain. He looked helpless. "And still, I think you are too old for her but it's a heck of a lot better than Flint."
"So, what do you want me to do about it?" I asked and the words held something I hadn't expected. They sounded pained, nothing like I was feeling inside, but still pain none the less.
"Well, for one, quit pretending that it doesn't kill you to see them together," James said. I stopped for a moment, stopped everything, breathing and thinking and everything. I looked at him, stared at him in disbelief. "We can all see through that brave front shit you've been pulling, except for her. Maybe if she knew you actually care for her, she'll come to her senses."
"She'll never come to her senses," I whispered almost afraid that anything louder would hurt to say. "I've tried before to get her to understand that none of the bad stuff matters. I want to be with her."
"Well, work harder, try harder," James said. He lowered his voice as a professor walked by, eying the of us talking in the corridor. "Look, I know what goes through our minds when we're with a girl. I can only imagine that at his age, they don't have the inexperience that holds them back."
"You're… talking about… sex, aren't you?" I clarified. My heart came to a grinding halt and all the implications of a relationship between Lily and someone Malvo's age rushed in flashes of false memories in my head. I felt sickened by the idea, and from the pale look on James' face, he wasn't a fan of the idea, either.
"I don't want to think about it," James moaned and for a moment I thought he might be sick. I shook my head gently.
"She wouldn't, you don't think?" I questioned. My voice was barely loud enough for James to hear, and hear me he did. James looked even paler and leaned against the wall quickly.
"I'd hope not," James moaned. He closed his eyes for a second. "Look, I don't want anything bad happening to her. She's my baby sister. I just know that she's really naïve and I'd hate to think that he would take advantage of her. And he will."
"You don't know that," I protested. I mean, part of that was Slytherin pride, and part of that hoped that no one would ever take advantage of Lily. James raised an eyebrow at him.
"You did. You were her first real kiss, something she wouldn't even do with her boyfriend," James reminded him. Oh, yeah. Right. The kiss. I nodded hesitantly, unwillingly.
"Right," I said in an exhaled breath. "Good point."
"So, you have to do something," James practically begged. "I'd rather have you with her over him. At least give him a run for his money, will you?"
"I'll try!" I snapped. I would rather take angry words to the begging words of James Potter any day, especially over doing something about his sister. Before James could make any more requests of me, I stormed away. I had a broken heart because of one Potter, I wasn't going to be late because of another one.
I didn't know what James expected me to do about the whole thing. It wasn't like Lily would just accept me back into her arms, and she was still barely talking to me. Granted, I had been distant since Elena had told me be about Lily and Flint. I nearly asked Damon for help, but I couldn't bring myself to admit that I was clueless. I shouldn't have been, but I was.
Damon and I were walking to class later that week, discussing our upcoming Quidditch match against Gryffindor. I had to admit that the possibility that Lily would get to return to play against our rivals was a slight source of hope, a glimmer down the dark tunnel I felt like we were walking along. Damon nodded.
"Seriously, we'd have been better off if we had played with one less player," Damon said as we turned the corner to the long corridor. We both stopped short, and I felt like someone had punched me in the gut and stolen all of my precious air. Damon made a small sound and if I replied, I don't even know.
I couldn't look away at first, the image held me as if I couldn't make sense of it. Lily, so small in comparison to Flint, was standing against him, her head tilted all the way back. He had hunched over to meet her, and managed to scoop her up against him. They were kissing and it couldn't have been mistaken for anything but a passionate tongue-tying experience. I felt a wave of nausea rip through me, anger and disgust and pity all swirled around the wounded hurt feeling.
I turned and walked away, Damon on my heels. It was one thing to hear the rumors, to see them holding hands together and talking, but I just couldn't stomach her kissing him like that. Maybe if I had expected it, or had fair warning instead of swinging around a corner to see it, I would have fared better.
"Dude, you ok?" Damon asked and I glanced at him as I continued to hurry away. He took a step back, and I wondered what my face had looked like. I headed to the first restroom I could find and went to the sink. I tried to ignore the way that things were blurring, hoping that by ignoring them I wouldn't cry. I refused to look in the mirror before me, just clutched the sink for support and glared at the faucets. Damon waited without a word.
When I had composed myself better, we headed to our last Quidditch practice before our match against Gryffindor. I sat on the bench, readying myself when Flint came in, slamming things as he walked by. Whatever got his panties in a wad, he was pissed. He slammed the door to his office, kicked some stuff around, yelled at no one, and then came out. He swung the door open and glared around the now silent locker room.
"Griffon, you're back in the Gryffindor game," Flint growled.
"Why?!" a few players protested. Flint glared.
"Potter's been permanently benched," he snapped and headed back into the office, slamming the door again. I was certain that the glass would shatter in its frame, but they used that special wire reinforced window panes. Probably because of events like these, I'd think.
"Dude," Damon said as he closed his locker and a glimmer of hope welled up in my chest. Maybe Flint and Lily were fighting and that's why he benched her. It'd be a petty reason, but I was willing to live with it if there was trouble in paradise.
"Serious anger issues," I said almost giddy as the two of us headed out to the pitch. Griffon still sucked monkey balls. How he ever made it as a replacement player, I'll never understand. Sometimes I wondered if he was truly that stupid, or if he had to work at it. Sure, he could play a good beater when he focused, but it took so little for him to get distracted.
I didn't see Lily or Flint together, and I wasn't going to start asking around. That just would have been déclassé. I wouldn't do that. Still, I couldn't fight the hope that was building into a purring beast within my chest that maybe they were breaking up, and maybe she'd need a shoulder to cry on. I felt like skipping, which is very un-Malfoy. I didn't.
I entered the common room the morning before the match to see Lily and Flint already up, standing off to the side talking. Their body language was tense, and I wondered if this was it, if they were breaking up. I tried to make myself look unobtrusive, checking my watch and looking back at the dormitory door for Damon. All of my hope was dashed when Flint and Lily kissed, and a knife turned in my stomach, slowly. I decided not to wait for Damon and headed to breakfast depressed.
I sat there, glaring at my orange juice and bacon as Lily walked in the doors. I didn't look up, really, just caught a glimpse of her as I reached for the jam for my toast. She walked towards me and I refused the swell of hope in my stomach. Too much vanquished hope could kill a man, and I already sometimes wished that I was dead. She hesitated but continued on down the table where she normally sat with her friends. Sure enough, Kate, Shale, and a few other third year students arrived and sat down around her, effectively hiding her from me.
She pouted a bit, and I knew it was about the benching. I heard her making comments over the din of the great hall. She threw me a pleading look, almost as if she wanted me to talk to Flint and convince him. Her look said it all, words or not but I shook my head and refused to look at her. I did glance up when Flint strolled in, stopping to smile and plant a kiss on her forehead before making Shale scoot down and give him room. It pissed me off. Hope was an evil thing.
If she was annoyed by the permanent benching by game time, it didn't show. She sat with her friends and cheered for both sides like a crazy person, yelling and screaming loudly when both sides scored. When I scored, even knowing she cheered for all scores, a certain pride washed over me when I heard her scream my name excitedly.
I decided then that I would do whatever it took for her to be happy again, to be my friend. To hell with James Potter. He was her big brother. If he wanted Lily and Flint to break up and be no more, he could do it his damn self. If she was happy, truly happy, I would be ok with that. I thought about that, her happiness, and the wheels started turning on ways that I could fix things between us. If nothing else, I wanted Lily back as a friend.
"Get your head in the game, Malfoy," Flint shouted at me as he blocked a bludger, sending it racing toward James Potter. "I'll call a time out and replace you if I have to."
"No, I'm good," I growled at him, pulling my attention off of Lily. I refuse to have Flint remove me.
"Good," Flint shouted. "And stay away from Lily."
"Not a chance in hell," I challenged as I flew off. Flint wasn't going to keep me from trying to rectify things with Lily, her boyfriend or not. I raced around the pitch, playing hard. I scored several goal, partly to hear Lily cheer for me, partly because it was my duty as Chaser. I dodged the bludgers as best as I could, Griffon trying to keep up and to keep attentive. Griffon failed on one, distracted by something mundane, and a bludger clipped me. It stung a bit, but thankfully nothing was broken. I shouted something at Griffon who looked startled that I yelled at him. It was a hard game, the Gryffindors hell bent on not losing twice to them in one season.
We played our best.
Unfortunately, we lost by ten points. The disappointment dripped from us as we walked back from the pitch, mirrored in the steady drizzle that had cropped up un-expectantly. I hung back, stuck on broom duty, and watched as Lily congratulated her brother and cousin. She wrapped her arms around them with promises and deliveries of giant hugs before heading back towards the door of the locker room to wait for Flint. I passed her slowly, cautiously.
"Good game, Scorpius," Lily said quietly. I stopped and looked at her, hanging out just beyond the door that would lead me to a hot shower and dry, warm clothes. She smiled at me, touching my face before she realized what she was doing. My heart leaped in my chest, unexpectedly. Where she touched my face tingled with excitement. She blushed and pulled back. "How's your arm?"
"Good," I said as I looked down at the hand she had just used to touch my face; her fingers twitched slightly. I pulled my protective gear off, rolling up my sleeve to show her the slight bruise already forming. "It's not broken or anything."
"That's good," Lily said as she smiled again, that wonderful sun peeking from the clouds smile and she reached out, touching me again. Her fingers tracing the outline of the bruise. She grinned. "Shame we didn't win."
"Yeah," I said. I watched her shake the rain out of her hair. The simple action had my heart racing faster as I watched water trail down her neck and disappear between her skin and the collar of her shirt. "Why not wait for Flint inside?"
"Only players are allowed in the locker room," Lily reminded me quietly. She looked down, taking a shaky breath as if she was fighting some huge emotion. "I'm off the team."
"You are?" I exclaimed. I knew she had been benched, but completely kicked off the team? It was news to me.
"Yeah," Lily said. She frowned. "Even if I could have gotten cleared, I'm failing Herbology. I'm on academic expulsion for the rest of the season."
"How can you be failing Herbology?" I asked in confusion. Lily was bright and everyone loved her. She was a good student, and Professor Longbottom was supposedly a family friend of her parents. How in the hell did she fail Herbology? Lily shrugged.
"I stopped going to class," Lily shrugged. I stood there, in the rain, staring at her. I didn't believe it at first, but she didn't continue and I had to believe that it must have been true. She just stopped going to class. It was so unlike her. I thought on it a moment, carefully, slowly. I didn't particularly like Herbology, but I was making good marks. Maybe I could make this work to my advantage.
"How about this," I said mustering my nerve. "I'm not a fan of Herbology, but since there's not going to be any celebrating going on tonight in Slytherin, how about I try to help you get at least a passing grade."
"Ok," Lily said after a second. I fought the urge to be surprised that she agreed. It was then that I realized that I had been so sure that she would turn me down. "Sure. I mean, Professor Longbottom is being really cool about it, if I can make up all the work he won't even tell my parents."
"Sounds like a plan," I said forcing my voice to be even. "Say we meet in 30 minutes in the library?"
"Sure," Lily said grinning. I glanced up at the sky, trying to fight the urge to beam like a fool in love. I didn't want to let on to her that this would be good for me as it was for her.
"Come inside before you catch a cold," I said quietly. I reached out without another word and took her hand in my, pulling her towards the doors to the locker room. "I won't tell."
I almost wished that I hadn't brought her in the locker room. Flint was there, in various states of clean but undressed. I looked away as Flint embraced her, kissing Lily in a way that I could only wish I could repeat on those soft, damp lips. I hauled it towards the showers, certain that there wasn't a single lick of hot water left. I was right. I shower, scrubbed, and shaved. I would look perfect, I decided. Give her a physical reminder, a scent reminder, of who I was. I felt a little silly for a moment, wondering if I was making too big of a deal about this. It was, after all, only studying. I headed towards the main locker area, and stopped. I pressed myself into the shadows; Lily and Flint's voices were hushed but upset sounding and if it was bad, I didn't want to catch wrath from either of them.
"Look, Lily, I told you I'd keep it up for as long as the ruse remained intact," Flint said quietly. I couldn't see them from where I was hiding, but I could hear them and Flint sounded defeated.
"I didn't break the ruse, Malvo," Lily protested with a thick voice, and I knew she'd had been crying, was crying, or would be crying soon. It ached in me, the knowledge of that voice.
"I know," Flint said quietly.
"I don't understand," Lily said.
"Look, Lily, I did something really stupid, ok? I shouldn't have agreed to this, I should have known better," Flint told her quietly. I wanted to peek around the corner, but I didn't. I didn't want to interrupt and I didn't want to be seen.
"Everything is going great, Malvo, really," Lily said. "Everyone thinks it is true."
"That's the problem, Lily," Flint said frustrated. He lowered his voice so that I had to strain to hear him. "I want it to be true."
"What?" Lily finally asked. I wanted to ask the same thing. I thought that they were together, and it seemed at that moment that there was more to it.
"Look, Lily. I told you, I'd pretend to be your boyfriend to keep the guys away from you unless the ruse became less of a ruse," Flint said very quietly. It was getting hard to hear, and also impossible to not want to hear. "Honestly, I thought that you'd fall for me and I'd have to decide to end it. I never, not once, in a million years have thought that I'd fall for you so completely. You're thirteen years old. I turn eighteen tomorrow. That alone should have knocked some sense in me, kept my feelings at bay. I can't let this continue, Lily." I didn't know what his expression was, but I could guess, having fallen in love with her over and over myself. I knew that feeling, how good it felt, and how much it hurt.
"But… you said," Lily mumbled.
"I said I'd keep it up until it fell apart," Flint told her quietly.
"You fell for me?" Lily asked uncertainly.
"Yeah," Flint said. I closed my eyes, wondering if things would change for them, if she'd give herself fully to Flit now that she knew he would be in it for the long haul if she wanted.
"Why's that so bad?" Lily asked suddenly. It was as if the air had been sucked from the locker room, I couldn't breathe. She was opening herself up to him, giving him everything short of permission with that. I felt a cold hand crush my heart. Flint would take the open, I knew it. I never had a chance.
"Because I know you don't feel the same way," Flint said finally after what seemed like a long, tortured silence. "You may not see it but you're crazy about someone else."
"I can pretend," Lily insisted. "I've been doing great so far."
"What kind of guy would that make me?" Flint said in a cool laughter.
"Malvo, please," Lily begged and it made me cringe. "Don't break up with me. Wait until the summer."
"No," Flint said firmly. I wondered how strong his resolve was, because had it been me, I'd have crumbled under it and given her whatever her heart desired at that very moment.
"Why not?" She breathed and I knew she didn't trust her voice anymore to speak. She was crying.
"Because, damn it Lily I don't want to pretend to be in love with you," Flint said angrily. He slammed a locker and it made me jump. "I thought I could do it, that's the only reason I let this thing go public in the first place. I told you I did a stupid thing. It wasn't falling in love with you. It was thinking that you'd fall in love with me too."
"H-how long?" Lily asked with a shaky voice.
"How long what?" Flint asked crossly.
"Have you felt this way? How long have you l-loved me?" Lily asked. Her voice was low, a whisper almost, and I was certain that she was definitely crying.
"I was attracted to you from day one of Quidditch practice," Flint said regretfully. "Had I not been, I probably wouldn't have even thought of letting you try out. I already wanted you when we won the first game. I was in love with you the day you got hit with the bludger in the game against Ravenclaw."
"Then why did you agree?!" Lily asked him shrilly. Anger was good, very good. It got me through some hard times, and with Lily reverting to angry, tear choked words, maybe she'd be ok.
"I thought you might see me the same way I see you," Flint said regretfully. "You pretended well enough, but I could tell it when I kissed you. You're not in love with me. At least not like I am with you."
"Please don't do this," Lily begged. I hated that she begged, mainly because she wasn't begging to stay with me, but Flint.
"If you want, we can tell everyone that you broke up with me," Flint said coldly. He sounded like he was trying to hide his own emotions behind anger. How easily we hid behind our anger to not share how we were really feeling.
"Malvo, this isn't what I want," Lily said.
"I'm sorry if this is hurting you, Lily," Flint said, his voice warmer. "I never wanted to hurt you. Trust me, for as much as this is hurting you, it's killing me."
"Please," Lily begged again. I dared to peek, still hidden in the shadows as I edged around to see Flint drop his book bag by the door and rush her. He scooped her up roughly and kissed her. I felt jealousy well up in me, the heat of his kiss with Lily tangible. I was careful to stay hidden as I watched Flint pull away slightly.
"Tell me you felt anything like I feel," he challenged with his voice thick. I knew that thickness, hidden from it time and time again. Whatever he saw on her face must have confirmed it for him, because I slipped back into the shadows as he nodded and put Lily back on her feet. "Don't worry, Lily. You'll survive this, and we'll always have the Shrieking Shack."
"So, that's it then?" she said angrily.
"Yeah," he said. Flint sounded further as he walked away from her. I didn't dare to look as I heard the door open. "You'll invite me to your wedding, though?"
"You're such a masochist," Lily laughed through her tears.
"You'd better get a move on," he said to her quietly. "I hope Malfoy has a better chance than I did."
"It's not like that," Lily protested as her voice moved away from me. I heard the door slam and I waited, listening for anyone else. I peeked around the corner, thankful that they were gone and I checked my watch as I hurried to get my back pack out of my locker. I had ten minutes to get to the library, and much to my surprise, I was eager. Hope was crawling out of that dark place inside of me and encouraging me. I hoped it wasn't all for naught and a ghostly squeeze silently promised that it wasn't.