Chapter Twenty Two

A/N: No reviewers.

The celebrations of the new year lasted long into the morning, but after they were done, people returned to their day-to-day lives as if nothing had happened, just as they always did. However, Lily found herself unable to do the same. For her life was no longer the simple day-to-day routine she had always known. Something was different.

Time after time, Lily had replayed the first moments of the year inside her head. The cheers, the fireworks, the unbridled joy... and Scorpius' kiss. In truth, she had spared the majority of her thoughts for the kiss.

But try as she might, the young girl could think of no possible reasons why Scorpius would do such a thing. He was the heir of the Malfoy family and she was, by half her blood, a Weasley. She was not even the prettiest of the bunch, her cousins by her Uncle Bill and his French wife Fleur having that advantage by far. So why her?

It was a question she had a great deal of time to ponder over, as she spent the majority of the Christmas holidays alone. James had gone off with his friends on some trip into London, wanting to emphasise how supposedly grown-up he was in comparison to his siblings, while Albus had become even more reserved than usual. It was this that Lily had found confusing; she and Albus had always been close, so why had that changed now?

She had tried to confront him about it on the train to Hogwarts, but he had disappeared quickly to sit with the other Slytherins, knowing his sister was not willing to venture into that viper's nest only to have a chat with him, however important that chat may be. Instead, she remained in her own House's carriages and located another boy that could help her.

"What's the matter, Lil?" Teddy asked her, placing a hand gently on her shoulder. Teddy was more of an older brother to Lily than James was; she knew she could trust him to tell her the truth.

"At Granny's New Year party, something happened." Lily began. She realised she was being a little cryptic, but had not yet had the chance to think through what she was going to say. "And I don't really understand... why it happened."

"What happened?" Teddy questioned, his brow furrowing. That was when Lily realised her mistake. The Death Eaters, in the Battle of Hogwarts, had been responsible for the death of Remus and Nymphadora Lupin, Teddy's parents. Since then, he had despised anyone with a connection to the perpetrators of their deaths.

But there was no one else she could turn to. 'I hope he'll be fine.' she thought to herself, biting her lip slightly. 'He can hardly blame someone who wasn't born when the Battle took place, just because of what family they were born into.' And so, though she had not managed to convince herself, Lily pressed forward.

"Scorpius Malfoy kissed me." It was only after she had spoken that Lily realised she had been a bit too blunt, but there was nothing she could do about that now.

Teddy's face clouded over, his expression comparable to a winter storm. Behind his tightly-closed lips, Lily could see Teddy's clenched jaw, his mouth trembling as he tried to control his anger. He failed.

"He did what?!" the boy exclaimed. "He came onto you? I'll kill him!"

"No, Teddy!" Lily cried out, knowing that her father's godchild did not make idle threats. "It wasn't anything like that. He didn't... try anything. He just gave me an innocent kiss at midnight, that was all. The thing is... I don't understand is why he chose me."

For a moment, they were silent, but that moment soon passed. Teddy took a few calming breaths, trying to forget the identity of the boy in question and focus instead on giving helpful advice.

"Maybe it's just because you're Albus' sister." Teddy offered and Lily briefly thought that this could be the answer. Alas, a minute was all it took for her to realise that the truth was not so simple.

"Or maybe... he likes me." she ventured, wincing a little at Teddy's reaction; he had flinched as though he had been slapped. It was clear that the notion of a Malfoy being attracted to the girl he thought of as a sister was too much for him to handle.

"Lily, I think you're reading too much into this." Teddy told her. "He's rich, good-looking and has girls swarming around him like bees on a honey pot. Why would he go for his best friend's quiet mousy little sister?"

This time, it was Lily's turn to flinch. Teddy had never been so blunt when speaking to her. Even if the truth was a hard thing to take, he had always sugar-coated it for her, trying to make it seem not as bad as it was. Now, though, his words were like knives, sharper than ever when she thought of the fact that they were true.

Lily considered making a cutting remark towards Teddy, to hurt him as he had hurt her, but she could not bring herself to do it. She had never been able to hurt someone just for the sake of it; she had never understood how people could do such a thing. Perhaps that was the reason why she was a Hufflepuff. 'Then again, Teddy is a Hufflepuff as well, and he doesn't seem to have any trouble hurting people's feelings.' she thought bitterly.

Instead, she stood silently and left the carriage, wandering along the corridor to try and find someone else she could sit with. Teddy called for her to come back, but she did not listen. She passed James, joking around with his Gryffindor pals, and decided that she would only be teased sat with him. She passed Caitlyn, but she seemed to be flirting with a Ravenclaw second-year... or at least attempting to. She passed Albus, but did not even consider sitting with him, for Scorpius Malfoy occupied the seat opposite the vacant one.

In the end, Lily found a cabin of silent strangers and took a seat in there. Silence was not much good for her, as it gave her too much opportunity to consider her thoughts, but anything was better than the alternatives. 'It doesn't seem like I'll have many people I can speak to for a while.' Lily realised. 'So I guess that silence is something I'll just have to get used to.'

A/N: Please review!