Chapter Thirty

A/N: Thanks to mgeg2005 and imdefinitelynotaserialkiller for reviewing. I'll sort it out soon, I promise!

The school term drew to a close not long after, the bright lights of Christmas beckoning them home again. But Lily did not experience the same joy that the others did, singing carols and laughing at corny jokes. It hurt to even look at them, having such fun, and the shards of her heart cut at her chest.

When they had officially become a couple, Lily and Scorpius had had a long conversation about Christmas, the different ways their families celebrated and the little holiday traditions that had governed their upbringings. They had even planned to take the Floo to London, to see the lights on Oxford Street. Lily had never been so excited for anything in all her life. And now it was not going to happen.

Lily sat in the carriage of the Hogwarts Express, pretending to listen as Caitlyn spoke of her plans for the holidays. She was trying to be a distraction, rather than being insensitive, but the redhead did not appreciate the effort. She just wanted to be left in peace with her thoughts.

The young woman barely noticed when her best friend stopped speaking, but a swift kick in the shin caught her attention. She turned to Caitlyn, then to the doorway, trying to gauge what all the fuss was about. If there was one person she had not wanted to see standing there, it was Albus.

"Cait, can we have a minute?" the boy asked, smiling his most charming smile. It was not a particularly pleasant smile, actually, but it was the best the shy young man could muster.

Caitlyn looked at Lily out of the corner of her eye. "Actually, I'm alright here, Albus, if you don't mind. Me and Lily are kind of in the middle of something."

"What? Staring into space and pretending to listen?" Lily sometimes wondered if her brother was a Legilimens. He always seemed to know exactly what she was thinking. "Please, Lily. It's important."

Those words made her even less inclined to oblige, but she nodded at her best friend nonetheless. Caitlyn made a huge show of sighing and swinging herself to her feet, leaving the cabin in search of someone else to talk to. This was going to take a while.

Albus seated himself opposite Lily the moment her best friend had left, tilting his head slightly to the side, the way he always did when something was wrong. Their mother did it too. So did Lily.

"What happened?" Albus asked, his voice far gentler now. He did not need to give any further detail; Lily knew there was only one thing he could mean.

"Me and Scorpius, we're done." she answered. It was the most simplified explanation she could offer. "We were happy, we were going to go to Hogsmeade together, planning loads of things for Christmas… and I threw all that away."

"Lily, it's not your fault." Her elder brother was trying his best to comfort her, but Lily only scoffed.

"Of course it is." she protested. "If I hadn't started saying stuff about how I didn't want Dad to find out, we never would have broken up. I made a stupid mistake and now it's cost me everything. I should have just kept my mouth shut."

"Lily, you're being melodramatic." Albus chastised, as if she were a toddler throwing a tantrum. "Don't you remember what Mum's always telling us? If you create a problem, then you can solve it."

"But I didn't create the problem, Al." Lily stressed. She was becoming more and more frustrated with her brother, though she knew deep down she was being unreasonable; whether he claimed she was innocent or at fault, she would find fault in his words. "Dad hates Draco Malfoy more than almost anyone in the world. He never would have accepted me and Scorpius."

"And how do you know that if you never even asked him?" Lily opened her mouth to retort, but quickly closed it again. She could not argue against her brother this time. There was no argument to be had.

"Al, I've really messed this up, haven't I?" she asked. She felt almost like the little girl that had trailed behind her brother, looking to him for guidance, because he seemed to offer a more attainable goal than the adults decades older than herself. "I've pushed away a boy that I really love and I don't know how to get him back without pushing away Dad, who I also really love. I can't pick between them."

"Then tell that to Dad." Albus suggested. He did not sound judgemental or superior; he just sounded like a brother. "When we get home, be honest and tell him you're in love with Scorpius. If he really loves you, he's not going to stop just because your boyfriend is the son of his old rival. And trust me, Lil, Dad really, really loves you."

"And you really think that love will be enough to overcome this?" For many years, Lily had been a romantic, enamoured with the simplicity of the idea that love could conquer any adversity. She had thought that part of herself was gone, but a glimmer inside her made her think that perhaps that was not the case.

Albus smirked, his kind eyes meeting her own. "It was for you."

Realising his part was played, the boy wrapped an arm around his sister's shoulders, offering her a brief comforting embrace before he left the cabin, shutting the door firmly behind him, in case Caitlyn should try to make an immediate reappearance.

Once she was alone, Lily turned to face the window, watching the countryside roll by. It seemed peaceful somehow, even with a fierce wind whipping through the grass, the gusts carrying the sparse remaining leaves on the distant trees in an intricate dance. The girl had always found herself looking for emotions in nature, seeing the invisible made evident, just as love was through actions. 'Maybe nature's trying to tell me something.' she thought idly, watching the leaves as they disappeared into the distance. 'Maybe it's trying to tell me not to give up.'

For some reason, it felt simpler to obey an invisible force than it was to obey her family and friends around her. Perhaps it was because she knew the truth of what she saw in the natural world. She saw love because she felt it, and it carried on dancing across the wind because she still wanted it to.

A/N: Sorry for the randomness of the ending, it just kind of happened! Anyway, hope you enjoyed! Please review!