Chapter Thirty Six

A/N: No reviewers.

The summer sun dried Lily's tears, as the moment they stepped off the train, Scorpius was by her side again, chattering in her ear about all the plans he had for their holidays. He was so animated, so un-Scorpius-like, that she could not help but laugh each time he made a suggestion, and he laughed along with her, their hands twined together as if they would never let go.

And they hardly did. Over the next two months, not a day went by without Lily having some sort of contact with her boyfriend, whether they saw each other or, on the one week Harry and Ginny had insisted on getting away for a bit, wrote letters every day. It was as if they were already preparing themselves for the hardships to come.

But no amount of preparation would make it easier when it came. It was the end of August, and the pair sat together in the gardens of Malfoy Manor, having found a quiet, hidden spot to be alone. The heat made the smell of the flowers even stronger, a perfume that threatened to overtake Lily's senses, and the pollen in the air prickled at her eyes. At least, that was what she would have said if anyone asked her.

"Have you got everything ready for school?" Scorpius asked. It was a pointless question, one he neither wanted nor cared to hear the answer to, but anything was better than silence.

"I went to Diagon Alley last week, with Caitlyn." Lily answered monotonously, looking out into the distance. "She spent about half an hour in Flourish and Blotts fawning over the latest crime thriller release, I grabbed a copy of Celestina Warbeck's new biography for my grandma. I was going to get something for you, but I didn't know if you'd have much time for reading when you're at the Ministry."

And thus, the tension returned to the air, not that it had left for long. Scorpius had hoped they could avoid this conversation, to have one last day of peace together; of course that was never going to happen.

"Lil, I know this isn't going to be easy." Scorpius stated. He reached out tentatively to take his girlfriend's hand, a little worried that she would snatch it away from him. As it happened, the girl did not pull away, though she did not clutch his fingers the way she usually did. "We're going to be in different countries, technically, and we're hardly going to see each other. But we can find a way to make it work. I mean, think about how many relationships started at Hogwarts. Your parents, my grandparents. They managed to stick together this long, why not us?"

Lily wanted so badly to listen to him, to throw away all her fears and just believe what he was telling her, but the nagging voice in her head still would not stop.

"The thing is, Scorpius," Lily began. Her tongue felt heavy in her mouth. "Everything was different then. My parents stayed together even that young because they'd been through so much together. They fought in a war, both of them almost died in it, and it… fused them together. As for your grandparents, they had no choice. Their marriage was arranged between their families, they couldn't have walked away from it if they tried."

"And your point is?" Scorpius was smiling that same roguish smirk Lily had grown to love about him. "Granted, they were kind of extreme circumstances, but that doesn't mean things wouldn't have worked out for them if they were just like us. Place and time don't matter, Lily; it's the people."

The redhead could not help herself. The moment he had finished speaking, she leant across the bench, pouring all her emotions into a wonderful kiss. She could feel Scorpius smile against her lips, wrapping his arms around her waist, holding her like he would never let her go.

But he had to, eventually, and it was far more poignant than the small gesture should have been. Scorpius tried to cover the tension with another laugh, and Lily loved him enough for it that it almost worked.

"I tell you what," the boy began, changing tactic. "I'll come and meet you in Hogsmeade at the end of October. We can go to The Three Broomsticks, have a walk around the village. I'll even give you my chocolate frog card, if mine's better. What do you think?"

Lily laughed, managing to blink back her tears as Scorpius clutched her hand, stroking his thumb across her knuckles. "That sounds great."

The boy smiled, glad to see his girlfriend laugh again. Of course, he knew the gesture was more to please him than to express her own emotions, but the light seemed to have returned to her eyes, even if it was still a little dimmer than he wanted. Slowly, he leant forward, pressing another chaste kiss to her lips.

"I'm never going to leave you, Lil. I love you." He whispered, only an inch or two from her own lips. He was not sure whether she heard him or not, because Lily settled her head into his shoulder without speaking another word, but he was sure that she knew it, whether she heard him speak the words or not.

When the train whistled its warning on Platform 9 ¾, barely a week later, Lily threw her arms around him again. She had already bid her parents and brothers goodbye- James a little earlier, for he had still been lounging in bed and could not be roused even to wave his sister off for her final year- and they had been understanding enough to give her a moment with Scorpius.

"Go on, you're going to miss the train." The boy sighed, reluctantly extracting himself from her arms. Lily looked up, determined to keep the tears out of her eyes- at least until she was out of his sight.

"Yeah." She agreed, picking up her trunk with a watery smile and making her way towards the nearest carriage door. She was already on board when she stopped and turned, looking left and right to spot him before he got away. Of course, he had not moved an inch, not yet. "Scorpius?"

She had not needed to catch his attention, but he humoured her nonetheless. "What is it?"

The final whistle sounded, drowning out almost all sound as the doors slammed shut. But Scorpius had been listening so intently that he heard the four words anyway. "I love you too."

A/N: Sooo mushy, but hope you liked it anyway. Will it all be plain sailing for these two, now that they're so happy? Well… would that be fun? Please review!