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Chapter Seven: Won't Go Home Without You (Maroon 5)
Joining her cousin and two best friends at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, Lily flashed a quick smile at Elle before scanning the room for the object of her desire. Not surprisingly, Cherry and Scorpius were sitting together on the other side of the giant room, laughing at the conversation they were having with Roland.
After their conversation on the roof of the Astronomy Tower, Lily had found herself less jealous of the attention Scorpius was giving the thin blonde. It had been stupid to have any sort of envy where Cherry was concerned and, like he always had, the blonde boy had taught her this without even realizing it. The comment he had made about her love for him returning changed something inside of her, turning her entire outlook on life positive.
If anyone deserved to be happy, it was Lily, who was doing so much for a girl she had once despised. And the only way her life would ever be complete is if Scorpius Malfoy. But it wasn't as if she was just going run back to him, for it would be extremely juvenile and stupid of her to trust him willingly. She had promised herself to be logical when it came to the Slytherin, but to also stay open minded when he tried to fix things between them.
As if he realized she was thinking about him, Scorpius caught eyes with her, his face lighting up with a brilliant smile. Butterflies formed in the redhead's stomach, yet she smiled back shyly and sent him a half-wave. Playing hard-to-get wasn't going to be as easy as she had hoped. Spotting the Slytherin girl watch the exchange with unease and jealous, Lily pulled herself back to what was going on at the table she was actually sitting at.
"I'm not saying that you aren't intelligent, Elle. But seven inch heels weren't the smartest thing to wear when tracking through the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid." Hugo grinned as he teased the girl, waving his fork as he spoke. "This is why I always say to never get dressed without me. You have a gay best friend, use me."
Shaking her head humorously, Lily picked apart a dinner roll that sat in the center of her plate. The opening of the Great Hall doors interrupted the students' dinner as everyone turned to watch Headmaster Weasley, Ginny and Harry Potter stride into the giant room.
Albus, who sat with Rose a few feet away from their siblings, caught eyes with his sister, worry obvious in his green eyes. He didn't know any more about their parents' sudden arrival than Lily, but the anxiety that it might have something to do with his prior visit coursed through him. Despite popular belief, Albus didn't enjoy getting his siblings in trouble and he feared that he might have managed to do as much without even trying.
Harry scanned the room as he followed his brother-in-law through the sea of students, occasionally catching glimpses of teenagers that he recognized because of their parents. Finally laying eyes on his daughter as he reached the front of the Great Hall, the man sighed deeply and motioned for her to join him.
Reluctantly, Lily wound through the room to where her parents stood, refusing to look at her fellow students for fear of letting them see the embarrassment tinging her cheeks a bright pink. How could he make such a large spectacle in front of the very people she had to live with on a daily basis? She hoped that he would at least have the decency to discipline her out of the public eye.
No one spoke as the redhead reached her parents, casting her darkly lined eyes to the ground when she saw the horror in her mother's eyes as she took in the drastic change in her hair. What had once seemed like a defiant, bad ass decision, now made her feel stupid and childish. Relief coursed through her as her father half-smiled down at her before turning to leave the silent room in order to speak to her.
As Lily walked, she kept her gaze pointed straight ahead, not aware of the worried expression plastered to Scorpius' face. Only the shock of Cherry's cool hand on his forearm kept him from following the tiny family, wanting to protect the redhead from whatever punishment she was sure to get.
Turning to face his daughter the moment the giant, wooden doors closed behind him, Harry let his eyes scan over 'the damage'. When he found none, a loud sigh escaped his lips. "It was brought to my attention that a new life is going to soon be brought into this world. For a moment, I had the thought that it was my daughter, but then I remembered how intelligent the young woman I raised was and I knew it couldn't have been you. I'm pleased to find that I was right for once."
Ginny rolled her eyes at her husband's dramatic word choice, reaching out to touch the edges of the straight, rusty locks of hair brushing her daughter's shoulders. "Hush, Harry. We raised her well enough that she knows how to make her own decisions."
"I'm sorry, Mum. My hair- I just needed a change, a way to start over. It wasn't meant to hurt you." Lily hadn't thought about the repercussions of her actions when she had asked Hugo to chop off her hair, never imagining that it would bother her mother as much as it did.
To her surprise, Ginny smiled brightly, all traces of sadness disappearing from her familiar face. "There's no need for apologies, dear. For any of the things you have done. The pregnant girl knows how much you have helped her and I imagine even Scorpius has showed his gratitude."
Rolling her eyes, Lily let herself relax as she realized that she wasn't in trouble. "Everyone is helping out with the baby. I was just one of the first people told."
"I'm so proud of you, Lily Luna. Just don't let yourself get drawn into his tricks again." Harry spoke in whispers as if mentioning Scorpius would make him appear in the hallway.
Too bad she was already falling for him all over again.
"What do you mean she's suddenly a lesbian?" Roland asked the ceiling rather than turn to speak to the thin boy standing at the end of the bed. He lay on Hugo's bed, his dark hair splayed across the white pillows as he listened to the sounds of the younger boy digging around in his trunk. "Did she just decide this or has she just been waiting to come out?"
Popping up from the floor, Hugo shrugged. "I think she's known for a while, but didn't have the courage. She decided to talk to me about it, for obvious reasons."
Roland nodded, sitting up and pulled his boyfriend onto the bed next to him. Winding their fingers together, both teenagers lay, staring at the ceiling in silence. With their best friends occupied with the upcoming birth of Cherry's baby, Roland and Hugo had been able to spend a lot of time with just each other.
The night before, when the younger boy had been sitting in the Great Hall, it had come to his realization that this would be Roland's last year at Hogwarts. Sudden terror had struck him, causing him to physically shake with the fear of losing the most important thing in his life.
He wasn't sure how to bring up his worries to the brunette, but as they lay on the dark sheets of his bed, the words began to flow. "What are we going to do about next year? I'll be stuck here and you- I can't lose you."
"Babe," Roland turned to stare until the younger boy's avoiding eyes would meet his. "I'll always be around. Besides, we don't even know if I'll be able to graduate this year."
Due to the boy's lack of drive over the past seven years, it had come to his attention that there was a definite danger of being held back from graduating. He had learned from James Potter how much it would suck to waste another year of life at Hogwarts.
Sighing softly, Hugo shook his head. "You'll graduate. I have faith in you. I just- Are we going to stay together?"
It was a question that had been screaming inside of his mind for days, but now he wasn't sure he wanted to hear the answer. Clearly, the homosexual couple loved each other, but was it enough to keep them together for the two years they would have to be apart?
As if he could hear the younger boy's thoughts, Roland chuckled. "I hate to break it to you, my dear, but you're stuck with me. Forever."
A soft green hue tinted Lily's face as she strolled through the Herbology Greenhouses, her fingers brushing the slick, damp leaves of each plant. Now that the entire student body knew about Scorpius' child and that Lily had decided to help him with it, there was a constant whisper filling the silence that she tried to surround herself with. Even the grounds of Hogwarts, where the redhead used to take comfort in strolling alone, was now littered with gossiping teenagers.
It was there, walking among the plants, that Scorpius found Lily. At first, he stood out-of-sight, listening to the soft hums escaping her lips. Eventually Lily caught a glimpse of his blonde hair and, trying to act calmer than she was, stepped into his immediate line of sight. "Do you need something? Or do you just really enjoy stalking ex-girlfriends?" Shrugging, Scorpius turned to leave the Greenhouse, but was stopped a reluctant sigh. "I didn't say that you had to leave."
"You really should make up your mind, Potter." Scorpius smirked, leaning against a tall cabinet filled with fertilizer, managing to look cooler than ever. "Because I don't believe that you want me to go away, now do you?" He stepped forward, pinning the girl to the cabinet with his arms on either side of her head. The fright in Lily's eyes almost broke the charade, but he fought against it.
Suddenly recognizing the games he was playing with her, Lily huffed. "To be left alone would be the best thing to happen to me in a long time. But you never were one for giving people what they actually want."
This managed to shatter every ounce of confidence Scorpius had mustered up, resulting in his surrender. Dropping his hands, the blonde raked his fingers through his hair. "If that's what you want." He turned to leave, but stopped. "I don't blame you for hating me, Lily. I'd hate me too."
"I don't hate you." The comment was a delayed whisper, reaching the tall boy just as he reached the door leading away from the girl that had once loved him more than life itself. The redhead waited until their eyes were connected before she continued, "It would be so much easier if I did, but I can't. We were friends too, whether you want to admit it or not. That was the worst part about losing you."
She had never referred to the break-up as her losing Scorpius, always letting him take the guilt of their separation. It was enough to fill the blonde with hope, "We can still be friends, Lil. Let me prove myself to you again."
How could he expect her trust to return that quickly? It wasn't that Lily was trying to make things hard for the blonde, but he had ruined the very possibility of her trusting someone outside of her inner circle again. But before she could explain this, her heart betrayed her in the largest of ways. "If you can recognize boundaries, we can try being friends."
The excited look on Scorpius' face stopped her from backtracking and she was quickly pulled into a tight hug. Whispering down into her ear, the blonde ran his hands over her back. "You won't regret it."
Please, don't be lying.
A shrill ringing woke Cherry from her afternoon slumber, forcing her to stumble over dirty clothes to reach the cell phone. She had found herself more exhausted as the months passed, creating an incredible rise in her sleeping hours. It was as if the child growing inside of her was drinking up every ounce of energy she could muster.
Smashing the cold piece of plaster to her face, Cherry collapsed to the floor in exhaustion. "Hello?"
"You sound horrible." The pregnant girl's younger sister, Marnie, spoke from the other end of the phone, her voice laced with worry. "Why do you feel the need to lie about how exhausted you are?"
Cherry shrugged, realized that the younger girl couldn't see her, and cleared the raspy tone from her throat. "I've been busy with homework and things. There's no need to be bitchy, Squirt."
The childhood nickname made both girls smile, breaking the tension between them. Marnie was the first to speak after a few minutes of peaceful silence, "Are you sure you want to do this? It's your baby too."
Did the blonde really want to abandon the very thing linking her to the person that she loved? That was exactly why she needed to do it, to get as far away from Scorpius Malfoy as possible. The poison that coursed through her only managed to ruin every relationship she had ever had.
Nodding to herself, Cherry whispered. "Once I have the baby, I'll stay long enough to keep Scorpius off of my case. Then I'll leave. Once and for all."
It was what needed to be done.
"Come in." Percy's voice sounded from within the office, beyond the wooden door Roland stood behind. Pushing it open, the muscular brunette entered the room cautiously. He couldn't count how many time he had been called to this office, given detention for whatever crime he had committed that week, but never had he ascended the stairs out of his own want.
Standing awkwardly in the doorway, Roland waited until the older Weasley looked up from the papers he had been shuffling around on his desk. If the man was surprised, he didn't show it, just motioned for the seventeen year old to take a seat in front of him. Once settled, Roland shifted his gaze around the room in order to prolong speaking.
Percy watched a nervous tick cause the brunette's leg to bounce uncontrollably. It was as if the boy couldn't sit still in front of adults, like he was preparing to bolt out of the room at any moment. Leaning forward in his chair, the Headmaster's curiosity drove him to bluntness. "What did you need, Mr. Stone? I can't imagine that you've come to turn yourself in for something.
This managed to make the teenager chuckle, his entire body visibly relaxing. "No, actually. I'm a good boy this year, haven't you heard? I came by to see how damaged my reputation is."
Surprise flashed across the redhead's face, but was quickly concealed. "Well let's take a look." Crossing the room to ascend a short set of stairs, Percy disappeared into the upper level of the office. Almost five minutes later, the Headmaster returned with a file so thick that he couldn't hold it in one hand. "What exactly are you looking to accomplish by knowing this?"
"I need to graduate this year. And since I haven't exactly taken the past six years seriously, it's better to start late rather than never." Roland shifted in his seat, his fingers itching with the need to reach out and snatch the file away from the older man. Instead, his leg began to bounce twice as fast as before, his tan fingers raking through his dark hair. "What do you see?"
Eyes flickering up to take in his nephew's boyfriend, Percy smiled to himself. Something had changed within Roland Stone that was for the better and it was exciting to see. "I see a desperate man that wants to better himself. As for your chances of graduating," The redhead looked down to finger through the papers again. "under normal circumstance there would be no way for you to gain enough ground in order to graduate with your class."
Deflating, Roland cursed under his breath. He should have known that it would be too late for him to better himself. Why should he even try? For Hugo. The words had been repeated in his mind a million times over the past week. "So there's nothing I can do?"
"You misheard me, Mr. Stone. I said under normal circumstances, which these are not." Grinning at the seventeen year old, Percy slammed the folder shut. "There's always a way."
Lily sat in the slowly emptying common room, anticipation flowing through her. Twenty minutes prior, she had been sitting on her bed, conversing with Elle about nothing in particular, when Scorpius had emailed her. After begging her for fifteen minutes, the blonde had talked Lily into helping him write the Potions essay that was due tomorrow.
Elle, who had been acting as Hugo's sidekick in protecting Lily, was very reluctant to let her leave the dorm room. She didn't trust Scorpius Malfoy any farther than she could throw him, he had ruined that for her at the beginning of the school year. Eventually, the redhead had managed to slip from the room and down into the common room.
The portrait of the Fat Lady swung open, revealing a pair of giggling second years. Meeting each other's eyes as Scorpius followed into the room, the girls squealed when he smiled at them. Lily couldn't help but laugh, the Prince of Slytherin still had his wooing powers.
Silence filled the common room as the blonde's eyes scanned the room for Lily. When he found her, his smile widened and he crossed to sit beside her at the wooden table. "I can't explain to you how in your debt I am."
"Yeah, yeah. That's nothing new." The tone of her voice was sharp and judgmental, but her blue eyes sparkled with the humor of the situation. "Let's get started."
Listening to the whispers hissing around the room, Scorpius shook his bangs in front of his face. No one seemed too pleased that the enemy was among them, curses and vulgar comments swirling around him. Under normal circumstances, he would have used force to put an end to the conversations, but instead he yanked parchment out of his bag. If he was going to make Lily see that he was serious about them being together, he needed to push aside all the bad things that surrounded him at all times.
Shifting closer to the redhead, Scorpius scrawled his name in the corner of the paper. "Ready."
"I think we're done." Lily said through a yawn, her eyes skimming the paper lay out in front of Scorpius. She stood behind him, leaning over his shoulder in order to see the handiwork they had produced over the last two hours. The common room had emptied long ago, leaving the pair to work in peace.
For a moment, the redhead let herself think that things were normal again. Imagining that Scorpius, her boyfriend yet again, had asked for her help on a Sunday night, but really only wanted to spend time with her. It didn't take long for thoughts of Cherry and the baby to invade her paradise though, ruining the happiness that she hadn't felt in a long time. If she didn't give in to the fantasies, then there was no harm. Right?
Scorpius was hyper-aware of the physical contact, his breath picking up as he began to shove papers into his bag. "Thank you again. It means a lot."
Nodding as she stepped back from behind his chair, Lily slipped her thumbs into her back pockets. "You're welcome. That's what friends do, right?" A sexy smirk was plastered to her face as she walked the blonde to the common room entrance, pulling it open in a silent farewell.
Mirroring the redhead's smirk, Scorpius let his body fall against the entrance wall. "If that's really want you want to be, then yes. But I think we both know what I want."
He knew immediately that he had pushed the issue to far, Lily's face hardening as she pushed him out into the hall. The Fat Lady sneered at him, only adding to his embarrassment. Running his fingers through his hair, Scorpius turned to stroll towards the stairs.
Inside the dimly lit common room, Lily's back was pressed to the entrance door, butterflies beating inside of her stomach. As she forced herself to breathe slowly, thoughts of what could be invaded her mind, pushing away all traces of common sense.
Friends. The word didn't seem to describe the kind of relationship she wanted with the Slytherin. Things were bound to change.
Soon.
Percy pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to calm himself before he exploded. Opening his eyes to look at the two boys sitting before him, the Headmaster sighed. "Detention. For a month. Please, don't try to argue."
"We won't." Roland spoke quietly, pressing a wad of paper towels to his misshapen nose. Looking towards his best friend, an accomplished grin spread across his bloody face.
Thirty minutes prior, one of the largest physical fights in Hogwarts had erupted in the Great Hall corridor. And, as to be expected, Roland and Scorpius had been in the middle of it. Adrenaline stick coursed through the boys' veins, all thanks to the homophobic tendencies of a group of sixth years.
Shaking his head, the redhead leaned forward to get a closer look at the bruised teenagers. "Would you like to explain why you decided to attack a student younger than you?"
Meeting Roland's dark eyes, Scorpius' smirk widened. "No comment."
Sorry guys! Here this is.. Hope you like it! Love you! Review plz. :))
