Disc.: I am responsible for the plot only.

Chapter 7

She rolled to her stomach, arm tucked under her head as she watched him sleep. The light was dim enough to cast shadows, but bright enough to see the soft, relaxed face of the man she had just slept with. Her heart was stilling, breathing returning to normal as she lay. She dared not to reach out and touch the lace of eye lashes that rested so peacefully on his cheeks. His sensual mouth was parted ever so slightly, enough to cause Lily to stir. She clamped her mouth shut before her tongue could sneak out and trace the lines of his mouth.

She had kissed that mouth, knew how warm and safe it would be. Her eyes raked along Damon's strong jaw, over the hint of stubble that had felt rough and right against her. The junction at the base of his throat demanded to be tasted but Lily retained control over her traitorous body. She followed the path across his broad chest, the ripples of chiseled abs , hesitating before she looked lower. Her body clenched and she froze in surprise. Even relaxed and asleep, he was huge. Lily successfully stifled the giggle that tried to bubble up.

She smiled slightly. He was a mighty fine looking man. She had known him as long as she had known Scorpius, or just about, but she'd never really appreciated how good looking he was. She never looked at him as anything more than Scorpius' friend. Growing up, she had only had eyes for Scorpius. Guilt washed over her at the mental mention of Scorpius. She had slept with Scorpius' friend, and slept with him properly.

"Oh," Lily gasped. She eased from Damon's bed, her muscles complaining. She fought and lost against a moan. She was so sore. She found her shirt immediately, pulling it over her head and covering herself. She glanced around the floor, looking for her knickers. She glanced at Damon again, her eye honing on the very part of him that made it uncomfortable to walk. She had a bad feeling he had them trapped under his hips. She swore and slipped out of his apartment, trying to ignore the sticky wet feeling left behind in the quake of his love.

Lily stood alone in the shower, the water hotter than probably would have been comfortable if she wasn't in shock. Her skin pinked by the water, she stared unseeing at her reflection in the broad mirror. She crossed her stomach with her hands, barring them from sight. She frowned at her reflection before gathering clothes and dressing, climbing into her bed and burying herself in her coverlet. She tried to fight the guilt that seemed to be snaking up in her.

It didn't make sense that she would feel this way. Almost 10 years had passed, Scorpius wouldn't care who Lily was with, would he? Lily sighed and rolled over. Of course, Scorpius would only care that she was happy. Some time before dawn, she finally fell asleep.

Lily was perched at the edge of her chair, quick quotes quill hovering above a parchment scroll waiting for the start of the meeting. Obadiah Parker, Minister of Magic, came in with a rush, Damon chasing behind him with cups of coffee. Damon placed it precariously on the ledge of the desk and immediately launched into his briefing with the Minister. Lily tried not to stare at Damon.

"Lily?" the minister's voice interrupted her concentration on not looking at Damon. She jerked her head towards him.

"Sir?" Lily responded as she tried to cover the blush that crept up her face.

"Are you okay? You look a bit flushed," the minister said frowning. Lily straightened up in her chair.

"I'm fine," she promised. He nodded once and the meeting began. Lily was never happier to have a quill that she didn't have to focus on one hundred percent to get all the information. She would have failed dramatically. Every time she glanced up at Damon, her heart would stutter and something deep inside would twist with the flames of desire.

At the end of the meeting, Damon waited on Lily to give the minister the notes to peruse, leaning against her desk with his arms crossed against his chest. Lily hesitated, standing just beyond reach. His face was guarded, and she thought she saw a flash of uncertainty in his eyes.

"You left," he said quietly. Lily winced slightly at the words, despite there being no accusation or hostility.

"I'm sorry," Lily replied. She walked behind her desk and began shuffling some papers. It felt good to have something to do with her hands, somewhere for her eyes to focus on rather than that touch of hurt the threatened at the edge of Damon's expression.

"You could have said good bye," Damon suggested. Lily glanced up.

"I shouldn't have taken advantage of you like that, Damon," Lily apologized. "Truth is, I have nothing to offer you, yet took knowing how you feel about me. That's unforgivable."

"Lily-" Damon frowned.

"Damon, maybe in another life time, maybe if things were different," Lily murmured thoughtfully as her mind wandered. She shook her head. "But they're not."

"Lily, I wasn't expecting anything from you, I swear," Damon promised. He uncrossed his arms, leaning forward on her desk. Lily instinctively leaned back. "We're two consenting, unattached adults. You hardly took advantage of me." He laughed slightly.

"I just don't want things to get weird between us," Lily glanced up with a slight smile.

"Next time, just say good bye, okay?" Damon tossed at her as he began to walk away.

"Next time?" Lily laughed heartily. "Damon West, you are quite full of yourself, aren't you?" He glanced back at her, grinning.

"Once you've had West, you've had the very best," Damon taunted. Lily erupted in near hysterics.

"That's the cheesiest thing I think I've ever heard," she teased.

"See you around, Lily Potter," Damon promised with a wink.

"Good-bye, Damon," Lily retorted pointed.

"It's all I ask," he grinned at her before he walked through the magical portal between the minister's office and wherever, Department of Auror Affairs Lily suspected. She thought of visiting Rose and wondered how her cousin was doing. It had been a while since she had a girl's day with her and made a mental note to make time for it once the kids went to Hogwarts.

Lily worked diligently on her reports, but her mind would randomly wander back to the time she'd spend with Damon, filling a need she hadn't been aware of in a very long time. She frowned, throwing her quill on the desk and rubbing the back of her neck. She glanced at the clock, seeing she was late for dinner. Sighing, she picked up the quill and frowned at the ink blot that had spread over the letter she was writing, and replaced it in it's well.

She gathered her things and headed to the lift, taking it down to the nearly empty lobby. She knew Tina would have had made sandwiches rather than waiting on Lily to come home to cook dinner, still she felt bad about it already starting to grow dark. Lily hurried to the apparation point, landing in the phone vestibule not far from her building. She hurried down the sidewalk, something in her driving her ever faster up the four flights of stairs when waiting for the lift seemed like it was taking too long.

She pushed into her apartment and stopped, frowning. Sitting in her living room was Damon, with Draco, both frowning. Theron, Tina, and Sarah were sitting in a row together on the love seat, barely fitting. Lily pulled up short.

"What's going on?" Lily asked. She looked around to see that someone had rolled back the carpet, exposing a dark black mark on the other wise pristine floors. Candles were knocked aside, as well as various other items in a heap. She frowned.

"Lily, we have a problem," Draco said standing. He forced his hand through his hair.

"Problem?" Lily asked, glancing at the three rather guilty looking children.

"Underage magic, for one," Draco explained. He gestured towards the pile of things. Lily took a closer look. The first thing she noticed was Scorpius broken wand, laying among what looked like a wad of blond hair that she suspected might have been pulled from Theron's brush.

"Theron?" Lily's voice cracked slightly.

"Mum, honestly, I made them help me," Theron cried. He buried his face in his hands and wouldn't say anything more. Lily went to open her mouth, looking at Tina when Albus burst through the door with Kate, both of them look harried and upset.

"What the hell, Lily!" Albus growled as he turned on his sister. "You were supposed to be watching them and they go and try to raise the dead!"

"What?" Lily cried out.

"Dad, don't be mad at Aunt Lily," Tina begged.

"We just wanted to find out what happened to TC's dad!" Sarah exclaimed.

"So you thought you'd do a touch of difficult and illegal magic!" Albus yelled. He rounded on Lily. "Where were you tonight that left them with all this unsupervised time to conjure and practice?"

"Work, work where I go every day, Albus," Lily snapped. "If I had known, I didn't know!"

"Tina, Sarah, get your things," Kate snapped. "Its obvious you need to come home and be watched better."

"I was watching them fine," Lily challenged. "I was late ONE night."

"Well, look what that's gone and done, Lily," Kate challenged back. "I've tried to keep my opinion to myself, being that we used to be friends and all, but it's obvious that you're checked out as a parent. My children need and deserve more minding. What you do with your child is your business, but I think it's best that my child come home now where they can have adult supervision."

"Its not like I leave them alone all the time," Lily yelled as she threw her hands up in the air.

"Just when you're at work," Kate's tone was patronizing.

"I have to work, Kate," Lily challenged. "We can't all just say at home with a bun in the oven, shoving bon bons in our mouth. Do you even know how many kids you have anymore?"

"That's my wife," Albus snapped at his sister. "Don't you dare talk to her that way."

"And she can't come into MY house, talking to me that way," Lily threw back at him.

"I swear, Lily, if my children get kicked out of Hogwarts because you weren't providing even sub-adequate care, I'm going to have you hauled in front of the ministry myself, so help me Merlin," Albus yelled as he steered his wife and two daughters out of the apartment. Lily stood, staring at the door that Albus had slammed on his way out.

"Mum, I'm sorry," Theron cried softly. "I didn't know it would get us all in so much trouble. I didn't even think it was possible, and it didn't even work."

"Theron, did you eat?" Lily asked numbly.

"Yes," he meekly responded.

"You need to go to bed, now," Lily told him.

"Mum-"

"No, Theron," Lily snapped. She looked at him with fire in her eyes. "We will not talk about this right now. You will go to bed right now."

"Yes, ma'am," he whispered softly as he stood. He placed his wand on the coffee table and shuffled off to bed, not glancing at his grandfather or mother.

Lily sunk into the chair that had once been placed on the rug, the rug that had covered the black mark, the aged stain from when Lily had bled out and nearly died losing her baby. She covered her face with her hands and took a deep breath before she looked up at Draco and Damon. Both were still sitting there, looking at her.

"How much trouble are we looking at for them?" Lily asked cautiously. She ignored the stain she wanted to so desperately cover back up with the rug.

"They'll start off on probation. A year of probation," Draco explained. "In that time, if they do even so much as a sniff of magic outside of Hogwarts school ground, they'll have their wands taken and they'll be forbidden to return."

"A year," Lily murmured.

"Lily, they were doing some serious stuff," Draco continued. "They're lucky that they didn't summon anything bad, things that they couldn't control. They're lucky that the spell didn't work and they didn't raise the dead or get injured in the process."

"Yeah," Lily agreed.

"Now, I know you're not going to like this, but I'm required to confiscate everything they used in the ritual," Draco explained quietly as he conjured a box out of mid-air. Lily watched as the long white candle that was supposed to be her and Scorpius's unity candle for their wedding, bits of things, and the two halves of his wand dropped into the box. Lily watched them sadly. It was the last bit of Scorpius, being boxed up and sent away. Inside, she felt like choking on the grief she thought she'd overcome.

"I understand," Lily rose to her feet, to follow Draco and the box the front door. She gestured slightly, the door swinging open wide to allow him out. She closed it and looked back at the old stain on the floor. Sighing softly, she kneeled down and tenatively touched the stain.

"Lily?" Damon's voice was quiet but she still startled at the sound. She looked up at him, towering over her from where she kneeled.

"Damon," she replied quietly. She looked away, reaching and rolling the rug over the stain. She smoothed the wrinkle out of it and rose.

"I'm not trying to tell you how to raise your son, I swear, I'm the last person who should be giving parenting advice, but it might be better for TC to have you home more," Damon suggested. Lily shot him a look as she stood.

"You're right, Damon," Lily retorted. "You are the last person who should be giving my parenting advise. You know who should be? Scorpius should be. He should be here helping me raise our son. But he's not. He's dead. No amount of wishing is going to change that."

"Lily, I was only-"

"You should leave," Lily suggested defeated. Damon hesitated, looking at her for a moment before he nodded. He closed the door behind him and Lily sighed loudly, no longer hungry. She headed into her room, tossing her clothes in the hamper and pulling on her favorite cotton night gown.

She pulled back the blankets, climbing into her spot on the bed. She curled to her side and slid her hands under her pillow, hugging the pillow to her face. Her hand brushed something. She closed her hand around something, retrieving from under her pillow a post card. She flicked the light on without more than a snap of her fingers and held the image of some random landscape, nothing remarkable, with the words: Patagonia, Argentina printed on the front.

Lily's hand shook as she looked at the post card, slowly turning it over. It was stamped and postmarked through the muggle mail, dated the day before. Lily barely paid it any mind. Instead, she stared at the three little words that had been scrawled in that painfully familiar loops and swirls. That old wound she thought was fully healed cracked open a little.

"Oh, Scorpius," Lily cried out softly, cradling the card to her heart. "I miss you, too." She laid her head down on her pillow, eventually falling asleep holding tight to the post card, which simply said- 'I miss you'.