Disclaimer: Standard disclaimer of use for fun.

Chapter Ten

Lily glanced up from her desk as the minister headed out of his office. He pulled up short, surprised to see Lily still bent over the polished wood. Before her were a large stack of scrolls and books of parchment. She looked tired, and she stifled a yawn.

"Lily, you're still here? I'd have thought that you'd have gone home hours ago," the minister's surprised tone echoing in the empty space.

"With Theron gone, there's no rush, and I have a lot of work to do," Lily gestured to the stacks. "I'll leave the things I need you to sign on your desk."

"That's fine, but don't stay too long," the minister urged. "You need to have your own life, you know. Outside of work."

"I won't be too much longer," Lily promised. The minister nodded and then swept out of the office. Lily remained sitting behind her desk until the lift gates closed, whisking the minister away in the car. Lily waited another moment before scooping up the scrolls and heading into the minister's office. She stood, blinking in the too bright artificial light. She glanced behind her shoulder before she rushed to the desk, dropping the scrolls in the basket for incoming. She immediately sat in the giant leather chair, tracing her fingers over the ornate metal work on the drawers.

She slipped her fingers into one of the looped knobs and pulled, the drawer slid open soundlessly. Inside were the typical items, sealing wax, bottles of ink, parchment with his type-head. Lily opened up and looked in each of the drawers, not sure what she was looking for exactly. She didn't see anything that would be considered interesting.

She stood and walked over the bookshelves, her eyes scanning the spines of ancient books. Nothing jumped out at her to reach for or touch. She frowned. She wasn't sure exactly what she expected to find in searching the minister's office, or what she should be even looking for. She sighed and crossed back through to the lobby area where her desk was. She jumped.

"Damon! What are you doing?" Lily asked as she spotted him standing over her desk. He seemed to be just as surprised.

"I thought you had already gone home," he confessed.

"Are you searching for something specific?" Lily accused, hands on her hip. He looked guilty, heat rushing to his cheeks as he looked at her.

"I was thinking about leaving you a note," he told her. Lily cocked her eyebrow up skeptically. "I didn't want to just disappear."

"Disappear?"

"Yeah, I have to leave," he explained.

"You don't owe me anything, Damon," Lily reminded him as she headed over to her desk. He came out from behind it, standing between the desk and her. He dropped his eyes, focusing on something other than her for a moment.

"You know, you didn't used to be so... flippant... about matters of the heart," Damon told her. He glanced up at her. "I hoped that I meant something more to you."

"You're a good friend," Lily suddenly felt incredibly uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation.

"Do you always take friends to bed?" Damon challenged. Lily narrowed her eyes, her hands dropping from her hips.

"I don't know what you expect of me, Damon," Lily admitted. "We've fallen together a few times. I certainly didn't ask you for any sort of commitment, and I know you surely remember my stance on the whole thing."

"Oh, Lily, I doubt anyone could forget your stance on relationships," Damon leaned back against her desk slightly. There was something there under his words, this sarcastic tone that cut Lily to the quick. It was only by the grace of him looking away at that very moment that he missed the hurt reflect in Lily's eyes.

"You're being incredibly pigheaded, Damon," Lily mirrored back with that same biting tone. He looked up and nodded once.

"Well, now that I know where I stand," his tone was downright frosty. He turned, brushing past her and left. Lily couldn't explain the way the air seemed to be sucked out of the room, or the gaping hole that was there, just under the surface, threatening to open up. She took a deep breath, which sounded to her suspiciously like a shuddering gasp.

She walked to her desk, collapsing with a sob into the chair. She covered her face, trying to push the tears back into her eyes. She didn't understand it. She was fond of Damon, surely, but there wasn't more to it. Of the two times she'd gone to him, she'd been in a bad way, missing the intimate caress of her beloved Scorpius. She squeezed her eyes tight, trying to shut out the whisper of her inner voice.

'But... what about the kisses? Or the other time you turned to his arms?' Lily clenched her jaw, grinding her fists into her eye.

"Are you okay?" Albus asked, startling her into a whole-body jolt. She looked at him.

"Al? What are you doing here?" she accused. She closed her eyes for a second, her expression softening. "Sorry, I'm just very tired and I was getting ready to leave."

"You look like hell, have you rested lately?" he asked her.

"I've been busy, work and things," she dismissed with her hand as she leaned back for a second, closing her eyes and looking up at the ceiling.

"You know, you should take a holiday," Albus told her. His voice was firm, not harsh but insistent. Lily glanced at him, frowning.

"A holiday?" Lily parroted. She glanced at the calendar. Had Theron really been away already for three months? It seemed like yesterday that she'd seen him off on the train.

"You know, a little break from work," Albus laughed.

"I know what a holiday is, Albus Severus Potter," Lily chided. He laughed.

"You're breaking out the big name," he teased her.

"Would you prefer Albey?" Lily's voice was sickly sweet. His face contorted in mock horror.

"Oh, Merlin no! I thought that name died with my childhood!" he exclaimed. A half smile pulled on Lily's face.

"You can never escape your childhood nickname, Al," she reminded him. "Even if you want to." Albus shuddered slightly.

"Anyway, Lils, I think you should take a holiday," Albus continued. "Before the Christmas holiday, that way you can rest and recharge before TC comes home for Christmas." Lily looked at him, watching him. He looked uncomfortable standing there.

"Why?" Lily pressed.

"We might have had our little disagreement, but you and I? We're the only two left of our family, sans our children," Albus told her. "I worry about you."

"I worry more about you," Lily confessed.

"Don't worry about me, sis. I'm fine," Albus promised. Lily stood, hugging him. He was stiff, spine rod straight under her embrace before he melted a little and hugged her back.

"I miss you like crazy, Al," Lily told him. He chuckled.

"I miss you, too, sis," he admitted. "And Kate and I may have over reacted some. Tina and Sarah were just as guilty as TC was in the incident."

"I should have been home more," Lily added. He smiled at her as she stepped away.

"Water under the bridge, I hear that the kids are doing well, even if they are all in Slytherin together," Albus said with exaggerated distain. Lily laughed.

"That's what you get for being so against a Slytherin sleeping in your room," Lily reminded him. He grinned.

"Now I have two daughters in Slytherin," he sighed.

"Hey, us Slytherins aren't all bad," Lily smiled at him, winking. He nodded once.

"I know."

"Maybe I will think about taking a little holiday," Lily yawned. She headed back to her desk, sitting in the chair.

"I think you should," he told her. "Are you leaving now?"

"For holiday? Merlin no, I don't even know where I'd go," she confessed. He laughed, the first real whole body laugh.

"No, I meant from here, work," he clarified. Lily laughed with him.

"Oh, silly. Not quite yet. I have a few things left to do," Lily explained.

"Well, don't stay too long, and you should come for dinner soon," Albus offered. "I know Kate's been a mess since that outburst. I know she misses having you around as a friend."

"I miss her, too," Lily confessed. "I really do."

"Well, I'm going to be off," he told her as he turned and started toward the Auror portal. He stopped just outside of the portal, glancing back. "Thanks for helping out with Tina's stuff."

"My pleasure," Lily breathed softly as he disappeared. She stared at the shimmery portal as it faded and melted away. She sighed and began to clear the things from the top of her desk. She opened her top drawer and stopped. She dropped her papers back on her desk and yanked out the post card from the top drawer. She held the card in her hand, a red and white lighthouse on a rocky island, the words 'Ushuaia, Argentina' printed in bright letters.

Lily took a deep breath, readying for whatever words would be written in that always painfully familiar handwriting. She slowly turned the card over, dread piling up. She stared at the back of the card. She released the breath she was holding in a shuddering, stuttering staccato. It was blank.

She sat there for several minutes, staring at the blank card. There was only one time in her entire life that she had ever gotten blank post cards, ions ago, when she and Scorpius were separated, when he graduated Hogwarts and she'd pushed him from her life, forcing him to travel. She frowned slightly. It wasn't Scorpius who had sent them as they traveled, rather it had been Damon who had sent the post cards. Always blank. She had never asked why they were blank. Now she stared at this blank card.

Jumping up, she grabbed her bag and the card, heading to the lift. The ride down was the longest ride she'd taken in a long time, even with it being shorter than usual without all the added people. She sprinted to the nearest jumping off point and flushed herself back to the apparation station near her home. She ran down the empty sidewalk, the lights casting shadows in the dark. She made record time, skipping her building's lift and running the four floors. She headed straight to Damon's apartment, ignoring the hour and started pounding on the door.

"Damon! Damon!" she yelled through the door. "Open the door!"

"Hey, what's the meaning of this?" snapped a woman as she jerked opened the door. She was tying a belt around her small waist. She was older, in her sixties or seventies, with that same tanned skin. Her brown hair was streaked with regal stripes of gray.

"I need to speak with Damon," Lily gasped, still clutching the post card in her hand.

"My son isn't here," the woman told Lily sternly. "He's gone."

"Gone? I just talked to him. I just saw him an hour ago!" Lily challenged.

"He must have run into you on his way out of town," Mrs. West explained.

"Do you know when he's getting back?" Lily asked. The woman shook her head.

"He didn't say, I didn't ask. He just asked me to move in to watch his apartment and to take care of his house plants," Mrs. West told Lily. "It's late, and I'm tired."

The door was closed before Lily could protest or ask any more questions. Defeated, Lily made her way home, tapping the lock with her wand. She dropped her bag on the front hall table and headed straight to her room, dressing in her favorite old tee shirt and shorts. She climbed into bed, holding the post card. She turned it over and over in her hand, not really looking at it.

She fell asleep, gripping the card and thinking how she was really starting to dislike this South American country that seemed hell bent on taking everyone she loved away from her. Her last thoughts were startling, even to her. Somewhere in all these months of being back and being with Damon, somewhere in all that, somehow, she had begun to love him.