The next morning, Lily sat in an office with 3 other Aurors. She sighed, knowing that today would be hell, considering the dangerous case she had been assigned to. This objective of this case was to catch a young 17 year old wizard, who had assaulted his ex girlfriend last week. Since it was summer time, a lot of cases these days seemed to involve dumb teenagers. Anyways, this boy is accused of using an unforgivable curse on the 15 year-old girl, which likely means life in Azkaban for him, and one Auror had already been seriously injured by the boy. Lily sighed, she hated that these teenagers were throwing the rest of their lives away, when they'd barely even started living. As she was reading through the case again, as she and the other Aurors were at a standstill, a letter popped out from the hole in the wall, so she picked it up and read it, then she stood up. The letter was from the young mans mother, she claimed he was hiding out in the forest that was about a mile out from her house. Lily looked to her fellow Aurors, "We have a lead, let's go."

When they arrived to the criminals mothers house, the middle aged woman was already sitting on the porch, with tears in her eyes. Lily held out her arm, motioning for her fellow aurors to stay back, and stopped about five feet in front of the woman, "Ma'am?" she asked politely, but the woman didn't respond, she just burst into tears. Lily sighed, sitting down beside her and putting a comforting arm around her, "listen, ma'am. I know this is hard, but you did the right thing."

The woman wiped her tears and looked up at Lily with an unconvinced face, "Are you sure?" she whispered, her lip trembling.

Lily sighed; it was always hard dealing with family members of the criminals. She put her next words as gently as she could, because they needed to be said, "Your son is mentally unstable, ma'am. He refused to get help, and now he has hurt people, he won't be able to hurt anyone, or risk hurting himself, any more. Isn't that what you want?" Ages ago, this would've been a much harder conversation to have. But now, since dementors were replaced with humane guards and criminals didn't have the life sucked out of them, it was slightly easier to assure family.

The woman nodded and slowly stood up, knowing what they wanted from her; directions. She lead them to the back of the house, and pointed directly ahead, obviously holding back tears, "Go a mile straight ahead, and you'll see a lake. He'll most likely be around there," Lily opened her mouth to thank the woman, but she held her hand up, "Just go find my son."

Lily nodded, understanding that this woman must be going through a lot of pain and just want it to be over with. So, she nodded at her fellow Aurors, one of which was merely in training, and they took off running, but after about half a mile, they slowed, so not to startle the boy. The new girl who was still in training, started gasping once they stopped, "My god, how do you all do that so easily?" she asked quietly, wondering how the other three Aurors didn't barely break a sweat.

Lily smiled at the girls comment; she'd been the same way when she'd first started training. The physical training part was one of the hardest parts, and she pitied the girl but they needed to stay on track, "It gets easier Delilah, but stay focused," she said quietly and gently, giving the girl a smile so she knew that Lily wasn't mad, just merely giving her a reminder. She was really fond of the girl; she reminded her of herself when she was younger. Lily hoped they could become friends sometime later on, but she couldn't think about that right now. They walked silently for several minutes, until a lake came into Lilys view. She held out her arms, looking back at her team and mouthing, "Stop." They all halted, as a figure came into view. She hid behind a tree, and waved her hand so the others would do the same. This kid was insane, they had to be careful. She whispered, "Stay here," quietly as she could, "He'll be spooked if all of us come out. If there's trouble, I'll signal you," they all nodded, and Lily took a deep breath as she stepped out from behind the tree, and slowly started walking towards him. When she came into view, the boy instantly drew his wand, pointing it at Lily. Lily just slid her hand over her back pocket, where her wand was, just in case.

The boy took a few steps towards Lily, who stopped walking towards him. She could see that his hand was shaking, as was his voice when he spoke, "I've already hurt one of your kind!" he bellowed, taking another step towards Lily, "What makes you think I won't hurt another?!"

Lily knew she had to act quickly, so she shouted, "Now!" and before the boy knew what was happening, the other three Aurors emerged from the shadows, all of them drew their wands, including Lily. Suddenly, the boy shot a spell at one of the aurors, who was caught completely off guard, causing them to scream and fly backwards. Before he could do any more damage, Lily shouted, "Expelliarmus!" causing his wand to fly from his hand. He looked at the Aurors, then took off running, knowing that he was done for, "After him!" Lily shouted to the two remaining men, who followed her orders. But Lily made her way to the injured witch and her heart dropped, "Delilah!" she said, dropping to her knees beside the girl. She had terrible, bloody gashes all over her and she was gagging, looking up at Lily pleadingly, obviously in excruciating pain. "Your wand Lily, your wand," she said to herself, putting her wand over the wounds and trying to heal them; but they were too deep. They'd shut slightly and the re-open, which had to be agonizing for the poor girl. "W-We'll get you out of here, Okay? We'll go to and you'll be-"

But the girl put her hand over Lilys gently, barley breathing. It was at that moment that Lily knew what the young girl already did; she wasn't going to make it. Delilah used her last breaths, "A-Am I d-dying a h-hero?" she asked, with great effort, her mouth hanging open and strained eyes beginning to relax.

Lily knew; she couldn't save her, but she could help her go peacefully, so she quickly responded, "Yes, you are a hero, baby. You die defending the wizarding world from evil, and that's heroic in anybody's eyes," Delilah must've been satisfied with the response, because moments after Lily was done speaking, she looked up to the sky, her eyes wide open, and she stopped trembling, her suffering was over; she was dead.

When Lily got home that night, she was nearly five hours late. She had to explain how Delilah died, call her family, and meet with the grieving family who had so many questions. She'd cried so much, and was full of so much regret that she couldn't save the smart, young girl who hadn't even completed her training yet. When she walked through the door home, she found a furious looking Scorpius sitting at the kitchen table, which was set for two with dinner made. She set her keys down slowly on the table, then looked at him, exhausted, "Look, Scorpius –"

"Oh no, it's fine," Scorpius said sarcastically, looking down at the dinner for them he'd worked so hard on, "I totally get it. You couldn't even send me an owl to –"

"Scorpius, please –"

"Let me know that you'd be home late," Scorpius continued, furious. He'd spent two hours working on this surprise dinner for Lily, which was now cold and he suspected, inedible, "You'd be so mad if I did that to you, but when you do it to me it's fine, right? You outta –" He was about to continue, but Lily put both her hands over her face and cried, which she never did. Scorpius was expecting a heated response back, and a long argument, but this? He hadn't meant to make her upset, he was just so irritated, and he'd been slightly worried about her, because she'd been on a dangerous case at work, "Lils, what?" he asked gently, standing up and taking a step towards her.

She uncovered her face and looked at him through tears, "We caught the 17 year-old who used an unforgivable on his girlfriend," Lily said, her voice trembling as tears poured down her face and she bit her lip, looking in the other direction. Scorpius wore an obviously confused expression, and Lily just couldn't take it anymore, she ran into his arms, which he wrapped around her, stroking her hair.

"Shh, Lils, calm down," he whispered, rocking back and forth, lessening her sobs, "That's a good thing, right?" he asked, knowing there must be more to the story than she had told him so far.

Lily, who just didn't have the energy to sob anymore, laid her head against his chest, tears flowing down her face, silently. She spoke quietly as she shook her head slightly, remembering the girl joking around earlier that day, "She was so young, it's not fair," she stated, pausing before she could continue, "He killed Delilah, and I couldn't save her!" She yelled, before breaking out of his arms and storming up the stairs to their room, slamming the door as she went.

Scorpius sighed, as he had remembered the first time that he'd had a partner die right before his eyes. He was just out of training, officially an auror, and was out on what was supposed to be a quiet mission with an older, more experienced auror. The two were merely going to question a man about his wife's murder, when all of the sudden, Scorpius was pushed to the ground, and moments later, his partner lay beside him, dead. As it turns out, the man murdered his wife and feared he was being escorted to Azkaban. Scorpius hadn't thought about anything else for weeks, he'd felt so guilty and depressed. But now, and a more experienced Auror, he'd learned that though it was still heartbreaking, death was something they were all risking to protect their world. He'd now watched four fellow Aurors die, and though he found it terribly sad and painful, it wasn't something he dwelled on for long, unless he was close with the victim. He decided for now, it'd be best to just give Lily some much needed space. So he gave her a half an hour before her headed up the stairs and opened their bedroom door, to find Lily sitting on their bed. She was under the covers and clutching a pillow, tears still evident on her face, "Lily," he said as he sat down beside her and wrapped his arm around her, "You have to understand, it's all part of the job, it's a risk we all accept. It's a risk Delilah accepted."

Lily shot him a cold, hard glare, irritated that he could think that just because death was a possibility with their job, that it made it okay, "That's doesn't make it okay," she said, burying her face in the pillow again, "She was only a trainee, only 17. And I couldn't save her."

Scorpius sighed, gently taking the pillow away from Lily and putting his hand under her chin, making her face him, then cupping her face in his hands, "Not everyone can be saved, Lily."

Lily shook her head, taking his hands from her face and holding them tightly, "You know what her last words were?" Lily asked him gently, her eyes wide, glistening with tears as she looked at him. He shook his head, so she responded, "She asked me if she was dying a hero. Of course she was a hero. She was a hero, right?"

Scorpius nodded, as he put her head against her chest and held her. She curled her knees up to her chest and closed her eyes as Scorpius whispered against her forehead, "Of course she was, Lily," and the two just sat there like that, all night, not saying another word. That was the thing about Scorpius and Lilys' relationship; they didn't need to use words to comfort each other. Sometimes, when you have an unbreakable bond, just physically being there for the other person is comfort enough.

***INSERTLINEHERE***

It wasn't until around 5 am the next morning that Lily had finally fallen asleep in Scorpius' arms. Scorpius, who had gotten no sleep what so ever, smiled, satisfied. He was glad Lily could get some sleep, and forget about the real world problems, if even just for a little bit. He hated seeing her so distressed and guilty. Because when Lily was in pain, he was in pain. Careful not to wake Lily up, he gently slid out from under her and let her rest on the bed. He stood up, and sent an owl to his boss, Harry, letting him know that he'd be taking the rest of the week off with Lily. He then quietly made his way downstairs, careful not to make any noise, and started to make breakfast. He made a small plate for Lily, though he doubted she'd eat. She made her way down the stairs just after he'd sat down at the table. She looked like a mess, but Scorpius wasn't about to tease her about it, "You hungry, love?"

Lily looked down at the plate Scorpius has set out for her, and looked down at it, as if contemplating it, then sat down, taking small nibbles out of the egg. After a few minutes of silence, she looked up to Scorpius, "Thank for you putting up with me, Scorpius."

Scorpius shook his head, not understanding, "What?"

Lily looked down at her plate, and fiddling with her hands in her lap, "I know I'm moody and rude sometimes, and that I put you through a lot, and that I'm hard to deal with. So, thank you, for not leaving me when times get tough."

Scorpius looked at Lily with sorrow in his eyes, "You think I "put up with you"? Lily, I love you more than life itself, I would do anything for you. You're my world, my everything," he told her gently, grabbing one of her hands from across the table and holding it, "I don't "put up with you", Lily. I love you. The good outweighs the bad, and I'm always here for you, okay?"

Lily half smiled as she looked gratefully at Scorpius, thankful that he loved her, just as much as she loved him.