So I was having a bit of a dark moment and apparently that's what came through, never the less he had to go and I like how this turned out. I know everyone wants to know what Zenith has done, and I promise I have the exact moment that's perfect planned and very soon. And the perfect moment for Lily and Scorpius, just a bit of build up I'm afraid until then. Anyways, enjoy and review! :)
Chapter 8 – The Woman in the Painting
Lily walked slowly to the Great Hall, admiring all the moving pictures on the stone walls, thinking about what Scorpius had said to her. 'Open your eyes Potter' she didn't know what he meant by that; it was such an odd thing to say, even for him. One picture in particular gave her a soft smile, a woman with a thin face, shining blue eyes and dark chestnut hair, Lily figured she was from the Victorian Era from the red blood corset gown. Lily stopped and gave the woman a curious glace.
"Don't be silly Lily Luna," The woman whispered delicately, almost as if she was answering her thoughts.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Lily asked astonished and wide eyed. The woman just smiled and walked out of her portrait. Lily called after her, "What? Where are you going?" frustrated Lily turned around and nearly bumped into a Ravenclaw girl with light brown hair and eyes.
"Oh, I'm sorry." She mumbled, rather embarrassed of herself for yelling at a painting.
"Lily?" The girl questioned her and she looked up at her confused. Lily was used to people coming up to her to shake her hand, and tell her that her father was a hero and to thank him but that hadn't happened much since her first year. This also didn't seem like one of those times.
"Oh, um yes." She said slowly.
"You're dating Zenith. Zenith Osterly correct?" She blurted out and Lily just gave a confused nod.
"Oh sorry how rude of me, I'm Alyssa Davies." She rambled on as Lily just kept nodding; she'd heard the name Davis before and she did look slightly familiar, perhaps from one of her Dad's stories. "I'm Zeniths ex." Lily's mouth opened slightly before forcing herself to close it again. "No no, don't think I'm here to banter you or beat you up, oh no no." The girl whose name was Alyssa, continued to ramble on in a slightly mouse like voice. "I just want to warn you is all."
"I… ok?" Lily managed out of her mouth still looking at this odd girl, who was quite beautiful. She was at least a couple inches taller than Lily, most people were, and her features were soft and delicate.
"Oh you must think I'm terribly rude – no no. I really just wanted to tell you, the boy has a bit of temper, you should watch out for that. Oh, and that he may seem all happy and charming and he really is at first but he's really not all that he seems. Trust me, just watch out. You seem like a sweet girl, I would hate to see you get hurt. We girls have to look out for each other you know? Oh well now I've gone and frightened you. Oh no, oh no. My sister, do you know her? She's a Gryffindor too. Olivia Davies? Second year?"
Lily nodded, knowing now where she had heard the name before. Her sister was a tiny carbon copy of this girl, mouse-like voice and all.
"Yes, well, she said I shouldn't talk to you; said you would know better. She likes you a great deal you know? Admires you. Anyways, she said I shouldn't talk to you about him. That you would know he was prat sooner or later." Alyssa inhaled sharply and continued talking. Lily was amazed she could talk this long without talking breaths as often as she should. "Well, then I heard from Bai Yang who overheard Ivan and Zenith talking about it one practice. Bai, very sweet girl, doesn't like to gossip, was just worried."
"Lily! There you are!" Raven came running down the hall out of breath. Irritation flared through Lily but almost relief to get Alyssa to stop talking.
"Would you excuse me?" Lily smiled sweetly at Alyssa.
"Oh , yes! Don't let me keep you! Remember what I said Lily." She pulled her into a giant hug and gave her a wild grin as she skipped away. Lily was sure she heard her say, sweet girl, before turning away. Lily turned to Raven, who was looking at her with a puzzled expression.
"Why were you talking to Alyssa Davies?" She blurted out before she could stop herself.
"What? Now you can talk to me?" Lily hissed at her. Raven flinched at her friend's hostility towards her but continued.
"This is not the time." She said flatly.
"I think this is an excellent time …" Lily started.
"It's Ivy." She cut her off. Ice flowed through Lily's veins as she stopped dead cold forgetting what she was mad about. "She won't talk to anyone. She needs you."
"Where is she?" She panicked, Ivy was never in trouble. She was always there for Lily and instead she was off watching some second-rate Quidditch game and she froze again – Zenith. She was supposed to meet for lunch. What was he going to say? Lily felt like her head was about to exploded.
"Lily? Come on we have to go!" Raven shouted at her.
"OK, let's go." Lily agreed and they ran down the hall towards the Gryffindor Tower. "What's wrong with her?"
"She won't tell anyone, she's just locked the door. Anna Creevey said she saw her set fire to some flowers that were in the common room before running to the girls dorms, apparently scared some second years pretty badly." She said a bit out of breathe as the finally reached the Fat Lady painting. "rubrum," She snapped at the Fat Lady.
"Manners." The Fat Lady scolded her and Raven rolled her eyes as the painting swung open. They made a dash through the red and gold common room, people staring at them in the process and second years that were bolting out of the way. Lily tried to open the door but it wouldn't budge.
Lily pulled out her wand whispered, "Alohomora," She tried to open it again and nothing happened.
"She must have bewitched it." Raven pointed out.
"You think?" Lily answered her irritated and Raven just shrugged back. There was still this unknown tension between the girls that Lily couldn't understand and wouldn't until after she saw Ivy. Lily knocked on the door and yelled through it. "Ivy, it's me, Lily." She heard the door unlock and Lily smiled to herself. "Thank you Raven." She gave her a small smile before slipping into the door.
Lily took in what she saw; the room was about as neat as the girls left it except for Ivy's corner that had been torn apart, odd bits and ends were laying everywhere. A tearful Ivy who's hair thrown into a messy bun with pieces falling out on the top of her head and wearing one of Ed's jersey's was sitting on her bed with a massive pile of pictures and her cauldron that had a small fire burning in it in which she was in the midst of throwing them in.
"Liles," She squeaked. Lily came and sat down beside her on the bed, putting her arm around her friend. Ivy laid her head down on Lily's shoulder and sobbed. They sat this way for a while before she finally spoke again. "Ed, he… left. He broke up with me." Inhaling a sharp breath and breaking out into a new sob.
"Ivy," Lily sighed rubbing her shoulder. She was extremely shocked; they had been so comfortable with each other, never fighting as far as she knew. The whole situation seemed incredibly off to her and then she remembered how incredibly off this entire day was.
"He seemed off yesterday during Hogsmeade, I didn't think much of it. Maybe a fight with his friends or something you know?" Lily just nodded, "But I never would have thought, never would have even begin to – I just don't understand Lily, I don't get it."
"I know, I know." Lily rubbed her shoulder, trying to comfort her best she could. She had never seen Ivy like this, the confidence that she usually had seemed to have vanished.
"Would you help me?" She motioned to the pictures that Lily now realized to be all of her and Ed, all the stuff that was laying around the room was his.
Lily gave her friend a worried look before saying, "Are you sure Ivy?" looking at a picture of Ivy and Ed in their Quidditch uniforms grinning brightly with their arms around each other and Ivy just nodded as she threw a picture of her and Ed sitting by the lake that Lily was sure she had taken. Lily gave her a small smile and threw the picture in the burning cauldron.
"This morning he told me he thought it was better that we were just friends." She threw a couple more pictures into the cauldron and Lily nodded acknowledging. "Thought it was better! We were friends before, two years we were beaters together and for two years we were friends before we started dating; now I can't even stand to look at him, how are we supposed to play on the same team, not only that but as a unit. James is going to be so angry with me, with us." She put her head in her hands and sobbed again. Lily knew her bother and knew how much he wanted to win this year but he would never put his team's needs above that.
"Jamie will understand. It's hardly your fault he's such of an idiot." Lily reassured her.
"You think?" And for the first time today Lily saw her give a small smile. At least she wouldn't have to worry about Quidditch – the amount they worried about such things was incredible.
"I know so." Lily smiled brightly; if there was one thing she knew it was her brothers. They lapsed into silence again as they threw a few more pictures in the fire, the pile was slowly decreasing. Lily gave her friend time, she knew it wasn't easy for her to talk about things; it never had been.
"He really is an idiot, isn't he?" Ivy sighed. "He told me I deserved someone better; someone who was going to put in the effort. What does that even mean?" She mocked him and the girls chuckled slightly. "I mean really, where is he going to find someone as fun as me? Someone as smart as me, or as elf like as me?" Lily smiled at her friend, she knew she was going to be fine, a bit bitter maybe but surely in time she would be fine. "I was the one who made all the plans anyways, not a romantic bone in that boy's body." She flicked her wand aggressively and every last pictures whizzed into the cauldron causing the flames spit and then die down.
"How're you feeling?" Lily asked her cautiously, not wanting to cause her to begin to sob again.
"Hurt." Ivy sighed and flicked her wand again cleaning up the messed that she had made on the floor.
"How about we go get some food? Lily suggested pulling herself off the bed. Zenith would be long gone from now so there would be no need to start anything today. Surely he was going to be angry with her for ditching him but she had spent the entire previous day with him and this morning. He would understand once Lily had time to explain to him what had happened. Then she remembered what Alyssa had said, "the boy has a bit of temper," and Lily shuddered a bit; it would be fine.
"That's probably the best idea I've heard all day." Ivy gave a small smile before hopping off the bed herself.
"You may want to ditch the jersey." Lily said softly.
"Right." Ivy squeaked, pulling the jersey over her head and throwing it on her bed. Lily linked her arm with her friend to support her as they walked out of the dorms into the common room. The second years that Lily was sure were the same ones as before, jumped out of the way of Ivy; assuming she was going to go on another rage. Raven and Kenda were quieting whispering to themselves in a corner but both smiled brightly when they saw them emerge. Lily gave them a look and they both just followed them in silence out of the common room.
The castle was oddly empty for this time of day, considering the awful weather today. The girls made their way to the Great Hall in a unlike them silence.
"You know I'm not going to explode at any moment, I am my father's child but that doesn't mean I'm going to go off on a rampage exploding everything around the castle, you guys can stop hovering." Ivy said to her friends who were in fact hovering around her like she was going to break down at any second and start cursing first years. "I just got broken up with; it's not the end of the world." Realization and relief shot across Raven and Kenda's faces, now that they knew what was wrong they backed off.
"I'm so sorry Ivy." Kenda began and Ivy stopped her with a hand motion.
"I'm better off without him anyways. Who needs him right?" She gave them a warily smile. The all whipped their head around to see Bryant sprinting down the hall.
"Ladies." He huffed and gave them an awkward walking bow before continuing down the hallway. This day was turning out to be even odder then it had begun.
"I mean what happens when the one person you would go to when your sad is the one who's making you sad? What do you do then?" Ivy sighed and Lily putted her arm around her as they sat down in a vacant Gryffindor table. The hall was as almost as empty except for a couple first year Ravenclaws.
"You still have us." Kenda smiled brightly at the three of them. Lily gave her a soft smile back and Raven shot her a look. Kenda's smile slowly faded as she shrunk into her seat.
"Yes, you right Kends. I mean Lily's off with Zenith every other day," Raven flinched beside Kenda as Ivy continued, "Raven's off doing god only knows. And you and Hugo. Where the hell is Hugo?" Ivy all but shouted. "I need a guy's opinion about this!"
"He said something about hanging out with guys more often early this morning when I started talking about something Owen had said to me yesterday." Kenda said quietly blushing fiercely.
"Sure fine, I guess he's allowed that. What a bloody traitor that boy is." Ivy look rather annoyed that Hugo had ditched them for the boys.
"I'm sure we'll see him around soon." Lily assured her.
"Better." Ivy crossed her arms in protest.
"Eat." Raven threw a bun at Ivy. Ivy picked at the bun, while the other girls changed the subject to cheer her up.
The girls spent the rest of their day in the common room under pills of books. They had been so caught up in their lives lately that they had been slacking on their homework. Lily was happy that they were finally all together, even if there still was a bit of tension between her and Raven. Lily was also thankful for the protection of the common room, it was comforting to know that she could decide when she wanted to talk to Zenith; not that she was avoiding him but just the conversation. Hugo came strolling in late that night when they had given up studying Herbology.
"Where have you been all day?" Lily asked him curiously as he sat down beside her on the couch.
"With the boys." Hugo smirked and Lily raised her eyebrow at him. "Come on Lils, you know you're still my favourite." He put his arm around her and she giggled pushing him off of her.
"I'm so sure Hugo." She giggled.
"Oh Ivy, I heard about Ed. What a wanker." Ivy winced and Hugo noticed as he continued, "I can beat him up, that's what you have me here for. No really, I see you shaking your head but I'm sure James and all them would be glad. Maybe not James so much, I know Bryant would love to throw a good hex at him. Oh he made Bryant real good and angry today. Should have seen him, never seen him so angry before." Hugo chuckled like they missed an inside joke or something.
"I've never really seen him angry before." Lily said worried, the thought was so weird to think about. "What were you all doing? We saw him run by." Lily remembered.
"You'll see, just don't go through the third corridor on the second floor tomorrow around second period." He warned with a chuckle.
"I think I'm going to get some sleep." Ivy said quietly picking up her books.
"Yeah, I'll come too." Lily said as she kissed Hugo on the cheek and picked up her books. The girls headed up to the girls dorms. "Didn't think you wanted to be alone." Lily gave her a small smile.
"Thanks." Ivy nudged her. The girls got ready for bed in a comfortable silence. Lily noticed that Ivy had put on Edward's jersey again but didn't mention it; she just gave her a soft small.
"Night Ivy." She said softly as she got into bed.
"Night Liles." Ivy's voice cracked and she knew it was going to be a rough night for her. Lily laid there thinking about the day; how long ago it seemed she was sitting on the stands talking to Scorpius and watching Zenith practice. She slowly drifted into sleep.
Lily sat up in her bed sensing someone was there. She looked up to see the woman from the painting standing at her bed foot. She was smiling softly at her and motioned for her to follow. Lily knew this was a dream how could it not be? She followed anyway, she lead her down the hall and around the corridor where she saw Zenith standing at the end smiling at her with his arms open for her. She smiled as light jogged over but as she continued down the hallway Zenith vanished in front of her. Lily turned around in confusion looking all around her. She had been abandon by both Zenith and the woman.
"Hello?" Lily called out to the darkness. Lily began to run down the corridor when she saw Hugo standing at the end. "Hugo!" Lily yelled in relief but he just chuckled and vanished too. She turned around this time in a blur and came face to face with Zenith who was towering over her. She screamed out of his proximity to her.
"There, there Lily." He took her in his arms and smoothed her hair.
"What's going on?" Lily looked up to see his eyes weren't his normal sparking blue but a vivid red staring at her with pure hatred. Lily took a few frighten steps back from him. "Zenith?" She asked in a shaky voice.
"It's me Sweetheart." He hissed in a snake like voice. Lily looked beyond the snake to see her friends and family gasping for air under the tails of the giant snake.
"Lily, no!" Hugo shouted for the grasp of the giant snake. The woman from the painting was still standing beside her and Lily turned to her with a wild expression.
"Can't you do anything!" She screamed at her and the woman just shook her head.
"Hugo!" Lily tried to step around Zenith by he blocked her and chuckled darkly.
"Tisk, tisk, Lily sweetheart, we don't want to be doing that." Zenith hissed as if the snake was controlling him. Lily felt this urge to jump at Zenith, to overpower him somehow.
A voice made Lily stop in her tracks and whip her around, "NO!" It was Scorpius who was running towards her. Lily froze she looked from her friends and family to Scorpius to the woman from the painting in a mass confusion. The next thing she knew Zenith was lunging towards her. He took on the snake's appearance as the fangs went towards her. Lily screamed as the snake lunged and –
Lily woke up with a gasp for air and holding her chest. She felt incredibly clammy as she wiped some sweat off her brow with her arm.
"Just a dream Lily, just a dream." She whispered to herself, trying to calm her breathing. She looked over at the other girls who were sleeping carelessly. She didn't know what time it was but she knew she couldn't stay lying in her bed anymore. She threw her robes over her sleepwear and set off for the courtyard. The sun was just rising as she sat down in her spot, the sun danced along the sky as it waited to rise in the sky.
She thought about the nightmare, it had been different than the others. This time she was in Hogwarts and she was positive that neither Zenith nor Scorpius had ever been in them before. She had always assumed if anyone was the snake it would have been Scorpius and not him trying to save her. She still couldn't get Zenith's red eyes just staring at her with pure hatred out of her head.
Lily almost jumped out of her skin when she heard a voice come from behind her. "Having seen you out here in a while." She turned around to see Scorpius standing there with his smirk on his face. "And it appears we're a bit jumpy this morning as well." He chuckled.
"I can be where ever I please." Lily hissed and turned away from him, too nervous to look into his eyes.
"It appears you can." He chuckled as sitting down beside her like they were the last night they had met like this. "Couldn't sleep again Potter?"
"Something like that." She mumbled.
"Oh come on, it's not like I'm going to tell anyone." Lily refused to look at him. She was still confused on why he had even been in her nightmare to begin with and then it dawned on her; it was a nightmare but someone how she knew she that wasn't what was bothering her.
"Just a nightmare." She sighed – it was true, who was he going to tell.
"About what exactly?" He generally seemed concerned and she didn't know how to take it.
"Well, you were there." Lily said darkly.
"I … was in your nightmare?" He stammered a bit and then composed himself back to his cocky self. "Was I terrifying?"
"Something like that." Lily blush profusely unable to stop it.
"So you have nightmares about me?" He asked sounding a little bit concerned.
"Oh don't you worry, you're not as scary as you think you are." Lily gaining her confidence back, the smugness of him usually brought it out. "So Quidditch practice again?"
"There is never Quidditch practice this early in the morning." He said simply and she looked at him in shock.
"So why are you out here then?"
"I practice by myself."
"You think that's going to help you?" She asked him smugly.
"Oh I know so. While you're off watching that child's practice, I'm doing actual practice." He chuckled and Lily swung her legs around to stand up. She placed her hands on her hips and gave him a huge smirk.
"If you think you're so good, then show me." She raised her eyebrow challenging him.
"Follow me Potter." Scorpius never back down to a challenge as the head for the Quidditch pitch.
"Now," he said as he mounted his broom. They were standing in the middle of the Quidditch pitch as they spoke. Lily felt extremely better about not sitting in the stands again. "Let's see if you're pretty little boyfriend can do this." He kicked off and shot straight up. He spun looping around the hoops, clearly showing off. He shot up again so Lily could barely see him and then pointed his broom, crashing straight down towards her, Lily stood her ground as he pulled up his broom just fast enough to make a flawless recovery and glide across the entire pitch. Again he twisted around and around, flipping and twirling in the air. Lily watched him mesmerized by his graceful loops and turns. He finally glided down to the ground hoping off his broom in one graceful swift movement.
"That was very, impressive." Lily managed to spit out not wanting to give him too much of a compliment. She would have to warn Al in some way without being too obvious.
"That was almost a compliment Potter." He smirked at her. "Your turn." He handed her the broom and she stared at him. "Have you never ridden a broom before Potter? He raised an eyebrow at her.
"Of course I have!" Lily jumped onto the broom with a wild laugh. She hadn't been on one since summer; the feeling was like none other. She kicked off from the ground and rocketed into the sky. The sun was warm on her face as she zipped around the hoops; she spun and twirled through the air carelessly. She came zooming to a stop in front of Scorpius as a giggle escaped her.
"I was much better!" Lily giggled handing back Scorpius his broom.
"I hardly think so!" He laughed, "If you can fly so well, why aren't you on the team?"
"It's really my brothers' thing, beside we can't have to whole family taking over the team now can we?" She giggled some more, she felt like she was on cloud nine.
"Even if you had the whole Weasley-Potter family on one team, you couldn't beat us." He smirked stepping closer to her.
"Oh I think we could." She gave him a wide grin and took a step towards him.
He stepped just so there was a bit of room between them before speaking. "Never the less Potter, you're a pretty good flyer."
"What a real compliment from a Malfoy?" Lily teased him; she could feel the tease between them like something that couldn't pull her away.
"They don't come around very often." He flashed a charming smile at her.
"You're not so bad yourself." She raised an eyebrow at him.
Inches away from her face Scorpius all breathed, "By the way, Osterly is looking for you." With that turned and walked back to the castle. Lily stood there in shock, froze in the middle of the Quidditch pitch. Her face had been inches away from Scorpius and she didn't do anything to stop it. A chill ran through her the words registered with her. 'Osterly is looking for you.' She remembered the red of his eyes and another chill racked through her, she had just stepped off her cloud nine back down to reality. There was no way she was going to be able to face him now, not after her nightmare.
Lily did her best to avoid everyone she could, Ivy needed her anyways. Hugo gave her some questioning looks throughout the day but she ignored most of them. She fell asleep during potions and Kenda throwing a piece of paper at her head she woke up to find her cauldron was on fire. Professor Slughorn worriedly extinguished the fire and cleaned her cauldron out with a flick of his wand. By dinner Lily was exhausted of avoiding Zenith, she was walking to the Great hall with Hugo when someone tapped her on the shoulder. Lily jumped, still a bit skittish from the morning and turned around to see a bright blue eyed Zenith standing behind her.
"Can we talk?" He said in a rough voice.
Lily nervously nodded as gave Hugo a small smile and they stepped away from everyone.
Lily braced herself for what Alyssa had worried her about. "Where have you been?" Zenith asked her in an oddly calm voice.
Shocked Lily blunted out, "Wha... tt?"
"Where have you been for 2 days?" He asked her again.
"Well, ok. Ivy she needed me, Ed broke up with her and she wouldn't talk to anyone and she just needed me. I couldn't leave her, she's my person. She always there for me, I couldn't not be there for her. She needed me. Then I figured you would be angry with me for ditching you so I kind of avoided you for today because I felt bad for ditching you but my friend. She needed me and I couldn't let her just be stuck in the dorm for the next week or hexing first years." Lily inhaled and looked at him.
"Why didn't you just tell me?" He breathed out, "You're my girlfriend Lily, we're supposed to tell each other things."
"I'm sorry, I just thought –"She began but he cut her off.
"Your friend needed you, I get it. Just tell me next time ok?" He kissed her nose and gave her a charming smile. Lily was blown away, if this was the temper that Alyssa was talking about then she clearly hadn't she seen her mother's. "How about we go get dinner?"
"That sounds lovely." She smiled up at him as he took her hand. As they were walking into the Great Hall out of the corner of her eye she saw Scorpius standing there looking at her. Their eyes met for a brief second, ice and fire, he looked pained as he turned and stocked off in the opposite direction. Lily turned back to Zenith and he gave her a smile as they walked into the crowded Hall. Something in the pit of her stomach turned, she wasn't sure if it was the red eyes she couldn't get out of her head or the grey ones.