As always, I do not own Harry Potter or his world. Everything belongs to J Rowling and the franchise. (I do own, however, all my OC's, so hopefully you'll like them).
Reviews letting me know about any grammar, spelling or language in general will be really appreciated.
Hope you enjoy this!
(We meet)
When Lizzy was eight, she had made herself invisible for a whole school day. At the time, magic was still something that only existed in fantasy books and fairy tales, so she had assumed her fellow fourth graders were just pretending not to see her as a prank.
Years later, when she finally received her Hogwarts letter and was able to understand why she could do extraordinary things nobody else could, she had tried to perform the spell again a couple of times.
It was unfortunate, she though now, that she had never been able to do it again.
They were sitting together at the library, her and the three girls from the group, but none of them were talking and the silence was beginning to be too heavy. Liz knew they were expecting her to talk, because she was Head Girl and the one who had organized this get together, but she could feel the weight of their glances on her and it made her too nervous to speak. Hence, she wished for her ability to become invisible to come back to her by some miracle.
She missed Wood, who was always in charge of starting speech during prefects meetings. Liz was better at solving doubts and organizing schedules anyway.
"Okay" Rose Weasley spoke suddenly, clearing her throat. She was the Gryffindor after all. "We should... talk about this".
"Right" Lizzy said. "I was thinking we could write down a list, you know, of people each of us can talk to. Family and friends, that sort of thing. Just to know how many stories we might have for the essay".
"That sounds like a good idea" Julie replied, sending Liz a reassuring smile.
"We should..." Lyra Nott started, surprising Liz. She had barely mumbled a hello when she had arrived and had not made any noise ever since.
"We should make sure they are willing to talk about The War before putting them on the list" she finally said "I just... there are a lot of people who are not ready to talk about it yet, even now".
"She's right". Rose replied quickly.
The two girls flashed each other a hesitant smile. And somehow, all the tension in the room seemed to dissolve at once. Maybe, Liz realized, they had all been worrying about the two of them without even noticing, after all, Gryffindor and Slytherin was hard enough without adding the whole Wizard War.
"How about we meet again in two weeks then?"
"Okay" Julie nodded "Friday morning again?".
"As long as it doesn't interfere with Quidditch" Lyra said "Scorpius takes practice very seriously".
Liz, who had shared every Charms lesson with Scorpius Malfoy during six years, as well as prefect meetings for two, had the urge to point out he seemed to take everything very seriously. But she had a feeling Lyra would not appreciate the comment. It was not that he was could not show emotions, exactly, he was just controlled about it. All the time.
"Well okay" Julie said "We are all settled then, right?".
"Looks like it" Rose answered happily, picking up her bag.
"It was nice meeting you" Lyra added, surprising Liz once more.
"I guess I'll see you all in class".
"We, um, we actually have DADA together now" Rose said.
Liz grimaced at the thought. Defense had always been her worst subject, but it was necessary to become a Healer, so she was forced to continue it N.E.W.T level.
"That's right" she told Rose "We have enough time to make it to class if we go now".
Rose stood up.
(James's girl)
One would have thought the biggest problem in her group of work for Rose was Lyra Nott, given the history of her families. But the truth was, walking alone with Lizzy Hathaway was making her feel by far more uncomfortable than any of her interactions with Lyra today had.
It was not that Rose didn't like Liz (everyone liked Liz). She was genuinely nice and really intelligent, and if it wasn't for her lack of freckles she could pass for a Weasley with her long auburn hair.
So, Rose could tell Lizzy Hathaway was pretty awesome. The thing was, so could James.
Of the two Potter boys, people usually expected James to be the one with a million girlfriends. Maybe because it was Al who looked more loke Uncle Harry, and was nicer about everything. James was famous, rich and handsome, and he had gotten himself a reputation for being a troublemaker at Hogwarts, where he had also been Quidditch Captain for two years.
It was funny, really. Because James had only ever been interested in one girl: Elizabeth Hathaway.
It had started at the beginning of Rose's and Liz's fifth year, James's sixth, when he had first noticed her, and decided he liked her. A lot. And as the following two hears passed, the Weasley-Potterfamily interest in Liz grew together with James's unsuccessful attempts to get her to agree on a date with him.
The first time he had heard the story, Uncle Harry had almost chocked on the butterbeer he was drinking. Looking up at James like he had seen a ghost. But it must have been a good one, because he had smiled a second latter. The saddest smile Rose had ever seen.
"It sounds like a great love story, son". He had finally said.
Liz, Rose suspected, had simply become used to James's extravaganzas with time. Becuse they had stopped to drive her crazy and she no longer tried to hex him into oblivion every time. Now, they were always bickering about everything, but she absolutely ignored the matter of his love for her with ease.
And the same thing had eventually happened with everyone else. The Weasleys talked about Liz now like she was part of the family, instead of the girl who barely endure James's company and had told him no every time he had asked her out. Some times even in a very colorful way.
"He won't give up" Freddie would said "He's found the ultimate nuisance, he can annoy the hell out of her and she's the one who looks like the bad guy when she says no".
"That's awful" Lily replied, scolding at James "What if she falls for you? You could break her heart with this stupid prank".
And James would just shrug it off, but Rose could see more. Something changed in him because of her.
It was definitely not a joke.
He was in love.
(Are you ready?)
"You are slow" Scorpius said as soon as Lyra stopped at the door of Slytherin's locker rooms, Friday evening.
"And you're a tyrant" she panted, hands on her knees.
"I told you you'ld run six laps around the pitch if you did' catch the snitch twwice during training" he shrugged, passing her a bottle of water she dismissed flr fear of throwing up "You didn't catch the snich twice. You run".
"I didn't take you seriously!" Lyra answered, glaring at him and finally feeling strong enough to straighten .
"I've told you a million times" Scorpius insisted, following her as she grabbed her broom from the ground and opened the door of the locker rooms. "We have to get faster. We play Ravenclaw in a week".
"Faster on a broom, not running!" said Graham Zabini, Scorpius's youngest cousin, already out of his Quidditch gear and dressed in jeans and a shirt.
"You never said anything about running" confirmed Rob Higgs, the other beater.
"We are working on our endurance" Scorpius snapped, clearly annoyed with his whole team. "Toughing up".
"Fine. Can we leave now? I'm starving" Graham said.
"Just get out of here" Scorpius sighed, throwing his broom in the cupboard.
Before he was done closing the door with its key, everyone but Lyra and himself was out of there. And he waited until she had showered and changed into clean clothes in the girls' bathroom before talking.
"Your head wasn't in the game today" he said.
"I'm sorry".
"Are you alright?"
"Yes". Lyra said, grabbing her bag and stepping through the door.
Scorpius followed her outside, and as usual they walked towards the Lake instead of going back to the castle. It was almost night by now, but the days were still long and Lyra intended to seize every second of sun left before winter.
She had grown up in France, on Niza's countryside, where it was never too cold and winters seemed to last half of what they did in Scotland. Her dad had run away there, after the war, only coming back once a year to the old Nott family house he had never had the nerve to sell, not even after Lyra's grandfather died in Azkaban five years later. But Lyra's mum was English too, and she eventually started to miss it too much, so they had moved back to England when Lyra was only six. She could barely remember anything about France, but she missed the sun a lot. Her body craved for the long summers she had not lived for nine years.
It was curious, she thought, how things you grow up with remain part of you in a way nothing else does.
"Scorp?" Lyra said when they sat on the grass by the Lake, like they did every day after Quidditch practice.
"Yeah?".
"I wasn't concentrating on the game today because of that stupid project about The War".
He was alert in a second, looking straight at her with an odd expression, half concern half fury, on his pale face.
"I though you said the girls were nice this morning".
"They were" Lyra quickly clarified "It's not about them".
"Okay" Scorpius said slowly, and then nothing else.
He was always good at letting people lash out. He was one of those extremely rare persons who just shut up and waiting until you were ready to say everything you needed to until you figured it out. He never pressured you to talk or judge you when you did. Lyra loved that about him.
"We have to make a list of people each of us can talk to" she started "And I just don't know if I'm ready for that".
"For...making a list?" Scorp said confused.
"I don't know if I am ready to talk about the war. With mum and dad and maybe your family" her voice trembled, and she swallowed hard before continuing "I don't know if I can take it".
"What do you mean?".
"I don't know if I am ready to know what they did".
He didn't say anything, and for a moment both of the stood there, frozen. She knew how he was feeling, hurt and angry and ashamed, followed by something he could never outrun, because it was part of him even before he was been. He felt like he was drowning.
Just like her.
Worse still, she suddenly realized they were not longer alone. Albus Potter had appeared on the verge of the forest, followed by a couple of red heads who were still a little to far away to identify, but that for sure belonged to two Weasleys.
He stared at them for a second, clearly too surprised to act. What a pitiful image they made, Lyra nodded slowly at her, and Lyra nodded back right as he turned around and left in the other direction, her misery locked in his brain.
.