Chapter Eleven

…

1st November

The Library

08oo hours

…

The day after Halloween Lily was sat a suitable distance away from Keegan in a quiet corner of the library trying, in vain, to concentrate. Two things were making this difficult. The first, well- You try to find a self-respecting fifteen year old who enjoyed goblin wars at eight o'clock on a Sunday morning. The second was that Keegan was wearing an white Oxford shirt and had rolled the sleeves up.

It is a truth universally accepted among the female population at large that the varying degree of hotness of any male in question is always improved by rolling up the sleeves of a white Oxford shirt.

Lily had never met someone who dressed like he was on his way to a board meeting on weekends, and looked so ridiculously good while doing it. Her family were of the 'If I can't smell it from across the room where I dumped it on the floor last night, then it's good to go' persuasion. Excepting Victoire of course. It was hard to imagine Victoire ever wearing the same piece of clothing twice, but apart from her...

So Lily was struggling to concentrate, and she had the sinking suspicion that Keegan had noticed how obvious she was being. This was their third tutoring session since the morning after they'd broken up. Well, broken up was putting it a little strongly. Mostly things had to get going before they had enough velocity to break. Failed at the starting block might be a better way of putting it. Either way, they had been good for the best part of two weeks, and Lily thought it might just kill her.

Their seating arrangement was deliberate. At their first meeting, Lily had sat down next to Keegan to share the textbooks, and had spent the entire hour trying not to accidentally brush his hand when turning a page. Since then, they had decided to sit opposite each other. But that meant that Lily could stare dreamily at him without getting a crick in her neck.

'Lily, I know this is boring, but you could pretend to be listening.'

Keegan was finding the tutoring session difficult too, though he suspected he was hiding it better than she was. After all, he'd had more practise.

'Sorry', She smiled, trying to focus on the page, and not on his hand resting against it.

'Bodrod the Bearded added fuel to the fire by blaming the increase in silver tax on the ministry of the time, and of course the silver mines were near to Fort William at the foot of Ben Nevis which lead the rebellion to choose-?'

'The Three Broomsticks?'

'Correct, The Three Broomsticks as their head quarters. And by 1611 this state had become to exacerbated that the goblins began to refuse to mint sickle which was one of the main reasons for the markets collapse, leading to the rebellion in 1612-'

Lily leaned over the table and kissed him.

She really couldn't help it.

His hands reached up to cup her face, and where once his hands might have been soft, Rose's vigorous training routine had formed callouses on the fingers. Somehow the slight rasp of his fingers made her skin tingle. His lips were soft though, but not gentle, and the way he was devouring her mouth was only matched by the way she was kissing him back, fingers knotted in his hair, their breathing fast.

One of his hands dropped to her waist and, in an attempt to pull her closer, the table gave a great wobble and the textbook, precariously shoved to one side, fell onto the floor with a calamitous thud. All at once Lily came to her sense.

When the vulture-like librarian poked her over-long nose between the bookshelves to investigate the source of the noise a few moments later, she saw only two diligent student, a boy with wildly curling hair and slightly askew glasses, and a girl with traces of a flush along her cheeks, heads bowed over their parchment. With a sniff, she scurried away.

When the ancient librarian had left Lily, without raising her eyes from her untidy notes, said: 'I'm sorry about that.'

'Really, don't apologise. It was my fault as well.' Keegan half wished she would look up, but felt that it was probably better for his sanity if she didn't. That half-smile she sometimes gave wasn't exactly helping him to avoid thinking about her lips.

'It can't happen again', Lily said miserably. 'We agreed...'

'Yeah', he confirmed. 'But that doesn't make it any easier.'

'Maybe we shouldn't spend time together alone.'

'It would be the sensible thing to do...'

'It's not for that long really.'

'I totally understand.'

Lily pushed her books into her bag and stood up.

'Thanks for the tutoring sessions anyway. They were fun. The Three Broomsticks, 1612 and all that-'

'So you do listen', he tried to lighten the mood with a feeble joke. It was so feeble that a flobberworm would have seen through it, but Lily seized it like the proverbial man falling from a great height clutches his broomstick.

'Yeah, not everything goes in one ear and out the other, you know. Anyway, see you at training.'

Keegan watched her walk away between the shelves, and then let his head thump down on top of his textbook.

…

The Quidditch Pitch

09oo hours

…

Lily watched Rose fly laps with impressive speed and without the use of her hands. There was no denying, Rose was an incredible flyer, and when she landed, which she did, throwing up rivets of dirt, Lily told her cousin so.

Rose smiled at Lily, and shouldered her broom. 'Thanks Lils, though there's always plenty to work on.'

'Don't be hard on yourself', Lily laughed as they fell into step, heading back up towards the changing rooms. 'You're a bloody genius on a broomstick!'

'And you have the most natural flair for quidditch that I've ever seen', Rose returned, laughing as well. 'We can't both be perfect!'

In the changing rooms Rose laid her broom down with reverential care and began to get changed. 'So what was it you wanted to talk to me about?'

Lily dithered for a few moments, idly shifting her weight from one foot to the other. Then she settled on the truth.

'I'm really struggling to keep up with my school work, what with training four days a week. I'm not a genius like you unfortunately, I have to study really hard, and Professor Zabini says if I get another D in potions he's going to write to Mum.'

Rose pondered her cousin's words, guilt settling into her stomach. 'I'm sorry Lils, I had no idea you were struggling. I thought Keegan was tutoring you.'

Lily felt her insides jump slightly at the mention of his name. 'It didn't work out unfortunately.'

If Rose thought anything about this, she kept it to herself, though she did give her cousin a searching look.

…

The Gryffindor Common Room

15oo hours

…

After Rose had called an emergency quidditch meeting in the Gryffindor common room she pulled Scorpius aside.

The team had been reasonably complacent about the addition of a new rule. (Number Six: Anyone unable to keep up with schoolwork is to speak to the captain immediately, and she will use her pull with the prefects to find them tutoring partners. If they are still struggling, then they must face the choice of potentially leaving the team, or speaking to the professors about finding solutions.) Though Rose thought there might have been a few uncomfortable shuffles as she recapped the other five rules.

She decided to ignore these murmurings for the sake of her sanity, and to focus on the problem at hand, namely Scorpius and the question she had for him.

'Hey you', she tugged on his arm until he collapsed onto the seat next to her, all long legs and tangled limbs, his overlong hair falling into his face. He smiled winningly at her, and absently lent back, draping his arm over the back of her seat. She lent into him, but her movements were not as relaxed as his. She was having another of those annoying moments when she was incredibly aware of every part of Scorpius, from his arm behind her neck, to his narrow hip jutting against her own, to his very smell and the coffee on his breath.

'What's up?' Scorpius grinned down at Rose's freckled face, and she felt bad about ruining his good mood with her question. Still, quidditch first.

'Lily is worried about having to drop out of the team because she can't keep up with her potions and History of Magic work.'

He jokingly punched her lightly on the thigh. 'I should have known that it would be quidditch. You're a one-track record, my dear.' He said, smiling fondly at her.

'I mean I thought Keegan was helping her but that seems to have stopped now. And then I thought about the person in our year who is best at potions and I thought about it for a while, and the most obvious person is-'

'No.'

'Scorpius-'

'No, I don't want her around at the moment. It's still too awkward, we can barely look at each other still.'

'Isabelle would be tutoring Lily, not you!' Rose fired up, leaning forwards. Scorpius extracted his arm from behind her, the smile slipping from his lips. 'Think about the team, we need Lily, she's an incredible player-'

'Quidditch, quidditch, QUIDDITCH! That's all you care about! What about my feelings or don't they matter to you at all? If she's tutoring Lily then she's going to be hanging around with us, and I can't face that-'

'Oh for Merlin's sake Scorpius! You guys have been broken up two whole months, get over it! You call me a bloody stuck record, but you're worse! I know you cared about her a lot, but now you're just using it as an excuse not to move on-'

'MOVE ON?' Scorpius roared, heaving himself off the seat and standing up angrily. 'Jut because you've got the emotional range of a brick wall, doesn't mean that we all do! You might not feel things like love and rejection, but I do, so you can go stuff it!'

And with that he shoved his hands into his pockets and, ignoring the curious stares of the Gryffindors in the common room, stormed up to the boy's dormitory.

Rose buried her head in her hands.

...

Scorpius paced three times around the deserted dormitory, before sinking onto his bed and running a hand through his hair. As the overlong strands fell into his eyes, he thought dismally that he probably should get it cut, that it was too long for a quidditch player. Then he realised that was probably what Rose thought every time she looked at him, and groaned.

Rose.

He'd been infatuated with her all the way through fourth and fifth year, and maybe even a little bit before that. He kept waiting for the day that she would wake up from dating that louse McClaggen and realise that he had been there all along.

He touched his lips.

He'd only kissed Isabelle to try and get the feel of Rose lips against his own out of his head. And when Rose had vanished off to Russia to play quidditch without so much as letting him down gently, he'd given up. By the time Albus got round to pointing out that Rose didn't remember anything from that night, Scorpius was happily ensconced in coupledom.

While, when he sorted through the facts in his head like this, it sounded like he was merely using Isabelle, that simply wasn't true. Isabelle was nothing like Rose, true, and that had been one of the things that attracted him at first. But Isabelle was one of life's really good people. She was intelligent, loyal to a fault, and so unceasingly kind that she had made Scorpius want to be a better person. He felt like a better person when they were together, and when she broke up with him, he worried he was going to lose that.

For a first girlfriend, his only girlfriend, they'd bypassed the awkwardness of venturing into the dating scene. Their friends might tease them for being old-fashioned, but they clicked. Rose might not have been his first kiss – that dubious honour lay with Celia Raventhorpe whom he had known outside of Hogwarts – nor his first crush – that ignominy rested with the beautiful, feisty Roxanne, but she was never boring, and the words old-fashioned could not have been less applicable. Isabelle was the kind of girl you sat by the fire with on winter evenings. Rose was the kind of girl who made you want to scale the astronomy tower, swim the lake, anything to impress her.

Much as he didn't like to admit it, Rose was partially right. The hurt that had accompanied their break up had faded to a dull ache which had grown less and less over the following weeks. He missed her, how nicely they had worked as a pair, but he wasn't madly heartbroken either. His heart might be a little battered, but it certainly wasn't broken.

THere was a sound from the doorway, and he looked up to see Rose hovering uncertainly in the doorway. Sometimes, when she caught him off guard, he still caught his breath when he stared at her. She could never be called beautiful, but there was something about her face that made it hard to look away. Her body, well, that was enough to make a grown man cry.

He tore his eyes away as she slipped into the room and perched tentatively on the mattress next to him. A moment, and then he felt her small hand on his arm. He shifted, and wrapped his arms around wondering how they fitted so well, how, for two such tall people, they weren't all elbows and hips. He felt her face press against his shoulder, and her arms encircle his waist.

'I'm sorry', she whispered into his shoulder, and then she pulled back.

Oddly, he didn't want her to go.

…

The Hallways

17oo hours

...

Lucy was hurrying along, skipping down the staircase that lead from Ravenclaw Tower where she had been visiting Molly and Ruthie, when she bumped head first into Tommy Tillian. This being Tillian, she rebounded somewhat, and, in an attempt to balance herself, accidentally put her foot through the trick staircase with a thump.

This was not a good position to be in. This Lucy knew for a fact. And try and she might, wiggling for all she was worth, she couldn't free her foot. Her wand was in her pocket, but she didn't grab it, she didn't want to be perceived as the instigator, nor did she want to give Tillian any more reason to start anything. So instead she waited, and hoped he would pass by.

Which he didn't of course.

'Loo-roll!' He sounded almost happy to see her. 'You look just like a weasel caught in a trap. In fact, you are a weasel caught in a trap.' He looked inordinately pleased with his joke and sniggered unpleasantly.

'Look', Lucy could feel her good mood evaporating like so much boiling water. 'Leave me alone okay. I don't get any pleasure from these interactions, you don't get any enjoyment from them. Why don't we just make things nice and easy for each other and agree never to see each other again.'

It was a no-go. In the grand scheme of no-goes it was nearer to a why-did-you-even-bother-starting? The likelihood of Tillian pulling her out of the trick stair was less than zero. The odds on him just walking away and leaving her to find another way to get her leg out was so far below zero she didn't even try to work it out.

In the midst of all this maths, a new voice joined the conversation.

'Hello Weasley, need a hand there?'

The reason Lucy had never spoken to Trevor Warrington despite being in the same year was not because he was in Slytherin, but because he was the Slytherin seeker and Lucy thought that it would be pushing team loyalty a little too far.

'That would be brill, thanks Warrington.'

The arrival of Trevor had entirely defused the situation. Maybe because Tillian knew that Warrington was possible the most popular Slytherin in his year, what with the gravitas of being the youngest player on the house team, but he didn't try to pick a fight and continued up the stairs towards the eagle-knocker.

Warrington gestured, then, on her smile, grabbed the tops of her arms and gave a heave. Her leg came flying out of the trick stair and she almost toppled over. Steadying herself, she thanked him but he cut across her.

'Don't worry about it.'

He had a very easy smile for a Slytherin and as they fell into step, heading down the staircase towards the Great Hall and dinner, Lucy found herself more than she would have thought.

'So that looked pretty nasty back there', Warrington queried as they passed the third floor.

'Yeah, Tillian has it in for me unfortunately. It was lucky you turned up before things got nasty to be honest, so thanks for that.'

'He's a nasty bully', Warrington said with surprising venom in his voice. At her questioning look, he explained. 'My little brother started Hogwarts this year, and Tillian decided to torment him. He's a bit of a runt, my brother', Warrington said with brotherly affection. 'Anyway, he stopped when me and Digby, that's my other brother, taught him a lesson. He's foul though.'

'Giles Warrington?' Lucy queried. He nodded. 'Yeah, Molly mention he was in her house. Molly's my little sister', she added for clarity.

'Cool.'

They entered the Great Hall which was filling up for dinner and made to part ways, but before he turned to follow the tables down to the Slytherin end, Lucy caught his arm.

'Call me Lucy, there's far too many Weasleys in this school already.'

He grinned at her, and she noticed the splattering of freckles across his nose that made him look so cheerful.

'In that case, I'm Trevor. Nice to meet you Lucy.'

Lucy sat down next to Letty at the Gryffindor table and deflected a few curious questions from Ella and Mary, tolerated some good-natured teasing from Violet and Bea, and helped herself to stew.

From over at the Slytherin table with his friends, Trevor waved at his new friend and she waved back, despite the odd looks.

…

Outside the Gryffindor common room

21oo hours

…

'You'll be late for curfew', The Fat Lady argued as Erin slipped out of the portrait hole. 'Filch will catch you. He's not as young as he once was, but he's still pretty nippy on his feet-'

'I'll be fine. I won't be long.'

Alex Simpson was wearily climbing the staircases towards Gryffindor Tower, potions essay finally completed, when he heard footsteps and saw Erin passing by, her long dreadlocks swinging as she strode purposely along.

Weariness forgotten, curiosity won out. He followed her.

A.N.

Hello there, another Sunday, another chapter Sorry about the cliff-hanger!

This one almost didn't get posted as today is Father's Day, but for you guys I have written this entire chapter this afternoon! I hope you enjoyed this! It's a little bit filler, but there are some plot-related points never fear!

How do you guys feel about the pace of the plot? The development of the characters? The interactions between the family and friends? Let me know!

I will do my best to get another chapter up next Sunday, but it's my little brother's eighteenth birthday party so potentially two weeks. Sorry guys!

Drop me a review, and see you in a week or two!

Love and hugs

A.A.A.

xxx