Author's Notes: Thank you to my dear reviewers! I don't think I thank you enough. Dear hashi, I know I should not reply to you here, but you wrote so many questions for me! I just couldn't resist! That said, I can't reply to any of them, unless I want to spoil you things! :D But I can tell you that there's not going to be George at all in this story. Hmm, the one I'm working on has a lot of George though... Wait for it! Thank you for all your comments!
Before you delve into this chapter, let me tell you that a) I've never been to Papua (but I've researched the place and cuisine on the internet) and b) I'm terrible at writing Luna - even though I love her. That said, enjoy!
Chapter Seven
The moment Scorpius was slammed to the ground of Rossel Island – or Yela, as the Scamanders insisted on calling it – he groaned out loud. No, the fall hadn't been that bad, in fact he had been rather good at falling on his hands and knees as opposite to his face as he used to do when he was still a teenager, but the smothering humidity of the tropical island slapped his cheeks and imprinted a thin layer of perspiration on his hairline almost immediately. He didn't like warm and humid climates, he was a man who liked to live in the coldness of the Manor and didn't fare well in places that caused sweat to pour into his eyes.
For a moment he was glad that Lily wasn't there, he surely didn't look too good all sweaty and flushed, and he knew that before the end of the day he was also going to stink…
He pushed his hands on the wet ground and stood up, the dark soil glued to his palms and he just sighed and brushed it on his khaki shorts. He turned around to see where Albus had landed and stopped dead.
Albus had landed right there next to him, but he was still lying there on the ground, eyes as big as two oranges and face as pale as a ghost. "Scorpius…" he murmured, looking at him.
"Don't move," whispered Scorpius, drawing out his wand. On Albus' hand the biggest spider he had ever seen – and no, he had never seen any Acromantula before – was crawling its way towards the dark-haired man's arm.
What was the spell again? Something that had 'arac—'… 'aracnides'… 'ara—something'. Damn it! Lily would remember it…
"Oh there you are! We've been looking for you for the whole island, we've kind of forgotten where—"
"Shh!" Scorpius glanced at Luna with Lorcan – or was that Lysander? – in her arms, appearing from behind a thick curtain of vegetation and gestured for Albus' hand where the spider seemed to have found an ideal nest where to settle between his middle and forefinger.
"Oh, hello Albus," said Luna dreamily, walking around him, "I almost didn't see you there."
"Spider," mouthed Albus in a terrified whisper.
Luna seemed to ignore him altogether. She placed the twin she was carrying to the ground and turned to give a dreamy smile to Scorpius. "Did you have a nice trip?"
Scorpius looked at her as if she was crazy – well, he knew she kind of was, really, his father called her Loony for a reason – and gestured for Luna to turn to have a proper look at Albus' hand. His face scrunched up in horror when he spotted the toddler with the spider in his little hands and Albus' even more terrified expression upon his face.
"Mummy…" called the boy.
"What is it, Lorcan? Oh, what a pretty spider you've got there, dearie," she told him, "but we can't bring it with us. We should put it in the jungle surely he has his wife and his children to go to…"
The boy nodded and let the spider fall to the ground, causing Albus to let out a very unmanly scream as he jumped to his feet and away from the arachnid which started running away into the woods.
Luna smiled at him. "Albus, you are exactly like your Uncle Ron," she told him, "afraid of a dear little creature." She picked up Lorcan again and went to kiss Scorpius' cheeks. Then they kissed Albus' and the dark-haired Auror looked at them as if they were both out of their minds.
"A dear little creature?" grunted Albus, wiping the dirt from his face and clothes. "A dear little creature? That was a monster! It had more legs and eyes than a creature should be allowed to have!"
Luna giggled and to Scorpius' surprise even Lorcan laughed. Probably the two-year-old was actually laughing at Albus.
"Shall we go to the house?" asked Luna gently. "Rolf prepared some typical Papuan food." She didn't wait for their reply, but stalked away and into the forest, and only then Scorpius noticed that she wasn't wearing anything but a skimpy little dress that fluctuated in the breeze of the island. She had no shoes and, dear little creatures aside, he was sure that it was not a safe thing to go strolling barefoot through the forest on a tropical island…
Scorpius already felt quite vulnerable in shorts and a shirt, too much of his milky white skin was offered to surely some gigantic insects that would soon feast with his blood.
"Did you have a nice journey?" asked Luna in her dreamy tone of voice that let them know that she would have found particularly interesting either if their journey had been very comfortable or very uncomfortable.
"Was alright," replied Albus, his eyes busy checking the ground for other unwanted dear little creatures. "The landing was a bit rough."
"As always," added Scorpius, dunking to avoid being hit by a branch right in the face. It wouldn't do to disfigure himself before that night's party.
"And is everything brilliant back at home?" she asked, turning to look at them as she moved a branch from in front of her to show a little, wooden construction in the middle of a clearing. "How's my goddaughter?"
"She's brilliant," replied Scorpius with a silly smile upon his lips.
"She gave me a ton of stuff for you and Rolf and the kids, Luna," said Albus. "Just tell me that that's your house and I'll be happy to put everything down."
Luna nodded. "That's indeed our house," she replied, "until the day after tomorrow. We are moving to Australia, Rolf thinks that there's a new species of Billywigs that are light blue instead of sapphire, and he wants to try to get stung in order to see if the they have the same side effects."
"Side effects?" Who on earth would have wanted to be stung by an insect voluntarily.
"Giddiness followed by levitation," replied Luna, putting Lorcan down as they stepped up the stairs that brought to the door of their house. At least they were shrewd enough to know that they had to keep the door far over the ground to avoid spiders, and snakes and Merlin knew what other creatures crawled the island, from getting inside.
She pushed the ajar door open and a delicious smell of something meaty stewing slowly on the fire wafted right to their nostrils.
"Ah, they are here," grinned Rolf in his American accent. "How are you, lads?" He winked at them as if to show that he had just learned a new word, as opposite to dudes probably, like he had called them last time he had come to England to visit.
"All's good, Rolf," replied Albus with a smile, "and this smells delicious."
"Thank you, my first time cooking this, but I've taken cooking lessons from the old woman of the village, I hope I nailed it," he replied, before turning towards his son. "Lysander, come and say hi to our guests."
The boy, a spitting image of his brother, ran to Scorpius and waved his hands high in the air for the Auror to pick him up. Scorpius smiled as he did as he was asked.
"Hey, Lysander, I might be jealous if you run to Scorpius first," protested Albus with a grin on his face.
Lysander grabbed Scorpius' face and licked his cheek from his jaw to his ear.
"Or maybe not that jealous," chuckled Albus.
"Hey!" protested Scorpius, putting him down and brushing away the saliva.
"Oh, Scorpius, he likes you," beamed Rolf, "he is learning from the animals – we think Mother Nature is a very good teacher, and that's how some marsupials show their affection, by licking their friends and family."
"Oh great," muttered Scorpius, "go and show your affection to Albus, Lysander."
"No, stay away," warned Albus, pushing the toddler off of him, "no. Lysander! No! I taste very bitter, you wouldn't like to lick me… and I'm all sweaty. It's not hygienic, you little—ouch!"
Scorpius couldn't suppress his laughter as Lysander bit down on Albus' shin and the Auror jumped forward in surprise rather than pain.
"You should have picked him up," said Luna distractedly, looking around herself. "Oh now, where did I put Lorcan?"
"I think you left him outside," pointed out Albus as he finally picked up Lysander and submitted to the wet treatment with a sigh.
Scorpius sighed as well. "I'll go and get him, Luna," he told her. He was sure that if she was to go, she would have started observing some kind of butterfly or bird or whatever and just disappeared into the forest, maybe even forgetting her own son and not only Albus and Scorpius. And they had only that day to ask them about Toots and plants and stuff…
"Thank you, Scorpius," said Luna, "I'll set the table."
He pushed the flimsy door open and walked down the steps. Lorcan was crouching on the ground near to a hole and was talking in hushed tones to himself.
"Hey Lorcan," Scorpius called as he walked to him, "aren't you hungry? Your dad made something that smells delicious, shouldn't we go and wash our hands?"
"Newt!" said the child pointing towards the hole.
Scorpius looked at the hole as well. "What? A newt here? Don't they need water or something? Is there a river nearby?"
Lorcan smiled at him and pushed his hand into the hole, grasping something and pulling. Scorpius' had just the time to try to remember if newts were poisonous – probably on a tropical island they were – when Lorcan's little hand drew out a snake from the hole. Well, the head and part of the body of a snake, it was too thick and long to come out all at once.
"Bloody hell," he muttered, grabbing Lorcan and trying to tug him away. "That's no newt, Lorcan!"
"Snake," said the child sensibly as the snake was pulled from the hole. "Daddy calls him Newt, like his grandpa."
"Let him go!" grunted Scorpius as he stepped back with Lorcan in his arms.
"No!" protested the child. "Newt is coming with us to Australia! Mummy said that…"
Scorpius' mouth hung open as he looked at the plump face of the snake and at Lorcan's fingers tightly wrapped around its throat. Bloody hell, those children were trouble!
"It's a snake, for crying out loud!" snapped Scorpius. "And you're not leaving until the day after tomorrow. Let it go!"
Lorcan pouted, but he suddenly let the snake go and Scorpius took a couple of unstable steps back before falling on the ground with the laughing child in his lap. The snake looked lazily at them before slithering his way back into the hole, his thick body sliding on the ground.
"Damn, that's big," muttered Scorpius.
"Damn! Bloody hell!" chanted Lorcan as he turned to lick Scorpius' face.
He looked at him, bewildered. Had he just said those things? Oh blimey! After all the times that Lily had reminded him to keep his language free of curse words in front of children, he had just taught two of them to Luna's son, who was living on an almost deserted island in the middle of nowhere, where the other people spoke whatever language they spoke there and certainly not English.
"Damn! Damn!" repeated Lorcan.
"No, no, no," said Scorpius, standing up, with the child in his arms. "That's not a nice word, Lorcan. We don't say that, okay?" He turned his cheek towards him and added, "Here lick me a bit more if you want." Anything to keep that little mouth busy in front of Luna or Rolf.
He let the child lick his cheek and giggle all the way back into the house. And when they walked inside he jumped from Scorpius' arms onto the floor and ran to his mother to wash his hands.
Scorpius went to the sink as well, before collapsing on the chair next to Albus.
"You've got a bit of…" He touched his cheek and Scorpius glared at him. He knew he was covered in saliva.
"He was trying to get a snake out of its hole," muttered Scorpius, brushing away the saliva with the back of his hand. "Those children are dangerous."
Rolf placed a big pot in the middle of the table and smiled as he sat next to Scorpius. "We are so happy to have you here."
"Thank you for having us," replied Albus brightly. "And this smells delicious."
"Ah," said Luna, as she sat at the table with a twin on each side, "help yourselves."
They did, they filled their plates with the stew with prunes and cream and waited impatiently for Lorcan and Lysander to settle down.
"Dig in, guys," encouraged Rolf with a smile. "And let me know if you like it…"
Scorpius glanced at Albus and his Auror partner looked back at him, before dunking a wooden spoon into the stew to take out a generous amount of meat and bring it to his mouth. The meat was tender and tasty and the prunes and cream and something else… wine maybe, were great together. It was delicious.
"This is great, Rolf," complimented Albus, swallowing, "what's the meat? Tastes like chicken."
"Seems beef to me," pointed out Scorpius. "It's delicious though."
Luna and Rolf exchanged an amused smile. "Oh, it's flying fox," replied Rolf calmly, "a speciality of the island."
Scorpius could hear Albus swallowing hard. "Fox?" he asked rather hoarsely.
"Flying fox," corrected Rolf.
Scorpius put down the spoon. "That's like… it's like squirrel, isn't it?" He didn't know if it was worst to be eating fox or squirrel.
"Oh no, Scorpius," said Luna, "it's a bat. The largest bat in the world actually, autochthon of this continent."
Scorpius closed his eyes for a moment. "Are we eating bat?" he asked softly.
Rolf nodded eagerly. "And you just said that it's delicious," he reminded him. "Ah, I'm glad you like it, I was a bit scared that I might have left some teeth in the stew… pay attention to those, by the way."
Scorpius nodded and opened his eyes again. This day was prospecting to become a rather long one…
oooOOOooo
Lily's room was a mess. Yes, it was and she was not ashamed of that at that very moment. There were piles of clothes everywhere, her makeup bag was open and things were thrown everywhere on her bed, her shoes were covering most of the floor and her vanity table was hidden under hair accessories.
Well, she most definitely owned a lot of things.
"Does Miss Lily like her hair now?" panted Taffy for the umpteenth time that afternoon.
Lily looked at her reflection and bit her bottom lip. She was sure that if Taffy wasn't a house-elf, but a human being instead, she would have already snapped at Lily to do her hair herself. "I don't know," she replied softly, "do you think I look nice with curls? Won't Rose think that I'm copying her?" She turned her head tentatively from right to left. Her long red hair looked considerably shorter in those neatly styled ringlets. They were rather different from Rose's, though. Whereas her cousin's hair was slightly on the wild side, hers was neat and shiny.
Lily was not sure this would have been the perfect style for a party. What if Scorpius threaded his fingers in her hair like he liked to do when they kissed? He would have ruined her curls and she would have just looked hideous afterwards.
"Miss Lily doesn't worry," said Taffy, looking into her eyes through the mirror, "Miss Lily looks always nice, and Miss Lily is very different from Miss Rose." She patted her shoulder reassuringly and smiled. "And Miss Lily can use magic to fix her hair and stay beautiful all night."
Lily smiled gratefully. "You think so?" she asked.
The elf nodded profusely. "Taffy thinks so," she replied, bringing her brown fingers back to her hair. "And for Miss Lily's front, Taffy was thinking about two braids, one here." She touched from Lily's left temple to the back of her head. "And one here," she added, touching the other side. Then she smiled and giggled, "So Miss Lily doesn't have her beautiful hair in front of her face when she kisses Master Scorpius…"
"Taffy!" Lily giggled back. "We don't only kiss… we talk and we laugh and we dance…" She smiled, thinking about Scorpius and that upcoming evening at the party. They had spent the whole week apart, and she was looking forward to spending all the night with him. Laughing and kissing and enjoying the company of their friends and cousins. "After the hair, can you help me with my makeup, Taffy?" asked Lily softly. "Something light, please. Scorpius always says that Dominique looks funny when she puts on too much makeup…"
"Miss Lily doesn't need makeup to be beautiful," said the elf gently. "Taffy knows Miss Lily needs very little. Miss Lily is beautiful already without makeup."
Lily giggled again, she knew by now that Taffy always complimented her because it was rooted in her being a house-elf to cover her owner with compliments, but still, sometimes Lily convinced herself that she said those lovely things because she really believed them. "And with the dress…" she added. "I want to wear something… something nice, something from which Scorpius won't be able to tear his eyes away… something really nice…"
"Miss Lily is always pretty," sentenced Taffy, "in every dress…"
Lily sighed as Taffy started to braid her hair, her nimble fingers moved swiftly and for a moment she couldn't help thinking about the brothel, when Taffy would prepare her for another night of hard work, as Nott and the girls called it. She lowered her eyes and stared at her tee-shirt and jeans, she was not back at the brothel though. She knew that and that was important. She was home, her home. And she was getting ready to have fun not to sell her body to some old man amongst perfumed sheets.
"Miss Lily doesn't worry," whispered Taffy, "Master Scorpius will only have eyes for her, he always does."
She nodded at her words, before raising her eyes again. "Do you think he does, Taffy?" she asked softly. "Do you think he always does?"
"Of course, Miss Lily," replied Taffy, her eyes big and surprised at her question. "He always does."
"Even these days?" asked Lily again. "I mean, he hasn't come to Grimmauld Place almost all week and he said that I couldn't go to the Manor… Do you think he still likes me? Maybe… maybe he is thinking of leaving me like Emeric left Rose…"
Taffy shook her head vehemently. "No, no, no," she said, "Master Scorpius loves Miss Lily. He always says that."
Lily smiled softly at the elf. "He does, doesn't he?" she murmured. "Maybe I should wear the green dress, don't you think, Taffy? He always says that I look dashing in it." She flushed at the remembered compliment and glanced at Taffy who nodded eagerly at her.
She was just about to suggest that she would wear the silver shoes to go with it, when there was a light knock on the door and she looked at it through the mirror. "Come in," she said.
The door opened slowly and her mother peeked inside, looking at the mess and then at Lily. "Getting ready for tonight?" she asked softly.
Lily nodded and turned her head. "Do you like my hair, Mum?"
"It's beautiful, Lily," she replied quietly. "Do you need help with anything?"
"Taffy is helping me, Mum," she let her know, "but… but if you want to stay, maybe you can help me with the dress…"
She knew that her mother wouldn't have approved of the green dress that she was to wear – too short, it's February Lily, you are going to get a cold, is that what you want, dear? – but she would cast a Warming Charm on herself, and she would have Scorpius to keep her warm.
Her mother walked inside and closed the door at her back. "You are not coming home too late, are you, Lily?" she asked nervously. "You know that I worry, darling…"
Lily smiled at her. "I won't, Mum," she replied, "but you don't have to worry, I can take care of myself."
Her mother smiled at her and nodded. "I know, my sweet, sweet darling," she murmured, "I know you can."
"And if I can't, Scorpius will take care of me," she told her seriously, "and if he can't, Albus will, and if he can't, James will, and if he can't, Rose will…"
Her mother smiled and let out a soft giggle. "I know," she told her, "my daughter will be absolutely fine tonight." She smiled as she started to fold some of the clothes on the floor. "Maybe when you come home, we can have a cup of tea and you can tell me everything about the party, Lily."
She nodded. Of course her mother just wanted an excuse to wait for her to come back, but Lily liked their late night talks, they could talk for hours and hours and Lily never felt closer to her mother than during those talks. "Mum," she called as Taffy gave her the last touches to her ringlets and to her braids.
"Yes, Lily?"
"I'd like Scorpius to come to Grimmauld Place after the party," she told her, "I miss him. I don't know what's wrong with him, but he doesn't want to come here and he said it was because he missed his mother, but he wouldn't let me go to the Manor either. I… I don't know what to think and… I miss him…"
Her mother seemed to stiffen slightly as she listened to her. She curved her lips upwards in a nervous smile and bit her bottom lip. "Of course he can come, dear," she told her, "and I'm sure there's nothing wrong with him. Has he… has he said anything? Did anything happen?"
Lily shook her head. "No," she replied softly. "I swear, nothing happened… maybe…" She looked at her mother and bit her bottom lip. "Maybe he's getting tired of me?"
Her mother took a deep breath. "I hardly think so, Lily," she told her gently, "he loves you more than he loves anything else. I'm sure… I'm sure there's nothing wrong with him." She looked away from Lily and suddenly she seemed rather sad. "He loves you a lot," she repeated. "And of course he can come here tonight. I miss him too, you know…"
"You do?" asked Lily, a grin splitting her face into two.
Her mother nodded. "Of course, he's like a son… like Al and James… to me," she murmured, "I think he—oh! Lily!"
Lily looked up at her mother from the spot she was now kneeling on the floor. She had thrown herself at her, tightening her arms around her waist.
"Miss Lily will ruin her hair if she doesn't fix it with magic first!" fretted Taffy, jumping down from the stool and going to fluff up a little her ringlets.
"I love you, Mum," said Lily, looking up at her.
Her mother's eyes started to shine with tears. "I love you too, Lily," she choked out as she hugged her back.
oooOOOooo
"We need to talk to them about Toots sooner or later," said Scorpius as he swam lazily around Albus. "I mean, that's why we came all the way to the other side of the world…"
"Hmm," Albus replied, fluctuating on the clear waters of the Pacific Ocean. "I think we should stay here a week or tell my father we are investigating… I could do with a little holiday…"
"And eat bat for a week?" snorted Scorpius. "I hardly think so."
"Please, you loved it," chuckled Albus, "you went for seconds…"
Scorpius rolled his eyes. "Well, I'm an Auror, I have been taught how to endure things like… like that…"
"It was delicious," murmured Albus beatifically, his hands tapping the water slightly. "I had three plates."
Scorpius looked at the beach where the Scamanders were sitting under a palm tree. They looked rather happy, covered up to their hairline in a thick layer of sun lotion, wearing their swimming suits and looking as their children tried to throw coconuts at each other without succeeding.
"Al," murmured Scorpius, "do you think those children are safe with Luna and Rolf?"
"Of course they are," sighed Albus, "they are their parents, Scorp, they know how to take care of them…"
"Don't Scorp me, Al," grunted Scorpius, "and they look a bit… lay back as parents, you know… what if their children get bitten by some animal or if they get hit by a coconut in the head… I mean, that wouldn't—what?"
Albus had raised his head from the water and started to swim around Scorpius. "Oh my," he murmured, gaping at him, "you are so sensitive and caring and filled with feelings… you are either turning into Lily or you're pregnant…"
"I hate you," grumbled Scorpius, trying to swim away without succeeding, since his Auror partner went to swim in front of him.
"No, you don't," chuckled Albus, "I'm your almost brother-in-law, you love me."
Scorpius felt his heart skip a beat at those words. "What?" he whispered. Had Mrs Potter told him something? Did he know why he wasn't going to Grimmauld Place? Was Albus just having him on with all those questions about what was wrong with him? Did he already know?
Albus shrugged a shoulder under the water. "Well, it'll happen sooner or later, right? I mean you've been together longer than any other couple I know and Lily keeps saying that she—hey! Scorpius! I was talking here!"
But Scorpius was already swimming back to shore. For a split second he had thought that Albus knew about the ring and about his will to ask Lily to marry him. For a split second he had actually felt rather relieved to have someone to talk to. Maybe Albus would have understood him, maybe he would have said that his mother was freaking out for nothing. After all, Scorpius loved Lily like he had never loved anybody else in all his life. Not only another girl, but just simply nobody else. She was everything to him and surely people noticed, otherwise Albus wouldn't keep pestering him about whatever was wrong with him.
He reached the shore and walked out of the water and under the scorching sun that didn't quite agree with his fair complexion. The sand was boiling under his feet and he hurried to the shadow of the palms where the Scamanders were relaxing.
"Nice water?" asked Rolf calmly as Scorpius scampered on the beach and cursed under his breath.
"Nice and cool," he replied, eyeing Luna and Rolf, "I don't know how you can manage to stay there. Aren't you melting?"
Luna smiled at him. "We like to be nice and toasty," she replied calmly.
More like nice and baked, thought Scorpius, raising an eyebrow at her. He stared as Albus walked out of the water as well and jumped here and there like a Pogrebin. He was rather comical, really. But probably Scorpius had been rather comical himself a few seconds before.
"Hot… hot… hot…" was chanting Albus, as if that would have helped cooling down the sand.
"Rather hot, yes," murmured Luna thoughtfully.
Albus reached Scorpius and grabbed his arm to manage to jump behind him and into the shadow of the palm. "Why don't we all go back into the water for the questions?" he asked, glancing longingly at the blue waters in front of them.
"It's actually not a bad a idea," murmured Scorpius.
"You sound surprised," Albus told him, crossing his wet arms on his dripping chest.
"Always when you say something intelligent," grinned Scorpius.
Lorcan – or was that Lysander? – walked towards them with a rather smallish coconut in his hands, his plump legs swaying in the motion.
"What is it, Lorcan?" asked Scorpius gently, kneeling in front of the child. "That's a nice coconut you've got there, pay attention not to make it fall on your feet, that hurts, okay?"
Lorcan nodded and made it to throw it into the sand, but it barely landed only a few inches from them, making Scorpius pale at how close that was to the child's feet.
"No, Lorcan," said Scorpius severely, pulling the child to sit on his thigh, "that's dangerous. First we have to see where Lysander is, because if he was closer than that you would have hit him! And second we need to pay attention to our feet, we don't want it to fall on our poor toes, do we?"
Lorcan shook his head meekly and Scorpius sighed and patted his bottom to get him off his leg. He stood up and brushed the sand away from his legs, then raised his eyes on the Scamanders and stopped. They were looking at him and smiling softly.
"What?" asked Scorpius feebly. Did he have something on his shoulder? Some dear little creature that he wouldn't have liked one bit?
"You are good with the toddlers, Scorpius," said Luna gently. "Lily must be happy."
"She must be indeed," chuckled Albus, "she said that she wants to have a dozen children with Scorpius…"
Luna smiled and fanned her face a little. "That's nice, but I was talking about her job as a teacher. Is she still enjoying to teach to those little darlings?"
Scorpius nodded and smiled. "She's very good, you know, she was made employee of the month twice," replied Scorpius.
"I'm glad to hear that," said Rolf, as he grabbed a passing Lysander in his arms and kissed him soundly on the cheek. The boy curled in his father's embrace and yawned.
Luna looked at them and then back at Scorpius and Albus. "If you want to ask us something, you might want to do that now, because after they sleep for a while they usually wake up and cry and cry until we feed them," she told them, "it's more convenient if we talk while they sleep." She opened her arms and Lorcan went to her, yawning as well and settling in her mother's lap.
Scorpius glanced at Albus and his Auror partner looked back at him, before shrugging a shoulder and sitting on the beach. Certainly that's the most unusual investigation I've ever conducted, thought Scorpius as he sat down next to Albus. He usually wasn't wearing his swimming trunks and feeling on the verge of fainting because of the heat when he asked witnesses about facts.
"Right," said Albus as they looked at the Scamanders. "We want to ask you if you knew Tilden Toots and if you might have any information about what he was working on before his death."
Luna nodded thoughtfully and Rolf and herself exchanged another glance. "We knew him," replied Rolf, "we know most of our colleagues."
"Colleagues?" asked Scorpius, furrowing his brow. "He was a gardener and you are two Magizoologists."
Luna nodded again. "Yes, but there aren't many people interested in plants or beasts in this world, we tend to know each other's research and exchange letters and ideas and meet up every now and then."
"So… do you write to Uncle Charlie?" asked Albus, scratching his chest where the sand was irritating his pale Englishman skin.
Rolf chuckled. "We do, but he rarely replies," he told them, "he is far too busy with those magnificent dragons of his to reply to our enquires about Dugbogs or Glumbumbles."
"But you wrote to Toots," pointed out Scorpius.
Luna's hair fell into her eyes as she cocked her head. "We did," she replied, "he was quite an interesting man, always working with plants and flowers, and sometimes interested into fairies and gnomes…"
"And what was he working on, specifically?" asked Albus. "I mean, lately, anything… I don't know, anything worth dying for?"
"Everything in Magizoology is worth dying for," pointed out Rolf seriously. "I think… what did he say again, Luna?"
Luna kissed a sleeping Lorcan and pushed him against her chest. "I think it had something to do with orchids," she said, "he just wrote something about an orchid in his last message."
"Something about an orchid?" asked Scorpius. "What orchid? Where?"
Rolf shifted Lysander on his legs. "Oh, we don't know," he replied, "orchids grow pretty much everywhere…"
"Except for Greenland," pointed out Luna, "and Antarctica."
"Well, that narrows down our search," grunted Scorpius. "Do you still have the letter?"
Rolf laughed softly. "We would, if we hadn't finished the toilet paper right after the missive arrived," he let them know.
"Great," sighed Albus. "What's the deal with orchids, though? Are they used for some particular potion or essence?"
"Usually not," replied Luna, "Muggles make perfumes out of them, and sometimes they use them to cook, but nothing special."
"And what about Professor Sprout?" asked Scorpius, feeling rather confident that Luna and Rolf didn't have many more interesting things to say about orchids. "Do you think that was an accident?"
"The scurvy-grass thing?" asked Rolf. "Probably, we don't know, we hadn't communicated with her in ages."
Luna sighed. "She was quite old," she said, "she probably mistook it for chamomile."
Scorpius pushed a bit of sand with his feet. "That's what Professor Longbottom said," he murmured.
"They are quite similar plants," assured Rolf, "even to an expert's eye, they are difficult to tell apart."
"Hey, what about Neville?" asked Albus suddenly. "He said that Professor Sprout and Toots didn't know each other, but you just said that everybody knows each other in the world of Herbology and Magizoology!"
Luna looked at Rolf and then at Albus, her dreamy smile always stretching her lips. "Neville is quite the solitary type when it's up to do some research," she replied, "he always writes, but it's never about plants and flowers, it's always about Hannah and the students and the Leaky Cauldron." She looked at Scorpius and smiled, "We know that Lily was particularly good at Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts, right?"
"She was good in everything," replied Scorpius softly, "but yes, particularly good in those things."
"And you were good in Potions, weren't you, Scorpius?" asked Rolf.
Well, apparently there was no confidentiality rule for the Hogwarts Professors. He nodded.
"Marvellous," said Luna. "If you don't have any other question for us, how about we all go back into the water?" She fanned her sweaty décolleté and moved Lorcan a bit from her chest. "I think I'd rather enjoy a dip in the water."
She stood up and placed Lorcan on the beach towel, right next to where Rolf was depositing Lysander. She threw her straw hat to the ground and turned to Albus and Scorpius. "Are you coming?" she asked gently, starting to untie her bathing suit on her back.
"Is it okay if we leave the children alone?" asked Scorpius. "Isn't it dangerous?"
Rolf grinned. "Newt will look after them," he let him know, hooking his fingers into the waistband of his swimming trunks. "And we won't swim too far away."
Luna shrugged the bathing suit from her shoulders and stood completely naked in front of them. Rolf didn't seem fazed by his wife showing her private parts to the two young men, and au contraire, brought down his swimming trunks and discarded them on the sand, remaining completely nude as well.
Scorpius turned to look at Albus. "They are naked," he murmured in disbelief.
"They most certainly are," replied Albus almost amused.
"That's not funny," snapped Scorpius, as Albus stood up and hooked his fingers in his swimming trunks. "What are you doing?"
Albus winked at him as he brought down his trunks. "I'm sure that if Lily was here you wouldn't think twice about getting naked," he told him as he walked to the sea to join the couple.
Scorpius bit his bottom lip. Surely if Lily was there and completely naked, he would never get naked himself, for his erection would already be too obvious through his own trunks, and he certainly didn't need to scare anybody off with it.
He glanced one last time to the children and shook his head as he stood up and started walking towards the beach on the boiling hot sand. He stopped in the shadow of a palm tree and sighed. "Oh, blimey," he muttered, before discarding his swimming trunks and running into the water after the other three.
oooOOOooo
Ginny turned to look at the fireplace from over her latest article on the match that saw the Magpies beating Puddlemere with an embarrassing final score of 540 to 320. Rough times for Oliver Wood and his team of well seasoned players – probably too much seasoned…
The hearth coloured with green flames and one after the other Ron, Hermione, Rose and Hugo walked into her living room, smiling and brushing ash from their heads and clothes and onto Ginny's rug.
"What—"
Ron raised a finger to stop her before she could question what was going on and smiled at her. "Harry invited us," he told her. "Well, he invited Hermione and me, Rose and Hugo are here to escort Lily to the ball."
"It's a party, Dad," sighed Hugo, "and I'm not planning to dance at all."
Hermione shook her head as she crossed the living room and went to sit next to Ginny, leaning in to kiss her cheek. "No," she murmured, "he is planning to eat everything Angelina has cooked."
"Where's Lily?" asked Rose, brushing some Floo Powder from her pretty blue dress, that matched the blue laces in her curls. "Is she ready? Does she need any help with… anything?"
Ginny shook her head. "Taffy took care of everything," she said, "but Rosie, dear, she wants to wear the green dress and I tried to tell her that it was too cold for that, but she wouldn't—"
"I love the green dress," Rose cut her off with a smile, "she looks so cute in it."
Ginny stiffened slightly. "Well, it seems that nobody cares that my daughter is going to freeze her bits off," she said dryly.
"I'll cast a Warming Charm on her," said Rose, walking past the couch and towards the stairs. "Is she in her room?"
"Yes, but Rosie, it's really quite…" Her voice trailed away as she heard Rose's steps on the stairs and then the two girl screaming in excitement and complimenting each other's hair and outfits and shoes before the door closed at their backs.
"Oh my word!" chuckled Hugo with a high-pitched tone of voice. "Daaaaad, do you like my hair? And my trousers? And my shirt?"
"Shut up, Hugo," replied Ron, "it took you three hours to get ready."
Hugo flushed only slightly and shrugged a shoulder, before plummeting on an armchair. "Where're James and Al, Auntie Ginny?" he asked, smoothing his shirt.
"Al should have just come back from Papua New Guinea with Scorpius," she told them, "I'm afraid they are sleeping though, they left this morning at two."
"What?" asked Hugo, eyes wide. "That's crazy."
"It's ten hours difference," pointed out Hermione.
Ginny nodded in agreement. "And James should arrive any minute," she told him, "what time is the party starting again, Hugo?"
"Eight," he replied, "which is in about ten minutes."
"You are going to look after Lily, aren't you, Hugo?" asked Ginny severely.
Hugo groaned slightly. "To be quite fair, Auntie Ginny, I heard that there's a queue for that," he replied with a grin. "James and Rose and Scorpius are already taking care of Lily."
"And you are going to take care of her as well, and Albus too for that matter, and Roxy, Louis, Molly and—"
Harry walked into the living room, and went to pat Ron's shoulder. "Hey guys," he said to them, before going to kiss Hermione's forehead. "Are you ready for a wild night of Wizard's Chess?"
Hugo smothered a cough that sounded like, "Old people," into a cushion, but before any of the older people there could glare at him, the door upstairs opened and a loud chattering seemed to fill every room of Grimmauld Place.
"…and I thought you wouldn't have liked my hair, because it looks a bit like yours and I was afraid that—"
"It looks ten times better than mine, you don't worry, Lils, I'm sure that Scorpius won't be able to tear his eyes from you," said Rose, "and you have to lend me Taffy once in a while…"
"Uncle Ron!" Lily ran to him and threw her arms around his neck. Apart from Charlie, who always had the best gifts and the most interesting stories, Ron was definitely Lily's favourite uncle. Not that she had ever said anything, but Lily loved to laugh and Ron was good at causing some hilarity.
Ron picked her up and made her twirl. "Oh my," he said, placing her back down, "didn't you grow from last time?"
She beamed, but shook her head. "No," she told him, "probably you shrunk a bit, though!"
"Hey, only old people shrink!"
"Exactly," laughed Hugo.
"Hi, Uncle Harry," said Rose, going to hug him. He leaned closer to her and whispered something in her ear and she nodded seriously, before glancing at Lily. Harry looked at Ginny and she smiled gratefully at her husband.
Yes, Rose was a great Auror, and so was James, and Hugo and Albus and Scorpius, and pretty much everybody she knew.
"Are we going now?" asked Hugo rather impatiently.
"James isn't here yet," pointed out Lily as she went to kiss Hermione's cheek and finally Hugo's. "We have to wait for him."
"Exactly, Lily," said Ginny with a smile.
Hermione placed a hand on her arm and smiled subtly at her, before turning to where Lily was sitting on the armrest of Hugo's armchair, her green, taffeta dress falling gracefully around her legs as she swung her feet and talked to Hugo in hushed tones about Merlin knew what.
"Are Scorpius and Al meeting you at the party?" asked Hermione to no one in particular.
Lily nodded. "Yes," she replied with a grin, "I can't wait to hear everything about Papua…"
But before the others could agree the fireplace lit up again and James stumbled through it and into the living room. He shook the Floo Powder from his clothes and then he was looking at the people there and asking, "Am I late?" But the three of them were just pushing him back into the fireplace and then they were laughing and saying goodbye to their parents.
"Don't be back too late…" said Ginny, but Lily was already gone through green flames and she just stared in front of her at the empty hearth.
oooOOOooo
"Lily has such a kind heart." Luna's words were sincere, even though the two identical sweaters that her goddaughter had knitted for Lorcan and Lysander were far too warm for either Papua or Australia.
"Indeed," replied Rolf, raising his two new notebooks with the covers covered in pictures of their family and Lily and Scorpius and the Potters and the Weasleys. "What did she send you?"
"Earrings that she made herself," said Luna, turning to show him the two red hearts made with painted little seeds.
Rolf nodded. "They are beautiful," he told her, "she surely takes after her godmother when it's up to her creativity."
Luna smiled and nodded. A distant bell from the village signalled midnight and she finally went to tuck Lorcan and Lysander and Newt in their bed, before walking to the bed and lying down.
She took a deep breath and turned towards Rolf. "Do you think we did the right thing?"
Rolf shed his nightgown on a chair and went to lie next to his wife. "Telling them about the orchid?" he asked back thoughtfully. "Yes, it was vague. They will never understand, but we couldn't just let them come all the way here without giving them a little piece of information…"
"Shouldn't we have told them more though?" asked Luna softly
Rolf took a deep breath. "I suppose that if the Maestro had wanted to tell them about the flower, they would have already known. Probably he thinks that he'll manage to take care of those people without the aid of the Aurors," he said softly.
"But Pomona and Tilden…"
Rolf nodded. "I know," he whispered, "I think we should get ready to travel back to England if we are summoned by the Order."
"I just hope that those two will pay attention," murmured Luna, her head finally resting on the pillow. "Good night, Rolf."
"Good night, Luna," he replied, and soon they were both falling asleep, exhausted because of the long day spent at the beach.