Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates every Saturday!
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As the seasons changed yet again, another day of painful departure arrived for James, Lily, and Mark.
While Tom stood watching the trio's tearful goodbyes on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, it was all he could do not to pull his son away by his collar like a disobedient dog.
"Don't cry, sweetheart. Chin up!" Harriet comforted Mark as he wiped the last of his tears away while Lily and James waved one final goodbye to him before they boarded the Hogwarts Express.
"It'll be the holidays again before you know it and they'll both be back!" Harriet reassured her distraught son.
"Perhaps next year you'll be able to join them." Tom said with a spiteful smile.
His passive-aggression quickly faded as Harriet glanced over and cast him a look of silent rage.
"...At the very least, your mother and I will always……be here to guide you." Tom nodded, stealthily swallowing the vomit that crept up his throat as he found himself forced to whisper sweet lies to his most humiliating failure.
Mark knew better than to respond.
Instead, he silently wiped his eyes as he took his mother's hand to let her lead him away.
Whenever James was gone, Mark Riddle's world seemed to darken by the minute.
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Mark wasn't the only one painfully upset that chilly September day.
While James and Lily chatted with Hugo and Rose as the train raced along, Scorpius Malfoy scoured every compartment with a horrible scowl on his handsome face.
After his search had proven fruitless, he eventually made his way back to James' compartment and flung the door open.
James and all three of his friends blinked in surprise at the upper class Slytherin who had dared to burst into their compartment.
"You're James Riddle, aren't you?" Scorpius snapped.
"Yes…..I am." James frowned.
"Where's your sister?!" Scorpius demanded.
"...At work?" James asked with a shrug
"At work?!" Scorpius spat.
"She had some kind of job this summer……at the Black Lake, I think." James blinked, "I don't know where she is, why don't you? Aren't you her boyfriend or something?"
James, Hugo, Rose, and Lily all watched Scorpius's face flush a deep red in dreamy mortification as the subject of his interrogation dared dub him with the title he fantasized day and night about receiving.
"...That's a bit presumptive, don't you think?" Scorpius scoffed, once he recovered himself enough to find words, "I……I'm just a concerned friend, that's all."
"...Oh." James said, feigning the most interest he could, "Well, like I said, I don't know where she is."
"Thanks." Scorpius mumbled before he slammed the compartment door shut and stalked away.
Rose, Lily, Hugo, and James gaped at each other before Lily quickly changed the subject.
If she had learned anything about her best friend over the years, it was that James absolutely despised dwelling on any topics that involved Mae.
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The fact that Scorpius hadn't seen his beloved on either of the two train rides during her previous year brought him no comfort whatsoever as the magical vehicle finally reached its destination.
While other students were eager to make their way to the castle and spend the hour before dinner settling in, Scorpius couldn't bear not knowing his darling's whereabouts any longer.
With his three roommates on his heels, he hastily clambered down the hill to the Black Lake, desperate to find Mae.
It had nearly killed him to endure an entire three months without seeing her, without speaking to her, without even so much as a letter.
His wounded heart gave another anguished beat as he made it down to the Black Lake, only to find……nothing.
"...Maybe she's already in the castle." One of his friends sniffed.
"She probably works in there and is just out here when she has to be, mate." Another of the Slytherin boys chimed in.
"She-" the third one started to say but Scorpius had heard enough.
"-Would the three of you shut it?!" He hissed as he turned with a scowl to face his friends.
The hurt frowns Scorpius found himself met with seemed to extinguish the blaze of his frustration for a moment before he nodded at them all, "...It's been a difficult summer and I don't need you lot making-"
The boys' eyes widened as they gazed out at the Black Lake.
The first two were rendered speechless, but the third managed to hold a finger up and point past Scorpius as he tried to warn his friend, "There!...T-There!"
Scorpius shot him an irritated glare before he turned around.
His own eyes widened as his mouth dropped open.
Across the grounds, all four Slytherins watched as a beautiful girl slowly walked right out of the water.
Her wet hair drifted in careless, seductive ringlets around her shoulders and over her back.
Her skin gleamed in the light of the autumn sun, smooth and creamy, exfoliated and moisturized to a seemingly impossible degree by the many lengthy hours she had spent, assisted by her temporary teacher, beneath the water, both fresh and salt.
Scorpius let a desperate, breathy sigh escape his lips as he realized it was no ordinary girl, but his darling, his precious Mae who walked towards him.
He took a clumsy step towards her but her long strides gave him the confidence she would reach him first, silently fearing he would collapse from mere joy as he watched her approach.
His gray eyes dipped to follow the movements of her curves, which had grown fuller, covered only by a thin fabric that had appeared to have once been a set of robes.
The other Slytherin boys were completely mystified as Mae came to stand in front of Scorpius, skin glowing, face radiant, body perfect.
As she raised her hands to cup his face, his breath came in violent, hushed gasps.
The setting sun reflected off of her long nail beds as her fingers lovingly stroked his cheeks.
As she gazed into his eyes, Scorpius realized he must have been dreaming.
For a single moment, he wondered if he had indeed died and not quite known it yet as Mae's beautiful eyes fluttered closed.
Scorpius let out a strangled gasp of disbelieving surprise as she pulled him close and pressed a kiss to his lips.
Couples kissed everyday at Hogwarts.
The first was always exquisite but Scorpius didn't just enjoy a kiss, he went on a journey.
Mae had spent the summer learning the seductive secrets of the ocean itself.
Knowing she would have no one better than Scorpius to test her new skills on, she applied her new talents to the fullest.
Scorpius frowned in her sweet taste, her breath pleasant, her lips themselves plump and smooth.
The passion with which she greeted him sent visions of their children dancing through his head while his soul pushed him back in time to taste his mother's fluid before his birth, only to wash it down with a mouthful of dirt from his own grave.
Scorpius never wanted it to end, wherever he went, whatever it was, that wandless sorcery in that unbelievable kiss.
……….But end it did, and too soon.
A noise between a wail and a groan left Scorpius's lips as Mae released him without warning and pulled back.
Scorpius fell to his knees in a state of pleasant shock while she marched past the other Slytherin boys, who gazed at her with open mouths and wide eyes.
Mae did not so much as cast them a sideways glance as she strode past.
A deadly smirk curled her lips as she curled the fingers of her affected hand just before she made it to the castle's doors.
A whooshing rush of green and black magic encompassed her figure for a split second, only to vanish in enough time to show Mae walking in to Hogwarts in an unwrinkled uniform, her hair dry and curls bouncing, ready to sit in the Great Hall for the first meal of the school year.
No one suspected anything about her summer as she walked through the castle and sat down with a smile at Slytherin's table, just before Professor Dumbledore began the opening announcements of the new academic term.