Author's Notes: This is a clear reference to the novel Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami.

o-o-o-o-o

December 25th, 2024

Malfoy Manor was always all grand and elegant, while also being gray and empty. Scorpius had learned from Albus that not all families lived by the same strict rules that dictated even the way individuals walked or talked. That was why he accepted every invitation Albus made to the Weasley house. Although Harry Potter found it hard to look at Scorpius without remembering the childhood feud he had with his father, Draco Malfoy, Scorpius knew that he would never say something rude.

Albus was always the difficult son of Harry Potter and Harry Potter knew that if he wanted to have peace he had to accept Scorpius, sitting there at the table and giving Albus gifts and hugs at breakfast time, because of course, Scorp had to spend the night there too. The blond spent the 24th with his own family, but they let him go to the burrow very early on the 25th.

He gave his gifts to Albus' grandparents and parents, Lily got an albino peacock feather from one of her grandfather's peacocks decorated with gold brocade and the idiot (James) got some special boots that the Aurors wore because he had entered the Academy and he would surely need them. Later, when Lily said that she was going to London to see her friends, Scorpius, overnight bag in hand, went out with Albus for a walk.

The Weasley grandparents lived in the middle of the countryside, they had some land that they cultivated with wheat and corn near a river that they shared with the neighbors, their closest neighbor was Xenophilus Lovegood, the editor of the magazine The Quibbler.

Both held hands to walk the edges of the fields until they reached the river.

"Everything is too quiet around here," Scorpius said.

" Oh really? I think it's quieter in the Malfoy lands."

"That's why I get so bored. It's very quiet, at least here you have the shouting of your cousins in the background. Everything in the mansion is so quiet that you can't help but start conversations with yourself. Ask yourself the origin of the universe, of life, of magic and it is not very pleasant when what you want is to relax."

" It's because you think about many things, I don't think about anything and therefore it doesn't affect me."

" How can you not think?" He said going straight to the tree next to the river where they always went when Scorpius was in the burrow, in every part of the world they managed to have their corner. In Godric's Hollow house, it was the balcony of the Albus room and in the Mannor, it was the autumn room.

Albus looked a bit into the distance to see if they hadn't been followed, then sat up when he saw that no one was there.

Then Scorpius began taking things out of his illegally expanded bag, four Butterbeers, a bottle of firewhiskey that he must have stolen from his grandfather, and two huge bags of muggle crisps.

"But look how you've gone from dealing Coca-Cola and sweets to alcoholic beverages."

" We are 17, besides, we haven't had butter beers for a long time, it's been several times since you didn't go to visit Hogsmeade."

" That's because I don't want to be the third wheel, you're always stuck with Michelle, and I kind of feel out of place." He drank one of the beers while Scorpius opened one of the bags of crisps.

"How about you find yourself a girlfriend? We could go on double dates."

" With how hard it is for me to understand things at school, I doubt that having a girlfriend is a good thing when we are close to NEWTs."

"You're not an idiot, and girls aren't arithmancy problems... Have you at least kissed someone since Vanessa Hawk?... " Silence from the brunette." That's why you're still a virgin, Al." The blond gave him a smirk and then took his own beer when he realized he'd crossed the line a bit. Obviously not.

Vanessa Hawk, a Hufflepuff girl who Albus kissed in a stupid bottle game when they were in their fifth year. His first kiss... what a fucking mistake.

Albus looked at Scorpius and then looked straight ahead. How many girls had he kissed after Michelle? Or being with Michelle, with both having such flexible morals, nothing would surprise him, besides, they weren't officially anything yet.

" Hey, don't get tense, if you're reserving yourself for someone special, I see it as perfect, it's not as if it were about picking flowers every now and then."

That is not even the problem. Albus yelled inside him.

He took another sip of his beer. If he didn't love the blond so much as he did he probably would have killed Scorpius by now. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Scorpius took more things out of his bag. A lot of papers.

" I brought you this,"

" What's that?"

" Study plans for different careers, I spent the whole week looking for them and requesting them by mail. I thought maybe you need to see all the options. It's true, not wanting to be an auror is not the end of the world, there are many things you can do with your skills." Albus didn't know what to say, he took the pamphlets in silence and looked at them carefully, there were many, Scorpius had taken the time. "The important thing is that we are together, right?"

"Thank you." The blonde smiled.

" Read them later, but it wouldn't hurt if you already had at least the discarded ones for back to school." Albus nodded silently and hugged him.

" I love you." Scorpius giggled and hugged him back.

" I know, I know. Me too." The two lay down on the grass to see the sky, which was leaden but still beautiful. They stayed like that, sheltered with each other's bodies, in the midst of such perfect tranquility that they could not call anything other than happiness.

o-o-o-o

Lily's POV

James was at home being a nuisance but he would return to London on the first or second of January and his brother Albus had arrived on the 24th in the morning, Albus had stayed at Malfoy mansion since the 23rd to go to the concert from where he came back hallucinating, It was curious, however, that Albus had sent the suitcases with Lily because he, of course, had clothes at his blond friend's house, if there was something that screamed "I'm in a relationship" more obvious than that, she didn't know.

On the 26th it was her who went out, her first winter getting out, her first hot winter date, because she had gone out before, but only to exchange animalistic kisses in the back of some gloomy Muggle cafeteria and even there people looked mad at them because of him. Draco was so old and she so young. Lily really didn't like having to lie to her parents but it also bothered her that they questioned everything, she supposed that it happened to every teenager but her issue was a little more complicated because she was sleeping with her teacher.

She received the owl very early in the morning, shortly before everyone got up, she managed to leave with the excuse that she had been invited to have breakfast with the girls, to whom she no longer spoke but her mother did not know about it of course.

She said goodbye going out through the chimney towards the cauldron and there was Draco having a coffee, she of course left the place before him walking two blocks to the right and five minutes later Draco also left the place. He was very well dressed, in a simple gray suit with a camel-colored coat that fell below his knees. He wore a gray hat, looked like a detective out of a Victorian novel and approached with the stealth of one taking her hand while she looked at a window in a jewelry store. Then he took her to an alley where they could apparate.

The next thing she knew, they were in a luxury hotel room.

"Where we are?"

" This place is called the Dolphin Hotel." She smiled.

" So I'm finally the lover of a rich man who passes me off as his niece. I am a pretty woman." He looked at her weirdly.

" If it's some muggle reference I don't recognize it."

She laughed, sitting on the bed, while he, in his innocence, took off his raincoat and hat.

"Do you want to have breakfast? This place has a good restaurant as far as I know."

" As far as you know? Who recommended this place to you, to begin with, you naughty boy?" He leaned in to kiss her.

" A friend, I swear.

She smiled and decided to believe him, decided to accept whatever came out of his mouth, because he had never lied to her before.

They went down to the hotel restaurant and ate something light, then walked around the gift shop for a bit, and finally went up to their room to make love. When they had satisfied themselves she rested her head on the chest of her lover. They had the whole day ahead of them, they were happy.

"Do your pureblood friends come here?" She asked suddenly because he always answered her answers.

"Only the ones with the mark. " He said as if it were normal, raising hIS own arm. "It was Blaise specifically, he came here when the place just opened, maybe fifteen years ago. "The word was spreading... it's incredible but some interesting relationships were formed here that the magical world doesn't know about."

" As which?"

" The one of Theo and Belle his wife, for example."

"Does Mr. Nott have a wife?"

" Yeah... well, she is not his wife exactly, but she is the mother of his two children, she is a muggle and her children are at Hogwarts but they don't have his last name, they have their mother's but as you will understand I can't tell you who they are, he wanted it that way so that their children would not suffer any type of discrimination. Smart man." She made a big Oh with her mouth. That was basically illegal. Being with a muggle, having kids with a muggle and not registering it. "He lives with her half the week, he has her convinced that he is a dangerous criminal and she believes him because he always gives her jewelry and her children don't lack anything. Before going to Hogwarts they went to a very expensive private school and believe it or not, the kids adore him even though he's only a part-time dad, it's incredible that he knows how to win over his children so well even without having a great role model, and I think it's partly because he gave them the greatest gift of all.

" Which is?"

" Love."

She laughed a little.

" I thought for a moment that you would say that the greatest gift of all is magic."

"It is, but in the case of us purebloods, not many were lucky enough to have happy childhoods like Blaise or me." Even Tori's parents were unhappy... You don't mind me talking about Astoria do you?"

" You know that it doesn't bother me." She said, with the internal malice of a fifteen-year-old who thinks: Missing her isn't going to bring her back, talking about her isn't going to make her less dead. Now I'm here to make you happy, but with a smile and a kiss on the lips so sweet that a man interprets it as intrinsic goodness.

Merlin blesses the innocence of men in front of women.

They went out in the afternoon, changing her appearance a bit, she became blonde and he became brunette. They left the place holding hands and went to a rather exquisite shopping center. Walking directly into a jewelry store.

He wanted to shower her with gifts that she could look at during the day or night, to make her think about him. She felt like she was floating. Perhaps going out with a young girl was causing him a psychological setback, because he had never felt adolescent love even when he was one, but he was sure that he felt that way. They took wedding rings, but they put them on a chain to wear them under their clothes that way no one else would see them or make any connection. He also bought her earrings, necklaces, and bracelets, the clerk didn't even think they would buy them all but everything changed when he said he would pay for them with a debit card. The card did not want to go through and they had to call the bank, apparently having been a purchase that did not match the amounts previously spent, the bank had decided to block the card for security reasons. Minutes later they were able to continue shopping.

"I didn't know you had muggle bank accounts."

"I already told you, we have a lot of muggle money because we have muggle businesses."

They met again on the 29th.

Draco amused himself by counting the freckles on her back, giving her a kiss for a freckle. During the afternoon they were drowsy, the air was heavy from so much sex, humid, smelly and to some extent suffocating but it didn't matter. Lily didn't let go of Draco at all, they dozed, showered, ate, and watched TV, which Draco didn't do too much, since he didn't have one at home and cartoons were completely incredible to him. Another form of magic.

The days passed, his brothers had left for London, and Albus of course had gone with Scorpius to choose the apartment they were going to use when they finished Hogwarts. Nothing abnormal, other than the fact that she really wanted to go back to Hogwarts now, under the supervision of her parents it was much more difficult for her to go from one place to another, especially when the Aurores Guard spent so much time at home helping her father with paperwork or living with the family. Her parents had the ability to make friends with everyone, she supposed it was because her grandfather had been an employee of the ministry.

When Albus returned from London she found it strange, and he was strange by himself. He was silent, more than ever, he locked himself in his room to listen to Muse, and Coldplay, bands he always played when he was sad but during meals, he tried to pretend he was fine.

Why were they like this?

Why did Slytherins always hide under a cloak of "it's okay, I don't know what you're talking about." Didn't they see they were getting hurt?

In the end, just as they were packing up for Hogwarts, she touched his hand.

" I will always be there for you Albus. If something happens... I want you to count on me." He looked at her sweetly and then stroked her red hair.

" Same, sis. I love you so much."

They took the train alone, another strange thing. Draco had told her they would go on the train too but no, Scorpius wasn't even there and Albus didn't seem to wonder where they were, as if he already knew why they weren't there, and looked out the window for the rest of the ride.

At the first semester dinner she saw Draco at the teacher's table, when he looked at her he apologized silently, then pointed at his son, and then made a gesture of not knowing what was happening. She moved her lips and told him that they would talk later.

She looked at her brother and Scorpius, they sat far apart from each other and Scorpius seemed to have a wall of mates surrounding him.

That meant they were fighting. But they had never had a fight before, they had some strong words once, with the Delphi situation, but they had never stopped talking or acted like ice cubes around each other, therefore, they had no experience in reconciliations, which Lily had done more than one time with her friends.

That was going to be difficult.