67Disclaimer: I'm sure that a little note like this probably doesn't provide much legal protection, but all the same, I don't own the Harry Potter universe or any recognisable trademarks and do not intend to profit from copyright infringement. Original characters, obviously, are my own intellectual property.
Author's Note: I'm quite excited about this story; I have so much in store that this should be my most dramatic Lily/Scorpius yet! Enjoy, and don't forget to leave a little review!
Chapter One: Prat
Scorpius stood as casually and aloof as ever, throwing a quick glance over his shoulder for signs of a familiar face. It was his last year at Hogwarts, the first ever that he had arrived at the Platform alone, and admittedly he was skin-crawlingly nervous. Not only was there the N.E.W.T.S. that hovered ever-threateningly in the distance, there was the fact that at this stage he had no idea what to do with his future. Usually his family saw him off, momentarily distracting him from his fears until the arrival of his friends. But today he was flying solo.
His father had been too busy at work to attend and his mother was looking after his grandfather, who was currently confined to his bed with a wizarding illness. His grandmother remained by his bedside in a perpetual stasis of stony-faced vigil, with her usual lack of emotion and comforting words. With the Malfoy reputation disgraced all those years ago she had seemingly decided to follow the age-old adage of purebloods as people of few words. Perhaps, Scorpius thought, this was in order to ignore their fallen place in the wizarding world.
Their wealth had by no means diminished, but their influence in the wizarding world was almost non-existent. Those on the side of Voldemort regarded them as traitors, while they had been an enemy to the Order from the beginning. This made them not neutral but almost outcasts, though Scorpius had managed to make friends despite this. Many things had changed since the war, he had been told, but having never lived through the war it was all normal to him. One thing that was different, however, was the nature of Slytherin house.
Slytherins today carried varying degrees of prejudice. From those who cared little for blood, to those who believed in pureblood superiority but kept quiet, to the few that would raise the point at any given opportunity. Scorpius placed himself in none of these categories, for while he occasionally threw around the word 'mudblood' and the like, he didn't invest himself in such beliefs. His reputation, however, said otherwise, as he had long ago realised two facts. One; that such bold statements were ideal for drawing attention to himself, attention that he basked in, and two; that it kept him out of trouble with the groups that were most menacing within his house, those of the third category.
His thoughts turned to one Alice 'Malice' Avery, who fell squarely into the third category. She was the leader of a gang of students that met solely to discuss such matters, and were rumoured to have been involved in a spate of random muggle torturings that had occurred that summer holidays.
It had all begun when Alice heard him refer to a fellow student as 'mudblood'; after that she had taken a shine to him. She was stunning, and part of a powerful old pureblood family who had managed to falsely prove their innocence after the fall of Voldemort. She was so forward about her attraction to him that it was almost threatening; some said that she was mildly psychotic. He hadn't really seen any evidence for this, but he quite enjoyed the ego-stroking she gave him and had thus taken to teasing her mercilessly.
There, at the end of the corridor, was another girl he liked to tease, though indirectly; he made comments to her family rather than her. Her red hair was falling loosely past her shoulders as she greeted her friends, emerald eyes glinting with excitement. He found himself strangely attracted to Lily Potter; none of his reasons why could ever be considered the 'right' reasons.
Aside from her looks, there was her age. By his count, Lily was about 15-years-old, and while this was only two years younger than himself, he realised that anyone, his age or older, would question his intentions. Rather than being a deterrent, however, this served only to pique his interest further. Second of all was her family, none of which had a good word to say about him; even imagining the looks on their faces brought a smirk to his face. Third of all was her feelings toward him, feelings of great disdain; in the few run-ins they had had, she had been nothing but disparaging, and Scorpius couldn't resist a challenge. Roughly translated, this made her tantamount to the golden apple at the very top of the tree of forbidden fruit; irresistible.
Before she noticed him staring at her and before he had time to ponder his attraction further, he found himself yanked by the collar into the compartment he had been standing in front of and forcefully thrust against the wall. Mere inches away was the face of Alice Avery, who stared through brown eyes, with an expression half-seductive, half-playful.
"Hey Scorpius," she purred, fingering his top button and pouting, "why didn't you reply to any of my letters this summer?"
"If it isn't Miss Malice," he replied with a smirk equally as alluring as he ran the back of his hand softly from her cheek to her chin. "I wanted to reply, of course, but after a small… incident, shall we say?, with my father, I had my mail confiscated all summer. So sorry,"
"That's okay," said Alice, giggling. "How about we just catch up now?"
It was then that he realised that she was fiddling with the top button of his pants, but unfortunately the instant before he pushed her away, the compartment door swung open, revealing a red-head who rolled her eyes in disgust when she realised what appeared to be going on. "Looks like we can't sit here, this compartment's where they keep the trash," she commented to her friends with a glare to Scorpius before she closed the door.
Scorpius half expected Alice to begin a furious rampage, but she was too preoccupied with his clothing, which he did up before standing back, red-faced. "I – not - no," was all he managed to stammer before leaving the compartment. Lily and her group of friends were only a few feet away as he left; he stared at her momentarily before storming off in the opposite direction, fists clenched.
"But Lily, did you see the way he looked at you?" questioned Josephine Summers, a Hufflepuff girl who was a mutual 'friend', who in fact seemed to enjoy making her life unbearable. Now, to Lily's great displeasure, she felt the need to do so right in front of all her friends, who had assembled in the spare compartment they had finally managed to find after an awkward encounter with the two 'amorous' seventh years, Scorpius Malfoy and Alice Avery.
Lily frowned, unsure of what the unobservant Josephine Summers could have possibly seen that she herself did not. "Um, he looked mortified."
"Exactly."
"I don't understand why you think that unusual, I mean we did catch them in the middle of their…" Lily stopped for a moment to shiver in disgust, "their foreplay."
The Hufflepuff acquaintance rolled her eyes, while their other friends giggled. "If he didn't care what you thought of him, he wouldn't have looked mortified, would he? He would have just smirked, said something nasty and kept going."
Lily arched a skeptical eyebrow. "So?"
Josephine rolled her eyes again, as though Lily was being incredibly thick-headed. "So, he cares what you think of him. Maybe he even lik-"
"Josephine, I really don't like where you're going with this. First of all, it's Scorpius Malfoy. Every soul in this compartment loathes and despises him, and always will. Second of all, he's a seventh year. Third of all, I could have seen his… eugh, I need a cold shower just thinking about it."
Josephine giggled. "Why, does thinking of him make you a bit hot under the collar, Lil?"
Lily found herself blushing involuntarily, and wishing Scorpius was here so she could give him a nice bat-bogey hex as thanks for the embarrassment she was enduring because of him and his stupid, crazy girlfriend.
During the sorting Scorpius found his attention wandering. His eyes travelled casually to a certain redhead at the Gryffindor table. Lily wasn't looking at him, with her concentration set obediently upon the stage before her. However there was another Potter staring at him, and rather distastefully at that.
Albus was a fellow Slytherin, though only god knew how he was sorted into the house of ambition, and a bit of a loner. He was often spotted with a book, and aside from Rose Weasley, Scorpius considered him his greatest rival. They often exchanged sarcastic remarks, as Albus was living up to the tradition of hating the Malfoy existence, perhaps more passionately than his father had.
At the moment Scorpius was receiving looks that could only be described as death glares, and he guessed that Lily must have said something to her brother about their little encounter on the train. Rather than being intimidated or even remotely annoyed, it had given Scorpius an idea for some common-room entertainment later that night.
Scorpius and his small group of friends were relaxing in the comfort of the roaring fire of the Slytherin common room. Scorpius was quite sure that a question about his activities on the train earlier today would come up eventually, and inevitably it did.
"So, Scorpius, world has travelled fast about you and Avery… so, fess up, what was it like?" came the eager voice of Riley Harper who had been talking to a group of friends across the room. He flopped down on the floor in front of the fire, as there were no armchairs remaining.
"I forgot to tease you about that," grinned Elias Nott. "Congrats. She's hot – not that I'm interested of course."
"You've got to be kidding," said Hadrian Pucey. "There's no way you like her, right Scorp? She's bonkers. There's obviously nothing going on, except on its current stalker-victim level."
Elias and Riley burst into laughter. Rather than reply, Scorpius smirked and raised an eyebrow.
"Man, don't let Malice hear you say that, Hade – actually, do, just so long as you leave me your broomstick when she murders you," joked Riley.
"But whether he likes her or not," begun Elias, "he missed an opportunity for some… well, some adrenaline-filled fun, my friend. Aren't you mad with that little Weasel for interrupting? Actually, I heard she insulted Avery and managed to return alive."
"She's not so bad herself, you know, aside from the temper. If you locked her in a room with me for a while, I bet we'd have some fun," Elias said with his usual sinister brand of humour.
"You sicken me, Nott. But I have to admit, she's pretty fit," Scorpius conceeded, though the cocky smirk never left his features, almost as though it was permanently etched in. "Well, for a red-headed half-Potter half-Weasel. If it weren't for that mudblood on her father's side she might actually be decent,"
"You're an absolute prat," came a voice from the corner of the Slytherin common room, cutting through the laughter of Malfoy and the usual suspects, his cronies Hadrian Pucey, Elias Nott and Riley Harper.
Scorpius turned around, his ears instantly reddening at the sight of Albus Potter, his Slytherin rival and, conveniently, Lily's brother.
"First of all, she has taste. A taste which, needless to say, does not include a liking for your type of scumbag. Second, if you so much as touch one of her toenail clippings I guarantee you either me or one of my numerous family members will dismember you by the most painful process possible. Third of all, you bigoted twat, she got her looks from our so-called 'dirty blooded' grandmother, who was ten times the witch you'll ever be. Just some food for thought. If you'd like to spare everyone from idiotic comments in the future, kindly choke on these thoughts now,"
Scorpius stood up and sauntered over to Albus, standing with his arms crossed in what appeared to be a nonchalant fashion. In actual fact, he was making it perfectly clear that, in stature, he was both taller and stronger. "Is that a threat?" he said coolly, smirking as always. "Because if it is, well, she just got better looking than ever."