Playlist Ch. 16: 'Learning to Breathe' by Switchfoot

Chapter Sixteen: Yesterday’s Robes

Lily stirred in her sleep, struggling not to open her eyes to the inescapable morning. When she finally did, with a low curse in mind, she was greeted by the sight of pale blond hair, Scorpius’ face only inches from hers. She immediately tensed, almost jerking back but stopped herself before she could jostle him too much. His brow furrowed in his sleep, though, and he tiredly lifted one eyelid to take her in, his grey eyes almost void of any thought or emotion.

“Hey,” he whispered.

Lily felt her own brow furrow in confusion as she carefully reached forward to brush an errant strand of hair away from his eyes, her gaze resting there.

She could see the movement of his throat as he swallowed thickly, his voice so gruff she hardly recognized it. “Are you alright?” he breathed.

Nodding slowly, Lily glanced wonderingly from him to the emerald curtains surrounding them, the realization of where she was coming back in a horrifically sickening rush.

“Oh, my God,” she muttered.

Before she could leap into a sitting position, Scorpius’ arms easily pinned her back down, rolling himself so that he was propped up above her, resting on his forearms and his hair dangling in front of his eyes.

“Finally care to pay attention to your surroundings?” he asked teasingly, though his eyes were still shadowed and dark.

Lily audibly swallowed, glancing fearfully around the bed curtains once more, green bed curtains that were most certainly not hers. Her heart rate accelerating in her chest, she glanced down at herself, breathing a grateful sigh that she was still fully dressed in her uniform from the day before, only her school robe and trainers discarded. “Oh, thank Merlin,” she sighed.

Scorpius smirked wryly down at her, lowering himself so that his lips grazed over the exposed skin of where her throat met her jaw line, trailing his lips along the curve that reached her ear. “That’s not quite the reaction I was expecting from you,” he chuckled.

“Scorpius, what the hell are we doing here?” she gasped.

“Shh…” he warned, holding a finger to his lips, his expression suddenly serious. He lowered his voice to a whisper and pointed outside of the bed curtains. “I may have put up a silencing spell, but that doesn’t mean you ought to risk it by shouting. The last thing I want is for my Head of House to castrate me over having you fall asleep in my bed.”

“Is that all we did?” Lily breathed questioningly.

Scorpius tried not to roll his eyes at the open horror in her green eyes and instead softly captured her lips with his. “That’s all we did,” he whispered comfortingly.

“Oh—”

“Thank Merlin, yes I know,” he smirked.

Lily rolled her eyes up at him, once again attempting to sit up and failing. “Let me up, will you?” she asked exasperatedly.

Scorpius grinned down at her, lowering his body even closer to hers, eliciting a sharp gasp of surprise from her as he pressed his weight down upon her.

“I’m officially going to kill you,” she whispered, her cheeks already flushed with warmth.

“Do I get to haunt you in the girls' dormitories?” he asked cheekily.

“What’s the need if you’ve already got me down here? Which I might point out is a huge breaking of the rules.”

“God, you sound like Rose…” he sighed, breaking off as suddenly as if he’d been burned, looking warily down to see Lily’s suddenly distant expression.

“Lils?” He gently reached down to cup her cheek in his hand, her eyes finding their way back to him and he felt his throat close up with guilt. “I didn’t mean to upset you,” he apologized.

“No, I… I know…” she sighed, briefly letting her eyelids fall shut and taking in a steadying breath.

“Let’s… can we just get out of here?” she asked, her words stumbling over each other on their way out, she was so distressed.

“Yeah, of course,” Scorpius quietly promised. He then lifted himself off of her and Lily sucked in a breath at the sudden cold she felt without his body pressing against hers. “You okay?” he asked again.

Lily nodded, trying to keep from trembling. Scorpius appeared unconvinced, though, and said nothing, only bending to pick up her discarded shoes and hand them silently back to her, both of which she quickly slipped back on. Her fingers trembled as she tied the laces and Scorpius only watched, the shadows behind his silver eyes returning once more.

“Lily, I know what you’re thinking, but what she did to you was inexcusable. There’s no reason you should feel guilty.”

“I’m not,” she replied, so quickly that it was obviously a lie.

Scorpius let his head fall back, breathing a weary sigh. She hadn’t seen the state she was in the night before, too overcome with her guilt to take any notice of herself. Lily hadn’t simply fallen asleep in his bed; she had collapsed in the corridor, crying so violently that she’d stopped responding to him when he told her they should go. Scorpius had tried shaking her and she’d only turned away from him, tears never stopping their progress down her freckled skin. As guilt-consumed as she’d been, she of course had forgotten the state he was in, blaming himself for her tears, for the fight, everything. Scorpius wanted to blame Rose, to hate her, but he had been the one helpless to comfort Lily. He’d been the one to lift her prone form up from the cobblestone floors and carry her back to his room. No, Lily had not just fallen asleep in his bed; she had lost herself crying against the pillows, finally finding relief in the blackness of sleep, Scorpius watching her for ages afterward until he finally sank into the same oblivion of sleep to join her.

Shaking his head to rid himself of the memory, Scorpius reached across the bed to deftly hand over her school robes. He draped them over her slender shoulders, helping her into them, the Gryffindor red of the hood standing out as a mockery of her supposedly brave house. She wasn’t even brave enough to be honest with him, preferring to hide behind closed emotions and run away. Neither of them truly realized it, but she was just like her mother, brave enough to face down the tip of a Death Eater’s wand, but too cowardly to confront her own demons.

Once Lily had her clothes back in order, wrinkled from sleep though they were, Scorpius carefully peered through the emerald curtains to see that his roommates were indeed still asleep, making their chances at escaping punishment much more likely. Not that it mattered; they’d all have detention for their row in the hospital wing until the semester ended anyway.

Holding out his hand and helping Lily to her feet, Scorpius led her to the door, silently opening it a crack just large enough that the two of them could slip through. With Lily’s hand in his, Scorpius led her up the winding staircase to the main common room, which was thankfully empty aside from one small boy who’d fallen asleep studying. Too exhausted to even comment on the snoring boy, Scorpius led Lily out of the Slytherin dungeons and back into the main corridors of the castle.

Once the passage shut behind them, Lily carefully took her hand from his and Scorpius turned to her with a confused expression. She tried to avert her gaze from him, moving from one foot to the other before finally facing him, trying to smile to put him at ease though it had the exact opposite effect. “I, erm, I think it’s fairly obvious that these are yesterday’s clothes, so it’s, it’s probably best if I just go back to the tower and change, get ready with everyone else.”

Scorpius nodded, both relieved and fearful to have her go. “Alright, then,” he sighed.

Lily turned as though to walk away from him and then spun back around to face him again, her eyes troubled. Scorpius swallowed at the indecision in her eyes, but thankfully she made the first move, swiftly crossing the few feet towards him and lacing her arms around his neck to press her lips to his. Closing his eyes, Scorpius sighed against her lips and then pulled back, resting his forehead against hers, she still staring down at her shoes and biting down on her lower lip.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“For what?”

She finally raised her eyes to meet his, her face drawn and pale but determined to acknowledge something of what happened yesterday. “For taking care of me last night,” she softly whispered, her cheeks tinged pink with embarrassment and shame as she looked away again. “I may have had a shock upon waking up, but it doesn’t mean there aren’t snatches I remember now. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t…”

Cutting her off, Scorpius gently lifted her chin with the edge of his fingers. “I really, really don’t want to see you that distraught ever again,” he whispered softly, his lips quirking up into a faint smile as he continued. “Especially in my room; much more productive things could have been happening,” he teased.

Lily only rolled her eyes in amusement and Scorpius was grateful to see the light back in her eyes once more.

“Meet me outside the Entrance Hall steps once you’re done?” he asked.

She nodded, only then slipping back away from him and down the deserted halls, the rest of Hogwarts’ students still sleeping in their beds. Scorpius watched her go, feeling his heart press painfully against his ribs, but he said nothing. He would get her to talk and open up soon enough when she came back down from Gryffindor Tower; he could wait until then.

*

Lily quietly slipped through the portrait hole and into Gryffindor Tower, careful not to make any noise as she moved into the dimly lit common room, only the sun’s first rays making their way past the foggy windows. She didn’t even look up until she caught sight of a flash of movement, her eyes flying wide in shock as she saw both her brother and her cousin sitting on the couch before the fire, the two Gryffindor boys glaring at her with hard expressions.

“Where the bloody hell have you been?” Albus snarled, pushing himself up from his seat and stalking towards her, Hugo watching over the rim of his still bruised nose from the fight earlier.

Unconsciously, Lily took a step back, immediately becoming defensive. “None of your damn business, Al,” she hissed, her green eyes flashing in warning.

He chuckled darkly then, seizing his younger sister’s arm and yanking her towards him, only inches separating his angry face from hers. “None of my business, huh? After what happened yesterday?”

“You weren’t even there!” Lily snapped, jerking her hand free from his grip and intending to march straight up the stairs to her dorm when Hugo unexpectedly rose to block her path, fixating her with a penetrating stare.

“Albus wasn’t,” he admitted carefully. “But I was.” His brown eyes flashed, so like his sister’s, and Lily stilled, her hands clenching into fists at her sides as she stood trapped between the two hell-bent boys.

“You may have rushed in to save the bloody day, Hugo, but you don’t know a thing more than Al does, so who cares?” she retorted angrily.

Hugo took a menacing step towards her and Lily unconsciously took a step back, actually feeling a little afraid though she would never admit it. Albus’ hand came out to steady her, but she flinched at his touch, still staring fearfully at Hugo, his anger seeming to double in the few steps he took towards her.

“I care, Lily, because in case you’ve forgotten, we’re family and that bastard Malfoy had the nerve to push around my sister!”

Lily paled at his accusations, feeling sick at the reminder of Rose, not for Scorpius’ actions but hers. “I didn’t mean to hurt her,” she said quietly, tears forming in her eyes.

“You didn’t, at least not physically,” he replied almost softly, taking another step towards her. Just as Lily felt her shoulders begin to sink in relief, his tone abruptly changed, becoming rough as his voice rose with his anger until he was practically shouting at her. “You certainly weren’t the one to hurt her, shove her up against a wall and shake her! No, that was all your sod of a boyfriend, who from the state of your robes, you’ve yet to break up with! That bastard attacked my sister right in front of you and you did nothing!”

“That’s not true!” Lily screamed, angry tears forming in her eyes, feeling her body tremble under the judging eyes of her brother and cousin.

Albus’ hand on her shoulder tightened, turning Lily around to face him, his green eyes wide in a sudden lurching fear behind the lens of his glasses. “What’s not true, Lily?” he asked worriedly. “What Hugo said about what you didn’t do yesterday or what you did do last night?”

“I didn’t do anything!” she cried, glaring hatefully at Albus and pulling back away from him, tears sliding down her cheeks. “Is this what you two were sitting up all night for?” she demanded past her tears. “Hoping to ambush me and hurl accusations?”

“Then why’d you come back to the tower, Lily?” her brother asked in a quiet voice. “Heading up to change clothes so no one knows where you were last night?”

“I’m not explaining myself to you two! You’ve already made up your minds!” she bit out, moving past him and towards the staircase when his voice calling after her froze her in her tracks, having just reached the foot of the stairs.

“I thought you had more sense than this, Lily,” he spat, looking at her with disgust.

Lily spun back around to face him, so furious that she didn’t even care if she missed her shower, if the whole school saw her in her rumpled robes. Instead, she marched straight up to her older brother, pushing past Hugo on the way and facing Albus with a furious expression burning behind her equally green eyes, her voice laced with venom.

“Scorpius is better than either of you will ever be!” she spat, jabbing her brother hard in the chest with her finger. “You want to know what we were doing last night, brother dearest? Hiding away from people like you! From Mum and Rose and the whole lot of you! I’m sorry that Rose got hurt, I never meant for that to happen, but I’m not going to let you say another word about Scorpius. You know what he was doing while you two were in here, hackles raised waiting for me? He went and found me, carried me back to his room because I was crying so hard and not one of you cared!” she screamed.

“Lily!”

She ripped her hand back from him and stomped away, her anger such that she nearly threw herself out of the portrait hole and back into the seventh floor corridor, intent only on reaching Scorpius as quickly as possible, feeling tears streaking down her face as she ran, her brother and Hugo’s voices calling after her.

Racing down the mostly deserted halls, Lily swiped furiously at her eyes, hating the tears that she was powerless to stop. She wanted Rose. She wanted to let herself be wrapped in the arms of the girl who was her best friend, had been her best friend before yesterday.

Sniffling loudly, Lily didn’t even see the other student turning the corner, her brown eyes flying wide in shock over the top of the stack of books she clutched to her chest like a physical shield. The books in question weren’t enough to shield her from the impact of her cousin knocking into her.

“Lily!” she cried in both shock and fear as she stumbled back, reeling from the force of Lily’s body running into hers. Lily gasped as well, her momentum launching her forward so that both she and Rose fell to the ground, the Ravenclaw girl’s books all toppling down around them.

Horrified, Lily immediately pushed herself back from Rose, who was staring at her open-mouthed with her eyes just as red and puffy as hers. Swallowing thickly, Lily immediately looked down, hurrying to gather up the dropped books and hand them to Rose, never meeting her eyes. When their hands brushed against each other, both girls startled and Rose’s eyes flitted upwards fearfully, taking in the sight of her disheveled younger cousin.

Lily’s clothes were rumpled and dirty, her hair a wild mess that would have made Rose’s own mother proud. Her fingers were trembling as she handed Rose the last of her books, tears falling silently down her cheeks, unable to make eye contact. Rose only watched at a loss for words, feeling immensely guilty for the state Lily was now in, only the morning after their horrible fight. She was certain that she looked no better, though she at least wasn’t in the same tear-stained clothes as the day before.

Mumbling a quick ‘sorry’ under her breath, Lily hurriedly pushed herself up from the floor. She moved as though to give Rose a hand up herself and then immediately thought better of it, shoving her hand back into the pocket of her robes, as if afraid of insulting Rose by even offering. The sight of how tremendously distraught Lily truly was made Rose’s insides churn with guilt and she opened her mouth to say something when the sound of shouting voices cut her off, recognizing them as Albus and Hugo. Judging from the way Lily’s shoulders immediately seized up, Rose was sure they were racing after the much younger girl and the cause for at least her initial tears, if not the ones that now fell down her flushed cheeks.

Lily fidgeted for a moment, looking ready to bolt when Rose finally found her voice, not even thinking through what she was saying, only wanting to help Lily in some way to lessen her own feelings of guilt.

“Come with me,” she urged, shifting the weight of her books to one hand and seizing Lily’s cold wrist with her other hand, tugging her around the corner she’d just come from without a word of explanation.

Lily glanced fearfully over her shoulder at the sounds of Albus and Hugo’s approaching footsteps, but Rose only tugged on her wrist, hissing a terse, ‘Come on!’ that was enough to prompt Lily into further action.

Together the two girls hurried down the halls in the direction of Ravenclaw Tower, Lily not having realized they were on the fifth floor until just then when Rose released her hand and took a shallow breath before answering the riddle to let them through the large door, something with the word love in the answer.

Rose pursed her lips as the door swung creakingly inward, glancing furtively back at Lily who kept her head down, unable to meet her cousin’s eyes.

“You don’t need to hide me in your common room,” she whispered tearfully.

“Of course not,” Rose replied, voice clipped in spite of herself. She immediately squeezed her eyes tightly shut, struggling to overcome her anxiety at having Lily standing so close and instead addressed her much more gently, even forcing a weak smile. “I just meant to say, that it would be silly to hide you in the common room when what you need looks like a decent change of clothes and maybe a hot shower.”

Lily stared up at Rose in breathless shock, but before she could open her mouth to speak, the door had finally brushed against the inner wall of the common room, allowing them access.

“Come on, then,” Rose sighed, taking Lily’s wrist once more and pulling her after her, her grip ever so slightly gentler than before in their haste to escape their respective brothers.

Climbing the stairs to the seventh year girls’ dorm, Rose forcefully set down her haphazard collection of books on the bed, releasing Lily and moving as though to help her out of her robes. Seeing just how rumpled her clothing was, even underneath the robes, Rose nearly froze, unfortunately imagining just why the boys had been shouting after Lily, why perhaps she’d ran crying from them, even what she may have been doing with Scorpius last night.

“I’ll look up a pressing charm for you while you’re in the shower,” she said quietly.

Lily sucked in a breath, quickly trying to explain herself, “Rose, I never…”

“Soap and everything’s all in the shower,” Rose cut her off, not meeting her eyes.

Lily nodded miserably and sniffled once more, moving past her cousin and into the small bathroom, grateful only when she finally stripped off the last of her uniform from the day before and stepped beneath the water’s scalding hot spray.

As soon as the water rained down over her body, Lily let out a small sob, leaning heavily against the shower wall and crying weakly. She stood under the spray for as long as she could to finally master control of her emotions or at least her tears without inconveniencing Rose for any more than ten minutes.

When she finally stepped out from the shower, Lily wrapped herself in the fluffy pale blue towel and stepped back into the dorm room. Her shoulders deflated upon realizing that Rose was nowhere in sight though there were her robes laid neatly across Rose’s four-poster bed, both pressed and clean, a fresh set of clothes set out beside it. Lily fingered the blue and bronze trim of the sweater vest and the tie, deciding against charming them any differently before she changed and made her way down the stairs, exhausted beyond measure but finally clean.

*

Scuffing her shoe against the cobblestone floors of the halls she moved numbly through, Lily was careful to keep her head down. She was well aware of the blue and bronze Ravenclaw colors decorating her collar, Rose’s tie around her neck making her feel both secure and somehow strangled. She couldn’t understand why Rose had suddenly helped her, but she was grateful for it, the feel of clean clothes on her skin enough to keep her sanity a little longer.

Remembering her disheveled appearance of only half an hour previously, Lily wished she had ignored her brother and Hugo’s accusations and taken her shower in her own dormitory, as now Rose was sure to think she and Scorpius had done something… well…

Feeling her cheeks flame, Lily put away that thought. Surely it was enough that they hadn’t, they’d never… She shook her head to herself again, so confused that a headache was already building at the base of her skull. For all the hours of sleep she must have gained the night before, it certainly hadn’t had a restful effect on her. Instead, Lily felt that at any moment she might collapse from the sheer emotional exhaustion of the past twenty-four hours. To think that her mother had been in a seemingly worse state than her only yesterday was almost a joke now. There was no way Lily could possibly imagine her mother having more emotional difficulties than herself.

Shaking away thoughts of her mother as easily as she’d shaken off thoughts of what everyone assumed she’d been doing last night, Lily quietly wandered down the hallways, only a few students moving through the corridors on their way to the early hours of breakfast before their earliest classes of the day. Most students would still sleep for a few hours more, but not Lily. She knew that if Scorpius wanted to meet her it would be sooner rather than later, the better to avoid any unwelcome crowds after the events of yesterday and perhaps even escape the notice of enough teachers that they might successfully avoid classes. Right now, listening to a lecture was the last thing Lily wanted to put herself though, not when her entire life was falling apart.

Finally reaching the Entrance Hall, Lily raised her head to see Scorpius waiting concealed in the shadows beneath the same stairwell they’d snogged under a thousand times in the last week alone. Smiling faintly at the irony of the situation, Lily made her way towards Scorpius, his grey eyes flitting up as she approached, his brow furrowing as he took in the sight of the blue and bronze colors adorning her uniform.

“What are you wearing?” he asked wonderingly, reaching out to finger the edge of her pleated skirt, the tips of his fingers having brushed her outer robes aside.

“They’re Rose’s,” Lily replied quietly, Scorpius’ eyes shooting up to meet hers in no small amount of shock. There was an almost angry expression on his face that she was quick to explain away, though her exhaustion made her seem slightly less than sincere.

She sighed tiredly, running a hand through her still-damp hair. “Albus and Hugo were waiting up for me when I came into the common room and we had a row between all three of us. It made getting to my own room rather difficult and I… ran away, straight into Rose. She let me use her shower and, and her clothes.”

Scorpius reached tentatively up to direct Lily’s gaze towards himself, lightly rubbing the pad of his thumb over the edge of her red-rimmed eyes.

“More tears,” he commented bitterly.

“I got soap in my eye,” she shrugged, her lips quirking at her by now familiar lie.

Scorpius rolled his eyes, chuckling under his breath and lightly kissing her temple. “You need a new manual for lying techniques, Lils. Come by my room again and I’ll make sure to get you the best edition of the Slytherin Handbook,” he smirked.

Lily lightly pressed back against his chest. “I’m not sure I’ll be making another venture to your room anytime soon, Scorpius. My late night of getting my robes in a twist has led to certain suspicions from my family members, enough that I’m afraid one of the boys might come after you if we’re not careful.”

Scorpius stared at her, his eyebrows narrowing. “Is that what your row was about? They were accusing you of, us of…”

“Shh, I handled it just fine,” she assured him, “Well, aside from the waterworks,” she amended.

“Are you alright? Merlin, I left you only an hour ago…”

“I’m fine,” Lily sighed, curling her arms around Scorpius’ waist and leaning heavily against him, shutting her eyes.

He wrapped his own arms around her and they stood there for a moment, each drawing some fraction of comfort from the other. “I love you,” Scorpius whispered gruffly.

Lily smiled faintly up at him, kissing his cheek. “You too,” she murmured. “Now what?”

Her lips were quirked in a small teasing smirk and Scorpius openly grinned back down at her, capturing her lips just once. “Now we eat breakfast.”

“Sounds like the natural progression of a relationship to me,” Lily giggled, letting Scorpius take her hand in his and lead her out from under the staircase. They passed the double doors of the Great Hall without his paying the students within even a cursory glance, instead leading Lily out of the castle to sit down on the outdoor steps, the early morning sunlight gracing the edges of the grounds and everything around them.

“Here, you look ready to collapse,” he said, tugging her down to sit on the step right in front of him, Lily leaning back against his legs like the back of a chair, closing her eyes in something as close to contentment as she could get.

“Now what?” she yawned, earning a grin from him in response.

“Now you, Lils, may enjoy the muffin your dashing Slytherin boyfriend procured for you,” he teased, reaching into the pocket of his robes to pull out two napkin wrapped bundles, handing one off to her.

Lily unwrapped her own, laughing as she did so. “And how exactly did you procure this?” she asked.

“Nicked them from a Hufflepuff first year,” he shrugged modestly.

“You’re terrible,” she laughed.

“Hey, the kid had almost six in his grubby little paws; I was doing him a favor, really, much too chubby to attract any girls later in life.”

“If that’s what you have to tell yourself so you can sleep at night,” Lily shrugged, picking at her muffin with a contemplative expression on her face.

“What?” Scorpius asked, around a mouthful of his own.

Lily scowled but didn’t say anything, continuing to pick at her muffin.

“Lily?”

“What?”

“What the hell are you doing?” he scoffed. “Eat the damn muffin.”

“But it’s blueberry,” she pouted, as if this explained everything.

Scorpius rolled his eyes, trading what was left of his muffin for hers, grumbling slightly. “Blueberry’s the best, you know. I try to be a gentleman and leave it for you, but no, you can’t appreciate the theft it took to get a hold of that muffin. Just want banana nut,” he sighed.

Lily rolled her eyes and the two finally fell into a comfortable silence, simply letting the sun’s rays soak through their skin, the only decent part of what had been a very exhausting morning. Perhaps, Lily thought, perhaps they would be lucky enough that the sun would continue to rise in the sky. Perhaps she and Rose would have a chance to repair their friendship and the rest of their unending mess would finally start to knit itself back together. Staring out across the grounds with a tired sigh, Lily wondered if she was putting too much faith in the naturally healing effects of serotonin.

*

After setting out a fresh uniform and leaving her younger cousin to her shower, Rose gathered up her books once more and headed downstairs to class, putting off any breakfast until she had the stomach for it. Worriedly biting down on her lower lip, Rose replayed the scene of her unexpected encounter with Lily again and again, wondering if she should have said more, done something beyond simply dragging the distraught younger girl after her and away from their brothers.

Shaking her head, Rose berated herself, unwilling to dwell on the subject. Despite all her efforts to forget, though, Rose couldn’t escape her guilt. Seeing just how badly Lily had taken the previous day’s events made her feel sick to her stomach and the sight of her sleep-mussed robes had made it hard to breathe. She kept trying to tell herself that she knew Lily better than that, that she wouldn’t have done anything with Scorpius so soon after they’d even become a couple, but she wasn’t so sure.

She blinked back the tears she wanted to shed, refusing to allow herself to break down. She had brought this on herself, she knew that. She had just been taken off guard by Lily and her unexpected collision, that was all, she assured herself, knowing all along it wasn’t enough to ever truly put her at ease. As she passed through the blur that was her early morning Arithmancy class, Rose wondered if she had any right to Scorpius… Perhaps Lily had been right when she’d screamed that Rose had never done anything to have him and truthfully, Rose knew she hadn’t.

Overcome by depressing thoughts she’d rather just shrug off, Rose eventually found herself walking the corridors, the other students now awake for their regularly scheduled classes and passing by and around her. Unexpectedly a hand clamped down on her shoulder and Rose spun around, her eyes flying wide to see her cousin Albus, his green eyes intense.

“Have you see Lily?” he demanded, voice hoarse.

“N-not really…” she lied, stumbling over her words.

“She wasn’t in any of her classes this morning,” he breathed worriedly.

“Albus, it’s not even noon yet,” Rose admonished though she couldn’t help being curious. “Just what exactly are you wanting from her anyway?”

Rose watched as her cousin’s jaw clenched, apparently unwilling to say anything less he upset her. “We had a fight this morning that never quite got sorted,” he finally admitted.

“They never really do,” Rose whispered quietly, staring down at her shoes.

Albus only nodded, taking in Rose’s too bright eyes, recognizing the shame she felt. “Well,” he shrugged, “If you should see her…”

“What would you even expect me to say to her, Al?” Rose sighed.

“I dunno,” he admitted, “Just… well, me and Hugo both just… we’re just trying to keep her out of trouble with Malfoy…”

“Right,” Rose nodded tersely. Shouldering the weight of her books, she then excused herself from Albus and headed to the Great Hall to grab a bite to stave off her hunger from having skipped breakfast. Moving past the oak double doors, Rose dully noticed that a handful of the post owls had been late in coming, one large eagle owl in particular soaring overhead and out through an open window to where its recipient must have been out on the grounds and oblivious to the news he was about to receive.