Once upon a time, in a castle upon a hill, there was a beautiful young girl named Lily Luna. She was the fairest in all the land, a wickedly clever witch, and also a right bitch, or so anyone that truly knew her would tell you. Her hair was born from fire, her eyes glinted amber, and her skin was pale as snow. Her lips were pink, and perfectly kissable, however, her heart was made of ice.

In that very same castle lived a boy with of seemingly no particular importance bar his unusual name; Scorpius Malfoy. He had plain looks, a quiet countenance, and a heart made of gold. He was as kind as Lily was lovely, as sweet as she was cruel.

He had but one secret; he was in love.

Unfortunately, it was Lily Luna that he was in love with. It should have been - and in any other world would have been - doomed.

I would know, for I was Lily's brother, and Scorpius' best friend.

But this is a fairy tale, with magic and madness and impossibilities that come true.

Are you listening?

I shall tell you their story.

"James!"

Albus winced, covering his ears. He stumbled back as James rushed past him, Lily hot on his heels.

"You'll regret this!" she shrieked. She stopped, suddenly, even as James dashed on, and pinched her arm. Tears came to her eyes.

Albus sighed. He glanced about and withdrew into the shadows, as there was certainly a teacher around somewhere.

"What in Merlin's name is going on here?" Uncle Neville asked, his voice calm, his eyes tired. He took in Lily, sniffling over her upturned bag, and James, making a break for it down the stairs, and frowned.

"10 points from Gryffindor," he muttered. "Are you alright, Lily?"

"I'm sure I will be," Lily said, scooping up her books. She snivelled a bit more. "It's just-" she scrubbed at her eyes, clearing away the tears, "well, he took my potions homework. I worked so hard on it last night!"

Albus knew for a fact that Lily had spent all of yesterday evening making out with Marius Zabini in the corner of the Slytherin Common Room. He wasn't stupid enough to say anything, though.

Uncle Neville hadn't noticed him, and James and Lily had rushed past him, so Albus quietly retreated while Lily spun her story. Undoubtedly, by the end of it, James would have detention, and Lily would be the smug owner of whatever it was James had taken from her, whether it had been hers in the first place, or not.

"Leviosa," he said to the wall, and the Slytherin Common Room door swung open. Every eye in the room glanced toward him – it was only the Slytherin way – and he arched a brow until they turned back to what they were doing. Scorpius smiled, and waved him over.

"Have you done the Runes reading yet?" Scorpius asked. Said book was before him, shut.

"I tried. It was boring," Albus admitted.

Scorpius looked affronted. "Boring! It was thrilling!"

Albus slumped lengthways onto the sofa, legs dangling over one of the arms, and rolled his eyes. "Only you would think that, Scor."

"But doesn't it make sense how the arithmetical division of runes can lead to a catalytical interaction?"

Albus faked a snore, and then snorted a laugh when Scorpius punched him.

"Fine, fine, I'll shut up," Scorpius said, but he was smiling when Albus glanced over at him. "How was practise?"

Albus huffed, and glared at the ceiling.

"Arg, it was tough. Flint's as much of a pain as Dad predicted he'd be. A real hard ass."

"Mm," Scorpius said, in the tone of voice he used when he was completely and utterly distracted. Albus idly wondered if he'd picked up his book again, until he realised the majority of the Common Room had fallen silent. He squinted toward the entrance, pushing his glasses up his nose, and sighed when he spotted his sister.

"She's such a bitch," he complained. "You can't really fancy her."

"Yeah," Scorpius agreed, before sighing. "It just makes her hotter, for some reason."

"It does," piped up voice that had no right joining in their conversation.

Marius Zabini stood behind their sofa, smirking.

"What do you want?"

"And who asked for your opinion?" Scorpius added.

Marius ran a hand through his slicked back hair. "My opinion's important to your sister," he drawled.

Albus snorted. "Ha! As if! She's couldn't give a rat's arse." He smiled slyly. "Besides, she's dumped you."

Marius frowned. "What? No she hasn't."

"Oh yes I have," Lily said, appearing from behind him. She smiled, sickly sweet. "Bye now."

Marius blinked gormlessly. Lily flicked her wand, and he stumbled backward, yelling as bogies in the form of bats flew out of his nose and began to attack him.

Albus laughed, strangely proud. When he turned back to his friend, Scorpius was staring at Lily with hearts in his eyes.

Albus kicked him in the shin.

"Oi, piss off. Lils wants to speak with me."

Lily tutted. "Only a little. Scorpius can stay, if he likes." She batted her eyelashes at him. Scorpius turned pink, grabbed his book, and dashed toward their dorm.

Lily took his seat, and smirked at Albus. She didn't say a thing. Albus stared back before sighing, giving in.

"For fucks sake. Go on then. What did you steal from James?"

Lily grinned, and drew a piece of parchment and a quill from her bag. There was nothing particularly extraordinary about it, at least to the naked eye.

"I've heard tell that what you imagine sometimes comes true," Lily whispered, and drew four symbols in each corner of the parchment, the rune Uruz.

"Roald Dahl," Albus said, feigning boredom.

"Uh, you are such a muggle," Lily hissed. "No, it was Paracelsus, originally."

Albus hid a wince. "Just testing you."

The look that Lily shot him was full of disdain. Still, she offered him the quill.

"Write as if you were changing something," she said. "Be discreet."

Albus raised his brows. "Really?" He wondered if they should have left the Slytherin Common Room, but decided in favour of hiding in plain sight.

Lily's scarf is red and gold, he wrote.

He glanced up.

"Uh!" she cried. "You are such a prick."

She tugged off her scarf. It was in Gryffindor colours.

Albus dropped the quill. "This is the Scroll of Truth!" he growled. "Where the fuck did you get this!"

Lily's annoyance quickly faded in favour of smugness. "Aunty Hermione brought it home to study. Filched it over the Christmas hols. There's a perfectly good replica in its place."

Albus covered his face with his hand. "You're incorrigible." He glanced sideways at the parchment, a temptation within his reach. "Fuck."

For a moment, Albus was almost compelled to pick up the quill and parchment. Theoretically… the possibilities were endless.

He jerked to his feet.

"You know the dangers, Lils. I don't need to warn you… but… be careful."

Lily rolled her eyes at him. "You're such a bore. All those stories about people being driven crazy with obsession are just stories, Albie."

Albus believed her.

He would learn to regret it.

Time passed, and the grass grew tall, breaking through the winter snows. The more the world blossomed outside the castle, the more withdrawn Lily became within it.

At first Albus was pleased, thinking she'd grown out of her spiteful and provocative manners. But no boy held her attention, nor mean trick, nor wicked prank. She grew pale and held herself distant, and her eyes became frantic, glancing madly about the room as if it held a secret only she could see.

Strangely, no one else could see the change bar he and Scorpius. They poured together over their books, whispering about what was to be done.

There was nothing for it. They were going to have to steal the Scroll of Truth. It could be the only thing responsible for Lily's peculiar behaviour. Of course, it wasn't the easiest of endeavours. Luckily, Albus was persuasive, and a better cheat, and so Scorpius drew the short straw in their ingenious plan.

"I can't believe I'm letting you do this," Scorpius grumbled.

Albus narrowed his eyes and ignored him. He mouthed the words of the transfiguration spell over and over again, trying not think about what he was doing whilst also concentrating very hard upon it.

Eventually, Scorpius' form became softer, his hair longer, his waist rounder.

"I have boobs!" Scorpius wailed, staring down at them. His voice was distinctly higher than normal. "This is not fun. This is not fun at all!"

Albus eyed them and tilted his head. "A little bit bigger?" he suggested, raising his wand.

"No!" Scorpius shrieked, and clutched at his chest.

Albus chuckled before falling silent. They exchanged a long look.

"Do you think it'll be enough?" Albus murmured.

"It will have to be," Scorpius said primly. "Because I place a high value on my cock, and I'll thank you not to go anywhere near it with your wand."

Albus bit his lip to hold in a snort of laughter. Scorpius stared at him archly, turned on one foot, and strode out of their shared dorm. He was dressed in girl's robes and look similarly enough to some of the 5th and 6th year female Slytherins that nobody glanced at him twice.

Albus followed at a distance, and held his breath when Scorpius approached the entrance to the girls' dormitory.

He needn't have worried. Scorpius walked straight up the stairs, and Albus was certain that he was the only person who'd be able to tell that Scorpius' shoulders had only gotten tenser with each step.

He disappeared from sight, and Albus paced back and forth, watching the entrance, unable to tear his gaze away.

In what felt like forever, and also no time at all, Scorpius reappeared. He strode down the stairs, met Albus' gaze and nodded.

They scrambled back to their room, and Albus didn't even bother to tease Scorpius about returning him to his usual self, instead reversing the transfiguration with a flick of his wand.

"Thank fuck," Scorpius muttered, and pulled the Scroll of Truth out from where he'd shoved it down his pants.

Albus stared at him, incredulous.

"What?" Scorpius said, although he blushed red. "I didn't exactly remember to take a bag with me!"

"I am a man, and even I know that's gross," Albus muttered. "Give it here then."

They spread the scroll out on Albus' bed, and began to read.

At first the wishes were fairly innocuous – petty pranks, or vain beautifications – whiter teeth, a curse of acne on a rival. But the further down the scroll, the more dangerous they became – Lily wrote herself happy, or clever, or wrote that she had all the answers to a test already in her head.

The last, however, was the most chilling.

Lily Luna Potter's perfect match will be irrevocably in love with her and will reveal himself to be her one true love.

"The little idiot!" Albus growled. Without a second thought, he tossed the Scroll onto the fire. It didn't even smoke, instead smothering the flame. When he pulled it out with a pair of prongs it wasn't even hot to tough. Next, he grabbed a quill and tried to score the words out, but the ink merely soaked into the parchment. Only Lily would be able to remove them, and the spell.

There was nothing they could do.

"She's cursed herself," Scorpius concluded. His eyes were wet, and he looked to be as distraught as Albus felt. "Love is one of only three things magic cannot create. Death will surely claim those who dare try as his own. We have to find her and get her to recant her wish."

Alas, it was too late.

Scorpius and Albus searched the castle for Lily, determined to find her and force her to destroy the cursed words. High and low they searched, in the nooks and cranny's and all the castles secret places. She was nowhere to be found.

"We have to tell someone," Scorpius said. His hair was sticking up wildly, and his eyes were mad. "We can't let her die, we can't!"

"Like I want that to happen!" Albus bellowed. "Fuck!" He punched the wall, and barely felt the sting in his knuckles.

"Okay. Okay – it's nearly dinner time. Come on."

They raced toward the Great Hall. All the teachers would be gathered there for the evening.

As they drew closer, however, the sound of screams echoed down the corridors.

"Dragon!" a first year cried, dashing past them.

Albus exchanged a worried look with Scorpius, and they darted out of the castle and onto the grounds.

There truly was a dragon, swooping low over the Black Lake. It was forest green, with scales that shimmered like obsidian in the moonlight. Gold eyes gleamed as it dove toward its prey, a girl standing before it, armed not even with her wand.

"LILY!" Albus cried. Before he could even take two steps, he was captured in Hagrid's arms.

"Don't be a fool, lad," Hagrid said, his voice low.

"Let me go!" Albus writhed away, but Hagrid was impossibly strong.

Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of a skirmish, and then Scorpius ducked below Professor Sprout's reaching arms, and sprinted toward the lake. Albus felt as if his heart might stop, watching both his sister and his best friend throw themselves into danger.

The dragon drew closer, its mouth opening wide, and even from a distance Albus could see the embers of the flames that would soon follow.

Great plumes of fire spewed from the dragon's maw, just as Scorpius reached Lily, tumbling them both to the ground. The students that had stayed to watch began to scream, but even as Albus opened his mouth, nothing came out, as if there was nothing left inside him at all. He felt as if his heart had been burnt to ashes along with the two of them.

Then the impossible happened.

Black with soot and smoke, Albus could just make out the sight of Scorpius holding a shield about himself and Lily as they stumbled to their feet. The teachers had finally gotten close enough to subdue the dragon, and the prefects were evacuating the younger students.

Albus squirmed free from Hagrid's sagging grip and ran to greet them.

"You stole my chance!" Lily was shrieking, madness in his eyes. "You stole my chance for my one true love to rescue me!"

Scorpius was pale, beneath his charred exterior. "Lily, please…" he began, and then pulled the scroll from his pocket. "You have to-"

The Scroll had obviously caught the worst of the dragon fire, having been on the outer layer of Scorpius' clothing. Even as he spoke, it crumbled to ashes.

"Oh, thank fuck," Albus said, staring at it in relief.

Lily gasped, and they both turned to her. "The Scroll…" she whispered, extending a hand, and then she collapsed.

Scorpius caught her and stroked a hand over her cheek. "Lily, come on now, don't do this."

Her eyes fluttered open, bright hazel. She seemed okay, if weary, squinting up at them.

"Scorpius?" she murmured. "Is it you? Are you my one true love?"

Albus tensed, but when Lily's eyes opened fully they were clear, with more intelligence in them than he'd seen since she'd first presented him the Scroll.

"You blind, little idiot," Albus said, but his voice lacked venom. "I'm so glad you're okay."

He shuffled uncomfortably when Lily shot him a look full of scorn, but then turned a more speculative gaze upon Scorpius.

"Hello," she said, and offered him a smile that was the most genuine Albus had ever seen her give.

"Hello," Scorpius replied, blushing to the very tips of his ears.

"I suppose you'll do," Lily said, and smirked.

Together, they lived happily ever after… at least most of the time.

After all, no ending's ever perfect.

Luckily, we were all alive to see it.

Triwizard Task 2

OTP: Lily Luna/Scorpius

AU: Fairytale

Dialogue: "I've heard tell that what you imagine sometimes comes true."

Word: "Shimmer."

Word Count: 2653