That Summer Chapter I

Lily blinked at her bed curtains. The only light in the room came from the green glow of the lake through the big circular panels in the ceiling. A quick tempus charm told the redhead lying in bed that it was closer to morning than night and still, sleep came no easier for her.

She sighed, resigned that for whatever reason sleep just wasn't an option and sat up.

She'd spent the last hour tossing and turning before coming to the realisation that enough was enough. Yesterday she took her last O.W.L. and now she had only three days of class left before she took the train back home so maybe it was all the excitement of ending her fifth year that kept her from the Sandman's hold?

Lily fought another sigh at the thought as she pushed the green silk comforter away from her legs. She wasn't looking forward to going back to Godric's Hollow at all.

Okay, so maybe that was a lie. She did want to go home, it was just that she wasn't ready to break the news that she'd broken up with the sweet Lorcan Scamander to her family.

After the initial shock of their littlest being sorted into the big mean prejudiced Slytherin, her family was surprisingly cool about it. No tantrum to the Headmistress, no public declarations of disownment and no awful treatment from her cousins, but it was the day to day things that bothered Lily.

The snake jokes, the way they didn't stop telling horror stories about her friends' grandparents and parents, their obvious reluctance to let her go to the Annual Slytherin Ball and even the way she got lost when her cousins started talking about their friends and adventures in the Gryffindor common room and no one bothered to fill her in on the private jokes.

Lily had always felt her family's quiet worry for her. As if she was going to come back one summer suddenly turned evil witch, complete with a crazy, power-hungry look and evil cackle.

That kind of worry was quenched when she went home for the Easter hols with the news of a three month relationship with one of the Scamander twins. Sweet, Hufflepuff Lorcan, who was practically family and always a good influence.

Of course they didn't know that Lorcan was the one who properly introduced her to the partying world of fire whisky, drugs and sex. Now she had to tell them that she'd broken up with him.

Lily pushed herself off her bed and summoned the grey sweater that matched the sweatpants she was wearing. She knew she wouldn't be getting any more sleep that night, so she might as well do something.

She pulled her dark red hair into a careless bun, put her wand into the waistband of her sweats and quietly left her dorm room.

Her feet were only covered in green fluffy socks that caught on the stone floor every now and then as she made her way through the dungeons. When she got outside, she finally decided what she would do until it was time for her morning run. The Quidditch pitch was deserted and dark but the shadows that the stands made didn't scare her. The summer night air was a welcome relief as Lily took her socks off to let her feet touch the cool grass.

She quickly got into the Slytherin locker room and grabbed her Firebolt 3000. This year with Emilia Bulstrode as Quidditch captain, tryouts had been opened for every position, opposing to the previous years when tryouts only happened for specific positions that needed filling. So Lily got to finally be on Slytherin's Quidditch team as their seeker.

Flying was one of her only passions and she made sure to work extra hard to prove to her teammates that even though she was a girl, she could still kick ass.

Slytherin won Quidditch cup with a team that was considered to be one of the strongest Hogwarts had ever seen.

Lily didn't even bother to look around and as soon as she had her broom in hand she was up high in the sky. Her adrenaline spiked as she performed her usual stunts, some of which were only possible because of the top of line broom she won when she joined the team.

She didn't know how long she stayed up there but when her feet finally touched the ground, the sky was considerably lighter. Slow clapping from behind her made her turn around.

"That was quite the show, Potter."

Scorpius Malfoy was standing in the shadows, dark jeans stuffed in black combat boots, white t-shirt tucked on the front and a cigarette hanging from his lips. The sight of him was enough to send a rush through Lily's body that had nothing to do with flying. She did a mocking curtesy and was rewarded with a slight upturn of the corner of his lips.

"Out after curfew," she tutted as she walked to join him underneath the stands. Lily could see him better now. His blond hair looked like he'd just rolled out of bed, his teeth shinned extra white under the moonlight and the cigarette was now between his index and middle finger.

"So are you," the low timber of his voice was dark and smooth. She hummed.

"Hmm, yes, indeed. But I'm not the one doing drugs." She was close enough to smell him now. The smoke mingling with the musky scent of him was positively intoxicating.

He was a conundrum. There in the middle of the night smoking a cigarette and in parties almost every single weekend, but no matter how much he partied, Scorpius Malfoy had been one of the top five students since his first year. On top of it all, Lily was pretty sure he would be made captain of the Quidditch team. He was a bloody amazing chaser.

"Yet," he replied with a positively wolfish smirk that sent heat straight to her belly.

Lily hadn't really had much interaction with Malfoy. Despite them being on the same house, he was a year ahead of her and the only kind of encounter they had until that year were fleeting ones in the common room. This year, they had more interaction because they were both on the team and they met once or twice at Slytherin parties, but this was the first time they'd ever been alone.

He offered the cigarette to her and they shared it in companionable silence for a while, both enjoying the rush to their brains as the sun rose on the horizon. He was the first to break the silence.

"I heard you broke up with the Scamander loverboy," Lily rolled her eyes.

"Of course you did," sarcasm dripped from her voice, "did you also hear that I had blueberry muffins for breakfast? Because there's this rumour going around saying that I had sausage muffins and that's just disgusting."

She turned her head towards him to shoot him a blunt look and couldn't help but let out a small huff of a laugh when she saw the amused glint in his eyes as he puffed the smoke.

"I take it didn't end well with him, then?" He smirked at her before handing her the cigarette. She took a drag and shook her head.

"No, it's not that. Things ended surprisingly well with Lorcan. It's just..." she watched as he released the smoke through his mouth and wondered how to voice her thoughts.

"You're tired of all the gossip," he finished for her. Lily nodded and took the cigarette back from him. The sun was rising above the trees now.

"Yeah," she shrugged.

It had always been hard for her to be so exposed to the media and to common gossip at school. She thought that she would be used to it at 16, but no. Everybody wanted to know what the Potter's were doing at every minute of every single fucking day and she was not any more used to it.

This year she'd learned that Slytherins were not just students who happened to be on the same house. They were actually family — quite literally, more often than not — who would never betray each other. Even people who didn't particularly like Lily kept their mouth shut about the things she did at parties. She guessed the reason for everybody being so close knit was that they had to have someone to lean on while fighting against all the prejudice. Lily was always proud to be called a snake.

"So..." she tried to change the subject, "what're you doing this summer?"

She could honestly kick herself. Could she possibly say anything lamer?

"I'll probably hang out with Felix and Alicia most of the summer," Scorpius shrugged.

It made sense. Felix Nott and Alicia Zabini were Scorpius' best friends. The three were called the Platinum Trio in comparison to her dad's Golden Trio and they were considered to rule Slytherin.

Lily hummed and turned her head in the pretence of looking around to hide the slight colouring of her cheeks. "What about you?"

Lily almost choked on thin air as reality finally set in. The hottest guy in Hogwarts was watching the sunrise with her while sharing his cigarette with her and to top it all off he was asking her about her plans for the summer? This must be a dream.

She quickly collected herself and tried to convince herself that he was just another guy. Just another really smart, really handsome and sexy guy. Just another guy.

"Gotta spend time with the family," she managed to say but her voice came more salty than she thought it would. He raised an eyebrow at her and her breath was caught in her throat because his hair was beginning to catch the golden rays of sun and, fuck it, forget handsome, he was fucking beautiful.

"Ah, I don't suppose they were too keen on the idea of their youngest being a cunning snake, huh?" Scorpius said sarcastically.

"Not really." She huffed a laugh as he lightened another cigarette. "It's not that we had some big dramatic fallout, it's just that we're getting more and more distant it seems."

"That's life, though," he passed her the cigarette, "children distance themselves from their family as they grow up." Lily shot him a sardonic smile.

"Very insightful of you, Mr. Malfoy," he chuckled and Lily had to fight not to swoon.

She was happy to see that it wasn't as hard as earlier. It seemed that as the sun rose she got more comfortable around him and started feeling less close to spontaneous combustion. The sun was almost completely above the horizon now and Lily knew it was about time they got going if they didn't want to risk getting caught smoking on school grounds.

Something came over her then.

She didn't know if it was because at sunrise things got this dreamy quality or because she was sleep deprived. It didn't matter what it was because at that instant Lily felt bold. So she did what she'd been wanting to do since he offered her that first drag.

She put one hand on his shoulder and took a drag with the other before letting the cigarette fall to the floor. As she rose to his level, she used the hand that was previously holding the cigarette to open his jaw before finally letting him suck on the smoke she puffed on his lips. She watched in fascination as he let the smoke out through his nostrils and the way his pupils almost covered the icy grey in his eyes. A small smirk was playing on his full lips, one that Lily was sure mirrored her own.

"I guess I'll see you later then." She flashed him another smirk before turning around towards the castle. She could just barely hear that delicious chuckle of his before she made it to the Great Hall.

That morning she gave up on going on her usual early morning run to lie in bed. After she got back she was finally able to fall asleep with his scent etched in her brain. She was proud of herself for making such a bold move and mostly for just keeping it together.

She knew nothing would come of this little interaction of theirs but it was a boost to her confidence that she didn't know she needed to see his obvious arousal.

Dating Lorcan had been eye-opening for Lily because she started going to parties and enjoying herself with another person. She had discovered a lot about who she was in the late nights she spent on his bed and realised sex was something she very much liked. Until now something had been missing, though, and Lily knew after her sudden struck of boldness that day just what it was.

Confidence.

The confidence to do whatever she wanted at parties and to approach guys and to generally make the first move. To not be afraid of being who she was. The confidence she didn't know she was capable of but had proven to herself that she had in her. It was freeing, liberating, and it was a real wonder how she got any sleep with her heart beating so fast.

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Hey everybody, new fic! In this one Lily is only a year younger than Scorpius and each of the Potter children have only a year on each other, so this is James' last year. Also, this story completely disregards whatever the fuck happened in the mess that was HP and the Cursed Child. I have this all pretty much mapped out so updates shouldn't take long. Rating's going up in further chapters. Hope you enjoyed the first chapter, see you soon ;)

~Juliette Deschemps