Freedom

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Today is the day I ask him, was Lily's first thought as she woke up in her bed. She lazily opened her bedroom's windows, letting the sun and the fresh summer breeze inside the room, and taking a moment to enjoy the view from there. Her brothers, some of her cousins, and she had been staying at the Burrow for the last couple of days, as per tradition, and there was nothing Lily enjoyed more than breathing the pure countryside air while bathing in the sun.

She knew her brothers were likely still in their beds and she decided to allow them an extra hour sleep before she would wake them up. Not everyone was an early riser after all and with the party the two of them had gone to last night, she wouldn't be surprised if they slept until noon. That was if she didn't wake them.

Lost in her thoughts, she lowered her eyes toward the garden and discovered that she wasn't the only one who liked to wake up early. She could see someone walking in the garden, probably enjoying the air just like she was, and by the deep red hair colour, Lily knew it was Rose.

The young witch decided to go keep her cousin company and only grabbed a light sweater to protect herself from the frisk morning temperature, before going downstairs, still careful not to wake the whole house up.

She opened the garden's door and exited the house to find herself nose to nose with Rose. Contrary to what Lily had been thinking her cousin hadn't been out for an early stroll in the garden, but it appeared she was only just back from a late one…

Indeed, it was a disheveled and sleepy-eyed Rose that stood before her, wearing wrinkled clothes and smelling faintly of alcohol.

"Merlin, Rose," Lily said quietly, before grabbing the girl by the hand, pulling her inside the house and quickly up the stairs and into a bathroom.

"Why are you awake, Lils?" Rose asked, not so silently, her eyes barely open.

Great, Lily thought, she's still drunk.

"Because it's morning, Rose. That's what mornings are for,"

She was more or less undressing her cousin by this point, taking off the odd-smelling clothes and putting them directly in a wash basin. Once Rose was only in her undergarments, Lily, pushed her gently inside the shower cabin, made sure the water was at the right temperature and then hit the spray button.

Rose slid against the wall, falling on her ass and only then did she give out a happy sigh.

"Thanks, Lils," she said, using Lily's nickname.

Everyone in the family called her that, and of course, with half her family going to Hogwarts, the endearing name had stuck and spread to the whole school. It was only recently, though that Lily had come to resent it. She disliked the childish tone there was to it, she found it only reinforced her status as the Potter Baby, James and Albus' little sister, when all she wanted was to be recognized as her own person and not just another kid with a famous last name.

Happy with herself and almost certain that Rose wouldn't drown in the shower cabin, Lily exited the bathroom and went to look for fresh clothes for her cousin.

It wasn't usual for Lily to take care of Rose, simply because Hermione and Ron's Weasley daughter didn't usually come home around 7 am after a late night, obviously still drunk. But Lily couldn't count how many times she had taken care of one of her brothers. Last year had been James final year at Hogwarts, Albus' sixth and Lily's fourth, and in those four years, Lily had been woken up in the middle of the night by one of them on a weekly basis, asking her to help them cover for something they did, to perform a sobering charm on them, ask her for her hangover miracle potion or simply to tell her they loved her. That's something Albus and James did often when they were drunk. They got overly affectionate, especially toward their baby sister, as they liked to call her during those not-so-sober love confessions.

Being 3 and 2 years younger than them, Lily and Hugo hadn't been invited to many parties, something she was hoping to change as soon as possible, now that she was 15 and going into her fifth year.

She knew she would miss James immensely now that he would start his Quidditch training with the Holyhead Harpies team, but she also hoped that with one less overprotective brother on her back, she would have a little more liberty and a little more fun during the coming year.

In fact, she had decided to begin enjoying being 15 tomorrow night, by going to the shindig James was throwing in the woods as his good-bye party. She knew that her crush, Andrew McLaggen, would be coming to the party since he was friends with James and in the same year as Albus, Scorpius and Rose at Hogwarts and she was set on not missing out on this opportunity to, maybe, finally talk to him.

But first she had something else to do, and she needed to wait for Albus to wake up and call his best friend to put the first part of her plan into motion.

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Scorpius arrived at the Burrow around 3 pm that afternoon and was surprised to find the house almost empty. In the 6 years, he had been friends with Albus, he had often visited the familial house, which was usually full of adults, children, love, and laughter. But today, it seemed that no one was home. He knew that meant Albus, and his brother and sister had probably gone to the make-shift Quidditch pitch at the back of the garden. After all, that was the reason why Albus had invited him today, to play Quidditch. As per usual, Scorpius' father hadn't been pleased to see his only son leave for the Weasley house but he hadn't tried to stop him or said anything. Despite his more than complicated relationship with the Weasley/Potter family, Draco Malfoy knew better than to prejudice his son against others.

Scorpius reached the pitch quickly, following the sound of yelling and people arguing. James and Lily were probably having another argument about Quidditch tactics like they almost always did. In truth, it was something Scorpius had come to envy, seeing those fights as another expression of their close sibling relationship, something he didn't and would never have.

"I don't care what you're saying James," Lily's petulant voice came from behind a small hill, loud enough for Scorpius to catch the anger in it.

"Just do as I say!" James shouted back.

Scorpius laughed to himself. If he had learned anything about Lily in the 4 years he'd known her, was that she didn't take well to being ordered around. She was stubborn like no other and if someone had the misfortune to give her an order, especially if it was one of her brothers, she would go to extreme lengths to do exactly the opposite.

Before the argument could escalate, Scorpius entered the pitch, walking nonchalantly, his broom resting on his shoulder. He spotted Albus and Hugo who were both sitting on the floor, while Lily, James, Fred, and Roxanne were on their brooms, flying around.

The twins were the first to notice him and they both waved at him from their brooms, while Albus got up from the ground and walked toward Scorpius.

"Hey mate, glad you could make it," the brown-haired wizard said.

Hugo said hello as well, quickly refocusing on the book that was laying on the ground next to him.

After shouting another few things to his sister, James had flown back to the ground, dismounted his broom and he came to shake Scorpius' hand. The two of them had never been particularly good friends, but they were always polite toward each other.

"Hey Lils," Scorpius shouted from his position, once he had greeted all the other people present.

The ginger witch waved at him absent-mindedly from her broom, still upset because of her brother.

The 6 teenagers soon began playing Quidditch, Hugo still reading on the ground. Fred and James started going through drills, while Roxanne, Lily, Albus, and Scorpius played two against two, girls versus boys and unsurprisingly, the girls kicked their asses. Like her twin and James, Roxanne had been offered a training position in one of the professional English Quidditch team, but she had chosen to study as an Auror trainee instead, refusing the offer. As for Lily, she had inherited her father's dexterity on a broom and she had been one of Gryffindor's top players since her very first year, something even her brothers hadn't managed to do. Scorpius knew that James had named her Captain this year and he assumed she would resume her seeker post, even though she had been playing as a chaser from time to time.

Albus and he took the defeat gracefully, even though the girls' teasing made it harder. At least Lily was her cheery-self again, Scorpius thought, the simple fact of watching her laugh open-heartedly making him smile.

Scorpius wasn't known to be a nice person. He was distant from most students at Hogwarts, and he knew he passed off as cold, cocky, and over-confident and he was fine with it. He didn't really care what the other students thought of him. He was all those things after all, but he wasn't just that. What everyone saw was a pure-blood Slytherin who was also the son of a former Death Eater. Somehow that description made him a prime target for female attention and added a heartbreaker, or man-whore depending on who was asked, distinction to Scorpius' reputation.

The only person he allowed close enough to know that this wasn't him (except maybe for the man-whore part), was Albus and by extension, Lily. If Scorpius wasn't best of friends with the older Potter/Weasley children, he got along just fine with Lily. He was also more or less friends with Hugo and Rose, but he felt like he had a sense of responsibility toward Lily, probably because he spent too much time with Albus. The youngest Potter son was very protective of his sister and Scorpius had found himself beginning to take care of her as well, like Albus. The two of them had helped her with homework, played Quidditch with her, protected her from jealous students and most recently, they had taken on the very difficult mission of keeping boys away from her. Difficult because it was a never ending flow of boys that they had to warn of, without her ever finding out of course. But Scorpius did it gladly, enjoying the task more than he should have.

"What are you thinking about, Scorp?" Lily's voice interrupted his reflexion, bringing him back to reality. Albus, Roxanne, and Hugo had already started walking toward the Burrow, taking their brooms with them. James and Fred were also gathering their stuff, ready to go back to the house too.

"I wasn't thinking about anything in particular," Scorpius lied, watching the young witch untie the bun on top of her head, her wild mane of hair cascading around her face.

It had been almost two months since he'd last seen the youngest Potter and Scorpius couldn't help but think that she looked more beautiful and older than he remembered. Or maybe he just hadn't been paying attention before. But why was he paying attention now?

"Can you two clean up the rest?" James asked them, Fred having already disappeared toward the house.

"Sure," Scorpius replied and Lily nodded, frowning at her brother before a serious expression replaced the frown.

As James left, they started gathering the different balls, opening the wooden box where they usually put everything inside. It only took them a couple of minutes to find all the Quaffles lying around the ground and put them into the box, checking that the snitch and Bludgers were still solidly strapped inside.

"Are you excited to go back to school?" Lily asked him, sounding curious, as always.

"I guess so. I'm excited to spend time with my friends without my father watching my every move, that's for sure. But then, there is some stuff I'm not particularly looking forward to," Scorpius said nonchalantly.

"Like going back to your horde of ex-girlfriends?" Lily teased.

"Yeah, among other things," he admitted.

"Poor little Malfoy," Lily mocked him in a baby voice "Victim from his good looks and charm"

"It's not easy every day I'll give you that," Scorpius lifted his eyebrows, pinched his lips and shook his head sadly, taking a fake southern accent "But what can I say? The ladies love me,"

"Yeah, right," Lily giggled, unconvinced by his cockney interpretation "As if you minded the attention,"

"Of course I do, it's bothersome," he shrugged, dropping the accent and going back to his confident self.

"You're seeing anyone in particular lately?" Lily inquired, her voice light and detached.

"You're being awfully curious, princess" Scorpius replied, almost chastising.

"Am I?" the witch said, innocently, making Scorpius laugh.

"So you're not with anyone?" Lily asked again, her insistence surprising Scorpius.

"No, not at the moment," he answered, wondering what she would do with the information.

But Lily didn't ask him anymore question as he had expected. Instead, she said something he would never have thought to hear from her.

"We should have sex,"