Disclaimer: Not Mine

Author's Note: This is the end. I've left it so that I can always come back and write more in this universe, but for now my AS/S muse - well this one - has come to an end. I really hope that you've enjoyed the journey with the boys and if I visit them again, you'll come back with me. Thank you to everyone who read and commented - you have no idea how special each comment is to me.

Enjoy.

jamie

xxxx

Al could hear murmured voices from outside the cubicle. He recognised his dad's voice, along with the nurse's.

"Can I see her?"

"Of course. Just before you go in, I thought I'd let you know that the boy has been taken into custody at the Ministry. As he is of age he'll be tried as an adult. Lily has nothing more to worry about from him."

"Thank you. How is she?"

"She's all right. She had a few bruises but I've healed those. Other than that she was more scared than hurt. Though if Mr. Malfoy had not come across her when he did…"

Lily squeezed his hand and he turned to look at her. She was looking a lot better than when he'd first seen her. She'd looked like she wanted to become invisible, as if she felt the judgmental eyes of the whole world on her and she was breaking under their scrutiny. At least now she looked like she was ready to face anything again. It would be a battle, but Al knew his sister was anything but a coward.

Scorpius was sitting on the opposite side of the bed, holding Lily's other hand. He'd stayed with her since he found her, and Al could not love his boyfriend more if he tried. Telling him that was a bit difficult due to where they were, but Al tried to make his feelings clear through a look.

He was a bit surprised when Scorpius stood.

"I'll be off now to let you and your family have some time together."

Lily let go of Al's hand and used both her hands to grasp onto Scorpius'. "No, stay, please?" Her voice had a pleading quality to it and Al decided she wasn't feeling as strong as he'd thought after all.

"Your dad is here now, and your mum will be soon, too, and I'm sure they don't want me hanging around," Scorpius said.

"I don't care what they want. I want you to stay."

"I think you should stay if she wants it," James spoke up from the foot of the bed. "She's had a scare and she feels safe with you, so stay. We'll deal with mum."

"Look, I don't want to create any problems; this is traumatic enough for your family as it is and you should all be focusing on taking care of Lily rather than fighting amongst yourselves over me."

Al had opened his mouth and was about to echo James' statement, when someone beat him to it.

"I think James is right," his dad said, pushing aside the curtain. "If Lily wants you here, then you should stay."

"Dad!" Lily said, letting go of Scorpius' hand and holding out her arms. She barely had time to open them, though, because Harry had moved immediately to sit on the side of the bed and he drew her close.

"It's all right, princess," Harry murmured into her hair and held her while she cried again. His head turned to Scorpius. "Thank you, Scorpius. We'll always be grateful to you."

"I just happened to be there. Anyone else would have done the same thing," Scorpius replied, blushing. Al adored him even more when he blushed.

"Be that as it may, this family has caused you a lot of grief over the years and a lesser man might not have been so generous."

"Lily is my friend, sir, I'll always look out for her."

Harry smiled at him. "Your father wanted me to pass on that he's very proud of you." At their confused looks, Harry added. "We were having tea together when the call came."

Scorpius smiled and blushed even deeper, although Al knew that Mr. Malfoy often told Scorpius how proud he was.

"Where's mum?" Lily asked, her voice quiet against Harry's chest.

"She's on her way. She was babysitting one of George's and had to get someone to come and look after him. She'll be here any time now."

"W-What will happen to Aaron now?" she asked.

Al saw all three male faces harden at the question and felt his own mirror theirs. His dad answered as calm as anything, though it was obvious that it was a forced calm. "He'll be tried as an adult so he'll probably go to Azkaban."

"Good." James, Scorpius and Al all answered at once. Then everyone fell silent as if realising the horror of the situation, just how big it was and what the far-reaching consequences were.

Al's mum bustled in then and ruined the silence. "Lily!" she cried, and took her from Harry's arms and into her own. The rest of them just watched. Ginny's eyes moved at last to look closely at Scorpius. Al tensed and held his breath, unsure of how his mother was going to react. Surely by now…

"Scorpius Malfoy," she began and Al groaned. She was using her 'I'm most displeased' voice. This was not going to be pretty. Perhaps she was going to order him from the room, or blame him somehow. Al stood up.

"Mum…"

"Sit down, Albus," she said. "This needs to be said."

Al looked at Scorpius who was frowning, chin tight and defiant, his face pale now instead of the pretty pink blush it had been.

Ginny turned back to Scorpius. "If you hurt my Albus, I'll find some way to make your life miserable."

Everyone gasped and Harry tried to intervene, as Lily said "No, mum!"

"But if you think you can leave this family now, you can just think again. Thank you, Scorpius. I am so sorry for everything I've ever said about you and I hope you can forgive me."

Al had to give his mum credit. When she did something, she really did it properly.

While everyone stood around flabbergasted, Ginny held out her hand towards Scorpius. When he smiled and took it, everyone exhaled a huge sigh of relief and Albus nearly choked, overcome with emotion.

.o0o.

A few weeks later, Albus was making his way outside with a huge picnic basket full of goodies pilfered from the kitchen. With the kind permission of the house-elves of course. It was such a lovely day, that, being a Sunday, they all decided to enjoy the sunshine on the lawns. Albus had been designated the one most likely to sweet talk the house-elves into a picnic basket, especially seeing as there were several free house-elves working at Hogwarts now and they remembered Dobby and his love of Harry Potter fondly. As it turned out, they were only too happy to fill a huge basket to the brim with delicious food.

Albus paused when he reached the Entrance Hall doors, and looked out across the lawns to his friends and family. James had grown up, Al thought, which was a good thing seeing as it was his last year at Hogwarts. Since Lily's attack, he'd been attentive and available, wanting to be a big brother, instead of thinking Al and Lily were just annoying siblings. Al smiled as he noticed his brother tossing and catching a practice snitch, preening under the adoring smile of Megan Davies.

He was really proud of the way Lily and Megan tried hard to save their friendship after her brother turned out to be such a dick. None of them wanted to be hypocritical and shut Megan out because of her brother. Scorpius had reminded them of that. Consequently, Megan was Scorpius' number one fan, though she saved her adoring puppy eyed look for James. It was pretty easy to see that she was sweet on him.

Rose and even Hugo, who'd overcome his dislike of Scorpius, too, were sitting on the grass and laughing at something James said. Bobby, Seamus and Chase were wrestling on the grass beside them, all entangled arms and legs and shouts of pain and cried of laughter. Al could hear Chase yelling, "Give over, you knob," at Seamus who had his fingers stuck up Chase's nose, so it sounded more like, "Gib ober you knob." Al thought Chase was probably more worried about the fact that Bobby Longbottom was sitting on him, hands up his shirt and tickling him, more than anything else. Regardless, it made him smile to see them enjoying themselves.

To one side, Posey Greengrass sat, her eye on Chase Smith and Al wondered if he saw a little covetous glance there or not. Perhaps he was imagining things. These days he was so happy that he wished he could bottle it and hand it out to his friends. Everyone should find someone they loved; have friends as brilliant as his were and thrill in the happiness. He knew it was sappy, but after the year he'd had, he deserved some happiness.

His eyes moved to Lily. She was lying with her head in Scorpius' lap. He was combing his hands through her hair and if he didn't know Scorpius was as committed to him as he was to Scorpius, then he might have been jealous. They really were very comfortable with each other.

Their bond had grown in the days after the attack. The group that gathered on the lawns now had all combined together to ensure that Lily was never allowed to go anywhere on her own. Someone accompanied her everywhere; as much for their own piece of mind as for Lily's. After a few days she bounced back as strong as ever and chafed under the attention, but she never became more than irritated and she never told them to stop immediately. It sort of phased itself out after a week or so.

But she stuck with Scorpius more than the others. They had a close friendship and neither of them wanted to let that slide.

Scorpius. Al sighed in wonderment at his boyfriend. After all the pain filled wretched times they'd been through; through all Al's doubts about how he felt, Scorpius had always stood by him, strong and sure like a rock. Al smiled. Scorpius was his rock. His mind slipped back to just the other day when he'd made Scorpius harder than a rock. A small smirk twisted his lips as he remembered stretching them around Scorpius' cock for the first time, tasting the deep tang that was his Scorpius. He'd taken his time, not having ever done it before, obviously and not sure how to keep his teeth from scraping the hot flesh. At first he thought he was making a complete twat of himself, showing how inexperienced he was because Scorpius kept twisting and gasping and trying to pull Al away by the hair. But then he'd found himself with a mouthful of pulsing cock and bitter fluid while Scorpius curled, spasming around him, and he knew he'd done a good job.

As he stood there, listening to their laughter, seeing the happiness and peace on their faces – well all except Chase who was still struggling to get free – Al's chest expanded with so much joy that he thought it might burst and overflow. The school year was coming to an end, the weather was wonderfully warm and his friends and family were well. Life was good.