Disclaimer: If you recognize them, I don't own them.

Ages: Lorcan and Lysander are a year older than Lily and Lucy and the same age as Hugo. Yeah, it's not canon. Deal with it.

"Blue—like, sea blue and baby blue and all the pretty shades."

"Pink, just, bright, neon pink. What? Yes, I know it clashes with my hair. Just do it, okay?"

"Yellow, sunshine yellow. Oh, thank you, yeah, I know I have good taste."

"Orange. Bright orange, like the color of a…well, an orange. Yeah, yeah, I don't care about clashing, all right?"

"Green. Spring green, electric green, grass green, all the cool, bright shades."

"Gold and silver. Both. No, not together! Separately, but both!"

"…Sheesh. All I wanted were some highlights. No need to get snappy."

Seven-year-old Lily opens the front door of the café and breathes in the fresh air of a Grecian summer. "I want to look around the plaza!" she says brightly, hazel eyes scanning the crowds of witches and wizards gathered in wizarding Greece's largest plaza to enjoy the sunshine.

"In that case, where to?" Luna asks as they begin walking down the cobbled street. "We can stop at a café, go shopping, have a picnic in the park—"

"What's this?" Lily interrupts, dragging her godmother by the hand to a small, out-of-the-way booth located near the center of the plaza. It's being manned by a gorgeous, middle-aged woman with thick, black waves of hair and a sparkle in her violet eyes. The booth itself seems to cater just to Lily, with its paintings and snow globes and dream catchers and beaded bracelets and sequined scarves.

"Can I interest you in something, dearie?" asks the woman cheerfully, identified as Verena by her nametag.

Lily giggles, perusing the items. "Aunt Luna, what do you think?"

"I think perhaps you should get something that will be worth the money you spend ten years down the line," Luna advises, an affectionate smile on her face as she tweaks one of Lily's strawberry curls. "I would get you anything, sweetheart, but make sure you really want it."

Lily nods thoughtfully, gazing at the row of items that line the top of the booth. "Do you have anything that I can keep with me forever that will protect me from bad things?" she asks with a little girl's optimism.

Verena smiles wistfully. "Oh, yes. Here." She leans down to find something underneath the counter and emerges with a crystal vial filled with a clear liquid. "Do you know what these are, my dear?"

Lily blinks. "Um, no."

Verena leans across the booth, handing her the vial, an intense look in her violet eyes. "These are dewdrops from Persephone's Meadow. They're very rare and only appear in the meadow once every hundred years. They're meant for little girls to get their fairytale endings. Do you think you can use these, child?"

Wide-eyed, Lily gingerly takes the vial. "Aunt Luna, can I—?"

"Let me see it first, love," Luna interrupts gently. Lily hands her the vial and she examines it carefully. "Well, they're not fake, at any rate," she says. "They're also not infected with Elderberry Pallites."

Lily giggles. "That's good," she agrees, nodding solemnly. "Can I buy it, then?"

Luna laughs. "Of course you may, Lily. How much does it cost?"

"For you?" Verena smiles. "Two galleons. Consider it on sale."

Luna removes two galleons from her purse and hands it to her. "Thank you."

"Thank you!" Lily squeals, much more excitedly, clasping the vial in her hands. "I'm gonna keep this safe forever and ever and ever!"

"Of course you are," Luna smiles, kissing her goddaughter's head. "But for now, why don't we focus on today?"

"Darling, you do realize turning your head into a veritable rainbow could lead to an infestation of Cornbop Pixies, right?"

Lily beams at her godmother in the mirror, fluffing her newly-dyed curls. She looks like a rainbow exploded on her head, and she can't possibly love it more. "I know that," she answers matter-of-factly, tugging on a bright yellow curl so she could admire the sunshine glow. "But I want to look like a rainbow!"

Luna laughs, smiling fondly at her goddaughter. "If you insist. It suits you, at any rate."

"Doesn't it, though?" smirks the hair stylist, a teenage witch who seemed to have been driven crazy by Lily's exuberant demands. "That'll be fifty galleons, miss."

Luna hands her a bag filled with galleons and Lily makes a face at the girl from behind her back.

"I saw that!" snaps the witch, rounding on Lily only for the younger girl to burst into giggles. "You are an obnoxious little brat."

"Don't say that," says Luna mildly, a defensive tone in her voice as she rises and smoothes down her blue skirts. "I do believe you are being paid to be a nice, helpful employee, are you not? Or are you being paid to become infected with Bellpuffs? They're quite the menace here in Greece."

The girl stares at her oddly, but evidently the sight of a British war heroine makes her back down. "Right. Uh, off you go, then."

Lily sticks her tongue out at the girl once her back is turned. "She annoys me," she announces cheerfully to Luna on their way out to the exit.

Luna smiles. "I do believe the feeling is mutual, sweetheart. Do you want to look around the plaza some before we head home?"

Lily pushes open the salon's front door with a sigh. "Actually, I kinda just want to go home and paint."

"That's perfectly fine," Luna says, walking through the door with Lily tagging behind her. "Rolf said he was going to make you some of his special lemon bars."

Lily beams. "Fantastic! Can I try Apparating, Aunt Luna?"

She turns her brightest, most pleading look onto her godmother and Luna laughs. "You don't have your license yet, do you?"

"No," Lily admits, drawing out the word with a huff.

"Why don't we wait for that before you try Apparating places, then?" Luna suggests with a smile, drawing Lily close to her. "Come on, sweetheart. Let's go home."

Zeus, Lord of the Skies, stands tall and mighty on top of Olympus, framed by his lightning bolts and flanked by his wife. His dark, silvering hair blows in a non-existent breeze and his vivid, sky-blue eyes stare out from the painting, promising danger and adventure to all that entered his kingdom.

"I still don't understand this fascination with Greek mythology," mutters Teddy, peering down at her painting from behind the porch swing where she's sitting. "They're not even real!"

Indignation bubbles up inside her. "So what?" Lily retorts, twisting around to frown at him. "We can learn a lot from the Greeks, you know!"

Teddy smirks, raising one hand in surrender and tweaking one of her strawberry curls with the other. "Whoa, calm down, Lils. I never said we couldn't. I just said I don't understand why you love them so much."

Lily bats his hand away. "Stop that! I love them because they're amazing and complicated and human. Do I need some other reason?"

"Relax," Teddy laughs, leaning over to press a kiss to her temple. "I think it's adorable."

Despite how much she wants to be annoyed with him, butterflies begin to dance in her stomach. "I—um—okay."

Teddy ruffles her hair with a fond smile. "See you later, Lils!"

And he bounds off, probably to go flirt with Victoire, and Lily's left chasing myths because they're more real than any fairytale she's ever read.

"Rainbow is a good color on you, Lily-flower," Rolf chuckles as he strides into the living room where Lily is sprawled out on a blue couch, her sketchpad in her hands and her rainbow curls spread out against the cushions.

She looks up from her painting and beams at her honorary godfather. "Thanks, Uncle Rolf!"

Rolf grins, plopping down on a reclining armchair next to her. "You know, I just got a letter from your father. He wants Aunt Luna and I to come to a search party. Apparently, they're all desperate with worry about you."

Lily sighs, shading in Aphrodite's hair with her golden-tipped paintbrush. "Are you going to tell them where I am?"

"Never," Rolf laughs, reaching over to tug lightly on an orange curl. "But can I ask why you're doing this?"

Lily considers. "No."

"Fair enough," he agrees easily, leaning back in his chair. "Can I guess?"

She waves her paintbrush at him absentmindedly. "Go ahead."

"Something to do with Rose," Rolf suggests, smiling when Lily's eyes widen. "Is that a yes?"

Lily coughs. "How did you know?"

"I found this in the fireplace," he tells her, producing a parchment, slightly burned around the edges, from his pocket and sliding it over to her. Reluctantly, Lily unfolds the letter.

"Oh, this," she mutters.

Lily,

This is getting ridiculous. How long are you going to play this game of hide and seek? I already apologized for the fight, Lils! How many more 'I'm sorry's do you require, anyway?

Come back home, where you belong.

Rose

Lily crumples up the letter again and tosses it aside. "Do you ever get the feeling that some deity up there is having fun messing with you?"

Rolf throws back his head and laughs. "Oh, all the time. Particularly when Luna was pregnant with the twins, let me tell you."

"Right, well," Lily pauses to flash him a smile at the mention of Luna and the Scamander twins. "I guess that's mostly why I ran away to here. See, I used to have the biggest crush in the world on Teddy. I thought he was my best friend, that we would always be together, that eventually, he would come to think of me as more than a little sister and forget about Vicka and fall in love with me."

Rolf raises an eyebrow. "But he didn't?" he guesses.

She sighs. "No, he didn't. And I used to cry myself to sleep over it, but I got over it. I'm not the type of girl who regrets things, you know, even if that was a waste of my time and energy. But then, I met another guy. And I thought hey, maybe he could be The One, because he was cute and charming and less oblivious than Teddy and he didn't have a thing for blonds."

"Was this boy Scorpius Malfoy?" Rolf asks softly, reaching out to squeeze her hand.

Lily laughs a little wistfully. "Yeah, he was. I guess it was kind of obvious in hindsight. But everything's obvious in hindsight. So, I fell head over heels in love with him, too, because I'm one of those silly, hopeless romantic types and I do stupid stuff like that."

"And then he started dating Rose?" Rolf interjects, drawing her into his arms for a hug.

Lily rests her head on his shoulder. "Pretty much. Except that wasn't the worst of it. Rose somehow found out I had a crush on him and she decided it was her business to coax me into 'growing up', as she called it. And then all hell broke loose."

"I am not a little girl, Rosie, and I don't appreciate being treated like one!"

"You're fifteen, Lils," Rose sneers, hands on her hips. "You're fifteen and in love with my boyfriend and I have every right to tell you to knock it off!"

Lily grabs a pillow, contemplates throwing it at her cousin, then decides to save that particular weapon for later use. "I am not in love with him!" she yells instead. "It was a stupid crush, all right? You have absolutely nothing to worry about!"

"Oh, I know," Rose sniffs, tossing her hair in an imitation of every 'mean girl' Lily's ever seen on those muggle movies. "You're nothing to worry about when it comes to competition. You can't compare to Vicka when it comes to Teddy and you can't compare to me when it comes to Scorpius, can you?"

Lily stumbles back, eyes wide with hurt and betrayal, and then she throws the pillow.

It smacks Rose in the face and it's immensely satisfying to watch her cry out, until she pulls out her wand.

"Levicorpus!" Rose screams, aiming her wand at Lily.

Lily dodges, drawing her own wand, and returning the hex with one of her own. "You put the 'b' in 'witch', Rosie, you really do."

"Shut up!" Rose demands, her spells getting more furious and more off-aim the angrier she got.

The door slammed open, and Harry and Ron stood there with distinctly annoyed and horrified looks on their faces.

"Right, then," whispers Lily to her cousin before her father and uncle can start yelling. "Never talk to me again, all right?"

"Gladly," Rose spits, an aftereffect of the release of tension that had been brewing in the two girls for years. "Consider it done."

Lily lifts her head off Rolf's shoulder and buries it in a satin cushion, groaning. "That was the worst fight I've ever had!" she says, her voice muffled by the cushion. "I cannot believe I said those things—and I can't believe she said those things, either!"

Rolf rubs her back comfortingly. "Come now, Lily-flower. She's apologized, hasn't she? Shouldn't you?"

"No!" Lily says fiercely, switching from ashamed to stubborn in an instant. "I don't want to apologize. I still don't want to talk to her. I don't want to talk to anyone. I just want to stay in Greece with you and Aunt Luna and never, ever, ever return!"

"Lily," Rolf sighs. "You are sorry you called her a…witch, aren't you?"

"A little," she mumbles. "That was mean. But she was acting like one."

"Perhaps, but name calling is never right, no matter the circumstances," Rolf reminds her gently. "And you'll have to go back someday, Lily."

She huffs. "Well, not right now, I don't have to. I can just stay here and paint, can't I?"

"Of course you can," Rolf assures her. "You're always welcome in our house, Lily-flower, no matter which country it may be in. But I feel I should warn you—"

He hesitates, trailing off, and Lily's head is up like a shot, her hazel eyes narrowing at him. "Warn me about what?"

Rolf cringes a little. "Well, tomorrow, Lorcan is going to be coming home from Beauxbatons," he says in a rush.

Lily sits up straight, staring at him with a suddenly indecipherable expression on her face. "He never comes home from Beauxbatons anymore!" she says. "Only for, maybe, two weeks a summer, and then he runs off to one of his friend's houses back in France."

"He's decided to experiment with Greece," Rolf answers wryly.

"How long will he be here?" Lily demands.

"I don't know," Rolf shrugs. "Lorcan is almost as untamable as his mother. It's hard to keep him in one place."

Lily sighs. "Well, I suppose I can deal with Lorcan. Will Lysander be coming here, too?"

"No, I believe he is enjoying himself at Hugo's house," Rolf answers.

"More like, in Lucy's bed," Lily mutters under her breath.

Rolf smirks. "Now, now, Lily, let's not make assumptions."

She snorts. "No assumptions, Uncle Rolf. I caught them once."

He laughs. "So did I, actually."

Lily glances over at him and bursts into giggles. "Funny, isn't it?"

"Funny, indeed," Rolf chuckles warmly, squeezing her hand. "It'll all be okay, Lily-flower. I promise."

"You're leaving?" Lily sniffles, looking up at Lorcan with tearful hazel eyes. "Why?"

Lorcan sighs, pulling her into a hug. "I chose Beauxbatons, Lily. I'm sorry, I just—I had to get out of here."

"But—now we won't be at Hogwarts together!" she cries, curling her tiny hands into fistfuls around the material of his green shirt. "We won't get to find secret passageways and prank the teachers and rule the school! Lorcan, we had plans!"

"I'm so sorry, Lily," Lorcan breathes into her hair. "I love you. You're amazing. And I'll write you every day, all right?"

She stomps her foot. "That's not good enough! You're seriously gonna make me go to Hogwarts with Lysander and Lucy and Hugo for company?"

"Lily, I'm gonna hate being away from you just as much as you will," Lorcan tells her desperately.

"But you're still gonna do it, aren't you?" Lily points out, huffing in annoyance. "Well, fine, then! Leave me here alone! See if I care, you big jerk!"

"C'mon, Lils, don't be like that!" he pleads, reaching for her.

Lily jumps out of his grasp. "No way, Scamander. I am so over all the guys in my life leaving me for something better. First Teddy for Vicka, then Lysander for Lucy and Hugo, and now you for Beauxbatons! I'm sick of it, Lorcan. Just—just leave, would you?"

"You're still my best friend," Lorcan whispers. "I'm sorry, Lily."

She turns away, swiping at her unshed tears. "Yeah, me too."

"So, I hear you're running away from home."

Lily jumps at the sound of a too familiar voice coming from behind her. Carefully, she twists her body around to look at none other than Lorcan Scamander standing by the lake where she's relaxing, his hands in his pockets and a charming, easy grin on his face.

Her heart pounds out a drum solo in her chest. He's just as cute as she remembers, with his messy, honey-blond hair and silvery-blue eyes and the dimples in his cheeks and the—

She caught herself. No way was she going to be thinking those things about one of the many, many boys who had broken her heart before.

"Hello, Lorcan," she greets as coolly as possible with her heart lodged in her throat because, God, she's missed him, so, so much more than she's ever let herself believe. Almost more than she's missed Teddy.

"Hey, Lils," Lorcan replies easily, as if they hadn't been avoiding each other for five years now. "How are you?"

Lily braces her palms on the grass behind her and forces herself to look airy and casual. "I'm doing fine, thanks, and how about you?"

He chuckles, taking a seat next to her and crossing his legs. "I've been good. France has been treating me well."

"That's nice," she remarks, pretending that statement didn't hurt as much as Teddy's Oh, by the way, I'm marrying Victoire. "I notice you're not there right now."

Lorcan raises an eyebrow. "No," he agrees. "I decided to take a break from croissants and escargot. Greece seems like a nice place to spend a summer."

"It is," she tells him, so dangerously close to falling back into their old habits of laughing and playing and dreaming like the little kids they used to be.

He smile at her, and she almost forgets why she hates him so much. "You look good, Lils. I like the highlights."

Self-consciously, Lily reaches up to touch one of her golden curls. "Oh. Um, thank you. You look…different."

And he did. He looks much more confident and much happier now that he was no longer living in his brother's shadow. He looks a lot more like that carefree little boy he used to be, before they started growing up, and Lily finds herself missing him more by the minute.

"Did I ever tell you," he begins suddenly, interrupting her reverie, "how sorry I am for abandoning you to my idiot brother and his friends?"

His playful grin teases a giggle out of her. "Nope. I expect groveling, Scamander. It's been a painful five years, it has."

"I bet," Lorcan smirks. "Refresh my memory, Lily-flower—what House were you Sorted in? I've been assuming Gryffindor."

"Nuh-uh," Lily rolls her eyes, trying not let a smile escape. "I'm a Ravenclaw. Bronze and blue, eagles, wit beyond measure is a man's greatest treasure and all that fun stuff?"

"Oh, yeah," Lorcan nods knowledgeably, though he's likely forgotten everything about the House system at Hogwarts. "That's cool. Fitting, I think, for you."

Lily tosses her hair and bats her eyelashes at him. "Well, of course it is. Aren't I the smartest girl you know, Lorcan?"

He grins, reaches over, and twirls a silver curl around his finger. "Of course you are. That would explain why you ran away from the best family in the world."

Her gaze darkens and she jerks away from his touch. "It's none of your business," she retorts, wondering why she had thought it a good idea to try flirting with him.

Lorcan sighs and looks down at the glowing blue water pooled in front of them. "I know. I guess I was just hoping that—maybe, we could make it my business?"

He peers at her with hopeful, silvery-blue eyes and she feels her heart melting in a way it never did for Teddy or Scorpius, and, Merlin, but she's got a messed-up love life, doesn't she?

"Oh," Lily murmurs. "Well, maybe."

Lorcan grins, delighted, and that's a start, she supposes.

"It's been almost a month," says Harry, concern written all over his face. "Where on Earth could she be?"

Albus leans against the doorway, watching as his family members mumble and whisper to each other suggestions as to where Lily could possibly be. He meets Rose's guilty gaze and she blushes and looks down, knowing he's disappointed in her for fighting with his baby sister. Scorpius just looks weary and tired as he makes his way from Rose's side to Albus's.

"Mate, don't you have any idea where she is?" he asks Albus desperately.

"No," Albus lies calmly, feeling only a twang of guilt for deceiving his best friend. "Why do you care so much, anyway?"

Scorpius glances down. "Well, I—I've always liked her, you know? She's funny and sweet and I like her and I never meant to hurt her! I never even knew she had a crush on me!"

Albus rolls his eyes. "Bull," he snaps. "You knew, Scorpius. Lily's not a subtle kind of girl. You and Teddy both can insist all you want that you never knew her feelings but everyone knew, all right? Everyone knew she was bloody well falling in love with you and then you not only decide to go for her cousin—just like Teddy, might I add—you also decide to parade your newfound affections around her house! Tell me, honestly, that you had no idea how hurt she would be."

Scorpius stumbles back. "I—Al, I swear, I didn't know! I mean, well, okay, I kinda had an idea, but—"

"Save it for someone who doesn't know you inside and out, Scorp," Albus sighs, feeling suddenly too tired to deal with his little sister's mess. "I'll see you later, yeah?"

He trudges up to his room, ignoring the looks he's getting from both Rose and Scorpius, as well as his brother and parents. "God, Lily," he sighs once he's safely locked in his bedroom. "You can never make things easy for me, can you?"

"I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you ran away from home?"

Lorcan, lying on the roof next to her, offers Lily a smile when he turns his body sideways so he can look at her. Silhouetted by stars and moonlight, he looks rather like something out of a fairytale—or, perhaps more accurately, something out of a Greek myth.

"I had a fight with Rose," Lily says, purposely refusing to elaborate as she plays with cap of her dewdrop vial. She hasn't touched it in years, but a night on the roof, stargazing with Lorcan seemed like the perfect opportunity to test it out again. She's not expecting anything, though—it failed miserably the last time she asked for her fairytale ending.

"So, now you're here?" Lorcan asks skeptically. "Chasing myths because of one fight with one of your eleven thousand cousins?"

She cracks a smile. "I suppose so. What of it?"

"Doesn't that seem a bit extreme?" he asks her, catching a firefly in his hand. "What was the fight about?"

Lily chokes a little on both a sob and a laugh. "Scorpius—bloody—Malfoy."

"Ah," Lorcan draws out the word, though there's something flashing in his gorgeous blue-grey eyes and she can't quite decipher the emotion. He does look decidedly annoyed, though. "Found another crush, did you, Lily-flower?"

"Shut up!" Lily rolls her eyes, shoving his shoulder lightly. "I just…Okay, I liked him. A little. A lot. But he chose Rose, and she got mad at me for having a crush on him or something."

"Seriously?" Lorcan raises his eyebrows. "Speaking of extreme," he whistles. "Even Vicka never got mad at you."

Lily snorts. "I think Vicka is physically incapable of getting mad at anyone. She just doesn't do hate. Rose and I, on the other hand…"

"You don't do hate, either," Lorcan says firmly, reaching out to squeeze her hand with a touch so light it could have been an illusion. "You're all rainbows and sunshine, Lily. I know you."

"Do you?" she asks him wistfully.

He blinks, caught off guard, then twines his fingers in hers. "Yeah, I do. I'm positive."

Maybe, she finds herself thinking as she smiles at him, maybe those dewdrops work after all.

"Did you ever like her?" Teddy asks, catching his younger cousin off-guard.

"Huh?" Scorpius asks in surprise, looking up from his book. "Like who?"

Teddy smiles sadly, sitting down in the seat opposite the boy and taking a moment to inhale the dusty scent of old books and ancient library. "Lily. Did you ever like her? Just a little?"

"What kind of a question is that?" Scorpius demands. "I'm dating Rose, for crying out loud!"

"Yes, and I'm married to Torie. What's your point? She's Lily. Other girls don't really seem to matter when it comes to her," Teddy says matter-of-factly. "Did you ever like her, Scorpius?"

Scorpius blushes, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well, yeah, a little, I guess. I mean, I always thought she was cute. And she was a lot of fun to hang out with. It's just that, Rose has been one of my best friends for way longer and she's gorgeous and it just seemed natural—"

"Victoire and I were natural, too," Teddy muses. "This family is all about natural, Scorpius. Nothing crazy, nothing random. Just natural. And you know what, it works for some people. It worked for me. I love Victoire. I love Lily, too, and I always will, but she and I just weren't natural, you know? It didn't feel right. But you and her—"

"Stop that," Scorpius interjects. "I'm as worried about her as you are, Teddy, but I don't think reminiscing about how well you and her and or she and I would have worked is the best way to go about it."

Teddy studies him closely. "That's a 'yes', then?"

"No!" Scorpius protests. "No, of course not. Lily's amazing and all, but I like Rose."

"Better?" Teddy asks skeptically. "Better than Lily, really, Scorp? C'mon, now. I adore Rose, but who in their right mind would choose her over Lily?"

"You chose Victoire over Lily!" Scorpius shoots back.

Teddy shakes his head. "That was different. I told you, Torie and I were natural. You and Rose are just—you're just rebelling, aren't you? She's your way of rebelling against your father, against your family's rivalry with hers, against—"

"Shut up!" Scorpius explodes. "You can't just call your pairing perfect and then say mine isn't real, okay? We both love Lily, but we both chose other girls. And that's the end of that."

Teddy sighs. "Whatever you say, little cousin."

He stands up and exits the room, leaving Scorpius alone with dusty books and traitorous thoughts.

Scorpius finds her.

She's still not quite sure how.

One moment, she was walking through the fountains in the wizarding Plaza, and the next, she was watching Scorpius Malfoy fall out of the sky and land roughly on the marble ground.

"Lily!" he gasps when he clambers to his feet and regains some of his composure. "Oh, Merlin, Lily, thank goodness I found you! We were all so worried!"

Lily begins backing away slowly. "No. No. No. Get lost, Malfoy. I really, really don't want to see you."

Scorpius lunges towards her. "Lily, please, hear me out! Come home! Please, we all miss you and we all love you and I'm so, so sorry, and you're still my friend, aren't you? Please come back to Britain. It's where you belong."

"It is not!" Her voice rises, catching the attention of some people passing by, but she ignores them, breathing deeply and focusing on him. "I like it here, Scorpius, believe it or not. I like it here because I don't have idiots like you making me feel second-best! I like it here because I don't have to watch you suck face with my brat of a cousin! I like it here because it's a beautiful country, because I can draw all the Greek gods I want without someone breathing down my neck about it, and because I don't have to deal with my family!"

She's been stepping further back as she speaks, paying no attention to her surroundings, so she nearly jumps out of her skin when the fountain behind her sprays her with a burst of refreshingly-cool water, pouring down over her body and soaking her blue-green sundress until it's practically see-through.

Lily's not really in the mood to care for things like that, though, so she opens her mouth to rip into Scorpius some more and finds him staring at her, slack jawed. He's looking at her like she's Aphrodite herself, rising from the ocean in a blaze of beauty and magic and she's never hated him so much in her life.

"Damn it," she mutters, not even bothering to pull out her wand and dry herself off. "Don't look at me like that, Malfoy! I don't want you to look at me like that! Go back to Rose! Be happy! Forget about me, will you? Just leave!"

"Lily," Scorpius breathes, walking forward. Normally, she would have hexed him and ran away, but something keeps her frozen to her spot, shivering from the cold water, her strawberry-rainbow curls spilling down her shoulders like seaweed, unable to move as he approaches her.

And maybe, two months ago, her heart would have started beating in her chest. Maybe, two months ago, she would have giggled and blushed. Maybe, two months ago, she would have wanted him to tilt his head and lean towards her and—

"No!" she bursts out, pushing on his chest with all her might.

Scorpius stumbles backwards, seeming utterly flabbergasted, as if he didn't know what he'd been doing. Something heats up her hand, and she looks down to find herself clutching the dewdrop vial, and it's glowing with magic and something about this just seem really, really wrong.

Lily looks up, past Scorpius, and sees Lorcan standing there, an inscrutable look in his bright eyes before he turns around and walks away and she feels her heart breaking like it's never broken before.

When did this all go so wrong?

"Lysander," Lucy whispers softly, tracing his chest absentmindedly with one finger. "Do you suppose Lily running away was our fault?"

"How so?" Lysander asks, surprised by the query. "What did we do?"

Lucy sighs and looks up at him with tearful blue eyes. "We haven't been very good friends to her, have we? Ever since we started dating—before we started dating, in fact—we've been shutting her off. You, me, and Hugo have always been lost in our little world and we never bothered to try and include her."

Lysander leans down and kisses her tears away. "That's not true," he protests, but even he's not so sure anymore. "She—we were her best friends. She loved us."

"Lorcan was always her best friend, though," Lucy points out. "We were always split like that—her and Lorcan, you, me, and Hugo—until he went off to Beauxbatons. And she tried joining us but we never fully let her, did we?"

"You're over thinking this," he mutters, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her closer. "Lily'll be fine. She'll come home and it'll all be okay. Promise."

"Don't say that," Lucy sighs. "You don't mean it. You were never really close with her, were you?"

"I was!" Lysander protests. "Granted, not as much as Lorcan, but still. I was one of her best friends. Still am."

"You don't know that," Lucy mutters. "You hardly even knew her. She could have hated you, for all you know. For all any of us know."

Lysander heaves a sigh, deflating as he recognizes he's lost the argument. "You're right," he murmurs. "She has every right to hate me."

Lucy nods, burying her head in his chest. "I just hope she can find it in herself to not hate us forever."

She finds it a little hard to think—about Scorpius, Teddy, Lorcan, or anything—when she runs home to Luna and collapses in her godmother's comforting arms, those stupid, magic dewdrops still warm against her skin. All she can really do is cry and cry and cry about everything that's ever made her cry in the past.

Teddy, leaving her to marry Victoire.

Lysander, leaving her for Lucy's pretty smile and Hugo's jokes.

Lorcan, leaving her to run away to Beauxbatons.

Scorpius, leaving her in the dust for Rose.

Sometimes, it really feels like her life is one big joke.

"Shh," Luna whispers into her hair. "Shh, sweetheart, it's all right. It'll be okay. Don't worry. Just relax. Just dream. Don't worry about a thing, okay? It'll all be fine. I promise. I'll make it fine."

Her soothing words have a bit of a the intended effect on Lily, whose tears soon dry up on their own as her breathing begins to grow less erratic. The dewdrop vial is still pulsing in her palm, but she decides to ignore it for the moment and just focus on her godmother's love.

"Thanks," she whispers when she's finally composed herself.

Luna smiles sadly at her. "Anytime, love. I'll always be here for you."

Lily chokes out another "Thank you," before collapsing on her canopy bed, closing her eyes and taking deep, calming breaths. "Who did I kill in a past life to deserve this?" she asks.

Gently, Luna pries the dewdrop vial from her fingers and begins running her free hand through Lily's tangled, still-soaked curls. "I don't think it was you, darling. I think it was these dewdrops."

"They were supposed to give me my fairytale ending," Lily murmurs unhappily. "All they gave me were myths."

"Chasing myths is hardly the worst thing one could do," Luna chides her. "And I think they did give you your fairytale ending, in a sort of roundabout way. Now you know that you were never meant for Scorpius, don't you?"

"I suppose," Lily sighs, turning so her voice is half-muffled by her pillow. "But what about Lorcan?"

"What about me?" says Lorcan's achingly familiar voice from the doorway.

Luna looks up and offers her son a smile as Lily jumps and stares at him with wide eyes. "I suppose I'll leave you two alone, then."

"Lorcan," Lily breathes, hazel eyes fixed on him even as Luna glides out of the room and closes the door behind her. "What are you—I thought you were mad at me?"

Lorcan shrugs, running a hand through his honey hair, which was somehow even messier today than it usually was. "I could never be mad at you, Lily. I guess I was just jealous."

"Jealous?" she repeats in disbelief. "Of what?"

"Of Malfoy," he answers with a wry grin. "Of the way you were looking at him, right before he tried to kiss you. Of the way you said his name, as if he were a Greek god. Of the way you still seemed to love him more than you ever did me, even after everything he'd done."

"Oh," Lily murmurs, struck speechless. "I—I didn't know—I didn't think that you—"

"You didn't think I wasn't in love with you?" Lorcan laughs in incredulity. "Lily, how could I not be? You're amazing."

"I am not!" Lily protests, shaking her head and blinking back tears. "I'm too much of a hopeless romantic, I always want what I can't have, I fall in love too fast and I let my heart break too often. I'm silly, I'm just a little girl, I'm—"

"Shut up," he murmurs affectionately and leans forward to kiss her.

Lily gasps under his mouth, instinctively kissing back just to taste more of his sweet, mint-and-mango taste, her arms sliding up his chest and around his neck to tangle in his honey-blond hair. Unbidden, a giggle bubbles out of her and suddenly, she's laughing into the kiss, feeling more giddy and overwhelmed than she ever has before.

"You're amazing," Lorcan repeats when they pull apart, the brightest smile she's ever seen from him gracing his face. "Have I told you that already?"

Lily giggles. "Yeah. But feel free to say it again."

"On one condition," Lorcan whispers, tangling his hand in her rainbow curls.

"What's that?" she breathes, feeling butterflies dance in her stomach with every time she inhales his scent.

"Keep chasing those myths, Lily-flower," Lorcan laughs, tweaking a strawberry curl. "Never stop, all right?"

"Never," Lily smiles brilliantly at him. "Promise."

She kisses him again and it's every fairytale she's ever read, every dream she's ever had, every myth she's ever painted, and it's glorious.

Outside, Luna smiles at Lily's bedroom door before dropping the dewdrop vial into the trash can. It shatters, the dewdrops splattering everywhere, never to be reformed again.

"Thank you," she says lightly. "Looks like she got her fairytale ending after all."

Author's Notes: Oh, wow. This totally got away from me, but I am really, really glad it did. Gosh, Lorcan/Lily are so adorable, aren't they? I really hope you guys enjoyed this because I stayed up all night working on it for you =P If you're confused about anything (the dewdrops, Lily's relationships, characterization, stuff like that) feel free to ask me! I probably didn't get everything across the way I wanted it to in my head XD

Please don't favorite without reviewing! That's really annoying :P Thanks in advance!