Author's Notes: Written for Sara Darkotter for my two-year tumblrversary drabble giveaway. She requested Lily Luna/Scorpius with the prompt "The only light that's left to shine is between me and you" from the song World of Stone by Blackmore's Night.

Warning: Some form of mental disorder resulting in paranoid delusions.

)O(

Lily was sitting on the hearth, her knees drawn up to her chest, rocking back and forth and staring into the flames. Scorpius could hear her mumbling under her breath, but couldn't make out the words, and she seemed unaware of his presence.

"Lily?" he asked tentatively, and she whirled around. Her hair was a tangled mess, her eyes circled by dark rings as if she hadn't slept in days.

"Scorpius," she whispered, stumbling to her feet and moving towards him. "Thank God you're here. I- I don't think I can stand it anymore…"

"Can't stand what?" he asked, then caught her as her legs gave out from under her and she pitched forward against him. He caught a brief sniff of something on her breath. "Have you been drinking?"

"Need to," she mumbled. "Keeps them away…"

"Keeps who away?"

Lily lifted herself back to her feet, clutching the couch at her side. "The Dementors…" she mumbled, her eyes glazed over. "And the Death Eaters."

"Lily, what are you on about?" Scorpius felt his chest tighten. "There aren't any Dementors in England any more – and the last Death Eaters were captured years and years ago."

"That's what Father keeps saying- it's not true!" Lily grabbed Scorpius by his shoulders, shaking him back and forth. Her eyes were wide and wild. "Believe me, Scorpius – they're still there- and they- and I–"

"You're safe," he told her, with as much patience as he could. "You're safe here at Hogwarts, and you're safe at home–"

"No!" she hissed, fairly shaking. "They're all mad, Scorpius, don't you see? My family and everyone here – all mad! No one believes me, no one will listen to reason- I think you're the only person I know who's still sane."

He caught her hands and held them still, trying to soothe her while she broke down into whimpering.

He didn't know what to do for someone in a state like this.

Madam Pomfrey would know. He would go to her as soon as he could get Lily calmed down to lucidity… she would know what accounted for the sudden breakdown…

But there was just the tiniest bit of Scorpius that was a little wary.

Because Lily might seem mad, but he still – so clearly – remembered his father's stories about her father, and how everyone had thought him mad when he was the one saying that Death Eaters were loose in England.

And how, that time, he had been right.

)O(

Fin