Imperfection: A Scorily/Scorlily Fanfic

Chapter Twelve: Third Year

Scorpius tries not to think about the small revelation he has had over the Easter holidays, but as the next year progresses, it's hard not to, because Lily, who has always been a bit of an ugly duckling, suddenly flares into graceful beauty, shocking and delighting everyone. She grows taller, and her freckles begin to gradually disappear. Her lashes get longer and thicker, and she exchanges her awkward gangly figure for a slim, graceful one. She's actually positively gorgeous, in a tomboyish way, and boys in her year begin to take notice of her- at least, until she and her brothers make it quite clear that she has no desire for a boyfriend. Lysander Scamander, a shy Ravenclaw who is the son of her namesake, still fancies her even after the others are scared off. But Lily respects his liking, because it existed before she was pretty and will continue to exist, she knows, even if she looks like a hag the next day. 

He doesn't care that she's a famous Potter. 

And as he doesn't ask her for anything, but merely talks to her and does quiet things for her, she is kinder to him than to any other non-relative but Scorpius- to the immense envy and confusion of the more popular third year boys.

Scorpius, who is falling fast (though he doesn't know it), can't help watching Lily when he thinks she's not looking, and trying to talk to her every chance he gets. No longer is she a starry-eyed little girl; now she is a young woman with eyes that seem to glow, and he worships the ground she walks on.

The day she turns fourteen, her brothers (aided by Scorpius and Rose) throw a party, and Lily walks into the common room muddy and wet to find every Gryffindor in the school there to wish her a happy birthday.

"Oh, you prats," she exclaims happily, and runs to hug her brothers. "You did this all yourself?"

"Well," Al says, kissing the top of her head, "Scorpius and Rose helped."

Lily turns and hugs Rose, then Scorpius, and he flushes so red he thinks he must look like a tomato. Lily, muddy and wet, looks a thousand times better than she does in the horrid dresses her grandmother usually wants her to wear to parties. Her hazel eyes are shining, and the feel of her slim arms around him makes his heart sound like a cannon in his own ears. Dimly, he wonders why he is feeling like this.

Al laughs, and so does Rose, though Rose's laugh is a trifle strained; Lily pulls away and smiles at Scorpius, making his heart feel as though someone is squeezing it, before dancing off to find Roxy; her hair is in a ponytail so long it reaches her waist, and heavy from dampness, but it still dances through the air behind her. She seems to be a creature of light and wind.

From that day forward, Scorpius is in love. He can't help it, and sometimes the suspicious look in Rose's eyes strikes fear into him. He DOES fancy Rose- doesn't he? Rose is beautiful, clever, kind- everything he's ever wanted in a girlfriend. He tries to convince himself that what he feels for this big-eyed Potter girl is merely elder-brotherly. But somehow he can't quite convince himself.

Perhaps he would speak up about it if he wasn't mortally afraid of the reactions of Al and James, who think that no one on earth is good enough for their little sister. But he is afraid, and still convinced Rose is the girl for him, and so he lives with his growing doubt and Rose's growing suspicions.

For Christmas, he can't help buying Lily a beautiful little gold bracelet along with a stocking charm, and for her birthday he gives her a little circular locket-charm with a tiny little diamond on the lid. She places a picture of him inside it because she says she wants to remember who has given her all the lovely charms; she has nineteen of them now, and they're all crowded together on the bracelet, so he gets her another bracelet to move some of the charms onto. She insists on wearing both bracelets all the time, and Al insists that his pretty little sister is rather like a goat because you can always hear that she's coming before you see her by the tinkling, chimelike sound of the bracelets.

To tell the truth, Lily doesn't really care that she's suddenly become pretty. She's still herself, isn't she? She still knocks about with Roxy and Hugo and Louis, she still plays Seeker for the Gryffindor team, still pranks and insults all gits, and still spends hours in the library looking for answers to Draco's problem.

She sees him at Christmas growing worse than ever, though he still insists he's fine- "It's just a tired spell, Lily. My, what a beautiful girl you've gotten to be." During the Easter holidays, he says nearly the same thing, though not with as much conviction. But when Lily comes home for the summer and visits Draco once more, his illness is too obvious even to him to deny- and too late to stop, as Lily predicted a year before. A Healer from Saint Mungo's comes and confirms the girl's worst fears.

Draco Malfoy is dying. And there's nothing anyone can do.

DO. NOT. KILL. ME. 

PLEASE do not kill me. PLEASE. 

In other news, next chapter goes up tomorrow. 

In other news, don't kill me. 

Love you all, 

Lily

P.S. PLEASE don't kill me.

P.S.S. Post your reactions below.