Hello, Lily! (A Scorily/Scorlily fanfic)

Chapter Six: Dancing

The arguments begin again instantly. Irene is still laughing, but Albus is humiliated and Carter is furious. Emmie is convinced Irene has planned all this on purpose. 

Irene wonders, through the tears of mirth, exactly how it is that Lily always avoids blame for the messes she causes. There Lily stands, dainty hands clasped behind her back and a small smirk gracing the right corner of her mouth, and no one stops to consider that she might be behind all of this. 

Irene glares at her, but doesn't mean it, and Lily clearly knows it because she blows Irene a kiss before walking a bit closer to the drama. Irene is convinced Potter thrives on it. 

"-don't see why you had to drag Emmie into this, Potter!" Carter hisses. "Can't get over anything, can you? No wonder we aren't friends anymore."

"I didn't do anything, I was just here! And if you, my best friend of three years, and Emmie hadn't gone behind my back then maybe we would still be friends!"

"Just here, bosh, I don't believe a word of that."

Lily coughs loudly. No one turns to her but Irene, so she finally steps forward and actually pulls Albus away from Carter. "IF you would all be so kind as to quit it..."

And now everyone turns to look at her. 

She smiles. The attention, clearly, has perked her right back up. "The answer seems simple to me," she says, arching a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. 

"What answer?" Irene asks, still amused but now wary. And wary she ought to be, for when Lily plans things, the world must bend to meet her, often in uncomfortable and potentially disastrous ways. 

Lily smirks. "Two words."

"Kill Albus," Carter says instantly. 

"Hey!"

"You're the reason we're all in this mess, come on..."

Lily rolls her eyes. "For the record, killing my brother was not what I had in mind."

"Good," Irene says absentmindedly, earning glowing smiles from both Potters. 

"The two words are Vernal Formal," Lily beams. 

"WHAT?" Four pairs of startled eyes regard Lily in utter confusion. 

"Oh, come on," she huffs. "You all need dates. Irene, Scorpius obviously doesn't want to go with anyone anymore, so you'll go with Albus, and as for Carter and Emmie- well, you two are already in so much trouble with Scorpius that it won't matter so much that you go to the dance together."

Emmie wrings her hands. "I don't know, Lily. I'm already going to be in so much trouble with Mum and Dad..."

"You'll be fine, I promise," Lily says soothingly. 

Albus looks hesitantly at Irene. "Would you- would you want to go with me?"

"With my SISTER?" Carter's face is a mask of abject horror. "Over my dead body!"

"Of course, Albus," Irene says, shooting her brother a look of well-deserved scorn.  

Then both Albus and Carter seem to have the same thought. They pale- look at each other- look away-

"What is it?" Lily asks in exasperation. 

"It's the dancing," Carter explains. "I don't know how."

Lily's hand goes into her purse, and before she can pull out her two business cards- cowardly Slytherins taught to dance- the boys have agreed to let her teach them.