What If? [Scorpius Malfoy x Lily Luna] Short story: ✔

What if: What the heart wants

Lily sighed heavily as she rested her chin on her knees. She was sitting outside the Great Hall doors, her knees to her chest and her arms around her knees. She'd finished the Defense against the Dark Arts practical exam not long ago, and was waiting for Hugo to come out.

Unlike what used to be normal for her, Lily wasn't surrounded by the other girls from Gryffindor, or by other boys who'd finished. Instead she was simply by herself. Alone, away from others.

By this point she was used to it, and oddly enough, she enjoyed the silence at times. It'd been this way ever since she'd announced to the entire school that she was in love with Scorpius Malfoy, Gryffindor and Potter/Weasley enemy number one. And despite what it had done to her "reputation," Lily still didn't care and didn't regret it.

"Hey, Lily. How'd you do?"

Lily looked up to see Lola Pritchard, a fellow fifth year, and a Slytherin, was moving to sit next to her. Since that fateful day just near a month ago, Lily and Lola had begun to start a friendship. Lily found that when you put aside old hatred and feuds, Lola was a really nice and fun girl to be around. She was probably one of the first of the Slytherins to accept Lily dating Scorpius, besides his close friends of course, who accepted it right away.

Lily shrugged. "Not too bad, I guess. You?"

"Ok, I think I did ok. But I will say that I'm nervous," Lola said with a small laugh. She looked at Lily and sighed. "I was afraid that you were sitting over here brooding again."

Lily grunted quietly as she stretched out her legs and sat up straight. "Don't worry about me," she mumbled.

"So you were brooding about your boyfriend," Lola said, knowing the truth.

Lily didn't look at her. While she and Scorpius were doing their best to make the most of their time together, Lily couldn't help but think about how the year was almost up, meaning he would be graduating. Then they would have a brief part of the summer, as he planned to go into Auror training. Then they would be apart for two years. And the idea . . . it terrified her.

"I just . . . I'm honestly not sure what I'll do without him for two years," Lily admitted. "I mean, I know that I'll have Hugo, but . . . when everything blew up after our relationship was official, I never went through it without him. Scorpius was always there for me to go to. And besides, with Hugo now trying to start a solid relationship of his own, I really don't want to bring his spirits down."

"Then you can bring mine down," Lola said with sincerity. "I'll walk through it with you for the next two years."

Lily smiled dryly. "Thanks, but I don't want to do that to you. I know from experience that it sucks." She sighed. "Maybe I just won't come back next year."

"Then don't," Lola said, as if it was so simple.

Lily looked at her as if she had grown antlers. "What?"

"Just don't come back to Hogwarts. Drop out," Lola told her. "Don't do something that's going to make you miserable."

"Oh, Potter's dropping out? Let me guess, knocked up?"

Lily rolled her eyes at the voice of Megan Montague. She and Montague still didn't get along well, but that was probably inevitable. The other Slytherin girls were with her as well, Shannon Flint and Izzy Bones. Lily would say that with those girls . . . it was a slow start, mostly with Shannon. Izzy was pretty easy going, but she was just be so quiet sometimes. Shannon, it was obvious that she was hesitant with Lily, but she was never malicious, at least.

Lola sighed. "Back off, Megan. And no, she's not," she defended.

For the first time since Lily had begun to speak to her, Izzy actually spoke first as she sat down with them. "Why would you drop out?"