Lily

Chapter Twenty Two:

The first few days of school went without incident, until one day when Lily was walking outside, alone. All of her friends were preoccupied with other things and she didn't know where Harry was, so she just sat under a tree, taking in a moment of peace.

"Hey Lily." A voice called and she looked up to see Draco.

"Hi." She said, as he moved to sit next to her.

"How was your summer? Not too bad... right?" He asked.

"Oh, I had wanted to tell you, you were right." Lily said.

"I was?"

"I told Harry about Aunt Marge and I got to stay with Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon instead." Lily explained.

"That's great!" Draco smiled.

"Yeah... although it took a while before my cousin, Dudley would finally leave me alone." She said.

"Muggle?" Draco asked.

"...y-yeah." Lily nodded, hoping he wouldn't say anything offensive about muggles.

"Just threaten to use magic on him if he won't bugger off. He doesn't know you can't do magic outside of school, right?"

"Oh, well he actually does, because Harry almost got expelled in his second year when a house elf named Dobby cane to the house." Lily said.

"Dobby?" Draco asked, surprised.

"Yeah, he was trying to save Harry or something. Harry ended up freeing him from his family too, which is good because he said they were really mean to Dobby."

Draco frowned.

"What? What is if, Draco?" Lily asked.

"I knew Dobby. He was my family's house elf."

"...oh."

"Just hearing you talk about him... well, I sort of feel bad."

"Why?" She asked.

"All my life I was taught that house elves were lower than wizards. It never occurred to me to even set Dobby free somehow, though my father would've been really upset once he found out I'd done it." Draco explained, "It's just that, if Harry Potter thought to help Dobby, why didn't I?"

"You really don't like my brother, do you?" Lily asked.

"No." Draco smirked.

She shook her head, but there was a small smile on her face.

"I do like you though." Draco said suddenly.

She blushed.

"I-I mean, we're friends... right?" He tried to correct.

"Yeah." Lily agreed.

She looked up to see Harry himself suddenly marching towards them. The smile fell from her face.

"Malfoy!" Harry snapped.

"Potter." Draco greeted coldly, standing up with Lily.

"What're you doing with my sister?" Harry demanded.

"Talking."

"Well, stop it!" Harry glared.

"Or what?"

"Please don't fight." Lily said softly, but both heard her.

Draco looked at her sympathetically as Harry continued to stare him down.

"Come on, Lil!" Harry said, grabbing Lily's arm, causing her to flinch, "We're leaving!"

He began to drag her away, despite her protests until they heard Draco give a shout. They spun around, but he was gone. In his place was a small white ferret.