St Mungos
Lily Potter sighed as she absentmindedly flipped through an old copy of witch weekly. She was sitting in A&E at St Mungos’ hospital waiting for her name to be called. It was a familiar room to her, she was a very accident prone witch. It was the reason why she had only just moved out by herself at 20 years old. After her graduation she moved in with her cousin Rose who was two years older than her and had been looking for a roommate at the time. Yet now that Rose was moving in with her boyfriend, Lily finally had her apartment to herself. Her mum hadn’t wanted her to live alone considering she was so clumsy. Ginny had fretted that Lily would get into an accident and have no one to help her. Yet Lily, having inherited Ginny’s famous stubbornness and temper, had insisted that she was being ridiculous and that Lily wasn’t as accident prone as everyone made out.
Her brother James had then bet her 10 galleons that she would do something within 2 months of Rose moving out and her mum said that if that happened she’d have to insist Lily moved back home. Well it had been 1 month and 4 days since Rose moved out without incident, when Lily knocked over the potions cabinet and split a mix of a few potions all over herself. Which was how she ended up here, in St Mungo’s, with stag antlers sprouting out of her flaming red hair. She knew that her aunt Hermione could probably get rid of them but she was not about to admit to her family they’d been right so here she was bored out of her mind in the familiar drab waiting room.
She flipped the page of the old magazine and came face to face with an article titled “hottest celebrity wizard DILFS” at number one was a big picture of her dad. Lily groaned and threw the magazine unceremoniously on the coffee table in front of her. “And that is why I don’t read witch weekly” she muttered darkly. A laugh sounded from behind her and Lily turned to see Scorpius Malfoy was looking over her shoulder. “At least they say nice things about your father” he said “calling him a DILF is certainly a lot nicer than suggesting he used a time turner to get Voldemort to impregnate his wife.”
Lily chucked, she remembered that article. Sometime in her 4th year at Hogwarts a rumour had started to float around that Scorpius was Voldemort’s son and it all stemmed from a ridiculous article Rita Skeeter had published with the conspiracy theory. Luckily not many people believed it and Skeeter did eventually have to come out and say it wasn’t true. Lily had thought it was ridiculous from the start as not only did Scorpius look the very definition of a Malfoy with his white blonde hair and soft blue/grey eyes but Lily seriously doubted Voldemort had even been capable of conceiving children at all considering he had less than a seventh of a soul left.
“I don’t know” Lily joked “everyone fancying your dad is pretty horrible, at least if people thought Voldy was yours you wouldn’t have that problem.”
Scorpius laughed again before gesturing for her to follow him “Come on Potter” he said “let’s get your antler’s fixed.”
Lily followed Scorpius into a small room on the ward and took a seat on a spinning desk chair while he began to mix and prepare some remedy potions for her. “What’s with Potter?” she said after a moment.
“Huh?” Scorpius said without turning around.
“I mean why’d you call me Potter instead of Lily?” she clarified.
He turned around, a crease appearing in his brow as he frowned in thought “I don’t know” he said “all of your family calls me Malfoy, just the way it is I suppose. Potters and Malfoys don’t get friendly.”
Lily laughed “you make it sound like some sort of blood feud, just because our dads didn’t get on at school doesn’t mean we can’t.”
“I don’t know whether we should risk it,'' Scorpius joked. “What if I call you by your first name and you get a shiny red Rudolph nose to match your antlers?”
“I think I'll risk it, Scorpius,” Lily said with a twinkle in her bright green eyes.
Scorpius gave an over-dramatized sigh “well if you’re sure!” he said throwing his hands up in defeat “drink this potion, Lily, and your antlers will be gone by the hour.”
Lily took the vial from him and raised it up in a toast fashion “To being the first Potter and the first Malfoy in the history of Potters and Malfoys to get along!” she said before knocking it back in one.
The liquid burned as it slid down her throat and the taste made her gag. Scorpius chuckled at the disgruntled look on her face and she shot him a glare. “what? “ he said “did you expect pumpkin juice?”
“It would have been nice,” she grumbled.
Scorpius laughed again, finding the way her nose wrinkled in distaste adorable. “You know Lily” he said after a moment “I think this is the first conversation we’ve ever had.”
Lily tilted her head in thought, it seemed preposterous to her that they had never actually spoken before considering they went to the same school for many years but the harder Lily thought about it the more she realised he was right, they’d certainly never been introduced. She supposed it made sense considering he was 2 years above her in Al and Rose’s year. It made even more sense when she remembered that her brothers had thought Scorpius was ‘an insufferable git’ because he was a Malfoy and would have probably gone up the wall in a fit of rage had they seen her talking to him.
“No I don’t think we have” she said then she stuck her hand out for him to shake “might as well properly introduce myself” she said tossing a strand of red hair over an antler “the names Lily, Lily Luna Potter, perpetual klutz and accident causer.” Scorpius grinned lopsidedly at her and took her smaller hand in his. His hand was warm and slightly calloused from doing admin work as a trainee healer “Scorpius, Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy, healer of perpetual klutzes and accident causers.”
Lily mock pouted at him and Scorpius couldn’t help but chuckle slightly at the cuteness of the imagery, especially since she currently had antlers. “Not fair” she said, “you must have some fault to introduce yourself with.”
Scorpius pretended to look thoughtful, steepling his fingers on his chin “Hmmmm no I’d say im pretty flawless” he conceded.
Lily reached out and swatted his arm “come on!”
“Okay! Okay!” he said raising his hands in a surrender gesture “I guess I do have one fault…”
He trailed off and Lily shuffled to the edge of her seat as she waited for him to elaborate “Mother says im terrible” he said “because I never remember to use a coaster with a mug.”
Lily huffed then laughed “You’re unbelievable” she said rolling her eyes.
“Because I don’t use coasters?” he asked faux innocently blinking up at her through his lashes.
“No! Because you think you’re funny” she said but the laughter in her twinkling green eyes gave away the humour she felt “although now you mention it not using a coaster is pretty terrible. You could never forget to use a coaster in my apartment because I collect novelty ones from little muggle shops.”
“That’s cute,” Scorpius said, “although It is a bit of an odd thing to collect, why coasters?
Lily smiled, looking momentarily dazed and like she was far away as a memory overtook her. “My grandpa bought me one with a silly pun on when I was a kid” she said softly, “it’s become a bit of a tradition since.”
Scorpius wished that he had a sweet memory like that to share with his grandad but his mother’s father had died before he was born and Grandfather Lucius wasn’t exactly what a child would call warm. Lily pulled him from his reflections by adding “I’ll have to show you them some time.”
Scorpius smirked slyly at her, a confidence he rarely felt taking over him as Lily’s playful nature put him at ease “Is that an invitation to your place Lily Luna?” he asked her.
Lily didn’t miss a beat, she didn’t recoil, instead she just leaned forwards slightly until she was close enough that Scorpius could see a ring of hazel around her mesmerising green eyes “At least buy me a drink first, Malfoy.” she quipped the corners of her mouth lilting up in a teasing smile.
Scorpius let out a surprised chuckle, he hadn’t really expected her to respond in kind to his slight flirtation. “If you can promise not to spill it” he said gesturing to the slowly shrinking antlers adorning her red locks, the cause of her spilling a potion.
“No promises.” she said with a wink “Although i'm surprisingly much less clumsy with alcoholic drinks.”
He was about to respond when a nurse bustled into the room busying herself at bandages station and cutting their conversation short. Scorpius signed some forms explaining the potion he had administered and then she was standing up to leave, swinging her bag over her shoulder and thanking him for his help. As she left Scorpius wondered how someone could manage to look simultaneously cute and sexy even with antlers. He shook his head slightly to clear his thoughts of Lily Potter - this was certainly not how he had expected his first day to go.
Lily slipped out of the hospital trying to play off the swarm of butterflies dancing in her stomach as being caused by the potion and not the ‘too hot for his own good’ healer who’d administered it. It occurred to her then that she would have no reason to run into Scorpius Malfoy any time soon yet somehow deep down within her she knew that this was definitely not the last encounter she would have with the Malfoy heir. She felt like if anything, this was only the beginning.