Ministry parties
Lily Luna wasn't sure why she still let herself be dragged to these boring ministry Christmas parties, every year they were the same. Lily’s dad would convince her to come along, she’d always been his secret favourite, and she’d agree because he was her secret favourite and it would be okay at first. Until the rest of the party remembered that he was ‘the great Harry Potter’ and someone's wife or kid or cousin's best friend's sister would spirit him away into conversation and Lily would be alone left to the excruciating boredom of a glorified office party.
The most exciting thing that would happen is Gary Stevens from the department of accidental magic having a little bit too much spiked eggnog and well…performing accidental magic. Last year he’d accidentally turned her brother James’ hair pink and it was long after new years when the family finally stopped teasing him about it.
This year's party was, so far, following the exact same schedule. It started out fun, Lily had even managed to squeeze in a dance with her dad to their favourite christmas song before he’d been spirited away by admirers. Then she’d sat with her mum for a while before the holyhead harpies fans descended asking for autographs and she cleared off. She’d tried to approach James but that had been a mistake from the start. He didn’t even acknowledge her, too busy flirting with one of the new apprentices’, a pretty twenty something year old witch, Lorna Patel or something like that.
“Sorry to interrupt” Lily smiled sweetly at her “i'm just going to borrow my brother for a moment.” She dragged him off by the arm and James rolled his eyes.
“What is it Lil? I'm a little busy.”
“I'm bored,” Lily pouted.
“Go bother Albus or something then” James said dismissively, looking over Lily’s head to see if Lorna was still standing there.
Lily sighed “he’s not here remember? Dad said he could miss it because ‘being a cursebreaker is more important’ or something.”
James scoffed “lucky git” and Lily couldn’t help but agree, she’d much rather be chasing around egypt than stuck at this boring party.
“Anyway” James said “I'm busy so, shove off?”
Lily rolled her eyes at her older brother, making a mental note to prank him at some point for ditching her like this.
“Tosser” she mumbled, rolling her eyes as she saw him start to float a sprig of mistletoe towards himself and Lorna. James flipped her off behind his back without looking to see if she saw it.
It was then that Lily saw her ex boyfriend, Alfie Thomas making his way over towards her and she quickly slipped through the crowds and out into the corridors. The party was boring, but not boring enough to put up with her ex trying to get back together with her.
The corridors were deserted and Lily wandered aimlessly, wishing one of her cousins were here to entertain her. It was then that she heard the faint sound of a wireless radio nattering on in the distance. She followed the noise and eventually reached her Aunt Hermione’s office at the end of the corridor where she found her Uncle Ron hiding out, listening to the end of the latest chudley cannons match. He jumped when she burst in, visibly relaxing when he saw it was only her.
“Shut the door lils” he whispered, waving frantically and Lily giggled as she pulled it to a close, blocking out the sound of the music drifting from the party.
Ron pulled out a chair for her and Lily gratefully flopped down, automatically reaching out to take a mince pie off of the plate Ron had evidently snuck out. “What are you doing, Uncle Ron?” she asked in amusement and he sighed.
“I'm hiding from one of those bloody reporters” he admitted “they’re doing a piece on your Aunt Hermione about her getting the minister job and they keep chasing me down for quotes.”
Lily snorted, she’d had her fair share of run-ins with crazy reporters, being the daughter of the chosen one and all. “Three words Uncle Ron” she said “Bat Bogey Hex.”
He laughed “because that wouldn't make the front page, you remind me so much of your mother sometimes” he said and Lily smiled, there were much worse things in this world than being compared to the incomparable Ginerva Potter. Most people hated being compared to their parents but Lily knew that from Ron especially it was meant as a compliment.
“Why are you here?” Ron finally asked.
Lily sighed “I'm bored, James is off flirting with half of the party, Albus ditched, Rose is helping Aunt Hermione and dad and mum are sorting out the fan club.”
Ron nodded sagely “where’s Hugo?”
Lily looked at him “where do you think?” she asked, it was no secret that ever since Hugo and Neville’s daughter, Katy, had started dating a month ago that the two of them were attached at the hip. They’d spent the whole party so far on the dancefloor, unable to take their eyes off of one another. It had been a long time coming and Lily was happy for them but she didn’t particularly fancy being the third wheel between them tonight, she’d had enough of that at Hogwarts and they hadn’t even been together then. With all of the effort she’d put into matchmaking them, she might as well let them enjoy it now that they finally were together.
“Well you’ll always have me, little lil” he said pulling out a chess set. Lily beamed, she had a lot of uncles but Ron was definitely one of her favourites. They’d always had a special bond and Ron had taught her how to play chess before she could even walk. Hugo and Rose had never taken much of an interest in wizard chess but Lily was a marvel at it, the only person in the family who could stand up against Ron and win. Sometimes when the whole family were gathered around in the burrow at christmas time there’d be an epic match between the two of them and most of the family would gather round, placing bets on who they thought would win.
They managed to get about half an hour of gameplay in before Hermione found them, rolling her eyes fondly at the pair. “Come on you two, you can’t hide out here forever” she said and they were forced back into the party.
The second they entered the room a reporter cornered them both and Ron looked over Hermione’s head mouthing ‘help’ at Lily while she giggled. She was scanning the room for one of her relatives when she tripped, likely due to the fact she was completely not looking where she was going.
For a second Lily felt the air rush around her as her body flew forwards and she closed her eyes waiting for the impact of hitting the hard floor. It never came though, instead she fell right into a pair of warm arms and she fluttered her eyelids open to see the person who had caught her.
The first thing that she saw was a shock of silver eyes, so bright they dazzled in the candlelight. “Scorpius” she breathed in shock. She was still not upright on her feet and the blood rushed to her head a little. The only coherent thought she was able to form was that his arms felt so warm and sturdy where they sat around her waist.
“Lily” he replied and swiftly pulled her upwards “Are you okay?”
She felt her face flush with the embarrassment of having almost fallen flat on her arse but she nodded nonetheless, her fiery hair falling into her face.
“Im fine” she assured him and then reached out to touch his arm “thank you for catching me.”
He tipped his drink in her direction and the thought crossed Lily’s mind just how impressive it was that he’d caught her while still holding it. She could only dream of having such swift reflexes, instead she was a natural klutz.
“Well when a girl falls for you, it’s just bad manners not to catch her,” he said.
Lily raised an eyebrow “who said I was falling for you, Scoripus Malfoy?” she asked teasingly.
He leaned forward, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper “that table apparently” he gestured behind him “you knocked into it and fell right onto me, it’s totally plotting against us.”
Lily snorted, “oh yes” she agreed “a decidedly evil table.”
Scorpius smiled at her before turning back to the ‘evil’ table and grabbing a champagne flute “drink?” he asked and Lily nodded, taking it from him, ignoring the electricity she felt when his fingers brushed hers as he passed her the glass.
“To the healer, and the preventer of potential accidents” she said, tipping the flute up in a mock toast.
Scorpius clinked his glass against hers, a twinkle in his eye as he spoke “to the perpetual klutz and the causer of those accidents.” he replied and the two of them each took a sip.
“What are you doing here anyway?” she asked him, Lily had never seen Scorpius at a ministry party before today and as far as she knew no one in his family worked here either.
He gestured behind where Lily could see Scorpius' father talking to Aunt Hermione while Uncle Ron glared at him “my dad’s contributing to Minister Granger's house elf campaign” he explained “so we were invited” he shrugged “I figured it would beat sitting at home.”
Lily gave him a look that suggested otherwise. “That was a mistake, these parties are like watching paint dry” she informed him, "there is barely anyone here worth talking to.
“I dunno,” Scorpius said, “I think there’s definitely someone here more than worth talking to.”
Lily blushed as she turned and saw he was looking right at her and she drank some of her champagne to distract herself from the fluttery feeling that gave her.
“I got you something” Scorpius suddenly said and Lily looked at him surprise.
“You did?”
“Well” he corrected “they gave me them at the door but I think they’re much better suited to you.”
Lily turned to him intrigued and he stepped closer, the warm spicy scent of his cologne filling the space between them. “Close your eyes Lily Luna” he uttered softly and she closed them, shivering as she felt his warm fingers brush through her hair.
“Done” he announced and she opened her eyes, almost jumping at how close they were standing. He took a step back and handed her an empty serving tray and Lily laughed aloud at her reflection on the back. Sitting atop her head was a simple christmas headband, in the style of reindeer antlers, complete with shiny red bells and all.
“Ahh antlers” she giggled “didn’t you have enough trouble getting rid of my last pair?”
“I quite liked them actually” he teased, smirking “you should have kept them, it was a look.”
Lily grinned and flipped her hair over her shoulder, posing “well I have these now” she said “thank you.”
She smiled at him and Scorpius’ stomach did a backflip. “Merry Christmas Lily Luna,” he said softly.
“Merry Christmas Scor” she replied.
He opened his mouth to say something else but at that moment they were interrupted by a loud bang. Gary Stevens was being dragged from the party, his body slumped from the amount of firewhiskey he’d drank when he accidentally waved his wand, a loud bang burst out and then suddenly it was raining.
The rain came down thick and fast and Scorpius and Lily looked at each other like they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. It only took seconds for them to be completely drenched, and Lily shivered as her green dress was not exactly the ideal attire for a downpour. Scorpius pulled his cloak off instinctively and threw it over his and Lily’s heads attempting to cover them from the water and Lily reached out and brushed his soaking wet platinum fringe out of his eyes.
The moment they both looked at each other they were laughing, laughing so hard that tears streamed out of their eyes and they stuck a step back to watch the chaos unfold giggling harder at the expressions of the disgruntled witches and wizards around them.
Standing at the edge of the party, huddled under a cloak with Scorpius Malfoy, soaking wet and wearing a pair of floppy reindeer antlers Lily Potter thought that maybe, just maybe, this year's ministry party hadn’t been a waste of time after all.