Stuck In The Moment

Lily Potter was suck elbow into a rack of dusty books, coughing in a spluttery manner that made her throat feel all weezy. The jumper of her Gryffindor uniform was coated in a light film of dust and the libraian was shooting her death glares from her position at the desk reading a book upside-down. Yeah, she clearly went to spy school. Lysander would be in a fit of hysterics if he could see her now.

Lily sighed in ill disgused relief as she found herself clasping the spine of the book she was convinced she needed or else. She pulled it out quickly wanting the painful position she was in to be over as fast as possible. Though she hadn't thought the idea through as the desk she had been kneeling on top of as a tad unstable and the quick jerking motion caused her to fall backward off the desk onto the ground with a hard thump. "FRUITCAKES!" She cursed in a squeal as she came down. And to add to the injury, the book she had been pulling out came out smoothly afterward and whacked her on the forehead.

Lily couldn't be bothered getting up from her pathetic position covered in dust on the ground with a book print on her forehead and her hair spread out like a fan of fire. "Yeah thanks for rushing to my aid everyone!" She thanked sarcastically as a couple of seventh year Ravenclaws glanced at her with ill-disgused amusment as the librarian looked ready to jump off the Astronomy tower.

At the time, Scorpius Malfoy was sitting at a nearby table, reading a Wizarding classic novel -or at least, pretending to read it. Don't take him wrong, Scorpius read quite often, especially fiction, but never at the library. He had a certain disliking for the library, perhaps because of the librarian, who always - somehow - seemed to be staring at you. That, and the silence of the whole place, made the library seem like an eerie place to him, not exactly a very comfortable place to be. The only reason he came to the library often was, honestly speaking, probably to find and talk to Rose Weasley, his long time crush, though he would never admit that to anyone.

Evidently though, she wasn't here at the time, so he sighed and went to put the book back where he had picked it up, passing Lily Potter on the way. Stopping, Scorpius looked at her with raised eyebrows, she seemed to trying to take a book out of the top shelf, but had her elbow stuck, which was amusing enough, but the desk she was leaning on was also looking like it would fall any moment now. He should probably have warned her then, but didn't. Scorp walked past her and then stopped where he had picked the book at. However, just as he was putting the book back back in its shelf, he heard someone shout out something, followed by a loud thud. Now at any other place this might of gone unnoticed by some people, but at a library... Scorpius turned towards where he thought the noise came from, and set his eyes on quite an amusing scene. The desk which Lily had been standing on had unbalanced and fallen, and so had she. There were now a lot of people crowded around her, all - by the looks of things - trying to suppress their laughter. Scorpius didn't bother though, he burst out laughing at the scene, and as things usually went with crowds, the rest followed his suit.

Being a member of the Imperium Squad though, he couldn't take the humiliation any further than that, the librarian was watching after all. Besides, unlike her brothers, Scorpius didn't have a particular disliking for Lily, he just didn't like her much either. Her being a Potter and all, they had that natural mutual rivalry which was shared between the two families. "Need some help?" he asked, standing over her with his hand extended, though he didn't quite manage to wipe the smirk from his face.

Lily groaned as one of the least expected head's came into her vision. Scorpius Malfoy. Ferret Junior, as her uncle mumbled on occasions. Albus and Rose knew him she guessed seeing as they were in the same year but it wasn't like Lily and Scorpius were going to go make daisy chains together and skip off into the sunset. She could see him smirking and squeezed her eyes shut tightly hoping that it would be some form of concussion that caused the blonde to be seemingly there and he would disappear after a moment of insantity. But alas, she re-opened her eyes and found herself seeing the exact same smirk.

A moment of hesitation, Lily took his hand and managed to become upright knowing that despite it there would still be a giant book print on her face. Not an attractive look, but it wasn't as though she was trying to impress him. The only Slytherin she had ever tried to impress was Elijah and look where that had ended. He had de-flowered (no pun intended) her and then seemingly poofed into thin air. Still, it did not stop a ligh flush appearing on her face. "Thank you Malfoy." She said awkwardly, once fully upright letting go of his hand like she had been struck by fire remembering she was still lightly holding it.

After she let go of his hand, the smile became a chuckle as Scorpius laughed at her ridiculous expression. He could tell by her face that she was quite embarassed by the whole incident, and Scorpius helping her up had probably made it worse. Lily had become a light shade of red, which didn't go to well with her flaming hair. Bending, he picked up the book for her, looked at the title, smirked again and then offered the book to her. "No problem. Here, your book." That made him smile again. "Are you okay Potter? Are you sure don't have to go to the hospital wing?" he asked, faking concern. That made the whole crowd around them smile again, though they wiped the amused looks on their faces when the librarian suddenly appeared at the scene, looking stern and displeased at the noise they were all causing.

"Its Okay Madame ____, I have it all under control," Scorpius reassured her, though he was still wearing a rather amused look. He turned to the crowd next. "Get back to your own business guys, shows over," he announced. They listened to him, slowly turning and walking away. They knew that he was a member of the squad, and he had gained notoreity for handing out punishments to students when they didn't listen to him.

Lily took the book, resisting the incredibly tempting thought of shoving the book up somewhere where the sun didn't shine up smirkalot's face behind. She took a deep breath not wincing despite the pain that shot up her spine and to her forehead. She knew that Scorpius was joking so she merely put her free hand on her waist and wore an amused expression. "Oh I'll be fine, I knew you were dying to carry me but I'm sorry I don't go for blondes." Lily apologized with a genuine expression with only a small smirk managing to match Scorpius' to a lesser extent. She wasn't a Slytherin like Albus, so she didn't have the whole mock evil thing down quite yet.

Lily's smirk slid slightly as she heard Scorpius smooth talking the libarian. She was reminded of Elijah and it made her want to slap Malfoy inredibly hard even though she knew he was just being...well himself. And so was Elijah. Whether his intentions had been to sleep with her and disappear with barmaids or French artists. Not only that he had totally ruined her dream location for travel and romance. Again she really couldn't blame Elijah. She knew she never could because it takes two tango or whatever that muggle quote was.

Scorpius watched as the librarian too shuffled away back to her desk, leaving the two of them quite alone. Good, as much as Scorpius disliked all the Potters, he had to admit talking with them (and annoying them) was quite fun. His sneer and amused look faded slightly at her remark and her smirk, but came back just a moment later. "Really? Thats a shame," he replied casually, chuckling again. "I heard you do like to go for Slytherins though." Scorpius was of course (through hearing gossip), fully aware of Lily's relationship with Elijah - a person who he didn't personally like much.

He noticed her rather pissed off expression though, and decided to stop before she lost her temper. Scorpius then moved to the table which had fallen, and pulled it back to its original position, as well as straightening the chairs. He then sat on one of them and looked up at her. It was the same as Rose as with Lily, they could be friends, but family rivalries generally made that impossible. "So did it never cross your little mind to just use accio to get the book you needed so badly?" he asked her, still wearing an amused expression.

Lily's heart stopped for a moment as Scorpius dropped a hint on his knowledge of what happened between Elijah and her. She blinked dazed for a moment before putting back on a neutral expression one that didn't show her slight pain that came from knowing someone she disliked knew about the fail that had been what she thought was something with Elijah.

Lily sat down mutely as Scorpius had straightened the chairs that had obviously fallen over. His question though sounding amused she flushed slightly embarassed. "Because I don't like relying on magic to do everything." She answered honestly. Truth was she had been dared to go a week without magic out of class. But she wasn't going to say that the reason she made a complete fool of herself was because of a stupid dare.

For a second, Scorpius saw Lily blinked with surprise at him knowing, but then she suddenly changed it to a blank expression. Still, Scorpius winked at her, smirking again now. "Don't worry Lils, I won' t tell anyone," he told her, with sarcastic friendliness. Of course, he was quite sure that she knew that he knew how her brothers would react about it. Or Albus at least, James had graduated by now, but the younger Potter was the more fiery one. Still, it wasn't like Scorpius would tell Albus, because as much as he loved drama, that would just be taking it too far. Still, her reaction would be worth seeing.

"And look where that got you," he noted, with a roll of eyes. It was true, doing stuff the 'muggle way' just made things more difficult. Next, Scorpius took out his wand and, just for show, waved it, cleaning the dust off Lily's robes.

Lily was still slightly dazed when she was sure she heard Scorpius call her 'Lils'. Not that she discouraged anyone to use that name but still it was a little disconcerting. Hell, Scorpius Malfoy was disconcerting in general. And definitely aware of that fact. Lily glanced down at her now clean robes. "Well, now I'll appreciate magic all the more." Lily countered resisting the incredibly childish urge to sulk like a little child.

"Anyway, why did you help me? I am sure you would have had far more fun watching me on the ground with a book printed into my forehead." Lily pointed out curiously. Maybe it was the Potter in her that wanted answers, or maybe it was simply her incredibly high amounts of courage to push people until she knew all she wanted to know about them. Either way, it was not like she was scared of him. Being scared of something was overrated.

Scorpius chuckled at her reply as he pocketed the wand in his robes. He then raised an eyebrow at her when she asked the next question, not sure how to reply to that because, well, he wasn't quite sure why he had helped her up in the first place. She had looked ridiculously absurd and laughable then, and Scorpius never missed an oppurtunity to humiliate the Potters. But the odd thing about Scorpius was that he always tried to get closer to people he should otherwise stay away from, like Rose Weasley or, well, Lily Potter too. That was probably why the reason for him helping her, though he wasn't going to admit that yet. He didn't exactly want to start another complicated relationship like the one he had with Rose. "Uhmm," he murmered, trying to quickly think of a good reason. Luckily, he was quite good, and experienced, at lying. "It would have been much more fun," he agreed casually. "But the librarian was watching so it would be unappropriate to do so." That was true enough, he was a prefect after all - not that he ever acted like one, but it gave him a good excuse. "

((sorry for the late, and short, reply. Dont have internet at home ))