Seventh-Year: The Next Generation

Author's Note:

Thanks to reviewers, it really makes my day.

This is slightly longer than my previous chapters, but there was no way to end at a reasonable length. It had to be either longer, or shorter than normal. I went with longer.

Anyways, hope you enjoy!

Chapter 13: Truth is Beauty

It took the searching of several empty classrooms before he found her. She was sitting on a desk, her legs hanging over onto the chair. Her back was to the door, and her head was bowed.

He slipped into the room silently, and closed it behind him, but not all the way for fear that the bolt clicking home would alert her to his presence.

Moving as silently and gracefully as a cat, he slipped to one side of the room. Sitting down on the velvet cushions that lay on a bench in one of the windowed alcoves, he rested his back against the wall, propping one foot up on the seat, and letting the other hang carelessly over the side.

"They say moping about, alone in dark classrooms, is bad for one's health."

Lily whirled, eyes flying wide. Scorpius was leaning against the side of an alcove beneath one of the windows, looking as if he had been there since the beginning of time. He was carelessly picking at some dirt beneath one of his fingernails, a thoughtful expression on his face. The stain glass turned the light that spilled over him to gold and scarlet, Gryffindor colors.

"What are you doing here?" she asked stiffly.

He cocked his head to the side, and looked at her, not saying anything. The silence seemed to stretch out between them, almost visible.

"Well?" she demanded, at last.

"I'm trying to figure you out," he said.

Lily forced a laugh. "Good luck with that, I can't even figure myself out sometimes."

"That's what friends are for," said Scorpius. "To know us even better than we know ourselves."

"Oh? I didn't realize we were friends," said Lily, almost bitterly.

Scorpius looked slightly taken aback. "I always assumed we were," he said softly.

"To be someone's friend you have to spend time with them," said Lily.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"The only people you spend time with are Albus and Ro--" Lily hastily broke off, noticing the tightness that suddenly appeared around Scorpius's eyes.

"Yeah, well, not Rose so much anymore," he said, his eyes falling downwards. "No, not Rose so much anymore..." he said softly, trailing off.

Lily took advantage of his clear distraction to look at him closely. His soft hair, that needed cutting, was starting to hang in his eyes, and looked so fine and silky. His long eyelashes lay against his ridiculously high cheekbones when he closed his lids. His sharp and pointy facial features screamed Scorpius.

His blue orbs snapped up and locked on her, catching her staring at him. She looked away quickly, blushing furiously and hoping that Scorpius couldn't see it in the dimness of the room. The only light came in through the stain glass windows, which altered the color, and weaned the brightness down.

"What happened in there?" asked Scorpius. "I thought you wanted to know about last night."

"I did," said Lily nervously, still not looking at him.

"Well?" asked Scorpius.

"I-- just-- I--" Lily swallowed, hard.

"Merlin, look at me, please!" said Scorpius. He moved quickly, swinging off of the bench, and coming over to her. He stepped directly into her line of sight, rather pointedly.

She averted her gaze back to straight ahead of her. Making a sound that sounded something like gah in his throat, Scorpius moved to being right in front of her.

Still trying desperately to not look at his eyes, she cast her own downward, but it was no use. Pinching her chin between his thumb and forefinger, he drew her chin up, till she was staring straight into his face.

"Now, this is better," said Scorpius, smiling.

Lily sucked in her breath. She had never been so close to Scorpius before, and it was disconcerting. If anything, his features were all the more breathtaking and perfect up close. His smile, which so rarely was actually genuine, was wide and reached all the way to his eyes. And his eyes, those eyes, so blue, you felt lost in them. It wasn't fair, thought Lily. It wasn't fair that anyone could look like that.

"You were saying," said Scorpius.

Lily tried desperately to get her wits about her. "I don't know, was I saying?"

"I think you were, or even if you weren't, you were about to," said Scorpius, his eyebrows raising.

Steeling her will, Lily spun away from him, jerking her chin out of his hand. She stifled a smile as she felt him take a step back in surprise.

"Lily, Merlin's sake," said Scorpius from behind her in frustration. "I'm trying to understand."

"What if you can't?" she demanded.

"I can," said Scorpius from between gritted teeth, staring at the back of Lily's fiery head.

"Even if that's so, what makes you think I want you to?"

Scorpius was silent for a few moments. He lifted his hand up before his face, merely watching the shadows that played across his palm, throwing a pattern of spider-like webs.

"Then what can I do?" he asked softly. He returned to his bench, sprawling himself across it, his back leaning against the stone frame of the alcove.

Lily turned to face him, but he was staring up at the image created by the stain glass above him. It was of a tall, built and muscled man with a large beard. He wore gold and scarlet robes, and in his hand was a sword that was studded all over with rubies. Godric Gryffindor.

"I wonder what he was like?" whispered Scorpius to himself. He said it so quietly, that Lily almost didn't hear it.

Lily shrugged, even though Scorpius wasn't looking at her, and she doubted the question was addressed to her. "Brave, courageous, all those things that you perfect Gryffindors are meant to be," she said, a slight tone of bitterness in her voice.

Scorpius looked at her. "I highly doubt any of us are perfect," he said.

"What about you? Everyone sure seems to think you are," Lily said.

His eyes locked with hers. "I'm very, very far from being perfect. I disgust myself, really. There's nothing good in me, nothing." His tone was emotionless, flat.

"That's not true--" began Lily.

He held up his hand to silence her. "Please, don't. You can't see inside my head, can't see the thoughts that I linger on. Nobody can, except me."

"Albus--"

"Wouldn't even want to have anything to do with me, if he knew the half of it," said Scorpius, his eyes going blank. "Albus," he said, turning his eyes to the stone of the alcove in front of him. "Albus, there's someone who's as close to perfect as any of us can get."

"Albus is not--"

"Kind, caring, thoughtful."

"No more than--"

"Brave, insightful, courageous." Scorpius shook his head. He looked back up at Lily, his eyes very blue. "His friendship is the best gift anyone could get. I wish I deserved it."

They stared at each other for a couple of moments.

"Do you think that beauty is truth, or truth, beauty?" asked Lily suddenly.

Scorpius didn't look at all surprised by this question, that seemed to come from nowhere. He didn't even hesitate in his answer. "Truth is beauty, and beauty is anything but truth."

Lily looked quite startled by his answer. "Really?" she asked doubtfully.

"Oh yes," said Scorpius, watching her intently. "Truth is so rare, that it is like the diamond in the rough. As for beauty," he paused for a moment, looking almost wistful, "beauty almost always merely covers up that which we don't want to see. It's like the polished apple, which hides a rotten core."

Lily wanted so bad to talk to him, to tell him everything. Here he was, talking to her about himself, opening himself up-- as much as he ever did, anyways. But she couldn't, she couldn't explain to anyone, most of all him.

He was running his fingers along the edge of the velvet cushions thoughtfully, once more not looking at her. Suddenly, his hand closed into a tight fist. His jaw clenched, and he grew very still.

Lily's eyes widened as she watched him in concern.

Crack!

The sound of shattering glass filled the room. Scorpius pulled his fist back out of the stain glass window, blood oozing down his hand in thick streams, multicolored bits of glass sticking painfully out of his skin at sharp angles.

Lily gasped, leaping off the desk she sat on, and running over to him and falling to her knees beside the bench.

"What did you do that for?" she demanded, taking his bleeding hand in both of hers.

Scorpius looked down at her in surprise, as if he had forgotten she was there. "Sorry," he muttered.

Lily laughed softly. "You're pouring blood, and you're apologizing?"

"Well, I wouldn't be if I hadn't punched the stupid window," Scorpius pointed out.

"And why did you have to break the poor stain glass? What did Godric ever do to you, huh?" asked Lily, turning his hand carefully in hers, inspecting how badly injured it was.

Scorpius watched her with a bemused expression. "I guess my inner teenage angst just suddenly broke forth."

Lily jerked a particularly large shard out of his palm. Scorpius let out a howl of pain.

"What are you doing? Trying to kill me?" demanded Scorpius.

"Just helping you out," said Lily cheerily, giving another piece a good pull.

Scorpius let out another yell, and then gave Lily an injured look.

"Don't give me that," said Lily, catching sight of it as she glanced upward. "You shouldn't have done something so stupid."

Scorpius shook his head, as Lily continued with her work. Taking out his wand with his free hand, he fixed the window with a quick reparo.

Putting his wand back into his pocket, he looked down at Lily's head which was bowed over her work. He watched with faint amusement as her long hair fell down over her face, and she shook it back with a quick jerk of her head in annoyance, only for it to happen again a few moments later.

After several rounds of this, she let out a loud exclamation of irritation, and took one of her hands away from Scorpius's, to push it back.

"Wait, I got it," said Scorpius, catching up her hair with his free hand, and holding it back at the base of her neck.

She gave him a quick look of gratefulness, before turning her face back down in concentration.

Lily continued to work on in silence, and Scorpius was content to merely watch her. After a few moments, he realized with a start, that he been admiring the creamy color of her skin, and the gentle curve of where her neck joined her shoulders.

He looked away hastily, becoming very interested in the velvet of the cushions.

"All finished, except that it's still cut up, of course, but at least it doesn't have anymore glass stuck in it," said Lily cheerily, looking up at him and smiling.

Scorpius drew his hand back, out of hers, and curled it into a fist, and then uncurled it again. He winced slightly in pain, but it wasn't that bad.

"Nice job," said Scorpius, with admiration. Lily felt a little bit of warmth flood to her cheeks-- Scorpius rarely complimented people. "You must have quite steady hands," he said.

"Well, I don't know about that," said Lily. She noticed, rather pleasantly, that he was still clasping her hair at the nape of her neck.

His hand which was still bleeding lightly, slid forward and took one of hers. His long, slender fingers -artist fingers, or a pianist's maybe- lightly curled around hers.

Her eyes, which had been following his hands until then, shot up to his face. He was watching her intently, his blue eyes as deep and ongoing as a storm. Her lips parted slightly, as she tried to think of something to say, but nothing came immediately to mind.

She felt his fingers brush down her forearm to her elbow, so lightly it was almost nonexistent.

"Scorpius?" she said questioningly.

His eyes were now thoughtful, still resting on hers. When he said her name, it was soft, almost like a caress. "Lily--"

"Well, well, what do we have here? Malfoy not content with just one from that filthy mix of Weasleys and Potters, he has to have them all, doesn't he?" said a voice that was as slippery as snake's skin.

Lily whirled, and Scorpius's head snapped up. There, just inside the doorway to the classroom, stood Zabini and Bulstrode.

Scorpius cursed himself inwardly for not having heard them coming, but then again, thought Scorpius ruefully, he had been rather distracted.

"We've been waiting for a chance to finish our little, ah, encounter from the other day," continued Zabini. "And what do you know? Here we are, just walking through the castle, looking for some poor first-years to hang upside down by their trousers, when we hear cries of pain. We follow the sound of these cries to a classroom, and what do we find? Malfoy, and Potter's little redheaded brat of a sister. Oh, happy day," said Zabini.

Scorpius rose slowly to his feet, and rubbed the back of his hand across his eyes wearily. "Do we really have to do this, right now?" he asked.

"Oh yes," said Zabini, a dark flash of amusement in his eye as he kicked the door to the room shut behind him.

Scorpius sighed, as Lily stood up beside him. He shot her a woeful look. "What do I do to always get myself into these things?" he asked.

"You don't have to do anything, except for walk and breath," pointed out Lily wryly.

"I guess that's true," said Scorpius, looking thoughtfully at his shoe.

His wand whipped out so fast it was a blur, but unfortunately, Zabini was waiting for just that.

"Expelliarmus!"

Scorpius looked ruefully after his wand as it flew across the classroom and clattered to the floor at Zabini's feet. He shrugged. "Well, there goes all chance of avoiding a mess. Oh well, it was worth a try."

Zabini smirked at him. "Don't worry, we'll fight fair. We won't use our wands, now that you're unarmed."

"Fair?" echoed Scorpius. "I don't think you know the meaning of that word. In case you didn't notice, there are two of you, and one of me."

"Hm, too true," said Zabini. "What do we do about that?"

"What about me? It's an even fight, two against two," said Lily, annoyed.

"You don't count," snapped Zabini and Scorpius at the same time.

"Fine," pouted Lily.

"Well, I guess there's nothing to be done about the odds, Malfoy. After all, we are Slytherins, fair isn't really in our vocabulary."

"I figured as much," muttered Scorpius.

He picked up one of the velvet cushions from the bench. "Do you like velvet, Bulstrode?" he asked.

Bulstrode looked at Scorpius in confusion. "Velvet?" he repeated stupidly.

"Yes, velvet, you idiot," snapped Scorpius.

Bulstrode's piggy eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Are you trying to make me look dumb?"

Scorpius sighed in exasperation. "Believe me, Bulstrode, nobody has to try to do that."

Bulstrode snarled angrily, and charged Scorpius.

Just as Bulstrode was almost upon him, Scorpius shoved Lily to the side, threw the cushion into Bulstrode's face, and sidestepped neatly. Bulstrode's considerable mass had all his momentum going in one direction, and he was unable to change it abruptly enough to help himself; he flew head first into the windowed alcove, shattering the stain glass.

"Poor Godric," said Scorpius, looking at Bulstrode's rear end with interest, "it's not his day, is it?"

Bulstrode groaned and started to pull back from the alcove, clutching at his head. He was clearly disoriented, and in pain.

Scorpius leapt astride Bulstrode's bent back, and started to hit the back of the large boy's head as hard as he could.

Bulstrode swayed, but stayed standing. Reaching back over his head with both hands, he grabbed Scorpius by the front of his robes, and brought the blonde boy crashing down over his head onto the bench. It trembled with the impact, but held.

Scorpius wriggled to try and get free, but Bulstrode's grip was tight. The Slytherin drew the blonde boy up, and threw Scorpius from him. Scorpius hit the ground with enough impact to make his teeth snap together painfully. He slid on the smooth tile, and fetched up against the clawed legs of a desk.

He saw Lily go for her wand, but Zabini disarmed her of it easily. Yelling, she rushed up to the tall Slytherin, and punched him in the jaw. It must have been pretty hard, because Zabini took a step back, his hand flying up to his face, as he blinked several times in surprise.

Lily swung her fist at him once more, but his hand that did not hold his wand whipped up, snatching her wrist right out of the air. He twisted it brutally around and behind her back, so that she was facing away from him, unable to move without bringing shocks of pain up her arm.

Scorpius saw Zabini jerk Lily back up against him, and whisper something in her ear. Lily snarled and jerked, kicking out behind her. Her foot connected with Zabini's shin, and he stepped back, swearing.

She turned and tried to punch him once more. He was faster.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

Lily's limbs snapped together, and she peeled over backward silently.

Scorpius scrambled to his feet, but Bulstrode was already running at him, resembling a charging bull from one of those Spanish fights.

Scorpius sidestepped once more, hitting Bulstrode in the side of the face. The Slytherin was sent spinning off course, and crashing into two desks, which promptly overturned and shattered as the heavy boy landed fully on them.

Scorpius pulled his foot back to land a kick, but was grabbed from behind by Zabini. Zabini hauled Scorpius up, and sent him somersaulting over the nearest desk. Scorpius's head hit the side of a chair as he fell to the floor, the sudden pain of which sent black spots dancing across his vision.

Zabini leapt lightly over the desk and landed, with his feet spread, above Scorpius. Bending his knees, so that he was practically sitting on Scorpius's chest, he drew a knife from within his robes.

The first thought that struck Scorpius, was that the dagger was beautiful. Its blade gleamed like cold steel, and its handle was plain black, with a single emerald the size of an almond set in the pommel.

The second thing that struck Scorpius, was that he was likely to be gutted if he lay around much longer.

Heaving himself up with all his might, he pushed Zabini back and off of him. Zabini overbalanced and fell back into the desk.

He leapt to his feet just in time to have Bulstrode slam into him and bear him to the ground.

Scorpius struggled, but Bulstrode was just to heavy for him.

The big Slytherin boy shook with laughter, as he held Scorpius pinned to the ground. "I got him, Zabini, he's not going anywhere."

Scorpius snarled, drew his head back, and slammed it forward into Bulstrode's. However, this only made Scorpius's head ring all that much louder.

Bulstrode stared at Scorpius dumbly. "What were you trying to do?" he asked.

"Gah, nothing, Bulstrode, continue as you were," said Scorpius bleakly, wondering if it was a good sign that he was starting to see doubles of everything.

Zabini came over, and bent down beside them. In his hand glittered the knife. "I'm going to give you something to remember us by," said Zabini with a smirk.

"You're not going to rape me, are you?" asked Scorpius mildly.

Zabini looked like he had been bludgeoned over the head with a stone club. "Rape you?" he echoed.

"You do know what rape is, don't you, Zabini?" asked Scorpius with wide, innocent eyes.

"Oh, shuddup, Malfoy," spat Zabini. He pressed the blade of the dagger to Scorpius's cheek. It felt like ice on his skin.

"What the hell are you doing, Zabini?" growled Scorpius.

"I'm marring your pretty face, forever," said Zabini gleefully.

"Why does it have to be the face?" asked Scorpius mournfully, of no one in particular.

Zabini drew the knife back with one swift, smooth motion.

It was a very curious sensation that Scorpius felt. It wasn't the physical pain he had expected, per se. It was more like it caused such an intense coldness, that it caused pain, but that was not from the splitting of skin. It seared across his cheek, and shot through his whole body. It clutched at his heart, giving it a thumping jolt. He was fairly sure that if he had been over fifty, he would have had a heart attack right then and there.

He could feel the blood oozing from the cut, but it wasn't warm as fresh blood usually was; it was as ice cold as if it had just been taken directly from a freezer and poured over his face.

"What is going on here?" demanded a voice from the doorway.

All three of their heads snapped toward the door. Scorpius was fairly sure Lily's would have too, but she was still in a body bind.

Babcock stood framed in the doorway. His eyes seemed almost on fire, and there were bright red spots of anger high up on his cheeks.

"We're just teaching Malfoy a lesson," said Zabini.

"You are such an idiot," snarled Babcock. His hair seemed to be standing almost on end with his livid fury.

"What are you talking about?" snapped Zabini.

"I would have expected this of Bulstrode, but not you, Zabini," said Babcock, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Babcock--"

"Get over here, this instant," roared Babcock.

Bulstrode and Zabini obeyed, looking rather like whipped dogs returning to their master.

Babcock immediately snatched the knife away from Zabini, and hid it in his robes. "God, you are such a retard," he said. Zabini glared at him, but didn't say anything. "I can't believe you two went against one person, and you guys had a weapon. We may be Slytherins, and we don't fight fair, but this is just..." He shook his head again. "I mean, there is such a thing as Slytherin pride."

He shoved Bulstrode and Zabini outside the door, but then turned back.

Scorpius was on his feet, and was helping Lily to hers, after having unfroze her from the spell.

"And a girl was involved too," muttered Babcock under his breath. "Sorry about the face, Malfoy, it's not going to heal easily."

"Oh, why's that?" asked Scorpius coldly.

Babcock shrugged, turned, and swept from the room, giving no explanation whatsoever.

Author's Note:

What do you think? Do you agree with Scorpius? Is truth beauty? Or is beauty really truth? ;)