Chapter Text
When Lily hears her name called, she winces and tries to move faster. Perhaps if she walks quickly, he’ll think she didn’t hear and give up. When he calls to her again, she debates making a break for it, but decides against it. He’ll only chase after her, and how would that look to him…and to everybody else?
Instead she slows and waits for him to catch up.
“Didn’t you hear me calling you?” Scorpius asks, slightly breathless.
“Sorry, guess I was lost in thought,” she says, avoiding looking at him. She gets the feeling he doesn’t believe her, but it’s a lie she sticks to. “What do you need?”
“Nothing.” He sounds taken aback. “I just haven’t seen much of you since the beginning of the year, and I thought it’d be nice to catch up.”
Lily finally looks up and tries not to notice how good he looks with that slightly windblown look to his hair. It’s been something she’s been doing since the summer—trying not to notice the little flutter in her stomach and the tiny hastening of her heartbeat that’s been happening every time she sees him. Since they got back to Hogwarts, she’s been avoiding him. For the sake of her sanity and their friendship, she’s had to avoid him.
“You know how it is.” She tries to sound casual, but she can hear the slight break in her voice. “The beginning of the year is always hectic.”
“I suppose,” he says, but again, he sounds slightly disbelieving. “But we’re heading in the same direction now. I figured we could walk together?”
Walking. Yes, she supposes she could handle walking.
He handles most of the conversation, and it’s a strange mixture of uneasiness and euphoria that fills her as she walks beside him. She’ll get used to this feeling, she tells herself. And then she’ll get over it. But she can’t do that if she avoids him completely.
As he stops in his classroom and gives her a smile and a wave, and her stomach does a backflip, she smiles and waves back. Her cheeks are red, and her nerves are on edge, but she’s survived.
Yes, she could handle walking.