Epiphany |Scorpius Malfoy|

Chapter Sixty-Two

After the incident that had resulted in both Scorpius and Garry sporting identical bruises, the rest of the week had been uneventful. Isabelle had gotten a letter from Scorpius's father, as ultimately, he had learnt the reason his son had gotten into a fight and that involved him knowing about her situation. His letter was short but straight to the point, as he let her know that she was still welcome in the family - that bit had definitely warmed her heart - and that he wouldn't think any less of her. It was probably all that she needed to hear.

NEWTs were approaching day by day and she and her peers spent countless hours in the library - or anywhere for that matter - studying. With their NEWTs approaching, though, so did her birthday.

Isabelle's birthday was in the end of May, just some days before summer officially started. And while she had had no issue to keep things quiet, the same couldn't be said about her friends.

Which was why she found herself the day of her birthday sitting beside the Black Lake, with Scorpius, Cassidy, Bernard, Hailey, Albus and Rose after a day she spent studying. They had also brought some chocolate cake, courtesy of Cassidy, that they had eaten a while ago. Now they were just sitting in a circle near the Lake, talking among themselves.

Isabelle was leaning partly against Scorpius, the smile having not left her lips for the duration of the afternoon. She had received her gift from Cassidy in the morning - a sleeveless light blue dress that covered her ankles. Bernard and Hailey had gifted her a cute white hoodie she would certainly not wear during the summer but she would sure she would make good use of during the winter. To make matters better, she hadn't seen Garry at all that day.

Rose and Albus had both decided to buy her sweets that Isabelle would probably share with Hailey and Cassidy in the end because frankly, she couldn't eat sweets all day. The only one to not have given her a gift yet was Scorpius, but she would certainly not complain about it. He didn't have to buy her a present. Remembering her birthday and being there for her was enough. After all, she couldn't exactly ignore how he had defended their relationship the other day.

"Earth to Isabelle, hello?"

Isabelle blinked quickly as she looked up, only to catch sight of Cassidy waving a hand in front of her face. "What?"

"Tell them my gift was the best gift you received this year."

"I can't say that!" she spluttered, "That would be mean!"

"Come on, Belle," she whined as she offered her a wide smile and blinked quickly so as to complete her sweet girl facade, "for me?"

"I'm sorry, I can't."

"She has morals, Cassidy, unlike you," Scorpius quipped from beside her as he sent a smirk at her.

"You focus on your girlfriend, lover boy. Nobody asked for your opinion."

Albus's eyebrows furrowed slightly as he looked between his friend that was currently laughing to Cassidy. "Are they always like that?"

"They love each other, deep down," Isabelle smiled his way as Cassidy raised an eyebrow.

"What's that supposed to mean? Do you have a problem with my behaviour?"

Albus's eyes widened. "No, not at all-"

"Come on then!" Cassidy jumped up and moved away from the group, getting into a fighting stance. "Show me what you've got!"

Albus exchanged a helpless look with Scorpius and Isabelle. "Is she high or something?"

"Are you afraid, Potter? You should be! Come and face me!"

"I bet Cassidy will win," Hailey called out as she turned her body to face the fight while Bernard scoffed.