A/N: Hello, all! This is the companion piece/spinoff of Show a Little Faith and Leap of Faith. it will be from the POVs of Lily, Hugo, and Lily. I suggest reading SALF and at least the first chapter of LOF before diving into this. It will be updated in tandem with LOF, a chapter going up weekly on one story or the other.

Hope you enjoy chapter one, and let me know what you think! I actually enjoy writing conflict so I had fun with this, even though it's painful.

Lily Potter couldn't remember ever being more frustrated in her entire life. At least, not for such an extended period of time. And not with her cousin, who also happened to be her best friend.

She supposed she could say she had more than one best friend. Her cousin Lucy was her best friend, but since they were sorted into different houses when they reached Hogwarts, they hadn't stayed as close. Then there was Charlotte Bray, whom she'd gotten to know through Lucy. And while Lily would call her one of her best friends, she was in Hufflepuff with Lucy. It created a natural distance. It was obvious that Charlotte and Lucy were each other's best friends, but Lily had never really felt like she was an outsider with them. They were both the type of people to be welcoming and accepting of everybody, and Lily knew she could always count on them. So it hadn't been out of necessity that she'd grown so close to Hugo. It had been natural and unavoidable.

Her family spent almost as much time at her Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione's house as they did at her own growing up, and if she and her brothers weren't over there, her cousins were visiting them. The close proximity paired with an innate ability to get along was all it took for her and Hugo. They were joined at the hip from before she could even remember.

Then he'd gone and ruined that. If she were honest with herself, she'd be able to admit that they both had, but Lily's head wasn't in that place. It was too busy being angry with her cousin for being an arse for reasons she was still denying were valid.

At least she had Caleb. Her heart sped up at just the thought of her boyfriend. They'd waited so long to be together, and she thought everything had been going perfectly. But with the way Hugo and Louis had acted towards the end of the school year, perfect seemed to be out the window. At least Louis had somewhat come around, even if he was still keeping a bit of distance and wasn't quite his normal self. And as much as Lily wanted her best friend back, talking to Hugo was very low on her list of priorities. At least until he saw sense and stopped being an arse. As far as she was concerned, she was owed one hell of an apology.

He'd said horrible things to her, all because he didn't like the fact that she was dating someone and he wasn't. He felt left out, but that wasn't on her. He made his own choices. Of course, those choices had eventually included snogging Anastasia Bennett - a girl in Lily's house and year that she couldn't stand above anyone else - so they weren't relied on to be wise. Still, if he had a problem with her dating Caleb Wood, he could have said something when she'd first told him, not sit around growing more and more displeased with the situation until he unnecessarily exploded. He was behaving like a child, and as someone who didn't want to stoop to such antics, Lily was determined to keep her cousin out of her life.

At least for the time being. Until he grew up and apologized.

After spending an afternoon with Molly and Lucy, Lily was grateful to leave their house. She loved her cousins, but she could feel the things that were going unsaid. The mood was strained, no matter how hard they tried to make it casual. It wasn't that she felt judged by them, but it was obvious they were doing everything they could to refrain from broaching the subject of the rather horrifying way the school year had ended.

As she prepared to Floo over to her boyfriend's house, Lily hoped the reason he wanted to talk didn't have anything to do with Hugo. Especially after spending the afternoon dodging the subject. He'd tried over the past few weeks to get her to try and talk to her cousin, but Lily had continued to refuse to do so as she became an expert at changing the subject.

She hadn't seen Caleb in the week they'd been back from school. His family had gone on holiday together, since Eva had some time off from training with the end of the season. It had been a week too long, in her opinion. No matter what else was going on with their friends and her family, Lily's feelings had only grown for her boyfriend. In fact, if part of their conversation today happened to involve him confessing some particularly strong feelings for her, she'd feel inclined to do the same. So it was with giddy excitement that she appeared in the fireplace in his family home.

"Caleb?" she called as she stepped out of the grate and into the empty living room. She heard the sound of someone hurrying down the stairs, and a smile came to her face as she turned to see Caleb enter the room a moment later.

"Hey," she said with a grin, moving forward to greet him. "I missed you."

Before she could pull him close and kiss him like she'd been dreaming of doing for days, he crossed his arms over his chest and directed his gaze to the floor. Lily froze a few feet away from him, her gut clenching with anxiety as she noticed the expression on his face that appeared both pained and full of regret.

"Caleb, what's going on?" she asked, slowly closing the distance between them and trying to get him to meet her eyes. "Did something happen?"

"A lot's happened, hasn't it?" he said, his tone unreadable as he continued to look everywhere but directly at her.

"Caleb, you're scaring me," said Lily, who considered it a victory that he didn't shrug her off when she reached out and placed a hand on his arm. "What's wrong?"

"Everything's wrong, Lily," he said emphatically, finally meeting her gaze. She was surprised to see the pain in his deep blue eyes. "My best friend is barely speaking to me, and you won't even mention Hugo's name."

Lily tensed at his words. She drew her hand away from him and crossed her arms, mirroring his stance. "I told you, I don't want to talk about this."

"That's part of the problem, isn't it?" he insisted. "We screwed up, Lily. And we have to face that. Even though we had the best intentions, we made a bloody mess. And if you're not going to try and fix things, I suppose Al was right. It's up to me to do that."

"Al?" she asked in surprise. "What did my brother say to you?"

"Nothing that I didn't already know. The longer we do this, the more of a mess it's going to turn into. So, before any more damage is done, the right thing to do is to walk away."

"Walk away?" Lily asked, fear filling her at his words. "Walk away from what, exactly?"

It was written all over his face that he didn't want to do what it was becoming obvious he was doing. He opened his mouth to respond, but a door closing in the direction of the kitchen caused him to pause. Before Lily really knew what was happening, he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into the study that was off the family room, closing the door behind them.

"You don't seriously think that we're the problem, right?" Lily said as soon as he'd closed the door. Caleb let out a sigh, his hand running through his wavy brown hair as she continued. "Because they're the ones who are being immature about this."

"So are you!" he said, his voice raised slightly as he grew frustrated. "Lily, Bobby was right. We've been so bloody focused on ourselves that we left our closest friends hung out to dry, not to mention the fact that we lied to them for months. They have every right to be upset with us."

Lily didn't have any clue what to say. She couldn't believe that he was actually taking Hugo's side.

"Look, maybe we rushed into this-"

"Rushed into this?" Lily said in flustered anger. "We danced around this for months. Years, even. How's that rushing into this?"

"Maybe not that way," Caleb allowed. "But based on how we act, anyone who saw us would think we're in a serious relationship."

Lily couldn't help feeling a bit stung by his words. "Are we not?"

"No. Yes. I don't know," he said with a frustrated sigh. He walked further into the room, rubbing his hand over his face in aggravation as he left her standing helplessly by the door. "I'm not saying we're just having a laugh, but we barely had our own lives by the end of term. That's a bit much, don't you think?"

"Caleb, we had different classes and schedules," she pointed out. "We weren't always together."

He didn't say anything for a few minutes, his back to her as he stared out the window that faced their backyard. There were a few goal posts set up, and Lily could imagine a young Caleb practicing his Quidditch skills while his dad watched from the room they were in. That is if Oliver wasn't out there with him already.

"I just think we need to focus on ourselves for a bit," he eventually said. "And I don't mean together."

Lily's breath caught in her throat. "What do you mean, then?"

There was a beat where Lily let herself believe he wasn't about to say what she knew he was going to, but then his shoulders rose and fell in a heavy sigh before he turned and looked at her with a guarded yet somber expression. "I mean I think it's best that we break up."

Lily blinked rapidly, her eyes stinging with the desire to burst into tears. "You don't mean that."

"Yeah," he said quietly, "I do."

"You're ending this?" she said, unable to help making sure this was really happening. That he was really breaking her heart.

"I don't see any other way to fix this," he said in defeat. "And I don't want to give you any type of false hope, but if things work themselves out, who knows. Maybe this is just what needs to happen. At least for now."

Lily wanted to slap him, if only to get him to show some type of emotion. Anything other than this frustrating complacency and sorrowful acceptance he seemed to have embraced.

"You don't have to do this," she snapped at him. "You don't have to let what other people think dictate what we do."

"It's not about what they think," said Caleb, his tone pleading with her to understand. "It's about the fact that this doesn't feel right anymore. Not with the way things have turned out."

Lily struggled to keep back a sob. How could he really be saying that they weren't supposed to be together? That went entirely against everything she thought to be true. But he seemed determined, and she couldn't see a way to talk him out of it.

"Fine," she said, her tone clipped. If he wasn't going to break down in front of her, she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of seeing her lose it over him. "I guess I'll see you…"

She'd been about to say at school, but then it hit her how often she was probably going to have to see him over the summer. There was going to be the annual summer Quidditch match at her house in a few weeks, not to mention the other various get togethers they would be having. It was possible that he wouldn't be around as often as he'd been previous summers, especially if he wasn't able to right things with Louis. But his family was always invited to things anyway.

It took everything in her not to completely lose it as his eyes searched hers, the care he still had for her despite his decision still obvious.

"You're set on this, aren't you?" she couldn't help asking with a shaky voice. "Even if it's the complete opposite of what I want?"

"I'm sorry, Lily," he said, the crack in his voice the first sign that he was actually struggling to get through this. "I wish it were different."

Lily let out a humorless snort. "Yeah, well, I wish you knew that it could be."

Unable to stand it any longer, Lily turned and pulled the door open before storming out, refraining from glancing back at Caleb. She heard someone say her name, and she thought it was his mother, but she was already grabbing Floo powder off the mantle and throwing it in the fire. A moment later and she was standing in her family's sitting room, surrounded by people, and one in particular that she most certainly did not want to see.

She was going to kill Al.

Correction; she was going to kill Hugo.

After she'd completely fallen apart and her brother had surprisingly managed to calm her down, Lily gained a bit of perspective. She knew Al hadn't told Caleb to break up with her and was only trying to help. It wasn't his fault that his brotherly instincts to protect her had wound up hurting her.

Hugo, on the other hand. He'd gone out of his way to hurt her and cause her pain. Not only had he yelled at her and called her a bitch to her face in front of the majority of the school, but then he'd gone and taken up with her least favorite person at Hogwarts. And he'd played the victim. Made her feel like she'd been the one to turn her back on him, and caused all of the fallout that led to her many broken relationships.

She'd spent the night tossing and turning, unable to sleep for more than a measly two hours. Her exhaustion combined with her heartache and the inability to fully accept everything that had happened had caused her mind to wander into all sorts of places that weren't healthy. Yes, she was furious with Hugo. Caleb wouldn't have broken up with her if he wasn't so emotionally immature. But if making things right with Hugo meant Caleb would take her back, she was determined to make that happen.

Unable to wait any longer, Lily rolled out of bed just after six o'clock the following morning. She hadn't bothered to change the night before, and she didn't even pause to change her clothes or freshen up before running out of her room and down the stairs to the fireplace. She'd just grabbed a handful of Floo powder when she jumped in surprise at the sound of her name.

Her dad was standing in the doorway of the kitchen, his hair slightly more disheveled than normal and his bathrobe worn over his pyjamas. He was watching her in curiosity and concern.

"You all right?" he asked. Lily actually managed a slight smile, the warmth and obvious care in his voice comforting her in a way that only a father could. Unable to use her voice for fear that she would begin crying from the overwhelming amount of emotions running through her, she simply gave him a nod. He didn't seem entirely convinced, but she was thankful when he didn't press her on it, merely asking where she was going.

"Ron and Hermione's," she was able to say with an attempt at nonchalance. His brow rose in surprise.

"All right. So long as you're not planning on killing your cousin."

Lily actually chuckled as she threw the powder into the fire and the flames turned green. "I'll try not to, but I can't make any promises."

She appeared in her aunt and uncle's sitting room a moment later, the only sound in the house the ticking of the clock above the mantle. Not wanting to wake anyone unnecessarily, she slowly crept up the stairs to the second floor, noting the sound of running water down the hall and thankful that she didn't have to pass any other occupied rooms to get to Hugo's.

He'd started locking his door around the age of thirteen, much to his mother's annoyance, but Lily had been shown by Fred years ago how to pick a lock the Muggle way, and had stashed a hairpin on the top of Hugo's door frame for moments like this. She had his door open in seconds.

It was obvious immediately that he hadn't unpacked yet. His trunk sat open at the end of his bed, clothes spewing out of it. There was a stack of textbooks and parchment on the floor next to it, as if he'd tossed them aside to get to other things further down in the trunk. Other than that, there were a few things scattered around the room, but it was still reasonably put together. He'd never been the worst of the cousins when it came to room cleanliness. That title, surprisingly, belonged to Lucy.

A cage for his owl sat on his desk, and a tank that housed some type of lizard sat on his dresser. There were various Quidditch and band posters covering the walls, as well as a few that depicted and listed species and subspecies of animals. A few photos of family and friends were stuck up here and there too. His bed was in the far corner of the room, a frightfully orange Chudley Cannons poster hanging above the head.

Lily's entrance hadn't disturbed Hugo. He was still sleeping peacefully, lying on his stomach with his blankets only covering his legs. Lily's heart threatened to soften slightly when she noticed that Crookshanks was curled up on the bed beside him, nestled close against his bare side. He really loved that old cat.

As endearing as the sight was, Lily wasn't to be distracted from her mission. She shut the door before marching over to her cousin, reaching out to jostle him awake none too gently by gripping his shoulder and shaking him.

"Wake up, Hugo," she said in a harsh whisper. It was moments like these that she wished she could use magic. Then she'd be able to put up a silencing charm and create a ruckus without fear of waking the rest of the house. Hugo merely groaned and burrowed further into his pillow while Crookshanks squinted his eyes open and glared up at her.

"Get your arse up, you prat," she said a bit more loudly, combining her request with a rather hard smack on his bare back. Hugo flinched in surprise and maybe even a bit of pain, his head flying off the pillow to look up with a scrunched and sleep ridden face to see who was disturbing his peace so rudely.

"What the hell?" he asked in a groggy voice, pulling a hand out from under his pillow to rub at his face. He propped himself up on his elbows and dropped his hand to squint up at her. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw his cousin, his gaze flickering to the clock next to his bed. "It's not even seven o'clock, Lily," he groaned.

"I don't give a-"

"Oh, for fucks sake, Lily," he groaned, cutting off her impending tirade and flopping back down on his pillow. "If you just wanted to yell at me, couldn't it have waited till a more decent hour?"

Lily growled in frustration before reaching out and pulling his blankets off him, revealing a pair of boxers covered in dragons. He groaned in annoyance before rolling over and aiming a kick at her, but she was smart enough to have taken a step back a moment before. Crookshanks gave a mewl of annoyance at the ruckus before hopping off the bed and going to sit by the door.

"What do you want?" Hugo asked through a yawn, propping himself up on his elbows and looking up at her with a bored expression.

"Right," she said with a huff, folding her arms and glaring at him. "We're sorting this out. Whatever problems we have with each other, it's time we fixed them."

Hugo raised an unimpressed eyebrow at his cousin. "Just like that?"

Lily shrugged. "Do you have a better idea?"

"Maybe you could apologize for acting like a stuck-up, selfish little shit?" he suggested. It took everything in Lily not to slap him.

"What's wrong with you?" she asked in disbelief. "I'm supposed to be your best friend, yet you've said the cruelest things to me the past month. Crueler than anything I've ever heard you say to or about anyone else. Did I really do something so terribly wrong in your eyes that I deserve to be treated like that?"

Lily knew her eyes were welling with tears, her voice shaky with emotion. Hugo looked a little uncomfortable, his gaze roaming around the room and then over her attire in an effort to avoid looking her in the eye.

"Well," he said slowly, "you certainly look like shit right now."

The smirk that appeared on his face at these words wasn't menacing. It was the teasing kind that she was so used to seeing on his face. Lily suddenly realized how much she missed him, but she wasn't about to let that get in the way of being thoroughly upset with him.

"Yeah, well," she said, pausing to sniff and wipe away the lone tear that had managed to escape. "You'd look like this too if you'd been up all night after crying your eyes out."

A flicker of concern crossed his face, but his question came out disinterested. "Why would you do something like that?"

Lily gave an unamused snort. "It would appear that being dumped doesn't exactly agree with me."

A strange sense of relief filled her when his jaw dropped and his eyes widened in surprise. "Caleb broke up with you?"

She gave a jerky nod in response, her eyes welling with tears once again. Hugo gave a heavy sigh before pushing himself off the bed. Lily thought for a moment that he was going to hug her, but he headed towards his door instead. Anger flared in her for a moment, thinking he was going to walk away, but he merely opened the door to let out Crookshanks, who'd been pawing at it impatiently.

"I'm sorry," he said, surprising Lily with the sincerity in his voice. She stared at him while he leaned back against the closed door, continuing to avoid looking directly at her.

"No you're not," she said, crossing her arms and glaring at him. "Don't deny that this is what you wanted."

"It wasn't," he argued. Lily let out a scoff of disbelief.

"You did one hell of a job of making it seem otherwise."

They stood there in tense silence for a few moments before Lily let out a frustrated sigh and moved to sit on his bed. "What was so horrible about me having a boyfriend?" she asked, cringing at how pathetic she sounded.

"It wasn't you having a boyfriend," he said. "It was how you handled the whole thing. And I don't see any point in explaining it all again, seeing as you didn't listen the first time."

Lily huffed in annoyance. "Maybe that's because you were acting like a prat."

"Maybe I was," he allowed with a shrug, "but that doesn't make your actions automatically okay."

"And which actions were those?" she asked sarcastically. "The time I developed feelings for someone? The time I acted on them? Or the time I was actually honest with you and told you the truth? Because I don't see you handling your feelings and emotions that well."

"Will you stop doing that?" he asked in frustration. "You always turn things around to make it look like you've done nothing wrong. I know I've messed up and I didn't handle things well, and I'm willing to own that now. Are you?"

"There's nothing wrong with spending time with the person you're dating!" she insisted. "You can't make me feel guilty about that. I was happy, Hugo! And this is exactly why I waited so long to tell anyone. I knew one of you was going to do something to ruin everything."

"I didn't ruin things!" Hugo yelled back. "You ruined things yourself! You got so caught up in your boyfriend and your relationship that you completely forgot that there are other people who care about you. People who thought you cared about them too!"

"I do care about you!" she said indignantly. "I was nervous as hell to tell you I was dating Caleb because I was worried about how you'd react. You said you were fine with it!"

"And I was!" said Hugo in exasperation. "But as soon as you knew I was okay with it, I didn't matter anymore! The only thing that did was Caleb. During Easter, he was all you could pay attention to, and then it just got worse after that. You were always running off to spend time with him, completely disregarding any plans we might have had on multiple occasions, and never thinking to try and make an effort to be any type of friend to me anymore. It hurt, Lily! It hurt so fucking much that all I was to you all those years was a placeholder until you found something better. That's not how you treat your friends. And it's sure as hell not how you treat your family."

He was breathing heavily, his face a blotchy red as he stared at her. The hurt he'd just described was evident on his face, the blue eyes he'd inherited from his father slightly glassy with the strength of his emotions. And for the first time, Lily considered whether or not what he was saying was actually true.

When she failed to speak up, Hugo let out a sigh, his hand rubbing his face before going through his sleep disheveled hair. "I know I acted like a prat. I should have told you sooner that I was bothered by everything, but I didn't know how to. You didn't exactly give me many opportunities to say anything either, seeing as I can't even remember the last time it was just the two of us. So I let it all just build up until I couldn't take it anymore, and I should have known better than to lash out at you. You've never exactly respond well to that."

Lily was softening slightly, and she found herself almost smiling at his last comment. He said he was ready to own up to things, but she hadn't really thought he'd do it.

"So, I'm sorry," he continued, his tone still a bit cold, but honest and genuine. "I shouldn't have said what I did that night after the Quidditch match, and my behavior following wasn't okay either. Most of what I did was out of spite, and I could tell I was upsetting you, but to me, that only seemed fair at the time. But I know that's not how you should treat people. Especially the people you love. So, I'm sorry."

Lily nodded, her eyes leaving his to look at the floor instead. When she finally found her voice, it came out choked. "I suppose I can try to forgive you. Even though I'm still angry with you for screwing everything up."

There was a beat of tense silence, and then-

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Hugo shouted in indignant anger. "After everything I just said, not only will you not own up to your own mistakes, but you can't just accept the rather thorough and sincere apology that I just made? What the hell, Lily?! You said you wanted to sort this out and that you wanted to fix our problems. We can't do that if you insist on staying in denial!"

"Fine!" she yelled, standing and clenching her fists at her side. "I'm sorry I went after something I wanted. I'm sorry I managed to find someone who wanted to be with me. I'm sorry that I fell in love. And I'm sorry that all of that is now over because you never managed to grow up!"

She was breathing heavily, both of them glaring at each other. For a moment, she thought he'd softened at her admission of love, but his face hardened a moment later. Probably in response to her final insult.

"Now," she continued, trying to force calm into her voice, "this is getting sorted whether you like it or not, so stop being so-"

"Why?" Hugo cut her off, his arms crossed as he looked at her calculatingly. "Why is it so important all of the sudden that we fix things? You seemed to not care enough to try before, and seeing as you're still not seeing sense…"

He trailed off as the truth hit him, his eyes narrowing and his jaw clenching. A moment later, he turned and pulled open his door, standing to the side so Lily could see out into the hall.

"Get out," he snapped.

"What?" Lily asked in surprise.

"Out!" he yelled, now pointing out the door. "I'm not going to pretend everything's all right between us just so you can try and get back together with your boyfriend."

Lily felt her face turning red in a mixture of anger and embarrassment. "That's not-"

"You're a shit liar, Lily," Hugo snarled at her. "Even before you told me the two of you were together, I knew something was going on. You think I haven't known that you've liked him for years? I'm your best friend. Of course I noticed. And of course I know how much he means to you. But as much as I want you to be happy, I'd sooner have you hate me than let you walk all over me. So you can take your pathetic excuse for an apology and your lies and get out."

For the first time, Lily was afraid. She'd considered it a given that they'd eventually make up and get past everything, but the resigned tone with which he'd just told her to get out had her truly worried that he meant it in more ways than one. And that she was very much in danger of losing his friendship in an irreparable way. Yet she still couldn't bring herself to see things the way he did.

For the second time in less than twenty-four hours, Lily stormed away from someone she loved, although this time it felt much worse. Like there was a piece of her that would never be whole again.