No use running this time
The next day, Cassie was woken up by the sound of rain hitting the windows. The heavy rain made it seemed darker outside than it was. Maybe she could drag Remus and Lily to the library for some studying later; she thought while laying her head back down on her pillow. She had been lying awake for a while, staring up to the ceiling, feeling a bit ridiculous, to be honest, as just the thought about yesterday brought a smile to her face.
"What are you smiling about?" Cassie turned so that she was lying on her right side, looking at the duo sitting on top of Marlenes bed. Her smile widened ever so slightly as she raised herself to a sitting position. "Oh, nothing special." Dorcas raised a single eyebrow, not believing a word she was saying. "Could you please stop then? You're creeping me out?" Marlene let out a laugh and gave her girlfriend a gentle shove, careful not to push her off the bed.
"Well, I suppose it might have something to do with a certain boy she saw yesterday." Alice smiled teasingly at her friend as she walked over the floor, from her bed towards the only person in the room who was still sleeping. She put her hands on her hips and looked down at Lily with a disapproving gaze. "Honestly, is she gonna sleep all day?"
"I wouldn't be surprised." Marlene said while she turned the page of her edition of Witch Weekly. Dorcas saw the look that appeared in Alice's eyes and started nodding her head eagerly. Alice grabbed a maroon red pillow from Dorcas's bed, raised the pillow over her head, and repeatedly started hitting the lump in Lily's bed.
"Rise and shine, Lilypad." She stopped momentarily, waiting for a reaction; however, she continued her hitting when none came. After a few hits, she decided to try her luck again. "Don't wanna be late for breakfast." However, no such luck. The girls all shared a look before Alice decided to use her triumph card.
"Maybe I should go and get James."
"Boys can't go up the girl's staircase." A groggy voice appeared from under the comforter that was covering Lilys head. An almost proud smile covered Alice's lips as she sat down on Dorcas's bed. "Well, that woke her up." Marlene met Dorcas's eyes as they shared an amused smile
Lily sat up in her bed, letting the comforter covering her head fall down, exposing her bed head to everyone. Cassie burst out laughing. Lilys hair was practically standing in every direction. It was a literal birdnest. Dorcas and Marlene held on to each other while laughing hard, so neither would end up on the floor. Lily's eyes scanned her friends, confused by the sudden noise that filled the room. Her gaze met Alice's, who was really struggling not to join the other three. However, the moment Lily looked at her. Alice's brown eyes immediately found its way to the top of her head, and any battle that she had been fighting previously was now lost, as she too joined the trio. Lily looked almost scared, unsure if she wanted to know what was happening, but she also knew that it was about her.
"What is it?" She shrieked out, catching the attention of the girls, and momentarily stopping their laughter. They looked at each other for a moment and then back to her, in which they all burst out laughing again.
A few minutes later, the group of girls made their way to the great hall in hopes of getting at least some breakfast before it was over. Dorcas looked over to her friend, who had been smiling since the moment she woke up. And honestly, it was starting to freak her out a bit.
"Are you gonna smile like that the whole day? Because if so, let me know now and.."
"Oh come on, Dor, look at her. She seems so happy." Alice said while Marlene turned her gaze towards the girl on her left and gently squeezed her hand. "Yeah, imagine if it was me walking around all happy because of you. Would you want me to stop?" Dorcas rolled her eyes and met Marlene's gaze while squeezing her hand back. "That's different. You don't look anywhere near as creepy as she does with that smile."
Cassie laughed out loud and put her arm over Dorcas' shoulders while a teasing smile rested on her lips. "Oh, Dorcas, I've been smiling like this since the dormitory because I knew it freaked you out." Lily chuckled, not at all surprised, and gave the older girl a high five. Dorcas shooked her head while pointing a finger towards the smiling girl and laughing slightly. "You bloody suck, you know that?"
Giggling filled the group as they entered the great hall, and Cassie saw her older brother's familiar dark hair, sitting somewhere near the middle of the table. Or rather, the first she saw was James's birdnest of hair. "Hey, Lils seems like you're matching James today."
The other girls, except for the redhead, shared yet another laugh. Lily glared at the older girl and gave her a slight shove before muttering under her breath. "Bugger off." Though it was, in fact, true, Alice and Marlene had been so eager to get to breakfast that they refused to wait for Lily to brush her hair and dragged her out of the dormitory the minute she was dressed.
"Hey, Two!" Cassie immediately turned her gaze towards her brother, furred her eyebrows, and looked particularly offended by what he had said. "Two? Are you mad? Of course, I'm number one." He laughed in disbelief as if he almost couldn't believe what the girl had said. Cassie sat down between Alice and Lily, while Sirius was sitting on the other side of the table between James and Marlene, who had just sat down. " No. I'm the oldest, remember."
"And so? I'm the better twin."
"Better twin?! oh please, we all know that I'm the best looking one out of everyone ."He exclaimed while flipping his hair over his shoulder dramatically. James shared a look with Remus before he facepalmed himself, turning his gaze to his plate.
"Nice hairstyle Lily." Remus was fighting a grin as his eyes lingered on the top of the girl's head sitting next to him. It wasn't until then James noticed the redheaded girl was with them. He looked up from his plate and met the gaze of the girl sitting right across from him.
"shove it, Remus."
"Stood up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?"
"More like beaten out of it." Lily murmured and sent a glare towards a snickering Peter, who immediately shut up and moved his gaze towards his breakfast
Cassie took a bite out of her cereal before pointed her spoon towards James. "So... is that a new hairstyle you're going for, James?" Peter snickered yet again, while Sirius grinned almost proudly at himself. Remus just shook his head and turned his gaze back to the book he was reading.
James rolled his eyes at the two Marauders before meeting Lily's gaze. Recalling what Remus had said, he moved his eyes slightly upwards and saw her bed head, which reminded him very much of his own. In truth, he wanted to chuckle a bit, though he thought that she still looked very beautiful. "Your hair looks quite nice, Lily." Feeling the sincerity in his voice, the girl couldn't help but let a warm smile spread across her face as her own eyes moved upwards to his own bed head. It was indeed a catastrophic sight. His usually messy and uncontrollable hair looked even worse as he hadn't had the chance to comb it. His eyes a bit red and dropping, undoubtedly just having been woken up and dragged to the great hall as she had been. "Thank you, James. I must say your hair looks rather lovely too."
For a moment, he both looked and felt genuinely surprised, not at all expecting the compliment. At first, he thought she was teasing him until he saw the sincere look in her eyes and her warm smile. The compliment ignited the hope that he still carried inside of him, but thought to himself that he better not read too much into it and do something stupid. But still, he sent her a brilliant smile.
As if being struck by lightning Remus looked up and attached his gaze at Cassie, who laughed along with Alice at something Frank had said. He closed his book and put it down. "So how did it go yesterday, Cassie?" She lifted her head towards the voice and thought for a moment before settling on a simple answer. "It was fine."
Marlene scoffed rather loudly. "Suppose it was more than fine. She's been smiling all morning." Lily laughed at this and moved her eyes towards the curly-haired girl and grinned. "It's been freaking Dorcas out to no end."
Sirius chuckled as Dorcas's cheeks darkened slightly. However, she just gave a genuine laugh. "Oh, come on, Cas."
"Yeah, no use running this time. We got you surrounded now." She smiled at the childish behavior of her friends before deciding to satisfy their curiosity.
"All right, all right." The group inched closer to the girl in hopes of catching everything she was going to say. It almost seemed as if the two groups had joined together to start Hogwarts Gossiping Club, which almost made her laugh.
"Well, in short. It was great. We started with a butterbeer and just wandered around talking about everything. Though I have to say I was a bit surprised at how... how should I say this... how different he was from what I imagined." Peter looked at her, his eyes full of curiosity. "Different how? Good? Bad?" Frank turned and looked at the boy next to him while giving him a disbelieving glance. "You really think she would go round smiling if it was bad?"
"You never know, he might have put a spell on her or something." She chuckled and smiled at Peter to reassure him. "It was a good different. Very good"
"I was quite surprised myself. Sirius and I ran into them while buying quill and ink. He was quite nice." All eyes turned towards Sirius at the moment, who was just about to take a bite out of his sandwich. He let his wide eyes move over every member of their group, obviously not expecting the attention. "He seemed alright, I suppose." he managed to say after he swallowed his food.
"They did have a moment though, just before they shook hands, where they were really staring each other down. Or rather, this one here was analyzing Rabastan thoroughly." Cassie pointed her spoon towards Sirius and turned her gaze towards him as she now spoke to him. "While Rabastan looked at you because the way you looked at him made him uncomfortable."
"He said that?" She nodded her head. "Yeah, he told me afterward."
"Well, I am the older brother," He said as if he almost couldn't be bothered, and took a sip out of his pumpkin juice.
"So... What was the judgment?" James's eyes met Sirius's. "Well... he seemed nice, nicer than Rodolphus, so that's good. Though I suppose we don't really know for sure until we get to know him better, though." A small smile grew on Cassie's lips as she heard the words coming out of her brother's mouth. "So you're okay with that?"
"With what?"
"Getting to know him better." He let out a sigh, resigning himself to acceptance. "Whether I like it or not, he's the one you're going to marry, so suppose I have to." She smiled, even more, hoping to Merlin that she would be able to keep both boys in her life. "aww... I love you. Two."
"I love you, Three."
"Three?! Are you bloody kidding me?!" Horror covered her face, while her brother just sat there looking rather smug. "Well, I'm not letting you have One for sure, unless you would like to be Zero?" He grinned wickedly while Cassie groaned and looked towards Remus, screaming internally for help.
"Oh please, Remus, how do you live with this?" He gave her a look, one that didn't really need explaining. "Could ask you the same question, really." He heard a whine coming from Sirius, who was giving him his best puppy eyes look. Remus felt his insides melt slightly and silently cursed himself as he felt his heart skip at the look he was currently receiving from the older boy. "Though, then again, what would we do without him." He quickly turned his gaze down to his plate, hiding his slightly warming cheeks.
"Well... we'd have less drama for sure." Peter snickered while Sirius just shook his head, bearing a brilliant smile across his lips. "Oh, what's the fun in that." Remus and James shared a look, silently agreeing with what their friend had said.