Stargazing

“BLACK. POTTER.”

Lacie held her book up so only her eyes peaked out as she watched Marlene storm down from the Girls’ Dormitory. Her face was red while her hair was a dry hay bale yellow. It honestly would look okay once it faded into a less intense yellow.

“Hi Mar-” A boy with light brown hair came down the stairs, who she recognized as Remus, and paused. Lacie couldn’t tell if it was the brightly coloured hair or the angry expression that caused him to stop. “I’m just going to head to the Great Hall.”

A few more boys came down and were startled by the Gryffindor girl.

“Cowards,” Marlene called up.

Lacie wasn’t able to make out anything except for the exclamation that either Sirius or James must have shouted down, “-self-preservation!”

Marlene was patient and the moment they came to see if the coast was clear, Marlene put a foot on the stairs and the boys promptly slid down in a heap. James patted down his hair, not that it did much good, while Sirius groaned, “James, quit elbowing me in the ribs.”

“Honestly,” Lily said as she joined the group in the common room.

Like a spring, James sprung up and despite his ruffled appearance held out a hand to Lily. “Join me for breakfast, Lilypad?”

“No, I’ve already promised Lacie and Marlene I’d have breakfast before class with them,” Lily set a side eye in their direction, daring them to oppose. They didn’t, of course, as they knew how much their friend was trying to stay civil. Lacie knew that James had a way of getting to Lily that others didn’t.

“Maybe we could fix my hair, so it doesn’t look like I’m a piece of corn!” Marlene said. “Do you have a way to reverse this?”

“You know. All three of you together make up the primary colours,” Sirius added.

Lacie laughed as she realized he was right, but Marlene started to fume again. Sirius and James glanced at each other before booking it for the portrait hole. As they scrambled out Marlene turned towards her friends.

“I can’t go out like this,” she said, holding up a few locks of hair so she could see just how bad it was.

“We could always move up our plans,” Lily replied. “It might be for the best so then we’ll be back to normal before exams hit.”

And so, Lacie found herself rummaging around her trunk for where she kept the Hair-Dying Potions. Most of them were a dark navy blue, as it was her preferred colour. However, she kept some other options as her parents had bought a sample set before she had settled on blue. Lacie handed two potions to her friends and found a reddish one for herself.

“On three?”

Marlene lifted her vial and they clinked their vials together before counting down. It was a bit of a thicker consistency and had a slightly soapy taste as it went down. A few moments later, Marlene and Lily were both sporting a navy blue, although Lacie could swear that Marlene’s was slightly more green. Not that she would ever say so.

“Not quite as red,” Lily commented, holding a strand of Lacie’s hair. It was a little more brown then either of her friends’ natural hair colour.

Lacie shrugged, “The potion looked redder. But this reminds me of my mum’s hair. She has more of an auburn.”

“I’m liking this colour,” Marlene spun around and looked into her hand mirror. “Although it clashes a little with the Gryffindor red. I would do this again. I think I’d like to try pink, although not anywhere my parents can see.”

“Yeah, I don’t mind this, but I’m glad it will be gone before I have to go home,” Lily agreed, packing up her book bag for their morning classes. “Can you imagine what Petunia would say to me.”

The Great Hall was loud as students from all the houses came and left for breakfast. The seemingly never ending supply of food was spread out with a large variety of choices. Lacie, ever the adventurous one, picked out three types of jam for her pieces of toast.

No one seemed to pay the girls any mind until Sirius looked over and stared. He leaned over to whisper something Lacie couldn’t make out to Jame who looked up as well. The boy’s face lit up with a smile. It was almost comical how his eyebrows furrowed in confusion and then relaxed again to display his overconfident grin.

He sauntered over to where Lacie and her friends were sitting and plopped himself beside Lacie and across from the other two.

“Water Lily, you shine as brightly as ever,” he practically shouted, drawing attention towards their section of the table.

“James,” Lily rolled her eyes. “You are as loud as ever.”

Lacie continued to nibble on her toast as she thought about her to-do list today. There were still some notes she wanted to clarify with her textbook and then more practice on her spellwork. That is if her professors decided to be kind and not assign anymore essays or large readings to do.

The crowd was dwindling and breakfast was coming to a close. Empty dishes began to vanish and the noise level was down to a low hum that was easily ignored. Marlene was smug, as she finished off her pastry, and made eye contact with Sirius. Sirius on the other hand didn’t seem too bothered, as he chatted with the two boys who were opposite him.

“Don’t you have to get to class?” Lacie tuned back into the conversation as Lily was arguing with James.

“You remember my schedule,” James leaned forward eagerly.

“We share all of our classes,” Lily replied quickly.

“Oh, right,” James seemed to visibly droop in his seat, but shook it off. “It just means we get to spend more time together, Water Lily.”

It almost made Lacie feel bad for James. She watched him get turned down time after time and he kept trying his luck. Unfortunately for him, Lily didn’t seem to be softening towards his advances at all. Some of his gestures were just too over the top and showy. Lacie knew that as long as he kept that up, Lily was likely to say no. Not that she had ever vocalized those thoughts.