POV - Mary
Mary was pretty sure she was about to combust.
After a bunch of her usual campers – plus a lot of new ones – had arrived and went to play close to Sirius and Regulus she’d gone outside again, hesitating slightly to join them. She’d spent a few seconds looking over at the green cabin, trying to catch a glimpse of it’s counselor.
After she had been staring for a few seconds (read: minutes) Lily had finally come outside and had, to the other girl’s surprise, immediately looked over to Mary. When she had noticed her staring she’d given her a small smile, coming her way without thinking.
Now Mary started panicking a little on the inside. Sure, she could flirt. Some people would even say she was great at it. But the moment a pretty girl smiled at her she lost all her words. And Lily was definitely a pretty girl, that she was certain of. That didn’t necessarily mean she had a crush on her. I mean, Mary had eyes. She could easily admit Lily was one of the prettiest girls she’d ever seen.
The burst of confidence that had swept over her moments ago, when she touched Lily’s arm, was long gone. Instead, she felt the sudden urge to turn around, run into her cabin and hide under the first bunkbed she could find. She did the opposite: she smiled back, also walking in Lily’s direction.
‘All settled in?’ she asked, looking at Lily curiously. She seemed already at home, despite only being here for a few hours. She seemed like she belonged here.
The redhead nodded slightly. ‘Yeah, all my campers are here. What about you?’
‘Mine all arrived too. Wanna join Sirius and Regulus and help them?’
‘Sure,’ Lily smiled, walking in the direction of the gate. Mary stayed still for a few seconds before quickly catching up with her, trying to make conversation without actually knowing what to talk about. ‘So are you a little less nervous yet?’
‘Yeah, actually. All of my campers seem lovely. Though a few of them had a really hard time saying goodbye to their parents. I’d guess they’re new to camp,’ Lily said, seeming sunken in thought.
‘We usually have a few of those,’ Mary smiled, remembering some of her campers. ‘Have you met little Luna yet? Normally she’s in your cabin.’
‘Oh yeah, I met her. Strange little thing, I have to say. But she seems adorable.’
‘Definitely, she’s the sweetest. Honestly, if there’s one kid you won’t have to worry about it’s her. Everyone loves her,’ she answered, her eyes twinkling. Mary loved talking about the kids, having learned to love all of them separately. They were all unique and special, and one of the reasons why she was so sure she wanted to work with children once she was done with school. Of course there would always be a few annoying spoiled brats, but even then they were still kinda adorable.
Having reached the gate, and with that the playing children, she stood still, looking at Sirius playing with a few of them. A little bit from that, at the tables, sat Regulus. To Mary’s surprise he was talking to one of the kids in a soft voice, seeming to be soothing him. The little boy looked like he was just crying a minute ago, but Regulus was telling him something and the boy’s tears were drying quickly.
Regulus must’ve felt her gaze on him because he looked up, locking eyes with her. His soft expression immediately turned harder and she walked up to him, leaving Lily to play with some of the campers.
He grumbled at her grin, sending her an intimidating look. ‘You, shut up.’
‘Yessir,’ Mary giggled, not missing the amusing smile that took over his face for a second.
They stayed quiet for a while, neither breaking the – surprisingly comfortable – silence between them.
‘You can let people in sometimes, you know. You don’t always need to protect yourself.’
His face darkened at that, a grimace forming while he kept staring at the nothingness in front of him. ‘I needed to, before.’
‘Before isn’t now.’
He continued to stare stubbornly ahead, refusing to look her in the eye. She sighed, deciding to drop the conversation for a while.
When she looked in the direction of the playground she noticed James joining Lily, the two of them playing tag with the majority of the campers. Mary felt herself smile at the girl’s antics, how she was running and laughing, always a bit too fast for someone to catch her.
She didn’t notice her campers until it was too late.
Suddenly Lily was on the ground, her arms pinned down by at least four of them. Mary ran her way to help, but then decided this is way too funny and she had to see if Lily could free herself. She stood next to them, arms crossed and a smirk on her face. Lily struggled to get up, trying to push the kids off her without hurting any of them.
‘Mary, help me!’ she said, giving her a pleading glance.
‘I’m sorry,’ Mary said smiling, not feeling sorry at all. ‘This is kind of a rite of passage here. Just the kids trying to prove they can take their counselor or something. You’ll get out of it eventually.’
‘Please?’
Mary almost folded right then and there. She felt her cheeks flush, clearing her throat before continuing. ‘Nope,’ she said, popping the p. ‘You’re on your own now.’
At that, Lily pouted, and oh my god, Mary was gonna fold, she was gonna fold, she was-
‘What’s up guys!’ Sirius exclaimed, noticing Lily on the ground. ‘Oh my god, they got you too! Good luck,’ they grinned, it took me half an hour to get out of their trap the first time.’ They turned to Mary, giving her an implying smile.
‘What?’ she said, suspecting something was up. Briefly she wondered if Sirius could in some way read minds, because there was no way they could know what she was thinking, right?
‘Do you really want me to say it out loud, Mare?’ they grinned, ‘Because I will, if you need me to. I think-’
Mary slapped her hand over their mouth, sending them a look strong enough to kill. ‘I think you’re fine actually,’ she said loudly – almost screaming – while dragging them a few yards away.
‘What’s up with you?’ she whisper-shouted, not yet fully trusting if the distance between them and Lily was enough for the redhead not to hear them.
‘You have a crush on Lily,’ Sirius stated, not even asking a question anymore but just fully stating it as a fact.
‘No, I don’t,’ Mary immediately reciprocated, ‘what are you talking about? Why would you think that? I don’t have a crush on her.’
‘Then why’d you drag me along so she couldn’t hear us?’ they said, leaving Mary absolutely stunned. They walked away grinning, waving to Lily, who was still fighting on the ground, and Mary, who was walking back to her, suddenly questioning a lot of things.
When Lily finally freed herself after about five minutes – which Mary could’ve sworn was a record, but she would never tell the girl that – she gave Mary a light punch on the arm. ‘Thanks for helping me out there. Now my hair’s full of knots.’
‘Oh god, I’m so sorry, princess. Shall I sentence all these horrible kids to death so her majesty never gets dirty again?’ Mary mocked, ‘Or shall I banish them out of the country? Then your hair shall never be tangled again!’
‘Don’t call me that.’ She noticed the girl’s face matching the color of said hair and scowling at the nickname, which made Mary decide she would start to use it a whole lot more.
James called for them and they walked up to him together with the campers, all of them gathering around him in a chaotic heap. She and Lily tried to get the kids to stand in a circle, finally succeeding after five minutes of campers that wanted to stand next to all of their friends (Which was kind of impossible, since they had to stand in a circle. A circle.).
‘Okay guys,’ James said loudly, ‘Welcome to Camp Marauders! As always, we will have an amazing time with activities and competitions, starting tomorrow! But today we will play games to introduce ourselves. I know,’ he continued over the noise of the campers starting to talk, ‘a lot of you guys already know each other, but there are new campers that don’t have friends here yet too, plus a new counselor! Say hi, Lily!’ Mary saw Lily smile, giving an awkward wave. ‘So please, participate!’
The kids started talking again, and Lily turned to Mary. ‘Competitions? What kind of competitions are we doing?’
‘Oh, a lot of them,’ Mary explained knowingly, ‘and I’m gonna win them all. There’s a reason why the yellow cabin is the best one, princess.’
‘We’ll see about that,’ Lily retorted, ‘and don’t call me that.’
Mary just smirked and turned away, seeing little Luna come their way. ‘Can I go to the bathroom, please?’ the girl asked, extremely polite.
Mary crouched down to her height, giving her a soft smile. ‘Of course, love. Want me to come with you?’
Luna shook her head, pointing her finger to Lily. ‘I want her to come.’
Mary’s mouth dropped open, staring at the two girls alternately. After Lily came over her initial shock she took the little girl’s hand, leading her along to the bathrooms. She turned her head to Mary, giving her a wink and mouthing “already one competition I’ve won”. Mary felt herself blushing furiously.
She turned back around to participate in the game again, hoping no one noticed how Luna choose Lily over Mary, who’s always been her favorite. But when she looked up she saw Sirius, Remus and Regulus looking at her with huge grins on their faces, and she knew it was over for her. The only one who didn’t notice anything was James, which honestly wasn’t that surprising at all with how oblivious the boy was. She started participating like nothing happened, but she knew she would get called out by at least one of them eventually.
When Lily and Luna came back she couldn’t even find it in herself to be indignant about the whole thing. Instead she could barely contain her smile, thinking about how great Lily already was with the kids. With a shock she realized that there might be a little truth in what Sirius said to her. Maybe she did have a little crush on Lily.
Mary was so fucked.