Potter | 𝘚𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘶𝘴 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬

Chapter 88

When Lily and Remus returned back to the common room, they saw that the party was still going on.

      Although their six friends were the only ones sitting down, apparently awaiting their return.

       When they looked up and saw Lily and Remus walking toward them, they all glanced at them questionably.

      But behind Remus, Lily gave them a knowing look, as if to tell them to let the matter go and so to their relief, the group asked nothing about it.

"Well, now that everyone knows about Sirius and Jenna," Marlene started, "that means that I don't have any secrets to keep anymore! Ah, yes! That feels good. The pressure was nearly killing me!"

"What pressure?" said Lily. "All three of us knew already. Who else did you have to tell?"

"No one. But if someone asked the questions, I couldn't have held my tongue."

"Then thank Merlin it's over," said Jenna playfully, stretching out her legs and placing them on the table before the couch.

"Exactly," said Sirius with a grin, getting to his feet and looking sideways at James. "Which is why nobody would mind if I danced with my beautiful girlfriend, right?"

James folded his arms and looked away, mumbling to himself grumpily as Sirius took Jenna's hand and got her to her feet, spinning her around and getting her to the middle of the dancing crowd.

"He's just doing this to piss me off," said James moodily, frowning.

"Oh, get over yourself," said Marlene as she looked at the couple with amusement. "This isn't about you."

"I — I didn't say that it was —"

"Good! Then let's keep it that way, shall we?" she then stood up and in a quick motion grabbed Alice's and Lily's hands, dragging them to the dance floor as they laughed.

***

The next day, all the Gryffindors had trouble waking up early for classes, having stayed up all night and celebrating.

None of them were able to listen in their first classes or two, slowly drifting to sleep in the middle of them.

Although the sixth years who had Transfigurations before lunch, were startled awake by Professor McGonagall.

"I will not tolerate this kind of behavior in my classroom!" she said sternly. "I am happy that Gryffindor has won too, but that's not a good enough excuse to stay up all night and act like dancing monkeys!"

There was the sound of muffled laughter at that as she turned around and proceeded with her lesson.

That day, Lily had decided that she would skip lunch and go to the library, leaving Marlene, Alice, and Jenna to eat without her in the Great Hall.

They were almost over with their meal that Sirius strolled over them from where he was sitting with Remus and Peter.

"Hello, Kitten," he grinned, pecking Jenna on the cheek, making her giggle. "Wanna go for a walk before class?"

"No," said Marlene flatly.

       But then she winced in pain and grabbed onto her leg. "Ouch! Alice!"

"What?" said Alice innocently.

"You kicked me!"

"I'm just eating my pie." Alice shrugged.

Jenna chuckled at them, shaking her head before turning to face Sirius. "Where's James?"

"Library," said Sirius disapprovingly.

"Lily's there too," Jenna mused. "Hope she doesn't murder him if they run into each other."

By those words, Marlene choked into her drink and spat it out.

Jenna narrowed her eyes at her suspiciously. "Hmm... you know something."

"N-no I don't," said Marlene, her ears going red.

"Come on, Mar! Spit it out!"

"Ugh, fine! Lily and James went to the library together!" she finally blurted out, but then clasped a hand over her mouth. "I wasn't supposed to tell you!"

"What!?" Jenna and Sirius exclaimed together.

"When? How come we didn't notice!?" Jenna asked.

"When you and Alice had gone to the loo, James came along and him and Lily had a small argument about our new Transformations lesson so they went to the library to settle it and see who was right, but Lily told me not to tell you!" Marlene said all that in one breath, letting it out but then grimacing and muttering to herself, "Damn it, Marlene! Keep it together!"

***

After their lessons when they went back to the common room that night, Jenna finally confronted Lily, but she shrugged and said they were just trying settle the argument.

"And who won?" Marlene asked with a grin.

"Turns out, neither of us," said Lily, smiling. "We had a laugh about it after that."

"Then why did you take so long to come back from the library?" Jenna questioned suspiciously as they walked up to the girls' dormitory.

"We just stayed a bit longer to study," Lily said casually.

"Is 'studying' the new term for saying snogging?" said Jenna teasingly with a mischievous grin, causing Lily to glare at her.

Lily opened her mouth to retort, but didn't get the chance to when they entered their dorm and saw two purple envelopes, one laying on her bed and the other on Jenna's.

"Damn it, another Slug Club supper," Jenna groaned under her breath. "I was lucky enough to get out of the other three for Quidditch practice. I don't think I have any other excuse tonight."

"Then why don't you just drop out of it if it bothers you so much?" Lily asked, taking up her envelope and reading the invitation letter inside.

"Nah, James has already turned him down. It would be rude if I do it too in the middle of the term," she explained. "I'll maybe drop out next year."

"Well, I think he's a good man," said Lily, setting the letter down.

With that, they started to get ready. The two girls had let down their hair that night and Jenna kept it blue like old times.

After an hour, they waved Alice and Marlene goodbye, making their way over Slughorn's office as always.

"Ah, Miss Evans, Miss Potter! Welcome," Slughorn beamed at them warmly. "Come in, come in! Is that everyone? I think Mr. Black has yet to come."

Jenna frowned in confusion at first, before realizing that he wasn't talking about Sirius, but actually his brother.

"Good, now that you're all here," said Slughorn when Regulus finally arrived, "I thought we could take a photograph. It would look very memorable on my shelf, wouldn't you agree?"

He chuckled in amusement, taking out his wand and pointing it at the camera, making it float in mid-air and face where they all had gather at the back of the room.

Jenna took the spot next to Lily as they all raised a glass and smiled at the camera, until it finally flashed and took their picture.