CHOCOLATE [1] | r. lupin

― 04 | NINETEEN-SEVENTIES GOLDEN GIRL

ANOTHER WEEK HAD GONE BY AND CAMERON had soon associated herself with the Marauders more and more. James and Sirius had warmed up to her and now she was constantly being dragged to help them and the other two Marauders with their pranks around the school. From pouring ten pounds of pepper into the Slytherin pumpkin juice, which Cameron told her sister about so she wouldn't drink the juice, or convincing the first years that their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher was a were-rabbit, Cameron was rather enjoying herself despite thinking that maybe some of the pranks were a bit mean. James and Sirius were usually the ones to actually put the plan into action, Peter would distract the teachers, Remus was the look-out, and Cameron talked them out of too bad of punishments with a big, sparkling, wide-eyed look and her constant chatter during detentions that eventually would annoy the professor so much that they would let them leave early.

Currently, the group of five was walking through the corridors of Hogwarts after Cameron had annoyed their Charms professor, who was the one to give them detention in the first place for making different objects levitate behind him and distract the class. Cameron had gone on and on to the professor during their detention about random topics from Quidditch to O.W.L.s, to what she was going to do after Hogwarts, to what she had hoped to get for Christmas. The last topic is what finally made him snap and send all of the students out of detention early.

"That was bloody brilliant, Cam," Sirius complimented the skipping Hufflepuff. Giggling, she skipped ahead and turned to the four boys, playfully bowing and waving her hand as if she was the Queen of England.

"Why thank you, thank you," Cameron mocked a posh accent and blew kisses to the boys. Sirius pretending to catch on of the kisses and press it against his chest.

"I don't know how you do it," Peter spoke up as the five of them continued their stroll. "You just... keep talking. Forever."

"It's what I do best, my dear friend," Cameron smiled to Peter, who stood on her left at the edge of the group.

"No, seriously," James jumped in with a nod. "What goes on in that pretty little head of your, Camy?"

"Food," Cameron nodded confidently without a seconds hesitation. "Definitely food. Speaking of, can we go to the kitchens? I'm starving."

With that, the five found themselves together in the kitchens laughing at James, who had two pieces of chocolate placed between his teeth and lips to look like fangs. He chased Cameron around claiming he was a vampire and he was going to suck her blood. Cameron skipped ahead, her hair falling out of its bun that was once held by her wand and her hair bouncing behind her as her head tilted back and her laughs bounced off the walls.

Cameron Flores was in much more comfortable clothes than her school uniform. Instead, she wore some muggle clothes her mother had taken her to buy. She wore a slightly tight, long-sleeved turtle neck with horizontal stripes that weren't evenly spaced out and had block coloring of mustard yellow, emerald green, denim blue, and crimson red. The material seemed rather thin and it was tucked into a pair of jeans that were tight on the top half of her legs and flared out from her knees to her ankles. Her shoes were the least casual of her outfit. They were black sandals with two thick bands, one over the top of her foot and the other around her ankle, and they lifted her height two and a half inches. Cameron's brunette hair was straightened so it ended at her shoulder blades but had two braids hanging with her hair, framing either side of her face. The boys were used to seeing the girls of the seventies with heavy, brightly colored makeup, but Cameron wore almost none. The only makeup she seemed to wear was black mascara to make her eyes pop slightly and a glittery lipgloss. She left her skin bare, her freckles prominent and her rosy cheeks making up for any blush other girls seemed to pile on.

Yes, she was just a girl. A normal, teenage girl in the golden years of the nineteen-seventies. She used slang she had acquired from the muggles of the seventies: her favorites being 'right on!', 'that's sick!', and, the one her friends mocked her for since she used it the most, putting the word 'like' in front of nearly every sentence. Especially when she went on one of her tangents. So, to everyone else, she was a regular teenage girl with a bit of a hyperactive personality, but to the four teenage boys sporting red and gold, she was just the silly, hyperactive, slang-using, seventies teenage girl they needed in their life.

"I am a vampire and I am coming to suck your blood," James teased in a, very horrendous, Transylvanian accent. Cameron laughed and climbed onto the counter, much to the house elves dislike, and growled at James.

"I'm a werewolf!" Cameron yelled and howled, her voice cracking from how loud she was being and her sore her throat was from her constant talking of the day.

Cameron had expected her friends to laugh at her silly antics, the rivalry between vampires and werewolves a running joke in both the muggle and wizarding world. Instead, she was met with silence and she looked down to see all four boys looking up at her with terrified, worried glances. Cameron rolled her eyes and hopped down so she was sitting on the counter and swinging her legs nervously.

"Like, not actually," Cameron clarified, thinking that maybe she had taken their statement the wrong way. So she decided to throw a light-hearted joke out to try and clear the tense atmosphere. "Sorry if that was too convincing of an impression of a werewolf. Like, I really think I got that howl down."

Again, silence.

"Merlin, tough crowd."

Her words were met with a chuckle and Cameron looked to see Remus smiling at her and chuckling at her. She sent him a toothy grin because she was glad that her awful excuse of a joke had gotten one of them to laugh.

Actually, though, he was laughing at her howl. It had been the saddest excuse of a howl he had ever heard.

❂❂❂

Later that night, Cameron sat in her dorm room curled up in her bed under her blanket with light from the end of her wand shining softly, a book Remus had given her sat in her lap. It was called The Great Gatsby and, despite only starting it when she had first laid down, she was already halfway done. She liked reading Remus's books. She liked the simplicity of just a small novel and not a chunky textbook. She liked how he had put his initials, R.J.L., on the inside of the front cover in the bottom left corner. Every time she finished a book, Cameron took it upon herself to put her initials, C.D.F., on the bottom right corner of the inside of the back cover. Sure, it was wrong since it wasn't her book, but she saw the small smile of adoration when she gave Remus back The Catcher in The Rye and he saw her initials.

Cameron promised herself when she saw that smile that she would write her initials in every single book Remus Lupin owned by the end of the school year. Just like he promised himself he would have her like chocolate by the end of the school year.

▬

❛ You're quite comfy. ❜

started, june 29th, 2019
completed, ???