marmalade → g. weasley

fifteen

Marigold smiled, "Love you guys." She leaned in and trapped them both between her arms, Diego grumbled but wrapped his arms over her shoulders all the same, and Elin pecked her on the cheek.

__________

Dinner came quickly. The trio had spent most of the day down by the lake, Elin taught them how to skip rocks and they read each other riddles off the packets of the chewing gum Marigold had picked up from Honeydukes a few weeks before.

The Great Hall was eerily hollow. Only thirty or so students had stayed behind for the holidays, and they were so spaced out over the four tables it seemed that there was hardly anyone at all.

Marigold, Elin and Diego had been sitting at the Gryffindor table (three of almost nine others) for nearly twenty minutes and Marigold still hadn't spotted Zach. A part of her wondered whether he purposefully wasn't coming, or whether he'd forgotten about her invitation entirely.

Diego spooned a towering fork of mashed potatoes into his mouth, "Doesn't even bother showing up--"

At that exact moment, a head of long black hair and a thin set of shoulders entering the Hall caught her eyes. Zach was standing in the doorway, his hands in is pockets and looking slightly awkward as he surveyed the room. Marigold caught his eye, she smiled and waved him over.

She could feel Diego's irritated glare radiating off of him, she pinched him in the side before whispering, "Be nice."

Zach's eyes were flickering up and down the Gryffindor table in a nervous fashion, but the other Gryffindors hardly recognized him approaching, so he took a tentative seat opposite Marigold.

"Hey," His voice was wary and he nodded in greeting at Diego and Elin.

"Zach," Marigold tried to offer up as comforting a smile as she could muster, "These are my friends. This is Elin, and this is Diego."

Diego's eyes were still hostile, but he sent the Hufflepuff a short "hey, man."

"Hi." Elin squeaked almost directly after him.

The awkwardness between them was so tangible, Marigold leaned over in an attempt to force casualness by dishing some rice onto her plate. "What'd you do all day, Zach?"

Admittedly, the first few moments of dinner had been tense, but to Marigold's utmost surprise, by the time the crumbs of dessert had vanished from their plates, both Diego and Elin were smiling and even laughing at a story Zach was recounting to them.

"And then, with her face completely covered in mud," Zach was struggling to tell the story between his own laughter. "She stood up, and then took off on the Ravenclaw beater's broomstick!"

Beside Marigold, Diego had his head thrown back and was wheezing, his hand pressed against his then aching stomach muscles. Elin was trying to suppress the sound of her giggles behind her hand, her face was pink.

"It was raining, how was I supposed to know it wasn't my broom!" She attempted to defend her actions, but it only made them laugh harder.

Zach had been relaying the events of one of their first quidditch matches against Ravenclaw when they were in third year, and while she generally found the story quite embarrassing, the sight of two of her friends bubbling with laughter made it hard for Marigold not to join in on the joyfulness.

She glanced around to find the Hall almost completely deserted. The teachers had long since disappeared into the staff-only side of the castle, and the only other people still lounging around at the tables were two Ravenclaw girls.