Better - The Marauders

SIXTEEN

She felt something come in contact with the skin under her nose and above her upper lip and it swiped across, then the feeling was gone. When she was sure that whatever it was had stopped, her shoulders relaxed into her straight posture as she opened one eye to see James wiping his thumb on the table. "What did you do?"

"You had cream on your lip." He gestured to some of the cream still in her pint of butterbeer and she nodded slowly, though she was still a bit shaken up from the contact, no one had ever gotten that close to her face except for her parents. "I just wiped it, one smooth move." He promised and she nodded slowly once again.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Peter with the same problem, cream spread over the top of his upper lip and she took a deep breath, leaning forwards and swiping it off quickly. She recoiled her hand quickly and wiped it on Sirius' jacket whilst Peter sat frozen, heat rushing hastily up to his cheeks.

"Thanks for that, Dora." Sirius looked down at the cream that had been smeared on his coat and he brushed it off as she looked away from it, maybe that wasn't the best option.

"Just like that." James smirked at Peter's red face as the boy stayed frozen, staring down at the wooden table. "You're getting good at the whole friend thing."

Elladora's eyes lit up once again, she was glad to hear that, the boys were making it so much easier. They made it so it felt like they were the only people in the world. She had pushed the thoughts of her parents and the others out of her mind and concentrated on the present, like Sirius had told her to do, having been in that situation before. Elladora wouldn't hesitant to call them her friends, because they were, and she knew that because she felt it. And she was glad to have them, just as they were glad to have her and to help her, with everything.

•*•*•*•*•

The group had decided to take a trip to a place called 'Honeydukes', which was where Sirius and Elladora had come from. They had told her it was a sort of sweet shop that had loads of delicious things. As she said before, she was feeling a bit rebellious, maybe she would eat a sugary marshmallow or something.

A bell that was connected to the door jingled, signalling their arrival in the shop, though it couldn't be heard on top of all the excited bustling of the Hogwarts students, taking stuff off of the shelves without having to look twice at the title of the product. The shelves were filled with colour, bright orange, blue, green and red were popping out from everywhere.

Sirius, Peter and James set off immediately, ready to find some sweets that they could eat and shared with Elladora if she wanted too. The girl herself, however, was stuck staring at the inside of the shop, Remus stood next to her as he smiled at her glinting eyes.

"Come on, I'll show you my favourite." He said to her and set off forward through the shop, she followed after him quickly as he glanced back continuously to make sure she was with him. They arrived at some sort of empty counter, separate to the one that everybody was paying at. Remus knocked on the counter three times. "Larry?" He called.

After some rustling behind the counter, a goblin popped his head up, looking at Remus specifically. "I told you, Lupin, no more free samples, I've fallen for enough of your tricks, if you want chocolate, buy some." He said and Remus blushed out of embarrassment, shaking his head.

"Not for me." He said and gestured to Elladora as they man leaned over the counter and narrowed his eyes at her instead.

"I've never seen you before, lady. What's your name?" He asked and Elladora hesitated at the interrogation.

"Elladora Hargreaves." She said and he grumbled something under his breath, disappearing from view, but popping up a moment later with a red, stripy bag.