· 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. .**.☽ .*
Caroline loved the feeling of the train chugging along beneath her as she sat in the compartment on the Hogwarts Express, all her friends around her. She was going into her seventh year, and it didn't really feel real. Really, none of it felt real.
She was dating Sirius Black. The unattainable boy that she had admired since first year, the boy she had grown to know and care for over the past year to a point where she couldn't imagine her life without him in it. He was hers.
And then, of course, she had gotten into the course of her dreams. And this time next year she would be in Russia studying medicine with the smartest people of her generation. She felt like finally she was on her way to getting where she needed to be. She was happy.
"In a coffee shop?"
"A muggle coffee shop," Caroline smiled, looking away from the window and at her friends, "and it was really busy too...but he just asked me."
"So you're his girlfriend now?" Jane asked, grinning slightly.
Caroline, smiling proudly to herself, just murmured a quiet, "yeah..."
"He's a lucky bastard, he knows that, right?" Tyler asked, grinning.
Jane jumped up from her seat, "ahh I'm just so happy for you!"
She ran over and enveloped Caroline in a tight hug.
"If he breaks your heart he knows my murdering capabilities, right?" Jane murmured into Caroline's shoulder.
Caroline snorted with laughter and said, "I'll be sure to remind him."
Jane pulled away, "good."
"So you guys excited for our last year?" Caroline asked.
"I'm just nervous about NEWTs really," Archie said.
"I'm not," shrugged Tyler, "I wanna be a painter, I don't really need any qualifications for that."
"I'm hoping this is the year I get scouted for a Quidditch team," Jane said.
"And what if you don't?"
"I go to open tryouts after Hogwarts until I get a job," she said, looking out the window thoughtfully, "hopefully I'm good enough."
"You're amazing," Caroline assured her.
Archie nodded, "yeah any team would be lucky to have you."
"Aw, thanks," Jane smiled, her cheeks going slightly red.
There was a knock at the entrance of the compartment, where the door was already slid open. They all looked up to see Sirius standing there, Remus, Peter and James behind him.
Sirius smiled awkwardly, "Hey, uh, may we come in?"
Caroline looked at the others, "oh yeah, if that's okay with you guys?"
"The more the merrier," Tyler said.
Sirius led the way, coming to sit beside Carrie. He put an arm round her, and she leaned into him instinctively, linking their hands over her shoulder.
Tyler eyed their newly comfortable position and grinned suggestively at Caroline who just rolled her eyes and looked away.
James came to sit opposite Carrie and Remus and Peter sat between Archie and Jane.
"Can I just say," James said, looking between Carrie and Sirius thoughtfully, "you two would have beautiful babies."
"Agreed," Jane said.
"Oh thanks," Carrie laughed, hiding her embarrassed blush as she looked down at her lap.
Sirius laughed too, turning his head, "two most gorgeous people at Hogwarts love, we can't deny it."
"Yeah, and the hair on that kid too!" Remus exclaimed jokingly, leaning back in his seat, "can you imagine?"
"Oh stop," Caroline giggled.
Although her mind did wander for a moment, imagining the perfect child they would have...if they had one...which was all a hypothetical she didn't even know why she was thinking about it...Merlin, their babies would be both smart and beautiful...woah...
"We were talking about what we're gonna do after Hogwarts," Tyler said, looking at the boys that had just joined the compartment, "what are your guys' plans?"
"Uh..."
They exchanged looks, but Remus was the one to talk, only semi-confidently.
"We're helping with the war."
"Moony-"
"We can tell them, it's not really a secret."
Caroline looked up at Sirius, saying softly, "you said you wanted to be an auror."
"I do," he murmured back as the others continued their conversation over them, before saying in French, "at this point what we're doing is the same thing."
"Will you be safe?" She asked.
He looked conflicted, but he nodded, "you don't have to worry about me, darling."
"Mm..."
She leaned closer into his body, his arm tightening around her as he kissed the top of her head before turning back to the others.
"Jane, you hoping to get scouted this year?" He asked.
Jane grinned, "oh I will."
"Confident," James snorted, "I mean rightly so, you're the best chaser on the team...apart from me, of course."
"Nah I think Jane's better than you," Caroline said, making Sirius smirk.
"Pft, no way is she-"
"Nah mate, she is," Remus grinned.
"Traitor," James scowled, "doesn't even matter, I could give you a detention right now."
Sirius sighed, "here we go..."
"I am head boy after all."
"James we get it but-"
"And because I'm head boy, there'll be no more making fun of little ol' Jamesy, got it?" He said, pointing at them all.
"Or what?" Sirius asked.
"Or detention!"
"As if we haven't already had about a thousand detentions between us already," Remus snorted.
"Yeah, I even gave you one last year," Caroline said teasingly, looking up at Sirius who rolled his eyes.
"That was just you flirting," he teased.
"Was not!"
He gave her a look.
"I had a boyfriend."
"Mhm," he smirked.
The next couple of hours melted into blissful comfort as they all just talked, laughed and occasionally poked James as he slept...they sat in a wonderfully sheltered bubble that made them forget about everything that was going on for a while. It was a temporary relief from the inevitability of exams, graduation, war, and further complication...it was a temporary peace.
After the boys had left - Sirius not leaving until ensuring he kissed Carrie firmly on the lips, whispering that he'd see her soon - the group decided they would put on their school robes as they were nearly at Hogwarts.
Archie and Tyler left and the girls locked themselves in the compartment, pulling across the curtains.
"So you and Sirius looked very...cozy," Jane said as she pulled off her jacket.
"Yes well," Caroline shrugged, "he is my boyfriend."
"You just like saying that, don't you?"
Caroline let the smile break out onto her face and nodded, "it's great."
"He looks at you like you're a fucking goddess, did you know that?" Jane asked, "like seriously, I've never seen him look at any other girl like that before."
"That can't be true."
"He is like fully in love with you."
Caroline shook her head, feeling her cheeks heat up, "oh stop it, he's not."
"Come on, aren't you supposed to be smart?" Jane grinned.
Caroline failed to fight the smile off her face and just focused on tying the blue tie round her neck, as she had done for the past seven years. Although she wasn't sporting the Head Girl badge, she was still a prefect, and that still looked pretty good. Besides, she had figured out that the real world didn't really care about all that, and really...would she have been a good Head Girl? I mean...she didn't really like people most of the time, Head Girls are supposed to deal with people.
She had decided that she was exactly where she was meant to be.
Although at that moment, she couldn't have known how shit 'meant to be' actually is.