v. late night
- silks of heaven, chapter five -
ANOTHER LATE NIGHT WITH Jasmine and Remus stuck under a pile of homework and studying. The Gryffindors around us chattered on and the fire crackled loudly in the corner. She put her head in her hands and groaned.
"I'm fucking stressed!" She did not work well under pressure. "Remus, how much have we actually done?"
"Less than half," he mumbled. "Unfortunately."
He glanced at the entrance of the common rooms as Sirius, Marlene and Dorcas entered. There was a boy behind them, probably in their year, but she's never seen him before. Remus scrambled the books out of the way and made his way out of the mess.
"Help me up," she said, holding her hand out for him, and he grabbed it, pulling her up with him. "Thank you."
Sirius kissed Remus on the cheek and put his arm around him and smiled at Jasmine.
"Meet a childhood mate of mine, Caspian," Dorcas said, introducing them to the boy.
"Cool! As in Prince Caspian?" asked Remus, fascinated. When no one said anything he rolled his eyes. "I forgot you're all dyslexic and never read a proper book."
Marlene looked around awkwardly.
"Er — what's a book?"
All of them burst out into laughter, but Caspian. He was just staring at Jasmine with a focused look.
"Jas, we can finish the homework another day, right?" Remus said after they stopped laughing. "Maybe tomorrow? I just want to spend time with the —"
"Yeah, I'm too tired anyway," she interrupted. "And it's only History of Magic left, James has a detention for that, may as well join him."
Remus nodded, him and Sirius now walking away. Marlene took Dorcas' hand and dragged her up to their dorm. No need to question what they are going to do. Jasmine turned to the boy: Caspian.
"Right, want to help me pack up the books, then?" she asked jokingly. He grinned and shrugged.
"No one is willing to actually pick them all up," he responded, "but I'll help. No worries."
"Wow, thank you."
They packed the books and parchment into mine and Remus' book bags. Exhausted, they lay on the sofa by the fireplace.
"How come I've barely seen you around the school, then?" Jasmine asked.
"I don't really know. I wish I got to know you sooner, though, you seem like an awesome girl," he said, "it's just I'm more of an introvert and I don't like making friends all the time. And your brother and his friends — complete opposite of me."
"Opposites attract!" she laughed. Soon they were both laughing.
"So, are you like Marlene, completely illiterate? Or would you call yourself a reader?" he asked.
"I used to never read, thought I was too cool. But I started it when my best mate ..." she soon trailed off. Her face rest confused and she was staring out into space.
"What's wrong?" Caspian said gently.
"Former best mate," she corrected. "We got into a fight last week. But, he got me into reading, I never used to read before."
"Why were you fighting?" he suddenly became curious.
"I mentioned — er, no. Can we not talk about him? He's an ass," she said, nervously biting her lip. "I'm glad we're not friends anymore, actually. Everyone knows it, he's nothing but trouble.."
Caspian nodded. "Good for you."
She laughed and rolled her eyes.
"Wow, you are too nice for your own good. I like you."
***
They clicked so easily. The time flew by and they were talking until late hours into the night. They didn't notice how long we spent down in the common rooms until 3AM.
"Shit. It's Hogsmeade weekend tomorrow and I need to go shopping for Mum's Christmas gift with James," she said, glancing at the clock.
"Yeah, I didn't even notice the time," he said. "But it's still November?"
"I know, it's just that we get gifts early because the rush of Christmas is too stressful, you know?"
He nodded.
"Night, Jasmine."
"Call me Jas," she said simply. "And night to you too."
She went back up to their dorm. Marlene and Dorcas were fast asleep in Marlene's bed but Lily was sitting up in her bed and was brushing her hair.
"Lils? Why are you awake?" Jasmine asked. She shrugged.
"Can't sleep. You?"
"Oh, I stayed down talking to some boy," she said, pulling her pajamas from the chest by her bed. "I'm not really tired, though, but I've got to go Christmas shopping with James tomorrow."
She looked up when Jasmine mentioned James' name.
"Oh, James?" she blushed. "How — how is he?"
Jasmine stared at her, puzzled, then said, "He's an asshole? Why do you care?"
"No reason."
Lily responded quite quickly. Suspiciously quick. Jasmine glanced over at her again, still confused, and went into the bathroom to change. She brushed her teeth and went back into the dorm.
When she slipped under her covers and rested her head on the pillow she heard Lily speak again.
"Can — er — may I tag along with you tomorrow? It's alright if not, I just —"
"No, of course you can," Jasmine said, "James would love you coming along."
Lily smiled at her and laid back into her bed.
"Goodnight, Jas."
"Night, Lils."
BREAKFAST CAME AND WENT like usual. The usual occurrences of Remus cutting his toast into four and using four different spreads, James giving Snape evil eyes, Jasmine talking to Peter about anything and everything, Sirius helplessly flirting with Remus and ... there was Regulus.
Staring.
Straight at Jasmine. With no shame.
"Remus, I never understand why you still do that with your toast," Sirius said, "you've been here for six years."
Remus looked up from spreading his toast and gave Sirius an icy glare, telling him to stop talking.
"Regulus is looking again," Peter muttered, staring at Regulus. Jasmine rolled her eyes and nodded. "Jas, how come you two haven't spoken —"
"Shut up, Wormtail," she interrupted. He soon realised what happened and turned to Remus.
"I like the way you do your toast."
November's snow came heavily on them, so trips to Hogsmeade were bitter and windy. Lily and Jasmine were both left waiting in the cold while James went back upstairs to brush his hair.
"Where is he?" Lily asked, tucking her hands into her pockets to warm them up. A cloud of smoke escaped her mouth every time she spoke.
"He didn't know you were coming, so when I told him at breakfast, he ran up to make sure his hair was alright. Talk about extra," Jasmine scoffed.
"I like his messy hair," Lily shrugged. "Makes him look — what's the word —?"
"Like a dick?" Jasmine suggested.
Lily laughed and shook her head.
"I think it makes him look cute — dorky! That's the word," she said, suddenly smiling.
"I don't really want to know about your crush on my brother. But at least you've moved on from Snivellus," Jasmine said.
"Oh no, I'm still friends with Sev ... just not as close. I'm usually with Marlene or Remus," she said, "but me and Sev are still friends! Just not as close, you know?"
"He called you that word only back in June. You deserve better, Lils," Jasmine said.
"And you deserve better than Regulus," Lily said, "always arguing with each other."
"That's great, then, because we're not friends anymore."
Before Lily could say anything, James appeared with his scarf hanging off his shoulders and his hat just about to fall off his head.
"I'm ready," he said awkwardly. "If you, um, didn't notice."
Jasmine pulled a disgusted face at him.
"C'mon, Lily."
Just to annoy James, she took Lily's hand and started walking ahead of him. He was walking behind, trying to catch up as she sped up, dragging Lily behind.
James eventually caught up as they entered the village. He walked in between Jasmine and Lily and put his arm around his sister.
"Where first, then?" James asked, grinning.
***
Jasmine had to leave Lily and James in the village on their own since she had a detention with McGonagall at 1:00PM.
She had her coat hood over her head and her hand was tucked into her pocket. The fur of her hood was covering half of her eyesight, she could barely see where she was going.
People sometimes shoved her, nudged her, fell into her but she didn't blame them, even if it was getting quite annoying.
One certain tall boy, probably her age, had just fell really hard into her. Her hood fell down and she stumbled backwards. At that point, she lost her temper.
"Shit, why can't people look where they're fucking going?" she muttered, her head hanging low.
As soon as he started speaking, she recognised the voice.
"You must be mad at someone."
She looked up and regretted it as soon as she spotted his face.
"Jasm — er — Potter?" the boy spluttered.
"Hello, Black," she said, "I would ask what you're doing here but, frankly, I don't really give a fuck."
He chuckled.
"Christmas shopping for you and your family. How about you?"
Her face dropped. She forgot that she had promised to let him stay for Christmas.
"Oh. Yeah, that. About that," she suddenly felt horrible for him, "I got you a present too. You're welcome."
He rolled his eyes, "I'm joking. I know I'm not welcome anymore, it's fine."
"No! No, just because we're not friends anymore doesn't mean I'm a heartless bitch. You can still come, I'm sure we can pretend that we're friends," she bit her lip. "We can tell the others that we made up, does that sound good? I still care about you."
He looked puzzled, but shrugged.
"You don't have to, you know. I get it if you're —"
"Don't be stubborn, Black," she spat. "Just say yes if you want to come."
"Okay, yes. But you really don't have to," he said. She rolled her eyes and put her hood back over her head.
"See you at Christmas, then."