Chapter Four
21:47
The girls' dormitory was a mess.
They had only entered the place for the first time again three hours before, and already every nook and cranny was scattered with piles of discarded party clothes, makeup palettes, potion bottles and hair clips. But, for once, none of the girls minded as this was the first night in their lives that they were determined to look cool at a Gryffindor common room party finally...
Rosie was lying on her back in the middle of her bed, focussing on trying to cast a drying spell on her half-wet hair from the shower, and she was just getting to the final layer when a sudden noise made her jump. "No, no, no!" came a shriek from inside the bathroom.
"What is it Mar?" Lily droned, clearly only partly caring about her friends mysterious problem as she struggled with the zip on the back of her white Go-Go boots – it wasn't exactly uncommon for Marlene to be seen acting rather dramatically.
"I've broken the damn heel on my new damn gold shoe!" her voice cried from behind the closed door. Though, it didn't stay closed for long as the irritated blonde came storming into the room with the mangled shoe and a bottle of Hairspray in either hand, her hair still looking quite a bit more dishevelled than she probably would've liked.
"Oh, calm down, Cinderella," Mary said sarcastically, chuckling at Marlene from the foot of her own bed, where she was extra-carefully applying some new green eyeshadow she'd been given by an aunt for her fifteenth birthday. "I'm sure you'll still get to go to the ball."
"What are you going on about?" Marlene asked flippantly, swishing around to glare at the side of Mary's head in frustration, still waving around the damaged shoe as if it would become magically fixed again.
"What? Wizards don't have Cinderella!?" Mary scoffed, looking over to Lily with wide eyes of surprise and letting her makeup brush hang limply in her palm. "What on earth do your lots' children read when they're young?"
"We have proper children's stories," Marlene said moodily with narrowed eyes, finally stopping stomping around the room and folding her arms impatiently across her chest. "Cinderella sounds like some sort of... disease!"
Mary's mouth opened in offence while her own eyes narrowed, preparing to retort when Rosie jumped up from her bed and rolled her eyes, "For goodness' sake..." she muttered, jogging up to the blonde. "Alice, can you finish our hair? Lily and Mary, you can touch up the makeup and I'll brush up everyone's outfits!" she commanded, waving a finger around as she spoke.
The three girls nodded as they rushed around the room, grabbing brushes and palettes from the floor - Mary even found her hairbrush in the knicker draw.
"What about me? I'm having a bit of a problem here!" Marlene shouted, waving her broken shoe about as her cheeks stained pink in frustration.
"Calm down, Mar, just use this spell," Rosie summoned a Charms book and opened it as she tied Marlene's bow on the side of her jumpsuit.
"Oh, alright. Thanks," she smiled, waving her wand and fixing the shoe in a matter of seconds.
"So you really made all of that fuss over a spell?" Mary scoffed. "Sometimes, I still can't believe Wizards actually exist."
"Oh, shut up, MacDonald," Marlene said, causing Mary to smirk as she turned back to what she was doing.
Rosie finally rushed back to the dresser as the others finished each other's looks to put in her dangly earrings and smooth out hair slip dress.
Alice came towards her and put Rosie's hair into curls that matched Lily's, while Marlene's shoulder-length hair was feathered and puffed up a little and Mary had placed two clips in hers.
"Right then, ladies!" Rosie smiled as she stood up, now much taller than the others - except for Marlene, who was a similar height in her absurd heels. "It's time to steal the dance floor!"
The other girls lifted up their hands and cheered loudly, waving their hands about above their heads with giant grins on their faces. Rosie clapped with a breathy laugh before heading towards the door and pulling it open, rushing towards the stairs into the common room. They could all hear muffled music blaring and people chattering already, and it sent a buzz of excitement down Rosie's spine.
The only 'parties' she had ever been to as she was growing up were snooty Pureblood gatherings where her mother and father were trying to make connections in the English Wizarding world. Only fourth years and above were ever allowed to unofficial house parties, so when Rosie had finally been able to get into last year's 'start-of-year-do', she had very much overdressed.
Her silver slip dress was still far more posh than the others' outfits, though. Lily wore her classic disco dress, Marlene had a casual jumpsuit and Alice was wearing flared jeans and a tight crop top. Mary had gone fantastically over the top, as usual, wearing a long tee shirt coupled with a thick belt, knee-high socks and high-heeled boots but Rosie knew her parents would kick her out if she bought anything like that; they could barely come to terms with her wanting to wear Muggle clothes to the train station.
The five girls eagerly pushed open the door to the common room, entered the party and split up to find other people. Marlene, Mary and Alice headed straight for the snacks and drinks table filled with Firewhiskey and Butterbeer that some seventh years had presumably taken before arriving. Rosie and Lily stayed put for a moment to look around and they decided to head straight to the dance floor since they couldn't see the boys anywhere near there.
***
22:54
After an hour of chatting with fellow housemates, dancing to the new Muggle music someone had brought to play and drinking ample amounts of butterbeer, the fifth year girls had managed to find each other again and were chatting by the fireplace, which had finally become free of sixth and seventh years hogging it.
Currently, Marlene was trying to make craning her neck and looking behind her shoulder every few minutes seem like a perfectly natural position. Mary had her hand over her mouth trying to cover up her snorts of laughter, slouching on her seat to stop herself from being seen and potentially jinxed by the blonde.
"Mar, just go and talk to her for Christ's sake," Lily said with a deep, calming after a while of also giggling at her friend's ridiculous behaviour.
"Are you sure? She won't think I'm intruding, will she?" Marlene turned back with earnest eyes, chewing on her bottom lip slightly while she waited for some support.
"Mar," Mary put a straight face on then and reached forward to place a hand on the girl's knee, "She hasn't stopped looking over here since you sat your pretty arse down. Go and talk to her!"
Marlene grinned goofily at the girls before fluffing up her hair with her hands and sauntering over to the other side of the room, carefully inserting herself into Dorcas Meadowes's conversation with some other seventh year Gryffindors.
"Ah, young and in love," Alice mused, sighing and leaning back as she made the girls giggle.
"Oh, I wish I could crush on someone again," Rosie sighed dreamily as she watched Marlene's face turn pink while Dorcas turned to talk with her. "It's a shame that Diggory boy from Hufflepuff left last year."
"What about Potter? He's always all over you nowadays and I hate to say it but you can't deny the fact he's attractive," Lily teased, making Rosie roll her eyes. "But then again, you'd have to have a civil conversation with him for that to work..."
"Alright, I'll go out with Potter," Rosie nodded seriously, sitting up slightly in her seat while Alice and Mary eyed each other, "if you go on a date with my brother," she raised her eyebrows evilly at Lily, who turned red and made a gagging sound.
"Oh, be quiet, Rosie. Your brother is a complete arsehole! At least Potter's nice," Alice interjected defiantly, making Lily nod with enthusiasm at the support.
"You only think Potter is nice because it's impossible for anyone to be an arrogant twat to you, Alice," Rosie groaned, throwing her head back on the couch as her friend smiled. "And Charlie's not that bad..."
"He's a bully-" Lily began to argue, talking over what Alice was about to say. Though she didn't get to finish her statement either since a familiar group of boys arrived out of nowhere and plopped themselves down on the sofas the girls were sprawled out on.
Since Mary had been the only one facing the rest of the room and not involving herself in the little dispute, she had noticed the boys were about to show up and had subtly slipped away from the group, winking at Lily as she left, who didn't catch on until it was too late.
"I heard my name, Artois. I assume you were singing my praises as usual?" James Potter winked charmingly as he wrapped an arm around Rosie's shoulder and sat down, spreading his legs out and knocking her knees together.
"You wish, Potter," she snapped at him with a loud scoff. "Actually, I was just explaining to the girls how much of a needy idiot you are," Rosie smiled sweetly at the boy, who stuck his tongue in his cheek as he thought of a witty response.
"Oh, yes, I am needy..." he nodded diplomatically, waiting for a moment long enough to confuse Rosie. Before adding, "I need you to kiss me right now or who knows what will happen!" James whined eccentrically and leaned towards the girl, puckering up his lips and closing his eyes.
"Eugh! Not in a million years!" she gasped and lurched backwards into Peter's side, pushing her palm against his face. Shooting a half-hearted apology to him, she stood up, quickly moving over to sit safely between Lily and Sirius. James only let out a loud, arrogant laugh, not moving his position on the sofa while he high-fived his childhood friend, keeping his eyes firmly on the pink-faced girl.
"Ah, once again, Prongs, the ladies all fall over me," Sirius grinned after a few more seconds, winking largely at James and draping a pale arm over both sides of the back of his seat – Lily shifted a little uncomfortably while Rosie only played up to it, being pretty close with Sirius anyway.
"You haven't had a single girl talk to you all night, Padfoot," Remus rolled his eyes as he smoothed down his pink trousers delicately – it seemed like he'd splurged on the purchase fairly recently. He took a sip of the cold butterbeer he'd been to get during the whole ordeal before sitting himself properly between James and Peter.
"Oh yeah? MacDonald came over to me just twenty minutes ago. Who've you talked to other than us tonight?" Sirius leaned forward, raising his eyebrows at Remus territorially. Everybody knew that all the girls had started to become sweet on Remus in recent years and Sirius was not used to sharing that sort of attention – he said it was bad enough with James, who was always too oblivious to notice girls eyeing him up for it to be a threat t Sirius's reputation.
"MacDonald was talking to you? Hmm," Remus pulled an exaggerated thinking face before smirking right at the boy, "She seemed to be having plenty of fun with me at the end-of-year-do a couple of months ago," he shrugged, tactically looking somewhere past his shoulder.
Sirius's eyes widened in genuine shock for half a second, taken aback, and James even ripped his gaze away from Rosie's face to gape at his friend, who was being patted on the back enthusiastically by a snickering Peter.
"Wait, what?" Sirius asked, but Remus only smirked wider, looking down at his knees, and sipped peacefully on his butterbeer – not before bowing quickly to Peter in appreciation.
The other two boys returned their casual, careless expressions to their features, acting as if they'd already known this fact for weeks. Though each of them quickly began to talk over each other competitively, showing off to nobody in particular about all the girls that had asked them out. Alice and Lily slipped away from the conversation to stand with Mary, knowing before the argument had even broken out that James was going to win; no matter what the battle was, he always found a way to beat out his opponents.
"Oh please, Prongs, you haven't had any intention of shagging a single girl but Rosie in... ever!" Peter started to add to the conversation too now, immediately regretting it as both boys stopped paying attention to each other and began to round on him.
Sirius began to aim a joke at him while James said embarrassingly loudly, "That is not true! I shagged two girls in the summer term alone!" though he quickly seemed to remember who was in his company and looked back at Rosie with a smirk. "Not that I would be interested in anything more..."
"Oh, look, Alice is crying!" she pointed to a random spot in the corner, jumping up and practically running towards her other friends, thankful that she had found an excuse to leave the boys. Although the other girls had managed to move on much more gracefully than she.
*
Mary, Lily and Alice were huddled together swaying to a muffled Deep Purple song when Rosie came up to them with a fresh glass of stolen Firewhiskey. "All right, girls? Those boys are absolutely vile! Aren't they?" Rosie shouted very loudly in the boys' direction as she reached them, hoping they would hear her complaints over their own petty squabbling.
"What did you expect?" Alice smiled, shaking her head in a motherly manner, "They're fifteen-year-old boys... Frank is so much more mature-"
"Alice, Frank's still only sixteen, he's a year above the boys," Lily rolled her eyes, clearly still het up about the sudden – and loud – appearance of the Gryffindor boys upon their group so early in the school year. She never did appreciate when they would interfere on the girls' conversations, and it seemed that already they were going to be more involved than ever before because of James's newest determined interest.
"Yeah, well... he's seventeen later this month!" Alice said defensively, crossing her arms firmly over her chest, though it didn't have much of an impact due to her petite size. Instead, the huddled group of girls decided to glance around the room, seeing if there was anybody interesting to talk to – or more likely talk about.
"Oh Merlin," Rosie groaned suddenly after focussing her attention in the direction of the portrait hole. The other girls all looked at her with slight frowns of confusion, which only grew as she threw her head back in frustration.
"What?" Mary asked, sharing worried looks with Lily and Alice – whom she was sandwiched between.
Alice broke eye-contact with her and followed Rosie's gaze instead, immediately muttering "Uh Oh," in understanding and biting her lip, nervously watching for a bad reaction from either Rosie or Lily.
"You have got to be joking!" Lily sighed, also seeing what everybody else had spotted by now. In a split second, she had taken Rosie's glass and thrown the contents down her throat, wincing and coughing a little as it went down. Rosie grimaced slightly apologetically.
"How did he even get in here?" Alice questioned with a furrowed brow, making a very small attempt at easing the tension of the moment. She folded her arms and stood on her tip toes in order to get a better look at the arrogant boy who was grinning like a king and sauntering across the room.
"I'm leaving," Lily snapped, mostly to herself, and hurried away towards the very back corner of the room. She missed his gaze by a hair, disappearing from view just as the boy turned to look at Rosie, Alice and Mary.
"Oh, Christ. He's coming this way," Mary sighed, sideling closer to Rosie. She'd never really trusted Purebloods being too close to her except for the ones she made friends with early on in her Hogwarts life. Nobody could blame her, especially after what a disgusting Slytherin boy called Mulciber had done to her the previous schoolyear, Rosie still shuddered to think of it.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" Rosie hissed, taking a couple of angry stomps towards her brother, who sported the look of somebody who was seen as the life of the party and not a conceited toe-rag with a God complex – as Lily would have so kindly worded it.
"Heard there was a party and my- someone gave me the password. Ravenclaw's too snobby to do anything like this," he gestured casually to the dancing students, "Most of them are getting on with their extra work already, or getting plenty of sleep for tomorrow," Charles rolled his eyes before looking around again, not being able to help the high-horsed sneer playing at his lips and nose. Rosie presumed he was making a miserable attempt at hiding his search for Lily.
"She's run off to hide from you... in case you didn't notice," Rosie drawled, snapping her fingers in front of her brother's face so that his big brown eyes locked with hers, a smirk still evident even as his lips pressed into a tight line.
She whirled around, making sure her hair hit his face like wire, to take Alice and Mary's hands, desperate to go somewhere well away from the Ravenclaw Prefect, but he grabbed her shoulder and spun her around as if she was as light as air. He kept a firm grip on her so that she wouldn't try to leave again before he finished whatever he came over to say- or do.
Grunting in disgust and violently shrugging him away, she practically spat at him, "Leave her alone! She's not interested now and she never will be!" She was fed up with his pining after her best friend, especially when both of them knew he would never in a million years risk his family finding out about his interest in her – the only reason no other Pureblood heir had snitched was because they were deathly afraid of what he would do to them, but only Rosie knew that he had their years tenfold for his parents.
"Oh really?" Charles grinned infuriatingly, his expression not faltering even slightly at his sister's beratement. "Do you think I should tell that pretty boy Potter the same thing? Or I could get him to leave you alone in my own... special way," he quirked an eyebrow.
Rosie simply rolled her eyes, gave him the finger, and stomped off, leaving Alice to smile patronisingly and hurry after her while Mary also sent a few colourful words in his direction before hopping quickly after the safety net that was Rosie's presence. Rosie knew that Charles would never lay a finger on her, or any other innocent bystander for that matter, but he'd managed to build quite the violent reputation for himself, and his family name didn't help. So, many Muggleborns chose to stay well away from him even if he only targeted bullies like Severus Snape nowadays.
Rosie quickly spotted Lily and Marlene in the corner of the room by the portrait hole and marched towards them, hoping to get a good dig on her brother from Lily. But she soon began to slow her pace, furrowing her eyebrows once her anger simmered and she took in the scene. Marlene was holding her head in her palm glumly while Lily sat stroking her friend's blonde hair as well as she could being the shorter one.
"Oh my... Marlene! What's wrong?" she gasped, pushing Charles's behaviour to the back of her mind. She rushed over to sit down in front of the pink-cheeked girl on the floor, wanting to be a good friend and not let her temper get the better of her. Alice and Mary also caught up to her and stood in front of Marlene with sympathetic expressions. Alice patted her knees while Mary knelt down and grabbed her hands, making her look at the other girls as a blubber left her lips.
Marlene simply sniffled once she saw how much her friends were caring for her before even finding out what was wrong and cried even harder as she attempted to explain herself, so Lily cut her off sharply, her motherly streak taking over, "Dorcas Meadowes has a boyfriend," she whispered, looking at Marlene like she was an injured dog. "That's all I could get out of her, but I assume Mar's more embarrassed with herself than anything."
"Oh, Mar," Rosie tilted her head to one side, all too familiar with that humiliating feeling, as she placed Marlene's head onto her shoulder to wipe her eyes gently with her pinky finger. "No one can blame you for not knowing that."
"It's f-fine... I'm just being stupid!" Marlene gave one last large sob, pushing the others away from her lightly. She clambered up onto her feet, muttering curses to her high heels as she did so. "I don't even know why I bothered to- Of c-course she has a boyfriend! Why would she be interested in me?"
"Who is it, Mar? I bet he's got nothing on you!" Alice said fiercely, grasping her best friend's hand despite her determination that she was going to be all right.
"I don't think she said," Lily explained, running her fingers through the ends of her hair where Marlene had left a few tears and snot bubbles. "I think she saw him earlier, though, that'll be when Marlene rushed over here. I'm just sorry I didn't spot her sooner..." she clearly wanted to take the chance to insult Charles, but kept her composure in front of her tearful friend.
"I can always threaten him if you like?" Rosie said with a wry smile, though she would have gone through with the offer if necessary. Marlene chuckled a little through her tears, which were beginning to dry up now.
"No, but thanks, Ro. I think I'm just going to go to bed..." she began to wring her fingers and look longingly towards the stairs. She leaned in slightly, whispering, "time of the month, I think." The others nodded empathetically, a wave of understanding at her dramatic reaction washing over each of them.
"We'll come with you, then" Alice offered, standing up from the cold floor too and taking the girl's forearm. "I could always brew you some tea from my herb collection..."
"No, no. You lot enjoy the party. I'll be the sober one for once and wake you all up in the morning," she smiled, her usual jovial composure returning a little, before walking towards the stairs slowly. Halfway there, she yanked of her shoes and her pace quickened somewhat; clearly they had been killing her feet, which was probably part of the problem.
"That poor girl," Lily sighed, looking after Marlene all the way to the staircase before she disappeared into the dormitory corridor. She stood up as well with the others, brushing off the back of her dress.
Once they were sure she'd gotten to the room safely (as there were no loud bangs or tumbles down the stairs like usual) the group, down to four so early in the night, wandered back to the fireplace. To their displeasure, the Marauders were still in their same seats, though they had now finished their argument and were surrounded by a group of giggling girls.
Rosie heaved a large sigh, closing her eyes for a moment and wishing she'd joined Marlene upstairs a few moments ago. Though the others continued cautiously towards the boys, so she perched herself on the edge of Sirius's previously empty settee as Alice sat next to him and Mary and Lily stood closely together behind Remus, leaning on the back of the pillowy seat. James spotted the girls arrive first, having been growing tediously bored for a while, and so shot his hand up to his hair to mess it up a little while glancing sideways at Rosie despite having a girl practically in his lap.
"Oh, James, I love it when you muss up your hair like that!" one of the girls, the loudest one which had led the nervous group over to the boys, giggled overly fondly as she placed a flirtatious hand on his leg.
Rosie and Alice gave each other a quick glance, both of them pretending to be sick onto the floor, as they listened to the sixth year girl. Peter, who was being pushed uncomfortably into the side of the settee, joined them in making fun of her and they both chuckled. This reaction made him blush a little since older girls had never really been interested in him, especially compared to his three genetically blessed best friends.
"Yeah, yeah. Thanks," James responded distantly as he held back a chuckle at Rosie while she laughed. Despite his complete disinterest in the other girls, he still relished the attention they were so willing to give him with every little move he made, so had few objections to their being there.
Although, he felt the girl sat on him stiffen a little, so he blinked himself out of his haze and looked over to her. It seemed she had heard the three fifth years as well because she whipped her head around to the three and narrowed her eyes dangerously, tightening her grip on James's leg. "Jealous, Fortescue? Are you going to repeat that to our faces... or are you too mousy to say anything?" her expression turned into a cruel smile which made her friends stop their own romances to giggle, but the other boys clenched their jaws in annoyance.
"Excuse me?" Rosie growled, her cheeky grin vanishing and being replaced with one she did not like to sport often – it reminded her far too much of her mother. It seemed that many people forgot that she could be just as menacing as her twin brother when she wanted because she kept herself to herself. But her narrowed eyes and suddenly sharpened cheekbones had most of the older girls retreating into their partners' arms, though they were roughly pushed aside.
All but one girl seemed to have the sense not to anger her, "Oh, so she can't even speak for herself?" the girl on James grinned slimily, delighting in the chance to pick a fight with the girl she knew she was competing with for James's attention. Alice turned pink and Peter sat forward in his seat, frowning protectively. Though the colour in her cheeks was evidently from anger rather than embarrassment, her fist clutching her wand tightly.
Alice opened her mouth to say something back, but Rosie beat her to it, putting a hand up near Alice's face and leaning forward. She knew exactly what this girl wanted and was more than willing to give it. She wasn't really bothered about Alice, but about igniting Rosie's temperament and making herself look like the innocent
"Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" Mary spat. One of the two girls sat with Remus sent her a glare, but she only jerked her head forward, making her flinch and look away instead of saying anything back.
"Say something mean about her again, I dare you," Rosie said lowly as she stood up from her seat, so slowly it was like she was a basilisk stalking its prey – she'd learned from the best, after all. She subtly took out her wand.
"There are plenty of things I could say. Especially about you," the sixth year continued grinning, clearly not taking the hint that making an enemy of an Artois was a very grave mistake. "They say you're a complete lunatic who got that horrid scar because-" but before she could finish speaking, she was smacked around the face... hard.
The sixth year gripped her face and jumped from James's lap, face full of rage. She opened her mouth but in the shock, said nothing. Lily Evans was stood next to her with wide eyes, her hand still hovering in mid-air, growing little red patches on the palms. Everyone else grinned and Sirius even applauded as the sixth year's friends stood up to take her away somewhere while sending dirty looks at Lily. Though none of them dared to speak as they spotted that Rosie's wand was still firmly in her hand.
"I know you might not be used to it!" Rosie shouted, feeling her face fall back into her peaceful expression instead of the contorted anger she had felt before. "but you should close your mouth, it's not a pretty sight!"
The Marauders all laughed overly loudly once they guessed that the girls didn't blame them for the sixth years' behaviour. Lily, Mary and Rosie all sat back down in much more comfortable positions and checked over Alice quickly, not wanting to draw attention to the insults unjustly thrown at her.
James leaned forwards dreamily then and smiled charmingly at Rosie, whom he hadn't taken his eyes off of since she arrived back, "You're so attractive when you're angry, you know that?"
Her stomach panged a little as she thought about how like her mother she looked when she felt like that, "Yes, well. Thank you," she brushed the feeling away, running her fingers through her hair and stowing her wand safely away. James's grin widened slightly before she carried on, "And no, I will not return the compliment before you even ask."
James chuckled and turned to his other friends, putting his hand over his mouth so that Rosie couldn't see, "Told you. She's all over me tonight." But he kept his volume the same as before and his gesture was far from subtle. Rosie pursed her lips.
Sirius rolled his eyes and ignored him, throwing his arm over Rosie's side of the settee in a friendly manner. He looked around for a moment, winking at Mary when he saw she was sitting down next to him. However Lily, who was sitting on a free armchair, seemed a little distant to notice the act and berate him. She simply sat with her head rested on her fist with her eyebrows furrowed in thought.
"Lils?" Alice asked gently once Sirius shot her a look of great concern. "What're you thinking about?" She leaned in closer to the redhead, looking very interested in what she might have to say.
"How did your brother know about this party? Who could have told him?" she asked suddenly, snapping herself out of her small daydream to look at Rosie with a rather accusatory stare.
"Oh, I don't know. I would never mention it – not that I really had the chance at home anyway - and Alex is in Ravenclaw too..." she replied, frowning as well but choosing not to question the strange change of topic. "Hold on..."
Both of their eyes went wide and their posture straightened, making everyone else look around in confusion about what they were missing out on. Clearly, the two girls had suddenly realised the same thing.
"When exactly did Marlene leave Dorcas?" Mary asked, leaning forwards too and scratching her chin, clearly catching on as well. The boys and Alice still whirled their heads between the three of them, desperate to understand the dramatics of their mysterious conversation.
"Just before Lily runaway from Charles..." Rosie kept her tone low as if saying it too loudly would be what made it true, her eyes fixing on Lily's, which were as wide as dish plates.
Instantly, the three girls practically threw themselves to the back of their seats, looking out into the open space of the common room and they spotted what they feared within seconds. Charles was holding Dorcas against a wall with his hands sitting roughly in her braids and was kissing her deeply.
"Aeough!" Rosie let out a sort of loud gurgle of protest at seeing her own brother in such a state, covering her eyes before looking back at the group. Her shoulders shuddered.
Lily had fallen quiet again, her frown still perched upon her forehead. She hadn't reacted at all the way the others would have expected.
"Lily?" Alice pushed her again after a few moments, but the redhead quickly wiped her face of what could be taken for disappointment, replacing it with a look of great confusion.
"Why was he running after me on the train earlier if he was going out with Dorcas?" she asked simply.
"Maybe he asked her later on? He would have mentioned something to me at home just to rub it in my face," Rosie reassured her, though she made sure to make it sound that she absolutely wasn't reassuring her.
"Why does it always have to be the Muggleborn haters that have chased after me?" Lily sighed frustratedly, leaning back on the settee and playing with the ends of her hair.
James hesitated but decided to put his hand lightly on her shoulder apologetically, "Don't worry, Lily. I guarantee one day you'll find the best man that ever lived and he'll be utterly in love with you," he smiled sweetly, surprising the others around them before he added, "Well, the best man apart from me of course."
Lily's look of appreciative shock vanished. She rolled her eyes and took a swig of Remus's butterbeer, with great protest from him, "Well, thanks Potter."
"Anytime," he winked, his mischievous grin growing once again.