Charlotte pushed another small piece of chicken around her plate, trying to listen to Marlene's recap of their morning practice, which Mary and Lily had both found hilarious, as they were practically doubled over the table with laughter.
"Char, you alright?" Lily nudged her leg, jolting the blonde back into focus.
"Yeah, just tired." She assured them, taking another bite of her now nearly cold dinner.
"Yeah, I wonder why. Not like you were up at seven this morning doing Godric knows what." Marlene mentioned.
She hadn't meant to wake up that early. It was Sunday after all. She had planned to sleep in, but after tossing and turning for hours, she had decided that her brain was obviously not going to let her get anymore sleep, and had dragged herself into the common room with her transfiguration book.
She had been reading through the chapters they'd gone over so far off and on the entire day, re-opening the book every time she decided to be done. One would think after all of the hours spent reading the same chapters, she would be an expert, but she had found that none of the information had stuck very long, as every time she began reading, all she could think about was studying with Remus later.
Charlotte had gone back and forth all day between excitement and dread. While two days ago she would have given anything to get some alone time with the boy, it was now the one topic threatening to send her running to the bathroom to vomit.
He was going to know, once and for all, how truly terrible she was at Transfiguration this year. So terrible, that McGonagall really thought she wouldn't pass this term.
"Ready?" She had to spin around to make sure the voice was real and not in her head, as she had been thinking of him all day. He was stood behind her, a different sweater than yesterday's, blue this time, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His fingers tapping relentlessly on his leg as he waited for her answer.
"Yes!" She hurried to grab her bag from the ground, pulling it to her shoulder and standing beside him. "I'll see you guys, Remus is going to attempt to catch me up on Transfiguration."
"Catch you up? You've been studying all day!" Mary blurted, Charlotte's eyes narrowing to slits, shooting her a warning glare that was already much too late.
"Alright, see you tonight then!" Lily cut in, resting a hand on Mary's arm as Remus lead the way out of the Great Hall.
"Don't get your hopes up. You've still got your work cut out for you." Charlotte joked, hurrying to keep up with the tall boy beside her.
"Hmm," It was nearly a laugh. He led the way, Charlotte hustling to keep up, down the hallway, up the last flight of stairs, a quick right before the large library came into view. The yellow light spilling onto the stone, the windows in the hallways already growing dark.
She followed him towards the back of the room where he dropped his bag onto one of the four chairs at the square table. The library was practically deserted, almost everyone surely finishing their dinner. Charlotte peeked over at a silent table where three seventh year students had their noses pressed into textbooks, scribbling at the speed of light. She didn't even want to think about how she would be this time next year, with NEWT's right around the corner.
"Alright," Remus pulled her from her thoughts, her eyes snapping towards his, the nerves flooding back into her stomach. "Want me to look over your paper for tomorrow, or should we start farther back?"
"Uh..." She pulled her parchment out, unrolling it onto the table between them, noticing the way that Remus's fingers were drumming furiously against the desk, as if he was bored, his body overflowing with energy. "I'm not really even sure where I got so behind. I remember feeling fine the first two weeks, but-"
She trailed off as he slid her paper towards him, one finger landing on the first line, flying down through each sentence, hardly blinking. After a few minutes, he was nearly at the bottom, nodding to himself slightly and Charlotte felt the nerves begin to slip away. Maybe she wasn't hopeless. All of the studying the last few days had to have paid off a bit.
"I see the issue." He said, setting the paper to the side of the table and flicking his wand only slightly, his transfiguration book dropping like a weight before us. "You're... are you good with Vanishing spells?" He asked, seeming as if he already knew the answer.
"Yeah, I'm decent." She answered, remembering how she and Lily had been one of the first last year to master the spell.
"I figured. You're writing about the Conjuring spells like they're opposites. And, I mean... they kind of are..." He ran a hand through his hair once, yet his didn't stick up like James' always did. "They kind of are. But when you're conjuring something, it's not coming from no where, nothing can come from no where, you know what I mean?"
Charlotte nodded, watching his fingers flick through a few pages of their book before finding the chapter that he wanted.
"Alright, put vanishing out of your head. Conjuring." He turned the book towards her, craning his neck to read. Charlotte forced her eyes to the words on the page, trying not to get lost in the way his voice was slightly raspy, his fingers twitching restlessly against the tabletop.
"Get it?" He asked, finally. She nodded, reading through the last line he had just finished once more before meeting his eyes. "Do you actually get it?"
"I think so." Charlotte prayed her face wasn't as red as it felt. "You can't conjure something from nothing, it's pulling elements from the real world."
He nodded, a small smile spreading at his lips.
"So... this is wrong..." She muttered, reaching for the essay. Remus pulled it from her reach, glancing through it quickly before holding his wand like a quill, ink vanishing from the paper at once.
"Only these parts." He pushed the page towards her now, setting a quill on top of the parchment. "Just fix those two paragraphs, and that's a perfect grade." He was twirling his wand between his fingers now, absentmindedly as he watched her scribble corrections.
"You're a real life genius." She mumbled, setting the quill down to let the ink dry.
"Nah, just a good memory." Remus shrugged, his eyes wide, seeming more awake than she had ever seen him before, his neck flushed pink, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows.
"Are you okay?" The blonde asked, glancing over him again.
"Fine." He answered, beginning to pack away his work into the bag on the chair between them.
"You look..." Hot. "Warm."
"Yeah, it's bloody hot in here." He stood at once, slinging his bag over his shoulder and looking to her again. "Same time next week, if you'd like? I think if we go back a few more chapters and work from there, you'll have a really good understanding moving forward. I think Minnie's going to start non-verbals in a few more weeks, so-"
She blinked. She had never heard Remus speak this fast, or arguably this much.
"Yeah, next week is great." She nodded, sliding her paper into her bag and standing up next to him. "Thank you, Remus, I really owe you."
He shook his head, easily before starting towards the exit. "Don't mention it." He muttered, before stepping into the hallway, leaving her in the dust.
☾
Remus turned the familiar corner and came to a halt. There was never anyone in this hallway, not this high up, not in the dim corridor he had found so many years ago, back when he had needed somewhere to escape from Sirius and James and their relentless prank requests or Peter's constant need to copy homework.
Charlotte glanced up, feeling the long shadow fall over her, meeting Remus's eyes, searching her own, looking confused.
"Hey!" She smiled at once. "What are you doing here?"
"What are you doing here?" He asked, stepping into the alcove and sliding down the wall to sit across from the blonde girl. "I come here sometimes. If I need a break from the guys."
"What are they doing now?" She asked, marking her page in her book as her eyes ran over the lanky boy before her. He was not the same as he had been two nights ago, jumpy and energetic. Now his eyes were dull, dark purple circles beneath them, even the way he was sat on the floor, one hip slightly raised off the stone, as if one of his legs had fallen asleep already.
"Being themselves." He answered simply, opening to about halfway through a pristine looking book which was clearly quite old.
"What are you reading?" Charlotte spoke softly, pushing through the clear feeling that he wasn't in the mood to chat.
He held the book up slightly, deep blue and gold lined the edges, The Odyssey spelled out between them.
"Is that..."
"An original copy? Probably." He chuckled, setting the book back onto his lap. "It's Sirius's. His uncle sends him muggle books while he's at school, or sneaks them to him for Christmas, s'long as his parents don't see." Remus explained, as if his words should be clear.
"That's a first edition?" She finished her earlier question and Remus shrugged.
"Looks like it, doesn't it?" His eyes were still scanning the page he was on as he spoke.
The two of them fell into silence as Charlotte re-opened her book, knowing that Remus had come up here looking for quiet. Still, she couldn't keep from glancing towards him every few minutes, wandering over the dark purple under his eyes, the way he seemed to melt into the stone wall behind him, his mouth falling into a grimace without his notice.
Their small alcove had grown darker since the boy had arrived to keep her company, the sun dipping beneath the tall windows when Charlotte finally admitted defeat, hardly able to read anything more, even with the book held right up to her nose.
"I'm calling it a night." She spoke, quietly, her voice sounding odd after the long stretch of silence they had enjoyed. "Coming up?"
His eyes still flickered across his page, his book still in his lap, though he was nearing the end now.
"Nah, I'm almost done. I'll be up later." He answered without looking up to her.
"Remus, it's like pitch dark in here." She laughed, hearing the sound die away as he didn't respond. "Can you actually see what you're reading?"
He looked up to her now, his eyes going wide for a second. "A bit."
"Okay," She pulled her bag to her shoulder and stepped out of their small space. "Don't stay up here too long, you look tired." She wanted to slap a hand over her mouth as soon as she had finished her sentence. What a terrible way to express that you cared for someone. Get some sleep, you look like shit.
He glanced up to her once more, a tiny smile tugging at his lips. "Now you sound like James."
"I'll take it as a compliment." She turned and started towards the staircase when she heard his response.
"It was."
☾
"Two parties in three days, I can't even..." Lily grumbled, pulling on her new pair of tall boots, which only an hour ago had been sandals which she had dug from the bottom of her trunk. The Halloween feast had only just ended, yet even as the Gryffindors had clambered into the common room, the Marauders already had the beginnings of their annual Halloween party into full swing.
"It's Halloween, Lils." Charlotte grinned, pulling the strings on her corseted top as tight as they could, go watching her waist shrink in the mirror and wondering if this was, indeed, magic.
"Yes, and I'm fine with this one." She fluffed her now curly hair a few times in the mirror, scanning along her outfit as Marlene and Mary burst out from the bathroom, laughter taking over the dorm. "It's the entire common room party on a Tuesday night for one person's birthday that I'm not fond of."
"Damn, Lils." Mary beamed, hurrying to Lily's side in the mirror. "You might want to tone it down a bit if you don't want that outfit covered with Potter's drool in five minutes."
Lily groaned, rolling her eyes as Marlene roared again with laughter.
"Or," The golden haired girl countered from her seat on the bed, "Keep it up and find yourself a tolerable boy and James will have to leave you alone."
"Marlene, you love James!" Charlotte said through a laugh.
"Course I do, he's a riot." She grinned. "But if Lily wants him off her ass-"
Lily shot her a glare as her roommates erupted into giggles, Mary leaning down to adjust the black see-through tights beneath her skirt which Charlotte thought looked much better than her own did.
"I'm changing. I look stupid, none of the girls are this pale - scratch that, no one on earth is this pale-" She joked, pulling at her own tights in an attempt to hide the white that seeped through the sheer material.
"Pardon me?" Lily pointed out, holding out the underside of her arm which was admittedly whiter than snow.
"Shut up, Charlotte." Mary cocked an eyebrow at her friend. "We'd better find two buckets to bring down between James and Sirius."
Charlotte felt her cheeks tinge pink as she rolled her eyes to the ceiling.
"They were already drinking when we came in, that was nearly half an hour ago, they're not going to notice any of us." The blonde promised, despite knowing she was lying to Lily. James Potter's eyes had probably been glued to the staircase since the party began. She slid up beside Lily at the mirror. "Do my hair now?"
Lily nodded, eagerly, grabbing her wand from the desk near the doorway. Mostly everyone downstairs was already dressed up, but the girls had only decided yesterday on their costume. It was an easy decision this year, choosing to dress up as the four members of their favorite band, Felicis, which had just put out a new album in August. The four girls had written each other the day it came out, gushing over favorite songs and expected tour dates, promising they would all get tickets, no matter where it was.
It worked out nicely, as Mary and Lily could easily style their hair to match two of the girls, while everyone secretly thought that Marlene already wore hers this way because of her favorite band member, the lead singer with the golden hair, black streaks laced throughout the shoulder-length bob.
Which left Charlotte as the guitar player, who unfortunately had long, dark black hair. Which was why Lily now stood before her, wand tapping at the base of her head, inky black spreading along and covering every trace of the silvery blonde she was so used to seeing in the mirror.
"Oh, Godric, you look just like her!" Marlene gushed, eyes wide as she glanced over Charlotte's outfit now. "Boots, you forgot boots."
"Right," The now dark haired girl mumbled, searching around her trunk for a pair of shoes, or really anything that could be transfigured, finally pulling out a pair of black mittens. "What do they look like?" Her eyes scrunched together, trying to picture the vinyl they had purchased over the summer.
Marlene dug her copy from beneath her bed, holding it out and looking exasperated at the very thought of any of them forgetting the iconic outfits. With a twirl and a flick of her wand, the mittens expanded into two identical boots which Charlotte hurried to pull on at once.
"Ready?" Mary wiggled her eyebrows, opening the door and leading the three girls down to the common room which was already crowded with Gryffindors, music pounding the floor as they stepped into the party.
"Evans!" The familiar voice rang out at once.
"Of course." Marlene snickered, the four girls turning to face James.
"You're gorgeous." He held out one of the cups he was holding towards her, which she reluctantly took, holding it to her nose for a second.
"How long have you been holding that?" Charlotte asked knowingly, as James finally turned to face her, his eyes wide, jaw dropping.
"Char? I didn't even recognize you! Oh, Merlin's sake, Sirius is going to-" He was already laughing.
"Blondie?" The group now turning as Sirius pushed his way through the crowd, most of the younger students parting at once to let him pass until he stood before his friends, his jaw slack like James' had been. "What the hell did you do?"
Charlotte's stomach dropped, slightly, at his words, people all around them were watching the scene play out before them. She wondered quickly where Remus was.
"It's just a costume, Sirius." She answered, her voice sounding soft, pulling her bottom lip beneath her teeth absentmindedly.
"Your hair... I meant, your hair." He muttered, stepping forward again and running two fingers through the black hair, his eyes seeming lost in thought.
"Just a spell." Charlotte muttered, stepping backwards to let her hair fall from his grasp.
"And she looks great, right Pads?" James coached, snapping Sirius from whatever trance he had been in, his gray eyes returning to hers.
"Course." He nodded at once, "Charlotte always looks great." His smirk was back now, yet his eyes seemed locked firmly on her face. "Come on, let's get you a drink." He nodded, starting into the crowd, Mary, Marlene and Charlotte on his heels.
"Where are Remus and Peter?" Charlotte called over the music and the chatter surrounding them as Sirius stopped them at a sticky looking table, covered with a vast assortment of bottles.
"Peter." He nodded towards the corner of the room nearest the portrait hole, where Peter was wrapped around a girl whose back was to the room, long brown hair tumbled over her shoulders.
"Remus?" She asked again, accepting the cup that Sirius had just poured for her, grimacing at the strong smell.
"Uh, Moony's..." He scanned around the room, taking a sip of his drink.
"What about Moony?" Remus grumbled from behind the group, everyone turning to greet him, Charlotte noticed the wince as Mary screamed a hello.
"Where've you been?" Sirius asked, clapping him on the shoulder.
The taller boy flashed Sirius a box of cigarettes from inside his jacket pocket.
"Oi, thanks for the invite." He grumbled.
"You were occupied." Remus answered with a shrug.
"You're both disgusting." James appeared, Lily at his side, already half way through her drink and seeming a bit more smiley now. "Should have come dressed as two shriveled up lungs."
"Oh, come on, Prongs, we only live once." Sirius grinned, glancing towards Remus who didn't share his smile.
"What are you all dressed as, anyways?" James asked, his eyes skating over Lily's costume.
"They're Felicis." Sirius answered, eyebrows raised as the four girls grinned up to him.
"You know them?" Marlene screamed to be heard over the music.
"Yeah, they're alright." He shrugged, allowing Marlene's slap across his chest.
"That's why your hair's dark?" Remus finally spoke again. Charlotte turned to look up at him, the boy towering above the rest of the students surrounding their group. She nodded, pulling her eyes from his, sure that he would see right through her if she stayed. "It looks nice."
Lily watched Charlotte's eyes, the pink that rose to her cheekbones at Remus's words, her mouth falling open slightly.
"Char, I've got to use the restroom, want to come?" The red head asked, cutting into Marlene's explanation to the boys about Felicis's latest album.
"Um," Charlotte stalled, resisting the urge to glance at Remus. She had just found him, and she was sure that by the time the girls came back he would be gone again.
"If you need an escort, Evans, I-" James stopped, Lily's hand rising in front of his face with a glare.
"It's fine, I'll go too. You can help me get this thing back on after." Charlotte gestured towards the ties on the back of her top, Sirius's eyes clinging to the girl as Lily pulled her towards their dorm.
Halfway up the stairs, the music still echoing through the hallway, seeming to vibrate the walls as Lily spun to face her friend, stopping her in her tracks.
"Merlin, what Lily! I'm not exactly a pro in these boots-"
"You don't like Sirius." Lily said, matter of factly.
"Wh... No? I've been saying that for weeks, now-"
"You don't like Sirius, because you like Remus."
Lily grinned as Charlotte's face blanched, jumping in place, her hands landing on the black hair falling over her friend's shoulders, apparently much more confident in her boots.
"You do! You're blushing! Oh my G-" She gushed as Charlotte pulled her up the last few stairs, slamming the door of their dormitory.
"Quiet!" She begged, despite knowing that no one would hear a thing over the music.
"Why didn't you tell me? I love Remus, you guys would be so cute, I don't know how I didn't think of it years ago..." She rambled as Charlotte dropped to her bed, dropping her head into her hands.
"Let me know when you're finished." She muttered. "Maybe we can shout it from the windows next?"
"Oh, come off it, no one's even up here anymore." Lily waved a careless hand at the door. "So this is why you're letting him tutor you. We were so confused,"
"No, he offered to tutor me because I'm really behind. I'm not faking!" Charlotte snapped back at Lily's smirk.
"Well, either way, it's good. He can get to know you." She wiggled her eyebrows, teasingly, reminding Charlotte of James.
"Don't you have to pee?" She reminded, and Lily shrugged, heading into the bathroom, which Charlotte now realized had been a lie to get her alone.
"I could talk to James!" She called through the door, emerging a few moments later. "For you, I would."
"There's no need to talk to James." Charlotte insisted. "Remus and I are just friends."
"Yes, that's the issue, keep up." Lily nodded towards the bathroom. "Aren't you gonna go? We're already up here?"
At last, the two girls were headed back down the stairs, one by one, Charlotte watching every step she took on the staircase until she was in the common room again.
"One thing's for sure." Lily's voice was low as she set a hand on Charlotte's arm. "You're going to tear their little friendship right apart." She nodded towards the boys who were still swarmed around the liquor table, Remus laughing wildly, his head thrown back at Sirius's words. Sirius's eyes met Charlotte's, his grin dropping from his face as he ran his tongue over his lip slowly.
"Can't even call you blondie anymore, what has this world come to?" He whined, dramatic as usual.
"Oh, no. You're going to have to remember my real name?" She teased, reaching for a new cup and sloshing some firewhiskey in among her juice.
"You're hard to flirt with, you know that?" His words fell from his mouth easily, and she felt her eyes go wide, taking a large sip of her drink to stall. Lily coughed between a sip of her drink, looking around for Remus who had turned back into the throng of students.
"Someone has to be the one to stump the famous Sirius Black. If it has to be me, so be it." She shrugged, as if it was a heavy load to bare.
He was stepping backwards, pulling her along until they reached the chilly stone of the wall, both of them glancing around the room at their friends, watching the small groups of younger students jump around to the music, sloshing their drinks onto the floor, hardly noticing. Charlotte pushed the thought of Remus from her mind, the thought of him leaving Sirius's side the second she had rejoined them.
"What does your dad do?" Sirius asked, a change of subject so abrupt Charlotte wasn't sure if she had zoned out the last few minutes.
"My dad?"
"Yeah, Remus said you're half blood. That your dad's a muggle." He went on.
"Oh," She started, ignoring the bubbling in her stomach at the idea of Remus discussing her with anyone, with his best friends. Remus remembering details she had mentioned, details about her family. "Yeah."
"Which is fine!" His eyes were wide now, his words rushed, "It's cool, I didn't mean-"
"I know, it's fine." She pulled a smile to her face now, trying to push the tall brunette from her mind as easily as she had lost sight of him in the crowd now. "I just don't think you'll get it if I tell you what he does."
Sirius's lips pulled into a cocky smirk, "How about you try me anyway?"
"He's an electrician. He works with a company, they do electrical work for like stadiums and theaters and things like that." She watched as his eyes scanned beside her, concentration painted onto his face.
"Electricity... like lights?"
Charlotte bit back a laugh, knowing he wouldn't take it well and nodded, slowly. "Lights, and... and there are a lot of things that run on electricity actually." She trailed off with a smile. "Music and batteries and speakers and-"
"I took Muggle Studies... Third year. I do know what electricity is." He pressed, as if determined that she understand.
"Did you?" She imagined for a moment Sirius in Muggle Studies, what a foreign concept everything would have been for purebloods. "Why did you stop? Learned it all too quickly?"
"My parents didn't want me in that class." A grin spread over his lips at his words, "Part of the reason I took it at all. Plus James was already going to... for Evans."
"And how did that work out for him?" Charlotte's grin matching the boy's before her.
"I'd guess about as well as it's working out for me." He replied, watching the girl's smile falter as she blinked, taking in his words. "'S your outfit uncomfortable?" Sirius asked, suddenly, his words slightly slurred together and Charlotte tried not to giggle.
"Not terribly. We copied what they were wearing on the album they put out in August." She answered, looking down to her boots.
"I'm sorry." He rushed, his eyes wide now as he watched her face, his gray eyes locked in her blue ones. "If I hurt your feelings. About your hair."
Charlotte bit back a smile. She wouldn't have guessed that Sirius would be a sweet drunk. Louder, more flirty, funny, sure.
"You didn't, it's only a spell-"
His eyes were stuck to her neck, tracing over the dark strands falling at her shoulders. "You looked like... my cousins. My family." His voice was soft now, possibly softer than she had ever heard it, barely audible over the music.
"Oh?" Charlotte answered, lost. "I'll take that as a compliment?"
Sirius's eyes darkened as he shook his head once, looking down into his half empty drink. Charlotte tried to picture the family he was talking about. She knew he had a brother, though she couldn't have told you what he looked like. She vaguely remembered one particularly beautiful witch with Sirius's last name on the Slytherin Quidditch team a few years before, though she had never really connected the two. She wasn't sure if Sirius kept his family life private, or if she simply wasn't privy to the conversations.
"Hey," She nudged his foot with hers, his eyes finding hers again. "You can change it back, if you'd like."
A lopsided grin appeared on the boys lips. "You think that's entirely safe? I'm slightly inebriated."
"Still probably better than I could do." Charlotte laughed, wincing slightly as he brought his wand to her head, sliding his wand gently down the part of her hair as the same sensation she had felt earlier rushed over her scalp, Sirius beamed down at her.
"Perfect." He mumbled, their eyes still locked as she laughed, glancing down to check the color of her hair. When she looked back up, he had leaned closer, his nose practically bumping hers now.
"Blondie, I-" He trailed off, searching her eyes for something. For any sign of how she was feeling as he leaned towards her. She could smell the firewhiskey on his breath, mixing in with the familiar scent of his cologne.
"I should go find Lily." Charlotte jumped away, stumbling over her words and glancing around hurriedly for her friends. "And... and the girls."
"Charlotte, wait." He reached for her arm, but she had already turned, rushing through the crowded room until she found the matching outfits, Mary and Marlene chatting in the middle of the dancing crowd, giggling and pointing towards James and Lily who were stood near the fire.
She scanned over the Gryffindors, refusing to look behind her at Sirius, unsure of what she would find. She wondered how it was that Remus always managed to vanish from sight, despite being one of the tallest ones in the room.
"Hey, Char, where's Sirius?" James grinned, raising his voice to be heard over the chatter and music. Charlotte offered him a shrug, pretending to glance through the room for the dark haired boy when her eyes landed on the windows. The windows were foggy from the heat of the room, and she could hardly make out the lanky Marauder between the small puffs of smoke drifting through the air before him.
She ignored Lily's grin as she started towards the empty couches, falling into a worn armchair, leaving the rest of Remus's couch empty.
"Hey," She smiled, breathing through the scent of cigarettes, which she was growing more used to by the day with the boys.
Remus's eyes flicked towards hers lazily, half a smile creeping up the sides of his lips. He exhaled once more before relaxing fully into his chair.
"You're blonde again." He muttered, as if they were simply discussing the weather.
"Oh, yeah." She ran her fingers absentmindedly through the ends at her shoulder. "Sirius." She added, as if that should explain everything, yet Remus's lips fell out of their smile as he nodded.
"Risky, letting him handle anything that close to your face in his current state." He joked, taking another drag from the remaining portion of his cigarette.
"I would think you'd all be used to drinking by now." She teased, though noticing that Remus didn't seem drunk in the slightest, even if she could smell firewhiskey on him all the same as Sirius.
"Some of us can handle ourselves." He chuckled, grinning up towards James who was talking so loud the entire common room was involved in his conversation while Lily looked like she wanted nothing more than to get to sleep.
"Are you having fun?" She asked, scrambling for anything to keep their conversation up. She needed to seem like she had a reason for coming over to him.
"I was." He shrugged, eyes scanning the room as he worked through his cigarette. "Parties, I can take them or leave them. I'd be doing the same thing regardless." He jerked his head towards the carton on the table between them.
"Yeah, same." She nodded, backtracking when his eyebrows raised. "I mean... Not same... I don't smoke," She held back a wince as the smile crept back to his face. "Just, parties. It's fun, seeing your friends and music and all, but after a while I just feel so tired and everything's so loud."
"Exactly." He nodded, dropping his head onto the sofa behind him. "Glad you came though. It's nice having someone else sane around. Used to have Lily, but James got to her first tonight." He smirked at the rest of our friends, Lily seemed to be attempting to hold in a laugh at one of James's jokes which had everyone else in tears. Charlotte's eyes lingered on Remus's brown ones as he watched over their friends.